posted
The Body is a matter of being members one of another, but for the new man the requirements are even more than what the Body requires. In the new man there is only one mouth. I read Romans 15:6, which says, “That with one accord you may with one mouth glorify…God.” I felt that I did not understand this word. How could so many Christians come together and have only one mouth? I did not understand it at that time. One day, however, I saw that the church is one new man. How many mouths does a man have? It has one. Not only are we all members one of another, but we also all speak with one mouth. Do you see how much is required of us? It is already restricting enough to be members one of another, and now even when we speak, we all have to have one mouth. This is not my word; it is Paul’s word. How many mouths does the one new man have? One. Then who is the mouth? If you say that Christ is the mouth, you are too transcendent. In order to resolve this matter you must see that there is only one new man with only one person. In the whole body there is only one mouth, but who controls this mouth? It is the One Person who controls the mouth.
The church is not merely the Body but also the one new man. The Body needs Christ as its life, whereas the new man needs Christ as his person. When you want to speak, when I want to speak, when any one of us wants to speak, we must resolve the basic question: Who is the person that is speaking here? If you are the person, you have your own mouth. If I am the person, I have my own mouth. Thus, you have your mouth, and I have my mouth; therefore, there are two mouths. When each one is a person individually and each one speaks his own matters, we have many mouths. But, the church is the Body, and the church is the one new man. The Body has Christ as life, and the new man has Christ as a person. When you speak, it is not you who are the person; when I speak, neither is it I. When anyone speaks, it is to be Christ who is the person. Our speaking is to be by One and the Self Same Spirit. What is the result? The result is that there is only one mouth. This is why in 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul says that all “speak the same thing.” This verse greatly bothered me. I thought, “How could all Christians speak the same thing?” It seemed to me that this was impossible, but one day I understood. The church is the one new man with only one person, and this person controls our speaking, so whatever He speaks is surely “the same thing” that we all speak as the new man. Many in today’s Christianity are all their own persons, all have their own mouths, and all speak their own things. They speak there own opinions and their own thoughts and their own judgments. Therefore, they have many mouths, each speaking a different thing. However, the church is not like this. The church is the one new man with Christ as her person. Whenever the brothers and sisters are about to speak something, they do not take themselves as the person; instead, they allow Christ to be the person. You let Christ be your person when you speak, and I let Christ be my person when I speak. Eventually, everyone speaks the same thing. In 1 Cor 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In this verse the word "same" used three times is Strong's #846, the Greek for self, him, she, it. Self, in all the persons, i.e., myself, thyself, himself. The self being spoken of in this verse is the Lord Jesus Christ: "by (Greek; through) the name (Greek; also person) of our Lord Jesus Christ". That you all speak the (of) Him and there be no divisions among you; but ye be perfectly joined together in the (of) Him mind and in the (of) Him judgment. The oneness is the oneness in Him, that we would be one, in Him as He is in the Father, the oneness of the Spirit.
Consider the Bible. The Old and New Testaments contain sixty-six books written by more than forty different authors in many different places over a period of many many hundred years. Do they all have one mouth? Do they all speak the same thing? The entire Bible has one mouth and speaks the same thing or is the speaking of Him, even though it was written over a long period of time by many different people in many different places. It is by inspiration of God that these ones spoke. Our speaking in the church is to be by the Spirit. It is written some were let all men speak the Logos (oracles or Word) of God.
There is only one new man, and this one new man has only one person, so the one new man speaks with one mouth and says the same thing. In the new man there is no freedom to speak your own things. This is more limiting and restricting than being members one of another. Everyone knows that what limits you the most is the matter of speaking. If I cannot say this or that—whatever I like—then I am very much restricted, but if I can say whatever I want, then I am very free. However, in the church, in the Body of Christ, and especially in the new man, neither your natural man nor my natural man has freedom of speech. This is because we ourselves are not the persons. In the one new man there is only one person. Only this person has the freedom to speak, and our natural man has absolutely no freedom of speech. The Lord has the absolute freedom to speak, and I absolutely have no freedom to speak. We cannot allow the natural man to speak; we definitely must not allow it. Only the one person should speak. You have to consider “one mouth” in Romans 15:6 and “speak the same thing” or speak the of Him in 1 Corinthians 1:10 together with “one new man” in Ephesians 2:15. Speak what He is speaking. As the Lord's example speak only what you hear of the Father. Speak only what the Father is speaking. What you have received by the One and Self Same Spirit. Otherwise, you will never understand the first two verses. You may wonder how the entire church can have only one mouth and how millions of members can speak the same thing. Humanly speaking, this is absolutely impossible. However, we must see that in Romans 15, Paul was speaking of a local church. In a local church, there must be only one mouth. This is because there is only one person. In the past we had too many mouths because we had too many persons. When there are many persons, there are many ideas; when there are many ideas, there are many opinions, but we thank the Lord that now there is one mouth and one person here that speaks through us. There are no policemen here; each of us is absolutely free, but on the other hand, you have absolutely no freedom because within you there is another person. It is the no longer I, but Christ (the Anointing) that should live. The no longer I, but Christ (the Lord Spirit) that should speak. We may be about to speak, but something “pinches” us from within, telling us not to say anything. All we can say is, “Thank the Lord!” When we want to speak again, the Lord pinches us again, so you simply say, “Amen!” If the Lord did not pinch this one and that one, I tell you, the brothers and sisters would most certainly quarrel when they come together. There would be many parties among us. Some of Paul, some of Apollo, etc. Even some of Christ, but is Christ divided? Does Christ contradict Himself? There is one Christ, one Body, one Spirit, one Mouth, one who is to speak, one baptism in the one, etc. It is not I speaking, nor is it you speaking, nor is it he speaking, nor is it the brothers speaking, nor is it the sisters speaking; instead, everyone should say, “Lord, You speak!” To Christ (the Anointing), the Spirit, God be the glory and expression and image in the church, the body, the bride, the wife, the New Jerusalem, us, the many stones, the many vessels that form one body.
