If we reduce the “body of Christ” to a metaphor or figure of speech, then we will reduce the attributes of the “ekklesia” to a figure of natural thoughts and human limitations.
Matthew 16:18-19
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church [“ekklesia”]; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Ephesians 4:11-16
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
We must take “the body of Christ” as a literal phrase, not a metaphor or figure of speech, in the New Testament. If it is just a metaphor or figure of speech, then we will have many figures of thought concerning what the body of Christ constitutes in accordance to individual worldviews, human philosophies, linguistic limitations, historical traditions, and cultural symbols. Consequently, being a metaphor, the “body of Christ” would lose its existential substance, definitive essence, and tangible grasp apart from subjective figures of thought and etymological forms.
If we place the physical body of Christ two thousand years ago and the body of Christ today side by side, they are not an implied comparison between two unlike figures of thought that have something in common. Rather, they are the literal comparison of the same fullness of Christ’s body.
Galatians 4:19
My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—
The phrase “Christ is formed in you” can be paraphrased as “Christ is made incarnational in your human body just as Christ was made incarnate in His human body”.
Thus, the “body of Christ” literally, not figuratively, refers to the incarnational body of Christ today just as it referred to the incarnate body of Christ two thousand years ago, albeit in different natural forms.
The word “incarnate” means “invested with bodily and especially human nature and form” (Merriam Webster). Scripturally, it means “the Word (Greek “logos” meaning “the complete eternal Word of God”) became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14); and this Word is the Christ who is the Son of God (John 1:1). Thus, whether it was the incarnate body of Christ (embodying the Son of God in Son of Man) or it is the incarnational body of Christ (embodying the sons of God in sons of man), both have the same nature as the eternal Word becoming flesh. The incarnate body had finished His sanctification process and missional work on earth (c.f. John 17:17-19), while the incarnational body is on the course to finish according to the enabling grace and master workmanship of God.
Galatians 4:19
My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—
So, this is what Apostle Paul meant when he said, “I am again in labour until Christ is formed in you”, with the process of incarnation being a progressive workmanship process, like a potter with his clay, until the model (or prototype) stature of Christ, whom Paul was patterned after (c.f. 1 Corinthians 11:1), is formed in our bodies.
Thus, the key to defining the true incarnational body of Christ today is to define the phrase as literally as we describe the incarnate body of Christ two thousand years ago, albeit now having the spiritual being and bodily stature of Jesus incarnating in, and working through, our human flesh to conform to the image and likeness of His own incarnate Self, being enabled by the Spirit of the resurrection and the Spirit of the Pentecost, so that He can become the firstborn (or prototype) among many brethren.
Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
Therefore, just as we see the incarnate body of Christ walking on earth two thousand years ago, we must see the incarnational body of Christ walking on earth today, both as individual members of the body and a corporate many-membered body. In other words, however we interpret the image, likeness, and stature of the incarnate body of Christ two thousand years ago, we must interpret and attain likewise to the incarnational body of Christ today. This is where the Author and Perfecter of our faith will empower; that is, the Christ who was sanctified and made perfect through explicit obedience to the Father in the days of His flesh will empower us to become like Him in image and likeness in the days of our flesh as well (c.f. John 17:17-19; Hebrews 5:8-9; Hebrews 12:1-2; Matthew 5:48).
Thus, the sanctified and glorious nature of the transfigured incarnate body of Christ shall be the sanctified and glorious nature of the transfigured incarnational body of Christ (c.f. Matthew 17:1-2; 2 Corinthians 3:7-11; 18). The works that Jesus did in His incarnate body, we shall do likewise in our incarnational body, even greater works, for we are a one many-membered body of Christ (c.f. John 14:12). If we put the incarnate body of Christ and the incarnational body of Christ side by side, we must see no difference in stature in their final attainments. In fact, the incarnational body will be more “omnipresent” as a testifier of the Kingdom of God worldwide because the incarnational body of Christ is no longer limited by geographical boundaries like Christ’s incarnate body was.
Incarnate for incarnational is image for image, likeness for likeness, and stature for stature.
