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I. Passing through the physical realm of Christ’s earthly ministry:
А. In the physical realm of His earthly ministry, Christ is the Christ in the flesh:
1. For thirty-three and a half years, from His incarnation to become the flesh to His all-inclusive death.
2. In His flesh (Col. 1:22) Christ carried out His earthly ministry by accomplishing God’s judicial redemption, resulting objectively in God’s:
а. Forgiveness of the believers’ sins — Eph. 1:7.
b. Washing away the believers’ sins — Heb. 1:3.
c. Justifying the believers — Rom. 3:24.
d. Reconciling the believers as His enemies to Himself — 5:10a.
e. Sanctifying the believers in their position unto Himself as His holy people — Heb. 13:12; 10:29.
3. As a procedure of the complete salvation of God for the believers to participate in God’s organic salvation as the purpose of the complete salvation of God.
B. One who has experienced God’s judicial redemption may be considered saved by being redeemed only, but he still needs to be saved more by God’s organic salvation in the accomplishing of God’s economy.
II. To enter into the mystical realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry:
А. In the mystical realm of His heavenly ministry, Christ is the Christ as the life-giving Spirit:
1. From His resurrection in which He became the life-giving Spirit through eternity.
2. As the life-giving Spirit (Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:17-18), Christ is carrying out His heavenly ministry by accomplishing God’s organic salvation subjectively in eight steps:
а. Regeneration — to generate the redeemed believers with His divine life that they may be born of God to be His children of His species — John 1:12-13; 3:6b.
b. Feeding — to feed the newborn babes by regeneration in His shepherding His flock by nourishing and cherishing (Eph. 5:29) that His sheep may grow in the divine life unto maturity — 10:10-11, 14-16; 21:15-17; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25.
c. Dispositional sanctification — to sanctify the believers who are growing in the divine life in their disposition with the holy nature of God — Rom. 15:16; 6:19, 22; 1 Thes. 5:23.
d. Renewing — to have their mind changed in their religion, logic, and philosophy concerning the universe, mankind, God, etc., by the Spirit of truth with the revelations of the Scriptures, even to have Christ’s mind replacing their mind through the consuming work of the cross — Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2b; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 8:6; Phil. 2:5; 2 Cor. 4:16.
e. Transformation — to be transformed not only in the nature within but much more in the outward form for expression. It is not a correction or merely an outward change; it is an inward metabolism by having more of the element of the divine life added to the believers for the outward expression — Rom. 12:2b; 2 Cor. 3:18.
f. Building up — the believers’ growth in the divine life and their being joined together with other believers in the divine life (Eph. 4:15-16). Renewing issues in transformation, and transformation issues in building up. This is fully proved by the wall with its foundations of the New Jerusalem. The wall of the New Jerusalem is of jasper, expressing the appearance of God (Rev. 4:3). While the jasper stones were being transformed, they were joined together and built up into a wall.
g. Conformation — to be conformed to the full-grown image of the firstborn Son of God, who is the first God-man, as the prototype for mass reproduction. He is God mingled with man and man mingled with God to live a God-man living that expresses all the attributes of God as human virtues for the expression of the divine glory in humanity, whose ultimate consummation, whose maturity in the divine life, is the New Jerusalem — Rom. 8:29; 1:4; Eph. 4:14; Rev. 21.
h. Glorification — to be saturated with the divine glory from within in the maturity of the divine life and to be glorified from without by and with the divine glory as the finalization of God’s judicial redemption of the believers’ body and the top portion of the divine sonship in God’s organic salvation — Rom. 8:30; Heb. 2:10; Phil. 3:21; Eph. 4:30; Rom. 8:23.
B. We must be reminded all the time that Christ accomplishes God’s organic salvation not by Himself as the Christ in the flesh but by Himself as the Spirit.
C. We also have to remember that all the items of God’s organic salvation are carried out not by Christ’s earthly ministry judicially and objectively but by His heavenly ministry organically and subjectively.
