CHAPTER EIGHT

KNOWING THE CHURCH AS THE NEW MAN 
AND 
TAKING CHRIST AS OUR PERSON
(1) 

THE CHURCH BEING THE BODY AND THE NEW MAN

In this chapter we will fellowship concerning the church as both the Body and the new man. We need to put on the new man (Eph. 4:24). This is the church life.

God’s intention in creating man was to gain a group of people on earth who have His image and likeness in order to express Him and represent Him. God does not want to gain individuals to express Him; rather, He desires to gain a corporate man for His expression. Ephesians says that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23). Hence, the church does not refer to many individual believers. The church is the Body, and the Lord is the Head of this Body, which is His fullness. The Lord needs a Body as His fullness for His expression. The church is not only the Body but also the new man (2:15-16).

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 
THE BODY AND THE NEW MAN

There is a significant difference between the Body and the new man. The emphasis in the Body is on life; the Body is an organ, not an organization. My physical body is an organ—it is not my person. My whole being includes not only my body but also the person within my body. Within my body there is not only life but also my person. Something that possesses life does not necessarily have a person. For example, a tree has life, but it does not have a person, because it does not have consciousness or a mind, emotion, and will. However, a man not only has a body with life; he also has a person. The church as the Body is a corporate entity with Christ as its life, and the church is also the new man with Christ as its person.

Ephesians 3:17 speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts. [188] We are God’s temple, His dwelling place (2:21-22). God desires to dwell in us not only to be our life but also our person. Just as we each have a person, so the church as a great corporate man also has a person. A Christian who knows that the church is the Body of Christ is advanced. In the past many believers thought of the church as a place for worship. This is superficial and low. In the early days of the recovery the Lord showed us that the church does not refer to a physical building; rather, the church is composed of all His believers. Later the Lord showed us that the church is not composed of individual believers; the church is a corporate man. The church is composed of a group of believers who are coordinated and built up to become a living Body.

Later, the Lord gave us further revelation to see that the church is not only the Body but also the new man. Ephesians 1:22-23 says that the church is the Body of Christ. Then 2:15 says, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.” The Lord created Jewish and Gentile believers in Himself into one new man. The new man cannot be an individual, because this verse says that the new man was created with two categories of believers: Jewish and Gentile. Hence, the new man is a corporate man. According to verse 16, these two categories were reconciled in “one Body to God.” The new man in verse 15 is the Body in verse 16. In chapter 1 the Body is the church, and in chapter 2 the Body is the new man. In the above verses the church, the Body, and the new man refer to the same entity. The church is the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the one new man. We are not only one Body but also one new man. For the one Body, life is needed, but for the one new man, a person is needed in addition to life.

THE CHURCH BEING THE NEW MAN 
INDICATING THAT CHRIST IS OUR PERSON

Our Old Man Having Been Crucified with Christ

The church is the new man. This means that Christ is not only our life but also our person. Christ is making His home in our hearts with the desire to be not only our life but also our person. Our old man has been crucified with Christ. Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him,” and [189] Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Our old man has been crucified with Christ, and now it is no longer our old man who lives, but it is Christ who lives in us. He desires to be our life and also our person. Christ as our person is deeper than Christ as our life.

Receiving Christ Not as Power but as Our Person

May the Lord have mercy on us and lead us into this new experience. When we dealt with our temper in the past, we would ask the Lord for power to overcome our temper. However, now that we have received Christ as our person, we do not need to be concerned about the way to overcome our temper. It does not matter whether or not our old man lost his temper or whether he was meek or irritable. These things are over. Christ is now our person. Hence, whether or not we lose our temper should not be our focus. Our focus should be to let Christ be our person. We need to live by Christ.

Our focus is not whether we lose our temper but whether we take Christ as our person. Our focus is not whether we love or hate others. Our focus is to take Christ as our person. In the past we would ask the Lord to give us the ability to love others. Such a prayer does not seem wrong; however, it is religious. As Christians, we know that we should love others, but since we are unable to do this, we depend on the Lord as our power, our ability, to love others. This is to ask the Lord to help us live by our old man as our person. In other words, we are still living by our old man, who is still here and is incapable of doing good but quite capable of doing evil things. Such prayers ask the Lord to empower us to do good and to reject evil. However, whether we did good or evil, we were still the person. Formerly we were the person who did evil, but now we are the person who does good. The only difference is that we now need the Lord Jesus to help us. This means that we receive Him as power, but we do not receive Him as our life and our person.

Consecration Being to Yield to the Lord

We need an absolute consecration of handing ourselves over to the Lord and yielding our person to Him so that He can be our person. We should say, “Lord, I do not care about hating or loving others. I resign. I do not want to focus on loving or hating others. I retire. Not only so, I am already buried. I want You to be my [190] person.” If we are willing to do this, our Christian life will be simple. It is not that we hate or love others, it is not that we are meek or irritable, and it is not that we are humble or proud. We have been crucified with Christ on the cross. We are finished. We have taken Christ as our person, and we have let Christ live in us. Christ will not only live in us but will also make His home in us. The issue of taking Christ as our person is the practical church life.

THE REALITY OF THE CHURCH BEING 
CHRIST AS OUR PERSON

The reality of the church is Christ as our person. The result of your person being Christ and my person being Christ is oneness. We are one because we have the same person in us. However, if we are still in our old man, our natural man, we are not taking the same One as our person. I am an elderly man from northern China, and this is a young man from Taiwan. The people in northern China have their own particular characteristics, and the Taiwanese have theirs. Elderly people tend to be old-fashioned, but younger people also have peculiarities. Such differences make it difficult for us to be one Body and to be one man.