The Church, His Body Possessing Righteousness.

The Church His Body Possessing Righteousness

Eph. 1:4, “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him: in love having marked us out for the position of sons.” (Literal Translation). This is God’s declaration that, in this present life, He planned we should be holy and without blemish before Him. This is not after we die, but today. That holiness and beauty of life is all of grace, not of ourselves. The only thing we do is receive it, accept it with joy.

Eph. 5:25 speaking of Christ and the church, and using marriage as an illustration says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” He does not say that the church is going to be a conqueror after it gets to heaven, but that it is a conqueror now.

It is not going to be sanctified after it gets to heaven but now.
It is not going to be cleansed by the washing of the Word after it gets to heaven but now.
The Word is the thing that brings knowledge. The ignorance of the church about the Bible is appalling. It is because of textual preaching. The exposition of the Word makes men spiritual. It makes them hungry for the Word so that they study the Word for themselves. This church “without spot or wrinkle” is the church that has been cleansed through the Word of God. It is not cleansed by prayer only but by the Word. It is the Spirit that uses the Word to build the life of Christ into us. Col. 1:21-22 gives us another picture of the church.

“And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.” This is a beautiful picture of the recreated body-reconciled, holy, without blemish, without reproof, standing before the Father, not only clothed in the Righteousness of Christ but actually partakers of His Righteousness. This is a photo of our present walk in Christ. Eph. 4:23-24, “That ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

This New Creation is created out of Righteousness. Righteousness is the nature of the Father God. We have partaken of that Righteousness-that nature of God. We are to put on the conduct of the new man in our daily life. We are no longer to talk like the old man. The old man lived in failure, in selfishness, in greed, in fear. The new man lives in the fullness of love. He is Jesus-like -dominated by heaven and heaven’s sweet spirit.

The old creation and the new are as far apart as God and Satan. Heb. 13:20-21, “Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight.” It is the purpose of the risen Christ to “make us perfect in every good thing to do His will.”

It is His business to work in us His own good pleasure, making us beautiful in the sight of the Father. Phil. 1:6 carries us a step farther in this. “Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

He has begun His good work. He started it at the New Birth. Now He is taking the things of Jesus and building them into us. The very life of Christ is being built into us. This is done by our living in the Word and the Word dominating our daily walk.
The love nature must gain the ascendency in us until our words are soaked in love, until our whole spirit is held in a solution as it were of the love nature of the Father.

Phil. 2:13 becomes a glorious reality. “For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working his own good pleasure.” It is God reproducing Himself in us. We are to live and walk and talk in love. 1 Pet. 5:10 has another sweet message for our hearts. “And the God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.”

We may be going through hard places. We may be suffering. There may not be much happiness for us in this life, but there can be joy. Happiness comes from our surroundings; joy comes from our recreated hearts. We have Him in our hearts. He will strengthen us, establish us, until our lives become like Jesus’ life. Eph. 5:1-2, “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children (or children of love).” What would we do if we imitated God: We would love “And walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for you.”

We are to give ourselves up as an odor, a sweet, fragrant offering of love to the world. They may criticize and hate us, but we love them. We walk in love toward them. Until we love as He loves, we do not represent Him. He never answered back. He never said unkind things. He never criticized. He never peddled scandal. He spoke love words. He helped men and women. He said beautiful things. This walking in love is the most beautiful thing in the world. God is love. We are born of love. Love is the rule and law of our life. Love is the strength of our life. Love is the very beauty of our life. We are walking as He walked.

This is the Righteousness of God in us. It is in reality our life in Christ. 1 John 4:17, “Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, even so are we in this world. We are here as He is up there. 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear.” There is no fear in love. We are living in love. We have come to believe in love. We know that He is love. We know that we are abiding in love. We know that love is abiding in us. This is the secret of faith. This Revelation to. Paul and John is a series of pictures of us that our Father has put in His album.

We are finding ourselves complete in Him. Col. 2:9-10, “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in him, ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.” That is how we appear to our Father. That is the way love sees us, even as it saw Him. It sees us as New Love Creations, ruled by love, living in love, and letting love live in us. All this is possible. All this is ours.