LESSONS ON THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY

Lesson Three

The Reality of the Body of Christ

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 1:22-23 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

1 Cor. 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

Eph. 4:4 One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one
hope of your calling.

Eph. 2:6 And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

I. The direction of the Lord’s move today is—Eph. 1:22-23:

A. To build up the Body of Christ as the organism of the processed and dispensing God in His Divine Trinity for His full expression—Eph. 1:22-23.

B. To prepare the bride as the counterpart of the Bridegroom for the eternal marriage of the redeeming God with His redeemed—John 3:29; Rev. 22:17.

C. To bring in the kingdom of God as the spreading of the divine life for God’s eternal administration in the fulfillment of His economy—Mark 4:26-29.

D. “There is no other way to accomplish this but the God-ordained Way. This is my burden, this is my desire, and this is what I am promoting. I hope that you will pick up this burden and this desire and endeavor to practice the God-ordained Way.” (Elders’ Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2), p. 31)

II. God’s economy is God becoming man that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead to produce the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:9, 1:10; Rom. 12:4-5; Rev. 21:2:

A. God’s intention in His economy is to make Himself man that man may become God; then God and man will be united and mingled together to live a corporate life—1 Cor. 12:12.

B. The economy of God is the Triune God working Himself into the tripartite men that they may become the members of Christ to be constituted the Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-19; 4:4-6.

C. God’s economy is His arrangement to gain a Body for Christ, built up with human beings mingled with the divinity of God—v. 16.

III. God needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through the high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation—1 Cor. 15:10:

A. A revival is the practice, the practicality, of the vision we have seen.

B. If we practice living the life of a God-man, which is the reality of the Body of Christ, spontaneously a corporate model will be built up, a model living in the economy of God; this model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church to bring the Lord back.

C. Once we live in the Triune God, in Christ, and in the consummated Spirit, we are in resurrection; this is a life that lives out the reality of the Body of Christ.

IV. The Spirit is the reality of the Triune God, the reality of resurrection, and the reality of the Body of Christ—John 16:13-15, 14:17:

A. The reality of the processed Triune God is the consummated Spirit of reality—John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6.

B. The reality of resurrection is Christ as the life-giving Spirit—John 11:25; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b.

C. The Spirit of reality makes everything of the processed Triune God a reality in the Body of Christ—John 16:13-15.

D. Without the Spirit there is no Body of Christ, no church—Eph. 4:4.

V. In order to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ—Eph. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:3:

A. The church is absolutely of the element of Christ, absolutely in resurrection, and absolutely in the heavenlies—1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; cf. Gen. 2:21-24.

B. The golden lampstand, typifying the church as the Body of Christ, portrays Christ as the resurrection life, growing, branching, budding, and blossoming to shine the light—Exo. 25:31-40; Num. 17:8; Rev. 1:11-12.

C. When we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ—Phil. 3:10-11.

VI. If we would live the life of a God-man, we need to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection—Phil. 3:10:

A. To be conformed to Christ’s death is to take Christ’s death as the mold of one’s life—John 6:57; 5:19; 4:34; 5:30; 7:18; 17:4; 1 Pet. 2:21; Rom. 8:29; Luke 9:23; John 12:25-26.

B. Paul lived a crucified life continually, a life under the cross, just as Christ did in His human living—1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 4:10-12, note 1, Gal. 6:17, Acts 28:9.

C. The death of Christ is the mold, and we are the “dough” — Lev. 2:1; John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17; Rom. 6:3-4.

D. It is by the power of Christ’s resurrection that we are conformed to the mold of Christ’s death—Phil. 3:10; John 11:25; Eph. 1:19-20; 3:16; S. S. 2:8-13.

VII. The reality of the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:22-23, 3:16-19:

A. The corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life, but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.

B. A corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ—Phil. 3:10.

C. The mingling living, in the eternal union, of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God (who is the pneumatic Christ as the embodiment of the processed and consummated Triune God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit as the reality of the pneumatic Christ and the consummation of the processed Triune God) in the resurrection of Christ, of which the life-giving Spirit is the reality and which imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers.

D.Consummating ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.

