Only what Comes out of Christ can be the Church to Match Christ as His Counterpart

Only what comes out of Christ can return to Christ to match Christ as His counterpart, just as only what came out of Adam and was built by God to become a woman could return to him to be his wife.

It is important for us to see what did God do to gain His counterpart, as recorded in Genesis 2. After God created man, He brought all the animals to him that he would name them, but for Adam there was no counterpart found.

It is not good for the man to be alone, as God said; this really points to God’s need for a counterpart. Adam is a type of Christ, and Eve is a type of the church.

When God created man in His image and according to His own likeness, He actually wanted to gain Christ, the One who is the image of God, the embodiment of God, the fullness of God, to express Him.

However, God didn’t want only Adam alone to express Him and exercise His dominion. God wanted also the church, who comes out of Christ to match Christ as His counterpart, to be one with Christ for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

What God desires to gain is Christ and the church who would express God in His glory and exercise God’s dominion over the enemy. God wants a victorious Christ and a victorious church.

He wants a Christ who destroys the devil and a church that carries out this work. He wants to gain a church that corresponds to Christ in every possible way so that the church would match Christ as His counterpart.

We are the church, we are those who are regenerated in the resurrection of Christ to be the many members of the Body of Christ, the components of the church as the counterpart of Christ. As the church, we need to match Christ and be one with Him for the carrying out of God’s purpose.

We need to love the Lord, stay in His word, and pray over the words of the Bible so that the written word of God would become the living word of God that washes us, sanctifies us, and prepared us as the wife of Christ.

We need to abide in the Lord’s word and love Him, and the Father and the Son will come to us to make an abode with us, a mutual abode of God and man. It is by His living, instant, and personally spoken word that we can be sanctified, indwelt, purified, beautified, and produced as His counterpart, the church that would match Christ.

God Became Man and Died on the Cross to Produce the Church as the Counterpart of Christ

We may have so many concepts concerning the church, and even when it comes to the church as the bride of Christ, the counterpart of Christ, we may have many natural opinions and ideas of what this means and what it implies.

But what did God say about the church, and what did He do to gain and produce a counterpart for Himself? The record in the Bible concerning the producing of the church as the counterpart of Christ is very consistent, from Genesis to Revelation.

In Genesis we see that from the ground God formed every animal of the field and every bird of heaven and brought them to Adam, and the man gave names to all the cattle, birds, and animals; but for Adam there was not found a helper as his counterpart (see Gen. 2:19-20).

In other words, God brought all His created animals, birds, fish, etc to Adam to see if any of them would match him; he named all of them, recognized what they were, but none of them matched him. Why? Because the wife must be the same as the husband in life, nature, and expression.

No bird, cattle, fish, or any other animal would match Adam, because they don’t have the same life, nature, and expression as him. Similarly, nothing and no one of the creation can match Christ unless she is the same as He is in life, nature, and expression.

In order to produce a complement for Himself, God first became a man (John 1:14), as typified by God’s creation of Adam (Rom. 5:14)….Adam’s deep sleep for the producing of Eve as his wife typifies Christ’s death on the cross for the producing of the church as His counterpart (Eph. 5:25-27). Through Christ’s death the divine life within Him was released, and through His resurrection His released divine life was imparted into His believers for the constituting of the church (see footnote 1 on John 19:34). Through such a process God in Christ has been wrought into man with His life and nature so that man can be the same as God in life and nature in order to match Him as His counterpart. Gen. 2:21, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible

For God to produce a complement for Himself, He first became a man (John 1:14), as typified by God creating Adam (Rom. 5:14). God created Adam in His image; Christ became a man to bear God’s image and express Him.

Then, in His human life Christ had many “animals” coming to Him, such as the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians…but none of these matched Him, for they didn’t have His life, nature, and expression.

Therefore, just as in the case of Adam when he was put into a deep sleep by God, Christ died on the cross, and the church as His counterpart was produced (Eph. 5:25-27).

