What Is the Church? 3

 •  13 min. read  •  grade level: 8
After this short review of the position of the church, with regard to Christ, and the whole creation which will be subjected to Him; we will consider, in a more consecutive manner, the doctrine of the word respecting the church itself, and then the position it holds historically, in those ways of God, the course of which is given to us in detail in the Bible.
The fixed purpose of God, as it is expressly revealed to us in the first chapter of Ephesians, is to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. The church will be associated with Him, as His body—His bride—at that time (Eph. 1:22, 23, 27). But all things are not yet put under Him. God has not yet put them all, as a footstool, under His feet; nor is the church as yet presented in glory to Christ, who as yet is sitting on the right hand of God (Heb. 2:88Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (Hebrews 2:8)). It is needless to quote passages to prove that the church is not yet glorified nor raised. We are, dear Christian reader (you and I), proofs of it1—though happy to be so —waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Whilst waiting, then, for the happy moment of our meeting with Jesus—is there still a church? Did it enter into the thoughts of God, that there should be a church upon earth, till the final accomplishment of His magnificent designs respecting her glory in heaven? There can be no doubt about it, to one that is subject to the word. Let us examine the word on this point. Christ Himself is the first to announce the commencement of the church2 “Upon this rock I will build my church.” The declaration that the gates of hell should not prevail against it, shows plainly that it is not a question of the church already presented in glory. It is upon earth. I would notice a few important points which are revealed by this passage. The church was yet to begin. Christ, recognized as Son of the living God, was to form the foundation of a new work upon the earth. The fact that there are believers upon the earth, and even believers acknowledging Jesus to be the Christ, does not constitute the church. It was so when Jesus spoke, and yet the church was still to be builded. This was a work to be done as regarded the children of God; which thought is confirmed by a declaration of John, respecting the involuntary prophecy of Caiaphas, that Jesus should die for the Jewish nation; “and not for that nation only,” adds the apostle, “but that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.”
There were already children of God, but they were scattered abroad—isolated. Christ, by His death, was to gather them together; not merely to save them, so that they might be together in heaven (since they were children of God, that was done already), but He was to gather them together in one. They were believers already, but the church3 was yet to be builded, by the gathering together of these believers, and that upon the earth. We know that this has now taken place as a fact, through the word of Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. We may cite here, the request of Jesus that not only those already manifested, but those also who should believe through their word, might be one, that the world might believe.
Before passing on to the Epistles, we may remark by the way that the Lord, besides the general idea of the church which He was about to build, gives us an insight into the practical operation of the assembly, in detail (Matt. 18); attaching to it, at the same time, the efficacy of this operation, and the authority of heaven itself —though but two or three should thus form the assembly—provided it was really in His name they were thus met. How precious the light that the word affords for times of darkness!
But, through the descent of the Holy Ghost, the doctrine of the church has received a much fuller development. The fact of her existence is declared in Acts 2 “All that believed were together,4 and had all things in common,” and “the number of them was” already “three thousand.” “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."5 The union, and unity of the saved ones, were accomplished, as a fact, by the presence of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. They formed one body upon the earth; a visible body, owned of God, to which all whom He called to the knowledge of Himself joined themselves, and that as led of the Lord, who was working in their hearts. It was the church of God, so far composed of Jews only. The patience of God was yet waiting in Jerusalem; and if this city owed ten thousand talents, by the death of Jesus, He was still proposing repentance by the testimony of the Holy Ghost. God was remembering mercy, and declaring that on the repentance of the nation, guilty as they were, Jesus would return.
This is the subject of Acts 3. But Jerusalem turned a deaf ear to the call; and subsequently her rulers, resisting, as always, the Holy Ghost, stoned him through whom He was testifying. From that time, though the unity of the whole was preserved by the conversion of Cornelius, a new instrument of the sovereign grace of God appears on the scene. Saul, who had been himself consenting also unto the death of Stephen—Saul the persecutor—the expression of the hatred of the Jews against the Christ—becomes the zealous witness of the faith he had sought to destroy. But this sovereign grace, whilst still mindful of the Jews, no longer goes out from Jerusalem as its starting point. It was from Antioch, a city of the Gentiles, that Paul went forth to fulfill his apostolical work. But this event was accompanied by a very remarkable development of the doctrine of the church; or rather preceded by a revelation, which made not a new gospel (for the way of salvation is ever one and the same), but a new starting-point in the preaching of this gospel as regarded the person of Christ Himself.
Up to this time, although they had preached a Christ exalted, the only Savior; yet it was as a man known amongst the Jews by signs and miracles, as they knew; and whom God had raised and made both Lord and Christ. I need not say that this testimony was quite according to God, and in its proper place in the midst of the Jews. “Ye also,” the Lord had said, “shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” Peter and the other apostles, having accompanied Christ during the time of His ministry, followed Him up to the time that the cloud received Him out of their sight. They had received the testimony, that He should return in like manner. The consequence was that the relations of Christ with the Jews were always maintained on the ground of faith in Him—exalted to the right hand of God, no doubt, but—whose scepter was to go out from Sion, and who awaited the repentance of His people. But we have seen the testimony of the Holy Ghost to a glorified Christ rejected by the blinded nation; and the death of Stephen, in making this rejection signally manifest, reveals to us the Son of man, in the glory of heaven, receiving the spirit of His servant above, instead of returning to Israel here below. This transition from the character of the Christ, or Messiah, to that of Son of man (suffering, and inheriting all things in heaven and on earth) is often taught by Jesus in the Gospels. See, for instance, Luke 9 It is now being accomplished as a fact; the Lord, at the same time, not losing His rights as Christ. They are reserved for the age to come.
