EPHESIANS 5 (WORD AT TEIGNMOUTH, 1 JANUARY 1905)
EPHESIANS 5 (WORD AT TEIGNMOUTH, 1 JANUARY 1905)
I should like to say a few words on the aspect of the death of Christ which this scripture presents to us. We dwell much, and rightly, on that precious death as the basis of all our blessing and joy. We gladly own that the One who gave Himself to secure every blessing for us is worthy of our endless praise. But let us not forget that He gave Himself for the assembly “that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word”. He gave Himself that His death might become effective in the present sanctification of the assembly.
[p. 88] Coming together to remember the One who has been in death should have an intensely practical effect upon us. There is no moment in our history when the death of Christ is brought nearer to us than when we are together to eat the Lord’s supper. We realise how that death has come in to sever us from this world and from all that we are according to the flesh. In this way we come under “washing of water by the word”.
But this, if a spiritual reality, must have a great effect upon us. How can we return to that which we disallow in God’s presence? How can we be here to praise the Lord that He has removed man after the flesh before God in holy judgment, and then return to a life in which we allow the flesh and its motives to have place?
The divine effect of coming together to eat the Lord’s supper must be to draw us in spirit and affection into more entire and practical separation from all that for and to which He died. Thus the assembly, entering into the love of Christ, is sanctified and cleansed from everything unsuited to that love.
To what extent does this sanctification go? The assembly will be presented to Christ “glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but ... holy and blameless”! It may be said that this will never be until she is glorified above; but the point of this scripture is that Christ is sanctifying and purifying the assembly now with the washing of water by the word that she may be morally ready for presentation to Himself in the beauty of holiness. The love of Christ will not suffer anything to remain that is unsuited to itself. He does not shut His eyes to the spots and wrinkles and blemishes, but His love sets itself to remove them. We may tolerate blemishes in ourselves and in one another, but Christ would never tolerate a blemish in the assembly. The assembly will be presented to Christ in glory as the moral [p. 89] result of what He has done in sanctifying and purifying her, and she will be displayed in that glory to His praise. He is working for that now.
If we come together and find it blessed to contemplate the love in which Christ went into death for the assembly, how can we return to the allowance, even in thought or motive, of that which is unsuitable to Christ — that for which He died? He gave Himself for the assembly that He might make His death effective in our present sanctification and purifying “by washing of water by the word”. Christ is thus making His bride suitable for presentation to Himself. May we know increasingly this divine effect of coming together to eat the Lord’s supper and remember Him!