First Corinthians 1:22-23 says, “For indeed Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” Then verse 24 continues, “But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Colossians 3:11b says, “But Christ is all and in all.” The Jews require signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but Paul clearly told us that Christ is the power of God, the wisdom of God, and that Christ is all.
In order to meet the spiritual needs of many saints, we need to see the reality of the church. Actually, the reality of the church is a spiritual reality. The church has been on earth for two thousand years. Such a history of two thousand years shows us that the world has many different understandings and has made many comments concerning the church. In addition, even those who are in Christianity have different understandings and have made many comments concerning the church. Hence, we desire to come back to God and to His Word in order to see what the church really is and what the reality of the church really is. If the Lord opens our eyes to show us the reality of the church, we will sense that man’s understanding, and even our understanding, of the church does not match the criterion revealed in God’s Word. Man’s understanding of the church is altogether the understanding of an unlearned person, and it is altogether apart from God’s Word. This is not only true with secular people, but it is even the same with so-called Christians.
What then is the reality of the church? The reality of the church is the spiritual reality of Christ, which is just Christ Himself. The entire New Testament shows us what the church is. The church is the enlargement of the principle of Christ.
In the Bible we have Christ, Christians, and the church, but we do not have Christianity. Why is this the case? We need to spend some time to consider these four items: Christ, Christians, the church, and Christianity. In the Bible we can find the first three items, but we cannot find what people today call Christianity. This term Christianity is not revealed in God’s Word but is a human invention. Although this word is used frequently in many human writings, including books, newspapers, magazines, and treatises, we cannot find the word Christianity in God’s Word.
Spiritually speaking, Christ is God who became a man. Christ is God mingled with man. “Great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16a). In the universe and among the human race there is One who outwardly is a man but inwardly is God. His human name is Jesus, but His title according to His commission is Christ. Thus, Christ is God coming into man to accomplish what God wants to accomplish and do what God wants to do. In His commission, His title is Christ. For instance, I am So-and-so Lee. My name as a man is Witness Lee. But suppose I was appointed to be a representative. Then my official name would be Representative Lee. Christ, however, was not merely a representative of God on the earth. To accomplish what God intended to accomplish and to do what God intended to do, Christ was God Himself in man.
We all know that God has an eternal plan. In order to carry out His eternal plan in man, God became flesh and came into a man. He became a real man; outwardly He was a man, but inwardly He was God. According to His office, this God-man was called Christ. What is Christ? Christ is God mingled with man, God joined with man. He is the crystallization of the union of God and man. If we want to know the church, we must know Christ. For example, we have a certain kind of water that we call honey-water. Why do we call it this? We call it this because there is honey in the water. Then, what is Christ? Christ is God mingled with man. God has been united and mingled with man, He cannot be separated from man, and His name is Christ. Hence, the principle of Christ is the mingling of God with man, the two becoming one. Just as water is blended with honey to become one, so God and man were mingled together to become one. This is the principle of Christ.
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