Participation in the “one body”
corporeity does not mean the loss of the individuality of the participants.
Husband and wife remain distinct individuals while they are, at the same time,
one corporate body in marriage. The “one body” union does not eliminate their
individual distinctions. Otherwise, Paul’s exhortations given to husbands and
wives respectively would not make sense. In the same manner, believers maintain
their individuality when they form a corporate body with others and with
Christ. Paul’s conception of Christ and the husband as the heads of their
respective corporate bodies also draws a fine distinction between their
individual and their corporate existence.
The corporate union with Christ has
sometimes been misunderstood as referring to the eradication of the individual’s
racial, social, and gender distinctives. Those who hold this view often appeal
to Gal. 3:27-28: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, male and
female; for you are all one (εις) in Christ
Jesus.” Paul, however, does not teach in this passage that incorporation into
Christ abrogates one’s racial, social, and gender distinctives. He is primarily
concerned here with the corporate unity of all believers in Christ, which in
some respects transcends and transforms but does not eradicate their racial,
social, and gender distinctions. (Sang-Won (Aaron) Son, Corporate Elements
in Pauline Anthropology: A Study of Selected Terms, Idioms, and Concepts in the
Light of Paul’s Usage and Background [Rome: Pontificio Instituto Biblico,
2001], 168)
