Church of Christ Studies

Christ and the Church

Allow me to read to you from Eph. 5:23-32: "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

 

There is in that reading an argument which I think all of us ought to be able to see and to appreciate, setting forth the very close relationship and the wonderful parallel between husband and wife and Christ and the church. it was predicted by Isaiah that God's people should have a name even better than that of son or daughter, suggestive of a closer tie and of a more Divine union, and that one is the term "wife." As the husband is the head thereof, so Christ is the head of the church. I think that I am doing no violence whatever to God's word when I suggest to you that the husband represents Christ and the wife represents the church, and that just as a husband and a wife become one, forsake all things else and blend their lives into a oneness and a unity, just so every Christian forsakes all else, seeks a divorce from everything that would serve as a hindrance, and blends his life in that of the Lord Jesus Christ, he being the husband and the Christian the wife. The marriage relationship thus consummated and characterized as the church of Christ is under the head of Jesus, our Lord.

 

In the very morning of time I think there is a likeness between Grandmother Eve in her relationship to Adam and the church of God in its relationship to Jesus Christ, our Lord. There is a very simple little outline presented for your study and further development in Gen. 2. After all things of the earth had been created—the beasts of the field, the very fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air—all the various things were brought to Adam to see by what name he would call them. This having been done, Jehovah, conscious of the fact that every animal and every being had each its respective mate, for the first time said: "it is not good." Now, thus far God's pronouncement had been that things were not only good, but very good; but now he comes to a point in the development of the scheme of creation, if you please, in which he said, "it is not good;" and the thing that is "not good" is this: "it is not good that the man should be alone." Perhaps many of the fair sex would heartily agree to its being "not good" for man to be alone, and they are right about it.

 

So the last, the greatest, and the highest of all creation was brought into existence in the personality of the grandmother of us all.

 

Now, I want to note just the steps that were taken as which this act was consummated, and in that, if possible, see a likeness and a real outline of the establishment, creation, and formation of the church of Christ to-day. I submit to you, therefore, as a first point, that Adam, the federal head of the human family, was put to sleep. That is what the Bible says about it. God caused a deep sleep to come over Adam, and he slept. Step No. 1.

 

Step No. 2: Now, what is the second thing done? After Adam was put to sleep, God opened his side, suggesting the idea that the person to be brought into existence was not taken from his head, that she might lord it over him; neither was she taken from beneath his feet, that she might be a servant or a slave; but from under his arm and out of his side, that she might be a copartner along the pathway of life to share his sorrows and his joys. Hence, the second step: Adam, after having been put to sleep, had his side opened.

 

Step No. 3: That out of which the woman later was to be formed, and that which it cost Adam for her creation, was taken in the form of a rib. Hence, Adam paid the price of his own flesh and of his own bone for her who was ultimately to be.

 

Step No. 4: Having, therefore, paid the price, made the sacrifice, and given of himself, woman was created out of the material taken from Adam's side.

 

Step No. 5: She was given to Adam to be his wife, to take upon herself his name, to be married and blended into him.

 

Step No. 6: As an intended natural and correct result, children were begun to be born of that first pair, and the earth was to be replenished as a result of the same.

 

Now, there stands the first man in all the earth, who at first was alone, and God declared that that state was "not good." God said: "We will make him a helpmeet fitted or suited for him." Thus have I outlined the process as the matter came to pass. Getting that firmly fixed in mind, first, Adam was put to sleep; second, his side was opened; third, the piece of the rib was taken therefrom; fourth, she was wrought into existence, created; fifth, she became Adam's wife; sixth, the will of Jehovah was done, the miracle having been performed. Because of this children will replenish the earth, and that is God's order in the process of the formation and perpetuity of the human family.

 

Now, based upon that very simple story, all through the Bible there is reference made to the church of God; that just as woman was brought into existence according to the process aforesaid, there was a type and a shadow of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. On down the ages, at the proper time, when man is ready for the reception of the great truth, the church was to be formed. As Adam was head of the woman, or the wife, so Christ is to be head of the church. So, then, you may expect a fitting parallel in the things characterizing the establishment or the formation of the church of God.

 

What was the first step back in the original? There was a deep sleep that came over Adam. What is the first step in the formation of the spiritual wife, the Lamb's bride? After Christ had lived for one-third of a century upon this earth, thus fulfilling prophetic declarations spoken by the Jewish prophets regarding him, at last he is suspended beneath the heavens and the earth; and while he hung on the tree of the cross from the third hour of the day until the ninth hour, during the last three hours a darkness came over the face of the earth, the great king of the skies veiled his face and refused to look upon the greatest tragedy of all the ages which was there being enacted, and the record says that finally Jesus bowed his head upon an aching heart and yielded up the ghost, declaring: "it is finished." While thus he slept the sleep of death, there was a Roman soldier standing near by, and, in harmony with the second step in the creation of woman, this soldier injected a spear into his aide, and thereby opened up the Literal flesh of the body of Christ, and from that there came forth that which was to purchase the church of the living God, to serve as a foundation upon which it must evermore rest. Hence, Christ shed his blood, and with that made the sacrifice and gave it up that he might purchase and buy that institution which was to be the spiritual bride or the wife of the Lamb.

