The Normal Christian Life
Chapter Eleven
One Body In Christ
Before we pass on to our last important subject we will review some of the
ground we have covered and summarize the steps taken. We have sought to make
things simple, and to explain clearly some of the experiences which
Christians commonly pass through. But it is clear that the new discoveries
that we make as we walk with the Lord are many, and we must be careful to
avoid the temptation to over-simplify the work of God. To do so may lead us
into serious confusion.
There are children of God who believe that all our
salvation, in which they would include the matter of leading a holy life,
lies in an appreciation of the value of the precious Blood. They rightly
emphasize the importance of keeping short accounts with God over known
specific sins, and the continual efficacy of the Blood to deal with sins
committed, but they think of the Blood as doing everything. They believe in
a holiness which in fact means only separation of the man from his past;
that, through the up-to-date blotting out of what he has done on the ground
of the shed Blood, God separates a man out of the world to be His, and that
is holiness; and they stop there. Thus they stop short of God's basic
demands, and so of the full provision He has made. I think we have by now
seen clearly the inadequacy of this.
Then there are those who go further and see that God has
included them in the death of His Son on the Cross, in order to deliver them
from sin and the Law by dealing with the old man. These are they who really
exercise faith in the Lord, for they glory in Christ Jesus and have ceased
to put confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3). In them God has a clear
foundation on which to build. And from this as starting-point, many have
gone further still and recognized that consecration (using that word in the
right sense) means giving themselves without reserve into His hands and
following Him. All these are first steps, and starting from them we have
already touched upon other phases of experience set before us by God and
enjoyed by many. It is always essential for us to remember that, while each
of them is a precious fragment of truth, no single one of them is by itself
the whole of truth. All come to us as the fruit of the work of Christ on the
Cross, and we cannot afford to ignore any.
A Gate And A Path
Recognizing a number of such phases in the life and experience of a
believer, we note now a further fact, namely that, though these phases do
not necessarily occur always in a fixed and precise order, they seem to be
marked by certain recurring steps or features. What are these steps? First
there is revelation. As we have seen, this always precedes faith and
experience. Through His Word God opens our eyes to the truth of some fact
concerning His Son, and then only, as in Faith we accept that fact for
ourselves, does it become actual as experience in our lives. Thus we have:
1. Revelation (Objective).
2. Experience (Subjective).
Then further, we note that such experience usually takes the two-fold form of a crisis leading to a continuous process. It is most helpful to think of this in terms of John Bunyan's `wicket gate' through which Christian entered upon a `narrow path'. Our Lord Jesus spoke of such a gate and a path leading unto life (Matt. 7:14), and experience accords with this. So now we have:
1. Revelation.
2. Experience: (a) A Wicket gate (Crisis)
(b) A narrow path (Process)
Now let us take some of the subjects we have been dealing with and see how this helps us to understand them. We will take first our justification and new birth. This begins with a revelation of the Lord Jesus in His atoning work for our sins on the Cross; there follows the crisis of repentance and faith (the wicket gate), whereby we are initially "made nigh" to God (Eph. 2:13); and this leads us into a walk of maintained fellowship with Him (the narrow path), for which the ground of our day-to-day access is still the precious Blood (Heb 10:29,22). When we come to deliverance from sin, we again have three steps: the Holy Spirit's work of revelation, or `knowing' (Rom. 6:6); the crisis of faith, or `reckoning' (Rom. 6:11); and the continuing process of consecration, or `presenting ourselves' to God (Rom. 6:13) on the basis of a walk in newness of life. Consider next the gift of the Holy Spirit. This too begins with a new `seeing' of the Lord Jesus as exalted to the throne, which issues in the dual experience of the Spirit outpoured and the Spirit in dwelling. Going a stage further, to the matter of pleasing God, we find again the need for spiritual illumination, that we may see the values of the Cross in regard to `the flesh' -- the entire self-life of man. Our acceptance of this by faith leads at once to a `wicket gate' experience (Rom. 7:25), in which we initially cease from `doing' and accept by faith the mighty working of the life of Christ to satisfy God's practical demands in us. This in turn leads us into the `narrow path' of a walk in obedience to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4).
