In the foregoing message we pointed out that the church has the same life and nature as Christ. This is revealed in the type of Adam and Eve. If the church did not have the life and nature of Christ, the church could not be Christ’s counterpart and could never be a match for Christ. If two halves of a unit did not have the same life and nature, they could not make a complete whole. Christ and the church as one entity share the same life and the same nature.
We have also pointed out that Christ nourishes and cherishes the church. He supplies the church and cares for the church in order that the church may grow. Although the church has received Christ’s own life and nature, there is still need for supply and for care so that there may be growth. Growth is implied in the formation of Eve, who is a type of the church. God created Adam as a full-grown man. Hence, with Adam, there was no need for growth. However, Eve was built from a rib taken out of Adam’s side. This building implies growth. Firstly, Eve received the life and nature of Adam. Then she grew into a woman by being built into a woman. The reference to nourishing and cherishing in Ephesians 5 indicates the need for growth. Nourishing and cherishing are not related to the initial impartation of life. They are related to supplying and caring for the life that has already come into existence so that this life may grow to its full measure.
Consider the vine tree as an illustration. The vine firstly receives nourishment from the soil and the water. The nourishing element is absorbed into the vine to supply life to meet the inward need of the vine. As the vine is nourished, it is simultaneously cherished by its environment, mainly by the fresh air and the sunshine. The wind and the sun regulate the atmosphere to promote the growth of the vine. If the weather is too cold, the sun warms the vine. If the temperature is too high, the wind cools the vine. This outward regulation of the environment is what we mean by cherishing, as distinguished from the inward supply of life, the nourishing. Today Christ is nourishing the church from within and also cherishing the church from without. He supplies us with life, and He regulates the atmosphere so that we may grow properly.
In this message we shall consider a third aspect concerning Christ and the church — the aspect of sanctifying by cleansing. Christ sanctifies the church by cleansing her (Eph. 5:25-27). The purpose of Christ in giving Himself to the church is to sanctify her, not only separating her to Himself from anything common, but also saturating her with Himself that she may be His counterpart. This is accomplished by cleansing her with the washing of the water in the Word.
Verses 25 through 27 are actually one long sentence. In these verses Paul is saying that husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. He did this that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water in the Word, in order that He might present the church to Himself glorious, without spot, wrinkle, or any such things. Christ’s purpose in loving the church and in giving Himself up for the church was to sanctify her by the washing of the water in the Word. Sanctifying is by cleansing, cleansing is by washing, washing is by water, and water is in the Word.
Christ is sanctifying the church so that He might present the church to Himself. In the past, Christ gave Himself up for the church; in the present, He is sanctifying the church; and in the future, He will present the church to Himself as His counterpart for His satisfaction. Therefore, loving is for sanctifying, and sanctifying is for presenting.
The first point in these three verses is that Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. The second point is the sanctifying in verse 26, and the third is the presenting in verse 27. The first point is for the second, and the second is for the third.
Christ’s loving the church and giving Himself up for her was for redemption and for the impartation of life. According to John 19:34, blood and water came out of the Lord’s pierced side. The blood was for redemption, and the water was for the impartation of life so that the church might come into existence. In Ephesians 5:25 we have the church coming into existence through Christ’s loving her and giving Himself up for her.
After the church has come into existence, the church needs the sanctifying. The process of sanctification includes saturation, transformation, growth, and building up. Although sanctification includes separation, the main aspect of sanctification is saturation. The church needs to be saturated with all that Christ is. Saturation is accompanied by transformation, growth, and building. Through such a process of sanctification with all these aspects, the church becomes complete and perfect, the reality of what is typified by Eve in Genesis 2.
After Eve had been prepared for Adam by being built out of Adam’s rib, she was presented to Adam, the source from which she came. In like manner, the church will be presented to Christ, who is her source. This presentation will be done not by God, but by Christ Himself. Verse 27 says that Christ will present the church to Himself glorious. Hence, He will be both the presenter and the receiver.
Without separation, saturation, transformation, growth, and building, the church cannot be perfected and grow into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Only through an all-inclusive process of sanctification can the church become complete and attain to the measure of the stature of Christ’s fullness so that Christ can present a perfect church to Himself.
