Idols Versus A Living, Breathing Body!!!
I Cor. 12 Part 2
Remember: The larger context is the operation of the Triune Godhead in gathering a people in Christ, His Body and our God’s operation in building up that body into an unwavering people, not easily seduced by every wind of doctrine. Eph 4:7-16
I. The closer context: Vs 1&2 A. As long as we are carried away to “dumb” (unspeaking) idols, we are ignorant!!!
Isa 44:9-20, Ps 115:1-8
B. Today, we may not have gods of stone and wood, but our idol is more subtle and blinding, carrying us away into all sorts of ignorance. Our idol is SELF. SELF—anything that has “my” obsessively attached to it!!!
“This self, this full self, what reasonings, what legality, what self righteousness it has! And all to keep us from being filled with the fullness of Christ. This is your Grand Enemy—that IDOL SELF. The Lord crucify it by His own mighty grace.” William Romaine
Self is just as dumb and ignorant as idols of wood & stone. It can not give life, it can only “carry us away”. Idols always isolate. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” I John 5:21
II. It is against this backdrop, this context, that Paul discusses the “spirituals”, the gifts.
A. Vs 3-11 Notice, this Body speaks, but only in (ESV) the Spirit, and always magnifies and evidences that Jesus is Lord of all it is, says, and does. And what follows is the manner of this LIVE Body’s “speaking.
1. Notice that every “utterance” is by or in the Spirit. The Spirit of God is mentioned 10 times in the first 11 verses!!! This is a spiritual body, born of the Spirit (Romans 8:9), and therefore, its utterances, its manifestations, no matter how varied (VS 4-7) are the outworking, the manifestation of the Spirit of God Who alone “animates” the body.
2. Notice Vs 7: Each gift is the very manifestation of the Spirit of God and it is given in diversity to each member for the profit (benefit, edification (Eph 4:12-15) of all.
Notice: These gifts, whatever they are, are the manifestation of the Spirit of God and therefore they will look like the Spirit of God, a portrait painted in Gal 5:22-23!!! If it doesn’t look like the Spirit of God, it’s just a dumb idol, manipulated by SELF for its own gain.
3. Vs 11 We may legitimately desire spiritual gifts (I Cor 14:1), but it is the Holy Spirit Who “distributes each on individually AS HE WILLS. The Spirit breaks down the idol, self will when He distributes His Gifts. He will share His Glory with no one!
III. Vs 12 This body is Christ’s, it is Christ on the earth. It has many members but is ONE BODY.
A. Christ Jesus, our God Man, His physical body is at the Right Hand of His Father. But His Mystical Body, His people who are in inseparable union with Him, is on the earth until He comes.
1. Phil 2:1-11 The members of this body have “no mind of their own”. They have the mind of Christ. He controls the movements of the body. Any self-mindedness is a mutilation of the body. (Col 3:1-5; Phil 3:1-2)
2. This mind thinks differently than their old flesh mind and therefore their behavior is altogether different. Eph 4:17-24
3. Again, this body has many parts, and many members, but God places the members in the body just as He Pleases (Vs 18), He composes the body (Vs 24).
Note: Vs 12-31 This is all “Body Truth” It starts with Christ and ends with Christ and it can only be rightly understood and rightly outworked through our inseparable Union with our Head, Christ Jesus.
When you get ready for the outside world in the morning, which part of your body gets the most attention before the mirror? Isn’t it you head? We comb our hair, brush our teeth, ladies do the makeup thing, all to look sort of presentable to those around us. The same is true of the Mystical Body of Christ. It is “presentable” only if it looks at its Head in the mirror, God’s Word, each day. People should recognize us immediately by our Head!!! They shouldn’t have to guess who we are!!!
IV. So what are the individual gifts we usually major on in this text?
A. Put away the contemporary context from your minds, there were no charismatics or dispensationalists or reformed people in Paul’s day, there were only members of the Body of Christ with different Spirit manifestations, gifts, for the edification of the whole Body of Christ.
1. I can’t say that “the miraculous sign gifts ceased with the close of the Cannon of Scripture”, as some would say, simply because I can find no scripture that says or implies that. (Some use I Cor. 13:10 as a text for this, but the context does not support their view.)
2. None of the “tongues” or “prophesies” that I have personally seen have measured up to the Biblical standard. They have magnified the person with the gift and stolen attention and glory away from my Lord.
3. I don’t know exactly what all of these gifts are, especially the “showy” ones, but I do know what they do and Who they will show forth. And I do believe that “the more excellent way of chapter 13 trumps our curiosity about the gifts of chapter 12.
My opinion doesn’t matter. The Glory of My Lord matters. Just remember that whatever the Lord does through you is for HIS GLORY and the edification of His Body and will lead to personal humility.
Here’s the point—our dumb idols cannot speak, they cannot edify—but Christ can!!! He has prepared a living, breathing, body that speaks. The Spirit of Christ manifests the Character of Christ to the world through that body in many diverse ways, and each member is essential. The purpose of the Spirit distributed and operated gifts are to edify, build up, beautify, the body so that it manifests the Beauty of its Head Christ Jesus. This body never “carries away” to ignorant, selfish behavior.
The members of the body are not “carved appendages”, but Spirit distributed evidences of the Father’s Will, and the Son’s Sacrifice!!! To add self to them, to add flesh to them, is to turn them into stone, wood, hay and stubble whose only end is to be burned.
