Emphasis on corporate body or individuals?

**Herald** · #1 (**permalink**) 08-27-2009, 03:40 PM

Post-modernism accenuates the needs/desires of the individual over the group. Scripture goes into great detail about the body of Christ and that we are all members of that body. Contrast that with regeneration which transforms the individual apart from, but enters him into, the body. I am beginning a study on the dynamic of the church as a corporate body made up of individual components. I am interested in a dialog on how the two mesh. What is the historical Reformed view of this tension? Do the two exist in opposition, or are they in harmony?

Pergamum · #2 (**permalink**) 08-27-2009, 03:47 PM

Woohooo, thanks for this post. I am studying the same thing! Tell me all that you find!

rbcbob · #3 (**permalink**) 08-27-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herald

Post-modernism accenuates the needs/desires of the individual over the group. Scripture goes into great detail about the body of Christ and that we are all members of that body. Contrast that with regeneration which transforms the individual apart from, but enters him into, the body. I am beginning a study on the dynamic of the church as a corporate body made up of individual components. I am interested in a dialog on how the two mesh. What is the historical Reformed view of this tension? Do the two exist in opposition, or are they in harmony?

Good place to start:

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free -- and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.

**Herald** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-27-2009, 04:40 PM

Bob, great passages. Could you expound on how they may impact the gist of the OP?

rbcbob · #5 (**permalink**) 08-27-2009, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Herald

Bob, great passages. Could you expound on how they may impact the gist of the OP?

Thomas Scott’s Notes on the Bible 1 Corinthians 12:12ff
Scott succeeded John Newton at Olney.

Quote:

“The apostle next illustrated the wisdom and goodness of the Holy Spirit, in his distribution of these gifts, by the similitude of the human body. This, though formed of many members, constituted one harmonious whole: while every member had its proper use and capacity, for the common benefit. Thus Christ mystical, or his church as united to him its glorious Head, was one great whole, consisting of many parts. For all true Christians had been baptized into Christ’s mystical body, by the communication of his life-giving Spirit, whether they were before Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free-men; and by deriving continual supplies of that same Spirit, in an answer to their earnest desires and believing prayers, they were made “to drink into one Spirit,” and became more and more of “that mind which was in Christ”…. Therefore as the body is one, and has one common interest, though it consists of many members; so Christians should be considered, as incorporated by faith in Christ, and “the supply of his Spirit.” Whereas if they had all possessed the same gifts, they would have resembled a detached member, or several of the same kind, rather than a regularly organized body.

Scott’s Practical Observations on the Passage:

Quote:

“We ought most earnestly to enquire, as our grand concern, whether we have been “baptized into the body of Christ” by his regenerating grace …
If this be our privilege, we should be abundantly thankful for so valuable a distinction, and contentedly occupy the place, which it hath pleased God to assign us in his church: we should attentively consider the relation, in which we stand to the Head, and to every member of this mystical body; seek to have our hearts filled with love to the whole, and to every part, of the church of Christ; estimate soberly the functions of our station, and pray in faith and hope for wisdom and grace, that we may be enabled to perform them.”

More later, D.V.