"And made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6).
The words, made sit together, are here the rendering into English of a compound verb, which is made up of a preposition, expressing " together with," and a verb signifying to seat, set, make sit. This verb, in its uncompounded form, is that which is used to mark the position of the blessed Lord Jesus since His ascension into heaven. We will turn to some of the places of its occurrence; for instance:-
First: Eph. 1:20, " He [the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory].... raised Him from the dead, and set Him or made him sit] at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" (20-23). The context which I have quoted shows here, that " recognition in glory is the leading idea of the whole portion. The Lord Jesus Christ took a servant's place. As Son of Man He could say, " My God," to Him to whom we through grace, say " Our God " (John 20.17). Here the action is from God Himself as such: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ -the Father of Glory, has acted towards Him in a way to mark His estimate of Him, and hath declared it in the Word to us, that we, having the eyes of our understanding enlightened, as well as being endowed with the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, might know these things about the Christ.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, hath made Him (who said of Himself, when upon earth, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head"), to sit down at His own right hand in heaven; and hath heaped upon Him there titles of honor and glory. The making Him sit at His own right hand, marks in this place, the character of the Divine recognition of His worthiness who is so placed,-the conferring upon Him the honor that is due. That the word, " seated," " made sit," suggests naturally enough the idea of personal rest, is true, as we shall see shortly from other passages in which it is used; but, then it is used here in connection with the thought of glory, and in those other passages as connected with the taking of a position which supposed a certain work or character of service ended. And this makes an important difference. Very similar to this in some respects is-
Secondly: Heb. 1:3, " God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; 'who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down [took His seat] on the right hand of the Majesty on high " (2, 3).
It is to be remarked, that the action here is on the part of the Son: not viewed in that character of glory attaching to Him as the Son of the Father, but in that which He has as Son of God. Having made by Himself purgation of sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. It is there we see Him, crowned with honor and glory. Office and service are in this passage not at all the question—but rather the glorious position and honor taken by Himself and recognized as justly His by God, and owned with joy to be His by those who have faith. He is at rest in glory; His humiliation ended and in contrast with it; glory in the Majesty of the highest taken by Himself; owned by God to be His, in that He has crowned Him with honor and glory;- but, if thus personally glorified, He there waits, amid the glory proper to Himself which he alone from among men could occupy, until He can take that glory which He can share with His people. He sits at that right hand until the time come for His taking the kingdom. His position is looked at as in glory in chapters 1 and 2, and having glories many connected with it; but the idea of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man, is not introduced until the third chapter. This is to be noticed, the rather because, afterward, the same idea of His session is introduced again, after various functions which connect themselves with worship have been treated of (see chap. 10) Government and worship are two truths inseparable from the thoughts when God, known as He is now, is revealed. In chaps. 1 and 2, many allusions are made to government as to man under God's direction. With chap. 3 truth about worship begins, and in chap. 8:1, we find the supremacy of Christ in the connection noticed.
We will turn now to this passage. " Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum. We have such a high priest, who is set [or seated] on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Both these passages (1:3 and 8:1) ascribe the highest place to the Christ, but the former refers rather to dominion, and the latter to worship. Both tell of the pre-eminence of His glory.
Again; in another passage the stress is not laid upon the glory in which He sits, nor upon that which attaches to Him who sits, but there is a contrast marked between the position of standing and sitting. Under the law " every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10.11, 12).
The many priests, typical, all of them, of THE ONE which was to come; daily ministering and oftentimes offering,-one sacrifice and only one; standing too to do the work seated because the work was ended; these are the points set in contrast. The Levitical priest necessarily had to repeat the sacrifice, because the tabernacle was on earth, and merely served the glory of God as King of Israel, and the needs of that people, and was done in a cycle of time which was limited to a year. Christ shed His blood on earth but presented Himself, in the power of the blood, in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man; His work subserved the glory of God, as God, for eternity, and also the needs of all that believe, whether heaven or earth be the place in which they are met by God; and His work was done in God's own eternity. " Forever sat down on the right hand of God," may very well apply to the work which is the subject of the passage,-which does not treat of the place where Christ's ultimate glory is to be, nor of what is His present service, but of the value of the atonement offered on that great day of atonement in which He presided:-the work was done;-ended forever; and, as to it, He sat down. Most reasonably, too, because by that " one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (ver. 14) Now if I, by faith in the blood, am sanctified, I am by that one offering perfected forever: my conscience has for its answer before God, that which God has done in order to justify Himself in acting in mercy as on the throne of heaven: Christ, who has the full understanding of God's estimate of things, and of the correctness thereof also, could not assert there was need still of sacrifice without disparaging His own work and God's estimate of it; and the soul's estimate (that it needs nothing further as to sacrifice) is thus shown to be correct.
