In this message we shall cover more aspects of the believers’ status after being saved.
We have seen that we are brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God. Now we need to see that we are members of Christ as the Head of the Body. In 1 Corinthians 6:15 Paul asks, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” Because we are organically united with Christ and because Christ dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) and makes His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17), our entire being, including our purified body, becomes a member of Him. To practice such membership we need to offer our body to Him (Rom. 12:1, 4-5).
First Corinthians 6:17 indicates that we are organically united with Christ. To be one spirit with the Lord is to enter into an organic union with Him, to be united with Him organically. This organic union makes it possible for our bodies to be the members of Christ. Christ indwells our spirit, and from our spirit He spreads throughout our entire being, thereby making His home in our heart. Furthermore, according to Romans 8:11, from our inner being He seeks to impart Himself as life into our physical body. Therefore, Christ spreads from the spirit to the soul and from the soul to the body. In this way our bodies become His members.
As members of Christ, we are produced out of Him to be His parts (Eph. 5:30-32). In Ephesians 5:30 Paul says that we are members of Christ’s Body. This indicates that we are members of Christ, parts of Christ. According to our natural constitution, we cannot be members of Christ’s Body. Christ Himself is the element, the factor, that makes us parts of Him. Hence, in order to be parts of Christ as members of His Body, we must have Christ wrought into our being.
In Ephesians 5:31 and 32 Paul goes on to say, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This mystery is great, but I speak with regard to Christ and the church.” Christ and the church being one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), as typified by the husband and wife being one flesh, are the great mystery. The first couple in the Bible, Adam and Eve, present a picture of this. According to the book of Genesis, God did not create man and woman at the same time and in the same way. First God formed man’s body from the dust of the ground. Then He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Later, in order to produce a counterpart for Adam, “the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam” (Gen. 2:21). While Adam slept, the Lord took one of Adam’s ribs and used it for the building of a woman (Gen. 2:22, lit.). In life, nature, and form the woman was the same as the man. Therefore, when God brought the woman to Adam, Adam exclaimed that she was “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).
Because there was no counterpart for Christ in the created universe, God caused Christ to die on the cross. As He “slept” there, His side was opened, and blood and water came forth (John 19:34). Because in Genesis 2 the problem of sin had not come in, that chapter mentions only the rib that was taken out of Adam; it says nothing about blood. But John 19 speaks of blood, which solves the problem of sin. The water signifies the flowing life of Christ, the eternal life, which produces the church. This life is also typified by the rib. According to John 19, not one of the Lord’s bones was broken when He was on the cross. This was a fulfillment of the Scripture which said, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken” (see Psa. 34:20). The unbroken bone of Christ signifies Christ’s unbreakable eternal life. Hence, Adam’s rib typifies the unbreakable eternal life of Christ. It is with this eternal life that we are produced out of Christ to be His parts. The fact that Eve had the same life and nature as Adam signifies that, as members of Christ, we have the same life and nature Christ has. Furthermore, together Adam and Eve made a complete unit. In the same principle, Christ and the church make a complete unit. The church is Christ’s other half. Adam and Eve became one flesh, but Christ and the church are one spirit.
In the Body there is no place for our natural life and fallen human nature. The human life and nature are not adequate to match Christ. In order to be members of Christ as the Head of the Body, we need to be one with Christ in life and nature. Therefore, as portrayed in the type of Adam and Eve, we have been produced out of Christ to be His parts. In ourselves we are not members of Christ. It is the element of Christ in us that makes us His members. Hence, a member of Christ is a person produced with the element of Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. If we see this, we shall realize that only that which comes out of Christ can be recognized by Christ. Only that which is produced out of Christ can be part of Him.
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