Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:1-5
Before we actually go into the Word of God regarding the Body of Christ, it will be well to look back at Romans 1—8 in order to lead us into chapter twelve. Chapters nine through eleven are parenthetical, so we can put them in brackets and let chapter twelve follow chapter eight. Chapters nine through eleven illustrate the truth previously discussed. They are necessary, but we will better understand the thought of Romans by going straight from chapter eight to chapter twelve.
In order to get into chapter twelve, we must cover chapters one through eight. The first eight chapters of Romans deal with two phases of the Christian life. Romans 1—5:11 is the first section, while Romans 5:12—8 is the second. Romans was not written to the unsaved but to the saved. In the first section the matter of sin and its power is not dealt with; rather, the matter of sins is dealt with, that is, the things we have done. The salvation for sins is forgiveness. We have guilt because we have done certain things. God does not ignore our sins and wink at them. He has judged our sins in the person of Christ. We are forgiven on the ground of being judged, not on the ground of God being gracious.
There is not only something wrong with the things we have done, there is something wrong with what we are. There is something fundamentally wrong with us; therefore, in the second section the matter of the sinner is dealt with. In the first section the proof that man is a sinner is in Romans 5, not in Romans 3. We are sinners by constitution. We are sinners because we came from the wrong stock. Our stock decides what we are. Anyone who comes from the stock of Adam is a sinner whether or not he sins. The thing that is wrong with us is not what we have done; it is with our life.
The law means that God demands something from us. Putting ourselves under the law means trying to do something for God, trying to be something for God. Deliverance from the law means not trying to do or be anything for God. I know what stock I came from, I know what kind of make-up I have, so I do not try. The man in Romans 7 did not set out to sin but to please God. Yet setting out to please God results in sinning!
A man after the Spirit is a man who sees that the blood has dealt with his sins before God and that the cross has dealt with the man who produced those sins. If the crucifixion is true, we can no longer do anything for God. If we still try to please God, we are virtually denying our crucifixion with Christ.
Romans 12:1 says, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice...to God." Please note that this verse says "living sacrifice." Something has happened! When we have traveled through Romans 1 through 8 into Romans 12, and when we have presented ourselves to do His will, we find ourselves automatically in the Body of Christ. When we go from Romans 1 to Romans 8, we will surely find ourselves in Romans 12. We have seen the mystery of the Body of Christ, but what is the secret, hidden throughout the ages, and now made known in this age? Christ was anointed for this, but why is this so important?
We believe in the centrality of the cross, but the cross is not the end in itself. It is a divine means to a divine end. The end is the Body. When the cross has done something quite specific in our life, we find ourselves in the Body. Spontaneously, we find ourselves in the Body.
Personal holiness, as sought by many believers, is very precious. Victory, as sought by many believers, is also very precious. Praise the Lord for salvation, justification, and deliverance from the power of sin. However, God did not give us these spiritual experiences so that we could be hundreds and thousands of individual, separate units scattered over the earth. God never meant that Christians should be single units.
Reading the guide to London can never take the place of visiting London. Having a book of recipes can never take the place of being in the kitchen. Knowing the truth of the Body can never take the place of being in the Body experientially. The trouble today is that we think of Christians as just being many individuals. We think of salvation, victory, etc., as personal experiences. Salvation is related to the Body, deliverance is related to the Body, and having personal holiness is related to the Body. The divine thought is one corporate man, not a host of small men. Praise the Lord, we are saved as individual sinners, but we must end as members of the Body. God will take nothing less than the Body. He is working toward the Body. The cross is for this. It is futile to seek to produce individual saints. God does not have the thought of just having people here and there — individuals or groups — who are being justified and sanctified. The one loaf is still one after each member has taken part.
God is not satisfied with single, separate Christians. When we believed on the Lord and partook of Him, we became part of His Body. God has to give us the revelation of the Body. Are we seeking spiritual experience for ourselves? Are we making converts for some denomination? Or have we seen the vision of the one heavenly man and realized that God is seeking to bring men to this? When salvation, deliverance, and everything spiritual is seen from a different standpoint, everything will be revolutionized. Today many people have the teaching of one Body. Even the Vatican teaches one church, but Catholicism has its own head, because it has never seen the Body.
What constitutes us a member of the Body? If God gives us a revelation of the Body, what will be the effect on us? Will the revelation just be a new truth to expound? No, the revelation will mean a revolution! What constitutes us as members of the Body is not something we have experienced or something we have to do, it is Christ in us that constitutes us as members of the Body. It is nothing we are in ourselves that makes us a member of the Body, it is the life of the Lord in us.
The Body of Christ is Christ. Paul did not say anything wrong spiritually when he said, "As the body is one...so also is the Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12). Grammatically speaking, this is wrong; he should have said, "Christ and the church." But the Head is the Christ and the Body is the Christ. Everything that comes from Christ constitutes the Body, so that everything that does not come from Christ must be ruled out. It cannot get into the Body. It is not a matter of "plus"; it is all a matter of "minus." We do not need to get anything or do anything in order to get into the Body. We only need to be stripped of all we are and have. This is where the cross comes in. The cross is the divine means in us of ruling out that which prevents us from taking our place in the Body. The things of our self, temperament, make-up, etc., must all be ruled out. God must touch these things. Some folks have a keen mind and think that they can better understand and minister the Word of God by their keen mind. No! This needs to be eliminated. Often we minister just because we have a keen mind. How many of us need salvation from our mind, and the helmet of salvation for our head. The backbone of our natural strength must be broken. We must have a proper perspective on the divine things.
If we come to God and ask Him to show us Ephesians and what His purpose is for this age, He will certainly show us the Body. The cross points us straight to the Body, and the Body rules out everything that is of Adam. Nothing that is of us has any part in Him. We cannot add anything to our physical bodies, because they are already complete. So it is with Christ.
We must realize that a revelation of the Body is very costly. It will touch the very spring of your life. When this happens, the whole matter of moving as individual members ceases. There cannot be any free-lancing in the Body. If I move my finger, the muscles of my arm cannot refuse to move. If my arm moves, my finger cannot but go along with it. All that is individual must go. We have to move with others and wait for others. We cannot go on alone, we have to go on with the brothers.
If we expect to see the Body, the matter of other headships has to be dealt with. Other headships are interfering with the absolute lordship of Christ. Saul represents a system of things against God's anointed. David had two enemies — Goliath and Saul. Saul was fighting Goliath, but he was as much an enemy of David as Goliath because he tried to keep David from the throne. One was an enemy on the outside; the other was an enemy on the inside. The outstanding feature of Saul was his head, and the outstanding feature of Goliath was also his head (i.e., height). Everything that comes from human intellect, ideas, and opinions keeps the Anointed from the throne. However, one day a stone from David's sling dealt a deathblow to Goliath; Saul's doom was also sealed that day. We do need not to make a direct hit against the present system of things: "For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh" (Eph. 6:12a). When Goliath is dealt with, Saul is dealt with also.
If we really know the cross, it will lead us into the Body. So many Christians profess to know the Lord, the deeper meaning of the cross, and the truth of the Body, and they profess to be all one in Christ. They stress that the old man must go, but there is a tragic lack in the outworking of their words. All of God's dealings with us have been with a view to prepare us for the Body. All of His work in us is a process of elimination so that we can become functioning members of the Body.
