In a very experiential way, for us to be the one new man we need to live Christ; this is not a matter of practice but of our daily living – we need to daily live Christ for the church instead of our culture.
This week in our morning revival we come to the matter of, Living the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ instead of Our Culture.
Seeing how damaging and frustrating is the matter of our culture to the bringing forth the one new man, we need to have the all-inclusive, extensive Christ replace our culture with Himself, and even more: we need to live Christ!
The one new man is a matter of our living; on one hand, the one new man was created by Christ two thousand years ago on the cross (Eph. 2:15), but on the other hand, the new man comes into existence when we live Christ.
The one new man who was brought forth by Christ on the cross is not really manifested on the earth today.
The one new man is not a matter of organization; it refers to the church, but it is not some sort of a gathering, a congregation, but a living.
For more than two thousand years the one new man has been in existence, but it still in a baby-ish stage; these days the Lord desires to bring forth and perfect the coming forth of the one new man, even to bring this new man to full growth so that he would become the prepared bride and Christ would come to consummate this age.
For this to happen, we need to realize that this man has a certain living; we need to live out the one new man.
In Eph. 5, after we saw in Eph. 2 that the new man was brought forth, we see that we should put off the old man (which includes the old manner of life) and put on the new man, which was created according to righteousness and holiness in reality.
We need to put off the old man as we put off a garment; practically this relates to our living.
To put off the former manner of life, the way we lived before we received Christ, the old way of living as the ones around us, is for the putting on of the new man.
This relates to our daily living, our manner of life; it’s not just coming to some meetings, reading the Bible, praying, etc, all of which are necessary, but putting on the garment of the one new man.
To put on the new man is to live Christ, for the new man is Christ Himself – the new man is Christ expanded, Christ enlarged, Christ multiplied in all His believers to be a corporate Christ, the Christ.
If God is going to have the one new man in reality in these final days, we all must learn how to live Christ, live the corporate Christ.
Many Christians are familiar with living for Christ, and those more advanced know of living by Christ; however, we need to live Christ Himself as a person.
Christ is a living person! When we believed into Him and were baptized, we were joined to Him and cut off from anything old; through baptism, we were terminated, and now we should live Christ in newness of life, no longer living the old person.
By believing in Christ we didn’t accept a new thought or a new religion; rather, we received a new person, Christ, who came into us to regenerate us with His divine life.
Christ is now our life (Col. 3:4), and He is our life so that we may live Him.
Amen, God comes into us to be our life so that we not only be saved from eternal perdition but even more, receive God’s life and live by this life.
We have another person living in us; Christ as life is in us, and He wants us to live Him, live by Him, and live Him out.
We may be familiar with the concept of Christ being our life and Christ being in us, but this has to translate into our living Christ, for He is our life for our living CHrist for the one new man.
The Central Thought of the Bible is that God Desires us to Live Christ for the Church as the One New Man
The Bible is a wonderful book composed of the Old and the New Testament; it has sixty-six books and it is full of teachings, doctrines, stories, up-and-down episodes, and many things.
Many people come to the Bible and read it from their angle, with their own coloured glasses, picking up what they like and choose, what matches their preference.
However, the Bible is the divine revelation to show us what is on God’s heart.
There is a central thought in the Bible from beginning to the end, and that is that God desires us to live Christ for the church as the Body of Christ, the one new man (Phil. 1:21; Eph. 2:15-16).
Under the enlightening of the Spirit, we can see that the Bible carries a central thought from beginning to end – it reveals that God desires us to live Christ for the church.
The Bible opens up by showing God creating the heavens and the earth together with many things, and on the sixth day, He created man in His own image and according to His likeness.
The creation of man was the goal of the entire creating work of God, for when God created man, He obtained someone who looks like Him and can have His life to express Him by living Him.
What is the image of God? It is Christ (Col. 1:15), for He is the image of the invisible God.
When Christ came, He expressed God to be the very image and expression of the invisible God. Man was created according to Christ; this refers not only to the outward appearance, what man looks like but also to His attributes, which became man’s virtues.
All that God and Christ are, was replicated in man as a creation; man was created in the image of Christ for the purpose of expressing Christ, that is, for the purpose of living Christ.
We have the image of Christ so that we would live Christ for the church, the one new man.
God brought the man He created in the garden of Eden, in front of the tree of life; the tree of life signifies Christ as life to be taken in by man.
This is what God wants: He wants a man in the image of Christ to take in the life of God and express God by living Christ. This is what we see at the very beginning of the Bible.
Four thousand years later, Christ came in His incarnation, and He told His disciples in John 6:57 that He was sent by the living Father and He lived because of the Father; He came not to be a martyr to carry out God’s commission and do His work, but He came to live because of the Father.
Christ was not a religious man or a good man – He was a man who lived God, and in everything He did and worked, He told us repeatedly that it was the Father who lived, did the work, and spoke those words.
He wants us, His followers, His believers, to be like Him; as the living Father sent the Son and the Son lived because of the Father, so he who eats Christ shall also live because of Christ. Hallelujah!
Through His death on the cross, He fell into the earth to die as the unique grain for the producing of the many grains; we were brought forth as His duplication, His multiplication, for we were regenerated in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Hallelujah!
At the end of the Bible, we see that there’s a city called, The New Jerusalem, which is composed and made up of God and the Lamb as the center, and all the redeemed of God both in the Old and the New Testament as components of the city (the foundation and the structure of the city). Hallelujah!
From the beginning to the end, the Bible shows us the central thought that God desires us to receive Christ and live Christ for the church.
God’s intention is that we become saturated, permeated, filled, and clothed with Christ so that we may live Christ (Eph. 3:17; Gal. 2:20; 3:27; 4:19).
