We have under consideration a
phrase from the letter to the Ephesians, "ALL THINGS IN
CHRIST": "...unto a dispensation of the fulness of the
times, to sum up all things in Christ..." (Ephes. 1:10).
That is the great general vision that is occupying us, and we
will now begin to break it up into its parts.
To begin with, it is supremely
important that we should recognise that there is one basic and
all-governing factor with God, which is a supreme matter for our
knowledge, and that is the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of His
Son, Jesus Christ.
Everything intended and
required for the realisation of Divine purpose and intention is
in, and with, Christ, not only as a deposit, but all is
Christ. That is the inclusiveness of Christ.
Then, on the other hand,
nothing but what is of Christ is accepted or permitted by God in
the final issue. That is the exclusiveness of Christ. However God
may seem in His patience and long-suffering in His grace and
mercy, to be bearing with much, even in us His people, which is
not of Christ; however much He seems for the time being to allow,
it is of supreme importance that we settle it once for all that
God is not really allowing it. He may extend to us His
forbearance, His long-suffering, but He is not in any way
accepting what is not of Christ. He has initially said that it is
dead to Him, and He is progressively working death in that realm.
So that in the final issue, not one fragment anywhere that is not
of Christ will be allowed. Christ excludes everything that is not
of Himself. That is God's ruling of the matter.
The Church to
be what Christ was and is as the Heavenly Man
In view of what we have just
said, it is of the utmost importance for real effectiveness that
we should realise that the Church is intended to be what Christ
was, and is, as the Heavenly Man. Only that which is of Christ,
the Heavenly Man, is eternally effective. Therefore, the more
there is of Christ, the more effectiveness there is from God's
standpoint. That means that what was, and what is, true of Him as
the Heavenly Man, as to His being, as to the laws of His life, as
to His ministry and His mission, is to be true of the Church.
(When we speak of the Church, of course, we speak of all the
members as forming the Church.)
Do you notice that we are
speaking of Christ as the Heavenly Man, and not of His
co-equality with the Father in Deity. We are not saying that the
Church is to be, in the same sense as Christ, God incarnate,
occupying the place of Deity; we are speaking of the Heavenly
Man. Christ was, and is, a heavenly Man. The Church in Him
is also a heavenly man, one "new man". It is not to be
thought of as Jew and Greek, circumcision and uncircumcision,
bond and free, a combination of earthly elements, of various
aspects of human life as here on this earth. These and all other
earthly distinctions are lost sight of and set aside, and one
"new man" is brought in, where "Christ is all, and
in all" (Col. 3:11).
Christ has never been, in His
essential nature, of the earth. He had a relationship to Israel,
a relationship to man here; He has a judicial relationship to
this earth, but in His essential nature He never has been
earthly. He is the Lord from heaven. He takes pains to stress the
fact, and to keep it clearly in view: "...I am from above..."
(John 8:23).
Now as Christ in His essential
nature never was of the earth, neither is the Church. The Church
has never been an earthly thing in God's thought. That is where
the gap is bridged. Paul takes you right back, and shows you that
the Church is in the heavenlies before ever the fall took place.
In Christ we are made to bridge the gap created by the fallen
ages. Before the world was, Christ existed with the Father,
literally and personally. The Church existed in the foreknowledge
of God before the world was, though not literally in the same way
that Christ did; that is, this is not a reincarnation, but, in
the foreknowledge of God, the Church was as actual before time as
it is now, or ever will be. Whenever Paul speaks of the Church,
he always speaks of it as though it were complete. He never
speaks of a completing of it. Much has to be done to add the
members, to bring it to its numerical completeness, and its
spiritual and moral completeness and perfection, but while Paul
has much to say about spiritual growth and increase, he yet
speaks of the Church as though it were already completed. He is
viewing it from the heavenly, eternal, Divine standpoint, from
the standpoint of the foreknowledge of God. There in that
foreknowledge of God, and that foreordaining according to
foreknowledge, the Church existed as a complete whole with the
Father and the Son before times eternal. Then came the break, the
gap, the dip down; but in Christ it is bridged, and the Church is
seen as a continuous thing in the heavenlies, above it all.
The Church is seen as being
literally formed in this dispensation, but it is as immediately
translated to heaven. Immediately we come into Christ, we are
seated in the heavenlies in Christ: "God... when we were
dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ...
and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the
heavenlies..." (Ephes. 2:6). It does not say that we are to
be placed there at some future date. Or ever we believed, we
became a heavenly people from God's standpoint. We were cut clear
of this world, translated out of this kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of the Son of His love, and ceased to be earthly,
immediately we came into Christ. We are lifted right back on to
the level of the original purpose, and linked up with the first
thought of God in Christ. We become the corporate heavenly man,
even as He is the Heavenly Man in person.
We are called upon to recognise
our link with the eternal and the heavenly, and to take things up
from there. There would not be that terrible anomaly of
"worldly Christians" if only this were apprehended.
Look at all that has to be dealt with because of failure to keep
the testimony pure for the Lord's people. Worldly Christians!
What a contradiction to the Divine thought! How impossible it is
to accept anything like that! Let us repeat, we are called upon
to recognise our link with the eternal and heavenly, and to take
things up from there. It is not the case that we are struggling,
working, striving to be a heavenly people; not aiming at such a
state, and hoping that at some time it will be realised, but we
are a heavenly people, and we must take things up from that
standpoint.
The convert, the young child of
God, must remember that by his union with Christ he becomes
entirely a heavenly part of Christ from the first, linked with
everything heavenly and eternal. Everything here is to be as out
from another realm. That should be kept in view. We should have a
very different kind of believer if that were always kept to the
fore. That is God's standpoint, God's mind.
