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sevenfold unity of the Spirit commences with one Body, and one Spirit, and concludes
with one God and Father of all.
Access to the Father is the sum, the concrete expression of peace. This is seen in
Rom. 5: 1, 2, "We have peace . . . . . we have access". Sin means distance. The flesh
means distance. Dispensational infancy means distance. The new man means access.
This access is "through Him". He is our peace, He made the both one, He abolished the
enmity, He created the new man, He reconciled the both in one body to God, He came
and preached peace, He alone can give access to the Father. The truth of John 14: is the
truth of Eph. 2:, "I am the true and living way, no man cometh unto the Father, BUT BY
ME".
We noticed in our last paper that "the both in one body" were reconciled to God. Let
us notice in this that it is "We, the both", who have access to the Father. The
reconciliation is to God, the access is to the Father. The reconciliation is basic, the access
experimental. We miss much by not recognizing our membership of the one body.
Reconciliation is here for the body as a whole. Access is for the both. They who would
comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height must do so "with all
saints". Those who would wield the weapon of "all prayer" must watch with all
perseverance and supplication for "all saints".
The one body is related to God as the Father, as the sevenfold unity indicates, "One
body . . . . . one God and Father".
The unity of the faith comprehends the Son of God, the perfect man. The perfect man
is a title of both the Son of God, and the church which is His body. It is for this reason,
among others, that the Father is so closely related to the body.
We draw near the verge of a profound depth in these things. When the Word became
flesh, John says, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father".
We do not read in John 1: 1, "The Word was with the Father", but "the Word was with
God". It is the Son who is in the bosom of the Father. The church of the one body as a
whole is like the Son. The Father is the Father of His Son's body, both in the natural and
the spiritual world. What a calling and what a position--"Having predestinated us unto
the SONSHIP". Servants may not at all times have access. Young children also are not
always free to enter, but full-grown sons, those whose measure is the perfect man, those
who constitute the body of Christ, these have the access. May we believe this "gospel",
may we preserve this spirit, may we know what it is to be made nigh, and to draw near.
With this blessed position the section opened, "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who once
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (13). With this gracious privilege the
section closes, "For through Him, we the both have access by one Spirit, unto the Father"
(18). It is a blood-bought privilege. The spirit follows, but never precedes the blood. As
in sanctification, "The oil . . . . . upon the place of the blood" (Lev. 14: 28), so here.
When we do rise to the privilege of access, we find that it is after all but an experimental