Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Preface to the First Edition

The lectures in the reader’s hands were delivered in the course of ordinary service in the ministry of the word. Some who heard them thought that they might be useful to others, and the notes of them where given to the writer, and form the basis of these papers.

That they may be a blessing to His people, is the earnest desire of the writer, and if so, they will bring glory to the name of the Lord. Blackrock, September, 1870.

Note: The name “Blackrock Lectures” was the suggestion of a brother in communion, for the sake of distinction from others.

Christ “Head over All the Assembly, which is His Body”;
                a. Christ, “Head over all things”;
                b. “Head … to the assembly.”;
                c. “Which is His Body.”

Lecture 1:

Christ “Head over All the Assembly, which is His Body”

This evening, in the Lord’s mercy, I desire to bring before you, beloved friends, the great subject of the church of God, which, next to Christ Himself, is the centre of all God’s counsels for His glory. It is very sweet, when we are in the consciousness of our relationship as sons — children of God our Father — to be assured of, and instructed in our relationship to Christ as “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” He is never said to be “bone of our bone”; but we are said to be “of his flesh, and of his bones,” when He has gone on high, after His work on the cross by which we are saved.

The church is that wonderful structure in which God will display in all the ages, and throughout eternity, the “exceeding riches of his grace.” How rich He is and how far His grace could go, will be seen in “his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”

The Bible is the history of two men — the “first Adam,” the responsible, or created man; and the “last Adam,” the man of God’s purpose and counsel. The responsible man’s history closed in the cross. The “second Man” — the “last Adam” — came in, and, in blessed and holy love, took willingly the cup of wrath, and died, that God might be free, in righteousness, to let out the floodgates of His love. The stream took its rise in His heart, but needed a righteous channel in which to flow. It was pent up in the heart of Christ, little as we could have conceived it, when He said, “How am I straitened, till it be accomplished” (Luke 12). He poured out His soul unto death and the stream flowed on! God’s heart was thus set free to flow out to sinners — the vilest — the most abject; bearing them back by redemption on its mighty stream, to place them on high — “seated in heavenly places in Christ.”

You do not find God’s purposes and counsels unfolded in scripture till the cross is past. It stands morally at the end of the world’s history. In God’s dealings previous to the cross, you have the responsible man tested and exposed. The Lord Jesus came down and brought out the fact that man was irrecoverably lost. If the world had received Him, it would have proved that there was some latent good in man’s heart which only needed this fresh culture to unfold. But no! Man had no heart for Jesus then, as now. We know this when we think how we desire naturally to live without Jesus. Men will talk of anything but Him. In religion he can clothe himself, and pride himself, because it gives him some importance in his own eyes; but the presentation of the Lord Jesus tests the heart which can thus deceive itself, when He has no place there.

On this side of the cross, historically, you have the purposed Man in glory — the veil rent, and the grace of God preached “unto all,” and no further dealings of God, until His long-suffering is exhausted, when the judgment of the living closes the scene, and introduces the millennial age. We have to do with Him either in grace or in judgment. To know Him in grace, we have passed from death to life; to know Him in judgment is eternal woe!

When the cross is thus passed, all God’s counsels which were before the foundation of the world, unfold themselves to us in the word, and that for the first time. It is exceedingly interesting to trace from scripture what does come out then — when the Lord Jesus, the second Man, is in the glory of God.

I will draw your attention shortly to some of them. In Hebrews 9:26 you read, “Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” This was accomplished by the suffering and death of the cross. I am going to point out all the “nows” of scripture as to these things.

1. In Romans 3:21-26. “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested”; again, “To declare at this time [now] his righteousness,” etc. The judgment that was needed to establish God’s righteousness against sin was poured out upon the head of Jesus; and God took Him up as Man, who had glorified Him by bearing all to His glory, and set Him on His own throne — thus displaying His righteousness, His consistency with Himself in doing so. Thus the gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness, because it is His own consistency with Himself in ministering His grace on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ. We are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” and God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” Instead of the demand for righteousness from man, there is the administration of it to him, and that of God’s righteousness instead of man’s, from the glory where Christ is. The saints of the Old Testament stood on the ground of the “forbearance” of God. We as Christians, stand on His righteousness, (cp. Romans 3:25 with verse 26). There was “the passing over,” [see margin — not “remission”] of sins that are past, i.e., of past ages. Forgiveness was promised (Jeremiah 32), but not preached or proclaimed (Acts 13:38). Suppose the case of a man who owed a debt, and whose creditor forbore with him because some rich man had gone security for his liability. The debt was there, but the creditor forbore to press his claim. But if this rich man came in later and discharged the whole amount, the debtor was free! So with us, in contrast with the saints of old with whom God forbore — the cross now proves His righteousness in doing so — we stand on the ground of God’s righteousness being now gloriously manifested, because Christ is in heaven! (John 13:31-32, John 16:10, John 17:4-5). We who believe possess a purged conscience which no saint of Old Testament times ever could, though he knew God in blessed confidence, and found Him a God of grace. The cross is now the proof of how righteous this forbearance of God was with them.

