In our
consideration of the Church we have on several occasions
used the word "expression," thus noting the
difference between the heavenly conception and nature,
and the practical application. This latter is of very
great importance, and it is here that we find all the
reactions of God against declension and failure down the
ages. The WHOLE Church on earth may not come to a
true and full expression of God's thought as to its
nature - it never has since the very first days - but God
has never accommodated Himself to this failure and given
some intimation that He will be satisfied with whatever
He can get. He holds to His full mind, retains the full
revelation of it in the New Testament, seeks to have as
many in the good of it as will pay the price, and
determines SPIRITUAL measure accordingly, while
blessing all that He can that contributes to it.
We are
therefore bound to say something regarding the expression
of the Church in this universe; for we must remember that
the Church is more than earthly, it is cosmic. Its
accountability extends even now "unto the
principalities and powers in the heavenlies" (Eph.
3:10). If, as we have said, the Church is Christ in
corporate expression we shall best apprehend this
practical aspect of its calling by considering its
correspondence to Christ.
Christ Spiritually Expressed
When we
turn to see how Christ was here spiritually, we find that
it was mainly in terms of three great forces and impacts
- Life, Light, Love. Just to say this is, for the average
reader of the New Testament, to bring up no small
material which bears it out.
"In Him Was Life"
Life is
the supreme issue of the Bible, and therefore of
creation. The Bible opens with the Tree of Life and it
closes with the same. Everything between, as covering the
whole history of creation, is focused upon this issue. It
is one long continuous conflict concerned with this one
question. If the Old Testament is, as Christ said it was,
a testifying to Him in all its parts, the issue is found
in Christ RISEN, triumphant over death. The
Church's preaching in the Book of the "Acts" is
little more than a proclamation of the resurrection of
the Christ. Thus Christ is the comprehensive and all
inclusive embodiment of death's destruction and life
victorious. The Church as His Body takes up this
testimony, not firstly doctrinally or verbally, but
actually and factually. It is intended to be the carry-on
of Christ in this respect. Not to historic events nor to
New Testament teaching does she first bear her witness,
but she is to BE the very embodiment of Christ in
terms of life.
There
are three ways in which life is manifested.
(1) Life Is Generic
The
Divine principle of the creation is biological. Life is
the key to everything. When God put life into things He
not only set a course in motion which would work itself
out apart from outside stimulants and direction, but He
introduced the potentialities of perfect development
according to the particular kingdom to which the organism
belonged - human, animal, vegetable, etc. Life produced
after its own kind, but life PRODUCED. The battle
for life and of life started when sin entered; but
whatever the changes, life still forces on and keeps the
creation going. So in the spiritual realm, life is the
key to everything, and the only justification for the
continuance of this creation. The Church, for which all
things are summed up in Christ, takes its origin from His
resurrection, and therefore the implanting of His
triumphant life. 'She is His new creation,' and He is her
new creation life. Her very existence rests upon His
risen life. She will eventually be judged by Him Who
stands before her and says, "I am... the Living One;
and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for
evermore." Not sound doctrine alone; not much
activity; not a high standard of moral integrity; but
life, death-conquering, hell-vanquishing life, will be
the test.
(2) Life Is Energic
The
driving force of the Church is the power of life. In
Ezekiel's vision of the Cherubim and the wheels, a symbol
of Christ and the Church, the driving force was the
Spirit of life. It is a picture of energy. Going, going,
ever going, ceasing not, and straight forward. It is the
Living Ones (not "beasts" or
"creatures") in corporate expression. It is not
difficult to see the correspondence between this as a
symbol and the actual spiritual counterpart in the Church
at the beginning. Life took charge, or the Spirit as the
Spirit of life took charge, and the goings were with much
energy. Testimony, evangelism, mutual concern, and many
other things betokened life. It was not man-made zest,
enthusiasm, emotion, drive, or momentum. It was accounted
for by no external stimulant being administered. Such
would need to be kept up by outside means, but this was
spontaneous and transcended all obstacles.
When we
read of "the power that worketh in us," or
"working in us that which is well-pleasing," or
"His working, which worketh in me mightily,"
the word in the Greek is "energy,"
"energizeth," "energizing." It is the
energy of Divine LIFE by the Holy Spirit, and is
so frequently set over against much human frailty and
infirmity, thus constituting a mighty testimony to
"the power of His resurrection." There is
nothing to account for the persistence and
accomplishments of the Church but the supernatural energy
of the Divine LIFE in her, and this is the
testimony for which she exists. You have to look deeper
into the Jesus of Nazareth, the Man of Galilee, for an
explanation of His impact upon this world through so long
a time, and you will find the secret in the LIFE which
was in Him and which He imparts in new birth. In the same
way the Church's secret should always be deeper than her
outward form; it should be the energy of nothing less
than the very LIFE of God in her.
