THE CHURCH CONDUCTED TO CHRIST
[p. 277] THE CHURCH CONDUCTED TO CHRIST
Genesis 24: 32 - 67; Ephesians 1: 19 - 23
There are few things more interesting than the way in which God’s purposes are foreshadowed in the Old Testament. If we had not the light of the New Testament, we could not have understood the types which foreshadowed these. The prophets searched diligently to understand their own inspired writings. Now we have the light of Christ, and we can look back, and in all the simple things narrated we see the shadow of all that has come to light in Christ.
I want to speak of what was set forth in connection with the patriarchs in regard to the world to come, and then I wish to speak more particularly as to the church being conducted to Christ. I do not mean conducted to heaven. He Himself will come and take us to heaven; but the Servant — the Spirit — is here so that He may conduct us to Christ. It is a great thing to understand what the saints are in relation to Christ. It was that which led me to read the passage in Ephesians. The church has the remarkable place of being His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. That is God’s thought in regard of the church; it is the place God has given to the church. Christ is Head over all things, and He is given to be Head to the church, which is His body.
I want now to shew how in the patriarchs we get a foreshadowing of the world to come.
Abraham is to my mind the representative of the world to come. God is going to take out of this world what will form the world to come. It was for this reason that Christ came to save the world. The world to come is the depository of blessing, and in that way Abraham appears to me to represent the world to come, and it is out of the wreck and ruin of this world that God brings to pass another world. God does not absolutely create another world, but He evolves a world out of the wreck and ruin of this world. In that way God took Abraham [p. 278] out of country and kindred, and father’s house, and made him the depositary of blessing and promise.
Sarah represented the new covenant, Hagar the old covenant. The child of promise was Isaac; Ishmael was born but rejected. Isaac represents the heavenly man. There are two things set forth in Isaac: he was the child of promise, and he was in figure raised again from the dead. In the passage I read (Genesis 24) you get Isaac being comforted after the death of his mother by forming a new tie with Rebecca. The progeny of that marriage was the patriarchs. My conviction is that the true Israel springs from the union of Christ and the church; that is what came to pass in the ways of God. When the church is the witness of the surpassing riches of God’s grace, then the true house of Israel will come into view. That is foreshadowed in the history of the patriarchs: you get Abraham the depositary of promise; then you get Isaac the child of promise; then you get the death of Sarah, and the union of Isaac with Rebecca, and as the result of that the true Israel is brought to light.
We want the confirmation and establishment of people in the word of God. There are so many influences abroad which tend to shake people’s confidence in the word of God. Scripture carries its own evidence, and you do not need to go outside of Scripture for evidence. Wherever I look in Scripture I see one great subject presented to me, and that is Christ. Whenever or wherever inspired men wrote, there was but one Christ, there is one great Author. There were different men inspired to narrate, but they lived at long intervals from one another, and there could have been no agreement or collusion, and therefore there is but one Author — the Holy Spirit. Holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. If Scripture is not authentic, it is an imposture; but if you get to see beneath the surface of Scripture, it is impossible not to believe in it, for there is but one subject, and that is Christ and the world to come. From the moment this world went wrong, the world to come came into view. In Hebrews 11 you get men who were [p. 279] witnesses to the world of faith. Every one of them is a witness of the world to come. All refer to the world to come. Abraham is the depositary of blessing; Isaac is the child of promise; Rebecca prefigures the church, and Jacob prefigures the house of Israel.
But now I want to shew you the special place of the church. (See Genesis 24, the latter part read.) What I venture to say is this — no one can apprehend the place of the church who does not apprehend the place of Christ. If you connect Christ with this world, you can have no apprehension of the church. The Spirit of God has come down to report the glory of Christ. The Father has given all things into His hands — “All things that the Father hath are mine” John 16: 15. The Spirit was to glorify Christ, “for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”, verse 14. Abraham had given all that he had to Isaac. Abraham was greatly blessed of God, and he had given all that he had to Isaac, and that is what the servant reported to Rebecca’s kindred. If you do not apprehend the place of Christ, you will not understand the place of the church. We need to apprehend another order of things of which Christ is the Head; we need to appreciate that the Father has given all things into His hands. You cannot connect Christ with this world. Christendom bears His name, but Christ is not palatable to it.
