There are three main items
of God’s purpose
for the church:
The church must have
the full sonship.
Through the church
God’s multifarious wisdom
is made known to the enemy;
the church thus becomes
God’s poem,
His wise exhibition
of all that Christ is.
God’s purpose
is to head up all things in Christ
through the church.
The eternal purpose of God
in His intention
according to His heart’s desire
is to have many sons;
God desires to have many sons
to be His expression
in a corporate way:
Romans 8:19 tells us
that the whole creation
is waiting for
the revelation and the glorification
of the sons of God,
and Hebrews 2:10 says
that Christ
is leading many sons into glory;
Christ is doing one thing today:
He is bringing us into glory.
At present
the creation is enslaved
under the law of decay and corruption;
its only hope
is to be freed
from the slavery of corruption
into the freedom
of the glory of the children of God
when the sons of God
are revealed, manifested.
The choosing of God’s people
for them to be holy
is for the purpose of
their being made sons of God,
participating in the divine sonship;
in eternity past
God the Father “chose us
…to be holy
…unto sonship”
(Eph. 1:4-5):
Holy means
not only sanctified, separated unto God,
but also different, distinct,
from everything that is common;
only God is different, distinct,
from all things;
hence,
He is holy,
and holiness is His nature:
God chose us
that we should be holy;
He makes us holy
by imparting Himself, the Holy One,
into our being,
that our whole being
may be permeated and saturated with
His holy nature.
For us, God’s chosen ones, to be holy
is to partake of God’s divine nature
and to have our whole being
permeated with God Himself.
The divine sonship
is accomplished by
our being mingled with God
(the Holy One as the Holy Spirit)
unto full sanctification:
God is working Himself into us
and mingling Himself with us
so that we
may be holy,
absolutely sanctified
by Him, in Him, and with Him;
every bit of our human nature
will be mingled with
the divine nature.
In the Old Testament type,
every part of the boards of the tabernacle
was overlaid with gold;
in the fulfillment of the type,
God mingles Himself with the church
so that we
may be brought into the full sonship.
According to
the teaching of the New Testament,
sonship means:
That we are born of God
to have God as our life and nature.
That we grow up with God and are in God,
growing up into Christ, the Head, in all things
and growing with the growth of God.
That we are absolutely mingled with God;
every part of our being
will be permeated, saturated,
and overlaid with God.
That we are qualified
to inherit
all that God is,
all that God has,
and all that God has purposed.
That we eventually are
absolutely holy and divine.
God’s chosen ones
are made His sons
by His sanctifying Spirit;
this is why Ephesians 1:3
calls this
a spiritual blessing,
a blessing by the Spirit:
Sanctification for sonship
is still going on;
day by day,
however,
we may not live in our sonship
because we may not care for
the sanctifying Spirit
speaking and working
in our spirit.
Today
we must learn to live by the Spirit,
to serve by the Spirit,
to act according to the Spirit,
and to have our being
altogether by the Spirit,
with the Spirit,
and according to the Spirit
all day long.
Then we need to grow
in the life of Christ
with the proper nourishment
in the Spirit;
we can be nourished
in three ways:
by reading the holy Word,
by listening to the spiritual speaking,
and by coming to the meetings.
God’s chosen ones
become holy and without blemish
before Him
and are predestinated unto sonship
“in love”:
Love in Ephesians 1:4
refers to the love
with which God loves His chosen ones
and His chosen ones love Him;
it is
in this love, in such a love,
that God’s chosen ones
become holy and without blemish
before Him.
First,
God loved us;
then
this divine love
inspires us
to love Him
in return;
in such a condition and atmosphere of love,
we are saturated with God
to be holy and without blemish,
just as He is.
Christ as the Captain of salvation
leads God’s many sons
into glory,
the corporate expression of God,
by saving them organically
through sanctification;
sanctification is
God’s “sonizing”:
Hebrews 2:10 says
that the Lord
as the Captain of God’s salvation
will lead many sons
into glory;
then
verse 11 speaks of
the One
who sanctifies
and those
who are being sanctified;
this shows
that sanctification is
for sonship.
This brings us
into a fuller understanding
of Ephesians 1:4-5;
verse 4 says,
“To be holy,”
and verse 5 says,
“Unto sonship”;
to be holy…unto sonship
shows us again
that sanctification is
for sonship.
