The Operation of Faith: The Body of Christ
Updated: Jun 27, 2019
Ensure you read Yesterday's Sunrise
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Jesus is the head of the body the Church. We learned yesterday that He was born again in hell. His soul was joined to the Holy Spirit in the lower parts of the earth. However, when He resurrected, He was not alone, but He had a whole company of people, the spirits of just men who had just been made perfect in the lower parts of the earth.
It was needful for Christ to be preeminent in all things. This means that Christ had to experience everything the sons of God experience first. This is something we ought to consider because it reveals the mystery of Christ. Christ is now the head of His body the Church.
Remember in the Operation of Salvation
This is what we have learned in the operation of salvation thus far.
1. When we cried out to God for salvation, our soul was taken out of the flesh (Col 2:13),
2. Our bodies were then spiritually circumcised (Col 2:11),
3. Our souls were then placed in the Holy Spirit (Col 2:10), which carried us to Christ's death on the cross, and His resurrection in hell (Col 2:12).
Thus, our soul has transformed into a quickening spirit, a new creature. However, the sanctified body is still lifeless. The next step is...
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
The next step is that the sanctified body is quickened alive. This body is not just brought to life by the power of God. Rather it is brought to life, by the Spirit of God going inside it. This is when we say that we have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit (with our soul hidden inside of Him, enters our body and quickens it alive from the dead and we are thus born again!
We are hence, raised in the newness of life and that life is the life of Christ. This makes us the literal body of Christ, because it is Christ's Spirit that has us alive. This is why it is so important for us to understand just what the body of Christ is.
And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
The fact that Jesus died for us, meant that those that now live in Christ, no longer have a life of their own. Instead their life is Christ. They should thus allow Christ to live His life in and through them, because He has resurrected in them (rose again).
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Paul then teaches that because Christ is risen in us we should not know each other after the flesh. This is because the flesh can be deceptive. The flesh is the reason the mystery of Christ is still a mystery. It veils the reality that we are the manifested sons of God. See, then, each other after the Spirit.
Paul continues to say that we once knew Christ after the flesh but we no longer know Him like that. What is He talking about?
Paul is saying that when we imagine Jesus, we see Him as the man that walked 2000 years ago. However, when He died He rose as a body of people. He rose as a body part - the head of the Church. Thus, Christ is alive now, but He is the whole Body of Christ.
He no longer looks like just one person, but a whole body of people, that share His Spirit. Thus, we are the Body of Christ. We are have been baptized into one Spirit! We all lived separate lives, but are now made one in Christ. He has resurrected in us. As time goes on the rest of His body continues to be revealed. He continues to be resurrected in those that were predestined to receive HIs Spirit. Thus...
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Yes, if you have the Holy Ghost, Jesus is resurrected in you! See the reference scriptures below.
REFERENCE SCRIPTURES
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and 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.
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
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Yesterday's Sunrise - https://www.sunrisewithjesus.com/blog/the-operation-of-faith-christ-died-rose-revived
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