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In 1 Corinthians 3:11 Paul says, “Another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” This verse indicates that as the Christ and the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus is the unique foundation laid by God for the building of the church (Matt. 16:16-18). No one can lay another foundation. Nevertheless, certain of the believers at Corinth were taking Paul, Apollos, or Cephas as their foundation (1:12). 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 points out that he is not the 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, and another builds upon it.” The unique foundation is not Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or anyone other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The problem among the Corinthians was that they were trying to lay many other foundations. Some of the Corinthian believers laid a foundation of opinion or wisdom. We see in chapter 14 that for some, speaking in tongues was a foundation. This indicates that it is possible for a particular practice, such as speaking in tongues or baptism by immersion, to become a foundation. Therefore, Paul wanted the believers at Corinth to realize that he had already laid the unique foundation, Jesus Christ.
Christ, the unique foundation, has already been laid. This foundation has been established not only for the time of the apostles but for eternity. However, it is common for Christians today to lay foundations other than Christ as the unique foundation. We may have preferences in persons, matters, and things, and we need to see that to have a preference is to lay a foundation. Whenever we claim to be for a particular person, doctrine, or practice, we are laying another foundation. Christians have been divided by the many different foundations. Thousands of foundations have been laid, and more are being laid. Thus, we should not say that we are of anything or anyone or that we are for anything or anyone. To speak in this way is to lay another foundation; it is also to cause division. A division is always caused by laying a foundation other than Christ Himself. To lay a foundation besides Christ ruins the Body life and damages God’s building. In other words, this is not the building of the church; it is the tearing down of the church. We are only of Christ and for Christ. We should not exalt anything, anyone, or any doctrine or practice. We should simply build upon the all-inclusive Christ as the unique foundation already laid.
Building upon the foundation already laid means that we must build upon the unique Christ practically and experientially. To fellowship with others with a living spirit full of the riches of Christ is to build upon the foundation already laid. To minister to others the Christ whom we have experienced is also to build upon the foundation already laid. When we contact others in this way, we build upon Christ and with Christ. As a result, others will be solidly built up into the church as part of the Body. This is to build upon the foundation already laid.
According to 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 9, Christ is theirs and ours, and we have been called into the fellowship of Christ. This Christ, God’s unique center and our unique portion, is the unique foundation. If we touch the depths of the truth in 3:11 and understand this verse according to its context and background, we shall see a vision of Christ as the unique foundation. This truth, this vision, will then govern and control us.
In 1 Corinthians 3:21b-23 Paul presents Christ as the center of God and all things: “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all are yours, but you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” The believers are the church, and all things are for the church. Furthermore, the church is for Christ, and Christ is for God. In other words, all things are ours for the church, the church is for Christ to be His Body, and Christ is for God to be His expression. The all-inclusive Christ is God’s center, God’s centrality and universality, in the church as His fullness for His expression. Christ is the centrality and universality of God and of His move in the divine economy. Christ is the center and circumference of God’s economy for the producing of His fullness for His expression. Our heart must be touched by God’s center, the centrality and universality of Christ regarding God’s economy. We need to be touched by this center so that in every book and every chapter of the Bible, we would see Christ.
Christ is also the center of all things. Verses 21b through 23 reveal that all things are ours, we are Christ’s (2 Cor. 10:7), and Christ is God’s. Since we are Christ’s, we are God’s. First, the expression all things are yours means that all things belong to us. Here Paul does not say that all things are for us; rather, he says that all things are ours. Second, the expression you are Christ’s means that we belong to Christ. Third, the expression Christ is God’s means that Christ belongs to God. Here we see that God is the Head in the universe (1 Chron. 29:11), and Christ is the center of all things in the universe, and we ourselves, who belong to Christ as His members, are part of this center.
God is the Head in the universe, and this universe subsists in Christ as the hub. In Colossians 1:17 Paul tells us that all things cohere in Christ. Through death and resurrection He was enlarged from the individual Christ to the corporate Christ — Christ as the Head with the believers in Christ as the members of His Body (John 12:24; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 12:12). For this reason, the hub in which the universe subsists is now a corporate hub, the corporate Christ. Christ and His members form a corporate hub as the center of all things in the universe. All things are ours in the sense that they subsist by both Christ and us as their holding center. Just as all the spokes of a wheel cannot subsist without the hub as their holding center, but instead fall apart, all things in the universe cannot subsist without Christ and without us, His members, as their holding center, a corporate hub. Christ is the center of all things, and all His members are part of this center.
In 5:7-8 Christ is revealed as the Passover and the unleavened bread.
