But there was also the doctrine of the relationship which we have in the new man, as well as moral character and power. As many as are led of it are sons; sons, and therefore heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. Arid here the groaning is not on the question of what we are as to God’s judgment of evil in us, a spirit of bondage to fear; but, our own judgment of it in, its effects because we are sons, and are certain that we are, and know that we are heirs. We take up the groaning of the whole creation, of which we are part, as in the body, and express it to God in sympathy, in the sense of the blessedness of the glorious inheritance when the creation shall be delivered; suffering with, Christ in the present sorrow by His Spirit, and express it in the Spirit to God, even though we have no intelligence to ask for any actual remedy. In this, then, the Spirit has a double office: the witness with us, for joy, that we are sons and heirs, and helping us in the infirmities lying on creation and on us in the body; and when lie, thus acting in us in sympathy, thus groans in us expressive of the sorrow, ff who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for us ACCORDING to God.
The Epistle to the Galatians with less fullness teaches us the same truth, securing the foundation on which it rests. But we see, thus far, the sons joint-heirs—joint-heirs with Christ, and the Spirit at once the seal of the redemption which is accomplished, by which they have it; the witness of sonship in them, and the earnest of the inheritance which they have with Christ: known by the revelation of the glory of Christ and the things to come, connected with His person. Thus, we have it expressed in Ephesians 1:9-149Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That 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: 11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:9‑14).
There is another very interesting passage as instruction upon this point (2 Corinthians 1:20,2220For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
22Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. (2 Corinthians 1:22))— “All the promises” belonging to Christ as heir— “All God’s promises are in Christ Yea, and in Christ Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” The promises are of God, and in Christ. God then establishes us in Christ; and then, for our knowledge, assurance, and enjoyment, we are anointed, sealed, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts; knowing it by the anointing, as in 1 John 2:2020But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. (1 John 2:20)—sealed, as in Ephesians 1, and having the earnest in the heart so as to anticipatively enjoy the blessing known, and for which we are sealed.
Having spoken of this passage in a previous paper, I do not enlarge on it; but there is another collateral passage which I would not pass by, relative to the knowledge, communication, and reception of the revelations of the Spirit; showing our entire dependance on that blessed Comforter and power of God for all knowledge of these things (1 Corinthians 2)— “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him; but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.” Man’s heart never conceived them, but God revealed them to His saints by His Spirit. They had received the Spirit which was of God, that they might know. They spoke by words which the Holy Ghost taught: communicating, as I should translate it, spiritual things by a spiritual medium: and they were, moreover, spiritually discerned; they were known, communicated, and received by the Spirit.
Having noticed these collateral passages, I pass on to the point of corporate operation of the Holy Ghost in the union of the body. The testimony to the Lordship of Christ, and that character of His exaltation, we have already seen in the addresses of Peter to Israel. This of course is never lost: but we have seen the additional truth of the identity of Christ and the Church—the very basis of Paul’s special ministry, brought out in the question to the apostle, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” just as the sin of the first Adam was brought out by the terrible question, “Where art thou?” It is upon this that the grace of the ministration of the Spirit, now, was to have its course. The Spirit had borne witness by certain disciples; and the Church thereby had been gathered. The Church now was to be the vehicle for the testimony and witness of the Spirit corporately. The distinct revelation of tins position of the Church, and its establishment in it, in the intelligence and actuality of its standing, began by the scattering of the assembly at Jerusalem, and by the apostle (having been called, and enabled by the Lord, and having preached at once—and thus laid by in a measure for a time) recommencing the work from Antioch, as a center whence he was separated to the work to which Christ had called him, not by the appointment of Jesus after the flesh, but by the authoritative direction of the Holy Ghost in the disciples. Paul had no part in the testimony mentioned in John 15:2727And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:27). It was only the Holy Ghost’s testimony, and seeing the glory of Christ, and hearing the words of His mouth. Hence it was not a testimony to the exaltation and Lordship of Him whose companions they had been on earth; that God had exalted Him to be Lord and Christ there; but starting from the point of His Lordship seen in glory, that He was the Son of God, and a testimony and, of course owning it, to the union of the whole body, Jew and Gentile, with Him so exalted to God’s right hand. Hence the operations of the Holy Ghost—always following the testimony concerning ‘Christ, while still declaring and subservient to His Lordship—wrought in the unity of the whole body, according to the operations of God.
