The Church is the Body of Christ, the Fulness of Christ the Head to be His Expression

This week and the following few weeks we are prayerfully considering the status of the church – the church is the Body of Christ, the church is the new man, and the church is the bride of Christ.

The church is not simple but profound and rich in meaning; there are many aspects – many statuses – of the church, which unveil to us the richness of the church. The church is not merely a congregation, a religious service, but something too high, profound, and wonderful.

First, the church is the Body of Christ, then, the church is the new man, and finally, the church is the counterpart of Christ.

In order for us to have the recovery of the church, we need to realize that the church is central and important, and we also need to see clearly what the statuses of the church are, realizing that the church is the Body of Christ, the new man, and the bride of Christ.

We need to pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation to be granted to us, not taking for granted the fact that we know what the church is, and not thinking that the church is something ordinary or common.

The term “the body of Christ” may be a common term used among us in the church life, but merely repeating this expression doesn’t mean that we know what the Body of Christ is. There is something more of the church as the Body of Christ that we want to see, for in terms of seeing the Body, the vision is unlimited.

We should never be content with what we see; we should not be satisfied thinking we’re familiar with the Body of Christ, but we should pray that the Father would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened for us to see the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:4).

The Church is the Body of Christ, the Fullness of Christ the Head to be His Expression

Eph. 1:22-23 reveal that the church is the Body of Christ, the fulness of the One who fills all in all.

Among all the writers of the New Testament, Paul was the unique one that God used to reveal to us the wonderful aspect of the church as the Body of Christ, and in particular in Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians he opened up this matter.

In Ephesians we see the highest revelation of the church in the Bible. In Eph. 1 Paul revealed how the Triune God dispenses Himself into His chosen people – the Father dispenses His nature and life, the Son dispenses His element, and the Spirit dispenses His essence through His sealing and pledging – leading to a kind of power operating, transmitting to us.

This power raised Christ from the dead, seated Him in the heavenlies, submitted all things under His feet, and made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His Body. What a revelation!

If we see that the Triune God is doing many things in His Trinity to dispense Himself into His people, we will realize that He is the ascended Head over all things to the church, which is His Body!

We should never consider “the body of Christ” as an allegory, a type of the church; rather, the Body of Christ is actually the body of Christ – the church is Christ’s body, His organism. For us to know the church as the Body of Christ, we need to know Him as the Head over all things.

The church is not an organization but an organic Body constituted of all the believers in Christ who have been regenerated and have God’s life, for the expression of the Head (see John 3:3, 5-6, 15; 1:12-13; 1 John 5:11-12).

There are many entities today calling themselves “church”, but they are not; the church is not an organization but an organism, an organic entity, an entity constituted with life – the life of God and the human life mingled with the divine life.

The Body of Christ as an organic entity is constituted first with the believers who are the humanity with the human life; we are regenerated, we possess the divine life, and we constitute the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ is a mingled life – the divine life and the human life being mingled together. This is the life lived by Jesus when He was on earth – not just the human life and not merely the divine life, but the divine life mingled with the human life.

After He died, resurrected, and ascended, He was given to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body. We don’t merely have a risen Savior – we have an ascended Head, One who is resurrected and ascended to be the Head of the Body who is constantly transmitting Himself into us!

His life is imparted into us to regenerate us, mingle with us, and cause us to become constituents of the Body of Christ. As the Body of Christ, we are the fullness of the Head, and this is for the expression of the Head. Christ is rich, and His riches are being enjoyed by us; when we enjoy His riches, we become His fulness.

The church is the Body of Christ – the church is the fullness of the One who fills all in all. The church is the overflow of Christ, the expression of Christ. Christ, the Head, is unlimited – He fills the whole universe; He is universally vast and unlimitedly immense.

Such a Head needs a corresponding Body to match Him. Christ is not only our Savior, Redeemer, and Master – He is also our Head, we are His Body, and as the Head, He’s eternally great, unlimitedly vast!

Therefore, the church is also universally vast, including all the believers in time and space. We all are one Body under the headship of Christ, to be the Body and fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Hallelujah, Christ as the life-giving Spirit fills all and in all, and such a glorious Head has a Body to express Him as His fullness – this is the church! The church as such a Body is universally spacious.

We shouldn’t look at the local church where we meet and think that, since we’re so small in number, the church is small; rather, we need to realize that the church is universally spacious!

Christ, as the One who fills all in all, needs a Body to be His fullness this Body is the church to be His fullness (Eph. 3:10; 1:22-23; 4:10). He descended through incarnation, crucifixion, and death, then He ascended from Hades to the earth, and then to the heavens. By such a descending and ascending He fills all things.

He descended to be a man, and He ascended to be a life-giving Spirit. Now He fills all things – both the universe and the whole earth and even our heart, our physical universe, and our personal universe!

