One Body in Christian Community
Romans 12:4-6a
We are getting into the “nitty-gritty” of being a follower of Jesus Christ in Romans 12. We are looking at the heart of the matter of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ; we are not PERFECT followers or PERFECT disciples, but we are being transformed into the very Image of Christ, while we are doing everything that we can do to respond to the Grace of God in Christ and to be obedient to God while living in the reality of His Saving Grace. We trust in His Grace to save and in His Faith to forgive, and in the power of His Spirit to PLEASE HIM because we know that God alone deserves the glory of our lives.
And so Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God:
Romans 12:1: Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you NOT to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment,(think soberly) as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
4 “For just as (or “even as”, by way of comparison or example) we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.”
I love it when people ask me questions about God’s Word, (RC Sproul wrote a great book answering hundreds of theological issues, “Now That’s a Good Question!”) and last week someone asked me this good question: “What do you mean when you say “the Body of Christ.”
Different Bodies
1. He said that he thought about the Crucified body of Christ, and that’s right! At the Lord’s Supper we celebrate and profess the astounding biblical fact that Jesus offered His physical body to be crucified as the payment FOR sin for anyone who trusts in Him as their Savior. Colossians 1:18-20 makes that clear: “And he (Christ) is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have ALL HIS FULLNESS dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” God appeared in the flesh and died in the flesh, the Crucified body of Christ. (John 1:14)
2. In Romans 12:1 we are told to offer OUR BODIES as living and holy sacrifices to God. Hmmmm. Jesus offered His body through death, so that individually, we might identify with His BROKEN body and then individually AND we offer our bodies BACK to Him through the new lives that He has given us. So YOU Dedicate Your Body to Christ in service to God. You offer ALL of your life, every part, back to Him to be used as He sees fit. We voluntarily relinquish our personal rights of ownership to Him, because He died for us. (Ours is an imperfect sacrifice!)
3. How do we serve Him? We serve Him wherever and whenever according to His design and commands, but first of all we serve Him by serving each other as The Gifted Local Body of Christ: The Local Church Community (That means that every individual body part, each one of us, has a part to play in the Local Church Body. Speaking to the Local Church leaders in Ephesus, Paul says in Acts 20:28: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Paul addresses the local bodies of believers in Rome, Ephesus, Colossae, Philippi, Galatia, Crete, Thessalonica, Jerusalem (every city where the Gospel was preached). This church “body” or community is visible and invisible. There is a physical and social aspect to it, but also a powerful spiritual presence of God within it.
4. SOME of the Gifted Local Body of believers are true believers and SOME may not be: God only knows for sure, but those who ARE part of the local church and who persevere in faith ARE also part of The Universal Body of Christ (the Church Triumphant.) Every believer in Christ who has ever lived in the past, present or future—is part of the UNIVERSAL Body of Christ. Christians may be physically separated from each other by the barrier of death, but they still remain united to each other in one Body, One Church. Ephesians 2:21-22 says: “In him (Christ) the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too (individually and corporately) are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
For the next few minutes we’ll look at verses 4-5 in Romans 12: “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
A Unified Body in Christ
God designed us to be a Unified and Healthy Body IN CHRIST for His Glory. As the local Gifted Body of Christ, we don’t have 2 left feet or 2 right eyes, or 2 right arms. Our bodies are made with separate functions or modes, which, in an average human being, coordinate together. Our physical bodies function as a unit. We are in trouble when our body parts aren’t functioning together. (You find it VERY difficult to walk in two different directions at the same time or have two eyes not functioning together. You go to the doctor and try to find a solution.)
Together, we share a common love for and commitment to our Savior, common gifts and characteristics, common ministry and mission- we are all witnesses, we share common resources-the Holy Spirit of God, we believe in the authority of God’s Word. We gather in a building, we meet at the same times. Some of us share neighborhoods, common joys, common sorrows, when one hurts we ALL HURT and we ALL COMFORT, when one rejoices WE ALL rejoice. We ALL pitch in, we all pray together because we have ALL THESE things in common and we crave praise and prayer together to our Great God and Savior.
Stay with me here: I listed all the reference in your notes, but I want to mention SOME of the ways that we are IN CHRIST. “So we, (ALL OF US) who are many, are one body IN CHRIST.
1 Corinthians 1:4 says that we receive grace in Christ. Romans 3:24 tells us our redemption is in Christ. Gal. 2:16-17 clearly says that each of us are justified (made right before God, just as if I never sinned) by faith in Christ. Ephesians 4:32 explains that each one has forgiveness of sins in Christ. It is for that reason, says Romans 8:1, that there is NO condemnation in Christ. That is why in the words of 2 Corinthians 5:17, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation in Christ.
As a result, Romans 6:23 promises that we have eternal life in Christ. We know that God supplies all our needs in Christ, according to Philippians 4:19. From Christ we have every spiritual blessing of heaven. (Ephesians 1:3) One day we each will be presented to God, perfect in Christ. (Colossians 1:28) Because of this promise of God, NOTHING in this entire universe can EVER separate anyone of us from the love of God in Christ. (There dozens more examples, but you see the importance of being in Christ, don’t you?)
We are driven by God’s mercy to worship and WORK together, not only as our religious duty, but because it is our delight and privilege. We all sacrifice our bodies and surrender our minds and wills to the Lordship of Christ. We are a family-ship and fellowship molded and cemented by God’s Mercy. We love and accept each other to the glory of the Father in Christ. We are all on a mercy-giving mission in Christ. We trust in God’s justice and Sovereignty in all things. We triumph on account of God’s love and grace in our individual lives and we follow the Lord Jesus who died for His enemies, (of which I was the WORST!) and so we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and for those who are so unlike us. ALL SO THAT JESUS RECEIVES THE GLORY HE DESERVES because HE DIED and ROSE AGAIN for to pay the penalty of sin for EACH ONE of us.
A Diversified Body
God designed us to be a Diversified Body in Christ for His Glory. The Church is a Body of many INTERCONNECTED, intertwined, and different parts: We aren’t all thumbs. (although I feel like I’m ALL THUMBS sometimes.) We aren’t all pinkies. We aren’t all right hands. We are all equipped differently (and similarly) by God to, first of all, serve, supplement and complement each other as One Body in Christian Community. (You can read and study 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, which applies to today’s verses and the next few week’s studies.)
If we don’t ALL DO what we were each called to do, we look like a crippled body instead of a HEALTHY BODY. (Did you notice how at large stores now, the handicapped parking places seem to be growing. Soon there will be so many handicapped places that they will have to taxi people to the front door.) When we aren’t doing what God gifted and called us to do, we are contributing to a BROKEN and handicapped body instead of the HEALTHY WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST in community. It’s like we all need a handicap parking permit.
Our true individuality and diversity is discovered and fulfilled in our relationship and activities within the Body of Christ. Ephesians 5:29-30 says: “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body.” If Christ nourishes and cherishes us as individual members of His Body, but we are not joining ourselves TO the local body, we are contributing to spiritual malnutrition and body harm (mutilation). We would never want to do that to the Body for which Christ gave His life. I Corinthians 12:12 says: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”
Every gift should be used for the body and not misused, abused or UN-used. 1 Cor. 12:18 “But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.” God has measured each gift to each member as He has desired. We don’t demean ourselves and say we are no good for the body, we don’t underestimate the gift, and neither do we try and mimic someone else’s gift. Saving faith is all the same measure. Saving grace is all the same measure. Gifts are in different measures but all are gifts as God has chosen to give to us. They aren’t given out as rewards, but as edifying tools within the Community of Christ. So it is with Christ’s body.
I love what John Piper said this in a message from Romans 12:6: “Gifts” are expressions of, or extensions of, “grace.” Gifts transmit God’s grace through human means to other people for their strengthening in faith and hope and love and healing and guidance, etc… Faith is the act of the soul that looks away from our own resources and receives this grace and depends on its power to pass through us for the good of others.”
God is FULL OF GRACE. His Spirit is Full of Power. God’s Design for the Church is to be a Healthy Body, each part doing what He designed it to do, to the edification of the entire body. God gives the faith and grace to exercise your gift within “The Body of Christ” without frustration so that each will part will jump into action impulsively, instinctively and instantaneously. THE BEST GIFT THAT YOU CAN OFFER IS YOU!
The first part of Romans 12:6 says: “Since we have gifts (each one of us) that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to EXERCISE them accordingly.” This is the will of God for us as part of the Body and Community of the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot just keep “going to church.” We have to live and exercise AS HIS CHURCH- “those who are CALLED OUT” (Gr.-ekklesia).
May the prayer of your heart coincide with Ephesians 1: 18-23: I pray that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened, so that I will know what is the hope of Your calling, what are the riches of the glory of your inheritance in the saints, and that I will KNOW the surpassing greatness of your power to us who believe, in accordance with the working of the strength of YOUR might which You have brought about IN CHRIST, when He was raised Him from the dead and seated at your right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. May I submit to You as head over all things to the church, which is Your body, the fullness of Him who FILLS all in all. To your glory alone. Amen
OUTLINE:
I. Different Bodies
1. The Crucified Body of Christ (Colossians 17-22)
2. Your Dedicated Body to Christ (Romans 12:1)
3. The Gifted Local Body of Christ (Acts 20:28, 1 Cor 12:12-26)
4. The Universal Body of Christ (Church Triumphant) (Eph 2:21, Col 1: 17)
II. God designed us to be a Unified and Healthy Body IN CHRIST for HIS GLORY. (1 Cor. 1:4, 2 Cor. 5:17, Rom 3:24, 6:23, 8:1, 8:32, Gal. 2:16-17, Col. 1:28, Eph. 1:3, Phil 4:19)
III. God designed us to be a Diversified Body IN CHRIST for HIS GLORY. (Eph. 1: 18-23, 4:11-16, 5:29-30, 1 Cor. 12:12-26)
Build a Strong Body 12 Different Ways:
1. Present YOURSELF a living sacrifice to God.
2. Humble yourself to Local Body-building.
3. Know that you're “GIFTED” for the Body.
4. Pray for insight, wisdom, and a willing heart.
5. Seek nothing but God’s faithfulness to provide.
6. Examine your heart's desires.
7. Seek confirmation from others.
8. Anticipate the blessing of God.
9. Serve with your whole heart.
10. Cultivate the gift as it begins to be obvious to you.
11. Thank God for your Gift, Calling and Ability.
12. Be Obedient: Exercise together.
