Psalm 133 is a very good picture of the church life today, and a picture is more than 1000 words. Here we see “how good” and “how pleasant” for brothers to dwell in oneness, and this oneness is “like the oil” and “like the dew”. The compound ointment with which the priest was anointed typifies the compound Spirit today which anoints the whole Body.
The dew is nothing else but grace – the local churches (the many mountains of Zion) enjoy grace! There is only ONE CHURCH in the whole universe (there is ONE ZION), but there are many local churches on the earth in the many localities (there are MANY mountains of Zion).
Our Christian living is the living of grace
Our Christian life and our Christian living in the church life is a living under the grace of God, in the grace of God, and even the living of grace. If we want to enjoy grace in full, we need to be in the church life – here the dew descends upon the mountains of Zion. It is the grace which we enjoy in the church life that enables us to live the Christian life and fulfill what the Bible says. This grace is nothing else but God Himself enjoyed by us, realized by us, experienced by us, received by us, and gained by us.
Today we were enjoying many aspects of the Christian living as a living of grace, the experience of grace, as revealed in the Bible. I am eternally grateful to the Lord for the ministry of the age – the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee – which opens up the Bible to show us the riches in the Word of God. There are at least 17 points related to the Christian living as the living of grace in the church life! Wow. All I can do is thank the Lord, be faithful to recognize the source, and repeat / re-share these riches with all the believers (with the verses on which these matters are based).
1. We have faith and love through the Lord’s superabounding grace. 1 Tim. 1:14 says, And the grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love in Christ Jesus. The Lord comes to us as grace and, as we enjoy Him as grace, faith and love are produced. By faith we receive the Lord and by love we love the Lord. All we have to do is just enjoy grace, and grace will superabound, overflow, with faith and love!
2. By grace we receive the salvation in life through Christ’s resurrection and ascension. Eph. 2:5-8 says, … That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. We are saved NOT through works or merits, but by grace – and this is of God!
3. We have obtained access into and stand in God’s abounding grace. Rom. 5:2 says, Through whom also we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and boast because of the hope of the glory of God. After being saved, we have access into grace – we have access to God to enjoy Him as grace, and we STAND in grace!
4. In this grace we can enjoy God’s eternal comfort and good hope. 2 Thes. 2:16 says, Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope in grace. As we enjoy the Lord as grace, in this grace we have comfort and hope – an eternal comfort (we need it!) and a good hope! All we need is in grace!
5. We can come forward with boldness to the throne of grace to find grace for timely help. Heb. 4:16 says, Let us, therefore, come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help. Eph. 2:22 says, In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit. We can come forward to the throne of grace to find grace so that we may be built up as God’s dwelling place in spirit!
6. We can receive God’s abounding supply of all grace. 2 Cor. 9:8 says, And God is able to make all grace abound unto you, that, in everything always having all sufficiency, you may abound unto every good work. Not just a little grace but abounding grace! And this grace makes us sufficient to abound in every good work. It is actually the grace that does the work – we just enjoy God as grace!
7. We can constantly enjoy God’s multiplying grace. 1 Pet. 1:2b says, Grace to you and peace be multiplied (similar to 2 Pet. 1:2). Rev. 22:21 says, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. In the church life grace is being multiplied and transmitted and dispensed into us, and we constantly enjoy grace! Even for eternity, grace will be our constant and eternal supply!
8. We can enjoy God’s greater grace through humility. James 4:6 says, But He gives greater grace; therefore it says, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Pet. 5:5 says, In like manner, younger men, be subject to elders; and all of you gird yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If we are willing to humble ourselves, we receive greater grace from God.
9. In our experience of the grace in God’s economy, we enjoy the Lord’s presence in our spirit. 2 Tim. 4:22 says, The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you (also see Luke 1:28, 30). The Lord is with our spirit as grace, and His very presence is so enjoyable to us as grace. Christ as grace will never leave our spirit – all we need to do is turn to Him and enjoy Him in our mingled spirit for God’s economy!
10. We need to live out Christ as God’s righteousness by the grace of God. Gal. 2:20-21 says, I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through law, then Christ has died for nothing. Do not nullify the grace of God; rather, enjoy Christ and you will live out God’s righteousness!
11. We need to experience the perfecting of the Lord’s sufficient grace, Christ’s overshadowing power, in our weakness. 2 Cor. 12:9 says, And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me. Even in our weaknesses, His grace is sufficient. His grace is perfecting us and it helps us not only go through but also express Him.
12. By grace we can overcome the usurpation of temporal and uncertain riches and become generous in ministering to the needy saints. 2 Cor. 8:1-2 says, Furthermore we make known to you, brothers, the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, That in much proving of affliction the abundance of their joy and the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Grace empowers us to GIVE even when we don’t have much to give, and the enjoyment of God strengthens us to abundantly help others even with the little we have.
13. The God of all grace perfects, establishes, strengthens, and grounds us through our sufferings. 1 Pet. 5:10 says, But the God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you. The Christian life is not a life free of sufferings, but in these sufferings the God of all enjoyment/grace is continually perfecting us, establishing us, strengthening us, and grounding us!
14. We need to be good stewards of the varied grace of God. 1 Pet. 4:10 says, Each one, as he has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Eph. 3:2 also says, If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for you. Grace is not only for ourselves – the enjoyment of God as grace causes us to become those who minister grace to others also. The grace is varied, and we need to be good ministers of grace.
15. Our word should convey Christ as grace to others. Eph. 4:29-30 says, Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for building up, according to the need, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. In the church life and wherever the Lord has placed us, we need to speak words of grace to impart the enjoyment of God into others. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit – impart grace!
16. We need to experience Christ as grace to be a surpassing one and to labor abundantly for the Lord. 1 Cor. 15:10 says, But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me. As we enjoy grace and as we minister the Lord as grace, we realize that everything we do is not of us but it is the grace of God in us doing things. We become the embodiment and expression of grace.
17. We need to receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life. Rom. 5:17 says, For if by the offense of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Verse 21 says, In order that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Just RECEIVE the abundance of grace and you will reign in life – grace will reign!
The enjoyment of God as grace meets all our needs in the church life, and much more: it causes us to reign in life and minister God as grace to others too! It is by the grace given to the local churches in the dark age of the church’s degradation that the believers who seek to answer the Lord’s calling can become His overcomers (see Rev. 1:4). Eventually, grace will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the city of grace, the consummation of God’s good pleasure in joining and mingling Himself with man for eternity (see Rev. 22:21). Today in the church life we are graced and anointed – and this makes it possible for us to live in oneness!
Lord, keep us just enjoying You! Thank You for grace with our spirit – Your very presence is with us and in us. Make us normal Christians who enjoy You as grace both personally and in the church life. Your grace is sufficient to us. Keep us enjoying You as grace and make us good ministers of the varied grace of God. Our trust is in You, Lord, that You will operate in us through grace to cause us to reign in life and become the New Jerusalem!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from the outline on msg. 9 in the Crystallization of Psalms (2), and portions from, The Genuine Ground of Oneness (ch. 9), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 22.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Grace in its highest definition is / God in the Son to be enjoyed by us; / It is not only something done or giv’n, / But God Himself, our portion glorious.
# The gift of righteousness is measured in abundance, / The depth of His love I’ll never understand. / His love reaches me and you; / His mercy goes farther too;
# I am crucified with Christ / And it is no longer I who liveth, / But it is Christ who lives in me; - Picture source: Come forward to the throne of grace.
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