God’s eternal purpose in the universe is to gain a corporate man, a group of people who will be exactly the same as He is; this is the unique subject of the Bible.
This week we come to a new topic in our morning revival, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man, and in particular we want to focus on, God’s Eternal Purpose and the One New Man.
This matter of the one new man touches something deep in the heart of God, even something very timely for these days.
We may not be unfamiliar with this subject, for we have delved into this matter before, but we need to realize that there’s something fresh, something progressive, in the Lord’s speaking and revelation.
Brother Lee first released the messages on the one new man in 1977; these were unprecedented messages, but not many understood what he spoke about.
We may have realised that the one new man is the coming together of all the nationalities and races and colors, and we may be excited about this; we may see that the church is not only the local churches but also the one new man comprised of all nationalities and peoples. If we stop with this realisation, however, is to come short of God’s purpose.
In the early 1980’s brother Lee released some speaking concerning the divine dispensing for the constitution of the Body of Christ; the Body is something organic, something that is an issue of the divine dispensing.
Then brother Lee spoke of the matter of God’s New Testament Economy in a more intrinsic way, something deeper.
After this, he went to Taiwan and studied the God-ordained way to meet and to serve, and after that, in the 1990’s, the Lord released the highest peak of God’s economy, that is, that God became man so that man would become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
This progressive and timely speaking of the Lord through our brother prepared us and brought us to the highest peak of God’s economy.
After brother Lee went to be with the Lord, in the years 2001-2002 the co-workers attempted to release more messages on the one new man, but we were not yet ready; there was not much impact or penetration.
There were still some brothers who continued to do their regional and personal work within the work, and there was no way for us to see the coming forth of the one new man. In 2019, however, the Lord and we realize that we are ready for this matter of the one new man.
We are now in a new era, and the Lord has cleared up many difficulties and frustrations. We are in a new environment; the transportation and communication is made easy, the blending of the Body is taking place, and there’s no regionalism, private works, or individual works.
These days are the days of fulfillment; we are not in the initial days, we are not during the Lord’s time or the apostles time, and we are not even in the 1990’s.
We are now in the days that the Lord wants to fulfill His purpose in creating man, and God’s eternal purpose in the universe is being fulfilled.
There is progress being made in the growth in life, in the advancement of the Lord’s recovery, in the blending of the saints, in the spreading of the Lord’s move, and in the blending of all the serving saints and co-workers, with no idea of having a personal work but being one with the Lord for His move.
Furthermore, the Lord has raised up full-time trainings all over the earth, and every continent has at least one full-time training to produce normal believers, overcoming ones who enjoy the Lord and are equipped to do the work of the Lord.
How we thank and praise the Lord that He wants to bring us on with Him, to open His heart to us, and gain us to be the one new man for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose!
God’s Eternal Purpose is to Produce a Group of People Exactly the Same as He is
God has an eternal purpose, the purpose of the ages; it is the eternal plan that He has made in eternity past (see Eph. 3:11; 1:9, 11; Rom. 8:28).
Our God is a God of purpose; He doesn’t do anything randomly, by accident, or arbitrarily, but He does everything with a purpose in view.
As we see in Rev. 4:11, God has a will, and for this will we are and we are created and we have our being. God’s will is to express Himself in the universe through man.
For the accomplishment of that will, God devised a plan, which we call His purpose to work out the will of God.
God’s purpose is not like our purpose, which involves only a few days or weeks or maybe years; this purpose stretches from eternity past to eternity future, for it is an eternal purpose.
God’s eternal purpose is not merely about who should we marry, what kind of job should we have, where we should live, etc, but it is concerning God’s eternal purpose to work out His eternal will.
The purpose of God in the universe is to produce a group of people who will be exactly the same as He is; this is the unique subject of the Bible (see John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:2).
We may see something of God’s purpose and realise that He wants to gain a group of people who love Him, consecrate themselves to Him, live for Him, and are absolutely for Him.
But God’s purpose is even more: He wants to produce a group of people who would be exactly the same as He is! He is not only after our love, consecration, or dedication; He wants to make man the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
God doesn’t merely need some help from man in His work; He wants to gain a corporate man the same as He is, and nothing short of this can be the new man to fulfill His purpose.
God wants to gain a group of people who are the same as God in life, nature, image, appearance, radiance, glory, and outward expression (Rev. 4:2-3; 21:10-11, 18).
How can we say this and where can we see this in the Bible?
At the end of Revelation we see that the One sitting on the throne has the appearance like jasper; our God has the appearance like Jasper, and the whole city – which is us, the believers in Christ – has also the appearance of jasper.
God and the holy city, a composition of God’s redeemed people, look exactly the same.
God’s eternal purpose is accomplished by the divine life dispensed into us, His chosen and redeemed people; the way God accomplishes His purpose is by working Himself into us and causing a metabolic process of transformation to take place.
