Through His Word, God opens our eyes to the truth of some fact concerning His Son, and then only, as in faith we accept that fact for ourselves, does it become actual as experience in our lives.
Thus we have 1. Revelation, 2. Experience.
One thing is certain, that revelation will always precede faith. Seeing and believing are two principles which govern Christian living. When we see something that God has done in Christ our natural response is ‘Thank You, Lord!’ And faith follows spontaneously. Revelation is always the work of the Holy Spirit, who is given in order that, by coming alongside and opening to us the Scriptures He may guide us into all the truth (John 16:13).
We have been taught to think of ourselves as sinners needing redemption. For generations that has been instilled into us, and we praise the Lord for that as our beginning; but it is not what God has in view as His end. God says in Ephesians 5:17 that He might present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. All too often we have thought of the Church as being merely saved sinners. It is that; but we have made the terms almost equal to one another, as though it were only that, which is not the case. In God’s sight, the Church is a divine creation in His Son!
We must always view redemption as an interruption, an emergency measure, made necessary by a catastrophic break in the straight line of the purpose of God. Redemption is big enough, wonderful enough, to occupy a very large place in our vision, but God is saying that we should not make redemption to be everything, as though men were created to be redeemed.
God has never forsaken the purpose which is represented by the straight line. Adam was never in possession of the life of God as presented in the tree of life. But because of the one work of the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection, His life was released to become ours by faith, and we have received more than Adam ever possessed. The very purpose of God is brought within reach of fulfillment in us by our receiving Christ as our life. Redemption leads us back into God’s original line of purpose, we can summarize the following chapters of Romans as such. Chapter 5: our sins are forgiven; chapter 6: we are dead with Christ; chapter 7: we are by nature utterly helpless; chapter 8: therefore we rely upon the indwelling Spirit; chapter 12: after this, and as a consequence of it we are one body in Christ. It is as though this were the logical outcome of all that has gone before, and the thing to which it has all been leading.
The vessel through which the Lord Jesus can reveal Himself in this generation is not the individual but the Body. True, God has dealt to each man a measure of faith (12:3), but alone in isolation man can never fulfill God’s purpose. It requires a complete Body to attain to the stature of Christ and to display His glory. Oh, that we might really see this! Individual Christians are not the Body. They are its members, and in a human body, all the members have not the same office. In Christ, the things we do not know, others do, and we may know them and enter into the enjoyment of them through others.
This is not just a comfortable thought; it is a vital factor in the life of God’s people. We cannot get along without one another. That is why fellowship in prayer is so important. I must trust Him with others. I must learn to pray ‘Our Father’ on the basis of oneness with the Body, for without the help of the Body I cannot get through. Alone I cannot serve the Lord effectively. He will bring things to an end, allowing doors to close and leaving me ineffectively knocking my head against a blank wall until I realize that I need the help of the Body as well as of the Lord. For the life of Christ is the life of the Body, and His gifts are given to us for work that builds up the Body.
The Body is not an illustration but a fact. The Bible does not just say that the Church is like a body, but that it is the Body of Christ. The cross must do its work there, reminding us that in Christ we have died to that old life of independence which we inherited from Adam, and that in resurrection we have become not just individual believers in Christ but members of His Body.
There is a vast difference between the two. When we see this, we shall at once have done with independence and shall seek fellowship. The life of Christ in us will gravitate to the life of Christ in others. We can no longer take individual time. Jealousy will go. Competition will go. Private work will go. Our own interests, our own ambitions, our own preferences, all must go. It will no longer matter which one of us does the work. All that will matter will be that the Body grows.
We only see history back to the Fall. God sees it from the beginning. There was something in God’s mind before the Fall, and in the ages to come that thing is to be fully realized.
How precious is the promise and how gracious are the words used of the Church in Ephesians 5 – not having spot – the scars of sin, whose very history is now forgotten; or wrinkle – the marks of age and of time lost, for all is now made up and all is new; and without blemish – so that Satan or demons or men can find no ground for blame in her.
This is where we are now. The age is closing, and Satan’s power is greater than ever. Our warfare is with angels and principalities and powers (Romans 8:38; Ephesians 6:12) who are set to withstand and destroy the work of God in us by laying many things to the charge of God’s elect.
Alone we could never be their match, but what we alone cannot do the Church can. Sin, self-reliance, and individualism were Satan’s masterstrokes at the heart of God’s purpose in man, and in the Cross God has undone them. As we put our faith in what He has done – in God that justified and in Christ Jesus that died (Romans 8:33 – 34) – we present a front against which the very gates of Hades shall not prevail. We, His Church, are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)