Search
Scripture Reading: Col. 2:2; 1:27; Eph. 3:4; 5:32; 1:22-23; 1 Tim. 3:15-16
As we have seen, the central thought of God is Christ with the church. The entire Scriptures with sixty-six books is centered on Christ as the expression of God through the church as His corporate Body.
In the Old Testament the history of the people of Israel is simply a history of the tabernacle and the temple. In the wilderness there were about six hundred thousand men between the ages of twenty and fifty who could go to war to fight for God. If each one of them had a wife, this number would have been doubled, and if each couple had children, their number would have more than tripled. Therefore, there may have been more than two million people in the wilderness traveling and doing nothing but handling the tabernacle day by day, day in and day out, for forty years. When they journeyed, they carried the tabernacle with them, and when they stopped, they set up the tabernacle. In the New Testament the principle is the same. Do you know what we Christians are doing all day long? All we should do is handle the tabernacle, which is a type of the increase of Christ, that is, Christ with the church. This is our business. This is our life and our daily living.
Later, after the children of Israel entered into Canaan, they commenced the second part of their history, the history of the temple. When they enjoyed the produce of the land, they were able to bring forth the temple, which was something more solid and more stable than the tabernacle. The temple was the meaning, the explanation, and the center of their life. Likewise, today when we enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive good land, we also are able to bring forth something as the increase of Christ, the enlargement of Christ, that is, the church.
In the New Testament we are told that “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14). This means that Christ Himself, by being incarnated, became the tabernacle, the dwelling place, of God. Then in John 2:18-21 the Lord Himself told us that His body was the temple of God, which the Jewish people were going to destroy. He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). The body that the Lord raised up in three days was a much bigger body, an increased body. The Lord’s body in the flesh was put to death on the cross, but a mysterious Body was raised up through the resurrection of Christ. This mysterious Body is Christ with all the believers. Christ, including all the believers, is a mysterious temple for God. Thus, in the New Testament we have Christ as the center and the church as His increase, expansion, and enlargement. In other words, Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body. This is the central thought of the entire New Testament.
The New Testament reveals to us a great, mysterious, and universal man, with Jesus Christ as the Head and all the believers as the Body. The Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, reveal to us Christ as the Head; then Acts reveals the Body. In Acts we see Christ acting, living, moving, and working in His Body. Some people refer to Acts as the acts of the apostles, but strictly speaking, Acts is the acts of Christ as the Spirit through the apostles, and not only through the apostles but also through all the disciples, through all the believers, through the whole Body. Hence, Acts is the acts of the Head as the Spirit through the Body. Thus, we see the universal, great man — the Head with the Body.
When Saul, who strongly opposed the church, was on his way to Damascus, the Lord met him and said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (9:4). Saul was greatly amazed and said, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5). Saul thought that he was persecuting Peter, Stephen, and the other Jesus-followers, who were people on the earth, but he never thought that he was touching anyone in heaven. To his great surprise a voice from heaven told him that He was the One whom Paul was persecuting and that His name was Jesus. What the Lord was saying to Paul was, “When you persecute Peter, you persecute Me. When you persecute the church, you persecute Me, because I am in the church and the church is a part of Me.” This “Me” is the universal, great man, with Christ as the Head and the church as the Body.
After the first five books of the New Testament there are the Epistles, from Romans to Jude, followed by the seven epistles to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. All these deal with this great mysterious man by giving us the definition, the explanation, of this great man and telling us how the members of this great man come into being. In the book of Romans we are told clearly that originally we were sinners, but one day we were saved and justified, and gradually we are transformed into the living members, the members in reality, the members functioning in the Body. Then at the end of Romans we see the Body of Christ and the Body life with all the members. This is the central message of the book of Romans. In brief, Romans reveals to us that we all, whether Jews or Gentiles, were formerly sinners, but through the redemption, justification, deliverance, and transformation of the Triune God we become the members of the living Body of Christ.
Following this is 1 Corinthians. The first Epistle to the Corinthians deals with the problem of the gifts. The gifts carried the Corinthian believers away from the center. Gifts can distract us from the central line of God, which is Christ as the Head being life to the Body and the church as the Body with all the believers being living, functioning members. The proper and central line is to experience Christ, to feed on Christ, to live by Christ, and to express Christ in a corporate way. However, the spiritual gifts, which seemed to be good and of God, distracted the Corinthians from the proper and central line to pay attention to something other than Christ and the church.
