Build up Christ to Work our Own salvation for the Body of Christ, God’s Masterpiece

We need to be those who build up Christ to work our own salvation for the Body of Christ, God’s poem, His masterpiece!

Like Noah, we need to be those who receive the revelation from God, walk with God, do the work that changes the age by building the present Christ as our salvation into whom we enter, and end this age one with God to bring in the new age, the age of the kingdom; this is all in grace and by grace. Amen!

May we be those who find grace in the eyes of the Lord day by day.

As we live our Christian life and church life, as we take care of our daily activities, and as we do this and that, we need to seek the Lord, contact Him, and find grace in His eyes.

When we find grace in the eyes of the Lord, His grace is sufficient for us.

We may go through tough times or we may just live our daily life, but His grace will be all that we need, and the enjoyment of Christ will cause us to become His overcomers.

We may have a thorn in our flesh, and we may have asked the Lord many times to remove it, but He may not do anything about it; we simply need to take grace.

Yes, the pain is there, and yes, the suffering is present, but His grace abounds unto us, for in the enjoyment of Christ we find a rich supply to not only go through things but also more than overcome. Hallelujah!

The grace of the Lord Jesus is everything that we need. By this grace we can live, by this grace, we can labor, and this grace we can and should minister to others. His grace abounds unto us, especially in times of trials and sufferings.

And He will make us a masterpiece, a poem, a universal display of His riches by His grace.

Amen, by grace we labor for the Lord, and in the power of His grace, we labor for the Lord in the church life.

We need to enjoy the Lord as grace to the extent that it is not us but Christ and until it is no longer us who labor but the grace of Christ which is with us.

Hallelujah for the grace with our spirit!

There may be a great need to take care of this or that, and we labor in the Lord not because we are capable and smart but because of the grace of God which abounds unto us. Hallelujah!

By the power of grace, the strength of grace, and the life of grace, we can be right with God and with one another.

When we live by the power of grace and have the living of grace, the result is righteousness with God and with man.

Objective righteousness issues in grace, and grace produces subjective righteousness (Heb. 11:7; Rom. 5:17, 21).

When we come to the Lord and apply His precious blood, we receive righteousness objectively; this righteousness issues in our enjoyment of Christ as grace, and this grace produces subjective righteousness.

May we be those who enjoy God as grace, live by grace, labor in the power of the grace, have the living of grace, and are right with God and with man today.

We need to Build up Christ to Work out our Own Salvation to Enter into Him!

Noah was one who found grace in the eyes of the Lord; he received the revelation of the ark, and he realized that God wants to utterly destroy that evil and corrupted generation.

Therefore, he worked out his own salvation in that age by working together with God and with his family to build an ark for his salvation.

He already obtained the testimony that he was righteous before God even before he started to build the ark; however, he still needed to work out his salvation, to build the ark, so that he would be saved from that crooked and perverted generation.

In this way, he worked out his own salvation and entered into that which he has built, and this became his salvation; he was one who ended that age and brought in the new age.

Like Noah, we need to have a present and practical Christ whom we can enter into; we shouldn’t have just a historical Christ or a Christ of distance.

We need to receive the revelation of God’s heart’s desire, realize that He wants to end this age and so He needs the overcomers, and we need to build up Christ as the ark, our practical salvation, into whom we will enter when He returns.

As believers in Christ, we are saved, but we still need to work out our own salvation (Phil. 2:12).

On one hand, we are saved eternally; on the other hand, we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

God’s salvation is not something brief, simple, or easy or short; His salvation has a long span and comprises many things.

We need to enter into God’s salvation through regeneration and continue to work out our salvation all the way to the end of God’s salvation, the salvation of our soul and our body.

Today we’re in the process of God’s full salvation, in the passage of God’s salvation; our going through this passage is our working with Christ and on Christ; we need to build up Christ as our practical salvation day by day.

Like Noah, we need to “build the ark” by experiencing Christ, enjoying Christ, and having fellowship with Christ day by day, even moment by moment, until He is built up in our experience.

The more we work out our own salvation, the more we have of Christ into whom we can enter.

The more Noah built the ark by cooperating with God in that age according to the vision of that age, the more he could enter into the ark to be saved from that evil and crooked generation.

Similarly, we will enter into that which we work out today; if we work out our own salvation by laboring on Christ, enjoying Christ, and living by the grace of Christ so that we may build up Christ in our experience, we will have something of Christ into which we can enter when He returns.

The Christ whom we are building up will become our future salvation; one day, under God’s sovereignty, everything will be manifested, and we will enter into the very Christ whom we have built up.

But if we don’t build up Christ as the Ark in our experience to have a practical, daily salvation, if we don’t spend time with the Lord every day to enjoy Him and partake of Him, and if we don’t fellowship with the Lord constantly, we don’t have Christ in our experience to abide in Him.

If from Monday to Saturday we don’t love the Lord, we don’t contact Him, and we don’t live by Him or walk together with Him, how can we have something of Christ to enter into and minister to others as grace when we meet on the Lord’s day? Oh, Lord.

We all need to have a practical and present Christ to abide in; therefore, we all need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, and we need to build up Christ in our experience to be our practical, daily salvation.

We need to have Him not only in doctrine, in our mind, or in our thoughts; we need to have Him in our experiences to be one with Him, fellowship with Him, and live one with Him.

The Lord exposes us in the matter of our living and our experience, for we do not work on Christ so much; therefore, when we meet with the saints or when the test comes, we don’t have something of Christ in practicality to abide into. Oh, Lord!

May we build up Christ in our experience so that we may enter into Him as our salvation today and when He returns!