The divine sanctification
for the divine sonship
is the center
of the divine economy
and the central thought
of the revelation in the New Testament;
sanctification is the hinge
of God’s carrying out
His eternal economy.
The divine sanctification
is the holding line
in the carrying out of
the divine economy
to “sonize” us divinely,
making us sons of God
that we may become the same as God
in His life and in His nature
(but not in His Godhead),
so that we
may be God’s expression;
we say
that sanctification is
the holding line
because every step of God’s economy
in His work with us
is to make us holy:
The seeking sanctification,
the initial sanctification,
is unto repentance
to bring us back to God;
our repentance and believing
were due to
the seeking Spirit, the convicting Spirit.
The redeeming sanctification,
the positional sanctification,
is by the blood of Christ
to transfer us from Adam to Christ.
The regenerating sanctification,
the beginning of dispositional sanctification,
renews us
from our spirit
to make us, the sinners,
sons of God
to form an organism
for God’s corporate expression,
which is
the organic Body of Christ, the church.
The renewing sanctification,
the continuation of dispositional sanctification,
renews our soul
from our mind
through all the parts of our soul
to make our soul
a part of God’s new creation.
The transforming sanctification,
the daily sanctification,
reconstitutes us
with the element of Christ metabolically
to make us
a new constitution
as a part of
the organic Body of Christ.
The conforming sanctification,
the shaping sanctification,
shapes us
in the image of the glorious Christ
to make us
the expression of Christ.
The glorifying sanctification,
the consummating sanctification,
redeems our body
by transfiguring it
to make us
Christ’s expression
in full and in glory
so that we
may be fully and wholly sanctified
in our spirit, soul, and body
to be
a consummated incorporation
of God’s many sons
who are matured
in the processed Triune God
as their life
that they may express God
as the New Jerusalem
for eternity.
Hits: 43
7 replies on “God’s Purpose for the Church (1) To Have the Divine Sonship in Full through Sanctification for the Corporate Expression of God”
Prophecy note, 28 December 2014
Sanctification for sonship
is still going on.
Day by day,
however,
we do not live in our sonship,
because we do not care for
the sanctifying Spirit
speaking and working
in our spirit.
We must turn to our spirit,
realizing that we
have been sanctified and regenerated
by the Spirit.
This sanctifying and regenerating Spirit
has much to say to us.
He still wants to sanctify us
more and more
that we may participate in the sonship
more and more.
God is working Himself into us
and mingling Himself with us.
Every bit of
our human nature
will be mingled with
the divine nature.
We will grow,
and the Father will have
a pleasant household.
The blessings in Ephesians 1
start from God’s choosing
for us
to be sanctified
that we
might be more and more
in the sonship of God.
This should be
a daily matter.
Today,
we still have
a great deal of mixture.
But we
are gradually being transformed.
Therefore,
eventually we
shall be so holy
and so pure
that we
shall be without blemish,
without any foreign particles,
having only the divine element.
Sonship is
greatly dependent upon sanctification.
God brings His many sons into glory
by Christ’s sanctifying us dispositionally,
beginning from our regeneration
throughout the full course
of our Christian life.
Sanctification is
still going on
because we
have not yet entered
into glory
in full.
One day
we will be fully in glory.
That fullness
of entering into glory
will be the fullness
of God’s sanctification.
This is
the divine sanctification
unto (for) the divine sonship.
This is
the center of
the divine economy
and the central thought of
the revelation in the New Testament.
Day 6
The divine sanctification
is the holding line
in the carrying out of
the divine economy.
Sanctification is
a great point
in God’s economy.
It is the holding line
in the carrying out of
the divine economy.
We need to see
what the term holding line means.
When a person goes fishing,
he needs a line.
That is
the holding line
for his fishing.
The line holds his fish.
In other words,
the line directs his fishing.
We say
that sanctification
is the holding line
because every step of God’s economy
in His work with us
is to make us holy.
The divine sanctification
holds all of our spiritual experiences
from our repentance
to our glorification.
Such a sanctification
is to “sonize” us divinely,
making us sons of God
that we may become the same as God
in His life and in His nature
(but not in His Godhead),
so that we
can be God’s expression.
After God created man,
man became fallen.
Then God the Spirit
came to sanctify man.
We were lost
in Adam, in sin, and in death.
But the Spirit
came to seek us out.
He stirred up our spirit
to repent.
This was
our initial sanctification
unto repentance.
