If we are unveiled and enlightened, we will see that today in the Lord’s recovery we need to rise up together to take Christ as our person for the one new man; we need to hold to Christ and grow into Him in all things to arrive at a full-grown man.
What God desires to gain is the one new man, a duplication and reproduction of Christ as the first God-man; this One took the Father as His life and person, and He lived because of the Father and allowed the Father to live and do things in Him.
Today as believers in Christ we have Christ in our spirit; this Christ as the Spirit wants to spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, will, and all the inward parts, so that He may become our very person.
The apostle Paul was a pattern to us in taking Christ as his person for the one new man. First the Father was pleased to reveal His Son in him, and then he continued to pursue Christ, enjoy Christ, and gain Christ, until it was no longer Paul who lived but it was Christ who lived in Paul.
Paul allowed the Lord to make His home in his heart through faith, and his prayer toward the Lord was that all the saints would be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in their heart through faith for the one new man.
We need to allow the Lord to have all the room in us and give Him the full liberty to do whatever He wants to do, so that our heart would be His home.
Paul remained in the organic union with the Lord in the mingled spirit to the extent that God was his witness that even in his longing for the saints, he did this in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.
Paul didn’t live in his natural being; rather, he lived in the inward parts of Christ and was one with Christ in His inward parts, so that Paul’s inward being was reconstituted with the inward parts of Christ.
In this way, Paul took Christ as his person, and even the mind of Christ was in Paul, so he encouraged to allow this mind, that was in Christ Jesus, to also be in us. Amen!
May we be those who remain in the organic union with the Lord and learn to live in the mingled spirit, taking Christ as our person for the universal one new man!
Holding to Christ Growing up into Him in All Things to Take Him as our Person for the New Man
How can we become the one new man in reality? In Eph. 4:13-16 we see the secret: for all the saints on the entire earth to become the one new man we first have to hold to Christ and then grow up into Him in all things.
We need to hold to truth in love; the truth is Christ, so holding to truth is holding to Christ. We hold to Christ by having an intimate fellowship with Him, by being intimately related to Him, and by abiding in the organic union with Him.
Then, we must grow up into Christ in all things. In all things means that in every single thing – both big and small – we must grow up into Christ.
Yes, Christ is in us, and we hold to Him, but there still are many things in which we didn’t grow up into Christ. To grow up into Christ is to grow up into the Spirit, for Christ today is the Spirit.
Our speaking must be in the Spirit, our actions and attire must be in the Spirit, our dealings with others must be in the Spirit, our managing our affairs and the way we treat people must also be in the Spirit.
This means that we must hold on to Christ as the truth, and we must grow into Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit, in all things.
If we grow up into Christ in all things, then in Christ there will be only one kind of person – Christ; there will not be this kind of person or that kind of person, but Christ will be formed in us and will live in us.
As we grow up into Christ in all things and hold to Christ, we will be one in Christ; this is the one new man.
When we grow up into Him in all things, something comes out from Him for the building up of the Body; if we don’t grow up into Him and we don’t hold to Him, there won’t be anything coming out from Him into us for the Body.
This is the one thing we should do in all the local churches – we need to minister Christ and pray that others may hold to Christ as the truth in love, and grow up into Him in all things.
This will cause the saints to become the same as Christ; there won’t be this kind of people or that kind of people, but there will be only Christ, and this is the one new man.
When we all hold to Christ and we all grow up into Christ in this way, spontaneously we will allow Christ to be our person.
What we practice in all the local churches is taking Christ as our person for the one new man; we do NOT have a set of rules and regulations to make us the same and to make us do the same thing.
Rather, because all the brothers and the sisters in the local churches practice holding to Christ as truth in love and grow up into Him in all things, the result is that we all spontaneously take Christ as the person.
So if all the brothers and sisters in all the six continents take Christ as the person, then spontaneously the saints on the earth in the Lord’s recovery will be the one new man!
Lord Jesus, we hold to Christ as the truth in love and we want to grow up into Christ in all things. Amen, Lord, may we grow up into Christ in big things and in small things, even in all things. May we grow into Christ in our living, our speaking, our actions, our attire, our dealings with others, and in the way we manage our affairs; may we be in Spirit in all things. Lord Jesus, love You, we hold to You as truth in love, and we allow You to grow in us so that we may grow into Christ in all things, so that we may take Christ as our person for the one new man!
Being Enlightened and Rising up Together to take Christ as our Person for the One New Man
We all need to take Christ as our person for the one new man; if we are enlightened and unveiled, we will see that today in the Lord’s recovery we all need to rise up together to take Christ as our person for the one new man.
When the Lord shines on us and causes us to see and realise that God desires to gain the one new man, we will do everything for this.
For the sake of the Lord’s recovery, we all need to take the Lord as our person, and everything we do has to be with this in view.
When we care for the saints, when we shepherd the new ones, when we perfect the saints to function in the meeting, and when we preach the gospel to unbelievers, our primary focus is for the Lord to gain the one new man.
We do our best to live the God-ordained way, and this is good, but for this to happen we need to help one another to take Christ as our person and have a living for the one new man.
Especially the gifted saints – the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers – should take this as their goal (Eph. 4:11; 3:17).
Those whom the Lord gave as gifts to the Body need to perfect the saints for them to take Christ as their person.
We need to help one another to be involved with the Lord in a personal way; in our daily living we need to have the fragrance of Christ and abide in our organic union with the Lord until we become stable and mature as constituents of the one new man.
We need to perfect the saints in every locality so that they may enter into a situation where they take Christ as their person for the one new man (Eph. 4:11-13).
The result and issue of our shepherding one another should be that Christ is our person and the one new man is our living; we should all arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Ultimately, the Bible speaks of the church as the one new man; in this new man there’s nothing but the person. This level is so high that it cannot be higher, so strict that it cannot be stricter, and so intimate that it cannot be more intimate.
In the church as the one new man there’s only one person, and this person is the Lord Jesus.
If we want to accomplish God’s eternal purpose and bring forth the one new man, our primary attention has to be on being personally and intimately involved with the Lord, until He becomes our personal universe and has the full room to make His home in our heart.
We need to be fully involved with the Lord until we all become constituents of the one new man.
Taking Christ as our person for the one new man is the shortest way to bring the Lord back; it is the most direct way in application to bring the Lord back, and it also the sweetest way for us to hasten the Lord’s return.
May we all be enlightened and take the Lord as our person for the one new man so that God’s economy may be accomplished and the Lord’s return would be hastened.
Lord Jesus, unveil us and enlighten us so that we may see that today in the Lord’s recovery we must rise up together to take Christ as our person for the one new man! Amen, Lord, may the goal of all we do in the church life be helping one another take Christ as our person so that the one new man would come into practical existence. May we preach the gospel, visit the new ones, shepherd the young ones, and perfect the saints for the one new man. Dear Lord, we love You, we want to be intimately related to You until You become our personal universe and until we become the constituents of the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” chs. 5-7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 4, Taking Christ as Our Person for the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led. (Hymns #832)
– When all Thy members self forsake, / Thy glorious Body, Lord, is known; / When of Thy Person we partake, / The one new man is shown. / The church life is the one new man / In every local church expressed; / Thy Body is a corporate man, / One Person manifest. (Hymns #1220)
– For this cause Your Person, Lord, / We take and stand in one accord; / All the members self forsake, / And of the Body-Christ partake. / We in Christ as one new man / Now come forth to take this land. / For this cause Your Person, Lord, / We take and stand in one accord. (Hymns #1230)
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