You have asked of me some account of the historical development of a false notion on which I have often spoken, and already written, briefly, in the "Present Testimony." The practical importance of this notion had caused my mind to be occupied with it, and led me to entertain the thought of pursuing its history. The false notion which I refer to, is the confusion of two distinct aspects of the Church, given us in scripture: that of the house of God, and that of the body of Christ. Since I first proposed treating this point, the subject has been taken up in the Bible Treasury. But, having the wish to go further into the statements of scripture than is there done, and, having long had my mind occupied with it, this does not hinder my pursuing it myself. The ground of the view there given, and of the following paper, I apprehend to be the same; but it will easily be seen how entirely independent they are one of another. The thought, that admission into the house conferred. the privileges of the body, has been the root of the systematic corruption of Christianity, which has acquired the reverence of ages, was not shaken off at the reformation, and is now corrupting the Protestant systems, which were thought to have freed themselves from its fetters.—All the members of the body of Christ, are living members, quickened of the Spirit, or regenerate; they are forgiven all their sins, and perfected forever by His one offering of Himself; have received His Spirit, and are heirs of the inheritance of glory. If the body and the house are the same thing, then all that are admitted into the house, be they adults or infants, have part in the privileges which belong to the body. On the other hand, being true members of the body of Christ, secures nothing; for its true members may perish.- The very idea of being born of God, is destroyed; for, after having been born of God, they lose what they had, and have to be born over again, without the alleged means of being so, or they enter the kingdom of heaven, as they say, without life; the abiding efficacy of Christ's sacrifice is annulled- for they that are sanctified, are not perfected forever; and the sealing of the Holy Ghost for the day of redemption, is applied to those who will never be there, and has no effectual value in this respect. The first general idea, that of which we are to speak, is the Church. The word, however, I shall at once drop, and employ the literal rendering of the Greek word so translated: the Assembly. Technical words obtain a conventional meaning, which introduces great confusion into people's minds; for, though the local growth of thought produces language, in moral education, words, become names, and create rather than express ideas. Take as an instance, this word Church. It is applied, as all know, to buildings appropriated to ecclesiastical services. But the church is the house of God; and the building is treated as the house of God, though God has expressly declared, that, under the Christian system, He will not dwell in temples made with hands; that where two or three are gathered together in His name—the true church, so far, and so called in the passage,—there Christ is in their midst.
I shall speak, therefore, of the Assembly, the real meaning of the word. Only this is God's Assembly. Take the passage which I have referred to, and see the effect of this., If a brother trespassed against another, he was to tell it to him alone; if that were useless, to take two or three more; if that failed, to tell it to the Assembly. What has not been made out of this pas-sage? And how many delusions are dispelled by its plain and simple language, when it is taken as it stands? It is related, that King James forbad the translators of the Bible into English to change this word Church which, in the previous Geneva translation, had been dropped. The bearing of such a prohibition is evident enough.
The word Assembly, is one known to Old Testament language and thought. Yet it had there a very different character and foundation. Two words are there employed, which, it seems to me, give somewhat different ideas, HEDAH and KAHAL. The former seems to me, to present rather the corporate unity of the congregation; the latter the actual gathering; pretty much the difference which we might understand, between an Assembly and an Assemblage. Med is another thought; the meeting, the tent of meeting; because there they met God, and, indeed, one another; but the thought in the word is an appointed place of meeting. Israel was the Assembly of God, but they were it by birth; though excluded, if not circumcised. All this for the time was set aside; we may say, by the death of Christ, though the patience of God lingered, through means of the intercession of Christ upon the cross over the beloved people (compare Acts). The prophets had in-deed spoken of all this beforehand, and, he among them, who unfolded the destinies of Israel, and their several causes more fully than any one, Isaiah, tells all through, of a remnant that should be spared, the children and disciples given to Messiah, when all was darkness in the nation, and the testimony of God shut up, save to that remnant, thus separated from the people, while God Himself hid His face from them. This remnant, would in future days return; and for their sakes, Israel be spared, and the glory of the nation be established in them (see Isa. 6:9-13; 8:15-18, 10:21, 22, 65:8-99And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. (Isaiah 6:9‑13), and 66). That chap. 8 shows us that, when the nation was set aside, this remnant came distinctively on the scene.-They were for signs to both houses of Israel.—There were two grounds for Israel's rejection; one, viewing the people as witness of the unity of the God-head against idolatry; the other, as visited by Jehovah in the person of the Lord Jesus.-In chaps. 40-57, these two points are treated. The captivity of Babylon was the judgment of their failure as to the former: hence we have Cyrus mentioned in connection with their deliverance. Their present state is the result of the rejection of their Messiah, the time the unclean spirit, after the Babylonish captivity, was gone out of them. Still it was but a remnant, preserved and brought back. That God would not look merely at the fact that they were His people, but -would distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, is also clearly stated in chap. 48 ver. 22, where the pleading on the question of idolatry closes; and chap. 57 ver. 21, where the pleading as to the rejection of Christ closes. And their wickedness, and the Lord's coming in power, and the intervening gospel-times, are then spoken of. At the end of their history, the unclean spirit, which had gone out, returns with seven others, worse; they are idolaters; and not only is Messiah negatively rejected, but they accept one who comes in his own name,-The last state is worse than the first, and wickedness ripens up into terrible judgment, which will yet be deliverance for those who will have called on the name of Jehovah, -who will have refused the idols, waited for Jehovah, and, in looking on Him, whom they had pierced, see Him come, in infinite grace, for their deliverance. But our inquiry now refers to the condition of this remnant, spared from the judgments of Israel, while