In God’s economy Christ has terminated the old creation for the germination of the new creation in His resurrection through His death. By His upcoming appearing, He will also smash and crush the aggregate of human government throughout the history of mankind and will establish the eternal kingdom of God.
Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s move on earth, and He is revealed as such a One in the book of Daniel in five main aspects.
First, we can see the death of Christ – all-inclusive, all-terminating, and also all-germinating. Second, we see the upcoming appearing of Christ, His second return as a corporate smiting stone (with His overcomers) to destroy the great human image, smashing the human government and solving out all the problems.
Third, in Daniel we see Christ as the Son of Man coming to the throne of God to receive dominion and a kingdom. Fourth, Christ is the companion of the His suffering believers today, being with them where they are as their suffering companions as they witness for God.
And lastly, in Daniel we clearly see the excellency of Christ. This excellent One as the centrality and universality of God’s move on earth needs to become our centrality and universality!
God is working through the environment to dispense Christ into us and work Him into the very fiber of our being so that we may be filled with Christ and even become Christ in a corporate way on earth!
Lord, cause us to see Christ, appreciate Christ, and know Christ as such a One revealed in Daniel! Open our eyes to see You as the supremely precious One. Work Yourself into us a little more today, and bit by bit reconstitute us with Yourself day by day!
Five Main Points Concerning Christ in Daniel
1. Christ’s death was all-inclusive (Daniel 9:24-26). The simple word in this portion is so rich in meaning and implications. Christ died an all-inclusive death, terminating everything of the old creation, the old man, Satan, sin, death, the world, and any negative thing in the universe.
Our old man has been crucified with Christ, and now today we can live one spirit with the Lord (Gal. 2:20). If we really see that the totality of our natural being has been crucified with Christ, we will leap and skip for joy! Hallelujah! The Spirit today applies Christ’s death to our being.
He died representing the old creation, and in His resurrection Christ became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). Hallelujah, the old things have passed away – in Christ everything is new (2 Cor. 5:17)! Christ’s death was His greatest achievement in His first coming, and His death is the landmark of the ages.
2. Christ will return to clear up the universe physically and materially (Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45) – specifically, Christ will return to terminate and crush the human government. Christ will come soon with His bridal army as a corporate smiting stone and will strike the ten toes of the great human image – and the whole thing is going down!
What we see now as being uplifted human government will become chaff blown away by the wind, and Christ will take over the earth making it His kingdom! Until then we are people of peace, good citizens, never defying our government, but at the same time we are not those desiring to “run for office” or be part of a political movement…
What we aspire to be is a part of the dispensational instrument that will turn this age and will abolish human government and the money that supports it, so that God’s kingdom would come!
3. Christ as the Son of Man is before God’s throne to receive dominion and a kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14; Rev. 11:15). Christ is the Son of Man, and He will receive a dominion and a kingdom – until then, He is now making all the needed preparations to come back to rule the world with God’s dominion!
There’s a Man on the throne in the heavens – Christ as the Son of Man! God highly exalted Him, and He is eager to have His counterpart – His bride, the overcoming ones, who will be one with Him to change this age!
Today He is building up the Body so that the Bride may be prepared and the Army may be formed, and at one point very soon the Body-Bride-Army will come as a corporate smiting stone to end the human government and bring in the kingdom of God! Lord, may Your kingdom come! Father, may Your will be done!
4. Christ is the companion of God’s suffering people (Dan. 3:23-25). Because we as God’s people live on earth for this high purpose, Satan will put us through trials and he is doing his best to make us suffer. This is why the Lord told us to pray, Deliver us from the evil one. Guard us, keep us, and protect us from Satan. Lord, give us what we need for our human life, and we will be content with that! In our sufferings as witnesses of Christ, He is with us as our companion. How wonderful!
5. Christ is the Excellent One (Dan. 10:4-9). Daniel saw a glorious vision of Christ in His excellency, and every part of Christ is excellent and precious. We need to see Christ as the excellent One, as the One who is the centrality and universality of God’s economy.
Paul prayed for this, that Christ may be formed in us (Gal. 4:19), Christ may live in us (Gal. 2:20), and Christ may make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17). The excellent Christ needs to be wrought into us and become everything to us!
Christ is Wrought into us Through our Environment
In His economy, in His plan with His arrangement, God desires to make Christ the centrality and universality of His move on earth.
God today is endeavoring to work Christ into us, especially using the help of our environment. We are not exactly “easy cases”, neither are we really “fully open to the Lord” for Him to operate in us.
We are all like our forefather Jacob, and so we need our own “Rachel”, the children, the things, the tough boss, and all the matters in our environment to help us gain Christ, obtain Christ, and have Christ wrought into us.
