God’s eternal purpose is to have the church. His purpose is not just to create man, to rescue him from his fallen condition, and to bring him to heaven. Furthermore, God’s purpose is not simply to have us be holy, spiritual, and victorious. Creation, salvation, sanctification, spirituality, and victory are all part of God’s procedure to reach His goal, but they are not the goal itself.
In order to share in the recovery of the proper church life, we need to see what God’s purpose was in the beginning. We need to understand that there are three different beginnings. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word.” The beginning here is the beginning in eternity. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Heb.). In this verse the beginning denotes the time of creation. Finally, the beginning also refers to the start of the church life. Therefore, to go back to the beginning is to go back to the beginning in eternity, to the beginning in God’s creation, or to the beginning of the church.
The book of Ephesians reveals that the church came into existence according to the eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ. Ephesians 3:11 says, “According to the purpose of the ages which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The purpose of the ages is the purpose of eternity, the eternal purpose, the eternal plan of God made in eternity past. This is the purpose made by God in eternity past for eternity future. God is a God of purpose. Before creation, before the foundation of the world, He made a plan. This plan is the purpose of the ages, or the eternal purpose.
In 1:9 Paul says, “Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.” This verse also speaks of God’s purpose, but here Paul uses the word purpose as a verb instead of as a noun. A good pleasure according to God’s will has been purposed by God in Himself. This will which He has purposed is a mystery. It was hidden in God; it was not revealed to the saints in the Old Testament. In 1:11 Paul also speaks of God’s purpose: “In Whom also we were made an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One Who operates all things according to the counsel of His will.” God’s purpose in these verses refers to what God planned in the beginning, in eternity past.
In the beginning God planned to have the church. The Bible definitely reveals that this is God’s intention. God created the heavens, the earth, and billions of items because He desired to have the church. The first two chapters of Genesis are apparently a record of God’s creation. Actually these chapters reveal God’s intention. The minerals are for the plants, the plants are for the animals, the animals are for man, and man is for God. In other words, all things are for us, and we are for God in order that He may fulfill His desire to have the church. Therefore, God created all things so that He could have the church.
Furthermore, God’s redemption, regeneration, and calling are also for the church. God accomplished redemption so He could have the church. He also came to you, called you, and regenerated you for the church. Moreover, He dwells in you today for the sake of the church.
Now we come to the crucial and difficult matter of giving a definition of the church. The church may be called a hybrid, because it is one entity produced by the mingling together of two lives. The two lives that are mingled to produce the church are the divine life and the human life. Therefore, the church is an entity constituted not just of the divine life or merely of the human life, but of the divine-human life. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He lived a divine-human life. The church also has a divine-human life. We thank the Lord that although this has been hidden from the saints for centuries, He has revealed it to us in His recovery.
It is vital to see that the church is a hybrid produced by the mingling of the divine life with the human life. God desires to dispense Himself into man and to work Himself into man. In his book, The Spirit of Christ, Andrew Murray says that the divine life is interwoven with the human life. Although interwoven is a very good term, it is still not adequate. The divine life is not only interwoven with the human life, but the divine life and the human life are mingled to form one entity. Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20 illustrates this. Here he says, “I have been crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gk.). Paul says that it is he who lives; yet it is not he, but Christ. This indicates the mingling of Christ with Paul. The church is the product of such a mingling.
Just as the members of our body are for the body, not for the members themselves, so we have become Christians for the church. Without the body, the members have no meaning. In the same principle, without the church, we Christians have no purpose. Therefore, as Christians we must be for the church.
In Galatians 3:27 and 28 Paul says that as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and that we are all one in Christ Jesus. This oneness is the church. The church is the oneness in the Triune God of all those who are mingled with God.
The oneness in the Triune God is revealed in a full way in John 17. In John 17:21 the Lord Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” Here in this oneness there is no place for the flesh, sin, naturalness, or worldliness. In this oneness there is room only for the proper humanity mingled with the Triune God.
Some may say that we do not have the proper humanity because of the fall. I agree. But through the redemption of Christ God has recovered us and uplifted our fallen humanity. In Christ’s resurrection our humanity has been uplifted. This resurrected and uplifted humanity is now mingled with the Triune God. This mingling is the very element of the church. In the proper church life there is no culture, religion, or worldliness. The church, on the contrary, is composed of the proper humanity, the humanity created by God and uplifted by Christ, mingled with the Triune God. This is the entity God planned to have in eternity past for eternity future.
The book of Ephesians, which deals especially with the church, is a miniature of the whole Bible. This is proved by what this book includes. Firstly, as we have seen, this book speaks of the purpose of the ages, the eternal purpose of God. Secondly, it mentions God’s creation. Ephesians 3:9 speaks of the “dispensation of the mystery, which from the ages has been hidden in God, Who created all things.” There is a relationship between creation and the church, for God created all things for the church.
God’s intention in His creation of all things, including man, was that man would be mingled with God to produce the church. Zechariah 12:1 says that the Lord stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him. This indicates that the heavens are for the earth, that the earth is for man, and that man with the human spirit is for God. God’s marvelous creation, focused on man, is for the purpose of producing the church. Therefore, Ephesians speaks of the creation of all things.
