Body Life - Each Part and All the Parts

As you've seen in the last couple of weeks, and probably next week too, and probably in Vern's email this week, at the annual Holly Hills meeting, we weren't able to present the purpose of the teachings about the body of Christ. So we're concentrating on that, and Roger will finish it up next week.

The focus is on the body of Christ, the Church, and in particular, the body of Christ at Holly Hills. So we see from the passages that Courtney read, and the rest in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, that the body of Christ is formed by the Holy Spirit himself.

And in the body of Christ, he works dividing the gifts for the good of the body to every man as he wills. So in verse 12, when he says, for as the body is one, and yet many members, And all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. As the human body is one and yet composed of many members, all having their place and part in that one body, so also is.

And in the Greek it says, so also is the Christ. And I think this is a beautiful way of expressing and presenting this truth. The human body is composed of billions of cells. And science is just now beginning to scratch the surface in discovering what they all are and how they all function.

The Church, being an organic unit, while it consists of many parts and members, harmonizes with various gifts, with the Spirit distributing according to His will. The body is, as Paul pointedly points out here, the body is Christ, or the Christ. And we might have said the body is the church, but Paul says it is Christ. So Paul looks at Christ and the church as one heavenly man, which while one has many members, and yet all the members, many as they are, forming one body, so also is Christ.

So what is the church then? You have to start, I think, with the glorified Christ in heaven. at the right hand of God. He's the head of the body. He's the head of the church. The church is His body and it's the fullness and the complement of Him who is His divine being fills all in all. Think of the link here. How His church is spoken of under one name, so also is Christ. The body is Christ's body and includes Christ and all the members And the body expresses who Christ is.

How did it begin? Where's the beginning of this body when it's formed? I think it starts with Christ glorified. After redemption has been accomplished through his death, and after that he's given to the head of the church to be the head of the church, which is his body, after he's been glorified. So you have to start there. Here we have the beginning marked. The body could not exist without the head and Christ was made the head of the church when he was glorified.

Now the best example I know of this is when Paul or Saul of Tarsus is on the road to Damascus and he's converted. And the character and the ministry of what he was going to be about the rest of his life were demonstrated to him when Christ appeared to him in all of his antagonism and persecution. Christ, the glorified head of the church, called out to his bitter enemy and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Thus, at that very moment, Paul's awakened to two things. Number one, that Jesus Christ is glorified because that's who he saw. And number two, that his people were somehow marked by identification with him. This is in accord with the truth that Paul always presented from his conversion on, that to touch his people was to touch him.

Verse 13 says, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greek, whether bond or free, we were all made to drink of the one spirit. So I think it's important to observe here that this event is not by faith. Precious and mighty as faith is, the unity of the body was formed by the Holy Spirit personally sent down from heaven. Faith is individual. It does not unite, though it does fit us out for union with Christ. One believes the gospel and he is given life and has salvation. He's quickened by God. By faith the individual has life and is adopted and is justified. He's a child of God. He's blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. But the baptism of the Spirit is over and above life. and is given, therefore, not to those who would be dead, those who don't have Christ, but to those who are already made alive.

And this issue is the one body, over and above faith. He and you and I are all sealed by one spirit. Then and only then is the body, the church, formed. It supposes that the individual salvation question has been settled by faith. And then the corporate relationship, the body relationship begins and is established by the Holy Spirit and is now on earth and is privileged as a privilege indeed of the highest kind but now involving also the greatest responsibility. The church is identified with him and this because by or in virtue of one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether you're Jew or Gentile, bond or free, you're all made to drink of one spirit.

The body is the sphere in which the spirit acts. This leads to a very blessed unfolding of the truth of the church, viewed as the body of Christ. According to God's order, believers do not exercise gifts isolated as individuals, but as members of the body of Christ and for the good of the whole body. So what does the baptism of the Spirit really mean?

It means, or it marks the introduction, or should I say better, it affects our introduction into one body, the church of which we have been speaking. It is not just to put us in the same profession, but into a real body. Now I'm not playing on words here. I say the scripture doesn't ask or provide for a voluntary joining of a church.

God joins us by His Spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. So baptism by the Spirit is then, it's universal, and it's for all saints, and it's immediate upon believing. So we see that what the baptism of the Spirit here means is the Holy Spirit putting us, when we have believed, into union with the company of all other saints, uniting us to Christ and giving us our individual place in that one body.

