Christ is the embodiment of God and the content of the church. Although all genuine Christians recognize that Christ is the Son of God, not many have an adequate realization that He is the embodiment of God. To say that Christ is the embodiment of God means that in Christ is embodied all that God is. In eternity past, God in Christ made a plan, selected us, and predestinated us, or marked us out. Then in Christ and through Christ God created all things. Eventually, Christ was incarnated, accomplished redemption through crucifixion, was buried, resurrected, and then ascended to the third heaven. Furthermore, He has descended as the Spirit upon His Body. Now He is waiting for people to open to Him and call upon Him so that He may come into them, regenerate them, and make His home in their hearts. One day, He will come back from the heavens by coming out from within His people. Then He will be the King over all the earth, and His chosen people will be co-kings with Him in His kingdom. For eternity, He will be the centrality of the New Jerusalem. It is impossible to exhaust all that God is and all that He has done and will do in Christ.
When I was young, I heard about Jesus, but what I was told was far short of the revelation of Christ as the embodiment of God. Many of us can testify that, before coming into the Lord’s recovery, we did not know Christ adequately as the embodiment of God. However, after we came into the church life, we began to realize that our Christ is the embodiment of all that God is.
As the embodiment of God, Christ is the content of the church. Ephesians 3 says that the Spirit strengthens us into our inner man so that Christ can make His home in our hearts (vv. 16-17). Eventually, we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). This indicates that the content of the church is the embodiment of God.
The church is not simply a group of people who have been saved out of hell, who are waiting to go to heaven, and who beg the Lord to give them peace, joy, and a good life. The church in the Lord’s recovery does not beg God for things. Rather, we in the local churches praise the Lord for all He is to us. Praise Him that the church has the embodiment of God as her content! How we thank the Lord for revealing this to us!
The church is the one new man with Christ as the person. As the person of the new man, Christ is the embodiment of God. Do you realize that the One you are to take as your person is the very embodiment of God? If we see this vision, we shall be beside ourselves with joy. Oh, what a Person we have within us! It is crucial for us all to see that the church is a vessel with the living Christ as its unique content.
In this message we shall consider five aspects of Christ. If we would see these five aspects clearly, we need to ask the Lord to blow away all the clouds that for centuries have kept Christians from seeing Christ in a full way. In previous messages we have pointed out that Christ is unlimited, immeasurable, and unsearchable. He is the all-inclusive One that fills all in all (1:23). He is even the very dimensions of the universe: the breadth, and length, and height, and depth (3:18). What a Christ He is!