As we believers in Christ we are rooted in Christ, we grow in Christ, we are being built up in Christ, and we are also being built up with the saints into the Body of Christ.
It is quite amazing to realise that we not only were regenerated by God with His divine life but we were also planted by Him into Christ, the rich soil of the good land.
Christ is our all-inclusive land allotted to us for our enjoyment; we have been given an allotted portion of Christ for our enjoyment, and we need to enjoy Christ and be deeply rooted into Him.
Our goal should nothing else but to pursue Christ, gain Christ, experience Christ, and enjoy Christ, so that we may be built up in Christ and, together with all the saints, we would be built up as the Body of Christ.
It is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ everything to us for our Christian life and experience.
Since this all-inclusive Christ as our allotted portion of the good land has been given to us, He as the Spirit is with our spirit to dwell in us and be our enjoyment; when we walk according to the Spirit, we enjoy all that the all-inclusive Christ as the Spirit is to us.
We need to seek to enjoy and experience Christ as our everything, just as a plan experiences and enjoys the good land as its everything.
The Lord Jesus is with our spirit, and our spirit is a mingled spirit, for the Spirit with our spirit have become one spirit; whenever we turn to tour spirit and walk according to the spirit, we enjoy more of Christ as the good land allotted to us.
May we realise that we have been rooted in Christ, and may we daily send roots down into Christ to absorb the rich elements of this wonderful One and be constituted with Him.
Every day, whether at home or at work, on the road or in our private room, we need to live, act, move, and have our entire being in Christ; this is what is critically needed in all the local churches today.
Every moment we need to have our being in Christ; we need to live, act, move, and do everything in Christ as the good land.
For this, we need to spend much time with Him in His word; we need to exercise our spirit to absorb the riches of Christ in His word, and by means of all prayer and petition we need to send roots deep into Christ to enjoy His riches.
Every morning and all throughout the day we need to have times to absorb the Lord; we need to set aside time for the Lord not only to read His word but also pray over the word and deal with anything that He wants us to deal with, so that we may send tender fresh roots into Him to be built up in Christ and also be built up with the fellow saints in the Body of Christ.
Absorbing the Riches of Christ by being Rooted in Christ to be Built up in Christ
Praise the Lord, we as believers in Christ have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, and now we need to walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Christ (Col. 2:6-7).
To walk in Christ is to live in Christ, act in Christ, behave in Christ, and have our being in Christ, just as the children of Israel walked, lived, and acted and behaved in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce.
Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit is the reality of the good land (Gal. 3:14), and He now dwells in our spirit to be our enjoyment (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16).
We have been rooted into Christ so that we may absorb all His riches as nourishment; these riches become the element and substance with which we grow and are built up.
We have already been rooted into Christ, but we still need to absorb His riches so that we may be built up in Christ.
We may have problems and defects, and we may be quite aware of our weaknesses and failures, but we need to forget about these and simply enjoy Christ, spending time with Him in His word to absorb His riches so that, as we are being deeply rooted in Christ, we may also be built up in Christ.
This matter of being built up in Christ is not on the corporate side but on the personal side; we are built up in Christ by growing in Christ.
A child is built up by growing up, and a plant is also built up by growing up.
As believers in Christ, we need to be personally built up, that is, we need to grow up in Christ by absorbing the riches of Christ and digesting them, and then we can be built up with other members of the Body.
When we become built-up members of the Body, when we grow up in Christ by absorbing His riches, we can also be built up with the saints in the Body of Christ.
For us to walk in Christ, we need to absorb His riches by being rooted in Him; this will cause us to be built up as individual members of the Body of Christ.
We need to enjoy the Lord in a personal way; we need to personally spend time with the Lord, just us and Him, and sink our roots into Christ deeper and deeper, so that we may absorb more of His riches.
Then, we shall grow up in Him and we will be built up in Him. As we grow up in Christ and are built up in Him, we will be able to walk in Christ.
May we bring this matter to the Lord and ask Him to remind us to spend personal time with Him again and again throughout the day. May we be those who pay the price to deny ourselves and stop our activities and being again and again to speak to the Lord, pray over His word, masticate Him in the word, and absorb His riches.