What is the instrument that God used? to set us aside and to set aside everything for this body. It's the cross. The cross swept away the natural man with all his distinctions in God's sight and left nothing but a new creation where Christ could be and is all in all. The one new man who is the new creation in Christ. There's a reconciliation in the one body of Christ. The church, the Jews and Gentiles are both one new man and thus one body is formed. All else has been set aside by the cross.

So how could we intelligently and consistently join this or that body when we are consciously of the one body and responsible to walk according to God's will in that relationship? If I hear God's word, I am first in Christ, then in the church, I know that the Spirit dwells in me, and I know also that he dwells in the church.

Not merely alike in doctrine or discipline or tradition, which might be in many independent societies, but one body here below. So the Apostle Paul uses the human body to illustrate certain great truths about the body of Christ. He says in verse 14, for the body is not one member, but many. If you study 1 Corinthians 12 as a unit, you'll see that it reflects on the unity of the body and not on individual gifts, although gifts are spoken about. The whole 12th chapter should be read as showing the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ. Next to its unity is the diversity of all of the members and their mutual dependence one upon another.

Each member has his or her own function and how clear it is that each individual here is contemplated, each individual. So the body of Christ is the vehicle by which the spirit expresses himself. The church as the body of Christ is the vehicle that we might say the activities of Christ are manifested. He uses the church through the indwelling spirit to perform his work in the world and to represent him. Now watch how Paul puts this together. It's kind of interesting.

If the foot shall say, because I'm not a hand, I am not of the body, it is not for this reason any less part of the body. The first practical inconsistency with the church's structure, which Paul warns against, is that the members discontented with their position. because they feel that they're maybe lesser or weaker. We're in danger of ignoring and neglecting their own function due to envy of those who have maybe a perceived higher or stronger position. And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I'm not of the body, it is not for this reason any less part of the body. Such unfriendliness, if carried out, would destroy the Church.

Each has his own part, each one of us, but for the benefit of the Church, not for yourself. It is as if the foot and the hand or the eye and the ear could act for the entire body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were a hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

Paul actually demonstrates this through an absurdity of such wishes when they're shown. If one member might desire legitimately some special place, so might all the rest, and the consequences of which would be to ruin the body. the marvelous coordination and subordination of the various members in the body would be at an end.

But now, has God set each member, each of the members, each one of them in the body, even as it pleased Him? So it's not a question of theory. It's not a question of wise practice. or a fleshly ability, it's a question solely of God's will. None is so insignificant as to be omitted, and each has his important place in the body according to the sovereign will of the Spirit of God. God has so ordained that, and those who wish otherwise really do fight against his word. It is not merely the providential fact of one being in this location or that or another location, nor is it one lead of the Spirit to go here or to go there. As the body is according to God's design and formation, each is set in its place and arranged and fitted out by God in the body of Christ and with a gift that's suitable for that specific place.

One's own choice is excluded here. I know that we're all readers of the Constitution and think we have free will, but your own choice is excluded here. And so is the selection by other men. It is neither self, nor man, nor the church, but God who can and ought to set the members. You know, we endeavor around here as we look and observe and watch We're looking for, and you should be looking for, every other member as to where God has put them and to honor them where they are. We don't sit down and have a committee meeting and select people to do this and that job. We look around to see who God has selected and, oh, that's where He wants them.

So our choice, your choice, is excluded. He determines for the slightest as well as the greatest, for the weak as well as the strong, for the young as well as the old. Any other ordering is questioning God's ways and pleasures. It is God's church, and He, not man, orders the place of each and in all.

19. And if they were all members, and if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now there are many members in one body. First, I think we need to be reminded that in the human body there's diversity in unity. The body is not one member, but it's many. This diversity would be entirely overlooked and the gravest disorder arise if each member neglected his own function through envy of the other members or having perhaps a more visible function. If the foot began to complain that it's not the hand or the ear that it was not the eye, the work of the body would cease and it would cease to function. For complaining members cease to work effectively for the good of the whole body. Such disorder can only be prevented by the recognition that it is God and not man who has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it pleased him, giving each his appointed place and function.

The preeminence of one member would be done away with and it would be like cancer cells. Cancer cells grow and replace other cells, which harms the body in general. If we were all one member, there wouldn't be a body. But now there are many members but one body. Already we have seen that envy of one another would break up the diversity. But now we learn that disdain would break up the unity. If the eye treats the hand with contempt and the head sneers at the feet, all the unity of the body would be gone.