The church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the church (Col, 1:18; 2:19); hence, the church and Christ are one Body, the mysterious, universal great man (3:10-11; Eph. 2:15; 4:24), having the same life and nature.

We are not Christ’s agents or representatives; we are organically joined to Him, sharing His life and nature. Christ is the life and content of the Body, and the Body is the organism and expression of Christ (see Col. 3:4; 1:18; 2:19; Rom. 12:4-5).

As the Body, the church receives everything from Christ; therefore, everything of Christ is expressed through the church. Since we are the Body of Christ, we experience a continual transmission.

Everything we need, we have from Christ, and we express Him as His fullness. The two – Christ and the church as His Body – are mingled and joined as one, with Christ as the inward content and the church as the outward expression.

Thank You Lord for descending through incarnation and death, and then ascending to the heavens to become a life-giving Spirit to fill all in all! Hallelujah, Christ is the ascended Head of the Body, and He constantly transmits all that He is to His Body, which is the church. Thank You Lord for making us the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Lord, fill us with Your riches until we become Your fullness, Your expression in full, to express You on the earth! Amen, Lord, gain the church as the overflow of the riches of Christ on earth!

Seeing how the Church was Formed to be the Body of Christ, the Mingling of God and Man

We need to see clearly how the church as the Body of Christ has been formed. No human being can “form the church” – only Christ, the Head of the Body, can form the church. Some think they can “for a church”, and they set up some sort of society, a congregation – but only Christ is qualified to form the church.

In Matt. 16:18 the Lord said, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it; then, He unveiled that He was about to be crucified, die, and be resurrected – showing that the way to build up the church is by way of death and resurrection.

Christ was crucified, died, and after three days rose from the dead, was transfigured to become the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit, and returned to His disciples, appeared among them, and said, Peace be to you. Then, He breathed into them saying, Receive the Holy Spirit.

This was the beginning of the formation of the church. By going through death and resurrection, Christ became the Spirit whom He prophesied about in John 7:39. Now the Spirit is ready to be breathed into His believers to begin the formation of the church.

Fifty days later, in Jerusalem, as the disciples were praying together for ten days, the Spirit was poured out upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and as a result, the church in Jerusalem was formed.

In Christ’s resurrection the processed and consummated Triune God has been wrought into His chosen people (see John 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; 1 Pet. 1:3). Our God has been processed and consummated to become a life-giving Spirit, and now He can breathe Himself into His disciples to be their inward content and life for their essential existence.

In Christ’s ascension the all-inclusive, compound Spirit, as the consummation of the processed Triune God, descended upon His chosen people (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; 2:4, 32-33).

Christ first went to the Father, received the promise of the Spirit (which is the Spirit Himself) and poured out the Spirit; on the day of Pentecost He baptized the one hundred and twenty in the Spirit to form the one Body.

In John 20 He breathed the Spirit into His disciples (He’s the “Breather”), and in Acts 2 He baptized the Body with the Spirit (He’s the “Baptizer”). By breathing the Spirit into His believers and baptizing them into the Spirit, the Body of Christ was formed once and for all.

In Acts 10 the baptism of the Spirit happened in the house of Cornelius for the Gentile section of the Body. God’s chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people have Christ within them, and they have the consummated Spirit upon them as the power, the uniform for authority (John 20:22; Luke 24:49).

In this way the believers in Christ become the Body of Christ, an organism produced through the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the transformed tripartite man (see 1 Cor. 12:13, 27; Eph. 5:30).

We are not merely saved and redeemed people; we are the Body of Christ, we have the Spirit within and without – we are filled within and we are clothed without. This is what makes us the church, the Body of Christ.

We are not merely sinners saved by grace – we are the organic Body of Christ full of His Spirit within and without; we have His breath within and His wind without to empower, clothe, and authorize us for His work and service.

Lord Jesus, cause us to realize that the Body of Christ has already been formed, and the church is the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God! Hallelujah, in resurrection Christ breathed Himself into His disciples as the Spirit of life to be their life, and in His ascension He was poured out upon them as the economical Spirit as power for authority and power. Now the Body of Christ is formed, and we as believers in Christ have the Spirit within as life for our daily living and existence, and we are clothed with the Spirit of power for authority! Praise the Lord!

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, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 210-211 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 7, The Status of the Church – the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The church is Christ’s own Body, / The Father’s dwelling place, / The gathering of the called ones, / God blended with man’s race. (Hymns #824)
  # As the body is the fulness / To express our life, / So to Christ the Church, His Body, / Doth express His life. (Hymns #819)
  # Oh, the church of Christ is glorious, and we are part of it— / We’re so happy that the Lord has made us one! / There’s a Body in the universe and we belong to it— / Hallelujah, for the Lord has made us one! (Hymns #1226)