Scripture Reading: Job 10:2, 8-9, 13; Eph. 3:9
We have pointed out that the forty-two chapters of the book of Job leave us with a twofold question concerning the purpose of God in creating man and the purpose of God in dealing with His chosen people. The answer to this question is found not in the Old Testament but in the New Testament. This answer is the eternal economy of God for His dispensing of Himself into His chosen people.
The economy of God consists of ten main items. The first three items are the incarnation of the Triune God, the living of the Triune God in humanity on earth, and the all-inclusive death of Christ which He died on the cross to solve all the problems and to terminate all the negative things in the universe. The fourth item is the life-dispensing resurrection of Christ, in which Christ in His humanity was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God to bring in many more sons after Him, in which the Triune God in humanity became the life-giving Spirit for the divine dispensing, and in which all the believers in Christ were regenerated to be sons of God and members of Christ. The fifth item is the ascension of Christ with the pouring out of the consummated Spirit to produce the church. The remaining five items are the church of God, the Body of Christ, the new man, the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God, and the New Jerusalem. All the other items unveiled in the New Testament are related to these ten main items either directly or indirectly.
Whenever Christians stress anything other than these ten items that constitute God's economy, many different schools of opinion are brought in, resulting in divisions among the believers. For example, some emphasize baptism by immersion, a New Testament teaching but not one of the ten basic items in God's economy. This emphasis has issued not only in a denomination devoted to baptism by immersion but also in disputes about the kind of water that should be used, about whether one should be baptized backward, forward, or downward, and about whether baptism should be in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or simply in the name of Jesus. Other believers argue about matters such as presbytery (the management of the church by the elders) and about what kind of musical instruments, if any, may be used in the church meetings. Years ago I was told that a certain Brethren assembly was divided over the issue of whether a piano or an organ should be used in their meetings. This kind of situation is widespread among today's Christians. Hardly anyone holds to the eternal economy of God for the divine dispensing.
We need to learn the items of God's economy not merely objectively, in a doctrinal way, but subjectively, in an experiential way. We need to consider how to experience all these items. How can we experience Christ's incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension? How can we have the experience of being a part of the church, the Body of Christ, the new man, and the organism of the Triune God? How can we, in a practical, experiential way, become a part of the New Jerusalem in eternity?
If we would know these ten items experientially, we need to see that they all refer to the one unique God. We have only one God, but this unique God is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. The Father is in the Son; the Son is in the Father; the Spirit is in both the Father and the Son; and both the Father and the Son are in the Spirit. The three not only coexist (exist together at the same time) but also coinhere (dwell in one another). No one can separate them. Among the Father, the Son, and the Spirit there is a distinction, but there is no separation. Because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere, when the Father is present, the Son and the Spirit also are present.
Before the incarnation the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were the one God in eternity, who had not yet been processed. But by passing through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, this unique God was processed. These five steps were the five sections of His process. By passing through these five sections of His process, the unique Triune God was processed and consummated to be today's Triune God.
Today's Triune God is altogether consummated in the Spirit. The Spirit is the last of the three of the Divine Trinity. This consummated Spirit is actually the consummation of the Triune God. As the all-inclusive Spirit, He is the consummation, the aggregate, of the Triune God. When we receive Him, we receive the Son and the Father. This Spirit is the Son, and this Spirit is also the Father. All three — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — are the all-inclusive Spirit. Our God is the consummated Spirit. Our Father, our Lord, our Master, our Redeemer, and our Savior is the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is all-inclusive, compounded, and consummated. Even now He is within us.
In the New Testament we are charged to be regenerated by this Spirit and to receive the divine life through this Spirit. Then we need to live, to walk, by this Spirit, and we need to experience Christ, to enjoy God the Father, and even to enjoy the fullness of the Triune God by doing everything according to the Spirit. As long as we do everything according to the Spirit, we can experience Christ's incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension with the outpouring of the Spirit. This will cause us to be the church of God, the Body of Christ, the new man, and the organism of the Triune God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
In our daily living we should not be in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but should be in the realm of the life-giving Spirit. We should not do anything according to good and evil. Instead, we should do everything according to the Spirit by being one spirit with the Lord. For instance, we need to be one spirit with the Lord in our speaking. Before I speak for the Lord, I pray one simple prayer: "Lord, be one spirit with me that I may be one spirit with You. Lord, speak in my speaking and make my speaking Your speaking." This is to live in the dispensing of the eternal economy of God. When we live and speak in this way, we enjoy the divine dispensing, and Christ increases within us. Christ grows in us and we grow in Christ. Eventually, this growth will reach the full extent.
Suppose there is a problem between you and your spouse. You should not do anything, for whatever you do will be in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You should simply pray-read Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." Do not care for the problem or your anger — just care for Christ living in you. This should be our way in everything.
The book of Job contains many vain words, words of accusation and vindication. As we read this book we need to be mindful of God's economy. We need to see that God's eternal economy, which is the answer to the question raised by Job, is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity — in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit — through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension with the outpouring of the Spirit to produce the church, the Body of Christ, the new man, and the organism of the Triune God, which will issue in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
