Search
Paul is the unique one in the New Testament to speak concerning the Body. Neither Peter nor John uses this term. Paul mentions the Body in four of his Epistles: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. It was through Paul that the revelation of the Body of Christ was brought in.
In the book of Ephesians the church is revealed as the new man, the household of God, the commonwealth or citizenship of God, the habitation of God, the fullness of God, the bride, and the warrior. However, the basic aspect of the church revealed in Ephesians is that of the Body; all the other aspects are subsidiary. Actually, Ephesians speaks of the Body as the new man, the household of God, the commonwealth of God, the habitation of God, the fullness of God, the bride, and the warrior. The Body is the main point.
God planned the church for the purpose of expressing Christ. For this reason, the church is the expression of Christ. The only way for the church to be the expression of Christ is for the church to be the Body of Christ. If we consider ourselves, we shall realize that our body is our expression. In like manner, the Body of Christ is His expression. There is no way for Christ to be expressed by the church except by it being His Body.
Some Bible teachers say that, in the New Testament, the Body of Christ is merely a parable illustrating how close we are to Christ. However, it is not correct to teach that the Body of Christ is a parable, for the Body is a fact, a reality, not a parable. We may consider the vine in John 15 a parable, but we should never say that the church as the Body of Christ is a parable.
The New Testament reveals clearly that the Body is one with the Head, Christ. If we do not have the Head, we cannot have the Body. We must honor Christ’s headship and apply it to the practicality of today’s church life. Only when we have the Head do we also have the Body.
The church as the Body implies life and function. The Body is a living organism. If it did not have life, it could no longer be the Body. The Body must have life. It also must have function, the function of all the members. If we are sincere in saying that we are the church, then we must all function as members of the Body. Therefore, the Body of Christ has the three crucial matters of the Head, the life, and the function.
The Body of Christ is composed of the believers, who are the members of the Body. Romans 12:5 says, “We, being many, are one body in Christ.” The phrase “in Christ” is very significant, for it indicates the believers’ organic union with Christ. As believers in Christ, we are organically one with Christ; we have a life union with Him. Because we have been organically united with Christ, we have been planted into Christ’s Body organically. Now, in Christ, we are organic parts of the Body.
The Body life is a corporate life. We can realize this by considering our physical body, which is a corporate entity composed of many members, all of which have their life and function in the body. If a member becomes separate or detached from the body, it loses its life and function. This indicates that no member of the body can be independent of the body or become individualistic. The principle is the same with the Body of Christ. None of the believers as members of the Body is a complete entity; rather, every believer is a member of the Body. Therefore, we need to remain in the Body for life and function.
Romans 12:5 reveals that we are members one of another in one Body. We, being many, are one Body, one entity. In the Body we can function and express Christ in a corporate way. We are many members, not many separate units. As members, we need to coordinate with each other so that we may be a living, functioning Body.
In 1 Corinthians 12:14-22 Paul speaks of the indispensability of each member of the Body. Then in 12:23-27 he goes on to speak of the tempering of the members. In verse 27 he says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” Every believer in Christ is a member of the Body. Hence, no believer should have the concept that he is not of the Body. In the Body every member is indispensable, for the Body exists in the functioning of all the members.
The believers practice the Body life by functioning with different gifts. The many members of the one Body have different functions. “As in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another” (Rom. 12:4-5). If we realize this, we shall not think too highly of ourselves (v. 3) but shall respect others.
In Romans 12:6a Paul says, “And having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them accordingly.” Grace is God in Christ as our life and enjoyment. This means that grace is the divine element coming into our being to be our life for our enjoyment. Grace, therefore, is the element of the divine life which is wrought into our being and which gives us some skill or ability. When this grace, the divine element, which is the divine life, comes into our being, it brings with it certain skills and abilities, and these are the gifts. The gifts, the spiritual abilities, come from the divine element which we have enjoyed. As we enjoy the processed Triune God, receiving and assimilating His element into us, out of this element proceeds some skill, gift, or ability. These gifts differ according to the divine element which we have enjoyed and which we have assimilated into us. As members of the Body, we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, that is, according to the grace we have enjoyed and assimilated.
