The Church is Christ

Is this the New Age concept that Christ lives in each human being? According to this view all we have to do is to discover the "divine spark" that is in each of us. This is not what we mean when we say that the Church is Christ. No, this is what Paul called the mystery of the ages in Colossians 1:26-28 "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. For to them God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." and in Ephesians 3:1-6 "For this cause, I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you nations, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me toward you, that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel." In short what Paul says here is that Christ lives in all people who have come to faith in Him whether they are Gentiles or Jews and together, this group of believers form the 'fellowship of the mystery'(Ephesians 3:9) or simply the Body of Christ!

Now back to the idea of the church as Christ. Christ(Greek) or Messiah(Hebrew) means "Anointed One" and as believers we know that Jesus came as the 'anointed one' in the individual physical body of the man from Nazareth. In John 12:20-24 Jesus prophesied that this one man would become much more through His death and resurrection. " And there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the Feast. Then these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we want to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew. And again Andrew and Philip told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." Jesus made it quite clear that His death and resurrection would introduce a new order for humanity and in future Jesus will only be seen in the "much fruit" of His death-His Body! This truth took further shape on the day of Pentecost when Jesus, as the Life-giving Spirit returned to indwell His followers and suddenly the world was faced with thousands of "little christs" doing the works of Jesus!

Through the experience of the new birth, that birth from above or as some call it the 'born-again' experience, Christians have Christ placed in them and they become "partakers of the divine nature"(2 Peter 1:4). This does not mean that the individual Christian can run around claiming to be divine but it means that in their corporateness and in their organic oneness with the Head, the Church expresses the nature and attributes of Christ. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 12:12; "For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." Paul therefore says that Christ is one body with many members! The Head Jesus plus His body is now the Christ, God's anointed vehicle in the earth to bless the nations and so fulfil His promise to Abraham made so many years before.

Treat your brothers and sisters with respect and honour for Christ dwells in them and have made them part of His glorious expression in the earth!