4.2 Spirit Body
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Our purpose in these next two lessons is simply to cast a general overview of this continuous joining of Spirit and Church, Spirit and believer, all through the New Testament. We are calling this lesson “Spirit Body” and the next “Spirit Bride” because we begin with the Body and end with Revelation 22, and the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” We will not be concerned, however, in separating the flow of Body/Bride/believer topics to fit the two titles.
Now, the writers of the New Testament are typically writing to the Church as the local gathering together of believers in Jesus, therefore their “you” is usually a plural – two or three gathered together in Jesus’ name.
Me and We. Paul, by his personality, was always speaking Christ as himself, making Christ always personal to each one of us. For instance – For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made ME free… (Romans 8:2). Yet Paul constantly turns his “me” and his “you” into us together – …that WE may also be glorified together (Romans 8:17).
The idea of Christians living as separated individuals is not found in the New Testament. The words of Christ coming as the ink of Spirit upon our hearts happens primarily in the context of the gathering together of the Church.
The Completion of the Story. Let’s recount the progression of Christ. Christ IS a many-membered Body. End of story.
End of story, Christ as He is, yes, but not the beginning of that Story. Christ begins as every Word God speaks coming from the mouth of God into the hearts of those who are receiving Him. There in their hearts, Christ, every Word God speaks, becomes that person, Person inside of person, Christ as them, carrying them all the way through death and into life. But Christ cannot remain in hearts only. Rather, Christ proceeds out from the mouth as a Spirit Word connecting Christ in one with Christ in the other.
Knowing Jesus Sent. The end result, then, is Christ as a Corporate Body. This result is Christ as He is in actuality, that is, through this Body, God is capable and free to show Himself. This flow, however, is not sequential, but continuous. If any one of these aspects of Christ is removed, it is no longer Christ. If you want Jesus, you have to have me. And if I want Jesus, I have to have you. And this Jesus we both desire shows up in the universe AS HE IS only through the context of two or three gathering together inside of Him.
Consider the Church as I described in the last lesson. I have never known such a gathering of Church; I have never known Christ as He is. Yet eternal life is to KNOW Jesus Sent into us together.
The Defining Verse. Let’s begin with the defining verse. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (whether Judaics or Greeks, whether slaves or free) and have all been made to drink one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
Typically I remove the parenthetical statement because Paul, by those words, is, in fact, eliminating any such concept. I will use this verse without the parenthetical statement from here on; however, because this course is on the Church, we are compelled to deal with it briefly here.
No More “Judaic-Gentile.” For He Himself is our peace, who has made both (Judaic and Gentile) one, …so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body (Ephesians 2:14-16 – condensed).
Judaics cannot exist as “J-s” unless there are Gentiles. Gentiles cannot exist as “Gentiles” unless there are Judaics. If there are any “Judaics,” then we ARE all Judaics in Christ, Abraham’s seed and heir. If a “Judaic” is not in Christ, he or she is simply one more lost human. Paul’s purpose in his presentation of the gospel is to eliminate all distinction in anyone’s mind regarding any “split” among humans into “Judaic” and “Gentile.” Thus, in obedience to Paul’s purpose, we remove all such parenthetical-cancellation, even, from any place in our thinking.
All One and One All. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and have all been made to drink one Spirit. – All one and one all! Let’s modify these words by the Greek. – For inside the sphere of one Spirit we were all immersed into (penetrating with purpose) one body and have all been caused to drink one Spirit.
Both verb tenses are aorist indicative passive. That means this immersion and this causing to drink is already a done deal. It happened to you, and there is nothing you can do to change that. You and I were, long ago, immersed into life together as one Body, God’s salvation; it is already finished.
Being Sanctified. For by one offering He has completed forever those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10). Those who are “being sanctified” are those who are coming to the knowledge of what is already true, and then, out from that knowledge, into the full appearance of such a God in creation.
Of truth, this way of thinking rules every step we take in our going forward into the full expression of life together. We are not making anything happen; we are just discovering for ourselves the full extent of what we already are together, Christ, a many-membered body. And it is the One Spirit which we drink together that causes us to be the One Body of Christ that we ARE.
Caring for One Another. Because you drink the same Spirit I drink, and because I drink the same Spirit you drink, we are vital members of each other. And this living and binding connection together works its way out, as Paul describes through the rest of 1 Corinthians 12, as all the expression of a living Body.
Here is the bottom-line conclusion Paul makes regarding this living Body that we are together – that the members should have the same care for one another. Wow, look at that word, “care,” or merimnaó in the Greek.
Merimnaó: to be anxious, to care for; I am over-anxious, I am distracted by; I care for.
I (Christ as me) worry and am continuously anxious over you, yet in a good way, entirely inside the expectation of the Spirit.
