Ⅴ
The desire of God’s heart is that the reality in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, would be duplicated in the many members of Christ’s Body by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ, the highest peak in God’s economy—Eph. 4:20-24, 3-4:
A
The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of reality, who is the Spirit of Jesus, mingled with our spirit; the Spirit of Jesus includes the reality in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus—John 16:13; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:19-21a.
B
When we live in the mingled spirit, we are learning Christ according to the reality in Jesus by the Spirit of reality according to His model in the four Gospels so that His biography becomes our history; the living of the Body of Christ as the new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus revealed in the four Gospels—Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18; Gal. 6:17-18; Rom. 1:1, 9; Phil. 2:5.
C
The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues—4:5-9.
D
The reality of the Body of Christ is the mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ—Lev. 2:4-5; Psa. 92:10; 1 Cor. 12:12; 10:17:
１
We use the word mingling because this living is still going on.
２
Such a mingling living is in the resurrection of Christ, and the reality of this resurrection is the Spirit; this resurrection imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers.
E
This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men consummates ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity—Rev. 21:2-3, 9b-11, 22.
Morning Nourishment
Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
[The] God-man, Jesus, was a genuine man, but He lived not by man’s life but by God’s life. To live such a life He had to be crucified. The crucifixion mentioned in the New Testament transpired on the wooden cross on Mount Calvary. But you have to realize that before Christ was there in the physical crucifixion, He was being crucified every day for thirty-three and a half years. Was not Jesus a human being, a genuine man? Yes. But He did not live by that genuine man. Instead, He kept that genuine man on the cross. Then, in the sense of resurrection, He lived God’s life. God’s life with all its attributes was lived within this God-man Jesus and expressed as this God-man’s virtues.
Such a life was there originally just in an individual man, Jesus Christ. But this life has now been repeated, reproduced, in many men who have been redeemed and regenerated and who now possess the divine life within them. All of them have been nourished, sanctified, transformed, and perfected not just to be matured Christians but to be God-men. The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 128-129)
Today’s Reading
To be perfected…is to be matured by continually exercising to reject the self and live by another life. This is according to what Paul says: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a). Paul lived by dying to live. He was dying to his natural man and living by his new man with the divine life. So he said that by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, he lived and magnified Christ (Phil. 1:19-21a).In Philippians 3 Paul says that he lived a life conformed to the death of Christ (v. 10). The death of Christ is a mold, and Paul put himself into that death-mold to be conformed there. On this man, Paul, all men could see the mark and the image of the cross…. His old life was conformed to the image of the death of Christ by the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power of resurrection strengthened him to live the life of a God-man. The Lord expects that many of us would be such ones.
The reality of the Body of Christ is not just a corporate living but a mingling living, … [a living that] is still going on. It is the mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ…. Such a mingling living is in the resurrection of Christ, and the reality of this resurrection is the Spirit. This resurrection imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers. Such a mingling living as the reality of the Body of Christ will consummate ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.
Anyone who lives such a mingling life would never be a trouble to anyone. They have been delivered out of themselves and have been transformed and perfected. They would not despise or condemn anyone, nor would they be bothered by others. They would not have anything to do with dissension, rebellion, or division. Instead, they would be here in the recovery as the high peak, Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 129-131)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 4