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Scripture Reading: Col. 3:4a; Gal. 2:20a; 2 Tim. 4:22; Col. 3:10-11; Dan. 2:34-35, 44; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 20:4-6; 2:7, 26; 12:5; Matt. 25:34, 46b; Rev. 21:1-2, 10-11; 22:1-2, 5b; 21:24
The first item covered in the New Testament is God’s coming, beginning from His being incarnated and ending with His becoming a life-giving Spirit, in order to reach our spirit. After God’s coming, God enters into us to regenerate us, to make us His children, His sons, that we may be partakers of the divine nature. This partaking will consummate in our being glorified. After our regeneration, Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God remains within us to be our life (Col. 3:4a). He not only enters into us to regenerate us, but He also remains within us to be our life. Christ is our life in three ages: the present age, the coming age, and the eternal age.
In the present age Christ lives in the believers’ spirit for their daily life (Gal. 2:20a; 2 Tim. 4:22). Our daily life should not merely be a human life that we live out by ourselves; our daily life should be Christ. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” In this portion Paul seems to say, “Christ within me is my life, and now He lives in me to be my living. He is my life within and my living without. I am living Christ. Christ is my life, and Christ is also my living. He is my daily life.”
The Christ who lives in us as our life is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). If we are going to take Christ as our life and live Him as our living, we must be a person in our spirit. We must be in our spirit, not in our mind, emotion, will, understanding, likes, or dislikes. When we dislike a person, the more we think about that person, the more disgusted we are. For example, in the training a sister may have been assigned a roommate that she considers to be troublesome. The more the sister thinks about her roommate, the more troublesome her roommate becomes to her. The solution to this kind of problem is to turn to our spirit. We must consider one another in our spirit. When we turn to our spirit, Christ as our life is there. This is our Christian life.
Christ lives in us to be all the members of the new man (Col. 3:10-11). We are the members of the new man, and every member of the new man must be Christ. Christ is the element of the new man, and the very God who is in Christ is the essence of the new man. We are the outward shell, the outward components, of the new man.
Christ is all the members of the new man for the believers’ church life. In the church life there are no Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Germans, or Spanish. Christ is everything in the new man. Colossians 3:10-11 says, “And have put on the new man...where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” In the new man we all have been annulled. Now there is only Christ. Christ should be our daily life, and He should also be our church life. This is our life in the present age. If Christ were our daily life and our church life, there would be no problem in our family life and church life. The problems in our family life and church life come because we live as Chinese, as New Zealanders, or as Americans. When we live in such a way, the church life is annulled. When we live out something other than Christ, the church life is finished. Therefore, we must be annulled, and Christ should live. When we are annulled and Christ lives, we have the proper church life.
Christ’s being our life in the coming age will be different from His being our life today, because the age will change from the church age to the kingdom age. Christ is life to us in one way in the church age, and He will be life to us in another way in the kingdom age.
Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God and as life to His believers will become the enlarged kingdom of God in the coming age (Dan. 2:34-36, 44). In the present age Christ is our life (Col. 3:4a); in the coming kingdom age, the millennium, Christ as life to us will be the kingdom. Today Christ is life to us, and tomorrow He will be the kingdom to us. In this age we may receive Christ as our life free of charge, but in order to inherit Christ as the kingdom in the next age, we must pay a very high price. Although the Christ who lives in our human spirit today may seem to be very small, in the coming age of the kingdom, He will become a great mountain that fills the entire earth (Dan. 2:34-35).
In the coming age Christ will become the enlarged kingdom of God, typified by the stone cut out without human hands. Today in the church age Christ is a small stone (1 Pet. 2:4), but in the kingdom age this stone will become a great mountain that fills the whole earth. This great mountain will be the enlargement of the stone in the church age. Daniel 2:34-35 and 44 say, “You were watching until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image at its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at once, and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth...And in the days of those kings the God of the heavens will raise up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and its reign will not be left to another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms; and it will stand forever.” According to these verses in Daniel 2, the coming kingdom is likened to a mountain. The mountain mentioned in verse 35 is the enlargement of a stone cut out without human hands. This stone is Christ, and the mountain that is the enlargement of the stone is the kingdom. The upcoming kingdom will be the enlargement of Christ.
