Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:15-16; 1:22-23; Col. 3:10-11; Gen. 2:18
In this universe there is a divine mystery, and this mystery is of two parts. The first part of this mystery is the mystery of God, which is Christ Himself (1 Cor. 2:1-2). All that God is, and everything related to God, is embodied in Christ. Thus, if you do not know Christ, you do not know the mystery of God, and if you are not in Christ, you are not in the mystery of God. Furthermore, if you do not have Christ in your spirit, you do not have any share in the mystery of God. If you want to know God and contact God, you have to be in Christ, because everything of God is embodied in Christ, and Christ is the mystery of God.
The second part of the one divine mystery in this universe is the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is different from the mystery of God. The mystery of Christ is the Body of Christ, the church (Eph. 3:4, 6). Thus, if you would like to meet Christ, know Christ, and receive something of Christ, you must contact the Body of Christ, the church. Just as Christ is the mystery of God, the church is the mystery of Christ. These are the two parts of the one divine mystery in this universe.
This twofold divine mystery — Christ and the church — is the story, the meaning, of the whole universe. As Christians, we must be able to tell people this. People today are busy with education and politics, but if you were to ask them what they are living for, they might be shocked. When I was in China, I met some very high-ranking government officials and quietly and humbly raised this question to them. I would say to them, “Sir, do you know what people here are working for? Do you know what you are working for?” Quite a number of these high-ranking people told me, “Mr. Lee, this is a surprising question. I cannot answer it. I do not know what we are working for here. Maybe we are working in order to eat, drink, and sleep.” This is all that they could answer me. In China we have a little proverb that says that human life is nothing but three times of satisfaction and one time of sleeping every day. Every day we must be satisfied once in the morning, once at noon, and once in the evening. Then at night we lie down to sleep, and the next morning we get up and repeat the same thing all over again. This is human life.
Sometimes I ask this question to educated and cultured people. I ask them, “What is your purpose and aim?” Often the men say that they are working for their family — for their dear wife and their little children. They say, “I am just working for them. I would not want them to hear me say it, but I am a slave to them. Every day I work hard just for them.” Many times these high-class people have invited me to sit down with them. When I was among them, I listened to their talk. As a result, I would say within myself, “Dear friends, you may be high class, cultured, and even famous, but listen to your conversation. You may appear to be high, but you are too low. You may appear to be big, but you are too small. You speak nonsense, just like little children. You do not know what you are, where you are, where you are going, or what the meaning of the universe or human life is. You are absolutely childish, foolish, and in darkness. But I am so proud that I am a child of God. You are so low, but I am so high. I am in the light, I am a member of the Body of Christ, and I know the mystery of this universe and the meaning of the story of human life.” Unbelievers may know about cars, televisions, radios, and all kinds of entertainment, but they do not know the real meaning of the universe and of human life. Do we all know this? As Christians, we all must have this realization. Christ and the church are the mystery of the entire universe. Christ and the church are the real meaning of the story of the universe and of human life.
As the mystery and real meaning of the story of the universe, Christ and the church are a universal man. This universal man is very large. If you want to know the meaning of the story of the universe, you have to know this big, universal man. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” This is the universal man. The Head of this man is the transcendent Christ — the One who fills all in all, including heaven and earth. The Body of this man is the church — the fullness of the One who fills all. This man is too big; He fills the entire universe. The Head is in the heavens, and the Body, at least a part of it, is on the earth. Just consider how big the church, the Body of this universal man, is. I believe that sooner or later the Lord will open the veil to give us all a revelation that we would see and know that there is such a mysterious, universal man in this universe. This man is so mysterious and yet so real.
The Body of Christ, which is the Body of this universal man, is the increase of Christ. The Body of Christ is simply the enlargement of Christ — Christ increased. In Genesis 2, after Adam had been created, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper as his counterpart” (v. 18). Then God brought all the animals and birds before him. As each of the living things created by God were brought before Adam, he looked at them and gave each one a proper name. He did not, however, find a counterpart among them. Then God put Adam to sleep, opened up his side, took a rib out of him, and made a woman for him. With the little piece that God took out of Adam, He made a bride, a wife for Adam, and declared that this wife would be one flesh, one body, with Adam. When Adam awoke, he said, “This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called Woman / Because out of Man this one was taken” (v. 23). Then the two became one. Originally, there was just one bachelor. Eventually, there was a couple — Adam and Eve. What was Eve? As Adam’s wife, she was the fullness of her husband. Eve was something taken out of Adam and was the same as Adam. She was the increase of Adam. In the same way, the church is the increase of Christ. The church is something that has come out of Christ. In fact, the church is exactly the same as Christ — nothing more, nothing less, and nothing different.
