CORRESPONDENCE TO CHRIST
[p. 48] CORRESPONDENCE TO CHRIST
Revelation 19: 7,8; Revelation 21:1,2; Revelation 21:9-11
Adam gave names to living souls, not to inanimate things. What is living takes form under the eye of Christ and for Him. He confers names, and forms into families; the families receive their names from the Father. So every family in heaven and in earth is named of the Father. The last Adam names individuals, in each of whom is expressed some form of life; this life is developed in affection, and these affections link on to the affections of others, and so families are formed: it is fitting that the Father should give the name to the family, but all are in correspondence to Christ.
God has brought Christ in, and in Him is life. He was the Image and glory of God, a standard that God brought in to be our Head, to form our heart and our intelligence. We get a view of the result God has before Him; we must consider it in the abstract and aim at that, and the Holy Spirit moves in us so that we are brought into correspondence to Christ.
In Ezekiel 40 we have a unique revelation, a wonderful vision of the frame of a city; the abstract thought has to be filled in. As we draw near to the vision we see a man with a measuring line who is to take us through the city, and we see a house. Now a family is a primary thought, but a city is a provisional thought; so here it is not a city but a house with remarkable measurements — there are courts, and chambers, and altars. The prophet was to show the house to the people that they might have the full thought of God. If they are ashamed of all that they have done, they are to be shown the form of the house, its pattern, the goings out and coming in thereof. But if there is no corresponding exercise to this wonderful revelation of God’s mind they would get no more light.
In Psalm 45 the heart is inditing a good matter — it is the heart, not the mind. God has formed vessels who appreciate Christ; it is the welling up of a heart that appreciates the King. He pours out what is his thought about the King: “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever”; “Upon thy right hand did stand the queen”. Psalm 45:2,9. The queen! The Spirit of God in the Psalmist brings in a new thought: the queen! Who is the queen? No one can understand the mystery of union with Christ without the feminine side. We are to form part of a company that stand at the right hand of Christ; we shall stand in divine righteousness with Him. “Hearken”! The full divine thought is brought to you. If we listen we are brought to the great fact that we are to form part of the vessel which is to be with Christ as the queen. We must begin to hearken if one is to be clothed in gold of Ophir.
In Hosea they did not continue to hearken, but there is One who said, “Thou openeth mine ear morning by morning”. Isaiah 50:4. The very idea of humanity is that one hearkens; you hear and learn what God has to say. You forsake your father’s house: “So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him”. Psalm 45:11. “The king’s daughter is all glorious within”. Psalm 45:13. Whence all this? You begin in hearkening; as you hearken the Lord brings remarkable things to you; the word enters the heart, and it produces what the word conveys.
Revelation gives the thing in its fulness; it is not something to admire and understand, but what we take into our souls. I fix my mind on what is spiritual. In Revelation the thought suggested by the prophet is “the holy city, new Jerusalem”. Revelation 21:1. Two things mark this city: it is holy and it is new. There is not [p. 50] a little tarnish found there after its long service during the millennium employed in the administration of earthly affairs. One might have thought there would be a little weariness or fatigue, some wrinkles might appear, some spots here and there. But no; the prophet says, “I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem” Revelation 21:2; it remains new; the springs of God were there. Israel was in the desert, but the Rock followed them — a permanent spring. It is very touching that the Rock followed them. The cloud, the pillar, and the ark all moved before, suggestive of divine forethought. What grace that the Rock followed them. The Lord teaches us how to lead, and how to follow; if we do not learn how to follow we shall never know how to lead. The false wife says, My husband is gone on a journey; he has taken a bag of money. She does not feel the need of him, she is no widow; there are no springs of God there, it is a desert: she paints herself. The prophet sees her in a desert, he drew near to find her making every effort to appear young, but she was growing old in the wilderness; there are wrinkles and spots on her, but not on the heavenly city. The washing of water by the word preserves the assembly now.
Thank God for ministry — the washing by Christ, that there may not be a wrinkle or spot on us; “holy and new” prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That word is to our heart; that we are to be in correspondence to Christ — not a wife, but a bride. It is the eternal scene that is before us. After verse 9 the scene changes and it is provisional and administrative. The bride is all glorious within. She is attired suitably to the King inside; the exercise is, how am I to meet it? When we see Him we shall be like Him. How uneasy I should be to find in myself something out of correspondence to Christ; that cannot be from the divine side, but I should be exercised now as to perfect correspondence with Christ. There was [p. 51] a man found at the feast without a wedding garment, he was out of keeping with Christ; it is a great thing to be dressed as a saint; what God does He does for ever, but He works through my exercises.
Paul desired to present every man perfect in Christ; the washing of water by the word is the means. The wedding garment is provided by the King, it is perfectly suited to the occasion. Paul felt God’s abhorrence of any inconsistency with Christ. But the queen is all suited to the King’s eye. She is all glorious within; it is the “within” time and not the time for display; her beauty is for her Husband, not for display. At the Lord’s supper this comes out; I am there for Christ, the assembly is for Christ. Then what I am inside is to come out administratively; now it is the wife, not the bride. It is the wife, the Lamb’s wife, who is with Him; this is retrospective, she is in relation to the suffering Lamb. He needs her in the conflict and contrariety — in the time of suffering.
“All thy garments smell of myrrh”. Psalm 45:8. The whole system is marked by the spirit of a suffering Christ. If there is to be correspondence to Christ now, the elements of suffering must be accepted; she knew and entered into His suffering. Paul said, “and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake”. Colossians 1:24. Christ must be expressed here amid suffering. Are we prepared for it? The Corinthians were reigning as kings; that is not suffering! “In all their afflictions he was afflicted” Isaiah 63:9, and now Paul takes up the affliction for His body’s sake, the assembly. He confides in her. He confides in her in an hour of suffering and then she is His companion in the hour of glory. There is correspondence to Christ “within” which prepares for the administration outwardly. The true One comes into evidence. She is the wife before the public nuptials. She has made herself ready.
[p. 52] God has many wonderful grants in His word; it was granted to her that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright, the fine linen being the righteousnesses of the saints. Every bit of righteousness in the young believer or the old bedridden saint is knit together, not one iota missed, not a cup of cold water forgotten, all gathered up and interwoven into the garment for her being arrayed, In Colossians we have the idea and how God brings us to it. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up” Colossians 2:7; you will not want or need anyone else but Christ. “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead” Colossians 2:9. Do you need anything after that? Nothing can be added, we need nothing more: “In him dwelleth ... . bodily”. All divine fulness is there, and we are “complete in him”. Colossians 2:10. I need nothing outside of Christ.
In John 20 Mary Magdalene is sent with a wonderful message from the Lord to the disciples. She finds them sitting in an upper room intently talking about the Lord. She has just seen Him. If a Greek philosopher or Jewish rabbi came in with a great work of tradition or philosophy and offered this book to her and said, Mary, this will aid you in understanding the Lord; we do not deny what you hold, but this will add to what you have, she would answer, I have just been speaking to the Lord and He said, “I ascend unto my Father”, John 20:17, and He sent me with this message. Do you think Mary would accept the aid offered? John says, If all the Lord’s doings were written, the world could not contain the books. We have more books than we can read, The world’s books may be cleverly written and highly illustrated, but I do not need them. I have Christ. He is the Head of all principality and power, and the Christian should he in moral correspondence to Christ in view of entering in.