All the believers were baptized into one Body in order that they might be the Body of Christ having Christ as the Head (Eph. 1:23; 5:23b). The Body is the fullness of Christ, the One who fills all in all. If we care only for the Head and not for the Body, there will be no fullness. The phrase the fullness of the One who fills all in all indicates that Christ is universally great. His greatness has no limit, because He fills all in all.
The Body of Christ is also the full growth, the rich surplus, of Christ. A person may have a normal-sized head and a small body, like that of a dwarf. Such a body does not have the full growth. If there is the full growth of the body, there is also a surplus. Therefore, the church as the Body of Christ is Christ’s full growth and Christ’s rich surplus.
The Body of Christ is also the extension, the spread, of Christ. On one hand, Christ is like a pine tree, shooting toward the sky. He is also the vine (John 15: 1a, 5a), spreading to cover the entire earth. A number of years ago some brothers in England took me to see a large vine of their queen, and one of them asked me if I was impressed at its size. My reply to him was that that vine was not nearly the size of the true vine that is spreading all around the globe. Today Christ is extending Himself as the vine, the Body of Christ, the church, all over the earth.
The Body is also the continuation of Christ. Christ has not been terminated; rather, He is continuing today. The Body of Christ is the reproduction, duplication, and multiplication of Christ. Every reproduction is a duplication. As in xeroxing, every duplication becomes the reproduction or multiplication of the original, or master, copy. This is a picture of the church as the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is also the expression of Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. The body of a person is the expression of that person. Because of this, it is sometimes possible to recognize a person even though he is turned away so that his face is not visible. The Body of Christ expresses the One who is the embodiment of the Triune God.
The church is also the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7, 9). The bride is the increase, the enlargement, of Christ (John 3:29-30). A man who is single is not complete, because he is only half of a couple. Marriage makes a man and a woman a couple. In the eyes of God, it is not good for man to live alone (Gen. 2:18). Thus, God built a wife for man so that the couple could be complete. The first part, the man, is the source, and the second part, the woman, is the enlargement of the first part.
The bride of Christ is the counterpart of Christ, typified by Eve as the counterpart of Adam (Gen. 2:20b-23; Eph. 5:31-32). Eve was not created; she was a rib that was taken out of Adam. God built the rib into a woman to match the man. The man is the husband, and the woman is the counterpart of that husband. After Eve was built, she and Adam became one. The same is true of the church in relation to Christ.
The bride is the wife of Christ, and this wife will be consummated in the New Jerusalem (Eph. 5:24-25; Rev. 21:2, 9-10). This wife has not yet been consummated, because today the church does not include Abraham, David, or any of the other Old Testament saints. In the New Jerusalem, all the saints, including the Old Testament and the New Testament saints, become the consummated wife of Christ.
The church is also the universal new man (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24). The Head of this new man is Christ, and the Body of this new man is the church. The new man is created of the Jews and the Gentiles as one Body through Christ’s death (Eph. 2:15-16). Before Christ’s death, there was a definite partition between the Jews and the Gentiles; but Christ died on the cross to take away the partition and put the two together as one Body. In His death and resurrection, He terminated these two parties in the old creation and germinated them in the new creation, making them not just a body but a new man. These matters are all quite meaningful, and these matters are the apostles’ teaching.
Colossians 3:11 says, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” All...in all in this verse signifies something different from all in all in Ephesians 1:23. In Ephesians all in all refers to the universe, whereas in Colossians it refers to Christ’s Body. In Christ’s Body there are many members, and Christ is all the members. Christ is you, and Christ is me. Christ is every member in His Body. Christ is also in us. He is in you, He is in me, and He is in every member of His Body. The entire new man is just Christ. Paul said that for him to live was Christ (Phil. 1:21).
The universal new man is being consummated by being renewed through the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10). The new man has not yet been consummated because something of the old creation still remains in us. Therefore, we must be renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16) by putting off the old man and by putting on the new man. Day by day something of our old man should be put off and something of the new man should be put on. The new man has not yet been completed; it is still under the process of being renewed.
One of the most difficult things for us to put off is our racial character. Whether we are Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English, Dutch, or American, we all have our particular racial character. For example, the Americans are very frank. We may say that it is possible to see through to the very marrow of their bones. On the other hand, it seems as if the Chinese wear many layers of clothing so that nothing shows through. If day by day we put off the old man and put on the new man, the only character we will possess will be the character of Christ. As we are being renewed day by day, the new man is being consummated.