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Prayer: O Lord, we need You. We need You to come as the Spirit to pour Yourself on us outwardly and fill us inwardly. Lord, without the Spirit we have no hope or deliverance; the One whom we look to is the Spirit. Thank You that You have been processed and consummated as this Spirit, who is Your very self. O Lord, open the eyes of our heart that we may see clearly.
We have seen that the vision that governs and controls us in the Bible is the economy of God. The first step in God’s economy is God’s becoming flesh; after this there are the steps of Christ’s passing through human living, death on the cross, and resurrection; eventually, there will be the New Jerusalem. This is a comprehensive statement of God’s economy. Christ’s birth, His living on earth, His death in crucifixion, and His resurrection from death are all familiar terms in Christianity. Unfortunately, however, throughout church history over the last two thousand years, both the teaching ones and those who have received the teaching have only known about these terms. Few have entered deeply into their intrinsic significances. It was not until the time when the Lord raised up the recovery in China, beginning with Brother Nee, that the intrinsic significances of these matters were made known to us one by one.
The first step in God’s economy was the incarnation. We have spent over seventy years on this matter, but it was not until recently that we obtained its crystallized significance. The crystallized significance of incarnation is not only that divinity was brought into humanity but also that God was brought into man that He might be mingled with man to be a God-man. God brought Himself into man to be mingled with man as one — this is a tremendous matter in the universe. In Christianity this matter is generally referred to as “the birth of Christ.” However, Bible readers must know that God Himself is the Word and that this Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14). “The Word became flesh” is deeper than the shallow phrase the birth of Christ.
Christianity has Christmas and carolling in relation to the birth of Christ. Ordinary Christians know only the event mentioned in Luke 2, where on the night of the birth of Christ, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds who spent their nights in the fields and announced to them the good news of great joy for all people that a Savior was born to them in David’s city (vv. 8-14). Any reader of the Bible can see this and understand it without any need of explanation. Christ indeed was born to be a Savior, but this is still not the crystallized significance of His birth. The crystallized significance of Christ’s birth is that God became flesh in Christ; that is, God Himself entered into man to be mingled with man.
After His incarnation Christ passed through thirty-three and a half years of human living. Christian theology neither pays much attention to this matter nor enters into its crystallized significance. God becoming flesh was His bringing Himself into man. When God passed through human living in the human life, this was God living the God-man life in the flesh to live out the divine attributes in human virtues. Some people may realize that the Lord Jesus expressed God when He was on the earth, but they do not know how He did it. Actually, the Lord Jesus expressed God on the earth by becoming a man to live a human life in which He lived out all that God is in His divine attributes to be His human virtues. This is the crystallized significance of Christ’s passing through human living.
After He experienced human living, Christ went to the cross and was crucified. In general, most Christians would say that because Jesus loved us, He bore our sins and died on our behalf to redeem us. This is correct but very shallow. The crystallized significance of Christ’s crucifixion is that He accomplished an all-inclusive death. On the negative side His death terminated the old creation (Rom. 6:6), including all persons and things related to the old creation: Satan (Heb. 2:14), sin (Rom. 8:3b; John 1:29; Heb. 9:26b, 28a), the world (John 12:31; Gal. 6:14b), man’s flesh (5:24; Rom. 8:3b), the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15a), and everything outside of God. Thus, Christ’s death completely removed and thoroughly terminated all defilement and corruption in the universe brought in through Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall.
On the positive side Christ’s death released the divine life in Him as a basic factor of God’s new creation. Christ’s death not only terminated the old creation but also released the divine life. His death was the death of a grain of wheat, as mentioned in John 12:24. Apparently, Christ as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died; actually, that death was His being made alive. The riches of life contained in a seed can be released only through death. In the same way, when Christ as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, the life element within Him became intensely active to release the divine life — the very God Himself — that was concealed in Him and to impart it into the many grains. This is the crystallized significance of Christ’s death.
