LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Three Allegories
In the final part of Ephesians 2, the beauty of the church is shown through three precious allegories: that of the city, the family and the building.
The simile of the city reminds us of that precious prophecy of Isaiah that says: "In that day they shall sing this song in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God has set salvation for walls and a wall. Open ye the gates, and the righteous nation shall come in, the keepers of the truth" (Is. 26:1-2). The church is a strong city, which has walls and walls. It has a double salvation for those who come to its shelter: salvation from sins (through the blood of Christ), and salvation for themselves (through the cross of Christ). The gates of this strong city have been opened to let in people who are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and who keep His word and do not deny His name (Rev. 2:8, 10).
The church is also a city of refuge, where those persecuted by the devil find safe haven. In it the enemy cannot touch us, for it is a city of mercy (Joshua ch. 20).
The simile of the family speaks to us of a Father (God), of a Firstborn Son (Jesus Christ) and of many other sons and brothers. The church is the family of God, the largest family on earth. No child here is an only child; on the contrary, each one has brothers and sisters of many colors, races and languages, all of them united by the same glorious life, by the same precious bonds.
In eternity, the Father so loved his only-begotten Son that he desired to have many sons like him. He then purposed to replicate those traits, that character, that beauty, in the many children to come. "For whom he foreknew, he also predestined that they should be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).
The present work of the Father and the Holy Spirit is that the many sons be conformed to that image. To this end, the Father disciplines them with love, and the Holy Spirit demolishes and rebuilds them. There will come a day when, by the grace of God, they will be so like Christ that the Father will find contentment in them all, just as He found it before in our Lord (Matt. 3:17).
Finally, the simile of the building refers us to the revelation of Caesarea Philippi. The church is a building built on a Rock, which is the Father's revelation of Christ, so that even if hell rises against it, like rain, or a river, or a wind (Matt. 7:25), it will not overthrow it.
The Rock is Christ revealed to the heart and confessed with the mouth, just as it happened with Peter that time. Those who are built upon this Rock are living stones (1 Peter 2:4-5), and broken as they are laid upon it (Matt. 21:44), that is, broken in their natural strongholds, so that in them there remains only that which is akin to the chosen and precious Cornerstone.
Each of these allegories shows us the blessedness of those who know and are in the church. As a city, the church offers us security; as a family, it offers us the warmth of love; and as a building, we become God's dwelling place. Isn't it wonderful?