Prayer: Lord, we worship You that You have set us up as a particular people, a particular possession of Yours. We thank You, Lord, that You have chosen us and have even appointed us with a commission to carry out Your eternal economy. Oh, what a career! By ourselves we are absolutely not qualified, but You have commissioned us. What shall we say? We just look unto You. Lord, open Your heart to us again and unveil what is hidden in the depths of Your good pleasure. Lord, we like to be open to You. We do not want to have anything covering us. Lord, we ask You to take away all the veils, all the logic, theologies, philosophies, and traditional teachings. Lord, remove layer after layer of veils from us. Lord, we long to be released, to be freed, from all these bondages. We do not want to be held back or to be short in carrying out Your economy. Thank You, Lord, for treating us as Your loving followers. We believe that You are here, sitting with us, wanting to have an intimate, face-to-face talk about Your career, according to Your eternal economy. Lord, speak to us. We ask that we may hear Your voice and see Your vision. Amen, Lord.
The title of this chapter is “To Enter into the Mystical Realm of Christ’s Heavenly Ministry.” Here the word realm is of great significance. Instead of realm we may use the word kingdom and thus speak of the mystical kingdom of Christ’s heavenly ministry. If we would enter into the realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry, a realm that is altogether mystical, we need to know the mystical Christ.
In His person Christ is mystical. Concerning Christ’s incarnation, there are two kinds of records in the New Testament — a physical record and a mystical record. In the synoptic Gospels — the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke — the record of the Lord’s incarnation is altogether physical. We are told that He was born of a virgin, that He was laid in a manger, that shepherds came to worship Him, that He was taken from Israel to Egypt, and that He grew up in Nazareth. All of this is a physical record. The record in the Gospel of John is absolutely different. Chapter 1, for instance, is not a physical record but a mystical record. Verses 1 and 14 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” This way of speaking about the incarnation is mystical and mysterious. “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (v. 16). This also is mystical. John’s account of Christ’s incarnation is altogether mystical.
Actually, the entire Gospel of John is mystical. “All things came into being through Him [the Word]...In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (vv. 3, 4). This is mystical. This One is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” and upon Him the Spirit descended “as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him” (vv. 29, 32). This, too, is mystical. Those who believe into Him become stones (v. 42). Speaking of Himself as the heavenly ladder, Christ said, “You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (v. 51). To be sure, all these things are mystical. Christ’s being the temple as the house of God (2:16-21) is mystical, and regeneration also is mystical. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:6b). The issue of regeneration is to produce a bride, who is the increase of the Bridegroom (vv. 29-30). Once again, this is a mystical matter. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (v. 14). Christ’s hanging on the cross as a bronze serpent is surely mystical. In 4:10 and 14 Christ told us that if we drink of the living water that He alone can give us, this water will become in us “a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” Then He went on to say, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (v. 24). All of this is mystical.
All the saints in the Lord’s recovery, especially the co-workers and the elders, need to have a clear view concerning the physical realm and the mystical realm. The co-workers and the elders, who take the lead in the Lord’s recovery, must realize that the Lord’s recovery is resting upon their shoulders. What the recovery will be depends upon what they will be. I am heavily burdened about this. Since this is my burden, I cannot give you ordinary teachings. Instead, I must present something particular. You need to know this age and to realize that it is an age of ignorance, a time when Christians are being blinded and held back by traditional theology. Therefore, I am burdened to tell you that you need to enter into a realm, a sphere, a kingdom, which is much higher than the realm you are in now. This higher realm is the mystical realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry.
First, we must pass through the physical realm of Christ’s earthly ministry. To be sure, what is physical is also earthly. We should not linger in this realm but should pass through it quickly, like those who are taking an express train.
Have you ever heard that when Christ was on earth, He was the Christ in the flesh? In the Bible flesh is a very negative word. According to Genesis 6:3, when man fell to such an extent that he had become flesh, God decided to destroy man from the face of the earth. Nevertheless, John 1:14 says not that the Word became a man or that the Word became a person but that the Word became flesh. Because flesh is something condemned by God, many Christians do not have the boldness to teach that Christ was flesh. Some may say that God became a man, but the Bible says that God became flesh. In Romans 8:3 Paul tells us that the Son of God came “in the likeness of the flesh of sin.” Christ had the likeness of the flesh of sin but not the nature of sin, just as the bronze serpent had the form of a serpent but not the poisonous nature of a serpent (John 3:14; Num. 21:4-9). The New Testament clearly reveals that Christ was flesh, yet without sin; He never sinned (Heb. 2:14; 4:15). We are told even that God made Christ sin for us: “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf” (2 Cor. 5:21). This is the genuine, clear, and pure revelation of the Word of God.
Christ was in the flesh for thirty-three and a half years, from His incarnation to become the flesh to His all-inclusive death.
