Ideally, then … the church, the community that hails Jesus as Lord and
king, and feasts at his table celebrating his victorious death and
resurrection, is constituted as "the body of the Messiah." This famous
Pauline image is not a random "illustration." It expresses Paul's
conviction that this is the way in which Jesus now exercises his rule in the world—through the church, which is his Body.
Paul, rooted as he was in the ancient Scriptures, knew well that the
Creator's plan was to look after his creation through obedient
humankind. For Paul, Jesus himself is the Obedient Man who is now
therefore in charge of the world; and the church is "his body, the
fullness of the one who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:23).
- from a Christianity Today article (Oct. 2011) re N.T. Wright's book: 'Simply Jesus'
