We are
going, as the Lord enables us, to meditate afresh on the
Body of Christ. We know, when we want to have the larger
unfoldings of this "Mystery" where to turn; we
instinctively turn to the Ephesian letter. In this letter
we note, first of all, the simple preliminary fact, that
the Church is designated 'The Body of Christ," it is
"the Church which is His Body." That
distinguishes the Church in this letter from other
designations which we find elsewhere. There is the
Temple, there is the House of God, and other suchlike
designations, but in this letter it is particularly. The
Body of Christ that is basic to all that the letter
unfolds, and what is contained in the letter is in line
with the conception of a body.* Now the word which seems
to predominate through this letter in connection with
that designation is the word translated
"Together." It is impressive to note how
frequently that word occurs. Here we are said to have
been "quickened together" in Him. That does not
only mean that our together-ness individually was with
the Lord Jesus in His rising, but it means that we
corporately were quickened, we were together quickened in
Him, not only with Him but in Him corporately quickened.
The Eternal Oneness of the Body
In the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus the whole Church was
included together. And then in the same verse, 2:6, we
are said to be "raised together" in Him.
Further, in the same place, we are said to be
"seated together" in Him. Coming back a step
into 1:10, we are "gathered together into one"
and then on again to 2:21, we are "framed
together." So this word "together" brings
into view in a very simple way the fact of the corporate
nature of the Church, the Body of Christ. We want to get
the full force of that as far as it is possible, because
this letter undoubtedly emphasizes the fact that the
Church is a corporate Body; not that it one day will be
when the work of grace is completed; not that it is
merely that in the mind and thought of God, the will of
God, the intention of God; not that it was intended to be
when the Lord started it; but that it is; that in spite
of what is seen here on the earth; in spite of the
ever-increasing number of divisions and separations, all
the unhappy schisms which have entered into the
fellowships of God's people on the earth, in spite of
everything that ever has been and ever is or will be
along that line, the Church is still a corporate whole.
It is that, not as to the people as on the earth, but it
is true as to the essential nature of the Church, the
Body of Christ, and the sooner we get that rooted and
settled in our spiritual acceptance and consciousness the
better. No schism, beloved, that is incidental to the
relationships of Christian people on the earth can alter
that fact. The differences which exist or which come
about by the different mentalities, choices and
preferences, likes and dislikes, intellectual acceptances
or rejections; all those differences do not touch this
ultimate fact that there is a realm in which there is a
togetherness, a oneness, a corporateness which is
unaffected by anything that is of man in himself
religiously or theologically. There is a realm of course
in which is unaffected by anything that is of man in
himself religiously or theologically. There is a realm of
course in which there may be a breach of fellowship, that
is where it enters into the realm of the spirit and where
the spirit is affected. There you may very definitely
strike a blow at the Body of Christ, but ultimately the
Body is one; which, of course, clearly indicates that
this is something other than an earthly thing and that it
is a heavenly Body, unaffected and untouched by earth.
We are
inclined to accept what we see, to be affected by the
divisions that are here, and are almost in despair
because of what we see. The sooner we sweep that whole
thing aside the better, and let there be fifty thousand
earthly departments of Christian people, the Body of
Christ remains one. It is a seamless robe, it is a Body
which cannot be divided, it remains one. That is the
basic fact to which we must come back, that is where we
begin. This letter, in which there is the unveiling of
the mystery of Christ and His members, The Church, the
one Body, states most emphatically the fact of the
corporate nature of the Body. It does not argue about it,
or discuss it, it takes it for granted, it is a settled
thing. Of course there are degrees of enjoyment of it,
and there are degrees of the fruitfulness of it as here,
but there are no degrees of the fact of it. The fact
remains as solid and settled. Our business is to enter
into the settled fact and come into the meaning of it:
but our not having come into the full meaning of it does
not mean that it does not exist. The trouble is that we
have to know what it is that makes the Body one, and that
is our business. The unity exists; our business is to
apprehend it, not make it. We go on to that almost
immediately, but note, the letter to the Ephesians is
still alive, it is still applicable, it is still true for
to-day. After all these centuries when we have all that
we have on the earth, the departments and divisions of
Christian people, all of whom may be members of the Body
of Christ, still after all these centuries the Ephesians
letter remains where it was at the beginning, and it
represents the Body as a solid whole, a corporate unity.
A Heavenly Position Necessary to
Apprehending the Oneness
It is
only as we get up into the heavenlies and away from the
earthlies that we begin to enter into the fact and
realize what that fact means to God, to the heavenlies,
to hell, and to this world. So, in order that we should
enter into the fact with all that that fact contains of
effective vocation and life, we have to introduce the
whole matter by our position in Christ in the heavenlies,
and see exactly where we are placed spiritually: for not
until we come to recognize that and to enter into our
heavenly position in Christ can we see, appreciate, or
come into the meaning of this heavenly reality the
Church, which is His Body. We cannot see the Church from
the earthlies, we can only see it from the heavenlies.
Our Attitude Towards Differences
I do not
want to pass away from that as having merely stated
something. I do want that we should get the benefit of
it. You and I may have a disagreement, but it makes no
difference to our relationship in the Lord Jesus. The
fact that you and I fall out or disagree does not tear us
as limbs out of the Body of Christ. No, that is our
shame, that is incidental in our Christian life, that
this a breakdown somewhere in grace in us, but we shall
recover ourselves from that if we yield to the movements
of the Spirit in us, and come back to find that we have
not to be rejoined in Christ in His Body, that fact
remains. You see the working principle is this: that
there may be much amongst believers on this earth of
division, but we have not to accept that as ultimate, we
have not to take that as meaning that some are in Christ
and some are out of Christ, that we are in Christ and
others are not, and that we are in Christ and others are
not, and that the Body has altogether collapsed and
disintegrated. The only hope of enjoying the fact is that
we repudiate what looks like another fact, and we seek to
get above that which, being earthly, brings these things
about, and discover we are in the heavenlies, and
fellowship abides. That is a working principle and we
should recognize that is the meaning of the fact. We have
got to accept the fact, and we have to seek to overcome
or repudiate the other things which come in against the
ultimate fact.
This is an extract from Chapter 1 of the book "The Church Which is His Body" originally published in 1935 by Witness and Testimony Publishers