This seeking sanctification
resulted in our repentance
to bring us back to God.
The redeeming sanctification,
the positional sanctification,
is by the blood of Christ
to transfer us
from Adam
to Christ.
This changed the place
where we were.
Regeneration is
the beginning of the dispositional sanctification
to renew us
from our spirit.
God renewed us
from the very center of our being,
which is our spirit.
He first touches our spirit
to regenerate it,
that is,
to renew it.
This makes us, the sinners
who were the enemies of God,
sons of God.
The renewing sanctification
continues our dispositional sanctification
by renewing our soul
from our mind
through all the parts of our soul.
Romans 12:2 says
that we are to be transformed
by the renewing of our mind,
and the mind
is the leading part of our soul.
Our spirit
has become a part of God’s new creation,
but not our soul.
Through the renewing,
our soul will be made
a part of God’s new creation.
The transforming sanctification
is the daily sanctification,
which reconstitutes us
with the element of Christ metabolically
to make us
a new constitution
as a part of the organic Body of Christ.
This is
a kind of reconstitution,
to discharge the old
and to add in the new replacement
of the element of Christ.
In order for us
to be the living members of Christ,
we need to be constituted with
Christ’s element
to make us
a new constitution
for the building up
of the Body of Christ.
The conforming sanctification
is the shaping sanctification
to shape us
in the image of the glorious Christ.
This is
why we can manifest Christ.
We express Christ
because we have been shaped
by the sanctifying Spirit.
The glorifying sanctification
is the consummating sanctification,
the completing sanctification
to redeem our body
by transfiguring it.
Our vile and fallen body
will be redeemed
from sickness,
from weakness,
from death,
and from lust and sinfulness
to make us
Christ’s expression
in full and in glory.
At this point
God’s salvation and God’s sanctification
to carry out God’s economy
have reached the highest level.
This is
the revelation of the divine sanctification
in seven steps.
Day 5
Ephesians 1:4 also says
that we were chosen in Him
to be without blemish.
A blemish is
like a foreign particle
in a precious gem.
God’s chosen ones
should be saturated
only with God Himself
and have no foreign particles,
such as
the fallen natural human element,
the flesh,
the self,
or worldly things.
This is
to be without blemish,
to be without any mixture,
to have no element
other than God’s holy nature.
After being thoroughly washed
by the water in the Word,
the church will be sanctified
in this way.
Today,
we still have
a great deal of mixture.
But we
are gradually being transformed.
Therefore,
eventually we
shall be so holy and so pure
that we
shall be without blemish,
without any foreign particles,
having only the divine element.
We shall be holy
and without blemish
before Him.
In Ephesians 1:4
“before Him” means
to be holy and without blemish
in the eyes of God
according to His divine standard.
This qualifies us
to remain in and enjoy His presence.
We shall be holy and without blemish,
not according to our standard
or in our eyes
but according to His standard
and in His eyes.
Finally,
we shall be holy and without blemish
before Him
in love.
Love here
refers to the love
with which God loves His chosen ones
and with which His chosen ones love Him.
It is in this love, in such a love,
that God’s chosen ones
become holy and without blemish
before Him.
Firstly,
God loved us.
Then
this divine love
inspires us
to love Him in return.
In such a condition and atmosphere of love,
we are saturated with God
to be holy
and without blemish
as He is.
In this love, a mutual love,
God loves us,
and we return this love to Him.
It is
in this kind of condition
that we are being transformed.
When this takes place in full,
we shall be
wholly sanctified,
transformed,
and conformed
to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Then
we shall be
completely holy.
Sanctification is
God’s “sonizing.”
When you are sanctified,
you are sonized.
This is based upon
Ephesians 1:4-5.
It is even more strongly based upon
Hebrews 2:10-11,
which says,
“For it was fitting for Him,
for whom are all things
and through whom are all things,
in leading many sons into glory,
to make the Author of their salvation
perfect through sufferings.
For both He who sanctifies
and those who are being sanctified
are all of One….”
Verse 10
speaks of
bringing many sons into glory,
and verse 11
speaks of
the Sanctifier
and the ones being sanctified.
This shows
that sonship is
greatly dependent upon sanctification.
God brings His many sons into glory
by Christ’s sanctifying us dispositionally,
beginning from our regeneration
throughout the full course of our Christian life.
Sanctification is
still going on
because we have not yet entered
into glory
in full.