Hence, we read in 1 Corinthians 12, “Concerning spiritual things, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say, Lord Jesus—or, call Jesus Lord-but by the Holy Ghost.” That is, whoever does so (i.e. in Spirit), does so by the Holy Ghost; for it was the Holy Spirit that testified that Jesus was Lord, not an evil one.
There were, along with this testimony, “diversities of gifts; yet not many spirits, hut the same Spirit. And there were differences of administrations (ministries), but the same Lord (not ‘lords many’—Jesus was Lord); and “diversities of operations, but the same God (for the operations were truly divine) that worketh all in all;” there, were not “gods many”—all were the operation of the one true God.
It is not the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) which is here presented to us, though from other scriptures we may know its connection with it, but God, the Lord, and the Spirit, working in the Church upon earth; though, lest we should suppose He was not God, it is afterward said, “All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He willi0 For as the body is one, and path many members and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
We have here, then, these two points, —the Lordship of Christ—and that taking its place as to the services of which the gifts were the power; and the unity of the whole body—in which, as by its members, the Spirit wrought according to their diverse appropriate functions. The operation being all the while God’s operation, but ordered according to the functions of the body, and the purport of the whole; for the members’ service was for the good of the whole body.
From this, I think, we distinctly learn the order of the ministration of the Holy Ghost, as thus presented to us. What additional instruction the word may give us, we shall afterward see.
First, there was the primary testimony that Christ was Lord—more correctly, that Jesus was Lord: that formed the great basis-truth. All was subservient to this. The Holy Ghost as in operation, though Supreme to distribute, was subservient to this: this was the great testimony He blessedly rendered.
He bore it in gracious faithfulness now, as hereafter every tongue shall be obliged to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Upon this hangs consequently the responsibility of every gift. We are servants by them to the Lord Christ: “Ye serve the Lord Christ;” “Such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies:” “Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ.,” is the well-known glory and faithfulness of the apostle. It was to “the Lord, the righteous Judge,” he looked. Thrice he besought “the Lord” that his thorn in the flesh might be removed: “lie that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant.”
These gifts of the Spirit, then, set them in ministries to the Lord, in which they were individually responsible for their exercise to Christ—talents with which they were to trade; but then they were responsible to exercise them within the body, according to the order in which they were set in the body, and in subjection to the mind of the Lord the Head of the body. This preserved entire the full personal responsibility and liberty; for no one was Lord but one, not even an apostle, and yet mutual dependance, healthful for all, even for an apostle; for the Lord’s authority was great over the foot or over the hand, and as exclusive as over, the apostle himself. Nor would an apostle, having still the flesh to contend with, keep his place unless this were carefully held. Though by preeminence of gift he might guide, lead, direct, and, by revelation from the Lord, give a commandment to the Church, he could not, in the smallest degree or tittle, touch the direct responsibility of the least member to Christ the Lord Himself; he would have been setting up himself as the Vine, as lord over God’s heritage, had he done so. The apostles were alone as helpers of joy, and that by authority entrusted for edification, but never as lords over their faith. Authority, however, as a gift from the Lord, increased responsibility; but of this more hereafter. If he, the apostle, counseled any member by the Spirit, woe be to that member if his counsel was despised. Of course, if be revealed a commandment of the Lord, the believer became directly responsible to the Lord for obedience to that commandment. And though he specially, and the whole Church, might judge by the Spirit, still it was always with this remembrance— “another man’s servant.”
