The Body of Christ

[Nicene]

What is the body of Christ?

We have seen in another thread what evangelical protestants believe the body of Christ. So I thought it only appropriate to post the catholic view.

The first revelation we understand from Romans, that Adam was a type of Christ. A type is a person, place, event, thing or institution in the OT prefiguring a future reality in the NT.

Rom 5:14: Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

What occurred to Adam in the garden? In Gen 2 Adam is caused to fall asleep and Eve is taken from his side:

Gen 2:21: So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh;
22: and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23: Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

So Eve is not only of Adams body, but she is also his bride. This is a type and mystery (mysterion) of a NT reality which Paul expounds upon:

Eph 5:22: Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.
23: For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24: As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
25: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26: that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27: that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
28: Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29: For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church,
30: because we are members of his body.
31: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32: This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church;
33: however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

The church is the flesh and blood of Christ, one with Christs body, arms ears, legs, eyes and Christ as the head of the body. We are all actual body parts of Christ. As such we are brought up to his divinity.

2 Pet 1:4: by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.

Peter understands this reality from Jesus who prays for this unity with the trinity, again a reality, not a metaphor:

John 17:20: "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word,
21: that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

In Gen 2 we see Adam is caused to sleep and Eve is his body taken from his side. So too with Christ. In the NT Jesus calls death sleeping (the Lazarus resurrection). Jesus goes to sleep (dies) on the cross. His side is pierced and out of it comes blood and water. From his side the church, his body, is born. This is a mystery of the body and why it is not only the body but the bride, just as Eve was to Adam, the type of the new reality.

John 19:33: but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
34: But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

Notice that it is blood and water, not blood alone that comes from Jesus side and why Paul says:

Cont…

 

[Nicene]

1 Cor 12:12: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
13: For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14: For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
15: If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
16: And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
17: If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
18: But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
19: If all were a single organ, where would the body be?
20: As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
21: The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22: On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23: and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
24: which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part,
25: that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
26: If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
27: Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
28: And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues.
29: Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
30: Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
31: But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

and:

Rom 12:4: For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function,
5: so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Christ cannot sin, therefore sin is not in his body. If one sins he seperates himself from the body, or we must admit that Christ is a sinner through his body parts. This is acceptible in protestantism. This is not acceptible in catholicism. One who sins seperates himself from the body until such time as he repents of that sin. With sin that is not deadly, that is fairly easy to accomplish with a simple, and contrite prayer to God, a sacramental, communion and asking for general absolution in the Mass. We are all sinners and sin seperates us from the body to which we must be reconciled.

Deadly sin, not so, John says not to pray for that sin, therefore the general absolution does not apply. Confession is required to become one with the body of Christ again (Jn 20:23).

What seperates one from the body? Sin.
Can one be rejoined to the body? Yes.
The ministry of reconcilliation (2 Cor 5:19-20, Mt 16:19, Jn 20:22-23) In protestant circles sin does not seperate you from the body, ergo making Christ a sinner. Yet the body that will be in heaven is the unblemished and pure body, the bride.

Not only is the following hyperbole, but it gives us an understanding of Christ’s body, the church.

Mt 5:29: If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
30: And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Paul does this when he excommunicates in Corinthians, Galatains, and Timothy.

In some protestant circles these verses do not exist, the church, the body of Christ isn’t really the body of Christ but a metaphor, and as such sin can immediately enter into the body and is forgiven, no need to repent, no absolution. Which means Jesus is a sinner by virtue of his body, which is the church.

Col 1:24: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

cont…

 

[Nicene]

It is impossible for evangelicals to repent because sin is accepted as part of the body (Ted Haggard for example) of Christ, because it is only a metaphor. Yet Paul in Corinthians excommuniates someone from the body of Christ due to mortal sin, he also does again later as we learn in Timothy, that their flesh may die but their spirit save them. In other words until they repent, leaving the flesh behind again. Again this is not something that can happen in evangelicalism because they believe in perpetually bleeding Christ. In their church Paul is absolutely wrong, as is John. Paul and John are preaching and practicing a different gospel.

How do evangelicals reconcile this esoteric body of Christ with the real body of Christ in the gospel? It can’t be done, therefore it is a different gospel. “If you do sin you have an advocate with the father”

How does one have an advocate if one does not utilize that advocate and ask for that intercession? (repentance) What does Jesus say to the adulteress; “Go, and sin no more.”

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unrepentant sin:

31: Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

Yet this is exactly what is taught “It is covered by the blood of Christ.”

So the body of Christ is a mystery to which we are a part, a reality, As Eve came from the side of Adam, his body and bride, so too the church, his body and bride, came from the side of Christ, into which we are born again by being born into his death through baptism. This is the reality of the body which exists with the trinity as one and why each is a temple of God the Father, with Christ as the head, and the Holy Spirit guiding the church, the mystery of the body and bride in reality. There are many other passages which illuminate this mystery further, but for brevity (if this can be called brevity) the above is sufficient.

Whole other areas eminate from this basic understanding of the mystery; closed communion, communion of saints, grace flowing through the body, justification, the motherhood of Mary and much more. Christ and his body are one, and why he can say as he does in Mt 25:31-46.

Peace and God Bless
Nicene

 

[Nicene]

Before getting into a debate over catholic priests vs. Ted Haggard it isn’t a shot at Ted or those congregations who need our prayers, but to illustrate a point. Both are guilty and fall outside of the body without repentance.

Peace and God Bless
Nicened

 

[Taliesin]

Very interesting metaphor. And Paul certainly did kick at least one person out of the congregation. But certainly I’m not out of the body if I have a greedy thought (e.g.). Then you have the absurdity of me being in the body and out of it 1440 times a day.

I don’t get your point about Protestants. Surely you don’t think we believe we’re not really Christ’s body, do you? At least I do.