We have seen that God’s eternal intention is to express Himself in Christ. Furthermore, the expression of God has been enlarged to be the church. The church has been produced because the only begotten Son of God, who expressed God, has been enlarged to become the many sons of God. Previously, the Son of God was God’s only begotten Son, but now the only begotten Son has become a corporate son. Previously, the expression of God could be seen only in Christ, but now the expression of God has become a corporate expression. This corporate expression of God is the testimony of the church. If we know the expression of God, we will know the testimony of the church, the function of the church. Therefore, we need to see the function of the church in relation to Christ.
The function of the church is to express Christ, to testify of Christ. We have repeatedly said that God expresses Himself through Christ by putting Himself into Christ. In the same way, Christ puts Himself into the church to be expressed through the church. Therefore, the function of the church is to be Christ’s expression. When the church expresses Christ, the church testifies of Christ in the universe. Therefore, the function of the church is to be a testimony expressing Christ.
On the evening before His death, the Lord Jesus told the disciples, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you..., the Spirit of reality,...He will testify concerning Me; and you testify also” (John 15:26-27). The Lord meant that we should outwardly testify of the things that the Spirit has inwardly revealed to us concerning Him. When the Lord was about to ascend to the heavens after His resurrection, the disciples wanted to discuss several matters with Him, but He told them that these matters were of no concern to them. Instead, they were told to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. The Holy Spirit would come to testify concerning the Lord. The Lord said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses...unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We need to understand that this witnessing is carried out not only by preaching Christ in words but even more by people living out Christ. Moreover, the saved ones should live out Christ, not as individuals but as a corporate entity—the Body, which is the church. To live out Christ in this way is to express Christ, to testify of Christ. This is the function of the church concerning Christ. Now we will look at the testifying function of the church in detail.
According to the Bible, being God’s testimony involves speaking forth God, declaring God, and expressing God. Even if no humans were serving in this manner, there would be some things or some words that would testify of Him. Whether there are certain words, certain matters, or certain individuals or groups of individuals, whoever or whatever speaks forth God, declares God, and expresses God is a testimony of God. This is the meaning of testimony in the Bible.
We have already seen that Adam, the patriarchs, the tabernacle and the temple among the children of Israel, the prophets, and all the men of God in the Old Testament were expressions of God. Since they were expressions of God, they were also testimonies of God. Adam was a testimony of God, as was Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the positive persons and things among the children of Israel. Since these people and things expressed God to a lesser or greater degree, they were part of the testimony of God.
In Exodus 25:16, 21, and 40:20 the word testimony is translated as “law” in the Chinese Union Version. God told Moses to put the law into the Ark, but the Hebrew word used in these verses is actually the word for testimony. This shows that in God’s eyes the law was His testimony. Therefore, He called the law “the testimony.”
According to the context of Psalms 19:7, 78:5, and 119:2 testimony and testimonies also denote the law. In these verses the law is also called “the testimony” or “testimonies.”
The law—the Ten Commandments—was written on two tablets. In Exodus 31:18 the Chinese Union Version speaks of “the two tablets of the law,” but the Hebrew text actually refers to “the two tablets of the testimony.” Since the law is the testimony, the two tablets on which the law was written were called “the tablets of the testimony.”