The church: When did it commence? Not with the incarnation — not even with the personal ministry — of our Lord. For the formation of the church two things were needed — the death of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. The power by which alone this gathering could be accomplished was the power of the Holy Spirit and He, the Comforter, could not come till Jesus was glorified — not risen merely, but glorified. Hence, the very first mention we have of the church historically, that is, as actually existing, is in Acts 2, when Christ had been glorified and the Holy Spirit had come down. Then the church was formed.
Consider the Epistle to the Ephesians, where we have the subject of the church perfectly unfolded. How the heart feels, in turning to such a portion, the deep need of what the Apostle so touchingly implores, where he asks, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” The Lord grant that it may be thus, both with writer and readers!
The blessing of the church is complete and, as to all that secures and establishes it, already accomplished. It is not blessing conditional on obedience, as was that of Israel in the land, but blessing in Christ, to which we are introduced, consequent on His accomplishment of all that the Father gave Him to do. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (ch. 1:3). Who hath blessed us! And with all spiritual blessings! And in Christ! How complete! How certain! How inalienable!
Jesus Ascended in Heaven
Satan and the world are convicted of being guilty of the death of Christ and lie under sentence on this account. Where then is Jesus? Ascended into heaven. Rejected of the earth, heaven’s worship is presented at His feet, while heaven’s highest glories surround His brow. How is it He has not long since executed judgment on the earth? Jesus was more than the Son of David — more than the seed of Abraham — more than the Second Adam. He was higher than the angels. He was God manifest in the flesh. He was the Son of the Father, the Son of the living God. Hence His death — His blood — is of infinite efficacy. What is the first great proof of its power? Why this — that He who so really was “made sin” as to have to say, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” is He who is now at the right hand of God! What is the second great proof of its efficacy? This, that the church is united to Him there! But let us hear the Apostle in the latter part of Ephesians 1. He prays that the saints may know “what is the exceeding greatness of His [God’s] power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far 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; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things [notice how the church is associated with Him who is over all things] to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
Notice the four points in this passage:
1. That Christ having gone down into death, in order to vindicate God’s holy majesty and accomplish His purposes of holy love, He, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has raised Him from the dead, exalted Him to His own right hand in the heavenly places, and made Him head over all things, all things being put under Him.
2. The church is the body of Him to whom all things in heaven and in earth are thus subjected.
3. The power which now works in the believer is the power which wrought in Christ, when He was thus exalted from the grave to the right hand of God.
4. The working of this power in the church is according to its working in Christ when He was raised from the dead and received up to glory. Or may we say, earth having rejected and heaven having received Jesus, the church is the body of Him, who has been thus rejected by the one and received by the other. And where can the church have its blessings? On the earth which has rejected or in heaven which has received Christ? There can be but one answer to this question. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” May the heart of each Christian who reads these pages join to say so!
From Whence to Hence
But the Apostle proceeds. Having shown the exaltation of Christ and that the church is His body, the fullness of him that fills all in all, he turns to the Ephesian saints and writes as though he would remind both them and himself of the rock from which they were hewn, the hole of the pit from whence they were digged. All alike, whether Jew or Gentile, were dead in sins and children of wrath. “But God,” says the Apostle, “who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” So completely is the church identified with Christ that what is affirmed of the one is affirmed of the other also. Did Christ die for sin, while we were dead in sin, and was He quickened from that death He stooped to undergo? God has quickened us together with Him! Was Christ raised as well as quickened? God has raised us up together. Has Christ sat down in heavenly places? God has made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The church is in Christ. It is His body, His fullness. In the language used by another, “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.”
One thing follows immediately in the chapter we are considering: that is, that in the presence of this unity with Christ and with each other, all earthly distinctions disappear. What was the design of this? It was “to make in Himself of twain one new man”: this new, mystic man of which He Himself, Christ glorified, is the Head and of which Jews and Gentiles, who truly believe, are alike members. The Jew taken out of his natural position and the Gentile taken out of his are both brought into this new, wondrous position — of being members of this new, mystic man — ”members of Christ.” Marvelous grace! May the sense of it unite us practically to each other.
W. Trotter