In verse 7 Paul says, “Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened; for our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed.” Here the word Passover indicates not only that the judgment of God passes over us because of the blood of Christ, the real Passover lamb (John 1:29); it also refers to the Feast of the Passover. The Passover was a feast in which the children of Israel enjoyed the roasted Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. The entire Passover, including the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs, is a type of the all-inclusive Christ in redemption. As our Passover, Christ is the reality of the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. Christ as the Feast of the Passover has saved us from God’s death-judgment. We have been saved from God’s judgment by enjoying Christ as such a feast.
The passover portrayed in Exodus 12 is an all-inclusive type of Christ as our redemption to begin our experience of God’s salvation. The entire Passover is a type of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7). Christ is not only the Passover lamb (John 1:29) but also every aspect of the Passover. In order to be our Passover, He was sacrificed on the cross that we might be redeemed and reconciled to God. Thus, we may enjoy Him as a feast before God.
According to Exodus 12, the passover lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month (v. 3) and was examined for four days to confirm that it was unblemished (v. 5); then it was killed on the fourteenth day. In the same way, the Lord Jesus as the real Passover lamb was examined for four days and was found to be perfect, without fault (John 8:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6), before He was killed on the day of the Passover (Luke 22:7-8, 14-15; John 18:28).
In the Bible seven days signifies a period of completion, and the end of a week denotes the end of life. The fact that the passover lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the month, the end of two complete weeks, signifies that Christ’s death terminated the entire history of our old life.
According to Exodus 12:13, God passed over the children of Israel because the blood of the passover lamb had been sprinkled on the lintel and the doorposts of their houses. The blood put on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses typifies the redeeming blood of Christ (Matt. 26:28; John 19:34; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). This blood opened the way for the redeemed ones to enter into the houses, implying that the blood of Christ opens the way for us to enter into Christ, who is typified by the house (Heb. 10:19). The same blood closed the way to the destroyer, thereby guarding the redeemed from judgment (Exo. 12:23).
Christ is the house whose lintel and doorposts have been sprinkled with the redeeming blood and in which the children of Israel ate the passover lamb. The lamb was the means of redemption, and the house was the means of preserving the redeemed ones. As the redeeming One, Christ is the Lamb, and as the keeping One, He is the house. The blood of the lamb was on the door, and the flesh of the lamb was in the house. The lamb, the house, and those who enjoyed the passover thus became one. This is a picture of the identification of the redeemed ones with Christ.
To participate in the passover, the children of Israel had to enter into and remain in the houses that had been sprinkled with the blood (vv. 13, 22-23). In the same principle, to participate in Christ and His redemption, we must be identified with Christ by entering into Him and remaining in Him (Eph. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:30; John 15:4; cf. Gal. 5:2, 4). The house and the blood were inseparable; likewise, Christ and His redemption are one.
If the children of Israel had not remained in the house, they would have been deprived of the benefit, profit, enjoyment, and experience of the passover. To participate in the passover there was the need to remain in the house. To remain in the house is to abide in Christ and to be identified with Him. We need to remain in Christ, that is, to maintain our identification, our union, with Him. We should maintain our identification with Christ, with a constant realization that we are nothing and that He is everything.
According to Exodus 12:8-10, the flesh of the passover lamb was to be eaten for life supply. The blood of the passover lamb was for redemption, to redeem the children of Israel out of God’s death-judgment, and the flesh of the lamb was for life supply, to strengthen the people to move out of Egypt. The flesh of the lamb signifies the crucified and resurrected life of Christ as the supply for God’s redeemed people. Through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection His flesh has become the food of God’s redeemed. In the reality of the passover, Christ’s blood is drinkable, Christ’s flesh is eatable, and Christ in totality is eatable (John 6:51-57, 63).
In Exodus 12:8 the children of Israel were given the proper way to eat the flesh of the passover lamb, roasted with fire. Fire signifies God’s holy wrath exercised in judgment. When Christ was on the cross, the holy fire of God judged Him and consumed Him. He cried, “I thirst” (John 19:28) because He was being burned by the holy fire of God’s judgment. On the cross Christ suffered for us under God’s judgment. He was “burned” and “roasted” by the holy fire of God’s wrath. As our Redeemer, Christ was judged for us. To eat Christ “roasted with fire” is to believe that on the cross Christ suffered for us under God’s holy wrath exercised in His judgment.
According to Exodus 12:9, the children of Israel were to eat the lamb’s head with its legs and inward parts. The head signifies wisdom, the legs signify activity and move, and the inward parts signify the inward parts of Christ’s being, including His mind, emotion, will, and heart with all their functions. Eating the passover lamb with the head, legs, and inward parts signifies taking Christ in His entirety, in His wisdom, activities, move, and inward parts (John 6:57; 1 Cor. 1:24; Rev. 14:4b; Phil. 1:8).
