CHAPTER IV

THE CHURCH IN ITS DIVINE

CONSTITUTION AND IN ITS

RESPONSIBLE HISTORY

Before going on to the future aspect of the kingdom, it will be convenient at this point to indicate the relation between the kingdom and the church, and to consider some of the leading features of the latter both in its wonderful character on the divine side, and in its responsible history on earth.

After it became evident that the Lord would be rejected by the nation of Israel (Matt 11: 20-30; 12: 38-45), we find that He tested the disciples as to how far they apprehended the truth of who He, the Son of man was, Matt 16: 13, etc.. Simon Peter, divinely enlightened by the Father’s revelation, confessed that He was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and the Lord then revealed for the first time that on this rock He would build His church 3 (or assembly) in which Peter 3 This word (Greek ekklesia) would be familiar to the disciples, as it had already been frequently used by the translators of the Greek Septuagint, especially in the later books of the Old Testament, to represent one of the Hebrew words rendered ‘congregation’ or 55

would have part as a “living stone”, and against which the enemy who had the power of death (the gates of hades) would not prevail. The name which the Lord had previously given him (John 1: 42) is here emphasised, and its significance now comes to light. In the Greek there is a close connection (lost in the English translation) between the name Peter (petros a stone) and the rock (petra) indicating that the material which the Lord would build into this spiritual structure is entirely in keeping with the character of the foundation. The stones are said to be “living” (1 Pet 2: 5) because they partake of the resurrection life of the Son of God (compare John 14: 19, “because I live ye shall live also”) and no thought of failure can be connected with the church on this side.

‘assembly’ in English Bibles. As used by the Lord and the New Testament writers it represents something entirely new and distinct from the old national assembly of Israel. Although the idea of ‘building’ in connection with the church is often used in a figurative way, it never, in the New Testament, has the sense of a material structure such as the house of God in Israel. It appears that the Greek word was originally used for the assembly of the citizens (‘called out’ or summoned for state purposes) in the several small city states in ancient Greece.

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The structure formed of living material built up in the divine nature—the holy love which has come to light in the Son of God is invulnerable.

In view of the different interpretations current as to the meaning of the Lord’s word to Peter in Matthew 16, it is important to see that everything hangs on the truth as to who the Son of man is. That which was revealed by the Father and confessed by Peter was the truth as to His Person, not only His official title as the Christ but His relationship with God as Son. This is the rock on which Christ builds His church. As Man here on earth it was given to the Son to have life in Himself, and He quickens whom He will. He could say I am the resurrection and the life, and those who had died, such as Lazarus, heard His voice and lived, John 5 and 11. It was not possible therefore that He Himself should be held by the power of death, Acts 2: 24; Rev 1: 18. Having become obedient even unto death in the accomplishment of the will of God, it was demonstrated by His resurrection that He was the Son of the living God. He Himself has thus become the full witness of the power of resurrection life, in a new condition of manhood. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, death has no more dominion over Him; and the power of death was broken also for those who believe on His name. When the truth as to the rock is apprehended it helps us to understand how 57

Peter could be spoken of as a pattern “stone”

by divine formation, thus partaking of the nature of the “rock”, as is explained and also applied to the believers to whom he wrote in his first epistle, further referred to below.

It is worthy of note that this, the first mention of the church has to do with its divine constitution as a spiritual formation built by the Son of God, a conception of the church which Christians generally have found difficulty in apprehending. Unless we get some impression of the church on the divine side, we shall not be able rightly to face the truth of the breakdown and ruin on the side of its responsible history. With the verses as to the church in Matthew 16, may be compared the Lord’s teaching in John 10 as to His sheep (given to Him by the Father) whom He leads out of the Jewish fold and for whom He lays down His life in flesh and blood, taking it again in a new condition, that He may give them life eternal; and also the reference to His other sheep not of that fold, whom He must also bring that there may be one flock one Shepherd. Here we see an anticipation of the apostle Paul’s teaching as to the formation of the “one body” out of Jew and Gentile, Christ by His death having annulled the enmity and brought in peace, that He might form the two in Himself into one new man. “The mystery of the Christ” and how He lives in His body the church (Eph 2 and 3; Col 1) is dealt with further on.

