19-Chapter 2. The Undearchable Riches Of Christ
Chapter 2. The Undearchable Riches Of Christ The relations between Christ and His church are exceedingly manifold, especially [1] Teaching and learning (discipleship, school);
[2] Leading and following (flock, army);
[3] Ruling and obeying (commonwealth, people);
[4] Loving and responsive loving (bride, wife);
[5] Quickening and being quickened (vine, body);
[6] Founding and building up (spiritual house);
[7] Blessing and being a blessing (priesthood, temple).
[1] Teaching and Learning
Christ is the Teacher and we are the scholars (Matthew 23:8). He is the pattern (John 13:14-15; 1 Peter 2:21). He says: “Learn of Me” (Matthew 11:29; Ephesians 4:20). Our task is to “adorn” the teaching of our Saviour God in all things (Titus 2:10). The church is a school, a discipleship. The Greek word for disciple, mathetes, means a scholar.
[2] Leading and Following
Christ is the Shepherd and we are the flock. Out of the fold of Israel (John 10:1-5) and the folds of the world civilization He has gathered together His own into one flock (John 10:16). As the good Shepherd He laid down His life for His sheep (John 10:11; John 10:15; comp. Psalms 22:1-31); as the great Shepherd He is the One risen from the dead in the power of the blood of the eternal covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21 : comp. Psalms 23:1-6); as the chief Shepherd He will come again and give His undershepherds the crown of honour (1 Peter 5:4; 1 Peter 5:2-3; comp. Psalms 24:1-10). But in the present age He carries out a sevenfold service as Shepherd:
He calls us (John 10:3), He leads us (Psalms 23:3), He nourishes us (Psalms 23:2), He knows us (John 10:14-15; John 10:27), He guards us (John 10:28-30), He heals us (1 Peter 2:24-25), He carries us home (Luke 15:5-6; Isaiah 40:11).
[3] Ruling and Obeying
Christ is the Lord and we are His servants (1 Corinthians 4:1). Christ is the Governor and we are His subjects (Jude 1:4). Christ is the commander-in-chief and we are His warriors (2 Timothy 2:3-4; see also Ephesians 6:10-17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 6:7). The redeemed are a people (Acts 15:14, and 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:9Titus 2:14); they are fellow-citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2:19), a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6; 1 Peter 2:9). The church has the nature of a State. Her commonwealth is in heaven (Php 3:20) Its citizens are in the kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:13). They should make manifest the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 4:20). Therefore they preach the kingdom (Acts 20:25; Acts 20:28; Acts 20:31; Colossians 4:11). A law appertains to the kingdom; to the kingdom of the Son it is the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). Therefore to believe is at the same time to obey. Therefore to trust is to be trustworthy. For these two expressions the Greek language has one and the same word, pistis. It is Paul, the apostle of freedom, who speaks of “keeping the commandments” (1 Corinthians 7:19). He himself commanded (2 Thessalonians 3:6). Unbelief is to him the same as disobedience (Romans 10:3). Conversion is to him an act of obedience and subjection (Acts 26:19), and the gospel message is a command to repent (Acts 17:30). Redeemed from “the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2) and also free from the law of Moses (Romans 3:21; Romans 7:1-6; Romans 10:4), the believer is by no means without law (1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 5:13), but is now “under law to Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21). He has to fulfil “the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2) and to walk in the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; Romans 15:18; Romans 16:26). Grace will “rule royally” (Romans 5:21). This New testament law is as to its origin—the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2); as to its nature—the law of freedom (James 1:25; James 2:12); as to its content—the law of love (Romans 13:8-10, comp. James 2:8; 1 Timothy 1:5; Galatians 6:2); as to its strength—the law of the Spirit (Romans 8:2); as to its effect—the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2); as to its worth—the perfect law (James 1:25); as to its dignity—the royal law (James 2:8). In the Old testament man stood under the law of God as a natural man; he was “in the flesh;” hence the powerlessness of the law (Romans 8:3). But in the new covenant he is a new man (2 Corinthians 5:17); he is “in the Spirit;” hence his victory (Romans 8:1-4). In the old covenant the law approached the man from without, on tables of stone, as letters which killed (2 Corinthians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 3:6); in the new covenant it is put into his mind (Hebrews 8:10; Romans 6:17), written on “fleshly tables of the heart and with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3).
