The Church is Built with Resurrection Life and Washed by the Word to be the Bride

As seen in the type of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 and shown throughout the New Testament, the church comes out of Christ, is built in His resurrection life, and is composed of all the believers in Christ who are being transformed to be the counterpart of Christ, the reproduction of Christ.

We may know the story of Adam and Eve, how God created Adam in His image and likeness, and then built Eve from the rib He took out of Adam’s side, bringing her to him to match him as his counterpart; but do we know how this applies to us and to the church?

The church was taken out of Christ, who was “put to sleep” on the cross; in His death, Christ produced the church with His divine, eternal, uncreated, unbreakable life, His resurrection life.

When Christ was on the cross, He was pierced by a soldier, and out of His side came blood and water; His blood was shed for our redemption, and His life was poured out to flow for our organic salvation, so that we may not only be redeemed but also regenerated, transformed, and glorified to be His glorious bride.

Christ’s death deals with the problem of sin; in Adam’s case, there was no sin problem yet, so only the rib was taken out of his side, but at the time Christ was “put to sleep on the cross”, sin was present, so He had to deal with it.

Christ’s death is the cure for the guilt of sin (through His blood shed on the cross), and the life He released is the cure for the power of sin (the water that flowed out from Him).

How we thank and praise the Lord for redeeming us on the cross, and for imparting His life into us to regenerate us, renew us, transform us, conform us to His image, and glorify us!

On the cross none of His bones were broken (John 19:31-33), to fulfill the prophecy; this shows that Christ’s resurrection life is unbreakable and unbroken, and it is in this life that the church was created and is built up.

The type of Adam and Eve is so rich, so full of meaning, and so applicable! If we want to know the church as the counterpart of Christ, we need to see what the church is, how the church was produced, and how we today should live and be in the church as the bride of Christ.

It is amazing to realize that, through His death on the cross Christ redeemed us and released His divine life, and through His resurrection He imparted His released His divine life into us to regenerate us for His Body, the church!

The Church is Built with the Resurrection Life of Christ to be His Counterpart

Adam was created by God in His image, but Eve was not created – she was built; in Gen. 2:22 we see that Eve was built with the rib taken out of Adam’s side.

This typifies the church who was not created but was built with the resurrection life released from Christ through His death on the cross and imparted into His believers in His resurrection (see John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3).

When we received the Lord Jesus, He came into us as the resurrection life, the unbreakable life; it is this life that transforms us. Only that which comes out of Christ with His resurrection life can be His complement and His counterpart; the church is the real Eve – the church is the totality of Christ in all of His believers!

The church is nothing else but the reproduction of Christ, and other than Christ’s element, there should be no other element in the church. The only element that Eve had – it was from Adam; the only element the church has should be Christ.

After God created Adam and built Eve out of Adam, He called their name, Adam; Adam and Eve are one entity called, Adam, and Christ and the church is one entity called, the Christ.

Since there should be no other element besides Christ’s element in the church, we all need to put off our natural life until the living Christ can be expressed from within our spirit; then, we will be the church in reality (Col. 3:10-11).

We need to put off the old man with its old way of living, with its old society and family, and put on the new man, Christ Himself with the church life, until Christ is expressed from within our spirit, and then we will be the church in reality.

In the church as the counterpart of Christ there is no room for any race, any natural man, or any group of people; here Christ is in all the members and is all the members.

When we come to the church, everyone here is a nobody and Christ is everybody and in everybody – here Christ is everyone and everything!

To live anything other than Christ is NOT the church; it is no longer we who should live, but it should be Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20), and for us to live it should be Christ (Phil. 1:21).

When we no longer live but Christ lives in us, and to us to live is Christ, this is the church! And the church is built up with the resurrection life of Christ to be His counterpart.

Only that which comes out of Christ can be recognized by Christ as His counterpart, for only that which comes out of Christ can return to Christ and match Him.

We need to be transformed by the resurrection life of Christ; as seen in Rom. 12:2 and 2 Cor. 3:18, we are being transformed into Christ’s image. Also, we are being built with and in the resurrection life of Christ to be His counterpart, the church.

Lord Jesus, we want to put off all the natural life until the living Christ in us can be expressed from within our spirit, so that we may be the church in reality. Cause us to realize that only that which comes out of Christ with His resurrection life can be His complement and counterpart, the Body of Christ. May we stop living in our natural man, the flesh, or the self, and deny ourselves, put off our old man, and put on the new man, so that we may be transformed and built up in the resurrection life of Christ to be the church as His counterpart!

