Reading:
Genesis 28:10-12,19; John 1:47; Genesis 31:13; 35:1,6,7;
I Corinthians 1:20; 2:14.
We have
been considering the sevenfold operation of life as
represented for us in the book of Genesis by seven
persons. In our previous meditation, we arrived at the
sixth, namely, Jacob, and it is with that which Jacob
represents as God's way of life that we shall again be
occupied in this meditation.
The
House of God, the Church, Bethel, is our particular
object in view, and if we take Jacob again as our
illustration, we are brought to see that everything, so
far as the Church is concerned, must begin from its
heavenly side and not its earthly. That is a governing
fact in the life of Jacob, and we shall see how that
interprets his life.
The Law and Rule of the Heavens
It is
significant and impressive that, as Jacob goes on his way
at the beginning of his pilgrimage, not only of his
pilgrimage on earth but of that spiritual history which
was behind all the happenings and events and incidents of
his earthly life and walk, the first point at which he
stops, though only for a night, is Bethel, and Bethel
comes in for the very first time in the Bible as from
heaven. This is the first reference to the Church in the
Bible, and it comes in with Jacob; and it comes in as out
from heaven, that is, from its heavenly side, and that
becomes a law which governs and interprets all the rest
of Jacob's career and spiritual pilgrimage. What is
instituted at that point is the government of that which
is heavenly, and, when that government is introduced by
God, you expect that what is merely earthly will, from
that moment, come under the condemnation and discipline
of God to its destruction, so that the whole may become
progressively heavenly according to its origin, its
source, its inception. We have to ask this all-inclusive
question: Where does everything begin and whither does
everything lead? The answer is one. Everything begins in
heaven and everything leads to heaven and is consummated
in heaven. That is only another way of saying, that
everything is of Christ. Everything that has come out of
heaven is of Christ and is in Christ. "All things
were created by him, and for him: and he is before all
things, and in him all things consist (Colossians
1:18-19). Though the corresponding truth is not given,
there are plenty of statements which also set forth the
fact that He is after all things, and not only before
all.
Now
that, you see, is symbolically gathered up in Jacob's
ladder: something from heaven reaching down on to the
earth, with the Lord above it, and the angels of God
ascending and descending. Carry that over to John 1 and
you see the principle at work in this word: "Behold,
an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile" (no
Jacob!). And then to Nathanael: "Thou shalt see
greater things than these... Hereafter ye shall see
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of man." It is Christ who
links heaven with earth, and earth with heaven, and in
whom all the Divine communications are made to man. It is
Christ who fulfils the word "where God revealed
Himself unto thee".
The
House of God is Christ. But remember, while that is true
of Christ personally, what we are made to see as the
unveiling of the mystery is that the House of God is
Christ corporately expressed in the Church, which is His
Body, and it is in Christ corporate, in the Body of which
He is the Head, that there is the revelation and the
communication of God. It is there in that House of God,
the Church, that we have what Jacob called "the gate
of heaven". That is God's Bethel.
So,
while recognizing that everything has first to be seen
from its heavenly standpoint, and as being out from
heaven in Christ, we have to see this second thing, that
Jacob must be ruled out in order to make room for
"Israel". That is to say, all that is of man
must be ruled out so as to make way for a Divine order of
things in the House of God. Jacob, as Jacob, was
impinging upon Divine things, upon the birthright. Yes,
it was quite true that in the sovereignty of God Jacob
was the chosen one for the birthright, but no Divine
election can ever be taken as a one-sided thing. There
are always two sides to Divine appointments. One is the
sovereign act of choice, the other is the fitting of the
elect vessel to come into that for which it is chosen.
So, although Jacob may, in the line of Divine sovereignty
and election, be the one to whom the birthright is
secured, as is also the case with the Church as the
antitype, there is another line which Divine sovereignty
takes, namely, the clearance from the ground of all that
which is Jacob; because it is not Jacob as Jacob who can
inherit. It will be "Israel" who will inherit.
Let us
note this other thing which is both important and
interesting, that it is in a particular way with Jacob
that the "house" comes in. Abraham was the
father of the Jewish nation, and they are always called
"the seed of Abraham". But you never read of
the "house of Abraham," although he was the
father. Then, although God again and again announces
Himself as "the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob," you never read of the "house of
Isaac": but you do read of the "house of
Israel". So all that goes back to Jacob.
