In Christ

I remember long debates in theological college about whether humankind [except that we used to say "mankind" in those days of old] was tripartite or bipartite; that is, whether our essential nature is composed of body, spirit and soul (tripartite) or whether of body and soul/spirit (bipartite) - with soul and spirit being synonymous terms.  My mind went back to those luxurious days of armchair theology when I read this little gem from C S Lewis:

When Soul and body feed, one sees
Their differing physiologies.
Firmness of apple, fluted shape
of celery, or tight-skinned grape
I grind and mangle when I eat,
Then in dark, salt, internal heart
Annihilate their natures by
The very act that makes them I.

I'm tempted to let Lewis' glorious verse sit by itself lest I tarnish it by making comment, but, as I ponder the truth that the nature of all food is annihilated in the acting of eating, as it becomes part of the one who has eaten it, what does this say about the words of Jesus, "Take, eat, this is my Body" and "Take, drink, this is my Blood"?

More than that, what does it say about the great and marvelous Christian doctrine about being "in Christ"?  The little phrase "in Christ", so often used by the Apostle Paul, contains within it the wonder of a salvation that is free and full and complete.  When our life is hid "in Christ" we are covered over, protected, bought by the precious blood of Jesus.  Through faith in Him, the resurrected Christ takes us to Himself and we are found to be "in Christ" along with the counterpart "Christ in you the hope of  glory".  Now that is Good News; by the grace of God, He has called me to Himself and it is no longer I alone, but Christ in me and me in Christ.  Hallelujah, What a Saviour!!

The idea of incorporation is both profound and fundamental, simple and complex.  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.  Now we are in Christ and He is in us.  This is not just a future gift but a present reality, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation", and has the most dynamic implications for what it means to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  That's the subject of my preaching for the next two weeks; I'm looking forward to helping us explore together what it means to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Comments

[beth]

Whether you are philosphically bi-partite or tri-partite, I cannot say, but I do wish you shalom,David - wholeness. The Holy Spirit is a unifier - not only of different people within one body, but of who we are within ourselves. God is a great reconciler and integrater. Not a masher, but a weaver. Splitting apart/disintegrating is not a sign of health - dissociative identity is a disorder. When PAul speaks of two natures at war within him (in Romans 7), he's not recommending the process. Something is wrong. Our existence works well as an embodied life, not an in-bodied life. This helps me understand the permeating life of Christ, within the new creation. I'm not a body who is 'posessed' by the spirit of Christ (like the opposite to being posessed by an evil spirit), but a whole person who is enlivened by the the Spirit of Christ. It also occurs to me that if we think of ourselves as persons as split into 2 or 3 parts which we don't have integrated, no wonder we struggle at times to hold our identity as the church together in wholeness.

[David Chatelier]

The biblical understanding of "wholeness" is wonderful. I love Paul's blessing upon the church at Thessalonica: "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coning of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." 1 Thes 5:23,24.