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In this chapter we will once again review the general subject of the entire New Testament. As we saw in the previous chapters, we may express this subject in four terms: a universal man with Christ as the Head and the church as His Body, the history of this universal man, the definition and explanation of the universal man, and the consummation of the universal man. These four items give us a full picture of the New Testament in detail. In addition, we saw that the Old Testament is composed mainly of types and prophecies. Two central matters, Christ and the church, are the fulfillment of all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament.
The real significance of the prophecies concerning Christ is the mingling of God and man. This divine One, Christ, intends to mingle Himself with man. This is the proper insight into the persons, times, and places in all the prophecies. Related to the Lord’s person, for example, Christ is called Immanuel (Isa. 7:14). In this one wonderful name, there is God and man, a man filled with God. Isaiah 9:6 also tells us that a child is born, yet His name is called Mighty God, and a son is given, yet His name is called Eternal Father. All of these names related to persons show us this wonderful One who is God Himself mingled with man.
Then, in the matter of time, Christ came forth in time, yet His goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity (Micah 5:2). His goings forth are from eternity, yet His appearing is in time. Here again is the principle of mingling. Only God Himself is in eternity, and the creatures of God are in time. The eternal Creator had the intention to mingle Himself with His creatures in time.
Related to places, Christ came out of Judea, yet He came from an eternal place. All these Old Testament prophecies give us a picture of God’s intention to mingle Himself with the human race. This insight into the real meaning of prophecies has been nearly lost in Christianity. Many Christian teachers speak about these prophecies, but they do not grasp the central insight into them. The central insight into the prophecies is that God’s intention is to come into man and mingle Himself with man.
The Old Testament prophecies also speak concerning the church. The type of Adam and Eve signifies that the church as the bride of Christ is a part of Christ (Gen. 2:22-24; Eph. 5:31-32). A wife is the counterpart of the husband, and the husband and wife joined together are a perfect whole. If we have the spiritual insight, we can realize that a man or woman alone is only one half. A woman must match a man by marrying him; then the two will be one whole. We may illustrate a man and a woman by a watermelon. If we cut a watermelon in half, there are two parts, each having a round side and a flat side. If we match the two flat sides together, the melon is whole. In the same way, the husband is a part to the wife, and the wife is a counterpart to the husband. The two must match each other to make a perfect whole. A whole man is not a man alone; it is a man with his counterpart, his wife. This reveals a deep truth in the Bible.
In numbering people, both the Old Testament and the New Testament often do not reckon the females (Num. 1:2; John 6:10). This is because the female is the counterpart of the male. Through all the generations and around the globe, a bride always covers her head during the wedding. In every kind of wedding, whether in China, Indonesia, or India, the bride’s head is covered. In this way, at a wedding there are two persons but only one head. When the bride marries a bridegroom, she takes him as her head and covers her own head. Then from the wedding day on, these two become one. This is a picture of the church’s relationship to Christ. The church is Christ’s counterpart to match Christ, to be a part of Christ. For this reason, Ephesians 5:31 says, “A man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.” This means that the church is a part of Christ.
The church is also revealed as the many brothers of Christ as His multiplication (Psa. 22:22; John 20:17; Heb. 2:11-12). Originally, Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18), but in resurrection He became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). The one grain became many grains (John 12:24) as the duplication and multiplication of the one grain. In this way, the church is the multiplication of Christ.
Furthermore, the church is prophesied as the many children given to Christ (Isa. 8:18; Heb. 2:13). The church has the same life and nature as Christ. Christ is the very source of the church, and the church is born of this source.
In summary, the church as the bride of Christ is a part of Christ, the church as the many brothers of Christ is Christ’s multiplication and duplication, and the church as the children given to Christ has the same life and nature as Christ. This insight into the church helps us to thoroughly understand what the church is. We do not need to say much; just by these three aspects we can have a clear understanding of the church. What is the church? The church is a part of Christ and the multiplication of Christ, having the same life and nature as Christ.
When we come to the first four books of the New Testament, we can see seven major points. The first item that the New Testament shows us is incarnation. The entire Old Testament leads us to the point that God is brought into man. God coming to be a man and mingling Himself with man is the first item of the New Testament. If we have this insight, the entire holy Word will be open to us.
After Christ’s incarnation John the Baptist came out to proclaim the kingdom. From that time to the end of the New Testament, the line of the kingdom goes on without interruption. We can see the unbroken line of the kingdom throughout the remaining books of the New Testament. John the Baptist was the first one to proclaim the glad tidings of the New Testament, and the first word uttered by him was, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He spoke the same word (4:17). The disciples sent by the Lord were instructed by Him also to pronounce the same thing. Therefore, the second main point in the New Testament is the kingdom with its requirements.
As we have seen, a definition of the kingdom was given by the Lord in Matthew 6. At the end of His prayer, He said, “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (v. 13). Power here indicates authority. In a kingdom there are two things — authority and glory. Authority deals with the enemy, and the glory expresses the Ruler, God Himself. If we read the New Testament again with the point of view of the kingdom, we will see the matters of authority and glory.
The third main item revealed in the four Gospels is the real condition of the fallen human race. We cannot see this picture as clearly in the other books of the New Testament. In the four Gospels there are many stories and cases that reveal to us the miserable condition of fallen mankind. These four books tell us that wherever the Lord Jesus went, He encountered sins, misery, sickness, weakness, death, demon possession, and the evil power of darkness. These are the characteristics, the real condition, of the fallen human race. When we read the four Gospels, our eyes are opened to see the true condition of our race.
Fourth, these four books reveal the all-sufficiency of this God-man, Jesus. There was not one need that He could not meet nor one case or problem that He could not solve. No matter what kind of need or trouble we have, He is the unique solution.
