(1) "ONE BODY IN CHRIST"
(1) “ONE BODY IN CHRIST”
The truth of the one body is of all moment as affecting our conduct here as individuals. We cannot possibly be intelligent as to our conduct as individuals unless we recognise that we are one body in Christ and members of one another. In Romans we have the simple fundamental principle of Christianity, and to a very large extent that which is individual in Christian life.
It is important to remember that each one has an individual path; but on the other hand there comes in this truth, which to a certain extent affects that, namely, that “we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another”. This is the first presentation of the truth of the body. Then we have an advance in light upon it in Corinthians, Colossians, and Ephesians.
In this chapter we have two thoughts as to the Christian: we are here for the will of God, and we are members of one body. Both act as a check upon independence. Man naturally does not like being fettered by such bonds; he would prefer to be a kind of Ishmaelite, independent and free of everything. The Christian has to recognise that he is here for God’s will, not his own, and that he is a member of the body.
I want you to notice the expression, “one body in Christ”. It is not that which could be effected by the association of men, it is in Christ. We all have our individual path in the flesh, as the apostle said, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. That was his own path, and his individual faith; he does not there look upon [p. 131] himself in the light of a member of the body. So we all have to do with the concerns of daily life, and have to take up a variety of things here, one being a servant, another a master, but all this has nothing to do with our being one body in Christ.
The body is not a religious or outward organisation. There are such organisations, as Popery, the Church of England, Wesleyans, Good Templars, and the like, but they are in the flesh, they are not “one body in Christ”.
The truth of our being members of one body does not add to our privileges, but really depends upon the privileges which are ours, It hangs upon two thoughts, which go together, that is, that Christ is in the saints, and that the saints are in Christ. If you apprehend these two points you have the basis of the truth of the body.
I will turn to two or three passages in Romans: first, the end of chapter 4, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”. This verse is fundamental, for the great idea is presented to us of One having been raised from the dead representatively; that is, He has been raised for our justification. No one can understand the truth of being in Christ who does not first understand this. Just as He was delivered for our offences, so has He been raised for our justification. The first thing is “faith in his blood”; I can actually meet God by His blood. The next ray of light is that He was raised again for our justification; I am justified in Him. He represented His people upon the cross, and He represents His people in resurrection. I am completely cleared from everything which lay upon me, cleared according to the truth of Christ. God has not yet liberated me from every effect of sin, but Christ has been liberated. He was made sin, and died, and God has freed Him from every consequence of sin. I am not so liberated in my own person, for if [p. 132] the Lord tarries I shall die, but I am liberated in Christ, I am justified in Him. The measure of my justification is Christ. This brings the light of Christ into my soul. I have got a link with Him which cannot possibly be broken. When it says, “our justification”, I think the word includes the whole Christian company.
Now I go on to chapter 6: 9 - 11, where we have a further point, we pass out of death into life. We reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. In these verses it is not simply the fact that He is raised, but He lives unto God, and we reckon ourselves alive unto God in Him. Christ describes what we are in the presence of God. We cannot know what a believer is in the presence of God except as we find it out in Christ. If we could suppose that Adam had not failed, a man might have said that he was alive unto God in Adam. The truth is, “In Adam all die”. We reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. What Christ is describes what the Christian is, and you cannot learn the place and privilege of the Christian except as you learn it in Christ. He lives unto God for God’s eternal satisfaction. God has found His perfect rest in a Man now. We learn what we are to God as we see it in Him. And this is the description of what all Christians are in the eye of God. I wish you to notice this because I am leading on to the truth of the body. We are all justified in Him, and we are all alive in Him. One Man, that is Christ, describes what all are in the eye of God.
In chapter 8 we reach the other side of the truth, the subjective, that is our side of the truth. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you ..”. (verses 9, 10). When it is said “alive unto God in Christ Jesus”, it is position. Christ’s position before God belongs to the Christian. The other side of the truth is that Christ lives in the believer by the Spirit. He could not live in us except [p. 133] by the Spirit. The two thoughts are brought together in these verses, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”, then, “if Christ be in you”. Christ lives in us. “Not I, but Christ liveth in me”. Christ lives in principle in all Christians. It is only one Christ for our position before God, and one Christ living in all Christians by the Spirit. There may be thousands of Christians who have part in the Spirit, but there is only one Christ. This leads up to the great truth in chapter 12, “We, being many, are one body in Christ”. Our being one body does not add anything to the privilege or dignity of the Christian; it is a necessary consequence of our being alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and of Christ living in all Christians.
People take up the body as a distinct truth, but no truth in that sense is distinct or separate in Scripture, because truth is one complete whole, all parts being interdependent. I am convinced that you must learn the truth of the body on the line I have indicated. You must first learn that Christ was raised from the dead for our justification; then that we have passed out of death into life, for we have a new position in Him in the presence of God; then that He lives in us in that position. “The Spirit is life”. What is that for? For the position we have in the presence of God. I see that there is a Man there to the perfect satisfaction of God; we are in Him and He lives in us.
