Joined to Christ
Among the numerous analogies in Scripture by which to convey truths about the Church as the people of God, one of the richest is that of Christians as the body of Christ. This way of thinking about the people of God is not presented systematically in a single, extensive passage; it occurs in a variety of places. Some will be considered in other installments of Theology 101.
At the start, this imagery reminds us that the Church is a living entity composed of those who once were spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, but upon trusting Jesus as Savior have been made spiritually alive in Christ. Hence, the Church in its broadest sense is composed of the redeemed who already have passed on to be with the Lord as well as those who yet remain on earth.
A hint of this imagery occurs in the account of the persecution directed against the Church under the leadership of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9). The ascended Christ interrupts Saul as he was seeking to inflict pain on the Damascus believers, appearing to him with a question: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 4).
Implicit in that question is the idea that in some sense, believers are so joined to Christ that He feels the pain caused by any hurt inflicted on them. Pain experienced by the body is presented as being felt by the head of the body.
Relationship
What is implied in Acts 9 is clearly articulated later in 1 Corinthians: “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (12:27). With similar directness Ephesians 5:30 says of believers, “We are members of His body.”
A major strand of truth in this imagery is that Christ is the body’s head: “He is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18).
The significant Ephesians passage about the relationship of a husband to his wife is elaborated by a comparison of the relationship of Christ to the Church: “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church” (5:23).
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