Together Adam and Eve made a complete unit. In the same principle, Christ and the church make a complete unit. The church is Christ’s other half. Adam and Eve became one flesh, but Christ and the church are one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). We can say to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, without the church, You are just a half. You are not complete. Likewise, without You, we are not complete either.” Praise the Lord that when Christ and the church are joined as one, they make a complete unit!
In the church there is no place for our natural life and fallen human nature. The human life and nature are not adequate to match Christ. In order to be His counterpart, we need to be one with Christ in life and in nature. This means that Christ and the church as one unit have the same life and nature. Furthermore, Christ and the church have the same image and stature. We should not merely know this as a doctrine, but see it as a heavenly vision. We need to see why we must receive Christ as our life and partake of His divine nature and, furthermore, be transformed into His image from glory to glory. We also need to see that we must attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ because we are to be Christ’s counterpart. If we see this vision, we shall be able to understand the type of Christ and the church in chapter five of Ephesians.
At this point we need to go on to consider how Christ nourishes and cherishes the church. When we are nourished, something enters into our being to meet our need. Nourishment, therefore, must come out of a supply. Without a supply, it is impossible to have nourishment.
Christ nourishes the church with all the riches of the Father. Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead. Hence, all the riches of God are in Him, and He enjoys these riches. Then He nourishes the church with the very riches of the Godhead that He Himself has enjoyed.
This is proved by John 15. In this chapter the Lord Jesus says that He is the vine and that the Father is the husbandman. The Father is the cultivator, the planter, the farmer. We, the believers in Christ, are the branches. The vine nourishes the branches with what the vine absorbs from the soil. God the Father is the soil, the water, and everything to Christ as the vine. The vine absorbs the riches from the soil and the water, digests them, and then transmits them to the branches. This is the nourishing. Christ nourishes the church with the riches of the Father which He has absorbed and assimilated. By nourishing the church, Christ meets the inward need of the church.
It is correct to say that Christ nourishes the church with His life and with His word. But neither life nor His word is the source. The source is the Father. What Christ receives of the Father becomes the life and the life supply which are embodied in the Word. For this reason, the Word is the word of life, even the bread of life or the supply of life. If we would be nourished by Christ today, we need to abide in Him to absorb His content into our being as life and the life supply. In order to experience this in a practical way, we daily need to contact the living Word, for the Word is the embodiment of life and of the life supply. The more we abide in the Lord and contact the Word, the more we experience His nourishing. This is the way Christ nourishes the church.
All the members of the church need to practice abiding in the Lord. There should be no insulation, no separation, between us and the Lord and no detachment from Him. As soon as we are detached from Him, the supply of nourishment is cut off. Along with abiding in the Lord constantly, we must daily come to the Word and take it in as our life and life supply. Then we shall receive nourishment. Furthermore, all the meetings of the church should be meetings of nourishment. Morning watch and our fellowship with the saints should also be times of nourishment.
As we are nourished by the life and the life supply, we grow and we are purified. In the following message we shall see that the nourishing word is also the washing word, the cleansing word. The water we drink cleanses the fibers of our inner being. As we abide in the Lord to receive the riches of the Father and as we contact the Word to receive the life and the life supply, we are nourished by Christ. In this way Christ nourishes the church He loves.