We enter into the reality of the Body of Christ by living in the organic union with Christ in our daily life. This matter of the organic union with Christ is not only a high matter but also a deep one, like a deep ocean.
The Spirit of God searches the things of God and reveals then to our spirit (1 Cor. 2:10), so we need to have the Spirit’s revelation of this matter, otherwise it will be like trying to measure the ocean with a spoon.
We may have heard of the matter of being joined to the Lord organically, but how much did we enter into this in a deeper way in our experience? How much do we live daily in the organic union with Christ in our mingled spirit, and how much do we cooperate with the Lord to be conformed to His death?
This week we want to cover the subject of, Being in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Organic Union and in the Mingled Spirit and by Being Conformed to Christ’s Death.
This may not sound like something new, but we need to enter into a deeper realisation and experience of our organic union with Christ so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ.
The deepest mystery in the Bible is the mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit. But how much did we see this, how much did we enter into this reality, and how much do we experience living in the organic union with Christ in our daily life?
As believers in Christ we are in the Body of Christ positionally and we have the life of Christ, thus being members of the Body. But are we living in the reality of the Body of Christ?
May the Lord give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, and may we know and enter into the organic union with Christ, living there and enjoying Him as everything to us in our mingled spirit.
We are Created in God’s Image to be Organically Joined to God through Grafting and Abiding
What do we mean by this expression, organic union? The Bible doesn’t use this term, so there’s no reference of it in the Bible, but the Bible gives us some illustrations that refer to what we call, an organic union.
In John 15:4 the Lord said, Abide in Me and I in you. How can this be, a person abiding in another, and another person abiding in the other? This is truly a mysterious matter, and there’s no way for such a thing to take place physically – we can’t abide in another person, and another person cannot abide in us.
This is the kind of relationship that the Lord wants to have with us, the kind of union He intends to have with us. What is the kind of relationship that we have with God? Is it just as friends, companions, or lovers? Yes, we are all these, but there’s something much deeper.
In v. 5 we see an illustration of what this kind of relationship is, As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. The vine with the branches is a good picture showing us what the abiding is.
If we look at a vine, we can barely distinguish where the vine ends and where the branches begin, for they abide in each other and are organically joined to each other.
We are organically joined to Christ and we need to live in the organic union with Christ. This organic union is not just between me and Christ and you and Christ; this is an organic union with Christ and with every member of the Body of Christ.
It is easy to grasp this as a teaching, but to have it as a reality and to live in the organic union with Christ, this is something else.
In Rom. 12:5 we see that we who are many are one Body in Christ – the key word is, in Christ, for apart from Christ we cannot be one, but in the organic union with Christ, we are the Body of Christ in reality.
The entire Bible shows us that the kind of relationship that God wants to have with man is that He and man would be grafted together and thus become one in an organic union (Rom. 6:3-5).
Wow, God and man can be grafted together!
We didn’t invent this matter – this is God’s revelation of His desire for the kind of relationship He would like to have with man.
John used the illustration of a vine with branches to describe this mysterious union, and Paul in Romans uses the matter of grafting.
We may understand how to have an objective relationship with God in which God is God and we are us, we worship God and fear Him, and we may even love Him, but He stays in the heavens and we are down here on earth.
But the relationship that grafting speaks of is that we are in God, He is in us, and we become a single organic entity…this is not so easy to understand.
The closest to this in human life is marriage, and we may say that we are one with our spouse, but she is still her, and I am still me – we don’t have an organic union. Our relationship and oneness with the Lord is much beyond that between husband and wife, and when we look at the matter of grafting we can understand more.
Apple farmers, for example, graft apple trees to obtain different varieties of apples, some sweet, some sour, some crispy, some big, some small, etc.
In grafting the principle is that the two trees to be grafted have to be similar; for example, we don’t graft a banana with a pineapple, but we can graft an inferior tree with a superior tree of the same kind.
What does this tell us of our relationship with the Lord? First, it tells us that we are very much like God – we are in the same image and likeness, and we can be grafted with Him (Gen. 1:26).
Angels are not close enough to God, and God cannot be grafted to an angel. We may think that the angels are much more like God than we are, but they are NOT; they are simply spirits, and they don’t have the image and likeness of God – they are not that much like God.
If you want to see how God looks like, look in the mirror! The reason we are able to be grafted together with God is that He created us and made us very much like Him.
When God created the animals, He created all of them according to their kind; but when man was created, he was created in the image of God not to be “mankind” but God-kind.
Man is in the image of God, and man and God can be grafted together for an organic union to take place. We need to have an uplifted view of man and realise that man is noble, dignified, and valuable.
These days others tell us that man is just a mammal, devaluing man to the level of an animal, but we are Men – we are in God’s image and with His likeness! Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord for creating us in Your image and according to Your likeness so that we may be grafted into You and enter into an organic union with You! Hallelujah, we are God-kind, made in God’s image to match God and be organically joined to Him so that He may live in us as we abide in Him. Lord, grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see the reality of the organic union between us and You so that we may enter into this union and abide in You all throughout the day. Amen, Lord, keep us one spirit with You today!
