THE GRACE OF CHRIST
The Embodiment of the Processed Triune God Becoming the Believers’ Enjoyment
All the riches of this God become His grace. The meaning of grace is God becoming our enjoyment freely. Today, when we enjoy God, we are enjoying His all-inclusiveness and limitlessness being given to us freely as grace. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh.’’ For this reason, God brought grace to us for our enjoyment. Grace is simply what Christ is. It is also all the riches of Christ.
First, Christ is God. He brought God to us. This is one side of Him as grace. Next, He became a man, and He brought His humanity to us. This is another side of grace. All His human experiences, His accomplishment on the cross, and all that He has attained and obtained, including His ascension and enthronement, are all given freely to us as our free portion. Moreover, He is light, love, holiness, righteousness, authority, power, and strength. All these have become our enjoyment, and they are the different aspects of grace.
We know also that grace issues from the love of God, and it is communicated into us through the Holy Spirit. Hence, 2 Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’’ The fellowship of the Holy Spirit communicates to us the love of God and the grace of Christ, and it becomes our daily experience and enjoyment. All these are aspects of the grace of Christ.
This grace is also the embodiment of the processed Triune God. The elements of the Triune God are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, who have passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and glorification. Without these processes, He would not be a man. But after passing through incarnation, He became a man. Without passing through human living, He would not know what it is like to live the human life and would not be able to taste the sufferings of human life for Himself. Without passing through the cross, He would not be able to taste death. Without entering into resurrection, though He is life, He could not have experienced resurrection. If He were to remain in heaven without descending to earth and ascending again to heaven, He could never have human living and the experience of death and resurrection.
The Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, has passed through all the processes. Every time He passed through a process, some elements were added into Him. When He passed through incarnation, the human element was added. When He passed through crucifixion, the element of death was added. When He passed through resurrection, the element of resurrection was added. When He passed through ascension and glorification, the elements of ascension and glorification were added. Today, the God in whom we believe contains within Himself many different elements. To Him, these elements are His riches. To us, they are our grace for us to receive, experience, and enjoy.
Being Sufficient
This grace and enjoyment is sufficient for us today. It is not lacking in any way. It is sufficient for us in a rich way. We know that it is not easy to be a human being. We have parents above us and children under us. We also have husbands or wives beside us. We do not need to mention other relationships. These three levels of relationships alone are difficult enough for us. If we can live harmoniously with our parents, children, and husbands or wives, we can be considered a success in our human living already. However, there are many trials and sufferings in the human life in addition to these relationships. But the grace of God, which is also the riches of Christ, is sufficient for us in all these environments.
If we have this Christ as grace, He will be in us as our enjoyment, and He will prove Himself sufficient to deal with all the people, matters, and things. In this way, not only will we be able to pass through sufferings, but we will be able to be proper brothers or sisters in the church. We will experience sanctification and transformation. In the end, we will be conformed to the glorious image of Christ. This will make us mature and will enable us to enter into His glory and to match Him. All this is what grace accomplishes for us.
(The Riches and Fullness of Christ and the Advanced Recovery of the Lord Today, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
