THE WILDERNESS AND ITS LESSONS
[p. 119] TESTIMONY IN UNITY
I have endeavoured to keep before me the thought that I had from the outset in connection with these opportunities of addressing you. My object was to present the great moral features of Christianity. I have taken them up successively, and come tonight to the close, namely, the subject of testimony in unity. I will, in a few words, go over the ground again for the sake of maintaining the connection, for the more you study scripture, the more you will find how every one truth involves another truth. Truths are not all so many distinct items. There are different truths, and in ministry we may take them up as distinct truths; but you will find that every truth is interwoven with other truths, and that every successive truth you take up involves other truths. In other words, the greatest item of truth which you can take up depends upon some previous truth. I am perfectly satisfied that that is the character of what is presented to us in the New Testament. It was the same in measure in the Old Testament. We are told that no prophecy carries its own interpretation; every book of prophecy is interwoven in the general scheme and framework of prophecy, and you cannot rightly understand any particular prophecy apart from apprehending the place which it has in the whole scheme of prophecy. There is a foundation to all truths, and I judge the gospel to be that foundation; but after that, every truth hangs on some preceding truth.
The subjects which we had before us on previous occasions were light, liberty, and life; and now I want to speak, as I have said, if God enable me, of testimony in unity, involving a great truth which has [p. 120] had much prominence amongst us, the truth of the one body; that is, I want to bring it before you in its moral aspect as testimony. Most of you will remember the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17, “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” — what for? — “that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. The unity of saints was to be the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. You will see, therefore, the intimate connection between unity and testimony. One point more which I will just refer to for a moment, and speak of later on, is this — one great truth which is insisted on through many of the epistles is that of the one body; but the one body does not present the idea of union, it presents to us the thought of unity: that is, that where there had been two bodies, Jew and Gentile, now there is one body. Just as you get here, “We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another”. That is my subject tonight — unity, and in connection with unity, testimony. It is a very interesting subject, because, as I said just now, there is no truth which has been more operative amongst us than the truth of the one body. It has brought most of us out of the different associations in which we once were; we felt that the different things in which we had been brought up were inconsistent with unity. I shall also, by the grace of God, try to show you that if we fail to answer morally to the mind of God in the one body, we become the worst sect that ever was formed. That is a strong statement, but I have not a doubt about the truth of it.
Now I will just retrace a little what has been before us, and you will, I think, see how one truth, leads up to another. The first great truth is the gospel, and the gospel is light, because in it God is revealed, the revelation of God is light. I do not [p. 121] speak now about the effect of light, which is to make manifest, although it is light which does make manifest. To get things made manifest, you must first have the light. Therefore the point is, What is light? and light is the revelation of God in the gospel — in other words, in the gospel God has been pleased to reveal Himself. It is the glory of God in that sense that He has seen fit to reveal Himself, the great object of it being that He may be known according to what He is, that is, love, in the heart of man.
The next characteristic I spoke of was liberty. I took it up in connection with John 4, John 5 and John 6; and sought to show that the great point in chapter 4 is liberty from sin by the Holy Ghost in the believer; in chapter 5, it is deliverance from legality by the revelation of the Father; and in chapter 6 it is deliverance from the world by finding a portion in the Son, as living bread come down from heaven.
My next point was life, which follows on liberty; and what I sought to bring out last week was the new position, and the power to live in that position. Christ having accomplished redemption has put us in an entirely new place before God, “To as many as received him, to them gave he title to take the place of children of God”. The power has come in by which we can live in that place — that is the meaning of John 20. The Lord first says, “Go, tell my brethren, I ascend unto my Father and your Father”, and then afterwards He breathes on them, and says, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost”. I touch on these things because life is essential for the Christian in relation to the new position which Christ has given us the title to take according to the will of the Father. Therefore when it speaks of the place of children in John’s epistle, it says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”. It is the Father’s gift; Christ gives us title to take that place, and the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; you have come into life. But it is life in relation to a position which you never previously occupied before God, a totally new position which never previously belonged to man, which no one ever had till Christ gave it to him according to the Father’s will.
Now I come to another point tonight, and that is the one body, which connects itself very intimately with what I have just been saying. You have to remember that the full height of the thought of God concerning believers is that they should be brought into sonship; in other words, that they should be brought to perfection, to glory, to be fitting companions of Christ. That is not precisely the same thought as that of children, because children is the position which we occupy down here; sonship is identification with Christ in glory, He is “the firstborn among many brethren”. I quite admit that there may be but a shade of difference between the idea of children and that of sons; but there is that shade of difference, although the connection between the two things is very intimate. The full height of the divine counsel in regard to believers is that they should occupy the place of sons: “He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us to sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”; we are predestinated “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. So, too, the same thought is revealed in Hebrews 2, that God is “bringing many sons unto glory”. Now I say the truth of the one body hangs on that, and that is what I want to bring before you tonight, by the grace of God. The connection may not be [p. 123] clearly seen, but I am perfectly assured of its truth. What has rather led me to see it is this — that the truth of one body is introduced in Romans 12, and yet in the previous part of Romans then is no allusion in terms to it that I am aware of. Everything in the first eight chapters of Romans, which is the doctrinal part of the epistle, is in its immediate application individual, and yet one body appears in chapter 12. I argue from this that there must be a sufficient foundation of doctrine in the first eight chapters for the body, else it would hardly be possible for it to be referred to in connection with practice in chapter 12. And as we shall see presently, the body is the thought of God in regard to believers here at this moment. It is not that I get any instruction in Romans as to what the thought of God is in the body; but I get the recognition that believers are one body in Christ, and therefore I look to find in the previous part of the epistle a sufficient basis of doctrine for the body.
