Outline For Building-up And Equipping The Body Of Christ

This Biblical Christianity website encourages people to know and to live, God’s Word; thus enabling us to live now as God intended for us to live, and preparing us for eternal life in God’s kingdom.

Site Navigation:This left-column outline contains links to website pages and sources pertaining to helping the Body of Christ gain the potential for which God designed it. The menu below pages down to the individual sections of this outline from which you can navigate to other web pages. There is a fourth level to some of the third level or decimal elements of this outline that is hidden, to view this level click on the (c) symbol in the outline; to hide the fourth level, double-click upon it (I found out, the last time I checked, that Mozilla's Firefox browser doesn't support this fourth level expansion feature, sorry).

Our Present Primitive Conditions

God being as perfect as He is, I have often wondered why He made us as primitive as we are; even though we are made in His image. "God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26).

Even though God the Father is a spirit and requires no body, He did prepare a body in the virgin Mary for His Son Christ Jesus (Jn. 4:24; Heb. 10:5). Although Jesus was born with a body just like ours, it was changed when He rose from the dead; as an example consider the following. "But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth. And when He had said this, even as they were looking [at Him], He was caught up, and a cloud received and carried Him away out of their sight. And while they were gazing intently into heaven as He went, behold, two men [dressed] in white robes suddenly stood beside them, Who said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, Who was caught away and lifted up from among you into heaven, will return in [just] the same way in which you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:8-11).

When Jesus ascended up to the right hand of the Father, He didn’t require a space ship or life-support equipment – His body that had been just like ours at His burial had been drastically changed. Although the bodies that God created for us are marvels of construction, far beyond our ability to grasp or understand completely, they are far different and primitive compared to the bodies that we shall have when we go to be with the Lord Jesus. The reasons that I call our present bodies primitive are because they are not that much different from that of animals, they have some rather unseemly functions and requirements, they require so much attention and care, and they will eventually die.

Here are some more things to consider:

To begin with, God knew before He created the universe, the earth and all that inhabits it that man’s first experiment was going to fail miserably, and He already had a plan in mind as to how He would accomplish our reconciliation unto Him after we failed to live as He directed us. "You must know (recognize) that you were redeemed (ransomed) from the useless (fruitless) way of living inherited by tradition from [your] forefathers, not with corruptible things [such as] silver and gold, But [you were purchased] with the precious blood of Christ (the Messiah), like that of a [sacrificial] lamb without blemish or spot. It is true that He was chosen and foreordained (destined and foreknown for it) before the foundation of the world, but He was brought out to public view (made manifest) in these last days (at the end of the times) for the sake of you" (1 Peter 1:18-20). This must be why God first created us with bodies and living conditions as primitive as they are, even though in the beginning things were apparently much different than they are now. These are temporary bodies that can be altered and adjusted as God deems necessary during this grand experiment or training period; we will receive our perfected bodies if and when we go to be with Him.

The bodies that Adam and Eve had were created to live forever, and the environment was probably as perfect as they were. But when they deliberately disobeyed God, God found it necessary to make some changes to the structure of His original creation "To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your grief and your suffering in pregnancy and the pangs of childbearing; with spasms of distress you will bring forth children. Yet your desire and craving will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. And to Adam He said, Because you have listened and given heed to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground is under a curse because of you; in sorrow and toil shall you eat [of the fruits] of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:16-19).

All the physical things that God created are made of some of the same material elements, and the living bodies of plants, animals and humans have a similar cell structure, although God has made mankind superior to the animals. "It has been solemnly and earnestly said in a certain place, What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You graciously and helpfully care for and visit and look after him? For some little time You have ranked him lower than and inferior to the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands, [Ps. 8:4-6.] for You have put everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to man, He left nothing outside [of man's] control. But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to him [man]" (Heb. 2:6-8).

A very strange thing happened immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience. "Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron-like girdles" (Gen. 3:7). The comments in all the commentaries concerning this strange awakening are similar to Matthew Henry’s below.

