The Mystery of the New Creation: The Body of Christ and Its Rewards
Orientation
The profound reality of the Body of Christ as the new creation is often missed, reducing the Christian life to mere moral improvement and obscuring the glory for which we were created.
- The world remains blind to this mystery; it is revealed only to those who are in Christ.
- This is not about intellectual attainment, but about God making known what was always in His heart.
- To misunderstand this is to live without the full assurance and confidence of our identity as God's children.
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.
— Mark 4:11
Clarification
The Body of Christ is not a metaphor or a religious club, but the literal, corporate new creation—God's own building and dwelling place, formed by His craftsmanship.
- We are not merely forgiven individuals, but are being 'fitly framed together' into a single holy temple.
- Our good works are not a test, but the predestined expression of the new identity God crafted for us.
- This truth removes the pressure of performance, anchoring us in God's finished workmanship.
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
— Ephesians 2:21-22
Structure
God ordained this hidden wisdom before the world began, unveiling it through Christ's resurrection to frame believers together as His Body, which embodies the fullness of Christ.
- The mystery was hidden in God until the appointed time of revelation.
- Christ's resurrection revealed the corporate Body, making believers children and joint-heirs.
- This structure culminates in the Bema seat, where rewards are dispensed for building up this Body.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.
— 1 Corinthians 2:7
Weight-Bearing Prose
The core assertion is that the Church, the Body of Christ, is the new creation—a mystery hidden in God before the world and ordained for the glory of believers. This is not an allegory but the substance of Paul’s revelation. The cause is God’s eternal ordination of hidden wisdom; the effect is the unveiling of the mystery to those ‘in God’ for their understanding and glory. Ignorance of this mystery leads to being wise in one’s own conceits, a negative outcome Paul explicitly warns against.
The positive chain revealed in Paul’s epistles is definitive: Christ’s resurrection effected the revelation of the Body of Christ mystery. Believers, receiving the Spirit of adoption, become children of God and joint-heirs with Christ—a legal and spiritual reality, not a metaphor. They are then framed together as God’s building, growing into a holy habitation of God in the Spirit. This is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for predestined good works. The final result is the Body embodying the fullness of Christ, becoming the new creation itself.
The Bema seat judgment is the culmination of this divine logic. It is not a tribunal of condemnation for believers, but the place where rewards, tied directly to building up the Body of Christ, are dispensed. This counters any notion of the Bema as a fearful qualifying exam. The reward is the inheritance of Christ Himself, shared with co-heirs. Pauline categories of mystery, adoption, joint-heirship, building, and workmanship are not optional layers but the constitutive elements of this reality.
Integration
Your place in this is assured, not earned. You are in Christ. The mystery has been made known to you. The Spirit Himself testifies that you are a child of God. This is your starting and resting place.
The building is God’s workmanship. You are being fitly framed together with others, not by your effort, but by His craftsmanship. The good works are those He prepared beforehand. There is no pressure here, only the relief of being His work.
The Bema seat is a celebration of Christ, your reward. Any loss is of wood and hay, gladly suffered as Paul did, to gain Christ. There is no sorrow, only rejoicing in the inheritance you already possess as a joint-heir. Your assurance is anchored in God’s record concerning His Son, not in your grasp of these truths. Christ is your righteousness, your sanctification, and your reward. Rest here.