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Collected
Writings of J.N.
Darby
Evangelic 2
By John Nelson Darby
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Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
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Contents
Notes of an Address on John 3 ........................................8
Our Portion in Christ: Part 1 ........................................13
e Robber Saved ..........................................................26
Man Fallen and the Seed of the Woman ....................... 32
e Blood of the Lamb .................................................41
Blessed rough Faith ...................................................46
Christ a Sweet Savor to God for Us ..............................53
How Should Man Be Just With God? ..........................56
An Epistle of Christ ......................................................63
Jesus Dependent ............................................................82
Jesus Christ the Righteous ............................................93
e Soul in Adversity Considered ...............................101
God’s House and the Way ........................................... 110
In Christ ...................................................................... 119
Emmanuel ...................................................................151
Come Unto Me ...........................................................168
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Jesus the Suerer .........................................................172
Christ Dealing With Conscience and Heart ............... 187
e Word Made Flesh .................................................193
e Presence of the Holy Ghost on Earth Consequent on
Christ’s Exaltation to the Right Hand of God ...199
Born Again .................................................................. 227
e Well of Water .......................................................235
Death With Christ ...................................................... 244
Rivers of Living Water ................................................252
Before Abraham Was, I Am ........................................257
e Resurrection and Life ...........................................261
Constancy of Christ Our Comforter ........................... 266
Christ the Hope, and the Holy Ghost, With Our
Responsibility .....................................................271
Christ on High, and the Holy Ghost Here Below ......276
e Son Pleading ........................................................284
Jesus the Willing Captive ............................................296
e Exercises and End of Grace ..................................299
Peace 305
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Lost or Saved ...............................................................311
How Are We Saved? ...................................................319
Indwelling of the Holy Ghost .....................................330
God’s Wisdom in Christ .............................................339
Christ and the Spirit....................................................343
Victory .........................................................................358
Jehovah My Shepherd .................................................364
e Christian a Representative of Christ ....................370
e Two Ministries......................................................376
Death to the Believer ...................................................396
e Power of Life in Christ Risen ............................... 404
Not Law but Promise ..................................................410
Sovereign Grace in Christ ...........................................427
Growing up Into Christ ..............................................435
e Panoply of God ....................................................441
Christ and His Reconciliation .....................................458
e Freshness of Faith ................................................. 477
Promise of Life ............................................................ 485
e Saving Grace of God ............................................496
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
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62767
Notes of an Address on John 3
THIS chapter tells us of One who has come down from
heaven, who speaks that He knows, and testies that He
has seen; who knows God fully, and who knows what is in
man; and He tells us what God requires, and what God
gives. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He, the Son
of God, came the Light into this world, but men loved, and
still love, darkness rather than light, because their deeds
are evil. He was born into this world in grace for you. He
has not left us in anywise in the dark about it, but has
brought perfect light to our hearts and consciences, which
testies what is of heaven, what is from heaven, and what
is needed for any connection with heaven, and in order to
be there. So that when I come to heaven, there is nothing
in its moral nature that is not brought to my heart and
conscience now. You will not get a more blessed thing in
heaven than Christ on earth!
Nicodemus had a mere human conviction of Christ;
he knew that He was a teacher come from God. When
they saw His miracles, many believed on Him. How many
Christians are like that now! giving a mere human assent
to who He is. It is not insincerity or dishonesty, but they
do not know Him. ere is no want created in the heart.
e Son of God is here! is that enough for you? You do
not care to know what He is here for, or whether you have
any part with Him! You do not trouble yourselves farther,
or care to listen to one word He says; not an anxiety as
to what He has said concerning you, or interest as to one
thought or feeling He might have. Could you be quiet if
Notes of an Address on John 3
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you thought you were lost? You could not. You are lost! and
there is no greater proof of the utter ruin of man than that
Christ does not attract his heart, speaking and testifying
of divine things. Any bit of news will occupy you-a bit of
family interest-a newspaper-a thing passing in the street;
and here is news from heaven, news from God, and you
do not care!-nor for all the love in His coming down from
heaven to tell it to you!
IS IT NOT TRUE THAT YOU MUST HAVE A
NEW NATURE?
You are indierent to all that God can do, and you tell
me that it is not crime; but is it no testimony of the state
of your soul? at Christ has no beauty that you should
desire Him, and yet you are “ hoping “ to go to heaven!
And what is there in heaven for you? Do you expect to be
happy if there this Christ, who is the very center of heaven’s
delight, has no attraction for your heart? Impossible! It is
quite clear that, if I am to be happy in heaven, it is with
God. What pleasure have you in God? Is there one thing
in your heart now that would make you happy in heaven,
one single aection in your heart that nds its pleasure and
company in those who ll heaven? Oh, may it come home
to your soul-the conviction I am all wrong, the tree bad,
and as I am I can never be better. Here the Lord, speaking
what He knows, says, Ye must be born again. is was what
God required.
God gave His Son. is is the grace-this the glad
tidings- that you “might not perish, but have everlasting
life.” He “must,” according to the glory of God, but He “
must,” because you are a sinner perishing! Because you are
a sinner, you will reject Him and prove yourself so bad, that
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nothing but the crucixion of the blessed Lord could meet
your case. Oh! you must be born again.
But there is another, a deeper, a divine “must “; the Son
must be lifted up-terrible necessity of righteousness! God
is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. e Son of God
spoke that He knew. Oh, how He knew it! With God
there is no allowance of evil, not an unholy thought. We
have all had plenty of unholy thoughts. Christ comes down
from heaven, and says, “e Son of man must be lifted up!”
What blessed grace in His mouth! And mark the complete
subjection of His soul, the depth of the love in it, the
peacefulness and quietness of Christ thus looking at the
necessity of His drinking that cup of wrath, that you might
not. And, farther on, when it was going to be accomplished,
He set His face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem, and His
sweat was as it were great drops of blood as He approached
that hour. Yet here, in the beginning of His career, He
states it as the thing He had come down from heaven to
do. He came to do His Father’s will, and that will was our
salvation.
DO YOU DOUBT THAT YOU ARE PERISHING?
Or do you mark how fully grace rises up above all your
ruin? Do you discover that the sin that is pressing on your
conscience, and plaguing your heart, is the very thing that
Christ died for?-that He took it o you on Himself? Now
you have got to the gospel, to the glad tidings-the grace-
that the blessed Lord Jesus put Himself in my whole place
before God-” made sin “-He who “ knew no sin.” Suppose I
see Him on the cross, standing thus in my place, answering
for me because I could not answer for myself, I see that He
has not left a thing that could bar my entrance up to God.
Notes of an Address on John 3
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He appeared once, in the end of the world, to put away sin
by the sacrice of Himself. He has nished the work.
Did He put me away into outer darkness? No; that
would be day-of-judgment work; but He put my sin away,
and set me there before God without sin. at was His
Father’s will, which He came down from heaven to do.
And, oh, what unspeakable comfort! there is not a sin in
my heart that God does not know, because there is not a
sin in my heart that Christ has not died for. He drank the
cup, and God set His seal in righteousness when He said,
“ Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool “; and now grace reigns through righteousness-
grace has risen above all our sin. What true rest to be able
to say, “ It was all done there between God and Christ-
righteousness made good before the universe.” e moment
your soul gets hold of what those three hours of darkness
on the cross were, you see that all was settled there between
God and Christ, outside yourself; for if you had got there,
you must have got into wrath.
Hence, when you believe in Christ, you come to God to
nd the whole question settled by Himself-Christ for you-
sweet and conscious truth! You can say, “ God so loved me
that He sent His Son: though my sins were as scarlet, I am
white as snow-I can go in peace.’ “ One who came down
from heaven to tell me: “ You are the vilest of the vile, but I
have taken up your cause-I have redeemed you to Myself-
go in peace.” He who made peace by the blood of His cross,
who says, “ My peace I give unto you “-wonderful love!-
He is able to tell, at such a cost of Himself-having drunk
the cup that you had earned and lled-that He has made
peace.
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CAN YOUR HEARTS GO IN PEACE ON HIS
WORD?
Do not let any one make you doubt the ecacy of what
He has done. And the Lord give you to hear Him declare
in the quietness and grace of that moment, that the “Son
of man must be lifted up”; and may He tell you why, in
applying it to yourself. And may you learn how blessed it
is to be in light- the light of God-where light shows you
white as snow-clean according to God Himself; and you
will know what it is to walk in the light of His countenance.
Amen.
Our Portion in Christ: Part 1
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Our Portion in Christ: Part 1
THERE are two ways in which we may look at man
in relation to God: rst, in responsibility; second, in the
counsels of God.
It is important to know the full value of the work of
Christ, and our present relationship. All duties and right
aections ow from relationships; the Christian lives in
those new relationships into which God has brought him.
We nd in this chapter our relationship to the Father as
children (the individual relationship has the rst place in
Ephesians); then comes in the unfolding of the unity of the
body of Christ.
God put man originally in a certain relationship with
Himself in innocence; that relationship-the claim of it-
must subsist. You cannot destroy God’s title by human
sin, but on man’s side the relationship is gone and broken.
Wickedness on one side does not destroy rights or claim
on the other.
As to the history of God’s ways and dealings, man’s
responsibility has closed at the cross; it is not a time of
probation now, though the individual is proved. In the same
cross Christ perfectly gloried God Himself. We nd the
two things quite distinct: responsibility; and the intentions
of God before any responsibility was in question. is
epistle takes up the side of these counsels.
In Philippians we are looked at as running the race
through the wilderness with our eye xed on the glory.
In Ephesians we are seen as brought completely to God
and sent out into the world to show God’s character. In
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Romans we see the responsibility side simply, the sinfulness
of man, what man is without law and under law, and the
justication of a sinner. e counsels of God are only just
touched on in the verse, “ For whom he did foreknow he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son.” Man is proved to be a sinner; the blood of Christ is
that which cleanses us. ere we get responsibility, as also
justication-not in Ephesians. God has no need to justify
the new creation.
In 2 Tim. 1:9 we see that what was before the world
began is now made manifest. We have the same thing in
Titus 1. is thought of God is very distinct.
In Genesis we begin with the responsible man. All
depended on man’s responsibility; but nothing could
be more complete than his fall. He distrusted God and
believed Satan. Distrust of God is the essence of all sin.
ere is no way back to innocence. We may get divine
righteousness, and may be made partakers of His holiness;
but we shall never have innocence again. Christ was “ the
seed of the Woman.” All God’s thoughts and counsels
and plans were around the second Adam. Promises there
were, and prophecies clearer and clearer; but what God
was actually doing up to the cross was trying man on his
responsibility.
Before the ood testimony was given; but there were
no particular dealings of God. en the world became so
bad that God had to bring in the ood. When God begins
again with Noah, he got drunk. e world subsequently
went into idolatry.
Adam was the head of a fallen race, Abraham was
the head and father of all that believe. When God had
scattered the people of Babel, from among them He takes
Our Portion in Christ: Part 1
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a people for Himself; then, having chosen Abraham, He
gives him promises. e apostle in Galatians shows how
the promises to Abraham could be neither disannulled nor
added to. e law came in by the bye. To Abraham there
was not a question of righteousness-no “if.” e law was
the perfect measure of what man ought to be. Before ever
Moses came down from the mount the Israelites had made
the golden calf. At last God says, “ I have yet one Son,” one
thing more that I can do. e husbandmen cast Him out
of the vineyard and slew Him.
us in the cross the history of responsibility (not
individual responsibility) was closed. Sin had been fully
brought out. Man was lawless; then, when the law came,
there was the transgression of the law; and when the
blessed Lord in wondrous love and grace came into the
world and went about doing good, they could not stand
God’s presence. “ Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted? “ Stephen gives us the summary-
prophets slain, the Just One killed, the law broken, the
Holy Ghost resisted. “ We will not have this man to reign
over us.” Christ interceded for them on the cross, “ ey
know not what they do,” and the Holy Ghost in answer to
this says by Peter, “ I wot that through ignorance ye did it.”
e history of Adam, the moral history, is closed; that
is, what we are. In all this we have God’s history of man’s
responsibility. I nd in the cross that I am in a condition
which God must reject. Christ has come to be made sin,
and a work has been done according to God’s holy and
righteous nature. If I look up to God now, I nd no sin in
His presence; I go there by the work of Christ, and God
cannot see the sins. Not only has Christ died for my sins,
but I have died with Him, I have done with the nature.
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First, I nd the putting away of sins, and along with that
I have died with Christ. Christ did much more than this
at the cross. Sin was in the world, evil was rampant, Satan
reigning, God’s glory in the dust, the earth full of violence
(whatever the signs of wisdom). It was not merely a
question of my sins; but God was compromised in a sense.
Christ then was Jehovah’s lot.
Suppose God had cut o Adam and Eve, there would
have been righteousness, but no love. Suppose He had
spared every one, there would have been no righteousness.
If I look at the cross, there is righteousness against sin-
never such displayed before. And there I learn the perfect
love of God. At the cross I see God perfectly gloried in
a Man, His own blessed Son, but still a Man. ere is a
man in the glory of God. Not only is there one man out
of paradise, but another Man is in paradise. e work,
by virtue of which He is sitting there, can never lose its
value. Now the counsels of God can be brought out. If sin
is cleared away, why should I be in the same glory as the
Son of God? We do not get the one without the other;
but nothing can be the result of that work on the cross
less than the glory. ere are two things: not merely are
my sins cleared away, but I stand in the light as God is in
the light, as He is. is we are in Christ; and we are to be “
conformed to the image of his Son.” Now we are brought
as Christ and like Christ. He is the “ rstborn among many
brethren.” “ Tell my brethren that I ascend unto my Father
and your Father, unto my God and your God.” is is our
present place. “ Lord, remember me when thou comest in
thy kingdom.” But, says the Lord, you need not wait till
then: “ to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
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O how the things of this world are dimmed by this that
we are loved as Christ is loved! What a blessed place this
is! Christ has taken all on Him as man, that we may be
forever with Him. “ Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places [a remarkable expression, in
the best place, in contrast to Judaism] in Christ Jesus.”
ere is not one possible blessing into which Christ has
entered as man that we are not brought into. Christ never
gives away; He brings us into enjoyment with Himself: “
not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” is is perfect
love.
Have you ever thought of God’s thought about you,
that you are “ to be conformed to the image of his Son? “ “
It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that
when he shall appear, we shall be like him.” is cannot
fail. e Lord presses on our hearts that He brings us into
association with Himself. “ en are the children free.” He
“hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.” God gives us His own nature, “holy
and blameless before him in love.” He puts us in this place
answering perfectly to His nature, and with a nature to
enjoy it. We are in Christ: this is God’s thought. I get the
place of a son with the Father. Servants would not do for
Him; He takes us as sons. We are “ accepted in the beloved
“: “in Christ” would not do here. “I was daily his delight.”
In this One, who was always God’s eternal delight, we are
accepted.
Have you the thought of God’s heart about your
blessing? Is the thought you have that you are loved as
Christ is loved? Are you able to see God’s heart as He has
revealed it? Where shall I get what is in God’s heart? Is
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it in my heart? If the angels want to know what love is, it
is in us they see it. Is this the way you think of God? We
soon nd out what poor creatures we are. Quite true; but
can you say, ere is where God has set me? is is the
very thing that makes us see our own utter nothingness.
e reasonings of the Holy Ghost are always downward
from God to us; the reasonings of conscience are always
upward from us to God. “ For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: much
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” e
Holy Ghost reasons downward: is this the way we reason?
If you are naughty, do you feel you are a naughty child?
You cannot be a naughty child, sad as this may be, unless
you are a child. If I am a child of God, I am bound to live
like one. He expects children’s aections, children’s duties.
Have you given up the rst Adam entirely, and found your
place in the second Adam, “accepted in the beloved “?
PART 2
I may remark that it is our positive place before God that
lets us into the counsels of God. ere is no real knowledge
of these counsels except as we stand in our place before God.
