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In this message we shall begin to consider what Christ is in His person in the church.
In the church Christ is the rock as the foundation on which the church is built. After Peter, receiving a revelation from the Father, declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), the Lord said, “On this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). Roman Catholicism claims that “the rock” here refers to Peter, whereas most fundamental Christians say that it refers to Christ. Although it is correct to say that the rock denotes Christ, not even this understanding is adequate. The rock here refers not only to Christ but also to the revelation concerning Christ. First, this rock refers to Christ Himself as the Son of the living God. Second, this rock refers to the revelation of Christ which Peter received from the Father. This heavenly revelation is the rock. When we see this revelation concerning Christ, it becomes the rock. Therefore, the church is built both upon Christ and the revelation concerning Christ.
The church that is built upon the rock of Christ and the revelation concerning Christ is the genuine church, and it is not sectarian. However, the problem is that Christians form groups or so-called churches according to their concept and viewpoint. But their concept is not the revelation concerning Christ. The church must be built upon the rock, that is, upon Christ and the revelation of Him. If we see this, we shall be saved from division. Only one thing is built upon Christ as the rock, and this is the church. Any group that is built upon doctrines, practices, or concepts is not the church built upon Christ and the revelation concerning Christ.
As the rock upon which the church is built, Christ is the unique foundation of the church. “Other foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is being laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). As the Christ and the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the unique foundation laid by God for the building of the church. No one should lay any other foundation.
We know from 1 Corinthians 3:11 that Christ is the unique foundation for the church as God’s building. Nevertheless, certain of the believers at Corinth were taking Paul, Apollos, or Cephas as their foundation. When they were declaring that they were of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, they were saying that these were their foundation and standing. In 1 Corinthians 1:13 Paul asks them, “Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?” By asking these questions Paul was pointing out that he was not the unique foundation. On the contrary, Paul says in 3:10, “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation.” The unique foundation is not Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or any one or anything other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The problem among the Corinthians was that they were trying to lay many other foundations. We see in chapter fourteen that, for some, speaking in tongues was a foundation. This indicates that it is possible for a particular practice to become a foundation. Therefore, Paul wanted the believers at Corinth to realize that he had already laid the unique foundation, Jesus Christ.
It is common for Christians today to lay foundations other than Christ as the unique foundation. For example, when someone declares that he is for immersion, he is laying immersion as a foundation. The same is true of someone who is for tongue-speaking. Whenever you claim to be for a particular person, doctrine, or practice, you are laying another foundation. To lay a foundation other than Christ ruins the Body life and damages God’s building. Instead of laying another foundation, we must build upon the foundation already laid. According to 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 9, Christ is our common portion, and we have been called into the fellowship of Christ. This Christ, God’s unique center and our unique portion, is the unique foundation. This means that we must build upon the unique Christ. We should understand this not only doctrinally but also practically and experientially.
If we touch the depth of the truth in 1 Corinthians 3:11 and understand this verse according to its context and background, we shall see a vision of Christ as the unique foundation of the church. This vision, this truth, will then govern and control us. “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint” (Prov. 29:18, ASV). Among the vast majority of Christians today, there is no governing, restraining vision of Christ as the unique foundation. On the one hand, many refer to Paul’s word concerning Christ as the foundation; on the other hand, even while speaking of this verse, they are laying another foundation. From this we see that we need to understand 1 Corinthians 3:11 not merely in a doctrinal way but in a way that is very practical. We should never say that we are of a certain person or a certain thing or that we prefer a certain matter. To speak in this way is to lay another foundation in addition to Christ. Instead of laying another foundation, we should build upon the foundation already laid.
The church’s foundation is Christ, revealed and ministered through the apostles and prophets. Ephesians 2:20 speaks of the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This foundation is the Christ whom they ministered to others. The Christ who is the foundation of the church is the unique Christ revealed and ministered by the early apostles, as recorded in the New Testament. We must stay with this Christ.
Christ is the Head of the Body. “Christ is Head of the church, being Himself the Savior of the Body” (Eph. 5:23). In addition to being the Savior of the Body, Christ is also the Head of the church. The Savior is a matter of love, whereas the Head is a matter of authority. We love Christ as our Savior, but we must also be subject to Him as our Head.
As the Head of the church, His Body, Christ certainly is joined to the Body. Just as in one’s physical body the head and the body are one, so Christ, the Head, and the church, His Body, are joined and therefore are one. The Body is one with the Head in the divine life and in the divine Spirit.
All that Christ has accomplished, obtained, and attained as the Head is not only for the Body but also to the Body (Eph. 1:22-23). This means that what the Head has gained now belongs to the Body, for it is transmitted to the Body. The Body, therefore, comes into existence from the transmission of the Head. Whatever Christ has passed through, obtained, and attained is now being transmitted into the Body.
