According to the past messages on the indwelling Christ and this message on the new man, we can see that all the members of this new man will be wholly filled up by Christ. We will even be saturated, permeated, and covered with Christ. Thus we shall all become a corporate Christ, because the Body is Christ. First Corinthians 12:12 tells us that Christ is the Body. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.” This is the Body-Christ. Today our Christ is the Body-Christ. He was God, He became flesh for redemption, and He became the life-giving Spirit to come into us and work within us. Now He becomes the Body-Christ.
In the beginning of the Bible we see God creating the heavens and the earth, but at the end of the Bible, God is in the Lamb surrounded by a city. In the beginning of the Bible God was alone, without a counterpart to match Him. That was signified by His saying that it is not good for man to be alone. That signifies that it is not good for Him to be alone. He wants a counterpart, and this counterpart is a corporate man. As we read on through the Bible we see that although man becomes fallen, God redeems him through the cross and becomes the life-giving Spirit to get into him. Finally, God gets a living city, and that living city is just His counterpart. The living city will be His bride, and He will be the Bridegroom. Our God was alone in eternity past, but in eternity future He will have a counterpart. The New Jerusalem is the eternal Eve, and God in Christ is the real Adam. The church as His bride came out of His side, and eventually she will go back to Him for eternity. The whole New Jerusalem with God in Christ will be the Body-Christ.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. This is the first stage. The Word becoming flesh to be the Redeemer is the second stage. Then the Redeemer, through death and resurrection, became the life-giving Spirit to be the indwelling One, which is the third stage. Eventually, from the indwelling One, the new man is realized to become the Body-Christ. This is the fourth stage. Praise the Lord that we are now in the fourth stage! The Jews are in the first stage. They all believe in the one God. The fundamental Christians are in the second stage, and are somewhat better than the Jews because they believe in God, and they also believe in Christ and the Redeemer. Some Christians are in the third stage, realizing that Christ not only died for them, but also that He lives within them as their life. These are the improved Christians. But praise the Lord that it does not stop here! We must get into the fourth stage, the Body-Christ.
Ephesians 4:13-16 tells us that we must all arrive at a full grown man. This is the new man, the proper church life, where we will be no more children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Even the best doctrine can be a wind that carries us away from the Head and the Body. But if we hold on to the Head, we will grow up into Him in all things. Then out of Him, the whole Body will be fitly joined and compacted together by every joint of supply, according to the effectual working of every part of the Body to build itself up in love. This is the experience in the process of the Body-Christ. Now in the church life we are not only enjoying God, the Redeemer, and the indwelling One, but also the Body-Christ. Whenever we come together, something of Christ comes out of all of us. We are just the Body-Christ, the corporate Christ, sharing Christ with one another.
Today Christ is not alone. He is not merely the Redeemer or the Life-giver. Today our Christ is the Body-Christ. We could never enjoy the Body-Christ individually. To enjoy the Body-Christ we have to be in the new man, the proper church life. It is only here that Christ could be the Body-Christ. Nothing is so sweet as the church meetings. If you were to take me away from the meetings for one week, I would just die. Here we enjoy the riches of Christ coming out of all the saints. I especially like the sharing of the young brothers and sisters. There is no need for us to be so rich individually; we have the riches already in the Body-Christ. And the more we experience Christ, the more riches and the more enjoyment of the Body-Christ there will be in the church life. This is the ultimate enjoyment of Christ.