God's Mighty Work in and Through the Church
’ rjiiiAT God may be all in all’ is the basis of
all apostolic doctrine, from which it sets out, and into which it returns, and round which it revolves. ‘ Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things,’ is the refrain of the apostle’s songs; a refrain which the whole early Church took up and sung with so loud a harmony, that the sound went over earth, and pagan nations awoke, startled at the name of the one living and true God, King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God, so different from their Jupiter, their Mercury, and other such false and unclean gods. The burden of these doxologies is: Glory to that eternal Jehovah who worketh all in all, who filleth all in all.
God is the doer as well as the jpurposer of everything connected with the Christ, and of everytiling relating to the redeemed and their connection with the Christ, who is the centre of all His purposes and desires. The Church is His creation. Each saint is His creation. There is no religion in a man save that which originates with Him, and is consummated by Him. Religion that is self-made, consisting of doctrines, feelings, rites, self-taught and self- wrought, is no better than ancient paganism. ‘ We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’ (Eph. ii. 10): that is, we are His workmanship, not our own (ver. 8); nay, we are His f creation,’ 1 nay, His creation in and by Christ Jesus; and all this for * good works,’ for which God had made all this vast preparation, Ghat we should walk in them.’
Thus God is in Christ purposing concerning us; for Christ and the redeemed are inseparable in the eternal purpose of the Father. That purpose embraces both, and embodies the mutual relationship of the one to the other. It contemplates also, and makes preparation for, the holiness of each re-
1 The words ‘ creation ’ and ‘ workmanship ’ remind ns of the expressions used in reference to the first creation, ‘ His work which God created and made ’ (Gen. ii. 3). deemed one, as well as for the perfection of the whole Church of God; as it is written, f Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, hut according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Tim. i. 9, 10).
Thus God is in Christ working concerning us; for all His operations for us and in us are in connection with the Christ. From the first touch of His hand, when He arrests us in our folly, to the last, when He finishes the glorious work in the resurrection of our bodies, all His doings concerning us are ‘in Christ.’ ‘ He created all things by Jesus Christ,’ is as true of the new creation as of the old. He is the former of all things, the Lord of Hosts is His name. Each hour bears witness to the unceasing and unwearied touches of His hand in moulding us anew after His own image. And all this is the working and the purposing of ‘ love,’ — the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And all this to the praise of the glory of His grace, that God may be all in all.
Thus God is in Christ reconciling us to Himself; for the reconciliation conies through this living channel, and this only. God approaches us in Christ, lays hold on us in Christ, looks at us in Christ, makes proposals to us in Christ, links us to Himself in Christ. c You hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death’ (Col. i. 22). The reconciliation of the covenant is Christ Jesus our Lord. Save in Him, there is no nearness, no favour, no friendship, no fellowship. The one Mediator is the one reconciler, through whom God says to us, ‘ Come unto me; ’ and as there is but one mediation, so there is but one atonement, one propitiation, one reconciliation; one cross, one blood, one death, one burial, one resurrection. For in each of these Christ is all. ‘ He of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.’
Thus God is in Christ, not imputing unto us our trespasses; for the forgiveness of all sin comes through Him, ‘ in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace’ (Col. i. 14). The non-imyutation of sin takes for granted its existence. It exists, but it is not imputed to us, because it has been righteously imputed to another; and that vicarious imputation has been accepted by the Judge, and is presented to us, that we, accepting it, may have all the fulness of the non -imputation or no-condemnation made over to us. We acknowledge the sin, hut we recognise the substitute taking our sin that we might take the pardon; we see the Father reckoning the sin to the sin-hearer, that it might not be reckoned to us.
Thus God is quickening us; for it is written, f God, who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ ’ (Eph. ii. 4); and as He quickeneth us now with Him, so hereafter He will raise us up with Him, in the day of which He speaks, f My dead body shall they arise ’ (Isa. xxvi. 19). The life of Christ becomes our life, flows into us, flows through us, imparting to both soul and body the spiritual energy, or ‘ everlasting life, contained in Him as the one fountainhead, communicating both the present and eternal vitality, which, beginning in the new birth here, is to he consummated in the glories of the first resurrection, at His second coming. Eor it is one life, and one life-giver, and one fountain of life, from first to last.
