The Reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the Reality of the Triune God

What is the reality of the Body of Christ? How can we know the reality of the Body? Is the Body of Christ merely something spiritual and intangible, or can we know the Body in reality? The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God.

The reality of the Body of Christ is nothing less than the very Spirit Himself. In Eph. 4:3 we are told to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit – one Body and one Spirit… – the Spirit is for the Body, the Spirit is in the Body, and the Spirit is the essence of the Body.

The subject of Eph. 4:1-4 is the oneness, which we need to keep diligently, and this oneness is of the Body and it is in the one Spirit. The Spirit of reality of the Triune God is the reality of the Body of Christ.

In John 12 the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as being a grain of wheat who will be sown into the ground through death, and in resurrection many grains will be brought forth to be formed into one loaf – the Body of Christ. When Christ died, He as the one grain of wheat was sown into the ground, and in His resurrection He was multiplied and reproduced to be the Body of Christ.

Then in John 14-16 He told His disciples that He will leave them temporarily – He will go to the Father, but He will come back as “another Comforter”, the Spirit of reality of the Triune God, to guide the believers into all the reality of what God is.

First in ch. 12 He spoke of going through death to produce many grains, which is the formation of the Body, the one loaf. Then in chs. 14-16 He spoke of the Spirit of reality coming to make all that God is real to the believers. Finally, He prayed in ch. 17 for the oneness, which is just the Body of Christ.

The essence of the Body of Christ and the reality of the Body is the Spirit, and this Spirit is called “the Spirit of reality”, the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God. Without this Spirit, the Body is an empty shell, without any life or essence.

The Spirit is for the Body, and the Body exists for and because of the Spirit. Praise the Lord, Christ is now transfigured – He is in another form, He is the Spirit; this Spirit is the reality of the Body.

The Spirit is the reality and essence of the Body, and for us to know the Body in reality, we need to enjoy the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God. Where is the reality of the Body of Christ today? It is in the Spirit of reality.

The Reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the Reality of the Triune God

Reality refers to the real condition of persons and things; the Body of Christ has been formed two thousand years ago, but what is the reality of the Body of Christ? How can we, believers in Christ, know the Body of Christ in reality?

The Body of Christ is the church today, and all of the reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God. The reality of the processed Triune God is His consummated Spirit of reality (see John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6).

God today is in Christ, Christ is in the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Spirit of reality – He guides us into all the reality of what God is. All the reality of what God is – all that God is in reality – can be found in the Spirit of reality.

The Body of Christ is the church, and all its reality is the Spirit of reality of the consummated Triune God (see Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; John 16:13-14).

This is not something in the natural mind or concept; in our natural mind we have a different concept of how the Body is formed and what is the essence of the Body, and we mainly focus on outward things. But in God’s realisation – and in Paul’s understanding, the Body is a matter of the Spirit, which is the reality.

It is in the Spirit that the Body becomes real to us. If we are not in the mingled spirit – the divine Spirit mingled with our spirit – then, no matter what we do when we come together, we do not touch the reality of the Body of Christ.

Where the Spirit is prevailing and made real to us, that is the Body of Christ. Let us consider some of the aspects of the reality of the Body of Christ and see how this reality is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God.

The reality of the processed Triune God is His consummated Spirit of reality (see John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6). The entire Triune God is consummated to be the Spirit; this Spirit is the reality of the processed Triune God Himself.

For us to know the Triune God, we need to know the Spirit. It is by the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God – the consummated Spirit – that the Triune God is made real to us.

This is why it is a great recovery and realization for us to see that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), for it is in this Spirit and by this Spirit that the Triune God is made real to us – He is the consummated Spirit to be the reality!

The reality of all that the Triune God is, has, and can do is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God (see John 16:13-14).

The Spirit of reality comes from the Father, being sent by the Son in His name to be the reality of all that the Triune God is; He guides us, the believers in Christ, in all the reality of what Christ is, what God is, and what God has and can do.

This Spirit doesn’t speak from Himself, but what He hears from the Son with the Father, that’s what He speaks and declares to us.

The reality of the death and resurrection through which the Triune God has passed is in the Spirit of reality (see Eph. 2:5-6). All the processes that the Triune God went through – incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection – are all included in the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God.

How can we, believers in Christ, experience the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection, being conformed to His death by the power of His resurrection? It is by the Spirit of reality that we can have these experiences of the Triune God real in us as our real experiences.

Because we have the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God, we can live a normal human life on earth today to express God, and we can deal with the negative matters which befall us by the capacity of the death of Christ.

Because we contact and enjoy the Spirit of reality, we have the capacity not to lose our temper, not rebuke or blame others, and deal with negative matters which come our way, since the death of Christ is realised in us through the Spirit of reality.

Furthermore, the Spirit with the resurrection of Christ works in us to enable us to love others, forgive others, and defeat any death in our environment or being.

All the experiences and processes that the Triune God in Christ passed through are now our experience in the Body of Christ by the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God, which is in our spirit.

All that the Triune God is – including His righteousness, holiness, life, light, power, grace, and all the divine attributes – are realized by the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God to be the real attributes of the Body of Christ (see Rom. 15:16b; 14:17; Eph. 3:16-17).

Our Triune God has so many wonderful attributes, the foremost of which are love, light, holiness, and righteousness, but how can we apprehend these attributes and have them experienced in our daily life? It is only when we are in this Spirit, in the Spirit of reality, that all these are made real to us to become the virtues of the Body of Christ.

These attributes have been realized in the church by the Spirit in the Body of Christ; because we experience and enjoy the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God, the church possesses the reality of the divine attributes (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:12-15).

Everything is in the Spirit of reality, and what we need to do is make sure we enjoy the Spirit, let the Spirit saturate us and permeate us, and be in spirit; when we enjoy and experience the Spirit of the reality of the Body of Christ, we are in reality the Body of Christ, and we touch the reality of the Body of Christ.

The secret is the Spirit – the secret to the Body is the Spirit, the secret to the Triune God is the Spirit, and the secret to us having the Body and the Triune God made real to us is the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God.

Lord, we want to enjoy and experience the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God so that we may know and be in the reality of the Body of Christ. May we know and experience the secret – the Spirit of reality which is in our spirit, so that we may enjoy all that God is and has. Lord, may all Your attributes be wrought into us, and may all Your processes be made real to us by the Spirit. Hallelujah, the Spirit of the reality of the Triune God is with our spirit – He is the wonderful Spirit in us for us to enjoy, experience, and be filled with, for the reality of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from,  A Thorough View of the Body of Christ, chs. 1-2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 7, The Status of the Church – the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Now the Spirit of reality is here / As the wonderful Spirit within. / Now the things of Christ are all so real and clear / By the life-giving Spirit within. (Hymns #1113)
  # He’s the Spirit of reality, / Pneumatic Christ, the Firstborn Son in me, / The consummation of the Triune God, / Life-giving Spirit, all-inclusive Christ / Intensified sevenfold. (Song on the Spirit)
  # In the spirit Christ is life and all to me, / Strengthening and blessing all-inclusively; / Living in the spirit, holiness I prove, / And the triune God within my heart doth move. (Hymns #593)