What gives church-age believers their position in Christ?
Being an intrinsic member of the body of Christ, connected to the Head, gives church-age believers their position in Christ. Every believer is baptized into one body, not merely a sheep under a shepherd, and this union with the Head establishes their standing as believers.
Les explains that every believer—not just a chosen few—is baptized into one body, the body of Christ, which is likened to the human body. As the mind controls and responds to every facet of the body, so every believer is connected to the Head. Paul never uses the illustration of church-age believers as sheep and Christ as shepherd, because being an intrinsic member of the body connected to the Head is greater. That connection is what gives believers their position in Christ; they are not merely sheep under a shepherd but part and parcel of the Head and body. Les notes Paul develops this especially in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, taking believers into a higher plane of Christian experience not found elsewhere in Scripture.