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The Lord then promised in Matt 16: 19, to give Peter a special place of administration (“the keys”) in the introduction of the kingdom in its present aspect. This we see him exercising in the power of the Holy Spirit first in regard to the Jews (Acts 2: 38) and then the Gentiles (Acts 10: 47-48), baptism by water to the crucified and risen Lord giving the entrance for the believer and his house into this new kingdom position on its outward side (Acts 16: 15, 33), even as the nation of Israel was baptised typically (1 Cor 10: 2) in the waters of the Red Sea, and thus found salvation from bondage to the Egyptian world system, that they might be free to serve God.

The kingdom and the church run on concurrently during the present period. True believers who have received the Holy Spirit and confess Christ as Lord, and are thus in the truth and power of the kingdom, have also been “baptised into one body” (the church) by one Spirit (1 Cor 12: 13), and constitute collectively the house of God as indwelt by His Spirit.

It was God’s pleasure in His sovereign mercy to take up sinful men with a view of giving them a place in this spiritual structure, the sanctuary where He dwells—no longer a material building as in Israel—constituting them “boards” in the “true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man” (Heb 8: 2), and “living stones” in the “spiritual house”

(1 Pet 2: 4-5) where as a holy priesthood they 59

are qualified to carry on the divine service after a spiritual order, compare John 4: 23-24. This necessitated the work of redemption and the establishment of the kingdom in grace and power at the present time in the Lord Jesus, in order that by the reception of the gospel and by the formative work of the Spirit, believers might become material suited for the church.

Peter begins his first epistle by showing how believers become “living stones”. They are chosen of God through sanctification of the Spirit, and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. They are begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, born again of incorruptible seed by the living word of God, the word of the Lord that abides for ever, which was preached to them in the gospel, and they are set together as a brotherhood to love one another out of a pure heart fervently. When individual questions are settled and we are established in the truth of the gospel we are free to go on to that which is collective. In the appreciation of Christ as a living stone, chosen of God and precious, though rejected by men, believers come to Him as living stones by divine formation and are built up a spiritual house.

In carrying out the divine thought the apostles and Prophets of the New Testament had a special place of prominence, being identified with the foundation which was laid by them instrumentally in their ministry, Eph 60

2: 20. Along with this there is also the work of God both in preparing the way for the reception of the ministry, and in making it effective in the production of the right kind of moral and spiritual material and fitting it together into the structure.

This is exemplified in a remarkable way in the account given by the apostle Paul in his epistles, of the exercises through which he passed in carrying out his service as minister of the gospel, in relation to the cross of Christ (1 Cor 1 and 2), the resurrection of Christ (1

Cor 15), and the glory of Christ (2 Cor 3 to 6); and the way in which the power of God made it effective, the ministry of the spirit of the new covenant and the ministry of reconciliation leading on to “new creation” and conscious knowledge of a “man in Christ”, 2 Cor 12. A distinctive feature of Paul’s preaching from the outset was that Jesus is the Son of God, Acts 9: 20; Gal 1: 16; Rom 1: 1-6. He tells us that the gospel of God is concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; One great enough not only by His death and resurrection to meet all the need of men, breaking the power of sin and death, and to establish the kingdom for protection and security, but who also brought in sonship according to its true divine character in a new order of manhood in His own Person, and as the end in view in the gospel brings men into sonship according to the good pleasure of God’s will. Paul repeatedly speaks of the gospel preached by 61

him as “my gospel”, “our gospel”; and he describes it as “the gospel of God”, “of the grace of God” “of the glory of God”, also as “the gospel of God’s Son”, “of the Christ”, “of our Lord Jesus Christ”, “of the glory of the Christ”

(all KJV). His numerous references to the gospel in his epistles indicate its wonderful fulness and its many and varied features. It is connected not only with the kingdom in its present aspect as we have seen in chapter III, but it has in view also the church. After developing his gospel in the epistle to the Romans he closes in chapter 16 by referring to “the revelation of the mystery” and in Ephesians 6 he speaks of making known “the mystery of the gospel” (v 19 KJV), both being allusions to the Church in an aspect especially revealed to him.

THE APOSTLE PAUL AS MINISTER

OF THE CHURCH

The formation of the church began with the Jewish believers at the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) but it was not until after the Gentiles had been brought in that the truth was fully unfolded as to its peculiar and distinctive character. The vessel of this revelation was the apostle Paul who was converted by light from the Lord Jesus glorified in heaven, which convicted him that in persecuting the church in his religious zeal, he was persecuting Christ Himself in His members on earth. His consequent complete 62

deliverance from Judaism (Phil 3: 4-10) prepared him for his special mission as minister both of the gospel and the church towards the Gentiles. In several of his epistles he speaks of the church not only as the house or habitation of God, and as the temple or shrine where divine light is now available and the mind of God may be known, the saints collectively as indwelt by the Spirit of God taking the place of the material temple in Israel (Ps 27: 4), but also, which was an entirely new thing, as the “one body”, “the body of Christ” in which national and social antagonistic distinctions, jealousies and enmities disappear in the “one new man”, a new creation, where “Christ is all, and in all”, Col 3: 11 KJV. It is this of which the apostle speaks as “the revelation of the mystery”

hidden in God throughout the past ages, in which the all various wisdom of God according to His eternal purpose is now to be known all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Eph 3: 9-11; Col 1: 24-27; 2: 2-3.

Attention may be called here to the fact that the church is spoken of in scripture, as to its extent, in three distinct ways.

It is looked upon as a unity existing upon earth for the time being, composed of all the saints (the common scriptural name for believers as sanctified or set apart for God) then living, who thus form the one catholic or universal church, Rom 12: 5; 1 Cor 10: 17; 12: 13, 28; Eph 4: 4, 16. Like a military 63

regiment it maintains its continuous identity notwithstanding changes by deaths and new recruits.

Corresponding with this there is also the thought of the local church in a city, coming together it may be in two or more companies in a large place. Thus the many thousands of believers at Jerusalem formed one local church, though no doubt meeting in several houses, Acts 12: 5, 12; 15: 4; 21: 17-22.

Whilst each church has its own local responsibility, it is not independent of the universal church, but representative of it locally. Thus the Corinthian saints could be addressed as the church of God which is in Corinth, and the apostle speaks of them as being God’s temple and Christ’s body.

In its completeness in glory the church will include all the members of Christ from the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost until the resurrection and rapture at the coming of the Lord, Rev 21: 9-10.

It may be noted that in several Protestant countries the principle has been adopted of a national church intended to combine all the local churches in a country in a distinct and separate national unity. This took definite form at the time of the Reformation, largely as a political expedient, and it generally involved establishment of the church by law and some measure of control by the State. In the case of some religious bodies dissenting from the 64

State establishment, we find the principle asserted of the complete independence of each local church. It is clear that neither of these principles is in agreement with the original constitution of the church according to the New Testament.

The maintenance of the unity of the local churches in the one universal church, was secured as to doctrine and practice in New Testament times by the authority and spiritual

power

of

the

apostles,

notwithstanding the strong tendency towards sectionalism and independence owing to the natural prejudices and antagonism of such diverse elements as Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles, 1 Cor 7: 17; 11: 16, 34; 14: 33-40; 1

Tim 1: 3; 3: 14-15; Titus 1: 5; Acts 15: 19, 28.

The apostles when contemplating their own departure had no thought of apostolic successors, Acts 20: 29-32; 2 Pet 1: 12-15. In their inspired writings and the Scriptures generally (2 Tim 3: 10-17) and in the present voice of the Spirit (Rev 2: 7, etc.) there was divine provision made for the maintenance of the truth, which should have been handed down by a succession of “faithful men”, 2 Tim 2: 2.

It is important to remember that if we are to arrive at the truth of the church according to the mind of God we must be prepared to drop ideas brought in by the ecclesiastical traditions and systems of men, although they may be supported by the claims of antiquity 65

and the prestige of honoured names in church history, and to take our thoughts simply and definitely from the Scriptures, otherwise we cannot emerge from the confusion in which Christendom has become involved, so as to have clear vision as to the true character of the church, both on the divine side in its relation to God and to Christ, and also in its position as a responsible witness; and thus be enabled to form a right judgment as to the extent of the departure in the Christian profession.

THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO GOD

AND TO CHRIST AND THE SPHERE

OF SPIRITUAL BLESSING

The highest aspect of the church on the purely spiritual side, and its peculiar glory as blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, has to do with the purpose of God in Christ in the past eternity.

