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Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:18b, 21b; 1 John 5:11-12; Rom. 5:10; Acts 11:18; Gen. 3:24; Heb. 10:19-20; Rev. 2:7; Heb. 4:16; Eph. 2:18; 1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13; Col. 3:4a; 2 Pet. 1:4b; 1 John 4:13; Phil. 2:15-16; Matt. 5:16
I. Through the all-inclusive redemption:
А. Redeeming God’s chosen people as sinners to be justified by God unto life, even unto the reign in the eternal life — the Triune God — Rom. 5:18b, 21b; 1 John 5:11-12.
B. Reconciling the redeemed and justified sinners as God’s enemies so that they may be saved in the divine life of Christ — Rom. 5:10.
C. Repentance unto life — Acts 11:18.
II. Unto the dynamic salvation of God:
А. Cutting the way that had been closed to the fallen sinners to prevent them from eating the tree of life — Gen. 3:24; Heb. 10:19-20.
B. Bringing the fallen sinners back to the tree of life, to God as life — Rev. 2:7; Heb. 4:16; Eph. 2:18.
C. That the redeemed sinners may have an organic union with the redeeming God in order to be one with Him.
D. To be regenerated by God and become His children — 1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13:
1. Having God’s life and nature — Col. 3:4a; 2 Pet. 1:4b.
2. Possessing even the entire person of God — 1 John 4:13.
3. That God may abide in the redeemed sinners and they in God.
4. For them to live God, manifesting and expressing Him — Phil. 2:15-16; Matt. 5:16.
5. Thus, the redeemed sinners may become God in life and nature in their organic union with God by the Spirit of God — 1 John 4:13.
We need a clear, heavenly, and divine view. Thank the Lord that the Bible, the holy Word, gives us such a view. However, in order to see such a view, we need to jump out of the limitation of the letter of the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” We need to jump out of the letter and jump into the Spirit by prayer. By our looking to the Lord continually, the vision comes, and this vision brings in a view.
In this view God is infinite and unlimited, having no beginning and no ending. This marvelously great God is a God of purpose. The greater a person is, the greater the purpose he has. Because we are living, we all have a purpose. God also has a purpose (Eph. 3:10-11), and this purpose is just to obtain what He desires to have. His heart’s desire is His good pleasure (1:9). This good pleasure is revealed in Paul’s writings, especially in the book of Ephesians. God’s good pleasure forms the will of God, and for this will God held a council in His Divine Trinity to make a counsel (v. 11b). There is such a counsel in the whole universe. This counsel is that God intends to work Himself into man. This is a great matter. For the almighty, unlimited, infinite God to work Himself into the small, limited, finite man to be one with this man is a great thing.
According to His counsel, His will, His good pleasure, and His heart’s desire, in time God came to create (Rev. 4:11). First, He created the heavens with all the angels (Gen. 1:1; Job 38:7). At that time none of the angels understood what God was doing. Then God created the earth, a small “ball” in the universe. On this earth God created many different kinds of life in three levels: the vegetable life to show the beauty of the earth (Gen. 1:11-12), the animal life to show the livingness of the earth (vv. 24-25), and the human life to indicate the purpose of God on the earth (vv. 26-28). The vegetable life is the lowest form of life, and the animal life is a higher form of life. The human life is higher still, but it is not the highest life. In Genesis 1 we can see the three levels of life on the earth. Then in Genesis 2 God brought the completed man as the high life on the earth to a tree — not an apple tree but a tree of life, a life tree (vv. 8-9). This tree of life is the embodiment of life. The life embodied in the tree of life is not the vegetable life or the animal life or the human life but the divine life.
God intended that His created man with the human life would take Him as the highest life so that he might be no longer merely a man but a God-man, no longer merely human but divinely human. It is possible that we have been reading the Bible for many years and yet have never seen such a view. This view is the central thought of the holy Word.
In Genesis 3 the man created by God was seduced by Satan through the serpent and became fallen (vv. 1-6). At such a juncture it seemed that everything was finished, but God is never finished. He would never give up. He came in to seek and to find this fallen man. God said to Adam, “Where are you?” Adam was frightened, trembling, and naked, and he hid himself from God (vv. 9-10). Then God comforted Adam, indicating that he did not need to be afraid of the serpent, for God Himself would be incarnated as the seed of the woman to crush the head of the evil one (v. 15). After hearing God’s word of comfort, Adam was happy. That word was God’s first promise to man, indicating that the very God who created man would one day come to be a man. God seemed to say to Adam, “Wait, Adam; I will become a man. In other words, I will become you. I am the almighty, infinite, unlimited, eternal God, but one day I will be just like you. Now you are in the flesh, and I will be in the likeness of your flesh.” Although Adam was happy because of God’s promise, he did not see the fulfillment of that promise.
After giving His word of promise to Adam, God was patient and waited for two thousand years, apparently doing nothing to fulfill His word. Then God came in to make another promise, this time to Abraham: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (22:18). God’s promise to Abraham was that one of his seed, one of his descendants, would come to be the factor through which the entire earth would be blessed. According to Galatians 3:14 and 16, this blessing was that through faith in Christ, the unique seed of Abraham, all the nations would receive the Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. No doubt Abraham was happy about this promise, but he did not see its fulfillment.
