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V. Gleanings in the vast field of God’s grace:
20. The grace that was to come unto the believers, which was prophesied by the prophets, who sought and searched diligently concerning the salvation of the believers’ souls — 1 Pet. 1:9-10.
21. The grace on which the believers set their hope perfectly and which will be brought to the believers at the revelation of Jesus Christ — v. 13.
22. The grace with God that is the believers’ bearing sorrows by suffering unjustly and the believers’ enduring while doing good and suffering — 2:19-20.
23. The grace that God gives to the humble while He resists the proud — 5:5.
24. The grace in which, together with the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the believers should grow unto His glory both now and unto the day of eternity — 2 Pet. 3:18.
25. This is the concluding word of the apostle Peter’s writings, indicating that whatever he has written is of, in, by, and through the grace of God.
26. The grace that we the believers have received in the New Testament is rich unto its fullness, which is the expression of the overflowing riches that we have received in Christ through the Spirit for the accomplishment of God the Father’s New Testament economy, which is His eternal economy — John 1:16.
27. The grace given to the local churches in the dark age of the church’s degradation is for the believers who seek to answer the Lord’s calling to be His overcomers over the self (Matt. 16:24), the devil (Heb. 2:14), sin (Rom. 5:21a), the cosmos of Satan (John 12:31), satanic Judaism (Rev. 3:9), demonic Catholicism (2:20, 24), and Christless Protestantism (3:1b, 20) for the closing of all the ages and for the bringing in of the New Jerusalem — 1:4. This indicates that grace reigns unto eternal life (Rom. 5:21b).
28. The grace of the Lord Jesus dispensed to His believers throughout the New Testament age consummates in the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s good pleasure in joining and mingling Himself with man for His glorious enlargement and eternal expression — Rev. 22:21.
A concluding word:
The New Testament is a history of the grace of God as the incarnation of the Triune God in His Trinity processed and consummated.
In this chapter we want to see the gleanings of grace from Peter’s writings and John’s writings. The New Testament was written mainly by three apostles. I do not say only but mainly by three apostles: John, Paul, and Peter. According to the New Testament record, the earlier speakers were Peter and John. The later speaker was Paul. In Acts there are these three main speakers. Apollos and Barnabas also taught, but there is no record of their messages.
Paul’s fourteen Epistles are the center and the frame of grace, but we need Peter and John to complete the truth concerning grace. In Paul’s writings there are the center and the frame but not the beginning and the ending of grace. The beginning and ending of grace are covered by John. Peter’s writings cover a number of points that are not covered by Paul, and these are also very important.
First Peter 1:10 speaks of the grace that was to come unto the believers, which was prophesied by the prophets, who sought and searched diligently concerning the salvation of the believers’ souls. The grace mentioned by Peter here is different from the grace mentioned in John 1. John says that the Word became flesh, full of grace, and that grace came through Jesus Christ (vv. 14, 17). Grace came through Jesus Christ, with Jesus’ incarnation, but Peter says that there is a grace that is not yet but is to come. This grace was not mentioned in the Old Testament, but it was prophesied by the prophets, who sought and searched diligently concerning the salvation of the believers’ souls (1 Pet. 1:9), not the salvation of their bodies or spirits. Our souls need to be saved.
Today’s theological schools do not teach concerning the salvation of the soul. This shows the shortage in the theology of Christianity. In Christianity the top theology is that of the Brethren. This is the theology adopted by Dallas Theological Seminary and based on the teachings of C. I. Scofield. The Scofield Reference Bible was written according to the Brethren teaching. There are also the Reformed theology of John Calvin and other theologies, but all these theologies are short of the divine revelation. This shortage is also evident in the Nicene Creed, which is adhered to by both the Catholic Church and many of the Protestant churches. On the Lord’s Day, many in Christianity still recite the Nicene Creed. It is perfect and we agree with it, but it is incomplete.
