WHEN THE BODY IS CHRIST AND WHEN ITS A DEAD BODY

We don’t belong to the body of Christ by definition or because we have quoted a proof text. We may not explicitly be in the letter that kills but we may not be living in a state of being that is alive either. We are ontologically one with Christ, Father and the Spirit because God has made us one with His Being. Obedience and life is agreeing with this.

HAVE HIS MIND

We belong because we agree with Christ that He has drawn us into His life in God. The difference between the letter that leaves us neither hot nor cold is “The fact that as the Mediator between God and man Jesus Christ is the personalising Person and the humanising man, we look back at the doctrine of the Church, we may be able to see more clearly why the Church is not merely a society of individuals gathered together on moral grounds [But] through the ontological reconciliation with God effected in the Mediation of Christ which binds the Church to Christ as his Body. Through union and communion with Christ human society may be transmuted into a Christian community in which inter-personal relations are healed and restored in the Person of the Mediator, and in which interrelations between human beings are constantly renewed and sustained through the humanising activity of Christ Jesus.” (1)72

BEING, PERSONALITY, IDENTITY AND AGENCY

God is defined by what He is. Not by what He is not. Thus He is ‘I AM’ and not ‘I am not.’ This is why the accurate expression of God is seen in a person and not in some abstract entity like the knowledge of good and evil and the law. Who God is and His nature, is expressed accurately and fully in the person of Jesus Christ. Any representation of God that is not a person is a parody and a nonsense.

‘Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?’ John 14.9 NIV.

CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

Jesus is God, the life of God and the righteousness who is God. To say God is love is to say that this love is the person, the life and accomplishments of Jesus Christ. To say that you are righteous is say that you are a son. You are a son in spirit and truth because you are the son/daughter of the Second Adam from whose ‘loins’ comes the new creation – the one new man and who is the progeny of Father, Son and Holy Spirit by origin and by redemption.

‘By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace’ Eph 2.15 ESV.

Jesus was the complete expression of God and was God. In Him dwelt the fullness of the godhead bodily. In this age as a result of the cross, the resurrection and Pentecost you are a son. In you lives the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You are the expression of our Father and the fashioning of the Son. You are filled with Holy Spirit and live in their continues presence. You are the expression of Jesus.

In the new testament age Jesus Christ is entirely representative of you personally and your interests as a son of God. His relationship with His Father is even your relationship with Him and Holy Spirit. He is entirely representative of you and for you. You belong in the Holy Family and always will.

MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST

Kings and priests are never subject to the law. They are the manifestation of Jesus Christ and as such the sons and daughters of God.

The Lord’s Table is not an occasion for melancholia. It’s the sign that by the cross Jesus has made you one substance with Himself, undone the separation of the fall and made you the home of the Holy Family.

‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. For some reading this, ‘That day’ could be today!

Just as the love of you and your spouse produced your children, so the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit produced the human race and you. All has been done that needs to have been done to secure their vision for you and who your heart really desires to be. Just agree with Him and rest in Him and you will be the prince and princesses you really are.

1. (1) Thomas Torrance. The Mediation of Christ, P72,