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Scripture Reading: Isa. 9:6; Matt. 11:27; 16:15-16; John 3:31, 35; 17:5; Acts 10:36b; Col. 1:15-19; 2:2b, 9; 3:10-11; Eph. 1:20-23
In the last chapter we saw God’s eternal purpose. Everyone who believes in the Lord, serves Him, and follows Him needs to see God’s eternal purpose. God’s eternal purpose and plan is to have a universal man. If we do not have a part in this universal man, our human life is meaningless, and all that we have is vanity.
Now we want to see that everyone who follows the Lord also needs to see Christ. To see Christ is not merely to listen to a message or to read a book about Christ but to see Christ in spirit. Our inner eyes need to be opened to see what Christ is, who Christ is, and what Christ is all about. The first vision that we must see is concerning God’s eternal plan and that this plan is for Christ. Hence, we must also see Christ. This subject is so great that the Lord Jesus said, “No one fully knows the Son except the Father” (Matt. 11:27). The Son is Christ. Only God truly knows Him, and besides God no one else knows Him in a full way, because He is too great. Thank the Lord, however, that the Father not only knows the Son but is willing to reveal the Son to us (16:17). Therefore, we all should desire and pursue to know Him. We should pray, “O Father, reveal Your Son to me. O God, reveal Your Christ to me. You know Him, and I also want to know Him.” We need an inner eye and an opening in our spirit so that we may see the heavenly vision. Christ is so great and so wonderful. I hope that you will do your best to understand this.
The Bible tells us that “Christ is all” (Col. 3:11). In the past I have encountered opposition to this point. Some have asked me, “Does this mean that Christ is also all the filthy things?” Some also say that this word in Colossians only says that Christ is all in the new man. I acknowledge that Christ is all in the new man. However, Malachi 4 says that Christ is the Sun of righteousness (v. 2). Is the sun in the new man? Of course it is not. Therefore, the fact that Christ is all refers not only to the fact that Christ is every constituent and every part of the new man but also to the fact that Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe.
In this universe there is God. Is Christ God? Yes! In this universe there is also the devil. Is Christ the devil? No! In this universe there is light. Is Christ light? Yes! In this universe there is love. Is Christ love? Yes! We should be clear that when we say Christ is all, we refer to the reality of all the positive things and not the negative things. The human personality includes both love and hatred. Is Christ love? Yes! Is Christ hatred? No! Christ is love but not hatred. The human personality also includes both humility and pride. Christ is humility but not pride.
Furthermore, we should realize that the love we have is but a shadow and that the patience we have is also but a shadow. What is a shadow? My shadow looks just like me, but it is not substantial, and it is not the real me. I am the real me. Our love is not the substance but a shadow. The substance of our love is Christ. Even the sun is merely a shadow. Its reality is Christ.
Therefore, I will boldly tell you that Christ is all. He is God, the eternal God, the God who is without beginning and without end (John 1:1). He is the Creator (Col. 1:16). He is Jehovah, the God who has a relationship with man in life (Isa. 9:6). He is God the Father as the source of everything. He was incarnated as Jesus. Hence, He is our Redeemer and Savior. Not only so, He is God expressed as the Son. He also resurrected from the dead and became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Hence, He is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Furthermore, today He is a perfect, transcendent, and resurrected man. He is also light, life, power, authority, righteousness, and holiness. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). He is all of man’s virtues, such as love, patience, and humility. He is wisdom and knowledge. He is all.
All the positive things in the universe are symbols of Christ. He is the reality of the sun, the stars, and the trees on earth. In the Bible many trees symbolize Christ. He is the tree of life and the true vine. He is also the reality of the flowers. The Bible shows us that He is symbolized by different kinds of flowers. Moreover, He is the real fruit and the real grain. He is the wheat and the barley. The Gospel of John says that He is the bread (6:48) and the living water (4:14). It also says that He is the door (10:9) and the way (14:6). In the Bible there is both an entrance and an exit. Christ as the door is not only for us to go in but also for us to go out. In John 10 the Lord said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall...go in and go out and shall find pasture” (v. 9). The door here is not the door to heaven but the door of the sheepfold. The sheepfold is the old covenant that God made with Israel. During the dark night, the sheep are kept in the fold. Moses, David, Isaiah, and many other prophets all entered into the fold through this door. When the Lord Jesus came, Peter, James, and Paul were in there as well. They were like sheep in a fold. However, the Lord Jesus as the door provided a way for them to come out. According to the record in John 9, one of the first ones to leave the fold was the blind man. The blind man did not leave on his own but was cast out by others. At the same time, it was the Lord Jesus who led him out of the fold, since He is not only the door of the sheep but also the Shepherd. We may even say that the reality of the clothes we wear is Christ. Christ is all.
