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Scripture Reading: Eph. 2:15-16; 4:3, 22, 24; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10
In these chapters, we can say that we are touching some of the deepest matters in the New Testament, and we can say that these are matters that Christianity has not touched for centuries. The church is the Body of Christ. The term Body has been used many times in the writings of Christianity, but the writers have not touched the particular points concerning the Body, nor have they seen the vision of the Body. We thank the Lord that over these past years God has clearly revealed this vision to us from His Word. However, those of us who are to receive this vision need a preparation or condition beforehand. In previous years we did not see that there was this condition and preparation needed. Now in this training, however, I feel that there is the right kind of condition; therefore, this is the time for these messages to be released.
The vision, the revelation, concerning the Body is very deep. Therefore, when we speak of it, we must speak very accurately. It is true that the Body is the church, but this is not an objective matter. The Body is the riches of Christ constituted into us to make us the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are what Christ is to us. It is not that the fullness of Christ is what Christ is to us; rather, the fullness of Christ is what we are to Christ. Christ is our riches, and we are Christ’s fullness. To us, Christ is the riches; to Christ, we are the fullness. This fullness, however, is not constituted by ourselves or with ourselves. It is true that the fullness is what we are to Christ, but this fullness is constituted with the element of Christ; that is, it is the riches of Christ worked into us that constitute, or make us, His fullness. Therefore, when you touch this matter, you must be very accurate in your speaking.
At this time we must go on to see that the Body of Christ is for the new man in the New Testament. In the New Testament there is a new man. From my youth I was taught in Christianity to know that before we were saved, we had an old man, and that after we are saved, we have a new man; every saved person has a new man, so there are many new men. For the past twenty or thirty years this impression has been with me. However, one day the Lord opened my eyes and showed me through the book of Ephesians that the new man is not plural. Rather, the new man is uniquely one. There is only one new man in the universe.
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.” There are ordinances in the law, and these ordinances are a barrier between people. When Christ was on the cross, not only did He take away our sins, crucify our old man, and destroy the devil, but He also abolished the ordinances. On the cross, when Christ removed the barriers between people by abolishing the ordinances, He created the two, the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers, in Himself into one new man. I certainly saw a vision in this verse. I saw that today there are not many new men; rather, there is only one new man. We are not individually new men; instead, you are a part of the new man, I am a part of the new man, and all the saved ones are also parts of the new man. The new man is uniquely one, yet this new man has millions of parts. There is only one Body, and there is only one new man — one Body and one new man. Ephesians 2:15 says, “That He might create the two in Himself into one new man.” This is sufficient proof that the new man is corporate, not individual.
Then verse 16 says, “And might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.” The creation of the one new man is in verse 15, and the one Body is in verse 16. This shows us that the one new man in the former verse is the one Body in the latter verse, and it also shows us that the Body and the new man are absolutely related.
The Bible has a few passages that are so profound that our natural mind cannot understand them at all. Why is the one new man also the one Body? Why does verse 15 say that Christ has created the two in Himself into one new man, while verse 16 says that He has reconciled both in one Body to God? There must be a reason and an explanation for this. What then is the difference between the Body and the new man?
First, we must see that the Body is a matter of life, and the new man is a matter of person. Our body has life in it; without life it is not a body but a corpse. When we speak of the Body, we understand that it has life in it. Thus, the Body is a matter of life. When we speak of one new man, though, it is a matter of person. A man has a person. Today my body does not need a person; my body only needs life. In other words, my body needs to be healthy, and health is life. When I have a rich and proper life within me, my body is healthy. If my life has a problem, my body becomes sick. Therefore, the body is a matter of life. The new man, however, is a matter of person. My body cannot plan where it will go, but my person can make a plan. There is a person within me who decides, saying, “This morning this body will go to this place, and this evening this body will go to that place.” By this you can see the difference between the person and the life that is in the body. The person makes a decision about where to go, and the body immediately takes action. The Body of Christ is a matter of life, whereas the new man is a matter of person.