2. In 2 Timothy 1:9-10. “Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But now is made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and incorruptibility (aphtharsia) to light through the gospel,” etc. (See also Titus 1:1-3.)

3. Then in Ephesians 3:10, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by means of the church the manifold wisdom of God.” (See also Romans 16:25-26, etc.)

Thus we find the closing up of the first man’s history in responsibility in the cross, which stood morally at “the end of the world.” In the cross man consummated his guilt, and there the blessed Son of God drank willingly the cup of wrath, and not only put away our sins, but the man that sinned by enduring the judgment of God that lay upon him. Then God took the man who so glorified Him, and put Him in glory in the display of righteousness. The promise of eternal life before the world was revealed, on the close of man’s history in the death of Christ, he who had the power of death being also annulled; and the eternal purpose of God in the church is made known.

Thus you get all these “nows” of scripture when the cross is past, and Christ is in the glory of God, having accomplished redemption. Sin is put away for the believer; righteousness manifested; eternal life bestowed. There was one more thing that God’s manifold wisdom might be known; namely, the church of God.

Let me remark as to the word “church.” It has done more mischief, and created more misapprehension as to the divine purposes, than almost any other expression. Let us be clear at once as to it, that the word is not in scripture! No doubt you have it in our excellent (for the most part) Authorized Version. But it is not a true representation of the original. In all cases it should be translated “assembly.” If we were to speak of the assembly of England, of Scotland, of Ireland, we would not understand what it meant. When we use the word church, it is a conventional word, conveying a human thought about a human institution.

For instance, take the well known passage in Matthew 18, “Tell it to the church”; read it, “Tell it to the assembly,” and the thought of many of its being the teaching or priestly body, or other organization, is gone.

Now, the interval during which Christ is hidden in the heavens, and the Holy Ghost is dwelling on earth, in contradistinction to His working in other ages, has no computation in scripture. “Times and seasons” belong to the Jew and the earth. The present interval is not “time,” properly speaking, at all. Time is counted when God has to do with earth and earthly things.

What then, is the “assembly of God,” looked upon in the truth of the expression? It is the body of a Head, who has gone on high; formed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, to be the vessel for the expression of Christ, while He is hidden from the world, and before He is revealed in glory. As we have in Ephesians 1:22-23: “And gave him to be head over all things to the assembly which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

In order to facilitate the unfolding of my subject, I have divided it into three heads.

a.) Christ, “Head over all things.”

The universal dominion over all the works of God is bestowed upon the man of God’s counsel, as we find in Psalm 8. So the first Adam, the created man, was given a universal lordship over this scene, as it came from its Creator’s hands. This he forfeited when he fell by sin. We read, “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26). Then, in Ps. 8, this is bestowed on the “Son of man” the man of God’s counsel: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hand: thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea; and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.”

I come now to examine how He takes possession of it all. He does so under four titles; namely, as God, Creator of them; as Son, and appointed Heir of them; as Son of man, according to Ps. 8, the Man of God’s counsel; and as redeemer of His inheritance, which had fallen under Satan’s power through the lusts of man when he fell.

In Colossians 1:15-16. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him.” This refers to all the works of His hands, for the creation of all things is always in scripture attributed to the Son of God. See note. When the persons of the Godhead are distinguished as to creation, He is always the actor. If we look at John 1:3 we find the strongest expression of this. Nothing came into being which ever did come into being, except by Him. “All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” All things were made by Him and for Him, as we see by Colossians 1.

{Note: No doubt it is written, “In the beginning God created,” etc., but there the expression is general; it does not give details as to the activity of the persons of the Godhead. The New Testament brings out definitely the unity of the Godhead in the Trinity of the persons; and there we get details.

Strange that in the creed, called the “Apostles’,” creation is attributed to the Father. Scripture uniformly attributes it to the Son, when it distinguishes the Persons in the Godhead. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son,” etc. End of Note.}

Then He is called the first-born or Chief of all, not as to the point of time of His taking a place in creation; but because of the dignity of His person. If the Creator stoops to take a place in that which displayed His handiwork, He must necessarily be first and chief in it, even if He appeared last of all on the scene.

Now, if you turn to the first chapter of Hebrews and second verse, you will find the same truth, with another added, “God hath in the last of these days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he made the worlds.” Here again, creation is attributed to Him who is appointed Heir of all.

But there is a third point, which you will find in Psalm 8, “O Jehovah, our Adon, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who hast set thy glory above the heavens … What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or, the Son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet,” etc.

