The faithful were to seek-in the dispositions mentioned above-to maintain
this unity of the Spirit by the bond of peace. There are three things in
this exhortation: first, to walk worthy of their calling; second, the
spirit in which they were to do so; third, diligence in maintaining the
unity of the Spirit by the bond of peace. It is important to observe, that
this unity of the Spirit is not similarity of sentiment, but the oneness of
the members of the body of Christ established by the Holy Ghost, maintained
practically by a walk according to the Spirit of grace. It is evident that
the diligence required for the maintenance of the unity of the Spirit
relates to the earth and to the manifestation of this unity on the earth.
The apostle now founds his exhortation on the different points of view
under which this unity may be considered-in connection with the Holy Ghost,
with the Lord, and with God.
There is one body and one Spirit; not merely an effect produced in the
heart of individuals, in order that they might mutually understand each
other, but one body. The hope was one, of which this Spirit was the source
and the power. This is the essential, real, and abiding unity.
There is also one Lord. With Him was connected "one faith" and "one
baptism." This is the public profession and recognition of Christ as Lord.
Compare the address in 1 Corinthians.
Finally there is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in us all.
What mighty bonds of unity! The Spirit of God, the lordship of Christ, the
universal ubiquity of God, even the Father, all tend to bring into unity
those connected with each as a divine centre. All the religious
relationships of the soul, all the points by which we are in contact with
God, agree to form all believers into one in this world, in such a manner
that no man can be a Christian without being one with all those who are so.
We cannot exercise faith, nor enjoy hope, nor express christian life in any
form whatever, without having the same faith and the same hope as the rest,
without giving expression to that which exists in the rest. Only we are
called on to maintain it practically.
We may remark, that the three spheres of unity presented in these three
verses have not the same extent. The circle of unity enlarges each time.
With the Spirit we find linked the unity of the body, the essential and
real unity produced by the power of the Spirit uniting to Christ all His
members: with the Lord, that of faith and of baptism. Here each individual
has the same faith, the same baptism: it is the outward profession, true
and real perhaps, but a profession, in reference to Him who has rights over
those that call themselves by His name. With regard to the third character
of unity, it relates to claims that extend to all things, although to the
believer it is a closer bond, because He who has a right over all things
dwells in believers.[see note #17]
Observe here, that it is not only a unity of sentiment, of desire, and of
heart. That unity is pressed upon them; but it is in order to maintain the
realisation, and the manifestation here below, of a unity that belongs to
the existence and to the eternal position of the assembly in Christ. There
is one Spirit, but there is one body. The union of hearts in the bond of
peace, which the apostle desires, is for the public maintenance of this
unity; not that there might be patience with one another when that has
disappeared, Christians contenting themselves with its absence. One does
not accept that which is contrary to the word, although in certain cases
those who are in it ought to be borne with. The consideration of the
community of position and of privilege, enjoyed by all the children of God
in the relationships of which we have now been speaking, served to unite
them with each other in the sweet enjoyment of this most precious position,
leading them also, each one, to rejoice in love at the part which every
other member of the body had in this happiness.
But, on the other hand, the fact that Christ was exalted to be in heaven
the Head over all things, brought in a difference which appertained to this
supremacy of Christ-a supremacy exercised with divine sovereignty and
wisdom. "Unto every one of us is given grace [gift] according to the
measure of the gift of Christ" (that is to say, as Christ sees fit to
bestow). With regard to our position of joy and blessing in Christ, we are
one. With regard to our service, we have each an individual place according
to His divine wisdom, and according to His sovereign rights in the work.
The foundation of this title, whatever may be the divine power that is
exercised in it, is this: man was under the power of Satan-miserable
condition, the fruit of his sin, a condition to which his self-will had
reduced him, but in which (according to the judgment of God who had
pronounced on him the sentence of death) he was a slave in body and mind to
the enemy who had the power of death-with reservation of the sovereign
rights and sovereign grace of God (see chap. 2:2). Now Christ has made
Himself man, and began by going as man, led by the Spirit, to meet Satan.
