So the Bible tells us that Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). When we see Him, we see God. He is nothing less than God. He is the expression of God. John said that when He came in the flesh and dwelt among men, that was a tabernacle (1:14). John, of course, was writing to the Jewish people, and they all surely understood what he meant by a tabernacle. They knew that a tabernacle was a dwelling place for the God in the heavens to come down to the earth to dwell in for His expression.

The Jews, though, being blind due to their traditional religion, hated this One, and tried their best to kill Him. While they were trying to kill Him, this wonderful One told them to destroy the temple, and in three days He would raise it up (John 2:19). The New Testament tells us that Jesus Christ was destroyed on the cross. But when He raised Himself up He was no more Himself alone, but with all His believers. All His believers were resurrected with Him. Do you realize that we were raised up before we were born? This is a kind of divine and mysterious mathematics. Before we were born we were resurrected. This is according to Ephesians 2:5-6. The divine spiritual fact is that when Jesus Christ raised up Himself from the dead, He included all of us. In the resurrection of Christ a bigger temple was raised up. This bigger temple is the enlarged Christ; it is Christ increased. This increased Christ, this enlarged Christ, is just Christ Himself as the Head with the church as His Body. Ephesians 1 tells us that after His resurrection He ascended to the heavens where He was made the Head over all things to the church which is His Body, and this Body is the fullness of the unlimited One, the all-inclusive One, the all-extensive One who fills all in all. The church is the Body of such a One! What an immense church this is! This is Christ enlarged and increased.

In the New Testament there is just one great individual: Christ as the Head and the church as the Body. Through His death and resurrection He brought us all into Himself. The Jews had killed one person. They did not expect that by this killing Jesus would get enlarged. The one Person's expression of God was increased to a corporate expression of God. Today it is universally corporate. Around the globe Everywhere there are many Christians, many members of Christ. As a whole the aggregate of all these members is the Body of Christ, the church. This is the corporate expression of God. By His mercy and grace we are in this expression.