THE CHURCH BEING THE PRODUCT
OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
Ephesians 1:19-23 tells us that when Christ was resurrected, the power to raise Him up was surpassingly great. That power surpasses everything. It surpasses the tomb, Hades, and death. Such a surpassing great power uplifted Him to the heavens, subjected everything under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things for the purpose of producing the church. Thus, the church is the product of Christ’s surpassing resurrection. When we were regenerated two thousand years ago, the church also was produced. If we were to speak about these things to some, they may feel that we are dreamers. Actually, we are not dreamers, but we are talking about matters in another universe. This universe is not the natural universe, but the universe of resurrection. We do not belong to the universe of nature, but to the universe of resurrection. The church is the product of Christ’s resurrection, the result of the life dispensing. The church is altogether not natural, but purely a matter in resurrection. When we live by our natural life in a natural way, we are no longer the church because the church is absolutely a matter in resurrection.
The church was not created by God but resurrected by God. In Genesis 2 God did not create Eve; He only created Adam. Adam was created, but Eve was resurrected. Adam was created by God, but God did not create a wife for him. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam (Gen. 2:21). In the Bible sleep signifies death (1 Thes. 4:13; John 11:11-14; 1 Cor. 11:30). Then God opened up Adam’s side and took one of his ribs and builded this rib into a wife for Adam. When Adam awoke, he saw a wife. This wife was not something in creation but in resurrection. Something living came out of Adam and that was Eve. God used Adam’s rib to build a wife. This wife was not created but built in resurrection, and this wife is a figure of the church according to Ephesians 5. The church was not created by God but something resurrected out of Christ.
Just like Adam, Christ was "put to sleep" on the cross and His side was opened. Out of the Lord’s pierced side came blood and water. The blood is for redemption to take care of the fall. The rib out of Adam’s side signifies the unbreakable eternal life, and the water out of the Lord’s side also signifies the eternal life. The bone of Adam typifies the divine life that is also signified by the water flowing out of Christ’s side. None of the Lord’s bones were broken on the cross (John 19:36). This signifies that His divine life cannot be broken. His physical life was killed, but nothing could break His divine life which flows out to produce the church. With the rib, God builded a wife, and with the flowing water, God produced the church. Thus, the church is not something created by God but something produced in the resurrection of Christ. Since the church is altogether a matter in resurrection, we must abandon all our natural ways to do things, and abandon our natural life.
The church is in resurrection, and the church is one with Christ just as Eve became one with Adam. They two became one flesh, and Christ and the church became one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Paul refers to the matter of Christ and the church as the great mystery (Eph. 5:32). The church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4) is the result of the divine life dispensing. Through the surpassing resurrection of Christ, the life of God in Christ has been dispensed into all His believers, thus producing the church. Praise the Lord for the resurrection of Christ, through which we were regenerated and the church was produced!
(The Divine Economy, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