The interpretation of the image in Daniel 2 is a prophecy concerning the human governments from the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, until the time of the coming of Christ (see ch. 2 of The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ to Be the Organism of the Processed and Dispensing Triune God). The feet of the image are partly of iron and partly of clay (vv. 33-34). The iron signifies human power in government, especially in dictatorships and autocracies. The clay signifies the people. When iron is mixed with clay, the iron is weakened. When the people rise up to call for democracy and freedom, as they have in Eastern Europe in recent days, autocracy and dictatorship are weakened. Thus, the recent events in Eastern Europe are a further fulfillment of the prophecy in Daniel 2. In Daniel 2 a stone cut out without human hands struck the two feet of the image and crushed them (v. 34). Thus, the entire image, the symbol of human government in the form of autocracy, was crushed. The stone that struck the image became the replacement for the image. This replacement is Christ in His enlargement. In the fulfillment of this prophecy Christ will be enlarged to cover the entire earth. This enlargement will be the kingdom, and the kingdom will be Christ Himself.
The kingdom in its reality is here today (see Hebrews 12:28, footnote 1, Recovery Version), but it has not yet been manifested. In Luke 17:20-21 the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation...For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” At that time, Jesus was already in the midst of the people as the kingdom of God. This corresponds with Mark 4:26, where the Lord said, “So is the kingdom of God: as if a man cast seed on the earth.” The seed of life is the seed of the kingdom. This seed is Christ Himself. Christ as the seed of the kingdom has been sown into us, and this seed is growing within us.
According to Luke 19:12, the Lord Jesus as a certain man of noble birth went to a distant country (the heavens) to receive for Himself a kingdom and to return. On the one hand, the Lord has traveled to a distant country to receive for Himself a kingdom and to return. On the other hand, He is here growing within us until the kingdom is manifested. We may wonder whether the Lord is in the heavens waiting for the time of His coming or is growing within us to be manifested. Actually, His being manifested from within us is His coming, and His coming is just His being manifested from within us. When the living saints on earth are filled with Christ, saturated with Christ, and grown into maturity in Christ, the kingdom as the great mountain will be manifested. We as believers have received the little Jesus, but we will inherit the enlargement of Jesus, which is the kingdom.
The overcoming believers in Christ will inherit the eternal life as a reward to them in the millennium (Matt. 19:28-29; Rev. 20:4-6). To have eternal life and to inherit eternal life are two different things in the New Testament. John 3:16 says that “everyone who believes into Him [the Son] would not perish, but would have eternal life.” However, Matthew 19:29 says, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My name’s sake shall receive a hundred times as much and shall inherit eternal life.” To have eternal life is a matter in the present age; thus, in John 3:16 the Lord Jesus used the present tense of the verb have. However, in Matthew 19:29 the Lord used the future tense of inherit, because the inheriting of eternal life is something for the coming age.
We have eternal life today, and we are enjoying it today. Eternal life certainly is ours today, but we cannot yet say that we have inherited eternal life as our legal possession. To have eternal life, the only requirement is that we believe in Christ (John 3:16; 20:31). However, to inherit eternal life, we must fulfill additional conditions and requirements. One of the conditions for inheriting eternal life is that we must give up all the things of this age (Matt. 19:29).
The inheriting of eternal life in Matthew 19:29 is related to the kingdom. This is proved by the preceding verse, which says that in the restoration the twelve apostles, who followed the Lord Jesus, will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (v. 28). To sit on thrones is not something of this age; it is something for the coming kingdom age. In the kingdom age the overcoming saints will rule as kings sitting on thrones (Rev. 20:4, 6). The context of Matthew 19:29 strongly proves that the inheriting of eternal life is related to the kingdom.
In the millennium the Paradise of God will be the New Jerusalem. The overcoming believers will enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the Paradise of God, which is the New Jerusalem in the millennium (Rev. 2:7). During the one thousand years of the kingdom, the New Jerusalem on a small scale will be a special portion, a reward, to the overcoming believers; but in the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be greatly enlarged as the common portion of all of God’s redeemed people.
The overcoming believers will be kings to rule in the eternal life over the nations who will remain on the earth in the realm of the eternal life—the enlarged kingdom of God in the millennium (20:4, 6; 2:26; 12:5; Matt. 25:34, 46b). Matthew 25:34 says, “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Verse 46 says, “And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” To have eternal life is one thing, to inherit eternal life is another thing, and to enter into eternal life is yet another thing.