Gen. 3:7 – The strong convictions they fell under, in their own bosoms: The eyes of them both were opened. It is not meant of the eyes of the body; these were open before, as appears by this, that the sin came in at them. Jonathan's eyes were enlightened by eating forbidden fruit (1 Sam. 14:27), that is, he was refreshed and revived by it; but theirs were not so. Nor is it meant of any advances made hereby in true knowledge; but the eyes of their consciences were opened, their hearts smote them for what they had done. Now, when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness they had fallen from, and the misery they had fallen into. They saw a loving God provoked, his grace and favour forfeited, his likeness and image lost, dominion over the creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted and depraved, and felt a disorder in their own spirits of which they had never before been conscious. They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds, and captivating them both to sin and wrath. (from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

None of them made any comments on why Adam and Eve now felt the need to cover certain parts of their bodies, they only mentioned the tremendous guilt they felt for having disobeyed God. In the beginning, just like the animals, Adam and Eve did not need or wear clothes, and just like the animals they probably had thicker skin with long hair that covered most of their bodies to provide warmth and protection. But after their disobedience, for some reason unknown to us, they felt the need and were required to wear clothes to cover the majority of their bodies.

There’s an interesting occurrence in the life of Isaac and his two sons Jacob and Esau. "And Isaac prayed much to the Lord for his wife because she was unable to bear children; and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife became pregnant. [Two] children struggled together within her; and she said, If it is so [that the Lord has heard our prayer], why am I like this? And she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, [The founders of] two nations are in your womb, and the separation of two peoples has begun in your body; the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red all over like a hairy garment, and they named him Esau [hairy]. Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand grasped Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob [supplanter]. Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them" (Gen. 25:21-26).

When Isaac’s sons were about forty years old (Gen. 28:34), Isaac decided, in his old age, to give the birthright blessing to Esau the firstborn, but Rebekah the mother of Esau and Jacob decided to deceive Isaac into giving the birthright to Jacob instead. So they set up an elaborate plan on how to achieve this and part of the plan went like this. "But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Listen, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Suppose my father feels me; I will seem to him to be a cheat and an imposter, and I will bring [his] curse on me and not [his] blessing. But his mother said to him, On me be your curse, my son; only obey my word and go, fetch them to me. So [Jacob] went, got [the kids], and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared appetizing meat with a delightful odor, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took her elder son Esau's best clothes which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck" (Gen. 27:11-16).

Dressed up and prepared in the above fashion, Jacob went and presented himself to his father Isaac. "But Isaac said to Jacob, Come close to me, I beg of you, that I may feel you, my son, and know whether you really are my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, and his father felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. He could not identify him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him" (Gen. 27:21-23).

The point of relating this is that Esau was so naturally hairy that Isaac could not tell the difference of the skin of his son Esau from that of an ordinary sheep, and this instance occurred more than 2000 years after the creation of Adam and Eve. The wearing of clothes is probably one of the reasons that has contributed to the gradual decline of bodily hair on human beings, but of course it has not eliminated it altogether.

So, what can we glean from the Bible about Adam and Eve’s eye opening experience?

First, let us examine how heavenly members are clothed as recorded in the book of Revelation. The apostle John writes in Rev. 1:10-13; "I was in the Spirit [rapt in His power] on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a great voice like the calling of a war trumpet, saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Write promptly what you see (your vision) in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia--to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see [whose was] the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands [one] like a Son of Man, clothed with a robe which reached to His feet and with a girdle of gold about His breast". Jesus Himself, as He appeared here unto John was clothed with a robe that covered everything but His head and feet – a complete bodily covering.

