I.　God's economy is to gain man and make man the same as He is for the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:16.

II.　The divine economy is accomplished by the divine life living in the human life—Gal. 2:20.

III.　The relationship which God desires to have with man is that He and man be grafted together and thus become one in an organic union—Rom. 6:3-5:

A.　God desires that the divine life and the human life be joined together to become one life; this oneness is an organic union, a union in life—a grafted life—Rom. 6:3-5; 11:17-24.

B.　God created man for the purpose of entering into man to be one with man and to make man one with Him—Gen. 1:26; 2:7.

C.　In grafting two similar lives are joined and then grow together organically:

1.　Because our human life was made in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, it can be joined to the divine life—Gen. 1:26.

2.　Our human life resembles the divine life; therefore, the divine life and the human life can be grafted together and then grow together organically.

D.　In order for us to be grafted into Christ, He had to pass through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection:

1.　Christ became flesh to be the seed of David, the branch of David, that we could be grafted together with Him—John 1:14; Matt. 1:1; Zech. 3:8; Jer. 23:5; 33:15.

2.　Christ was "cut" on the cross so that we could be grafted into Him.

3.　After Christ was "cut" on the cross, He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17a.

E.　To believe into Christ is to receive Him as the divine life into us that we may have an organic union with Him in the divine life—John 3:15; 15:4-5.

F.　As regenerated ones, we should live a grafted life—a life in which two parties are joined to grow organically; we should now live by our regenerated spirit, a spirit grafted with Christ—1 Cor. 6:17:

1.　After we have been grafted into Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather, we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us—Gal. 2:20.

2.　Through this grafting we are united with Him, mingled with Him, and incorporated with Him to become in Him an enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation—the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem—John 14:20; 15:4a; Rom. 12:4-5.

G.　The grafted life is not an exchanged life but the mingling of the human life with the divine life—John 14:19b; 15:4a; Gal. 2:20.

H.　In the grafted life the human life is not eliminated but is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life—Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 3:18.

I.　In the grafted life—in the organic union signified by the true vine—we are joined to Christ in the way of coinherence—John 14:20; 15:1:

1.　In the organic union, the vine and the branches coinhere; the vine abides in the branches, and the branches abide in the vine—vv. 4-5.

2.　The proper concept concerning our relationship with Christ is coinherence—Christ lives in us, and we live in Christ—Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 1:30.

IV.　Romans 12 speaks of the Body from the angle of the organic union, from the uniting life, from a life that unites us together, not only with Christ but with all the other members of Christ—vv. 4-5:

A.　The focus, the center, of the Christian life is the Body, which is the high point of God's revelation and the ultimate item of God's continual working—1 Cor. 12:12, 27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4, 12, 16; 5:23, 30; Col. 2:19.

B.　We are one Body in Christ, having an organic union with Him—Rom. 12:4-5:

1.　In Christ always implies the fact of being organically one with Christ.

2.　This union makes us one in life with Christ and with all the other members of His Body.

3.　The Body is not an organization or a society but is altogether an organism produced by the union in life that we have with Christ—1 Cor. 6:17; 12:27.

C.　To be properly organic in the Body means that we must be organically united with Christ—Rom. 12:4-5:

1.　The Body is something that is held together in the organic union with Christ.

2.　The actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ—John 15:4-5.

D.　We need to realize and practice the Body life by having all three parts of our being exercised—Rom. 12:1-2, 11.

E.　If we do not have the organic union with Christ, and if we do not have our body offered, our soul transformed by the renewing of the mind, and our spirit burning, then, practically speaking, we are outside the Body and apart from the Body.

F.　It is essential for the development of the Body that we each recognize our measure, not go beyond it, and not think more highly of ourselves than what we are; this is a basic requirement for the growth of the Body—v. 3; Eph. 4:7, 16.

G.　Because the Body is one, the members need to recognize their dependence not only on the Head but also on one another—1 Cor. 12:12-27.

H.　The experience of knowing the Body is a matter of fellowship; living in fellowship proves that we know the Body—1 John 1:3; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:16.

I.　When we live Christ and magnify Christ, we become living, organic members of Christ, and we are all organically joined as an organism, the Body of Christ—Phil. 1:20-21a; Rom. 12:4-5.