God is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. The first witness we have, is only the binding up the testimony, and sealing the law, among His disciples, and waiting on Jehovah, who hides His face from the house of Jacob, and looking for Him. But this, though all blessing be founded on the death of Christ, does not bring in His death as a matter of knowledge. The instructions in Matthew, such as the sermon on the mount, and still more, chapters x. and answer to this; though, of course, increased light is thrown on their position, both as to spiritual apprehension, and the introduction of the Father's name, which, Christ, as Son, as in the sermon on the mount, could do, and by the prophetic light afforded them by the Lord. Besides this, the introduction of the thought of the coming King, does cast a special light on all the instruction given. In Psa. 22, however, where the circumstances of the blessed Lord's death, and the immense truth of His enduring the forsaking of God; are brought before us, we have more definite light as to the position into which the remnant enter in virtue of it. The Lord had borne the forsaking of God, and was now heard from the horns of the unicorn. All the unspeakable and full blessing of the inshining of God's delight, when sin was put away -a delight, which, though everlasting, was enhanced by the value of that sacrifice—expressed in the names of God and Father—enjoyed as man, as son—all burst unclouded upon His soul.-This He declared to His brethren, to put them, these poor disciples that followed Him, into the same place with Himself. He can now call them His brethren, for the work of redemption is accomplished.- Go, tell my brethren, He says, to Mary Magdalene, that I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. But this was not all—He raises the song of praise, in the midst of the Assembly. Thus, the remnant already manifested, the disciples are set on redemption-ground, and gathered with Christ in their midst. The Assembly, composed (as yet) of the remnant of Israel, takes a definite and true ground. The Assembly of God was there. His presence there. We have the remnant, the brethren, gathered into an Assembly (kahal, that is the actual gathering of them together), and the gathering founded on the sacrifice and atonement of Christ, and the power of His resurrection as to life. God was a Savior-God, in the power of eternal life; He was known in peace, and grace, and glory- was rejoiced in in hope. The instructions of the New Testament will carry us further than all this; but thus much was laid as a foundation. For Christ died, not only to save, and not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, who were scattered abroad.
The first great element promised in Scripture, and given after the exaltation of Jesus, was the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The assembly being now formed, the Lord added to it daily the remnant of Israel whom he Was sparing from judgment. Hereafter they will form the body of Israel itself-now they were added to the assembly. The hundred and twenty were, by grace, together in practical kahal, though as yet they had no definite object which rallied them, save the consciousness of a common faith, strengthened, doubtless, by Jesus visiting them the day of His resurrection and following first day of the week. But the baptism of the Holy Ghost constituted them a real kadah, a corporate body, a true Ohel- Med, a tent of meeting, where the Lord was. He owned it formally as His assembly in the earth. A temple there was which God yet bore with, but it was not where He dwelt. It was somewhat as when the tabernacle was at Gibeon without the ark, and the ark, by delivering grace, in Mount Zion. The title of "Assembly" became the generic name for this assembly formed amongst men. Its state or privileges, relationship with God or with Christ, be they one or various, and the dealings of God and Christ with it, remain to be searched out. We shall find that it had more than one aspect and relationship, to which God's dealings with it corresponded.
But the assembly of God was formed. It was not yet brought out in the faith of its members, though it were so in the counsels of God, and in that on which the assembly was founded and formed—that Jews and Gentiles should form one body without distinction. Nor did other truths connected with it make a part of their faith; but there was an assembly of God formed on the earth.
I will now consider some of the aspects in which it is presented in Scripture.
First, the Lord's prediction that He is going to build it, and on what, in Matt. 16 Christ, to the end of Matt. 12, had presented Himself preaching repentance and the kingdom to Israel, not hiding Jehovah's righteousness in the great congregation; above all, He had presented Himself as Jehovah-Messias to Israel, and sought an answer and fruit in His vineyard. Then He breaks entirely with His relationship with Israel after the flesh. His disciples are His mother and brethren and sisters. The nation is judged: its state worse than all before (Matt. 13). He sows; does not seek fruit: and when the kingdom of heaven is set up, the field is the world, not Judaism. All this is very significant; but it only leads us on to one further point (14, 15). He unfolds many moral points on which the rejection is founded, as indeed predicted, and chews grace bearing with, and rising above the evil, as to Israel. But in chap. 16, He elicits from Simon the confession of His own person; which, indeed, the Father had revealed to him. " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." On this rock He would build His assembly in the world, in the power of Divine life itself in Him as the Son of God. He existed, as Son, in the power of the life which is in God. And what should he who had the power of Hades, or death, be able to do against it? Christ was the very expression of the power of the living God, and that in life, as Son: what could the power of death do? This was shown in resurrection: " declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection from the dead." It was no longer to be announced that He was the Christ in Israel. That was closed: but as He was going to build the Church, He must, as Son of Man, suffer and die, but rise again; and then, in the power of that resurrection which was beyond the power of death, build it. Some would see (in the transfiguration-hereafter, fully) the Son of man coming in His kingdom. Now He was to suffer, relinquishing His then Christ-relationship with Israel, and, before finally taking the kingdom in power, build the Church on the title of Son of the living God. Thus we have His three titles in this respect: Christ as Messiahship in Israel no longer announced; Christ, the Son of the living God—a title He was never given elsewhere—on this He would build His assembly; Son of man—in this He would now suffer, but afterward be seen coming in His kingdom. He announces His death, but builds His assembly on the acknowledgment of His person. For Son of man, see Psa. 8, Dan. 7, and Psa. 80:1717Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. (Psalm 80:17). The kingdom of heaven is another subject, mentioned in the chapter, but not one which occupies us directly at this moment: I may speak of it further on.
