The Octave of Redemption (Transcript)

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 7 - The Church: Its Birth, Vocation and Completion

We have now reached the point in our considerations which makes it quite impossible for us to take time for review and it is necessary for us to go right on. Sufficient to say that we have been, and still are, occupied with the eight octaves of redemption. We have said there's eight of those, so now: the church. And we approach this matter as we have every other, with the question: Why the Church?

The greatest object of God in this universe is His Son. The second greatest object with God in this universe is the Church. Those two are put together. Here is the statement in Scripture: "He... gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all".

The Church... the fulness of Christ. If the Church needs Christ, Christ needs the Church. And we begin by asking:

What is the Church?

And in a few concise phrases, we answer that question.

Firstly, the Church is a particular body of people, chosen in Christ before the world was. That is precisely stated in Ephesians 1 verse 4. There it is stated Christ was chosen, and the Church, or this particular body of people, was 'chosen in Him'. Just as definitely as Christ was chosen and appointed, so was the Church.

Secondly, the Church is a body of people called out of the nations to be a heavenly people now: not hereafter in ages to come, but now. That is definitely stated in Acts 15 verse 14 and it is that to which our Lord referred, when He said: "I will build My church".

Thirdly, the Church is a body of people who are not just so many individuals; but although called individually, they were never chosen individually, never chosen separately, but as a whole. It is very important to remember that. The work of the Holy Spirit is always to make real that which has been eternally determined and appointed by God, and so the work of the Holy Spirit is not an afterthought, but according to plan is to make real and to make working, operative, this eternal oneness in and with Christ - which is the purpose of God.

Now I am going to do something that I do not often do, but whenever I have done it, it has got me into trouble! I am going to read a paragraph from a book. The trouble is this: whenever I have done that, afterward everybody has wanted the book, or to know what it is in order to get a copy and I have found myself involved in all that the book contains, whereas I have only quoted from it. That's just a hint to you; please don't rush at me to know what the book is! But here is something from a book published several years ago which, it puts in a very much better way than ever I could put it, and I give it to you because it is not mine. Here it is:

"It is essential to the right consideration of this subject (that is, the Church) that the magnificence of the New Testament concept of the Church be apprehended. In the Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians the view of the Church which is Christ's Body is set forth. It is there seen as the ideal, invisible, indivisible, inviolable company of the redeemed of the present age. None but the truly regenerate have part therein; none, save the elect, partake of its blessedness. Failure and defection are unknown to it. Into it the pretender and the hypocrite cannot come. Breach or division it cannot know. Its unity is unbreakable; its calling and glory, heavenly; its relationship to Christ, holy and intimate; and its destiny bound up in Him in splendour inconceivable. Through the centuries of our era, each marching generation but brings a contribution to it. While historically its members are being called, one by one, and incorporated into it, in its completeness and glory it is ever before the eye of God. Indeed, it has been in His heart from before all times. From their heavenly vantage points the angelic orders observe it, and are impressed and enlightened concerning the manifold wisdom of its Divine architect. Through the swift ebbing years of this age Christ Himself is its builder, adding stone to stone to this temple exceeding magnifical, Himself the while abiding that day when at last, complete, sanctified, beautiful, spotless and radiant with heavenly glory, it shall be presented to Himself and taken into the full enjoyment of an eternal association of blessedness, the features of which are at present undisclosed."

I am going to quote something else from that book in a minute, but I am quite sure that you agree that that, on the one side, is no exaggeration, and on the other side, it does present us with something of tremendous account to God, to Christ, and to ourselves.

You may have found some difficulty with one of those statements, but you must remember that the whole statement is made from heavens and God's standpoint, and not from ours. That is how He sees it, eternally. What He may be seeing as the condition of things at present down here may be another matter; but that is God's eternal conception, and that is how God will eternally have it. It will be like that. And, eventually, it will prove to have been like that. It is difficult to see, but nevertheless, if we could see from God's standpoint, we should see that every sentence of that statement is true. Let us suspend our difficulties for a little while and go on.

The Church is a definite object, or entity. It is not just an abstract idea. It is not an imaginary thing. It is a reality in the mind of God and in its actual existence when it is seen according to its true constitution, and not man's constitution. The Church is of immense value and importance to God and to Christ. As we have read, it is declared to be His "fulness". All the greater values of Christ - His fulness - are for the Church, in the Church, and through the Church. We have the statement of God's Word about it, we have the history of the Church to bear it out (I mean as to its continuance, its persistence, its very survival). And if we needed more evidence of its importance and its value, we can always get it from one quarter, which gives very irreligious solicitude for God's interests: satan hates the Church, as he hates Christ. There has been more trouble over the Church than over anything else. It is the cause of all the trouble. That is saying a lot!

