What miracle! What mystery!

SEEING THE HIGHEST VISION AND REVELATION THROUGH THE NEW HYMN, "WHAT MIRACLE! WHAT MYSTERY!"

In 1963 and 1964 I was visiting and working in various places in the United States, and I discovered that the English hymns commonly sung by Christians rarely touched on subjects such as the riches of Christ, the enjoyment of Christ, the experience of Christ, Christ as the Spirit, the Body of Christ, and the spiritual reality of the church. Therefore, I wrote more than two hundred hymns to fill this lack. Since then, the only hymns I have written are the two hymns that I wrote for the gospel conference in Taipei in 1985. However, last spring I saw a high vision and revelation, that is, that God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Therefore, I wrote a new hymn during the past International Chinese-speaking Conference, and I would like to use this hymn to fellowship with you about the vision and revelation that I have seen.

The first stanza of the hymn says, "What miracle! What mystery! / That God and man should blended be! / God became man to make man God, / Untraceable economy! / From His good pleasure, heart's desire, / His highest goal attained will be." This stanza presents the subject of the hymn, stating that God has an eternal economy, which is that He became man so that man may become God. This economy is a great miracle and a deep, untraceable mystery. It comes out of God's good pleasure, His heart's desire, and it is for the attainment of His highest goal in creating man.

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The second stanza of the hymn says, "Flesh He became, the first God-man, / His pleasure that I God may be: / In life and nature I'm God's kind, / Though Godhead's His exclusively. / His attributes my virtues are; / His glorious image shines through me," God became flesh to be a God-man so that man may become God. However, we can be the same as God only in life and nature; we can never share His deity or Godhead. The word attributes refers not only to the character or characteristics contained in a person's nature but, even more, to what a person is. Hence, God's attributes are what God is, including such things as love, light, holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and power. God's name is Jehovah, which means "I Am Who I Am," In the universe, nothing is; everything is vain and false. Only God is real. The word virtues refers to good and virtuous conduct. His attributes my virtues are indicates that what God is becomes our good and virtuous conduct.

Although we are not God in His Godhead or deity, we have His life and nature. Therefore, in life and nature we are God's kind. In Genesis 1:26 God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." God created man to be like Him. When God created the animals, He spoke them into being (vv. 20-25). Man is the only creature that the Bible specifically refers to as being made in God's image and according to God's likeness; thus, man and God are of the same kind. In this sense, the man that God created is God. When we see an animal that looks like a tiger, we say that it is a tiger. Similarly, if we had seen Adam in the garden of Eden, we would have said that he was God, because he was a duplication of God.

In the New Testament God came as a man, accomplished redemption, and became the life-giving Spirit so that He could enter into us to regenerate us and transform us into His image. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, "We all... beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit." Romans 8:29 says, "Those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers." This indicates that God desires to make us His sons and to conform us to the image of His Son. Man surely begets man. Similarly, since God has begotten us, we are surely Gods. Rabbits beget rabbits, and tigers beget tigers; a tiger cannot beget a rabbit. Like-wise, the sons begotten of God are Gods in life and nature but not in the Godhead. First John 3:2 says, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him... even as He is." The apostle John clearly says that when the Lord is manifested, we will be exactly the same as He is. Everyone who believes in the Lord and is saved is begotten of God as a son of God. It is God's desire to make man God in life and in nature.

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In the beginning God had only divinity, but one day He was incarnated to become a man named Jesus, and thus He put on humanity. Jesus is God incarnated; He is a God-man, God yet man. We who are saved are born of God; thus, we are God-men, men yet God. The God-man and God-men are of one kind. Because we are God's sons, every one of us is a God-man, just as the Lord Jesus is. He is God becoming man in order to make us God. He is a God-man, and we also are God-men. We are His many brothers, and He is our firstborn Brother.

The third stanza of the hymn says, "No longer I alone that live, / But God together lives with me. / Built with the saints in the Triune God, / His universal house we'll be, / And His organic Body we/ For His expression corp'rately" This stanza speaks of the Christian life and the church life, which is the living of the Body of Christ. Today we are God-men, having both humanity and divinity. We have two lives with two natures, and these two lives with two natures coexist. We no longer live alone, but we live together with God. Moreover, we also need to be coordinated with the saints to be built up as the church, which is the universal house of the Triune God. Such a building is not a work but a corporate living; it is not worked out but lived out. The church is the Body of Christ, and the corporate living of all the saints, of all the God-men, is the living out of the organic Body of Christ as a great corporate vessel to express God.

