EPHESIANS 5 (READING AT TEIGNMOUTH, 1932)
EPHESIANS 5 (READING AT TEIGNMOUTH, 1932)
CAC It may be well to go over briefly the line of truth that has been before us in these readings on the body. We began by seeing that in Romans great prominence is given to the Spirit; as the Spirit has place with us the body comes into expression; it becomes manifest that the saints are one body in Christ. That prepares us for Corinthians where we find the Spirit assigns to different members different functions. The fact that they all function in unity and co-ordinate without human arrangement brings the body into eminence. Then we saw that as the body comes in it makes room for the Head; that is the moral order. The recognition of the Spirit brings in the body and the body being in evidence makes room for the Head as in Colossians. Then there is no limit to the possibilities of entrance into the revealed mind of God. The resources are unlimited; therefore the saints move on to Ephesians where we see the climax of the subject.
On the last occasion we looked at Ephesians where we see the body in its eternal aspect, the fulness of Him that fills all in all. It brings in a new thought which it is very necessary we should apprehend spiritually, that is the thought of Christ as Head, as the Husband. He is Head in the most blessed character in which the headship of [p. 63] Christ is known by the assembly. That is what is developed in Ephesians 5.
Ques Would that take us back to Eve derived from Adam?
CAC We should have some difficulty in understanding how the wife is the body and the body is the wife if we had not Eve to help us. Both aspects are linked together in this chapter, which it is important to understand. The leading thought in the chapter is the husband and wife, but then the wife is the body, too, and the type elucidates it for us. We see that Eve was brought to Adam — that is union. The assembly is viewed in Ephesians as brought to union. Eve was Adam’s wife, but she was the body, too, she was himself.
Ques In Revelation we get the marriage of the Lamb. Is there union previous to that?
CAC Yes, Ephesians does not give you the bride, it carries you to the thought of the wife. The wife is a more extended thought than the bride.
Ques There is a reference to the husband in Revelation 21 in relation to the church as a bride adorned for her husband. Would you say a word as to that?
CAC It is used by way of comparison. The bride has lost none of the freshness, beauty or ornament of her bridal state. The bride is also the wife in Revelation. The body and the wife will subsist for eternity. The body as here in the scene of Christ’s rejection is to represent the moral features that came out in Christ here, but when she is seen as the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, she is not seen in the features which marked Him here but the features of the heavenly Man who fills the universe of bliss. Whatever quality there is in the bride, it merges into the relation of the wife.
Ques It was not the bride with Eve?
CAC That thought does not come in because she is a [p. 64] divine formation; she is brought to Adam and there is union. When you think of the wife you get the thought of union; the bride suggests freshness and ornament of the initial stage. The bride will be for display in the millennial day, she loses nothing in a thousand years, she is still as a bride; she has that character and freshness; there is no sign of decay or going off.
Ques Would you say a word as to how the body functions?
CAC The body is the fulness of Him that fills all in all. The fulness is adequate to set forth all that is in Him. The assembly as the body is adequate to set forth all that belongs to Christ in conditions of glory. We do not know much about that; we know something about Christ as humbled here and His body as having the traits of Christ humbled here, but of the other side we know little.
Christ as Head is the perfect setting forth of what God is morally; that is very prominent in Ephesians. The Spirit is charged with the ministry of this to us but we do not know much about that side. We can all, thank God, appreciate the humbled Christ and appreciate His lowly features, but think of the glorious heavenly Man in His own surroundings and glory — it is a wonderful thing! Nothing would move us more than Ephesians 5 where we see the personal love of Christ to the assembly. He is Head to the assembly in the sense of being Husband; then there comes out the wonderful character of the Husband. He loved the assembly and gave Himself for it. We have that verse before us every Lord’s day morning but we do not know much about it.
Ques What does it convey?
CAC I suppose it sets forth the length to which His love is prepared to go; there is no thought of atonement or redemption in it. The intensity and persistence and measure of His love is so great. It is sacrificial at the beginning of the chapter, “Walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (chapter 5: 2); that is sacrificial but I doubt if there is any such thought in the delivering up of Christ for the assembly. The death of Christ is viewed in this peculiar aspect that God is not brought into it; if you bring God in you bring in the sacrificial idea, but this aspect is Christ and the assembly, and Christ’s love for the assembly. He gave Himself, not to redeem it but to sanctify and purify it. It is the movements of Christ in love that He may have the assembly. He must leave His father and mother in order that He might get the assembly. In Ephesians 5 it is the movements of Isaac; it is the man who moves in Ephesians 5; he leaves father and mother for his wife. In order to get the assembly Christ had to move, to leave father and mother representing Israel and the whole system of things connected with Israel, which had a great hold on His affections. It cost Him something to give that up in order to get the assembly. He left Israel and the promises and all connected in the mind of God with Israel; He left it by way of death because He could not have the assembly otherwise. How that should affect the wife!