Still, you all must know that both the life and the person are Christ. The life in this Body is Christ, and the person in this one new man is also Christ. The church is the Body, and this Body needs Christ to be in it as life. The church is also the one new man, and this one new man needs Christ to be in him as his person.
As I have said before, Christianity teaches people mostly to love one another, and if you cannot love, you must simply give up. However, the New Testament tells us not only to love one another but also to be members one of another. Being members one of another is not something you can give up. In our body the hand is beneath the arm, and the arm is beneath the shoulder; regardless of whether or not they love one another, they are members one of another. You must see this vision. I speak truthfully that it is this vision that has bound me for forty-five years. You should never think that all the brothers who coordinate with me in the service, whether co-workers, elders, older ones, or younger ones, are according to my taste. I would like to tell you that out of ten brothers eight and a half are not according to my taste, and the remaining one and a half are only twenty percent according to my taste and eighty percent not according to my taste. When you calculate all this, you can see there is not much that is according to our taste. What then should we do?
This is why in the past I made the following calculations again and again to determine the gains and losses involved. First, I calculated whether or not I wanted to be a man. This, however, was not something for me to decide; it was God’s ordination. Since God ordained me to be a man, there was no way for me to avoid it. Likewise, in your case God also ordained that you would be a man. Please forgive me for saying that I sometimes cannot understand why I had to be born. If I had not been born, then I would not have so many troubles. Nevertheless, this was something not up to me; I was simply born. Should I, then, be a man or not? I should.
Then I went on to calculate. Since I am a man, should I be a Christian? There is no way not to be. If I am a man but not a Christian, then it is truly, “Woe is me, for I am finished!” Therefore, I have to be a Christian because there is no other way.
Next, I considered that since I am a Christian, should I be a Christian in the denominations? I should not. Then what should I do? I should do things according to the Bible. After all these considerations — from the first question to the second, to the third, and to the fourth — I eventually became completely chained and shackled. Since according to the Bible I must be a Christian, what does the Bible say about a Christian? The Bible tells me that since I am a Christian, a member of the Body, I cannot be without others. Therefore, at times I could only go to the Lord and complain secretly to Him, saying, “Lord, this brother is not very good. Why did You put me together with him?” I knew that if I complained too much, the Lord may say, “All right, since you don’t like this one, I will give you another one.” I knew what would happen next. Although the taste of the coordination at the time was very hot, if I went on to complain to the Lord, He might give me something even hotter. Therefore, after complaining, I immediately confessed my sins. Do you agree with what I have said? I do know this matter.
I am already more than seventy years old, and I have tasted many bitter, hot, sour, and sweet things. I certainly have some knowledge of the Lord, and I know His ways; therefore, I tell you that you should never complain. Once you complain, it will be heat upon heat. The next one you get will be even harder for you to bear. The heat will reach a point where you will not be able even to feel it anymore. At this point in your situation, hot or not hot is all the same, so you stop your complaining. When you get to this stage, you are about ready to graduate.
Thus, the conclusions of my calculations were: I have no choice but to be a man; as a man, I must be a Christian; and as a Christian, I must be a member of the Body. As to the brothers and sisters who are my co-workers and my fellow members, it was not I who sought them out. I did not seek them out; it was the Lord who sent them to me, one by one. While one brother moves as fast as lightning, another brother is exactly the opposite. When you explain something to this slow one, you can speak for three days and three nights, and he still will not understand. Nevertheless, since he is a fellow member, I cannot expel him. An employer can discharge an employee, but the arm cannot expel the hand. If the arm were to expel the hand, the hand may not suffer, but without the hand, the arm would not be able to do anything.
Today we see that Christianity does not have the Body; instead, everyone simply comes together. If today they are happy, they will come together; if tomorrow they are unhappy, they will just forget about it. In the Lord’s economy, however, if you have really seen the Lord’s Body and that the brothers and sisters are members one of another, that is enough. There is nothing to discuss; you are simply a member, and you have no choice but to be a member. If you merely love one another, then when you are happy, you love the others, and when you are unhappy, you do not love them. However, as a member, you have no choice but to be a member; whether or not you are happy, you are a member.