Thus God is enlightening us; for it is by our connection with Him who is the Light of the world that we are enlightened. f In Him was life, and the life was the light of men ’ (John i. 4); and it is the light proceeding from Him which reveals God to us, and makes us light in the Lord. That which alone is light to us is ‘ the light of the know¬ ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ As of the Hew Jerusalem hereafter, so of the Church now, and so of each believing soul, ‘ the Lamb is the light thereof; ’ and the light of the Lamb is the light of the cross. The cross is our lamp. All is darkness to which the illumination of the cross does not extend. Light for the human spirit! Light for the gloom of earth! Light for the Church of God! All these are to be found in the cross of Him whom God hath set forth as a ‘ propitiation, through faith in His blood: ’ for without the propitiation of the blood, light cannot come to the sinner. Heaven may not need that light, but earth does. It is through the blood of the everlasting covenant that the light streams into the soul; and it is thus that it is to stream into the Hew Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 23), filling it with redemption-light for ever. 4 1 am the Light of the world, is the bright message that is going through earth just now, in the day of her darkness; and it is this that is to be perpetuated for ever in the peculiar glory of the celestial city,- — a city which, though coming down from God out of heaven, is yet to have for its citizens, not angels, but men who have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
Thus God is strengthening us. Our helplessness and the divine power meet together, and find how entirely suitable they are, each to the other. We need divine strength; for the weakness introduced into the human soul by sin is great. The divine strength needs weakness such as ours on which to show itself; for in no case save this can it find occasion for coming forth in all its fulness. God’s purpose, — both to manifest Himself and to deliver us, — was to make us absolutely dependent on His power in every region of our being, and in every part of that mysterious process of our restoration to His image. Therefore He strengthens us with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He makes us ‘ strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might teaching us to ‘ glory in our infirmities, that the peace of Christ may rest upon us.’ There
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is strength enough in Him for us. Every day we need its fulness; every hour we are welcome to it in all its magnitude.
Thus God is comforting us. In the everlasting covenant, the Church is recognised as passing through much tribulation; as being in deep waters and in burning fires:
i The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown;
No traveller ever reached that blest abode,
Who found not thorns and briars in his road.
For He who knew what human hearts would prove,
How slow to learn the dictates of His love;
That, hard by nature, and of stubborn will,
A life of ease would make them harder still;
In pity to the souls His grace designed
To rescue from the ruins of mankind,
Called for a cloud to darken all their years,
And said, Go spend them in the vale of tears.
Such was the purpose of God both concerning the discipline and the deliverance, the road through which His saints were to pass to the kingdom, and the consolation as well as companionship which they were to have upon that way. The Christ was made ‘ perfect through sufferings; ’ and so is the Church. Therefore is consolation needed; otherwise the way would be too sad, and the discipline too heavy. And a Comforter is also needed; that Comforter, the promise of the Father, sent down by Christ to sustain us in the day of His absence. He who purposed all things from the beginning, and now worketh all things according to that purpose, suits the discipline to the case, and suits the consolation to the discipline. He comforteth us in all our tribulation; nay, He makes us to glory in tribulation: for this is the road by which all the former saints went to the kingdom; the way by which all are going now; the way by which the Master went during His sojourn here.
Thus God is ‘purifying us. The furnace was provided in the eternal purpose. We were not in a moment to be transferred to the glory above, as soon as we were begotten again to the lively hope. We were not to be instantaneously perfected and purified, so that sin should be utterly expelled from us, and we should have no more need of the blood; no more need of the daily discipline. God’s purpose was, that our preparation should be by a process, not by an act: that by gradual progress we should be the occasion for drawing out the power and grace of God. Instantaneous perfection seems to some more glorifying to God than gradual improvement. But God does not think so. He wants to show us what sin is, what the power of evil is, what a human heart is, what the blood of Christ can do, what the power of the Spirit can do. And so He purifies us gradually. He has done so from the beginning; and there is not one instance in Scripture of instantaneous perfection, nay, not one instance of perfection at all. The law of the kingdom is expressed in the following prayer of the apostle: ‘ The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have
SUFFERED A WHILE, MAKE YOU PERFECT, stablisll,
strengthen, settle you’ (1 Pet. v. 10).
Thus God is making us His witnesses. Ye are my witnesses, He says to us. Witnesses of whom? Of the Christ of God. We testify of Him; we reflect His light; we radiate His glory. We are His mirrors here. We are like the moon, giving back some of the light He sheds on us; like the sea, shining with His brightness; like the mountains, telling of His greatness; like the wind, speaking of His power; like the flowers, display¬ ing His beauty; like the blue arch, proclaiming His vastness; like the sands, symbolizing the years of His eternity; like the rainbow, unfolding His varied perfections; like the rivers, reminding men
The Christ of Cod.
of the ceaseless roll of His providence; like the rain, showing His refreshing bounty; like the harvest field, displaying the exuberant fulness of His love.
Thus are we in these ways, and in a thousand more, His witnesses: telling out all His glory, and power, and holiness, and love. Our life is to be one continuous witness - bearing to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the Christ Himself, who, when He left this earth, left us behind Him to represent Him here. Let our testimony be full; let our representation be worthy of Him whose representatives we are.
We are left here to bear witness to the Christ of God. Let us see that we do it well.
The world needs our testimony, for it knows Him not, neither cares to know Him. Let our lives be such a testimony as shall win the very worst, and attract the most distant and heedless. Let that testimony be full; let it be consistent: for who can tell the injury that has been done by inconsistent testimony, — by the lives of Christians who wrere far more like the world that they professed to have forsaken, than the Lord to whom they had j oined themselves?
The Church, too, needs consistent witness-hear¬ ing. It needs to he lifted up; and who is to lift it up? It needs to he more completely unworldly and unearthly; and who shall help to make it such? It needs to he roused and quickened; hut who shall rouse and quicken it, if all he slumber¬ ing and sleeping? It needs to start upon a new career of devotedness, and fervent self-denial, and holiness, and love; hut who is to begin?
The Christ of Cod.