THE BODY DESCRIPTIVE OF THE HEAD
[p. 34] THE BODY DESCRIPTIVE OF THE HEAD
Colossians 1: 18 - 29; Romans 16: 25, 26
We have had a good bit to say about the body of Christ this afternoon, and the thought before me tonight is to say something about the Head; you cannot understand the truth of the body except in connection with the Head. I want to say a little as to the purpose the body serves towards the Head, and how the body is at the direction of the Head. You could not understand nor enter into the truth of the body apart from that. I take myself, or you, as an example. Your body is directed by your head. And we always connect with it the idea that the body is at the disposal of the head. My members do not move of their own accord; all is traced from the head. Any thoughtful person can see that the body is at the disposal of the head.
Now I want to speak a little about the Head, but in the first place I must show you how the body is formed, and the place which Christ has in relation to it as Head, and then I want to show you the purpose the body serves for the Head. And nothing can alter this purpose. Not all the failure of the church, though tending to obscure it, can alter it, because the failure cannot alter or do away with the body. The whole body is here on the earth as really as ever it was. There may be very few in the light of it, but that does not alter the fact. The body is here, and it is a great thing to get light — the divine mind, as to the body. It will help you greatly to understand the ruin around you, the character of the things in christendom, and to enter more intelligently into the fellowship in which it has pleased God to place us. What is the great gain of knowing the truth of the body? We become [p. 35] more intelligent for the Lord, and about the fellowship to which the Lord has called us. And I defy any one to understand the true character of christendom in the present day if he is not brought into the true idea of the body, and the purpose it is intended to serve.
I feel the subject is most important, and I have a very deep sense of how powerless one is to handle it. It is a subject spoken of as the mystery of the gospel, and therefore it is evidently a deep subject, though a mystery which has been made manifest. The apostle was exceedingly anxious to make manifest the mystery of the gospel. One remark more. In the very nature of the expressions employed in Scripture, the truth of the body must be hid in the gospel. If it is the mystery of the gospel, it is as evident as possible that the truth of the body must be involved in the gospel, and it must be made manifest from the gospel. In Ephesians 6: 19 you get the expression: “That I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel”. We have become much accustomed to speak of the two ministries, the ministry of the gospel, and the ministry of the church. And it is true the apostle does speak of himself as minister — not a minister — of the gospel and of the church; but you must remember the truth of the body lies in the gospel. It is the mystery of the gospel.
Now further, we get the recognition of the truth of the body in Romans 12: 4, 5: “For as we have many members in one body”. Now that passage makes it perfectly certain to my mind that you must have in Romans a doctrinal basis for the body. Because when the apostle comes to the hortatory part that we have in this chapter 12 he makes this statement as to the one body. There is no previous allusion to the subject in the epistle; for neither the truth of the body nor of the Head is taught in [p. 36] Romans. But nevertheless what is certain to me is, you must have in Romans a sufficient doctrinal basis for the body. And it lies in this, that by the very fact of the reception of the Spirit we are of necessity constituted one body, and Romans teaches the communication of the Spirit in chapter 5, where it says, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. But the Holy Spirit is one, and therefore the same Holy Spirit resides in all the saints, and the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of all saints by the one Spirit.
And again, when I come to chapter 8 I read, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”. There is only one Spirit of God. So later on, verse 15; there is only one spirit of sonship. Every believer participates in the same Spirit; all are baptised “by one Spirit ... into one body”. One Spirit brought the love of God into our hearts; we are all in the one Spirit if the Spirit of God dwell in us. There is only one Spirit of God’s Son, and that is the Spirit by which all believers cry, “Abba, Father”. That is the truth of the Spirit in the believer, and therefore I understand you get the truth of the presence of the Spirit recognized, and although the truth of the body is not taught, the body is involved inasmuch as you get the same Spirit in all the saints. You must have one body because one Spirit.
