First Corinthians 10:4 also says, “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” Christ is the spiritual rock that flows out the living water. He has been cleft for us, and out of Him flows the living water for our drinking.
According to 1 Corinthians 11:3, Christ is the Head. He is the Head of the Body and of every one of us.
Christ is not only the Head; He is also the Body. First Corinthians 11:3 indicates that Christ is the Head, and 1 Corinthians 12:12 indicates that He is the Body. This verse says, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is the Christ” (Gk.). This reveals that Christ is the Body. Of course, the Christ here is not the individual Christ; it is the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ. Christ Himself is the Head, and the church is the Body. Eventually, however, both the Head and the Body are Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 15:20 we see that Christ is the firstfruit. In verses 47 and 45 of the same chapter we see that Christ is the second man and the last Adam. When we put these three items together, we have the first, the second, and the last. This indicates that Christ is the first, the second, and the last. He is everything!
Revelation 22:13 reveals that Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. Christ is not only the way; He is also the alphabet. As we all know, every word is composed of letters. Christ is the letters that compose every verse of the Bible. Because He is the first letter, the Alpha, and the last letter, the Omega, He is certainly all the letters in between. An English-language typewriter has twenty-six letters. With these letters we can compose any word, sentence, paragraph, or book. I have such a typewriter in my study at home. By using the twenty-six letters on this typewriter, I can compose anything. Christ is the real typewriter containing all the letters from Alpha to Omega. Whenever you want to say something, simply type Christ. Day by day, we must practice typing with Christ as the letters. I hope that everyone in the local churches will be a good typist, well able to type with Christ as the letters.
Revelation 22:13 also tells us that Christ is the First and the Last. As the Alpha, He is first, and as the Omega, He is the Last.
Furthermore, Revelation 22:13 reveals that Christ is the beginning and the end. As the beginning, nothing precedes Him, and as the end, nothing succeeds Him. This means that before Christ and after Christ there is no other. Christ is everything. Is the Christ you experience like this? We must admit that the Christ experienced by many Christians is not. We, however, must experience Christ in a full way, all the way from Alpha to Omega. Before Alpha, there is no letter, and after Omega, there is also no letter. The Alpha is the beginning, and the Omega is the end.
Lastly, Christ is all in all. This aspect of Christ is related to the new man, the church. According to Colossians 3:11, in this new man, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” In the new man Christ is in everyone, and Christ is all. Christ is in you, and Christ is in me. Therefore, in the new man, that is, in the church, there is no American, German, Chinese, or Japanese. Likewise, there are no managers, servants, or Ph.D.’s. Sometimes we refer to a certain brother as a brother with a doctor’s degree. I do not like to hear this. The doctor’s degree must be put away, because in the new man there is only Christ. In the new man Christ is in everyone, and Christ is everyone. Christ is all and in all.
How we need to experience Christ! All these aspects of Christ are not doctrine, religion, or ethics. Neither are they Christianity. Christ is for our enjoyment, and the issue of our enjoyment of Christ is the church. Once again, this is a matter of Christ and the church, the kernel of the Bible.