To build up the ark is to build up Christ as grace in our experience for the building up of the corporate Christ, the church, as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:11-16); this is to work out our own salvation so that we may be saved from God’s judgment on this crooked and perverted generation and be ushered into a new age, the age of the millennium (Phil. 2:12-16; Heb. 11:7; Matt. 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27).

Lord Jesus, thank You for saving us and giving us Your eternal life to be forever saved! Hallelujah, we are children of God, regenerated with His life and nature to be with Him forever! Amen, Lord, we want to work out our own salvation day by day, with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure! Yes, Lord, operate in us. We open to Your inner operation. We want to fellowship with You, contact You, and abide in you throughout the day so that we may have Christ built up in our experience for Him to become our practical, daily salvation. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we all build up Christ in our experience so that we may have Him as our salvation into whom we can enter today and in the day of the Lord’s return!

The Ultimate Product of the Grace of God in His Economy is the Body of Christ as God’s Poem to be the New Jerusalem!

What is the consummation, the ultimate product, the final item of the work of the grace of God in His economy?

The consummate and ultimate product of the grace of God in His economy is the Body of Christ as God’s poem to be the New Jerusalem!

Hallelujah, the New Jerusalem will be the consummation of God’s righteousness in the new heaven and new earth, and for eternity the riches of God Himself for our enjoyment will surpass every limit and will be publicly displayed (Eph. 2:7-10; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 22:21). Wow!

The product of the grace of God in His economy is a poem, His masterpiece (Eph. 2:10); this is not just man and not just God, not just the earth and not just the heaven, but the Body of Christ.

God is working to obtain a masterpiece, the best thing He could come up with – the Body of Christ in this age consummating in the New Jerusalem for eternity.

The church, the Body of Christ, is God’s poem. According to and in His economy, God wants to obtain the Body of Christ as a poem, a masterpiece, for Him to exhibit the surpassing riches of the grace of God in His economy (v. 7).

God’s grace is rich, abounding, multiplying, and increasing); His grace is unto us and with us, with our spirit, and the more we enjoy and experience the grace of God in the economy of God, the more we become part of and build up the church as the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ is God’s masterpiece. Christianity has not seen this and accordingly, they do not have such a result.

In the Lord’s recovery, however, we need to see that this is what God is after, and we need to work out our own salvation, build up Christ in our experience, and live in and by the grace of God so that we may be part of God’s masterpiece.

On one hand, we grieve for the condition of Christianity and even for the condition among us today, for there may be quite a lot of arguments, discussions, and a lack of vision.

We may wonder, Where is the glorious city today, the prepared bride of Christ for whom He can return?

Where is the group of people who experience and enjoy grace in their living, works, words, and actions?

If we are those who build up Christ in our experience by our enjoyment of the grace of God in the economy of God, we will see a consummation, the Body of Christ.

May we examine and consider our condition today; may the Lord be merciful to us.

Grace is with our spirit, and we need to be like Paul, refusing anything else besides Christ and enjoying only God in Christ as grace.

Like Paul, may we take the processed and consummated Triune God as grace in our living and work today.

Our total living should be a living of grace, not a matter of being right or wrong, doing good vs doing evil.

We take Him as our everything, and we enjoy the grace of God. May the Lord richly bless His churches and His saints.

May we continually receive the rich and abundant grace of God being transmitted to us both personally and together as the church.

May we have a new beginning every day, turning to our spirit, coming to the throne of grace, and depending on the Lord.

Hallelujah, grace is with our spirit, and we just need to turn to Him, enjoy Him, and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling so that we may build up Christ in our experience.

May we be those who see the vision of the age and are one with the Lord to work out our own salvation by the grace of God, by the enjoyment and experience of Christ as grace, so that we may live by the grace, work by the grace, and express and minister grace in our living.

One day, in His wisdom, the grace of God will be displayed fully for all to see; everyone in the universe will see the riches of God’s grace.

Until then, may we enjoy and experience Him as grace in our daily living to hasten His return!

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to enjoy and experience You as grace today for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, may Your rich and abundant grace be our portion day by day, even moment by moment. We reject anything of good or evil, right or wrong, and we choose life. Lord Jesus, be merciful to us that we may experience the grace of God as we build up Christ in our experience to work out our own salvation for the consummation of God’s salvation! Yes, Lord, gain the ultimate product of grace in Your economy, the Body of Christ as God’s poem to be the New Jerusalem! Keep us enjoying the riches of God in our daily life until we become a rich exhibition of Your riches to the whole universe for all to see!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1983, vol. 2, “The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,” chs. 2-3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Grace of God in the Economy of God (2022 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 5, entitled, Receiving Grace upon Grace for Grace to Be Enthroned within Us So That We May Reign in Life to Become God’s Poem, the New Jerusalem, as the Ultimate and Consummate Product of the Grace of God in His Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – May we be the generation / God will use to turn this age, / Blameless in our generations, / Those who walk with God and consecrate. / Noah walked with God and found favor in His sight, / Noah walked with God and found grace in His eyes, / Now today we can also find favor in His sight, / Let us find grace in Jehovah’s eyes. (Song on, Finding Grace in God’s Eyes)
  – The ark was just God’s testimony on the earth that time. / For God had found a corporate man through whom His light could shine. / He needed something built through which He’d fully be expressed, / And now it is the local church where God is manifest. / Be careful lest this age would lead you from God’s heart’s desire. / For Jesus’ testimony must set all our hearts afire. / The local churches are the ark, God’s testimony true. / For this we leave the age behind and give our hearts anew. (Hymns #1268)
  – To the spirit turn, and the incense burn, / Touch the living fountain of life; / To the spirit turn, and the incense burn, / Touch the living fountain of life. / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / Touch the living fountain of life; / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / Touch the living fountain of life. (Hymns #770)