Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-10, 22-23; 3:9-11; Rom. 8:17-23; Rev. 21-22
Nearly all of the things revealed about God’s eternal plan for the church are found in the two books of Ephesians and Colossians. The book to the Ephesians is the revelation of the Body, and the book to the Colossians is the revelation of the Head. When put together, these two books reveal a universal man, composed of Christ the Head, and the church the Body!
In Ephesians 1:10 and 3:9, the words dispensation and fellowship should be translated “economy.” They are both the same word in the Greek. The church is something of God’s economy, and this word economy is very important. It means “dispensation,” “arrangement,” “stewardship,” and “administration.” God has something to dispense, so He needs an arrangement and an administration in order to carry out this dispensing. The very substance that God is going to dispense is Himself. God is going to dispense Himself into man, so He arranged and administered the church. The church is the central matter in God’s economy. Putting it into human terms, the church is God’s business.
We all know that business is the key to any economy. Such a large corporation as General Electric has an economy in order to do business. In other words, business reveals the economy of this large corporation. In a similar way, God Himself is a corporation with an economy, and in this economy God’s divine business is the church.
Many Christians do not have such an awareness of the church. Their thought is that the church is a group of fallen people who are saved and who come together to worship God. This is right, but it is a concept far below God’s economy. The heavenly and eternal view of the church is much higher than this. It is the very central matter of God’s economy. In God’s dispensation, in God’s administration, in God’s arrangement, in God’s governmental stewardship, He has eternally planned the church.
In Ephesians 3:11, there is the phrase, according to the eternal purpose, which shows that the church is not an accident but that it was planned by God in eternity past. The church is eternal because it is of God’s eternal plan and of God’s economy.
To have an economy or a business, there must be three things: the capital, the power, and the wisdom. Without the finance or the capital, nothing can be done. This is why there are the shareholders, who raise the funds in a corporation. Then there is the need of the power or the strength to run the corporation. The largest corporation may have the largest capital; however, without the power, it can do nothing. Furthermore, even with the power and the capital it will become bankrupt without the wisdom or the proper way to run the corporation. So a successful corporation needs the capital, the power, and the wisdom. In the two books of Ephesians and Colossians, these three things for God’s economy are presented.
The capital, the finance, is God Himself. Ephesians 3:19 tells us that the church will be filled with the fullness of God. God Himself is the finance and the capital to run the business. Then Colossians says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily (2:9), and this will be in the church. The church will be filled with the fullness of God because it is the Body of Christ in whom the very fullness of the Godhead dwells.
The power is also mentioned in these two books. In chapter one of Ephesians there is the power that raised Christ from the dead, lifted Him up to the heavens, and put Him on the throne (vv. 19-20). This is the divine power. Then in Colossians 1:29, the apostle Paul tells us that the power for him to minister is the inner energizing power. There is something within energizing him all the time, and he ministers by this power.
What then is the wisdom? Of course, Christ is God’s wisdom. In chapter one of 1 Corinthians we are told that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (v. 24). Then in Colossians chapter two, we see that in Christ, God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (v. 3).
God’s economy is to be carried out by these three things: by God Himself as the finance, by God’s divine energy as the power, and by God’s divine wisdom as the way. And the church is the very center of this economy.
There are three main items concerning the church in the economy of God. The first is that the church might have the sonship and that God might be expressed through this sonship. Ephesians 1:5 says that God predestinated us unto sonship. What does this word sonship mean, and what does it include? Briefly, it means the birth, plus the growth, plus the birthright. First of all, we must be born of God. By this divine birth we become the sons of God because we have the life of God. This is the very beginning of God’s mingling with us. But it is only through the growth of this life that we can enjoy the birthright. Birth is one thing, but the birthright is quite another. Esau and Jacob both had the same birth, but only one obtained the birthright. Esau had the life of the son, but he did not have the sonship for the sonship includes both the birth and the birthright. We may have the birth but not the birthright. In Romans 8:14-17, there is a real difference made between the children and the heirs. The children are the ones who have only the birth, but the heirs have not only the birth but also the birthright. First of all, we must become the children of God; then through growth we will become the heirs. We may be a child without the birthright and therefore not have the full sonship.
In both the physical and spiritual birth we can only receive life. When we were born of our fathers, we received life from our fathers, but by the birthright everything our fathers have is ours. We have not only the life but all that our fathers are and have. By spiritual birth we have received the life of God, but by the birthright we will inherit all that God is and all that He has planned and accomplished. All of this put together is the inheritance. Many Christians know that there is the word inheritance in the New Testament, but they do not know what this inheritance is. The real inheritance is to inherit God Himself and all that He has planned and accomplished. This is the full meaning of the word sonship , including the birth and the birthright.
