The Consummation of God’s Eternal Purpose
God’s purpose is eternal and is focused on His relationship with man. A little is revealed in Genesis 1:26, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
Man was created in God’s image so that God could be expressed through man. This expression is now through the Body of Christ and eternally through New Jerusalem.
This expression requires that man receive God to be his life. Thus, in Genesis 2 man was put in front of the tree of life, signifying God as life. Man fell and was excluded from the tree of life (Gen. 3) until God came in the man Jesus to redeem man and release His life to man.
Redemption and life are shown in the blood and water which flowed out of Jesus when the soldier pierced His side (John 19:34).
The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of God’s purpose in man. God became incarnate to redeem us, and He became a life-giving Spirit to enter into us, to saturate us, to soak us, for His ultimate purpose in man. We must go along with His saturation so that He can fulfill His purpose in the creation of man.*
By His saturation His life grows in us and we are built together in Him. This building process brings forth a corporate expression of God, an expression which none of us could be individually. Eventually this corporate expression is New Jerusalem, “having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:11).
* From chapter 26 of Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.
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Posted by Don on October 14, 2022
