THE CHURCH, WHICH IS THE PERSON OF HIM 
 
                              by J W  Luman 
 
 
 
 
We are dealing with bringing a greater comprehension of the Church to 
believers. Unfortunately we have little understanding of the Church as 
the expression of Christ. My heart's prayer and cry for you and I, for 
all those who truly love His appearing is that we would come to a greater 
view of Him; a view of Him that would bind us together, and cause us to 
be the expression of Him in the earth. This view is indeed the foundation 
of the Church - "upon this rock will I build my Church." My heart's 
desire is that we would come to see Him in that way, and not just 
continue to try to better organize and refine our going in circles - it's 
just a waste of time. And it is hindering the expression of the Lord in 
God's people - it's hindering His coming in the earth. Isn't it like the 
enemy to take the very thing that should be the expression of Him, and 
blind eyes to it to the point that it becomes instead the very vehicle 
that hinders His expression and His coming? Isn't that ironic? But that's 
the deceitfulness of the enemy and of the human heart that continually 
seeks itself and not Christ; serves God primarily for what we can get out 
of Him, rather than what measure of Him we can manifest in the earth. And 
those things set us up for that kind of ignorance.  
 
We must understand that the result of the Cross is actually an All New 
Man, an All New Creation, the center of which and the Person of which is 
Christ. And the Church relates to this in that the Church is the 
expression of it - the All New Man - CHRIST ALL, IN ALL, The I AM, the I 
AM ALL, the New Creation. This is Christ and you and I summed up in Him. 
The result of the Cross is not you and I. The result of the Cross is Him 
- Him remaining, Him living. The purpose of it is that He might have 
expression, manifestation. The finished work of the Cross is Christ in 
this view - HIM, and the realization that HE IS ALL! "...the fulness of 
Him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1:23) The term "all and in all" 
according to the Greek means 'the fulness of the corporate whole.' I AM 
ALL! 
 
There are a lot of believers who unfortunately can't really comprehend 
that in Christ we are swallowed up. In the ever growing view of Christ, 
finally all things are swallowed up, coming to an understanding that it 
is Christ all and in all, that it is Christ who is all. This is coming to 
see Him as the I AM EVERYTHING! I AM door, I AM way, I AM truth, I AM 
life, I AM Resurrection - the Lord speaking - that He is the I AM ALL! 
It is given to Him to be Head over all. Well, you see He's really not 
Head over anything that He Himself is not the substance of. How is He 
Head over the Church, which is His Body? When the Church is an expression 
of Him, then He is Head. That is not some title, it's a relationship - 
and it's a people in relationship. I AM ALL! 
 
Paul sums this up when he says, "Not I, but Christ." We quote that verse, 
but we have very little comprehension of it in the Person of Christ. But 
the reality of that is just here - I AM ALL! We struggle with that 
because we keep seeing ourselves in the flesh. We haven't come to that 
judgment of the Cross which is spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "...for 
we thus judge, that when one died, all died with him... Therefore, know 
we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the 
flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." We have trouble with this 
because the Body we are is invisible to the natural man - it's a 
spiritual union. It is only to be made known and revealed by the Holy 
Spirit. And we are far too prone to see things with our natural eyes. 
 
The scriptures speak of this - neither this, neither that, neither Jew, 
neither Gentile, bond or free, but CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. It's the same 
thing Paul said in Ephesians 1:22,23 - "...the fulness of him that 
filleth all in all." The fulness of the corporate whole. And sooner or 
later this is the view of Him to which we must come. This is a view that 
causes us to comprehend that it's not Jesus and me - it's just HIM! Him 
living, Him living in you, Him living in me, but it is Him living. It's 
not our body - HIS BODY, where He lives! This is the issue that is on my 
heart, and if you come to this comprehension, many other issues will be 
taken care of.  
 
So we come to this view of Him inwardly, and until you and I do that, 
there will never be an expression on the earth of this inward revealing 
of Christ. And that is the Church. He must in fact be revealed in you and 
I and we come to this view - I AM ALL! The fulness of the corporate 
whole. There aren't any little J Ws, Toms or Sues running around here - 
not in the reality of the understanding of the Spirit. Maybe in the 
vacancy of our soul there may be, but not in the realization and fulness 
of the Spirit there is not. There is simply ONE receiving realization, 
ONE receiving acknowledgment, ONE being revealed and ONE filling all. 
 