I come back to the book, and I am very glad that I am not saying this first-hand. Listen:

"All through the Christian age a minority of believers has endeavoured to carry out in corporate life these scriptural principles. The bitterest and most implacable opposition has come to them, not from the world, but from organised Christendom, that is, the system that men call The Church. By this powerful organisation they have been in turn oppressed, misrepresented, persecuted, reviled, ridiculed, and ignored. But their persistence from century to century has supplied the proof of the practicability of these principles and of such a Church being in the will of God."

Now another book, this is about the Church:

"Against such a transcendent truth, affecting as it does the glory of God and the person of Christ, it is not a matter of surprise that the arch-adversary should set himself with his utmost might and his most persistent and ingenious devices, both by opposition and by imitation...".

And a lot more like that; it's enough. Yes, in light of the statement that if there is one thing more than the Lord Jesus Himself, that satan hates, it is the Church, and any true representation of it.

Now, I should like very much to spend some time speaking about the representation of the Church - the necessity of it, the possibility of it, the nature of it - but you will see, I'm sure, before we get much further that we've got to exclude a great deal. We may come back to a closing word on that later.

But we are asking: why the Church? And I think the best way of answering that question is found in considering the various names or titles given to it in the Word of God. There are a number of such titles, as you know. I think I would be right in saying that there are nine main titles for the Church. There may be others subsidiary, but in the main there are nine. Each ones needs a meeting to itself, but if we were really to consider these titles which are given to the Church, we should be getting very near to an answer to this question: why the Church? Let us run through them with a [mere] comment or two upon each.

The first title given to the Church is:

The House of God.

But there it is necessary for us again to understand our terms or our words. When we speak of a house, we immediately think of a structure, a building. We pass along the street and we look at buildings and we say, "That is a nice house", or an ugly house, or an unusual house; that is how we use the word. It is necessary for us to understand that that is not the sole meaning of the word as it is used in connection with "the House of God". We should be nearer the truth if we changed the word into "the household", because that is the word. It is inclusive of the three ideas: one: the structure - God's building. Two: the content of the house, that is in the very word that is used, the contents of the house - what is in it. And three: the arrangement of the house - how the contents are deployed, arranged, set out, their place, their position, and so on. And then there is a fourth idea in the word: it is the government of the house. The structure, the content, the arrangement, order, and government of the house: that's all in this one word House of God.

Now you can see how much time could be profitably spent upon that. The House of God! First of all, it is God's structure. "I will build My church". It is God's. Man does not make this, and it is impertinence to take hold of it and make it man's. The proprietorship of this building is solely vested in God Himself.

What is in this House is there because God has put it there, and nothing and no one can come and have a place in the House of God, except God puts him or her there. You can't join the House of God at your own choice willy-nilly. You may talk about 'joining the Church', but that belongs to another realm of things altogether. In the New Testament, "the Lord added to the Church them that were being saved". The Lord! In this only those whom the Lord includes are in the House of God.

The order in the House of God is God's order. God has an order in His House and He is very particular about His order. If we should ignore that, overlook that, set that aside, it is to our own loss, our own detriment. We shall find that in our lives there will be frustration, limitation; God will not be setting His seal upon us. God has an order. The Holy Spirit is the custodian of that order, and to be under the government of the Holy Spirit means to come into a Divine order. God is a God of order; satan is the god of anarchy and lawlessness. God is very particular about His order, you read the first letter to the Corinthians and see.

Our placing in the House of God is the prerogative of God by the Holy Spirit. The place that we occupy, the function that we perform, is God-appointed and must be so. If we try to do what God has never called us to do, we shall be a misfit in the House of God. But under the Holy Spirit's government, if we are content with that for which the Lord has brought us into His House, content with that, we shall be at rest; it will be ease and not friction.

God superintends His own House: it is His government of His House, because it is His House. And I repeat in this other connection, that it is nothing less or other than impertinence to come into God's House and upset the order, or try to impose our order. We must ever seek the order of the Holy Spirit and to be subject to Him in the House of God.

So much for number one out of nine! The second:

The Tabernacle and Temple of God.

