Awesome quote:

"We generally view God’s actions in His economy as a series of episodic events in time, somewhat like a universal drama unfolding across the eons. A scene opens in a certain setting; a Character or characters appear; actions take place; problems arise, crest, and resolve. The goal is mankind’s redemption, and the ending is known and expected. First, God creates; man falls in a garden; God calls a race of chosen people; after some interval God comes to redeem and reconcile; finally, the effects of the fall are nullified, and there is a glorious city in which God and man dwell as one. The saga is not wrong, for the events are all true and the characters are all real. But there is a deeper sense to what is going on in the episodes, a sense that unifies all God’s work in the person of Christ. There is one God who acts in and through one Christ to produce one result. All God’s actions are confined to His one operation in and through the one Christ, and the one Christ is best viewed as the Firstborn. God creates in and through Christ the Firstborn, and the creation springs into being with Christ the Firstborn as both its beginning and its goal. All the created realm exists in Him because He incorporates in Himself all creation, especially all the human race. When He appears in time as an individual man, He does not lose His identity as the unique God-man, but He nevertheless includes all our race in Himself as He dies for our redemption and rises for our justification and regeneration. While His death is the unique sacrifice for sins, He undergoes the process of death and resurrection as the Firstborn of all creation, thereby terminating the old creation and germinating the new creation. In raising Him from the dead, God operates in and through the one Firstborn not only to beget Him in His humanity but also to beget His believers into the new creation. Through this one operation Christ the Firstborn of all creation becomes the Firstborn from the dead and the Firstborn among many brothers, and God’s elect, the believers of Christ, become the many brothers of the Firstborn. In this way, the whole and grand economy of God is accomplished not as a series of episodic events populated by a full stage of characters but as a single operation of God on the one person of Christ, in whom both the old creation and the new creation find their source and subsistence. In whatever way we as creatures, as human beings and as regenerated believers, relate to God, we do so by virtue of our incorporation into this central and universal Christ, who is to the Father as well as to us the Beloved."

Kerry S. Robichaux, “Christ the Firstborn.” Affirmation & Critique. Vol. 2, No. 2 (1997): 38

CHRIST-HIS PERSON

THE WORD

In the Godhead Christ is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word is the definition, explanation, and expression of God; hence, the Word is God defined, explained, and expressed.

God is mysterious. He needs the Word to express Him. Christ, as the Word, defines, explains, and expresses Him. Therefore, Christ, as the Word, is the definition, explanation, and expression of God. This Word is actually God Himself, not God hidden, concealed, and mysterious, but God defined, explained, and expressed.

The Word is eternal; that is, the Word is self-existing, without beginning. This is contrary to the heretical teaching that says the Word, the Logos, was created by God. According to the revelation in John’s Gospel, the Word was not created. John 1:1 says that the Word was in the beginning. This reveals that the Word is eternal. This eternal Word is a living person, Christ, the Son of the living God (Rev. 19:13). Such a Word signifies the mysterious and invisible God defined and expressed.

This Word as the definition of the Triune God is for God’s speaking. The fact that this Word is the entire God means that it is for the speaking of the Triune God. This Word became incarnate as a man, and that man was God’s speaking. This means that the Man Jesus Christ was God’s Word, God’s speaking. He spoke God not only with clear words but also with what He was and what He did. He is altogether the Word of God and the speaking of God. Sometimes He spoke with words, and at other times He spoke with actions. All that He was and all that He did spoke God.

John 1:14 says not only that the Word became flesh, but also that the Word tabernacled among us. The story recorded in the four Gospels is a story of God incarnate tabernacling among us. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us in order to declare God, express God, explain God, and define God in many practical ways. The incarnate Word is the speaking, the expression, and the definition of God. As the Word, Christ is the defined God, the explained, expressed, and revealed God, the God made known to human beings.

CHRIST-HIS PERSON

The Expression of the Father


Christ is the expression of the Father. As the Son He is the issue, the coming out, of God, and He is also the expression of the Father. Because the Son expressed the Father, the Son is the expression of the Father.

Christ’s being the Word is mainly to express God the Father by declaring, defining, and revealing Him (John 1:18). The more the Son speaks, the more God the Father is expressed.

