The central thought of God is to have such a man with the appearance, the form, the life, and everything of Christ. This is the new man, the real man. The human race is a figure because it just has the form, the appearance, of Christ, not the life, the substance, and nature of Christ. But today we as the church have not only the appearance, the form, of Christ but also the life, the nature, and the substance of Christ. As a member of the new man, we can say that we are Christ in life and in nature.

Actually, we were created when Adam was. On the one hand, God created one man, but on the other hand, millions were included in that one man. Therefore, what God created was not just an individual man but a collective man, a corporate man, a man including millions of sons and daughters. The new man is the church with many persons as a corporate, collective Body. Thus, in His creation God created a corporate man, and in His redemption He created a new man, which is the church. The man created in God’s creation was just a man in form. That was not the real man. But the man created in God’s redemption is the real man, the church. The church as the real man not only has the form, the appearance, of Christ but also the life, the nature, and the substance of Christ.

Therefore, in Genesis 1 we have Christ as everything. We also have Christ as the image, the expression, and the definition of God. Then we have the church, the Body, as the corporate expression of Christ. This is the central thought of God.

Since the fall, man has had a wrong concept of always wanting to do something for God, to work for God, but we have to give up this thought. We have to be corrected and adjusted. We have to see that the central thought of God is not that we do something for God or that we work for God. Rather, the central thought of God with us is that He can make us a part of Christ and that He can work Christ into us.

In the old creation, we had only the form, the appearance, of Christ. We were the duplication, the multiplication, of Christ in form, in appearance. We had neither the life of Christ nor the reality of Christ. Now in regeneration, God works Christ into us as life and as reality. What God desires is to make us the very living image, duplication, multiplication, of Christ. We have to give up all thoughts of doing anything for God or working for God. Rather, we have to see that we have to be worked on by God. We are not the workmen of God but the workmanship of God (Eph. 2:10). We are in the hand of God to be worked on by God that we may be the expression, the image, of Christ both in form and in reality. Hence, we need to be stopped from all kinds of work, even Christian work. We have to be broken and emptied that we may be wrought with Christ by the Spirit. God’s central thought is to have Christ as everything to us so that we, as the Body of Christ, can be the expression, the image, of Christ.

About twenty years ago, I was very busy with the Lord’s work. I was working all the time, day and night. At a certain point, the Lord put a stop to my work. At that time, I was really troubled. I asked the Lord, “Lord, what is this? I worked for You day and night. Why did You stop me from working for You?” In the first month, I did not understand. The more I prayed, “Lord, deliver me from all the troubles,” the more troubles came. Physically, I was very ill; mentally, I was very perplexed; and financially, I was put into a terrible condition. One day the Lord said to me, “Do you want to know why I brought you into such a circumstance and why these things are happening to you? It is simply because you worked too much and did too much. Your concept is to do all the time, but what you need is not to do but to be done away with. It is not a matter of your working for Me but a matter of your being worked on by Me. You have to stop. To work for Me is not My central thought. This is not My mind. My mind is to have you worked on by Me. What is the measure of Christ in you? How much has Christ been wrought into you?” On that day, I could do nothing but prostrate myself before the Lord and confess that I had only a small measure of the fullness of Christ.

May the Lord reveal to you that the central thought of God is to make you a part of Christ and to make Christ everything to you in a very practical and living way, not in the way of doctrine or knowledge. How much have you realized Christ as your life? How much do you have of the measure of Christ? Your thought is to work, to preach, to teach, to do something for the Lord. But you have to realize that the central thought of God is to have Christ wrought into you.

Today’s Christianity has very little measure of Christ. There are a lot of activities, a great deal of work, and different kinds of movements, but there is only a small measure of Christ. This is not something of the mind of God. We have to realize that in God’s creation, the direction, the goal, is Christ as life and everything to us that we may be wrought by God with Christ to be the very expression, duplication, and multiplication of Christ in form, appearance, life, and reality.

In His creation, God did not tell man to do anything. Man was created in the image of God and then committed by God with His divine authority. Man had a life with the image of God to express God and with the authority of God to represent God, not a life to do something or to work something for God. Many times when you meet some Christians, you have the sense that they are busy people working for God. They are diligent and faithful. But you do not sense the expression and the authority of God. On the other hand, with some saints, it seems that they are not so busy and not so diligent working for God, yet you sense the expression of God and the authority of God. You have the sense that God is with them. They are people full of the presence of God. Whenever you meet them, you sense the expression and the headship, the authority, of God. This is what God is after.

May the Lord be merciful to us that we may see the central thought of God, that is, to have Christ wrought into us that we may become a part of Christ for God to have Himself expressed in us and to have His authority exercised through us.
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