The cross of Christ brings us to the Body, the cross operates in the realm of the Body, and if we want to be members of the Body, we cannot go on with out the cross – we need its organic function, and we need to accept the dealing of the cross.
God gives us one person – Christ, and one way – the cross. God’s way for us to enjoy Christ, be filled with Christ, experience Christ, live Christ, and become Christ is not by perfecting us outwardly or helping us to be better to improve us.
God’s unique way is the cross; He deals with everything and everyone through the cross. The Lord Jesus told those who want to follow Him that, if they want to be His genuine followers, they need to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him.
When we allow the cross to operate in us, the cross will lead us to the Body, and the cross will operate in us to bring us to the Body and keep us in the reality of the Body of Christ, for the cross operates in the sphere of the Body.
The ultimate goal of the cross is not only to terminate us and remove the self, the flesh, and the natural man, but to bring us into the reality of the Body so that we may live and function as members of the Body of Christ.
The cross is God’s way, His means, His procedure for us to bring us into Christ and make us one with Christ to be the living and functioning members of His Body.
We may not like to hear about the cross, and when the cross comes, we may not want to allow it to operate, because we do not want to suffer, neither do we want to die.
We need to realise, however, that when our natural man is put to death, when the self is denied, and when the flesh is crucified, Christ can live in us.
How can Christ live in people who still live in themselves, who still express themselves, and who still manifest their flesh?
In Matt. 16 we see how Peter received a marvelous revelation from the Father: he saw that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and then the Lord said that it is on this revelation that He will build His church; what a wonderful revelation!
However, right after he uttered such a speaking, Peter was one with Satan to try to hinder the Lord from going to the cross; God’s way to produce the Body of Christ, the church, is through the cross, but Peter wanted to stop Him.
This shows us that one minute we may be in spirit receiving revelation from God, and the next minute, we may allow the gates of Hades to be expressed through our opinion. The Lord’s word to Peter applies to us today also: we need to follow the Lord by taking up our own cross and by denying the self.
The Cross Brings us into the Body and the Body is the Realm within which the Cross Works
On the one hand, the work of the cross brings us into the Body, for when the self is crossed out and the flesh is crucified, we are in the Body of Christ. On the other hand, the Body of Christ becomes the realm within which the cross works (see Col. 1:20; 3:15).
When we were baptised, we were identified with Christ in His death; we were baptised in His death, and we rose one with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.
On one hand, the baptism identified us with Christ in His death, and on the other, it caused us to long to be baptised into His Body. Through baptism we have been brought into an organic union with Christ and with the body of Christ.
However, the Lord needs to do a further work of renewing – He wants to renew our mind, our emotion, and our will, and He wants to make His home in our heart, so that He may be the person living in us.
Christ wants to be the person not only in our spirit (which is mingled with the Lord) but also in our inner being, in our soul.
How does He do it? How does the Lord become the person living in our heart? It is through the cross.
He made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20), and through the cross He reconciled all things to Himself. And He brought us into the ministry of reconciliation, that is, He reconciles us with Himself further and further as we experience the cross.
Can we say that we are fully reconciled to God and fully reconciled to the other members of the Body of Christ? In our human body, if two members are not reconciled, the body cannot function; in the Body of Christ many times there is no peace between the members of the Body.
For us to be further reconciled to God, we need to stay in the church life, in the life of the Body of Christ; in the church life the cross operates in us to bring us deeper and higher in the Body of Christ.
Once we coordinate with the saints in the church life, once we are involved in having fellowship with the saints in the practical church life – an expression of the Body life, we are being crossed out, and the cross becomes our experience.
The Body of Christ is the realm in which the cross works; the cross brings us into the Body, and the Body is the realm in which the cross operates in our being.
We may want to do things quick in the church life, but others are much slower, so we need to slow down; we may want to do this or that, but others do not agree – so we need to allow the cross to operate in us in the realm of the Body.
Again and again in the church life we need to allow the cross to operate in us; if we don’t do this, we have not seen the reality of the Body.
Lord Jesus, we want to be further reconciled to You and be fully reconciled to all the members of the Body so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ. We open to You, Lord, and we allow You to operate in us through the cross in the Body life. Save us from trying to escape the cross. Save us from trying to evade the work of the cross as we learn to coordinate and fellowship in the church. Lord, may the cross bring us into the Body, and may the cross continue to operate in us in the realm of the Body of Christ!
Aspects of the Dealing of the Cross in our Being for the Body of Christ
The cross brings us into the Body of Christ, and in the Body of Christ we cannot go on without the cross.
There are many aspects of our natural life, our self, our flesh, and their manifestations, that the cross will test, expose, sift away, and terminate, as long as we allow the Lord to operate in us through the cross.
The cross will test us and sift away all our mixtures and uncleanness.