Knowledge that pus up is always defective and sterile; it
is a statue, not life. ere is nothing really connected with
it in the mind, when it pus up. ere is a certain place
for the believer before God; into this the heart has to get.
We are made partakers of the divine nature. en all these
thoughts and counsels of God come to be precious, not as
knowledge, but as belonging to the glory of Christ. “ I …
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness.” Where our
own souls are before God, according to God, of course
there is fellowship and communion with God. Activity
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of course, even right activity, tends to bring self in. Take
Paul: there was danger of his being pued up; and the Lord
sent a thorn in the esh, a messenger of Satan to buet
him. When he came down from the third heaven into the
ordinary activities of life, there was danger. e thorn was a
hindrance to him in his ministry, that the power of Christ
might be made manifest in him. e moment he nds what
it was, he says, “ I glory in my inrmities that the power of
Christ may rest upon me.”
Christ chooses things that are weak that no esh may
glory in His presence.
Taking the general principle, if I enter into the
knowledge of divine things, it must be along with God.
Love is never pued up; love likes to serve. I am thus
blameless that I may have communion. We cannot have
practically a more important truth than that all real divine
knowledge is found by being in the presence of God; and
whenever we are in the presence of God, there must be
lowliness of heart and mind and spirit. God’s presence is
always a holy thing. ere is no true knowledge, and no
true communion unless the soul is in that state before
Him. ere is no more dangerous thing than a certain
apprehension of divine things without the soul learning
them with God, as we see in Balaam and in Heb. 6, where
you get all the wondrous things of Christianity poured
on the mind and natural heart. is is dangerous even if
there is life, and fatal if there is not. e revelation of the
counsels of God is founded on knowledge of our place
with God. e eye cannot bear light from God except so
far as we are right with God. Having brought us into the
blessed consciousness of this place, where we are at home
with God, now He can unfold His counsels, as to Christ
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Himself. Having brought us there in grace, He can trust our
hearts with all His plans. ere is no real divine knowledge
of the counsels of God except so far as we are personally
with Him. “ Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which
I do? “ He reveals to Abraham what He is going to do, not
with Abraham, but with Lot.
All ows from the soul being consciously in the place
where it is set, in Christ. He can then trust us with the
knowledge of His will; He can trust the sons of the family
with the family aairs.
Christ was a true real man in this world: was He occupied
with the interests of His family, or the interests of man?
He was subject to His parents. ere was in Him perfect
obedience, perfect condence, and-what is so hard for us-
perfect waiting. He gave Himself for our sins; He says, “ Ye
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” is
is not merely an outward thing. “ Be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind.” Christ was a dying sacrice. e
Christian is to be a living sacrice: this is to be the whole
life of the Christian. We are set at liberty by the power of
the life of Christ, and the Holy Ghost is in us, and then
we yield ourselves to God. We cannot yield ourselves of
ourselves; but the moment we are risen with Christ from
the dead, we have the power of the Holy Ghost. Suppose
a child is exceedingly anxious to go and see something, if
his father desires him to go, there is an instance of perfect
liberty and obedience also at the same time. It is a “ law
of liberty “ to us; the new man having the mind of God,
its delight is to do the will of God. We do not belong to
anything in this world, but only to God. I have no duty
that does not belong to a man who has died and is alive
again. Blessed path of liberty it is, but a path of liberty to
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one who has no object but Christ! is is the Christian’s
place, entirely separated to God. If I am my own, I am a
poor lost sinner (Christ never called Himself His own);
we are bought with a price, and we belong to God. When
in that case, He can open out to us all His wisdom and
prudence; “ we have the mind of Christ.”
us I rst get Christ’s own place; and this is exceedingly
blessed, because it puts us into our place. Our calling is what
we are towards God. Remember you do not get dispensed
glory, until as a rst thing you get to God. Christ oers
Himself up to God; you have a life to God down here,
and then a death to God, before you have the glory. Our
relationship to God Himself comes before any acquaintance
with the dispensed counsels of God. Responsibility and the
counsels of God are distinct. I was a poor sinner: but I nd,
through the work of Christ, that all that was against me is
gone. God’s counsels and plans have nothing to do with
man’s responsibility. When man had come to the point
of positive hatred against God in killing Christ, then the
counsels of God were brought out, the mystery hidden in
God. All this plan and counsel of God were before ever the
world was. Christ in His rejection does the work which is
the foundation of everlasting righteousness.
Everything that concerned the Person of Christ was
revealed before in the Old Testament, but not these
counsels of God. You may nd the ascension, resurrection,
gifts-all that concerns the Person of Christ-but nothing
of union with Him, of being members of His body, joint-
heirs with Him: all these counsels were hidden. I was a
poor sinner, I must have my responsibility met; but this
does not say that I should be in the same glory as the Son
of God. Not merely has He cleansed our sins, but
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He has gloried God. Man goes into the glory of God
because Man (He was more than man, of course) has
perfectly gloried God. We are loved as Christ is loved:
the world will know it when He appears. Ah! if we only
saw where the Christian is placed! It is a terrible thing to
see all this rest on the surface. Are you conscious that the
Father loves you as He loves Jesus?
e “ fullness of times “ is spoken of here, not eternity;
in eternity we nd God all in all. “ at in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all
things in Christ.” is is the thought and purpose of God
that everything He has created He will bring under Christ’s
moral power as Man. He created all things, we read in
Colossians. He is going to reconcile the state of things: but
we are reconciled. e place of the Christian is-absolutely
reconciled to God in a world that is not reconciled at all.
Everything in heaven and earth will be reconciled. If you
want to go as Christians through the world, you must go as
absolutely reconciled to God among things not reconciled.
You have nothing to do with “ things under the earth “
here: in Philippians they bow at the name of Jesus. e
scene He created He will perfectly restore. His rst title
is Creator; His second is Son-He is the heir of all things.
Actual creation is always referred to the Son and Spirit-
-God, of course. Man is to be set over it all, set at the
head of everything in the fullness of times. As we get into
Christ’s place in our calling, we get into Christ’s place in
our inheritance. Whatever He created as God, He inherits
as man.
“ By one oering he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctied “; the work is complete and nished for
His friends, and He is waiting till His enemies be made
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His footstool. When that comes, He leaves the Father’s
throne and takes His own. He who created all things is
Son and heir of all things, and He inherits them as man.
We are joint-heirs with Him. In the thoughts of God, His
Son having become a man, we have become completely
associated with Christ. He went alone through the earth;
but, the moment redemption was completed, He says, “ I
will declare thy name unto my brethren.” How thorough
is this association! Christ became a man, and in perfect
love He brings us to everything He has as man. If He
takes everything in heaven and earth, we are joint-heirs
with Him (as Eve was with Adam), members of His body.
When Mary Magdalene comes to the grave, He says, “ Tell
my brethren that I ascend unto my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.”
God’s heart is set upon me. It is the xedness of heart
on an object, but besides that I have the condence that He
never takes His eye o me. We get divine love in the nature
of God, and, besides that, love set on an object. “ Fear not,
little ock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom.” My inheritance is in Christ, because God has
associated me with the Lord Jesus. See the way the apostle
dwells on and repeats this word “ in “!
If I have the love of Christ in my heart, can I look on
a world that is under Satan’s power, and not be a man of
sorrows? We have joy through Christ, if you take that side.
If a holy being is in a world of sin, he must suer; if a
loving person is in a world of misery, he must suer.
It is not that the glory is the highest thing, for it concerns
self. At the transguration Moses and Elijah were in the
same glory as Christ; but more than that, a bright cloud
overshadowed them. Jehovah was in the cloud; and a voice
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
24
came out of the cloud, “ is is my beloved Son.” When
they went into the cloud, the disciples were frightened. e
cloud, so to speak, answered to the Father’s house.
is chapter invariably refers to God, His calling, and
His inheritance.
“ at we should be to the praise of his glory who rst
trusted in Christ “-hoped before He appears. e world
will get a portion under Him, but we a portion with Him.
While we must be born of God, there is in the proper sense
of the word no glad tidings in telling a man that he must
be born again. e thing revealed in the gospel is, that the
grace of God which brings salvation has appeared; there is
remission of sins and full salvation. Have you never been
in God’s presence? Were you t to be there? e veil is
rent: we are just as much in God’s presence as if already in
heaven; we shall see it more clearly then. I have everlasting
life, I have divine righteousness, because I am in Christ.
I am brought into God’s presence, and I am not there
without being t through the work on the cross. We have
not got anything of the inheritance as yet, but we are sealed
with the Holy Ghost. e blood of Christ having cleansed
me from all sin, the Holy Ghost can take His place because
I am clean. “ Know ye not that your bodies are the temple
of the Holy Ghost? “ What if the apostle were to write
this to you? Being born again, I have life; when sealed, I
have God dwelling in me. e Holy Ghost can take His
place as a witness that in God’s sight I am as white as
snow. “ Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God.” Oh! beloved, what a place
the Christian is in! If you confess that Jesus is the Son of
God, God is dwelling in you. How are you treating the
Our Portion in Christ: Part 1
25
divine guest? “ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
ye are sealed.”
It is not merely quickening, which was from the
beginning: but when there is life, the Holy Ghost
becomes the seal. I do not want an earnest of God’s love.
He loved me so perfectly that He gave His Son for me.
His is a love proved in the death of Christ, and known in
present consciousness. e Holy Ghost is the earnest of
the inheritance. “ Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty.” Do not you be looking into your heart to nd
if He is there. Imagine a child inquiring if he is a child!
Look if you are walking up to that. “ We are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Do you believe in the
truth that “ Jesus is the Son of God “? “ By one oering he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctied.” But “ they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but
unto him who died for them and rose again.”
e apostle’s prayer here is to “ the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ,” that the saint might know what He has
wrought, and would do for them.
Do you believe that Christ has put you in the same place
with God as He is in Himself? We are in Him, we shall be
with Him, and like Him, and He gives us the knowledge
of it now.
Have your hearts gone back, when accepted, to look at
this model? Have your hearts burned within you as you
have seen Him, and talked with Him, and have you said “
His path is mine? “ Has it possessed your souls? is is a
matter of daily diligence and conict. e time will soon
come when we shall say, of all that has not been Christ in
our lives and ways, “ at was all lost.”
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26
62816
e Robber Saved
Luke 23:39-43
WE do not nd, except during the three hours of
darkness on the cross, that by any sorrow, weariness, or
trial, the Lord Jesus was ever hindered from entering
into the sorrow of others. None could put Him in a place,
except when working out atonement, where He did not
enter into human suering: such unweariness of love do
we see in Christ. Still He was light; and the more we look
into His history, the more comes out the terribleness of the
heart of man. It was never manifested till then. ere are
amiable natures and unamiable natures; but we never learn
what the heart of man is till then. e thing that tries the
human heart is, What is its object? not, What are its mere
natural qualities? “ ere is none that seeketh after God.”
Man saw no beauty in Christ. ere is nothing in the heart
that looks at the Lord so as to nd in Him an object and
a delight. ere is no root till the conscience is reached;
there may be attraction, but until the conscience is in the
presence and sight of God, nothing is done; it is like the
morning dew which passes away. “ e same is he which
heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath
he not root in himself.”
Wherever the conscience is reached by God, there is
some sense of goodness. Fear and terror may predominate,
but there is attraction, and the heart cannot let it go. Faith
always gets both: God is love, and yet He reaches the
conscience. ere is that which reaches the conscience, and
that which inspires condence, when the eye is on Christ.
e Robber Saved
27
On the authority of Christ Himself we have the certainty
of salvation, that is, the Christian state; and no other suits
the Christian. It is the only real Christian state which
the word of God owns. e condition of the Christian is
the eect of the work of Christ. It is not that there is no
conict, but that Another has taken my responsibility. My
place before God is not the eect of what I have done, but
of what Christ has done. Christ is the ground on which I
stand before God: if it be so, what has He done for us? He
died for our sins; then they must be put away. He is the
Judge, but He cannot judge what He has put away. at
we might walk with God in peace, He has sent the One
who is to be the judge rst to be the Savior. Condence is
connected with righteousness now.
In the history of the robbers we have both sides.
In the other malefactor taunting Christ, we see how the
heart of man is enmity to God. It was the triumph for the
moment of the rst man and of Satan too. It is sad to think
what our hearts are if left to themselves. When the heart
is let out, where will it stop? Satan is over us. Here then
we have the triumph of the wickedness of man over the
goodness of God. We cannot get rid of Satan’s power yet;
we may bind it in a sense. e heart of man cannot bear
the presence of God. ere is not a vanity, not a bit of dress
or money, that has not more power over the heart of man
than all that Christ has done or is. You never yet found a
man enjoying himself who would hear of Christ. e world
would not have Him when He came in grace, nor would it
now; but it must have Him when He comes in judgment.
Take the majority of people in this city, and suppose them
let into heaven! ey would get out as fast as they could.
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28
In the repentant robber, on the other hand, we see grace.
He was crucied on a gibbet; but no matter, gibbet or no
gibbet, when God and the soul meet, we have the simple
and immense fact that the soul is brought at once into His
presence. When God has dealt with the conscience, we
make no more promises for the future. Unlike the naughty
child that says, “ I’ll be better to-morrow,” the soul confesses
sin to-day. “ Dost thou not fear God? “ is the word, not “
Are you not ashamed of being a thief? “
Have you ever been brought into God’s presence? “
e fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.” If you
have not been consciously in God’s presence, wisdom has
not begun for you. Before Christ you must be, and you
must be there in truth: the dierence is whether you are
before Christ in the fullness of His grace, or before Him
in judgment. “ We indeed justly.” He did not say that the
world was guilty, but that he was the guilty one; it is not
simply that sin is sin, but that I am a sinner. His thought
is that he himself is justly there. It is a personal thing, not
merely that God is holy, nor merely that the world is guilty,
but that you are guilty.
“ is man hath done nothing amiss.” He would
guarantee the whole life of Christ-it contrariwise was
a divine revelation to the soul. Who is there that is a
Christian that would not lay down his life for this? “ is
man hath done nothing amiss.” It was a divine revelation of
the perfectness of Christ’s Person. Could your soul answer
for Christ in that way? Here is a man who does so when
everybody is deserting Jesus: here is divine faith that He
was perfectly sinless: his eye is opened, his heart brought
to the consciousness of it. It is not only that he has the
fear of God, but he sees the perfectness of Jesus. Heaven
e Robber Saved
29
was opened when Christ came out for public service; there
never was a man before of whom God could say, “ at is
all I want.” Has your heart echoed, and said, “ at is all I
want “? Nowhere else can the heart so rest when we see the
evil around, and the imperfections even of saints. His mind,
having got hold of Christ, nds rest in Him. All around is
a wide waste of waters, the heart would get wearied, but it
turns to Him; and what a rest! ings would be unbearable
but for this, but the heart, when it turns there, enters its
sanctuary.
“ Remember me,” said the converted robber. What sign
was there that Jesus was Christ the Lord? ere was not a
cloud on this man’s heart, because he was divinely taught.
One heart recognizes that He is Lord in spite of everything.
Pilate had washed his hands before all the people, and
given Him up to the Jews; He was denied by one of His
disciples, betrayed by another. Everything was against it.
“ Lord, remember me “; without a sign, the robber owns
Him-how bright to faith! is man had no time to grow,
or serve, or walk; but there was thorough conversion, full
faith, a sense of what the Messiah was, and belief in His
coming in His kingdom. Faith in itself is always certain; it
may lead us to doubt about other things, but it is always
absolutely certain. e believer has set to his seal that God
is true; he does not say, “ Perhaps He is true.” Wherever
I receive it as the word of God, I receive it with absolute
certainty; if it be not so, I do not receive it as the word of
God at all.
“ Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”
His whole concern was that Christ should remember
him. We see in him boldness with a bold sinner, lowliness
as to himself, a sense of the perfectness of Jesus and the
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
30
knowledge that He would come in His kingdom. Happy
are we if we are in the state of this robber! If you were in
suering, in trial, is it the only thing you would care about,
that Christ should remember you?
Another thing is Christ’s answer to him: “ To-day shalt
thou be with me in paradise.” e character of Luke is to
bring in present blessing. Before ever the kingdom came,
he would go straight to paradise. Faith never looks at my
heart, but at the object God reveals. When brought to the
consciousness of what I am, my eye rests on Christ Himself.
When the thief looks to Christ, he has Christ’s answer.
e rest given to our souls is the positive answer of God.
We have the positive declaration that this robber, taken
up for his crimes, was that day absolutely t for paradise;
so perfect is the work of Christ. Observe this robber, and
the woman that was a sinner, how they understand Christ,
because they want a Savior! When I come to God with
Christ in my hand (like Abel with his lamb), God says to
me, “ You are righteous.” By faith I see Jesus is sitting on the
right hand of the majesty on high; when did He go there? “
When he had by himself purged our sins.” en I know my
sins are purged before God. ere is no progress here, no
such thing as being tted for heaven. Growth there ought
to be in us, if left here, progress in likeness to Christ; but
it is never in Scripture connected with tness for heaven:
Christ is my title. ere is growth, but it is never treated as
our tness. is robber was t for paradise at once; he went
there, any way, that day; I suppose he was t for it, since he
was t to be with Christ! Suppose I were to make all the
progress the most blessed saint ever made, could I say I was
t thus for Christ? God forbid! yet I am t. Death for the
e Robber Saved
31
believer is simply that he has done with all that is mortal
and sinful.
How little the outside is the truth! e Jews sent
soldiers to break their legs: how little they thought they
were sending the robber straight to heaven, to be the rst
companion (there were Old Testament saints, of course)
that followed the blessed Lord!
It would be well for us if we were as close to Christ as
that poor robber. When the veil was rent, the whole thing
was changed. e Old Testament was a declaration that
man could not go to God in the light: God did not come
out, and man could not go in. e gospel says that God
did come out, and man can go in. “ We have boldness to
enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus.” If sin is
there, how can I enter into the holiest? I am in Christ, not
in the esh. Our sins He bore; we have died with Him,
and should enter into the holiest. Access is free, the veil
being rent; we are accepted in the Beloved. Until the work
was done, He did not give up the ghost. Now, as a present
thing, we have boldness to enter into the holiest. Are you
there? e veil is rent; you cannot have God afar o. ere
is no more a veil; we are before the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So full and complete is the revelation, that
I see God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ, the witness of
salvation accomplished. e glory is in the face of the One
who bore my sins. In the presence of the absolute light and
righteousness of God you must stand, or you cannot stand
at all. e world may blind your eyes, but there is no veil on
the presence of God.
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32
62763
Man Fallen and the Seed of
the Woman
Genesis 3
IT is not only Scripture which makes known to us that
there is sin and misery in the world. ere they are, even if
Scripture or a Savior did not exist. e world is a ruin. Man
knows well that iniquity and delement are in him; and
nobody is satised with his portion here below, because his
heart is ill at ease. e word of God explains, as nothing
else can, how Satan entered the world, and reveals the
consequence of sin in man’s relations with God.
e rst thing the old serpent did was to put something
between the creature and the Creator, to put himself
between God and man. is was subtle, and ruinous if
successful, as it was • for the only thing which makes us
happy is that there is nothing between-that God loves us.
Satan begins then by producing distrust in God, and
so stirring man’s will into activity in lust and disobedience.
Never does the enemy lead one to think of the goodness
of God nor of man’s obedience. e woman knew right
well that she ought not to eat of the tree, and that mischief
must be the result; yet she ate, and gave to her husband
with her, and he did eat (v. 1-6). us sin is the self-will
that sprang from the unbelief which doubted God. By this
means Satan made a breach; he persuaded Eve that God
kept something for Himself, for fear that His creature
should be too happy and too blessed. But Eve was wrong
Man Fallen and the Seed of the Woman
33
in listening to Satan; she ought not for a moment to have
attended to the voice which insinuated distrust in God.
God has warned man of the consequences of sin, as
Adam, “ in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die.” But Satan, who seeks always to deny the righteousness
of God, says to the woman, “ ye shall not surely die; for
God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil.” Nor was this altogether untrue. e fall
has rendered man much more intelligent relatively to
good and evil. But Satan hid from man that he should be
separated from God and have a bad conscience. “ And the
eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed g leaves together, and made
themselves aprons “ (v. 7). ey acquired a knowledge that
showed them their nakedness, which they strove to conceal
from the eyes of themselves and each other. All that is
brought near us appears to us more important and greater
than what is still far o. e forbidden tree being near Eve,
and the judgment of God being distant, she took of the
fruit, and ate.
So the spirit of falsehood tells men at this day that they
shall not die, and that the threats of God shall not come
to pass. He conceals the warnings of God, and then men
do what Satan and their own lusts urge them on to do. If a
Christian even is not watchful, his conscience will lose its
activity, and, in place of seeing God, he sees his nakedness.
Man, besides, takes leaves to cover his nakedness. He
does his utmost to conceal from himself the evil which has
happened to him; but when God is revealed, it is quite
otherwise. God draws near, as if nothing had occurred;
then the nearness to God, which would have been a joy
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
34
for man without sin, becomes on account of sin a source
of immense terror, and insupportable. “Adam and his wife
hide themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim
amongst the trees of the garden.” ey had succeeded in
veiling their nakedness from their own eyes; they were
terried at the voice of God, and strove to hide from Him.
What a horrible thing for man to be in such a case as to
wish concealment from God! (v. 7, 8).
Adam “was afraid,” as he confessed to Him who called
him from his hiding-place. Conscience trembles at the
presence of God. Every hope of enjoying life is taken away
when His voice is heard. Man is self-convicted of departure
from God because of sin. God “drove out the man”; but
man had himself ed from His presence rst. His own
conscience told him that he could not stand before God;
and God made this evident by the words of His call to
Adam, “Where art thou?” (v. 9). He was gone from God,
banished by conscience before God drove him out. Is he
then the one to complain of unrighteousness, whose own
heart condemned him similarly before God’s sentence was
pronounced? e relations of man were thenceforth broken,
and in a manner irreparable, as far as man is concerned. “I
heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I
was naked; and I hid myself” (v. 10).
Self-justication is as vain as seeking to hide from God.
“ And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee
that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, e woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat “ (v. 11, 12). How is the mighty fallen! e
head of creation stooping, in order to excuse himself of his
sin, to cast the fault on his wife-yea, on God Himself! How
Man Fallen and the Seed of the Woman
35
debasing is evil once allowed, and dominant! No slavery
more degrading, none so immediate and all-corrupting in
its eects. Was man then the weaker vessel? or this the way
of natural aection? e hardest thing for a sinner to do
is to confess his sin truly and thoroughly; to judge oneself
is only the fruit of grace through faith. A bad conscience
dreads God and the consequences too much to confess,
while it knows its sin too well to deny it.
But God will have sin out, and trace it to its source. “And
Jehovah Elohim said unto the woman, What is this that
thou hast done? And the woman said, e serpent beguiled
me, and I did eat. And Jehovah Elohim said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above
all cattle, and above every beast of the eld; upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow
thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to
thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam
he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy
wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee, saying, ou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground
for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and
thou shalt eat the herb of the eld; in the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for
out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return “ (v. 13-19).
If you had full condence in God, and you were
perfectly sure that God loved you, you would be very happy.
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
36
But Satan is active, and his power consists in producing
distrust, and this where there is happiness and intimate
relation with God- to darken, and, if possible, destroy all
in the heart. He takes advantage of men who trust their
own will and their eorts for their happiness, distrusting
God, and neither willing nor knowing how to conde the
care of their happiness to Him, and to give themselves up
to His mighty love in Christ. And this he does now as ever.
He persuades men that God is too good to condemn us
because we are sinners; and man, spite of his sins and his
conscience, hopes and persuades himself that he will not be
condemned. It is the voice of the old serpent.
But God has proved, even by the death of His Son,
that He will not endure sin, and that its wages are death,
as it will be judgment after death for all who believe not.
e conscience being bad, all the eort of man is to hide
from himself his nakedness before God. He would put out
of the world gross and outward sin, drunkenness, murder,
robbery. He seeks by laws and by philanthropic eorts to
blot out the exterior eects of sin which shock the world.
But these are but the aprons of g-leaves, which root out
nothing whatever, but serve for the moment to conceal
from ourselves our nakedness and misery, and to avoid
thinking of the righteousness of the condemnation God
has pronounced from that day on our sinful state.
Now that sins have come between our consciences and
God, one wishes at least that there should be something
to hide us before God; and it is with this view that man
employs what he calls innocent things. us the trees
were innocent enough, but what use did Adam make of
them? To hide behind them from God. God had given to
man all that is in the world; but man now perverts it all
Man Fallen and the Seed of the Woman
37
to escape from the presence of God, pretending the while
to be innocent in such an application of what is good in
itself. When the voice of God awakens the conscience, one
wishes still for something to hide us from Him; but this is
impossible. “ Where art thou? “ said God to Adam, who
had no means of concealment longer. If God were to say
so to each of your souls, would it be your joy to be in His
presence? God is really the only resource and refuge when
we have sinned. It is only God who, by imputing nothing
to the believer, takes away all guile from the spirit; Psa. 32
But if you hide away from God, how do you then stand
for your souls? God had not yet driven from His presence
Adam, who had ed away from Him. Conscience tell us
that, if we have sinned and He is a righteous God, there
are no leaves or trees to hide us in His presence. Man is
miserable in his conscience, and he cannot be happy in sin,
save only that there is no God. All the hope of incredulity
is that there is no God, or, what comes to the same thing,
that He is not righteous or holy. Adam wished to excuse
himself, as if he had lusted after nothing himself-he had
only followed the voice of his wife, instead of keeping to
the prohibition of God. But if there was no lust in us, no
sinful act would result. He had disobeyed the word of God,
for which he was responsible.
In the midst of all the goodness of God, who has given
His Son for poor sinners, if you have no condence in
God, there is the proof of your sin. No matter how it may
be manifested, is not this ingratitude and distrust? Eve
listened to and believed Satan, in place of listening to God
and believing Him; and this is just what man is ever doing,
while he hopes for salvation and eternal life, though he
sins. All the eorts you make to be happy prove you are
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
38
not. e immediate eect of God’s presence in your hearts
and consciences would be to stop your pleasures: if all your
pleasures are thus incompatible with the presence of God,
what will they be for you in eternity? Will they carry you to
the foot of His throne who is holy and righteous, to show
Him that you have passed many innocent hours far from
Him? What is there but disobedience, distrust, falsehood,
self-will, unless it be a still worse thing, the state of soul
which wishes to divert its thoughts away from the presence
of God.
Man may withdraw himself from the presence of God
while grace lasts, but he cannot when God will judge him.
Satan will help you to hide; your best friends following the
world will help you also to keep away from the presence of
God, to forget and deny it; but this will certainly not go
beyond the time of grace which is granted you. erefore,
while it is called to-day, if you hear His voice, harden not
your hearts.
God knows that you are sinners; He knows that it is
the subtle iniquity of Satan, which would make man his
prey. But there is to that an answer, of which Satan knew
not, any more than poor, guilty, fallen man: the revelation
of the Seed of the woman (v. 15). e question is really
between the serpent and the second Man-not the rst.
It is neither a promise to Adam and Eve from God,
nor a hope of improvement in their children; but God
pronounces judgment on the enemy, and in the midst of
it the revelation is made of the Savior, child of the woman
who had ensnared the man to be ruined of the devil. e
woman’s Seed shall bruise the serpent’s head, but He is
bruised Himself rst. What grace, yet righteousness! What
humiliation, yet victory! If Adam exalted himself as a
Man Fallen and the Seed of the Woman
39
robbery to be as God, He who was God emptied Himself
to be a man, and became obedient unto death, as the other
was disobedient unto it. To lost Adam, the rst man, there
was, and could be, no promise. All the promises of God
are yea and amen in the second Man; but they become
the portion of every believer. Faith nds and enjoys the
promise, not sin and unbelief. To Eve and Adam God only
speaks of the actual consequences of sin (v. 16-19). It is in
judging the serpent (v. 15) that He reveals the coming Seed
of the woman, and the way of His victory. enceforward
the only hope of lost man is in this revealed Savior; and
before he is driven out he hears of what Jesus was to suer
in destroying the power of the devil; yet not a single sign of
repentance appears in Adam after his sin. He had shown
terror of God, cowardly selshness as to his wife, as much
dishonesty in his own case as dishonor done to God. But
God occupies Himself only with His counsels of grace in
the woman’s Seed, whose person and work and glory are
developed in all the Scriptures.
But victory over Satan in the cross of Christ is no longer
in any sense a promise; it is accomplished. Had man let into
his heart that God did not love him? that He kept back
what was good for him, through jealousy or envy of his
happiness? It was Satan’s lie; for the suering second Man,
the woman’s Seed, is Son of God, the true God, and eternal
life, who became man to die for sinners and destroy the
works of the devil. Yet is the unbelieving heart so perverse
as to refuse its condence to the God who thus gave His
Son. Jesus, instead of eeing from God’s judgment, went
to meet it when the hour came, and took on Him the
burden of our sins, instead of listening to the voice of man
or Satan. “ e cup which my Father giveth me, shall I not
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
40
drink it? “ By His death He annulled him that had the
power of death, and gives the believer perfect condence in
God, all fear of death being gone. His love puts us in peace
and relationship with God, unscared by diculties, now
that we are forgiven our sins, clothed with Himself instead
of nakedness or g-leaves, with nothing but grace to stand
in and God’s glory to look forward to, since He bore the
judgment for us.
Is your condence then in the God who gave His Son
to save the poorest of sinners? is condence inspires and
strengthens obedience. Nothing to the believer is more
precious than God’s love in Christ, which makes us prefer
His will to all Satan can oer.
May God touch your heart, and give you to magnify
Him by receiving all that His love has done in Christ!
e Blood of the Lamb
41
62815
e Blood of the Lamb
Exodus 12
ON the paschal night, when Jehovah struck the
rstborn of the Egyptians, and passed over those of Israel,
a groundwork was laid for the deliverance of Israel from
their bondage to Pharaoh, a lively image of Christ, the
Passover sacriced for us; for we were slaves of Satan, as
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was prince of this world, and the
people of God his bondsmen. But God was taking notice
of the state of His people, visiting them, and about to
deliver them.
In one sense Satan has rights over us as sinners, and the
justice of God is against us, because He had said, “ In the
day that thou eatest [of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil] thou shalt surely die.” us Satan can accuse man,
though he had said on the contrary, “ Ye shall not surely die
“; your case is not so utterly desperate as these Christians
say. Satan is always the same liar as he was. God cannot say
to the sinner as such, ou shalt not die; but to deliver He
must take notice of sin, and lay a righteous foundation, of
which faith can avail itself by grace.
Pharaoh had power enough to keep the Israelites, and
the more as they were accustomed to slavery, and latterly
of the bitterest kind. Pharaoh had no real rights, any more
than Satan. Meanwhile he deceives. Such is the state of the
world. is is so true, that the higher one’s place is in the
world, the more one is really enslaved. A poor man may do
many things in the street without any one taking notice of
it: the rich man dares not to wound its conventionalities
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
42
and usages. Our will contributes also to our slavery. If one
were to tell us that we are directed, led, retained by Satan,
we should not agree to it. In fact he employs the things
of the world to drag us into sin. Judas was drawn into his
sin because he loved money. Satan entered into his heart
to harden his conscience, and to strengthen him in sin, by
taking away from him all hope of the mercy of God. us
there is rst the lust, or desire; next the enemy furnishes
the occasion or means of satisfying it; then he enters into
us. Satan tries to retort the sin on others, and teaches us
to do the same. So Adam said, “ e woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat,”
making of his heart an excuse for what his hand had done.
