THE CHURCH AS THE TEMPLE OF GOD— THE GOAL OF GOD'S ETERNAL ECONOMY
Message Six
Becoming Divine and Mystical Persons Living in the Divine and Mystical Realm for the Building of the Divine and Mystical Temple of God
Scripture Reading: John 14:2, 10-11, 16-20, 23; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b
I. The Triune God Himself is a divine and mystical realm—John 14:10-11:
A. The three of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are self-existing, ever-existing, and coinhering and as such are a divine and mystical realm.
B. The Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is the Father's embodiment, forming a divine and mystical realm.
II. Christ, the first God-man, is a divine and mystical person; to be divine is on God's side, and to be mystical is on man's side:
A. In His living as the first God-man, all that the Lord Jesus did was divine and mystical; God was manifested in a mystical, human way—1 Tim. 3:16.
B. The Lord's mystical human life was a divine realm, and this realm is the king-dom of God—John 3:13, 3.
C. The Lord Jesus was a God-man, and all that He said and did were divine facts accomplished in His human life mystically—5:19; Matt. 7:28-29.
D. The prayers of the first God-man were in the divine and mystical realm; the Lord Jesus was a man in the flesh, yet He prayed to the mysterious God in a divine and mystical way and realm—John 17; Matt. 14:23.
III. The divine and mystical realm into which we may enter is the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ—John 14:16-20:
A. Another Comforter, the Spirit of reality, is the reality of the Son realized as the Son's presence in the believers—vv. 16-18.
B. In resurrection the Son became the life-giving Spirit, and He came to the disci-ples to breathe into them, asking them to receive the Holy Spirit; by this we can know that the Son is in the Father, the believers are in the Son, and the Son is in the believers—1 Cor. 15:45b; John 20:22; 14:19-20.
IV. We need to enter into and become part of the divine and mystical realm:
A. We enter into the divine and mystical realm by seeing this realm; in spiritual things to see is to enter into—3:3, 5.
B. We enter into the divine and mystical realm by becoming part of this realm:
1. We become part of the divine and mystical realm through the divine birth; through regeneration we were born into the divine and mystical realm—v. 6.
2. We become part of the divine and mystical realm by participating in God's divinity—v. 15; 2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:23, 29.
3. We become part of the divine and mystical realm by being built up in the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem as the divine and mystical realm for eternity—Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2.
V. Every believer should be a divine and mystical person, one who is human yet lives divinely—Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 10:1:
A. We have been separated from being common; we have been sanctified and sepa-rated unto God, who is holy, and now we are in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ—John 17:17, 19; Heb. 2:11; 1 Thes. 5:23.
B. As God-men, we, the believers in Christ, should live as divine and mystical per-sons—Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:1-6:
1. We should be divine yet human—not merely human but mystically human; everything in our living should be divine and mystical—John 14:16-20.
2. We should do everything with God, in God, by God, and through God; this is what it means to be divine—1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17.
3. Like the Lord Jesus, we should be those who are apparently physical yet invisibly divine and mystical, living simultaneously in the physical realm and in the divine and mystical realm—John 3:13; Heb. 4:16; 13:13.
VI. As believers in Christ, we should live in the divine and mystical realm:
A. In the divine and mystical realm, we receive the Spirit as the unique, all-inclusive blessing—Gal. 3:14, 2, 5.
B. In the divine and mystical realm, we receive the transmission of the ascended Christ and the supply of His heavenly ministry—Eph. 1:22; Heb. 8:1-2.
C. In the divine and mystical realm, we experience God's organic salvation—Rom. 5:10b.
D. In the divine and mystical realm, we live in the kingdom of God as the realm of the divine species—John 3:3, 5.
E. In the divine and mystical realm, we live a spontaneous and effortless Christian life according to the automatic function of the law of life—Rom. 8:2.
F. In the divine and mystical realm, we live a life of truthfulness as the expression of the revealed divine reality—2 John 1; 3 John 1; John 4:23-24.
G. In the divine and mystical realm, we are mingled with the Triune God for the keeping of oneness—17:21, 23; Eph. 4:3.
VII. As divine and mystical persons, we live in the divine and mystical realm for the building of the divine and mystical temple of God—John 2:19-22:
A. The Triune God is dispensing Himself into us to make us His dwelling place; this dwelling place also becomes our dwelling place—14:1-31.
B. The Father's house signifies the mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed people to be a dwelling place for both God and His people—vv. 2, 20, 23:
1. God is dispensing Himself into His people and mingling Himself with them in order to make them such a mutual dwelling place—15:4.
2. God and we, we and God, are mingled together to become one abode, a mutual abode; this abode is the church as the divine and mystical temple of God— 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22.