"YE ARE CHRIST'S"

R.F.White

1 Corinthians 3: 21-23; Mark 9: 41; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-23

I would like to say a word about the blessedness of belonging to Christ. This scripture that we read in 1 Corinthians 3 says "ye are Christ's". How blessed it is then to be together at this time and to know that we are Christ's. I would like to think that everybody here belongs to Christ. It is the most blessed thing imaginable. I would like to present that to you in speaking of it at this time. We have been speaking in the reading about the Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed Man. How attractive that thought is! I think we have been enjoying that idea, the Lord Jesus as the anointed Man. That is what the Christ means, the anointed One. How blessed to think that there is one Man who was great enough to bear that title, God's anointed!

So we are together at this time as those who belong to Christ. We do not belong to a club or a political party, we do not belong to any group or any man-made organisation. We are here as those who belong to Christ. How wonderful that is! How blessed! Our security rests in it, the security of our souls rests in this, that we belong to Christ. I suppose we can understand that sometimes men join clubs and associations, and things which give them some confidence, some strength, as they think, in the face of all the troubles and pressures of this world, but we can derive no strength and no comfort and no assurance from things like that. Our comfort, our resource, our security rests in this, that we belong to Christ. How blessed it is! And I say again that I would that every one in this room was assured of it. You may remember that, at the beginning of the Acts, they preached the glad tidings that Jesus was the Christ. How fine that was, that Jesus was the Christ! The Jews were looking for the Messiah; they were looking for an anointed man, and when you come to the Acts the glad tidings was that Jesus was that Man, Jesus was the Christ. Would it not be a terrible thing if some other man was to be the Christ, if one of the chief priests was to have been the Christ? Would that have been glad tidings? But the glad tidings was that Jesus was the Christ, the One who went about doing good and healing all who were possessed of the devil, for God was with Him. That is the One who is the Christ, and that is the One to whom we belong.

Now Paul writes to the Corinthians to bring the greatness of this thought before their souls. I have sometimes wondered what it would have been like to be local in Corinth. I suppose most of us know something of local difficulties, as we term them. We know something of personal difficulties, the exercises that come into our souls as believers individually, the conflicts that occur in us in the pathway of faith. But we know something, I think, more difficult than that even, and that is exercises that enter into local assemblies. Many of us, I am sure, have felt like the psalmist, that we wished at times that we had the wings of a dove, to fly away and be at peace (see Ps 55). But what would it have been like to be local in Corinth? I do not think any difficulties that have occurred in the history of any locality in recent times, even I suppose since the beginning of the revival, have been anything like the difficulties that occurred in that locality. Satan brought in these things too early, because Paul was still there to bring in what could set them aside, and he brings in, to adjust and to help, great and glorious features of the truth. There was a tendency at Corinth to make too much of men, there was a tendency for things to be sharply divided along lines which favoured one man as against another. That is in this chapter. One would say, I of Apollos, I of Paul, Paul transferring these things to himself and Apollos for the sake of illustration, but he brings in something to set aside that, this great truth, that "ye are Christ's". I wonder if I could say it again, that the greatness of it may enter into our souls: we do not belong to any man, we belong to Christ. Our allegiance, our loyalty, is to Him; our faith, our hope is in that blessed Man. How important that we should understand that, that it should enter our souls! We will all perhaps be flattered, we will all be tempted in our lives; we will all perhaps find that we have preferences, we may find that some suit us more than others. These sorts of things arise, but we belong to Christ. That is the great and over-riding thing in all our lives. He says "ye are Christ's". He is the One who is to have the first place, the first allegiance, He is the One to whom we belong. How wonderfully the scripture presents it.

In this epistle it tells us that we have been bought, bought with a price. He has paid a price to secure us, so that we might know that we belong to Him. So how wonderful these verses are! He says "all things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things coming, all are yours". How could you understand these verses, these things that he speaks of: Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas? I suppose they would have been leading servants at that time. Paul and Apollos they knew well, I do not know whether they knew Cephas; they would have heard of him, Peter, the leading apostle. These great servants had been responsible for bringing the truth to them. He says, They are yours! "Or the world, or life, or death" - you could think of nothing more vast than the world, nothing more powerful than death. How all-embracing it is to think of "things present, or things coming, all are yours". Why are they ours? Because we are Christ's. The Lord Jesus is in control of all these matters. Soon the world will be His, indeed it is His. Soon He will come out and take possession of it. He is the Heir to it; it will be His, and we will share with Him in that. "Or life, or death": who can speak of life as the believer can? Does life belong to the unconverted? Perhaps we think it does; but no, dear brethren, life belongs to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Or death”, think of death, the power that it exercises over men's lives. Who can speak of it in this way, as belonging to them? Only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can take this matter up. "Things present, or things coming": can men speak of things coming? They fear to think of the things that are coming. They look around, they take account of all that exists, and they see what is developing in the way of lawlessness and evil and violence in every country, and they fear as they think of things coming. But we have no fear when we think of things coming, because we know the One who is coming for us, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He says "all are yours". How great then the believer is from this point of view as belonging to Christ!