 

Excerpts from the ministry:

THE DIRECTION OF THE LORD’S MOVE TODAY

The Lord’s move today has a direction. …[This] direction…is, first, to build up His organic Body (Eph. 4:12), a Body full of Himself and built up with Himself (Col. 3:11) as the life-giving Spirit, who is the essence, the element, and the reality of the church as the organic Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4a). Such a Body becomes the organism of the processed Triune God (John 15:1, 5, 8a), who is dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity (2 Cor. 13:14) to saturate the Body of Christ organically that it might be His full expression in the universe (Eph. 3:19).

Both God and Christ are aspiring to see the Body of Christ built up, to see the bride prepared, and to see the kingdom brought in, that Christ may have a Body, that Christ may have His bride, and that God may have a kingdom on this earth for His eternal economy. There is no other way to accomplish this but the God-ordained Way. This is my burden, this is my desire, and this is what I am promoting. I hope that you all will pick up this burden and this desire and endeavor to practice the God-ordained Way. (Elders’ Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2), pp. 30-31)

GOD’S ECONOMY IS GOD BECOMING MAN THAT MAN MAY BECOME GOD IN LIFE AND IN NATURE BUT NOT IN THE GODHEAD TO PRODUCE THE BODY OF CHRIST, WHICH WILL CONSUMMATE THE NEW JERUSALEM

Brothers, I really have a burden to fellowship with you concerning one thing, that is, how God became a man and also how He makes man God. The issue of this matter of God becoming man and man becoming God is an organism. This organism is the union and mingling of God with man, and this organism is also the Body of Christ. This is what we want to fellowship tonight. After this, we will go on to see the reality of the Body of Christ. (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, pp. 33-34)

Our practice is not to live the life of any kind of natural man, good or bad. Our practice is to live the life of a God-man. A God-man is a man who is regenerated and transformed to be one with God, taking God as his life, his person, and his everything. Eventually, this one becomes God in His life and His nature, but not in His Godhead. This is a God-man. In the recovery today we should practice to live the life of such a God-man. This life is a life of crucifixion by and in and with resurrection. It is a life in which I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but He who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Yet when He lives in me, He lives with me, with the result that I live with Him (John 14:19). He lives with me, and I live with Him. We two live together in the way of mingling, a mingling of God and man.

The highest family life, marriage life, and social life come out of such a life. This life is the life of the church and the life of the Body of Christ. Such a life is the reality of the Body of Christ. Such a life, like that of Jesus Christ in His thirty-three and a half years on the earth, saves us from all negative things, from small things and big things. In our marriage life it saves us from separation and divorce. In the church it saves us from opinion, division, despising, criticizing, and murmuring. In this life there is no criticism, no despising, no partiality, no division, no dissension, no opinion. In such a life we live the life of a God-man. With Him everything is new, everything is heavenly, and everything is divine, divinity mingled with humanity.

GOD NEEDING A CORPORATE PEOPLE TO BE RAISED UP BY HIS GRACE
THROUGH THE HIGH PEAK OF THE DIVINE REVELATION
TO LIVE A LIFE ACCORDING TO THIS REVELATION

What kind of revival do we have today? In other words, what kind of model has been raised up among us? As a rule a revival should always be the practice of the vision we have seen. (Living A Life According to the High Peak of God’s Revelation, p. 36)

Since we have seen such a high peak of the divine revelation, we need to put into practice what we have seen. Our practice will have a success, and that success will be a new revival—the highest revival, and probably the last revival before the Lord’s coming back. As I said in the previous chapter, we need a model. I do not mean that only some individuals should become a model. I mean that we need a corporate model, a Body, a people who live the life of a God-man. (Living A Life According to the High Peak of God’s Revelation, p. 39)

If we live such a life, surely we will go out to contact people for the preaching of the gospel. A vital group is a group of this kind of people. The vital groups should not be practiced as a formality; they should be groups of people who live such a life. Our living the life of a God-man will save people, edify others, and build up the local churches even to the building up of the Body of Christ.

