Hymn: Thou art the Son beloved

Thou art the Son beloved,
  The image of our God;
Thou art the saints’ dear portion,
  Imparted thru Thy blood.
Among all God’s creation
  Thou art the firstborn One;
By Thee all was created,
  All for Thyself to own.

Thou art before all creatures,
  In Thee all things consist;
Of all Thou art the center,
  By Thee all things subsist.
Thou art the sole beginning,
  The Firstborn from the dead;
And for the Church, Thy Body,
  Thou art the glorious Head.

Because it pleased the Father,
  All fulness dwells in Thee,
That Thou might have the first place
  In all we ever see.
All things Thou reconciledst
  To God by Thy shed blood,
To thus present us holy
  And blameless unto God.

In Thee God’s fulness dwelleth,
  Thou art God’s mystery;
The treasures of all wisdom
  And knowledge are in Thee.
Thou art the hope of glory,
  In us Thou dost abide;
In Thee we are perfected
  And God is satisfied.

All things are but a shadow
  Which unto us reveal
Thyself, in whom we’re rooted,
  The only One that’s real.
Enjoying all Thy riches,
  Thy fulness we will be;
We’ll hold Thee, as Thy Body,
  And grow with God in Thee.

With Thee in God we’re hidden,
  Thou art in us our life;
Thy peace in us presiding,
  We rest from all our strife.
In the new man, Thy Body,
  Thou art the all in all;
Our all-inclusive Savior,
  Thyself we’ll ever call.

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Aug 7 2025

Un Hermano

8. God the Father’s Beloved Son

For our experience and enjoyment, Christ is also God the Father’s beloved Son. Matthew 3:17 says, “Behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. ” This was the speaking of the Father as a testimony to the Lord Jesus as the Father’s beloved Son. Matthew 17:5 says, “Behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him! ” This declaration of the Father to vindicate the Son was first given in 3:17 after Christ’s rising from baptism, which signified His resurrection from the dead. Later, in 17:5, the Father declared the same thing, this time to vindicate the Son in His transfiguration, which prefigures the coming kingdom. In each instance we see that Christ is the beloved Son of the Father, the Son of His love (Col. 1:13 ).

a. The Embodiment and Expression of the Triune God

As God the Father’s beloved Son, Christ is the embodiment and expression of the Triune God. “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). The words the fullness of the Godhead refer to the entire Godhead, to the complete God, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Because the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, it would not be correct to say that the fullness of the Godhead includes only God the Son and not also God the Father and God the Spirit. Since the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead must be the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Therefore, as the One in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God.

The Son is God Himself expressed (Heb. 1:8). God the Father is hidden; God the Son is expressed. No one has ever seen God; the Son, as the Word of God (John 1:1; Rev. 19:13) and the speaking of God (Heb. 1:1-2), has declared Him in a full expression, explanation, and definition (John1:18).

The Conclusion of the New Testament:

Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ:

Message 266 (LSM)

Jul 8 2025

Anitha Nokku

Tustin, CA, United States

O Christ you are the mystery of God. You are God’s fullness. The treasures of all wisdom and knowledge are in you. You are our hope of glory.

Jun 1 2025

Sharon

Rancho Cordova, California, United States

Thou art the Son beloved,

The image of our God;

Thou art the saints’ dear portion,

Imparted thru Thy blood.

Among all God’s creation

Thou art the firstborn One;

By Thee all was created,

All for Thyself to own.

May 11 2025

Catherine C

London - Woodland Retreat Camp, United Kingdom

Lord Jesus Lord Jesus - we call -

Apr 20 2025

Anonymous

God has brought us through the storm and we gives him the best of our Savior lives through Christ.

Nicole Ho

Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

All fulness dwells in Thee!

Apr 6 2025

Amazing song:)!

May 19 2024

Woodland Retreat, United Kingdom

Amen Hallelujah

With Thee in God we’re hidden,

Thou art in us our life;

Thy peace in us presiding,

We rest from all our strife.

In the new man, Thy Body,

Thou art the all in all;

Our all-inclusive Savior,

Thyself we’ll ever call.

Nov 6 2022

Christopher Burk

Seattle, Washington, United States

Thou (Yeshua) art the hope of glory, in us Thou (Yeshua) dost abide; in Thee (Yeshua) we are perfected and God is satisfied.

Amen!

Aug 15 2020

Maeriehl Joy Roxas

Pagbilao, Quezon, Philippines

Colossians 1:17-18 says, "And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him; And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things"

Hallelujah! All things subsist together in Christ who is our holding center! We are held together in Him as likened to a hub to the spokes of a wheel!

Christ is also our sole beginning! He is the Head of the church, His Body. He is the first in creation and the first in resurrection.

Saints, Christ is worthy of preeminence in all things!

