The Church as the Temple of God—The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy
Message Four
The Economy of God, the Temple of God, and the High Peak of the Divine Revelation
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers—Rom. 8:29.
Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up…But He spoke of the temple of His body—John 2:19, 21.
Word of Appetizer
The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Then how does God make man God?
After God regenerates us with Himself as life, He continues to carry out the work of sanctification, renewing, and transformation in us by His Spirit of life.
Spiritual Burden
The economy of God to have the church as the temple of God filled with the glory of God is related to the high peak of the divine revelation—God becoming man so that man may become God in life, in nature, and in expression.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the organic Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy to close this age, to bring Christ back to set up His kingdom, and to consummate the New Jerusalem.
The Scriptures reveal that God’s intention is to make His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people the reproduction of Christ for the temple of God, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God.
The temple of God is the goal of God’s eternal economy.
The Experience of Life
God became man so that, in God’s complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ.
Practice and Application
The God-man life that we live today is the model life that Jesus Christ lived on earth by going through death and resurrection. In order to live the life of a God-man, we must be crucified.
All the vital members should be God-men, crucified in their natural life to live a God-man life by the divine life within them.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things. Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith—1 Tim. 1:3-4.
The High Peak of the Divine Revelation
God’s Economy
I. The high peak of the divine revelation is that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the organic Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy to close this age, to bring Christ back to set up His kingdom, and to consummate the New Jerusalem:
• God’s economy is His intention to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and nature so that they may be the same as He is for His corporate expression.
• God’s economy is that God became man to make us God in life, nature, and expression so that we may have a God-man living and become the Body of Christ.
Key Verses (2)
Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers—Rom. 8:29.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings—Heb. 2:10.
And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands—Rev. 1:12.
The Reproduction of Christ
The Temple of God—The Body of Christ
II.The Scriptures reveal that God’s intention is to make His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people the reproduction of Christ for the temple of God, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God:
•The deep thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God’s complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ.
• The book of Hebrews reveals that through the function of the law of life, we become the reproduction of Christ as the firstborn Son of God to be the church, which is the living composition of the many sons of God.
•In Revelation the living person of Christ is the expression and testimony of God, and the church is the testimony of Jesus, the corporate expression of Christ; as such, the church, the enlarged Christ, is the reproduction and expression of God.
Key Verses (3)
In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord—Eph. 2:21.
And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple—Rev. 2:21.
III. The Temple of God Is the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy
• The temple in the Old Testament typifies both the individual Christ and the corporate Christ, the church.
•In His resurrection the Lord Jesus rebuilt God’s temple in a larger way, making it a corporate one— the mystical Body of Christ.
• The church is the temple of God; as such, it is the sanctuary of the holy God, the temple in which the Spirit of God dwells.
•There is no temple in the New Jerusalem, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
• The economy of God to have the temple of God filled with the glory of God involves the high peak of the divine revelation.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The divine economy is God’s eternal plan (1 Tim. 1:4; Eph.1:10)
(Please briefly narrate the content of the divine economy.) (Please refer to Outline I. A-B)
T2 The high peak of the divine revelation (John 1:14; 1 John 3:1-2)
(Please briefly narrate the high peak of the divine revelation.) (Please refer to Outline I)
D2
T1 A God-man living (John 6:57)
(Please use personal experience to explain that in order to live the life of a God-man, we must be crucified to live a God-man life by the divine life within.)
T2 God wants to make Himself the same as man and also make us the same as He is (Rom. 3:3; 8:14)
(Please explain the steps that God builds Himself into man and builds man into Himself.)
D3
T1 The church as the Body of Christ, the temple of God is the corporate expression of the Triune God (Eph. 1:23; 2:21-22)
(Please explain that it is only by God’s becoming man to make man God that the Body of Christ can be produced and built up.)
T2 The central thought of the book of Romans is that God’s salvation makes sinners His sons (Rom. 8:16, 14, 17)
(Please explain the significances of the children of God, the sons of God, and heirs.)
D4
T1 The many sons, the many brothers, and the many grains (Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29; John 12:24)
(Please explain that the last step of God’s great salvation is to bring His many sons into glory.)
T2 “Let them make a sanctuary for Me that I may dwell in their midst.” (Exo. 25:8)
(Please explain that in Exodus we have not only the Ark but also the tabernacle; this means that we have not only Christ but also the church.)
D5
T1 The temple of God is the goal of God’s eternal economy (Eph. 2:21)
(Please explain that the temple in the Old Testament typifies both the individual Christ and the corporate Christ, the church.)
T2 The temple of God does not denote a place; it denotes a person (John 2:19-21)
(Please explain that in His resurrection the Lord Jesus rebuilt God’s temple, making it a corporate one—the mystical Body of Christ.)
D6
T1 The church is the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17)
(Please explain that the church is the sanctuary of the holy God, the temple in which the Spirit of God dwells.)
T2 There is no temple in the New Jerusalem, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Rev. 21:22)
(Please explain that the New Jerusalem as a whole will be the Holy of Holies; hence, there will be no temple in it.)
