The Issue of our Subjective Experience of Christ is the Church Life as a House of Feasting

The issue of our subjective experience of Christ is that He is constituted into us, and we become the church and practice the church life in the church as a house of feasting.

Hallelujah for the church life where all the saints enjoy Christ, partake of Christ, experience Christ, and express Christ!

It is amazing to see the many wonderful types and figures of the church revealed in the Gospel of John; this gospel reveals the subjective truths concerning the church.

The word “church” is never mentioned in the gospel of John, but in it, we see the fact of the existence of the church and the constituents of the church.

In particular, this book refers to the church in seven ways.

The church is composed of the many grains spoken of by the Lord in John 12:23-24; He as the unique grain of wheat died and, in resurrection, produced the many believers as the many grains for the church. Even more, these grains are grounded and blended together to become the one loaf, the one Body of Christ.

The church is composed of the Lord’s many brothers, those who are regenerated by God to be the many brothers of Christ through Christ’s resurrection.

Today in the church life the Lord Jesus sings praises to the Father in the midst of His brothers, which is us.

The church is the house of the Father; the Lord went through death and resurrection to prepare us a place so that where He is we would also be.

The church is the Father’s house, and the many abodes in this house are the many believers in Christ.

The church is also the vine with all the believers as the branches; Christ the Son is the universal spreading vine tree, and we as the believers in Christ are the many branches abiding in Him – and together we are the church, the organism of the Triune God (John 15:5, 7).

The church is also the new child born by the Spirit, the one new man (16:20-22).

The church is the bride of Christ, and Christ is the Bridegroom; He must increase, and we all must decrease, for the church is nothing but Christ in us (3:29-30).

May we see a vision of the church and may we enter into the practical and subjective experience of Christ for the building up of the church.

The church is the one flock with Christ as the Shepherd; He is the Good Shepherd, we are His sheep, and we can hear His voice, follow His lead, and be shepherded by Him (10:14-16).

What a wonderful Christ we have, and how rich is the revelation concerning the church in the Gospel of John!

Recovering the Subjective Experience of Christ for the practice of the Church Life

The Gospel of John shows us again and again in a very subjective way what the church is; though the word “church” is not used in this book, the fact of the existence of the church and its constituents are clearly defined.

What we see in this book is that we as believers in Christ need to have the subjective experience of Christ, and this will constitute us into members of the church, the Body of Christ.

In chapter after chapter and verse after verse, we see that Christ as the Word of God incarnate came for us to have life, enjoy Him as life, and experience Him as life.

The issue of our receiving the Lord into us is that we become constituents of the church (John 12:24; 20:17; 15:4-5; 3:29-30).

For example, Christ is the true vine in John 15, and we are His branches (vv. 1-8).

The life of the vine, the substance of the vine, and the nature of the vine are the life, the substance, and the nature of the branches.

What He is, so are we; what is in Him is being dispensed into us, and as we have the subjective experience of Christ, we become His Body, the church.

Christ, the Son of God, is the vine; He is the center of God’s economy and the embodiment of all the riches of the Father.

The Father is the husbandman, and He cultivates the Son by working Himself with all His riches into the vine.

Eventually, what happens is that the vine, composed of all believers in Christ who have the subjective experience of Christ, expresses the Father in a corporate way through the believers in Christ as its branches.

We can enter into the subjective experience of Christ by having Him entering into us to be our life and the constituent of our being (Col. 3:4, 10-11).

Sadly, however, the genuine experience of Christ has been lost, and most believers pay more attention to doctrines and teachings than to the enjoyment and experience of Christ as life.

The Lord’s recovery is to recover the subjective experience of Christ for the practice of the church life (Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; 1:2).

Our subjective experience of Christ is not just for our individual benefit; it is for the church life, for us to live the church life.

The church, which is the issue of our subjective experience of Christ, is Christ constituted into us, the believers in Christ (Eph. 3:16-19).

The church is not an organization or a social gathering; the church is nothing but Christ being wrought into us and being lived out of us as we have the subjective experience of Christ.

The church is Christ constituted into us; anything that is not Christ in us is not the church. Anything that is not Christ lived out of us is not the church.

The Christ who died and resurrected has been wrought into us to produce the church, which is His Body (Col. 1:27, 18; 2:19; 3:15).

In Himself, Christ is the Head, and in us, He is the Body; Christ in Himself is the Head, and Christ constituted into us is the Body (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:17; 4:15-16; Col. 1:18, 27; 3:4; 2:19; 3:15).

We need to be recovered to the subjective experience of Christ for the building up of the church.