Now, with regard to the question which you find in The fourth verse of this Psalm, “What is man?” You will find it asked three times in the Old Testament. In the seventh chapter of Job and seventeenth verse, “What is man that thou shouldest magnify him, and that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment.” The question in this chapter arises in this way. Job, like many, is struggling under the discipline of God’s hand. God is holding Job under His hand for it! And Job is writhing under His dealings, imploring God to let him alone “till he swallow down his spittle!” He speaks in the anguish of his spirit, and asks, in the bitterness of his soul, “What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? and that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?” He pours out his plaint to God, desiring to know how it was that the mighty God should set His heart on such a poor worm as man, “whose foundation is in the dust,” and “who is crushed before the moth.”

In Psalm 144 you have the same inquiry, “What is man?” Here it is the cry to Jehovah of the godly remnant of Israel in the last days, pleading the insignificance of man — their foes — as a ground for the speedy judgments of His hand and their deliverance from their oppressors, who are prospering around them. They cry to Him, “What is man?” Why spare them; why not execute judgment, and thus deliver the people of thy hand?

But when we come to Psalm 8, you find that it is the Spirit of Christ in the Psalmist, which asks the question “What is man?” etc. Put to shame and rejected of men — and of Israel — His plaint goes up to Jehovah, and He asks, from His lowly place of rejection, “What is man?” And we get grace’s answer to it all, in man in Christ, according to the counsels of God; and we therefore have what God is as well, because we have God in grace revealed in Him — going down into death, by the grace of God, to connect the creature with his Creator.

Christ was this Son of man — set over all the works of God’s hand — as Adam, the created man, had been at the first, in the dominion of this scene which he lost, when he was drawn aside of Satan, and fell. Thus we find in this question asked three times, though in very different connection, in the Old Testament; and the answer to the question in Psalm 8 is brought out in wonderful development, displacing the first man by the second, the first Adam by the last, three times in the New. (See Hebrews 2; Ephesians 1; 1 Corinthians 15.)

In Hebrews 2:6 you find the words of the Psalm quoted, as far as they are fulfilled — the end of the Psalm has actually yet to come. It is touching, too, how the inspired writer of Hebrews will not say, David “in a certain place testified,” etc. How well he knew that a greater than David was there! He writes, “One in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the Son of man, that thou visitest him. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hand: thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.” Then he explains, “For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus [this “Son of man”], who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for everything.” This is the word; not merely “every man.”

He has tasted death in all its bitterness, not only for the glory of God, which required it; and to destroy the power of Satan, who had gotten the power of death over man; and for the sins of His people, if He was to bring many souls to glory — but also for the whole inheritance as His title to bless it. Every blade of grass, every leaf of the trees, He has died for! He takes His inheritance, with all its load of guilt, and dies to redeem it all — tasting death for it, “by the grace of God.” This is a far wider thought than the saints merely, though they are included in it.

The beautiful world, beautiful wherever man’s hand has not marred it, or his foot has not trodden it down; that which came out of the hand of its Creator in all its variety of living beauty, displaying His handiwork in all its lights and shadows — it has been purchased by the blood of Christ. Already redeemed by blood from the hands of the enemy, it has yet to be redeemed by power. The eye of faith turns on high and sees Him on the throne of God, the title to all things in His hand, as God their Creator, as Son and Heir of them, and as Man! Yet more, as the One who has “tasted death” for it! He took the curse that was on the scene; and the day is coming when not a vestige of that curse will remain. The thorns and thistles of Adam (Genesis 3:18), and the want of fruitfulness of Cain (Genesis 4:12), will give place to the earth yielding her increase (Psalm 67:6), and the thorn and thistle giving place to the myrtle and the fir tree (Isaiah 55:13). He will inherit it as its Redeemer-Heir. He tastes death and then goes on high, where God has “crowned him with glory and honour”

Thus He is there, “Head over all things” in a fourfold title Creator, Son and Heir, Son of man, and Redeemer. There He awaits the joint-heirs (His bride for that day of glory), and when all are gathered, He will put forth His great power, and binding Satan, will possess all, and we shall be joint-heirs of it with Him. That interval is marked by the presence of the Holy Ghost dwelling here below.

b.) “Head … to the Assembly.”

The second point I desire to bring before you is, that Christ, as man in glory, is thus “Head over all things”; is Head, not over, but “to the assembly.” You will mark strongly that He is never said to be Head over the church, but to it. We will look at it in its other aspect as “His body,” again.

Now I may surprise some (who have grasped the truth of the church being the body of Christ, formed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven at Pentecost), by saying that the thought of the “assembly” was well known in the Old Testament scriptures, and familiar to the order of things in Israel. Thus we find the word where it has perplexed some, in learning that the church, as we know it now from scripture, began its existence after the ascension of Christ and descent of the Holy Ghost. I refer to the passage in Acts 7, “The church [assembly] in the wilderness,” referring to Israel in their Journey from Egypt to Canaan. The whole congregation of Israel as they came out of Egypt, in its corporate unity, as well as its gathering together, is treated as the assembly. In Exodus 22 we read of “the whole assembly of the congregation.” In the expression “the tabernacle of the congregation,” it is another word in the original, and should be rendered “tabernacle [or “tent”] of meeting,” and signifies the place where they met Jehovah. I need hardly say that, comparatively, there were but few true saints of God amongst that great congregation.

