Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE BODY OF CHRIST:
Metaphor Not Myth” Part 3
Before embarking on our journey through chapter three of Charles Hunt’s “THE BODY OF CHRIST: Metaphor Not Myth,” I invite you to locate Ephesians 1.11-12, where we will familiarize ourselves with the phrase that is the focus of chapter 3. Once found, please stand for the reading of God’s Word:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Rehearsing what I have pointed out on previous occasions, first-century Greeks thought and spoke about spheres of influence. This pattern was reflected in their language and can be seen in many of the letters of the Apostle Paul. It is precisely because of this, in my opinion, that God chose to use Greek as the New Testament language and to develop the Greek language of Paul’s day in the way He did.
Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? If you do, then you would be described by the Apostle Paul as being “in Christ” or something equivalent to that. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul has already used that or an equivalent phrase eight times, two more times in verses 11 and 12, and more than seventy-five times in his various letters.
Why so? Because we who know Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we who trust Him, do not live in the same realm lost people live in. Oh, it appears to be the same realm, and it is the same physical universe. However, it is a different spiritual domain. It is an existence dominated, controlled, presided over, and ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ in a way He does not with those who are unsaved.
For that reason, Paul refers to saved people in verses 11 and 12 using the phrase “in whom” and as trusting “in Christ.” We need to realize that absolutely everything Paul wrote about blood-washed and blood-bought people comes from the reference point of us being “in Christ” as opposed to being unsaved.
With that recognized, Paul reminds his readers of some things in verse 11 that he had stated earlier. Consider some individual words and phrases with me so that some of you can learn things while others can refresh your memories. This will make us more comfortable with the material in chapter 3.
First, take note of the phrase “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.” Here, we see Paul writing about being in Christ’s frame of reference, “in whom.” Having taken note of that, notice that the verb “we have obtained an inheritance,” a single Greek word, “means ‘we have been given a lot, an inheritance,’ though neither the inheritance’s content nor the giver is specified” in this verse.[1]
The Ephesian believers were Paul’s subjects. They were “in Christ” and had an inheritance. How did they get that way? If the word “we have obtained an inheritance” did not settle the issue for you, this phrase might:
“being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
If you are convincible and open to the explicit declaration of Scripture, then this phrase might convince you how those who are “in Christ” came to be “in Christ.” First, we are predestined. That is, our destiny was determined beforehand.[2] And what gives God the right to make such a determination, to involve Himself in our eternal destinies? He is God. He can do anything He chooses to do.
The question is, why does God do this? I have two comments in answer to that question, though a complete answer would fill a book: First, I am not sure that He, being God, can do anything other than that. How can One Who creates and sustains all things act contrary to His sovereign nature? And second, He has an overriding purpose in doing what He has done and will do.
What is the connection between God’s predestinating and God’s purposing? God is working all things after the counsel of His Own will. “Will” has to do with what God wants to do. “Counsel” has to do with what God decides to do. “Worketh” involves energizing and moving in a specific direction. So, predestining is God deciding what plan He will implement to accomplish the purpose that He works to achieve. The predestining, the purpose, the working, the counsel, and the will all involve human beings. If you have a problem with God exercising that kind of authority over His creation, of which creation you and I are a part, then you are a humanist and want, finally, to be your own god.
All that is in verse 11. There are two more things I wish to point out in verse 12: First, look at the phrase “who first trusted in Christ.” There is some debate about who this refers to. The discussion on this phrase comes about because who this refers to tells us who Paul is talking about in verses 3-12 when he uses the words “us” and “we.”
Does this refer to all Christians? Does this refer to all Jewish believers from the time of Abraham? Or does this refer only to Jewish Christians saved during and since the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ through personal faith in Him? It cannot, I think, refer to all Christians, both Jewish and Gentile. Why? Because of the first phrase of the very next verse. In verse 13, Paul writes, “In whom ye also trusted....” That word “also” contrasts and distinguishes those to whom he is writing from those about whom he has been referring, who he is writing to are Gentile Christians. So, the “us” and “we” in verses 3-12 do not, I think, include Gentile believers.
That suggests Paul was referring to Jewish people in this passage. But to which group of Jewish people? Old Testament Jewish people, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Isaiah? Or Jewish people, only those who have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ since His earthly ministry? The key to interpreting who these Jewish believers are is this sphere of influence phrase frequently used by the Apostle Paul: “in Christ.”
The phrase “in Christ” was never used to refer to people saved before Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry. This does not mean that folks could not be saved before Jesus Christ because we can be sure that people were saved during Old Testament times. However, the saints of previous eras are not described as being “in Christ.” So, the phrase “who first trusted in Christ,” consistent with what we know of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, events on the Day of Pentecost, and the first few years of Christianity, must and can only mean Jewish Christians. They were the first to hear. They were the first to see. They were the first to respond and trust Jesus Christ as the Savior of their sinful souls and as the promised Messiah of Israel.
