Reading: 1 Chronicles
28:1-21; Colossians 1:18.
The second realm of the centrality and
supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ is that of the Body,
the Church. First of all let us take note of exactly what
is said in this verse. "He is the head of the body,
the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead; that in all things he might have the
pre-eminence." That translation: "... who is
the beginning" is hardly sufficient; the more
complete and literal translation there would be: "In
that he is the beginning." It helps you to
understand what is being said here; reading it like that
you will at once come into the fuller apprehension of the
truth. "He is the head of the body, the church, in
that he is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead." So you see that here the Church is related to
Christ by His resurrection: "In that he is the
firstborn from the dead." He is the Head of the
Body, the Church in His resurrection.
RESURRECTION AND HEADSHIP
The Headship is two-fold; it is as to
place. He occupies the supreme place; and it is as to
time; that place was occupied by Him in relation to the
Body, the Church, in His resurrection. So that the
headship of Christ over the Body, the Church, is by His
resurrection. That represents more than may appear for
the moment, but I think you will see, as we go on, the
greater and fuller context. Now having said so much about
the headship of Christ, or His centrality and supremacy
in the life of the individual believer, we must recognize
that the individual headship of Christ is not, so far as
the believer is concerned, an independent authority. It
is relative; that is, in other words, there are not so
many heads as there are believers, constituting every
believer a single entity authority, making of every
believer an independent authority. While the headship
must be established in every individual believer, there
is only one headship and not ten thousand times ten
thousand, or a great multitude which no man can number.
One Head: which means that everything is relative and the
very thought of the Body is that of a unity under one
Head. The idea, the conception of a body clearly
represents the idea of a unity under one head. The
individual supremacy of Christ will lead to the spirit
and principle of the Body. I mean that if Christ is
central and supreme really in the individual life of
believers, the natural, the spontaneous, the inevitable
outworking of that will be the principle of the Body. If
Christ dwells in your heart by faith - that was one phase
of the individual centrality and supremacy of Christ
which we considered - if Christ dwells in your individual
heart through faith, it leads to the next part of the
verse: "... that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all
the saints...." Christ dwelling in the
individual heart immediately leads to "all
saints." The principle of the Body comes out of the
establishing of the centrality and supremacy or headship
of Christ in the individual. There is a contradiction,
beloved, if it is claimed by anyone that Christ is
supreme in the heart and in the life and yet such a one
be marked and characterized by personal and independent
action and interest. There is a violent contradiction
there. Christ cannot be absolutely supreme in the
individual life and there be a personal independent
activity and interest. If anyone is a law unto himself in
spirit - although he would never say that of himself - if
his life takes the feature of being something detached,
something separate, something independent, something
apart from the rest of the Lord's people, a watertight
compartment, there is a contradiction there, Christ is
not supreme, Christ is not central. These two things
cannot be reconciled, independence and the Body;
independence and the supremacy of the Lord Jesus; because
He is supreme in the life as a Head, but not merely as
the Head of an individual but the Head of the Body, one
Head of all. The Body, as that which issues with the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, reverses the very spirit
of independence.
THE BODY OF CHRIST REPRESENTS HIS
VICTORY
We must see that the Body of Christ
represents a tremendous victory. That Body comes out of
His resurrection, or with His resurrection, and the
pre-eminent example of the exercise of Divine power in
this universe is in the raising of Jesus Christ from the
dead, or from among the dead. That raising of Christ from
among the dead, representing the supreme exercise of
Divine power, represents the mighty victory of God in
Christ, and if the Body of Christ comes out with and in
His resurrection, that Body is a part of an expression of
that mighty victory of God. Now Ephesians makes that
perfectly clear and says that actually: "... the
exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to that working of the strength of his might
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the
dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the
heavenlies." The Body of Christ is the mighty
victory of God in Christ in its realization. What was the
nature of that victory? Over what was it a victory? It
was over that spirit which came into the universe and
found concrete, direct expression in bringing about
schism, division, disintegration in the universe.
