The Body of Christ is similar to our human body; it was born into being, not manufactured. Its origin and source is the Triune God. And this Triune God has a name; He is called the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19). The Body of Christ came from Him, and He is our origin. According to the flesh, our source is our parents. Every one of us has a genealogy, a record of our origin. If we trace back our origin generation by generation, at the end the last generation is Adam. Regardless of our nationality or of our race, we all have a common source, that is, Adam. And Adam is from God; he was the son of God (Luke 3:38). Spiritually speaking, we who are the members of the Body of Christ came from the Triune God. The Triune God is the source of the Body of Christ.
The Triune God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Yet these three-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit-are one God. First, this Triune God is the Father, who is the source of us believers. Galatians 4:6 and Romans 8:15 show us that we who are regenerated and have a life union with God are the children of God; hence, we call God, “Abba Father.” This God who has become our Abba Father is the source of you and me and is also the source of the Body of Christ. This Father God who has become our source has begotten us that we might become His children (John 1:12). Therefore, we have two births; one was our physical birth from our parents; the other was our spiritual birth from God our Father (1:13). According to the flesh, we are the children of our parents; hence, we have last names like Cheng, Lee, or Wang. But spiritually speaking, we were born of God the Father and are the children of God. Therefore, God becomes our common last name; our last name is God. God is our source. We are all the children of God, the members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19).
God the Father regenerated us in time, but in eternity past, long before the beginning of time and the creation of all things, He exercised His foreknowledge to select and predestinate us (Eph. 1:4-5), marking us out from among myriads of people. Then in time, at the right moment, God the Spirit, following the changes in the world situation and the environmental arrangement, sanctified us (1 Pet. 1:2a). This is what is recorded in Luke 15 concerning the Triune God saving sinners. There God the Spirit is likened to a woman lighting a lamp and sweeping the house to finely seek after the lost coin. Both you and I had this kind of experience when we were saved. While we listened to the gospel, the Holy Spirit was going along with the word of the gospel to enlighten and seek within us that we might be awakened (Luke 15:8, 17) and convicted concerning sin (John 16:8-11). Then we believed in our heart, confessed with our mouth, and called on the name of the Lord Jesus. Thus, we were saved and were regenerated to be the sons of God (Rom. 8:19), the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15; 12:27).
We became the members of the Body of Christ because the Holy Spirit, when we repented and believed in the Lord, entered into us so that we received the life of God and became regenerated. Actually, this Holy Spirit who has entered into us is the life of God becoming life within us. From that day on, there has been something additional within us. Sometimes this something within us rebukes and regulates us. This is not merely the functioning of our conscience. Rather, we have something more within us, the Lord who has become our living person. This is tremendous. My burden is to show you that the source of the Body of Christ is the Father; He is the source of life. Through His Spirit He has sanctified us and regenerated us that we might become the sons of God, the members of Christ. I hope that all of you sitting here will be clear concerning this matter. Today we do not believe into a religion, nor do we join a religion. We believe into a living and true Triune God. As soon as we repented and believed into Him, this Triune God as the Spirit came into us to be our life, to enliven us, and to make us a part of the organic Body of Christ. For this reason, many young people who believed in the Lord, though they were persecuted greatly and faced opposition from their parents, still stood firmly. Regardless of the situation, they still believe in the Lord, not because they are strong, but because they have a life within them that is strong. This life is the Triune God Himself; it includes God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
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