(3) Life Is Reproductive
This is THE
meaning of life. It may mean joy, energy, beauty, and
activity, but its essential value and supreme function is
reproductiveness. Life demands a way to reproduce after
its kind, and any organism which refuses right-of-way to
life by denying its facilities for transmission commits a
breach of trust. Nowhere is life a possession just to be
enjoyed. It is a stewardship to be sacredly fulfilled.
That barren fig-tree of Matthew 21 is a parable of an
unfulfilled trust; receiving without passing on. Possess
life and give it a free course and reproduction is
spontaneous. This is not only the statement of a fact, it
is a test. The New Testament Church, or the Church in the
New Testament, was a spontaneously reproductive Church,
without machinery, organization, publicity, propaganda.
It propagated itself purely by reason of the life in it.
There are many substitutes for Divine life in organized
Christianity which explain the slow and hard going,
expensive output, and poor quality of results. There is
no real substitute for the Church, and the Church
expressing Christ as "seeing His seed" in terms
of spontaneous reproduction of life. There is something
irresistible about life and the most serious consequences
are attached to attempts to thwart it. Christ - the Life
- is JUST SIMPLY BOUND to come out with a great
multitude at the end.
But this
life-productiveness is by way of the Cross. The classic
Scripture on this is John 12:24. The grain of wheat dies
to reproduce itself. Christ Himself brought His Church
into being thus. So that corporate expression of Christ
is not only by HIS death, but potentially the
death of all, and the truly living ones are those who
have been "raised together with Him." This is
the Church, and the continuation of reproduction is the
continuation of the faith acceptance of death and
resurrection union with Him, with all that God means by
that.
"The Life Was The Light"
In the
order of the new creation, that is, of what is spiritual,
light follows life; life precedes light. Nicodemus was a
man in the dark, groping. Christ said to him,
"Except a man be born anew he cannot SEE."
Light is the great seeing factor; therefore it means
knowing, perceiving, being sure. Inasmuch as it comes
through life it must be subjective, inward. The man born
blind (John 9) who received his sight is a full scale
example or type of this. The touch of Jesus communicated
life, vital power. He saw. Then, over against every
effort to undermine his faith, to prejudice his mind, he
simply answered that he had the goods and that was what
really mattered. There was no merely doctrinal argument.
It was not a matter of a certain line of teaching or
angle of truth. It was Christ in terms of living light.
He not only had light on things, he had SIGHT. It
was not information ABOUT, but it was apprehension
OF!
What a
challenge to the Church this is! Christ is not theories,
interpretations, doctrines, speculations, information,
themes, etc. Christ is the impact of light upon darkness,
so that "the darkness overcometh Him not." This
is exactly what a corporate expression of Christ is; is,
not should be. The Church, when in her true place and
relationship to Him, is this. It can be as truly so with
her as it was in His own case.
Much
could be written regarding the effect of light, but here
we are only stating spiritual facts, and leaving it with
those concerned to do the measuring up. When the sun
shines in its power it is not necessary to discuss
theories about light, and if you do, it is only in the
nature of explaining something which already exists.
Nine-tenths of Christian teaching today has to do with
what would follow, obtain, result, if certain things
happened; or in explaining what would happen if certain
things were observed. There is VERY little call
for explaining what is happening, answering the enquiry,
"What meaneth this?" with "This is
that." And yet it ought to be this way. New
Testament doctrine was mainly an explanation of what had
happened. It is important as light upon life, but the
fact of the Church's being in the place where this life
is bringing forth enquiry as to her secret is really
where she begins her ministry. So it was on the Day of
Pentecost. See what a tantalizing enigma Christ was when
here. "Whence hath this Man this wisdom?" Not
of the schools, the seats of learning, nor the books, but
in fellowship with the Father, under the anointing of the
Spirit, He saw what the Father was doing (John 5:19). The
Church should be just the same; baffling the unbelieving,
defeating the curious, leaving the prejudiced with FACTS,
and being light to the true seekers.
But she
will have to undergo a deep crucifixion to her own wisdom
as to how the work of God is done. There is no light on
the death side of the Cross where man by nature is shut
out from God. She will have to cry in her blindness,
"Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me."
