LIVING IN THE REALITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST BY KEEPING THE PRINCIPLES OF THE BODY
Message One
The Reality of the Body of Christ
Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:4; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:27; Eph. 4:16, 21; Phil. 3:10
I. The highest peak of God's economy is the reality of the Body of Christ— Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:13, 27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; Col. 1:18; 2:19.
II. The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of reality wrought into us and constituted into our being—John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6; Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6, 12, 16.
III. The reality of the Body of Christ is "the reality…in Jesus" (v. 21), the actual condition of the life of Jesus, as recorded in the four Gospels, duplicated in His many members as the corporate living of the perfected God-men— John 14:6a; Eph. 4:20-24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:8, 19-21a; 2:19-30:
A. Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was one with God—this is the reality in Jesus— Eph. 4:21.
B. The only life that is a delight to God is the life that is a repetition of the life Christ lived on earth; we are being perfected by the Lord to be God-men, living the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man—Matt. 11:29a; 17:5b; 1 Pet. 2:21.
C. A living in the reality of the Body of Christ is the same as the living of Jesus; it is Jesus living again in the members of His Body—Eph. 4:21; 5:30; 1 Cor. 12:27.
IV. The reality of the Body of Christ is the union and mingling of God with man to live out a corporate God-man—Eph. 4:4-6, 16, 21, 23-24:
A. The reality of the Body of Christ is the living of a God-man life by a group of God-redeemed people together with the God-man Christ—Phil. 1:19-21a:
1. In His resurrection the Lord Jesus produced many brothers who, with Him as the eldest Brother, become a great, corporate God-man; this universal man is God yet man and man yet God—Rom. 8:29; Eph. 2:15.
2. After regenerating us, the life-giving Spirit dwells in us and is mingled with our spirit to live a God-man life with us—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
3. This kind of life issues in a universal man who is exactly the same as the Lord Jesus—a man living a God-man life by the divine life—Eph. 4:21, 24; 1 John 2:6; 3:1-2; 4:17.
B. The reality of the Body of Christ is a living by the God-men, who are united, joined, and constituted together with God by the mingling of humanity with divinity and divinity with humanity—John 14:20; 15:4; Eph. 4:4-6, 16, 24; Phil. 1:21a.
C. The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes are expressed through their virtues—Gal. 2:20.
V. The reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ—Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; 2 Cor. 4:10-12; Rom. 8:13-14; 12:4-5:
A. The life of a Christ-pursuing God-man is a life of pursuing to die with Christ through the experience of the cross—Matt. 10:38; 16:24:
1. The cross must become our experience; the cross that enters into our heart is the cross that has become our subjective experience for us to live Christ— Gal. 6:14; 5:24.
2. A living under the cross touches the deepest parts of our being and every detail in our daily life.
B. It is by the power of Christ's resurrection that we are conformed to the death of Christ—Phil. 3:10; John 11:25; Eph. 1:19-20; 3:16; S. S. 2:8-13.
C. The reality of the Body of Christ is a living of being 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. As Christ's continuation, we should live a crucified life every day—1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 4:10-11.
D. We should be those who live a crucified life by 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.
VI. 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:
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:
1. In His economy God mingles Himself with us to become one entity with us— 1 Cor. 6:17.
2. We may be saved to the extent that we and God are completely mingled as one, having one life and one living—John 15:4-5; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
B. 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.
C. The mingled spirit is a spirit that is one spirit with God and that is the same as God in His life and nature but not in His Godhead—1 John 5:11; 2 Pet. 1:4:
1. 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—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
2. The God-man living is the living of the two spirits, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man, joined and mingled together as one.
D. We live in the reality of the Body of Christ by walking according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:4.