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About Jesus Steve Sweetman My Journey Through The Ecclesiastical Maze Part 34 Jesus,
Head Of His Body In 1 Corinthians 12:27
Paul says, “you are the Body of Christ”.
He also repeats this phrase in Ephesians 4:12, and alludes to it
elsewhere. This is the
question. Is the term Body
of Christ purely figurative and symbolic of God’s people, or should we
understand it as being literal? Or,
to ask it another way, is the term Body of Christ meant to be
descriptive of what church should be, or are we really Jesus’ present
day physical earthly body? When I use the word
“body” in my question, I’m not speaking exactly of a group of
people as in a board of directors or a school board.
I’m speaking more of a physical human-like body.
I don’t believe
Paul’s use of the term “Body of Christ” is meant to be taken in a
purely symbolic way. Yes, the term can be seen symbolically to describe
what the church should look like, but I think it’s more than that.
If you understand John 1, verses 1 through 18 you’ll note that
“the Word” became flesh in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the miracle of the
“virgin birth”. When
Jesus ascended into the clouds to take His place in authority and power
alongside His Father, He no longer had the same physical presence on
earth He once had. He also
exchanged His earthly physical body for a different kind of body that
the Bible speaks of as being a “glorified body”.
This is the body He presently has and seems to be portrayed in
Revelation 1:12 to 18. In Matthew 28:16 to 20 Jesus
told His disciples “to disciple all nations”.
I believe these words apply to us as well as to those Jesus was
speaking to. In Acts 1:4
through 8 Jesus added to this instruction by telling His followers to
wait until they received the Holy Spirit into their lives before they
went out discipling. This took place on the Day of Pentecost which you
can read about in Acts 2. When
the Holy Spirit came to live in the physical body of those believers,
God made for Himself a new body to live in.
This new body lived on earth and replaced the physical body of
our Lord Jesus who was no longer on earth to represent His Father.
Because of this, it is
clear to me that we are Jesus’ new body.
Therefore the term “Body of Christ” is not merely symbolic or
figurative. We should see
ourselves as Jesus’ replacement body on earth.
Of course this only applies to those individuals and groups who
really have the Holy Spirit living in and among them.
John 20:21 says “that
as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us”.
We are to represent Jesus in the same way Jesus represented His
Father. As God was in
Christ, so Christ is in us. Paul
says something similar when he says, “God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself … and has committed unto us the word of
reconciliation”. ( 2
Corinthians 5:19 - KJV) Since
we are now God’s physical presence in the world, it is important for
us to view ourselves in this light.
We are more than a group of people called a church.
We are a body in whom the Spirit of Christ lives in, and that’s
why we are “the Body of Christ”.
In one real sense of the
word, we are an extension of the body that the “Word” once lived in
as seen in John 1. This is a
fundamental truth of Scripture that is not evolutionary in nature, and
is cross-cultural and relevant in every generation and in every society.
The lack of this understanding has helped produce the ecclesiastical
maze that presently exists.
There are many
descriptive terms that God’s people have been given that can be found
in the Bible, but none of them are more important than the term “Body
of Christ”. If this is so,
what does all this mean? One aspect of this truth
is that all bodies have body parts, which includes a head that is the
brain for the body. Paul
says in Ephesians 5:22 and 23 that Jesus is the head of His new body.
Being the head means that Jesus calls the shots for everything
that goes on in His body. He
sends out signals for all the body parts to respond to.
This is another fundamental truth that is not evolutionary in
nature. In many aspects of the ecclesiastical maze we’ve forgotten and
ignored this truth. That’s
why Jesus wants His church back. We
ignore His signals. We’ve
taken charge of His body,
and we fight each other for prominence in the process.
Just imagine if your own
body acted in the same way the ecclesiastical maze acts.
Your right hand thinks it is in charge of everything.
Your mouth claims it is to be the dominant body part, while your
left foot demands strict obedience.
Each body part works in isolation from each other as your body
attempts to function as it should. You
end up with a mouth biting a hand, a hand hitting a foot, and a foot
kicking a mouth. It
doesn’t look very pleasant, and to some it looks hilarious.
This is a picture of the ecclesiastical maze.
No wonder the world gets so many laughs at the church’s
expense. Someone seeing your
physical body convulsing like this might think you’re in need of
medication, and maybe even in need of being institutionalized. Once
again, this is how the world views the church.
Concerning being institutionalized, we don’t have to worry
about anyone putting us away. We’ve
already institutionalized ourselves.
We’re also heavily medicated with humanistic philosophy
that’s made us quite docile.
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