One day
we will be fully in glory.
That fullness of entering into glory
will be the fullness
of God’s sanctification.
The Father’s dispensing
in His choosing and predestinating of the believers
issues in His sonship
through His sanctifying of His chosen people,
making them holy
as He is
in His life and in His nature,
to make them like God
in the divine life and nature,
but without His unique Godhead.
This is
the divine sanctification
unto (for) the divine sonship.
This is
the center of
the divine economy
and the central thought of
the revelation in the New Testament.
Such a divine sanctification
is carried out
by the sanctifying Spirit.
The divine sonship
is accomplished by
the regenerating Spirit,
who is
the Spirit of the Son of God.
Day 4
In Ephesians 1
the dispensing is crucial.
In verse 3
the blessings we enjoy
are spiritual blessings.
No doubt,
these blessings
are carried out
by the Spirit.
Otherwise,
they would not be called
spiritual blessings.
These spiritual blessings
are in the heavenlies
and in Christ.
God dispenses Himself
in a sanctifying way.
God’s chosen ones
are made His sons
by His sanctifying Spirit.
God sanctified us
to become His sons.
He chose us
to be holy
for sonship.
Sanctification is
to separate God’s people unto God
for God to work on them
and to work in them
to make them His sons.
God had an intention
and made an economy
to get many sons.
Then
the Spirit came
to separate the chosen ones unto God
so that God
could beget them.
First,
they were sanctified unto God;
then
through this sanctification
they became
the object of God’s begetting.
Ephesians 1:4 says
that God chose us
to be holy.
Then verse 5 says
that He did this
by predestinating us unto sonship.
Thus,
sanctification is
unto sonship,
for sonship.
First,
the Spirit comes
to sanctify God’s chosen people.
Then
they are ready
to be begotten by God
into His sonship.
For us to be holy
and for us to be sons
both require God’s dispensing.
Without God dispensing His holy nature
into our being,
how could we be holy?
God is the only One
who is holy.
For us to be holy
we need a holy element
dispensed into us.
When the Holy Spirit comes into us,
He brings God’s holy nature into us,
and that holy nature
becomes the holy element
with which the Holy Spirit
sanctifies us.
Stanza 1 of Hymns, #841 says,
“By Thy holy nature
/ I am sanctified,
/ By Thy resurrection,
/ Vict’ry is supplied.”
His holy nature
makes us holy,
and His resurrection power
makes us victorious.
God the Spirit
is sanctifying us
for God
to impart
more of His holy nature and holy life
into our being
to cause us to grow.
We all have to grow
in the divine life.
After our birth,
we need to grow
in the life of Christ,
in the divine life,
in the eternal life,
with the proper nourishment
in the Spirit.
Both sanctification and the sonship
are always carried out
by the Spirit.
This is
why Ephesians 1:3 calls this
a spiritual blessing,
a blessing by the Spirit.
Today
we must learn to live
by the Spirit,
to act according to the Spirit,
to have our being
altogether by the Spirit,
with the Spirit,
and according to the Spirit.
As long as we
have our being by the Spirit
and act according to the Spirit,
we are ready to grow
in the divine life.
Then
we need some nourishment.
We can be nourished
in these three ways:
by reading the holy Word,
by listening to the spiritual speaking,
and by coming to the meetings.
This nourishment
causes us to grow.
Sanctification for sonship
is still going on.
Day by day,
however,
we do not live in our sonship,
because we do not care for
the sanctifying Spirit
speaking and working in our spirit.
We must turn to our spirit,
realizing that we
have been sanctified and regenerated
by the Spirit.
This sanctifying and regenerating Spirit
has much to say to us.
He still wants to sanctify us
more and more
that we may participate in the sonship
more and more.
Then
we will grow,
and the Father will have
a pleasant household.
The blessings in Ephesians 1
start from God’s choosing for us
to be sanctified
that we might be more and more
in the sonship of God.
This should be
a daily matter.
Day 3
The first item
of the spiritual blessings
is the Father’s choosing.
We may think
that God’s choosing is one thing,
and God’s predestinating is another thing,
but this is wrong.
We need to look at
the grammar of Ephesians 1:4-5.
These verses
do not say
He chose us
and predestinated us.
Instead they say
that He chose us,
predestinating us.
Predestinating in verse 5
modifies the predicate chose in verse 4,
so these are
not two things.
