16-Chapter 1. The New People Of God

Chapter 1. The New People Of God

“Evangelizing is the greatest thing now going on in the world. It is a great power in servant’s form.” The message of the cross advances through the world. The present age is of especial significance. Its purpose is the calling out of the church. Everything in it is directed to this end.

[1] The Goal of the Call The programme for the present time is not the transforming of mankind and the creating of Christian nations. This will not take place before the coming visible kingdom of God (Isaiah 2:3-4; Isaiah 19:21-25). But the present work of God is “to take out of the nations a people for His name” (Acts 15:14), that is, not Christianizing the races but evangelizing the races, for the purpose of calling out a super-national people of God (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15). “There is neither “Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor freeman .... but ye are altogether one in Christ” (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). In place of the former twofold division of mankind there thus arises a threefold division (1 Corinthians 10:32), and to Israel and the peoples of the world there is added the church as a “third race.” Thenceforth each who is not a Christian in the New Testament sense (Acts 11:26), is either a Jew or a Gentile. A fourth possibility does not exist. A general nominal Christendom has no justification in the New Testament. It is apostasy from Christianity and is after all only a “monstrous mental delusion” (Kierkegaard). This people of God to be newly won the Scripture names ecclesia (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22). It is the company of the redeemed who, by means of the proclamation of the gospel (1 Timothy 2:7), have been called out of Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11-22), who, in the enjoyment of the heavenly citizenship (Php 3:20) and possession of the divine ennoblement (John 1:12-13), will become the future “legal administrative assembly” of the kingdom of heaven (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). They are to be exalted and glorified with Christ. They are “from heaven, in heaven, for heaven. Their nature is eternal. The church originates in eternity and is for eternity, taken out of time.”

Under the old covenant Israel had already been called an ecclesia. This word occurs about 100 times in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament),which is almost as often as in the New Testament. In the latter it is used ten times of the whole church (especially Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 3:21; Ephesians 5:23-32; Colossians 1:18; Colossians 1:24), and over 90 times of the local church (e.g. Matthew 18:17). Almost everywhere in the Septuagint it is the rendering of the Hebrew kahal. This comes from the verb khl “to assemble together” (Joshua 18:1; Joshua 22:12; etc.), or “to assemble” (Deuteronomy 4:10; Deuteronomy 31:12 etc.). Thus the word applies to almost every kind of gathering, as, e.g., 1 Samuel 17:47; Jeremiah 26:17; but it had acquired a special meaning by association with Jehovah the God of Israel. As the called and assembled people of God Israel is kahal Jehovah, ecclesia of God (Deuteronomy 23:2; Deuteronomy 3:8; Psalms 22:25; etc.). Its visible presentation in this its character is found in the wilderness. “The tents of the twelve-tribed people lie in regular order around the Tabernacle. At the summons of the herald the people gather together in the space before the Tent, and stand there as the people of God, to receive his commands and blessing.” In the New Testament also Israel is described as an ecclesia (Acts 7:38). It is the word for the ideal oneness of Israel as the chosen people, even when as to locality it was not gathered as a religious fellowship (Exodus 16:3; Numbers 15:15). But Israel as a national unity too soon trod the path of apostasy. It lost in practice its character as the “people of God.” It became Lo ammi, “not my people” (Hosea 1:9). Only a fragment, the little company of the faithful, remained devoted to their God. Therefore in the history of salvation they became the kernel of the race, who carried forward its calling, the real Israel, the true people of God, the actual and essential embodiment of the Old Testament idea of the ecclesia. To them therefore attached all the promises of the kingdom of God. While unbelieving Israel, as a whole, fell under the judgment of the law, the company of the faithful were, as a remnant, saved out of the judgments (Isaiah 6:13; Malachi 4:1-2; Hosea 1:10). At the same time they became the basis for the carrying through and completing of the plan that there shall be a people of God (Micah 2:12; Micah 4:7). “Therefore with the prophets ‘remnant’ became the direct and special description of the people of God, the ecclesia of the End time.” As such it is the surviving “root-stock”, the “holy seed” out of which new life shall sprout (Isaiah 6:13), the “little flock” which at last receives the great kingdom (Micah 2:12). The existence and history of this essential kernel of the Old Testament ecclesia is therefore the presupposition and preparation for a people of God at the End time. The first Christians declared themselves to be this people of God of the End time. They are the goal of Old Testament history (1 Corinthians 10:11), the Messianic church, the saved of the “last days.” Upon us who live in the Messianic (Christian) age the “end points” 20 of the pre-Messianic (pre-Christian) ages are come (1 Corinthians 10:11), that is, the time of the Messianic perfecting. (Upon the New Testament sense of the term “last days” see pp. 102,103).

