Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
There are three wonderful figures that depict the relationship of a believer to other believers as well as to Christ Himself. Christians are like little branches connected to the Vine; they are stones in a great building of which Christ is the foundation and corner stone and believers are all members of the great body of Christ of which He is the head. In each case they have been placed “in Christ” and they derive their life and meaning from Him.
A building:
Paul uses the illustration of believers being built together into a spiritual house of God (Eph 2:19-22). As a stone lying alone on the ground is useless, so any believer who is not truly “in Christ” is laying aside not fitted into the structure of God’s house. Paul says, “If any man being in Christ, he is a new creature . . .” and so as we are placed in Christ by God we now become a part of the whole. Peter uses this similar illustration calling us “lively” stones (1 Pet 2:5). Christ is the head of the corner, the foundation of this spiritual house (Matt 16:18; 1 Cor 3:10-11). God places us in the spiritual house as He please because He is the head over His house (Heb 3:6).
A vine: Jn 15:5
Similarly, a branch w/o the vine is only a dead branch, but when attached to the Vine it is now alive and capable of bringing forth fruit. We are attached to the vine for the sole purpose of bearing fruit for the husbandman (1 Cor 3:9; Matt 21:19; Heb 6:8). The Pharisees were planted by God (the Jewish nation), but they failed to produce the desired fruit and thus were eliminated (Matt 15:13; Isa 60:3). If we do not bear as much fruit as He desires He will purge us and if we fail to bring forth fruit we will be broken off and cast away (Ro 11:17-21).
A body Rom 12:4-5
When a person is injured and the communication between the brain and the body parts is damaged or destroyed, the members of the body do not function properly or at all. Thus it is with the Body of Christ – He is the head and we are the individual members. Again as with the illustration of the stones, God places each of us in the body where He desires us to be (1 Cor 12:18) and supplies us with the necessary gifts to edify and grow the body for Him (1 Cor 12:11-13, 20; Eph 4:15-16). It is important that member of the Body perform the function God has equipped it to do; if it does not then other body parts must make up the difference and this often places greater dependence upon those malfunctioning body parts. As we use our gifts and work together in the body, God increases according to His pleasure (Col 2:19).
