(6) THE CHRIST
([p. 415] 6) THE CHRIST
Ephesians 3: 14 - 21; Ephesians 6: 10 - 24
We have had the opportunity, on previous occasions, of speaking of the import and force of different names or titles in which the Lord Jesus is presented to us in Scripture. The names which He bears have not been exhausted, and every one of them has its own peculiar significance and import in regard of us. We have had before us the “Mediator” and “Son of God”. Also, the “Lord” and the “Priest”, and the “Head of the Church”. I purpose to dwell now upon a very simple name by which the Lord is more commonly spoken of in Scripture than by any other name, that is, “the Christ”. In speaking of this, I want to refer to the significance of the name as presenting the last Adam. The last Adam brings before us the purpose and will of God in man. His will is brought into effect in the last Adam, and that is a point of great interest to us. I want also to show that the Church is formed in the last Adam, and hence is the suited vessel of testimony here of God’s mind and will.
Now, God’s testimony is comprised in one single word, “Christ”. I know of no other testimony. All is covered by that name, and that is the force of what you get in the apostle’s expression in chapter 3, “That the Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”. He dwells in our hearts for the purpose of testimony. All the Scriptures testify of Christ. He is the spirit of Scripture, and now dwells by faith in the hearts of Christians. It will be remembered that the Lord, before He left the earth, as recorded at the close of the [p. 416] gospel by Luke, took the place of expositor. “He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”. (Luke 24: 27.) He is the spirit of Scripture and the subject of God’s testimony.
It is worthy of remark that in the epistle to the Romans the main subject is the kingdom; in Colossians it is the Church, and all through that epistle Christ is presented to us in a peculiarly personal way, and that it is the way in which Christ is known in the Church. He is known personally as the Son of the Father’s love. We get the thought in John 14, where the Lord says, “I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you”. In Ephesians the point is the testimony, and the Church as the vessel of it down here. I feel the great difficulty of saying much about this because we are in the midst of the ruin which has come in, and I know that God will never reinstate the Church down here. Therefore it becomes a difficulty to present the mind of God as to the proper testimony of the Church.
But I trust that the desire of everyone is to be for God: to be intelligent in His mind; to please Christ, not yourself. If you desire to please Christ then you need to be in the mind of God, as Christ was always in the mind of the Father.
But to revert to “the Christ”. The meaning of the word is “the Anointed”, and it is as certain as anything can be to my mind that the fact of being anointed declares that Christ is not a man of Adam’s line. He came into that line, was “made of a woman”, but the fact of His being anointed was the proof that He was morally a Man of another order. The saints are anointed of God, but when? Not until there is faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. The death of Christ is your death. God does not anoint the flesh, that is certain. Nor do I believe that the Spirit being poured out hereafter upon all flesh has the force of anointing. The moment a person is anointed of the Spirit, you can say that person is in Christ. That person belongs to another line or order. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of him”. If a person has the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Adam; he belongs to another order. “If any man be in Christ it is new creation”.
In the fact of Christ being anointed, He was marked out as a Man of another source and order. He was One who could receive, in virtue of what He was, the Holy Spirit, and hence we read in John 3: 34, “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him”. The truth as to Him was revealed to Peter in Matthew 16. Peter says, “Thou art the Christ”, but he adds, “the Son of the living God”. Christ was testified to as the Son of God. At His baptism, the heavens were opened upon Him, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son”. That is a different idea altogether from His being the son of Abraham or son of Mary. Christ came into that line to fulfil the purpose of God and accomplish redemption, but was in Himself the second man and last Adam. It is true that He does not take up that position until He can take it up on the ground of redemption. None the less it was true of Him, as anointed by the Holy Spirit, that He was the second man and last Adam. In Colossians, He is spoken of as “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead”.
But what I want to maintain is this, that Christ is the subject of God’s testimony. Many people would say this thing or that is the subject of testimony, but really it is Christ. In the early days the apostles were to go into all the world and preach the glad tidings to every creature. It was glad tidings suited for the moment, but a proclamation is hardly the idea of God’s testimony. As I said before, His testimony, to my mind, is comprised in one word, “the Christ”. You have to note the fact that man has asserted his lawless will in the world before God. Hence I would warn anyone against the love of the world. “If any [p. 418] man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. God presented Himself here in Christ, who came full of grace and truth, and man has lawlessly rejected grace: rejected the presentation of God in rejecting Christ; and the Lord when here did not lead the disciples to expect acceptance from the world, but on the contrary, to expect what He got. “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father”, and consequent upon that God sets forth in testimony what He is going to establish in power.
The present moment is a moment of mysteries; the purposes of God are not yet manifested, but God sees fit to give out in testimony now what He purposes to establish in power. That is the force of “mystery”. He intends to establish His will in power, and Christ is the vessel in which God can establish all according to His mind. The vessel is the One in whom God is revealed. “In him all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily”, and at the same time “He is the head of all principality and power”. He is the true God revealed — but, at the same time, He is “eternal life”, that is, He is the expression of God’s will for man in blessing. In John 12: 50, the Lord said, “And I know that his commandment is life everlasting”. The Lord was speaking there in the world of the commandment or will of the Father, but in John’s epistle we read, “He is the true God and eternal life”. (1 John 5: 20.) The first passage shows that eternal life is of God’s will; the second, that Christ is the setting forth of God’s will. He is the vessel in whom God sets forth the testimony and expression of His mind for man. The Father hath given all things into His hands. He could say, “All things that the Father hath are mine”.
