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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11; Rev. 21:1; 2 Pet. 3:10-12; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20-21; Eph. 2:5; Rom. 1:3-4; John 1:18; Rom. 8:3; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; Phil. 3:10
The previous chapter on the consummated Spirit may be summarized as follows: God is triune; He became a man and passed through death and resurrection; in resurrection the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — has a consummation, and this consummation is the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the consummation of the processes through which the Triune God passed; in this consummated Spirit the church was brought forth. Then the church became degraded, and the life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God became the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
Throughout the generations theologians have discussed the truth concerning the Divine Trinity and the person of Christ; this discussion began as early as the second century with the church fathers. Although what they saw concerning the Divine Trinity was clear, it was not as deep as what we see today. They also saw something concerning the person of Christ — that He is both God and man. Furthermore, they saw that God became man so that man might become God. However, later theologians retained only the first two points, the Divine Trinity of God and the divinity and humanity of Christ, which have been taught until the present time. The third point, which is concerning God becoming man for man to become God, has rarely been referred to.
My burden in this chapter is for us to see the reality of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 1:22-23 shows us that Christ is the Head and the church is His Body. But 1 Corinthians 12:12 says, “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” According to this verse, Christ is not only the Head but also the Body with all the members. Thus, Christ is the Head and Christ is also the Body. Both the Head and the Body are Christ.
Furthermore, Colossians 3:10-11 shows us that in the new man, that is, in the new creation, the church, there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all. Christ is all the members of the new man and in all the members of the new man.
Some may ask, “There is no problem in saying that Christ is the Head. But if we say that Christ is the Body, then how about us? Didn’t we say that the believers are the members of the Body of Christ? If the Body is also Christ, what about the believers?” How do we answer this question?
The answer is this: The Body of Christ is God’s new creation. According to biblical principles, the new creation of God comes out of His old creation. God’s old creation was something created out of nothing, but it is not so with God’s new creation. God’s new creation comes out of the existing old things. For example, the new heaven and the new earth spoken of at the end of the Bible are not something out of nothing; they are produced out of the old heaven and the old earth. On the one hand, Revelation 21:1 shows us that the new heaven and the new earth will appear after the passing away of the first heaven and the first earth. On the other hand, 2 Peter 3:10-12 shows us that when that day comes, the heavens, the earth, and all the elements will be dissolved by burning fire. After the burning, the old heaven and old earth will be renewed into the new heaven and new earth.
The Bible says that we have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). In particular, Romans says clearly that our old man has been crucified with Christ (6:6). But this is not all. Not only have we died with Christ, but we have also been resurrected with Christ. Hence, Ephesians 2:5 says that God made us alive together with Christ. Therefore, when a person is buried through baptism, he is finished, and it is no longer he; but this does not mean that he remains buried in the water without rising again. He is not only immersed, buried, in the water, but subsequently he rises out of the water. This signifies death and resurrection. What is buried is the man of the old creation; what is resurrected is the man of the new creation. The old creation was created out of nothing, but it is not so with the new creation. The new creation is produced out of the old creation through death and resurrection. When Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ,” that “I” was Paul as an old creation. Hence, it was no longer Paul as an old creation who lived; it was Paul as a new creation who lived.
In the Body of Christ, the Head is uniquely Christ, and the Body is produced by the God-chosen people passing through Christ’s death and resurrection. In the old creation we died and were buried with Christ completely. However, in the resurrection power of Christ we were resurrected. The original creation came out of God; it was something created by God and it was good. But later it was poisoned by Satan. Satan’s poison entered into the man originally created by God so that, in addition to the original element created by God, other elements were added; these elements are death, the world, sin, the flesh, and Satan. Hence, God’s original creation became old, and its nature was changed, having things other than that created by God.
Therefore, when Christ brought us with Him in His death on the cross, He brought the entire old creation with Him to die there. In His resurrection He was raised with the part that was created by God. No longer I means that it is no longer the fallen “I” in the old creation. I now live refers to the resurrected “I” in the new creation. This resurrected “I” is joined with Christ as one. How did Christ resurrect us? In His resurrection He mingled His divinity with our humanity; thus, we were resurrected. Hence, we can either say that the Body of Christ is Christ, or we can say that the Body of Christ is all the members of the Body of Christ.
Romans 1:3-4 says, “Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Christ is not only man but also God. His divine part is the Spirit, that is, God Himself, the Spirit of holiness. When Christ died, His entire being was hung on the cross. However, because He had the Spirit of holiness within Him, that Spirit enlivened Him out of death and designated Him the Son of God.