But it must be distinctly remembered, this was not for private right or title in the individual. I recognize no such thing as right in an individual. Right, in the human sense of it, is some title to exercise his own will in man, unimpeded by the interference of another. Now CHRISTIANITY ENTIRELY SETS THIS ASIDE. It may be very speciously maintained by dwelling only on the latter half of the definition, because grace does give a title against the interference of another; but that title is in and by virtue of responsibility to God. No man has a right to interfere with anything in which I am responsible to God. But the light which Christianity sheds on this is not my meddling with the will of that other, but my obligation to do the will ‘of God at all cost: — “We ought to obey God rather than man.” And having first done the will of God, then to suffer it; for it is better, if the will of God be so, to suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing; for Christ, in the best sense, has once suffered for sins. If we do well, suffer for it, and take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. But this right in the individual, in the human and common force of it, Christianity cuts up by the root, because it pronounces the human will to be all wrong, and the assertion of its exercise to be the principle of sin; so that we “are sanctified unto obedience” as to “the blood of sprinkling.” Thus, the idea of all having a right to speak in the church could never enter into the Christian mind. It has no place in the scheme of Christianity, which begins its moral existence by the breaking down the human will as evil. The Holy Spirit has the right, which He exercises sovereignly, of distributing “to every man severally as He will;” and hence responsibility subject to the purpose of the Holy Ghost in all. For the manifestation of the Spirit (which gifts are—they are riot the Holy Spirit itself) is given to every man to profit withal. There is purpose in it, to which the power of the Holy Ghost is to direct the use of these gifts for the good of all, as this epistle clearly shews us. The gifts to men or in man (both are used—one refers to Christ, the other to those to whom Christ gives them), are not the Holy Ghost, though they be by the Holy Ghost, and hence are guided by the mind of Christ, for the accomplishment of which they are given. Thus, to display the gift of tongues, or use it where there were none to whom they applied, is described by the apostle to be the folly of childhood; they were given to profit withal. So also, the spirits of the prophets—the highest desirable gift—were subject to the prophets. The not seeing this, and confounding these gifts of the Spirit in man with the Holy Ghost Himself, has led to much and mischievous confusion. And it has been thought impossible that they should ever be restrained, or subjected to even apostolic rule-turning, as every departure from Scripture does, to the license of the flesh and human will, or the even worse delusion of the enemy.
The Holy Ghost Himself dwelling in the individual, and especially also in the Church as such, guides, directs, and orders by the word, the use of these manifestations of His power in man, as He does everything else, I repeat by the word; just as the conduct of one led of the Spirit is ordered and guided by the Word, the power of the same Spirit directing and applying it. It is this that maintains responsibility whatever the power given, and, by that unity, through the Holy Ghost, in the whole body; for power being given, its exercise would be by man’s will else, or it would not be in man at all. This was true in the highest instance, where error or failure could not be. When the Son of God, in infinite grace and counsel of wisdom, became a man, it was not to destroy responsibility, but to fulfill it all in absolute abstract perfection: “He became obedient.” Even in working miracles would not depart from this. He would not make stones bread, without God His Father’s will. It was precisely to this the enemy (Satan) sought to lead Him—to what might be called the innocent exercise of will, and using His power for this. But He was perfect, and the enemy confounded. He was content to do God’s will. He kept His commandments, and abode in His love. And if therein He, a divine person, could show that He loved the Father, and in suffering there was a therefore that the Father loved Him, still He blessedly adds, and this was His perfectness, “And as my Father hath given me commandment, so I do.” And thus closed His blessed and perfect career, with this true word to the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Blessed Jesus! justly art thou glorified in all things—Our Lord!
This difference now, however, exists, that Jesus having taken the place of power— “all power given to Him in heaven and in earth “—His place is not merely the manifestation of perfect obedience in self-humiliation, but the manifestation of exaltation and power. But this, while it has altered the position of Jesus, and the place of His disciples, as vessels of this power, in the testimony of the Spirit of God, has in no way touched the principle of their responsibility, though its sphere may be enlarged by, it; nor has it let in the principle of human will in the smallest degree, because power has been increased; but it has merely introduced the principle of that responsibility into the exercise of the power entrusted, whatever it may be, and connected it with the Lordship of Christ, whose servants they are in it, that they may minister it to His glory, in love and testimony to the world, and in the edification of the Church. And the Word affords the rule for the order of its exercise, as of all things else.
It is a part of this responsibility and reference to the Head of the Church, not to “quench the Spirit,” nor “despise prophesyings,” be they the simplest, or by the humblest in the Church, as to mere circumstance, if God be pleased to use them.
