Christ lives in us to be all the members of the new man (Col. 3:10-11). We are the members of the new man, and every member of the new man must be Christ. Christ is the element of the new man, and the very God who is in Christ is the essence of the new man. We are the outward shell, the outward components, of the new man.
Christ is all the members of the new man for the believers' church life. In the church life there are no Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Germans, or Spanish. Christ is everything in the new man. Colossians 3:10-11 says, "And having put on the new man...where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all." In the new man we all have been annulled. Now there is only Christ. Christ should be our daily life, and He should also be our church life. This is our life in the present age. If Christ were our daily life and our church life, there would be no problem in our family life and church life. The problems in our family life and church life come because we live as Chinese, as New Zealanders, or as Americans. When we live in such a way, the church life is annulled. When we live out something other than Christ, the church life is finished. Therefore, we must be annulled and Christ should live. When we are annulled and Christ lives, we have the proper church life.
Christ's being our life in the coming age will be different from His being our life today, because the age will change from the church age to the kingdom age. Christ is life to us in one way in the church age, and He will be life to us in another way in the kingdom age.
Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God and as life to His believers will become the enlarged kingdom of God in the coming age (Dan. 2:34-36, 44). In the present age, Christ is our life (Col. 3:4a); in the coming kingdom age, the millennium, Christ as life to us will be the kingdom. Today, Christ is life to us, and tomorrow, He will be the kingdom to us. In this age we may receive Christ as our life free of charge, but in order to inherit Christ as the kingdom in the next age, we must pay a very high price. Although the Christ who lives in our human spirit today may seem to be very small, in the coming age of the kingdom, He will become a great mountain that fills the entire earth (Dan. 2:34-35)
In the coming age, Christ will become the enlarged kingdom of God, typified by the stone cut out without human hands. Today, in the church age, Christ is a small stone (1 Pet. 2:4), but in the kingdom age this stone will become a great mountain that fills the whole earth. This great mountain will be the enlargement of the stone in the church age. Daniel 2:34-35 and 44 say, "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth...And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (ASV). According to these verses in Daniel 2, the coming kingdom is likened to a mountain. The mountain mentioned in verse 35 is the enlargement of a stone cut out without human hands. This stone is Christ, and the mountain that is the enlargement of the stone is the kingdom. The upcoming kingdom will be the enlargement of Christ.