God's eternal purpose is to gain a man. This man is a corporate man coming out of Christ. It is the church. The church is not a matter of several Christians being put together with several other Christians. It is not so many "men"; it is a life. The church is the church only because there are many people who all share the same life, the same Christ. You have a portion of Christ, and he has a portion of Christ; each one of us has a portion of Christ. When all of these portions of Christ are put together, there is the church.
We must be clear that God does not want individuals. God created man, male and female. The male is singular, and the female is also singular. Christ is singular, and the church is also singular. In the sight of God there is only one Christ and only one church. In the future we will see that there is only one man in Hades and only one man in the heavens; there is no third man. In God's eyes, He only sees two men in the whole world. First Corinthians 15 reveals that Adam is the first man and Christ is the last man. There are no others. The Body of Christ, just as Eve, is one—not many!
Therefore, even though we have God's life within us, we still need God to work upon us to break our individualism. God must break down the thought that I myself am enough. We need to be one with all the rest of God's children. There is only one Eve; likewise, there is only one Body of Christ. All of God's children, all who share the life of Christ, are not many individual men and women; they are all one man. God must break our individualism. He must crush us day after day until we come to know the life of the Body.
There are many who think that they can be Christians all by themselves! But God will not allow this. Often their individual prayers are not answered, their personal study of the Scriptures does not enlighten them, and their individual seeking does not lead them to God's will. If such a person would say to another brother or sister, "I just cannot get through this matter by myself, would you help me?", and they prayed together, he would be clear eventually. Whatever he could not understand by himself, he would see clearly when an answer was sought with his brother. Such a person is often still proud, thinking that he can make it by himself most of the time, and that there are only a few times when he cannot get through. This is individualism. In the church individualism must be broken. We must allow the Christ in us and the Christ in all the other brothers and sisters to become knit together in one Body.
Many Christians know the life we have in Christ, but we must regretfully say, they do not know the life in the Body of Christ. Just as the life of Christ is a reality, the life of the Body of Christ is also a reality. Christians are not individuals; they are one. The apostle Paul said that though we are many, we are still one bread and one Body. If we live according to Christ, we are one with all other Christians. But if we live according to ourselves, we separate ourselves from all of God's children.
Therefore, if the church is to become a real church, two steps are necessary: the spreading or increase of Christ and the consuming of our self. The spreading of Christ began when we were regenerated, and since we were saved, the Lord has been working on us day after day to consume our self. The Lord will continue to work until one day before God, we say, "There is not a single thing I can do by myself. Everything I do is done according to the principle of mutual help among the members. All that I do is according to the principle of fellowship, which is the principle of the Body." The church is the Body of Christ. Only that which is of Christ is the church; whatever issues from man is not.