πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς. (Eph. 3:15.)
The blessing of man, and with him of all creation, is to be determined simply by his position before God. Therefore to be without God is to be without hope in the world; and thus every renewed soul proves, in the daily, hourly history of his own little kingdom within, that his blessing is in the favor of the Lord, and that clouds and sorrows arise when that favor is withdrawn or forgotten. As man at first stood on the face of this earth of ours, his blessing was all of this character. He was blest because his whole condition reflected the kindness and love of his Creator. His very constitution was as the image of God, the manifestation of divine perfections and dominion (Gen. 1:27); in the sabbath a standing witness of fellowship between him and his Creator was ordained (Gen. 2:3); over him he had a most gracious Lord, who enjoined on him only a necessary burden (Gen. 2:16); around him he saw a fair creation spread as his own domain, made willingly subject to him in its ten thousand sources of tribute and service, by their great Creator; for, in token of man's lordship of them all, the Lord brought them to him to be named, and whatsoever name Adam gave them the same was the name thereof (Gen. 2:19, see Isa. 40. 26). By his side, to complete the blessedness, he had given him of the Lord a companion fully meet for him, a part of himself—bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh (Gen. 2:22); and thus was his condition perfect and blessed in every relation, showing forth the kindness of God; and he had access to the tree of life to keep it so. But all this state of things was forfeited by transgression—all blessing was gone when the divine favor was withdrawn, when enmity fell out between the righteous God and His offending creature; so did it between the creatures as among themselves. There was no longer the due subjection of the earth to Adam, when Adam had failed in his subjection to God; the earth yielded thorns and thistles to him, as soon as he had brought forth the fruit of a heart revolted from God. And the joys of innocency between the man and the woman were all likewise fled: their nakedness was now their shame, and confidence was changed for covering.
The whole economy of creature-blessedness in paradise, thus presented for a moment, and thus disturbed, was however a mystery; the tabernacle there was, it is true, quickly taken down, but not until we had seen in it the shadows of better things to come.
The purpose of God is not affected by this failure in man. The order of creation, as set in subjection to Adam for the glory of the Lord God, and the union of man with woman taken out of him, and thus made the partner of his name and dignity, is “a great mystery.” We have divinely traced for us in all this, the union of Christ and the church, and the creation put in subjection under Him (see Psa. 8, Eph. 5:23); and we look now for the opening of a happier paradise, for the erection of a second temple, that is never to be taken down, but to continue the blessed witness of the sustaining faithful strength of the Second Man, Who is the Lord from heaven; Who having bruised her enemy under her foot, will go in and out there with His espoused church, made “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh,” who shall then know the support and comfort of His right hand forever.
The opening heavens do thus, as it were, shine around us in the opening of the book of God; the fellowship of heaven and earth that is there presented, the fellowship of man and the woman, the fellowship of man with the creation around him, shall all be displayed again, and that too in still more blessedness and glory; because of the dignity of the person, and the unspeakable riches and excellency of the work, of Him, in and by Whom all this is to be established. Christ Jesus our Lord is the single-handed power of God to do all this. He alone is the slayer and abolisher of every enmity; the reconciler and fixed center of all this order and fellowship forever; as it is written, “Hereafter shall ye see the heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (John 1:51); and again “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He (God) might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him” (Eph. 1:10).
Our Lord Christ who is at once “God over all, blessed forever,” and “Son of man,” “made of a woman,” Who, in the work given Him to do according to the everlasting covenant, descended first into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended up far above all heavens, has title to “fill all things” (Eph. 4:10): and in Him when He has asserted this His title, “every family in heaven and on earth” is to be gathered. May the Spirit who witnesses to Him, and shows the saints things to come, so trace before us those varied features of His glory, that desiring Him we may ever in Spirit be saying, “Come Lord Jesus!” And let us not be ashamed to own, “that hope long deferred maketh the heart sick,” seeing that we should know no full satisfying joy till we see Him (John 16:22). The Lord Jesus Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification, and by Whom, through faith in His name, the poor sinner has even now full remission of sins, and access to God as his heavenly Father in full assurance of His love, is known in scripture to sustain the glorious characters, among many other, of King of Israel and Head of the church.
