Life Studies Witness

Life-Study of Genesis presents the book of Genesis in a completely new light. Strictly speaking, Genesis is neither a book of creation nor a book of biographies. It is a book of life. God uses the record of creation to show the matter of life. God uses the biographies of eight persons to show how he needs a life to fulfill his purpose.

The Gospel of Matthew reveals that Christ is God incarnated to be the king-savior who came to establish the kingdom of the heavens by saving his people from sin through his death and resurrection.

In Life-Study of Romans, Witness Lee opens up the gospel of God according to the apostle Paul. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John reveal Christ in the flesh as he lived among us and carried out God's judicial redemption through his death on the cross. The gospel in Romans concerns Christ in resurrection indwelling us as the Spirit to carry out God’s organic salvation.

Although the language of the Gospel of John is simple, this book is deep and profound. In this life study, Witness Lee shows that the Bible is a book of life and building and that the Gospel of John also is focused on life and building. The Gospel of John reveals that in Christ, the Word of God is life; that he came that man may have life; and that he himself is life. Furthermore, this gospel shows that Christ is the bread of life; that he has the water of life; that he gives life to man; and that he even lives in man as life.

Throughout the New Testament, the apostles draw on the book of Exodus as a book of types concerning the believers' corporate experience of God's salvation. Paul speaks of "our Passover, Christ" (1 Cor. 5:7). He says that Israel was "baptized...in the sea", that Israel ate the "same spiritual food", and that Israel "drank of a spiritual rock which followed them", which rock "was Christ" (1 Cor. 5:7; 10:2-4). The Lord Jesus similarly says that He is "the living bread which came down out of heaven", the fulfillment of the manna in the wilderness (John 6:51).

The subject of the book of Ephesians is the church. There are seven aspects of the church revealed in Ephesians. The church is the Body, the new man, the kingdom, the family, the dwelling place, the bride, and the warrior.

The subject of Philippians is the experience of Christ. Concerning the experience of Christ, each chapter of Philippians covers a major point. First, in chapter one, we have the magnification of Christ. No matter what the circumstances are in which we find ourselves, we need to express Christ in such a way that we magnify him. In chapter two, Paul presents Christ as our pattern.

In this life-study, Witness Lee presents the Epistle to the Hebrews as God's speaking in Christ the son, who is now in the heavens as our minister and our high priest, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on Earth. He is the Christ now, the Christ today, and the Christ on the throne in the heavens, who is our daily salvation and moment-by-moment supply.

In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses 11 problems, in two categories. In the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians, Witness Lee helps us see that Christ is the unique factor to solve the first six problems, and that the church is the unique factor to solve the final five problems.

Luke’s Gospel reveals God among men in his saving grace given to fallen mankind. Its purpose is to present the Savior as a genuine, normal, and perfect man. It gives a complete genealogy of the man Jesus, from his parents back to Adam, the first generation of mankind, and shows that he is a genuine descendant of man–a son of man.

The book of Galatians reveals that in God's economy, Christ replaces the law, and it is religion versus tradition. The churches in Galatia had begun well, receiving the Spirit through faith, but were now striving to be perfected by the flesh through the law (3:3). The Judaizers had bewitched the Galatians so that they considered the ordinances of the law above the Son of the living God.

In the book of Colossians, Christ is unveiled to a fuller extent than in any other book in the Bible. Christ is unveiled as the all-inclusive one, having the first place in all things as the mystery and embodiment of God, as the head and constituent of the church, as the allotted portion, life, constituent, and hope of the saints, and as the body of all positive things. In addition to presenting such a Christ as the one person in God's economy, Colossians also presents the cross of Christ as the one way in God's government.

The book of Revelation firstly reveals Christ (1:1), and secondly the testimony of Jesus (1:2). In other words, this book is concerned with Christ and the church. In Revelation, Christ and the church are revealed in a unique and particular way. The central content of this book is an unveiling of God’s economy concerning Christ and the church, presenting the ultimate and consummate revelation of Christ with his full salvation and the church as his loving bride, the New Jerusalem.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic in portraying the savior’s humanity in different aspects with his deity. Since Mark presents the savior as a slave, he does not tell his genealogy and status, because the ancestry of a slave is not worthy of note. Furthermore, in contrast to Matthew, who presents to us the savior’s marvelous teachings and parables concerning the heavenly kingdom, and John, who presents his profound revelations of the divine truths, Mark’s intention is not to impress us with the slave’s wonderful words, but with his excellent deeds in his gospel service.

In Life-Study of James, Witness Lee emphasizes two key points related to the Epistle of James—first, that the believers must progress in practical Christian perfection, and second, that the believers must be careful not to cultivate such perfection without a clear vision concerning the law and grace of God in God's New Testament economy. In Life-Study of First Peter, he describes the Christian life under the government of God with its high demand.

In Life-Study of 1 & 2 Samuel, Witness Lee opens up the central thought of these two books, which is that the fulfillment of God's economy needs man's cooperation in the principle of incarnation, as illustrated by the history of Samuel's mother, Hannah, of Samuel, and of David, in the positive sense, and by the history of Eli and of Saul, in the negative sense. Such a cooperation is related to the personal enjoyment of the good land, which typifies the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ.

In this audiobook, Witness Lee opens up Paul’s second Epistle to the Corinthians, a book on the new covenant ministry and its ministers. The first Epistle to the Corinthians was the apostle’s argument, an argument that defeated and subdued the distracted and confused Corinthians. Now, the second Epistle brought them back into the experience of Christ, who was the subject of his argument in the first Epistle.