God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us that He may be thoroughly mingled with us and expressed through us. When God is born into us, He begins this mingling process. However, this is only the start. There must be the growth. If we have the birth but not the growth, we could never enjoy the birthright. God is born into our spirit, which is the very center of our being. Then His desire is to spread from our spirit to transform all the parts of the soul and eventually to transfigure our physical body. By this process our whole being will be saturated and permeated with the essence of God Himself. This is the real holiness and the real sanctification — to be completely mingled with God.
Ephesians 1:4 says that God has chosen us that we should be holy. To be holy means more than to be separated unto God; it means to be overlaid with God and thoroughly mingled with the very nature of God. In the Old Testament the wooden boards and all of the wooden pieces of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle were overlaid with gold. And in the temple, everything was overlaid with gold — even the floor! Wood signifies the human nature, and gold signifies the divine nature. We know that the nature of God is holiness. To be holy is not only to be separated, but it is to be separated in order that we might be overlaid with God. The New Jerusalem is called the holy city, and the entire city is of pure gold. It is completely mingled with the nature of God. To be mingled with God means to be in God, just as the wooden boards in the tabernacle were overlaid with gold and were in the gold. We must be overlaid with God so that we will be in God. How many times the little word in is used in the New Testament. Over and over we find the phrases in God,in Christ,in the Holy Spirit, in Him, and in Himself.
When we become holy, thoroughly sanctified, we will also have the glorification, which means our whole being will be brought into the essence of God. The glorification is the full maturity that results in the manifestation of the sons of God, as seen in Romans 8. With this manifestation there will be the complete and full sonship. This sonship starts from the new birth and consummates in the manifestation of the sons of God, which is the glorification. The complete meaning of God’s sanctification is to regenerate our spirits, then transform our souls, and then transfigure our bodies. Then our whole being from the center to the circumference will be wholly sanctified. This complete sanctification is the very glorification that brings in the manifestation of the sons of God. Today we are the sons of God, but we do not have the manifestation because we are not glorified. We are not glorified because we have not been sanctified. We have the birth of God within us, but our souls have not been transformed and our bodies have not been transfigured.
So we see that from the new birth to the manifestation of the sons of God, we are under a process. We have the birth, and before us is the goal of the full sonship, the goal of glorification, which is the manifestation of the sons of God. Eventually, there will be the time of full maturity. So the sonship reaches from the new birth unto the maturity, from regeneration unto glorification. God predestinated us unto this sonship through Jesus Christ unto Himself.
After receiving the birth of God’s life and the growth of this life, the Lord will grant us the enjoyment of the birthright. Hebrews 12:15-17 warns us to be careful because there is the possibility of losing the birthright. We may have it, but we may also lose it. Having been born of God, there is the possibility of enjoying the birthright if we are matured, but there is also the possibility of losing the birthright. There will be many Christians who will lose the birthright because they do not have the proper growth. They have the birth of life, so they are the children of God, but they still need the growth of life, the maturity in life, for them to be the heirs of God.
Whether we will enjoy the birthright or not depends upon our growth in life. It depends upon the transformation. If we live in the soul, which means to live in the self, we may lose the birthright. But if we forget about ourselves, deny the soul, and live in the spirit, then the Lord will have the opportunity to transform us. From within our spirit He will spread outward to saturate our soul. Through the transforming of our soul, we will have the real growth to enjoy the birthright, the full enjoyment of all that God is and all that He has planned and accomplished.
The sonship, then, is just a matter of life. God predestinated us unto sonship that we may be His sons, having Christ as our life, that we may grow in this life, and that we may have and enjoy the full birthright with this life. By this sonship, by begetting us as sons sharing His life and as sons matured in His life to enjoy all that He is, God makes us His corporate expression and expresses Himself through us. This is the first item of God’s purpose for the church — to express Himself through many matured sons.
