THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The All-inclusive Christ
Message Three—The All-inclusive Christ as the Centrality
and Universality of God’s New Testament Economy
Scripture Reading: Col. 1:18; Phil. 2:9; John 15:26; Col. 1:12; Col. 3:4a; Col. 1:27b; 1 Cor. 1:24
I. Christ has the preeminence, the first place, in all things—Col. 1:18, 15b; Eph. 1:19-20:
A. Among the three in the Godhead, the preeminence always goes to the second, the Son—the first, the Father, always exalts the Son, and the third, the Spirit, always testifies concerning the Son—Phil. 2:9; John 15:26:
1. Christ has the first place in all things; for in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell—Col. 1:18b.
2. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily—Col. 2:9, Phil. 3:21.
B. In God’s old creation, Christ is the Firstborn of all creation—Col. 1:15b.
C. In God’s new creation in resurrection, Christ is the Firstborn from the dead—Col. 1:18b.
D. We can also see the preeminence of Christ in God’s exaltation—Acts 2:33a; Eph. 1:19-20; Phil. 2:9b:
1. Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God in the third heaven—Acts 2:33a; Eph. 1:19-20.
2. In God’s exaltation of Christ, He has been given to be Head over all things—Eph. 1:22b.
3. God has also given Him the name which is above every name—Phil. 2:9b.
E. Christ has the preeminence in the church, being the Head of the Body, the church—Col. 1:18a.
II. Christ is everything to the believers for their enjoyment—Col. 1:12; 1 Cor. 1:2; Col. 3:4a; Col. 1:27b; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30:
A. Christ is the God-allotted portion to the saints—Col. 1:12; 1 Cor. 1:2:
1. The Father has qualified us for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light—Col. 1:12.
2. The phrase theirs and ours in 1 Corinthians 1:2 indicates that Christ as the all-inclusive One belongs to all the believers.
B. Christ is our life—Col. 3:4a:
1. Christ lives in us—Gal. 2:20a, 2 Cor. 13:5.
2. Christ should be our living—Phil. 1:21a.
3. Christ should be magnified in our body—Phil. 1:20b.
4. Christ should be formed in us—Gal. 4:19.
5. We need to grow up into Christ, the Head, in all things with the growth of God—Eph. 4:15b, Col. 2:19b.
6. We have to grow to such an extent that we can be presented to God full-grown in Christ—Col. 1:28b, Eph. 4:13b.
C. Christ is in us as the hope of glory—Col. 1:27b:
1. The hope of our calling (Eph. 1:18b; 4:4b) is the hope of glory, which is the transfiguration of our body and the manifestation of the sons of God—Rom. 8:19, 23-25.
2. “He will change my body like unto His own, Wholly making me the same as He”—Hymns, #948.
D. Christ is our every necessity and our full enjoyment—John 8:12; 1 Cor. 10:4; Col. 2:16-17; Matt. 11:28:
1. Christ is our light—John 8:12.
2. Christ is our spiritual food—John 6:51, 57b.
3. Christ is our spiritual drink—1 Cor. 10:4.
4. Christ is our breath—John 20:22.
5. Christ is our clothing—Gal. 3:27.
6. Christ is our dwelling place—John 15:7a.
7. Christ is our enjoyment and rest—Col. 2:16-17, Matt. 11:28.
E. Christ is our divine provision—1 Cor. 1:24, 30:
1. Christ is God’s power—1 Cor. 1:24a.
2. Christ is God’s wisdom—1 Cor. 1:24b, 30a.
3. Christ is our righteousness.
4. Christ is our sanctification.
5. Christ is our redemption—1 Cor. 1:30b.
III. Christ is everything to the church—Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Pet. 2:4-8:
A. Christ is the Head of the body—Col. 1:18.
B. Christ is the body of the Head—1 Cor. 12:12.
C. Christ is the foundation of the church—1 Cor. 3:11.
D. Christ is the living stone, the cornerstone, and the topstone of the house of God, the church—1 Pet. 2:4-8, Eph. 2:20, Isa. 4:7.
E. Christ is all the members of the new man—Col. 3:10-11.
IV. Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s New Testament economy—Col. 1:17.
