ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHRIST IN UNION
[p. 381] ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHRIST IN UNION
Ephesians 1: 19,20; Ephesians 3:14 - 21
The subject I have endeavoured to bring before you is “Acquaintance with Christ”. The first evening I showed you that you are acquainted with Him risen from the dead; not merely that you had found relief, but that, in your heart, you were acquainted with the Reliever, you are acquainted with His love. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. The Holy Spirit comes from Himself, and then, like Jonathan when Goliath is gone, a greater than David absorbs your heart. This is first acquaintance.
The second is, that I know Him in glory where He is. Glory is more a condition than a place; it is the expression of God’s satisfaction according to all His attributes; you know Him there: and instead of being repelled like Isaiah, you are at home there; you are greeted with a ministration of righteousness. You are acquainted with Him in a new order of things, where the flesh has no place.
Hence the third is, that you seek now to be superior to the order of things here. This you get in John 14, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you”. When thus acquainted with Christ He enables you, by Himself, to rise superior to the circumstances in which you are.
The fourth is knowing Him the supreme One above everything here; thus He comes into the assembly. Peter learned it by joining Him on the water.
The fifth is knowing Him as your Head. It is not only that you see Him in an out-of-the-world condition of things, but you know Him as your Head,
[p. 382] the source of life, and all is of Himself. You are on new creation ground.
Now I come to our acquaintance with Christ in union with Him. This will complete the subject. We are all united to Him by the Holy Spirit according to the counsel of God. But our subject now is the nature of the acquaintance you make with Christ, when you realise that you are united to Him. I am quite ready to own, beloved friends, that I know so little about it that I cannot speak much of it; but still I can see the great effect which would follow from this acquaintance with Christ. I see that no greater enjoyment could possibly be known, not merely your own personal blessing secured (that you must know first), but that you are united to the One who has secured it! I do not think you should say that union with Christ secures your happiness. For example, the prodigal son is in the father’s house; he is abundantly happy, “joy unspeakable”. But in union with Christ you are in a nearness of position to Him, a relation so peculiar, that your individuality is merged in Him. Individually, led of the Spirit you are the sons of God, all through the efficacy of Christ’s work. And though your relationship as sons is the highest, yet your nearness, your identity with Christ is assured by union. In the types Sarah was of the same family as Abraham; there could be no advance on that line; but she, by union with Abraham, was brought into distinct identity of interest with him. So it is with you and Christ, blessed be His name!
There is a great difference between the individual blessing and the corporate blessing. A Christian who is enjoying the highest blessing individually, delights in the wonderful position into which union with Christ introduces him. You, once a child of Adam, are now a child of God, and the joys of the Father’s house are yours; and besides, you are united to Christ at the right hand of God. His circle of interest is your circle [p. 383] of interest. It is no longer your individual circle.
I have read these two verses from Ephesians 1 that you might see the counsel of God. It is not here what is made known to you by union, but the simple fact that we are all united to Christ by the Spirit. Though many do not understand union, they are united, but they have to realise it. I hope to show you the effect of realising it. It is your portion, that you are united to Christ; it is the work of grace. God has done it; and hence we read, “That ye may (know) what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward ... which he wrought in Christ”. When? Over Jordan? Not a word about Jordan here; “which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead”, and without delay, brought Him all the way from the bottom to the top, “and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places”. And you too are raised up. One might say, I do not know it. My desire is that you should know it. The force of the word ‘know’ in this passage is conscious knowledge, a sense in yourself of the truth of it. But still it is true of you, even though it be not true to you; it is true of you before you have conscious knowledge of it. Like a child born a prince, who for years does not know that he is one. Many very great blessings are ours, but as yet we do not know the good of them. You have the right of possession; but you must make use of your possession to realise the good of it. The object of ministry is to lead you into it; in fact, there are three activities always working to lead you into it. There is the Spirit of God (because everything has been effected) working in you, to bring you into all that is yours. There is the ministry of the word; all the gifts were given to this end — “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. And thirdly, there is prayer. Your conscience is awakened by the word [p. 384] to see your portion, though you do not enjoy it, and therefore you now look to the Lord that you may enjoy it; and the Spirit, according to the measure of your exercise, realises them to you.
Here, then, is the counsel of God, and it is a great thing to understand it. May every one in this room lay hold of the fact, that by God’s grace you are united to Christ; just as you can say, by God’s grace I am forgiven my sins. There was a time when you did not know you were forgiven your sins; the work was done, but you did not know it. The youngest believer is united to Christ as surely as the oldest, though I do not say that he realises it, and until he does, he does not know the intimacy peculiar to it. I feel for myself how little I know it or can speak of it, because a servant is not to speak beyond his faith.