In Egypt Israel became the object of controversy
between God and Pharaoh, who represents Satan. e
enemy says God has no right to claim them, for they are
sinners. It is true that they are sinners; and it is necessary
that man should completely bow to the justice of God
which condemns him. If one is convinced of being lost, it
is impossible that one should not seek salvation, perhaps
blindly; still one seeks it every time that conscience is
awakened. Without this, people content themselves with
saying that God is good, that is, that He must take no
account of sin. But ought God to make heaven like what
the world is? And is not this just what would be if sin were
to enter heaven? Could one give a measure to indicate
up to what, and how much, people might sin? But our
consciences also accuse and tell us that we cannot get rid
of sin; and sin begets death.
God has already been dishonored by sin, and it is in
this world from day to day that God is yet dishonored. It
is here, on the earth, that the angels learn what it is that
e Blood of the Lamb
43
God is dishonored. It is here that we see Satan degrade all
the creation.
Jehovah says, “ I will pass through the land of Egypt
this night, and will smite all the rstborn in the land of
Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah. And the
blood shall be unto you for a token upon the houses
where ye are; and when I see the blood I will pass over
you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you,
when I smite the land of Egypt “ (v. 12, 13). is was not
the deliverance of Israel, like the passage of the Red Sea,
but it was the ground of it; and of the two, the Passover
was really the more solemn morally, though the Red Sea
displayed God’s saving power more gloriously on behalf
of His people and against their foes. But on the paschal
night it was a question how God could pass over the guilty,
even if His people; and the blood of the lamb sprinkled
on Israel’s doorposts declared that God, though expressly
judging, could not touch those screened thereby. His truth
and justice were stayed and satised before that blood. e
destroyer was kept from entering. Not an Israelite perished
within the blood-sprinkled lintels. It was a question of
arresting God’s judgment here, of destroying Satan’s power
in the type of the Red Sea; but the blood of Christ laid the
foundation for the victory displayed in His resurrection.
Once the Red Sea is crossed, Israel are pursued no
more. ey are redeemed-they can sing. It was not so when
they supped on the lamb in Egypt; yet were they screened
from God’s judgment of their evil. eir deliverance from
Pharaoh followed.
But must not I see the blood? says many a distressed
soul. It is well for me to estimate its value aright, and
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44
growingly; but no person could have solid peace on this
ground. Nor was it what God told His people. It was indeed
a token to them; but their assurance was built on this, that
“when I [Jehovah] see the blood, I will pass over you.” e
Israelite’s business was not to look at it for his safety, but
to keep within the shelter of the sprinkled blood to which
God had thus pledged Himself. It is He who sees the blood
and passes over. God alone estimates perfectly the blood of
the Lamb; and faith means not our estimate of it, but our
condence in Him. e blood is the token which recalls to
us the love of God, as well as His righteousness, but what is
shed for sin looks to God and is for God to look on.
Christ thus presents God to us under three aspects:
His righteousness that strikes the substitute for us; His
love that provides the Lamb for us; and His glory that has
raised Him up when all was clear for us. ere is thus entire
deliverance. We are in Christ before God. e greatest
expression of divine hatred of sin is found in His cross.
e stroke of judgment fell; the thunder and lightning are
exhausted; the sky is pure and calm for those who believe.
But he who is under the shelter of the Lamb’s blood
must eat of the Lamb’s body. It is no question of appetite for
it. Doubtless he who has appetite for it enjoys more; and it
is so much the worse for him who cares not for it. But it is
no condition to do so. What accompanies the act of eating
the lamb is the bitter herbs and the unleavened bread. On
the one hand repentance attends faith and characterizes
the new life, as it takes cognizance of all one has done and
is; and in Christ one tastes, on the other hand, of what is
absolutely without sin. One delights in the Holy One; one
judges self, and it is a bitter thing.
e Blood of the Lamb
45
ere is need also of having the loins girt, shoes on the
feet, and sta in hand. e attitude of strangers and pilgrims
is the only one for those who are under the blood of the
Lamb. Whilst we are here in the world, we cannot let out
all that is within. ere is danger within and without. We
must be ever on the alert and watch. We have no longer a
home in the Egypt world. We are bound for the heavenly
land. But we are no more slaves. It is the Lord’s Passover
we are keeping, and we are His forever, though not yet in
the rest that remains but only on the way, while in another
sense we are seated with Him in heavenly places.
e fact that the Passover was to be eaten at night, and
burnt, or nothing left to the morning, seems to intimate
that it was entirely apart from the whole course and
scene in which nature and sense are conversant, a matter
between God and the soul, abstractedly in the undistracted
claim and holiness of the divine nature. No circumstances
entered into it, no question of compassionate apprehension
of sin and misery. It was sin, and the holy judgment of
God, where nothing else was.
So, as a sign of this deep and innite truth, all was
darkness for three hours with Christ: nature hidden; all
between God and Him.
en all was to be burnt. ere was no mixing the lamb
with anything common. Israel was sanctied by it like the
priests, so that he ate it; but it could not be mixed with
other food.
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46
62795
Blessed rough Faith
Galatians 3
IN speaking of redemption there are always two
questions to be considered: rstly, the great truth of the
work of Christ on the cross; and secondly, the application
of His work to us. e last is principally that in which
Christians go astray. It is the manner of availing ourselves
of the blessing that is denied. e Galatians did not deny
Christ; they were Christians, but they were mixing up the
law with the gospel and connecting ordinances with works,
which two always come together. When the heart is not
satised with works, then it ekes out matters by ordinances.
But ordinances cannot give peace to the conscience. God
will not let you mix them with Christ. e apostle here
shows the real ground of peace. Promise is contrasted
with law. “ Received ye the Spirit by the law or by faith?
“ (v. 2). e promised One is come: and the work being
accomplished, the Spirit is given as the consequence.
Man is so attached to his good opinion of himself, that
God had, as it were, to say, Well if you will have a law, here
is Mine for you. ey ought to have cried, Oh! we cannot
keep the law, we are sinners, ruined; instead of this they
presumptuously answered, “ All that Jehovah hath spoken
we will do.”
What could such self-condence end in but death? On
the other hand, we Christians are not under law; nor are we
under promise but under the eect of the accomplishment
of the promise. He begins with the eect (v. 2): “ Received
ye the Spirit,” etc. We are under the eect of redemption,
Blessed rough Faith
47
namely sin put away by Christ’s sacrice, and the Holy
Ghost present as power for walk, etc. Did we get it by the
law or by faith?
Verse 3. “ Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made
perfect by the esh? “ Whenever the law is brought in, so
is the esh also. I never put myself in any way under the
law without being condemned and lost, beyond all help;
whereas God must have perfect obedience and nothing
less. “ e soul that sinneth, it shall die.” If we get o this
ground, it would be God accommodating Himself to
sinners and allowing sin. When we start upon the ground
of man’s responsibility to God, we always fail. e Galatians
professed to have found redemption by Christ. Jesus Christ
had been evidently set forth crucied before their eyes (v.
1). Again, had “ they suered many things in vain? “ (v. 4).
Was it all a mistake? When had they this power? It was
in the Spirit. e law never pretended to give power. “ He
therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh
miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or
by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to Him for righteousness. Know ye
therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall
all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham “ (v. 5-9). When he turns
to the ground of faith, then we nd the promise, “ In thee
shall all nations be blessed.”
Here are thus two great principles in contrast. If it is a
promise, what I have to do is to believe it. It is another who
accomplished it. God undertakes this, and He accomplishes
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48
it by Christ. It is all on God’s side. is is the dierence
between promise and the law. “ Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And so if
I believe God, and it is counted to me for righteousness:
“ So then they that be of faith are blessed with faithful
Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are
under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them.” It is not as many as do bad works,
but “ as many as are on the ground of law-works.” e law is
good, but we are bad; and hence all is ruin on that ground;
for it is written, “ Cursed is every one that continueth not,”
etc. I cannot keep it so as to be saved.
According to Deut. 27:1-10, they were to write, upon
the stones with which they built the altar, all the words
of the law on mount Ebal, where was the law; the letter
was not on mount Gerizim, where half of the tribes were
to bless (v. 12). But there was nothing there-the letter was
only on the mount of cursing. In chapter 28 is both blessing
and cursing, but these have nothing to do with Gerizim;
they are the blessing and cursing of God’s government, as
regards their daily walk. We may come under chastisement
in our daily walk. It is in vain to mix yourself up as the
accomplisher of the law with God as the accomplisher of
the promise. If your soul rests upon what God is in Christ
and nothing else, you get the blessing. If you choose to
stand on what you do yourself, how can you escape the
curse?
Verse 13. “ Christ hath redeemed us,” etc. en comes
the accomplishment of the promise. Man was either, like
the Gentile, lawless, or like the Jew, under the curse of the
law. What is required by the bondmen of sin and Satan
Blessed rough Faith
49
is redemption. e way God gives us blessing is, not by
enfeebling the law, but by Christ’s enduring the judgment
of guilt for us. e curse that we deserved, another has
borne! I do not y to a promise for peace to my soul. Peace
is the accomplished result of Christ’s work (Col. 1), and, if
you will, of the promise. Christ has been made a curse for
me, and I am redeemed entirely from the curse of the law.
e curse is utterly taken away. We ought to be astonished
at such grace!-laid in the dust, as regards ourselves, but in
perfect peace with God. e curse is altogether put away
and gone; for Christ has borne sin and death. en what
remains? e blessing of faith as to all that results from His
work. We are not merely born anew by the Spirit; but we
have received the Spirit as the seal of the curse being gone-
of redemption accomplished.
In verse 17 he speaks of God’s way of dealing, in order
to show how sure it is. “ To Abraham and his seed were
the promises made.” In Gen. 12:2, 3, the promise is made
to Abraham-nothing about the seed. “In thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed.” In Gen. 22 there comes
a gure of the seed in Isaac. In verses 16 and 17 it is said,
“Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son [a type of Christ], I will multiply thy
seed as the stars of heaven,” etc. ese are the “ seeds as of
many.” “y seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” In
verse 18, on the other hand, nothing is said of a numerous
seed. “And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be
blessed.” Here it is in one Seed, Christ. In chapter 15 is
another set of promises, but the promise is to Abraham in
himself But after Isaac had been oered, we have the seed
[Christ] without any conditions at all.
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50
is promise, conrmed of God in Christ four hundred
and thirty years before the law came in, the law cannot
disannul or make of none eect. e law being come, God
could not bring in the promise till the curse was put away.
Christ was born under the law, as a living man. e promise
of God is in a Christ who had to die. But He is risen, the
curse being borne. en wherefore serves the law? (v. 19).
To bring out transgressions, to convict of sin, to prove man
a sinner, a self-righteous good-for-nothing sinner. e
eect was to bring out the sin that was already in the heart.
“ Transgression “ is a dierent thing from “ sin,” which is
really said in John 3:4 to be, not transgression of the law,
but lawlessness. If I have a son who is idle and runs about
the street, it certainly is a bad habit; but if he refuses or
neglects to do what I bid him, this is positive transgression.
It is not only lawlessness, but transgression of law.
us then the promise came rst, next the law, and then
the accomplishment of the promise. e law was in the
hand of a mediator, till the seed should come, to whom the
promise was made (v. 20). Again, a promise does not want a
mediator; for it is all on one side. “ Now a mediator is not a
mediator of one; but God is one,” who is the accomplisher
of the promise. In Ex. 19 God says, “ If you obey my voice …
I will bless you.” e mediator comes with this statement
from God, and God says, If you do all this, I will bless you.
Israel says, “ All that Jehovah hath spoken, we will do.”
Here is a promise of our God, conditional on something
being fullled by man. e result is a total failure; because
man has been brought in, engaging to do something which
he is sure not to accomplish. e moment there is the
legal mediator, man is engaged in a condition and has no
possibility of fullling it. But (v. 21) the law is not contrary
Blessed rough Faith
51
to the promise. e truth is that man was in a condition
in which he could not earn the promises, because he could
not keep the law. God proposes law and man breaks it. God
accomplishes by Christ not merely the law but redemption,
so that the original promise of blessing ows out to the
Gentiles by faith, who had nothing to do with the law.
After faith is come, even the believing Jews are no
longer under the law. We have put on Christ. We are not
before God as sinners in our sins. He only thinks of us as
in Christ. He does not see it in us, because it is put away;
but we see it, hate it, judge it, though we know it has been
judged in Christ. He puts the saints in the place of promise
in this way. ey are in Christ, and therefore they are the
seed of Abraham (v. 29). All the promises nd their center
in Christ Himself. e moment I am in Christ, all the
promises of God are mine too, and I am come into the full
blessing of all the promises of God. “ If ye be Christ’s, then
are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
If I put myself practically under the law, my conscience
gets tortured. e more spiritual I am to discern its
holiness, the more miserable I become. One proof that
a soul is converted is when he feels and says God ought
never to give up His holiness, even if he is destroyed by
it. It is nothing but pride for a sinful man to go about to
establish his own righteousness. Can a bad tree bring forth
good fruit? is unbelief hinders the soul from resting on
the accomplishment of the promise. If the curse had not
been borne, it would have been upon you; but it has been
borne, and there is no curse to the believer. Such is your
position, because you have put on Christ. If you attempt to
mix anything of your own with Christ, you will always be
unhappy; besides, it is unholy to think of it, because it is not
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52
acknowledging that in “your esh dwelleth no good thing.”
We are not our own at all; we are bought with a price.
Whenever a man thinks he has a right to do anything of
his own will, he is robbing God. We should render to Him
our bodies; it is our reasonable service.
After promise the law was added, and this was, till the
Seed, Christ, came. is is very important indeed for us
to be settled in. We never shall have solid settled peace
till the whole man is plowed up and searched out, and we
get clearly to see that we have no strength in us. en we
are cast over on accomplished righteousness in Christ, on
nothing less than God’s own Son made sin for us. To know
this puts me down in the dust; but it gives me unchangeable
peace. And what then is the claim of Christ on us? We
ought to realize that we are given up to Him, body, soul,
and spirit, even as we are purchased by His blood.
Christ a Sweet Savor to God for Us
53
62765
Christ a Sweet Savor to God
for Us
Leviticus 1; 2
THE rst sacrice oered was one of sweet savor. For
this there had to be taken of the cattle, from the herds or the
ocks, a male without blemish representing Christ without
sin. On its head the oerer laid his hand when brought
before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, that
it might be favorably received for him before Jehovah: not
taking from the oerer his iniquities but transferring to
him its sweet savor when wholly burnt on the altar, yet
making atonement for him. If of fowls, the oering was to
be of turtle doves or of young pigeons.
In chapter 2 we have a meat or rather a cake-oering
of ne our with oil poured on it and frankincense, which
like the burnt-sacrice was consumed on the altar, though
not wholly, for the priest took from it his handful of the
our and of the oil with all the frankincense. Christ alone
is unleavened. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost as well
as Son of Mary; Matt. 1; Luke 1.
God has accepted the oering that Christ presented to
Him, not only the sacrice for sin, which comes afterward
in chapter 4, etc., but also the sweet savor of His life which
was perfect.
Christ accepted the will of His Father in all its extent,
going down, so to speak, from humiliation to humiliation,
going on from obedience to obedience, always perfect but
perfect as He grew up a man. He advanced in wisdom and
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54
stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2); not that
His obedience was ever less than perfection, but that it
became ever more painful and dicult, till it went even
up to death- death of the cross. e world rejected Him
always more and more. ere was found in the world only
a sepulcher for Him.
