This wondrous unity, in counsel and operation by the Holy Ghost, has Christ (and where Christ now is as our living Head in glory) for its rule and object, and comprehends a new order of persons, born of God, accepted and blessed in the Son of His love, and indwelt by the Spirit of adoption, witnessing to us that we are sons of God. The revelation of His mind, out of which all unity must come, whether past, present, or future, has made known to us, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, &c. The great “mystery of His will” is surely what this glorious whole is, which God has counseled in Himself, and which waited for its revelation till sin, the flesh, the world, and death, and the grave, and him that had the power of death (that is, the devil), had been each and all overcome and set aside—waited till the power of God’s might had displayed itself in its own glory, by raising up Christ into His appointed place at the right hand of the majesty on high. He sits there in His own righteous title as the Son of man, and as the foreordained Head and Center of this “mystery of God and of Christ” in all that was comprehended, and to be yet developed and maintained, as “the hope of His calling,” and by “the unity of the Spirit.”
Indeed, the first creation itself, with its lord and head, was (as has been said of the first man Adam) a shadow or type of this coming perfection in the power of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, as far as what is of the earth can be, respecting what is heavenly and divine. For even then it was “the Spirit of God” that moved upon the face of the waters in formative power, to create and maintain the oneness, and union, and unity in all its parts and varieties, according to the mind of the Creator, without a disturbing note. How else could it be written, that “God rested on the seventh day from all His work, which He had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it?”
We shall do well to remember that the original creation, in addition to all its wide-spread grandeur and beauty, carried along with it the inner mystery of “the garden which the Lord God planted,” and in which He deposited the representative Adam and Eve, as the hidden secret of Christ and the Church. This only came out in its blessed unity and oneness thousands of years after, when the Holy Ghost wrought afresh, in new creation power, to quicken and raise and seat us together in the heavenly places in Christ, and to baptize the members of Christ into this marvelous unity with their Head, and to manifest it for the glory of God in the Church, which is His body. So likewise by the mysterious and typical “sleep,” through which Adam passed; and the “rib” which God took out of the man, and from which He made the woman, and brought her to the man, we learn the early lesson, that as they were one flesh so are we the members of Christ, “of His flesh and of His bones.”
By this teaching of the Spirit, and in its unity and oneness, we also learn that Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. How precious to know that these paradisiacal symbols and types are of mysteries and things hidden in God from before the foundation of the world for His eternal glory, and which He brought to light with the image man, and builded up in the woman, on the one bright day of an unfallen creation! The Lord God deposited these mysteries of His will in the garden, which He planted with its rivers and trees, and where He walked in the cool of the day, before sin and Satan entered. He also took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, as His representative, in dominion and lordship, to dress it and to keep it. He shared (yea, formed part) in this unbroken oneness, and intercourse, and unity of creation, in which the heavens and the earth rejoiced, because God saw all that He had made was very good; and God rested from all His works, and was refreshed.
But “the good pleasure of His will, which He had purposed in Himself,” lay back long before the world was, and could not bear witness to an earthly paradise as the place of His rest, in which to dwell and fill with His own glory. No; nor to Adam, its lord and head, though created in the likeness of God (yet outside Him), and upon whose allegiance and obedience the well-being of a creation depended. The “planted garden,” with its mystic man and woman in flesh and blood, by which God wrought so wondrously, were only the proof of some “better thing to come.” The garden served its purpose, and was then closed for another epoch, like the majesty, and glory, and kingdom of the Son of man afterward, were folded up for a better day, at the Holy mount. These early types of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, and lastly of the power and coming of Christ as Lord and King, are still laid up in the future for creation, and Israel, and the Church, and kingdom.
