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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 12:24; 14:20; Eph. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 1:19-23; Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:30-32
Four main items concerning Christ in His divine economy are His incarnation, His human living, His death, and His resurrection. If we understand these four major items of Christ, we will realize that these major points of Christ’s process are for the divine economy. We have seen that His incarnation, human living, and all-inclusive death are for God’s economy. In this chapter we will see that His resurrection is also for the economy of God.
When the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was going to die, they were troubled and disappointed. They thought that if the Lord would suffer and die, everything would be terminated. But every time the Lord told them about His death, He also told them about His resurrection. At least three times the Lord Jesus told them this one thing (Matt. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19). They only grasped the thought of His death but not of His resurrection. Eventually, the Lord told them that He was a grain of wheat (John 12:24).
People generally do not have the concept of resurrection, but in God’s creation we can see the principle of resurrection. When a grain of wheat is sown into the earth, it dies in the earth. But that death is not the end. That death leads to something further — resurrection. If you bury a small rock, it will not grow. But if you sow a grain of wheat into the earth, it will die and grow, and that growth is resurrection. When it grows, it produces and brings forth many grains, and those grains are the release, the reproduction, the multiplication, and the increase of that one grain. We may consider the matter of a grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying in a common way, but the principle here is not common. The Lord Jesus used this as an illustration of His death, resurrection, and reproduction. This reproduction is the dispensing of the divine life. The reproduction of the one grain of wheat is the dispensing of the life of this one grain into many grains.
Not many see that Christ’s resurrection is life dispensing. Most Christians only see that the resurrection of Christ is Christ’s victory. Death cannot hold Christ. He overcomes death, the tomb, and Hades. But it is hard to find a hymn that tells us that the resurrection of Christ is life dispensing. The resurrection of a grain of wheat is life dispensing. Life was only in Christ as the one grain, but after dying and resurrecting, His life was dispensed into many grains.
Before the Lord died and resurrected, the divine life was only in Himself. Jesus was the only person who had the divine life. The disciples were around Him, but they did not have the eternal life in them. But Jesus had a way to dispense His divine life into Peter, John, James, Andrew, and all the other disciples. The way was for Him to die and to resurrect. By resurrection the divine life in Jesus was dispensed into all His disciples. Before the death of Christ, Jesus was the only grain. All the other disciples were not grains. But He wanted all His disciples to become grains. How could this be? It could never be by teaching. John 1:4 tells us that in Jesus was life. Life was in Him because He was God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God (v. 1). In Him was life. Outwardly, Jesus and His disciples were the same. But the difference was this: in Jesus was life. In Peter there was no life, in James there was no life, in John there was no life, in Andrew there was no life, and in all the other disciples there was no life. Jesus was the only grain who had the eternal life. As the unique grain of wheat, He died and rose up to produce many grains. By His rising up, the life within Him was dispensed into all the disciples to make each one of them a grain. Now we can see what resurrection is. Resurrection is life dispensing. This is a new term that we should not forget — Christ’s resurrection is life dispensing. This life is the divine life, God’s life.
We have seen that the Lord Jesus as the God-man died as the Lamb of God, a man in the flesh, the last Adam, the bronze serpent, the Firstborn of all creation, and the Peacemaker. The Lord’s death on the cross in these aspects was not for life dispensing. Only His death on the cross as the grain of wheat was for life dispensing. If a grain of wheat does not die, it remains one grain. But if it dies, it will grow up to produce many grains. This is life dispensing. The Lord Jesus died on the cross not only to clear up all the negative things in the universe, but He died on the cross in a positive aspect to release His divine life. Thus, there are the redeeming aspect of the Lord’s death and the life-releasing aspect of His death.
When He was dying, two substances came out of His pierced side: blood and water. Blood is the sign of His redemption, and water is the sign of His life releasing. He died to accomplish redemption, and He died to release His divine life. Now we have the redeeming blood and the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) signified by the water. Thank the Lord for the blood and the living water. The Lord’s death leads to resurrection. He died to live. Before the Lord Jesus no man died to live. This is because no one had the divine life within him. When men died, that meant termination. But Jesus had the divine life within Him, so His death was His release of that life. He died to live, and the release of His life produced many grains.
When the Lord Jesus told the disciples that He was going to die, they were disappointed. But He went on to speak to them further and further. Just before His death, He spoke a long message to them comprised of three chapters, John 14—16. In these three chapters the central thought is in verse 20 of chapter 14: “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” That day refers to the day of the Lord’s resurrection (20:19). On the day of the Lord’s resurrection the disciples would know three “ins”: I am in the Father, you in Me, and I in you.
