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Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:24; 4:13; Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7; 1 Thes. 5:23; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Gen. 13:16; 15:5; Rev. 12:5, 11; 14:1-5; Gen. 6:3a; 11:4-9; Jer. 2:13; 11:10; 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 John 3:8; Matt. 16:24; 1 John 2:15; Gal. 1:4; 6:14; Rev. 11:15
This book concerning the overcomers is a continuation of our fellowship in the book entitled The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation. The burden for the messages in this book can be expressed in the following four sets of statements concerning the overcomers from the book of Revelation:
Set 1:
To him who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God—2:7.
To him who overcomes, I will give of the hidden manna—v. 17.
Set 2:
To him who overcomes, I will give a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written—v. 17.
He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God—3:12.
Set 3:
To him who hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me—v. 20.
He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne—v. 21.
Set 4:
He who overcomes and he who keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations—2:26.
And he will shepherd them with an iron rod, as vessels of pottery are broken in pieces—v. 27.
The whole Scripture, composed of sixty-six books, concludes with two things: the overcomers and the New Jerusalem. These are the two main items revealed in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Revelation 1—20 gives us a complete record of the overcomers, and the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21—22 will be the issue, the coming out, the consummation, of the overcomers. The New Jerusalem will be manifested in two stages. The first stage will be in the millennium, the one-thousand-year kingdom. That will be the precursor of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity, the second stage of the New Jerusalem in the eternal age.
We may ask, “What is the New Jerusalem?” If we read Revelation thoroughly under the heavenly light, we can see that the New Jerusalem is the totality of the overcomers. The overcomers will be the New Jerusalem in the coming age, the age of the millennium, as the precursor to the New Jerusalem in eternity future. Only a relatively small part of the believers will be the overcomers. The majority of the believers—genuine, regenerated, blood-washed believers—will have been defeated. At the Lord’s coming, He will take away only the overcomers, leaving the rest of the believers in another category because they will not have the maturity in His divine life. In the millennium the overcoming believers will be with Christ in the bright glory of the kingdom, whereas the defeated believers will suffer discipline in outer darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). This is so that they can be perfected for their maturity.
For any crop to become matured, that crop needs to go through a certain process. The process through which the immature believers will have to pass will not be pleasant but will be a period of discipline and punishment for one thousand years. Even though that will not be a pleasant process, it will complete God’s eternal economy. All these dear ones will be matured and perfected. After the thousand years the Lord will clear up the entire universe through His judgment at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). Then there will be the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem in eternity will be greatly enlarged to include all the believers. By then all the believers will be overcomers (21:7). The late ones will be later overcomers, whereas the overcomers in this age will be the earlier overcomers.
The earlier overcomers will be rewarded. The Lord will reward the overcomers in this age with what they are in Christ. They will enjoy their victory, but the defeated ones who were not ready will have nothing to enjoy as their reward. Instead, the Lord will deal with them so that they can become matured and perfected. Eventually, the majority of the believers will enjoy what they are in Christ for eternity.
We can prove this according to our experience. When we are victorious in the Lord, we enjoy our victory every day, but when we are defeated, the enjoyment of the Lord is gone. When we are victorious, the Lord is our enjoyment in what we are. What we would, could, and should enjoy in the Lord will be what we are. When people graduate from college, their graduation time is an enjoyment of what they are. They enjoy the fruit of their labor during their college years. Those who failed to make passing grades still have to come back to school so that they can graduate. This is the educational system’s way.
This educational system is a wise way, but our God is wiser. He has a big operation in the universe. He selected millions of people, who were saved by grace. Grace is based upon mercy. Our salvation has nothing to do with what we are or with what we will be. God saved us and gave us so much. He gave us Himself, the divine life, the Holy Spirit, and Christ as His embodiment, the all-inclusive One. Because He gave us so much, we should be those who overcome. But regretfully, many believers would not care for the Lord. They would care only for their eternal salvation. They would say, “As long as I am eternally saved and can go to heaven, I will be satisfied.” They may be satisfied, but the Lord is not satisfied. Actually, whoever does not overcome in this age will not be satisfied in the next age. They will have nothing with which to be satisfied. Since we are Christians, we have to respond to the Lord’s call to be overcomers.