The title and the right are God’s, proving them divine, and therefore good: the responsibility man’s, and the gift only the occasion of responsibility in that; the Lord Christ being He under Whom it was exercised; and by that responsibility necessarily independent of others; for no man could serve two masters: but within the Church exercised according to the mind of Christ, of which the Spirit is the power in the Church, and the written word the guide and standard. It is in this last point the Scriptures hold a, place, which in many respects the apostles held, that is, of revealing the mind of Christ. They cannot have in themselves the place of power, but they do contain the wisdom of God, and, as to this in the New Testament, the mind of Christ. We must distinguish this point of revelation. The other points of apostolic office may be spoken of hereafter.
There are some other points to be noted in this 12Th chapter of Corinthians.
Having spoken of the Spirit, and the Lord, and God; the two first sheaving the relationship and power of this service, the last making us understand that it was withal truly God’s power and working; and then in the same language (that the divinity of the Spirit might be recognized, though in a certain sense taking the place of service, as acting in the subject-instrument of Christ’s Lordship) ascribed the power and working to the Spirit: having cleared this point, the apostle takes up the subject in connection with the unity of the body. And here Christ, at least the body of Christ, becomes the subject of divine operations: first is rather the fruit of those operations; for we are by one Spirit baptized into one body—thus is Christ. And the whole is spoken of as the subject of divine counsel; Christ only being the Head, and we in mutual dependence; but the whole sphere is looked at as a subject—scene of operations. It is not merely now, the Holy Ghost bearing witness by which the world was convicted, or individuals convinced, and the Church gathered; but “now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.” “God hath tempered the body’ together.” “God hath set some in the Church, first apostles,” &c. They were “the body of Christ, and—members in particular.”
We have thus the operations of the Spirit of God formally established in the corporate unity of a body, in the various gifts of the different members, of which the Spirit itself formed the unity and the power; subservient to the Lordship of Christ, and therefore directing the Church by His mind, whether for its own edification in love or testimony to the world; God setting the members of this body as it pleased Him.
The control of the Spirit, as communicating the mind of Christ, over the exercise of these entrusted powers, is next brought forward—after stating the superior excellence of love to any gift. Love was, and witnessed, God, and was the bond of perfectness in essential blessing. These, the testimony of power; prevailing indeed over evil, but still ministered in the midst of it, and not to continue, therefore, but to pass away or cease. The use of these for the purpose of love this became the true test of grace and the mind of Christ in using them; otherwise, turned into personal display. The edifying of the Church was to be the rule of all used there, and no individual title, for they were to follow the mind of Christ.
This also gave rise to a distinction in the gifts, of those suited to the world, and those meant for the profit of the incumbent of the Church. Thus “tongues” were a sign to unbelievers, not to the Church; this was their use. One gifted with tongues was not therefore to speak in them, unless there were an interpreter; for the Church would not be edified: it would by the subject-matter, if there were an interpreter. So “signs,” or “miracles,” confirmed the word.
The gift of tongues was peculiar, and characteristically evangelical: overreaching the consequences of man’s sin and judgment in Babel, and setting aside manifestly the confining the testimony of God to the Jewish people; constituting an active ministry towards those without, which was distinctively essential to Christianity. It thus became, distinctively, manifestative of the Holy Ghost, on the Jews and on the Gentiles (the 120 and Cornelius), as sent down, the witness of this grace, and of glory and Headship in Christ. Miracles had been wrought among the Jews; even there, however, it was among it those departed from the covenant, or, when at first that national system was established. In Judea the prophets recalled to the law, and let their predictions verify themselves or be owned by faith. Their summons to the law required no verification; its obligation was acknowledged. But tongues were properly applicable to the Christian dispensation as acting on the world, and therefore became the characteristic manifestation of the Holy Ghost sent down as acting before the world that needed this.
“Tongues, miracles, healings,” then, might be exercised by those gifted thereto in the Church, but they were exercised as the witness of the beneficence of Christ’s Lordship to the world, and not towards the Church already alive in heaven by the deeper quickening power of that beneficence. This was their general character. The 11 proper character of the Church’s blessing was edification:— “Let all things be done unto edifying;” or, as expressed in the Ephesians, “ the edifying itself in love.”
