FIVE EMPHASES IN THE LORDS RECOVERY CHAPTER ONE THE ONENESS OF THE BODY OF CHRIST Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:6, 5, 4; 1:22-23; John 17:2-3, 6, 11-12, 26, 8, 14, 17-21, 22-24, 1-3; Eph. 4:1-3; 1 Cor. 1:13, 10-12; 12:25a; 11:19; Rom. 16:17; Titus 3:10 My burden in these messages concerns five important emphases in the Lord’s recovery: the oneness of the Body of Christ, Christ, the Spirit, the church, and the God-ordained way. In this chapter we want to see the oneness of the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4 and John 17 reveal that the oneness of the Body of Christ is divine. It is neither natural nor human, but something of God and something that even is God. This oneness is also organic, not humanly organic but divinely organic. The oneness of the Body of Christ is of God and also of life. This life is not the human, created life, but the divine, uncreated life. Therefore, the oneness is divinely organic and full of life. We need to be impressed with these two points: the oneness of the Body of Christ is divine, and it is divinely organic. ONE GOD AND FATHER, ONE LORD, ONE SPIRIT, ONE ORGANISM—THE BODY OF CHRIST AS THE CHURCH OF THE TRIUNE GOD Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” These verses reveal that there is one God and Father, one Lord, one Spirit, and one organism—the Body of Christ as the church of the Triune God. The issue of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is the organic Body of Christ, which is the living church of the living God. The oneness of the Body of Christ is actually the triune, organic, and living God Himself. The Uniqueness of the Triune God The oneness of the Body of Christ is unique because it is a oneness in the uniqueness of the Triune God. Paul speaks of the Triune God in Ephesians 4:4-6 by saying that there is one God and Father, one Lord, and one Spirit. The apostle Paul’s reference to one God and Father indicates that the Father is the very source of our oneness in nature and in life. Ephesians 1 shows that God the Father has chosen us to be holy for sanctification and has predestinated us for sonship (vv. 4-5). In order for us to be holy, God must give us His holy nature. The nature of God is holiness itself. God gives us His nature of holiness to be our nature. Our being predestinated for sonship is a matter of life. For us to be God’s many sons, we must have God’s divine life. Therefore, God’s choosing and predestinating us indicate that He shares His holy nature and His divine life with us. By being chosen we have God’s nature, and by being made sons of God we have God’s life. Second Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature. In John 3:16 the Lord Jesus said that everyone who believes in Him has eternal life. As those who believe in Him, we have the divine life. The divine nature and the divine life are of God the Father. The divine nature is included in the divine life. If there is no life, there is no nature. The divine nature is a nature of life. Therefore, when we receive the divine life, we have the divine nature. When we are enjoying and partaking of the divine nature, we are also experiencing the divine life. These two things can never be separated. God the Father as the source of the divine oneness has become our nature and life. Paul said in Ephesians 4 that there is one God and Father and that there is one Lord, the Son. The one Lord refers to the element of the divine nature and the divine life. In the divine life and divine nature is the divine element. Any kind of substance has a certain element. A stand made of steel has steel as its element. The element of the divine life and nature is Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and this embodiment is the element. Within the element there is the essence. Grape juice is the essence of grapes. The wine from grapes, the liquor, is sometimes referred to as the “spirit.” The spirit is the essence. God the Father is the source as our nature and life, God the Son is the element of this nature and life, and God the Spirit is the essence of the element. God the Father is within us (Eph. 4:6); Jesus the Son is within us (2 Cor. 13:5); and the Spirit is within us (Rom. 8:9-11). We need to realize that God desires to be the God in us. Because we love the heavens, we would like to be in the heavens with Him. God, however, does not love to dwell in the heavens. He loves to dwell in us, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). The Triune God today is within us. We may ask, “How do we know that God is in us?” Let me illustrate in this way. Perhaps this morning I was unhappy with a certain person and wanted to correct him in an impatient way. But the very God within me said, “Don’t do that.” Is this not evidence that God is in me? Where is Jesus today? Surely He has ascended to the heavens because Romans 8:34 says that He is at the right hand of God. But at the same time, Romans 8:10 says that He is in us. How could Jesus, on the one hand, be in the heavens, and on the other hand, be within us? Consider the example of electricity. The same electricity in the power plant is also in our home. Our Jesus today is in the heavens, and at the same time, He is in us as the Spirit. The Spirit within us is the essence of the oneness of the Body of Christ. Paul’s teaching about the oneness of the Body of Christ is based upon the oneness of the Triune God. We all have to keep the oneness of the Spirit because there is one God and Father as the source with His nature and life; one Lord, the Son, as the very element of the divine life with the divine nature; and one Spirit as the essence of the element of the divine nature and divine life. Since we have the Triune God within us as the source, the element, and the essence, we are one. We need to realize that we are all one. We are not one according to our race or culture, but we are one in the divine essence of the divine element of the divine nature and life. We need to see that the divine nature, the divine life, the divine element, and the divine essence are our oneness. Actually, our oneness is the subjective Triune God, not the objective Triune God. The subjective Triune God is our real oneness. In 1963 I wrote a hymn on the subjectiveness of Christ (Hymns, #537). Our Christ is not merely objective. If He were merely objective, He would have nothing to do with us. He is subjective to such an extent that He has made Himself one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17). He and we are one spirit. This oneness is altogether by the essential Spirit, who is the very essence of the Divine Trinity.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:36:15 +0000
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