In the Old Testament God spoke in the prophets, in men moved by His Spirit (Heb. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:21). In the New Testament He speaks in the Son, who is God Himself expressed (Heb. 1:2-3). God the Father is hidden; God the Son is expressed. No one has ever seen God, but the Son as the Word of God, as the speaking of God, has declared and expressed Him. Whereas God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament, He did not have Himself expressed. But in the New Testament God speaks in the Son, who expresses Him. Formerly God spoke through the prophets indirectly, but now He speaks directly in the Son, that is, in the One who is the expression of the Father.

John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Here we see that the One who expresses the Father is the only begotten Son of God, who was in the bosom of the Father from eternity past and who is still in the bosom of the Father after incarnation. The only begotten Son was, is, and always will be in the bosom of the Father. The words of John 1:18 are simple, but the meaning is profound. The dear, only begotten of the Father is continually in the bosom of the Father to declare the Father. This is the way He declares the Father and brings us into the enjoyment of the Father.

God is expressed in Christ, and with Christ we have grace and reality (John 1:14, 16). When we come to Christ, we enjoy grace and participate in reality. According to John 1:18, as the only begotten Son of God, Christ is in the bosom of God the Father. Thus, when we enjoy Christ in an intimate way, this enjoyment of Him will bring us to the Father. In other words, this enjoyment of Christ brings us into the bosom of the Father.

Christ is the expression of God in the same way that grace is the expression of love and reality is the expression of light. When we enjoy Christ as grace and reality, this enjoyment brings us into the bosom of the Father where we enjoy God as love and light. Love is the hidden source of grace, and light is the hidden source of reality. When grace brings us into love, we reach the source out from which grace flows. When we trace grace back to its source, grace becomes love. Likewise, light is the source out from which reality flows. When we trace reality back to its source, we arrive at light.

The Father’s only begotten Son expresses Him by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God’s shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized. God is fully declared in the Son through these five things. The essence of them all is God Himself. Although no one has ever seen God, the Son of God declares Him, expresses Him, in the way of being the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The more we receive the Word and have life, light, grace, and reality, the more God will be declared to us. To declare God means to express Him. Christ has expressed God by being incarnated as the Word with life, light, grace, and reality.

In the Godhead the Father is the source, and the Son is His expression. As the expression of the Father, the Son is the Accomplisher. The Father is the Initiator, the Originator, the Planner, and the Designer, and the Son carries out what the Father has initiated, originated, planned, and designed. Hence, the Son, the expression of the Father, is the Accomplisher.

According to the Gospel of John, Christ the Son came in the Father’s name (5:43), worked in the Father’s name (10:25), did the Father’s will (6:38), spoke the Father’s word (3:34a; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:47-50), and sought the Father’s glory (7:18). As such a One, Christ also expressed the Father (John 14:7-9). He did not express Himself; He expressed only the Father. He was the Son, yet He expressed the Father.

Because the Son expresses not Himself but the Father, the Son’s expression is the Father’s expression. Therefore, when we see the Son, we see the Father. This is proved by the exchange between the Lord Jesus and Philip in John 14. In verse 7 the Lord Jesus pointed out to the disciples that if they had known Him, they would have known His Father also. Then He said, “Henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” However, Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us” (v. 8). To this the Lord Jesus answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, for the Son is the expression of the Father. If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father because the Father is embodied in the Son to be expressed through Him.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Sep 15 2014, 09:42 AM

CHRIST HIS PERSON

One with the Father

In John 10:30 the Lord Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Son is one with the Father. Because the Son and the Father are one, when we see the Son, we see the Father.

We cannot explain adequately how the Son and the Father are one. According to the natural understanding, the Son is the Son, the Father is the Father, and the two are distinctly separate one from the other. Although the Son and the Father are distinct, they cannot be separated. According to the Lord’s clear word in John 10:30, He and the Father are one. Because the Son and the Father are one, the Son is even called the Father. According to Isaiah 9:6, the Son given to us is called the eternal Father. A Son is given, yet His name is called the eternal Father.