Thus the church is a wonderful people a “holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9): its Governor—the Lord Christ (Jude 1:4); its law—His will (Galatians 6:2); its riches—His glory (Ephesians 3:16); its praise—His honour (1 Corinthians 1:31); its fellowship as a people—His love (John 13:34); its sphere—the whole earth (Romans 10:18); its capital city—the heavenly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:26).
[4] Loving and Responsive Loving
Christ is the Lover and the church is His beloved (2 Corinthians 11:2-3). Christ is the Lord and she is to be His wife (Ephesians 5:31-32). As affianced she has the pure and expectant love (2 Corinthians 11:2-3); as the wife she will have the possessing and enjoying love.
It is as if an oriental prince should see in the slave-market a slave girl, and burning with sudden love, should buy her at a high price, so as then to purify her, to robe her in splendid garments, and finally to exalt her as his wife to the royal throne—thus also Christ and the church. He has loved her, the former slave of sin; has then given Himself up as the purchase price, and now purifies her by means of “the laver of water in the word,” and will presently “present her to Himself” without spot or wrinkle, that is in holiness and the beauty of eternal youth (Ephesians 5:25-27). So in the picture of marriage we have the whole work of Christ for His church: her choice—through His love (Ephesians 5:25); her redemption—through His devotion (Ephesians 5:25); her purification—through His lordship (Ephesians 5:26; Ephesians 5:24; Ephesians 5:33); her glorification—through His return (Ephesians 5:27). As Augustine has already said: “Whom God has foreordained before the world was, He has also called out of the world, justified in the world, and will glorify after the world” (comp. Romans 8:29-30). Our life, therefore, belongs to Him alone. Our soul should for ever glow with its first love (Revelation 2:4), that is, the love as it was at first when our union with Christ began. In the Lord’s letter to Ephesus it is associated with the tree of life of Paradise (Revelation 2:4; Revelation 2:7), for love is life, and “who loves not, lives not. Who lives by that life, he cannot die” (Raymond Lull: died 1315).
Even in the Old testament time there existed a relationship of love between Jehovah and His people. In a much more glorious degree it exists today between Christ and His church. Therefore the Spirit of God takes the highest relationship of love which general human experience knows and applies it to both Israel (Hosea 2:21-22; Ezekiel 16:1-63; Ezekiel 23:1-49; Isaiah 62:5; Psalms 45:1-17; Song of Songs) and also to the church (2 Corinthians 11:2-3; Ephesians 5:31-32). But he conjunction of both is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city where in due time the redeemed from Israel will dwell (Revelation 21:12), and which is the “mother of us all” for the church (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 3:12). It is the “holy city,” “the bride and the wife of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-10; comp. 19:7). The objection that as the “body” of Christ the church cannot be also “betrothed” and “wife” rest upon a mistake as to the variableness of oriental and Biblical figures of speech. In the parable of the sower the field is the human heart (Matthew 13:19), in the parable of the tares it is the “world” (ver. 38). Birds are at times emblems of the good (Matthew 6:26; Matthew 10:16; Matthew 3:16), in other places they represent evil (Matthew 12:4; Matthew 12:19). the eagle, as an unclean creature, is an abomination to the children of Israel (Leviticus 11:13); nevertheless it is employed as a picture of the powerful care of God (Exodus 19:4; Revelation 4:7). Similarly the Pauline picture language is everywhere fluid, living, and moving. The slave status is now a picture of what our relationships to God are not (as regards inward estrangement and fear—Galatians 4:7; John 15:15); now of what they nevertheless are (as to possession, obedience, protection) (Romans 6:15-23). To say that because the church is the “body” of Christ, she cannot be also the “bride” would be as precipitate as to say that because she is a “body” she cannot be “pillar” or “house” (1 Timothy 3:15). In all these instances it is a matter of pictures. And the picture of the “betrothed” and the “wife” lies unmistakably in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 and Ephesians 5:31-32. But behind all these pictures, and explained by them, there are spiritual realities.
