Being Ruled by the Peace of Christ to Live Christ as the Constituent of the New Man

As believers in Christ, we need to know and experience the all-inclusive, extensive Christ as the constituent of the new man; for us to live Christ as the constituent of the new man, we need to be ruled by the peace of Christ and inhabited by the word of Christ (Col. 3:12-17).

In the one new man there’s room only for Christ, so Christ has to become our constituent, our very being.

The will of God is to work His all-inclusive, extensive Christ in us and make Him everything to us so that He may become preeminent in our whole being, in our personal universe, and in everything related to us.

For this to take place, He Himself became a man, He went through a process and became a life-giving Spirit, and through regeneration He comes into our spirit to start a process of daily salvation in life, transformation, and conformation to His image.

Christ dwells in us; the Christ we have received at the time of our regeneration and who dwells in us is our life, and this life is hidden with Christ in God.

Hallelujah, our life is Christ, and this life is hidden with Christ in God!

Just as the hidden manna was in the golden pot, which was in the ark, which was in the Holy of Holies, which was in the Ark, so Christ is in God the Father, the Father is in the incarnated Christ, and this Christ is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit to make our spirit the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God and man.

This is what the Lord spoke of in a mysterious way in John 14:20, the four “in”-s – He is in the Father, the Father is in the Son, the Son is in us, and we are in the Father and in the Son. Hallelujah!

God has provided a way for us to be incorporated into the Triune God – we can eat Christ as the hidden manna and live because of Him, and in this way we are in God and God is in us, we live in God and God lives in us, and His person is expressed through our person. Hallelujah!

The fact that Christ is our life indicates strongly that we are to take Him as life and live by Him so that we may live Him in our daily life.

Christ is our life; He lives in us, and we should live Him by living because of Him. Just as the Son lived because of the Father, so we need to eat Christ and live because of Him.

Amen, Christ must be our life in a practical way and in an experiential way day by day; we need to be saved in His life day by day. This is all so that we may experience Him as the unique constituent of the one new man!

Knowing and Experiencing Christ as the Constituent of the One New Man

We all need to know and experience the all-inclusive, extensive Christ as the unique constituent of the new man.

In the one new man there is room only for Christ, for in the new man Christ is all and in all. In the new man Christ is all the members and He is in all the members – He is everything and everyone in the new man (Col. 3:10-11).

In other words, in the new man Christ is the centrality and universality; He is both the center and the circumference of the new man, and everything and everyone in the new man is Christ.

Christ is the constituent of the new man, and He is all and in all in te new man.

The new man cannot be organised; simply by coming together as people from different cultures and backgrounds and do things in an organised way doesn’t mean that we are the new man.

The one new man cannot be “fixed” or “built up”; the new man comes about only in one way, that is, when we know and experience Christ as the unique constituent.

When each one of us takes Christ as their life and everything, we are constituted with Christ, we have Him as our life every day, and we live Christ in all kinds of circumstances.

When this happens, the reality of the one new man will be here collectively, and the new man will appear in reality in our Christian life and church life.

For the new man to be real and practical today in the church life we need to take Christ as our life and live Him; we need to take Him as our very constituent.

When all the saints take Christ as their life and everything, when each one of us take Christ as our life and live Christ in all the situations of our daily life, we will have the reality of the one new man collectively.

The new man appears in reality and practicality in the church life as the aggregate of our living Christ in our daily life, our marriage life, our family life and our work life.

In a practical way, as seen in Col. 3:12-15 and vv. 16-17, for us to live Christ as the constituent of the new man, we need to be ruled by the peace of Christ and be inhabited by the word of Christ.

When we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our heart, we keep the oneness of the new man in practicality; when we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, the element of Christ constitutes our being, and we become the new man in reality.

May we pray for one another, for all the saints and all the local churches, that we would be brought into a much higher degree of enjoyment and experience of this all-inclusive, extensive Christ so that He may become our unique constituent for the reality of the one new man!

Amen, Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to absorb all Your riches and be constituted with You as the unique constituent of the one new man! Lord, become so real and subjective to us to be our life. We take You as our life and we want to be constituted with You until Christ becomes our unique constituent for the one new man! Amen, Lord Jesus, become our all in all! We take You as our centrality and universality. We take You as our life and person for the one new man, for You to gain the new man in reality and practicality!

