I.　In the last days of this age, before the Lord Jesus will be able to come back, we must see the vision of the one Body and of the one new man— 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:4; 2:15; 4:24.

II.　The new man was created by Christ, but the believers need to partake of this creation by putting off the old man and putting on the new man through renewing—Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:10-11:

A.　Because the new man was created according to God, in a very real sense the new man is the same as God—Eph. 4:24.

B.　The regeneration of our spirit was the creation of the new man within us— John 3:6; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.

C.　Through the process of renewing, the new man spreads from our spirit into our soul and actually increases in us.

III.　If we would live the life of the one new man, we need to take Christ as our person and as our life—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a; 1 John 5:11-12; Col. 3:4:

A.　What is first is not taking Christ as our life but taking Him as our person; if we take Christ as our person, we will surely take Him as our life.

B.　The crucial question in our Christian life is not what we are doing but who is doing it—Gal. 2:20:

1.　In our daily living we should care for the inward shifting from the old person to the new person—Rom. 6:6; Eph. 3:17a.

2.　In the new man we take Christ as our person to make plans and to decide how we should live—Rom. 15:32.

IV.　The living of the one new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus—Eph. 4:20:

A.　The way the Lord Jesus lived on earth is the way the new man should live today—Matt. 11:28-30; John 6:57; 4:34; 5:17, 19, 30; 6:38; 17:4.

B.　Our standard of living must be according to the reality in Jesus, the reality lived out by the Lord Jesus when He was on earth—Eph. 4:20:

1.　He was one with God, and He lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God.

2.　Jesus lived in a way that always corresponded to God's righteousness and holiness—v. 24:

a.　In the life of Jesus the righteousness and holiness of the reality were always exhibited.

b.　The human living of Jesus was according to the reality, that is, according to God Himself, full of righteousness and holiness.

c.　It was in the righteousness and holiness of this reality—God glorified and expressed—that the new man was created.

3.　We need to learn Christ and be taught in Him to live a life of reality— v. 20; 2 John 1; John 4:23-24.

4.　As a corporate person the new man should live a life of reality, as the reality is in Jesus—a life of expressing God.

5.　If we live according to the spirit of our mind, we shall have the daily living of the corporate new man—a living that corresponds to the reality in Jesus.

V.　In order to live the life of the new man as the reality is in Jesus, we must put off the community life of the old man and put on the community life of the new man—Eph. 4:22, 24:

A.　The former manner of life includes everything related to us—v. 22:

1.　We need to put off whatever we are, whatever we do, and whatever we have.

2.　To put off regarding the "former manner of life, the old man" is to put off our way of living.

B.　To put on the church life as the one new man is to put on a corporate entity produced by the mingling of the divine Spirit with the regenerated human spirit; in this marvelous entity there is only Christ as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit—Col. 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.

C.　The church life is the daily walk of the corporate new man, a walk that is absolutely new in nature and in manner; everything related to the one new man is new—Eph. 4:17-32.

D.　Since the one new man is according to God Himself, with God's life and nature, the new man must have a life that is divine; such a life will be corporate, not individualistic.

E.　Since we are part of the new man, who is the aggregate of all the God-men, our decisions and living should be the decisions and living of the corporate God-man, the one new man.

VI.　Ephesians 4 is a chapter that speaks of the perfecting of the new man through the growth in life; the new man created by Christ must be perfected in order to function:

A.　In 2:15 we have the creation of the new man organically; in 4:12-16, we have the perfecting of the new man in relation to his function.

B.　The full-grown man in verse 13 is the new man in verse 24.

C.　The organically perfect new man needs to be perfected through the growth in life in order to function in a proper way:

1.　The one new man can become perfect in relation to his function only through receiving the proper nourishment; this is one of the deepest concepts in the book of Ephesians.

2.　We should all fulfill our responsibility to perfect the one new man through nourishing and cherishing—5:29.

D.　In order to be perfected, we need to be constituted with Christ (Col. 3:10-11); this means that as the all-inclusive Christ is wrought into us to be our everything, the organically perfect new man becomes perfect functionally.

E.　When the one new man is perfected, that will be the time for the Lord's coming, and the perfected new man will be the bride—Rev. 19:7.