"...making
known unto us the mystery of his will..." (Eph.
1:9).
"...how that by
revelation was made known unto me the mystery... my
understanding in the mystery of Christ... to make all men
see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for
ages hath been hid in God" (Eph. 3:3,4,9).
"This mystery
is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the
church" (Eph. 5:32).
"...that
utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel"
(Eph. 6:19).
We have traced through
the letter to the Ephesians this characteristic word -
"mystery." What is its meaning?
It has two sides. First
of all, "mystery" means something that has been
kept hidden, that could not be recognised, clearly seen
or understood. It was a hidden matter - what we call a
secret; and we are told that God kept this secret, this
mystery, hidden from all ages and generations, but now He
has made it known. Something which was hidden, a mystery,
has now been declared.
But then there is the
other side of this, which is perfectly clear also - that
even after the secret has been declared people cannot see
it unless God gives them illumination about it. Although
this is the age in which it is declared, it is still a
mystery until God opens eyes and gives illumination. Paul
said "by revelation was made known unto me the
mystery"; "ye can perceive my understanding in
the mystery"; so that it is a matter of the mystery
being explained or illumined to our hearts, and it is in
our coming to see it that we come to spiritual
enlargement. We move towards fulness by way of seeing
"the mystery."
Two
Mysteries
The word 'mystery' is
used in several connections in the New Testament, but
there are two major connections. You may say that they
include the others. Firstly, there is the mystery of
Christ. We read the phrase - "the mystery of the
gospel" - but that comes within this, that is a part
of the mystery of Christ. And secondly, there is the
mystery of iniquity. What does the mystery turn out to be
when you look into the New Testament? Well, in each case
- the mystery of Christ and the mystery of iniquity - you
will find it is an incarnation of a great spiritual and
supernatural being entering into man form. That is
perfectly clear and simple with regard to Christ. God was
in Christ - that is the mystery. In the days of His
flesh, no one understood that mystery, it was something
hidden. They felt there was something mysterious about
Him, something that was different, 'other,' superior.
They could not get to the bottom of Him, as we say; they
could not quite understand Him. 'There is something about
this Man we cannot understand. He is different, He
defeats all our attempts at explanation. There is a
mystery about Him.' "The world knew him not"
(John 1:10). It is the mystery of God in Christ, God
appearing in the form of man, God made in the likeness of
man.
The mystery of iniquity
is the same thing - another supernatural, spiritual being
coming in man form; eventually Antichrist. The mystery of
iniquity is that there is something in humanity, and
heading itself up into a humanity, a man or men, which is
not just man himself. There is something about this that
is evil, that is sinister, uncanny. You cannot account
for it on purely natural grounds. There is a mystery
about it. It is an incarnation of a spiritual and
supernatural being which is the mystery, whether it be of
Christ, or whether it be of Antichrist.
The
Twofold Mystery of Christ
But when you come to
Christ, you find that the mystery is twofold. Firstly, it
is Himself, as we have said; God in Christ personally, so
that Christ is God incarnate. But then you find, by what
has been revealed to and through Paul, that Christ takes
a Body; not a physical body, but a spiritual Body -
"the church which is his body" (Eph. 1:22-23);
and the Church being His Body again becomes the mystery
of Christ; that is, here is God in Christ indwelling a
company of people, the elect, the Body of Christ; and the
letter to the Ephesians is particularly taken up with
that aspect of Christ - that you have here a body of
people called the Church, in whom God in Christ dwells.
There is a mystery about this people, about this
particular Church, there is something here that is
supernatural, something here that is spiritual. It is not
just a society of people called Christians, a number of
people who gather together in the Christian faith and
believe certain doctrines. There is something more than
that about them. If only you knew it and could understand
it, in the deepest and innermost reality of their being
they are supernatural; they are not merely natural
people, they are not earthly people. There is something
hidden within them which you cannot account for on any
other ground, and you have to say, 'It is God, it is the
Lord.' When you meet these people, when they are gathered
together even in a small company, if you move in there
you find something extra to the people, something more
than what they are; you meet the Lord. There is a mystery
about this, and the mystery of Christ of which Paul is
speaking here is not just the mystery of Christ personal,
but it is the mystery of Christ corporate, of Christ in
His Body the Church.
