THE CHURCH AS FOR CHRIST - A SPIRITUAL FORMATION
[p. 436] THE CHURCH AS FOR CHRIST — A SPIRITUAL FORMATION
John 2:3 - 5; Ephesians 5:29 - 33; Acts 20:7; Revelation 1:10; 1 Corinthians 16:1 - 2
What I would like to engage you with is the place which the church (the assembly) has in the Lord’s heart. The place she holds in His affections is the key to all the wonderful love and ministry which He has lavished upon her; and the first thought evidently with the Lord would be to gain her affections. Solomon is a type of the Lord in the manner in which He secures the affections of the assembly. You will all remember the “song of songs, which is Solomon’s”, Song of Songs 1:1. It is described as the “Song of Songs”; I take that to indicate that it was his masterpiece. His songs, we are told, were a thousand and five, and among them all this is the “Song of Songs”, and the great point in it is that he celebrates his triumph over the affections of his people. I do not go into the detail of the song now, I only want to indicate what is in my mind in connection with it. Solomon is a remarkable type of the Lord in many respects, but in this respect especially that he was a man of great affection. He was brought up in affection. He was his father’s son, tender and beloved, and the only one of his mother, Proverbs 4:3. That was what Solomon was; hence, as nurtured in affection, he was a man of great affection; and in that way he is a type of the Lord in His affection for His people; so that in securing our affections, the Lord celebrates His triumph.
Now, I wish, by the Lord’s help, to indicate to you the course pursued by Him in this triumph. First of all, He disowns the natural. The Lord as here upon earth had natural relations; He had a [p. 437] mother, and brothers, and sisters. The other gospels give much more prominence to those relations than does John, because John’s great aim is to establish the spiritual; he wishes to show that the things of God are necessarily of a spiritual nature; hence he records the Lord’s discourse with the woman at the well of Sychar; and amongst other things he records how the Lord impressed upon her that “God is a spirit” (John 4:24); and if God formulates a system of things after His own nature, they must be spiritual. The first was natural; but the second is spiritual; and the spiritual is that which is to remain; the natural disappears.
Now, in a way, nothing could be more important than to bow to that fact, because while most of us may be said to be clear of the world which is dominated by the wicked one, it is questionable whether we are clear of being under the power of natural relationships. Now, natural relationships are of God; they are God’s institutions; but, beloved friends, if God has instituted the spiritual, which He has, the natural must take the second place. It is all well when the spiritual influences the natural; but it is the contrary, when the natural influences the spiritual. When the mother of the Lord attempted to influence Him in John 2:3, He refuses it. She says, “They have no wine”. She undertook to make Him acquainted with something of which she thought He was ignorant. Now, why did she speak thus to Christ? Upon what ground did she do that? It was on the ground of natural relationship.
It is all well and right to recognise these relationships, but when they assert themselves, so as to influence us in regard to the spiritual, then they must be refused. The Lord says “Woman”. He did not say “Mother”. He says “Woman”. In regard to the spiritual she was of no more account [p. 438] to Christ than any other; she was a woman. His saying, “what have I to do with thee?” was virtually saying, ‘I am here in regard to the spiritual; I am here for the introduction and the maintenance of the spiritual; and you have nothing to do with that’. “Woman”, He says, “what have I to do with thee?” You may say that seemed heartless, but it only brings to light the position the Lord occupies in John’s gospel. He was there on account of the spiritual, and the natural must have no place whatsoever. Our natural relatives are, in the assembly, nothing more than others; and, as I shall endeavour to show, it is all right when the spiritual influences the natural; that is the divine way; but the spiritual must take precedence now, beloved friends, because the spiritual was the primary thought with God. The natural was an afterthought; the natural was only an index to the spiritual; and so, when the real thing comes in, the type must disappear.
Now, the Lord was there on account of the spiritual. His mother says to Him, “They have no wine”; but did He not know the poverty of humanity? Did He not know that the highest and best thing in nature is only transient? Did He not know that man is altogether devoid of good wine? He knew it better than she knew it; and He indicates to her that it was His province to introduce the new wine, and not hers; so He disowns His family relations after the flesh; they have no place in regard to the spiritual. But had not the Lord family affections? It is in man to have family affections, and the Lord, who was truly Man, had them; but He was there to introduce what was spiritual, and the natural could be allowed no place in that connection.
