CHRIST AS LORD, AND HIS BODY HERE

^[p. 262] CHRIST AS LORD, AND HIS BODY HERE

Acts 8: 26-40; Acts 9:1-22; Acts 9:31

These chapters show us the development and progress of the testimony on which christianity is based. Many things which the Lord Himself bore witness to when here did not come out in the way of public testimony in the early part of the Acts. For instance, the Lord had borne witness that He was the Son of God, but He was not publicly testified to as Son of God until Paul preached. It is generally known that chapter 8:37, where the eunuch is supposed to say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”, is not genuine. The eunuch could not believe in Christ as Son of God because testimony had not been borne to him in this way. We believe in Christ according to the testimony that has been presented. Our faith is formed by the testimony. And in this respect there was a development, a progress in what was brought out by the apostles, though, of course, Christ was always the same.

The way in which God wrought, as we see in the close of the passage, to give the churches rest was remarkable. He subdued Saul, the persecutor, by grace; He did not crush him; there is a deal of difference between subduing and crushing.

It will be interesting to note the progress of the testimony in these chapters. In chapter 8 the point at which the eunuch stopped was, “His life is taken from the earth”, Acts 8:33. Stephen had borne witness that he saw “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”, Acts 7:56; much like the testimony of Peter and John; but in connection with the eunuch we have the other side. “His life is taken from the earth”, Acts 8:33. This was in a sense Philip’s text; and the baptism of the eunuch followed on that. Now in chapter 9 we get a further development, and that from the Lord’s own lips,

^[p. 263] namely, that Christ is here. It is not exactly in the idea of life, but in testimony, and so truly so, that He could be persecuted; that it could be said, “Why persecutest thou me?”

The special mission of Paul was to bring to light all that had come to pass here by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Peter and John testified to the exaltation of Christ, but Paul was raised up to bring out all that depended on the descent of the Holy Spirit. Now, there are two things which have come to pass of which the Spirit is witness: Christ is Lord, and Christ is Head. In connection with the former we have the reign of grace. The Holy Spirit being here, these things and what depended on them were true in fact before they were brought out in testimony. The Lord saying to Saul “Why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4) proves that there was something to be persecuted.

But to refer again to the eunuch. He saw that the prophet spoke either of himself or of some other man. You must remember that the prophets did not understand their own writings: they searched to see what the things testified did signify. Now Philip was able to expound to the eunuch what Isaiah the writer could not expound. In speaking of the life of Jesus being taken from the earth, it must be remembered that it was a life which was unique. There never was and never can be another such as Christ was down here. We may walk as He walked, but take His life as a whole, there never can be aught like it. He was the Living Bread come down from heaven: it was morally a heavenly life in a Man here upon earth, everything divinely perfect under the eye of God. In His testimony Christ had to enter into conflict with all kinds and classes of people: Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians. He was in constant conflict with evil. It is hardly so with us. He rode into Jerusalem, into the midst of all that was there, on an ass, claiming the inheritance of the Son of David; there was in Christ and in His ^[p. 264] testimony all that was perfection in the eye of God as a Man. He was a perfect real Man, but unlike any other. How poorly we can understand a Man here after the flesh pervaded by the Holy Spirit; all that was of natural feeling and sensibility perfectly controlled by the Holy Spirit. We get the types of it in the meat-offering which was mingled with oil, and anointed with oil. There was no sin, no taint of evil, no liability to death, and yet He went into death. His life was as different as could be from all other. All that was of the flesh, that is, natural (for He could hunger and thirst and be weary), was subordinate to the power of the Spirit. His life was perfectly solitary, wholly to God — and yet He went into death. His life is taken from the earth. I wonder what is now left of life on earth. “If one died for all, then were all dead”, 2 Corinthians 5:14. His life after the flesh is taken never to be restored. The eunuch felt this, and he desired to be buried in His death. “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptised”, Acts 8:36. There is no life here and he accepts the burial of himself. No one of us ever really had life here; from the time we came into this scene we were under death. Having been baptised we have been baptised unto Christ’s death; but we have only accepted what lay on us. There is another thing that comes out, and that is, not only am I buried in His death, but I have received the Spirit of another Man — of another order of Man, who is at the right hand of God, and the Spirit which I have received does not recognise the man here. The witness and power of the Spirit is that we are alive unto God in Christ Jesus Romans 6:11. If we talk of life at all, it must be as identified with another Man — and the Head; we are alive unto God in Christ Jesus Romans 6:11.

