SAUL of Tarsus, as he tells us himself, was a terrible persecutor of the Church of God, forcing the disciples of our blessed Lord to blaspheme, giving his voice against them to put them to death, and persecuting them even unto foreign cities (Acts 26).
On his way to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to seek out the Christians (or Nazarenes as the Jews called them) and bring them bound to Jerusalem to be punished, Saul of Tarsus was suddenly stopped on his wicked path by the Lord Jesus Himself speaking from the glory of heaven, to learn (as he expressed it afterward) that he was the chief of sinners. “Howbeit (he says) for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:15, 16). He calls himself less than the least of all the saints (Eph. 3:8); “the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Let us read together the words in which Saul of Tarsus, afterward called Paul, relates how the Lord met him, struck him down, and convicted him of sin by showing him Whom he was really persecuting in the person of the disciples. “At mid-day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’ And I said, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus whom thou persecutest’” (Acts 26:13-15).
Thus was Paul convicted of sin in his conscience, and through his conscience was he taught what the Church is for Christ.
So, too, do we need to learn, beloved reader, in our conscience before God, what is the Church, the body of Christ, the house of God. (Of this latter aspect of the Church—God’s house or habitation—we hope to write in another paper.)
The Church, the body of Christ, is united to Him by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. The ministry of unfolding this truth was specially committed to Paul, who began to learn it, as we have seen, at his conversion. It is, therefore, in the epistles of this apostle that the truth of the Church is specially revealed.
The Church is precious to Christ.
The Church is united to Him.
So Ephesians 5 tells us, “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it...” What love is His! He gave not anything however great, but He gave Himself. He laid down His life, no one took it from Him; He laid it down of Himself (John 10:18) .... “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that 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.” He must, such is His love, present the Church to Himself. He cannot leave her in the world away from Him. She must be fit for Him, glorious, holy, without blemish. His love is working all this in His Church, and soon we shall be with Him, bearing His perfect image. Do our hearts respond to this? Do we desire that Christ should have the full satisfaction of His heart in His redeemed ones?
Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church as His own flesh; “for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.”
Christ in heaven is the glorified Head of the Church, His body. God wrought in mighty power “in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him 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 (or age), but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things, to the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:19-23). When the Lord Jesus was in this world He was not Head of the Church, for the Church had no existence then, except in God’s counsels before the world was (Eph. 1:3, 4). Raised from the dead and glorified by God at God’s right hand, He is, at the present time, Head over all things to the Church, His body.
None but believers belong to the Body of Christ, mere professors have no place there. Sinners are saved by grace, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8). Believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit, “In whom (Christ) after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13, 14); and are united to Christ by the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:12, 1:3; Eph. 4:4).
Christ is in the supreme glory of heaven, the Body is on earth, but such is the real, living, union of the Head and the Body, that the unity and growth of the BODY is entirely from its invisible Head, working in every part in its measure. “Christ, 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).
What a rest for the heart, beloved brethren, to consider the Church, His Body, even as He considers it! To meditate on it as composed of all true believers throughout the whole world, members of the one body, a unity that man can neither make nor unmake, growing by a growth which is entirely from Christ the Head, by means of every part and joint in the body, to the edifying of itself in love. True ministry alone has any place here, for it alone conduces to the growth of the body. May the Lord exercise us each and all before Him, that we may not be a hindrance to the growth of the body by lack of communion with the Lord or by occupation with anything in our walk or doctrine which is not of the Head!
May our conscience be under the power of God’s Word respecting His Church, the Body of Christ, and may our affections flow out to Christ Himself, and to that Church so dear to Him who gave Himself for it.
May we that “hear” the Spirit and the Bride saying to the Lord Jesus, “Come,” join in the full fellowship of that word “Come”! “Surely I come quickly,” says the Lord. “Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:17, 20).
The dispensing of the mystery of the grace of God to us Gentiles, was specially confided to Paul; “the mystery” of which he speaks in several epistles, “How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery,... which 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; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel.... Unto 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; and to make all men see what is the administration (fellowship) of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:1-10)
This mystery is no longer hid, but is now revealed to the saints. But the opposition to this truth was great in the days of Paul, and it is still the special effort of the enemy to deprive the saints of it. Paul had great conflict in prayer for the saints respecting it: “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, 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, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:1-3).
What do we know of this mystery, beloved brethren, and what part do we take in this conflict? No words of ours can express what it is, but our hearts bow to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in praise and glory to that One whom the Father has glorified, and whom He has made Head of the Church, His body!
(To be continued.)