This appears to me the true distinction: signs to the world, and edification to the Church, not that usually made between miraculous, and not miraculous; as if God gave no positive gifts to the Church now, and as if miraculous were synonymous with supernatural, and that the Holy Ghost had ceased to act; and thus human powers are practically referred to as the sole agent in the Church. If miraculous be spoken of as meaning those which were signs to the world, I have no objection, provided the direct power and gift of the Holy Ghost be not set aside, in those which are not for signs but for edifying: otherwise great dishonor’ is done to the Holy Ghost.
There is this distinction given us in these gifts by the fact of some being for signs, some for edifying: the former are to act on the senses and mind as applicable to those without’; the latter on conscience and spiritual understanding, and consequently the subject of intelligent judgment and reception. This remark is of importance. The Spirit of God acting in the force of responsibility in us is always paramount to any means of power and gift—even if real; for, thereby the authority of God is owned and set up over ourselves. The true use of gift in the Church is just to enforce this: wherever it departs from this it is clearly false in principle. “I must judge them which say they are apostles”— “let the rest judge”— “the spiritual man judgeth all things.” Self-will, which refuses the enforcement of responsibility by gift, or which would use gift to exalt itself, instead of enforcing it, are alike the: flesh set on by Satan to its own lawlessness. There is no remedy for this but grace, and the power and presence of the Holy Ghost condemning and mortifying the flesh in each. The want of this is recognized as possible, and to come, by the apostle: — “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
I should also remark, that the Holy-Ghost teaches us here, that while He distributes to every man severally as He will, and uses whom He will, so that all openness is to be maintained for His operations, there are distinct permanent gifts whereby men are constituted teachers, prophets, or the like, though their teaching and prophesying may still be in constant dependence on the action of the Holy Ghost Himself. These directions, in fine, as to tongues and interpretations—the number and manner of prophets speaking—women speaking—show the distinct control of the Holy Ghost Himself (thus in its order expressed in the word) over the exercise of all entrusted gifts in the Church, where the Holy Ghost habitually dwelt and guided for the end of edifying all. Liberty and guidance is characteristic of Christianity, and is distinctive of power making willing, and the wisdom of God for us.
This testimony to the world, and edifying of the Church, involves also another consideration, besides the signs wrought by the Church before the world—a principle of service a little modified by the position of the apostle Paul—that the operation of the Spirit in gift, though working in and by, precedes the formation of, the Church.
Gift of evangelizing, though it be in a member of the Church, yet is clearly antecedent in its own character to the existence of the Church; for it is by that the Church is gathered.
The highest form of this was shown in the apostles at Jerusalem, as we have already seen. And though the Evangelist may go forth from the Church, and be aided by the Church, it is a gift exercised not towards the Church, or to its conscience, and of which the Church, therefore, cannot be properly cognizable. It must be exercised on the possession of the gift, and bears its evidence in its fruits by acting in the primary work of God’s Spirit on the conscience of the unconverted; judging it, not judged by it; coming in the grace and truth of Jesus to it. Other gifts, as prophesying, may convince others in conscience, but its exercise is in the Church, and the Church having a conscience taught of the Spirit, is bound—it may be through other prophets efficiently—but is bound to judge but the Evangelist is to the world, and there is no competency of judgment, though there may be holy counsel and advice, as from the Lord. As aiding in grace, temporally, the Church, or rather each individual in it—be it a woman—is bound to have no fellowship with doctrine not according to the word, and the Church should take all needful notice of this, and not be partakers of this sin. The same would apply as to any evil practice; but the exercise of the gift, as such, in its nature, though it flow from the midst of the Church, goes forth out of it, and, not referring to its conscience, does not raise a throne of judgment there, which responsibility to God does, in what is addressed to the Church. The Evangelist is responsible to God for the exercise of his gift towards those without, and becomes manifest in their consciences in the sight of God.
The highest form of this was the apostles on the day of Pentecost. It was a direct authoritative address, as the apostles of Jesus, appointed by Him, and ratified in power by the Holy Ghost to the world, thereby forming the Church, and becoming, in a certain subordinate sense, heads of the Church, to guide, regulate, order, and direct those whom they so gathered, which gave the subsequent character to apostolic office.
(Continued from p. 222.) (To be continued.)