EPHESIANS 5 (READING AT EXETER, 11 JANUARY 1933)
EPHESIANS 5 (READING AT EXETER, 11 JANUARY 1933)
CAC There would seem to be a very precious thought suggested to us as to the constitution of the assembly when it is referred to as Christ’s own flesh; there is a thought of what one might call spiritual substance there. “No one has ever hated his own flesh, but [p. 101] nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Christ the assembly”. It is His own flesh. There was an interesting question asked last week that we did not go into particularly as to whether the assembly was in existence before Christ loved it. I think it would be right to say that it was.
Ques Do you mean in purpose?
CAC I was not thinking of purpose but substance, for in the thought of the assembly being His own flesh, we have the thought of substance in a spiritual sense.
Ques Would Psalm 139 support that?
CAC The thought is suggested there of the formation of spiritual substance; it has in view the fashioning of the members of Christ, which is looked at as a prolonged process: “During many days were they fashioned”. The members are all written in the book, that is in purpose, but the members of Christ have been fashioned by a spiritual process that has gone on now for nearly two thousand years. But it is interesting to see that the substance of the assembly was there before Christ loved it and delivered Himself up for it.
Ques Is your thought that the merchant man in Matthew 13: 46, having found one pearl of great price, sold all that he had and bought it?
CAC That is the idea; it was there.
Ques I thought the servant was sent to find the wife (Genesis 24). It is not exactly the seeking of Christ. Do you not get the Isaac type here rather than the Adam type, because it is in the sin period?
CAC That is true, but it is rather remarkable that the service of the Spirit does not appear at all in this chapter.
Rem I thought His work was done, that the assembly was complete and presented to Christ, as Rebecca was presented to Isaac.
CAC Yes, but that is the end in view; it is not all [p. 102] reached in Ephesians 5. He has not yet presented the assembly to Himself glorious. We are on the way to that consummation. The service of His love which is active to secure that end is going on, and I think it is essential to the passage to see that the whole subject of it is the devotion of Christ and the service of His love, which does not come out either in Adam or Isaac. There is that in this chapter which finds no place in the typical presentation. It is a reserved glory which does not find a place in either of those types. What we have here is the action of Christ in the devotion of His love, though, of course, we well know that whatever He does, He does by the Spirit.
Rem My thought was that this work of Christ is not to produce the assembly, but in order that He might sanctify it and purify it in a defiling scene.
CAC Yes, that is just the point that we have before us at the moment, that the substance of the assembly was there to be loved and that Christ delivered Himself up for it; He serves it unweariedly until everything is accomplished that His heart desires. He has in view that it shall be reached spiritually before the moment of translation. The presentation to Himself is the result of His purifying and cleansing and nourishing and cherishing; it is the result of a spiritual process and not brought about by an act of power. The translation of the assembly will be an act of power, but what is presented to us here is Christ’s service of love and certain things effectuated by that service. The Spirit does not appear in the scene; it is all the action of Christ. Our thoughts are concentrated upon what Christ does and a service of which we have no real type. There is no type in the Old Testament which fills out the picture that is presented to us here. I think that is pretty clear.
Now to come back to our point, as to the substance of the assembly being there when Christ loved it and delivered [p. 103] Himself up for it, I believe it was there in the disciples; the substance was there.
Ques When would it be proper to say that the Lord began to love the assembly?
CAC When He received the disciples as the Father’s gift: “They were thine, and thou gavest them me”, John 17: 6. There was something there which could be said to belong to the Father, and it is important for us to recognise that we belonged to the Father before we belonged to Christ. It has helped me a good deal to put Ephesians alongside the gospel of John. In John we see everything is traced by the Lord to the Father, and of His disciples He could say, “They were thine”, and He could also say, “They are not of the world, as I am not of the world”, John 17: 16. That is wonderful and it seems to suggest a very similar thought to “His own flesh”.
Ques Does that follow on chapter 12, the Corn of wheat?
CAC There, of course, the fruit is looked at as the result of His death, but “They were thine” was before His death.
Rem John 12 would be the Son of man type, but this is hardly that; this is the wife of Christ, not the bride.