He overcame him. As to His personal power, He was able to drive him out
everywhere, and to deliver man. But man would not have God with him; nor
was it possible for men, in their sinful condition, to be united to Christ
without redemption. The Lord however, carrying on His perfect work of love,
suffered death, and overcame Satan in that his last stronghold, which God's
righteous judgment maintained in force against sinful man-a judgment which
Christ therefore underwent, accomplishing a redemption that was complete,
final, and eternal in its value; so that neither Satan, the prince of death
and accuser of the children of God on earth, nor even the judgment of God,
had anything more to say to the redeemed. The kingdom of Satan was taken
from him; the just judgment of God was undergone and completely satisfied.
All judgment is committed to the Son, and power over all men, because He is
the Son of man. These two results are not yet manifested, although the Lord
possesses all power in heaven and in earth. The thing here spoken of is
another result which is accomplished meanwhile. The victory is complete. He
has led the adversary captive. In ascending to heaven He has placed
victorious man above all things, and has led captive all the power that
previously had dominion over man.
Now before manifesting in person the power He had gained as man by binding
Satan, before displaying it in the blessing of man on earth, He exhibits it
in the assembly, His body, by imparting, as He had promised, to men
delivered from the enemy's dominion gifts which are the proof of that
power.
Chapter 1 had laid open to us the thoughts of God; chapter 2 the
fulfilment, in power, of His thoughts with regard to the redeemed-Jews or
Gentiles, all dead in their sins-to form them into the assembly. Chapter 3
is the especial development of the mystery in that which concerned the
Gentiles in Paul's administration of it on earth. Here (chap. 4) the
assembly is presented in its unity as a body, and in the varied functions
of its members; that is to say, the positive effect of those counsels in
the assembly here below. But this is founded on the exaltation of Christ,
who, the conqueror of the enemy, has ascended to heaven as man.
Thus exalted, He has received gifts in man, that is, in His human character
(compare Acts 2:33). It is thus "in man," that it is expressed in Psalm
68, from whence the quotation is taken. Here, having received these gifts
as the Head of the body, Christ is the channel of their communication to
others. They are gifts for men.
Three things here characterise Him-a man ascended on high-a man who has led
captive him who held man in captivity-a man who has received for men,
delivered from that enemy, the gifts of God, which bear witness to this
exaltation of man in Christ, and serve as a means for the deliverance of
others. For this chapter does not speak of the more direct signs of the
Spirit's power, such as tongues, miracles-such as are usually termed
miraculous gifts. But what the Lord as Head confers on individuals, they
are the gifts, as His servants for forming the saints to be with Him, and
for the edification of the body-the fruit of His care over them. Hence, as
already remarked, their continuance (till we all, one after another, grow
up to the head) is stated as to power, by the Spirit; in 1 Corinthians 12
it is not.
But let us pause here for a moment, to contemplate the import of that which
we have been considering.
What a complete and glorious work is that which the Lord has accomplished
for us, and of which the communication of these gifts is the precious
testimony! When we were the slaves of Satan and consequently of death, as
well as the slaves of sin, we have seen that He was pleased to undergo for
the glory of God that which hung over us. He went down into death of which
Satan had the power. And so complete was the victory of man in Him, so
entire our deliverance, that (exalted Himself as man to the right hand of
God's throne-He who had been under death) He has rescued us from the
enemy's yoke, and uses the privilege which His position and His glory give
Him to make those who were captives before, the vessels of His power for
the deliverance of others also. He gives us the right, as under His
jurisdiction, of acting in His holy war, moved by the same principles of
love as Himself. Such is our deliverance that we are the instruments of His
power against the enemy-His fellow-labourers in love through His power.
Hence the connection between practical godliness, the complete subjugation
of the flesh, and the capacity to serve Christ as instruments in the hand
of the Holy Ghost, and the vessels of His power.
Now the Lord's ascension has immense significancy in connection with His
Person and work. He ascended indeed as man, but He first descended as man
even into the darkness of the grave and of death; and from
thence-victorious over the power of the enemy who had the power of death,
and having blotted out the sins of His redeemed ones, and accomplished the
glory of God in obedience-He takes His place as man above the heavens in
order that He may fill all things; not only as being God, but according to
the glory and the power of a position in which He was placed by the
accomplishment of the work of redemption-a work which led Him into the
depths of the power of the enemy, and placed Him on the throne of God-a
position that He holds, not only by the title of Creator, which was already
His, but by that of Redeemer, which shelters from evil all that is found
within the sphere of the mighty efficacy of His work-a sphere filled with
blessing, with grace, and with Himself. Glorious truth, which belongs at
the same time to the union of the divine and human natures in the Person of
Christ, and to the work of redemption accomplished by suffering on the
cross!