I Cor. 12 Part 2
Remember: The larger context is the operation of the Triune Godhead in gathering a people in Christ, His Body and our God’s operation in building up that body into an unwavering people, not easily seduced by every wind of doctrine. Eph 4:7-16
I. The closer context: Vs 1&2 A. As long as we are carried away to “dumb” (unspeaking) idols, we are ignorant!!!
Isa 44:9-20, Ps 115:1-8
B. Today, we may not have gods of stone and wood, but our idol is more subtle and blinding, carrying us away into all sorts of ignorance. Our idol is SELF. SELF—anything that has “my” obsessively attached to it!!!
“This self, this full self, what reasonings, what legality, what self righteousness it has! And all to keep us from being filled with the fullness of Christ. This is your Grand Enemy—that IDOL SELF. The Lord crucify it by His own mighty grace.” William Romaine
Self is just as dumb and ignorant as idols of wood & stone. It can not give life, it can only “carry us away”. Idols always isolate. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” I John 5:21
II. It is against this backdrop, this context, that Paul discusses the “spirituals”, the gifts.
A. Vs 3-11 Notice, this Body speaks, but only in (ESV) the Spirit, and always magnifies and evidences that Jesus is Lord of all it is, says, and does. And what follows is the manner of this LIVE Body’s “speaking.
1. Notice that every “utterance” is by or in the Spirit. The Spirit of God is mentioned 10 times in the first 11 verses!!! This is a spiritual body, born of the Spirit (Romans 8:9), and therefore, its utterances, its manifestations, no matter how varied (VS 4-7) are the outworking, the manifestation of the Spirit of God Who alone “animates” the body.
2. Notice Vs 7: Each gift is the very manifestation of the Spirit of God and it is given in diversity to each member for the profit (benefit, edification (Eph 4:12-15) of all.
Notice: These gifts, whatever they are, are the manifestation of the Spirit of God and therefore they will look like the Spirit of God, a portrait painted in Gal 5:22-23!!! If it doesn’t look like the Spirit of God, it’s just a dumb idol, manipulated by SELF for its own gain.
3. Vs 11 We may legitimately desire spiritual gifts (I Cor 14:1), but it is the Holy Spirit Who “distributes each on individually AS HE WILLS. The Spirit breaks down the idol, self will when He distributes His Gifts. He will share His Glory with no one!
III. Vs 12 This body is Christ’s, it is Christ on the earth. It has many members but is ONE BODY.
A. Christ Jesus, our God Man, His physical body is at the Right Hand of His Father. But His Mystical Body, His people who are in inseparable union with Him, is on the earth until He comes.
1. Phil 2:1-11 The members of this body have “no mind of their own”. They have the mind of Christ. He controls the movements of the body. Any self-mindedness is a mutilation of the body. (Col 3:1-5; Phil 3:1-2)
2. This mind thinks differently than their old flesh mind and therefore their behavior is altogether different. Eph 4:17-24
3. Again, this body has many parts, and many members, but God places the members in the body just as He Pleases (Vs 18), He composes the body (Vs 24).
Note: Vs 12-31 This is all “Body Truth” It starts with Christ and ends with Christ and it can only be rightly understood and rightly outworked through our inseparable Union with our Head, Christ Jesus.
When you get ready for the outside world in the morning, which part of your body gets the most attention before the mirror? Isn’t it you head? We comb our hair, brush our teeth, ladies do the makeup thing, all to look sort of presentable to those around us. The same is true of the Mystical Body of Christ. It is “presentable” only if it looks at its Head in the mirror, God’s Word, each day. People should recognize us immediately by our Head!!! They shouldn’t have to guess who we are!!!
IV. So what are the individual gifts we usually major on in this text?
A. Put away the contemporary context from your minds, there were no charismatics or dispensationalists or reformed people in Paul’s day, there were only members of the Body of Christ with different Spirit manifestations, gifts, for the edification of the whole Body of Christ.
1. I can’t say that “the miraculous sign gifts ceased with the close of the Cannon of Scripture”, as some would say, simply because I can find no scripture that says or implies that. (Some use I Cor. 13:10 as a text for this, but the context does not support their view.)
2. None of the “tongues” or “prophesies” that I have personally seen have measured up to the Biblical standard. They have magnified the person with the gift and stolen attention and glory away from my Lord.
3. I don’t know exactly what all of these gifts are, especially the “showy” ones, but I do know what they do and Who they will show forth. And I do believe that “the more excellent way of chapter 13 trumps our curiosity about the gifts of chapter 12.
My opinion doesn’t matter. The Glory of My Lord matters. Just remember that whatever the Lord does through you is for HIS GLORY and the edification of His Body and will lead to personal humility.
Here’s the point—our dumb idols cannot speak, they cannot edify—but Christ can!!! He has prepared a living, breathing, body that speaks. The Spirit of Christ manifests the Character of Christ to the world through that body in many diverse ways, and each member is essential. The purpose of the Spirit distributed and operated gifts are to edify, build up, beautify, the body so that it manifests the Beauty of its Head Christ Jesus. This body never “carries away” to ignorant, selfish behavior.
The members of the body are not “carved appendages”, but Spirit distributed evidences of the Father’s Will, and the Son’s Sacrifice!!! To add self to them, to add flesh to them, is to turn them into stone, wood, hay and stubble whose only end is to be burned.