Being Ruled by the Peace of Christ to Live Christ as the Constituent of the New Man

For us to live Christ as the constituent of the new man, we need to be ruled by the peace of Christ (Col. 3:12-15) and inhabited by the word of Christ (vv. 16-17).

On one hand the peace of Christ needs to rule and arbitrate in our heart, and on the other, we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

How can Christ become the unique constituent of the new man? First the peace of Christ needs to rule in us and arbitrate in our heart, and then the word of Christ needs to inhabit or indwell us individually and corporately.

We need to allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts.

The Greek term for “arbitrate” can also be rendered as umpire, preside, or be enthroned as a ruler and decider of everything. This means that the arbitrating peace of Christ dissolves our complaint against anyone (Col. 3:13).

Christ made peace for us on the cross by creating in Himself the one new man out of two peoples, and He Himself became our peace; now we need to let His peace arbitrate in our hearts.

Especially when we see some problems in the church life and have complaints, opinions, rumours, talks, offenses, unhappiness, and things that make us against each other – we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in us and be ruled by the peace of Christ.

We need the peace of Christ – the peace of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ to arbitrate in us.

Often we are conscious of three parties within us – a positive party, a negative party, and a neutral party, so there’s the need for inward arbitration to settle the dispute within us.

Too many offenses and arguments should have been settled years ago and even decades ago, but they are still here; the ghost of these arguments are still here, and the shadow of those offenses is a long one because we don’t allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in us.

We may still remember what someone said to us years ago, and we may recall how we were mistreated, handled in the wrong way, and how someone offends us years and years ago. Oh Lord Jesus!

It may be that we were handled wrongly and others may have said things to offend us, but when we let the peace of Christ arbitrate in us and are thus ruled by the peace of Christ, this peace will cause us to forget things, forgive others, and let things go.

When we are ruled by the peace of Christ, we will forgive others, we will let go of offenses, and we will seek the keep the oneness.

Whenever we sense that there’s different parties within our being arguing or quarrelling with one another, we need to give place to the presiding peace of Christ and allow this peace to rule within us and have the final word.

The peace of Christ ruling in our hearts is the oneness of the new man. We need to set aside our opinion, our concept, ,and listen to the word of the indwelling Referee so that we may be ruled by the peace of Christ for the one new man.

If we do this, the church life will have a lot less problems. If we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes within us and among us; we will then have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally.

It is through the arbitration of the peace of Christ that our problems are solved and that the friction between the saints disappears.

When we are ruled by the peace of Christ, the church life is preserved in sweetness and the new man is maintained in a practical way. May we have this kind of church life today!

The arbitrating of the peace of Christ is actually Christ working within us to exercise His rule over us, to speak the last word, and to make the final decision (see Isa. 9:6-7).

We shouldn’t pray for the Lord to rule over others but rather, as a response to the heavenly intercession, we should allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our heart, letting the Lord have the last word in us.

If we stay under the ruling of the enthroned peace of Christ, we will not offend others or damaged them but rather, by the Lord’s grace and with His peace, we will minister life to others.

This peace should bind all the believers together and become their uniting bond; this peace is the oneness of the one new man.

Lord Jesus, we allow Your peace to arbitrate in our heart and settle all the disputes among us so that we may have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally. Amen, Lord, may we be ruled by the peace of Christ so that all our problems would be solved and all the friction between the saints would disappear. May all the saints allow the peace of Christ to rule in them for the new man, and may we all keep the oneness of the Spirit by allowing the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our heart for the one new man!

Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Fiind stăpâniți de pacea lui Cristos pentru a-L trăi pe Cristos ca și constituent al omului nou.

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. 28-30, 32, 63 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 6 on the topic of, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ as Our Life and as the Constituent of the New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – We’d allow Thy peace to reign, / In the Body-life we’d live; / No more self-directed be, / For Thy church our all we’d give. (Song on, Lord, Bring Forth the One New Man)
  – And let the peace of Christ / Arbitrate in your hearts, / To which also / You were called / In one Body; / And be thankful. (Scripture song)
  – There’s a Man in the glory / Whose Life is for me. / His peace is abiding; / How patient is He! / He’s joyful and radiant, / Expecting to see / His Life in the glory / Lived out in me; / His Life in the glory / Lived out in me. (Hymns #505)