The saints were chosen in Christ that they should be holy and without blame before God in love, having been predestinated by Him for sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, Eph 1: 3-4.

Corresponding to the divine purpose, during the present period (consequent on the death of Christ having effected redemption and reconciliation) there is the work of God in the 66

formation of the church, according to the exceeding greatness of His power seen in raising Christ from among the dead. This power is now exercised towards those who believe, in quickening or making them live together with Christ, as responsive to the divine love manifested in His death. By this, the saints (who are a new creation in Christ Jesus), are spiritually formed in the divine nature—holy love—and in the intelligence and affections suited to sonship. They are thus enabled in the power of the Holy Spirit, as raised up together and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, to enter into the present realisation of the full height of the divine purpose; and also of the present position of the church on earth as a spiritual building increasing to a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also the saints are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit, Eph 1 and 2. On the practical side the walk of the saints is to be according to an entirely new character of good works, for which they have been created in Christ Jesus. They are to walk worthy of the divine calling, to walk in love, and also as children of light, taking character from God and from Christ, for they are looked at as having put on the new man, which according to God is created in true righteousness and holiness. In this way the testimony is now to be maintained in the dignity of the heavenly position and is made effective by the power of God working in the 67

saints.

The final result will be displayed in the future, when the completion of God’s work will have brought to pass the full accomplishment of His purpose as to the church, both in the world to come, when as the holy city it will come down from God out of heaven refulgent with the divine glory (Rev 21: 10, etc.) and also in the eternal state, when filled to all the fulness of God, the apostle’s prayer will have its full answer, and there will be glory to God in the church in Christ Jesus unto all the ages, Eph 3: 19-21 KJV. Being heavenly in origin and character the church will form the link between heaven and earth, and will have its own eternal place as the tabernacle in which God will dwell with men, Rev 21: 1-3.

In the same connection the church has also a peculiar place of nearness to Christ and identification with Him spiritually as the risen and exalted Head, being derived from Him as His body, united to Him as His bride and associated with Him as His brethren.

The body of Christ as presented in the epistle to the Ephesians is a spiritual organism deriving its life from Him as raised from among the dead by the power of God. It is a divine formation, composed of those who had been spiritually dead towards God, but have been made to live together with Christ in the power of divine love. They are a new creation out of Jew and Gentile formed into one new 68

man in Christ. Taking character from Him the body is the continuation of Christ upon earth at the present time, and being His fulness it is adequate in its completeness for the setting forth of the graces and glories of the Head. It was for the building up of His body that the gifts were given by the ascended Christ, that we may grow up in all things to Him who is the Head. The whole body mutually fitted together and deriving its supply from the Head according to the working in its measure of each one part, builds itself up in love, Eph 1: 19 to 2: 10; 4: 8-16. In his epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians we see the deep exercise through which the apostle passed that the riches of the glory of this mystery, the climax of his ministry (Col 1: 25-27) might be entered into now by the saints in spiritual intelligence.

The bride of Christ is peculiarly for Himself.

He loved the church and gave Himself for it, and is now engaged in purifying and sanctifying it that in the end He might present it to Himself glorious and perfect in beauty, Eph 5: 25-27. It is the anti-type of Eve who was derived from Adam that she might be a suitable companion, His like or counterpart, answering to Him in affection and intelligence (Gen 2: 18, 21-23), and like Eve the church will also be associated with Christ in universal dominion and headship, Gen 1: 26-28; Eph 1: 22-23. Of the various types of the 69

church as the bride, Eve before the fall may be regarded as the greatest spiritually, as setting forth the divine idea before sin entered into the world, both as to the purpose and the workmanship of God. In this connection Eve is entirely passive, being formed by God out of Adam in his deep sleep (a figure of Christ’s death viewed in relation to divine counsel and foreknowledge) and presented by God to the man who recognised her as part of himself.

In some of the other Old Testament types, the bride may be said to come into evidence through moral qualifications proved in her movements and activities.

