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Prayer: Lord, we worship You. We are nothing, but You are all. We can gather here because You are not only all but also all-inclusive. Lord, we look to You from the depths of our being that You would visit us with Yourself and with Your riches in these three days of fellowship. O Lord, pour down Your Spirit, even Yourself, to fill us outwardly and inwardly. May there be no time wasted in these three days, but may every minute be under Your enriching. Cleanse us, Lord; we need Your cleansing. Thank You for constantly cleansing us with Your precious blood. O Lord, we also need Your forgiveness; do forgive us. Open Yourself and the heavens to us and speak a word that we need, a word that we lack. Lord, give us utterance; deliver us from our own natural way of speaking. Lord, put Your words in us and speak Your own words out of us. Bless every one of us. Amen.
Thank the Lord that He has brought you brothers from some faraway places to be here. You probably have many things within you that you would like to say and many matters that you would like to fellowship about. In our time of fellowship I believe that what the Lord is going to speak to us will be able to meet all our needs and answer our questions even without our knowing it. I have also looked to the Lord concerning this fellowship, seeking particularly to know what He desires to speak to us. I am in fear and trembling, being afraid of wasting your time. Without the Lord’s blessing, everything is in vain. Therefore, after my seeking before the Lord, I feel that this is a golden opportunity for us to focus on one matter — the center of the Bible. This matter is the highest vision in the Bible; it is the vision that governs and controls us.
Paul said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). What was the heavenly vision to which Paul referred? It has been at least seventy-three years now since Brother Nee was raised up by the Lord to speak for Him among us. During this period of time, not only our hearts but even our hands have never left the Bible. According to the number of pages we have touched, it is as if we have thoroughly handled a hundred Bibles. Moreover, we have many notes of what we have gained from our study of the Word. After seventy-three years we may say that the Lord’s revelation among us has reached its peak with a consummation during the Chinese New Year’s conference last year. This consummation can be seen in the new hymn that I wrote: “What miracle! What mystery! / That God and man should blended be! / God became man to make man God, / Untraceable economy!” The heavenly vision that the Lord showed Paul was this economy, the New Testament economy, the eternal economy of God. This economy is the revelation of the entire New Testament.
Everything in the universe involves two aspects: the “roots and trunk” and the “branches.” A tree has roots and a trunk, and it also has branches. We may trim the branches of the tree, but we must not touch its roots and trunk. The Bible, in particular the New Testament, is just like this: it has its roots and trunk and it also has its branches. The less knowledgeable and experienced a person is, the less he can see the roots and the trunk; all he can see are the branches. Let us use a flower for an illustration. It is very easy to see the blossoming of a flower and smell its fragrance, but we rarely consider its source, its origin. Only those with a pursuing heart pay very little attention to the outward blossoming of the flower and the spreading forth of its fragrance; instead, they study its source, its origin. Likewise, in our study of the Word, instead of paying attention to the branches, we should go deeply into the roots and the trunk.
Since the day I was saved, the Lord planted in me a fervent love for the Bible. Of course, in the beginning I only saw the branches, the trivial things in the Bible. As a rule, even the trivial things are joined to the principal matters. When we touch the trivial things, however, we often detach them from the principal matters. Let us consider baptism as an example. Whether baptism is a subsidiary issue or a main issue depends on how you view it and what you say about it. Today in general, when people bring up the matter of baptism, all they care about are trivial things, such as whether to use hot water or cold water. Furthermore, they argue much concerning these trivial things, and the more they argue, the further they are from the fundamental matters. In fact, baptism is fundamentally related to the economy of God. Unless you speak of baptism in relation to the economy of God, what you speak concerning baptism is something trivial. If you relate it to the economy of God, baptism is something fundamental. Fundamentally, according to what Paul says, to be baptized is to enter into the death of Christ and be buried with Him and thereby identified with Him in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4). If you have this view, you are joined to the economy of God and have entered into the “roots and trunk.”
The Bible has two big sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament includes types and prophecies, both of which are concerned with God’s economy. The types are portraits of God’s economy; the prophecies refer to the economy of God to come, that is, the New Testament economy. None of the types of the Old Testament can be separated from God’s economy; it is even more so with the prophecies. The New Testament is the fulfillment of all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament. In the New Testament the economy of God is fulfilled and accomplished. Every book, every chapter, and every verse of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, are concerned with God’s economy. This is the New Testament revelation, which is also called the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42). Here apostles does not refer to all the apostles; it refers particularly to the few writers of the New Testament whose writings constitute the teaching of the apostles.
