THE COUNTERPART OF CHRIST

Walter Patterson

Genesis 2: 21-24; 24: 15-18, 62-67; Song of Songs 6: 4-10

W.P. I believe that we are to be impressed with the quality that attaches to the assembly as the counterpart of Christ. These passages might help us to see how the assembly in type comes to light as fully answering to all that is set out in Christ, typically in Adam and in Isaac.

In the earlier part of Genesis 2 Adam demonstrates headship and intelligence. What pleasure God must have found in that! And so He operates though the deep sleep and formation to bring into view a perfect answer to man in this place of supremacy. Adam finds that she is himself over again, and he finds great joy in that. When Rebecca comes on to view she is marked by certain precious features, qualities that are appreciated by the servant. These features were already there, they did not have to be developed. At the end of Genesis 24 we find that she is entirely suited to Isaac and that he finds in her what answers to his heart. We are told that Isaac with “dwelling in the south country” and was “meditating in the field” (vv 62,63). I would think that there must be an equivalence in Rebecca with what these thoughts suggest, so that she can be truly the counterpart of Isaac.

I read in the Song to show how the king delights in features in his beloved that are a reflection of his own glorious person. These thoughts are not simply to be academic with us. I believe that we entered into the appreciation of them where we were this morning. It is such a blessed matter to know the Lord’s love towards us, and to understand that the bride is fully capacitated by the Spirit to answer to Him. We can help one another to further enjoy these truths this afternoon.

E.C.B. Eve was perfect as formed by God. Rebecca evidently has a history but she is still presented as fully fit for Isaac. Christ must have what is perfectly suited to Him and we are to have this before us. No doubt it brings out the necessity of a work of God in us and an appreciation of what is suitable for Christ.

W.P. We are really only able for it, or have a stimulation in our affections to go in for it, as we see what there is in perfection for Christ. Is that the kind of stimulus in our souls that makes us want to be here in that way?

E.C.B. We shall never touch the experience of perfection unless we start with God.

W.P. So in chapter 2 it says, “And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from Man into a woman; and brought her to Man”. You are drawing our attention to that, it is a divine operation. It seems to me that it has in mind that it is Adam as he is presented here. He is presented in certain light, as exercising headship and moving in such an intelligent way.

D.J.H. I was hoping you might help us as to the detail in verses 21 and 22. Verse 27 of chapter 1 gives the general thought, “God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”, and then in chapter 2, “And Jehovah Elohim took Man, and put him into the garden of Eden” (v 15), but there is rather more detail. I wondered whether it would fit in with you thought as to a counterpart.

W.P. Does it bring before us the thought of divine operations? There have been great thoughts of God in purpose, but there have been divine operations in time. The thoughts have originated with God Himself, but these operations have been great and glorious and in one sense they are too deep for us to comprehend that there should be something that is out of Christ, that what is His counterpart is out of Himself, or Himself.

D.J.H. There is nothing in the woman that is not out of the man, of his bones, of his flesh, but when we think of the glory of Christ as He comes in among us, it can only be a divine workmanship that is suited to be counterpart to such a One as He?

W.P. Just give us a little more help about that workmanship. It says, “for we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works”, Eph. 2: 10. Do you think that as we come together we are to identify that workmanship in ourselves in view of being rightly at the Supper, and that divine workmanship is to be identified in one another?

D.J.H. There is that which is perfect at any time. It is important to lay hold of that. We are so occupied with breakdown, failure, and so on, but the assembly at any time is perfect. We need to lay hold of that and recognise it. It is only because of that that we can have experience as to what we speak of as union with Christ, because nothing but what is perfect can be united to Him.

W.P. What you say brings to mind Ephesians 5. We often say that the assembly is always perfect, “as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it” (v 25). It is a different thought from the one we are pursuing in Genesis 2, but just to understand what it means. What does it mean when we say the assembly is always perfect?