It remains true, alas! that Christ is refused here. There is an attempt to make it appear that Christ is in honour here, but apply a simple test, and you will find He is not palatable here in this world. Talk to people of righteousness, and holiness, and meekness, and you will find it is not palatable to them. I never met a holy man after the flesh. Christ is rejected here; but Christ is Head of all principality and power. I do not think much of principalities and powers in this world. Take the greatest monarchs in modern Europe, and you will find they were the very worst of men; but Christ is Head of all principality and power. I find it difficult to speak about it, because it is all intangible. We cannot speak of the [p. 280] world to come as what exists, but as truth.
Well, we get the truth in figure here (Genesis 24) that the Father has given all things into His hands. Now the church has the place of being the body of Christ, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all” Ephesians 1: 23. We should give attention to the place of Christ. Every possible glory attaches to Christ; He is Son of God, King of Israel, the Son of man. How are we conducted to Christ? It is by our apprehension of Christ. Our minds are conducted by the Spirit of God to Christ. We have to apprehend Christ not as connected with this world, but as He is — Head of all principality and power. The Spirit of God is conducting us, in our apprehension, into the light of the present glory of Christ. He has given gifts, and what for? For the edifying of the body of Christ, to lead us in our apprehension into the light of the present glory of Christ. If you apprehend Christ’s place, you will soon understand the place of the church.
When Rebecca is brought to Isaac, she lights off her camel and she covers herself; she was to lose her individuality. Why does she cover herself when in the presence of Isaac? Because she apprehends her own place, as his fulness. Eve was formed that Adam might be set forth in her. God has given the church its own proper place, that Christ may live in it. We have professed to have put off the old man, and to have put on the new. The new man is Christ living in us.
The real power of the truth is Christ living in the saints in the power of the Spirit. If we put on the new man, we have put off the old. We avow that, but it is well to test ourselves as to how far we have done so. One great end of the church was that Christ might be perpetuated here, morally, in the very scene from which He was rejected, that there might be a continuation of Christ down here. The church is “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”. It is a great thing to have been conducted to Christ. If we have been conducted to Him, we are prepared to cover ourselves, for there it is we get a true sense of what the church is, and what God [p. 281] intended it should be — the body of Christ — His fulness.
Christ is the Bridegroom. He is the One who takes up everything from God. With all His greatness, Head of all principality and power, He is meek and lowly in heart. He has not altered morally from what He was when He was here. He has altered His place and condition, but He is morally the same. No one could describe the greatness of Christ save the Holy Spirit; He is the great centre and Sun of the whole divine universe. We need to be led by the Spirit of God into the apprehension of the greatness of the true Isaac — the resurrection Man, the Head of all principality and power. When we see that, and that all things are put into His hands, then we shall apprehend the place of the church. We shall be content to get out of sight so that nothing may be seen in us but Christ. As the apostle says, “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”, Galatians 2: 20. How far better to have Christ set forth in us than to set forth ourselves! Why attempt to engage people’s attention with ourselves? Let us be content to be vessels here for the setting forth of Christ. The time will come when the Lord will fulfil His word, “I will raise him up at the last day”, John 6:40; John 6:44; John 6:54.
May God give us to apprehend the greatness of Christ, and so be led to accept our own extinction — in having put off the old man, and put on the new. If that were verified and exemplified in every believer upon earth, think what an amazing witness there would be to Christ down here! At any rate let the divine thought be fulfilled in us — we ourselves not seen, but Christ set forth in us, and thus answer to what is God’s thought for the church — His body, as “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”.