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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:27; 2:9; 3:4; Eph. 3:8-11; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 1:30; 15:45b
Our God is living. As a God of purpose, however, He is not only living but also moving and working. Today we are all under His moving and His working. The Bible is not a book of stories, nor is it a book of doctrines. Rather, the Bible is a book of revelation, revealing to us that the God of purpose is living, moving, and working. After God’s work of creation in Genesis, the man created by God was seduced and fell. However, the God of purpose can never be defeated. Once God establishes His purpose, He can never be stopped from accomplishing it. Regardless of how subtle Satan is or how much he does to try to frustrate God’s purpose, God simply laughs at him, saying, “Little Satan, whatever you have done and whatever you are going to do will only turn out to help Me to fulfill My purpose. Do your best to try to defeat Me. I am the God of purpose and the eternal God. Once I set My mind on a certain purpose, I can never be defeated. No one can stop Me from fulfilling My purpose. Your greatest effort to frustrate My purpose will only speed up My pace. Initially, I may work only superficially, but by your help My work will go deeper and deeper.” This thought is clearly revealed in the first few pages of the Bible.
Genesis 1 tells us that God created man (vv. 26-28). Genesis 2 shows the purpose for which God created man — that man might take God in as life to become precious materials for God’s building (vv. 8-12). Also in chapter 2 Eve, the wife of Adam, was built by God (vv. 18-24). Thus, Genesis 2 reveals God’s eternal purpose of building. Then in Genesis 3 the serpent came in, and man was seduced and fell. This may seem disappointing to us. After seeing the tree of life, the precious materials, and the building of the wife in chapter 2, we may not rejoice when we see the serpent in chapter 3. However, we need to see that the serpent is only the background, not the main figure. Genesis 3 presents a picture not of the serpent but of a wonderful person, the seed of the woman (v. 15).
In Genesis 3 the subtle serpent crept in and seduced the man that God had created (vv. 1-6). Satan, the serpent, was happy, thinking that he had usurped man for himself. Then God came into the garden and asked Adam if he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 11). Adam answered by blaming God for making Eve, saying, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate” (v. 12). God did not rebuke Adam or condemn him. He was not bothered by Adam’s passing on of the blame. Rather, God turned to Eve and asked her, “What is this that you have done?” She said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v. 13). By saying this, she too was blaming God by implying that God should have crushed the serpent before he had a chance to seduce her. However, God did not rebuke her either.
Although God asked the man and his wife what they had done, He did not ask the serpent what he had done. God never gave an opportunity to the serpent to say anything. Rather, He said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, / You are cursed more than all the cattle / And more than all the animals of the field: / Upon your stomach you will go, / And dust you will eat / All the days of your life. / And I will put enmity / Between you and the woman / And between your seed and her seed; / He will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel” (vv. 14-15). It seems that God was saying, “Little serpent, because you did this, you will be cursed. Now I am going to defeat you. You came into humanity through the back door, through the female. You should not have done this. In order to shame you, I will bring forth a seed through this back door. You came into humanity through the woman, but I will bring forth a seed of this woman. You thought that your coming into man was your victory, Satan, but you only built up a defeat for yourself. You only opened the door and paved the way for Me to come in and bring forth the seed of the woman, who will crush your head.” This is wonderful! When we come to Genesis 3, we should say, “Hallelujah for the seed of the woman! Hallelujah for His bruising of the head of the serpent!”
After Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they realized that their destiny was to die, for God had told Adam that if he ate of the tree of knowledge, he would surely die (2:17). Because Adam and Eve knew this, they were in fear and trembling (3:8). However, Genesis 3:15 was the first preaching of the gospel. People today are seeking peace, but God did not speak of peace in His preaching of the gospel in Genesis 3:15. Rather, He said that He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman and that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. When Adam heard this gospel, these glad tidings, he was no longer in fear and trembling. Before he heard this gospel, he blamed God for giving him a poor wife. He might have thought, “It would have been better if God had never made me a wife. I would not be in this situation.” However, after hearing the first preaching of the gospel, Adam’s feeling changed, and he called his wife’s name Eve, which means “living” (v. 20).
