In the foregoing messages we saw that, in the progressing stage of God’s full salvation, the believers experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by entering into the kingdom of God. In this message we shall begin to see that the believers experience this dispensing corporately also by living in the church.
Through regeneration we have entered into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5) to live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. This is a corporate matter experienced by enjoying the dispensing of the divine Trinity in a corporate way. First, we experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by entering into the kingdom of God and living in the kingdom. Then we experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by living in the church life (1 Tim. 3:15-16).
The Christian life has two aspects: the aspect of the individual Christian life and the aspect of the corporate Christian life. The divine dispensing is first for our individual Christian life and then for the corporate Christian life. The individual Christian life is a personal matter, but the corporate Christian life is a church matter.
According to the New Testament, the church is intimately related to the kingdom. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus declared, “On this rock I will build My church.” In verse 19 the Lord goes on to speak of the kingdom of the heavens. The words “the kingdom of the heavens” in verse 19 are interchangeably used for the word “church” in verse 18. This is a strong proof that the genuine church is the kingdom of the heavens in this age. This is confirmed by Romans 14:17, which refers to the proper church life. Therefore, the church today is the kingdom.
Although the church and the kingdom are interrelated, there is nonetheless a difference between them. Because any kind of life is a kingdom, the kingdom is the life itself. For example, the animal life is the animal kingdom, and the human life is the human kingdom. In the same principle, the life of God is the kingdom of God. The church, however, is not the life, nor is the life the church. Rather, the church is the product of life. The divine life is the kingdom, and this life produces the church.
The New Testament concept is that the gospel brings in the kingdom. The gospel does not bring in the church, but the gospel brings forth the church. The gospel brings in the kingdom of God, and the gospel also brings forth the church of God. For this reason, in the New Testament the gospel is called the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14). But there is not a verse telling us that the gospel is the gospel of the church. The gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church because the kingdom is the life itself, and the church is the issue of life.
Without the kingdom as the reality of life, the church cannot be produced or built up. To produce the church and to build up the church, we need the kingdom. The kingdom is the reality of the church. We cannot say, however, that the church is the reality of the kingdom. We can say only that the kingdom is the reality of the church.
Where the reality of the kingdom is lacking, there the building of the church will be lacking. A believer who does not live in the reality of the kingdom can at best be a saved person; he cannot be built into the structure of the church.
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