The reality of the Body of Christ is the union and mingling of God and man to live out a corporate God-man; it is living a God-man life by a group of God-redeemed people together with the God-man Christ.
The only life that satisfies God and is a delight to Him is the life that is a repetition of the life Christ lived on earth.
After being regenerated by the Lord, we need to not only read the Bible and attend the meetings of the church but even more, we need to be perfected by the Lord to live a God-man life together with Christ.
We need to be perfected by the Lord to be God-men, men who have the life of God and who live by the life of God, men who live the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man.
The reason God delights in Christ is that Christ came as God becoming man and He lived a life absolutely one with the Father; He didn’t do His own work but the Father’s work, He didn’t speak His own word but what He heard from the Father, He did the Father’s will, and He sought the Father’s glory.
He did this by denying Himself – He had a perfect human life with a perfect humanity, yet He denied Himself, took the Father as His source and life, and He lived because of the Father (John 6:57).
Now we as His believers, the members of His Body, need to put aside our natural man, our old man, our old way of living, and live by the divine life.
A living in the reality of the Body of Christ is the same as the living of Jesus; for our living to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, our living has to be Jesus living again in us, the many members of His Body.
Christ is the Head, and the Head has already lived a God-man life on earth; we are His Body, the many members of His Body on the earth, and now we need to live the same kind of life that Jesus lived when He was on the earth.
We need to not only be the same as Christ in life and nature, but also in His expression, in our daily living; how He lived, so we also should live.
On the cross the Lord tore down the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles, and He created in Himself one new man according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.
Now we as the many components of the one new man need to live the same kind of life as the Lord did, so that the Head may be expressed through His Body on the earth.
The Reality of the Body is the Union and Mingling of God and Man to Live out a Corporate God-man
The reality lived out by Jesus is the standard, the pattern, the model, and when we allow the Lord to mingle Himself with us, He will live in us the same kind of life that He lived while He was on the earth.
The reality of the Body of Christ is the union and mingling of God and man to live out a corporate God-man (see Eph. 4:4-6, 16, 21, 23-24).
Christ is God becoming man, God living in man, and man living out God; the reality of the Body is a union and mingling of God with man to live out a corporate God-man.
Two thousand years ago there was only one God-man, who is the Lord Jesus; in Him was the mingling of God and man. Then, He passed through death and resurrection, and He entered into all His believers, so that all His believers can be brought into the union and mingling of God and man to live out a corporate God-man.
This touches a very basic, essential, and mysterious revelation in the Bible, the fact that God wants to become man, He wants to live the human life, in order that He would enter into man and work into man to such an extent that man would become the same as He is, so that the two – God and man, man and God – would become exactly the same as each other.
God is God, but He would not just remain in the heavens to be a God on the throne – He came to the earth to be a man and live the human living.
He passed through death and resurrection and became a life-giving Spirit to enter into man, and He wants to bring man into God so that man may become God in life, nature, and expression, but not in the Godhead.
This is a very basic, central, and profound revelation in the Bible.
Eventually, God and man, man and God, would become a couple, a matching pair; this is the meaning of the universe, and we thank and praise the Lord for opening this to us through the ministry of the age.
Our God is not just up in heaven to give us some salvation or help us with our problems; He became a man to live the human life in order to uplift us so that we may become God, so that God and man, man and God, would become a matching pair, and the divine attributes would be expressed in the human virtues.
Now God wants to gain the reality of the Body of Christ, and this reality is the union and mingling of God and man to live out a corporate God-man, an entity that has the same kind of living that the Lord Jesus had when He was on the earth.
For us to have such a living, we need to pass through death and resurrection, dying daily and being resurrected daily, and we need to be in spirit and walk according to the Spirit.
Lord Jesus, we want to live in the reality of the Body of Christ by living in the union and mingling of God and man so that we may live out a corporate God-man. Amen, Lord, gain the reality of the Body of Christ in the church life in all the local churches. May we learn to deny ourselves, abide in You, and die and be resurrected daily so that we may live in the mingled spirit and walk according to the spirit. Thank You Lord for becoming man to make us the same as You are in life and nature, so that we may express You by having a God-man living to be a corporate God-man.