We Enter into the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Organic Union with Christ
All throughout the Bible we see that God desires for the divine life and the human life to be joined together and become one life; this oneness is an organic union, a union in life – a grafted life (Rom. 6:3-5; 11:17-24).
When we are grafted into Christ through faith and baptism, we partake of the life and characteristics of Christ, and whatever He passed through becomes our history.
In this grafting with Christ our negative elements are discharged and our God-created faculties are resurrected, uplifted, enriched, and saturated so that we may be transformed in His image.
When we believe into the Lord and are baptised, we are grafted into Christ; we are the “poor tree” grafted into the “rich and superior tree”, which is Christ; this doesn’t mean that we lower or bring down Christ with His richness, but that He uplifts us and brings us to His level.
When a person is baptised, outwardly we see someone being immersed in water and coming out of the water shouting Hallelujah!, but there’s so much more that happens in the divine and mystical realm.
Through baptism we are grafted into God; through baptism we grow into Christ in the likeness of His death, and we enter with Him in His resurrection.
Baptism is not a form, a ritual, a religious practice, or an initiation to join the church; baptism is putting someone into the organic union with Christ. When a person is being immersed, physically he is immersed in water, but spiritually he is being immersed into a person!
According to the New Testament, when we exercise our spirit to baptise someone in water, he is being put into Christ, into the death of Christ, into the resurrection of Christ, and into the Body of Christ.
We are put not only “in Christ” but “into Christ” to be joined with Him organically.
Our faith into the Lord brings us into an organic union with Christ, and that union is consummated when we are baptised. Praise the Lord, through faith and baptism we are grafted into Christ to enter into and live in the organic union with Christ!
Christ was cut on the cross, and we also were cut through our faith and baptism; now there’s a joining in spirit, and in this organic union He is being infused into us, and we are becoming the same as He is.
God created human virtues in man that correspond to His inward divine attributes. God has many rich and bountiful divine attributes, and He created us with virtues that match these; our virtues are not the same as God’s attributes, but they match them.
Just as a glove matches a hand, and when the hand comes into the glove it gives the glove reality and meaning, so our virtues are made in the image of God’s attributes, and when we live in the organic union with Christ, His attributes fill our virtues and give them meaning and reality.
When we live in the organic union with Christ, the divine attributes come into our human virtues and enrich them, uplift them, strengthen them, and makes them real and lasting.
Our natural love doesn’t last and is selfish, but when we live in the organic union with Christ, the divine attribute of love comes in to fill our human virtue of love, terminate the negative and fallen elements, and enrich and uplift our love. Hallelujah!
The Satan-corrupted part gets killed and buried when we are baptised, and the God-created part comes out in resurrection to be enriched end uplifted. To believe into Christ is to receive Him as the divine life into us so that we may have an organic union with Him in the divine life (John 3:15; 15:4-5).
In Rom. 12 we see the Body of Christ from the angle of the organic union, that is, from the uniting life, a life that unites us together not only with Christ but with all the other members of Christ (see vv. 4-5).
We are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another; we have an organic union with Christ and with one another, and when we remain in the organic union with Christ, we are in the reality of the Body of Christ.
We were born in Adam, but God took us out of Adam and transplanted us into Christ by regeneration and baptism; now we are organically united with Christ, planted into His Body, and we need to live in this organic union with Christ to be in the reality of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, keep us in the organic union with Christ so that we may be in the reality of the Body of Christ. Grant us to see and live in the reality of our baptism, in the reality of being cut off from our natural man and being grafted into Christ to live one spirit with Him. Amen, Lord, unveil us to see our organic union with You, and keep us abiding in You and living in this organic union so that Your divine attributes would fill, enrich, uplift, and be expressed through our human virtues for the reality of the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man,” chs. 5-6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3, Being in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Organic Union and in the Mingled Spirit and by Being Conformed to Christ’s Death.
- Hymns on this topic:
# But I fail to understand, Lord, / What it means-”abide in me / For the more I seek “abiding,” / More I feel I’m not in Thee….Now in Thee I rest completely, / With myself I gladly part; / Thou art life and Thou art power, / All in all to me Thou art. (Hymns #561)
# I’m a branch that’s been, Lord, grafted in. / I’m supplied in You in this life union. / Here Your riches, Lord, in this sweet life flow. / As I dwell in You, I will surely grow. / As I dwell in You, and You in me, / Here I’m joined to You, Lord, practically. / As I stay with You, as You’re with me, / We will mingle, Lord, subjectively. (Song on, Just to be in You)
# Heav’n and earth shall have one living: God and man in organic union live, / Resurrection power supplying, Conformed to Christ’s death, no longer I live! (Song on, The Uniqueness of the Lord’s Recovery)
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