2022-5丨General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

a. The redeemed saints had been taken captive by Satan before they were saved by Christ's death and resurrection—cf. Luke 4:18.

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to announce the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away in release those who are oppressed,

b. In His ascension Christ led them captive; that is, He rescued them from Satan's captivity and took them to Himself—Psa. 68:18.

c. In His ascension Christ led them to the heavens as His captives in His train of vanquished foes and made them gifts to His Body.

d. Now God is celebrating Christ's triumph over them, His vanquished foes, and leading them as His captives in a triumphal procession in His move for His ministry to build up His Body—2 Cor. 2:14.

B. The more Christ ascends and descends within us, capturing and vanquishing us, the more He fills us with Himself to constitute us as gifts to His Body—cf. Eph. 4:9-10.

Eph. 4:9 (Now this, "He ascended," what is it except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?

Eph. 4:10 He who descended, He is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.)

Morning Nourishment

Eph. 4:8-10 Therefore the Scripture says, “Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended,” what is it except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended, He is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.)

Those in Ephesians 4:8 refers to the redeemed saints, who were taken captive by Satan before being saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. In His ascension Christ led them captive; that is, He rescued them from Satan’s captivity and took them to Himself. This indicates that He conquered and overcame Satan, who had captured them by sin and death.

The Amplified New Testament renders “He led captive those taken captive” as “He led a train of vanquished foes.” Vanquished foes may refer to Satan, to his angels, and to us the sinners, again indicating Christ’s victory over Satan, sin, and death... Now Christ is celebrating His triumph over His vanquished foes and leading them as His captives in a triumphal procession in His move for His ministry to build up His Body. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3412- 3413)

Gifts in Ephesians 4:8 does not refer to the abilities or capacities for various services but to the gifted persons in verse 11—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. After conquering Satan and death and rescuing the sinners from Satan and death through His death and resurrection, Christ in His ascension made the rescued sinners themselves such gifts by means of His resurrection life and gave them to His Body for its building up.

When Christ ascended up on high, to the third heaven, that was not the end of His traveling. After He ascended, He descended into our spirit. Therefore, Christ is the One who descends, ascends, travels, and comes to us in gracious visitations. Today Christ is still traveling; that is, He is still ascending and descending. However, now His traveling takes place mainly within us. In our experience we may be up or down. When we are down, Christ comes down to where we are and brings us up to God. Many times during the course of a day we may be brought by Christ into the heavens. From our experience we can testify that within us Christ descends and ascends; He goes up and down... It is difficult to say where Christ is. Is He in heaven or on earth? If we say that He is on earth, we may have the sense that He is in heaven. But if we say that He is in heaven, we may soon realize that He is on earth. Actually, Christ is everywhere. According to verses 9 and 10, He descended and ascended in order to fill all things. Do you think that Christ will fill all things in the universe without also filling you? Through His descending and ascending, Christ will fill us with Himself.

It is by His descending and ascending that Christ constitutes us gifts to the Body. The more He descends and ascends within us, the more we become gifts... As Christ descends and ascends within [the believers], He captures them, vanquishes them, and constitutes them into gifts to His Body. As a result of Christ’s traveling, they become useful gifts.

In order for us to function as a gift to the Body, we must be conquered and subdued by Christ. It is not until we become willing to be captured by Christ that He has the ground and standing to make us gifts to the Body. We must pray to the Lord from the depth of our being, “I surrender to You. I am defeated by You. I am captured by You.” We all need to be thoroughly defeated, captured, gained, and taken over by Christ. When we are willing to be subdued and captured by Christ, we will give Christ the ground to establish us as gifts to His Body. The more Christ ascends and descends within us, capturing and vanquishing us, the more He fills us with Himself to constitute us as gifts to His Body. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3413-3414, 3416-3417)