LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Personal Christ and the Corporate Christ
Ephesians 1:22-23 tells us: "And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all". And Hebrews 2:8 also says the same thing: "You put all things under his feet. For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him".
The book of Ephesians reveals to us the finished work, the glory of the church, the mystery of Christ, his unfathomable riches. Everything is subject to Christ as Ephesians shows us, but in Hebrews, at the end of verse 8 and the beginning of verse 9 of the same chapter 2, the Lord shows us our reality when He says: "...but we do not yet see that all things are subject to Him. But we see...".
One thing is what the Lord consummated, and the other is what we have already fulfilled in us. One is Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of the living God, the one who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, with a name that is above every name, and the other is the church being built up, sanctified, purified by him (Eph. 5:25-26).
The personal Christ is ready, with all things subdued under his feet; the corporate Christ is not yet. The head enjoys the fullness of that subjection, but his Body does not. The personal Christ already enjoys victory in its fullness; the corporate Christ does not yet: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Rev. 3:21).
On the other hand, Christ already fully knows His church, and He also knows what it needs to be edified. He cares for each member of his church until it comes to the fullness of his knowledge. He knows us, and one day we will know him as we are fully known by him: "...until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
The Father's purpose from before the foundation of the world was fully completed in Christ, and He is now completing this work by His Spirit in the whole Body, so that this Body may attain that which was attained by Christ: "...I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12).
For this, the Lord made us one with him. One body, one Spirit, one hope of our vocation, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in all. We need a renewed mind, not only to see what is consummated in the personal Christ, but also for what is still lacking in the corporate Christ.
All the work of God today is concentrated in the corporate Christ, so that he may come to have all that the head has. May the Lord give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him.