What I want everyone to see is that in Christ is the setting forth of divine purpose. God has nothing to say to man, as such, except as to repentance and forgiveness of sins, but He has a great deal to say as to Christ, and we participate by sovereign grace in Christ,
[p. 419] are new created in Him. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are a necessity as to man, but God’s point is Christ, and we have been created in Christ, are God’s workmanship, and now Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith.
Now, I would like to present to you certain divine characteristics which God has in Christ set forth in connection with His thoughts towards man. They are (1) blessing, (2) wisdom, (3) power.
First of all, we read in chapter 1: 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”. What I would call your attention to is this: God has blessed us in Christ, that is, Christ is the vessel of blessing. Now read verses 8, 9: “Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself ... to gather together in one all things in Christ”. There you get the thought of wisdom. And further on, in verses 19, 20: “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places”.
Now, my point is this; that you get these three great thoughts — blessing, wisdom, and power set forth in One who is Himself adequate. One in whom God is fully revealed, and who is competent to hold everything for God. That is what is true in Christ. He was competent down here when He was alone and in weakness, but now He is the last Adam in quickening power, and therefore every purpose of God’s heart can now be and is established in Christ.
You get the thought of blessing running through Scripture: it only waited, on the part of God, for the One who was adequate to hold it. In the beginning God surrounded Adam with blessing, and he lost it;
[p. 420] but in Abraham you get the thought of blessing revived. The promise is assured to Abraham and to his seed, so that evidently God had not departed from His purpose of blessing. Now, God can act according to His pleasure, for He has the vessel suitable, the One who could hold everything for God. If One died for all, all were dead, and if He was great enough to die for all and to rise again, He is great enough to hold all the blessing which God has for man.
We come now to the next point: “God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence”. We have the perfection of God’s wisdom set forth in Christ. It is an immense point for us to apprehend, that God has let nothing slip from His hands. Nothing set forth in the Old Testament has been allowed to lapse. It is God’s purpose to gather up all things in one in Christ. Whatever things God had placed in man’s hands, man could not hold, for he was but a leaky vessel. But Christ is competent to hold all for God. Hence it is in Him that God will gather up all, He having tasted death for everything.
Now we come to the setting forth in Christ of God’s power, and this is in resurrection. Resurrection is the principle of God’s ways now, for death is upon man. Christ Himself was the resurrection, could not be holden of death, therefore it was natural for Him to come forth from the dead; but then the mighty power of God in the resurrection of Christ was to us-ward who believe, so that resurrection is now the principle of God’s dealings with us. Death came by man, and resurrection by Man. “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead”, and “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. Christ was the One in whom God could set forth His power in regard of man; He is not only the vessel of blessing and of wisdom, but also the One in whom God could set forth the greatness of His power to us-ward who believe.
[p. 421] I could not conceive any greater contrast than between the first and the last Adam. In the first there was innocence which, however beautiful, could not stand against the tempter, but in the last Adam we see the utmost moral power. When on earth He met the tempter and sin and evil of every kind; He overcame all. His word to His disciples was this: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. He was morally, divinely strong; the vessel in whom God set forth His pleasure; the vessel of blessing; the expression of God’s wisdom, and the setting forth of God’s power.
And now the Church has to stand in the truth of that. The Church’s testimony is “Christ”, and I wish to show you how the saints are fitted for that testimony. There are two parts: first, they are formed in Christ, and then Christ dwells in the heart by faith. You could not understand the latter except as you are formed in Christ; but the two must go together.
My impression is that comparatively few Christians really come to it. They are pretty well content with the knowledge of grace, and stop there. They poorly apprehend Christ as the expression of God’s purpose, and the consequence is, that they are not formed in Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to form us in Christ; that is what the Lord Himself refers to in Matthew it. He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”. “We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus”, we are practically freed of the first man and formed in the second, the Man of God’s pleasure, partaking of His character. We have our hearts impressed by divine love, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. “For the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us”. That is the principle by which we are formed, and if formed by love, then you readily learn of Christ, who is meek and lowly in heart, and you partake of His character.
The force of the ministry of reconciliation is, that in [p. 422] the death of Christ every order and kind of man has disappeared in the eye of God, in order that one Man — Christ — may remain. There is nothing for us but Christ. Everything in us that is not of Christ will disappear. “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”. We are now in the place of children in the presence of God, and are to partake of the character of Christ, and the principle which is effective and operative in us by the Spirit of God is the love of God; and so surely as the heart is under the influence of that love, so surely we are formed according to Christ. I am sure that is the divine way. When the Lord was here there was in Him the contrast to everything around. He was “meek and lowly in heart”, though the whole power of God was at His disposal. His pleasure did not consist in acts of power, but that souls should come to Him and take His yoke upon them. It was a greater miracle for a man to find rest to his soul than for a dead man to be raised up. I would rather find rest to my soul in the knowledge of God than, in the present condition of things, have the burden of death literally lifted off.
