God’s Economy is God becoming Man and Man Becoming God to Build up the Body of Christ

In the divine revelation in the Bible there is a progression, from Genesis to Revelation. Our God is not a static God: He is always on the move, always doing something and moving.

In Psa. 68 we see a good picture of the journey of the tabernacle, from the wilderness at Mount Sinai to Mount Zion, ending with God being mighty in His temple. In the church life today we need to go on and progress with the Lord from the tabernacle church life to the temple church life; this journey is not a painful one but a wonderful and glorious one, from victory to victory, brighter and brighter.

We see this progression in God’s revelation in the Bible both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and in the New Testament Paul, John, and Peter all wrote concerning the temple church life and our going on with the Lord to have it.

In the Lord’s recovery, the divine revelation is progressing, to the point that today we have the highest peak of the divine revelation. This week we are focusing on three main things and how they inter-relate: the economy of God, the temple of God, and the high peak of the divine revelation.

What is God’s economy? Almost no one in today’s Christianity sees what God’s economy is, and at most some of them are confused by this term rather than enjoy it and apply it. God’s economy is the key that opens up everything in the divine revelation.

However, we did not see God’s economy from the very beginning; in the Lord’s recovery there has been a time when we didn’t see God’s economy, but as the divine revelation progressed, we saw more and more!

Now what we see is the high peak of the divine revelation which relates to God’s economy and is for the building up of the temple of God for His dwelling. We need to be those who behold the Lord with an unveiled face to see Him, enjoy Him, and receive the divine revelation according to the highest peak, and we need to know God’s economy to build up the church as the Body of Christ, the temple of God.

The High Peak of the Divine Revelation is for the Building up of the Body of Christ

What is the high peak of the divine revelation, and how did it come about? Throughout the ages, the Lord has been recovering portions and aspects of the truth in the Bible, and especially in these last days He has shown us the high peak of the divine revelation, which is,

The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the organic Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy to close this age, to bring Christ back to set up His kingdom, and to consummate the New Jerusalem.

The purpose, goal, and endpoint of the high peak of the divine revelation is to produce the building. This is God’s economy, which is mentioned three times in the Bible: the economy of the fulness of the times (Eph. 1), the economy of the mystery (Eph. 3), and the economy of God (1 Tim. 1).

We need to go on with the Lord and enter into the high peak of the divine revelation so that we may build up the church as the Body of Christ, the temple of God.

In Hebrews we are being encouraged to go with the Lord: let us move on to the good land, let us hold fast the confession, let us come forward to the throne of grace in the Holy of Holies, let us be brought on to maturity, let us come forward to the Holy of Holies, let us incite one another to love and good works, let us put away all encumbrances of sin and run the race set before us, let us have grace toward God, let us go forward outside the camp to Jesus, and let us offer a sacrifice of praise. Let us move on and don’t stay behind, being complacent in what we have; God has called us for something better.

In brother Lee’s ministry, we see at least four main stages in regards to the divine revelation: the Body of Christ (in the 1950s), God’s dispensing (in the 1980s), God’s economy (in the 1980s), and the high peak of the divine revelation (1994-1997). There are many great men used by God to both do His work and release His word, but not many have gone on higher and higher until the end of their life as the Lord did with brother Lee.

Today we are inheritors of the glorious revelation of the high peak in the Bible, which is that God became a man so that man would become God in life and nature (but not in the Godhead – we will never be “Gods” to be worshipped!) for the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy to close this age, to bring Christ back to set up His kingdom, and to consummate the New Jerusalem!

God’s economy, which is the high peak of the divine revelation, is to end this age (Eph. 1:10), to bring Christ back to set up His kingdom, and to consummate the New Jerusalem. Oh, may our eyes be opened, may any religious veils be removed from our eyes, and may we really see God’s economy, the high peak of the divine revelation for the building up of the Body of Christ!

Thank You Lord for showing us the high peak of the divine revelation – God becoming man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the Body of Christ for God’s corporate expression. Lord, we say AMEN, do it in us! Make us the same as Your are in life, nature, expression, and function – but not in the Godhead, so that we may be the organic Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy to close this age, bring Christ back to set up His kingdom, and consummate the New Jerusalem!

God’s Economy is God becoming Man and Man Becoming God to Build up the Body of Christ

God’s economy is His eternal plan to dispense Christ into His people so that He may produce, constitute, and build up the organic Body of Christ to express Him corporately, consummating in the New Jerusalem (see Eph. 1:10; 3:8-10; 1 Tim. 1:4).