The Church is to become the Church, which is the Person of Him, giving 
the I AM Person. "Person" in the Bible means 'absoluteness of presence'. 
Now, we are not going to give Him absoluteness of presence while we are 
still talking about Him as if He were one place and we were another. God 
help us to understand that. We see this as me and Jesus, but in reality, 
the Cross has already cancelled all that out.  
 
NOT I, BUT CHRIST! Paul never saw me and Jesus. He never taught it that 
way - it was always 'Not I, but Christ who liveth in me'. But in most 
believers, in the deep recesses of our souls it is still that way - me 
and Jesus; part of the time it's me and part of the time it's Him. And 
this view has got to come to an end with us. That's part of the working 
of the Cross. Until the Cross becomes a Person, the Church is never going 
to be to us. Until we see ourselves there at the Cross - it's not just an 
object, a teaching, a token; until we see ourselves there summed up in 
Him and crucified - until the Cross becomes a Person, the Church isn't 
going to become a Person. And the Church will become the expression of 
this Person when in our hearts the I AM IS ALL! This is His Eternal 
identity. It must come to where in our ministering and teaching, and in 
our daily manner of life, we're not talking about Him as me and Christ. 
When the Church functions as the Person of Christ, it means absoluteness 
of presence.  
 
We really can't imagine that, but it is what the scripture teaches, and 
what the Spirit will reveal. It is the expression that Christ is meant to 
have. It is the purpose of God having us in the Son in the first place - 
for such an expression. His Church - the expression of Him. And that is 
not the same as me becoming Jesus. No - that's the cancelling out by the 
Cross of all but Him, the Spirit revealing Him, bringing comprehension of 
Him. And a people walking in that comprehension, bound up in that 
comprehension - giving Him expression in the earth. I'm talking about a 
heart, a soul, an inner man totally transformed in the revelation of 
Jesus Christ! I'm talking about that as a corporate expression. We're 
talking about the full and complete working of the Holy Spirit.  
 
Turn to John 14:1-6 and then 19-20, but we really need to read this 
conversation all the way through to verse 31. " Let not your heart be 
troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house..." 
Here's the only real house that God has any issue concerning. Here's the 
only real place God has any issue concerning with regard to you and I. 
"In my Father's house are many mansions (many places of abode, many 
resting places); if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again..." The proper word for 'again' in the original text is 
'anew'. I will come anew. It's the same word used along the lines of 
being born again. It doesn't mean a second time. Jesus told Nicodemus I'm 
not talking about you being born twice. I'm talking about a new birth. 
You must be born anew, and it means 'out from heaven or out from the 
beginning'. You must be born out of heaven, born from above. He explains 
it - that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, that which is born of 
the flesh is flesh.  
 
It's the same thing here. "I will come anew. I will come as from heaven. 
I will come as by the Spirit. I will come as from the beginning. I will 
come anew! And what is the purpose of that? "...and receive you unto 
myself." Paul got a hold of that and said He's done just that - quickened 
you together, raised you together, seated you together - in Him, in 
heavenly places. Because the whole reality of that is, "...so that where 
I am..." Now, no where in any true translation of this scripture is it 
ever indicated that 'where I am' is a location. It is always a 
relationship. If that relationship for you is a location, well good, 
because it should be. It should be where you always are! Where is that? 
In that relationship, in that comprehension, in that realm of the Spirit, 
in that reality. But it is not a geographical location, but a reality to 
be manifested everywhere - in every location, at all times and in every 
place! 
 
So He isn't describing here a location, and that's what confused them. " 
Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can 
we know the way?" And the Lord Jesus immediately said, " I AM...I AM THE 
WAY, I AM THE TRUTH, I AM THE LIFE." I AM! You know where because I AM. 
Ye shall know. Then He goes on and says when the Spirit of Truth is come, 
you will know then. Verse 19 and 20, "Yet a little while, and the world 
seeth me no more; but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also. At 
that day ye shall know that I AM in my Father, and ye in me, and I in 
you." There's the location, if you want to call it a location. There's 
the relationship! "I will come anew and receive you unto myself." This is 
the glory whereof He speaks in John 17. 'Oh Father, take me to my 
mansion'? Come on now - no! 'Take me to my resting place, my dwelling 
place, my union with Thee!' That's what He says in John 17. " O Father, 
glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee 
before the world was." And then He goes on and says, here's what I'm 
praying. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they 
may be one, even as we are one." He's saying that the glory with which 
Thou has glorified me, with Thine own self, I will glorify them, that 
they will be glorified in us. He's saying the same thing here that He's 
saying in John 14 - that they may know that I'm in you, and you're in me, 
and they are in me, and that I'm in them. "I will receive you unto 
myself, that where I am, there you may be even as I am." That's what 
'also' indicates, not as 'too' meaning 'in addition'. It means to the 
same degree and to the same measure - even as I am. That you may be even 
as I AM! 
 