V. Christ is the reality of every section of the God-ordained way—Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 1 Cor. 14:3-5:
A. Christ is the reality in the fulfilling of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel—Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
B. Christ is the reality in the feeding of the new believers—John 21:15.
C. Christ is the reality of the perfecting of the saints in the vital groups—Eph. 4:12; Heb. 10:24-25.
D. Christ is the reality in the building up of the church, the Body of Christ, by prophesying in the bigger meetings of the church—1 Cor. 14:3-5.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE PREEMINENCE AND ALL-INCLUSIVENESS OF CHRIST
We need to see that Christ is the preeminent and all-inclusive One, the centrality and universality of God. The book of Colossians reveals that Christ is preeminent, that He has the first place in everything. Both in the first creation and in the new creation Christ occupies the first place. In 1:15 we are told that Christ is the “firstborn of all creation,” and in 1:18, that He is the “firstborn from among the dead.” The new creation of God is by resurrection. For Christ to be preeminent in the new creation means that He is the first in resurrection. He is the first both in creation and in resurrection. This means that He is the first in the old creation, the universe, and in the new creation, the church. The universe is the environment in which the church exists as the Body of Christ to express Christ in full. Christ is not only first in the church, the Body, but also first in the environment, the universe. This means that He is first in everything.
He is also the all-inclusive One. Christ is the reality of all the positive things in the universe. If we know the Bible and God’s economy, we shall realize that Christ is the heavens, the earth, the sun, life, light, the star, trees, flowers, water, air, and food. The material things are pictures of what He is to us. Furthermore, Christ is all the divine attributes, such as power, holiness, righteousness, kindness, and love. He is also the human virtues, such as humility and patience. Moreover, He is the church and every member of the church, God’s building and every stone in the building. This means that Christ is you and me. (Life-study of Colossians, msg. 5)
CHRIST TO THE BELIEVERS
A. God’s Allotted Portions to the Saints
Christ is the God-allotted portion to the saints. In the Bible, Christ is likened to the good land. When the children of Israel entered into the good land, they allotted the land to the twelve tribes, so every tribe received a lot. Today every saint has received a “lot,” a portion, of Christ. Christ is our allotted portion from God. Christ is not only our life and our Savior, but also our lot, our portion.
B. Life
1. Christ Our Life
As the God-allotted portion to us, Christ is our life (Col. 3:4a). Life is the top enjoyment. If our life is gone, all of our enjoyment is finished. Today Christ is our life. It is a fact that we have Christ as our life, but some may wonder how we can prove this fact. All of us have our physical life, but this life is not something which we can show others. Life is unseen; it is invisible. Life cannot be seen, but the activities of life are strong proofs that someone has life. Can we show others that we have Christ as life? We cannot show them because this life is invisible, but there are the activities of this life, which show that we possess it. Our being so living, so active, and so aggressive for the Lord is a proof that we have His life. His life within energizes us. Many times I feel tired, but when I am ministering the word, the Lord supplies me with His life, and I am full of the energy of His life. Our being so active in Christ and for Christ shows that we have Christ as our life.
2. Christ Living in Me
In Galatians 2:20a Paul said, “Christ lives in me.” Not only is Christ our life, but He also lives in us. We have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in us through His resurrection.
3. To Me to Live Is Christ
In Philippians 1:21a, Paul said, “To me to live is Christ.” We may know the doctrine that Christ lives in us and that for us to live is Christ, but most of the time, in actuality, He does not live, but we live. In many formal wedding ceremonies around the world, the bride has her head covered to indicate her submission to her husband. At the wedding there are two persons, but only one head. According to the Bible, the husband is the head of the wife (Eph. 5:23). If a wife has Christ as her life, she has to admit that her head is her husband. While I am saying this, though, I feel very sorry. We have this teaching, but in many of our families we do not have this reality. In many families the wife is acting as the head, not the husband. We need to realize that two lives can never live together. They have to be combined to be one life. Christ is our life, and Christ lives in us. Now we have to live in His living. Outside of His living, we do not have any living. We live Christ. Christ was not only Paul’s life within but His living without. He and Christ lived together as one person.
4. Christ Being Magnified in Our Body
Christ should also be magnified in our body (Phil. 1:20b). This should even affect the way that we dress and comb our hair. Does the way that we dress and comb our hair magnify Christ? Christ needs to be magnified, exalted, and extolled in us in every way and in every circumstance.
