It may be well for the members of the class to memorize the following sentences as a concise summary of the lessons studied:
Christ died that the sin-question of the human race might be settled in such a manner that God could consistently bestow sonship upon any one who should choose to receive the same.
He was buried that the termination of the old Adamic life might be plainly perceived.
He arose that the human race might have a new Federal Head (the Last Adam).
He ascended that His dominion might be manifested throughout the universe.
Having considered those conditions which made Redemption necessary, the execution of God’s Plan of Redemption at Calvary, and the crises and results of appropriation, we now approach a subject, which if not as vital as those previously considered, is nevertheless of great importance to the earnest Christian. This is the Unity of believers, i.e., those who have appropriated the Life of God in Christ Jesus.
Biologically, the unity of beings upon a given plane of life is clearly seen; e.g., there are characteristic elemental qualities pertaining to animal life that are not found upon the plane of vegetable life. These qualities, inhering in all animals, serve to unify the entire animal creation, notwithstanding the great variety in family and the marked differences in the manifestation of this life.
Also upon the plane of human life, an inherent essential unity is seen. The Apostle Paul gave expression to this biological truth when he declared to the Athenians that God had “made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).
If this essential unity is true of life in each of the lower planes, should we not naturally expect to find the same inherent principle on the highest plane-that of regenerated human life? That this unity exists, God’s Word plainly declares; for we read in Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye have been called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” It was the manifestation of this unity for which Christ prayed in that marvelous prayer recorded in John 17, “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one-and the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, as we are one.”
This passage in Ephesians proves that all believers of every age and dispensation share the Life of God in Christ Jesus; i.e., they have Eternal or Uncreated Life, and this Life is the basis of their unity.
They are also saved in precisely the same manner-“By grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8); and they are all to be glorified (see Rom. 8:30): “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.” This unity, however, does not mean uniformity; for even as differences are observed in the manifestation of life on lower planes, so life upon this plane, even when conformed to Type, will not produce uniformity. Even as “one star differeth from another star in glory,” so will the redeemed saints differ one from another in their glorified life.
Therefore, bearing in mind the difference between unity and uniformity, let us proceed to study another passage that preciously sets forth the oneness of believers.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12 we read, “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.” Notice that this expression-“the Christ”-does not refer to Christ in His personality, but to Christ as completed by His members-the Composite Christ. Here we have an organic unity, of which Christ, in His personality, is the head (see Eph. 4:15), and all those who are joined to Him in Spirit and share His Life are members. Following the analogy of the human body, which is an organic unity because of the life-blood flowing through each and every member, we reason that every human being sharing Eternal Life must be a member of this Organic Unity-the Christ.
Whatever may be the dispensational teaching in reference to the Body of Christ, organically this Body must include every regenerated human being.
The same blood that is in the head of the human body-the physical, mortal body, flows through each member of the body even to the extremities. Therefore, most absurd would it be to say that a bit of flesh, through which the life-blood is flowing, is not a part of the body; for the members are unified by a common life-blood. Even so, the Life of God in Christ Jesus, unifies all members of the mystical Body of Christ. Therefore a human being, sharing His Life, must be a member of this Body of which He is the exalted Head, no matter in which dispensation he may have chosen to receive that Life.
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