Page 49 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

Living under the Direct Rule of God 48

In the dispensation of conscience, we see the principle of self-rule. First you
have God’s rule, then you have self-rule, and then after a further fall, in the
dispensation of human government, we have man’s rule. Hence, we have God’s
rule, self-rule, and man’s rule. But the Lord wants to recover us not to live
under man’s rule, which is very low, nor to live under self-rule, which is better
than man’s rule. But the Lord wants to recover us to live under God’s rule.

Before the Fall, Man Being Ruled Directly by God;
His Living before God and Being Responsible to God

Before the fall, man was ruled directly by God; he lived before God and
was responsible to God (Gen 2:16-17). As for the life that Adam and Eve
lived before the fall, we do not know how long it lasted. But from the time
they were created until the fall, they lived in fellowship with God. Jehovah
would come and be with them there in the garden fellowshipping with them.
Because they were in that kind of fellowship, they had the direct rule of God
in their intuition, but they lost it.
From the Time of Adam’s Expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the
Time of Noah’s Departure from the Ark, God Establishing the Conscience
within Man to Represent Himself in Ruling over Man
From the time of Adam’s expulsion from the garden of Eden to the time
of Noah’s departure from the ark, God established the conscience within man
to represent Himself in ruling over man (Acts 24:16). God foreknew that man
would fall, so when He created man, one of the functions within man’s spirit
was the conscience, and that conscience actually represents God Himself,
God’s ruling. Whatever our conscience says, God is saying. We need to help
the young people to understand this. Our conscience is there to represent God
and to speak what God would speak. Therefore, when the conscience speaks,
we should consider that God is speaking. Actually, it is there to lead us back
to the direct rule of God.
After the Flood, Because Man Was Subject Neither to God’s Rule Nor to
Self-Rule, God Authorizing Man to Represent Himself in Ruling over Man
After the flood, because man was subject neither to God’s rule nor to
self-rule, God authorized man to represent Himself in ruling over man (Gen.
9:6; Rom. 13:1). This is the reason we respect the human government. We
do not consider human government to be the best but we respect it because