Ephesians
4
1.
The ONE BODY is unique to the time after the death of Christ, and in contrast
to what was before. (Click here)
2. The cross is the foundation of the ONE BODY. (Click here)
3. The ONE BODY was in God’s thoughts before the foundation
of the world, and is the mystery of Christ and the church. (Click here)
4. Who is included in the ONE BODY? (Click here)
5. This truth of the ONE BODY is to have a practical effect
on our conduct, we are to recognize the relationship that we have been brought
into when we were brought in to the body. (Click here)
6. What ever is precious to the heart of God often finds
great opposition. (Click here)
7. Old Testament reasoning has no place in the church. (Click here)
8. The great idea behind the church of God. (Click here)
9. We must consult with God, by looking into His word, as to
how we are to have this very important truth of the ONE BODY and the unity of
the spirit affect our lives. (Click here)
10. The unity of the spirit is not the unity of Christians
and not according to human rules. (Click here)
11. Gathered to Christ’s name and not being indifferent to
the great object of His death. (Click here)
12. The word of God is the only standard that we should
allow to guide us. (Click here)
13. Every one of Gods children should seek diligently to be
in the place with those that hold and live the truth of the ONE BODY. (Click
here)
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
1. The ONE BODY is unique to the time since the death of Christ, and in
contrast to what was before.
The subject on which, with the Lord's help, I propose to
enter tonight is the one body, the body of Christ; and this too not only as a
great doctrine which the Holy Ghost has laid down with the utmost clearness,
and throughout a considerable part of the New Testament, but also, as far as I
am able in a short space, deducing some of its practical consequences, and
showing its bearing upon the communion and the conduct of every member of it,
that is, of every Christian.
But in order to develop the special characteristics of
Christ's body, it will be necessary to explain how it differed from that which
God revealed or set up in past dispensations; for there are distinctions, and
even contrasts, between the past dealings of God and that which He is now
accomplishing to the honour of His beloved Son. While there was of course
always the only true God: while He had in times past those He loved upon earth;
while He ever wrought by His Spirit; while there was necessarily faith at work
in order to the blessing of souls; yet for all that there are essential and
deeply important differences, which none can overlook without loss to himself,
without sure weakening of his testimony to others, and, above all, without
coming short of the just perception of what God Himself has nearest to His own
heart — His own glory in Christ.
Now it is perfectly plain, if we take up the Old Testament,
that when man fell into sin God gave certain revelations of blessing, all of
which find their centre in the Lord Jesus. We see this from the very beginning
of Genesis. When sin entered, not only righteous government but grace instantly
followed. God was there; and in the presence of the guilty pair, and in
defiance of the serpent, the mercy of God spoke of that same blessed One of
whom we are about to hear further and deeper glories. In due time God brought
out, in a distinct and personal manner, blessings in connection with Abraham
and his seed. There we have the domain of promise — not only revelation of
mercy, but distinct promise — to a given person and to his seed. This had not
been the case in the garden of Eden. Man fell there; and it is evident that
fallen man could not possibly be the object of the promise of God. There are
promises for such: there could not be a promise to such. When
Abraham received the promise, he was not a fallen man merely but a believing
man. It was as one elect, called, and faithful, that God made him the depository
of promise. But it was when Adam fell, before there was anything of the
operation of divine grace in him; it was when he and Eve had completely
separated themselves from God, that mercy, entirely irrespective of their
condition or desert, held out a revelation of grace in the person of Christ.
The woman's Seed was presented more particularly as the destroyer of him that
had wrought this deep and, as far as it went, irreparable mischief —
irreparable to the creature, but only furnishing the opportunity for God to
bring out His own grace to the glory of Him who, bruised Himself, was to bruise
the serpent's head.
The effect of the promise to Abraham was that a family was
set apart unto God, and, in due time, a nation. Next, we find that, as this
nation was full of confidence in its own powers, God was pleased, in the wisdom
of His ways, to try them by the law, as we all know, given at Sinai. I need not
enter into the details, but just state the general outline of the divine
dealings for the purpose of clearing my subject. But the issue of that trial,
however long God might delay, was not doubtful for a moment; for at the very
mountain where God spoke, the children of Israel set at nought the authority
and the glory of God, and bowed down to the work of their own hands: that is,
the law, as a moral question between God and man, was overthrown from its very
foundations at the outset. God lingered — long lingered — in patience, and
meanwhile brought out His ways in every possible variety. The crowning experiment
of all was the presence of Christ, the Seed of the woman, and the Seed of
promise, too; for now came the person who answered to all the revelations and
promises, the ways and types and prophecies of God. He came, in whose person
was found all that was worthy of God, and that was suited to man. But the
coming of Christ brought out the awful truth, not only that man is himself
corrupt, depraved, and loves his own will, but that he hates goodness — yea,
divine goodness — in a man. He is the enemy of God when manifesting Himself in
the most blessed manner — in His own Son; when manifesting Himself, not only in
power — for we can understand a guilty creature alarmed at holy power — but in
perfect love, coming down in humiliation, putting Himself at the foot of man,
beseeching man; for this is in truth not a figure or exaggeration of man's
mind, but God's own word. Hear His description of it: "God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us," etc. His
love beseeching sinners was the attitude of divine grace in the person of
Christ. What was the result? That man proved there was no possibility of
extricating himself by any means that God put at his disposal: that if it were
a question of man's delivering himself, no matter what might be the mercy or
the blessing, no matter how deep and full the grace displayed in a living
person, man was too far gone — nay, so truly dead in sin, that, far from being
won by God's love, he only took advantage of it, and when Jesus put Himself at
the foot of man, he lifted up his heel and trod on Him, the Son of God. But if
man thus, under Satan's malicious guidance, cast out and crucified Christ, God
in the cross not only demonstrated His love (herein is love, indeed!) but
wrought out redemption, a work suited even for those that crucified Jesus,
capable of blotting out the foulest sin man was ever guilty of. God has
triumphed where man did his worst against Him.