I once attended a meeting in my native city. While we were in that meeting, fellowshipping in a free way, an elderly brother came into the meeting. When he entered, another brother said, “Brother So-and-so just came in.” When he said this, the elderly brother answered, “No, just half came in.” When he said this, everyone wondered what he meant. Then his wife came into the meeting, and he said, “Now the other half is here.” This is a picture of Christ and the church.
Our physical body is another illustration of the relationship between Christ and the church. Today experts are able to make artificial limbs for people who have lost an arm or a leg. However, is an artificial limb a real member of a person’s body? It is not, because it is not something that comes out of the person but has been added. It is something foreign to the body. An artificial limb does not grow out of a person’s body but is something that is fitted on. As a result, it is not the same as the person who wears it. A genuine part of the body has blood flowing to it, but an artificial part does not. My nose, arms, and ears are exactly the same as I am. The blood in all my members is the same as the blood that is in me. In fact, it is not only the same as my blood, it is my blood. These physical illustrations should help us to realize what the church is to Christ. The church is the Body of Christ, the increase of Christ. The church is something that has come out of Christ and is exactly the same as Christ.
In these days many dear children of God have been enlightened by the Lord and are seeking the church life, the real expression of the Body of Christ. Thus, we should consider, what is the genuine church life? Some people would say that we have the genuine church life when everyone is humble, gentle, and meek. This, however, is not the genuine church life. In China and India there are quite a number of people. They love each other and are so humble and meek, and as a result, their living is very attractive to others. You would be surprised at how nice they are to each other. However, they do not know God, and they do not know Christ. Some of them even worship idols and images. Is this the genuine church life? It is no doubt that the genuine church life is full of love, humility, gentleness, and meekness, but the genuine church life is more than simply loving each other. The genuine church life is the life of Christ; the genuine church life is Christ Himself. All the humility, gentleness, and meekness in the church life must be the manifestation of Christ. It is not enough merely to have humility, gentleness, and meekness; we must have the manifestation of Christ.
How then can we tell the difference between Christ as meekness and meekness that is apart from Christ? Allow me to illustrate. In 1947 I returned from Shanghai to Nanking. When I arrived there, the responsible brothers came to the station to meet me. On the way from the station to the meeting hall they said, “Oh, Brother Lee, there is a sister among us who came from such and such a place who is very spiritual.” The brothers did not realize it, but I already knew this sister. Before she had come to Nanking, she had gone to Shanghai and had stayed there for a few days. After the brothers finished telling me about this sister, I asked them what they meant when they said that she was so spiritual. They replied, “We have never seen a person who is as meek and gentle as she is.” Because these brothers were very good brothers and I was very familiar with them, we could talk frankly and freely, so I said, “Brothers, if this is the sign of spirituality, then the statue of Mary in front of the Catholic Church is more spiritual than this sister. Look at that statue. How meek and gentle it is. This statue will never become angry with you. Regardless of what you do to it, it will continue to smile.”
When a person has Christ as his meekness, his main characteristic is not meekness or gentleness but Christ. He is meek and gentle, but neither of these is his main characteristic. His main characteristic is Christ. When you meet him, you sense the fragrance of Christ. This is not the case with those whose meekness is not Christ as meekness. Furthermore, those whose meekness is not Christ will always be conscious of their meekness. They may have an outward expression of meekness, but inwardly they are saying, “Look at how meek I am.” When you have this kind of meekness, gentleness, and love, it is you who are meek, gentle, and loving, not Christ; Christ has not become meekness to you. If Christ is meekness within you, you will be very meek, but you will have no consciousness that you are being meek. If you were to hear others saying of you, “This person is so meek,” you would think that they were speaking of someone else. You will have no sense that you are meek. In the same way, when Christ is love to you and you love others through this love, you will not feel that you are a person who loves others. You will simply love them without feeling or sensing that you are doing so. When you feel that you are loving others, this is not Christ; it is you. When Moses’ face was shining, others saw this, but he did not. When Christ is truly manifested through us as meekness, gentleness, or love, we will not be conscious of this. In addition, our main characteristic will not be any of these things but will be Christ Himself.