D.J.H. Because it is the work of God it cannot be otherwise, but Ephesians 5 shows what it means to Him. The washing of water may be regarded as a preventative service in view of that perfection being unhinderedly available to Him at any time.

W.P. We are so used in our life here to thinking of things not being perfect, things having to be fixed, or relationships adjusted, that it is hard for us to lay hold of something which was perfect in its conception in the divine mind and perfect in its bringing about and, remains in perfection all the way through. We get the view at the end of Revelation of what comes down from God, having the glory of God, Rev 21: 10,11. How perfection has been maintained all the way through. It is very blessed!

D.A.B. It is not suggested in Ephesians that washing can remove spots or wrinkles. The spotless character of the assembly relates to its divine handiwork and it never ages. I was thinking as to it being ready for Christ to present to Himself glorious at any time. That passage conveys an impression of One who is like Christ, without spot or wrinkle. There is something ageless about it.

W.P. We look around the companies of the saints and we see how that is not so with ourselves, things change and we get older, but it seems to me that when we come to the Supper and are engaged with Christ Himself and what is suited to Him and with His love, we find a real freshness and vigour marking the saints. Especially our older brethren, how vigorous they are and fresh in their responses to divine Persons. Is that how it might come out into expression?

D.A.B. I remember from a meeting here with Mr Harry Taylor, that the evidence of the Lord’s manifestation at the Supper is in the way that the hearts of the saints awaken, He is there in their affections. It seems to me that what happens is that the presentation of Christ evokes the counterpart feature in the saints so that what is expressed is not only for Him but like Him.

W.P. Those are expressions we use a lot about being for Him and being like Him. There might be another application of these passages and that is that His presentation to us is not a general thought. He has something in His affections and mind in each presentation of Himself in each week so that there might be some chord struck in the affections of the saints that answers to that.

D.A.B. The impression might be gathered up in one’s spirit, not from anything that was said, although more commonly it will be the outcome of something that has been expressed. That is the counterpart, that what His own express and the answer to Himself is so like Him that it gives an impression of Him.

W.P. The younger persons here today should take note of what you have said, because they might have a feeling sometimes that it is something they cannot understand. It may appear a bit mystical to them, but the fact is that things are expressed in what is said; persons will address the Lord and other divine Persons in thanksgiving, they will use expressions, and it is in those in large measure that we gain further impressions about what the Lord has in His mind for that occasion.

E.C.B. Hence the great value in that meeting of being able to speak with the impression that you have. I do not think the occasion when we touch what the assembly is is for us to get something out of the drawer and say it, but what impression does it make on you at the moment? You get that in Genesis 24 as to Rebecca and Isaac; Isaac lifted up his eyes and saw her and it was something fresh (see vv 64-66). In your earlier reference to Ephesians 5 the washing of water by the word is not remodelling. The fundamental structure is unchanged and it may be that Paul by the Spirit is taking account of the fact that in history day-by-day, things get accumulated and attached to you that are not fitted to what it is, but the washing of water comes by the word and it brings out what is glorious. It is very simple. The section in Ephesians is simpler than we think it is.

W.P. What impresses me is that it speaks about the activities of Christ Himself, “Christ also loved the assembly” and it says “ in order that he” and then there is another “he” that is emphatic. You get a sense of the Lord’s jealousy in relation to what is for Himself (see Eph. 5: 25-27). He is going to have nothing else but that it is exclusively for Him.

E.C.B. To pursue what you are saying, it is as if He says, I am going to have it as I want it, and I can see it all the time, but something else has been picked up. How much has been picked up? I question how much we are able to apprehend what things are aside from moral history. We bring moral history into nearly every scripture, but can we grasp what things are apart from that? The preaching of the gospel should put us on the ground where we can appreciate that no further moral history is required.

W.P. The operation of the Holy Spirit in our minds and in our affections is absolutely central to that. Without that there can be no entrance on our part because the natural mind has no place in the things of God. That apprehension of what the assembly is really can only be as the Spirit helps us.

