(Concluded from page 134.)

Paul ends the presentation of the glad tidings in the eighth chapter of Romans, and then goes on to other themes.

In the eleventh chapter he says, "Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in " (ver. 25). This will close this Christian dispensation when the dead saints shall be "raised, and the living ones changed in a moment, and all together caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall be ever with the Lord" (i Thess. 4:12). It is then that "the saints are clothed upon with their house (new bodies) which are from heaven " (2 Cor. 5:2). " For (or because) our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself " (Phil. 3:20). After this we are taught by Paul that Israel shall be taken up again, as God’s earthly people, and the kingdom of Israel be restored, with David’s Son, the Lord Jesus, as King, who will (as David in his day) subdue all the earth to His sway, until "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Isa. 45:23, and Phil. 2:10,11). This is the work of the blessed Lord Jesus when He comes again to earth, though the world’s church, in its own darkness, pride, and self-sufficiency, has usurped it, and is now striving in vain to accomplish it!

Paul concludes this epistle of the gospel to the Gentiles in these words:"Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets (new dispensation prophets) according to the commandment of the Eternal God, made known for the obedience of faith" (chap. 16:25, 26). Again, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery" (i Cor. 2:7).

We come now to the next epistle of Paul (as our version is arranged) which is specially addressed to the Church, and contains special instructions for God’s order in the Church on earth. Please keep this in mind, as it is important for a proper understanding of Church truth. All these epistles are to the saints and for their teaching and edification in the Church of God, ‘’ which is the pillar and ground of the truth"-or should be. They are not written for outsiders at all, and cannot be apprehended or understood but by the Spirit of God, whom only the saints have. He dwells in the saints, and is their great Leader and Teacher-by the word of God-if they only have the faith for Him. Here in the beginning, after forbidding any division among them- which command alone should extinguish all sects- he says, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery"- and much more:turn to your Bibles and read it (chap. 2:7).

In the eleventh chapter we have some things for which he praises the Corinthian Church, and others in which he does not praise, but condemns; and one of these is the disorderly manner in which they observe the Lord’s supper. First, he tells them there are divisions (sects) among them, and that it is impossible to eat the Lord’s supper aright in divisions, because it is in itself a symbol of the unity of the Church, all one in Christ Jesus. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (all of one mind with God) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? for we being many are one loaf, one body, for we are all partakers of that one loaf" (i Cor. 10:16, 17). It is therefore impossible to partake aright of the Lord’s supper in sectarianism, because it is in itself a type, or figure, of the one Body, the oneness of the body of Christ. "Is Christ divided? " (i Cor. 1:13.)

In the twelfth chapter we have a full description of the Church, the one body-of which all believers are members:"for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body;" and thus by the Spirit of our God are we all united together into the one body, and by the same eternal bond to our Head who is in heaven. Therefore as all the members of our bodies are completely subject to the head, so also should we all be subject to Christ- in all things. His will for us and about us is fully made known to us in His word, which we have in our hands, and we all have "an unction from the Holy One," to enable us to understand and obey it. Our responsibility is to do this.

In the thirteenth chapter we have set forth the love which characterizes the Church. The word rendered "charity" in our version is better translated "love." In the fourteenth chapter God even gives us the order of worship in the Church. There is no clerisy in it. Clerisy is of man, not of God, and has no place in God’s order for worship. Clerisy is believed by many to be the " Nicolaitanism" of Revelation 2:All worship, and all order in the Church, is of God by the Spirit, gathered by Him unto the name of the Lord Jesus, to remember Him in His death, and with Him in the midst (Matt. 18:20). He rules and reigns in His assembly, and all said or done is to be in subjection and obedience to Him. He is the Head, and we the members of His body, subject to the Head:for no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost (chap. 12:3). Here all things are of God, according to the order set forth in this fourteenth chapter. If one reads or expounds the Word, gives thanks, breaks the bread, sings praise, or exhorts the saints, it is to be by the Spirit and according to God.

The epistles to the Corinthians and also that to the Galatians, as well as all of Paul’s earlier letters, are addressed to the Church; but later, in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, he addresses himself not to the Church, which is significant, but "to the saints and faithful brethren" as individuals:as though the churches had already begun to lose their first love, as is charged against the church at Ephesus in Rev. 2:

In these epistles is set forth the highest grade of Christian truth contained in the whole Bible. In Ephesians we have the highest blessings and privileges of the Church set forth. There is no justification in it, but the saints "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ." "Herein is made known unto us the mystery of His will"-"the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, (the saints) according to the working of His mighty power, (resurrection power) which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:and hath put all under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:18 to end of chapter).

"We (the saints of which the Church of God is composed) are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (new creation) unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them " (chap. 2:10).

In the third chapter we have Paul’s gospel specially set forth. It is a new dispensation, God’s new order for the Church in the world, and is revealed to him out of heaven.

