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We need to see the fulfillment in the New Testament of the typology in the Old Testament concerning God’s economy. What is in the Old Testament is a typology, a set of types. Then what is in the New Testament is a complete fulfillment of that typology concerning God’s economy. Thus, the entire Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, is first a picture of God’s economy and then a full definition and fulfillment of God’s economy. On the one hand, if we want to know the Old Testament, we must come to the New Testament definition. In the Old Testament, we can see only the pictures. On the other hand, if we want to know the New Testament, we have to spend the time to look at all these pictures.
Saint Augustine said that the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New Testament. So these two sections are on the same thing. In today’s schools the good lesson books have pictures and then definitions. The pictures and the definitions form a strong basic principle for us to understand the Bible. If you do not know this principle, you will create mixture and confusion from the teachings of the Bible.
Two groups of Christians — those in the Catholic Church and those in Pentecostalism — are the top “experts,” “specialists,” in mixing up the Old Testament with the New Testament. Those in the Pentecostal movement sing a lot of Bible verses. All the verses they sing are from the Old Testament. Ephesians is a top book and Romans is a basic book in the New Testament, but they do not sing verses from these books. They sing mostly from the Psalms or from Isaiah. This is because the Pentecostal people do not know God’s New Testament economy. They miss the New Testament definition. They like some of the Old Testament pictures without understanding them. In other words, they like to look at the pictures; they do not like to read the definitions. If you look at a picture without the proper definition, you may consider a lion as a tiger or a turtle as a mouse. The Pentecostals’ expounding of the Bible is a mixture because they do not have the proper definitions. It is the same in principle with the practices of Catholicism. The clothing of the cardinals and archbishops is a mixture. Mostly their robes are made according to the style of the robes of the Aaronic priests in the Old Testament.
In the early years of my Christian life, I was with the Brethren. They were famous for understanding the Old Testament types and prophecies, and I received much knowledge from them. The great teachers among the Brethren said that the entire history of Israel was a type of the church. Without this understanding, we cannot explain the significance of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These books are a record of the return of the children of Israel from captivity. The teaching of the Brethren strongly stressed that the captivity of Israel into Babylon typifies the church that was captured into Catholicism. Even the Lord Jesus pointed this out. The Lord Jesus referred to the Roman Catholic Church as Jezebel (Rev. 2:20; Matt. 13:33) and also as the great Babylon, a mystery (Rev. 17:5). The entire Catholic Church is a mystery in what she is, in what she practices, and in what she teaches. The Brethren saw that Israel’s captivity typifies the church’s captivity and that the return of Israel typifies the recovery of the church starting from Luther. There is a call in the book of Revelation to come out of Babylon, to come out of the Catholic Church (18:4).
Although the Brethren saw this, they did not see that the history of the kings in the Old Testament is a typology of God’s economy. Actually, not one of the great teachers of the Brethren saw the economy of God. They did not even use this term. They somewhat used another term to replace God’s economy, that is, God’s plan or God’s purpose. The English word economy is anglicized from the Greek word oikonomia. But today who knows what God’s economy is? When most think of an economy, they think of it in terms of dollars and cents. We do not mean this when we speak of God’s economy. God’s economy is God’s plan, God’s divine arrangement, for the fulfillment of His good pleasure in His will to be His purpose. Israel’s history is not only a type of the entire church, as the Brethren teachers pointed out, but also a type of God’s economy. The fulfillment of this economy is in the New Testament. The New Testament presents the complete fulfillment of the typology of the kings in the Old Testament. Thus, there is the typology in the Old Testament and the fulfillment in the New Testament. One is the picture, and the other is the definition.
Eventually, both the Old and New Testaments end with the overcomers. In the age of typology, the overcomers were the prophets. The prophets took care of God’s oracle first. Based upon their oracle, they did exercise, to some extent, God’s authority. A number of kings listened to the prophets. Even Nathan was the authority over David. David was the king, and Nathan was the prophet. It was not Nathan who listened to David, but David to Nathan. In this sense, Nathan was God’s authority. Thus, all the genuine prophets were overcomers. Surely, Daniel and his three friends were also overcomers.
This is fulfilled in Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus realized that the church was a great and complete failure. Just by the church in itself, there was no hope for the carrying out of God’s economy. So in His seven epistles to the churches, He sounded the trumpet to call the overcomers. In that one book, in just two chapters, the Lord repeated the following word seven times: he who overcomes. This is repeated at the end of each of the seven epistles (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21).