But this is not all. In the previous dealings of God, when
He had given His law, God had separated the nation that was called out of Egypt
— had marked them off in the most distinct and positive manner from all others.
It was needful. Men might have complained that there had been no fair trial;
the corrupt examples of others would naturally lead astray. God set Israel
apart by their institutions, rites, ordinances, services, and His law; and by
that law, and by those rites, He severed them from all others; so that it would
have been sin against God for a Jew to have communion with a Gentile, no matter
how godly and disposed to respect the law of God. No doubt there might be such
a thing as being brought out of Gentilism, at any rate to a certain extent; but
still, all through the system of God's dealings by His law with the Jewish
people, there was the express and total severance of His people from all the
nations. I do not speak of the abuse of it, working upon the corrupt heart of
man against others — the pride of men's heart, who despised others because of
their own divinely isolated position; but apart from the evil use that Israel
made of their separation, faithfulness to God then required it, and His will
was in the thing itself. God was proving before the whole world the painful and
humbling truth, that let a nation have ever such mercies, ever such privileges,
ever such wisdom directing their movements, outward and inward — nay,
everything pertaining to them, the issue of all is increasing enmity against
God Himself.
The death and resurrection of Christ introduced a new thing
in every sense. Now, Christians admit this in general as to the work of Christ
in its application to the need of the soul. There is no person of ever so
little spiritual intelligence, who does not confess, with more or less
clearness and thankfulness of heart, the all- importance of the cross of Christ
for his need before God. There may be a scanty perception of the extent of the deliverance,
an interrupted and feeble enjoyment of the perfect peace that has been made by
the blood of Christ's cross; but there is no believer who does not in some
measure hold it and enjoy it, and thank God for it.
2. The cross is the foundation of the ONE BODY.
But there is more than the sinner's need met in the cross;
and I direct your attention to what the Holy Ghost gives us in Eph. 2, as
showing the place of the cross in the ways of God — not merely in the salvation
of the soul. At the 13th verse it is written, "Ye who sometimes were far
off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made
both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby." Now, it is evident from this scripture, that the cross
is not only the basis of peace for the soul, but the foundation also on which
rests the "one body" that God is now making of Jew and Gentile before
Himself. And we see this most plainly if we only look back to our Lord's own
presence on earth. He forbids His disciples going into the way of the Gentiles
— forbids their entering any city of the Samaritans. Need it be said that it
was from no lack of love? It was not that His heart did not yearn over the most
reprobate of Samaritans; it was not that He did not appreciate the faith of a
Gentile — He had not seen "such faith, no, not in Israel."
Notwithstanding, they were to go only to the lost sheep of Israel, because to
such only He was sent, and so were they too. Now, here we find at once that,
while there was this perfectness of grace in Christ, the holy order of God was
none the less fully maintained. Law claimed a state of things essentially
different from what we have described in Eph. 2. There was a positive barrier
even during His lifetime, the very thing being formally prohibited, which,
after He died and rose, was not merely a duty, but the delight of love, the
only adequate answer in the saints to that death and resurrection. (See Matt.
28: 19)
How comes this to pass? On what is so mighty a change
founded? On the cross. It brings out the worthlessness of man, and most of all,
the worthlessness of favoured, privileged, religious man — of man under God's
law. For if man under that law failed, what other law could avail? The law of
God was the wisest, the best, the most holy and just dealing that it was
possible to bring to bear upon man's natural state. And here was the total
failure of man; and God well knew it all from the first, for He took care that
in the earliest book of Scripture, and all through, embedded in the very law
itself, there should be plain words as well as shadows, showing that man would
sin, and that only Christ, by His blood-shedding and His death could avail. The
very first revelation of the garden of Eden is a witness of both. Faith had no
other expectation. But nevertheless there was a full patient, long-suffering
trial whether it was possible to get any good out of man, in the dealings of
the only wise God with man. And now it was demonstrated in the cross that all
was ruined in man, and that the highest advantages, short of God's saving
grace, brought out the ruin most distinctly. Now there is room for grace to
work; and, beloved friends, it is upon this that it is my joy to speak a little
tonight.
3. The ONE BODY was in God’s thoughts before the
foundation of the world, and is the mystery of Christ and the church.
We have come down the stream; we have seen what man was when
it was a question of his working for God: we shall now look briefly at God when
He puts forth His glorious power to work, not merely for man, but for His Son;
for oh! we never get the full blessing until we see this great and glorious
truth, that God has at heart His Son — that God is thinking, not merely of a
blessing for you, for me, for any of those that love Him — yea, and in
sovereign grace, for those who love Him not, if they repent and believe the
gospel — but that He has His eye upon Him who did all and suffered all for His
glory, and has bound up that glory of God with the fullest, richest,
everlasting blessing of all who believe in His name. And now, then, as the
fruit of the cross of Christ (where we have the weakness of God, where
nevertheless we have the triumph of God — God Himself coming down lower and
lower still in love, not merely, so to speak, beseeching man, but laying all
the weight and burden of sin upon the Lord Jesus, thereby meeting the desperate
need of sinners by His Son suffering for them,) what do we find? That in the
cross He has given the death-blow to sin; He has "put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself," as we are told. But besides, by it all the
distinctions of Jew and Gentile pass away, and God brings out that to which He
had always looked onward — that which was in His counsels not only from the
foundation of the world, but before it, and which consequently He had
shown before there was a question of law, and before there was a question of
sin. For it is remarkable that the magnificent type, which the apostle applies
in Ephesians 5 to the mystery of Christ and the church, was brought in before
sin entered. (Gen. 2) In truth, it was a counsel that flowed out of what God
was and is. It was God in His own love, even God working from what was in
Himself. No doubt, the entrance of sin has given occasion for God to bring out
His grace in blessed ways; but, for all that, we must ever remember that there
were thoughts and counsels of grace in God Himself. There was that which He
ever had in His own mind, for the revelation of which, no doubt sin might
furnish the fit occasion. But sin was in no wise the suggestive spring any more
than the measure. On the contrary, we see God indulging, so to speak, in the
activity of His own perfect love; at any rate, we see Him thinking of, filled
with, working for, His own Son. And I think it is of deep interest to observe
the fact just referred to — the shadow of the church's union with Christ
preceding the entrance of sin and the provisions of grace in view of sin.
