“THE BODY OF CHRIST”!

TEXT:  1 CORINTHIANS 12:12  (Shows CHRIST as our LORD):

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body:  SO ALSO IS CHRIST.

THE BODY OF CHRIST:  Who or what is “THE BODY OF CHRIST”?  

Our goal today is to be able to answer this question.  As we discuss the selected text for this topic, we will begin by examining the words of this scripture and their meanings which will lead us to define the THE BODY OF CHRIST.  Let us begin by examining the word “body”.

Body is defined in Webster as the whole physical substance of a human being, animal, or plant; the trunk of a human being; a corpse; a person; a distinct group of people or things; the main part; a distinct mass (a body of water); substance or consistency, as of liquid; richness of flavor.

Synonyms:  anatomy; torso; substance; assemblage; aggregate; solid; person; thing; figure; whole.

BODY in the Greek is defined as so’ma meaning the body as a sound whole; (figuratively) bodily.  Soma is the body as a whole, the instrument of life!  

What I’m about to explain next is to show how God in His Awesomeness through the anatomical structure of the sperm of man, already had the “body” (or the Church) as a sound whole connected to the “Head” (Christ).

In the anatomical structure of the “sperm”, it has a “head, body, and tail”.  The “head” has a tip called the “acro-some” (enzymes that make it penetrate the ovum).  The prefix “akros” means extremity and “soma” means body.  The “body” contains mitochondria giving it energy necessary for locomotion.  The “tail” propels the sperm with a lashing movement.

Medically speaking, arms and legs are called “limbs” or “extremities”.

Ephesians 5:30: We are “members” of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones!

The root word for “members” is “melos” meaning a “limb” or “part of the body”!

• Colossians 2:9:  In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead “bodily”.

This word bodily is from the root word somatikos’, meaning corporeally or physical!   We the Church is the “physical body” of CHRIST (the Anointed One) in the earth!  

Example:  

• Acts 9:3-4 (speaking of the conversion of Saul when he was encountered by the Light on the road to Damascus):  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus:  and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:  and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?  

Was not Saul persecuting “the Church”?  And Jesus said, to him, Why persecutest thou ME?  

• Acts 9:5:  And he said, “Who art thou, Lord”?  And the Lord said, I AM JESUS WHOM THOU PERSECUTEST!  

That’s full proof that the Church is Jesus Christ’s body in the earth!   

• 1 Corinthians 6:15:  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?  God forbid.  

This is why we can’t allow the harlot (false church system of religious order), to keep us bound by philosophy, vain deceit, tradition of men, the rudiments of the world systems, and not after Christ (Colossians 2:8).  We must come out of the traditions of men and operate out of God’s government (kingdom) that is on the inside of us.

• Luke 17:20-21:  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there!  for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you!
• Galatians 3:27-28:  As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek (Gentile), there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:  for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  
• Ephesians 4:25:  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor:  for we are members one of another.

CHRIST is from the root word christos’, meaning anointed, i.e. the Messiah; an epithet of Jesus; also chri’o defined through the idea of contact; to smear or rub with oil, meaning to consecrate to an office of service - anoint;  Christ the anointed of God!  

• Luke 4:18:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me.  

Christ is also from chra’omai, meaning to furnish what is needed; and from cheir, meaning the hand symbolizing “power”.  

• 1 John 2:20:  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.  

This unction is the root word chris’ma, meaning an unguent or smearing, that is an endowment of the Holy Spirit!  (This means the same as chri’o above).  This is the “power” of God that dwells within us!  

• Luke 10:19:  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy:  and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  
• Acts 1:8:  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:  and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
• Romans 12:4-5:  For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:  so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16:  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:  What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price:  therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.  
• Revelation 21:3:  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

The word “tabernacle” is from the root word “skene” (skay-nay’), meaning a tent or cloth hut: habitation (dwelling place).  This word skene flows in the vein with our English word “skin”, the outer covering of the body.   Moses put three layers or coverings of skin over the tabernacle - the place God dwelt then.  His next dwelling place was the body of Jesus!  His dwelling place now is in a cloth hut, not made with hands, which is in us, the Church!  

• 2 Corinthians 6:16: What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?  for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them;  and I will be their God, and they shall be my people!
• Ephesians 3:6: That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel!                                                                                                                           

This word “body” is from the root word suss’omos, (soos’-so-mos) meaning of a joint body, a fellow-member of the Christian Community; of the same body,

This is why the Jews or Israel are no longer God’s chosen people after the flesh.  

• St. John 1:11-12:  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

God now through Christ has made us both “one new man”!  

• Ephesians 2:14-15:  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.  
• Galatians 3:28:  There is neither Jew nor Greek (Gentile), there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:  for ye are ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS!  

We are all in the “SAME HOUSE” (CHRIST)!

• John 14:2-3:  In my Father’s house are many mansions:  if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

What house?  Within the Father Himself were many mansions (dwelling places).  The place Jesus prepared was in His own body!  In Christ’s body are many members.  

• 1 Corinthians 12:12:  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body:  so also is CHRIST!!!  

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit!!

Jesus’ body is different from “Christ’s body”!  As long as He was in the flesh body of Jesus as a man, he was bound to location as a man, but when He put it back into Spirit where it came out of and He stepped out again after His resurrection, He was in another body - CHRIST’S BODY!!!  

In John 20, after Jesus’ resurrection, Mary supposed Him to be the gardener!!  She didn’t know who He was until He spoke!!  She knew Him by what He said!  In Luke 24:13-35, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus were talking to Jesus about the crucifixion and didn’t know who He was until they reached their destination, and He broke bread with them!!  They knew Him by what He did!!!  

