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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:22-23; 2:15-16; 4:4-6, 13-16, 22-24; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; 1:9-10; Rom. 15:5-6
How wonderful to take Christ as our person! When we are all taking Him as our person, the real oneness is brought in. Romans 15:6 says, “That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (KJV). How could one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, people have one mind and one mouth? Here is a verse which tells us that the church has one mind and one mouth. How could this be? How could all the Californians, the Texans, the Yankees, the Filipinos, the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Germans, and the British all have one mind and one mouth? It seems impossible. The only way is if we all take Christ as our person. All of us must put aside our own person. All the other persons must be buried! Then we will all have only one person, and that is Christ who is our unique person. Thus we will all become one man.
Since the last century, the matter of the Body of Christ has been stressed so much by the seeking Christians. Everywhere you can hear the seeking ones talking about the Body of Christ. But most Christians have never seen that the Body of Christ is not only a Body but also a new man. Because they have not seen this, some of the translators translated the Bible in a wrong way. The Revised Standard Version in Ephesians 4:22-24 translates the Greek word for man into “nature.” The new man in Ephesians 4:24 is not the new nature. This can be clearly seen in chapter 2. “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, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it” (vv. 15-16). Here we see that the new man is not an individual matter; it is a corporate entity. First, Paul says that Christ abolished all the ordinances to create a new man of two peoples, and we know that these two peoples are the Jews and the Gentiles. Then in the following verse, he says that Christ reconciled both of these two peoples to God in one Body through the cross. By reading these two verses, it is clear that the one new man is the one Body, and the one Body is the one new man.
By this we can see that the church is not only a Body but also a man. This point has not been seen by most Christians. In recent years the Lord has shown us that the church is not only a Body but a man. What is the difference between a body and a man? A body needs life, but a man needs not only life but also a person. A tree needs life, but a tree does not need a person. The life in a tree grows, but that life is not a person. A man not only has a life to live but also a person to express. To grow is a matter of life, but to express oneself is a matter of a person. The church as the Body of Christ needs life. The church is not an organization; it is a living organism, and this is something pertaining to life. Yet the church is not only the Body but also the new man. As the new man, the church not only needs life but also a person.
To have one mind and one mouth is not related so much to the life as to the person. Why are there so many opinions among Christians today? It is because nearly all the Christians do not know that they should take Christ as their person. Regardless of how many Christians come together, the person should only be one. So the whole church as the one new man has only one mind and one mouth of the one person. As the Body of Christ and as the one new man, the church not only needs the life but also the person. We are here not only for the Body but also for the new man. And this new man has a unique person that is neither you nor me. Hallelujah! Our person is Christ. Now we can understand how thousands of people could have one mind and one mouth. The philosophers would say that this is impossible, but we do know that this is a fact, for we have experienced this fact. This is because all the believers as the members of the Body of Christ must take Christ as their person. When we all take this one person, He thinks for us, and He speaks for us. We all have one mind to think and one mouth to speak.
In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul says, “Now I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion.” How could we be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion? The only way is to forget about our person and take Christ as our person. When we all take Christ as our person, spontaneously we will all be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion. Thus, we will be of the same mind toward one another according to Christ Jesus (Rom. 15:5). It is not according to the Scripture, doctrine, knowledge, or anything else; we can only be of the same mind toward one another according to Christ Jesus. If it is according to doctrine, immediately we will be of a different mind. There are so many doctrines to argue about. Should baptism be by sprinkling or immersion? Is the rapture pretribulation, posttribulation, or midtribulation? Is man a dichotomy or a trichotomy? What about speaking in tongues? Doctrinally speaking, we could never stop arguing.
Forty-eight years ago I picked up many doctrines. I was so sure that I was right, but I was just a little frog in a well with a narrow opening. The sky to me was just one foot in diameter. I thought I knew everything, but gradually the Lord led this little frog out of the well. In a sense I got out of the well and the sky was endless and spacious, but my sight was still confined. Then gradually, the Lord led me out of my confined sight. I learned that doctrinally there is no end to man’s argument. Man can argue forever about doctrine. I finally realized that it is not doctrine but Christ. We have to be of the same mind toward one another according to Christ. Doctrines only create an argument.
In 1963, while we were having a meeting in Los Angeles, a brother came up to rebuke me. He said that we were not scriptural because the sisters were praying and testifying in the meetings. Then he quoted 1 Corinthians 14:34: “The women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak.” Of course, I knew this verse before he was born, but I did not say anything. I simply said, “Brother, do you have any kind of meeting?” He said that they did. Then I asked him, “Do your sisters sing the hymns in your meetings?” He answered, “Yes, they do.” Then I told him that he was against the Scripture because the sisters in his meeting were not silent. According to the letter of this verse as understood by him, all the sisters must not open their mouths. This is just an illustration to prove to you that we could argue concerning the Scriptures forever. The more we argue, the more material we have with which to argue.
The Bible is not for doctrine. The Bible is for the revelation of Christ and the church and for nourishment. Man lives not on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Doctrines can only divide Christians. We can never be one according to doctrine. We must be of the same mind toward one another according to Christ Jesus. Then with one mind and one mouth we can glorify God. This can never be our mind or mouth; it must be Christ’s. When we take Christ as our unique person, we are really one. Hallelujah! We have one person, one mind, and one mouth. It is absolutely possible for believers meeting together to be one by everyone taking Christ as his person.