He wants to make His home in our heart; Christ doesn’t want to be outside of us but come into us and make His home in us.
Even more, He wants to saturate and permeated us with His element, so that He would live in us.
Like Paul said in Gal. 2:20, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Christ should be the One living in us.
According to Gal. 3:27, we are putting on Christ – we are clothed with Him for our living and walk.
And He is being formed in us so that we become His expression as we live Christ for the church as the one new man.
The Christian life is the life in which the believers of Christ live Christ and magnify Him; as Paul testified, for us to live is Christ, and this is for the church as the Body of Christ and the one new man.
Our Christian life is not a religious or ethical life, but a life that lives Christ and magnifies Him (Phil. 1:20-21).
Lord Jesus, live through us today. Fill us, saturate us, permeate us, and clothe us with Yourself so that we may live Christ for the church as the Body of Christ and as the one new man. Amen, Lord, it is Your intention to be our life so that You may live in us for the corporate expression of Christ – live in us today! We give ourselves to You to live Christ for the one new man. May it be no longer us who live but Christ living in us! Amen, for us to live is Christ, for He is everything to us for our daily living! We take You as our life and our person, Lord, and we eat You to live because of You. We just open, turn to You, eat You, take You as our life, and live because of You so that we may live Christ for Your corporate expression!
Taking Christ as our Person and being Constituted with Christ to Live Christ for the One New Man
To live Christ is not to have a religious, spiritual, victorious, ethical, or moral living; it is to live a person, who is Christ Himself (Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:10).
For us to live Christ, we must take Him as our person and be one person with Him; He and we must be one in a practical way (1 Cor. 6:17).
When we believed into the Lord as a result of hearing the gospel, we didn’t accept any “-anity”, such as Christi-anity; rather, we received a person who lives in us.
In the religious world, different religions promote their ideology and teachings, teaching others what to do and what not to do.
However, we as believers didn’t receive a set of rules like “go to church on Sunday” and “read the Bible every day”; rather, we received a person who lives in us, and this One is one with us, even mingled with us.
If we have light concerning how Christ is replaced in our daily living, we will confess to the Lord that, instead of living Christ, we live many other things; we will confess that we live more by culture than by Christ (1 John 1:7).
As the Lord shines on us, we are conscious that we sin, we make mistakes, and we fail, so we confess our sins, our trespasses, and even our love for the world.
When we commit a sin, indulge in the lust of the flesh, or love the world, we feel repentful, and we ask the Lord to forgive us, confessing our sins; He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But seldom do we have the thought that, instead of living Christ, we perform as a Christian according to Christianity; seldom are conscious that, instead of living Christ and expressing Him, we live according to what we perceive being a Christian is.
Almost daily we confess to the Lord for our sins, wrongdoings, mistakes, and failures; may we remain in the Lord’s light even more so that we may be exposed of how much we do not live Christ or express Him.
Sometimes we may be before the Lord, reflecting on our day, and we realize we didn’t steal anything, we didn’t offend anyone, and we didn’t do any terrible thing, so seemingly we’re ok; however, did we live Christ that day? How much of the day can we say that we have lived Christ?
May the Lord lead us in our confession that we live so many moments throughout the day without the consciousness of Christ; we are conscious of our culture, for we seek to be good, behave well, be orderly, honest, and proper, but we are not conscious of Christ.
Amen, may the Lord elevate our consciousness to the level of Christ being lived out of us.
The reason we don’t live Christ is that we’re not constituted with Christ; we live according to what we are constituted, so if Christ is wrought into us, we live Christ (Col. 3:4, 10-11; Eph. 3:17).
The way to have Christ living in us is by asking Him, Lord, live in me; Lord, live through me. As we pray in this way, again and again, we will build up a habit of living Christ.
As we build up a habit of prayer, praying unceasingly and opening to the Lord concerning our living, He will live in us. Our living is something spontaneous; we need to pray, open to the Lord, and ask Him to live in us, and as we seek Him and love Him, He will live in us.
Every day we have a new opportunity, a new beginning, to practice living Christ for the church as the one new man.
In ourselves, we can’t do this, but we can ask for the Lord’s grace for us to live Christ for the one new man.
What counts in God’s eyes is not whether we fail or are victorious, whether we sin or are spiritual, or whether we make a mistake or we are holy; what matters to Him is Christ and the living of Christ.
God wants us as His people to live Christ; we may care for holiness, spirituality, or victory as things in themselves, but what God cares about is for Christ to be lived out in us. Amen, may we be those who live Christ, being found by others in Christ!
May we be here not expressing ourselves or our culture but expressing Christ and magnifying Him!
Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and rescue us not only from sinful things but also from good things, even spiritual things, that replace You in our daily life! Amen, Lord, rescue us from everything back to Yourself. Grant us each day the grace for us to truly live Christ and be found in Christ. We do not care for spirituality or victory as things in themselves; we care for Christ to be constituted into us so that we may live Christ for the one new man! Amen, dear Lord Jesus, remind us to live You and grant us the grace we need for this. May we no longer live ourselves or our culture but live Christ day by day, even moment by moment.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of 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, msg. 346 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2, Living the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ instead of Our Culture.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / In all things Thy will be done; / I but a transparent vessel / To make visible the Son. (Hymns #403)
– With longing all my heart is filled, / That like Him I may be, / As on the wondrous thought I dwell / That Christ liveth in me. (Hymns #507)
– Live through me, Lord; stop independent action; / Each breath, each step, would in Thy Body be. / Build us in Thee till we’re Thy full reflection, / Thy corporate one new man eternally. (Song on, Live Through Me, Lord)
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