When the Lord ascended, on His way up, He was a conqueror in triumph, leading captivity captive. But when He reached His heavenly seat, He became a crowned priest,* and sent down coronation gifts to His Church, by the ministry of which He is either forming or strengthening the union between Himself and the members here, and their union among themselves. These ministries thus act like the joints and bands in the human body; and all other ministries the Apostle sets aside as "rudiments of the world," fitted to those who are alive in the world, but most unsuited to those who are--as the Church is--dead and risen with Christ (see Eph. 4: 16; Col. 2: 19-23).
*The "glory and honour" that form our Lord's present crown were typified by Aaron's garments, which were said to be to him for "glory and beauty" (Ex. 28: 2). And the very same words are used in the Septuagint, for "glory and beauty," as our translators have rendered, "glory and honour" in Heb. 2: 7; so that the Lord's present crown is a priest's crown or mitre, and not a king's. He has not put on His royal crown yet.
Gifts to the Church.
We are therefore not true to the ascension of our Head, if we do not look for His ascension-gifts in those who minister in His name. They constitute the hand-writing of the Lord in the Church's genealogies. The Jews were careful to put from the priesthood those whose genealogy could not be proved. They refused to register them (Ezra 2: 62; Neh. 7: 63). And this too in a day when all was feebleness in Israel. No cloudy pillar had led them on their way home from Babylon--no arm of the Lord had gloriously made a passage for them through the deserts--no rain of angel's food from heaven, nor ark of the covenant was with them. All this, and more than this, was gone. But did they plead their feebleness, and do nothing? Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, do what they can. They cannot recover everything, but they do what they can: and among other services, they read the genealogies, and do not allow the holy things to be eaten by unproved claimants of the priesthood. And ours, dear brethren, is a day of feebleness like theirs. Much of the former strength and beauty is gone, and we cannot recover everything. But it is not therefore to be a day of allowed evil; nor are we, in the spirit of slumber, to fold the arms, and say, "There is no hope." We should do what we can, and among other services, we can study the genealogies, when anyone seeks their register: and thus they run, "A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre" (1 Tim. 3)
Thus run the genealogies of the bishops of the flock of God; thus has the Spirit of the ascended Head of the Church written in His Word.
The Holy Spirit's Presence.
The time for glorying only in the Lord, and in that authority, and in that only, which had been formed by the Holy Ghost had now fully come, and therefore the fact that the Lord had given Paul authority in the Church, was shown by witnesses to the presence of the Spirit with him. The signs of an Apostle were wrought by him. His authority stood approved by this, that he could "do nothing against the truth, but for the truth"; and because the power used by him was used "to edification, and not to destruction" (2 Cor. 13: 5-10). He claims no authority, save what was thus verified by the presence of the Spirit with him, and used by him for the furtherance of the truth, and the profit of the Church. For the Holy Ghost had been publicly avouched to be sovereign in the Church, as the Son had been proclaimed Head to the Church. The gifts of the Spirit may be among us in various measures of strength; but the Holy Ghost in us is the title of all present worship and service. Whatever worship is now to be had in the temples of God, it is to be in the Spirit; for "we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit." And the Apostle, speaking of worship, says, "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord (that is, no man can call Jesus, Lord, or say, 'Lord Jesus'), but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 12: 3) So whatever service is now to be rendered in the Church is with this limitation, "according to the ability which God giveth"; it is by this rule, "the manifestation of the Spirit." Paul might lay hands on Timothy, and Titus might appoint elders; but the presence of the Spirit was in measure according to the authority and service. Timothy was left in Ephesus; but the charge entrusted to him there, was according to the gifts bestowed upon him (1 Tim. 1: 18; 1 Tim. 4: 14; 2 Tim. 1: 6). To assume any ministry beyond this measure, is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think (Rom. 12: 3). And as every individual saint has title through the indwelling Spirit to "prove all things" (with this condition doubtless, that he "hold fast that which is good"); so the congregations of the saints, or the temples of God, as spiritual, are to judge also (1 Cor. 14: 29); and if the resources of the flesh, the name, the human advantages, or earthly distinctions of men be gloried in and trusted, the temple is defiled. And the temple of God at Corinth was thus defiled (1 Cor. 3: 16-23). Some had rested in Paul, some in Cephas, some in Apollos. But this was carnal. This was walking as men, and not in the presence and sufficiency of the Spirit, Whose temple they were. They became untrue to the Spirit Who dwelt in them.
Responsibility in Ministry.
And here let me say, that it is not so much right to minister which the New Testament speaks of, as obligation. If any man have the gift, he is debtor to exercise it, and to wait on his ministry. The habit of looking on ministry as a right, rather than as an obligation, has given the Church its worldly aspect. The "great house" has forgotten that service on earth is glory. But our Apostle did not forget it, and he never affected anything that might have its influence in the world, upon the world's principles. He was one whom the world would pass by. He laboured with his own hands, followed his trade, and made tents, just at the time when, in the authority of the Spirit, he shook his raiment upon the unbelieving Jews. He was among the meanest of his company (mean in the world's judgment) gathering sticks for the fire, when, in the power of Christ, he shook the viper from his hand. Beloved, this is unlike all that which corrupted Christendom has sanctioned in her ministers, as their due and suitable dignities! But Paul was in his own esteem (and would have others esteem him by that rule also), just what the Lord had made him. He would not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ had not wrought by him (Rom. 15: 18). He measured himself only by that line which the Lord had distributed to him (2 Cor. 10) What folly does he count all boasting in the flesh. He was compelled for a little moment thus to be a fool before the Church at Corinth; but with what zeal, with what revenge, with what clearing of himself, does he leave off this "folly," as he calls it? (2 Cor. 11) Would that the same mind were in us all, the same zeal for the Lord, the same revenge upon the flesh, which is fit, like the offal of a sacrifice, only for the burning outside the camp.
To me, brethren, I confess, these principles are very clear from the New Testament. The Lord knows that naturally, I would rather have all continued and settled in the flesh, that we might the more securely hold on our quiet and even way. But I pray for more faith, for more living and powerful apprehension of this truth, that the earth and its inhabitants are to be dissolved, and that Christ alone is to bear up its pillars. We need the faith that would root us out of that earth in which the cross of the Son of God was once planted, and in which the course of this world, continuing the same as it was then, has fixed that cross only more firmly. We want that faith that would call us to arise and depart from it, and go forth to meet the Bridegroom.
