We need to take the lead to know the Body of Christ (of which we are members) and to keep every principle of the Body. The first principle of the Body is the oneness – we need to KEEP the oneness of the Body at any cost.
Then, we need to see that the Body of Christ is Christ Himself – anything apart from Christ, anything that is not Christ, is rejected by the Body. We need to allow Christ to make His home in every part of our inner being to make us members of His Body (Eph. 3:14-19). The parts of our inner being where Christ has made His home are in reality part of the Body of Christ.
The function of the Body is to express Christ
A third principle of the Body is that the function of the Body is to express Christ – the universally great Christ needs a Body to be His fullness, His expression (Eph. 1:22-23). The church is the fullness of the One who fills all and in all (v. 23).
Just as our human body is our fullness to express us, so the unlimited, infinite, universally vast and rich Christ needs a Body as His fullness so that He may be expressed in the universe! This is the function of the church as the Body of Christ – whenever we meet together, we express Christ!
Individually we have a certain portion of Christ, but together we are the Body of Christ, the fullness of Christ! Why are we members one of another? It is so that we would live Christ and express Him together (see Rom. 12:5).
To live the Body life is to live Christ, and the genuine Body life is the corporate living of Christ by many believers who have been built up together. This is why none of us can live by ourselves individually – we need the other members of the Body of Christ. We cannot live apart from the Body and we cannot work apart from the Body!
What the Lord wants is not individual members but a whole Body, a corporate living of the many God-men who have been built up together in the divine life!
The cross leads us to the Body and operates in the Body
Have you ever wondered, Why am I not built up so much with the other members in the Body? What is the reason for which we don’t see the Body or live in the Body? In us there’s an enemy to the Body – it is THE SELF. Our self is versus the Body, and when we live in our self we don’t live in the Body.
The self is the enemy of the Body – it is only when our self has been utterly dealt with by the cross that we are able to TOUCH the life of the Body of Christ and come to know the Body (see Matt. 16:24-25; Rom. 8:13; 12:4-5).
For us to see the Body and be in the Body in reality we need the cross to operate in us – the consummation of the work of the cross is the Body, and the cross operates in the sphere of the Body.
When we allow the cross to operate in us and even take the lead to put our self to death, we lose hope in the old creation and are delivered from the old creation to be brought into the new creation, the Body of Christ. The consummation of the work of the cross is the church, the Body of Christ – the cross works in us to cause us to not rely on ourselves anymore but depend on Christ and on the other members of the Body.
The church as the Body of Christ has no use for anything that comes out of the old man – everything that is out of the old creation needs to pass through the cross, so that only Christ would remain.
Our natural abilities, our methods, tactics, skills, opinions, suggestions, etc – everything that comes out of our natural man needs to go through the cross, so that Christ would remain; this Christ is fit for the building and He brings us in the reality of the Body!
Seeing the vision of the self
“I am more afraid of my own heart than the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great Pope, Self.” (Martin Luther, see here).
In order for us to see the Body of Christ, we need to firstly see a vision of the self. The enemy of the Body is the self, and we have within us something that stands against God’s building and against the Body.
Our independent “I”, our independent “me”, is the greatest problem, the greatest frustration and opposition to the Body. When we live in the self and we have the self, we do not have the Body.
For us to see the Body and live in the Body to express Christ we need to deal with the self. Every day we need to cross out the self, use the cross and by the Spirit utterly deal with the self.
The more we die to our self, the more we touch the precious life of the Body. The more we have the killing of the cross in our self, the more we know the Body life.
In the Body only Christ is the Head
A very important principle of the Body is that in the Body of Christ only Christ is the Head (see Col. 1:18; 2:19; Eph. 1:22; 4:15). I am not the head, the pastor is not the head, the pope is not the head, and no human being is the head – only Christ is the head!
For Christ to be THE HEAD of the Body means that only Christ has the authority in the Body. If we study the Bible carefully, we will see that the matter of authority in the Bible is related to Christ being the Head of the Body. Today we as the members of the Body need to take the lead to submit to Christ as the Head.
We need to ask ourselves, Is Christ saying this? Is Christ doing this right now? Is Christ the Head among us? Today, here, and now, in everything we are and do, we need to take the lead to take Christ as our Head.
When the church as the Body of Christ is fully headed up, the entire universe will be brought under God’s throne.
Lord, open our eyes to see the Body and to keep every principle of the Body. Operate in us, Lord, and deal with the self so that we would be in the Body in its reality. May our natural life and our natural man be dealt with so that Christ may live in us. Oh, Lord, no longer I but Christ! Cause us to see the self and reject it, repudiate it, and put it to death, so that Christ may live in us!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, The Genuine Ground of Oneness (by Witness Lee, page 8), The Heavenly Vision (by brother Lee, chs. 3-4), and, The Mystery of Christ (by Watchman Nee, chs. 2-6), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 6.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Our life and all we are and do / Is Christ Himself, the substance true, / That every time we meet anew / We may exhibit Christ.
# I long for fellowship in spirit, / Long thus to know authority; / Long for true fellowship in service, / Coordinated thus to be.
# Lord, to know Thee as the Body, / Is my desperate need today. - Picture source: wallpaper Eph. 1:22-23 (NIV).
