(Concluded from page 531.)
The men that worked in the quarry and fashioned the stones for Solomon's temple, where there was no sound of hammer or of ax (1 Kings 6:77And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. (1 Kings 6:7)), did not place the stones in their position—that was the business of the builders. Both were necessary, but the quarry-men prepared the stones, and the builders carried on the building. Perhaps the preparedness of the stones is a figure of the saints when we all come “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” i.e., when we are with Him in glory. There will be no sound of hammer or of ax in heaven; all the shaping and fitting will have been done. But we can use the same figure for a present, though subordinate, application to the functions of the evangelist, and of the pastor and teacher.
A better than Solomon's temple is now rising, built with living stones; which “fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord......for a habitation of God in the Spirit.” There are classes of workers, each with a separate function, but all in harmony, working together for one end, under the guiding power of the Holy Spirit. Evangelists are the Lord's quarry-men; as such they dig in the world's quarries, they preach the life-giving word. Faith comes by hearing, and quickened men receive salvation. The stones are ready for the builders. All are fitted together in the Spirit and the building increases.
For the edifying of the body of Christ.” The common idea of “edifying” is instruction of those within, and this is of equal importance to the Lord as the preaching of the gospel to the unsaved. When Peter was first called, the Lord said he would make him a fisher of men; when he was restored and had learned the much needed lesson of his own weakness, the Lord gave him a higher character of work. He said, “Feed my sheep.” But edification is a larger word than instruction. This excludes the evangelist; but he is a “gift” with others for the edifying of the body of Christ. The building up of the edifice of God is not only teaching for those within, but working for fresh souls to be brought—new material for the building. For how is the church to be added to if there be no evangelists?
“The unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.” Christ the Son of the living God is the object of faith, the one rock upon which the church is built. It is this knowledge which makes the unity of the faith. The “unity” and the “knowledge” go together. The possession of faith fits us for the knowledge, and again, the knowledge is the confirmation of faith; there is a reflex action, and each grows by the other. “I know Whom I have believed,” says Paul. He had believed, and therefore he says, “I know;” and because he knew, he is able to say, “and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” That is, his knowledge led on to the fullest confidence. The faith and the knowledge, and also the knowledge and the confidence could not be more clearly and tersely given in their reciprocal relation. This knowledge is not a mere taking in of truth, it is a personal acquaintance with, or rather a knowledge of, the Person of the Son of God; and moreover knowing Him not only as Savior, but as Son of God. The world will know Him as Judge and King, the Jew as Messiah; our special privilege is very far above their knowledge. To know Him as the Son of God takes in all His glories, and implies that we are able and fitted to understand what neither Israel nor the millennial saint can know. And we begin to have this knowledge while here, for the unity of the faith is bound up with this knowledge of the Son of God. Take any assembly, and where you discern among the saints any measure of this knowledge of the Son of God, there you may be assured is a proportionate measure of the unity of the faith.
All the errors that have troubled the saints of God, and marred His church, have had their root in the pretentious knowledge of the Son of God. Yea, the worst heterodoxies were always connected with a denial of some special glory of His person. It was so at the beginning, and was the occasion for the writing of John's Epistles. It has continued to the present day, and made its mark upon those who, after the first quarter of this present century, professed to have left the world-church and all its corruptions, and to have received grace to be separate from all their religious surroundings. The denial of His personal glory in this or that aspect cannot but divide the saints of God.
Sorrowful, shameful, as we feel this to be, we know it will—it must—cease. For the word says, “Till we all come.” Shall we all come to this unity and knowledge before the Lord come? When He comes, the unity of the faith will be perfect; will our knowledge of the Son of God be perfect? Yea, we shall know, even as also we are known. We shall be, we are, capable of learning indefinitely. Of some now it is said, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” He, Christ, the Son of God is the Truth; and we shall have it perfectly.
“To a perfect—full-grown—man.” Each of us may take this as the goal to which we are, or should be, continually pressing forward. “That I may know Him,” &c. Was the apostle's prayer for himself? Did he wish less for all saints? He looks forward to the time when we all come, and all together be the full-grown than. It is the church looked at in its several members, perfect unity of faith making them as one. Each and all together will be brought up to a certain standard, the stature of the fullness of Christ. The corporate union of the church with Christ, as members of the body with the Head is not the thought here. We have that in chap. i. 23., “Which is His body, the fullness [the complement] of Him that filleth all in all.” Here (chap. iv. 13) it is rather likeness (as in 1 John). Scripture does not speak of the corporate body in its union with Christ as being like Him. Likeness is said of distinct things; we could not say the body is like the head; but the word does say that the believer shall be like Christ. Each will bear the image of the heavenly, and have bodies like unto the body of His glory. The believer in his individuality will be like Him: it is the glory of each. The corporate church is His body, is part of Himself, both together the Christ (1 Cor. 12:1212For 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. (1 Corinthians 12:12)).
