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In this chapter we will fellowship concerning the church as both the Body and the new man. We need to put on the new man (Eph. 4:24). This is the church life.
God’s intention in creating man was to gain a group of people on earth who have His image and likeness in order to express Him and represent Him. God does not want to gain individuals to express Him; rather, He desires to gain a corporate man for His expression. Ephesians says that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23). Hence, the church does not refer to many individual believers. The church is the Body, and the Lord is the Head of this Body, which is His fullness. The Lord needs a Body as His fullness for His expression. The church is not only the Body but also the new man (2:15-16).
There is a significant difference between the Body and the new man. The emphasis in the Body is on life; the Body is an organ, not an organization. My physical body is an organ — it is not my person. My whole being includes not only my body but also the person within my body. Within my body there is not only life but also my person. Something that possesses life does not necessarily have a person. For example, a tree has life, but it does not have a person, because it does not have consciousness or a mind, emotion, and will. However, a man not only has a body with life; he also has a person. The church as the Body is a corporate entity with Christ as its life, and the church is also the new man with Christ as its person.
Ephesians 3:17 speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts. We are God’s temple, His dwelling place (2:21-22). God desires to dwell in us not only to be our life but also our person. Just as we each have a person, so the church as a great corporate man also has a person. A Christian who knows that the church is the Body of Christ is advanced. In the past many believers thought of the church as a place for worship. This is superficial and low. In the early days of the recovery the Lord showed us that the church does not refer to a physical building; rather, the church is composed of all His believers. Later the Lord showed us that the church is not composed of individual believers; the church is a corporate man. The church is composed of a group of believers who are coordinated and built up to become a living Body.
Later, the Lord gave us further revelation to see that the church is not only the Body but also the new man. Ephesians 1:22-23 says that the church is the Body of Christ. Then 2:15 says, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.” The Lord created Jewish and Gentile believers in Himself into one new man. The new man cannot be an individual, because this verse says that the new man was created with two categories of believers: Jewish and Gentile. Hence, the new man is a corporate man. According to verse 16, these two categories were reconciled in “one Body to God.” The new man in verse 15 is the Body in verse 16. In chapter 1 the Body is the church, and in chapter 2 the Body is the new man. In the above verses the church, the Body, and the new man refer to the same entity. The church is the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the one new man. We are not only one Body but also one new man. For the one Body, life is needed, but for the one new man, a person is needed in addition to life.
The church is the new man. This means that Christ is not only our life but also our person. Christ is making His home in our hearts with the desire to be not only our life but also our person. Our old man has been crucified with Christ. Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him,” and Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Our old man has been crucified with Christ, and now it is no longer our old man who lives, but it is Christ who lives in us. He desires to be our life and also our person. Christ as our person is deeper than Christ as our life.
May the Lord have mercy on us and lead us into this new experience. When we dealt with our temper in the past, we would ask the Lord for power to overcome our temper. However, now that we have received Christ as our person, we do not need to be concerned about the way to overcome our temper. It does not matter whether or not our old man lost his temper or whether he was meek or irritable. These things are over. Christ is now our person. Hence, whether or not we lose our temper should not be our focus. Our focus should be to let Christ be our person. We need to live by Christ.
Our focus is not whether we lose our temper but whether we take Christ as our person. Our focus is not whether we love or hate others. Our focus is to take Christ as our person. In the past we would ask the Lord to give us the ability to love others. Such a prayer does not seem wrong; however, it is religious. As Christians, we know that we should love others, but since we are unable to do this, we depend on the Lord as our power, our ability, to love others. This is to ask the Lord to help us live by our old man as our person. In other words, we are still living by our old man, who is still here and is incapable of doing good but quite capable of doing evil things. Such prayers ask the Lord to empower us to do good and to reject evil. However, whether we did good or evil, we were still the person. Formerly we were the person who did evil, but now we are the person who does good. The only difference is that we now need the Lord Jesus to help us. This means that we receive Him as power, but we do not receive Him as our life and our person.