I now turn to the next chapter (p). It is interesting that when the Lord speaks to Saul about Himself, He does not speak about Himself as Lord, but speaks of Jesus, and evidently refers to His body. In the ^[p. 265] incident recorded Saul recognised Him as Lord. There are two titles under which we recognise Christ — Lord and Head. Saul was bowed by grace to own Him as Lord; he would have the Lord direct him as to what he was to do; but when the Lord Himself speaks it is to His body that He refers. Now Paul’s testimony is pretty much covered by these two titles. That of Lord brings in the thought of the reign of grace — grace which subdues but does not crush. The administration of the Lord Jesus Christ is of grace. The supremacy of grace is what marks the present period; this involves the power of sin being subdued; I was in bondage to sin, but the yoke has been broken — sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. If a christian sin, grace leads him to confess it; we may fail, but we do not again come under the dominion of sin. Christ takes care that grace reigns so that we get deliverance from that which is unsuited to God — from sin, law and the world. Grace is a mighty factor in the universe of blessing; it means the bringing into result what God has purposed, “even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 5:21; it reigns to that end; though I do not think that the thought of the passage is to put eternal life off to the future.

If a christian is under pressure, instead of being crushed he is sustained. A bedridden saint, having perhaps to lie year after year, with but little external comfort, and pressure besides, is found rising above it all, and happy in the Lord. What has effected that? Grace; it is the reign of grace which has come in in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be so publicly in the millennium, but we come into it now in the light of the Lord, which the Holy Spirit has brought. There is no christian who has not had experience of grace on his way through this world. Grace ought to pervade our hearts and ^[p. 266] thoughts, for that only is suitable to the reign of grace. But I will say a little as to the other thought that comes out in this passage, that is, the truth of the body. The effect of the Spirit’s indwelling the saints was that they were all “made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13), and this as well as being formed into one body. Now I want to point out that this is not all the truth of the body. Saints were formed into one body, but Christ became Head to that body, and as such His object is to form us according to Himself. Christ has to be formed in us, and when that has come to pass we can be said to have put off the old man and put on the new.

If Saul had only stopped a moment to consider those whom he was persecuting, he might have seen that there was morally another Man there. The essence of christianity is the introduction of another Man; it is not simply the introduction of what we speak of as a new nature. You cannot rightly speak of the nature of anything unless you have before you the thing itself. Now in christianity it is a new Man that is presented; even if I had a new nature it would leave me a man of the same kind or order as before. I might thereby be a better man, but christianity is the putting off the old and putting on of the new man. Take a case — a man may be a workman, he may be a father and a husband; there are duties and affections belonging to the man in these several relationships and spheres. Now think of another Man — Christ, whose “life is taken from the earth”, Acts 8:33. We think of Him now not according to the natural links and affections, for these were broken in His death, but in His affection to the Father and to the saints. If I have put on that man, I have put on the system of affections proper to that man — I love the Father, and the Son, and the brethren; and these affections have priority and precedence of the natural relationships.

When I die, all the system of affections which belong to natural life will be broken for ever, but if I ^[p. 267] have put on the new man, Christ is the pattern of that order. Now the Holy Spirit has come down from heaven to form us according to Him. The formative work of the Spirit is to mould saints after Christ in heaven. The reality of these things was here from the outset, from the moment the Holy Spirit came down, and this is proved by what the Lord says here, “Why persecutest thou me?”, Acts 9:4. His life being taken from the earth leaves no life here morally after the flesh; but the Holy Spirit has come down to bear witness to Christ as Lord — the last Adam, and also to Him as second Man, and to form us according to that pattern:

“As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”, 1 Corinthians 15:48. Spiritual affections which are according to Christ in glory are what are alone proper to the assembly.