And observe further, that as just seen in the type of
Genesis, so it is in the epistle to the Ephesians. Where is it that you have
the counsels of God traced out? Is it after man's sin has been portrayed in
Ephesians 2? No; but in the earliest verses of Ephesians 1, where God gives the
richest development of the counsels of His grace, entirely passing over
and ignoring in the first instance all question of man's sin, shame, and need.
This we have afterwards and in the profoundest way. There is perhaps no part of
the word of God which shows us the depth of human evil more than Ephesians 2;
but this is not at all the first thought. Hence we find in the first chapter,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he
hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love." And then it is only just by
the way that the apostle alludes to the fact of their sins, and in a single
verse (the 7th), where we read, "In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
With the exception of that incidental notice of the fact of our needing
redemption, the remission of sins, you would not know from the first chapter of
the epistle that the saints of God, these blest ones, had a single evil, or a
particle of sin connected with them. That is, it is God perfectly acting from
Himself, in and for His own Son; delighting in Him, putting honour upon Him,
giving Him what was suited to Him out of His own resources of love, and hence
boundlessly to the saints, the body of Christ, as the end of chapter 1
describes them. It is thus that the Holy Ghost is pleased to introduce these
astonishing counsels of grace.
Then, in the second chapter, we have man's state looked at
most thoroughly. We see him weighed and found wanting as in no other part of
Scripture. We have him here, not as an active being, alive in sin, but as all
over with him, dead in sin — "dead in trespasses and sins." He
is, therefore, hopelessly lost and utterly powerless in sins. The whole case is
closed against him; and it is to this condition of manifest moral death and
subjection to Satan, that the grace of God applies itself, in His quickening,
raising, heavenly power in Christ Jesus.
But, again, we find that in the latter part of Ephesians 2
the cross of Christ is taken up, not merely in connection with God's counsels,
as in chapter 1, nor even in view of their desperate need who are the objects
of His counsels, as in the beginning of chapter 2, but in contrast to the
previous ways of God upon the earth. He is addressing Gentiles. Was it not a
suitable occasion for God to unfold to them the one new man, the mystery of
Christ and the church, the body of Christ? They were hitherto ignored, evidently
outside all that God had been doing of old. God had taken up a separated people
and had tried them. The Gentiles were as non-existent, so to speak, before God.
Not, of course, that the secret providence of God did not watch and work — not
that the grace of God did not act as to individuals; but, regarded as Gentiles,
they were outside. But now these are the very objects of heavenly grace; toward
Gentiles the call goes out loud and large. Not that they alone were brought
into the church, for it consists of Jews also; but it was Gentiles whom it
seemed meet to God to bring into relief, in contrast to the condition in which
they were once, so as to make more manifest the blessing which His grace now
confers on both, in Christ the Lord. "Wherefore remember, that ye being in
time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is
called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one."
4. Who is included in the ONE BODY?
There we have another fact, not only that they are made nigh
to God but both made one — Jew and Gentile that now believe made one
body, as is explained more fully afterwards, the middle wall of partition
broken down, the enmity abolished in His flesh, "even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new
man." It is not merely a new life, but Christ and the church form one new
man, a condition of things that had never before existed — " one new man,
so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the
cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you
which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." Thus the Gentiles had
been dispensationally afar off, the Jews were comparatively nigh; but now they
were taken completely out of their old condition. It is not, you will observe,
that the Gentiles who believed are raised up to the level of the privileges
which the Jews used to possess, but that there is now "one new man,"
wherein is neither Jew nor Gentile. Both, consequently, quit their previous
states for a new and most blessed position of oneness in Christ, which had
never existed before save in the counsels of God.
Here then is the church, the body of Christ; this is what
God is working out. He is not only saving souls, He is gathering; not only is
He gathering into one, but He makes the believing Jew and Gentile, while they
are on earth, though previously by His own command the most separate, now to be
one new man in Christ, even His one body.
There is another truth connected with the church, revealed
at the end of the chapter, which I merely notice by the way. Not only is there
a body formed — one body in Christ, but there is a building upon earth, in
which God dwells. Although it is not my business tonight to take up the subject
of the dwelling or habitation of God, yet I cannot deny myself the joy of
saying a few passing words on this wonderful place which God has given to His
church.
And first of all it is to be noticed, in the Old Testament
there was no such thing as a building or dwelling of God, until there was a
type of redemption. No matter what might be His mercy or condescension to those
He loved, He could not dwell with man until there was a basis of
blood-shedding, by which He could righteously abide with him. Hence, all
through the book of Genesis, for instance, God does not dwell with men; nay, He
never speaks of it or promises it. But the moment the blood of the passover is
shed, and you have Israel passing through the Red Sea — the combined types of
redemption (one answering to the blood of Christ, the other to the death and
resurrection of Christ, in which a complete redemption is set forth in
figure) — immediately you hear of God having a habitation: God could now dwell
in the midst of His people. It is not because the people were better: who could
imagine that? Look at Israel at the Red Sea; what were they to be compared with
Abraham or Isaac or even Jacob? Yet He who only visited the fathers can now
dwell among the children, and put this word into their lips, "I will
prepare him a habitation." How comes this? Ah, beloved friends, how little
any of us estimate the mighty change and the wondrous effect of redemption? It
is not a question of comparing men, or their faith, or their faithfulness.
