How pleasant is the sound of praise

1. Children of God, Blameless and Guileless, without Blemish in the Midst of a Crooked and Perverted Generation

In 2:15 Paul speaks of the believers as children of God. This implies regeneration, the new birth. To be a child of God means that we have been born of God, that God has been conceived within us. When we became children of God, God was conceived in our being. This means that when we were born of God in our spirit, we were mingled with Him. God has been conceived within us, and we have been born of Him to become His children.

The expression “children of God” in 2:15 is very rich in its implications. It implies that God has actually been born into us and that we possess His life and nature. Sometimes we may say, “I am just a sinner saved by grace. ” Although this, of course, is true, it is very shallow compared with the revelation in the New Testament. If we know the truth of the Word, we shall not say that we are merely sinners saved by grace. We shall have the boldness to declare, “I am a child of God born of the Spirit! ” No doubt, we are sinners who have been saved by God’s grace. But because we have been born of God, we are now His children. How marvelous!

The Conclusion of the New Testament:

The Believers, Message 112 (LSM) Volume 1

THE ISSUES OF APPLYING GOD’S SALVATION

The issues of applying God’s salvation involve five items. First, the precious blood of Christ cleanses us and deals with our sinful deeds so that we may be justified before God and reconciled to Him. Second, we experience dying together with Christ, which deals with our sinful nature so that we are released from the bondage of sin. Third, the Spirit works in us so that we experience Christ living in us. This means that He is our life practically and that we live together with Him. Fourth, the Spirit works further in us and outwardly disciplines us through “all things” ( Rom. 8:28 ). His inward working together with the outward disciplining constitutes Christ in us, that is, constitutes the element of Christ little by little into our whole being. In this way He conforms us to the image of Christ. Fifth, when we continually experience the putting away of the elements of sin, the flesh, the natural man, the self, and individualism, the element of Christ is constituted into every part of our being, and we are manifested as parts of Christ, as the members of the Body of Christ practically. Eventually, our being will be fully mingled with Christ as one. Christ will become our content, and we will become His expression. This is the manifestation of the Body of Christ.

Five hundred years ago the light that Martin Luther saw in the book of Romans was on justification by faith. Today we need to humbly thank God for showing us that a sinner saved by grace is joined to Christ. God’s salvation in Christ is to work in a sinner to the extent that he becomes a part of Christ. We, as sinners saved by grace, eventually become the Body of Christ, are joined to Christ, and become the mystical Christ, the universal, great man. This is the goal that God’s salvation ultimately attains.

A Record of a Bible Study on Romans
and First and Second Corinthians
Chapter 6 CWWL, 1955, vol. 4 (LSM)

A CONCLUDING WORD

We must very clearly see the divinity and humanity of Christ to be able to understand the mystery of the Divine Trinity. In conclusion, God is three, having three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—yet He is surely one, being the one God. When we receive any one of the three, we receive all of Them. When we have the Son, we also have the Father and the Spirit; when we have the Spirit, we also have the Father and the Son. Therefore, when the Spirit comes, the consummation of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit comes; the all-inclusive Spirit comes. As such a Spirit, Christ fills all and includes all. And as the Spirit, Christ comes into us to be our enjoyment.

Here I would like to refer to two hymns. The first one is Hymns, #113, a hymn on praising the Lord as our Redeemer. The climax of this hymn is in stanza 5:

Though angels praise the heavenly King,
And worship Him as God alone,
We can with exultation sing,
“He wears our nature on the throne. ”

Another hymn is Hymns, #132, which is also on praising the Lord for His humanity. This hymn is full of life, full of the Spirit, and full of experience. Stanza 1 says,

Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting,
Christ the Lord is there enthroned;
As the man by God exalted,
With God’s glory He is crowned.

Then stanzas 4 through 6 deal with life, the Spirit, and experience:

He as God with man is mingled,
God in man is testified;
He as man with God is blended,
Man in God is glorified.
From the Glorified in heaven
The inclusive Spirit came;
All of Jesus’ work and Person
Doth this Spirit here proclaim.
With the Glorified in heaven
Is the Church identified;
By the Spirit of this Jesus
Are His members edified.
The hymn reaches its climax in stanza 7:
Lo! a man is now in heaven
As the Lord of all enthroned;
This is Jesus Christ our Savior,
With God’s glory ever crowned!

