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In this chapter we will consider four questions. First, what is the central goal and ultimate purpose revealed in the Bible? Second, what does God want to accomplish in man? Third, why does God want to produce the church, and what is the purpose of the church? Fourth, what is the testimony of the church? Of these four questions, we will consider the fourth question because once this question is answered, the first three questions will be answered as well. The first three questions all relate to the fourth question, concerning the testimony of the church. If we clearly see the testimony of the church, we will know God’s purpose for the church, God’s desire for man in the universe, and the central goal and ultimate purpose as revealed in the Bible.
Before addressing the question of the testimony of the church, I need to insert a word related to the difference between natural concepts and knowledge gained through revelation. Once a person is saved, he will have natural concepts concerning spiritual pursuit and concerning service to the Lord. However, these concepts are completely different from knowledge gained through revelation. In regard to spiritual pursuit, a newly saved person has a natural concept that he needs to improve himself and to do good things. This is a natural concept concerning spiritual pursuit. One day, however, God will open his eyes, and he will gain knowledge through revelation, and he will realize that spiritual pursuit is not about improving the self or doing good, but about knowing Christ and allowing Christ to have the ground in him so that He can be lived out through him. Spiritual pursuit does not depend on how much he can improve himself but on how much he gains, experiences, and lives out Christ. The thought of self-improvement and doing good are natural concepts; the knowledge that is gained through revelation is Christ.
When a person is zealous to serve the Lord, he also needs to see that there is a difference between natural concepts and knowledge gained through revelation. The natural concept of service is based on the thought that serving God means to be zealous for the Lord, to preach the gospel, to save sinners, to help others, to edify the saints, to preach the truth, and to do many works. Everyone who loves the Lord and wants to serve the Lord will have this concept without even being taught. One day, however, God will open his eyes, and he will gain knowledge through revelation. God will show him that serving the Lord and working for Him do not involve merely preaching the gospel, saving sinners, helping others, edifying the saints, preaching the truth, and doing many works but that serving the Lord is a matter related to the Body of Christ. Spiritual pursuit is a matter of Christ, not a matter of self-improvement or doing good, and spiritual service concerns the Body of Christ, not works.
Once a person is saved and begins to have a spiritual pursuit, his natural concept is to do good. We may say that his goal is “good.” This includes many things: loving others is good, being humble is good, exercising patience is good, being gentle is good, and helping others is also good. Many things are considered to be good. This is a matter of ethics and behavior. Once a person is saved, he may not pursue spirituality in the beginning. However, once he begins to pursue spirituality, his concept will be focused on being good. One day, however, the Lord will open his eyes and show him that spiritual pursuit is not a matter of being good but a matter of Christ. It is not about love but about Christ; it is not about being patient but about Christ; and it is not about being humble but about Christ. Spirituality is not a matter of how much one can improve his self or of how good he can be; it is a matter of how much Christ is in him.
After a person is touched and constrained by the Lord’s love, he has a desire to serve the Lord, but he also has a natural concept of what it means to work for the Lord. Work is his goal. He thinks that as long as he preaches the gospel, saves sinners, helps others, edifies the saints, speaks the truth, teaches people the Bible, and does many works, he is serving the Lord. This is the aim of his service to the Lord. However, if he allows the Lord to speak to him and is willing to accept the Lord’s leading, the Lord may ask, “What are these works for?” Then the Lord will show him that service is not a matter of works but of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers...unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” The goal of any service is not work but the Body of Christ. The goal of spiritual pursuit is Christ; the goal of spiritual service is the Body of Christ. However, because of our natural concepts, being good replaces Christ in our spiritual pursuit, and work replaces the Body of Christ in our spiritual service.
In this fellowship concerning the testimony and the ground of the church, it is not my intention to encourage the brothers and sisters to serve in zeal. Since we all have a heart to serve, we need to consider whether our service is a matter of work or the Body of Christ, that is, whether our service matches God’s desire. We all need to be clear about the difference between our natural concepts and the knowledge that is gained through revelation. Natural concepts are out of man himself, and even though they seem good, they do not have any spiritual value. Knowledge gained through revelation is out of God, and only it has spiritual value. We are fellowshipping concerning the testimony and the ground of the church so that our service would come out of revelation from God and be of spiritual value. With revelation we will see clearly that the goal of service is not work but the Body of Christ.