Christ then declares, that upon this- that is, the truth of His being the Christ, the Son of the living God—He will build His assembly, and the gates of Hades should not prevail against it. This is a remarkable statement. Over Adam innocent, over men, consequently, everywhere, over Israel under the law, the gates of Hades had prevailed. Death and ruin had come in. Satan had gained the upper hand, as having the power of Hades; but this was on the ground of human responsibility. But Christ, who, perfect in Himself when responsible, went there in grace for us, could not, as the Son of the living God, be holden of the power of death. He went there, not that the prince of this world had anything in Him, but in love and obedience to His Father; and He not only was not holden of it, but He totally broke its power, rendered wholly void the power of Satan in it.
This was grace then and power;—the resurrection the completion and witness of that power, though not the full result in righteousness. It was the great proof of this grace and power in Christ, on which the assembly was built; not on responsibility and failure, as human hopes were, but in grace and power, on the Son of the living God. Not that there is no responsibility; but the safety of the assembly, its being carried to its divinely-purposed result, is not in question in it.
We shall see aspects in which what is called the Assembly is cast off; but not the Assembly as built by Christ; that is, His own house; and He builds it for His own purposes, for our blessing, according to His own heart and His glory. This is all we have of the Church or Assembly here. Remark, there are no keys to it. Christ builds it. Builds the keys are of the kingdom of heaven. Not only has Peter not the keys of the Church, but there are no keys to it. It has no keys, nor has anyone any keys of it. There are none. It is what Christ is building. Building is not done with keys. The whole thought of keys of the Church, in any and every sense, is a delusion. There are none.
But, to return. The assembly, viewed as built by Christ Himself, is built in grace and power. It is founded on the Rock of Jesus being the Son of the living God; and till that power be subdued by the power of Satan, as having that of death, it cannot be shaken; but that power of life in resurrection has been proved entirely triumphant over Satan, over the gates of Hades. Hence, whatever phases the Assembly may go through, through false brethren come in, in its outward state be it so corrupt that Christ will spue it out of His mouth, His building is as secure as that on which it is built, and that is Himself. He carries His work on through all that comes from man -and this is the carrying on the work and purpose of God on earth.
But remark here, we have not the smallest notion of the body or bride of Christ, nor of the indwelling of God by the Spirit. All this is foreign to the view here taken. It is life, i.e., Christ, as having, as Son, life in and from the life of the living God, life divine, life in Himself (proved in resurrection), which is the foundation and security of the Assembly built by the Heavenly Architect, against which he who has the power of death, Satan, cannot prevail. The result will be in assured victory over him, whatever the vicissitudes of the combat in man, according to the purpose of God. Hence also, though there is an assembly, yet it is an assemblage of individuals, not a body, the Holy Ghost forms. Thus Peter, in full unison with this revelation, declares we are begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then, unto whom coming as unto a living stone, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. They are together as stones in a building and as a priesthood; but it is not a body growing in itself with joints of supply.
Thus far, however, we have the assembly as built up by Christ on the earth (though for heaven; but it is not built in heaven, nor presented as connected with a head there), in contrast with the presenting Messiah to the Jews, on the ground of their own promises, as come in the flesh, the seed of David according to the flesh. Peter (in Acts 3) proposes, indeed, to the nation to come in and enjoy the promises on this ground, and Christ would return on their repentance. This is founded on Christ's intercession, "Father, forgive them"; but they resist the Spirit, as their fathers ha-d done; and this part of their history closes.
The Assembly was formed, and publicly inaugurated by the descent of the Holy Ghost: the Jews as a nation, reject its offered blessings in the persons of their chiefs. Another truth now shines out: God accepts in every nation. There is no word of the unity of the body here yet; but Gentiles could be received.. The reception of the Samaritans seems not so much to have surprised the disciples. That we can understand; they had been there with Christ: they pretended, at least, to Jewish privileges. The witness of the Spirit in Jerusalem is finally rejected; a saint takes his place in heaven; and Christ now can definitely sit down till His enemies (alas, the word!) are made His footstool. Hereupon, the Assembly outwardly is dispersed. The Jewish mission of the apostles (of going from a city where persecution assailed them) disappears; they are the only ones who remain. The action of the Holy Ghost takes a free course by whom He will in all this scene, and carries the testimony to the Gentiles. Meanwhile, an event of the utmost importance takes place in connection with the ways of God. What had scattered the assembly, formed as we have hitherto seen it, brought out upon the scene, in connection with the death of Stephen, the bitterest of those rejecting enemies; and he, through sovereign grace, by a distinct and new revelation, which did not connect him with Christ after the flesh, nor make him dependent on the apostles previously called, sees Christ in heaven and supreme glory, and learns that all the saints are one with Him—are Himself. Confounded, converted, taken up by power, He becomes a witness of the great truth that Jesus is the Son of God (which Peter is never recorded to have taught, but that He was made Lord and Christ), not conferring an instant with flesh and blood. After a salutary setting aside—which man ever needs, if he is to serve -he comes forth, as we have all read, not from Jerusalem, not of man or by man, but sent forth by the Holy Ghost from Antioch, a Gentile city, dependent on Him alone who sent him under the authority of Christ, and by the moving power of the Holy Ghost, to preach the Gospel of the glory to every creature under heaven, and to be a minister of the assembly, to complete the word of God. But that assembly, he had learned, in his conversion, was one with Christ Himself in glory.