The righteous in verse 46 are the sheep in verse 33. The sheep will be the good nations who will enter into the realm of eternal life in the kingdom age. When He comes back, the Lord Jesus will descend upon the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4) and will sit on the throne of His glory (Matt. 25:31). At that time all the nations will be gathered to Him (v. 32). He will then classify, or divide, the nations into two categories: the sheep and the goats. The sheep are the righteous ones, and the goats are the unrighteous ones (vv. 33, 46). The goats will be sent into the eternal punishment (v. 46a) of the lake of fire (v. 41; Rev. 20:14-15), but the sheep will enter into eternal life (Matt. 25:46b). The eternal life will be a realm into which they will enter, but the eternal life will not enter into them. They will not enter into God’s kingdom today, but they will enter into it in the coming age. In the coming kingdom the sheep will be the nations, the people, the subordinates, the subjects, to be ruled by the overcoming believers, who will be the kings (Rev. 20:4, 6; 12:5). Will you as a believer be such a king in the coming kingdom? We all must exercise our faith to believe that we can be the overcoming believers to be the kings in the coming kingdom. In order to be such kings, we must prepare ourselves today. In this present age we are a part of the new man, and we are also a part of the enlargement of Christ. This new man will become the kingdom in the next age. We are a part of the new man today, and we will be a part of the kingdom in the next age.
The church as the new man and the Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ. The Body of Christ today will be the enlargement of Christ in the coming age. Since we are members of the Body of Christ today, we will also be a part of the enlargement of Christ in the coming kingdom. These are the facts. We are a part of the kingdom of God today (Rom. 14:17), and we will be a part of the kingdom of God in the next age. As the overcoming believers, we will be a part of the corporate kingship to rule over the righteous nations, and the nations, who will be saved but not regenerated, will enter into the realm of eternal life to be our subjects.
Our being a part of Christ, a part of the new man, and a part of the kingdom today is completely based on our having the eternal life. If the Triune God had not been processed to be our life, we could not be a part of Christ, a part of the new man, or a part of the kingdom of God today. The eternal life in the present age, in the coming age, and in the eternal age is related to the Triune God becoming our life. We have the eternal life in this age, and we will also have it in the coming age. In the coming age the eternal life will be enlarged to be the kingdom. We will not only be in the kingdom, but we will also be the kingdom as the enlargement of Christ. This enlargement will be something altogether in the eternal life.
In the eternal age, in the new heaven and new earth, Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God will be life, symbolized by the tree of life growing in the river of water of life, to all of God’s redeemed (Rev. 21:1-2, 10-11; 22:1-2).
God’s redeemed people include three different groups: those who were saved before the church age, such as Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham; those who were saved during the church age; and those Jews who will be saved after the Lord’s return. When the Lord Jesus returns, the church age will close, and thousands of Jews, including the entire nation of Israel, will be saved. They will be saved, but they will not be in the church. The saints of the Old Testament, the New Testament saints, and the Jews saved after the Lord’s return, added together, will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
During the millennium, the New Jerusalem will consist of the overcomers of the Old Testament saints and the overcomers of the New Testament saints. In Matthew 8:11 the Lord Jesus said that many shall come from the east and the west and will recline at table (feast) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom. Today Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others are waiting on us. They have been invited to the wedding feast, and we also have been invited. They are ready to begin the feast, but we are not yet ready. According to Hebrews 11:40, the saints of the Old Testament are not complete without us; therefore, they must wait until we are ready. When we are ready, the wedding feast will begin (Rev. 19:7-9), and the entire one thousand years of the millennium will be a wedding day feast. A wedding day lasts for only one day, but the marriage life is for the whole course of one’s life. The wedding day of Christ and the church will last one thousand years. During the millennium, the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, as a special portion for the overcomers in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, will last for one day of one thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8). After this wedding day the marriage life will begin in the new heaven and new earth for eternity in the New Jerusalem.
All of God’s redeemed people, including the Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints, and the saved Jews in the millennium, will be kings reigning in the realm of the eternal life over the nations (Rev. 22:5b; 21:24) who will continue to remain in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. We as kings will eat the fruit of the tree of life, and the people, the nations, will eat the leaves of the tree of life (22:2). We have the life of the tree of life, but they will not have that life. The tree of life will be the very processed and consummated Triune God as our life forever.
In the present age the Triune God is life to us in the way of His living within us to make us the members of the new man. In the kingdom age He will be life to us in the way of mingling Himself with us to make us a reigning body, the enlargement of Christ, to rule over the earth as kings. This will be a reward to us in the coming age. In the eternal age of the new heaven and new earth, the consummated Triune God will still be life to us, in the way of mingling Himself with His redeemed, transformed, and tripartite man in order to have the New Jerusalem. Thus, we will enjoy Him as life forever.
What we have presented in these four chapters is the thought of the Triune God to be life to the tripartite man running through the entire divine revelation, from Genesis to Revelation. These messages are an extract of the entire New Testament revelation and economy of God, from the incarnation to the New Jerusalem.