J.A.B. There is purity too in Ephesians, “having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless”, Eph 5: 27.

W.P. How pleasurable those features are to Himself! It seems to me that we ought to be setting ourselves for them too. If we have some appreciation of what feature of Himself He is looking for then we should set ourselves to say, I want that for myself and we want that for many local meetings.

H.A.H. In the hymn to the Holy Spirit this morning we sang:

And the Father’s thoughts in glory       

For His Son are satisfied. (Hymn 121)

It says here “that it might be holy and blameless”, but then the Father’s thoughts in chapter 1 are the same, “that we should be holy and blameless before him in love” (v 4). I wondered whether there was a link there. He has used our moral history in His ways, and that was necessary in order that His purpose might be realised in a way that would enable us to understand the greatness of His love.

W.P. Is it not wonderful how He has then brought us into an understanding of that? Think of the gospel – He has secured us, worked with us in that way to secure us for Himself and then brought us into an appreciation of what lay behind it all, the love that lay behind it. There had been divine thoughts, but also divine love so that we might enter into them in a full way. It is the most remarkable thing that we are here as creatures and yet are able to speak intelligently about matters that lay in the divine mind and were in the divine affections.

H.A.H. They are the greatest things.

D.A.B. Earlier in chapter 24, the servant prays that God would meet him with his blessing this day (see v 12), and while he was yet speaking, Rebecca came out. It might answer to what God Himself says, “This time” (Gen. 2: 23). There was nothing speculative about what the Spirit embraced, no question about whether He could make this person ready on the journey, but there was something that God presented in answer to His prayer that was suited to God’s thought?

W.P. It says, “Rebecca came out … And the maiden was very fair in countenance; a virgin, and no man had known her. And she went down to the well” (vv 15,16) – it seems to me that these are very precious features and they must give us an indication of how she is going to be counterpart. There must be features there that will be found in the counterpart to Christ.

D.A.B. And far from anything needing to be filled up on the journey, there was, in fact, excess from the very beginning.

W.P. It says she had the pitcher upon her shoulder. You see how close the thoughts of the Spirit are to this one who is going to be the counterpart of Isaac.

J.S.H. I was thinking of Isaac and Rebecca and that it is good to have our eyes lifted up. He saw all that was coming towards him, he saw everything, but she had her eye fixed on him, on the person. Is that what we should have as having Christ before us, having our eyes permanently fixed on Him?

W.P. I am sure that is the way for our blessing. We appreciate features in Christ Himself and then we see that there must be something in correspondence to that, and then we realise that there is a vessel of divine conception, but also a vessel of divine operations in which the Spirit has operated so that presently there is something that really corresponds with Christ. As well as lifting up her eyes it says, “she took her veil, and covered herself”. I think that is worthy of note in the time in which we are. It comes into 1 Corinthians 11, the thought of the veil in view of the Supper.

P.W. Could you saying more as to the veiling?

W.P. It speaks of a woman’s hair, “for the long hair is given to her in lieu of a veil” (1 Cor. 1: 15). The assembly at Corinth was to understand that there was to be what was veiled, what was to be found exclusively for Christ. Otherwise the Supper could not be rightly taken, or indeed could hardly have been introduced. The thought of veiling is opening up the way for the Supper to be rightly understood.

P.W. When Rebecca sees Isaac her reaction is immediate. I was thinking as to our response on a Lord’s Day morning. It says “she sprang off the camel”, there is an alacrity there, it is not a premeditated movement. It is intuitive and spontaneous and that might help us more in our responses not to feel that we have to say a lot that sounds ponderous and weighty, but it is a spontaneous response to the Lord.

W.P. That is just a practical matter. It tests us as to whether it is out of the drawer, as our brother has said, or whether there is some real fresh living impression of Christ that has impacted on our souls and leads us into an expression of response that has that freshness about it. We have thought of the Lord, coming in as “Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills”, SofS 2: 8. If that is His approach to where love is, then surely our affections should be in liberty.

