Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:1-10; Matt. 4:4; John 1:1, 14; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 6:17; 15:10; 2 Cor. 13:14
In the foregoing messages we have covered three matters: an introductory word to the life-study of Deuteronomy, the crucial points in Deuteronomy, and the review of the past. Before we turn in the next message to the lengthy section on the rehearsal of the law (4:44—26:19), I would like to give a word regarding the Christ unveiled in Deuteronomy.
The book of Deuteronomy unveils Christ mainly in two aspects. First, this book shows us Christ as the goal, the aim, prepared for us by God (8:7-10). As this goal, Christ is the all-inclusive good land. The good land, the land of Canaan, is a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the Christ who is everything to us.
The good land provided whatever the children of Israel needed: water, wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees, animals, milk, honey, stones, iron, copper. All these items, most of which are mentioned in 8:7-10, are types of Christ. Christ is the water flowing forth in valleys and mountains. He is the wheat, which signifies the incarnated and crucified Christ, and the barley, which signifies the resurrected Christ. The vine typifies Christ as the sacrificing One who cheers God and man; the fig tree, the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as our life supply; the pomegranate, the abundance and beauty of the life of Christ; the olive tree, Christ as the man filled with the Spirit and anointed with the Spirit as the oil of exultant joy; the animal life, Christ with His redeeming life; milk and honey, Christ in His richness and sweetness; stones, iron, and copper, Christ as the materials for building and fighting. This all-inclusive Christ, the Christ typified by the good land, is our goal.
Second, the book of Deuteronomy unveils Christ as the life with the strength and ability to reach the God-appointed goal. Therefore, Christ is both our goal and the way, the life, the strength, and the ability for us to reach the goal.
In the book of Deuteronomy, as in the Bible as a whole, God is manifested, man is exposed, and Christ is unveiled. It is rather easy to realize that the Bible manifests God to us, showing us that God is loving, righteous, and faithful and that He is a blessing God. Since the Bible fully exposes us, when we come to the Bible, it is also easy for us to see what we are and where we are. However, it is not easy for us to realize that the Bible unveils Christ. Many readers of the Bible can see that it manifests God and exposes man but do not see that it unveils Christ. Many Christians, therefore, can apply the manifestation of God and the exposure of man in the Bible, but few can apply the unveiling of Christ in the Word.
At this point, we need to consider God's economy and what God plans to do in His economy.
In His eternal economy God has planned to have Himself expressed, manifested, through man. In order to have such an expression, He created man in His own image. For God to create man in His image means that He created man according to His attributes, especially according to His attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Because human beings were created according to God's attributes, even though we have become fallen and ruined by sin, we may still have the tendency to love others, to be in the light, to do what is good, to be righteous, and to be excelling.
Since man became fallen, God in His economy also planned to redeem man and bring man back to Himself. This redemption has already been accomplished in Christ.
In His economy God also intends to annul man, to bring man to nothing through death. What is God's way to do this? God's way to annul us is to crucify us in Christ and with Christ (Rom. 6:6).
Finally, in His economy God has planned that man should do everything God requires of him. However, God does not want man to do all this by himself; He wants man to do this by Christ, in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and by being one with Christ. This means that we need to have a spiritual union, an organic union, with Christ. In order that we may enter into such a union with Christ, God wants us not only to believe in Christ but to believe into Christ (John 3:15, 16, 18). To believe into Christ is to have an organic union with Christ, becoming one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17b). In this union we are joined to Christ, we are one with Him, and we are in Him. Now as those who are one with Him and in Him, we need to do all that God requires by Christ and through Christ. No longer should we live by ourselves and do things by ourselves, but we should live by Christ and do everything by Christ.
Because Paul had a thorough realization of this, he could declare, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." Here Paul was saying, "I have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in me through His resurrection. His living in me is entirely by His being the life-giving Spirit." For Paul this was a reality, but for many Christians it is not a reality. We all need to have the reality of Galatians 2:20, realizing that God does not want us to live for Him by ourselves but to live for Him by Christ, in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and by being one with Christ.
