The first stanza of Hymns, #841 speaks of Christ as our life for the building of the church:

Thou art all my life, Lord,
In me Thou dost live;
With Thee all God’s fullness
Thou to me dost give.
By Thy holy nature
I am sanctified,
By Thy resurrection,
Vict’ry is supplied.

In this hymn the word “give” actually refers to the divine dispensing. All the fullness of God is given to us in Christ, and this giving is simply the dispensing of all that the Triune God is, has, and does into our being.

This hymn also tells us that we are sanctified by the Lord’s holy nature. This sanctification is not so-called sinless perfection; it is the sanctification by the holy nature that has been imparted into our being. The holy nature imparted into us is the holy nature of the Triune God. This imparting of God’s holy nature is not once for all; it is a matter that continues day by day and hour by hour. Continually the holy nature of the Triune God is being imparted into us. This impartation causes us to be saturated with the holy essence of the divine Trinity for our sanctification.

This hymn also tells us that by Christ’s resurrection victory is supplied to us. In ourselves we cannot overcome anything or be victorious. In ourselves we are sinful and even dead in our spirit. But we have received the resurrected Christ as our life. Now, in His resurrection, He is dispensing Himself into us. Therefore, when we enjoy Him, we also enjoy Him as resurrection life and resurrection power. This resurrection life and power give us subjectively the victory over all negative things. Furthermore, by this life, which is Christ Himself, we live a life according to the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. This means that we live a life which corresponds to the reality of the kingdom nature. This reality is the content of the church life. If we would live in this reality and express it in the church life, we need to receive the divine dispensing.

It is crucial for us to see that we experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity corporately by living in the kingdom. As we live corporately in the kingdom life, we spontaneously live the church life. The kingdom life issues in the church life.

We may talk about the church in an objective, doctrinal way. The church, however, is not a doctrinal matter but a practical matter, for the church is something related to our experience in the Christian life. Moreover, the church is not a social organization. This means that the church is not something that can be organized by putting people together, forming them into an entity, and calling them a church. The New Testament reveals that the church is the organic Body of Christ. For the church to be the organic Body of Christ the church must be constituted of the Christ who is the life of the believers.

The church is a pure product out of Christ. This is typified by Eve in the book of Genesis. Eve was fully, completely, and purely produced out of Adam (Gen. 2:21-24). Within Eve there was nothing except Adam. Beside the element of Adam, there was no other element in Eve. Eve, therefore, was a full reproduction of Adam. Adam and Eve are a type of Christ and the church (Eph. 5:30-32). This type shows how the church is related to Christ. The church must be of one element-the element of Christ. Anything that is other than Christ cannot be the church.
Home | First | Prev | Next