Since the Corinthian believers appreciated the gifts, they also appreciated and highly valued the gifted persons. Some appreciated Paul, others appreciated Apollos, and still others appreciated Peter (1:12). They appreciated the gifts and the gifted persons, but they forgot the Giver. Paul was a gift, Apollos was a gift, and Peter was a gift. However, they are not the Giver, they are not the Head, and they are not Christ. The Corinthian believers did not know Christ deeply, and they did not know the church in the way of Christ. They paid too much attention to the gifts rather than to Christ and the church. Hence, the apostle Paul told them, “We preach Christ crucified” (v. 23). Furthermore, he said, “I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified” (2:2). The apostle tried his best to bring the distracted believers from the gifts back to Christ and the church.
In 1 Corinthians 11 we have Christ as the Head and the church as the Body. In this chapter the apostle Paul tells us that in the church the believers need to do two things — to properly care for head covering and to have the Lord’s supper in a proper way. The real significance of head covering is to respect the headship of Christ. God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman (v. 3). Hence, there must be the head covering. This is not merely a teaching or a custom but a realization and respect of the headship of Christ. As the church, we have to realize the headship of Christ; we have to realize that Christ is the Head.
Verses 17 through 34 speak of the Lord’s supper. Why do we come together around the Lord’s table week after week? Is it simply to remember that the Lord died for us? That is too low and shallow. In verse 29 we are told that we need to discern the Body and that we eat and drink judgment to ourselves if we do not discern the Body. We who are many are one bread, one Body (10:17). When we participate in the Lord’s table, we must discern whether the bread on the table signifies the one Body of Christ. Thus, in the first part of 1 Corinthians 11 there is the Head, and in the last part there is the Body. All the gifts must be for the expression of Christ and the building up of the Body. Otherwise, the gifts become something that distracts the Lord’s people from the central line. No matter how good something is, we have to realize that as long as it is separated from Christ and the Body, it is something wrong and misused. Today even many divine things are misused through human handling so that what should be a help to the building up of the church becomes a damage, a separating element, and a dividing factor.
Next let us consider 2 Corinthians. This book mentions nothing about the gifts. What is dealt with in this book is transformation. We have to be transformed day by day from our natural life to the glorious image of the Lord (3:18). Although the outer man is being consumed, the inner man is being renewed (4:16). This is not a matter of gifts but a matter of transformation. We may illustrate transformation with an ugly caterpillar, which after a period of time becomes a beautiful butterfly. It is transformed from something ugly to something beautiful. Today, on the one hand, we are a caterpillar, but praise the Lord, on the other hand, we are becoming a butterfly. However, we are not yet formed and beautified, so there is the need of the process of transformation. While this transforming process is going on, if someone tries to add something to us to make us beautiful, that will not help us but will only spoil the process of transformation. I have noticed in the past years that while certain brothers were in the process of transformation, others tried to help them to have the gifts in order to make them beautiful outwardly. They received certain gifts, but their transformation was spoiled. For us Christians, few things are as dangerous as the gifts. Many Christians have been spoiled in the process of their transformation and in their growth of life by the gifts. In many cases, I have worshipped God for not giving gifts to certain ones.
The second Epistle to the Corinthians mentions nothing about the gifts. Instead, it speaks of the experience of the cross through suffering upon suffering, death upon death, and consuming upon consuming. The apostle Paul did not speak much about his gifts; rather, he spoke a great deal about his sufferings. In 4:10-11 he tells us that he was “always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus” and was “always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake.” Day by day our outer man is decaying, being consumed, and our inner man is being renewed. This is transformation. The building up of the church, the real expression of Christ in a corporate way, depends on the transformation from the old man to the new man, from the natural man to the spiritual man, and from the old nature to the new nature.
