Christ is our Redeeming Husband and we’re made the Continuation of Christ’s Incarnation

Ruth gaining Boaz to be her redeeming husband shows us that we believers in Christ have gained Christ as our redeeming Husband; Ruth becoming part of the genealogy of Christ shows that we today should be part of the continuation of the incarnation of Christ. Amen!

First, Ruth chose for her goal – she chose to be with God’s people, even forsaking her own people and her own background and joined herself to Ruth to be part of her people, the people of God.

Second, Ruth exercised her right – she was a widow, a sojourner, and a poor person, so she exercised her right to glean after the reapers.

Third, she sought for her rest – she went along with Naomi’s suggestion to pursue Boaz, and she obtained Boaz as her husband, thus entering into rest and satisfaction.

Fourth, Ruth received a reward for God’s economy, for her son became the grandfather of King David, and thus she became part of the lineage who brought forth Christ in humanity.

We are like Ruth: we were born in sin and offenses, alienated from the life of God, and we were estranged from the commonwealth of Israel, the earthly people of God.

However, the Lord came and saved us, and He qualified us to partake of the all-inclusive Christ.

We who were sinners and rebellious ones, now we are qualified to partake of our allotted portion of Christ, and whenever we apply the blood of Christ, we have the right to eat Christ as the tree of life.

We can exercise the right to enjoy the rich harvest of Christ and also enjoy the gleaning of Christ, eating Him and partaking of His riches both personally and with the saints, so that we may become His fullness for His expression corporately.

Furthermore, we need to love the Lord as our Husband and marry Him in the church as our home.

Thank the Lord that He has brought us in the church life, our home; here we enjoy Christ, eat Christ, pursue Christ, and partake of Christ, and here we love the Lord as our Husband, living a sweet marriage life with the Lord as our Husband. Hallelujah!

As we take the Lord as our Husband, enjoying Him in love in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, He heads us up in Himself, and we live in the organic union with the Lord.

The result of all this is that we receive a reward for God’s economy: we become the continuation of the incarnation of Christ, for we continue the book of Acts to be Jesus living again on earth. Hallelujah.

The Lord wants us to become part of His continuation, even His incarnation on earth; He wants to live again in us, and we can be the continuation of the incarnation of Christ on earth today. Hallelujah!

As Believers in Christ, we have gained Christ as our Redeeming Husband who Rescues us from all our Problems

Chapter 4 of Ruth speaks of Ruth’s receiving a reward for God’s economy; as part of her reward, she gained a redeeming husband – Boaz.

Boaz typifies Christ as the redeeming Husband of the believers.

In Ruth 3:12 Boaz told Ruth that he is a kinsman, but there’s another kinsman closer than him; the first kinsman of Ruth’s husband – Ruth’s closest kinsman – typifies our natural man.

Our natural man, just like Ruth’s closest kinsman, cannot and will not redeem us from the indebtedness (sin) of our old man.

However, Boaz (who typifies Christ) is our Kinsman, and He can redeem us from our sin, recover our lost right of our natural man in God’s creation, be our new Husband in His divine organic union with us, and take us as His counterpart for His increase (Ruth 4:7-13).

Christ partook of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14) to come in the likeness of the flesh of sin yet without sin, and He redeemed us from our sin, recovered the lost right of our natural man in God’s creation, became our new Husband in His organic union with us, and made us His counterpart for His increase.

Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have gained Christ as our Redeeming Husband!

Our old man was supposed to redeem us, but he is unwilling, impotent, and not able to do it; but Christ as our redeeming Husband is more than willing to redeem us!

Hallelujah, as believers in Christ we have a Husband who is our eternal, present, and daily Redeemer! Christ as our redeeming Husband is rescuing us, delivering us, and saving us from all our troubles.

Simply by living in the flesh and on earth, we get into so many troubles; simply by living a human life on earth, we are surrounded and involved in many problems, issues, and situations, and we cannot get out of them neither can we save ourselves from them.

But praise the Lord, Christ came to redeem us. And He is our Husband, for Isa. 54:5 clearly says that our Redeemer is our Husband.

The Holy One of Israel is our Redeemer, and our Maker is our Husband. Christ is our redeeming Husband.

Just like Ruth, we need someone to redeem us from the indebtedness of our dead husband (Ruth 4:1-9) – we need someone to redeem us from the sin of our old man.

According to Rom. 6:6 and 7:2-4, our old man is our old husband, who is dead through faith in Christ and baptism.

God created us to be His wife, but we rebelled against Him – we gave Him up and assumed the position of a husband for ourselves.

Our old man was our old husband; God created us to be His wife, but we rejected Him and chose our old man to be our person and our husband.

But praise the Lord, according to Rom. 6:6, our old man has been crucified with Christ!

Since our old husband, the old man, died, we as the wife are free from the law – we are free to be joined to Christ, our redeeming Husband.

We need to see that our old man has been crucified and is dead, and we are joined to Christ.

