The Experience of the Christian life and of the Church Life Consummates in a Rainbow

The experience of the Christian life and of the church life consummates in a rainbow, and this is seen in type in Ezekiel 1 which starts with open heavens, continues with the experience of the wind, cloud, fire, and electrum, and consummates with the rainbow around the throne on which a Man sits.

This matter of the rainbow is quite amazing, since it appears as a sign in Genesis after the flood, the bow of God in the clouds as a sign of His covenant with man; it also appears in Ezekiel 1, and in Revelation 4 where God is about to judge – and there’s a rainbow around the throne.

Finally, the holy city, New Jerusalem, has twelve foundations of precious stones, which together combined are the colors of the rainbow.

The rainbow is a sign of God’s faithfulness; our God is faithful to His word in His covenant: He will no longer fully destroy man in His judgement, but He will spare some for His glory and His purpose.

There are a few verses that clearly mention that God is faithful, some of which are,

• Deut. 7:9 Know therefore that it is Jehovah your God who is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness to the thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
• Isa. 49:7 Thus says Jehovah, The Redeemer of Israel, His Holy One, To the despised One, the One abhorred by the nation, The One subjected to tyrants, Kings will see and arise, And princes will bow down; Because of Jehovah, who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.
• 1 Cor. 1:8-9 Who will also confirm you until the end unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has taken you except that which is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow that you be tempted beyond what you are able, but will, with the temptation, also make the way out, that you may be able to endure it.
• 1 Thes. 5:24 Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.
• 2 Thes. 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.
• 2 Tim. 2:11-13 Faithful is the word: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
• Heb. 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope unwavering, for He who has promised is faithful.
• 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Our God is faithful – but for what reason? He is faithful to those who keep His covenant – for what? He has chosen us and He is faithful to us – to what end? He called us into the fellowship of His son – for what reason? He’s faithful so that no temptation would overtake us – for what?

He who has called us is faithful, He will do it, and He will preserve us wholly – for what? He will establish us and guard us from the evil one – for what? Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful – for what reason? We need to hold fast the confession, for He who promised is faithful – why?

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins – for what reason? Why is God faithful, what’s the purpose and the reason?

According to the Bible, God is faithful because He has a covenant, a purpose, an economy, and in His economy He is faithful to His word to do what He said He will do so that He may gain a group of people to express Him (as the rainbow) and represent Him (by being on the throne with Him).

God’s Purpose is to Work Himself into us to be our Life so that we may Express Him

When we look at the matter of the rainbow in the Bible we need to not lose sight of God’s economy, His eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose, simply put, is to work Himself in Christ into us as our life and everything, so that we may take Him as our person, live Him, and express Him; this is the desire of God’s heart and also the focal point of the Bible (see Eph. 1:9; 3:11, 16-17; Phil. 1:20-21).

God created man in His image and according to His likeness and placed man in front of the tree of life; the desire of God’s heart and His purpose is that man would take God in as life and be filled with Him as life so that he would express Him and represent Him.

The entire Bible shows us not only God’s nature and His character but even more His purpose; the Scriptures show us the purpose of God, which is related to man.

God’s eternal purpose and His eternal intention are to have a group of living persons who are mingled with Himself as one to be His living corporate expression (which at the end of Ezekiel 1 and Rev. 21 is a rainbow).

The main content of the New Testament is that the Triune God has an eternal economy according to His good pleasure to dispense Himself in His life and nature into His chosen and redeemed people, thereby making them His duplication so that they may express Him; this corporate expression will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Eph. 3:9; 1:9-23). The New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the Bible, involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead (Rev. 21:2; 3:12). W. Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 4361

Because man fell, God became a man to not only redeem man but also open the way for man to become the same as God in life and nature, so that the redeeming God and the redeemed man can be mingled and constituted together as one entity – the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:3, 22).

This is what God is after, and this is what we will be for eternity; for eternity, the eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incorporated with all of us, and we also become the New Jerusalem through the process of God’s organic salvation (Rom. 5:10).

The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of God’s organic salvation, and it is the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of God with man. Today we are in the process of being regenerated, renewed, sanctified, transformed, and glorified to match God, and for eternity we will express Him and represent Him as the New Jerusalem.

We need to see that God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life and everything so that we may take Him as our person and we may live Him out to express Him in our daily living.