When I was young, I was always taught to be patient, humble, kind, and loving. Eventually, I discovered that regardless of how patient and kind these teachers were, they fought with each other over doctrine. So doctrine does not work. There is only one thing that works, and that is Christ Himself. We all need to take Him as our person. Today, if you still hold on to some doctrines, it proves that you are short of Christ. The more we take Christ as our person, the more He will swallow up all the dissenting doctrines. We need to open to the Lord and pray, “O Lord Jesus, You are my person. I live by You. I reject my person and take You as my person.” If we would pray this way for some time, all the dissenting germs would be killed. Everything would be swallowed up by Christ. Then the church would be the one new man with one mind and one mouth.
Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ on the cross has abolished all the ordinances. On the cross Christ took away our sins, crucified the old man, condemned the world, and destroyed the devil. On the cross Christ has also dealt with another item—the ordinances, which are the different ways of living and the different ways of worship. By abolishing the ordinances on the cross, Christ created in Himself one new man of the Jews and the Gentiles. Now we need to put off the old man and put on the new man. We do not need to create the new man; it has been created already. What we need to do is put it on.
We must read the full context of Ephesians 4:22-24: “That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.” To put off the old man concerns the old, former manner of life. This is related to the old social life, the old community life, because our manner of life is always related to others. No man can be unsocial; everyone likes to have a community. We like to be with our relatives, our friends, our neighbors, and our classmates in order to have a kind of social life. So to put off the old man as regards our former manner of life means to put off the former social life.
When I was a young man, I had my schoolmates, friends, and relatives. Then the Lord saved me, and from that day on, He began to separate me. All my schoolmates, my friends, and even my relatives were gradually put off. After my old communal life was put off, I needed a new communal life. The Lord was so merciful in bringing me into the church life so that I could put on the new man. Now the church life is upon me, and I am under the church life.
According to the past chapters on the indwelling Christ and this chapter on the new man, we can see that all the members of this new man will be wholly filled up by Christ. We will even be saturated, permeated, and covered with Christ. Thus, we shall all become a corporate Christ, because the Body is Christ. First Corinthians 12:12 tells us that Christ is the Body: “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.” This is the Body-Christ. Today our Christ is the Body-Christ. He was God, He became flesh for redemption, and He became the life-giving Spirit to come into us and work within us. Now He becomes the Body-Christ.
In the beginning of the Bible, we see God creating the heavens and the earth, but at the end of the Bible, God is in the Lamb surrounded by a city. In the beginning of the Bible, God was alone, without a counterpart to match Him. That was signified by His saying that it is not good for man to be alone. That signifies that it is not good for Him to be alone. He wants a counterpart, and this counterpart is a corporate man. As we read on through the Bible, we see that although man becomes fallen, God redeems him through the cross and becomes the life-giving Spirit to get into him. Finally, God gets a living city, and that living city is just His counterpart. The living city will be His bride, and He will be the Bridegroom. Our God was alone in eternity past, but in eternity future He will have a counterpart. The New Jerusalem is the eternal Eve, and God in Christ is the real Adam. The church as His bride came out of His side, and eventually she will go back to Him for eternity. The whole New Jerusalem with God in Christ will be the Body-Christ.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. This is the first stage. The Word becoming flesh to be the Redeemer is the second stage. Then the Redeemer, through death and resurrection, became the life-giving Spirit to be the indwelling One, which is the third stage. Eventually, from the indwelling One, the new man is realized to become the Body-Christ. This is the fourth stage. Praise the Lord that we are now in the fourth stage! The Jews are in the first stage. They all believe in the one God. The fundamental Christians are in the second stage and are somewhat better than the Jews because they believe in God, and they also believe in Christ and the Redeemer. Some Christians are in the third stage, realizing that Christ not only died for them but also that He lives within them as their life. These are the improved Christians. But praise the Lord that it does not stop here! We must get into the fourth stage, the Body-Christ.
Ephesians 4:13-16 tells us that we must all arrive at a full-grown man. This is the new man, the proper church life, where we will be no longer children tossed about by every wind of teaching. Even the best doctrine can be a wind that carries us away from the Head and the Body. But if we hold on to the Head, we will grow up into Him in all things. Then out from Him, the whole Body will be joined together and knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. This is the experience in the process of the Body-Christ. Now in the church life we are not only enjoying God, the Redeemer, and the indwelling One, but also the Body-Christ. Whenever we come together, something of Christ comes out of all of us. We are just the Body-Christ, the corporate Christ, sharing Christ with one another.
Today Christ is not alone. He is not merely the Redeemer or the Life-giver. Today our Christ is the Body-Christ. We could never enjoy the Body-Christ individually. To enjoy the Body-Christ we have to be in the new man, the proper church life. It is only here that Christ could be the Body-Christ. Nothing is so sweet as the church meetings. If you were to take me away from the meetings for one week, I would just die. Here we enjoy the riches of Christ coming out of all the saints. I especially like the sharing of the young brothers and sisters. There is no need for us to be so rich individually; we have the riches already in the Body-Christ. The more we experience Christ, the more riches and the more enjoyment of the Body-Christ there will be in the church life. This is the ultimate enjoyment of Christ.