Footnote 20: The “goal points” (Gk. ta tele). This is the reason why they do not apply to themselves any of the other descriptions of religious fellowship which were ready to hand, such as koinos, syllogos, thiasos, synodos. In the world surrounding early Christianity these were the terms for describing religious unions, even as today in Christian spheres we speak of Churches, Free Churches, Fellowships, Unions. But none of these terms was chosen by the Christians as their chief description They much rather used the familiar word ecclesia taken from the Greek Old Testament, the name of the ancient believing community of which the “remnant” of the faithful were historically the kernel, the continuance, and the embodiment. By this the early Christians “did no more and no less than Paul, who said of the Christians that they are Israel after the Spirit, the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16; comp. 1 Corinthians 10:18; Galatians 4:29), the (true) descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29); or than Peter did when he brought over to the Christian community the titles of honour of Exodus 19:6 and Isaiah 43:21, and called them ‘chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation people for possession’ (1 Peter 2:9). The act of the Lord Himself must have brought His disciples near to this conception. For the choice of exactly twelve disciples to be apostles must have meant to them nothing else than that these, as formerly the twelve patriarchs, should be ancestors to a new people.... As the Passover in Israel, so the Lord’s Supper was the great repast of this new people, and baptism was the parallel to the passage through the Red Sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1). The gathering out of this church, the church of the firstborn ones, is the proper, the chief object of this age. Its meaning is nothing less than the creating of a royal family, the ruling aristocracy of the coming kingdom of the ages (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Note on the word ecclesia. Who first applied the Greek word ecclesia to the New Testament church cannot now be settled. On the one hand Jesus spoke Aramaic, including originally the words in Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17. On the other hand Paul, applies the Greek word ecclesia in such a way as presupposes its use before the period of his activities (Galatians 1:22), indeed, before the time of his conversion (Galatians 1:13; Php 3:6; 1 Corinthians 15:9). So most probably it was Greek-speaking Jewish Christians before Paul’s conversion who first called the Christian community an ecclesia. Luke also calls the pre-Pauline Christian community an ecclesia. From Acts 6:1; Acts 6:9, we know that in the time of the very first church in Jerusalem there were Hellenistic, that is Greek-speaking synagogues, of whose members a number had become Christians. The Greek word ecclesia is derived from ek out of and kaleo I call. But too much stress is not to be laid on this derivation, as if the word had on this account been chosen as the new description of the fellowship of believers, so as to call them “the called out (company) of the Lord.” Here and there this may indeed have had a sympathetic ring and have been found specially suitable and acceptable; but in principle the derivation of a word (etymology) and its meaning (definition) are not always or of necessity the same. It is indeed true that through the gospel the church is a company that is called out from sin, the world, death and judgment, but this fact is expressed in another form and manner, not in the first place through the choice of the word ecclesia. Otherwise the verb which lies at its root, ekkaleo, must have been used at least once in the New Testament. And yet not in a single passage in the whole New Testament is this the case, although such application in certain passages would have been quite ready to hand (1 Peter 2:9; 1 Peter 1:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; Romans 8:28 f.). In Greek the work ecclesia was first of all the description of any occasional gathering of a people. It is used in this sense in Acts 19:32; Acts 19:41. But in political life in the Greek free States the word denoted the regular legislative assembly called out by a herald from the populace, composed of all free, irreproachable citizens entitled to vote. The points of agreement between the “ecclesia of God” and this Hellenistic political ecclesia are chiefly four, as follows:

1. The summons through the message of the herald of the gospel (Php 3:14; 2 Timothy 1:9). Preach = Gk. keryssein, to herald; comp. keryx herald).

2. The call out of the world (Romans 11:7; 2 Peter 1:10).

3. Three conditions of admission attached to the ecclesia: citizenship: “our citizenship is in heaven” (Php 3:20); freedom: slaves were not admitted to the Greek ecclesia: “ye were salves of sin” (Romans 6:20): “Ye have been called to freedom” (Galatians 5:13); irreproachableness: no criminal had access to the Greek ecclesia: “justified freely through His grace” (Romans 3:24).

4. The purpose of the ecclesia: the ordering of public affairs of State, that is, government business: “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” (1 Corinthians 6:3; comp. 5).