The Body is a matter of being members one of another, but for the new man the requirements are even more than what the Body requires. For many years I read Romans 15:6, which says, “That with one accord you may with one mouth glorify...God.” I felt that I did not understand this word. How could so many Christians come together and have only one mouth? I did not understand it at that time. One day, however, I saw that the church is one new man. How many mouths does a man have? He has one. Not only are we all members one of another, but we also all speak with one mouth. Do you see how much is required of us? It is already restricting enough to be members one of another, and now even when we speak, we all have to have one mouth. This is not my word; it is Paul’s word. How many mouths does the one new man have? One. Then who is the mouth? If you say that Christ is the mouth, you are too transcendent. In order to resolve this matter, you must see that there is only one new man with only one person. In the whole body there is only one mouth, but who controls this mouth? It is the person who controls the mouth.
The church is not merely the Body but also the one new man. The Body needs Christ as its life, whereas the new man needs Christ as his person. When you want to speak, when I want to speak, when any one of us wants to speak, we must resolve the basic question: who is the person that is speaking here? If you are the person, you have your own mouth. If I am the person, I have my own mouth. Thus, you have your mouth, and I have my mouth; therefore, there are two mouths. When each one is a person individually and each one speaks his own matters, we have many mouths. This is a society or a denomination, and this is the condition of today’s degraded Christianity. In the Lord’s recovery, however, the church is the Body, and the church is the one new man. The Body has Christ as life, and the new man has Christ as a person. When you speak, it is not you who are the person; when I speak, neither is it I. When anyone speaks, it is Christ who is the person. What is the result? The result is that there is only one mouth.
This is why in 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul says that all “speak the same thing.” This verse greatly bothered me many years ago. I thought, “How could all Christians speak the same thing?” It seemed to me that this was impossible, but one day I understood. The church is the one new man with only one person, and this person controls our speaking, so whatever He speaks is surely “the same thing” that we all speak as the new man.
Many preachers and pastors in today’s Christianity are all their own persons, all have their own mouths, and all speak their own things. Therefore, they have many mouths, each speaking a different thing. However, the church is not like this. The church is the one new man with Christ as his person. Whenever the brothers and sisters are about to speak something, they do not take themselves as the person; instead, they allow Christ to be the person. You let Christ be your person when you speak, and I let Christ be my person when I speak. Eventually, everyone speaks the same thing.
Consider the Bible. The Old and New Testaments contain sixty-six books written by more than forty different authors in many different places over a period of fifteen or sixteen hundred years. The first book, Genesis, was written about 1500 B.C., while the last book, Revelation, was written after A.D. 90. Do they all have one mouth? Do they all speak the same thing? The entire Bible has one mouth and speaks the same thing, even though it was written over a long period of time by many different people in many different places. Now you can understand what it means to have one mouth speaking the same thing. In the East, in the West, in the United States, in Germany, in Great Britain, in Japan, and in Korea, we can have many people speaking, but all have one mouth and say one thing. Although we are many and we come from many places, all of us have one mouth, and we all speak the same thing. This is because we all are the one new man having only one person.
Dear brothers and sisters, what I have fellowshipped with you here is something that I know. Many times I wanted to speak, but I checked within, asking myself, “Is it I who want to speak, or is it the Lord?” In other words, in the matter of speaking, is the Lord the person, or am I the person? If it is I, there will be a problem; if it is the Lord, there will be no problem. If I allow the Lord to be the person, He is the One who speaks; then two months later, if you allow the Lord to be the person, you will speak the same thing that I have spoken. We have one mouth speaking the same thing.
In Christianity today you see a pitiful condition because every preacher wants to speak his own thing, and he thinks it is a shame to speak what others have spoken. Thus, you speak your thing, and he speaks his; sometimes someone will use something from someone else’s speaking, but he will do it secretly. This has actually happened in America. Fifteen years ago, before the Lord’s recovery went to the United States, almost no one spoke about the human spirit and transformation, but now these have become common terms. There are also some people who used our materials to study the book of Romans, and after they finished their studies and printed them, they said that they discovered these things themselves through their own study. This is not proper.