The teaching of the apostles that we speak of today is not our own teaching; it is the entire New Testament written by the apostles. The main components of the New Testament are the writings of John, Paul, and Peter; besides these, there are the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, James, and Jude. Matthew was one of the twelve apostles. The Gospel of Mark may also be called “the Gospel of Peter,” because Mark received his learning from Peter (cf. 1 Pet. 5:13). What he wrote originated from and belonged to Peter. Luke, who was an attendant physician to Paul (cf. Col. 4:14), wrote the Gospel of Luke based upon what he saw through Paul; hence, the Gospel of Luke may also be called “the Gospel of Paul.” Luke also wrote the Acts. Luke’s writings may be considered as belonging to Paul. Paul wrote all the fourteen Epistles from Romans to Hebrews. After Hebrews we have the Epistle of James. Due to the lack of a clear view concerning God’s New Testament economy, James put undue emphasis on individual, practical Christian perfection. What he wrote may be considered a contrasting background. The Epistles of Peter follow the Epistle of James, and the Epistles of John follow the Epistles of Peter. After this we have the Epistle of Jude with only one chapter, and its content is very close to what Peter wrote. Jude is followed by Revelation, which was written by John and is the last book of the New Testament. In reality, the teaching of the apostles mainly consists of the writings of John, Paul, and Peter. The teaching of the apostles is concluded in Revelation. Hence, at the end of Revelation, John says that nothing can be added to the book, nor can anything be taken away from the book (22:18-19). Nothing should be added or subtracted. The New Testament revelation is thus concluded. This is the revelation of the New Testament; this is also the teaching of the apostles.
The New Testament revelation, the teaching of the apostles, is concerned with God’s economy. According to 1 Timothy 1:3-4, we may say that God’s economy is the general term for God’s New Testament revelation. Paul says that he left Timothy in Ephesus in order that he might charge certain ones not to teach different things. According to the context, different teachings refer to teachings that are not in line with the economy of God. What certain ones taught, though somewhat based on the New Testament revelation, were genealogies and the law. These were different from God’s economy in faith. They should not have taught things outside of God’s economy. This shows us that God’s economy is the New Testament revelation, the teaching of the apostles. It is uniquely one, perfect, and complete. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. Today in the church we should teach only according to the New Testament revelation, which is the apostles’ teaching. Anything less than this is inadequate, and anything more than this is man’s teaching, not the words of God’s economy.
I repeat: The Old Testament speaks with types and prophecies of the things to come in the New Testament. The New Testament is a revelation composed of the speaking of the apostles. Among the apostles, John spoke a great deal, and what he spoke can be considered the beginning and the conclusion; Paul spoke even more, and his speaking may be considered the center and the framework; Peter also spoke, adding something as a supplement. This is the New Testament revelation, unveiled by the teaching of the apostles and composed of words concerning the economy of God. Anything that we speak today — whatever it is — should come out of the apostles’ teaching and concern God’s economy. Beginning with Brother Nee to this day, we have thoroughly covered the economy of God in its entirety and in completeness. We have studied every verse and touched every item from Matthew 1:1 to Revelation 22:21. Thank God that, under His sovereign grace, all these things have been printed.
The words released through Brother Nee’s ministry were very rich, but according to my knowledge, many of the notes of his speaking were not printed in books. For this reason I have a deep regret. When I was with him in mainland China, we had a great deal of fellowship, and all of it was concerning the revelation in the holy Word. Therefore, I am very clear about Brother Nee’s knowledge of the Bible. At that time he used the term plan instead of economy. He clearly pointed out to me the eternal plan, the eternal economy, of God in the Bible.
Brother Nee indeed had a unique view of the Bible. I thank the Lord for putting me at his side for eighteen years that I might learn much from him. Every time I heard his speaking, the light came and my understanding was opened. For example, at the end of 1933, the beginning of my entry into the Lord’s work, Brother Nee prepared to have a conference in January of the next year on Christ as the centrality and universality of God, that is, concerning Christ being all and in all, the all-inclusive One. One afternoon when I went to his home, he asked me where I was in my reading of the Word. I told him that I was in Acts and Colossians. He said, “Very good. These two books are related.” This word puzzled me because I could not see how these two books were related. Brother Nee explained to me that Acts shows how Jesus ascended to heaven and was made Christ by God (2:36). Yet only a sketch of this Christ is given in Acts; the details are explained by Paul. Among the fourteen Epistles of Paul, only a short book, the book of Colossians, is occupied specifically with Christ’s fullness, riches, and all-inclusiveness. Hence, Colossians is connected to Acts. Brother Nee’s word on that day opened my eyes. Today Christians may know that Acts 2 refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus and His being made Christ by God, but they lack the understanding of the all-inclusiveness of Christ unveiled in Paul’s Epistles.