But in its corporate unity as a nation come out of Egypt, and the assemblage of the people it was termed and treated as the “assembly” of Jehovah. You know how they defiled His dwelling-place; for He had brought them out of Egypt that He “might dwell among them” (Exodus 29:45-46), so that finally He removed His glory or presence from their midst (Ezekiel 8 – 11).

Let us carry the thought with us that Israel, as a nation, was the “assembly” of Jehovah. They corrupt themselves wholly in this position, and God has two great controversies with them in His dealings by-and-by, when He takes them up again.

Isaiah 40 – 48 gives His first great controversy with them (especially Israel) for idolatry, ending with the words, “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, unto the wicked.” The second is more specially with the Jews, than with Israel as a nation. It is from Isaiah 49 to 57, and ends with the somewhat similar words, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” This is for the yet deeper guilt of the rejection of Jehovah-Messiah, come into their midst in grace. The general testimony of Isaiah, as of the other prophets, is that a remnant only would be spared and saved, when God would turn His hand to deal with them once more.

I may here mention, what has been noted, that the book of Isaiah, exclusive of the historic interlude in chapters 35-38, is divided into two great portions, chapters 1 to 34 giving their external history in the midst of, and with relation to, the nations with whom they have to do (outside of those embraced in the Gentile empires, to whom the throne of the world was given, when God removed the glory from the earth; these we find in the book of Daniel). Then, after their external history (Isaiah 1 to 34), and the historic interlude of parabolic significance (Isaiah 35 to 39), we get their internal or moral history discussed (Isaiah 40 to 56).

If we examine Isaiah 8:12-18, we find only a remnant attached to Christ, who becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. In Isaiah 5 Jehovah looks back on the nation as to how they answered to the culture bestowed upon them; they “brought forth wild grapes.” In Isaiah 6 He looks forward, and they are proved to be unfit for the glory of the Lord of Hosts: they are “undone”; Isaiah here representing the people before Jehovah.

What is now to be the remedy? Jehovah of Hosts will become a man! This was now the resource. The virgin would bear a Son (Isaiah 7:14) and Jehovah of Sabaoth becomes Emmanuel — God with us! In Isaiah 8:12-18, He becomes a stumbling-stone and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, and historically He was in the Gospels, (cp. Matthew 21:42-44, etc.), but a sanctuary to the remnant who attach themselves to Him. “He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel: for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him” (vv. 14-17).

Thus, we find that Christ became a stumbling stone to Israel, but a small remnant of the people attached themselves to Him — who were “for signs and wonders “in Israel (cp. Hebrews 2:13).

I will now trace shortly the history of this remnant, while Jehovah hides His face from Israel. You find it distinctly in Matthew’s gospel. In Matthew 4 He goes out in Galilee, and calls around Him Peter and Andrew his brother; then James and John, and so the company of His disciples. Mark what Isaiah 8:16 says, “Bind up the testimony, and seal the law amongst my disciples.” He began to do that in the Sermon on the Mount; but when we go on to Matthew 16 Peter confesses Him “Son of the living God,” and Jesus says, “On this rock I will build my assembly.” Israel having nationally failed as the assembly of the Lord, He now unfolds that He would replace it by an assembly which He was about to build; which still was a future thing.

Now turn with me to Psalm 22 and you will find definitely the position in which this remnant is placed by redemption. You have there the great question of good and evil solved by Christ on the cross. All the evil that is in man’s heart brought out; all the cup of divine and righteous wrath against sin poured out upon the devoted head of Jesus! The cross of Christ surpasses in moral glory all that this universe will ever behold! It is a necessity, because of a holy and righteous God, that sin must be judged. But what necessity was there that the holy, spotless Son of God should be treated as sin, and left to endure the judgment of God due to it? None, but that of His own sovereign grace “He who knew no sin was made sin for us.” This the cross reveals. God whose holy nature cannot allow sin to remain unjudged, to spare the sinner, and give expression to all that was in His heart, did not spare His Son. He was left to be forsaken of God, as we learn from that solemn cry bursting forth from His heart at that surpassing “hour,” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” There the great question of good and evil has found its eternal solution. Where man was, in evil at its culminating point and sin receives its righteous judgment, there all that God was in goodness has found its infinite revelation in Him who devoted Himself for this to His glory at all cost to Himself. The turning point is reached in verse 21, “Yea, thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” Then His first thought is, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the assembly [cp. Hebrews 2:12] will I praise thee.”