Now I think it must be plain to every one here tonight that in the very fact of its being taught in Romans that we all receive the Spirit we are necessarily constituted into one body; thus the apostle says, “We, being many, are one body in Christ”. Not one body in Adam, not one body in our responsible life down here, for the body involves new creation. There is thus a certain doctrinal basis in Romans for the truth of the body, and therefore he [p. 37] brings it in to enforce his exhortation in chapter 12. The believer’s responsibility is brought in there, not in connection with the body, but “having then gifts”. A man is to wait on his gift. I want to make this point clear, that the truth of the body is the mystery of the gospel, and that therefore of necessity the truth of the body must lie hid in the gospel, but it is made manifest to the saints, for the apostle’s great anxiety was to make it manifest. It was hid there — that is, in the gospel, and he was conscious it was.
Now as to the formation of the body. We look at the body before we look at the Head. Let me say one word which may perhaps cut across the thought of some here as to the body of Christ. The one body is the same evidently as the body of Christ. These are not two different thoughts in Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 12 we read (verse 13), “For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body”, and in the same chapter (verse 27), “Now ye are the body of Christ”, because the one body is the body of Christ.
What I want to show you now is this, that the truth of union is not taught in connection with the body. What is taught in connection with the body is unity, not union. And the truth of unity is involved, I think, in connection with the body in these scriptures, “There is one body, and one Spirit”, and again, “For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body”. Thus the teaching of the Spirit of God, in connection with the Spirit and the body, is not to show union but unity. By the very fact of the reception of the Spirit the saints have been formed into one body. We find in the Acts, in the early part of the church’s history, the saints were gathered together by the testimony of the resurrection of Christ. Then they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of the Holy [p. 38] Spirit constituted them the house of God. But the truth of the body had not yet come out, and the first intimation was in what Jesus said to Saul, “Why persecutest thou me?” What that means was this, that Christ was in the saints. Now when the truth of the body came out, we see it existed by the very fact of the baptism of the Spirit. There was never but one baptism of the Spirit, that on the day of Pentecost, and then the saints were formed into one body, and that was unity. You cannot have a stronger idea presented to you of unity than the body. What is a body without unity? We have many members in one body. What would my body be without unity? If I get any failure in the unity of my body it is a proof that there is paralysis. Every member is depressed, a certain proof that something is out of gear, the nervous system is gone to the bad. You cannot have a stronger idea of unity than this scripture presents, that “we, being many, are one body”.
The next point is — the body having been formed by the Spirit, Christ is given the place of Head of the body, that is, Head in the sense of Chief.
Suppose we take the figure of the human body in connection with the head, the moral idea connected with head is direction, and Christ in taking the place of Head of the body takes the place of Chief. I will give you a passage of Scripture for it, Ephesians 1: 20 - 23: “Which he wrought in Christ”. It is the fulfilment of the prophecy in Psalm 8. The Son of man set over everything. Then the additional truth, He “hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church”. He is given as Head to the church which is His body. Thus the church is formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and Christ is given to be Head over all, and Head to the church which is His body. But I cannot dwell on this.
In Colossians 1: 18 we read, “And he is the head of the body, the church”. That is the first statement we have of His headship. I put Colossians before Ephesians, because in moral order it comes first. In chapter 2 we read, “from which” — that is the Head — “all the body ...” I take it slowly as I want the points to be clear as I go on.
Bear in mind first how the body is formed. The body is the mystery of the gospel remember, because I do not want you to think that the gospel is one thing and the mystery another. It is the mystery of the gospel, because the body is hid in the gospel, and the gospel goes on to the communication of the Spirit, and no believer is in the good of the gospel till he has received the Spirit. The great end of the gospel is that God may be revealed in the heart of the believer, but that cannot be until the Spirit is received. Love is not known else. “The love of God is shed abroad ... by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. And I say unhesitatingly, no person is in the good of the gospel until he has received the Holy Spirit. God’s end in the gospel is that He may be revealed in the heart of man; man’s idea is that God’s object is to save him, but the gospel brings you to the Spirit; and the moment the Spirit is received the body is formed. And why? Because Christ is in you. Now the body is formed by the baptism of the Spirit, and having been thus formed, Christ is in the place of Head. He is looked at there as Man, and the place given to Him of God, and it is regarded as being the highest place of His exaltation, “Head over all things to the church”. Now, mark this, that the truth of union is not taught in connection with the body, union brings in the thought of the bride. The idea of union is that the church will share in the glory and exaltation of the Head. Just as a woman who marries a man superior in position to herself [p. 40] shares his position, so in regard to the church and Christ. And that is taught in Ephesians 2: 5 - 7, “Even when we were dead in sins ...” It is to satisfy the love of God. It is not to satisfy the heart of the church, but the heart of God.