In the meanwhile (by the law from Sinai and in government) God changed His place too, and suited Himself to a fallen creation, by means of a typical eighth day and circumcision in the flesh; and has given out promises and covenants to chosen men, with whom He entered into relationship; and devised patterns of things in the heavens suited to sinful creatures, dwelling with them in a tent and in a tabernacle in the wilderness, and gathering them in tribes round Himself as the Israel of God, or else in a temple, as the sign of a future union and rest in Canaan. Moses as the mediator, and Aaron as their high priest, were sent forth by God to teach the people of Jehovah’s choice how He might be approached and worshipped; but at the door of the outer court as yet, and only through burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin. The cherubims which stood at the garden-gate with the flaming sword, that turned everywhere in righteous judgment (to keep the way of the tree of life), gladly changed their place, and suited themselves to these new patterns given out from the glory above, and took their appointed stand on “the golden mercy-seat,” over which they bent themselves, and spread their wings in holy adoration.
The Spirit of God as aforetime, when the heavens and the earth were to be created, does not hesitate to come forth into the ruins now that the nobler work of its redemption and worship, round this new center, is about to be introduced, though only as yet by patterns—in, shittim-wood, and fine gold, and silver, and purple, and fine-twined linen. Not a man upon the earth could construct the types and shadows of the things to come, which God had commanded Moses to make, “that He might dwell” amongst them. So the Lord called by name Bezaleel, of the tribe of Judah, and filled him with “the Spirit of God” in wisdom and knowledge and understanding to devise cunning works, and in cutting of stones to set them for “the garments of glory and beauty,” which were to be worn by the high priest in the midst of the commonwealth of Israel, and of a worshipping people on “the great day of atonement.” Outside the sanctuary, and in connection with the throne—in Jerusalem and the kingly power of David and Solomon, another center of earthly blessing was formed, and the Ark accompanied them in all their history, as the witness of this glory. He abideth faithful, and in their declension connects Himself, as the Spirit of prophecy, with the fall and with the rising again of Israel, by the encouraging assurance, “My Spirit remaineth among you; fear ye not.” This same Spirit framed the last words of the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel, when he sang,” He who ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth.” It is of all importance (in the subjects we are considering) to observe and mark the willing concurrence of “the Spirit of God” as in union with the promises and ways of Jehovah, whether in the wilderness or in the land of Canaan, by kings and by the long line of Israel’s prophets, who, in their turn, took up the psalmist’s song of the coming One, and the morning “without a cloud,” to complete their history. This their ministry came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved “by the Holy Ghost.” But we need not pursue these actings of the Spirit of God in old time any further, as showing “the unity of the Spirit” in carrying out the counsels and the power of God for blessing in the midst of creation and Israel. Their national glory and beauty, like the paradisiacal figures and mysteries of “the good pleasure of His will,” which God purposed in Himself, are amongst His choicest treasures still, and kept in reserve till the time came for God to send forth His Son.
The synoptical gospels begin at this epoch and with this event, and Luke especially shows us the same Spirit of God which moved upon the face of the waters in Genesis, or as the Spirit of prophecy in the Psalms of David, doing a far greater work in this present unity of purpose and calling of God, out of the moral chaos, and from a ruined creation and its sinful inhabitants. We find ourselves at the end of Bezaleel’s workmanship, and of Moses and Aaron’s ministry, and of that economy which consisted in the cunning devices and patterns, by which they wrought so marvelously “in shittim-wood, overlaid with pure gold within and without.” The hour is come for the representative and elect men and women of this present gospel period, to be called out and be filled with the Holy Ghost; to take their places as the chosen vessels for the introduction of “the great mystery of God manifest in the flesh.” The Spirit of God, as the “power of the highest,” acts afresh over and above this world of sin and death, and forms the hearts of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, for their suited services in this regeneration, and Zacharias for his prophetic outburst of praise. Besides these, the archangel Gabriel from above is bearer of the glad tidings to an expectant world; and the multitude of the heavenly host welcome by their songs of glory to God in the highest, the Son born. Patterns of things to come are gone, and the shadows flee away before the substance—Christ Himself. Simeon comes in as a new priest of the sanctuary, and, moved by the Holy Ghost, takes possession of the temple as God’s appointed center of blessing for this earth, and brings the glory back again. He begins a new beginning with the young child in his arms, and celebrates the glad tidings of the name of Jesus as the Saviour of the world. Nor should Anna the prophetess, who served God with fastings and prayers night and day, be omitted in this elect group gathered out to the confession of the Lord and the Immanuel, God with us, as the witnesses to this “new thing in the earth;” for she it was who spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Israel. The fullness of time was come, and the Seed of the woman is given out unto the world, to whom all promise and prophecy pointed, even Jesus, the Son of God; “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel,” and ordained for salvation to the ends of the earth.
