Christ must be the expression of the church life. The church life is for nothing other than Christ, and the church life should not express anything other than Christ. The church is not for knowledge, forms, gifts, and practices—the church is only for Christ. The church must be the expression of Christ.
Christ is the center of all things related to God. Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. Christ must have the preeminence, the first place, in everything. Christ must be the essence, the substance, of our daily walk. Christ must be the reality of our ministry and service. Christ must be the expression of the church. We need to pray that we would see the vision of Christ in all these aspects.
Some of us may have a question regarding the difference between vision and knowledge. A vision is something that catches us, whereas knowledge is something that we have to remember.
The first time I came to Los Angeles, in 1958, a friend brought me to an observatory on a hill in order to have a view of the city. I will never forget my impression of the city of Los Angeles as I looked down upon the city. I was caught by this view. But suppose my friend had merely given me some knowledge about Los Angeles and had told me about the streets and about how beautiful the city was at night. After a short time I would have forgotten what he had told me. However, I cannot forget the view of Los Angeles I had from that observatory on a hill. This is an illustration of the difference between seeing a vision and having knowledge.
We need to pray that the Lord would grant us the vision of Christ. All the knowledge about Christ that we have received needs to be transferred into the vision of Christ. We need to see that Christ is the center of God's eternal plan and of everything belonging to God and that Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. We need to see that Christ must have the preeminence in all things, that Christ must be the essence of our daily walk, that Christ must be the reality of our ministry and service, and that Christ must be the only expression in the church life. Once we are caught by such a vision of Christ, we will lose sight of all other things. Then we will have only Christ, and we will no longer care to preach mere doctrines and knowledge.
When we have the vision of Christ, the Bible will become to us a book of Christ. Before we saw this vision, the Bible was to us not a book of Christ but a book of other things, in particular a book of doctrines and teachings. In reading the Bible we gained many things, but we did not gain Christ. But when we come to the Bible after we have seen the vision of Christ and have been caught by Christ and are occupied with Christ, in our reading of the Bible we will see Christ and we will care only for Christ.
People have told me that I speak too much concerning Christ and that I need to be balanced and speak about other things. To those who say this I would reply: "Brother, don't speak in this way. You need to be balanced, because you talk too much about things other than Christ. Perhaps I have only the diamond and display just the diamond, not the wrappings nor the container, but you have only the wrappings and the container. Don't tell me that I need the wrappings and the container—you need the diamond."
Because there are so many substitutes for Christ, we need to be recovered to Christ, even in an "extreme" way. We need the vision of Christ, and we need to cry out to the Lord, saying, "Lord, grant me the vision of Christ."