B.H.C. The Lord presents Himself in His glory and also as a Man of joy. I was thinking how He rejoices over that which is His. He says in His prayer in John 17, “that they may have my joy fulfilled in them”. As we behold the glories of Christ as He presents Himself and takes His place in the midst, because of that that we have some appreciation of the assembly and its character. I was thinking as to His joy in relation to what is ministering to His heart and as one with Him we have some sense of the divine viewpoint as to what the assembly is as glorious.

W.P. That is helpful. His joy, there is something that really gladdens His heart in the responses of His own. The cup is a wonderful liberating matter at the Supper; we are drinking into a cup of blessing. It is opening up the whole way in which God is towards us: He is towards us in blessing, His love is towards us and we drink the cup and it gets into our inwards and causes joy in ourselves. It seems to me that it clears away anything that there might have been in our minds about doubt or fear or uncertainty. There is certainty coming into your soul as to how the love of God has come to us. Perhaps that should be more in our minds. We are sometimes occupied at the Supper with what He has taken away in His death, but what should be before us is what has been opened up to us through His death and resurrection, the whole line of liberty and divine blessing.

B.H.C. It is very precious! It is a cup of blessing, there are no negatives in heaven, everything is blessed and glorious, undefiled by anything here so that if our hearts and minds are focused on what relates to Christ and His glory everything that was ever against God is out of the way altogether. The cup is a work accomplished and finished to God’s glory.

W.P. Indeed. There are no negatives in heaven!

D.A.B. Neither of these passages deals with that moral side. Chapter 2 is an interlude before the moral history of the world and man begins. It all seems to be connected with the day of God’s rest.

W.P. That helps. As I was looking for help in the passage, I can see that there is something very distinctive introduced in Adam, pointing to Christ in whom God would have His rest, and there is wonderful intelligence, he is naming things. What would you say about the woman being named, “this shall be called Woman”, and then it gives a reason, “because this was taken out of a man”. It is remarkable that a reason should be given for her being named.

D.A.B. It would be a reminder all the time of her origin and thus, as the next two verses go on to show, the indissoluble bond that existed. It is something that you do not find in nature. Union in nature is a convergent idea, but with Christ and the assembly it is derivative and on a unique and entirely indissoluble foundation.

W.P. That should help us in our understanding. We often speak about Eve in connection with this passage, but it is not – it is Ishshah.

E.C.B. This chapter is man and woman. I do not think the name Eve is given until after the fall. An interesting subject to explore is why headship in the man was not spoken of until after the fall. There is a level, therefore, in which the church can participate with Christ without such matters being raised or implied. Could you get a view of the assembly in which everything in it has come out of Christ? Have you ever had that view?

W.P. That is why we would encourage one another this afternoon that we might have such a view. We do have rather inadequate thoughts sometimes about the assembly, but here is a wonderful view of her.

E.C.B. Sometimes we so far imply that we are it, that we have to deny that we are saying that.

W.P. That is a word for us.

E.C.B. We need to be careful in what we do say, but there is this view in Genesis 2, and in chapter 24, which is of what is entirely suitable. Rebecca has a history, but the woman in Genesis has none. Her own initial history is what comes out of Christ. The gospels speak of Jesus in resurrection and as manifested, but that is not the line in these chapters; the line is that we are brought to Him. It is not Him manifested to us, but it is us brought to Him. I wondered whether we would get some impression of the assembly as entirely suitable and uncorrupted by whatever the journey represents. It is not that He manifests Himself and we find we are suitable, but we are brought to Him.

W.P. I wondered whether we might look at that, as to where He is. He has returned from elsewhere. It says, “for he was dwelling in the south country … Isaac had gone out to meditate in the fields toward the beginning of the evening” (v 63). Rebecca is brought to him in that setting. There must be something in her that is going to correspond with where he is.