All these matters concerning the church require that we have a heart that is focused more on the Lord; without such a heart, we will regard these as insignificant matters. Satan often works in us by giving us a feeling that we do not need to pay too much attention to the matter of the church. He makes us think that it is sufficient to preach the gospel, save sinners, and help people be spiritual. This is the way that Satan works. He causes people to feel that it is unnecessary to care for the church. However, we should care more for the Lord’s affairs and be concerned more for the Lord’s intention. When we care for the Lord’s intention, we will have a sense that we must touch these matters and live in them even though the things concerning the church are high, eternal, and in the heavenlies. This is to serve the Lord according to revelation.
John 15:26 says, “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of reality, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify concerning Me.” In this verse the coming of the Spirit is the coming of the Spirit of reality to testify of Christ. The Spirit testifies of Christ. This does not mean that Christ is far away from us, sitting high above us in the heavens, and that He sends the Spirit in an objective way to testify for Him. This verse shows that the Spirit is the Spirit of reality, and the reality is Christ Himself. The Lord said, “I am the way and the reality and the life” (14:6). Thus, Christ is the reality; the Spirit of reality is the Spirit of Christ, and Christ as the reality is in the Spirit. Simply speaking, the Spirit is the realization of Christ, the reality of Christ. When the Spirit descends, Christ is realized in Him, hidden in Him, and mingled with Him. When the Spirit enters into us, the Spirit is Christ coming as the Spirit. The Spirit comes in this way to testify of Christ. Hence, this is not objective but subjective; Christ and the Spirit are not two separate entities; They are mingled together as one. Christ is in the Spirit; Christ is mingled with the Spirit. It is this Spirit who comes to testify of Christ.
In 15:26 the Lord said that the Spirit comes to testify of Him; then He said, “You testify also, because from the beginning you have been with Me” (v. 27). “With Me” is the criterion and base for our testifying of the Lord. We are with the Lord, and the Lord is with us; we abide in the Lord, and the Lord abides in us. Consequently, we can testify for the Lord. In a narrow sense, the Lord used the word you to refer to the group of people in the early church. In a broad sense, you refers to the church. The Spirit testifies of Christ, and the church also testifies of Christ. The testimony of the church and the testimony of the Spirit are inseparable; the two are mingled together.
Acts 1:8 says, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” In the matter of witnessing, this verse joins the Holy Spirit and the church together. Revelation 1:9 says, “I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” John said that he was for the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 12:17 says, “The dragon became angry with the woman and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.” This verse speaks of a group of people who have the testimony of Jesus; they are the seed of the woman. Verse 10 of chapter 19 says, “I am your fellow slave and a fellow slave of your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus...For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophecy.”
These verses from the Bible show that the church testifies of Jesus, of Christ. The testimony of the church is not for other things; the testimony of the church is of Christ and is Christ. Some would say that the testimony of the church involves breaking bread, head covering, baptism, or other matters. However, the Word of God says that the testimony of the church is of Christ. Only the testimony of Christ is the testimony of the church. The testimony of the church cannot be anything less than Christ; anything less is not the testimony of the church.
We should not think that testifying of Christ or being the testimony of Jesus is merely telling people about Christ. This is not the meaning of testifying. Our preaching of the Word and the testimony of Jesus can be two different things. Keeping God’s commandment may be one thing, but the testimony of Jesus is another. After speaking a good gospel message, one may say that he has given a testimony for the Lord. Sometimes a person tells a story about receiving the Lord’s blessing, and he may say that he is testifying for the Lord. We need to know that the testimony of Jesus in the New Testament has a much richer and deeper significance than this. If we have read through the book of Revelation, we will see that the entire book is the testimony of Jesus. If we know the testimony of Jesus, we will understand the testimony of the church.
What is the testimony of Christ? Or rather, what does it mean to testify of Christ? Although the implications of the word testimony are numerous and vast, we first need to know who Christ is. According to the Bible, Christ is the expression of God. The Gospel of John says that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, that the Word was in the beginning, and that the Word was God (1:1-2). One day, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality (v. 14). Verse 18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” These verses show that Christ is the expression and declaration of God.
Christ is the expression of God, and there are many elements in this expression. The first element of Christ being the expression of God is the mingling of God and man. As the expression of God, Christ is the Word becoming flesh. His incarnation is the mingling of God and man. Christ’s incarnation not only brought God close to man but also brought God into man; God not only draws near to man but also mingles with man in Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s manifestation, God’s expression. The first element in this expression is God being mingled with man.
