I.　God's intention is to have a corporate man to express Him and to represent Him—Gen. 1:26.

II.　The church as the one new man is the corporate man in God's intention— Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 6:10-20:

A.　The church, the Body of Christ, is the one new man to accomplish God's eternal purpose—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 3:9.

B.　As the Body of Christ the church needs Christ as its life—Col. 1:18; 3:4.

C.　As the one new man the church needs Christ as its person—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a.

III.　The goal of the Lord's recovery is to bring forth the one new man—2:15; 4:22-24; Col. 3:10-11:

A.　What was divided and scattered in the old man is recovered in the new man— Gen. 11:5-9; Acts 2:5-12; Col. 3:10-11.

B.　To put off the old man is to put off the divided and scattered man; to put on the new man is to put on the gathered and one new man—Eph. 4:22, 24.

C.　What the Lord has been doing, and what He is now doing, in His recovery is bringing forth the one new man with Himself as the life and the person for God's expression—3:17a; Col. 3:4, 10-11.

IV.　For the practical existence and living of the one new man, we all need to take Christ as our person—Eph. 3:17a; Gal. 2:20:

A.　We need to see that the church is the one new man and that in this one new man there is only one person—Christ—Col. 3:10-11.

B.　In the one new man, all of us are one man; the requirement that everyone be only one man is extremely high.

C.　For the one new man the total person of the old man must be put away, and we must live by our new person—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:22, 24; 3:17a.

D.　When we live by taking Christ as our person, especially in making decisions, our living will be the living of the one new man—John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; Rom. 15:32; James 4:13-15.

V.　Paul is a pattern of taking Christ as his person for the one new man— 1 Tim. 1:16:

A.　"It pleased God…to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15a, 16a): We need to be brought into a state where we are full of the revelation of the Son of God.

B.　"It is Christ who lives in me" (2:20): God's economy is that the "I" be crucified with Christ and that Christ lives in us in His resurrection.

C.　"Until Christ is formed in you" (4:19): To have Christ formed in us is to have Christ grown in us in full.

D.　"That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith" (Eph. 3:17a): We should allow Christ to have all the room within us and give Him the full right and full liberty to do whatever He wants within us.

E.　"I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:8): Paul lived in the inward parts of Christ and was one with Christ in His inward parts.

F.　"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (2:5): To let Christ's mind be in us is to take Christ as our person by denying our natural mind and taking His mind.

G.　"If I have forgiven anything, it is…in the person of Christ" (2 Cor. 2:10b): Paul lived Christ in the closest and most intimate contact with Him, acting according to the index of His eyes.

H.　"That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who…walk…according to the spirit" (Rom. 8:4): In practicality, to take Christ as our person is to have our being wholly according to the mingled spirit.

VI.　Paul lived the life of a God-man for the one new man—Phil. 1:19-21a:

A.　"We ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead"—2 Cor. 1:9:

1.　We should no longer trust in our self, in our soul, but in the God of resurrection, who is in our spirit—2 Tim. 4:22.

2.　To be reduced to the spirit is to be reduced to Christ, to be reduced to live Christ—1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:21a.

B.　"Our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves"—2 Cor. 1:12:

1.　Paul and his co-workers had only one way to deal with their situation—the God of resurrection—1:9; 4:14.

2.　To live in resurrection is to live in the singleness and sincerity of God—2:17; 4:2.

C.　"I myself, Paul, entreat you through the meekness and gentleness of Christ"— 10:1a:

1.　To be meek is to be mild toward others, without resisting or disputing.

2.　Gentleness denotes humility, yieldingness, approachableness.

D.　"The truthfulness of Christ is in me"—2 Cor. 11:10a:

1.　Truthfulness denotes the divine reality becoming man's genuineness and sincerity—2 John 1; John 4:24.

2.　Because Paul was one with Christ and lived Christ, the Lord's virtues became his virtues, and he behaved in these virtues.

E.　"He was crucified out of weakness, but He lives by the power of God….We are weak in Him, but we will live together with Him by the power of God directed toward you"—2 Cor. 13:4:

1.　Paul followed the pattern of Christ and was willing to be weak in the organic union with Him that he might live with Him a crucified life—4:10-11.

2.　Second Corinthians shows us a person who was reduced to nothing but who took Christ as everything.