The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 23, No. 10 : The Wonderful Christ in the Canon of the New Testament
Various Authors
eBook
(Living Stream Ministry, Oct. 28, 2019)
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the final nine messages given during the spring 2019 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Wonderful Christ in the Canon of the New Testament." In these nine messages we continue to consider aspects of the wonderful Christ in the New Testament. In Message 9 we see that Christ is our new Husband. Our old man has been crucified to the law through the body of Christ so that we might marry another husband, Christ, who has been raised from the dead. This joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection; now we are married to Christ, our new Husband. Since Christ is our Husband, we must depend on Him and take Him as our Head, our person, and our life. In Message 10 we see that the Man-Savior's ascension was His inauguration into His heavenly office. In His heavenly ministry in ascension, Christ is serving us by dispensing Himself as the reality of the New Testament jubilee into us for our enjoyment. In Message 11 we see that because Christ is the reality of God with the divine attributes, the reality of humanity with all the human virtues, and the reality of every positive thing in the universe, God's intention in His economy is that this Christ would become everything to us. The will of God is one person--Christ; one way--the cross; and one goal--the church as the Body of Christ and the one new man. The way we should take is the way of opening our being to the all-inclusive, extensive Christ and allowing Him to make His home in us, saturate us, permeate us, reproduce Himself in us, and fill us to overflowing until we put off our culture and every natural element so that Christ is all and in all. In Message 12 we see that we need to know and experience Christ as our kingly and divine High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. As the King, He has the scepter to rule over the earth and to manage our affairs, and as the High Priest, He is interceding for us and taking care of our case before God. As the kingly High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, Christ ministers to us the Triune God, who was processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, signified by the bread and the wine, as our life supply so that we may be saved to the uttermost in order to fulfill God's eternal purpose. In Message 13 we see that we should live a Christian life under the government of God. It is Christ who enables us to take God's governmental dealings administered through sufferings. As we live the Christian life under the government of God, we experience the pneumatic Christ as the Shepherd of our souls, who oversees our inward condition, caring for the situation of our inner being--our mind, emotion, and will and our problems, needs, and wounds; restoring our soul; and giving rest to our soul so that we may have the full enjoyment of Him. In Message 14 we see that Christ as the faithful Witness of God, the testimony and expression of God, is for the testimony of Jesus, the church as the corporate expression of the Triune God. As such, the church is the reproduction of the testimony and expression of God in Christ. The testimony of Jesus is the seven golden lampstands. The golden lampstand symbolizes the Triune God--the Father as the substance is embodied in the Son, the Son as the embodiment is expressed through the Spirit, the Spirit is fully realized and expressed as the churches, and the churches are the testimony of Jesus. Hence, the seven golden lampstands are the enlarged, corporate expression of the Triune God. In Message 15 we see that Christ is the Lamb whom the firstfruits, the living overcomers, follow.