Colossians 1:18 says, “He is the Head of the Body, the church; who is the beginning, Firstborn from among the dead.” The fact that Christ is the Firstborn from among the dead indicates that He is the Head of the Body in resurrection. Before His resurrection, Christ was not yet the Head of the Body. Ephesians 1 indicates that after His resurrection and ascension, Christ was made the Head over all things to the church. Hence, Christ’s headship is in resurrection. Because Christ’s headship is in resurrection, the enjoyment of Christ spontaneously brings us into resurrection and saves us from our natural being.
Because Christ is the Head of the Body, we need to hold the Head so that the Body may grow with the growth of God (Col. 2:19). For the Body to hold the Head means that the Body does not allow itself to be separated from the Head. If we truly hold Christ as the Head, we shall not be separated from Him by anything. We shall remain in Him without any insulation between us and Him.
The growth of the Body depends on what comes out of Christ as the Head. If we do not receive the supply that comes from Christ as the Head, the Body cannot grow. But when the Body is supplied by holding the Head, the Body grows with the growth of God. The Body grows out from the Head, for all the supply comes from the Head.
First Corinthians 12:12 reveals that in the church Christ is not only the Head but also the Body: “As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ.” Christ here is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, the Body-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 with all the believers as its members. All the believers of Christ are organically united with Him and constituted of His life and element to become His Body, an organism, to express Him. Hence, He is not only the Head but also the Body. As our physical body has many members yet is one, so is this Christ.
As a vine includes not only the stock but also the branches, so the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, includes not only Christ Himself but also the members of Christ’s Body, who are the members of Christ, parts of Christ. According to our natural constitution, we cannot be members of Christ’s Body. Christ Himself is the element, the factor, that makes us parts of Him. Therefore, in order to be parts of Christ as members of His Body, we must have Christ wrought into our being.
In order to become the Body, even the Body-Christ, Christ had to pass through the steps of a process. First He, the very God, became flesh for our redemption. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit to come into us and work within us. In this way He becomes the Body-Christ. Now in the church life we enjoy not only God, the Redeemer, and the life-giving Spirit but also the Christ who is the Body. When we come together, we share Christ with one another, and the corporate Christ comes forth. The coming forth of the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, depends on our speaking Him forth in the meetings. When we speak Christ, Christ comes forth in our speaking. If we all speak forth Christ, then the corporate Christ will come forth. This is the practicality of Christ as the Body.
In the church Christ is every member of the new man. Colossians 3:11 says, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” The word “where” referring to the new man in Colossians 3:10 means in the new man. There is no natural person in the new man. Furthermore, there is no possibility, no room, for any natural person. There cannot be Greeks, who are for philosophical wisdom, and Jews, who are for miraculous signs (1 Cor. 1:22). There cannot be circumcision, those who observe Jewish religious rituals, and uncircumcision, those who do not care for Jewish religion. Furthermore, in the new man there cannot be barbarian, Scythian, slave, or freeman. A barbarian is an uncultured person, the Scythians were considered the most barbarous people, the slaves were those sold into slavery, and the freemen were those who had been freed from slavery. No matter what kind of person we may be, as far as the new man is concerned, we must regard ourselves as nobodies. In the new man there is room only for Christ, not for any kind of natural person, because Christ replaces with Himself the natural life of every member of the new man.
According to Colossians 3:10 and 11, in the new man Christ is all and in all. He is all the members of the new man and in all the members. He is everything in the new man. He is every part of the new man and in every part. Actually, He is the new man. In the new man Christ is the centrality and universality.
The word “all” in verse 11 refers to all the members who make up the new man. Christ is all the members and He is in all the members. For this reason, in the church there is no room for us. There is no room for any nationality. Because Christ is all and in all in the new man and we are parts of the new man, then we are parts of Christ. Each member, each part, of the new man is Christ. No doubt, the new man is a corporate man, the church, Christ’s Body. Although many different kinds of people make up the church, all are parts of Christ. They are no longer the natural person. Christ ieveryone in the new man, and He is in everyone in the new man. It is crucial for us to see that in the new man Christ is all and in all.
In the new man Christ is every member. Concerning this, Paul says that Christ is all. This means that in the new man there is no place for any natural person. There is no place for regional, cultural, or national distinctions. There is no room for any race, nationality, culture, or social status. In the new man there is room only for Christ. Christ surely is all the members of the new man. For this to be a reality, we must take Christ as our life and live Him, not ourselves. If Christ is the living of all the believers, then only He will be in the new man. All the members, whatever their nationality may be, will live Christ. Then in a way that is real and practical Christ will be all the members of the new man. Because we all live Christ, not ourselves, Christ will be all of us, every member of the new man.
