KNOWING, EXPERIENCING, AND LIVING THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST FOR THE GENUINE CHURCH LIFE
Message Three
Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church as the One New Man
Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17a; 4:24; Col. 3:4, 10-11
I. We need to take Christ as our person; this is the highest and richest experience of Christ—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a:
A. God's intention in His economy is to work Himself into us not only as our life but also as our person—Gal. 4:19.
B. The Gospel of John reveals that in His human living, the Lord Jesus took the Father as His person and lived by the Father as His person—5:19, 30; 14:10; 6:57:
1. Although the Lord as the Son of God was almighty, He declared that He could do nothing from Himself, because instead of living by Himself, He lived by the Father as His person—5:19, 30.
2. Just as the Lord lived because of the Father by taking the Father as His person, so also we should live because of the Lord by taking Him as our person—6:57.
C. Our regenerated spirit is the inner man with the indwelling Christ as its person—3:6; Eph. 3:17a:
1. If we would take Christ as our person, we must see that our regenerated spirit is no longer merely an organ for us to contact God but is our person—v. 17a.
2. In our inner man we have Christ not only as our life but also as our person—1 John 5:11-12; Col. 3:4; Eph. 3:17a.
3. Our inner man consists of our renewed soul as its organ and our regenerated spirit indwelt by Christ, the person, as its life and person—Rom. 12:2; 8:10; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 4:16.
4. We should live in our spirit as the inner man by taking Christ as our person—Rom. 8:4; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a.
D. We need to deny our former person, our soul, and take Christ in our spirit as our new person—Gal. 2:20:
1. According to Galatians 2:20, as regenerated believers we have both the "I," our former person who has been crucified, and Christ Himself, our new person.
2. Our former person has been crucified with Christ, and Christ is living in us as our new person; consequently, it will be no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20.
3. To take Christ as our person is not to force ourselves to submit to Him but to live according to His preferences because of our love for Him—1 John 4:19.
E. What is first is not taking Christ as our life but taking Christ as our person:
1. If we take Christ as our person, we will surely take Him as our life—5:11-12; Col. 3:4.
2. If we take Christ as our person, we will be able to grow and mature—2:19; Eph. 3:17a; 4:13, 15.
F. Christ desires to make His home in our hearts—3:17a:
1. We take Christ as our person by allowing Him to make His home in our heart—v. 17a.
2. When Christ makes His home in our heart, we will take Him as our person in an adequate way; His mind will become our mind, His emotion will become our emotion, and His will will become our will—1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5.
G. The apostle Paul is a pattern to us of taking Christ as our person—1 Tim. 1:16; Gal. 1:16a; 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17a; Phil. 1:8; 2:5; 2 Cor. 2:10.
II. We need to take Christ as our person for the church as the one new man— Eph. 3:17a; 4:24; Col. 3:4, 10-11:
A. The church, the Body of Christ, is the one new man to accomplish God's eternal purpose—Eph. 1:9, 11; 3:9; Rom. 8:29; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:22-24.
B. The emphasis on the church being the Body of Christ is on life, whereas the emphasis on the church being the one new man is on the person.
C. The Bible reveals that the one new man is a corporate, universal man—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11:
1. We, the believers in Christ, are all one with Christ to be the new man; thus, we all are parts, components, of the corporate one new man—Eph. 4:24.
2. The one new man is a corporate God-man, the aggregate of all the God-men; when we put all the God-men together, we have the one new man—Col. 3:10-11.
D. Christ is both the life of the Body and the person of the new man—v. 4; Eph. 3:17a:
1. In the one new man the natural man has no place; we all have no place in the new man, for here Christ is all and in all—Col. 3:10-11.
2. Christ is in all of us, so we all have only one person—1:27; Eph. 3:17a.
3. What God cares for is whether or not we take Christ as our person— John 6:57b; Phil. 1:21a; Col. 3:4; Eph. 3:17a.
E. For the new man we all need to take Christ as our person—2:15; 3:17a:
1. In the one new man, there is only one person—Christ—v. 17a; 4:24.
2. The new man is not about members (Rom. 12:4-5) but about the person; therefore, we all need to ask, "Who is my person—is it I or the Lord Jesus?"
F. For the practical existence of the one new man, the total person of the old man must be put away, and we must live by our new person, Christ—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:22, 24; 3:17a:
1. Realizing that our former person has been crucified, we should no longer live in that person, by that person, and with that person—Rom. 6:6.
2. Our standard for being a Christian should not be right or wrong, good or bad, but a person; the crucial matter is not what we are doing but who is doing it.
G. When we live our daily life by taking Christ as our person, especially in making decisions, our living will be the living of the new man— John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 17:4; Rom. 15:32; James 4:13-15:
1. In the new man we take Christ as our person to make plans and to decide how we should live—Rom. 15:32.
2. If we take Christ as our person, we will not decide anything in our life by ourselves, for we all are a part of the one new man—Philem. 14.
H. If we are unveiled and enlightened, we will see that today in the Lord's recovery we need to rise up together to take Christ as our person for the one new man—Eph. 3:17a; 4:24, 11-13:
1. The saints in every locality need to be perfected so that they may enter into a situation where they take Christ as their person for the one new man— vv. 11-13.
2. If all the saints in the Lord's recovery take Christ as their person, then spontaneously, we all will be the one new man—3:17a; 4:24.
3. When the one new man is perfected, that will be the time for the Lord's coming, and the perfected new man will be the bride—Rev. 19:7.