Bible Study

The Gift of Eternal Life Berean Bible Study Course

Part IV--The Family Of God / The Body Of Christ

A. Lesson 19--The Nature Of Christ's Body

4. READ: COLOSSIANS 1:24-29

c. Why do we proclaim Christ?

Answer: We proclaim Christ so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ, (verse 28).

MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

• In Christ every believer is one of the perfect. We are admonished to be perfect. We proclaim (teach, preach) Christ (the Good News, the Gospel, the Word of God) so that we may bring all people to this perfection, just as Christ died for all, bore the sins of all and loves all. The body of believers is Christ's church, holy and blameless, perfect through the Word of God:

  Matthew 5:48: [Jesus said,] "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

  Ephesians 5:25-27: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

• But not all people will accept this offer of perfection--reconciliation to God--and will not stand perfect before their God. Some will reject the proclamation, never coming to an obedience of God's Word. And some will reject the Truth after having received a knowledge of it and obeying it, thus again becoming the enemies of God:

  Acts 13:46-48: "Then Paul and Barnabas answered them [the Jews] boldly: "We had to speak the Word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."' When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the Word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed."

  1 Thessalonians 4:7-8: "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, Who gives you His Holy Spirit."

  Hebrews 10:26-31: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him Who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, "The Lord will judge His people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

• "Perfect" is from the Greek word teleios and means "having reached its end (telos), finished, complete, perfect, fully grown, mature." It is a PROCESS, never ending. Being perfect in Christ is to be spiritual adults in Christ, no longer babes in Christ. We are to PROGRESS in our perfection to become mature and ripened Christians. Without perseverance (a progressing no matter what, a "keeping on keeping on"), we cannot mature, cannot become fully grown, cannot become complete, cannot come to perfection. We will simply wither and die--or remain infants, unable to care for ourselves and others:

  Luke 8:14-15: [Jesus said,] "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the Word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." [They mature and ripen.]

  Ephesians 4:11-13: "It was He [Christ] Who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

  Philippians 3:10-16: "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained."

  Colossians 4:12: "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the Will of God, mature and fully assured."

  Hebrews 5:11-14: "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary Truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

  James 1:2-4: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."