In the Body of Christ, in addition to the chosen and redeemed people, there is the transforming Spirit. This transforming Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, which is also the totality of the Triune God, comprising not only the Spirit Himself but also the elements of the Son and the Father. Therefore, Ephesians 4:5, which is related to the Son, says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” This verse does not say “one Son,” but “one Lord.” In the Gospel of John it is the Son into whom we believe (3:16); the Son is mainly for us to have life (1 John 5:12). Here in Ephesians, the Son is referred to as the Lord, as also in the book of Acts (2:36); the Lord is for His exercising of authority, for His headship. As the Son, He is our life; as the Lord, He is the Head exercising His authority in the Body. The Body’s relationship with Him is one of faith and baptism. Through faith we believe into the Lord (John 3:36), and through baptism we are baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3) and terminated in Adam (v. 4). Both faith and baptism imply an entering in and a coming out. We came out of Adam and have entered into Christ. Hence, through one faith and one baptism we were baptized out of Adam; that is, we were buried and severed from Adam. At the same time, in one Spirit we have entered into Christ to be joined with Him.
As a result, Christ has become the transforming element in us. The transforming Spirit transforms us gradually from within with Christ as the element that we, the redeemed, may become one with Christ and be mingled with Christ as one. Therefore, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This Lord is the One who has become the consummated, life-giving Spirit through resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). This Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God and who is also the pneumatic Christ, is in us (1 Cor. 6:19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16), transforming us with Christ as the element.
Ephesians 4:6 says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in ”all. In the Body of Christ we have not only the transforming Spirit and Christ as the transforming element but also one God and Father. As God, He created us; as the Father, He regenerated us. Both in creation and in regeneration God is our source. In the old creation we came from God and were created by Him. In the new creation we were regenerated by the Father. Therefore, both “God” and “Father” imply the source. This one God and Father as the source involves three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He is over all—this refers to the Father, the source; He is through all—this refers to the Son, Christ; and He is in all—this refers to the Spirit. The Father is over all; the Son, Christ, is through all; and the Spirit dwells in all. These are not three but one. When the source comes, the element also comes; this is the Son who is through all. Furthermore, the life-giving Spirit comes to dwell in all. Thus, we see that the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed people are constituted into one unit, one entity, which is the Body of Christ. This is the crystallized significance of the Body of Christ.
Our speaking here is the crystallization of our study of the Bible over several decades. These utterances and expressions are from God. When we first studied Ephesians 4:3-6, we sought the proper explanation of this portion; although we studied the writings of others, we were not able to find the key. Gradually, God has opened this portion to us. However, we feel that neither Chinese, nor English, nor any other language can adequately express what the Lord has opened up to us in His Word. Therefore, the Lord has led us to invent some new expressions.
We must know that language comes out of culture. Formerly, terms such as telephone and computer were nonexistent because such things were not yet invented. This proves that without a certain culture there cannot be the terms to express that culture. When I came to the United States, I not only brought the Lord’s truth, but I also brought the Lord’s culture. Because of this, I was compelled to invent some new English terms. Although English is not my mother tongue, I needed to create some new English words to express the divine, spiritual concepts when I released the truth in the United States. For example, sonize is not found in the English language. In 1963, there were three groups in Los Angeles who responded favorably to us and proposed that we all come together. At that time we intended to publish a brief notice of our practice in the newspaper, in which I used the expression church practice. This was not a common expression in English, but eventually we adopted it because the brothers, after much consideration, could not think of a better expression.
In the Lord’s recovery we are a special group of people with our own culture. Since we have this culture, we need the language to match it. Expressions such as processed and ultimate consummation have become very common among us, yet they are new both in the English and Chinese languages. If we have not been weighing and considering the truth to invent some new terms, how can we explain our particular culture? This is a spiritual culture, a heavenly culture, and a culture in God’s economy. It can be explained not with any language on earth but only with the spiritual, heavenly language. Concerning the truth of the Trinity, W. H. Griffith Thomas, a founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, pointed out that we may borrow the term person to define the Trinity because our human language is inadequate, but if we press the term too far, it will lead to tritheism. There is the need, therefore, to invent new terms for the spiritual culture.
When the Western missionaries began to translate the Bible into Chinese, they could not translate expressions such as in Christ because in the Chinese culture there are only expressions such as by, through, and because of. Yet the Bible often uses expressions such as in grace, in power, in the light, and in reality. For example, the Chinese Union Version renders Philippians 3:1 as, “Rejoice by the Lord,” while another version renders it as, “Rejoice because of the Lord,” yet the original text says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” Noah’s family of eight entered into the ark and was saved in the ark, not outwardly by the ark; they could have peace only in the ark. Because of this problem, some Western missionaries created the new expression in Christ in Chinese to speak the new culture with new language. Today those who learn computers have their technical terms that are not understandable to outsiders. Every message that we have released in the recent two years is almost all new language, yet our understanding is still not adequate. We need to endeavor to enter into the new spiritual language that we may be able to express the spiritual truths in a crystallized way.