Love brought Him down from the throne of God, and, being found as a man, [see note #18]
through the same grace, into the darkness of death. Having died, bearing
our sins, He has gone up again to that throne as man, filling all things.
He went below the creature into death, and is gone above it.
But while filling all things by virtue of His glorious Person, and in
connection with the work which He accomplished, He is also in immediate
relation with that which in the counsels of God is closely united to Him
who thus fills all things, with that which has been especially the object
of His work of redemption. It is His body, His assembly, united to Him by
the bond of the Holy Ghost to complete this mystical man, to be the bride
of this second Man, who fills all in all-a body which, as manifested here
below, is set in the midst of a creation that is not yet delivered, and in
the presence of enemies that are in the heavenly places, until Christ shall
exercise, on the part of God His Father, the power that has been committed
to Him as man. When Christ shall thus exercise His power, He will take
vengeance on those who have defiled His creation by seducing man, who had
been its head down here and the image of Him who was to be its Head
everywhere. He will also deliver creation from its subjection to evil.
Meanwhile, personally exalted as the glorious man, and seated at God's
right hand until God shall make His enemies His footstool, He communicates
the gifts necessary for the gathering together of those who are to be the
companions of His glory, who are the members of His body, and who shall be
manifested with Him when His glory shines forth in the midst of this world
of darkness.
The apostle shews us here an assembly already delivered, and exercising the
power of the Spirit; which on the one side delivers souls, and on the other
builds them up in Christ, that they may grow up to the measure of their
Head in spite of all the power of Satan which still subsists.
But an important truth is connected with this fact. This spiritual power is
not exercised in a manner simply divine. It is Christ ascended (He however
who had previously descended into the lower parts of the earth) who, as
man, has received these gifts of power. It is thus that Psalm 68 speaks as
well as Acts 2:33. The latter passage speaks also of the gifts bestowed on
His members. In our chapter it is only in the latter way that they are
mentioned. He has given gifts unto men.
I would also remark, that these gifts are not here presented as gifts
bestowed by the Holy Ghost come down to earth, and distributing to every
one according to His will: nor are those gifts spoken of which are tokens
of spiritual power suited to act as signs upon those that are outside: but
they are ministrations for gathering together and for edification
established by Christ as Head of the body by means of gifts with which He
endows persons as His choice. Ascended on high, and having taken His place
as man at the right hand of God, and filling all things, whatever may be
the extent of His glory, Christ has first for His object to fulfil the ways
of God in love in gathering souls, and in particular towards the saints and
the assembly; to establish the manifestation of the divine nature, and to
communicate to the assembly the riches of that grace which the ways of God
display, and of which the divine nature is the source. It is in the
assembly that the nature of God, the counsels of grace, and the efficacious
work of Christ are concentrated in their object; and these gifts are the
means of ministering, in the communication of these, in blessing to man.
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers: apostles and
prophets laying, or rather being laid, as the foundations of the heavenly
building, and acting as coming directly from the Lord in an extraordinary
manner; the two other classes (the last being sub-divided into two gifts,
connected in their nature) belonging to ordinary ministry in all ages. It
is important to remark also, that the apostle sees nothing existing before
the exaltation of Christ save man the child of wrath, the power of Satan,
the power which raised us up (dead in sins as we were) with Christ, and the
efficacy of the cross, which had reconciled us to God, and abolished the
distinction between Jew and Gentile in the assembly, to unite them in one
body before God-the cross in which Christ drank the cup and bore the curse,
so that wrath has passed away for the believer, and in which a God of love,
a Saviour God, is fully manifested.