Nearly none of the eighteen points that we have mentioned above were written as a hymn. There are over ten thousand hymns in Christianity, but they do not cover these points. Instead, most of them are concerning God’s compassion, God’s holiness, God’s righteousness, God’s power, and even superficial items such as miracles and wonders. Yes, the creeds mention Christ’s being born as a man to save sinners. If we carefully study the New Testament, we will see that Christ became flesh not only to save sinners but, even more, to carry out God’s eternal economy, which is to work God into men that they may become children of God to be the Body of Christ for the expression of the Triune God in eternity. This is the highest goal of God’s becoming flesh.

Most of the hymns they sang are concerning God’s dispensing Himself into us, Christ as our life, and the church as His expression. Fifty years ago our favorite hymn was, “How pleasant is the sound of praise! / It well becomes the saints of God; / Should we refuse our songs to raise, / The stones might tell our shame abroad” (Hymns, #113). But now we do not select it any longer, because its content is low. If I were to show you the hymns that I wrote sixty years ago, you would all feel that they are shallow. However, with my growth in life and my increase in the knowledge of the spiritual truths, hymns that are crystals came out. Poems and songs are the crystallization of our learning and our knowledge of God. I hope that you will learn more and be more equipped, especially concerning the eighteen points covered in this chapter. Then gradually you will be able to write some hymns of high quality. This is a need in the Lord’s recovery.

The Revelation and Vision of God

Chapter 4 CWWL, 1986, vol. 3 (LSM)

THE LIFE OF DIVINITY MINGLED WITH HUMANITY

Stanza 5 of Hymns, #113 says, “Though angels praise the heavenly King, / And worship Him as God alone, / We can with exultation sing, / ‘He wears our nature on the throne. ’” This hymn was written by Thomas Kelly and was translated into Chinese by Brother Watchman Nee. The phrase He wears our nature on the throne is a wonderful expression. Since Christ’s resurrection and ascension there have been many debates among Christians concerning the person of Christ, and one of those debates is whether or not Christ truly has humanity. This was the reason the apostle John wrote his first Epistle. In 4:2-3 he tells us, “Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antiChrist. ” At that time there was a school of Greek philosophy called Gnosticism, which taught that all physical matter was filthy and essentially evil, and since the human flesh is physical, it is also filthy. The influence of Greek philosophy entered the church, and a great heresy called Docetism rose up. Following the teachings of the Gnostics, this heresy advocated that since Christ is holy, He could never have had the defilement of human flesh, and therefore, His body was not real flesh and blood but was merely a deceptive, transient phantasm. Such a heresy undermines not only the Lord’s incarnation but also His redemption and resurrection. According to what the apostle John says, these heretics were antiChrists.

This truth was debated up until the nineteenth century, when orthodox theologians all rejected the heresy of Docetism. It is very strange, however, that today many Christians still believe a form of this teaching. At most, they confess that the Lord Jesus was a man when He was on the earth, but they say that after His resurrection from the dead, He is no longer a man; therefore, the Christ on the throne today is not a man but is only God. In the past a so-called co-worker among us actually said that he did not approve of the last line of stanza 5 in Hymns, #113, which says, “He wears our nature on the throne. ” He considered that Christ on the throne today does not have humanity. The Bible clearly reveals that Christ on the throne still has humanity. Matthew 26:63-64 says that when the Lord Jesus was being judged, the high priest asked Him, “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God. ” The Lord Jesus answered, “You have said rightly. Nevertheless I say to you, From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven. ” This indicates that Christ is still the Son of Man after His ascension and will still be the Son of Man at His coming back. Acts 7:55-56 says that when Stephen was being persecuted, he looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. ” This indicates that Christ in the heavens today is still the Son of Man. In Revelation 1:13 the apostle John saw Christ walking as the Son of Man in the midst of the lampstands. Then 14:14 says that when Christ comes again to reap the harvest, He will be the Son of Man sitting on the cloud. Matthew 25:31 says that when Christ returns to sit on the throne of His glory in Jerusalem to judge the nations, He will still be the Son of Man. Furthermore, John 1:51 reveals that He will also be the Son of Man in eternity; at that time the angels of God will ascend and descend on the Son of Man. This shows us that in His ascension, in His heavenly ministry, in His second coming, in His rapturing the believers, in His judging the nations, and in eternity, He is always the Son of Man with humanity. This is the clear revelation of the Bible

The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible:

Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church

Chapter 8 CWWL, 1984, vol. 1 (LSM)