Faithful on Fridays Blog

The Body of Christ: Scene Two

We saw last week that the body of Christ is a community or army of people gathered for a specific purpose. That’s interesting because shortly after Jacob received the blessing or empowerment for his covenantal family he had the dream of a stairway (Gen. 28:12) that connected heaven and earth while angels ascended and descended with God standing at the top. What a picture and a promise:

Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. Genesis 28:14 

We know Abraham’s quintessential descendant would be the One who left His divine form in heaven and took on human form (Phil. 2:6-8): Jesus Christ. Wasn’t it our Savior who reminded us of this stairway to heaven?

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51 

Here’s the awesome part; when Jacob woke up he named the place House of God and Gate of Heaven. He knew God’s promises would be fulfilled:

“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15

Jesus also promised his renewed community of believers:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b 

Also,

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18 

The House of God obviously described the church or the re-formed body of Christ, however, Jesus changed the gates to hell. Why the change?

God knew from the beginning that He would gather a group of people to represent Him to the world and this army would be empowered by El Shaddai to battle the enemy and consequently prevail. 

Let’s turn now to the Greek word for ‘community of believers’, ekklesia meaning ‘called out or invited ones’. Translators chose the English word church to designate the whole body of Christ from the beginning or individual bodies of believers or churches.

And he (Paul) went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Acts 15:41

Whether we’re called the church of God (Acts 20:28), the church of the saints (1 Cor. 14:33), a spiritual house, chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s own possession and people (1 Peter 2:9-10), or family of faith (Gal. 6:10), we are His empowered Body called to represent Him to the world. The church is who we are and the body of Christ is how we operate in order to fulfill His assignment. Let’s treasure the church and serve others for Him.