But here, Paul enters on the scene; and God, whilst continuing His work at Jerusalem, begins a new one; and that by a new revelation of His Son, to him who was not to know Him personally after the flesh. Saul sees Jesus for the first time in heavenly glory, too resplendent for human sight. It is not Jesus known upon earth, made Lord;6 but the Lord of glory who, as such, declares that He is Jesus. But for Paul and his ministry, where is He found on earth? In those who are His. Seen unequivocally as Lord in heaven, Saul asks, “Who art thou, Lord?” “I am — “replies the Lord, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” The saints were Himself—His body. The conversion of Paul identifies itself with the full revelation, of the union of the Lord in glory with the members of His body upon earth. His starting point, his knowledge of salvation, could not be separated from these two things. They are reproduced in his epistles. Thus (2 Cor. 4) he says, “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel7 of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” This, whilst setting forth in a still more striking manner the worth of His sufferings, invested at the same time the preaching of the apostle with a peculiar character.
I will not enlarge on this part of the relations8 of Paul with Christ; in order that we may come to that which concerns more directly our subject, the church. Whatever God's ways upon earth might be, it is evident that all question of Jew and Gentile was at an end, when the question was about the Lord of glory and the members of His body. The relations became heavenly, and, in the unity of the body of a Christ thus known in heaven there was neither Jew nor Gentile. The church was upon earth according to this revelation of her position, for she was persecuted; but she was identical with the Lord in heaven; it was He (the Lord glorified) who was persecuted in His members.
To what precious ground does not this introduce the heart! We have, and that from the mouth and the heart of the Lord Himself, the strongest expression of our union with Him; that He considers the feeblest member of His body as a part of Himself. Let us pursue, however, our subject, that we may get the doctrine as a whole.
(Continued from page 174) (To be continued)
 
1. I do not feel it needful specially to notice here the heresy of a handful of enthusiasts, who think that the Lord has come, and that the resurrection is past already. Some, avowing this latter doctrine as a necessary consequence of the other; others saying nothing about it. The last verses of Revelation (16 to the end) suffice to refute this idea. It is well to bear in mind that the Revelation was written long after the destruction of Jerusalem.
2. This declaration of the Lord (Matt. 16) has a very decisive character, if we consider the circumstances under which it was uttered. In the beginning of the chapter He had pronounced the judgment of the Jewish generation, giving them His death, under the figure of Jonas, as the sign; and leaving to themselves those who were seeking a sign. Then He asked His disciples, what was said of Him. Peter, on this occasion, makes the unique confession-"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This latter part is only found on this occasion, and it is what gives its peculiar importance to this confession. The Son of the living God, in building His church, would shelter it from the power of Hades and of him who had the power of death. The death of the Messiah might break the links between Israel after the flesh and the head of their blessing, whatever grace might do afterward for that nation; but whatever was based on the power of the resurrection (and it is in resurrection that Christ has been declared the Son of God with power) was secured against him, who, at the most, had the power of death. St. Peter is always full of this idea of life (1 Peter 1:3, 21, 23, 24; 2:4, 53Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3)
21Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21)
23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: (1 Peter 1:23‑24)
4To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4‑5)). Matt. 17 adds the millennial glory of the Son of man; and towards the end, leading His disciples back to the subject of His rejection amongst the Jews, explains the ways of grace, and on this occasion introduces church action (18:17).
3. Remark here, that what is falsely called an invisible church, was precisely the state of Israel-a body of professing Israelites, by birth and ordinances; and a certain number of isolated believers in the midst of that, enjoying through faith the goodness of God, and their common faith when they met. (See Matt. 3:16,16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: (Matthew 3:16) and Luke 2:3838And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. (Luke 2:38).) It is out of this state that the Lord has brought believers by “building the church.”
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4. This passage shows the futility of the objection-an objection refuted besides by a thousand experiments—that the gathering together in one is an impossibility. It may be so materially, and it was no doubt the case here. When they broke bread from house to house, there were not three thousand at once together. Yet that does not hinder, in the mind of God, their being gathered together in one place of moral and real unity. There is no question of moral disposition here, but of facts which demonstrated the power of the Holy Ghost.
5. The word rendered here by “should be saved” (a meaning given in other good versions) is a word used by the LXX. (and I doubt not in Luke) for the remnant of Israel, who were to escape the judgments of God. Now, what the Lord did with them, was to add them to the Christian assembly.
6. An examination of the Acts of the Apostles will show that Jesus is never preached as Son of God, before He is so by Paul, after his conversion. With Peter it is always the man known upon earth glorified. But Paul, immediately after his conversion, preaches Jesus in the synagogues that He is the Son of God. We must not think that there is any imperfection in the ways of God here; on the contrary, it is a proof of their perfection. The expression, “raised up His Son Jesus,” is quite a different word from “Son” of God. It would even be more correctly translated “servant” [as in Acts 4:2525Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? (Acts 4:25)].
7. Literally and properly, “gospel of the glory.”
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8. It is, however, a subject full of interest-the contrast between a Christ, object of prophecy and of promise, and a Christ revealed in the fullness of His person, as beginning and foundation (having accomplished His work) of the new creation: its Head, filling all things; having re-established the relationship between God and them, a relationship ruined by sin; and, at the same time, beginning, foundation, and Head of the church, which He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, having united it, quickened in Himself, by the Holy Ghost, to Himself, as His body. These two things constitute the mystery in its whole extent.
The second part is more fully treated in the word; as concerning us more particularly; and also the admission of the Gentiles, which flowed from it. But, what presents the highest interest in this subject is the glory of the person of Christ Himself, which is the foundation on which the fulfillment of all these counsels of God rests.