(3) SALVATION, AND THE SETTING FORTH OF GOD'S WILL IN THE SAINTS
([p. 226] 3) SALVATION, AND THE SETTING FORTH OF GOD’S WILL IN THE SAINTS
I was referring last time to two things which are spoken of in connection with the gospel, namely, forgiveness of sins and inheritance; and to show us what the inheritance is, we get unfolded in the first chapter of Ephesians the purpose of God to gather up in one all things in Christ. And then the Spirit is spoken of as the earnest of the inheritance. It would be difficult to get the thought of the inheritance unless we saw God’s purpose to head up in one all things in Christ. That is a very important consideration for us. The will of God is not yet manifest, it is hitherto mystery, no man sees it. It is not seen in this world, for there is confusion there, and it is certain that cannot exist where the will of God is. God “has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will”. Whenever you find in the New Testament the thought of mystery, it refers to something which is made manifest to faith. When the Lord spoke of the mysteries of the kingdom He expounded the parables; and the apostle Paul said, “That I may ... make known the mystery of the gospel”. When the ways of God all come to an issue and everything is made manifest, it is evident there will be no longer mystery; but it is equally evident that there is mystery at the present time.
Christ is the Sun of righteousness, not yet risen above the horizon of man’s vision but hidden at the right hand of God. He will arise “with healing in his wings”; but what is now made manifest to [p. 227] faith is, that all things are headed up in Christ; when everything comes into display, all things will be subdued to Christ. The purpose of God’s will is, I take it, that all things may be subdued to Christ, so that all may be held in unity.
Now I want to show the place which the church has in the scheme of God. Nothing can be of more importance than that we should apprehend the divine scheme “in Christ”. “In Christ” is a peculiar expression, and one of great moment. Properly speaking it contemplates Christ as the great Head and vessel of God’s purpose; and hence if I think of Christ, what comes before my mind is the system of which Christ is the Head and the Centre. It is a great thing for us to have not only Christ before us, but the system and order of things which God has purposed in Christ. Whatever promises there are of God, in Christ is the yea, and in Him the Amen. The fact is, that in the foreshadowing of things (as in the Old Testament), God had before Him the whole system which it was His purpose to establish in Christ. Of course this did not come to light before Christ came; but now that Christ has come, there is an expression which is extremely common in the New Testament — “all things”. “All things that the Father hath are mine”. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father”. The “all things” are, of course, the things which are centred in Christ — they are delivered to Him of His Father.
As I have said before, my point is to bring before you the place which the church has in this system. This comes out specially in the early part of this chapter. Then we can see the consequences of that place which God has been pleased to assign to the church in Christ Jesus. There is no doubt that when these things take possession of the heart of man, they produce a revolution in his ways down [p. 228] here. They have the greatest effect in regard to our walk, because the place that we have must occupy the attention largely with another order of things, and in view of this everything connected with this world becomes comparatively small and unimportant. God has His own weapons and means, and will use them to deal with the present course of things; it will all have to pass away to make room for that system which God has designed in Christ Jesus.
Now in the early part of the chapter (verses 1 - 10) there are two thoughts that appear, namely, our place, and that which is intimately connected with it, salvation. I want to make plain that salvation, in a full sense, is connected with a change of place. If there were not in regard to us such a thought as a change of place, it would be impossible to realise salvation in its full sense. It says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith HE loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”. The thought of salvation comes out here manifestly in connection with a change of place; therefore I will dwell, first, on the change of place, and then on salvation in connection with the change of place. Then we can see that we are left here in the knowledge of the change of place, and in the reality of salvation, in order that everything that is of God may be maintained through us. You may depend upon it, God never sent us into the world simply to get our living and bring up our families. God sent us into the world (He first took [p. 229] us out of it in a way) in order that what is of Him might be maintained through us.
No one can gainsay that there is a change of place for the Christian, because you and I were born for the earth, and all that we had naturally was connected with the earth. The expectation which men commonly entertain of going to heaven is fallacious. God may give a man title to heaven, but there is nothing of that kind naturally attaching to man down here. When God created Adam there was no idea of his going to heaven, that was no part of his life down here, there was no such hope then attaching to him. And in regard of man departed from God, there can be no idea of his going to heaven. Man’s life is connected with the earth, and does not properly go beyond the earth — except that beyond death there is judgment. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. Scripture does not say: “It is appointed unto men to go to heaven”. But we find in the early part of this chapter that God has wrought (it is the work of God that is contemplated), in connection with the system which He has purposed in Christ, to quicken Jew and Gentile with Christ, and raise them up together, and make them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. According to the work of God, Christians are made to sit in the “heavenly places”, but that is a question of God’s sovereignty: man’s work never can form a claim to heaven. Man’s works might form a kind of claim to live on earth, but not at all of going to heaven. The law said, “Do this, and live”; but the idea of going to heaven was never entertained, and our going to heaven involves, in the first place, God’s sovereignty. He has made Jew and Gentile sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus with a purpose of His own, “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”. The church is to be the vessel in which the “exceeding riches of God’s grace” are set forth; and hence it is that the nations of the earth walk in the light of the holy Jerusalem.
