WHAT THE CHURCH IS TO CHRIST
[p. 201] WHAT THE CHURCH IS TO CHRIST
On a former evening I endeavoured to show you what Christ is to the church. He is the Head. That is the mystery in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I desire now to occupy you for a short time with what the church is to Christ. It ought to interest each one of us immensely that there is an object of the deepest affection of Christ here on this earth. I know nothing more calculated to touch the heart, and to give real encouragement amid all the wreck and tumult, the anxieties and sufferings, and feebleness that beset us, than to think that the treasure hid in the field, for which Christ sold all that He had, is still here. There is one interest here that shall last for ever - the interest of Christ in the church. He “loved the church, and gave himself for it”. It is most interesting and encouraging, in the midst of prevailing confusion and uncertainty, to find souls really revived to think of this; that there is one thing to which Christ is as much attached as ever on this earth. He has not given up His affection for the church because it is in a paralysed condition. A man does not lose his affection for his wife because she is in feeble health. Our heart can go up to Christ in the happy confidence that He is as much devoted to the church now, as on the brightest day that it saw on earth. We have changed, but He has not changed.
It was when the apostle of the gentiles was in prison, laid hold of by the Roman power, that he indited this epistle, in which is shown the portion that the church gets by being allied to Christ. It may be asked, What do christians gain by being the [p. 202] church? You are doubtless all very clear as to what a sinner gains by being saved, but perhaps not so clear as to this other thing. This is the subject of the epistle to the Ephesians - in a word, it is the royal bounty. It is a gift, not an attainment. Of course it must be known to be enjoyed. A man might be by birth a prince; but if he did not know it, of what use would it be? Still it would not be by coming to know it that he would become a prince. A wife might not know at once all the properties and advantages she was brought into by marriage to her husband, she might find out only by degrees; yet all these things were hers before she knew about them. So with the church; the knowledge of the mystery is not an attainment, but a discovery. Attainment would be more like a servant in a concern getting on by degrees to the same position as the principals. What we have here is what the church gains because it is the body of Christ. What is presented in Colossians is that Christ is the Head of the body, the church; in Ephesians, that the church is the body of Christ.
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church”. I just stop here to notice the very interesting fact that the most general domestic duty is to be learned from your knowledge of Christ’s love to the church. I am sure many an amiable man does not know how to love his wife, just because he does not know how Christ loved the church.
I come now to what I spoke of at first - Christ’s interests on the earth. His interest ought to be ours. Someone may ask, would you not take an interest in the conversion of sinners? Certainly, but what would I have in view? The body of Christ. The man most devoted to the church was the greatest evangelist - Paul. It is impossible for a man to be devoted to the church and not devoted to evangelising; but it is quite possible for a man to be devoted to evangelising, and not devoted to the church. He may have an [p. 203] interest in the benefit of souls - which is quite right - while he may have lost Christ’s interest in those souls because they are members of His body, and this is a great defect.
Let us now consider what believers gain by being the church. I do not venture to give you any account of the epistle itself, but there are three things which I would bring before you, in order that as a believer you might in the Lord’s goodness grasp what is yours. It is because these things are yours that I desire to acquaint you with them. Three things the church is entitled to because of its alliance with Christ: first, His state; second, His place; third, His power. The first we find in Ephesians 1: 6, “Accepted” (or taken into favour) “in the beloved”. Many believers are clear about the sin-offering who are not clear about the burnt-offering; they know that their sins are forgiven, but they do not know what it is to be in favour. Noah was safe when he was in the ark, but he was not in favour till the burnt-offering was offered, which was after he came out on the dry land. Then God smelled a sweet savour, and blessed him - put him in favour. In Romans 5 it is “by whom we have also access .. . into this favour in which we stand”; but here it is “accepted in the beloved”. It is the character of our acceptance. Nothing could satisfy the love of God’s heart but to find us in the very same acceptance as - not Christ, as has been remarked - but the Beloved. I admit it is difficult to grasp it, but when it is grasped, it gives great repose to the heart to be able to look up to God and say, It satisfies His love that I should be found in favour there, and nothing else would satisfy Him. Just so, God’s purpose is that everyone who is saved by Christ’s blood shall be “conformed to the image of his Son”. We do not sufficiently enter into the delight that God has in carrying out these wonderful, gracious purposes. Think of a man now afflicted by disease, worn out by [p. 204] age, and think that the moment is coming when he shall be conformed to the image of God’s Son!