So the existence of the apostles dates here only from the gifts that
followed the exaltation of Jesus. The twelve as sent out by Jesus on earth
have no place in the instruction of this epistle, which treats of the body
of Christ, of the unity and the members of this body; and the body could
not exist before the Head existed and had taken His place as such. Thus
also we have seen that, when the apostle speaks of the apostles and
prophets, the latter are to him those exclusively of the New Testament, and
those who have been made such by Christ after His ascension. It is the new
heavenly man who, being the exalted Head in heaven, forms His body on the
earth. He does it for heaven, putting the individuals who compose it
spiritually and intelligently in connection with the Head by the power of
the Holy Ghost acting in this body on the earth; the gifts, of which the
apostle here speaks, being the channels by which His graces are
communicated according to the bonds which the Holy Ghost forms with the
Head.
The proper and immediate effect is the perfecting of individuals according
to the grace that dwells in the Head. The shape which this divine action
takes, further, is the work of the ministry, and the formation of the body
of Christ, until all the members are grown up into the measure of the
stature of Christ their Head. Christ has been revealed in all His fulness:
it is according to this revelation that the members of the body are to be
formed in the likeness of Christ, known as filling all things, and as the
Head of His body, the revelation of the perfect love of God, of the
excellency of man before Him according to His counsels, of man the vessel
of all His grace, all His power, and all His gifts. Thus the assembly, and
each one of the members of Christ, should be filled with the thoughts and
the riches of a well-known Christ, instead of being tossed to and fro by
all sort of doctrines brought forward by the enemy to deceive souls.
The Christian was to grow up according to all that was revealed in Christ,
and to be ever increasing in likeness to his Head; using love and truth for
his own soul-the two things of which Christ is the perfect expression.
Truth displays the real relation of all things with each other in
connection with the centre of all things, which is God revealed now in
Christ. Love is that which God is in the midst of all this. Now Christ, as
the light, put everything precisely in its place-man, Satan, sin,
righteousness, holiness, all things, and that in every detail, and in
connection with God. And Christ was love, the expression of the love of God
in the midst of all this. And this is our pattern; and our pattern as
having overcome, and, as having ascended into heaven, our Head, to which we
are united as the members of His body.
There flows from this Head, by means of its members, the grace needed to
accomplish the work of assimilation to Himself. His body, compacted
together, increases by the working of His grace in each member, and edifies
itself in love.[see note #19]
This is the position of the assembly according to God, until all the
members of the body attain to the stature of Christ. The manifestation
alas! of this unity is marred; but the grace, and the operation of the
grace of its Head to nourish and cause its members to grow, is never
impaired, any more than the love in the Lord's heart from which this grace
springs. We do not glorify Him, we have not the joy of being ministers of
joy to each other as we might be; but the Head does not cease to work for
the good of His body. The wolf indeed comes and scatters the sheep, but he
cannot pluck them out of the Shepherd's hands. His faithfulness is
glorified in our unfaithfulness without excusing it.
With this precious object of the ministration of grace (namely, for the
growth of each member individually unto the measure of the stature of the
Head Himself), with the ministration of each member in its place to the
edifying itself in love, ends this development of the counsels of God in
the union of Christ and the assembly, in its double character of the body
of Christ in heaven, and the habitation of the Holy Ghost on earth-truths
which cannot be separated, but each of which has its distinctive importance,
and which reconcile the certain immutable operations of grace in the Head
with the failures of the assembly responsible on the earth.
Exhortations to a walk befitting such a position follow, in order that the
glory of God in us and by us, and His grace towards us, may be identified
in our full blessing. We will notice the great principles of these
exhortations.
The first is the contrast [see note #20]
between the ignorance of a heart that is blind, and a stranger to the life
of God, and consequently walking in the vanity of its own understanding,
that is, according to the desires of a heart given up to the impulses of
the flesh without God-the contrast, I say, between this state, and that of
having learnt Christ, as the truth is in Jesus (which is the expression of
the life of God in man, God Himself manifested in the flesh), the having
put off this old man, which is corrupt itself according to its deceitful
lusts, and put on this new man, Christ. It is not an amelioration of the
old man; it is a putting it off, and a putting on of Christ.
