In these messages we have seen God’s purpose and plan, which is to work Himself into us that we might be built up into the one new man. And this is the Body-Christ. In the beginning of the Bible God was alone, but He had the desire to have a counterpart. Nothing could be His counterpart unless it was out of Him and brought back to Him. We should never forget that Eve came out of Adam. God did not create one man and one woman. God only created one man, and out of this one man a part was taken from his broken side with which God built a woman. God did not create a woman, but built a woman from that part which was taken out of man. Man was created, but woman was built. In building anything there is the need for material. Woman was built with a part of the man as the material. Eve came out of Adam and went back to Adam from whom she was taken. Then the two became one flesh.
The church as the Bride of Christ comes out of Christ. Christ on the cross was broken, and out of His side came blood and water. His blood redeems us, and the water, which signifies His life, is for the building up of the church. And the church must go back to Christ as His counterpart that they may become one. This is eventually the Body-Christ. We must realize that Eve was not only a part of Adam; Eve was Adam’s enlargement. Without Eve, Adam was incomplete. At best, he was just a half of the whole. A man must have a wife to make him complete. But God did not create another half for Adam; He put him to sleep and took a part out of his side and built this part into a woman. Then God brought this part back to Adam and Adam said, “This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).
We do not have this concept. Our concept is that we are fallen and sinful and we need a Redeemer, a Savior. But the New Testament tells us clearly that Christ came not only to be our Redeemer, but also to be the Bridegroom (John 3:29). He came for a bride, and His Bride was produced in just the same way as Adam’s was. Jesus went to the cross. In a sense, He was crucified, but in another sense, He was sleeping. During His sleeping, a part of Him was taken out. Throughout all the centuries, God has used this part to build the corporate Eve. One day this corporate Eve will be brought back to Him, and He will say, “This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This came out of Me.” This part becomes the enlargement of Christ, and this is the Body-Christ. The Body-Christ is Christ enlarged. Adam was enlarged in Eve, and now Christ is being enlarged in the church. One day the enlargement of Christ will be complete, and that will be the New Jerusalem.
Whenever the Bible speaks of the church as the Bride of Christ, there is always the need of building. Even in Genesis 2:22, the Bible uses the word “builded” concerning the rib out of which Eve was made. The King James Version uses the word “made,” but in the Hebrew it is the word “builded.” It is not that God made a woman, but that God builded a counterpart for Adam with the rib out of his side. Then, when we go to the end of the Bible, we see a building. That building is the New Jerusalem, and it is also the Bride (Rev. 21:2). The Bride is the holy city, and since it is a city, there is the need of building.
We have seen that the church is the Body of Christ, the new man, the Bride, and the dwelling place, or the temple of God. For the Body, the need is life; for the new man, the need is the person. For the Bride, the need is love; for the temple, God’s habitation, the need is the building. In life, the church is the Body; in person, the church is the new man; in love, the church is the Bride; and in building, the church is God’s habitation. The church must be these four things.