CHRIST THE PATTERN IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
[p. 26] CHRIST THE PATTERN IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
Our brother has put a word into my month in the suggestion that an Ephesian saint is foreshadowed in Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 19: 24 - 30. Ephesians presents to us the full answer to the gospel; that is, in the thought of full grown men. And it occurs to me, that at the end of the days of the period in which we live, it is the divine thought that there should be men such as Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth appeared, first, in the period when David was established in the kingdom, and again after he had gone through the period of rejection occasioned by the rebellion of Absalom. That is, Mephibosheth’s love endured; it stood the test. Although, through his infirmity, he was unable to accompany David, as driven out of Jerusalem, his love was an abiding one. It was typically divine love, it never failed.
So now, I apprehend, the Lord is set to bring about men fully developed; as the apostle says, “In your minds be grown men”, (1 Corinthians 14: 20). Ephesians not only deals with the affections, but with the mind also. It is there we read of being “renewed in the spirit of your mind”, and of “the spirit of wisdom and revelation” in the knowledge of God. That is something that is beyond what the physical creation would suggest. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1: 20); but Ephesians goes beyond this in that it suggests the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God. So that there is in that way, in the suggestion of our brother, a very practical thought, the reappearance in the last days of intelligent devotedness and love to Christ. In other words, God is bringing about [p. 27] now intelligent lovers of Christ. I have no doubt that in the middle ages, all the way down, there have been lovers of Christ. The addresses to the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 clearly indicate this. The Holy Spirit saw to it, that it was so, one may say. But one can scarcely assert that there have always been intelligent lovers of Christ; and so I would remind you that an Ephesian saint, characteristically, is an intelligent lover of Christ. Now if one is not a lover of Christ, one is doomed for a curse. Paul says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha”. (1 Corinthians 16: 22) A very solemn word, a warning which resounds throughout the period of the assembly to all non-lovers of Christ: “Anathema Maran-atha”, That was Paul’s judgment by the Spirit.
One looks into the heavens and sees the handiwork of God. I suppose one may be justified in saying that the idea of pattern did not appear in the formation of the physical system, which indeed, is, so to speak, but the scaffolding to the building. I feel assured that the remark is justifiable. Scaffolding wrought, indeed, with wonderful skill, but not more than that, for as the real structure, the spiritual structure, is completed, the scaffolding disappears. The putting into place of these marvellous bodies was truly wonderful, but I judge without pattern, and one may say that even Adam was not made by pattern. He was a “figure”, truly, “of him that was to come”, but the real pattern in the mind of God was Christ Himself and no other. When you come to the figurative representation of things in the heavens; that is the spiritual things, God said, “And look that thou make them after the pattern showed to thee in the mount”. (Exodus 25: 40) When you come to spiritual things, heavenly things, everything in made by pattern.
I have entered on a wide field. I can only just [p. 28] touch on it, but when you come to what is before God, that is to say, a spiritual order of things, everything must be on the principle of pattern; and not a made one: it is the Son, as our verse says, “that we should be conformed to the image of his Son”. Wisdom, was present when the foundation of the earth was laid, but in regard to the foundation of the earth there is nothing said as to pattern. We do read, indeed, of “all his work which God created and made” (Genesis 2: 3), but when we come to the spiritual order of things seen in type in Exodus, all must be made “after the pattern showed to thee in the mount”. This is the Son, not a made pattern, as I said, but “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. (John 1: 14) That is the pattern, and so God is working according to that. I feel if I can leave that impression with you, I have succeeded in my object. He is working on that pattern, and will not be diverted from it in the least measure, for the pattern stands. The four gospels present it to us. And so Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, says, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. (1 Corinthians 2: 2) It was his deliberate judgment formed as to how and what he should minister among them. So he says, as it were, ‘I was true to the pattern in so far as it could be used among you’. He could not use the whole pattern on account of their state; but he was God’s workman, and he laid the foundation as a “wise architect”, and the foundation is Jesus Christ. He did not go beyond the foundation, but the foundation was according to the pattern.
