The Body of Christ is the Intrinsic Significance and Organic Factor of the Church

The highest peak in God’s economy is the reality of the Body of Christ; the Body is the significance and the organic factor of the church, for without the Body the church is meaningless.

This week we come to the matter of, Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ, and today in particular we want to see that the Body of Christ is the reality and intrinsic significance of the church.

The main topic we are into these days, and the Lord’s current burden, is the reality of the Body of Christ.

We may know what the Body is, but what is the reality of the Body of Christ? Merely having a good outward situation in the churches doesn’t mean that we have the reality of the Body.

What we need is something more true, real, organic, and inward among us, something called the reality of the Body of Christ; when we have this reality, whether we are together or not, we will still live in the reality of the Body.

The reality of the Body cannot be devoid if the Spirit; rather, the reality of the Body is the Spirit of reality, for without the Spirit there is no Body, and without the Spirit of reality it is impossible for us to have the reality of the Body.

The Spirit of reality, on one hand, guides us personally into all the reality, but this Spirit is for the Body and in the Body.

Furthermore, the reality of the Body is living a life in resurrection, for the Body of Christ is a new creation in the resurrection of Christ. If we live in the natural life, if we do not live in resurrection, then we cannot have the reality of the Body of Christ.

The reality of the Body has nothing to do with our old creation, our old man, our old person, our flesh, our old disposition, our old way of living, and our old community life. The reality of the Body is in resurrection, and for us to be in this reality we need to live in the resurrection life of Christ.

We need to live in the organic union with the Lord in the mingled spirit, being conformed to the death of Christ, so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ.

We all need to be helped and reminded to live in the reality of the Body of Christ, for such a living is what the Lord is after today.

When we come to the matter of blending for the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to realise that the practical way for us to be built up and live in the reality of the Body is for us to be blended together.

We need to be fitly framed together, blended together, and joined together by being blended together in the Body of Christ.

The reason for being broken in our natural man, dealt with by the cross, and conformed to Christ’s death is so that we may be blended together in the Body of Christ.

God wants us to knit us together and join us together by blending us together in the Body of Christ, so that He may gain a corporate God-man living on earth, a corporate man living by the divine life and in the blending life of the Body for God’s corporate expression and for His dominion on earth.

The Highest Peak in God’s Economy is the Reality of the Body of Christ, and this Reality is Organic

What is the highest peak in God’s economy? God’s economy is for God to work Himself into His people so that He may obtain a corporate expression on earth.

The highest peak of the eternal economy of God is the reality of the Body of Christ, and this reality is something organic.

The highest peak of God’s economy is for God to gain a group of people who have His life and nature wrought into them and who spontaneously live out the reality of the Body of Christ.

This doesn’t mean that God wants a group of people who put on a certain kind of show, an outward living, something that is according to God’s word by man’s efforts and struggle. Rather, the goal and end game of the economy of God is the reality of the Body of Christ.

If we look at our situation in the church life, there are still situations among us that are no so organic; this is not to judge the saints, but we need to realise that we’re still in the process.

We are still not absolutely organic; we may have a good organisation, we may coordinate together, and there may be the functioning of the saints, but how much of this is organic, and now much is it organisational?

If we are not organic, then the only way to be kept together is organisation; the way is either being completely organic or organisational.

We may feel that, as long as there’s some recognised hierarchy in the church (we may not call it clergy-laity system but we may have a certain hierarchy) and there is a chain of command with a division of labor (each has his own function), we are built together…but we shouldn’t be so fast to say that this is the Body.

We may have some organic reality of the Body, but many times we are still so much in the organisation and outward things.

To be clear, we don’t negate or diminish the need to arrange many practical things, and there’s a clear need for coordination and fellowship and functioning; however, all these need to have the Body as the essence, and they have to be done organically.

We have to admit that we have the local churches, we enjoy the church life, and there is some reality of the Body of Christ, but we still need to be brought out of any organisation and system and made organic, the organic Body of Christ.

The reality of the Body of Christ is something absolutely and altogether organic, having nothing to do with organisation or systems.

