Recently there was a conference during the 2012 Chinese New Year with the main topic, The Heart of the Divine Revelation. This article begins a series of blog posts on several websites where we do our best to review these messages, get into them, study them, and then share out of our top enjoyment.
What a privilege to be in the Lord’s up-to-date speaking today in His recovery! In this message we need to see what the heart of the divine revelation is – what is the central point of the divine revelation.
The Heart of the Divine Revelation
The Bible speaks about many things – in the 66 books of the Bible we have history, moral teachings, ethical matters, theological points, there’s a philosophical debate in the book of Job, but they are not the focus of the Bible, the heart of the Bible.
There are four books in the Bible – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians – which form the heart of the Bible. The heart of the Bible is a Person, Christ, and He is also our center! The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of Christ.
Who is Christ to you? Is He just an important historical figure who lived 2000 years ago? Is He only the One about which the Bible speaks?
We need to see the heart of the Bible – there’s a central portion, a kernel, in the Bible, so we need to “peel away” the layers of history, morality, ethics, theology, and see that the heart of the Bible is Christ Himself!
The most central thing, the core values of the Bible and our core values, is Christ – not just an objective Christ, but a subjective Christ that we enjoy and experience in our daily life!
Christ being subjective to us
The Bible shows us not an objective Christ but a Christ who is firstly all-inclusive and all-extensive. Also, He is subjectively related to us – Christ is not just a historical figure but He wants to be revealed in us (Gal. 2:4), live in us (Gal. 2:20), and be formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
Even more, according to Philippians, we can experience this Christ in every aspect of our daily living. God wants to save us not out of our circumstances but through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, God wants to save us out of anything that is not Christ Himself so that we might live Christ!
The Christ revealed in the entire Bible is a Christ that can be applied to our daily living, and our enjoyment and experience of Christ issues in a corporate living, the church life! The church life is not a large number of people coming together, but it is composed of those who experience this living, all-inclusive, all-extensive Christ in every detail in their daily life! For this, we forsake all things!
Not religion, but the subjective Christ
We are not here to pursue a religion or a moral and godly life. In the Old Testament we see many teachings to help people live a pious life. T
he Psalmists lived a pious and godly life, they loved Jehovah, they walked with God, they delighted in the law of God – but in the New Testament we see a life in which we live out the Christ we enjoy and experience! This is the heart of the Bible!
The Lord’s recovery is not to recover anything else but the knowing and experiencing Christ in all our daily living!
Paul had an excellent and surpassing knowledge of Christ. We need to also have this prayer, Lord, give me this excellent knowledge of You, a higher knowledge and a more subjective experience of You! Grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of You (Eph. 1:17), so that I may really know You! The way to know Him in a genuine way is to pray to the Lord in this way. Do you know Christ fully?
Christ in Colossians
In Colossians we see that Christ is all-inclusive and all-extensive, the reality of every positive thing in the universe (Col. 1:15, 2:16-17; 3:4, 10-11).
Christ is not an ordinary One and we should not know Him in a superficial way – He is all-inclusive, all-extensive, He is our portion, He is the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn of the dead, the portion of all the saints, the reality of all the positive things, and He is our life!
All things subsist in Him – without Christ, we are like a wheel without a hub, and without Christ, both the entire universe and our personal universe would collapse. He is the constituent of the new man!
Christ is the One – the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and we need to hide in Him, grow in Him, be rooted in Him, and be built up in Him! This is the Lord’s recovery – the recovery of the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ for our experience!
Christ in Galatians
In Galatians we don’t see only what grace and the law are, but we can see that this Christ can be subjective to us!
Christ is revealed in us, He lives in us, and He is formed in us. This Christ needs to be in every detail of our life.
The desire of God’s heart can be satisfied only when we as believers in Christ remain with Christ and allow Him to live in us and be formed in us (see Gal. 2:20; 4:19). Now that Christ has come, we shouldn’t look at “the photograph of Christ”, the law, but focus on the living Person on Christ Jesus!
Christ in Philippians
In the book of Philippians we see how to experience Christ in all things so that we can be saved from a living that is not the living of Christ. If we don’t live Christ, it is a shame to us – if we don’t express Christ, no matter how moral and ethical you are, it is a shame!
We need to be saved from the shame of not living Christ by enjoying Him and applying Him practically to our circumstances that we may experience Him! In any kind of circumstance we need to grasp the opportunity to experience Christ.
Even in our difficulties we have the best opportunity to enjoy and experience Christ.
Christ in Ephesians
In Ephesians we see the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) and Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). The riches of Christ are what Christ is in His being, His processes, and His attainments; we as believers in Christ are enjoying the riches of Christ and become the fulness of Christ, the church, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies (Eph. 3:8-10).
We need to allow the unsearchable and immeasurable Christ to make His home in our hearts through faith, and we will be filled unto all the fullness of God – the Body of Christ as the corporate expression of the Triune God!
This sharing is inspired from the first message in the, 2012 International Chinese-speaking Conference in Taipei, Taiwan, given by brother Andrew Yu. The title of the message is, An Overview of the Four Focal Books – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. In the following weeks there will be similar reviews of the other messages given in this conference – via holdingtotruth.com, newjerusalem12.wordpress.com, and clarkruss.wordpress.com. Picture source: Opened Bible. Please leave a comment below with your enjoyment from this message.
