(5) THE CHURCH AS WITNESS TO GOD'S END
([p. 247] 5) THE CHURCH AS WITNESS TO GOD’S END
I suppose the thought and desire which comes out in this chapter is that the saints here might be qualified to be a witness for God: that appears to be the purport of the prayer. It is plain that the prayer has reference to the spiritual state of the saints; the apostle prays at the beginning that they might be “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man”, and the end of it is that they might be filled unto all the fulness of God. The secret of this is in having the Christ “dwelling in your hearts by faith”. It is the tendency of every one of us to witness of what is dwelling in our hearts; and if Christ is dwelling intelligently in the heart, then we are witnesses of Christ. I think the prayer refers to the apprehension of Christ, not exactly to what Christ has been, but more to what Christ is going to be, and therefore it is “by faith”. It is not so much Christ as a Saviour in relation to us, but more in the light of the Bridegroom, so it takes in all that which belongs to Christ. I say that much in reference to the object of the prayer. The prayer is one that has been thought over many and many a time, and yet it is very little apprehension that one has got of the greatness of it. It shows the great privilege properly attaching to the church, that it should be a witness here to what Christ is according to God, that is, on the part of God, for the accomplishment of His will.
Before I touch on the chapter, I refer for a moment to what I have already spoken of in connection with chapter 2. The point of chapter 2 is the [p. 248] realisation of a change of place, and salvation in a full sense is realised in a change of place. It is a very important point to apprehend that; you and I would be practically saved from the earth and all that is upon it if we realised that we have a place in heaven; it belongs to the saints and no one can defraud them of it; it is the purpose of God in regard to His people. The purpose of God as to Israel involved a place; the wilderness, it has been said, was no part of God’s purpose for His people — they were to dwell with God in God’s own land. And God has purposed that we should dwell with Him in His habitation. It was: “For his great love” (the spring of His work in us really is His great love) “wherewith he loved us”; and the end and purpose of that was that we should dwell with God in His habitation.
Peter conveys the same idea morally when he says, “Christ ... suffered ... the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. That is the end which God has in view, that we should have a place with God in His habitation.
I spoke of salvation as in a sense a means to an end; and the end is, that all that God had foreshadowed should be accomplished in us. Nearness, access, God’s household, and the habitation of God are all set forth in the people of God down here. Salvation is essential to this; if we are not in the reality of it, I do not think the will of God can be well expressed in us down here — one depends upon the other. We get the same principle in John 14; in the early part of the chapter the Lord made known to His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them — that meant there was a place for them where He went, and the Lord would come again and receive them to that place, that where He was, there they might be also. But we also get in that chapter that the Father and the Son will “come unto him” and “make our abode with him”. So in Ephesians 2; on the one hand, God has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus”; but on the other, Jew and Gentile are “builded together for an habitation of God by the Spirit”, that is, that God is dwelling here by the Spirit.
God dwells here that He may be known. In figure that was true as regards the children of Israel; they were to prepare a habitation for God, a “tent” in which He might abide; and the purpose and aim of it was that He might be known. It was the pleasure of God to be known by the people; no other nation had that opportunity at all, but Israel had, for God dwelt among them that He might in measure be known. I can understand some one saying that God was not yet revealed, but evidently there was some sense in which God might be known by the people; you cannot read the books of Moses — the Book of Deuteronomy for instance — without seeing that He purposed to dwell among them that in measure He might be known. We have come to the reality of this. Jew and Gentile are “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”. God has brought us to His dwelling-place, and is made known by the Spirit. We come into the habitation of God with very little knowledge of God; but it is where we can learn God if we are set upon it. When people are first converted, their knowledge of God is limited to the grace of God; I do not think they have much knowledge of God beyond this. But the thought of God is that we should enter into the knowledge of Him, advance in that direction, and into the purpose of His love. There is every encouragement to do it. We find that in the Epistle to the Hebrews; the purpose for which the apostle is writing is to encourage the saints to enter in. All is leading up to that point in chapter 10: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”; and to enter into the holiest is to enter into that which has come out in Christ. The present moment is marked by this, that God has come out in Christ; not only in grace, but in His nature and in the attributes and rights of His nature, and hence it is that we can go in. And “entering in” is not exactly a thing of a moment: you enter in as you are formed by God. The scripture says, “Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love”.
The first Epistle of John is very interesting, as showing the way in which we are led on. I speak especially of chapter 3 where we find righteousness. When a person is brought into the place of a child of God, he begins to recognise the obligations he has in the various relationships in which God has placed him. That is a very important point to wake up to, for every one has to begin with righteousness, and righteousness is the recognition of “ought”, that is, the recognition of obligation. God’s grace comes to us in Christ, we receive by Him forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, and the first thing that marks us as the children of God is the recognition of obligation, and that is on our part righteousness.