We have to realize that it is one thing to be good or gentle and another thing to live out Christ. The church life is not a life of goodness, meekness, gentleness, or love; the church life is a life of living out Christ. The members of the Body of Christ are not members of love but of Christ Himself. We are not simply filled with love; we are filled with Christ as love. There is a big difference. To express love itself is something of our natural man, but to express Christ as love is something of the spiritual new man, which is the increase and enlargement of Christ. This is the genuine church life.
The only way for us to have the genuine church life is for us to be transformed from the natural man into the new man, the spiritual man. Thus, we need to consider what it means to be transformed and how we can be transformed. Suppose I am a meek and gentle person. Then one day I receive the light that the members of the Body of Christ are not simply members who are meek and gentle in themselves. I then realize that my meekness and gentleness are something of the natural man and that I need to be transformed from being a natural man to being a new man. At that point everything of my natural man — whether good or bad — has to be put away. I must hate and reject my meekness and gentleness. In the same way that I reject my pride, I must also reject my humility. Rather than appreciating these things, I must hate and reject them. The reason I must do this is because the meekness of my humanity and the gentleness of my natural man are versus Christ. Because I love Christ, I hate my natural love, meekness, and humility.
What happens when I do this? The more I hate these things, the more the Holy Spirit within me will have the ground, the chance, and even the opportunity to act, move, and work in me, and cause Christ to be lived out through me. This is the experience of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. The cross is applied to my goodness, meekness, and humility, and Christ’s resurrection causes the life of Christ to be realized in me. When we experience this, we have the genuine church life. When there are a group of believers who know how to experience the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, they are the genuine church life, a functioning church, and the living Body of Christ. When we reject ourselves and know the grace of God, Christ will have the full ground and opportunity within us as the Holy Spirit. Then what we live out will be nothing but Christ Himself. Christ will be expressed, and Christ will be all in all.
This experience of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ will solve all the problems in the church. These problems can never be solved simply by talking or discussing. In fact, the more we talk, the more trouble we will have; and the more we discuss, the more we will quarrel. If we try to solve problems by discussing them, once one problem is settled, ten more will be caused by the way it is settled. Problems in the church can never be solved by talking and discussing. They can only be settled by the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. They can be settled only when we reach the point where we can say, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is a crisis, and we all must pass through this crisis. The church is the increase of Christ — Christ saturated into us and mingled with us. May we all look to the Lord that He would do such a deep and subjective work within us. Then the Body of Christ will be realized and manifested.
This is what the Lord is seeking. God’s heart’s desire is to have the real expression of Christ, the Body of Christ, the increase of Christ. Furthermore, this is the ultimate satisfaction of man’s spiritual experience. Unless you attain to this ultimate point, you can never be fully and ultimately satisfied. You may attain to some level of satisfaction through a certain amount of spiritual seeking and exercise; but after you achieve this satisfaction, you will still feel that you are short of something. You will never be fully satisfied until the Lord brings you to this ultimate point and you realize that you are a member of the Body of Christ. You will never be ultimately satisfied until you realize that this Body is the expression of Christ, the increase of Christ, and the enlargement of Christ. And you will never attain to this highest level of satisfaction until you are continually receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to reject yourself and give Christ as the Spirit the ground, chance, and opportunity to live in you and through you. When you reach this point, you will realize the genuine church life. Then you will be satisfied in an ultimate way. You will say to the Lord, “O Lord, this is it. This is what You want and what I need. This is Your heart’s desire and the very thing that I have been looking for.” Especially in these last days, the Lord is seeking to recover the last of the divine things. Thus, we all must go along with the Lord to give Him the free way. We all must give Christ the free way so that He can attain what He has been seeking for generations and generations. Today the Lord is still seeking after His heart’s desire. If we really love Him, are sincere with Him, and faithful to Him, we have to give Him the free way in us.