Christ perfectly gloried His Father. He rendered
testimony to the holiness of His will by accepting it
altogether. We on the contrary seek but too often to exalt
ourselves even among our brethren; we want their esteem
and their respect. Christ sought but “one thing,” the glory
of His Father, and not His own. For it, and so for us, He
always went lower and lower down in this world. Wherefore
also God highly exalted Him. He is accepted fully and on
high; and if God is satised with Christ, we also ought
surely to be satised with Him. We can nd all repose for
our hearts in Christ. Are you tired of the world, weary of
the desert of sin, of strife? Well then look to Christ, where
only is rest, perfect rest for conscience and heart. He is the
sacrice and the oering of good savor.
Christ was perfectly holy, though He took part in
blood and esh, as the children had their common lot in
the same, and was tempted in all things (sin excepted) in
like manner with us. He fullled all righteousness; Matt.
3. He was Himself baptized, when the penitents ocked
to John confessing their sins. If He thus put Himself on
a level with the Baptist (“ thus it becometh us,” etc.), He
puts Himself also on a level with Peter (Matt. 17) when
the temple tribute was demanded, whilst displaying His
divine wisdom and power in making the most unruly and
inaccessible of creatures serve His good pleasure.
Christ a Sweet Savor to God for Us
55
But it was not allowed to burn cakes which contained
leaven or honey; Lev. 2:11. Oil was there, the Spirit of God;
and also the salt of His covenant; but leaven represented
the sin we have in us which gives its character to our bodies
as they are; and God could not accept it as being corrupt.
Neither could honey any more be oered, representing the
sweetness of nature which God gives to us by the way, in
which our hearts can nd some refreshment. So literally did
it happen to Jonathan when faint; 1 Sam. 14. All that man
has at his disposal is spoiled and cannot be oered to God;
nothing can but the life of Christ as the meat-oering,
and His death as the burnt-sacrice, to say nothing here of
His suering for our sins and trespasses. In His perfection
throughout God the Father nds His pleasure. Christ is all
and in all.
As a new creation in Christ we are called to manifest
what God is, not in miraculous power, but in doing and
suering all the will of the Father, owning and proclaiming
it as alone good in obedience. It is only Christ who has thus
absolutely gloried the Father. Even when He poured forth
His deepest expressions of grief such as He alone knew,
not a murmur escaped Him. Yea, when forsaken of His
God and acknowledging it, He adds, “ But thou continuest
holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel,” Psa. 22
Job on the other hand, though he had not his equal on the
earth, could only say, “ Let the day perish wherein I was
born, and the night in which it was said, ere is a man
child conceived … Wherefore is light given to him that
is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, which long for
death, and it cometh not,” etc. Such on the one hand was
a perfect and an upright man; not such on the other was
Christ. In all things He has the pre-eminence.
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56
62773
How Should Man Be Just
With God?
Job 9
IN Job we have an example of a strong and upright soul,
not understanding grace, with a great deal of self-will. He
knew he was not a hypocrite but was upright: God said so
of him, and Job knew it. But there was a great deal of self-
righteousness, self-complacency, and self-will. His piety
made him attribute what came upon him to God, and his
pride made him rebel against it. It is very interesting to
see the exercises of a soul in this state. Job said many right
things of God, and he knew God would not treat him as his
friends did. He wants to nd God. He knows God would
do him justice if he found Him. “ He is in one mind: who
can turn him back? “ But he could not nd God. Job had
not the secret opened as we have it; he was calling himself
righteous. e question raised was how righteousness was
to be found. Here is a soul in conict with Satan.
ere was life in Job, graciousness in his walk in life,
upright dealing, etc.; and God said to Satan, “ Hast thou
considered my servant Job? “ etc. It was not Satan spoke
rst to God, but God to Satan. God knew what He was
going to do, Satan did not. is history shows the resources
the soul has when righteousness is called for. is took place
before the law was given; if not before promises, before
the gospel came. How is a man to be just with God? was
Job’s exercise. His friends had no thought about that. ey
were going on the ground of this world being the sphere in
How Should Man Be Just With God?
57
which God’s righteousness in government is manifested;
but Job saw the wicked prospering, the righteous sad.
Some will reason, soundly enough too, and tell us the
other world will be the sphere where righteous acts will be
rewarded and the converse. But why, if worthy of a good
place in the next world, are they tormented here? But it is
not so, that the condition of men answers to their conduct.
ere is another thing besides righteousness, and that is
grace. Grace meets with sin, and yet it does not contradict
righteousness. Man knows nothing of this way.
Job had not really learned what his own righteousness
was worth, and he had not learned how God brings out
to a soul the consciousness of its state. Neither Job nor
his friends understood God’s way of grace-how God could
ride over the sin by meeting it in grace. Job’s friends could
philosophies, they could tell a quantity of truths; but what
comfort was there in that to a broken heart?
Now God in Christ is dealing with sinners: not men
acting for God, but God acting in grace, because of man’s
state. “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Christ
had not broken the sabbath, but God was working because
man was in sin and in misery.
is was not God dealing in law, nor promise, nor full
grace, as shown out in Christ; but here is a man taken up,
Satan accusing him, and God dealing with him. A master
hand was guiding all in Job’s case, though Satan was
permitted to sift him. e accuser goes up, and God says,
“ Hast thou considered my servant Job? “ Satan accuses.
Now he must go through another process to learn how a
man, a sinner, could be blessed with God Himself-could
know Him, could understand His thoughts and feelings.
Satan might touch his goods, but not himself. is seems
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58
but an every-day occurrence: loss of children, property, etc.
God carries it on, showing how He orders everything. Job
stands these losses; he blesses the name of the Lord; but his
heart was not reached.
Satan says, “Skin for skin,” etc. Well, says God, You may
go and do it. His wife too comes and says, “Curse God
and die.” His piety is proof against this also, his heart was
not reached; but God has to do His work thoroughly. Job
sits in the gate, his friends around him; he was a mark for
every one; it is too much for him. Now he curses the day
he was born. He was feeling human complacency before,
and had not been exercised in the presence of God. Many
can say good things of God who have never tasted what
they are themselves in the presence of God. What we want
is a righteousness that cannot be shaken in the presence of
God. We must be brought to this-not only be conscious of
grace, but have truth in the conscience.
Peter needed to learn what he was. ere is a practical
discovery in the presence of God of all the mischief that
is in the springs of the heart; we want the springs of the
heart broken up. How many are as discontented with God
as possible, not looking after holiness, but seeking to make
themselves comfortable! Until the will has been crushed
in the presence of the majesty of God, there cannot be a
right state before God. God does hate iniquity and love
righteousness; but what good is that for a ruined man?
e world goes on the principle of sin being in it. Deceit
is the will unbroken in the midst of the consciousness of
sin. ose justied God who received Christ. e Pharisees
complained because He ate with publicans and sinners; but
the publican can say, at is just what I want. e sinner
justies God in owning the sin and receiving the grace. A
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man never knows God until he gets to that point-” How
shall a man be just with God? “ Men are willing to contend
with Him; but what good is that? says God. God does love
righteousness; but what avails that to me? How many sins
to-day, yesterday, and so on, have I committed? It is no
good pleading with God on that ground.
en Job takes up another case. He cannot answer Him
in His majesty, and He does not see His love. “ If I justify
myself, my own mouth will condemn me.” How can I
justify myself? How many foolish words this week? If I am
unrighteous what can I do? He is vexed in his soul about
it. “ He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If a scourge
slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.” A
scourge comes, ind perhaps the best family falls a prey to
it. Shall I give up God then, and not trouble myself about
it? But he has to do with God, and he cannot help it. He
cannot escape His hand. He is not a man, as we are. Job
would have got away from God’s presence if he could, but
he could not; he was all wrong as to this, but he could not
get away from God.
“ Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch.” I cannot make
myself clean before God. Men pass through the world in
an astonishing way, thinking about their character, conduct,
and of getting honor from one another, etc.;-but what are
they in God’s sight? Whited sepulchers, fair without, but
full of dead men’s bones within. e more a man labors
to be good, the more he nds he is like the Ethiopian
who cannot change his skin: the evil is in his nature, and
he cannot get rid of it. When there is real integrity of
heart, there is struggle. e sense of integrity, without the
knowledge of righteousness, is the occasion of much misery
in the heart. Job says, “ Let not his fear terrify me.” He had
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this fear. God has taken away the fear in Christ, and there
is a daysman betwixt us, such as Job felt the need of.
e consequences of sin are not known yet. God is
saving now, not judging in righteousness. ere is the time
coming when He will rule in righteousness. He is saving
souls now for a better state hereafter, but then the “ sinner
dying a hundred years old will be accursed.” We cannot
judge of people’s state of soul by their circumstances; we
cannot say those on whom the tower of Siloam fell were
worse than all that dwelt at Jerusalem.
When I come to that point, to say (not the world is
wicked, but) I am wicked, I have the “daysman “ between
me and God. He is the One who has come to me in all
the wickedness of my heart, and has come to me because I
am so. Now I have, not only God working in me, sending
Satan to plow up the fallow ground, and to show to my
conscience what was there long before, but God doing a
work for me. He brings in a righteousness (His own) for
the sinner. He works a work for us.
e rst thing I nd then is that this my state has not
kept Him away from me, but it has brought Him to me.
at is grace, not righteousness. Hiding my sin from me
would not be mercy. Not letting me see things as God
sees them is not mercy. It is in meeting me just as I am,
and acting above the sin, that He has shown mercy. Christ
never alarms people who come to Him in their need. To
the hypocrite He speaks terror, but to the poor in spirit it
is “ fear not: I am all that you need.” You say, “I am such a
sinner.” Christ says, “at is just the reason I am come.” You
reply, “I have an awful will.” “at is the reason I am come”
says Christ: “I will break your will.” “Neither do I condemn
you,” said He to the woman accused by the Pharisees.
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I defy you to nd a case where Christ brought fear upon
a convicted conscience. He takes the fear away instead of
causing it. He comes in the poorest and the lowest way to
meet with those in need, and that they might not be afraid
of Him. Grace reigns-it has come in God’s own blessed
sovereignty.
How dierent are men’s thoughts of righteousness now
from God’s! We can let all go on quietly without trying to
set things right, knowing we have something better. We are
made the righteousness of God in Christ.
We have a daysman not only laying His hand on man
but on God. He is the mediator to reconcile. If a day is
assigned in a court of law, the daysman is the one who
appears on my behalf to undertake my cause. Not only has
Christ come to me in my sins, but He has come to answer
for me, taking up the whole cause. He has done it-settled
the whole thing as to my sins, and is gone back to appear
in the presence of God for me. He has appeared for God
amongst us, but now He is gone to appear for us in the
presence of God. I have given up all attempt to answer for
myself: He has taken it up. Has God accepted His answer
for me? Here faith comes in to accredit God when He says
He has accepted Him. e work that the daysman has done
is accepted. We know not only that there is a daysman, but
that the daysman has sat down, the work being nished, no
more remaining to be done (as to the sacrice). e Holy
Ghost is the witness of that: “their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more.”
Righteousness is there. Where? Before God. I am not
talking of the fruits of righteousness, but of righteousness
itself there. God’s mind is that He has accepted Christ.
God has given Him, and that is love. He has accepted His
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work, and that is righteousness. Now there is no fear. Grace
reigns through righteousness. I stand in the presence of
God by virtue of the perfect righteousness that has been
presented to God. Where is love to be seen? Very feebly
indeed amongst Christians, but love is not feeble in God. I
nd in Him perfect love. He has broken my heart because
it was a hard heart.
Here was all the country set in movement to get Job’s
heart right!-Sabeans, Chaldeans, etc. God has been working
in all this. I have the key to it all now through the gospel.
Self-will, pride, all must be broken; but God is perfect
love. He has taken away the sin by the cross, and He has
provided righteousness. en what have I to fear? ough
He will exercise our souls that we may know good and
evil, it is all love. I can glory in tribulation, knowing that it
worketh patience, experience, hope.
Now, beloved friends, are you resting on the daysman?
or are you saying, “ If I can make my hands a little cleaner,
my conscience a little quieter, I shall be all right? “ If you
were to stand in the presence of God, that would be all
spoiled; Job 9:31. What righteousness is that which is
spoiled in the presence of God?
It is the blood which has made atonement, and Christ
at the right hand of God is our righteousness.
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An Epistle of Christ
2 Corinthians 3
THE apostle, in the beginning of this chapter, tells us
what a true Christian is. He calls him an epistle of Christ.
He is a person upon whose heart God has written Christ,
as Moses wrote the law on tables of stone. is the apostle
opens out; but rst he states what Christians are in contrast
with the law. A Christian is a person on whom Christ is
engraved, not on tables of stone, but on the eshy tables of
the heart. If the heart is serious, one must see that many
have not this. We see many persons very amiable, and
others with a trying nature. But here it is not dierence
of mere natural character. is is not the point. Natural
amiability of character is not Christ graved on the heart. It
has nothing to do with being a Christian, which is a positive
real work of God. It is the Holy Ghost engraving Christ on
a man’s heart, putting Christ into his thoughts, his words,
and his ways, just as the law was put upon stones. Now a
person may get angry at this; but nevertheless Christ is the
object of a Christian’s life, and your own conscience must
judge if it is so with you. It is not that there is not failure.
A man who is seeking to make money does not always
succeed; but everybody knows what his object is. Just so
Christ is the object of a believer’s life.
God gave the law, not to make men righteous, but to
prove that there were none righteous. e law condemns
every one. It was the ministration of death. But after men
had broken God’s ‘law, He sent His Son. “ God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” “ When
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the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.”
God’s Son has been in the world. How comes it that He is
out of it? e world would not have Him. Men spit in His
face. is is what the world has done. Now I do not ask you
about duties; but I ask, is Christ engraven on your heart?
We cannot kill Him now; but our hearts can reject Him as
much as ever the Jews did. An honest man-I do not speak
of a Christian-will own that from morning to night Christ
is not in his heart.
Now what was the apostle doing? When a Christian
went from one place to another, it was customary to give
him a letter of commendation. But, says the apostle, Do
I want a letter? If one came to him to ask what he went
about doing, he would say, Look at these Corinthians (for
they were going on well then): they were his letter. How
so? Because they were Christ’s. Now I leave it with you as
to whether Christ is on your heart. I do not ask if you
love Him as you ought; for if you love Him at all, you will
not say that; He is too precious for that. But if you are
a Christian, you are sure there is not anything that you
would not give for Christ. You may not be able to govern
yourself, still Christ is the object of your heart..,
Notice now another thing: “ Where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty.” It is not liberty to be fearing and
trembling before God. “ Liberty “ is to be happy with Him.
When the Holy Ghost begins to show me my sins, I have
anything but liberty. I begin to be afraid of my sins; I do
not know whatever to do with them. False liberty is taken
away, and true liberty is not given. And this will always be
the case until the perfect love of God is seen. Now law will
never teach me that. Suppose I command my child to love
me, and threaten him if he does not; will that make him
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love me? Why, it will make him tremble. is is what the
law does. It cannot produce the love, it can but command.
What is the eect? I cannot stand in its presence. When
Moses had been up on the mount, his face shone. He had
been with God. And when he came down with the two
tables of the law, the children of Israel were afraid to come
near him. He had to put a veil on his face for the glory
of his countenance. After being in the presence of God’s
glory, they cannot bear to look on him. e only eect of
the revelation of the glory of God is to drive me away as
far as ever I can get from Him against whom I have sinned.
ere is not a pleasure in the world that the presence of
God would not blast in a moment. ere is not a happiness
of man, as man, that is not spoiled by the very mention of
the name of God. Now think what a terrible state that is
to be in.
e apostle calls this claim of God by the law the “
ministration of death and condemnation “; because it
claims righteousness, and does not produce the thing it
claims. Whenever a person is looking to his conduct for
what he ought to be, he is under the ministry of death and
condemnation. at is not the way to get Christ written on
the heart.