This, then, brings us to the
point at which that eternal and heavenly relationship is resumed.
It is not the commencement but the resumption in Christ of
something that was broken off, interrupted, and which ought never
to have suffered such an interruption.
Nothing but
what is of Christ Allowed by God in the Ultimate Issue
Before we deal with the point
of resumption, we will spend a few moments in looking yet further
at the implication of what has been emphasised already. Nothing
but what is of Christ is allowed by God in the ultimate issue.
Now, because that is true, all the activities of God in
discipline are introduced and pursued. All the discipline which
comes by failure, for example, is followed out. Failure is in the
way of God's thought now, a necessity as it were. Lives reach a
point, and then are unable to get beyond that point; there is a
going on so far in a measure of blessing, and then the state of
things changes, the kind of blessing that has been is withheld,
and a state of things ensues which has but one issue, that of an
absolute necessity for a new position in the Lord. It is not that
the Lord blesses what is not of Christ in such a period, but in
His grace and mercy He blesses us, in order to lead us on in
Christ: then, when we have come to a place where we have a
certain knowledge of the Lord, the Lord suspends that outward
blessing, and we pass into a time of trial, of conscious failure,
defeat, arrest, helplessness, and we are found before long in
that realm saying: My need is of a new place with the Lord, a new
experience of the Lord, a new knowledge of the Lord. All that has
been, has been very wonderful, but it is as nothing now, and the
need now is of a new place with the Lord.
That will go on to the end. The
experience is not relative to the early stages alone, but
continues throughout the course. How many of us have cried, Lord,
we need a new position! Why is this? It is the outworking of this
law, that with God nothing but what is of Christ is allowed. Only
that which is of Christ can be effective, and our experience
means that more of the mixture has to go, and Christ has to take
its place. Failure leads to that.
The same thing applies with
regard to work, to great movements. The history of a movement is
like that of the individual. Even that which has been blessed of
God comes to the place where, as a movement, as a collective
instrumentality, it knows that the old days have passed, and for
that which now obtains, and that which is before, a new position
is necessary. Unfortunately so many try to live upon the past,
try to go on upon a reputation, a history, and will not confess
to the fact that things have changed and that God requires
something more. If only they would face up to that, how much more
glorious in its effectiveness would be the future, than ever the
past has been. But there you have the interpretation of the
experience. However it is apprehended by those concerned, the
fact remains that God applies this law, that in the end, when
everything has been said and done, and when all these present
ages have run their course, in God's ages of the ages there will
be nothing but what is of Christ. He is seeking to bring the
Church to that goal, to be the fulness of Him that filleth all in
all. It cannot be the fulness of Christ while anything else is
there.
How manifold is the application
of this truth! How many a detail it touches, and how ashamed it
should make us! If we really do see it, if it really strikes our
hearts, we shall be greatly humbled. Inwardly we shall feel
thoroughly disgusted with ourselves as in the light of this we
think of our assertiveness, of our strength, of
our activity in the things of God, of all that has been
of ourselves in this realm. The putting forth of strength is only
effective in the proportion in which it represents a measure of
Christ. We puny folk on this earth stand up and think we are of
some account! What insignificant people we are if viewed from the
heavenlies! The Lord looks down upon us and sees us trying to
make names for ourselves in His things; dominating other lives;
trying to exercise our influence with other lives; manipulating,
putting our hands upon them. It is all pride, all conceit, all
self in some form. The aspects of it are countless. The Lord
looks at it and says, No, it is not of Christ; therefore, in the
final issue it has to go! That is why He breaks us, and empties
us, and brings us down to the place where we cry from a deep,
heart-broken consciousness: Lord, unless Thou doest it, it is
impossible! Unless Thou dost speak the word, my words are useless!
That is why He works in that way. The Lord in His sovereignty
sees to it that we meet with plenty of things to keep us humble.
The Lord keeps us humble
through the difficult people He sets around us, and whom He does
not take away however much we cry to Him to do so, even though in
themselves they are all wrong and an apparent menace to the
Lord's interests. They serve to keep us humble and dependent. The
Lord does that sort of thing, all in keeping with this law, that
everything in us must be of Christ. Christ fills the universe for
God. If He sees anything but what is of Christ, it cannot have a
place. Only His Son can fill all things, excluding everything
else. Oh, how humbly we need to seek of the Lord that there shall
be nothing about us that, as of ourselves, presses itself upon
others - our manner, our mannerisms, our presence, our conduct,
our spirit, even our voice. The Spirit would ofttimes check us
and cause us to walk softly. None of us has attained to very high
levels in this matter, and we are all having to acknowledge
failure. The Spirit is dealing with us in that way. If even in
our dress, or in any other thing, we come into view as
the Lord's children, the Holy Spirit would seek to bring us to a
place of sensitiveness, where He can say: That is bringing
yourself into view! That is out from you! Now, get covered, get
hidden! That thing excludes Christ!
God has determined from all
eternity that this universe shall be filled with Christ, the
Heavenly Man, through that corporate heavenly man joined to Him
as its Head. He is getting rid of the Jew in us, of the Greek in
us, and constituting us according to Christ, conforming us to the
image of His Son. Blessed be God! the moment we come to the place
where the last remnants and relics of what is not of Christ fall
from us, then He will be displayed in us; He shall come to be
glorified in the saints. It is Christ who is to be glorified, not
ourselves; yet so close is the relationship that He is to be
glorified in us. The Lord hasten the day!