These are
one thing.
God chose us.
How did He choose us?
God chose us
by predestinating us,
by marking us out.
To predestinate
is to mark out.
God chose us
to be holy
for the sonship.
The choosing of God’s people
for them to be holy
is for the purpose
of their being made sons of God,
participating in the divine sonship.
God chose us
that we should be holy.
The words “holy” and “holiness”
have been spoiled
by today’s Christian teachings.
In the Bible
the word “holy”
should not be understood
according to our natural concept.
Many think
that holiness is sinlessness.
According to this concept,
someone is holy
if he does not sin.
This thought
is absolutely mistaken.
Holiness is
neither sinlessness
nor perfection.
Holy
not only means sanctified, separated unto God,
but also different, distinct,
from everything that is common.
Only God
is different, distinct,
from all things.
Hence,
He is holy;
holiness is His nature.
The way God makes us holy
is to impart Himself, the Holy One, into us
so that our whole being
may be permeated and saturated with
His holy nature.
For us, God’s chosen ones, to be holy
is to partake of His divine nature
and to have our whole being
permeated with God Himself.
This is different
from mere sinless perfection
or sinless purity.
This makes our being holy,
like God Himself
in His nature
and in His character.
We should not be common
but different.
In the universe
God alone is holy.
He is different from everything else
and is distinct.
Therefore,
to be holy
means to be one with God.
To be holy
we need to be one with God
because only God is holy.
God is working Himself into us
and mingling Himself with us
so that we may be holy,
absolutely sanctified
by Him, in Him, and with Him.
Every bit of our human nature
will be mingled with the divine nature.
In the Old Testament type,
every part of the boards of the tabernacle
was overlaid with gold.
In the fulfillment of the type,
God mingles Himself with the church
so that we may be brought
into full sonship.
According to
the teaching of the New Testament,
sonship first means
that we are born of God
to have God as our life and nature.
Second,
it means
that we grow up with God and in God,
and third,
it means that we
are absolutely mingled with God;
every part of our being
will be permeated, saturated, overlaid,
and absolutely mingled with God.
Fourth,
we are qualified
to inherit
all that God is,
all that God has,
and all that God has purposed.
Fifth,
we eventually are
absolutely sanctified, holy, and divine.
This is
the proper meaning of sonship.
Sonship implies
a birthright,
qualifying us
to enjoy God
by being mingled with Him.
By being mingled with Him
we are absolutely, thoroughly sanctified
by Him, with Him, and in Him;
within and without
we are made holy and divine.
God’s purpose
is to have the church sanctified
to such an extent.
This is
the first item of
God’s purpose concerning the church.
Day 2
Rom. 8:17-19
And if children,
heirs also;
on the one hand,
heirs of God;
on the other,
joint heirs with Christ,
if indeed we suffer with Him
that we may also be glorified with Him.
For I consider
that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with
the coming glory
to be revealed upon us.
For the anxious watching of the creation
eagerly awaits
the revelation of the sons of God.
Today
there are many sons of God.
There may be
many thousands in Los Angeles alone,
but they are not yet revealed.
The revelation, the manifestation,
of the sons of God
is the very glorification
mentioned in Romans 8:17.
Not only God
but even the whole creation, all things,
are waiting for
the manifestation of the sons of God.
Romans 8:20 says,
“For the creation was made subject to vanity,
not of its own will,
but because of Him
who subjected it.”
All creation
is waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God
because the creation
was made subject to vanity.
Verse 21 continues,
“In hope
that the creation itself
will also be freed
from the slavery of corruption
into the freedom
of the glory of the children of God.”
Here
we have the words
vanity, slavery, and corruption.
These are not good words.
The whole creation
is in the slavery of corruption,
so it is in vanity,
waiting for a deliverance.
How can the creation be delivered
from this vanity, slavery, and corruption?
The Brethren, for example,
saw the truth of the creation
being in vanity, slavery, and corruption,
but they mainly saw
the objective prophecy
that when all the sons of God
will be manifested,
the whole universe
will be released.
They did not see
the subjective way, the process,
of deliverance.
We believe
that in these last days
the Lord will show us
not merely the prophecy
but the way
in which all the creation
will be delivered
into the freedom
of the glory of the children of God.
Verse 21 speaks
not of the freedom
of the children of God
but of the freedom
of the glory of the children of God.