The church is brought not merely into forgiveness by its association with Christ, but into His state. We have another view of this in John’s first epistle. (To every student of Scripture I would say that he will find it very interesting and profitable to compare Paul and John together). Turn to 1 John 4: 17, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, so are we in this world”. I ask you to ponder that verse. Nothing could satisfy God’s love (for it is His love He satisfies, not you), but to have us here in this world, where we were aliens and at variance with Him, and perverse, and everything but what we should be, to have us in the same state before Him as His own Son, sitting at His right hand. It is not merely as He is out of judgment, but in all His moral state; in the delight, the welcome that He is in with the Father. This is the perfection of grace, that I should be reconstructed or rehabilitated in such a manner - not in heaven, which would be a very great grace - but in the very place of my departure and disgrace “in this world”. This is the first thing, and if you have it simply, the second will come easily.
The second thing is that the church has Christ’s place. If we want to know the church’s place, we must enquire where is Christ’s place, because the church is His body, and you could not have a person’s body in a different place from the person himself. True, the church is here, but it is missionary here, and comes from another place. If the queen of Sheba had been united to Solomon, Jerusalem would have been her place as it was his, but she might have gone back to Abyssinia as a missionary. This is the case with the church. “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”, John 20: 21. (See also John 17: 18).
It is plain that we must be out of a place to be sent [p. 205] into it; we do not belong to the world though we are in it. The practical hindrance to a soul understanding his place is the want of knowledge of his state. If your soul is in the simple enjoyment of the fact that you have the same state as Christ, you will see immediately that no place would suit you but the place where He is. For an illustration of this, turn to Luke 15. What is to be noticed here is that there is no interval between being in a state for the place and being in the place. The moment the robe, and the ring, and the shoes are on the prodigal we find he is in the house, for that was where the mirth was (verse 25). Luke 15 does not set forth the future Father’s house, which shall be our residence, but the place where our present supplies come from. The house in John 14 is the place where we reside; here it is the source of our supplies. Just as a Frenchman might live in this country, but have his estate in France and draw his revenue thence. Where do you get your supplies, your enjoyment, your gladness of heart? From the Father’s house. How do you get the place? By being in the state. The prodigal is found in the house without any movement; the moment the robes are on he is inside. The great hindrance to a soul accepting its place is the question, Am I in a fit state? But God has put believers in a fit state; we give “thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light”.
In Ephesians 2: 6, we see what the place is. “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, .. . hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. A person may say, I never was there; but if you look at it that way, you are making it an attainment instead of a gift. What I wish to do is to discover to you what is yours. If I told you there was some property of yours in a drawer, would you not go and look for it? A person might have the key of a beautiful garden [p. 206] in his pocket, but yet never have been in it. I say, Turn the key and go in. I want you to understand what a wonderful position believers occupy now by being the body of Christ, and it is only the knowledge of this that can give you ability to act suitably to your high position. A man must be sensible of his position before he can act in accordance with it. Hence, in Ephesians, practice is not introduced till after the position is established. In Romans, the believer is viewed as on his way to heaven, and dropping things here that are not consistent with that; in Ephesians he comes down from heaven to act in the grace of Christ here after he has found what a wonderful portion he has as a member of the body of Christ.
How is this effected? This is the great difficulty of the whole matter, and brings us to the third thing - the power. This we find in Ephesians 1: 19 to 2: 6. The first action of the power is in you to raise you up and make you sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This must take place before power can act from you, otherwise you would be a mere machine. To illustrate this - because it is a cardinal point - turn to Joshua 3. Commentators tell us (and I quite agree with them) that you cannot get into Canaan until you are dead. But if there was no other way of my dying than by my body being laid in the grave, I should never get into the heavenly places until the dissolution of the body. What meets that is that we died with Christ, and we have also been raised up. Thus we get a sense of divine power giving us a place as members of the body of Christ outside this world altogether. This is what the power effects for us. The one who knows he has been raised up is brought into the enjoyment of heavenly things; he gets a new and peculiar sense of the wonderful power of God to place him above every opposing element. As God said to Joshua, “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel” - the heart is centred on Christ.
[p. 207] Now if you have found the place, how did you get up to it? By the power. Then come down and let that power work in you here. The power works in us; Ephesians 3: 20. Perhaps you may say, This is quite beyond me. But I am not putting it to your practice. Suppose I opened out a map to show you a property that belonged to you, would you not look at it? Would you not be greatly interested in it?
