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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:17-21; Eph. 3:10-11; 1:10, 22-23; John 1:4; 8:12; Rev. 21:11, 23-24; 22:1-2
Romans 8:17-19 says, “If children, heirs also; on the one hand, heirs of God; on the other, joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed upon us. For the anxious watching of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God.” Today there are many sons of God. There may be many thousands in Los Angeles alone, but they are not yet revealed. The revelation, the manifestation, of the sons of God is the very glorification mentioned in verse 17. Not only God but even the whole creation, all things, are waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Verse 20 says, “For the creation was made subject to vanity, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it.” All creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God because the creation was made subject to vanity. Verse 21 continues, “In hope that the creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Here we have the words vanity, slavery, and corruption. These are not good words. The whole creation is in the slavery of corruption, so it is in vanity, waiting for a deliverance.
How can the creation be delivered from this vanity, slavery, and corruption? The Brethren, for example, saw the truth of the creation being in vanity, slavery, and corruption, but they mainly saw the objective prophecy that when all the sons of God will be manifested, the whole universe will be released. They did not see the subjective way, the process, of deliverance. We believe that in these last days the Lord will show us not merely the prophecy but the way in which all the creation will be delivered into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Verse 21 speaks not of the freedom of the children of God but of the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Again, here is a difficult utterance. With the glory of the children of God there is the freedom. The manifestation of the children of God is the very glory of the children of God. Romans 8:19 tells us that the whole creation is waiting for the glory of the sons of God, and Hebrews 2:10 says that Christ is leading many sons into glory. If you would ask me what God is doing today, I would say that He is doing one thing: He is bringing us into glory. We may compare this to the preparation of a feast. If we come to a brother’s home for a big feast, we may ask, “Where is he?” Then someone will say, “He is in the kitchen cooking.” Today God is “in the kitchen cooking” to bring His many sons into glory.
Romans 8:18 speaks of the sufferings of this present time and the coming glory. It is through these sufferings that God is “cooking” us. The objective teaching concerning suffering and glory is that God will reward us one day with glory because we pay the price by suffering today. This is too objective. Naturally, we are like raw beef. How can a piece of raw beef become a delicious steak? It is by cooking. While the beef is being cooked, it “suffers.” We need to undergo the process of God’s cooking. An ugly caterpillar does not simply sleep well, have a good dream, and wake up the next morning transformed into a beautiful butterfly. Rather, being in the cocoon is a suffering process that the caterpillar must undergo.
On many occasions in the past, people have asked me, “If God loves the people on the earth, why are there so many afflictions?” The reason is that God is cooking us today. While a sister is cooking, boiling, and baking, someone may ask, “Don’t you love all those items? If you love them, why are you cutting them, pounding them, and baking them? Why are you giving them so many afflictions?” She does this in order to make something delicious out of something raw. The whole universe is a big kitchen, and God is the Cook preparing a delicious “steak” for Himself. For the sake of His cooking, He has to sacrifice something. He has to kill and cut something. If God truly loves you, then one day He will “cut” you and “heat you in an oven.”
Ephesians 1:10 speaks of the economy of the fullness of the times. If we ask a sister what she is doing in the kitchen, she will say, “Please sit there patiently and wait for half an hour. Then you will know what I am doing here.” The cooking sister has her economy, her dispensation, and the end of the half hour will be the “fullness of the times” for her economy. In the Far East a feast may have eighteen courses and two or three desserts. For one big feast the Chinese may prepare for several months. This is the economy of their feast. They may collect some items from the south and something else from the north. Then for several days they will work out their economy in the kitchen. While they are working out their economy, the kitchen is a big mess, and everything seems to be in disorder. After the cooking, however, when the fullness of the times comes, we will see the many beautiful courses of the feast. This is a small illustration of the economy of the fullness of the times.
Today is the time of cooking. The fullness of the times has not yet come. When the fullness of the times comes, all things will be in order. For now, though, God is “cooking” the church, including you and me. Then at the fullness of the times, we all will be brought into glory. At that time the whole creation will be released, delivered, from the slavery of corruption and from vanity, and all creation will be headed up in Christ with His Body.
