The church is something infinitely precious to Christ. He “loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” This is a revelation that makes us feel the importance which God attaches to what He calls the church. What an object of the affections of Christ—of His care; and how glorious will be the accomplishment of the counsels of God respecting this church! What a privilege to be part of it! This passage teaches us, moreover, that there is, in the union of Christ and the church, all the intimacy that exists between a husband and a wife beloved—a feeble figure after all of the reality of this great mystery —that we are thus members of His body [of His flesh, and of His bones]; that the church holds to Christ the place which Eve held with regard to Adam—the figure of Him that was to come; who was associated with Adam, in the enjoyment of all that had been conferred on him by God.
This last thought, it is true, is only suggested here by the analogy of the position of Eve, used by the apostle to represent that of the church; but it is taught as a doctrine elsewhere. It is natural to suppose, that what holds so prominent a place in the mind of God, should be found more than once in the word; and such we shall find to be the case, in passages, the hearing of which we will presently consider. At the same time, it will be easily understood, by the nature of the thing itself, that this position is quite peculiar; that such an association with Christ is a special object of the counsels and purposes of God; for the place of a bride, like that of Eve, is a very special one. She is not the inheritance; she is more than a child, however dear, as a child, she may be to the father. It is a higher thing than being God's people, though both may be true at the same time. It is difficult to imagine anything more closely linked with self than one's own wife, one's own body. “No man,” says the apostle, to express it, “ever yet hated his own flesh.” It is one's self. It must be evident to the reader, that from such a relationship must flow immensely practical consequences; because it is connected, at the same time, with the closest affections, and the most absolute duties. The Lord himself expresses the force of the position of His church, the first time He speaks of it in a formal manner after the commencement of its existence, when He says, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?”
Let us notice the three chief points presented by Ephesians—chap. 5 of which has suggested these reflections. First—Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it. It is redeemed at the cost of His blood, of His life, of Himself. Having thus purchased it exclusively for Himself, He begins, secondly, to fashion it, to sanctify it, that it may be according to His own heart's desire; that He may, in the third place, present it to Himself a glorious church, without the least thing unbecoming the glory, or that might offend the eye, or the heart, of her divine Bridegroom. There is here a testimony to the divinity of Jesus, so much the more remarkable, as it is only by the way; and the allusion is made as to a known truth. God, having formed Eve, presented her to the first Adam; but Christ Himself presents the church to Himself; because if He be the last Adam, He is at the same time the One who can present it to Himself as being the author of its existence, of its beauty, and of the perfection in which it must appear in heaven, to be worthy of such a Bridegroom, and of the glory that is there.
We will consider its history further on; but we may already observe here, that whatever may be the circumstances through which the church is called to pass, she is always considered as a whole, as much as while she is being purified by the word upon earth, as when she is presented glorious to her Bridegroom in heaven. The redemption of this body on the cross has taken place upon earth. Her purification through the word, by the Spirit, also takes place on earth. The glorious result, al the return of Christ, will take place in heaven, for which place she will have been made ready. Although the marriage has not yet taken place, the relationship has always existed as to its rights. I do not speak merely as regards the eternal counsels of God, but in fact, as to the knowledge and the duties of those who were called. Since Christ purchased the church to Himself (I speak of the fact, and historically now; always allowing time for the communication of the truth as to this, by the Holy Ghost), the church has been His, as regards the conscience of those who were called to the enjoyment of this position. The relationship exists; and as Christ has always been faithful, the church ought also to have been so too. Her purification, on the part of Christ, had necessarily reference to this relationship; as this passage formally proves. It ought to have been viewed in the same light by Christians—by those who, alas! can fail in this relationship as in all others. But they are responsible for faithfulness to it.
