PROPAGATION IN ASIA MINOR AND EUROPE
THROUGH THE MINISTRY OF PAUL AND HIS COMPANIONS (24)
Read and pray: "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law," (Galatians 4:4)
A SUMMARY OF REVELATION IN THE BIBLE
The Bible reveals that God had an eternal plan, and this plan eventually became His economy. God's plan is to have a group of regenerated human beings with divine life, becoming His children and members of Christ, so that the Triune God in Christ would have a Body through which He could express Himself.
God's plan is carried out through the incarnation, human living, and all-inclusive death of Christ to put an end to the old creation, in order to cause His chosen ones to germinate in resurrection. In His resurrection, Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45) to propagate Himself as the processed Triune God in order to produce the Body. After His resurrection, Christ ascended to the heavens and there was made Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).
In resurrection, He had already breathed Himself into His chosen ones essentially as the Spirit (John 20:22). Then in ascension, He poured Himself out economically upon them as the consummated all-inclusive Spirit. Thus, everything was fulfilled and accomplished: incarnation, human living, all-inclusive death, resurrection that gives life and propagates, the essential breath of the Spirit that gives life, ascension, and the economic outpouring of the consummated Spirit. As all of this was accomplished, the church was produced.
Before Christ passed through these processes to fulfill God's plan, the items related to it were placed in the Old Testament in the form of promises, prophecies, types, figures, and shadows. Then, in the fullness of time, the Triune God in the Son became a man (Galatians 4:4). In His humanity, He passed through the processes of human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, accomplishing everything for the fulfillment of God's plan. Having become the all-inclusive Spirit, He now enters God's chosen ones to apply to them everything the Triune God accomplished in the Son. In this way, God's people become living witnesses of the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ (Acts 1:8).
As people who have the all-inclusive Spirit within us, what should we do? We should simply be living witnesses, containing, carrying, and transmitting the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, so that He may propagate throughout the earth for the fulfillment of the divine economy. This is a brief summary of the entire revelation of the New Testament.
THE MIXTURE SITUATION IN JERUSALEM
Since Christ came and went through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, breathing the Spirit into God's chosen ones essentially and pouring out the Spirit economically upon them, many promises, prophecies, types, figures, and shadows from the Old Testament related to this are now obsolete. God's people should not cling to them.
However, degraded Judaism, as a religion, continues to cling to these things that have become obsolete. Among the members of degraded Judaism and the believers, there was the situation of mixture in Jerusalem. There was the first group of vessels chosen by God to contain Christ. This group included the apostles, with Peter as the leader and James as the most influential.
According to Acts 21, there were tens of thousands of Jews among these apostles who believed in Christ (v. 20). Although they had become believers in Christ, they were still greatly influenced by their Jewish background. Due to this influence, it was impossible for them to abandon their background and give up the atmosphere prevailing in Jerusalem.
The Jewish believers in Jerusalem insisted on having both faith in Christ and the old things of the Old Testament. They wanted to reconcile these two things. According to my study of the New Testament, I would say that James was the leader of this tendency. He seems to have been the first to say, “There’s no need to fight. We can keep our faith in Christ and also keep the laws, customs, and practices of the Old Testament. We can continue practicing circumcision.” Not wanting to fight or offend others, James may have had good intentions. Perhaps he had a good heart in wanting to blend the Old Testament dispensation with faith in Christ. We also need to realize that he had a large heart. This is indicated by the fact that he did not propose that the Gentile believers be circumcised.
Consider the solution he proposed to the problems concerning circumcision in the communion recorded in Acts 15: "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath" (Acts 15:19-21).
He made it clear that there was no need for the Gentiles to be circumcised or keep the law. He only required that they abstain from idol worship, fornication, things strangled, and blood. James, however, continued to think that it would be better if the Jewish believers practiced the things of the Old Testament and kept the law. He seemed to be saying, “The Gentiles don’t need to keep the law or be circumcised, but the Jews must do both. We need to practice living just like our ancestors in the Old Testament. Naturally, now we have faith in Christ, so let’s keep both the things of the Old Testament and our faith in Christ.” I believe this was James’ concept.
Enjoy more: Hymn 20
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