The Grace of God in the Economy of God
Message One
The Tremendous Significance of the Grace of God
as Revealed in the New Testament
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
(Day1 ¦ Day2 ¦ Day3 ¦ Day4 ¦ Day5 ¦ Day6)
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Eph. 1:5-6 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasureof His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved.
Eph. 2:7-8 That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
Word of Appetizer
According to the New Testament, what is grace?
According to the New Testament, grace is actually what God is to us for our enjoyment. Grace is God not in doctrine but in our experience, for grace is God in Christ with all that He is for our enjoyment; this includes life, strength, comfort, rest, light, righteousness, holiness, power, and the other divine attributes. Grace is mainly not the work God does for us; grace is the Triune God Himself dispensed into our being and experienced by us for our enjoyment. The New Testament is a history of the grace of God as the incarnation of the Triune God in His Divine Trinity processed and consummated and moving and living in and among the believers.
Spiritual Burden
In Ephesians 2:8 Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”; Grace is God dispensed into us; therefore, to be saved by grace means tobe saved by having the processed Triune God dispensed into us. When the processed Triune God is dispensed into us, He becomes saving grace to us in our experience. The processed and consummated Triune God dispenses Himself into us to be our portion as grace so that we may enjoy Him as everything in His Divine Trinity.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The grace of God is a matter of tremendous significance; Grace is the greatest truth and the highest revelation in God’s New Testament economy.
According to the New Testament, grace is actually what God is to us for our enjoyment.
Grace is the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Our God and Father has “graced us in the Beloved”; God has predestinated us unto sonship to “the praise of the glory of His grace”.
God will “display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”.
The Experience of Life
Our God and Father has “graced us in the Beloved”; He has put us into the position of grace so that we may be the object of His grace and favor, that is, that we may enjoy all that God is to us.
In Ephesians 2:8 Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”; the saving grace is God Himself in Christ wrought into our being; when the processed Triune God is dispensed into us, He becomes saving grace to us in our experience.
Practice and Application
Our God and Father has “graced us in the Beloved”; we are not according to our natural state, but according to the fact that we have been chosen, predestinated, regenerated, and graced. God delights in us, not in ourselves, but in His Beloved. Having become the object of God’s grace, we have been favored in Christ.
God has predestinated us unto sonship to “the praise of the glory of His grace”;when we praise God, we praise Him primarily for what He is or what He does. In praising God you need to forget yourself and get outside of yourself. When you are truly praising God, it seems that you do not exist. You see only God, what He is, and what He does. Therefore, you praise Him and speak well concerning Him.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
T1 The grace of God is a matter of tremendous significance (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b)
(Please illustrate that the great significance of the grace of God.)
T2 Grace is the Triune God experienced and enjoyed by us (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b)
(Please illustrate that grace is nothing less than God in Christ dispensed into our being for our enjoyment. )
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 10
T1 In the divine dispensing, grace is called the grace of God, the grace of Christ, and the grace of which the Spirit is (2 Cor. 1:12; 13:14; Heb. 10:29)
(Please illustrate that the very Triune God is grace to us by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application)
T2 The grace in God’s economy in the believers’ experience being the processed Triune God (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b)
(Why is it that without being processed, the Triune God could not be grace to us?)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” chs. 2-3
T1 The Lord being with our spirit is grace being with our spirit (John 1:14; 2 Tim. 4:22)
(Please illustrate that the Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit,
and the Spirit enters into us as grace for our enjoyment)
T2 Such a processed and consummated Triune God being the grace enjoyed by all the believers (John 7:38; 6:63; 20:22)
(Please illustrate that how the Spirit being in the believers as their life and becoming the grace enjoyed by them.)
Further Reading: Life-study of John, msg. 3; Life-study of Galatians, msg. 11
T1 Grace is God Himself as our enjoyment, glory is God manifested (Eph. 1:6a)
(Please illustrate that the glory of God’s grace is God expressed in our enjoyment of Him.)
T2 Our God and Father has “graced us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6b; Matt. 3:17)
(Please illustrate that for God to grace us means that He has put us into the position of grace so that we may be the object of His grace and favor.)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 333
T1 To be saved by grace actually means to be saved by the dispensing of the Triune God into us (Eph. 2:4-5; John 1:17)
(Please illustrate that most Christians regard grace as a thing, not as a person with experiences.)
T2 Grace is the processed God transmitted into our being (Eph. 2:7)
(Please illustrate that the surpassing riches of this grace.)
Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 5, 21
T1 The glory of God’s grace (Eph. 1:6)
(Please illustrate that the glory of God’s grace is that His grace expresses Him.)
T2 The difference between thanking God and praising God (Eph. 1:6; 2:7)
(Please illustrate that what the praise of the glory of God’s grace is.)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 3, “The Consummation of God’s Salvation,” ch. 3; CWWL, 1959, vol. 4, “Life and Building in the Gospel of John,” ch. 10