NOURISHING PEOPLE WITH THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST IN HIS FULL MINISTRY IN THE THREE STAGES (2)
The first thing Christ accomplished in His incarnation was to bring the infinite God into the finite man. When we contact an unbeliever, we can say, “I want to tell you that Christ has brought the infinite God into the finite man.” This will stir up his interest, and he will want to hear more. By ministering Christ with these attractive, new terms, we can gain people.
God is triune, and man is tripartite. Christ in His incarnation united and mingled these two parties—the wonderful God, who is triune, and the excellent man, who is tripartite. Some people may have heard that God is triune, but not many know that man is of three parts. If we share Christ with them in this new terminology, they will be attracted and will want to hear more.
The utterance for this point is entirely new. Christ in His incarnation came to earth not only to bring the infinite God into the finite man and to unite and mingle the Triune God with the tripartite man but also to express the bountiful God in His humanity, His human living. God is bountiful in His rich and many attributes. The attributes of God are what God is… Humility is one of the many attributes of God. God’s attributes were expressed in Christ as a man to be Christ’s virtues. Christ expressed the bountiful God in His human living, mainly expressing God in His rich attributes, that is, in the unsearchable riches of what God is. We have to study these things so that we can acquire these new points with these new terms.
Finally, He went to the cross to finish His all-inclusive judicial redemption. Most Christians say merely that Christ died on the cross for our sins so that we can be forgiven by God. This is true, but we need to go on to see Christ’s death for our redemption in its deeper significance. Christ died on the cross to terminate all things of the old creation. He also redeemed all the things created by God and fallen in sin ( Heb. 2:9 ; Col. 1:20 ). On the cross He created (conceived) the new man with His divine element. Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ created in Himself both the Jews and Gentiles into one new man. Every conception requires a certain element. In Himself means in Himself as the divine element for this conceiving. In His redeeming death He also released His divine life from the shell of His humanity ( John 12:24 ).
All of this laid a foundation for His organic salvation. His judicial, foundational redemption was accomplished through His death. Then His death ushered Him into resurrection for Him to exercise His organic salvation. Thus, His judicial redemption is a foundation of His organic salvation… We should endeavor to learn all the things presented in this chapter and in the following two chapters concerning the unsearchably rich Christ in His full ministry in three stages. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 12, pp. 152-165)
The church in Zamboanga 