July 14 – LD 28, Day 6: United to the Sacred Body of Christ
by Rev Arie den Hartog
Read: Acts 2:41 – 47
The church is the living
spiritual body of Christ. The members of the church are the members of His
body. The true
Our spiritual union with
Christ’s body is often called a mystical union. It is called by this name
because the reality of this is a great mystery. It cannot be understood by
those who have no faith and are not partakers of the body of Christ. The
reality of this truth is known only by the child of God through the work of the
Spirit of Christ in his heart and by His indwelling Spirit in His church,
uniting the members of the body to one another.
The apostle John speaks
of this spiritual mystery in I John 3:24a. “And he that keepeth
His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him.”
The blessed spiritual
reality of this is strengthened through the proper understanding of, and
observance of the Lord’s Supper in the church. The Lord’s Supper is a supper of
fellowship with Christ and with one another. In New Testament times, a love
feast was often celebrated in connection with the Lord’s Supper. At this feast,
the members of the church expressed their love for one another when those who
had an abundance of earthly things brought food for the poor and hungry,
especially during times of famine. Widows were also taken care of through this
practice. Out of this practice arose the office of deacons in the church.
So close is our spiritual
union with Christ that in Eph 5, it is said that we are “bone of His bone and
flesh of His flesh.” Christian marriage is a picture of this blessed mystical
union. The love of Christ for His church is the bond of this fellowship. This
love was demonstrated in the highest imaginable way in the cross of Jesus
Christ. There, Christ gave Himself for the church, that He might sanctify and
cleanse her by His Word and Spirit. This reality is signified and sealed in the
Lord’s Supper.
Christ is spiritually
present in the church when His Spirit dwells among her members. They are built
up ‘into Christ’ through the hearing of the preaching of the Word and through
the celebration of the sacraments.
We have a beautiful
picture of the church as the body of Christ, living in communion with Christ,
and the members with each other, in the description of the church in Acts 2:42
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and
in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” The “breaking of bread together” spoken
of in these passages was most likely the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
This description is
continued in verse 46 of Acts 2. “And they, continuing daily with one accord in
the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart,”
These blessed spiritual
realities are seen in the true