The consummation of God’s economy is the New Jerusalem, where the Triune God and redeemed humanity will be united, mingled, incorporated, and built up as one entity; the New Jerusalem is the rainbow city, an eternal sign of God’s faithfulness to keep His covenant with man.

Oh Lord, grant us to realize that God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself in Christ into us as our life and everything so that we may take Him as our person, live Him, and express Him! May we cooperate with the central work of God, allowing God to build Himself into Christ into us to make us fully one with Him for His corporate expression. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You for Your purpose: work Yourself into us, live in us, and be expressed through us corporately! Amen, Lord, gain the New Jerusalem, the union, mingling, incorporation, and building up of the Triune God with redeemed humanity!

The Experience of the Christian life and of the Church Life Consummates in a Rainbow

Ezekiel chapter one, the deepest chapter in the Bible, presents us many vivid pictures and symbols of our Christian life and church life; according to God’s plan, the spiritual things in this chapter begin with the wind and consummate with the rainbow (Ezek. 1:4, 28).

We have seen that the spiritual history of a normal Christian – as depicted in Ezekiel 1 – is the experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum.

We need to experience the wind from the north unsettling us and causing us to be open to the Lord, the Lord as the cloud overshadowing us and covering us, the fire of God’s holiness burning in us to judge and remove anything that doesn’t correspond to Him, and the result is that we are glowing and shining, that is, the redeeming God is shining through us.

The result of such a normal Christian experience is that we become living creatures – we become proper human beings, Jesusly human, bold and victorious like a lion, willing to serve man like an ox, and transcendent as an eagle.

Among us as living creatures there will a coordination that is in God and by His grace, we do everything through the cross and by the Spirit, and we allow God to move freely among us to do what He wants to do.

In our living and behavior, we enjoy God as grace, we soar above all things, we cooperate with God to live as a proper man by the divine life, we have a proper discernment, and we are fresh and living.

When we have such a living as individual believers and as the church, there are some high and awesome wheels, the wheel of God’s move; we cooperate with God in His move by praying in His praying, giving in His giving, and going in His going, and the Lord’s move is in our move (the wheel within a wheel), with the result that there’s a high and awesome move of God on earth.

As living creatures we need to have a clear sky between us and the Lord, having a thorough fellowship with the Lord and with the saints, and having the throne of God installed in the center of our being above the clear sky.

On the throne there’s a Man, Jesus Christ, who is in control, has authority over all things, and is now working in us and on us to bring us to the throne.

The result of our having a clear sky with the throne, and of experiencing the man who has the appearance of electrum and a consuming fire, is that we will have the appearance of a rainbow (Ezek. 1:26-28).

The rainbow is the brightness around the man who is sitting on the throne; this brightness signifies the splendor and glory around the Lord on the throne.

Hallelujah, the Man on the throne with the rainbow around it is longing and yearning to see a rainbow made of us as we are being constituted with Him, until we – the rainbow – will reflect Him as the rainbow!

May the Lord enlighten us to see that the experience of the Christian life and of the church life consummates in a rainbow, and may we become the spiritual reality of the rainbow, a duplication of Christ as the rainbow!

Lord Jesus, grant us the experiences we need so that we may become the rainbow expressing God in His glory. May we realize that the experience of the Christian life and of the church life consummates in a rainbow. May we allow You to build Yourself into us and may we have a clear sky with a throne above it, allowing the Lord to rule and reign in our being, until we have the appearance of a rainbow. Lord, gain Your glory in the church! May the church be built up and perfected to be the reality of the rainbow for Your glorious expression!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation, msg. 26 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 9 (week 9), The Rainbow — the Consummation of the Experience of the Christian Life and the Church Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God would have a group of people / Built together in His plan, / Blended, knit, coordinated / As His vessel—one new man. / God would come into this vessel / With His nature, life and ways, / Mingling Spirit with our spirits / For His joy and to His praise. (Hymns #1325)
  # God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city. (Song on God’s purpose)
  # How steadfast is Thy faithfulness! / For this I worship Thee; / It is established in the heav’n, / And ever stands for me. / No turning shadow could there be, / Nor any change with Thee; / As Thou hast been, and now Thou art, / Forever Thou wilt be. (Hymns #18)