Because Christ is all, the revelation in the Bible concerning Him is unlimited. Ephesians 3 reveals that even the dimensions of the universe—the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth—are Christ (v. 18). No one can tell how wide the universe is. The breadth of the universe is immeasurable and boundless. The length and height of the universe are also boundless. Today, due to scientific advancements, man is able to go to the moon. According to the human perception, the distance from the earth to the moon is quite far. However, from the perspective of the whole universe, that distance is quite insignificant. The breadth, length, height, and depth of the universe are immeasurable, and all these dimensions are Christ. Christ is the breadth, length, height, and depth of the universe. Ephesians 3 says that when Christ makes His home in our entire being, we will know what the breadth, length, height, and depth are. Do not think that our mentality can ever thoroughly apprehend Christ. In his old age Paul wrote in Philippians 3 that he wanted to “know” Christ (v. 10a). Paul knew Christ much more than we do, yet at that time he still wanted to know more of Christ. Our Lord is all, and He is unlimited.
Because of man’s limited mentality, there have been many debates and different interpretations concerning the person of Christ. In the last twenty years, in speaking concerning the experience of life, I often have spoken of the Lord Jesus being the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and I have met opposition because of what I have said. Someone once attacked me, saying, “How can you say that the Lord Jesus is the Son and also the Father? How can you say that He is the Son and also the Spirit?” When I met this opposer ten years ago, I asked him, “If the Father is not the Son, and if the Son is not the Spirit, how can you say that God is triune? Do you have one God or three Gods?” To my surprise he answered, “I have three Gods.” Immediately, I warned him, saying, “You must by no means teach this kind of doctrine. To say that there are three Gods is heresy.” This incident shows us that if a person has not seen that Christ is all, he will oppose this concept and say that Christ is only the Son and not the Father or the Spirit. If this were the case, then Christ would not be all. Today, however, we see that in this universe there is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and that the Lord Jesus is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Isa. 9:6; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). In this universe there is both God and man. The Lord Jesus is both God and man. In this universe there is the Creator, and there are the creatures. Our Lord Jesus is not only the Creator but also a creature (Col. 1:15-16).
Concerning this matter, another one also opposed me, saying, “To say that Christ is the Firstborn of all creation is to make Christ a creature, and this is heresy! Christ is the Creator but not a creature!” I refuted his argument by showing him that Christ became a man with bones, flesh, and blood, so He was surely a man. Was man created or not? Yes, man was created. Christ is God the Creator, yet He became a man, a created one. If you do not confess that the Lord is a creature, this means that you do not confess that He is a man. If you confess that the Lord Jesus is a man, then since man is a creature, you must confess that He is both a creature and the Creator. He is both man and God. Our Christ is all.
When you breathe, you should say, “O Lord, You are my real air.” When you go down some stairs, you should say, “O Lord, You are my stairs.” When you see a door, you should say, “O Lord Jesus, You are my door.” When you see a window, you should say, “O Lord Jesus, You are my window for fresh air.” The Scriptures clearly say that the Lord Jesus is all. Not only is He all, but He is also “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36b). All comprises all persons, matters, and things. He is the Lord of all persons, matters, and things.
Furthermore, Ephesians 1:22b-23 says that the church is “the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” What does this mean? We must realize that the fullness here is not Christ but the church. We must not apply the fullness here to Christ but to the church. The fullness is the church. Today in Taiwan there is so much rich produce—different kinds of grains, fruits, and vegetables, plus chickens, ducks, and other kinds of meat. These are the riches, not the fullness, of Taiwan. When we take in all these riches as our nourishment, eventually all of us will look healthy and strong. Then we may say that we are the fullness of Taiwan. Similarly, Christ is rich. When we enjoy and assimilate His riches so that they become us, we become the fullness of Christ. We are not the riches of Christ but the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are all that Christ is, and when all these riches become us, we become His fullness.