If we practice what we have heard, spontaneously a model will be built up. This model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church. I believe that this revival will bring the Lord back. (Living A Life According to the High Peak of God’s Revelation, p. 41)

As the new creation, we should not live in the old creation. If we live in the old creation, we are not in resurrection but in our natural man. Once we live in the Triune God, in Christ, and in the consummated Spirit, we are in resurrection. This is a life that lives out the reality of the Body of Christ. Today, in general, people have the term “the Body of Christ,” yet very few know what the Body of Christ refers to. The Brethren teaching says that the church is the Body of Christ. This is literally according to Ephesians 1:23: “Which [the church] is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. “But what is the Body of Christ? The Brethren did not have a clear explanation.

Based on his knowledge of the Bible and his own experience, Brother Watchman Nee spoke a word which probably had never been spoken by anyone else. He said, “The Spirit is the reality of resurrection.” When we live in this resurrection, what we live out is the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the issue of the God-man life lived out by all those who believe in and belong to the Lord as the new man. Only such a God-man living is Christ. In our daily life we should speak and do things in resurrection. If we are not in resurrection, we are not the Body of Christ; rather, we are natural. We may live and walk in a proper manner, but if we do not live out the reality of Christ, we are not in the Spirit or in the reality of resurrection; hence, we are without the reality of the Body of Christ. This touches something very high. If we have not seen this, we have not seen the Body of Christ.

Where is the Body of Christ? Some say that the Body of Christ is universal and appears in different localities. This explanation is still a doctrine, even a good doctrine, but it has not yet touched the reality. Where is the Body of Christ? The Body of Christ is in resurrection, and this resurrection is first, the Triune God; second, the pneumatic Christ; and third, the all-inclusive Spirit. The Body the Christ is in the Triune God, in the pneumatic Christ, in the all-inclusive Spirit, and in resurrection. Hence, when we live out a situation of resurrection, that is the manifestation of the Body of Christ. (General Outline of God’s Economy and the Proper Living of a God-man, pp. 42-43)

THE SPIRIT IS THE REALITY OF THE TRIUNE GOD, THE REALITY OF RESURRECTION, AND THE REALITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

Hence, the reality of the Body of Christ is the consummated Triune God within us, who is the pneumatic Christ, the resurrection. May the Lord have mercy on us to turn us from the outward things to the reality. (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, p. 44)

Furthermore, all that the Triune God experienced, including incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, are likewise realized by this Spirit of reality to be the real experiences of the Body of Christ. Originally, it was the Triune God who was incarnated, crucified, and resurrected. But when the Spirit of reality came, He made these experiences of the Triune God real in us as our real experiences. Because of this we can live a normal human life on the earth today. We can deal with the negative matters which befall us by the capacity of the death of Christ. … Moreover, the Spirit with the resurrection of Christ works in us to enable us to love and forgive others. These are all examples of how the experiences of the Triune God Himself have been realized in the church by the Spirit of reality to be the real experiences of the church. This is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God becoming the reality of the Body of Christ.

Finally, we need to see conclusively that both the essence and the reality of the Body of Christ are altogether matters of the Spirit of the processed and consummated Triune God. Whether essence or reality, it is all a matter of this Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the essence as well as the essence to which the reality belongs. Essence emphasizes the inward substance, while reality emphasizes the outward realization. Because the Spirit is the inward substance of the Body of Christ, He is also its outward realization. Both the inward essence and substance and the outward reality and realization are of the Spirit. This Spirit is the secret to all that the Triune God is to the Body of Christ. …This Spirit of reality is the processed Triune God Himself as well as the totality of all the attributes of the processed Triune God. If we have this Spirit, we have all the attributes of the processed Triune God, such as love, light, mercy, righteousness, holiness, life, power, and grace. Furthermore, the Spirit is also the effectiveness of all the processes of the processed Triune God. Incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection all have their effectiveness, and their effectiveness is just the Spirit of essence and reality. The effectiveness of both the death and resurrection of Christ is displayed in us who possess this Spirit of essence and reality. (A Thorough View of the Body of Christ, pp. 32-33)

IN ORDER TO BE IN THE REALITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST,
WE NEED TO BE ABSOLUTELY IN THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST

Brothers and sisters, do remember that God allows us to go through all sorts of distresses for this very reason, that we may know Him as the God of resurrection. He constantly leads us into death because only in death can we experience resurrection life.

