(Concluded from page 252)
To return to the revelation of this mystery. Speaking of the church—the body of Christ (Col. 1:2626Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: (Colossians 1:26))—the apostle calls it, “The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints; to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” For the Jew, Christ is the accomplishment of the glory; but Christ, present in Spirit, becomes the hope of heavenly glory for those in whom He dwells.
Thus, also in the Epistle to the Romans: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest,” etc.
The more the Epistles of Paul, or of Peter, are examined, the more examples we shall find of the contrast between the hopes and the election of Jews and Christians (only, Peter never treats the subject of the church), and the more we shall find the eternal election of the church brought into light. In Eph. 3 this mystery is called also the mystery of Christ; for indeed before it was Christ an individual man, and not Christ the Head of a body spiritually united to Him; and the apostle declares that it was by a special revelation that it had been made known to him (vers. 3, 4, 5)—the knowledge of a mystery which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men; this mystery being that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs of the same body.
These passages show sufficiently the way in which Paul presents the church as an essential doctrine of truth; but yet as a mystery which had never been revealed under the Old Testament, and which never had any accomplishment before the death of Jesus had closed all those relations of God with Israel, which had reference to the prophecies and promises, so far as they depended upon the faith and faithfulness of man. They show that blindness having come upon them for a time, God, who will fulfill His promises to His earthly people, has found, in the period of their blindness, the occasion of manifesting this admirable fruit of His eternal counsels, viz., the church which, when Israel is restored, through grace, to the enjoyment of the promises made to them, will shine as the bride of the Lord, in the brightness in which He will Himself be manifested.
Such is her destiny! Whilst waiting, what is her place—what is her calling? We have said that the Holy Ghost, come down from heaven, gathers her upon earth. If the Bridegroom delays His coming, and if souls go to wait with Him for the moment of the assembling of all that are His, raised or changed, in His presence in the air, those of the redeemed who remain gathered down here, where the Holy Ghost the Comforter abides, always form the church. There may be ignorance, the members may be scattered here and there, the church may have been unfaithful and stripped of her ornaments, but it remains equally true that until Christ calls her to meet Him in heaven she is always the church—always the bride of Christ. She has been espoused as a chaste virgin to Him, but it is to a heavenly Christ.
Israel is His people upon earth. Whilst Christ is in heaven, the Holy Ghost is gathering the church to be His up there. However, she has not only a heavenly calling, she is also His bride and His body. When all the thoughts of God have been fulfilled, she will, as a fact, be with Him. Her thoughts and her character are (at least they ought to be) formed after her portion, according to God. Thus she is already united to Christ by the Spirit. She is one, and can be one only. But she is characterized by yet other traits. When the world rejected Christ, it passed judgment and condemnation upon itself. “Now,” said the Lord, in referring to His cross, “is the judgment of this world.” The church was set up in grace when the relations of God with the world, on the footing of the responsibility of man, were ended forever by the rejection of Christ. Thus she has been called to come out of the world to be received of God. She is Christ's alone. “Come out from among them,” says the word, “and I will receive you.” It is a peculiar people, belonging only to Him. “Ye are not of the world,” says Jesus, “as I am not of the world.”
And this is true, not only as regards individuals, but “that they may be one,” says the Lord, “that the world may believe.” It is a unity perceptible to the world outside itself. “What have I to do,” says the apostle, “to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? Them that are without, God judgeth.” The Holy Ghost was upon earth to establish the closest and most formal union between the members of the body; they were members one of another. This unity was recognized among them. All knew that a Christian was not of the world, because he was of the church. If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. This unity was truly and distinctly manifested in each locality. There was the church of each place, as the very addresses of several Epistles show. But this local unity proved the universal unity. Any one member of it was thereby a member of the universal unity.
Teachers, evangelists, apostles—Timothy, Titus, Paul—did not belong to one church more than another. The gifts were members of the body. The idea of a member of a church is not found in the Bible: the thought there is very different; it is that of members of the body of Christ. But these “joints and bands,” which might exercise their activity in local churches, proved the unity of the whole body, and made it visible and perfectly perceptible to the world.
Christians acknowledged one another, and were acknowledged as one body—a sole, well-known, and well-defined body, having common interests, and the most intimate ties, as a body apart from the world. The Holy Ghost cannot unite the church with that world out of the midst of which He has taken her. Persons might come in unawares into the formal body, but it was a distinct body into which they came as false brethren. It is plain that if the church he one in the midst of the world, her duty is to glorify the Lord in that unity, and by that unity, and as a whole. For this responsibility cannot be separated from any position whatsoever, in which we are placed by God.
And the motives are so much the more powerful as the grace of that position is excellent. We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a city set on a hill, the epistle of Christ, an epistle which ought to be read and known of all men. The body of Christ ought to re-produce, by the power of the Spirit—that power which overcomes all the separative principles which selfishness and sin have introduced into the world—the character of its Head; and thus glorify Him on the earth. The bride should manifest her attachment to the Bridegroom—that she is wholly and exclusively His!
People talk about an “invisible” church. The word says nothing about this: it is a notion which quite denies the force of the passages we have just quoted. The scattering of the children of God has hid them; but no one would venture to maintain that individuals should be invisible, that is, that they should conceal their Christianity — “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” It is clear then that individuals should not be invisible. Now if that be true, to say that the church may be invisible means nothing short of this, that these individuals ought not to be united. Yet it is certain that the Lord says that they ought to have been one, that the world might believe.
If there be divisions, they are carnal, and walk as men. If the duty of all individuals he to let their light shine before men, and if all these individuals are closely united and form a separate body outside the world, making everywhere a profession of their union, as it was undeniably the case at the beginning; to say that that body is invisible has no sense. “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” But this in passing.
The question I am now treating is not how far the church realizes this position. I am speaking of the church such as it is presented in the word. But if the church be the bride of Jesus, she ought to desire, as such, to glorify Him during His absence. Her heart must be given to Him; she must receive her directions from Him alone.
If she be the house of God, she must seek to keep herself pure, on account of the holiness of the Spirit who dwells therein. If she be the pillar and ground of the truth, she will not be able to endure anything but the truth, which is the basis of her existence; for the glorious revelation of Christ, who has accomplished her redemption—God manifested in the flesh, preached to the Gentiles, received up into glory—has given her being, and she is the witness of it.
Conscious of being the bride of the Lamb, she will have the affections proper to such a relationship; she will long for the coming of the Bridegroom to receive her to Himself. She will understand that she belongs to Him in heaven; and, consequently, will not mix herself up with the world, nor confound her expectation with the coming of Jesus to judge the world. She knows that when He appears she will appear with Him in glory. Thus separated from the world by the Spirit, who is the power and earnest of this hope, she will seek to realize it as much as possible upon the earth. He that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as He is pure. This is also the force of the teaching of Phil. 3; which, however, has an individual for its object. I quote it because I speak of the normal effect of this truth in the heart of the Christian. He who has learned it will have the conscience that the church is one—can be only one. He will have the conscience that she belongs to Christ and can belong to none other. He will have the conscience that she ought to manifest this unity and render a constant and practical testimony that she is His alone. The presence in her of the Holy Ghost, who gathers the members in one body, will be the power and life of this testimony. The path will be the path of faith, and the path of faith will be the path of sufferings; but they will be the sufferings of Christ for His body, that we may be glorified together.
J. N. D.