God's estimate of redemption is the point; and He shows that if there be only a
type of redemption, He can come down typically, He can then dwell in the midst
of His people. I admit this was only a preparatory thing. There was a visible
token of it, suited of course to an earthly people; but still the great
distinct fact is engraved on Israel's history, as the very centre of their
blessing, that God Himself deigned then to dwell in their midst. (Ex. 15: 2,
13, 17; Ex. 29: 43-46.)
The same thing is found here far more blessedly for the
church on earth. On earth — and mark, not before the cross but since
— God is pleased to make His people to be His habitation. He came down
in the person of Christ, but Christ abode alone as far as the dwelling-place of
God was concerned. "Destroy this temple:" He was the only true
temple. But when He died and rose, what then? Redemption was accomplished; and
now God could descend holily, righteously, suitably to His own character, and could
dwell in His people. It is not because the New Testament saints are more worthy
in themselves than those of old. He that knows himself and redemption knows
that such an idea is a fallacy and a falsehood; he knows that human nature is
good for nothing as before God; he knows that, in His presence, there is no
question of flesh, or what flesh can glory in, "but he that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord." But this is not all; not only is there a Lord to
glory in, but now we have actual redemption in Christ through His blood. How
does God estimate the precious blood of His Son? What does He feel about those
on whom that blood is put by faith — those who are washed in it? Does He not as
it were say, "I can come now and take my place in their midst?" This is
indeed one of the precious characteristics of the church. It especially is even
now the habitation of God. In virtue of this it is that the church is called
the "house of God," and His "temple," in different parts of
Scripture. But I must not dwell longer on this, because my subject is "the
body."
5. This truth of the ONE BODY is to have a practical
effect on our conduct, we are to recognize the relationship that we have been
brought into when we were brought in to the body.
We find, then, in Eph. 4, that the Spirit of God presses
this exhortation, "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace." Next, He explains, "There is one body and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one
baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all."
Will it be imagined that this grand truth of the "one
body" does not affect the judgment and conduct of the Christian as well as
his affections? We have been brought, I will suppose, to the knowledge of
Christ; we have found in Him the Son of God, the Saviour; we rest on Him as our
peace before God; we call on Him as our Lord. But have I no relationship with
others on earth? Am I left here simply and solitarily to look up to God? Have I
to thread my way through the mazes of this world, only using the word of God
with prayer? Let me ask, What are my relationships? Am I only a child of God
with other children of His here and there? What am I to feel, as I look round
upon those that name the excellent name — that call upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
both mine and theirs?. The ONE BODY is the answer. God it is who forms it for
the glory of Christ: it is united to Him. "We are members," as it is
said, "of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." It is not for
you, it is not for me, to define, even in our natural relationships, our
brothers and our sisters. Thank God, we are not asked: God does it; He gives
what suits Him, even if it be only in the domain of earth and flesh. He does
not give us what we might choose: we know our folly in this respect, He assigns
each man a place — puts the high and the low according to His own wisdom. And
in that which He is doing for His beloved Son, has He less to do or less to
teach us? Is God's will of less moment there than in the mere outward world?
Nay, my brethren, nay: even moral men dispute not the will of God as to natural
relationships. We know what human lust may do — how it may break through every
line of demarcation; but still after all poor man finds even for himself,
without thinking of God, the need and the value of owning the relationships
which have been established in nature here below. Now, is it not a most solemn
thought, and is it not a fact which ought to shame every Christian heart, that
in the church which is so near to God, in that which is the fruit of His own
perfect love, in that which He is creating for the everlasting glory of His
beloved Son, what God orders, what God wills, what pleases God, is regarded as
of infinitely less account to Christians than even their natural relationships
to each other? Is it or is it not the fact? Is it or is it not a grievous sin?
How do you account for this? Whence the terrible triumph of
the enemy? Why is it that there is such darkness over the whole subject of the
"one body" now? Is it because God has not revealed His mind? What can
be plainer in Scripture? Only a portion of the proofs has been produced from a
small portion of God's word; but what can be clearer than that, founded upon
the cross of Christ, a new condition has been introduced and established of
God? that He is now calling out the Jews and Gentiles who believe, and forming
them into "one body?" — that, as He owns no other body than Christ's,
so this is His will about us, and our obligation to Him, even as it is the
evident and only meaning of His word that speaks of His church? How is it,
then, that such a truth escapes the thoughts of man — that you may search in
vain to find it in writings new or old — that we have, some of us, long lived as
Christians, and many of us once churchmen and dissenters so called, yet all
utterly ignorant of its character? But if so patent, and with such a fulness of
truth about it in God's word, how comes it to have been a forgotten thing among
His children?
6. What ever is precious to the heart of God often finds great
opposition.
It is not because there has not been sincerity — "godly
sincerity" if you will — among Christians. But whatever is near to God,
whatever is the present operation of God, is always that against which Satan
sets himself with all his might and subtlety. And this, because it is bound up
with Christ, because it is the special actual will of God for His people.
Therefore Satan seeks to thwart and mar. He does not now try so much to darken
other truths, but he takes up that which most nearly concerns the glory of
Christ as now displayed; whatever that may be at any given time, there is the
battle-field, there the arena, where no means are untried to blind and hinder
God's children from understanding and doing the will of their God and Father.
