Christ is the Builder of the church. In Matthew 16:18 He said, “I will build My church.” The words “My church” indicate that the church is of the Lord, not of any other person or thing. After the Lord Jesus had accomplished redemption, had resurrected from the dead, and had ascended to the heavens, the building of the church began.
The Lord Jesus has two natures: humanity, which is good for the material for the building of the church, and divinity, which is the element of the Builder. In His humanity Christ is the material for God’s building, and in His divinity He is the Builder. He builds the church with His person, divine and human, with whatever He has gone through, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and with what He has accomplished, obtained, and attained, through Himself as the life-giving Spirit. He does not build the church directly, but indirectly through His chosen apostles and other gifts (Eph. 4:11-12), and even through all the members of His Body (Eph. 4:16). The believers should enjoy Him as the Builder of the church to take Him with all that He is, has, and accomplishes through the gifted persons and even through all His members.
In the church Christ is also the Lord distributing the ministries. “There are distributions of ministries, and the same Lord” (1 Cor. 12:5). The Greek word translated “ministries” can also be rendered “services.” The gifts in verse 4 are for these services, and they are for the operations in verse 6.
Because the Lord distributes the ministries, when we function we should have the realization that the source of our function and ministry is the Lord Himself. Our ministry and function must be under His distribution, which is a matter of the divine dispensing. In order to distribute the ministries and functions to His members, Christ dispenses Himself into them. Therefore, we need to live under Christ’s dispensing. If we live under this dispensing, then in the meetings we shall certainly be motivated by His inward dispensing to minister, to function, to do something that will render nourishment, edification, or building up to all the members.
According to Ephesians 5:25 and 26 Christ gave Himself up for the church that “He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.” Here we see that in the church Christ is the Sanctifier and the Cleanser. The purpose of Christ giving Himself to the church is to sanctify her, not only separating her to Himself from anything common but also saturating her with Himself so that she may be His counterpart. This is accomplished by cleansing her with the washing of the water in the word. In sanctifying the church, Christ first washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process in order that the church may be holy and without blemish.
In order to know Christ as the Sanctifier and also to know the meaning of sanctification, we need to contact the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit. One aspect of sanctification involves separation. To be sanctified is to be separated positionally, to undergo a change of position. However, this is not the only aspect of sanctification. In sanctification something that was once natural gradually becomes holy in nature. Hence, as we are sanctified by Christ subjectively, we become holy dispositionally. Therefore, sanctification does not mean merely to be separated from what is common; it also means to have the very element of Christ added to us. Christ desires to saturate our whole being with Himself. Hence, He is sanctifying us subjectively by dispensing His element into our being.
In subjective sanctification something of Christ is added to us, but in cleansing something of us, especially our natural disposition, is subtracted. As we are cleansed, our natural disposition is washed away. Disposition is the most inward aspect of our constitution; it is the very root of our being. We were born with a certain disposition. Disposition, therefore, is altogether inward. As Christ is adding His element into us, He is also cleansing us and subtracting our natural disposition. His cleansing washes away the natural element from the depths of our being. The Christ who is the Cleanser is not the objective Christ in the heavens but the subjective Christ, the Christ who is intimate and available. As the Sanctifier and the Cleanser, He dispenses Himself into us. As His element is being added to us, something of ourselves is being removed. Therefore, on the one hand, we have the addition of Christ, but, on the other hand, we have the subtraction of the natural disposition. Gradually, Christ is being added into our being, and our natural disposition is being subtracted. The result of this process is transformation, a metabolic change in which the new element is constituted into us and the old element is carried away.
The Christ who is the Sanctifier and the Cleanser is the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit in our spirit, He is sanctifying us and cleansing us. He sanctifies us by dispensing His element into us. As we open to Him for His dispensing, He will work within us as the life-giving Spirit to add Himself to us and to carry away our natural disposition. This is the living, subjective Christ as the Sanctifier and the Cleanser in the church.
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