In these verses we have three stages of the production of the church. Firstly, the church is brought into existence. Secondly, the church is sanctified and thereby perfected and completed. Finally, the church is presented to Christ as a glorious church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. It is presented to Him holy and without blemish. We are presently in the second stage of the production of the church, the stage of sanctification. When this stage is complete, we shall be presented to Christ as a glorious church.
In this message we need to dwell on the matter of the all-inclusive sanctification of the church. In the church meetings we are nourished inwardly and cherished outwardly. We are also sanctified. Not many of us have been separated unto the Lord simply through our private time with the Lord. On the contrary, most of us have been separated from the world unto God through the help we have received in the church meetings. We need to be nourished and cherished in order to be separated from the world. As we are separated, we are also saturated. It is the nourishment that brings in the saturation. Furthermore, the more we are cherished by the atmosphere in the meetings, the more we are willing to give up the things of the world. By the cherishing we simply lose our taste for those things, for we realize that they are the very things which cause us to be cold toward the Lord. The cherishing also helps us to be saturated with Christ. This saturation spontaneously produces transformation. You may not be conscious of how much you have been transformed, but others are aware of it. They can see the change in your life and in your living.
Transformation does not come through teaching or correction or through chastisement. It comes through the nourishing and the cherishing. If you faithfully come to the meetings to be nourished and cherished, spontaneously you will be separated from the world and saturated with the riches of Christ. Then with you there will be growth, transformation, and building. This is the way the Bride will be prepared for Christ. Eventually, the Bride will be complete, perfect, and grown to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Then the Lord Jesus will come and present this prepared Bride to Himself.
Now we must see the way the Lord sanctifies us. In verse 26 Paul says that Christ sanctifies the church by cleansing her through the washing of the water in the Word. According to the divine concept, water here refers to the flowing life of God typified by flowing water (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 7:38-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17). The washing of such water is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ. The redeeming blood washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), whereas the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as “spot or wrinkle or any such things” (v. 27). In sanctifying the church, the Lord firstly washes away our sins with His blood (Heb. 13:12) and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. We are now in such a washing process in order that the church may be holy and without blemish.
With Eve in Genesis 2 there was no need of cleansing because in that chapter she had not fallen. Rather, she was pure and without mixture. But because we are fallen, contaminated, and defiled, we today need to be cleansed. Many things in us must be purged away: the flesh, the self, the old man, the natural life. Furthermore, we have many spots and wrinkles from which we need to be cleansed.
If we had the nourishing and the cherishing without the cleansing, our problems would remain with us. The Lord’s nourishing and cherishing always issue in His cleansing. In the process of spiritual metabolism brought about by the cleansing, the “germs” in our being are killed and the negative things are discharged. Through the nourishing and the cherishing with the cleansing, we become healthy and strong. In the meetings the cleansing takes place within us unconsciously. The more we are nourished and cherished in the meetings of the church, the more we are cleansed metabolically.
It is the nourishment that we receive that makes the cleansing possible. If the nourishment ceases, the cleansing will cease also. But if we continually take in the spiritual supply, the elements we absorb into our being will cleanse us inwardly and carry away the old, dead, and unclean things. This metabolic process is taking place day by day in the church life.
The cleansing is the sanctifying. The cleansing by the washing of the water of life is in the Word. This indicates that in the Word there is the water of life, which is typified by the laver between the altar and the tabernacle (Exo. 38:8; 40:7). In Greek the word rendered washing in verse 26 means laver. This Greek word is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word for laver. In the Old Testament, the priests wash themselves from earthly defilement in the laver (Exo. 30:18-21). Now the washing of the water washes us from defilement. Therefore, we are cleansed by the laver of the water in the Word.
In a very real sense, the Word of God is a laver. According to the Old Testament, the priests who served God in the tabernacle had to have their sins dealt with by the blood on the altar, and they had to have their defilement dealt with by washing in the laver. I believe that Paul’s concept here is that the church is cleansed by the laver of the water in the Word. Hallelujah, we have the real laver! The priests had only a type, a material laver made of brass. But we have the real laver, the laver in the Word of God.