Genesis 3 presents a wonderful picture of the seed of the woman, who would come to bruise the head of the serpent. However, this picture needed a background. This background was the creeping serpent. Without this background we would not be able to see the seed of the woman as clearly. Without the serpent coming in to seduce man, causing him to fall, there might have been no way for the seed of the woman to be revealed. The seed of the woman is the Lord Jesus (Isa. 7:14; Gal. 4:4). Without the serpent and the fall of man, the Lord Jesus could never have been revealed as the seed of the woman.
Today the Lord Jesus is in our spirit as the seed of the woman to bruise the head of the serpent. He bruised the head of the serpent on the cross, and today He is bruising the serpent’s head in us. “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” is a famous hymn written by Charles Wesley. The last verse of this hymn says, “Come, Desire of nations, come! / Fix in us Thy humble home: / Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed, / Bruise in us the serpent’s head; / Adam’s likeness now efface, / Stamp Thine image in its place: / Final Adam from above, / Reinstate us in Thy love” (Hymns, #84). Christ’s bruising of the serpent’s head not only took place on the cross objectively but also is being accomplished in us subjectively. Without Satan’s subtle activities in the garden, Christ could not have been revealed as the woman’s conquering seed to bruise the head of the serpent in us.
Genesis 3 is a wonderful chapter because in it we see the first preaching of the high gospel. The low gospel tells man that he is going to hell but that if he believes, he will be allowed into heaven. The high gospel is the gospel of the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent. Actually, when the head of the serpent is bruised and Satan is destroyed, every place is “heaven.” If the head of Satan is bruised in our home, our home will be “heaven.” If the head of the serpent is bruised within us, we will be “heaven.” Thus, Genesis 3 is a wonderful chapter portraying the conquering seed of the woman, who bruises the head of the serpent so that our name can be “living.” This chapter reveals how we are saved and made living. Chapter 3, however, is not the end of Genesis.
Genesis 4 presents Abel, who brought to God an offering that was pleasing to Him (v. 4). This offering was probably instituted by God when He killed the animals to make coats of skin to clothe Adam and Eve after the fall (3:21). Thus, if it were not for the fall, man could not have experienced God’s pleasure as deeply. It may seem inappropriate for us to appreciate the fall, but we must admit that it is truly wonderful that although man is fallen and has a sinful nature, he can please God.
In the end of Genesis 4, at the time of Enosh, men began to call on the name of the Lord (v. 26). Thus, Genesis 4 reveals not only that we can please God but also that we can call on His name. It is by calling on the name of the Lord that we can participate in all His riches (Rom. 10:12). Without the fall, man would probably have never realized that he needed to call on the name of the Lord. The name Abel means “breath” or “vanity,” and the name Enosh means “frail, mortal man.” Because of the fall, man realized that he was frail and mortal and that his life was vanity. When man has no hope in himself, he is forced to call, “O Lord Jesus!” Many Christians today do not agree with the practice of calling on the name of the Lord. However, if they are in a car accident, they will spontaneously call on the Lord. We may refuse to call when we have no problems, but we are forced to call when problems come. Once we learn to call on the Lord, however, we will no longer need problems to force us to call. Whatever my outward circumstances are, every minute I call, “O Lord Jesus.” Therefore, everything is an enjoyment to me. This is possible because the way of calling on the Lord was pioneered by Enosh, the third generation of mankind. This is the revelation in Genesis 4.
In Genesis 3 and 4 God was moving and working, revealing the way for man to be living (3:15, 20), the way for man to please God (4:4), and the way of calling on the name of the Lord (v. 26). Then in chapter 5 God went on to reveal that man can walk with God (vv. 22, 24). God is the holy, almighty, bright, and glorious God, but Genesis 5 reveals that fallen, sinful man can walk with God, accompanying Him as He goes along. Without the fall, perhaps man could never have tasted the sweetness of walking with God.
After the way to be living, the way to please God, the way of calling on the name of the Lord, and the way of walking with God were all revealed, Noah was born (vv. 28-29). Noah was born from holy, godly forefathers. Adam’s death occurred not long before Noah’s birth (vv. 1-29). Thus, Noah undoubtedly inherited all the godly ways of his godly forefathers. He inherited the way to be living, the way to please God, the way of calling on the name of the Lord, and the way of walking with God, which was discovered by his great-grandfather, Enoch.