To follow the Lord and live the Body life, we must deny our self and take up our cross; if we want to save our soul life, we will lose it, but if we lose our soul life for the Lord’s sake, we will find it (Matt. 16:24).
The expression of the old man through the soul and the soulish life has to be exposed and put to death, so that we may lose our soul life, the expression of the self.
Quite often we may have a lot of opinions concerning things, people, and situations, and the Lord exposes them in our fellowship and coordination in the Body; we need to agree with the Lord to put our opinions aside and allow the cross to terminate our self for the Body life.
The cross will dig away our natural life, our own activities, and any disproportionate growth (see Matt. 16:24-26).
In the Body life we have to communicate with the other brothers and sisters, and this exposes us; in fellowship we cannot seek our personal enjoyment, neither can we live in our natural life, have our own activities apart from the Body, or have a disproportionate growth.
Sometimes we want to grow in life, and we grow so much that it is not proportionate with the rest of the Body. Just imagine if the thumb would grow as long as a foot: would this be “useful” to the body, or would it be a great inconvenience?
Yes, we need to grow, but we need to grow in the Body, receiving the limitation and the balance of the Body.
Sometimes we may be very active, ready to preach the gospel, visit people, and do many things in the church life; but all these activities need to be appropriate, proportionate with our growth and measure of life.
Otherwise, if we are too active, this may distract others and cause them to stand back, not functioning.
Our life and work in the Body necessitate drastic dealings with the flesh, and such dealings necessitate a deep knowledge of the cross of Christ (Gal. 5:24).
Those who are of Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and its lusts. The Body of Christ is our limitation; within this limitation, we are exposed of our flesh. If we are not in the Body, we think we can do everything, but when we live in the Body life, our flesh and our natural man is exposed.
The cross is here to deal with us and make us a normal, functioning member of the Body of Christ, a member who can coordinate and cooperate with other members.
When we are in the Body and accept the dealing of the cross, everything we do will be proper. Again and again we need to check with the Lord whether it is us trying to say and do something, or is it the Lord in us doing this.
The restriction of the Body will take away our freedom and drive us to the cross (see Rom. 12:3; 2 Cor. 10:13-15; Eph. 4:7, 16). If we come across a troublesome brother, we need to take up the cross; the cross tests us, sifts away our mixture and uncleanness, and restricts us so that we may be a member in the Body.
It is only after the cross has wrought a deep work in us that we are able to coordinate with the brothers and sisters. We may have a strong disposition or be very peculiar; such a strong disposition and peculiarity must be broken by the cross.
No member of the Body can boast of his strength or peculiarity in the church, for in the church anything that is sharp, glaring, or conspicuous has to be worn away.
In the Body we need to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Rom. 12:3); many times we may think we are more important or higher than others, but when we accept the dealing of the cross, we will consider others being higher than us.
In the Body we cannot boast beyond our measure; God has measured us a portion, and we should function according to the measure that God has measured us.
Paul was a person strong in his spirit, and his work was prevailing, yet he was still under the limitation of the Lord, working only within the measure that God has apportioned to him (2 Cor. 10:13-14).
We all have a measure, we all have our function, and we all have a portion; God has measured us a particular portion with a particular measure, and we should stay within the measure.
We may have the portion of teaching the word, but we should also accept and appreciate others’ portion in preaching the gospel, visiting saints, cleaning, and prophesying.
We need to ask the Lord to show us the measure He has given us so that we do not go beyond our measure. If we do not accept the boundary set by God, we will be covetous, ambitious, or restless to do many other things.
But if we accept the dealing of the cross, we will not go beyond our measure, we will not overstep, we will not boast in our portion, we will not intrude upon others, and we will not push others out.
Lord Jesus, unveil us to realise that without the cross we cannot go on in the Body of Christ. May the cross test us and sift away all our mixtures and uncleanness. May our opinions be exposed, our individualism be broken, and our natural life be exposed and denied. Oh Lord, may the cross operate in the realm of the Body to dig away our natural life, our own activities, and any disproportionate growth. May we have a living and a work in the Body by being under the dealing of the cross. Lord, may we allow the restriction of the Body to take away our freedom and drive us to the cross.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, ch. 54, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Keeping the Principles of the Body (2019 ICSC), week 3, Experiencing the Work of the Cross for the Body and Living in the Unique Fellowship of the Body.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Since it must be thus, I pray, Lord, / Help me go the narrow way; / Deal with pride and make me willing / Thus to suffer, Thee t’obey. / I for greater power pray not, / Deeper death is what I need; / All the meaning of the Cross, Lord, / Work in me-for this I plead. (Hymns #279)
# The cross is termination, / Of all we are, the end, / The stripping off of everything / But Christ, with God to blend. (Song on, The Cross is Not a Suffering)
# Serve and work within the Body, / Never independently; / As the members of the Body, / Functioning relatedly. (Hymns #913)
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