By Arthur J Licursi

Have you ever noticed how Paul wrote of two different “bodies” of Christ believers; one written of during the Acts period and another one after the Acts period closes, as seen in Paul’s prison epistles.

Herein we will compare aspects of “the church” [ecclesia] of the Assembled “BODY” of MESSIANIC Believers Alive During the Acts Period as seen in 1Corinthians 12 with … today’s Spiritual Post-Acts Gentile “Church, which is His BODY.”

Many preachers say; when a believer gets believes unto salvation, he or she becomes a member of “the Body of Christ” and is destined for heaven. But they mistakenly misuse 1 Cor. 12:13 (below) as their proof text.  

A question: ‘which body’ is being spoken of 1 Cor. 12:13? ¹³ For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one BODY, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13 (KJV)

Is it speaking the physical body of Jesus’ that died on the cross and the rose or, is it speaking of “the church, which is His body” (Eph. 1:22b-23a)? As we will see the difference matters.

Many Christians say the term “in Christ” automatically encapsulates all the rich positional and spiritual blessings one might have as a member of “the church, which is His Body” that is destined for heaven. By comparison, the believers during the Acts period had believed Jesus “gospel of the kingdom” unto everlasting life but… not one that led to “the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3) as was later revealed to Paul in his POST-ACTS ministry toward ALL men seen as Gentiles.

Neither does this tell us the meaning of one being “in Christ,” which Paul refers to in so many verses. The fact is that anyone who is genuinely saved is “in Christ,” meaning… in Union With Him In His Death and Resurrection Life … but not necessarily heaven-bound. To have “everlasting life” during the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels and the ministry of The Twelve Apostles and Paul during Acts period is to those who have believed to Jesus’s words of John 3:16 where He said;

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, [so] that whosoever [Jew or Gentile] believeth in him should not perish [Gk. apollymi, be destroyed], but have [Christ’s] Everlasting Life. John 3:16

In the gospel of John, Jesus was offering all believers “everlasting life” and the Nation of Israel the “kingdom come on earth” if the Jews took John’s baptism of repentance. But the offer of “the Kingdom come” on earth EXPIRED with the Acts 28:28 fall of Israel. That is when the Kingdom offer was rejected by Israel’s religious leaders for one last time. Since that day the Kingdom hope is set aside until Christ’s 2^nd coming with the end of the Tribulation period. The record is; 1. They killed the prophets God sent; 2. They killed “the Son of God,” 3. They killed Stephen a man “full of the Holy Spirit” who recited Israel’s terrible history before they stoned him to death (Acts 7:59-60). As we know… with three strikes you are out! The stoning of Stephen commenced “the fall” and “diminishing” of Israel during the Acts period. The “diminishing” culminated in Paul’s Acts 28:26-28 declaration of Israel’s “fall” being sealed, as Paul turned directly to the Gentiles.

Back to being “In Christ.” Paul says some were “in Christ” before Paul? What did Paul mean when he wrote in Rom. 16:7, “Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were In Christ Before Me”? They must have been simple John 3:16 “whosoever” believers, saved before Paul had ever met Jesus on the road to Damascus and believed.

Paul’s explanation of being “in Christ” is that it is the very basis of the believer’s once for all time ‘Death’ of their “Old Man [self]” and their “newness of life” that is only found In Union With “CHRIST’s Death.

³ Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were [dry] baptized INTO HIS DEATH? ⁴Therefore we are buried with him by baptism INTO DEATH: [so] that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in NEWNESS OF LIFE. Romans 6:3-4 (KJV)

Paul here above, explains a ‘spiritual baptism’, a DRY-baptism; no water is mentioned at all, being “baptized into His death.” Recall that Israel in the wilderness was baptized “in the cloud.” There is also a “baptism of fire,” and other waterless baptisms (cf. Luke 3:16).

Paul says the root of one being “in Christ” is seen here above in Rom. 6:3 [above]. Carefully read the verse and tell me what it was that believers were baptized INTO; it was Into Christ’s “DEATH.” This miraculous spirit-baptism by the Holy Spirit occurs as soon as a ‘whosoever’ person first believes in Christ and His cross-work. Paul explains it as being applicable to both the Jewish and Gentile believers during the later Acts period, that is after Acts 15.

¹³ … by one Spirit are we ALL baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many [as many as believe]. 1 Cor. 12:13-14

This Acts’s period “body” that Paul spoke of in his 1Cor. 12 discussions of the proper functioning of the miraculous communicative gifts (i.e., tongues, interpretation, prophesying, word of knowledge) is not the later revealed Post-Acts spiritual “church, which is His BODY” as seen in Ephesians. This 1Corintians Acts’s period “body” is an “assembly’ [Gk. ecclesia] of believers that shared the supernatural gifts that functioned ONLY during the Acts period. Recall how Paul likened this Acts’s period “body” to human body-parts; that function as a foot, hand, eye, ear, etc. (1Cor 12:15-16). His discussion in 1Cor 12 concerned the distribution and proper use of these gifts.

All believers before and even after Acts 28, who have believed unto “newness of life” “in Christ” and partakers of being in a spiritual union with Christ’s physical death As Their Death to their Old Man (Rom. 6:6, Gal. 2:20), are then simultaneously in union with His resurrection life as their “newness of life” in and one with their “spirit of man” (1Cor 6:17).  

⁶ Knowing this, that our old man IS crucified with him, [so] that the body of sin might be destroyed [Gk., kartargeo, made of no effect so], that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6 (KJV)
²⁰ I AM crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith [faithfulness] of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20

Note also how the Christ believer immediately receives Christ’s resurrected “Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2) into their “spirit of man” (1Cor 6:17). Therein each one is “joined” to Christ’s resurrected “spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2) and considered as being “in Christ” with Christ “in Him.”

¹⁷ But he that is Joined Unto The Lord Is One Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (KJV)

From that 1^st moment of faith every genuine believer receives the deposit of Christ’s “everlasting life” as new life while his “old ma” remains forever “crucified with Him.” Oh yes, though his spirit is regenerated, the new believer’s soul still needs to become renewed in his mind, emotion, and will. This work of God will continue all the remaining days we may have on earth. From that day it is of God’s work that renews us.

¹³ For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 (KJV)
⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6 (KJV)… til He appears and we “appear with Him in heaven’s glory” (cf. Col. 3:4).

So we see that we were “in Christ,” in His physical body when He was nailed to that cross. Christ’s death of the cross was two-fold; 1) Christ died For Us, to pay our sin-debt that we could never pay, and 2) He was simultaneously Dying “As Us” so we could be freed from the power of the Sin nature “in the flesh” of our body (Rom. 8:3b). Thus, “In Christ” we are freed from both the ‘power’ of ‘Sin’ and the ‘penalty’ for our sins. Now God’s work continues in us, that is, in our soul’s mind, emotion and will.

¹³ For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 (KJV)

⁶ Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6 (KJV)

Consider these precious examples of what it means for you to be “in Christ as a member of His One New Creation “Body.”

1 Cor. 1:4, we receive grace “in Christ.”

Romans 3:24, our redemption is “in Christ.”

Gal. 2:17, we are justified “in Christ.”.

Eph. 4:32, we have forgiveness of sins “in Christ.”

Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation “in Christ.”

2 Cor. 5:17, we are a new creation “in Christ.”

Romans 6:23, we have eternal life “in Christ.”

Phili 4:19, God supplies all our needs “in Christ.”

Eph. 1:3, we have ALL spiritual blessing of heaven “in Christ.”

Col. 1:28, we will be presented to God perfect “in Christ.”

Romans 8:32, we cannot be separated from the love of God “in Christ.”