EXCERPTS FROM THE MINISTRY

WHAT GRACE DOES FOR US

Let us now consider according to the New Testament what this grace has done for us and what it will do for us. Although man was created in God’s image and likeness in order to express Him and represent Him, man became fallen. In the fall man not only did something wrong outwardly, but the very nature of sin was injected into man’s being. Hence, outwardly we are sinful, and inwardly we are evil. Before the righteous God, our conduct is sinful, and in the eyes of the holy God, our nature is evil. Furthermore, there is nothing we can do about our situation. It is utterly foolish for fallen man to go to the law and endeavor to keep it. Even if we could keep the law, what would we do about our evil nature? How we must praise God for His grace and for what it has done for us! First, the Triune God became incarnated to live on earth to fulfill the requirements of God’s righteous and holy law. Having fulfilled the law’s requirements, He went to the cross and died there for our sins as our substitute. Through His death Christ has redeemed us. Therefore, redemption is the first item of what God’s grace has accomplished for us.

After accomplishing redemption through His death, Christ was resurrected from among the dead to release the divine life from within Him. In resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit to be received by those who will appreciate Him, love Him, believe in Him, call on Him, and repent. As soon as a sinner responds to Him in this way, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into that one and through regeneration is born in him. Is this not an aspect of God’s grace? It is the second item of what God’s grace has done for us.

Third, from the time of our regeneration, Christ has been dwelling in our spirit to live in us and with us. By living in us, Christ enables us to have the kind of living that satisfies God. In His grace, Christ lives in us and with us.

As Christ lives within us, He also ministers all His riches into our being in order to sanctify us, transform us, and make us sons of God in reality and practicality. In this way, we enjoy full sonship.

Fifth, at the appointed time, Christ will come back and saturate our physical body with His element. This will cause our body to be transfigured into a glorious body, a body which is the same as Christ’s resurrection body. Certainly this is another aspect of God’s grace. By saturating us, Christ will glorify us and be glorified in us. He will bring us all into His glory, where we shall be exactly the same as He is, in spirit, soul, and body.

Finally, in eternity and for eternity we shall enjoy Christ as the living water and as the tree of life.

This description of what the grace of God is to us covers the entire New Testament from the opening of Matthew to the end of Revelation. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension in order to come into us, to be one with us, and to be everything to us. Now He is our redemption, salvation, life, living, sanctification, and transformation, and He will become our conformation, our glorification, and our eternity. This is the portion of the saints in light (Col. 1:12).

ENJOYING GRACE

We cannot enjoy God’s grace in full in one day or even in a lifetime. It will take eternity for us to have the full enjoyment of this grace. This is the very grace which came when the Lord Jesus came, and this is the grace we need day by day. Praise the Lord that this is the grace we find by approaching the throne of grace daily to meet our timely need. Every morning we should look to the Lord and pray, “Lord, grant me Your grace today. I need today’s portion of Your grace. May grace be with me and with all my brothers and sisters.” Oh, we all need to pray like this! Then we shall experience grace, the grace who is the very Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit for our enjoyment.

In 2:21 Paul says, “For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ has died for nothing.” Christ died for us that we may have righteousness in Him, through which we may receive the divine life (Rom. 5:18, 21). This righteousness is not through the law, but through the death of Christ. If righteousness is through the law, Christ has died without cause, for nothing. But righteousness is through Christ’s death, which has separated us from law. Now, according to Romans 5:17, we who “receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Grace enables us to reign in life.

It is the grace of God that Christ has imparted the divine life into us through the life-giving Spirit. Not to live by this Spirit is to nullify the grace of God. To nullify God’s grace is to reject the processed Triune God who has become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The Judaizers wanted the Galatian believers to go back to the law. To return to the law is to nullify the grace of God. It is to deny and reject the processed Triune God. Furthermore, it is also to fail to experience and enjoy such a processed God. By this we can see that to nullify the grace of God by returning to the law is extremely serious.

GOD’S ECONOMY

In their blindness the Judaizers were foolish. If they had seen what the grace of God is, they would not have been Judaizers. But because they were blind, they zealously endeavored to turn people away from Christ. They failed to realize that it is not God’s economy that His chosen people keep the law. God’s economy is for His people to enjoy the Triune God who has been processed to become the life-giving Spirit through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. In His economy God intends that His people enjoy Himself as such a Triune God and become one with Him. Then His people will be one in the divine life to express God corporately. This corporate expression of the Triune God is the church life. The ultimate issue of this will be the New Jerusalem, the corporate expression of the Triune God in eternity.

If we see this vision of God’s economy, how could we go back to the law? How could we turn away from the Triune God who has been processed to become our grace? No wonder Paul said that the Galatians were foolish. In their folly they were nullifying the grace of God.

STANDING IN GRACE

If we would be those who do not nullify the grace of God, we need to abide in Christ (John 15:4-5). To abide in Christ is to remain in the processed Triune God. Furthermore, we need to enjoy Christ, especially by eating Him (John 6:57b). Then we should go on to be one spirit with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17), to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), to deny the natural “I” (2:20), and to abandon the flesh (5:24). We should not be distracted by things such as the law, circumcision, the Sabbath, and dietary regulations. Rather, we should enjoy Christ and live with Him in one spirit. If we walk in spirit, deny the natural “I,” and abandon the flesh, we shall be those who do not nullify the grace of God.

We praise the Lord that in His recovery we are enjoying and experiencing His grace. Many Christians, however, are not in the experience of this grace. In Romans 5:2 Paul says that by faith we have access into this grace in which we stand. Let us stand fast in the grace into which we have entered.