Particular aspects of the nature, reign, inheritance, heavenly glory, and infinite blessing of Christ’s beloved Body & Bride (comprised exclusively of all believers saved from Pentecost to Pre-Trib Rapture) in and with her Head, Life & Bridegroom:

Section 1: The Union and Organic Oneness of Believers with the Risen & Ascended Christ; the Nature of the Church as the Heavenly Body and Bride of Christ.

Part 1

(1) “In that day [of Pentecost, after His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, glorification, and descent of the Holy Spirit] ye shall know that I [am] in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)

(2) “And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given me, that they may be one as We.” (John 17:11)

(3) “And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on Me through their word; that they may be all one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them, that they may be one, as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one [at the Rapture] and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me. Father, as to those whom Thou hast given Me, I desire that where I am they also may be with Me [consequent upon the Rapture], that they may behold My glory [not “outer darkness”!] which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20-24)

“Identification. We are one with Him, and all His saints are one. The Church is His body, an organism and not an organization. He did not pray for a unity in organization, but for a spiritual unity, which exists. ‘That they also may be one in Us’ is not an unanswered petition. The Spirit Who has come unites believers to Him and baptizes them into one body. ‘I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me’ – this looks on towards the blessed consummation, when the saints will appear with Christ in glory; then the world will know…. Glorification. ‘And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them, that they may be one as We are one’ – ‘Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world.’ This is His unanswered prayer. Some day it will be answered and all His saints will be with Him and share His glory. And oh! the wealth of grace and truth in His wonderful words we must pass by! May His own Spirit lead us deeper and fill our hearts with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” – Arno C. Gaebelein (Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 855,856)

“And what adequately could account for men thus called out of the earth and glorified on high? Sovereign grace had given them that heavenly portion as the fruit of His mission Who at all cost to Himself had glorified God on the earth. And now [at the establishment of His kingdom on earth] they share His glory above, and are so displayed before the wondering world. The salvation-bearing grace, which had appeared to all and had done its suited and appointed work in redeeming and purifying these to God as a people of possession, will then have given place to the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; but this through the church reigning over the earth, at any rate as the ordinary or normal method of its manifestation during the kingdom. As we by faith saw the Father in the Son to eternal life, they in that day will behold and learn them in the church, the glorious vessel of the light of Christ in Whom God’s glory shines…. It is thenceforward the glory of God that is established before all eyes, so that men ‘know’ it in and by the glorified saints, instead of being objects of testimony that they might ‘believe.’ “ – William Kelly (An Exposition of the Gospel of John, p. 368,369)

“It is clear that the glory [referred to in John 17:22] is not actually ours till He comes again, and that there can be no perfecting for us into one [17:23] till then. But it is now for the world to ‘believe,’ as in v. 21. When the glory is revealed, and not before, the world shall ‘know’; because it is a fact before their eyes and impossible to deny; and such is the distinction of vs. 22, 23 from what had been already presented by our Lord. The oneness ‘perfected’ will be in the day of glory (as the oneness in v. 21 is during the day of grace in order to act on faith now), and will only be matter of fact when the Lord appears and we with Him in the same glory (Col. 3:4; 2 Thess. 1:13).” – William Kelly (W. Kelly’s Writings on Prophecy, p. 176, “The Prize of Our High Calling” by J. Sladen: A Review by W. Kelly)

(4) “There is no Jew nor Greek; there is no bondman nor freeman; there is no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)

(5) “For He is our peace, Who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of enclosure, having annulled the enmity in his flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances, that He might form the two in Himself into one new man, making peace; and might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity.” (Eph. 2:14-16)

(6) “And He is before all, and all things subsist together by Him. And He is the head of the body, the assembly; Who is the beginning [of an entirely new creation, a new order of existence as] firstborn from among the dead, that He might have the first place in all things.” (Col. 1:17,18)

(7) “Thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other.” (Rom. 12:5)

(8) “For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12) [“So also is the Christ” expresses the absolute identity and oneness of the Lord Jesus and the members of His Body. We might have expected it to read, “so also is the Body of Christ;” but the inspired Word says, “so also is the Christ”! Cp. Gen. 5:2, where Adam and his wife Eve are jointly called “Adam”.]

