Because what God desires today is the Body of Christ, all of God’s dealings with us have been with a view to prepare us for the Body; the revelation of the Body is very costly, touching the spring of our natural life, and bringing in the work of the cross.
Praise the Lord for the revelation of the Body of Christ! When we see the Body, when we realise that we are members of the Body of Christ, we will see our need to allow the cross to operate in us.
Life and work in the Body necessitate drastic dealings with the flesh, for the flesh can be both evil and “spiritual”, trying to please God, and the flesh can never please God, neither does the flesh have any place in the church as the Body of Christ.
For us to live and work in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to have a deep knowledge of the cross of Christ. The work of the cross brings us to the Body of Christ, and the cross operates in the sphere of the Body, even through the Body.
The Body of Christ is a limitation to us; we prefer to be individualistic, do things our own way, and when we want to do something, we just want to carry it out. But living as a member in the Body of Christ require that we fellowship with other members and allow them to limit us and restrict us.
If we are not in the Body of Christ, we think we’re able to do everything; if we live in the Body, we are restricted, our flesh is dealt with, and we have a deep knowledge of the cross of Christ.
The cross operates in us to make us members of the Body of Christ – members who can coordinate with the other members under the Head. The restriction in the Body will take away our freedom and will drive us to the cross.
If our local church is merely an assembly, and we meet as a social gathering, then we do not need the cross; but if we are the Body of Christ, we need to be members one of another, and the only way this is possible is by allowing the cross to operate in us.
In the church life some may think more highly of themselves than they ought to think, while others may function and even boast beyond their measure.
We need to allow the Lord to operate in us through the cross to cause us to think more highly of others, appreciating their portion and needing their function, and we need to function in the measure which the God of measure has given us.
We cannot go beyond or measure, neither should we function less than the measure God has allotted to us.
All of God’s Dealings with us are to Prepare us for the Body of Christ
All of God’s dealings with us through the cross have been with a view to prepare us for the Body of Christ, for us to be normal, functioning, living, and active members of the Body who function in their measure.
The cross is not an end in itself; it is a divine means to an end, which is the Body of Christ. When the cross has done something specific in our life, we find ourselves in the Body.
What constitutes us as members of the Body is not merely knowing the doctrine of the Body and coming to the meetings of the church but a revelation of the Body.
When we see a revelation of the Body, we will be revolutionised, for we realise that it is nothing of ourselves that can be a member of the Body but only Christ in us. Only the Christ who constitutes us and is wrought into us can be part of the Body of Christ, and for Christ to be wrought into us, the cross must operate in our being.
The Body of Christ is Christ; the Head is Christ and the Body is also Christ (1 Cor. 12:12).
Everything that comes from Christ constitutes His Body, and anything that is not of Christ must be ruled out and eliminated. There are so many things in our being that are not Christ; these need to be exposed and ruled out by the cross, so that we may live in the Body.
The Body is not a matter of adding things to us but of removing things from us; it is not a “plus” but a “minus”. For us to get into the Body and live the life of the Body we need to be stripped of all that we are and have through the work of the cross, until Christ is the One living in us and being manifested through us.
The cross is the divine means in us ruling out that which prevents us from taking our place in the Body. We have many things in our self, our temperament, our disposition, our make-up, etc – God must touch these things.
We may have a sharp mind and thus we may think we can understand and minister the word better than others because of our mind. This has to be eliminated.
We may think we are by nature a “people-person” so we can bring many to the Lord because of this – this has to be eliminated.
We need salvation from our mind; we need the helmet of salvation for our head. We need to realise that the backbone of our natural strength must be broken so that we may have a proper perspective on the divine things.
May we come to the Lord and ask Him to show us what is His purpose in this age, and He will show us the Body; then, we will simply allow God to deal with us through the cross to prepare us for the Body by ruling out everything that is not of Christ in our being.
Just as our physical body doesn’t need any foreign element to be added to it to be complete, so the Body of Christ doesn’t need anything of our natural man or the flesh to be complete; He is complete.
Therefore, all of God’s dealings with us are to prepare us for the Body – not to make us a better person, a more spiritual believer, or a good man, but to be a Christ-man, a functioning member in the Body of Christ.
If our natural life is dealt with by the cross and if we submit to the headship of Christ and live the Body life, we will have the Spirit’s anointing and we will enjoy the fellowship of the Body (see Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 10:16).
