UNION
UNION
The idea of union is being brought to Christ where Christ is. Two great thoughts come out in Scripture in regard to Christians — association and union, and the latter is more limited than the former. Association is connected with the Son of God, while union is with the exalted Man; association is a greater thought than union. The thought of association comes out in sonship; and then when the inheritance is brought in we get the thought of union. The practical bearing and meaning of union is that saints share in all that belongs to the Bridegroom; the bride shares with Him as Eve shared all that belonged to Adam. We do not get the idea of association in connection with Adam, but we do of union. We are associated with Christ as the Son of God, but we are united to Him as the exalted Man at the right hand of God. Both thoughts are unique, and belong to the church only; they are not co-extensive, the one is greater than the other. Rebecca is united to Isaac for His comfort, and she shares all that belongs to Him. The place of the bride as a faithful spouse is to stand to the truth that all centres in Him.
We never have sonship in common with Christ; while we share sonship, we can never be sons of God in the sense that Christ is. The whole object of God in predestinating us to be conformed to the image of His Son is that He might have the place of pre-eminence — “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. But we share the inheritance in common with Christ. If we speak of the Son of God, it brings in the thought of what is proper to Him. But Christ has gone up to heaven, and has carried all [p. 203] the interests of God there, and the bride is to stand faithful to the Bridegroom. I refuse to have any part in the interests of this world. The poorer a man is, the better off he is spiritually, for he is less handicapped. Children are not very good judges of what is best for them, nor are Christians. The poor man is the least encumbered with the interests of the world; having food and raiment he is therewith content, but when people get rich it is surprising how they come under the influence of the world.
The bride does not bring in the idea of the worshipping company. Mr. Darby pointed out that our place as sons is greater than that of the bride. Christ takes a place in connection with the “many sons”; sonship brings in the thought of affection Godward, and worship is connected with this. If we do not view things aright we do not get the true gain of them; it is an immense thing to get into the secret of God’s mind, for it is according to His mind that the Spirit works in us.
In the end of Ephesians 1 we get the exaltation of Christ as Man, and then in chapter 2 we get the church exalted — raised up with Him, and seated in Him. We have a place above; we have none here; and now the point is, that while we are here upon earth we should be faithful to the interests of Christ. God has not a single interest on earth connected with earth; every divine interest on earth has been taken up to heaven by Christ, and until He comes out of heaven nothing will be put right here, but meanwhile we are to be faithful to Christ’s interests here. The papal system says, “I am no widow”; but the true place of the church is that of a widow. It is a time of fasting because the Bridegroom is not here. It is wonderful to apprehend Jesus as the glorified, exalted Man, and that we have a place where He is; the effect is that out of our inward parts flow rivers of living water.
[p. 204] We do not touch union apart from appreciation of the affection of Christ. Association and union are collateral, but I should not like to say that one was dependent on the other; they are two distinct lines of things. Sonship is true of any one when he has the Spirit of God’s Son, and yet many have received the Spirit who are not in the conscious reality of sonship. It is the same in regard to union; every Christian who has received the Spirit is in principle united to Christ; but if a person claims to be in the power of it he ought to be able to give some account of it. Saints are hindered from entering on these things consciously because they are occupied with the interests of earth; they do not enter into what is involved in Christ having left the earth and having gone to heaven. When Christ was here the earth was recognised, and therefore it was right, in a way, for people to take up the interests of earth. There were promises connected with earth, but now, Christ having gone to heaven, every interest of God connected with the earth has been carried to heaven. Now the apostle speaks in a condemnatory way of those “who mind earthly things”. When there is blessing on earth again the movement must come from heaven.
Sonship is dependent upon the revelation of God as the Father; the moment the Son comes into view God is revealed as Father. John 20 gives us association; the thought of it is in Psalm 22, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”. The best type of association is Aaron and his sons. Access to God depends upon the measure in which we appreciate the love of God; as we appreciate the love of Christ we enter into union. You must distinguish between what is connected with the Son of God coming out from God to reveal God, and what is connected with Christ as the exalted Man. “All of one” is association in the mind of God, all of one stock and origin, all of the love of God, “for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. I should not be ashamed of my brother or of my sister, for we are all of the same source. Association is, as I have said, greater than union; association puts you in company with the Son of God, though you cannot share in all that belongs to the Son of God; but we can share in all that belongs to the exalted Man. In association we can be in company with Him, and He can be in company with us. Christ breathed into the disciples in John 20, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. We could not impart the Spirit, but we do stand in company with the One who can.
The inheritance is every interest of God in heaven and earth; Christ the exalted Man has taken everything up to heaven, and the bride has to be faithful to that, and she therefore stands apart from every interest connected with the earth. The departure in the church was that she left her first love, and thus she ceased in principle to be a witness; she ceased to appreciate the love of Christ. The place of the church as witness is that she is faithful to the fact that there are no interests of God on earth connected with the earth, and we have to be in spirit clean outside of it all, and in the sense that every interest is secured and established in Him, that every interest has been carried up to heaven, and the church is left here as a witness to that.
The great thing is to get back to the Spirit. Popery came in, and High Churchism which is the same in principle. Men connected with that system feel the need of a system which has the claim and merit of continuation as the ground of their confidence. Then dissenters want a written faith — the letter of the truth — as the ground of their confidence. But the only true ground of confidence is the Spirit as witness. The reformers did not go far enough; they depended upon the letter, but the Spirit is the Witness, and if we are in the Spirit’s witness we shall be set free from [p. 206] all that obscures and hides the church here. The Spirit forms us by the knowledge of love; it is by the knowledge of God’s love that every Christian is formed, and in that way we are fitted to enter into association and union with Christ. The living water springing up leads us to the appreciation of Christ. Protestantism makes everything of the letter of Scripture, but the Spirit is what we have to depend upon; it is the Spirit who is the witness to Christ. Mr. Darby said that divine words could only be understood as divine things were known. Scripture is the divinely given form of the truth, but I learned everything by the Spirit before I got it from Scripture.
“The hope of his calling” (verse 18). The calling refers to the first few verses in the chapter; the calling carries you to heaven. Here the inheritance is “in the saints”; in the early part of the chapter the inheritance is in Christ. The inheritance is all that has been taken up in Christ, but it is to be made good in the saints. God took up the land of Canaan in Israel, but He takes up all the inheritance for the saints and in the saints. Whatever God has taken up in Christ the saints will come into the enjoyment of, and God will have His pleasure and rest in seeing the saints enjoy it.
Ques What is it to be in heavenly places in Christ?
All spiritual blessings belong to courts above. All that is properly priestly belongs to heaven. We come in anticipation into what belongs to courts above. There is much that is priestly which does not connect itself with what is within the veil, but the higher functions of priesthood properly belong to heaven.
Ques What are “spiritual sacrifices”?
Hebrews 13 is a very good explanation of that. Sacrifices call for self-denial; a man might spend his substance upon himself, but instead of that he does good and communicates. We enter the holiest as the [p. 207] sanctified company in virtue of association with Christ. Sacrifices are always Godward, but you may have man in view in offering them; Christ offered Himself to God, but for us. I connect the golden altar more with Israel; it was in the holy place. Nothing was within the veil save the Ark.
People will not master divine things by the study of Scripture; we must not put Scripture in place of the Spirit. The Scriptures give the light of God’s mind, but the Spirit alone can give the consciousness of divine things.