God’s Gospel is to Build God into man and man into God to gain a corporate God-man, the Body

Our gospel is the gospel of the sonship, which is the seed of David becoming the Son of God; God’s gospel speaks of the process of Christ being designated the firstborn Son of God in resurrection, and we being produced as the many sons of God to build up the Body of Christ.

What a high gospel we have!

We shouldn’t preach a gospel that has been lowered down, neither should we think that we should dilute the truth because those who listen may not understand.

Rather, we need to be filled with the truth and preach an uplifted gospel, never lowering the concept.

God has created in us, in each one of us, a certain ability for us to receive and understand the things of God. No animal has this capacity, but man has a divinely implanted sense of a purpose which nothing under the sun can satisfy.

Only God can satisfy our inner need; only God can fill the void within, and the vacuum inside our being can be filled only by God Himself.

The Lord Jesus was not shy in declaring the truth concerning the kingdom of the heavens, speaking both of the appearance of the kingdom, the reality of the kingdom, and the manifestation of the kingdom.

Similarly, Paul did not shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God to those around him, and he preached the gospel both to unbelievers and to believers.

We should not think that those who hear us will not understand the word in the Bible, neither should we think that we have to lower down the truth a little to make it more “palatable”. Oh, Lord.

May we realize that God has an economy according to His heart’s desire, and in His economy, He wants to dispense Himself into man to produce the church as the Body of Christ to express Him corporately, and this consummates in the New Jerusalem.

May we know God’s economy and may we speak the economy of God to those around us, preaching the gospel of the eternal economy of God for those who hear to become sons of God and members of the Body of Christ for God’s corporate expression.

As we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, as we preach the high peak of the divine revelation to others, the Spirit does active research to bring to surface the deep things of God for our inner consciousness, realization, enjoyment, and experience.

When we give ourselves to love the Lord, the Spirit who searches all things does active research, searching all the things concerning Christ as the depths of God and reveals them in our spirit for our enjoyment and participation.

May we have this experience again and again, and may we bring many others into this experience, believing in our heart that God has given each one the ability to receive and understand the things of God.

The Seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of Christ’s being Designated the Firstborn Son of God by Resurrection

In Rom. 1:3-4 we see a great and wonderful mystery: Christ as the seed of David according to the flesh was designated the Son of God in power by resurrection.

This is the center of the gospel of God; the seed of David becoming the Son of God describes the essence of the person of Christ, who is not just God and not just man but a God-man.

Paul tells us that he was separated unto the gospel of God concerning His son; this indicates that the gospel of God is a gospel of sonship for the reality of the Body of Christ (Rom. 1:1, 3-4; 8:28-30; 12:5).

The portion in Rom. 1:3-4 is the fulfillment of the prophecy in typology in 2 Sam. 7:12-14a, which unveils the mystery of God becoming man to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.

Christ is the only begotten Son of God in His divinity, but when He was incarnated, He as the only begotten Son (John 1:18) put on the flesh, the human nature, which had nothing to do with divinity.

In His humanity, Christ was not the Son of God; it was in His divinity that He was the only begotten Son, so there was only one of Him.

What God desires is many sons to express Him corporately; therefore, God became a man, even the seed of David, and this seed of David became the Son of God in power by resurrection.

Through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ became the designated Son of God in His humanity.

In His resurrection, Christ was born in His humanity to become the designated Son of God, the Firstborn Son of God, which means that there are many sons of God after Him – He’s the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:28-30).

In His resurrection, Christ’s humanity was deified, sonized; He was designated the Son of God in His humanity, becoming the firstborn Son of God and possessing both divinity and humanity (Rom. 8:29).

Before His death and resurrection, Christ was a mystery to those around Him, for He was a man, yet He expressed God and manifested God in His human living.

God in Christ became a man and went through certain processes so that this man could be designated the Son of God in His resurrection.

Furthermore, in His resurrection, Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to come into us to regenerate us by imparting the divine life into us to make us a God-man just like Him.

Now He is the firstborn Son of God and we are the many sons of God.

When God became a man, He put on humanity and had the likeness of the flesh; this part, His humanity, was not the Son of God.

In His humanity, Christ was part of the old creation, the old man, having the flesh, which is involved with Satan, sin, and the world, and was subject to death.

So this part had to be made divine, that is, to be designated to become part of the Son of God.

And we all were regenerated in His resurrection to be the many sons of God, who will also be designated sons of God in full at the appointed time!

Like the Lord Jesus, we are a mystery, and those around us see human beings who express something divine.

But there will be a time when we’re designated to be sons of God, and at that time we will be fully revealed that we are God-men, for we will be designated as the many sons of God.

Christ became the firstborn Son in His resurrection, and He is the prototype to produce us as the many sons of God; today we are in the process of being designated the many sons of God.

Praise You Lord Jesus for being incarnated to be the seed of David who became the Son of God in resurrection, being designated the firstborn Son of God by resurrection! Hallelujah for Christ, the first God-man, who brought divinity into humanity so that He may bring humanity into divinity to sonize it and bring it into the divine sonship! Thank You, Lord, for coming into us as the life-giving Spirit to regenerate us and make us the many sons of God, those who are in the process of being designated the sons of God. Keep us enjoying You, Lord, and cooperating with Your inner transforming work so that we may be produced, manifested, and designated as the many sons of God!

