Recovery of the Reality of the Body of Christ

Revive Thy Work, CFP, white covers, 60-61, Watchman Nee

 

Around 1930 brother Sparks began to see the Biblical concept of the body. Subsequently he often spoke on the body of Christ. His release of such a message amounted to some 500 to 600 pages. Nevertheless, what he released was but words. The reality was yet to appear.

 

The Church of the Lord is a body. It is the product of our life in the Lord. That life is the Lord’s life which is also the life of the Son of God. Since the body comes from one life, the members ought to be coordinated. We cannot be independent. We are parts of the whole. It is like auto parts which, coming from various places, are assembled into a whole automobile. Today we need to see that the life we have in Christ is a body life. What we each possess is but a part of that one life. Therefore, we should not seek after personal edification before or ahead of body coordination. Individual building up actually grows out of the coordination of the body of Christ. If we ourselves see this fact, then all who are saved afterwards will themselves immediately see and enter into this fact. As soon as they are saved, they instantly commit themselves to the Church.

 

Today the gospel lacks authority because there is not the manifestation of the normal Church. In a normal local church, as soon as a person gets saved he is a committed one, for he has seen the body. Today too many people, after being saved, have not thoroughly consecrated their lives. Hence we need to return to the lessons of consecration. Due to the lack of a normal Church, we are unable to show the newly saved what is the normal condition of a local expression of the body of Christ. The obstacle stands in our way because we fail to give the remedial lesson. If today there are enough brothers and sisters standing on the ground of God’s complete redemption—namely, that upon being saved, believers are immediately wholly consecrated and fully committed—then the local expression of the Church will have the authority to witness for the Lord and bring people to the right standing from the first day of their salvation.

 

Recovery of the Truth of Resurrection

Revive Thy Work, 55-56

 

Following Mrs. Penn-Lewis, brother T. Austin Sparks saw resurrection in a clearer light. We ourselves have preached resurrection for a number of years, yet I am afraid we were not sure just what resurrection really is. Mrs. Penn-Lewis herself wrote two books on resurrection, but neither was clear on the matter. Not till 1926, when brother Sparks wrote on the subject in "The Overcomer" magazine did the world for the first time see what resurrection truly is. When Miss Margaret E. Barber and I saw the writings of brother Sparks, we were immediately captivated by their message. Many—including ourselves—have talked and preached about resurrection in the past, but the reality of resurrection was not truly known. But when brother Sparks spoke and wrote on resurrection, clear light was finally released.

 

What, then, is resurrection? Resurrection is life entering into death and coming out of death. In other words, what can die dies; what cannot die comes forth. It is that which death cannot swallow. And such is resurrection life.

 

Revive Thy Work, CFP, 81, Watchman Nee

 

When I was in England some ten years ago, brother Sparks asked me which chapter in the Bible I thought was most difficult to be fulfilled. I said the most difficult aspect to be fulfilled would be the perfecting of the saints as described in Ephesians 4. I explained to him that I was quite worried after reading this chapter of Ephesians. I had confidence in other chapters, but regarding this chapter I wondered how it could possibly be realized. For there seems to have been no way for such a fulfillment even after all these two thousand years of Church history. According to her present condition, this will probably not be fulfilled in the Church till after another two hundred years. In men’s eyes it seems that the Lord will never be able to return. Nevertheless, though indeed the visible Church is in a ruinous state, today’s issue rests on whether there is a group of people who will stand on God’s side and accept His riches, on whether such people are willing to pay any cost to obtain these riches.