The Church is the One New Man to Fulfill God’s Purpose to Express and Represent God

The highest definition of the church is that the church is the one new man, and for this new man we all need to take Christ as our person.

We may know that the church is the household of God and we are the many members of this divine-human household, and we may enjoy the church as the Body of Christ and we being the many members of the Body who are supplied and built together.

But do we know what does it mean for the church to be the one new man? Do we see a vision of the church as the one new man, and are we in reality the one new man that God desires to have for His expression and representation?

There may be many members in the Body of Christ, each one having their function, but how many saints live in the church life with the realization that the church is the one new man?

In the last days of this age, before the Lord is able to return, we must see the vision of the one Body and the one new man. In particular, we must realize that the Lord must gain the church as the one new man for Him to return.

The mature and full-grown new man is the prepares bride of Christ, so when we have the new man in practicality, then the Lord will return for His bride.

There is a crucial need, an urgent need, for us to see the vision of the one new man. This one new man will fulfill God’s original intention in creating man to express God and represent Him. We need to see an extraordinary scene, a glorious inward vision, of the one new man.

When we see such a vision, we will be governed in our daily living by it, we will be restricted and controlled in our daily walk, and we will be preserved and directed by this vision.

Furthermore, seeing the vision of the church as the one new man will keep us in the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ and gives us the boldness to go on. Paul saw such a heavenly vision, and even when he was before the king, he could boldly say, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

If we have no vision, we cast off any restraint, and we are capable of doing anything just like the rest of the people. But when we have the heavenly vision, when we see the church as the one new man, we are directed toward God’s destination, and our life with our daily living is controlled according to God’s economy.

When we have no vision, we can go wherever we like, say whatever we want to say, and do whatever we want to do as an unruly and ungoverned person, but when we see that the church is the one new man and that this is what the Lord is after, our life will be controlled and directed by this seeing, and we will live a life for God’s purpose, toward God’s economy.

Seeing that the Church is the One New Man and Taking Christ as our Person for the New Man

Ultimately, the Bible speaks of the church as the one new man (see Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11). From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a book of visions; in it we see vision after vision.

At the end of the Bible the ultimate vision is of the one new man, which is the New Jerusalem, the bride, the wife of the Lamb. The New Jerusalem is not a material city built with bricks or precious stones, but a person, the bride, which is consummated by the new man.

What we see at the end of the Bible is not great multitudes of God’s redeemed or a large number of the people of God having an exhibition or presentation, but a holy city, a universal new man being manifested.

As the one new man, the church is a corporate person and needs Christ not only as its life but also as its person (see Eph. 3:17a; 4:24; Col. 3:4, 10). We need to let Christ make His home in our heart and become the person who lives in us, is expressed through us, and governs in us.

In the church as the Body of Christ there are many members, in the church as the household of God we have many family members, and in the church as the assembly there are many assembly members.

But what do we have in the new man? It is the person: for the church as the one new man we need to take Christ as our person. All are one in the one new man; in this new man there’s only one person, and this person is the Lord Jesus.

We need to see that the highest meaning of the church is that the church is the one new man. For the practical existence of the one new man, we all need to take Christ as our person (Eph. 3:17).

We may enjoy Christ as our life, life-supply, and nourishment day by day, but for us to enter into the reality of the church as the one new man, we need to experience Christ as our person. We need to take Christ not only as our life but also as our person.

We could say that the Body is a container for Christ as life, but the one new man has Christ as his person. The human body needs life, but for this life to be expressed and manifested, we need to have a person inside that body.

The church is the Body of Christ with Christ as its life, and the one new man has Christ as its person. We need to see the vision of the one new man and realize that the church is the one new man, and we need to take Christ as our person for the practical existence of the one new man.

May we in the church life have Christ not only as our life and life supply to strengthen us within, but also take Christ as our person to govern all our activities in our daily life, so that our daily living would be the living out of the one new man.