So far we have the idea of the body, and the truth taught in connection with the unity. Now we will go a little into detail. And what I venture to say first is this, you do not find the truth of the Head until you come to Colossians. You get the truth of the body both in Romans and Corinthians. In Romans it is to check independency and in Corinthians to check clericalism. If I recognize the truth that I am a member of the body I cannot be independent. If a man is set in a position not dependent on anybody else he can take the ground of independency. A man might say, I am not concerned about anybody else. But if he is a member of the body of Christ he is so far dependent. No one of us can be exclusively individual. Many christians are too individual. They are taken up far too much with what is connected with their individual paths, “We, being many, are one body”. You may carry independency too far as to the individuality of the saints. I admit each has his individual path, but we must not use our individuality to the extent of forgetting that we are members one of another. You may find saints coming to the meetings on the Lord’s day morning, and you do not see much of them for the rest of the week. They forget we are members one of another. So the truth of the body is brought in in Romans as an antidote to independency. He is not to think too highly of himself, but as God has given him a place in the body. But Christ is not seen as Head of the body in Romans. The character in which He is presented there is as Lord. And that is a different idea to that of the Head; He is Lord in the house — the [p. 41] church looked at in that aspect; but Christ is not Lord to the body, He is Head to the body, and that is a different association of ideas entirely. My head is not lord of my body. The body is dependent on the head, but the head is not its lord. Christ is Lord in the house, and if He sees fit He can assert His lordship there. You will find that in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11.
Now look at 1 Corinthians 12: 12: “For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ”. See also verse 27: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular”. Speaking of all the saints at Corinth they were the body of Christ. Now what I want to show is, that the thought of the body is brought in there, not as a check to independency, but as an antidote to clericalism. The principle of clericalism is, the head can say to the feet, I have no need of you. The antidote is, the head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you. The feet belong to the body, and are for the assembly. Even the most obscure member is necessary, for it may be the vessel for the manifestation of the Spirit. You cannot limit the Spirit to the more conspicuous members. An eye is more conspicuous, but in the assembly you cannot limit the Spirit. The truth of the body is introduced in connection with the assembly come together, as an antidote to clericalism. There is one body, and the manifestations of the Spirit come out in the various members, all by the same Spirit. You cannot therefore have such a thing as clericalism in the assembly. I have great sympathy with two or three coming together for prayer, but that is not the assembly. They are come together for a specific object according to Matthew 18: 19, 20. But that is not the assembly. When you come to the assembly you must leave the [p. 42] Spirit free. You could not say we come to the assembly for prayer, even in regard to the things of the assembly, you would so far fetter the Spirit. I would be glad to associate in that way with two or three, or two or three hundred, coming together for prayer; but that is not the assembly, you cannot fetter the Spirit in the assembly. There He uses the members as He pleases. Thus you may get prayer or praise or thanksgiving or worship or ministry, but you cannot fetter the Spirit in the assembly, properly speaking. In Matthew 18 it is an agreement to ask for some particular thing in Christ’s name. That is quite right. But in the assembly, room must be given to the Spirit to act as He will; and the Spirit uses whatever member He pleases. So there must be no clericalism in the assembly. And I could not go to a so-called church or chapel where the service is all performed by the minister. It is a complete denial of the truth of the assembly. Many persons perhaps are sitting in the congregation whom the Spirit might use.
Neither Romans nor Corinthians give us the Head. In Corinthians Christ is almost invariably presented as Lord. On account of the state of the assembly there the apostle could not unfold to them the truth of the Head. It used to be said that Christ was never brought in as Lord to the assembly except when evil was there. There was disorder and confusion of all kinds in the Corinthian assembly, hence Christ was brought in as Lord. But my great point is to come to the thought of the Head. I have shown how the truth of the body is brought in, but now I come to the purpose which the body serves for the Head. That comes out in Colossians; and exceedingly important it is that you should see how it works out — the wonderful idea of the Head being connected with the [p. 43] body. And we can only learn that, when we see that Christ being Head to the body His body is the complement. The body is a vessel descriptive of Himself, just as my body is descriptive of my intelligence, and my intelligence is seen through my body. That is what the church is to Christ. It is the fulness of Him.
