Christ is the eternal life (John 3:15, 16, 36). In this book, the Gospel of John, the eternal life is the basic factor of all that Christ is. Because He is the eternal life, the divine life, even God Himself, He can be what He is and is able to speak for God to carry out the full salvation of God organically for the accomplishment of God's eternal economy, which issues in the New Jerusalem.
The bride, produced by regeneration and taken by Christ as the Bridegroom, is the increase, the enlargement, of Christ. (Hence, the bride as the increase of Christ is also Christ Himself as 1 Corinthians 12:12 says that the Body of Christ is also Christ.) Christ gives the Spirit not by measure and, as the immeasurable One, gives eternal life (the unlimited life) to His believers (John 3:29-30, 34, 36). I have been speaking about Christ with His riches and all-inclusiveness for many years, but I never used this term—the increasing Christ. Christ increases by regenerating the redeemed sinners, making them His bride, His wife. This bride is Christ's increase.
Adam and Eve are a type of Christ with His increase. Adam was a bachelor, a single man, but one day the Lord opened his side, took out a rib, and built that rib into Eve as a wife to match Adam (Gen. 2:20b-24). Eve was Adam's increase, and through his wife Adam has billions of descendants, who are also his increase. Every descendant of Adam is a part of Adam's increase. Adam is still increasing today, because the earth's population is continually increasing. All the upcoming new babes are parts of Adam's increase. Adam is a type of Christ (Rom. 5:14), and Eve is a type of the church as the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2-3; Eph. 5:31-32). Not only the wife but also all the children are the increase of the husband. The increase of Christ today on this earth is immeasurable. Christ is still increasing.
In order for Christ to increase, we need to contact people individually to get them regenerated. We should not take the way of big speakers gathering big congregations in order to gain people. We have to contact people individually, one by one. Then gradually and steadily with the proper care, we as their parents should feed, nourish, and cherish them day by day through the vital groups. In this way Christ will increase continually. Each of us must be in a small group to produce new spiritual children.
John the Baptist said that he should decrease and that Christ should increase. We should all desire to see Christ increasing and ourselves decreasing. For this we need to speak the Lord's word. The real intrinsic significance of speaking the word of God is to spread God. When we speak the holy Word, the truth, the divine revelation, we spread God. Christ speaks God through us, His members, by defining God, explaining God, and eventually expressing God. To express God is to spread God. Christ is the One who speaks the words of God and who gives the Spirit not by measure (John 3:34). When someone receives His words, the Spirit follows to be the reality of what is spoken. Christ increases Himself by speaking God's word to spread God and by giving the Spirit of God to be the reality of what He spoke in order to dispense the eternal life into people, making them Godkind, the children of God, the species of God, the family of God, to be Christ's increase. This is how Christ becomes the increasing Christ.
Christ is the spring of living water (John 4:14), of which God is the fountain. Whoever drinks the living water that Christ gives shall never thirst. Verse 24 in the same chapter indicates that such drinkers are the true worshippers of God, indicating that the true worship of God is to drink of Him in Christ to be Christ's increase.