• Luke 24:39-49  (Jesus appears to the ten):  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

At Pentecost, there was a multiplication process of Christ’s body because of Peter’s preaching.

• Acts 2:41:  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized:  and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.  

And through the Acts of the Apostles, the “body of Christ” kept multiplying and has continued to multiply and will continue to multiply forever for the glory of God!!  We, the Church, are CHRIST’S BODY in the earth!!!

So stop separating God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the Church because God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all ONE IN US, the Church!!!

Listen, these people whom Jesus appeared to knew Him before His crucifixion.  Had He appeared to them in that same body after His resurrection, they would have recognized Him.  But He was now appearing in His new body, His people!!  After Jesus’ resurrection, He was never the same body that He was before the resurrection,  He was another body -  the body of Christ, His people!  This is the place He prepared so that where He was, they (or we) would be also!!!  Because we would be, and are in Him, in the earth!!  Great God from Zion!!!  Hallelujah!!!

He is still appearing today, and those who don’t have the revelation don’t know that they are looking at Jesus Himself, in His new body, the Church!  That’s why He said to the disciples in

• John 14:19:  Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me:  because I live, you shall live also!!  

Those of us who are of the Peter class who recognize the CHRIST see Him!  Those yet blinded to the truth by carnal mindedness don’t see Him!  Those with spiritual insight “SEE HIM”!!!  Right now we see Him because we see Him in one another!!!

Jesus was God’s body!  

• St. John 1:1:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God!  
• Verse 14  and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  

The Word made flesh! God had put on flesh in Jesus!!  Now we are in Him!  He died and rose so we could be or enter into that place with Him.  Jesus Himself was the place prepared for us to dwell!  

• John 12:24:  Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone:  but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.  

Now you are or we are “His house”:

• Acts 7:48:  Howbeit the Most High dwells not in temples made with hands; as said the prophet.
• 1 Peter 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

The house that Jesus was living in in John 14:1-3 when He said I go to prepare a place for you.  He knew that He wasn’t going to be living in it too much longer.  So He had to prepare a place in His own house (Christ), for all to dwell!!!  Jesus made the church the dwelling place of God in us!!!

The body that God chose to suffer and die in was composed of “one body”, the Man Jesus!  The body that God has chosen to be glorified in is composed of a “many-membered body”, called the church!!!

• 1 Corinthians 12:14:  For the body is not one member, but many.  

Verse 27  Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

• Matthew 16:13-17:  Jesus asked the disciples, Who do men say that I the Son of man am?  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and other, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.  Then he said unto them, But whom say you, that I am?  

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, THOU ART THE CHRIST, the Son of the living God.  

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona:  for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven!                                                                                                                                           

Those who get the revelation of the CHRIST are the ones who get the keys to the kingdom!  

• Matthew 16:19:  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:  and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.

If people don’t get this revelation from God of “CHRIST”, they will never get it.  God is Spirit, and we must understand Him with a spiritual mind.  

• 1 Corinthians 2:14:  The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God:  for they are foolishness unto him:  neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Peter was able to look past the “flesh man” JESUS as just being Savior and saw “THE CHRIST” (the Anointed One and His anointing), the GOD-MAN!!!  

Jesus knew that He was more than just a Man.  He knew He was God!  That is what “CHRIST” is.  CHRIST is the knowing, the understanding or awareness that you are fully God and fully man!!!

There’s a song that states, “I’m only human and I’m just a man”.  That is the belief that will carry you to the grave.  Man must come into the understanding of not only his humanity but also his divinity!  That’s what happened to the Adam people in the beginning when they listened to the lie of the enemy.  It caused them to fall from their divinity back into their humanity.  As Jesus was, fully God and fully man, so are we fully God and fully man

• 1 John 4:17:  As he is, so are we in this world!!!

Jesus was not born CHRIST; He was made CHRIST!  (Acts 2:36): Therefore let all the house of Israel, know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

• 1 John 4:17:  As he is, so are we in this world!!!

That’s why we don’t have to die to go anywhere to be with Him or to see Him!  We must see Him in each other!!  When you look in the mirror, you see Him!  When I see you, I see Him!  Ephesians 5:30:  We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones!

• Colossians 1:18:  He is the head of the body, the church.

Those who are waiting for Jesus to come back are not “whole” for they are headless because they’re not allowing the “Head to be attached to their body!  They have “the Head” off beyond the blue!  But those of us who know that He is here have “the Head” attached to our body and we are made whole in CHRIST!    That makes us “one” with Him!!!  

Jesus’ prayer for the church:  

• John 17:20-23:  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:  that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.  And the glory which thou gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

He that believes can become what he believes!  Therefore we must move from BELIEVING TO BEING!  Jesus knew that He was the Son of God, but He also knew that He and His Father were “ONE”!!  And we are sons also, but yet we are also “ONE WITH THEM OR IN THEM”!  

• Philippians 2:5-6:  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  

6 who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

It’s time for us to not just “believe that we are God”, but it’s time for us to “be God” in the earth!!  Yet the Spirit God still retains and maintains His position as Elohim the Creator and El Elyown the Most High God!!!

We are that which is seen of Him who is invisible!  We crystallize the one who has no form!  We localize the one who is everywhere!  We bare the name of Him who is un-nameable: whose name transcends every name that’s named!  We are the dawning of a light which has no genesis!  We are the ones creation is waiting for!

This is the age or dispensation that we must not just “live the word of God”, but we must “be the word of God”!!!  

We are the “living word” wrapped in a flesh body!  

• 1 John 4:17:  As he is, so are we in this world!!!  

We are CHRIST’S BODY in the earth!!!

~  Apostle Gracie Perry