I will just refer for a moment to the truth of sonship. It is a curious thing that in scripture sonship is not presented exactly in connection with eternal life viewed as a present blessing; what comes in in that connection is the place of children. Sonship comes in much more in Paul’s doctrine, in connection with the truth of the one body. The way in which we are brought into sonship is faith, “Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus”. The effect of faith is always to bring light into the soul; and thus when the truth of God’s Son is apprehended, light has come into the soul as to God’s thought in man: you have thus the light of it. What makes sonship effective to us is the Spirit of sonship. As scripture puts it, “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. That is how you get into the good of it. It means in a moral [p. 124] sense that the heart is by the Spirit of God in the enjoyment of God’s love, and not only in the enjoyment of God’s love, but able to respond to it in the cry, “Abba, Father”. It is the Spirit of God’s Son in the believer’s heart which cries, Abba, Father. The Spirit makes us conscious thus, that the grace of God has associated us with Christ in glory; God has “predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”, and before I get to glory, I am enabled, by the Spirit of sonship to cry, “Abba, Father”. In that sense, the Spirit discharges two functions in the heart of the believer; He sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and on the other side He enables the believer to cry, “Abba, Father”, because He is the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts.
Now there is only one Spirit of sonship, just as God’s Son is one. I think no one will have the least difficulty in either the one or the other of those statements. The apostle, in Galatians I says, “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me” — God’s Son is one. And what follows on that is equally true, the Spirit of God’s Son is one, there is but one Spirit. Now every believer participates in the Spirit of God’s Son, it is only one Spirit in all believers, no one here has a different Spirit from another; we all partake of one Spirit, and that Spirit is the Spirit of God’s Son; it is not our spirit, “the Spirit bears witness with our spirit”, — that is another matter. It is the Spirit of God’s Son who cries, “Abba, Father”, in the heart of the believer. This is a very important point, for the truth of the one body really hangs on it. “By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit”. It is one body down here, composed of all those “many sons” whom God is bringing to glory, those who believe in God’s Son, and who have received the Spirit of sonship. By receiving the Spirit believers are constituted one body, as the apostle puts it here, “one body in Christ”. And that is what makes me say that while you have not revealed in Romans the doctrine of the one body, you have the basis of it, for in chapter 8 the thought of the Spirit of sonship is introduced; as the apostle says there, “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. I quite admit we are all individually sons of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; but when I come to the Spirit of sonship, by which we cry, “Abba, Father”, what I maintain is that it is the Spirit of God’s Son, and by receiving the Spirit of sonship, we are bound of necessity into one body: it is a heavenly band in Christ, united together in one Spirit, so that we constitute one body. That is what I believe to be the basis of the truth of the one body, and the apostle comes to it here, he says, “We being many are one body in Christ, and members one of another”.
I desire now to say a word about unity in connection with the body. I need not go over the passages, but a great many scriptures will, I think, occur to everybody here. You will find the truth of unity is commonly pressed in scripture in connection with the body. For instance, in this passage in Romans 12, “As the body is one”. You get the same thing in Corinthians, “By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body”. The same truth is taught in Ephesians, “There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling” — that is unity. So also in the early part of Ephesians, “That he might reconcile both unto God in one body”. So, too, in Colossians, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body”. One body is pressed as a great cardinal truth of Christianity, in the sense that in a place where there had been two, Jew and Gentile, now there was one body in Christ. It is “the mystery”, something which cannot be manifest in the public ways of God, but which is made known to faith. In the public ways of God Jew and Gentile cannot be one. How then are they one? What I have brought before you solves the mystery — by receiving the Spirit believers are constituted one body in Christ and members one of another, and thus the obligation to unity is enforced. When Christ comes, Jew and Gentile will not form one body. Both the Jew and the Gentile will be blessed, but the position of the Gentiles will be rather to eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table; they will be blessed subordinately to Israel. Christ will take the place of the Head and Husband of His people, but He will take the place, too, of the Head of the Gentiles. Most of you will remember the very beautiful expressions of Simeon when he took the Child Jesus up in his arms; he said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light for the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel”. That is the position in which Christ properly stands relatively to Gentile and to Jew. But in Christianity, while Christ is hid from Israel, He is made known to faith as Son of God; He is hid, but the Spirit of sonship is given, and the many sons whom God is bringing to glory are constituted one body, because they have received one Spirit. Thus the principle of unity is enforced by the body. Where the thought of union comes in, it is in connection with the place of the church as the bride. What I understand to be taught by union is, that the bride [p. 127] shares the honours of the bridegroom, that all that is given to the bridegroom is shared by the bride. And that is what the church comes into; the exaltation and honour that belong to Christ as Man are shared by the bride. He is raised up and exalted, and so, too, the church is quickened together with Him, and raised up and made to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is not quite the idea of the body: it is the saints being in Christ there, sharing His honour and exaltation — that is, union. Unity comes out in connection with the body, and the body in scripture is commonly spoken of as here, though I do not doubt that the body has its place in the glory, as “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”.