All these precious revelations in the Word were given to us by God, but regretfully, they were not printed in books at Brother Nee’s time. Consequently, in 1974 I began to have the burden to study the entire Bible in the way of a life-study. We began simultaneously to cover the New Testament in the two big semiannual trainings and the Old Testament during the week. I truly worship the Lord that presently we have only three books left to cover: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Actually, Brother Nee already covered Song of Songs with a detailed exposition. Furthermore, in 1972 in the United States, I covered life and building in Song of Songs. However, I have not touched Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. In the summer training this year, we will discover that these two books are absolutely different from our natural understanding. Thank the Lord, we now have a complete set of Life-studies, from Genesis to Revelation, with a penetrating explanation of God’s economy.
Last year the Lord led us to begin the crystallization-study of the Bible, a study which goes even deeper than the life-study of the Bible. Recently, I have been on the crystallization-study of Romans every Wednesday night. The life-study opens the entire Bible to us in a general way, but we still need to touch the depths, the crystals, of the Holy Scriptures. Although we are acquainted with the book of Romans and I have expounded it several times, there are still many hidden things as the intrinsic essence of the divine revelation. By such a crystallization-study, the Lord can reveal to us the intrinsic essence of the divine revelation, item by item.
Now we would like to see the economy of God revealed in the New Testament. The first chapter of the New Testament shows God’s incarnation, God becoming a man, and the last chapter shows the New Jerusalem. From God’s incarnation to the New Jerusalem is the New Testament as well as the economy of God.
The economy of God is of two sections: The first section begins with God becoming flesh, and the second section begins with this flesh, the last Adam, becoming the life-giving Spirit. The first section is God becoming flesh, and the second section is the flesh becoming the Spirit. Both sections were accomplished in Christ. It took thirty-three and a half years to accomplish the section of God becoming flesh, which includes Christ’s work and ministry on the earth. This section of His work and ministry was completed in His resurrection. In His resurrection His flesh was transfigured into the Spirit. When He entered into resurrection, immediately He began a new stage of His ministry. He accomplished His ministry in the new stage not in the flesh but as the Spirit. The stage in His flesh was from His incarnation to His resurrection only, because in His resurrection His flesh was transfigured into the Spirit.
God became flesh and lived for thirty-three and a half years. Then He died on the cross and was buried in the tomb. This flesh was resurrected after dying and being buried in the tomb; this flesh did not remain in the earth. When the Lord was to be buried, two disciples of renown, Nicodemus and Joseph from Arimathea, came and took His body, bound it in linen cloths with the spices, and laid it in the tomb (John 19:38-42). After His resurrection, before He left the tomb, He arranged the linen cloths there in good order and folded up the handkerchief neatly. On the morning of His resurrection, when the disciples came to the tomb, they knew that He had not been stolen by someone or encountered some trouble, since the linen cloths with which He was wrapped were lying there in good order (20:5-7). What Nicodemus and Joseph from Arimathea did to Him was a great thing in proving that He had resurrected with a body.
A former co-worker personally told me that he did not believe that the Lord Jesus was still a man after His resurrection. He said that the Lord Jesus became a man and was a man only until His resurrection, that at His resurrection He put off the “man” which He had put on in His incarnation, and that today in heaven He is not man but God only. This is utterly wrong. The Lord Jesus Himself spoke clearly concerning this. When the high priest interrogated Him, asking Him whether or not He was the Son of God, He replied, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power” (Matt. 26:64). This indicates that the ascended Christ is still the Son of Man. After the Lord’s ascension Stephen saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). On another occasion the Lord Jesus said that the Son of Man would come on the clouds of heaven (Matt. 24:30).