The manner in which this truth must act upon the knowledge of an accomplished salvation, and upon sanctification, as well as upon the joy of hope, is plain. For with regard to the first, the existence of the church is based on the fact that Christ has loved it, and given Himself for it. So that its purchase, its salvation, and the gracious, perfect love of Him who redeemed it, with the end in view, which cannot fail, of presenting it in glory to Himself, form the basis of its whole life—of its everyday relations.
It is not a people put to the test, by a rule given. The church is the subject of a perfect work, through which Christ has purchased it to himself, when it was enslaved to Satan, defiled, and guilty. It has no other responsibility, as the church, but that which is based on its being the purchase of Christ. This tells her, no doubt, that she ought to be entirely His; but if she ought to be His, it is because she is so already.
The Christian, instructed of God in this doctrine, has the peaceful assurance (an assurance which gives a calmness that is the basis of the sweetest affections) that he belongs to Christ, according to God's perfect love, and the efficacy of a work in which Christ—that His heart might have satisfaction in the object which the Father had given Him—could not fail. The influence of this truth in the conscience is equally great as regards sanctification; for it is the purification of that which already belongs to Christ in an absolute manner, in order that it may be fit to live with Him forever—a purification which extends consequently to the thoughts, the affections, and the manner of viewing things in all respects. Being wholly His, the church has to do with Him in each movement of the heart, in each sentiment; if not, she fails in her relationship with Him, in every circumstance in which it is not so. As to the result which He has in view, He will certainly no more fail in that, thanks be unto God, than He has with regard to the redemption. He will present the church to Himself without spot or wrinkle. But the heart of the Christian ought to respond to that work.
Such is the position of the church, and her relationship with Christ. But there is a consequence resulting from these, the figure of which we have seen in the connection in which Eve was placed with the creation, but on which I will make a few more remarks by the way. Christ, says the apostle, at the end of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, is the Head of the church, “which is His body, the fullness of (or that which makes complete) Him that filleth all in all"; that is to say, Christ is the Head, and the church the body; and as the body is the complement of the head to make up a man, so it is with Christ and the church; He as Head directing, exercising all authority over the church, His body; but the church, as the body, rendering complete the mystical man, according to the eternal counsels of God. For it is evident that this is no question about the divine person of Christ. But in the counsels of God, Christ, as Head, would not have been complete without the church.
Let us remark by the way, that it is this thought which was completely hid (hid in God) under the old covenant; and which is not found in the whole of the Old Testament. The idea of a Christ not perfect, simply in His own person, as an individual, would have been unintelligible to the most advanced saint of the Old Testament. There was to be blessing under His government —but the being a part of the Christ, as a member of His body, would have been incomprehensible. The union between Jew and Gentile, which flows from it, will come before us afterward.
Now, the effect of such a union of the church with Christ, has been to associate the church in His dominion over all things—with all this glory, such as He received it as Mediator from His Father. And such is the force even of Eph. 1:21, 2221Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, (Ephesians 1:21‑22), which we have just quoted. That is why he sets forth the members of the church as a new creation; as being the fruit of that same power which placed Christ there (chap. 1:19-2:7). And that is connected with the whole of chapter 1, where the apostle has revealed the fixed purpose of God, as to the administration of the fullness of times; which is, that He will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. In the meantime, God has given us, who have believed before the manifestation of Christ, His Spirit, as the earnest until the redemption of the inheritance itself.
Therefore the apostle shows that, in order that we might enjoy the inheritance with Christ, we are the objects of the exercise of the same power which placed Him above all things, when He was, in grace, in our state; and that, in Him, we are in His state. If it be asked, how such things can be, chap. 2:7 tells us the reason. But numerous declarations confirm the consequences to us of this union. We speak here only of the consequences. “The glory,” says the Lord, “which thou gavest me, I have given them, that the world may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8). “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? Know ye not that we shall judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:2, 32Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Corinthians 6:2‑3))? I do not speak of these things, as being all exclusively characteristic of the church; but, as of things which, to us, are the consequences of our belonging to it.
(Continued from page 158)