This message is a sequel to what we began two weeks ago on The Benefits of Serving The Lord. However under it, we want to examine today this subtopic: Understanding Your Role In The Body Of Christ. Every believer has a responsibility or a role to play in the Body Of Christ. The reason why Christ saved you is not so that you can make heaven alone, No! Don't be surprised that if you ask certain people "why are you born again?" The response you would get will be "so that I won't go to hell." Not going to hell is not the primary reason why you are saved.

 

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The reason why Christ saved you is so that you can fully understand your role in the purpose and agenda of God on earth. Being born again is not a title. Being born again is not for complacency. Being born again is mainly for the purpose of coming into the full realization of God's agenda for your life and existence. Salvation brings you into discovering God's purpose for your life. It is funny that a lot of people today don't know their purpose for existence. You see, you cannot know your true purpose outside of God. It is only God who can reveal it to you. When apostle Paul met Christ on his way to Damascus in Acts 9, he asked Jesus: "Lord, what do You want me to do?" And immediately, instructions as to what to do was given unto Him.

 

The starting point into understanding your role in the Body Of Christ is through your salvation. And now that you have been saved, it is important you ask the Lord, where do you want me to function in this body, and He will reveal to you what and what you are meant to be doing. Alright, haven said all these, I want us to examine our texts for today's teaching. Ephesians 4:16 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 and 27 will be anchor texts. These two texts will establish to us that there is a huge role that God has assigned to us in His body and it is pertinent we know this so that we can give ourselves to serving the Lord faithfully.

 

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the Body Of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love."

Ephesians 4:11-16

 

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴ For in fact the body is not one member but many.  ²⁷ Now you are the Body Of Christ, and members individually."

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27

 

If you take a good look at your biological body for instance, from the crown of your head to the toes on your feet, there is at least one role or the other that each part has been designed to play. No single part can adequately do what it has not been assigned to do. Every part can only do well what it has been assigned to do and to the best of its abilities, complement other parts of the body, and not compete with one another. Apostle Paul wrote  in 1 Corinthians 12:21 that "and the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you", nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." When you understand this, you would know that there is no need for competition in the body. We are all expected to play our roles by complementing one another and not competing.

 

You see, there is absolutely no need for competition in the body. When everyone knows his or her role and performs it, the body will function the way it should function and God will be praised for it. When apostle Paul was spiritually commissioned into the ministry by God, he didn't feel any need to compete with his senior colleagues in the work. He simply said "by the grace of God given to me, I labored more than them all." In other words, he recognized the fact that the grace of God upon his life made him perform his own role to the best of his abilities. In Romans 12:4-8 (RSV), the same apostle Paul writing by the Spirit of God says:

 

"For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. [Amplified version puts it this way: "we are mutually dependent on each other"] ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

 

So, there is a role you are meant to be playing as a child of God. Your service to God must be tied to what you are doing in His body. There is something that you are meant to be doing. Apostle Paul established this fact in Ephesians 4:16 when he wrote: "from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Did you see that? It is when you contribute your part or dutifully execute your own role that the Body Of Christ can grow.

 

You see, it is not the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers alone that make up the Body Of Christ. You being a child of God who does not operate in any of these offices, you are also part of that body, and your contribution to the growth of that body is as important as the contributions of all the offices mentioned above. There are many today who are just so complacent about not knowing what they are supposed to be doing in the body. This is why we have so many born again Christians who just believe that their number one reason for becoming born again is to make it to heaven when they die. This belief system is not totally correct. The number one reason why Christ saved you is so that you can enter into the fullness of His assignment and purpose for your life.

 

So, it is possible for someone to ask: What Are these spiritual responsibilities? What am I supposed to be doing to advance the Kingdom of God? I will just show us one out of the many things that we can do, and I believe this is what the Holy Spirit has impressed upon my spirit to share.

 

Topmost in the things you are meant to be doing in the Body Of Christ is what is known as reconciliation. Another word for it is "evangelizing." 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 tells us: "Now all things are of God, (including the souls of men) who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." God has committed to you and I the word of reconciliation, that same word that we heard and brought salvation our way.

 

The desire of God is that no one should perish. Jesus said Mark 8:36: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" The souls of men is precious to God. Psalms 49:7-9 (NIV) tells us:

 

No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them—
⁸ the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
⁹ so that they should live on forever
and not see decay.

 

Did we see that? But in our case, Jesus had paid the ransom once and for all. Jesus took our place, died one of the most painful death for all humanity, and reconciled us back to God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 shows us how God made Him to be sin for us. He did not know any sin, the Bible says "no iniquity was found in Him", yet, He took our place so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 1 Peter 2 also showed us another vivid picture of what Jesus did. From verse 22, it says:

 

“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;

²³ who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; ²⁴ who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. ²⁵ For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."

 

So, our role in the Body Of Christ is to make sure that men are reconciled back to God. God does not want any soul to perish, and He has committed that assignment to us. You see, our assignment in this regard can be summarized in what God told prophet Ezekiel concerning the children of Israel and I want us to read that passage so that it can show us the real picture of how sensitive this role is in the sight of God. Ezekiel 3:16-19 (NIV). The Bible says:

 

"At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ¹⁸ When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. ¹⁹ But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself."

 

So, from that passage, we can see that God is expecting us to warn the wicked, the sinners that they repent from their wicked ways. When we do it, and they refused to yield, and the wicked man dies in the process, well, he or she will face God and give account. But if we fail to do it, that is, evangelize and preach salvation to wicked people, God says we will be held accountable for their blood. This is why we cannot joke with reaching out to lost souls by every means that we have at our disposal. This is the time to flood every available space: the internet, our neighborhoods and everywhere with the message of salvation. The souls of men must be redeemed back to God.

 

No wonder apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:28-29: "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." Why are we preaching Him? Because He is the one who has brought salvation to all mankind, He has bridged the gap between God and Man, He has broken down the middle wall of partition, so that all mankind can have access to God. At the top of our kingdom stewardship is this assignment of reconciling men back to God, and I pray that God will strengthen us to be able to do it the way we ought to.

 

Amen!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!