The Ways of God
The Official Glories of the Holy Spirit n Ephesians 1:14 the Holy Spirit is given [to the church] as the seal of redemption the earnest of the inheritance till it is redeemed out of the enemy’s hand. In no other epistle are the official glories of the Holy Spirit more fully brought before us than in Ephesians where we have revealed the heavenly calling of the church.
In Ephesians 1:14 He is the seal of redemption. In chapter 2:18 He is the medium of access by Jew and Gentile through Jesus Christ unto the Father. In chapter 2:22 the church is the habitation of God on earth by His Spirit. In chapter 3:16 He strengthens the saints in the inner man, enabling them to lay hold of and enjoy their position and standing. In chapter 4 precepts are founded upon doctrines; the saint is told not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby he has been sealed till the day of redemption. In chapter 5 he is told to be filled with the Spirit and in chapter 6 He is the power of warfare in the heavenly places, while the believer’s prayer is to be “in the Spirit.”
The Body of Christ and the Unity of the Spirit
It was reserved for the ministry of the Apostle Paul to bring out this central truth of the church. He tells us that he had it “by revelation” and not, therefore, from others. After the rejection of the Lord and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we find the church gathered in Jerusalem, principally composed of Jews, affording a wondrous spectacle to the world around, united in one heart and soul, a dwelling-place of God by the Holy Spirit.
The Breakup of Outward Unity at Jerusalem
To this blessed state, the enmity of the Jews increased every hour, till it arrived at its full height in the killing of Stephen. Upon the occasion of his martyrdom, the church at Jerusalem is broken up as to its outward manifestation, and it is dispersed. Saul of Tarsus (later called Paul), involved in Stephen’s murder and on his way to Damascus to wipe out if it were possible the very name of Jesus from the earth, is struck down with a vision of the glorified and exalted Jesus. He arises and straightway preaches Jesus that “He is the Son of God.”
The church now fully assumes its position as the body of Christ, locally expressed by saints gathered in the name of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the habitation of God through the Spirit.
The Mystery of the Church Committed to Paul
To the Apostle Paul is committed the testimony of the mystery, hidden in God in other ages, but now revealed. He tells us that he had it by revelation (Eph. 3:3). In Romans 12:4-5 Paul refers to believers being “one body in Christ.”
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-17 this truth is more fully brought out. And thus we find that the Holy Spirit is the center and living power of the unity of the body. Christians are “members of Christ” and “members one of another.”
The Holy Spirit dwells not only in the individual believer but in the whole church. When saints are gathered together, owning this unity and this alone, they form the sphere for the manifestation of His presence in the ministry of the Word, “dividing to every man severally as He will,” using, according to His divine pleasure, those who have been gifted and set in the church for the building up and edifying of the body and for the perfecting of the saints. God hath “set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him” (1 Cor. 12:18).
And again in Ephesians 2:22 we see that the assembly on earth is the habitation of God through the Spirit: “In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 1 speaks of the church as the body of Christ while Ephesians 2 speaks of the church as the house of God.
Then Paul in Ephesians 4:1-6 brings before believers their responsibility: “I [Paul] therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called... endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit.”
This then is the church of God this is the unity we are exhorted to endeavor to keep. We are not to make a unity for ourselves or choose one out of the many existing factions those that best suit one’s education, thoughts, feelings or circumstances. But we are to endeavor, with hearts subject to Jesus as Lord, to keep the unity which has been here by the Holy Spirit’s presence since the day of Pentecost the body of Christ.
The Hope of the Church
When the last member of Christ has been gathered in, the church will be taken away to be in actual fact with Christ in heaven. Then will be the resurrection of the sleeping saints and their translation with the living saints, when all shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
The Scriptures are full of this blessed hope. The Thessalonian saints had been converted to this blessed hope “to wait for His Son from heaven.” It, too, was the hope set before the sorrowing disciples in Acts 1 as they gazed up into heaven. They were told that He would “so come in like manner.” The Corinthian believers came “behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” and in Ephesians the saints are looked upon as already seated in the heavenlies in Christ, there waiting for the gathering together of all things in the fullness of times.
Their blessing is in the heavenlies (Eph. 1:3), their position is in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6), their testimony is in the heavenlies (Eph. 3:10), and they find their conflict, too, in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12).
In Colossians 3:4 the life of the saints is so bound up with Christ’s that, when He is manifested, they are manifested with Him. In 1 Thessalonians, the whole epistle is taken up with the hope as to their conversion (1 Thess. 1), the labors of Christ’s servant (1 Thess. 2), practical holiness (1 Thess. 3), the manner of its accomplishment (1 Thess. 4), and the desire of the Apostle that they be preserved blameless until Christ’s coming (1 Thess. 5).
Then 2 Thessalonians sets the hope aright in the minds of the saints, distinguishing between Christ’s coming for His saints and His coming in judgment on this world with His saints.
How sad that such a blessed hope as the hope of the Lord’s coming must be pressed on the hearts of the Lord’s people. Sad to say, it has become necessary to do so; even God’s people have imbibed so much of the character of the evil and worldly-minded servant, who said in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming,” and of the scoffers of the last days who say, “Where is the promise of His coming?”
May the Lord’s beloved people say with renewed desire, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus”!
F. G. Patterson (adapted)
(to be continued)