We have been taught to think of ourselves as sinners needing redemption. For generations that has been instilled into us, and we praise the Lord for that as our beginning; but it is not what God has in view as his end. God speaks here rather of “a glorious church, not having spot of wrinkle or any such thing; but…holy and without blemish.” All too often we have thought of the Church as being merely so many “saved sinners.” It is that; but we have made the terms almost equal to one another, as though it were only that, which is not the case. Saved sinners—with that thought you have the whole background of sin and the Fall; but in God’s sight the Church is a divine creation in his Son. The one is largely individual, the other corporate. With the one the view is negative, belonging to the past; with the other it is positive, looking forward. The “eternal purpose” is something in the mind of God from eternity concerning his Son, and it has as its objective that the Son should have a Body to express his life. Viewed from that standpoint—from the standpoint of the heart of God—the Church is something which is beyond sin and has never been touched by sin…

   There is thus an aspect of the death of the Lord Jesus which is altogether positive and a matter particularly of love to his Church, where the question of sin and sinners does not directly appear. To bring this fact home Paul takes that incident in Genesis 2 as illustration. Now this is one of the marvelous things in the Word, and if our eyes have been opened to see it, it will certainly call forth from us worship.  

The Normal Christian Life - Watchman Nee