The picture is not identical in each case, and we must beware of forcing any
rigid pattern upon the Holy Spirit's working; but perhaps any new experience
will come to us more or less on these lines. There will certainly always be
first an opening of our eyes to some new aspect of Christ and His finished
work, and then faith will open a gate into a pathway. Remember, too, that
our division of Christian experience into various subjects: justification,
new birth, the gift of the spirit, deliverance, sanctification, etc., is for
our clearer understanding only. It does not mean that these stages must or
will always follow one another in a certain prescribed order. In fact, if a
full presentation of Christ and His Cross is made to us at the very outset,
we may well step into a great deal of experience from the first day of our
Christian life, even though the full explanation of much of it may follow
later. Would that all Gospel preaching were of such a kind!
One thing is certain, that revelation will always precede faith. When we see
something that God has done in Christ our natural response is: `Thank
you, Lord !' and faith follows spontaneously. Revelation is always the work
of the Holy Spirit, who is given to come along-side and, by opening the
Scriptures to us, to guide us into all the truth (John 16:13). Count upon
Him, for He is here for that very thing; and when such difficulties as lack
of understanding or lack of faith confront you, address those difficulties
directly to the Lord: `Lord, open my eyes. Lord, make this new thing clear
to me. Lord, help Thou my unbelief!' He will not fail you.
The Fourfold Work Of Christ In His Cross
We are now in a position to go a step further still and to consider how
great a range is compassed by the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the
light of Christian experience and for the purpose of analysis, it may help
us if we recognize four aspects of God's redemptive work. But in doing so it
is essential to keep in mind that the Cross of Christ is one Divine work
-- not many. Once in Judaea two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus died and
rose again, and He is now "by the right hand of God exalted" (Acts
2:33). The work is finished and need never be repeated, nor can it be added
to.
Of the four aspects of the Cross which we shall now
mention, we have already dealt with three in some detail. The last will be
considered in the two succeeding chapters of our study. They may be briefly
summarized as follows:
1. The Blood of Christ to deal with sins and guilt.
2. The Cross of Christ to deal with sin, the flesh and the natural man.
3. The Life of Christ made available to indwell, re-create and empower man.
4. The Working of Death in the natural man that that indwelling Life may be progressively manifest.
The first two of these aspects are remedial. They relate to the undoing of
the work of the Devil and the undoing of the sin of man. The last two are
not remedial but positive, and relate more directly to the securing of the
purpose of God. The first two are concerned with recovering what Adam lost
by the Fall; the last two are concerned with bringing us into, and bringing
into us, something that Adam never had. Thus we see that the achievement of
the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection comprises both a work which
provided for the redemption of man and a work which made possible the
realization of the purpose of God.
We have dealt at some length in earlier chapters with the two aspects of His
death represented by the Blood for sins and guilt and the Cross for sin and
the flesh. In our discussion of the eternal purpose we have also looked
briefly at the third aspect -- that represented by Christ as the grain of
wheat -- and in our last chapter, in our consideration of Christ as our
life, we have seen something of its practical outworking. Before, however,
we pass on to the fourth aspect, which I shall call `bearing the cross', we
must say a little more about this third side, namely, the release of the
life of Christ in resurrection for man's indwelling and empowering for
service.
We have spoken already of the purpose of God in creation and have said that
it embraced far more than Adam ever came to enjoy. What was that purpose?
God wanted to have a race of men whose members were gifted with a spirit
whereby communion would be possible with Himself, who is Spirit. That race,
possessing God's own life, was to co-operate in securing His purposed end by
defeating every possible uprising of the enemy and undoing his evil works.