Complete Reciprocity. Then, we must keep in front of us Paul’s frequent use of the Greek word, allélón, of one another. The point of allélón is not the English words “of one another,” but rather the grammatical concept of completely equal reciprocity or back-and-forth.
Let’s try to draw this picture the Spirit of God requires us to know regarding His role among us. Christ Jesus exists in full expression AS HE IS inside this carefully defined relationship between you and me, a relationship that exists because Someone else (Jesus) made us drink together of this One Spirit who then, by His very nature, immerses us into each other as one Body. And this dynamic Spirit Word connection between you and me is a fully equal back and forth of Spirit power, that is, God.
A New Concept. Consider the diagram below.
Think of the many ways by which brethren give to and receive from one another.
Going through the list of New Testament verses containing the words “one another” is quite an eye opener. I have never before considered this concept of full reciprocity. “Love one another” is a constant repetition, yet it takes on many different forms, such as – “bear one another’s burdens.” Even the verse that describes God’s “lowliness” is not actually “think of others as better,” but “think of one another as better.” God is fully reciprocal with us and we with Him.
Both Directions Together. The concept of reciprocity means that I receive from you as much as I give to you. There is no one-sided love; even when love goes out to those who are momentarily hostile, it is always seeking to win love back to itself. One moment, I submit to you by saying, “Let’s do it your way.” Then, a bit later, you submit to me by saying, “Let’s do it your way.” Thus the arrows depicting our reciprocity show from high to low and from low to high, both at the same time.
I am suggesting, then, that God has inserted this “one another” into the gospel, because it is through that connection that He is now able to reveal Himself to all, God seen and heard.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). The full implications (far beyond a “nice idea”) of this statement have rarely been considered among Christians.
A Very Large Question. We have a very large question, however. How is it that through this reciprocity Father begins to talk and to be seen in a way that others can know that they are looking at God? When you see my body, you know you are looking at me. How do we know we are seeing God when we look at His Body? How do we (including God) show ourselves as we are through our body/spirit? This question will undergird all our thinking inside of Church.
The Spirit Defines Us. As we consider the Holy Spirit among us, we bring into this present study our conclusion every time we have attempted to understand what “the Spirit” is. We do not “define,” nor even describe “the Holy Spirit,” rather, the Spirit defines and describes us.
Consider this statement – He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him. If we use this statement to attempt to understand what the Spirit is, we get nowhere. But when we use it to know what we are by the Spirit, we rest in the knowledge of God. According to Jesus in the upper room, the Spirit, though always speaking, never speaks of Himself, but only Christ, that is, Christ in the Church.
The Spirit Teaches only Christ. By the Spirit, we do not know “the Spirit”; by the Spirit we know Christ in His Church. I like that, for this truth enables us to move forward in the full expression of the Spirit among us. We refrain from seeking to know “the Holy Spirit”; rather, by the Spirit we seek to know Christ in His Church.
You see, I have always been bothered, just a bit, by teaching that focused solely on “the Holy Spirit” as an entity in and of Himself (or Herself as the case may be). It’s not that such teaching was “wrong”; it’s just that such teaching could not be of the Spirit, for the Spirit teaches us only Christ in His Church.
Life, Ministry, and Communion. There are two primary considerations all through the New Testament regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. First, the Spirit is the life of the Body – we see this thought expressed in many different ways. And second, the Spirit is the source and the governance of ministry in the Church, Christ speaking Christ into Christ.
Yet there is also a third general aspect of the Spirit expressed here and there, an aspect much more hidden than the other two. John said that our fellowship is with the Father and the Son, but Paul said that the Spirit IS that fellowship and communion. So, the Spirit is “our Communion” inside of the Being and Person of God.
The Life of the Body. Our question is, how does God show Himself as He is through His Spirit/Body? Let’s continue to develop our understanding.
The Spirit is the life of the Body. We can understand that statement because we have all looked closely at corpses of people we have known to observe and consider deeply what it is we are seeing now. Here is the clearest such statement. – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (James 2:26).
Now, we must forgive James. He wrote his letter before Paul had ever preached his gospel to the church. Yet we MUST always bring James’s words under the RULE of Paul’s Christ.
The Life of the Church. Here is the same word as Paul would have expressed it – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so works without faith are dead also. When you looked at the corpse of someone you once knew and loved, someone filled with life and joy, you knew that this form you were seeing was NOT that person.
But let’s extend this statement in a direction justified by many New Testament verses. – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so a church without the Holy Spirit is dead also. When you fellowship in a church not filled with the Holy Ghost, you recognize and receive your fellow Christians, yes, but you know that Christ in Person is not known in this place.
Alive Together. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:11). Although Paul is speaking of our individual mortal bodies here, we know from many other statements that this same truth applies to the Church as the Body of Christ.
It is the Spirit who gives Life… the words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are Life.
The Church, the Body of Christ, our life together, exists only as a function of a dynamic and living Holy Spirit connecting all – together as one – alive together unto God.