Now the pattern really involves not only the form of the structure, but the material also. The specifications call not only for dimensions, but also material. Let us remember that. What God made the universe out of I cannot tell you, nor can anyone else. It was a creation, and faith accepts this. But God presented [p. 29] beforehand in Christ the material out of which the spiritual universe was to be made; or builded. As I said, the specifications, so to speak, not only required form, but also the material that should be used. Paul laid the foundation according to pattern and according to requirement as to material, and the material was “Jesus Christ”; the order of Man the gospels present to us. That is the foundation. Take heed first how you build, and then what you build; pattern and material, we must be careful about both. That is to say, if I do anything for God in the way of service, it must be according to Christ. It is of no value at all otherwise; indeed, God has to come in and destroy it by fire. Is there anything that I have done, or am doing, that the fire must destroy? God will not suffer bad material in this building, everything is tested by fire.
In the second epistle to the Corinthians the apostle says, “he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God”. (2 Corinthians 5: 5) What is the “thing?” “We have a building from God eternal in the heavens”, (5: 1) the apostle says, referring to the spiritual body. Now what is that body like? It is like Christ. The body that is said to be a building of God, eternal in the heavens, is patterned after Christ. It is wonderful that I am to have a body like that. The Word became flesh and dwelt among men. In that blessed Man you see the divine idea. There is no other. He appeared in resurrection in a spiritual body of “flesh and bone”. Christians have a house “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. Our present bodies are bodies of humiliation, but they shall be raised spiritual bodies, in incorruption, glory and power; (1 Corinthians 15: 42 - 44). God has wrought us for this, for this “selfsame thing”, the apostle says, as he thinks of the building from God; for we are to have bodies like unto Christ’s body of glory as in heaven. God has had a definite thought [p. 30] in His mind. He is working in us now, that when we appear in that body we shall be equal to it. The body and myself shall be wrought of God. As it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, so may it be said of us, “What hath God wrought?” He has brought a company who, both in regard of their spiritual state and in regard of their bodies, are patterned after Christ. That is what God shall have wrought then.
I have ventured on this line to show you in confirmation of what had been said, that God’s work is now altogether on the line of pattern, and that pattern is the Son, so that the end stated is, “for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”. The word “conformed” includes all we have been speaking of. God brings in discipline, allows things to occur in our circumstances, thus the conforming work goes on, and all to the end that we should be “conformed to the image of his Son”. It includes all we have been dwelling upon - namely, the work of God.
The epistles to the Corinthians enlarge upon what God is and does for His people. Colossians is more what Christ is: Corinthians is God. So that “he that hath wrought us for this selfsame thing is God”, and He has also given us the earnest of the Spirit, so that the working has in view the Son of God, that every saint should be conformed to the image of that blessed Man. So it is all on the principle of pattern. God would bring out at the end of the days a complete correspondence to the beginning, not in quantity, indeed, but in quality. It is the antidote to Antichrist, who is undoubtedly looming in the distance. The mystery of iniquity is working, and it is working to bring about a man that shall be set over against Christ; whereas the Spirit of God, on the other hand, is working to bring in Christ, subjectively, in the people of God, so that there should be [p. 31] in that way an antidote to Antichrist, a standard lifted against him. The conforming work of God brings about in us a likeness to Christ. The word “image” here is to be noted: that we should be “conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. The design was not small. God has many before Him, and is working that they should all be like Christ, like the Son, so that He should be the Firstborn among them. Hence we have brought about a spiritual order of things.
The natural system is but the scaffolding to the spiritual, because it shall be certainly removed. The present heaven and present earth shall be consumed. They “shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat”. But we “look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness”, (2 Peter 3: 10 - 13) “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away”, (Revelation 21: 1). That is the spiritual order that shall remain, and everything there reflects what the Son is; “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature”. (Colossians 1: 15) How important is the work of God. If one looks at the handiwork of God; it is conforming them to the image of His Son.