Eph. 1:22-23 say, “And 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.” The words “to” in verse 22 and “toward” in verse 19 both indicate a transmission from Christ to the church. Even those of us in the church life do not know fully what is taking place between Christ and the church. Since the day of Pentecost a transmission has been going on,
This transmission is not once for all. According to our thinking, we consider that certain things take place once for all. Take, for example, the matter of being crucified with Christ. Those who emphasize the objective teachings of the Bible claim that our crucifixion with Christ took place once for all. In a sense I agree, because Christ died once and does not need to die again. Furthermore, He has been resurrected once for all and does not need to be resurrected again. Whatever He accomplished for us, He accomplished once for all. However, the application of what He has done is not once for all. Rather, it is still continuing. According to Galatians 2:20, it seems that Paul’s co-crucifixion with Christ happened once for all. But according to 2 Corinthians 4 he was continually under the death of Christ. Therefore, on the one hand, Christ’s death is once for all; but on the other hand, it is a matter that continues throughout our Christian life. In like manner, the power that operated in Christ in raising Him from the dead, in seating Him at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, in subjecting all things under His feet, and in giving Him to be Head over all things operated once for all. Nevertheless, Christ is Head over all things to the church, and the surpassing greatness of the power that operated in Him is toward us who believe. The divine power is not transmitted to the church once for all; on the contrary, it is transmitted continually.
This transmission began on the day of Pentecost, and it is still continuing today. Even now this transmission is to the church. Electricity was installed in our meeting hall once for all, but now electricity is being transmitted into the building continually. Likewise, all that Christ has accomplished as the Head is continually being transmitted to His Body. The divine power will continue to be transmitted to the church for eternity; it will never cease.
Since coming to this country, I have heard Christians talking about the Body and the Body ministry. This talk has troubled me very much, for I realize that people simply do not know what they are talking about. What they mean by Body ministry is having several preachers instead of one. The Body is not an organization; it is an organism constituted of all the regenerated believers for the expression and activities of the Head.
The Body is the issue of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ who has descended to the church. According to our natural life, we are not qualified to be part of the Body. On the contrary, we are qualified only to be terminated and buried so that we can be resurrected. By nature, not even our spirit is qualified to be part of Christ. Before Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, the Body of Christ was not in existence. He had a number of followers, but He did not have the Body. The Body of Christ could not come forth from the incarnated Christ until He had been crucified to terminate the flesh, the natural man, and the entire old creation. After terminating all these things through His crucifixion, Christ entered into resurrection to germinate something new. Therefore, it was after His resurrection that the Body of Christ came into being. In our natural life and in the old creation, we are not the Body. But we are the Body in the new creation germinated by Christ’s resurrection life.
By incarnation God the Creator became a man named Jesus. Although God was living, moving, and acting in Jesus, there was no way to have the Body, for at that time Jesus was not the Head. Only after He had ascended into the heavens did God give Him to be the Head over all things to the church. By Christ’s all-inclusive death, the old creation, including our old man, our flesh, and our natural being, was terminated. After crucifixion, Christ brought the old creation with Him into the tomb and buried it there. When He entered into resurrection with the new creation, He left the old creation in the tomb. Then He ascended to the heavens and was given to be the Head over all things.
It took tremendous power to send a spacecraft from the earth to the moon. But how much greater was the power required to cause Christ to ascend from the earth to the third heaven! It was the surpassing greatness of God’s power that raised Christ from among the dead, seated Him at God’s right hand in the heavenlies, subdued all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the church. Now this power is being transmitted to the church.
As we pointed out, on the day of Pentecost, the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, who was given to be Head over all things, began to transmit all that He had accomplished, attained, and obtained to the church. Since that day, this transmission has not ceased. This indicates that this transmission has a beginning but that it has no ending. After all the wonderful steps taken by the Triune God — creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension — He came into the church with all His accomplishments. Thus, the church, the Body, is an entity altogether in resurrection and ascension with both the natural elements and the old creation terminated. The Body, an organism in resurrection and ascension, is wholly in the new creation and has nothing to do with the old creation. If you still live according to the old man, the natural man, or the flesh, you are not part of the Body. Every part of the Body is of the new creation. Many who talk about the Body and the Body ministry are natural and fleshly; they are not in resurrection. We all need to see that the Body came into existence when Christ ascended. Having ascended to the right hand of God, He continually transmits His attainments into the church. It is in this way that the church comes into existence.
With us who believe, there are two creations, the old creation and the new creation. We must admit that the old creation still remains with us. How I hate this remainder and desire to strip it off! Some Christians, however, are not troubled by the old creation; instead, they appreciate it. Do you truly hate the old creation, the flesh, and the natural man? I doubt it. If I rebuke you for being natural and fleshly, you will be offended. But if I praise you and tell you how nice and good you are, you will feel flattered. This is a strong proof that you still love the old man. If you hate your flesh and your natural man, it will not trouble you to be rebuked. On the contrary, you will be thankful.