D.J.H. Would it be right to think of John 17? I was thinking of what is presented here as the product of the Father’s love for the Son, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory … for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17: 24). This is where it is, in the south country. I wondered whether that is an epitome of this chapter, the love which was there between the Father and the Son, and this is the product of it. The great thing is that it is His desire that they should be with Him where He is. Rebecca is brought to him where he is.

W.P. I like your suggestion as to the area of the Father’s love and affection and He is meditating in it. We can think of the Lord in that way and all the blessed enjoyment of His relationship with His Father. The Mount of Olives may be suggestive of that too; there is a place where things are spiritual and there is nothing of the natural there at all.

D.J.H. He says there, “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, before any moral question was introduced.

W.P. That is good.

D.A.B. I suppose it was not uncommon for camel trains to pass through this country, but in this train there was someone whose eye was filled with Isaac. It set it apart from all the others as he discovered. I was thinking as to the danger of pretension and claiming what we are not, but the best answer to that is to see the greatness and glory of the real thing and that banishes pretension.

H.A.H. I wondered whether verses 15 and 16 of chapter 24 were what you had in mind in reading were from the Song of Songs, “My dove, mind undefiled, is but one”. Then “She is the only one of her mother”. It is interesting what comes in the bracket in chapter 22 of Genesis, “And Bethuel begot Rebecca” (v 23). This comes into a chapter which speaks of the wonderful love between the Father and the Son.

W.P. We are to enter into an appreciation of these things. It seems to me that there is nothing that we might speak of as random in divine thoughts. We may not apprehend them initially, but do you think the Spirit helps us to see how in the types the truth is developed and God is not making any mistakes, He is looking ahead. He has looked far ahead in all that He has provided for us and He has looked ahead in relation to the assembly too.

H.A.H. There is nothing random, and while it is very vast and we apprehend it a little at a time, it is all encompassed in divine love.

I.M. There was an expectation on the part of Rebecca in meeting the man, was there not, because it says, “And she had said”, which is in the past? Is there also not an expectation on the part of the saints in regard to meeting the Lord Jesus – yet the reality of it is more wonderful than the expectation, is it not?

W.P. That is very good, expectation and realisation. To what extent are our hearts expectant as we come together, particularly for the Lord’s Supper? How expectant our hearts ought to be for that occasion, but I think for all occasions there should be expectation. The opening prayer referred to the possibilities of the meeting. There should be more faith with us that there might be something different in any meeting. There is going to be something special about this meeting that we are coming to. It is the work of the Spirit to put that into our minds and affections.

We have thought about the way that there is a counterpart to Adam and Isaac that there are features that are pleasing and corresponding. Now this is the appreciation by the king of the one that is the spouse, and he is able to say things about her. There are things which come in here which would bear on how we are in the testimony, “Thy hair is as a flock of goats”, which might speak of separation and then there is the idea of the pomegranate, there is something that is of a shared nature that is enjoyed among the saints. It seems to be all part of what is pleasurable to Him.

A.A.C. The pomegranate is behind the veil. Why veiled at this point?

W.P. We might link it with what we said earlier that ‘behind thy veil’ suggests that she has an appreciation that she is exclusively for one, exclusively for Christ. We do our time management, we manage some of our time for the office, some for household duties, some for prayer and consideration, but she is exclusively for One.

D.H. Is it interesting that the two passages in chapter 5 give us what the beloved could say about the Lord, about the bridegroom, but chapter 6 verse 4 is in type the language of the Lord Jesus Himself. Would it be like our thoughts of Him as we come together so that we are ready for His appreciation, what He finds pleasurable to Himself?

W.P. I like that suggestion. Do you think it is as those features are appreciated in the bride, then she is beginning to shine and there is a development of her affections and she realises that he is so great and glorious that she must be exclusively for him? That helps in the understanding of the passage.

