The first two chapters of this book speak of the constitution of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ has come into existence through the constitution with the all-inclusive Christ as the life element, but God has an enemy who is not happy to see this. We have seen in Matthew 13 that God's enemy followed Christ as the Sower. Wherever Christ sows, there Satan is. In the second chapter of this book we saw the constitution of the Body of Christ under the enemy Satan's frustration, damage, and corruption. In spite of all the negative steps taken by the enemy, Christ as the almighty One, the centrality and universality of God's economy, still has finished His work for the accomplishment of God's eternal economy. Now in the whole universe, there is the reality of the Body of Christ. Although the enemy has leavened the church with Catholicism and Protestantism, there is still the Body of Christ in this universe even though the ones who realize this Body are relatively few in number. By His grace and mercy, we are seeking to see this Body be fully constituted with Christ, transformed, and built up.

After our fellowship on the constitution of the Body of Christ, we went on in chapters three and four to see the building up of the Body of Christ by the growth in life. Without our growing up in Christ, in His life, there is no possibility, no way, that the Body of Christ can be built up. In chapter three we saw the believers' growth in life unveiled in the writings of John. Then in chapter four we saw our growth in life unveiled in the writings of Peter and Paul. We saw that the base of our growth in life in Peter's writings is of the following items: the sanctification of the Spirit, the redemption of Christ, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, the regeneration through His resurrection, the God-allotted faith, the divine power that gives us all things related to life and godliness, the precious and exceedingly great promises, and the divine nature. The entire New Testament is a book of promises. I covered these great items, but it is difficult to cover these items and all the other items in the outlines in detail. I would encourage you to study all the items of the outlines at the beginning of each chapter of this book. Actually, the six chapters of this book cover the entire New Testament.

Now we come to our burden in the last two chapters. The stress in these chapters is on the building up of the Body of Christ by the transformation in the divine life. We have seen that this divine life has gone through a long process. This life has gone through incarnation, through thirty-three and a half years of human life on this earth, through an all-inclusive death, through a wonderful, marvelous resurrection, and this life has entered into the highest peak of ascension. This divine life today is not as it was before incarnation, but it is after ascension. Before incarnation Christ was only divine, not human. He did not have a human body with flesh and blood. But through incarnation He picked up human flesh and blood. He put on a human body and became one with humanity in incarnation.

While Christ was walking and living on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, He saw and gained a lot. He picked up the poverty of the fallen race (2 Cor. 8:9). No doubt, He picked up a consideration, a pity, and a compassion for the human race. Then He entered into death, into the tomb, and into Hades, where He stayed for three days. He visited and took a tour of Hades, and then He walked out of Hades and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He was born as the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29). He always was the only begotten Son of God, but with His humanity He was born in His resurrection to be God's firstborn Son, to be our model so that we all could be God's many sons. Also, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).

After His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples through a period of forty days (Acts 1:3). After these forty days, He went to Mount Olivet and ascended into heaven (vv. 9-12a). He ascended to the Father, and in ascension He was made the Lord and Christ (2:36). Today He is God and He is man, having both divinity and humanity. His human living, the effectiveness of His death, the power of His resurrection, and the height of His ascension are now in Him as life. It is in this life that we are now being transformed for the building up of the Body of Christ. The ingredients of this life are unsearchably rich.