These past four weeks we have been going through the matter of the gospel in a deeper way. We have seen that the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of grace, and we enjoyed some matters related to the structure of the gospel and Paul’s gospel (which is the gospel of completion).
This week is our last week on the matter of the gospel, and we want to see a very particular matter related to the gospel: the highest point of God’s gospel. We have enjoyed Paul’s gospel, the complete and pure gospel, which includes all of God’s economy from forgiveness of sins through regeneration, sanctification, transformation, building up, and all the way to the Body of Christ expressed as the local churches.
The question is: what is the highest point of the gospel? In a nutshell, the highest point of the gospel is that God became man to make man God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead) so that all of God’s divine attributes may be expressed through man’s human virtues and thus God would obtain a corporate expression in man.
How does God obtain what He is after? He has an economy, and in His economy God dispenses Himself in His Divine Trinity into is to be our life, life supply, and everything, so that we may be reconstituted with God, filled with God, and built together into the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God to express Him corporately. Wow!
This is the highest point of God’s gospel, and this is the highest peak of the divine revelation.
Today we want to see something more concerning God’s economy, His dream, and the highest gospel that we preach, as the Lord has clearly shown us in His recovery through the ministry of the age, the revealed truth in the Bible. This is God becoming man and man becoming God for the building up of the Body of Christ, God’s corporate expression
God Becoming Man and Man Becoming God is the Economy of God to Fulfill His Dream
In eternity past the Eternal God had a “dream” according to His heart’s desire, and for the fulfillment of His dream He made a plan, which Paul calls in the New Testament “the economy of God” (see Eph. 1:4-5, 9-10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4).
The politicians and rulers today have many plans and ideas concerning the economy of a particular country – how much more the God who created the universe has an economy, which is so much greater! God’s economy is the plan within Him concerning the entire universe.
God becoming man and man becoming God is the economy of God (see Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:16, 29), and this is what the Bible reveals that God desires and will obtain. What we preach today is not the low gospel in Christianity about man repenting to go to heaven but the high gospel of man repenting to receive the Lord and be freed from his sinful nature, partake of God’s life and nature, having his humanity uplifted to be able to express God’s attributes, and becoming one with God.
In His economy, God wants to make us the same as He is in life and nature, but not in His Godhead, so that all His divine attributes may be expressed through our human virtues.
He wanted Adam to be His expression and representation on earth by eating from the tree of life, but Adam fell; God then called a people starting with Abraham to be His people, and He Himself came to His people to save them and be wrought into them – but they rejected Him and crucified Him.
Now God comes to all those who are willing to receive Him to make them the many children of God and brothers of Christ who have God’s life and nature. The only way God can obtain His dream, His heart’s desire, is by God becoming man to make man God so that the Body of Christ may be produced; this is the high peak of the vision God gave us in His recovery.
We know how God became man by reading the Gospels; but how does man become God in life and nature? It is by God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into us.
How does God dispense Himself into us? In order to dispense Himself into us, God has to be triune. The Triune God dispenses Himself through His Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Ephesians is a book on the divine dispensing. From chapter 1 Paul begins to speak about this dispensing: first is the Father’s selection, then the Son’s redemption, and then the Spirit’s application. The Father is the source, and all the riches are in Him. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and all that the Father is, has, and can do are embodied in the Son. Furthermore, the Son is realized as the Spirit. Hence, the Son comes as the Father, and the Spirit comes into us as the Son. In this way, when we have the Spirit, we also have the Son and the Father. The Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is the means by which God dispenses Himself into us. (Witness Lee, The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity, p. 32)
For many believers God being Triune is a complicated and complicating matter; it is not easy to apprehend how is God one yet three, but what the Bible reveals is the reason for which God is Triune: God is Triune to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity into us!
The Divine Trinity is for the divine dispensing of all that God is into us so that we may be made the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to become God’s corporate expression. The purpose of God being Triune is to dispense Himself into man.
If we see God’s dispensing, we will be open to Him to receive His dispensing day by day, and thus we will be in the process of being made God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead – we will NEVER become an object of worship!) for the fulfillment of God’s dream, His eternal plan and economy. Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord for becoming man so that man may become God in life and nature for the fulfillment of God’s heart’s desire! Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ are daily under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity so that we may be reconstituted with God and become His corporate expression! Lord, keep dispensing Yourself into us more and more until we are filled with You and reconstituted with You. Oh Lord, may Your divine attributes fill, enrich, and be expressed through our human virtues, so that You may gain the fulfillment of Your eternal dream!
Teaching and Preaching the Truth that God Became Man in order to make man God
It is a great blessing for us today to hear the truth concerning God becoming man to make man God in life and nature for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ. At the end of this age, before the Lord’s return, we need to preach and teach the truth of God’s economy, the highest gospel; this is a great blessing.
We need to realize that, whether a man thinks he’s good or evil, he has human virtues that are made by God to be filled with Him, and God’s desire is not merely to save us from eternal perdition but to fill our human virtues with His divine attributes, so that we may become His expression.
For example, a mother loves her children, but at one point that love will run out; our real need is for God Himself as love filling our human virtue of love.
Yes, we are fallen; yes, Christ died for us; yes, we need to repent for the kingdom of God, but at the same time, when we repent and believe into the Lord, we become children of God – not by being “adopted by God” but by being born of God to become God-men!
Many believers admit that they are children of God and believers of Christ, but they would not admit that they are “God” (in life and nature but not in the Godhead).
What a mercy that the Lord has brought us to see this highest truth of the gospel! What a blessing it is to see this truth, be filled with this high gospel, and preach such a gospel to the whole world, so that God’s dream would be fulfilled!
Lord, thank You for revealing to us the truth that God became a man in order to make man God, the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead! Hallelujah, our destiny as human beings is to be filled with the Triune God as life so that His divine attributes may be expressed through our human virtues! Amen! What a blessing it is to know and speak the truth that God became man to make man God for the fulfillment of God’s dream according to which He made an economy! Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message for this week, and The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, ch. 1 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 5 / msg. 5, The Highest Point of God’s Gospel.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# There’s always been something hidden deep in Your heart, / Yet I had not given it one single thought, / I only knew that I was wand’ring, feeling lost, / Dreaming were You, and I was too, in the wilderness, / Until one day You revealed Your dream in my heart. / Your heart’s desire is with man to mingle as one, / To dwell with man, an eternal bond to form, / ’Twas for this dream You became man, uplifting man, / That God and man, heaven and earth, be joined for aye, / God’s house, heav’n’s gate, now descends, Your dream to attain. (Stanza 1 and 2 of this song)
# What miracle! What mystery! / That God and man should blended be! / God became man to make man God, / Untraceable economy! / From His good pleasure, heart’s desire, / His highest goal attained will be. / From His good pleasure, heart’s desire, / His highest goal attained will be. (Hymn on God’s economy)
About aGodMan
According to this gospel we were fallen, yet Christ died for us. If we believe in Him and receive Him, we will have the eternal life to be the sons of God. Christians today admit that all the believers in Christ are the sons of God or the children of God, but they do not dare admit that the believers in Christ are God. At the end of this age, we are teaching and preaching the truth that God became a man in order to make man God, the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. It is a great blessing to hear this truth. (Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, p. 28)