Israel, as we saw, was originally the assembly of Jehovah. The whole thing fails, on the one hand sinking back into idolatry; on the other, rejecting Jehovah-Messiah, come in lowly grace. The remnant, which was to form the nucleus of the new assembly, is delivered and attached to Christ, and instructed by Him. It did not get the name “assembly” until His resurrection, save in the announcement of His yet future purpose to Peter; but when the Lord had passed through the judgment of the cross, as described in Psalm 22. and He is heard from the horns of the unicorns — a figure of the transpiercing judgment of God — His first thought is to declare the name of His deliverer — God to His brethren, now owned thus for the first time; for divine love was free now, so to speak, to act according to its own dictates.

Historically this was fulfilled in John 20. The judgment of the cross was passed in John 19; and in chapter 20. He is standing forth in resurrection: the whole question of sin has been gone into and settled – not a shadow of it left on our souls, who believe. The first man’s history is closed under God’s judgment fully executed. I thank God, every Christian here can say, and should without hesitation be able to say, there is not the weight of the smallest cloud on my soul, that Christ has not removed. The second Man is able to associate us with Himself in all the place He enters into as risen from the dead.

He turns to Mary (John 20:17) saying, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and unto my God, and your God.” That is, the Son of God places the disciples on the same platform as Himself by redemption: He is not ashamed to call them “brethren.” The finest message that ever passed through mortal lips is sent to them through a woman, who, ignorant if you please, could break her heart for Christ! The Son of God is not ashamed to call them “brethren” — now named such for the first time — because they stand in all His own acceptance before the Father! His Father is their Father; His God is their God! He thus declares His name, and pronounces “peace” twice; and breathes on them “life more abundantly,” as the last Adam — a “quickening spirit.” “The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” In life He had declared His Father to them: in resurrection He presents them to His Father as sons!

Thus, you have the “assembly,” now definitely in its place for the first time composed — of the same remnant of Israel, and Christ in their midst — proclaiming peace and declaring His Father’s name.

Now mark, all this is on earth, and Christ is still there. Psalm 22 goes no further than resurrection. So that as yet we have no Holy Ghost come down from heaven, and consequently the “body of Christ” not yet formed.

Now, if we turn to Acts 1, another truth comes out. They were to remain in Jerusalem until they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost, “not many days hence.” His earthly work of the cross was over; all its fruits will be accomplished in due time. His heavenly work of baptizing with the Holy Ghost — so frequently spoken of in the Gospels — was yet to come. He says, “For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” That of “fire” is omitted, because it is yet to come. The fire of judgment will yet cleanse His kingdom of every stumbling-block and them which do iniquity. It has nothing to do with the Holy Ghost’s appearance in tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost.

This baptism was to change the relationship of this “assembly” into one not yet revealed or accomplished. They are the “assembly,” but not yet “his body.” I wish to keep these two thoughts distinct in your mind, before they become interchangeable by the subsequent descent of the Holy Ghost, as in Ephesians 1:22-23.

In verse 9 the Lord ascends to heaven, and a cloud receives Him out of their sight. In chapter 2 the Holy Ghost personally, see note 1, 2 descends from heaven, and they were all baptized of Him. He sat upon each of them, and filled all the house — dwelling thus “in them,” personally, and “with them,” collectively. This assembly is now God’s habitation through the Spirit. The one hundred and twenty disciples — thus baptized — are technically named the “assembly” from that moment (Acts 2:47). See note 2. The Holy Ghost now dwells on earth for the first time, and consequent on redemption. He had wrought before He came to dwell, as in Old Testament days.

{Note 1: The reader will do well to consult John 14 — 16 as to the personal presence of the Holy Ghost upon earth, consequent on the work and departure of Christ. “The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). John 14:16, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”; not for a few years, as He who was then about to leave them. The world would not receive Him, but He would not be only “with them” as Jesus, but “in them.” Read the last clause of v. 17 thus, “For he shall dwell with you, and shall be in you.” Not only is this rendering correct, but the context proves it to be the thought. Then v. 26, the Father would send Him in the Son’s name; and in John 15:26, the Lord would (as gone on high) send Him from the Father.

John 16 shows the Comforter’s presence on earth, and what He would be when Christ was gone. It was expedient that He should go (verse 7); until then the Holy Ghost would not come; “If I depart I will send him unto you.” Vv. 8-15 show what He would be, and how He would act when come, with regard to the world and the disciples. He would glorify Jesus on earth (verse 14), as Jesus had glorified the Father on earth (John 17:4).

It is the unfolding of the actions of a divine Person on earth in company with the disciples.

In 1 Peter 1:11-13 we find three steps of much moment, marking the presence of the Holy Ghost, sent down from heaven as the special truth of Christianity. The Spirit of Christ in the prophets, prophesied of things not yet come, but to be ministered to us (v. 11). The glad tidings of the accomplishment of these things – Christ having suffered and gone on high — were preached to us by the Holy Ghost, sent down from heaven, a mediate thing between the sufferings and the glories that were to come (v. 12); and then these things were to be brought in at the revelation of Jesus Christ, now hidden in the heavens.