So Paul is speaking
about that mystery, and he is saying, 'Now, this is a
heavenly thing, a 'spiritual' thing; this is not
something that is on this earth, which you can explain as
you can explain other earthly things. This is something
heavenly, and you cannot explain that by earthly
standards at all.'
That is the statement
of the fact, but of course that is the challenge to the
Church. Is the Church that? Just in so far as we are
actually what we are called to be, that is our spiritual
measure. Spiritual measure is what we are as to Christ,
what Christ is in us.
The
Mystery Known Only by Revelation
Then we come to this
other point - it is not the fact that makes us grow; that
is, it is not the truth of the Body as truth, the facts
stated about the Church as information, that brings us to
spiritual enlargement. We can see all this as in the
Scriptures, and yet it may never make any difference to
us as to our spiritual measure, never result in spiritual
enlargement. There are a lot of people who have all the
truth of the mystery of Christ and the Church, all the
truth of the Body of Christ, but they are very small
people. Many of them have it and are still living on
Corinthian ground where everything is very earthly and
self-centred; and many more are living on Galatian ground
where all is very legal. In order for it to mean
spiritual enlargement, it has to be on what we will call
Ephesian ground.
What is Ephesian
ground? It is this. Paul says that there was revealed to
him this mystery; it was made known to him. And now he
tells these people that he prays for them. They are
Christians, there is no doubt about that; but he says
that he prays for them "that the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ the Father of glory, may give unto you
(Christians) a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart
enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what exceeding greatness of his power
to us who believe, according to that working of the
strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead" (Eph. 1:17-20). All that
has to do with the true, eternal vocation and destiny of
this Christ corporate. The knowledge of Him is
not the knowledge of Christ as a separate person. It is
the knowledge of Christ now in all that He means in a
corporate way. That is the knowledge he prays they may
have; and having prayed thus for them he moves to the
matter of spiritual enlargement. He comes eventually to
that great point in the fourth chapter - "till we
all attain... unto the measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ." How do you attain unto fulness?
What is spiritual enlargement? It results from the eyes
of your heart being enlightened as to the true meaning
and nature of Christ as expressed in His Body the Church.
The point is that you see it, that it breaks on you by
revelation. Then you are at once out of a Corinthian
position, out of a Galatian position, out of a merely
earthly Church with its ordinances, ceremonies, etc. You
are in a heavenly position, and now you are going to
grow.
Even at the risk of
undue repetition - because of the importance of this
matter let me say again that the Apostle says as to
himself, and as to those believers of his own day, and as
to us, that the way of spiritual enlargement is by the
eyes of the heart being enlightened. Paul would never
have prayed for that, if it were not the Lord's will that
it should be so; and if it is His will, then we can
have the eyes of our heart enlightened to know in this
way that Paul knew - by revelation.
The
Church Heavenly and Corporate
Now, reverting to what
I said above concerning the true meaning and nature of
the Church, I wonder if you have noticed in
"Romans," "Corinthians" and
"Galatians" the connection of baptism? In
Romans 6 baptism results in walking in newness of life.
"We were buried... with him through baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in
newness of life." That is very simple; that is the
beginning; through the spiritual meaning of baptism you
simply walk in newness of life, you have a new life.
When you come from "Romans" into
"Corinthians" you find that union with Christ
crucified means that the mixing up of the old life with
the new has to be dealt with; you have a new life, but,
you must not mix the old life in with it. So
"Corinthians" teaches that you must live
altogether and only in the new life, and not bring in the
old with it. See 2 Cor. 5. When you move into
"Galatians," Paul says, "As many of you as
were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (3:27).
In "Galatians," baptism is the putting on of
the new man completely; and to indicate that it is an
advance upon the Corinthian position, he follows
immediately by saying "There can be neither Jew nor
Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be
no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ
Jesus." You put on the new man. The Corinthian
divisions are ruled out; baptism in relation to the
Galatian position means that we know no man after the
flesh. But still in "Romans,"
"Corinthians," and "Galatians," it is
as though we were living as Christians in a new life unto
the Lord here, on the earth.