Hence, we find, in the writings of the Apostle Paul, -very distinct additional light on other important aspects of God's Assembly, Eph. 1:22. It is the body of which Christ is the Head, the fullness of Him who fills all in all; " True Christians, viewed as a whole, are the body of Christ, and members in particular." This is fully un-folded in 1 Cor. 12; " For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." We are taught also how this most important truth is made good, " For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." The apostle unfolds and insists on this in the following verses of the chapter. In Eph. 4, we learn, that the body makes increase of itself, to the edifying of itself in love. The mutuality of membership, is dwelt on also in Rom. 12 In a word, the assembly, which, remark, already existed, for Jesus had spoken to him of the saints he was persecuting, is looked at in its true living character, the body of Christ; and it is so, through the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In the Ephesians, how-ever, when the body is fully spoken of-the Apostle refers to the elect saints, who are created again in Christ Jesus, and are sealed for the day of redemption; that is, he sees the Assembly, when speaking of it as the body of Christ united to the Head, as God knows it; quickened, raised, and seated in heavenly places in Christ the Head. That which has wrought this unity is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, under which the elect and manifested remnant were brought on the Day of Pentecost. Of course, all since called of God have their part in it; and, when the body is formed, will be found in it with heavenly glory. God's mind as to the Assembly is, that it is Christ's body, and Christ its Head; whatever is not this, is the fruit of man's work; who, when blessing from God has been committed to him, has always marred it; as my readers will have often seen insisted on. All en-trusted to man, Satan being unbound, has been lost and spoiled; all will be taken up in perfection, in the second Adam. Still the Assembly-viewed as God's Assembly; and so in the first instance it is, and ought to be, in its normal state, and as it will be hereafter-is the body of Christ. But, in that body, all are living indefectible members. Christ has no dead members, nor a mutilated body. The same power that wrought in Christ-this is the express doctrine of Eph. 1-in raising Him up, and setting Him at the right hand of God, has wrought in them. They believed also, and were sealed. This it is, which is always spoken of when the body is spoken of. No man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it as the Lord the Assembly, for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. The Assembly is the gathering of the children of God on earth into one, the assembling them; but, viewed in its reality, this Assembly is Christ's body; they are quickened with Him raised up, sitting in Him in heavenly places. As it is said, man is the image of God, speaking of what he is as from the hand of God, in the epistle of James, as in Gen. 1 But the state and position of man was entrusted to him on his own responsibility; and he is at enmity with God, and ruined.
Israel is the object of divine favor, God's firstborn in the earth; and, as touching election, beloved for the fathers' sake, yet, outcast and enemies, the branches are broken off; that is, besides that which God has set up being viewed as in His mind and thoughts, it must be viewed also in the result produced under the responsibility of man. Israel were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and ate the same spiritual meat, and drank the same spiritual drink; evidently referring to baptism and the Lord's supper, the outward ordinances by which Christian Association, the Assembly, is distinctively maintained.-But, with many of them, God was not well pleased; they were not Israel, though of Israel, as the Apostle expresses it. We must examine this character of the Assembly too-that is, the Assembly as it is formed on earth, under the responsibility and by the activity of man. And here we return to the image of the house and building, even in the writings of Paul. The members of the body are members of Christ, and livingly secured in Him. Indeed, even in the other point of view, that is looked at as the house as established of God, the Assembly cannot fail; only, as Israel did, it will give place, on the earth, to another order of things. We have already seen, that Christ declares, He would build His Assembly, and the gates of Hades should not prevail against it. Nor will they. When the due time is come, what He has wrought will be transferred to heavenly habitations, and be the House and City of God there, as the remnant of Israel were transferred to the Assembly, and the apostate body who had made profession to be Christians cut off, just as the body of Israel were cut off; only, that with the Assembly, the Holy Ghost having been there, it is a final thing; heavenly, or entire and final excision and judgment,-while Israel is reserved for future dealings of grace.
This House we will now consider. The Lord speaks of -His own building, and Peter of the stones coming to Jesus, and as living stones being built up a spiritual house. In both, we get the real work of Grace and of Christ, without allusion to any human failure and dispensational dealings, save the fact that the assembly has taken the place of Israel on the earth. It is viewed in its natural normal state; and so it is as to discipline, in Matt. 18, where the without and the within, the heathen position, is referred to the Assembly, not any longer to Israel-if he neglect to hear the Assembly, he shall be to thee as a heathen man and a publican. But Paul takes us higher, and hence forces us to distinguish, and in a certain sense to descend lower. He has seen, not merely an assembly formed by Christ on earth, to which souls were adjoined and built up as a house (and holy priesthood), here on earth, which is the view of Matt. 16 and Peter,-but Christ in heaven and the saints one with Him, members of His body, and a vast ingathering here below: of these he is to tell us, as minister of the Assembly, on one side, the wondrous privileges in every respect, and, on the other side, its actual earthly history as in the hands of men. Hence, in building, man is introduced in the work; he does not speak of Christ's building. It is the actual fact before him, in blessing and in responsibility of which he will teach us. Facts which abide in the wide spread scene of Gentile profession to this day. Eph. 1 may first draw our attention. The individual saints are the first and primary object; what they are in relationship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and, the purpose of God being revealed, what they are, as sealed. by the Holy Ghost, and heirs of the inheritance to come. The power that sets them in their place with God, has been exemplified in the exaltation of Christ. This introduces a further point, the counsels of God in their union with Him. Christ, thus exalted, God has given to be Head over all things, but to the Assembly which is His body. We get thus, in the second place, the union of the Assembly with Christ,-the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. It will be remarked here, that the Assembly is viewed in its normal condition with the divine eye. The doctrine in hand is the exercise of the same power in a believer's quickening, as was exercised in Christ, when raised and set at the right hand of God; a power by which He shows they were quickened together with Him, raised up together (Jew or Gentile), and made to sit together in heavenly places in Him-created again in Christ Jesus; not only so, but what more directly and immediately shows it. It is the Assembly, seen as the individuals previously, as they are in the thoughts and counsels of God in full future result. The individuals are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before God in love, and predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. Hence, we (believers), it is said, where present time is referred to, have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins; and the saints (Gentiles) are, after they believed, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, for and until the redemption of the purchased possession. So as regards the Assembly, God who has exalted Christ, has given Him to be Head over all things to the Assembly, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Now this, though faith seizes it now, is the full counsel of God as to it, when the whole body complete shall be united to the Head in His then dominion over all things—the true Eve of the heavenly Adam; Lord, not only of this lower, but of the whole, creation. It is a citation of Psa. 8 It is not yet fulfilled, He is now sitting at the right hand of God, till His enemies be made His footstool; and, as the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, citing the same Psalm, we see not yet all things put under Him. We see him crowned with glory and honor. Meanwhile, He is gathering the Church; and those who are sealed with the Holy Ghost, brought into the unity of the body, appropriate, justly, all the privileges that belong to their union with Christ, which is effectuated; though the outward results are not yet accomplished, and Christ has not yet received, in fact, this dominion as man, over all things; though all things are His of the Father. They know they are reconciled, but that the purpose of God to reconcile all things in heaven and earth is not yet accomplished.
