We need to Learn Christ as the Reality is in Jesus for the Living of the New Man

For the corporate living of the one new man, we need to learn Christ at the reality is in Jesus; we can be those learning Christ because we have been put in Christ as the mold and we have Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit.

This expression, learning Christ in Eph. 4:20-21 is very particular. What does it mean to learn Christ, and how is learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus related to the corporate living of the one new man? This is what we want to explore today in a prayerful way.

We have seen that in order for us to have the corporate living of the one new man we need to grow into Christ in all things, and we need to experience Christ to grow in Him so that we may function in our measure, with the result that the one new man may be perfect functionally.

Now we need to see that God put us in Christ as the mold, and we need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. The way we learn Christ is organic: we learn Christ by being in Christ as the mold and by having Christ as the life-giving Spirit in us.

Christ in us conforms us to His image, and He Himself is the mold in which we are put to be conformed to Him. It is not the ones around us or our environment that conforms us to the image of Christ, but it is Christ in us that conform us to His image so that we may be the one new man that has Christ as all in all.

For the growth of the corporate new man we need to experience the crucified, resurrected, ascended, and descending Christ do that He as the all-inclusive One may be wrought into us to be our everything, and this is for the one new man to be perfect functionally.

The one new man was created by Christ on the cross, and the one new man should be our corporate living today. We need to put off the old man with its old community life and former manner of life, and put on the new man, which is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him.

Hallelujah, a wonderful way for us to have the corporate living of the one new man is by learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus, for we have been put into Christ through faith and baptism, and Christ has been wrought into us as the life-giving Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ!

We need to Learn Christ as the Reality is in Jesus for the Corporate Living of the New Man

For the corporate living of the one new man, we need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus (Eph. 4:20-21).

First of all, we need to grow in life, and then we need to learn. This is what a child also does: first he grows and then he learns. For the practical existence of the new man we must live a life of growing up into Christ as the Head, and we need to live a life of learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

Both growing and learning are corporate matters; to grow in Christ is not to pursue something individual spirituality but to have a growth in the Body for the corporate living of the new man, and learning Christ is also corporate.

To learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus is not something individualistic but something corporate because it involves the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man. To learn Christ is relating to putting on Christ, and this is a corporate matter.

There’s a sharp contrast between the living of the old man (as seen in Eph. 4:17-19) and the living of the new man (as seen in vv. 20-21).

What we mean by speaking of learning Christ is not knowing the theology concerning Christ or the doctrine of Christ, but learning the living person of Christ. How can we learn Christ? If we have heard Him and have been taught in Him – this is how we learn Him.

The object we learn from is Christ, and we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. Christ is the reality in Jesus – what a mysterious thought.

Christ is not only our life but also our example, our pattern; in His life on earth, the Lord Jesus set up a pattern, a mold (see John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21).

When Paul speaks of having learned Christ, he says it in past tense, which means that we have heard Him, we have been taught in Him, and we have learned Him. We need to learn from Christ (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, but our learning Christ has to be not by our natural life but by Christ as our life.

When we speak of learning Christ we talk about a pattern, an example; the Lord is our pattern.

God created man in His image and likeness, and His desire was that man would receive Him as life and content so that man would express God corporately.

Sadly to say, however, because of Satan’s temptation and usurpation, man fell. So God in Christ became the second man, and when Jesus lived and ministered on earth, the Father acknowledged that He is the One in whom He delights.

Jesus lived a life that satisfied God; He lived out God’s purpose in creating man, and that living becomes our model, our pattern.

Thomas a Kempis wrote a book, Imitatio Cristi (the imitation of Christ), and many were influenced and touched to learn Christ by imitating Him outwardly, to be as spiritual as Christ is. However, our need is not to learn Christ outwardly but inwardly, by the divine life that He has put in us.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus for the corporate living of the one new man. Thank You Lord for coming into us as our life and for setting up an example before us that we may imitate You in the way of life. Save us from imitating You outwardly. We take You as our pattern, Lord, and we want to be conformed to Your image inwardly. May we all learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus so that there would be a corporate living of the new man for God’s satisfaction on earth!

