After this short review of the position of the church, with regard to Christ, and the whole creation which will be subjected to Him; we will consider, in a more consecutive manner, the doctrine of the word respecting the church itself, and then the position it holds historically, in those ways of God, the course of which is given to us in detail in the Bible.
The fixed purpose of God, as it is expressly revealed to us in the first chapter of Ephesians, is to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. The church will be associated with Him, as His body—His bride—at that time (Eph. 1:22, 23, 2722And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22‑23)). But all things are not yet put under Him. God has not yet put them all, as a footstool, under His feet; nor is the church as yet presented in glory to Christ, who as yet is sitting on the right hand of God (Heb. 2:88Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (Hebrews 2:8)). It is needless to quote passages to prove that the church is not yet glorified nor raised. We are, dear Christian reader (you and I), proofs of it—though happy to be so —waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Whilst waiting, then, for the happy moment of our meeting with Jesus—is there still a church? Did it enter into the thoughts of God, that there should be a church upon earth, till the final accomplishment of His magnificent designs respecting her glory in heaven? There can be no doubt about it, to one that is subject to the word. Let us examine the word on this point. Christ Himself is the first to announce the commencement of the church “Upon this rock I will build my church.” The declaration that the gates of hell should not prevail against it, shows plainly that it is not a question of the church already presented in glory. It is upon earth. I would notice a few important points which are revealed by this passage. The church was yet to begin. Christ, recognized as Son of the living God, was to form the foundation of a new work upon the earth. The fact that there are believers upon the earth, and even believers acknowledging Jesus to be the Christ, does not constitute the church. It was so when Jesus spoke, and yet the church was still to be builded. This was a work to be done as regarded the children of God; which thought is confirmed by a declaration of John, respecting the involuntary prophecy of Caiaphas, that Jesus should die for the Jewish nation; “and not for that nation only,” adds the apostle, “but that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.”
There were already children of God, but they were scattered abroad—isolated. Christ, by His death, was to gather them together; not merely to save them, so that they might be together in heaven (since they were children of God, that was done already), but He was to gather them together in one. They were believers already, but the church was yet to be builded, by the gathering together of these believers, and that upon the earth. We know that this has now taken place as a fact, through the word of Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. We may cite here, the request of Jesus that not only those already manifested, but those also who should believe through their word, might be one, that the world might believe.
Before passing on to the Epistles, we may remark by the way that the Lord, besides the general idea of the church which He was about to build, gives us an insight into the practical operation of the assembly, in detail (Matt. 18); attaching to it, at the same time, the efficacy of this operation, and the authority of heaven itself —though but two or three should thus form the assembly—provided it was really in His name they were thus met. How precious the light that the word affords for times of darkness!
But, through the descent of the Holy Ghost, the doctrine of the church has received a much fuller development. The fact of her existence is declared in Acts 2 “All that believed were together, and had all things in common,” and “the number of them was” already “three thousand.” “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." The union, and unity of the saved ones, were accomplished, as a fact, by the presence of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. They formed one body upon the earth; a visible body, owned of God, to which all whom He called to the knowledge of Himself joined themselves, and that as led of the Lord, who was working in their hearts. It was the church of God, so far composed of Jews only. The patience of God was yet waiting in Jerusalem; and if this city owed ten thousand talents, by the death of Jesus, He was still proposing repentance by the testimony of the Holy Ghost. God was remembering mercy, and declaring that on the repentance of the nation, guilty as they were, Jesus would return.
This is the subject of Acts 3. But Jerusalem turned a deaf ear to the call; and subsequently her rulers, resisting, as always, the Holy Ghost, stoned him through whom He was testifying. From that time, though the unity of the whole was preserved by the conversion of Cornelius, a new instrument of the sovereign grace of God appears on the scene. Saul, who had been himself consenting also unto the death of Stephen—Saul the persecutor—the expression of the hatred of the Jews against the Christ—becomes the zealous witness of the faith he had sought to destroy. But this sovereign grace, whilst still mindful of the Jews, no longer goes out from Jerusalem as its starting point. It was from Antioch, a city of the Gentiles, that Paul went forth to fulfill his apostolical work. But this event was accompanied by a very remarkable development of the doctrine of the church; or rather preceded by a revelation, which made not a new gospel (for the way of salvation is ever one and the same), but a new starting-point in the preaching of this gospel as regarded the person of Christ Himself.
Up to this time, although they had preached a Christ exalted, the only Savior; yet it was as a man known amongst the Jews by signs and miracles, as they knew; and whom God had raised and made both Lord and Christ. I need not say that this testimony was quite according to God, and in its proper place in the midst of the Jews. “Ye also,” the Lord had said, “shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” Peter and the other apostles, having accompanied Christ during the time of His ministry, followed Him up to the time that the cloud received Him out of their sight. They had received the testimony, that He should return in like manner. The consequence was that the relations of Christ with the Jews were always maintained on the ground of faith in Him—exalted to the right hand of God, no doubt, but—whose scepter was to go out from Sion, and who awaited the repentance of His people. But we have seen the testimony of the Holy Ghost to a glorified Christ rejected by the blinded nation; and the death of Stephen, in making this rejection signally manifest, reveals to us the Son of man, in the glory of heaven, receiving the spirit of His servant above, instead of returning to Israel here below. This transition from the character of the Christ, or Messiah, to that of Son of man (suffering, and inheriting all things in heaven and on earth) is often taught by Jesus in the Gospels. See, for instance, Luke 9 It is now being accomplished as a fact; the Lord, at the same time, not losing His rights as Christ. They are reserved for the age to come.
But here, Paul enters on the scene; and God, whilst continuing His work at Jerusalem, begins a new one; and that by a new revelation of His Son, to him who was not to know Him personally after the flesh. Saul sees Jesus for the first time in heavenly glory, too resplendent for human sight. It is not Jesus known upon earth, made Lord; but the Lord of glory who, as such, declares that He is Jesus. But for Paul and his ministry, where is He found on earth? In those who are His. Seen unequivocally as Lord in heaven, Saul asks, “Who art thou, Lord?” “I am — “replies the Lord, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” The saints were Himself—His body. The conversion of Paul identifies itself with the full revelation, of the union of the Lord in glory with the members of His body upon earth. His starting point, his knowledge of salvation, could not be separated from these two things. They are reproduced in his epistles. Thus (2 Cor. 4) he says, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” This, whilst setting forth in a still more striking manner the worth of His sufferings, invested at the same time the preaching of the apostle with a peculiar character.
I will not enlarge on this part of the relations of Paul with Christ; in order that we may come to that which concerns more directly our subject, the church. Whatever God's ways upon earth might be, it is evident that all question of Jew and Gentile was at an end, when the question was about the Lord of glory and the members of His body. The relations became heavenly, and, in the unity of the body of a Christ thus known in heaven there was neither Jew nor Gentile. The church was upon earth according to this revelation of her position, for she was persecuted; but she was identical with the Lord in heaven; it was He (the Lord glorified) who was persecuted in His members.
To what precious ground does not this introduce the heart! We have, and that from the mouth and the heart of the Lord Himself, the strongest expression of our union with Him; that He considers the feeblest member of His body as a part of Himself. Let us pursue, however, our subject, that we may get the doctrine as a whole.
(Continued from page 174) (To be continued)