The Reality of the Body is Living a God-man Life by a Group of Believers with Christ
The reality of the Body of Christ is living a God-man life by a group of God-redeemed people together with the God-man Christ (see Phil. 1:19-21).
When Christ came, He came not only to save us from sin and perdition, and He didn’t come only to accomplish redemption for us; He came to become man so that we may be made the same as He is for us to have the same kind of God-man life with Christ.
After passing through incarnation, death, and resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit to enter into the ones whom He has redeemed to be mingled with them, so that they would live a God-man life with Christ.
Our religious concept is that God is up there in heavens and we’re down here on earth, we are pitiful but He’s almighty, so we need Him to deliver us and save us…but the central revelation of the Bible is that God came to the earth to become a man exactly as we are so that we would be transformed to such an extent that we become exactly the same as He is.
The meaning of our human life is that we allow God to work in us to such an extent that we become God so that man and God, God and man, would be one and have the same living – a God-man living by the believers with Christ.
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).
God foreknew us and predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, who became the Firstborn through death and resurrection.
After redeeming us, Christ dispensed His life into us to regenerate us so that we would be not just His disciples and believers, but also His brothers. Our Lord Jesus is our elder Brother, and we are His many brothers; we are the many sons of God, having God’s life and nature within us.
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. 15:45; 6:17). It is not us by ourselves that lives a God-man life, but the Spirit with our spirit is mingling Himself with us to live a God-man life with us.
Today God is not only in the heavens but also in our spirit as the Spirit of reality, the life-giving Spirit; His indwelling causes Him to be united and mingled with us.
Now He as the Spirit in our spirit is joined to us for us to live a God-man life with Christ. This kind of living 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 (see Eph. 4:21, 24).
In 1 John 2:6 we see that even as the Lord Jesus walked and lived, so we should walk and live; it’s not just a matter of being the same as Christ in life and nature but also in our living, in our daily walk.
In 1 John 4:17 we are told that we have boldness in the day of judgement for even as He is, so also we are in this world.
God wants His children to repeat the living lived by His Son Jesus Christ, He wants the reality of the Body of Christ, which is living a God-man life by the believers with Christ as the life-giving Spirit joined to their spirit.
We need to check with ourselves, however, and ask the Lord, Lord, as I am speaking this or doing that, is it me speaking and doing or is it You as the Spirit with my spirit?
We have been joined to the Lord, and He goes where we go, He is with us all the time, but we have to admit that most of the time we don’t live one spirit with Him; we still live according to our good and ethical moral standards, and we are far below God’s standard.
What about living a God-man life with Christ in our daily living? Do we have the same kind of life that the Lord Jesus did, a life one with the Father, taking the Father as the source, doing the Father’s will, seeking the Father’s glory, speaking the Father’s words, and doing the Father’s work?
We have to admit that we come short of this standard; we come short of living a life of a God-man with Christ.
Christ testified in John 6:57 that the Father sent Him and now He lives because of the Father; the reason Christ came was to live a God-man life, and now He wants this life to be reproduced in us as His Body.
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming to indwell us as the life-giving Spirit with our spirit! Hallelujah, we are mingled with the Lord – we are one spirit with Him, and we can live a God-man life with Christ for God to be satisfied! Amen, Lord Jesus, may our living be the same kind of living as the Lord lived on earth, and may we learn to live a life in the mingled spirit so that we may have the living of a God-man with Christ in our daily life. Oh Lord, even as You are and as You lived, so we are and we should live; work this out in us – grant us to have a God-man life by the divine life today!
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, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” chs. 3-4, 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 1, The Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God was born a human being / As the Babe of Bethlehem, / Passed He then through human living, / Perfect blend of God with men. / God, according to His plan, / Lived a mingled life with man. / Hallelujah, Hallelujah, / Hallelujah, Amen! (Hymns #1088)
# God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
# Be the person of our heart; / Manifest Thyself through us. / Build the saints into Thine house / That we’d bear Thine image thus. / Consummate Thy central work / That we’d match Thee perfectly; / Thus, the church would builded be— / One new man eternally. (Song on, Lord, Bring Forth the One New Man)
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