As the priests in the Old Testament came firstly to the altar and then to the laver, so we come firstly to the cross to be saved, redeemed, and justified, and then we come to the Word to be cleansed. Day by day, morning and evening, we need to come to the Bible and be cleansed by the laver of water in the Word. By coming to the Word in this way, we are cleansed from the defilement we have accumulated in our contact with the world. Whenever you contact the world in the course of your human living, you need to come to the Word to be cleansed.
In the laver of the Word there is water. This is not the water that quenches our thirst; rather, it is the water that washes us. Here Paul is concerned not about thirst, but about the removal of negative things. These things are washed away by the water in the Word.
One day Brother Nee was speaking about Bible reading. A certain sister told him that she had a poor memory and forgot everything she read in the Word. She asked Brother Nee what was the purpose for her to go on reading the Bible. In his answer, Brother Nee spoke of the way women in China wash rice in a willow basket. They dip the basket in and out of the water a number of times. Every time they take the basket out of the water, all the water flows out of the basket. Nevertheless, although the basket retains no water, both the basket and the rice are washed. He then applied this illustration to the reading of the Word. Although we may not retain anything of what we read, we are washed by it nonetheless, and we are cleansed. Let us be encouraged to come to the Word again and again to be washed. Let us place our basket in the water of the Word and draw it out. The water may flow through the basket, but we shall be cleansed.
The washing in verse 26 does not deal mainly with sins, but deals with spots and wrinkles. Spots are something out of the natural life, and wrinkles are signs of oldness. Only the water of life can metabolically wash away such defects by the transformation of life. All the spots and wrinkles in the church will be washed away through the inner cleansing of the water in the Word. The more we come to the Word, the more we are nourished. The nourishment we receive brings about an inner cleansing from the defects caused by the natural life and from the wrinkles caused by oldness. We all need such an organic, metabolic washing to take away our defects and the marks of our oldness. As the church is washed organically and metabolically in this way, the church is renewed and without blemish.
Such a washing takes place entirely by life and by the nourishment of life. Let us be encouraged to abide in Christ as the source of nourishment and to contact the Word to receive the nourishing element so that we may be washed organically and metabolically from all defects and oldness. By means of such a washing, the church will be perfected and become glorious.
It is such a glorious church that Christ will present to Himself at His coming back. Glory is God expressed. Hence, to be glorious is to be God’s expression. Eventually, the church presented to Christ will be a God-expressing one. Such a church will also be holy and without blemish. To be holy is to be saturated and transformed with Christ, and to be without blemish is to be spotless and without wrinkle, with nothing of the natural life of our old man.
The church that comes out of Christ will go back to Christ just as Eve came out of Adam and went back to Adam. As Eve became one flesh with Adam, so the church which goes back to Christ will be one spirit with Christ.
The church presented to Christ will be glorious; it will be the expression, the manifestation, of God. For the church to become glorious means that the church becomes God’s expression. Because the nourishing, the cherishing, and the sanctifying will cause the church to be saturated with the essence of God, the church will eventually become the Bride to express God. Every local church today must be God’s expression. The only way for us to become His expression is to be continually saturated with the divine essence. If we would experience this saturation, we need Christ’s nourishing, cherishing, and sanctifying.
We have pointed out that the glorious church, the church that expresses God, will be holy and without blemish. To be holy is to be separated to the Lord from common things and then saturated and permeated with the divine nature, with all that God is. The church that has become holy in this way will also be without blemish. Blemish here is like a defect in a precious stone. This defect comes from mixture within the stone. If we would be pure, we must be without mixture; that is, we must not have anything other than God in our being. One day, the church will be like this. It will be not only clean and pure, but also without blemish, without mixture. The church will be the expression of God Himself mingled with a resurrected, uplifted, and transformed humanity. This is the glorious church, the church that is holy and without blemish. In the future such a glorious church will be presented by Christ to Himself. Today, however, the church is undergoing the process of Christ’s nourishing, cherishing, and sanctifying.