“To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” This exceeds our thought; it is not a partial likeness, but complete. Here in this life through grace the Holy Spirit produces likenesses in some things, and would in all were we obedient to His leadings. Alas! in how many things we are unlike. In the circumstances of this present time where we should manifest the meekness, the lowliness, the patience, and the faith of Christ, for it is only now that we have opportunities for showing these, how much of the contraries suddenly and frequently break out! “When He was reviled, He reviled not again;” “in Whose mouth was no guile,” Whose “meat was to do the will of the Father Who sent” Him. What cause we have for self-judgment! How very far short we come in following Him Who has not only saved us, but left us a pattern how we should walk!
With gladness we look on to the time when our likeness to Him shall be perfect. “The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Can we add one word to this which would give a more complete idea of the perfection of the moral glory to which we all shall be brought, than those already given? The stature of the fullness of Christ! That is the goal in the mind of God for His church. There is nothing higher in glory possible for us. Again we say our minds fail to comprehend this fullness; not of course the fullness in Col. 1:1919For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (Colossians 1:19) and ii. 9, where the fullness of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—was pleased to dwell in the Man Christ Jesus, but His fullness as a perfect Man distinct from His Godhead, and apart from His glory as making atonement, a perfect and glorified Man, possessing every moral quality that can be the delight of God. He is the model before the mind of God to which we shall fully answer. We shall have a glory of position in the kingdom, kings and priests, reigning with Him over the world. The body too shall be glorified. But this glory—the stature of the fullness of Christ—is the moral glory of the soul, of the mind which is here renewed day by day; but there, when we have all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge least degree interfere with the blessing, common to one as well as the other, that they are priests unto God: “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father” (Rev. 1:66And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:6)). “Ye are a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:99But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (1 Peter 2:9)). The apostle Paul was a priest unto God, but not more than any of the individuals he salutes in his Epistles, or than the most uninstructed believer in the whole church. The diversities among the members, formed by the diverse gifts of the Spirit, must be carefully distinguished from their priestly equality. Our worship then is priestly worship, and consequently the heavenly courts are its sphere.
The fearful warning given by the apostle, which at one time or another has made every awakened soul tremble (Heb. 10:28, 2928He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:28‑29)), is a warning against the fatal consequences of turning back to the old order of worship, as if it were to be the pattern of our worship, instead of the contrast unto it. True it is said (Heb. 9:2323It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (Hebrews 9:23)) that the ritual of the law was the pattern of things in the heavens, but surely in the way of contrast, as heaven is contrasted with earth—things made without hands, with things made with hands. To return, therefore, to the order of worship under the law, is to reject the heavenly order for a copy of the earthly. It marks the apostacy of Worship. And is not this the peculiar mark of the professing church It has followed the old pattern of the law, instead of the heavenly pattern. It has made again the difference between priests and people in its clergy and laity—a distinction unknown to the New Testament. Thus has the professing church put its priests in a place of comparative nearness to God, and its people at a distance—virtually making the clergy the church, when it is said of believers, “Ye are a spiritual house.”
And what is this but to trample under foot the Son of God? As if after all that He has suffered and done, we were at as great a distance as before, and as if with His priestly ministration we still needed the intervention of others in our approaches to God! God has cast out the outer court, and will not regard worship offered therein; but men have profanely sought to sanctify it, and in so doing have trodden under foot the Son of God. We have already noticed the command given to Moses to sanctify the people to meet God, and also that we by the will of God are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. But this return to the old form is characterized by the apostle as accounting the blood of the covenant wherewith we have been sanctified as an unholy thing—as that which would still keep us without, instead of that which entitles us to enter into the holiest of all, And what an insult to the Spirit of grace, Who witnesses to the soul of the wondrous grace of God, and of Christ, and Who is Himself in the once-purged worshipper the power of nearness of worship (for God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit)—what an insult to that blessed Spirit to put ourselves back to the distance in which this flesh must ever stand before God! Hence, therefore, this solemn warning, Take heed lest, after having received the knowledge of the truth with respect to your priestly standing and nearness to God, ye willfully sin. For to worship God as we think fit, is of the essence of willfulness. God leaves nothing to our choice in the matter of worship: it is not allowed us to choose whether we will go back to the old pattern; God has set it aside, and to return to it is to choose the place of judgment. For nothing can await the outside worshippers but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. There remains no more sacrifice for sin to bring you nearer or to make you accepted. Jesus is not waiting to offer that, for He has done it once for all, but waiting till His enemies be made His footstool.