We have pointed out that Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is a book concerning the overcomers (see The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation, ch. 3). The last book of the Bible is nearly a closed book to many Christians. It seems that nobody understands what it is talking about. Revelation refers to the seven golden lampstands, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. Eventually, this book concludes with a mysterious city. According to Revelation 21:16, the city will be a square of twelve thousand stadia (a stadion equals about six hundred feet). The city is of pure gold and precious stones with gates of pearl (vv. 18-21). Many readers and teachers of the Bible do not see the significance of this mysterious city. Because many Bible teachers do not understand the book of Revelation, they basically avoid it in their teaching.
By the Lord’s mercy, He has shown us that Revelation is a simple book. It was not written by a great scholar but by the apostle John, who was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. This fisherman surely did not have a theological mind. His writings are basically simple. In his Gospel, John opens in a simple way by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1).
His final book, the book of Revelation, was also written in a very simple way, but from my youth I found it very difficult to understand. By reading it, I realized that there must be something in it that is truly wonderful. Thank the Lord that gradually by His mercy, Revelation has become an open book to me. Once we see what is revealed in this book, we will see that it is very simple. The main subject of the first twenty chapters of the book of Revelation is the overcomers. Revelation 20 shows us that the overcoming martyrs will be resurrected to be the co-kings with Christ, the King, to enter into a city in which they will enjoy what they are in Christ (vv. 4-6).
An overcomer is someone who overcomes in every area of his daily life. The Lord Jesus is moving within us to live through us even in the way that we comb and cut our hair. If we do not follow Him in this matter, we will be defeated in having a worldly hair style. When the Lord says, “Don’t comb your hair that way,” we should respond, “Amen. Whatever You want, Lord Jesus.” This is what it means to overcome. This means that we love Him more than our self, more than our soul-life. An overcomer knows and loves only Christ.
In a sense, the revelation concerning the overcomers is simple, but we may wonder why such a seemingly simple subject occupies the first twenty chapters of the book of Revelation. This is because there are different categories of overcomers. One category of overcomers is the martyrs of the Old Testament and the New Testament up to the time before the great tribulation. Revelation 6 unveils that these martyred saints are underneath the altar crying out, “How long, O Master, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (v. 10). The second category of overcomers is the man-child caught up to God and to His throne in Revelation 12:5. The third category of overcomers is the hundred and forty-four thousand living overcomers, the firstfruits, in Revelation 14:1-5. They will be raptured to the heavenly Mount Zion before the great tribulation. Those who are standing on the glassy sea in Revelation 15:2-4 are the fourth category of overcomers. These four categories of overcomers constitute the fifth category, which is the prepared bride in Revelation 19:7-9. Thank the Lord that He is able to make so many of His believers overcomers. We need twenty chapters of the book of Revelation to show us how the believers are made overcomers by the Lord’s abounding and sufficient grace.
The last two chapters of Revelation unveil the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth for eternity. That will be the totality of all the believers throughout all the generations of the Old Testament and the New Testament. By then all of God’s chosen and redeemed people will have been made overcomers. This gives us an overview of the book of Revelation.
The Bible as a whole is the history of God. Many people have had histories, or biographies, written about them. When I finished writing the biography of Brother Watchman Nee (entitled Watchman Nee—a Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age), I considered that God also has a biography, a history. The Bible is the best history of God. The Old Testament is the history of God with man, and the New Testament is the history of God in continuation within man. In the Old Testament, God was only with man; He did not get into man until He became incarnated. Incarnation was God entering into man. The first chapter of the New Testament in the Gospel of Matthew gives us a record of how God entered into man. From that day the God with man became the very God within man.
Thank God that we are saved, regenerated, blood-washed, and Spirit-filled Christians with God in us! If someone asks us who we are, we might say, “I am a Christian.” A Christian is a believer in Christ. But who are you as a believer in Christ? The top answer is—“I am God within me.” We believers are “God in us.” The church is God in a group of human beings. This does not mean that we are God in His Godhead but that we have God within us as our life, nature, element, and essence. To say that we are “God in us” means that we are a part of God’s history. The Bible is the history of God with man in the Old Testament and then of God within man in the New Testament.