Christ’s resurrection, the beginning of the new creation, has a threefold crystallized significance. In this resurrection the firstborn Son of God was produced, the many sons of God were simultaneously produced, and Christ Himself was made the life-giving Spirit. Acts 13:33 says, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.” This day refers to the day of Christ’s resurrection (Psa. 2:7). Christ’s resurrection was His being begotten by God as the firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4). First Peter 1:3 says, “God...has regenerated us...through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Hence, God also regenerated all His chosen people to be His many sons through Christ’s resurrection. Thus, God’s firstborn Son and His many sons constitute a universal, corporate new man with the firstborn Son as the Head and the many sons as the Body.
Furthermore, in this resurrection as a great delivery, the incarnated Christ passed through resurrection and became the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of the Firstborn, who is also called the Spirit of Jesus Christ, enters into the many sons to be their bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19). This is God entering into the believers to regenerate them, sanctify them, renew them, transform them, conform them to the image of God’s firstborn Son, and eventually glorify them. All these things are carried out by Christ as the firstborn Son who has become the life-giving Spirit and has entered into us.
There were two “becomings” in the processes that God passed through. The first “becoming” was His becoming flesh (John 1:14) that He might come among men to be with them. However, He still could not enter into them. He needed to pass through another “becoming,” that is, His becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In John 14:3 the Lord said, “If I go...I am coming again.” His going was His going to pass through death and resurrection; His coming was His coming to His disciples and entering into them. In resurrection He was begotten as the firstborn Son of God, and in that birth the many sons of God were also begotten; furthermore, He Himself became the life-giving Spirit that He may enter and dwell in the many sons to be their life supply. This is the crystallized significance of Christ’s resurrection.
Through these four steps of God’s economy the many sons of God were produced. Corporately, the many sons of God are the church; organically, they are the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the church, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride, the counterpart, of Christ. In each aspect the church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor. Without the Body of Christ, the church is lifeless and is a mere human organization. Without the Body of Christ and, therefore, without the life of Christ, there cannot be the house of God, which is constituted with the children born of God the Father, and there cannot be the kingdom of God, which is the realm of God’s life. Without the life of Christ, there also cannot be the bride of Christ who, as His counterpart, must match Him to be a couple with Him. Eve came out of Adam and was a match to Adam, so she could be Adam’s counterpart. Likewise, the church must also have the life of Christ that she may be Christ’s counterpart. The church as the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride of Christ takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor.
We have seen that the vision in the Bible that governs and controls us is the economy of God. We have also seen the crystallized significances of the various steps of God’s economy. I hope the brothers and sisters will be able to see that our expressions are absolutely different from the traditional expressions used in Christianity. We have been enlightened by the Lord to have the new expressions; we must learn all these new expressions and new utterances. Even when we knock on doors to visit people, we should begin our speaking with God’s economy. Whether one receives it or not, it is up to him; but the speaking is up to us. We should not speak the same old things that people have already heard; we need to speak the crystallized significances of God’s economy. Only these things can thoroughly save people; so we need to learn to speak them.
Now, we would like to see the crystallized significance of the Body of Christ. In the entire Bible, only the apostle Paul spoke concerning the Body of Christ. In Matthew 16 and 18 the Lord Jesus clearly referred to the church, but He only spoke of His Body in a hidden, implied way without explicitly using the expression the Body of Christ. The writers of the other Epistles, including the apostles Peter and John, never used this expression; it was used only by Paul.
