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WHAT IS CHURCH?

1.0 INTRODUCTION

There are many people who think that the CHURCH is the coming together of the “People” who believe in the Lord and who are saved. However, the CHURCH is only that portion which is taken out of Christ.

Eve was not made of dust, but everything of Eve was out of Adam; Adam was the material of which Eve was made. Likewise, Christ is the material for the CHURCH. God used Christ to make the CHURCH.

The CHURCH is another form of Christ, just as Eve was another form of Adam. We must be clear that God does not want individuals. God created Man, in the form of male and female. 1 Corinthians 15 reveals that Adam is the FIRST MAN and Christ is the LAST MAN.

There are no others. Therefore, even though we have God’s life within us, we still need God to work upon us to break our individualism. We need to be one with all the rest of the God’s Children.

God must break down the thought that I myself am enough (individualism) and crush us day after day until we came to know the one Body of Christ; and the CHURCH is the Body of Christ. Therefore, if the CHURCH is to become a REAL CHURCH, two steps are necessary: first, the spreading or increase of Christ and consuming of our self.  

The spreading of Christ began when we were regenerated, and since we were saved, the Lord has been working on us day after day to consume our self. The Lord will continue to work until one day before God, we say, “There is not a single thing I can do myself.

Everything I do is done according to the principle of mutual help among the members. All that I do is according to the principle of fellowship, which is the principle of the CHURCH. Second, we must realise that God takes into account the source of things.

That which came from Adam was called Eve; likewise, that which comes from Christ is called the CHURCH. God created Adam to testify Christ; God also created Eve to testify the Church. In the Genesis 2 the female is Eve; in Ephesians she is the Church; in Revelation 12 she is woman seen in vision; and in Revelation 21:2 she is the wife of the LAMB.  

2.0 IDENTITY

3.0 BODY: ONE-IN-TWO

3.1 THE MAN: Adam and Eve

Genesis 2: 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.”  Genesis 2: 21-23 Then the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh. 

He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him. Then the man said, “At last, here is one of my own kind—Bone taken from my bone, and flesh from my flesh. ‘Woman’ is her name because she was taken out of man.”  God created one MAN; but we can also say that God created two! One-in-Two and yet the two are one because Eve was in Adam.

In creation two persons were created: one was Adam and the other was Eve. Both were created human beings, but each typify something different. 1 Corinthians 15: 45-19 Adam was a type of the Lord Jesus. Adam, then foreshadowed Christ; he portrayed Christ in figure.

Besides Adam, in the creation, there was also the woman, Eve. God very carefully recorded the creation of this woman in Genesis 2, and when we come to Ephesians 5, we are carefully told that Eve typifies the Church.

When we read Genesis 2: 18-24 and Ephesians 5: 22-32 we find that a woman is mentioned in both places. In Genesis 2 there is a woman, and in Ephesians 5 there is also a woman. The first woman is a sign typifying the Church; the second woman is the first woman.

The first was planned by God before the foundation of the world and appeared before fall. The second woman also planned before the foundation of the world but revealed after the fall. Although one appeared before the fall and the other after, there is no difference in God’s sight: the Church is the Eve of Genesis 2.

This one was Adam’s help meet and the figure of the church (Ephesians 5). The Bible says very clearly that all the things made of earth and not taken out of the body of Adam could not be the help meet. All the beasts of the earth, the cattle, and the birds were made of earth.

They were not taken out of Adam; therefore, they could not be the help meet to Adam. We must remember that Eve was formed out of a rib taken from Adam, therefore, Eve was the constituent of Adam. 

3.2 THE WORD: Christ and Church

Romans 5: 14-15 Adam was a figure of the one who was to come.  But the two are not the same, because God’s free gift is not like Adam’s sin. It is true that many people died because of the sin of that one man. But God’s grace is much greater, and so is his free gift to so many people through the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. 

In other words, all God’s purpose in Adam was to be achieved in Christ. Matthew 16:18 And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. Acts 20:28 So keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock which the Holy Spirit has placed in your care.

Be shepherds of the church of God, which he made his own through the blood of his Son. Colossians 1:18He is the head of his body, the church; he is the source of the body’s life. He is the first-born Son, who was raised from death, in order that he alone might have the first place in all things.

Romans 12:5 In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body. Ephesians 5: 29-33 None of us ever hate our own bodies. Instead, we feed them, and take care of them, just as Christ does the church; for we are members of his body.

And so wives must submit themselves completely to their husbands just as the church submits itself to Christ. Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it. 

He did this to dedicate the church to God by his word, after making it clean by washing it in water, in order to present the church to himself in all its beauty—pure and faultless, without spot or wrinkle or any other imperfection.

As the scripture says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.” There is a deep secret truth revealed in this scripture, which I understand as applying to Christ and the church. 

Ephesians 2:20-22 You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord. 

In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit. God’s purpose in creating the church is that she may be the help meet of Christ. Only that which is out of Christ can be the Church. Anything that is not of Christ is not Church.

Eve was not made of dust, but of Adam; Adam was the material of which Eve was made. Likewise, Christ is the material for the Church. God used Christ to make the Church.

4.0 BRIDE (REUNION): TWO-IN-ONE

5.0 CONCLUSION

Adam’s sleep was not for Eve’s redemption; it was so that a rib could be taken out for her creation (sin had not yet entered the scene that accounts in Genesis 3). Eve was able to receive life because Adam’s slept. In the same manner an aspect of the death of Christ is for the imparting of life to the Church.

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