The Jewish nation had constant expectation of Messiah, in the first of these. To the hope connected with Him as King of Israel, the twelve tribes, as the apostle says, instantly serving God day and night, hoped to come. It was therefore simply by such a character that the Jews tried the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. Thus when He spake to them of being lifted up, signifying thereby what death He should die, they said to Him, (John 12:34) “We have heard out of the law, that Christ abideth forever; and how sagest Thou the Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?” They had known their Messiah under this title of Son of man, but then it was in connection with a dominion, and glory and kingdom, that should never pass away; for thus had their prophet spoken (Dan. 7:13, 14). But who was this Son of man who was thus “to be lifted up?” And His own apostles, whom He had called and chosen for Himself out of Israel, were thus Jewish in their expectation respecting Him; as appears, I might say, from the whole tenor of their intercourse with the Lord, and particularly from the request of Zebedee's children, and from the apostles, saying, even after He had risen from the dead, “Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6.) Besides, there was equal ignorance in the Jews and the apostles, touching the mystery of “the little while” (John 7:33., 16:16). The difference between them did not rest in any different expectation respecting the Messiah, but rather in their faith or unbelief concerning the truth, that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
And this knowledge of Christ, according to the measure of Jewish hopes even by His own chosen ones, was only “after the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:16); for it linked their expectations with this earth merely. It did not take them out of the system of human affections and associations, or guide them into the apprehension of any heavenly inheritance in and with Him. For this rests in the revelation of Him as Head of the church, and this character of Messiah is to be known only by the ministry of the Holy Ghost among the saints.
The second character of the Christ, Head of the church, with its resulting power in the church or body mystical, I judge to have been the mystery laid up in the purpose of God, but hid from ages and generations, i.e., not disclosed in former times or by previous dispensations (Rom. 16:25., Eph. 3:5). And there is involved in its very nature, if I may so speak, a necessity for its being thus hidden: for the blessed Lord entered into the character of Head of the church on His entrance into His heavenly glory, and this resulted from Israel's rejection of Him; so that the revelation of the Christ as Head of His body the church has to await the manifestation of Israel's apostasy, and thus could not, by dispensations, have been disclosed till the apostasy was so evidenced. That the Lord's entrance into His present glory in heaven resulted from Israel's apostasy, among other passages, is intimated by His own words in the presence of the great organs of Jewish unbelief, in the day of the power of darkness. When challenged of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, to say whether He were “The Christ the Son of God,” after speaking in terms full of righteous condemnation of them, He convicts as it were the place of judgment, that behold iniquity was there, saying, “If I tell you, ye will not believe; and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, or let me go.” He adds, “From henceforth (ἀπὸ τοῦ νῖν); shall ye see the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God;” that is, that now was the time of exalting Him to His heavenly glory, since Israel had rejected Him, giving Him no place of glory on earth (Luke 22:68, 69).
The Father has thus made man's wrath to praise Him. The Christ has lost His earthly glory for a season, being the Heir of the vineyard and yet cast out by the vineyard's wicked husbandmen; but the Father has raised the rejected Stone to the highest, and thus prepared larger joys and new honors to await Him in the coming day of the revelation of His glory.
During this present age (while waiting for Him Who has turned away His face in righteous anger from the house of Israel, until He repent and leave a blessing behind Him, Isa. 8:17) the Christ, as Head over all things to His church, is gathering His saints by His word and Spirit. The saints, “whose conversation is in heaven,” who “sit in heavenly places,” by the ministry of the Spirit, shall be brought to their perfect measure, and thus being constituted “the family in heaven,” who are knit together in “the knowledge of the Son of God,” will have their place with the Son in the Father's house; and in His, the Son's, kingdom (Eph. 4:13., Isa. 14:1., Rev. 3:2.1).
This family, ordained for heaven, is already through the Spirit brought into circumstances altogether ultra-Jewish, if I may so speak. They are in the adoption, and not merely in the place of servitude (Gal. 4:1-4); they are even now “blest with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies,” not merely with blessings of the earth. They are in the expectancy of the inheritance of all things with Christ; and not merely becoming the subjects of a kingdom under Him (Rom. 8:17). They are in present conflict not with flesh and blood, or with the nations of the earth, but with spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, and are taught to hope for final victory over them, and of completely dispossessing them of their present place and power (Eph. 2:2 with 1 Thess. 4:17; see also Rev. 12:10).