Every one of the fourteen Epistles of Paul refers to the church, but only four are concerned with the Body of Christ: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. Among them, Ephesians touches the most central, basic, and fundamental matters. Ephesians 1 says that Christ in His ascension poured out the Holy Spirit and thus produced the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (v. 23). This is a simple definition of the church. Then in chapter 4 Paul, based on the revelation in the preceding three chapters, exhorts the saints, saying, “I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called” (v. 1). The first thing in Paul’s exhortation is the keeping of the oneness of the Spirit (v. 3). Then verses 4 through 6 go on to mention seven items of the oneness of the Spirit: “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling” — these three items form one group. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” — these three items form another group. “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” — this is the third group. Ephesians 4:4-6 is the crystallized speaking of the apostle Paul concerning the Body of Christ. These three verses show us that the Triune God and we, the redeemed, are mingled into a constitution, and this constitution is the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is a constitution of the Triune God and His redeemed in order that the Triune God may be constituted with His redeemed as one entity.
Verse 4a says, “One Body and one Spirit.” The Body of Christ takes God’s chosen and redeemed people as its framework and the Spirit as its constituting essence. Just as our body has a framework and also has blood and flesh, so the Body of Christ has its framework and constituting essence. The framework of the Body of Christ is the God-chosen and Christ-redeemed people, with whom the consummated Spirit of the Triune God mingles Himself to constitute the Body of Christ. The believers were chosen by God and redeemed by Christ; this is something known generally by Christians and stressed particularly by the Brethren. However, perhaps even the Brethren did not see anything concerning the Spirit as the constituting essence to be mingled with the believers.
Verse 4b says, “Even as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” Here, hope refers to the transformation of the redeemed. Since the day we were called, we have had the hope that we will be transformed. The Old Testament portrays us as maggots and worms (Job 25:6). Paul also says that he was the foremost among sinners (1 Tim. 1:15b). The Lord has saved us, and what is our hope? Our hope is that we will be transformed. Who will transform us? The Spirit. The Spirit comes first to regenerate us; then He sanctifies us, renews us, transforms us, conforms us to the image of God’s Firstborn, and eventually glorifies us that our body may be saturated with glory, thus shining forth the divine glory. This is our hope. The process from regeneration to glorification is a process of transformation; this transformation is our hope.
In the Body of Christ, in addition to the chosen and redeemed people, there is the transforming Spirit. This transforming Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, which is also the totality of the Triune God, comprising not only the Spirit Himself but also the elements of the Son and the Father. Therefore, Ephesians 4:5, which is related to the Son, says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” This verse does not say “one Son” but “one Lord.” In the Gospel of John it is the Son into whom we believe (3:16); the Son is mainly for us to have life (1 John 5:12). Here in Ephesians, the Son is referred to as the Lord, as also in the book of Acts (2:36); the Lord is for His exercising of authority, for His headship. As the Son, He is our life; as the Lord, He is the Head exercising His authority in the Body. The Body’s relationship with Him is one of faith and baptism. Through faith we believe into the Lord (John 3:36), and through baptism we are baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3) and terminated in Adam (v. 4). Both faith and baptism imply an entering in and a coming out. We came out of Adam and have entered into Christ. Hence, through one faith and one baptism we were baptized out of Adam; that is, we were buried and severed from Adam. At the same time, in one Spirit we have entered into Christ to be joined with Him.
As a result, Christ has become the transforming element in us. The transforming Spirit transforms us gradually from within with Christ as the element that we, the redeemed, may become one with Christ and be mingled with Christ as one. Therefore, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This Lord is the One who has become the consummated life-giving Spirit through resurrection (15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). This Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God and who is also the pneumatic Christ, is in us (1 Cor. 6:19) and is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16), transforming us with Christ as the element.
Ephesians 4:6 says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” In the Body of Christ we have not only the transforming Spirit and Christ as the transforming element but also one God and Father. As God, He created us; as the Father, He regenerated us. Both in creation and in regeneration God is our source. In the old creation we came from God and were created by Him. In the new creation we were regenerated by the Father. Therefore, both God and Father imply the source. This one God and Father as the source involves three aspects — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He is over all — this refers to the Father, the source; He is through all — this refers to the Son, Christ; and He is in all — this refers to the Spirit. The Father is over all; the Son, Christ, is through all; and the Spirit dwells in all. These are not three but one. When the source comes, the element also comes; this is the Son who is through all. Furthermore, the life-giving Spirit comes to dwell in all. Thus, we see that the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed people are constituted into one unit, one entity, which is the Body of Christ. This is the crystallized significance of the Body of Christ.
