Lesson 5- THE Church as the Body of Christ

There are many different facets to the Kingdom of God: the church. In the last lesson it was established that the church of Jesus Christ is the New Israel. In Lesson 5 we explain how the church is like a body and why this illustration by Paul is important today.

The Body Illustration

The congregation at Corinth was in shambles when Paul wrote his first epistle to the church. One of their issues involved divisions over miraculous gifts. Some members thought speaking miraculously in a foreign language was more prestigious than miraculously translating that foreign language (1 Cor. 12:4-11,20-26). In an effort to unite the church, Paul compares it to a human body. Just as the arm and leg perform separate functions, yet both are vital and equally important, so is it the case with members of the church performing separate but vital functions within the body of Christ. Thus, Paul capstones this treatise with the statement, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”

The Head Illustration

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great image in the form of a man. The image has a glorious head of gold, a chest of silver, a belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron. Daniel interprets the dream, explaining that each metal represents a different world empire to come in the future. Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, “You are this head of gold!” (Daniel 2:38). Daniel meant that Nebuchadnezzar, as the head of the Kingdom of Babylon, represented the kingdom itself. To speak of the head of a kingdom is to speak of the kingdom representatively . In Paul’s declaration about Christ in Colossians, he makes it clear that Jesus Christ is the head of the church (1:18), completing the illustration of the church being comparable to a body. To speak of Christ is to speak of His body, and to speak of Christ’s body is to speak of Christ. There are several implied truths about the church that emerge from this illustration of Christ as the head and the church as the body. The rest of this study will focus on identifying those truths.

4 Truths about the Body of Christ

Truth #1– Christ’s head cannot be separated from His body.

A body without a head is a dead body.  When people start talking as if you can have a relationship with Christ without having a relationship with His body, they are decapitating Christ from His body. Many people have grown tired and disgusted with organized religion for various reasons. Consequently, people want to be Christian but not religious. However, the very illustration the Holy Spirit uses to describe the relationship of Christ to His body proves this ideology is wrong and degrading to Christ Himself. After all, to speak of Christ is to speak of His body. Not only is it degrading to Christ’s own person when anyone speaks poorly of His church, it cheapens Christ’s blood! Acts 20:28- “Shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” To claim a union with Christ apart from His organized body, the church, is to unwittingly claim that Christ wasted His blood on the cross! Now, it is possible and even true that many churches have separated themselves from Christ being their head, by teaching and practicing things He did not authorize through scripture. These churches that have departed from Christ’s pattern and headship are not Christ’s body. That does not mean that organized religion is altogether flawed. It simply means that singular church is not Christ’s body. Keep looking.

Truth #2– Christ doesn’t have multiple bodies.

Just as there is only one human body for every human head; likewise, there is only one spiritual body (church) for the one spiritual head (Christ). Paul says as much when he definitively states, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling…” (Ephesians 4:4). As Lesson 1 made clear, there was only one church in the first century. Denominations did not come until much later. If all denominations are Christ’s body, then Christ has multiple bodies. Furthermore, Christ’s body is divided in that case. This does not fit in the illustration Paul gives, nor does it coincide with Paul’s rhetorical question elsewhere in Corinthians, “Is Christ divided?!” (1:13).

Truth#3– Christ and the body wear the same name.

It has become popular practice for modern churches to give themselves a new, generic name by which no one can identify their doctrinal affiliations from the street. Names like Grace Church or Elevation Church are so generic, no one can read the name and know whether said church teaches Baptist doctrine, Methodist doctrine, or Presbyterian doctrine. Christ’s church is not ashamed to wear His name, a name that identifies the church with the never changing doctrines of Christ. For those that would argue that there is nothing in a name, what if the church was called The Church of Satan? Clearly, the name of the church says a lot about the church. What better name than the name Paul used for the church in Romans 16:16- “The Churches of Christ salute you.”

Truth #4– Christ is the head of the body, meaning He has all authority.

In Matthew 28:18 Christ announces, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” This is an important concept as it pertains to the doctrine of the church. The church has no right whatsoever to teach something that neither Christ nor His delegated apostles and prophets taught as recorded in scripture. It is the exact point in time that the church begins proclaiming doctrine and practice foreign to the New Testament that a church decapitates its head, rejecting its King.

Conclusion

Let us not forget that a king without a kingdom is like a boy sitting in Burger King with a crown on his head. The same goes for a kingdom without a king. Think on these things. God’s illustration of the body of Christ will help restore His church to its eternal purpose.