Today’s Christianity is filled with religion, doctrine, organization, forms, rituals, and regulations. People are helped to be saved, to become religious, to pursue spirituality, and to desire a closer walk with the Lord. But where is the Body? It seems that so many Christians do not see that in the book of Ephesians the church is emphasized. In his subtlety the enemy, Satan, has used various good things such as fundamental doctrine to damage the church. We must stand against the degradation of today’s Christianity. In doing this, we do not fight against people, but against the Devil, the subtle one.
Because the Lord is sovereign, He cannot be defeated. Even today He is fulfilling His purpose. In the Lord’s recovery we are not for religion, knowledge, organization, rituals, forms, or regulations; we are only for the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. As we enjoy the mingled spirit in a corporate way, we have the church life.
The book of Ephesians reveals various aspects of the church. In this message we shall consider seven of these aspects: the Body, the new man, the Bride, the family, the kingdom, the dwelling place of God, and the warrior.
According to 1:22 and 23, the church is Christ’s Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. It was in this one Body that both the Jews and the Gentiles were reconciled to God through the cross (2:16). We, the believers, were reconciled not only for the Body of Christ, but also in the Body of Christ. We all have been reconciled in the one Body. As we have seen, the gifted persons are for the building up of the Body, and the Body is growing unto the building up of itself in love.
In 2:15 we see that Christ created the Jews and the Gentiles in Himself into one new man. This new man is corporate and universal. There are many believers, but there is only one new man in the universe. All the believers are components of this corporate and universal new man. According to 4:13, we are to grow up until we arrive at a full-grown man, and in 4:24 we see that, in a practical way, we need to put on the new man.
In Ephesians 5 we see the church as the Bride of Christ. This aspect reveals that the church comes out of Christ, as Eve came out of Adam (Gen. 2:21-22). The church has the same life and nature as Christ and becomes one with Him to be His counterpart, as Eve became one flesh with Adam (Gen. 2:24). Eventually, as Eve went back to Adam and was presented to him, so the church will go back to Christ and be presented to Him as His Bride.
In 2:19 Paul says, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow-citizens of the saints and members of the household of God.” As members of the household of God, we are God’s family, even God’s house. Both the Jewish and Gentile believers are members of God’s house, which is a matter of life and enjoyment. All believers were born of God into His house to enjoy His riches.
The house of God leads to the kingdom of God, indicated by the term “fellow-citizens of the saints.” All the believers are citizens in God’s kingdom. His kingdom is a sphere for Him to exercise His authority. In 5:5 Paul says that “every fornicator or unclean person or person of unbridled greedy lust, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” This refers not only to the millennium, but also to the church life today. The believers have been regenerated into the kingdom of God (John 3:5) and are in the church life, living in the kingdom of God today (Rom. 14:17).