The Body of Christ

John R. Gavazzoni brings a necessary clarification to the reality of Christ being in us and living His life through us:

"I think it behooves us to be as clear as possible regarding the identity of Christ. The eternal Son of God first appeared as Jesus, the Christ, the historical Jesus of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior. Undergoing death and resurrection, that one divine seed went into ground in death to come forth in resurrection life in many.

"We ought to make it clear that Christ in me, or Christ in you, individually, does not constitute Christ AS you or me individually. The 'you' that Christ is in so as to constitute that 'you' AS Himself, is Christ AS a corporate 'you,' a corporate New Man. Jesus Christ has returned in the Spirit (as the life-giving Spirit) to be Himself in many, not merely as individuals, or little Christs, but as our life as members of the body of Christ.

"It is so very interesting that the form of the Greek word which we translate in English simply as 'you' has both a singular and plural form, and that Paul is very precise in the way he uses those two forms of the word. In Pauline theology, it is clear that the 'you' that Christ has come to indwell in all His fulness, and which is His very Person in the earth, is a plural 'you.' That's why Paul writes of 'the church which is His body, THE FULNESS of Him that filleth all in all.'

"This in no way takes away from the reality of Christ in each of us individually as believers, but we must be reminded that none of us individually is Christ, whereas, as members of His body, we, joined TOGETHER, are the incorporation of Himself, His very body. . . . The Spirit has been speaking expressly that we ought not to expect to see the 'greater works' of which Jesus spoke to come forth from individual spiritual giants, but from a body of believers joined together in spirit, in the bond of peace, edified in love, powerfully operating by His full authority in heaven and earth.

"The life of Christ is truly in us individually, but in the same way that the life of our bodies is in each of our bodily members. It is a life-flow to be understood first as the life of our whole body from which each member receives life and is enabled to be part of the operation of the whole body."