The Spirit of God which began with the chaotic darkness, and opened a material creation for the first Adam in the image of God, does not hesitate to begin and maintain “this calling and election of God,” now that another order of divine workmanship is to be set up in “the second Adam,” according to that blessed prophecy— “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;” “a body hast Thou prepared me.” The beginning of another creation, with its inaugurations and celebrations according to “the will of God,” and in “the unity of the Spirit,” is proclaimed in the heavens above to the earth beneath by the introduction of the God-man, our Kinsman-Redeemer and Substitute— “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” He has obtained eternal redemption for us from the fall—by His death and victorious resurrection. By such unknown ways and untrodden steps as these the mighty Conqueror triumphed over sin and death, by the judgment of God upon sin at His cross, and then descended into the lower parts of the earth for other purposes of glory, and to destroy him that had the power of death; that is, the devil. In this unity of divine counsel, and under this anointing, He who descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that He might fill all things. He has led captivity captive, and all power has been given to Him in the heavens above and the earth beneath—given to Him who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Another and a new man is before God as “the bringer in of righteousness” upon this earth, who could say, after the wilderness temptations, “Get thee hence, Satan!” and, when going back to His Father, “The Prince of this world cometh, but hath nothing in me” —One whose meat and drink it was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name that is named, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Blessed be God who has made this Christ to be unto us “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that he who glorieth... should glory in the Lord.”
Blessed, unspeakably blessed, to know that instead of an Adam made out of the ground as the center of a material unity, the Son of God has come down from above, “being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person,” to glorify God upon this earth, even He who upholdeth all things by the Word of His power, and who, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Precious too for us that we know and rejoice in the Man of God’s purpose and calling—the One who was in God’s counsels from everlasting, brought up with Him, and “the Man whom He had made strong for Himself;” precious it is to see that models, types, and figure-men ‘have been all carried out into their antitype, and substantiated in the Person who could alone embody them in His life and death, and finally, in Himself by resurrection and ascension, make all “the promises of God to be Yea and Amen,” and bud and blossom, and bring forth their fruits to the glory of God by us, and for the blessing of every creature. Besides this “Yea and Amen” for the delight of God by Him who is the fruitful vine, there was a giant work waiting Him below as to sin itself, and putting away “the sin of the world,” which in its glorious results has yet to be wrought out before the universe of God, so that the leprosy of sin shall be expelled.
Who is he that can be charged with a mission of this kind, and whence does He come, and what is His name? Another gospel (than the synoptical ones) will answer these great questions. The next day John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” This testimony to Jesus, in His sacrificial title as “the Lamb of God,” has this groaning creation for its object, and all that groans with it, on account of sin. The Spirit as the dove identified Himself as a witness to Jesus in His manhood, when Jehovah “called His son out of Egypt,” to begin His earthly relations with men. It is in this unity, the Spirit in John’s gospel bears witness also to Jesus in His Godhead, and reveals His heavenly relations with “His own,” and declares the Father. The descending Spirit likewise bears testimony to this other great mission of Jesus— “The same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost,” as essential to the formation of another and divine economy. The Lord takes this fore-appointed place for Himself when risen from the dead, as in Acts 1, and said to His disciples, “John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.” Moreover, this unity of the Spirit at Pentecost comes in another character and power to this separated company, on whom Jesus had breathed in John 20 The Lord, “being assembled together with them” (after His passion), commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, “but wait for the promise of the Father, which,” said He, “ye have heard of me.” We may be sure that the Holy Ghost, by His presence and actings, as sent down from the Father and the Son, in connection with the Lord’s departure from this world, and being received up into heaven, will equal, if not exceed, His preparation of the elect vessels at the time of His incarnation. And so it was; for when the day of Pentecost was fully come “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance;” and great wonders and miracles were wrought by the hands of the apostles, and great grace was upon them all. What is this but another and a heaven-born Genesis, and the beginning of a new creation in Holy Ghost power and unity, and established in the Christ of God “according to the good pleasure” of the Father’s will?