There are at least six crucial points that the Nicene Creed does not mention. (1) John 7:39 says, “The Spirit was not yet.” No theology in Christianity covers this point. They do not know what this means. (2) First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” In Christianity’s traditional teaching of the Triune God, the three of the Triune God are separate. If you say that Christ, the Son in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit, they feel that you are mixing up the Son with the Spirit. Actually, their teaching of the Trinity is tritheistic. They do not admit that they believe in three Gods, but unconsciously they teach three Gods. To them the Son is one God, the Spirit is one God, and the Father is one God. Some have said that the life-giving Spirit in 1 Corinthians 15:45b is not the Holy Spirit. But if this were the case, there must be another Spirit besides the Holy Spirit who gives life. (3) Second Corinthians 3:17 says that “the Lord is the Spirit,” and verse 18 speaks of the “Lord Spirit.” The Lord and the Spirit are one, but the traditional teaching says that the Son, who is the Lord, is separate from the Spirit. But in 2 Corinthians 3:18 there is the compound divine title the Lord Spirit. (4) Philippians 1:19 speaks of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. (5) Revelation 1:4; 4:5; and 5:6 speak of the seven Spirits. (6) Exodus 30 reveals the compound Spirit typified by the holy anointing ointment (vv. 23-25). This ointment is compounded with olive oil and four spices. Who knows the significance of these five elements?
The above six points are not taught or understood in today’s Christianity, so the Nicene Creed is perfect but incomplete. I am saying this here because when we speak on the crystallization of the grace of God, we are also exposing the shortage of today’s theology.
Peter speaks of the grace that was for the salvation of the believers’ souls. What Peter teaches as grace is not the grace that saves our spirit or our body, but the grace that saves our soul. The Lord Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul-life?” (Mark 8:36). A man can gain the whole world and lose his soul. This shows that the soul needs to be saved. If, for the sake of saving your soul, you sacrifice the whole world, that is worthwhile.
First Peter 1:13 speaks of the grace on which the believers set their hope perfectly. Nearly every day, I pray that my soul will be saved at the Lord’s coming back. In Matthew 25 the Lord spoke of different types of slaves. When the Lord comes back, He will tell some that they are slothful slaves, and they will be cast into the outer darkness (vv. 24-30). This is to lose the soul. The Lord will tell others that they are good and faithful slaves, and they will enter into the joy of their Master (vv. 20-23). This is the saving of the soul in the next age for those who enter into the enjoyment of the Lord to feast with Him. This grace will come by the revelation of the Lord Jesus at His second coming. It was studied by the prophets in the Old Testament and is hoped for by us, the New Testament believers. Thank the Lord for such a grace.
According to 1 Peter 2:19-20, if you suffer unjust persecution as a believer or if you endure suffering while you are doing good, what you do is grace with God. With God means before God, in the eyes of God. Footnote 1 on 1 Peter 2:19 in the Recovery Version says, “Grace here refers to the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our living, which becomes in our behavior gracious and acceptable in the eyes of both man and God (v. 20).” When we suffer persecution while we are doing good, this is grace with God, because this is something motivated by the divine life within us and expressed in our living. Such a condition is gracious and acceptable before God and man. It is sweet and beautiful in the eyes of God because it is grace.
First Peter 5:5 says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” We must learn to be humble and not proud. If we are proud, God will reject us. If we are humble, God will give us grace. This grace is not a new car or any material thing, but God Himself. If we are humble, God will give Himself as grace to us. If we are proud, He will resist us. Grace is free. Anything that is given at a cost is not grace.
Second Peter 3:18 says that we need to grow in grace. Grace is God Himself with divinity processed through incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. All these elements of grace are within us to be one with us. Grace is God Himself as our life to be one with us, to save us, to make His home in us, and to be formed in us. We need to grow in such a grace for His glory today and unto the day of eternity. Second Peter 3:18 is the concluding word of the apostle Peter’s writings, indicating that whatever he has written is of, in, by, and through the grace of God. This finishes the gleaning of the field of God’s grace in Peter’s writings.
Now we come to the gleanings in John’s writings. In the Gospel of John there is one verse that is very critical. That is John 1:16: “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” In God’s New Testament economy we receive grace upon grace. When I was young, I heard someone say that the grace of God upon us is like the waves of the ocean. Grace upon grace is like wave upon wave. Gradually, however, I realized that grace upon grace is the fullness of the riches of grace.
We need to see the difference between the riches and the fullness. The fullness is the overflowing, the expression, of the riches. If a cup contains much water, it has the riches of water. But these riches cannot be seen until the cup is overflowing with water. The overflowing is the fullness of the riches. God’s grace is not only rich but rich to overflowing. That is the fullness, the expression, of the riches. Grace came with Christ, and this grace is not only rich but also overflows.