They are identical in purpose (the difference only relates to certain conditions, which we will not stay to explain, we'll leave the details aside in our hastening on) but identical in purpose: the tabernacle and temple of God. There are two ideas in the main connected with this designation.

Firstly, the place where God is, the place where God chooses to be. And you know, dear friends, there is a place where God chooses to be and where He can be found, and normally, normally that is in His Temple, in His Tabernacle - in the Church. The Church is supposed to be, intended to be, the place where you will find God, where God is. That's not a building; that's the people of God, that you should find Him there. He chooses a place for Himself. How much there is in the Old Testament illustrative of this, but His own Son's words are: "Wherever two or three are gathered together into My name, there I am". It is but the enunciation of an eternal principle that God chooses to be in a place and there you'll find Him. He chooses to locate Himself; to locate Himself. Oh, how I am tempted to enlarge upon that! But believe me, if you, as a believer, as a Christian, detach yourself from the Lord's people, and go off on your own independent way, you will be, before long, like Thomas - where the Lord is not. And, like Thomas, you will not find the Lord until you come back with the other disciples. There's a lot more to that, but there it is, God has chosen His Temple, His spiritual Temple now, as the place where He will meet us, where He can be found.

And it is the place where He speaks. So it should be, so when it is according to His mind, it is, it is a place where He speaks. And I venture to go this further step, and say that the nearer the thing corresponds to God's idea of the Church, the more fully will you hear Him speak. It is there that you will hear more from the Lord, from the Lord, than you will if you are where the thing does not either so much or at all approximate to His conception of the Temple.

Secondly, it is where God is worshipped. There is one idea always associated with the tabernacle and the temple, and that is: "holiness unto the Lord". The place of worship. Should I say this? Seeing that now the temple is not just a structure but a people, it is a worshipping people. That is the temple: a worshipping people. And what is worship? We have often defined worship as the draw of everything Godward; everything unto the Lord. That is "holiness", or "wholeness unto the Lord"; everything to Him. So should the Church be; that is God's mind [for the whole].

On to number three. Peter will tell us in his first letter chapter 2, verse 9, that the Church is:

A Chosen Nation.

We have a lot of light thrown upon this in the Old Testament, as you know. But there are three things here connected with this conception of the Church as a nation; that is, a people (as we said at the beginning) taken out of the nations for His Name, to be made, here and now, a heavenly nation of a different order. The very word 'heavenly', of course, carries that with it: a heavenly nation out from the nations and yet in the midst of the nations. There are three things connected with that.

Firstly there is the principle or law of separation. That clearly is illustrated and enforced in the case of Israel, as the earthly type of this Church, separate from the nations. Israel lost its very integration, its vocation, its power, its glory, and everything, when it lost its distinctiveness from the other nations, and allowed a bridge to be built between it and the other nations, worshipping their gods. That was why Israel went into captivity; just that: the lost distinctiveness as a nation. And the Old Testament is a very forceful illustration, a very powerful object-lesson of spiritual principles. And if that is true in a temporal way and earthly way, how much more true is it and must it be in the spiritual and the heavenly and the eternal! Distinct!

The one thing that has accounted for more loss of glory, power, influence, and the presence of God, than perhaps anything else in the case of the Church during the centuries, has been the world getting into it, and it getting into the world. A lost distinctiveness, separation.

The nation was a constituted as well as a separated people. It was separated, and my word was it not separated from Egypt! Pharaoh tried to parley on that matter; just that they should leave a little behind, a little attachment. "No", said the Lord through Moses, "not a hoof of a single animal shall remain in Egypt". And look at the breach that God made, and the gap that He put between Israel and Egypt. It's all very illustrative.

But then, when He got them out, He constituted them a nation. They came out a multitude, we might almost say a rabble; but then God took them in hand to form and constitute them into an entity, with spiritual laws and principles governing every detail of their lives right under heaven, where nothing of this world could meet their need. Their resources were all from above; a constituted people on heavenly principles, under heavenly government. That is the Church!

And thirdly, as Peter tells us in this comprehensive statement, "to show forth the excellencies of Him Who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light". The vocation of the nation is to show forth the excellencies of Him: in other words, to show how God excels, how God excels - all excellency He transcends. That was Israel's calling and vocation; and if that was true in an earthly, limited way, how much more true that is, in the heavenly, universal way, of the Church: to show forth His excellencies, how He excels. How He excels; that is what He is trying to do all the time! We have said repeatedly, He allows the enemy to have a good deal of tether and leash, and go a long way and then He shows just how much further He can go. He allows the enemy to do much, and then He just shows how He can take hold of the much and turn it to His own glory.

