WE ARE THE RESURRECTED BODY OF CHRIST: by Kevin Meyer

WE ARE THE RESURRECTED BODY OF CHRIST, by Kevin Meyer

As we enter the kingdom age, it is important to revaluate certain concepts that have shaped our Christian experience. It has often been said that we are the body of Christ. This is true and if it is true that Christ has risen, then we are the resurrected body of Christ. To more fully understand how God meant for us to participate in His body, it may be helpful to examine this statement by emphasizing each of its parts.

WE are the resurrected body of Christ

We ARE the resurrected body of Christ

We are THE RESURRECTED body of Christ

We are the resurrected BODY OF CHRIST

1. We – those of us who believe.

• So let us see what we can understand about the whole by examining the parts. With our emphasis on the ‘WE’ in our first statement, one must ask ‘who are the we’?

Mar_9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Mar_11:23  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Joh_7:39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Joh_11:40  Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

Joh_17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

Joh_14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

We must first believe the possibility. Only those that believe will see. We must believe that Christ was crucified, buried and rose again and in doing so secured us the ability to participate in the Divine Nature of God. We must believe that He went away in order to send another, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth who will lead us into all truth. We must understand what we believe and take ownership of it.

2. Are – not were or will some day be.

• We so often live out our Christian life waiting for something to happen. Teachings of the rapture, whether pre-, mid- or post-tribulation have left many in the Christian world ill prepared for the arrival of this day and preoccupied with an ‘in the sweet by and by’ mentality.

Act_17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

1Jn 5:19  And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

1Jn_4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Being the resurrected body of Christ is something we are, not something that we were or will some day be. ‘Are’ is an active word referencing a state of being. When we believe that we ‘are’ then we position ourselves to exhibit or manifest the same life that inhabited the physical body of our Lord Jesus before His body was broken and given to us. This life is eternal and He has given it those of us who believe (1 Jn 5:11, John 10:28)

3. The resurrected – we must identify with his death and reckon it to be our death, in order to experience the resurrected life.

• It is often said that ‘we are the body of Christ’, as Paul rightly tells us in the New Testament. By referencing that we are the ‘resurrected’ body of Christ, we place emphasis on the fact that His body is no longer on the cross and the tomb is empty. We, as much as we identify with Christ, have been resurrected already if we can believe it, this resurrection is the ‘newness of life’ or our participation in the Divine Nature. It gives us power over the fear of death, the second death, for we have died with Christ once already, if we can believe it.

Rom 6:1-14 What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?  Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.  For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.  The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.  So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin control your mortal body so that you obey its desires.  Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Rom 7:6 But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code

Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 

Heb 7:15  And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. 

It became evident to the early church that Christ had become our High Priest, acting as our advocate and mediator, as a result of His indestructible life. By dying to sin, once for all, He freed us from the power of sin through the law. The shed blood of our Lord is so effectual, it results in the remission of our sin; past, present and future. It is the key that allows us to die daily, to wake up unto righteousness (the word that is God) and sin no more (the word that is not God). It is our key to participating in the divine nature or the resurrected (eternal) life.

4. Body of Christ – The communion.

• Though we are all individual members in particular, properly connected we re-member the broken body of our Lord. Though we often think of the breaking of our Lord’s body a result of the punishment he endured during holy week, which is true, perhaps in some sense that breaking was symbolic of the breaking and giving His physical body to those that would follow. It would become the physical body that would now be the dwelling place of the Divine Nature. He had to leave so that He might send another who would individually inhabit His people and through revelation of the Truth, lead us all into the re-membering of the resurrected body of Christ, partaking of and manifesting the Divine Nature, which is the Name of Jesus.

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. 

1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 

1Co 11:23  For I have received from the Lord, that which also I delivered to you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he shall come. 

Each preceding age was introduced with a death. Adam, Abraham, Noah and Jesus. Jesus’ death introduced the age of the church. Is it possible that our death, identified and accepted in our Lord’s death, is key to the new kingdom age we are entering, one fueled by the power of an endless life?

We no longer have need to be concerned about the second death, it has no power over us if we are truly resurrected with Jesus Christ. Do we identify as a dead man, still full of dead works, participating in a life that is governed by the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air whose power is limited to the word that is not God? Or do we identify with the new man and eternal life granted to us in this age by the High Priest who has entered the Holy Sanctuary?

1Pe 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a priesthood of kingly lineage, a holy nation, a people belonging specially to God, that you may make known the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not found mercy, but now you have.

We Are the Resurrected Body of Christ! Let us embrace our identity in Him as such, rejecting the word that is not god and receive the Word that is God, for He indeed has spoken! May our eyes be opened to mysteries of the age we are entering.

Kevin Meyer is a ministry son and elder of Active Living Ministries in Appleton, WI. You can contact Kevin at k.cmeyer@yahoo.com