Today is the day to have a New Man Constituted of All the Local Churches on earth

The application of the new man spoken of in Eph. 2:15 and Col. 3:10-11 is that all the local churches in the different countries are one new man. So our practice of the church life should be with the Body of Christ and the new man as the goal in view.

The constitution of the new man is simply Christ who is saturating us and permeating us to replace us organically. Christ is all and in all in the one new man. This means that Christ is all the members and in all the members of the one new man.

Christ is everyone and in everyone in the one new man. The new man is Christ in all the saints permeating us and replacing us until all our natural distinctions have been removed and everyone is constituted with Christ.

In our natural man we are not qualified to be part of the new man. Rather, in the new man there’s no room for our natural man, our natural distinctions, our culture, philosophy, race, or ethnic background, but in the new man Christ is all and in all – He is working Himself into us to reconstitute us and be expressed through us.

All believers in Christ are in this organic process of being reconstituted and saturated with Christ, until all our natural distinctions are removed and we all are reconstituted of Christ. The Lord is daily working Himself into us organically until our natural being is replaced with Himself.

On our side, we need to cooperate with Him by spending time with Him personally and being in the meetings of the church corporately to receive his speaking and infusing. Also, we need to take Christ as our life and person and live Him, not ourselves.

For us to experience the reality of Christ being all the members of the new man, we need to take Christ as our life and person and live Him. No one can do this for us.

We all personally need to come to the Lord and take Him as our life and person, letting Him be our life within and the person expressed through us, so that our expression would be Christ, the One who is all and in all in the new man.

This is the constitution of the new man, and for us to be part of the new man, we need to let Christ be wrought into us and lived in us.

Today we want to see more concerning what it means that Christ is all and IN ALL, and what is the practical application to the church life today of the one new man – how can we live the church life we the one new man, with the one new man in view.

It is very Significant that Paul said Both that Christ is All and that He is IN ALL

In Col. 3:11 Paul didn’t say merely that Christ is all in the new man; he said, Christ is all and in all in the new man. Since he already said that Christ is all, why did he also feel the need to say that Christ is also IN ALL?

If Christ is only all, then we all are nowhere; this means that only Christ is there. But since Paul said that Christ is in all, this means that we are here – and Christ is in us, and we are part of the one new man.

We may think that Christ is all in the new man, so we are no longer needed; but we should not think that, because is all the members of the one new man, then we are nothing and are not needed. Rather, we all are a new creation in Christ.

If we were not needed, God would not have chosen us to be holy, predestinated us unto sonship, paid the price to redeem us and transform us to be a son of God, and brought us into the church life; we are all needed – we are even indispensable.

The fact that Christ is in all the members of the one new man indicates that the members continue to exist, with Christ in them.

Even in the New Jerusalem, we will all recognize each other; we will not be “anonymous blobs of jasper floating around in the jasper city” – we will be recognizable human beings, with CHrist in them.

God created us as distinct humans for a reason; we are distinguishable, yet we have Christ as our person and we express Him. This is mysterious yet so wonderful!

In the new man there’s no place for our natural man with all its background, philosophy, culture, race, ethnicity, etc – all these need to be slowly replaced by the Christ who is working Himself into us. But at the same time we are part of the new man – we, the persons, are part of the new man, for Christ is in us!

This is our experience many times: when we take Christ as our life and live together with Him, seeking the things which are above, we have the deep sense within that we are one with Christ and that Christ is in us.

When we live one spirit with the Lord, seeing Him and taking Him as our life and person, we have the deep sense that we are one with Him, He is in us, and He even is us. Christ is both in us and He is us – this is the experience of the new man.

We are part of the new man with Christ in us; we continue to exist, but we don’t exist without Christ – we live by being indwelt by Christ, we live Christ, and Christ lives in us. How wonderful!

Lord Jesus, thank You for being in us to make us part of the one new man. We want to take You as our life and person, live together with You, and seek the things above, so that we may live one with You and have You live in us for the church as the one new man. Thank You Lord for creating us the way we are, with our human characteristics; work Yourself into us until You become us, and be the One living in us so that You may be expressed in the one new man!

