In the previous chapters we said that consecration is to take Christ as our person. I hope that you will enter into this speaking and treasure this matter. We need to continually experience consecration until it is something ordinary, regular, and normal in our Christian life. When we consecrate ourselves, take Christ as our person, we are practicing Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This kind of consecration is not an occasional experience. We are becoming the Lord’s dwelling place by letting Him make His home in our heart and be our person. We will need our whole life and even eternity to fully enter into this experience.
God created man to be His expression. Genesis 1:26-28 shows that God did not create many men; He created only one man—Adam. This is a crucial matter. Verse 26 says, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” The Hebrew word translated as “man” in this verse is singular. I would like to ask whether God created only one man. It is not so easy to answer this question, because in verse 26 man is singular. Verse 27 says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The Bible says that God created only one man (2:7), and then God took a rib from this man, Adam, and built a woman (vv. 21-22). After creating man, God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (1:28). Although God created one man, this man was to fill the earth. Hence, verse 26 implies that God created a corporate man.
God does not intend for people to be alone. He intends for people to be in groups. Although the human race is fallen, communities and societies confirm that there is an inclination and a desire in human nature to have a corporate living. Suppose someone offers you ten million U.S. dollars and the most comfortably furnished and decorated house located on a mountain and an expensive, stylish car on the condition that you must enjoy these things by yourself. You must not live in a community, nor are you allowed to live with your parents, siblings, wife, or children. You must enjoy the riches, the mansion, and the car by yourself. You probably would not be willing to accept such a gift, because you would be very lonely.
Man was created with a desire to live in a community and with the need to communicate with other people. God does not want an individual man. He wants a corporate man. However, as a result of the fall, human society is full of tension. On the one hand, we cannot live without others, that is, without social connections. We must form groups or societies. On the other hand, these social groups are filled with sin, selfishness, treacheries, striving, and backstabbing. People despise one another, look down on one another, and slander one another. These situations come from Satan and are a result of man’s fall. They are not according to the original state of man’s creation. God does not want individuals or a society full of strife and dispute. He wants a corporate man. The principle of being corporate is the principle of the church.
God has no intention for us to express or represent Christ individually. The desire in God’s heart is to gain an entity that would express and represent Him in the universe. This expression and representation is corporate; it is the Body. This Body, this corporate entity, is the church. The more we take Christ as our person, the less we are individualistic. Our former person, though created by God, became fallen. As the old man, our person was individualistic, secluded, and odd. We are all peculiar, but the Lord has saved us. He does not want us to live an individualistic life. He wants us to live the Body life. Hence, after saving us, He put us in the church.
Before we were saved, we were a complete unit unto ourselves. However, after we are saved, we are no longer complete unto ourselves. After we are saved, we become a member of the Body; as such, we cannot be individualistic. As a person with a physical body, it is possible to be individualistic. If I do not get along with someone, I can go to the north and he can go south. However, as a member, I cannot be individualistic. A hand cannot say to the body, “I do not like you; therefore, I am leaving. I will not serve you anymore.” A hand cannot exist apart from the body. Similarly, the eyes cannot say that they dislike the body and will therefore leave the body and exist by themselves. After a person is saved, he becomes a member of the Body. As a member of the Body, he has to stay in the Body. If we are members of the Body but are not in the Body, we are cut off. Once a member is cut off, he is finished, and he loses his life and function and, at the same time, becomes quite uncomely (1 Cor. 12:23).