Before we turn to look at Christ as He is now, let us
look at what He was, God manifest in the esh. In what
state did He nd men when He came? He found them
“all under sin.” And what does Job say of himself, as being
in this condition? “ If I wash myself with snow-water, and
make my hands never so clean, yet thou shalt plunge me in
the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. Neither
is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand
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upon us both. Let him take his fear away, then would I
speak; but it is not so with me.”
Now what do I nd in Christ when He came? I nd “a
daysman”--the very thing that Job wanted. Was there fear
in Christ? Was any one afraid of Christ? If a sinner was
ever so burdened, he could go to Christ and thus to God.
Now here I nd that though my sins hindered me from
going to God, they could not hinder God from coming to
me. You will never nd a single case in which Christ did
not receive the sinner with open arms-never. Now that is
what you want. Christ did nu say, Get righteousness and
come up here, and I will have you. No; but He came down
here to meet us here. at is an entirely new thing. Christ
came in this way to win our hearts thus. And therefore they
reproached Him with receiving sinners, and eating with
them. It is quite true, He replied, but is not a father glad
to receive his lost son? Even so is it with My Father in
heaven; and therefore am I come to seek and to save that
which was lost. Now this is grace.
But there is righteousness too. When the father fell on
the neck of the prodigal, he was in his rags. e father could
not bring him into the house in his rags; it would dishonor
the house. So His blessed love goes on-and Jesus gives
Himself for the sins, which unt me for the Father’s house.
I see that the very Lord, against whom I have sinned, has
taken my sins and put them all away at the cross.
Now where do I see the glory of God? No longer on
the face of Moses-I could not look on it there. But now
I see it in the face of Jesus Christ. Ah! I say, that is the
One who died for my sins. He could not bring my sins
into the glory, and therefore He put them away. I have got
His word and His work for it, and the glory for it too;
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and therefore God is now ministering righteousness. Now
it is “ the ministration of righteousness.” e sins are not
passed over. He sweat great drops of blood for the sins. He
has really gone through everything that holiness required
on account of them, and now He is in the glory; so that
every ray of the glory I look at is the proof that my sins
are put away. When I see the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ, it is the very thing I like to look at; because
the Man whom I see in the glory is the One who bore all
my sins. Oh! I delight to look at Him. And this is the way
I get Christ graven on my heart by the Holy Ghost. “ We
all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to
glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It is the ministration of
righteousness, because the Holy Ghost comes and tells us
that there is a righteousness accomplished “ by one man’s
obedience.” It is the ministration of the Spirit, because
the Spirit is given on the foundation of the righteousness.
And now the man is at liberty, because his conscience is
perfectly purged. Here he will have trial and conict, it is
true; but as between himself and God he will never have
anything but perfect peace.
is is God’s way of graving Christ on the heart.
First He gives a man the consciousness of being entirely
condemned, showing him that his nature is enmity against
God; that the law he has broken; and that when Christ
came in grace, Him he did not love. And when He has
brought him to this in his conscience, then He shows
him that the God against whom he sinned has come and
wrought out a righteousness for him, and that this blessed
Man is now in glory.
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Now mark how the heart thus learns to trust God. What
love! when I was in my sins, God came and put them away.
My sins are the very thing that give the greatest proof of
His love. He has given Christ for them. Well may I trust
Him for everything else.
Let me now ask you, dear reader, if your condence is in
this God? Has your heart been brought to submit to this
righteousness, for you have none of your own? Oh, it is the
hardest thing for the heart to be broken down so as to be
willing to have righteousness by the obedience of another!
“ By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,”
Rom. 5:19. But if you have seen the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ you will desire to “ be found in him,
not having your own righteousness, which is of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness,
which is of God, by faith.”
IT is good for our souls to dwell on what it is to be an
epistle of Christ, though I am sure none of us can express
the greatness of the calling. Any gathering of the saints
is the epistle of Christ, “ to be read of men.” ey are His
letter of recommendation to the world. e world needs
to ascertain what Christ is from the lives of the saints;
although they might learn it, it is true, from the word. And
the great importance of this place of witness is brought
out by the tacit contrast with the law, “ written in tables of
stone.” Just as the ten commandments were the declaration
of the mind of God, under the dispensation of the law;
so now the church is the engraving of Christ, “ written,
not in tables of stone, but in eshy tables of the heart,” to
show forth the virtues of Him “ who hath called us out of
darkness into his marvelous light.”
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I would refer to one great thing in the life of Christ,
namely, that He never, in one simple act, word, or
movement of His heart, did a single thing to please
Himself. “ Christ pleased not himself “; and so “ we ought
not to please ourselves “; for “ none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself.” Jesus said, “ that the world
may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me
commandment, even so I do.” is was obedience owing
out of love, and manifesting love. Nothing ever moved
Him from that. e temptation to move from obedience to
a commandment might come in a very subtle form, with
all the ardor of aection; as when Peter said, in answer
to the Lord’s word about His suerings and death, “is
be far from thee, Lord.” It was aectionate in Peter; but
the Lord would not own it, for this would have been to
turn from the Father’s commandment. And what does He
answer? “ Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an oense
unto me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God,
but those that be of men.”
Another thing I would remark. Not only was Jesus
heavenly in His nature, but, as Son of man, He lived in
heaven-as He said, “ the Son of man which is in heaven.”
e whole spirit of His mind, the tone of all His feelings
and thoughts, was heavenly. So if there is any motive in my
heart which I could not have if I were in heaven, I am not
like Christ.
Again, all the grace that was in Him was brought out to
meet man’s sorrow and misery, and to bear on every earthly
circumstance. In this we often nd our failure. Even when
the motive is right, the manner is wanting in graciousness.
But it was never so with Christ. He was always seeking
to promote the glory of God; but never did He in manner,
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on any occasion, depart from the spirit of grace. We often
are not close enough in our communion with God to have
condence in Him. We become impatient, and resort to
means that are not of God, as Jacob did, who had not
condence enough in God to say, “ He will secure the
blessing.” Would not God have made Isaac give the right
answer? Surely He would. So we often fail by not waiting
upon God, who will bring the thing to pass most surely,
though we know not how. So it was in the sorrowful case
of Saul. He would not wait; yet Samuel came at the end
of seven days, and Saul lost the kingdom. And those who
really are the children of God always sustain loss when
they depart from condence in Him. Christ was always
trusting in God, and always waiting upon Him; and so He
was ever ready for every sorrow and misery; ever ready to
bring out the resources of God to meet every necessity. It is
touching to read Matt. 5. Every beatitude is a lively portrait
of Christ. Who so poor in spirit as Christ? Who mourned
as Christ? Who so meek? so hungering and thirsting after
righteousness? His whole life was hungering and thirsting
after righteousness. “ e life was the light of men.”
But, further, Jesus was the victorious man over all
opposition, even though it were death itself. ere is a great
dierence between good desires and power. e quickened
soul may say, “ O wretched man that I am “; but we cannot
be the full epistle of Christ, unless we exhibit power over all
obstacles -even over death. Death is given us. e believer,
living in the power of Christ’s life, has entire power over
death.
Again the Lord Jesus, amidst all His zeal, never failed
in love. Strictly speaking, there is no motive in love, though
there may be joy in its exercise; and this is our triumph. If
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I look for a motive, it is not love. erefore love enables
a man to meet all trials. Should one spit in his face, this
makes no dierence, for love abides; because it never
draws its strength from circumstances, but rides above all
circumstances. Nothing can be presented to a saint which
can separate him from the love of God. e love which he
enjoys triumphs over all circumstances. If we do not show
this heavenly-mindedness of the love which is of God,
doing nothing from any motive but obedience, we are not
a true epistle of Christ. I might be walking lowlily, but if I
did not show out Christ, I should be nothing. So Christ.
He gave no answer when God gave no word. And we, in
passing through the world, should stand still and wait if we
cannot see how we may so walk as to please God.
In the latter part of the chapter, the apostle tells us
how we may be acting as the epistles of Christ-ministers,
not of the letter, but of the spirit. e letter refers to the
requirements of God from man, which necessarily was a
ministration of death. But the gospel is the manifestation
of God, not from Sinai, requiring righteousness; but from
His own throne revealing the accomplishment of His
own righteousness, and sending a message concerning
it to draw our hearts to Himself. To those who submit
themselves to this righteousness, the Holy Ghost is given
on the foundation of the righteousness, and He is in them
a Spirit of power. So now we can use great plainness of
speech, because we are speaking of grace. We can tell men
that they are wicked, wretched, and helpless. We can speak
all things plainly, because we are not expecting anything
from them, but telling them of God’s grace to just such as
they are. We can speak plainly of God, for it is of the God
of all grace. Israel could not look at the reection of the
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glory in the face of Moses, poor though it was; but now
man can look plainly-wonderful to say-at the full glory of
God, because it is now in the face of Jesus. It is this very
glory that tells me of the putting away of my sin. I see the
glory of God, not dimly, but as of one who put Himself in
my place as a sinner, and who could not be in that glory if
He had not put away all my sins; for my sins are enough to
dim any glory. What a glorious thing, not only to see God
visiting my soul in grace, but that, so to speak, the glory has
taken the place of my sins! e transition from the cross
has left nothing between them! us we get righteousness
in our Head, and the Spirit goes with the message, so that
there is power, for “ where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty.”
e soul that submits to the righteousness of God
becomes the epistle of Christ, because he is looking at
Christ in the glory. is cannot be while only looking at
Him down here; but when the eye is xed on the Lord
Jesus in glory, we are changed into the same image. e
heart living in the glory counts all things else but dross
and dung in comparison. is is the real victory-when all
of this world surrounds me, to say, I do count them but
dross and dung. is is being like Christ. We soon learn
the weakness of the esh in this, but the faith that thus
looks to Christ is the true victory. e apostle said, “ I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” We
sometimes say this too lightly, for we have not proved it.
We may say a believer can do all things, but he could say,
I can do all things through Christ, for he had proved it by
deep experience and arduous conict.
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e Lord give us so to recognize the power there is in
Christ, as that we may heartily walk in the strength of it;
though it humble us in the dust.
THAT which alone can make us an “ epistle of Christ
“ is looking unto Jesus, or, as in verse 18, “ with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.” e ministry
of the Spirit is “ taking of the things of Christ and showing
them unto us.” ere is power as the consequence of the
Holy Ghost being here. Until Jesus was gloried, there
could not be power nor anything to reveal. It is called the
ministration of the Spirit. “ Ye shall be endued with power,”
etc.
It has struck me latterly in the last verse, we never attain
the glory while down here, yet are always looking at it as an
object, and “ changed into the same image,” but we are not
actually in any sense the same. Still we are daily growing
up into Him who is the Head-who is in the glory. Paul
says, “ I press towards the mark … if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection,” at the end rather than at the
beginning of his course; yet he had attained a great deal, if
you look at him as to the realization of power. Now, that
is what the individual Christian is called to, founded on
the ministration of righteousness: glory and righteousness
go together. It is not now merely that God forbears-this
He did before; but He declares His righteousness; it is a
righteousness now obtained, not a future thing. e law
required righteousness from man, but that is a dierent
thing from the administration of righteousness to man.
Now He, Christ, is giving it unto us. e law was called
the ministration of condemnation. e ministration of
righteousness is also called the ministration of the Spirit,
because the Spirit is here in virtue of accomplished
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righteousness in the Person of Christ, who is up there in
the glory. “ He that ministereth to you the Spirit. “ Since
redemption God ministers to each saint the Holy Spirit.
Righteousness is shown by God in two ways: rst, in
setting Christ at His own right hand; secondly, in not
letting the world see Him any more, whom it rejected
and cast out. e Spirit now convicts the world of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment: “of sin,” in rejecting
Christ; “ of righteousness,” because Christ is gone to the
Father; “ of judgment,” because the prince of this world is
judged. If I receive the demonstration, I partake of it, and
the demonstration of righteousness placed Christ on the
throne at the right hand of God. “ I go to my Father.” In
verse 7: “So that they could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance,” etc. ere was
no veil, but the state of Israel was such that they could not
bear a sight of the glory, “which glory was to be done away.”
So in verse 13, Moses put a veil over his face, that the
children of Israel might not look to the end of that which
was abolished; showing, I believe, the moral condition
of the people, for Moses had no veil when he went to
God, but they could not get beyond the outward thing.
e veil was over Moses’ face, and all was veiled to them,
so that they could not see to the end. He is here giving
the meaning of the act: they could not see to the end, but
stopped short in the things given. e veil is now not on
the things but on their heart, which is done away in Christ;
“nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall
be taken away.” In Christ everything is fully revealed in
the reality and truth of it, not in mere types and shadows.
ey could not see to the end; it is always because of the
hardness of their hearts, though the veil is at one time on
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the glory, and at another on their hearts. Moses put a veil
over his face, but it was God’s purpose being fullled. Now
we are not as Moses, but use great plainness of speech. It is
not now about the people, but about the ministration.
e Holy Ghost is come down here, because Christ is
in the glory; therefore we do not leave people in dimness
and darkness. We speak boldly; we tell you plainly you are “
accepted in the beloved,” righteous as He is righteous, and
the glory is your portion. We speak thus very boldly about
it; “ For we are not as many who corrupt the word of God,
but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ.” e dierence in the subject of ministration
gives this greater boldness. It is not a certain working
of the soul to get up to Christ; but when Christ is thus
really and truly revealed to the heart, it is inwrought by the
Spirit of God in the soul, and graved and written on the “
eshy tables of the heart.” e soul will be exercised upon
receiving this glory, not to be satised in knowing merely
as a fact there is this righteousness, but to have it wrought
in the heart. We should be not only thinking about Christ
sometimes, but wholly occupied with Christ Himself.
What a little compass it reduces a man into when Christ is
received in the heart! Paul says to the Corinthians, “ Ye are
our epistle written in our hearts.” He carried them about
with him, though they were leaving him and preferring
other teachers; but he appeals to them as a proof of his
ministry, and his commendation is seen and read in them
as his converts. erefore he is proved to be an apostle.
ere was the public testimony to Christ, and what evil
had there been permitted amongst them was corrected.
So he could say, Titus brings me an account of how you
received my rst letter, and he writes a second, now that
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he is happy about them, in which he speaks of the glory
of God who “ comforteth them that are cast down,” and
of faith and obedience, etc. Still he was jealous over them
with a godly jealousy, because of judaizing teachers.
e end of that which was to be abolished was Christ.
In Hebrews Christ is the starting-point of His house; if
they departed from that, they were not His house at all.
e law was only a shadow; the substance or body is Christ.
e Lord was the body, so to speak, of the spirit; and that is
what is meant, I take it, here, “ Now the Lord is that spirit.”
e spiritual meaning of all is the Lord. ey had neither
the image nor the reality; but the Holy Ghost gives the
meaning of those things in the power of a gloried Christ.
In verse 7, if they had seen to the end, they would have
seen Christ. “ If the ministration of death was glorious,”
etc. ere was glory in the establishment of the law, not
in the law itself, but going with it. “ For even that which
was made glorious “-which was introduced with glory-”
was not to remain “; but the glory in Christ is not merely
introduced; it is a reality which will remain forever. e law
was the shadow, Christ was the fullness. at shows what
the things He manifested were, “ those which remained.”
It looks at rst as if characteristically the things Paul
ministered were to remain, but it is the glory of Christ’s
Person remains. It is the gospel of the glory of Christ, who
is the image of God, that gives a distinct character to Paul’s
gospel-not merely the glorious gospel, but really the gospel
of the glory of Christ: the glory of God shines in His face.
Short of this, you cannot minister righteousness; you
may set forth all the attractiveness of Christ and draw
sinners, like the woman who loved the Lord, as a sinner
attracted by His grace, but had not found righteousness
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yet, till sent away in peace. “ y sins, which are many,
are forgiven thee.” e Holy Ghost tells us now of
righteousness because Christ is set down on the Father’s
throne; He declares God’s righteousness by and in “ Jesus
Christ the righteous.” As soon as you have unqualied
righteousness, you have a present heavenly character; you
are not merely attracted to Christ, but suering with Him
who is in the glory.
