The secret of experiencing Christ is first to receive three revelations. The first is the revelation of Christ's Person, and the second is the revelation of Christ's work. These two revelations have been adequately covered in the previous chapters. In this chapter we come to the third revelation, the revelation concerning the believers' organic union with Christ. This organic union is the most crucial aspect of the secret of experiencing Christ. For us to experience Christ and enjoy Him, we must see a clear vision concerning our organic union with Him.
The Bible first reveals to us the Person of Christ, and then it reveals to us the work of Christ. After these two basic revelations, the Bible reveals to us the organic union which we have with Christ. In one of the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospel of John, we see an illustration of the vine with all the branches. Then in the following twenty-three books, from Acts through Revelation, what is revealed is mainly this organic union. Paul's fourteen Epistles especially focus on this one thing. The more we read Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the more we can realize that Paul had seen a full revelation, and that he had a full knowledge concerning this revelation which unveils to us our organic union with Christ.
The most wonderful reality in the Christian experience is that all the believers in Christ are united with Him in the way of life. The union of the believers with Christ is not by organization, but by life; hence, this union is organic. The word organic denotes that this union is absolutely a matter of life.
A good illustration of this organic union is our physical body. Our body has many members, but all the members are organically united into one body. The uniting factor is life. When the body dies, after a certain number of days all the members will be separated and scattered. When life is in the body, all the members are organically united together, but when life is gone, all the members eventually become disunited, detached. The members of the body are united together not by organization, but by a living, crucial, and vital factor—life. We the believers in Christ are one with Him because of such a living, uniting factor. For this reason we refer to our union with Christ as an organic union. In this message I would like to impress you with the fact that we have such an organic union with Christ.
Christ is wonderful in His Person, and He is excellent in His work. In His Person, He is both the complete God and the perfect man. In His work, He did everything that is needed for the fulfilling of God's purpose, and He did everything that is needed for our benefit. Whatever He is and whatever He has done is altogether for one thing: that He could be united to us organically. This wonderful organic union is very much neglected by most Christians today. Today's Christianity has become a religion, a religious organization, full of teachings, doctrines, ordinances, and practices, a religion which neglects the matter of life. Many Christians preach Christ and teach Christ in an objective way, making Him an objective Redeemer and an objective Savior. In their concept and realization Christ is in the third heavens, not within them. They may be right to a certain extent in an objective way, but surely they are wrong in relation to the subjective reality. Today in the Lord's recovery, the Lord is recovering this neglected matter of the believers' organic union with Christ.