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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 13:14; 1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9
I. Grace is the Divine Trinity transmitted into us for our enjoyment, the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — 2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27; Psa. 36:8-9:
А. The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation — 2 Cor. 13:14.
B. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because this book is on the grace of Christ — 1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9.
C. The Holy Spirit as the circulation, the transmission, of the grace of Christ with the love of the Father is the supply in our Christian life and church life:
1. The entire church life depends upon 2 Corinthians 13:14.
2. The current of the Divine Trinity within us as revealed in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is our spiritual pulse.
D. The blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14 is the same as that in Numbers 6:22-27; this is the eternal blessing of the Triune God, which is the Triune God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into us for our enjoyment:
1. “Jehovah bless you and keep you” is the love of God the Father as the fountain of life and light — v. 24; Psa. 36:9.
2. “Jehovah make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you” is the grace of Christ as the fatness of God’s house — Num. 6:25; Psa. 36:8a.
3. “Jehovah lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as the river of God’s pleasures — Num. 6:26; Psa. 36:8b.
II. In 2 Corinthians, Christ as the grace of God is the good land for us to enter into, enjoy, experience, partake of, and possess — John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10; cf. Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 5:7; 10:3-4; 2 Cor. 13:14:
А. The grace of God in His economy is rich, multiplying, and abounding — Eph. 2:7; 1 Pet. 1:2b; 2 Pet. 1:2; Eph. 1:7b-8:
1. God has graced us in the Beloved — v. 6.
2. We have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand — Rom. 5:2a.
3. When Christ in us is daily received, enjoyed, and experienced by us, that is grace being added to us, grace upon grace — John 1:16.
B. The new covenant ministers’ living is the living of grace, the experience of grace — Heb. 12:28:
1. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of grace, is with our spirit, which has been regenerated to be the dwelling place and vessel of the Triune God — 10:29b; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23; Philem. 25; 2 Tim. 4:22:
a. We need to exercise our spirit, fanning it into flame, to enjoy the riches of Christ as our all-sufficient grace in order to stand against the downward current of the church’s decline and carry out God’s economy — 1:6-7; 4:22.
b. We need to set our mind on the spirit — Rom. 8:6.
c. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter through the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace in heaven through Christ as the heavenly ladder — Heb. 4:16; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Eph. 2:22.
2. Grace is with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility — 6:24.
3. Humility saves us from all kinds of destruction and invites God’s grace — 1 Pet. 5:5-6; James 4:6.
4. We need to enjoy the word of His grace — Acts 20:32; Jer. 15:16.
5. We need to experience the Spirit of grace and of supplications to bring us into the enjoyment of the Triune God — Zech. 12:10a.
6. The new covenant ministers enjoy Christ as their all-sufficient grace through sufferings:
a. The ministry of the new covenant is produced by revelation plus suffering — 2 Cor. 12:7; 1:3-4, 8-10.
b. Christ as grace becomes power tabernacling over the new covenant ministers, overshadowing them in their weaknesses to become their dwelling place to sustain, support, maintain, protect, and keep them — 12:9b.
7. We need the grace of God in Christ applied to us as the strength and power for our move and our protection — Ezek. 1:6b, 9a; Exo. 19:4; Isa. 40:31; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1:12; 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10; Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 63:7; 91:4.
8. We reign in life by receiving the abundance of grace — Rom. 5:17.
9. We need to be good stewards of the varied grace of God — 1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2; 2 Cor. 1:15.
10. Our word should convey grace to the hearers — Luke 4:22; Eph. 4:29; Isa. 50:4.
11. We need to enjoy the grace of life in the church life to keep ourselves in the genuine oneness — Psa. 133.
12. In the church life, when we have grace upon us, the church will be built up and the grace we receive will be visible — Acts 4:33; 11:23.
13. The product of the grace in God’s economy is the Body of Christ as the poem of God, expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design — 7, Eph. 2:10; 2 Cor. 5:17.
14. The grace of the Lord Jesus dispensed to His believers throughout the New Testament age consummates in the New Jerusalem, in which the processed and consummated Triune God will be the grace enjoyed by all the believers for eternity — Rev. 22:21:
a. We enjoy God the Father as the light of life — 21:23, 11; 22:5.
b. We enjoy God the Son as the tree of life — vv. 2, 14, 19.
c. We enjoy God the Spirit as the river of life — vv. 1, 17.
