One Church Of The City

David Orton

The Dwelling Of God

"Do you not discern and understand that you (the whole church at Corinth) are God's temple...?" 1 Cor 3:16 (Amp)

God's purpose has always been to dwell with men.

From the beginning of time to its culmination, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, this has been his singular desire.

In the Garden it was God's habit to come down and commune with the first human community, most probably at the close of each day (see Gen 3:8). Adam, in his rebellion, ran from God forsaking this intimate communion, cutting himself off from the presence of God, and plunging his progeny into its present darkness.

With this tragic failure, God intervened, calling Abraham and his seed, to whom he said, "...have them make a sanctuary for me, and I dwell among them" (Ex 25:8). Likewise Israel, rebelled time-and-again, forsaking the devotion of her youth, until finally her house (or temple) was left desolate (see Jer 2:2; Mtt 23:38).

But God, in whom there is no variance, pursues with passion his purpose to dwell with men. Through redemptive history he has lived a peripatetic life, moving from the Garden, and then from one dwelling to another looking for a permanent place to live. As the Lord explained to David, " ...I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another" (1 Chr 17:5).

The God-Man

And so, finally, at the climax of history God declares of his own Son, the true Zion, "This is my resting place forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it" (Psa 132:14). The eternal word has finally found a permanent repose in human flesh and "made his dwelling among us" (Jn 1:14; 'dwelling' - Gr. skunoo - 'to tabernacle'). God, in Christ, has fulfilled all that the Old Testament dwellings foreshadowed. He is now the "dwelling of God", made without hands, and we have beheld his glory (see Acts 17:24; Jn 1:14). The shekinah (Heb. 'dwelling') glory no longer dwells in temporary tents and earthly temples, but now abides eternally in the God-man, Jesus Christ. The glory of God's own presence has settled into a human breast.

The eschaton (the end) has been realised in Christ. He is God's final word. As the writer to the Hebrews shows, "God in these last days has spoken to us by his Son" (Heb 1:2). In his humanity he has become, "the radiance, the shining forth, of the Father's glory and the exact representation of his nature (Heb 1:3). He is the climax of all God's outshinings and the full manifestation of all that he is - "for in him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Col 2:9). The man, Christ Jesus, has become the "one mediator between God and men"( 1 Tim 2:5) - remarrying the human and the divine.

Prototype of a New Humanity

Even so, the fullness of God is not found in Christ alone, but in his union with his body, the church -

"...the church, which is his body the fullness of him..." (Eph 1:23). "And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the first born from among the dead...For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Col 1:18-19).

The God-man, Christ Jesus, has become the firstborn of a new creation - in fact, the prototype of a new humanity.

First, in his death as the last Adam. He has terminated, once-and-for-all, the failure of the Adamic race to maintain communion with God.

Secondly, rising as the second man. He is the beginning of a whole new order - a race of king-priests whose redeemed humanity and perfected humanity becomes the dwelling place of the living God. Blazing the trail into the presence of God he has irrevocably joined, in himself, the human and the divine (see Heb 2:10-14; 5:9-19; 2 Pet 1:4; Rom 8:29; 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:45-47; 2 Cor 5:17).

And so, joined to him, his body now becomes the dwelling of God -

"In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy termple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Eph 1:21-22).

The Temple of the City-Church

This brings us to the unity of the body. As the head of a new humanity Christ is not divided.

The apostolic church knew nothing of denominational division. It was not denominated by theology or celebrity, but only by geography. Gepgraphical boundaries and civil jurisdictions alone determined the church's boundaries. When the apostle wished to address a church he would speak to the whole church of the city - for example, the 'church of God in Corinth' (1 Cor 1:2). Evidently, the church, even in these large cosmopolitan cities, was functioning as one unified whole. (See also 2 Cor 1:1; 1 Ths 1:1; 2 Ths 1:1; Rev 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; Rom 1:7; Eph 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2).

Anything less was an aberration, provoking apostolic rebuke. Paul had clearly taught, "...all the parts, though many, form (only) one body, so it is with Christ..." (1 Cor 12:12; see also v 20, 27; Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 10:16, 17; Eph 2:14-16; 4:4, 16, 25; 5:30). And so, when the church of God in Corinth violated this unity he wrote,

"I appeal to you, brothers...that there be no divisions among you...One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'Ifollow Cephas'...Is Christ divided?...

Do you not discern and understand that you (the whole church at Corinth) are God's temple?...If any one destroys it, God will destroy him because God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple".

(1 Cor 3:10-13; 3:16-17 Amp. & author's paraphrase).

Need we wonder any more at the destruction of the contemporary Western church! The scandal of our denominational divisions has invited the displeasure of God.

Now is the time to return to him - to repent of our pride and false value systems. To dismantle the mindsets and structures that are inimical to the spirit of Christ and the unity of his body. And together we will become a dwelling in which God is pleased to live.