Our God has an eternal economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4). Economy means plan. God has an eternal plan. He planned in eternity past to do something, and this plan was made by Himself according to His heart’s desire, according to His good pleasure, to carry out His intention. God has a heart’s desire, and He has to do something to work out what He desires. God has an eternal plan, an eternal economy, with an intention to do something.
The great God, who is very active and living, has an intention to be one with man. This may seem very simple, but this most simple thing is the most mysterious thing. Medical doctors have been studying the human body for many years, but they still cannot fully comprehend all its mysteries. One doctor told me that after studying the human body, one cannot deny that there must be an almighty Being in the universe. Otherwise, the wonderful human body could not have come into existence. The human body seems to be simple, but this simple thing is wonderful. God’s economy to be one with man also may seem simple, but such a simple thing is the most wonderful thing.
Because we have believed into Christ, God is one with us. Do not forget that this is the very God who is one with us! The very God is in our spirit as a Spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; 2 Cor. 3:17). The Bible says that God indwells us and that we indwell Him (1 John 3:24; 4:13). This means that God is in us and that we are in Him. We and God indwell each other. Theologians came up with the word coinherence to describe this mutual indwelling. The eternal God as the eternal life is in us, and we are in the eternal God. Who can explain the fact that God and man coinhere? This is altogether wonderful!
Because God wanted to indwell man, He created man in His own image (Gen. 1:26-27). This identifies man with God outwardly. Outwardly, we look like God. Darwin said that we are descendants of monkeys, but this is nonsense. We are not descendants of monkeys, but we are men who were created in the image of God. Among the millions of items of God’s creation, nothing can compare with man. All the other living things are after their kind, but man is after God’s kind. This is because man bears God’s image; he resembles God.
God created the universe and man. This is His old creation. However, His intention is not to have an old creation. He intends to have a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
In order to have a new creation, God imparts Himself into His old creation. The old creation does not have God within it. It does not have God’s life or God’s nature, but the new creation, constituted of the believers, who are born again of God, does (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, the believers are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
Before we were regenerated, we were the old creation without God in us, but today we are happy because we have God within us. He is our joy. The Bible says that we should always rejoice (1 Thes. 5:16; Phil. 4:4). Human life, however, is full of suffering and anxiety. After passing through so much suffering, Job indicated that he wished he had not been born (Job 3:1-13). How can we not be anxious about anything? This is impossible in ourselves. We can be free from anxiety only when we are living in God. God is our dwelling place. Moses said, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations” (Psa. 90:1). God is our eternal house for us to dwell in. He is our dwelling place, and we are His dwelling place (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:22). We abide in Him, and He abides in us. This mutual abode is the new creation, and this new creation is God’s intention.
God’s eternal economy is for Him to be one with man, making man His organism so that He can have a new creation out of the old creation. This is not a simple project. God consummates this project in four ages in the old creation and through four peoples of His old creation.
According to the Bible, there are four ages in the old creation—the age before law, the age of law, the age of grace, and the age of the kingdom. God worked in the first age, the age before law, through the race of Adam, from Adam to Moses. He continued to work in the second age, the age of law, from Moses to Christ’s first coming, through the earthly descendants of the race of Abraham (Gen. 13:16). He goes on in the third age, the age of grace, which is the church age, from Christ’s first coming to His second coming, through the heavenly descendants of the race of Abraham (15:5). Then He will work to consummate His project to have a new creation in the fourth age, the last age, the age of the kingdom of one thousand years, through the overcomers of the races of Adam and Abraham (Rev. 12:5, 11; 14:1-5). God uses these four ages to consummate His economy.
This divine project takes God thousands of years to accomplish. From Adam to Abraham was two thousand years, from Abraham to Christ was two thousand years, and from Christ to today is almost two thousand years. Thus, almost six thousand years have passed since the time of Adam. Eventually, there will be the millennial kingdom, the kingdom of one thousand years. We can see from this that it takes God thousands of years to accomplish the project of His economy to be one with man, making man His organism so that man can become His new creation with Himself as the life content.