Although Noah inherited all these godly ways, God did not stop moving and working in Genesis 5. We may think that it is good enough to have the way to be living, the way to please God, the way of calling on the name of the Lord, and the way of walking with God. These ways are wonderful, but they are not enough. It is wonderful if a group of believers is living, pleasing to God, calling on the name of the Lord, and walking in the presence of God, but it is short of God’s building. The matter of building is revealed in Genesis 6 with the building of the ark (vv. 13-16).
God is not only living but also moving and working. He was moving on with Noah. Thus, Noah was not satisfied and contented with all the godly ways he inherited from his forefathers. God came to Noah with a new revelation, which was a further step of revelation. It seems that God was telling him, “Noah, it is good for you to adopt the way to be living from Adam, the way of pleasing Me from Abel, the way of calling on My name from Enosh, and the way of walking with Me from Enoch. All these godly ways are good, but none of them can fulfill My purpose or carry out My plan. This age has become altogether evil; it has become a crooked and perverted generation. I am finished with this age. I cannot carry out My plan with these people. I must terminate this age and usher in a new age.” To be living, to please God, to call on His name, and to walk with Him are godly ways, but they are not adequate to fulfill God’s purpose. They are not adequate to terminate the old generation and to usher in the new age. God seemed to be telling Noah, “My revelation to you is the ark. The ark is My salvation to you, but you must build it. You need to build the ark so that I can terminate this generation and carry out My purpose in a new age.” The ark typifies not a shallow salvation from perdition or hell but a deeper salvation, the highest salvation, one that saves us from this crooked generation to fulfill God’s purpose. This salvation needs our cooperation through our building. This is the main burden in this chapter.
When some Christians hear this word, they may say, “This is altogether too much. We need only to preach the gospel and help people to believe in the Lord Jesus, to love the Lord, to seek spirituality, and to be holy and good people living on the earth for the glory of God. As long as we do these things, we will all go to heaven. This is enough.” Some have said concerning me, “Do not listen to that little man from China. He is one of the Oriental mystics. His teaching is Oriental philosophy based on Chinese Confucian ethics. We have already heard the gospel. We already know that we need to believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved, and we already know the Bible. We do not need to listen to that little man from China.”
Noah probably experienced something similar. When Noah received the vision to build the ark, he probably told others, “God’s purpose today is to build the ark. God will terminate this generation by flooding the entire earth. We all need to enter into God’s purpose.” Although the Bible does not record whether Noah had any brothers or sisters, I believe that he had many siblings and relatives. Eventually, however, only eight persons accepted God’s revelation through Noah. Many must have mocked him, saying, “Noah, what are you talking about? Are you greater than our great-grandfather Enoch? He walked with God and was taken by God, but he never told us to build an ark. What you are doing is nonsense, Noah. Forget about it. You are crazy. We are building tents for people to live in. We are tilling the ground to grow food for people to eat. You are building an ark for a flood, but the sky is clear and the land is dry. What you are doing is not practical.” In principle, what we hear today regarding our practice of the proper church life to fulfill God’s purpose is the same.
Our God is moving on; He is still working today. On one hand, the revelation of the proper church life in the Lord’s recovery is new; on the other hand, it is old, for the apostle Paul saw this revelation. However, over the generations this revelation was lost by Christianity. In this century God began to recover His original revelation. In the Western world, which has been saturated with traditional Christianity for centuries, God could not find the virgin land He needed for the recovery of His original revelation. For this reason, He was forced to go to poor China, where He gained a few of us and opened our eyes.
What the almighty God is doing in this age is to set up local churches to establish the proper church life. In a sense, this is to build up the ark in this age. This will terminate the crooked and perverted generation (Phil. 2:15) and usher in the kingdom age. In Matthew 24:37 and Luke 17:26 the Lord Jesus likened the situation of the present generation to that in the days of Noah. He said, “Just as the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day in which Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know that judgment was coming until the flood came and took all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37-39). Today people are busy working so that they can eat better food, drive better cars, own bigger homes, and find better marriages. If their marriage does not satisfy them, they feel that they can divorce their spouse and go on to another marriage. This age is an age of eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage. Nearly no one cares for God’s eternal purpose. Even among the believers, it is difficult to find some who care for God’s eternal purpose. Many have been Christians for decades, yet they have never even heard the term the eternal purpose of God. They have heard only of hell and heaven, things related to their own welfare, but they have never heard anything related to God’s eternal purpose.