Even here the apostle does not lose sight of the oneness of the body; we
are to speak the truth, because we are members one of another. "Truth," the
expression of simplicity and integrity of heart, is in connection with "the
truth as it is in Jesus," whose life is transparent as the light, as
falsehood is in connection with deceitful lusts.
Moreover, the old man is without God, alienated from the life of God. The
new man is created, it is a new creation, and a creation [see note #21]
after the model of that which is the character of God righteousness and
holiness of truth. The first Adam was not in that manner created after the
image of God. By the fall the knowledge of good and evil entered into man.
He can no longer be innocent. When innocent, he was ignorant of evil in
itself. Now, fallen, he is a stranger to the life of God in his ignorance:
but the knowledge of good and evil which he has acquired, the moral
distinction between good and evil in itself, is a divine principle. "The
man," said God, "is become as one of us, to know good and evil." But in
order to possess this knowledge, and subsist in what is good before God,
there must be divine energy, divine life.
<61492F:83>Everything has its true nature, its true character, in the eyes
of God. That is the truth. It is not that He is the truth. The truth is the
right and perfect expression of that which a thing is (and, in an absolute
way, of that which all things are), and of the relations in which it stands
to other things, or in which all things stand towards each other. Thus God
could not be the truth. He is not the expression of some other thing.
Everything relates to Him. He is the centre of all true relationship, and
of all moral obligation. Neither is God the measure of all things, for He
is above all things; and nothing else can be so above them, or He would not
be so.[see note #22]
It is God become man; it is Christ, who is the truth, and the measure of
all things. But all things have their true character in the eyes of God:
and He judges righteously of all, whether morally or in power. He acts
according to that judgment. He is just. He also knows evil perfectly, being
Himself goodness, that it may be perfectly an abomination to Him, that He
may repel it by His own nature. He is holy. Now the new man, created after
the divine nature, is so in righteousness and holiness of truth. What a
privilege! What a blessing! It is, as another apostle has said, to be
"partakers of the divine nature." Adam had nothing of this.
Adam was perfect as an innocent man. The breath of life in his nostrils was
breathed into him by God, and he was responsible for obedience to God in a
thing wherein neither good nor evil was to be known, but simply a
commandment. The trial was that of obedience only, not the knowledge of
good or evil in itself. At present, in Christ, the portion of the believer
is a participation in the divine nature itself, in a being who knows good
and evil, and who vitally participates in the sovereign good, morally in
the nature of God Himself, although always thereby dependent on Him. It is
our evil nature which is not so, or at least which refuses to be dependent
on Him.
Now there is a prince of this world, a stranger to God; and, besides
participation in the divine nature, there is the Spirit Himself who has
been given to us. These solemn truths enter also as principles into these
exhortations. "Give no place to the devil," on the one hand-give him no
room to come in and act on the flesh; and, on the other hand, "grieve not
the Holy Spirit" who dwells in you. The redemption of the creature has not
yet taken place, but ye have been sealed unto that day: respect and cherish
this mighty and holy guest who graciously dwells in you. Let all bitterness
and malice therefore cease even in word, and let meekness and kindness
reign in you according to the pattern you have in the ways of God in Christ
towards you. Be imitators of God: beautiful and magnificent privilege! but
which flows naturally from the truth that we are made partakers of His
nature, and that His Spirit dwells in us.
These are the two great subjective principles of the Christian-the having
put off the old man and put on the new, and the Holy Ghost's dwelling in
him. Nor can anything be more blessed than the pattern of life here given
to the Christian, founded on our being a new creation. It is perfect
subjectively and objectively. First, subjectively, the truth in Jesus is
the having put off the old man and put on the new, which has God for its
pattern. It is created after God in the perfection of His moral character.
But this is not all. The Holy Spirit of God by which we are sealed to the
day of redemption dwells in us: we are not to grieve Him. These are the two
elements of our state, the new man created after God, and the presence of
the Holy Spirit of God; and He is emphatically here called the Spirit of
God, as in connection with God's character.
