Knowing, Experiecing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life - 2

Message Title: Enjoying Christ as the Reality of the Meal Offering to have a Meal-offering Christian Life and a Meal-offering Church Life, Consummating in the New Jerusalem as a Great Meal Offering - the Ultimate Consummation of the Mingling of the Triune God with the Tripartite Man

we cannot enter into the reality of the Body of Christ, if we do not live in our mingled spirit. To know God's economy, to receive His dispensing, to participate in Christ's transmission and to enter into the reality of the Body of Christ, we must know, use and exercise our spirit. 

I. the meal offering typifies Christ in His God-man living.

in the meal offering, the fine flour is mingled with oil, which signifies that humaniy is mingled with divinity. there are two things forbidden in the meal offering, which is honey, signifying natural affection and relationship, and leaven, signifying sin. 

the mingling of fine flour with the oil in the meal offering signifies that Christ's humanity is mingled with the Holy Spirit and His human nature is mingled with God's divine nature, making Him a God-man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly, without a third nature being produced. the frankincense in the meal offering signifies the fragrance of Christ in His resurrection; that the frankincense was put on the fine flour signifies that Christ's humanity bears the aroma of Hisresurrection. in the meal offering, salt was used to season the meal offering, which signifies that the death, the cross of Christ. the Lord always lived a life of being salted, a life under the cross. the basic factor of God's covenant is the cross, the crucifixion of Christ, signified by salt; it is by the cross that God's covenant is preserved to be and eternal covenant. 

II. the meal offering typifies our Christian life as a duplication of Christ's God-man living

Ephesians 4:20 But you did not so learn Christ,

Ephesians 4:21 If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus,

these verses do not say "learn about Christ", but "learn Christ", which means subjectively, experiencially and intimately. we are learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus. this reality is the actual condition of Jesus' living in the four gospels. the Lord Jesus did everything in God, with God, through God and for God. right now, we are learning Christ according to the actual condition of the living of Jesus, which means that as we are learning Christ, that life of the God-man is being reproduced in us.  

By exercising our spirit to touch the Spirit consolidated in the Word, we are consitituted with Jesus, and the human living of Jesus becomes our human living. this shows us that we need to practice in personal pray-reding in our personal time with the Lord, to pray the word back to the Lord. 

Mark 1:10 And immediately, coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens being parted and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him.

the word "immediately" was used 42 times in the book of Mark. the gospel of Mark shows us Christ as the Slave Savior, sent by God to come to serve His people. as such a One serving God's people, the gospel of Mark presents the Lord Jesus in His humanity, His diligence. 

III. Christ's life and our individual Christian life issue in a totality - the church life as a corporate life as a corporate meal offering. 

the meal offering is a type of blending to bring us into the reality of the Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God's economy. 

1 Corinthians 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,

for us to be blended together means that we lose our own distinction. therfore, we have to go through the cross; we have do everything by the Spirit; and we have to dispense Christ to each other for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. 

all these points mean that we should fellowship; fellowship blends us; that is, it tempers, adjusrs, harmonizes, and mingles us, causing us to lose our distinctions and saving us from leaving the impress of our personality upon the church's life and work, so that Christ can truly be all and in all. we should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us. Fellowship requires us to stop when we are about to do something. In our coordination in the chuch life and in the Lord's work, we all have to learn not to do anything without fellowship. Blending means that we should always stop to fellowship with others.