So the greatness of it is brought before our souls in this scripture, that we might understand and measure everything from that point of view, and know that our allegiance is to this blessed Man. "Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's". How wonderful to contemplate these, in a sense, simple scriptures, and to see how things really stand, and to get a sense of perspective, a sense of the relative importance of matters looked at from this point of view, that we belong to Christ first and foremost. How blessed!

I read the scripture in Mark 9 in order that we might be exercised to recognise this feature in each other, and if possible to help it on, to encourage it, to refresh it. It says that "whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye are Christ's, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward". How good it is to be able to recognise one another from this point of view: "ye are Christ's". I know that when we are younger we tend not to look on the brethren from this point of view, but surely it is an important thing to learn to recognise what is of Christ in one another, and to be set for the furtherance and refreshment of that blessed element. This chapter is a deeply interesting one - as indeed every chapter in Mark's gospel is - but in this section what the Lord speaks of arises out of a reasoning that had come in amongst the disciples. It says in verse 33: "he came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them, Of what were ye reasoning by the way? And they remained silent, for by the way they had been reasoning with one another who was greatest. And sitting down he called the twelve. When this reasoning came in amongst them the Lord sat down and gave some deliberate instruction about this matter. The element of competition had entered into the minds of His own. I think we grow up in a world that is marked in every feature of it by this element, the element of competition. It impinges upon us from our earliest days, as soon as we go to school, perhaps before that, even in our families, even in our childhood, this element comes into life, this element of competition. And as we grow up we see that the world really operates on this feature. It could not really operate apart from it; that is the world as it is. In every feature of human life the element of competition exists, whether it is in school, in business, or in any other range of human endeavour, all man's work is jealousy of his neighbour (see Eccles 4: 4). The feature of competition introduces uncertainties and insecurities into persons' lives. I suppose we can remember, those of us who are not so old, the insecurities of our teenage years. We feel for our younger brethren who are going through these years. It is sometimes a time of great insecurity in our lives. We look around and we see others, and everybody seems to be doing better than we are. We look at one and we look at another; we are insecure. What gives us security, I think, is a sense of belonging, and there is nothing like a sense of belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ to bring in a wonderful element of security. So in the Christian circle, properly speaking, we come into an area of things in which competition does not exist. The body of Christ as Paul speaks of it in Corinthians is an area of things where there is no competition, where every element works together for the upbuilding of the body.

So the Lord takes, it says, a little child, and sets it in their midst, "and, having taken it in his arms he said to them, Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receives me. How blessed to be a little child in the arms of Jesus! What a place of security! There is no competition there; no adverse or evil power could affect this little child in the arms of Jesus. Would it not be better to be a little child in the arms of Jesus than the greatest man or woman in this world? Think of that! Where would you rather be? Would you rather be in the place of greatest pre-eminence or in the arms of Jesus? And that is our position as believers. We come into His arms, His affections. How interesting then, how vital, to be able to detect, especially in our younger ones, elements of spiritual life, evidences of their belonging to Christ. I suppose those of us who are parents are concerned about our children, that it might become evident that they are of Christ. Earlier in this chapter you get a man who was exercised about his child. He is called "the young child" at one stage (v 24). What this incident brings out is that we are cast on the Lord Jesus to work; as parents we are cast on Him to work in our children, to operate there to bring about features of life and to attach them to Himself. On our part what is called for is faith. The Lord says "The 'if thou couldst' is if thou couldst believe: all things are possible to him that believes". Here was a man in an extremity of desperation about his child. He says he "has a dumb spirit; and wheresoever it seizes him it tears him, and he foams and gnashes his teeth, and he is withering away" (vv 17,18). What anxieties, what exercises, what concerns parents may carry for their children! We may not see any evidence, perhaps, of life there, spiritual life; there is nothing to indicate, perhaps, that there is anything there yet, and our faith is tested. We are cast on the Lord Jesus Christ to work. When the Lord deals with this child it is interesting that He brings out something that the father did not know, or anyone else - the child's deafness. The Lord says "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him". The Lord deals also with this feature of deafness. We may address words, we may address pleas, we may address the best of advice, perhaps, to our children at times, but are we not cast upon the Lord to open that ear? But the teaching is that there is to be faith with us. He says "if thou couldst believe: all things are possible to him that believes and immediately the father of the young child crying out said with tears, I believe, help mine unbelief". How blessed that we can bring, in this sense, even our lack of faith to the Lord and ask Him to help us.

Having said that, I want to bring it forward, and point to this young child in the arms of Jesus, this young believer brought to life and now in the arms of Jesus, and what is to be done? How is that life to be nurtured? How is that element of life to be encouraged amongst us? This chapter contemplates that we can be a help to one another, or alas, we can be a snare. The verse after that which we read says "And whosoever shall be a snare to one of the little ones who believe in me". I think we need soberly to take account of matters from this point of view, that our concern might be to further this feature, that we might refresh what is of Christ in each other and not in any sense be a snare. He says "whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye are Christ's". I think that that can take many forms. Many of us have experienced, I suppose, from our earliest days the kindness of the brethren, expressed in numerous ways, many more ways than we can recount. It is really on this principle, persons desiring to further; and promote what is of Christ. It would enter, I suppose, into every aspect of our contact with each other, that we should seek to encourage, to set forward this feature. How blessed then to learn to take account of each other and value each other from the standpoint of belonging to Christ, and to seek to further, to refresh, to encourage what is of Him. There is a reward attached to it. It says "he shall in no wise lose his reward". How wonderful! I think it has been said that the idea of reward in Scripture is to encourage those who have made a step, who have made a start; the reward is brought in to encourage them to go forward. May we be helped to understand that there is a reward attached to the furtherance of this feature amongst us, especially with respect to our dear younger brethren. What pressures they are subjected to at the present time! We take account of our younger ones growing up, and we look at the world in which they are growing up and we see the snares on every side, the difficulties, and yet they belong to Christ. How blessed that is! How good then to be set to encourage that, to foster that, to preserve that; not in any sense to divert it, but to preserve it. Sometimes when difficulties come in amongst us the young, alas, are casualties, but may our desire be to further this blessed feature as we see it growing. How lovely to see features of love for Christ, of desire to be faithful to Christ rising in the souls of young believers, the souls of every one of us, old believers too; how good to foster that and to set it forward, to refresh it. We will find that we ourselves are refreshed in doing so.

Well, just to refer in closing to 1 Corinthians 15 - this wonderful chapter which, as we know, brings out in such a distinctive way the truth of the resurrection. It is a wonderful thing to think of this, that God has taken account of everything, of every power that might be ranged against us as believers, and He has made arrangements (if we may so speak) to set aside every power, to secure us entirely for Himself. We get that expression in Romans 3: 24; "the redemption which is in Christ Jesus". That, as I understand it, means that through the work of redemption the Lord Jesus Christ frees us from every power. There is Satan's power; there is the power of sin, but then there is this other matter of our mortal and weak condition, that we live in bodies which are subject to death, are subject indeed to decay. God has taken account even of that matter as it affects His own. He has made provision to bring in something to set it aside. Believers may come, alas, under many influences, they may come under wrongful influences, but the Lord Jesus Christ will not give up in any sense His claim, and He will set aside every influence, every power, that we might be entirely for Himself. This chapter takes account of the power of death and shows how God has already operated in respect of Christ, and will operate in respect of the bodies of His own, to set aside even that power. We await "the redemption of our body", Rom 8: 23. How blessed to think of that! Think of the things that come in now that affect the bodies of the saints. How much pressure there is in that respect, but how comforting to know this, that God has taken account of that and He intends to set aside even the power of death as it may affect the bodies of His own, to set them free. So it says "But now Christ is raised from among the dead, first-fruits of those fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also resurrection of those that are dead". How wonderful that little verse is there, inserted just where it is, between the statement of the truth of Christ's resurrection and the great general effect of that in that great exercise of power: "For as in the Adam all die, thus also in the Christ all shall be made alive". How blessed to think that it is by Man, that Man; "by man also resurrection of those that are dead". How comforting it is to know that by Man, this blessed One to whom we belong, has come the answer to that matter also. So it says "But each in his own rank, the firstfruits, Christ; then those that are the Christ's at his coming". I think there is something wonderful in that statement, "those that are the Christ's at his coming". How blessed to be amongst that company, "those that are the Christ's". How many will be numbered there He knows and God knows. "Those that are the Christ's": we have been taught that it goes right back, it includes all those who have died in faith. How blessed to think that every one will be there, every one who belongs to Him. Alas! we live in days of breakdown here publicly. We have experienced much in the way of reduction, even numerically, in those available to us in the fellowship. We have seen, alas, our brethren come under influences that are not of God. We have seen alas, persons turn aside; but how blessed to contemplate this, that a time will come when every power must give way to the power of Christ, and those that are the Christ's will come forth, the whole number complete, every one there secure, never any more to be in any way harmed or in any way threatened, "those that are the Christ's at his coming". Does it not thrill your heart to know as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ that you are one of this great company, "those that are the Christ's"? How wonderful! We were not that way once, we were sinners, lost and undone, "having no hope, and without God in the world" (Eph 2: 12), but now we belong to Christ, as believing in Him, and we will have part in this great company that will come up when the Lord Jesus comes, "those that are the Christ's at his coming". Every one will be there, secure. How blessed to think of it! Who could find all the redeemed who have died? But all belong to Christ, all are His, and every one will come up in this great company, all that belong to Christ at His coming. May it encourage our hearts to know that we belong to Him even now and will do throughout eternity, for His Name's sake.

LONDON

17 October 1987