Now in this great scheme of God’s purpose in Christ our part is not upon earth. There are those who will have their part, in connection with this scheme, on earth, because God will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth. But God has not given us a place on earth. That is a very important consideration. The Lord spoke of going to prepare a place for His disciples; and He was coming again to receive them to Himself, that they might be with Him in the place which He had gone to prepare.
And now the work of God in us has reference to the place which God has appointed to us in the scheme He has purposed in Christ Jesus. To enter into that thought, the first thing is to get hold of the scheme of God’s purpose to head up in one all things in Christ Jesus; and the next consideration is our place in that scheme, and the object of it, that the church in the ages to come may be the witness and vessel of the exceeding riches of God’s grace. What can be more remarkable, when one considers their alienation from God and from one another, than that Jew and Gentile should be raised up together in order that in them the exceeding riches of God’s grace might be set forth! What a change it indicates as regards Jew and Gentile, for how could the riches of God’s grace be set forth in them if they were not in perfect accord with God? But the fact is, that God in His rich mercy has called us, and we have been affected and influenced by the love of God. Even those in whom God has not wrought in the same manner will here upon earth walk in the light of the heavenly city, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honour [p. 231] unto it. It is blessed to contemplate the place which the church has in the scheme in Christ Jesus. It is a great vessel coming down from God out of heaven — the holy Jerusalem, the city which presents the kingdom and rule of God — which in the presence of the universe is the public witness of the exceeding riches of God’s grace.
Now you will see the change of place. If you think of yourselves in connection with the scheme of God in Christ Jesus, your place is heaven. It is a great thing for the mind to entertain the change of place. The thought of the change of place is brought in in connection with salvation, for the apostle says, “By grace ye are saved”, and he repeats this, “By grace ye are saved”, adding “through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God”. The apostle was writing to the Ephesians to show them the true condition of salvation, and he emphasises salvation; for unless we are in salvation, the will of God cannot fully come out in us. If Christians are entangled in the world system, evidently they must be more or less in bondage; and while they are in bondage, it is impossible that the will of God can come out clearly in them. I think it is a very painful consideration at the present time that Christians so much regard their status and interests in the world — and in attaching so much importance to these, they greatly hinder and obscure the expression of God’s will in them. Salvation is a most important consideration for every one. When the Lord comes, and you are taken to heaven, you will realise salvation very fully; salvation will be connected then with a change of place. So it says, “He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation”.
It has occurred to me that we get in Jonah an illustration of salvation. Jonah says, “I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;
[p. 232] I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of Jehovah”. Then it adds, “And Jehovah spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land”. That conveys to my mind very simply that salvation is connected with a change of place. There was no salvation for Jonah while in the fish’s belly; but when Jonah comes to the point that salvation is of Jehovah, then he is vomited out on the dry land: Jonah realises salvation.
Israel could not realise salvation in Egypt — God did not intend them to; neither when they were between the Egyptians and the Red Sea, there was no salvation there. But when they were on the other side of the Red Sea, and the waters had swallowed up their enemies, then they could say: “Salvation is of Jehovah” — their place was changed; and if we want to enter into the reality of salvation now, it must connect itself with the apprehension of a change of place. And if I apprehend the divine scheme and our place in that scheme, I am delivered from the influence and entanglements of this present world. And that is a very important point for us, if the will of God is to be set forth in man down here. It would be a strange thing to translate a beggar into the palace of the king. But what has occurred in regard to us? We have been taken up from earth where we had forfeited all — God has taken us up from the scene of moral death, and has set us in “heavenly places” in Christ. When I was alive in the world I was subject to the judgment of death; it is another thing entirely now. I apprehend (and every Christian is entitled to apprehend) the place that God has given us in that scheme in Christ.