CAC Well, quite so, but this runs very much with the gospel of John. Everything in Ephesians is traced to the sovereign purpose of God; it goes back into eternity; the saints were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. In John they are the subjects of the Father’s work and the Lord receives them as from the Father, and they are not of the world, even as He is not of the world. There was correspondence between Him and them, correspondence so close that you might say they were His own flesh. We see the great capability of the disciples. The Lord says, “If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I [p. 104] have chosen you out of the world, on account of this the world hates you. Remember the word which I said unto you, The bondman is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ... . But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they have not known him that sent me”, John 15: 19 - 21. How perfectly the Lord identifies them with Himself, “If they have kept my word, they will keep also yours”. They are viewed as having the same word, so they get the same reception from the world as He got. He says, “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world ... . and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things that thou hast given me are of thee; for the words which thou hast given me I have given them, and they have received them, and have known truly that I came out from thee and have believed that thou sentest me”, John 17: 6 - 8. There was a company of persons there before the eye of the Lord who could take account of all the things that the Father had given to the Son, and could trace them to their proper source. They knew that all was of the Father, and whatever words the Father gave Him, He had given them. There was such correspondence spiritually between Him and them that you might say they were morally His own flesh. Substance was there; the spiritual substance of the assembly was there in the disciples and it was there to be loved by Christ. John’s gospel brings out very definitely that He loved them. He could say, “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you”, John 15 9. Think of that! That is not Christ loving poor sinners, is it? “As the Father has loved me” — what a love of infinite complacency! There was everything in the Son that was complacent to the Father’s love. Now, He says, that is the way I love you. It was a love of complacency because there was spiritual substance there in which He [p. 105] could be complacent. I believe that gives the idea of the love of Christ for the assembly; it is not a sovereign love; it is a complacent love.
Ques You refer to the disciples, not to the apostles?
CAC These things could not be limited to the twelve, because while the twelve are prominently in view, they are in a sense representative of the whole company. What the Lord says of them was not confined to the twelve. That is brought out by the way that section of the gospel begins; it begins by saying, “Having loved his own”; it is not ‘having loved the twelve’. There is great force in that “his own” and I should rather connect it spiritually with the thought of His own flesh, that which is of Himself.
Ques When you speak of substance, do you refer to what was actually existing at that time? Is this the result of counsel coming into being?
CAC That is right; the thing has come into being, and I believe the church was there, in substance, to be loved by the Lord in the days of His flesh. The substance was there and it has helped me to understand a statement of Mr. Raven’s, which at the time rather puzzled me, and that was, ‘We shall never understand the relations between Christ and the assembly unless we understand His relations with His own when He was with them here’. There was a little company, the product of the Father’s work, drawn to the Son and having capacity to receive from the Son the words which the Father had given to Him. The Father gives certain words to the Son and the Son in His turn gives these words to His own; there was the same kind of competency in them that there was in Him; I do not say to the same degree, but the same kind of competency. That is what I call substance, and the Lord discerned it there and loved it; it won His affections. I believe that gives us a spiritual view of the love of [p. 106] Christ for the assembly. It is the Father’s gift to Him and therefore He could say of that company such marvellous words as, “That they may be one, as we”; that is astonishing! “That they may be one, as we are one”. Think of the oneness of the Father and the Son — a oneness that is altogether divine! Now, He says, “That they may be one, as we are one”; what wonderful substance must be there if the saints can be unified with the same kind of oneness as subsists between the Father and the Son! What a marvellous idea it gives of the assembly! That is the divine conception of the assembly: it is His own flesh. I feel how little one has entered into it, our thoughts are so superficial, but the assembly in its actual substance is the worthy object of the affections of Christ.
Ques Referring to John 13, it says, He “loved them to the end”. Would that be in keeping with the thought of Christ delivering Himself up for it?
CAC Yes, right through, and to my mind it goes very much with Ephesians 5. I would commend it to the brethren to study the chapters in John, from the thirteenth to the seventeenth, and ponder over them, and pray over them, alongside what we have in Ephesians 5. There is the thought of a purifying and cleansing service in John 13 and 15, and it is all part of the active service of the love of Christ. Christ purifies the assembly by the washing of water by the word, and John 13 and 15 speak of a cleansing that is brought about by the word. If we think of the nourishing and cherishing I do not know a better scripture to go to for it than those chapters in John. The wonderful nourishing and cherishing of the love of Christ! He seems to give Himself up to it in these chapters. What we have here is the service of His love; that is what the Spirit of God would engage us with and it is well to ponder these chapters in John as showing both the nourishing and the cherishing of the love of Christ.
