Read: 1 Cor 12:4-13; 26-31
In our culture, we are tempted to be more “disembodied” than ever, but we must never forget that God is embodied and created us to be embodied. This beautiful truth is not only for us individually but corporately as the church, or the body of Christ. Why are we called the body of Christ? The Bible uses the human body as a metaphor to describe the church, but more than a metaphor, it is a declaration of identity. We see this identity explained in the broader context of 1 Corinthians when Paul describes the body as God’s Temple (1 Cor 3:16), a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), and the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27). The more we understand the relationship between these three statements, the more we can fill out our understanding of how we have become the body of Christ.
1. The Body of Jesus is the True Temple
God’s relationship with humanity always requires a temple because He is not like you and me. In the Old Testament, God revealed the temple as a sacred space, like Abraham’s altar at Bethel, the tabernacle at Mount Sinai, and Solomon’s temple at Mount Zion. God is Holy, and the stark contrast between our sinful nature and his holiness would lead to our destruction if brought into his presence unmediated (Ex 33:5-6). Jesus changes everything because Scripture tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt (lit. “made his tabernacle”) among us (Jn 1:14). Jesus is now the location of sacred space, and his body is the temple of God. The only way we can be in a relationship with a holy God is through the temple, which doesn’t change between the Old and New Testaments. What changes is that the person of Jesus Christ is revealed as the true temple.
2. We are “In” Christ
The phrase “in Christ” occurs more than 130 times in the New Testament. It is one of the most basic ways of explaining our relationship with God. Where does it come from? In the Old Testament, God’s presence that “dwells with” or “among” Israel often takes the dative and plural form of “you,” meaning “in you (all).” Paul writes in this same style that “God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16). This is temple language, and we represent the temple not individually but corporately. Nor do we represent the temple in our own merit. Only because we are “in Christ” can God’s Spirit be “in us.” So we are the body of Christ because Christ is now the temple, and God forgives us, adopts us, dwells in us, and loves us forever.
3. The True Temple is a Family
You won’t go far in the New Testament without seeing another metaphor used to describe the church, and it is “family.” The two: “body” and “family,” are not only integral to the biblical concept of church but are intimately related. The rituals are now a relationship because the temple is now a person. Worship becomes simultaneously sacred and familiar. The holy temple is a loving home. The Bible merges what many before have kept separate: the temple of God and the family of God. Now, to be in the temple is simultaneously to be a son or daughter in his house (2 Cor 6:16-18).
What it means to be in Christ is not fully understood when we think of ourselves as autonomous individuals. You, alone, are not the body of Christ because you are a part of the body of Christ, and the part, though special and unique, does not fully represent the whole. We must never stop gathering together because it is together that we are the body of Christ, in submission to Christ, who is the head. Just like in our own homes, we are truly ourselves in the home of the church. Let’s reclaim Sunday worship as the centering point of our identity, from which we receive grace, affirm our union to the body of Christ, and go out into the world with the power of the Holy Spirit.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?
What do you know about the concept of “temple” in the Old Testament worship of God? What changes now that Jesus’ body is the temple? What stays the same? How does this impact you as an individual Christian in America today?
If the church is understood as a “body,” what does that say about how we should participate in the church? Is there a minimum level of participation? How do we navigate the increasing use of technology in churches?
How do you understand passages in 1 Corinthians that refer to your own body as a temple of the Holy Spirit? Does it have any bearing on how we treat our physical bodies? Why should this teaching draw us toward a gathering of believers rather than away from it?
What does it mean to be “in Christ”? How should this reality encourage us when we feel apart from Christ? What are some areas in your life where you need to be continually reminded of this declaration of identity?
What analogies can you think of that explain the intimate relationship between temple and family? Temple and home? How does this relationship challenge or encourage your prevailing views about the local church?
How does the reality that we are not the body of Christ in ourselves point us to the Gospel? What does it reveal to us about the importance of gathering together? Worshipping together? Listening to preaching together? Partaking in holy communion together? Which one sticks out to you the most and why?