And next objectively: created after God, and God dwelling in us, God is the
pattern of our walk, and thus in respect of the two words which alone give
God's essence-love and light. We are to walk in love, as Christ loved us
and gave Himself for us a sacrifice to God. "For us" was divine love; "to
God" is perfection of object and motive. Law takes up the love of self as
the measure of love to others. Christ gives up self wholly and for us, but
to God. Our worthlessness enhances the love but, on the other hand, an
affection and a motive have their worth from the object (and with Christ
that was God Himself), self wholly given up. For, so to speak, we may love
up and love down. When we look upward in our affections, the nobler the
object the nobler the affection; when it is downwards, the more unworthy
the object, the more pure and absolute the love. Christ was perfect in
both, and absolutely so. He gave Himself for us, and to God. Afterwards we
are light in the Lord. We cannot say we are love, for love is sovereign
goodness in God; we walk in it, like Christ. But we are light in the Lord.
This is the second essential name of God and as partakers of the divine
nature we are light in the Lord. Here again Christ is the pattern. "Christ
shall give thee light." We are called on, then, as His dear children to
imitate God.
This life, in which we participate and of which we live as partakers of the
divine nature, has been objectively presented to us in Christ in all its
perfection and in all its fulness; in man, and in man now brought to
perfection on high, according to the counsels of God respecting Him. It is
Christ, this eternal life, who was with the Father and has been manifested
unto us-He who, having then first descended, has ascended now into heaven
to carry humanity thither, and display it in the glory-the glory of
God-according to His eternal counsels. We have seen this life here in its
earthly development: God manifest in flesh; man, perfectly heavenly, and
obedient in all things to His Father, moved, in His conduct to others, by
the motives that characterise God Himself in grace. Hereafter He will be
manifested in judgment; and already, here below, He has gone through all
the experiences of a man, understanding thus how grace adapts itself to our
wants, and displaying it now, according to that knowledge, even as
hereafter He will exercise judgment with a knowledge of man, not only
divine, but which, having gone through this world in holiness, will leave
the hearts of men without excuse and without escape.
But it is the image of God in Him, of which we are now speaking. It is in
Him that the nature which we have to imitate is presented to us, and
presented in man as it ought to be developed in us here below, in the
circumstances through which we are passing. We see in Him the manifestation
of God, and that in contrast with the old man. There we see "the truth as
it is in Jesus," save that in us it involves the putting off of the old man
and putting on the new, answering to Christ's death and resurrection
(compare particularly as to His death, 1 Peter 3:18; 4:1). Thus, in order
to attract and to lead on our hearts, to give us the model on which they
are to be formed, the aim to which they should tend, God has given us an
object in which He manifests Himself, and which is the object of all His
own delight.
The reproduction of God in man is the object that God proposed to Himself
in the new man; and that the new man proposes to himself, as he is himself
the reproduction of the nature and the character of God. There are two
principles for the Christian's path, according to the light in which he
views himself. Running his race as man towards the object of his heavenly
calling, in which he follows after Christ ascended on high: he is running
the heavenward race; the excellency of Christ to be won there, his
motive-that is not the Ephesian aspect. In the Ephesians he is sitting in
heavenly places in Christ, and he has to come out as from heaven, as Christ
really did, and manifest God's character upon earth, of which, as we have
seen, Christ is the pattern. We are called, as in the position of dear
children, to shew our Father's ways.
We are not created anew according to that which the first Adam was, but
according to that which God is: Christ is its manifestation. And He is the
second Man, the last Adam.[see note #23]
In detail we shall find these characteristic features: truthfulness, the
absence of all anger that has the nature of hatred (lying and hatred are
the two characteristics of the enemy); practical righteousness connected
with labour according to the will of God (man's true position); and the
absence of corruption. It is man under the rule of God since the fall,
delivered from the effect of the deceitful lusts. But it is more than this.
A divine principle brings in the desire of doing good to others, to their
body and their soul. I need not say how truly we find here the picture of
the life of Christ, as in the preceding remarks it was the putting off of
the spirit of the enemy and of the old man. The spirit of peace and love
(and that, in spite of evil in others and the wrongs they may do us)
completes the picture, adding that which will be easily understood after
what has been said, that, in "forgiving one another," we are to be
imitators of God, and to walk in love as Christ has loved us, and has given
Himself for us. Beautiful picture, precious privilege! May God grant us so
to look at Jesus as to have His image stamped upon us, and in some sort to
walk like Him.