Let us come back to the matter of Christ being all. Do you see that Christ is all? Is Christ the reality of the heavens? Yes! Is Christ the reality of the earth? Yes! The emergence of the dry land from the death waters on the third day in Genesis 1 is a type of Christ who resurrected from the dead. Christ is typified not only by the light and the expanse but also by the land, which was raised out of the death waters on the third day. In the same chapter you see that the plants, animals, and mankind all came out of the earth. This signifies that life comes out of the resurrected Christ. Furthermore, the land of Canaan promised by God to His chosen people is a type of the Lord Jesus. The land of Canaan is surrounded by water—the Mediterranean Sea, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan River. This land, which is two to three thousand feet above sea level, is a type of Christ as the resurrected, transcendent One and as the source of life. Hence, we may say that Christ is the real land.
If people had such an enlarged view of Christ as all, then they would not argue, saying that Christ is the Son but not the Father. They would not say that Christ is the Creator but not a creature. The Bible says that Christ is the Lamb and the Lion. Is a lion the Creator or a creature? It is true that the Bible says that Christ is the Creator, in whom all things were created (Col. 1:16). However, Christ also became a created one. He became the Lamb, the Lion, and a vine. Are these items created things or the Creator? If we had a complete view and saw that Christ is all, then we would not argue. Hallelujah! Christ is indeed all!
Finally, since Christ is all, Christ must be the real me. Let me ask you, “Is Christ you?” You must say, “Yes, Christ is me because Christ is all, and I am included in all!” I am not something negative. As a human being, I am something positive, so Christ is surely the real me. Thank and praise the Lord that Christ is the real us! In Him we see God, and in Him we also see ourselves! Do you have the boldness to say that Christ is the real you? The last two lines of stanza 4 of hymn #130 in the Chinese hymnal say, “Thou became me, and I became Thee: / ’Tis Thy love to the uttermost!” Since the first part of that line says, “Thou became me,” it naturally follows that the second part should say, “I became Thee.” Some have opposed this, saying, “To say that Christ became us may be all right because Christ became flesh. However, if we say that we have become Christ, that means that we have become God. Is this not blasphemy?” I do not know what kind of mind those opposing people have. Would it not be ridiculous for someone to say that four plus four equals eight but that eight does not equal four plus four? The Bible says that we are members of the Body of Christ. Suppose I said, “This arm is a member of this brother, but it is not this brother himself. Therefore, when I hit this member, I am not hitting this brother himself.” This kind of logic does not make any sense. We have all become members of Christ, so how can we not be Christ? Not only so, 1 Corinthians 12 says explicitly that the Body is Christ: “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ” (v. 12). The Christ here refers to the Body. Therefore, to say “Thou became me, and I became Thee” is not heresy. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus said that He is the vine and that we are the branches (John 15:5). The branches are included in the vine. We may even say that the branches are the vine.
This is the wonder of wonders and the mystery of mysteries—that Christ is all. If we all would know Christ to such an extent, how noble we would be! Christ is me, and I am Christ! He is Christ in me. Is God in the Bible? Then who is God? God is Christ. Is Jehovah in the Scriptures? Then who is Jehovah? Jehovah is Christ. Is the Father in the Bible? Then who is the Father? The Father is Christ (Isa. 9:6). Is the Son in the Scriptures? Then who is the Son? The Son is Christ! Is the Spirit in the Bible? Then who is the Spirit? The Spirit is Christ (1 Cor. 15:45b). Is man in the Scriptures? Then who is the real man? The real man is Christ. Are you in the Bible? Then who is the real you? The real you is Christ! Hallelujah! Christ is all. Christ is not only all in the new man but also all in the whole universe.
We must see that Christ is our life, our virtues, and our all in all. Where is He? He is in our spirit. What is He in our spirit? He is the Spirit in our spirit. This Christ who has become our all is in our spirit as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Today we live by Christ when we live by the Spirit. When we live by Him, we allow Him to live Himself through us. When He lives Himself out of us, then it is possible for us to live Christ.
If we seek the Lord, sooner or later He will open our eyes to see that as the Christ of all, He is all. He is not only the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, He is also the reality of all positive things. Hallelujah! We must see the all-inclusive Christ. The greatest mystery in the universe is that He can become us and we can become Him. As the all-inclusive Spirit He enters into our regenerated spirit to be joined and mingled with us. The two spirits—His Spirit and our spirit—became one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). He lives instead of us, and we live by Him (Gal. 2:20). Therefore, what we live out is Christ, for to us, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21).
