In this issue of The Christian, we have been discussing the failure of the church and what it means to all of us. Sadly, failure has been the history of man right from the beginning of his creation; he has ruined everything that has been committed to him in responsibility. Adam and Eve failed in innocence in the Garden of Eden, and then man failed under conscience, so that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence. Noah became drunk soon after the flood, and then God was compelled to confound man’s language, when they built the tower of Babel. Then idolatry set in, and the Lord called Abraham out of it.
Israel failed under every test the Lord gave them: first of all under law, then under judges, under the priesthood, and finally under their kings. Their trial ended in their crucifying their Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and then man’s testing was over. God could not put man through any other test; He must pronounce judgment on this world. But then God brought out the mystery, “which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” (Eph. 3:99And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:9)) — the mystery of Christ and the church. This was a most wonderful revelation — something that God had not revealed in any way in the Old Testament. There is plenty of prophecy in the Old Testament, but the church did not have any place in prophecy, for as a heavenly company, it was not the subject of prophecy. Prophecy concerns the earth; it does not take up what happens to a heavenly people. There are types of the church in the Old Testament — plenty of them—but no direct prophecy concerning it.
The Truth of the Assembly
The truth of the assembly was specially revealed to the Apostle Paul, who was chosen of God, as he himself says, “that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:88Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; (Ephesians 3:8)). There are riches of Christ in the Old Testament, and these are searchable, now that we have the light of the New Testament. We can read scriptures like Psalm 22, Psalm 69, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12, to mention a few references. Such scriptures do indeed testify of “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:1111Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. (1 Peter 1:11)). But none of this is the truth of the assembly, or the revelation of the mystery of Christ and the church. That had to wait until Paul came on the scene and revealed the precious truth of this mystery. Indeed, he recognized that he had been separated from his mother’s womb for this responsibility, and he took that responsibility very seriously. All the purposes of God have now been brought out, and Paul could say with confidence, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:2727For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)).
Every possible blessing was given to the church, for we are blessed “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3)), and every Christian blessing is a mountain peak beyond which even God Himself could not go. We were “chosen in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:44According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4)), and He has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:66And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6)). We are now the bride of Christ and will have the nearest place to Him in coming glory. We could go on and on, but surely the blessings and the revelations God has given to the church far exceed anything that was given to man in any preceding dispensation.
The Grace of God
In giving all this, the grace of God shone out far beyond anything that He had previously given to man. When man was utterly ruined and had failed every test that God had given him, there must be judgment. God’s holy nature demanded it, and God did pronounce judgment. The Lord Jesus could say, when He had been rejected, “Now is the judgment of this world” (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31)). Yet instead of inflicting that judgment immediately, God first brought in blessing through grace that far exceeded anything that He had done before. Surely, with all of this, there could not be failure. Surely man would react in a right way this time!
But as we well know, the very opposite happened. The greatest exhibition of God’s grace and the most abundant revelations only resulted in what was perhaps man’s greatest failure. This was predicted right from the beginning, for the Lord Jesus Himself foretold the failure of the church, even before it was formed on the day of Pentecost. Several of the parables in Matthew 13 clearly show the decadence that would come in — the parable of the tares, the parable of the grain of mustard seed, and the parable of the woman hiding leaven in three measures of meal. Then later, Paul could say to the Ephesian elders, “After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:2929For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. (Acts 20:29)). The assembly in Ephesus was an assembly where many had been saved and where Paul was able to minister the highest truth the Lord had given him. But failure would come in even there. Later, in epistles like 2 Timothy, 2 Peter and Jude, we see the failure coming in before the apostles had been taken home. We could multiply other scriptures to support this, but let us pass on to our present day. We are now seeing the full-blown result of all this, as given to us in 2 Timothy 3. We are in the last days, and we see Christendom doing far worse things than that part of the world that has not had the light of the gospel in the same way.
Discouragement
We might easily be discouraged as we see all this, and we should feel it, be burdened about it, and shed tears about it. But in Scripture we never find discouragement as part of a Christian’s proper reaction to the failure of the church collectively. No, rather the opposite. In 2 Timothy we can feel the burden that must have pressed on Paul’s heart, as he had to say, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:1515This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. (2 Timothy 1:15)). Yet in the whole epistle there is not one hint of discouragement. Why? It was because Paul knew the truth that he had ministered; he knew it was the truth of God and that it honored Christ. If others gave it up, it only made that precious truth all the more valuable.
A Remnant
There is more than this, however. In every dispensation, when man’s failure ruined what God had set up, God restored the true character of it, but only in a remnant character. What do we mean by this? I do not like to use the word “remnant,” as it has been almost overused in connection with the subject about which we are speaking, but the word conveys the thought. A remnant is a scrap, a relic, a piece of cloth that is taken from an original garment that we no longer have. Yet it is made of the same fabric and has the same color as the original cloth. We can look at it and envision what the original might have looked like. God has always acted this way when man has failed in what God committed to him. Man did not deserve this; it was only God’s grace that did it.
As we have noted, the failure of the church has been greater than the failure with any of God’s previous dealings with man. The wonderful thing is that God’s grace has been correspondingly greater than in any previous dispensation, in restoring the precious truth of the assembly to us, although again in a remnant character. When God began to work in this way almost 200 years ago, He raised up men who were mightily used of God to bring back the truth of the assembly and show us what Paul had given at the beginning. The dispensation of grace has already gone on longer than any previous one, for God is still waiting for more to come and be saved. Yet He has also provided a way whereby we can acknowledge and walk in the whole truth of God and exhibit it practically in a corporate way. What unbounded grace to those who had failed so deeply!
Words of Encouragement and Warning
The reward for faithfulness is correspondingly greater too. When we read the reward promised to Philadelphia in Revelation 3:1212Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Revelation 3:12), it overwhelms our hearts: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name.” An old brother used to remind us that there is no greater encouragement in the whole Bible than what we get in this verse. We will not go through the details of the verse here, but only to remark that as the day grows darker, the grace of God shines brighter. Nowhere is this more true than in the remnant character of the church.
Let us close with a word of warning. The abundance of blessing may sometimes make us forget our failure and induce us to think that we are “just as good” as they were in the early days of the assembly. To fall into that trap is to be lifted up in pride and to forget that we are a testimony to the failure of the church, rather than to our own faithfulness. There is no limit, in one sense, to the blessing the Lord can give, but let us remember that we are in “remnant days,” not in apostolic days. Humility becomes us, but never discouragement, for the Lord is the same, His Spirit is still here, we have His Word in our hands, and we have His promise that “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Rev. 3:88I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. (Revelation 3:8)).
W. J. Prost