If we look at the situation of the church today, we have to admit that troubles in the church are often due to having too many gifts. We may need to pray, “Lord, take back all the gifts and grant us the growth of life. Stop all the gifts but encourage transformation in life.” We need the transformation of life and in life. The more gifts the Lord’s people have, the more troubles, the more divisions, and the more opinions the church will have. This is a fact. For this reason, in 2 Corinthians the experienced apostle forgot about the gifts and gave up all the matters related to the gifts. He told us that we need to be consumed, renewed, and transformed. We need to learn not to get rid of the thorn but to suffer under the thorn in order to know and experience the sufficient grace (12:7-9).
Now let us consider Galatians. In the Epistle to the Galatians we see that the believers were distracted from Christ and the church by attempting to keep the law and to do good. As long as you can do good, you will be very independent. Almost all good people are independent. The more you are a good person, the more independent you are. If you can be a humble person, you will be an independent, proud “humble” person. It is only Christ who does not make people proud, whereas the good we do becomes a factor that makes us proud. If I can be patient, patience becomes a factor to make me proud. I may say, “Oh, I am patient, and you are not!” To say this shows that I am really a proud person. I am afraid of good persons in the church. They are the most difficult ones to deal with. However, this does not mean that bad persons are easy to deal with. Both the good and the bad are not easy to deal with. Today it is only a matter of Christ: Christ revealed in me (1:16), Christ living in me (2:20), Christ being formed in me (4:19), and I having put on Christ (3:27). Everything is Christ, not the law or goodness. If we try to keep the law or try to do good, we can never build up the church. There is only one thing that can build up the church, and that is Christ Himself experienced by us as everything. When we experience Christ as everything, there is the possibility for the building up of the Body.
Now we go on to Ephesians. Ephesians 1:22-23 tells us that the church is the Body of Christ, who is the Head. In 2:21-22 we see that the church is also the temple, the dwelling place, of God. Then in 5:24-25 we are told that the church is the bride, the wife, the counterpart, of Christ. In 5:32 the apostle tells us, “This mystery is great, but I speak with regard to Christ and the church.”
We are also told that we have to be very careful. If we are still childish, if we remain as little children, we will be tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching (4:14). Today in Christianity there are many different winds of teaching blowing all the time to carry people away from Christ the Head and from the truth. Therefore, we must hold to truth (4:15). Truth is God Himself in Christ. To hold to truth is to hold to God, to hold to Christ, and to forget about all the different teachings and doctrines that blow all the time to carry people away from the experience of Christ the Head. Therefore, we have to grow to become a full-grown man and to have the full knowledge of the Son of God. Then we will be one, not in doctrines but in the faith (v. 13). This faith is the faith that saves us. Doctrines, such as the different doctrines concerning rapture, have nothing to do with our salvation. Whether you believe in pretribulation, posttribulation, or partial rapture does not matter for your salvation. As long as you believe that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God incarnated to be a man who died on the cross, resurrected on the third day, and is now the living Lord, you are saved.
Today some people insist on foot-washing, some insist on head covering, and some insist on greeting one another with a holy kiss. All these things become winds of teachings among Christians, blowing them away from Christ. Regardless of whether or not you wash others’ feet, as long as you hold to truth, to Christ as the Head, the supply, the center, and the fountain, and as long as you experience Christ in a living way, all other things can be dropped. Do not forget that the church is the Body of Christ, and we are the members of the Body. We need to hold to Christ to keep ourselves in contact with Christ day by day in living fellowship with Him. This will make us the living, functioning, and growing members of the Body. Then we will be the Body to express Christ in a corporate way. We will be the habitation, the dwelling place, of God for His satisfaction and rest, and we will be the bride, the counterpart, of Christ.
Next we have the Epistle to the Philippians. Philippians is a book dealing with the experience of Christ in different circumstances — in sufferings, in hardships, and in all kinds of persecutions. We can experience Christ in any environment, and if we do, we will keep the oneness of the church. Christ experienced by us is the oneness of the church. We are one in Christ, not in opinions, thoughts, or teachings. If we love the Lord and give up all other things, even the best gifts and teachings, and if we simply contact the Lord and experience Him as everything, we will realize the real oneness among the children of God. The real church life depends only upon the experience of Christ. Among the Philippian believers there were differences of opinions and thinking, so the apostle told them that they needed to experience Christ, to have Christ as their pattern (2:5-11), and to pursue Christ as their goal and gain Him as their prize (3:12-14). If we experience Christ, seek Christ, and follow Christ, we will be one with others. Christ Himself experienced by us is the oneness among the believers.
