The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men who live by the divine life in resurrection, and this reality is the mingling living of the believers in union with the Triune God. Wow!
The reality of the Body of Christ has nothing to do with our old creation, our old person, our old man, our flesh, our old disposition, or our old way of living and our old community life.
Rather, the reality of the Body of Christ exists in resurrection, and it is to do with a corporate living and mingling living of the regenerated, transformed, matured, and perfected God-men who have been blended together to be one with God and one with His people for God’s purpose.
This week we were enjoying and prayerfully studying the matter of the blending for the reality of the Body of Christ, and we saw our need for blending; we need to be blended together in spirit so that God would have a way to gain the reality of the Body of Christ.
God’s desire is to gain a building, the church as the Body of Christ, and our being in the local churches enjoying the Lord and meeting with the saints is for the organic Body of Christ to come into being and be lived out in reality.
From Genesis 1 to the last chapter of the book of Revelation at the end of the Bible we see that God wants to gain a building, which consummates in the New Jerusalem;
God wants to be built into man and build man into God so that God and man would be fully mingled and blended together into one entity.
First, we as believers in Christ need to grow into the Head, and then from the Head into whom we have grown we are being joined together and fitted together.
We are joined together and framed together by first growing into Christ, and then by remaining in the organic union with Him, we are being fitted together with the saints.
Here we see the need for us to be blended; for us to be suitable for God’s building, we need to be broken, be dealt with, be conformed to the death of Christ through the cross, and do everything by the Spirit so that we may minister life to others for the building up of the church.
Blending, however, doesn’t merely mean that we travel somewhere to visit the saints, enjoy the Lord with them, have a meal with them, spend some time with them, and then return home, having been enriched with the experience of visiting a certain place.
Rather, blending is a matter in the mingled spirit, and for us to be blended together we need to exercise our spirit so that the Lord may gain the reality of the Body of Christ.
The Reality of the Body is the Corporate Living by the Perfected God-men who Live by the Divine Life
The reality of the Body of Christ is actually the reality of Christ Himself being lived out in His Body; just as Christ, the Head, lived on earth two thousand years ago, so His Body should live today to express Him.
What kind of living did the Lord Jesus have when He was on earth? We all know that He lived a God-man life, and then He died on the cross, and three days later He was resurrected.
However, we need to realise that, before the Lord Jesus was physically put on the wooden cross on Mount Calvary, He was already living a crucified life. The Lord Jesus was being crucified every day for thirty-three and a half years, and then He was put on the wooden cross.
He was a genuine, human being, and He had a perfect humanity, with no sin; however, He chose NOT to live according to His humanity but kept the genuine man on the cross and lived God’s life.
He put Himself to death and lived in resurrection a life by the Father’s life. God’s life with all its attributes was lived within Jesus, the God-man, and He expressed God through His human attributes.
This is the kind of life that God wants to be lived out today in us, the members of the Body of Christ.
The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men who live by the divine life.
Such a life was there originally in the Lord Jesus as the first, individual God-man; through His death and resurrection, however, the Lord was reproduced and duplicated into us, the many believers in Christ, so that we may have the same kind of life.
If we look at the apostle Paul, he was a reproduction of Christ, for he continually exercised to reject himself and live by another life, the divine life. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20).
Paul’s testimony was that, just as the Lord Jesus did when He was on earth, he denied himself, he took Christ as his life, and he lived by the divine life.
Now we as the many believers in Christ, the many God-men, we need to have a corporate living by the divine life; we need to live a life of continually exercising to reject the self and live by the divine life in resurrection.
We need to put ourselves into the mold of Christ’s death, and then live by the resurrection life of Christ a new kind of living, the reality of the Body of Christ.
On Paul all men could see that he had the mark and the image of the cross (Gal. 6:14, 17); his old life was conformed to the image of the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10), and the power of Christ’s resurrection strengthened him to live the life of a God-man.
This should be our living today – we need to be those who allow Christ to conform us to the mold of His death so that we may live by the power of His resurrection the life of a God-man, and together we need to have the corporate living by the perfected God-men!
Lord Jesus, may we as the members of Your Body be Your continuation, Your reproduction, and Your duplication on earth so that we may live the same kind of life as You did. Amen, Lord, gain among us the corporate living by the perfected God-men, those who live not by their natural life but by the divine life. May we be willing to be conformed to the mold of Christ’s death and live by the power of His resurrection, so that Jesus would live in us the same life that He lived when He was on earth, a life in the reality of the Body of Christ!
The Reality of the Body is the Mingling Living in the Union of God and Man
The reality of the Body of Christ is not only a corporate living but also a mingling living.
On one hand we need to have the same kind of living as the Lord Jesus had, and this has to happen in a corporate way; on the other hand, we need to live in the continual mingling of God and man.
What we need to live today is not merely a mingled living, as if the mingling has already been completed, but a mingling living, a living in the continual mingling of God and man.
Hallelujah, the mingling of God and man in the union of God and man is still going on, and our life as the members of the Body has to be in this mingling!
Wow, our living needs to be a mingling living, a living in the mingling of God and man!
The Lord Jesus lived such a life, a life not merely of a man and not fully of God but of a God-man, a life in the mingling of God and man, the life of a God-man – a man who was God and of God who was man.
This made Him very mysterious, wonderful, attractive, and sweet, for He lived not by Himself but by the Father’s life, and in His words and actions God and man could be distinctly seen.
We need to live in the mingling living of the eternal union of man and God in the resurrection of Christ.
Today the Triune God has been consummated – He went through a process to be consummated as the Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit as the reality of the pneumatic Christ and as the consummation of the processed Triune God.
We need to live a life in the mingling of God and man so that we may be in the reality of the Body of Christ. Such a living is in the resurrection of Christ, and the reality of this resurrection is the Spirit.
This means that we need to live a life in the mingled spirit – a life in the mingling spirit, the mingling of God and man in the mingled spirit. When we live a life in the organic union with the Lord, we are continually being mingled with God, and the death-overcoming life of Christ is being imparted into us. Hallelujah!
This is a wonderful reality taking place in us as we go on with the Lord and live one spirit with Him, yet such a matter is still hidden today, for it can be seen and realised only in the spiritual realm.
Those who live such a mingling living have been delivered out of themselves and have been transformed and perfected; they are not bothered by others’ attitude or reaction, and they do not contemn or despise others.
They simply live one spirit with the Lord, having one mingling living with Him, and they stay away from any dissension, rebellion, and division. They simply live an overcoming life in the mingling of God and man. Hallelujah!
This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem in the new haven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity! Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, we want to live in the mingling living in the union of God and man, in our mingled spirit! Amen, Lord, show us Your desire to be continually mingled with us so that we may have a mingling living, a living of God and man and man yet God. Lord, mingle Yourself with us. Keep us in the mingled spirit, and may the Spirit guide us into all the reality of Your resurrection, Your living, and Your being. Amen, Lord Jesus, may the consummated God be imparted to us, and the death-overcoming life be released in our being so that we may live a mingling living for the reality of the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
# Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
# Build me, Lord, with other saints, / Independence ne’er allow, / But according to Thy plan / Fitly frame and join me now. / In experience not my boast, / Nor in gifts would be my pride; / For Thy building I give all, / That Thou may be glorified. (Hymns #839)
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