Today is the day to have a New Man Constituted of All the Local Churches on earth

The application of the new man in the churches is very wonderful: all the local churches in the different countries are one new man (Col. 3:10-11; 4:15-16). When we see this, we have an awareness and realization of the one new man.

We are in a certain locality where the Lord has placed us, meeting with the local church, but we are part of something universal, part of a corporate person.

As we practice our church life, we need to be aware not only of our locality but of the Body and of the one new man. And as we do something in the church life and as the church, we need to consider how will the new man react, how does the Body feel about it.

All the churches are not merely individual local churches but are the one new man. If we have all seen the vision of the new man and realized that all the local churches are not merely individual local churches but the one new man, we will tell the Lord,

Oh Lord, we want to receive grace and mercy with all the saints as the one new man, taking You as the person in all of us!

When we take Christ as our person in this way, we will take Him as the person of the corporate new man, and we will not decide things in and by ourselves, but we will consider the new man in everything.

The question is, If the Lord were to come among us in the local churches in His recovery, would He find the one new man? Are all the local churches on the earth in the Lord’s recovery truly the one new man? Can we say that all the saints living in the local churches have the realization that they ar part of the new man, not only of the church or of the Body?

Paul had a consciousness of this new man when he wrote in Col. 4 and especially in Philemon. In Philemon we can see the equal status of all the believers in the one new man.

In the Roman times there was the dreadful system of slavery, and Paul didn’t seek to reform it or revolutionize it; rather, as the Lord brought Onesimus to him, he begot him as a spiritual child, and sent him back to his master, encouraging Philemon to receive him as a brother.

In spite of the current situation in society and the social system, God has a way to bring diverse human beings into a wonderful and harmonious relationship in the one new man!

Among the churches in the Lord’s recovery there shouldn’t be any “nations” (see Matt. 16:18; 1 Thes. 1:1; Rom. 16:16b; 3 John 9-10). We shouldn’t care to have our little “nation”, an empire in which we can be king; rather, we should care to be in the one new man (Matt. 20:25-26).

The building up of the church depends on the existence of the new man; when the one new man comes into being in all the local churches, the church is fully built up.

We should not be discouraged when we see the situation among Christians today, but realize that today is the day to have a new man constituted of all the local churches, including all the saints as one in Christ, who is all and in all!

Such a church life as the reality of the new man is the ultimate church life – a universal new man living out Christ (see Col. 3:10-11; Eph. 4:24; Phil. 1:20-21a). As we live the church life and take care of so many necessary outward things and activities, we have the one new man in view.

We need to be saved from living an outward church life yet without taking Christ as our person, without having the Body in view, and without caring for the new man.

May the Lord grow in us, be duplicated in our being, and work in us so that our very being would be an entrance for the saints into the Holy of Holies, where God is. May our view in living the church life be the Body of Christ and the one new man!

Lord, unveil us to see that all the local churches in the different countries are one new man! May we realize that the building up of the church depends on the existence of the new man. Amen, Lord, may today be the day to have a new man constituted of all the local churches, including all the saints as one in Christ, who is all in all! May You gain the ultimate church life, the universal new man living out Christ in all the local churches throughout the earth! Gain it with us, Lord, and gain it today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 8, The Status of the Church – the New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # For this cause Your Person, Lord, / We take and stand in one accord; / All the members self forsake, / And of the Body-Christ partake. / We in Christ as one new man / Now come forth to take this land. / For this cause Your Person, Lord, / We take and stand in one accord. (Hymns #1230)
  # “The new way brings forth the new man, / The new man walks on the new way.” / Lord, give this new vision to us, / To all of the churches today. / And as we begin this new year, / Make every new day a new start, / Make us the new persons in You: / New spirit, new mind, and new heart. (Song on the new way bringing forth the new man)
  # Now here we are, called on to build. / As members of Christ, we are richly filled. / As He increases, we decrease; / The one new man wondrously comes to be. / Our inward being we open wide, / Let the Spirit transform and occupy; / Soak, saturate, with Christ inwrought, / Till from glory to glory we are brought. (Song on, The Return of the Glory of God to the House of God)