The Church- The Goal of Our Salvation
The Lord said, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (v. 18). Peter means “a stone.” For the building up of the church, there is the need of living stones (1 Pet. 2:5). The first time Peter was brought to the Lord by his brother Andrew, the Lord Jesus immediately gave him a new name. He said, “You shall be called Cephas (which is interpreted, Peter)” (John 1:42). At one time we were pieces of clay. But Jesus told Peter, “You are a stone, and I am the rock. I am the foundation stone, and you are a piece of stone for the building up of the church. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against this church that I will build.”
If we are stones, we have to ask, “Where is the building up?” Piling many pieces of stone together does not make a building. Is there a real building among us? If you feel that there is some friction between you and some other saints in the church, that means you have not been built in. Once a piece of stone has been built in, there is no friction. To be built into the church, God’s building, is our destiny and even our destination for eternity.
The Lord’s word in Matthew 16:18 is not a prophecy that will be fulfilled in the next age and in heaven. Now is the time for the church to be built. We are living stones, and the Lord wants to use us as the material for His building. But we have to ask, “Have we been built up with others?” In his first Epistle, Peter said, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (2:5). This is all that we need today.
Life is Christ, and growth is the increase of life, so the growth of life is the increase of Christ within us. Man is a tripartite being, having a spirit, soul, and body.... When we were first saved, Christ came as a small seed into the innermost part, our human spirit, but He did not yet fill our soul. Now He needs to increase, and this increase is the growth of Christ as life. We can never build up the church in the way of an organization. Regardless of how strong an organizing hand may be, that hand can never build the church. The church can be built up only by the increase of Christ within us, that is, by the growth of life. The more we grow in Christ, the more we will grow into the building.
All the brothers and sisters have the one Christ within them, but the Christ in each of them can be separated by the two “outer circles,” the two layers of the soul and the flesh. If this is the case, there is no real relatedness between the saints. The Christ in one brother longs to be joined with the Christ in another brother, but the layers of the soul and flesh become a wall to separate their portions of Christ. Only the growth, spreading, and increase of Christ within them can overcome this separation. For Christ to increase in us means that Christ takes the ground in us and spreads within us to saturate not only our soul but eventually even our body (Rom. 8:6, 10-11).
Although Christ has come into our spirit, we may still have no relatedness with others. This is because even though Christ may have overcome one brother’s problems, another brother may still have his problems. One brother may have genuine spirituality, but if the other brother has not given the ground to Christ, there can be no relatedness between them. When one day this brother loves the Lord, not according to his religious way or point of view but according to a heavenly vision, he will give the ground to Christ. Then Christ will saturate him and increase and spread within him. Then the two brothers can be genuinely related. The relatedness between them will be the spreading Christ, the very Christ who takes over their entire being. This is the genuine building up. The building up of the saints in oneness depends absolutely on the increase of Christ within them. This relatedness is nothing less than Christ Himself. Therefore, the building up of the church is Christ Himself.
How much we are built up depends on how much we have the increase of Christ within us. This increase of Christ depends on the decrease of the self. Christ must increase, and we must decrease. We can never be built up in our natural life. There is no need to point out the impossibility of Chinese, Japanese, British, French, and Americans being built up together in the self. Even Americans from different regions of the country cannot be built up in the self. Similarly, there is no need to say that different races cannot be built up together. Even brothers of the same race from the same place cannot be built together, because each one has his own particular disposition. A brother cannot be built up even with his own wife. There is no relatedness in ourselves. In ourselves there is only separation and individualism. The real relatedness, oneness, and building up is Christ Himself. When Christ overcomes, conquers, defeats, and takes full possession of us, He can join Himself to the Christ in others.
We should not consider that we can be one by having the same understanding of doctrines. I observed a small Brethren group in which all the people had the same understanding of doctrines. They were all of one mind concerning the tribulation and the rapture. However, almost every week they fought with one another. In another place, however, I observed a different situation. Certain dear ones were not one in doctrine, yet they were very related in Christ. Some of them preferred to baptize by immersion in water, but others preferred sprinkling. However, they could still testify that they were one. Satan knows where there is oneness, and he hates it. Nevertheless, we are in this oneness. Although we may be of different minds as to doctrine, we have a wonderful oneness in the spirit.
We can never be one in our natural disposition. Everyone is peculiar in his disposition, but praise the Lord, He can defeat us! He can conquer us and take possession of us. As long as He can do this, there is the genuine oneness among us. This relatedness between us is nothing less than Christ Himself who conquers us.