Again; where the subject is (not the completeness and sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, once and only once offered, -but) the sympathies of Christ towards His suffering, faithful witness (as in Acts 7:55,56), there the Lord Jesus is represented (not as sitting down, but) as standing up.
" He [Stephen] being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And said Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God."
On the other hand, again, where not sympathy with sufferers, still in the wilderness, is the subject, but ceasing (not from priestly offering—because Himself was the only one that could be offered and had been offered and accepted, but) from His sufferings as Man of Sorrows, is the topic, we find rest marked by the word sitting.
" Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God " (12:1, 2). Truly He is in glory; but it is a glory the rest of which is set in contrast with the path-way of sorrow which led to it, and the which we now have to tread. A verse similar in some respects is Rev. 3:21. " To Him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set [or seated] with my Father on His throne." A rest in glory, ordained in love, is the conqueror's prize, or one of the many prizes with the thoughts of which our Lord cheers our hearts.
Installment in office" seems the force of the word as used in chap. 20:4. "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them," etc. Kings and priests they were before this—-and had known it. Welcomed to His presence they had been-glory had begun-but the being seated upon the thrones and reigning with Him now began.
From these blessed verses, some correct idea may easily be gleaned of what the spirit of God's thoughts are, as connected with the session of Christ at the right hand of God. " The Christ " as a Jewish hope for the earth was to be a king and to have subjects; but the Lord Jesus, as such, was rejected; and in the writings of Paul to the Ephesians, we find who " the Christ" is who is heaven-welcomed, when He was earth-rejected. He was given to be Head over all things to His Church, which is (as the body, with its many members, is to the head)- needful to make up the perfect man. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, knows us as members of His body, as one Spirit with the Lord. And, accordingly, not only is no separation possible between the Head and the members, but the member is, necessarily and always, looked upon by God as a member and seen as a member of the body of which Christ is Head. Did He take His life again? We were quickened together with Him. Did He leave the grave and show Himself alive again? We have life together with Him. Is He ascended up on high? We are ascended up together with Him. Has God seated Him at His own right hand in heavenly places? God sees us as seated or made to sit together with Him in the heavenly places likewise. More blessed, far more blessed, than the glory, or the privilege, or the honor, is this grand truth of our identification, in the divine mind, with the person of Christ Himself. He the Head—we but members (it is true); but what union, what fellowship, is like the union, the fellowship of life—one life in common! And, al, we have a life, His own life, so entirely in fellowship, so inseparably in union with the Christ who is sitting on high in the heavenly places, that God speaks about us (feeble yet rich) as having been made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places. It is an accident, a passing accident, that our bodies are still down here: let the Christ but rise up from the Father's throne (His Father's and ours) and we are found body, soul and spirit there where we now are; that is now through the life which is in the Christ who is there, and in us who are down here. It is an anomalous, abnormal, state of things for a man to have his body upon earth, but to have a divine and heavenly life flowing through him from heaven and back to heaven. This life is an eternal reality, the Head and Source of it is Christ, and the vital union which we have with Him is a much more real and powerful and important thing than the accident of our bodies being down here. I find that many really overlook the unity of the life of the Christ and His members; they may think of a store of life in Him in God for them; they may admit that He has given to them eternal life; that the Spirit dwells in them to nourish an incorruptible seed, etc.; but the UNITY OF LIFE between themselves and the Christ they do not see or own; and, therefore, they cannot act on and from it. All of those in whom the Spirit of God and of Christ dwells are, really, vitally one with the Christ who is on high. The union is in the Spirit, but it actually exists and is known to us to exist—and it is a union which excludes forever the idea of separation between the Head and members. To see it and to enjoy it and the grace which has made it ours, gives intelligence to the mind and warmth to the affections of the believer, such as naught else can; an intelligence and affection such as are needful for the heavenly walk here below of any who are sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.