But the next point is, that we love the brethren. We are brought into immediate contact with the brethren, and it is useless to say we love God if we do not love the brethren. The test which God proposes to His people down here is the brethren, and “we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”; then in chapter 4 we get access into the love of God.
I do not think we begin with apprehending the love of God and answering to that love; I think [p. 251] we begin with grace and righteousness, then we love the brethren because we are brought into immediate contact with them. And we are led into the apprehension of the love which God has towards us. That is learned in the house of God, we are brought into the habitation of God in order that He may be learned. Then we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
But not only is God love, but there are certain purposes of that love. Love is an active principle, it is so in man, it is not prepared to be quiescent. The love of God cannot be quiescent with regard to evil, and has its purposes which it is going to accomplish. For instance, the purpose of God’s love eternal life, which was ordained in Christ before the world began. I might speak of other things: the promises were all the outcome of divine love, they are purposes of that love. A promise on the part of God must be an expression of purpose; a promise on my part is not necessarily so, but promise on the part of God must originate in the purpose of God; and the promises of God are the purposes of His love. It was the purpose of His love that Israel should possess the land of Canaan; and it was the purpose of God’s love that in Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
In entering the holiest, not only do we get an entrance into the love of God, but an insight into the purposes of that love. I do not think that any one enters into the love of God without getting an apprehension of the purposes of that love. Then if there are the purposes of God’s love, how is God going to accomplish those purposes, things being as they are, both in heaven and on earth? — man being in death, and sin ruling in the world? Israel, too, at the present time under the wrath of God and scattered over the face of the earth, how is God going to bring them into the promises? And [p. 252] then, in face of the discord in the earth at the present time, how is God going to bring all the nations into blessing? The answer is, that God has provided the Man in whom all His purposes can be accomplished suitably to His love. That is what we learn in the holiest; we get an apprehension of Christ, the true ark of the covenant. The kingdom was seen on the mount of transfiguration. So, too, eternal life is brought to pass in the blessed Son of God who can give effect to all the purposes of God, and break all the power of evil.
Now you will get into the truth of that in apprehending the Son as the Object of the Father’s love. It is a great thing to apprehend the Father’s love to us; but it is a greater thing morally to apprehend that “the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand”. It is a wonderful thought that the Son is our Saviour and our Head and our life; but the Son is the Object of the Father’s love, and has had all things given into His hand. What we need to be led into is the power of the grace of God. We want courage to leave the world, and, according to the admonition in Hebrews 10, to “draw near”, and apprehend the One in whom God can give effect to all His purposes. All that is dependent upon the fact of God dwelling here by the Spirit. We are brought into the house of God that all these things might be available to us. And Christ as the Minister of the holy places is to lead us in; and if you ask me where you are to be led into, I do not know where, except into the knowledge of God; but you could not enter into the knowledge of God, if God had not come out. In one sense God could and did come out in a moment but it takes us a long time to enter in, we are so much hindered by things here. We enter in when we are prepared to enter in, as we are formed in the divine nature, so that we are capable of entering into the love of God. “He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God”. We really begin with righteousness and love to the brethren; it is a great thing when a saint is characterised by love to the brethren, he is “passed from death unto life”, and he will enter into the knowledge of God and of the place where the love of God abides in “Christ Jesus our Lord”. I say that in connection with the great gain of being brought into the habitation of God by the Spirit. We form part of that habitation, to be led by the Spirit into the knowledge of God.
If you read Ephesians 3 you will notice that the first part of the chapter down to verse 13 brings out the qualification and suitability of the apostle to pray for the saints. He speaks of his ministry and how that ministry was given to him, and what for; he brings all this in to show his qualification to pray for the saints. The early part of the chapter seems to be parenthetical, showing the apostle’s special right to pray for the Gentiles; and he has shown the reason why he prays for them. They were “builded together for an habitation of God by the Spirit”. The prayer supposes that we have got the good of entering in, that is, that we have got some apprehension of Christ as to what Christ is on the part of God. It is very important to distinguish between what Christ is on our part and what Christ is on the part of God; many who have apprehension of what Christ is on their part have no apprehension of what Christ is on the part of God. When I say “on the part of God”, I mean Christ as the One in whom all the purposes of God’s love are to be accomplished — the Head of all principality and power.