[p. 107] We perhaps think that in some unknown way Christ will nourish and cherish us, but I believe that the nourishing and cherishing are very specific, and that we have the very substance of it in these chapters in John’s gospel. Christ delights to nourish the assembly, to impart to it every element of strength; the idea of nourishing is that elements of growth and strength are made available. Think of the nourishing elements that are in these chapters in the gospel of John, elements that minister to strength and to prosperity and growth! They cannot be surpassed. Chief of all is the knowledge of the Father; how nourishing that is! We can all of us have a good time in praying over these chapters from thirteen to seventeen and regarding them as the unfolding to our hearts of that in which the nourishing and cherishing of Christ for the assembly consists; the substance of it is there.
“In order that he might sanctify it”, that is, that it may correspond with Himself, because in John’s gospel He is the sanctified One. He is marked out distinctly as the Father’s sanctified One and He is the One who sanctifies Himself. Now the saints are to be all of one with Him in that; they are to be His own flesh in that particular.
Ques Is this in view in Acts 19, where the apostle separates the Ephesians?
CAC We see there a company of persons set apart from all the influences of this world, even its religious influences, because he separated them from the synagogue, not merely from the worship of Diana, and no doubt as separated they came under nourishing and cherishing influences. The knowledge of the Father is one of the most nourishing things that you can think of. The Lord says, “Henceforth ye know him and have seen him” (John 14: 7); what nourishment for the soul, what stability! And then He speaks of the Comforter, how nourishing that is! A divine Person coming to be with [p. 108] them — in them. And then there is the thought of being able to draw every supply from Christ Himself. He says, “Abide in me”, how nourishing that is! These are the great divine realities by which the assembly is nourished. I am just suggesting the thought, that every one may follow up individually the great nourishing and strengthening principles that are brought out in these chapters.
And then there is the cherishing; cherishing stimulates affection. A man might give his wife plenty to eat, but if he did not cherish her, her affections would wane. Now the Lord not only nourishes the assembly viewed as His own flesh, but He cherishes it, and so we get all those lovely touches of affection in these chapters in John. They are very beautiful. Just take all that the Lord says about His own love for His own, and the Father’s love, and the mutual love of the saints among themselves, and you have something of the reality of Christ cherishing His own flesh. He gives the warmth and comfort of divine love; it is all very beautiful.
Ques Is what you have been speaking of what the apostle refers to as “This mystery is great”?
CAC Yes. Paul says, so to speak, I began to talk about wives and husbands but my mind was really full of Christ and the assembly. He uses the affectionate relations of husband and wife as the frame-work and he fits into that the whole precious truth of Christ and the assembly. It is very lovely.
Ques Thus we are taken right away from the material thing; is not that what should happen at a marriage meeting?
CAC Before the end of a really good marriage meeting Christ and the assembly would be in view rather than the bride and bridegroom, and to their own hearts also.
Ques Would the presentation of that Person bring the substance [p. 109] to light?
CAC Christ is like a great magnet let down into this world. If you put a powerful magnet into a lot of rubbish of all sorts, you would find that every particle of iron and steel, everything that was kindred, would be attracted to it. Pieces of brass and wood would not be attracted, but iron and steel being kindred with the magnet would be drawn to it. Now Christ came in as the great magnet and everything that was kindred with Him was attracted to Him. There was substance there, that which was in substance His own flesh, and He loved it and devoted Himself in love to it.
Ques Would you say that with regard to the disciples it was only after His resurrection and ascension?
CAC Undoubtedly the substance was there before. All these wonderful statements in John’s gospel were true before; they were true of the disciples.
Rem The assembly proper does not come to light until after.
CAC Of course it did not come to light formally, but the substance of which it is comprised did. The substance of it was there, that is the point. In the disciples there was substance that corresponded with Christ, so that He could discern what was there in correspondence with Himself, His counterpart.
Rem It was the work of the Father.
