The believers in Christ are being constituted with Christ into His one Body. Not only were we baptized into one Body; we are being constituted with Christ to become His Body. First Corinthians 12:12 says, “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” In Greek Christ in this verse is “the Christ,” referring to the corporate Christ, composed of Christ Himself as the Head and the church as His Body, of which all the believers are members. All the believers in Christ have an organic union with Him and are constituted with His life and element to be His Body, an organism to express Him. Hence, He is not only the Head but also the Body. As our physical body is one yet composed of many members, so is the Christ.
Only when all the members are constituted with Christ, having His life and nature, can the church become the Body of Christ. If we look at our physical body, we will realize that anything that does not have our life and nature is not and cannot be a part of our body. Just as our body is part of us, the Body of Christ, the church, is part of Christ. As members of the Body, we are part of Christ, being constituted with Christ.
Since the reality of Christ is the Spirit, the way for us to be constituted as His Body is to drink the Spirit. The Body has been formed through baptism in one Spirit. We have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body. Having been baptized into one Body, we have been placed in a position to drink so that we may be constituted as the Body by drinking the Spirit. By drinking the Spirit, we experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity into our being, and by drinking the Spirit, we are constituted the Body. Therefore, what the Body of Christ needs is not organization but a unique constitution composed of the divine element wrought into our inward being through our drinking of the one Spirit. The more we drink of this one Spirit, the more the divine element becomes our constituent to make us the one Body.
Just as the vine in John 15 is an organism, the church as the Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God. No man, matter, thing, or even the devil can damage the Body because it is an organism constituted with Christ; the Body is the constitution of God, the organism of God. In Revelation the church, the Body of Christ, as the embodiment of the Triune God is depicted by the golden lampstand; the golden lampstand typifies the embodied Triune God. The Body of Christ is a divine constitution; it is an organism constituted with the person of the Triune God. We need to see that we are constituted with Christ to be the Body of Christ.
For the believers to corporately experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, three steps are needed: to enter into the kingdom and live the kingdom life, to live in the church through living the kingdom life, and to live in the Body of Christ through living in the church life. The New Testament reveals that God works to gain the kingdom so that the church can be built up to be the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God, expressing the Triune God embodied in Christ. Therefore, the believers need to live in the kingdom, in the church, and in the Body of Christ in order to corporately experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity so that the Lord may have a way to accomplish His eternal purpose and so that they may receive a reward.
The first step for the believers to live in the Body of Christ is to be baptized in one Spirit into one Body, and the second step is to drink this one Spirit. The Spirit is the sphere and element of the spiritual baptism of the believers, in whom the believers are baptized into an organic entity, the Body of Christ, to express Christ. The Body of Christ is the destination of the believers; therefore, the believers should live, move, serve, and worship in the Body. In this way the believers can drink the Spirit. To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and be lost in Him; to drink the Spirit is for the believers to take the Spirit in and have their whole being saturated with Him. By these two procedures, the believers are mingled with the Spirit.
The believers in Christ are not only baptized into one Body; they are being constituted with Christ to become His one Body, which is the third step. This requires that the believers as members of Christ be constituted with Christ and have His life and nature so that the church can become the Body of Christ. The reality of Christ is the Spirit; hence, the way to be constituted with Christ to be His Body is to drink the Spirit. The more the believers drink this one Spirit, the more the divine element will become their constituent and make them the one Body. This Body is the organism of the Triune God that no man, matter, or thing can damage.