A number of verses in the New Testament indicate that the Son and the Father are one. John 17:22 says, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” In 1 John 2:25 the singular pronoun “He” is used to refer to both the Son and the Father: “And this is the promise which He promised us, the eternal life.” In this verse “He” refers to the Son and the Father spoken of in the preceding verse. This indicates that the Son and the Father are one. We see the same principle in 1 John 2:28: “And now, little children, abide in Him, that if He is manifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from Him at His coming.” In this verse the pronoun “He” refers definitely to Christ the Son, who is coming. This, along with the preceding clause, “abide in Him,” which is a repetition of the clause in 1 John 2:27 involving the Trinity, indicates that the Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, inseparable from the Father or the Spirit. In 1 John 2:29 the personal pronoun “He” denotes the Triune God: “If you have known that He is righteous, you know also that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten of Him.” “He” denotes the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all-inclusively, because this pronoun refers to “He” and “Him” in the preceding verse, which denotes the coming Son, and it also denotes “Him” in this verse, referring to the Father who has begotten us. This indicates strongly that the Son and the Father are one.

Although the Son and the Father are one, we should not say that there is no distinction between the Father and the Son. There is a distinction between the Father and the Son, but there is no separation. When the Father is present, the Son is present also. Likewise where the Son is, there the Father is also. The Father and the Son cannot be separated. For this reason 1 John 2:23 says, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.” Since the Son and the Father are one, to deny the Son is to be without the Father, and to confess the Son is to have the Father. Whoever denies the Son has neither the Son nor the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has both the Son and the Father. Both the negative side and the positive side of this verse indicate that the Son and the Father are inseparable.

The New Testament does not separate the Father and the Son. Especially in the Gospel of John we see that the Son is always one with the Father. The Son came in the name of the Father (John 5:43). He always did the Father’s work and will, spoke the Father’s word, sought the Father’s glory, and expressed the Father. The Son was one with the Father and could not be separated from the Father. Neither could the Father be separated from the Son.

Yet one should never forget that regardless whether one is too emotional or sensitive naturally "... the soulish man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God"

European board games?

I think I played Catan only

Hey deadlock, came back from group meeting?

How do you know that he "consumed" hank hanegraff's POV?

The birthright include the double portion of the land, the priesthood and the kingship (1 Chron 5:1-2; Deut. 33:8-10; Gen 49:10).

Haven't seen you in a while

Very serious.

The Lord also will not tolerate division. The Lord hates division because it destroys His people as His expression. In the Old Testament the children of Israel were God's people for His corporate expression. In the New Testament the corporate expression of the Lord is the Body of Christ. Whereas heresy insults and damages the person of Christ, division damages the Body of Christ. Division kills the Body of Christ and cuts it into pieces. Because heresy damages the Head and because division kills the Body, the Lord, in both the New Testament and the Old Testament, will never tolerate division.

That is an illusion we tells ourself

I think strictly speaking that is nothing wrong when believers have differing understanding on certain truths in the Bible. We are all in various stages of the Christian life. Just like a family of siblings ....

But to have a "local" church as a local expression of the invisible universal church standing on the ground of its doctrines, practices, culture, etc. as the situation today is unfortunately deplorable. But my view is in the minority anyway. I am not referring to the believers (as per my first statement) but to the system of Christianity in general today. It is like "my younger brother" telling me because I eat pork, he have no more 'fellowship' with me; and I am not his brother any more because this Household is a house of chicken.

According to the Bible, the ground of the church is based on the fellowship of the church in oneness. The fellowship of the church in oneness is the ground of the church. When all those who have been saved come together, not having any division but being fully in oneness and fellowshipping in mutuality, then this oneness, this fellowship, is the ground of the church.

Apologies ... actually I was referring to mumeichan.

Yeah .. I have been busy lately .... also, was enjoying some other messages and digesting them. Sometimes, the spoken words touch your being which I need to spend some time before the Lord.

So, the thought to post [continuing from my original topic] seem moot.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Sep 29 2014, 11:06 AM

Haha ... yes indeed mistaken ... I was referring to "cell-group" meeting [was a Friday night that I assume ... sorry] ... XD XD

But you were referring to something else .... isn't parkour a strenuous activity?

