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This message and the message following may be considered a review and conclusion of the ten previous messages on the church. We have seen that the church is the hidden mystery in God’s eternal economy. The church, the mystery of Christ, was first revealed by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels to the first group of the apostles. He did not reveal the church to them in a deeper and more profound way. Rather, He revealed the church to those apostles mainly in an outward way. After His resurrection and ascension, He breathed Himself into His believers as the life-giving Spirit and also baptized them in the economical Spirit. As a result, they were qualified to understand, in their spirit, the things concerning the church in a more intrinsic way. The Apostle Paul, in particular, received the deeper and more profound revelations concerning the church, the Body of Christ. In the foregoing messages we have also covered the formation of the church and the establishment of the churches. In this message we shall begin to see the two aspects of the church.
The church has two aspects: the universal aspect and the local aspect.
In the universal aspect the church is uniquely one. At the end of Ephesians 1 Paul says that the church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. This is the church in its universal aspect, for Christ has only one Body, which is unique in the universe.
The universal church is the house of the living God, the Body of Christ, the bride that matches Christ as the Bridegroom, and the new man.
In Matthew 16:18 we have the Lord’s first mentioning of the church. In this verse He says, “On this rock I will build My church.” What is revealed here is the universal church for the unique testimony of the Lord in the universe.
The universal church is to be built by Christ, the Son of the living God revealed by the Father. When Peter declared that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said to Him, “You are blessed, Simon Bar-jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens” (Matt. 16:17). Only the Father knows the Son (Matt. 11:27) and can reveal the Son to us. The Son revealed by the Father is now building the universal church, not the church in a nation or the church in a city.
In Matthew 16 the Father first revealed Christ to Peter. Then, with this revelation as the basis, the Lord went on to reveal the universal church to Peter and the other apostles. The Lord said clearly that He Himself as the Christ, the Son of the living God, will build the church.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said that He will build His church upon “this rock.” These words refer not only to Christ Himself but also to the revelation of Christ. The church is built on this revelation concerning Christ.
We all need to see that the building up of the universal church is altogether on the clear revelation concerning Christ, the Son of the living God. This revelation is the crucial factor, the very center, of the building up of the universal church. The universal church is not built up according to any doctrine, creed, or so-called belief. On the contrary, the universal church is built according to the revelation of Christ, the Son of the living God.
Christ is unique; He is wonderful, excellent, and all-surpassing. He is the complete God and also a perfect man. He created the earth yet He lived on earth as a man, living in Nazareth as a carpenter. Eventually, at the age of thirty, He came forth to manifest God by what He was, by what He did, and by what He spoke. This means that His person, His deeds, and His words expressed God to the uttermost.
The Lord Jesus expressed God not in the Godhead but in the fatherhood, for He made the name “Father” known to His disciples. In order for God to fulfill His intention of working Himself into His chosen people, it was necessary for Him to be the begetting Father. By begetting us with Himself He becomes our Father, and we become His children.
The main thing the Lord Jesus did while He was on earth was to express the Father and make the Father’s name known to His disciples. Before that time the Israelites knew God as the Father only in a general way as their source. They did not know Him in the sense of His begetting but only in the sense of His being their origin through creation. Adam was not begotten by God but was only created by Him. Therefore, God was his origin, and in this sense God was his Father. Actually, God was not Adam’s Father. Today, we who believe in Christ are genuine, begotten sons of God, and God is our genuine, begetting Father. As a result, we know God today in the fatherhood, for we know God in the name of the Father. This was the reason that the Lord, on the morning of His resurrection, told Mary to say to His disciples that He was ascending to His Father and their Father (John 20:17). He also for the first time referred to His disciples as His brothers. Our being children of God and brothers of Christ is altogether due to the Lord’s wonderful person and to His expressing God in the name of the Father.
After living a life of expressing God in the name of the Father, the Lord Jesus entered into death, carrying out an all-inclusive death. He was crucified with a sevenfold status: as the Lamb of God to deal with the totality of sin (John 1:29); as a man in the flesh (John 1:14), in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3); as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45b), a man in the old creation; as the brass serpent (John 3:14), having the serpent’s form but not the poison; as the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15) to terminate the entire old creation; as the Peacemaker, the One who makes peace (Eph. 2:14-16); and as a grain of wheat, falling into the ground to release the divine life (John 12:24). Because the Lord died in this sevenfold status, He took away all the negative things and released the divine life so that we, His believers, could be regenerated and begotten to become the children of God.