There is, however, another condition in which people blindly follow others: I speak whatever you speak, and you speak whatever I speak. In this way we make a show to everyone that we all have only one mouth and that we speak the same thing. You must see that in neither case is the condition right. We do not want the condition in Christianity, nor do we want a condition of blindly following others. We want a condition in which the one new man speaks. There is only one new man, and this one new man has only one person, so the one new man speaks with one mouth and says the same thing.
In the new man there is no freedom to speak your own things. This is more limiting and restricting than being members one of another. Everyone knows that what limits you the most is the matter of speaking. If I cannot say this or that — whatever I like — then I am very much restricted, but if I can say whatever I want, then I am very free. However, in the church, in the Body of Christ, and especially in the new man, neither your natural man nor my natural man has freedom of speech. This is because we ourselves are not the persons. In the one new man there is only one person. Only this person has the freedom to speak, and our natural man has absolutely no freedom of speech. The Lord has the absolute freedom to speak, and I absolutely have no freedom to speak. We cannot allow the natural man to speak; we definitely must not allow it. Only the one person should speak.
You have to consider one mouth in Romans 15:6 and speak the same thing in 1 Corinthians 1:10 together with one new man in Ephesians 2:15. Otherwise, you will never understand the first two verses. You may wonder how the entire church can have only one mouth and how millions of members can speak the same thing. Humanly speaking, this is absolutely impossible. However, we must see that in Romans 15, Paul is speaking of a local church. In a local church there must be only one mouth. Here in Taipei there should be only one mouth. There should also be only one mouth in the churches in Southeast Asia. This is because there is only one person. In the past you had too many mouths because you had too many persons. When there are many persons, there are many ideas; when there are many ideas, there are many opinions, but we thank the Lord that now there is one mouth and one person here. There are no policemen here; each of us is absolutely free, but on the other hand, you have absolutely no freedom because within you there is another person. You may be about to speak, but something “pinches” you from within, telling you not to say anything. All you can say is, “Thank the Lord!” When you want to speak again, the Lord pinches you again, so you simply say Amen! If the Lord did not pinch this one and that one, I tell you, the brothers and sisters would most certainly quarrel when they come together.
There are many people in the church in Taipei, but there is no quarreling. The reason is that for many years they have had the grace to take Christ as their person. It is not I speaking, nor is it you speaking, nor is it he speaking, nor is it the brothers speaking, nor is it the sisters speaking; instead, everyone says, “Lord, You speak!”
Do not think that the reason we do not speak is because we were born with only half a lip. No, rather it seems that we were born with eight lips. Many years ago, however, when I was young, I made those careful calculations. It was not up to me to be a man, but if I am a man, then I must be a Christian; if I am going to be a Christian, then I must be one according to the Bible; if I am going to live according to the Bible, then I will be “chained.” Hence, many times at critical moments I did not say anything. Why? Because the person within me did not speak. I am not the person; Christ is. We should take Christ not only to be our life but also to be our person. We should not only eat His riches to take them in and assimilate them into our being; we should also allow Him to be our person.
If you visit Christianity throughout all the world, you will not hear the phrase taking Christ as the person. This matter, however, is truly in the Bible because the church is the new man. Today this new man needs a person, and who is this person? It is Christ Himself. How do we know this? It is because Ephesians 3:17 says, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts.” If Christ wants to make His home in our heart, does this not mean that He wants to be the person there? When you live in a house and make it your home, then you become the person of that house. Ephesians says more clearly than the other books that we must let Christ make His home in our heart, and this is because He wants to be the person in us.
This, however, does not mean that He is in you as your person, He is in me as my person, and He is in another one as his person. This is an improper understanding. I tell you that He is in all of us as one person. The person in you is the person who is in me. We all have only one person. Who is this person? This person is Christ.
