The Christ we witness for His propagation is the all-inclusive Christ, and this One is the Author of life, the holy and righteous One, and the Servant of God.
How do we witness Christ? On one hand we witness Him by our living, by living Christ, living by the Spirit. But this is not all. We shouldn’t think that we’re so spiritual that all we have to do is live Christ – no, we need to also speak the Word.
The apostles spoke the Word of God, and even the angel told Peter to go and stand and speak the words of this life. We have to live Christ and practice living by the Spirit but we also need to speak Christ, in particular, we need to speak and proclaim the all-inclusive Christ.
The Lord Jesus didn’t just live and move to express God before man, but He also spoke, taught and preached, and His words were an expression of God through Him.
We need to exercise to get into the Word of God with much prayer, musing, consideration, and opening before the Lord, so that we may enjoy all the wonderful aspects of the all-inclusive Christ revealed in the Bible.
We need to be filled with Christ and take Him in, exercising our spirit to pray as we read and enjoy the Lord in His Word, so that the all-inclusive Christ would be our enjoyment and experience daily.
Then, we need to speak as God’s mouthpieces by announcing and proclaiming the all-inclusive Christ as the gospel to others.
In the book of Acts we see that the disciples were witnesses not only of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, but also of the all-inclusive Christ in so many wonderful aspects.
When we speak to other people about the Lord, what do we tell them? Do we tell them merely that God is good, God loves them, Christ died for them, and they need to believe into Jesus to be saved? All these are good, but this is an incomplete gospel.
The gospel the apostles preached is the all-inclusive Christ as the gospel, for they were freshly enjoying Christ and spontaneously ministering Him as such an all-inclusive One to others.
We need to enjoy the Lord in His many aspects and pray that He would be wrought into our being.
We don’t need only to have the aspects of the all-inclusive Christ in our mentality and understanding, but even more we need to have this all-inclusive one as our enjoyment and experience, so that He would be wrought into our being and become our constitution.
When the all-inclusive Christ is our constitution and enjoyment daily, we will simply overflow with Him to others, proclaiming the all-inclusive Christ as the gospel to others for them to be saved and enter into the enjoyment of such a Christ.
We also need to study the Word and be filled with the Word, and we need to prayerfully study and read the ministry that opens up the Word of God so that we may be equipped and filled with the Word as we speak to others.
The Christ revealed in the book of Acts is the all-inclusive Christ (see Acts 3:14-15, 25-26; 5:30-32; 7:56; 10:36, 39-43; 16:31; 17:30-31; 20:28).
Proclaiming the All-inclusive Christ as the Author of Life, the Righteous and Holy One
One of the first aspects of the all-inclusive Christ proclaimed by the apostles on the book of Acts is Christ as the Author of life (Acts 3:14-15). Christ is the origin, the originator of the divine life, the zoe life of God.
He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10), and He Himself is the Author of life.
The Greek word rendered “Author” in Acts 3:15 is archegos, meaning “author,” “origin,” “originator,” “chief leader,” “captain.” In 3:15 it denotes Christ as the origin or Originator of life, hence the Author of life, in contrast to the murderer in v. 14.
The Jewish leaders put to death the Author of life, the One who is holy and righteous, but God raised Him from the dead.
Christ is the Author, the chief Leader, the Initiator of life, the Originator of life; He propagated Himself as life into His disciples on the day of His resurrection (John 20:22), and He continued to propagate Himself as life through His disciples after His ascension.
In Acts 3 we see the imparting of life into others, which is to propagate Christ; for such a propagation, we need the Lord as the Author of life, the source of life. Christ as the Author of life is also the holy and righteous One.
What does it mean that Christ is holy and righteous?
For Christ to be holy indicates that Jesus, the Nazarene, the One despised of the Jewish leaders, was absolutely for God and separated unto Him. To be holy is to be separated unto God, to be saturated with God, and to be absolutely for God.
Christ was separated, holy unto God, and He was saturated with God, being filled with God and His holy element and nature.
Christ was absolutely for God and fully one with God in everything He did and said. In the whole human history there’s no other person that was so absolutely one with God and so much for God like the Lord Jesus. Therefore, He is the holy One.
Christ is also the righteous One, the One who is right with God and right with man in everything. He was right with God, right with His parents, right with the people who were listening to Him and following Him, right with His disciples, and right with everyone.
In ourselves we are not right with God, with others, or even with things, but Christ is the right One, the righteous One. He was never wrong with anyone or anything, even when He did things that seemed wrong.
