It is of immense importance to distinguish between certain privileges which are common to all God’s children, and that special place of the Church, the Body of Christ. Many people are apt to draw their thoughts of what the Church is from the measure of their own judgment as to what its privileges are; and as their perception of what God has brought them into is but scant, they draw a measure very far short of the special, wondrous, distinct privileges belonging to the body of Christ. In other words, the tendency is to make everything turn upon one’s own salvation. Where there is no distinct light of God this is natural. Hence you will find some who speak of the Church as if it was a certain institution, or many institutions by which we are to be saved. A very little measure of divine light disperses this delusion.
Now, in order that God should have what is called here the Church, the Body of Christ, there must be a solid basis, and consequently there was a vast deal that had to be done.
Man was created, that was no basis; man believed, that was no ground. Man had the law, but not one or all constituted the Church of God. Another and incomparably greater step was needed in order to this great work of God. A divine person had to come to make known God, as God was never seen in this world before. To display what God is in a man here below was the singular glory of Jesus, at least of His life here below. This was what He was doing from first to last. God had never shown Himself in all the gracious affection, tenderness, lowliness, and nearness, and intimacy of love thus adapting as Man in the midst of men. A Man, but the true God and eternal life. A Man, indeed, the perfection of one; but God, in all goodness and tender mercy, visiting poor vile man put far away from Him.
But it is an awful fact that not even God come down in love, attracted the heart of man. Man was at first surprised, astonished, pleased. But the more God showed Himself, His holiness, His love, and His truth, the more man hated Jesus. The issue was the cross. It was not merely bringing God down to man, but so dealing that man can be brought to God. As Jesus living brought God to me, so Jesus dying and rising again, brought me to God. God cannot fail in what He undertakes; and this is what He undertook: “To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;” to give me the certainty that all sin is gone. Not more truly could the Israelite, confessing his fault over the head of the victim, have the certainty that what he confessed was gone, than the believer that the sacrifice has blotted out incomparably greater sins forever.
God is now bringing the believer into eternal things. He is giving him the certainty that all is clear between him and God; and mark, all this is distinct from the question of the church of God. After Christ had accomplished redemption. He went into heaven, and then it was given Him to be “Head over all things to the church.”
After Christ was exalted, we find for the first time a body beginning to be formed on the earth. There had always been believers on the earth. Since the Jewish people had been guilty of rejecting the Christ of God, now God worked an infinitely greater work than the Jews had ever thought of.
Let me tell you my own salvation and yours is not, and never was God’s great object on earth. God was revealing Himself in Christ, and that does meet man as a sinner, and secures him salvation—taking him out of himself and giving him the comfort of knowing his sins forgiven.
Then having, first of all, glorified God as a living man, He glorifies God about sin in death; and then having been raised from the dead, He goes into heaven and sends down the Holy Ghost; and thus the church of God begins to be formed on earth, in union with this risen Man at the right hand of God. If so, what a character union with this risen Man gives to this body. What ways, what walk are suitable to such a person?
If what I have been saying is true, he that belongs to the-assembly of God is already reconciled to God; begins with his sins pardoned and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to dwell in him as a seal. It was never given as a seal to Old Testament believers. In order to give the Holy Ghost as a seal, there must be the finishing of the work begun, there must be the resting on the work of God;—not only born to God, but the work finished. That was not done till Jesus died and rose again.
The Church of God does not begin to be contemplated as thing on the earth until redemption was a settled thing. What could make sinless? Not even the coming or living of the Son of God in this world could make our sins one whit less. No living agonies of the Lord Jesus that could touch sin. Nothing but His death in atonement could do that. But, then, God meets the whole need so perfectly that He gives those who believe, even before the Church is formed, the absolute certainty of sin gone, and peace with God. The same day Jesus says to His disciples, “My Father and your Father,” and “peace be unto you.” Thus, there is no question about the Church of God at all until sin is disposed of for those who believe, and they are put in possession of peace with God by Him who made it.
Now we will see what is meant by the Church of God and the Body of Christ. The Lord Jesus had this before Him when He prayed for His disciples in John 17; not in the exact shape of the body, or the assembly; but He prayed that they might be one—one in display of unity, which hitherto had not been the case. Unity does not consist in life, but the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God is, given because we have life. Life is individual, and can never be anything else. I have it for myself with God, but the Spirit of God, while giving the enjoyment of this life, is a bond. Life is not a bond, but the Spirit of God is, Accordingly, in Eph. 4, we are told “there is one body and one Spirit.” The whole subject of unity is here pursued, and it is divided into three parts. First, in verse 4, essential Unity. Secondly, in verse 5, unity of profession. Thirdly, inverse 6, a remarkable unity, the largest and on the one hand—most universal unity, and the narrowest and most intimate on the other. In John 17:1111And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:11), the Lord prays “that they might be one” as the Father and Son were; and at first it is beautiful to see that the disciples did walk in this wonderful absorption, and were lost in the glory of the Saviour—no ruffles—no rivalry. What was the effect on the multitudes? We read that they were “of one mind, and great grace was upon them all.”
In verse 21 The unity takes a far larger place, for He prays for those who believe through their word. First, it was Apostolic unity (John 17:1111And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:11)), and then unity of testimony and grace. Through the apostles’ words multitudes were brought in. This became a mighty testimony to the world. Finally, the Lord gives the last a perfect unity, “that they might be made perfect in one”—unity in the display of glory (John 17:2323I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)). Thus there are three steps.
This you will observe is all connected with Christ, and the Father’s purposes concerning Him.