About fifty years ago the moving God was forced by the hopeless situation of Christianity in the Western world to go to the heathen land of China, where He gained a few of us and opened our eyes. There we began to see a revelation of the proper church life. Although I was a young believer, the Lord opened my eyes to see this revelation for His recovery. In 1933 I was invited by a brother to have dinner at his home with a respected pastor. During dinner the pastor said to me, “Mr. Lee, if you will forget about the testimony of the local church, all the churches in our city will invite you to speak. Each Sunday a different church will invite you to give a message, and all our members will come to listen to you. Many doors will be open to you if you will simply close the door of your meeting place for the local church.” I replied, “Thank you, but I have a burden, and I already have enough to do.” Some missionaries warned me not to touch the matter of the church but only to preach the gospel. In my heart I said, “If you dropped me into the Pacific Ocean, I would still speak concerning the church to the fish.”
I have a burden because I have seen a revelation. Once we have seen something, we can never deny that we have seen it. When we see someone standing before us, we cannot say that we do not see that person. I was invited to Denmark in 1958 and was warmly welcomed, but the leaders there advised me not to speak anymore concerning the church. Because I did not take their friendly advice, I lost their friendship, but I gained more genuine fellowship. If I had taken their advice, I would not be with all the saints here today. I rejoice that my relationship with the saints in the Lord’s recovery is not a friendship but a genuine fellowship.
We are in an age in which God has a definite purpose. God is waiting for a group of people to terminate this age and usher in the coming kingdom age by being faithful to His revelation. I have no doubt that we will meet the Lord on the way of recovery. We are going on. The Lord is on the way to meet us, and we are on the way to meet Him. We are on the way of His recovery, the way of the proper church life. The way to have the proper church life is not only to meet on the proper ground of the church, nor is it merely to practice pray-reading, calling on the name of the Lord, or saying, “Amen. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!” The way to have the proper church life is to be in spirit to build the church.
In order to build the church, we need Christ, the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14). Without Christ there is no way to build the church. We can build the church only with the unsearchable riches of Christ. The purpose of every meeting, conference, and training is to minister the all-inclusive, unsearchable riches of Christ into the saints. The church is produced with Christ as the unique constituent. It is composed of the riches of Christ and constituted of all the elements and factors of Christ. The church is the enlargement and the expansion of Christ. In this expansion, which is the new man, there is no Greek or Jew; there is no human element (Col. 3:10-11). There is no Westerner, no Easterner, no British, no German, no French, no American, no Chinese, and no Japanese. In the church there is only Christ.
We need to see who Christ is. Christ is wonderful. We would need thousands of pages to describe who Christ is. Colossians 2:9 says that in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Because the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, He is all-inclusive, and His riches are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8). Christ is rich in mercy, grace, love, joy, peace, humility, kindness, light, power, spirituality, and holiness. In order to be holy, we must have Christ. Holiness without Christ is vanity. Likewise, spirituality without Christ is empty. God made Christ everything to us. God made Him our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ is truly rich. He is rich in wisdom, rich in righteousness for our justification, rich in sanctification for our holiness, and rich in redemption for the transfiguration of our body. For our past He was made our righteousness, for our present He was made our sanctification, and for our future He was made our redemption.
A number of people today accuse me of teaching heresy because I say that Christ is the Spirit. However, the more they try to oppose this truth, the more they expose their own folly. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam is Christ. Therefore, Christ is surely the Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 3:17). Some would challenge this truth by asking, “If Christ is the Spirit, how can He be the Son?” I cannot explain this mystery, but the Bible tells us clearly that Christ is the life-giving Spirit as well as the Son. Some say, “I admit that Christ is the life-giving Spirit, but He is not the Holy Spirit.” I answer them by asking, “Besides the Holy Spirit, is there another Spirit who gives life?” To say yes would be heretical. There is not another Spirit who gives life besides the Holy Spirit (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6). Christ today is the life-giving Spirit. Thus, we should all declare, “The seed of the woman, who bruised the head of the serpent, is now the life-giving Spirit in me.”
