Romans 12.5-The Christian Community Is A Corporate Unit In Union With Christ And Thus Members Individually Belonging To One Another
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 7, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:5-The Christian Community Is A Corporate Unit In Union With Christ And Thus Members Individually Belonging To One Another
Lesson # 405
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:1.
This evening we will complete our study of Romans 12:4-5, which teaches that the reason why it is essential that the believer maintain a humble attitude toward self is that like the human body has many members with differing functions so the Christian community is one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
Last evening we noted Romans 12:4, which compares the Christian community to the human body to emphasize the importance of humility.
This evening we will study Romans 12:5 and in this passage Paul compares the Christian community throughout the world with the human body.
He teaches that the Christian community is a corporate unit in union with Christ and thus members individually belonging to one another.
Romans 12:1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”
Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
“We, who are many” refers to Paul and his fellow Christians throughout the world who have been declared justified through faith alone in Christ alone and emphasizes the diversity of individuals and gifts in the Christian community.
The implication is that each believer maintains his or her own individuality and personality, thus excluding uniformity.
“One body” emphasizes the Christian community throughout the earth as a corporate unit regardless of denomination, race, gender or social status.
It emphasizes the unity that there is among all believers regardless of denomination, race, gender or social status because all have been declared justified based upon the merits of the object of their faith, Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, through the baptism of the Spirit all have been placed in union with Christ the moment they exercised faith in Christ and have been identified with Christ in His crucifixion, His deaths (spiritual and physical), burial, resurrection and session.
They are united because all of them have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit the moment they trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior.
They are all children of God and sons of God through faith alone in Christ alone.
Galatians 3:26-28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
This expression “one body” emphasizes that there is unity though there is diversity with the implication of interdependency.
Therefore, no believer is self-sufficient.
Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
“In Christ” refers to the Christian’s union and identification with Christ.
This prepositional phrase denotes that the Christian community throughout the world is a corporate unit and a living organism because every believer without exception has been entered into “union with” Jesus Christ through the baptism of the Spirit the moment they were declared justified by the Father as a result of exercising faith in His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior.
This union is indivisible and eternal in the viewpoint of God as a result of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit identifying the justified sinner with Christ in His physical death.
In the Greek New Testament, there are at least eight different analogies that express the justified sinner’s union with Christ: (1) The last Adam and the New Creation (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 5:17a). (2) The Head and the Body (Col. 1:18a). (3) The Great Shepherd and the Sheep (Heb. 13:20). (4) The True Vine and the Branches (John 15:5a). (5) The Chief Cornerstone and the Stones in the building (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:5-6). (6) The Great High Priest and members of the Royal Priesthood (Heb. 4:14a; 1 Pet. 2:9a). (7) The Groom and the Bride. (Our wedding occurs at the Second Advent) (Rev. 19:7). (8) The King of Kings and the Royal Family of God (Rev. 19:14-16).
The prepositional phrase en Christo, “in union with Christ” means that the Christian is “identified with” with Christ.
This means that at the moment of salvation, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of Christ.
This prepositional phrase summarizes the doctrine of positional truth and the justified sinner’s union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical deaths and His resurrection, which underlies Paul’s teaching in Romans 6:1-10.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase denotes the believer’s intimate, eternally secure position because of his union and identification with Christ.
Your “position in Christ” refers to the fact that at the moment you believed in Christ, the omnipotence of the Spirit caused you to become identical and united with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session, and which ministry of the Spirit is called in Scripture, the “baptism” of the Spirit.
This means that when Christ was crucified, God crucified you with Him and when Christ died and was buried, God considers you to have died and been buried with Christ.
It also means that when Christ was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father (the session of Christ), God raised and seated you with Him.
Your “position in Christ” also refers to the fact that through the Spirit’s ministry of “regeneration,” the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ were ascribed to you by giving you the nature of Christ.
Galatians 3:27, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with the nature of Christ.”
Paul’s statement in Romans 12:5 that the entire Christian community throughout the earth is a corporate unit in union with Christ refers to the Christian’s justification as well since the believer was placed in union with Christ, the moment he was declared justified by the Father as a result of exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
So in Romans 12:5, the prepositional phrase en Christo, “in union with Christ” indicates that the entire Christian community throughout the earth is a corporate unit or a unity from the Father’s perspective because of their union with Christ.
This unity was brought about through the justification of the believer through faith in Christ and by regeneration as well as placing them in union with Christ and identifying them with Christ in His crucifixion, deaths (spiritual and physical), burial, resurrection and session through the baptism of the Spirit.
Romans 12:4-5, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
“And individually members one of another” presents the logical consequence of every believer being a member of a corporate unit because they were all placed in union with Christ.
This statement denotes the individuality of each member of the Christian community but who belongs to the rest of the Christian community with whom he shares a common bond with, namely they are justified through faith in Christ and placed in union with Him as well.
It teaches that each individual member of the Christian community are united with each other because they mutually share a common relationship to Jesus Christ because they are in union with Christ and identified with Him in His crucifixion, deaths (spiritual and physical), burial, resurrection and session.
It also denotes that they are responsible for each other.
So Romans 12:4-5 teach that whether believers like it or not they are related to other believers regardless of denomination, race, gender or social status.
Repeatedly the New Testament commands us to love and care for one another as fellow members of the body of Christ.
This “one another” care is to be the result of our fellowship with other believers.
John 13:34, “A new commandment in example I give to all of you, that all of you divinely love one another, even as I have divinely loved all of you, that all of you also divinely love one another.”
Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”