In the last message, we saw the elements, essence, and reality of the Body of Christ. Now based on that, we are going to speak about the living of the Body of Christ. We all know that the living of human beings, birds, beasts, or cattle is according to the element and essence of its life. Birds fly in the air because they have the essence and capacity of flying. Cats catch mice and dogs bark because they each have their respective essence and capacity.
Ephesians 4:4 through 6 may be considered the most profound verses in the entire Bible. They say, “One Body and one Spirit, as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Here there are seven “ones,” which are divided into three groups. The first three items, one Body, one Spirit, and one hope, form the first group. The second three items, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, form the second group. Lastly, one God and Father of all is the third group. Although these three verses are short, they are very mysterious, revealing to us that the Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-is related to the Body of Christ.
These verses first mention “one Body”; this is then followed by the “one Spirit.” This Spirit is the essence and reality of the Body of Christ. The essence is contained within and the reality is expressed without. The Spirit of the Triune God is the essence within the Body of Christ and the reality manifested without. This causes the Body to have a hope, which is regeneration and saturation by the Spirit unto the manifestation of the glory of God. This glory is our hope in the future (Col. 1:27). Every saved person has been born of the Spirit and has obtained the Spirit, who is the essence and reality of the Body of Christ. This Spirit wants to saturate us within continuously, to completely saturate our tripartite being so that we would eventually manifest the glory of divinity.
The worldly people live in this world without hope and without God. When they are young, they desire to get into good schools; after graduation, they desire to go abroad to study, and then get a good job, find a good mate, have a family and business, and raise children. But eventually they still cannot escape becoming old, suffering illnesses, and finally dying. Then all their hopes are over. However, we are not like this. We have a glorious hope because within us we have the Spirit, who is the essence and reality of the Triune God, saturating us continuously. When the Lord comes back, He will be manifested from within us to bring us together with Him into glory.
Beside this, there is also one Lord, that is, the Son in the divine Trinity. He came to be our life. This life became our element within, that is, the element of the Body of Christ. The Spirit is the essence of this Body as something within; He is also the reality of this Body as something without. The Lord is the element of this Body. Furthermore, there are also “one faith, one baptism.” Originally we were all in Adam; our element was the element of Adam, the element of death, not the element of life. We were all dead in Adam. Strictly speaking, in Adam people are not living daily, but dying daily. A man’s age is like savings in the bank. In the beginning you make a deposit, and then you continue to write checks. Your savings gradually decrease, and eventually there is nothing left and it is finished. When human beings live one day, they lose one day; when they live one year, they lose one year. This is the situation in Adam, where Adam is taken as the element. But when we believed in the Lord and were baptized into water, our old man was buried and the element which came from Adam was terminated. The Israelites crossing the Red Sea is a type of baptism. Once they crossed the Red Sea, their relationship with Egypt was severed. Similarly, through baptism we were severed from the element of Adam. Therefore, baptism is a termination, a severance; believing is an entering in and a joining. When we believed and were baptized, we came out of Adam; at the same time, we entered into Christ and were united to Christ. Hence, within us we have another life, which is a new life, a new element. The old life is the life of Adam, the element of Adam; the new one is Christ as life, Christ as the element. From this element of Christ comes the essence and reality of the Spirit. This implies that from Christ as the element of the Body of Christ comes the Spirit as the essence and reality of the Body of Christ.
We have said that the church is different from any human association. The church has God; an association does not have God. Hence, this church which has God becomes a Body, an organism, of Christ. Because a human association does not have life as the element, it will never become an organism. However, if there is no element of Christ in the church, but only the element of Adam, it is still not the organic Body of Christ. Although we have already been baptized, there is still the possibility that we remain in Adam and have Adam as the element, instead of the element of Christ. This then is not the church. Therefore, we must accept the dealing of the cross to deal with our old man and naturalness; we should let Adam go and let Christ come out. We are living a human life, yet we speak by Christ and even speak the word of Christ. When everyone is like this, we are the genuine church, because it is Christ who is the life and element here.
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