I have long thought that the object of the Spirit of God in the beginning of the last century, was the recovering to the church the truth of her heavenly calling. This comprehends the fact of her being united to her exalted Head in heaven in one body by the Holy Ghost sent down at Pentecost. The acknowledging of this should gather saints to His name in the confession of His Headship and Lordship—Headship of the body, and Lordship over all things to it (Eph. 1:22, 2322And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22‑23)). It is in this relationship of one body and members of it that the church partakes of the emblems of His death for us (1 Cor. 10:1616The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)). As this passage shows, it is the visible expression of the communion of the church in this relationship to Him. “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread,” or loaf, and as thus united to Him and each other, we partake of the emblems of Him in death for us. The body in verse 16 is, I take it, the church in its communion as such.
That there is one body and one Spirit, thank God remains true, and is to be acted upon by those who know the truth. Saints cannot be gathered together according to Him, save in the confession of this truth, and that of its being God’s house—His habitation by the Spirit (Eph. 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)). What is due to Him in His house is to be maintained by those thus gathered. The church is the body of Christ, and the house of God. It is the church’s relationship to Him, as the body is to Christ, as these passages in Ephesians 1 and 2 show. They are important in this connection.
Individual truth is important, and must be learned first, but we cannot stop with this. If we would go on with Him and His truth, we must go on to what is corporate, namely, the church as God’s house and Christ’s body.
True, our individual standing in life and righteousness in Christ, was more fully brought out in the movement referred to, than before; but this was not the main object of the Spirit in it. Justification by faith (an individual truth) was thus the object in a previous movement of His, and we may say, a necessarily previous one. In Scripture, individual truth must be learned before corporate.
In a certain sense, individual truth may lead to an independency of its own kind. Love to the children of God may be with this, because they are such, but no acknowledgment of corporate responsibility in the truth of one body and one Spirit. Even when some gather together, it is rather as so many individuals, than of the house of God and members of the body of Christ in the confession of His Headship and Lordship.