In Exodus 12:8 the children of Israel were to eat the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. In the Scriptures leaven signifies what is sinful, evil, corrupt, and unclean in the eyes of God (1 Cor. 5:6, 8). To eat with unleavened bread means to eliminate all sinful things. To eat with bitter herbs means to regret and repent, to experience a bitter taste regarding sinful things.
In 1 Corinthians 5:8 Paul continues, “So then let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This verse reveals that Christ is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. As the unleavened bread, Christ is for us to live a pure church life. In the church there should be no leaven, which in the Bible signifies all the negative things such as wrong doctrines and practices, evil deeds, and sinful things.
Although in Christ we are unleavened, according to our natural being we are full of leaven. The crucial question is whether we eat unleavened bread or leavened bread. In other words, do we live Christ or do we live ourselves? If we live Christ, we eat unleavened bread, but if we live ourselves, we eat leavened bread.
In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul charges us to purge out the old leaven that we may be a new lump, even as we are unleavened. We need to be a new lump, which refers to the church, composed of the believers in their new nature. We are unleavened in Christ and should live according to Him, not according to ourselves.
The feast mentioned in verse 8 refers to the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the continuation of the Passover (Exo. 12:15-20). The Passover itself lasted only one day. Continuing from the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days, a period of completion, signifying the entire period of our Christian life, from the day of our conversion to the day of rapture. This is a long feast, which we must keep not with the sin of our old nature, the old leaven, but with unleavened bread, which is the Christ of our new nature as our nourishment and enjoyment. Only He is the life supply of sincerity and truth, absolutely pure, without mixture, and full of reality. The feast is a time for the enjoyment of the banquet. The entire Christian life should be such a feast, such an enjoyment of Christ as our banquet, the rich supply of life.
According to Exodus 12, during the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, no leaven was to be found in the houses (v. 19), and no leaven was to be seen among the people of Israel (13:7). This signifies that, although it is impossible for us to be completely without sin, we must eliminate any sin that is seen; that is, we must forsake the sin of which we are conscious (cf. Heb. 12:1). To deal with manifested sin is to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Cor. 5:7-8). If we tolerate sin once it is exposed, we will lose the enjoyment of the fellowship of God’s people (Exo. 12:19; 1 Cor. 5:13). The only way to eliminate sin is to daily eat Christ as the crucified, resurrected, and sinless life, signified by the unleavened bread.
In 1 Corinthians 5:7 and 8 we have two feasts: the Feast of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When we were saved, we enjoyed the Feast of the Passover. Now throughout our entire Christian life we should enjoy the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Christian life is a feast of unleavened bread, a feast of the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply without any leaven. Day by day we need to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We should keep this feast throughout the course of our Christian life until we see the Lord.
Unleavened bread indicates a living which is without sin, without leaven. In ourselves we cannot possibly have this kind of living. However, in Christ it is possible to live a sinless life. We have been put into Christ, and now we must learn to live in Christ and by Christ. Then He will become our unleavened life supply. He will become the source, the fountain, of a sinless life and living. Because we have such a source and supply, it is possible for us to live a sinless life.
As the unleavened bread, Christ is the spiritual and divine food that makes us unleavened. The unleavened bread signifies the sinless Christ who is to be dispensed into us, His believers, as the unleavened (sinless) element. Just as the children of Israel ate the passover lamb with the unleavened bread, we should eat Christ not only as the Lamb but also as the unleavened bread. When we take Christ as our life, this life purifies us. This life is an unleavened life, a purifying life. The more we call on the name of the Lord Jesus and take Him into us, the more we are purified from within.
From the time of our regeneration, we began to have a new constitution. Christ as the unleavened bread became our unleavened food to reconstitute us so that we may become a new lump, the church. Before regeneration we were the old lump, full of leaven. But now we have become a new lump because we are becoming unleavened. As the unleavened bread He causes us to be unleavened constitutionally, making us a new lump, a lump without leaven. This means that we become a new creation without sin (2 Cor. 5:17).
In the book of 1 Corinthians Paul compares the New Testament believers to the children of Israel. He takes the history of the children of Israel as a background for this Epistle. This gives us the ground to say that the history of the children of Israel is a full type of our Christian life in the church life. The children of Israel did not live individualistically; on the contrary, they lived, camped, traveled, and fought battles together. Their corporate life typifies our life in the church. After experiencing the passover, they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This indicates that we also should keep this feast. The church life is a feast of unleavened bread. For this reason, any leaven must be purged out of the church.
In order to live a life without sin, we must daily eat Christ as unleavened bread. Since we are what we eat, if we eat unleavened bread, we will eventually become constituted with unleavened bread. Then we will live an unleavened life. Although in ourselves it is impossible ever to be sinless, in Christ we can become sinless by eating Him as the source and supply of a sinless life. Since Christ, our source, is unleavened, if we feast on Him daily, we can have an unleavened church life.