As regards the passage, then, which occupies us, it presents to us the full result of the counsels of God, in this point, when Christ shall exercise His universal dominion as man, and the whole Assembly be complete; and hence, looks at it as in the mind of God, not in its administration on the earth in the hand of man.
Allow me to present a general truth as to God's ways; not a new one, I dare say, to many of my readers, but important to notice here. That all the glories which are to meet in Christ—that is, glories which He is to take as man, not the essential glory of His person and all connected with them in us, have been first tried in the hands of the first Adam, and his failure proved. Adam, as man, failed. The Second Adam is true Head over all things: God is glorified in Him victorious over Satan in trial, as the first succumbed. Man in Israel is tried by the law given as a proving rule of life. Hereafter, the law will be written in their hearts, and the statutes of God kept by them. Priesthood was set up in man, and failed. Christ will present all saved to the end by His. Royalty in David's son failed, and the kingdom was broken up. It will be set up, never to fail, in Christ. Sovereign power in rule over the Gentiles and the world failed in Nebuchadnezzar, set idolatry up for unity of religion's sake, and, consequently, persecuted God's saints. It will be set up in Christ in perfectness, and in Him shall the Gentiles trust. The Assembly has been set up in its responsibility, that God might be glorified in it, and a glorious Christ fully known. It has failed in this; but when Christ comes He will be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe. True redemption is accomplished; and we know the whole counsels of God founded on them, as they never were known before, because the Lord Jesus has come and laid that blessed foundation; but it is not the less true that the Assembly has been set to glorify God and the Lord Jesus, by the present power of the Holy Ghost, and that it has failed in its responsible place here below, and has taken a place in flesh, out of which it has been called; but the sure counsels of God will be accomplished in the Assembly united to Christ in glory.
It is in this last way, the Assembly is viewed in chap 1 of the Ephesians, as is the case in respect of the subjects of the whole chapter, though that which the true heirs and members of Christ possess, meanwhile, is doubtless stated, but only in view of this ultimate purpose of God, and not what refers to the sphere of their earthly responsibility; of that there is nothing in the chapter at all. The thoughts, purpose, and counsels of God are its subject. The beginning of chap. 2 shows that by which those once dead in trespasses and sins are brought into the blessed place which these counsels have bestowed on us. From ver. 11 of that chapter, though still addressing saints, he speaks of their actual condition and position, in fact, down here on the earth -their present actual place. The Gentiles were made nigh. The middle wall of partition broken down in the cross, that Christ might reconcile Jews and Gentiles in one body to God; then the message of peace sent to both, so that we have both access by one Spirit to the Father. They are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the house-hold of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, Christ being the coiner-stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. In whom they also were builded together for a dwelling-place of God, through the Spirit. Now, doubtless, the thought here presented is the normal state of the assembly upon the earth; Scripture would thus, speaking of it in principle, so describe it, it could not do otherwise; but we are here on quite other ground than in the first. We have not the purpose and counsel of God, but facts wrought and a system established upon the earth, in which men have their part, such as they are here below. Those whom he addresses were builded together to be a dwelling-place of God on the earth. The temple had been such in another way. Now it is another, a Christian dwelling-place, which God has by the Spirit. The more Eph. 1 and 2, to the end of ver. 10, is examined, the more it will be seen that the view there taken on every point is God's counsel and God's work, and its blessed result in us: no trace of dependance on man, or connection with man's responsibility, is found. First, His purpose as to us individually in Christ. Further, we are accepted in the Beloved, and we have redemption through His blood; then His will is made known to us; and in this place, for Christ's glory, we have an inheritance according' to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will. This, with the revelation of that will, characterizes the whole passage. He prays for them that they may know it, and the power that brings into it. This is according to the power which wrought in Christ, raised Him from the dead, and set Him at the right hand of God. The same has wrought in us, before that dead in sins, and raised us up, too, and set us sitting in heavenly places in Christ. Now it is evident, that all this is, as expressed at the end of the passage, a work of God, forming the real members of the body of Christ. We are God's workmanship, sealed, after believing, by the Holy Spirit of promise, earnest of the inheritance which belongs to us in Christ through grace.
Now our union with Christ, as His body-, forms a de-finite part of this work, and, indeed, that in which the positive work and power of God operating in us, as in Christ, when it raised Him and set Him at His right hand. Thus the body is composed of the true members of Christ, united to Him by the power of God and the effectual presence of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, while He is sitting at the right hand of God; and they are sitting there in Him.