Two which are specially prominent may be briefly referred to. In the case of Rebecca (Gen 24) we see in type not only the thought of the Father in regard to a wife for His Son (after Isaac had in figure passed through death and resurrection, (Gen 22)) but also the mission and activities of the Spirit in seeking for a suitable bride of the right kindred, recognising her by her grace (verses 17 to 27) and attracting and winning her by the presentation of the greatness and glory of the Son, to whom the Father has given all that He has (John 3: 35; 16: 14-15); with the result that she unhesitatingly yields herself to the leading of the Spirit who conducts her to the realisation of present union with Christ, the heavenly Man. In Abigail we see moral greatness in days of difficulty and testing when men such as Nabal and Saul seemed to 70

be in the ascendent, 1 Sam 25. Her intelligence and wise discernment as to what was right in a critical situation, and her corresponding timely activities in word and deed showed her to be worthy of David the true king. Characteristic features of the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 are clearly seen in her: she opens her mouth with wisdom, her works praise her, and the heart of her husband can safely trust in her. At the end of the Revelation, we have a glorious prophetic vision of the accomplishment of the purpose of God and the display of His workmanship. After the celebration of the marriage of the Lamb (chap 19: 7-9) the bride is seen as the holy city coming down out of heaven from God, in relation both to the millennial glory (chap 21: 9, etc.) and to the eternal state, chap 21: 2-3.

The brethren of Christ are the gift of the Father to the Son according to eternal purpose. As the fruit of His work and the revelation of the Father in Him, Christ brings home to God a company of sons in present association with Himself in intelligent and responsive love. God sent forth His Son that those redeemed by Him might receive sonship, and He has sent out the Spirit of His Son into their hearts crying Abba Father in the

present

consciousness

of

the

relationship. The end according to the divine purpose will be reached in a company of sons fully conformed to the image of God’s Son, 71

that He may be the firstborn amongst many brethren with bodies of glory like His own, John 17; 20: 17; Eph 1: 5-6; Gal 4: 4-6; Rom 8: 23, 28-30; Phil 3: 21.

CHRIST’S HEADSHIP IN RELATION

TO THE CHURCH

The measure in which we are able to enter into the divine thoughts with regard to the church depends upon how far we understand the greatness and glory of Christ as Head; the fulness that dwells in Him, the unsearchable riches of the Christ, all the moral beauty and perfection that He brought into manhood for the pleasure of God, and in testimony towards men. That which was seen in Him alone in His life on earth, as Man with God and as Son with the Father, He now as the fruit of His death brings the church into, as associated with Himself risen and ascended according to the message sent to His brethren, “I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God”. The church is a company in which Christ is being reproduced, which can be addressed as “elect of God, holy and beloved”, Col 3: 12. The saints are now being perfected in the appreciation of Christ “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ” (Eph 4: 13), growing up to Him in all things who is the Head. That which is set 72

forth in its perfection objectively in Christ, is being reproduced subjectively by divine formation in the saints. When the divine system is complete and Christ will take His place of universal headship and will fill all things, the church will be displayed with Him in glory as His fulness. The blessing into which we are introduced is far above all that we ask or think. It is according to the purpose of God’s love and the exceeding greatness of His power which is now operating in the saints. God works out the accomplishment of His purpose in wisdom and love according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

The wonderful character of Christ’s headship and the special place the church has as a spiritual formation are developed by the apostle Paul in his epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians. In Colossians he dwells first on the greatness of Christ personally as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. As Man all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him and has thus been brought into the light of revelation. As firstborn from among the dead He is the Head of the body the church, and the saints are complete or filled full in Him, being viewed as risen with Him and quickened or made to live together with Him.

In the epistle to the Ephesians we have further teaching and the highest thoughts as to the spiritual blessing of the church according to the eternal purpose and counsel 73

of God, in relation to the supreme place of exaltation in the heavenlies where God has set Christ as Man, having given Him to be Head over all things to the church which is His body the fulness of the Christ who fills all in all. The saints are looked upon not only as made to live together with Him, but as seated together in the heavenlies in Him, and the character of sonship to which they have been predestinated is seen in the relationship of the beloved Son with His God and Father, whose love He has declared and whose name He has made known. The Holy Spirit has a large place in this epistle as the power for apprehension and present enjoyment of these spiritual blessings. In result the saints are to be filled to all the fulness of God.