Brothers and sisters, in the last days of this age, before the Lord will be able to return, we must see the Body and the new man. When we come to the end of the Bible, in Revelation 22, the Spirit and the bride appear. At the end the new man is a bride. The church’s experience in Christ definitely must arrive at this stage. First it is the Body, then it is the new man, and finally it is the bride. It is not as some say in Christianity, that the believers will be gathered into one place, and the Lord will change them instantly into His bride. Instead, today we must receive grace to see the Body, to see the new man, and finally to see the bride.
We still have not arrived at the highest point in our vision because our knowledge of the Body is insufficient, our knowledge of the new man is not enough, and also our knowledge of the bride is very limited. Nevertheless, I hope that we can see something concerning the Body and the new man. The Body is a matter of life, and the new man is a matter of person. The Body is for moving; it is an instrument for action. Thus, it was in one Body that the Lord Jesus reconciled both the Jewish and Gentile believers to God. This reconciliation is a Body matter. In the past we thought that when you were saved, you were reconciled to God, and when I was saved, I was reconciled to God. In other words, we thought that we were individually saved and individually reconciled to God. This is an erroneous concept. We must see that we who were far off and separated from God were reconciled to God not individually but in a corporate instrument. What is this instrument? This instrument is the Body of Christ. In one Body both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers have been reconciled to God. This shows us that the Body is an instrument used by Christ.
When we move, we move in our body. For example, when I came downstairs today, I did it in my body. As I speak to you now, I am doing it in my body. If I were not in my body, there would be no way for me to speak. All my actions are in my body. My body is an instrument for different actions. When the church preaches the gospel, this is an action, and this action is in the Body and is carried out by the Body. Our body is an instrument for moving. Our life needs to increase and grow in order that our body might be healthy and strong enough to meet the need of our moving.
Then what about the new man? The new man is not for moving; the new man is for decision making and for living. As a human being you may not move at all, but you still must live. The Body is for moving, and the new man is for living. Concerning the new man, Ephesians 4:24 says that it was created according to God in righteousness and holiness. Righteousness and holiness are conditions of our living. Thus, living is entirely a matter of the new man. The new man is for living, and eighty to ninety percent of our living is in making decisions. Therefore, you can see two things: the church as the Body is for moving, and the church as the new man is for living by making decisions. On the one hand, the church is the Body of Christ, and we take Christ as our life to act, to work, and to bear responsibilities. On the other hand, the church is the new man, and we take Christ as our person to make plans and to decide on how we should live. Whether it is the Body or the new man, whether in working and moving or in living and deciding, everything is corporate; nothing is individual. You must see that your living today is the living of the new man, a corporate living, and your decisions are corporate decisions and not your personal decisions. For example, you may be trying to decide and to conclude whether you should open a factory or become an educator. There is a kind of living here. If you see that you are a part in the new man, you will not want to decide by yourself as the person. You will want to take Christ as your person together with all the other parts in the new man. At this time, when you are about to make a decision concerning your human life, you will not take yourself as the person; rather, you will take Christ as your person in the new man to make the decision. When you live your life by taking Christ as your person, your living will be the living of the new man.
The living of the new man has two characteristics: one is righteousness and the other is holiness. Righteousness is according to God’s ways, and holiness is according to God’s nature. When all the things in your living, whether great or small, are exactly the same in their nature as God’s nature and exactly the same in their ways as God’s ways, then there is holiness and righteousness. However, this kind of living is not the individual living of sanctification referred to in Christianity. Rather, the kind of living meant here is that you live a life in the new man by Christ as the person and that He is the One who makes all the decisions in you. Thus, whatever is lived out is righteousness and holiness. This is not related to our move or work; it is related only to our living. This is the aspect of the new man. The other aspect is the Body. As the Body, we move. Christ is our Head, so we move, and our moving is not based on our own strength or our own life but upon Christ as our life and strength. Furthermore, our move is not as individuals.
These two matters show that we cannot be individualistic. We must see that we are a corporate Body, and we are a corporate new man. Our living is corporate, and our moving is corporate. In our moving we take Christ as our life, and in our living we take Christ as our person. In the Body, Christ is our life, and in the new man, Christ is our person. In the Body we are members one of another, and in the new man we all have one mouth to speak the same thing. This is the church.
