IT IS THE BODY OF CHRIST

Jesus laid down His soul and physical life for the salvation of all mankind. "Therefore, the Father is loving me, seeing that I am laying down my soul, that I may be getting it again. No one is taking it away from me, but I am laying it down of Myself. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it again. This direction I got from My Father" John 10:17,18.

God raised Jesus from the dead due to His sinless nature, and seated HIM at His right hand among the celestials. " subjecting all under His feet, and gives him the HEADSHIP over all to the ecclesia which is HIS BODY, the complement which is completing the entire universe. Ephesians 1:20-23.

This called-out body could not have been in existence before there was a Head, for God does not create incomplete things.

"For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, this also is the Christ. For IN ONE SPIRIT we all are immersed into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all are made to imbibe one Spirit. (made to absorb, to receive into the mind ) ". Now you are the Body of Christ, and members of a part, whom also God, indeed, PLACED in the Ecclesia.." 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27-31.

It is not an ORGANISATION
The fact that the body is made up of living members shows that it is not an organisation.
An organisation is made up of distinct units, like doors and windows etc. in a building, that can be removed or replaced, without destroying the integrity of the building.

It is an ORGANISM.
The human body is an organism. You cannot remove an eye, without destroying the integrity of the body, and causing a mutation.
"My Father. said Jesus, Who has given them (the ecclesia) to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to be snatching them out of My Father's hand, and I and the Father are one" John 10:29.

But why call this Ecclesia, the body of Christ?
What is the body for?

THE MANIFESTATION OF A PERSONALITY

"In the last of these days, ( ie the Law and the days of the prophets. ), God speaks to us, Israel, in a Son". Hebrews 1:1-2.
"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, Israel" John 1;14.
The Word, that was God, had a "a body adapted for Him" Hebrews 10:5. In Jesus, this brought God's word to the level of the people of Israel, to lead them into the Kingdom of the Heavens. Jesus, the Messiah said to them, "If ye had known Me, ye would have known my Father also,The declarations which I am speaking to you, I am not speaking of Myself, now the Father is remaining in me, He is doing His works" John 14:6-10.

The only way God spoke to the Jews in those days was through a human body, so they could see and hear God's words through Jesus. So, today, the only way Christ, who is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, can manifest and speak to this world, to call out His chosen people, is through His BODY, the Ecclesia.

This is what Paul meant when he wrote, "For to me to be living is Christ" Phil. 1:2 as long as Paul was living; he was manifesting Christ and His word.

THE PERFECT MAN

If Christ is the Head, and the Ecclesia is the body, then the two should make a perfect mature man. This is God's desire not only for the present economy, but also for the future.
"..and He (Jesus) indeed, it is, who gives the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, for the READJUSTING of the saints, with a view to the working of dispensing, for the UP-BUILDING of the body of Christ, UNTIL we should all attain unto the unity of faith, and the REALISATION of a son of God, to MATURE MANHOOD, to the adult stature of Christ's complement" Ephesians 4 :10-16.

Paul says further of the Ecclesia, under the figure of a building and temple, of which Christ is the Chief corner stone, "In whom the entire building BEING connected together, is GROWING into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you, also, are BEING BUILT together, FOR God's dwelling place, in spirit." Ephesians 2: 19-22.

Here we see that the SHEKINAH GLORY manifested God's presence with Israel, in the tabernacle. Exodus 29:45.
Shekinah means 'to dwell', a word not found in the Hebrew writings, but one employed in the late Jewish times to denote God's dwelling among His people. So now, in this dispensation of God's grace, when Israel, nationally is out of fellowship with God, and there is no Temple, the Ecclesia is 'the habitation of God' on earth in each believer, where He can manifest Himself and His word through the Holy Spirit to the world.