The Pleroma is the Body of Christ

The Pleroma is the Body of Christ

The fullness which is Christ’s- and His “fullness” is God’s fullness- is shared with us: “Of His fullness have all we received” (Jn. 1:16). In this sense the church, as the body of Christ, is “the fullness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23; 4:13). 

Through knowing Christ, the believers are therefore “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). So the fact that Jesus had “all the fullness of God” doesn’t make Him "God" Himself in person; because we will not become God Himself in person because we are filled with God’s fullness; any more than a son is his father. In the same way as Christ’s body after His resurrection was filled with the Spirit and nature of God- so will ours be (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:20,21).

The ‘fulness’ of Christ dwells ‘bodily’ in the church, even as the ‘fulness’ of the Godhead dwells ‘bodily’ in Him. 

The term Body of Christ has two main but separate meanings: it may refer to Jesus' words over the bread at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in Luke 22:19–20, or to the usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12–14 and Ephesians 4:1–16 to refer to the Christian Church.

The Body of Christ as the Christian Church is what we are going to look at

The "Body of Christ" is used by other Protestants to collectively describe believers in Christ, as opposed to only those who are members of the Catholic Church. In this sense, Christians are members of the universal body of Christ not because of identification with the institution of the Church, but through identification with Christ directly through faith. 

members of the body of Christ, --All those who forsake everything pertaining to the personal, limited self and measure up to the Christ standard in thoughts and acts, thus bringing forth the unlimited fruits of Spirit, are members of the one body: the body of Christ.

it is sometimes called the Mystical body of Christ, a mystical union of all Christians into a spiritual body with Jesus Christ as their head. 

1 Corinthians 12::12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
1 Corinthians 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

At a meeting of the American Psychological Association, Jack Lipton, a psychologist at Union College, and R. Scott Builione, a graduate student at Columbia University, presented their findings on how members of the various sections of 11 major symphony orchestras perceived each other. The percussionists were viewed as insensitive, unintelligent, and hard-of-hearing, yet fun-loving. String players were seen as arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. The orchestra members overwhelmingly chose "loud" as the primary adjective to describe the brass players. Woodwind players seemed to be held in the highest esteem, described as quiet and meticulous, though a bit egotistical. Interesting findings, to say the least! With such widely divergent personalities and perceptions, how could an orchestra ever come together to make such wonderful music? The answer is simple: regardless of how those musicians view each other, they subordinate their feelings and biases to the leadership of the conductor. Under his guidance, they play beautiful music.

"The beauty and purpose and usefulness of the human body is in its diversity" (GVG, Ber 57:308).

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

the mystical body of Christ. By faith, its elements are "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Hence, they are "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh;" and, therefore, the beloved Eve of the last Adam, the Lord who is to come from heaven, and make her of the same holy spiritual nature as his own. Thus, the church is figuratively taken out of the side of her Lord; for every member of it believes in the remission of sins through his shed blood; and they all believe in the real resurrection of his flesh and bones, for their justification unto life by a similar revival from the dead. "Your bodies are the members," or flesh and bones, "of Christ; ... and he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (ICor. 6:15, 17). "I have espoused you to one husband," says Paul, "that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2Cor. 11:2). It will be perceived, then, that the church as defined, is in the present state the espoused of Christ, but not actually married

Eph 4:4  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

ONE BODY: See Eph 1:23; 2:15,16. The church is not an organization, but an organism. It is alive. It has a life of its own.

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

A PERFECT MAN --- into the measure of the full age of the fulness of the Christ: who is THE HEAD, from whom the whole Body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint (heir) supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:3, 4, 13, 15, 16).