In the gospel of Matthew those whom the Lord acknowledges as His relatives are those who were [p. 439] His disciples; those who did the will of His Father, Matthew 12:50. Of whom were they the disciples? They were the disciples of Him who brought in the spiritual; they were disciples of the heavenly Man; and He says, “Behold my mother and my brethren”, Matthew 12:49. In the gospel of Luke the Lord owns as His mother and brethren “those who hear the word of God and do it”, Luke 8:21. What kind of people were they? They were spiritual. What kind of words did the Lord minister? He says, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”, John 6:63. Now, who is it that hears the word, and keeps it? It is a spiritual person. Mary of Bethany represents the spiritual in the gospel of Luke. What marked her? She was sitting at the Lord’s feet, and listening to His word. She was of the spiritual order.
Now, when we come to John’s gospel, those who are recorded as His “brethren” are those who are viewed in the light of resurrection and ascension. They believed in His resurrection. The resurrection is a spiritual idea. We are told that He was “put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”, 1 Peter 3:18. The disciples believed in the resurrection; Mary Magdalene believed, as we see in John 20. She believed in regard of Christ in resurrection; and she brought the message from Christ to the other disciples. They are all viewed as believers in the resurrection; and as such they are of a spiritual order, and the Lord recognised them as His “brethren”; the relationship is holy and spiritual. Now, that is where the assembly comes to light; and the Lord gives it its name. If you get a company of people who are marked by discipleship to Christ; a company who have heard the word of God, and have kept it; a company of people who have believed in Christ as risen; the Lord gives them a name. You will remember in Genesis 2, that Adam gave [p. 440] names to all the animals, and whatever name he gave each creature, that was its name. Nothing was recalled. He is a type of the Lord who gives names to all His.
Well, now, when Eve was presented to Adam, we have brought to light in type how the Lord recognises the assembly. Adam says “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called Woman” (Genesis 2:23); that is, Adam recognised her. He had been giving names to the lower creatures, and Jehovah brings the woman to him; she was taken out of him; and his intelligence shines when he says to Jehovah, “This time” — referring to the other creatures to whom he had given names — “it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”. This is something distinctive. That is, in type, Christ giving a name to the assembly, and in regard to the assembly nothing can exceed it, viewed as a matter of privilege. She is definitely named by the Lord. And what does her name signify? No previous history of shame; her origin is in Himself; and if, beloved friends, her origin is in Christ, her origin is of a spiritual and heavenly character.
Well, Adam has given her a name, and now he can speak to her. We all know how the use of a name may become the expression of affection; so that now Adam can, in his affection, speak to Eve by name. I need not remind you that the name “Eve” was subsequent; it was not her primary name. The name “Eve” signifies the mother of all living; but the name she received from Adam, before sin came in, was “Woman”, because she was taken out of man. That is to say, she has a name of dignity; she has a name that qualifies her to be his companion, for it declares her origin to be himself. Now, he can call her by name.
[p. 441] It is a wonderful thing to be called by name by the Lord. John refers to it when he says, “he calleth his own sheep by name” chapter 10 verse 3; and in chapters 11 and 12 we have it illustrated in the family at Bethany. The Lord knew each member of that family by name; He loved each, and He loved all. And now that the Lord has the church, He has given her a name that describes her origin, so that she can be, as it were, on terms of equality with Him. When I use the word equality, I am not forgetting His own personal distinctiveness as the Son of God; I am speaking of Him as the Man of God’s counsels, to whom the assembly is given, for it is to Him, in that light, that we are united. So, having received that name from His lips, we are suited for union with Him. You need not have any hesitancy now. In resurrection you are made perfectly free. The Lord makes known to you what your name is; and it is wonderful to apprehend the name the Lord has given to us. The name that He gives us describes our origin as of Himself; so that He would relieve us of every fear, and of every bit of reserve, that we may be free before Him. Hence, as He disclaims the natural, He embraces the spiritual.
Now, what a wonderful thing it is to be embraced by the Lord? This occasions a clean cut with all outside of Christ, and He gives us the sense that as His assembly we are come within the enclosure of His embrace. He embraces the spiritual. So the apostle, alluding to it, says, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife”, Ephesians 5:31. What cause? Because she is bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. Now, that is exactly what Christ did. He disclaimed the natural, and He embraced the spiritual. That is to say, He embraces the church viewed in its spiritual light as derived from Himself.
So the apostle says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church”. It was wonderful to Paul to be able to speak thus, because He loved Christ, and he entered into the Lord’s affections. It was said of Adam; “It is not good that the man should be alone”, Genesis 2:18. The apostle understood that. It applied to the Lord, and Paul’s great aim was to bring the church in for Christ; to present her “as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2); hence he says, “I speak concerning Christ and the church”.
