In the preceding chapters we have seen that God’s economy is Christ as the vine and that the way to abide in this vine is to take in the word and touch the Spirit. This chapter and the following chapters will cover certain basic truths in the New Testament. We will begin in this chapter by considering what the church is. Many saints may know that the church is the house of God, the Body of Christ, the manifestation of God in the flesh, the dwelling place of God, the fullness of the One who fills all in all, the mystery of Christ, the one new man, the increase of Christ, and Christ’s bride and wife (1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:15, 20-22; 3:6; 5:25-32; Col. 3:10-11; John 3:29-30; Rev. 19:7). This knowledge indicates the extraordinary knowledge of the saints in the Lord’s recovery. Although I was born, raised, and educated in Christianity, I never heard these terms. However, we need to see that the most basic definition of the church is that the church is Christ.
First Corinthians 12:12 says, “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” Although this verse concerns the Body of Christ, the concluding words are not the Body but the Christ, proving that the church is Christ. It is logical to say that Christ is both the Head and the Body, for every person is not only a head but also a body. In chapter 1 of this book we saw that God’s economy is the vine. The vine, like all trees, is not only a trunk but also the branches. The complete tree includes the branches. We need to see that the church is Christ.
Some theologians may think that it is a blasphemy to say that the church is Christ. However, the apostle Paul said, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21a). To live Christ is not to be deified to become a member of the Godhead; rather, to live Christ is to be a member of Christ that has the life and nature of Christ, just as all the parts of our body have the life and the nature of our person. As the branches of Christ, the true vine, we surely have the life and the nature of the vine. Because we have the same life and nature as Christ, we are parts of Christ, and we may even say that we are Christ.
Christ is God with the Godhead. We as His members have His divine life and nature, but we do not have the Godhead. We have the same life and nature as Christ, but we do not have His Godhead. The Godhead belongs uniquely to Christ, but His life and nature belong to Him and also to us. Although we do not have Christ’s Godhead, we have His life and nature (Rom. 5:10; Col. 3:4). Therefore, we are part of Christ, and corporately, as the Body, we are Christ. Christ is the Head, and we are the Body. Both the Head and the Body are Christ. Thus, the church is Christ. This is not merely a doctrine but a crucial vision for the practice of the proper church life.
Now that we have seen that the church is Christ, we need to go on to see who and what Christ is. It is beyond our capacity to know everything concerning who and what Christ is, but Colossians reveals several crucial items of Christ. Ephesians and Colossians are two extraordinary books in the New Testament. Ephesians concerns mainly the Body, the church, and Colossians concerns mainly the Head, Christ. Therefore, in order to know who and what Christ is, we need to come to Colossians. It is a short book, but it gives us a profound revelation of Christ.