WHAT THE CHURCH IS—FROM THE BIBLICAL POINT OF VIEW

   Let me take you back to Matthew 16:13 to 18, where the Lord got into conversation with His disciples about the matter of the church for the first time. In this deep conversation, the Lord Jesus disclosed His intention which is the central matter of His incarnation to us. He mentioned, “…On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” This reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ has the intention of calling people out from the world to Himself and imparting Himself into them and so become their content, their life, and their interest, thus they will be made capable of prevailing over sin and all the elements of the enemy. For this reason, He further said in John 12:24 that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. This shows that for our Lord Jesus Christ to successfully accomplish His purpose of building the church, He must first die and be victoriously raised from the dead (Acts 20:28b). Through His death and resurrection, He became the Life-Giving Spirit, in this way, He made it possible to draw people to Himself and impart Himself into them (First Corinthians 15:45).

    All who received Him, the Life-Giving Spirit into their human spirit are begotten of Him and so become children of the Most High God. These now have the potential to express Him in their daily living by having victory over sin and all the powers of the enemy. Hallelujah! This is what the church is, and this is exactly what the Lord is doing throughout the ages.

   It is clear that the church is the assembly of people who are born again, all of whose content is Christ and possess the Life of Christ. These are uniquely the people who can live out Christ and triumph over sin.

   The New Testament clearly unveils that the church is being built upon Christ Jesus who is the living rock and the revelation given by the Heavenly Father about Him. Behold, everything about the church is of Christ; the foundation of the church is Christ, the content of the church is Christ and the nature of the church is also Christ. Anything other than Christ is nothing but a complete opposite of what the Lord Jesus is building. In this vein, anyone whose content is not Christ is not a member of the church that Christ is building. Such a person may be among the call-out assembly; he may be known after them and even act like one of them, but the truth remains that as far as Christ is not dwelling in him, he is not part of the church. Not until he genuinely receives Christ and becomes regenerated, he is a false brother just as Apostle Paul stated in Galatians 2:4. Know this, my beloved brethren, the church is of Christ, it is for Christ, and it issued from Christ; for this very reason, its membership is of nothing else but to be borne by the Life of Christ!

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