1 Cor. 12:12-13 For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.
The land God promised to Abraham is a type of Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, and this land today is in reality with our spirit for our enjoyment, participation in, and experience. Also, the good land promised by God to Abraham is the church, the Body of Christ, as the enlargement of Christ (see 1 Cor. 12:12-13).
God doesn’t want His people to merely individually experience Christ and walk in Him; He desires a corporate Body in which all the members live the practical church life by walking in Christ as the good land. Our individual experience of Christ in our daily life produces the church life.
If we don’t experience Christ and walk in Him in all the daily things in our human life, we don’t have the portion of Christ to bring to the church for the building up of the Body. The result of walking in Christ and doing all things in Him is that we live out the church life, the Body life.
It is in the church life that we live in Christ and we live on Christ, living in Christ as our land and living because of Christ as the rich soil of the land on which we labor day and night (see Col. 2:6; 3:4, 10-11). In the church we defeat the enemies, and in the church we have the kingdom of God with the dwelling place of God in spirit (see Eph. 2:22; 6:10-12; Rom. 14:17).
Many Christians would be willing to believe in God for Christ to be the good land for their enjoyment and partaking of, but not many believe that the good land is the church, and that the church should be our living in order for us to enter into the good land.
We need to have Christ wrought into us as the seed and also we need to have Christ lived out of us as the land to be our church life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Hallelujah, Christ is our life! Now Christ needs to be lived out of us for the church life, and we need to have the church as our living that we may enter into the possession of the good land together with all the saints.
The Good Land Promised to Abraham is the Church, the Expansion and Enlargement of Christ
As believers in Christ we are not meant to live in an individualistic way, doing our best to enjoy Christ and live Christ by ourselves. Rather, Christ as the good land promised to Abraham is today an enlarged Christ, the church (1 Cor. 12:12), and we have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body, and we were all given to drink one Spirit (v. 13).
We live Christ in the church and for the church. It is in the church that we live in Christ and on Christ. It is in the church that we slaughter the enemies – here we are strengthened into our inner man to allow Christ to make His home in our heart, and together with the saints we apprehend all the vast dimensions of Christ (Eph. 3:17-21), and we defeat all our enemies.
In the church we have the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17), the place where God can reign in life in our being and among us, and the place where His life is manifested. In the church we have the habitation of God, since we together are a dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22).
When we are in the church, we are home – we are in our home land, the enlarged Christ as the good land for us to enjoy, partake of, enjoy, and walk in.
It is close to impossible for a Christian to live alone; it is very hard for us to enter into the possession of the good land by ourselves. Before coming into the church life, it was hard to defeat certain habits, our temper, and other enemies which kept putting us down.
But when we came into the church life and enjoyed Christ with our fellow partakers of the allotted portion (Col. 1:12), our living became proper, we had a positive change in our being and our attitude, and we were able to defeat the enemies!
The people of Israel were able to defeat all the enemies in Canaan and take over this land because it was theirs, being allotted to them by God; we can defeat the enemies in our being and in our environment by being in the proper church life, since the church as the enlarged Christ is our good land allotted to us by God.
Christ is our Life and the Church is our Living
In a very real sense, Christ is our life and the church is our living. As the seed, Christ is being wrought into us to be our life (Col. 3:4). As the good land, Christ is our living today in and for the church.
Many Christians believe that Christ is our life, but it is hard for them to believe that Christ is our church life, that the church is our living. Due to the degradation of the church and the corruption in the world, it is almost impossible to see a proper church life where the believers live Christ for the church.
Many spiritual believers learn to live by Christ and in Christ – yet still in an individualistic way, not for and in the church. Many Christians wander in the general Christianity, yearning to not only know Christ as their life but also the proper church life as their living.
Where can we find on earth today the proper experience and living out of the church? Who lives church? Who lives out the enlarged Christ for His expression in the Body? Outside of the church, we may live Christ once in a while, here and there, and from time to time; but it is difficult to live out Christ all the time.
Years ago, before we came into the church life, we ministered on the matter of living by Christ, but we ourselves were not in the rest. We wandered restlessly until one day, by His grace, we came into the church. When we came into the church, we began to have the sensation that we were in the rest. Before we came into the church life, it was very difficult for us to slaughter the enemies, but after coming into the church life, we found that it was easy to slaughter them all. In the church life God’s kingdom is set up, His habitation is built up, and God is expressed and represented. This is the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose today. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Genesis, p. 605)
However, when we come into the proper church life, when we have the church as our living, we will defeat all the attacks of the enemy, we will be in the kingdom of God, and we will build up the habitation of God in man.
We need to realize that God doesn’t want something that we have or can produce in ourselves; God desires to work His Christ into us and then have Christ being lived out of us in the church for His expression and dominion.
We all need to receive God’s grace so that Christ can be wrought into us as the seed and lived out of us as the land to be our church life; in this church life we enjoy God’s rest, we defeat God’s enemies, and we establish God’s kingdom with His dwelling place for His expression and representation (see Gen. 1:26; Gal. 6:18; 3:16; 4:19; Col. 1:12; 2:6; Heb. 4:9; Eph. 6:10-12; 2:22; Matt. 6:33).
God is today waiting for us to realize that we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing for the fulfillment of His purpose; when we have become truly nothing, God will work Himself in Christ into us, and that which He has worked into us will bring forth Christ as the seed and will also bring forth Christ as our land (see Eph. 3:17, 8; Col. 1:12, 27; 2:6).
No member “stands out” in the Body; we all have a portion in Christ, and we all are nothing without Christ. Christ is our life within and the church as the enlarged Christ is our living without – for God’s expression and representation.
Lord Jesus, You are our life and the church is our living. Strengthen us into our inner man to see, believe, and enter into living out of the church as the good land. Praise You for the church life! As we live out the church as the enlarged Christ the enemies are slaughtered, the kingdom of God is here, and God has a habitation among men! Thank You for bringing us into the church life in the Lord’s recovery today. Keep us enjoying You as our life within that we may live You out as the church for God’s expression and representation!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msgs. 44-45), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 4 / msg 4, The Land for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We have an inner life; that’s for our daily life; / That’s for the meeting life—just Christ! / We’ll live the inner life; we’ll have the daily life; / We’ll see the meeting life—that’s just the church. (Hymns #1216)
# The Christian life is a life, / A life of living Christ / For the constitution and building up / Of the Body of Christ; / The Christian life is a life of living Christ. (New hymn on the Christian life – a life of living Christ for the church)
# In spirit, in the church, we see / Our calling of unrivaled worth. / We’re destined, not to go to heaven. / We’re destined to be kings on earth. / We’re paupers, yet we’re glorious kings. / Inheriting the kingdom vast, / The earth, God’s throne, and e’en all things / And all the Father is and has. (Hymns #1322)
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