The 'excellencies of Him', shown in the Church and by the Church: something to dwell upon, I think friends. Look at the book of the Acts just from that standpoint alone, and see the working out of what Paul meant and said, "I would have you know, brethren, that the things which have befallen me, have fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel". And these are the things which befell him - all falling out for the furtherance of the gospel - it's one way in which His excellencies are shown forth. We will not dwell upon that, but if angels are looking on, I am quite sure they are covering their faces and covering their feet and worshiping, as they see the grace of God in many a suffering servant and child of God - showing the excellencies of His grace. That's such a large thing, but there it is, we pass on to the next, the fourth.

And we come to this English translation of the word:

The Church.

The Church, we know it is the word ekklesia, a very rich and very full word appropriated by Christ and the apostles and applied to this elect, this eternally elect Body, the Church. May I say that the modern equivalent of that is 'the assembly', because that word carries all the elements in it of the meaning of this word ekklesia. I hesitate to stay with the word to break it up and explain it, because there the old faces are going to look wry, they know all about it.

But, just this: in the Greek world, certain people were chosen, elected, to a position upon the municipal council, or government, either in a city, or in a province, or in a country. And at the given time, when a session was to be invoked and there was business of the state to be attended to, the messengers went out to call together these men: come and assemble together in order to transact the business of the state. And that body of men was called the ekklesia.

You see, it wasn't a Church matter, an 'ecclesiastical' matter, as we think of it then; it was simply a state, municipal, or political matter. The Church embodied these ideas: an elect company, brought together to transact the business of the Kingdom. And that word was taken over by Christ and the apostles and applied to the Church. How rich it is! An elect company, called together for the purpose of carrying on the work of the Kingdom! That's the Church: an elect company, "chosen in Him before the foundation of the world... called, called into the fellowship of His Son". Called "according to His eternal purpose" - called together, and, with Him, entrusted with the affairs of His government. I wish the Church, we as the Church, approximated to that more closely, and more fully! We must leave it, it's rich, full, [by far].

Number five, the Church which is:

His Body.

His Body. We read it from Ephesians 1:23, and as you know, there are a number of other references to the Church under that designation or title. Here we must sum it up in just one or two concise statements. What is the idea, and functions, of a body? Remember that it is the physical body that is the simile being used here.

First of all, the body of a man is the vehicle of the expression of his personality. Not always can you read the personality through the features and the body, but, but usually a person gives themselves away by their bodies. Even if, as in some cases, you find it difficult to read what is going on inside, the very fact that it's difficult to read tells you that they are not intending you to know - and you've read them! We can't easily get away from this matter, that by gesture, by look, by many, many expressions, we betray ourselves through our bodies. That, at any rate, is the idea of having a body, the expression of the man inside, he is finding his way to express himself. Well, that's quite simple, but it's the first idea of a body, you see.

"The Church which is His Body" is the vessel, the embodiment of the Lord the Spirit, in which and by which He is to express Himself. If the Church accorded with the Divine idea, as we met it and moved amongst it we should know what the Lord is like. Let us take it to heart: our very existence as the Church is in order that people might know what Christ is like. Oh, the Lord help us, we fail Him so much in this. It is so difficult to detect the real character of the Lord Jesus in His people, but that is the very first meaning of the Body of Christ.

The body (and here we are on so familiar ground) is an organic whole. It's an organic whole; it's not something put together from the outside. It's something that finds its oneness by reason of a life within; related in every part, inter-related, dependent and inter-dependent. How familiar the words are, that is describing the physical body. Every remotest part is affected by what happens in any other part. Oh, we could enlarge upon that and deal with it in its minutia, but we can learn a lot more yet in actual spiritual apprehension and application of this reality about the Body of Christ; the Church as the Body of Christ, to be brought into that great sympathetic system of the Body. The sympathetic system of the Body, that demands a real work of grace in us. There are many ways in which that is put. We are to remember those who are in suffering, in suffering with them. Those who are in prison, as in prison with them. That is, we are to get into their situations, into their situations by the Spirit. It's an organic whole. "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it". And probably, dear friends, we are suffering a good deal of what we do not know; there is suffering going on, and we are involved. And the Lord is seeking in our conflict to involve us in the needs of others.