In the following portion of Scripture we discover the source of our heavenly clothes. "When the Lamb broke open the fifth seal, I saw at the foot of the altar the souls of those whose lives had been sacrificed for [adhering to] the Word of God and for the testimony they had borne. They cried in a loud voice, O [Sovereign] Lord, holy and true, how long now before You will sit in judgment and avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth? [Gen. 4:10; Ps 79:5; Zech. 1:12.] Then they were each given a long and flowing and festive white robe and told to rest and wait patiently a little while longer, until the number should be complete of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed as they themselves had been" (Rev. 6:9-11).

Here, we again see our covering, and our proper response for having received it. "After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, [gathered out] of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. In loud voice they cried, saying, [Our] salvation is due to our God, Who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb [to Them we owe our deliverance]! And all the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] and the four living creatures, and they fell prostrate before the throne and worshiped God. Amen! (So be it!) they cried. Blessing and glory and majesty and splendor and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might [be ascribed] to our God to the ages and ages (forever and ever, throughout the eternities of the eternities)! Amen! (So be it!)" (Rev. 7:9-12)

The following portion of Scripture shows us how Jesus will clothe His Body the Church, and what the clothing represents. "After that I heard what sounded like the shout of a vast throng, like the boom of many pounding waves, and like the roar of terrific and mighty peals of thunder, exclaiming, Hallelujah (praise the Lord)! For now the Lord our God the omnipotent (the All-Ruler) reigns! Let us rejoice and shout for joy [exulting and triumphant]! Let us celebrate and ascribe to Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb [at last] has come, and His bride has prepared herself. [Ps. 118:24.] She has been permitted to dress in fine (radiant) linen, dazzling and white--for the fine linen is (signifies, represents) the righteousness (the upright, just, and godly living, deeds, and conduct, and right standing with God) of the saints (God's holy people)" (Rev. 19:6-8).

How then, should we interpret all this?

Here is what Jesus had to say unto the church at Laodicea. "So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth! For you say, I am rich; I have prospered and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing; and you do not realize and understand that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. [Hos. 12:8.] Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire, that you may be [truly] wealthy, and white clothes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nudity from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see" (Rev. 3:16-18).

Adam and Eve were created in a natural or neutral state of innocense – knowing neither good nor evil. Apparently Satan was created and remained in this same sort of state until he decided that he would become as God was by his own efforts – I will (Isa. 14:12-14). In his effort to become as God is, he first convinced a large group of heavenly angels to give allegiance or worship to him and follow him; soon after he deceived and convinced Adam and Eve to do the same thing – probably using the same tactics and message on both groups, angels and humans.

This issue about being properly clothed is at the very heart of the Gospel message; we are either clothed with the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21), or we are clothed by our own righteousness which the Bible declares; "For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God's favor, hurrying us toward destruction]" (Isa. 64:6).

Adam and Eve, in their natural state, had no awareness of needing to be clothed by either God’s righteousness or their own. When they disobeyed, they became keenly aware of their unworthiness to even be seen by God, and in their ignorance and desperation they attempted to cover themselves with large leaves and then hide from Him. If Adam and Eve had not sinned before they bore children, then the children would have to go through the same experiment that they had, but because this occurred before childbirth, the children that came after the fall were all born in the same condition as Adam and Eve – alienated from God and in need of His covering.

The Bible doesn’t tell us what would have happened if either Adam or Eve had not disobeyed, but it seems almost certain that if they had not sinned, sooner or later someone most surely would have. Would any that remained in their natural state still have been able to live without wearing clothes? – we have to assume that they would have, that’s the way God created them. As far as God is concerned; "And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do" (Heb. 4:13).

So while we live in these primitive bodies that require clothes, those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have received God’s forgiveness and peace of mind; to all others God says – "There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked" (Isa. 48:22). In this wicked condition some people don’t live or act any differently than the animals, and sometimes even worse. God didn’t mean for us to have to live this way, and when the experiment is over, those who have been reconciled to God won’t – there’s a much better life awaiting those who have surrendered to the Lordship of Christ Jesus. And instead of primitive conditions there will be perfect conditions – don’t miss the changeover!