No. 7.
MY DEAR―, It is well to keep prominently before us that God has “called us unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ;” and, I would ask, Can any calling be higher? We are, therefore, called into association with Christ who is rejected by the world, yet preaching grace to it, loved by the Father, and honored by His saints. In fact, the Spirit of God teaches us to measure everything according to Christ Jesus. You will see that nothing leas can really be Christianity. Blessed fellowship, though of course, not without present suffering. We are “not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”
The apostle John, in writing to the saints about their having fellowship with himself and others, says, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” He does not say ought to be, but is. This is really the fact, and in measure true of every believer. For where does the believer rest? What does he delight in? Is it not in Jesus? And does not the Father’s heart rest and delight in Him too? Well, this is fellowship—fellowship with the Father. And does not Jesus enjoy the Father’s love, enter into the Father’s purposes, remember the deep and unutterable sorrows of the cross, and anticipate the coming glories? And do not we? And is not this, according to our tiny measure, fellowship with Jesus? And in proportion as we learn His mind from the Scriptures, and understand the Father’s love and counsels in Christ, by the teaching and power of the Spirit, and what God has revealed regarding the Church, Israel, and the world, will not our thoughts, affections, and ways, be increasingly in fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ?
This is, then, God’s standard of Christian fellowship; and it will be for our profit not to attempt to lower it; but to refuse what cannot be held within this circle. Christian fellowship is a common expression in our day; but few, perhaps, consider that the Holy Ghost proposes nothing leas, and that He guides us, by the truth, into fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
I need scarcely remind you, that Christ Himself, and His precious blood, have laid the foundation of this blessed fellowship. He who purged our sins on the cross has gone into heaven by His own blood, where He now appears for us. Hence we can enter into the holiest of all with boldness; and by the power of the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us, we can enter into the Father’s counsels, and love, and ways, in and through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Can any higher privilege be conceived than such an intimacy? With what profound humility and reverent feelings, then, should we ever think or speak of it. We may know it in a very feeble measure now, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
My chief object in calling your attention to the subject of “fellowship” now, is because from my last you will have no difficulty in perceiving that you do not belong to a religious nation, like the people of Israel did; but that you belong to the Church of God―the body of Christ―a body on earth formed by the descent and baptism of the Holy Ghost, in union with a living Head in heaven. This special work of God, unknown, as I believe, before Pentecost, and peculiar to the Church throughout all ages, is necessarily connected with a special position and new relationships; and, I need scarcely tell you, that as a principle it is always true, that conduct is regulated by the knowledge we have of our own position and relationships.
In this dispensation, then, our position, and some of our relationships, are peculiar. We have union with Christ, the risen and ascended man. We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We know that the vail is rent, and have therefore liberty to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. We are united in one body with all believers sins the Holy Ghost came down from heaven. We are espoused to Christ, and are destined to the glory of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife; and we shall find that these relationships are presented to us in Scripture to form our characters, mold our affections, and exercise our consciences. To be ignorant therefore of the special calling, position, relationships, and hope of the dispensation, cannot fail to be connected with loss of inward comfort and power of testimony; it leads persona to confuse important dispensational differences, to misinterpret many portions of Scripture, and almost invariably to lower the standard of Christian fellowship and testimony to the world. But I hope, if the Lord will, to enter a little more into these things in my next.
Believe me, yours affectionately,