Nevertheless, however will these parallels fit one another, and even though they might perhaps be sometimes yet closer, the New Testament use of the word is not derived from the Greek State life. As we saw, its root lies much rather in the Septuagint. For there, in this Greek (Old Testament Bible of the early Christians, this world was already the designation of the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 4:10; Psalms 22:22; Psalms 22:25; comp. Acts 7:38). So in the time of Jesus and His apostles the word kahal (= ecclesia) was already in use as the Biblico-theocratical description of the conception “people of God.” Consequently they did not need first to create it but could quite naturally take it over from the Septuagint and apply it to the New Testament people of God. The word ecclesia is itself untranslatable. Contention as to the translation is idle. The chief matter is to attach to the word the right meaning.

[2] The Beginning of the Call In the early days of the Lord Jesus the church, in the full New Testament sense, did not exist. Therefore Christ spoke of it as still future: “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). It was at Pentecost first that the believers “were in one Spirit baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Therefore Pentecost is the birthday of the church.

Nevertheless the new beginning took place entirely on Jewish national ground. Only Israelites were recipients of the Spirit and only Jews and Jewish associates (proselytes) were hearers of the preaching (Acts 2:5-11). Also in the period that followed it was only those who belonged to the nation Israel, and such others as wholly or in part had gone over to Judaism, who were received into the church (Acts 3:12; Acts 3:26; Acts 6:1; Acts 8:26-40; Acts 11:19).

Thus the Samaritans (Acts 8:4-25), although hated by national Judaism, were at least half-Jews (2 Kings 17:24-41), with circumcision and a so-called Five Books of the Law of their own (the Samaritan Pentateuch), and the pretension, in opposition to Jerusalem, the “false” place, to possess in and near Sichem the true chief place of worship of Jehovah (John 4:20). The eunuch of Acts 8:26-40, was a proselyte, who, as far as was possible to a eunuch, had already acceded to the Jewish faith and worship of God. Thus the oldest form of Christianity was the Israelitic. No mission, properly so-called, to the Gentiles, where as wholly Gentile they could be baptized, yet existed. Everything took place by accession to and co-ordination with Israel. Therefore Pentecost is not yet in all respects the beginning of the present age. Indeed, even after Pentecost Peter made an offer of salvation expressly on the ground of Israel as a nation. “Repent ye, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus, whom indeed heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old” (Acts 3:19-21).

Thus even later than Pentecost the New Testament message of salvation is still on Israelitic ground, and the setting aside of Israel which followed did not really occur because of their rejection of the Messiah while He lived on earth (comp. Acts 3:17), but in final and decisive manner only because of their rejection of the Holy Spirit, who had glorified before them the Messiah as having gone to heaven and been exalted. Finally Israel had even murdered Stephen who, filled with Holy Spirit, had testified to the resurrection, and thereby had confirmed this martyr’s words: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did so do ye” (Acts 7:51). And precisely because the call of the Gentiles belonged to the essential nature of the church (Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; Romans 15:9-12) it must be said that the church did not find its all-embracing full beginning in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-47) but in Caesarea (Acts 10:1-48). This process was completed through the revelations to Paul, to whom in especial manner was entrusted the doctrinal unfolding of this mystery (Ephesians 3:1-7) and the evangelistic proclaiming of the saving message among the nations (Ephesians 3:8-9). To the Jew first and then to the Greek also—this was the practice of Paul in particular and also the course of salvation’s history in general (Romans 1:16; Acts 13:46). The giving to the Gentiles an equal standing with the covenant people of the Old Testament signifies at the same time the annulment of the privileged standing of the Jew and the setting aside of Israel as a nation (Romans 11:25). Viewed from the standpoint of Israel’s national place in the history of salvation the present age is thus a parenthesis. The Gentile can now drink from the public well of salvation without having first obtained the Jewish permit to draw (Romans 10:12-13). A partial hardening has overtaken Israel, but its “fall” is the riches of the world (Romans 11:25; Romans 11:11-12). Those far off have become nigh (Ephesians 2:11-13): believing Gentiles have equal title with believing Jews. They are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, fellow-sharers of the promise, and fellow-citizens with the saints (Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 2:19). They are sharers of their spiritual possessions (Romans 15:27), and are together with them “one new man,” the body of Christ (Ephesians 2:15-16). So in the church distinction no more rules. “It is as if someone made two pillars, the one of silver and the other of lead, then melted them together, and by a miracle they came out one golden pillar” (Chrysostom).