Christ’s death on the cross was for the producing of the church as His counterpart; through His death, His divine life was released from within Him, and through His resurrection, this divine life was imparted into His believers for the constituting of the church.

The believers are not just people who believe in Jesus; they have God’s life and nature wrought into them, and they as the church match Christ, for they have the same life, nature, and expression as Christ.

Through the process of God becoming a man and dying on the cross, God in Christ has been wrought into man with His life and nature so that man can be the same as God in life and nature in order to match Christ as His counterpart. Hallelujah!

Thank You Lord for becoming a man and dying on the cross to release the divine life, impart it into us, and produce us as the church, the counterpart of Christ. Hallelujah, we as the church now match Christ because we are the same as He is in life, nature, and expression! Thank You for passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to produce and obtain the church as Your counterpart, an entity that is the same as You are in life, nature, and expression!

Only what Comes out of Christ can be the Church to Match Christ as His Counterpart

It is very significant to realize how the church was produced. The church was not created – the church was produced and built. Eve was not created: Eve was produced and built out of the rib taken from Adam.

Adam did not find a counterpart for himself from all the animals in God’s creation, so God made him a counterpart by first putting him to sleep, then taking a rib out of his side, and building a woman who He brought to him to be his wife.

Only what came out of Adam could be built by God and could return to Adam to match him and be his counterpart. The animals, cattle, fish, birds, etc – they were not out of Adam, they were not part of him.

But Eve, this one was out of him, and this time she is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, so she became his counterpart. It is the same with the producing of the church. The church comes out of Christ; the church was produced with the element of Christ, and the church matches CHrist to be His counterpart.

Only that which comes out of Christ can be the church, and anything that is not Christ is not the church. This is why, when our natural man is expressed in the church life, the life of Christ in the saints reject it; nothing natural does the Body life allow, for the church is an entity purely made of Christ to match Christ as His counterpart.

From the very beginning God meant to have Christ and the church, as typified by Adam and Eve; when He wanted to create man, He said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let THEM… (Gen. 1:26, emphasis added).

The record continues with, And God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (v. 27).

God wants to have not only Adam but also Eve; He wants to obtain not only Christ but also the church. God wants not just only one begotten Son; He wants many sons to be like the Firstborn Son.

If the church is in a state that doesn’t correspond with Christ, God will not rest until His work is completed.

Just as Eve was in the image of Adam to match him, so the church must be fully in the image of Christ with His element to match Christ.

We need to daily enjoy Christ, fellowship with Christ, speak to Christ, be filled with Christ, and be mingled with Christ, allowing Christ to make His home in our heart, loving Christ, and doing everything in Christ, so that we may become like Christ.

We as the church are nothing else but Christ, another form of Christ to match Christ and be His counterpart, just as Eve was Adam in another form, fully made out of the element of Adam.

Lord, cause us to realize that only what comes out of Christ can be the church to match Christ as His counterpart. Save us from bringing anything of our natural man, the self, or the flesh in the church life. Work Yourself into us and work in us for us to be constituted with Christ, filled with Christ, and saturated with Christ, so that we may be Your counterpart, the same as You are in life, nature, and expression, to match You in every possible way!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 34, “The Glorious Church,” chs. 2-3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 9, The Status of the Church – the Counterpart of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God wants someone to love Him, / Not just someone to serve Him; / He wants someone to love Him / As His bride. / God wants someone to match Him, / Not just to imitate Him; / He wants a counterpart, / One from His side. (Song on, God wants someone to love Him)
  # The Lord of all has shown His plan / Unto each faithful one, / Who leaves behind the worldly things / As virgins for His Son. / To be His Bride we must match Him, / Within and outwardly; / To be this one who matches Him, / Enjoy Him constantly. (Hymns #1212)
  # The church is Christ’s expression full, / In her Christ dwelleth bodily; / She is His duplication true, / And man in her Himself may see. (Hymns #818)