Rom. 7:4 speaks of a funeral and a wedding: our old man is dead, and we are married to Christ, our redeeming Husband, for we have been raised from the dead so that we may bear fruit to God.

Our sinful husband, our old man, encumbered us with many debts, but on the day that we married Christ, we received a Husband who is our almighty, omnipotent Redeemer!

No one can redeem us from our sin, the debt of our sin, but Christ came to be our redeeming Husband, and we can apply this simply by habitually telling Him, Lord Jesus, I need You!

How we love the Lord as our almighty, omnipotent redeeming Husband who loves us and redeems us – He rescues us from all troubles!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we need You! We take You as our redeeming Husband. We cannot redeem ourselves; we are full of debt to sin because of our old man but we can’t redeem ourselves. We come to You, dear Lord, and we tell You that we need You! We need You to come and deliver, rescue, and save us from sin and from all the troubles! We need You so much! We love You, our redeeming Husband, who loved us so much that He died for us and is now saving us constantly! Amen, Lord, we praise You for joining us to Yourself in marriage so that we may enjoy You and partake of You! We come to You again and again to tell You how much we need You! We need You and we love You, our dear redeeming Husband!

Every day of our Christian life should be a Continuation of Christ’s Incarnation by Ministering Christ as the Spirit into Man

The second aspect of Ruth’s reward in God’s economy is that she became a crucial ancestor in the genealogy of Jesus; out of her union with Boaz came king David and later Christ Himself.

She became a crucial ancestor in the genealogy to bring in the royal house of David for the producing of Christ (Ruth 4:13-22; Matt. 1:5-16).

This indicates that she had an all-inclusive and all-extensive gain with the position and capacity to bring Christ into the human race.

She became a great link in the chain that is bringing Christ to every corner of the earth.

Think about it: if it wasn’t for Ruth, we would not be here today. We need to exercise our spirit in prayer to thank the Lord for such a person as Ruth, and we need to ask the Lord to make us like Ruth today.

Ruth not only became a crucial ancestor in the genealogy that produced Christ; she also continued the line of the God-created humanity for the incarnation of Christ.

The incarnation of Christ was a matter of His being brought out of eternity into time and with His divinity into humanity.

This is wonderful. How does this apply to us? We are like Ruth today: we need to live the kind of life and have the kind of experience needed for the producing of Christ, the bringing forth of Christ.

Every day of our Christian life should be a continuation of Christ’s incarnation; every day we need to produce Christ by living Christ and by infusing Christ as the Spirit into others.

We need to live Christ, and we need to bring Christ forth in order to be born into others through our ministering Christ as the Spirit into them (2 Cor. 3:6).

As believers in Christ, we have Christ living in us, and we need to minister Christ into others.

We need to be ministers of the new covenant – ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.

In order for us to minister life to others so that Christ would continue His incarnation in man, we need to speak for Christ, to speak forth Christ, and to speak Christ into others (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:1).

How can we minister Christ to others so that He would be incarnated again in them and live through them?

It is by speaking Him forth, by speaking Christ into people so that He may minister life to them for their regeneration, transformation, growth in life, and maturity and building up.

When we enjoy Christ and are filled with Christ when we have Him living in us and speaking in us, we will speak Him forth; this speaking of Christ will change us and those who hear us.

When we speak Christ into others, this will change us, and it will also change those whom we care for so that both us and they would be metabolically transformed into His image.

When we behold Christ, we are infused with Him, and we reflect Him to others; when we reflect Christ to others, we minister Him into others.

As we are being transformed, we behold the Lord and reflect Him, and we reflect Him into others for them also to be transformed.

We have this ministry – we have the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of dispensing the Spirit into others.

The ministry we have is to turn our heart to the Lord in our spirit, behold Him to be infused with Him, and reflect Him to infuse Him into others for His corporate glory, His complete and full expression in the universe. Amen!

This corporate expression is today the reality of the Body of Christ and it consummates in the New Jerusalem for eternity.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us to regenerate us with the divine life and make us part of Your continuation, Your reproduction. Hallelujah, we are God-men, and Christ lives in us for the continuation of God being manifested in the flesh. Amen, Lord, may every day of our Christian life be a continuation of Christ’s incarnation! May Christ be wrought into us daily and may He be lived out of us for His expression in man. We want to cooperate with You to minister Christ as the Spirit to others for both us and them to be transformed into the same image as Christ! Amen, Lord, make us part of Your corporate expression on earth today, the reality of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ruth, msg. 5, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 10, Ruth’s Choosing for Her Goal, Exercising Her Right, Seeking for Her Rest, and Receiving a Reward for God’s Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – I know that my Redeemer lives, / A quick’ning Spirit He; / I know eternal life He gives— / Amazing grace—to me. (Hymns #597)
  – Our old man has been crucified with Christ; / Yes, all we are in oldness He sufficed / To bring to naught upon the cross that He / Himself as our new Husband fully be / Enjoyed by us. (Hymns #1140)
  – I will sing of my Redeemer, / And His heav’nly love to me; / He from death to life hath brought me, / Son of God with Him to be. (Hymns #305)