E.le.P.—It is quite unscriptural to speak of the Holy Ghost as dwelling in the body of Christ— “The church which is his body.” He dwells in the “House.” The Church looked at as the “body of Christ”—its Head in heaven—was formed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, taking the aggregate number of the saints at Pentecost and baptizing them into one body in union with the Head, and consequently one with the other. No figure could possibly convey more completely the union of Christ and His people. They are, as joined unto the Lord, one Spirit with Him.
The Church looked upon as the place where God dwells here is spoken of as the “House,” or “a habitation of God by the Spirit” or spiritually. God is said to “dwell” in her, and to walk in the midst of his people.
Both terms embraced the same people at the first. They were coterminous in extent, though not convertible terms. For the “Body” expressed union. The “House” or “Habitation” not so. It has often been shown that into the latter, “wood, hay, stubble,” might be introduced, as has been the case, without the Holy Ghost leaving the house though thus defiled; while none could become united to Christ as a member of His body, unless he was a true believer who had received the Holy Ghost as a seal. Consequently, the history of things shows us that evil having crept into the house, the Spirit who dwelt there would point it out and warn and guide the saints, and act on the conscience of the evil, if the ear to hear was there; but all this as dwelling in that which was still the house of God in responsibility. Of course, the body of Christ being only the true living members, it is contained, as you say, the less in the greater.
Your body, as a believer, is a member of Christ, though made out of the dust (1 Corinthians 6). The whole man “spirit, soul and body” is destined to be with Christ in glory, its present condition being changed. The apostle is pressing personal purity and gives prominence to our “body” in this chapter, and in it we are to glorify God.
“Your body,” says the apostle, “is the temple of the Holy Ghost,”—adding which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, but ye are bought with a price; therefore, he says, “glorify God in your body.” (The remaining portion of the verse is not authentic Scripture.) It cannot be said that the Spirit dwells in the “new nature.” That is produced by the Spirit’s quickening power through the Word of God acting on the conscience and producing faith in Christ. Then the Spirit of God having thus wrought, is given as a seal to him that believes, and is said to dwell in his body. There would hardly be any sense in saying the Spirit dwells in the new nature.
You ask if the Lord has fulfilled, i.e., completed or finished the law in any sense whatsoever; and if He ever kept the law for Israel or the Gentile or the Church, or any one I And that He did come “to fulfill” the law, but it is not said that He “fit/filled it,” as all will not be fulfilled, (that is all contained in the law and prophets), much before the eternal state?
Now, the Lord Himself states, in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5), “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” And here we must ascertain the meaning of the word “fulfill.” It does not mean to obey it—nor is the thought that He came to add something to it; but to make good the whole scope and gist of the law in His own proper person, to complete the circle, and answer to the whole thoughts of God as far as therein was contained. This word is so used elsewhere: “Fill ye up the measure of your fathers;” “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;” “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us;” i.e., its whole import brought to fruition. And lastly I mention Colossians 1:2525Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; (Colossians 1:25), where Paul’s ministry of “the Church” —the the mystery, having the result of fulfilling the Word of God.” That is, this truth was needed to complete the circle of revelation, all other subjects having been revealed before.
Thus Christ, in His own person, was the summing up and complement of all that God’s mind contemplated in the law and the prophets; though, of course, much more also.
I have no doubt that whatever our blessed Lord did in keeping the precepts of the law, He did for His people. Israel went into the land on the condition of their observing the law; and their non-observance of it was to result in being driven out of it. (See, passim, the whole book of Deuteronomy, and especially ch. 28.) Having lost it on the condition of obedience, the Lord comes, and it is remarkable that when He enters His course as an obedient Jew, under the law, He cites Deuteronomy in every case when undergoing the temptations in the wilderness. (Cf. Matthew 4 with Deuteronomy 6 and 8.) Everything which He ever did was for His people and for His God; though it must not be supposed that His keeping of the law was a substitutionary thing for our not keeping it, so as to work out righteousness for us. The righteousness in which we stand, or rather which we are counted by God—God reckons us such intrinsically by virtue of the work of another, Christ; in token of which He has placed Him on His throne—the result of His meeting all God’s holy nature as to sin on the Cross, so that He could righteously act according to the dictates of that nature in love.
By His having kept the conditions of Deuteronomy, under which Israel failed, He has earned a personal title to the land Himself; (cf. Ps. 18:20-21) while, of course, also possessing such in the rights of His own person, as son of Abraham and David, while Son of God and Heir of all things.
As you say, much that is in the law and prophets will not be fulfilled, (in the sense I suppose of being accomplished), much before the eternal state. So it is. But the presenting in Himself as the complete scope of it morally, is a different thought from the accomplishment by Him of it in detail historically.