[5] Quickening and Being Quickened (Oneness of Life) The basis of all is the organic fellowship in life of the members with Christ. This is already indicated in the picture of marriage: “the two shall be one flesh ... I speak as regard Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). Here also the New Testament has a rich picture language:
Christ is the “vine” and we are the branches (John 15:1-5). Christ is the head and we are the members (Ephesians 1:22-23). The believer is a tree rooted in Him (Colossians 2:7). The individual is a plant (Matthew 15:13; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9) planted together with Him (Romans 6:5, lit.). They are all “in Christ.”
A. The Relationship of the Members of the Head. The most important figure is that of the “body.” It is used exclusively by Paul. It, as no other figure, sets forth the blessings of the Christian fellowship.
1. Possession of Christ. The church is His “body” (Ephesians 1:23).
2. Dependent service. In a body only one will rules, and the head governs the body (Colossians 1:18).
3. Direct fellowship. The individual member stands in direct relationship to the Head. No man or angel stands between (1 Timothy 2:5). Therefore it behoves us to “hold fast” the Head in all things (Colossians 2:18-19).
4. Love and Care. “No man ever hated his own flesh; But nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church” (Ephesians 5:29). “He is the Saviour of the body” (Ephesians 5:23).
5. Quickening and Upbuilding. The Head is the source for the body of its building itself up. In the earthly the soul is the body-building element. Hence the connexion between bodily form and the powers of the soul. Thus also “out of” its Head the body of Christ grows with its God-appointed increase (Colossians 2:19). Only “out of” Him can it effect the “building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). Thus Christ is the builder (Matthew 16:18) and we also are the builders (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). In the New Testament the figure of building is employed only of the church, but not of the kingdom of God.
6. The “fulness” of the Head. Not as a Divine person, but only as the “last Adam” Christ would not be “complete” without His “body”: the corn of wheat without its fruit would be “alone” (John 12:24). A redeemer without redeemed were no redeemer. Thus the church is “the fulness of Him who fills all things in all”; that is, “the full formation of Him who brings to full formation all things in all” (Ephesians 1:23).
Through all this the church is
7. The means of revelation of the life of Christ. In the earthly life the body is the organ by which the spirit reveals itself. And in the spiritual life it is through the church that the very manifold wisdom of God is made known (Ephesians 3:10). The exalted Head continues through His body His life here below. The church is “God’s sphere of life in history,” the continuance on earth of the incarnation of Christ. Through the Spirit the church extends His life here below. It is not only in Christ, but also Christ is in it (Colossians 1:27). In the church He gains form (Galatians 4:19). expresses in it His nature, and the Head reveals Himself through His members.
B. The Relationships of the Members to One Another
Also of the fellowship of Christians the “body” is the most expressive of pictures. The chief passage is 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. The redeemed are:
1. An Unity, much deeper than all national, and much wider than all international fellowship (Galatians 6:10). Though they may not have seen each other, yet they know each other (2 Corinthians 6:9), though they may be entire strangers, yet they love one another! (Colossians 2:1-2; Colossians 1:9). For “as the body is one, although it has many members, so also is the Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). He is an organism and not an organisation; not a corporation but a body, the body of Christ; a creation of God, and no work of man. Christ, the Head, is the unity of the body; His body is the “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15).
Seven particular features constitute the unity of the body. There is “one body (Romans 12:5; Ephesians 2:16) and one spirit (Ephesians 2:18; 1 Corinthians 12:11; 1 Corinthians 12:13), even as you are called in one hope, of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is over you all, and through you all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). The oneness of the church is threefold:
Oneness of the spirit (of the life) already exists. It is already a reality, which we have through faith (Ephesians 4:3);
Oneness of the mind ought to exist; it is our duty, which we fulfil through love (Php 1:27; Php 2:1-4; Php 4:2);
Oneness of knowledge will come to exist. It is our goal, a portion of our hope (Ephesians 4:13).
Oneness of life is what we have, the foundation, which looks back to the past, to the work of Golgotha (John 11:52);
Oneness of mind is that which we ought to have, the task which lies upon us in the present; that is oneness of purpose, not always absolute oneness of opinion (Romans 14:1-7);
Oneness of knowledge is that which we shall have the “full measure” (Ephesians 4:13), which will be attained in the future. But for the present the saying of Augustine holds good: “in things necessary unity, in things doubtful liberty, in all things charity,” 28 Footnote 28: “In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas.”
