First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body.” Again, this is something too profound and too deep. The Body today is just the church. This is an interchangeable term for the church. The church is the Body, and the Body is the church. The Body is something altogether in the Spirit. We all have been baptized in the Spirit, into one Body. In one Spirit, Peter, John, James, Paul, Stephen, Martin Luther, John Nelson Darby, Brother Watchman Nee, you, and I—we all have been baptized at the same time in the same place. Do not think that we were baptized at a different time or in a different place than Martin Luther or Peter.
We must all realize that the Body of Christ is the church. By baptism, the Body is produced, brought forth, and constituted. In this universe in the sight of God there is something wonderful called the baptism. Many Christians do not realize this universal baptism.
The Bible tells us that we the believers have all been crucified with Christ. Actually, that word crucified should be translated co-crucified. We all have been co-crucified with Christ when He was crucified at Golgotha. We were crucified and resurrected before we were born. We were even seated in the heavens before we were saved. This is the gospel. The glad tidings are that before we were born we were already crucified, terminated, and buried. Before we were born we were even resurrected. The good news tells us that before we were born, before we committed any sin, we were crucified, buried, terminated, resurrected, and in the heavens. After crucifixion we have resurrection, ascension, and baptism. He came down from His ascension to immerse all God’s chosen ones. This is baptism. We, the God-chosen ones, were all immersed in the crucified, resurrected, ascended, and descended Christ. We were immersed in the all-inclusive Christ for the Body. After He accomplished everything, He came down and immersed all God’s called ones. By this baptism, by this immersion, all God’s called ones have been baptized into one Body. Christ’s descension has immersed us into the Body.
We are not only enjoying Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, we are now experiencing His immersion. This means that we are experiencing His Body. Now we are no longer individual persons. We are members of His Body. By His immersion, we were made members of His Body. We are no more only men. We are members. So we all have to pray, “Lord, show us Your Body.” We were made a part of the Body in Acts 10. In the whole universe, there was a time when the ascended Christ came back to immerse all God’s chosen ones. Before we were born we were baptized and made members of the Body of Christ. We must forget about our mentality and believe the good tidings. We have to believe the good news. We are no more sinners, no more a complete entity, no more individual persons, but members of the Body. We all have been baptized into the Body because of this wonderful Spirit. Two thousand years ago we all were baptized in Him. With God there is no clock. There is no before or after. In the eyes of God there is no element of time. There is only the fact. In the whole universe there is the immersion, the baptism.
We have to realize that we, who believe in Christ, have all been immersed into the Body of Christ. How are we going to realize this? First Corinthians 12:13 says, “We were all baptized into one body...and were all given to drink one Spirit.” To realize what has been accomplished is to drink. Drinking has not been accomplished. Immersion has been accomplished, but drinking is our job. Immersion was Christ’s accomplishment, but drinking is our daily, hourly job. The simplest way to drink is to call on the Lord Jesus. If we call on the Lord Jesus for a few minutes, we will love Him more. Then we will desire to have the church life. Some may say that the church is not so good or so satisfactory. However, the more we say, “O Lord, the church is not so good,” the more the Lord says, “Go to the church.” We may say to the Lord, “I do not like the church.” The Lord says, “I like it; I love it so much.” No one can criticize, condemn, or accuse the church when calling on His name. When we called on the name of the Lord, we did not have the intention to drink Him, yet we drank.
Similarly as long as we get into the open air and shout, we breathe the air in. Whether we like it or do not like it, the air gets into us. This all-inclusive Spirit is here. When we believe in the name of Christ, we recognize all that He has accomplished. When we say, “Lord Jesus, we believe in You,” we do not know how much that implies. Just to say such a simple word is to sign a contract; it implies everything. This signature implies His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coming down to immerse His whole Body.
To drink is just to experience what Christ has accomplished. The more we drink of this one Spirit, the more we are saturated and permeated. Romans 12 tells us that we have to be transformed in our mind. To be transformed in our mind means that a new element comes in to replace the old. By transformation the element of God’s divine nature gets into us. The divine nature gets into our being and permeates our mind, not to change our mind, but to transform it. Hence, Ephesians 4:23 says that we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind. Our mind has been soaked with the Spirit, and the Spirit, which was separate from our mind, now becomes the spirit of our mind. By now our spirit has permeated our whole being. Our mind, emotion, will—the way we think, the way we love, and the way we make decisions—have all been permeated by this spreading spirit. So this spirit has become the spirit of our mind, the spirit of our emotion, and the spirit of our will. This is the full transformation and also the growth in life.
The more we are permeated, the more we are in the church life. The more we are soaked with all the divine attributes, the more we are in the Body. It does not mean much to say that we would like to be in the Body and that we are one. This is good to say, but it does not mean much. What counts is that we drink of the one Spirit by calling on His name. To drink is not to think. The more we think, the more we do not drink. To drink is just to call, to forget about our thinking and to forget about our mentality. We all have been baptized into this one Body and positioned to drink. Now we are drinking and drinking. Eventually, we can do everything, not by our self, but by what we have drunk. This is the church life. Hallelujah! Here we also have the building because the building is by such a drinking.
Eventually, Ephesians 3:17 tells us that Christ will make His home in our heart. He will take full possession of our whole being. This means that we are really one with Him. Then we can say that we are the church, we are the mystery of Christ, and we are parts of Christ in a mysterious way. Here is the testimony of Jesus. This is the church, and this is the Body life.
(The Two Great Mysteries in God's Economy, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)