The 8 Aspects of Redemption - Part 2 — T. Austin-Sparks

The Church Showing Forth God's Excellences

This is track two. The vocation of the nation is to show forth the excellences of him. In other words, to show how God excels. God excels. All excellences, he transcends. That was his calling, 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 excellences. How he excels. How he excels. It's what he's 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 just shows 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 excellences 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, the things which have befallen me have fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel. And think of the things which befell him. All falling out for the furtherance of the gospel.

One way in which his excellences are shown forth. You cannot dwell upon that. But if angels are looking on, I'm quite sure they are covering their faces and covering their feet and worshipping as they see the grace of God in many a suffering servant and child of God.

Showing the excellences of his grace. Yes, it's a large theme. There it is. We pass on to the next, number four, and we come to this English translation of the word, the church. Church. No, it is the word Ecclesia.

The Church as the Assembly

Very rich and very full word. Appropriated by Christ and the Apostles and applied to this elect, this eternally elect body, the church. 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 Ecclesia.

I hesitate to stay with the word to break it up and explain it because there the old stages are going to look wry. They know all about it. 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.

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 and assembled together in order to transact the business of the state.

And that body of men was called the Ecclesia. 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. And there were 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 together for the purpose of the work of the kingdom.

That's the church. An elect company chosen in him before the foundation of the world called into the fellowship of his son, called according to his eternal purpose together 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. You must leave it. It's rich, full, bazaar. Number five, the church which is his body. His body. We've read it from Ephesians 1 23.

The Church as the Body of Christ

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 one or two concise statements. What is the idea and function of a body?

Remember that it is the physical body that is the simile being used here. First of all, the body is the vehicle of the expression of his personality. Not always can you read the personality through the features and the body.

Usually a person gives themselves away by their bodies. Even if, as in some cases, you find it difficult to read what's 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 many, many expressions for ourselves through our bodies. That at any rate is the idea in having a body, the expression of the man inside.

He's finding his way to express himself. 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. But let us take this to heart. Our very existence as the church is in order that people might know what Christ is like.

The Lord helped us. We fail him so much in this. It's difficult to detect the real character of the Lord Jesus in his people. But that is the very first meaning of the body. The body, 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 is something which binds its oneness by reason of a life within, related in every part, interrelated, dependent and interdependent, how familiar the words are.

That is describing the physical body. Every remotest part affected by what happens in any other part. Oh, we could enlarge upon that and deal with it in its minutiae, but we've to learn a lot more yet in actual spiritual apprehension and application of this reality about the body of Christ.

The church is the body of Christ. To be brought into that great sympathetic system of the body, a 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 as suffering with them, those who are in prison as imprisoned with them. That is, we are to get into their situation. Get into their situation. The spirit, it's an organic whole.

One member suffers, all the members suffer with it. And probably, dear friends, we are suffering a good deal for what we do not know. There's suffering going on and we're evolved. 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 and to it and understand it all, but it's God's fact that it is so, that it is so. Believers in other places are dependent upon believers in another place.

They're 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 not mechanically and not by information, but on the principle of the body be moved into a universal sympathy and cooperation with the people of God.

It's mechanical. So often we have to read letters and give 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.

That spiritual relatedness, aliveness, oh, it's a great vocation. The oneness of the body, there's much more to that. I must leave it and go on to number six. Peter again, priesthood. This is the church.

The Church as a Royal Priesthood

You notice there's a combination of two ideas, king and priest. Kingdom functions brought together and the altar. What does it mean? Well, in the very briefest word, it surely means this, that it is by yielding, letting go, releasing, self-emptying, divine power is exercised in this universe, that the throne operates.

It is suffering and glory. It is weakness and power. Seeming contradiction terms, but here it is in the word, a lamb in the midst of the throne. Symbol of utmost yieldness, a yieldedness, and in the right sense of non-resistance, even to evil, even to evil.

Understand what I mean? I'm not speaking of non-resistance to sin, but wrong done to you, and 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. This is the king speaking. This 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. Priesthood, priest having to do with sacrifice and suffering. King having to do with ruling, reigning.

Get the idea? Church. That's a conception of the church. Number seven, One New Man. Ephesians 2, 14 to 16, Galatians 3, 28. Church is called the One New Man. Jesus called himself, and it was his favorite title for himself, the Son of Man.

