THE HEADSHIP AND LORDSHIP OF CHRIST
(4) “THE CHURCH WHICH IS HIS BODY”
Ephesians 1: 22, 23; 5: 22 - 33
The important point to remember in connection with the body is that it is Christ’s body. It is often spoken of as one body in contrast to two. Previously there were, in a sense, two bodies — Jews and Gentiles; now there is one body. “By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body”. “There is one body and one Spirit”. But then there is a further truth taught, especially in Colossians and Ephesians, that is, that the one body is Christ’s body, and until we apprehend that, we do not get the divine thought of it. When we do get this, it has a great effect upon us, greatly helping us in carrying out our responsibilities, and accentuating our fellowship. The basis of Christian fellowship is that we call on the Lord, but the light we get in regard to the body, and the divine thought in it, greatly colours our fellowship.
There are three principal passages in which we have already seen the body referred to. The first is Romans 12, where we simply get the statement, “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another”. Then in 1 Corinthians 12 we have, “By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit”, and later in the same chapter, “Ye are Christ’s body”. Then in Colossians we have the divine thought of it in the unfolding of the mystery. I do not see any unfolding of the mystery either in Romans or Corinthians; nor is there any allusion to the Head. You cannot really understand the truth of the body, except in connection with the Head. In Colossians 1 it is said, “He is the head of the body, the church”. What we want is the Head, and when we understand the Head we understand a great deal better the thought of the body.
[p. 154] We must not separate the truth of the body from the gospel, for it is the mystery of the gospel. I quite admit that the apostle speaks of two ministries, that of the gospel and that of the church. Yet he speaks of the mystery of the gospel, and asks the prayers of the saints that he may be enabled to make it known, speaking boldly as he ought to speak. What I understand by the expression is that the truth of the church as Christ’s body is involved in the gospel. It is a distinct ministry, and the apostle so speaks of it, but the thing itself is certainly involved in the gospel. This makes the truth of the church very much simpler.
When the gospel is rightly apprehended it leads to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Its end and purpose is that God may be revealed in man’s heart, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us”. The gospel is God’s approach to man. Other ministry comes in with regard to man’s approach to God. God’s great purpose in the gospel is the revelation of Himself, according to what He is, in the heart of man, and that does not come to pass until the Holy Spirit is received, for no one knows the love of God except by the Holy Spirit. The gospel brings us to that point.
Then this involves the truth of the body, because it is one Spirit that we receive, we do not each receive a different Spirit. There was but one baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that at Pentecost. The Lord told His disciples that they should be baptised with the Holy Spirit “not many days hence”, and on the day of Pentecost they received the gift of the Spirit. He had said to them, “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”, and the Spirit came and was in them. That was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and there was not another. The reception of the Gentiles, and all that has taken place since, is simply an extension of what took place on that day.
Everyone must allow that it was one Spirit that [p. 155] came. Scripture is careful to speak of one Spirit, and in this is involved the truth of one body. The gospel addresses us as individuals, deals with us individually, and brings us into individual privilege; but the mystery of the body lies hidden in it, and the apostle’s effort was to make it manifest. What he unfolded was what hung upon the fact that all believers received one Spirit, that consequently they were one body, and that body was Christ’s body. The thought of the body is rather that of unity than of union. The body is formed by the Holy Spirit, and Christ is given as Head to it. It is on the principle of Ephesians 5: 31, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh”. Christ is cut off from what I might call all natural connections, His connections with Israel after the flesh, and when cut off in that way He is joined in that sense to the church. The church is His body, and it is a new point of departure and involves for Him a new name.
