AUTHORITY AND SUBMISSION CHAPTER ONE THE IMPORTANCE OF AUTHORITY Scripture Reading: Rom. 13:1-7; Heb. 1:3; Isa. 14:12-14; Matt. 6:13; 26:62-64 THE THRONE OF GOD ESTABLISHED UPON AUTHORITY God’s works issue from God’s throne; God’s throne is established upon authority. All things have been created by the authority of God, and all laws on earth are held together through authority. Hence, the Bible says that God upholds all things by the word, which is of His authority (Heb. 1:3b). It does not say that God upholds all things by His power. God’s authority represents God Himself; God’s power only represents God’s works. It is easy to be forgiven of sin against God’s power, but it is not that easy to be forgiven of sin against God’s authority, because sinning against God’s authority is sinning against God Himself. In the whole universe only God is authority. All other authorities are appointed by God. Nothing is greater than authority in the universe; nothing can surpass it. Fo...

IN ISAAC In a sense, in Isaac the transfer of life was accomplished but it was not fully completed. We know this by the fact that Isaac still begat Esau whom God hated (Rom. 9:13). This means that within Isaac the natural life still remained. Thus, we may say that in Isaac the transfer of life was not completed thoroughly. It was completed in Jacob. IN JACOB FIRSTLY BEING THE SUPPLANTER JACOB • At first, Jacob was a supplanter. His name means a supplanter. To supplant means to take the place of another, or to get something, through subtle means. Jacob was one who stole in a secret way. For instance, he stole from his uncle, Laban. Laban thought that Jacob was helping him with his flocks, but while Jacob was helping Laban, he made a flock for himself. This is an example of Jacob’s supplanting. At the first, Jacob certainly did not have the transfer of life. TRANSFORMED INTO ISRAEL, THE PRINCE OF GOD • God had a way to deal with Jacob. He trans...

1 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GOD’S CALLING Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:1-3 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles out of faith, announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham: “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” Galatians 3:8 INTRODUCTION In this chapter we come to the most wonderful section of the book of Genesis, the section on God’s calling (11:10—50:26). Genesis, a book of fifty chapters, is divided into three sections. The first section (1:1—2:25) covers God’s creation, the second (3:1—11:9) covers the serpent’s corruption of mankind, and the third cove...

For this reason, the Lord Jesus in John 14 told His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality;…He abides with you and shall be in you” (vv. 16-17). The disciples heard the word but were unable to understand the mystery of this word. Therefore, the Lord Jesus continued by explaining, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that…you [are] in Me, and I in you” (vv. 19-20). This means that after a short while the worldly people would not see the Lord any longer because He was going to be crucified, but the disciples would see Him because He was going to be resurrected. After His resurrection He entered into His disciples to live in them. Hence, “in that day,” He lived, and they also lived. Furthermore, they knew that they were in the Lord, and the Lord was in them. The teachings of Con...

Although I studied the truth of this matter until I became clear, I still did not understand the factual and experiential aspects. How could we be in Christ? I understood these words in the original Greek, but I still did not know what they meant in reality because I lacked the experience. I could only do my best to read spiritual books, hoping to obtain an answer. In the 1930s I purchased Andrew Murray’s book Abide in Christ, but after studying it, I still did not get the explanation. Andrew Murray did not present the matter in a thorough manner. At the end of 1941, because of the world situation, I had an opportunity to buy many Greek dictionaries and spiritual books to study. However, after reading them, I still did not get the answer. Later I went to Taiwan, and I continued to pay much attention to this subject, but because I lacked the experience, I was not able to speak on this aspect of the truth. From 1935 until today, nearly fifty years, I can say that I have th...