THE POWER WROUGHT IN CHRIST PRODUCING THE CHURCH
God is too great; He is unlimited. We count time by days, but God does not. To Him a thousand years are like one day (2 Pet. 3:8), and one day is like a few moments. God created the universe, and then He accomplished an all-inclusive death on the cross, producing the church. God was happy, but He still had to do something in time. Therefore, God sounded out the gospel to the whole earth. We heard the gospel and believed. Many Christians cannot explain why they believed, but once they believed, they could not give up their faith. I myself tried to forget about Jesus, but I never could do it. Some people say that to believe is just a superstition, but we cannot help believing.
This believing ability is the power of Christ applied to us. Ephesians 1:19-22 speaks of the surpassing greatness of His power, “which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.” These verses reveal a fourfold power: resurrecting power, transcending power, subduing power, and overruling power. All this power is to the church.
When we believed in Jesus, we were joyful and peaceful, but much more than this, a kind of power was transmitted into us. Why did we believe? It is because a power was transmitted into us. We could not escape. We may say that our believing into Christ made us happy, but even if we were weeping, we would still have to believe into Him because a kind of power came into us. This is the power that resurrected Christ from the dead, the power that raised Him to the heavenlies, the power that subjected all things under His feet, and the power that made Christ Head over all things to the church. This is why, in a sense, our believing in Jesus does not depend on us. Some of the young ones may want to give up, at least in part, but this does not depend on them; God will never give up. A power from on high is constantly transmitting Him into us.
This power is not merely to save us from God’s judgment and hell. According to Ephesians, this power is to make us a living part of the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. We do not have to worry about eternal perdition. Because we are a part of the Body of Christ, God will never send us to the lake of fire. He will surely put His Body in the proper place. Therefore, we should be at peace, forget about heaven and hell, and focus on the church. The power which was wrought in Christ is being transmitted to us to make us a living part of the church. This is on one side.
On the other side, however, we must cooperate by removing any insulation which hinders the transmission of this power. The flow of electricity can be frustrated by even a little insulation. The power that was wrought in Christ is being transmitted to us, yet many times there is insulation within us. This is the reason that the power wrought in Christ does not seem to be very powerful in us. We must condemn this insulation and repent of it by making a confession, applying the blood to cleanse and wash away the insulation. If we do this, immediately we will have the sensation of something flowing within us. This is the current of the heavenly electricity. Then we will sense that we are under the empowering and that we are in the church and for the church.
(Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
