One Flesh with Christ

One Flesh with Christ

“‘For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Eph. 5:31-32.

How true it is that this is a great mystery.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

Jesus began by doing and teaching. Acts 1:1. He lived God’s Word, which is why He is the true light, for the life is the light of men. The Word became flesh, and we saw His glory. There were many witnesses to the light before who had heard about the glory, but when Jesus came they saw it. The Word became flesh because He presented His body to do God’s will.

People say they cannot live according to God’s Word. But Jesus says that He gave His life for the life of the world, and unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood, you do not have life in you. Read John 6:51-55.

Jesus lived all God’s Word perfectly with a body like ours. He has given us God’s Word. He didn’t just speak it; He lived it. He has given us the Spirit—the power—by which He lived it; and unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we do not have life in us.

The Jews said, “How can we eat His flesh,” and this mystery seems to be just as great in our days.

“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.” V. 57.

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’” John 4:34. Jesus ate the Father by doing His will. This is how we are to eat Jesus. We eat Jesus by presenting our body to do God’s Word. By doing that, the flesh with its passions and desires has to go into death, and God’s Word becomes flesh in us. We become one spirit with Him by being unreservedly surrendered to Him, and we become one flesh with Him by walking in the Spirit, by doing the Word. That is the bride.

This is clear to someone who has the revelation of the Spirit, but it is a profound mystery for the religious leaders of this world. Recently I saw something written by someone who had been asked to give his opinion about our doctrine. He wrote, “These people have a vague doctrine about Jesus, particularly with regard to Him being manifested in the flesh.”

No wonder that the point with Jesus manifested in the flesh is vague for these important figures whose reputations grow as their membership increases and who have their photographs published together with their annual reports and their religious articles. They are going in the exact opposite direction of the way Jesus went, so this point cannot but be vague for them.

Jesus made Himself of no reputation and took the form of a servant. And when He was found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Phil. 2:6-8. You have to go down from your heights if you want to receive clarity regarding Jesus manifested in the flesh; for Satan rules on the heights, appearing as an angel of light. There they feel honored by visits from members of parliament, chairmen, professors, and doctors; there are always available seats for the ones who come in fur coats. If you want to be renowned as a speaker in such an assembly, you have to be talented and educated, and preferably have a “name” in the world. Yet who of them cay say, “I give my flesh for the life of the world”? All they can give is words they have learned and studied with their intellect, what they have heard Professor So-and-so and Doctor So-and-so say, and they tell a number of moving stories. This is why believers in these days are suffering from hunger.

There is a lack of men in these days in whom the Word has become flesh, those who can give the Word which they themselves are living, because that is the only thing that can be food. However, God has elected those who are lowly and despised in the world to bring to naught those things that are something. But who of these hungry religious people can see them? Their eyes stare at the heights; they expect help only from those places.

Yet every once in a while there is a crack on these heights, and then they don’t have any more spiritual sense and care for the glory of Christ than that they expose each other openly in newspapers to an ungodly world. Then people get a glimpse of what the money for God’s cause is being used for and what is hidden behind that whitewashed wall.

But then they just put a new patch on an old garment. They use a whitewash brush to cover it up and things proceed in their usual way. It couldn’t possibly be worth their while to listen to an insignificant and unlearned person who takes up his cross and denies himself—in whom God’s Word is becoming flesh and who has the revelation of the Spirit! Should it really be possible for something good to come from Nazareth? But we want to shout now as before: Come and see!!! You will not just hear God’s Word, you will also see it. Turn away from the heights, and you will discover Jesus from Nazareth manifested in flesh. You will receive food for your hungry soul and have fellowship in the Spirit just as the Father and the Son have fellowship and are one. Then you will see His glory.