5. Christ Being Formed in Us
Christ has to be formed in us (Gal. 4:19). This means that we have to let Christ occupy every part of our being. Christ should occupy our mind, our thinking, our consideration. Christ should occupy our emotion, our love, our hatred, our happiness, our sorrow. Christ has to occupy our will. He should be in all the decisions that we make. He also needs to fully occupy our conscience in everything. For Christ to occupy us in this way means that He is making His home in us. In Ephesians Paul prayed that Christ might make His home in our hearts (3:17). Then in Galatians 4:19 he expressed his desire for Christ to be formed in us. To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ grown in us in full.
Christ is invading our mind, our emotion, our will, and our conscience. He is invading our entire inward being. Eventually, through our soul, He will even invade our body, saturating us with Himself and dispensing Himself into our entire being. His invading is His saturating, and His saturating is His dispensing. Eventually, we will be fully and thoroughly permeated with Him. He will be formed in us, and we will be conformed to His image.
6. Growing Up into Christ, the Head, in All Things with the Growth of God
In order to grow up into Christ in everything, we must be very careful and considerate. Since we realize that we have Christ living in us as our life, we have to walk carefully with much consideration. Before some of us were married, we lived in whatever way we pleased. But now that we are married, we have to be careful. We need to walk carefully with much consideration of the one with whom we live. We have to apply this principle to Christ. Before we were saved, we may have been wild or quick. Now that we have Christ living in us, we should not be that wild or that quick.
7. To Be Presented to God Full-grown in Christ
Eventually, we have to grow to such an extent so that we can be presented to God full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28b; Eph. 4:13b). We have to mature with Christ in full growth.
C. The Hope of Glory
1. Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
Christ is in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Christ is not only life to us today but also our glory in the future. Our hope is for our body to be saturated with Christ’s glorious, splendid element. This will be the redemption of our body, the transfiguration of our body.
2. The Hope of Our Calling
The hope of our calling (Eph. 1:18b; 4:4b) is the hope of glory, which is the transfiguration of our body and the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19, 23-25). The Lord did not give us or allow us to have any other hope on this earth. Our hope is that we will be transfigured in our body, redeemed to the uttermost.
D. Every Necessity and All the Enjoyment
Christ is every necessity and all the enjoyment.
1. Our Light
Christ is our light. John 8:12 says that He is the light of the world and that everyone who follows Him shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.
2. Our Food
Christ is also our food. In John 6 He told us that He is the living bread and that if we eat Him, we shall live because of Him (vv. 51, 57b).
3. Our Drink
According to 1 Corinthians 10:4, Christ is our spiritual drink. In the Christian race, we should not drink anything other than the all-inclusive Christ as our all-inclusive drink.
4. Our Breath
Christ is our very breath. John 20:22 shows that Christ breathed Himself into the disciples. We need to breathe Him in moment by moment by calling on His name.
5. Our Clothing
Christ is even our clothing. Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” To put on Christ is to wear Christ as our clothing.
6. Our Dwelling Place
Christ is also our dwelling place, our abode (John 15:7a).
7. Our Enjoyment and Rest
Christ is our enjoyment and rest (Col. 2:16-17; Matt. 11:28). According to Colossians 2:16-17, He is our food, our drink, our feast, our new moon, and our Sabbath. He is the body of all the shadows, the reality of every positive thing in the universe for our enjoyment.
E. The Divine Provision
1. Power
As the divine provision, Christ is God’s power to us (1 Cor. 1:24a) for carrying out and accomplishing what He has planned and purposed.
2. Wisdom
Christ is also wisdom to us from God (1 Cor. 1:24b; 30b). Day by day we need Christ to be wisdom to us. Christ as wisdom should unceasingly flow from God to us to be our present and practical wisdom in our experience.
3. Righteousness
Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30b). He is the righteousness by which we have been justified by God so that we may be reborn in our spirit to receive the divine life. Furthermore, as our subjective righteousness, Christ is the One dwelling in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and that is always acceptable to God.
4. Sanctification
Christ Himself is our sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30b). This means that Christ is the element that produces transformation. Apart from Him we cannot have the element that, when added to our being, produces a metabolic change.
5. Redemption
According to 1 Corinthians 1:30, Christ is even our redemption, that is, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23). As the One who is our redemption, Christ “will transfigure the body of our humiliation, conforming it to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21).
