The creation of man was God’s first step; it was merely the preparation for fulfilling His purpose, not the completion. To accomplish His purpose, the creating God must enter into the created man. However, before God could enter into man, the swift-footed Satan entered into man and damaged man through the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is the story of the fall of man. After this God Himself became a man in the flesh. His body was exactly the same as that of the created man, but inside of Him was God Himself. This incarnated God is Emmanuel (Matt. 1:23), Jesus Christ the Nazarene, who is our Savior. This was God’s second step. Now God had gained another Adam. This Adam was not the first Adam but the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). However, because the last Adam was one man, not many, God wanted Him to multiply. Just as in the beginning God created the first Adam and told him to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth, God wants the last Adam, Christ, to beget millions of “Christs,” a corporate Christ, the church. Therefore, we need to see that after incarnation, there was another important step—the producing of the church.
Those who know the Bible know that the first step God took among men was to create man, the second step was to enter into man, and the third step was to produce the church. There does not seem to be another step besides these. God created man, entered into man, and produced the church. We may have heard this many times, but I must ask, how did God produce the church? In John 12:24 the Lord said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This means that the last Adam, Christ, had to pass through death and resurrection in order to be multiplied; through death and resurrection He could beget many people who are the same as He is.
Those who are out from Christ are inseparable from Christ, and they are also inseparable from each other. Though they are many, God does not want them to exist individually. As soon as these many grains were produced, they became one bread (1 Cor. 10:17), which is the church. Therefore, the church is not many grains; the church is one bread. Although the church is composed of many grains, it is not a pile of many grains. The church is the mingling of many grains into one bread. Though we are many, we are still one bread produced from the one grain. The one grain produced a corporate grain, the one bread; this is the producing of the church.
May God show us that the first step He took among men was to create man, the second step was to enter into man, and the third step was to produce the church through death and resurrection. This church was created by God, entered into by God, and produced out of God. The first step is creating, the second step is entering, and the third step is producing. After passing through these three steps, God can gain a group of people to be one Body, one bread; furthermore this bread, this Body, is the church. This is what God desires to gain in the universe.
Let us now consider the line of authority in the Bible. In Genesis 1 God gave Adam authority. However, Adam failed and lost this authority, but God did not stop. Eventually, in Psalm 8, God again spoke of man and the matter of authority (vv. 4-8). God restated His desire to accomplish His purpose in man. In Hebrews 2 we are shown that the words in Psalm 8 have been fulfilled. God’s purpose for man was accomplished in the Lord Jesus. In the Lord Jesus as a man, God’s authority was expressed.
Hebrews 2:8 says that all things have been subjected under the feet of Christ. Ephesians 1:22 shows that God subjected all things under the feet of Christ in the church. At this point authority has come to the church, which is not many individual men but one corporate entity, one Body. This Body is produced from Adam through Christ. Therefore, Hebrews 2 continues by saying that He tasted death on behalf of everything to lead many sons into glory and that the ones whom He leads into glory are His brothers; these many brothers constitute the church (vv. 9-12).
The man God created in Genesis 1 was not an individual man but a corporate man. In the New Testament this corporate man is the church. When the church was produced, a corporate man who has God’s image and who reigns for God came into being.
We can say that there is still one final step in relation to the work of God, the manifestation of the holy city, New Jerusalem. All who know the Bible know that the manifestation of the holy city is not something God will do apart from the church. It is the consummation of the church, the ultimate aggregate of the church. All of God’s work is toward this city. The goal of all that God has done is to produce this city.
In the Bible a city denotes a place of ruling. For example, at Babel men rebelled against God’s authority and wanted to establish their own authority; therefore, they rose up and built the city of Babel. The city of Babel not only reveals man’s self-made living; it also reveals man’s self-established authority (Gen. 11:1-9). In the same way, when God’s authority is established in those who are saved, a city will appear, and that city will be the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2-3, 10-11; 22:1-2). No doubt, a city denotes a place of ruling. The greatest city represents the greatest authority. The king of Babylon said, “Behold, the great city of Babylon!” (cf. Dan. 4:30). He said this to display his great authority. God’s work on earth or in the universe has always been to build a city, to build up His authority. Therefore, Revelation says that when the New Jerusalem is manifested, God’s authority will be fully established; at that time we will reign forever and ever (Rev. 22:5).
Furthermore, this city is mingled with God; God is the life and nature within and the glory expressed without (21:22-23). The issue of the man God created in Genesis 1 should be authority and glory. This issue is not many individual men but a city; the issue is a corporate man. May God’s children see that God desires to gain a corporate man. This corporate man will ultimately be expressed in the church.
May God have mercy on us to see that the church is a corporate man, a corporate expression, one bread, one Body. For this reason all of Satan’s work throughout the ages is focused on damaging the church. This work of damaging the church focuses on three matters.
First, Satan always brings outside elements into the church. This refers to items that are not of Christ, not from Christ, and are not Christ Himself; rather, they are items of the world, of men, and of earth. Satan is constantly thinking of ways to bring in outside elements in order to damage the church. Many problems throughout history have been caused by the enemy bringing outside elements into the church. We need to come out of denominations and forsake organized Christianity because the church cannot have anything that is apart from or not out of Christ. For two thousand years Satan has been bringing into the church items such as man’s ways, views, opinions, the tide of the world, and the elements of man and the world; these items are apart from Christ and are not Christ. This damages the Body, causing the Body to become sick, weak, and even paralyzed so that the Body can no longer express God and be God’s authority.
Second, Satan wants to divide the Body. If our physical body is divided, it is finished and becomes nothing. For two thousand years Satan has been working to divide God’s children, to tear down the Body of Christ, causing it to be fragmented. When this happens, the Body of Christ is no longer a functioning Body that can accomplish God’s purpose.
Third, the members who have not been divided by Satan have been damaged by him to the point that they have lost their function. This can be compared to ears that cannot hear, eyes that cannot see, and hands that cannot do things. This prevents the Body from being properly used by God.
Although we cannot speak in depth concerning these three points, may God grant us spiritual insight to see whether we give Satan the opportunity to work in these three areas. Have we thoroughly dealt with what is of the world and what is of man? Are we divided from the children of God, or are we in oneness with them? Are we in the spirit or in the flesh? Do we function as members? Are we living members who are able to function? In order to answer these questions, the severe requirement of the breaking of the cross is needed. All that we are and do must be dealt with by the cross. We must accept God’s dealing through the cross to break our natural man. Only then can we withstand Satan’s threefold attack.
Satan is very deceitful; if he cannot succeed in these three points, he will change his way and stir up persecution to kill the believers and devastate the church. Church history has never lacked such examples; even today it is still this way in certain places. Many who are faithful to the Lord do not want the things of the world or the things of man; rather, they are willing to forsake themselves and serve God in one accord. When Satan is unable to carry out those three points, he persecutes Christians, killing them through the authorities on earth, repeating the scene of the persecution of the church in Jerusalem. May the Lord be gracious to us so that our eyes may be opened to see Satan’s schemes and to fight to the end for God’s eternal will.