Eph 1:23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

v.23 “the fullness” Grk. pleroma. This is a derivative of pleroo used in this phrase also. These words clearly link with the Lord’s promise of “baptism in Spirit” (Acts 1:4) which in its fulfilment is described in Acts as being “filled with Holy Spirit”. cf. John 1:16 and notes there. “of him” i.e. Christ.
 The fulness of Spirit in Christ was in turn “poured out” on believers, so that they were “filled with Holy Spirit”. “that filleth” = Grk. pleroo (cf. 3:19; 4:10; 5:18; Acts 2:2; 13:52) where this word clearly is associated with the Spirit gifts. “all in all”

the Church is the fullness (pleroma) of Christ ( Ephesians 1:23 ). It forms one whole with Him; and the Apostle even speaks of the Church as "Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12). 

“That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:19). “The fulness of him that filleth all (his ecclesias) in all (places),

His body was like the beryl." The "body" here is the "One Body" of which Paul speaks in his epistles; as, "the Ecclesia which is His body, the fulness of Him (the Spirit) who perfects all things in all" saints. When the fulness is brought in the body will be complete (Rom. 11:25; Eph. 1:23); and it will then be "like a beryl."

Concerning the fullness, it is I.  I (the christ) was sent down in the body (of Jesus) for the seed that had fallen away. And I came down to their mortal model. But they did not recognize me, thinking I was a mortal. I spoke with the one who is mine, and the one who is mine listened to me just as you also who have listened to me today. And I gave him authority to enter into the inheritance of his fatherhood. And I took him the one who is mine up to my Father. They the Aeons were brought to completion filled with rest through his salvation. Since he was deficiency, he became fullness. The Letter of Peter to Philip (Nag Hammadi Codex VIII, 2)

The Interpretation of Knowledge

For no beast exists in the Aeon. For the Father does not keep the sabbath, but (rather) actuates the Son, and through the Son he continued to provide himself with the Aeons. The Father has living rational elements from which he puts on my members as garment

He became an emanation of the trace. For also they say about the likeness that it is apprehended by means of his trace. The structure apprehends by means of the likeness, but God apprehends by means of his members. He knew them before they were begotten, and they will know him. And the one who begot each one from the first will indwell them. He will rule over them.

But who is it that redeemed the one who was reproached? It is the emanation of the name. For just as the flesh has need of a name, so also is the flesh an Aeon that Wisdom has emitted. It received the majesty that is descending, so that the Aeon might enter the one who was reproached, that we might escape the disgrace of the carcass and be regenerated in the flesh and blood of ... (8 lines missing)... destiny. He [...] and the Aeons [...] they accepted the Son although he was a complete mystery [...] each one of his members [...] grace. When he cried out, he was separated from the Church like portions of the darkness from the Mother, while his feet provided him traces, and these scorched the path of the ascent to the Father.

Aeons that exist in that place. Some exist in the visible Church - those who exist in the Church of men - and unanimously they proclaim to one another the Pleroma of their aeon. And some exist for death in the Church on whose behalf they go - she for whom they are death - while others are for life. Therefore they are lovers of abundant life. And each of the rest endures by his own root. He puts forth fruit that is like him, since the roots have a connection with one another and their fruits are undivided, the best of each. They possess them, existing for them and for one another. So let us become like the roots, since we are equal

Moreover, if they would wait for the exodus from the (earthly) harmony, they will come to the Aeon. If they are fit to share in the (true) harmony, how much the more those who derive from the single unity? They ought to be reconciled with one another. Do not accuse your Head because it has not appointed you as an eye but rather as a finger. And do not be jealous of that which has been put in the class of an eye or a hand or a foot, but be thankful that you do not exist outside the Body. On the contrary, you have the same Head on whose account the eye exists, as well as the hand and the foot and the rest of the parts. Why do you despise the one that is appointed as [...] it desired to [...] you slandered [...] does not embrace [...] unmixed body [...] chosen [...] dissolve [...] of the Aeon [...] descent [...] however plucked us from <the> Aeons that exist in that place. Some exist in the visible Church - those who exist in the Church of men - and unanimously they proclaim to one another the Pleroma of their aeon. And some exist for death in the Church on whose behalf they go - she for whom they are death - while others are for life. Therefore they are lovers of abundant life. And each of the rest endures by his own root. He puts forth fruit that is like him, since the roots have a connection with one another and their fruits are undivided, the best of each. They possess them, existing for them and for one another. So let us become like the roots, since we are equal [...] that Aeon [...] those who are not ours [...] above the [...] grasp him [...] since [...] your soul. He will [...] we gave you to him. If you purify it, it abides in me. If you enclose it, it belongs to the Devil. Even if you kill his forces that are active, it will be with you. For if the soul is dead, still it was enacted upon (by) the rulers and authorities.

