Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Question:

5. “W., Oswestry, Salop,” writes, ― “I find that some Christians maintain that the Holy Ghost dwells in Christendom. Now I have always thought … that the Holy Ghost dwells exclusively in the Church. I would be so glad if you would give me your thoughts about this,” etc.

Answer:

I think that a right understanding of the distinction between the Church as the “Body of Christ” (Ephesians 1:22-23), unto which believers are baptized by the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 12:13), and thus united to Christ, exalted and glorified in heaven (1 Corinthians 6:17); and the “House of God,” a “habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22), in the world, will make the matter in your question simple and plain.

When Christ was glorified as Man to heaven, the Holy Ghost (not previously given, see John 7:39) descended from heaven and took up His abode in and with the saints, on the day of Pentecost, as God’s house. (Acts 2.) The Church thus begun, and set up as God’s witness and abode through His Spirit, is styled “the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). This “House” was a co-extensive thing at the descent of the Holy Ghost, with the “Body,” its other aspect, and was the true thing which God Himself fitly framed together; a member in which was a living one, and in union with Christ the Head, by the Holy Ghost. But we find that after its being set up, men began to build on the foundation, wood, hay, stubble; as well as gold, silver, precious stones, etc. (1 Cor. 3), and as a consequence the House, as man built it, began to assume vast proportions, and entirely disproportionate to the Body, the true thing. But still, the Holy Ghost did not leave the House, and this House still was, as far as man’s responsibility went, “God’s building.” “The temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelled! in you” (1 Corinthians 3:9, 17); i.e. collectively those built together were a temple; quite a different thought from the body of the believer being the temple of the Holy Ghost, as in 1 Corinthians 6:19. The House of God soon became what the apostle speaks of in 2 Timothy 2:19-21, and which he likens to a “great house” containing vessels to honour and dishonour; quite a different state of things from its primary state, and which characterised Christendom ever since; and at which judgment has begun (1 Peter 4:17).

The Holy Ghost in the first instance, baptises all believers into one Body (” There is one body and one Spirit,” Ephesians 4:4), uniting them to Christ as Head on one side; and God dwells amongst them as a habitation through His Spirit on the other. He dwells in a “House” or “Habitation” here on earth, and all who profess the name of Christ are responsible for the presence of the Holy Ghost; although not, of course, “sealed” as the true believer, and indwelt by Him. Thus we often find, as the other day in Italy, a remarkable work of the Holy Ghost, where there may not have been previously a single living member of the “Body of Christ.”

A right understanding of the Church as the “Body of Christ,” composed of living members, and the “House,” or professing Church, is the key to much of the teaching of the Epistles. The word “Assembly” (the true word wherever you find “Church” in the English Bible), has a double application. If we look on high it is the Body of Christ ― “The Assembly which is his Body” (Ephesians 1:21-22); if we look below the Assembly is the House (1 Timothy 3:15). The difference lying between union of living members by the Holy Ghost to Christ in heaven, and God having come down to dwell in a habitation on earth.