Can we ever imagine having this stature of sanctification, authority, power, and glory formed and manifesting in and through the ekklesia as the incarnational body of Christ? Surely, no gates of hell – no devil, no beast, no Anti-Christ, no pestilence, no work of the enemies, etc. – can prevail against this ekklesia, as Jesus promised.
In summary, the body of Christ today is the literal body of Christ that Jesus Himself is raising in His image and likeness to stand in His stead on earth until He comes again. It is the incarnational body of Christ to which we must and will attain, according to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
So, do not hold to a form of godly words but deny its substance and power. Let the body of Christ BE the body of Christ; nothing more, nothing less; to the praise of the glory of His grace. Amen.
Post Script
The Spirit of the resurrection is the power of the new creation in Christ, for victory over sin and the second death.
The Spirit of the Pentecost is the power of the one new man, which is the one many-functioning-membered body of Christ, the ekklesia, which no gates of hell can overcome, in the heavens and on the earth.
Thus, by the power of the Spirit of resurrection life and of the Spirit of the Pentecost, the incarnational body of Christ shall be the expression of the sanctification, power, and glory of Christ in the days of our flesh, just as the incarnate body of Christ was the expression of the sanctification, power, and glory of Christ in the days of His flesh.
So, it is finished, and it is finishing! Let the body of Christ BE the body of Christ. Amen.
Post Post-Script
The issue of the church, both individuals and corporate, cavorting with “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots”, drinking the wine of her immorality and getting her drunk on the blood of the saints (c.f. Revelation 17:1-6), is due to the fact that we do not see ourselves as the literal incarnational body of Christ such that we must pursue the appointed sanctification and mission of the body of Christ in the stead of Christ through our flesh today. We see the church simply as a community of once-saved-always-saved believers enjoying our earthly blessings and posterity while waiting for our heavenly mansions to be prepared for us. We will only see the glory of the world on offer as our riches in God when we do not see the glory of the incarnational body as our destined purpose in Christ. If you can look beyond this generalisation, you will see the reason why we are commanded to “come out of her, My people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).
Indeed, the ruler of the world had, and shall have, nothing in common with, no claim on, or no power over, the body of Jesus Christ, being the set-apart One in His body, whether in His incarnate form or incarnational form (c.f. John 14:30 Amp).
Once we see church as the true and literal body of Christ incarnating through our flesh, we will see our present in new light, and experience our future with assured hope; for everything that the Father did to Christ, for Christ, and through Christ in His body, He will also do to us, for us, and through us in our bodies, both individually and as a corporate many-membered body, until we conform to the image and likeness of the incarnate body of His Christ.
This is the true poiēma, God’s workmanship, created in Christ for the summing up of all things in Christ (c.f. Ephesians 1:9-10; 2:10).
Therefore, let the body of Christ BE the body of Christ. Amen.
Finally, brethren…
Colossians 1:18-20
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place [preeminence] in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
If the incarnate body of Christ, the firstborn of all creation and the firstborn from the dead, is preeminent or have first place over all things, then the incarnational body of Christ, the ekklesia, will have preeminence over everything as well; for it is the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in His body, and through His body to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Therefore, when the ekklesia conforms to the image and likeness of the Firstborn Son, it will be the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness of Deity to dwell in ekklesia’s bodily form (c.f. Colossians 2:9). Thus, just as the fullness of the Spirit of God came upon the incarnate body of Jesus Christ (c.f. Matthew 3:16-17), the Spirit of God will once again be poured out upon all incarnational flesh in whom God is well-pleased (c.f. Joel 2:28). Praise God.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Apostle Paul
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
So, let me close with these questions for our consideration:
- Are we concerned with the sanctity and lifestyle of our incarnational bodies, just as Jesus was concerned with the sanctity and lifestyle of His incarnate body?
- Are we living the incarnational life of Christ in and through our bodies?
- Can we attain to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, just as Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:11-13?
- What must we do to form Christ in us, until we conform to the image and likeness of the incarnate body of Christ in whom God is well-pleased?
- How can we, the ekklesia, dwell and walk as the true incarnational body of Christ corporately, and members of it individually, among men on earth, full of grace, truth, power, and glory?
- How does letting the body of Christ be the body of Christ affect our thinking concerning church, ministry, and mission?
God has given Christ “as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). Let the body of Christ BE the body of Christ. Amen.
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