The resurrected Christ is the holy and faithful things of David given to us as a gift for us to enjoy, experience, and participate in, and for us also to preach and give to others as the gospel.
In Acts 13 Paul preaches the gospel of the firstborn Son of God, the only begotten Son who became the firstborn Son in resurrection to lead many sons into glory. This gospel brings in the holy and faithful things of David, the things that were promised to him in a person who would come out of his seed and would be the Son of God.
What an amazing fact and what a high peak of the divine revelation!
God became man through incarnation, so that, in the case of Jesus Christ, He would make man God through death, resurrection, and ascension. A man became God, that is, a man was brought into God and became God in life, nature, expression, and function. Hallelujah!
Now this man, Jesus Christ, is also a life-giving Spirit to impart, dispense, and distribute His life into all those who would believe into Him.
Whenever someone hears the gospel and believes into the Lord, he is saved, that is, he is regenerated with the divine life and brought into the kingdom of God. This one, the one who believes, becomes a son of God by faith, part of the spiritual people of God, and a brother of Christ to be a living and functioning member of the Body of Christ.
We preach the gospel of the firstborn Son of God for this purpose, for God to obtain many sons, genuine sons begotten of God just like the Lord Jesus Christ, and these sons to be led through the process of regeneration, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification by the firstborn Son to be glorified sons of God, expressing Him in full corporately. Hallelujah!
Christ is not only our Savior who saves us from eternal perdition and brings us into the kingdom of God through redemption and regeneration, but He’s also the firstborn Son of God to perfect us, transform us, and lead us into glory, and even to come back together with us to terminate human government and bring in the kingdom of God. Amen!
Today we want to see even further what this Christ is to us – He is the holy and faithful things of David to us, that is, He is the holy and trustworthy things, the mercies of God to us.
Our Christ is so much to us, for He is the all-inclusive One, and through resurrection His all-inclusiveness is now available for us to enjoy, experience, and take in, and we can even preach this all-inclusive Christ as our gospel for all human beings to enjoy Him by receiving Him and experiencing Him!
Seeing how the Resurrected Christ, the All-inclusive One, is the Holy and Faithful Things
The holy and sure things of David are the resurrected Christ. Christ is the faithful and holy things of David, for in resurrection He became these things to God’s people.
The resurrected Christ is the mercies and blessings God gives to us in this age. He is the holy and faithful things for us to enjoy, experience, and partake of, so that we may preach Him as such a One to others.
God raised up Christ from the dead, no longer to return to corruption, and He gave Him as the holy and faithful things of David (Acts 13:34).
On one hand resurrection brought Christ forth as the Firstborn Son of God, being His second birth to bring Him forth as the fulfilment of the promise God made to David concerning his seed. On the other hand, Christ is the holy and faithful things of David, the fulfilment of these things that are holy, trustworthy, and faithful. To God Christ is the firstborn Son, and to us He is the Savior.
Even more, to us Christ is a gift, a present, given to us by God – He is the holy things, the faithful things.
What are these holy and faithful things that Christ is? These are all the aspects of what the resurrected Christ as the all-inclusive One is to us. These things were promised in Isa. 55:3 and fulfilled in the New Testament as the all-inclusive Christ in resurrection.
Christ was incarnated to bring God as grace to us (John 1:14, 16-17), and He was crucified and resurrected to become the sure mercies to us in resurrection.
Because our situation was miserable and we could not match God’s grace, Christ as the embodiment of grace became the sure mercies of God to us and through these sure mercies we are now in a proper position to match God’s grace and receive Him as grace. Hallelujah!
As the sure mercies of God, the resurrected Christ became the base of God’s justification to His believers (Acts 13:34-39; Rom. 4:25).
Based on such a justification in Christ’s resurrection, the believers can be sanctified by enjoying Christ, the son of David (Matt. 1:1), as God’s sure mercies, that is, as the Holy One who did not see corruption (Acts 13:35). Praise the Lord!
All the holy and faithful things are Christ Himself as mercies to us (see Isa. 55:3; 2 Chron. 6:42; Psa. 89:1). According to the New Testament, Christ is our life, our light, our grace, our righteousness, our holiness, our sanctification, and our justification.
Christ is the bread of life, the living bread, the living water, and the Shepherd. All these are the holy and faithful things that Christ is to us.
In 1 Corinthians we see more of Christ as the holy and faithful things, for here He’s revealed as power, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, glory, the depths of God, the unique foundation of God’s building, the Passover, the unleavened bread, the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, the spiritual rock, the Head, the Body, the firstfruits, the second man, and the last Adam.