After another two thousand years — altogether approximately four thousand years after the creation of Adam — Israel was under the tyranny of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, there was still a small inn in Bethlehem to which God could come to be born into humanity. Eventually, God came through a virgin and lay in a manger as a small child. That child was the mighty God and the eternal Father (Isa. 9:6). He was the One promised initially as the seed of the woman and again as the seed of Abraham to bless all the world with Himself as the consummated Spirit. Although we have a clear view today, at that time no one knew the significance of what was taking place. Herod hated Him and wanted to kill Him. In his attempt to do away with Christ, Herod slew many children (Matt. 2:7-8, 16-18). But this One escaped to Egypt, and after Herod’s death He returned to the land of Israel (vv. 13-15).
In the Sunday schools many children are taught the story of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and His lying in a manger, but who understands the intrinsic significance of such a story? That is not merely a story; that is the account of the infinite God becoming a man. This is a great thing, for that child lying in a manger was the almighty God, the infinite, eternal One, who became a man.
As a man, He needed to grow. Thirty years were assigned to Him for His growth. When He became thirty years of age, He came out to minister for God’s economy. Eventually, people, under the instigation of Satan, put Him on the cross and crucified Him. This fulfilled God’s economy. Through His crucifixion on the cross He died an all-inclusive death — not a common death that is hated by man but an all-inclusive death that is loved by His believers. There is a cross in the universe that has accomplished an all-inclusive death. This death terminated Satan (Heb. 2:14), the world (John 12:31), the old creation (Col. 1:15b), the fallen man (Rom. 6:6), man’s sinful constitution (8:3), and everything negative in the universe. This all-inclusive death was not only a terminating death but also a releasing death, for through it the divine life was released from the human shell of the man Jesus Christ (John 12:24).
After accomplishing such an all-inclusive death, Christ entered into rest and was buried. Then after three days He resurrected. His death was all-inclusive — terminating, redeeming, and releasing — and His resurrection was all-producing. In His resurrection a life-giving Spirit was produced (1 Cor. 15:45). Before Christ’s resurrection there was not such a life-giving Spirit in the universe. John 7:39 says that “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”; that is, Jesus had not yet entered into resurrection (Luke 24:26). On the day that He entered into resurrection, the life-giving Spirit was produced. His resurrection also produced Him as the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33). In eternity He was the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18), but in resurrection He was born to be the firstborn Son of God. With Him, thousands of sons of God were born (1 Pet. 1:3). How producing the resurrection of Christ was!
Today in the universe there are three particular categories of things: (1) the life-giving Spirit, (2) the firstborn Son of God, and (3) the many sons of God. Today we are the many sons of God. These many sons are the counterpart of God. As the many sons of God, we are a part of God. He is the Head, and we are the Body (Col. 1:18a; Eph. 5:30). Therefore, we are a part of God. Within us He is the life-giving Spirit, and this life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ (2 Cor. 3:17), who is the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9).
After He died and resurrected, He ascended to the heavens to be officially appointed, established, and made the Lord of all, the Christ of God, the Leader of all the kings on the earth, and the Savior (Acts 2:36; 5:31; Rev. 1:5). As such a One, He has the full right and the authority to manage the entire world so that He can save people. If He were not such a Leader, we would not have been and could not have been saved. We have been saved because He is not only the Savior but also the Ruler of the whole earth.
Although I was born in faraway China, the ascended Christ sent missionaries to China by means of imperialism. Even imperialism was used by Christ to save me and many others in China. God is Christ, and Christ now is the Lord of all, the Christ of God, the Leader of all the kings on the earth, and the Savior.
Such a One is now ready to save us by entering into us. We had fallen into death and even into hell and the lake of fire. He did not save us by reaching down and snatching us up. He saved us by entering into us as the all-inclusive Spirit, as the consummation of the Triune God. As a result, we became so buoyant that we rose up to become a part of God. This is Christ’s salvation.
Today He is not only in us, but He is everywhere. He fills all in all (Eph. 1:23b). He is not only all-inclusive; He is also all-extensive. Although He fills all in all, He takes us particularly as His dwelling. Now He is even making His home in our hearts (3:17). By doing so, He is building a home for Himself. He is everywhere, but particularly He is in us, taking us as His principal dwelling, making us His home. If we see this, we will be buoyant and will soar in the air. We have no other place to go but to Him. He is our Savior, He is our Redeemer, He is our life, He is our everything, and He is our eternal home. Today we are remaining in Him, abiding in Him, and living in Him to have our life in Him. This is why we are full of joy.
Up to this point the very Triune God still has not completed His incarnation. Since His passing through crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and after His pouring out of Himself, His incarnation has proceeded for another two thousand years. In these past twenty centuries He has been transfusing and also infusing Himself into millions of His believers, including you and me. He has transfused Himself into us, and He is now infusing us every day. Because of His transfusing and infusing, the more I speak, the more I have to speak. I cannot finish my speaking. Under His transfusing and infusing, we are all here becoming the very consummation of the divine incarnation.