When the church is thus complete and Gentile fullness brought in, “all Israel” is to be saved (Rom. 11:26). This present dispensation will have its purpose answered in the taking of the saints into their place of union in heaven with the Lord their Head, which is the first resurrection. Then the same blessed Lord, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in power, and on Whose head are to be “many crowns,” will turn His hand to gather His family on earth, (for the blessings of the earth are Israel's, and all the nations in and through them) in the character of the King of Israel, or, “God of the whole earth” (Isa. 54:5). His glory shall then arise on Zion, and the Gentiles shall come to the light thereof. He shall be set on the earth as God's salvation, to be the glory of His people Israel, and to embrace all the nations within the light of His presence (Luke 2:32). Then shall come the glorious dispensation of the fullness of times, when all things, whether in heaven or on earth, will be gathered together in one, even in Christ (Eph. 1:10). Then shall the fellowship of heaven and earth be restored, and Christ, as the true Jacob's ladder, be the Ruler and Sustainer of it all. Truth shall then spring out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven. The heavens and the earth, the morning stars and the children of Israel, the angels in the heights, and kings with all people of the earth, shall together praise the name of the Lord (Psa. 148). “His will shall be done in all places of His dominion, and the days of heaven shall be upon the earth” (Deut. 11:21).
The verse which I have selected, as summarily presenting that truth which I am desiring to trace in this paper (Eph. 3:15), has no doubt been commonly read as describing the saints who have departed this life, and are now, as is judged, in heaven; and those who are still in their bodies on the earth. I would be understood fully to grant that there are numbers of God's dear family now disembodied, in heaven, and members of the same family still on earth, and that these are, of course, included in “every family “; but then they cannot assuredly constitute of themselves that family in its wholeness. The family presented in its wholeness must wait for the day when all whom God regards as His are gathered together; and to which this passage in its natural bearing has respect. The purpose of the Holy Ghost in this verse (which may be treated as an adjective parenthesis) is, to tell us that “every family” acknowledges one God and Father, “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ “; thus leaving it for other scriptures to instruct us of whom it is that “every family” is to consist. It is this which, as desiring and praying to be fully subject to those scriptures, I am now aiming to do. May the Lord give us the Spirit of humble worshippers in all our labors.
Every family then, though part is in heaven and part on earth, shall be one, as owning one Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The heavenly branch of it is to be with the Firstborn in the Father's house, His God their God, His Father their Father, His dwelling their dwelling, His inheritance theirs also, the fullness of the Father's love theirs as His (John 17:26., 20:17). “Ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” And the branch of it which is to be found on the earth will be gathered by and into a Father's love also; for the true Solomon, Christ as David's son, the Head of Jewish glory, shall enjoy that ancient promise of His God, “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son;” and this joy resting in fullness on His head shall circulate among the thousands of His Israel; this oil of gladness shall descend from the beard to the skirts of the Aaron clothing; for Jehovah of old spake of Israel as His son, as His firstborn (Ex. 4:22). So, in this dispensation, believers are made now the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). And the prophet, anticipating the day of Judah's salvation, says of Jerusalem, “This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness” Jer. 20 13:16).
This leads me, then, to consider what is to be the principle upon which “every family in heaven and on earth” is to be formed. I design, then, to consider the order, or successive acts of Christ by which these branches of the family of God are to be thus formed; and then also the connection and intercourse that may be maintained among them. Sweet meditations for faith and hope! though knowing but in part, we can but speak or think of these things in part.
As to the principle, by which every family of God is to be formed, it is mere grace—grace setting the saints in heaven, and establishing Israel with the worshipping obedient nations on the earth; grace coming forth from the love of God, to bring us home into the love of the Father. “God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all,” is the apostle's summary of the Lord's dealings with the Gentiles and with Israel, after He had been tracing Israel's rejection for a time, in order to let in “the fullness of the Gentiles,” and in the end to save all Israel; thus showing that mercy should alike rejoice through the gathered and blest families in heaven and on earth. And in the satisfying sense of this, he breaks forth into that note, not of ignorant, but of intelligent admiration, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Rom. 11:33). Here may our souls rest forever; here may we dwell, having our delight therein, the mercy of our God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That grace is the principle of our present salvation, and our future inheritance, of that which is now reserved in heaven for us, is the sweet burthen, I would say, of all the New Testament scriptures, and to which every thought and feeling of the renewed soul must fully consent. I would not, therefore, speak particularly upon it. But that Israel is to come hereafter into the blessing of the earth, simply by grace, may be more carefully traced. Though gradually presented in many parts of scripture, yet it is specifically so in that beautiful scene recorded in Ex. 32-34, which has been already slightly referred to in one of the papers of this publication. I would here shortly refer to another passage (Deut. 29., 30.), as exhibiting the same doctrine.
