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BODY
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`Take, eat: this is My body'. `As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till
He come' (1 Cor. 11:24,26).
These passages cannot be separated from the reference in 1 Corinthians 12:13.
`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'.
The basis of the argument of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 10 to 12 is the baptism of all Israel unto Moses, and
their consequent share in the `spiritual' meat and drink that followed. When he comes to expand and apply this in
1 Corinthians 12, he opens the subject by saying: `Now concerning spiritual gifts' showing that he is now about to
develop the typical significance of the `spiritual' meat and drink which `all Israel' enjoyed. Consequently he calls
upon all to recognize that while there are most certainly diversities of gifts, or differences of administrations or
diversities of operations, these all come from the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God. In short the `body'
of 1 Corinthians 12 cannot be separated from the typical history of Israel, nor from the possession and use of
spiritual gifts. To make it evident that spiritual gifts are the feature of this chapter, let us note the following facts:
1.
In the opening verse the apostle introduces the subject with the words `Now concerning spiritual gifts'.
2.
In verses 2 and 3 he differentiates between those spiritual gifts which are from God, and those that belong to
the evil one.
3.
Having subdivided his subject, he now deals specifically with those gifts which are of God.
4.
In verses 5-11 he sets out in much detail the diverse nature of these spiritual gifts, enumerating among others
`healing', `miracles', `prophecy', `tongues' and `interpretation'. But, however diverse these gifts may be he
takes us back to their one and only source, `But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to
every man severally as He will' (1 Cor. 12:11).
5.
Extending this idea, the apostle immediately introduces the figure of the body:
`For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are
one body, so also is the Christ' (1 Cor. 12:12).
6.
This is followed by a reference that links this theme with the baptism of Israel unto Moses and the Red Sea:
`For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body . . . and have all been made to drink one spirit' (1 Cor.
12:13).
7.
From this develops the remainder of the argument, which speaks of the human body, with its eye, its hand, its
foot, and even its `uncomely parts', which proves that `the Church which is His body' is not in view, for
there are no `uncomely parts' there, and of that body Christ alone is the head, whereas, here we have as many
references to the various functions of the head (eye, ear, nose) as of the rest.
8.
To demonstrate that these `members' of the body refer to the distribution and functioning of `spiritual gifts'
observe the following feature:
`But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him' (1 Cor.
12:18).
`And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues' (1 Cor. 12:28).
Here then is the employment of the figure of the `body' definitely related to the type of Israel's baptism unto
Moses, definitely related to the possession and the exercise of spiritual gifts, definitely related to the promise made
to Abraham, but entirely unrelated to a church, whose members were chosen before the foundation of the world, a
church where `spiritual gifts' are unknown, a church whose very existence was a mystery unrevealed when
1 Corinthians was written. The student who observes the frontiers set up by Dispensational Truth will never appeal
to 1 Corinthians 10 to 12 as a passage which speaks of the Church of the one body of Ephesians. We turn now to
the epistles of Paul, written after Acts 28:28 written to make known the truth of the Mystery, in order that we may
obtain information concerning the Church which is called the Body of Christ.
First let us see the distribution of the word `Body' in Ephesians.