Hebrews 1 says that Christ in His second coming is the firstborn Son of God (v. 6). For a long time I wondered why this verse refers to Christ in His second coming as “the Firstborn.” Christ as the only begotten Son of God has only divinity but no human element; however, in His second coming Christ is the firstborn Son of God who possesses both divinity and humanity as a God-man and who still has a human body. How do we know that Christ still has a human body after His resurrection? Because on the morning of the Lord’s resurrection the disciples saw that His tomb was empty and His body was gone. Then in the evening of that day, while the doors were shut where the disciples were, Jesus suddenly came and stood in the midst and showed them His hands and His side (John 20:19-20). Therefore, after His resurrection He still definitely possessed a human body, but in resurrection that human body was transfigured into a spiritual body. Since it is spiritual, it is no longer fleshly; it is not a body of the fallen flesh but a body that is spiritual and glorious. Philippians 3:21 says that our body will be transfigured to be conformed to the body of His glory. Today He is still in His glorious body waiting for us, the believers, to be raptured and our bodies transfigured to be the same as His glorious body.
We see clearly that the economy of God is of two sections. The first section is God’s incarnation, which includes four steps: incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. It was in resurrection that He ended the stage of incarnation by His being transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit. Today our Christ is the pneumatic Christ.
Christ’s transfiguration from the flesh into the Spirit began the second section of God’s economy. In His resurrection Christ was transfigured into the Spirit. Consequently, beginning from Acts, this Christ is no longer the Christ in the flesh but the pneumatic Christ; He is the very Spirit. Therefore, Romans 8:9-11 shows that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ, and the indwelling Spirit — all four — are one. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ is the very Christ, and this Christ is the indwelling Spirit. Paul concludes his second Epistle to Timothy by saying, “The Lord be with your spirit” (4:22). If the Lord was only a fleshly body and not the Spirit, how could He be with Timothy’s spirit? Because the Lord is the Spirit, He can be with our spirit. Hence, the second section of God’s economy is carried out through Christ’s becoming the Spirit.
The ministry of Christ consists of His earthly ministry and His heavenly ministry. He carried out the earthly ministry in His flesh for the accomplishment of redemption. Once He accomplished redemption, He entered into the tomb for rest. Then in resurrection He became the Spirit and thus began His heavenly ministry. He became the Spirit in order to dispense God Himself into people. This dispensing is He Himself coming into us. This matter is initially dealt with in Acts but not in a clear way. In his fourteen Epistles Paul portrays this matter thoroughly, showing that God became the Spirit to enter into us and dispense God into us. The issue of this dispensing is the church, which is the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart of Christ as His bride, the ultimate consummation of which is the New Jerusalem.
This is the economy of God, the New Testament revelation, the teaching of the apostles. This is the result of our study of the Word for over seventy years. This is the extract, the crystallization. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament mention many matters, but in summary they concern the economy of God. God’s economy is that God became flesh, passed through human living, died, and resurrected; then He became the Spirit and entered into men to dispense God into them for their regeneration, issuing in the church. The church as the Body of Christ is His continuation, enlargement, and multiplication; it is also the kingdom of God, the house of God, and at the same time the counterpart of Christ as His bride. The ultimate consummation of the totality of all these items is the New Jerusalem.
Some may ask, “Brother Lee, I have been an elder for fifteen years, but I still don’t know how to be an elder. What shall I do?” Let me tell you this: You do not know how to be an elder because you have not seen the economy of God. Once you see the economy of God, you will know how to be an elder, and all your troubles will be gone. Do not blame me; I am just like you. You have the flesh; I also have the flesh. You are weak; I am weaker. You have troubles; I have more troubles, and my troubles are more complicated. How can you be an elder? You have to see that God became flesh, passed through human living, died daily, eventually died on the cross, and then resurrected and became the Spirit. This Spirit enters into us to dispense God into us. If you see these things, you will know how to be an elder. If you pray over these words and let them get into you, you will spontaneously realize how to be an elder. Hence, this is a governing vision and a controlling vision. As the leading apostle, Paul was governed and controlled by this vision in all his work and actions. We should be governed and controlled also.
Perhaps others may ask, “What is the Bible all about?” Hu Shih, a renowned Chinese educator and philosopher, appraised the Chinese Union Version of the Bible as a great stride in the Chinese vernacular language. This shows that he also read the Bible, yet what he saw was the superior vernacular language. So, what is the Bible? How will you speak to others about the Bible? You need to learn to say that the Bible has two sections: The first section is the types and prophecies, and the second section is the fulfillment and accomplishment. All the things referred to in the Bible are for the fulfillment and accomplishment of the economy of God. The economy of God is that God became flesh, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and became the Spirit to enter into us as life and dispense God into us that we may be transformed for the producing of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart of Christ, the ultimate aggregate of which is the New Jerusalem. This is the Bible, and this is the vision that governs and controls us.