The second item of the purpose of God for the church is to deal with His enemy. In chapter one of Ephesians there is the positive side of God’s purpose for the sonship, and in chapter three there is the negative side against the enemy, that the enemy may be subdued and come to know God’s manifold wisdom. God is not sorry that there is such an evil one as Satan, because without such a one, God’s manifold wisdom could not be manifested. It is through all the troubles originating from Satan that God has a chance to show forth His wisdom. Suppose you have a car, and this car never gives you any trouble. If this is the case, no one could know how wise you are. A car without problems would not demonstrate your wisdom. But if you have a car which needs wisdom to handle, your wisdom will be brought to light, and all of your passengers will marvel. It is a problem car, but what a wonderful driver! The whole universe has been damaged by Satan, but God needs such a one in order that His wisdom might be shown.
The best translation of Ephesians 3:9-11 is: “And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The words to enlighten all that they may see in verse 9 really mean in Greek “to bring to light.” God wants to bring to light to all His creation the economy of His mystery which before the creation of the world was known only by Himself. This economy was hidden in God as a mystery, but now God wants to bring to light this economy, in order that His multifarious wisdom might be known to the rulers and the authorities through the church. This is according to the eternal purpose, the eternal plan, which God purposed and planned in Christ.
God created man in His own image and gave him authority to have dominion over all the earth. The image is related to the sonship, to the expression of God; the dominion is related to dealing with God’s enemy. The sonship is the fulfillment of God’s image, for it is by the sonship that we will eventually be in the full image of God to express Him. By new birth we have the image of God within our spirit, by transformation our soul will be transformed to the image of Christ, and then by transfiguration even our physical body will be conformed to the full likeness of Christ. At that time we will be fully and thoroughly, from within to without, in the image of God. However, God not only created man in His image to express Himself, He also committed His full authority to man for the purpose of subduing His enemy. So the second item of the purpose of God for the church is related to the second aspect of God’s creation of man.
The church was predestinated to the sonship of God, and it was also purposed to subdue the enemy. The church is built up by the sonship, and through the building up of the church, the enemy is subdued and God’s wisdom is displayed. There is a real order here. The more life we have, the more built up we will become as a display to Satan. This is a real challenge to the enemy, a shame to him, and a glory to God.
Satan is so subtle. He causes many children of God today to think that it is impossible to have the church built up on this earth. He persuades them to believe that it is not to be built up on this earth but far away in the future. But is Ephesians 3:9 only for the future? I believe it must include this present age. In this present age and everywhere on this earth, the Lord must work out something as a challenge to Satan. Then God will say, “Satan, look! Even in the territory which you are utilizing, I have built up many lampstands which shine with the light of My life and bring things into order.” This display is a challenge and a shame to Satan, but it is a glory to God. If our eyes are really opened, we will be ready for this at any cost. We will pray, “Lord, I am willing at any cost for the building up of your church in my locality.” This is not a small matter but something very strategic. All of the struggling of the enemy is over this strategic point. Satan will allow people to be saved as long as they are not built up. Satan will even allow them to seek spirituality as long as they are not built up. Satan will allow them to be anything as long as they are not built up. This is because God’s ultimate consummation is a building. Satan knows this, so on one hand he builds up the world as something of himself, and on the other hand he seeks to damage the real building of God which is the church. This is why the real struggle with Satan concerns the local church, especially the ground of the local church.
We have been criticized a great deal for the building of God. No one can say that we preach the gospel in a wrong way. No one can criticize us for teaching the truth in a wrong way. All the evil reports about us are just due to one thing: that is the ground of the local church. If we just preach the gospel and help Christians to be spiritual, everyone will praise us. But once we mention the local ground of the church, all the criticism comes. Some say that we are sectarian, narrow-minded, and many other things. In some places people have said worse things than this to my face. Do you know what I answered? “Brother, I like to be such, until the end.” We must realize what God’s goal is today. If we are a man according to the heart of God as David was, we will seek the goal of God. We should not be satisfied just to see persons saved. We should not even be satisfied just to see the saints seeking after the Lord to be spiritual. No, we should not be satisfied until we see a real building up among the saints. This is the goal of God, but it is also the target of the enemy.
From Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 there is a long record with many stories. There are many positive insertions about the sonship, but there are also many negative insertions connected with the subduing of the enemy. The serpent entered the scene in Genesis 3, and it is not until Revelation 20 that the old serpent will be bound and cast away. There is the sonship, and there is the battle with the enemy. What God has been doing in past generations, what He is still doing now, and what He will be doing in the future is this: to give us His sonship and to subdue His enemy by ultimately casting out the serpent. It is God’s eternal plan that this will be done through the church. As far as the sonship is concerned, we are under the process, but as far as the subduing of the enemy is concerned, we are not just in a process, but we are also in a battle. Sometimes we are defeated; there is no doubt about this. In fighting, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but we need not be discouraged. A defeat is for a future victory.