Though we have the body mentioned in Romans and Corinthians, we do not get the Head. I think the saints in those places needed to know Christ as Lord, and no one can know Him as Head who does not know Him as Lord. In Corinthians He is spoken of as Lord, even in connection with the assembly. So we have the Lord’s table, the Lord’s supper, and other similar expressions. The gospel presents Him to us as Lord, not as Head. My conviction is that Christians generally have not sufficient apprehension of Him as Lord; their souls are not sufficiently imbued with a sense of His glory and power. When we are so, we are conscious that His glory and power are superior to all other, and we are brought into the light of the day. The day connects itself with the Lord. He has power to subdue all things to Himself, and if we are in the light of His power and glory we shall not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of [p. 156] darkness, and whatever we do in word or deed we shall do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
The body is only introduced in Romans and Corinthians incidentally; in the one as a check upon independency, and in the other as a check upon clericalism. In Colossians we have the relation of the body to the Head. It is the proper vessel of witness to the Head. All the qualities of the Head in heaven are to come out in the body in suitability to the scene in which it is. The princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory; now God’s thought is that every quality of Christ shall be expressed in the body; Christ is in the Gentiles, and this is the hope of glory. And all comes out in suitability to the scene in which the body is; therefore we have “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another”; nothing of this will be requisite in heaven. It is not anything of the flesh, because we have not known Christ after the flesh. The Christian properly lives in heaven, his life is hid with Christ in God; but the body is the vessel in which the character of Christ is to be displayed in the scene where it actually is.
It is impossible for men or devils to put out of the world anything that God has established here. God set up His temple here, and it cannot be dislodged; it may take a different character, ceasing to be a material house and composed of living stones, but it cannot be dislodged. So it is in regard to Christ. He was rejected and crucified, but He is still to be here, for God establishes a body in which He is expressed. And this is the hope of glory, for it is the pledge which God has given of the establishment of all His purpose.
Let me direct attention to 1 John 5: 9 - 11, which speaks of the witness of God. What is the witness? “This is the record [witness], that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”. His Son [p. 157] has been rejected, but the witness which God has been pleased to give concerning His Son is that He has given eternal life to Christians. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. The Christian circle, composed of those to whom eternal life is given and who are in the love of the brethren, is God’s witness concerning His Son.
In Ephesians we do not find a great deal about the body, but we have the bride, and the idea which comes out in that thought is that she is to share the portion of the Bridegroom. What is presented in regard to the body is Christ’s headship to it. When He is exalted far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, then it is He is given as Head to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. The church has its proper place in relation to Christ as the vessel in which He is described when everything is put under Him. It is not so at the present time, for “we see not yet all things put under him”; but when it is so the body is His fulness. There will not be a single feature or trait of Christ lacking in the church. Every quality of Christ will be expressed in the church, which is His body. This is what is meant by His fulness.
The thought of the bride is intimately connected with the truth of the body. At the beginning we get the two thoughts. There was to be a helpmeet for Adam, and nothing in the inferior creation was fitting, therefore God took a rib out of the man and made it a woman. Thus there are the two thoughts; she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, and she became his companion, suitable to him, to share his honour and his dominion. Adam was set in dominion over everything, but not properly in dominion over his wife, for she was his companion. This is the divine idea of the church.
[p. 158] The church is subjected (not exactly subject) to Christ. Why? Because He is its Head. The church was formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and Christ was given to be Head of it, and therefore it is subjected to Him.
The bride is the prominent idea in Ephesians. When we read in chapter 2 of what God has effected it brings in the thought of the bride. Jew and Gentile are set together in companionship with Christ in the heavenly places to satisfy the love of God. It has all been effected because of the great love wherewith God loved us. He gave Christ to be Head of the church, and therefore the church must be where the Head is, to share His portion and inheritance.
In chapter 5 the ideas of body and bride are found together, though the latter is the prominent one. No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Christ the church. And again, “We are members of his body”; then afterwards you return to the idea of the bride, “... shall be joined unto his wife ... I speak concerning Christ and the church”.
It appears to me that the body is always looked at as complete in a sense, because in relation to the Head, as the vessel of witness for the Head here. Having entered into this we must take up the other thought, the body must be the bride. According to the counsels of God, Christ cannot be alone in the position in which He is as Man; He must have a helpmeet. The church, which is the vessel of witness here, is to be the companion of Christ in glory, and all is for the satisfaction of the love of God.
The effect of this should be that we are exercised as to whether we are in suitability for presentation. Presentation refers to completeness. So we have on the one hand the church subjected to Christ, and on the other the church as the object of His love. He [p. 159] loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself glorious.
It is a great thing to be here in the sense of the love of Christ, and awaiting the moment of presentation, seeking to be morally suitable. May God help us, and give us light in regard to it!