THE CHURCH; WHAT IT IS, AND THE LOSS WHEN NOT KNOWN
THE CHURCH; WHAT IT IS, AND THE LOSS WHEN NOT KNOWN
The first allusion to the church is in Matthew 16, where our Lord says to Peter, on his confession that He was “the Christ, the Son of the living God”, “Thou art Peter [a stone], and upon this rock [what Peter had said] I will build my church”, or assembly. The word assembly is not a new word, but the structure the Lord would now build is entirely a new one — one that never existed before. The Rock on which this new assembly was to be built had only now come. Here we have the important truth, that the construction of this new assembly would be Christ’s own work. Thus Peter’s name — a stone — suited the statement that he would be material for the new structure; because a stone is of the same order of material as a rock, therefore he would be of this new assembly. Thus we have, as the Lord’s work, not only that He Himself would be the Builder, but that the material would be of the same order as Himself. Just as, in another place, it is said, “both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”.
Now, in John 20: 19, the first assembly of this order is set forth in pattern. The disciples are constituted for this assembly on the earth. The Lord, risen from the [p. 272] dead, leads them into peace and sends them forth into the world as thus gifted, imparting to them the “life ... more abundantly”, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And thus He entrusts them with the solemn privilege, on the one hand, of admitting into this blessed enclosure; and, on the other, the grave duty of excluding from it. “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained”. The assembly, as first established by the Lord Himself, is seen in pattern; while, in Acts 2, on the descent of the Holy Spirit to the very same company as were gathered in John 20: 19, we have further insight into the order and power of this new company. Here the Holy Spirit descends, and He first “filled all the house where they were sitting”. He limits Himself to the congregation, and in an external way fills all the house. This is the way He began, and this is the way He continues in the house; externally holding together all those of it. We read, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. He fills all those who are born of God.
So far we see that the church, or assembly, is here as the house of God — the Holy Spirit with all who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord; and He also dwells in saints individually, so that there is an easy response from the Spirit in the individual temple, to the Spirit in the collective temple. In every one filled with the Spirit we have Christ’s own building.
The next light we get on the church, after Acts 2, is in Acts 9, when our blessed Lord says to Saul of Tarsus, referring to the church, “why persecutest thou me?” thus identifying the church with Himself, and speaking of it as Himself. Thus, His first word to the one whom He subsequently appointed to be a minister and a witness of the things he had seen, and “of those things in the which I will appear unto thee”, related to the mystery of the church. We must turn to Paul’s writings to obtain a correct idea of the church, the body of Christ. Alas! there is no correct idea of it retained in christendom.
[p. 273] There has been some meagre light of the gospel, but the true idea of the church has been entirely lost, and it is very imperfectly recovered in this day.
In Romans 12 we find an allusion to the body of Christ, as if the truth were known, but no unfolding of the mystery, though, in the last three verses of the epistle, it is referred to as something specially commended to them for their benefit. Now, 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 Christ”, we have the body of Christ referred to as a subject well known, on the ground of which the apostle would correct the disorders at Corinth. The clause, “so also is Christ”, would be very indefinite, were it not explained elsewhere. Doubtless they had heard before that the church was one body, but we could not comprehend the meaning of “so also is Christ”, from this allusion, were it not explained to us in Ephesians, where we read, that He is “head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all”. In Corinthians we learn that there is one body, and that we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body; but from Ephesians we learn that Christ is the Head of His body — His complement, that which completes Him — that we are placed in Him in the place where He is, and that we have to grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head. In Ephesians we have the full mystery — Christ the Head over all things to the church, which is His body, and therefore united to Him — His fulness. As we had the new and privileged position of the body in Corinthians, here we have the marvellous dignity of our position, united to the exalted One in heaven, and in His power down here, where He had been rejected; and the greatness of the Head is further opened out to us in Colossians, in order that we may know our great gain; for in this mystery are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. These treasures are not from the saints, in any number, by themselves,
[p. 274] but from the Head of the body, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God. So that we arrive at this — that not only is the blessed Lord the Builder, as He says at the beginning, but He is the Head, the almighty Source of all blessing and power, in the nearest and closest relationship which the word Head conveys.
I now turn to the varied ways in which the truth of the church has been perverted.
Doubtless, at first, through carelessness, many unconverted crept in; those were admitted who were not of Christ’s building. There was man’s building, as we find in 1 Corinthians 3; but so long as Christ’s place was owned and submitted to, He came, as we find in 1 Corinthians 5: 4, though the saints there had forfeited His open support and countenance, like Israel at Ai; yet He would still come and help them to get rid of the known evil in their midst. But when the assembly had sunk into the ungodliness and disorder described in 2 Timothy 2: 16, His place then was not owned, and the true-hearted were to purge themselves from the vessels to dishonour.