[3] The Mystery of the Call No Old Testament prophet had seen clearly this wondrous building (1 Peter 1:10-12; Matthew 13:17). Although determined from eternity in God (Ephesians 3:9), its structure was hidden by silence from the ages as a secret, a “mystery” (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:5; 1 Corinthians 2:7). The church in its New testament character is therefore nowhere directly to be found in the Old Testament, but only indirectly, in types, as Eve, Rebecca, the Song of Songs and the Tabernacle. Only since Pentecost, and the sending of Peter to Caesarea, and, above all, since the revelation of it given independently to Paul (Galatians 1:11-12; Ephesians 3:3), was made known to the sons of men the New testament secret of the composition of the church, its call, standing, and hope. From that time it was made known through “prophetic writings,” 21 and the proclaimers of the gospel are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1).

Footnote 21: Which means New Testament prophets (Romans 16:26; comp. Ephesians 2:20; Ephesians 4:11; Acts 13:1; Acts 15:32; Acts 21:10). Its foundation is the work of Christ—the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16); Its building—the church, the mystery of the Christ (Ephesians 3:3-4; Ephesians 3:9; Ephesians 2:11-22); Its pleasure—His fellowship, the great mystery of love (Ephesians 5:31-32), Its strength—His indwelling, the mystery of “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:26-27); Its expectation—the transformation, the mystery of the rapture (1 Corinthians 15:51). And even if in Israel the mystery of hardening goes on (Romans 11:25), and if in the present age the nations of the world rage, and among them the mystery of lawlessness works (2 Thessalonians 2:7; Revelation 17:5), yet the goal is certain: God will at last bring all together under one Head (1 Corinthians 15:28). This is the “mystery of His will,” His final goal and eternal triumph (Ephesians 1:9-10; Php 2:10-11).

Until then we preach the crucified Christ and make known everywhere “the saviour of the knowledge of Him” (2 Corinthians 2:14). Our message as to its origin, is the mystery of God (Colossians 2:2): as to its mediation, it is the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:3): as to its proclamation, it is the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19): as to its experience, it is the mystery of faith (1 Timothy 3:9). And faith is the key to all of these mysteries of God. For faith the mysteries are no longer merely things hidden, “for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).

Note on the “mystery of Christ.”

Taken strictly the “mystery of Christ” in Ephesians 3:1-21 is not the church itself, but the equality of title of believing Gentiles within the church: “that those of the nations are fellow-heirs [with the believing from Israel], and fellow-members of the body, and the fellow-partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus” (ver. 6) Paul says that he has just written of the mystery, and thereby looks back to ch. 2:13-19. There also he had spoken of the absence of difference between Jew and Gentile as regards admission to salvation and of the equal rights of both as an unity in the “one body” of Christ, the one “new man,” so that since the breaking down of the law, as the “middle wall of partition,” the once “far off” Gentiles are brought nigh, and together with those “near,” the Israelites who believe on Christ, they form an organic unity with on another and with Christ.

Thus the “mystery of Christ” here is not the existence of the mystical Christ in itself, that is the existence of the church as an organism, nor is it at all the organic oneness of the members with each other and with the Head, but it is the undifferentiated share of the Gentiles in this ecclesia, and their equal title to partake with Israelites who believe in Christ in the relationship to the risen and exalted One. It thus relates less to believing Jews than to the portion of the church formed of believing Gentiles. It deals less with the ecclesia as the body than with the matter of believing fellow-members of the body within the ecclesia, and thus with the conditions of reception of believers from the peoples of the world and their enjoyment of blessings in the fellowship of salvation.

Christ Himself had already said that Christians would come into living organic relation to Himself, though He did not use the figure of the body but that of the vine (John 15:1-27). But the chief matter here is not the figure, but the spiritual reality, and this had been declared plainly by Christ.

Consequently in the expression “mystery of Christ” the genitive “of” cannot be taken as the genitive of explanation (genitivus explicativus), as if the “mystical Christ” were the “mystery of Christ” (comp. 1 Corinthians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 12:12), but as the genitive of mystical relationship (gentivus mysticus): it is a mystery which is connected organically with the person and work of Christ, and exists only through Him, with Him, and in Him. From Ephesians 5:32 it has been taught that Paul describes the church itself as “the great mystery.” Taken strictly this is nevertheless not here the case. The “secret” of which the apostle speaks here is not the church but the relationship of love between the church and Christ, which has its human counterpart in the marriage relationship. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.” Thus the word “mystery” refers here not to the church alone, as if to its existence in itself, but to the church and Christ, that is, to the heavenly relationship, the unity in love, between the Redeemer and the redeemed. On the question of how far the plan for the existence of a church composed of Christians from both Jews and Gentiles was hidden in the Old Testament the apostle says nothing in this place.