In His flesh (Col. 1:22) Christ carried out His earthly ministry by accomplishing God’s judicial redemption. This redemption resulted objectively in God’s forgiveness of the believers’ sins (Eph. 1:7), washing away the believers’ sins (Heb. 1:3), justifying the believers (Rom. 3:24), reconciling the believers as His enemies to Himself (5:10a), and sanctifying the believers in their position unto Himself as His holy people (Heb. 13:12; 10:29). All these matters are very good, but they are physical, earthly, judicial, and objective.
What Christ carried out in His earthly ministry was a procedure of the complete salvation of God for the believers to participate in God’s organic salvation as the purpose of the complete salvation of God. This procedure can be compared to an escalator that brings us from one level to another. An escalator is useful, but one should not stay on an escalator for a long time. However, most of today’s Christians are lingering on the “escalator” of the procedure of the complete salvation of God. Some are not even on the escalator but are still on the “ground floor”; they have not yet begun to experience the procedure.
It is extremely important that we differentiate between the procedure of God’s complete salvation and the purpose of His complete salvation. The procedure is judicial, and the purpose is organic. Furthermore, the procedure is in the physical realm, and the purpose is in the mystical realm.
One who has experienced God’s judicial redemption may be considered saved by being redeemed only, but he still needs to be saved more by God’s organic salvation in the accomplishing of God’s economy.
We need to pass through the physical realm of Christ’s earthly ministry and enter into something higher — the mystical realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry.
Christ’s being the life-giving Spirit is a most important qualification for Christ to carry out His heavenly ministry. When He was in the flesh, He was not able to enter into us as life. As a young Christian, I was bothered when I heard that, according to the Bible, Christ is in us. I wondered how it was possible for Christ to be in me. At that time I did not realize that, in and through resurrection, the Christ who was in the flesh became the life-giving Spirit. Later, I came to see that the New Testament unveils the fact that the One who died on the cross as our Savior was resurrected, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Now He is qualified to carry out His heavenly ministry in the mystical realm.
In the mystical realm of His heavenly ministry, Christ is the life-giving Spirit from His resurrection, in which He became the life-giving Spirit, through eternity.
As the life-giving Spirit (Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:17-18), Christ is carrying out His heavenly ministry by accomplishing God’s organic salvation subjectively in eight steps. Here we can see a sharp contrast: earthly versus heavenly, physical versus mystical, judicial versus organic, and objective versus subjective. All eight aspects of God’s organic salvation are subjective.
Regeneration is to generate the redeemed believers with the divine life that they may be born of God to be His children of His species (John 1:12-13; 3:6b). As God’s children we are of His kind, His species. Therefore, we are gods, having God’s life and nature but not His Godhead.
Feeding is to feed the newborn babes by regeneration in Christ’s shepherding His flock by nourishing and cherishing (Eph. 5:29) that His sheep may grow in the divine life unto maturity (John 10:10-11, 14-16; 21:15-17; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25). Feeding surely is organic.
Dispositional sanctification is to sanctify the believers who are growing in the divine life in their disposition with the holy nature of God (Rom. 15:16; 6:19, 22; 1 Thes. 5:23). Our natural disposition is crooked, perverted, and distorted, yet it can be sanctified and corrected, not with teaching but with the holy nature of God.
Renewing is to have our mind changed in our religion, logic, and philosophy concerning the universe, mankind, God, etc., by the Spirit of truth with the revelations of the Scriptures, even to have Christ’s mind replacing our mind through the consuming work of the cross (Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2b; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 8:6; Phil. 2:5; 2 Cor. 4:16).
The missionaries who came to China talked a lot about love, telling us that we had to love others. After I was saved, I gradually became enlightened to see that all Christian virtues, including love, are different from the natural human virtues. Every Christian virtue must have a fourfold qualification: It must be through the cross, it must be by the Spirit, it must be for ministering Christ, and it must be for the producing of the church. The love taught in the New Testament is a love that is through the cross, which cuts off the self; it is by the Spirit, and it ministers Christ for the producing of the church. After I became clear regarding this, I realized that the missionaries were mistaken in their teaching, for they taught wrongly about love while claiming that their teaching was according to the Bible. The love unveiled in the Bible is not a natural human love (to love men without selfishness) like that taught by Confucius.