Note 2: If the word “assembly” in verse 47 be questioned, we find that a separate and distinct company was formed and recognized (see Acts 4:20); and they are termed the “assembly” in Acts 5:11, before the breaking up of the whole thing externally in Acts 8. End of notes}

The “temple” in Jerusalem was an empty house, and Israel an “untoward generation.” The “assembly” was now the “city of refuge” for the “slayer of blood,” where those who bowed to the guilt of their Messiah’s blood could flee.

{Note: The “assembly of God” is ever since, the “city of refuge” for the poor Jew — guilty of His Messiah’s blood; and, fleeing to it, he is safe from the avenger of blood. When the death of the high priest, anointed with the holy oil, takes place; that is, in the antitype — when the Lord Jesus finishes His present intercessional Priesthood on high; the poor Jew may then, and only then, return to the land of his inheritance (see Numbers 35). End of note.}

It was an analogous state of things, as in 2 Samuel 5, 6, when the ark was in delivering grace on mount Zion with David; and the tabernacle at Gibeon, with no ark or presence of Jehovah. Analogous, too, to the pitching of the tent outside the camp by Moses, (Exodus 33) and every one that sought the Lord went out to it.

Now, to this “assembly” the Lord added such as were being saved from the destructions about to fall on the nation of Israel. This is the force of Acts 2:47. It does not raise the question of their ultimate salvation; nor is it a description of their state as “saved ones,” but is rather the characteristic or technical name for a class of persons (the three thousand, for instance, on that day) which were being saved from the judgments about to fall on the nation. They were all Jews. See also Luke 13:22-23.

In Acts 3, see note, Peter proposes that Christ would return and bring in all the blessings of the kingdom, as spoken of by the prophets, and thus all the kindreds of the earth — the Gentiles — would be blessed.

{Note: This is an interesting point. In Acts 3 you have nothing at all about the “assembly.” Peter goes back to the fathers of Israel, and proposes — by the Holy Ghost come down, and in answer to the intercession of Jesus on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” — that if they would bow and repent He would return, and the times of restitution, and all that the prophets had spoken, would ensue. Thus God was bringing in the responsibility of Israel; while Has purpose was working under all for the “assembly.” The two principles of responsibility and purpose are worked out in the wisdom of God, as from the beginning. End of note}

In Acts 4 you get the answer of Israel to the proposal. It was wholly refused! They put the two apostles, Peter and John, in prison; and in Acts 5 the whole twelve: then Stephen (Acts 6, 7) sums up their whole history in responsibility, from Abraham’s call till that moment. Despised promises; a broken law; slain prophets; a murdered Christ; and a resisted Spirit, is the terrible tale! (vv. 51-53). Stephen seals his testimony with his blood, and commits his spirit to the Lord, and all is over.

The “assembly” is scattered to the four winds; and Saul of Tarsus, the most determined of opponents, “made havoc of the assembly, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison.” The whole external thing is dispersed, and Saul heads the persecution that brings it about.

The blessing goes down to Samaria in Acts 8. But in Acts 9 the man who was the most terrible opponent and leader in wasting the assembly, is converted. Called out by the mighty power of God — apart from all earthly intervention, apart from the twelve apostles — a heavenly light appears to him, “above the brightness of the sun”; and the first sentence spoken to him by the Lord of glory conveys the truth of the union of these scattered saints with Him in glory, as not now merely His “brethren,” but “me!” “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” They are united by one Spirit to Christ in glory, and He owns it!

This bitter foe is taken up of God, and made the minister of the gospel to every creature which is under heaven, and of the “assembly” which he had wasted — to fill up the word of God! (See, for the double character of Paul’s ministry, Ephesians 3:8-9; and Colossians 1:23-26.)

This leads us now to the third point which I desire to bring before you, that is, The body of Christ.

c.) “Which is His Body ”

We have seen that the “assembly” in its external manifestation in Jerusalem was scattered abroad at the death of Stephen. Then the blessing flowed down to Samaria, and Saul of Tarsus, in the midst of his terrible career of sin and rebellion against a glorified Christ is called out to be the minister of that grace which called him, and of the assembly which he had persecuted, and of the faith which once he had destroyed! He is converted to the recognition of the union of those scattered saints with an ascended Christ. “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” This wonderful truth he ministers in Ephesians 1, 2:1-10, both as it was in the counsels of God, and action to make it good. Everything in this scripture is looked upon as from God’s side — even faith (Ephesians 2:8) is the gift of God. He first shows the choice of the persons, before the foundation of the world; and as predestined to certain privileges. Individual relationship as men in Christ with God, and sons before the Father, first, fully settled. It is the highest of all our relationships; higher even than our being members of Christ’s body. To the praise of the glory of His grace they are accepted in the Beloved. Thus they have been brought by redemption, as we have seen, into the same place with Christ as man (Ephesians 1:3-7). Then each has been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, having believed the Gospel of his salvation the seal of God marking us as His, as looking back at the perfection of the redemption which is past; as looking forward, an earnest of the inheritance that is before us, as joint-heirs with Christ in His headship over all things which is to come (Ephesians 1:13-14). The inheritance we have not yet actually received, nor could we till He receives it; the earnest of it we have, in the dwelling of the Holy Ghost.