If “the God of glory appeared to Abraham,” and made him the head of the family of faith upon the introduction of earthly promise and blessing by means of circumcision and an eighth-day, what less can Christianity be than the unfolding and establishment of every secret purpose and counsel of the Father from everlasting, for His own glory, in the Son of His love, by the power of His resurrection and the baptism of the Holy Ghost? A revelation from God as He is could not possibly have any-one less than God for its object, and in its efficiency of blessing and blessedness to others, contemplates the Godhead in the fullness of divine operation. The center of Christianity is Himself, and in the Person of the Son, whom no one knows but the Father; and yet as “the Christ of God” He is the central object for human faith, seen and heard, yea, handled and felt. His Godhead was so veiled in manhood as to make Himself a home with us, and so close to us every day as to ask, “Who touched me?” Yes, so one with us and so like, as to say, “Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” Intimacies such as these, according to humanity, yet so precious to the heart of Jesus, and the faith of those around Him, were fast closing up. Other times and scenes were opening out, and new relations with Himself about to be revealed in a risen Christ and Lord on high; so that in John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17). Jesus saith to Mary, “Touch me not: for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” Another order and rule is proclaimed by Paul for this “heavenly calling of God,” and embraced in “the unity of the Spirit,” suited to the position of the glorified Man above; viz., “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.”
Concurrent with this new order, as in Christ, and the bestowment of the Holy Ghost, Jesus said to Mary, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” At the mount of Transfiguration, Jesus, as the promised seed, had won the crown and the kingdom of Israel back again for Himself by His righteous obedience before God, and by victorious power over Satan in life; and then for Himself and the elect, by purchase and redemption through death, and which He still maintains in royal title by His resurrection. He was then taken up out of the midst of that expectant company, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. In principle “old things are passed away, and all things are become new;” for man in the person of the Christ has gone up to God, and is in a new and heavenly glory, where man never was before. In that place He is the Head over all things, principalities and powers being made subject unto Him. Moreover, in these rights and titles that same Jesus is to come a second time, and fill the whole earth with the glory of God. In that day of millennial peace and blessing “Jerusalem shall be called by a new name, and be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of her God.”
In the meanwhile the Pentecostal Spirit, like a rushing mighty wind, descended to begin His new work “of gathering together” (in one) “the children of God that were scattered abroad.” He filled the house where the elect vessels were sitting, and rested on them as by cloven tongues of fire; moreover, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as a sign and testimony to the world, which wondered at such a visitation. Zacharias and Elizabeth, and Mary and Simeon, together with the multitude of the heavenly host (in the former treatise by Luke), were appointed for the introduction of the child when born in Bethlehem; but under this baptism of the Holy Ghost, these witnesses are one with the rejected Messiah, and in union with the ascended Lord, and endued with power for this testimony to Jerusalem, and to the uttermost parts of the earth by His glorious resurrection from among the dead. Men in union with Christ, men in this unity of the Spirit, men in the adoption and not of this world, men filled with the Holy Ghost, were necessary as the fit examples (in this second treatise) to the glorified Head over all things for “the good pleasure of His will”—men whose citizenship is in heaven, from whence also they look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come and change even their bodies into the likeness of His own glorious body, according to the power whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself.
J. E. B.
(Continued from page 196) ( To be continued, D.V)