In the early days of my Christian life, I was very sorry when I saw the enemy gain a victory, but today I only say, “Praise the Lord!” This is a preparation for a further victory. Eventually, we will be victorious. In the past years many dear ones came to argue with me because I always looked so happy even when others were sorrowful. I told them that eventually the enemy will lose the case. If he will not lose it today, he will lose it tomorrow. If he will not lose it in this generation, he will lose it in the next generation. If he will not lose it in this age, I am sure he will lose it in eternity. When Revelation 21 comes, he will lose. So there is no need for us to be sorrowful. We must always be happy and praise the Lord, for even a defeat is a preparation for a further victory. Even if the enemy defeats us, he will eventually be defeated. What kind of Bible do you have? It is not a book of defeat but one of victory! There are not just sixty-five books but sixty-six! You may point to what is mentioned in 2 Timothy and in the second and third chapters of Revelation, but we must go to the end of the Scriptures until we arrive at the twenty-first chapter of Revelation. There the whole universe shouts, “Hallelujah for the victory!”
In the eyes of the Lord, Satan has already been defeated. If we have this insight, day by day we will sing, “Hallelujah for the victory!” We can tell Satan that even his small victory is just a preparation for our greater victory. Eventually, he will be the one that is completely defeated. We do not care how much he attacks and damages. The Lord Jesus said if people destroyed His body, He would build it up in three days (John 2:19). The more Satan destroys, the more Christ will build up. His destroying is just a preparation for the Lord’s building up. We need the vision of how the Lord will use the church to defeat His enemy and to recover the whole earth.
The third main aspect of the church in God’s economy is the heading up of all things in Christ. We have seen that the first item of the sonship is for the church positively. The second item is that the church might make known to the rulers and the authorities the multifarious wisdom of God, in defeating the enemy negatively. Now the third item is the heading up of all things in Christ universally. The church has to have the sonship, Satan has to be subdued and cast out, and the whole creation has to be brought into the proper order and oneness.
In Ephesians 1:10, the phrase gather together in one is best translated “head up.” It is God’s eternal purpose that in the economy of the fullness of the times He might head up all things in Christ. This verse must then be connected with verses 22 and 23 of the same chapter. “And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” The little word to in verse 22 signifies the identification and oneness of the church with Christ. Christ is the Head over all things to the church, which is His Body.
These verses in Ephesians are closely related to Romans 8:17-21. Here we read of the manifestation of the sons of God. There are many sons of God today, but the manifestation of the sons of God has not yet come. In verses 20 and 21 of this chapter, we read that the whole creation was made subject to vanity and waits to be delivered from the slavery of corruption. All of creation was subjected to the slavery of corruption, so the whole creation is in vanity, waiting for deliverance. At the manifestation of the sons of God, creation will be delivered from the slavery of corruption in vanity into the freedom of glory. Glory in verse 21 is not an adjective but a noun, so the best translation is “the freedom of the glory,” not “the glorious freedom.” It is not the freedom of the children of God, but the glory of the children of God in which there is freedom. We have mentioned that, when our bodies are transfigured, we will be glorified, and this glorification is the manifestation. The manifestation of the sons of God is the very glory of the sons of God. We must also read Hebrews 2 along with Romans 8. Romans 8 tells us that the whole creation is waiting for the glory of the sons of God, and then Hebrews 2 says that God now is going to bring many sons into glory. When we are brought into glory, that will be the fullness of time when the whole creation will be released and delivered from the slavery of corruption in vanity. Then all creation and all things which are in heaven and on the earth will be headed up in Christ with His Body.
We must realize that the church is the only means used by God to fulfill His purpose and to settle all His problems. Christianity is so poor with its shallow concept of the church. According to the revelation of the Word, the church is much deeper and higher than this. The church is the very vessel used by God to fulfill His purpose, which is to manifest Himself through man by mingling Himself with man. This is why God created humanity. His intention was to have a corporate man as a vessel to contain Him that He may dwell in them and that He may manifest Himself through them, by mingling Himself with them.