The book of Deuteronomy surely manifests God and exposes us. This book manifests God as a God who is loving in His heart, righteous in His hand, and faithful in His mouth. Furthermore, this book manifests God as the One who blesses us through His eyes. This is the God manifested in Deuteronomy. As we read this book today, we need to realize that it concerns not only the people of Israel but also concerns us. This book exposes us, for it is a photograph of the kind of person we are. The more we are exposed, the more we will realize that we are a hopeless case, that we are nothing and can do nothing, and that it is impossible to fulfill the requirements of the holy, righteous, and faithful God.
After we have been exposed in this way, what should we do? Where can we go for help? Our help is in Christ as the word. In Deuteronomy expressions such as law, commandments, statutes, ordinances, and judgments are synonyms of Christ. Out of God's mouth have proceeded the law, the commandments, the statutes, the ordinances, and the judgments, and all of these are Christ. Christ is our law and our commandments; He is our statutes, our ordinances, and our judgments. We should simply take Him, keep Him, and hold fast to Him. If we do this, we will enjoy Him.
Where is the Christ whom we should take, keep, hold fast, and enjoy? He is in the Bible, for He is God's unique word. The law, the commandments, the statutes, the ordinances, the judgments — all these are God's word. This is proved by Psalm 119, which clearly indicates that these expressions are different terms for God's word. They have all been spoken by God and thus are things which have proceeded out of God's mouth (Deut. 8:3). Now we need to see that the words which proceed out of the mouth of God are Christ. Christ is the totality, the aggregate, of God's word. This is the reason that He is even called the Word (John 1:1, 14). In the beginning was the Word, the Word was God, the Word was incarnated, and this incarnated Word is Jesus Christ.
God's word has been written down in the Bible. Do you know what the Bible is? The Bible is the embodiment of Christ. Christ is every word, phrase, clause, and sentence. "All Scripture is God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16a). Therefore, we may say that the Bible is something exhaled by God. Now we need to inhale what God has exhaled. When we inhale the word of God and it enters into our being, this inhaled word becomes the Spirit. When we exhale what we have inhaled of the Bible by speaking it to others, it is the word. When others inhale this word, it becomes the Spirit to them. It is by the Christ as the word which we inhale that we can fulfill God's requirements.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ"; in 1 Corinthians 15:10 he says, "Not I, but the grace of God." In the first part of this verse Paul tells us, "By the grace of God I am what I am." This grace is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit to bring the processed Triune God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may live in resurrection. Thus, grace is the Triune God becoming life and everything to us.
In 2 Corinthians 13:14 grace is related to love and fellowship. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." The love, grace, and fellowship here correspond to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in Matthew 28:19. On the one hand, we baptize people into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, we may also say that we are baptizing people into the love, the grace, and the fellowship. With the Father we have love; with the Son, love and grace; and with the Holy Spirit, love, grace, and fellowship. This means that to have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is to have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with the love of God. This is the Triune God by whom we fulfill God's requirements for the carrying out of His economy.
The crucial matter that we need to realize is that God wants us to live, act, behave, work, and have our being in Christ, by Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and in oneness with Christ. We all should be able to say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."
Every servant of the Lord should match Him. But in ourselves and by ourselves we can neither match Him nor serve Him. We are utterly lacking the capacity to do this. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. How can we match God or serve Him? As far as we are concerned, this is impossible, but it is possible through the Triune God embodied in the Son, who is realized as the Spirit. This Spirit is everywhere, yet He is embodied in the Bible for us to inhale that we may do all things in Christ and by Christ.
We should not try in ourselves to do anything for God. Rather, we should hate and reject our effort to serve God and match Him, for it is actually abominable in the sight of God. Yes, God wants us to fulfill His economy, but He does not want us to do this by ourselves. God's desire is that we cast ourselves aside, forget ourselves, and fulfill His economy by the Spirit, that is, by the realization of the Son, who is the embodiment of the Father. We should live, act, behave, work, and have our being by the very Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. Then it will be no longer we who live but Christ who lives within us.
In Romans 10:8 Paul refers to "the word of the faith which we preach." This word of faith includes repentance, returning to God, holding fast to God, and believing into the Triune God in order to have an organic union with Him and to live together with Him as one. Are you living? Are you behaving and working? To these questions we should be able to say, "Yes, I am living, behaving, and working, but I am doing this not in myself and by myself but in Christ and by Christ. I am living in the organic union with the Triune God." This is the Christian life, this is the church life, the Body, and, ultimately, this will be our life for eternity in the New Jerusalem. In the Christian life and in the church life, it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us.