Our speaking here is the crystallization of our study of the Bible over several decades. These utterances and expressions are from God. When we first studied Ephesians 4:3-6, we sought the proper explanation of this portion; although we studied the writings of others, we were not able to find the key. Gradually, God has opened this portion to us. However, we feel that neither Chinese, nor English, nor any other language can adequately express what the Lord has opened up to us in His Word. Therefore, the Lord has led us to invent some new expressions.
We must know that language comes out of culture. Formerly, terms such as telephone and computer were nonexistent because such things were not yet invented. This proves that without a certain culture there cannot be the terms to express that culture. When I came to the United States, I not only brought the Lord’s truth, but I also brought the Lord’s culture. Because of this, I was compelled to invent some new English terms. Although English is not my mother tongue, I needed to create some new English words to express the divine, spiritual concepts when I released the truth in the United States. For example, sonize is not found in the English language. In 1963 there were three groups in Los Angeles who responded favorably to us and proposed that we all come together. At that time we intended to publish a brief notice of our practice in the newspaper, in which I used the expression church practice. This was not a common expression in English, but eventually we adopted it because the brothers, after much consideration, could not think of a better expression.
In the Lord’s recovery we are a special group of people with our own culture. Since we have this culture, we need the language to match it. Expressions such as processed and ultimate consummation have become very common among us, yet they are new both in the English and Chinese languages. If we have not been weighing and considering the truth to invent some new terms, how can we explain our particular culture? This is a spiritual culture, a heavenly culture, and a culture in God’s economy. It can be explained not with any language on earth but only with the spiritual, heavenly language. Concerning the truth of the Trinity, W. H. Griffith Thomas, a founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, pointed out that we may borrow the term person to define the Trinity because our human language is inadequate, but if we press the term too far, it will lead to tritheism. There is the need, therefore, to invent new terms for the spiritual culture.
When the Western missionaries began to translate the Bible into Chinese, they could not translate expressions such as in Christ because in the Chinese culture there are only expressions such as by, through, and because of. Yet the Bible often uses expressions such as in grace, in power, in the light, and in reality. For example, the Chinese Union Version renders Philippians 3:1 as, “Rejoice by the Lord,” while another version renders it as, “Rejoice because of the Lord,” yet the original text says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” Noah’s family of eight entered into the ark and was saved in the ark, not outwardly by the ark; they could have peace only in the ark. Because of this problem, some Western missionaries created the new expression in Christ in Chinese to speak the new culture with new language. Today those who learn computers have their technical terms that are not understandable to outsiders. Every message that we have released in the recent two years is almost all new language, yet our understanding is still not adequate. We need to endeavor to enter into the new spiritual language so that we may be able to express the spiritual truths in a crystallized way.
The essential, crystallized significance of the Body of Christ is that the Triune God is constituted with His chosen and redeemed people to become a constitution, a constituted entity. Unless we see this crystallized, essential significance of the Body of Christ, there will be no way to carry out what we are trying to do in the church today. If we see this essential significance, there will be no problem whatever.
In the New Testament it is not a matter of the oneness of the church; oneness is not something of the church but of the Body. The Lord’s prayer for the believers in John 17 was concerning the Body. He prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given to Me, that they may be one even as We are...That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (vv. 11b, 21). The believers can have this oneness only by being in the Holy Father, in the Holy Son, and in the Holy Trinity.
The oneness that the Lord aspired for and prayed for in John 17 corresponds with the oneness of the Spirit in Ephesians 4:3-6. We must see that the church is the Body of Christ, which is a constitution, an entity constituted with the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed ones. In this Body there is the reality of oneness. The genuine oneness is not of the church but of the Body; the real oneness is the organic oneness of the Body. In a locality this oneness is called one accord. Without the oneness of the Body, there is no possibility to have one accord in the church.
