The Forming of the Body of Christ

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (I Corinthians 12:12)

One of the most powerful by far of the revelations given to the Apostle Paul is that Christ, the Messiah, is creating a Body of which He is the Head. You may notice that none of the other writers spoke of the Body of Christ.

Let us be careful to explain that we are not thinking of a many-membered Christ of which Jesus is one part. This concept has emerged as well-meaning teachers have considered the idea of the Body of Christ.

No, the Lord Jesus stands alone from eternity. He is Lord and Christ in the most sublime sense. He alone is Lord and our Redeemer, the blood atonement, the Lamb of God. We are none of these.

Having made this clear we can proceed with the full impact of the term the Body of Christ.

We capitalize Body, not from any false spirit of self-exaltation but because the Body of Christ is just thatùthe very Body of the Divine Son of God.

Please keep in mind that Christ is not Jesus' last name. Jesus is Jesus Bar Joseph, or Jesus of Nazareth.

The term Christ means the One God has anointed with oil to serve as Prophet, Priest, King, and Offering for our sins.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because the Lord has anointed Me." This is the meaning of Christ.

The Lord Jesus is the One whom God has anointed to accomplish our redemption.

When we speak of the Body of Christ we are referring to an extension of the Anointed One. We ourselves are being lifted from the ranks of mankind to become an integral, eternally inseparable part of the Anointed One, of Christ. We are the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

For so long we have thought of the word "church" as a building which we attend, a group of which we are a member, that engages in specific activities using a specialized vocabulary. Let me invite you to consider the Church as the Body of the Anointed One, an organism most of which is in Heaven with God, a smaller part being on the earth at any given time.

The Church, because it is a part of Jesus Christ, will serve throughout eternity in the role of prophet, priest, and king. The Church is infinitely more than a collection of social groups. The Church is part of the Servant of the Lord, the Anointed Deliverer who is to come.

Let us think about the human body. It has many parts, some visible, most invisible. Yet the body is one whole.

If some small, perhaps invisible part of the body does not function properly the entire body is affected. We go to the doctor to find out what is wrong.

There is nothing wrong that is visible, yet something is dreadfully amiss.

Then we understand that the body is a unit and a defect in one small part can cause weakness, sickness or death to the entire body.

So it is with Christ.

Continued.The Forming of the Body of Christ 2