When God is gathering out His church, then is the enemy's season of active
unceasing effort, to oppose, confound, and obscure all the truths connected
with it.
Besides, there is another question. How comes it that Satan
finds it possible to succeed in the face of such evidence as the New Testament
affords? Alas! the reason of this, too — the moral reason — is evident. The
children of God may be the more readily deceived, because the doctrine of the
church, the body of Christ, brings God too close to us — sets His grace too
richly before our souls — makes us feel (if our souls believe, bow, and enter
into it) the vanity of all things here. Alas! our hearts shrink from the
feeling. We naturally love ease; we like position in this world; we are fond of
a little reputation, it may not be perhaps in the vulgar world, but in the
so-called church — something, at any rate, for self, something outside the
portion of Christ and the cross. The body is only for the Head, for the glory
of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. Man in nature disappears;
his glory wanes and vanishes; his will is judged as sin. We do not like a
doctrine and practice so peremptory, and withal so heavenly. Men like to do
something, and to be somebody. Man has in himself, whenever this is allowed,
that which exposes him to the power of sin, to the malice and wiles of Satan;
and hence it is, that this great truth was no sooner revealed than it began to
fade. There is no testimony to it whatever in the early fathers, and of course
a position more and more distant and antagonistic as you descend. Take up any
writings you please: — Papists and Protestants, Episcopalians, Presbyterians,
Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians — all ignore it. It is not that you will not
find enough truth asserted and preached for souls to be saved by; but the bare
salvation of souls is not the whole truth, nor that part of the truth which
reveals the church of God. Were not souls saved before Christ? Was not salvation
of the Jews? Were there not faithful souls before God had a people upon earth?
Was it not so from the very beginning, before the flood and after it? Most
clearly and certainly.
But there comes in another thing which was not true before,
which God had not revealed or established till the rejection of the Messiah,
and for which He had reserved the sending of the Holy Ghost from heaven. Now in
the cross of Christ God has laid a foundation for this new work, and is
gathering together out of Jews and Gentiles His assembly, made in Christ one
new man. Man likes to be of importance to himself, and in this world. Just in
proportion as he allows this, he falls a prey to the working of the enemy; and
the more easily does he deceive himself, because up to the cross of Christ
there was room left for man more or less. His total ruin, his enmity to God,
his hatred of grace in the revealed person of the Son, were never brought out
in their fulness until then. Till then God was not, could not, be known as He
now is. But the only-begotten Son declared Him, and this in respect both of sin
and of His righteousness — a new kind of righteousness, which, by all means and
on every side, clears and blesses the guiltiest who now believes in Jesus.
Now, if there is to be a heart growing up into the
revelation which God has made of Himself in Christ according to His grace
towards the Church, the one body of Christ, there must be the judgment of
nature, root and branch — the judgment of the world in which man arrogates some
place to himself. The church of God is based on the proved ruin of man, and is
for the glory of God in His Son, as maintained by the Holy Ghost. Now, this
will show the immensely important place of this truth as a matter for the soul
both in communion and in conduct. Away with what does not touch upon practice
and the soul's relationship to God! But the fact is, that so far from the truth
of the church leaving out heart and conscience, intercourse with God, worship
and service, there is nothing which brings them out so much, and binds them so
fast together, save only the truth of Christ's own person; there is nothing
more commanding, comprehensive, and penetrating for the walk or conversation of
a Christian man.
7. Old Testament reasoning has no place in the
church.
Take, for instance, all the difficulties men gather from the
Old Testament: on what are they founded? I speak now of the legitimate
difficulties — at any rate what seem to be legitimate and authoritative to the
mind of an uninstructed believer. What, after all, is their gist? Reasoning
founded upon Old Testament precept or practice. But is the analogy just? How
can we reason in an absolute way, if there be this "one new man"? —
if the church is a novel special thing which did not even exist then? It is evident
that conduct (for instance, found in a David or a Solomon — in an Abraham, or
an Isaac, or a Jacob) may not apply now, but, on the contrary, be out of
harmony with the ways God looks for in His church. I am not speaking of those
moral landmarks which always condemn falsehood, corruption, or violence: no
Christian is supposed to produce the sin of any of these men to justify his own
evil. I speak of what was right and according to the will of God as then
revealed. The moment the doctrine of the Church, the body of Christ, is seen,
all such reasonings and difficulties have no more a place. God has now His Son
in His presence as the risen man. There could not be such a thing as the body
of Christ till Christ was there, not only as the Son, but as man, the Head of
the body; Christ could not be there as man till the work of redemption was
accomplished. Of old He had the title of the Son of man given, looking onward
to His assumption of humanity, when He who was God and the Son of God became a
real man. But how could He take this place in Heaven? He was born a man on
earth. He was not a man until He was born into the world. How take this place
in heaven? Christ was not Head, still less was there the body, the church, till
then. "The church, which is his body," assumes that Christ had become
man, and, more than this, that He is Head, as the risen and ascended man. It is
only after He died, as we know by His own figure of the corn of wheat, that He
produced fruit. (John 12) But more than that: not to stand upon figures only,
but to take any Scripture that speaks in precise terms upon it, what do we
find? Read the end of Eph. 1: "What is the exceeding greatness of his
power to us-ward 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 head over all things to the church." Thus
He has been given to the church Head over all things; but it is after He was
raised from the dead, and set at God's right hand. The risen man is Head there:
even He never was head till after redemption. He took His place there and thus.