2. Variety. “For the body is not one member, but many. If the whole were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?” (1 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Corinthians 12:17; Romans 12:4-8). As on the breastplate of the high priest there shone twelve different jewels, representing the twelve tribes of Israel (Exodus 28:15-21), so are the members of the new covenant borne on the breast of the Melchizedek High Priest. They are all different but they all shine, and the oneness of their light is the oneness of the Sun.
3. Mutual dependence. Each one of us is one-sided. Therefore each needs all. “The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12:21). Nay, they are all dependent upon one another, even the greatest upon the smallest, and the very least God has covered with greater honour, “that the members should have the same care for one another” (1 Corinthians 12:22-25).
4. Mutual sympathy. “If one member suffers all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).
5. Common service. Each member serves the other, and they all serve the whole body, and thus the whole body is “supplied through the joints and bands” (Colossians 2:19), and “held together by the help of all joints, which render their service according to the particular activity assigned to each member” (Ephesians 4:16). All members have duties. Not one individual is permitted to stand aside. Fellowship in the kingdom of God is fellowship in work. Only so will they have fellowship in victory.
6. Common growth. But all this is “till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto the ripeness of a fullgrown man, to the full measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
[4] Founding and Building Up With the figure of the body there is closely connected in Scripture the figure of house building. The two figures are indeed interwoven: The house grows (Ephesians 2:21); the body is built up (Ephesians 4:12).
Christ is the corner stone and we are the superstructure (1 Peter 2:6). The church is a house of God, a temple. This figure holds in a threefold manner—in reference to the whole church (Ephesians 2:21-22; 1 Peter 2:4-5), the local church (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Timothy 3:15), the individual Christian (1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 3:17).
1. The Foundation is the Lord Himself. “Other foundation can no one lay than that which is laid” (1 Corinthians 3:11). The testimony of the first generation speaks of Him. Therefore all that follows is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20). The truth which Peter confessed is the rock foundation of the church: the super-historical Sonship to God and the historical Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. “Thou art the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God”—”On this rock I will build My church” (Matthew 16:16-18).
2. The Stones. They come out of two quarries, the Jews and the Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11-12), and are joined together into one holy temple (Ephesians 2:21-22). They are brought as dead stones to Him the One, and through the Spirit of His life are made to live (1 Peter 2:4). Their faith in Christ is at the same time faith on Christ (1 Peter 2:6; Romans 9:33), a repose on the corner stone in Zion (Isaiah 28:16), and a being built up on Him (Ephesians 4:29; Jude 1:20; 1 Corinthians 14:12-26). 29
Footnote 29: Therefore the New Testament speaks not only of a faith in Christ (pisteuein eis Christon) but also of a faith on Him (pisteuein ep’ auto), Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6.
3. The Purpose of this house is that it shall be a temple. It is a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5), and the “stones” in the wall are at the same time priests at the altar (1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:10), and the leaders are “pillars” in the temple of their God (Galatians 2:9; Revelation 3:12). By this it is already indicated that the church is a priesthood.
[7] Blessed and Made a Blessing
Christ is the high priest and we are the priests (Hebrews 8:1; Revelation 1:6). The church is a “holy” people (1 Peter 2:9). As priests its members have a fourfold service:
1. They offer. Their life is—a sacrifice (Romans 12:1; Romans 15:16; Darby); Their devotion—a burnt offering (Mark 12:33); Their service—a drink offering (2 Timothy 4:6, R.V. mgn.; Php 2:17); Their deeds—spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 13:16); Their prayers—an incense offering (Psalms 141:2; Revelation 8:3-4); Their worship—a praise offering (Hebrews 13:15).
2. They pray. They pray for others; they give thanks for others; in the quiet chamber they embrace the whole world (1 Timothy 2:1-2); and in heaven the Spirit intercedes for them with inexpressible groans and imparts to their prayers Divine energy (Romans 8:26-27).
3. They witness. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts” (Malachi 2:7).
4. They bless. “Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel ...They shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them”(Numbers 6:23-27) Thus “to bless” means “to put the name of God on some one.” Therefore he only is a blessing who brings others into touch with God through word and walk. But in the new covenant there is a universal priesthood. They all enjoy the priestly portion at the altar (Hebrews 13:10; 1 Corinthians 9:13). They are all, what Israel should have been, “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) and in even the least of them the promise can be fulfilled: “I will bless thee and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).