After seeing so many aspects and ways to grow in life unto maturity, now we need to see some of the implications and applications of what the full-grown man is. What is the full-grown man that God desires to obtain, and what does he look like?
First of all, for God to obtain a full-grown corporate man who fulfills His purpose, we need to take Christ as our person (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17). Our oneness in the Body of Christ as God’s expression is not something outward – it is in the Christ that we all take as our person and life.
The goal of the Lord’s recovery is to bring forth this full-grown corporate man, and this is the goal of God’s eternal economy. God’s purpose is wrapped up with the man whom He has created, and He will obtain the full-grown corporate man who fulfills His plan.
Christ came to be the first individual God-man, and He is now the prototype so that God would produce many God-men through Him, those who would be the components of the universally great corporate God-man.
We grow in life for this – so that God would gain a full-grown corporate man to accomplish His purpose. For the new man, we need to take Christ as our person – there’s no place in the new man for us, because Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:4, 10-11).
What God cares for is whether or not we take Christ as our person – when we take Christ as our person, we become one with Christ and we even become Christ Himself as the new man who fulfills God’s plan.
We need to see what does it mean practically for us as believers in Christ who have God’s life to take Christ as our person.
We Need to Take Christ as our Person
For us to be the Body of Christ, we need to have Christ as our life; for us to be the one new man, we need to take Christ as our person. Even though the Bible doesn’t explicitly say the fact that we need to take Christ as our person, there are many verses that show us this matter.
Who is living the church life and the Christian life? Is it you or is it Christ? Who is serving in the church? Is it still you, or is it Christ as your person? If it is still us, no matter how zealous and energetic we are, the Lord will not accept our service, and what we do will not be part of the full-grown corporate man.
The Christ we have received through regeneration is a Person, and He wants to be our person. He is not just a “force” or “an energy”, or even “a life” in a unclear and nebulous way – Christ is a living Person inside of us. He has a taste, He has certain preferences, and He has His own decisions.
A genuine Christian is one who takes Christ as his person and he lives Christ. When we were saved we didn’t merely adopt a new set of ideals or a dogma, but we were crucified with Christ, we were terminated, and now another Person lives in us (Gal. 2:20).
This living Person wants to build His house and make His home, His dwelling place, in all our heart (Eph. 3:17). Christ wants to take ownership of your inward being, of how you feel, think, and decide things.
We need to take Christ not only as our life by enjoying Him and taking Him into us as our life supply, but also take Christ as our person, not deciding, desiring, or thinking things without Him or apart from our oneness with Him.
In the New Man Christ is the Only Person – Christ is “The Man”!
When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He didn’t only deal with our problems with God, He didn’t only release the divine life, and He didn’t only destroy the devil; He has created one new man out of two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles (Eph. 2:15).
Christ created a corporate man composed of millions of believers. In this new man, Christ is the person – He is all and in all. This man is a full-grown corporate man to which we need to arrive, and the requirement to be the new man is every higher and stricter than being the Body – we need to take Christ not only as our life but also as our person!
We all have our own personality and disposition, and those who are managers know how difficult it is to work with people. God doesn’t want us to become “His robots” – He wants us to be a full-grown man with Christ as our person.
He knows we all have many characters and personalities, and He has a way with us – He terminates us all through the cross, then He enters into us to be the unique Person in all of us!
However, in our day-to-day Christian life, how much do we live by Christ as our person? We still live by our old man, our taste, our person….and we are not yet adjusted to live with another Person, Christ, who is to be the Man, the new Person living in us.
But for us to be the new man, we need to realize that Christ must be our person. In the new man there’s no Jew or Greek, American or Chinese, Russian or British, Korean or Japanese, religious or non-religious, rich or poor, civilized or barbarian, slaves or freemen, etc.
In the new man, Christ is in us and Christ is us – Christ becomes every one of us. When we take Christ as our person, we are no longer what we are by birth or upbringing – we become Christ.
In the new man there’s only Christ – not morality, ethics, philosophy, goodness, being humble, being kind, gentle, or loving – Christ is our person, and Christ in us is everything to us!
Christ is the common factor within all of us, no matter the nationality and race. There is only One Person in the new man – Christ in all of us! The same Christ in you is the Christ in me, and this Christ makes us one for God’s purpose.
Dealing with Any Frustrations to Christ Being our Person
At one point in time, God was pleased to reveal His Son in us, and Christ, the Son of God, as a living Person has entered into our spirit. Now Christ is being formed in us (Gal. 4:19) and He is being magnified in us.
However, there are many things that frustrate our taking Christ as our person; there are many challenges and frustrations to our taking Christ as our person.
Some of these frustrations are our culture, our religion, our ethics, our morality, the improvement of behaviour, and philosophy – these are common to all men, and they occupy us and frustrate us from taking Christ as our person.
Also, if we love the Lord and seek Him diligently, what can frustrate us from taking Christ as our person is being Scriptural, being spiritual, being holy, being victorious, and being successful in God’s work.
These items totally displace the person of Christ in us. We may have the highest truth and the best practices, and we may not be that degraded as the fallen Christianity, but are we carrying out a certain routine in the church life in the Lord’s recovery?
What is the focus and center of our meeting when we come together – is it the hymns, the praises, certain people, or the wonderful Christ? Do we come together only to enjoy Christ and take Him as our person corporately?
The Bible, the hymnal, the singing, the calling on the Lord, the pray-reading, and any other practice should not distract us from taking Christ as our person. Is Christ enough to us?
How much in our living in the church life and the family life do we consider, Is this Christ or not? Is Christ doing this? Is Christ speaking this way to my spouse? Is Christ preaching the gospel and shepherding the new ones?
Do we live by a formula or arrangement in our Christian life? Do we have a certain routine in our time with the Lord or when we meet with the saints, or do we take Christ into consideration and give Him the first place?
Sometimes we may think that as long as we get things done, as long as we have a good meeting, it is all OK. But where is Christ in all these things? Do we contact the living person of Christ? Do we merely ask God to bless us in what we do, or do we seek to take Christ as our person and do what He wants us to do?
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, the burden of the ministry is to present the all-inclusive Christ to all the saints – this One must be our unique person. When He speaks, we speak. When He moves, we move. When He does something, we should be one with Him.
We are here to be filled with Christ and to take Him as our person. When we take Christ as our person both personally and corporately, the one new man can come into being – and this new man fulfills God’s eternal purpose.
Lord Jesus, we want to take You as our person. Save us from neglecting You or only asking You for Your blessing on what we desire to do. Lord, You are the living Christ in us – we take You as our person. What You desire to do and speak, we want to also do and speak. Keep us enjoying You in Your all-inclusiveness, and keep us taking You as our person for the one new man. We open to You to cooperate with You in dealing with any frustrations in our being to Christ being our person. We are not here to live out a religion, a form, or a set of ideals. We are here to live Christ by taking Him as our person for the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The One New Man (pp. 14-15, 43-44), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 7 / msg 7, Arriving at a Full-grown Man (1) Taking Christ as Our Person and Living the Life of a God-man.
- Further reading: recommending Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church Life (see chs. 4, 7).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Christ as my Person must possess my heart / And be preeminent in every part. / The former owner died but haunts it still. / O Lord, move in; my mind, emotion, will / Now welcome Thee.
# What He is: He’s a Person. / He’s a real and living Person. / He is living now inside of us. / This Person is so glorious. / He’s a Person! Wonderful!
# For this cause Your Person, Lord, / We take and stand in one accord; / All the members self forsake, / And of the Body-Christ partake.
# The church life is the one new man / In every local church expressed; / Thy Body is a corporate man, / One Person manifest.
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