Scripture Reading: Matt. 5:1; 28:19; 2 Cor. 6:14-16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Pet. 4:16
Ⅰ
We are disciples of Christ, those who are following and learning Christ according to the reality that is in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus— Matt. 5:1; 28:19; Eph. 4:20-24:
A
We are being discipled from being a natural man to being a God-man, living the divine life by denying our natural life, according to the model of Christ as the first God-man; this is to learn Christ and be taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind by the word of God so that we may become a new and corporate God-man—v. 23; Deut. 17:18-20.
B
To learn Christ is for us to be replaced with Christ by eating Christ; the reality that is in Jesus (the God-man living of the individual Jesus) becomes the reality of the Body of Christ (the God-man living of the corporate Christ) by our eating Christ to enjoy Christ as our energizing, empowering, and enabling supply so that we may choose and carry out the will of God for His glory in the church—John 6:57; Isa. 7:14-15; John 17:4; Heb. 5:8; Phil. 2:8; John 6:63; Jer. 15:16; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:5, 17; 12:2; 2 Cor. 5:14; Eph. 3:20-21.
C
We are learning Christ by being awakened by Him morning by morning so that we can have the ear and tongue of an instructed one to sustain the weary with a word; as the Lord's disciples, His instructed ones, we should trust in His name, rely on Him, and not generate our own light—Isa. 50:4-5, 10-11.
D
We are learning Christ as the One who is meek and lowly in heart, as the One whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, and as the One who gives us Himself as rest for our souls—Matt. 11:28-30.
E
We are learning Christ as our indwelling secret of sufficiency to express God's attributes by taking Christ's virtues, living Him for His magnification in every environment and circumstance—Phil. 4:5-13.
F
We are learning Christ as the One who desires mercy according to His loving and forgiving heart and His shepherding and seeking spirit—Matt. 9:12-13.
Ⅱ
We are believers in Christ, those who have life and live by the faith of the Son of God; faith annuls us and causes us to live God, express God, and minister God into people—2 Cor. 6:14-16; Rom. 1:17; Heb. 11:6; Gal. 2:20:
A
When man hears Christ, knows Him, appreciates Him, and treasures Him, He causes faith to be generated in man, enabling man to believe in Him; thus, He becomes the faith in man by which man believes in Him—Heb. 12:2.
B
Faith comes out of the hearing of the word; when we hear Christ and contact Him as the living word of God in the written word of God, He becomes the applied word as the Spirit dispensed into us to be our faith; thus, God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit mingled with our spirit is faith—Rom. 10:17; John 1:1; 5:39-40; 6:63.
C
The hearing of faith awakens our loving appreciation, and the more we love the Lord, the more faith operates to bring us into the riches, the profit, of the all-inclusive Spirit—Gal. 3:2, 5; 5:6.
D
When we contact God in Christ as the Spirit of reality in our spirit, God as faith increases in us; to practice the Body life, we must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith—Col. 2:19; Rom. 12:3.
E
It is only by the wonderful faith of Christ operating through the super-excellent love of Christ that we are able, in the current of the church's degradation, to become the overcomers whom the Lord is calling and desiring to obtain—Titus 3:15; Rev. 1:3-4; 2:4, 7; cf. Heb. 3:12-13; 4:2.
F
We believers live by faith in the following relationships with Christ:
１
Christ is the vine, and we are His branches—John 15:1-8.
２
Christ is the Head, and we are His members—1 Cor. 12:27.
３
Christ is the breath of life, the water of life, and the bread of life, and we are His breathers, drinkers, and eaters—John 20:22; 4:10, 14; 7:37-39a; 6:35, 51-63, 68.
４
Christ is the Bridegroom, and we are His bride—3:29; Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 19:7-9; 2 Cor. 11:2-3.
５
Christ is the Father of the orphans, and we are the orphans who have become His children, enjoying His care and deliverance, which imply His rescue and saving every day—John 14:18; Psa. 68:5-6; Isa. 9:6; 22:15-24; John 1:12-13; 14:10; Psa. 107:1-43; 110:4; Rev. 2:1, 7; Heb. 7:25; Rom. 5:10.
６
Christ is our Physician, and we are His patients, enjoying Him as our Healer to be our forgiveness, enjoyment, joy, satisfaction, and freedom— Exo. 15:23-26; Mark 2:1—3:6.
７
Christ is the light of the world, and we are His followers so that we may have the light of life and be His diffuser to spread the divine light—John 8:12; Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:12-16; 1 John 1:5, 7, 9; Rev. 21:23.
Ⅲ
We are saints of God, those who have been separated and made holy unto God—Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2, 30; cf. Num. 6:1-9:
A
We have been sanctified with His redeeming blood positionally—Heb. 13:12.
B
We are being sanctified with His holy nature dispositionally—2 Thes. 2:13; Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:26; 1 Thes. 5:23-24.
Ⅳ
We are Christians, Christ-men, those who are one with Christ, having Christ as our bountifully supplied contents in an organic union with Him to live Him for His magnification in our daily life—Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Cor. 4:7; Phil. 1:19-21a:
A
The goal of being a Christian and the destiny that God has ordained for us in His economy are for us walk by the Spirit in order to live Christ for God's glory, His expression—Gal. 2:20; 5:16, 25; 6:17; Isa. 43:7; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31.
B
Every Christian on this earth has a special journey that the Lord has assigned to him as a functioning member of Christ for the building up of His Body; every Christian has to take the journey himself; no one else can replace him, nor can he replace anyone else—Acts 13:22, 25, 36; 20:24; 1 Cor. 9:24; 12:14-22; 2 Tim. 4:7-8.