Reaching the Highest Peak of the Divine Revelation (1) The Vision of the Age
Scripture Reading: Hab. 3:2a; Acts 26:19; Eph. 1:17; 3:9; Rev. 21:2
I. Among God's elect there has always been an aspiration to be revived—Hab. 3:2a; Hosea 6:2; Hag. 2:7; Mal. 3:1; 4:2; Rom. 8:20-22.
II. We can enter into a new revival by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation, the vision of the age, through the ministry of the age:
A. The particular recovery and work that God is doing in one age is the ministry of that age—cf. Gen. 6:16; 2 Kings 2:1-15.
B. In every age there is the vision of that age, and we have to serve God according to the vision of the age—Prov. 29:18; Acts 26:19; Eph. 1:17; 3:9.
C. God's word reveals to us that in every age He gives only one vision to man:
1. In order for us to serve God today, our vision must extend all the way from the first vision of Adam in Genesis to the ultimate vision of John in Revelation.
2. Today we can be in one accord because we have only one vision, an up-to-date, all-inheriting vision, the vision of the eternal economy of God—Job 10:12-13; cf. Eph. 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:3-4.
III. In 2 Peter 1:12 the present truth can also be rendered "the up-to-date truth":
A. Although all the truths are in the Bible, through man's foolishness, unfaithfulness, negligence, and disobedience many truths were lost and hidden from man—cf. 2 Kings 22:8.
B. Freshly revealed truths are not God's new inventions; rather, they are man's new discoveries; every worker of the Lord should inquire before God as to what the present truth is.
C. God's truths are cumulative; later truths do not negate former ones; what we see today are the cumulative revelations of God.
D. May God be gracious to us that we do not become the castaways of "the present truth"; may we be watchful, and may we not allow the flesh to come in or the self to gain any ground.
IV. The highest peak of the divine revelation given to us by God, the present truth, is the revelation of the eternal economy of God:
A. The entire Bible, which is the explanation of the eternal economy of God, is the autobiography of the Triune God, seen in the two sections of eternity and on the bridge of time:
1. In the Old Testament there is the single, but triune, God from eternity past, indirectly moving only with men and among men—John 1:1, 3.
2. He came from eternity into time and with His divinity to enter into humanity to become the incarnated God for His direct move in man, seen in the four Gospels, for the accomplishment of His judicial redemption—vv. 14, 29.
3. In resurrection He became the compounded God, the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, seen in the Acts and the Epistles, for the carrying out of His organic salvation—John 1:32, 42; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Phil. 1:19.
4. Because of the degradation of the church, He became the intensified God, the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit, seen in Revelation 1—20, for the producing of the overcomers—1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
5. In eternity future He will be the corporate God, the New Jerusalem, seen in Revelation 21 and 22, for the universal, divine-human incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified believers as the goal of God's eternal economy—John 1:51; Rev. 21:3, 22.
6. Thus, the central revelation of God and the Lord's recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem.
B. God becoming man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead is the essence of the entire Bible, the "diamond" in the "box" of the Bible, the eternal economy of God—Gen. 1:26; John 12:24; Rom. 8:29:
1. God became man through incarnation by participating in man's humanity; man becomes God (in life and nature but not in the Godhead) through transformation by participating in God's divinity—John 1:14; 2 Cor. 3:18:
a. Participating in God's life—John 3:15; 10:10; Col. 3:4; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11.
b. Participating in God's nature—Eph. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:4.
c. Participating in God's mind—Eph. 4:23; Phil. 2:5.
d. Participating in God's being—2 Cor. 3:18b; Eph. 3:8.
e. Participating in God's image—2 Cor. 3:18a; Rom. 8:29.
f. Participating in God's glory—v. 30; Heb. 2:10.
g. Participating in God's sonship—Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:23; Heb. 2:10-11.
h. Participating in God's manifestation—Rom. 8:19.
i. To bear God's likeness—1 John 3:2.
j. To be Godkind—God's species—John 1:12; Rom. 8:14, 16.
2. This divine-human romance is the subject of the entire Bible, the content of God's economy, and the secret of the entire universe—S. S. 1:1; 6:13:
a. Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine; they are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching each other.
b. The Triune God, consummated to be the Husband, and the tripartite man, transformed to be the bride, are to be one couple, a corporate, great God-man—Rev. 21:2, 9.
3. God and man will become one entity, and that one entity is the mingling of divinity with humanity, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the conclusion of the entire Bible.
V. "I hope that the saints in all the churches throughout the earth, especially the co-workers and the elders, will see this revelation and then rise up to pray that God would give us a new revival—a revival which has never been recorded in history"—Life-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, p. 15.