My God, that's what it's all about! We are there by His Spirit, we are 
there by His life, we are there by Him - quickened with Him, raised with 
Him, seated with Him - in Him! "That where I am, there ye may be even as 
I am." Why? For the expression of Him! The Body is not for the expression 
of many, therefore the Church is not the expression of many. The Body is 
for the expression of One, therefore the Church is the expression of One. 
ONE - living in many is the Body. ONE - being expressed through many is 
the Church. But it's always One who is living and One who is being 
expressed, or it's not His Body and it isn't His Church! That's just the 
reality of it. The whole purpose of Him going - where did He go? He went 
to the CROSS! He went to death, burial, resurrection. He went into the 
regions of the damned. He went to prepare a place for us. He went to make 
the way - 'I AM THE WAY'. He went to establish the Truth - 'I AM THE 
TRUTH'. He went to release the life - 'I AM THE LIFE'. HE WENT TO THE 
CROSS! "I will come anew and receive you unto myself, that I may have 
expression through you." That's what He's saying. "That where I am, there 
ye may be, even as I AM." 
 
And the whole purpose of this culminates in John 17. What is it? "Father, 
that they may be with me where I am, that they may know me, the glory 
that thou has given me I have given them, that they may be one, even as 
we are one." Not just us one with another. That's more than just one with 
one another. That's the One, that's the All! " That they may come to 
comprehend this union, Father, into which I have brought them by my 
Spirit of Life!" 
 
And I'm telling you that the Church is nothing other than the expression 
of that reality in the earth. And anything else can not be called the 
Church - not in reality, not scripturally. I know what we've reduced 
everything to, and the form we've put the name on, but that's our 
problem. But His Son will have an expression in the earth! And God knows 
that's the Church. 
 
Now the Church is never mentioned in the Bible by any other definition 
than by a relationship. Consequently where that relationship is not seen 
or being expressed, you can't call that the Church. The relationship 
begins by Christ being revealed in us. The Church is the manifestation of 
that relationship, where we love one another. We can't produce it - it 
comes out of the revealing of Him. The corporate expression - 
relationship of ONE, expressed one to another in the earth. But what does 
it all come down to in John 17? "That ye may be where I am, even as I am. 
Glorify me, that I may be glorified in them." What does it all come down 
to?  
 
Verse 23, "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in 
one: and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved 
them, as thou hast loved me." That the world may know thou has sent me. 
How so? BY THE CHURCH! Not because a bunch of Christian people are 
running around saying it, but because He is having expression in the 
earth - He Himself is come, and is having expression in a people who 
comprehend where I AM there ye may be, even as I AM. That I may have 
expression in the earth. Here in the Church He is truly come again! Or, 
He isn't. And again, how deviously wicked and deceitful is the enemy to 
have brought forth such a system that we call the Church, that sits and 
waits and creates doctrines around the very reality they must express in 
the earth - in order to be the Church. But we've made it a teaching and 
an event on a chart, and He has no expression. And this is the very 
vehicle created of God to give Him one. He has no expression in the very 
Body that exists by Him in the heavens. But when He's revealed in a 
people, they are bound up in the knowledge of Him - then He has 
expression. But you can sit right in the midst of that expression and not 
be part of it! 
 