In ver. 11, as we have seen, the apostle begins with the dispensation of this mystery on earth. But some passages must be referred to before we enter on this. -Were this all, the doctrine current from Augustine downward, of an invisible Church, would have to be admitted as the thought of God, and, consequently, no recognized body on earth, or the whole system of corruption introduced by Satan, recognized as the body of Christ, and its outward administration accepted as the channels, and only legitimate channels, of grace, and all the privileges of the body itself admitted to belong to it. But this is not the case; we, have still to consider the body as presented in 1 Cor., that is in its outward manifestation on the earth in unity. Here we shall find the recognition of the power by which unity is formed on earth. The sign which constitutes the visible expression of that unity, and the distinct declaration that we may partake of the signs of Christian profession, or of unity and spiritual life, and yet be rejected. When He treats men as saints, He treats them as one body on the earth; but warns them, they may be outwardly 'incorporated into this in every way, and God reject them after all. Nor, indeed, would participation in outward power prove the contrary.
In chap. 12 we have the power of unity -" For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." In chap. 10 we have the outward sign of it -" For we being many are one bread [loaf], and one body: for we are all partakers of that one loaf." The baptism of the Holy Ghost forms the body in. unity. The Lord's Supper is the external sign of it. It may be remarked here, consequently, that the apostle addresses the sanctified in Christ Jesus all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus, theirs and ours. Thus the unity here spoken of embraces the universal body of the, sanctified in Christ Jesus, yet it recognizes the local assembly of Christians-saints by God's calling -as representing locally this unity.
"The, Church (assembly) of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints (i.e., saints by calling)." They are distinctly addressed as having the testimony of Christ, and that confirmed by the gifts of the Holy Ghost. They were waiting for Christ's coining, who would confirm them to the end, so that they should be blameless (chap. 1). So he treats them all through, though warning them (chap. 10) to see that it was real. At the end of chap. 5, this body of called saints are to put out the wicked person from among them, that they may be a new lump (in fact), as they are unleavened in their place and standing before God. There are those without, and those within; those within, judged, those without, in God's hands. The one Assembly of the place, looked at as unseparated from the whole company of saints, acts as the body of Christ. In chap. 12, after dearly speaking of tile whole body, he says, " Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." They are placed corporately in this position, while all in Christ are included in it. There is no body but one, that of Christ; a local assembly acts as such, and can exclude none of His members. The verse which follows clearly shows that the whole assembly is in view, as apostles and all gifts are placed in it. God hath set them in the assembly, first apostles, then prophets, etc. Apostles and prophets are clearly not in any particular assembly, as such; locally, at any given moment, they may. Paul was acting as a member of the assembly at Corinth, yet not apart from his position at that time.
Further, it is proof that it is the Assembly on earth. Healings are not in heaven, nor the exercise of gifts either; that of which they are members, as exercising their gifts, viewed in the true light of their place according to the thought of God, is the body of Christ; that in which they are placed is the assembly, the sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints.
Further, the apostle supposes the possibility of a per-son possessing tongues, prophecy, miracles, and being still nothing. He does not say, such are members of the body. We have thus (Eph. 1) the body according to the counsel and work of God; and (1 Cor.) the body, as formed in this world by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and publicly manifested in its unity in partaking of the Lord's supper. In the first, Christ is Head to the Assembly, which is His body; in the second, the various members of the body are wrought in by the Holy Ghost to perform their various functions, and God is said to have set them in the Assembly; i.e., the Assembly is called the body in Eph. 1, in the full result of God's counsels, and the members of the body, as seen on earth, are set in the assembly in 1 Cor. In the perfection of both, the Assembly is said to be Christ's body. On earth, in God's mind, they are practically identified, but one is not said to be the other. But those addressed are the sanctified in Christ Jesus; saints by calling, and always viewed as such.
Other passages show, that false brethren could creep in among the rest, and apostatize from among the rest; but this, though there are warning and hints which lead to the possibility of it, is not contemplated here; we have nothing to do here with sowing tares among the wheat. It is the kingdom which is there spoken of, and in the field, the world. In Rom. 12, we have the same general idea as in 1 Cor. All are assumed to be true saints; the members are looked at, not in union with the Head, but in their mutual relationship and individual service. " We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." It is not necessary more particularly to refer to that passage, In Ephesians, the true saints, quickened with Christ, are the body of Christ, Head over all things; in 1 Cor., so also is Christ, seen on earth in us. In Romans, " We are one body in Christ."
I now turn to the second aspect in which it is viewed in the Ephesians. In a dispensational way, Christ builds an assembly, secure in result from the prevailing of Satan's power. In the counsel of God, the saints raised with Christ by divine power from His body. This body is formed and manifested on the earth by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. But the apostle who has given God's counsel and work, as to it and its outward formative power, will also give it to us in its actually ordered condition, and what it will become in the hands of man as existing here below. Having taken the general fact which existed in the dispensations of God, He is given of God to reveal it as it stands in the counsel of God, and as formed by His workmanship, and what it becomes in the hands of man. And here he enters upon the domain of facts, not views-facts, in the first instance, happy and pure enough, answering to God's mind; still facts taking place in the sphere of man and his condition and state. here below, though God may be working in and through it, and in result securing the accomplishment of His own counsel. But we are in the sphere of facts and circumstances, not of the counsel and thought of God; nor, however, at first, the work may answer by grace, by His working in and by man;-to His mind is it simply and absolutely His work. Hence, though in general the subject be the same, in general what is spoken of is not called the Assembly any more than the body.