The church is the means and the vessel God uses today to fulfill His purpose and solve all His problems. The preaching in Christianity tells people, “We are poor, sinful persons who will perish, so we need God’s mercy and grace. God is merciful and full of grace to us, so He sent His Son to save us from hell. Now we are the beloved ones, and when God puts us together, we are the church.” This is correct, but it is too poor and shallow. This is mainly what we heard concerning the church in the past. According to the revelation of the Word, however, the church is much deeper and higher than this. The church is the very vessel used by God to fulfill His purpose and to solve all His problems.
God’s purpose and intention in creating the many human beings is to make these men a Body as a vessel to contain Him that He may dwell in them and manifest Himself through them by mingling Himself with them. This is God’s purpose on the positive side. However, because one day Satan came in, God now has a problem, and He has an enemy. Then death followed Satan, and where death is, there is darkness. Following darkness there is confusion. If we had no light in this room, the whole room would be in confusion. Light is a controlling power. We are constantly, unconsciously controlled by light. If there were no light, we could still do things, but we would do them in confusion. Where there is light, however, we do things under the control of the light.
When Satan came in, he injected himself into the human race to affect and influence the whole creation. Then death came into the human race, and darkness and confusion followed. Now there is death, darkness, and confusion in the whole of creation. The entire creation is subjected to vanity and is under the slavery of corruption. This corruption in the whole of creation came from darkness, darkness came from death, and death came from Satan. This is clearly revealed in the Scriptures. By this we can see that God has a purpose to fulfill, and He has an enemy and many problems—death, darkness, confusion, corruption, slavery, and vanity in His creation. Now God must do something for His creatures, because Satan has damaged them.
God is working Himself into us and mingling Himself with us so that we may be holy, absolutely sanctified by Him, in Him, and with Him. Every bit of our human nature will be mingled with the divine nature. In the Old Testament type, every part of the boards of the tabernacle was overlaid with gold. In the fulfillment of the type, God mingles Himself with the church so that we may be brought into full sonship.
According to the teaching of the New Testament, sonship first means that we are born of God to have God as our life and nature. Second, it means that we grow up with God and in God, and third, it means that we are absolutely mingled with God; every part of our being will be permeated, saturated, overlaid, and absolutely mingled with God. Fourth, we are qualified to inherit all that God is, all that God has, and all that God has purposed. Fifth, we eventually are absolutely sanctified, holy, and divine. This is the proper meaning of sonship. Sonship implies a birthright, qualifying us to enjoy God by being mingled with Him. By being mingled with Him we are absolutely, thoroughly sanctified by Him, with Him, and in Him; within and without we are made holy and divine. God’s purpose is to have the church sanctified to such an extent. This is the first item of God’s purpose concerning the church.
The second aspect of God’s purpose is to subdue and defeat His enemy by displaying His multifarious wisdom through the church (Eph. 3:10-11). The more trouble the enemy causes, the more God will display His wisdom to him.
The third aspect of God’s purpose is that He will head up all things in Christ through the church. Although this aspect of the church in God’s economy is revealed in the Word of God, many Christians have not seen it. For this reason, we need to study several verses concerning this matter. Ephesians 1:10 says, “Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” Economy, or dispensation, and the fullness of the times are difficult phrases to understand and may seem strange to us. However, they help us to realize that what is spoken here is very important.
In the King James Version this verse says that “he might gather together in one all things.” This is better translated as “to head up all things,” as in Darby’s New Translation. Head up in the Greek text is one word, not a phrase, the root of which is the word head, used as a verb. Without a head, the universe would be in confusion. We are all headed up by our head. Because the head is upon the body, we may think that the body holds up the head. However, this is wrong. If we cut off the head, the body will fall. This proves that it is the head that holds up the body. To cut off the head brings confusion and death to the whole body.
All things are to be headed up in Christ. In God’s economy Christ is the center, the hub, to be the Head. If all things are put under His headship, then all things are headed up; that is, they are gathered together into one.
