In the first chapter, we saw that the main thing spoken in the Bible is life, living, and being organic. Life refers to God being life within us; living refers to our living by God and living out God. Both of these matters are organic. You can see that I am standing here; all my actions are organic because I am a living person. If there were only a wooden stand here, it would be lifeless and could not move. Such a thing is not organic, but organized.
We believers of the Lord, in totality, are the Body of Christ, which is the church. This Body is an organism, not an organization. This organic Body is altogether a matter of God’s being life within us, and of us living by God’s life without, to live out God’s living. This is entirely an organic matter. I have always said that the reason for the difference between the church and human organizations, such as ethnic associations and labor unions, is that those gatherings are merely human congregations; they are without God and without life. On the surface, the church is a congregation of a group of people meeting together; actually, there is God as life within this group of people. This life is God, who is Jesus Christ, and who is also the Holy Spirit, the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound, and indwelling Spirit.
By this life we love people, walk in the light, walk in holiness, and manifest uprightness in our doings. Moreover, by this life we preach the gospel, nourish newly saved ones, perfect the saints, and meet to speak the Lord’s word. This is our living, not our particular work, but our daily life. According to the revelation in the entire twelfth chapter of Romans, our Christian living, work, and service are all mingled together, not separated. All our work and service are a part of our living; they are mingled together with our living. Therefore to us Christians, there is no difference between living, work, and service. As far as we are concerned, living, work, and service are one. Therefore God is our life, and we live God’s living. This is altogether organic, without organization or arrangement. It is not a lifeless machine, but a living organism.
According to the first two chapters of Genesis, we see that God made man according to His own image and breathed the breath of life into him to create for man a spirit able to receive Him. He also put man before the tree of life, implying that He wanted man to receive Him as life. At this juncture, Satan came in, embodying himself as a serpent, and seduced the God-created man to fall, injecting his poison, that is the sinful nature, into man. Thus, man became a sinner. We were born in sin, and we knew how to sin from birth. We have a sinful record before God, and we have a sinful nature within ourselves. We have lost the position to receive God as life, no longer being able to contact the holy, righteous, and glorious God. This was the situation of man’s fall.
After four thousand years of waiting, one day the Triune God Himself was embodied as a man called Jesus. This wonderful God-man, Jesus, was the mystery of God. He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. The living that He led was God’s living. His walk, work, and service were God’s testimony, expressing God. Finally, He went to the cross to accomplish an all-inclusive, mysterious death. His death was the death of God in humanity. He was the Lamb taking away all our sins, He was the brass serpent terminating Satan and the world that belongs to him, He was also the last Adam taking care of our old man, and He was the grain of wheat releasing the divine life. Therefore, this One who was crucified on the cross was the processed Triune God. Hence, there was redemption and salvation for us, the fallen tripartite persons. Redemption was accomplished for us by His death; salvation was completed for us by His life.
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