The reality of the body of christ
Message Three
Being in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Organic Union and in the Mingled Spirit and by Being Conformed to Christ's Death
Scripture Reading: John 15:4-5; Rom. 12:4-5; 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:12-13, 27; Phil. 3:10
I. We enter into the reality of the Body of Christ by living in the organic union with Christ-John 15:4-5; 1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 12:4-5:
A. The relationship that God desires to have with man is that He and man be grafted together and thus become one in an organic union-6:3-5:
1. God desires that the divine life and the human life be joined together to become one life; this oneness is an organic union, a union in life-a grafted life-vv. 3-5; 11:17-24.
2. To believe into Christ is to receive Him as the divine life into us that we may have an organic union with Him in the divine life-John 3:15; 15:4-5.
B. Romans 12 speaks of the Body from the angle of the organic union, from the uniting life, from a life that unites us together, not only with Christ but with all the other members of Christ-vv. 4-5:
1. The focus, the center, of the Christian life is the Body, which is the high point of God's revelation and the ultimate item of God's continual working-1?Cor. 12:12, 27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4, 12, 16; 5:23, 30; Col. 2:19.
2. We are one Body in Christ, having an organic union with Him-Rom. 12:4-5:
a. In Christ always implies the fact of being organically one with Christ.
b. This union makes us one in life with Christ and with all the other members of His Body.
c. The Body is not an organization or a society but is altogether an organism produced by the union in life that we have with Christ-1 Cor. 6:17; 12:27.
3. To be properly organic in the Body is to be organically united with Christ-Rom. 12:4-5:
a. The Body is something that is held together in the organic union with Christ.
b. The actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ-John 15:4-5.
II. We live in the reality of the Body of Christ by living in the mingled Spirit-Rom. 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17:
A. God's unique purpose is to mingle Himself with us so that He becomes our life, our nature, and our content, and we become His expression-John 14:20; 15:4-5; Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6.
B. The Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, the God-man, the One who is the mingling of God and man-Luke 1:31-35; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16:
1. We need to understand the Body of Christ from the perspective of the mingling of God and man-1 Cor. 6:17.
2. In the Gospels the mingling of God and man produced the Head; in Acts the enlargement of the mingling of God and man produced the Body of Christ-Eph. 1:22-23; 4:15-16.
3. The processed and consummated Triune God mingles Himself with His chosen people in their humanity, and the mingling is the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ-v. 3; John 17:21-23.
4. The church as the Body of Christ is a group of people who allow God to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God-Eph. 3:16-21.
5. The reality of the Body of Christ is a living by the God-men, who are united, mingled, and constituted together with God by the mingling of humanity with divinity and divinity with humanity-4:1-6, 15-16.
C. The Body of Christ is absolutely a matter in the mingled spirit; thus, to be in the reality of the Body of Christ is to live in the mingled spirit-Rom. 8:4; 12:4-5; 1?Cor. 6:17; 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 2:22; 4:16, 23:
1. The union of God and man is a union of the two spirits, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man (1 Cor. 2:11-16); the union of these two spirits is the deepest mystery in the Bible.
2. The focus of God's economy is the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit; whatever God intends to do or accomplish is related to this focus-Eph. 3:9, 5; 1:17; 2:22; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.
3. The implications of 1 Corinthians 6:17 are marvelous and far-reaching.
4. To be one spirit with the Lord implies that we are in Him and that He is in us-John 15:4-5.
5. We and He have been organically mingled, blended, to become one in life; we and Christ are one wonderful, living entity-1 Cor. 12:12.
6. The divine Spirit and the human spirit are mingled as one within us so that we can live the life of a God-man, a life that is God yet man and man yet God; this is the reality of the Body of Christ-Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
III. The reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living of conformity to the death of Christ-3:10; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27:
A. To be conformed to Christ's death is to take Christ's death as a mold-Phil. 3:10:
1. The mold of Christ's death refers to Christ's experience of continually putting to death His human life that He might live by the life of the Father-John 6:57; 5:19; 4:34; 5:30; 7:18; 17:4.
2. The life of Jesus is a model for us, and we should be the mass reproduction of this model-1 Pet. 2:21; Rom. 8:29.
3. Our life should be conformed to the mold of Christ's death by our dying daily to our human life to live the divine life-Luke 9:23; John 12:25-26.
B. In order to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be conformed to the death of Christ through the cross-Phil. 3:10:
1. The cross-the death of Christ-is the centrality and universality of our way to live the Christian life in order to fulfill God's purpose.
2. In our experience the turning point in living a life with Christ is the cross.
3. As Christ's continuation, we should live a crucified life every day-1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 4:10-11.
C. Such a life of dying to ourselves and living to God is for Christ, the first God-man, to be formed in His many members, the many God-men, for the building up of His organic Body-Gal. 4:19; Eph. 4:12, 16.
D. We must be those who live a crucified life by continually taking Christ's death as the mold of our life; it is only by this kind of corporate living that we can have the reality of the Body of Christ-Phil. 3:10; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 2:2; 12:27.