 |  |
RECONCILIATION AND FAILURE OF THE LAW 99
The verses that follow give nine diverse manifestations of these gifts. The word of wisdom, knowledge, faith,
healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. Verse 11 brings us back to our
starting point:
`But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will'.
Verse 12 opens the section which introduces the illustration of the body. Not only is the word `for' there, which
links the subject of the gifts to the illustration of the body, but the word kathaper, `just as', which is a fitting
introduction to an illustration, `For just as the body is one'. What body? Many say and teach `the church'. If this
passage does speak of `the church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all', how were the
Corinthians to know this? The `for just as' supposes some acquaintance with the subject, and as the apostle had
deliberately held back some phases of truth as being too advanced for them, how then did they know this climax of
all revelation? Again, at the end of the verse we have the words, `So also is the Christ'. If these words mean `the
church', what kind of argument have we here if the body means the church also? We have only to substitute the
word `church' in place of `body' and of `Christ' to see how absurd the idea is:
`For as the church is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that church, being many, are one
church, so also is the church!'
Not very illuminating certainly. If the body here be the human body, with all its different members working
harmoniously, and all directed and regulated by one control, then all is clear. `The Christ' is the title of the church
which had been `anointed'. The very epistle which gives us the parallel regarding the trying of the spirits, also gives
us the fact that the church was anointed. `Ye have an unction (anointing)' (1 John 2:20).
Further, referring to the confirming nature of the gifts to the church, the apostle wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:21 :
`Now He that confirmeth us with you in the anointed, and hath anointed us, is God' (Christon kai chrisas)
(Author's translation).
The close association of the baptism in the spirit and the anointing is seen in Luke 4:18 :
`The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me ...'.
Therefore the apostle immediately follows his reference to the anointing in 1 Corinthians 12:13 by the baptism of
the Spirit:
`For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or
free; and have been all made to drink one spirit' (12:13 Author's translation).
To be baptized into a special company was no new truth. 1 Corinthians 10 itself takes us back to the Red Sea for
this. There the redeemed from Egypt were baptized into Moses, and drank the spiritual drink. Here the Corinthians
are the spiritual counterpart. Christ is their passover (1 Cor. 5:7), yet carnality, idolatry and uncleanness
characterized them. Though all were baptized into Moses, all were not approved so far as entry into the land of
promise was concerned, and the same held good of the Corinthians as we have seen. The church of the one body of
Ephesians was the subject of a mystery hidden since the ages, and revealed after Israel was set aside. The church of
which the Corinthians formed a part was not the subject of such a mystery. If 1 Corinthians 12:13 proves that the
Corinthians were members of `the church which is His body', it also proves that the redeemed nation of Israel were
too, and therefore refutes itself. We are therefore here dealing with the one theme, that of spiritual gifts.
A
The Body. One, yet many members.
B
The anointed
The Spiritual Gifts.
B
The baptism
A
The Body. Not one, but many members; foot, hand, eye.
Echoing verse 11 we read in verse 18:
`But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him'.