总题：一个新人成就神创造人的定旨
THE ONE NEW MAN FULFILLING GOD'S PURPOSE IN CREATING MAN TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message One
God's Eternal Purpose and the One New Man
Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-28; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:24; 6:10-13; Col. 3:10
I. The eternal purpose—the purpose of the ages—is the eternal plan that God made in eternity past—Eph. 3:11; 1:9, 11; Rom. 8:28:
A. The purpose of God in the universe is to produce a group of people who will be exactly the same as He is; this is the unique subject of the Bible—John 1:12-13; 1 John 3:2:
1. In life, nature, image, appearance, radiance, glory, and outward expression, they will be the same as God—Rev. 4:2-3; 21:10-11, 18.
2. God's purpose is accomplished by the divine life dispensed into His chosen and redeemed people; as God's life is wrought into His people, a metabolic reaction takes place within them that causes them to be transformed and become the same as God—John 3:15; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29.
B. Man is a great word in the Bible—Gen. 1:26; Psa. 8:4-6:
1. God's intention is with man, God's thought is focused on man, and God's heart is set upon man.
2. It is man who fulfills God's plan, it is man who expresses God, it is man who defeats God's enemy, and it is man who brings the kingdom of God into the human race.
3. Man is the means of God's manifestation, man is the means of God's move, and man is the means of God's administration—Ezek. 1:26, 5, 10.
C. The eternal purpose of God is to have a corporate man to express Him and represent Him; this was God's purpose in creating man—Gen. 1:26-28; 5:1-2; Eph. 3:11; 1:9, 11.
II. "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness"—Gen. 1:26:
A. In the Bible there is a mysterious thought concerning the relationship between God and man—v. 26; Ezek. 1:26; 1 John 3:2b; Rev. 4:3a; 21:11b:
1. God's desire is to become the same as man is and to make man the same as He is—1 John 3:2b.
2. God's intention is to work Himself in Christ into us, making Himself the same as we are and making us the same as He is—Eph. 3:17a.
B. Let Us make man reveals that a council was held among the three of the God- head regarding the creation of man—Gen. 1:26a:
1. The decision to create man was made in eternity past, indicating that the creation of man was for the eternal purpose of the Triune God—Eph. 3:9-11.
2. God's intention in creating man was to carry out His divine economy for the dispensing of Himself into man—1 Tim. 1:4; Rom. 8:11.
C. God created man in His own image, according to His likeness—Gen. 1:26a:
1. God's image, referring to God's inner being, is the expression of the inward essence of God's attributes, the most prominent of which are love (1 John 4:8), light (1:5), holiness (Rev. 4:8), and righteousness (Jer. 23:6).
2. God's likeness, referring to God's form (Phil. 2:6), is the expression of the essence and nature of God's person.
3. God created man to be a duplication of Himself so that man may have the capacity to contain God and express Him—2 Cor. 4:6-7; 3:18.
D. God created man in His image and according to His likeness because His intention is to come into man and to be one with man—Eph. 3:17a.
E. God created man in His own image so that through His economy man may receive His life and nature and thereby become His expression—1 Tim. 1:4; John 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:4; 2 Cor. 3:18:
1. Because we were created according to God's kind, our human virtues have the capacity to contain the divine attributes—10:1; 11:10.
2. For God to create man in His image means that God created man with the intention that man would become a duplicate of God, the reproduction of God, for His corporate expression; this reproduction makes God happy because it looks like Him, speaks like Him, and lives like Him—John 12:24; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10; 1 John 3:1-2.
III. "Let them have dominion…Fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion"—Gen. 1:26, 28:
A. God's intention in giving man dominion is to subdue God's enemy, Satan, who rebelled against God—vv. 26, 28:
1. The creeping things that creep upon the earth typify Satan, the serpent, and his angels, as well as the demons, who follow Satan—v. 26; 3:1, 14; Rev. 12:4, 7, 9; Matt. 25:41; cf. Luke 10:19.
2. Subdue in Genesis 1:28 implies that a war is raging on earth between God and His enemy, Satan; whoever gains the earth will have the victory.
3. God has a problem, and this problem is Satan, the archangel who rebelled against God and became His enemy in the universe and especially on the earth—Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:12-18:
a. In order to subdue His enemy and thus solve His problem, God gave man authority to rule over all things created by God—Gen. 1:26.
b. Man especially must rule over the earth and even subdue the earth because the earth has been usurped by God's rebellious enemy—v. 28.
4. God needs man to exercise His authority over all the creeping things, and God needs man to subdue and conquer the rebellious earth so that God may recover the earth for His kingdom—Matt. 6:9-10.
B. God's intention in giving man dominion is to recover the earth—Gen. 1:28:
1. God created man with the intention of recovering the earth for Himself—v. 26.
2. Man was created by God to have dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to conquer it, and thereby recover the earth for God—vv. 26, 28.
3. God wants to regain the earth; the earth has become a crucial place, a place that Satan wants to hold and a place that God wants to regain.
C. God's intention in giving man dominion is for him to exercise God's authority over the earth in order that the kingdom of God may come to the earth, the will of God may be done on the earth, and the glory of God may be manifested on the earth—Matt. 6:10, 13b.
IV. The church as the one new man is the corporate man in God's intention, and this new man will fulfill the twofold purpose of bearing God's image to express Him and of fighting against God's enemy for God's kingdom—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 6:10-13; Col. 3:10:
A. The Bible reveals that the one new man is not an individual but a corporate, universal man—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11:
1. The one new man is a corporate God-man:
a. The first God-man, the firstborn Son of God, is the Head of this corporate God-man—the new man—Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:15.
b. The many God-men, the many sons of God, are the Body of this corporate God-man—the new man—vv. 16, 24.
2. We, the believers in Christ, are all one with Christ to be the new man; we all are parts of the one new man—2:15-16; 4:24:
a. There are many believers and many local churches, but there is only one new man in the universe—Col. 3:10; 4:15-16.
b. All the believers are components of this one corporate and universal new man.
B. The one new man is a warrior fighting against God's enemy—Eph. 6:10-13:
1. The warrior is not a status of the church but an aspect of the church as the new man.
2. The church as the corporate new man is the warrior, and the believers together make up this new man.
3. We must fight the spiritual warfare not individually but in the Body, in the one new man.