God’s Gospel is to Build God into man and man into God to gain a Corporate God-man who Expresses Him

In Christ, God was constituted into man, man was constituted into God, and God and man were mingled together to be one entity – the God-man.

What God desires is not a good man but a God-man, a real and genuine corporate God-man who expresses Him in full.

Job, for example, was a good man, but he was not a God-man, for he was devoid of God and did not experience God.

The desire of God’s heart is to have the church as the reality of the Body of Christ, the building of God. God’s building is a God-man; first, this building was the Lord Jesus as the tabernacle of God (John 1:14) and the temple of God (John 2:19-22), and then this building was enlarged to be the church as the Body of Christ.

Now we are the church, the tabernacle of God and the house of God.

The church is the temple of the living God (1 Cor. 3:16-17), and the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the church is the tabernacle for God to dwell in (Rev. 21:3) and the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple for us to dwell in (Rev. 21:22).

This is what God desires, to build God into man and man into God so that He may gain a corporate God-man who expresses Him.

This is why the Lord said in John 15:5 that we need to abide in Him and He will abide in us; He wants us to abide in Him, take Him as our dwelling place and home every day.

May we be like Moses, declaring that the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations (Psa. 90:1).

The Lord Jesus spoke of the Father’s house in John 14:2, saying that there are many abodes in this house; the Father’s house refers not to the heavens but to the church, for the church is the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:16).

And the many abodes in the Father’s house are the many believers in Christ as the members of the Body of Christ, who together are the house of the living God.

When we love the Lord and keep His word, He will love us and will come to us with the Father to make an abode with us.

God’s gospel and His intention in His economy are to build God into man and man into God to obtain a corporate God-man, a building of God and man.

This building is God becoming a man (the seed of David) so that man might become God (the designated Son of God).

When God became a man, He was the seed of David, the descendant of David, the son of David; He went through a process to bring His humanity into divinity through resurrection, and by resurrection He was designated the Son of God in His humanity.

This is the gospel that we should preach, God’s gospel, which He preached to Eve, to Abraham, and to David, and the Lord Jesus also preached this gospel.

In John 12:24 the Lord spoke this gospel when He said that, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

If we have a grain of wheat in our hand or on the mantlepiece, we may not know what it is, and it cannot be manifested; but when it is put in the ground and dies, it will release the life contained in it and it is manifested in the stalk and the many grains.

If a seed dies by being buried in the soil, it will eventually sprout, grow, and blossom in resurrection, because the operation of the seed’s life is activated simultaneously with its death (1 Cor. 15:36; 1 Pet. 3:18).

Similarly, the divinity, the Spirit of holiness, in Christ became operative in His death, and in resurrection He “blossomed” to be the firstborn Son of God and the life-giving Spirit, imparting His divine life into us to make us His many brothers (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:45). Wow!

What a gospel we have – the seed of David becoming the Son of God, which speaks of the designation of Christ to be the Son of God in His humanity, and which also speaks of us going through the same process to be designated the many sons of God!

This is so that God may build Himself into man and man into Himself for the producing of a corporate God-man to express Him!

Christ is the prototype as the firstborn Son of God, and we as the many sons of God are His reproduction; we are the members of this prototype to be His Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem (Col. 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:3).

Lord Jesus, thank You for revealing to us the gospel of God and His intention in His economy, which are to build God into man and man into God to gain a God-man to express Him! Hallelujah, the seed of David (Christ in the flesh) became the Son of God in resurrection to become the prototype for the reproduction and multiplication of Himself! Thank You, Lord, for dying as the one grain of wheat to produce us as the many grains of wheat, the many sons of God to be Your Body, consummating in the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord for such a high and uplifted gospel for us to enjoy, be constituted with, and preach among the nations for a testimony!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1&2 Samuel, msgs. 24-25. 27-31 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 6, Knowing and Spreading the Up-to-date Truth of the Highest Gospel of God’s Eternal Economy according to the Ministry of the Age.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Myst’ry hid from ages now revealed to me, / ’Tis the Christ of God’s reality. / He embodies God, and He is life to me, / And the glory of my hope He’ll be. / Glory, glory, Christ is life in me! / Glory, glory, what a hope is He! / Now within my spirit He’s the mystery! / Then the glory He will be to me. (Hymns #948)
  – Lord, Thy word of old to David / We have heard and hear it now: / “On Thy throne will sit forever / Thine own seed—this is My vow.” / This has been fulfilled in Jesus / Seated on the throne on high, / Sitting on the throne of David / Resurrected, ne’er to die. (Hymns #1253)
  – By Thy death and resurrection, / Thou wast made God’s firstborn Son; / By Thy life to us imparting, / Was Thy duplication done. / We, in Thee regenerated, / Many sons to God became; / Truly as Thy many brethren, / We are as Thyself the same. (Hymns #203)