CHAPTER ONE

ONE BODY

Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:3-6

OUTLINE

1. One God—Triune—Gen. 1:1.
2. One incarnation—God mingling Himself with man—John 1:1, 14.
3. One Christ in His incarnation—Matt. 1:16.
4. One crucifixion:
   1. Terminating the old creation—Rom. 6:6.
   2. Dealing with Satan, the world, sin, and all negative things—Heb. 2:14; John 12:31; 1:29; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 2:14.
5. One resurrection:
   1. Germinating the new creation.
   2. Begetting Christ in His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God—Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29.
   3. Making Christ (the last Adam) the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b.
   4. Regenerating all the believers in Christ to be the many sons of God—1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10-11.
6. One Christ in His ascension—Acts 2:32-36.
7. One Body of Christ:
   1. The fullness, the expression, of the One who fills all in all—Eph. 1:23.
   2. The organism of the processed and consummated Triune God—Eph. 3:17-19.
   3. Constituted with all the members of Christ—Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 10:17.
8. One new man—Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11:
   1. Christ is all the members of this one new man.
   2. Christ is in all the members of this one new man.
   3. For the accomplishment of God's eternal economy—Eph. 3:8-10.
9. One church of God—Eph. 1:22; 1 Cor. 10:32b:
   1. Manifested in many localities—Rev. 1:11.
   2. As many local churches—Rev. 1:4.
10. The local churches:
    1. Many in existence.
    2. Still one Body universally in element—Eph. 4:4.
11. The secret in practicality:
    1. The one accord in the local churches—Phil. 1:27b; 2:2.
    2. The oneness in the universal Body—Eph. 4:3; John 17:11, 21-23.
12. The unique relationship, fellowship, and blending of all the local churches:
    1. As much as practicality allows.
    2. Without boundaries of states, provinces, or nations.
13. The clustering and the moving together of neighboring churches:
    1. As much as possible.
    2. Without the abolishing of the local administrations in business affairs.
14. The practices of the Lord and the apostle:
    1. The Lord's blending the seven churches in Asia into one by sending them one total epistle respectively and collectively with the whole book of Revelation—Rev. 1:4, 11; chs. 2—3.
    2. The apostle Paul's blending the two churches in Colossae and Laodicea as one by sending them epistles in common—Col. 4:16.
    3. The apostle Paul's practice of the fellowship of the Body among the churches in his greetings—Rom. 16:1-16, 20-24.
15. All the local churches on the entire globe should be absolutely one:
    1. By being:
       1. In the oneness of the Spirit.
       2. In the one accord of our spirit, soul, and mind.
    2. In the realm of:
       1. The growth of life for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
       2. The preaching of the gospel.
       3. The spreading of the Lord's recovery.
       4. The building up of the Body of Christ.
       5. The accomplishment of God's eternal economy.
16. For the Lord's move in His recovery both locally and universally, we all need to be:
    1. Body-conscious in one accord.
    2. Body-centered in oneness.