Our person dictates and governs what we do and say, and all our opinions and thoughts are under the person. When we take Christ as our person, He will dictate and govern what we do, what we say, and even what we think; we need to let Him make His home in our heart for the one new man.

Lord Jesus, we take You as our person for the church to be in existence practically as the one new man. Make Your home in our heart and be the person living in us, directing us, controlling us, and governing us in our daily living, so that the church as the one new man would come into practical existence. Amen, Lord, gain the one new man all over the earth in all the churches. May all the saints take Christ as their person for the practical existence of the church as the one new man!

God’s Intention in His Creation of Man was to have a Corporate Man to Express and Represent Him

Why do we say that the one new man is the highest definition of the church, and why does God want to gain the one new man?

It is because God’s intention in His creation of man was to have a corporate man to express Him in His image and represent Him with His authority (Gen. 1:26), and this is what the new man will do.

The church is the one new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose (Col. 1:9, 11; 3:11; Rom. 8:28; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:22-24).

Our God is a God with a purpose; He has a plan, an economy, and a heart’s desire. He created the heavens and the earth and millions of things, and all these are for His purpose; He wants to be corporately expressed and represented through man.

God’s eternal purpose is to gain the church, for it is through the church that the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies will know the multifarious wisdom of God.

The church is not merely a group of redeemed people meeting together to give God worship; the church is not just an assembly of God’s redeemed, a household for God, but the church is the one new man for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose.

What is God’s eternal purpose? If we read Genesis 1:26 we will see that, after God created the heavens, the earth, the animals, the fish, the birds, and millions of things and plants, He created man in His image and according to His likeness.

It is very interesting to see that God created all the birds and fish and living things according to their kind, and He created many of them according to their kind; however, God created one man not according to his kind but in God’s image and according to His likeness.

Then God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, so He built a counterpart for him from the rib He took from his side.

God created one man only; this man is a corporate man, and all men came from Adam.

God wanted man, Adam, to be His expression and representation. But Satan came in, deceived man, and now man is fallen; so Christ came to be the second man, the last Adam, to fulfill God’s purpose.

Christ went to the cross and accomplished redemption, and He created in Himself the two – Jews and Gentiles – into one new man.

The one new man doesn’t refer to each believer individually who were once old men but now through regeneration became new; rather, the church is the one new man, a corporate entity that will express God and represent Him on earth.

God’s creation of man in Genesis 1 is a picture of the one new man in God’s creation; this means that the old creation is a figure, a type, of the new creation (Eph. 2:15; 4:24).

Man is the center of God’s old creation, and the church as the one new man is the center of God’s new creation. Hallelujah!

Thank You God for creating us in Your image and according to Your likeness so that we may be Your corporate expression and representation on earth. Hallelujah, we are regenerated people who are born of God to be part of the one new man, and the church as the one new man will accomplish God’s eternal purpose! May we see this, Lord, and may we take You as our life and person for the practical existence of the one new man, so that we may become in reality the one new man that fulfills God’s eternal purpose!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1971, vol. 1, “The Meaning of Human Life and a Proper Consecration,” chs. 8-9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Goal of the Lord’s Recovery – to Bring Forth the One New Man (2018 ICSC), week 1, Our Urgent Need to See the Vision of the Church as the One New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # One new man is the Father’s plan; / He redeemed us from the sons of men. / Every kindred, tribe and tongue, / In Himself He called us to be one. / God’s expression on the earth / Now reveals His glorious worth. / One new man is the Father’s plan; / He redeemed us from the sons of men. (Hymns #1230)
  # God would have a group of people / Built together in His plan, / Blended, knit, coordinated / As His vessel—one new man. / God would come into this vessel / With His nature, life and ways, / Mingling Spirit with our spirits / For His joy and to His praise. (Song on, God eternal has a purpose)
  # So, Lord, I give my heart to Thee today, / That it may be Thy home in every way, / A place for Thee to come and settle down, / And all Thy grand recovery work to crown / In one new man. (Hymns #1179)