The fourth stanza of the hymn says, "Jerusalem, the ultimate, / Of visions the totality; / The Triune God, tripartite man—/ A loving pair eternally—/ As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be; / God's glory in humanity / Shines forth in splendor radiantly!" Jerusalem, the ultimate means that the ultimate result of God and man living together to build up the church as the Body of Christ will be a holy city, the New Jerusalem. Of visions the totality refers to the many visions and revelations in the Bible, and it indicates that the totality of all the visions and revelations that God has given to men are the details and aspects of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21-22).

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The Triune God, tripartite man—/ A loving pair eternally means that the New Jerusalem will be a couple, a pair of lovers, full of love for eternity. The Triune God and the tripartite man will become a pair of lovers, a couple. The Triune God is the male, and the tripartite man is the female; this couple will be a loving pair for eternity. Originally, God had no dealings with us, and we had no dealings with Him. However, by becoming a man and regenerating us, God made us God in life and nature. God is God yet man, and we are man yet God; we two have the same life and the same nature, and thus we can love each other and become a loving pair, a couple.

As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be shows that the New Jerusalem is not only God and man as a couple, but it is also the mutual dwelling place of God and man; that is, it is God becoming man's dwelling place and man becoming God's dwelling place. The New Jerusalem is God's tabernacle (21:3), which is God's dwelling place. The New Jerusalem is also a temple (v. 22), the dwelling place of those who serve God; thus, it is also man's dwelling place. In the Old Testament God regarded the children of Israel as His dwelling place (Exo. 25:8), and in the New Testament God takes the church as His dwelling place (Eph. 2:22). Furthermore, God is man's dwelling place. In Psalm 90 Moses prayed, "O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations" (v. 1). In John 15 the Lord said, "Abide in Me and I in you" (v. 4). Our mutual abiding with the Lord is the mutual dwelling place of God and man. In chapter 14 the Lord Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many abodes" (v. 2). He also said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him" (v. 23). This abode is the many abodes in the Father's house; it is the mutual dwelling place where the Triune God dwells in the believers and the believers dwell in the Triune God. Concerning the believers' experience of building this dwelling place, Ephesians 3:17 speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts through faith. Simply speaking, the ultimate result of God's salvation is God being wrought into man and man being wrought into God. This is the mutual habitation of divinity and humanity, which is the New Jerusalem.

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The last two lines of stanza 4 say, "God's glory in humanity / Shines forth in splendor radiantly!" To shine forth in splendor radiantly is not to merely express something but to express it as intensely as the shining of the sun. Judges 5:31 says, "O Jehovah... May those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might," Thus, God's glory in humanity I Shines forth in splendor radiantly likens God's glory expressed in humanity to the sun when it rises in its might. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of God and man to become a holy city, the totality of the visions and revelations throughout the ages, and it is the Triune God and the tripartite man becoming a loving pair and a mutual dwelling place, where God's glory will shine forth through humanity in splendor radiantly.

The first stanza of this hymn speaks of God's economy, which is God becoming man in order to make man God; the second stanza speaks of our personal Christian experience; the third stanza speaks of the Christian life and the church life, which is the living of the Body of Christ; and the fourth stanza speaks of the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation and expression.

Such an understanding reveals that in the last few years the Lord has given us a full view. The many foregoing good Christian writers saw only part of the picture. They did not receive the proper understanding of the New Jerusalem but considered it only as a heavenly mansion. Until a few years ago we did not have a concluding word for the sixty-six books of the Bible. The Bible concludes with the New Jerusalem. Stanza 4 of the hymn "What miracle! What mystery!" says, "Jerusalem, the ultimate, / Of visions the totality." All visions and revelations in the Bible are consummated in that holy city. The New Jerusalem is the totality of the Bible and of the processed and consummated Triune God, who is the eternal life.