We should take Christ not only to be our life but also to be our person. We should not only eat His riches to take them in and assimilate them into our being; we should also allow Him to be our person. If you visit Christianity throughout all the world, you will not hear the phrase “taking Christ as the person.” This matter, however, is truly in the Bible because the church is the new man. Today this new man needs a person, and who is this person? It is Christ Himself. How do we know this? It is because Ephesians 3:17 says, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts.” If Christ wants to make His home in our hearts, does this not mean that He wants to be the person there? When you live in a house and make it your home, then you become the person of that house. Ephesians says more clearly than the other books that we must let Christ make His home in our hearts, and this is because He wants to be the person in us. This, however, does not mean that He is in you as your person, He is in me as my person, and He is in another one as his person. This is an improper understanding. I tell you that He is in all of us as one person. The person in you is the person who is in me. We all have only one person. Who is this person? This person is Christ.
Brothers and sisters, in the last days, we must see the Body and the new man. When we come to the end of the Bible, in Revelation 22, the Spirit and the bride appear. At the end the new man is a bride. The church’s experience in Christ definitely must arrive at this stage. First it is the Body, then it is the new man, and finally it is the bride. It is not as some say in Christianity, that the believers will be gathered into one place, and the Lord will change them instantly into His bride. Instead, today we must receive grace to see the Body, to see the new man, and finally to see the bride. The bride makes herself ready, overcomers overcome now. Overcoming is for now in this age, in your life time.
I hope that we can see something concerning the Body and the new man. The Body is a matter of life, and the new man is a matter of person. The Body is for moving; it is an instrument for action. Thus, it was in one Body that the Lord Jesus reconciled both the Jewish and Gentile believers to God. This reconciliation is a Body matter. In the past we thought that when you were saved, you were reconciled to God, and when I was saved, I was reconciled to God. In other words, we thought that we were individually saved and individually reconciled to God. This is an erroneous concept. We must see that we who were far off and separated from God were reconciled to God not individually but in a corporate instrument. What is this instrument? This instrument is the Body of Christ. In one Body both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers have been reconciled to God. This shows us that the Body is an instrument used by Christ. When we move, we move in our body. For example, when I came downstairs today, I did it in my body. As I speak to you now, I am doing it in my body. If I were not in my body, there would be no way for me to speak. All my actions are in my body. My body is an instrument for different actions. When the church preaches the gospel, this is an action, and this action is in the Body and is carried out by the Body. Our body is an instrument for moving. Our life needs to increase and grow in order that our body might be healthy and strong enough to meet the need of our moving.
Then what about the new man? The new man is not for moving; the new man is for decision-making and for living. As a human being you may not move at all, but you still must live. The Body is for moving, and the new man is for living. Concerning the new man, Ephesians 4:24 says that it was created according to God in righteousness and holiness. Righteousness and holiness are conditions of our living. Thus, living is entirely a matter of the new man. The new man is for living, and eighty to ninety percent of our living is in making decisions. Therefore, you can see two things: the church as the Body is for moving, and the church as the new man is for living by making decisions. On the one hand, the church is the Body of Christ, and we take Christ as our life to act, to work, and to bear responsibilities. On the other hand, the church is the new man, and we take Christ as our person to make plans and to decide on how we should live. Whether it is the Body or the new man, whether in working and moving or in living and in deciding, everything is corporate; nothing is individual. You must see that your living today is the living of the new man, a corporate living, and your decisions are corporate decisions and not your personal decisions. For example, you may be trying to decide and to conclude whether you should open a factory or become an educator. There is a kind of living here. If you see that you are a part in the new man, you will not want to decide by yourself as the person. You will want to take Christ as your person together with all the other parts in the new man. At this time, when you are about to make a decision concerning your human life, you will not take yourself as the person; rather, you will take Christ as your person in the new man to make the decision. When you live your life by taking Christ as your person, your living will be the living of the new man.
The living of the new man has two characteristics: one is righteousness and the other is holiness. Righteousness is according to God’s ways, and holiness is according to God’s nature. When all the things in your living, whether great or small, are exactly the same in their nature as God’s nature and exactly the same in their ways as God’s ways, then there is holiness and righteousness. However, this kind of living is not the individual living of sanctification referred to in Christianity. Rather, the kind of living meant here is that you live a life in the new man by Christ as the person and that He is the One who makes all the decisions in you. Thus, whatever is lived out is righteousness and holiness. This is not related to our move or work; it is related only to our living. This is the aspect of the new man. The other aspect is the Body. As the Body, we move. Christ is our Head, so we move, and our moving is not based on our own strength or our own life but upon Christ as our life and strength. As the Lord was our example; we only do what we see the Father doing, we can do nothing of ourselves, we are lead by the Spirit, if we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit. Furthermore, our move is not as individuals. It is many individuals moving by One, doing what One is doing, speaking what One is speaking, working the works of One. We do not have individual expression, but we have One expression in many individuals. Not individualism, but individual expression. These two matters show that we cannot be individualistic. We must see that we are a corporate Body, and we are a corporate new man. Our living is corporate, and our moving is corporate. In our moving we take Christ as our life, and in our living we take Christ as our person. In the Body, Christ is our life, and in the new man, Christ is our person. In the Body we are members one of another, and in the new man we all have one mouth to speak the same thing. This is the church. This is Christ glorified in the church.
Email this page to someone.
