(3) "THE BODY IS OF CHRIST"
(3) “THE BODY IS OF CHRIST”
In Romans and Corinthians the truth of the one body is introduced as a check on tendencies to which saints are liable. In Romans 12 it meets the thought of independency, for we have to recognise that we are members one of another, and a man is to think soberly of himself, as God has given to each the measure of faith. In 1 Corinthians the truth of the body is introduced as a check upon clericalism, for the manifestations of the Spirit are in the body, and hence the least member may be necessary. In neither case is it exactly the teaching of the truth of the body, but the introduction of a little light in regard to it with a view to the principal point in hand. The subject in Romans is our individual conduct in the world; in 1 Corinthians 11 to 14 the saints are contemplated as in assembly. The light of the body is brought in to regulate these things.
In Ephesians and Colossians the divine thought in the body is presented. A full statement of the counsel of God in regard of the body is found in Ephesians 1: 22, 23, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all”. Colossians leads up to that. “Whom we preach ... that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”. The great idea of the church is that it should be the vessel for the perfect expression of Christ, a full delineation, not one feature lacking. If you could by the apostle’s ministry have every saint perfect, or full-grown in Christ, there would be a perfect delineation of Christ in this world. That is what I understand by “the fulness”, or completeness; there is no feature of Christ lacking. I cannot doubt that the church will come out as the completeness of Christ in glory, and I believe, what has been usually [p. 147] held, that it will be found to include every saint from Pentecost downwards.
The great point in Colossians is Christ in the Gentiles the hope of glory. The mystery of God is a wonderful thing, and He has now made it manifest to the saints. What a conception it was on God’s part, that Christ who had been rejected by His people here upon earth should be found among the Gentiles! I want to show you how it is brought about.
There are two statements in regard to the believer with which we are familiar; we are in Christ, and He is in us. We have to learn the bearing of this individually, but it really involves the truth of the one body. I cannot see that our being one body adds anything to us. What we do get by it is that the body is subjected to Christ as Head, as the wife is to the husband. All that we can receive from God we get by the gospel. We may afterwards learn the truth of the mystery, but it adds nothing to us. We find that the body is subjected to Christ, and He takes the direction of it as its Head. In Colossians 2 there are those who do not hold the Head. They were not, I judge, Christians at all, but those who had come in to corrupt Christians.
There are two main thoughts in connection with our being in Christ; we are justified in Him, and have a new position revealed in Him. God has not displayed my justification in myself, for I am not much different from other people down here. I am not risen, but Christ is. But I am clear of judgment, and the witness of it is that Christ, who died for my sins, is risen. He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. The believer has to refer to Christ as his righteousness in the presence of God.
Then there is another thing, which is more important, because it refers to more positive blessing; that is, we are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. We have [p. 148] a new position in Him, which cannot be understood apart from Him. He has entered upon it in resurrection, so that we can be with Him in it. This is an entirely new position for man in the presence of God, revealed in Christ, and we are in the light of it. It never was available for man until Christ was risen. Then He says, “Go to my brethren”. Now that side of the truth involves unity. We have it in the hymn:
“In Him we stand, a heavenly band,
Where He Himself is gone”. (12)
It is one common position in which we all stand as being in Christ. It is true in Him, and we have the light of it.
We must learn this individually, because sonship is individual relationship to God, as having been brought to Him. The gospel confers it upon us. The very fact of our having this place of sonship in Christ necessitates our being one body in Him.
Now I come to the other side, and that brings in the truth of life. Christ is in us by the Spirit. This is the mystery. The truth of our being in Christ is not exactly the mystery because that marks our position before God, but Christ in the saints is the mystery. The first time the expression Christ in you occurs is in Romans 8, where it is said, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you...”. So Christ being in us is evidently consequent upon the Spirit of Christ being in us. Christ has been here under the eye of God, and nothing short of Christ can now be according to His mind. Therefore it must be Christ in the saints.
There are two functions which the Spirit fulfils in the saints. He is in them as life, and also as the Spirit of sonship. If the Spirit is life in us, the connection between the saints and the Spirit is evidently very intimate. My conviction is that life is essentially individual, for no one can share the life of another.
[p. 149] Life in the creature is the effect of the work of God. But while individuality is maintained, yet we all live by the same power. The Spirit connects Himself with the work of God in the believer, so that that work is identified with Him, and the believer lives in the Spirit. My life is the effect of God’s work in me, and your life is the effect of God’s work in you, yet we both live in the Spirit.
When the Spirit is viewed as the Spirit of sonship He is not connected with us quite in the same intimate way; He is more of a witness in us, and so can be distinguished from our spirit. By Him each one of us cries, Abba, Father. So far I have not gone beyond the gospel. It is by the gospel we are brought into blessing individually, and we cannot touch the truth of the mystery until we are established in the knowledge of individual blessing.
