The only way for us to have the real church life is for us to be transformed from the natural man into the new man, the spiritual man. Thus, we need to consider what it means to be transformed and how we can be transformed. Suppose I am a meek and gentle person. Then one day I receive the light that the members of the Body of Christ are not simply members who are meek and gentle in themselves. I then realize that my meekness and gentleness are something of the natural man and that I need to be transformed from being a natural man to being a new man. At that point, everything of my natural man—whether good or bad—has to be put away. I must hate and reject my meekness and gentleness. In the same way that I reject my pride, I must also reject my humility. Rather than appreciating these things, I must hate and reject them. The reason I must do this is because the meekness of my humanity and the gentleness of my natural man are versus Christ. Because I love Christ, I hate my natural love, meekness, and humility.
What happens when I do this? The more I hate these things, the more the Holy Spirit within me will have the ground, the chance, and even the opportunity to act, move, and work in me, and cause Christ to be lived out through me. This is the experience of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. The cross is applied to my goodness, meekness, and humility, and Christ’s resurrection causes the life of Christ to be realized in me. When we experience this, we have the church life. When there are a group of believers who know how to experience the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, they are the real church life, a functioning church, and the living Body of Christ. When we reject ourselves and know the grace of God, Christ will have the full ground and opportunity within us as the Holy Spirit. Then what we live out will be nothing but Christ Himself. Christ will be expressed and Christ will be all in all.
This experience of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ will solve all the problems in the church. These problems can never be solved simply by talking or discussing. In fact, the more we talk, the more trouble we will have; and the more we discuss, the more we will quarrel. If we try to solve problems by discussing them, once one problem is settled, ten more will be caused by the way it is settled. Problems in the church can never be solved by talking and discussing. They can only be settled by the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. They can be settled only when we reach the point where we can say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is a crisis, and we all must pass through this crisis. The church is the increase of Christ—Christ saturated into us and mingled with us. May we all look to the Lord that He would do such a deep and subjective work within us. Then the Body of Christ will be realized and manifested.
This is what the Lord is seeking. God’s heart’s desire is to have the real expression of Christ, the Body of Christ, the increase of Christ. Furthermore, this is the ultimate satisfaction of man’s spiritual experience. Unless you attain to this ultimate point, you can never be fully and ultimately satisfied. You may attain to some level of satisfaction through a certain amount of spiritual seeking and exercise; but after you achieve this satisfaction, you will still feel that you are short of something. You will never be fully satisfied until the Lord brings you to this ultimate point and you realize that you are a member of the Body of Christ. You will never be ultimately satisfied until you realize that this Body is the expression of Christ, the increase of Christ, and the enlargement of Christ. And you will never attain to this highest level of satisfaction until you are continually receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to reject yourself and give Christ as the Spirit the ground, chance, and opportunity to live in you and through you. When you reach this point, you will realize the church life. Then you will be satisfied in an ultimate way. You will say to the Lord, “O Lord, this is it. This is what You want and what I need. This is Your heart’s desire and the very thing that I have been looking for.” Especially in these last days, the Lord is seeking to recover the last of the divine things. Thus, we all must go along with the Lord to give Him the free way. We all must give Christ the free way, so that He can attain what He has been seeking for generations and generations. Today the Lord is still seeking after His heart’s desire. If we really love Him, are sincere with Him, and faithful to Him, we have to give Him the free way in us.