For example, Christ righteously cleansed the temple, according to God’s word, and He was not wrong in this.
We need to know, enjoy, and experience such a Christ, so that we may be constituted and filled with Christ as the Author of life, the holy and righteous One, and flow Him to others in our speaking.
When we see, know, appreciate, and enjoy such a One, the all-inclusive Christ as the Author of life, we will cooperate with Him to propagate Him as life into others for them to receive the divine life, be regenerated by God, be saturated with God’s holy element, be sanctified unto God, and be right with God and with man in everything.
Only Christ as the Author of life, the holy and righteous One, can impart the divine life into us to make us part of God’s propagation, and only Christ can make us absolutely for God and right with God and with man.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us as the Author of life, the holy and righteous One. Thank You Lord for being the origin of life, the source of life, the initiator of the divine life. Life is in You, and You dispensed this life into us. Thank You Lord. Thank You for being the holy and righteous One in us enabling us to live a holy and righteous life on earth. Oh Lord, we want to enjoy You as the holy and righteous One, and we want to proclaim You as such an all-inclusive One to others as the gospel. Hallelujah for our Christ who is the Author of life, the holy and righteous One!
Proclaiming the All-inclusive Christ as God’s Servant who was Glorified and Poured out as the Blessing for all Nations
Christ is the Servant of God, whom God raised and sent to His people so that He may bless them in turning them from their wicked deeds (see Acts 3:25-26).
As God’s servant, Christ was raised up by God to bring the blessing covenanted to Abraham first to the Jews, the chosen people of God, that they may turn from their wickedness. He is the seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gal. 3:16).
Hallelujah, Christ is the servant of God who came not only to fulfil God’s purpose but also to be the blessing for all the nations!
Christ is the One in whom all the families of the earth are blessed, He is the one in whom all races, all colors, and all nationalities are blessed.
Christ came first to the Jewish people as the Servant of God, and He saved them from their wickedness as they believed into Him. He passed through death and entered into resurrection to become the reality of the seed of Abraham, the One in whom all nations are blessed, and He became a blessing to all the nations! Praise the Lord!
The Christ we witness before others is not only the resurrected and ascended Christ, not only Christ as the Author of life, but also Christ as the Servant of God in whom all the nations are blessed! Christ as the Servant of God came for our salvation and even more, for our blessing.
God raised His Servant Jesus from the dead, and He sent back the ascended Christ first to the Jews by pouring out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and then to the Gentiles by baptising Cornelius and his house with the Spirit.
Praise the Lord, the very Spirit whom God poured out is the very Christ whom God raised and exalted to the heavens, the Servant of God.
We need to see Christ as such a One, enjoy Him as the Servant of God, and be His witnesses on the earth, ministering Christ to people.
When we preach the gospel and witness Christ, we propagate Christ as the Servant of God who is the Spirit in our spirit; through our words with the exercise of our spirit Christ as the Spirit is ministered to others to regenerate them and bring them into God’s kingdom.
Hallelujah, the Servant of God was poured upon us as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, and we can enjoy Christ as the seed of Abraham and the Servant of God!
May we all be brought into a deeper knowledge and appreciation of Christ as the Servant of God, the One who went through a process to be incarnated, live a perfect human life to do God’s work, die on the cross, be resurrected, and be ascended, and in ascension He was poured out by God as the blessing of all the nations! Hallelujah!
Praise You Lord Jesus for being the Servant of God who was poured out upon us as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord Jesus for coming as the Servant of God to do God’s work and save us from our wickedness. Thank You Lord for being crucified and resurrected to become the blessing of Abraham for all the nations! Hallelujah, Christ as the Servant of God was poured out upon the whole Body of Christ to be the unique blessing of God for all the nations, tribes, tongues, colors, and races! We can just enjoy this One and propagate Him!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 291 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 3, Being Witnesses of the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Jesus! Source of life eternal! / Jesus, Author of our breath! / Victor o’er the hosts infernal, / By defeat, and shame, and death, / Thou through deepest tribulation / Deigned to pass for our salvation: / Thousand, thousand praises be, / Lord of glory, unto Thee! (Hymns #98)
# Thy Holy Spirit deep within / Supplies Thyself as righteousness, / As holiness, redemption full, / As wisdom and as fruitfulness. (Hymns #491)
# Lord, we adore Thee for Thy matchless grace, / That Thou, for us, didst take the servant’s place; / From Godhead’s glory to the shameful tree, / From wealth, so vast, to abject poverty! (Hymns #219)
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