We may not know what it is to absorb His riches so that we may be built up in Him, but we can tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to absorb Your riches by being rooted in You so that we may be built up in Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to sink our roots into Christ deeper and deeper so that we may absorb more of His riches. Oh Lord, we love You and we love Your word; remind us to be with You, to send roots deeply into You, and to absorb You! May You be absorbed and digested into our being so that we may grow up in Christ and be built up in Him! Amen, Lord, we want to walk in Christ, having been rooted and being built up in Him!
Being Rooted in Christ to Grow in Christ and be built up as the Body of Christ
As believers in Christ we first need to grow in Christ individually and then we can grow in Him and be built up in Him corporately.
When we personally spend time with the Lord and enjoy Him, when we send roots personally and privately deep down into Christ to absorb His riches, we grow in Christ, and our individual growth becomes a corporate growth, the growth of the Body of Christ.
Our growth comes from Christ; Paul said in Col. 2:19 that we need to hold the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
To hold the Head is to abide in the Lord; holding the head implies that we are not detached or severed from the Lord but we abide in Him, being intimately related to Him.
Things such as culture, the self, the flesh, loving the world, and the soul life can be an insulation which can keep us from Christ; holding the head means remaining in Christ without any insulation between us and Him.
As we hold the Head, Christ, something comes out from the Head to cause the Body of Christ to grow. Our growth in life depends on what comes out of Christ as the Head, just as the growth of a plant depends on what comes into the plant from the soil.
The plant is rooted in the soil, and something comes out from the soil and is absorbed into the plant to cause the plant to grow in life and be built up.
Similarly, as we hold the Head by being rooted in Christ, we grow up in Christ in all things, and we are being built up as the Body of Christ.
We need to spend much time with the Lord in private, hiddenly, so that we may get something from Him that will cause us to grow in life; this will cause us to be built up in Christ and also to build up the Body of Christ.
To hold the Head, therefore, is to be rooted in Christ as the soil. As we all the members of the Body grow in Christ by being rooted in Him to absorb His riches, we are being built up in Christ and we together build up the Body of Christ; our individual growth and building up becomes the corporate growth of the Body and the building up of the Body.
As we live the church life, there may be some friction among the saints, even among the leading ones; how can the church be built up if there’s such friction? Yes, there may be friction, but along with the friction, there must be the growth in life.
On one hand there may be friction among the members of the Body, but on the other, there’s the growth in life, and this growth will eventually nullify the effect of the friction.
The enemy causes friction and problems among the saints in the Body, but as the saints are rooted in Christ to absorb His riches, the growth in life will cause the problems and the frictions to go away.
Being rooted in Christ causes us to grow in Christ and be built up as the Body of Christ; the building up of the church is based upon the building up of the individual members.
How are the members built up? It is by being rooted in Christ to absorb the riches of Christ, and these riches of Christ being absorbed into our being become the element with which we as members of the Body grow, are build up in Christ, and build up the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, may we be rooted in Christ to grow up in Christ and be built up as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, we hold You as the Head by sending roots deep down into You to absorb Your riches, so that we may receive the growth from You. Grow in us, Lord, and cause us to be built up as the Body of Christ. May we and may all the saints grow in life day by day, and may the growth of all the saints be the building up of the Body of Christ. May we focus not on the problems and the frictions that may take place among the saints but on the Christ who grows in us and builds us up to be His Body!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Fiind adânc înrădăcinați în Cristos petrecând timp cu El în Cuvânt pentru a-I absorbi bogățiile.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 51-52 (by Witness Lee), 10-11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 7, The All-inclusive Christ Being the Allotted Portion of the Saints, according to God’s Choice, as Their Divine Inheritance for Their Enjoyment.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Take time to inhale Him—His Word we may breathe; / By breathing it, God’s very life we receive— / He breathes Himself out so that we may breathe in / The life, the reality, fullness of Him. (Song on, Take time to absorb Him)
# To the Head fast holding ever, / That we may together grow, / From the Head supplies incoming / Thru us to the Body flow. (Hymns #913)
# In my knowledge and experience / I would not exalted be, / But submitting and accepting / Let the Body balance me; / Holding fast the Head, and growing / With His increase, in His way, / By the joints and bands supplying, / Knit together day by day. (Hymns #840)
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