Most faithfully yours in the gospel, J. W. X.
A. What characterizes the present time is the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Though God acted in grace in all the dispensations from Adam fallen to the cross, quickening those that believed, the Holy Spirit as a Person was never down here dwelling in them. Bat 'according to the promise of Christ in John 14-16 He came at Pentecost to abide here, to be in the believer permanently, and then in the assembly as such. Thus, in 1 Cor. 6, we are told our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and in chapter iii. 16, the assembly looked at as a whole, is told, "Ye are the temple of God." See also Eph. 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22), " Builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." 1 Cor. 12 gives the figure of the church or assembly as a body, spoken of in Eph. 1:22,2322And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22‑23), as the body of Christ. There seen in its corporate character, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is said to form into one body. It is not water baptism, but by one Spirit baptized into one body, the distinctive work of the Holy Spirit, for the specific thing of this day is the church. The mystery is Christ and the church. We are by the Holy Spirit linked to Christ as members of Him and of one another. " 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."
Gal. in 26, 27, refers to baptism, in water, an expression of death, out of whatever they were as Jews under the law, which /MS their schoolmaster, as Gentiles never had been under the law. Coming out from all this; they put on Christ, baptism being the expression of that. They are not before God in their condition as Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, male or female, but according to their position in Christ. One in Christ, He being the common and only measure of their relationship with God. This is not corporate, ecclesiastical oneness or unity, but of life and nature.