Verse 22 says, “He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.” Subjected and gave indicate completed actions. We have to join this verse to verse 10. Verse 10 says that all things will be headed up in Christ, and verse 22 says that at the time God raised Christ from the dead and lifted Him to the heavens in ascension, He put all things under Christ’s feet and gave Him to be Head over all things. In writing this passage, Paul referred to Psalm 8:6, which says, “You have put all things under His feet,” and he quoted from this psalm again in Hebrews 2:8.
Ephesians 1:22 says that Christ is Head over all things “to the church,” not “for the church.” This phrase requires our proper study. We need to differentiate between to the church and for the church. If Christ being the Head were only for the church, there would be no identification of the church with Christ, no identification of the Body with the Head. The little word to signifies the identification and oneness of the church with Christ. Christ is the Head over all things, not only for the Body but also to the Body.
Verse 23 continues, “Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” Again, all these words and phrases may be strange to us, and we may easily forget them. If we try reciting some of the phrases in verses 10, 22, and 23, we will see how difficult they are. To head up all things in Christ, subjected all things under His feet, gave Him to be Head over all things, to the church, and His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all are not ordinary utterances. Who could believe that there is such a language as this upon the earth? To truly know the meaning of these words is not easy.
God’s purpose with the church is to put all things in a divine order under the headship of Christ. When He accomplishes this, His desire will be fulfilled, the enemy will be destroyed and cut off, and all creation will be in a proper order to enjoy the headship of Christ. This will be accomplished in the fullness of the times. God must do something to deliver His creation from the slavery of corruption, vanity, and confusion and bring the confused, damaged creation into an order full of freedom. This is to head up all things under the headship of Christ. The way God works this out is very deep.
God told Adam and Eve, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Satan brought confusion into the creation by injecting himself into the human race as death. Death is simply Satan. Just as God is the sum total of life, Satan is the sum total of death. When Satan injected himself into the human race, death came into man. Then darkness and confusion came in through death.
The world today is very much in confusion. Every day when I read the newspaper, I say, “Look how pitiful the world is. Day by day there is so much confusion.” There is confusion in Africa, in Vietnam, in Indonesia, and even in the United States. There is no harmony. The United Nations itself is the very base of confusion; it is a “beehive” of confusion. The nations there are always fighting, debating, arguing, and in confusion. They are in darkness. All the politicians, professors, and philosophers also are in confusion, because they too have no light. They are in darkness because they are fully under the sway of death. They are full of death and under death, so they are in darkness. Because they have no light, they even consider their kind of confusion to be glorious; those who bring in more confusion become more famous. Satan has damaged the creation of God by injecting confusion into it.
Now God must recover His creation. The way He does this is by imparting Himself into us. Satan injected himself into us as death, but now God is imparting Himself into us as life. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men,” and in 8:12 the Lord Jesus told the people, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” When God comes into us as life, He shines within us as the light of life. This life swallows death, and the light chases away darkness. When we are in life and under the light, we are delivered out of confusion into order, harmony, and oneness.
On the one hand, there is Satan, death, darkness, and confusion. On the other hand, there is God, Christ, life, light, harmony, order, and oneness. When we are filled with Christ, we are full of life, and we are wholly under the light; then we have harmony and oneness. If the brothers who live together are not filled with Christ as life, at least to some extent they will be under darkness and in confusion. They can never have harmony in this condition. However, if they all are filled with Christ as life, they will be under the light. Then there will be no need to organize or arrange their situation. Spontaneously, under the light of life, they will all be controlled, and there will be harmony and oneness.
Before Satan came in, there was oneness and harmony in God’s creation. When Satan came, however, he injected death as the factor of confusion into the creation. Through death, darkness came in, and under darkness everything is confused. In today’s society, homes, and families, there is much confusion. Everything is confused and upside down. In God’s redemption His way to recover His creation is not the same way as He took in His creation. In creation God created all things by His power, His mighty hand. In redemption, however, God recovers everything not by His hand and power but by Himself as life coming into us. That is why it seems that God is not doing anything in the present confusion. God is so quiet that it may seem that there is no God. However, we do know that there is a God who is working in a silent but living way. He is putting Himself into some of the confused people as life. Then when we receive Him as life into us, He is the very light, and we are controlled under this light. Spontaneously, under this control we have oneness.