Now we need to consider what God’s salvation is. Many Christians have been taught that we were sinners and that our destiny was to go to hell. Because God loved us, He sent His Son to die for our sins and to be resurrected to be our Savior. If we believe in Him, our sins will be forgiven. Then we will be saved by God and will have peace and joy. After being saved, we need to behave ourselves. Eventually, we will go to heaven. To many Christians this is God’s salvation. Although such a view may be biblical, it is according to the Bible in a superficial way. To understand the Bible in this way is like skating on ice. In studying the Bible, we need to cut a hole in the ice and dive to the bottom of the ocean to see what is there. It is there that we will see the depths, the very intrinsic significance, of the holy Word.
The salvation of God is not a simple or a shallow matter. God’s salvation is the Triune God becoming a man, living a human life for thirty-three and a half years, dying an all-inclusive, all-terminating, all-redeeming, and all-releasing death, and accomplishing an all-producing resurrection. In such a condition and with such a situation, He ascended to the heavens to be made officially by God the Lord, the Christ, the Ruler of all the kings, and the Savior. Then He poured out Himself so that mankind could receive Him by calling on Him (Acts 2:17-21). Many did receive Him. Immediately, He, as the all-inclusive compound Spirit, the consummation of the Triune God, entered into everyone who received Him.
In His salvation He has redeemed us from our sinfulness and has terminated us in our sinful constitution. Redemption, forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation are all included in His salvation. We were sinners and enemies toward God. We were sinners not merely by committing sins; we were sinners by constitution (Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21). We became a constitution of sin and were the totality of sin. Thus, we needed not only to be forgiven but also to be terminated. Christ’s death on the cross did a wonderful job of terminating our sinful constitution and taking away all our sinfulness. Based on such a death we have redemption and forgiveness, and as God’s enemies, we were reconciled to God. Now there is no contradiction between us and God; the situation between us and God has been altogether appeased. God is satisfied with the all-inclusive death of Christ, and this death also has satisfied us. Now we can thank Him for His all-inclusive death that has terminated our sinful constitution and has redeemed us from our sinfulness. Through such a redemption we have been forgiven, and God has justified us and even reconciled us, His enemies, to Himself. In such a situation the problem between us and God has been fully cleared up.
However, this is not all. Rather, at this juncture this dear One as the all-inclusive Spirit, who is the pneumatic Christ and the consummation of the Triune God, entered into us. Now we, the poor sinners and the enemies of God, have become such persons. The entire Triune God with all His processes has entered into us. This One is our Savior, our Lord, our Master, our God, our Father, and our all in all. Now He remains in us, abides in us (1 John 3:24b), lives in us (Gal. 2:20a), is being formed in us (4:19), and is making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). Furthermore, He is transforming us and conforming us to His image (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29), making us the same as He is. Ultimately, He will glorify us with Himself as the glory (Col. 1:27).
In such a salvation He is our everything, and we are His expression. He and we, we and He, are one. We abide in Him, and He abides in us (John 15:4a). We coinhere with Him: He lives in us, and we live in Him. We and He are one person. Are we men, or are we God? Actually, we are both. Are we divine or merely human? We are both; we are humanly divine and divinely human. We are human beings, and we are also divine beings. We are God-men. We are in the pneumatic Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God and the consummation of the Triune God. Not only so, the Triune God, Christ, and the consummated compound Spirit are all in us. This is God’s salvation.
We do not need to go to heaven. Heaven is within us. Heaven has come down to the earth. We do not love heaven, but we love the very Christ. Christ is much better than heaven. I assure you that where Christ is, heaven is there. We do not need to worry about heaven. We simply need to enjoy Christ. We are in heaven because we are in Christ. Christ is our heaven. Because of such a salvation, we are buoyant; we would never be down but would always be up.
Six thousand years ago God created man. He waited four thousand years, and then He became a man. Then, in the next two thousand years He made man one with Him practically. Today we are here as God-men. Hell is under our feet, and the lake of fire is far away. Because we are in Him, wherever He is, is heaven to us. He is buoyant, and we are buoyant in Him. Our sinful constitution has been terminated, and we have been redeemed from our sinfulness. Therefore, there is no problem between us and God. We have been justified by God and reconciled to God, and we are in an absolutely peaceful condition and situation with God. Based on this, we can enjoy Him, and He can flood into us to be our everything.
This is God’s salvation, and this is the dynamic salvation. At times we may feel weak, dying, or even dead, but He is the resurrecting life (John 11:25). This resurrecting life counters our weakness and our deadness (2 Cor. 10:10). In ourselves we may become fatigued, weak, and dead; but He is in us as the resurrecting life. He resurrects us. This is God’s salvation. God’s salvation is nothing but God Himself making Himself our contents and making us a part of Him in the divine organic union. God’s salvation is the saving God Himself plus His redemption. The redeeming and saving God Himself is our dynamic salvation. This is the heavenly view that we all need to see. With such a view, when we come to the Bible, it will become a new book to us.
