Jerusalem – Since that first day of the week following the crucifixion of Jesus, many people have sought to explain the missing body of the rabbi from Nazareth. The followers of Jesus claim to have seen him risen and that he appeared to them many times during the forty days following his resurrection. They say that he then was taken away from them into Heaven. One of their number, a man named Stephen, as he was being stoned for his faith, looked toward Heaven and claimed to be able to see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And yet the disciples of Jesus say his body lives on here in this world, for they see themselves as being the body of Christ. In fact one of their leaders, a man named Paul, has repeated this theme in many of his letters.
"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free -- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ... But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ... Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it." (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 24-25, 27)
"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin -- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (Romans 6:3-7)
"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body." (2 Corinthians 4:10-11)
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
For more good news read Ephesians 5:25-32
The Christian must Become Christ from Look at the Man by Tim Woodroof and Glen Gray
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Copyright © 1997 by Gerry Sturgeon
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.