It is "the mystery, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men" (vers. 3-5). It was given to him, he tells us, "to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, to the intent that now (never before) unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (vers. 8-11). There is much more of it in the chapter, which concludes with that wonderful prayer that the saints may be able, by the power of God, the Spirit, to comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height of all this; "and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, (out of which all this blessing comes) that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God’"

In the fifth chapter, we have the relationship of Christ to His Church set forth under the figure of husband and wife. As the wife is-or should be-subject to her husband in all things, so is the Church to Christ. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself; for no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church:for we are members of His body. . . . This is a great mystery:but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."

What a marvelous intimacy exists between Christ and His Church! It is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, united into one body by the Spirit, blest with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, united to Christ the Head in heaven by the Spirit, dead to this world and risen with Christ, as we get in Colossians; and now awaiting His return, thus to get our new bodies of glory, and go to be forever with Him in the Father’s house above!

This is the mystery which had heretofore been hid in God, but is now revealed unto us by the Lord Jesus from heaven, through His chosen messenger, Paul. It is to him, "My Gospel," "The mystery of the Gospel," God’s new order of things for His saints in this dispensation of grace.

In Colossians we have from Paul again, "I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to complete (pleroo) the word of God; the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to His saints." This mystery is revealed through Paul, and not through Peter, James, John or any of the other apostles. He was chosen to complete the word of God to man. It was incomplete until "the mystery of the Church" was revealed.

In the second chapter, we are told that "we are complete in Him," in Christ; "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" and "in Him "- all is in Him-"ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (chap. 2:ii). It is not "the sins of the flesh," as in the common translation, but the body of the flesh itself, the Adam nature set aside in the cross of Christ. The old man has been set aside forever as being unfit for God and incapable of being made fit; therefore he had to be cut off, and was cut off in the cross. This is why the Lord Jesus had to die. He died for us, was cut. off as a substitute for us, and we in Him. Believers accept this truth, by faith take their place with Him in death, the outside place, come to the end of themselves before Him, "reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin," and are made alive by the power of God in new creation. It is the miracle of the new birth, and when so born we are entitled to all the privileges and blessings won for and freely given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is, "as is your faith, so be it unto you." The table is spread, the good things are all provided, come in and take all that you will have! We are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus"; but " in Christ" is out of Adam, to faith. This is resurrection life. It is "risen with Christ" and so beyond the cross, beyond death. It is life, new life, eternal life! It is God’s new creation in Christ Jesus. It is, to faith, out of Adam, and "in Christ"; out of the world, and in the heavenlies!

" If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above; not on things on the earth, for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4).

We shall appear with Him when He comes to judge the earth, because the saints will have previously been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, as set forth in i Thess. 4:The appearing is set forth symbolically in the nineteenth of Revelation, when "the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."

All this, and much more, is the portion of the Church. The way into it is through death and resurrection. Death with Him and resurrection "in Him." It is all of God, by Jesus Christ; real now to faith, and realized in all its fulness when "He that shall come will come and will not tarry."

This is the Church according to God’s mind, as set forth in the Word; and which man in the unbelief of human wisdom has entirely missed; just as Israel missed the knowledge of their own Messiah. It is man’s failure under this dispensation of grace as it was man’s failure under the past dispensation of law.

The World’s Church Judged.

In the book of Revelation we have set forth the Lord in judgment subduing the earth; and first we see the world’s church judged in chapters two and three. The Lord Himself in person, as Judge, is set before us in the first chapter, judging the Church; and in the two next chapters the whole history of the Church in the world is symbolically described from the beginning. It is a sad picture of declensions through the whole of its seven stages, from loss of "first love" in Ephesus, to the pride, boasting and complete ruin of Laodicea,-spewed out of His mouth. Out of it all, only a little remnant that "have kept His word and not denied His name" remains! This remnant is the little church of Philadelphia-"brotherly love."

Out of this scene of judgment the saints are all caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and the whole scene changes to a heavenly one in the fourth chapter. Here is seen the Church in heaven, under the symbol of "the four and twenty elders." Now "the days of vengeance of our God " (Isa. 61:3) are fully come, and the judgments of God are visited upon the earth from heaven, until the nineteenth chapter, in which the Lord with His saints descends to earth and rules and reigns over it in millennial glory.

In all this judgment of the Church, as set forth in the second and third chapters, we have at every step downwards the word of God sounding in our ears, "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." The appeal, it will be seen, is to the individuals in the churches. " He that hath an ear let him hear," etc. The world church will never be reclaimed and brought up to the unity and fellowship of the Church of God revealed to us through Paul; therefore the appeal here is to the individual saints, as to Abram of old, to "leave their country, their kindred, and their father’s house, and go unto a land that I will show thee." It is to come out of the world to Christ; to walk on the water to go unto Him, and this can only be in the faith that God giveth,-to the humble, believing, submissive soul. He is found now in the outside place, the place of rejection, as ever before. "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle (the worldly sanctuary); for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high-priest for-sin, are burned without the camp-in the outside place; wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate; let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name " (Heb. 13:10-16). J. S. P.