As God’s life is wrought into His people, a metabolic reaction takes place within them that causes them to be transformed and become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead (see John 3:15; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29).
The way man becomes the same as God is not by any outward correction or adjustment, but by God dispensing His very life – which is organic – into man, and once the divine life enters us, it causes a metabolic and organic reaction to take place for man to be transformed.
When we experience God’s salvation we don’t just receive His forgiveness or justification to be spared from God’s judgement; we intrinsically receive the divine life, and this life causes us to be inwardly transformed and outwardly conformed to His image, to become the same as God.
Lord Jesus, may we really see what is God’s eternal purpose and may we cooperate with the divine life in us to fulfill this purpose. May we realize that the purpose of God in the universe is to produce a group of people who will be exactly the same as He is. Hallelujah, God wants us, His people, to be like Him in life, nature, image, appearance, radiance, glory, and outward expression, but not in the Godhead. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with the metabolic process going on in us for the divine life within us to transform us into Your image!
God’s Intention is Focused on Man, for Man is the Means of God’s Manifestation, Move, and Administration
The Bible is truly wonderful and mysterious; on one hand it reveals that God’s eternal purpose is to make man the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, and on the other hand, it shows us that God needs man and His intention is focused on man.
Man is a great word in the Bible (Gen. 1:26; Psa. 8:4-6).
God’s intention is with man, God’s thought is focused on man, and God’s heart is set upon man. We don’t know why this is, but God is interested in man very deeply.
Man is not an afterthought; man is not something that God needs to fix because Satan ruined and corrupted. From eternity past, God had a deep interest in gaining man!
When God came to create the heavens, the earth, and all the things therein, on the sixth day He created man, and then He rested; all that God did in the prior days – the heavens, the earth, and everything in them, was for man.
God loved man so much that He Himself one day became man (John 3:16). It is man who fulfills God’s plan, it is man who expresses God, it is man who defeats God’s enemy, and it is man who brings in the kingdom of God into the human race.
The angels have no place in this; they are wonderful, powerful, and capable, but God’s interest is not in the angels but in man and with man.
God desires to gain man as His instrument, the means for Him to fulfill His plan, to express God, to defeat His enemy, and to bring in His kingdom.
In Ezek. 1 we see the vision of the four living creatures, and we realize that man is the means of God’s manifestation, God’s move, and God’s administration (Ezek. 1:26, 5, 10).
God’s glory is manifested upon these living creatures, and this manifestation depends upon their having the appearance of a man; where they are, God’s glory is, and apart from them, God’s glory cannot be manifested.
The living creatures are also the means of God’s move; with them there was a great and high wheel, and wherever they moved, God moved and accomplished His purpose. When man moves, God moves, and God’s move on earth is with man.
Furthermore, everything that the throne decides is carried out on earth by the four living creatures who have the appearance of a man; the administration of God’s throne is expressed through man.
Without man, God cannot manifest Himself, He cannot move, and He cannot administrate; but when God gains a group of people who are the same as He is, He can freely manifest Himself, He can move, and He can administrate in the universe.
The eternal purpose of God is to have a corporate man to express Him and represent Him; this was God’s purpose in creating man (see Gen. 1:26-28; 5:1-2; Eph. 3:11; 1:9, 11).
When God created man He didn’t create a single man, an individual man, but a corporate man; God is not interested in creating one man here and another man there, but just one man, a corporate man – and He called their name, Adam.
God created a corporate man, and today God is still after this corporate man to express Him and represent Him – He wants to gain the one new man for His expression and representation on earth!
Thank You Lord for creating us to be men in Your image and with Your likeness. Hallelujah, God’s intention is with man, God’s thought is focused on man, and God’s heart is set upon man! Amen, Lord, we praise You for it is man who fulfills God’s plan, expresses God, defeats God’s enemy, and brings in the kingdom of God into the human race. Thank You Lord for making us the means of Your manifestation, Your move, and Your administration on the earth and in the universe. Hallelujah, we are men, and we are becoming the one new man to fulfill God’s eternal purpose to have a corporate man to express Him and represent Him in the universe!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msgs. 5, 12 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 1, God’s Eternal Purpose and the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God eternal has a purpose, / Formed in His eternal past, / Spreading to eternal future; / ’Twixt these ends all time is cast. / For with time there is the process, / Time for His accomplishment; / And in time we’re merely travelers— / For eternity we’re meant. (Hymns #1325)
# God’s eternal purpose / Is to join with man, / Causing man, His vessel, / To be born again, / His own life imparting, / Filling to the brim; / Man may thus express Him, / And be one with Him. (Hymns #971)
# O I’m a man— / I’m the meaning of the universe; / Yes, I’m a man— / I’m the meaning of the universe. / God made me such, / I am so much; / I’m the center and the meaning of the universe. (Hymns #1293)
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