CHAPTER FIVE

THE REALITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

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OUTLINE

1. The corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life, but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.
2. A corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ-Phil. 3:10.
3. The mingling living, in the eternal union, of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God (who is the pneumatic Christ as the embodiment of the processed and consummated Triune God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit as the reality of the pneumatic Christ and the consummation of the processed Triune God) in the resurrection of Christ, of which the life-giving Spirit is the reality and which imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers.
4. Consummating ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.

The crucial part of our fellowship in the previous chapter still remains here as a burden. In this chapter we want to complete our fellowship on the reality of the Body of Christ.

I thank the Lord that in the last days He has unveiled to us the highest peak of His revelation in His holy Word concerning God’s eternal economy. The blending conference is to bring us to reach this highest peak. To do this I still have a burden which is very, very crucial.

THE TRIUNE GOD’S INDWELLING WITHIN US

Although in this point what I am going to fellowship with you, doctrinally speaking, is quite common, it has not been practiced among us very much. This point is the Triune God’s indwelling within us. Romans 8 says that the indwelling Spirit ministers life into our mortal being (v. 11). There the word indwell is strongly stressed. Actually, the Lord’s word while He was on earth referred to this already. In John 14:17-20 the Lord told us that by the Spirit of reality coming into us the Lord would live. Where would He live? He would live in us. And who is He? He is not just Jesus Christ, but the Spirit of reality. So no doubt, this means that when the Spirit of reality comes, the Lord Himself would dwell in us in order to live in us. He said, “Because I live, you also shall live” (v. 19b). He lives and we live.

If you read this portion of the Word carefully, you can see that this is not a kind of individual living. This is a corporate living that we live with the Lord since He lives within us. We live together a corporate living. John 14:20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” These three ins indicate a strong fact which is very, very glorious. The eternal God, after His creation and after passing through the necessary processes, eventually became the Spirit of reality. As such a Spirit, He lives in us that we may live together with Him. So this living is a mingling. These three ins-I am in My Father, you in Me, and I in you-indicate not only a corporate living but also a mingling.

For us to reach the high peak of God’s economy, that is, the reality of the Body of Christ, we must firstly see this divine indwelling within us. We may know this already, but we have not paid sufficient attention to it. In other words, I do not believe anyone among us, including me, is constantly and instantly living with the indwelling Lord.
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