THE BRIDE
[p. 191] THE BRIDE
Ephesians 1: 15 - 23; Ephesians 2: 1 - 22
My thought is to enlarge a little on what is peculiar to the church: the privileges peculiar to it. I have attempted, in what has come before us from time to time, to shew how that in the church God has taken up every thread of His previous dealings. All the previous dealings of God had Christ and the church in view. That was a necessity, because there was nothing really accomplished in His dealings. Promises were made to Abraham, and certain things were conferred upon Israel, but there was nothing really accomplished or final: all had reference to things which were yet to come. Everything looked on to Christ and the church, where God purposed to gather up every thread of His previous dealings. You can understand that, in regard both to the promises, and to the kingdom, and to blessing, and to life; whatever was spoken of in that way was in anticipation of what God intended to establish in Christ and the church. There are other things which are yet to come to pass, but the first thing with God was, to gather up and establish all in Christ and His companions.
Now there are also certain truths which are entirely peculiar to the church. The church, in the scheme of divine purpose, has its own place distinct from anything else, and it would be a very great pity to lose sight of that. In the Old Testament you find, in the headings of chapters, the idea that Israel was the church, but it is much more true that the church is really Israel: the Israel of God. The true Israel was the nucleus of the church: the beginning of it. God gathered the remnant of His people into the church, and they were the first-fruits. But we have to look at the church in the light of what it is to Christ. You can never learn what is peculiar to the church except by learning what the [p. 192] church is in relation to Christ. That is what I want to come to now — the church as the body and the bride of Christ. It never could be said that Israel had that place. It belongs to the church. So, too, the holy Jerusalem, the centre and joy of the heavenly land, is entirely peculiar to the church.
We get here a remarkable expression; that is, He “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”. In the beginning of the next chapter we have the thought of union. This connects itself with the idea of the bride. In chapter 5 we read that “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish”. There again is the thought of the bride. So, too, in the same connection, we learn that the Christ is the Head of the church, as the husband is the head of the wife. The husband being the head of the wife is the figure employed to shew the headship of Christ to the church.
It is a very wonderful thing that the church should have the place of the bride of Christ, and it is impossible to understand that apart from the ways of God in Christ. If you are to enter into the idea of the church’s place in relation to Christ you must know something of God’s ways. In a way the church is necessary in order that those ways may become manifest.
A point which I desire first to touch upon is the interchange of thought you get sometimes in Scripture. By way of illustration, we may turn to Psalm 132. In the first ten verses we have a kind of appeal, taken up by David, to Jehovah, then in the eleventh and following verses we have the word of Jehovah. David was a remarkable man. He was one marked by very great failures. He had a sort of absolute power, and, at [p. 193] times, he used his power and opportunities in a very gross way indeed. And yet if you have studied what the Chronicles say of the house of David, you will have seen that the first book is almost entirely taken up with two thoughts. The first is the bringing up of the ark to the city of David, and the second the building of a house for God. Jehovah was to arise and to enter into His rest, He and the ark of His strength.
What led me to read Psalm 132 is the interchange of thought between David and Jehovah. David’s thought was to find a resting-place for the ark of Jehovah, and Jehovah’s thought was to build a house for David and to establish his throne. His enemies were to be clothed with shame, but upon himself his crown was to flourish. All that is remarkable in contrast to the great blemishes which marked David. As a matter of fact, David never was allowed to build God a house. He was a man who had shed much blood; Solomon was to build the house for Jehovah. But the real house of God never was built by Solomon, he built a material house which perhaps pointed on to the church, as Solomon himself pointed on to the real Son of David. I have no doubt that the thought of Christ in His ministry down here was really to secure a house for God, that He might dwell here. But, on the other hand, the divine thought in regard of Christ is that He should be glorified above all principalities and powers. When you come to Christ, things are not for a moment to be compared with those of David. David would build a house, but his thought was a material one. Christ, on the other hand, purposed to build God a house, but one of a very different character to that which David proposed to build. That is what He has done. There was a house prepared for God to dwell in, and, as the result, God has been dwelling here from that time to this. The Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, and has abode here ever since.