Again,
here is
a difficult utterance.
With the glory of the children of God
there is the freedom.
The manifestation of the children of God
is the very glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:19 tells us
that the whole creation
is waiting for the glory of the sons of God,
and Hebrews 2:10 says
that Christ
is leading many sons into glory.
If you would ask me
what God is doing today,
I would say
that He is doing one thing:
He is bringing us
into glory.
We may compare this
to the preparation of a feast.
If we come to a brother’s home
for a big feast,
we may ask,
“Where is he?”
Then someone will say,
“He is in the kitchen cooking.”
Today
God is “in the kitchen cooking”
to bring His many sons
into glory.
Romans 8:18 speaks of
the sufferings of this present time
and the coming glory.
It is through these sufferings
that God is “cooking” us.
Ephesians 1:10 speaks of
the economy of the fullness of the times.
If we ask a sister
what she is doing in the kitchen,
she will say,
“Please sit there patiently
and wait for half an hour.
Then you will know
what I am doing here.”
The cooking sister
has her economy, her dispensation,
and the end of the half hour
will be the “fullness of the times”
for her economy.
Today
is the time of cooking.
The fullness of the times
has not yet come.
When the fullness of the times comes,
all things will be in order.
For now, though,
God is “cooking” the church,
including you and me.
Then at the fullness of the times,
we all will be brought into glory.
At that time
the whole creation
will be released, delivered,
from the slavery of corruption and from vanity,
and all creation will be headed up
in Christ with His Body.
Day 1
There are three main items
concerning the church
in the economy of God.
The first is
that the church
might have the sonship
and that God
might be expressed
through this sonship.
Ephesians 1:5 says
that God predestinated us
unto sonship.
What does this word sonship mean,
and what does it include?
Briefly,
it means
the birth,
plus the growth,
plus the birthright.
First of all,
we must be born of God.
By this divine birth
we become
the sons of God
because we have
the life of God.
This is the very beginning
of God’s mingling with us.
But it is
only through the growth of this life
that we can enjoy the birthright.
Birth is one thing,
but the birthright is quite another.
Esau and Jacob both
had the same birth,
but only one
obtained the birthright.
Esau had the life of the son,
but he did not have the sonship
because the sonship includes
both the birth and the birthright.
We may have the birth
but not the birthright.
In Romans 8:14-17,
there is a real difference
made between the children and the heirs.
The children are the ones
who have only the birth,
but the heirs have not only the birth
but also the birthright.
First of all,
we must become the children of God;
then through growth
we will become the heirs.
We may be a child without the birthright
and therefore not have the full sonship.
The first item
of God’s purpose for the church
is to express Himself
through many matured sons.
The second item
of the purpose of God for the church
is to deal with His enemy.
In chapter 1 of Ephesians
there is the positive side
of God’s purpose for the sonship;
and in chapter 3
there is the negative side
against the enemy,
that the enemy
may be subdued
and come to know
God’s multifarious wisdom.
God is not sorry
that there is such an evil one as Satan,
because without such a one,
God’s multifarious wisdom
could not be manifested.
It is through all the troubles
originating from Satan
that God has a chance
to show forth His wisdom.
Suppose you have a car,
and this car
never gives you any trouble.
If this is the case,
no one could know
how wise you are.
A car without problems
would not demonstrate your wisdom.
But if you have a car
that needs wisdom to handle,
your wisdom will be brought to light,
and all your passengers will marvel.
It is a problem car,
but what a wonderful driver!
The whole universe
has been damaged by Satan,
but God needs such a one
in order that His wisdom
might be shown.
The church was predestinated
to the sonship of God,
and it was also purposed
to subdue the enemy.
The church is built up by the sonship,
and through the building up of the church,
the enemy is subdued
and God’s wisdom is displayed.
There is a real order here.
The more life
we have,
the more built up
we will become
as a display to Satan.
This is
a real challenge to the enemy,
a shame to him,
and a glory to God.
The third main aspect
of the church in God’s economy
is the heading up of all things in Christ.
We have seen
that the first item of the sonship
is for the church positively.
The second item
is that the church
might make known
to the rulers and the authorities
the multifarious wisdom of God,
in defeating the enemy negatively.
Now the third item
is the heading up of all things
in Christ universally.
The church has to have the sonship,
Satan has to be subdued and cast out,
and the whole creation has to be brought
into the proper order and oneness.