Let's look at this business of the I AM. God has always desired and 
purposed such an expression for Himself. I AM THAT I AM. It's 
interesting to note that when God dealt with Adam as an individual and 
even as a form of a creation, it was not in this way. When God began to 
deal with Abraham it was not in this way. But when God dealt with Moses 
it was, because when God dealt with Moses, God visibly dealt with a 
people. He had always dealt with a people but He had always dealt with a 
people in a person. He dealt with a whole creation in Adam. He dealt with 
a whole seed in Abraham. But now there is a people, and God is going to 
bring to a visibility what He has spoken of in Adam, what He has spoken 
of in the flood, what He has spoken of in Abraham. He is going to 
identify Himself in a people! The fulfillment of this of course, is in 
Christ, and the people that are His Body. God is bringing it to 
visibility. So when Moses says, How shall I speak to them, in what name 
shall I speak to them? God's first identifying of Himself corporately 
with a people is by that term.  " And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I 
AM; and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM 
hath sent me unto you." I AM THAT I AM! Bound up in that name is John 
14:3 - it's fulfilled there. It's explained in John 14:19,20 and it is 
spoken of exhibited in John 17. And it is fulfilled of course, in the 
Church.  
 
I AM THAT I AM. God has always desired such an expression of Himself, 
and He will have that expression in a people who are purposed for such an 
expression. What was Israel's mistake? They were delivered - no problem 
there. They got out. Why did they start going around in circles? Why does 
Hebrews 3 and 4 have such harsh words against that kind of living and 
comprehension? They missed purpose. They were not purposed only to get 
out of Egypt, they were not purposed certainly for life in the 
wilderness. They were purposed for Canaan - God desiring expression in a 
people, bringing them finally where He did bring them - into the very top 
of Mt. Zion, into the very formation of His House, the House built by 
Solomon where finally the glory of God had expression in the earth! All 
of that was in type and shadow, but all of that was very real. And the 
writer to the Hebrews said, if those with whom God dealt in type and 
shadow had a just recompense and did not escape, how much more shall we, 
if we refuse to hear Him who speaketh from heaven? 
 
God was very serious with His dealings with them then, and more so now. 
But they missed their purpose. The whole point is that God has always 
desired an expression in a people purposed for such an expression. Let's 
look at this in Exodus 3:13, 14. "Moses said unto God, Behold, when I 
come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of 
your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his 
name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I 
AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM 
hath sent me unto you." I AM THAT I AM. 
 
Now, Matthew 16:13. "When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea 
Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, Whom do men say that I the Son 
of Man am?" Whom do men say that I AM? Whom do men say that I as the Son 
of Man am? And until that question is answered in your heart you'll never 
comprehend all of the things said about Him as Son of Man.  
 
Matthew 16:27. " For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father 
with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his 
works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall 
not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." 
Matthew 17:9, "And as they came down from the mountain Jesus charged 
them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen 
anew from the dead." That whole vision related to the Son of Man, the 
whole thing related to the I AM revealed in and manifested through a 
people. God has always desired expression of Himself in a people. I AM 
THAT I AM. When they say who are you, who sent me, what shall I tell 
them? And the Lord is here preparing his disciples for the same thing. 
"Who do men say that I am? But who do you say that I am?" 
 
There is so much to this. We can see it in Daniel 7:13 - this is our 
scriptural setting. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like 
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of 
days, and they brought him near before him." 
 
I AM THAT I AM. But let's look at the term "I AM" - it means primarily 
"to exist, to be or become, to come to pass, to happen, to come about, to 
arise, to appear, to become like, to be established, to abide, to remain, 
to occur, to be finished - to be." It is always used in the emphatic 
sense. I am reading these different definitions so that we might get the 
substance of what is being said.  
 
The word "that" is a primitive relative pronoun relating to any and every 
gender; means who, which, what, that; also when, where, how, because, in 
order that. So now - I am because I am, I am when I am, I am where I am, 
I am that I am, I am how I am, I am who I am. And it is in all of the 
other actions thereof - to arise, to become, to come into place. So I am 
which I am, I am who I am, I am what I am. All that I am exists by me! 
God would say nothing is like me, nothing can give me existence - I give 
existence to all. I am because I am. I am when I am and I am where I am! 
 
Do you see the importance of the word 'that' brought right over into John 
14 - "that where I am." Where are you? I AM where I AM. It's not a 
location - it's HIM! It's a people living by Him, existing through Him 
and having no existence but by Him! This is the very thing that God seeks 
to bring us to understand in the revealing of the very I AM Himself in 
you! But what is the purpose of revealing I AM? That I AM - that He may 
have expression in a people. I AM when I AM, I AM where I AM, I AM what I 
am - everything takes its definition from Him! That's the reason I say 
the Church has no definition other than the expression of Him. It is God 
desiring to identify Himself with, and have an expression through a 
people. I AM THAT I AM! I AM WHEN I AM! I AM WHY I AM! I AM BECAUSE I AM! 
Where is that? It's in you! That where I AM there ye may be even as I am. 
Why? That I AM have an expression in the earth. I AM THAT I AM! 
 