These overcomers are the fulfillment of the typology of the prophets. Therefore, when the apostle Paul speaks of how the church should meet, he stresses and uplifts prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-6, 24, 31, 39). Prophesying makes you an overcomer. Speaking Christ into people is prophesying. Prophesying is the function of the overcomers.
The overcomers in both the Old and New Testaments, in principle, were the same. Most of them were martyred. They sacrificed everything for the Lord. Paul was the leading one. He worked much for the Lord and wrote fourteen Epistles, but eventually he was martyred. Second Timothy tells us he knew that martyrdom would come to him, and he was ready to accept it (4:6-8). He was a man always living a life not by himself but by Christ mingled with him. So he could say, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21a). He was a person like Jesus, a person who was always crucified. He was a person crucified to live, or dying to live, denying the self, the natural man, and living, acting, and behaving all the time by the indwelling Christ who had been mingled with him.
Today the Lord has raised up the recovery after all the failures. The Lord tried with Israel. Israel failed. The Lord tried with the church. The church failed. So this forced the Lord to call out the overcomers. Eventually, seventy-two years ago, the Lord went to China to raise up the recovery there with Brother Watchman Nee, and the first messages he gave were concerning the overcomers. He expounded the entire book of Revelation. Brother Nee stressed the same thing as Jessie Penn-Lewis, who published a paper called The Overcomer, and he translated into Chinese the important books written by Mrs. Penn-Lewis on the overcoming life.
It was a difficult thing, however, for Brother Nee to put out his ministry. His ministry, to most Christians, was like the playing of music to cows. What cow can understand the music? I was there with him. I realized that even some of his co-workers were cows. They did not know what Brother Nee taught. Then I came to this country. I found out that there were a good number in this country who were not cows, who had been prepared by the Lord. This was why in the early days of my time in this country, my ministry was warmly welcomed by these prepared people. When they heard this ministry, they immediately turned to the recovery.
Gradually, however, we have become somewhat dull, losing the real sense of the Lord’s recovery, not living a life under the cross by the power of resurrection, a life of denying the self and crucifying the flesh all the time by the resurrection of Christ. This is why I decided in 1984, after having been in the United States for over twenty years, to stop the work here and return to Taiwan to study our situation in order to bring us into the God-ordained way. Since 1984 I have published many messages on the New Testament economy of God. Many of us have read these messages, but I do not think that we really realize them. Because of this, I believe that the Lord has given me a further vision, a further revelation, to present as I am doing today. This further revelation began with the Thanksgiving conference in Reston, Virginia, in 1991 (The Intrinsic View of the Body of Christ) and continued with the following Thanksgiving conferences in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992 (The Constitution and the Building Up of the Body of Christ) and in Anaheim, California, in 1993 (The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ). The messages in those three conferences are, in principle, the same as the messages I am giving today. The speaking of the ministry with the utterances and expressions is always improving, not due to myself but due to the Lord’s further revelation. So my burden is very heavy, and the Lord covers me with His prevailing blood against the enemy. I am full. I need more conferences. But my physical body has been under the enemy’s attack. Please pray concerning this.
We have to see the New Testament fulfillment of the top typology of God’s eternal economy. We all must be Nazarites. We have to live a life like Jesus did on the earth, denying the self, rejecting the flesh, taking the cross, which means bearing the cross to be crucified every day. We need to be a person crucified to live by another person, another life, which is the embodiment of the Triune God mingled with us. This person is the resurrection, and this resurrection is the power. When we live such a person, we are today’s fulfillment of the typology of God’s economy.
We are today’s fulfillment as we live a life that can reach the kingship. This is according to what Romans 5:17 says: “Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life.” In all our situations, we should reign as kings in life. Dear saints, we must live a Christian life that is the overcoming life, the life of an overcomer. All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life. These four words — grace, righteousness, reign, life — are together in this one verse, verse 17 of Romans 5. God has given Himself to us as grace, and this grace has abundance. Going along with His grace, God has given us a gift, and this gift is God Himself as righteousness. God as grace for our enjoyment and God’s righteousness are given to us as a gift. These two things will issue in a life to reign, a life to be kings. I hope that you could receive this word. Let God bless you to make you an overcomer today, living a life that is the life to reign.
