3. The body of Christ.

Jesus spoke of his body as the 'temple of God' which, if destroyed, he would rebuild in three days: "Jesus answered them [the Jews], 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken." (John 2:19-22).

We understand the meaning of Christ's words in two ways:

(i) That God raised Jesus from the grave three days after his crucifixion.

(ii) That there would be three 'days' or distinct stages in the building of the Christian Church - his 'body':
a) the first stage, the preaching of the Gospel within the Jewish world, from Pentecost to the destruction of Jerusalem;

b) the second stage, the extension of the preaching into all the world, led by the Apostle Paul; and

c) the third stage when the building would be completed at his return, and the Church, the Temple of God, established in the earth.

Paul wrote to both the Corinthian and Ephesian brothers, that they were each individually a "temple of the spirit", part of the body of Christ in whom God dwells, and that our personal lives should reflect the character of Christ, and give glory to God now and in the future (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-19).

"Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow-citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His spirit." (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Baal
Babylon
Baptism
  1. "Baptism for the dead"
  2. Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Barbarians
Beelzebub
Beginning
  1. The Creation of the World
  2. The New Creation in Christ
Begotten
Believe, Belief, Believer
Bible
Bishop
Blasphemy
Blessedness
Blessing
Blood
Body
  1. The physical body
  2. The spiritual body
  3. The body of Christ
  4. "The body of Moses"
  5. "Spiritual bodies"
Born
Bread
Breaking Bread
Brothers and Sisters
Burial