We have seen the oneness of the Body of Christ, Christ, and the Spirit. In this chapter we shall consider the church. The oneness is of the church, Christ is for the church, and the Spirit is also for the church. We have seen that the Spirit is the Spirit of life and the life-giving Spirit. The Spirit is the reality-the reality of God, the reality of Christ, the reality of the word, and the reality of the resurrection of Christ. God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Spirit is the aggregate, the consummation, and the totality of the Triune God. The Father is the source of the Triune God, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the reality, the realization, of the Son. We have one God, but this one God has many aspects.
The church also has different aspects. The church is the unique, one, universal church. In practice, however, the church is expressed as the local churches. Therefore, the New Testament speaks of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), the church in Antioch (13:1), and the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2). Revelation 1:11 speaks of the seven churches in Asia-in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Pergamos, in Thyatira, in Sardis, in Philadelphia, and in Laodicea. In practice these are many churches, but all the local churches are the one, unique church. The church has the local aspect, and it also has the universal aspect. Locally, the churches are many. Universally, the churches are one. The church is the unique Body of Christ, and this one Body is expressed in many localities as the local churches.
Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” These verses mention four persons: one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. They also speak of three matters: one hope, one faith, and one baptism. The three persons of the Divine Trinity-the one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father-are all one. The Father is in the Son (John 14:10), the Son is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17), and the Spirit is the totality, the aggregate, and the consummation of the Triune God. The one Body is the mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man.
We believers were born of God, and we are children of God (John 1:12-13). God is our Father in the divine life. To illustrate this, we may use the case of a father with three sons. Since the father is a person, the three children are also persons. To say that the father and his three children are the same in being persons is correct, but there is only one father. His children do not share in his fatherhood. They are all the same in being persons, but they are not all the same in the fatherhood. Among the four persons, only one is the father. The father is distinct; he is the unique father. The three children are the children of the father. They are not the father, but persons of the father.
In like manner, we have one God and Father, and this one God has many children. We are not God in His fatherhood; however, we are God’s children. As God’s children we were born of God. We have God’s life, God’s nature, God’s element, and God’s essence. In this way we are the same as God, but we are not the same as God in His Godhead. Since we have been born of God, we can say that we are divine in life, in nature, in element, and in essence. The church is the same as God in the divine life, in the divine nature, in the divine element, and in the divine essence.
This is why Paul ranks the Body with the Spirit, with the Lord, and with God the Father. All four are divine. God the Father is divine; the Lord is divine; the Spirit is divine; and the Body is divine. The Body is divinely human and humanly divine. The church is human, but it is divinely human. The church is divine, but it is humanly divine. The standing of the church, however, is not in humanity. The standing of the church is in divinity. The church is the Body of Christ because it has the divine life, nature, element, and essence. Paul said, “One Body and one Spirit.” The Body has been regenerated with the Spirit as its essence. This means that the church is humanly divine.
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