The one accord is first mentioned in Acts 1. The one hundred twenty had become one in the Body, and in that oneness they continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer (v. 14). If the church in Taipei alone is in one accord, that is still not oneness, because oneness is of the Body. If you are in one accord only in the church in Taipei and do not care at all for the other churches, that kind of one accord is a small sect.
Prior to the recent turmoil in the Lord’s recovery, a certain leading one claimed that the “nucleus” in his local church had something that the churches in Taiwan and other places did not have. Not only the churches in other localities were excluded from the “nucleus” to which he referred, but even the local brothers and sisters were excluded; only a small number were included. This kind of one accord is a big division. That leading one was building up a so-called one accord, but in the end his building produced a big division. That was because he did not see the Body. If we see the Body, we cannot bring in any division.
I would like to refer to the pattern of Brother Nee. First, Brother Nee’s study of the Word gave me a deep impression and changed my study of the Word. Second, he confirmed that I needed to give up my occupation and serve the Lord full time. That was in 1933. At that time I had a serious struggle for a total of three weeks, from August 1 to 21, in which I was considering whether or not to give up my occupation and serve the Lord full time. Then in September I received a letter from him that briefly said, “Brother Witness, concerning your future, I feel that you should serve the Lord full time. How do you feel? May the Lord lead you.” The letter was mailed on August 17, which was exactly the time when I had the most serious struggle before the Lord. Brother Nee and I did not have much correspondence with each other, and he was not aware of my struggle. Therefore, I felt that I should go to see him. Later, when I went to Shanghai and stayed in his home as a guest, I asked him about this matter. He said that at the time he wrote the letter, he was returning from England on a ship sailing on the Mediterranean Sea. While the sea was calm and unruffled, he was considering before the Lord concerning the work in China. It was at that time that he had the feeling to write me that brief letter. Through that letter we were built together more than we were ever built before.
Four months after I arrived at Shanghai, one day Brother Nee came and told me, “Brother Witness, we the co-workers here in Shanghai all feel that you should move your family here to stay.” He wanted me to bring this matter before the Lord. When I brought this matter before the Lord and prayed about it, the Lord used Acts to show me that there was only one flow of His move on the earth; there should not be two flows, two sources, of His move in China. Thus, I moved my family there, and since then I have been in this flow.
Third, Brother Nee truly knew Christ and the Body. His work was not for himself at all; he did not have his own work. He never put any church that he established “in his pocket.” Brother Nee was the pioneer, and I am a follower. Thank the Lord, he truly was an excellent pattern to me that enabled me to still be ministering here today. I was used very much by the Lord. The church in Chefoo was established through me, but I did not keep the church in Chefoo “in my pocket.” When Brother Nee’s ministry was suspended, I was used by the Lord considerably to restore the church in Shanghai, but whatever I did, I was always in fellowship with Brother Nee. Later, I went to Taiwan. Today you can also testify that I have never put the churches in Taiwan “in my pocket.” Neither Brother Nee nor I carried out our own work; rather, we carried out the work of the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery is for the building of the Body of Christ.
Because the Lord’s recovery has spread widely in the United States, some accused me of controlling. Most of you brothers are from Taiwan. Who among you can prove that I controlled you? From 1984 to 1989 I received a burden from the Lord to go back to Taiwan to study the way for the Lord’s recovery to go on. However, a small number of people had a wrong concept and thought that I was keeping the whole church in my hands, so they began to start rumors and cause disruptions. Their concept was altogether natural, and they did not see the Body. After my five-year stay in Taiwan I left them a training that has produced several hundred full-timers, who then went to the villages and established dozens of churches. Is that training in my hands today? In whose hands are the churches in Taiwan today?