Before His incarnation Christ was already the Son of God (John 1:18; Rom. 8:3). By incarnation He put on an element, the human flesh, which had nothing to do with divinity; that part of Him needed to be sanctified and uplifted by passing through death and resurrection. By resurrection His human nature was sanctified, uplifted, and transformed. Hence, by resurrection He, with His humanity, was designated the Son of God, that is, the firstborn Son of God.
If Christ was only man and not God, when He died and was buried, He would have been finished. But He was man and God. Although His human part died, His divine part, which could not die, lives forever. Christ could be resurrected from the dead because He has the divine element in Him, and that divine element is the Spirit of holiness. This Spirit of holiness was able to resurrect Him out of death and designate Him the Son of God. By this designation His humanity was uplifted into divinity and was joined with divinity to be one. Consequently, He was completely the Son of God. When He lived in the flesh, a part of Him was merely man, merely the seed of David; that part was not the Son of God. How did that part become the Son of God? It was by the designation through death and resurrection.
Acts 13:33 says, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.” Here this day refers to the day of Christ’s resurrection. Christ was begotten in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God. In resurrection the human part of Christ was made alive by God and uplifted into divinity. In this way Christ was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).
Since Christ is the firstborn Son of God, we as the many sons of God are exactly the same as He. However, because His humanity was without sin and had never become fallen (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15), His human part did not need to be redeemed, but it needed to be uplifted. Our humanity consists of two parts: one part is the God-created part, and the other part is the fallen and corrupted part. When Christ brought us with Him to die on the cross, our fallen, corrupted part died and ended together with Him, but the God-created part within us was made alive together with Him by the power that raised Him from the dead (Eph. 2:5).
Today Christ is the union and mingling of God with man. Likewise, we are the union and mingling of God with man and man with God. This is the Body of Christ. This is the normal believer’s living, which is not merely God’s living or man’s living; it is a God-man living. This is just like when the Lord was on this earth. His living was not merely God’s living or man’s living; it was a living that lived out God in humanity.
God’s salvation is altogether not a matter of religious improvement or a matter of moral and ethical improvement. God’s salvation is to put us into the death of Christ and then to bring us out of that death. Christ’s being put into death was something done by the Jews together with the Roman soldiers. However, Christ’s resurrection from death was something carried out not by man but by the Spirit of holiness in Him. Today it is the same with us. When we were baptized, we were immersed into the water by men. If we did not have the Spirit of God within us, our rising out of the water would be in vain, having no reality of resurrection. But we have the Spirit in us, so we have the reality of resurrection. This is true with all believers. When they live in a corporate way, what they live out is the Body of Christ. This is absolutely different from the teachings of Confucius and the teachings of religion. All the ethical teachings of Confucius and all the doctrines of religion come out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life. God’s salvation brings us into death and then brings us out of death. It not only redeems us but also uplifts us so that we may enter into divinity and live in God, that is, in life. We live by and according to this life; we do not walk according to good and evil. It is in this way that we have the reality of the Body of Christ.
Is the Lord’s recovery the Body of Christ? It depends on whether or not the believers are living the God-man life. Therefore, we must see that teaching people merely according to the letter of the Scriptures is not the Body of Christ; that is a religious work. Merely using the words in the Bible to teach people to flee evil and do good is equivalent to the teachings of Confucius; this does not result in the Body of Christ. We may even preach the gospel zealously, but unless our gospel preaching is the issue of a God-man living, it is not the Body of Christ. What is the Body of Christ? The Body of Christ is a group of God-chosen people who have been redeemed and regenerated through death and resurrection. They have been united and mingled with God and have been living in this union all the time since their regeneration. In such a union they are sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and, eventually, glorified.
If we live such a life, we are the Body of Christ. If we do not live such a life, what we have is just something similar to the ethical teachings of Confucius and the superficial activities of religion. Hence, in our preaching the gospel, expounding the Bible, or visiting the brothers and sisters, we should check whether it is something lived out of a God-man living. Only that which is lived out of a God-man living is the Body of Christ. Otherwise, it is just a religious activity in society, which is no different from the moral teachings of Confucius; it belongs to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life.
This God-man living is also a living of being conformed to the death of Christ through the cross. This conformation to the death of Christ is through the power of Christ’s resurrection (Phil. 3:10). We must be those who live a crucified life continually by taking Christ’s death as the mold of our life. It is only by living this kind of life that we can have the reality of the Body of Christ. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we can live a life of being conformed to the death of Christ through the cross. May the Lord open our eyes to see this vision. Only those who have passed through death and resurrection can have their eyes opened; they live and walk by the revelation that they have seen. Only such a living is the God-man living, and only such a living can live out the reality of the Body of Christ.
