21.What is true of Christ? .

Back to Study the Book of First Corinthians

He is made up of many members, many parts.

The concept of the Body of Christ is truly awesome in its implications. Only the Apostle Paul taught the concept of the Body.

There are two mysteries contained in the Scripture, mysteries so stunning in their implications, so breathtaking in their grandeur, the human mind cannot embrace them without supernatural aid.

The first mystery is that the almighty God became a man.

The second mystery is that God in Christ is in us and we are becoming an eternally inseparable part of Him.

The two mysteries taken together produce the fullness of the incarnation, the revelation of the invisible God in a material form.

The mystery of the Gospel is not only that God has appeared to us as a man, although that fact alone is so colossal as to make every other event of human history shrink into insignificance. Rather, the mystery of the Gospel is that God is dwelling in us and is being formed in us—that we are the fullness of Him, the enlargement of His Being.

To properly evaluate the significance of I Corinthians 12:12, we must understand that the words Christ and Messiah are synonyms. The first is Greek and the second is Hebrew. Christ is Messiah; Messiah is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Both words, Christ and Messiah, mean the Anointed One—the Person whom God has anointed with His Holy Spirit in order to glorify Israel and bring justice to the Gentiles.

All Christians understand that Christ has come already and has given His life an offering for sin, exactly as Isaiah prophesied (Chapter 53).

But not every Christian understands that Christ is in us and we are part of Him.

Christ not only has come to us, Christ is in us and we are part of Him.

When Christ appears in the clouds of glory the saints will appear as part of Him.

The coming Christ is made up of many parts, many members. As the physical body is made up of many members, so also is Christ—the Anointed Deliverer from God.

It is one matter for a king to come to you. It is quite another matter for a king to come in you and for you to become the body of the king. Don’t you agree?

The second type of coming, the king coming in you, so far exceeds in significance and implications the first type of coming that there is no comparison between the two.

The Christian Church is the Body of Christ. There shall be no more appearances or ministry of Christ apart from His Body.

And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:22,23).

The reason Paul speaks of the ninefold manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and then refers immediately to the many members of Christ, is that these two topics are related.

The term Body of Christ means the body of Him who is anointed with the Holy Spirit in order to glorify Israel, and to bring justice to the nations of the earth in fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham.

It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is the christing, to coin a term. Messiah (Christ) means "anointed with oil"—the "oil" of the Spirit of God.

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (Isaiah 61:1).

When we who believe in Christ are baptized with the Holy Spirit we are baptized into the Body of Christ. The same anointing that abides eternally on Him now abides on us, although not in such fullness.

Now we are the Body of Christ. Now the anointing of the Holy Spirit is upon us so we may preach good tidings to the meek, to the humble and teachable of mankind.

It is impossible to perform the work of the Kingdom of God apart from the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It is impossible to be a member of the Body of Christ, of the Anointed One, unless we are anointed by the Holy Spirit; for the Body of Christ is the group of people on whom the anointing of the Holy Spirit is abiding.

We receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon us so we may bear an effective witness of the atoning death, glorious resurrection, and coming rulership of our Lord and Savior Christ. Apart from the power of the Spirit of God we cannot bear an effective witness.

Only as the Holy Spirit abides in us and upon us are we the members of the Body of the Anointed Deliverer. It is the anointing of the Spirit that enables us to reveal the Glory of the Lord, and it is the beholding of that Glory that causes the members of the Body of Christ to grow in love into the fullness of the stature of Christ (II Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 4:13).

We are built up together by that which every member is supplying. It is the building up, the edifying, that is the purpose of the ministries and gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

Christ—Head and Body—must know by the Spirit, must speak by the Spirit, must act by the Spirit. The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the interpretation of tongues, and discerning of spirits enable the saints to know and understand by the Spirit.

Prophecy and different kinds of tongues enable the saints to speak by the Spirit.

Faith, the working of miracles, and the gifts of healing enable the saints to act by the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God’s agency and power of communication. There is no communication in the Kingdom of God apart from the Holy Spirit. He alone bears witness of God.

In the eternal affairs of the Kingdom of God, the Christian Church is utterly powerless to know and understand, to speak, or to act apart from the Holy Spirit of God.

Back to Study the Book of First Corinthians

Back to Chapter Twelve..