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Concerning God, there are two aspects: what God is and what God does. First, God is; second, He works and does certain things. Jesus of Nazareth came with these two aspects of God. However, He came first not to express what God is but to accomplish what God wanted Him to do for the fulfillment of His purpose. This means that Jesus came first not as the Son of God but as the Christ. For this reason, in Matthew 16:16 Peter said that Jesus was the Christ and then went on to say that He was also the Son of the living God.
Before we consider the function of the anointed One, we need to see that the Son of the living God is the embodiment of what God is. All that God is has been embodied in the Son. Therefore, the Son is the essence, the substance, of what God is. This is for life. The Father is the source of life, and the Son is the impartation of life. This means that the Father is the hidden One and that the Son is the expressed One. The Son is the expression of the Father to be the impartation of life. Therefore, if we have the Son, we have life. As 1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life.”
Now we need to see how the Son can be imparted into us as life. This is accomplished by the Christ. Perhaps you have never before realized that when the anointed One was crucified on the cross, He was carrying out His function. Daniel 9:26 says that the Messiah was to be cut off. His being cut off was His function. As the anointed One was being cut off, He was functioning. Not only His death but also His resurrection and ascension were part of His function. Thus, the anointed One functioned by being crucified, by resurrecting, and by ascending so that the Son might be imparted into us as life. He is the Christ, the anointed One of God, to accomplish God’s purpose. God’s purpose is to impart what He is into us as life. This can be accomplished only by the function of the Christ, the anointed One of God. Through the function of the anointed One, the Son of the living God has been imparted into us, and we have life.
In Matthew 16 Peter received the revelation of the Christ and the Son of the living God. However, it was not until the day of resurrection that Peter received the Son of the living God into him as life. On that day the anointed One of God functioned through His crucifixion and resurrection to impart Himself as the Son of God into Peter. On the day of Pentecost the anointed One became Peter’s experience. On the day of resurrection Peter received the Son of God as life; on the day of Pentecost he gained Christ for function. In other words, on the day of resurrection Peter became a son of God by receiving the Son of God. Then on the day of Pentecost Peter was anointed and became part of the anointed One, part of the corporate Christ.
The church is so many Barjonas, so many sons of natural fathers, who have received Christ as the Son of God and who have been attached to the anointed One. On the one hand, these Barjonas have the Son of God within them as life; on the other hand, they are attached to the anointed One to be part of the corporate Christ. This is the church.
In the past we have seen four aspects of the church: first, that it is the gathering of God’s called ones; second, that it is the household, the family, of God; third, that it is the Body of Christ; and fourth, that it is the new man. However, no matter how clear we may be concerning these aspects of the church, we still need to know how the church is constituted. The church is constituted first with the Son of the living God and then with the Christ. Have you been constituted in this way, or are you still a Simon, a son of Jonah? Remember, on the day of resurrection Simon Barjona, the son of a natural man, was constituted with the Son of the living God. Thus, the Son of the living God was wrought into a man of blood and flesh. As the son of Jonah, Peter did not have the element of the Son of God. The Son of God was not a part of his constitution until the day of resurrection, when He was wrought into him through the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, in 1 Peter 1:3 Peter says that we were regenerated through the resurrection of Christ. Through Christ’s resurrection Peter was constituted with the Son of the living God. A new element, a heavenly, divine element, was added to him. This was the first step.
The second step took place fifty days later. On the day of Pentecost, Peter was constituted further with the ascended Christ who came down upon him. On the day of resurrection the Son of God was wrought into him, and on the day of Pentecost the Christ was poured out upon him. Thus, by the day of Pentecost Peter was fully constituted with Christ within and without. From that time onward, he was no longer Simon or Barjona. He had become Peter, a stone.
The church is a group of sons of flesh and blood who have been constituted with the Son of God within and with the Christ without. Within we have life, and without we have function. Within we are full of living water, and without we are covered with oil. Thus, the church is a new constitution.
As we have seen, all that God is, is embodied in the Son, and all that God does is related to Christ, the anointed One. God’s plan, His activity, and the accomplishment of His will are involved with Christ. Whatever God is — life, light, holiness, righteousness, love, kindness — is embodied in the Son. When we see the vision of this, we receive the Son and have life. We are also attached to Christ, the anointed One, and become part of the corporate Christ, the Body, the church. Such a church is the kingdom. The kingdom is composed of many transformed sons of Jonah. Simon was not a part of the kingdom, but Peter was. The son of flesh and blood is not part of the kingdom, but the son of the living God is. Are you a son of Jonah or a son of God? Are you part of Jonah or part of the anointed One? If you are a son of the living God and if you are a part of the anointed One, you are in the kingdom.
As the church, we are on the defensive, but as the kingdom, we are on the offensive. The Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). In this verse the gates of Hades are on the offensive, and the church is on the defensive. But when we are the kingdom, we are on the offensive, binding and loosing. Whenever we are sons of blood and flesh, we are food for Satan, for Satan eats the flesh. When we are sons of Jonah, we cannot shut the gates of Hades. But when we are Peters, not Simons, and are constituted with the Son of God and the Christ, we are no longer Satan’s food. Rather, we are those who shut the gates of Hades and block the power of darkness. If we are the church against which the power of darkness cannot prevail, then we are the kingdom. Instead of waiting for the gates of Hades to attack us, we bind the gates and shut them. We are able to command Satan to flee. Today we are both the church and the kingdom.
In Matthew 16:28 the Lord said, “Truly I say to you, There are some of those standing here who shall by no means taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Then in 17:1 and 2 the Lord was transfigured on the mountain before Peter, James, and John. This indicates that His transfiguration was His coming in His kingdom. Before He was transfigured, there was no outward manifestation of the kingdom, because He was outwardly only a natural Nazarene. But when He was transfigured and entered into another realm, the realm of transfiguration, that realm became the kingdom. Hence, the kingdom is the transfiguration of Jesus.