Gen. 25:19-34; 27—30

God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Therefore, we cannot separate their histories. Spiritually speaking, the histories of these three reveal three aspects of a person's experience. God works on man from these three angles. Do not think that some people are absolutely like Jacob and that others are absolutely like Isaac. Thank the Lord that we are Isaac, and at the same time we are Jacob. On the one hand, we enjoy everything in the Lord. Everything is peaceful, rich, and victorious, and we can thank and praise Him continuously. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit continually works in us and disciplines us because of the presence of our natural life. God's Word says, "For what son is there whom the father does not discipline?" (Heb. 12:7). As sons, our Father receives us as well as disciplines us. Isaac shows that we are received by God's grace as sons, while Jacob shows that we are disciplined by Him as sons. On the one hand, God shows us that our life is like Isaac's; it is full and smooth, and everything that is in the Lord becomes ours. Everything that Abraham had belonged to Isaac. Everything that our Father has is ours. On the other hand, He leads us to partake of His holiness so that Christ may be formed in us and the Holy Spirit may bear fruit through us.

In reading the history of Jacob, it is very easy for us to stand aloof and judge Jacob as being unqualified for God's use and worthy of condemnation, especially if we have never been dealt with by the Lord and do not know our flesh. We find Abraham's history interesting, but we find Jacob's history irrelevant. However, if we are enlightened by God and realize what the natural life is and what fleshly energy is, we will spontaneously see that the aspect of Jacob is in us. We will realize that there is more than one aspect of Jacob inside of us. When we read the history of Jacob in his old age, we see that his seventeen years in Egypt were his richest years. In reading of his words, his deeds, his attitudes, and his acts, we cannot help but bow our heads and say, "God, Your grace can make a man like Jacob reach such a state!" When we come to the end of Jacob's history, we cannot help but exclaim in tears, "God, Your grace truly has turned a hopeless person into a useful vessel!"

God really accomplished His work in Jacob—how God disciplined him, dealt with his natural life, and weakened him, how God caused Christ to be formed in him through the constitution of the Holy Spirit, and how he bore the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

What is the discipline of the Holy Spirit, and what is the constitution of the Holy Spirit? The discipline and constitution of the Holy Spirit are one work; they are not two separate works. We are constituted by the discipline of the Holy Spirit. We are molded by the carving work of the Holy Spirit. When our natural life is being dealt with, the nature of Christ is being constituted into us. While Jacob was being dealt with by God, he began to bear the fruit of peace. In the midst of discipline, the fruit of peace is borne. The fruit of peace does not come after the disciplining work. While God was touching his natural life, the fruit of peace was borne. This is the principle by which God manifested Himself through Jacob. On the one hand, we have to observe the way that God carved him and weakened him. On the other hand, we have to observe the way that God wrought the nature of Christ into him through the Holy Spirit. This work makes Christ's nature his nature.

JACOB - BEING CHOSEN

One of the most interesting people in the book of Genesis is Jacob. Genesis gives us the record of nine great persons. The first five—Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, and Noah—are considered as five separate people. Although there was some spiritual relationship between them, strictly speaking, Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, and Noah have nothing to do with each other. However, when we come to the last four—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—we see that, as far as the experience of life is concerned, they should not be considered as four separate individuals.

With Abraham we do not have the matter of selection. The first item in Abraham's record is calling. But according to the New Testament revelation, the experience of God does not begin with God's calling but with His selection. Firstly, God selected us; secondly, He predestinated us; and thirdly, He called us. After God's calling, we have forgiveness, redemption, justification, regeneration, and God's full salvation. In this we can see that with Abraham we do not have the beginning of the experience of God. The beginning is with Jacob, for in him we see God's selection. In Jacob's record, however, we do not find God's calling. Therefore, we say once again that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob plus Joseph are not four separate persons; they are four aspects of one complete experience in life. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph each represent an aspect of the experience of life. As we shall see, Jacob stands for the transformed life and Joseph represents the ruling aspect, the kingly aspect, of this transformed life.

According to the New Testament revelation, the believers were firstly chosen by God in eternity past before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Secondly, the believers were predestinated according to God's selection. This also took place in eternity past. Then, in time, God called us. In God's calling, which follows His predestination, we receive forgiveness, redemption, justification, regeneration, and full salvation. In addition to all this, we must be transformed. Day by day we are under the process of God's transformation to be brought not only into the full sonship but also into the kingship. We were born sons of God, the royal sons, and we are undergoing the process of God's transformation that in the future we might be kings.

