Scripture Reading: Eph.1:17-18, 22-23; 4:16; Matt. 16:18; 18:17; 1 Cor. 12:12-13
Ⅰ
The church is the heart's desire of God; the desire of God in this age is tohave the church—Eph. 1:5, 9, 22-23:
A
The church is the hidden mystery in God's eternal economy—vv. 11, 22-23; 3:4,9-11; Col. 2:2.
B
According to Ephesians 3:9, there is a relationship between creation and thechurch; God's intention in His creation of all things, including man, was thatman would be mingled with God to produce the church—Rev. 4:11; Rom. 12:2.
C
Concerning God's purpose for the church in the economy of God, there are threemain items:
１
God's purpose for the church is that the church would have the sonship andthat God would be expressed through many matured sons—Eph. 1:5:
ａ
God's eternal purpose is to work Himself in Christ into us so that He maybe thoroughly mingled with us and expressed through us—3:16-17, 21.
ｂ
We were predestinated, marked out, by God to be sons of God before wewere created; hence, as God's creatures, we need to be regenerated by Himthat we may have His life to be His sons—1:5; John 3:3, 6.
ｃ
Sonship implies having not only the life of a son but also the position ofa son; God's marked-out ones have the life to be His sons and the positionto inherit Him—Rom. 8:14-15, 17, 29; Heb. 2:10.
２
God's purpose for the church is to make His wisdom known to the enemyand to deal with His enemy through the church—Eph. 3:10; Gen. 1:26:
ａ
The church is the means through which God's multifarious wisdom ismade known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies—Eph. 3:9.
ｂ
The church in the economy of God is God's greatest boast in makingknown His multifarious wisdom for the shame and defeat of His enemy—v. 10; Rom. 16:20.
ｃ
We need a vision of how the Lord will use the church to defeat His enemyand recover the earth—Gen. 1:26-27; Rev. 11:15; 12:10.
３
God's purpose for the church is to head up all things in Christ through thechurch—Eph. 1:10, 22:
ａ
Verse 22 reveals that this heading up is to the church so that the churchmay share in all that is of Christ as the Head.
ｂ
The church is for the heading up of all things in Christ through the workingof Himself into us as life that we may be full of light—vv. 10, 22-23.
ｃ
The church is built up by this life, and we are under the control of thelight of life under Christ's headship—4:15-16; John 8:12; Col. 1:13.
D
The church is both universal and local—Matt. 16:18; 18:17.
E
We need to be captured by the vision of the church and pay the price to begoverned by this vision and live according to it—Acts 26:18a; Rom. 12:2.
Ⅱ
After we have seen the vision of the church, we need to see the vision ofthe Body—Eph. 1:17-18, 22-23; 4:16; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:13, 27:
A
The Body of Christ is the intrinsic significance of the church—Eph. 1:22-23:
１
The church of God is the frame, and the Body of Christ is the organism:
ａ
If there were no Body, the church would have no meaning.
ｂ
Without the Body, the church makes no sense, but with the Body, thereis the intrinsic significance of the church.
２
If we consider ourselves as individual churches or as individual believers,we are through; we should consider ourselves as one Body—Rom. 12:4-5.
B
The Body of Christ is a divine constitution of the Triune God with the believersin Christ—Eph. 4:4-6:
１
The Father, the Son, the Spirit, and man are blended and built together tobecome the Body of Christ, a four-in-one corporate organic entity—vv. 4-6.
２
The building up of the Body of Christ is the constitution of the Triune Godand the tripartite man in the Spirit of God and the spirit of man—1 Cor.6:17; Rom. 8:16.
３
The Body of Christ is an organism, both divine and human, to expressChrist—Eph. 1:23.
C
The Body of Christ is the means for God to carry out His administration—Rom.12:4-5; Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 25, 27:
１
The Body of Christ is thoroughly and absolutely related to God's administration;apart from the Body of Christ, God has no means, no way, to carry outHis administration.
２
God's eternal purpose is to have a group of saved and regenerated peoplewho have become one to be an organic Body to carry out His administration—Eph. 3:10-11; 4:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-13, 27.
３
The Body of Christ, the church, is for Christ's move on earth; the Head isnow operating God's administration through the Body—11:3; 12:12.
D
The Body of Christ is the corporate Christ—vv. 12-13:
１
In verse 12 the Christ refers not to the individual Christ but to the corporateChrist, the Body-Christ.
２
The corporate Christ is composed of Christ Himself as the Head and thechurch as His Body with all the believers as His members—Acts 9:4.
３
All the believers in Christ are organically united with Him (Rom. 12:4-5) andconstituted with His life and element (Col. 3:4, 11) and have thus becomeHis Body, an organism to express Him; hence, Christ is not only the Headbut also the Body—the corporate Christ—1 Cor. 12:12.
E
The unique Body of Christ, the universal church, is expressed in many localitiesas the local churches—Col. 4:15-16; Eph. 4:4; Rev. 1:4, 11:
１
The one Body is the one church of God, manifested as many local churches—Matt. 16:18; 18:17; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 1:2.
２
A local church is an expression of the Body of Christ in a certain locality—v. 2; 10:32b, 17; 12:12-13, 20, 27.
３
The local churches are many in existence but are still one Body universallyin element; the local churches are and should be one Body universally, doctrinally,and practically—Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16; 14:33; 16:1.