This Christ, who is the life element with which His Body is constituted, has been sown into us, making our heart the growing earth, the growing soil. In this soil this Christ, who is the element of life to His Body, is growing. We are used to saying that we are growing. Actually, however, He is growing. When He grows in us, we grow. We grow by His growth. Colossians 2:19 reveals that we grow by the growth of God within us. We do have a living One within us who is taking our heart as His soil and growing there. By His growth we grow. This is the growth of Christ within His Body, within the very heart of the believers who are the members of His Body.
In the book entitled The Constitution and the Building Up of the Body of Christ, we saw the building up of the Body of Christ by the growth in life in the writings of John, Peter, and Paul. These three leading writers of the New Testament all touched the matter of the growth in life. This growth has a base, a way, and a goal. Our being in the Lord’s recovery is not just a matter of learning the recovery truths but a matter of giving the indwelling Christ within us a chance to grow. The Lord made this very clear to us in Matthew 13. In order for Christ as the life element to grow within us, we must deal with our heart, the soil. We must deal with the human heart as the wayside, with the shallow heart with the hidden rocks, and with the heart with the thorns, signifying the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches. By His grace we must deal with our heart to keep our heart pure for Him to grow in us. The constitution of the Body of Christ is with life, and the building up of the Body of Christ is by the growth in life.
The building up of the Body of Christ is also by the transformation of the members of the Body of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2a). Transformation is not an outward change by self-improvement. We need to realize the difference between outward improvement and real transformation. Transformation is not an outward change, improvement, or advance. Transformation is a metabolic transaction within us. Through metabolism a new element is added to our being to discharge and replace the old element. Transformation does not mean that someone who is a quick person becomes a slow person. This may be a mere outward change and improvement. Transformation means that we receive more element of Christ into us while He is growing within us to replace all of our old things such as our old life, old nature, old disposition, old character, and old habit. We need a replacement not an outward change. This replacement is the living Christ, the indwelling Christ. Day after day as we love Him more and give Him more ground within us, He is adding Himself into us and growing within us to be the replacing element. He replaces our old creation. This is the real significance of transformation.
When we have the constitution with life, the growth of Christ in life, and the transformation by life, we are ready to be built up. We need to be constituted with life, growing in life, transformed by life, and built up by life. Everything related to the Body of Christ is with life, in life, and by life. Who is the life? The life is the all-inclusive Christ, who is the processed and consummated Triune God (John 14:6a). This processed and consummated Triune God is the constituting life, the growing life, and the transforming life to us. Then this life becomes the very factor of the building up of the Body of Christ within us and among us.
We need to remember these four things: constitution, growth, transformation, and building up. I hope we all can see that the Body of Christ is constituted with Christ as the life element. Then this Christ grows in His Body to add Himself more and more into us that we may have the growth in life. Then with the same life we are being transformed. Our old creation is being replaced by Christ Himself as the element and factor of the new creation. Then we are qualified and are on the proper level to be built up by the same life. This life is the Triune God embodied in Christ. We all have to see this. This revelation will revolutionize our being and will change our Christian being.
The last three points we need to see are the ministry of the New Testament, the teaching of the apostles, and the fellowship of the apostles. When we speak of the one ministry, we mean the New Testament ministry that builds up the Body of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:1 Paul said that we, the many, have received this ministry. Then Ephesians 4:12 says that the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherd-teachers perfect the many saints to do the work of the ministry. The ministry is singular, and the work is also singular. There is only one work on the whole earth. From the day of Pentecost, the Lord began only one work by one ministry, but this work has been carried out by thousands of workers, and this ministry has been carried out by thousands of ministers.
If you read 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, you can see the ministers (plural) and the ministry (singular). The New Testament ministers (3:6) all have a part in the one New Testament ministry (4:1). Peter’s ministry was a part of the ministry; Paul’s ministry was a part of the ministry; John’s ministry was a part of the ministry; and Timothy’s ministry was a part of the ministry (2 Tim. 4:5). When I came to this country and used the term the ministry, I meant the unique New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ. I did not mean that this was only my ministry. I hope that we all can see this.
In 1969 a brother who used to be among us said that we received only one man’s ministry, whereas he desired to receive all ministries. Actually, however, even though he said that he received all ministries, he at least did not receive my ministry. When I told him this, he said that he received all ministries selectively. But his use of the word selectively meant that he did not receive all ministries. Actually, all the proper ministries of all the proper ministers are the one ministry, which is the unique New Testament ministry (2 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 4:12).
When the Lord brought me into His recovery, from the first day my eyes were opened. I saw that what Brother Nee was ministering was in the line of the revelation concerning God’s eternal plan. God’s eternal plan is His economy, His eternal arrangement, His plan of the ages. Brother Nee was in the line of the eternal plan of God concerning Christ and concerning the church in life with the Spirit. My eyes were opened to see that this is the real ministry of the New Testament. It is not just to teach typology or prophecy but to teach concerning God’s New Testament economy so that the Body of Christ can be built up. This teaching is called the teaching of the apostles.