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Scripture Reading: Heb. 6:4-5; Mark 16:17-18; John 3:3, 6; 1 Pet. 1:23; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 8:9, 11, 16; Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:5; 3:18; 1 Cor. 6:17; 1 John 3:2; 1 Pet. 5:10
Hebrews 6:4-5 says, “Who...have tasted of the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” In this verse we can clearly see that the believers, after tasting the heavenly gift and becoming partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted two categories of things: the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. In Hebrews the word of God is in two categories. “The good word” mentioned in 6:5 is “the word of the beginning of Christ” (v. 1). The word of righteousness (5:13), however, embodies the deeper truth of God’s justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people. In the entire book of Hebrews, the good word refers to Christ in His earthly ministry, including His incarnation, His human living, His crucifixion, and His resurrection; and the word of righteousness refers to Christ in His heavenly ministry, including His ascension, His exaltation, and all His attainments and obtainments in His exaltation. The book of Hebrews was written to help the Hebrew believers to go on from the good word to the word of righteousness, to go on from the enjoyment of Christ in His earthly ministry to the enjoyment of Christ in His heavenly ministry; thus, to enjoy the all-inclusive, all-embracing Christ.
The book of Hebrews stresses the heavenly Christ in the heavens (1:3). The word of righteousness concerning such a Christ is for the mature ones (5:13-14). This kind of word is considered as solid food, but the good word, which is considered as milk, is for the children. Both the milk and the solid food refer to the all-inclusive Christ. Our primary enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ in the New Testament age is as the milk and as the solid food. In the Lord’s recovery the main thing is to recover the lost enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. We enjoy Him in His earthly ministry, and we also enjoy Him in His heavenly ministry — we enjoy Him as the all-inclusive Christ in His all-inclusive person and in His all-inclusive work. We see Him in His earthly work, and we see Him also in His heavenly work. This is the divine enjoyment, the spiritual enjoyment, the main enjoyment, and the top enjoyment of the New Testament age.
For God to carry out His New Testament economy, there is also the need of the miraculous works, miracles such as healing the diseases, casting out the demons, swallowing up the death poison, controlling the devil, which is signified by the picking up of the serpents, and speaking in tongues to diminish the differences, the separations, and the divisions of mankind. These are miraculous, supernatural things, which will be fully manifested in the coming millennium, the age to come. Isaiah 11 and 65 and Revelation 20 give us a clear view of the coming millennium. During those one thousand years the people living on this earth will not be regenerated, but they will be restored back to their original, God-created condition.
Due to the fall of man the entire creation became old. Everything began to go downhill, to decay, and sickness and death came in. Due to the fall the demons began to work among mankind, and all the dividing languages came in at Babel. The entire human race was damaged and ruined, and the entire old creation became corrupted. The principle of the old creation and the fallen human race is to go down, to be decayed, to be ruined, to be corrupted, to be sick, and to die. All the bad things are prevailing. When the millennium comes, however, everything will be restored. Diseases will be healed, death will be swallowed up, demons will be dealt with, Satan will be bound, and the dividing languages will be taken away. This will be an age of restoration, an age of restitution, as prophesied by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 19:28. Acts 3:21 also refers to this time of restoration. The believers, after being baptized in the Spirit of power into a new realm, are ushered, with the power and authority of the exalted Head, into the foretaste of this coming restoration, so they can cast out demons, speak with new tongues, pick up serpents, defeat the death poison, and heal diseases. This is revealed in Mark 16:15-20. Today in the church life we can have such a foretaste. Satan and the demons have no ground among us, and the language barrier is no longer a problem. It has been overcome by all speaking the same word of Christ — the word concerning Christ. Also, we are being healed, and the death poison is being removed. All the other peoples are still remaining in the old age, but we, the believers, who are genuinely one with the exalted Christ, have been brought into a foretaste of the coming age. This kind of taste of the powers of the age to come, however, is secondary to the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ, which is the believers’ primary enjoyment in the New Testament age.