Christ will Present the Church to Himself as a Beautiful and Glorious Bride to Match Him

Just as Eve was taken out of Adam and was brought back to Adam to be one flesh with Him (Gen. 2:24), so the church was produced out of Christ and will go back to Christ (Eph. 5:27; Rev. 19:7) to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

Christ produced the church through His death on the cross, and He is building it up in His resurrection with His divine life; then, He will present the church to Himself as a beautiful and glorious bride to match Him.

Christ and the church as one spirit – typified by a husband and wife as one flesh – are the great mystery (Eph. 5:28-32). In the future, Christ as the holy Bridegroom will present us to Himself as His counterpart for His marriage, just as God presented Eve to Adam as his counterpart for his marriage (Eph. 5:27, 31-32; Gen. 2:22-24; Rev. 19:7-9).

The church is now in process of being “beautified” by Christ by the washing of the water in the word; as we spend time with the Lord in His word, seeking Him to have His living, instant, spoken word, we are being washed, purified, and sanctified to be His beautiful and glorious bride.

Right now we may be still full of wrinkles, oldness, and spots, but as we are under the washing of the water in the rhema – the Lord’s spoken and instant word – we will have no more wrinkles, no more spots, but we will be beautified to be the Lord’s beautiful and glorious bride to match Him!

As the bride of Christ, we need to hate anything of the oldness, the old man, the natural things, and we should be new, fresh, living, and full of Christ, active with the Lord.

Our beauty as the bride of Christ doesn’t come from ourselves or from our self-improvement; our beauty comes from the very Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church.

In Psa. 45:9-14 we see the queen of Christ, a type of the church; this queen has two garments – typifying Christ as our righteousness covering us before God to justify us, and also Christ “stitched” into our being to become our righteousnesses, the embroidered garment.

Hallelujah, Christ is working Himself into us through His spoken, living word, to prepare us as His bride! The Lord’s recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ, who is composed of all the overcomers (Rev. 19:7-9; Gen. 2:22; Matt. 16:18).

We all need to pray that the Lord would make us His overcomers, part of His overcoming bride. At the end of the Bible is a city – the New Jerusalem – the ultimate and eternal woman, the corporate bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9; 22:17) built with three precious materials (Rev. 21:18-21), fulfilling for eternity the type shown in Genesis 2.

In type all the precious materials mentioned in Gen. 2:11-12 are for the building of the woman. In Genesis we see some scattered precious stones (gold, bdellium, and onyx stones), and in Rev. 22 we see a built up city, the wife of the Lamb.

In Genesis we see the blueprint of God’s building, and in Rev. 21-22 we see the final product, the bride of the Lamb, the church built up in the resurrection life of Christ.

Hallelujah, God is the architect and builder of the New Jerusalem, a real organic architecture, and He is building up the church for Christ to present the church to Himself as a beautiful and glorious bride to match Him!

Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us through Your living and operating word so that we may be sanctified and beautified to become the beautiful and glorious bride of Christ to match Him! Remove any wrinkles and spots by the washing of the water in the word. Amen, Lord, work Yourself into us until You are expressed through us as the church, the bride of Christ. Lord, make us Your overcomers, part of Your overcoming bride. Gain the church as Your overcoming bride – Your beautiful and glorious bride to match You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 2, “The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 9, The Status of the Church – the Counterpart of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Who will now be washed by water in the Word? / “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” / Spots and wrinkles cleanse before the shout is heard, / … Who will be the counterpart to Christ today? … / Ready be to match Him now without delay, / “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” (Hymns #1309)
  # The Lord is longing for His Bride, / All glorious within. / His heart will then be satisfied / When she is fit for Him. / ’Tis by the Word the church is made / Holy and pure as He; / All spots and wrinkles it removes / That she His Bride may be. (Hymns #1310)
  # How subtle is my self, Oh Lord; / Yet I wilt be transformed. / Through Spirit’s work—become a stone / To build up Thine own Bride. / How precious is Thy Body, Lord;
  How costly in my sight. / I would decrease, and Thee increase / At any cost for her. (Song on, How glorious is Thy church, Oh Lord)