Thank the Lord, after I returned to the United States in 1989, I decided to have a training in Anaheim. The Lord’s recovery was stabilized within five or six years. The Lord also confirmed this training. After the war in the Persian Gulf, immediately there was a reminding within me, saying, “Why not go to start the work in Russia? That land with a population of 350,000,000 has been under the hands of the Communists for seventy years and is now opened. Why not go there?” That was in April of 1991. Then in May, during the Memorial Day conference, I declared that we would go to Russia. In October of the same year, over thirty people went there. Most of them were produced by the training in the United States. Now that they are in Russia, even if I wanted to control them, it is not possible. Forgive me to say this: a great number of churches have been under my care, but not one church was kept in my hands.
Anyone who has a vision today can be clear at a glance that neither Brother Nee nor I carried out our own personal work; our work is the work of the Lord’s recovery for the building of the Body of Christ. I say this with the hope that you will be influenced by me. I was greatly influenced by Brother Nee, and I hope that you will also be influenced by him. In March of this year eight brothers were needed for the release of the word in the international blending conference in Indonesia. They came and asked me, “What shall we do there?” I told them that they should go there to do the work in the Body and that they should not be as they had been in the past, each one doing his own work, each one having a little region that had become a mountain fortress, and each one as a result becoming a feudal prince building his own fortress and occupying his own mountaintop.
This is the reason that I have called several urgent meetings for the elders and co-workers since 1984. I called the urgent meetings because I observed that among us there was an inclination toward division. I released a series of truths that were later printed in several volumes (see Books 1 through 11 of Elders’ Training). You all should read these books. I said that the age of feudalism is over and that we should no longer do the work of feudal princes. The co-workers should go out, but they should never do the work of building fortresses, the work of feudal princes; they should only do the work of the Lord’s recovery. If we all do the work of the Lord’s recovery, there will be the one Body. If only three or five people who are of the same mind go out to work in a small region, the outcome is not oneness or one accord; rather, that outcome creates division. This is the very reason for the turmoil in recent years.
If we look back, what did Brother Nee accomplish, and what have I accomplished? All that we have done is left here for the Lord to show grace to His children; the work that we have done is the Lord’s recovery. I hope that we all can see this. We must see the Body of Christ and be very clear concerning this vision. This vision must become our governing and controlling vision. We must do the work of the Lord’s recovery under this vision. The work of the Lord’s recovery is the work of His economy, the work of the Body of Christ.
In the early days of the church in Taipei, we were subdivided into four to five halls. In a certain hall several people would be joined together in one accord to do their own work. Their one accord included only those who were joined to them and excluded all the other halls. As a result, their hall became a small fortress with themselves as feudal princes. If a local church does not care for other local churches, that is a fortress under a feudal prince. Anyone who does the work of the fortress and the feudal prince will not have a long-lasting spiritual life. Although Brother Nee passed away over twenty years ago, today we still see his ministry remaining here to minister to the churches for their going on. We all must see the Body and do the work of the Body. All our problems, whether in the church or in our personal life, are due to our lack of seeing the Body. Even our wrong attitude toward our wife is due to our not knowing the Body. Knowing the Body changes not only our church life but also our attitude toward our spouse.
Whether you are doing the work of the fortress or the work of the Lord’s recovery does not depend on me but on you. Do you work in your locality merely to guard your hall, merely to work on your district meeting, or merely for the locality where you are? We should not have feudal princes among us; we should have only one Head, who is Christ, the Head of the Body. What we are doing today is the work of the Body of Christ. Christianity is full of fortresses: the Catholic Church is a big fortress; the Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Church are also fortresses. Every small free group is a small fortress. We cannot see the Body of Christ among them.
We need to see that the Body of Christ is not the oneness in a locality but the oneness of the Body, the oneness of the Spirit. There are thousands of local churches, but the Spirit is one. In the Body we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit; in the church and among the churches we need to be in one accord. This is the genuine oneness.