Now I
think you see the significance of this. Israel represents
that which is heavenly and Divine, which has supplanted
that which is earthly and of man. Jacob typifies the
earthly. You know that in the days when Israel was out of
the way, when there was spiritual declension, the Lord
addressed Israel as "Jacob," but when according
to His mind as "Israel". That is the heavenly
side. So really the House of God comes in, not with Jacob
as Jacob, but with Israel; the same man, but now
translated to heaven, so to speak, now the heavenly man.
"Behold an Israelite in whom is no guile" (no
Jacob). I think that was a tremendous commendation of
Nathanael. The Lord, who knows all things, was able to
say, There is a truly spiritual man, a man with a
spiritual insight and judgment and appreciation of
things. There is no "Jacob" there. I think that
is what He meant.
Well, I
think that is enough for the principle. The House of God
is that which demands the setting aside of all that is
according to man and the bringing in of that which is
according to God, that which is heavenly.
Heavenliness Part of a Divine Order
Then we
find that heavenliness is not just some abstract sort of
thing, but that it comes in as part of an order of
things, a heavenly order; an ordered life, an ordered
relationship, everything according to a heavenly order.
What it is necessary for us to see next is what a perfect
Divine order would be. I suggest that to you as something
to meditate upon, to contemplate.
You see,
beloved, so very much now is corrective, because of
disruption and disorder. There was a beautiful Divine
order at the outset, an order in every realm, in every
direction. Everything was in its place, in its right
relatedness, functioning in perfect order; no friction,
no contradiction, no unrest, no strain, everything full
of rest. God declared it to be very good. If God says
that, then, in the light of His standard of things, such
an order must be very good, for His standard is so much
higher than ours. To have a certain measure of order,
without friction and contradiction, strain and stress,
makes us feel we have something very good; but oh, how
much higher is His standard! When God says of a thing,
"It is very good." it really must be good.
But then
disruption came in. Everything became disordered and the
harmony in God's universe was destroyed. There is strain,
there is conflict, there is no more rest, and since that
time things have continued to be governed by this element
of disorder and disruption, and the Divine order has
never been recovered in the world. Disorder is
everywhere. Disruption is everywhere, in everything. It
is in the elements. It is in humanity. It is in all
relationships. It is everywhere. And now, so far as God
is concerned, all is on a corrective line because of that
disruption.
First of
all, the disorder, the disruption, is in man himself. Man
is no longer a harmony, a unit; he is all in disorder.
Then the disorder is found in man's relatedness. All the
relationships of man are disordered and upset. Then it is
in the world that man has made. Man has made this world
and set up the present order; which is disorder from
God's standpoint. Everywhere in this world there is
disorder. I need not stay to show how true it is.
Everywhere in this world we find what is not God, and
what God did not mean. The order has gone and is no
longer seen.
So now,
when we come to the first letter to the Corinthians, the
first thing that is introduced is the world; and the
second thing is man, natural man; whilst the third thing
is the relationships or related life of man. Then you
recognize that the whole of that first letter to the
Corinthians is a corrective letter. It touches the world,
it touches man, it touches man's relationships; it is all
corrective. Then what has it inclusively to do with? Its
concern is with the Church, which is Christ's Body. Is
Christ divided? is a question it will put to us; and as
directly it will answer that in Christ there is no
schism, no disorder. So you move on through the letter
and you find that a true spiritual apprehension of the
Church according to God's mind will see the correction of
all the disorders that have come in through Adam: and
these are dealt with in the letter one by one.
We will
put that in another way, and perhaps a little, more
simply. Where the Church, the Body of Christ is
spiritually expressed according to God's mind, nothing of
the disruption and disorder that came in through Adam has
any place; it is ruled out. The world is ruled out. The
natural man is ruled out. This disorder in human
relationships is ruled out. The Church represents a
perfect Divine order, and that makes demands upon all who
claim to be in it and we find one fundamental demand
right here at the beginning of this corrective letter:
"I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified." The one fundamental and
all-inclusive demand made upon these who claim to be of
the Church, which is Christ's Body, is that, through the
Cross of the Lord Jesus by which the world is crucified,
and by which the natural man is crucified, and by which
all that is disruptive in human relationships is
crucified, only Christ shall be known, only Christ shall
be recognized; for here we touch the mystery of the very
nature of the Church. It is Christ from heaven, nothing
of this world, Christ corporately expressed. It is a
Christ according to God's mind as the heavenly Man, and
not according to man here. It is Christ as the embodiment
of a heavenly order. I dislike the word system, and I
very often use it in its bad sense, but it can be used in
a right and good sense, and, if you will bear with it, I
would say that Christ is the embodiment of a heavenly
system; and when we come into the Church, which is His
Body, we come into a heavenly system of things, a Divine
order. So that the sphere of this perfect, Divine order
is the Church, the Body of Christ, which is called
"the Christ". Now, that leads us to some
practical applications of the general truth.