People are told sometimes, practically, they must nd
out what work the Spirit has done in them, instead of
having set forth the work of Christ as accomplished for
them. None went beyond the preaching of the cross for
many ages past, fearing to preach God’s righteousness, lest
it should lead to Antinomianism. But now we see it is the
ground of perfect righteousness we start upon; and that is
the very reason we desire to walk so as to please Christ.
In John 15 we are spoken of as being loved according
as we have loved Him, not as in grace, but by the Father.
e place righteousness is put in shows that the church’s
place is with God. e heavenly position is shown. God
receives us into His presence in Christ when Christ
is received. Having the Spirit, we “ wait for the hope of
righteousness.” What is that? Oh, it has set Christ at the
right hand of God, and in Him sets you there too. “ Set in
heavenly places “ is the church’s place properly. In Rom.
3:22 it is not the righteousness of a certain class of men
for God, but God’s righteousness for man who had none
of his own-” none righteous.” It is “ unto all,” as much for
the Gentiles as Jews, “ and upon all that believe “; though
presented to all, it is by imputation (made real by grace, and
not by accomplishment) on them only that believe. God
ministers righteousness, which we have none of our own
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(that is the gospel), because Christ is set down at the right
hand of God. But we should have been ignorant of the fact
if the Holy Ghost had not come down to tell us of it. e
church’s proper association is with Christ in the heavens.
And when in the glory, I shall only have my body put right,
for everything else I have now by the Spirit. e coming of
the Lord is to take us into the place, where we are in spirit
by faith already, to which we belong.
“ I have nished the work thou gavest me to do … Now
come I to thee.” We shall be to the praise of His glory
then, as we are to the praise of His grace now. In Ephesians
Christ’s coming is not even spoken of, because they were
seated in heavenly places; and therefore all that was spoken
to them was about the inheritance; the thing set before
us is the inheritance in heaven, the possession, not the
glory or translation. In Colossians it is “ the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven.” Why? Because they were not
holding the Head, but holding angel-worship and all sorts
of things. ey had slipped down from the full possession
of their place, and he is getting them back. “ If ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” In
Ephesians they were going on properly, and he could unfold
to them all. In Peter it is “ to an inheritance incorruptible,
undeled … reserved in heaven for you “-” ready to be
revealed.” Here they are seen as begotten again, walking
towards heaven, and therefore the word is “ as pilgrims and
strangers in the earth,” in virtue of the resurrection. If the
esh be not judged, one will not stand. e coming of the
Lord is the proper hope of the soul to be converted to; as in
essalonians, “ to wait for his Son from heaven.”
It is of the utmost importance that we should thoroughly
get hold of what the church is and its identication with
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the Lord Jesus. Its importance may be gathered from the
very many and various ways the enemy seeks to attack that
truth, and it is always liable to be let slip, for it is easily
lost. To have the one truth, that I am in and associated
with Christ, uppermost in my thoughts, is a most dicult
thing, and the easiest lost of any, because it is a thought,
of course, of the Spirit, and nature will always sink the
soul down into something in which it is to satisfy God.
I am to understand that the power working in my soul is
“ according to the working of his mighty power which he
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” And
it will not do if the soul has not taken up its position with
Christ. One need not speak of hypocrisy, but sincerity will
not do. I ought to crucify the world, and the heart should
settle down easy and happy. is puts Satan out. I do not
mean that there would be no conict with him, but we
must keep him outside. Satan always acts on the esh; he
has no power over the new man. If we are in the light, all
things are made manifest. What a wondrous thing to say
we are “ one spirit with the Lord! “ “ He that is joined to
the Lord is one spirit “; and what persons we should be if
abiding under the power of that one spirit with the Lord in
heaven! What great peace we should enjoy, now that nature
is duly judged! e knowledge of righteousness, without
the present power of the Holy Ghost, has led many into
Antinomianism. ey have turned to the esh to keep
down the esh; and it is impossible, if a man is so occupied
with himself, to keep him from self-importance. A danger
exists that, when some have seen the truth of the church
being in heavenly places, and there has been the labor and
working of the soul itself, they may get a great many ideas
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of the blessedness of the glory, without having got peace,
because they have not got their souls on the ground of
righteousness, by which alone we are enabled to crucify
the esh. If, all of a sudden, the question were seriously
put, Are you safe and ready to be taken? they would be all
aback; the ground of the heart is not so thoroughly plowed
up as that they know they are made the righteousness of
God in Him. Job said, “ I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor
myself,” etc. Was that the rst time Job had seen God?
Yes, in that way. God will have nothing but good in His
presence, and the soul nds itself nothing but evil, and says,
“ then I cannot have it.” But it is His grace that is working.
e soul, brought into the presence of God in that way,
rests in His perfect grace, and has done with itself; then all
the bright place into which it is brought is enjoyed; and we
eat the corn of the land.
Moses saw the promised land from Pisgah, but did
not go into it; to see it from outside is a dierent thing
from entering it. It is easier than as Joshua who went in by
conict; Moses on the contrary did not strike a blow. You
know now what it is to sit in heavenly places, and what it is
to enjoy “ the things that remain.”
1
It is true, there is conict;
but you do get into possession. It is wonderfully connected
with the whole armor of God, always the defensive rst.
e person is rst thoroughly preserved spiritually, before a
sword is put into his hand. Temptation would pull us down
from the place God has set us in: but when it is conict, it
is ghting as in danger of being turned out. A person not
spiritual cannot tell what it is to be ghting with wicked
spirits in heavenly places. He would say, all his battles
1 2 Cor. 3:11
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were on the earth, neither does he know the joy of sitting
above. e dierence between the Red Sea and Jordan is
that the Red Sea is Christ’s dying and rising again for us
eectually; in Jordan, it is our death and resurrection with
Him. erefore the moment they had passed the Jordan,
they were all circumcised. e rst thing in the knowledge
of the church’s place in heaven is the destruction of the sins
of the esh by the circumcision of Christ (where it is real).
We want to have things real with God and not ideas. We
cannot go on without faith.
e coming of Christ is such a dierent thing to the
soul when our true position is understood. Instead of my
desiring it that I may get rid of myself and what I may be
doing on the earth, it will be that I may enjoy Him and
be with Him in heaven. e aections may be attached to
Christ; but unless righteousness is known, there cannot be
the quiet waiting for Christ. I dare not look for Him until
I know the righteousness of God in Christ. If I have not
liberty, I may be wishing for Christ to give me liberty: but
when the soul has liberty, it is the peaceful enjoyment of
the soul with Him and happy aections! Nothing more
easily slips from our souls, even when there is a true desire
for it, than the coming of Christ. “ Be not conformed to
this world.”
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62783
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Psalm 16
I NEED hardly say that there are many aspects under
which we may consider the Lord Jesus. ere was His
glory with the Father before the world was. He is Son
of man; He is High Priest of His people. He was the
manifestation of truth, and everything is made manifest by
the truth. ere is no real truth anywhere but in Christ. If
I knew what God is, He is not known really but in Christ.
If I want to know what man is in perfection, I see him in
Christ. If I want to know what sin is, “ He was made sin “;
I see it there, the power of death? I see it in Him. Love? It
is in Him I seek it. Hatred? True, it was not in Him, but
it was made manifest by Him. All is known really through
Him. “ Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” e truth
shall make you, free indeed; then, a little lower down in the
context, the “ Son all make you free.”
We have seen Christ as the last Adam, and the power
of redemption, the real deliverance He has wrought out
for us. He is “ the second man, out of heaven.” “ As is the
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” And again
we have seen, from Psa. 22, where Christ has brought us.
Having come out of death, raised by the glory of the Father,
He praises in the midst of the congregation, and gives us
to chant the same song with Him, we being brought into
the condition of the last Adam before God, although we
have the treasure now in “ earthen vessels.” Death and
resurrection are in Psa. 22
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ere are two other characters regarding Christ very
precious, because drawing out the aections until by-and-
by we shall see Him. He has not only delivering power,
whether by life or death, but He is an object, in glory as in
humiliation; and there is a third thing: He is a Priest for us,
and this character in which He is to us is connected with
these new aections, not as an object, but connected with
aections.
Christ said, “ I go to my Father and your Father,” John
20. “In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and
ye in me, and I in you,” John 14. e congregation must not
jar with His praise, and are therefore placed in the same
position with Him before “ My Father and your Father.”
Our place before God now is in Him, the Christ in glory.
Such is our place, and we are predestinated to bear the
image of the heavenly. is gives us power of hope; we are
excited by it to run the race; it is not so much dependence
marks it (although we must always be in dependence or
fall), but the energy and joy of hope. We wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. We do not hope for righteousness,
we have it, or rather we are it. Christ is the righteousness;
He has entered into the glory, and this is the consequence of
the righteousness. “ We wait for the hope of righteousness
“; we wait for the glory. e Spirit now takes of the things
of Christ, and shows them unto us down here-then in
glory. e law was a ministration of condemnation, the
Spirit is the ministry of righteousness. When Christ was
gloried, He sent the Holy Ghost down to seal our persons
and make us partakers of the glory to come; the eect of
this is, that beholding Him we are changed into the same
image from glory to glory. is is practical realization, and
it becomes fruitful in us. Seeing Christ gloried, by the
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Spirit, has this eect on our hearts; we are conformed to
Him. It is through looking at Christ in glory.
ere is another thing of great moment, namely, our
looking at Christ as Advocate. “ When Jesus knew that his
hour was come … he took a towel and girded himself.” He
became, in a certain sense, their servant. Whenever we see
Him taking a place down here serving, the aections are
drawn out in a dierent way from that which excites the
energy of hope.
God put before Christ an object of hope, “ who, for the
joy that was set before him, endured,” etc. So He gives us an
object to encourage us and brighten our hope all through
the way. We are not counting ourselves to have already
attained, “ but press on towards the mark.” But when we
think of ourselves in weakness and inrmity, there is the
sense of dependence on One either to restore or to keep
us going on. In this there is daily much exercise to be kept
walking before Him (not touching what we are in Christ),
and that is very fruitful; 1 John 1:7.
Am I under law? No! “ We have an advocate with the
Father,” 1 John 2:1, 2. Have I to run to Him to be forgiven?
No! We run away from Him when we have sinned. He
restores us as Peter. Christ looks at him directly he has
committed the fault and brings him back. So now He
brings our souls back by the Spirit. He is an Advocate, the
One who carries on our aairs before God. e same word
is also used of the Holy Ghost who carries on our aairs
down here. When we fail, or there is the need that we
should fail because of self-condence, it is Christ’s work
on high to bring us back to communion with the Father
and the Son. I do not speak of our going to Him to do it,
but I am dependent on Him to do it. “ To humble thee,
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to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart,” Deut.
8:2. is God does to make us discern between good and
evil, which it is needful for us to discern through the fall.
He sets us in righteousness rst, and then carries us on by
His priesthood, maintaining us in the whole scene of our
dependence. Christ is not so much an object in all this as
an agent.
In this psalm (16) He is more the object before the
soul- our food. Christ becomes properly the food of our
souls, not Christ in glory, but here in humiliation. “ I am
the true bread that came down from heaven “; it does not
say the bread that went up to heaven. en eating His esh
is needed for life. We must know Him as dead. We cannot
feed on Him as the living gloried Christ, but as the dead
Christ. What draws out our aections to Christ is what He
was down here. He was going through all the diculties
here-made His passage through everything about which
He has to intercede for us.
God had His food in the oering, but there was the
meat-oering and part of the peace-oering which the
priests ate. He says, “ erefore doth my Father love me,
because I lay down my life that I may take it again. en
we nd the Father has given us the very object He delights
in for the object of our aection. e Father could not be
silent, when Christ was here. “ is is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.” e perfection of the object is
the reason of the imperfectness of our apprehension of it;
but that is the way God brings our aections into tune
with Himself. He could say at the beginning, because of
His intrinsic perfectness, and at the end because of His
developed and displayed perfectness, “ is is my beloved
Son.” en what do we say? In weakness and poverty, yet
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surely each can say with unhesitating heart, I know He
is perfect. We cannot reach to His perfectness, but we do
feel our hearts, poor and feeble as they are, responding.
e Father has shown us something of His perfectness.
e Father is communicating of His delight. “ is is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” not in whom you
ought to be well pleased (which is true too); but His way is
to communicate to them of His own love to Christ. It is a
wonderful thing that the Father should tell of His aection
for Christ, and that when He was here amongst us, the Son
of man on earth amongst sinful men.
A person need not know that he is righteous in Christ,
before he can be attracted by this communication with
Him. With the woman in the Pharisee’s house it was what
was revealed in Christ to her made her love much, not
what she got from Him. e blessedness of what was in
Christ had so attracted her and absorbed her mind that
she found her way into the house, though not invited there.
She was taken up with Him; she wept, but had nothing
to say. Jesus was there. He commanded all her thoughts,
her tears, her silence, her anointing of His feet-all noticed
by Him, and all before she knew what He had done for
her. Attracted there by what she saw in Him, she got the
answer as regards peace of conscience from Himself.
Now a person may be attracted by grace seen in Christ,
but the eect of that will be conviction of sin, and, if
forgiveness is not known, the presence of Christ to the soul
becomes quite the opposite of God’s righteousness, and
holiness will take the form of a law. Many rest satised with
being only thus attracted for a season, but then they can slip
back into any vanity, because righteousness is not known to
the conscience. Righteousness sets us in conscience before
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God as Christ is- in the light. If I have not peace, I cannot
have fellowship with another Christian. My sins are all my
thought, if my conscience is awake. “ If we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship.” It does not
say, if we walk according to the light; but the case stated is
being in the light. e Christian state is being in the light,
and we have fellowship with one another and cleanness in
His sight. ere is no communion in sin, but wretchedness
and misery. When we are there (in the light, as He is) we
can feed on Him.
ere is no real feeding on Christ as bread come down
from heaven, when not feeding on His esh and drinking
His blood. e power of death must be known before the
heart can be given to be occupied with Him. e Lord
gives Himself to us, and He expects us to be occupied
with this aection towards Him. “ If ye loved me, ye would
rejoice, because I go to the Father.” What a place! e Lord
comes down here so low and takes such a place amongst
men, that He reckons on their aection being such as to
rejoice in His joy at going away, though it was for them to
be left without Him. is aection that He looks for now
cannot be known, unless He is known as salvation.
“ In thee do I put my trust.” is is quoted in Heb. 2 to
prove His humanity. ere are two things make perfection
in a man, dependence and obedience. ey were in Christ,
the contrast to what was in Adam when he sinned.
Christ was ever the dependent and the obedient one.
Independence is sin: there is the principle of sin in it. All
thought of freedom from the will of another, where one’s
own will is at work, is a terrible thing. With Christ there
was no will but His Father’s. is was not any check but
motive. It is most blessed for us to see Christ taking this
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place of dependence. It is natural to us to say, I must do
something. But no! you should not eat or drink unless He
tells you. Whatever you do, do all in the name of the Lord:
yet it is all liberty.
So in family life, no person who has his father in his
aections at all times would do anything without a desire to
please him. Love makes it perfectly indierent to the child
what is to be done. It is done to please the father. Would
not a child like even in eating and drinking to please his
father? It is not the thing that is of consequence, but the
relationship and aection to him. Satan tempted Christ to
make the stones bread, when He was hungry, and He could
have done so. He might have had twelve legions of angels,
but He had taken the place of dependence and waits.
His heart could be moved with compassion; not only
could He show His power in working miracles. And it is
in seeing the place of this dependent obedient One down
here that the heart gets food. What traits are seen in Him!