The Lord Jesus had already told the disciples that He was in the Father and that the Father was in Him (14:10-11). He furthermore told them that He and the Father were one (10:30). It was through His resurrection that the disciples entered into the same reality of the Father being in them, of them being in the Father, and of them and the Father being one. On that day the disciples would know that the Lord was in His Father and that they were in Him. Since the Lord was in the Father and they were now in Him, they were in the Father also. As long as they were in Him, they were in the Father because He was in the Father. To be in the Lord is to be in the Father. When the Lord gets in us (“I in you”), the Father gets in us. The Lord is in us, so the Father is also in us (14:23). In John 14:20 the Lord said that we will know this “in that day.” We are already at “that day,” so we all have to declare that we know this wonderful fact. We all have to declare that we are in the Lord and in the Father and that the Lord and the Father are in us. This means the Lord, we, and the Father indwell one another and are mingled together.
We are in the Lord, in the Father, and also in resurrection. When we are in resurrection, we are in the Lord and in the Father, and the Lord and the Father are in us. Resurrection is a person, and this person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God (11:25). The Lord Jesus told Martha that He was the resurrection and the life. He is not only life but also resurrection to us. This should not merely be a doctrine to us, but we must see a vision that in resurrection we are in the Lord and in the Father, and the Lord and the Father are in us.
Ephesians 2:6 says, “Raised us up together and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” We the believers were raised up together with Christ. When Christ resurrected, we all were raised up. Actually, we were resurrected in Christ before we were born, about two thousand years ago. In God’s eyes we all were fallen in Adam six thousand years ago, and in God’s eyes we all were resurrected in Christ two thousand years ago. This is not according to human mathematics, but this is God’s way of calculation. Because this resurrection is life dispensing, 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that we were regenerated “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” According to God’s way of calculation, we were regenerated, born again, before we were born. Before we experienced our first birth, we were reborn. This is God’s mathematics. When we were raised up together with Christ, we were regenerated with the divine life. When we were resurrected with Christ, the divine life was dispensed into us, so we were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection. This shows us again that resurrection is life dispensing.
Ephesians 1:19-23 tells us that when Christ was resurrected, the power to raise Him up was surpassingly great. That power surpasses everything. It surpasses the tomb, Hades, and death. Such a surpassingly great power uplifted Him to the heavens, subjected everything under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things for the purpose of producing the church. Thus, the church is the product of Christ’s surpassing resurrection. When we were regenerated two thousand years ago, the church also was produced. If we were to speak about these things to some people, they might feel that we are dreamers. Actually, we are not dreamers, but we are talking about matters in another universe. This universe is not the natural universe but the universe of resurrection. We do not belong to the universe of nature but to the universe of resurrection. The church is the product of Christ’s resurrection, the result of the life dispensing. The church is altogether not natural but purely a matter in resurrection. When we live by our natural life in a natural way, we are no longer the church, because the church is absolutely a matter in resurrection.
The church was not created by God but resurrected by God. In Genesis 2 God did not create Eve; He only created Adam. Adam was created, but Eve was resurrected. Adam was created by God, but God did not create a wife for him. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam (v. 21). In the Bible sleep signifies death (1 Thes. 4:13; John 11:11-14; 1 Cor. 11:30). Then God opened up Adam’s side and took one of his ribs and built this rib into a wife for Adam. When Adam awoke, he saw a wife. This wife was not something in creation but in resurrection. Something living came out of Adam, and that was Eve. God used Adam’s rib to build a wife. This wife was not created but built in resurrection, and this wife is a figure of the church according to Ephesians 5. The church was not created by God but something resurrected out of Christ.
Just like Adam, Christ was “put to sleep” on the cross, and His side was opened. Out of the Lord’s pierced side came blood and water. The blood is for redemption to take care of the fall. The rib out of Adam’s side signifies the unbreakable eternal life, and the water out of the Lord’s side also signifies the eternal life. The bone of Adam typifies the divine life that is also signified by the water flowing out of Christ’s side. None of the Lord’s bones were broken on the cross (John 19:36). This signifies that His divine life cannot be broken. His physical life was killed, but nothing could break His divine life, which flowed out to produce the church. With the rib, God built a wife, and with the flowing water, God produced the church. Thus, the church is not something created by God but something produced in the resurrection of Christ. Since the church is altogether a matter in resurrection, we must abandon all our natural ways of doing things and abandon our natural life.
The church is in resurrection, and the church is one with Christ just as Eve became one with Adam. They two became one flesh, and Christ and the church became one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Paul refers to the matter of Christ and the church as the great mystery (Eph. 5:32). The church as the mystery of Christ (3:4) is the result of the divine life dispensing. Through the surpassing resurrection of Christ, the life of God in Christ has been dispensed into all His believers, thus producing the church. Praise the Lord for the resurrection of Christ, through which we were regenerated and the church was produced!