In the gospel of John we see that Christ is our pasture, our Shepherd, our way into God, our truth, our life, and the gate for us enter into God’s kingdom, the church life. The all-inclusive Christ in resurrection became the holy and faithful things to us for our enjoyment day by day.
We need to receive these gifts from God, that is, receive Christ from God and enjoy Him, experience Him, and be filled with Him, so that He may overflow through us as these holy and faithful things to others as the gospel.
Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming the holy and faithful things to us for our enjoyment and experience. We want to enjoy You, Lord, as the all-inclusive One in resurrection to be the holy, faithful, sure, and trustworthy things to us. Lord, we take You as our power, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, glory, and our food and drink. We take You as our Shepherd and our pasture, and we want to enjoy and experience You as the all-inclusive One in resurrection. Thank You Lord for all that You are to us for our enjoyment and experience!
All the Holy and Faithful Things are Christ Himself as Mercies to us for our Enjoyment
All the holy and faithful things from God are actually Christ Himself as mercies to us for our enjoyment. It is God’s mercy to us that we are still alive today, and it is His mercies that we love the Lord, seek after Him, and have a heart to pursue Him.
Everything depends on God’s mercy; our pursuit of Christ, our career and achievements, our happiness and joy, our peaceful family life, and our enjoyable church life are not because of us but because of God’s mercy to us.
As we enjoy Christ as the holy and faithful things of God to us, we will realize that it’s all because of God’s mercy, and we will simply thank Him for His mercies. It is a mercy that we are here in the church life and that we are willing to open our vessel to receive the Lord’s speaking and burden.
Our still being alive is the Lord’s mercy, and our being with the saints enjoying the Lord is His mercy. In Isa. 55:3 we are told of the sure mercies shown to David, and in 2 Chron. 6:42 we read of the mercies of David (KJV); furthermore, in Psa. 89:1 David was singing the mercies of the Lord forever.
Mercy implies love and grace, but mercy reaches farther than love and grace; even when we’re in a pitiful situation, God’s mercy reaches us. God’s life to us is a mercy, His light, righteousness, holiness, and joy are all mercies.
When a husband loves his wife with the Lord’s love, that is the Lord’s mercies to him, and when a wife submits to her husband by taking Christ as her submission, this is the Lord’s mercies to her.
We need to see that the resurrected Christ is all the holy and faithful things given to us by God as an all-inclusive gift, and this was the Christ preached by Paul in Acts 13.
When we enjoy Christ as God’s mercies to us daily, we will be affected in our being, and our contact with people will change.
If we enjoy the resurrected Christ as the holy and faithful things, we will not condemn or criticize others but rather have mercy on them, and even have a connection with them, realizing that, no matter where they are and who they are, they need God’s mercy.
When we enjoy God’s mercy and experience the all-inclusive Christ in resurrection as the reality of the holy and faithful things, we will realize that we have received mercy from God, so we desire to transmit this to others.
This is our gospel preaching – it is a communicating to others of the mercies of God which we have enjoyed in Christ, so that others may also enjoy God’s mercies and enter into the experience of the holy and faithful things from God.
Thank You Lord for Your mercies toward us in Christ. It is because of Your mercy that we are alive and we’re in the church life, enjoying You. Lord, it is Your mercy that we have a heart to pursue You and love Your word. Keep us enjoying Your ever-new and ever-fresh mercies. Fill us with the enjoyment and experience of the resurrected Christ as the holy and faithful things of God to be the sure mercies to us. Lord, may Your mercy flow through us to others in our gospel preaching so that they may also taste and enter into the enjoyment of Your sure mercies!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 400-401, 2996-2997 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 1, Propagating the Resurrected Christ as the Firstborn Son according to the Promise Made to the Fathers.
- Hymns on this topic:
# My Christ, He is the Tree of Life / With fruit abundant, sweet; / My hunger He doth satisfy; / Of Him I daily eat. / My Christ, He is the smitten Rock / Whence living waters burst; / He is the fountain in my heart / Which quenches all my thirst. (Hymns #510)
# I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, / I will sing, I will sing; / What a mercy that I am in the church forever; / I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. / With my mouth will I make known / Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness, / With my mouth will I make known / Thy faithfulness to all generations. (Song on, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever)
# Mine, mercies granted, and each new awaking, / Every experience, and each soul that’s won; / Mine, the confessions sinners poor are making, / Yea, I am joined with them, one in God’s Son. (Hymns #596)
About aGodMan