Receive now the teaching of the one who was reproached - an advantage and a profit for the soul - and receive his shape. It is the shape that exists in the presence of the Father, the word and the height, that let you know him before you have been led astray while in (the) flesh of condemnation.

Likewise I became very small, so that through my humility I might take you up to the great height, whence you had fallen. You were taken to this pit. If now you believe in me, it is I who shall take you above, through this shape that you see

Here, then, was a symbolic man blazing in glory and power: and representative of the Eternal Spirit hereafter to be manifested in a NEW ORDER OF ELOHIM -- aggregately ONE MAN -- the One Man of the One Spirit, whom the true believers shall all come unto 



 Daniel saw the "perfect man" -- the Eternal manifested in the glorified flesh of a multitude -- symbolically represented in the measure of his full age.






Daniel next informs us concerning the Spirit-man "the Man of the One" that "

The Heavenly Places in Christ

Ap James 15.13-23. And when we had passed beyond that place, we sent our mind(s) farther upwards and saw with our eyes and heard with our ears hymns and angelic benedictions and angelic rejoicing. And heavenly majesties were singing praise, and we too rejoiced.

In this text, the disciples mentally ascend to heaven, where they join the heavenly worship.

Disc. 8-9, 56.22—57.9. Lord, grant us a wisdom from your power that reaches us, so that we may describe to ourselves the vision off the eighth and the ninth. We have already advanced to the seventh, since we are pious and walk in your law. . . . Lord, grant us the truth in the image. Allow us through the spirit to see the form of the image that has no deficiency, and receive the reflection of the pleroma from us through our praise.

Here, the speakers pray for the ability to ascend to the eighth and ninth heavens so that they may have the heavenly vision of God

How can persons in “heavenly places” still be on earth?

When in His teaching Jesus likened the "kingdom of the heavens" (see Emphatic Diaglott) to various conditions in the earth, He was explaining, in terms that the outer man could grasp, the various laws and relations of the spiritual realm, or the "kingdom of the heavens."

The kingdom of heaven is the orderly adjustment of divine ideas in man's mind and body.

Jesus definitely located the kingdom of God (heaven) when He said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or, There ! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20, 21).

In order to find this kingdom, man must become conscious of Divine Mind and its realm of divine ideas, and be willing to adjust his thoughts to the divine standard

"God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace" (Eph 2:6,7).

The apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians speaks of Christians then living on earth as though they were in heaven, being raised up and “seated . . . together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 1:3; 2:6) The context shows that true believers are so viewed by God because of his having ‘assigned them an inheritance’ with his Son in the restored Kingdom on earth.

They have been exalted, or ‘lifted up,’ by faith into the heavenly places. (Eph 1:11, 18-20; 2:4-7, 22) With this in mind it helps us to understand the figurative visions in the book of Revelation 11:12.

Likewise it provides a key for understanding the symbolic vision in Daniel 8:9-12, where the goat which has previously been shown to signify a political power is spoken of as “getting greater all the way to the army of the heavens,” and even causing some of that army and of the stars to fall to the earth.

Note, too, the symbolic use of stars in the book of Revelation, chapters 1 through 3, where the context shows that such “stars” refer to persons who are obviously living on earth and undergoing earthly experiences and temptations, these “stars” being responsible for churches under their care.—Reve 1:20; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14.