That was the great plan. How will it now be effected? The answer is again to
be found in the death of the Lord Jesus. It is a mighty death. It is
something positive and purposive, going far beyond the recovery of a lost
position; for by it, not only are sin and the old man dealt with and their
effects annulled, but something more, something infinitely greater is
introduced.
The Love Of Christ
Now we must have before us two passages of the Word, one from Genesis 2 and
one from Ephesians 5, which are of great importance in this connection.
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he
slept; and he took one of his ribs, which the Lord God had taken from the
man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This
is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman
(Heb. ishshah), because she was taken out of Man (Heb. ish)"
(Gen. 2:21-23).
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having
cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the
church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25-27).
In Ephesians 5 we have the only chapter in the Bible which
explains the passage in Genesis 2. What we have presented to us in Ephesians
is indeed very remarkable, if we reflect upon it. I refer to what is
contained in those words: "Christ ... loved the church". There is
something most precious here.
We have been taught to think of ourselves as sinners
needing redemption. For generations that has been instilled into us, and we
praise the Lord for that as our beginning; but it is not what God has in
view as His end. God speaks here rather of "a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but .. holy and without
blemish". All too often we have thought of the Church as being merely
so many `saved sinners'. It is that; but we have made the terms
almost equal to one another, as though it were only that, which is
not the case. Saved sinners -- with that thought you have the whole
background of sin and the Fall; but in God's sight the Church is a Diving
creation in His Son. The one is largely individual, the other corporate.
With the one the view is negative, belonging to the past; with the other it
is positive, looking forward. The "eternal purpose" is something
in the mind of God from eternity concerning His Son, and it has as its
objective that the Son should have a Body to express His life. Viewed from
that standpoint -- from the standpoint of the heart of God -- the Church is
something which is beyond sin and has never been touched by sin.
So we have an aspect of the death of the Lord Jesus in
Ephesians which we do not have so clearly in other places. In Romans things
are viewed from the standpoint of fallen man, and beginning with `Christ
died for sinners, enemies, the ungodly' (Rom. 5) we are led progressively to
"the love of Christ" (Rom. 8:35). In Ephesians, on the other hand,
the standpoint is that of God "before the foundation of the world"
(Eph. 1:4), and the heart of the gospel is: "Christ ... loved the
church, and gave himself up for it" (Eph. 5:25). Thus, in Romans it is
"we sinned", and the message is of God's love for sinners (Rom.
5:8); whereas in Ephesians it is "Christ loved", and the love here
is the love of husband for wife. That kind of love has fundamentally nothing
to do with sin as such. What is in view in this passage is not atonement for
sin but the creation of the Church, for which end it is said that He
"gave himself".
There is thus an aspect of the death of the Lord Jesus
which is altogether positive and a matter particularly of love to His
Church, where the question of sin and sinners does not directly appear. To
bring this fact home Paul takes that incident in Genesis 2 as illustration.
Now this is one of the marvelous things in the Word, and if our eyes have
been opened to see it we will certainly worship.
From Genesis 3 onwards, from the `coats of skins' to
Abel's sacrifice, and on from there through the whole Old Testament, there
are numerous types which set forth the death of the Lord Jesus as an
atonement for sin; yet the apostle does not appeal here to any of those
types of His death, but to this one in Genesis 2. Note that; and then recall
that it was not until Genesis 3 that sin came in. There is one type of the
death of Christ in the Old Testament which has nothing to do with sin, for
it is not subsequent to the Fall but prior to it, and that type is here in
Genesis 2. Let us look at it for a moment.
Could we say that Adam was put to sleep because Eve had
committed a serious sin? Is that what we have here? Certainly not, for Eve
was not yet even created. There were as yet no moral issues involved and no
problems at all. No, Adam was put to sleep for the express purpose that
something might be taken out of him to be made into someone else. His sleep
was not for her sin but for her existence. That is what is taught in
these verses. This experience of Adam had as its object the creation of Eve,
as something determined in the Divine counsels. God wanted an ishshah.