We need an absolute consecration of handing ourselves over to the Lord and yielding our person to Him so that He can be our person. We should say, “Lord, I do not care about hating or loving others. I resign. I do not want to focus on loving or hating others. I retire. Not only so, I am already buried. I want You to be my person.” If we are willing to do this, our Christian life will be simple. It is not that we hate or love others, it is not that we are meek or irritable, and it is not that we are humble or proud. We have been crucified with Christ on the cross. We are finished. We have taken Christ as our person, and we have let Christ live in us. Christ will not only live in us but will also make His home in us. The issue of taking Christ as our person is the practical church life.
The reality of the church is Christ as our person. The result of your person being Christ and my person being Christ is oneness. We are one because we have the same person in us. However, if we are still in our old man, our natural man, we are not taking the same One as our person. I am an elderly man from northern China, and this is a young man from Taiwan. The people in northern China have their own particular characteristics, and the Taiwanese have theirs. Elderly people tend to be old-fashioned, but younger people also have peculiarities. Such differences make it difficult for us to be one Body and to be one man.
The young brother from Taiwan is saved, and I am too, and we have received Christ as our person; therefore, we should be one. However, we are not one, because we live by two different persons. He has his person, and I have my person. If there were one hundred believers, there would be one hundred persons; if there were a thousand believers, there would be a thousand persons. In the same way, it is also difficult for a married couple to be together and have only one person. It is not easy to find a married couple who can get along perfectly. We each have our own person; you have yours, and I have mine. However, we thank the Lord that in the church there is one way that enables us to get along. It is not a method or merely a life; it is a person.
Ephesians 3:17 says that “Christ may make His home in your hearts,” not “heart.” This verse does not speak of only one heart but of many hearts. Verse 18 says that you “may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are.” To apprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth indicates that this is not an individual matter; it is a corporate matter. We have a person in us who makes us one. It does not matter whether we are old or young or from the mainland or Taiwan; neither does it matter if we are odd or eccentric. We are all one when we take Christ as our person.
Suppose a young brother from Taiwan and I resolve to love one another because the Bible teaches us to be one by loving one another and bearing one another. As a result, we will begin to pray and ask the Lord to help us love each other. However, since we lack the ability to love one another in ourselves, after a period of time we will accumulate bitter feelings toward one another. Eventually, we will realize that this way does not work.
We should not take any portion of the Word out of context. Ephesians speaks not only concerning lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and bearing one another. More importantly, in chapter 3 Paul says, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (vv. 17, 19). In chapter 5 he says, “Be filled in spirit” (v. 18). Based on these verses, we see that resolving to be one because of the teaching in the Bible will not work. We are unable to achieve this by our resolution. We must let Christ make His home in our hearts by taking Him as our person. If we receive the Lord’s grace, we will see that in order for Christ to make His home in our hearts, we should take Christ as our person. The church is not only the one Body but also the one new man (2:15). In this new man neither you nor I are the person; Christ is the person in the new man. Hence, I should consecrate in order to let the Lord be my person, and the young brother should also consecrate in order to let the Lord be his person. Our consecration is not for us to become preachers or evangelists or fervent co-workers. Our consecration is to take Christ as our person. We are empty vessels who consecrate to the Lord so that He may dwell in us and make His home in us to be not only our life but also our person. Hence, we must receive Christ as our person. This is not a performance; it is not our way of dealing with a difficult situation; it is not a matter of seeing a vision or of receiving a revelation. This has to be our daily experience.
Many younger saints testified concerning taking Christ as their person. They said that before going to bed, they ask the Lord whether or not He is going to bed. Although this kind of testimony is not wrong, it is not deep enough. We need to testify concerning not trying to love the saints because we take Christ as our person. When we take Christ as our person, we are dead and buried. When the Lord is our person, we can spontaneously love an unlovable brother because the Lord, who is our person, loves him. Not only do we love those whom the Lord loves, but we love with the Lord’s love. When this becomes our practice, we will live by the Lord Jesus, just as He lived by the Father.
In John 5:30 the Lord said, “I can do nothing from Myself.” This does not mean that the Lord was not able to do anything but that He did not live by Himself. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (14:10). The Lord was the One speaking, but it was the Father who was working. The Lord took the Father not only as His life but also as His person. The Father was in Him, and the Father spoke through Him. Hence, the Lord’s speaking was the Father’s working. This is the life that we should live. We should tell the Lord to love the brothers through us. We are not our own person; the Lord is our person. We do not live by ourselves; we live by Him. Then when we love a brother, it will be the Lord doing His work. We need to hear testimonies of this kind. This does not mean that the Lord will not help us. However, to experience the Lord as our person should not be limited to His helping us.
