Bible Verse of the Day Monday November 27th, 2023

1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

This verse of scripture covers the use and possible abuse of spiritual gifts, where Paul shifts into an investigation of the Christian Church and a clarification of our membership in the Body of Christ. His mission was to show that every member of the Body of Christ is exclusive in God's sight and that the complete body of believers is God's chosen instrument and conduit on earth, through which He makes Himself known to humanity.

As followers and believers in Christ Jesus, we represent God during the dispensation of the church age. The Apostle Paul makes it crystal clear that followers and believers in Christ Jesus have unique spiritual gifts to use in spreading the Gospel of Christ Jesus to all in our sphere of influence. As God’s representative, we are to use the unique gifts that God has bestowed upon us for the common good of all Christians. Every follower of Christ Jesus will receive different spiritual gifts unique to themselves, yet diverse and complementary.

Spiritual gifts, selected vocations, and all the good work that God has equipped us to do are endowed by the same Spirit, to God’s glory and for the advantage of the whole Church. Paul is attempting to communicate an eternal principle: that the same Holy Spirit functions in the lives of all believers, but that assorted gifts and spiritual exhibitions are allocated to each one exclusively, as He chooses. God is no respecter of persons, and He alone gives each one their personal gifts and spiritual graces according to His will.

Paul explains that we came to be a member of the Body of Christ when we were born again. We were baptized into the Body of Christ the instant we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; at the heartbeat of our salvation, God separated us from our standing in Adam and repositioned us into the Body of Christ. Our position in the Body of Christ sets our status before our Father in Heaven.

Our status before God is not an event, sentiment, or jubilant experience. Our position in the eyes of God is not progressive because God perfected it at the heartbeat of our salvation. It does not correlate with human good works or accomplishments. Positional truth is eternal; we have it forever once we receive it. We know this to be true from God’s Word. Positional truth will never change or reverse, it is eternally permanent. God places in us everything that we need to live the Christian life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All we must do, as His children, is to claim by faith the provisions God had provided for our lives as Christians.