Although we are still in the fallen creation, by the Lord’s mercy we do not make trouble wherever we go. This is not merely because we are under the control of the government or the police. It is because we are under the light of life. There is something living within us that shines all the time. Under this light we are controlled day by day in a nice, happy, and joyful way. We do not like to cheat people; if we cheat people, there is no joy within us. Rather, we like to be fair with people and treat them nicely. We are under the light because we have the life, so spontaneously there is a harmony within us. This harmony comes from light, the light comes from life, and this life is God Himself.
The building up of the church includes oneness and harmony. This harmony can be realized only by life. Therefore, the church must be built up through our experience of Christ as life. Then in this life we will have light, and under this light spontaneously every one of us will be controlled and will be one. We cannot simply adopt a saying: “Let us build up a New Testament church.” It is not adequate merely to come together to study the New Testament and learn certain matters from the four Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation to work out a formula for the scriptural way, the New Testament way, to have a proper church. We can never work out the building up of the church in this way. We may have the formula, but we will not have the life. We will not know how to be filled with Christ, live by Him, take Him as our life, experience Him, and be dealt with by the cross. In this case, even if we have a scriptural formula, we still will fight with one another. Merely to have a formula does not work.
Suppose, however, that by the mercy of God our eyes have been opened to see that God’s economy is to work Himself into us as life, that we have to love Him, take Him as life, fellowship with Him, be filled with Him, and live by Him. Then spontaneously within us and among us there will be light. There will be no arguments, division, fighting, or jealousy. There will be only the oneness under the control of the light of life. We will have oneness, and this oneness will be the real building up. By this oneness, that is, by this building, God will head up all things in Christ.
The New Jerusalem is composed with many members, represented by the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles (Rev. 21:12, 14), but they all are one. Do you think Peter and John will argue in the New Jerusalem? All the arguing, debating, and fighting will have been swallowed up by life and light. Death will be entirely swallowed up, and all darkness will be chased away by light. Therefore, everyone in the New Jerusalem will be wholly in oneness.
The New Jerusalem is full of life. There is the water of life flowing and satisfying, and there is the tree of life growing and supplying (22:1-2). Therefore, the holy city is also full of light. God Himself is the light, and Christ the Lamb is the lamp (21:23). What then will be the condition of the creation? Verse 24 says, “The nations will walk by its light.” All the nations, representing all of creation, will be controlled by the shining of the city; therefore, all nations will have order.
Today in Los Angeles there are millions of people. Physically speaking, they are walking under the sun by day and under electrical light by night, but spiritually speaking, they are walking in darkness. The first time I came to the United States in 1958, I was surprised to see the lights on in the stores after they were locked for the night. I said, “This is a waste. Don’t these people know how to save electricity?” Gradually I came to understand that the lights are left on in the stores to prevent robberies. If all the lights in the stores and on the street were turned off, there would be robberies under darkness every night. If the electricity in Los Angeles were turned off for only one night, the newspapers would not be big enough to report all the confusion that would take place.
In the New Jerusalem the nations will walk in the light of the holy city. Is there such a holy city today? No, there is not, but God is going to work out such a city. This is the age in which God is working to save people and build them up to produce the New Jerusalem as the universal lampstand that holds Christ as the lamp with God within Him as the light. God will shine on all creation through this universal lampstand, and by this shining, this enlightening, God will bring all things into order.