I have sometimes thought that there is no part of the doctrine of the fellowship of the believer with Christ, which shows the reality of its being a fellowship in life, so markedly as the passage before us, and others like it, which show the recognition by God of our union with His Son as the Christ, in the interval which takes place between Christ's rejection by man, and His taking possession of the glory which is yet to be conferred upon Him. The Son of God, " being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God" (Phil. 2:6); As Son of the Father we read of Him: " No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:18). Divine glory was proper to Him. He bad glory with the Father before the world was (17:5). When He became Son of Man, in grace and mercy He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,-that so (for so alone it could be), He might share the titles of glory pertaining to the Son of Man, with others from among men. His work on earth finished, but the earthly people not being ready to receive the blessing, yea rejecting it,-He went on high, and took His seat there on the throne of the Majesty in the Highest; glorified as Son of Man with the glory which He had as Son of God with the Father before the world was.
It is not that there is more than one power of blessing, permanent, lasting blessing, whether for Jew, Gentile, or the Church of God. But that which, according to divine wisdom, gives its characteristic form and limit to the power when in action in those that are blessed—is the relationship in which the various parties (all partakers of one power) stand in Christ, and this relationship is connected with the place in which they meet God and the Lord. So seemed it meet to divine wisdom. We meet God in Christ on the throne, and know that which God has been pleased to reveal in the unveiled face of His Son, earth-rejected, but seated upon the throne of God, and in the glory which He had with the Father, as Son of God, before the world was. But He is not there without our being recognized as being there, even there in Him: made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places. This marks, to me at least, how dear to the mind of God and the Father the thought -the truth—of the vital union of Christ and the Church is: for when He is marking the Christ's presence with Himself during the now, nearly, two thousand years of His sitting there as Son of Man, we are made by God to be sitting together in Him. Our minds may more readily lay hold of the thoughts, " crucified together with," "dead together with," " buried together with;" because the first thoughts which such doctrines communicate to us are of liberation from ruin; or, again, we may find in " quickened together with," "having life together with," " raised up together with," " ascended together with "- that which, while it speaks of life, as the others do of freedom from death, present actions more connected with the movements of the Christ in doing work given to Him to do.
But in this His present position, there is something very peculiar;—it is an ad interim position—His highest personal glory is recognized. None but He could sit where He does; to share that part of the glory of God, as He does, He must be God; and He is there as Son of Man, in a certain sense abnormally, for the throne of God and the Father are not the spheres of the display of His glory as Son of Man: yet most blessed is He there, and His having been there so long recognized in that glory as Son of Man, will cast a peculiar light on all the glory that is yet to come. For God will associate Himself with the Son bf Man in His special glory, even as He has associated the Son of Man with the fullness of His Divine and Fatherly glory. But then, what a marvelous place this is for Him to recognize the unity of the Church with the Son of Man in—seated together with Him in heavenly places. The thought, the plan, the accomplishment of this marvelous work of the Church, the Bride of Christ, is all divine. And, blessed be God! there is divine power ready to make it known to us to make it enjoyed by us—power sufficient to clear out room for God and this blessing even in this poor heart of mine; -power and readiness to make the cup flow over on every side with the blessing given.
This may be a good place to introduce some passages of Scripture, in which the most intimate and blessed associations are presented as resulting to the believer, through that root of all his blessedness, viz., association and vital union with the Christ of God. And the rather, do I introduce these passages here, because they show at once the marvelous delight which God has in the Church, and, consequent thereon, the marvelous privileges He had, of His own rich and boundless grace, prepared for her even from before the foundation of the world.
The passages to which I advert are these:-
1. 1 Cor. 3:9: "We are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."
Who then was Paul; who was Apollos? Servants by whose instrumentality the Gospel was preached which these Corinthians had believed. But He about whom the Gospel was, even the God of Mercy and Compassion, who had placed all His glory in the cross of the Christ,- He it was, and He alone, who chose the messengers of His Gospel and went with them, " even as the Lord gave to every man." And more than this; for He not only went with them, but caused all the blessing which attended their service. A Paul might plant, an Apollos might water, but it was God alone that gave the increase. " Neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." He is All. It is all one who plants and who waters, and yet every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. " For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." What honor will not grace, free grace, put upon its servants: God has a tillage—God has a building. Does God use any man in connection with His tillage, with His building? He useth them not as dead tools, but as quickened saints, made willing in the day of His power. In that tillage, in that building, all is of God; and God is the all—for blessing. Yet He puts this honor upon His servants to enable them to say, "We are laborers together with God." What is the energy of an Alexander, of a Caesar, of a Napoleon, compared to that energy which wrought in a Paul, in an Apollos? What the prize of present self-exaltation for a moment which the former sought, compared with the present exaltation which leads on to a " forever of blessedness," which the latter possessed. The presence of God, of God in power working,- may well prostrate every soul before it,-must prostrate every soul that knows what it is: but if, on the one hand, it prostrates self with an " it is not anything " (ver. 7); on the other hand, how does it exalt the servants in giving them power to say, " We are laborers together with God." Such things were never said, save of a people who were one spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word here used is the noun συνεργος, or co-laborer; one associated in work with another. It is the very same word as is found in Rom. 16:3, 9, 11. The leading subject of a context always, however, of course has to be borne in mind: in the passages already looked at, God is the All, though in grace He may be pleased to energize and work through man; and because a man's affections, thoughts and energy are thus through grace energized by God—what the man was in Himself is counted dead and buried—and he living; yet not he, but Christ living in him—therefore God speaks of such as workers together with Him. In the passages which follow, all that are such are looked upon as fellow-laborers the one of the other. Thus:-
Rom. 16:3: "Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus."