Following Philippians, we have the Epistle to the Colossians. Colossians is a short yet wonderful book, a book full of Christ, revealing Christ as everything. Christ is the image of God (1:15a). Christ is the embodiment of God, the One in whom God’s fullness dwells (v. 19; 2:9). Christ is the Firstborn of all creation, the Head of the church, and the Firstborn from the dead. As such, He must have the first place, that is, the preeminence, in all things (1:15b, 18). Christ is the mystery of God (2:2). Furthermore, Christ is our food, our drink, and our feast, and Christ is the new moon and the Sabbath (v. 16). Christ is the reality of all positive things as shadows (v. 17). Christ is all and in all in the church, the Body, the new man (3:10-11). Christ is our life (v. 4), and Christ in us is the hope of glory (1:27). Hence, Christ is everything to us.
Next, we come to the two Epistles to the Thessalonians. First and 2 Thessalonians deal with Christ as hope to us. We are waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus (1 Thes. 1:3; 2:19; 4:13; 5:8; 2 Thes. 2:16). Christ is our only hope. We have no hope other than Christ.
Then we have four books—1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon — which form one group. This group of four books deals with our walk in the church while the Lord delays His coming. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul says, “If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.” This means that while the Lord is tarrying, while He delays His coming back, we know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God, the church of the living God. Furthermore, this very church is the great mystery of God manifested in the flesh (v. 16), not only in the flesh of One but in the flesh of thousands. When Christ was in the flesh, He was one flesh. Now all the members of His Body are also flesh. God was manifested in the flesh of Jesus, and today God is manifested in the flesh of all the believers. This is a great mystery. On the one hand, the church is the house of God, the dwelling place of God, the place for His rest and satisfaction. On the other hand, the church is the pillar, the supporting power, and the base, the foundation, of the reality, which is God Himself. The church is also a mystery to express God in human nature. We need to know how to conduct ourselves in such a church, how to be elders, how to be deacons and deaconesses, and how to simply love others, as Paul instructed Philemon to love Onesimus, his runaway slave who became a brother in Christ.
Now we come to the book to the Hebrews. This book is very glorious. It deals with the difference between the all-inclusive, living Christ and a genuine, sound, fundamental, yet dead religion. We do not have a religion, not even a Christian religion, Christianity. What we have is a living Christ, a living person. What we need is not a religion in knowledge, teaching, or letters, but a living person, that is, the living Son of the living God. He is everything. He is all in all to us.
Following Hebrews, we have the letter written by James to reconcile the real faith with proper works. Then the two letters written by Peter deal with the divine government to rule all things for Christ so that all things may work together for the good of the Body of Christ, the spiritual building of God. After the two Epistles of Peter we have the three Epistles written by John that deal with the divine fellowship, the fellowship of the Father with the Son. Then we have the book of Jude that deals with heresies and apostasy.
Finally, in the book of Revelation, we have the seven epistles revealing to us that the churches are the local expressions of Christ in a corporate way (chs. 2—3). Every local church is a lampstand, a testimony, a local expression of the Body to express Christ in a corporate way. Then, eventually, at the end of the book of Revelation, which is also the end of the writings of John, of the New Testament, and of all the Scriptures, we have the greatest, unique, universal lampstand — the New Jerusalem, the holy city — as the all-inclusive, universal, and greatest testimony and expression of God in Christ (chs. 21—22). So, in the book of Revelation we have the seven local lampstands at the beginning and the unique, universal lampstand at the end. All the lampstands are made of pure gold. The holy city is of pure gold, and the throne of God in Christ is at the peak of that city, just as a lamp is on the top of a lampstand. This is the ultimate consummation, the ultimate issue, the ultimate conclusion, of all the Scriptures.
Now we can see what the central thought of God is, and we can see what the very thing is that we should seek after and be in, that is, Christ with the church. Hence, we must forget everything except Christ and the church. We must have the sincere desire to experience Christ in a full way so that His Body may be built up as a corporate expression wherever we are. May the Lord be gracious to us.