God put us in Christ and Christ is in us as the Spirit; Now we Learn Christ as the Mold!

Many of us from our childhood may have read the Bible, memorize Bible verses, and hear Bible stories, and we may have a feeling that we want to be like Jesus, live like Him, love like Him, forgive like Him, etc.

But we realize that we can’t do it: we may be able to perform and outwardly imitate Christ for a while (maybe when we’re in the meetings or with other believers), but after a while we return to our old habits and ways of living, and we can’t do it.

We need to realize that God wants us His believers to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus, and we all need to do this in the way of life. To be saved is to be put into Christ by God; God put us in Christ, and this Christ is the mold to which we are being conformed (1 Cor. 1:30).

Christ didn’t come into us directly; first, He was incarnated, then He lived for 33.5 years on earth to set up the pattern of a God-man, and He set up the mold, the model.

The four Gospels were written to show the pattern of the life that God desires, the mold of the life that can satisfy God and fulfill His purpose. The Gospels present the biography of Christ from four different directions.

After He set up the pattern, the mold, He was crucified on the cross, and then He was resurrected; in resurrection He came into us to be our life. First Christ set up a pattern by His life and living on earth, and that pattern has become a mold; on the day of our baptism we are put into Christ as the mold.

By means of baptism God put us into Christ, who is the pattern; to be baptized is to be placed into Christ as the mold (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27).

God put us in Christ as the mold, and He intends to form us into the mold of Christ; God’s intention to bring many sons into glory, that is, to conform all His sons (that’s us, the believers in Christ) to the image of the Firstborn Son of God (see Rom. 8:29).

To be conformed to the image of Christ is to be molded, to learn Christ. God put us in Christ; now we need to learn Christ. Outside of being in Christ we cannot learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

By being placed into the mold, we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. We learn Christ according to the mold of the life of Jesus, which is reality. To learn Christ is to learn a living person; this living Person has set up a pattern, and that has become an example, which is a mold to which we are being conformed.

We are in Christ; it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus, and even more – Christ has come into us as the life-giving Spirit. On the one hand Christ is the mold to which we’re being conformed, and on the other, He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, so that we may learn Christ and be conformed to His image.

This is God’s way of salvation – He is not after changing us outwardly, but He came into us to live in us the same kind of life as Jesus lived, but in a corporate way.

We may think that God arranged for those around us to “mold us” into what God wants us to be, but this is wrong; the mold is not the environment where God placed us – the mold is Christ. We have been put into Christ as the mold, and as we love the Lord, He is faithful to conform us to the image of Christ.

We should not be complaining about the environment and those who are around us, for it is God who put us in Christ, and all those around us are at best the fire cooperating with God for Christ to be formed in us. Hallelujah!

Thank You God for putting us in Christ as the mold so that we may be conformed to His image! Hallelujah, through faith and baptism God put us in Christ, and He has also come into us as the life-giving Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God. Lord, we want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus day by day so that we may live the same way that Christ lived by letting Christ live in us to conform us to His image. Amen, Lord, gain a corporate God-man living, the corporate living of the one new man on earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by the brothers for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 46, 49 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Goal of the Lord’s Recovery – to Bring Forth the One New Man (2018 ICSC), week 2, Being Renewed in the Spirit of the Mind for the Practical Existence of the One New Man.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # By the power of His Spirit / In His pattern He transforms; / From His glory to His glory / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #750)
  # God ordained us unto sonship, / Ere creation’s work was done, / To conform us by His Spirit / To the image of His Son; / That His only dear Begotten / Might become the firstborn One, / And by Him with many brethren / His expression full be won. (Hymns #741)
  # Thus in life we’re built together, / Then in love we’re knit as one; / God is now His plan fulfilling, / Finishing what He’s begun. / Lord, increase Thyself within us / That we might be built by Thee / Into that great corporate vessel / Filled with God exclusively. (Hymns #1325)