CHRIST TO THE CHURCH
Now we want to point out five items of Christ’s being to the church.
A. The Head of the Body, the Church
We have already seen that, according to Colossians 1:18, Christ is the Head of the Body, the church.
B. The Body of the Head
Christ is not only the Head of the Body but also the Body of the Head (1 Cor. 12:12). Because He is the all-inclusive One, He is the Head and He is the Body.
C. The Foundation of the Church
Christ is the foundation of the church (1 Cor. 3:11). As the church’s living foundation, He holds, supports, and dispenses Himself into every part of God’s building.
D. The Cornerstone of the House of God, the Church
Christ is also the cornerstone of the house of God, the church (Eph. 2:20). As the cornerstone of God’s building, He joins together the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers.
E. All the Members of the New Man
We may wonder how the church as the Body of Christ can be Christ and how Christ can be all the members of the new man. In our experience, this depends upon who lives. If we live alone by ourselves, we are not Christ. If we live Christ, letting Christ live in us, then we live in Him, and we are Christ. I have seen some wives who really lived their husbands. They did things according to the index of their husbands’ eyes. When they lived in such a way, they were their husbands because they lived their husbands. If the church lives Christ, the church is Christ. If we all live Christ, we are Christ. The Christian life should be like this.
GOD’S NEW TESTAMENT ECONOMY BEING LIKE A GREAT WHEEL,
HAVING CHRIST AS ITS EVERY PART
We pointed out that according to the picture presented in Ezekiel 1, God’s New Testament economy is like a great wheel, having Christ as its every part.
A. The Hub—the Center
Christ is the hub, the center, of God’s New Testament economy. Colossians 1:17 says that “all things subsist together in Him,” which means to exist together by Christ as the holding center, just as the spokes of a wheel hold together by the hub at their center.
B. The Spokes—the Support
Christ is also the spokes, the support, of the great wheel of God’s New Testament economy.
C. The Rim—the Circumference
Furthermore, He is the rim, the circumference. This means that God’s entire New Testament economy and His move in His economy are just Christ.
CHRIST BEING THE REALITY OF EVERY SECTION OF THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY
A. In the Fulfilling of the New Testament Priesthood of the Gospel
Christ is the reality in the fulfilling of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). In whatever way we preach the gospel by reaching people where they are, we must be filled with Christ and minister Christ to people. Christ is the content and the reality of our gospel preaching.
B. In the Feeding of the New Believers in Their Homes
Christ is also the reality in the feeding of the new believers in their homes (John 21:15). When we go to the new ones’ homes to feed them, that must be Christ’s going. It is not just that we go with Christ but that Christ Himself is going in our going. Furthermore, we feed the new ones with Christ. Christ is the food which we serve to the new ones. After every feeding, Christ is added into the new ones.
C. In the Perfecting of the Saints in the Group Meetings
Christ is the reality of the perfecting of the saints in the group meetings (Eph. 4:12; Heb. 10:24-25). Our fellowship, our prayer, our care, our shepherding, our help, and our mutuality in the group meetings must be Christ. This can only take place when we live Christ.
D. In the Building Up of the Church, the Body of Christ,
by Prophesying in the Bigger Meetings
Finally, Christ is the reality in the building up of the church, the Body of Christ, by prophesying in the bigger meetings of the church (1 Cor. 14:3-5). In our prophesying, the content must be Christ. To prophesy is not only to speak for the Lord but also to speak forth the Lord and to speak the Lord, to speak Christ, for the building up of the Body of Christ.
If we live a life full of Christ, we will only make demands on ourselves, not on others. We should not put demands on others, but only on ourselves. Suppose some saints love the recovery, yet they are bothered about being immersed, and they do not want to be immersed. If we cannot receive them with full harmony, we do not know what it means to keep the oneness. According to Romans 14, we need to receive all the believers according to God’s receiving and not according to doctrinal concepts.
We saw in the previous message that only two things are considered as heresy—the denial of Christ’s person and the making of divisions. Besides these two things, we have to learn to tolerate, to embrace, all the things with which we may not agree. There is no excuse for anyone to make a division. We must learn to keep the oneness and learn to live Christ. Again I say that we should not put demands upon others. We should only put demands upon ourselves. We have to be so strict to live Christ all the time in everything. (Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, msg. 18)