We now look at the standing of the church of God.
If we take the first nine verses in 1 Cor. 1, we have the standing of the assembly of God. The remaining part of the epistle gives the state.
“Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints.” As the assembly of God, they were separated from the heathen world to God, in Christ Jesus. What a holy standing—in Christ Jesus! God had separated them—He had called them out. They were His holy ones by calling. Such were and are the assembly of God. None “but the sanctified in Christ Jesus form that holy assembly—the called, holy ones. Ah, the standing of the holy assembly of God in Christ Jesus is almost forgotten. Base imitations have taken its place on earth before the eyes of men. This was the assembly of God in Christ. As the gold covered the boards of the tabernacle, so was the assembly covered with Christ. “ Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (Ver. 30.)
How perfect the standing of the assembly in Christ! Thus it is presented: “Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall confirm you unto the end, blameless [or, irreproachable] in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Such is the glorious standing of the assembly of God. How little this is understood! But such is the case, if the reader is a Christian; this is your standing as a part of the church of God. Why did the Spirit thus put the standing of the assembly first, before the state of that assembly? Was it not that we might lay fast hold of that before we compare the state?
There is one important feature of the assembly—that is, that it is the body of Christ. He is a the head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” “For we are members of his body.” “There is one body.” “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” Such was the standing of the assembly of God: every individual of that assembly was a member of the one body of Christ. Thus Christ was displaced in His body on earth: the most perfect union of every member with the Head. This was really a glorious standing, as it is written: “Unto him he glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages,” &c. (Eph. 3:2121Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. (Ephesians 3:21).)
Well, did the state of the assembly come up to its standing? We must say, No. When the apostle turned from its standing to its state, he had to rebuke them on this very point. Instead of manifesting the oneness of the body of Christ, divisions were beginning to spring up amongst them. To say, I am of Paul; and I, of Apollos; and I, of Cephas; and I, of Christ, was surely a state which denied the oneness of the body of Christ. The standing of the assembly as the body of Christ remains the same; but what is our state? Every believer sealed with the Spirit is a member of the one body of Christ. But the state of the church is a denial of this, by its sad divisions.
The moral state of the assembly of God at Corinth fell far short of their standing, as “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints.” The instructions also, for them and for us, show the points in which they needed to be better taught in divine froth. If we read chapter xii., it would appear they were in great need of instruction as to the body. They needed to be told that “the body is one” and that “by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.” Their want of knowledge, and consequent failure, did not affect the standing of all the called saints as members of the one body; but it did most seriously affect their state; hence their divisions and lowness of walk.
Is it not so at this day, only in a much greater and sadder degree? All true believers form the one body of Christ. But how many are entirely ignorant of this fact! Nay, they glory in being members of that which is a denial of the one body, the many bodies of human organization. And, in other cases, where the one body is professedly held, what (as to state) an entire ignoring of the unity of the Spirit! Thus, whilst the standing of the assembly of God as the one body of Christ can never alter, the state of the church should fill is with deep humiliation, and bring us before the Lord in confession and prayer.
Yet, let us not forget that, where the standing of the assembly of God is held in the power of the Holy Ghost, there will continue to be its manifestation—however feebly—though in the midst of all the sorrowful divisions of the church. Paul said to Timothy, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.”
There is still another precious aspect of standing of the assembly as the bride of Christ. Let us notice one or two of the types of the bride. Eve, taken out of death, as it were, in figure, had the same standing as Adam—she was one with him. “Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” Her standing in paradise was totally different from all other creatures. We know that this figure is actually applied to the church as the bride of Christ, in Eph. 5. Now, in the case of Eve, her creation was entirely of God, suited to the man.
Ruth, also, may illustrate the standing of the bride. She was brought, in pure grace, from the land of death and the curse, stranger and outcast, to occupy by redemption, as raised from the dead, the highest possible standing in Israel—the standing of her husband, the mighty man of wealth. So of Rebekah. She was fetched from the land of idolatry and distance by the steward of Abraham, to have the highest possible standing in the family of promise—the bride of Isaac.
Let us now turn to the heavenly things in the Ephesians. What is the standing of the churchy His body? Whatever is the standing of the Head of the body, Christ. There is no limit except, of course, His Godhead, or divine attributes, for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. No limit; no, “with all.”
And this high standing is not according to any merit of ours, but, “according 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.”
This standing was predestinated before all circumstances, before the creation of the world; and when the heavens and the earth shall have passed away, that eternal purpose of God shall be accomplished in the new heavens and the new earth. (Rev. 21)
Our standing is the “glory of his grace, wherein he hath taken us into favor in the beloved.” Redemption through His blood, &c, follows, as the outflow of His free favor. But; all is of God, absolute and eternal. Such is the standing of the believer chosen in Christ. Oh, “the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.”
What is the standing of Him who became man, and died for His church? Oh, the pre-eminence of the First-born from among the dead! “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name.....And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” Such is the standing of the church, His bride, in the heavenlies, in Him (Eph. 1; 2), and soon to be with Him.
And we must not forget that the church is the object of the tender love of Christ. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.” “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Thus, if, in the figure, Eve had the same standing as Adam, the church, the second Eve, the heavenly bride, has the same standing as Christ. What unspeakable grace! “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus.”
Oh, how sad is the present state of the church, when compared with her standing! And why? Is it not because the heavenly glory and standing of the church is so little understood? With most, is it not a question of just being saved, of being able to stand before God in judgment? The present and eternal love of Christ is little known. The more we know the heavenly standing of the church, the more heavenly will be our state.
May God grant to each one of us, both a fuller apprehension of our standing, and a more deep, real correspondence of state of soul, answering to His boundless grace. Soon our standing and our state will forever be alike. We shall see Him as He is, and be like Him. C. S.