He put the man (ish) to sleep, took a rib from his side and made it
into ishshah, a woman, and brought her to the man. That is the
picture which God is giving us. It foreshadows an aspect of the death of the
Lord Jesus that is not primarily for atonement, but answerable to the sleep
of Adam in this chapter.
God forbid that I should suggest that the Lord Jesus did
not die for purposes of atonement. Praise God, He did. We must remember that
today we are in fact in Ephesians 5 and not in Genesis 2. Ephesians was
written after the Fall, to men who had suffered from its effects, and
in it we have not only the purpose in Creation but also the scars of the
Fall -- or there would need to be no mention of "spot or wrinkle".
Because we are still on the earth and the Fall is a historic fact,
`cleansing' is needed.
But we must always view redemption as an interruption, an
`emergence' measure, made necessary by a catastrophic break in the straight
line of the purpose of God. Redemption is big enough, wonderful enough, to
occupy a very large place in our vision, but God is saying that we should
not make redemption to be everything, as though man were created to be
redeemed. The Fall is indeed a tragic dip downwards in that line of
purpose, and the atonement a blessed recovery whereby our sins are blotted
out and we are restored; but when it is accomplished there yet remains a
work to be done to bring us into possession of that which Adam never
possessed, and to give God that which His heart desires. For God has never
forsaken the purpose which is represented by that straight line. Adam was
never in possession of the life of God as presented in the tree of life. But
because of the one work of the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection (and
we must emphasize again that it is all one work) His life was released to
become ours by faith, and we have received more than Adam ever possessed.
The very purpose of God is brought within reach of fulfillment by our
receiving Christ as our life.
Adam was put to sleep. We remember that it is said of
believers that they fall asleep, rather than that they die. Why? Because
whenever death is mentioned sin is there in the background. In Genesis 3 sin
entered into the world and death through sin, but Adam's sleep preceded
that. So the type of the Lord Jesus here is not like other types on the Old
Testament. In relation to sin and atonement there is a lamb or a bullock
slain; but here Adam was not slain, but only put to sleep to awake again.
Thus he prefigures a death that is not on account of sin, but that has in
view increase in resurrection. Then too we must note that Eve was not
created as a separate entity by a separate creation, parallel to that of
Adam. Adam slept, and Eve was created out of Adam. That is God's method with
the Church. God's second Man' has awakened from His `sleep' and His Church
is created in Him and of Him, to draw her life from Him and to display that
resurrection life.
God has a Son who is known to be the only begotten, and
God is seeking that the only begotten Son should have brethren. From the
position of only begotten He will become the first begotten, and instead of
the Son alone God will have many sons. One grain of wheat has died and many
grains will spring up. The first grain was once the only grain; now it is
changed to be the first grain of many. The Lord Jesus laid down His life,
and that life emerged in many lives. These are the Biblical figures we have
used hitherto in our study to express this truth. Now, in the figure just
considered, the singular takes the place of the plural. The outcome of the
Cross is a single person: a Bride for the Son. Christ loved the Church and
gave Himself up for it.
One Living Sacrifice
We have said that there is an aspect of the death of Christ presented to us
in Ephesians 5 which is to some extent different from that which we have
been studying in Romans. Yet in fact this aspect is the very end to which
our study of Romans has been moving, and it is into this that the letter is
leading us as we shall now see, for redemption leads us back into God's
original line of purpose.
In chapter 8 Paul speaks to us of Christ as the firstborn
Son among many Spirit-led "sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). "For
whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he
foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom.
8:29,30). Here justification is seen to lead on to glory, a glory that is
expressed not in one or more individuals but in a plurality: in many who
manifest the image of One. And this object of our redemption is further set
forth, as we have seen, in "the love of Christ" for His own, which
is the subject of the last verses of the chapter (8:35-39). But what is
implicit here in chapter 8 becomes explicit as we move over into chapter 12,
the subject of which is the Body of Christ.