But even the priest's service in the holy place, near as it was, is but partially the pattern of the service of the saints now. For now all relative nearness is done away with, and we take the sphere of the ministry of the high-priest himself to complete the pattern of our standing now.
While the first tabernacle was standing, the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest i.e. laid open: “The Holy Ghost signifying, that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing; which was a figure for the time then present” (Heb. 9:88The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: (Hebrews 9:8)). The priests, though able always to enter into the holy place, could proceed no further. The beautiful veil concealed from their eye the most holy place. The veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with its cunning work of cherubim, all open to their view might indeed tell them of the glories concealed behind it; but the golden altar, the ark of the covenant overlaid with gold, with the golden pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, were all concealed from their sight. The immediate presence of Him who dwelt between the cherubim of the mercy-seat was unapproachable by them. That was accessible to the high-priest alone, and to him but once a year; and then not without blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the people. Mark—the high-priest could not enter into the holiest of all at all times, as the priests could into the holy place; he could not enter there as a purged worshipper, for he went there on the very ground of sin not being put away forever.
But now all is laid open. By the blood of Christ the way is opened into the holiest of all. How significantly was this marked by the veil of the temple being rent in twain when Jesus hung upon the cross! Yea, Jesus Himself is the way, the living way. If there be a veil, He is that veil—not to conceal anything of God behind it, but to bring out all that may be known of God to view. And here the worshippers, once purged—have constant liberty to enter.
“Having therefore, brethren,” &c. The apostle does not take the stand of one in pre-eminent nearness himself to God, inviting others to draw nigh, as though he had been the priest and they the people, he on the inside, and they without; but he classes himself with those whom he addresses, calling them “brethren,” and three times repeating “Let us.” How different this from the order of old! Moses alone was to come near, the others were to worship afar off; but now it was equal nearness, equal liberty of access into the holiest of all.
What has the blood of Jesus left unaccomplished? In the shedding of it we have remission of sins. By the sprinkling of it we as lepers are pronounced clean, and sanctified as worshippers. And being carried into the holiest of all by Jesus Himself, it gives free access into heaven itself. There it ever is, on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat; for by it Christ once entered in, having obtained eternal redemption. His thus entering in is not an annual solemnity, nor one ever to be repeated. The blood of the sin-offering, carried within the veil by Aaron on the great day of atonement was that he might “make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins” (Lev. 16:1616And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. (Leviticus 16:16)). This has now been done once forever. The atonement for the holy place is “unto continuance “: it is as much once and forever purged as is the worshipper himself. Yea, no worshipper there need fear lest he should bring defilement there, because the blood that cleanseth all sin away is there forever before God. Why are we so distant in our hearts from God? Is it not because we have so little sense of the real power of the blood within the veil as the gracious provision of God Himself for our holy and unhindered communion with Him? “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”
But mark the way of access. At Mount Sinai all was distance. “Thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, nor touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death” (Ex. 19). This distance ever characterized the worship under the law; there were constant bounds set, to pass which would have been death. Even Aaron himself could not pass the bounds of the veil at all times “lest he die.” The outside worshipping Israelite could not pass the bounds of the curtains which hung at the door of the tabernacle, “lest he die.” To see God and live was impossible under the law. But now Jesus is the way, the living way, into God's presence. To see Him is to see. God and live. He is not the barrier between us and God, but the way to God. All the distance and every bound is done away by Jesus. Did an Israelite on the outside gate on the beautiful curtain, and long to pass it? But death would have been his portion had he attempted it: let him look to Jesus Who says, “I am the door by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Yes, the death of Jesus is become to us the living way into the holiest of all. But if, having proceeded within the curtains of the door, the veil seemed to forbid further entrance, let him again look to Jesus, and the veil, says the apostle, is His flesh. The very God with Whom we have to do is thus brought before us as fall of grace and truth. And if he perceived it rent, again let him look to Jesus and Him crucified, and the holiness of. God invited instead of forbade an entrance. What words of blessing to the once-purged worshipper— “By a new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.”
But further—not only the work of Jesus and His character inspire confidence, but He Himself is the High Priest over the house of God. His ministry is never for a moment interrupted. He is in the holiest of all, on the very ground of atonement having been made both for the people and the place; and therefore the present is to us one continued season of worship. How needful is this promise to give us confidence in entering into the holiest! The High Priest has not to go into the house; He is there constantly, and has taken a place which Aaron never could take in the tabernacle; He is over the house of His own; He is Master of it; He openeth and no man shutteth.
The Lord pardon His saints for having so insulted His grace in the mode and character of their worship; and lead them by His Spirit into the only place of acceptable worship—the holiest of all.