CAC It was the product of the Father’s work, and therefore it surpasses any type. A certain type presents a certain feature; you have to keep to that feature. If you try to make it say something it was not intended to say, you do it violence. Different types bring out certain features, but when you come to the reality in Christ and the assembly, there is a fulness and detail and perfections that you cannot get in any of the types; it includes the types and goes beyond them. The Lord Himself surpasses every type of Him. The great object of the writer of [p. 110] the epistle to the Hebrews was to show that He surpassed everything. He surpassed Moses and Aaron and Joshua, all of them, even Melchisedec. The types and the promises were like stars shining in the darkness of the midnight sky, but when the sun rises it is seen to surpass them all; you feel now we have what surpasses them all.
Ques Does Luke 10 approach what you have been saying?
CAC Yes, I think so. There are scriptures in the Old Testament which give intimations, suggestions. The prophets and the righteous men had exercises and desires but they never really saw the substance. Now the Lord can say, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see”, Luke 10: 23. They saw the substance of everything in Christ and Christ was in them by the Father’s work in them, so that there was substance on both sides. The Lord would clothe these precious scriptures in John’s gospel with power for the nourishing and cherishing of our souls, so that we may be strong in all the features that mark the assembly as the wife of Christ, having ardent affections, produced and called into activity under the cherishing of Christ. The important thing that Paul had before him was that we should understand that the assembly is one flesh with Christ. He says, “This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”. It is definitely a mystery and we have to be initiated into it, otherwise we do not know anything about it. We should pray for initiation; we need it. One of the most nourishing things that the Lord brings before His disciples in these chapters in John is the suggestion of their liberty to pray. Nothing is more remarkable than the positive character of the Lord’s words as to prayer. They are very strengthening because there is no limit, absolutely no limit, to what we can get from the Father and the Son. He says, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in [p. 111] my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”, John 14: 13. We do not really believe it, I am afraid, but there it is, that is part of His nourishing. As those who are His own flesh, we should not want a single thing that was not for His name; we should not have a personal or selfish thought in our mind; our asking would be for His name. That is suitable to His wife; she has lost her own name and bears His. That is the proper idea of a wife; He called their name Adam.
In these chapters in John we see a company of persons who have lost their own interests, their own name, and they ask in His name; now that is the substance of the wife. Asking in His name is for His interests, His honour, His glory, for the promotion of what is before Him. Then there is the absolute certainty of the answer; He says, I will do it; and He says, as to the Father, “I say not to you that I will demand of the Father for you, for the Father himself has affection for you”, John 16: 26, 27. It is as much as to say, He will be delighted to do it. How nourishing it is!
The interests of the wife are merged in those of her husband. She might have had fifty interests of her own before, but when married all her interests are merged in her husband’s interests, and so the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her.
Ques Does the wife become the bride?
CAC Yes, I think so. John speaks of the bride; Paul speaks of the espoused virgin and the wife. The gospels speak of the bride, but we never see her in the gospels. We find the bridegroom and the sons of the bridechamber and the virgins that go to meet the bridegroom. We get all the accompaniments of the scene without the bride actually coming into view. The bride is never seen until she comes out with Christ, but she is heard before she is seen, for there is the possibility of hearing the voice [p. 112] of the bride. It is heard in that marvellous one word which concentrates in itself the whole affection of the bride — “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22:17.
Rem She is not complete yet.
CAC Nevertheless there is a bridal character of things. John the Baptist says, “He that has the bride is the bridegroom”. The bride then was formed of those who were leaving John and going to Jesus; the bride was there in John’s estimation, and he was glad that the Bridegroom should have her. The bride is there all the time, viewed characteristically. Of course, in the complete sense, the thought of the bride will not be filled out until the whole of the church company is translated, but she is there all the time, essentially and characteristically.
Rem We used to sing, ‘For Thee Thy bride has tarried long’, but you would hardly sing that now.
CAC I think it is right in principle. The vitality and life of the bride, the affections suitable to her, should always be there. The result of Jesus’ testimony being rendered in the assemblies is that “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. Whatever has bridal character in the assemblies says ‘Come’, so that I think the bride may be viewed as always present though, of course, not yet in display. But her affections can be appealed to: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”, Revelation 22: 16. He presents Himself as “the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. It is a characteristic description.