The Church as the One New Man

New Man. Of course, the oneness referred to there in Ephesians, the result of different kinds of people having disappeared. Not Jew, Gentile. 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'm 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. Difference was inward, was inward. Looking on him from the outside, people did not see, discern their 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. Today, that, for many years I have been a witness and a testimony, but since I attended your meeting at Livingston 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 has 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. The man inside the body was a different man. Governed by different laws altogether from those by which other people were governed.

Governed by different conception. Governed from a different realm. And in that sense, always a mystery. As John said so many years afterward in writing his letter, little children, the world knoweth us not.

Because it knew him not. It knew him not. It knoweth us not. Another kind of being, and that 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 help us again. But the church is supposed to be like that. It is composed of the individuals, but the church is supposed to be like that.

The Church as the Bride of Christ

One new man, number seven, Sam's wife. Here we need quite a lot of scripture from Genesis, from Matthew and Mark, from Ephesians, from Revelation. Last word by the angel to the apostle, Come hither, I will show thee the Lamb's synonymous and yet not actually identical in sense.

We dare not stay with the details, but first of all, remember something of the beginning of that relationship. The first word about this relationship was from God himself. It is not good for man to be alone.

The idea of this relationship at the very beginning was one of fellowship and companionship. I, my dear, the relationship between Christ and his church, loved the church and gave himself. Mystery of mysteries, I think.

Companionship, fellowship. God looked upon his son, so to speak, and said it is not good for him to be alone. Church is supposed to be in that relationship to Christ, his companion. 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. Very simple idea, but transfer that to the church, minister to Christ, to take account of Christ's needs and Christ's desire, and to have the whole poise in his direction.

Can I anticipate him, his desires and his needs? Can I best serve his interests? That, of course, is the Bible idea of a wife, you know. Makes the earthly relationship to be 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 interest?

That's the very first idea bound up with the bride. Alongside of that or with it is the idea of identity. They twain shall be one flesh. They are one. Not one flesh. Remember Ephesians 12, 5, on that matter.

Believe it. We 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. 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 faiths. Which is another idea upon 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 should be satisfied. He shall see his seed. Church is the vessel in which and through which Christ is reproduced. Shall I say propagated? Reproduced.

And any church that calls itself by that name that is not reproductive, to which the Lord is not adding, in which there are no births taking place in a period when it ought to be as missed. The point of its relationship to Christ.

I must leave that and go to the end, I think. The time has gone. The last is the city. The city. Revelation 21 verse 2 and verse 10. Took me to an exceeding great high mountain after having said come hither.

The Church as the Holy City

I will surely the bride the Lamb's wife. Took me to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city. These are not two separate entities. See, all these titles belong to the one entity, but they are the same entity viewed from a different standpoint.

And the last one is the city. The last title of the church. And if you study it, I think you will find that it gathers into itself all the elements of the others. They all come together. But we leave that.

Note some of the features of this city. Its greatness. Great city it was. And it sets forth the spiritual greatness of the church in union with Christ. It's a great thing. Look again at its strength, its walls great and high.

What strength there is in the city. Again, the spiritual strength of the church in union with Christ. It has proved true. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. They have not. They have not.

Hell has been moved from its depths. It has exhausted itself against the church. But the church goes on, goes on. Its strength is not the strength of men. It's a mighty church. Look again at its purity as a jasper stone.

Everything transparent, its street transparent gold, its river crystal clear water. The purity of the church at last, at last. Look again at its beauty. All manner of precious stones. It's a beautiful city.

Its gates of power. It is governed by the sufferings and the sacrifice. Fellowship with its Lord in his affliction. Look at its livingness and look at its luminousness, its life and its light. Look at its fullness of resource.

Fruit, the trees bearing their fruit and no death. Constant reproduction without death. Something altogether phenomenal and different. Resources and everywhere the number 12 written law, 12 foundations, 12 stone gates, thousand stadia, spiritual government.

This is the church as it is presented to us when at last the work is done. You know, it's presented to us as a fact. What I draw from that is this, my very well despair now of any of that. But we have been given the prophetical revelation of what exactly will be at the end.

Matter in a sense, no matter how things are now, it does matter of course, but in a sense no matter how things may be, it's going to be like that. He will, to go back to the former simile, he will present the church to himself, a holy church, a pure church, a sanctified church, a glorious church.

Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Now into this brief time I've sought to crowd something to answer the question, why the church?