Everything was held as a whole in God. It was one thing
in Him. He, in eternity past, summed up everything in His
Son, the Lord Jesus, that in Him all things should hold
together, subsist; should be a corporate whole bound
together in a oneness in the Son of His love. When
Lucifer, Satan, saw the pre-eminent position and the
transcendent glory of God's Son, he aspired to occupy a
position even above that, to have something even above
that, and so he broke away from that relativity of things
in the Head, and in an independence of spirit, and
action, and motive he sought to have things for himself
apart from the Head Divinely appointed. The outworking of
that in heaven brought schism there, a breach; the unity
of heaven was broken, and angels kept not their first
estate and were cast out and are reserved in everlasting
chains. The unity of heaven was broken. But Lucifer
brought that spirit down into the creation; and whereas
God had given to man all things to have in Himself (in
His secret which He had not yet revealed to the ages, His
secret, His mystery, His unrevealed heart secret
concerning His Son), Lucifer again, the Adversary,
provoked, prompted, tempted, lured man to have it for
himself out of relation to God, and man moved in an
independence of God, acted again in an independent
spirit, a self spirit, to have things not in God but in
himself. Thus in this earth the schism of heaven had a
counterpart; the unity of things in God was broken into,
and from that time the principle of the fallen race is
independence, self-direction, self-realization,
self-possession; the flesh is just that, and that lies
back of the whole terrible history of the revolt in
heaven and the wreckage in earth. There is no unity until
Christ comes, God in Christ. The Adversary has to meet
God in Christ on this issue, and when God raised Him from
the dead and brought with Him - as the Firstborn from
among the dead - the Church, the Body, He secured His
answer to all that work of the Devil; and the Church, the
Body of Christ, represents God's victory over the
disintegrating, dividing, schismatic work of the Devil.
Oh yes, that is true in spite of everything. Ever since
this, what he did at the beginning and always has done he
has pursued with unabated energy, that is, slandering
God, and he has tried to slander God since the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus by the work which he has
done among men, working upon flesh, even amongst
Christians, to bring about schisms and divisions;
carnality is behind it all. The enemy has done that, and
in so doing he has sought to establish a contradiction to
God's victory. But beloved, the unity is not in us, it is
in Christ; the unity is not our unity, it is the unity of
Christ. The unity is in a person. Now you see the
necessity for Christ to be central and supreme.
CHRIST - THE UNIFYING CENTRE AND
OBJECT
As we have said before, if we have got any
other interest that we are trying to further, something
that we call a testimony, perhaps meaning by that a
system of teaching, or a fellowship, or a denomination,
or the contrary, the opposite, any of these things, well,
the history will be still more divisions, it is bound to
be. If it is Christ, only Christ, central and supreme, we
have got the answer to the Devil; we have got the secret
of victory, we have got the secret of fellowship, we have
the power of His resurrection. Oh, how important it is
for us to see that the Body represents His victory. The
Body is His victory in the sense that it is the reversing
of all independence, and that independence of spirit or
action is a violation not only of the truth of the Body
of Christ, but of the power of His resurrection. Now that
carries you a long way. Fail to recognize that and you
have not got the secret of victory over death and the
power of the Devil. Isn't that exactly what the Apostle
said to the Corinthians? "... not discerning the
Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly
among you, and many sleep" some die. Not all
sickness and death, of course, is to be accounted for by
failure to recognize the Body of Christ, but the Holy
Spirit does put His finger upon that, and says that a
very great deal can be accounted for by that. That
sickness might have been handled and dealt with; that
death, that taking away, might have been unnecessary if
there had been a recognition of that for which the Body
of Christ stands and an employing of the practical value
of corporate life among the saints. "Is any sick
among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and
let them pray over him, anoint him with oil in the name
of the Lord." Elders - why? Why that? That is the
recognition of the corporate principle, that is the
recognition of the Body of Christ. Those elders are only
representatives of the Body, and it is bringing the Body
in, representatively, and that Body represents His
victory, and if the enemy is back of this thing, well, it
is through His Body as Head that He operates against the
enemy. We may be suffering a great deal more than we need
suffer because we have failed to see the Divine order.
The enemy may be making much more havoc than he ought to
be, because we have failed to apply the Divine means. We
have kept the thing to ourselves and we have not drawn
the Body in representatively, we have not made this a
corporate matter. Individualism may rob us of a great
deal in every realm.
