1 Corinthians 12:12

'For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.'

Paul here likens Christ and His people to a body with its many different parts, and he describes them not as 'the church' but as 'Christ'. This revelation of Paul's inspired thinking must be carefully noted. It is not that Christ is in Heaven and we are on the earth, it is that we are with Him in 'heavenly places' (John 14:18; John 14:23; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:1), and He is present on earth with us and in us, manifesting Himself through us, so close is the union. It is not satisfactory to simply see these as metaphors, although they are partial metaphor. His nearness and indwelling in His people is a genuine reality. It is a oneness that goes beyond metaphor, although we must, while enjoying it, not build great theories on it. And the spiritual realm, the unseen realm, is a reality. In the end the body is the glorified Christ.

This verse should be writ large in all our hearts for it reveals Paul's central emphasis and will save much false interpretation. It is in close union with Christ's body sacrificed in death and its consequence that we are one body (Ephesians 2:15; Colossians 1:22), for it is through unity with Him that we are one (1 Corinthians 10:16). The body is primarily Christ, not the church. So it is in union with Him that we are the body, and the closer we sense our union with Him to be, the more will we see ourselves as one with His people in 'the body'. In all that follows we must remember that he is not speaking of the church as the body, but of Christ as the body with Whom they have been made one and through Whom the church lives. It is not a physical body at all, but a spiritual body, although partly and dimly manifested through physical bodies.