THE GENUINE CHURCH LIFE
Message Two
The Church Life—a Life of Being Headed Up in Christ
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:10, 22-23; 3:15-17; 4:15; 1 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 1:4; John 8:12
I. God’s eternal intention is to head up all things in Christ, who has been appointed to be the universal Head—Eph. 1:10, 22:
A. It is God’s eternal purpose that in the economy of the fullness of the times, He might head up all things in Christ—v. 10.
B. Through the dispensations of God in all the ages, all things will be headed up in Christ in the new heaven and new earth; this will be God’s eternal administration and economy—Rev. 21:1-2.
II. Satan’s goal is to corrupt God’s creation and to cause confusion—Rom. 8:19-23:
A. When Satan injected himself into man, Satan became death and darkness to man; sin brings in death, death brings in darkness, and darkness brings in confusion.
B. The entire universe is a heap of collapse caused by Satan injecting himself as the factor of death into God’s creation—Heb. 2:14; Rom. 8:20-21.
C. God is working to liberate His creation from bondage and to bring it into liberty by heading up all things in Christ—Eph. 1:22, 10.
III. We all need to be delivered from the heap of collapse and headed up in Christ—Col. 1:12-13:
A. The collapse of the universe caused by the rebellion of Satan and the fall of man gives God an excellent opportunity to manifest His wisdom—Eph. 1:8; 3:10; Rom. 11:33.
B. According to the Bible, God’s salvation is to save us not only from our fallen, sinful condition but also from the heap of collapse—Eph. 2:1-8, 21-22.
IV. The church life is a life of being headed up in Christ—4:15; 1 Cor. 11:3:
A. God will subject all things under Christ by heading up all things in Christ through the church—15:20-28.
B. The church is the heading up of God’s chosen ones under the headship of Christ—11:3; Eph. 1:10; 2:21-22; 4:15:
1. In the proper church life we are being headed up in Christ—1:10.
2. If we do not know what it is to be headed up in Christ, we cannot know the church.
3. In the church life, we are taking the lead to be headed up in Christ; for this, we need to grow in life—4:15.
C. The first step in the heading up of all things in Christ is for God to bring His chosen ones, His sons, out of the universal collapse and to place them under the headship of Christ—1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:10, 19.
D. When the church takes the lead to be headed up in Christ, God has a way to head up all other things—Eph. 1:22-23, 10:
1. The church is the vessel used by God to solve His problems and to fulfill His purpose, which is to manifest Himself through man by mingling Himself with man—3:9-11.
2. Eventually, the Body with Christ as the Head will be the universal Head over all things—1:22-23.
V. In the church life we are being headed up through the divine dispensing in the divine economy—3:15-17; 4:15; 1 Tim. 1:4:
A. The divine economy has come into us—v. 4:
1. Christ is the divine economy; thus, when we received Christ, we received the divine economy into us—John 1:12-13.
2. The divine economy has come into us as an administration, arrangement, and plan that puts everything in order.
B. God is working Himself into His chosen ones through an administration that is a sweet dispensing, an intimate stewardship, a comfortable household arrangement—Eph. 1:10; 3:2; 1 Tim. 1:4; 3:15:
1. The heading up of all things in Christ takes place by an intimate stewardship, by a comfortable household arrangement—Eph. 3:2.
2. The way to behave in God’s house is to have a pleasant household administration, an intimate stewardship, and to dispense Christ to all the members of God’s household—1 Tim. 3:15; 1:4.
3. God’s abounding grace will accomplish the heading up of all things in Christ; this abounding grace is working on us so that all things might be headed up in Christ—Eph. 1:7-8, 10.
4. The more we, God’s inheritance, are saturated with the Spirit as a living seal, the more heading up there will be in the universe—vv. 11, 13.
VI. The heading up in the church life is by life and light—John 1:4; 8:12:
A. God’s way of recovery is Christ versus Satan, life versus death, light versus darkness, and order versus confusion.
B. The collapse comes from the factor of death; the heading up comes from the factor of life—Ezek. 37:4-10.
C. God’s way to recover the oneness among His creation is to impart Himself into us as life—Rom. 8:6, 10-11, 19-21.
D. In order to be delivered from the heap of collapse in a practical way, we need to grow in life; the more we grow in life, the more we will be headed up and the more we will be rescued from the universal collapse—Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19.
E. When God comes into us as life, the light of life shines within us; this life swallows death, and this light dispels the darkness—John 1:4; 8:12; Eph. 5:8-9:
1. When we are full of Christ as life, we are under the light and are controlled by the power of light.
2. As God is light, so we, the children of God, are children of light, and we are even light itself because we are one with God in the Lord—1 John 1:5; John 12:36; Eph. 5:8; Matt. 5:14.
3. In the life and under the light, we are delivered out of confusion, brought into order, harmony, and oneness, and headed up in Christ—Eph. 1:10.