The Increase of Christ the One Object
of the Divine Order
The
first is, that order, this Divine heavenly order in
the Church, is governed by the law of Christly increase.
Whatever
obtains in God's appointment, only obtains with one
object in view, namely, the increase of Christ.
Everything that God has ordained as a part of the
heavenly order in the Church is ordained with that end in
view. With much that is meant by an expression to which I
am about to refer, I will not stay, and certainly not for
purposes of criticism; but, by way of illustration, we
sometimes hear the phrase used of certain men that they
have "taken Orders". By that we understand them
to have entered into a certain ecclesiastical realm, or
that they are "priests in Holy Orders". Now, my
point is this, that when it comes to the heavenly order
of the Church, all ministries, all appointments, all
positions, all relationships exist solely for the
increase of Christ. That is the thing which governs all.
No one has any position or ministry which is merely
official. What is position in the Church from the
heavenly standpoint? What is ministry in the Church from
the heavenly standpoint? What is the significance that
attaches to all the relationships of the Lord's people?
They are all, by Divine intention, for the increase of
Christ. I suppose that we will accept that, so far as the
special ministries are concerned. Yet that might need
examination. Such as exercise those special ministries
are not there to give addresses or to preach sermons. In
the heavenly order, there is no ministration of any kind
which does not mean a ministration of Christ to the
increase of Christ, so that the Church becomes more fully
Christ in expression, and any ministry that does not, or
that cannot, lead to that is not in the heavenly order.
Office in the Church is something wholly other than that
which is merely ecclesiastical, by vote or appointment.
The thing which governs any office or position in the
Church, as according to the heavenly order, is that this
one and that one have something of Christ to give, have
that which represents an increase of Christ; for the
Church is Christ in corporate expression.
Are you
aspiring to office, to position in the Church? I will
tell you how to get there. Aspire to have a measure of
Christ more than your brethren. The Holy Spirit will see
that, in a Spirit-governed church, you have a place and a
ministry. That is the law which governs position in the
Church. It is not that the Church votes with a show of
hands as to who the officers shall be. The Holy Ghost
singles out men who have something more of Christ than
the average to bring the Church up into a fuller measure
of Christ.
What,
then, of all the members of the Body? The same law
governs. You may put all the responsibility on to such as
may minister the Word, and say, It is their business to
bring Christ to us, to build us up in Christ. Well, they
will point you the way, they will minister to you the
Word of God in life. But then, your very membership in
the Body of Christ involves you under this very same law,
that you personally are also committed to be a joint of
supply in the Body. You are committed to the work of the
mutual building up of the Body and the increase of
Christ. Our very partaking of Christ, our being members
of His Body is governed by this, that we are a
contributing factor in the increase of Christ. We have to
get away from this "pulpit and pew" conception
of things and have an entirely new mentality. The Church
builds itself up by its mutual ministration, and such
building up is through an increase of Christ. Beloved,
let me emphasize that and underline it. Take hold of it
if you forget everything else, that your being in the
Church, which is His Body, means that your being there
implies an increase of Christ. It must be that. Is there
something more of Christ there because you are there?
That is the law which governs. Do stir yourselves up to
this. Recognize your personal and individual
responsibility. The Church is Christ in His corporate
expression; you are the Church. How much of Christ is
represented by you for the general increase and building
up of His people? The law which governs everything in the
Church; ministry, position, relationships, is the law of
the increase of Christ.
Now, I
have used the word "relationships". Yes, you
see how far from being merely technical and
ecclesiastical and official and legal all this is, and
how it resolves itself into one thing, namely, life. When
you get the Church according to the heavenly thought of
God, according to the heavenly order, governed by this
law of the increase of Christ, then you have life; not
ecclesiastical systems and orders, but life. It is the
way of life. It is the course of the operation of the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We will come at
this question of relationship from a fresh position, or
by a fresh proposition.
The Divine Features of Authority and
Subjection
There
are two main aspects of the Church, the Body of
Christ. The first of these is authority and the second is
subjection. These are the two things which mainly govern
the Church as principles.