Again, this disorder can only be excluded, I think, by the recognition of the presence and the power of God. who has tempered the body together in such a fashion that no member can dispense without any other member. The recognition of this second truth that there is a unity in diversity would exclude the principle of independency.

The members, though each having a special function, are dependent upon one another. So everybody in this room has a special function, and everybody in this room is dependent on everybody else. The truth then is that the body of Christ, that there is no believer that has preeminence, and all are dependent on one another, and God has put us all together.

So the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Arrogance and arrogance is thereby put down even more strongly here on the part of the seemingly higher members towards the perceived lower members. Then was the dissatisfaction as we saw in the lesser towards the greater. The highest cannot do without the least. The strong cannot do without the weak. The old cannot do without the young. There isn't anybody in this room that can do without anybody else. Every one of us is dependent totally on the rest.

On the contrary, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. And those parts of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon those we bestow abundant honor or much more honor. And our less presentable parts, our less beautiful parts, become much more presentable or beautiful, whereas our presentable members have no need of it But God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked. But God blended the body together, having given more abundant honor to those who lacked it. So if you think that you're one of those less abundant or less honorable. God has taken it upon himself to honor you more and he did it so that there might not be any divisions in the body but that the members might have the same concern for one another. The less beautiful parts are more essential and upon them greater care has to be bestowed.

As an example, as we cover our feet we don't cover our face. So it is that God uses and honors what is apt to be despised, and so should we. And if we have the mind of Christ, and this is thus ordered of God, to guard against the tendency to division in the body. A man protects his lungs carefully while his face is exposed to the air.

For the purpose that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. This truth you can't put it aside, for the Apostle Paul is proving here that as division cannot be without ruin in the natural body, so is the body of Christ framed in the grace of God.

And whether one member suffers, All the members suffer with it. Or one member is honored. All the members rejoice with it. The result of this is that we suffer and we honor together. If you have sickness in one member, you have sickness in the body. I never would say if my lungs were sick, or my heart was affected, that this special organ is sick, what would I say? I would say that I'm sick. I'm infirmed.

The truth remains that the members do affect one another, as they are united to one another by the Holy Spirit, and that which depends on the Spirit abides, however much our failure may hinder its expression. The more spiritual we are, the more we are going to realize the truth that we affect one another.

Notice that this verse does not say that we ought to suffer and rejoice, but it says we do. We do suffer and we do rejoice. Whether it's good or bad, all that is according to God is one. One Christian goes out for blessing to all the rest, and there is not an evil or a scandal in a saint which does not affect, with its shade and suffering, every other saint. The effect is real throughout the body. It is a body, after all, and the body of Christ. And as a whole, it feels in joy and sorrow, else it wouldn't be a real organic unit.

And Paul makes a great proclamation at the end. He says, now you are Christ's body and individually members of it. He's been speaking here of the great principles that are true of the whole church of God upon the earth, viewed as the body of Christ. He now applies these truths to the local church at Corinth or at Holly Hills. And he says, now you are Christ's body, and in particular, members.

So today, it is still the privilege and the responsibility of all believers in any given location or locality to gather together simply as members of the body of Christ upon the earth, and as a local representative of that one body. by the Spirit, every single believer is a member of that body of Christ, and being such is responsible to walk in consistency with this great truth. The only unity formed by the Spirit is this one body of Christ, and the only membership that Scripture recognizes is membership in this body. There are three ways, I think, in which we should look at this membership in the body of Christ. One, we should look at it as linked, each one of us individually linked with Christ.

Ephesians 5.30 says, For we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones. We're linked with Christ individually. We're linked with all the other saints. Everyone in this room is linked with everybody else.

Romans 12.5 says, So we, being many, are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. And as individuals, we are members in particular or individually members of it.

So, I don't think it's an uncommon thing to find believers taking a very deep interest in their own personal spiritual development. But apparently, I think a lot of us are unconcerned about the Spirit's work on a corporate level. And I think that's what these verses reflect. I think that they specifically focus in on the health, the formation and the health of the body of Christ as a body.

The focus here is on the unity of the body or the church rather than on the individual. So in closing with prayer, bow your heads, and I'm going to borrow a prayer from Paul in Ephesians 1. And he says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him and in the knowledge of his body, having the eyes of our heart enlightened, that we might know what is the hope of his calling. what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And he put all things together in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.