There is one more passage, which presents the church in so complete a manner as to its hope and its service, that I will quote it in closing this series of testimonies from the Bible. It is that of Rev. 22: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
In this passage we find the Spirit introduced in a very remarkable manner; somewhat analogous to Rom. 8 Both passages show how far the Holy Ghost is considered, in the word of God, as dwelling upon the earth since the day of Pentecost, and as identifying Himself either with the believer, or with the church. In Romans it is, “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit; because,” it is added, “He maketh intercession for the saints according to God.” Now, it is our groanings, that are spoken of there. Here in Revelation, the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The Spirit so takes His place with the bride that the sentiment of the church is that which the Spirit Himself expresses. The Spirit is upon earth, and animates the church; being the true source of its thoughts. The church, animated by these very thoughts, expresses her own affections under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Had it been only an expression of affection, one might have questioned its legitimateness; and that also of the groan of Rom. 8; but since the Holy Spirit connects Himself with it, this desire of a feeble heart has the power and authority of a divine thought.
This then is what characterizes the church, in her desires and in her hope. She desires that her Bridegroom should come. It is not a question about prophecy. It is Christ, the communicator of the prophecy, who presents Himself: “I am the bright and morning star.” The church knows Him. She will be with Him, before the great day of His manifestation comes—she will appear with Him in glory. But when He is thus presented in His person, it awakens the earnest desire of the bride that He should come. But there is also a testimony to be borne. It is what follows. She calls upon those who hear, but who have not understood their privilege of being of the bride, to join this cry, and to say, Come. In the meantime, she already possesses the river of living water, and, turning towards those who are athirst she invites them to come and make a free use of it. How beautiful a position for the church —for our hearts! The first affection of her heart is towards her Head—her Bridegroom, who is to come like the morning star to receive her to Himself in heaven, before He is manifested to the world. Then she desires all believers to share this desire, and to reinforce her cry that He may come. In the meantime she is the vessel and herald of grace, according to the heart of Him who has shown grace to her.
What more blessed position could be thought of, for such poor worms as we are, than that which sovereign and creative grace has given us? If the reader examines chapter 17 of the Gospel of John he will find that the object of the chief part of the chapter is to place believers, beginning in a special manner with the apostles, in the same position as Jesus was; they taking His place. We well know that He alone, by His Spirit, can be the strength through which they can accomplish such a task.
This truth enables us to apprehend what the true position of the church is. Christ was upon earth, but at the same time one with His Father. He was manifesting Him upon the earth. He was a man upon earth, but He was a heavenly man, displaying upon earth the spirit and sentiments of heaven, where love and holiness reign, because God is love and holiness. He says, “The Son of man which is in heaven.” He was separate from sinners, and yet at the same time perfect in grace towards them. In His case, His person was the cause of it; He being, at the same time, true man, and acting by the power of the Holy Ghost in a dependence upon God, which constituted His perfection as man.
In the case of the church, it is clear that the question is no longer of a divine person; yet she is not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. United to her Head in heaven, by the Holy Ghost come down from it—dead and risen with Him, and seated in Him in heavenly places—her character is purely heavenly. She is upon the earth, where the Holy Ghost has come down to manifest here a heavenly walk—the motives and the mind of heaven. She lives above, in Christ, by the Spirit; her life is hid there with Christ in God; she seeks for nothing down here; declaring plainly that she is yet seeking her country. She is one, she knows it: it cannot be otherwise. Can her heart recognize that Christ has another bride as companion of His heavenly joys?
The manner of her being necessitates her unity, as well as the character of her Bridegroom, and the unity of the Spirit. She is upon earth, she sighs after her country, but still more after the Bridegroom, who will come to receive her unto Himself, that where He is there she may be with Him. In the meantime she hears testimony upon earth, as united into one body by the presence of the Holy Ghost. This is the place where God owns her, till Christ comes to take her to Himself. From that time she will bear testimony, in the glory and by the glory, to the love which has placed her there, and to the mighty redemption which has taken poor sinners and placed them in the same glory as the Son of God, and in the same relations with His Father, except that which is essentially divine— “that in the ages to come He [God] might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
What we have already said leads us naturally to the second part of our subject—what place the church holds in the ways of God. The heavenly aspect of this question finds its answer in several passages which we have just examined; which treat the subject of the nature of the church. God has willed that His Son, Ruler of all things as Son of man, should have a bride to share His glory and His dominion. Glorious position! testimony of the infinite grace of God! Such is the church, the companion of Jesus in the heavenly glory. This will take place at the same time with the earthly glory, which will be the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. God, for the dispensation of the fullness of times, will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in Him, as Head; whose bride and body the church is.
The Old Testament, which gives us the history of the ways of God upon earth, and in its prophetical part announces what the result will be, does not reveal to us this mystery. The church, as such, does not come in continuation of the ways of God upon earth. The object of the counsels of God from before the foundation of the world, she had been hid in the depths of these counsels, till Christ, having been rejected upon the earth, might become her heavenly Head; and the testimony to this glory, having also been rejected by the Jews, who, in a certain sense, had a right to the promises, the door was plainly opened for the revelation of this glorious mystery—hid in all ages.
In considering a little the facts, either with regard to man or with regard to the Jews, the suitableness of these ways of God will be understood without any difficulty. Until the rejection of Christ, man had been put to the test in every way—without law, under the law, and even under grace, presented in the person of Christ; for God was in Him reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now man, by the death of Christ, has proved himself an enemy of God, an enemy who hated even His mercy, which was nevertheless his only resource, because it was of God. Christ, as new man, raised, glorified, at the right hand of God, outside the world, takes as man the place where man was to be in the counsels of God. There is a man at the right hand of God to whom the church can be united, as His body, by the Holy Ghost.
Such a heavenly standing of the saints could not possibly exist before. The body could not be, before the Head, to which it was to be united, had taken His place, such as it had been prepared for Him in the counsels of God. There was not a glorified man in heaven before to whom the church could have been united.
(Continued from page 222) (To be continued)