III. CONCERNING THE INCARNATION OF GOD
He pointed out that at the time of creation God did not put Himself into man to let man share His life and nature. It was four thousand years later that He in God the Son, through the Spirit entering the flesh of a virgin, was conceived as a man with both the divine nature and the human nature—a God-man who is the complete God as well as the perfect man. Thus, He brought God into man, and within human flesh, He lived a human life on earth, expressing God by living out all of God’s attributes through His human virtues.
IV. CONCERNING CHRIST
He pointed out that the Second of the Divine Trinity was made Christ by God in eternity past. This One is God’s Anointed. In time, He came to accomplish the eternal plan (economy) which God had purposed for the expression of Himself. God desires that this Christ, His embodiment, be the centrality and universality in His eternal plan and that He would have the preeminence over all things in both creation and redemption, transcending all things. This Christ whom He established emptied Himself, laying aside the form of God and taking the form of a slave, and was found in fashion as a man, living a humble human life on earth. At the end of His human life, this Christ of God went to the cross, accomplished God’s eternal redemption for us, the sinners, and released God’s eternal life. He also resurrected from the dead and was transformed from God’s only begotten Son to God’s firstborn Son. Furthermore, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit to enter into the believers, making them God’s new creation and His members, constituting His Body. He became the life, the element, and the Head of the Body. In this way the Triune God has obtained a corporate expression in this universe. In the coming kingdom He will be King and will reign with the overcoming saints over the coming world. Later, in the new heaven and new earth, He will be the centrality and universality of the New Jerusalem and will be the mutual dwelling place of God and man to be the full expression of the Triune God in eternity.
V. CONCERNING THE DEATH OF CHRIST
He pointed out that the death of Christ was not a death of martyrdom, but a vicarious death on behalf of us, the sinners, which bears many significances: (1) to remove our sins, (2) to crucify the flesh for us, thus terminating the old man, (3) to destroy Satan who has the power of death, (4) to judge the world under Satan, (5) to annul the ordinances which separated us, (6) to satisfy all the requirements of righteousness, holiness, and glory which God had placed on us, the sinners, and (7) to release God’s eternal life from within Himself for us.
VI. CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
He pointed out that Christ’s resurrection was a resurrection of His whole being from the dead, including His body, by God through the divine Spirit within Christ. Such a resurrection made Him, the only begotten Son of God, the firstborn Son of God with both the divine nature and the human nature. His resurrection also transformed Him into a life-giving Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the reality of life, who enters into His believers to regenerate them, to bring their humanity into divinity, to make them God’s many sons, His many brothers, and His members who constitute His mysterious Body as His organism for the expression of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. The reality of this resurrection, which is the Holy Spirit, the reality of life, has become the overcoming power in the life of His believers and will become the infinite power which will resurrect them from the dead and will transform and redeem their bodies.
VII. CONCERNING THE ETERNAL LIFE
He pointed out that the eternal life described in the Bible is God’s uncreated life, which is eternal both in time and in nature, perfect, and without any blemish. This eternal life of God swallows up and overcomes death and is also the indestructible life. This life of God is also the Triune God Himself as life to those who believe into His Son. By this life we become God-men, those who are joined to God and who possess both humanity and divinity.
(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 01: The Christian Life and Warfare, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee)
