The all-inclusive, extensive Christ is the reality of all the positive things in the universe; everything that is positive is a type of Christ; we need especially to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ typified in the Old Testament.
In Rom. 1:20 Paul tells us that the invisible things of God, both the eternal power and His divine characteristics, having been clearly seen since the creation of the world, are being perceived by the things made, so that people would be without excuse.
In other words, the invisible things of our wonderful Triune God are manifested in the material creation, and the physical creation speaks forth of God and His characteristics.
So as we traverse the various experiences of our daily living and encounter things in our surrounding, we realize that these things typify the indwelling Christ, for they are figments and shadows of what He is in reality in spirit.
The physical creation and the material things bring us to our mingled spirit to enter into the vast realm of this reality as the consummated Spirit; here, in the Spirit, we can enjoy with all the saints the measureless dimensions of Christ, His vastness and His extensiveness.
On one hand Christ is the reality of all our necessities in our daily life, and on the other hand, He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
Christ is our breath; He has gone through a process to become the living air for us to breathe in, and He as the Spirit gives us life whenever we call on His name.
As we breathe the Lord and practice calling on His name, we receive Him into us, and we find ourselves transported into the living of Him, which is equivalent to living in the New Jerusalem.
We can drink the Lord as the river of water of life flowing out from the throne; He is flowing as the living water, and we can come to Him as we are and just drink!
The river of water which we drink contains the tree of life, for in the New Jerusalem the river of life grows on both sides of the river of life.
As we drink the Lord, we also eat Him; then, He also becomes our clothing and our dwelling place.
As we take the Lord as the reality of all our daily necessities, as we apply Him to our living as the reality of every positive thing, we are brought into Him to live a life of the New Jerusalem.
We live a miniature of the New Jerusalem on earth, for we take the Lord in and live in Him as the tabernacle of God with man, and He lives in us as the church today.
Enjoy the All-inclusive Christ is Typified by Human Beings, Animals, Plants, Minerals, Offerings and Foods in the Old Testament
The universe with the billions of things and persons in it was created for the purpose of describing Christ.
Therefore, in revealing Himself to His disciples, He could easily find in every environment something or someone to serve as an illustration of Himself (see Col. 1:15-17; John 1:51; 10:9-11; 12:24; Matt. 12:41-42).
As the Lord was walking around, He would point to the positive things around Him and apply them to Himself. He said He is the ladder, the door, the pasture, the shepherd, the grain of wheat, the greater Jonah, the greater Solomon, etc.
The purpose of creation is to express and exhibit what the Lord is in all His aspects.
When we take Christ as the reality of every positive thing, we realize that He didn’t just create the universe to be expressed through it, but so that in all these positive aspects of the universe He would meet us and become real to us!
It’s almost like God loved us so much that He wants to court us through everything around us, so He leaves “pictures of Himself” everywhere in the nature, in the universe, in the positive persons, and in every place, to show us His interest in us and the intensity of His love toward us.
The material creation doesn’t exist merely that it would point out who Christ is, but so that we may take Him as the reality of every positive thing and engage Him romantically through these prayers and transactions with Him.
The Old Testament in particular uses six major categories of things as types to describe Christ – human beings, animals, plants, minerals, offerings, and foods.
In the Old Testament we see many human beings who typify Christ; Adam (Rom. 5:14), Melchizedek (Heb. 7:1), Isaac (Matt. 1:1), Jonah (12:41), and Solomon (v. 42) all are a type of Christ.
Furthermore, animals typify Christ, such as a lamb (John 1:29), a lion, an ox, an eagle (Ezek. 1:10), and a gazelle (Song of Songs 2:9).
As a lamb, Christ became an offering to deal with our sins for redemption; as an ox, He was not only made an offering but also became lowly to bear our burdens as a slave of God for us.
As a lion, Christ is the victorious One overcoming Satan on our behalf. As an eagle, He is the transcendent and heavenly One who carries us in order that we may rise above everything.
As a dove, Christ is beautiful and guileless, and as a turtledove, He is lowly and poor.
Plants typify Christ (who is the tree of life—Gen. 2:9), such as the vine tree (John 15:1), the apple tree (S. S. 2:3), the fig tree, the pomegranate tree, and the olive tree (Deut. 8:8); the different parts of a tree are also types of Christ, such as the root, the stump, the sprout, the shoot, the branch, and the fruit (Isa. 11:1, 10; 4:2; Luke 1:42; Rev. 5:5).
Minerals also typify Christ, such as gold, silver, copper, and iron (Deut. 8:9, 13), and different kinds of stone: the living stone (1 Pet. 2:4), the rock (1 Cor. 10:4), the cornerstone (Matt. 21:42), the topstone (Zech. 4:7), the foundation stone, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:11-12).
Offerings typify Christ, such as the sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, wave offering, heave offering, and drink offering (Lev. 1—7; Exo. 29:26-28; Num. 28:7-10; cf. John 4:24).
Foods typify Christ, such as bread, wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, milk, and honey (John 6:35; Deut. 8:8-9; 26:9).
