THE HOUSE OF GOD
[p. 283] THE HOUSE OF GOD
Acts 2: 1 - 36, Hebrews 9: 23, 24
My object in turning to these passages is to speak on the truth of the house of God, and to shew the moral foundation on which that house subsists, and it is with the object of leading up to it that I have referred to the passage in Hebrews. This passage puts two things in contrast; that is, the type or figure of things in the heavens, and the heavenly things themselves.
Purification is evidently the subject of this chapter. Even the pattern which Moses set up had to be purified by blood; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these, that is, not by typical sacrifices.
The point that follows on this is the appearance of Christ in the presence of God for us. “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us”. Then what answers down here to Christ appearing for us in the presence of God in heaven is the formation of the house of God, and that was by the descent of the Holy Spirit.
The thing that I want to draw attention to is Christ appearing in the presence of God for us. When Christ takes that place as exalted in heaven, the house of God is formed down here. The “heavenly things” is really the house of God. The “things in the heavens” are not identical with the heavenly things. For the former you must go to heaven, but the latter are brought out here on the earth, “heavenly things” are what are peculiar to this moment. In Old Testament times saints had not heavenly things, nor will they have them on earth in the millennium, but we have them now. The Lord said, “How shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” I believe the expression “heavenly things” refers to the dwelling-place of God down here. We [p. 284] have the fulfilment of what the tabernacle foreshadowed — God dwelling here. Israel had only the figure and type of the true. The construction and detail of the tabernacle were all typical, but we have the substance of it all in christianity. We do not get types and shadows, but reality.
The house of God has been formed down here — God is dwelling here by the Spirit. It is this which has led me to read Acts 2. The advent of the Holy Spirit formed the house. I am not speaking of the great house, but of the house of God in its own proper character, more what Peter refers to in “ye ... are ... a spiritual house”, and again in the Hebrews, “whose house are we”.
Now the first thing I notice is this — the purification of the house of God is perfect. The heavenly things are purified, “where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin”. In Hebrews 9 the purification is by blood, not by water; it is purification under the eye of God.
It was the blessed effect before God of the sacrifice of Christ. All was cleared under His eye, so that, as the effect of it, we have boldness to enter into the holiest. Christendom has gone back to the dreary times under law, they have lost all idea of the completeness of the purification.
Now I come to another point. The house of God could not, I judge, have been set up down here until Christ appeared as man in heaven. It is important to see that all God’s ways are bound up in two men — two heads of races. Christ is the Head of the heavenly race. We are represented in the presence of God in Him. The application of this to us is given as a status in the presence of God. Christ is representative of all the race. I am not ignoring the question of our individual responsibility, but it is equally a truth that in the ways of God the race is represented in the Head. When Adam fell the whole race fell, “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death [p. 285] passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. The divine way was, that when the head fell the race fell. It is the argument of the latter part of Romans 5. The effect of the first man’s act of sin descended to the family; now the last Adam comes on the scene in the power and virtue of a perfect purification; but even this does not in itself give to us a positive status in the presence of God. A bankrupt may be cleared, but that does not set him up again. But Christ has not only made purification, but He has taken up a position in the presence of God for us. He has been raised again for our justification. Christ is “made unto us” of God “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth”. All these passages prove that Christ is the righteousness of all those who stand under Him. He is the last Adam; He takes up a position before God in subsisting righteousness as regards us and He is our righteousness in the presence of God — He is the Head. Now who can call our righteousness in question? The last Adam is my righteousness. He is the answer to all that might be alleged against us. The race stands before God, and Christ is the answer to any question that might be raised in regard to it. You get an illustration of it in the idea of the wedding garment.
God has shewn us how, in spite of man’s perversity, He is going to fulfil every purpose in His Son, and we are invited in to the festivity, and our suitability to the scene is the wedding garment. The man who went in without it had to go to outer darkness.
We are thus not only cleansed, but Christ is the perfect answer in the eye of God for us — He is our righteousness. Now, it is in consequence of this latter that God can set up His house down here. If our representative is in heaven, it necessarily connects us with heaven; but, on the other hand, the Spirit dwells here, and this forms God’s house.
[p. 286] When Christ took His place at the right hand of God, He was made Lord and Christ — then the Holy Spirit came down, and in coming down formed the house.
The presence of the Spirit here is, as we have seen, the answer to Christ in heaven. He witnesses to the fact of Christ being in heaven, but more than that, He subdues all to Christ, and forms all according to Christ.
If Christ is the last Adam, then everything is put under Him; so also the whole family is to take its character from the Head, “as is the heavenly, such are ... the heavenly”. In the first race no man could have surpassed the head, all were to be in his likeness.
The first thing the Holy Spirit does here is to subdue everything to Christ, for Christ is Lord; but then it is His office also to form everything according to Christ. That is the function of the Holy Spirit in God’s house. All is put under Christ, all will be subdued to Him, and this is the power which the Holy Spirit exercises down here, as we read: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”. The Holy Spirit is down here to subjugate all to Christ. There is often a good deal of will about saints; the work of the Holy Spirit is to set aside our wills, and He does this in that He brings home to us the sense of the love of Christ; I do not believe that anything else really subjugates man’s will. The law never broke Paul’s will, but he could say afterwards, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. When the love of Christ comes home to me (love is a mighty power), then it is that I am content to let go my will. Man’s will is never subdued, save under the effect and influence of the love of Christ. Under law, Saul had a violent will, he was an instrument of tyranny and persecution to unoffending saints; but how different the life which he now lived by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him!
[p. 287] But the Spirit does more than that, He not only subdues but He forms us according to Christ. If Christ is our Representative in the presence of God, we have to take our character according to what He is. This will be true even in the millennium; Israel then will come under Christ as Head. By the Holy Spirit we take our character from the last Adam. He is the “Firstborn among many brethren”.
Now, for this we have to be prepared to let all things go. Some try to save vanity, others money, others culture, but all have to go, for they are all connected with the first man; the apostle counted them dross and dung, and we have to be formed according to the pattern and image of Christ. Of christians it has to be said: “Having put off the old man ... and having put on the new”. Christ is characteristically the new Man. It is not a new nature, nor a new character (character is the outcome of nature), but a new man.
Now this is what the Holy Spirit’s work here is, subduing all of man’s will and forming the saints according to the heavenly pattern. The pattern is Christ at the right hand of God. If you apprehend Him, you know what you are to be. The One who is my Representative is in the presence of God, and the Holy Spirit down here subjugates all that is contrary, and forms me according to my Representative. This will all be brought to pass. It is the blessed end of God’s ways, and it will be brought out in display. Even Israel in the future will say “the Lord our righteousness”, and they too must take their character from Christ in the law being written in the heart.
May God give us to understand better the pattern on which we are formed, having our food in the living bread which came down from heaven — all the blessed features which came out in Him reproduced in us down here.