Such a way of treating leaves room for the work being, by grace, most blessed, and much according to God's mind; but also, man being the workman, for awful departure from it, too. Still we shall see, in most material respects, God has a place in it, but another and a distinct one; we shall find no members of a body, but the sphere of work is God's in the world, and His presence is found to be there in what is built up. The apostle, in Eph. states the facts; thus, the Gentile believers at Ephesus had, once afar off, been brought nigh by the blood of Christ, for Christ had broken down the middle wall of partition, abolishing in His flesh ordinances, to make of twain (Jews and Gentiles) one new man, and reconcile both in one body by the cross, and having slain the enmity, preached peace to the Gentiles afar off, and the Jews nigh, through Him by one Spirit. Jew and Gentile (believers) had access to the Father;-all this brings out the great principles on which the work was founded.
Verses 19 and 20 further describe this new position. In Christ all the building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Thus Jew and Gentile are brought together to be the temple or dwelling-place of God; they grow up to this. In this sense, it will be perfect-a holy temple. But beside this, there is the present work which was going on. They were then builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. God dwelt there by the Holy Ghost. Now the thought of God, founded on the death of Christ, was to have a holy temple, in which He should dwell; and so He will. But there was a work going on now upon earth which corresponded to this. Jews and Gentiles were builded together, to be God's habitation by the Spirit. That which is definitely presented here, is the dwelling of God there in the person of the Spirit. There is no head, no union, no body. What God has to say to it, is not to animate the members and unite them in one body to the head and one another, but to dwell there.
No doubt, the house, in the mind of God and in result, will be a holy house of true Christians; nor is there that at the first, it was practically so, when the Spirit took up His abode in it. The apostle addresses them as saints-the body and the house were in fact the same. They were built on the foundation; but who had built them? Of this nothing is said. Although the present fact is assumed, that the building is in its normal state, yet we do not find the work of God perfecting His counsels, but a warning following, founded on the responsibility of man, of which we read nothing whatever in the first chapter, and first ten verses of the second. "I beseech you," says the apostle, " that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye were called, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." On this the triple unity spoken of in a former paper; one Spirit-body and hope; one Lord-faith and baptism; the God and Father of all, above all, through all, and in them all. When we turn to the actual accomplishment of the work on earth, presented to us in 1 Cor. 3, it takes an aspect characterized wholly by man's responsibility, not to the exclusion of the truth, that all the true work is of God, and man nothing; but that, in the work actually wrought on earth, man's working enters with all its consequences. Paul had laid the foundation as a wise master-builder: the true foundation was laid, none other could be, but every one was to take heed how he built thereon; he might build gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; the enduring of the work depended on the materials. It would be tested. The teaching brought in souls according to its own character; and the superstructure of the building of that which was raised up on the foundation of Christ in the world, was according to the materials. Here we have the outward result in the world; yet God's building, as to its standing and position in the world, but man building it, and his responsibility in play, and the result according to the materials employed, It has been sought to justify the evil result of man's bad building; but of this there is not the smallest trace, the very man that had so built was himself saved only as through the fire, and all his labor lost. Here I need hardly say we have nothing of the body.
But the instruction of the Word goes further. God has allowed and ordered, since evil was to be, that the principles of that evil should work, before the eyes of those that scrutinized it with divine sagacity were closed; and if the coldness of the saints towards Christ, and the working of the mystery of iniquity pressed upon the heart of Paul; and the flowing in of iniquity under the garb of Christianity roused the glowing indignation of Jude and Peter; and the departure of some to take an antichristian position awakened the warning voice of John, they have afforded us a divinely-given inspired judgment, in the word, of all that did so. False brethren crept in unawares; wickedness came in, and those not really of the Christian commonwealth went out. But Paul-that wise master-builder, who above all had the ministry of the church committed to him-would, above all, judge by the Spirit, the bearing of this work of the enemy, and give the needed warning and direction to the saints and so he does. One passage in particular will attract our attention, because it refers directly to our subject, and gives explicit direction for the conduct of the saints in a state of things which has so ripened since he first, by the Spirit, spoke of it, 2 Tim. 2:17,2217And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus; (2 Timothy 2:17)
22Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22). Heresy had come in, and the faith of some was overthrown. Here the apostle brings out distinctly the difference of the two aspects of God's people now on the earth, of which we have spoken. The foundation of God standeth sure: and these are the two devices of the seal. The Lord knoweth them that are His. That is the sure security of God's purpose: then man's responsibility, as naming the name of Christ, they should depart from iniquity. But this is not all. The actual condition of the house, the Lord's house, as confided to men, not merely its nature, is looked at. "But," the apostle continues, "in a great house there ate not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor." We are to expect vessels to dishonor in the house. The direction of the apostle is to purge oneself from these, and to follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 'The general result will be found in 2 Tim. 3, the form of godliness, but not the power; and 2 Thess. a falling away which introduces the man of sin.
