Our hearts have been
directed anew to the relationship between the Cross, the
Church, and the spiritual conflict, and what we are
seeing in the first place is that, in the purpose of God,
the Cross is intended to lead directly and immediately to
the Church. You will just suffer a word or two of
re-emphasis in that particular matter before we go
further.
The
Expression in the Church of the Life of the Lord Jesus
It is possible to have
an evangelism of the Cross which does not lead directly
and definitely to the Church, and it is possible to have
a teaching about the Cross in its fuller meanings; that
is, the Cross beyond the elementary matters of new birth,
justification and such matters; it is possible, I say, to
have a message, a teaching, which is fuller concerning
the Cross than that, which, nevertheless, does not really
and actually lead to the Church; in both of which cases
the Divine intention is missed, the purpose of God is not
reached. Now, probably someone might say, But surely
everyone who is born again is in the Church, and the
Church comes into being in that way: what is the Church
but the company of those who are born again? Yes, but
that is not what I am talking about. That may be true,
and yet, for all practical purposes, the Church may not
exist; for all practical purposes, in the real, present,
practical values of the Church, the Body of Christ, it
might not be in existence. I am speaking now not so much
about the Church as it is called mystical; that is, that
somewhere outside of this realm, in the unseen and the
unknown, all believers are one, spiritual oneness
obtains, and that is the Church. That may be true, I do
not dispute that, but there is something more than that.
If that were all, then perhaps we should be excused for
all the things which exist here on the earth, and we
could accept them without any question or heartache, and
we could just go blithely on our way, saying, Oh yes, it
is quite true that all the Lord's people are divided up
into thousands of warring sections and parties,
nevertheless we do not take any notice of that; they are
all one in heaven, they share one common life! I am quite
sure that some of us do not feel that is what the Lord
would have us accept. No, I am not speaking about the
Church "mystical", to use a word of which I am
always a little afraid. I am speaking about the Church
actual. The Lord Jesus died that there might be an
expression here on the earth of what He is in heaven, to
have a working expression of His life.
Surely the very term
"Body of Christ" means something more than just
the fact that the life of the Body is one life. It
signifies that the members of the Body are one Body. You
see what I mean. Take the physical body. You or I may be
alive physically more or less, but as for the members of
our physical body there may be something that has
altogether upset their unity; a germ, an injury, and
there is no co-ordination of the members; they do not work
together in co-operation and harmony, there is no proper
control. There may be an acting of certain members out of
relation to the others; yes, all sorts of things like
that, where we would not say for a moment that that is
because there are two or three different kinds of life in
that body. We should say the life that is there is only
one life; that is, that that man or woman has not the
life of a man and of a dog, and of a bird, and of a fish,
all different kinds of life, and that it is this that
explains the contradictions in their make-up; that one
moment you come on the cat life, and another the fish
life, (whatever those things represent!). No, it is one
kind of life, human life, and so far as the life is
concerned, it is a unity. But the expression in the body
is not the expression of one life; it is not showing
itself in a co-ordinated activity.
And the Church, all who
are born again, may be sharing the one life of the Lord
Jesus, and yet in the Body that life may not be showing
itself in a co-ordinated, properly ordered organism in
expression: and do you think the Lord can be satisfied
with just the life being there and the expression being
full of contradictions? Surely not! So that there is
something more than being born again and receiving the
life of the Lord. That life is given for a purpose, and
that purpose is to bring about this properly governed and
ordered and regulated and co-ordinated organism, the
Church, which is His Body. I am speaking about that, not
the mere existence of the Church, not the one mystical
life of the Church, but the Church as a functioning thing
under the sovereign government of Christ as its Head. The
Cross was intended to lead to that.
Now I repeat, it is
possible to have an evangelism that does not result in
that at all, and such an evangelism is falling short of
the intention of the Cross. It is possible to have a
teaching of the full meaning of the Cross which does not
work out in the Church according to God's thought, and
such a teaching is falling short. We have known such
teaching, full teaching on the meaning of the Cross, but
what has remained has just been everything that is here
amongst men; every kind of division going on, every kind
of distinction in Christian sections continuing, all the
differences and the conflicting differences just
persisting in the presence of a fuller message of
Calvary. Then there is something wrong somewhere, for the
Cross, when really known and really operative, will deal
with all that which contradicts the real Divine thought
about the Church. The Cross is intended to lead to the
Church as God has conceived the Church. Well now, we were
saying this afternoon that the Cross has certain specific
aspects or directions in which it deals with things that
are in the way of God's thought concerning the Church. We
shall go on now with some other things that the Cross
effects. But let us recognise that the Cross provides the
ground for the Church and the Church is intended to show
what the Cross means. When the Church does approximate to
the Divine thought in reality, you will see there exactly
what the Cross has meant and has accomplished. The Church
will be the embodiment of Calvary. The Church is to
preach the Cross by what it is first; and that is where
you begin in the book of the Acts. You can see all that
obtained in the pre-Calvary days, even with Christ
amongst men, and Christ with a company round Him. You can
see all the old elements of divisions, strifes,
ambitions, avarice, pride, self-assertiveness, all these
things are there in the Gospels, even amongst disciples,
and the inner circle of disciples. But when the Cross is
an accomplished fact, and the Holy Ghost brings it right
into the life of that company, then you find a wonderful
revelation of what that Cross has done; for they had all
things common, not one said of the things which he
possessed that they were his own, and so on. You have
something done. All self-interest has gone, all that
rivalry has disappeared. Now it is all for the other; it
is love, it is joy, it is peace. The end of Acts 2 is a
wonderful revelation of what the Cross has done in
people. And that is how the Lord wishes it to be. And
when you come to Corinthians, to conditions which are
such a violent contradiction of the Church according to
God's mind, the only thing to do is to know nothing save
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. You have to get back to
the Cross, in order to get the Church as it should be. So
the Cross provides the ground and the means for the
Church, and the Church becomes the embodiment of the
meaning of the Cross. That is what obtains when God has
things according to His mind.
Well then, if the
Church is the Divine outcome of the Cross, it must define
the nature and meaning of the Cross. What does the Cross
do? What is the function of the Cross? We have viewed
that in three directions in our previous meditation -
God-ward, man-ward and Satan-ward. Now, let us see it in
one or two other connections which touch all three of
these at the same time.