the pattern of God’s new testament economy

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

A life fully according to and for God’s new testament economy. This matter of God’s new testament economy is somewhat unknown to many Christians. And then to look at the life that the Lord Jesus lived on this earth in the light of God’s economy is another kind of new consideration to most people…to most believers.

This matter of God’s economy is a very crucial matter. God’s economy is a very profound matter. According to the revelation of the Bible, God has an economy. He has a purpose…a plan…an administration in the universe to carry out something. And that something is to dispense Himself into all His chosen people. All those who believed into the Lord Jesus Christ.

God wants to dispense Himself into them. And even to constitute Himself into them the way our food is constituted into us and becomes a very part of our being…our physical being. God wants to dispense Himself into His people and to work Himself into them to become their very inward constitution.

God has only one desire and that is to dispense Himself into man so that He and man would become one in an organic way. The result of this dispensing is that all those who receive God’s dispensing become the members of the church. And the church is the Body of Christ. And the Body of Christ is the corporate expression of Christ.

So eventually, God’s economy is to produce an expression of Christ through the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people.

We need some sight…spiritual sight…to see what is here in Mark. Otherwise, what we can understand is that Mark is just a story book for the children before bed. We couldn’t see it is a book that gives us a biography of a life. A life that lives fully according to God’s new testament economy.

Actually, the life that is presented in Mark is the very substance…the pattern…of God’s new testament economy. The Lord has shown us that this very Jesus…He lived a life that is just the expression of God. In this book…Mark…you couldn’t see a person was keeping the law there. Neither Mark tells us that Jesus was doing good. No. What Jesus lived? He lived God! He expressed God. Whatever He did, that was God’s doing. That was God doing through Him. That was God doing from within Him.

Jesus didn’t keep the law; neither He broke the law. Jesus didn’t do anything good; nor He did something bad. He’s not in the kingdom of doing good or doing bad. Neither He is in the kingdom of keeping the law or breaking the law. He is in another kingdom. He is in the kingdom of God!

Living Stream Ministry

God is making sinners into sons

Living Stream Ministry Podcast ::

The central thought or message of Romans is that God is making sinners into sons to be the members of the Body of Christ expressed in local churches.

At the beginning of the book, we have a thorough exposure of fallen human kind. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Then we have a marvelous revelation of God’s complete salvation…His judicial redemption. And then according to Rom. 5:10 much more we are saved in His life. Now we are becoming sons of God,…those mature in the divine life…to be members of that Body of Christ described in Romans 12. And the universal Body of Christ which is uniquely one is expressed in all the genuine local churches on the earth. This is the message of Romans. It’s not just about justification. It’s about sinners who are sons. These sons are members of the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is expressed in the church life.

Living Stream Ministry