This is why He created the universe, and this is why God Himself became a man: He wants to bring man into God and make man the same as God in every possible way (but not in His Godhead, not as an object of worship) so that God would gain the Body of Christ, the corporate expression of God in humanity.

God’s aim from the very beginning in His economy is to have a corporate man, a group of human beings, who have His life and nature inwardly and His image and likeness outwardly to express Him (Gen. 1:26). He did not gain such an expression with Adam, but He will gain it with the Body of Christ; the Body of Christ will corporately express God in His glory, and God and man will be one in glory for God’s expression.

God’s economy, simply put, is God becoming man and man becoming God for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ.

Many believers, however, do not see this high peak of the divine revelation; they know that God became a man to be our Savior Jesus Christ, and He redeemed us and regenerated us to now live in us. But they do not see that God became man to make man God so that we may have a God-man living and thus express God corporately as the organism of God, the Body of Christ.

First, God became man to be Jesus Christ, and this One lived a perfect human life by rejecting Himself with His natural life and living by the divine life, thus living as a God-man – a man yet God living in Him on earth. In Jesus Christ God gained what He is after individually: He could be expressed in Him and His glory was manifested through Him.

However, what God wants is not just one Man to express Him: He wants to gain a corporate man, a group of human beings who live as God-men to express God collectively for His glory.

The Christ whom we know is so profound and so high. This One is our Redeemer and our Savior. He is not only Jesus Christ but also the One who became the life-giving Spirit, the consummation of God. It is this One who went through all these processes to accomplish the step for Him to become man that He might make man God. Then how does God make man God? After God regenerates us with Himself as life, He continues to carry out the work of sanctification, renewing, and transformation in us by His Spirit of life. The issue of this process is an organism. This organism is God joining and mingling Himself with man to make God man and also to make man God. (Witness Lee, The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, ch. 2)

How does God obtain His corporate expression, the Body of Christ? It is by Christ Himself: He became the prototype, the model, the pattern for us to live the life of a God-man not by our human life but by the divine life in us, so that God may gain the Body of Christ, the organism of God!

In Christ God became man so that man may become God through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, and transformation by His Spirit of life, so that together we would be built up as the Body of Christ, the temple of God, the dwelling place of God, the organism of God on earth.

God Himself took the steps of creation (He created the universe with the earth and man), incarnation (God Himself became a man), death (Christ died an all-inclusive, all-terminating, life-releasing death on the cross), and resurrection (Christ resurrected to become a life-giving Spirit), and we are going through the steps of regeneration (we receive the divine life into our spirit), renewing (our mind is being renewed), transformation (we are transformed in our soul), and conformation (our body is being conformed to the body of His glory) so that together we may have a God-man living and become the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God.

God’s economy – as recorded in the Scriptures – is that God became man to make us God in life, nature, expression, and function (but not in the Godhead) so that we may have a God-man living and become the Body of Christ (see Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:4, 14, 29; 12:4-5).

This is the key to opening the entire revelation in the Bible. If we see that God’s economy is His intention to dispense Himself in His divine Trinity into us, His people, to be our life and nature so that we may be the same as He is for His corporate expression, the whole Bible will make sense, and our living will be a God-man living for the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see Your economy, Your intention to dispense Yourself in Your Divine Trinity into Your chosen and redeemed people to be their life and nature so that they would be the same as You are for Your corporate expression! Amen! Thank You Lord for becoming a man who lived not by His human life but by the divine life to be the prototype of a God-man who expresses God in everything. Work Yourself into us, renew us, and transform us into Your image until we become the same as You are for Your corporate expression!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, ch. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4 / msg. 4, The Economy of God, the Temple of God, and the High Peak of the Divine Revelation.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself / Into His chosen, predestinated, and redeemed people / As their life (as their life), their life supply, (their life supply) / And their everything / To produce (to produce), constitute (constitute), / And build up the organic Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem. (Song on the economy of God)
  # Glorious vision, I have seen it: My life is meant for God’s economy! / Earthly bondage, I have left it: My heart outpours for the Lord’s recovery! / Divine Trinity, Divine dispensing: Christ to be life as Spirit real is He; / Churches of God, Body of Christ, New Jerusalem—how I long to see. (Song on seeing the vision)
  # Christ came as man, as Your righteousness to us, / That in Your divine economy / He Your people’s everything might be / As our universality and our centrality / experienced. (Song on the process God went through)