I believe the great lack with us is that we have not a sufficient sense of what Christ is as Lord. There are two things which attach to Him as Lord: He announces peace and confers the Holy Spirit. God preaches peace by Jesus Christ, and all the opposition of Satan and man cannot prevent His preaching peace. Then He has sent down from on high divine power, so that the believer is superior to all the power of evil.
There are two testimonies in the beginning of Acts to the glory of Christ: the confusion of tongues was in a certain sense set aside by the gift of the Spirit, and man was raised up from the extremity of human weakness by the name of Jesus. The apostle had none of this world’s means — silver and gold — but the name of Jesus of Nazareth enabled the man to walk. I refer to this because it illustrates the power and glory of Christ. There is no power or glory equal to that of Christ, and if we had a sufficient sense of it we should be continually rejoicing in Him. This is connected with the truth of the gospel and the place into which we are brought.
[p. 150] Now Christ in us involves one body. He is in us by the Spirit, who is the Spirit of life and the Spirit of sonship. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, not in Adam, and the Spirit of sonship is the Spirit of God’s Son. There is only one such; it is impossible that there should be another. Every saint partakes in that Spirit. No one now could have the Spirit in the same way as Christ had it, for when He received the Holy Spirit He was alone; no one could share it with Him. Now we all have part in the Spirit. The apostle speaks in the plural — “Because ye are sons”. Thus the very fact of Christ being in us involves one body, because it is by one Spirit. Christ lives in the saints by the Spirit, and they cry Abba, Father, by the Spirit of God’s Son. It is a wonderful thing that there should be thus a presentation of Christ down here; a body of saints down here, righteous as He is righteous, and all crying, Abba, Father — a heavenly Christ delineated in the saints.
Righteousness is individual, and the cry of sonship is individual, but the very fact of participating in one Spirit binds us all together as members one of another. The formation of the body was not any distinct action or operation of the Spirit, but it followed upon the reception of the Spirit by each and all. The purpose was that there should be a delineation of Christ here in the whole company of the saints. Then when the body was formed Christ was given to be Head of it, that He might direct it. The body is subjected to Christ, and He takes the ordering of it, that He may be displayed in it. The body is for the display of Christ.
Then how is this brought about? I believe the more really we enter into the blessed truth of our individual relationship with God, the more sensible shall we be by the Spirit that we are one body in Christ and members one of another. I do not think the fact of our being one body is a thought to be [p. 151] occupied with. What is presented to us objectively in Scripture is the blessed revelation of God, and the more we are formed by the Spirit in the sense of our individual relation to God the more shall we be sensible that we are one body here, and that for the delineation of Christ.
Evidently the great thought in it is testimony in the world. It is the fulfilling of the prayer in John 17: 21, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. The affection formed in the saints one toward another, by the consciousness of the love of Christ, was to be testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”. What a wonderful thing for every one of us to be under the influence of the love of Christ, and so loving one another! This is the great testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory”; that is, the pledge of glory. If there is among the Gentiles this wonderful delineation of the Christ who has been rejected by the world, you have the greatest pledge that could be given that God will accomplish all the purpose of His will. It is a certainty that Christ will be in this world in glory, and the pledge of that is already in the Gentiles. If we have the hope of glory we shall assuredly have the glory itself.
The saints were slow to rise to this. The apostle says to the Galatians that he travailed in birth again until Christ was formed in them. Until Christ was formed in them as a company there was but little testimony from them. They had the Spirit, but did not know the power of the Spirit, and were not in the light of sonship. The Colossians had entered into this; they were holy and faithful brethren, and were [p. 152] enjoying their individual relation to the Father, therefore the apostle could say, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. It is the pledge of the complete accomplishment of the purpose of God, that Christ will be displayed in the scene in which He was rejected. He will be displayed in glory in the saints. It is a moral display now, but when He comes it will be to be glorified in His saints; the heavenly city, new Jerusalem, will be the vessel of His glory in that day.
I have tried to show the divine thought in the body, and it is an amazing one to me. I can understand the conflict of the apostle that the saints might answer to it. In the light of it we can see the terrible defection of the church. I thank God for the light of it, not that the church will ever be restored down here. It will come out right in glory, but the effect of getting the divine thought is that I refuse to countenance anything that is contrary to it. So far as I am able individually I seek to walk in the reality of the truth of the place and relationship into which I am brought with God in Christ, and the more I do so the more I realise that we are one body in Christ. The idea of the body is, not that something additional is conferred upon the saints, but that they are subjected to Christ, and that they are a vessel in which He is displayed.