The Bible speaks of two creations, the old and the new. The divine nature does not indwell the old creation and that is why it has become old. …The first creation, even though it is the creation of the living God, has no divine content; but what the God of resurrection raises from the dead has a divine as well as a human content. It combines created and uncreated life. The first creation, though brought into being by God Himself, is by God Himself suffered to pass into death that it may emerge in resurrection as a creation of dual nature, i.e., combining the natures of God and man.

The devastation [that suffering] brings to the old creation provides an opportunity for the God of resurrection to impart Himself to His creatures, so that they emerge from the death process with a divine element in their constitution. The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man.

Through hardship and pressure a divine element is being wrought into the very fabric of our beings, so that we cease to be colorless Christians but have a heavenly hue imparted to our lives that was lacking before. …It is in the death experiences which come through suffering that the life of the creature is blended with the life of the Creator. We may know the living God without such drastic experiences, but only through death can we come to an experimental knowledge of the God of resurrection.

You must give your consent to God when He seeks to lead you through devastating processes. And you need have no fear, for God knows how to apportion suffering. He is an expert at matching our suffering to our state. He measures all things with unfailing accuracy and selects the peculiar trial suited to the peculiar need. He invariably chooses the lot of each one with this goal in view—an increase of the divine content in our lives. If He chastises us, it is always “what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10). “All things work together for good to those…who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). What good? This, that we may be “conformed to the image of His Son.” (The God of Resurrection, pp. 12-13, 15-18)

LIVING THE LIFE OF A GOD-MAN THROUGH BEING CONFORMED
TO THE DEATH OF CHRIST BY THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

Christ comes as a gazelle leaping upon the mountains and as a young hart skipping upon the hills, showing forth His resurrection power over difficulties, to call her repeatedly to rise up from her down situation and come away to Him from that situation which separates her from Him (S. S. 2:8-10, 13b). According to our condition and situation, we surely need to cross out our peculiarity. But to get into the cross and remain there is not easy. …In order to receive the crucifixion of Christ, to be put to death, we need the power of the resurrection of Christ (Phil. 3:10).

It is difficult for us to reach the cross (signified by the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice) and remain there.…The way to reach the covert of the precipice is rugged. To receive the crucifixion of Christ to put us to death is a rugged way, not easy to reach. Even after reaching this place, it is hard to stay there. …This is why we need the power of the resurrection of Christ. Philippians 3:10 says that we are to be conformed to His death by the power of His resurrection. Christ is a gazelle full of leaping power and a young hart full of skipping power. This is the power of resurrection. Our being crucified is not by our natural life or natural strength but by Christ’s power of resurrection.

All the experiences of Christ are related to His death, His resurrection, and His Spirit. His death goes along with His resurrection, and His Spirit is the realization of His resurrection. In order to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, we must learn to turn from our mind to our spirit continually (Rom. 8:6). When we turn to our spirit, we have nothing to do but pray. When we turn to our spirit and pray, immediately the Spirit is with us as the power of resurrection. Then as we take the cross, those around us may not know that we have been crucified and are in resurrection. This may cause us to sing, “Hallelujah, Christ is Victor!” When we enjoy the power of His resurrection, He is the Victor in our experience, and we are the conquerors. The way to experience Christ in His crucifixion by the power of His resurrection is by the Spirit Himself who is in our spirit. Romans 8:6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” (Crystallization-study of Song of Songs, pp. 56-57)

In Philippians 3 Paul said that he lived a life conformed to the death of Christ (v. 10). The death of Christ is a mold, and Paul put himself into that death-mold to be conformed there. On this man, Paul, all men could see the mark and the image of the cross (Gal. 6:14, 17 see note 171). His old life was conformed to the image of the death of Christ by the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power of resurrection strengthened him to live the life of a God-man. The Lord expects that many of us would be such ones.