Now,
Jacob, when he supplanted his brother with his wit and
cunning and guile, was after authority, the place of
supremacy. He, as the younger, was seeking to get
ascendency over his brother. Well, God had ordained that,
and Jacob need not have used any cunning or wit
whatsoever. God would have seen to that had Jacob trusted
Him. Nevertheless, it was this that was in his heart, to
get authority, pre-eminence. What he had to learn in the
course of twenty years was that authority is reached by
the way of subjection; and for Jacob, prince in Bethel,
the House of God, those two things go together -
authority and subjection. You cannot and you must not
separate these two. God has joined these two together.
Authority is by subjection; subjection leads to
authority. I believe moreover that God has chosen a very
beautiful way of setting that forth.
God
originated it (as Paul tells us in the great Church
letter, Ephesians,) right at the beginning in the Garden
- "Male and female made he them": husband and
wife; the man and the woman. Have you ever recognized
that to be pre-eminently a Church principle. If you trace
that to heaven, to the mind and the heart of God, you
will find He has the Church in view; Christ and the
Church, His members: the Husband, the wife; the
Bridegroom, the bride. The relationship, this human
relationship of husband and wife, is seen therefore, in
the mind of God, to have to do with a much bigger thing
than that which is merely personal, individual, as
amongst men on the earth. It is but the setting forth, or
it is intended to be the setting forth of a great sublime
conception of Christ and the Church, and the two
governing laws of Christ and the Church are authority and
subjection. How will the Church come to reign? By
subjection to Christ. How did Christ, the Head, come to
reign? By subjection to the Father. Authority and
subjection are inseparable. It is a dual law, established
in heaven. These two things, male and female, are both
very sacred in God's sight, and neither of them must be
the other. If so, you have upset the Divine, heavenly
order. They are there to represent something very holy,
something very sacred.
If you
look more closely, you will see that both these features
are to be found in the very person of Christ Himself. Oh
yes, how much we owe to the subjection of Christ to the
Father! What do we owe? Well, to this, on the one side,
we owe all the revelation of God in Him. By His
subjection to the Father, the revelation of God in Him
came forth. "The Son can do nothing out from
himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise"
(John 5:19). Subjection to the Father meant that He saw
what the Father was doing and did the works of the
Father. In the works of Christ we see the works of God,
we see what God is like; we see God's mind, God's
thought, God's desire.
It is to
His subjection that we owe the revelation of Divine love.
The Father's will was that He should lay down His life,
and the laying down of that life was an expression of the
Father's heart for us. He laid down His life for our sins
that He might redeem us unto God. All the love of God is
brought to us by the subjection of the Lord Jesus.
Remember that.
Then,
what fruitfulness has sprung from His subjection.
"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and
die...." Is not that subjection? What is the
opposite of that? I refuse to die, I refuse to give up my
life, I refuse to let go my soul; I cling and cleave to
myself, to my own. "Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die (that
is, if it surrenders itself, if it lets go its own life,
if it denies its own rights) it bringeth forth much
fruit." This is immediately succeeded by the
statement, "He that loveth his life (his soul) shall
lose it; and he that hateth his life (his soul) in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal" (John
12:24-25). That again, in a word, is subjection.
Follow
the matter through with this word: "He became
obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross"
(Philippians 2:8). Obedient - that is subjection. That is
the female side, that which is represented by the woman.
What we owe to it!
Yes, but
then there is the other side. Oh, the power, the mighty
power, that we find in Christ! Oh, the life, the
positive, risen life that we have in Christ! Oh, the
deliverance that is ours through the mighty deliverer,
Christ! Oh, the keeping power that is to us-ward because
of the Cross! That is the side of authority. The side of
subjection is His love for us; the side of authority is
His defence of us. The side of subjection is His tender
compassion, His merciful kindness to His own. His
authority is the coming forth of His power against the
enemies of His own. That is the man and the woman.
The Practical Expression of the Divine
Features in the Church
Now,
that is brought right into the heart of the Church. So
you come again to the first Corinthian letter. You know
all that is said about man and woman and their respective
places in the Church. If this heavenly relatedness for
the increase of Christ is established, it will work out
to tremendous enrichment and not impoverishment. What is
the woman's place in the Church? It is to express that
side of Christ which is always the gracious, sympathetic,
helpful side. Do you think that the woman is to be
suppressed? I do not, and I do not think the Word of God
teaches that. It is a matter of order and position unto
life, and if I were to put it in quite ordinary, common,
everyday, human, language, I should put it like this: Man
is there to represent the authority of Christ, but he
cannot exercise his authority without subjection.
