THE CHURCH

THE CHURCH

The church is the new structure here on the earth, consequent on Christ’s rejection, which is entirely outside of and apart from judaism — which it supersedes — and the world. Every living stone, every one built by Christ, is given a knowledge of Him qualifying him for this new structure — though he may not have entered into it — in addition to the joys of salvation, not only for the future, but in the present. Hence, when it is first named in Matthew 16 it is in connection with the Lord’s preparing and educating His disciples for it. The mass of those in this building now, even living stones, are not prepared or educated for it. They are in it, but though truly there, they do not know what they have gained by this new position. It is a structure outside of and apart from everything here, for which the true soul obtains a new and peculiar knowledge of Christ, one only to be known and enjoyed on this earth. The Lord in figure conveys what this knowledge is when He says to His disciples, “Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” Matthew 16: 9, 10. By these two miracles the Lord had been educating His disciples as to the nature and extent of their resources in Himself on the earth, in the very place of His rejection. He would feed and support them in one case, in spite of all the power of evil arrayed against them; and in the other, in spite of all the assaults of the enemy within, or the crippling effects of them. New resources, entirely unknown before, are now the portion of His ^[p. 47] people in the new structure in which He places them. In chapter 14: 13 the subject begins, and it is in connection with His rejection, which is indicated very positively by the murder of John the baptist. The Lord then retires into the desert, characteristically apart from this world, and there He heals the sick and feeds the poor of the flock who seek Him in the desert. And this He has done for the last eighteen hundred years, through His chosen ministers, irrespective of the power of evil which refused Him a place here and put Him to death. He Himself takes a new position with relation to this world. He has gone into heaven; He walks above the winds and waves, and the man of faith with his eye on Him can leave the ship, which was made for water, and walk by Christ’s power on the water to go to Him, as Stephen did in a very distinct way; and that without bread, that is, without any natural means or resource. When the believer knows Christ after this manner, he knows one part of the great gain of being a living stone — of what has been given him. He is not dependent on man or human resources in any form. There is “no bread”, nothing to sustain nature, but Christ is all-sufficient.

Now in Matthew 15 the other part is presented and inculcated in figure. There it is power of evil assaulting more from within. It is from within that all defilement springs (verse 11). But besides this, from which the soul finds deliverance in Jesus Christ our Lord (see Romans 7: 24, 25) there are the assaults of Satan, as with Paul who had the messenger of Satan to buffet him. Man is reduced and crippled in consequence, but here also the sufficiency of Christ is proved to faith. The Syrophenician is the example given here. She has no title. She has no claim as the children had, she has “no bread”; but she has faith, and faith accepts her true place as a dog, and counts on the Lord’s goodness even to such as she is. To this the Lord immediately responds, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt”. Thus He taught Paul in another day, “My grace is sufficient for thee”; and so assured was he of it that he could say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong”, 2 Corinthians 12: 9, 10. Christ so feeds His people, He is so all-sufficient for the maimed, and the blind, and the halt, the ones crippled through Satan’s power, that one can say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me”.

In a word, in the church I am introduced into an entirely new order of power. Here God dwells. But I speak not now of that part, but of the acquisition, the birthright of every one built by Christ into this new structure. If this is not known, though one is in the church, there is no fitness for the place nor sense of the grace conferred, and consequently no ability for walk and testimony, as alas! we too often see, even with those whose reality cannot be questioned, because they do not know nor experience, to the joy of their heart, these great resources given them for this new structure.

How the blessed Lord taught and prepared His disciples for their new position as living stones in the new structure built by Him, is little understood or taught now. No wonder, therefore, that so few know, or are in any degree aware of, the position they occupy in the church, so absolutely apart from the world, where their resources are entirely new and divine.