The All-Inclusive Christ is Everything to Us for the Building of the Church

In the first part of Zechariah (the first eight chapters) we see eight visions with many aspects of Christ related to the recovery of God’s building. In the second part of Zechariah (the last six chapters), there are some prophecies concerning Christ in the future, after the recovery of the temple.

In Zechariah we see that Christ is everything to His people for the rebuilding of the temple of God. As a development of the prophecy concerning Christ in Zechariah, there are two books in the New Testament – the gospel of Matthew and Paul’s first epistle to Corinthians – that really show us this all-inclusive Christ.

In Matthew and in 1 Corinthians we see that the all-inclusive Christ is everything to His people for the building up of the church as the temple of God.

When you read Matthew and 1 Corinthians in particular, if you look beyond the teachings and “doctrines” (in Matthew) and if you can see the solution Paul gives to all the problems in Corinth, you will come to the realization that, in order for the church to be built up, we the believers need to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as our everything.

Oh, may we be recovered to Christ and enjoy Him as the all-inclusive One for the building up of the church as the temple of God!

The All-Inclusive Christ Revealed in Matthew

You would not expect that in the gospel of Matthew you would see the all-inclusive Christ, especially since there are some “sermons” (see ch. 5-7), teachings concerning the kingdom of God, miracles, signs, and lots of parables.

But Matthew is not about doctrines or about teachings, neither is it about parables and signs; the gospel of Matthew unveils Christ as the all-inclusive One for our enjoyment so that the church (Matt. 16:18) may be produced and built up.

There are many aspects of Christ in Matthew, and here are some that I enjoyed in particular:

1. Christ is the King (2:1-2; 21:5) – the Lord Jesus is the king of the heavenly kingdom of God. Even from His birth He was called “the King of the Jews”, and at His trial before Pilate He was called, “the King of the Jews” (Matt. 27:11). Above all, Christ is the heavenly King bringing in God’s spiritual kingdom on earth!
2. Christ is the Son of the Living God (16:16) – just like Peter, we need to receive a revelation of Christ as the Son of the living God! He is such a One so that many sons may be produced to be the members of the church, the Body of Christ.
3. Christ is the Son of Man (8:20; 11:19; 4:4; 19:28; 26:64; 24:37, 39, 44) – He always called Himself and identified Himself with man, and He was such a perfect man! We need to have a particular and fine experience of Christ as a man, enjoying His humanity in His Word.
4. Christ is the Baptizer (3:11) – John the Baptist was a type of Christ, and Christ is the real Baptizer: He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire! If we repent and believe into Him, He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit, but if we don’t, we will be baptized in the lake of fire.
5. Christ is the light (4:12-16) – the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light! Hallelujah, Christ as the light has come, and just by having Him with us we are in the light, seeing things for real and enjoying His divine life.
6. Christ is the Physician (9:12) – He didn’t come as a Judge, even though He could…. but He came as a Physician to heal us, recover us, enliven us, and save us, so that we may be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He is establishing His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth.
7. Christ is the Bridegroom (9:15; 25:1) – He is the most pleasant Person, the most lovable One, the Bridegroom coming to court and woo and marry His bride. He was so attractive, expressing the bountiful God in His humanity through His rich aromatic virtues. What a Lovely One!
8. Christ is the unfulled cloth (9:16) – while on earth, Christ was “raw”, unfulled, undealt with, and the Jews couldn’t “take Him and patch their own religion with Him”. He had to be processed and consummated to become the life-giving Spirit so that man can receive Him!
9. Christ is the new wine (9:17) – He cheers God and man, and He is fresh and new in time. Whenever we drink of Him, we enjoy something fresh and new, and it overflows to others! Christ as the new wine cannot be contained in the old wineskins of religion – the new and living church life is needed to contain and be filled with Him!
10. Christ is the Shepherd (9:36) – He cared for man, being full of compassion for the lost sheep of Israel, healing them and teaching them. We are all like sheep without shepherd, so Christ came as the Good Shepherd to take an all-inclusive care of our being.
11. Christ is the Lord of the harvest (9:38) – He is the Lord who owns the crop, and we as His harvest are filled with His divine, overflowing, and reproducing life! His kingdom is a harvest, and we should beseech Him to thrust out workers into His harvest to participate in His harvest!
12. Christ is the Friend of Sinners (11:9) – He didn’t despise sinners “because He was holy”, but He loved them, spent time with them, ate with them, went to their home, and brought salvation to them. Christ came for sinners and He was their friend.
13. Christ is wisdom (11:19) – others despised Him for being the friend of sinners, but Christ Himself is wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24, 30), and whatever Christ did was done by the wisdom of God – which is Christ Himself. This wisdom was justified by His wise words and deeds.
14. Christ is the One who gives rest (11:28-30) – we can come to Him out of all our toils and labors, and He will give us rest. Come to Him from all the toil of striving to keep the commandments of the law and the religious regulations, and out of all the struggling to be successful in any work.
15. Christ is the real David (12:3) – David and his followers were rejected and entered into the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, and David was just a type of Christ. The real David and His disciples are allowed to pick the ears of grain and eat them on the Sabbath – whatever Christ does is right!
16. Christ is the One greater than the temple (12:6) – the temple was a physical building in a place ordained by God for His people to come and worship Him, but Christ is the real temple, even the Person greater than the temple, ordained by God for His people to come and worship Him and meet with Him. Wow!
17. Christ is the greater Jonah (12:39-41) – Jonah’s sign was amazing, but Christ is greater than Jonah. Christ is more than Jonah the prophet – He is the real thing, the real One who passed through death and resurrection to come and preach the gospel to both the Jews and the Gentiles to return to God!
18. Christ is the One greater than Solomon (12:42) – Solomon built the temple of God and spoke the words of wisdom. Christ is the real Solomon and even greater than Solomon, since He builds the real and universal temple of God and He speaks the real and living words of God to His people.
19. Christ is the bread and crumbs under the table (15:26-27) – the Jews rejected Him, broke Him, and kicked Him off the table of Israel, so now Christ is small crumbs for us, “Gentile dogs”, to eat under the table and be satisfied. Wow, what a Christ!
20. Christ is the resurrected One in His humanity with all authority in heaven and on earth (28:18-19). He died and was resurrected in His humanity, and now He has all the authority in the universe! Hallelujah for the victorious resurrected Christ as the One above all!

