KNOWING, EXPERIENCING, AND LIVING THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST FOR THE GENUINE CHURCH LIFE
Message Four
Taking Christ as Our Living for His Magnification and Dealing with the Self for Our Oneness in the Divine Glory in the Genuine Church Life
Scripture Reading: Phil. 1:19-26; 4:22; Isa. 43:7; 1 Cor. 10:31; Rom. 11:36; John 17:22
I. "I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ"—Phil. 1:19-21a:
A. To live Christ for His magnification is to participate in Christ's salvation in life, in which we are saved from the failure of not living Christ and from the defeat of not magnifying Christ—Rom. 5:10.
B. Salvation in Philippians 1:19 means to be sustained and strengthened to live and magnify Christ; this requires the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
C. Paul said that his salvation was "through your petition"; this is the supply of the Body of Christ, the church; imprisonment did not isolate Paul from the Body of Christ or cut him off from the supply of the Body.
D. The key to Paul's experience of salvation was the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; when we enjoy the all-inclusive and bountifully supplying Spirit of Jesus Christ and are filled with Him, Christ is magnified and becomes our expression—Heb. 1:9b; 3:14a; 6:4b; 1 Cor. 12:3b.
E. We need to be in the Body life and remain in the priestly service that builds up the Body so that we can maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit, the supply of the Body, in order to live Christ for magnifying Christ—Psa. 133:2; Exo. 30:26-31; Phil. 1:19; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
II. In the apostle's suffering in his body, Christ was magnified; that is, He was shown or declared to be great (without limitation), exalted, and extolled— Phil. 1:20:
A. The apostle's sufferings afforded him opportunity to express Christ in His unlimited greatness—Acts 9:16; 2 Cor. 6:4; 11:23; Col. 1:24.
B. To magnify Christ under any circumstances is to experience Him with the topmost enjoyment—Phil. 1:18; 4:23.
C. As Paul was held captive in a Roman prison, he magnified Christ, making Him to appear great in the eyes of his captors:
1. Regardless of the circumstances, Paul was full of joy and rejoicing in the Lord— cf. Acts 16:23-26.
2. Since Philippians is concerned with the experience and enjoyment of Christ, which issue in joy, it is a book filled with joy and rejoicing—1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17-18, 28-29; 3:1; 4:1, 4.
3. Paul's shining forth and expressing Christ in his joy were a declaration of the unlimited greatness of Christ and a declaration that Christ is inexhaustible— Eph. 3:8; cf. Isa. 9:6.
D. All of Paul's life and work were not for expressing himself or for displaying his knowledge, his ability, or his other merits and strong points; what he was and what he did were for expressing Christ, even for magnifying Christ—Phil. 1:20; 3:3-10; 4:22; 2 Cor. 4:5:
1. To "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" is to live by Christ and live out Christ, thus magnifying Christ for His corporate expression in the genuine church life— Rom. 13:14.
2. The expression of Christ, signified by the priestly garments, qualifies us to serve as priests and sanctifies us unto God for His unique purpose; the expression of Christ as our "holy garments" is for glory and beauty—Exo. 28:2-4; 1 Pet. 2:5:
a. For glory means to express Christ's divinity with the divine attributes— John 1:14; Heb. 1:3; John 17:22; 2 Cor. 3:18.
b. For beauty means to express Christ's humanity with the human virtues— Luke 24:19; Acts 16:7; Psa. 27:4.
c. Whenever we express the divine glory blended with the beauty of human virtues, we are built up together as the priesthood—1 Pet. 2:5.
3. We should be those who "do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31) so that we can "glorify God in [our] body" (6:20); to glorify God in our body is to allow God, who dwells in us (1 John 4:13), to occupy and saturate our body and express Himself through our body.
III. If we magnify Christ in our body for His expression by living Him, we will become strong factors, channels of supply, to enable the saints to grow in life and enjoy the Lord—Phil. 1:20-26:
A. In Paul's chained body, Christ was exalted, extolled, praised, and appreciated because Paul lived Christ—v. 21; Eph. 6:20.
B. Christ's being magnified is so that He may be seen by others in the reality of His resurrection and ministered to others in the reality of His Spirit.
C. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was living in prison and not outwardly working; his speaking of "fruit for my work" indicates that his work was actually his living—Phil. 1:22:
1. The fruit of this work was Christ lived out, magnified, ministered, and transfused into others.
2. The fruit of this work was the issue, the result, of Paul's living in prison.
3. Paul's living work was to minister Christ to others and to transfuse the Christ whom he magnified into them.
4. Through Paul's magnification of Christ, even some in Caesar's household were saved—4:22.
D. All of us should aspire to be strong factors, channels of supply, to the saints for their "progress" (their growth in life) and their "joy of the faith" (their enjoyment of Christ); whether or not we are such factors of the saints' growth in life and of their enjoyment of Christ depends on whether or not we magnify Christ by living Him—1:25:
1. Because Paul lived and magnified Christ to the uttermost, he could transfuse Christ into the saints and minister Christ to all the churches.
2. Paul's consideration to either depart and be with Christ or to remain in the flesh was not selfish but was for the saints' sake; he was absolutely occupied by the Lord and the church—vv. 23-24.
3. It should matter to the church whether we remain or go to be with the Lord, but this depends on our living Christ, magnifying Christ, ministering Christ, and transfusing Christ from the depths of our being into that of the saints— cf. 2:25-30.
4. In the Body life there is the urgent need of certain ones to function as channels of supply—Zech. 4:12-14.
IV. In order for the believers to enter into the oneness in the divine glory, the corporate expression of God, they must fully deal with the self— John 17:22; 2 Cor. 4:5:
A. Leprosy signifies the serious sin that issues from within man's self, which is the enemy of the Body; leprosy results from man's rebellion and disobedience, and the cleansing of the leper is to recover the sinner from the self to the fellowship with God and with men—cf. Lev. 13:45-46.
B. In order for a leper to be cleansed, he must "shave off all his hair; he shall shave his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair" (14:9); each of the different kinds of hair signifies different aspects of the self:
1. The hair of the head signifies man's glory in self-display; everyone has his boasts in certain areas; some boast of their ancestry, some of their education, some of their virtues, some of their zeal in their love for the Lord; everyone can find an area in which to boast, to glorify himself, and to make a display before man.
2. The beard signifies man's self-assumed honor; people esteem themselves honorable with regard to their position, their family background, or even their spirituality; they always have a feeling that they are above others.
3. The eyebrows signify man's natural beauty, his excellencies, merits, virtues, and strong points, issuing from his natural birth, not from the experience of God's salvation.
4. The hair of the whole body signifies man's natural strength and ability; as human beings, we are full of natural strength, natural methods and opinions, thinking that we can do this or that for the Lord and that we are capable of doing all things.
C. These problems of the self must be "shaved with a razor," which means that they must be dealt with by the cross:
1. In order to deal with the self, we must be those who bear the cross, allowing the cross to work on us continually in order to put our self to death.
2. We need to remain on the cross, keeping our self under the termination of the cross day by day—Luke 14:27; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 15:31.
3. By exercising our spirit, we can apply the death of Christ in the compound Spirit (flowing myrrh signifies the precious death of Christ, and fragrant cinnamon signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ's death) for the subjective crucifixion of our self—Exo. 30:23-25.
D. Stanzas 5 and 6 of Hymns, #866 show how we are freed from the self when we exercise our spirit:
1. "Freed within the spirit / From self-righteousness, / From self-condemnation / And self-consciousness."
2. "Freed within the spirit / From self-will and pride, / From self-love and glory, / All to override."
E. We need to follow the pattern of Paul, who said, "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31); as we die to ourselves daily, we do not preach ourselves for our glory, but we live to the Lord for His divine glory; furthermore, we are being transformed from glory to glory as Christ is making His home in our hearts for His glory in the genuine church life (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:5; 5:14-15; Eph. 3:16-17, 21a).
F. The glorification of God is the purpose of our living and our service; the highest living and service that we can render to God is to "do all to the glory of God" for the corporate expression of God—1 Cor. 10:31; Isa. 43:7; John 7:18; 8:50a; 17:4; Rom. 11:36.