You come into
"Ephesians" and you read - "God... even
when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ... and raised us up with him, and
made us to sit with him in the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus" (2:4-6), Now here, the 'us' is corporate.
When you come into "Ephesians" you come onto
the ground of what I will call a corporate baptism. It
has an individual application, but "Ephesians"
views the Church as a whole as a baptized thing. It is as
though this whole Body of Christ, the Church, has
corporately been baptized, and is no longer an earthly
thing at all; it is a heavenly Body. Everything here in
this first half of the Ephesian letter is corporate. It
was the Church that was foreknown, foreordained,
predestinated. It only becomes an individual and personal
matter by personal challenge to us in relation to the
whole, but it is the Church that is in view, and 'we' who
were quickened and raised are a corporate thing; so that,
in "Ephesians," baptism sees the Church placed
in the heavenlies through death and Divine quickening
and raising together with Christ. It is something very
much fuller than just individual Christian life. You may
be baptized as an individual, but you must recognize that
God never thinks of you just as an individual in that
sense; He never regards you just as one isolated person.
He looks upon you from the standpoint of the whole Body
and says, 'When you were baptized, you were not only
baptized as an individual; you were baptized as part of
the Church, and in your resurrection you are seen from
heaven in your relatedness to the Church.' Therefore the
higher position of "Ephesians" is this - that
now, being quickened and raised together with Christ and
seated in the heavenlies is a matter of relatedness to
other believers, and in that relatedness, you are going
to find your fulness. You are never going to find
spiritual enlargement just as an isolated, separate
individual, but in relation with other believers. "God
setteth the solitary in families" (Psa. 68:6), and
there is no doubt about it, whether or not you understand
or accept the doctrine of it, you can prove very quickly
in experience that our spiritual enlargement does come by
way of true spiritual and heavenly relatedness with other
believers. That is proved by the fact that it is not always easy for
Christians to live together for very long. It
sounds a terrible thing to say, but you have a lot of
other factors to reckon with. If you were ordinary people
in this world, you might get on very well, but
being Christians you have to meet the whole force of
Satan working upon any little bit of natural life he can
find. So he makes for difficulty between Christians that
they would not find if they were not in a heavenly
position. They are meeting forces in the heavenlies.
There are the rub and friction and all the cross currents
that try to divide Christians but which do not try to
divide other people, because there is so much bound up
with true spiritual oneness amongst the Lord's people -
so much for the Lord, and so much against Satan. Satan is
going to break up that spiritual oneness if he can. He
knows what that means for him, and the Lord knows what
that means for Himself - and hence the special and extra
difficulties when it is a case of Christians living
together, especially for a long time.
Now what is the upshot?
When these difficulties arise we must say, 'It is
evidently necessary for me to get a new spiritual
position, to get on top of this. If I am not going to
give it up and leave, I must come to some spiritual
enlargement; I have to know the Lord in a new way, to
have more grace, love and patience.' That is spiritual
enlargement, and it comes by relatedness. (Of course,
that is only one way; there are many others by which
spiritual enlargement comes by relatedness.) If only we
can keep together in prayer, there is spiritual
enlargement.
You want spiritual
enlargement? Recognize that your baptism is not only an
individual and personal thing but from God's standpoint
of fulness it is a corporate thing. You may in
"Romans" be baptized individually to walk in
newness of life, but when you come to
"Ephesians," it is corporate; the Church was
baptized, it is a baptized Church; a crucified and risen
Church, and a Church in the heavenlies that is of
spiritual account; not something here; and there you come
into the realm of God's great fulness - "strong to
apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth
and length and height and
depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of
God" (Eph. 3:18-19). That is fulness, but
notice, that is corporate. We must ask the Lord in the
terms of the Apostle's prayer that the eyes of our hearts
may be enlightened. When we see, it is done. What we need
is to see, that we may know the hope of His
calling.