The one new man is a corporate warrior fighting against God’s enemy; the church as the one new man fights the spiritual warfare by being empowered in the Lord and by putting on the armor of God to defeat Satan, the enemy of God.
The matter of the one new man touches something deep and central on the heart of God, something that He is looking to gain these days.
He has been preparing His believers, the saints in the local churches, for many years, by removing the differences, blending them together, and bringing them up-to-date with Him in His speaking, so that He may gain the one new man.
What is the one new man? The new man is what God is after from the very beginning; when God created man, He created a corporate man to express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion.
The first man, Adam, fell; he failed to express God in His image and represent Him with His authority.
Even worse, Adam was deceived by the enemy and Satan had a way to inject his very nature into man; the result was that the man created by God in His image became corrupted, deadened, and spoiled, and now man cannot express God.
But praise the Lord, Jesus Christ came as the first God-man, and He has expressed God and represented Him in an individual way in all that He did, said, and worked in His living on earth.
He was the pattern of being a God-man, and the Father finds all His delight in Him.
This One went through death and resurrection, and He became a life-giving Spirit to be dispensed into all those who believe in Him; all those who believe into Jesus become children of God, the continuation of Jesus, the many sons of God and brothers of Jesus Christ.
Even more, all those who believe into the Lord become part of the church, the gathering of God’s called ones; they are also members of the Body of Christ, the divine and mystical organism of God composed of God and man on earth.
One aspect of the church as the Body of Christ is the one new man, who was created by Christ on the cross by tearing down all the differences; in the one new man Christ is all and in all.
This one new man has Christ not only as his life but also as his person, and Christ is all and in all in the one new man. This means that Christ becomes everyone, and everyone has to become Christ to be part of the new man.
This new man is what expresses God with His image and represents Him with His authority.
The one new man expresses God in a corporate way by allowing the divine attributes to be expressed in human virtues, and the one new man deals with God’s enemy by being a warrior to fight the spiritual warfare. This one new man is what God is after today.
The Church as the New Man is a Warrior Fighting against God’s Enemy to Fulfil His Purpose
In Eph. 6:10-20 we see the church as the one new man in a very particular aspect, that is, the aspect of a corporate warrior to fight against the enemy of God.
The church is a warrior to fight against the enemy of God on earth. Being a warrior is not a status of the church but an aspect of the church as the new man.
When the church as the Body of Christ becomes the one new man, the new man has the obligation of fighting against God’s enemy.
It is a man that fights, not just a body or a gathering; the church needs to be built up and perfected to become the one new man, and as the one new man, the church can be a corporate warrior to fight against the enemy of God and fulfil God’s purpose.
This is indicated in Gen. 1, where we are told that God created man in His image and according to His likeness so that man, on the positive side, would express God with His image, and on the negative side, would fight against God’s enemy.
The new man fulfils God’s purpose in creating man, both in the aspect of expressing God and in fighting against God’s enemy.
The church as the new man has a dual obligation – bearing God’s image to express Him and fighting against God’s enemy to represent Him.
The church as the new man is now fulfilling God’s purpose to express God and to fight against God’s enemy for God’s dominion over the earth to be exercised and for the kingdom of God to come on earth.
But what does it mean that the church fights against God’s enemy? Does the church fight against people? No, the church fights against the evil forces of the devil, the evil principalities and powers in the heavenlies.
Our struggle and fight is not against flesh and blood; we do not fight with men or people but the evil forces of darkness in the world today.
Today’s world is fully under the dark ruling of the devil through his evil angels. Satan set up some princes, some “world-rulers of this darkness” to rule over various nations.
Because Satan and his principalities are operating on earth, the earth and its atmosphere has become “this darkness”, and the heavenlies are full of the spiritual forces of evil, who dwell in the air.
Furthermore, demons dwell in the sea. Almost anywhere we look, the enemy has a foothold, and both men and animals and the whole earth is under the enemy’s usurpation.
The warfare between the church and Satan is a battle between us who love the Lord and who are in His church and the evil powers in the heavenlies.
We who love the Lord and are in His church are being perfected to be the one new man as a corporate warrior to fight against God’s enemy, and our enemies are not people but the spiritual forces of evil, Satan with all his principalities.