We have seen that the Body of Christ did not come into existence before Christ’s crucifixion, but after His ascension, when something from the ascended Christ was transfused into the believers. This means that the transmission of the ascended Christ produces the Body. Everything we speak in the church life, in the ministry, or in fellowship must issue from this transmission. If our speaking is of the transmission, then our speaking is of the Body. If it is not of the transmission, it is not of the Body. In the Body there is nothing natural, nothing of the flesh, and nothing of the old creation. We all need to see this vision. We need to read these verses again and again until light shines on us concerning this. When we see the vision, we shall say, “Surely the Body is nothing of the natural man. The Body comes from the transmission of the ascended Christ.” Praise the Lord that in the church life the heavenly transmission is taking place in us all!
When I was in fundamental Christianity, I did not experience this transmission. During my involvement with Pentecostal Christianity, I saw some strange things, but I did not see this transmission. Through years of experience and by making comparisons, I have come to see that the proper church life is neither fundamental nor Pentecostal; it is entirely a matter of the divine transmission. You may be very fundamental and yet be dead, having little of the ascended Christ transmitted into you. You may neither know about nor care about such a transmission.
In fundamental Christianity I was taught to cut straight the Word of God. The Brethren teachers were constantly pointing out what doctrines were wrong. Eventually I came to realize that the more I cut straight the Word, the more dead I became. After I had been under this influence for more than six years, the Lord showed me that although I had a great deal of knowledge, I was dead. I immediately repented for my deadness. The next morning I climbed to the top of a mountain, and there I wept and even shouted out my confession and repentance. That day I discovered that the Christian life depends not on being fundamental, but on the experience of the transmission. Several years later, I became involved with the Pentecostal movement, which I thought would help me to obtain spiritual power. I was taught by one of the leading Pentecostal preachers how to speak in tongues, and I did so for more than a year. However, the more I spoke in tongues, the less of the transmission I seemed to experience. Therefore, I gave up the Pentecostal movement and came back to the way of transmission. I have been in this way for more than forty years, and I am receiving more of the transmission every day.
On the day we were saved, heavenly power was installed in our spirit. What we need now is a continual transmission, not another installment. If we open our heart, purify our heart and conscience, and allow our mind to become sober, our emotion to be fervent, and our will to be made submissive, we shall experience the transmission and have the power and the riches. Then instead of being in the natural man, we shall be in resurrection and ascension. When we are enjoying the transmission, we may not know where we are, for we are utterly one with Christ. It may be hard to say whether we are on earth or in the heavens.
When Christ is transmitted into us, the transmission joins us with Christ and makes us one with Him. For example, the lights in the meeting hall are connected to the electrical transmission from the power plant. Furthermore, the divine transmission is inexhaustible. The more we speak, the more we have to say. The more we minister, the more supply we have to draw from. It is in this transmission that we have the church life and the Body functions.
Once again I say, the heavenly transmission is to the church. By means of the transmission, the Body is real, genuine, living, and aggressive.
Verse 23 says that the Body is “the fullness of the One Who fills all in all.” The Body of Christ is His fullness. The fullness of Christ issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (3:8). Through the enjoyment of Christ’s riches, we become His fullness to express Him.
This is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Christ, who is the infinite God without limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things. Such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.
It is in the transmission that the Body of Christ is the fullness of the One who fills all in all, because the Christ who fills all in all is in the transmission. The transmission connects us to the all-filling Christ. In this way the church becomes the fullness of the all-filling Christ.
We should not take this as a mere teaching, but put it into practice. If you practice this, you will enjoy the riches of Christ every time you read the Word of God. By means of the transmission, the Bible becomes another book. Oh, how unsearchable are the riches of Christ! In the transmission the unsearchable riches of Christ become our enjoyment. As these riches become our enjoyment, they also become the constituents of our spiritual being. This produces the Body as the fullness of the Christ who fills all in all.
The transmission connects us with the ascended Christ. In this transmission we enjoy Christ according to what is recorded in the Bible. Whatever we read in the Bible becomes real to us through the transmission. In this way the riches of Christ become our enjoyment.
I love two particular phrases found in Ephesians 1: “toward us who believe,” and, “to the church.” The divine power has been installed into us once for all, but it is continually being transmitted into us. In this transmission we enjoy Christ and have the proper church life.
By enjoying the transmission we have a foretaste of the rapture. Sometimes as I enjoy the divine transmission, I am in such an ecstasy that I want to leap for joy. The enjoyment is so marvelous that it seems I have already been raptured. Sometimes I hardly dare read the Bible because the riches of Christ revealed in it are so vast and immeasurable. I am beside myself with this rich enjoyment. By means of such a transmission, we are the Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
