(Matt. 13:44–46; 16:18; Eph.1:23; 2:7, 22; 3:10, 21)
We have been occupied much with the experimental side of the truth, and with what God is working in His saints for His own pleasure, that which gratifies His heart now, and that which will be for His glory for all eternity. The Scriptures we have now read show us something of what Christ has procured for Himself in the church, and also what there is for God’s own heart in the assembly.
In Matthew 13, the treasure hid in the field brings before us what the church is for the heart of Christ; it is that which is exceedingly precious to Him, and what He has determined to secure for His heart’s joy and delight. This parable ever reminds us of the Scripture, “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it.” The pearl of great price also speaks of what the church is for Christ; and object of beauty for the reflection of His glory, as it shall indeed be in the coming day, as seen in the heavenly city. To procure what of such value to Him, whether for the satisfaction of His love for the display of His glory, Christ not only gave all that He possessed, but He gave Himself, and more He could not give.
Again, in Matthew 16, we have the church in what it is for Christ, where He says, “I will build my assembly.” Many other Scriptures speak of the church as belonging to God, but here the Son of God speaks of it as His own, that which He Himself is building. Christ is rearing this divine structure, a new creation work, against which the gates of hell have no power. What men are building in responsibility may be defiled, broken and ruined; but what Christ is building is untarnished and impregnable. He will never allow His enemies to touch what is of Himself, that which bears His own character, and sets forth His own thoughts.
At the close of Ephesians 1 we read of the church as Christ’s body and fulness. There are other Scriptures that speak of the church as Christ’s body, that which expresses what He is at the present time; but in Ephesians 1 we see the body in its universal and eternal character, what it will be for Christ in the day of His glory, when He shall give expression to all that is in His mind through the vessel that is so intimately united to Him. And even as Eve was Adam’s fulness or complement in his place of headship over the lower creation, so will the church, derived from Him through His death, and united to Him in His glory, set forth all that He is for His own pleasure and for the glory of God.
If the church was so dear to Christ that He gave Himself for it, it is likewise dear to the heart of God, even as the Apostle Paul reminded the elders of Ephesus, saying that He purchased the assembly “with the blood of His own” (Acts 20:28). The Scriptures read from Ephesians give us some of the reasons for God procuring the church at such tremendous cost to Himself and to His beloved Son.
The closing verse of Ephesians 2 tell us that God has a building that is growing to a holy temple in the Lord, a structure in which all His thoughts and purposes are found engraved upon Christ its chief corner stone. This is the church which He purchased at infinite cost, which will be the shrine of His glory in a day not far distant. While awaiting that day, the church is even now “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” God has ever had before Him a dwelling place among men. It was seen in the tabernacle of old, and in the temple, from which His glory had to withdraw; but God has never given up this thought, and even now, as found in this, and in other Scriptures, by His Spirit God now dwells among His people, who form His habitation.
Verse 7 of this same chapter takes us onwards to the ages to come, and there we see the church, composed of those who once had been dead in trespasses and sins. Each one who has part in this divine display has been quickened into divine life, and is even now seen as risen and seated in Christ in the heavenly places. Our place in Christ now is in view of our place with Christ in the coming ages. Then God will display in us “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
David sought to manifest the kindness of God to Mephibosheth in bringing one who was alienated from him near to him, giving him an inheritance in his kingdom, and a place at his table as one of the king’s sons. It is a beautiful illustration of the kindness of God, but how far short it falls of the blessedness of the place that we enjoy now, and shall soon enjoy in the coming day, when God shows in us to the wide universe what His kindness really is. Taken from our place of distance and death we have been brought to share the brightest and best place with God’s own son in the glory of His kingdom, as sons of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.
In Ephesians 2:10 we learn that we are God’s workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus;” and this is the vessel in which God is now making known “to the principalities and powers in heavenly places” His manifold wisdom. This was ever in the mind of God, for it was “according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Eph. 3:10-11). How rich is the divine wisdom seen in the old creation, and in all His ways with men; but surpassing all that has ever been seen by men or angels is that which is now being displayed in the church which God has purchased by the blood of His own. The natural mind of man is utterly blind to the glories of the new creation, but the greatest intelligences of heaven are seeing in the vessel that God has formed that which must amaze them of the wisdom of their God.
The same vessel through which God will display His grace in the coming ages, and in which He is manifesting His manifold wisdom now to the heavenly intelligences, will soon be used of God for the display of His glory for all eternity. This is what God brings before us in the last verse of Ephesians 3. How wonderful is God’s workmanship in producing from those who once were sinners that which will set forth His glory for ever. But it is in a new creation! All that we were as in Adam will be for ever gone, and the church will be displayed “in Christ Jesus.” All we are then will be of Christ; and every ray of the divine glory will not only set before the universe what God is, but what Christ is.
It is indeed blessed for us even now to be able to contemplate what the church is to Christ, what it is as His own work, as dear to His heart, so dear that went into all the sorrows and judgment of the cross to procure it for Himself, that it might be able to respond to His love and to display what He is Himself in the coming day. And now blessed too to think of what the church is for God; so dear to Him that He purchased it at a price beyond all telling, so that He might be able to dwell in it in time and for eternity, that He might show in it His all-varied wisdom, that He might display the excellence of His grace to the whole universe and the wonders of His glory.
Revised notes of an address by Mr Wm. C. Reid, at Bristol 19.5.64