God created the heavens and the earth as a realm within which He placed countless creatures, and at the center God created man as the vessel to contain Himself. But before God could come into man, Satan, the enemy of God, injected himself into man by tempting him to take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When man took of that tree, the fruit went into his body. This is why we read in Romans 7 of sin being in the members. The apostle Paul says in verse 20, “But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it out but sin that dwells in me.” Here sin is a personified thing; it is something living because it can dwell in us and have dominion over us. This is the law of sin which is in the members of the body. Sin brings in death, death brings in darkness, and darkness brings in confusion. This influences the whole universe, because man was made the head of all things. The head has been damaged, so all of creation is damaged. Sin brings death, and death brings in darkness. We all know that where there is darkness, there is confusion. If we did not have the sunlight or the electric lights, everything would be confused. We are controlled unconsciously by light. If there were no light, there would be no order and everything would be in confusion.
The first time I came to the United States, I noticed that all the stores kept their lights on at night, even though the stores were locked. I wondered why they wasted all that electricity. Gradually, I understood that this prevented robberies at night because the stores and the streets were full of light. If all the lights from the streets and the stores were removed, the streets would be in darkness. If this happened for just one night, there would not be enough space in the newspapers to publish the stories of all the confusion that would result from the lack of light. But today everything is under control when the streets are adequately lighted. We are controlled under the power of light. When Satan injected himself into man, he brought confusion to the whole creation. By this confusion the whole creation is under the bondage of corruption in vanity. This corruption came from darkness, the darkness came from death, and death came from Satan.
So God has many problems. He has an enemy to deal with, and He has death, darkness, confusion, corruption, bondage, and vanity in His creation. Even today the whole creation is groaning because it is still in vanity and in the bondage of corruption. God must liberate His creation from bondage and bring it into the order of liberty by heading up all things under the headship of Christ.
How will God recover His creation and fulfill His original purpose in creating man? First of all, we must see that Satan brought confusion into creation by injecting himself into man as death. Satan is the sum total of death. If you were to ask me what is death, I would tell you that death is Satan. Just as God is the sum total of life, so Satan is the sum total of death. When Satan injected himself into man, death was brought into the human race. This is why God told Adam and Eve not to touch the tree of knowledge, for if they did, they would receive death. Following death there is darkness and confusion. How much confusion there is in the world today! All we have to do is to read the newspaper, and we will see the confusion in all nations. There is no harmony since all are in darkness and confusion, which comes from being under the sway of death. Through injecting death, Satan damaged God’s creation.
God’s way to recover the oneness among His creation is to impart Himself into us as life. Satan injected himself into us as death, but God imparts Himself into us as life. When life comes, there is light. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Then in John 8 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (v. 12). When God comes in as life, there is the light that shines within us as the light of life. This life swallows death, and this light expels the darkness. When we are in the life and under the light, then we are delivered out of confusion and brought into order, harmony, and unity. God’s way of recovery is Christ versus Satan, life versus death, light versus darkness, and order versus confusion. When we are filled with Christ, we will be full of life and completely under the light. Then we will have the harmony and the unity. If we are not filled with Christ as life, then, at least to some extent, we are in darkness. As long as there is some part under darkness, there is confusion and no order or harmony. When everyone is full of Christ as life, we all are under light, and there is no need of outward control. Spontaneously everyone is controlled by this light of life, and there is unity and harmony.
Before Satan came into God’s creation, there was unity and harmony, but Satan injected the factor of death into creation, bringing in darkness and confusion. God’s way of recovery in redemption is not the same as His way in creation. In creation God created all things by His power, but in redemption God recovers everything by life. This is why it seems that God does not do anything today. Under this confusion God is so silent, so seemingly unresponsive. It seems that there is no God, but we know that God is working in a silent and living way.
When we receive God into us as life, He comes into us as the very light, and under this light we are controlled in unity. Should we be under the control of the policeman or the government? In a sense we are, but strictly speaking, we should be controlled by the light of life. There is something living within us, shining all the time, and under this light we are fully controlled in a joyful way. If we do not follow the light, there is no joy within us. We are under this light because we have the life. Spontaneously there is oneness in us, and this oneness comes from light, and the light comes from life, and this life is God Himself. Light brings in the control, and under the control there is the order. The order is the building up of one another under the headship. By the Triune God as life, the light shines, and under this light all things will be brought into order under the headship of Christ. So eventually, all things will be headed up in Christ.