The salvation, the glad tidings of which we have heard, is the deliverance or transfer of the person out of the old state and place in which we were in Adam into an entirely new place and relationship with God in Christ.

Then Christ is seen raised up as Man and gone on high, set at God’s right hand, Head over all things to the church which is His body, which is formed of Jew and Gentile, dead in sins, children of wrath, quickened together with Christ, raised up together, and seated, [not yet with, but] “in” Him in the heavenlies. Such is the revealed place of the assembly, “His body,” according to the counsels of God, and the work of God by which He effectuates them, during the interval while Christ is hidden in the heavens, and rejected by the world; and before He is de facto “Head over all things.” When all things are put under His feet in the age to — come the “assembly,” in purpose and result is “his body,” the fulness of Him that dwelleth in all.”

Thus we have seen Christ — “Head over all things,” in three characters: God — Creator of them; Son — and appointed Heir of them; and as Man, according to Psalm 8, the Man of God’s counsel and purpose. He takes it all by redemption, as by personal right. But an interval comes, while He is hidden in the heavens, and the Holy Ghost dwells on earth; during which He is seated on His Father’s throne (Revelation 3:21), before He sits on His own — as Son of man. “We see not yet all things put under him.” Meanwhile, the “assembly” — “his body” — is formed; its members co-quickened with Him, co-raised, one with the other, and co-seated in the heavenlies in Christ.

Now if we had no more than this about the body of Christ, in scripture, we should have to accept what many, alas! have held from very early days in the history of the church, that this body is invisible, and only a thing of counsel and purpose in God’s mind. This thought came from confounding the visible, external body, or house, with the true body of Christ. The not seeing what the body of Christ was, and the distinction between it and the visible assembly around, forced those who could not accept the visible corrupt thing as His body, to invent the terms “visible” and “invisible church.”

But when we turn to the first epistle to the Corinthians, we find (1 Corinthians 12:12-26) another thought than that in Ephesians 1. There we have the body of Christ seen in God’s purpose and counsel, as it will yet be manifested in glory, and those who compose it — seated in heavenly places in Christ; that, which, when He is in possession of all His glory, as Son of man, in the coming age, is “his body.” In 1 Corinthians 12 we see the body of Christ as actually existing upon earth, maintained in unity by the power of the Holy Ghost. So much is the truth of its being here on earth before the mind of the apostle, that he says, in v. 26, “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” Here all its members are seen on earth; this is plain, for the saints who have fallen asleep do not “suffer.” It is those who are on earth at any given time, during the sojourn of the church on earth, who enter into the thought of this scripture; they are maintained in unity by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, who baptized them into “one body.”

Here let me say, that an individual is not said to be baptized with the Holy Ghost in scripture. Not even our Lord Himself. Of the descent of the Holy Ghost on Him, as Man, in bodily shape as a dove, when He was about to enter upon His public ministry, He says Himself, “For him hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27).

The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a corporate thing, forming the relationship of a body of people, as of the assembly on the day of Pentecost. The one hundred and twenty were corporately baptized of the Holy Ghost, and thus constituted “one body,” not at that time, of course, for the truth of it was not revealed, for the faith of its members, but truly so before God. Afterwards, Gentiles were incorporated into this body, as in Acts 10, 11 (see especially Acts 11:15-17). Now, this baptism of the Holy Ghost having formed all those in whom He dwelt into “one body” at Pentecost, there was no need to repeat it from that time. Individual saints, members of the body of Christ, have died, and their spirits are with the Lord; their bodies — the temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19) dissolved in dust, and perhaps scattered to the four winds. They are of that body, and will be found in its unity in eternity, but have ceased to enter into account as of it here, as at present seen on earth, where it is maintained in its unity by the Spirit of God. Those who have ever since believed the glad tidings of their salvation have come into this body by the individual sealing of the Spirit of God; and thus it is true of believers now on earth, that “by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body,” because we have, by the sealing of the Spirit of God, come into that which was then formed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

How important, beloved friends, is it to see that this body of Christ is here upon earth now, as truly as on the day of Pentecost. Why? Because the Holy Ghost is here on earth, where, as to personal place, He maintains the body of Christ. All those who have died and passed away are of the body of Christ, as seen in Eph. 1; but it is only those alive, at this, or any given moment, on earth, who are seen and treated as the body of Christ, according to this chapter before us. So that here, at the close of nineteen centuries, the body of Christ is maintained in its unity as truly and perfectly as when it was at first constituted at the day of Pentecost. The external manifestation, alas, is gone; but the Holy Ghost, who came down and constituted it first, is here still; and the body of Christ is maintained, as then, by His presence and power.