After His resurrection He ascended to the heavens. In one sense, He ascended by Himself. In another sense, He was uplifted to the heavens by the great power of God that was wrought in Him to raise Him from among the dead, to seat Him in the heavens, to subject all things under His feet, and to give Him to be the Head over all things to the church for the producing of the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:19-23). What a wonderful person Christ is! The church is built upon the revelation of this wonderful person.
The universal church has been formed out of the all-inclusive person of Christ. He is the factor, the element, the constituent, for the formation of the universal church. The church, therefore, was not formed out of nothing but was formed out of something wonderful. This is typified by the formation of Eve out of Adam. Adam was the factor, the element, the constituent, for the bringing forth of Eve. In like manner, in contrast to creation, which was out of nothing, the church has come into existence through the wonderful person of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God and a unique, perfect man. The universal church, the Body of Christ, is built on the rock of the revelation concerning the wonderful, excellent, all-inclusive person of Christ, the Son of the living God.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus also says that “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against” His church. The gates of Hades refers to Satan’s power of darkness. Satan’s power of darkness will attack the church but will not prevail against it. God’s enemy is nothing compared to the church built up by Christ.
In Matthew 16:19 the Lord Jesus says, “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth shall be what has been bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth shall be what has been loosed in the heavens.” Here “the kingdom of the heavens” is interchangeably used for “church” in the previous verse. This indicates that the universal church is related to the kingdom of the heavens. Where the church is, there is the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. Today, in actuality and in practicality, the kingdom of the heavens is with the church and in the church.
The universal church is also revealed by the Apostle Paul in his fourteen Epistles. These Epistles may be divided into two groups of seven. The first group, including the Epistles from Romans through Colossians, concerns the Body of Christ and our Christian life. The second group, from 1 Thessalonians through Hebrews, may be regarded as a supplement to what is covered in the first group. Four of the Epistles in the first group speak of the Body of Christ: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. The other three Epistles in this group — 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians — speak only of our experience of Christ in our daily life and thus are concerned with our Christian life. Because Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians touch the Body of Christ, these Epistles are deep and profound.
The universal church is the house of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth, for His manifestation in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). First Timothy 3:15 tells us that the church is the house of God. In the Old Testament both the tabernacle and the temple were called the house of God (Judg. 18:31; 1 Kings 6:1), which was a type of the church. The word “house” both in the original language and in English has two meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the household; on the other hand, it refers to the dwelling place. Hence, the church as the house of God indicates that the church, on the one hand, is the household, the family, of God, and, on the other hand, is the dwelling place of God.
The church is the composition of the believers, and the believers are the children of God, who are born of God and have His life and nature. Hence, they become members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19), the family of God. The members of God’s family added together become the house of God, which is the dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22), the place where God can have His rest and put His trust. In this dwelling place God lives and moves to accomplish His will and satisfy His heart’s desire.
A house is also the best place for one to express himself. If you look at a person’s house, you will be able to tell what kind of person he is because a person’s house is his expression. The principle is the same with the church as the house of God. The church as the house of God is the place where God expresses Himself on earth.
The church as God’s house is “the pillar and base of the truth.” The pillar supports the building, and the base holds the pillar. The church is such a supporting pillar and holding base of the truth. In this verse “truth” refers to the real things which are revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church according to God’s New Testament economy.
First Timothy 3:16 shows us that the church as God’s house, the pillar and base of the truth, is God’s manifestation in the flesh. God not only desires to make home in the church and have a resting place there, but He also wants to express Himself in the church. He wants to practice His New Testament economy, speak forth His desire, and manifest His glory in the church. All that He is, all that He is doing, and all that He wants to obtain are to be manifested in the church as His house.
The church is the house of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth, for His manifestation in the flesh, that is, His manifestation in regenerated, transformed, and built-up humanity.