Now we come to the other point, namely, that the Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith; which involves this, that there is personal affection for Christ. It is the point in which the great mass of us are perhaps defective. If Christ dwells in the heart, He is the supreme object of our affection. It becomes true of us — “Whom, not having seen, ye love”. It is a wonderful thing to love One who does not affect sight or sense. You have never seen Him. Christ dwells in the Scriptures, He is the spirit of them. They are the revelation of the Father’s will to us, and we too are strengthened by the Father’s Spirit with might in the inward man, that the Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. The Church is the vessel of testimony; we are [p. 423] formed in Christ, and if Christ dwells in the heart by faith, the result is, you are filled unto all the fulness of God, that is for the full setting forth of God down here. The Church was suitable and adequate for that, and the way of it was by the strengthening of the saints in the inward man.
I have spoken about God’s testimony — Christ — and what God has set forth in Him, blessing, wisdom and power. That was the subject of the Church’s testimony. The Church was, as we have said, competent and suitable, for it was formed in Christ. But the first state of things did not last long. The Lord had to say to the angel of Ephesus: “Thou hast left thy first love”. Christ no longer dwelt in their hearts. The Church had fallen away from the true place of testimony down here.
If you are in any way by God’s grace in the place of God’s testimony here you must not expect to have quiet times. You have to meet the whole power of evil, and for this you need to take the whole armour of God. If there were no evil to resist, the testimony would be simple. The evil in Ephesians 6 is not man, but influences which proceed from that which is above man, the spiritual influences of wickedness in the heavenly places. The object is to neutralise the revelation of God here. There cannot be a doubt that the revelation of God is here, and the point of the enemy is to frustrate it.
There are two special forms in which the wickedness works; superstition and infidelity. The working of superstition is to neutralise the revelation by bringing in a system of things which blinds people to the power of the revelation. Popery and High Churchism are a wonderful force to this end. The revelation is not denied, but a system has been invented which prevents the soul getting the light and benefit of the revelation. There is revelation, and the application of it, and if its application is falsified, the revelation becomes powerless.
[p. 424] The other form is infidelity. This does not neutralise the revelation but denies it; that is the ground taken. An agnostic does not deny God, but he denies the revelation. He would set you on the search for truth: you would have to go into philosophy and science in the search after truth, but he would tell you that it is an impossibility that there can be such a thing as the revelation of God. That is the present character of infidelity. These are the wiles of the devil, and if you want to meet them you want the armour of God — not one bit of it, but the whole armour. You want every characteristic that will mark Christ when He comes into the world in power. We find these in the detail of the armour — truth, righteousness, peace, the helmet of salvation and the sword. Christ is presented to us in Scripture as coming in power with all these characteristics. He is the truth: the expression of God and of His will. He comes out in righteousness and establishes everything for God. He comes in peace, because righteousness has been effected and established. He comes, as God’s salvation, to deliver His people; and with the sword — the word of God — to destroy His enemies. All these are marks of Christ when He comes again in glory; but we are to take the armour now and to come out in that way morally, with the additions of faith and prayer. We are here actually in the world in the place of dependence, and therefore we want these things. These are not marks of Christ, He will not bear these marks in His coming; but they are part of the armour to us. We want every bit of the armour: truth, righteousness, peace; that is, the power of these things realised in the soul; and then faith, the consciousness that God will bring down all the power of evil; the head lifted up in the sense of salvation; and the word of God — the testimony here. Thus you are in peace, you have the knowledge of God’s will and can stand here, in the presence of the will of man, in God’s will.
[p. 425] What we have to confront immediately is the will of man, but behind it the influences of Satan; but we are fortified in the consciousness of God’s will, and of what He has established in Christ, the last Adam, the Man of God’s right hand, the vessel of His purpose. There is blessing, wisdom and power fully set forth, on the part of God, in Christ, but having their application to us. They are set forth in Christ for man, and God will surely accomplish His purpose because He has the vessel which is adequate.
In a brief moment all God’s mind was accomplished in Christ, and now the Church is left here in testimony to it. Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith, and we are to stand here in the armour of God, characterised by the marks which the Lord will bear when He comes in glory. We have to take up the armour morally, for it could not be otherwise with us; and we anticipate the coming of the Lord in glory and power to establish publicly the will of God, when there will be no more mystery or testimony.
It is now the time of testimony, and the subject of it is Christ. You see two things in Him, the revelation of God, and the expression of the purpose of God’s will. He is “the true God and eternal life”.
The great thing we want is Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith: that we might be marked by real affection for Christ. We lack in strength and spiritual power because Christ is not sufficiently known personally. One’s desire is that the hearts of the saints may be personally attached to Him. He is true to affection, not to sense and sight. In John 10, He says: “I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knoweth me and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep”.