Ephesians 2:15-16 speaks of the creation of the new man in Christ. These verses say, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.” In verse 15 the two refers to the Jewish and Gentile believers, of whom the new man was created. Verse 16 indicates that this one new man is the one Body, that is, the Body of Christ, the church. According to these two verses the church is not only the one Body but also the one new man. There are not many new men; there is only one new man. Therefore, it is erroneous to consider that each believer is a new man. The new man is a corporate man composed of many persons. In the whole universe there is only one new man, and this one new man is the Body of Christ, the church.
Ephesians 4:22-24 reveals how this new man can be realized: “That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.” First we must put off the old man, that is, the old Adam, the first corporate man; then we must put on the new man, which is to put on the Body of Christ.
To put on the new man is simply to realize the church, to have the genuine church life, which is the life of the new man, the life of the Body of Christ. The church life is realized by us when we put off the old man and put on the new man. Moreover, the secret to putting off the old man and putting on the new man is to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (v. 23). The more we are renewed in our mind by the spreading of our spirit into our mind, the more we will put off the old man and put on the new man, the more we will realize the church life, and the more we will realize the Body of Christ.
The new man is spoken of also in Colossians 3:9-11, which says, “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” In the new man there cannot be any person other than Christ; He is all and in all. Since the new man is the Body of Christ, the church, in the Body of Christ there is nothing but Christ Himself. Thus, to have the church life is simply to have Christ Himself as our life. We realize the church life, that is, we put on the new man, simply by experiencing Christ in a genuine way.
First Corinthians 12:12 confirms this: “For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” Here we see that Christ is not only the Head (Col. 1:18) but also the Body. Both the Head and the Body are Christ. Therefore, Christ Himself is the new man. He is both the Head of the new man and the Body of the new man. He is all-inclusive.
The way to realize the genuine church life is to experience Christ as life and as everything to us. God’s eternal intention is for Christ to be wrought into us not only as our life but also as our everything. When we are regenerated, Christ enters into us and is born in our spirit to be our life. From that time on, God desires that we live by Christ (John 6:57; Phil. 1:21a), walk in Christ (Col. 2:6), and take Christ as everything to us—as knowledge, wisdom, light, energy, strength, power, and many other items (v. 3; 1 Cor. 1:30; John 8:12; Phil. 4:13; Eph. 6:10). This requires that we give up the old man, deny our self, and put off the old nature. The more we apply the cross to our old nature, our old man, the more we will experience Christ in a genuine way.
We need to be impressed that the church life is not a matter of doctrine; rather, it is Christ Himself realized by us in our daily life. We are the members of Christ. He is the divine vine, and we are the branches (John 15:5). We need to abide in Him and take Him not only as our life but also as everything to us. We need to live, walk, and do everything in Him, by Him, and through Him. Although we may know this already, it is one thing to know something, and it is another thing to realize it in our experience. Today there is much talk among the Lord’s people concerning the problem of the unity of the church, that is, concerning the oneness of the Body of Christ. But the oneness of the Body can be realized only when we are living by Christ and walking in Him. The more we live by our self and walk in our self, the more sectarian we will be. In fact, all denominations and sects are formed because of one thing—human effort. If we deny our self and live by Christ, that is, if we put off the old man and put on the new man by putting on Christ as life and as everything to us (Rom. 13:14), there will be no need to talk about unity, because we will already be in the oneness of the church. The oneness of the church is nothing other than Christ experienced by us as the Spirit. It is not a matter of teachings. The more we talk about teachings, the more we will be divided, but the more we give up teachings and take Christ as everything to us, the more we will realize the oneness of the church.
The lesson of church history shows us that the more doctrines we have, the more we will be divided. However, the more we give up teachings and doctrines, live by Christ, put off the old man and put on the new man, and apply the cross of Christ in our daily life, the more we will be in the oneness of the Body. The urgent need today is for us to know Christ as life in a living and practical way. If we will practice this and be willing to apply Christ to our daily life by appropriating Him in all our daily matters, we will sense our urgent need to be one with other Christians. Teachings separate and divide, but life brings in oneness. When we are in Christ, taking Christ as our life and experiencing Him in a living way, we are in the oneness, because the reality of the oneness of the church is Christ Himself. It is not Christ in doctrines or teachings but Christ genuinely experienced by us as life that will bring us into the reality of the oneness of the church.
If we experience Christ in a real and living way, we will be in the church life and will never be individualistic. However, the more we work by our self for the Lord, the more individualistic we will be. If we give up the thought of serving the Lord by our self, if we simply deny our self, take Christ as our life and everything, and abide in Him, life will flow from within us. This flow of life brings in the oneness of the Body. The more we live Christ, the more we will long to be one with others, and the more we will be willing to be dependent on others.
If we experience Christ as everything, we will not be self-sufficient and thus become independent. On the contrary, the more we live by Christ, the more we will realize that we are just one member of the Body and that we can never be complete in ourselves. In our physical body each individual member needs the whole body, but a complete body as a whole does not need anything else. As a human being I am complete, with my own ears, eyes, hands, and feet. In a sense, I can be independent because I am a complete person. However, every member of my physical body needs to depend on the other members. Likewise, none of us is the complete Body; each of us is only a member (1 Cor. 12:14, 20; Rom. 12:5). However, if we live by our self, subconsciously we may think that we are complete and that we can be independent. If we live by Christ by denying our self and taking Christ as our life day by day, we will realize that we are nothing but a small member of the Body who needs the other members. When we are living in Christ, we long for the Body of Christ and for a relatedness between us and the other members. This is the genuine church life, and this can be realized only by the experience of Christ in our daily life. The church life can never be realized merely by teaching or by talking about the oneness of the church. Actually, the more we teach or talk about the oneness, the more we will be divided. The only way to realize the oneness of the church is to experience Christ in a genuine way.