May the Lord have mercy on us and open our eyes to see that His eternal purpose is for us to be joined with Him to become people of two natures. We are human beings possessing humanity, and the Lord is God possessing both divinity and a perfect humanity. He desires to come into us to be not only our life but also our person, thus making us His expression. By being joined to Him, we become people possessing not only our human nature but also His divine nature and His uplifted human nature. There is a fruit that looks like both a peach and an apple. It is the product of grafting peaches with apples. This fruit has two natures. Every Christian also has two natures. Even though this young brother is Taiwanese and I am from mainland China, we have been grafted into Christ, and Christ is in us. He is not only our life but even more our person. Since Christ is our person, our old man is finished.
Since Christ is our person, we do not need to resolve to do good. We simply take the Lord as our person by letting Him dwell in us and make home in us. This is the kind of life that we should live daily. Then even if I am an old mainlander and you are a young Taiwanese, we will be one because there is only one person in us. Furthermore, not only is there one person within us, but we will live out and express Christ in our living. Being in oneness, in harmony, and loving one another are expressions of Christ. Such a living that expresses Christ is the reality of the church.
The church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One, Christ, who fills all in all (Eph. 1:22-23). This Body is the new man, who takes Christ as the person. Christ lives in every member of this Body, and every member rejects, puts aside, his own person. In the new man every member takes Christ as his person. As a result, even though there are thousands of believers, there is only one person. This person is Christ. These believers who take Christ as their life are the one new man. They are the church in reality. The living of this new man is the church life.
Ephesians 2:15 says, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.” The Lord abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances in His flesh. There are ordinances in the Old Testament laws that forbid Jews from contacting Gentiles. These ordinances cause Jews to stay away from Gentiles. However, on the cross Christ abolished all the ordinances. If we have ordinances, we can never take Christ as our person. In order to take Christ as our person, we must put off all ordinances. Verse 18 says, “Through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.” In order to take Christ as our person, we must not only put off the ordinances but also be in one Spirit. For this reason, we should pay attention to the Spirit, not to ordinances.
We each have many self-made ordinances. Ordinances are our forms or ways of living and worship. For example, when I sleep at night, I must close the window; this is my ordinance. There may be a young brother who likes to sleep with the window open. Hence, my ordinance is to close the window at night, and his ordinance is to open the window. How can we be together in peace? The main ordinances in Judaism include dietary regulations, such as not eating pork. However, Gentiles eat pork. These dietary regulations are a middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles (v. 14). Ordinances separate and bring in enmity between people. Regardless of whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we need to drop our ordinances and turn to the Spirit. If the Spirit wants us to eat meat, we should do so whether it is beef, pork, or lamb. If the Holy Spirit does not want us to eat meat, we should not eat it. When John the Baptist came, he neither ate nor drank. But when the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, came, He both ate and drank (Matt. 11:18-19). Hence, do not pay attention to ordinances; pay attention to the Spirit. It does not matter whether or not we eat meat or whether we open or close the window; none of these matter. What is crucial is to follow the Spirit.
In the church life we should never hold on to our ordinances; we should be in the Holy Spirit. Some saints have an ordinance to sit quietly in their chair during the meeting. This becomes an ordinance of being quiet. Some younger saints like to pray loudly and shout. They are not satisfied unless they shout. This also becomes an ordinance. Thus, being quiet is an ordinance, and shouting is also an ordinance. In the end, those who are quiet cannot be one with those who shout. Since the Lord has abolished the ordinances, we are one in the Lord in reality. However, when we hold on to our ordinances, we cannot be one in practicality. The Bible clearly says that the Lord nailed all the ordinances to the cross (Col. 2:14; Eph. 2:15-16). Hence, we should drop all the ordinances and turn to the Spirit. If the Spirit wants us to shout, we should shout, and if the Spirit wants us to be quiet, we should be quiet.
Psalm 90:14 says, “Satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness / That we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days.” This verse says that we should give a ringing shout not only in the morning but from morning to evening all our days. I do not quote this verse to encourage you to shout. This verse shows that in our Christian life we touch the Lord inwardly. When we touch the Lord and are released, we will shout. A Christian who has never shouted has not touched the Lord in a released way. A brother said that the young saints were shouting too much. Even though I concur with this comment, I feel that those who are opposed to shouting should shout. If we insist on not shouting, we make it an ordinance, which will become a chain that binds us.