There is no other definition for Israel of old - they sought one and were 
refused. There is no other definition for the Church - but to give Him 
expression - That He, the ever self existing One have expression. And the 
whole mystery of God in Christ is that He has chosen to do so in a 
people! 
 
John 14 through 17 relates to that very reality. "I will come anew and 
receive you unto myself." Yes He does, He receives us through His death, 
His burial, His resurrection, and in glory. But what is it all working 
towards? That He, the I AM - not the we are - that the I AM have an 
expression in the earth. God is not the slightest bit interested in the 
"we are" having an expression - it's the I AM. Everything is defined by 
the I AM - not the "we are". The enemy has detoured us to the "we are" 
track. Many believers today are preoccupied with doctrines and teachings 
on who and what "we are". It is the enemy just resisting any true 
expression of Christ. The sequence of that resistance is brought about by 
the revelation of Jesus Christ in the book called the Revelation of Jesus 
Christ. That resistance is uncovered and manifested. What is he 
resisting? That which comes in the image of Christ, that which comes as 
Him, that which would rule all nations. 
 
The enemy resists and the great deceiver begins to deceive. If you get 
over to the "we are" side you have lost the whole intention of God. You 
have violated the sanctity of the Cross! You've made it us and not Him. 
See, we preach on the bride - the bride indeed. The reality of the bride 
is a people in relationship with the groom, a people in relationship with 
Christ. But we've started preaching the bride as a separate thing, so 
we're getting a people ready for Him! Listen - He gets the people ready! 
What are you going to do to get ready for Him? 'We're making ourselves 
beautiful for Jesus!' Come on - He's either the beauty of the thing or 
it's as ugly as sin! Don't get caught up in the flesh trap of all of this 
teaching on the bride. Because what is the bride? It's the expression of 
Him! 
 
We've got it all wrong in our American weddings. We've got the groom 
standing at the altar - he doesn't know what to do, he's just standing 
there. He could be wearing a pair of bib overalls and nobody would care. 
All the attention is on the bride. And I'm telling you that's the exact 
opposite of heaven. There the attention is on the groom, and the beauty 
of the bride is the expression of Him! Read your Bible. Come, I'll show 
you the Lamb's wife! She is glowing with the glory of God, she is 
standing in the glory of God, having as her beauty the glory of God. In 
her is no temple - No - the Lamb is the light thereof! There's the beauty 
of the bride! Don't preach bride to me - it's Him! 
 
Folks, He desires such an expression in a people. The beauty of the 
Church is Him! It's either that or it's just an old, ugly building; an 
ugly idea or it's an expression of Him. The Lord continue to deal within 
our hearts in this regard. You see, we are purposed for this - that's why 
this is all important. Is this just a convenience for a few people who 
might want to know Jesus? No - everyone in Christ is purposed for this. 
 
Look at Israel and see what happens when you fall short of purpose. It's 
not a pretty picture. We are all worrying about going to hell, but you'd 
better be worried about missing purpose, because that's what all of this 
is about. If you miss purpose you stand in the judgment of God. If you 
miss purpose, because it's already established. So we're not preaching a 
gospel for the convenience of someone who wants to be deeper. No - we are 
called unto purpose! 
 
Look at Psalms 102:16-24, and you'll read in verse 18, "This shall be 
written for the generation to come; and the people which shall be created 
shall praise the Lord." You bring that right over to Paul's writings 
because he looked right at that and said, Don't you understand that you 
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus? A PEOPLE CREATED FOR THIS! 
This is written for a people created for this purpose. We are the 
creation for that purpose. The center of it, the source of it and the 
substance of it is the I AM HIMSELF! Purpose! If we miss purpose we've 
missed it all. God grant that we not do so. But the Lord grant that we 
are ever more bound up together as ministries, as people, as fellowships, 
in the view of Christ and in the purpose for which we are created. If we 
stand for anything, let it be for purpose. 
 
 
 
Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy which has gathered us 
together. Let us rejoice in our heavenly gathering, but also in the 
earthly gathering of the Church, for it is here that we love and 
serve one another. So Father, just ever increase the revealing of 
the Son we pray, that the Church may ever grow as the expression of 
Him. And we thank you for it. In Jesus' precious name. AMEN.