Salvation does not come out in the same way in regard to Israel, for their place has already been changed. They will be delivered from their enemies, the Lord will be their Saviour, and they will be [p. 233] brought back to their place in the land. But we are not brought back to the land, we never had a place in the land at all, but God has given us a new place, and in the apprehension of that place we are brought into the reality of salvation down here; and I can conceive of nothing more important than to be delivered from the entanglements of this world.
I pass on now to the latter part of the chapter (verses 13, 18, 19, 21, 22). We have here different points of God’s will which are to have their expression in the saints; and all hangs on the realisation of salvation, that is, that a revolution has really been wrought in the mind of the Christian. He has been brought to the surrender of worldly status and interest in the apprehension of the place that God has given to him in Christ Jesus. Now the object of this is that the will of God might be maintained in us at the present moment: not the will of God in regard to things in heaven, but the will of God in regard to things down here.
The first thought we have is of nearness, we are “become nigh”; then in verse 18 we have access; in verse 19 we are “fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God”; in verse 21 we get the thought of the temple; and in verse 22 the “habitation of God through the Spirit”. Now no thought in all that is really new — for all these things had been shadowed beforehand. The thought “ye are become nigh” is dispensationally nigh, Israel had been dispensationally nigh. Access is not exactly a new thought, because access in a limited way had been set forth in Israel, the priests entered into the holy place. Then the household of God is not a new thought, for Israel had come under God’s care and protection, they had in a sense enjoyed the privileges of the household of God. The “temple of God” is not a new thought, the temple of God [p. 234] was built in connection with the kingdom. Again, the “habitation of God” was not new, for in the wilderness God was there — Israel prepared a tabernacle that He might dwell among them.
Thus we get a number of thoughts which are not new, but the point is, that these thoughts, having been set forth as the will of God, are to be maintained now in those who are in the enjoyment of salvation. It is a great thing to see that divine thoughts are not allowed to lapse, but that they are now maintained in the saints.
The priests did not enter into the holiest of all; but we enter in, and the ground of our entering in is that we have a place in heaven. If we did not know that God had designed a place for us there, I cannot see how we should have the power to enter in. But if we enter in, it means that everything that is of God and for God is maintained in us. That is what we are set here for at the present time. Jew and Gentile are become nigh by the blood of Christ; that is, they are dispensationally nigh. They have access to the Father, reality of access too. The truth is that we are in the light of the revelation which God has been pleased to give of Himself. The revelation of God in regard to Israel was very limited; they had God in a sense, but God had not yet come out. The truth now is, that God has come out, and we are privileged to be in the light of this; we have access through Jesus by one Spirit to the Father. It is part of the will of God, that we are nigh; and we have access, for that too is part of God’s will. Then we are fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God — coming under the care and discipline of God. As Israel was under the discipline of God, so in a very much more real way are the saints who are of the household of God. God provides food for His household, and the household comes under His eye.
[p. 235] If a man neglects his own household, he is a bad father. I care for my household and am concerned that they should have food. And so in regard to God’s household, He cares for it, ministers to it, furnishes food for it, the household is under His discipline and care.
Then there is the thought of a holy temple. The oracles of God are found there. “All the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord”. In the Epistle to the Corinthians the apostle goes so far as to say that they were God’s temple. The light and oracles of God were there, as in the temple in Jerusalem. But still another thought comes out, that God is dwelling here by the Spirit; and that means great blessing for those among whom God dwells. When God dwelt in Israel, He was the blessing in their midst; the very fact of His dwelling was fraught with blessing for them; and in the future I have no doubt that God will be the blessing in the midst of Israel, and Israel a blessing in the midst of the nations.
Now all these things were part of God’s will. They are things which are for God, things which God had foreshadowed, and which are to be maintained in the saints. We have not an earthly portion nor an earthly place. In a sense we have no tie to earth. I venture to say that on earth there is really nothing indispensable to us. There is one thing which is indispensable to us, and that is Christ. The great point is that our links, properly speaking, are above, we have a place and associations above; and because of it we have privilege to enter in, and to be free from entanglements here, and thus we are fitted to set forth what is of God here. When Jacob began to form attachments in connection with earth, God came in in the way of discipline; and the same is true in regard to us [p. 236] here. If we form attachments on earth, it is extremely likely that God will come in in discipline. And why? Because God would have us realise that our place in connection with His scheme in Christ is not on earth but heaven. Thus it is that salvation is a reality to us, and God’s will can be maintained in us here.
God has made known that place to us that we may “enter in”! It is a wonderful thing that at the present time we have the privilege of entering in, that is, that we may be in the secret of God. The secret of God is the purpose of His will in Christ. All will come out in the time to come, but in the meantime we are left here to hold the ground for the will of God.