IN THE HEAVENLY REALMS: A present situation -- having access with God (cp Eph 2:4,5,7,18). Our heavenly calling (Heb 3:1), from the heavenly Father (Mat 18:35), through a heavenly word (John 3:12), presents to us a heavenly status (Eph 2:6), as we await a heavenly image (1Co 15:48,49), to be a heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22), in a heavenly country (Heb 11:16), within a heavenly kingdom (2Tim 4:18). All this constitutes Christ's brethren as a heavenly people of God! they are the congregation of the chosen ones

the Heavenlies in Christ are not luoghi, heux, or places, but STATES. the Christ consciousness bestows states of joy, peace, and happiness to those who enter into it. All these are heavenly “places” or conditions of mind and soul.

There are 2 types of Heavenlies when he speaks of the heavenlies in which "the spirituals of wickedness" are found he omits the phrase "in Christ Hence, the two kinds of consciousness states are characterized by being "in Christ" or not in Christ; which is equivalent to being out of Christ - outside,

Paul tells the saints in Ephesus, that he with them were "blessed with all spiritual blessings" in these heavenlies; in which they and Christ, though the latter is at the Right Hand of the Divine Majesty, and they in Ephesus and elsewhere, were regarded as sitting together (Eph. 1:20; 2:6). A heavenly is a constituted consciousness state. It may be Divinely constituted, or constituted by human authority. We have these two kinds of heaven-ies in Paul's letter to the saints in Ephesus. In ch. 6:12, he alludes to the heavenlies constituted by human authority.

The heavenlies in Christ are 3 states answering to the 3 places of the tabernacle of Moses, the  outer court, holy place and the most holy place these 3 places in the tabernacle correspond to the 3 spiritual realm of Olam/Aeon

These apocalyptic temple states answer to the Altar-Court, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy within the Vail of the Mosaic Building. The apocalyptic Altar-Court and the Holy Place are what Paul styles in Eph. i. 3, "the Heavenlies in Christ." They are constituted of "the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus," who are partakers with the Altar, and worshippers therein (1 Cor. ix. 13; x. 18; Heb. xiii. 10; Apoc. xi. 1).

 Being in Jesus and the Father, they must be, in a certain sense, where Jesus and the Father are. Alluding to this fact, Paul says in Heb. 12:23, "22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.",

But Paul says that Jesus is at the Father's own Right Hand. True; but he also says, that "being justified by faith, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." In other words, we have admission to the Father in heaven by faith; and when a person is permitted access to a place, and avails himself of the permission, he is in some sense certainly there; and when there in this certain sense, he is "dwelling in the heaven" in the presence of "the Judge of all."

 entrance into the tabernacle gate is by faith For it is the domain of faith,

How, then, does a sinner come to "dwell in the heavens"? By being "transformed in the renewing of his mind" "by knowledge" (Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10); that he may discern and do "that good and acceptable and Perfect will of the Deity." In other words, by believing the gospel of the Kingdom and Name; and being immersed into and upon that Name. In so doing, he enters into the Holy Heavenly State.

By faith in "the truth as it is in Jesus," and obedience, he puts on Christ, and is therefore, "in Him;" and being in him, he is constituted holy or a saint; and sitting together with him in the Most Holy, not personally, or corporeally rather; but by faith. This is his present adoption through Jesus Christ, by which he becomes a son of Deity, of Abraham, and a brother of Christ himself (Gal. 3:26-29); and a "dweller in the heavens."

Our spiritual man is not limited by the bonds of space. Thus Paul was bodily absent from Corinth, " but present in spirit" (1 Cor. 5:3), i.e. his spiritual man was present with them. It was the same with Colosse: " I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit" (Col. 2:5). When our spiritual man groans, Christ groans too in Heaven, an infinite distance away (Rom. 8:23 cp. 26). There is no time barrier, either. Thus our spiritual man is in close fellowship with " the spirits of just men made perfect" , having died many years ago (Heb. 12:23). This is the glorious unity of the Spirit; we are not just connected with all living saints, wherever they may be, but with the spiritual characters of all true saints throughout history.