Thank Lord You for making us the church as the one new man, a corporate warrior to fight the enemy and defeat him to fulfil the eternal purpose of God! Amen, Lord, cause us to see that there is a spiritual warfare and perfect us to be the corporate warrior that fights and defeats Your enemy! Yes, Lord gain the church as the one new man to both express You in Your image and represent You with authority. We love You, Lord, and we stand with You as Your church on earth for You to gain Your image and Your dominion through the church!
Being Empowered in the Lord and Putting on the Whole Armor of God to Fight the Battle in the Body
As the one new man, we need to fight the battle in the Body and as the Body; we need to be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength to fight the spiritual warfare.
In Eph. 6:10 it says that we need to be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength; this word, “empowered” has the same root as the word “power” in Eph. 1:19.
In Eph. 1:19 we are told that there was a power operating in Christ to raise Him from the dead and seat Him on the throne; this same power has to empower us so that we may fight the spiritual warfare.
For us to deal with Satan, the enemy of God, and fight the evil forces in the air, we need to be empowered with the power that raised up Christ from the dead and seated Him in the heavens, far above all the evil spirits in the air.
First, we need to be empowered by the power that raised Jesus from the dead and made Him to be head over all things, and then we need to know God’s might and strength.
We need to be empowered in the Lord; this indicates that we can fight the spiritual warfare only in the Lord, not in ourselves.
It is not in our own strength or might that we can fight the warfare – only in the Lord; in ourselves, we are defeated, but in the Lord we are empowered to fight the enemy.
After being empowered in the Lord, we need to put on the various attributes of Christ as the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:11, 13-17).
The whole armor of God is actually Christ Himself with His various attributes; this armor is not for any individual believer but for the entire Body.
We cannot put the many attributes of Christ as the armor of God by ourselves or on ourselves unless we are in the Body and we stand with the Body.
The whole armor of God is for the entire Body; we need to stand in the Body, realising that the church as the corporate new man is the warrior to fight the spiritual warfare.
Only the corporate new man as the warrior can wear the whole armor of God; me or you by ourselves can’t wear it. The spiritual warfare, therefore, is a matter of the Body of Christ as the one new man.
The whole armor of God shows the various attributes of Christ, such as the truth (the girdle of truth, reality), righteousness (the breastplate of righteousness), peace (the firm foundation of the gospel of peace), faith (the shield of faith), salvation (the helmet of salvation), and the Spirit (the sword of the Spirit).
Out of all these six aspects of Christ as our armor, only the sword is for offensive warfare; all the other are for defense.
We do not fight for victory; Christ has already won the victory, and we stand in His victory, we take Him as our victory, we are one with Him, we become Him, we are clothed with Him, and He is both our defensive and offensive weapons.
We must fight the spiritual warfare not individually but in the Body, in the one new man; as the one new man, we need to be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength, and we need to put on the whole armor of God to fight the spiritual warfare.
Hallelujah, the church as the corporate new man is the warrior, and the believers together make up this new man.
Lord, we stand in the Body one with You and with all the saints to be the one new man to fight the spiritual warfare. Amen, may we be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength so that we may put on the whole armor of God. May the power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the heavens empower all the saints to remain in the Body and be the new man putting on the many attributes of Christ as the whole armor of God. Amen, Lord, we put on the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the firm foundation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 14, 21, 102, 112, 114, 147-148, 218, 316-317, 358, 401 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The One New Man Fulfilling God’s Purpose in Creating Man (2019 fall ITERO), week 1, God’s Eternal Purpose and the One New Man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Soldiers of Christ, arise, / And put your armor on, / Strong in the strength which God supplies, / Through His eternal Son; / Strong in the Lord of Hosts, / And in His mighty pow’r, / Who in the strength of Jesus trusts / Is more than conqueror. (Hymns #888)
– For the Body is God’s armor, / Not for anyone alone; / When you wrestle in the Body, / All its benefits you own. / ’Tis the Church on Christ established / Satan shall not overpow’r; / ’Tis the Body built together / Which resists the evil pow’r. (Hymns #885)
– Our battle is corporate—as one man we conquer! / We’re one with the Lord in the might of His strength! / Withstanding the foe, in the Body empowered, / Steadfastly we stand, headed up through His reign! (Song on, The church is the Bride, the new man, and the warrior)
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