What is the consequence of that, beloved friends? The body
of Christ is heavenly, as the head of the church is. Man does not relish this —
nay, many a Christian man finds it too high and hard. If he is a heavenly man,
where is the room for the pursuits and plans and projects of literature, of
science, of politics? Where are all these things that fill the mind and the
appetites and the desires of men? Are they in heaven? Are warlike schemes — are
courtier dreams — in heaven? You hear no doubt of the battle against the devil,
who is turned out of heaven, as the Lord wars by the angels of His power
by-and-by. But I need not say there is no place in His body for the pride,
ambition, or energy of man.
8. The great idea behind the church of God.
What then is the great idea of the church of God? It is the
body of Christ, after He has accomplished redemption; and consequently, sin, as
far as God's judging the believer, is completely gone, put away in such sort as
to glorify God and justify the believer. Founded upon this, those who believe
are consequently not only born of water and the Spirit, and justified from
their sins by the blood of Christ, but united to Him, their blessed Head, at
the right hand of God. The church of God accordingly does not consist merely of
the redeemed or saints. A "Christian" means more than a
"saint" — much more! I am aware there are many who think it means
much less, and would count my doctrine strange; because they consider everybody
in these lands a Christian, and but very few on earth a saint — perhaps none
till they get to heaven. But it is to me most evident — nothing more certain —
that a Christian is a saint, and a good deal more; and that good deal more is,
that he is a saint after God effected redemption in the blood of Christ; that
he is a saint united to Christ at God's right hand; that he is a saint who has
God dwelling in him by the Spirit, for God now can dwell there. The atoning
work is done: the blood has been shed and sprinkled. God can take
up His abode there and does! How do I know it? Because God has told me
so in His word. One may, alas! have poor enjoyment of it — that is another
thing; but the enjoyment of the truth depends upon the measure in which our
souls first rest upon it believingly: even then, unless we judge the flesh that
hinders the realization of it, we cannot enjoy it either long or much if at
all.
9. We must consult with God, by looking into His
word, as to how we are to have this very important truth of the ONE BODY and
the unity of the spirit affect our lives.
God shows then in His word, that the church is the union of
believers — one with Christ, by the Holy Ghost, after He died and rose and went
to heaven. The consequence is, that we must consult what God enjoins on the
members of that body, if we would know how we are to walk and worship; how we
are to act and feel towards the other members of Christ; and how to behave in
"the house of God."
The New Testament occupies itself with these subjects, more
particularly the epistles of St. Paul. It could not be formally or definitely
in the gospels, because they are devoted for the most part to a living Christ,
closing with the facts of His death, resurrection, and ascension. You may find
there preparations for the new work and testimony — not a few intimations of
what was going to be done; but all show that the building of the church was not
yet begun. In the epistles, on the other hand, we have revelations altogether
founded upon the great fact that the building was going on, the body was being
formed. And mark another thing, which I hope to develop on the next occasion I
address you, namely, that along with the body of Christ goes the presence of
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It is only just referred to here to show
the connection: we shall find its importance afterwards. Those who have not
examined fully the testimony of Scripture will feel the weight and value of the
instruction there furnished, when that point comes more at length before us.
But this at least is plain, that though it is a new work, entirely distinct
from all that God had wrought before, there are great moral principles, as
already hinted, which always abide. In every part of Scripture, in that which speaks
of the times before the law, or during the law, as well as now under the
gospel, God is the righteous, holy, almighty, faithful One, a God of
longsuffering, and goodness, and truth: all this remains. Even here the
difference is, that all these attributes of God shine out more gloriously, and,
in consequence, deepen the revelation of God, in addition to other new ways and
workings of grace which were not and could not be expressed before. What an
accession of light when Christ, the true light, shone! What an infinite display
of God Himself in His person! And what shall we say of the cross and death,
resurrection and glorification of Jesus as the manifestation of God?
Hence, in this new man, all the moral glory of God of course
abides; but now, in presence of that infinitely fuller manifestation, and the
accomplishment of eternal redemption, is there to be no answer in the thoughts
and hearts and ways of His children to what the God and Father of Christ is
doing? If, for instance, God calls a person into the place of a servant, there
are certain responsibilities that attach to a servant. But suppose these
servants turn out thoroughly unfaithful and end in rebellion, and God says,
"I will have no more of this; I will create a family and adopt children to
Myself; I will bring people, according to My sovereign pleasure, out of the old
condition into this new place." What then? It is evident that to go back
to what was true of the servants might be a most misleading guide when it
became a question of the children; and, in point of fact, it is and must be so.
On that mistaken ground Christians meddle with the world, occupying themselves
with those things that please the flesh and give importance to man. In contrast
with it, God has given us the glorious truth that He has, as it were, but one
man (the first Adam being done with, and pronounced to be ruined, and dead, and
buried in the grave of Christ). We Christians belong to the second Man, the
Lord from heaven. (1 Cor. 15) There is "one new man," not only in
contrast with old distinctions, but as uniting all, Jewish or Gentile saints,
in one body — His body; for that is the way in which it is presented in
Ephesians 2.
The consequence is, that we need, and God gives us, a new
revelation; He furnishes fresh instructions which had no place before.
Supposing you had the New Testament in Old Testament times, what would have
been (I will not say the worth, but) the effect of it then? Perplexing beyond
measure! A Jew would not have known what to do with it. He might have been
struck with the wisdom, beauty, holiness, and love of it all; but how to act
upon it and reconcile it with the law given by Moses, it would not have been
possible for him to know. He would have been commanded by the Old Testament to
keep wholly apart from the Gentiles; he would have been told by the New
Testament that they formed one body, and that they were all one in Christ —
that both had access by one Spirit unto the Father. He could not have put these
things together; and no wonder: they were not meant to be together. They belong
to distinct times and to totally different states. The confusion of the two is
one way in which Satan has triumphed in the professing church. Alas! it was not
otherwise under God's dealings with the Jews. While He was standing by His law,
they were breaking it; while He was holding up the unity of the Godhead, they
were set upon idols and going after the gods of the nations. They were utterly
unfaithful to their testimony; but I am persuaded that a Jew, dark as he was and
little versed in the mind of God, would have perceived that the instructions of
the New Testament were irreconcilable with his calling. But God never gave it
thus. When the work of atonement was finished on the cross, God brought out
these new revelations by degrees. Why? Because there was a new state of things
— "one new man" — that did not exist before. Consequently, a new word
of God was given, suited to bring out the due relationship of Christians to one
another, and the working of God in the Church, the body of Christ.