We may be rich and yet not have the fullness. The grace in the New Testament began with the incarnation of Christ, and that grace has the fullness. It is rich to the extent that it overflows. The grace that we the believers have received in the New Testament is rich unto its fullness, which is the expression of the overflowing riches that we have received in Christ through the Spirit for the accomplishment of God the Father’s New Testament economy, which is His eternal economy. God’s eternal economy is accomplished according to His New Testament economy by grace.
Revelation 1:4 speaks of the grace that is given to the local churches in the dark age of the church’s degradation for the believers who seek to answer the Lord’s calling to be His overcomers over the self (Matt. 16:24), the devil (Heb. 2:14), sin (Rom. 5:21a), the cosmos of Satan (John 12:31), satanic Judaism (Rev. 3:9), demonic Catholicism (2:20, 24), and Christless Protestantism (3:1b, 20) for the closing of all the ages and for the bringing in of the New Jerusalem. This indicates that grace reigns unto eternal life (Rom. 5:21b). Because sin reigns, we also must reign by grace. To reign by grace is to overcome.
We need to overcome today’s Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism by the grace of Christ. The Protestant churches are Christless, because Revelation tells us that Christ is outside the door of the Protestant churches. In Laodicea Christ is knocking on the door (3:20). Because Christ is outside the so-called church, it does not have Christ. It is Christless.
We have to overcome all these negative things for the closing of all the ages and for the bringing in of the New Jerusalem. Grace reigns over all the enemies to bring in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the fulfillment of the word in Romans 5:21 that grace reigns unto eternal life. It will be a strong testimony of the consummation of the divine life carried out by grace. Grace reigning unto eternal life means that grace reigns to bring in the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 1:4 and 5 say, “Grace to you...from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.” The beginning of the book of Revelation indicates that grace will come to us for all the things covered in the following chapters. How can we have the lampstands? By grace. How can we overcome the degradation of the church? By grace. How can we suffer the persecution and opposition from Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism? By grace. How can we be the overcomers? By grace. How can we fight down Satan? By grace. How can we fight down our self? By grace. In every chapter of the book of Revelation, whatever is done positively is all by grace.
The grace is with us at the beginning of the book of Revelation, and this same grace is mentioned at the end of this book. Thus, grace is not only the end of the book of Revelation but also the end of the entire Bible. Revelation 22:21 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” The saints include all of us who have believed into Christ. This is the closing, the ending, of the entire Bible.
Many Bible readers know and can recite the first sentence of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But not many know the concluding word of the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth is objective to us. But the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints is subjective to us. We have to pray-read this concluding verse of the Bible. The grace of the Lord must be with each one of us in every aspect of our daily life because we are saints. This grace consummates in the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s good pleasure in joining and mingling Himself with man for His glorious enlargement and eternal expression.
The New Testament is a history of the grace of God as the incarnation of the Triune God in His Trinity processed and consummated. We need to realize that Christ changed in His form twice. Christ was originally just God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word,...and the Word was God.” Then verse 14 says that this Word became flesh. As God, He was changed in form to become a man in the flesh. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” The last Adam was Christ in the flesh. Christ was God, and then He became flesh to be the last Adam, and this last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The first change in form was the incarnation. The second change in form was His becoming the Spirit.
Christ has two ministries: the earthly ministry and the heavenly ministry. Christ’s earthly ministry was carried out by Him in His flesh to the point of His resurrection. From His incarnation to His resurrection was thirty-three and a half years. That was the work Christ did in His flesh to be with His disciples, to be among them. At the end of His earthly ministry, He told the disciples that He could only be among them and with them until the day when the Spirit of reality would come. He said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). In the flesh He was with the disciples, but He could not be in them. He needed to become the Spirit to be in them (cf. vv. 16-20).
In His earthly ministry in the flesh, only half of His work was completed. He needed to finish the second half of His work by becoming the life-giving Spirit. Paul mentions repeatedly in his writings that Christ is in us. Galatians 2:20 says that we have been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. Paul also says that Christ is being formed in us (4:19) and making His home in us (Eph. 3:17). This is Christ not only in the Spirit but also as the Spirit.