The principle is the same with submission. A sister’s submission to her husband must be a submission that is through the cross, that is by the Spirit, that ministers, or dispenses, Christ, and that is for the producing and building up of the church. This kind of submission is altogether different from the submission taught by Confucius. His kind of submission is by the natural life, having nothing to do with the cross, the Spirit, and the dispensing of Christ and not having the goal of producing the church.
We need to be impressed with the fact that all the virtues taught by the Bible are through the cross, by the Spirit, and minister Christ for the producing of the churches for the building up of the Body. Concerning this matter, our mind needs to be renewed.
Transformation is the issue of renewing (Rom. 12:2). It is to be transformed not only in the nature within but much more in the outward form for expression. It is not a correction or merely an outward change; it is an inward metabolism by having more of the element of the divine life added to the believers for the outward expression (v. 2b; 2 Cor. 3:18). Remember that transformation is not only an outward change but is a metabolic change through the addition of the divine life, which transforms us into the image of Christ.
Building up is a matter of the believers’ growth in the divine life and their being joined together with other believers in the divine life (Eph. 4:15-16). Renewing issues in transformation, and transformation issues in building up. This is fully proved by the wall with its foundations of the New Jerusalem. The wall of the New Jerusalem is of jasper, expressing the appearance of God (Rev. 4:3). While the jasper stones were being transformed, they were joined together and built up into a wall.
We should not think that to be built up is only to be closely related to other believers in a natural way. This is not the way to be built up. The proper way to be built up is to grow together in the divine life. While we are growing, this growth joins us all together as one.
Conformation is to be conformed to the full-grown image of the firstborn Son of God, who is the first God-man, as the prototype for mass reproduction. He is God mingled with man and man mingled with God to live a God-man living that expresses all the attributes of God as human virtues for the expression of the divine glory in humanity, whose ultimate consummation, whose maturity in the divine life, is the New Jerusalem (Rom. 8:29; 1:4; Eph. 4:14; Rev. 21).
Glorification is to be saturated with the divine glory from within in the maturity of the divine life and to be glorified from without by and with the divine glory as the finalization of God’s judicial redemption of the believers’ body and the top portion of the divine sonship in God’s organic salvation (Rom. 8:30; Heb. 2:10; Phil. 3:21; Eph. 4:30; Rom. 8:23).
Ephesians 4:30 says that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit “unto the day of redemption.” Redemption here refers to the redemption of our body. The Holy Spirit as the seal in us is sealing us continually with the element of God until our body is redeemed, that is, transfigured and glorified. This means that glorification is a matter of saturation. We may liken the Holy Spirit to ink that permeates and saturates the pages of a book. We all have been “inked” by the Holy Spirit, and year after year and day after day His “inking,” His dispensing of the divine life, is gradually saturating us until we are glorified. We have been “inked” by the Holy Spirit, who is God’s glory. We have therefore been “inked” by God’s glory, and the “inking” of God’s glory is causing His glory to permeate us until it saturates our entire being. If we see this, we will realize that glorification is not merely objective but very subjective.
The time of full saturation will be the time of the redemption of our body. We have been regenerated in our spirit and we now are being transformed in our soul, but our body is still the old creation. For this reason our old body needs to be redeemed. The last stage of redemption, the redemption of our body, will be the top portion of our sonship.
If we do not properly control our body according to the divine attributes expressed through the human virtues, our body becomes an ugly thing. As an elderly person, I am quite weak in my body, and this bodily weakness troubles me. I can still move and work, but daily I am suffering because of my physical weakness. Inwardly, I say, “Lord Jesus, one day I will be glorified. Then I will be delivered from this old body, which does not have any share in the divine sonship.”
The sonship is of the Spirit, and the Spirit is saturating us with the sonship until our body is saturated with the sonship. Then we will experience the full sonship, the full “sonizing,” the redemption of our body. We still have a part — our physical body — that has not been “sonized,” so we are waiting for the day when even our body will become part of the divine sonship.
We must be reminded all the time that Christ accomplishes God’s organic salvation not by Himself as the Christ in the flesh but by Himself as the life-giving Spirit.
We also have to remember that all the items of God’s organic salvation are carried out not by Christ’s earthly ministry judicially and objectively but by His heavenly ministry organically and subjectively. There is a great difference between Christ’s earthly ministry and His heavenly ministry. Today we are not being saved judicially and objectively by the earthly ministry of Christ in the flesh. We are being saved organically and subjectively through the heavenly ministry of the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. To experience this organic salvation, we all need to enter into the mystical realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry.