It is God’s eternal purpose that through the church, Christ should head up all things, but this can only be accomplished through the building up of the church. This is the unity, the oneness, and the harmony. This harmony can only be realized by life. Simply adopting the term, “the New Testament Church,” will not work. Even the way of the New Testament cannot build up a church. The church must be built up by experiencing Christ as life, and in this life there will be the light under which everyone will be controlled. We may work out a formula from the New Testament and say that this is the scriptural, New Testament way to have a proper church, but it will never work. The church can never be built up in this way. We may have the formula, but we do not have the life. Even if we have the proper, scriptural formula, it will never work because we do not know how to be filled with Christ, how to be dealt with by the cross, how to take Christ as life, and how to experience Him. We will only fight one another. I have seen a lot of this in the past. But suppose by the mercy of God our eyes have been opened to see that God’s economy is to work Himself into us as life. We learn to love Him and fellowship with Him and live by Him. Spontaneously within us and among us there will be the shining of the light of life. There will be no arguments or divisions or fightings or jealousies but complete oneness under the control of this light of life. This oneness is the real building, and it is the very thing for which Jesus prayed in John 17. By this building, God can head up all things in Christ.
We see this oneness graphically portrayed in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21 — 22). There are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, representing the redeemed of the Old Testament age, and the names of the twelve apostles of Christ, representing the redeemed of the New Testament age — yet they all are one. All of the arguments and fightings have been swallowed up by the light of life. All death has been subdued by life, and all darkness has been expelled by light. All those who are in the New Jerusalem are completely one because they are full of life. There is the river of life flowing, with the tree of life growing in its midst, so the city is full of life. The water of life is watering and the tree of life is supplying so that the city is full of the light of life. God Himself is the light, and Christ the Lamb is the lamp. This is the New Jerusalem, which is the corporate Body of Christ.
Is there such a holy city today? No, this is something which God is working out. He has started the work, and now He is in the process of creating this universal lampstand. We know that one day the New Jerusalem will be completed with God shining through this city upon all the rest of creation. Revelation 21 says that all the nations will walk in the light of this city. This means that all creation will be controlled by its light. The New Jerusalem will be a universal lampstand holding Christ as the lamp with God in Him as the light. Then God will shine out to all creation through this universal lampstand. By this shining and enlightening, God will bring all things into order.
The New Jerusalem is the very center of the new heaven and new earth. Christ sits at the top of the city as the Head to supply His life to His members, through whom He shines out to bring all the nations into order. All things will be under the headship of Christ. God shines in Christ through the city, for the whole city will be transparent, everyone in it being transformed. There is no more clay, nothing opaque; every bit of clay has been transformed into crystal-clear precious stones. God shines in Christ through the city, and all the nations will walk in this light. Then the whole universe will be headed up in the light shown through this transparent city. Within the city there is the life, but outside the city there is only the shining. All the nations are under the shining, but they do not have the life. The life is only in the city, and this life is God Himself imparted to all of His children. By this life they are full of light, and this light will shine through them to bring all creation out of darkness, confusion, and the bondage of corruption in vanity into the order of the manifestation of the sons of God.
God’s purpose with the church is to work Himself into us as life that we may be full of light. When we are controlled by this light, then we have oneness and harmony, which will be the real building. By this building God will shine upon all creation to bring it out of confusion. This will be the fullness of time when creation will be liberated. The old serpent will be cast into the lake of fire, and even death, the last enemy to be dealt with by God, will be cast away. Then the universe will be full of light, and under this light all creation will be liberated from the bondage of corruption in vanity and brought into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. The shining of the New Jerusalem is the glory of the manifestation of the sons of God, and all the nations will be brought into that light. By this light they will be controlled, and there will be no more confusion, vanity, bondage, or corruption.
But all of this depends on the work of God within us. God is working out such a city as a corporate vessel that He might be the life and the light to shine through this city to liberate the whole creation. How important it is that the church be built up! Without the building up of the church, God could never head up all things in Christ. It is by being life to the church, and the church being built up by this life, that the light of God shines out as the controlling factor. This will release all creation from confusion and bring it into a liberty under the shining of the sons of God. Then Christ will be the Head of all things through the church. All of God’s problems will be solved, and all creation will be brought into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.
This will be the consummation of God’s eternal purpose for the church: when the sonship of God is fully fulfilled that God may be fully expressed, when the enemy of God is cast out that all of God’s problems may be solved, and when all things are headed up in Christ through His Body that all of the creation may be in full harmony, freed from the bondage of corruption and brought into the liberty of the sons of God. Even today we can realize this in a miniature way here on this earth. When we know how to enjoy the sonship, how to defeat the enemy, and how to be filled with Christ under His headship, there will be the light shining out from us enlightening others and giving a foretaste of the coming consummation of the New Jerusalem.
Taken from a message given by Witness Lee and first published in The Stream, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 2-13, July 1, 1965