At this point, we should ask, “Why would God choose to save those Jewish Christians first?” A complete explanation can get rather complicated, but Paul’s statement is simple, direct, and concise and is all we need right now: “That we (read Jewish Christians here) should be to the praise of His glory.” God had a purpose in saving Jewish Christians first. He saved them to set an example for us to follow and to praise His glory. Since throughout this Ephesian letter, a specific aspect of God’s glory is explained and highlighted, we can be sure that, specifically, it is the glory of God’s grace that He wants to be praised.
However, few believers these days are Jewish Christians. None who are Jewish Christians of our day were saved before the great harvest of Gentile souls that took place in the years following the Day of Pentecost. Therefore, no one here is a literal part of the “us” or “we” crowd the Apostle Paul referred to in Ephesians 1.3-12. However, the passage does apply to every one of us who knows the Lord Jesus in a personal way.
How? In two ways: First, God used the Jewish Christians, as He had so often used the Jewish people in the past, to be an example of His dealings to benefit those believers who would follow. Second, God saves souls only one way. How they were saved is how you, who are unbelievers, need to be saved. He accomplishes what He accomplished when saving them when He saves people like you. And when someone comes to faith in Christ, either a first-century Jew or a 21st-century Gentile, or anyone in between, that individual can be described as “in Christ.” These things are introduced, and we now turn to Chapter 3.
Chapter III
IN CHRIST BY SALVATION:
AN EXAMINATION OF “IN CHRIST”
Introduction
“In Christ,” what glorious truth is contained in these two God-breathed words! Their depth goes beyond the brink of eternity from which we receive the revelation that God has “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). The breadth of their sphere spans time and space and places the elect on the cross with Jesus Christ, in the tomb of His death, magnificently risen together with Him, and presently seated in heavenly places. God’s election of grace predestined us in Christ before there were times and seasons. The provision of God’s grace “... made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II Corinthians 5:21). The effectual working of His grace gave us a testimony like that divinely recorded of the Apostle Paul. “I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). By the way, if you are a believer those words apply directly to you, as well.
However, it is believed by many (almost all Protestants and too many Baptists) that the Biblical motif of “in Christ” is a reference to being placed into the mystical body of Christ by a so-called baptism of the Holy Spirit.[3] This, of course, let me emphasize is not the meaning of “in Christ,” nor is there anything of a “mystical body of Christ” or a baptism of the Spirit which places one in a mystical or local church body. Excuse me, when John introduced the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Matthew 3.11, it was going to be a sign with associated visible phenomena. In Acts chapters 2, 8, 10, and 19, the baptism of the Holy Spirit always had associated physical phenomena that people could see and hear. And now Protestants claim that every believer has been baptized in the Spirit without any associated visible or audible signs? When did a sign not become a sign? At what point did a sign not become a sign? They have no answer. They [Protestants] don’t want to talk about it. In this chapter, we wish to examine briefly the “in Christ” motif putting forth its rightful meaning in order to contrast it in the following chapter with the Biblical teaching of the church as a body of Christ. We will see that one comes to be “in Christ” by God’s work of a new creation in Christ and the believer’s association with Christ by faith in Him.
A Survey of a Few Passages
It is believed that the Book of Galatians is actually the first of the letters written by the Apostle Paul, and it is in this book that we first find the words, “in Christ” and other closely associated ideas such as “I am crucified with.” The richness of this truth as it first reached the Galatian believers was, of course, to be found in the person of whom it speaks. The totality of our salvation is found completely within the sphere of the person and work of Jesus Christ. According to Dr. Robert Gromacki, (1933-2023, a distinguished scholar and professor of Bible and Greek at Cedarville University) the following Pauline epistles are listed in chronological order of composition coming after Galatians: 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and the Romans. No additional light is shed by 1 and 2 Thessalonians concerning the “in Christ, motif beyond what is found in Galatians. 1 Corinthians, on the other hand, provides a large bouquet of verses from which to pick and examine the “in Christ” motif.
First Corinthians
Among the many verses we could examine, two especially stand out like arrows pointing us in the right direction for understanding and comprehending the breadth of the reality of our union with Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 1:30 says:
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God
Is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
And sanctification, and redemption.”
The second verse is 1 Corinthians 15:22:
“For as in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive.”
In these two verses our union with Jesus Christ is explained both as a work of God and that which involves Christ’s headship. What power, wisdom, and glory are packed into the words, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.” No human cause is the source of the power which is able to quicken us together with Christ and raise us up together and set us in heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 2:10 says:
“For we are his [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.”
This is an activity of God that takes place in the sphere of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says:
“Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”
We are made a new creation in the new man, the last Adam. This profound work is simply revealed as an act of God.
First Corinthians 15:22 is the first verse to give the meaningful comparative phrase “even as” with some explanatory verses following which speak of the “last Adam” (v. 45) and the “second man ... from heaven” (v. 47). Hence, it is revealed that the understanding of this glorious motif of “in Christ” is going to be found and developed in a comparison between what we were in Adam and what we are and will be in Christ.
Second Corinthians
Additional light concerning the “in Christ” motif is given in 2 Corinthians. In chapter 5:17, it associates being in Christ with entering into the new creation:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.”
