Paul's
warning to those with limited sight or vision.
1Corinthians
12:12
"For
as the body (this body that we live in) is one, and
hath many members (parts), and all the members of that (this)
one body, being many, (still one body) are one body: so
also is Christ."
We
have put this over and over as the Body which is the Church, it is
strictly a Pauline term. No body, nobody - the Lord didn’t tell or
disclose this to Peter and Peter nor the others have this, the other disciples did not
receive it, the Old Testament and Revelation does not – speaks of the
Body of Christ but Paul alone. Check it out. Search the Scriptures.
You’ll never find the term, "The Body of Christ"
except in Romans through Philemon. If you want to go on through
Hebrews, and I feel Paul wrote it, although he wrote it as it says,
to the Hebrews. Hebrews being written under the direction of the
Spirit and through the Spirit did not use such lanuage in it to keep
it palatable for the Hebrew believer who would read this letter of
warning. Neither does anybody else use the term "The Body of
Christ" only Paul. Where did he get it from look at Psalm 2 for the answer. So here is another instance that he’s
using this as an example. Our physical body which is composed of
many parts, everything from the little toe that usually no one ever sees, to our
facial features which everyone sees. Now, that’s the Body of
Christ.
We’re
all functioning in a different area of the Body and yet we are all
intrinsically important to the function of the total Body. Remember, the body stops here. The rest is what? Head! And who’s
the head of the body? Christ is. He is the nerve center of the Body,
which is the Church and Family of God. This is again, all part and
parcel of Paul’s language – that Christ, by virtue of His Last
Supper and the finished work of the cross on through His ascension,
is His justifying and sancifying of us by faith and faith alone. He
in turn places us into this living, spiritual organism that Paul
calls the Body of Christ / Church / Family of God. How do we get in
to the Body of Christ? You can’t buy your way in. You can’t work
your way in. So you have to do something else and what is it? Nothing
except believe this Gospel for it is our Salvation!
1Corinthians
12:13
"For
by one Spirit (Holy
Spirit) are we (what’s
the next word?) all (not
just the elite, nor the clergy, not the deacons, not just the good
people, but every believer, whatever his station in life, whatever
his behavior as a believer. He may be rather carnal like the
Corinthians were, but every believer. And what’s the next word?)
baptized into one body (when,
here used means to be made part of), whether we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all
made to drink into (of
the) one Spirit."
Look
at the first two words of verse 13. They’re
prepositions, “For by” one Spirit."
Not
by a denomination, a religious institution or by a preacher, or by some cult leader. There is
only one valid baptizer in the Church Age and He is the Holy
Spirit. For it is He who does the circumsion of the dead flesh that
surrounds our heart. And it is the Holy Spirit's baptism that Paul
teaches, and it happens the moment we believe. The two words here
“for by” means to be made complete or to receive completion.
Let's look again at Ephesians, chapter 1 and verse 13.
Ephesians
1:13
"In
whom ye also trusted
(placed your faith),
after that ye heard the word of truth, (this)
gospel of your salvation: (what
did you do with it?) in whom also
after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of
promise."
I’m
not doing any violence to Scripture to say at that same moment you
were baptized by the Holy Spirit and thereby God branded / sealed us
as His own. And so the only valid baptism, spiritually speaking, is
when the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Body of Christ. Into which we are said to be clothed with Christ as our covering. Our
placement in His Salvation did you catch that here? The reason I have
to emphasize this is because of Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 4. Oh,
this is hard for people to swallow but it is so plain and simple in
this Epistle. Just as simple as it can be. What
is the one word that is the hingpin here? Believed, is the word have
we truly believed His Word, have we Believed Him? Glenda and I have
one word that hangs on our livingroom wall, “Believe” is the
word.
Ephesians
4:4-5
"There
is one body, (again
not 1500, as I read somewhere that there are 1500 Christian
denominations in California alone. Here it states One Body!)
and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of
your calling: One Lord, one faith, one (what?)
baptism."
And
what is it or more appropiately Who is it? The Holy Spirit. He’s
the only one that counts. Because He is made up of all three,
undivided. I don’t forbid water baptism, if that is where your
trust lies. All I stress to people is that it has nothing to do with
your Eternal destiny because the only baptism that counts for
Eternity is, "have you been placed into the
Body of Christ by the baptizing power of the Holy Spirit?"
If
you haven’t had that, you’re doomed. I don’t care how many
times you’re baptized in water, it’s the Holy Spirit's Baptism
that settles it for Eternity. If we have not His Salvation we'll miss
the boat, we may not hear the shout. For when the door is closed it
will remain closed as no one will be able to open it again. Or will
they?
What we do while courting is to ask questions and thereby we learn the other person, their likes and dislikes, their modes, opinions and emotions, their personality. And if we like what we learn maybe just maybe we'll learn to love that person to the point that we both cannot do without each other. Well why is it that we do not do the samething with Jesus, people will say that they love Him but they do not know Him. They are just speaking a cliché being copied from someone else. Believe me He knows the difference, He knows who are His from those who are not, there is nothing done in secret. And one day these secrets will be exposed to all.
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