Rom. 16:9: "Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ."
Rom. 16:21: "Timotheus my work-fellow, and Lucius salute you."
May our hearts not only know fellowship with a Paul in his labors, and the sufferings which are connected with it, but also the fellowship of that Almighty grace with all the blessing and liberty which are connected with it, and which formed to Paul the basis and root of his very life, as well as of all the proceeds of it.
2. My next passage is 2 Cor. 6:1, " We then, as workers together with Him, beseech... that you receive not the grace of God in vain " [or as a vain, light, empty thing].
Here the word used is the verb, which corresponds to the substantive, which is used in the last cited passages. The two passages are very similar, yet there is a difference: in that which we have looked at, the field of labor is the Church which is upon earth; Paul might plant, as a master builder lay the foundation of churches; Apollos might water them. Neither Paul nor Apollos were anything, but God was the Blesser. Yet He that was the Blesser called those through whose labors He wrought His fellow-workers. What ineffable grace! In this passage: The Lord, before whose judgment man shall stand (ver. 10), has provided a Gospel of good tidings of great joy. That Gospel had made. Paul manifest before God (ver. 11), and manifest also before those among whom he labored. And what had it manifested? That if Paul was beside himself it was to God (ver. 13); if sober, he was so for the sake of those among whom he labored. For the love of Christ led him captive in its blessed constraint; a love which declared, that as Christ had died, so all that believed in Him were dead together with Him; and that His object in doing this for all His people was, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that died for them and rose again. This set Paul altogether in another system of things than that of this world; and, consequently, he knew no man after the flesh; Christ he had known after the Spirit, all things took their place accordingly. If any man were in Christ, he was a new creature; old things were passed away; a new order of things was introduced—not yet in glory, but yet in the principle of all true glory and blessedness,-all things are of Him who, first, has reconciled us to Himself, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and who, thereupon, has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. Such was His love. Not merely to make us new creatures, but to give us to know all things to be of Him who hath reconciled us to Himself; and having done so, has identified us with the work in which He, in His love, is occupied-a work which our own salvation, position of blessing, new life and privileges have made dear to us—viz., the announcing of His own character and Gospel. It is not, merely, that we are called to plead with poor sinners, " Why will ye die?" " We beseech you receive not the grace of God in vain," etc., etc. (as in ver. 1, which is our text); but more than this, we are associated by God with Himself as the One who is revealing Himself; who has committed the word of reconciliation to us who have tasted it, for ourselves know the mercy of God; the work by which that mercy opened a way for itself to us, and for us to it; we have tasted the suitability of it to ourselves and to poor sinners; we know, too, how God delights in it (vers. 18-21), and who, if He bids us, invite and bid those whom we may meet, is Himself standing to welcome those that come. For He saith, "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I. succored thee; behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Context is always the safest medium in which to look at a text. And while these two texts are verbally very similar, the light of the respective contexts gives a difference. In the former, the writer speaks as laboring in the Church upon earth; in the latter, as laboring in the light of the throne of the Lord of Judgment, and as proclaiming His mercy and the glad tidings, that " He who knew no sin [the Judge] had been made sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." In this service he was associated by grace with the work, and with all the affection, too, of God.
Mark 16:19,20, " So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following."
Rom. 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
James 2:22, "Seest thou how faith wrought with His works."
The faith was the energizing power—the works the fruit of it. All these passages give the idea and sense of co-operation—working together with-in the fullest sense in which the subjects of them admit; and thus they confirm what has been just said.)