What a Christ we have! He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and many human beings, animals, plants, minerals, offerings, and foods from the Old Testament describe Him as being everything to us!
Lord Jesus, we love You and we take You as the reality of every positive thing in the universe. Amen, Lord Jesus, You are the real ladder bringing us into God and God into us, You are the door into the good pasture, You are the Shepherd, You are the grain of wheat, You are the greater Jonah, and You are the greater Solomon! You are so rich and so wonderful, and we love seeing You, meeting You, applying You, and experiencing You as we see the positive things around us and in the Bible! Hallelujah, we can enjoy the all-inclusive Christ today!
The Reality of the All-inclusive Christ is the Spirit who Infuses us through the Word
We are not pantheists, that is, we don’t see God everywhere and worship this and that as being God; rather, according to the Bible we see and realize that Christ is the reality of all positive things, and we apply Him in prayer as such a One.
Actually, the elements of the reality of all the types – all the positive types of Christ in the Old and New Testament, in nature, in our surroundings, and in the universe – are in the Spirit!
Christ today is the Spirit, and the only way we can enjoy Christ as the reality of all positive things and all types is in the Spirit.
The Spirit transfuses and dispenses all the riches of what Christ is into us through the Lord’s words (see Phil. 1:19; John 6:63; Col. 3:16; Eph. 6:17-18; Rev. 2:7).
As we contact the Lord in His word, He speaks to us, He bountifully supplies us, His words become spirit and life to us, and we eat Him as the tree of life.
Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean that we have no more troubles or problems; rather, we have problems and afflictions just like the other people, but we can rejoice in our afflictions and not be anxious.
How is it possible, however, for us to do this? We can do this because we experience Christ and we know the Spirit.
On one hand we have the Bible, the Word of God, in our hands, and the essence of the Bible is Christ.
On the other hand, Christ today has become the Spirit, and this Spirit is joined with our spirit; even more, the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit (Rom. 8:16).
The Spirit with our spirit speaks; “The Spirit says to the churches (Rev. 2:7), and “the Spirit and the bride say…” (Rev. 22:17).
How does the Spirit speak and what does the Spirit speak? Well, according to the Lord’s word in John 6:63, the words which the Lord spoke to us are spirit and are life.
The Lord’s words, the Lord’s Spirit, and the Lord Himself are one; we can find the Lord in His word, and when we exercise our spirit over the Word of God to pray the word, we enjoy spirit and life.
When we pray-read the words of the Lord, we receive the rich supply from Him, and He becomes real to us in His word.
We shouldn’t merely read the Bible with our mind; rather, whenever we come to the Lord’s word, we should open up our entire being, exercise our spirit, and draw the riches of the Spirit in the Bible.
As we exercise our spirit over the Word of God, we enjoy and absorb the riches of Christ, the riches of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, and the Spirit imparts to us the reality of what Christ is.
The speaking Spirit who dwells in us imparts Christ’s riches into our being, leads us through every circumstance, and guides us encounter people, events, and matters.
So for us to really enjoy the the all-inclusive Christ who is the reality of all positive things and the types in the Old Testament – the human beings, animals, plants, minerals, offerings, and foods – we need to spend time with the Lord in His word!
The reality of all these riches are in the Spirit, and when we exercise our spirit to pray-read the word, the Spirit transfuses and dispenses all these riches into us through the Lord’s words.
Oh, may we day by day eat the Lord’s words and receive the Spirit’s dispensing so that we may apply, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive, extensive Christ to our daily living!
Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your word with the exercise of our spirit to pray-read the Word and receive the rich dispensing of the Spirit into our spirit! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy the all-inclusive, extensive Christ as the reality of all positive things in the universe. Guide into Yourself to live in the reality of all that You are so that we may enjoy You, be transformed into Your image, and express You. Lord, we want to remain in Your word, enjoying You and absorbing all that You are so that we may be filled with You, saturated with You, and constituted with Your riches to become Your fullness, Your expression on the earth!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să-L savurăm pe Cristosul atotinclusiv semnificat în Vechiul Testament citind cu rugăciune Cuvântul.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 1, “The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4 on the topic of, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ as the Reality of All Positive Things.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ also is the one reality / Of all our doctrine and theology; / And all our scriptural knowledge without Him / Is just in letter and is vanity. / Christ, the reality of time and space, / Christ, the reality of every stage; / Christ is the one reality of all / Thru all eternity from age to age. (Hymns #496)
– Hallelujah! By His light we see / Oh, how real, how full our Lord will be / If we’ll only turn to Him at every time, / in every day, / Every thing, in every way and— / Be specific for reality! / And be done with generality! / If we’ll just apply Him, we will see / He’s everything to us. (Hymns #1178)
– Life-giving Spirit Thou, as well as Word, / Now e’en the Spirit in the Word Thou art; / When thru the Spirit giv’n, I touch the Word, / Fulness divine to me Thou dost impart. / In Thee I may with God have fellowship, / And thru the Scripture I on Thee may feed; / Thru study of the Word with prayer to God / Thy glorious riches fully meet my need. (Hymns #801)
About aGodMan