After the first eight chapters of Romans, which we have
been studying, there follows a parenthesis in which God's sovereign dealings
with Israel are taken up and dealt with, before the theme of the first
chapters is resumed. Thus, for our present purpose, the argument of chapter
12 follows that of chapter 8 and not of chapter 11. We might very simply
summarize these chapters thus: Our sins are forgiven (ch. 5), we are dead
with Christ (ch. 6), we are by nature utterly helpless (ch. 7), therefore we
rely upon the indwelling Spirit (ch. 8). After this, and as a consequence of
it: "We ... are one body in Christ" (ch. 12). It is as though this
were the logical outcome of all that has gone before, and the thing to which
it has all been leading.
Romans 12 and the following chapter contain some very
practical instructions for our life and walk. These are introduced with an
emphasis once again on consecration. In chapter 6:13 Paul has said:
"Present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God". But now in chapter 12:1 the
emphasis is a little different: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service". This new appeal
for consecration is made to us as "brethren", linking us in
thought to the "many brethren" of chapter 8:29. It is a call to us
for a united step of faith, the presenting of our bodies as one "living
sacrifice" unto God.
This is something that goes beyond the merely individual,
for it implies contribution to a whole. The `presenting' is personal but the
sacrifice is corporate; it is one sacrifice. Intelligent service to God is
one service. We need never feel our contribution is not needed, for if it
contributes to the service, God is satisfied. And it is through this
kind of service that we prove "what is the good and acceptable and
perfect will of God" (ch. 12:2), or, in other words, realize God's
eternal purpose in Christ Jesus. So Paul's appeal "to every man that is
among you" (12:3) is in the light of this new Divine fact, that
"we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of
another" (12:5), and it is on this basis that the practical
instructions follow.
The vessel through which the Lord Jesus can reveal Himself
in this generation is not the individual but the Body. "God hath dealt
to each man a measure of faith" (12:3), but alone in isolation man can
never fulfill God's purpose. It requires a complete Body to attain to the
stature of Christ and to display His glory. Oh that we might really see
this!
So Romans 12:3-6 draws from the figure of the human body
the lesson of our inter-dependence. Individual Christians are not the Body
but are members of the Body, and in a human body "all the members have
not the same office". The ear must not imagine itself to be an eye. No
amount of prayer will give sight to the ear -- but the whole body can see
through the eye. So (speaking figuratively) I may have only the gift of
hearing, but I can see through others who have the gift of sight; or,
perhaps I can walk but cannot work, so I receive help from the hands. An
all-too-common attitude to the things of the Lord is that, `What I know, I
know; and what I don't know, I don't know, and can do quite well without.'
But in Christ, the things we do not know others do, and we may know them and
enter into the enjoyment of them through others.
Let me stress that this is not just a comfortable thought.
It is a vital factor in the life of God's people. We cannot get along
without one another. That is why fellowship in prayer is so important.
Prayer together brings in the help of the Body, as must be clear from
Matthew 18:19,20. Trusting the Lord by myself may not be enough. I must
trust Him with others. I must learn to pray "Our Father
..." on the basis of oneness with the Body, for without the help of the
Body I cannot get through. In the sphere of service this is even more
apparent. Alone I cannot serve the Lord effectively, and He will spare no
pains to teach me this. He will bring things to an end, allowing doors to
close and leaving me ineffectively knocking my head against a blank wall
until I realize that I need the help of the Body as well as of the Lord. For
the life of Christ is the life of the Body, and His gifts are given to us
for work that builds up the Body.
The Body is not an illustration but a fact. The Bible does
not just say that the Church is like a body, but that it is
the Body of Christ. "We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and
severally members one of another." All the members together are
one Body, for all share His life -- as though He were Himself distributed
among His members. I was once with a group of Chinese believers who found it
very hard to understand how the Body could be one when they were all
separate individual men and women who made it up. One Sunday I was about to
break the bread at the Lord's table and I asked them to look very carefully
at the loaf before I broke it. Then, after it had been distributed and
eaten, I pointed out that though it was inside all of them it was still one
loaf -- not many. The loaf was divided, but Christ is not divided even in
the sense in which that loaf was. He is still one Spirit in us, and we are
all one in Him.
