The church is the increase of Christ. It is the bride who will marry Christ as His counterpart to match Him. God created Adam as a bachelor (Gen. 2:18). After a certain time, God caused him to sleep and took a rib from his side, and He built that rib into a woman who could be Adam’s bride to match him (vv. 21-23). Thus, the woman who was Adam’s bride was Adam’s increase. Adam was no longer a bachelor, but he and his bride became a couple. Eve was Adam’s increase, and this increase was a part of Adam, something that had come out of Adam. Adam is a type of Christ (Rom. 5:14), and Eve is a type of the church, which comes out of Christ (Eph. 5:31-32). Without the church, we may say that Christ is single, a “bachelor” without an increase. One day God put Christ to sleep on the cross, and He opened His side and took something out of Him (John 19:34). Both Adam’s rib and the water that flowed out of Christ’s side on the cross are types of the resurrection life of Christ, which cannot be broken or destroyed. When Christ was crucified, none of His bones was broken (v. 36). This indicates that Christ’s resurrection life is unbreakable and indestructible. The resurrection life of Christ that flowed out of Him on the cross becomes the Body of Christ, the church. Thus, the church is something out of Christ Himself and is the increase of Christ. When the Holy Spirit enters into us to regenerate our spirit, the resurrection life of Christ enters into us. At that very moment there is something of Christ in us. When the resurrection life of Christ is lived out and expressed through us, there is the reality of the church, the increase of Christ to match Him as His counterpart. The church is the increase of Christ and the bride of Christ.
We have pointed out that the church is the resurrected Christ as life being born into us, lived out from within us, and expressed through us. This Christ is the church, and this church is the counterpart, the increase, and the bride of Christ. In order to realize the genuine church life, we need to put off the old man, which is our self, our soulish life, by rejecting our mind, emotion, and will, and we need to put on the new man, which is Christ with the church and the church with Christ. To put on Christ with the church and to put on the church with Christ requires us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Originally, our regenerated spirit is not the spirit of our mind. However, when we reject our self and deny the old life, this spirit expands into our mind and becomes the spirit of our mind. The element of the spirit spreads into our mind and renews it with a new concept. By such a spirit we are delivered from our old mind, our old concepts, and our mind becomes a new mind, a renewed mind, with a new concept. The church life depends on our putting off the old man and putting on the new man, having our mind renewed by the spirit. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind means that all our old concepts must be given up, and we must have an absolutely new concept; that is, we must have the mind of the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), a mind that is filled with our regenerated human spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit (6:17), and is under the control of our spirit. By such a renewing, we put off the old man and put on the new man. This ushers us into the reality of the church life.
To apply this renewing, we may use the example of a brother who is clever at making money. He is reborn, regenerated, and he has the Holy Spirit within him, yet he still lives by the old man. Therefore, there is no possibility for him to have the church life. He may sometimes come to the church meetings and may also fellowship with the brothers, but whoever meets him has the sense that he is only a brother who is good at making money. After some time, certain brothers who are with him may become exactly the same as he is—good moneymakers. With such brothers there is no reality of the church life. However, one day this brother may have a turn to the Lord. He may realize that to be a Christian is not to live by the old man but to live by the new man, that is, by the regenerated spirit. Then he may learn how to reject his old man and how to live by the new man. As a result, whenever he comes to the church meetings and whenever we meet him, we sense that there is something of Christ in him. Because he is such a person, we desire to be related to him and to be one with him. Since this brother and we are in the same condition, with all of us there is the reality of the church life, because the reality of the church life is Christ Himself realized by us. We have the reality of the church life and are in the Body life because our entire concept has been transformed. The old thought, the old concept, and the old way of thinking are gone, and there is something new in our thinking. Our view of things is very different from what it was before. Thus, there is the reality of the church life because Christ is realized and experienced by us.
We are also the many grains of Christ. In order for many grains to become one loaf, the grains must be crushed and blended into flour. The church life requires us to be “crushed” so that we can be blended with others to become one loaf. We are many, yet we are one body, one bread (1 Cor. 10:17). Originally we were many grains, but now we are one bread. It is easy to speak of the church, but the church requires us to die, to be crushed and broken, and to lose our individuality. If we remain individual grains, we will always compare ourselves with others and be aware of the differences between ourselves and others. However, after a number of grains have been crushed and ground into flour, there is no longer any possibility of discerning which is which. All have become flour to be blended together and made into dough, which is then put in an oven and baked to become one loaf. The church life is Christ expressed through us as we are blended together as one. This oneness is the church life, the realization of the Body of Christ.
You may say that to be crushed and ground is too high a price. In buying anything, if you try to save money, you may suffer a great loss. You may pay five dollars for a piece of clothing and end up with something worth fifty cents. An article of clothing that costs fifty dollars may seem to you to be too expensive, but a person who knows clothing well may consider it very inexpensive. By paying fifty dollars, such a person may get a piece of clothing worth five hundred dollars. He paid more than you did, but he got more than he paid for. If we would pay the price to realize the genuine church life, we could never imagine what kind of gain we will have. The church life is an unsearchable, immeasurable gain.
If all the believers would pay the price to realize the church life, the whole world would be turned upside down. There were only one hundred twenty on the day of Pentecost, but consider the impact that they had. It is not a loss to pay the price to have the church life; on the contrary, it is a great gain. It is worth investing our whole life, even risking our whole life, for the gaining of the church life. The Lord today is looking for a group of people who will pay the price to realize the church life.