These various passages of Scripture give us a pretty clear insight into the way in which the assembly is contemplated in Scripture. We have first, the body ac-cording to the purpose and work of God. Its members quickened with the Head, raised up and sitting in heavenly places in Him. This, in full result, will be the body of Him who is Head over all; the fullness thus of Him that filleth all in all. Next, we have the body manifested on the earth by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and outwardly expressed by union in partaking of the Lord's Supper. Hence, those doing this together are so far looked at as the body; all saints being, how-ever, associated in thought. With this, water-baptism has nothing to do. We are one body with an ascended Christ, baptism never reaches ascension; it is confined, in its signification, to death and resurrection. Thirdly, we have the house in the thought and purpose of God, built on the foundation of apostles and prophets of the New Testament; it grows up a holy temple to the Lord. This embraces the whole assembly, and is not yet complete. But the union of Jews and Gentiles under the gospel in the assembly, formed the habitation of God on earth through the Spirit. This is treated as a fact; but it is not said in Ephesians, what would become of it. It is-not a work of divine power, quickening individuals out of death, and then uniting to Christ by the Holy Ghost; but new relationships formed by a divine work, which are entered into. The assembly takes the place of Israel as the dwelling-place and habitation of God. Now, doubtless at first those who entered, did so by the power of God. But it was a position on earth in which man was responsible, not union with the Head in heaven. Fourthly, we have the building of this house, in fact, by the labors of man; Paul, the wise master-builder; and the danger of others not building with good materials. Fifthly, we have a great house with vessels to dishonor in it, from which the faithful have to purify themselves; along with this, perilous times, when professing Christians would have the form of godliness and deny the power of it, and were to be turned away from; and, lastly, an actual apostasy (the true saints being caught up to heaven.), and so the revelation of the man of sin, judgment closing all. Two passages should be referred to here, 1 Tim. 3:15, and Heb. 3:6. The latter passage refers to the care of Christ over His house, and looks on to the house being owned in its true sense, and according to the divine purpose hereafter. God would have a house, a dwelling-place, and though the heaven and heaven of heavens could not contain Him, yet dwell with men. This dwelling of God with man reposes on redemption, by which they are made His own in a divine right, and unalterable title not merely by creation. He did not dwell with Adam, not with Abraham; but, when Israel was re-deemed out of Egypt, and become His people, He dwells there; redeemed them in order to dwell there. See last two verses of Ex. 29, compare 25. When the house was empty, swept, and garnished, the Blessed One came and could say of His body "this temple." Then the Lord formed the assembly for a dwelling-place; nor does this blessed truth cease, even now, no more than the other fruits of redemption. In the new heavens and the new earth, the tabernacle of God (the assembly) will be with men. Meanwhile, it was formed on earth, a habitation of God, through the Spirit. In Heb. 3, the apostle, as in all the epistles, was warning the Jewish professors against turning back and giving up the be-ginning of their confidence. If they did they would form no part of Christ's house, over which He Himself was. He had, indeed, built all things as God, but in a closer relationship, He had His own house; and of this, as a divine building, those who abandoned Him, of course formed no part. 1 Tim. 3, views it in a somewhat different light. The point on the apostle's mind is not Christ over His own house, but the servant's responsibility in God's house. The assembly of the living God is that house. There is the place where the truth is professed, and its profession maintained in the world and no where else. If anything calling itself the assembly- of God loses the profession of fundamental truth, it ceases to be an assembly of God. On the other hand, the servant of the Lord has to learn, when the truth is professed, how to behave himself as in the assembly of God; that is, the house of the living God. That is its character, and our responsibilities are according to this character.
What has been said, will, I apprehend, by drawing his attention to the passages, sufficiently introduce my reader into the thoughts of Scripture on this subject. Many most important consequences may be drawn; but this, as yet, I reserve. We have the general idea of the Assembly of God upon the earth. This Assembly, founded consequent on the exaltation of Christ on high, has a double aspect, considered in its normal state. It is the body of Christ, looking at in its union with Christ on high; the house of God, if we consider it as the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost, sent down consequent on Christ's exaltation. In these characters, the Epistle to the Ephesians presents it to us; in either case, it is first of all viewed as composed of true believers, and will in result be composed of such. In general, the building of the Assembly, viewed as going on to its ultimate result, is Christ's work founded on the power of His resurrection; and Satan's power cannot prevail against it. It is never called Christ's Assembly but here (Matt. 16) (particular assemblies are, Rom. 16:1616Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you. (Romans 16:16)), and is viewed as one built by Himself, and in result secured by His power. He considers it in its reality, without dwelling on its privileges, or what the outward temporary form of it remains in man's hands. The body of Christ is spoken of as being on earth; but always assumed to be composed of living members, in whom the Holy Ghost works in power. Scripture does not say that a man may not have this power, without being a member of the body (for Scripture, 1 Cor. Heb. 6, and many passages analogous in the gospels and even in the Old Testament, suppose that he may); but, in speaking of the body, the members are all supposed to be living saints. The house is first viewed according to its institution and result in blessing; but, at the same time, human building is spoken of, and in result on earth a great house, in which vessels to dishonor have their place, as well as vessels to honor; though we are called to purge ourselves from them.
I would refer the reader, in order to complete this review, to the fifth of Ephesians; where the love of Christ towards the Assembly, viewed as the object of divine counsels and the bride of Christ, with allusion to Eve's relationship with Adam, is unfolded; first, in its whole character and results He loved it, gave Himself for it that He might cleanse it for Himself by the word, and present it to Himself (as God did Eve, when formed, to Adam), glorious and spotless: secondly, in His tender care over it, He nourishes and cherishes it as a man would his own flesh. In the fourth chapter, we find the gifts coming down from Christ as Head; these gifts being represented as the members themselves ministering, first, to the perfection of the individual members; and then, with a view to the work of the ministry and the edifying the whole body, by the supply of every part. I would recall the triple unity heretofore spoken of. The body, the Spirit, and the hope:-The one Lordship of Christ to which faith and baptism correspond. Then, one divine being, God and Father of us all, who is above all, and every where, and in us all. -Wonderful privilege! There remains the question, What has historically become of the Assembly thus formed? and what form did the thoughts connected with it take in the minds of Christian men? Of this in another paper, the Lord willing.
" Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and any righteousness shall not be abolished."