This is the very opposite of man's condition by nature. In Adam I have the life of Adam, but that is essentially individual. There is no union, no fellowship in sin, but only self-interest and distrust of others. As I go on with the Lord I soon discover, not only that the problem of sin and of my natural strength has to be dealt with, but that there is also a further problem created by my `individual' life, the life that is sufficient in itself and does not recognize its need for and union in the Body. I may have got over the problems of sin and the flesh, and yet still be a confirmed individualist. I want holiness and victory and fruitfulness for myself personally and apart, albeit from the purest motives. but such an attitude ignores the Body, and so cannot provide God with satisfaction. he must deal with me therefore in this matter also, or I shall remain in conflict with His ends. God does not blame me for being an individual, but for my individualism. His greatest problem is not the outward divisions and denominations that divide His Church but our own individualistic hearts.
Yes, the Cross must do its work here, reminding me that in Christ I have
died to that old life of independence which I inherited from Adam, and that
in resurrection I have become not just an individual believer in Christ but
a member of His Body. There is a vast difference between the two. When I see
this, I shall at once have done with independence and shall seek fellowship.
The life of Christ in me will gravitate to the life of Christ in others. I
can no longer take an individual line. Jealousy will go. Competition will
go. Private work will go. My interests, my ambitions, my preferences, all
will go. It will no longer matter which of us does the work. All that will
matter will be that the Body grows.
I said: `When I see this ...' That is the great
need: to see the Body of Christ as another great Divine fact; to have
it break in upon our spirits by heavenly revelation that "we, who are
many, are one body in Christ". Only the Holy Spirit can bring
this home to us in all its meaning, but when He does it will revolutionize
our life and work.
More Than Conquerors Through Him
We only see history back to the Fall. God sees it from the beginning. There
was something in God's mind before the Fall, and in the ages to come
that thing is to be fully realized. God knew all about sin and redemption;
yet in His great purpose for the Church set forth in Genesis 2 there is no
view of sin. It is as though (to speak in finite terms) He leaps in thought
right over the whole story of redemption and sees the Church in future
eternity, having a ministry and a (future) history which is altogether apart
from sin and wholly of God. It is the Body of Christ in glory, expressing
nothing of fallen man but only that which is the image of the glorified Son
of man. This is the Church that has satisfied God's heart and has
attained dominion.
In Ephesians 5 we stand within the history of redemption,
and yet through grace we still have this eternal purpose of God in view as
expressed in the statement that He will `present unto himself a glorious
Church'. But now we note that the water of life and the cleansing Word are
needed to prepare the Church (now marred by the Fall) for presentation to
Christ in glory. For now there are defects to be remedied and wounds to be
healed. And yet how precious is the promise and how gracious are the words
used of her: "not having spot" -- the scars of sin, whose very
history is now forgotten; "or wrinkle" -- the marks of age and of
time lost, for all is now made up and all is new; and "without
blemish" -- so that Satan or demons or men can find no ground for blame
in her.
This is where we are now. The age is closing, and Satan's
power is greater than ever. Our warfare is with angels and principalities
and powers (Rom. 8:38); Eph. 6:12) who are set to withstand and destroy the
work of God in us by laying many things to the charge of God's elect. Alone
we could never be their match, but what we alone cannot do the Church can.
Sin, self-reliance and individualism were Satan's master-strokes at the
heart of God's purpose in man, and in the Cross God has undone them. As we
put our faith in what He has done -- in "God that justifieth" and
in "Christ Jesus that died" (Rom. 8:33,34) -- we present a front
against which the very gates of Hades shall not prevail. We, His Church, are
"more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37).