God has an eternal purpose. Before this eternal purpose was accomplished, a problem occurred in the universe; that is, Satan rebelled. Satan means “adversary, enemy.” In the universe Satan particularly opposes God. Sin comes with Satan, and death follows sin. In Genesis 3:1 Satan came in, and once man received Satan, sin entered into man. In 4:16-22 the world was brought forth because of sin. In 5:5 death came in. In 11:4 Satan brought in idols in addition to sin, the world, and death. Satan not only prevents man from worshipping God, cutting off the relationship between God and man through sin and death, but he also leads man to worship demons and idols, causing man to have a relationship with him and bringing forth his kingdom. When the Lord Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan tempted Him by associating idolatry with his kingdom. The devil brought the Lord Jesus to a very high mountain, showed Him the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said, “All these will I give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:9). Idols are a matter of worship, and the kingdom of Satan is a matter of authority.
These six items — Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan — have not only come among us but have also entered into us because of the fall. From Genesis 3 to the end of chapter 11, these six items entered into the Adamic race. Thus, the Adamic race, the descendants of Adam, are filled with Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan. Today Adam’s descendants are filled with these six items. All the history of mankind relates to these six items.
Genesis 2 shows that man was living before God and contacting God in the garden of Eden. However, from chapters 3 through 11, man became alienated from God. Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan entered into man and were mixed with man. Before the Lord Jesus was incarnated and came to be among mankind, the people on the earth were alienated from God and filled with Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan. Man was apart from God, having only Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan, that is, the authority of Satan. However, Christ came to the earth to be the expression of God, which was the complete opposite of man’s condition. In Christ there was neither Satan nor anything out of Satan; these six things did not have any ground in Him.
Satan having no ground in Christ is the first element of Christ being the expression of God. In John 14:30 the Lord clearly said that in Him “the ruler of the world [Satan]...has nothing.” Satan has nothing; that is, he does not have any ground in Christ, who is the expression of God.
The second element of Christ being the expression of God is that there is no sin in Him. In 8:46 the Lord stood before the Jews and asked, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” In 18:38 Pilate, after examining the Lord Jesus, declared to the Jews, “I find no fault in Him.” These accounts prove that He was without sin.
The third element of Christ being the expression of God is that in Him there is nothing of the world. He does not belong to this world (17:14, 16), and He has overcome the world (16:33).
The fourth element of Christ being the expression of God is that death has no ground in Him. Where He is, there is life; where He is, there is resurrection. Wherever Christ is, there is no death. In John 11 the Lord arrived in Bethany after Lazarus had died. Martha and Mary complained to the Lord that He arrived too late. They said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (vv. 21, 32). In their view, life and death were matters of time; however, the Lord showed them that life and death are not related to time but to His presence. The Lord is the resurrection and the life (v. 25). Being early means nothing if He is not present, and being late means nothing if He is not present. He is resurrection, and death has no ground in Him.
The fifth element of Christ being the expression of God is that in Him there is nothing related to idols. An idol is anything other than God that becomes man’s main object and goal. Anything that replaces God is an idol. The Gospel of John shows repeatedly that the Lord Jesus did not have any goal apart from God. He took God as everything in time, place, move, thought, concept, and view. The Lord did not speak from Himself, and He did not do anything from Himself (14:10; 8:28; 5:30; 6:38). His time had not yet come, because His time was according to God’s time (7:6). Wherever He went was ordained by God; He did not go anywhere that God did not ask Him to go. His living was not a matter of place or time; it was also not a matter of doing or working. Only God mattered to Him. If the Lord did not go to a place, it was because God was not there. If He did not move, it was because God was not in that move. If He did not work, it was because God was not in that work. Throughout the Gospel of John we can see that the Lord, as the expression of God, was very pure; in Him there was no mixture of anything that was not of God. In other words, the Lord took God as His goal, center, and everything. He had nothing other than God; He did not have idols.
The sixth element of Christ being the expression of God is that He has no part in the kingdom of Satan. In 18:36 the Lord said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
After man’s fall Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan came in. These six elements have no ground in the Lord Jesus, the One who expresses God. The Gospel of John repeatedly proves that in the Lord Jesus there was no ground for Satan, no ground for sin, no ground for the world, no ground for death, no ground for idols, and no ground for the kingdom of Satan. In Christ as the expression of God, these six elements related to the negative things of the fall are not in Him.
However, there is also a positive element of God coming into man and of man being brought into God. Initially, Christ brought God into man, and ultimately, He brought man into God when He resurrected and became the Spirit. The Gospel of John shows that there are seven elements related to His being the expression of God. In chapter 1 Christ is God becoming flesh, bringing God into man. The subsequent chapters up to chapter 20 show that in the Word who became flesh there was nothing of Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan. Then in chapter 20 Christ resurrected and brought man into God. He said, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (v. 17). He entered into resurrection and brought man into God.
