The rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by His people Israel only served to bring to light the hidden purposes of God for the blessing of all who accepted the Son of God. We see this when the cities of Galilee, where most w3of the Lord’s mighty works were done, refused Him. It was then that the Lord Jesus said, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25). If Israel closed its door upon its Messiah, the Father opened another door for His Son, where all His counsels were to be found, and where the Son would have companions who could enter into the thoughts, desires and feelings of His heart, and who would be able to respond to them to give Him joy. To those who felt the burden of the law, the Lord offered rest, if they would come to Him; indeed, coming under His direction and control, they would find rest for their souls, which could not be found in any other.
“My Sheep”
Those who came to the Son of God for rest, the babes to whom the Father gave His wonderful revelations, were also the sheep of the Good Shepherd to whom the porter of Israel opened the door (John 10:2-3). Jesus had come to lead His own sheep, those who were truly His, and knew His voice, out of the fold of Judaism into a new place, where they would have salvation, liberty and nourishment. He was not the door of the Jewish fold, but the door by which His own could enter into the blessings of Christianity.
For His sheep to obtain these blessings it was necessary for the Lord, as the Good Shepherd, to lay down His life for the sheep. Through His death he would make available for them the life more abundant, the eternal life, that had been manifested in His life, and that He desired should be theirs. These wonderful blessings of life, salvation and liberty, could not be confined within the narrow limits of Judaism, even as Jesus said, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one Shepherd” (verse 16).
The privileges of Christ’s sheep were immense, knowing and hearing His voice, being known of Him, and knowing Him as the Father knew Him and He knew the Father. What blessed nearness and intimacy are expressed in these things that were entirely new. Believing Jews and Gentiles were to be called to share together privileges and blessings beyond anything that had been spoken of before, having eternal life from the Son of God, and knowing the peace and security of being held in the hand of the Son and the hand of the Father.
“My Friends”
If the sheep of Christ receive divine life, salvation, liberty, nourishment, peace and security, and have the privileges of nearness and intimacy with Christ, hearing His voice and following Him; there is something more for those who are thus blessed of God, for the Lord Jesus speaks of them as His friends, saying to His disciples, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). This is not exactly the love spoken of in Romans 5:5–10, the sovereign love of God for His enemies; it is the complacent love of Christ for those in whom He finds delight, for He adds here, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Obedience to Christ’s commandments, which are not grievous, is the evidence that we are His friends.
There was no doubt in the mind of the Lord about His disciples, for He said to them, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what His Lord does: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (verse 15). The disciples were His friends, and we have been brought into the same intimate place to know the deep secrets of the Father’s heart that were made known to the disciples by the Son. This place of friendship had its wonderful privilege of knowing the heavenly secrets of the Father, but it also had a commensurate responsibility, obedience to Him who had so confided in those He had brought so near to Himself, and were so dear to His heart.
“My Brethren”
Although the Son of God had disclosed the secrets of the Father’s heart to His friends, they were not yet able, while He was with them on earth, to enter into the true blessedness of all that He spoke. For this they needed the Holy Spirit, who would bring to their remembrance all that the Lord had spoken to them (John 14:26); and the Spirit could not be given until the Lord had come out of death and gone to the Father.
But the Lord could not wait till He ascended on high to tell His disciples of the new place into which His death had brought them, for on the day of His coming out of death, He said to Mary Magdalene, “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 to my God, and your God” (John 20:17-18). This was quite a different kind of relationship to sheep and friends, for this association with the risen Son of God brought His own into His place before the Father in relationship with Him.
Coming into the midst of His disciples, the risen Son of God said to them, “Peace unto you.” This peace was the fruit of His death for them, peace for the conscience and peace for the heart. He then showed them His hands and His side, the marks that His love for them had left as a memorial of His sufferings. Gladness then filled the hearts of the disciples in having in their midst their Lord and Master who had entered into death to bring them His own peace and the true knowledge of His love. On sending the disciples forth into the world to represent Him in testimony, the Lord breathes into them His own life, the life of the last Adam, saying “Receive ye Holy Spirit.”
More of what these new relationships meant for the disciples of the Lord awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit, even as the Lord had already said to the disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now; howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12-13). Some of these things connected with our subject are found in Ephesians 1, where the Apostle Paul opens out the blessings connected with the Name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“His Companions”
The personal glory of the Son of God is the special subject of Hebrews 1, which quotes from a number of Old Testament Scriptures in support of its theme. In Psalm 45, quoted in verses 8 and 9 of this chapter, in addressing the Son, God says to Him, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,” and having thus clearly stated the divine glory of the Son, the Holy Spirit adds, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows,” or companions.