3. I turn now to Eph. 2:19, in which we get another kind of intimate and blessed association referred to; and it also is one of the blessed consequences of this our fellowship together with Christ. " Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." The "ye" refers to the believing Ephesians, who had been, however, heathens, and as such had not had, like the Jews, any place in connection with God in the world - without God in the world. For this expression does not mean that they had been godless, and in the wickedness of the world as individuals; that, alas! many of the Jews were also but that the Gentiles, as such, had no religious connection marked out for them with the only thing which was recognized before God as religious upon earth, viz., the Jew. Such they had been. With Jewish worship they had had nothing to do. But now, since they believed in the Christ risen and ascended, they had a most special connection as such with God in heaven; they were among His heavenly holy ones, of His household (inmates of His house), this they had found, as we have seen, through and in the Christ, each one for him- self had found it, each one been found of God—there was fellowship in the citizenship of all such, whether they had been drawn off Jewish or off Gentile ground. They were fellow-citizens of (co-citizens with) the holy ones (of heaven), and parts of God's family. " Our free-citizenship is in heaven " 3:19).
It is only when the scope of the Epistle to the Ephesians is weighed, and the peculiarity of its blessings, as contrasted with all earthly blessing, is considered, that the amazing blessedness of this portion of being co-citizens with the holy ones of heaven and of the household of God will be seen. But this rank, this fellowship, is to each of us but one of the many blessings resulting from our association in life with the Son of Man. They that are so have, most surely, their greatest of blessings in the association which they have with Himself- that is in life and in association, as of a member with the Head, of all that is His: it brings them, into certain privileged associations in service, through the purest grace, with God; but it sets them also, as here, all of them, in most blessed association the one with the other, in a freedom of the city which is in heaven, and in the liberty of the Father's house, too. And so entirely are these things linked together in one, in the Spirit's mind, that no sooner has the apostle named this privilege of being " fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the house- hold of God," than he immediately goes on to speak of being " built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.... builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
4. There is another verse in which a somewhat similar kind of blessing is referred to, which we will now look at: -
" That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel " (Eph. 3:6). All is in Christ; all our blessings of whatsoever kind have their root and source in Christ. Nothing which has not Him for its root is blessing, or could be given to us by God as if it were counted by Him as fit to be a blessing to us.
The participation here looked at is in three things: 1St. A place in the expectation of the inheritance; 2ndly. A place in the body; and 3rdly. A place in the good promise- all three belonged to as many of these poor Ephesians (Gentiles though they had been) as believed,- a place in common with those from among the Jews also who had believed,-but the place was in. Christ and in Him alone, and " in Him " was the participation found; for the inheritance was His; He also was Head of His body the Church; and in Him alone any promise could stand true; and all were yea and amen in Him, to the glory of God by us. He who had been a Gentile idolater might meet in Christ, one who had been a Pharisee of the Pharisees -but in Christ the old history of each lost its place of pre-eminence; once in Christ, and you are there where all is governed, and arranges itself according to a new order, even according to God's delight in Christ, who is the Heir; the Head of the body, the Church; and His are all the promises of God. Some, in handling this verse, have made so much of the union of believers from among the Jews and the Gentiles, that they have overlooked the questions of "union in what?" and " union in whom?"
In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek; they that are in Him are a heavenly people; they are, through grace, all fellow-heirs, the one with the other, in that inheritance which is due to Him in whom they are; together they form a body, each one a member in particular of the body (and so they are united one to the other) of which He is the Head; even as each of them has shared, like all the rest, in the promise. Various as the privileges are in which they have community, one with the other, those privileges are one and all in Christ, and Christ is the alone way into the possession of them.
The following passages naturally connect themselves with the subject, and show, in a striking way, the nature of the tie which binds the members together, after first uniting them to the head.
Eph. 2:20,21, " Jesus Christ Himself being the chief, corner-stone: in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord."
Eph. 4:15,16, " Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together.... maketh increase of the body," etc.
In both of which passages, the word which expresses the joining together in one, is συναρμολογουμενος.
In the passages in Ephesians, this intimacy of adaptation of the parts one to the other, to accomplish a common end, is evident. First, in the building, Christ is the chief corner-stone, elect, precious, of a holy temple to the Lord;-and then each stone which is in Him is adjusted and nicely made to fit in to its own reserved, prepared place for the accomplishment of this common end. Secondly; in the body, Christ is the Head; each member in particular is a member of Christ, and as such has a place nicely suited to it in the body, in which it gets relationship with other members. But no member can speak of being member of another member; that would be to make that other member head, and to displace Christ, as did some at Corinth. The body is the body of Christ, and each one a member in particular; and because a member in particular of that body of which Christ is Head, having both responsibility as such towards the other members, and also, what is far better, having the privilege to be used as such by the Head for the blessing of the rest of the members.