We do not see the kingship with either Abraham or Isaac. The kingship is with Joseph, who was a part of Jacob. When Jacob was welcomed in Egypt, apparently Pharaoh was the king over the world. Actually, the true reigning one was Joseph, not Pharaoh. But Joseph did not stand for himself; he stood for his father. Thus, at that time, the world was ruled by Jacob through Joseph.

All the saints are under the process of transformation in order to become kings. Hence, the proper, adequate, and complete experience of God goes from God's selection to our kingship. Selection was accomplished in eternity past, and the kingship will be for eternity future. Kingship is our destiny. In eternity past, God selected and predestinated us to be kings in eternity future. With Abraham we see neither the selection in eternity past nor the kingship in eternity future. In other words, Abraham's record has neither the beginning nor the ending of the experience of God, both of which are with Jacob. In Jacob's record, we have a very good beginning and also an adequate ending. Jacob, the heel-holder, the supplanter, was transformed into a prince of God. Eventually, he became Israel and was no longer Jacob. If we read the New Testament carefully, we shall see that the name of Israel ultimately appears in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12). Although Israel is in the New Jerusalem, the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not found there.

The seed is in Genesis:

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

The line of image (becoming God's expression) and dominion (representing God) can be traced throughout the Bible.

The Experience of Jacob

Jacob was chosen before his birth, even before the foundation of the world (25:22-23; Rom. 9:11; Eph. 1:4). We, like Jacob, were also chosen before we were born. Our being chosen by God was according to His foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:29).

Not of His Own Strife

Jacob was not chosen by God of his own strife (25:22-23, 26). Likewise, our being chosen is not according to our struggling. Jacob was somewhat foolish. Of course, he did not have the knowledge that we have. If he had known that he had been chosen, he would have had no need to struggle and could have told Esau, "Esau, you may go out first. No matter who gets out first, I have been chosen. It does not matter how fast you are or how slow I am. The birthright is mine because I have been chosen." But because Jacob did not have this revelation, he struggled.

Not of His Own Works

Romans 9:11, referring to Jacob and Esau, says, "The children not yet being born, nor having done anything good or bad, (that the purpose of God according to selection might remain, not of works, but of Him who calls)." In this verse we see that Jacob's being chosen was not of his own works. Before the children had done neither good nor bad, God had told Rebekah, the mother, that the "greater shall serve the less" (Rom. 9:12). This proves that God's selection does not depend upon our works. Whether we are good or bad means nothing.

Of God Who Calls

Romans 9:13 says, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." His selection does not depend on us; it is absolutely up to Him. It is not of our struggle or works, "but of Him who calls." We are not the Creator—He is.

Of God's Mercy

God's selection is also of God's mercy (Rom. 9:14-16). God said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion" (Rom. 9:15). We all are the objects of God's mercy. How we thank Him that He has had mercy on us! "It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God, the One who shows mercy" (Rom. 9:16).

Of God's Grace

God's selection is also of His grace (Rom. 11:5). It is somewhat difficult to understand mercy and grace as they are related to God's selection. Although we were selected and foreknown by God in eternity past, when God came to call us, we were in a pitiful situation, a situation which required God's mercy.

The enemy, the Devil, might have said to God, "Look at this one who is Your selection. How pitiful he is!" Then God might have said to Satan, "Satan, don't you realize that this is a very good opportunity for Me to show My mercy? Without such a pitiful person, how could I show My mercy? If everyone were perfect and up to your standard, I would have no one on whom to show mercy. Satan, this chosen one is the right one to be the object of My mercy." What about grace? As we have seen, grace is something of God wrought into our being. Although we were so pitiful, God did not reject us. Rather, regardless of Satan's accusations, He had mercy on us. God might have said to Satan, "Satan, I shall not only show mercy to My chosen ones, but I shall work Myself into them." When God is wrought into our being, that is grace. We are not only the objects of God's mercy; we are also the objects of His grace. We are under God's mercy, and His grace is within us.

This post has been edited by pehkay: Oct 7 2014, 05:45 PM