Saturday, November 5, 2022

The Body of Christ, the Whole of Humanity

Now the body of Christ,
as I often have said,
is the whole of humanity.
St. Gregory of Nyssa

It is a truth of the Incarnation, in which Christ has united himself with all of humanity, that the body of Christ is the whole of humanity. For there is only one humanity in which we all share, and Jesus shares in it with us. That one humanity is thus united with God. It violates no logic. It is no redefinition except inasmuch as the coming of Christ into the world changes everything. This truth was well defined in the early Church, as Gregory of Nyssa (AD 335-395) demonstrates. He was no theological hack, and orthodox Christian understanding today owes much to him.

We find the Incarnation in John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14). This and many other passages shows the intimate connection between Christ and all humankind. He did not become human in a different humanity but in the only one there is. We are all and united in it, and Christ shares in it with us.

So thoroughly united is all humankind with Christ, Paul can say that, just as Adam’s disobedience resulted in condemnation for all humankind, so also Christ’s righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people (Romans 5:18). And that, just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Because all humankind is united with and in Christ, and Christ is united with and in all humankind, there can be no situation where only some are the body of Christ while others are not. For Christ would have to be disunited with that part of humanity which is not his body, and that would be the undoing of the Incarnation. And the undoing of the Incarnation would be the undoing of salvation not just for some but for everyone.

This Incarnational union and embodiment does not at all do away with divine judgment but is precisely the means of that judgment — and it happens through the Cross and Resurrection. This is how God sets everything right in the world, making all things new.

Inasmuch as in Christ all will be made alive in the end, then all humankind, eschatologically understood, is the body of Christ. And inasmuch as humankind is inextricably bound with creation, and Christ is inextricably bound with humankind, so Christ is inextricably bound with creation. All creation is in him, as Paul tells us in Colossians 1, and Christ is in all creation — Christ is all and in all. Just as all of humankind, eschatologically understood, is the body of Christ, so also, all of creation, eschatologically understood, is the body of Christ.

There is no place in creation where Christ is not present. Not one part, not one cell, not one atom. But Christ is in all of creation, every bit of it. This means that Christ is embodied throughout all creation, so thoroughly united with all creation that all in heaven and on earth are brought to unity in Christ, headed up in Christ. 

God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10).

11 comments:

  1. So happy to see this, Jeff. I pray that God puts on the minds and hearts of all Christians to do what they can to minister healing to the Body of Christ.

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  2. This is revolutionary indeed

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  3. Anonymous7:35 AM

    Wow love this stuff .spent my whole life evangelizing “the lost” and planting churches to expand the body of Christ and it was all based on a convenient lie. This makes sense but it is a dangerous teaching and in sure the church would want to squash it.

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  4. Anonymous12:51 PM

    I am finding this too hard to understand. I have gone back to having a simple faith.

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  5. Anonymous10:35 AM

    Where is this quote from? Has it been verified in the works of Gregory of Nyssa?

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    1. Anonymous2:24 PM

      It is In Illud: Tunc et Ipse Filius, Gregory's Treatise on 1 Corinthians 15:28.

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  6. Jennifer Keres5:40 PM

    Thank you. I absolutely agree with you ,and it's a delight to find your site and see what you are doing/sharing. Beautiful.

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  7. Anonymous12:19 PM

    Thank you so much for having the courage to share the truth. Some will not accept it because division and separation are at the heart of religion. It’s hard to build a church on inclusivity and all encompassing love!

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  8. Anonymous6:53 PM

    That's so powerful and reassuring! Thank you for sharing this!

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  9. Anonymous4:14 PM

    I often wondered if this were true, that the Body of Christ is not just believers, but all of humanity. Great to see I'm not alone!

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    1. I often wondered if this were true, that the Body of Christ is not just believers, but all of humanity. Great to see I'm not alone!

      It is absolute truth, and Jesus achieved this immediately on His death. Well asserted in:
      Ephesians 2:1 And you, when you were dead in your offences, and sins, 2Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief: 3In which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest: 4But God, (who is rich in mercy,) for his exceeding charity wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins,
      hath quickened us together in Christ,

      (by whose grace you are saved,) 6And hath raised us up together,

      and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus.

      7That he might shew in the ages to come the abundant riches of his grace, in his bounty towards us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; 9Not of works, that no man may glory. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.
      11For which cause be mindful that you, being heretofore Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands; 12That you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testament, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world.

      13But now in Christ Jesus, you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

      14For he is our peace, who hath made both one,

      and breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in his flesh: 15Making void the law of commandments contained in decrees;

      that he might make the two in himself into one new man, making peace;

      16And might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, killing the enmities in himself. 17And coming, he preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh. 18For by him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father.

      19Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God, 20Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: 21In whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord. 22In whom you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.

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