(Continued from p. 227.)
I would now briefly advert to the distinctness of the glory, into fellowship with which the saints are brought, having nothing at all analogous to it previous to its revelation. It appears to me of importance to remark that the glory of the church is distinctive and characteristic; that it was not directly revealed, previously to the coming down of the Holy Ghost. “None of the princes of this world knew it:” it was what “eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into the heart of man to conceive.” It is best seen by contrasting it with the proper Jewish expectation of Messiah. Now it is most clear that they looked upon their Messiah as the Redeemer to deliver them and their land; to restore it to fruitfulness, to make them glorious as a people in the eyes of all among whom they had been despised; to make them also the channel of blessing to others; and all this when Jehovah should be their King “Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously” (Isa. 24:2323Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. (Isaiah 24:23)). Besides all this, there was the real moral glory, “Thy people shall be all righteous,” a people in whose hearts the Spirit of God dwelt. “A new heart also will I give onto you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and do them, and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers” (Ezek 26:26-28).
Now both in this place and in Jer. 31, where the new covenant with the house of Israel is stated at large, its connection with earthly blessing, and the glory of Jerusalem, and the land is most definitely marked; and it is only because we have read those accounts with pre-occupied minds that their strict application to Israel should ever have been questioned. Our Lord evidently alludes to this in His conversation with Nicodemus, “Marvel not that I said unto you, ye (Jews) must be born again;” their earthly blessing was only to be secured by God giving them His Spirit. And when Zacharias under the Holy Ghost, prophesied, it was evidently to the glory of Israel under Messiah. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life” (Luke 1).
Now the mystery revealed of the church is its oneness with Christ. The Messiah, though of, was distinct from, Israel: the nation was not to be brought into oneness with Him, but He was to be over the nation, to fulfill the good pleasure of God to it. A king and a people are distinct, though they have a common interest, for a king is over his people. On the other hand Christ is never said to be King over His church, but the Head of it as His own body, “Head to His church over all things"; the Bridegroom, and the church His bride: language which while it implies identity, at the same time expresses that distinctness which gives Him the pre-eminence. But the essential characteristic of the church is that its glory is heavenly. Those who believe in Jesus are made one with Him, not as “the Son of David after the flesh,” but as declared the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.” “The hope set before them is that which entereth into that within the vail, whither the Forerunner is for us entered.” Heaven is now opened, and in it is the resting-place of the church in Christ Jesus.
“To be accepted in the Beloved” to be brought into that complete oneness with Him, so that the love wherewith the Father loved Him, with the same He loves those who by His Spirit are thus made one with Him. To have everything which could be predicted of Him, predicted of the church, this was the mystery, the revelation of which made all old things to pass away, all the long cherished hopes of an Israelite were immediately given up by one who was thus brought into fellowship with the Father and the Son. What a word is that— “Fellowship” between the Creator and the creature, that they should have a common interest the one in the other! It would indeed have remained a hidden mystery, but the Incarnation of the Only-begotten shows how this can be. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should called the sons of God.” “Now are we sons of God,” though what we shall be hath not yet been manifested. It never could have entered into the mind of an Israelite, that such a glory was contemplated, as that any should be so completely identified with Jehovah Jesus, the God-man, as to have their vile body fashioned like unto His glorious body. But this was the eternal purpose of God, this was in His mind from before the foundation of the world— “Whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” The Father not only prepared a body for Jesus to suffer in, but likewise a body mystical, in which He should be glorified; for He is to be glorified in His saints. His glory is not only personally to be exhibited, but to be exhibited in and through them. He is not only to bless by His personal presence, but His saints are the channel of blessing to others, as was originally promised to Abraham, “thou shalt be a blessing.” So now the church is the channel of blessing, even in its wilderness state; out of it alone go the living waters. “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Jesus is the well of life, but the stream is dispensed through the church, and what blessedness shall there be when the world to come is no longer under angels, but under Jesus and His saints; the stream of life immediately flowing from Jesus through them, in an unhindered course to others. They shall be a blessing, as they are called to inherit a blessing; they shall be kings and priests unto God, and they shall reign over the earth as kings, and make known (and who so well able as those who know what grace is?) good to others.
“God hath called us into His own kingdom and glory;” “He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is said to Israel, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,” not that they obtain the glory of the Lord. In a word, their glory is distinct from the Lord's glory; that glory is something without them, but the glory of the church is identical with that of the Lord; the church is the vessel filled with glory, the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all. This was a something so far beyond thought, that well might the apprehension of it make old things to pass away.
Again, be it remembered, that the present blessing and glory of the church is distinctly heavenly; Jesus is now in heaven, and His people can only be in Spirit where He is. It seems nothing novel to us to talk of heaven as our place, and of being in heaven, as our glory; yet what does this mean in the mouths of most but that heaven is to be enjoyed after earthly enjoyment has failed? That earth is the place for the enjoyment of the body; and that heaven will receive our departed spirits? But Jesus is “the Savior of the body,” “the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” It was the brightness of the glory of Jesus the Son of Man, which filled Stephen with holy rapture; it was unto that likeness he looked to awake and be satisfied. But the calling of the church is now heavenly, its place now of rest is “in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” Believers now let pass old things, because “their citizenship is in heaven;” “they are no more of the world, even as Jesus is no more of the world.” “As He is, so are they in this world;” as He is the heavenly Man, so are they heavenly men; as He is the beloved Son, so are they sons beloved; as He is heir of all things, so are they heirs of all things. This is their standing, though they be locally in this world. This is indeed the new creation unheard of, unknown before, which places in such pre-eminence the least in the kingdom of heaven. They are heavenly—one with Christ the quickening Spirit, one with Him Who sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Here has been the mistake and confusion; heaven has been made the future instead of present blessing of the church. Hence believers have been Christians in hope, but Jews in practice. All hope of earthly blessing ceased with the rejection of Him in Whom alone the earth could be blessed, by those through whom the blessing was to be communicated: “the earth shall hear Jezreel.” From that moment, as was most significantly taught in darkness overspreading the earth, and the vail of the temple being rent, earth was, closed as to blessing from it and “heaven opened.” Those who will be blessed now must follow Jesus the only giver of blessing into heaven, “whither the Forerunner is for us entered;” until He comes from the right hand of the Father, blessing from the earth is barred. What an interesting moment is the present, “the kingdom of heaven opened!” Oh! if men knew but the gift of God, and the present blessing held out to them, how would they “press into it,” how would “they take it by force.” Testimony might be multiplied as to the distinct character and glory of the present dispensation, as being entirely novel, and in no feature corresponding with anything that had preceded. In a word, Christ and the church was the hidden mystery, the secret of God, until revealed by the Spirit coming down from Jesus glorified, not only to testify of it, but also to constitute it. As to what remains, I would apply the truth practically.