INDEPENDENT LIFE CONTRARY TO GOD'S
WILL
But what I was saying was, that the Body
reverses independence, and we violate some of the great
revelations of God when there is independence,
separateness, when we just drive our own chariot and
plough our own furrow, and do not recognize that we are a
part of a whole. All that horrible work that the enemy
has done is reversed by the Lord Jesus, and the
outworking of His reversing of that work is through the
Body, the Church. That is His instrument in resurrection
for making known, through this age and the ages to come,
the mighty victory over all the disintegrating work of
Satan's independent action and spirit which he has
introduced into the race. But this thing is very deeply
rooted in us; the subtlety, the imperceptible desire of
the flesh for gratification. If we were asked straight
out whether we wanted to please ourselves, whether we
were after our own personal gratification, whether it was
our pleasure and satisfaction that was motivating our
lives and directing us, we would at once most vehemently
repudiate the suggestion, and probably be very offended
with whoever made the suggestion; and yet, beloved,
deeper than our deepest honesty, deeper than our truest
sincerity, there is that subtle constituent of fallen
nature which so often unperceived by the believer himself
or herself does just love to be gratified, personally
satisfied, and which does not like to be emptied out and
have nothing. Gratification and glory is the very essence
of the flesh even when we are engaged in the Lord's work.
To set up something FOR THE LORD, yes, but men
point at it and say: "That is his work and her
work," and how we like that! Something that will be
a good testimony to faith, a great monument - yes, but
subtly the monument to OUR faith. Such is this
horrible thing that is always reaching out from beneath,
under cover, and, quietly and imperceptibly, taking the
glory of the Lord to itself. The remedy for that is the
Body of Christ practically applied in principle. Yes, it
is! That is why it is so difficult to live a corporate
life with other believers, because you have to be so
thoroughly crucified. There is nothing that demands
crucifixion more than to live with other Christians all
your days. You say: "That is a terrible thing to
say," but you know what I am talking about. You have
to defer, refer, consult, submit, let go. In a thousand
and one ways you have to put your own likes and dislikes
aside if the Lord is to get His end. Oh yes, it is the
Body of Christ that is the saving thing. It is corporate
life that is the remedy, but O beloved, that is the way
of triumph, the way of victory. It is! It is a mighty
remedy for the flesh, a mighty remedy for the work of the
Devil, but it does represent the mighty power of God
working in us. You see, you can never come into the Body
of Christ until you have been crucified. It is because
uncrucified flesh has impinged upon the corporate life of
believers that there is such contradiction and denial,
because the Body represents the exclusion of man, in
himself - flesh.
THE BODY NECESSARY TO FULL
APPREHENSION OF CHRIST
Now the Body is essential to full
apprehension and growth and expression. The body is
essential to full apprehension. No individual, and no
number of isolated and detached individuals, can come to
the full apprehension of Christ. The Lord has constructed
the whole thing upon that principle. You think of all the
range of the people of God being standardized, say, to
one mind. You say: "That would be an awful
outlook." It would! I mean this, the very fact that
the Lord has so constituted us differently every one of
us, makes possible the varied aspect of apprehension
which is its own peculiar contribution. And I am able to
say: "Well, the Lord has shown you THAT I did
not see THAT but it is splendid"; I profit by
that. And you are able to say: "Well that never came
to me, but thank the Lord I can profit by that." And
so it is the whole Body that is necessary unto the full
apprehension of Christ. The Apostle's prayer is that we
"... may be strong to apprehend with all the
saints..."; it takes all the saints to
apprehend, and we lose a very great deal when we are
detached, isolated, separated spiritually.
THE BODY NECESSARY TO FULL GROWTH
IN CHRIST
The Body is necessary to fullness of
apprehension, also to growth, because it is the Body that
grows up, that is built up, and buildeth itself up until
it comes to the full measure of the stature of a man in
Christ. You and I individually will never reach the full
measure of that stature. I am never promised that I shall
reach the full measure of Christ, personally, but as a
member, a limb, or even a little tiny corpuscle in this
great spiritual organism, with all the rest I can come to
His fullness. It will take all the rest to come to His
fullness, and insofar as I am detached I am limited,
straitened. Insofar as I come into the fellowship of the
Body and recognize the Lord's way, I am enlarged in the
measure of Christ.
