In this message I have the burden to speak a word concerning God's move in Christ to bring forth the Body.
Philippians 3:8 and Colossians 1:24 speak of two kinds of sufferings. In Philippians 3:8 Paul says, "Moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ." The suffering here is for the gaining of Christ. In Colossians 1:24 Paul says, "I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church." The suffering here is for the Body. On the one hand, Paul suffered in order to gain Christ; on the other hand, he suffered for the building up of the Body of Christ.
In verse 25 Paul went on to say that he became a minister of the church according to the stewardship of God to complete the word of God. The Greek word translated "stewardship" here is oikonomia, which has been anglicized as the word "economy." Hence, we may also say that Paul became a minister according to the economy of God. In his ministry Paul was charged by God to do a wonderful work—to complete the word of God, that is, to complete the divine revelation in God's written word. The "word of God" in verse 25 is, according to Greek grammar, the mystery in verse 26, "the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations but now has been manifested to His saints; to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (vv. 26-27). Paul announced Christ, admonishing and teaching in all wisdom, in order to present every man full-grown in Christ, and for this he labored, struggling according to the operation of the One who operated in him in power (vv. 28-29).
The New Testament unveils to us the move of the processed and consummated Triune God. In the Old Testament we do not see God's move but only God's preparatory work for Him to move. God's move began in the four Gospels with Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This was the beginning of God's move in Christ to bring forth His Body.
Christ, the incarnated God, entered into humanity to bring divinity into humanity, making these two entities one, joining them together to be one entity, the God-man. Now God and man are one in nature, in life, in essence, in element, and even in expression. How wonderful that there is such a One in the universe! This One passed through human living, entered into the all-inclusive death, and came out of death into resurrection. Through resurrection and in resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29) and the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and He regenerated all His believers to be the sons of God and the members of Himself. As a result, the church has appeared on the scene.
Before this, God's move was just in one person, Christ. This means that God was moving only in Himself. Now, since Christ ascended and descended to bring forth the church, God's move has entered into a second stage—the stage of God's move in a corporate vessel. First, God moved in Christ singly as a personal vessel; now God is moving in the church as a corporate vessel. As such a vessel the church is the enlargement of Christ, the expansion of Christ. Now God's move is in a corporate way. This corporate way is just the Body of Christ, the church, the new man, the organism of the Triune God.