I grant this is a tremendous discovery; that so much that we have been proud of, is sin and rebellion against God. But evidently it is so. In deep humiliation let us own it. The one assembly of God is also presented in scripture as the bride of Christ, the wife of the Lamb. Grace beyond all human thought. Here we find the outflow of the affections of Christ as man. And though this mystery of divine love was kept hid until revealed to the apostles and prophets of the churches fully stated in Eph. 3, yet many were the precious figures of this that went before.
So early as in paradise, God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." God in His own love would give Adam an object on which his love might be placed. And thus, in this figure of Him that was to come, God sets forth His own eternal purpose; to build the church, the one body, the bride; that the Man up there in the glory shall not be alone but shall have an object in which the infinite love of His own heart shall have its eternal delight. And was not the way in which God formed the woman most significant? Adam was laid in deep sleep-type of the depths of death to which Jesus must descend to redeem His bride. Of that dead rib, in figure, the living woman was built. It was to that awakened or risen Adam, the woman, one with himself, was presented. "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh." There were many beautiful creatures in paradise; but only one made meet for the affections of Adam. God only built one Eve, God only builds one bride for Christ.
Oh what a thought, what a fact, that "Christ also loved the church, and give Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 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." "Christ is the head of the church" "For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones." (Eph. 5.)
It is blessed to gaze on Christ, the object of the believer's love, but that is not the thought here. The assembly of God, the bride of Christ, is the object of His love, of His delight. Have you passed from death unto life? then you form part of that one body, one assembly of God, bride of Christ, object of His love. Think; object of the love of Christ!
In the call of Rebecca also we have a striking illustration of the bride of Christ. Isaac must first be offered up, and received in figure from the dead; Sarah, the Jewish economy, be set aside. Then the father Abraham, sends Eliezer from Canaan to the far country to fetch a bride for Isaac, the risen son from the dead, in figure. Jewels first are given to Rebecca, and raiment, then she gladly leaves all to go to meet the bridegroom whom not having seen she loves. Then the meeting. And then is she the possessed object of Isaac's love. Again there is one bride. Just so when God had actually received His beloved Son from the dead; offered up for us, and could not be spared; then received to the heavenly Canaan; then God the Father sent the Holy Ghost, to this far country, to fetch a bride for Christ. Jewels first, the righteousness of God established by the death of the cross; and then raiment-Christ raised from the dead our righteousness; and all given to, and put upon the believer: and then farewell; separation from all below. And, like Eliezer, the Holy Ghost leads the bride along to meet the heavenly Bridegroom. The church of the scriptures is found waiting and looking for Christ, the second time unto salvation. And, oh, the meeting! As Isaac lifted up his eyes, so the loving eyes of Jesus are looking for us, His bride. And we shall soon, like Rebecca, lift up our eyes. We shall see Him as He is and be like Him. This joyful theme I leave until we arrive at the third part of our subject-the destiny of the church.
One more interesting figure in the Old Testament-Ruth. God is pleased by these His own figures, to give us understanding of this great reality, the church, the bride of Christ. Here is one who by nature was a stranger to the covenant and promise; death also was written upon her house. A Moabitess, and her own husband dead. Most touchingly does her history illustrate the grace of Christ in bringing a soul to Himself. She is brought by Naomi in bitterness of soul to the fields of Boaz. My reader may remember the bitterness of those days in which he was led by the Spirit to Christ. But oh, how welcome in the fields of Boaz! Is she thirsty? let her drink. Is she hungry? let her eat. Does she glean? let fall handfuls on purpose for her.
Such is the grace of our precious Jesus. Are you but a gleaner lately bowed in bitterness at the sense of your own lost condition? Ah, how welcome to Christ! Are you thirsty? welcome to the water of life. Are you hungry? welcome to the bread of life. Has He not let handfuls fall on your path on purpose? But far more than this was to follow, "My daughter shall I not seek rest for thee?" And now she is identified with Boaz in the figure of death-she lay at his feet; and what the other kinsman could not do, Boaz did. He redeemed her to be his bride. And all the elders bare witness. Once the object of the gleaning kindness of Boaz, now the object of his bridal love. A welcome stranger, now the most honored place on earth, the loved bride of Boaz, and the mother of David.
Has not God thus dealt with us? He would not have us be merely welcome gleaners in the fields of Christ; but one with Him; bride of the Lamb. There was but one Ruth; there is but one church, one body, one bride.
May I ask, then, have all Christians to leave the different churches of men; such as Romanism, Anglicanism, Wesleyanism, etc., and to form one church, and so make one body, one assembly.
Many have thought so, but it is a most unscriptural mistake. As we have already seen, the church of God is not a thing of man's making. It is wholly of God. Eve did not make herself. It is remarkable that at Corinth, where there was most failure and division, in that very epistle we learn that all believers are baptized into one body. Let this great truth be only received in faith that all believers now are baptized into one body; and that this is of God; and the effect is sure to be that instead of fleshly boasting we shall be deeply ashamed of sectarianism. And the believer who receives this truth can no longer belong to a sect, cost what it may. Only let the word of God have its authority, then how can I deliberately do that which is in direct opposition to God.
In the Acts of the Holy Ghost then, we have the history, how God set up the church in the beginning of its days. Then in the Epistles we have the wondrous revelation of what the church is.
Before we look at its ministry. There are two things found in scripture I desire to call your attention to-the Lord's supper is one of them. 1 Cor. 10:1616The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16), "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." Is not this the perfect communion of the one body of Christ-each believer introduced into the same fellowship of divine blessing? And does not this separate us from the world? "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.”
This communion is further explained, as received from the Lord by Paul, in 1 Cor. 11. What impresses me in this distinct full explanation of remembering Jesus, and showing forth His death until He comes is this; that it is the act of the whole one assembly of God. There is neither a priest with his mass, nor a minister with his sacrament. Either the one or the other would entirely set aside the very act of communion. The Romish priest, the ritualist, with all his imitations of Rome, or the presiding minister at his sacrament; all this is not in scripture, and we must admit that it is all of human origin. Not one bit of scripture can I find for a shred of it. Oh what sad human interference; yea, what assumption for any man thus to act without the word of the Lord!
(Continued and To be continued.)