See, it is not just our apprehending of the truth, and it is not that we are alive to it and understand it all, but it is God's fact that it is so. That it is so! Believers in other places are dependent upon believers in another place; they are affected. This is such a whole; we must leave it there. It is one sympathetic nerve-system running through the whole Body. And if you and I really do become spiritually alive, spiritually alive, the expression of the Body will be much more perfect. It's our deadness, insensitiveness, our lack of real spiritual aliveness that results in more suffering than need be, and more loss than need be.

Oh, that we should - and not mechanically, and not by information, but on the principle of the Body - be moved into a universal sympathy and co-operation with the people of God! It's mechanical so often: we have to read letters, and get information, and tell a lot in order to get some measure of prayer. But I believe dear friends, that altogether apart from those means, if we were really in the Spirit, the Spirit would lay burdens on our hearts for people. And do you not think that that's a matter that we ought continually to bring to the Lord? "Lord, there's someone praying today for something: is it possible that I might be the answer to their prayer? If so, show me, lead me, lay it on me." See, that's spiritual relatedness, aliveness. Oh, it's a great vocation; the oneness of the Body.

There's much more than that, I must leave it and go on to number six. Peter again:

A Royal Priesthood

A royal priesthood, this is the Church. You notice that it's a combination of two ideas: king and priest, kingdom and priesthood - two functions brought together, the throne and the altar. What does it mean? Well, in the very briefest words, it surely means this: that it is by yielding, letting go, releasing, self-emptying, suffering, that Divine power is exercised in this universe. It's the throne operating. It is suffering and glory, it is weakness and power. Seeming contradiction of terms, but here it is in the Word: "a Lamb in the midst of the throne...". The symbol of utmost yieldedness, and, in the right sense, of non-resistance, even to evil, even to evil! You understand what I mean, I am not speaking of non-resistance to sin, but wrong done to you, unrighteousness. A Lamb to the slaughter, and through the slaughter, to the Throne.

These are spiritual principles, you see. Spiritual principles; they are tremendous! "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart". This is the King speaking: it is He into Whose hands has been committed "all authority in Heaven and in earth". See how He got it, how He got there! The Church is supposed to be like that; supposed to be like that: a royal priesthood, priests having to do with sacrifice and suffering; the king having to do with ruling and reigning. Do you get the idea? The Church, that's the conception of the Church.

Number seven:

One New Man

Ephesians 2, 14 to 16; Galatians 3:28. The Church is called: "the one new man". Jesus called Himself (and it was His favourite title for Himself): "the Son of Man". One new Man. Of course, the oneness referred to there in Ephesians is the result of different kinds of people having disappeared. Not Jews or Gentiles: they have disappeared, they've gone out, as two different kinds, as representatives of two orders, two racial orders of men - gone out. And in their place made "one new man". But all I am going to say again in that connection, is taking up all that we said at the beginning about the meaning of the Incarnation, the Church is a different kind of entity, of manhood, of race, of mankind; a different kind, just as Christ was different. Of a different order; the difference was inward, was inward.

Looking on Him from the outside, people did not see or discern the great difference. There may have been features that were different from other men, but that was not the thing that impressed them. They could not see the difference between Him and other men. "Is not this the carpenter?" They talked about Him as they would about other men, looking on Him from the outside.

I had a letter today, in it, "For many years I have been helped by reading "A Witness and A Testimony" but since I attended your meeting at Livingstone Hall I've lost all interest in it, because I don't agree with what you said, when you said that every Christian is a supernatural person." You see, the point had been missed, altogether missed. Outwardly no different perhaps from other people (although there ought to be some traces outwardly) yet the real secret, the real meaning is inward, isn't it?

He was different as a man, as a man! Inside the body was a different Man, governed by different laws altogether from those by which other people were governed; governed by different conceptions, governed from a different realm, and in that sense, always a mystery.

John said so many years afterward, in writing his letter: "As His children... the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not". It knew Him not, it knoweth us not - another kind of being. And it ought to be, if I may put it this way: quite natural. Not self-conscious at all, not self-conscious, not always trying to be another kind. No pose: just the fact of which we ourselves are the most unconscious, and yet, and yet there's something that does not belong to this creation; something there that speaks of another world, of another order, another Life, another nature. We just do not behave, under given circumstances, as others would behave. God [has us again]. But the Church is supposed to be like that, it's composed of the individuals, but the Church is supposed to be like that: a "one new man".

