First Corinthians 1:4 speaks of the grace that was given to the Corinthian believers based upon which the apostle thanked God. Paul thanked God for the grace given to them. It is the general habit of most Bible readers to take what they read in the Bible for granted. We may have read 1 Corinthians 1:4 in this way, but we need to see that Paul’s mentioning of grace here is very significant. Since this word is in verse 4 of the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, grace must be the central subject of the book.
The Brethren pointed out that 1 Corinthians solves eleven problems. They thought that 1 Corinthians was a problem-solving book. But Paul said in 1:4, “I thank my God always concerning you based upon the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus.” In verse 9 he said that God has called us into the fellowship of His Son. This means that God has called us to participate in, or to partake of, the Son. The fellowship, the enjoyment, the participation in, and the partaking of Christ are grace. In verse 7 Paul told the Corinthians that they did not lack in any gift. To have all the gifts is the issue of grace.
Paul received grace not only to make him an apostle but also to make him a wise master builder (1 Cor. 3:10). Paul received all the points concerning the building from God. That was of God’s grace, which is God Himself. It was God Himself who made Paul the apostle and the wise master builder. In the Old Testament, God showed Moses the design of the tabernacle and David the design of the temple. In the New Testament, for the building up of the church, God gave the plan to Paul. We can say this because among all the writers of the New Testament, the Body of Christ is mentioned only by Paul (Eph. 1:23; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12). Paul saw something particular. He saw that the building of God in the whole universe for the accomplishment of His eternal economy is a Body. This revelation is so high! This Body is constructed with God’s elect as the framework and with God as the contents—the Father as the source, the Son as the element, and the Spirit as the essence (Eph. 4:4-6).
The real building work of this Body of Christ is the Body’s growth (vv. 15-16). The Body of Christ is not built in an organizational way but in the way of growth. When a child is born, he is very small, but after many years he may become very big and tall. His growth is what built him up. Only Paul touched this matter because he was the master builder. He knew the design of God’s building, so we have to come to him to receive this revelation. The design he saw is fully shown part by part throughout his fourteen Epistles. We have to pick up all these parts and put them together, just like putting the parts of a jigsaw puzzle together, to give us the proper picture.
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.” This shows the grace that made Paul an apostle who labored more abundantly than all the other apostles; such a grace was God Himself working through the apostle. “Not I but the grace of God” equals “no longer I...but...Christ” in Galatians 2:20. This shows that Christ Himself is the grace of God. We all have to declare that in our labor it is not us, but the grace of God with us.
The closing word of 1 Corinthians is: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you” (16:23). This indicates that grace has brought all of us in and grace has built all of us together. The brothers who are trainers and co-workers in our full-time training in Anaheim were brought together by the Lord’s grace. The Lord’s recovery has spread to all the continents. All the churches from these continents invite brothers to go out from Anaheim. It seems that every place looks to Anaheim. The only thing we in Anaheim can look to is the Lord’s grace. We are nothing, but He is everything. Grace is everything. No one can bear such a burden as we are bearing here in Anaheim for the full-time training, for the churches in our area, and for the Lord’s work everywhere. We need Christ as the all-sufficient grace. This grace is going out, working, and building up God’s desire, that is, the Body of Christ to be consummated in the New Jerusalem.
When God created the old creation with Adam, He said, “Very good” (Gen. 1:31). But when our God sees the New Jerusalem, He may jump up and say, “Hallelujah, very, very good! It’s excellent!” The New Jerusalem is the enlargement of God. This city is the produce of God, who has been processed and consummated. The only One who can work this out is God Himself as grace to be everything to us.