If our natural life is dealt with, we will be under Christ’s headship, and we will also submit to the Body. When we submit to the Head, we submit to the Body, and when we submit to the Body, we also submit to the Head.
When we submit to the Body as Christ acts through His members, the Spirit will anoint us and we will be in the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
Lord, may we realise that all of God’s dealings with us have been with a view to prepare us for the Body. Grant us a vision of the Body, Lord, so that we may allow the cross to operate in us and eliminate anything that is not Christ in our being. Amen, Lord, make us Christ-men, God-men who live a God-man life not by their natural life but by the divine life, so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ. Have a way in us, Lord, to make us those who are functioning as normal members in the Body for the building up of the Body!
The Revelation of the Body is very Costly: it Touches and Breaks our Natural Life
The revelation of the Body of Christ is very costly, for it touches the spring of our natural life, breaking our natural life so that we may live by the divine life in the Body of Christ.
When we see a vision of the Body, we cannot move and do things as individual members; we will no longer freelance, neither will we act independently from other members.
In our physical body if the finger has to move, all the adjacent members and muscles work together for this to happen.
All that is individualistic in us has to go; we have to move with others, wait for others, and go on with the brothers and the sisters as one Body of Christ.
If we see a vision of the Body, we will spontaneously be under Christ as the Head; all other headships will be dealt with, and Christ will have the absolute lordship.
When we see a revelation of the Body, we will realise that we are crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20), and our old man has been crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6).
We will then exercise our spirit to live in the mingled spirit, following the Spirit in our spirit and walking according to the spirit, and the cross will operate in us to eliminate anything that is not Christ in our being.
When we are broken under the vision of the Body we will realise that the Body of Christ is what God is after, and the way He gets the Body is the work of the cross to break us.
The apostle Paul had such a great revelation at his conversion, when he heard the voice from heaven speaking to us; yet when he asked the Lord what to do, the Lord as the Head directed him to a member of His body to be told what to do.
Many times the Lord may not speak to us directly but indirectly, through other members of the Body. We should be in the Body, receive the speaking in the Body, and allow the cross to break us.
We will be broken under the vision of the Body, and we will realise that the only way for us to know the Body and to be built up in the Body is to be broken (see Acts 9:3-6).
Only after the cross has wrought a deep work within us will we be able to be limited by and coordinate with the other members of the Body (1 Cor. 12:14-20). If we are whole, if we still live in our natural life and according to the flesh, we cannot coordinate with others, neither can we be built up with them.
The revelation of the body will mean a revolution in our spiritual life, for we will see that it is only Christ in us – not anything of ourselves – who constitutes us as the members of the Body (Col. 1:27; 3:10-11).
The work of the cross is to strip us of anything of ourselves and constitute us as members of the Body who live int he reality of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, cause us to see a revelation of the Body so that the very spring of our natural life may be touched. Have a way in us, so that we would no longer live in our natural and individualistic life but live Christ by having Christ live in us. May the vision of the Body break us, and may we realise that the only way for us to know the Body and to be built up in the Body is to be broken. Oh Lord, make us willing to allow the cross to operate in us in a deeper way so that we may allow other members of the Body to limit us as we coordinate with them in the Body. Lord Jesus, may our spiritual life be revolutionised as we see the vision of the Body, and may we allow Christ to constitute us as our natural man is stripped away, so that we may be constituted members of the Body!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. vol. 46, ch. 174, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Keeping the Principles of the Body (2019 ICSC), week 3, Experiencing the Work of the Cross for the Body and Living in the Unique Fellowship of the Body.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my vain imaginations dig away! / Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my vain imaginations dig away! / All my dreams have to go / That His life may flow… Hallelujah! / Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my vain imaginations dig away! (Hymns #1214)
# Every moment, every member, / Girded, waiting Thy command; / Underneath the yoke to labor / Or be laid aside as planned. / When restricted in pursuing, / No disquiet will beset; / Underneath Thy faithful dealing / Not a murmur or regret. (Hymns #403)
# First the blood, and then the ointment, / Cleansing, then anointing comes; / If we pass not thru Golgotha, / Ne’er to Pentecost we’ll come. / If the blood has never cleansed us, / Ne’er the Spirit’s pow’r we’ll know, / If for Christ we’d truly witness, / Self-life to the Cross must go. (Hymns #279)
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