10. The unity of the spirit is not the unity of Christians and not
according to human rules.
Let me notice briefly, before I close, the practical effect
— "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace." What interest this has, if really applicable in the face of our
divisions! Consider for a moment the case of a Christian; he is awakened, finds
peace, but questions what he is to do. How truly it has been the fact that many
of us have been perplexed in such circumstances! We may have known very little
of the word of God; but still we found difficulties in reconciling that word
with what we saw around us — especially such a word as this, "endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit." But it is really a plain and humble
path. I have nothing to do with making the unity; I have not to set up
something, or join what others make. What then? I am to be diligent in keeping
the unity of the Spirit. In other words, God the Holy Ghost has made a unity;
and the business of the believer is to observe that unity — to keep it. What an
amazing relief for a humble soul, that feels his liability to mistake, in
danger of being either too lax on the one hand, or too narrow on the other!
What is the unity of the Spirit? Where does it begin and
end? What is its nature and character? Scripture tells us that He has
established a unity among men, yet apart from and above them. What is it? The
answer is, It is in the church, which God has made the body of Christ. What a
comfort it is for a believer that he has simply to judge by the word of God
where the unity of the Spirit is! But how? I come to a place, and I am at a
loss to know where to turn. Where shall I find the unity of the Spirit of God?
How do I know it? God has left landmarks; He has given clear distinct light in
His word. I search and see that He is gathering together the children of God
into one; He gathers them unto the name of Christ, assuring them that where
they are thus, He is in their midst. I never get the key to any spiritual difficulty
without Christ. Do I merely look for the unity of Christians? It is a delusion
and a danger without Christ. Christians — where shall I not find them?
In what pit of error may I not discover some stray child of God? If I go in
quest of the children of God, I may easily see them in this form of worldliness
or in that; I may know them unattached here, close and bigoted there; I may
find them gathered together according to human rules, and for entirely minor
objects; I may hear them setting up the names of men, certain special
doctrines, favourite views, as their centres of union. Is this the unity
of the Spirit? What then is His unity, and how is it to be kept? It is that
which He forms for the glory of Christ.
11. Gathered to Christ’s name and not being
indifferent to the great object of His death.
Christians of course are those that compose the unity; yet
keeping it consists not in the bare fact that they are Christians, but that
they are gathered unto Christ — gathered not to His bodily presence, but unto
His name, now that He is in heaven; none the less, however, for that, but the
more counting on His presence with them, though unseen, faithful to His own
word. If I isolate myself where I may thus meet, I am indifferent to that which
was an object of the death of Christ (John 11: 52), and I am setting at nought
the unity of the Spirit; if I value the one and am diligent to keep the other,
I shall meet on that ground and on none other. Many members of Christ no doubt
are elsewhere now, who ought to be there, as truly as any that are gathered to
that name; but am I who know my Master's will to hold aloof, because others see
it not, or are faithless if they do? Am I to say His will cannot be done?
Therein lies part of the ruin of Christendom; there is the
painful fact, that what Christ died for Satan has set himself to oppose, and
has succeeded in it. Wonder not; for everything that God undertakes is first of
all put into man's hand, who is responsible to use it for Him. Alas! there is
but one issue — the utter failure of man; and there will be no reversal of the
tale till Jesus comes again. Nay, even then will be another trial of man — to
show whether he uses the coming and kingdom of Jesus for God's glory; and the
end of the millennium will prove that, as it was before, so it will be then.
Nevertheless, faith overcomes at all times. See that you hold the truth fast.
Let none cheat you out of the blessing which God has given, and calls you to
enjoy. Founded on the cross, united by the Spirit to Christ, waiting for His
return, the church is the precious fruit of God's grace.
After His people departed from the power and even let slip
the bare form of this great truth, He has brought it before them anew. I cannot
doubt that its recovery, in any measure, is vouchsafed of God in view of the
ford's speedy coming: else how do you account for it that God has been pleased
to recall the bride to put herself, as it were, in readiness for the
Bridegroom, signally bringing out again that mass of heavenly testimony which
had been despised, deserted, and forgotten? Happy are they who not only bow and
receive the grace of God in it but keep the treasure faithfully! "Behold,
I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy
crown." Be assured, brethren, that we are in the same danger as men ever
were in of letting slip that which God has given us; and that every engine
which Satan can devise to drag us away — taking advantage of carelessness,
difficulties, trials, or anything that can tax us to the utmost — will all be
put in force, because he hates not only us but Christ and His truth.