We need to apply this principle to ourselves. When we are natural, we are sons of Jonah, not part of the kingdom. But when we are transformed into Peters, we have the keys of the kingdom, which were given not to Simon but to Peter. The keys of the kingdom were not given to the natural man, but to one who had been reconstituted and transformed. When Simon was transformed into Peter, he immediately received the keys of the kingdom.
Prior to chapter 16 the Lord Jesus said nothing to His disciples about His crucifixion and resurrection. Only after they had seen Christ and the church, did He reveal His cross and resurrection to them. Apart from the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, it is impossible for any son of Jonah to be reconstituted. Rather, every natural man would remain the same. A son of Jonah can be transformed and reconstituted only through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Through death and resurrection Simon Barjona became Peter.
We need to understand how we are transferred from a son of Jonah to a Peter. As the rock, the Lord Jesus was cleft, and living water flowed out of Him. We have pointed out that the cleaving of the rock signifies the crucifixion of Christ and that the flowing out of the living water signifies His resurrection. When the Lord appeared to His disciples on the day of His resurrection, the mark of the cleft was still visible in His side (John 20:20). By Christ’s being cleft, not only was the veil removed, but the living water was released. Living water is still flowing out of the Lord’s side today. Today Christ is the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45). Because He is the Spirit, we can drink of Him. On the day we began to drink of Him, we were transferred from Simon to Peter. Moreover, by continuing to drink of Him we were solidly founded upon the rock, which is the crucified and resurrected Christ.
On the one hand, Christ is the flowing water; on the other hand, He is the rock. According to the principle of first mention, the significance of the rock in the Old Testament is the fact that it was cleft so that water could flow out. Eventually, this cleft rock flowing with water became the foundation stone for God’s building. Today nearly all Christians know that Christ is the rock upon which the church is built and that He is the foundation of the church (1 Cor. 3:11). However, not many know the significance of Christ as the rock and the foundation. The significance is that the rock first was cleft so that the living water could flow out. Then as we drink of this flowing water, the cleft rock becomes our foundation, and we are solidly founded upon it. By drinking of the water from the cleft rock, we are transferred from Simon to Peter, and we are founded upon the crucified and resurrected Christ. Within us we have the flowing water, and beneath us we have the solid rock.
Being founded on the rock is not merely a matter of becoming a Christian and then coming together with other Christians. That is human organization. To repeat, Christ was cleft to flow out the essence of God as the living water to be our life. Today He is the cleft and resurrected Christ. When we see this vision, we respond to Him and drink Him in. I did this more than fifty years ago, although I did not know the meaning of what I had done. But as I recall my experience at the time I was saved, I realize now that I took a good drink of Christ and was watered within. Furthermore, I was transferred out of Simon into Peter. Although I was still muddy, the transfer had in fact taken place. Furthermore, at that time I became solidly founded upon the rock. Before I was saved, I was like a piece of driftwood. But after I received the Lord, I was founded on the cleft and flowing rock, on the crucified and resurrected Christ.
When we are transferred and founded, we become the church, and we are no longer food for Satan. Because our constitution has been changed, Satan can no longer eat us. If Satan tries to eat us, he will say, “Oh, I don’t want to eat this! Once, you were so tasteful to me but not anymore.” Many times I have said to Satan, “Satan, you don’t want me, and I don’t want you. I command you to leave.” When this is our condition, we are not only the church on the defensive but also the kingdom on the offensive.
Are you a Simon or a Peter? If you are a Peter, then one day you saw the Christ, the Son of the living God, and you reacted to what you saw. You could not deny what you had seen. Some reacted by praying, others by crying, and still others by confessing how sinful they were. Our reaction depends upon what we see. Your reaction was your drinking of Christ. By drinking Him, you received Him. In other words, by your reaction, by your drinking, the Son of the living God came into you. He will never leave you, although there may be times when you think you want Him to leave. By our drinking of Him, the Son of the living God has been brought into our being, and we have been solidly founded upon the crucified and resurrected Christ. This is the constitution of the church. When we are such a church, we are spontaneously the kingdom.
The kingdom is both the transfiguration of Jesus and the transformation of so many sons of Jonah into Peters. All these sons of Jonah have been reconstituted to become not only the church on the defensive but also the kingdom on the offensive. The Lord was cleft in His crucifixion and flowed out the living water in His resurrection. When we saw this vision, we reacted to Him and drank Him in.
If you never see anything, you will not have any reactions. For example, as you drive along the highway, you react to the scenery. The aim of this ministry is to cause you to react. The more reaction, the better, for when you react, you drink. Every reaction is a drink that causes a further transfer and transformation. Some may not care whether or not they attend the meetings of the church. Those who stay home from the meetings are like those who never travel anywhere. Because they stay home, they see nothing new and hence have no reactions. We need to take a new way. Then we shall have one reaction after another. It does make a difference whether or not we come to the meetings, for in the meetings we will see things that cause us to react; and whenever we react, we drink. By drinking, we are transformed.
Have you seen that all that God is, is embodied in the Son? If you see this, you will react. Have you seen that all that God does is related to Christ, the anointed One? If you see this, you also will react. Have you seen that on the day of resurrection Peter received the Son of God and that on the day of Pentecost he was attached to the anointed One? Anyone who sees this will have a strong reaction and be changed. After you have seen this, it will not be so easy for you to be the same as you were before. We need to have more reactions so that we may experience a further transfer from Simon to Peter. This transfer is for the church and the kingdom.
