0945. The Church's Time Boundary

The Church's Time Boundary

"For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom_11:24-25).

We have seen under the former leader, how Israel had a time rejection, how Israel was broken off, to be grafted in again.

Now with Israel broken off, it remains for us to consider that the Church is grafted in.

If one train has been sidetracked, it is natural to suppose that another train will soon be sweeping down the main line.

Our Lord would not leave the twenty centuries which already lie between the First and Second Coming, without an ordained witness. In the past age, God had been made known through Israel Israel, however, had proved unfaithful to her God-given task; she had even crucified the Lord of Glory–therefore Israel was sidetracked.

The Church came in to fill the interim of Israel's rejection. Let us study a few passages which make this clear.

1. "Ye do show the Lord's death TILL He come" (1Co_11:26). When we sit at the Lord's Table, we sit under a great arch that spans the age of Church activities. We sit under a rainbow which reaches across the centuries. One end of this arch or rainbow touches at Mount Calvary and then it lifts its majestic head from the Mount of Olives, from which our Lord ascended, and stretches itself over twenty centuries of time, coming down once more at the same Mount of Olives, at our Lord's Second Coming.

Under this majestic arch which, as it were, circles the globe, the Church sits, in touch with her Risen Head, showing the Lord's death till He comes.

We understand then, that the Church had a time beginning, and that it will also have a time ending–"the Lord's death till He come."

2. "God at first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the Prophets; as it is written, after this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down" (Act_15:14-15). These words of James, which Peter said agreed with the Prophets, bring before us again the time boundary of the Church. The age mission of the Church is in full swing when the Lord turns to the Gentiles (comp. Act_28:28); it concludes after a people for His name have been taken and the House of David is restored.

There are some who imagine that the Church is destined to carry on for God until the end of all time, but this is not the case. The Church is to carry on for God only until the Lord's return. Then the Church will be taken up and out to be with her Lord, and Israel will be grafted into the old olive tree. "Then the residue of people will seek the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom His name is called."

3. Occupy till I come (Luk_19:13). We have before us a parable, but a parable with a message.

(1) The parable is that of a nobleman who is going into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return. The nobleman, of course, is Christ; the far country is the Father's throne; the servants are the saints; the time of their commission is at the departure of the Lord. Our mind goes immediately to Mat_28:18-19, where the great commission is given.

(2) During the absence of the nobleman the servants are to trade with their pounds. The meaning is plain–God hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation and told us to do its work.

(3) The nobleman's return brings the completion of the servant's task, the statement of their stewardship and the rewards which they are to receive.

The parable therefore teaches that the Church, the Body of Christ, has an age boundary, which lies between Calvary and Olivet, between the Nobleman's departure and return, and which fills in the time of Israel's rejection.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR