First Corinthians 12:13 tells us that “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.” Whatever our nationality or status was, the Spirit has put us all into one Body. Hence Romans 12:4-5 says “For just as in one [physical] body we have many members…so we who are many are one Body in Christ.” This is a big step unto New Jerusalem.
Since the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the entire divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, its existence can be applied to us by going back to look at the church. In Ephesians 4:4 is the Body. The Body is the church, and the church is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. We can also say that the Body of Christ is a precursor of the New Jerusalem….The New Jerusalem will be a full consummation of this precursor, the Body of Christ.
We are not in the New Jerusalem yet, but we are surely in the Body. What is applied to the Body today will consummate in the New Jerusalem.*
The Body is also the new man created by Christ on the cross, bringing into one all His believers (Eph. 2:15). In this new man, as in the Body, and as in New Jerusalem, “Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).
Verses 3:12-14 exhort us to put on many virtues; these virtues are the Christ we experience, the Christ who lives through us to be all in the new man now and all in New Jerusalem for eternity.
* From chapter 41, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986
Posted by Don on September 6, 2023
Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about The Body of Christ Now, New Jerusalem Soon.
