The reality of the body of christ
Message Four
Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:24; 10:17; Lev. 2:4; Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:16; 1 Cor. 13:4-8a
I. The highest peak in God's economy is the reality of the Body of Christ; the reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely organic-Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; 12:4-5.
II. The Lord's recovery is for the building up of the Body of Christ; thus, to know the Body is the proper recovery of the Lord-1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:16; Col. 3:15:
A. The church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor; without the Body of Christ the church is lifeless and is a mere human organization-1 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-13, 27.
B. The Body is the intrinsic significance of the church; without the Body the church makes no sense and has no meaning-Rom. 12:4-5; 16:1, 4, 16.
C. The elders should shepherd one another and love one another to be a model of the Body life; the elders need to love one another, their wives need to love one another, and they need to love one another's children-John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 13:4-8a.
D. If we would have the reality of the Body of Christ, we must allow Christ to make His home in our hearts; the reality of the Body is the inner experience of the indwelling Christ-Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:16; Col. 1:27; 3:4, 15.
E. The Lord urgently needs the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches; unless there is a substantial expression of the Body, the Lord Jesus will not return-Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 5:27, 30; Rev. 19:7.
F. The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God to have the Body of Christ and to destroy His enemy; without the overcomers the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ cannot come back for His bride-Eph. 1:10; 3:10; Rev. 12:11; 19:7-9.
G. The Lord's recovery is to build up Zion-the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem; in the church life we must endeavor to reach today's Zion-Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rev. 14:1; 21:2.
III. God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24); the word blended means "adjusted," "harmonized," "tempered," and "mingled," implying the losing of distinctions:
A. In order to be blended for the reality of the Body of Christ, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
B. Blending means that we should always stop in order to fellowship with others; we should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us, because fellowship adjusts us, harmonizes us, tempers us, and mingles us.
C. A group of responsible brothers may meet together often without being blended; to be blended means that you are touched by others and that you are touching others by going through the cross, doing things by the Spirit, and doing everything to dispense Christ for His Body's sake.
D. Such a blending is not social but the blending of the very Christ whom the individual members, the district churches, the co-workers, and the elders enjoy, experience, and partake of.
E. The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as the final goal of God's economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-10; 1:9-10).
IV. We need to follow in the apostle's footsteps to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ; the apostle brought us into the?blending life of the entire Body of Christ by recommendations and greetings in order that the God of peace may crush Satan under our feet and we may enjoy the rich grace of Christ-Rom. 16:1-16, 21-23, 20.
V. The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ:
A. We need to be in the local churches as the procedure to be brought into the reality of the Body of Christ as the goal.
B. The highest peak of the Lord's recovery that can really, practically, and actually carry out God's economy is for God to produce not many local churches in a physical way but an organic Body to be His organism.
C. Paul's thought of the church being one bread (1 Cor. 10:17) was not his own invention; rather, it was taken from the Old Testament with the meal offering (Lev. 2:4); every part of the flour of the meal offering was mingled with the oil-that is the blending.
D. Hardly anyone speaks about blending because this is not only very high and deep but also very mysterious; it is not a physical matter; the significance of our blending is the reality of the Body of Christ.
VI. The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.
VII. The reality of the Body of Christ is the mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ:
A. We use the word mingling because this living is still going on.
B. Such a mingling living is in the resurrection of Christ, and the reality of this resurrection is the Spirit; this resurrection imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers.
VIII. This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men consummates ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God's increase and expression for eternity.