There are two facts of profound moment on which christianity entirely hangs. The first is, that there is a [p. 194] real Man at the right hand of God; and the second, that by the Holy Spirit God is present down here. If a man does not accept those two facts, I would hardly recognise him as being in the profession of christianity. I would like every one to consider those two things. They are not clearly seen, but nevertheless christianity hangs upon them. I think a great many people who profess christianity have no sense at all of Christ being a real Man, but He is a real Man in heaven. While still on earth, the Lord took great pains to assure the disciples that He was a real Man risen from among the dead. “Behold my hands and my feet, that It is I myself”. Now He is a real Man in heaven, angels, authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. People may object because they know nothing of the conditions of life and resurrection. It is in the power of God to raise the dead, and He does raise the dead, but they do not live in the conditions in which we live. The first principle of christianity is a Man risen from among the dead and gone to heaven, and the Holy Spirit is dwelling here in witness to that Man. That Man is not always to abide at the right hand of God. He is to be manifested. All the thoughts which came out in regard of David subsist and are substantiated in Him. The thought of Christ, as we have seen, was to provide a dwelling-place for God on earth, and He secured it; and, on the other hand, the thought of God for Christ was that Man should be set not simply upon the throne of David on earth, but above all principality and power and every name that is named. Man is set in the very highest place. That is the way in which God exhibits His triumph. The work of Satan was to corrupt man upon earth, and he succeeded only too well. He gave man inflated notions about knowing good and evil, and led him away from God; but the divine answer to it is, that God has set man, in Christ, in the highest place, at the right hand of God, above all principality and power. “He has ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”. “We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”. All things are put under His feet. What was set forth in David is fulfilled in Christ, all that beautiful interchange of thought which we find in the Psalms between David and Jehovah, the mighty God of Jacob, has come to pass in Christ.
I go on now to shew that the body and the bride are necessary to the place which Christ has taken. What I understand by the body is the vessel in which Christ should be perfectly expressed. If you entertain any idea of the greatness of Christ, the body is that in which He is adequately expressed. The body serves that purpose now. It is that in which Christ lives, which is animated by Him, and consequently He is expressed in it. That is a point of all moment at the present time. I was dwelling upon that in a former lecture in connection with the epistle to the Colossians. The thought connected with the body is that there should be that in which the sensibilities and graces of Christ should become manifest down here.
But now we come to another thought, and that is the bride. The thought of the bride is that she may be for the perfect satisfaction of Christ. “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom”. Another point in connection with the bride that I desire to call attention to is that the bride should be entirely according to the glory of God. Nothing that is unsuited to the glory of God could be a suitable helpmeet for Christ, and because it is suited to the glory of God therefore the glory of God can be set forth in it. I take it that is the place that the bride will occupy in the time to come. It is the holy Jerusalem, the heavenly city, which comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, and her light like unto a stone most precious.
If you take the figure of Adam and Eve, Eve was formed out of Adam for the satisfaction of Adam. God intended Adam to have the joy of that which He brought to him. She was for his satisfaction. I am sure all [p. 196] christians would like to be for the satisfaction of Christ. The same thought is found in the latter part of this epistle. Husbands are bidden to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. One is not saying too much in stating that the bride is to be for the satisfaction of Christ. The bride is His. “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it”. It was not that the church loved Christ.
But if Christ is to have satisfaction in the bride, she must be according to the glory of God. I can understand, even in the millennium, God allowing certain imperfections upon earth, but when it is a question of the bride there can be no imperfection, and therefore Christ presents the church to Himself glorious. It is according to God’s glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish before God. Each of us ought to covet that. The bride of Christ will be before God according to God’s glory, otherwise it would be unsuited to Christ. After all, Christ is God, and the bride of Christ must be according to the glory of God. That is the thought taken up in the epistle to the Ephesians. I look forward with joy to the day when one will be before God according to His glory, but then it is fulfilled in a way now, for there is the work of God in saints, so that we should be according to His glory.
If it were not for God’s work in us we never would be according to His glory. It is all His work. No advance on your part or mine in intelligence can ever make us according to His glory, and His glory is seen in my being according to His glory; according to Himself, really that I am before Him according to His nature. But then that which is according to God’s glory is for the display of that glory. The holy Jerusalem has two aspects: it is the bride of Christ, suitable to God’s glory, and then it becomes the vessel in which the glory of God is set forth in the presence of the universe. “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”.
[p. 197] If we are according to His glory there is nothing to obstruct His kindness. Kindness is natural to God, and when we are according to God’s glory, so that there is nothing to obstruct, then He makes known to the universe the exceeding riches of His grace.
The body is that in which Christ lives and in which He is expressed, but the bride is for the satisfaction of Christ and is according to the glory of God, and thus in it the glory of God can be set forth. In the day of display the universe of bliss will be lit up by the light of the holy Jerusalem, the heavenly city, which comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, and her light like unto a stone most precious. We have to do with things which are blessed realities, not impostures.
Now in chapter 2 is stated what God has effected. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. It is stated as if all were effected. The connection is with the end of the preceding chapter; and the consequence of that is, that God is enabled in the beginning of chapter 2 to state that which we do not yet see, but which is really effected for God. We are quickened together with Christ, raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, but that hangs on what is spoken of in chapter 1. If we could see things according to God: if we apprehended the greatness of the power of God which is toward us who believe, and understood how God has made us capable in point of spiritual affections, so that we can sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, it would bring us to union: that is the thought in the passage.
We read in John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Also in Titus, “But after that the kindness and [p. 198] love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us”. In John’s gospel, the love of God toward the world was evidenced in the giving of His only-begotten Son who was the test of the world. Death lay upon men, and judgment was before them, and God gave His only-begotten Son, the evidence of His love, and the Son of man was lifted up to be the test of the world. It is not there a question of the sovereignty of mercy, but of the grace of God that has provided for man an outlet from the world. Here, in Ephesians, it is another thought, “God, who is rich in mercy”. It is not here a question of divine grace to the world, but of the way in which the mercy of God is expressed in working in us, and that involves the sovereignty of God. In the operation of God the sovereignty of God is involved, because He will not engage Himself to work in every man. His grace is toward every man, and He has proved His love to the world, but He will not engage Himself to work in every man. That is what is spoken of here. While, on the one hand, Christ has wrought in order to secure a dwelling-place for God, on the other hand, God is bent on the exaltation of Christ, and that Christ shall be satisfied, and therefore the bride is provided to sit in the heavenly places for the satisfaction of Christ.
Now, this will be literally effected and displayed when the Lord comes. We shall be quickened with Christ, raised up then, and made to sit together in the heavenly places, but that is anticipated here in connection with the exceeding greatness of God’s power which is towards us who believe.
In the latter part of the chapter we get certain proofs of the reality of these things, and my object is to shew that what is stated in the first part of the chapter is not only a reality, but that we get the present gain of it. It does not speak of things which are going to take place, but of things which have taken place with God. The first thing is, we have “become nigh by the blood of the Christ”. The second, “For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”. The third is, “in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”. These privileges are proof of what God has effected. I want you to apprehend the great present reality of these things, and what the reality is the pledge of. They are the pledge of this, that God has given effect to the purpose of His will for the glory of Christ. Christ has built a house for God to dwell in, and now God is bent upon the glory and satisfaction of Christ. God has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places, and the effect of that is, that we have become nigh. We are no longer outcasts. We were a long way from anything connected with Israel. The gentiles were in darkness and idolatry, but that is not the case now. “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”. We have become nigh dispensationally.
But another point is, that we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Jew and gentile are joined together here by one Spirit, and have common access. In the New Testament there is very little injunction or direction in regard of worship. In the Old Testament you get the most explicit instructions. I have often turned this over in my own mind really to satisfy myself about worship, and have come to the conclusion that there is little said about it, because it is all involved in access. We learn that through Jesus we both have access by one Spirit to the Father, and we get no more. All the difficulty with regard to worship disappears when we are conscious of being before God in the light of His love. If you have the sense of that which God is, and are before Him in that way, you could not want any direction in regard of worship. In worship Christ is the Leader. It is through Him we have access to the Father.
The next thing is, Jew and gentile are built together [p. 200] for a habitation of God by the Spirit. God is dwelling here, and, if God is dwelling here, there is christianity. Christianity depends upon two things: Christ in heaven, and the Holy Spirit here. There must be provision for Christ somewhere, and God has made known what provision He has made; and there is no christianity on earth — except in name and profession — outside the work of the Holy Spirit. I cannot conceive anything more extraordinary than that christendom should have lost sight of the presence of the Holy Spirit, because everything depends upon it. Christ has prepared for God a house, and therefore of necessity God dwells here at the present time by the Spirit. We are become nigh by the blood of Christ, then we have access through Him by one Spirit to the Father, and are built together for a habitation of God by the Spirit. All these things are brought before us in the latter part of the chapter as a pledge to us of the great reality of that which God has effected for Himself.
The body has its own proper place. Christ said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” In the early days the body was in the love of Christ and was the expression of Himself, but then there is not only the truth of the body, but of the bride also. Christ went down into the lower parts of the earth, lower than any one ever went, and now He has ascended far above all heavens that He may fill all things. God will confer glory upon Him, and work in order that He may have satisfaction. The bride is the closest to Him in the day of display, because it is according to God’s glory. To get a proper thought of it you must read the detail of the heavenly city in the Revelation.
All these things are realities, and we get the present fruit and pledge of them in the privileges which belong to us here. The mere profession of christianity will not enable us to stand. Christianity is supported by all the power by which God can support it: the power of the Spirit. God is dwelling here by the Spirit, and His [p. 201] people are supported by the Spirit; therefore they can stand against all the powers that are.
May God engage our interest in these things that we may get to understand better what the church is as the body and bride of Christ, in which God has gathered up every thread of His previous dealings so that nothing has lapsed. The companions of Christ, the house of God, the flock of God, the promises, blessing — all are gathered up in Christ and the church.