The fact that the gifts in Romans 12 are according to grace means that these gifts are granted according to the measure of life. If we have enjoyed the life of God to a high degree, we shall receive a higher gift. However, if our enjoyment of the life of God is limited, our gift also will be limited, for the measure of our gift is limited by the extent to which we have enjoyed the divine life as grace within us.
First Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism and in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our races, nationalities, and social ranks, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. It is in this one Spirit that we were all baptized into this one living Body to express Christ.
The believers of Christ are baptized through water and in the Spirit into Christ, the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3), the name — the person — of the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and the Body of Christ. Baptism ushers the believers into an organic union with Christ and the Triune God, making them living members of the Body of Christ.
The baptism of the Spirit is not for individuals; it is for the Body. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul says clearly, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” This Body is an organic entity. We know from Matthew 28:19 and Galatians 3:27 that we have been baptized into the Triune God and into Christ. The Triune God and Christ are organic and living. From Romans 6:3 we know that we have been baptized not only into Christ but also into His death. Positively, we have been baptized into the Triune God and into Christ; negatively, we have been baptized into the death of Christ. This negative aspect of baptism clears away such negative things as sin, the flesh, the self, and the old creation. The ultimate issue of baptism is that we are put into the Body. We have been baptized into the Triune God, into Christ, into the death of Christ, and into the Body of Christ. However, the destination of such a baptism is not the Triune God, Christ, or the death of Christ; the destination is the Body of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul tells us not only that in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body but also that we “were all given to drink one Spirit.” To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and be lost in Him. To drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and have our being saturated with Him. By these two procedures — baptism and drinking — we are mingled with the Spirit. To be baptized in the Spirit is the initiation of the mingling and is once for all. To drink the Spirit is the continuation and accomplishment of the mingling and is perpetual, forever. Therefore, after being baptized in one Spirit, we need to drink of the one Spirit to be saturated and permeated with the Spirit.
First Corinthians 12:13 indicates that we drink the one Spirit in the Body. In one Spirit we have all been baptized into one Body to drink one Spirit. The Spirit is in the Body. As long as we stay in the Body, we may drink the Spirit.
To be baptized in the one Body is to experience something once for all, but to drink one Spirit is a continuing experience. In the Body life we have both baptism and drinking. We have baptism as the procedure to receive and accept the fact, and we have the drinking as the moment-by-moment experience. Now we are in the Body to drink. In one Spirit we have all been baptized, and now we are in the Body drinking of one Spirit.
In Ephesians 4:4 Paul speaks of “one Body and one Spirit.” The Body is mentioned before the Spirit because the oneness among us is related to the Body and is for the Body. The reason we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit (v. 3) is that we are all one Body.
There is a deep relationship between the one Spirit and the one Body. The Spirit is the essence of the one Body. Without the Spirit, the Body would be empty and lifeless. The Body in Ephesians 4:4 is the Body of Christ, and the essence of the Body of Christ is the Spirit. Hence, the Body and the essence of the Body are one. It is impossible for the Body of Christ to have more than one essence. The unique essence of the Body is the Spirit.
The Spirit is in the Body, as indicated in 1 Corinthians 12:13. This verse reveals that the one Spirit is not only the essence of the Body but also the life and life supply of the Body.
In Ephesians 4:3 Paul speaks of the oneness of the Spirit, and this Spirit is the Spirit in the Body. The Spirit is not only for the Body but in the Body. The Spirit is in the Body, not just in individual members.
“One Body and one Spirit” means that this one Spirit is wrought into our being and constituted into our being that we may be constituted into one Body. The Body is the constitution of the one Spirit. When we say, “One Body and one Spirit,” we mean that the Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, that the one Spirit has been wrought into the being of the one Body. Eventually, because the Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, we can say that the one Body is one with the Spirit. The one Body and the one Spirit, therefore, are not two separate entities. On the contrary, the one Body is one with the Spirit, and the one Spirit is one with the Body.