Otherwise what happens? He becomes a lord in the House of
God. He does that of which the Apostle speaks, he
"lords it over God's heritage". He needs the
woman, as representing subjection, to come along and say,
"Now, my dear, gently: do not do damage, do not hurt
the Lord's interests by that assertiveness, that
officiousness. Remember that you need bearing with by the
Lord." Do you see the principle of subjection at
work? The two cannot be broken asunder, the Lord needs
them both; and I believe the Lord has expressed this
relationship in the Church to gain, not to loss; to
increase, not to impoverishment; that there shall be
always maintained according to this principle of the
subjection of Christ that tenderness, that gentleness,
that care for susceptibilities which takes the rough edge
off government. Oh, we have to govern, to use authority,
if we are called to do so, as men who ever remember how
much we ourselves are in need of the mercy of God.
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye
which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted" (Galatians 6:1). Can you hear a woman's
voice in that? That is a side of Christ that is necessary
to right government.
I am
only able to hint really at what this means. What I have
all the time in the background of my mind is that all
things, relationships and everything else, in the House
of God are for the increase of Christ. You dear sisters,
do not think that the New Testament anywhere says that
you are to be suppressed and ruled out. You have a very
essential ministry, as representing something in the
House of God which is for the increase of Christ, and
those who are on the other side need you and cannot
fulfil their ministry without you. It is not good for the
man to be alone, said the Lord, and that has a very much
deeper meaning than just having human companionship. Put
that in the positive way: it would be very good for a man
to have a woman if she is the right kind according to
God's thought. You must keep the balance.
But
neither of these must be the other: otherwise if it is
so, you get the heavenly order upset at once. That is why
the first letter to the Corinthians is corrective of
disorder in every realm. You see, the world is ruled out
because it is in disorder. The natural man is ruled out
because he is disordered. The relationships which are
according to that disordered realm and which have come
into the Church, must go out, and heavenly order must
come in. I do not believe that anything that Paul said
about woman in the Church can rightly be interpreted as
meaning that she has no place. I believe it to be just
the other way round. But all that he said was to get
order where there was disorder. It was a matter of
heavenly order. In your right place you can function
fully: but you have to be in your right place and keep
it: otherwise life goes out. Perhaps I have not satisfied
you altogether on these matters, but I am dealing with
principles. The law of life operates along the line of a
heavenly order.
So then,
we are able to see that everything rests upon God's
purpose concerning His Son, and everything is governed by
the consideration of how His purpose can be realized. The
method which is approved of God is that which is most
directly calculated to bring about an increase of Christ,
and all else is ruled out by God. Order is not technique.
It is not arbitrary. It is an embodiment of heavenly
principles which are established for the increase of
Christ; or, to put that in another way, Order is the way
of life when it is the heavenly order. Disorder is the
way of death.
Now you
understand Jacob's life. He started out with the disorder
that inheres in the natural man. He started out with the
wisdom and cunning of this world. He was chosen to bring
into view the House of God, and service in relation to
the House of God - Bethel, and a dwelling in Bethel.
Therefore this man must be taken in hand and all that is
of the natural man must be got rid of as disorderly, and
all the worldly element in him must be destroyed. If
there is to be a House of God, it cannot be the house of
Jacob; it must be the house of "Israel". That
is the spiritual and heavenly side of things.
A Vital Lesson
I wonder
how much of this is recognized by you to be of practical
value. You may have many questions, but I think it does
at least bring before us one thing, that in order to
there being movement toward fullness of life in Christ,
there must be a spiritual relatedness of the Lord's
people. There must be that fellowship between the members
of Christ which provides an opportunity for the increase
of Christ in an ordered way. That is a matter which ought
to exercise us very much. I am quite sure there are a lot
of people who are suffering far more than they need
because they are out of relatedness with the Church, the
Body of Christ, in a working and practical way. I believe
that merely personal, independent, unrelated life and
movement of the Lord's people exposes them to great
evils. If only there were a bringing in among the Lord's
people, there would be a curing of many ills, and
deliverance from much unnecessary suffering. The word
that was spoken by Haggai still holds good: money
is put into a bag with holes; there is dearth, there is
barrenness, there is an altogether inadequate result to
your spiritual energies. Then as the Lord questions with
His people about the cause, His answer to them is,
Because of My house. If you have My house as the central,
governing object of your life, there will be many
blessings where there are no blessings now. There will be
life where there is death now; there will be deliverance
where there is bondage now; there will be light where
there is darkness now; there will be safety where there
is deception now. We little realize how much suffering in
all of these ways there is today because of independent
action and a want of relatedness with the Lord's people.
Ask the Lord about that. If it is His mind, and you have
exercise with Him about His end, He will most surely show
some way in which this can be remedied.