Now, when we come to 1 Corinthians 12:27, we find that Paul applies this truth to the assembly at Corinth: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” That is, in principle, as gathered together at Corinth, they were the body of Christ in Corinth: not, of course, separating them from the whole body here below, but as part of it, and according to the principle of their constitution; and so true of the whole complement of the saints in any other given place.

When we read the closing verses (1 Corinthians 12:28-31), another and important thought comes in. He changes the language now from “body” to “assembly.” In Eph. 1 we remember that “assembly” and “body” are used as interchangeable terms. Because the thing is there seen in its result, and according to the purpose of God. In 1 Corinthians he speaks of the “assembly,” and speaks of the “body”; treating one practically and in principle as the other, because the truth of the “body” was to be worked out and expressed in the “assembly,” but he does not use the words interchangeably. This is very striking, and shows the wisdom of God’s Spirit in the choice of His words.

It draws forth the adoration of the heart of the renewed man, those wondrous touches of wisdom in the word of God. In what is only a stumbling-block at times to unbelief, faith finds a mine of divine wisdom and beauty. The Lord be praised for the opened eye to behold and profit by His words!

It is in this epistle that we find the responsibility of man coming in, and warnings to those who have Christ’s name on them, as well as to those who were builders after the apostles (see 1 Corinthians 3). Of this we shall speak in full on another occasion, as the Lord may direct. In these closing verses, then, of 1 Corinthians 12, we find, after He has unfolded the body, as seen on earth, and spoken of the assembly in Corinth as being in principle the body, he then shows various members of the body of Christ, gifts and the like, set in the assembly: members of the body, set in the assembly — of course, looking at the latter, as the whole corporate profession of Christianity on earth. But while the “body” is spoken of, and the “assembly” is spoken of, one is not said to be the other (Ephesians 1:22-23), although treated as practically identified here below. It was the ruin of the assembly, when this ceased to be so.

This gives room for the working out in full result of the grace and work of God, in the truth and fact of the church as built by Him; while leaving room for man’s responsibility to come in, and warnings to be given as needed here below, as to the responsible church built by man.

In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, we have the Lord’s table given us to be the symbol of the unity of this body of Christ upon earth, in partaking of the “one loaf.” “For we being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf.”

We have seen then, I trust, dear friends, the body of Christ in its two -fold presentation, that is, first, as formed of saints seated in the heavenlies in Christ according to the purpose of God in eternity and His work in time, which gives it a wholly heavenly character. Secondly, upon earth maintained in unity by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the present interval, the faith of which is expressed in partaking of the “one loaf” in the Lord’s supper. I turn now to another aspect of the church, as the “House or habitation of God” here below. This will come out as a separate subject.

Meanwhile, may the Lord bless His people fully. May each one’s eye be single, that the whole body may be full of light, and that the truths we have sought to bring before them in some little measure, may, with all their sanctifying power, form our souls that He may be glorified, and that we may grow up to Him in all things, for His name’s sake. Amen.

Note. It is of the deepest importance to apprehend that the body of Christ, as seen on earth, during the interval while Christ is hidden in the heavens, is only composed of those saints who at this moment are alive on earth. There is one scripture (Ephesians 1:22) which looks at it in purpose and result as the entire gathering out of the saints from Pentecost till the Lord’s coming for the saints. The others treat it as the complement of saints here, where, as to personal place, the Holy Ghost is, who constitutes, by His presence in the members, “one body.”

In Romans 12 it is seen in the activities of its members on earth.

In 1 Corinthians 12 it is so fully seen on earth that “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.” Those here are only those who are in the place of suffering; and gifts are not in heaven.

In Eph. 4 the ascended Christ has given gifts to His body, for the perfecting of the saints, and gathering and edification of the body as also seen on earth: for such ministry and edification is not in heaven but here; where it is said of it, “From which the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,” etc.

The apostles saw that before their eyes on earth which was the body. They never contemplated the church remaining here for long, but looked for the coming of the Lord. He did tarry, in long-suffering love. Still the thing which is here before our eyes is the body, as before theirs. Just as the British army is the British army now, that is, the effective fighting men; and it was the British army at Waterloo also; and probably not a soldier remains in it that was in it then. They have, like the saints who have died, passed out into the reserve, or freedom from service, as Paul and the saints since then; and while all of it, do not enter into the count of the body as seen of God on earth today. They will be eventually, according to Eph. 1 the body when Christ is de facto Head over all things, and meanwhile, I am sure, suffer loss of no privileges whatever which they enjoyed when here.