In Eph. 4 it takes a form more in connection with the vast scope of God’s counsels as given to Paul to bring out. Now this unity is never lost, nor can it be impaired in its essential character through the failings of His people. “One body” still abides. “One Spirit” still abides, though it may not be maintained. They never can disappear from the earth, nor can there be a moment’s suspension, and for the simple reason that Christ is at the right hand of God. If He is there, He necessarily has a body in living union with Himself. Because Christ as risen Head is in heaven, the Holy Ghost is here.
That accounts for another thing. You know numbers of saints have departed, they are with the Lord, but that nowise affects the body, because the Holy Ghost is here. He is the soul of this body. Saints departed to be with the Lord are just as truly His own, and when He comes will be found in their place, doubtless a more important place than ours (apostles, &c., for instance), but that does not affect the great truth that the body is where the Holy Ghost is, and the Holy Ghost is here.
All will allow that the Son of God came down from heaven; just as much, though in another way, the Holy Ghost has come down He, as truly, has been sent down from the Father. He is here in a true personal sense, while the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God. The glory that belongs to such a calling remains entirely unaffected by all the passing circumstances and events of this life. This is the essential unity.
Next, there is an external unity. Notice, it is one Lord; not one Son, because eternal life depends on the Son, while one might name the Lord only to dishonor Him, having never possessed eternal life. A person might call Him Lord and make shipwreck of faith, and might not depart from iniquity. Accordingly, one faith, i.e., one common creed, which is common to all who are not heathens or Jews. A professing Christian has this “one faith” and one Lord, which a Jew did not own. “One God” is what he owns. It refers to Jesus here. The Church began with the preaching of this one Lord. (Acts 2:3636Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:36).) He is the great Church object. It was the great distinctive object as a matter of profession. There were persons who owned Him as Lord who had not eternal life. One Lord, one faith, consequently one baptism. Plain water baptism is meant here; we have had one Spirit in verse 4. All this is a question of profession.
Now we have the third unity, “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all.” I take that in the largest possible sense; God is viewed as the source of all. So in that sense everyone is a child of God just as a creature of God, made by His hands. “All we are his offspring.” Now, while this is true that there is a sense in which He is God and Father of all, there is the most special unity added after, “He is in you all.” In saints, and in none else. Not in the vague sense as all come from God, but in the closest possible sense in which all derive their new being from Jesus Christ, as children of God by adoption.
This unity of the Spirit never was known before. This new and blessed gathering together, and formation of a new association, constituted Christ’s body, by the baptism of the Holy Ghost was now found here below. The great point of faith for every believer is to be certain this abides forever. No failure compromises the certainty that the Spirit still abides. One of the most dangerous notions found among godly persons, and founded on the state of the Church, and a very just error because of its ruined state, is to seek to rebuild it. When men find out this they say, “Then why not begin again?” Accordingly many and many a soul has thus looked for an outpouring of the Spirit, but when we depart from the Word of God we are in danger.
Do you think it is a question of men? Not so. God for His own glory has chosen the very weakest and worst of men to make them the witnesses of His power and love. This is their only safeguard; and if they are subject to Christ, according to the Word of God, then there will be testimony according to God. We have the power of the Spirit to make us vessels for the Master’s use and the glory of God.
Suppose that all saints were in intercommunion all over the world, and that there never was such a notion as distinct churches, and that the body of Christ was known by all, not to be a, mystical thing in heaven, but a certainty on earth, then come practical difficulties. But they are contradicted by facts. The Church of God is scattered, not united. Does this alter the truth? Does the Holy Ghost abide? Is the Lord Jesus still at the right hand of God? All Ephesians (chapter 4.) abides. What is to be done? Blessed be God, we are not left without a way. Before the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the church He thought of it. He knew it all, and provided in His own infinite grace His own name as a center— “Where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
In 2 Tim. 2 also, the Holy Ghost has more particularly provided for this very difficulty. (v. 20-21.) This is of deep importance. As long as simply individuals in the assembly had to be dealt with, all was clear. But supposing the assembly itself becomes corrupt and is adrift, what is a man to do? “There is one body and one Spirit,” &c. I am never to give up God’s truth. The Holy Ghost abides still, and one body and one Spirit. A Divine Person is equal to the difficulty. All that is wanted is faith on the part of the church of God.
Which do you prefer, God’s thoughts, or man’s thoughts—a church according to God, or a church according to man. The Apostle Paul supposes this bad state of things and makes provision for the need. What are we to do? “Purge Ourselves,” and withdraw—you cannot clear out the vessels to dishonor. You are not a reformer and cannot make a reform. You must not seek to wage an ineffectual war. The word is “purge himself.” A Christian person is never free to go on in one single line contrary to the word of God, or to disobey it in one point. How can this be avoided? You cannot leave the great house, i.e.. Christendom. You don’t cease to be in it.
What Paul wants is for real Christians to behave like Christians. Seek God’s mind on His word. I am bound not to sanction what’s contrary to God. I am always bound to depart from what is contrary to Him. There is danger of two things. Either that our value for union with the children of God might make us sanction evil, then we are sacrificing God’s glory to the church, and it will be found that what we thus uphold is not the church. On the other hand, supposing a person had a sense of the evil, it would make him heedless of the bond. This can never be.
We are bound to own the one church of God there is; and to walk with those who are doing so in the bond of peace. There is great comfort for the believer in the thought that the greater the flood of evil, the greater is the exhibition of the Lord’s love. How wonderful is His heart of love that however great the difficulty, the Lord, in His considerate goodness, has provided for it. Oh! let it all make us feel how much we need Him. The more difficult the path, the more tenderly is His love shown, and the more does He make His grace manifest to our hearts.