Number seven [eight]:

The Bride - the Lamb's Wife

Here we need quite a lot of Scriptures, from Genesis, from Matthew and Mark, from Ephesians, from Revelation. Mark the words by the angel to the apostle: "Come hither, I will show thee the Lamb's wife, the bride of the Lamb". Synonymous terms, and yet not actually identical in sense. We do not stay with the details, but first of all remember something of the beginning of that relationship.

The first, the first word about this relationship was from God Himself: "It is not good for man to be alone". So the idea of this relationship, at the very beginning, was one of fellowship and companionship: the sublime idea of the relationship between Christ and His Church. "Christ... loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it". Oh, mystery of mysteries, I think! Companionship, fellowship. God looked upon His Son, [held this thing] and said: "It is not good for Him to be alone". The Church is supposed to be in that relationship to Christ: His companion, to fellowship with Him, to have interchange of mind, of heart, to move together.

And then God said: "I will make him a help meet... I will make him someone suitable to help him, meet to help him, meet to help him - a help-meet". A very simple idea; but transfer that to the Church. To minister to Christ, to take account of Christ's needs, and Christ's desires, and to have the whole poise in His direction: how can I anticipate Him, His desires and His needs? How can I best serve His interests? That, of course, is the Bible idea of a wife, you know, but the Bible makes the earthly relationship, at least intended, as a reflection of the heavenly, "even as Christ and the Church". But here our point is this: that you and I, if we are of the Church, are to have our poise entirely toward Him. How can we best serve Him, how can we be well-pleasing unto Him? How can we anticipate Him in His needs and desires, and what will be to His interests? That's the very first idea bound up with the Bride, the Lamb's wife.

Of course, going alongside of that or with it is the idea of identity: "they twain shall be one flesh". They are one; not two now, but one - one flesh. Remember Ephesians 5 on that matter, [we see it]. We'll pursue it: "Be fruitful and multiply...". The idea of the relationship is His increase, His increase: "He shall see His seed... He shall see of the travail of His soul...". He shall see His seed. How? Well, there's no other way but by the Church so that, mark you, the travail of His soul is to be satisfied by the Church's bringing into being new babes. It gives another idea about evangelism doesn't it? It's for Him, not just the interest of getting souls saved: it's that He shall see His seed, the travail of His soul shall be satisfied, He shall see them. The Church is the vessel in which and through which Christ [Audio message ends here, but the remainder of the message is given in the magazine version and is included here:] is reproduced - through which, can we say, He is propagated. And any 'church', so calling itself, that is not reproductive, to which the Lord is not adding, in which no spiritual births are taking place, has missed the point of its relationship to Christ.

(9) The City

The last picture is that of the City. At the end of the Revelation, we are told that the angel, after having said: "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb" (21:9), carried the apostle away "in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city..." (v. 10). These are not two separate entities. All these titles belong to the one entity, but they are the same entity viewed from different standpoints. If you study it, I think you will find that the title of 'the City' gathers into itself all the elements of the others; they all come together in this.

Note some of the features of this City. First of all, its greatness. What a great City it is! It sets forth the spiritual greatness of the Church in union with Christ. Look again at its strength - its "walls great and high" (v.12): what strength there is in this City! It is the spiritual strength of the Church in union with Christ. It has proved true that "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). Hell has been moved from its depths, it has exhausted every resource against the Church; but the Church goes on - it is a mighty Church. Its strength is not the strength of men. Look again at its purity: "her light... as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal" (v. 11): everything transparent - its street transparent gold (v. 18), its river of crystal clear water (22:1) - the purity of the Church at last. Look again at its beauty: "all manner of precious stones" (v. 19). It is a beautiful city. Its gates of pearl (v. 21) speak of the sufferings and the sacrifice of fellowship with its Lord and in His afflictions. Look at its livingness (21:1-2), and look at its luminousness (21:11, 23-24; 22:5) - its life and its light. Look at its fulness of resource: the trees bearing their fruit all the year round (22:2). Constant reproduction without intermission - something altogether phenomenal and different. And, finally, everywhere the number twelve written large: twelve foundations, twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve thousand stadia: all speaking of spiritual government.

Such is the presentation that we are given of the Church as it is to be when, at last, the work is done. Let us take note that it is presented to us as a fact. We might very well despair, now, that it could ever be realized, but we have been given this prophetic revelation of just what it will be like at the end. No matter how things are now it does matter, of course, how they are - but in a sense, no matter how things are, that is how it is going to be. To go back to the former simile: He will "present the church to Himself a glorious Church" - a holy Church, a pure Church, a sanctified Church "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Eph. 5:27; A.S.V).