The next point is, that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith. The prayer supposes that the saints are here in the place of the bride, and are [p. 254] taken up with the interests of the Bridegroom, or the interests of God in the Bridegroom. We apprehend the Son as the One whom the Father loves and into whose hands the Father has given all things; but great as Christ is in that way, HE is the Bridegroom, and it is only natural that the Bridegroom should dwell in the heart of the bride: I think that is the thought that appears in the early part of the prayer. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”. Our profession is, that we have gone forth to meet the Bridegroom; we are fasting because the Bridegroom is absent, but the Bridegroom is coming, and while we are looking for Him, He dwells in our hearts by faith. I think that all of us are looking for the introduction of what I may call God’s world, that world in which God will be glorified and man blessed. It is not simply that one is looking to go to heaven — I know I have a place there — but I am looking for the appearing of Jesus Christ, in order that all God’s purposes may be brought into effect in Him. We are looking to see God glorified in this world in everything being headed up in Christ. We want to see everything in His hand. “Hand” in Scripture is usually symbolic of power — the Father has given everything into His power, and we want to see this. The point of the prayer is, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”. It is wonderful to apprehend the relation that exists between Christ, as Bridegroom, and the bride. The church is in a way new, it is not part of the old. “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it”; and He is active at the present moment in regard to it, that is, He is sanctifying and cleansing it with the washing of water by the word, and He is going “to present it ... a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing”. That is what the church is in the eye of Christ, and what Christ is [p. 255] effecting in regard to it — and the church is responsive (or ought to be responsive) to the love of Christ, Christ should be dwelling in our hearts by faith.
May God give us to enter into the prayer of the apostle. The apostle had a title to pray that no one else ever had, and he used that title, he “bowed his knees”; and we ought to be in concert with the apostle. The apostle knew very well that much could not be brought about by ministry, therefore he prayed. Ministry is after all comparatively a feeble thing, there is not power in it to effect anything; the saints may be enlightened by it, but they can only be affected by the Spirit. And therefore the apostle bowed his knees. In the anticipation of the coming day and the power of Christ, what a thing it would be if the Christ were dwelling in all our hearts by faith, that we might be rooted and grounded in love. It supposes that we have really got the gain of God’s house, then it is that we are “able to comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height” of all that God has given to the Son. The Lord said in John 16, speaking of the Comforter: “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. “All things” is a very large expression; evidently it covers much. And we comprehend the “breadth and length and depth and height”. The secret of understanding is, that our hearts are in accord with God. There is nothing unsuitable there, if we have the Christ dwelling by faith in our hearts; then it is that we “comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height”.
And one thing more. We get here what I may call the atmosphere of the moral universe. Of course the word atmosphere conveys a material idea, but I think the word may be applied in a moral sense. In any company there is a certain moral [p. 256] atmosphere. Well, now, in the world to come, in that which God will manifest in Christ in the accomplishment of His purposes, a certain moral atmosphere will prevail, and the moral atmosphere is set in motion by the love of Christ. Just as the sun gives an impulse to light in the physical universe, so in the moral universe the impulse will be given from the Sun of righteousness. Now the apostle prays here that we may “know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God”.
I think the object of the prayer is, as I said before, that we may be here in the place of witness for Christ; Christ is the fulness of God, and we are to be filled unto all the fulness of God — suitable and competent in that way. Having a sense of divine love and divine wisdom, of the ability of God to give effect to the purposes of His love, we are to be here as witnesses to the love of Christ. As Abraham was allowed to view the land, so we apprehend “the breadth and length and depth and height”, and “we know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled unto all the fulness of God”.
God is to be glorified in the church. That is what the apostle finishes up with: “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages”. The church is the heavenly city in which God will be glorified. There is a vessel in which perfection will be, “Having the glory of God, and her light like unto a stone most precious”. All that God is in His grace and goodness and righteousness will be set forth in the church in the ages to come. That is what God has purposed.
Now the end is, that we might be “filled unto all the fulness of God” — that saints might be livingly in the place of witness for Christ. I quite admit that the Scriptures have their place of witness — [p. 257] the Scriptures testify of Christ — but the living witness for Christ down here is the church. But the Spirit is not only dwelling here in the church, but is active, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. What a disclosure it will be on the part of God when He brings in the First-begotten, the Son of God, and everything is gathered up in Him for God’s glory. And that is what God has before Him, and what we learn in connection with Christ. Looking abroad on the world as it is now, what a scene it is! The atmosphere of the world is ambition and covetousness. What will be the atmosphere of the world when everything is according to God, when the Bridegroom — Christ — comes in, and has His own proper place? What was the atmosphere in the little company around Christ when He was on earth? It was His love; they poorly understood it, but there it was, and it will be so when God comes in in power, when we are filled unto all the fulness of God.
I add just one word more. This is only a passing moment in the ways of God; God has prolonged it for wise reasons; but it is only a passing moment. There is an end in view with God (in all His past dealings there was an end in view), and it is a great thing to get an apprehension of what God’s end is, and to learn how God is going to accomplish that end suitably to Himself. And if we get an apprehension of this, we have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith.