UNION AND ITS EFFECTS
[p. 114] UNION AND ITS EFFECTS
We need to know what the church is to Christ, and you cannot know that until you understand union. You may look at it from God’s side and see that in His purpose you are united to Christ, but I desire to look a little at our side. You may see where this epistle puts the believer, and yet fail in the practice which God would produce in us by the knowledge of its teaching. The apostle prayed (Ephesians 1:18) “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling”. Paul would not have prayed that they might know, if the Ephesians had known these things. And you may know the epistle well, and yet you may not have grasped the reality of what the church is to Christ. How can you have suitability to the position if you do not understand this? The church is the fulness of Christ. The holy city, new Jerusalem, gives us a thought of the magnitude and magnificence of the church. The first man as set here for God failed, not so the second Man. He did so much for God while down here that the world itself is too small to contain the record. Is it all to be lost? Never. All is to come out in the church as the fulness of Christ.
I desire to say a few words on that which is seldom spoken or written about - the great object of God as to the church. Do not say it is too high for me. It is very simple and came out at Saul’s conversion. Paul’s gospel and the church came out together. If you do not know Paul’s gospel you do not know the mystery. Christ in heaven is Head to His body the church. To reach Christ as Head you must get completely outside the present order of things and come to a spot where Christ is all and in all. Are you looking for it? It is outside of man. You know union by the [p. 115] Holy Spirit; it is not the subject of Colossians, there it is more life; the prayer in Ephesians 1 is that you may know union. The Lord has brought me so close that I am part of Himself; the Lord leaves His mark on each of those who know Him thus. God is set on accomplishing all His counsels as to Christ, and here the church comes in. It was God that brought Eve to Adam. Are our hearts set on what God’s heart is set upon?
John does not speak of union, but he describes the holy city. It is descriptive of Christ. You must have divine power in order to be descriptive of the heavenly man upon earth. The thought of a true wife is how she can make much of her husband, and you are to be descriptive of Christ as united to Him. His interests are yours. I am not now speaking of service, but what I seek to impress upon you is the wonderful nature of our union with Christ. Some of us know what we passed through before having peace, now I want you to go on to union. I do not think any soul ever got peace until he wanted it, and no one realises union until they are set for it. The one thing that Abraham’s steward was sworn to was that Isaac’s wife must be of Abraham’s kindred, and you cannot realise union till you know that you are of the same order as Christ - there must be moral conformity. You cannot conduct every christian into conscious union because there must be moral fitness, you must know that you are “accepted in the beloved”, that you are of the same stock, “all of one”. Abraham’s steward asked God to give him a sign that he might know the right person, that she might be so gracious when he asked her for a drink, that she would not only give it to him, but offer to draw water for his camels also. This showed the grace she had, and you must be in grace before you can know union. “Grow in grace”. We are made partakers of the divine nature.
When the steward makes known to Rebekah her [p. 116] destiny, he unfolds counsel, she is to be the wife of Isaac. Then all kinds of difficulties arise. First, she has to break with her family, but she shows decision. She says, “I will go”. Then there is the wilderness, but she shows continuance. She went all the way till she reached the spot where Isaac was. She came to him. No one can take the whole journey who has not by the Spirit realised union.
In the first type I have referred to, God brought Eve to Adam. This will be fulfilled at the coronation day in Revelation 19. The marriage of the Lamb takes place when Babylon, the rival, has been set aside. God calls out the church apart from man’s city - Babylon, and He will show her to the world as God’s city - new Jerusalem. What do you expect to find in man’s city? The march of intellect, refinement, science and art. Babylon sits as a queen, but her end is in Revelation 18. There is no such joy as we find in Revelation 19 when Babylon is judged, and the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready; that is, she has passed the judgment-seat, and comes forth arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; “the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints”. Abraham and other Old Testament saints will be there as guests. They are children of the bridechamber, but they are not united to Christ as the church is. The Spirit of God now brings us into the things which are set forth in the heavenly Jerusalem. We sometimes sing:-
‘And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the Heavenly door.’ (74:5)
If you know that you belong to the blessed Lord up there in heaven, and have never been there in Spirit, you cannot be a happy man, nor can you be a heavenly man down here. The Spirit of God conducts us to heaven. The same power that wrought in Christ works towards us. It is not merely that God has a purpose as to us, but He has quickened us together [p. 117] with Christ, and has raised us up together, and made us sit down together in the heavenly places in Christ. What is the prominent thought here? The “heavenly places”. The place is the prominent idea.
The first thing that you learn when you know union is that you have a new interest. Christ is your interest, as Isaac was Rebekah’s interest. You know Christ first as your Saviour, then as your Priest, and in the assembly you learn what suits Him. His interests become paramount with you, and you come to understand what will further those interests. In Colossians I am outside the world, and Christ is my life, so that I get the sensibilities which suit Him. I put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. I am no longer under law. You may make a law of anything, even of the Bible, in order to correct the old man, but if you are by the Spirit in heaven, you will come out here as a new and heavenly man. You have a Head in heaven and that takes you outside of everything here. All will be completed by and by, but now the apostle prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Rebekah was a changed person when she learned her destiny, then all her thoughts and acts connected themselves with Isaac; so with us, when we are conscious of union with Christ we are taken up with the concerns of Christ; and we get in Ephesians 3 the great and present endowments that belong to union. First, Christ dwells in your heart by faith. Second, you are able to survey the greatness of your property; you may not be able to take it all in, but you do know something of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Then in the last verse you have the result, “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end”. It goes on through the millennium to the eternal state. It is a great thing to get clearly before one’s soul that I am here for Christ.
[p. 118] Now we come to testimony. There are two circles of testimony, the gospel and the mystery; and there are three spheres where your activity can display itself - the church, your family, and then you confront the power of Satan in the world. You begin with the church - keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If all the members are not acting in unison with the Head there is a moral paralysis manifested in the body. When Christ ascended up He gave gifts unto men, that every member might grow up “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, (Ephesians 4: 13). The church is the first circle. People generally begin with evangelising, but the evangelist goes out from the church; he cannot bring his converts to the assembly unless he goes out from it. He goes from the heart of the assembly to “sweep the house, and seek diligently”, and to find all that belongs to Christ. He searches for the treasure and the pearl, but he has also to sit down and select from the fish he has caught.
The second sphere is the family circle. In the law there was no word as to the family circle, and not even in Romans do you find direction as to it, but in Colossians and Ephesians you do find it. Every ordinance of God is to be taken up in a new way; a man is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it; fathers are not to provoke their children, and so forth. Then when the purpose of the heart is to be here for Christ, we find ourselves confronted by all the power of Satan, for Satan hates the one who is set for Christ, and you cannot resist him unless you put on the whole armour of God. You put on the armour against Satan, and you pray to God; then you can be bold as a lion. When Satan comes and finds Christ in you he flees. He tries hard to get you off heavenly ground; he first throws you a bait, and if you take it, that will do for him. If you refuse to take the bait then he will try and crush you. You never [p. 119] see a saint prospering on the earth who is not in danger. Satan may crush you, but you will be like the leaves of certain plants, the more they are crushed, the more fragrance they give forth. Far better to be crushed than to be allured. When a man makes headway in the world he is in great danger. You know when Peter was invited into the high priest’s house what it led to; he might have been cold outside, but he was far safer there than he was inside. It was a sad invitation for Peter. I conclude with the desire that each may know the blessedness of conscious union with Christ, and that the Lord may impress upon each heart what suits those who are united to Christ.