The more we experience Christ in a subjective way, according to what we see in the Gospel of John, the more there will be a constitution of Christ in our being, and this Christ wrought into us is the church.

In Himself, He is the head; when He is wrought into us, He is the Body.

Lord Jesus, recover our subjective experience of Christ for the practice of the church life. Save us from merely focusing on doctrines and teachings when we come to the Word of God or when we meet with the saints. May we daily experience Christ in a subjective way by taking Him in as our life, our food, our drink, our living air, and our everything. Amen, Lord, work Yourself more into us by our subjective experience of Christ day by day. Work Yourself into us and constitute us with Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. Make Your home in our heart for the church.

The Issue of our Subjective Experience of Christ is the Church Life as a House of Feasting

John 12:1-11 gives us a lovely picture of the church life with the house in Bethany, where the Lord was with His disciples, and there was Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.

The issue of our subjective experience of Christ as life is the church life as a house of feasting.

In the church life, we are all feasting with the Lord and with one another, for we experience Christ in a subjective way as life, and when we come together we simply feast on Him.

In particular, in John 12 we see three kinds of saints in the church life, or three kinds of services: serving, testifying and loving.

Martha was serving, always taking care of practical things and arranging things.

Mary was simply loving the Lord, sitting at His feet and absorbing His word; she received a revelation of His death, and she poured out all she had on Him.

Lazarus didn’t do anything: he simply testified of the resurrection life, for he was dead but the Lord raised him from the dead.

We could say that in the church life there are this three kinds of saints: there are saints who serve the Lord, the saints who testify concerning His resurrection life, and saints who love the Lord.

When people come among us, they must realize that among us there is the service for the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, and the love poured out upon the Lord.

This should be our testimony in the church life as a house of feasting: we all should have the subjective experience of Christ to the extent that we love the Lord with our whole being, testify concerning our experience of His resurrection life, and serve Him with all our heart in coordination with the saints.

And it shouldn’t be that only some saints should love the Lord, while others serve Him, while still others testify of His resurrection life.

Rather, we should be a triangular member of the church – we should be a Martha-Lazarus-Mary believer, one who loves the Lord to the uttermost testifies concerning His resurrection life, and serves Him from all our heart.

We all need to have a diligent service for the Lord, be a living testimony of the resurrection life of the Lord, and pour out our love upon the Lord.

As we have the subjective experience of Christ as life, we will practice the church life as a house of feasting, and we all will serve the Lord, testify concerning our experience of Him, and love Him with the first love.

Such a church is the result and issue of the Lord being life to us; it is an issue of our subjective experience of Christ as life.

Though to many the church life may seem to be “a house of affliction” (the meaning of Bethany), to us it is a house of feasting, for we all feast on Him and with Him, we all testify of our experience of Christ, we all pour out our love on Him, and we all serve Him.

In the real church life, the diligent service to the Lord is rendered, the living testimony of the Lord is seen, and the absolute love toward the Lord is poured out.

This is the real expression of the Body of the Lord, which is a vessel to contain the Lord and express Him.

May the Lord gain such a reality among us in the church life today – may He gain a vessel to contain the Lord and express Him!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to pour out our love on You! Amen, Lord, we want to have the subjective experience of Christ as life so that the church life would be a house of feasting. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to serve You with our whole heart, love You with our whole being, and be Your living testimony on earth. May we be diligent in our service for the Lord, be the living testimony of the Lord’s resurrection life, and have the absolute love poured out upon the Lord. We want to practice the church life by having the service, the testimony, and the love toward the Lord. Amen, Lord, gain the church life to be such a vessel to contain You and express You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of John, msgs. 10, 25 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 4, The Recovery of the Subjective Truths in the Gospel of John.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Splendid church life! His green garden! / He has brought us, praise the Lord, / To experience the Christ Who’s growing here! / He is full of rich enjoyment / To His saints in one accord; / He is new and fresh, available and dear. / I’m so happy in this lovely place, / In the garden growing in His grace! / There is no finer pleasure / Than to eat the living tree / And to get the living water into me. (Hymns #1237)
  – We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! / Now we have a home so bright that outshines the sun, / Where the brothers all unite and truly are one. / Jesus gets us all together, Him we now display / In the local church. (Hymns #1151)
  – In heaven for us He’s the glorified man, / The Forerunner entered, fulfilling God’s plan; / Man into God bringing and making him one / With God in the heav’nlies, in Him as the Son. / In us all the fulness of God dwells in Him; / As Spirit He brings God Himself thus within, / Revealing and making God real unto us, / God one with us building in life glorious. (Hymns #536)