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In all the writings of Christianity we never read that God and His elect are incorporated into an incorporation. This incorporation has three results: the Father's house, the Son's vine, and the Spirit's new child (John 14:2-3; 15:5; 16:21). All the regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified saints are the many abodes of the Father's house, the many branches of the vine, and the many members of the new man. These are English words, but the language is new. Today. we are dealing with messages that are very new and are spoken in the new language of a new culture. This culture is in the Bible, but the human mind has not grasped it. Today Christians read the New Testament without thoroughly understanding it. No one previously has seen the four ins in John 14—the Spirit as the Comforter in the disciples, the Son in the Father, the disciples in the Son, and the Son in the disciples (vv. 17, 20). Even John Nelson Darby, the "king" of biblical interpretation, said that the Father's house is a heavenly mansion. Robert Govett, who was highly appreciated by Charles H. Spurgeon, insisted that the New Jerusalem is a physical city. These great scholars of the Bible did not understand what the New Jerusalem is. More than thirty years ago I wrote a number of hymns concerning the New Jerusalem (Hymns, #972, #975-976, #978-981, #984), but it was not until the last few years, when I wrote "What miracle! What mystery!" that I saw the full picture with all the pieces of the puzzle. After that, my speaking and writing changed. We need to realize these things and spend our time, energy, spirit, and prayer to get into the new writings of the new culture with the new language.

In contrast to the situation of the rebellious ones, the Lord has accomplished much in His recovery. For instance, He gave us the leading to go to Russia in 1991, and when we went, He blessed our going. In addition to large churches in Moscow and Saint Peters-burg, there are dozens of other proper local churches across Russia. Besides these, several other groups have left the denominations but have not yet clearly seen how to begin practicing the proper church life. They have asked for co-workers among us to visit them. Moreover, when I became sick in 1994, the Lord began to reveal the high peak of the divine revelation to me. I wrote the hymn "What Miracle! What Mystery!" The third line says, "God became man to make man God." Since then, the Lord's revelation for bringing His recovery into a new age has been completed.

Sixth, we need to live and walk with the Lord and be united and mingled with Him as one to live the God-man life and be the Lord's overcomers. Stanza 3 of Hymns, #1349 says, "No longer I alone that live, / But God together lives with me"; we are united and mingled with the Lord as one to live the God-man life and be the Lord's overcomers.

At the time of the Chinese New Year conference in February 1994 when I wrote the hymn "What miracle! What mystery!" I told the brothers that the enemy Satan would do things to frustrate me from releasing the high peaks of the divine revelation according to the entire teaching of the New Testament. In October 1995 I discovered a thorn in my body from a messenger of Satan that I might not be lifted up. By the Lord's rich mercy and sufficient grace, I have lived and ministered to you the deeper truths as His and your slave for over a year. I like to be nothing and nobody and I regard the sovereignty of our dear Lord. I am altogether submissive to His sovereign will, and I like to see that His perfect will be done.

The New Jerusalem has two natures, humanity and divinity. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God among men, the dwelling place of God in His humanity among men on the earth (Rev. 21:3). In the Bible the tabernacle is a human dwelling place. Likewise, the New Jerusalem is a human dwelling place because it is constituted with humanity. John 1:14 says that God was incarnated in the flesh to tabernacle among men. He is God, but He has become a man. He partook of humanity as His nature; hence, He dwells in humanity.

According to its divinity, the New Jerusalem is the temple of God as the dwelling place of His redeemed elect (Rev. 21:22). The holy city is the temple of God because it is divine. It is the temple of God, yet it is the dwelling place of His redeemed. Because this is God's temple, the dweller must be divine. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle; God dwells in the tabernacle. God can dwell in a human dwelling place because He has become a man. According to the divinity of the New Jerusalem, it is a temple for God's dwelling. If we are only human and not divine, we cannot dwell in the temple. As believers in Christ and children of God, we human beings can dwell in a divine temple because, having the divine life and nature through regeneration, we have been made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. The New Jerusalem is therefore a mutual abode. According to its humanity, it is a human tabernacle, and according to its divinity, it is a divine temple. It is a human dwelling place, but the Dweller is God. God can dwell in a human place because He became a man. In the same way, we human beings can dwell in God's temple because we have been made God. This is the mutual abiding of God and man.

The tabernacle is built mostly with the humanity of God's people to be God's dwelling place, whereas the temple is built mostly of divinity to be the dwelling place of God's redeemed. This indicates that God takes us as His dwelling place and gives Himself to us to be our dwelling place. The divine God lives in a human tabernacle, and redeemed man lives in a divine dwelling place. This indicates the mingling of divinity with humanity, in which both humanity and divinity became a mutual abode. Concerning God and His redeemed in the New Jerusalem, a new hymn says, "As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be." The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God indicates that the redeemed of God are the dwelling place of God, and the redeeming God as the temple indicates that God is the dwelling place for His serving ones.