But as the Lord has been pleased to raise up again a
testimony to His person, work, and heavenly glory, so I pray and beseech you,
especially the younger of my brethren and sisters who are here — all who may
not have felt its force and preciousness — more particularly you who have been
trained from your earliest perceptions of truth, brought in, as it were, rather
than out, at comparatively little cost, and who have not known (as some others)
the wrenching of many a tie, with a deep disciplinary work in the heart,
realizing gradually the true condition of Christendom; — I call upon you all to
beware lest Satan should, in any insidious way, lead you from the only solid divine
rock in the midst of the rising surges of apostasy. Fully do I admit, that all
who are brought into this glorious place, the body of Christ, ought to walk and
carry themselves in a way suitable to such a position. It is a deep shame where
there is no devotedness beyond what existed before this further measure of
truth dawned on our souls; not only shame to us, but a serious hindrance to the
truth, and a reproach upon the grace of God that revealed it and brought our
souls into it, that after all there should be such an unworthy manifestation of
its power. But how are we to deal with this? Are we therefore to slight or
doubt the truth? Are we because of our unfaithfulness, to put aside the plain
word of God that condemns us for a lower ground on which we can rest more
consistently and comfortably? Are we to yield to that which the fleshly mind
has often sought and fallen into — to set up other centres than Christ, other
ministry than that of the Spirit? Are we to abandon the only place and
principle which the New Testament allows for the members of Christ's body, on
the unbelieving plea that, as to walking according to this heavenly light, it
is a thing impracticable in such a world as this? There are beyond question
difficulties and perils neither few nor small in maintaining it. There is
constant need of self-denial most surely, if it is to be walked in with God.
12. The word of God is the only standard that we
should allow to guide us.
But how are we to judge, if not by the word of God? Are we
prepared to surrender His word as our only standard of judgment? Now, while
that word of course condemns deeply the shortcomings of those who are thus
privileged of God — not only brought into the unity of the Spirit, as all
saints are, but brought into the conscious knowledge and faith of it; while the
failure of such is in a certain sense more inexcusable than that of any others,
yet at least such are justifying God and His word and Spirit against themselves
in a humbling way. Taking our stand upon this, that no one should glory save in
the Lord, we shall find (and painfully too) that we are brought into this place
to learn our faults as we never knew them — the shortcomings of others as we
never suspected them. We may be astonished at the manifold failures, trials,
hairbreadth escapes, and deep occasions of shame; but how come these to be so
seen and felt? Because it is not the ground of the church? Nay! but because it
is. And one of the most comforting things to our faith in that which naturally
might perplex is, that we learn the present and permanent value of the
Scriptures as we never proved it before. Take all the ways of God in
discipline: they did not apply while we were mixed up with the world-church;
but how precious, profitable, and indispensably needed when we endeavour to
keep the Spirit's unity! Take again all the warnings about the world: we hardly
knew what it was. Is it not with Christians a constant question what the world
is; or is not the answer that they give us the proof of an unsuspected blinding
influence? They have something or other which they avoid doing, and this they
call "the world." But the moment we see the body of Christ, the world
acquires a plain meaning: if we realize what it is to be among those
"within," those "without" are no longer a vague uncertain
question.
Let us not fear then to quit all for the honour of God in
this world; let us look to Him for grace that we may bear all rather than
abandon it. There may be only two or three; but yet if they contemplate the
body of Christ, shutting out none save according to His will, not for any
feelings of their own, it is the only thing that is or ever was divinely large
in this selfish world, as far as men are concerned. I do not mean that any who
blaspheme Christ, or who make light of blasphemers in their deeds, if not in
their words, should be sanctioned. "O my soul, come not thou into their
secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." It is vain
to argue that the Spirit's unity can make so light of Christ and His glory. I
say not that individually such may not be Christ's. We know what Satan may do
even with one who really loves the Lord — how he may ensnare him into denying
his Master, and denying Him with oaths too; but who would contend for
justifying such sin or having communion with the guilty, till it was put away?
13. Every one of Gods children should seek diligently to be in the place with those that hold and live the truth of the ONE BODY.
I repeat then, if there be only two or three, and they
endeavour to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,"
with them is my place as a Christian. My heart should go out to every
Christian, in whatever circumstances, whether nationalist, dissenting, or, if
there be such, in popery; my heart should go out, spite of the error and evil —
yea the rather because of these things in intercession. But then am I to give
up diligent observance of the Spirit's unity? Am I to follow and join them in
what I know to be unscriptural and sinful, because there is a Christian or many
Christians there? Surely not! We ought to get them out with and for the Lord.
How is this to be done? Not by plunging ourselves into the mud, but on the
contrary by taking our stand resolutely on the rock outside of it; and there
seeking grace from God that, by the manifestation of the truth in every man's
conscience, and by holding out the light of Christ in the word — pressing too
the responsibility of walking as Christ's body on His members, they may be
turned from the error of their way. Never deny that they are members of the
body of Christ; remind them of that very fact and of its gravity — that they are
members of His body: why should they value any other body? If members of
that "one body," why not own it, and own it always, and nothing else?
If they belong to the unity of the Spirit, why not endeavour to keep it? God is
now raising a question, not about Popery and Protestantism, but about
Christendom's denial of His church, Christ's body. Our business is not to
originate a church of the present or future, but to cleave to the church God
has made, and consequently to confess the sin of all rivals — to repudiate them
and come out from them. Let us put away every human invention in the things of
God, and keep ourselves from idols. The word of God at all times calls upon His
children to be subject to Himself and to His will. Are we so doing? On the one
hand, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them;" on the
other, "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is
sin." Surely, if there be one thing in which, more than another, human
will is most evidently sin, it is in that place where God exalts the Lord
Christ; where He has sent down the Holy Ghost that He may be a spring of power
in His people's obedience.
Though this be merely an introductory lecture, and therefore I cannot be supposed to enter into all the proofs now — only laying down a kind of foundation for the subjects which we hope to pursue; yet I do trust that enough has been said to make plain, even to the least mature of those who hear me, the immense importance of their seeking from God to realise that they are not only saint but Christians, resting upon redemption, united to Christ, and responsible to act as members of His body, diligent in keeping the unity of the Spirit and none other in this world. This is a divine obligation superior too any changes in the church's state here below. It is no question of numbers, but a duty always binding, even though there were only two or three who saw the truth.