Crucial elements of the Bible-Part 8

When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory. – Colossians 3:4

In Part 7 of this series, we looked at a figure showing the spiritual “biology” of a single believer. But, since we are considering the crucial elements of the Bible—Christ, the Spirit, Life and the Church—we need to understand the spiritual “biology” that make the church a living organism as the full expression of the Triune God and not an organization.

God intention in the economy of God is to have one Body in this universe for His expression through Christ. This one Body—the Body of Christ—is composed of all those who have believed into Christ and have been joined to God through the activation of their human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:17).

Salvation

The believers salvation is initiated by the individual’s calling upon the Name of the Lord and is made both possible and effective by the redemptive price paid by Jesus Christ once for all through His precious blood, death and resurrection.

However, God never intended man to simply “receive Jesus into his heart” and hold Him captive there. Instead, God’s intention with man is that, beginning from man’s spirit mingled and joined to the Holy Spirit, that man’s mind, will and emotions (his soul) would be brought under the rule and headship of the divine life spreading from the spirit. God’s dispensing begins in and with the spirit of man, but man’s whole vessel is intended to contain the divine life. It is for this very reason that man was created in the image of God.

As believers joined together in Christ we are automatically joined in “the oneness of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3), which oneness we are exhorted “to keep… in a uniting bond of peace” (with God). We are not exhorted to “create” such oneness because it is not within our power to do so.

Sanctification

Allowing the divine life to spread from our spirit into our soul and to govern our thinking (i.e., our mind), our feelings (i.e., our emotions) and our choosing (i.e., our will) is what the scriptures refer to as “sanctification.” This word is easily understood when we see the German form which, being directly translated, means: holy-making.

However, once again our traditional Christian (read: religious) understandings tend to take over and we immediately think that “holy-making” or “sanctification” mean God wants to bring us into conformity to an outward declaration of “laws” for righteousness.

The Greek word for “holy” clears this mistaken impression up for us once and for all. The Greek word is (transliterated) “hagios” or “agios” (without the initial breath-mark). This comes from two roots: the first is the negative particle “a,” which negates what follows it. We find this negative particle brought into English in several words, such as “apathy,” meaning “without feeling.”

The second root is “gios” or, more commonly brought into English as “geos.” This root is found in several English words such as “geography,” “geology,” “geometry,” and “geophysics.” You note that they all have to do with the earth.

Therefore, when we combine these roots in our English understanding we see that “holy” means “not-of-the-earth” or “not-earthly.”

But, clearly, it is not possible for us to make ourselves “not earthly.” The only way for such a transformation is by a full reliance upon, and our organic growth through, the Holy Spirit, thus being brought deeper into God. This is the meaning then of “…Holding to the truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ” (Eph. 4:15a). As you can see in the diagram above, growing up into God means allowing God to work in us to bring not only our spirit, but also our soul, into the realm of Christ as our life (see Gal. 2:20, et al).

One God and Father of all… over all and through all and in all

The figure above also clearly depicts the conditions described for the “One Body” in Ephesians 4:6, showing us plainly how “One God and Father of all… is [in reality] over all and through all and in all.”