(9) “There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in us all.” (Eph. 4:4-6)

Where is there thus any room for the incredible assertion that “the Body of Christ [is to be] divided [!] into those who rule and those who do not rule with Christ,” seeing that there is only one Body (the unity of which is compared by our Saviour to the oneness of the Godhead!), with only one future destiny (hope)? Does not such a notion entail the recognition of the equal and obvious absurdity that the glorified Body in the perfect, eternal state (via the Pre-Trib Rapture) will thus be rent, dismembered, have its organic oneness completely destroyed, by virtue of some its members being located in vastly different places (Wedding Banquet vs. Outer Darkness), and engaged in vastly different activities (feasting, rejoicing, reigning with Christ, beholding and basking in His glory, vs. weeping and gnashing of teeth, suffering, not reigning with their Beloved, not beholding His glory)? If my own physical body were divided or dismembered in a similar fashion, could it any longer be considered one organic entity?

Christ’s glorified Body & Bride – the heavenly Eve of the 2nd Man, the Man out of heaven, the Last Adam – can no more be mutilated and divided up into separate members who co-reign with their heavenly Husband and other members who do not, while at the same time still being reckoned as one glorified Body & Bride, any more than could Adam’s bride – the earthly Eve of the 1st man, the man out of earth. Would there still have been one earthly Eve fit to co-rule with her husband, the 1st man Adam, had she been dismembered?

“This body is one with Him in life, in position and in glory. This body is the new creation, completely identified with Him, who is the Head, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all (Eph. 1:23)” – Arno C. Gaebelein (Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 1026)

“Here [in Rom. 12:4,5] is Paul’s first mention of this great doctrine of the Body of Christ, a doctrine which he alone, among the apostles, sets forth, he being the one chosen ‘minister of the Church’ (Col. 1.24,25), – as to its real, heavenly, corporate character. [As with the human body] Even so with us in Christ: (1) We are many [members], but (2) we are one Body in Christ. ‘Body’ is not here an illustration, but an actuality. ‘He that loveth his own wife, loveth himself, … even as Christ also the Church; because we are members of His Body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard to Christ and of the Church’ (Eph. 5.28-32): ‘The Church which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all’ (Eph. 1.22,23). This union is so absolute that Paul writes: ‘As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; SO ALSO IS CHRIST’ (I Cor. 12.12).… the One Body of Christ [is that] of which Christ Risen in glory is the Head and they, the living, Spirit-indwelt members, are the fulness…. (3) We are individually ‘members one of another.’ Compare I Corinthians 12.27… Being members of the Body of Christ, we necessarily are members of one another; as my right hand, being a member of my body, is a member of my left hand. Mark that Paul makes this ‘membership one of another,’ an additional (though necessary) truth to the fact of the one Body in Christ…. We are members of the heavenly Head, Christ, and therefore members one of another by an operation of the Spirit of God, not by action of man…. For the great fact that we are one, actually members of other believers, is made by the Spirit of God the basis of our love toward one another! As Paul says in Ephesians 4.25: ‘Putting away falsehood, talk truth each one with his neighbor; for we are members one of another.’ Your right hand has never yet had a fight with the left: on the contrary, each constantly helps the other! And, as to suffering, ‘Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.’ “ – William R. Newell (Romans Verse by Verse, p. 459-461)

(10) “And if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one member be glorified, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Cor. 14:26)

Is not the indivisibility, unity, and universality of experience of the one Body & Bride of Christ implicit in this divine principle? If my own physical body were divided, would not all of the members of the dismembered body be suffering?

“…the effect is real throughout the church. It is a body – the body of Christ – and as a whole it feels in joy or sorrow: else it were not a real organic unity.” – William Kelly (Notes on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 214)

Is it possible that, upon entering into the glorified, perfect, eternal state, the one glorified Body & Bride of the Lord Jesus will still be in a condition of being reckoned as “suffering” – since, supposedly, many unpersevering members of His Body will be “cast into outer darkness,” “weeping and gnashing their teeth”? Or, is it possible that, upon entering into the glorified, perfect, eternal state, the one glorified Body & Bride of the Lord Jesus will be reckoned as “rejoicing” while some of its members are “cast into outer darkness,” “weeping and gnashing their teeth”?

(11) “And [God the Father] has put all things under His [the risen, ascended, and glorified Christ’s] feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.” (Eph. 1:22,23)

(12) “Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to those knowing law,) that law rules over a man as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive; but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband: so then, the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, though she be [joined] to another man. So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be [joined] to Another [of a different kind], Who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” (Romans 7:1-4)

(13) “For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy of God; for I have betrothed you unto one Husband to present a chaste virgin to Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:2)

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