I wish to draw attention to the expression “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:88Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; (Ephesians 3:8)). It is generally taken as some vague, general way of expressing the preciousness and value of His work and Person, and while it is surely so to everyone who loves the Lord, I suggest that this is not the real thought of the passage.
There were a great many things spoken of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament, as we are aware, and if I might give them a name, it would be “the searchable riches of Christ.” There we may find the promises which had Him for their object and fulfillment. We find His miraculous birth, as born of a virgin (Isa. 7:1414Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)); His life of suffering and rejection by His people (Isa. 114Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. (Isaiah 1:14)); His atoning death (Isa. 532Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; (Isaiah 54:2); Psa. 2214I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. (Psalm 22:14)); His burial with the rich (Isa. 532Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; (Isaiah 54:2)); His resurrection (Psa. 163Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. (Psalm 17:3)); His ascension to the right hand of God (Psa. 1107The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. (Psalm 111:7)); His receiving gifts for men, or “in the man” (Psa. 68:1818Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. (Psalm 68:18)); His coming in the clouds of heaven (Dan. 7:13-1413I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13‑14)); the judgments that He executes (Isa. 59:16-20; 63:1-616And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. 17For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. 18According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence. 19So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. 20And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 59:16‑20)
1Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 2Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? 3I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. 6And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth. (Isaiah 63:1‑6)). There we also find His glorious reign (Psa. 721<<A Psalm for Solomon.>> Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. 2He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. 3The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. 4He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. 5They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. 6He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. (Psalm 72:1‑6); Isa. 321Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. 2And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 3And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. 4The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. 5The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. 6For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. (Isaiah 32:1‑6)) and the principles of His kingdom (Psa. 1011<<A Psalm of David.>> I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. 2I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 3I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. 4A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. 5Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer. 6Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. (Psalm 101:1‑6)). All these and many more might be searched out and traced through the Old Testament Scriptures.
Unsearchable Riches “Hid in God”
But there were the “unsearchable riches” as well — those which were “hid in God” — His eternal purposes which were before the foundation of the world. The Lord had come in among His people, but those to whom these promises were made rejected these promises in the Person of the Son in whom they were fulfilled. Rejected by them, He accomplishes the work of redemption on the cross, dies, rises again, and ascends on high to the Father’s throne. From the glory of God He sends down the Holy Spirit, charged with pardon for His people Israel, but the only response to this fresh offer of His gracious heart was a more determined refusal than ever. Stephen, stoned as a blasphemer, bears on high to his rejected Master (as it were) the message from His citizens, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” and all is over.
Saul of Tarsus was then called, and to him were the “unsearchable riches of Christ” committed; to him who was “less than the least of all saints” was the grace given.
Those “unsearchable riches” embrace in their thought the mystery of Christ and the church and her rapture (as of all saints) to glory. They unfold themselves in the unnamed interval during which the Lord Jesus is sitting on the throne of God as man, rejected by His people and the world — an interval of which no account is taken in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The prophets then looked from hilltop to hilltop, as it were, and they pass over unnoticed the great valley lying between the mountaintops which caught their prophetic eye. They connected the coming of Messiah in His humiliation with its glorious results for His people Israel in His kingdom and glory, by and by. They spoke of the “sufferings of Christ” and “the glories that should follow,” and stepped (in prophetic language) from one hilltop where His blessed feet stood in the day of humiliation to the other hilltop where He would stand in the day of His power. The valley which lay between, with its untold mines of wealth, was still “unsearchable” to man.
The Valley on Earth
A man sits on the throne of heaven — the Son of the Father. From that scene He receives of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit and sends Him from heaven. Only then was that made known which lay in the secret of His heart from before the world. The valley is explored, its mines of wealth discovered, and we are led along its paths as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, but fellow-citizens with the saints in heaven.
During this interval, while He is hidden on high, another thing comes in. United to this glorified Head in heaven is His body, the church. He loved it; He gave Himself for it. He followed her into the depth of degradation into which she had fallen. Unlike the first Adam, He is not deceived, as was Eve. No; He follows her in the mighty strength of His love into the place of her shame and takes her sins upon Himself; charges Himself with them before God; holds them up in the light of God’s holiness; bears the wrath and clears her from every stain.
The Valley of Rejection
Jesus, then, is on high as Man, the mighty work accomplished which sets us before God in the light, without a stain. The Holy Spirit is here and, dwelling in His members on earth, constitutes them His body—His bride. From the hilltop of Olives, where He passed into the heavens (Acts 2), to the same hilltop where His feet will stand again in the last days (Zech. 14) lies the long valley of His rejection by His people the Jews and by the world, but in which His “unsearchable riches,” never scanned by the prophetic eye, are found. That period began on the day of Pentecost and will end with the moment when Jesus will take to Himself His bride, to conduct her to His home on high.
Meantime, while God prepares this Eve, “of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,” He has left His “father and mother” — His relations with Israel after the flesh; He is joined to His wife (Eph. 5:3131For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. (Ephesians 5:31)), or, as Genesis 2:2424Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24) still more beautifully expresses it, “shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.” How different from this are our poor human thoughts! How well we can understand the weaker cleaving to the stronger, unable to stand alone. But here it is the divine thought from Him of whom are all things; it is the strong one, Jesus, cleaving to His weaker bride, and thus perfecting His thoughts of grace.
I would now draw your hearts and affections to the closing stage of the long valley — even to the moment when Jesus will come forth and translate His saints to the place He has prepared for them — to that house made fit to receive His bride. How short the time may be till that blessed moment when she will come up out of the wilderness “leaning upon her beloved!”
Words of Truth, Vol. 7 (adapted)