I do believe that among us there should be some like this, maybe not constantly but at least instantly like this. I can testify to you that I am like this. I dare not say constantly, but at least instantly. Many times when I was trying to talk to my wife, something within said, “This is not from your spirit. This is from your old man.” Right away I stopped. That was the very life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. The processed Triune God turned me, and that was in resurrection. Such a corporate living is the reality of the Body of Christ. This is a corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ. You are a God-man. You have God living in you, making His home in you. You and He, He and you, are mingled together as one. You should not live a life by your natural life, your natural man. You and I, the old man, the natural man, have been terminated on the cross, crucified by the Lord in His death (Gal. 2:20a). We must leave our natural man on the cross. This is what it means to bear the cross. By leaving your old man on the cross, you will be conformed to the death of Christ (Phil. 3:10). (The Practical Points concerning Blending, pp. 36-37)

The death of Christ means that when Christ lived on this earth, He was always rejecting Himself. He told us that He never did anything by Himself, but He did everything by the Father (John 6:57; 5:19; 4:34; 17:4; 14:10, 24; 5:30; 7:18). He had a very holy, pure human life, but He did not live that life. He put that life aside, put that life to death, and lived by the Father’s life. That was a model to us. We should be the mass production of that model, the God-men who have both the human life uplifted in Christ’s resurrection and the divine life. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a).…Paul was a person living not by himself but by the pneumatic Christ, and this pneumatic Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit, who is the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. All of this is in resurrection. When you do not live by your natural life, but live by the divine life within you, you are in resurrection. The issue of this is the Body of Christ. (The Practical Points concerning Blending, pp. 26-27)

THE REALITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

In today’s education the goal is not merely to finish elementary school and junior high school and then to graduate from high school. The goal is to study in a university and to earn not only a bachelor’s degree but even a master’s degree or a Ph.D. After many young people finish high school, they become tired of studying and terminate their education to get a job and make a living. This is just like our church life. To be in the church life may be likened to being in high school. Being satisfied to be merely in the church life, we may say, “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah for the church life! How good it is!” But will this reach the goal for the fulfillment of the Lord’s purpose? It will not, just as graduating from high school will not reach the goal of the purpose of today’s education. Today in the recovery, we need to go on and on to reach the high peak of God’s economy, that is, Mount Zion.

Jerusalem is built on the top of a mountain. Although Jerusalem is good, it is not the peak. In Jerusalem there is a peak, that is, Mount Zion, on which the temple was built. About one thousand years before the building of the temple, God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac on Mount Moriah, which is another name for Mount Zion (Gen. 22:2; 2 Chron. 3:1). The good situation in the recovery today is just like Jerusalem. However, there is no Zion. In the New Testament the overcomers are likened to Zion. In Revelation 14:1 the 144,000 overcomers are not just in Jerusalem; they are on the peak of Zion. The overcomers, the vital groups, are today’s Zion. My burden today is to help you reach the peak of the vital groups, that is, the overcomers’ Zion. Although we may have a good church life, among us there is almost no realization, no practicality, no actuality, and no reality of the Body life. This is the need in the recovery today. (The Practical Points Concerning Blending, pp. 16-17)

In this message we come to the highest peak in God’s economy—the reality of the Body of Christ. We know the term the Body of Christ. We may even have seen the revelation of the Body of Christ. Yet we have to admit that thus far over the past seventy-two years, through such a long time, we can see very little of the reality of the Body of Christ within us and among us. I am speaking not of the revelation, not even of the vision, but of the reality of the Body of Christ.

This reality has nothing to do with any kind of organization or with anything which remains in the nature of organization. Also, the reality of the Body of Christ is not a system in any way, because no system is organic. The reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely and altogether organic. (The Practical Points Concerning Blending, p. 30)

Now, what is the reality of the Body of Christ? In brief, the reality of the Body of Christ is a kind of corporate living, not a living by any individual. This corporate living is the aggregate of many saints who have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed by the processed and consummated God within them. By this indwelling consummated God, these redeemed saints have been made actual God-men. (The Practical Points Concerning Blending, p. 34)

Dear saints, such a mingling living is the reality of the Body of Christ. If among us there is, if not in full at least in part, such a living, the reality of the Body of Christ is among us. This is the high peak of the recovery in the local churches like Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem. Such a mingling living as the reality of the Body of Christ will consummate ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity. (The Practical Points Concerning Blending, p. 37)

References: Elders’ Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2), ch. 2; The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, ch. 3; Living A Life According to the High Peak of God’s Revelation, ch. 5; General Outline of God’s Economy and the Proper Living of a God-man, ch. 4; A Thorough View of the Body of Christ, ch. 2; The God of Resurrection; Crystallization-study of Song of Songs, ch. 5; The Practical Points Concerning Blending, chs. 3, 4.