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 Eight
Carrying Out the Stewardship of God for the One New Man
Scripture Reading: Col. 1:25; Eph. 3:2, 9; 1 Cor. 4:1-2; 9:16-17; 1 Pet. 4:10
I. In order to carry out His economy, God must have stewards to serve, minister, manage, and execute His economy—1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:10:
A. The Greek word for steward is of the same root as the word for economy in 1 Timothy 1:4 and Ephesians 1:10:
1. It means "a dispensing steward," "a household administrator, who dispenses the household supply to its members."
2. A steward is a dispenser, one who dispenses the divine life supply to God's children—Luke 12:42; 16:1; Titus 1:7; 1 Pet. 4:10:
a. The apostles were appointed by the Lord to be such stewards.
b. The dispensing service, the stewardship, is the ministry of the apostles.
B. In God's economy revealed in the New Testament, there are mainly two mysteries—Rom. 16:25; Rev. 10:7:
1. The first mystery, revealed in the book of Colossians, is Christ as the mystery of God—2:2.
2. The second mystery, revealed in the book of Ephesians and explained in it, is the church as the mystery of Christ—3:4.
C. In the dispensing ministry it is most important that stewards be found faithful—1 Cor. 4:2; 7:25; Luke 12:42; Matt. 24:45; 25:21; Luke 16:10-12; 19:17; Eph. 6:21; Col. 1:7; 4:7, 9; 1 Tim. 1:12; 3:11; 2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Pet. 5:12; Rev. 2:10, 13; 17:14.
II. In the New Testament economy of God, there is the desperate need for the stewardship of God—1 Tim. 1:4; Col. 1:25:
A. The stewardship is God's divine arrangement to carry out His New Testament economy—Eph. 3:2; 1 Cor. 9:17.
B. The economy of God has become the stewardship of God given to all believers—Eph. 3:2, 9:
1. In Ephesians 3 Paul uses the Greek word oikonomia with two denotations:
a. In relation to God, oikonomia denotes God's economy—v. 9.
b. In relation to us, oikonomia denotes the stewardship—v. 2.
c. The stewardship of God is according to the economy of God; with God it is a matter of economy, and with us it is a matter of stewardship.
2. The stewardship of grace is the dispensing of the riches of Christ into our being so that we may grow and become the church—v. 8.
C. The central point of the whole Bible is the desire of God's heart to dispense Himself into man—Phil. 2:13; Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:17a:
1. God's economy is to carry out the dispensing of Himself into man—v. 9.
2. The one new man, who can fulfill God's eternal purpose, receives God's continual and eternal dispensing—2:15; 4:24; 3:17a:
a. Like a steady stream, God dispenses Himself little by little into those who are parts of the new man—Rev. 22:1.
b. God's continual, steady, and eternal dispensing constitutes us, coordinates us, and builds us up together.
D. Paul's stewardship was to complete the word of God in order to dispense Christ with all His riches into the churches—Col. 1:25; 1 Cor. 4:1-2:
1. Although Paul was used in the completion of the divine revelation centuries ago, there is still the need for its completion in a practical way today:
a. Satan, the enemy of God, is seeking to nullify the completion of the word of God.
b. It is the subtlety of the enemy to veil the word, which was completed through Paul—2 Cor. 4:3-4.
c. Without the completion of the word of God, God's purpose cannot be fulfilled, and Christ cannot obtain His bride or come with His kingdom.
2. What we are ministering today is the completion of the divine revelation given to Paul.
3. In the Lord's recovery we need more stewards who are able to complete the word of God—2 Tim. 2:2.
III. The stewardship of God is the stewardship of grace—Eph. 3:2:
A. The stewardship of grace is the economy of grace to carry out God's New Testament economy—v. 2.
B. Grace is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit given to us, gained by us, and enjoyed by us—John 1:17; Acts 20:24; Eph. 3:2:
1. The grace given to us in Christ was bestowed on us before the world began—2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 2:11.
2. God, who was in the beginning, became flesh in time as grace for man to receive, possess, and enjoy, making God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable—John 1:1, 14, 16-17.
3. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the bountiful supply of the Triune God (who is embodied in the Son and realized as the life-giving Spirit) enjoyed by us through the exercise of our human spirit—Gal. 6:18.
4. Grace is the Divine Trinity transmitted into us for our enjoyment, the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27; Psa. 36:8-9:
a. The grace of the Lord is the Lord Himself as life to us for our enjoyment (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:10), the love of God is God Himself (1 John 4:8, 16) as the source of the grace of the Lord, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself as the transmission of the grace of the Lord with the love of God for our participation—2 Cor. 13:14.
b. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 the grace of the Lord is mentioned first because this book is on the grace of Christ—1:12; 4:15; 6:1; 8:1, 9; 9:8, 14; 12:9.
c. The Holy Spirit as the circulation, the transmission, of the grace of Christ with the love of the Father is the supply in our Christian life and church life.
5. Day by day a marvelous divine transmission should be taking place: God is supplying the Spirit of grace bountifully, and we should be receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually—John 1:16; Heb. 10:29b; Gal. 3:2-5; Eph. 3:2; 4:29.
C. The gospel of the grace of God is the stewardship of grace to dispense God into people for their enjoyment; Paul, in his ministry, solemnly testified of the gospel of the grace of God to minister God into people—3:1-2; Acts 20:24.
D. The Christian living is the living of grace, the experience of grace, so that we may carry out our stewardship of grace, the dispensing of grace—2 Cor. 12:9; 2 Tim. 4:22; Eph. 3:2.
E. The practical life and building up of the Body of Christ comes forth out of the inward enjoyment of Christ as the grace of God—1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 13:14.
IV. Those who bear responsibility in the churches need to share in the stewardship of God—Titus 1:7, 9:
A. The elders should take the lead to dispense the riches of Christ into others.
B. All those who take the lead in the Lord's recovery and bear the responsibility for the care of the churches need to realize that they have a part in such a divine stewardship.
V. Because Paul, a faithful steward in God's economy, was conscious of the one new man, what was in his heart was not simply a particular local church or a certain saint but the universal one new man—1 Cor. 4:1-2; 9:16-17; Col. 3:10-11; 4:7-17:
A. "If we are conscious of the one new man, we should no longer think that the churches in our country have nothing to do with the churches in other nations. Instead, we shall realize that all the churches are the one new man today. May we look to the Lord that we may not be sectarian in any way. We would not be sectarian either individually as believers or corporately as local churches. On the contrary, all of us, all the saints in all the churches, are just one new man" (Life-study of Colossians, p. 262).
B. "We also should rejoice that on earth today there is another man, the new man, that includes all the believers. This new man, who is born through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is now spreading and growing throughout the earth. Praise the Lord that we are part of this new man!" (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1982, vol. 2, "The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John," p. 444).