What does it mean that as the body is one and has many members, so also is Christ?
It means the many members of Christ’s spiritual Body form one unified body, just as a human body is one though it has many members. Christ is the Head in heaven, the nerve center, and every true believer is placed into that one Body by the Holy Spirit.
Les teaches that the term “Body of Christ” is a Pauline term and a Pauline revelation, not something found in the Gospels or used by Peter. In verse 12, Paul uses the human body to illustrate: a body is one and has many members, and all the members, though many, are one body. So also is Christ, meaning the Body of Christ. Les illustrates this further by noting that while the body has ten fingers, ten toes, ears, and eyes, the control of all these is at the head. In the same way, the Body of Christ has its Head in heaven, where believers’ citizenship and nerve center are. Then verse 13 explains how believers got there: by one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, all true believers—not just the most spiritual, and not just those who had an emotional upheaval—are members of the Body of Christ, because the Holy Spirit has baptized them into that Body.
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.