With this message we begin a series of messages on the Body. Ephesians 4:4 says, "One body, and one Spirit." This indicates that the Body is something of the Spirit and that the Spirit has a great deal to do with the Body. If there is no Spirit, there can be no Body. The Spirit is the reality of the Body. The Body issues out of the Spirit and is constituted of the Spirit. If we know the Spirit, we know the Body. If we know the Body, we must have had the experience of the Spirit. Most Christians do not adequately realize that the Spirit is for the Body and that the Body is for the Spirit. Just as our physical life and our physical body are inseparable, so the Body and the Spirit are inseparable. Without life, our physical body is just a corpse. The Body and the Spirit are one. The Spirit is the life, the reality, and the constituent of the Body.
Four books in the New Testament are concerned with the Body: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. Colossians does not say much about the Body because it is a book on the Head. However, as a book concerning the Head, it also refers to the Body, for we cannot have the Head without the Body. Ephesians is a book on the Body. But Ephesians also covers the Head. Therefore, in Colossians, the book concerned with the Head, we have the Head with the Body; and in Ephesians, the book concerned with the Body, we have the Body with the Head. Each of these four books covers a different aspect of the Body. If we would know the Body, we must know the various aspects of the Body. Although Ephesians was written later than Romans and 1 Corinthians, we must consider it first because it reveals how the Body is produced, how the Body comes into existence, how the Body is formed, and how the Body is constituted.
Ephesians 1:19 and 20 say, "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." We may say both that power has been wrought in Christ and that Christ has been worked upon. In other words, Christ has been processed. This word "processed" sounds strange to religious ears. The religious ones will wonder how the Lord Jesus could have been processed. Nevertheless, we must take care of the fact. Christ, who is God, one day became a man, a despised Nazarene with no physical beauty. One day He was crucified and stayed there on the cross for several hours. After He died, His side was pierced, and blood and water came forth. Then He was buried in the tomb, and after three days He was resurrected. He was nailed to the cross in the flesh, but He was resurrected in the Spirit. He was crucified with a natural body, but He was resurrected with a spiritual body. Was this not a process? If this is not a process, then what is it? The Lord Jesus certainly underwent a long process. In any kind of cooking the food is processed. Everything we take into us as food, even if it is raw, has been processed in some way. How could a watermelon get into us without being sliced and processed?
Christ, our Redeemer, has become a life-giving Spirit. Our concept is natural, and we have been too much under the influence of Christianity. Do not think that since Christ has become the life-giving Spirit, He is only great, majestic, and transcendent. Do not suppose that He imparts life into you by coming upon you in some electrifying way. As the life-giving Spirit today, Christ is like a small particle of processed food. This food is life-giving. Every day I am strengthened by eating nourishing food. In like manner, Christ gives us life not from the heavens, but from within us. If you say, "O Lord Jesus, I love You," you will receive life. This life comes to you not from the third heaven, but from within you, because Christ, the life-giving Spirit, is in you. According to the religious concept, Christ is a great One. But He is not only great, for the life-giving Christ today is also very small. We need to praise Him for His smallness. How small our Christ is! Anything we eat is smaller than we are. For example, can you eat a large, thick steak whole? No, before you can eat it, you must cut it into small pieces, the smaller, the better.
In Ephesians 1 we see that Christ has been processed through death and resurrection into ascension. Verse 19 says, "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." The word "working" is a weak translation of a Greek word which actually means "energizing." Therefore, this verse, and the first part of verse 20, should read, "According to the energizing of his mighty power, which he [God] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." Here we see the process Christ has undergone, from death, through resurrection, to ascension far above all principality, power, might, dominion, and name. Verse 22 says that God "hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church." This is the process through which Christ has passed. Having passed through such a process and having obtained so much and having attained to such a high position, He now has all things under His feet, and He is the Head over all things.