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Scripture Reading: Acts 13:22, 36; Eph. 1:9-11; 3:9-11; Heb. 10:5-10; Rom. 12:1-21
In this chapter we would like to fellowship concerning the living of a life according to God’s heart and will. The Old Testament contains a portrait of David, a man according to God’s heart, who did the will of God and served his own generation by the counsel of God (Acts 13:22, 36). In the New Testament, God’s heart and will in His economy are revealed in the books of Ephesians, Hebrews, and Romans. Ephesians speaks of God’s will (1:5, 9), the counsel of God’s will (v. 11), God’s good pleasure, the desire of God’s heart (v. 9), the mystery of God’s will (v. 9), and the economy of the mystery (3:9). Paul nearly exhausted his vocabulary in speaking of God’s will. God’s will is something according to God’s good pleasure, and this good pleasure was what He purposed. The good pleasure of God was purposed by God in Himself.
Ephesians 3:11 speaks of the purpose of the ages. The purpose of the ages is the eternal purpose. Before the ages was the purpose in eternity past, and after the ages will be the purpose in eternity future. The purpose of the ages is the purpose of all time, including eternity past and eternity future. The purpose of God made by Him in Christ is such an eternal purpose, and this is according to the counsel of God’s will. Moreover, God’s will is according to the good pleasure of His heart. This is revealed in Ephesians 1:9-11 and 3:9-11.
Christians often want to know God’s will. We may want to know what God’s will is concerning our job, our place of living, or our marriage. What we seek is just God’s will in a small sense. We may think that marriage is a great matter, but compared to God’s will in the divine revelation, it is a small thing. Some may seek to know whether it is the Lord’s will to buy a certain pair of shoes in the morning or in the afternoon. Such a person may appear to be a godly person, seeking God’s will in every detail of his daily life. However, whether one buys a pair of shoes in the morning or in the afternoon is only God’s will in a small sense. Ephesians 1 and 3 reveal God’s great will, the counsel of His will, something according to God’s heart’s desire and His good pleasure, which was purposed and planned in God Himself. This is the purpose of eternity, which was purposed in eternity past and will be completed for eternity future.
God’s heart and will in His New Testament economy, God’s good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose are to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God (1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11). A person’s body is his enlargement. The church as the Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, and this enlargement of Christ is Christ’s expression. As a man, I am fully expressed through my body; you may know me through my body. By seeing only my head without my body, you cannot know what kind of man I am. When I speak, my body is acting and moving, and I am fully expressed. Sometimes I can recognize a brother simply by looking at him from the back. By looking at the way he walks and moves, I can know who he is. One’s body is his enlargement, and this enlargement is his expression.
God’s great will is first to have a Body for Christ’s enlargement and expression. God created the heavens and the earth with many items, and eventually He created mankind in order to have a Body composed of human beings who are saved, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed into the image of the processed Triune God. God wants to have such a Body for Christ, who is the very embodiment of the processed Triune God. The processed Triune God is embodied in Christ, and this Christ today needs a Body for His enlargement and His expression. We all are here as a part of this enlargement. Therefore, we are a part of Christ’s expression. This is God’s great will. Through this Body, God makes known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, according to the purpose of the ages made in Christ, according to the counsel of His will (1:9, 11; 3:11). There is no mystery in whether one should buy a pair of shoes in the morning or in the afternoon. The divine will is something that has a mystery.
God’s heart and will is also to have a church to be the organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom (vv. 9-10). Today the church as the Body of Christ is an organism to make God’s multifarious wisdom known to all men. This is what God wants to have according to His eternal will. God created the heavens for the earth, and He created the earth for man’s existence. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the producing of the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God. This is God’s will. Whether we live in one place or another does not matter much. We do not need to pray much for that. Instead, we should focus our entire being on God’s will to have the church, which is the Body of the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Through this church the processed Triune God is enlarged and expressed. This is the first aspect of God’s will.
God’s will is first to have a Body for Christ. However, how could this Body of Christ, the church, which is the enlargement and expression of God’s embodiment, come into being? The answer is very much related to Christ. The second aspect of God’s will is to have Christ as the replacement for all the sacrifices and offerings so that we may enjoy Him as our all in all (Heb. 10:5-10). The Old Testament saints were centered around the sacrifices and the offerings. The sacrifices and the offerings meant everything to them. However, Christ came to do God’s will by replacing all the sacrifices and offerings in order that He could be everything to us.
In the Old Testament there are five main categories of offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Hebrews 10:5 says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.” God prepared a body for Christ so that He could offer Himself to God to replace all the offerings. This was God’s will, which Christ came to do. Now the sacrifices and offerings are no longer needed because they have been replaced by Christ. Christ today is all the offerings, and He is all the sacrifices.
Hebrews 10:9 says, “He then has said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” Christ took away and replaced all the Old Testament types, and He established Himself to be “the second.” As “the second,” Christ is everything. Christ’s replacing of all the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings, taking away the Old Testament types and establishing Himself as everything to us, was God’s great will. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of Christ’s body once for all, to enjoy and partake of Him as our everything (v. 10).