Simply speaking, these seven items are the testimony of Jesus. To testify of Jesus is to testify that the elements of God being mingled with man and man being mingled with God are within Him. In addition, it is to testify that in Jesus there is nothing of Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, or the kingdom of Satan. The testimony of Jesus speaks of a condition, or expression, of God being mingled with man and man being mingled with God and of Satan and everything out of Satan having no ground in Him. In this testimony there is only God expressing Himself through man and man living in God. This is the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of Christ.
In Acts, at the beginning of the church at Pentecost the testimony borne by those who were saved by grace concerned these seven items. These saved ones were not testifying regarding head covering, baptism, or bread breaking. They testified of a condition, a manifestation of God being expressed through man and of man living in God. In this testimony there was nothing of Satan or out of Satan. This is the testimony of the church.
If we remember these seven items, the Gospel of John will be open to us. We will see that the One spoken of in the Gospel of John is the Word of God. The Word is an explanation and expression. Thus, Christ is the explanation of God and also the expression of God. In Christ, God was brought into man, causing God to be mingled with man, and when Christ resurrected, He brought man into God, bringing man into glory. This is the beginning and the end of the Gospel of John. In the accounts of the Gospel of John there are more than ten chapters that prove that within this One there was no ground for Satan, sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan. Nothing of Satan has any ground in Him. Christ is such a One.
On the day of Pentecost, when the apostles stood up, there was an expression, a condition, of God being mingled with man, of man living in God, and of Satan and everything belonging to him having no ground in them (Acts 2:1-36). This is the testimony of Jesus, which is also the testimony of the church.
Since the testimony of the church includes these seven items, these items must be exceedingly manifested in the church. If there is a condition of having God without man or having man without God, then this is not the testimony of the church. If there is a condition that involves ground being given to Satan, sin being mixed in, death being tasted, the world and idols being present — whether they are actual idols or abstract idols — or the authority of Satan being exercised, this will destroy the testimony of the church, causing the church to lose the testimony of Christ.
If we know the testimony of the church, we will understand that God wants the church for the purpose of upholding His testimony. God entrusts all that He has accomplished to the church. What God has accomplished is Jesus Christ. Christ is the expression of God, and in Him, God is mingled with man and man is living in God without anything of Satan or out of Satan. God accomplished this expression in Christ, and God has entrusted this expression to the church. This may be likened to a printing shop, where type is set and then printed on paper. We are pieces of paper, and God is printing the accomplished Christ on us; that is, He is constituting Christ into us through the Spirit, and what is being constituted into us is the testimony of the church. The testimony of the church from Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth is to show people that God is expressed through man and that man is living in God and that nothing of Satan or out of Satan has any ground in Christ. This is the testimony of the church and also the testimony of Jesus.
I hope that we will all see this matter clearly. We often say that we need to uphold the testimony. What are we upholding? What are we testifying? If we uphold and testify something that is less than this Christ, it is not the testimony that God speaks of in the Bible. God wants the church to testify this Christ on the earth. This is what God is doing in the universe in man. Once the New Jerusalem is manifested, this condition will be fully testified. There is a city, an expression, that will be manifested in the universe. In this city Satan and everything out of Satan will be completely destroyed, and there will be no more death and darkness. Satan will be in the lake of fire, and there will be no trace of sin, the world, death, idols, and the kingdom of Satan (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14; 21:8). In this city there will be only God mingled with man, manifesting Himself, and there will be only man living in God, expressing God. The New Jerusalem, the enlarged Christ, is the full testimony of Christ. The New Jerusalem is the testimony of Jesus. God is producing this testimony in the universe in man.
The entire Bible has this testimony as its center and goal. If we open ourselves, the Lord will grant us light and cause us to see the testimony of the church. The testimony of the church is the Word who became flesh, who overcame Satan and everything of Satan, and who entered into glory, into God, with the resurrected humanity of the man He had put on. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us, reprint Himself in us, constitute Himself into us, and then reprint Himself through us. This is the testimony of the church. This testimony is going forth from Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the earth, showing people everywhere that there is a group of people who are mingled with God to express Him and who are living in God and taking God as everything without any trace of Satan or anything out of Satan. This is the testimony of the church, that is, the testimony of Jesus, the testimony of Christ. This is what God is after in this age.
