THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
[p. 255] THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
The light of Christ and the church as loved of Him is brought in here to shew what is right as to natural ties. By bringing Christ in, everything in regard of us falls into its right place. Christ is the Man; Adam had a place and he died; now the point is that everything should be right according to Christ.
Christ claims the body; He is its Saviour, not merely its preserver. Salvation is not complete until you get the redemption of the body; it is brought in here in order to complete the thought. He is Head of the church now, but He is the Saviour of the body, and then the thing is complete; it connects with the next verse, the church is subjected to Christ, so the wife is to be subject: the church has all its supply from Christ, and He completes the whole when He saves the body. The husband is the source of supply and intelligence to the wife; the husband has to look after her. Now that the truth of Christ and the church is made known you can understand the bond of man and wife; in Old Testament days there was excuse, and you read of plurality of wives, but now there is no excuse: the true character of the bond is seen now. When the bond was first begun in Genesis God had before Him really Christ and the church. The husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is Head of the church; the Head signifies intelligence. Eve was not to walk by her own intelligence, but by Adam’s; it is possible that had she done so she might not have fallen. Christ’s intelligence is to guide and direct the church, but, alas! the church has acted on its own intelligence, and has been led astray like Eve; hence all the confusion we see around. The wife is to be subject, the husband is to guide her; he has the intelligence, and she has to bow to his guidance; so with the church, all the supply comes from Christ.
“That he might sanctify and cleanse”, Christ has the [p. 256] offering up of the church in view, therefore it is to be holy, that the church may be morally in accordance with Himself. He is to present it to Himself, therefore it must be morally suited to Himself. We are affected by the knowledge of God’s disposition towards us; the word is the light of the testimony of God, and He brings that to bear upon us, and it has a sanctifying effect upon us. In John 17, that they may be set apart by the truth — “sanctified” — the thought there seems to be more positional, here it is sanctification in the way of cleansing. He does it, and does it individually, but with a view to the whole. We are formed in the divine nature, in that way the spots and wrinkles disappear. The Lord said to the disciples, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you”. We are formed entirely anew, and the spots and wrinkles go. He cleanses me, He forms me in what is according to God. You cannot cleanse the flesh, I am to be cleansed; He forms in me that which is absolutely new and according to God. You get a similar thought in the end of Romans 7, “I myself” and “set me free”. The ministry of the new covenant is really my being kept by Christ in the sense of God’s disposition towards me. I cannot conceive how a man can do without God, for even the very best of men, what are they but poor, dying creatures? How can they then do without God? The vessels of service are the saints, and Christ concerns Himself with the cleansing of the vessels of service.
The new covenant is connected with man universally, and not only with believers; it is God’s disposition towards man. The church is in the good of the covenant: the thought is that the church should be witness of the disposition of God towards man.
It is in the right of God to limit lawlessness, and this is seen really in the lake of fire.
Redemption is in Christ for all, but it is not availed of by all; it is available for all, but when we come into it it is: “In whom we have redemption”. Glory is perfection, the church is morally according to God, that is [p. 257] perfection — holy and without blame, that is glory. The imagery in the Revelation is taken largely from the prophets: the Spirit never leads to material ideas, but ever to moral ideas.
A helpmeet for Christ — that is, that His glory will come out in the church: the church will be the means of the display of Christ to the universe. God has glorified Christ by putting Him in the position of Head and centre of the universe. “The glory which thou gavest me I have given them”; He has given us His place before the Father. Christ loved the church — that is the beginning and spring of everything: the love of God. When the love of God is known, then you respond to it and you love God.
Verse 29. Christ takes care of the church. He nourishes it and cherishes it, and will do to the end: He nourishes the church, not brethren. He has in a way severed connection with Israel, He has in that way left His kindred, and Christ and the church are joined.
Chapter 1 brings out our relationship to God, and chapter 2 brings out our relationship to Christ — raised and seated. We have relationship to Christ as the bride, but we are also sons of God — the thoughts are distinct.