Now I come to the testimony. I think everybody will accept the great truth that the body is one; but when I come to the testimony, that leads me to another thought, which is this — the one body is a practical truth, not a mystical idea. The generality of Christians in sects and systems would admit the existence of the church as one body, but they take it up as a mystical idea, not a practical one. With the exception of the Church of Rome, which in a certain sense does hold to the truth of one body, to the Christians in sects and systems the one body is not a practical truth. They justify the existence of different bodies, and hold that there may be Christians in all of them, as doubtless there are. But that is not the truth of the one body in scripture; one body in scripture is a practical truth, “By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body”. The unity of saints was the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. How could you, apart from one body, get the fulfilment of what the Lord prays for in John 17, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. All Christians were to be constituted one body in Christ; and the unity resulting from this was God’s testimony to the world, that the Father sent the Son. Therefore it was a practical truth. And it has had a great effect in the present time in separating saints from the different bodies in Christendom, and in drawing us together, for we have felt that our fellowship must be consistent with the truth of the one body, as the dial of a clock must be in correspondence to the works. But where I feel we have been defective is in that we have failed to apprehend, as we ought to have done, what the one body was set here for. There is only one thing it was set here for, and that was that the body, being Christ’s body, should be morally descriptive of Christ; there was no other purpose that I know of in the body here. Man was to be displaced in its practice and affections. And I say, if we are not exercised as to that, as to what the divine mind was in the body, we are like salt without savour.
I will give you an idea of the divine purpose in the body. The apostle speaks in Colossians 1 of God making known to the saints what was the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, that is, of the one body; and what was it? “Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” — that was the divine thought. Christ was in the Gentiles in that sense, in the one body, the hope of glory. In a later passage in Colossians it says you have put off the old man and have put on the new, “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but” — what? — “Christ is all, and in all”. It was the body of Christ; every member of the body stood in the same relationship to God as Christ, sons of God, and therefore it follows that, by the Spirit of God, the whole body was to be descriptive [p. 129] of Christ. Study the Epistle to the Colossians, and see if the purpose in the body is not that it should be a vessel for the display here of Christ? Read chapter 3, and see how it was all to come out, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a complaint against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”. Spiritual affections in the power of the Holy Ghost were to carry saints right above the distinctions of flesh; these were not publicly set aside, but there was a power come in by which saints were to be borne superior to them. It is not levelling down or levelling up to make a unity in flesh, or to set aside the distinctions which exist in the government of God; but an energy of spiritual affections, which gave the members of the body to rise superior to the distinctions which existed. The energy of the Spirit of God was in the vessel to reproduce Christ in the body down here. That is the wonderful character of the mystery; what God intended as answer to what Satan had effected. Satan had caused the Son of God to be cast out of the world; and yet here was a vessel in which nothing was to be displayed but Christ Himself — that was the thought of God in the one body. Who can gainsay it for a moment? You cannot read scripture without seeing it; and the unity of the saints was the great testimony that the Father sent the Son. It was not unity in flesh, but in spiritual affection. “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee” — that is, in the reciprocity of affection — “that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”.
I just add a remark. I do not think you can really understand the truth of the body if you are [p. 130] not established in the truth of sonship. As I said at the beginning, one truth in scripture so hangs upon another that if you are not established in sonship, that is, in the purposes of God about you, I feel confident that you cannot really enter into the truth of the one body, as that which is here for Christ. The first thing is to learn that we all stand before God in one common relationship in Christ; having been predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, and that we have all received the Spirit of sonship. If we have got hold of that, the next step is simple, to apprehend that by the very fact of partaking in one Spirit, we are one body in Christ, and members one of another. And then I think we can go a step further, and see that the one body is to be here descriptive of Christ. All that which when He was here was in a sense shut up to Him is now diffused, in the power of the Holy Ghost, in the body in which He is displayed. And then, though that is not my subject now, the one body, as the bride, is to share His exaltation and honour as Man — that is its privilege and portion.
I do not need to say more. I do not think that any one will question the great importance of the different steps I have sought to bring before you. And it is of so much moment to us, because called out as we have been by the truth of unity from the various associations in which we were found, our position is a most critical one; and if we become ecclesiastical and fail to be in the reality of the truth, our position is easily forfeited, we may let it slip almost before we know it. The thing for us is to be really exercised as to what the mind and thought of God was in the one body here upon earth. That one body will be displayed in glory, but it will never be in its testimony here upon earth again. And if we have left different associations because these associations were a practical denial of unity,
[p. 131] then the truth of the one body is really to be fulfilled in measure in us, and we ought to be exercised about it. I quite admit no one of us comes up to it; but I think we ought not to be indifferent to it, or contented with a unity consisting simply in ecclesiastical order.