Practically, if Christ today were not the Spirit, it would be impossible for Him to come into us. We know that Christ is in us. No genuine believer would deny this. There is no argument on this point. Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” There would be no way for Christ to be in us if He were not the Spirit. Some who oppose the truth that Christ is the Spirit say, “Christ is in heaven, and He is in us through the Holy Spirit.” This may seem to be a good utterance, but no one has been able to explain to me what it means for Christ to be in us through the Holy Spirit. I cannot find a verse in the New Testament that says that Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit, but I can immediately think of at least five verses that tell us that Christ Himself is in us (John 14:20; Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 2:20; Col. 1:27).
Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” This verse says clearly that Christ is with our spirit. This truth is not mere doctrine; it is our experience. I can testify from my experience that wherever I go, Christ is with my spirit. If Christ were not the Spirit, He could not be with our spirit. Thus, it is not only unscriptural but also illogical to deny that Christ is the life-giving Spirit. We all need to proclaim, “Hallelujah, Christ, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption, is the life-giving Spirit.” I have heard that someone who was offended by my speaking of this truth is preparing a paper for distribution that accuses me of being heretical. I am pleased to hear this. The more such persons touch this matter, the more they expose their folly. The truth is the truth. When I say that two plus two is four, no one can dispute this simple fact. Christ has become the life-giving Spirit, and now He is with our spirit to be our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, our life, our patience, our humility, our boldness, and everything to us for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Now that Christ is living in us, according to Galatians 2:20, we need to say, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. I am through; I am finished. I am altogether not good for the church life. I am useless for the church life. For gossiping and for the world I am an expert, but for the church life I am nothing. I may be suitable for everything else, but I am unsuitable for the church.” We all need to see that we are not good for the church. However, we also need to see that we have One in us who is good for the church and who even is the church. We are not good for the church, but we have the church within us. As long as we live not by ourselves but by Christ, we will have the church.
I do not tell the brothers and sisters that they need to be humble, good, and gentle. I do not tell the saints that they need to learn how to behave themselves so that they will not put the church to shame or lose the testimony of the church. Such teaching would be ethical teaching, like that of Confucius. Rather than teaching that we must be ethical, I teach that in ourselves we are hopeless, we are nothing, and we are no good for the church. We need to be terminated and buried. If all the saints in a certain locality think that they are good for the church, that church is finished. We all need to say, “We are no good at all for the church, but we have One in us who is not only good for the church but who is the church.” The church is the extension, the expansion, and the enlargement of Christ. Jesus of Nazareth was the individual Christ, but today He is the corporate Christ, the church (1 Cor. 12:12). Because the church is the corporate Christ, every factor, element, and fiber of the church must be Christ.
The apostle Paul ministered the unsearchable riches of Christ to people in order to build up the church. Ephesians 3:8-11 reveals that the church is produced from the riches of Christ. The church is simply a composition of all the riches of Christ. Because the church is a composition of the riches of Christ, we need to eat Christ. When I came to the United States, I was amazed to see many tall, husky American men. When these men were newborn babies, they each weighed only about seven and a half pounds and were only about twenty inches long. However, after twenty years those small infants may weigh two hundred fifty pounds and be well over six feet tall. This great change occurs because day by day they eat all the riches of America: American chickens, American beef, Washington apples, California oranges, and Florida grapefruit. Eventually, they become a composition of all the riches of America that they have eaten.
The best dietitians tell us that we are what we eat. Our physical body is simply the composition of all the riches of the food that we have eaten, digested, and assimilated. However, strictly speaking, we are not the riches themselves but the fullness of the riches. All the riches added together and assimilated into the fibers of our being become the fullness. Thus, Ephesians mentions the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ (3:8; 1:23; 4:13). We enjoy Christ’s riches, and we eventually become His fullness, just as we enjoy the riches of America to become the fullness of America. If I came to America and saw all the rich food but not one tall, husky person, I would see only the riches but no fullness. Some Christian groups apparently have the riches of Christ, but we cannot see the fullness of Christ among them. However, in the Lord’s recovery we can see not only the riches of Christ but also the fullness of Christ, constituted of all the eaten, digested, and assimilated riches of Christ. The church life is simply the fullness of Christ, the riches of Christ digested by His members. The church is not merely a group of good believers coming together — this definition is very shallow. The church is the Christ who has been assimilated into us and is expressed out of us. The expression of Christ in the many brothers and sisters who have eaten, digested, and assimilated His riches is the church, the fullness of Christ. The church is simply the expression, expansion, and enlargement of Christ.
In the Lord’s recovery today we are “churching”; we are practicing the proper church life in order to build today’s ark. To many in degraded Christianity, their Christ is like a canoe, a single piece of carved wood. However, in the Lord’s recovery our Christ is the ark, something corporate that is built up not by God but by God’s seekers. Today we are churching in order to build the ark in which we are saved not only from eternal perdition but also from this crooked and perverted generation. The ark saved Noah and his family not only from perdition under God’s judgment but also from the evil generation of his day. Furthermore, the ark brought Noah and his family through the flood waters, the waters of death, into “resurrection,” typified by the ark coming to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 8:4), in which they lived as God’s kingdom on earth. Likewise, as the real ark, our Christ saves us not only from eternal perdition but also from the present evil age and into resurrection for the kingdom life in the coming age. This is the kind of Christ we have in the church life today.
Christian fundamentalists strongly oppose the idea of salvation by works. I was once influenced by such fundamentalism. In a sense, this concept is right, but not in every sense. Philippians 2:12b says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” There is no need for us to work out our salvation from eternal perdition — Christ accomplished this salvation once for all on the cross. Nevertheless, there is another kind of salvation, one that saves us from this crooked and perverted generation and causes us to shine as luminaries, holding forth the word of life (vv. 15-16). This subjective salvation needs our work by our cooperating with God. Actually, none of us can do this work in ourselves, but because God is operating in us, we are able to work out our own salvation. Thus, verse 13 says, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” God is operating in us today. Our working is our cooperation with His operation.
We are in the Lord’s recovery today to build up the church according to God’s revelation in this age. God’s present revelation is for us to build up the church as the ark, not to be saved from eternal perdition but to be saved from the present evil age and into the coming kingdom age to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. The United States is a country with a long history of traditional Christianity. There is no need for anyone from the Far East to come to tell Americans anything concerning Christianity. It would be better for the Americans to send a missionary to the Far East to tell the heathen Chinese about Christianity. Nevertheless, the fact is that God had a need for one who saw His revelation to be sent to the United States to tell the people what God’s intention is today.
We thank God for all the godly forefathers who have gone before us and for all the godly ways we have inherited from them. However, God has no intention to stop with what we have inherited. Every time I pick up my pen to write the footnotes for the life-studies of the books of the Bible, the Lord firmly charges me not to begin by reading any other biblical expositions. If I begin by going to other books, I will be influenced by the old, traditional view. There is no doubt that many good things have been revealed to those who have gone before us, but God has something further to reveal to us today. The Lord has charged me to keep myself vacant, to keep myself like a virgin land, in order to allow Him to come in to show me something new. I can testify that in writing the footnotes for the life-studies of Genesis, Romans, John, and Hebrews, I have seen a number of new points. New light has come in.
In writing the footnotes for the life-study of Hebrews, I saw that today we are the partners of Christ (3:14). Most Christians probably have never heard that we are the partners of Christ. However, we need to see that Christ is the Operator of God’s economy in the universe and that we are His partners in this operation. The Greek text of Hebrews reveals that we are not only Christ’s companions but also His partners. When I saw this, I was greatly encouraged. Now I know the value, the worth, the preciousness, of the book of Hebrews. This book reveals something unique — that we are the partners of Christ, sharing with Him God’s interests in God’s economy. Although I have a number of older books that expound Hebrews, I was charged by the Lord not to look into them before writing my footnotes. After I wrote the footnotes, I opened the older books to compare what I had seen with what had already been revealed to the writers of these books. I found that there was much new light and many new points that the Lord had revealed to me.
God is moving on today; He is still working. What the Lord is doing on earth is not merely to save people or even to help people to be spiritual. The Lord has not come back yet because He is still waiting for today’s ark to be built. When the ark is prepared, the Lord will come. When the church life is proper, when the testimony of the church in the Lord’s recovery is matured, the Lord will say, “Now is the time for Me to return.” The proper church life will be the steppingstone, the beachhead, for the Lord’s coming back. We are here with a purpose for our God of purpose. This purpose is carried out in the church life.
