«　WEEK 3　DAY 3　»

　　Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

　　1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

　　God's unique purpose in this universe is to work Himself into man so that man may have His life and nature and that through His life and nature, man may be transformed inwardly (2 Pet. 1:3-4; 2 Cor. 3:18). Ultimately, God and man will be mingled together, and man will have the image of God (Rom. 8:29). The inward being of God will be the inward being of man, and God's glorious, outward appearance will be man's glorious appearance (cf. Rev. 4:3; 21:11). As a result, God and man will be exactly the same both outwardly and inwardly. (The Way for a Christian to Mature in Life, p. 36)

　　The church is the enlargement of Christ, the God-man, the One who is God mingled with man. When the church is in a normal condition, we can see God and man mingled together. On the day of Pentecost those in the church were uneducated, insignificant men, but we can see that they were mingled with the almighty God. When Peter and the eleven apostles stood up to speak, although it was Peter's voice, God was speaking. God was not merely among them; even more, He was mingled with them. They were inseparable from God. This is the church, the enlargement of Christ, the enlargement of the mingling of God with man and man with God.

　　Formerly, this mingling could be seen in only one person, but now it can be seen in millions of people. Formerly, this mingling involved only the Head, but now it has been enlarged to become the Body. With respect to time, this enlargement is extending; with respect to space, this enlargement is spreading.

　　If there is no mingling of God with man and man with God, there can be no church. Though many believers have God's life in them, this mingling is not seen in their living; the practical expression of the mingling of God and man is not among them. I believe it is easier for us to understand the Body of Christ from the perspective of the mingling of God and man. If there is the mingling of God and man, there is the Body and there is the reality. This reality is the expression of the Body.

　　God came to the earth to be mingled with man, in the man Jesus Christ. Hence, Jesus Christ is the beginning of the mingling of God and man. This mingling made the production of the Body of Christ, which is the church, possible. Christ is the Head of the Body, the church. The church is the enlargement of the principle of God being mingled with man. This enlargement results in the Body of Christ.

　　In the Gospels the mingling of God and man produced the Head, Christ. In Acts the enlargement of the mingling of God and man produced the Body of Christ. God mingled with the man Jesus, a Galilean, and this Jesus became the Head of the Body; God also mingled with many Galileans, and they became the Body of the Head.

　　The book of Acts is a record not merely of the activities of the apostles, but it is a record of the activities of the Body of Christ on earth. We need to connect Acts with the Gospels to see a complete man, the Head and the Body. This man is a mysterious, universal man, who is God yet man and man yet God. (The Church as the Body of Christ, pp. 39, 60-61, 59)

　　One of the most positive items in the New Testament revelation is the genuine oneness of the Body. This genuine oneness is just the processed Triune God, who mingles Himself with us, the redeemed and transformed Christians. The genuine oneness of the Body is nothing less than the Triune God.... This consummated, processed Triune God mingles Himself with His chosen people in their humanity, and this mingling is the genuine oneness. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, "Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2)," p. 359)

　　Further Reading: The Church as the Body of Christ, chs. 3, 5; CWWL, 1963, vol. 3, "The Building of God," chs. 1-2