There is not to be a quality lacking in the vessel set down here in the world in order that it might be descriptive of the Head. You have the wonderful truth of the Head in glory, and a body here to be descriptive of the Head in glory. That is what is brought out in Colossians — the connection of the Head with the body. And can you conceive anything more wonderful? Look at the travesty of the thing around us! Take popery, it sets up a human imitation. A remarkable thing about the Roman Catholic church is that it is the only real imitation of the body. A state church is not. That does not profess to be universal, the Romish church does. But what they have done is this, they have transferred the privileges of the body to the house. They have set up a body of professors, and attached to the house the privileges which properly belong to the body. I might go as far as this, and say, it is a diabolical imitation of the real thing. The real thing is a Head in heaven, exalted to be Head over all things, but having a body here on earth to be morally descriptive of Himself in the scene from which He has been rejected. If I may use the expression, it is the perpetuation of Christ here: that is the true character of the body — the continuance, the perpetuation of Christ here in this scene whence He has been rejected.
Now I want to work this in with another passage from 1 John 5: 9; and we shall see how one scripture writer supports another, “This is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son”. What is the witness? See verses 10, 11. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself ... And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”. What that teaches us is this, he looks at the saints, and he says, God has given to the saints eternal life, and mark this — “this life is in his Son”. Every saint disclaims the thought that that life is in himself, but what he maintains is this — “God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son”. Thus you have a body of saints on earth, brought into the blessing of eternal life, all disclaiming the idea of eternal life in themselves, but maintaining that it is in God’s Son, and that is the witness here. Thus He has given a living witness to Christ in glory. The first four chapters of this epistle are taken up with the subject of eternal life as manifested in Christ down here; the apostles witness of this, but in chapter 5 it is the Holy Spirit witnessing to Christ in glory, for they never saw Him there; they had seen Him down here in resurrection, but the witness is to Christ in glory.
God has given to us eternal life, but we should not say eternal life is in us. We are in eternal life, and eternal life is in God’s Son, and that is the witness here. Now I think it is the same thing as to the body. The body is the vessel in which Christ in glory is described in this scene from which He has been rejected. And I could not conceive anything more wonderful. The world succeeded in casting Christ out, but God has ordained that there should be a vessel here in which should be described the very Christ whom the world has cast out.
That is what the body is for. It is an unvarying principle in Scripture that anything God has established on earth always abides. The world cannot get rid of it. And if God has set Christ here on the earth, not all the power of man can put Him out.
[p. 45] So He is represented here again in His body; and the church remains till He comes again in glory. So as to the temple which God has set up. At one time it may be a material temple, and now one of living stones, but the temple is here until the material temple is re-established again at Jerusalem. So as to everything else. Once God has established a thing on earth, not all the power of earth and hell combined can disestablish it. Man cannot defeat God. You may get the thing in a new character but the thing abides. So as to Christ, the wicked Jew crucified and killed Him, but the Holy Spirit comes down and forms the body here. And Christ is given to be Head of His body, and the body is to be descriptive of that Man whom the world has rejected.
God has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It is perfectly wonderful, and if you accept the idea you will understand the terrible defection and departure of christendom from the thought of God in regard to the church, and how very poorly we have entered into the idea that the body is to be descriptive of Christ in the very scene where He has been rejected.
Turn to Colossians 1: 24. There is His body, not simply the one body. To the Romans and Corinthians he had taught the one body. Now it is “His body, which is the assembly” — because he has spoken of the Head — “of which I became minister” — not a minister — (see verses 25, 26); so that saints are to know it — it has been made manifest to them, and only to the saints (verse 27), Christ in the gentiles, the hope of glory. That is what has come to pass. You have this great fact, that the gentiles have become a vessel in whom Christ is, and He is the hope of glory. That is what God has gained!
You might say when Christ was here personally He was the hope of glory. He was doubtless the pledge of all the fulfilment of the purposes of God.