Exact adaptation to places so near to Christ, when the temple (habitation of God), and when the body of the Christ are in question, is a precious privilege. In both cases, it is not by might, nor by power, but by the Lord's Spirit; and unites—if forever—to scenes in which God and the Lamb will be the glory, yet unites us (men who believe in Christ during the days of His rejection) in one bundle of life, in the which not our individuality, but Christ's (as a man—a heavenly man) will have all the pre-eminence.
Then, again, we have the word συμβιβάζω used as in Eph. 4:16, and Col. 2:2,19.
" From whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:16).
" I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you... and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ" (Col. 2:1,2).
" The Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God" (Col. 2:19).
The compacting, the knitting together is, in each case, by the power of the life of that body, the Head of which Christ is. Paul, looked at as an individual, was but a member in particular; so was Apollos, and so was Cephas. Bat the power of the Life which united them to the Head, gave them, subordinate always to Him, a power of fellowship—a compacting, a knitting, together the one with the other.
In our day vital union with the Christ has been too much considered as a high doctrine, the doctrine of the elder classes in the school of God. Alas! where recovered as the doctrine of the family of God as such -it has, in more cases than one, been so corrupted as that, while the fellowship of the members has been held to, it has not been kept subordinate to the Headship of Christ. And so the most precious truth has been turned against the Lord as the Former and Giver of it.
Hitherto we have seen three great and distinct things. 1St. God reckoning; 2ndly. God communicating; 3rdly. The position in blessedness (before God, and in the mutual bearing of the parts one with the other), of that in which the blessing of God has, in these last days, presented itself.
1St. God reckoning;- He reckoned unto Christ all that we were as men, descended from Adam, and all that we had done; visited it all on Him; and received as a ransom His life, given as Son of Man. He reckons these three things to be true of us who believe; and bids us to reckon them so concerning ourselves and to act thereon.
2ndly. God communicating. The Son of Man taking life in the grave, is the fountain whence divine life flows to us; but, if divine, it is yet divine life derived and suited to man;-it is life together with the Christ; the life in which He rose up out of the grave and, after showing Himself on earth, ascended up into heaven.
3rdly. The position in blessedness of that in which the blessing of God now presents itself.
In heaven we sit together with Christ—in heavenly places. Upon earth we are recognized as associated with the work which God is doing; as thoroughly identified with the city and house of God, and with the body and members of which Christ is Head: thoroughly so, because we are identified with these things in the power of a life which is Christ,-a life which is hid with Christ in God; our eternal life.
In what follows, we shall have to look (4thly) at what results from all this. Being made one with the Christ, already one with Him, two things naturally result. 1St. now we have to suffer with Him; and, 2ndly, we must hereafter be glorified together. Various kinds of suffering now may be ours, as various kinds of suffering were His; the glory, too, may be looked at in a different way, in different Scriptures, as we shall see it is: but this must never be forgotten. As to all our pilgrimage and strangership here below (with all the vast variety of ways in which we may be called to suffer, from the world, the flesh and the devil); and as to all the life of honor and power hereafter; yet it must be remembered, that both the one and the other are to us the results—necessary and inseparable results from vital union with the Christ of God. He took out of the way all that God had against us; He introduces us into that place, and those things into connection with us, which could enable God not only to have nothing to say against us, but to be able to delight in us; and all, in the power of that blessing which Himself had given as in Christ, to undertake to lead us to His own home, forming and fashioning our hearts, and teaching us His ways in contrast with our own, all through our wilderness pilgrimage. All the wrath due to us fell on the Christ—and it is finished. The cross has settled the whole question of God's wrath against ourselves who believe—Christ bore it all, and I that believe shall bear none; in Christ, too, the whole question of the acceptability and the character of the acceptability has been settled = He is risen and ascended: God has conferred every honor upon Him which even He had to give -conferred it upon Him as Jesus who died, the. Just One for the unjust, and thus, the righteousness of God in Christ is inseparable from the full acceptance of the believer. The believer is accepted in (graced in) the Beloved. But the same grace which has linked us up to God by and in the Christ—has been pleased to link us up also with the fortunes of the Christ, both in this world and in that which is to come. In our next paper we shall, therefore, have to enter upon these results of the life so enjoyed by us already: viz.," that if so be we suffer now, we shall be glorified hereafter."