God is faithful to make Christ our everything in our fellowship with Him, and so He arranges an environment that can include all manner of painful things, frustrating things, and baffling things.
When we pray to God to remove these things, the God who rules may be silent and hiding, and it may seem as if He doesn’t care or even exist. But this is ALL part of God working on us to perfect us, develop our faith, and work Christ into us.
We are being prepared, perfected, and trained to be God’s army, and we are living in a war zone – because we see that we are made to express and represent God! We are not here to save our soul or live a life of ease in this age.
God is helping us to be dis-attached from anything in this world and be attached only to Him, our treasure and our everything. May we learn to cooperate with Him as He is doing His best to work Himself into us with the help of our environment!
Lord, work Yourself into us more and more every day. Make us fully one with You, Lord, and one with Your present will in our situation. Save us from hindering You or frustrating You in Your desire to work Christ into every fiber of our being. Lord, build Yourself into our being for the Body, the bride, the stone, the mountain, and the New Jerusalem!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron K’s speaking in this message and portions in, Life-study of Daniel (msg. 12), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 1 (entitled, The Rule of the Heavens, the Economy of God, and the Excellent Christ as the Precious and Preeminent One in God’s Move).
- Further reading: The Centrality and Universality of Christ (ch. 2).
- Hymns on this topic:
# My old man has been crucified with Him, / With all its foul corruption deep within; / And buried too its nature serpentine, / Completely finished—this great fact is mine, / I hold it fast.
# I am crucified with Christ, / And the cross hath set me free; / I have ris’n again with Christ, / And He lives and reigns in me.
# Jesus in sorrow, in joy, or in pain, / Jesus my Treasure in loss or in gain; / Constant Companion where’er I may be, / Living or dying—Jesus for me.
# It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me; / Nothing outwardly performing, / But His Christ my all to be. - Pictures credit: via Inspiration Unlimited Facebook page (the album, Quotes: Daniel and Zechariah HWMR).
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The book of Daniel also reveals that it is through their environment that Christ becomes the centrality and universality of God’s elect. Through the nations as the environment, in the coming days God will eventually make Christ the centrality and universality of Israel. The principle is the same with us today. In this present age of mystery, which is not revealed in Daniel, God is using the environment to make Christ the centrality and universality to us. We are not simple. On the one hand, we, the believers in Christ, are God’s elect; on the other hand, we are parts of the old creation, including such negative things as the beasts described in Daniel 7. As God’s elect, we need Christ to be wrought into us as our centrality and universality. (Life-study of Daniel, pp. 74-76)
Oh Lord Jesus, thank You that You use our environment to make Christ the centrality and universality of Christ to us. Lord we are desperate for Christ to be wrought into us. Thank You for clearly opening up the scriptures to us to see You are busy building up Your body and beautifying Your bride. Thank You for doing this work in us in this age. Oh Lord Jesus.
Praise God for His love and Mercy! For revealing Himself to us. He is in us and with us in any situation/ enviromnment for a purpose of preparing us, perfecting us and training us to be His army! To bring this age to an end! We are living in a war zone – because we see that we are made to express and represent God! We are not here to save our soul or live a life of ease in this age!! God help us to see and cooperate with you.
God is helping us to be dis-attached from anything in this world and be attached only to Him, our treasure and our everything. May we learn to cooperate with Him as He is doing His best to work Himself into us with the help of our environment! Amen Lord! May your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven! Lord Jesus we open our whole being to you, continue your divine work in us.
The book of Daniel covers 5 main points concerning Christ as the centrality and universality of God’s move on earth: (1) the all-inclusive death of Christ together with His resurrection (to terminate the old creation and germinate the new creation); (2)Christ’s second coming (in particular to terminate the human government); (3) Christ’s present standing as the Son of Man before the throne of God to receive dominion and a kingdom (His preparation to come back to rule over the world with God’s dominion); (4) Christ is the Companion of God’s suffering people (while Christ is preparing to come back); (5) Christ in His excellency.
In this present age of mystery, God is using the environment to make Christ the centrality and universality to us. We are not simple. On one hand we are God’s elect; on the other hand, we are parts of the old creation. As God’s elect, we need Christ to be WROUGHT INTO US as our centrality and universality. Christ is the excellent and precious One in God’s economy.
O Lord, show us more of Yourself as the precious One. Cause us to be fully open to You for You to wrought Yourself into our being to be our everything so that we can become Your duplication/bridal army to come back together with You.
Amen, Lord Jesus contenue Your divine work in us for we are made to express and represent You. for Your will be done on earth..
amen,,,your divine love is very important our daily lives,dont live us alone every moment,,,o lord jesus,,amen
God is faithful to make Christ our everything in our fellowship with Him, and so He arranges an environment that can include all manner of painful things, frustrating things, and baffling things.