If you know these three things which the believer in Christ now has - His state, His place, and His power - you can come down to the world with the sense that power is in you to act according to His wishes. Hence in Ephesians 4 we have practice. As far as I can reckon there are six or seven distinct circles or spheres of action. The church is the first circle - “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace” - and it comes down, as I have already stated, to the most common relations of life - husbands, children, servants. How you will act in all these circles depends on where you come from. The believer is like the spider, that “taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces”. Having been made superior to everything here by divine power, I come down to act in that superiority in the manifestation of the grace of Christ. Superiority does not consist in doing some great thing - like a man who leaps over a five-barred gate and stumbles in a furrow - but in not being affected by circumstances, I shall not be moved. You come down and act as a missionary for Christ in your circumstances, no matter what they are. A mother with a large family can say, I find I am in the same state as my blessed Saviour at God’s right hand, and the delight of the Father’s heart as He is, and here I am to act in the superiority in which He has placed me, not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.
Having tried to show you what believers gain by being the body of Christ, I would now press upon you [p. 208] what I alluded to at first: how we should each one be interested in that which is the object of Christ’s interest here, the church. First, I call your attention to the apostle Paul, who was the greatest of all evangelists. Let us see how he was interested in the church. He writes to the Corinthians, who certainly were not a particularly bright company, “I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”. How thoroughly was he in unison with the heart of Christ! Are you, am I, likewise? Are we anxious to see those who are so dear to Christ, suitable to Him? Was it because the Corinthians were very nice people and peculiarly agreeable to the apostle, that he took such an interest in them? On the contrary, we know how shamefully they treated him and slighted him. There was a grievous case of discipline at Corinth, and we know how much we are affected by such cases, and how much we feel about those implicated in them, but what was the apostle’s anxiety? “Not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you”. I need not multiply examples. As an evangelist the apostle could say, “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some”; as a servant of the church, “I endure all things for the elect’s sake”. Another example is in Philippians 1: 23 - 25. The apostle had an earnest desire to depart and be with Christ; it would be a great deal happier for him, but it was better for the church that he should remain, and that settles the matter at once - he would remain. What would have been most desirable for himself is of no consideration when compared with what would be best for the church. There is one object on this earth that should command the attention of every one of us. This does not concern gifted brethren merely, but all. Those women who laboured with the apostle ([p. 209] Philippians 4: 3) were not preaching, I am sure. I turn to two examples of what should characterise those who take an interest in what belongs to Christ. The first is in Luke 2, when the Lord came into the temple for the first time. He was met by Anna the prophetess, “which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day”. What characterised her was complete devotedness to God’s temple. And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years; let no one then complain of being too old or feeble to serve the church. I am sure we all own that the Jewish people were not at all equal to the church - the treasure hid in the field, the pearl of great price - but who of us is so devoted to that which is the body of Christ as this old woman was to a temple built of stone? How little one serves, not merely because one is fond of christians or the like, but with the idea that I am serving what is dear to Christ. Still it is most encouraging to know, amid all the confusion around, that the pearl of great price is still here, and Christ’s interest in it undiminished.
The second example is in Luke 21, when the Lord is leaving the temple, as I read it, for the last time. He was going away to give all He had for God’s glory on the earth, and He sees a poor widow casting into the treasury of the temple all her living - two mites, which make a farthing. Let no one then say he is too poor to serve the church. Devotedness of heart is not dependent upon either age or fortune.
In conclusion, I give you a verse which shows us what characterises true affection for the Lord’s interests - Revelation 22: 17, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. † This is what characterises the whole,
†Each of the apostles presents the Lord’s coming in a different light. John is occupied with the state of those who should be looking, and watching, and ready for Him; Paul looks at the Lord Himself coming down with a gathering shout; Peter looks at the advantages we shall get by His coming; James, at the relief we shall get.
[p. 210] but all are not ready, some are getting ready. Hence the next word is, “let him that heareth say, Come”. I am not content to say it myself, but if I see any brother or sister not sufficiently detached from things here to invite the Lord back, I seek to get them in a state to say, “Come”; so that all may join in one united invitation to the One who was rejected from this earth, to come back. We go still farther, “Let him that is athirst, come”. Here is one who is not happy. Well, ask him to come. Next, I am evangelical; “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. I sweep the world for everything that belongs to Christ; I want to gather them all up and have them ready for Him, as a nurse would wish to have all the children of a family in nice order for their mother’s return.