We need to grow in life, enjoy the flow of the divine life, allow the divine life to grow in us and spread from our spirit to every part of our being, so that we become men of life.

Our spirit became life through the Spirit’s coming into us, our mind becomes life when we set our mind on the mingled spirit, and even our body is filled with life and swallowed up by life (see Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11). The way we can practice the Body life in Rom. 12 in reality is by experiencing the divine life as seen in Rom. 8.

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that the highest peak of God’s economy is the reality of the Body of Christ, and this reality is organic. Oh Lord, save us from mere organisation in the church life; save us from mere outward coordination about practical things, and turn us to Yourself as life being experienced by us! Lord, we want to experience You and enjoy You as life so that You as life may grow in us, spread into our mind, emotion, and will, and saturate us. Make us organic members of the organic Body of Christ who live in the organic reality of the Body of Christ!

The Body is the Intrinsic Significance and Organic Factor of the Church; without the Body the Church is Meaningless

The Lord’s recovery is for the building up of the organic Body of Christ; we need to know the Body to be in the proper recovery of the Lord today (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:16; Col. 3:15).

The church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor, for without the Body of Christ the church is meaningless and is a mere human organisation (see 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-13, 27).

The church has many aspects – the church is the house of God, the Body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the kingdom of God, the warrior, the lampstand, etc. but in all these aspects the church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor.

Without the Body of Christ as its reality, the church cannot be the house of God constituted with the children born of God, and the church cannot be the kingdom of God as the realm of God’s life.

Without the Body of Christ and the life of Christ experienced by us in the church life, there cannot be the bride of Christ as His counterpart, and there cannot be the warrior fighting for His interest.

When it comes to the church being organic, the church is the Body of Christ. Without the Body as its factor, the so-called church is lifeless and mere organisation.

Today we must live the church life with the Body of Christ in view, otherwise, it is possible for us in the church life that we may be in something lifeless – if we are not careful and exercised.

We may have a beautifully well-oiled organisation in the church life yet without life; what we need is the experience of life, the growth in life, and the maturity of life! The Body is the intrinsic significance of the church, for without the Body the church makes no sense and has no meaning (see Rom. 12:4-5; 16:1, 4, 16).

If certain parts of our human body would have their own “jurisdiction” and separate themselves from the body, they are finished with our body.

Similarly, in the Body of Christ if certain churches consider themselves as autonomous and they don’t blend with other churches, they do not touch the reality of the Body.

Without the Body of Christ as its intrinsic significance and essence, the church has no meaning.

If we don’t have the Body as the organic reality of the church, the church makes no sense but it is rather another social group or human organisation.

If the Body is not the intrinsic significance of the church, the church has no meaning as far as God’s economy and His hearts’ desire goes.

We need to rise up, not be satisfied with our present situation, and not be content with a mere outward church life, however busy it may be; we need to enter into the intrinsic significance of the church and enjoy the organic factor of the church, the Body of Christ.

We must pursue the reality of the Body of Christ, and we must take the lead to enter into this reality, for without this reality the church life has no meaning. Only the Body gives the church life meaning and sense.

Lord Jesus, we want to enter into the reality of the Body of Christ as we practice the church life in the local churches today. Save us from merely having many good outward activities but without touching the reality of the Body. May the Body be the intrinsic significance of the church, and may we all practice the church life with the reality of the Body in view. Amen, Lord, gain what You are after – gain the reality of the Body of Christ being practiced and lived out in all the local churches on earth today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” pp. 548-549, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, to know Thee as the Body, / Is my desperate need today, / Oh, to see Thee in Thy members, / ’Tis for this I long and pray. / No more just to know Thy headship / In an individual way, / But to see Thee incarnated, / As the Body-Christ, I pray. (Hymns #1225)
  # By this Person being formed in me, / I’ll a member of His Body be, / No more acting individually, / But with the saints. / More and more our Person He must be; / That our natural personality / Be eliminated thoroughly / Till Christ is all. (Hymns #1180)
  # As the body is the fulness / To express our life, / So to Christ the Church, His Body, / Doth express His life. (Hymns #819)