I think that we individualise Scripture too much. For example, we talk about a Christian being a child of God, but Scripture speaks of the children of God; it is always plural. The apostle does not say, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon the Christian”, but, “upon us, that we should be called the sons [children] of God”.
Our life and pilgrimage in the wilderness is all individual, in which each one has to be faithful, but [p. 134] when we come to our being alive in Christ, and Christ living in us, it is what we have in common. When I come to take up my daily duties down here I do so in my natural life, and according to the ability which God has given me. That is my life in flesh, it is not a question of Christ living in me; I live by faith of the Son of God. If Christ lives in me it is for the position which I have in Him before God; and this is true of the whole company of Christians. Thus are we one body in Christ. And then another thing comes out, we are members one of another.
Now in chapter 12 I want you to notice two things, the first of which is that the Christian is to be here for God both in body and mind. He is to present his body a living sacrifice, and he is transformed by the renewing of his mind. The body is the material part of man, the mind is the intelligent part. The body is not renewed, it is yielded up, it is devoted, for that is the idea of sacrifice in Scripture, something devoted which cannot be recalled. The Christian’s body is to be offered up as a living sacrifice that cannot be recalled. Then the apostle speaks of the renewing of the mind, though he could not speak of the renewing of the body. It flows from this, that God has become a factor, and the most important factor in the Christian’s existence. An unconverted man lives entirely without God. He may acknowledge God in a formal way, but his soul does not know what it is to have to do with God. When a man is converted the practical effect of it is that God becomes a great reality to that man. He comes to know God, not as Adam knew Him before man had departed from Him, but as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in Christ. He turns to a living God.
The Thessalonians turned from idols to serve a living and true God; that is, One who had proved Himself to be living and true, for He had revealed Himself. I delight in a thought that has been present to me lately, namely, that God’s great answer to the ruin of man by Satan is that He has displayed Himself in a man. In Christ, who took the form of a man, dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. If you want to know all the thought of God toward man, you see the full display of it in the Lord Jesus. Now that is the God to whom we turn. We are made acquainted with what He is, we live in divine light, in the light as He is, and our hearts are made acquainted with His love; it is made personal to us by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us. That produces the mightiest revolution possible in man’s mind. I have no doubt at all it is the work of God, but that, I judge, is how the renewing of the mind is brought about.
A man lives for his own will until he is converted, now he is here to prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God, and to be here for that will by the renewing of his mind. An unconverted man thinks he is doing his own will, but he is really doing the will of Satan. No man has free will. The fact is that man is dominated by sin and that subjects him to Satan. When he is delivered there is the renewing of the mind, and he recognises that a great check has come upon his will, he is here for God’s will. It is a very great thing to apprehend that your place before God is what He has given you for His own pleasure. If you have the place of a son, He has given you that place for His own pleasure. Well then, we are down here for His pleasure, to prove His good and perfect and acceptable will.
Now I come to the second great point in this chapter: we are to recognise that we, being many, are one body in Christ. I cannot therefore take an independent course, for it must be shaped with regard to this truth. I must think soberly. In our unconverted days we thought something of ourselves, and had an idea of independence; now all that must be dropped, for we are members one of another. We are [p. 136] divested of the thought of independence, because we did not put ourselves in the body; God has put each into the place which He has seen fit. What we have to do is simply to exercise the particular function which we have in the body. A man may say, I would like to be a leader; but whether he is to be a leader or not depends on the place which God has given him. We have gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, and each one has to wait on the gift. If I have the gift of teaching, I have to wait on it; and so with ministry, exhortation, etc. I have to concern myself to carry out the function which is allotted to me in the body in the very best way I possibly can. I think no one can fail to see what an immense difference it makes when I recognise the fact that we are one body in Christ, and that God has given to each a place and function in this great scheme.
So we have these two great checks upon the Christian; first, he is devoted to God, body and mind; he is given up to Him, and is here for His good and perfect and acceptable will; and then, secondly, he is to think soberly of himself because he can only think of himself according to the measure of faith. I believe the measure of faith to be the light which God has given me as in the body and as to the function each has to exercise. If every member of my own body thought something of itself, there would be a good deal of schism; it is because every member naturally keeps its place and does its own work that the body goes on harmoniously. The truth of the body is intended to have the very greatest influence upon saints down here. Another time, if the Lord enable me, I will show the place which it has in regard to the saints gathered together; I only speak of it now in regard to the Christian in his individual path in this world. It is a great thing to know that I have a function in the body, even if it be a very unimportant one. I have to wait on it and to carry out diligently [p. 137] that which God has been pleased to assign to me in connection with the place which He has given me in the body.
The two great principles here are faith and grace. Faith is light, and grace enables me to act on the light which I have got by faith. May God give to us to see the truth that leads up to the body. It is in Christ we are justified, so that He becomes a great living reality to our hearts. Then His position is ours, and He is in us for the position which God has given to us. When this is understood it becomes clear that we are here, body and mind, for God’s will, and that we are one body in Christ.