The four Gospels also reveal the wonderful living of the Lord Jesus. The book of Matthew shows us a life that brings in the reality of the kingdom and enables us to fulfill the requirements of this kingdom. In Mark this life brings in the real obedience to God. Luke’s Gospel reveals a life that is able to make us a genuine, proper, and normal man before God and among men. In John this life is able to express God and live out God through the human life and nature. These are the four aspects of the living of Christ in the four Gospels. This is the fifth item mentioned in the Gospels. If we see these items, the Gospels will be very clear to us.
Sixth, the four Gospels tell us that this wonderful life was imparted into man based upon the redemptive work of Christ. Redemption is necessary for the impartation of the divine life.
In order to understand redemption and life impartation, we may use the illustration of a drama. The story of the Scriptures may be compared to a drama. A wise playwright makes his drama interesting by means of a straight line through the story, along with many twists. If we look into the Scriptures in this way, we first can realize that God has an eternal purpose, which extends like a straight line from eternity past to eternity future. God’s eternal purpose and heart’s desire is that He would impart Himself into His creation. He wants to mingle Himself with man, to make Himself one with man, so that He becomes man’s life and content, and man becomes His expression. In this sense, man may be compared to a bottle to be filled up with God as the living water.
In order to realize this eternal purpose, God came in and created many items with man as the center. In God’s creation man is the very center because man is the vessel to contain God, and all the other items of creation merely provide the environment for man, the central figure. After God created man, He put man before the tree of life, which symbolizes God Himself as life to man. God’s intention was that man would eat of this tree and receive God Himself into him as his life. Thus, God’s purpose would be fulfilled. At this very juncture, however, God’s enemy, Satan, came in and captured, corrupted, and damaged man. This is the first, downward twist as a distraction from the straight line of God’s eternal purpose.
Therefore, God Himself came to be a man. Christ came to the very place where man was, and through His redemption God brought man back to the tree of life. The redemption of Christ for the recovery of fallen man is the upward twist in the line of God’s original intention. This shows us the position of God’s redemption in the overall picture of His purpose.
By Christ’s redemption the fallen and distracted man was redeemed, recovered, and brought back to the tree of life. Then by Christ’s resurrection this wonderful One imparted Himself into man. From this time on, man had something within him that he never had before. Before the fall man was merely man, but now something has been added to man, that is, God Himself in Christ. Man was not only brought back to the tree of life, but the life of God was added to man. This is life impartation.
This entire picture shows us the position of redemption. Most Christians today neglect the tree of life and pay their full attention to the “twists,” the aspect of redemption. They stress the fact that man fell and became sinful. They speak of man’s going to hell and of his need for salvation. It is wonderful and precious to speak of God’s love for the fallen race and the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross to redeem us. However, the redemptive work is part of the twists and not on the straight line of God’s intention. Today’s Christianity has missed the mark, the goal of God’s purpose. Very few Christians today are clear about the straight line, that is, the eternal purpose of God, and because of this they emphasize the twists. In these last days we have the deep impression that the Lord will recover this straight line. He will make it the foremost matter, and He will make redemption the secondary matter. By all of the above, we can see the position of the life imparting of Christ and the role of redemption.
When the Lord established His table, He said of the wine, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:27-28). However, although the Lord stressed redemption, He did not forget the straight line. Therefore, He first said of the bread, “Take, eat; this is My body” (v. 26). “My body” is on the straight line of God’s eternal goal, whereas “My blood” for redemption is on the twists.
Man’s being brought into God is the last major item unveiled in the four Gospels. The four Gospels describe a two-way traffic — the coming and going of Christ. The coming of Christ is in incarnation, and His going is in death, resurrection, and ascension. Christ’s coming in incarnation brought God into man, and His going by death, resurrection, and ascension brought man into God. By His coming, God lived on earth in a man, and His going brought man into God. Therefore, man today is in the heavens in God. This is why the apostle Paul told us that our life has been hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
John 14 through 17 makes this matter more clear. Chapters 14 through 16 record the last words spoken by the Lord before His death, and John 17 records the Lord’s closing prayer after His message. These four chapters give us a clear vision of the way in which the Lord brings us into the Father by His death, resurrection, and ascension.
If we do not have the proper insight, we cannot be clear about what the New Testament says. Before I came to the United States for the first time, I purchased a very good Japanese camera, and I read the instruction booklet several times. Eventually, however, I did not know what it was talking about because I did not have the insight into how the camera worked. In the same way, we may be able to recite the New Testament word by word from the first book to the last, but if we do not have the proper insight, we cannot understand it clearly and thoroughly. If we do not have the kind of insight revealed in these seven foregoing points, we can never be clear about the New Testament.
We need a clear view of Christ’s incarnation, the kingdom, the condition of the fallen race, the all-sufficiency of Christ, the wonderful living of the divine life in the human life, the imparting of life through the redemption of Christ, and the wonderful fact that man has been brought into God by Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. If we are clear concerning these few matters, God’s eternal purpose and the entire holy Word will be transparent to us. This will greatly influence our daily walk and even revolutionize our entire Christian concept. Our work and our service will be greatly affected. We will be delivered from tradition and be brought into something living and real.
According to the histories and biographies of the men of God who were used very much by the Lord in the past, they had this kind of realization and insight to some degree. Of course, what they realized at their time was not as clear as what we see today, because the Lord has opened these matters more and more over the years, sometimes more and more each day. When the Lord’s eternal purpose and His Word are thoroughly transparent to us, this vision will govern our walk, our work, our service, and our entire Christian concept.