In Colossians 3:11 Paul says not only that Christ is all but also that He is in all. On the one hand, Christ is all the members, and on the other hand, He is in all the members. Since Paul says that Christ is all, why is there the need for him to add that Christ is in all? If Paul had not said that Christ is in all, only that He is all, we might think that in the new man Christ is needed and that we are not needed. We should not think that, because Christ is all the members in the new man, we are not needed. The Bible does say that in the new man there is no place for the natural person, because Christ is all the members. Nevertheless, Paul says that Christ is in the members. The fact that Christ is in the members of the new man indicates that the members still exist. When we take Christ as our life and live together with Him, we are one with Christ and Christ is us. Simultaneously, Christ is in us. Therefore, it is true to say that Christ is both in us and that He is us. We are parts of the new man with Christ in us. We continue to exist, but we do not exist without Christ; we are indwelt by Christ. Therefore, in the new man Christ is both all the members and is in all the members.
The desire of God’s heart is to have the new man, which is constituted of the Christ who is our life (Col. 3:4). If we take Christ as our life and live Him, the new man will be expressed to satisfy God’s desire. Ultimately, the Christ we experience and enjoy becomes the constituent of the new man. In this new man, the Body, the church, Christ is all and in all.
Christ is the Builder of the church. In Matthew 16:18 He said, “I will build My church.” The words “My church” indicate that the church is of the Lord, not of any other person or thing. After the Lord Jesus had accomplished redemption, had resurrected from the dead, and had ascended to the heavens, the building of the church began.
The Lord Jesus has two natures: humanity, which is good for the material for the building of the church, and divinity, which is the element of the Builder. In His humanity Christ is the material for God’s building, and in His divinity He is the Builder. He builds the church with His person, divine and human, with whatever He has gone through, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and with what He has accomplished, obtained, and attained, through Himself as the life-giving Spirit. He does not build the church directly, but indirectly through His chosen apostles and other gifts (Eph. 4:11-12), and even through all the members of His Body (Eph. 4:16). The believers should enjoy Him as the Builder of the church to take Him with all that He is, has, and accomplishes through the gifted persons and even through all His members.
In the church Christ is also the Lord distributing the ministries. “There are distributions of ministries, and the same Lord” (1 Cor. 12:5). The Greek word translated “ministries” can also be rendered “services.” The gifts in verse 4 are for these services, and they are for the operations in verse 6.
Because the Lord distributes the ministries, when we function we should have the realization that the source of our function and ministry is the Lord Himself. Our ministry and function must be under His distribution, which is a matter of the divine dispensing. In order to distribute the ministries and functions to His members, Christ dispenses Himself into them. Therefore, we need to live under Christ’s dispensing. If we live under this dispensing, then in the meetings we shall certainly be motivated by His inward dispensing to minister, to function, to do something that will render nourishment, edification, or building up to all the members.
According to Ephesians 5:25 and 26 Christ gave Himself up for the church that “He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.” Here we see that in the church Christ is the Sanctifier and the Cleanser. The purpose of Christ giving Himself to the church is to sanctify her, not only separating her to Himself from anything common but also saturating her with Himself so that she may be His counterpart. This is accomplished by cleansing her with the washing of the water in the word. In sanctifying the church, Christ first washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process in order that the church may be holy and without blemish.
In order to know Christ as the Sanctifier and also to know the meaning of sanctification, we need to contact the life-giving Spirit dwelling in our spirit. One aspect of sanctification involves separation. To be sanctified is to be separated positionally, to undergo a change of position. However, this is not the only aspect of sanctification. In sanctification something that was once natural gradually becomes holy in nature. Hence, as we are sanctified by Christ subjectively, we become holy dispositionally. Therefore, sanctification does not mean merely to be separated from what is common; it also means to have the very element of Christ added to us. Christ desires to saturate our whole being with Himself. Hence, He is sanctifying us subjectively by dispensing His element into our being.
In subjective sanctification something of Christ is added to us, but in cleansing something of us, especially our natural disposition, is subtracted. As we are cleansed, our natural disposition is washed away. Disposition is the most inward aspect of our constitution; it is the very root of our being. We were born with a certain disposition. Disposition, therefore, is altogether inward. As Christ is adding His element into us, He is also cleansing us and subtracting our natural disposition. His cleansing washes away the natural element from the depths of our being. The Christ who is the Cleanser is not the objective Christ in the heavens but the subjective Christ, the Christ who is intimate and available. As the Sanctifier and the Cleanser, He dispenses Himself into us. As His element is being added to us, something of ourselves is being removed. Therefore, on the one hand, we have the addition of Christ, but, on the other hand, we have the subtraction of the natural disposition. Gradually, Christ is being added into our being, and our natural disposition is being subtracted. The result of this process is transformation, a metabolic change in which the new element is constituted into us and the old element is carried away.
The Christ who is the Sanctifier and the Cleanser is the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit in our spirit, He is sanctifying us and cleansing us. He sanctifies us by dispensing His element into us. As we open to Him for His dispensing, He will work within us as the life-giving Spirit to add Himself to us and to carry away our natural disposition. This is the living, subjective Christ as the Sanctifier and the Cleanser in the church.