Now I turn to Ephesians 3, where the effect of union is declared. The type of Abraham sending his steward to find a bride for his son, will help you to understand it. The steward was sworn not to accept a bride for Isaac except she was of his kindred. May you specially lay hold of this, that union does not advance your acceptance with God. You are individually accepted in the beloved. Hence, as you may have often heard, Ephesians 1, for the most part, is taken up with you individually. Each one is “accepted in the Beloved”; you cannot advance on that. But it is of the deepest importance to see that you are not fit to be united to Christ except you are of His kindred; it is incorrect to say that He is of your kindred; you are of His kindred. Hence we read in Hebrews 2: 11: “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. They are fit to be His companions. You do not get beyond companionship in Hebrews. We are companions individually; in the assembly we are an organism; but there is more, we are united to Him. Hence the first step is, that you are brought to Christ where He is. Abraham’s steward went to the country where Rebekah was, in order that he might conduct her to Isaac. That is the first step. But as you see in Ephesians 1, you cannot realise union with Christ until you come to Him in heaven. In Colossians you are not looked at as in heaven; you are only in an out-of-the-world condition of things. In Ephesians 1: 19, you are to know the “exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power”.
First, you have to accept God’s grace, even that you are united to Christ. All Israel could say, We crossed over Jordan together. All Christians are raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. All the feathers of a bird came from the bird, though they do not all come out at the same time. Until you realise union with Christ, you cannot know the intimacy peculiar to that great position.
In Ephesians 3 the apostle writes: “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named; that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power” — not ‘might’ exactly, but ‘power’ — “by his Spirit in the inner man”. Now we come to the effect of union, the great gain from it.
I have dwelt upon the position, but I now come to the state. The first great effect is, that you are given a new circle of interest. Not simply a particular line of service, but that “the Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”. This is not the same as the passage in Galatians, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me”. Here it is Himself and all that concerns Him. You get the idea in 1 Corinthians 12: 12: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is the Christ”. You have Himself and all His (you cannot separate them) at home by faith in your hearts.
[p. 386] It is no longer yourself uppermost, but the Christ. When Rebekah came to Isaac, his interests became her interests. She had left her people and her country, and had come to Isaac where he was. There can be no sense of union with Christ until you come to Him where He is. I do not mean until you have died, but until you have conscious knowledge of the Spirit’s power:
”... The Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heavenly door,
And brought me to that favoured hour”. (74:5)
Stephen apprehended union, though it was not revealed at the time. “He being full of the Holy Spirit looked up stedfastly into heaven”. How? By the Holy Spirit; he was brought into the sense of union though the truth of it was not as yet revealed. He found himself connected with the One who was there. Great indeed is your gain from this acquaintance with Christ. First, the Christ dwells in your heart by faith. You have a new interest on earth. The mighty power of God works in your inner man. It is not simply now to bring you: you have accepted the counsel of God, you realise union with Christ; and now you are made acquainted with the results of union; you have a new circle of interest. The first result is that the Christ dwells in your hearts by faith — all that belongs to Him personally. The unfailing mark of union is that your individuality is merged in Christ. This characterised the wise woman in Proverbs 31. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her”. She keeps his house, and “Her husband is known in the gates”.
This is a wonderful subject. I wish I could unfold it better. You start out in the morning to do your business, but you have an interest in your heart paramount to all your personal interest. In natural life many a man attends sedulously to his business, but his heart is in his home. The man who has a happy home is generally the most satisfactory for any work.
Next we read, “That ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length, and depth and height”. The extent of His possessions; like as it was said to Abraham, “Look .. . northward and southward and eastward and westward”. This is your new country. The range is infinite. It relieves and delights your heart to go to the next — “And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge”. Blessed result of union! His love is not new to you. After you were converted, your first acquaintance, never to be forgotten, began with He loves me. He has never ceased to love you. And now when you realise union with Him in heaven, He is dwelling in your heart by faith; and you so know His love that surpasses knowledge, “that ye might be filled even to all the fulness of God”. I believe the meaning of this is, that the better you know His love, the better you know Himself, because in Him is the fulness of God. Who can measure or describe the nature of this acquaintance? What will it be hereafter when there will be no obstruction?
Your endowment (as I may call it) in this passage (Ephesians 3); is fourfold. The first, the Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith; the second is apprehending the domain of His glory; and the third is His love; and the fourth is that the power of God is in you. “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us”. These all are yours, because you are united to the glorified Man in heaven, Head over all things to the assembly. Stephen knew this power; he could say, ‘I triumph in thy triumphs, Lord’. He had realised union with Christ, though not yet revealed, and in Christ’s power he confronts all the powers on earth, and he is so sustained that he prays for his murderers.
May each of you so enter into this great acquaintance with Christ that you can join in the doxology, “Unto [p. 388] him be glory in the assembly by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen”.
One word more. The practice now follows. It begins with “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. If a man is in health, his eye and his heart and his hand all act together; if they do not, he is out of order: the unity is lost. Unity is the first thing; you start from the highest circle, Christ’s body. The gifts come down from the ascended Christ. Then in your own family circle you are in heavenly power. And that is not all; but in Ephesians 6 you are “Strong in the Lord and in the power of his might”. You are in heavenly power to “Stand the wiles of the devil”.
You cannot have heavenly power unless you touch heaven, and you cannot touch heaven, but through the Person who is there; and you cannot get heavenly power but through union. The angels have it not; it is union that gives it me. Oh! you say, we are all united. Yes; you are called to it: that is counsel; but here you are made acquainted with it. In chapter 1 it is the power towards you; here, chapter 3, it is the power in you.
I need not add more; but may each heart here be led into the inconceivable greatness of this acquaintance with Christ and the untold blessings which are yours through union with Him for His name’s sake.