The All-Inclusive Christ Unveiled in 1 Corinthians

The book of 1 Corinthians is NOT about the many problems the believers in the church in Corinth had, but it is about the many wonderful aspects of the all-inclusive Christ to be our enjoyment as the solution to all the problems in the church!

Paul gave the believers in Corinth only one solution to all their problems: Christ and His cross. Just enjoy the all-inclusive Christ, and the church will be built up as the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17), the Body-Christ (12:12)!

Here are some of the many aspects of Christ in 1 Corinthians:

• Christ is the believer’s portion (1:2) – Christ is theirs and ours, He is God’s allotted portion for the saints to enjoy and partake of that they may grow in life and build up God’s house, His temple. Christ as the all-inclusive One belongs to all His believers!
• Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (1:24, 30). Christ became wisdom to us from God as our righteousness (for our past), our sanctification (for our present), and our redemption (for our future). It is of God to participate in such a Christ to be fully saved!
• Christ is the Lord of glory (2:7-8) – Christ is our life today and He will be our glory in the future; to this glory, God has called us and He will bring us. The Lord of glory is working Himself into us to glorify us – this is the goal of God’s salvation!
• Christ is the depths of God (2:10) – Christ is the deep things of God, which are Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion, foreordained, prepared, and given to us freely by God. When we move, act, and live in our spirit, we enjoy Christ as the deep things of God as everything to us.
• Christ is the unique foundation of God’s building (3:11) – No other foundation men may lay except that one which has already been laid, which is Christ. Christ is the Son of the living God, the unique foundation for the church.
• Christ is our Passover (5:7) – Christ is the redeeming lamb (for us to be reconciled to God), the unleavened bread (no sin or mixture), the bitter herbs, and everything in the Passover (see Exo. 12). Christ is the real Passover!
• Christ is the unleavened bread (5:8) – in the entire period of our Christian life we need to enjoy Christ as the unleavened bread. Christ is the life supply of sincerity and truth, absolutely pure, without any mixture, and full of reality. Eat Him as the feast!
• Christ is the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock (10:3-4) – Christ is the real manna to be our daily life supply for our Christian journey. Christ as the Spirit is the all-inclusive drink for us to drink and run the Christian race. Christ is the solid and sure rock that follows us, protecting us and taking care of us in the wilderness today.
• Christ is the Head (11:3) and Christ is the Body (12:12) – He is the Head of the Body and the Body of the Head. In the Body of Christ there is only Christ – we are being replaced by Christ, the One whom we eat, enjoy, drink, and breathe in, so that Christ would be all in all.
• Christ is the firstfruits (15:20, 23), the second man (v. 47), and the last Adam, who became the life-giving Spirit (v. 45b) – He is the first, the second, and the last. Christ is everything. He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe.

Oh, what a Christ! These are only some of the many aspects of what the Bible unveils to us that the all-inclusive Christ is to us – and He is so rich to us for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church, the temple of God.

When we enjoy Christ in spirit, we build the church as the temple of God. As we eat Christ, drink Christ, and enjoy Christ as such a One, we are supplied and strengthened within to build the temple of God, the church!

Lord Jesus, recover us back to Yourself as the wonderful all-inclusive Christ. May we see Christ in all that He is to us for the building up of the temple of God. May we practically and daily take You and enjoy You as the reality of all the positive things in the universe. Lord, You are the real One, the wonderful One, the food and drink, the King, our portion, and everything to us! Keep us eating You and drinking You!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from portions in, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 267-272), and, The Enjoyment of Christ for the Body in 1 Corinthians (chs. 1-3), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 7 (entitled, Christ as Everything for the Building of the Temple of God).
• Please Note: most of the points above are taken from the footnotes in the New Testament (Recovery Version) – see the Bible references attached and read the notes online. I had to write in brief about each aspect, but when you read the footnotes, you will enjoy much more of this Christ!
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I’ve found the One of peerless worth, / My heart doth sing for joy; / And sing I must, for Christ I have: / Oh, what a Christ have I!
  # All is in Christ; / God’s dear Son is Lord of all. / Jesus Christ is life’s perfection, / Perfect love and perfect light.
  # God has called us into the fellowship of His Son, / That we may partake of Christ and enjoy Him.
• Pictures credit: both via, Inspiration Unlimited Facebook page, HWMR Daniel and Zechariah Quotes album.