This book also refers a number of times to the human spirit. In 1:17, Paul prays that the Father of glory would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him. What is needed for the church life is not a mind that is naturally keen, but a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
In 2:22 Paul speaks of the human spirit again: “In Whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” This verse indicates that God’s dwelling place is in our spirit. This dwelling place is God’s building, the Body of Christ. Hence, the spirit is the very place to have the church life. If we would be in the church as God’s building, we must be in our spirit.
In 3:5 Paul points out that the mystery of Christ “has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit.” The hidden mystery is revealed to the apostles and prophets, not in the mind, but in their spirit, which has been regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. The inner man in verse 16 refers to this spirit. Our inner man, our spirit regenerated by the Spirit of God and indwelt by Him, needs to be strengthened with power through the Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our hearts.
In 4:23 Paul goes on to speak further about the human spirit: “And are renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The spirit here is the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit. When this mingled spirit spreads into our mind, it becomes the spirit of our mind. Then our mind is under the control of our spirit. This renewing spirit is necessary for us to put off the old man and to put on the new man, which is the church life.
In 5:18 Paul gives the exhortation, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled in spirit.” In our regenerated spirit we need to be filled with Christ unto all the fullness of God (3:19).
Finally, in 6:18 Paul speaks of “praying at every time in spirit.” Whenever we pray, we need to pray in our spirit.
In every chapter of Ephesians there is mention of the human spirit. This indicates that the human spirit is needed for the church life. The reason there is virtually no church life in Christianity today is that most Christians do not know the human spirit. Rather, most of today’s Christian teachings are concerned with the mind. The book of Ephesians, however, is not focused on the mind, but on the spirit. Our spirit must be a spirit of wisdom and revelation, the place of God’s building, the organ in which God reveals His mystery to us, and the inner man strengthened by the Spirit of God. Furthermore, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and to pray in spirit. Through proper exercise, our spirit will eventually be filled unto all the fullness of God. This is the mingling of God and man that produces the church life.
Furthermore, the book of Ephesians reveals the Triune God more fully than any other book in the Bible. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” This verse speaks of God the Father and Christ the Son. The Spirit is not explicitly mentioned; however, the Spirit is implied in the spiritual blessings. These blessings are blessings of the Spirit and in the Spirit. Hence, in one verse we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In 2:18 it says that through Him, the Son, we have access in one Spirit unto the Father. Here again we have in one verse the Triune God, the Son, the Spirit, and the Father. Through the Son and in the Spirit we have access to the Father. This is the experience of the Triune God for the church life.
In chapter three we also see the Triune God. Paul prayed to the Father to grant us to be strengthened through His Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts. Here we have the Father, the Spirit, and Christ the Son. Eventually, according to verse 19, we are filled unto all the fullness of God. Therefore, we have the Spirit strengthening us and Christ making His home in us; then we are filled unto the fullness of God. Such a revelation of the Triune God is not found elsewhere in the Scriptures.
In 4:4-6 we also find the Triune God: the Spirit (v. 4), the Lord (v. 5), and God the Father (v. 6). The sequence here is significant. Firstly we have the Spirit, then the Son, and then the Father. In the Body life, the first Person of the Godhead we touch is the Spirit. When we touch the Spirit, we touch the Son. Then, by having the Son, we have the Father who is the origin and source of all. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow in the course. When we touch the flow, we are in the course, and when we are in the course, we are brought to the source. Here we have the reality of the one Body with the one Spirit, the one Lord, and the one God and Father.
The reason that Ephesians unfolds the Triune God to such a degree is that this book is on the church, the entity composed through the dispensing of the Triune God into humanity. The church comes into being only as the Triune God dispenses Himself into us and mingles Himself with us. In Ephesians we have not only the doctrine of the Trinity, but the practicality of the Trinity for the dispensing of God into man. The Triune God is not for teaching, but for imparting Himself into our being.
We have pointed out that, as the processed God, the Triune God today is the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, He can dispense Himself into our being. This makes it possible for us to be filled in our spirit unto all the fullness of God and for Christ to make His home in our heart. Christ is not simply dwelling within us, but is seeking the opportunity to make His home in our heart. This is to mingle Himself with every part of our being. Christ, the Son of God and the very embodiment of God, is the life-giving Spirit indwelling our spirit to spread into all of our inward parts. The result of this is not only holiness, spirituality, and victory, but the marvelous mingling of divinity with humanity to produce the church.
The church that is produced by the mingling of divinity with humanity is the Body of Christ. Certain Christian teachers think that the Body of Christ is merely an illustration. But this is not just an illustration — it is the very expression of Christ. Just as my physical body is the expression of myself, so Christ’s spiritual Body is the expression of Himself. Hence, the church as the Body of Christ is a reality.
Furthermore, the church is the new man with Christ as the life and the person. A body must have life, but a man must have both life and a person. Trees have life, but they do not have a person with a mind, will, and emotion. Since the church is the Body and the new man, the church has Christ as both the life and the person. This understanding of the church is basic.