Behind all that which is now the subject of testimony or witness and which will be manifested in glory in the future, the church has its own private and personal relations with God and with Christ, its special place of intimacy

in

family

affections

and

relationships with the Father and the Son which are eternal and are to be known and enjoyed now by the Spirit. It is the divine pleasure that the deep things of God which have been freely given to us should be known now by those who love Him. They have been revealed by the Spirit and communicated to us in words taught by the Spirit, and can be entered into and enjoyed in the measure in which we are “spiritual”, 1 Cor 2: 9-16. The 74

apostle could not unfold these spiritual things to the Corinthians because of their carnal state, 1 Cor 3: 1-3. It is not the divine intention that they should be entered into in a merely mental and theoretical way.

Inflating thoughts of knowledge (1 Cor 8: 2) beyond the measure of their spiritual state, had already resulted at Corinth in jealousy, party spirit and strife amongst themselves.

In contrast to this the apostle was encouraged to write as He did to the Colossians and to the Ephesians because he had heard of their love to all the saints.

Speaking of their love in the Spirit he desired for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and also that their hearts might be encouraged being united together in love and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding. In his prayer to the Father for the Ephesians, he desired that they might be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, that the Christ might dwell through faith in their hearts, being rooted and founded in love in order to be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge. He exhorted them, not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, but as beloved children to walk in love, and to be filled with the Spirit. The divine thoughts and purposes in regard to Christ and the church 75

have their source in the love of God, and a corresponding spiritual state is needed in order to realise and enjoy them, and this would be promoted in the normal atmosphere of the Christian circle, where responsive love to God and to Christ is accompanied by mutual love amongst the brethren.

On the divine side the testimony of Christ is livingly maintained in the church by the Holy Spirit. This living testimony includes all that is of Christ in His people, and although it has become greatly obscured it cannot be destroyed nor altogether hid for Christ lives in His body here on earth.

The epistle to the Ephesians closes (chap 6) by calling upon us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and to put on the whole armour of God, so that we may be able to stand against the subtle antagonism of spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies, and thus maintain the position according to the height of the divine calling as set forth in the apostle’s teaching. Though comparatively few may answer to this call in the intelligence of the full Ephesian position, it nevertheless has in view the whole church, and the last item in the detailed statement of the divine armour is prayer which is to be made continually for all the saints.

THE CHURCH AS A SPIRITUAL

FORMATION AND AS A PUBLIC

76

PROFESSION

During the present period we have to take account of the church on earth not only in relation to its geographical extent in its universal and its local aspects as already mentioned (on pages 75-76), but also in the two ways indicated in the title of this chapter, which are often confused and consequently found difficult to understand at all clearly.

First, on the purely spiritual side which has mainly occupied us thus far, the church as we have seen is the subject of divine counsel and the product of divine work as in Ephesians 1 and 2, etc., and Matthew 16: 18.

This is entirely of God—a new creation—and to appreciate it fully it is necessary to look at the saints in an abstract way, apart from their present actual condition in flesh and blood, and to take account of them spiritually as subjects of the work of God. Secondly, in its outward public position the church is a responsible witness to Christ during the period of His absence, which is the point of view in 1 Corinthians and in Revelation 1 to 3. At the beginning of the church’s history the two sides, though distinguishable, were largely co-extensive, being seen in the same company of people who had believed the gospel and received the Spirit. Normally such would be spiritual (Rom 8: 9) living by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and walking by the Spirit (Gal 5); but as to actual condition it was possible through lack of self-judgment that 77

individual believers might be characterised by the flesh rather than the Spirit, and in the case of the Corinthians as we have seen this was the general condition when the apostle wrote his first epistle, which happily resulted in repentance and recovery as recorded in 2

Corinthians 7.

It is now more than ever necessary to distinguish these two sides owing to the state of the professing church as we shall see in the next chapter, and failure to do so has been the cause of a root error in the constitution of national state established systems such as the Anglican church, and also of so called Catholic systems such as the church of Rome, which includes along with true believers, a mass of merely nominal Christians showing no evidence of genuine faith in Christ, but who are notwithstanding held to be, owing to sacramental ordinances, born of God, children in His family, and members of the body of Christ, with the result that these terms are robbed of their scriptural meaning, and the true character of these spiritual realities is lost sight of by those who are under the influence of the system.

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