Due to our natural understanding and our natural desire, we treasure the taste of the miraculous things more than the New Testament blessings. We must differentiate between the New Testament blessings and the miraculous things of the coming age. The first item of the blessings of the New Testament is regeneration (John 3:3, 6; 1 Pet. 1:23). Regeneration is to have a new birth, not merely a restoration or restitution. The second blessing that we enjoy in the New Testament is the divine life (1 John 5:11-12) and the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). We must praise and worship the Lord that we have received the life and nature of God. The indwelling Spirit is another New Testament blessing (Rom. 8:9, 16). The Spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God lives in us (Eph. 4:6; 2 Cor. 13:5; Rom. 8:11). Transformation, which is the metabolic change of our being, is the fourth blessing of the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:18). Our natural being is being transformed into a divine being not by outward change but by an inward, metabolic change by the divine life. Another New Testament blessing is that we human beings can be mingled with God and can be joined to Him as one. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Finally, we will be like God and have the same image as God (1 John 3:2), being changed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) to enter into God’s glory (1 Pet. 5:10). Regeneration, the divine life and nature, the Triune God living in us, transformation, the mingling of God with man, the image of God and the likeness of God, and the glory of God are the New Testament blessings. All these New Testament blessings are the issues of the marvelous earthly ministry and the excellent heavenly ministry of the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment today.
In contrast to the New Testament blessings that we can enjoy in this age, there are the works of power of the coming age. The blessings of miracles of the coming age include the casting out of demons, speaking with new tongues, handling the serpents, healing diseases, and overcoming the death poison. We must ask ourselves which category of blessings we prefer today — the New Testament blessings or the blessings of the coming age?
The tragedy today is that many Christians have never received any kind of vision of the marvelous New Testament blessings that we can enjoy in this age. They do not have a view of the value of regeneration or of God’s life and nature. They do not know anything about the Triune God living in them, transformation, the mingling of God with man, the image of God, the likeness of God, or the glory of God. When many Christians read Mark 16, however, they get excited. All the outward miracles, such as casting out demons, speaking in tongues, picking up serpents, drinking the poison and still being able to live, and healing the diseases, have become the attractive things to many Christians. Many Christians have no realization of the New Testament blessings but are seeking after the miraculous, outward signs. But the Lord would not entrust Himself to the miracle seekers (John 2:23-25). In John 3, however, Nicodemus, who was a man of the Pharisees, came to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus did not heal him and did not perform any miracles, but He told him that he needed to be regenerated, to be born again (v. 3). What is more precious — outward, physical healing or inward regeneration? Which do you treasure? Thousands may be healed yet never receive any spiritual blessing.
We need a clear vision that the content of God’s New Testament economy is not any kind of “ism,” not any kind of religion, and not any kind of movement. The content of God’s New Testament economy is a person who is both divine and human, a person who is both God and man, who has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and has consummated in the all-inclusive, processed, compound, life-giving, and indwelling Spirit imparted into us in His resurrection as life to us and poured out upon us in His ascension as power to us that we may live the divine life to express God and move with the divine power, economically, to carry out God’s economy. Through this person we all have been regenerated to receive the divine life and partake of the divine nature. Through Him we even have the processed Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit living in us to transform us and mingle Himself with us that we may bear His image and participate in His divine glory. What a marvelous blessing! This is much higher than healings, much higher than tongue-speaking, and much higher than any kind of miracle. May we be thus blessed!
We must praise the Lord for all the visions that we have seen concerning Christ in His incarnation, in His human living, in His crucifixion, in His resurrection, and in His ascension. We must learn how to enjoy Him in the Spirit and how to speak Him with the Spirit. We must speak Him forth to others. We must be those enjoying the New Testament blessings and, if the Lord wills, we will also enjoy the subsidiary blessings, which are the powers of the age to come. We should not, however, focus on the subsidiary blessings, which we enjoy as a foretaste of the blessings of the age to come; we should focus on the New Testament blessings, which are the main blessings.