The Holy Spirit’s regeneration of the dead spirit of a man giving him spiritual life is a present blessing and evidence of being in Christ. It is in Christ that the believer enters the sphere of the new creation. The work of God in creating a new inward man is the only present experientially realized aspect of the new creation in Christ. By faith we wait for the time when God makes all things new. And in 2 Corinthians 5:21 we are perhaps brought to the greatest height of this epistle:
“For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.”
Here we see that Jesus Christ became our representative and provided a vicarious death for us. But as wonderful as each of these passages is, it is not until we get to Romans 5 that we find the epicenter of this profound motif. There the “even as” of 1 Corinthians 15:22 which declares a relationship between us in Adam and us in Christ is turned into a theological discourse that develops the truth of being in Christ to its fullest heights.
Romans
A study of Romans 5:10-21 develops the teaching of the headship of the human race in Adam and the headship of Christ’s redeemed seed. The doctrinal basis for asking the question, “What does it mean to be in Jesus Christ?” is clearly set forth in this passage. One simply can ask, “What does it mean to be in Adam?” because our union with Jesus Christ is analogous to our former union with Adam. We were created by the power of God through procreation and entered the realm of natural life under condemnation because we were identified with being in Adam. According to Ephesians 2:10, we were by God created in Christ Jesus and entered the realm of spiritual life receiving justification because we were identified with being in Christ. Ephesians 2: 8, 9 explains that salvation is entirely of God’s grace through faith. A. H. Strong, (1836-1921, a Baptist minister and theologian, trained at Yale University and Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, and most famous for his book, Systematic Theology) writes, “As Adam’s sin is imputed to us, not because Adam is in us, but because we were in Adam; so Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, not because Christ is in us, but because we are in Christ-that is, joined by faith to one whose righteousness and life are infinitely greater than our power to appropriate or contain.”
Similar References
The Bible teaches the great truth of the believer being in God, in the Son of God, and in the Holy Spirit. John the Apostle writes of the believer dwelling in God:
“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us,
because he hath given us of his Spirit”
(1 Jn. 4:13).
The Apostle Paul associates being in God with being in Christ:
“Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus unto the church of the
Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus
Christ: Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. l:1).
Paul speaks on the subject in Romans 8:9:
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be
that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
There are two points to be noticed here: first, this is speaking of every believer at all times. This is not speaking of being in the Spirit as something the believer goes in and out of according to his daily experience, as when someone unscripturally attributes sinful or foolish conduct as being “in the flesh.” The qualification for being in the Spirit according to this verse is only that the Spirit of God dwell in you. This leads to our second point. In 1 John 4:13, dwelling in God is equated with the reception and indwelling of the Holy Spirit:
“Hereby know we that we dwell in him,
and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.”
In Romans 8:9 we have just seen that to be in the Spirit is evidenced by the Spirit dwelling in us. Romans 8:9 goes on to equate possessing all that is in Jesus Christ or having nothing that pertains to Jesus Christ as resting upon whether or not one has the Spirit of Christ indwelling them. Ephesians 2:5 speaks of us being quickened together with Christ.
Conclusion
It appears, then, that the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit quickening and indwelling the believer is the evidential reality of being in Christ. This coincides with Paul’s discourse in Romans 5 because when human life begins it falls prey to the condemnation of Adam and its conception is in sin and death; therefore, spiritual death reigns at the conception of human life. When one of God’s elect is sovereignly regenerated, his union with the headship of Jesus Christ brings the justification of the blood of Jesus Christ; hence, this spiritual life is eternal life in Jesus Christ and is neither subject to death nor corruption. Justification is not based on the quality of life of the one who receives the quickening any more than the condemnation is based on the quality of natural life that comes from conception. It is the identification with Adam that causes the conception to be in spiritual death and it is our identification with Adam that causes the conception to be a spiritual death and it is our identification with Jesus Christ that brings justification to eternal life.
One of the benefits of Charles Hunt’s chapter 3 is that it puts to rest any unfounded fears that may arise when the truth about the body of Christ metaphor is shown. Many who embrace the unscriptural view of the head/body metaphor imagine their relationship with Jesus Christ is at risk. This is most certainly not the case. Being in Christ results from a relationship with Jesus Christ that features regeneration and justification. Hunt’s book shows the error of misinterpreting Scripture and misunderstanding the head/body metaphor by thinking it describes one’s union with Christ. It does not.
A proper understanding of the head/body metaphor reveals that the Savior provided the Church as an instrument of sanctification and service. Thus, misunderstanding the head/body metaphor will affect the Christian’s growth in grace but has no effect on whether or not one is a believer in Christ.
Adequately understood, one is “in Christ” when born again, justified by faith in Christ, and indwelt by the Spirit. Such is a matter of salvation. Correctly understanding the head/body metaphor and properly associating with and benefiting from Church membership is a matter of sanctification.
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[1] William J. Larkin, Ephesians: A Handbook of the Greek Text, (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2009), page 13.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Completely ignoring that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was declared by John the Baptist to be a sign to authenticate the Messiah, Matthew 3.11, and shown to actually be a sign in Acts 2.2-4; 8.14-18; 10.44-46; 19.6
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