 

Now, there are so many scriptures that demonstrate such a statement that I need not call attention to but one, perhaps; and that is Acts 20:28, where Paul said to the leaders of the church at Ephesus: "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Step No. 3. After the price was paid, the sacrifice made, then the next step naturally was this: that the woman, or the bride, or the Lamb's wife, was to be brought into existence and made a living reality; and then (step No. 5) it was therefore and thereafter to be characterized as the wife, the marriage having been consummated, and the legitimate, proper, and natural results being that spiritual children shall thereafter be born of that union and into that family. Hence the one is a fitting likeness of the other. Just as it was impossible for woman to have been created previous to the opening of Adam's side and the taking of that by which she was on his part born, just so it is equally an absolute impossibility for the church of God to have been brought into existence previous to the shedding of the blood of the Son of God.

 

But just here some one injects this point: "Why," he says, "Hardeman, Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Therefore it must have been in existence, or else he could not have given himself for it." Well, I admit that on the face there seems to be an argument contrary to some statements made. That out of which the church was ultimately to be formed was in existence previous to the death of Christ—namely, men and women who had left their respective places to follow after Christ; but they were not at that time known or characterized as a wife, did not become such until Christ died, made the sacrifice, and gave himself for them. Then they became his wife, or bride. Suppose you see how that works with reference to a physical illustration. Here's a young man in love with a young woman. According to natural affairs, he loves her; and for that great love he is willing to forsake father and mother and all things that are in the way and give himself to her and for her. But was she his wife previous to the time that he gave himself for her? She was in existence as a maiden fair, but not as a wife, and did not become a wife until after he forsook all others, pledged his life, and gave himself for her.

 

Just so with respect to the church of God. Human beings out of which the church was to be formed were in existence before they were in existence as a church; but they were not in existence as the wife, as the bride, until Jesus Christ purchased them and the marriage was consummated. Then they are joined unto him as a bride, over which he becomes the head, and in which his Spirit dwells, and they blend into one.

 

Paul argues that in Rom. 7:14, which I repeat to you: "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; [now note] that ye should be married to another." Now, what are the facts? The Jews, so long as the law of Moses was in existence, were married unto that law, as their husband. If during its continuation they had been married to another law, they would have been guilty of spiritual adultery; but if the first law be wiped and blotted out, then they are loosed from it, and are not adulterers, though they be married to another law, or another man. You, therefore, brethren, "are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another."

 

Well, unto what other? Unto him. Well, what "him?" Unto him who is raised from the dead—not married unto just Jesus of Nazareth while over Judean hills he traveled and across the plains of Samaria he walked; not married to him until he tasted death, but married unto him that is risen from the dead; and the man does not live that can And the marriage consummated between Christ and the church previous to the resurrection of the Son of God from the dead.

 

But what is the objective in view, Paul? "You are married unto him who is raised from the dead, that you should bring forth fruit unto God." I insist that the word itself will bear it out, that the context demands it, that the "fruit" mentioned here is not the good works of which we so frequently speak, but the "fruit" as contemplated in that scripture means men and women born as the result of the marriage of Christ and the church; and hence children born today outside of that wedlock and that relationship are illegal in their state. In the church of God, translated out of darkness, born into God's family, is heaven's order, and we ought not to contemplate any kind of birth other than that. So, my friends, the church of God, having become married unto Christ, as the consummating act, has the right to take upon itself the name of the husband; and the children that result therefrom, from that union, have the right to take the name of the husband, or the head of the household of faith, and become members of the family of God; and they also have a right to expect to become beneficiaries of Heaven's will by virtue of the fact that they are born into his family and are members of it, of his flesh, of his blood, of his home, if you please, in the spiritual suggestion thereof.

 

So, then, it is a privilege which you and I ought to appreciate and exalt higher than the hills—that it is ours to become and be members of the body of Christ, a part of the Lamb's wife. it is a privilege to take upon ourselves the name of the husband of this spiritual institution, to be loyal unto the commandments of Him who died that we might live, and to gladly place our hand in the wounded palm of his, and all along the pathway of life live in submission to his mill, look to him for guidance and direction, neither transgressing nor going beyond, but, as faithful and obedient children in the family of our Father, to be glad to execute his will and evermore be disposed in heart and mind to say: "Lord, speak, I will gladly hear; command, I will obey." The soul that is thus right in its beginning, right in its purpose, and right in its objective to be accomplished, lives a life of peace, of joy and happiness; and when he pillows his head at night, it is with the consciousness of the fact that he is in close relationship with Christ Jesus. We are nestling in the very hollow of his hand, shielded, protected, and supported; and as down the aisles of time we onward march, we can lean upon his everlasting arms. Even though we pass down through the shadow of the dark valley of death, there will be no feeling of fear. "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort" us, and he will land us safe in the eternal heaven and give us the crown for which you and I here sigh. But in order thus to do, we must submit to Heaven's terms. We must fall in love with our expected husband, resolved to forsake all others and turn to him, and then let the marriage ceremony be said, which is in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, arise with our state, our relationship to the world changed, now married unto Christ, and then be faithful unto death, assured that he will give us a crown of life. Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons

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