Saturday

Related Verses
2 Pet. 3:18
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.

Eph. 2:7
7 That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

2 Pet. 1:3-4
3 Seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue,
4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.

2 Pet. 3:14-15
14 Therefore, beloved, since you expect these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot and without blemish;
15 And count the long-suffering of our Lord to be salvation, even as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you,

Related Reading
Second Peter 3:18 says that we need to grow in grace. Grace is God Himself with divinity processed through incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. All these elements of grace are within us to be one with us. Grace is God Himself as our life to be one with us, to save us, to make His home in us, and to be formed in us. We need to grow in such a grace for His glory today and unto the day of eternity. Second Peter 3:18 is the concluding word of the apostle Peter’s writings, indicating that whatever he has written is of, in, by, and through the grace of God. (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” p. 460) 

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The consummation of the believers’ experience of the grace of God in His economy is the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:6-8, 22-23). How is the Body of Christ produced? We were fallen sinners, but Christ came and shed His blood to redeem us back into Himself. Christ is the sphere and element of our salvation. The precious blood of Christ redeemed us back into Himself as the sphere and element. In Christ we enjoy His element, and with His element we have been made God’s precious possession. Ephesians 1:22-23 shows us that the power that God caused to operate in Christ raised Him from the dead so that He might transcend the world and ascend to the heavenlies, being seated at the right hand of God, crushing the enemy, having all things subjected under His feet, and thus being given to be the Head over all things. Such power is “to the church,” that is, transmitted to the church. The church as His Body receives the transmission of this power. Since the Head has this power, the Body also receives the transmission of this power. It is in this way that the Body of Christ is produced. 

The product of the grace in God’s economy is a poem (2:10a). The heavens, the earth, and man, which were created by God, are not God’s poem. Rather, the church, the Body of Christ, is God’s poem. 

The product of the grace in God’s economy is a poem to exhibit the surpassing riches of the grace in God’s economy (v. 7)…Grace is rich, abounding, multiplying, and increasing. 

On the one hand, we are to exhibit the rich grace of God, and on the other hand, we are to carry out what God foreordained. These good works [v. 10] must be the doing of His will that we may live the church life and bear the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

To the apostle Paul, all things were like refuse, and grace was God in Christ. It was by grace, the Lord whom he experienced, that he labored for the Lord more abundantly than all the apostles. Like Paul, we should take the processed and consummated Triune God as grace in our living and work today. Our total living should be like this, not just doing some proper things or good things. In such a total living, it is altogether not a matter of being right or wrong or of doing good or evil; it is altogether in the sphere of the processed Triune God. In such a living we take only life as the principle. Whatever is of life, that is what God wants; whatever is not of life, that is what God rejects. This life is the rich grace with God the Father as the substance, God the Son as the element, and God the Spirit as the essence; this life is God coming to be our grace. This is the living that we should have. May the Lord be merciful to us and bless us that we may live such a life so that eventually we can experience the consummation of the grace of God in His economy. (CWWL, 1991–1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” pp. 335-336, 342-343) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1991–1992, vol. 2, “The Law and Grace of God in His Economy,” chs. 2, 4

Further Reading:
Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Peter, msg. 1

Hymn: #497
1 Grace in its highest definition is
God in the Son to be enjoyed by us;
It is not only something done or giv’n,
But God Himself, our portion glorious.

2 God is incarnate in the flesh that we
Him may receive, experience ourself;
This is the grace which we receive of God,
Which comes thru Christ and which is Christ Himself.

3 Paul the Apostle counted all as dung,
’Twas only God in Christ he counted grace;
’Tis by this grace—the Lord experienced—
That he surpassed the others in the race.

4 It is this grace—Christ as our inward strength—
Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill;
It is this grace which in our spirit is,
There energizing, working out God’s will.

5 This grace, which is the living Christ Himself,
Is what we need and must experience;
Lord, may we know this grace and by it live,
Thyself increasingly as grace to sense.