THE WILL OF GOD
Message Four
Living a Life according to God's Heart and Will
Scripture Reading: Acts 13:22, 36; Eph. 1:9-11; 3:9-11; Heb. 10:5-10; Rom. 12:1-21
I. The Old Testament contains a portrait of David—a man according to God's heart, who did the will of God and served his own generation by the counsel of God (Acts 13:22, 36); it was in David's heart to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel; today God is blessing us in every way for the fulfillment of His economy to build up the Body of Christ (1 Sam. 13:14a; 1 Kings 8:17; 1 Chron. 22:7; 28:2; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:16).
II. God's great will in His New Testament economy, God's good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose are to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God— 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11:
A. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the producing of the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God; God's great will is to have a Body composed of human beings who are regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed into the image of the processed Triune God—Zech. 12:1; John 1:12-13; Eph. 5:26; 2 Cor. 4:16; 3:18.
B. God's great will is also to have a church to be the organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom—Eph. 3:9-10.
C. Each chapter of the book of Ephesians unveils the mystery of God's will (1:9), the mystery of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God, from a particular point of view:
1. Ephesians 1 reveals that the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the processed Trinity and the transmitting of the transcending Christ.
2. Ephesians 2 reveals that the Body of Christ is the masterpiece of the Triune God as the new man—vv. 10, 15-16.
3. Ephesians 3 reveals that the Body of Christ is the fullness of the Triune God by our being supplied with the riches of Christ and by Christ's making His home in our hearts—vv. 8, 14-19.
4. Ephesians 4 reveals that the Body of Christ is the mingling of the processed Triune God with the regenerated believers and that this one Body is built up by the one ministry—vv. 4-6, 11-16.
5. Ephesians 5 reveals that the Body of Christ is composed of the children of light to be the bride of Christ for the satisfaction of Christ—vv. 8-9, 25-27.
6. Ephesians 6 reveals that the Body of Christ is the corporate warrior of the Triune God for the defeating of God's enemy—vv. 10-20.
D. God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24); the word blended also means "adjusted," "harmonized," "tempered," and "mingled":
1. In order to be blended in the Body life, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit, dispensing Christ to others for the sake of the Body of Christ.
2. Blending means that when we are about to do something, we always stop to fellowship with others.
3. The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as the final goal of God's economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-10; 1:9-10).
III. God's great will is to have Christ as the replacement for all the sacrifices and offerings in the Old Testament so that we may enjoy Him as our all in all—Heb. 10:5-10; Psa. 40:6-8:
A. As the unique sacrifice of the new covenant, Christ is the factor that enacts God's New Testament economy (Matt. 26:28) so that He may be its centrality and universality for the producing and building up of the church as His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
B. Christ's replacing of all the Old Testament offerings, taking away all the Old Testament types and establishing Himself as everything to us, is God's great will; hence, Christ has changed the age for the consummating of God's new creation out of God's old creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15); His changing the age is greater than the creation of the universe mentioned in Genesis 1:
1. The Old Testament predicted in Isaiah 53 that Christ would come to be the sacrifice for sin in order to replace and terminate the Levitical sacrifices (vv. 6, 11-12); God prepared a body for Christ so that He could offer Himself to God to replace all the offerings (Heb. 10:5).
2. Christ took away "the first," the sacrifices of the old covenant, that He might establish Himself as "the second," the sacrifice of the new covenant—v. 9:
a. As "the second," Christ is everything—v. 9.
b. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of Christ's body once for all so that we may enjoy and partake of Him as our everything— v. 10.
C. Christ is the reality of the offerings so that we may worship God in spirit and truthfulness (the divine reality becoming our genuineness and sincerity for the true worship of God)— John 4:23-24:
1. The burnt offering, which was wholly for God's satisfaction, typifies Christ as God's pleasure and satisfaction, the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God—Lev. 1:3; Num. 28:2-3; John 7:16-18.
2. The meal offering typifies Christ in His perfect humanity as food for God and for those who have fellowship with God and serve Him—Lev. 2:1, 4; John 7:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6.
3. The peace offering typifies Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who became the peace and the fellowship between us and God by dying for us, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have fellowship with God in Christ for our mutual satisfaction with God—Lev. 3:1; Eph. 2:14-15; John 12:1-3; 20:21.
4. The sin offering typifies Christ as the One who was made sin for us and who died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature of our fallen being—Lev. 4:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; 3:14.
5. The trespass offering typifies Christ as the One who bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we might be forgiven in our sinful conduct—Lev. 5:6; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11; John 4:15-18.
6. The wave offering typifies Christ as the resurrected One in love—Lev. 7:30; 10:15.
7. The heave offering typifies the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation—7:32; Exo. 29:27; Eph. 1:21.
8. The drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as wine before God for His satisfaction and also as the One who saturates us with Himself as heavenly wine to be poured out for God's enjoyment and satisfaction—Lev. 23:13; Exo. 29:40; Num. 28:7-10; Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Judg. 9:13.
D. We need to live a life according to God's heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings for the divine goal of the Triune God, which is to bring us all into Himself that we may take Him as our dwelling place and allow Him to take us as His dwelling place for His universal, enlarged, divine-human incorporation— John 14:23; Rev. 21:3, 22.
IV. God's great will is to have the believers in Christ practice the Body life, that is, to have the living of the Body of Christ—Rom. 12:1-21:
A. We are "one Body in Christ," having an organic union with Him; this union makes us one in life with Him and with all the other members of His Body—vv. 4-5:
1. Two words from Romans 12:5 indicate the organic union—in Christ; in Christ always implies the thought or the fact that we are organically one with Christ.
2. The actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ; this is why John 15 charges us to abide in Him; to abide in Him simply means to remain in the organic union.
B. For the church life, the life of the Body of Christ, to be realized, our entire being is needed; a presented body, a transformed soul, and a burning spirit are indispensable to a proper church life—Rom. 12:1-2, 11:
1. We need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice for the church life:
a. Bodies in Romans 12:1 is plural, and sacrifice is singular; this indicates that although many bodies are presented, they become one sacrifice, implying that although we are many, our service in the Body of Christ should not be many individual services, separated and unrelated.
b. All our service should constitute one whole service, and this service must be unique because it is the service of the one Body of Christ.
2. After presenting our body, we need to have our mind renewed—vv. 2-3:
a. The renewing of the mind, which results from setting the mind on the spirit (8:6), is the base for the transformation of our soul; our mind is the leading part of our soul, and as it is renewed, our will and emotion automatically follow to be renewed also.
b. To be renewed means that a new element is wrought into our being; this produces an inward metabolic transformation, making us suitable for the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the practice of the church life.
3. We must be burning in spirit that we may be stirred up and encouraged to go on in the church life in a positive way; dead, vain knowledge and doctrinal forms can make us degraded and lukewarm; we need to repent of our lukewarmness and be zealous, boiling, burning, that we may regain the enjoyment of the reality of Christ—12:11; Rev. 3:16, 19-22.
C. When Christ as grace comes into us, this grace brings with it the element of certain skills and abilities, which, accompanying our growth in life, develop into the gifts in life that we may function in the Body of Christ to serve God—Rom. 12:4-8.
D. Verses 9 through 21 show the normal Christian life that is the necessary base for the practice of the church life and that matches the church life; this is a life of the highest virtues for the Body life; we can have such a living for the Body life only by reigning in life—5:17.
E. God's complete salvation (vv. 10-11) is for us to reign in life by the abundance of grace (God Himself as our all-sufficient supply for our organic salvation) and of the gift of righteousness (God's judicial redemption applied to us in a practical way); when we are all reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the issue is the real and practical Body life.