143 Cf. 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:22-32.
143Cf. 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:22-32.
144Cf. 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20.
145E. L. Mascall, Christ, the Christian and the Church (London, 1946), p. 112; see the critique by E. Best, One Body in Christ, pp. 98-101.
146 T. F. Torrance, while acknowledging that all the terms in which the NT speaks of the church “must be used to correct and modify each other in our understanding and in any full discussion,” argues that the body is to be regarded as “the central and all-important conception” (Royal Priesthood [Edinburgh, 1955], p. 29).
147Cf. E. Schweizer, Das Leben des Herrn in der Gemeinde und ihren Diensten (Zürich, 1946); T. W. Manson, The Church’s Ministry (London, 1948); T. F. Torrance, Royal Priesthood, pp. 23-42. E. Best, however, demurs to this on the ground that the body-metaphor in the NT “looks inward and not outward” (One Body in Christ, pp. 113, 137, 157-58, 188). D. Cairns goes so far as to say “that probably it would be wrong even to claim that the Church continues Christ’s mission” (SJT 8 [1955], 422, in a review of Best, One Body in Christ).