The book of Hebrews reveals five major aspects of Christ for our enjoyment and participation. First, we partake of Christ as our God in His humanity (chs. 1—2). Christ today is our God in His humanity as our portion for us to enjoy. He is not only God but also a God-man. Second, we partake of Christ as our Apostle, typified by Moses and Joshua, leading us into the good land, the all-inclusive Christ (3:1—4:13). Third, we partake of Christ as our High Priest, typified by Aaron, bringing us into the presence of God (4:14—7:28). Fourth, we also partake of Christ as the bequests of the new testament (covenant) (chs. 8—10). The New Testament has many contents. Every item of the contents is a bequest. If we would know all the items of the New Testament, we must study the book of Hebrews. Fifth, this Christ is also our Forerunner to run the course of the race (chs. 11—13). He has finished the course. He has cut and paved the way. Today in America there are highways from the west coast to the east coast. Christ has cut the highway that we might run the course, following Him. He has paved the way. We now may follow His footsteps to run the same course.
Christ is our God in His humanity, and He is our Apostle bringing God to us and our High Priest bringing us to God. He is all the riches, the contents, the bequests, of the New Testament, and He is our Forerunner, the Accomplisher, who has run the course. This means that He is everything to us according to God’s will. Now we have nothing but Christ. We do not have the Old Testament sin offering, trespass offering, meal offering, burnt offering, or peace offering; we have Christ. Christ replaces everything, even ourselves and our good behavior. He is all in all to us. We simply enjoy Him. What is the will of God today? It is simply for us to enjoy Christ. To live a life according to God’s heart and will is to have Christ as everything to us and to live by Christ. God’s great will is for us to be a part of the Body, enjoying Christ as everything.
The third aspect of God’s great will is to have the believers in Christ practice the Body life (Rom. 12). For this we must first present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice to do the will of God, that is, to practice the Body life (v. 1), not being conformed to this age but being transformed by the renewing of the mind that we may prove the will of God, which is that we practice the Body life (vv. 2-3). First, we must offer our body, and then we must have our mind, which is part of our soul, renewed, dealt with, thoroughly. Then we must exercise our gifts in the Body life (vv. 4-8). We have to preach the gospel, have home meetings to nourish the new believers, have small group meetings to perfect the saints, and learn to prophesy. By doing this we exercise many gifts, and each one of us will become fully occupied in the exercise of our gifts.
The saints who are practicing the Body life should live a life of the highest virtues, not of their human life or love but of the divine life and love by being burning in their spirit (vv. 9-21). Our body should be presented, our soul should be renewed, and our spirit should be burning. If we are such persons, we will have the practice of the Body life and a life of the highest virtues by God’s divine life and love. One item of such a life is to feed our enemy and give him a drink (v. 20). This is the highest life.
We must understand what God’s will is. God’s will is to have a Body, and it is that we take Christ as everything and enjoy Him. The place to enjoy Christ is in His Body, the church. Then we must also practice the Body life. We cannot be separate from the believers, and we must never be individualistic. Some may say that they can enjoy Christ at home. This may be so, but if you are not practicing the Body life with all the saints together as the corporate Body, you will surely miss something of Christ. You may enjoy Christ a little by yourself, but you cannot enjoy Christ in His fullness. Try to enjoy Christ, not individualistically but corporately, and try to live a corporate life, a Body life, a church life. Always do things in the Body of Christ, in the practical church life. To merely live an individual Christian life is the way of poverty. If you live a corporate life, however, you will enjoy Christ in His fullness, which eventually is the church, the very expression of Christ.
We all have to see that God wants a Body, and to be a part of the Body we have to take Christ as our everything. We do not need anything else. We do not need logic, philosophy, or ethics; we only need to take Christ as our everything. This Christ is our God, our Apostle, our High Priest, and all the riches of the New Testament economy. This Christ is the Accomplisher, the Finisher, of the way we are taking. Therefore, He is everything to us, and we take Him as our everything, not to live an individualistic life but to live a corporate life to have the practical church life. In this church life we will have a strong testimony, and many people will be influenced and attracted by us. They will come to join us in practicing the church life. Then the enlargement of Christ will be continually enlarged, from a hundred believers up to a thousand. This is the practice of the church life, and this is the increase and continuation of the enlarged Christ.
God’s will is to have a Body as the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God and to have Christ as the replacement for all the sacrifices and offerings so that we may enjoy Him as our all in all. The Body of Christ comes out of our enjoyment of Christ, and our enjoyment of Christ issues in the church life, which is a strong testimony, testifying that God has been processed to be everything to us for our enjoyment. If we enjoy Him, we will become His enlargement. This is the divine will.
We do not need to waste our time by concentrating on minor matters related to our personal life. We should simply live in the church life. In the church life we should go to disciple the nations, to visit people to get them saved. We should not concentrate on the minor things in our daily life. Instead, we should go to get people saved. Following this, we need to go to have home meetings to nourish the young babes. Then we must continue to go to bring all these nourished young Christians together to form a group so that they may do the same thing as we do. Then we can learn to prophesy. From the verses that we pray-read in the morning, we can compose a prophecy for the Lord’s Day morning meeting. We all need to enter into the practical church life, living a life according to God’s heart and will.
