Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"Now are you the body of Christ" 1Cor. 12:27
Just as there is a difference between the blood of Jesus and the blood of Christ, there is also a difference between the body of Jesus and the body of Christ. The body of Jesus is the natural, human body that the Son of God used while living on earth. The body of Christ is the family of God on earth, the congregation of born again people.
By His Spirit, God dwelled in the natural body of Jesus, and Jesus dwelt in God. Jesus asked his disciples, "Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?" (Jn. 14:10). Likewise, by the Spirit, God dwells within the body of Christ, and the body of Christ dwells in God. When the Son of God foretold to his disciples of the day when they, too, would receive the Spirit of God into their bodies, he added, "In that day, you shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you " (Jn. 14:20).
This is why Paul wrote, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Without the holy Spirit dwelling in our natural bodies, God is not in us, and we are not in Him. But with the Spirit in us, we are made the temple of God, just as Jesus was when he lived here on earth. He told some of the elders of Israel, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Out temples, too will be raised from the dead if we are faithful and good in God's sight, as was Jesus.
The body of Jesus was kept alive by natural blood; the body of Christ is kept alive by spiritual blood, the holy Spirit of God. Not but one person ever lived in the body of Jesus, but millions are in the body of Christ. The body of Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan River by a prophet named John. The body of Christ is those people who have been baptized with "the holy Ghost and fire", as Paul said, "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1Cor. 12:13).
If you have been born one time, you live in a natural body. If you have been born a second time by the baptism of the Spirit, you live in the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:13). Your natural body will die and decay, but the body of Christ will never die and decay. A wise man will consider this, and he will choose to put his whole heart into life within that eternal body and will not allow the impulses of his natural body to control him.
The Son of God presented his crucified earthly body to the Father in heaven as an offering for sin; at the end of this age, he will present "the body of Christ" to the Father as his chosen Bride. Let's strive to be counted worthy to be in that blessed congregation, and we can be, for Jude told us that Jesus is fully capable of keeping us from falling into sin and of presenting us to the Father "faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy" (Jude 24).