As difficult times grew on and existed, there was not a purging from the vessels to dishonour; though it is to be noted that whenever there was any reviving in the church, it was marked by a measure of separation from the existing corruptions and corrupted state of things.
Romanism, in principle, disclosed the great evil working in the church; and that was leaving out the Head, while the assembly was presumptuously invested with the divine prerogative of binding and loosing for heaven. The power entrusted to the first assembly by the Lord, in John 20, was binding and loosing for earth — administrative forgiveness; but romanism assumed that the church was invested with power to bind and loose for heaven. A human rule was substituted for the Spirit of God, and when this obtained, when the only One who could order according to the mind of Christ was ignored, then Christ’s headship of His body, and place in the assembly, was disowned.
Now, in protestantism, the effort was to correct this enormity, by simply returning to Christ as Saviour, which had been lost in romanism. Thus real good was done at the reformation; the way of salvation was brought to light; but the church, as it is in the mind of God, and revealed in Scripture, was not at all apprehended. Hence, in the reformed church, various denominations arose, each one aiming at a recognised membership, which was not part of the order of the reformed church at first. We can see in this movement (the membership of a church) a vague idea of the body; but there was really no approach to it, but a lulling of the conscience as to the real thing, from accepting a human mode instead of the divine one.
Later on arose the proposal, hailed by some, that all christians should lay aside all the peculiarities of their church arrangements, and come together for mutual prayer and edification, apart from any prescribed rule. This did not satisfy the more godly, because they naturally asked, If it were possible to come together for one week, why not for many weeks — why not for our whole time here? No doubt, many were prepared in this way for the light which the Lord was pleased to make known some sixty years since, which was hailed as an unspeakable boon by them. The Lord led one of His servants to see that believers in Christ have a Head in heaven, and thus that one Head makes one body. Thus the truth of the great mystery was restored to the church, and what could not be found in the books of the most godly for eighteen hundred years, from that time was in writing, and viva voce proclaimed to the people of God. If there had been no divergence from this great truth, or rather, if it had been held in simple faith in its integrity, there would have been no divisions among those who professed to hold it; but when the test came, those who really had not the truth of the mystery, that is,
[p. 276] the greatness of the Head, and in consequence the unbounded measure of the church’s resources and power, were betrayed; while the really sorrowful part of the division was that each section claimed to be gathered on the truth of the church. Christ is the Head of the church always in the eye of God. There is one body, fitly joined and compacted together, however scattered and distant one from another the integral parts. The fact is, that many were gathered on the truth that we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body. This had been accepted as thoroughly satisfying hearts that longed for the true membership of saints, but it is evident they had not faith in the Head, and therefore they really had not by faith accepted the mystery; because, when independence broke out, they had no power to resist it; and they could not see that they were as responsible to rebuke an offence done to the Head by those who were a thousand miles off, as if it had occurred in their own company. The bond had been accepted, but the power to maintain them divinely in this bond had not been laid hold of by faith. Hence division ensued. Those who had some faith in the Christ remained faithful to Him; the others, while professing to hold the same truth, were apart, and really on different ground.
There are besides this, other ways in which the truth of the church as the Christ is practically ignored, even by those still retaining professedly the right ground. The first, and most common, is, when Christ, for one’s own individual blessing, is exclusively before the soul. When this is the case, the service never goes beyond the gospel; and in evangelical ardour, one feels excused or exonerated, for inattention to or ignorance of, the church.
Again, there is another form, even more deceptive, where one is so engrossed with one’s own feelings, that there is a continued effort to be self-commended as a christian. This is often marked with great fervency and feeling, which is mere religiousness, and from which, as we see in Colossians the earnest believer, at rest about [p. 277] his soul, is preserved only by the truth of the church being laid hold of by faith, which leads him to know Christ in him as everything, and in all. Thus it was that holiness by faith had its origin, and it is generally betrayed by the way the feelings are acted on.
I might enlarge on these various ways in which the truth of the church is lost, but I merely notice them, and close by referring to another which is more specious, and therefore the more dangerous; I mean when the truth of the Ephesians is held intellectually, which is always the case when the position in which God has set us is exclusively spoken of, leaving out the great power which, in His grace, He has attached to this great position.
I need not add more than the assured belief, that if the mystery, as it is in the mind of God — “the Christ” — were, even in a little measure, the centre of all service, there would be the deepest joy of heart, and power for usefulness.
We should be better evangelists, better teachers, better pastors, better in everything, ever rising to the worship that ascribes to Him “glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen”.