Today we are in the age of grace under the process of God’s project to have a new creation. Any thoughtful person desires to know what the meaning of human life is. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that everything under the sun is vanity of vanities (1:2-3). But thank the Lord that we are in His intention and that we know the meaning of human life. God chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) and called us in time to carry out His eternal economy to have a new creation. God has a purpose, a project, and we are in the process of His project day by day. I hope that eventually I can be counted by Him as one of the overcomers. My goal is to eventually be an overcomer.
God will take at least seven thousand years to finish His project of gaining the new creation out of the old creation. He takes four ages to do this because the human race failed God.
God created Adam, which means that He chose Adam with his descendants to be the very means for Him to bring forth the new creation. Eventually, however, the Adamic race became flesh at the time of the deluge (Gen. 6:3a). At the time of the flood, man had become totally sinful and ugly in the sight of God. Later, the Adamic race became one with Satan at Babel (11:4-9). Man became satanic. Then God came in to choose Abraham so that He could have a new race, a called race.
But even the new race, the called race, the earthly descendants of the race of Abraham, became a failure. They forsook God with His old covenant (Jer. 2:13; 11:10b), choosing Satan with his kingdom (v. 10a).
Abraham has two kinds of descendants. One kind is signified by the dust. Genesis 13:16 tells us that the descendants of Abraham were likened to the dust of the earth. These are his earthly descendants, the Jews according to the flesh. The second category of Abraham’s descendants, according to Genesis 15:5, are likened to the stars of heaven. These are the New Testament believers, the spiritual, heavenly descendants of Abraham. Galatians 6:16 says that we, the New Testament believers, are the spiritual Israel of God.
The heavenly descendants of Abraham also become a failure. They become defeated in the enjoyment of the processed Triune God (cf. 2 Cor. 13:14) and corrupted by Satan through sin, self, the world, and the religious world (1 John 3:8; Matt. 16:24; 1 John 2:15; Gal. 1:4; 6:14). The later Epistles of Paul and the epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 show that by the end of the first century, the church had become degraded. Thus, the created race became a failure, the chosen race as the earthly descendants of Abraham became a failure, and the heavenly descendants of Abraham also became a failure. This is why the Lord Jesus came in the book of Revelation to call for overcomers. He calls for the overcomers seven times in His epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21). He is calling us, the believers, the heavenly stars and the heavenly descendants of Abraham, to be the overcomers.
With the race of Adam, God suffered a loss. With Abraham’s descendants of dust, God suffered a loss. With Abraham’s heavenly descendants, God also suffered a loss. But with the last group of people, the overcomers, God gains the victory. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, we see that Christ has gained a group of overcomers, and this group eventually becomes a big success to God.
Christ calls the overcomers out of the heavenly descendants of the race of Abraham for the age of the kingdom to consummate God’s economy and to bring in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Rev. 11:15). Some Christians today are sighing and groaning about the pitiful and defeated situation of the church. Apparently, this is right, but hiddenly, throughout the centuries there have been groups of overcomers. I believe that among us there are some overcomers. I can testify from the depths of my being that some of the saints with whom I served for many years are overcomers. We should not think that the church is wholly defeated. Apparently, it is defeated; actually, it is not. There is a group of saints who are standing with the Caller, Christ, to be His overcomers.
The overcomers consummate God’s economy and eventually bring in God’s kingdom. As overcomers, we do not live ourselves. We are living God. While we are living God, we are conquering all kinds of circumstances. In 1 Corinthians Paul charges the saints to be full-grown men and to be strong (16:13). Paul’s word was given not only to the brothers but also to the sisters at Corinth. We all need to be such strong, full-grown men. We should forget about ourselves because God is in us. We have to overcome, to conquer, all our circumstances. Then we have to subdue our environment. This is to bring in and spread God’s dominion, which is to bring in God’s kingdom. It is wrong to wait passively for God’s kingdom to come. God needs a number of overcomers to conquer the circumstances and to subdue the environment so that His dominion will be brought in and spread for the bringing in of His kingdom.