Please do not misunderstand me. Whether we should shout or be quiet is not a problem. The problem is that the demand for others to be quiet or to shout comes from the self. When we make such a demand, we are the person. We must give ourselves completely to the Lord and let Him be our person. Once the Lord becomes our person, we will have joy and peace within. Of course, the young saints should not be too loud. They should take care of the older saints who may have heart problems or high blood pressure. To insist on shouting is an ordinance. Satan, the cunning one, hides behind every ordinance in order to create division and cause people to be in discord.
We must allow the cross to eliminate all our ordinances. Those who promote shouting should leave their shouting on the cross, and those who are in favor of being quiet should leave their being quiet on the cross. The Lord has abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances and slain the enmity. Let us turn to the Spirit and not be under any regulations. The quiet saints should not rebuke the saints who shout, nor should the saints who shout criticize the quiet saints. The cross has abolished all the ordinances, and we are in one Spirit. We should not decide to be quiet or to shout; rather, we should let Christ be our person in everything. Then we will be full of joy, the Lord Jesus will be very precious, and the brothers and sisters will be lovely.
We have said that if we, as Christians, are not beside ourselves, we are not qualified to be Christians, because the Bible says that we should be beside ourselves toward God (2 Cor. 5:13). We are blessed to enjoy God to the extent that we are beside ourselves. However, this is not a performance or an ordinance. It is the result of living in our mingled spirit and taking Christ as our person. Taking Christ as our person is not an ordinance. It is the way for us to live in our spirit.
Ephesians 4:22 and 24 speak of putting off the old man and putting on the new man. Since the new man in 2:15 is the church, to put on the new man in 4:24 must be to put on the church life. The New American Standard Version renders the Greek words translated “new man” in verse 24 as “new self.” This rendering does not match the context of Ephesians. Since the new man is the church in chapter 2, it cannot change its meaning in chapter 4 and become the new self. Such a translation is against the principle of Bible exposition. To put on the new man is to put on the church life. This is not to put on a new self but to put on the church life.
The secret to putting on the new man lies in 4:23, which speaks of being “renewed in the spirit of your mind.” To be renewed in the spirit of the mind is to let our spirit become the spirit of our mind. We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Our mind with its thoughts must be controlled, directed, saturated, and occupied by our spirit. As a result, our spirit will become the spirit of our mind, and we will be renewed in the spirit of our mind. This is the way to put on the church life.
Verse 22 says, “Put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man.” Our former manner of life includes everything related to us: what we are, what we have, our family life, and our social life. Our living and walk are related to our parents and children and to our siblings, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, and relatives. Every point and aspect of our living and walk are involved with human communities. Our living is a corporate living. The Bible says that we need to put off the old man, the former manner of life, that is, the old social life, and that we need to put on the new man, the church life.
Before we were saved, we lived a life of taking ourselves as the person. For example, a young boy in junior high school might enjoy going out with his classmates and friends and doing things with them. After he is saved, however, he should take Christ as his person and live the church life. To live the church life does not mean that he should go to the meeting on Lord’s Day morning and listen to a pastor’s sermon. Our church life should be full of Christ every day, whether in the morning or in the evening. Whenever there is the time or opportunity, the saints should come together to praise the Lord. We can pray-read together and be built up, or we can go out to preach the gospel and spread the Lord’s kingdom by saving souls. We do not rely on hired pastors or preachers. We are living members of Christ’s Body, we take Christ as our person, and we are being filled with Christ, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and being occupied by God. When we let the Lord strengthen us into the inner man, He makes His home in our hearts, and we are filled unto all the fullness of God. God “is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever” (3:20-21). This is the practical living of the church; this is also the church in reality.
The reality of the church life is a living in which the believers take Christ as their person, are filled with the Holy Spirit, and are occupied by God. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” When our spirit is mingled with the Holy Spirit, the two spirits become one. When this mingled spirit occupies our mind, it becomes the spirit of our mind. In the spirit of our mind we are being renewed in our concepts, our habits, and our views. This is the way to practically put on the new man, the church life.