D.A.B. We used to speak of the pomegranate as fellowship in the local meeting. The pomegranate is packed with seeds and sweetness, and they were round the hem of the High Priest’s garment, so there might be some idea of fellowship in this pomegranate, but the temple is where the thinking is. I wondered whether there was a suggestion here of an occasion like this where in our fellowship together we can enjoy something that is not on public view or that the world would understand, but it is a reserved enjoyment that Christ is party to, enjoyed among the brethren?

W.P. Such as our meeting this afternoon? I can see that and you are saying it is packed with seeds so there is potential. So, out of an occasion like this where we have in quietness enjoyed things in relation to the Lord Jesus and the assembly, there should be something that is going to go forward and grow with us in our appreciation.

D.J.H. As to the temple and the mind and thinking faculty, I was thinking as to, “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2: 16). It has been referred to as the thinking faculty. It would all show the closeness and union of the assembly with Christ that we are actually thinking the same thing. It would all enter into this would it not?

W.P. That is very beautiful coming at the end of a chapter where the operations of the Spirit are very much in view and what is spiritual. That is what we have been engaged with in this meeting, things that are spiritual and we need the Spirit’s help to communicate them to one another. The result of that is this great thought, “we have the mind of Christ”.

D.J.H. It has often been said that the truth of Ephesians and what was in Paul’s mind in that regard keeps breaking the surface in Corinthians, and I wondered whether, “we have the mind of Christ”, goes right on to the fact that the assembly is thinking the same way as He thinks which must be a result of union.

W.P. It must be.

D.A.B. It has often been said that strictly speaking this Song does not rise to the level that the assembly reaches. Mr Walkinshaw spoke of it as love at distance. The Beloved speaks many times of what he sees in her, and he addresses it directly to her. She can speak to others about him, but how much he longed to hear her say something to him. Is that what the counterpart comes to, that she cannot just speak to others about why she finds him attractive but that she has something to say to him?

W.P. I am glad you draw attention to that because I was conscious when I read it that it was in the part of the book where we do not have the fulness of the thought. She is able to interject in chapter 7, “I am my beloved’s, And his desire is toward me” (v 10), which is the climax of the thought in the book. I appreciate you drawing attention to that because that is what we should be moving towards. We are able to speak about it with one another this afternoon, but what can we say to Himself?

D.A.B. Particularly in how the Lord feels in relation to Israel, “Praise waiteth for thee in silence”, Ps. 65: 1. She says, “I slept, but my heart was awake” (SS 5: 2), but the Lord finds something that is awake in the assembly, His counterpart is active in response?

E.C.B. In regard to what has been said as to the mind of Christ, I can understand the allusion to it being connected with union, but in fact it is connected with origin. The fact that we have the mind of Christ is that God has made the assembly like Him. I speak carefully, she is of His material, and “we have the mind of Christ”, is the result of origin, it is not formation.

D.J.H. I am sure that is right, we cannot separate the two, she can only be united to Him because of her origin.

W.P. We get the thought in Corinthians, “so also is the Christ” (1 Cor. 12: 12); so there is something here in a collective expression of Himself. She has these banners, “Terrible as troops with banners?”; it suggests how things are being maintained. We are here in the testimonial scene in the week, but things are going to be maintained and the banner is going to have His Name on it.

D.J.H. It has often been said that God would be worse off, in a sense, with Christ in glory if Christ were not represented here on earth.

E.C.B. Unless Christ is represented here on the earth, God is worse off as far as the earth is concerned by having Him in heaven. These things should raise our thoughts a bit. You would never know what pomegranates were unless you had been in the land.

 

LONDON

16 November 2003

 

[The opening remarks have been recalled from memory, as the recording initially was imperfect. E.C.B]

 

Key to initials

J.A.Burnett, London; D.A.Burr, London; E.C.Burr, London; B.H.Clark, London; A.A.Croot, London; D.Hawgood, Bexley; D.J.HHutson, London; H.A.Hutson, London, J.S.Hutston, London; I.Mitchell, London; W.Patterson, Glasgow; P.White, London