The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is the Spirit. Thus, the Spirit is the totality, the aggregate, of the Triune God. He is the consummation of the Triune God. The consummation of the Triune God is the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic form of Christ, so the life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ is the Spirit who is Christ. In Romans 8:9-11 the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit are interchangeably used. These are not four persons but one person. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself, and Christ Himself is the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us to impart the Triune God into our being.
Today’s theology in Christianity is far short of this divine revelation. We are fighting a battle. Pray for us. My burden to live on this earth is, on the one hand, to put out the crystallization-study of the critical words of the New Testament. On the other hand, it is to expose the shortages of the theology in Christianity.
The New Testament is a history of God’s grace, and grace is the incarnated Triune God. In the first step the Triune God became a man in the flesh through His birth by a human virgin as grace coming to be among men for the accomplishment of redemption. In the second step the last Adam, as the embodiment of the Triune God, became the life-giving Spirit through His death and resurrection as grace entering into man for the impartation of the processed and consummated Triune God into the believers, to be the source, element, and essence of the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the glorious enlargement and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in eternity.
Grace is the incarnated Triune God. John 1:17 says that grace came and the law was given. The law cannot come, but grace can come because it is a living person. Romans 5 even says that grace reigns (v. 21). Actually, in the entire universe, God is the One who reigns. This shows that grace is the incarnated Triune God. In the incarnation of Christ, grace came. That was the initiation of grace into the New Testament age coming to be among men for the accomplishment of redemption. Christ accomplished redemption starting from His incarnation to His resurrection. He did all this not in the Spirit but in His flesh. The New Testament does say that Christ died in His flesh, but no verse says that Christ died in His Spirit. Christ has two ages. The first age is the age of His life in the flesh from His incarnation to His resurrection. The second age is the age of His being the Spirit from resurrection to eternity. Within this Spirit there is the element of Christ’s uplifted and designated humanity.
In the second step the last Adam, as the embodiment of the Triune God, became the life-giving Spirit through His death and resurrection. This is clearly mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:45b. This is Christ as grace entering into man. Christ came in the flesh, but at that time there was no possibility for Him to enter into His disciples. He could only be among them. Before His death and resurrection He gave a long message to His disciples in John 14—16. In John 14 He told the disciples that He could be among them but that He had no way to enter into them in the flesh. They would have to wait for another Comforter, who is the Spirit of reality. John 14:16-20 unveils that this Spirit of reality is the realization of Christ, Christ Himself.
After giving this message to His disciples, He was arrested, judged, and then sentenced to death and crucified. That was the end of Christ’s life in the flesh. After a short time He resurrected with His body. He left the fine linen, which wrapped His body, but He did not leave His body of flesh in the tomb. His body was transformed into a spiritual body. So 1 Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam changed to become a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit today is Christ Himself, the pneumatic Christ.
Christianity has never made it clear that Christ has two ministries: the earthly ministry and the heavenly ministry. The earthly ministry was carried out by Christ in His flesh mainly that He might die for us for the accomplishment of redemption. He is now carrying out His heavenly ministry as the life-giving Spirit to impart God into us as life for our enjoyment.
The New Testament teaches God’s eternal economy, which is the New Testament economy. The entire twenty-seven books of the New Testament, from the first chapter of Matthew to the last chapter of Revelation, are the New Testament revelation. This revelation is the apostles’ teaching, which is mainly of three apostles: John, who wrote the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and Revelation; Paul, who wrote fourteen Epistles; and Peter, who wrote two Epistles. Their teaching is called the apostles’ teaching.
The New Testament economy, the New Testament revelation, which is the apostles’ teaching, implies some main things. The first main thing is the incarnation of God to be a man. Matthew 1 tells us this. Then this incarnated God lived on earth among men for thirty-three and a half years. The four Gospels record this human living. Then He passed through death, resurrection, and ascension. All these five points — incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension — produce the church. There is an issue that comes out of God’s incarnation, human life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Thus, on the day of Pentecost the church was produced, and the church is the Body of Christ. This Body of Christ is the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride of Christ. The church, the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride are one thing, an aggregate, which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
When we speak of the gospel, we mean the New Testament economy. This New Testament economy implies Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, and the issue of these five steps, which is the church as the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and Christ’s bride, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. This is the New Testament economy, which is the New Testament revelation and the apostles’ teaching.