All heaven will then erupt, declaring over our cities and nations -

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God". (Rev 21:3)

The Hiddenness Of God

David Orton

“Truly you are a God who hides himself…” Isa 45:15

The ‘hiddenness of God’ is one of the greatest paradoxes of the spiritual life.

On the one hand, he is the self-revealing God who delights to communicate with man, but on the other, he hides himself.

God is a mystery. One great fourteenth century divine refers to this as, the “Cloud of Unknowing”. The psalmist cries out that he is surrounded by “clouds and thick darkness” (Ps 97:2; also 18:11). God hides himself in the contradiction of my circumstances. He is good, but it is hidden in the pain of where I find myself.

This darkness is impenetrable to the natural or religious man. Human reasoning and religious pursuit cannot open to us the knowledge of his ways – they are past finding out. Not even Bible knowledge is sufficient to penetrate the darkness. He defies our understanding, especially in the face of adversity.

Now, this is not to deny the propositional truth of Scripture. But it is to say that truth without the inner light is not enough.  It inevitably results in an armchair knowledge of God. None are immune from this. Belief systems and worship patterns are exactly that – systems and patterns. They are the husks, not the kernel.

And so, how do we penetrate this “cloud of unknowing” and come to a personal and intimate knowledge of God. It goes without saying that we are to be saturated in the Scriptures. From the moment of my conversion I have loved the Scriptures, meditating in them and searching them out. However, in my experience, they have not been what God has used to bring me to him. They now feed me and sustain me on a daily basis, but only because the Spirit of God possessed me first. When I was born from above he entered my innermost being – he fused with my spirit. And now my spirit echoes with the Spirit of God that I am his.

So, it is by the Spirit that we come into the intimate knowledge of God. This is particularly so when the circumstances of life bring us to the end of ourselves. And this always entails pain. At this point head knowledge is not sufficient. Because God is spirit he communicates with our spirit – it is “deep calling to deep” (Psa 42:7). This is why Jesus said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit and life” (Jn 6:63).

While objectively, the Bible is the word of God and is always the rule of faith, subjectively those words are only mine when they come by the Spirit. It is the difference between the ‘logos’ and the ‘rhema’ (two NT Greek words for the English word ‘word’). The former refers more to the written word and the latter the spoken word. When Paul refers to the “sword of the Spirit” as the ’word’ of God (Eph 6:17) it is the ‘rhema’. The cutting edge against the enemy of our souls is discovered in the word that comes straight to the spirit rather than the head.

And so the “thick darkness” of our pain can only be cut through by the revelation of the Spirit. It is from the “mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come” (Lam 3:38). Job discovered this through his misfortune and so asked, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). This is a great mystery, that both good and evil come from God. While we do not accept that God is the author of suffering, he allows it in his providential dealings to perfect us. At the end of all his sufferings Job could finally testify, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5). His head knowledge of God was not sufficient. He had heard of him by the hearing of the ear, but now through great perplexity of soul his eyes had seen him. The goodness of God had been shrouded momentarily in the “thick darkness” of life’s circumstances. But our extremity becomes God’s opportunity. In our darkness, the Spirit of God carries to us the revelation of who he is despite the lie of our circumstances.

I recall one of the dark moments of our lives. As a young couple in our mid-twenties Jenny and I had responded to the invitation of a highly respected and senior leader to work with and be trained by him. Believing it to be the fulfilment of the call of God that had come seven years earlier we moved from the city of our birth, filled with our youthful dreams, to another city and people we did not know. Within a short period, without explanation, all the wonderful promises were broken and we found ourselves out in the cold – without a job and without a ministry. God’s goodness was suddenly shrouded in “thick darkness”. Confused and wondering what had gone wrong I recall singing with tears the words of a chorus popular at the time,

“He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deut 32:4).

It has been said that, “God isn’t fair, but he is just!” We feel that our lot is not fair, but our concept of ‘fairness’ doesn’t compute with who God is. And so, it is only by revelation that we can be reconciled with our lot and with God. For me this entailed the declaration of God’s justice and faithfulness in the face of my experience – of injustice and unfaithfulness. It literally tore my soul in half. Would my knowledge of God be informed by my feelings and circumstances, by sense knowledge, or by revelation knowledge? With pain I fell to the side of revelation. Something in the basement of my soul was settled. I was at peace.

He is the one who “forms the light and creates darkness”, who “brings prosperity and creates disaster” (Isa 45:7). But because “all his ways are just” and because “he is a faithful God who does no wrong” we are safe!

God hides himself in our pain. But if we turn to him, he opens our eyes – we learn to see him through tears and “thick darkness”.

He will give us the “hearing ear and the seeing eye” (Prov 20:12).

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