Rem It should draw out our affections.
CAC There is a hymn which just expresses it:
‘By love constrained, Thy death we deem
Our point of severance from this scene
Where man Thy rights did spurn;
To us earth stands in shadow now,
(For Thou art absent), until Thou,
Lord Jesus, shalt return’. (192:2)
That is the delivering up of Christ for the assembly in the sense of Ephesians 5.
Ques Would it bring in the thought that [p. 66] the assembly was to be subject entirely?
CAC Yes, a subjection to the Head as known in love and the experience of union. We do not know much about it. The assembly is subjected to Christ; she is put into that position; it is the experience of union that brings her to it. This subjection is only known by those who are in union. We all know subjection to Christ as Lord; there are certain things due to Him; His commandments are to be obeyed; but it is a different thing to be united to Him in the bonds of love of which His death is the eternal witness. It is a beautiful conception and a precious divine reality. We should pray that it may be a reality experimentally to us. There was no voluntary action on the part of Adam; God put him to sleep. You could not have this thought in Ephesians 5 in type.
Ques Is union different from united to a unity?
CAC There is unity in the body here but union is the assembly brought in affection to Christ in glory now, in the conscious power of being in union with Him there. The Spirit emphasises in Ephesians the movements of Christ. He went through death and severed links with Israel in order to have the assembly and now He purifies it by the washing of water by the word so that sin is not in view at all. The Lord is continually bringing this washing of water by the word to bear on us. His death has severed all His links with Israel and the promises in order that He might have the assembly; there is not a question of sin or faults or blemishes.
Ques Is having the assembly glorious the answer to the way He moved?
CAC Yes, the assembly is to be morally glorious, perfectly suited for union with the heavenly Man. “Spot” (verse 27) does not refer to sin but is something not heavenly. The assembly is not to have a thing out of keeping with the gloried Man; it is a question of being [p. 67] purified from everything connected with earth in order to be in union with a glorified Man in heaven. A “wrinkle” means that we are not so bright as we once were. The Lord’s love will not have anything like that. If some of us here are not as bright as we were a few years back, that is a wrinkle; the Lord cannot tolerate that in His wife, it would show that she is declining. There was not a feature lacking in Eve that could appeal to the affections of a man; that is how the assembly is to be to Christ. There will be no sanctifying or washing or purifying in heaven; that is going on now. The idea is that the assembly should be morally glorious now. We will not talk of being holy and without blame in heaven; the fact that the assembly is to be holy and without blame is that she is to be looked at thus in relation to conditions now. Think of persons being in this world without a spot on them, suited to be united to a heavenly Man! It is too great for us; it is stupendous! I think it is brought about by this peculiar yielding to the precious service of Christ. It is not Lordship but a yielding to the known love of One with whom you are in conscious union; that is what makes it easy to yield.
In verses 28, 29 and 30, we come to the link between the thought of the wife and the body. That is, no one ever hated his own flesh and men ought to love their wives as their own bodies. Now the thought is brought in of the body. This is the highest thought of the body; we have come to the climax. The thought of the body does not belong to any other family; it is the only thing that is distinctive to the assembly. It is a great thing to think of His own flesh; that is the thought of the body. I have been interested in tracing out the thought of His own flesh as developed in John’s gospel. I would earnestly ask the brethren to look at John’s gospel in the light of the assembly being His own flesh. It begins with the thought [p. 68] of the saints as born of God; that is how John gets at it. If the saints are not born of God they are nothing that Christ could regard as His own flesh. Chapter 17 says twice over, “They are not of the world, as I am not of the world”; that is His own flesh. We have often heard that John supports Paul; he does not use Paul’s language but he gets you there. Then we get the thought of the saints as born of God; they are of Christ’s fulness, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit — that is near the thought of His own flesh. Then we get, “He that practises the truth comes to the light” (John 3: 21) — that is His own flesh. All His works are wrought in God, and all that practise the truth, their works are wrought in God. In John 4, those who worship, worship in spirit and truth; they have that character, they are morally Christ’s flesh; that is what He loves and gave Himself for. In chapter 13 He looks at the saints as loving in the same way that He loved: that is His own flesh; if I can love as Christ loves, I am of His flesh. The saints in John are brought into correspondence with Him, they are His own flesh. They are equal in affection and can be intelligent as Christ is: “For all things which I have heard of my Father I have made known to you”, John 15: 15. He gave them the capacity to understand what the Father said to Him. We used to be told that nothing could be united to Christ that did not come from Him. The assembly is Christ’s own flesh; it is wonderful to think of it! Paul said, “This mystery is great”. He could also say, “But in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. He walked in the light of the Person he ministered.