I have spoken of that to show what is in the Lord’s mind; and now I wish to connect what I have said with the first day of the week. The first day of the week is a spiritual idea; it was not intended for the world; it represents the beginning of things spiritually; it represents the day upon which Christ had His pleasure in the assembly; there can be no doubt about that. The allusions to the first day of the week in the New Testament show unmistakably that the Lord honoured that day by being in company with His “brethren”. The first point that I would allude to, and it has been much before us, is the Lord’s supper. The early disciples, without any injunction, so far as we know, chose that day to celebrate the Supper; they had Christ before them. One is not going too far in saying that they all loved Christ; and they came together on the first day of the week to celebrate the Supper.
Now, the Supper involves in a sense what is material; but it involves the breaking of the link with the natural. The Lord said, before He instituted it, “I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God”, Mark 14:25. The link is completely broken with the natural; and now He introduces the Supper. The Supper signifies His death on the one hand, which has terminated all that appertained to the [p. 443] natural, and it also symbolises His own familiar act, by which He is brought to our attention; and directly you have Him before you, you are led into the spiritual. Now, what I am saying I believe is fully borne out by the Scriptures, and by the experience of the spiritual; that if He is brought to the attention of your heart and mine, you are led at once into the spiritual. Hence, the next notice that we have of “the Lord’s day” is that John is in the Spirit on that day; Revelation 1:10. He says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. I think that he recognises that all relationship with Christ was spiritual; and that if he were to enjoy the things of Christ, it must be in a spiritual way; hence, he says, “I was in the Spirit”.
Now, when we are in the Spirit we are for Christ; we have reached the assembly, according to what it really is; a spiritual formation. It is formed of persons, I need not say; and each person in it has a name; and each person in it is known and loved by Christ; but it is also viewed as a unit, as one; and as such it has a name, which, as I said, indicates its origin. And as you are in the Spirit, as John was, you answer to what the assembly is to the heart of Christ. That is what I apprehend to be the proper state for the assembly, viewed as related to Christ in heavenly glory. Apart from being in the Spirit we do not touch it, but as we are in the Spirit we recognise what the Lord seeks, and we respond to it; we are His, and for His pleasure.
Now, we may see from 1 Corinthians 16, that there is another thought connected with the first day of the week; that is, the thought of giving. It is a very remarkable thing that the apostle directed the Corinthians to lay by at home on that day. There you come out of the natural; but you come out in spiritual power, to influence the natural. See what a man is who comes out in that way to [p. 444] give. He comes out in the spirit of Christ to be what Christ was down here. It is said of Him, “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever”, Psalm 112:9. Now, that is the effect of the spiritual; that is, the divine order; but when the natural is allowed to influence the spiritual you have things reversed. It is only in the power of the spiritual that you can come out here in the relationships that God owns. When you do, you influence them, and you have God with you in them.
Well, that is just what I had on my mind to bring before you. What has especially exercised me is that the Lord may have something for His own heart. We all know how He became poor that we might become rich. The Lord clothed Himself in the humble guise of man, and “took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7) and then went into death; and He did it that we might be enriched. But remember that the Lord has affections that He seeks to gratify, and the assembly is for the gratification of His affections. It has a wonderful place in that way. We have alluded to the position which Rebecca occupied in Genesis 24. We are told she was brought into Sarah’s tent. Now, that is no small thought. Sarah’s tent is not a permanent abode for Rebecca, but a provisional one; Sarah’s tent represents the sphere occupied by Israel in the testimony.
Sarah was a very remarkable woman; she had no equal in her day. She had had in her lifetime a divine visitation; and she entertained the Lord in dignity. Mark her movements in Genesis 18. When the three men came, how suitably she acted! She was a woman of faith; hence it was no small thing that Rebecca was to occupy her place; and I need not say that the tent was more than graced by Rebecca. The position occupied by Israel has [p. 445] been more than filled by the assembly. But, nevertheless, it was a very great position. It is a wonderful thing that a company should be taken out of the gentiles, and connected with the Jewish disciples to occupy the great position that Israel had occupied for centuries in the testimony of God. But the early church occupied it in every way in accordance with God’s mind.
But, then, Rebecca was more than that. She was to be a comfort to Isaac, and we are told that he loved her. Therefore, Isaac had that which his heart sought; and so the Lord, ere He resumes His connections with Israel, has His heart gratified in the assembly. There is a thought in the book of Genesis that helps us as to the peculiar place of the church; that is, Isaac had only one wife, whereas Jacob had two. Jacob refers to the ways of God upon earth, which will be discontinued. Isaac refers to the heavenly Man to whom the church is brought. This was the primary thought with God, and hence that which abides into eternity. Our unique privilege is, that we are to be the companions of Christ in that wonderful relation, eternally.
May the Lord give us to appreciate it.