Consider the picture of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth. In the center and at the top of the city Christ is sitting as the Head to supply His life to all His members. His members are enlightened, and they become the vessel from which He shines out. By this shining all the nations, representing all the creatures, will be brought into order. They will all be under the headship of Christ. The whole universe will be headed up in the light. Within the city there is life, and this life is the very God who is ministered and imparted to all His members. Strictly speaking, though, this life does not come out from the city. Rather, out from the city comes the shining light. The creation, the nations, will not have life, but they will be under the shining of the light. We will enjoy God as our life. Then we will be full of light, and this light will shine through us upon all the creation to bring the creation out of darkness, confusion, the slavery of corruption, and vanity. All creation will be brought into the order of the manifestation of the sons of God.
One hundred years ago the church did not see this truth in a subjective way. At that time the Brethren thought that the fullness of the times would arrive suddenly. Today the Lord has shown us that this is not so. There is the need of a process. In 1936, after we first received this light, Mussolini was still living. Many students of the prophecies in the Scriptures predicted that he was the Antichrist. Even D. M. Panton, the editor of the magazine Dawn, published pictures of Nero and Mussolini side by side, trying to prove that Mussolini was the Antichrist. When we read that article, we realized that this could not be true. We knew that Christ would not return at that time. The fullness of the times had not come, because the harvest was not yet ripe (Matt. 13:30; Rev. 14:15). At that time God’s “cooking” was only partly finished. If we come into a kitchen and see things in a mess, we know that we have to wait for another few hours. We cannot expect that a minute later we will have a feast. There is the need for more time.
God has a process to carry out. He has much work to do in the church. He needs to work Himself into you, me, and every one of us as life, that we may be full of light and be controlled by this light. Then we will have the oneness, the harmony, and this will be the real building up. It is by this building that God will shine out and shine upon all creation to bring them out of confusion, the slavery of corruption, and vanity. That time will be the fullness of the times. It will be the time that all creation will be liberated, because death will have been swallowed up. After the ancient serpent is cast into the lake of fire, death will also be cast in (20:10, 14). Death will be the last enemy to be dealt with by God (1 Cor. 15:26, 54). After death is dealt with, the universe will be full of light. Under this light all creation will be freed from the slavery of corruption. All creation will be liberated from vanity and brought into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God, which is the shining of the New Jerusalem. The shining of the New Jerusalem is the manifestation, the glory, of the sons of God. All the nations will be brought into this shining, and they will walk in this light and be controlled by this light. There will be no more confusion, so there will be no more vanity and slavery of corruption. Creation will be completely released from the slavery of corruption and will be brought into the freedom of the glory of the holy city.
All this depends on the work of God within and through us. God must work out this city as a corporate vessel that He may be life in every way to us and shine through us as light upon the whole creation. Then the whole creation will be delivered, liberated from confusion. Oh, how important it is that the church be built up! Without this vessel, that is, without the built-up church, God can never head up all things. It is by His being life to the church and by the church being built up through this life that God shines out as the controlling factor, and it is by this shining that all creation will be brought back to God, released from confusion, and brought into the liberty which is under the shining of the sons of God.
At that time Christ will be the Head to head up all things under His headship through the church. Christ will be at the top of the holy city as life and light. Under this light and in this light the nations, representing the whole universe, will be controlled. Then all things will be in order. God’s desire will be satisfied, and we also will be satisfied. God’s enemy will be cast out, and all His problems will be settled. Moreover, all creation will be brought back, released from all bondage, and brought into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. All these things will be fulfilled through the church at the fullness of the times.
I do not have the adequate utterance to speak all these great matters to you in the fullest way. However, I trust the Lord that He will show you all these things so that you may see what the church is in a high and deep way, not in a low and shallow way. We must not say that we are merely poor people to whom God has been merciful; that He has saved us and put us together as the church; that we are waiting for the Lord’s coming to bring us into the glorious kingdom; and that if we die before that time, we will be taken into heaven. It seems that there is nothing wrong with this teaching and theology, but it is too low. Rather, today God is working Himself into us as life. Therefore, we need to be “cooked,” dealt with, and we need to be permeated and saturated with God. Then we will be full of light, and under this light we will be controlled, we will have oneness and harmony, we will be built up, and we will become the universal vessel through which God will head up all things under the shining of His Body.