[4] Entrance to the Calling

Wondrous is the redemption; wondrous also the entrance into salvation. The sinner experiences all three offices of the Redeemer in their proper historical sequence: that of the Prophet—in his call and enlightenment; that of the Priest—in his conversion and justification; that of the Priest and King—in his sanctification and glorification.

He experiences first the prophetic service of Christ.

1. The Leading to salvation: the call through His word and enlightenment through His Spirit. The awakening: “faith comes through the preaching” (Romans 10:17). Alarmed by the accusations of an awakened conscience, broken down under the word of God, self-condemned, the man is allowed to recognize in the gospel of Christ the offer of salvation. Then comes the priestly service, the experience of Golgotha.

2. The Entrance into salvation through conversion and regeneration. The sinner receives the pardon of his guilt on the ground of the priestly sacrifice, is renewed (Titus 3:5), transformed (1 Corinthians 6:11), made alive (Ephesians 2:5), and born of God (1 John 3:9; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:1; 1 John 5:4; John 3:5).

Regeneration is therefore the real entrance into redemption (Titus 3:5). It is the counterpart to Christ having become man, the imparting of His life to us, the dead (Colossians 1:27). Only by it do we become “new” men (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10) and members of the “last Adam.” But this new birth is connected inseparably with conversion, that is, a turning round Acts 3:19; Acts 15:19; Acts 26:18). Regeneration is the Divine side, conversion the human side of the same experience. Man experiences both simultaneously, but conversion is the condition for regeneration, and regeneration is the Divine answer to conversion. Man is responsible for conversion, for turning to God: regeneration is the work of God. In conversion the is active; “turn yourselves”—imperative! (Acts 3:19): in regeneration he is passive; he “becomes” regenerate.

Conversion itself (1 Thessalonians 1:9) is twofold: turning from and turning to, repentance and faith (Mark 1:15). Repentance is denying (negative), faith is affirming (positive), repentance looks within, faith looks above; repentance sees our misery, faith our Deliverer. But with all this the initial turning of a sinner to God is an act done once and for all. All New Testament conversions were sudden and basic. The man has “passed over” (John 5:24) out of death into life. Thus he knows a “once” and a “now” (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 2:11; Ephesians 2:13). This break is set forth symbolically in the original Christian baptism, the confession of the believer that he has died with Christ and risen again with Him (Romans 6:1-11).

Repentance (Matthew 3:2; Acts 17:30) is one threefold action: in the understanding—knowledge of sin; in the feelings—pain and grief; in the will—a change of mind (Gk. metanoia) and a turning around. In general it is a gaining of insight, a despair as to oneself, a renouncing of all self-redemption (Romans 7:24).

Faith also is one threefold action: in the understanding—a being convinced of the completed redemption; in the feelings—restful reliance on the saving love; in the will—devotion to the personal Saviour. Thus faith is the hand of man that clasps the hand of God. It is no working up of the feelings, no tormenting of self, no expiating of guilt, but a personal relationship to Christ, a conscious acceptance of His grace, and a blessed “life in the Head” (Zwingli). “Repentance is hunger, faith is the open mouth, Christ the living food” (John 6:14; John 6:55). Faith experiences the present Christ now and here: it is even today a firm foothold in eternity, and therefore becomes a “self-demonstration of invisible realities” (Hebrews 11:1).

Only when all this is present can experience of Christ’s royal office begin.

3. Preservation and Advance in Salvation, that is, in sanctification. He who is “declared righteous” (justified) is not yet in practice “perfect in righteousness.” The “holy ones” (saints) must become “holy” (sanctified, 1 Thessalonians 5:23). Grace will “rule royally” (Romans 5:21). The new nature, implanted in the believer by the new birth, shall be a starting point from which the new life shall conquer the whole man. Only so can the Redeemer perfect the transfiguration. The names of all souls who experience this saving process stand in “the Lamb’s book of life.” They are before-known men—for the book of life exists since the foundation of the world(Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8); blood-bought men—for it is the book of life of the Lamb (Revelation 21:27); new-born men—for it is the book of life (Revelation 20:15); happy men—for their names stand in heaven (Luke 10:20); holy men—for all there inscribed shall be called “holy” (Isaiah 4:3); joyful witnesses—for they defy even the Antichrist (Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Php 4:3); victorious men—for they are overcomers (Revelation 3:5; Daniel 12:1); glorified men—for they enter the heavenly city (Revelation 21:27).