Dear Saints first I would like to say thank you for your sharing. May the Lord bless your corporate labor for building up of His Body for His glory.
What a riches! Yes but who is Christ for ME…? I am encourage to pray: Lord, give me this excellent knowledge of You, a higher knowledge
and a more subjective experience of You! Grant me a spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the full knowledge of You (Eph. 1:17), so that I may really know You!
Especially I appreciate that: "Christ is the One – the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and we need to hide in Him, grow in Him, be rooted in Him, and be built up in Him! Yes Now that Christ has come, we shouldn’t look at “the photograph of
Christ”, the law, but focus on the living Person on Christ Jesus! Amen!!!
And this is awesome and may the Lord make me such a one: We need to be saved from the shame of not living Christ by enjoying Him and applying Him practically
to our circumstances that we may experience Him! In any kind of
circumstance we need to GRASP the opportunity to experience Christ. Even
in our difficulties we have the best opportunity to enjoy and
experience Christ.
Amen we need to grasp every opportunity even in our difuculties we have the OPPOUTUNITY TO ENJOY AND EXPERIENCE CHRIST!
Amen!
And thank you again 🙂
Amen! May we know Christ not only in the four gospels but the subjective Christ in the Epistles. Thank the Lord that i was able to attend this conference and be blended with the saints in Taiwan. Hallelujah for the body of Christ!
Christ is historical and objective BUT NOT ONLY SO. He is also subjective, for us to experience and to express Him in our living everywhere. Colossians shows who Christ is, Galatians tells how Christ is applied to us, Philippians presents how to experience Christ to express Him, and Ephesians declares that by enjoying the unsearchably rich Christ we become God's fullness.
How much we treasure Christ depends on how much we know Him. If we only know Him in a general way, He does not become the holding center of our daily life. Paul knew and presented a surpassing, excellent Christ, a Christ worth more than everything of human culture. So we pray, "Lord, give me a higher knowledge of You. Become excellent (Phil. 3:8) and unsearchable (Eph. 3:8) to me." When Christ is so much to us, He will replace all our natural living. "Lord, do it in us!"
What does it mean to say that Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians are the "heart" of the Bible? A heart is something that you cannot live without. You could live without your hands, your feet, but you cannot live without your heart. Your heart is also the engine, the motor, that drives the whole body. In the same way, these four books are the motor that makes all the rest of the Bible real to us. Without these, the Bible would be dead teaching to us. We could do without the morality of Proverbs, or the philosophy of Job (though God put them there for a reason!) but we should not neglect the heart of the Bible. Some people think that the focus of our study of the Bible should be the four gospels, but if we don't read and understand and enter into these four books, we will only have an objective Christ, one outside of us whom we can only imitate.
In these four books, we see that Christ is the reality of every positive thing (Colossians), that religion is not Christ and is opposite of Christ (Galatians), that Christ must be our experience and living regardless of our circumstances (Philippians), and that the result of Christ living in us should be the church, the Body, the corporate expression of Christ (Ephesians). Wow! May Christ be all things to me, subjectively and in my experience, until His Body is full grown, and becomes His warrior to clear up the earth at His return (Eph 6).
FYI, these messages are available on http://lsmwebcast.com as video or audio only (from the Audio Archives), with the outlines available for free.
Dear saints, first I would like to say thank you for your sharing. May the Lord bless your corporate labor for building up of His Body for His glory.
What riches! Who is Christ for ME…? I am encouraged to pray: Lord, give me this excellent knowledge of You, a higher knowledge and a more subjective experience of You! Grant me a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of You (Eph. 1:17), so that I may really know You!
Especially I appreciate that, “Christ is the One – the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and we need to hide in Him, grow in Him, be rooted in Him, and be built up in Him! Yes Now that Christ has come, we shouldn’t look at “the photograph of Christ”, the law, but focus on the living Person on Christ Jesus! Amen!!!
Whis is awesome! May the Lord make me such a one: “We need to be saved from the shame of not living Christ by enjoying Him and applying Him practically to our circumstances that we may experience Him! In any kind of circumstance we need to GRASP the opportunity to experience Christ. Even in our difficulties we have the best opportunity to enjoy and experience Christ.
Amen, we need to grasp every opportunity – even in our difficulties we have the OPPOUTUNITY TO ENJOY AND EXPERIENCE CHRIST!
Amen!
Amen! May we know Christ not only in the four gospels but the subjective Christ in the Epistles. Thank the Lord that i was able to attend this conference and be blended with the saints in Taiwan. Hallelujah for the body of Christ!
Christ is historical and objective BUT NOT ONLY SO. He is also subjective, for us to experience and to express Him in our living everywhere. Colossians shows who Christ is, Galatians tells how Christ is applied to us, Philippians presents how to experience Christ to express Him, and Ephesians declares that by enjoying the unsearchably rich Christ we become God’s fullness.
How much we treasure Christ depends on how much we know Him. If we only know Him in a general way, He does not become the holding center of our daily life. Paul knew and presented a surpassing, excellent Christ, a Christ worth more than everything of human culture. So we pray, “Lord, give me a higher knowledge of You. Become excellent (Phil. 3:8) and unsearchable (Eph. 3:8) to me.” When Christ is so much to us, He will replace all our natural living. “Lord, do it in us!”