For eternity the New Jerusalem will be the fulfillment of the Lord's brief word in John 15:4: "Abide in Me and I in you." To abide in the Lord means to take Him as our dwelling, our habitation. When we take the Lord as our dwelling, He abides in us. This abiding is mutual, for we abide in the Lord, and He abides in us. There is no need to wait until the coming New Jerusalem to abide in the Lord and to have Him abide in us. We can testify strongly that many times we know that we are truly in the Lord and that He is actually abiding in us. When we abide in Him, we immediately sense that He is abiding in us. If we say, "Lord Jesus, how I thank You that right now I am abiding in You," we will have the deep sense that He is abiding in us. Wherever we are—at home, at work, or at school—we can say, "O Lord Jesus, I am abiding in You right now," and something within us will say, "And I am abiding in you." This is a miniature of the coming New Jerusalem, which will simply be a mutual abiding place for us and for God and the Lamb.

Paul said, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19). What was the heavenly vision to which Paul referred? It has been at least seventy-three years now since Brother Nee was raised up by the Lord to speak for Him among us. During this period of time, not only our hearts but even our hands have never left the Bible. According to the number of pages we have touched, it is as if we have thoroughly handled a hundred Bibles. Moreover, we have many notes of what we have gained from our study of the Word. After seventy-three years, we may say that the Lord's revelation among us has reached its peak with a consummation during the Chinese New Year's conference last year. This consummation can be seen in the new hymn that I wrote: "What miracle! What mystery! / That God and man should blended be! / God became man to make man God, / Untraceable economy!" The heavenly vision which the Lord showed Paul was this economy, the New Testament economy, the eternal economy of God. This economy is the revelation of the entire New Testament.

In this conference we have a new hymn with four stanzas (using the tune of Hymns, #499), expressing God's highest purpose concerning man. I hope that every one of you will sing this new hymn until it gets into your being.

According to this hymn, it is a great miracle and a deep mystery that God has a way to be joined to man and mingled with man. God became man that man may become God. Such an economy is incomprehensible to both angels and man. This economy is of God's desire, and it will reach, attain, the high peak of God's goal. Ultimately the holy city, Jerusalem, will be the aggregate of all the visions and revelations throughout the Scriptures. The Triune God and the tripartite man will become a loving couple in eternity as man yet still God. Divinity and humanity will become a mutual abode, and the glory of God will be expressed in humanity radiantly in splendor to the uttermost.

God is God, and He Himself has begotten us as His children. Whatever anything is born of, that is what it is. We cannot say that when sheep beget sheep, the old sheep are sheep but the little sheep are not sheep. Since God has begotten us, we are the children of God. Furthermore, 1 John 3 says that God will work on us to such an extent that we will be like Him completely (v. 2). From the day God created man, this has been the purpose of God. Hence, what He created was man, yet He created man with the image of God. Adam was created with God's image and likeness. Then God set man before the tree of life, meaning that He wanted man, who had God's image, to receive God as his life. As a result, if a man who has received God as his life is not God, then what is he? But the Lord also shows us clearly that we are God in life and nature. A father begets a son, and this son surely is the same as the father in life and nature. Suppose the father is an emperor. We cannot say that all his children are emperors. The children have only their father's life and nature but not his status; this is clear. God did this that He might produce a Body for Christ, that is, that He might produce an organism for the Triune God, the ultimate manifestation of which is the New Jerusalem.

In the Chinese-speaking conference in February of this year, the brothers wanted me to speak, and my burden was to speak about this matter. For twenty-seven years I had not written a new hymn. Several days before the Chinese-speaking conference I wrote a new hymn with four stanzas:

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After singing this hymn, you can realize that it is a special hymn. In the two-thousand-year history of Christianity there is not one hymn that is of this category. This is the unique hymn in this category of hymns. This hymn speaks very clearly concerning the high peak of God's vision.

Today in the Lord's recovery, it is not that we will not preach the gospel anymore; but preaching the gospel is for begetting. And it is not that we will not nourish the saints anymore or that we will not perfect the saints anymore. All the begetting, nourishing, and perfecting are for the building. However, what are we building? Are we just building the local churches? No. We are building the local churches for the building up of the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Then, does this mean that we just forget about the local churches? No. The local churches are the procedure for God to accomplish the building of the Body of Christ. God still has to greatly use the local churches. Thank the Lord, through this kind of fellowship I hope that we all know where we are today and also where we should be and what we should do.