THE BODY NECESSARY TO FULL
MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST
In the expression of Christ the same thing
holds good. Is He going to manifest Himself against the
enemy? Well, beloved, I shall have very little hope
against the enemy in a detached capacity; but if I can
bring in the Body, even if it is only in two or three
gathered into His Name, that represents the Body, and the
principle of the Body in function and representation is
there; (and the Lord binds Himself up with a principle)
He is in the midst. The Lord's irreducible minimum for
His Body is two, not one. Bring in the Body even by its
minimum representation and the Lord recognizes the full
value of the Body, and for manifestation it is in
fullness through the Body. That is why alone we are so
often brought to a standstill; why so often it is
hopeless for us to try and get through until we draw in
co-operation. The Lord holds us to that. But if you can
get the Lord's people in a larger, fuller way into the
real spiritual apprehension of the headship of Christ in
relation to the Body, how much greater will be the
potency of the impact of Christ in manifestation over
against the enemy, and before men. The Body is necessary
for the manifestation of Christ in fullness, and that is
the Divinely determined method of the full manifestation
of Christ in the ages to come. The headship of the Lord
Jesus demands the Body. Not so many detached individuals,
but the Body; because a head implies a body, demands a
body.
INDIVIDUALISM IS LIMITATION AND
WEAKNESS
Now I think I can close this phase for the
moment; and in doing so, let me stress once more the
certain limitation which must be associated with mere
individualism and detachment and independence. There may
be a very great deal accomplished by independent action,
apparently; you can see things and people which are
independent, detached, and you can see a very great deal
apparently being done. Now in spite of that, I say most
emphatically that that does not get where God wants it to
get. It may be a wide surface but a superficial one,
without depth. It may only get just so far in spiritual
things, and not get any further. It may reach the point
of conversions; but conversions, beloved, are not God's
end, they are only God's beginning. There may be much in
that realm, praise God, but while we rejoice at every
conversion and every bit of work that results in
conversions, have we not come to see that there is
infinitely more than that in the will of God? The tragedy
is that so many who have been led to the Lord have not
been taken on, and have either stuck or they have gone
back simply because their being brought to the Lord was
not upon an adequate presentation of the fullness of
Christ. It was upon the basis of their being saved; but
Christ did not come into His place as supreme, sovereign
Lord and Head, and very often you have to go over the
ground again and again simply because there has been a
stopping short. Well, you can have a great deal of
activity and apparent result - my point is not that that
is without value, but it is this, that invariably and
inevitably, there is always limitation, if we do not go
on to see that the Body of Christ represents His
fullness, and not individual Christian life or work. It
is not our individual service for the Lord, it is the
service of the Body with which we are joined, that leads
to fullness. There will be weakness, limitation - ah,
yes, and more than that, there will be exposure to error
along the line of mere individualism, exposure to error,
and a falling into error. Have we not seen this again and
again? Things becoming marked by clear misleading,
confusion, a having to take back positions and
statements, and a confessing that a mistake was made, and
the calculations were all wrong because there was
something that was independent, individual in that thing.
We need the covering of the headship of Christ in His
Body amongst His saints to save us from that. You may
take it - you will prove it to be so in the outworking -
that mere individual independence in the life and service
of the Lord will sooner or later bring to a point of
limitation, and an element of contradiction and confusion
will come in there. It is bound to be. To enquire in His
House is the way of the ordered guidance of the Lord. You
are struggling to get an independent guidance from the
Lord and a whole lot of contradictions are coming in; you
really do not know where you are and what is right. The
Lord is not going to give you that which will constitute
you a law unto yourself in relation to Him, He is going
to give it to you in relation to His main purpose. Share
it with the Lord's children, bring in those whom the Lord
has provided to be fellows, and in that multitude of
counselors you will find wisdom. In the Lord's way you
will find clearness.
You see the principle is a clear one and
it just comes right back to the point where we started.
It is not making the Body everything - God forbid! It is
seeing that the Lord Jesus, as head of the Body, brings
us under His headship for protection, for guidance, for
fullness, for everything, and we recognize that we are
members of a Body and we are not individual units merely.
This is a relative thing. We come to enjoy all that is in
Christ, and that Christ is as Head, Sovereign, in
relation to the saints, in fellowship with the saints,
and not in some detached line of our own. We want the
Lord's full support? We get it relatively and not
independently.
May the Lord help you to accept His Word,
to lay it up in your heart, because I am quite sure that
here is the way of a fullness which we may not have
known, coming into what the Lord Jesus is by Divine
appointment, in greater measure. It is this way. The Lord
give us grace to let go our love to be free and
independent, and to be crucified to that flesh, brought
to live under His sovereignty, to Him as supreme.