The Eternal Union of Christ and the Church

The Eternal Union of Christ and the Church

John 14:20

“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

Believers are the body of Christ, so say the scriptures, and therefore, thus saith the Holy Ghost: who is the author of the scriptures, (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:21). Consider the following passages of holy writ: “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23). “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;   and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ;” (Ephesians 4: 11-12). “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of another.” (Romans 12:5). “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” (I Corinthians 12:27). “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:” (Colossians 1:24). And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. (Colossians 2:19). “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” (Colossians 1:18). “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.” (Ephesians 5:23). All these scripture verses bear witness to the scriptural truth of the opening statement; that believers are the body of Christ. Now since Christ Jesus is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8), He has the same body as ever He had. And since the church was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world or without beginning, then the union of the Head, Jesus Christ, and the body, the church, is without beginning or it is an eternal union.

The union of Christ and the church being eternal, and without beginning presents to His members this most beautiful and comforting truth, that all the church in Christ was before the fall in Adam, that is, what the church in Christ, as chosen in Christ, was in Christ, such she is now, and such she will be to all eternity, for “this is the name where-with she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 33:16). The church having union in “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6); is, “made the righteousness of God in Him.”(II Corinthians 5:21). “For thy maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” (Isaiah 54:5). “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:29-32). Therefore the church, in union, in Christ may be called the mystical body of Christ; (the body kept secret in God from the foundation of the world but is now revealed in the gospel) for she is His body which was hidden in that wonderful mystery “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:” (Ephesians 3:6). “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God. Who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” (Ephesians 3:9-12).   A.J. Ison  See the writers blog at: www.hebrews 915.blogspot.com.