Moses had just pointed to the people the blessing and the curse that was necessarily appended to their obedience or disobedience (Deut. 28.); when he calls them again to listen further to words of covenant between them and the Lord (29:1). He then recites generally the mercies they had enjoyed at the hand of God from their days in Egypt, telling them however that the Lord had not as yet circumcised their hearts (2-9). He then solemnly places them before the Lord as His people, warning them as he had done before, that disobedience would but cause them to be scattered through the earth, their land to be left a wilderness, and then themselves to become, as it were, a proverb and wonder to the nations of the world (10-29). He proceeds then to further unfold the Lord's covenant with them, showing them that, when they had thus fully entered into the curse of disobedience, if they or the children (for that covenant equally embraced all generations) of them (29:15, 30:2) should repent, then the Lord would have compassion on them and gather them, and circumcise their heart so that they should live forever, and be blest in every work of their hand, in the fruit of their body, of their cattle, and of their land (30:1-10). He then darkly hints to them on what this repentance was to be founded, i.e., faith; for he uses the very same words which the apostle quotes as expressive of the dispensation of faith or grace in opposition to that of law and works (11-14, Rom. 10:6).
This dispensation then, of faith or grace, is that which is hereafter to establish Israel in the blessing of the earth forever, when they repent, or in faith turn to Jesus their Messiah, looking to Him Whom they pierced (Zech. 12:10), and welcoming Him as their King and Deliverer (Matt. 23:39), saying, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” So also in Moses' Song, which follows very closely upon this (Deut. 32.), we have the same covenant presented. For there, after the prophet had been forewarning his nation of the curse that was to come upon them for their unfaithfulness to Jehovah, he points to the land of the people in the distant future as receiving mercy, and speaks of this as that which was among other things sealed up among God's treasures (32:34-43), as he had before called the grace or mercy of God to Israel God's “secret” (29:29); and it is these sealed treasures of grace, this secret of mercy, that the Spirit largely discloses, and makes known in our dispensation, showing, as He graciously does, “plainly of the Father.”
That grace is thus the fountain of all blessing to Israel, and shall hereafter establish them in the land of their fathers, is presented to us also very strikingly in an event in the life of the patriarch Jacob. When he was returning with his households and flocks out of the land of his exile, his brother's heart was moved against him, and he came forth to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob commits his case into the hands of God, and from Him, in the action of wrestling with the Angel until he had prevailed, he receives a pledge that the mercy he desired should be his. And so it was; the anger that stirred in his brother's heart was quieted, and Jacob passed safely and honorably into the land of his covenant (Gen. 32:24).
Now Jacob in all this stands before us as the type of Israel in the last times, when they shall come forth from their present exile to claim their promised inheritance; and their God and Deliverer shall show Himself in the hour of their need, to still the enemy and avenger, and give them the land of their fathers.
Jacob, Israel's representative, was taught by the Angels touch disjointing the hollow of his thigh, to know that the blessing then pledged to him was all of grace: for that the Angel had not put forth all his strength, but had even allowed himself to be prevailed over; and just as our apostle who was given in like manner and with like purpose, a thorn in the flesh, that he might learn that he was weak in himself, but through grace had all his sufficiency in Jesus (2 Cor. 12:9).
Israel then, as Jacob was, shall be taken through grace into their earthly inheritance, and the church shall, through the same grace be taken into the heavenly glory; and thus mercy alone shall establish every family in heaven and on earth.
I would now beloved (through the mercy of our God, who would have His saints to meditate in His ways, and humbly and yet freely inquire in His temple), seek to trace from scripture what will be the order or procedure of our God when He comes to form His households and to set His every family in heaven and on earth. And what shall we ask Him by the Spirit to give us in this and in all our inquiries? The temper of children who consciously know nothing but through His word and teaching; the mind of friends who delight to use the privilege of friendship by learning his secrets, and claiming confidence: the unshod feet of worshippers ever heedful that the ground is holy. For though whatever things are written, are for our learning; yet are they the things of the blessed God, and we are but the creatures of His band. And oh, for faith to trace these things, and meditate upon them, as though we stood in the presence of them; so that we may enter more and more into the substance of the things hoped for, and be less sensible of the things that are present, whether joyous or sorrowing; having blessed deliverance from their power, through the faith of the things that lie beyond them all.
The blessed Lord Jesus is now ascended up far above all heavens and is seated on the Father's throne, the place of incommunicable glory and majesty. He has gone up on high as a mighty conqueror, and has all power given Him in heaven and on earth. He has gone up on high as a mighty High Priest, to the service of the heavenly temple for us, waiting in sympathy on our infirmities, and being our Advocate with the Father. In these His ascension glories, He is exercising Himself for the completing the full measure and stature of His body the church, until it come to the “perfect man” in Christ. His long delayed return is “salvation, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And thus His ascension state is not to be the last stage in His wondrous history. The heavens only retain Him until the times of the decreed restitution of all things be come. He then is to come again in like manner as He once went into heaven; as the high priest who once a year went into the holiest, came forth again to meet the people.