This brokenness, helplessness, hopelessness, and yet
faith, will betoken her death to every resource but Him
Who is the life and the light of man. The Cross governs
this whole matter of the Church's testimony to the light.
The Love Of Christ
It seems
hardly necessary to gather up what is in the New
Testament to show that, like as Christ was here as the
life and light of men, so He was here as the embodiment
and expression of the love of God. This is all so well
known. In the same way it would be unnecessary to cite
the much Scripture which shows that it is by that love
that the Church proves Him to have been sent of God (John
17:21).
There
are, however, some things in this connection which need
fresh emphasis, if not an indicating of their
implications. Seeing that we are dealing with the Church
and the Cross, we can find all that is necessary in that
part of the New Testament where this is brought to its
fullest expression. In the Letter to the Ephesians it is
most impressively made clear that even
Light Is Based Upon Love
"Ye,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to
apprehend..." (3:17-18).
Earlier
in the letter we have these words: "having the
eyes of your heart enlightened..." (1:18). Then
what immense things follow as to be known by the Church!
We do not dwell upon them, but upon this fact, that
light, knowledge, is the fruit which springs from rooting
in love. It would seem that God only gives - but gives
abundantly - spiritual knowledge to those whose main
characteristic is love. Love for Him, yes! but love for
His own and for all men.
"I
love the Father" (John 14:31). "The
Father loveth the Son and sheweth Him all things..."
(John 5:20). So Christ attributed His own
knowing all things from the Father to mutual love between
them. But Christ was the personal embodiment and
manifestation of God's love for the elect and for the
world (John 3:16; 17:23). (See also Eph. 5:25) John is
known as the Apostle of love. What a wealth of spiritual
light has come to us through him! Paul was behind no one
in this matter of Divine love and has given us the
classic of all time as to it (1 Cor. 13). What fullness
and depths of revelation the Church owes to him!
A
scientist may describe a tear in terms of water, salt,
and mucus, but the mother or lover UNDERSTANDS it
in terms of its real meaning. A head knowledge is no
knowledge at all in spiritual values. Only the knowledge
which comes through the heart - travail, suffering,
longing, heart-break over souls, toward the Lord - is
vital knowledge. How much of the wealth of knowledge
possessed by John, Paul, and others came out of their
heart travail for the Church? Take that out, and there is
not much left.
Love Buildeth Up
"...The
increase of the body unto the building up of itself in
love" (Ephesians 4:16).
You
might not have thought of that when considering the
material for building the Church. Truth, yes! Teaching,
yes! Knowledge, yes! But the Holy Spirit singles out LOVE
for the main emphasis. Ephesus evidently stood for
something in the matter of spiritual values. The fact
that the Holy Spirit was so unrestrained in giving such
light, light exceeding anything else in the whole Bible,
is a fairly good proof of capacity. How well we know that
when we minister in the Spirit we have liberty or
restraint governed by the spiritual capacity of our
hearers. We would often go further, but we just cannot.
It comes back at us. At other times or places we can go
all the way. Paul was just caught away with superlatives
which piled themselves one upon another when he wrote
that letter. The longest sentence without a full period
in the Bible is found there. He could not stop for the
rules and regulations of punctuation. Surely the
explanation of this release of the Lord is found in His
address to Ephesus in the Revelation (2:4) "Thou
didst leave thy first love." "Thy first
love." There must have been something very
precious to the Lord at the beginnings of the church in
Ephesus. It is like the cry and sob of a broken-hearted
lover, whose love moves into jealousy and heat against
the detractor and the unfaithfulness. He sees the triumph
of the "god of this world" in blinding the
mind, and is angry with Ephesus for complicity with him.
Well, much, very much, can be added on this matter, but
enough! Remember that the way in which the Church will be
built inwardly and outwardly will not be alone by
meetings, conferences, addresses, teaching, nor by
campaigns, but by the bathing of all in love, and
sometimes just pure love without lectures.
But -
and is it necessary to say it? - this love is the fruit
of a deeply crucified life. It is only in a true and
adequate apprehension and appreciation of the Cross that
the heart is enlarged to ALL men. 'Love to the
loveless.' It is only as the Cross has struck deeply at
the roots of pride, personal interest, ambition,
reputation, selfishness, and concern for something less
than the whole purpose of God, that God will really build
His Church. The Church is the Lamb's WIFE. It is a
LOVE matter! These two are one. She takes her very
object in life from Him. She leaves all personal and
former interests and relationships, and they two become
one flesh.