The thought of being saturated with the Word and the Spirit to speak with the divine element is altogether foreign to traditional Christian theology, which often remains within us even after we choose to leave it. After I completely forsook traditional theology in 1960, I wrote many hymns concerning the exercise of the spirit, Christ, the Spirit, life, and the Body of Christ. One of these, Hymns, #189, was composed with all the major points in the book of Colossians. These hymns belong to a different category than those written according to the thought of traditional Christianity.

Hymns, #189 and #499 were composed not according to traditional, natural thought and logic but according to the divine revelation in the Bible. Hymns such as these are good for speaking. There are many different ways to speak the hymns. If the saints in a meeting practice to speak a hymn such as #189 or #499 for an hour or more, their speaking will equal a full message in content and will be better than one person giving a message.

CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, Fellowship with the Full-Time Trainees in Irving, Texas, ch. 3 (LSM)

In the overcomer conference in Shanghai in 1934, Brother Nee translated this phrase as "the Firstborn of all creation" and distributed printed copies to those who attended the meeting. Moreover, Brother Nee gave a definite word based on this clear and correct translation, saying, "In creation the Son is the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), and the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14). According to His eternal plan and before the foundation of the world, God ordained that the Son become flesh and accomplish redemption (1 Pet. 1:20). In God's plan the Son was the first in creation. Therefore, He is the Head of all creation" (Issue No. 34 of The Present Testimony, published March/April 1934; see The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, p. 734). "Among all God's creation / Thou art the firstborn One" in the first stanza of hymn #163 in Chinese (Hymns, #189 in English) and "As First of all the creatures" in the third stanza of hymn #158 in Chinese (Hymns, #202 in English) were both written according to Brother Nee's teaching three decades ago, which is according to the clear revelation of the Bible. Since the Bible clearly says that our Lord is the "Firstborn of all creation," we quoted this verse in the hymns we wrote. How can it be wrong? Is it possible that a quoted verse is not according to the truth? Man's explanation can be wrong, but the Scriptures can never be wrong.

CWWL, 1981, vol. 2, The History and Revelation of the Lord's Recovery, ch. 13 (LSM)

In Colossians Paul shows that the Lord is everything (1:18-19; 3:11). He is not only God but also man; He is not only the Creator but also a creature (1:15-16). Through His incarnation He became the last Adam, a creature (1 Cor. 15:45). He became a man, a created one (John 1:14; Heb. 2:14a). If He were merely the Creator but not a creature, we would not be able to say that He is everything. However, since He is the Creator and a creature, He is everything.

Whether or not we can thoroughly comprehend this matter, we need to accept the facts in the original text of the Bible. The Firstborn of all creation and the Firstborn from the dead mentioned in Colossians (1:15, 18) represent the two creations—the old creation and the new creation, respectively. Christ is the Firstborn in the old creation, and He is also the Firstborn in the new creation. Thus, He is all-inclusive; He is everything.

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, vol. 2, Fighting for the Truth, chapter 2 (LSM)

...but Paul was different. In Colossians, a book of only four chapters, he exalted Christ as the preeminent One in the old and new creations (1:15-18) and as the embodiment of the Triune God (2:9). Hymns, #189 is a marvelous song on the Christ unveiled in Colossians.

The Crystallization-study of the Epistle of James, chapter 4 (LSM)

What a Christ we have within us! The Christ who indwells us has all the aspects covered in this message. He is the portion of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from among the dead, the One in whom God's fullness dwells, the mystery of God's economy, the mystery of God, the reality of all positive things, and the constituent of the new man. Although all these aspects of Christ are revealed in the book of Colossians, we did not see most of them because they are not according to our natural concept. What corresponds to our concept is Paul's teaching about wives submitting to their husbands, and husbands loving their wives. Even without reading the Scriptures, we have concepts about these matters. Instead of taking Paul's word in Colossians for granted, we should dig into this book in order to discover for ourselves all these aspects of Christ. Then we need to praise the Lord and worship Him according to these aspects. We should say, "Lord, I worship You that You are the portion of the saints. I praise You that You are the image of the invisible God." How good to worship the Lord in this way!

If we know Christ in all these aspects, the praise we offer at the Lord's table meeting will be uplifted. I have been attending the meeting for the Lord's table for more than forty-seven years, and in all these meetings I have listened to the saints praising the Lord. Most of the praises have been on an elementary level. For example, in meeting after meeting the saints may praise the Lord for the blood. This certainly is not wrong. But if we remain on this level, our praise will be shallow. We need to remember the Lord and to praise Him according to the revelation contained in the book of Colossians. We need to use expressions such as those in this stanza from hymn #189 in the hymnal:

Thou art the Son beloved,

The image of our God;

Thou art the saints' dear portion,

Imparted through Thy blood.

Among all God's creation

Thou art the firstborn One;

By thee all was created,

All for thyself to own.

At the Lord's table we need to remember the Lord as the portion of the saints, as the image of God, as the mystery of God's economy, and as the reality of all positive things. May the Lord enrich our praise!

Life-study of Colossians, chapter 15 (LSM)

Thou art the Son beloved

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