[p. 46] But now the wonderful thing is that Christ is in the gentiles — Christ in the saints in the pledge of the fulfilment of all God’s purposes and counsels — Christ in the gentiles, the hope of glory. Now to come to what this mystery means. If I speak of the saints being in Christ, that is not a mystery. “God has given to us eternal life”. That is our position before God, and we have the witness in ourselves. But the mystery is another thought altogether, the mystery is Christ in the saints. Do you ask, how does it come out? It comes out in this, you have all the character of Christ, not as in the flesh, but in moral suitability down here, reproduced in the saints. Not Christ known after the flesh, but all the moral characteristics of Christ in suitability to the scene down here reproduced in the saints, because they are His body. That is the relation in which He stands to the saints, as Head of the body.
Therefore the meekness and gentleness and lowliness — all the sensibilities of Christ and the peace of Christ, are all to be reproduced and displayed here, because the church is His body and the vessel which is to be descriptive of Himself in the very scene where He has been rejected. That is what the body is. It gets everything from the Head, and therefore if not practically subject to the Head you cannot get the character of the Head in the body. We are not saved to be simply saved sinners, but to be members of the vessel in which Christ is to be displayed in the scene whence He has been cast out, a moral representation of Christ. That is the idea of the body, and that is the hope of glory. Think of it, that in the very scene where Satan is god and prince, God will now have such a presentation of Christ, as the pledge that He will accomplish all His purposes to put everything under Christ. And I am perfectly certain that we shall reign with Him; that is the hope of glory. I cannot conceive [p. 47] anything more wonderful! I have been at it in a certain way for many years, but I am only now beginning to see the thing in its reality. When God came in perfect grace to the world the Jew rejected Christ and cast Him out, did violence in every way to God. But Christ is not to be cast out, but perpetuated here, and He is now to be described in the body. Therefore the body being composed of those who believe in Christ, they confessing Him as Lord, He is given as the Head, and the body is subjected to Him, and now in the body the grace of Christ, all the moral characteristics of Christ are produced in this scene. Not what He is at the right hand of God, but in moral suitability to the scene where we are. It is not the reigning time, therefore you get meekness and lowliness and forbearing one another in love, and “to all these add love, which is the bond of perfectness”. There is also to be wisdom and such like — all to be descriptive of the Head.
Now all this is brought to us in Scripture as light, not in the way of ecclesiastical formation. There is no such idea connected with the body. It is brought to those who were in the fellowship, as calling on the Lord — given as light that we may understand the fellowship into which we are called. We are now called to special fellowship, called to “follow righteousness, faith ...”, 2 Timothy 2: 22. And if you see the divine idea of the body it will greatly help you to carry out the fellowship; it will greatly accentuate our fellowship, because the more distinctly we understand the relation in which we stand to Christ the more the character of our fellowship will be affected.
As to the body, it is Christ’s body, “the fulness of him”. In certain epistles it involves the privileges of the saints, but in Colossians we learn what the saints are to Christ.
[p. 48] If you do not understand what you are in Christ you could not apprehend the truth of the body. Here in Colossians the Spirit of God turns completely round; after showing the saints what they are in Christ, He shows what they are for Christ, a vessel for Christ. The Christ displayed as a witness down here. And you cannot have a greater benefit than the light of it. It is a great thing to get the truth of the Head, the intelligence of the Head as displayed in the body.
May God give us to understand it. I know I am a poor hand to explain it, but I am always thankful beyond measure when I get a fresh idea of the greatness and wisdom of God. There is one thing which will strike you in regard to Scripture — the resources of God are boundless. You see instances where you might think God would be baffled, but there, too, you see boundless resources.
The wisdom of God is Christ. And it is that by which God baffles every combination of men. And look what the combination had come to: “This is your hour, and the power of darkness”. But ‘No’ (God says), ‘you are not going to have it all your own way. You may cast Him out, but His body shall be maintained in divine power till He comes again’. There is no reason to fear, beloved friends; the power of the enemy is very great in this scene, but however great may be the power of men and of the devil, yet God will have the last word always. Why, when Christ was on earth if He came into controversy with men He always had the last word. And so God will. May God give you to understand it better than I can unfold it. My great object is to show you that the truth of the body is moral not ecclesiastical. And what I mean by moral is, when Christ is reproduced in the saints. That is not ecclesiastical, but moral. May God give us to see [p. 49] it and to get more light on it, that we may be greatly helped in the practical carrying out of our fellowship here. And that is, that we “follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”.