Bible Basis for Corporate Repentance

APPENDIX B

A. There is no Anglo-Saxon adjective to describe the relationship between "members" of the "body."

"Corporate" is not to be confused with commercial, business "corporations."
Not to be confused as "corporate confession," which is merely a committee vote.
The idea is the biblical "corporate body of the church: not its political policy-book, or hierarchical structure, but its spiritual identity with Christ and all believers.
As our second Adam, Christ is new corporate Head of the human race, replacing Adam.

B. The word "corporate": is it biblical? Some examples (emphasis supplied):

"If we have become incorporate with him in a death like his, we shall also be one with him in a resurrection like his" (Romans 6:5, NEB; in other words, "many" become "one" in a corporate sense).
"From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus, ... to God’s people at Ephesus, incorporate in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:1, NEB).
"You too, when you heard the ... good news of your salvation, and had believed it, became incorporate in Christ" (vs. 15, NEB).
"From Paul and Timothy ... to all those of God’s people, incorporate in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:1, NEB).
"I ... did in fact lose everything. I count it so much garbage, for the sake of ... finding myself incorporate in [Christ]" (3:8, 9, NEB).
"From Paul, ... to God’s people at Colossae, ... incorporate in Christ" (Colossians 1:1, NEB).
"It is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead dwells embodied [or corporately, footnote]" (2:9).

C. The idea of "corporate": is it biblical?

The oneness of the human race "in Adam" and their oneness "in Christ" = a corporate union: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" [in one or the other of two resurrections, John 5:28, 29] (1 Corinthians 15:22, indicating that the "all" = the human race, Acts 17:28).
Genesis 2:7: "the breath of life" breathed into Adam = "the breath of lives," that is, of the human race. (Most uses of "Adam" in the Old Testament have a corporate sense. The biblical idea: entire human race is "in Adam.") When God spoke to Adam in the Garden He spoke to us all. In the biblical concept, when Adam fell, we fell.
"Levi ... paid tithes in Abraham," that is, in a corporate sense (Hebrews 7:9).
"One has died = all died," that is, the entire human race (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). Paul’s frequent phrase "in Christ" cannot mean a physical union, but as incorporate "in Christ," the second Adam, as we are by fallen nature incorporate "in Adam." When the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice, He accepted the human race (Ephesians 1:6; DA 113, 834). Christ lived and died "as us.
"I am crucified with Christ" = a corporate identity with Christ effected at the cross but now experienced by faith ("I have been crucified with Christ," Gal. 2:20).

D. No better word describes Christ’s identity with us, and ours with others.

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