Is it not surpassing wonderful to learn that such a great and glorious Person should have companions, those who are partakers with Him in that which He has secured as Man? His companions have part in the same anointing, even as the sons of Aaron had part with the High priest in his anointing. Having received the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier “and they who are sanctified are all of one” (2:11), and we partake of His joy as anointed with Him with the oil of gladness. Because of who Jesus is, and because of what He has done, He must be supreme in every circle in which He is found with those whom He has blessed. Having plumbed the deepest depths of suffering and sorrow, He is found in the midst of His brethren “anointed with the oil of gladness” above them.
Again, in Hebrews 3:14, we have this association with the Lord, where it is written, “For we are made partakers (or companions) of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” The companions of Christ have the privilege of nearness to Him to share His joy; they have also the responsibility of being faithful to Him in the world where He is still rejected. The Lord does not ask us to be faithful in our own strength; He has provided the grace that enables us, in dependence upon Him, to hold fast the assurance the Gospel has brought to us, and that we have accepted by faith.
“My Assembly”
Believers are not only individually in relationship with Christ, there are the collective and corporate aspects also. In Matthew 16 the church as built by Christ is revealed to Peter. The Father had revealed to Simon Peter who Jesus was as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lord said to Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (verse 18). Peter was a stone for this building, a living stone, as is every true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ, but the rock was Christ Himself, and every stone built upon this foundation had the life and nature of Him upon whom the building rested.
Christ being the Builder, every part of what He built must set forth what He is, and this ensured that no enemy could touch any part of His assembly. Nothing of the first Adam is found in this divine structure, for Satan prevailed against Adam, and has been able to corrupt whatever was committed to man in responsibility. Even the church as a responsible witness for Christ has grievously failed, the enemy using his agents to corrupt it; but how blessed to know that nothing can tarnish or destroy what Christ is building.
When the Lord spoke to Peter, He said, “I will build,” for the time to commence His building had not arrived. First, He must enter into death, and come out victoriously, and having triumphed over all the power of His enemies, He started this great work which is still going on. Paul writes of it as growing “unto a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:21); and Peter refers to it as “a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5), in which spiritual sacrifices are offered up to God.
“The Church . . . His Body”
From the writings of Paul we learn that the church is also viewed as a body, a living organism in which every part has its own function. In Romans 12 we read that “we, being many, are one body in Christ” (verse 5), and that every true believer is a member of that body, for we are members one of another. This great truth is again stated in 1 Corinthians 10, in connection with Christian fellowship, for our fellowship together, which is based on the death of Christ, is in the divine unity expressed in the one body. The one body has been divinely formed, even as it is written, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free” (1 Cor. 12:13).
The local aspect of the body is presented in 1 Corinthians 12, where the Apostle says to the saints, “Now ye are Christ’s body, and members in particular” (verse 27). At Corinth, the saints were part of the whole body, but they represented locally what the body was in all its features. What is taught in 1 Corinthians 12 is to guide the saints in all their gatherings, and in their relations with each other at all times.
Another important aspect of the church as the body is found in Ephesians 4, where all the saints of God on earth, at any given time, are viewed as “the body of Christ” (verses 12–16). Here, the body is seen as belonging to Christ, and as organically united to Him, for He is the Head (verse 15). A similar view of the body is given in Colossians 1, where the Son of God’s love “is the Head of the body, the church” (verse 18); and for Christ’s body’s sake Paul rejoiced in his sufferings (verse 24). Nourishment for the church as Christ’s body, comes from the Head, so that it might increase “with the increase of God” (Col. 2:19).
We have viewed the church locally as Christ’s body in 1 Corinthians 12, and have seen the church in its universal aspect as deriving all that it needs from Christ as its Head in heaven; at the close of Ephesians 1 there is another aspect, for here we see the church complete as Christ’s body, “the fulness of Him that fills all in all.” This is when Christ comes out in His glory as Head over all things, the church as His body expressing what He is, the mind of the Head finding its fulfilment in the members of His body.
The Bride of Christ
There are different types in the Old Testament of the bride of Christ, Eve, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah, Asenath, Zipporah, Ruth and Abigail, all bringing out some of the features of the bride. The love of Christ for the church is plainly stated in Ephesians 5:25, and His present ministry to prepare the church for the day when he will 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” (verse 27).
The day for which Christ has waited, and for which He prepared the church, is seen in Revelation 19, where it is written, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready” (verse 7). There the bride is seen in the garment she has woven for the eye of Christ, the righteousnesses of saints, that which has been produced as the fruit of Christ’s own grace in His own in the details of daily life, while waiting for Him to come and take her to be for ever with Himself.
For the eternal day, the church is viewed as “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The church is as dear to the heart of Christ, in perennial beauty, after she has been with Him for the day of millennial display. For God, the church is His tabernacle through which He dwells with men, but for Christ she is the object of His affections, ever attractive to His heart and eye.
The last mention of the bride is found in the last chapter of Revelation, where we read, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come” (verse 17). While waiting for the coming of her Beloved, the church is watching, ardently desiring His company, but having the Holy Spirit with her, who shares her desires regarding Christ, for His coming will bring the display of His glory, and satisfy the desires of His heart.
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