THE UNIQUE CALLING AND NATURE OF THE CHURCH

THE UNIQUE CALLING AND NATURE OF THE CHURCH

Very slowly we accept the great fact that every one in Christ is a new creation; no saint who is not a member of Christ’s body will be in this wondrous nearness, old things passed away, all become new, and all of God. God does not acknowledge, in the place where Christ is rejected, any one but Christ, that is, you must be a part of Him, “all of one”. “Why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9: 4). This accounts for the unique and peculiar position of the church. The blessed God would not countenance a Moses or a David on the earth where Christ is rejected; if man rejects the greatest, God could not allow a lesser to take His place; none of us could be here for God, if we were not part of Christ, and the moment Christ rises from the Father’s throne to take His true place, the church, His body is left here no longer, and though there will be saints on the earth after the removal of the church, there will be none with the Holy Ghost dwelling in them, and thus altogether apart from man after the earthly order. I say all this because no one will understand discipline, the end of which is to be made partakers of God’s holiness (a word only used once in scripture) except he apprehends that the believer, now the member of Christ’s body, must be divested of everything which is in any way in common with the man on the earth who refused Christ, whether of the Jew or of the Gentile. Hence there is no true sanctification now, but as we are severed from everything here, as Christ is. “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified” (John 17: 19). There will be no saint on the earth of the order of John 17 after Christ rises from the Father’s throne; the rejection then will be over, and He assumes His rightful place here, and His people are made willing in the day of his power. I believe wonderful light breaks in on one when one apprehends that it is the purpose and pleasure of the blessed God to surround with the fullest and highest blessing every one given to His Son in the day of His rejection. Varied indeed are the families, earthly and heavenly, but they are not in any particular in equality with the body of Christ. With sincere desire for your true happiness and service I venture to say all this to you, because I am assured of the deep blessing you will receive in seeing the unique calling and nature of the church.