Lesson 9 – The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible

Col. 3:4 When Christ our life is manifested…

1 Cor. 15:45 …The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

Eph. 1:22-23  And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

1. Christ being the center of the Bible
   1. Christ being the Triune God and the experience of Christ being the experience of the Triune God. ¹, ², ³
   2. The Old Testament speaks of Christ with a great part in types and a considerable part in prophecies. ⁴
   3. The New Testament speaks of Christ altogether in plain words. ⁵, ⁶
2. The Spirit being the essence and sphere of the New Testament
   1. In the New Testament Christ is presented altogether with the Spirit as the center, the element, and the sphere.
   2. The Lord being the Spirit, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. ⁷, ⁸
   3. The content of the entire New Testament being the Spirit. ⁹
3. Life being the essence of the New Testament
   1. The Spirit being life. ¹⁰
   2. Our entire person of three parts—spirit, soul, and body—being life. ¹¹
4. The church being the end of the extracts of the revelation of the Bible
   1. Christ being the beginning, the church being the end, and the process being the Spirit and life. ¹², ¹³
   2. The scriptural revelation ends with the church, that is, with the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the church.

READING

Bible References:

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).
2. Whose are the fathers, and out of whom, as regards what is according to flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen (Romans 9:5).
3. But of the Son, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” (Hebrews 1:8)
4. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14).
5. For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)
6. I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)
7. …The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)
8. And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)
9. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63)
10. For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2)
11. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace… But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. (Rom. 8:6, 10- 11)
12. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am. (John 8:58)
13. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)