The Body of Christ is constituted with the unsearchable riches of Christ. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” Paul preached the unsearchable riches of Christ that the church as the Body of Christ might come into existence. The Body comes out of the riches of Christ.
Along with the term “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” the book of Ephesians speaks of “the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (1:23). There is an important difference between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are all the items of what Christ is. The fullness of Christ is the church, the Body, the issue of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. In our natural man we are not the fullness of Christ, the Body. But when we enjoy the riches of Christ, we become the Body as His fullness.
All the riches of Christ are for the producing of the Body. This takes place through the divine dispensing of Christ into the believers. The church is not produced by teaching or organizing; the church is produced by the divine dispensing. The more Christ with His unsearchable riches is dispensed into us, the more life we have, the stronger life we have, the richer life we have, and the more uplifted the Body life becomes.
The riches of Christ produce the Body through the believers’ experience and enjoyment of Christ. On Christ’s side, it is a matter of dispensing; on our side, it is a matter of experience and enjoyment. When we experience and enjoy the riches of Christ dispensed into us, we become, in a real and practical way, part of the proper Body life.
The experience of the riches of Christ results in the fullness of Christ, the Body as Christ’s expression. As the various aspects of the riches of Christ are experienced, enjoyed, and assimilated by us, we become the Body of Christ as His fullness to express Him. Thus, the Body of Christ is constituted with the riches of Christ that have been enjoyed and experienced by us. The Body is the issue of the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Experiencing and enjoying the riches of Christ is related to apprehending the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of Christ. Ephesians 3:18 speaks of the believers being “strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” The breadth, length, height, and depth are the dimensions of Christ. In our experience of Christ, we first experience the breadth of what He is and then the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical.
The dimensions of Christ — the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth — are the dimensions of the universe. Only God Himself knows the measurements of the universe. The very dimensions of the universe are also the dimensions of Christ. This implies that Christ is our real universe, for His dimensions are the dimensions of the universe. Ephesians 1:23 speaks of the fullness of Him who fills all in all, and 4:9 and 10 reveal that He who descended into the lower parts of the earth also ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things. When we enter into the new heaven and new earth to dwell in the New Jerusalem, we shall realize that Christ the Lord is our universe. Nevertheless, at present, in the Body life, we can apprehend with all the saints the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of Christ.
Being constituted with the unsearchable riches of Christ is also related to knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ mentioned in Ephesians 3:19a. The love of Christ surpasses knowledge, yet we can know it by experiencing it. According to our mentality, the love of Christ is knowledge-surpassing. Our mind is not able to know it. But in our spirit we can know the love of Christ through our experience.
The love of Christ is Christ Himself. Therefore, we should not regard the love of Christ as something belonging to Christ. This love is Christ. Furthermore, just as Christ is immeasurable, so His love is also immeasurable. Also, because Christ is immeasurable, His love is knowledge-surpassing. We can know this love not by mental knowledge but in our spirit by our experience.
Comparing what we have thus far experienced of the immeasurable love of Christ to all there is to experience is like comparing a raindrop to the ocean. Christ in His universal dimensions and in His immeasurable love is a vast, limitless ocean for us to experience in the Body and for the Body.
The Body is under the transmission of Christ in His resurrection, ascension, and transcendency to be the Head over all things. God has wrought the surpassing greatness of His power “in Christ in raising Him from among the dead, and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is coming; and He subjected all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:20-22). The words “to the church” in verse 22 imply a transmission. Whatever Christ, the Head, has attained and obtained is now being transmitted to the church, His Body. In this transmission the church shares with Christ all His attainments: the resurrection from among the dead, His being transcendent over all, the subjecting of all things under His feet, and the headship over all things. The church as the Body comes out of this transmission, for the little word “to” indicates the source of the church.
The words “to” in verse 22 and “toward” in verse 19 both indicate a transmission from Christ to the church, a transmission from the Head to the Body. Christ is Head over all things to the church, and the surpassing greatness of the power that operated in Him is toward us who believe. This transmission is not once for all; on the contrary, it will continue for eternity.
When Christ is transmitted into us, the transmission joins us with Christ and makes us one with Him. By means of such a transmission we are the Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