The universal church is the Body of Christ. Ephesians 1:22 and 23 reveal that the church as the Body is “the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” The Body of Christ is His fullness, that is, His full expression. The Body is the fullness of the Head, and the fullness is the expression of the Head. Christ, who is the infinite God without any limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.
First Corinthians 12:12 and 13 say, “Even 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; for also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” These verses reveal that the church as the Body of Christ is constituted of all the believers baptized in one Spirit and given to drink one Spirit. First, Christ breathed the Spirit into the disciples and then baptized them in the Spirit. Now all the believers, as constituents of the Body, have been given to drink one Spirit.
Christ is the Breather of the Spirit, the Baptizer in the Spirit, and the Giver of the Spirit as our constant drink. According to the biblical principle, our spiritual food is in this drink, in this water. In Revelation 22 we see that the tree of life grows in the river. Therefore, when we drink of the river of water of life we receive not only the water but also the nourishment from the tree of life.
As the Breather, Christ breathed Himself as the essential Spirit into us to be the essence of our spiritual being and existence. Then, with this as the basis, He baptized us all into one Body. Now He continually gives the Spirit. “He gives the Spirit not by measure” (John 3:34).
The church as the Body of Christ is constituted with the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8, 10). All the riches of Christ are for the producing of the church. This takes place through the dispensing of these riches into the believers. The experience of the riches of Christ results in the fullness of Christ, the Body, as Christ’s expression. Therefore, the Body of Christ is constituted of the riches of Christ. As the riches of Christ are experienced and enjoyed by us, they become the fullness of Christ, the Body, for His expression.
Christ is the fullness of God, and the church is the fullness of Christ. Christ’s riches are so extensive that not only is Christ Himself filled with them, but these riches also fill up the members of His Body. As we are filled with Christ’s riches, we become His fullness. This is what it means to say that the universal church as the Body of Christ is constituted with the unsearchable riches of Christ.
The church is also the wife of Christ, His counterpart (Eph. 5:23-27). The church as the counterpart of Christ implies satisfaction and rest in love. Christ needs such a wife. To be the church is to render to Christ the adequate satisfaction and rest in love.
As the wife of Christ, the church comes out of Christ (Eph. 5:30). Just as Eve came out of Adam, the church as Christ’s counterpart comes out of Christ. Because Eve came out of Adam, she had the same life and nature that Adam had. This signifies that the church has the same life and nature that Christ has. This reveals that the church, the wife of Christ, is a pure product out of Christ. The church, therefore, must be one element — the element of Christ.
The church as the wife of Christ comes out of Christ to be one with Christ (Eph. 5:31). Just as Eve became one flesh with Adam (Gen. 2:24), the church becomes one with Christ. Christ and the church being one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), as typified by Adam and Eve being one flesh, are the great mystery (Eph. 5:32).
Finally, the universal church is the new man (Col. 3:10-11). In Ephesians 2:15 we see that Christ created the Jews and the Gentiles in Himself into one new man. This new man is corporate and universal. There are many believers, but there is only one new man. All the believers are components of this corporate and universal new man.
The emphasis on the church being the Body of Christ is on life, whereas the emphasis on the church being the universal new man is on Christ as our person. For the Body we need Christ to be our life, and for the new man we need Christ to be our person.
The church as the new man is absolutely not of the natural man. After referring to the new man in Colossians 3:10, Paul goes on to say in verse 11, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman.” This indicates that in the new man there is no possibility, no room, for the natural man. In the new man there is room only for Christ, not for any kind of natural person.
According to Colossians 3:11, in the new man “Christ is all and in all.” He is all the members of the new man, and He is in all the members. The word “all” here refers to all the members who make up the new man. On the one hand, Christ is all the members; on the other hand, He is in all the members. This indicates that Christ is all the members and that there is no room for the natural man. It also indicates that as members of the new man we continue to exist, but we exist with Christ in us. Therefore, Paul says that in the new man Christ is both in us and that He is us. In the new man Christ is everyone, and He is also in everyone. This means that the new man is a constitution of the mingling of divinity with humanity to make one entity. In this entity both the intrinsic and extrinsic elements are mingled into one because Christ is the members of the new man and is also in the members. This is the universal church.
