The Body as the corporate Christ is the new man (Col. 3:10). The book of Ephesians reveals that the church is the Body of Christ, the kingdom of God, the household of God, and the dwelling place of God. This book reveals further that the church is the new man (4:24). The Greek word for church, ekklesia, means those called out for a gathering; hence, an assembly. This is the initial aspect of the church. From this, Paul goes on to the aspects of fellow citizens of the kingdom of God and members of the household of God. These are higher than the initial aspect but not as high as the aspect of the church as the Body of Christ. Yet the new man is still higher than the Body of Christ. Thus, the church is not merely an assembly of believers, a kingdom of heavenly citizens, a household of God’s children, nor even a Body for Christ. In an even higher aspect the church is the new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. As the Body of Christ, the church needs Christ as its life, but as the new man, the church needs Christ as its person. This new corporate man should live a life as Jesus lived on earth, that is, a life of truth, expressing God and causing God to be realized as the reality by man.
The desire of God’s heart is to have the new man, which is constituted of the Christ who is our life (Col. 3:4). If we take Christ as our life and person and live Him, the new man will be expressed to satisfy God’s desire. Ultimately, the Christ we experience and enjoy becomes the constituent of the new man. In this new man, the Body, the church, Christ is all and in all.
The new man has Christ as all the members and in all the members. In Colossians 3:11 Paul, referring to the new man, says, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” Because the new man has Christ as all the members and in all the members, there is no room for race, religion, culture, or social status. In the new man there is room only for Christ. Since He is everything in the new man, He actually is the new man.
In Colossians 3:11 the word “all” refers to all the members who make up the new man. This verse first reveals that Christ is all the members of the new man. For us to experience the reality of Christ being all the members of the new man, we need to take Christ as our life and person and live Him, not ourselves. When we all live Christ, Christ will be all of us, every member of the new man.
Colossians 3:11 also reveals that Christ is in all the members of the new man. Because Christ is all the members, there is no room in the new man for any natural person. Nevertheless, the members of the new man continue to exist, for Christ not only is all the members but is in all the members. The fact that Christ is in all the members of the new man indicates that the members continue to exist. The members exist not without Christ but with the Christ who dwells in them as their life and person.
The church as the Body of Christ is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:23 says that the church “is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” Grammatically, “the fullness” is in apposition to “His Body.” This indicates that the Body is the fullness and the fullness is the Body. The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him.
This fullness is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Christ, who is the infinite God without limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the Body to be His fullness for His complete expression.
It is in the divine transmission from the Head to the Body that the Body of Christ is the fullness of the One who fills all in all, because the Christ who fills all in all is in this transmission. The transmission connects us to the all-filling Christ. In this way the church becomes the Body, the fullness, of the all-filling Christ.
Ephesians 4:10, referring to Christ, says, “He who descended is the same who also ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.” The thought here is profound. First, Christ was in the heavens. In His incarnation He came to earth as a man and lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He died on the cross and descended into Hades, ascended in resurrection from Hades to earth, and then ascended to the third heaven. By means of such a descending and ascending He fills all things. Now Christ is everywhere, on the earth as well as in the heavens. The Body is the fullness, the expression, of such an all-filling Christ.
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