How wonderful to take Christ as our person! When we are all taking Him as our person, the real oneness is brought in. Romans 15:6 says, “That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” How could one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand people have one mind and one mouth? Here is a verse which tells us that the church has one mind and one mouth. How could this be? How could all the Californians, the Texans, the Yankees, the Filipinos, the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Germans, and the British all have one mind and one mouth? It seems impossible. The only way is if we all take Christ as our person. All of us must put aside our own person. All the other persons must be buried! Then we will all have only one person, and that is Christ who is our unique person. Thus we will all become one man.
Since the last century, the matter of the Body of Christ has been stressed so much by the seeking Christians. Everywhere you can hear the seeking ones talking about the Body of Christ. But most Christians have never seen that the Body of Christ is not only a Body, but also a new man. Because they have not seen this, some of the translators translated the Bible in a wrong way. The Revised Standard Version in Ephesians 4:22-24 translates the Greek word for man into nature. The new man in Ephesians 4:24 is not the new nature. This can be clearly seen in chapter two. “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to create in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph. 2:15-16). Here we see that the new man is not an individual matter; it is a corporate entity. First, Paul says that Christ abolished all the ordinances to create a new man of two peoples. And we know that these two peoples are the Jews and the Gentiles. Then in the following verse, he says that Christ reconciled both of these two peoples unto God in one Body by the cross. By reading these two verses it is clear that the one new man is the one Body and the one Body is the one new man.
By this we can see that the church is not only a Body, but also a man. This point has not been seen by most Christians. In recent years the Lord has shown us that the church is not only a Body, but a man. What is the difference between a body and a man? A body needs life, but a man needs not only life but also a person. A tree needs life, but a tree does not need a person. The life in a tree grows, but that life is not a person. A man not only has a life to live, but also a person to express. To grow is a matter of life, but to express oneself is a matter of a person. The church as the Body of Christ needs life. The church is not an organization; it is a living organism, and this is something pertaining to life. Yet the church is not only the Body, but also the new man. As the new man, the church not only needs life, but also a person.
To have one mind and one mouth is not related so much to the life as to the person. Why are there so many opinions among Christians today? It is because nearly all the Christians do not know that they should take Christ as their person. Regardless of how many Christians come together, the person should only be one. So the whole church as the one new man has only one mind and one mouth of the one Person. As the Body of Christ and as the one new man the church not only needs the life, but also the person. We are here not only for the Body, but also for the new man. And this new man has a unique person that is neither you nor me. Hallelujah! Our person is Christ. Now we can understand how thousands of people could have one mind and one mouth. The philosophers would say that this is impossible, but we do know that this is a fact for we have experienced this fact. This is because all the believers as the members of the Body of Christ must take Christ as their person. When we all take this one Person, He thinks for us and He speaks for us. We all have one mind to think and one mouth to speak.
In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be attuned to the same mind and to the same opinion” (Gk.). How could we be attuned to the same mind and to the same opinion? The only way is to forget about our person and take Christ as our person. When we all take Christ as our person, spontaneously we will all be attuned to the same mind and to the same opinion. Thus we will be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus (Rom. 15:5). It is not according to the Scripture, doctrine, knowledge, or anything else; we can only be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. If it is according to doctrine, immediately we will be of a different mind. There are so many doctrines to argue about. Should baptism be by sprinkling or immersion? Is the rapture pre-tribulation, post-tribulation, or mid-tribulation? Is man a dichotomy or a trichotomy? What about speaking in tongues? Doctrinally speaking, we could never stop arguing.