Let us think of what the church is to Christ. “Christ ... loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25)). His present service is to separate the church, through the revelation of His love for it, that it might be His peculiar treasure as the espoused virgin of His choice. He, the Son of God in Manhood, is to have a bride! We the members of His body were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, to share with Him in Manhood all His given glory unto the ages of ages.
The church, as the bride, is the object of His love. This love was proved even unto death, when He, the eternal Son of God, bore the wrath and the judgment of God, exhausting all of it, that we might know nothing of those waves and billows. By this He revealed the depths of the divine bosom, while at the same time making atonement for sin according to the holiness of God. Language itself is exhausted in telling the suffering of those three hours of darkness when the wrath of God fell upon Him. He suffered all this so that we might know the divine bosom in all its blessedness, as the source from which we have received grace and been made heirs together with Him. Christ in resurrection is the beginning of new creation. The church, His bride, shares His headship over all things.
While we rejoice in the truth that “the Son of God ... loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)) as an individual, let us never forget what the church is to Christ, collectively. Every one that is indwelt of the Spirit now forms part of the body of Christ. How rich the revelation of this blessedness! Paul received it by revelation from Christ in glory (Eph. 3:1-101For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, (Ephesians 3:1‑10)). He tells us of the precious expression of it in the breaking of bread, when the unbroken loaf on the table speaks to our hearts of our place as members of His body, while the broken loaf tells us of His death, for “Christ ... loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25)).
The Glory of His Inheritance
The church, united to Christ in glory, is absolutely heavenly in calling and hope. We are now gathered to a rejected Christ (John 12:3232And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)); at His coming we shall be gathered to a glorified Christ (Eph. 1:1010That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10)). The life we have received is heavenly in its source (1 John 1:1-31In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1‑3)). The Object of that life is Christ in glory (Phil. 3). The hope of that life is our being “glorified together” with Him (Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17)). The church will be the Eve in His paradise, the queen on His throne, the richest and brightest glory of the inheritance He has won. In calling any out of the world, He affiances them to His Son, to be one with Him in thought, desire and hope now and eventually to be glorified together with Him in His glory! Oh, let us not lose in our souls the preciousness of what the church is to Him!
The Vision of Coming Glory
The truth of the church as the bride of Christ in glory was “hid in God” and given to the Apostle Paul by revelation (Eph. 3). It is that “better thing” of which we read in Hebrews 11:4040God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40). Should we not value this precious revelation and burst into praise as we discover the revealed secret of such infinite grace that has made us heirs with Him of the whole vast scene of new creation?
In the Epistle to the Ephesians we are seen as already seated with Christ in heavenly places, while we await the time when He will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him” (Eph. 1:1010That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10)). Oh! beloved saints of God, think of that blessed Man in the glory waiting to take His inheritance until He has His bride with Him! His saints, now united to Him as members of His body, are to be presented to Him “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph. 5:2727That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27))! “Quickened together,” we have life in a risen Christ, “raised together” by the Spirit united to Christ in glory, soon to be “glorified together.” Paul then looks on and sees Christ in headship over all the new creation scene of glory. He, who is the Bridegroom of the church, will have His bride, as the espoused queen of His marvelous grace, to sit with Him on His throne and share all the glory of that new creation with Him unto the ages of ages. Then He shall be crowned with many crowns, while eternal praise will rise from the whole redeemed throng. Heaven and earth will burst forth in His praise.
H. E. Hayhoe, adapted