Asleep on the pillow, He can rise to still His disciples’ fear.
When sitting wearied on the well, He could converse with
the poor woman who came there in need.
He was able in love to go through all; He was thoroughly
man-able to touch others, being untouched by evil Himself.
e fact of being untaintable made Him go forth in love
dispensing blessing to all. “ O my soul, thou hast said unto
Jehovah, thou art my Lord,” v. 2. Now I take the place of
a servant. ou art my Master. To the young man in the
gospels He said, “ Why callest thou me good? none is good
but One, that is God.” I am my Master’s; I am taking the
place of dependence, leaning on ee, looking to ee.
en comes fellowship.
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Verse 3. “ My goodness extendeth not to thee; to
the saints that are in the earth, the excellent,” etc. No
matter how feeble, how poor, how ignorant, they are “the
excellent.” It is not what they had, but what they were. He
has taken the place, going before the sheep, nding out
all the diculties because He leads, and meeting all the
dangers in the path before them. ere is not a step of the
path of life that He has not trod. He has shown the path of
divine life up to blessing. “ In whom is all my delight.” All
His aection owed out to them. He takes delight in them,
not necessarily in their state. ere was enough in Him,
and He did draw out the aection of His Father, as a man
down here (of course, as the Son also) in this path of life.
“ ou wilt show me the path of life.” How dependent for
everything! He does not say, I will rise up, but “ ou wilt
show me.” He passes through death in dependence on His
Father (there was the blessed perfectness of a man with
God); and, at the close of His career, “ knowing that the
Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was
come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper,”
John 13. He could go back unsullied to the throne of God,
and take man back with Him into the glory, out of which
He came. ere is manhood now in the presence of God.
In Matt. 3 is John’s baptism. ey came to Him
confessing their sins: “ fruits meet for repentance “ were
needed. e beginning of all excellence is to confess we
have none. “ Fruit “ was confessing they had brought forth
none. e instant the Spirit of God is working, Jesus goes
to be baptized with them; not of course having any sin to
confess, but doing His Father’s will. He takes His place
with them; He had come for that; and the consequence is,
that He takes His place after to praise in the midst of the
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congregation. He must be alone in death, but no sooner is
He risen than He must have them with Him; He then will
be in company.
Verses 4-8. “ I have set Jehovah always before me “: still
dependence-perfection: “ because thou art on my right
hand, I shall not be moved.” “ ou wilt show me the path
of life.” It is most blessed to hear Christ say this. It is the
path of death in verse to; how did He nd that of life?
Adam found the path of death in his fall and his self-will,
but back from it never. e tree of life was never to be
touched in the garden of Eden; he had taken the other
path. us we see there are two trees all through the world-
that of responsibility, and the gift of God which is life. All
man does ends in death (but it is too late to speak of that);
he is dead in trespasses and sins; but now Christ came,
bringing life into a world that drove Him away, where
Satan the prince of it was, and everything was bearing the
stamp of its prince.
In this place of death then He makes out a path for us.
He is shown by His Father and God the “ path of life.”
He was the life, but then the path of life had to be tracked
through this place of death, where no one thing testies
of God-one wide waste, where there is no way. Christ
has tracked the path Himself: it is for the Christian I am
speaking now. e gospel shows He gives it to those who
believe. He had to make out the path of life through a
world of sin and wretchedness, in obedience, up to God. It
must be through death for us, because we are sinners. Now
He says to us, If any man serve Me, let him follow Me. We
must take up the cross. e cross to Him was atonement-
that was the path. As He came for us, it must be by the
cross. He has gone through it perfectly and absolutely.
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What is the consequence? e end is, “ In thy presence is
fullness of joy.” He would rather die than disobey.
Notice well that death is gone to us-the end is gained;
but we have to tread this very same path that He trod up to
His presence, where there is “fullness of joy.” Christ is the
blessed Object for our aections. Alas! how little aection
we bear Him. In the wide waste of sin, “a dry and thirsty
land where no water is,” He could say, “ y favor is better
than life.” Why all this? It was for His own glory and His
Father’s doubtless, but it was for these “excellent of the
earth.” “In my Father’s house are many mansions … I will
come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am,
there ye may be also.”
We have to follow Him. It is not the quantity we do, but
the measure of presenting Christ that is the value of our
service, in a world where there is nothing of God. “All that
is in the world … is not of the Father.” In that world the
Son of the Father has marked out this path of life up to the
Father. “ Let my sentence come forth from thy presence “in
the controversy with man in this path; then in the end “ I
shall behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satised
when I awake up in thy likeness,” Psa. 17 Here we get the
two parts of the blessedness for us-with Christ, and like
Him, in the Father’s presence. If we were constantly before
Christ, with the consciousness of not being like Him, it
would be constant distress. Now we are unlike alas! but” in
thy presence is fullness of joy.” With Him and like Him we
shall enjoy the light of the Father’s countenance. In Rev.
4, elders are rst seen sitting in peace, then prostrate in
worship.
In the Psalms we get Christ walking with the Jewish
remnant-Christ rst humbled, and gloried in the end;
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His own experiences. Christ is the object of our study
when we have righteousness in Him. When brought into
blessing, we can study Him who brought us there. It is this
searches the thoughts, aections, motives in the path; then
we go through the death in taking up His cross; then in the
end we are to be like Him. e Lord give us to know the
blessedness of being identied with Him, following in the
path He has tracked out for us.
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Psalm 17
THIS and Psa. 16 give us two great principles of divine
life- trust and conscious righteousness. We nd them
running all through the Psalms, and any godly person’s life
as well as that of the Jew. But it is worthy of remark that
it does not give the foundation fully on which we stand;
according to the New Testament our position is dierent.
You do not nd in it the foundation of God’s righteousness
at this time. Souls in the condition of having divine life, but
not knowing their standing in divine righteousness, nd
the suitability of the Psalms to their experience. Psa. 16 is
the rst that brings in Christ’s own experience: for the rst
time here He takes His place in humiliation amongst them.
Psa. 2 and 8 are prophetic of Him as King and as Son of
man. In Psa. 16 He is taking His own place amongst these
excellent of the earth. e rst characteristic of the divine
life is Christ putting His trust in Jehovah; as a man He
does it. Hence in Luke, where we see Him more as a man,
we see Him praying, the true expression of dependence. “
Preserve me, O God,” etc.; there is the principle of trust.
en another principle of divine life is the consciousness
of integrity. In Peter there was the same when he said, “
Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love
thee.” ere may be both these things-trust in God and
consciousness of integrity-without peace with God.
Job said, “ ough he slay me, yet will I trust him “; and
he pleaded his own righteousness against God-” Till I
die, I will not remove mine integrity from me.” He had
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the consciousness of sin and the sense of righteousness,
integrity in himself, at the same time. e soul cannot be
at peace in this state. Job was entirely wrong in making
a righteousness of his integrity; his friends thought him
a hypocrite, but he had the distinct consciousness of not
being one. e second principle you have in Psa. 17 God
stays up the souls that are trusting in Him until they see
Christ. Having got a promise they trust, but cannot say,
I have the righteousness of God. Christ having taken up
their condition and borne it, they have the consciousness
of integrity through Him, and it is the stay of their souls,
but not peace.
What a stay it is to nd one’s feelings expressed in
Scripture!
Should not I cry out of the depths? You say, I nd it
in Scripture, “ Out of the depths have I cried unto thee.”
e word of God gives expression to certain thoughts and
feelings; they are in the word. A person taking up Psa. 88,
expressing entire darkness under the curse of the law, may
say, If one saint has been in that state, another may be, and
so I may be a saint after all, and get comfort in that way by
the sanction of the word. ere is not peace in this, but it is
a prop and stay to the soul.
is applies to the remnant surrounded by their enemies,
as we see here; Psa. 17 We have spiritual enemies. Here is
the reality of enemies pressing round Christ. ousands
of hearts will be found trusting in God, come what will,
and have the consciousness of integrity, Christ having
put Himself in the very place; and they will nd every
imperfectly formed feeling has been perfectly expressed by
Him. In the perfect unconsciousness of sin (2 Cor. 5:21),
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He has come into all the trial and given expression to it.
He has borne the sin too.
ere is another thing in the Psalms-mercy always going
before righteousness; and they never meet till Christ appears
at the end to the remnant. I cannot say righteousness and
peace have kissed each other until I know the perfectness
of redemption. I may get hope, but I cannot have peace
until I get righteousness. It may be said, “ Righteousness
and peace have kissed,” etc., when Christ comes again (this
for the Jew). A Jew under law would put righteousness
before mercy; this is the law, and Israel never stood on that
ground. ey had made the golden calf before the law was
given to them. en God retires into His own sovereignty,
and, to spare any, mercy comes in. It was the resource of
God when wickedness came in. ey were going about
to establish their own righteousness and would not have
Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness; but
when they come back, it will be on the ground of mercy
and hope. How many Christians are on this ground instead
of in the certainty of possessing righteousness! It is mercy
and hope, instead of righteousness the ground of hope.
ey think of the throne of mercy, and promises coming
out to help them, not being founded on righteousness. Of
course they could not be saved without it; but the state of
their souls is that they have not got into it.
We are not like those who refuse to believe till they
have seen Him; we have the end of our faith now, even
the salvation of our souls. We know that righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. Christ is gone into the holy
place, and the Holy Ghost has come out, to us the proof of
it, and we are certain of the reception of Christ within and
of the accomplishment of divine righteousness. “ By the
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deeds of the law shall no esh be justied in his sight,” etc.
(Rom. 3:20.) “ But,” it is said, “ in Jehovah shall all the seed
of Israel be justied and shall glory.” It is not shall’ to us, but
“ being justied freely by his grace, through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus.” God had been forbearing in
mercy with the Old Testament saints, because He knew
what He was going to bring in. Now it is declared-it was
not declared then. “ Not to themselves, but to us they did
minister the things which are now reported unto you by
the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven “-” to declare at
this time his righteousness “-” being fully persuaded that
what he had spoken he was able to perform.”
I do not simply believe that God is able, but that He
has raised up His Son from the dead. One may trust He
will help, but not be conscious of being helped yet; this was
the patriarch’s portion. But I do not expect Him to do it,
but know that He has done it. It is “ the ministration of
righteousness.” I am not merely hoping in His mercy to
do something for me to stay me up; but, besides this trust
and consciousness of integrity in the heart, there is the
knowledge of accomplished righteousness: righteousness
is declared. ey could not judge sin in the same way when
they had not righteousness as a settled question, which
it now is forever. e Spirit of God now demonstrates
righteousness to the world by setting Christ at God’s right
hand. Christ said, “ I have gloried thee on the earth; I
have nished the work which thou gavest me to do “; and
God says to Him, “ Sit thou on my right hand until I
make thy foes thy footstool.” And, as regards the believer,
righteousness is on the right hand of God for him. e
aections ought to be more lively, now there is the certainty
of accomplished righteousness, than when there was only
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the hope. e Spirit of adoption is given us: we can cry “
Abba, Father.”
But, note, there is another sense connected with
righteousness here-mercy going before righteousness, but
righteousness appealed to on the ground of promises: the
soul in the lowest depth of feeling; Psa. 42 “ Deep calleth
unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts “; “ Out of the
depths have I cried,” etc.; “ ou hast laid me in the lowest
pit, in darkness, in the deeps,” is in quite a natural kind
of experience. ere is either the sense of hope in His
mercy, or consciousness of sins: when thinking of the
mercy, trusting in God; when under the sense of sin, down
in the depths. is is not having the sense of everlasting
righteousness brought in. All these exercises of soul being
expressed give warrant, as it were, to these experiences of
heart. It will give comfort, when down in the depths, to
know that One has gone down into the depths for him;
the soul will nd Christ has traced all the way for him.
e Spirit of God in Him, going through all these things
for us, shows that not one place, from the dust of death to
the highest place in glory, but He has been in for us, sins
and all having been gone under. e feeblest Christian now
knows more than the apostles could when Christ was on
earth. Should we be surprised at His speaking of the cross
and His rising again?, e Holy Ghost has shown it to
us. We feed upon that which frightened them-” Except ye
eat my esh and drink my blood,” etc. What frightened
them was a dead Christ; they ed from it when they saw
it in the distance. When once founded on righteousness,
it is dierent. How sad to see a saint crouching on the
other side of divine righteousness, instead of having on the
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“ helmet of salvation,” having communion with Him in the
ecacy of His death!
ere is another thing to mark in these two Psalms: the
character of hope owing through them, now we tread in
this path of life. What was the trust Christ had? He trusted
in the goodness, in the infallible love of God. He delighted
in communion with His Father; it was the spring of His
joy. With us it is the same thing, though mixed up with all
sorts of things. What did He delight in? In God Himself.
en as to righteousness, what was that? (See end of Psa.
17) In Psa. 16, where we see Him trusting in God’s love,
what is the consequence? Reward in glory? Not a bit; but,
“ In thy presence is fullness of joy; and at thy right hand,”
etc. In Psa. 17, glory is looked for as the crown for a faithful
walk. “ I shall be satised when I awake up in thy likeness.”
Christ looked to return to the glory He had left, from
the path of humiliation down here: the reward for it would
be glory as a crown. is applies to us: when we see Him,
we shall be like Him. e highest and most blessed thing is
to be with Him in the Father’s house; this will be innite,
unspeakable joy; but there will also be the crowning
with glory and honor. Paul speaks of this: “ e crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will
give me in that day, and not to me only, but also to all them
that love his appearing.” But his brightest hope was to win
Christ. As the reward of walking with Him in communion,
there will be joy in His presence; as the reward for faithful
walk, it will be the place in glory.
He will come to set everything to rights in power; “
judgment will return to righteousness, and all the meek of
the earth shall,” etc. at has never been known yet. When
Christ comes in power, judgment and righteousness will
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go together. Power will be given to the Judge, who will
act in righteousness. Is that all I am looking for? No; I am
going up to meet the Lord in the air; the hope is founded
on righteousness of course, but I am not looking to be
justied. What the church gets in the rapture is (as Christ
was raised up by the “ glory of the Father,” and so taken up
into His presence), we shall have the blessed joy of being
with Him forever; 1 ess. 4. No getting righteousness is
there; the best thing is looking out for Himself--to see Him
as He is--to be ever with the Lord. When responsibility is
spoken of, it is always connected with the appearing; there
is the crown, the principle of integrity and faithfulness
owned (Psa. 17), connected with the life down here. When
speaking of going to be with Christ-the rapture, all go
together to enjoy the grace and presence of Him who has
done it all. It is very important to lay hold by faith of the
truth of the rapture to Christ of the church of God.
Receiving crowns diering each from each is one thing;
but all going together is another thing, all alike being
associated in His own blessedness, as He said, “ I go to
prepare a place for you,” etc.
e exercise of soul after divine righteousness is very
dierent from these things before one stands in the divine
righteousness. One who has this does not speak of crying
out of the “ depths.” ere is an immense change. We
have the Spirit of adoption. If I am going through all the
diculties and trials of the world, it is as a child I am going
through them. My feelings and aections ow from the
certainty of relationship. “ I have declared thy name, and
will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me
may be in them and I in them.” What was Christ’s place
on earth? Was He uncertain as to His Father’s love? Never;
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but, on the cross, bearing our sin under the hiding of God’s
face. ere was in Him perfect obedience, but as a Son.
If we are led by the Spirit, we have liberty, “ not bondage
again to fear.” Have you liberty? If I have the consciousness
of Christ having been in the depths for me, I am out of
them, and am no more to be in them; consequently I am
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. e cross behind
me, having come by that to God, I look by the Holy Ghost
at the cross and see my sins put away there.
Faith is my thinking God’s thoughts instead of my own.
God says, “ eir sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more “; I think so too. God says, “ children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus “; I think so too. God says, we
stand in favor; I think so too. I do not know how God could
prove His favor more than by sending His Son. He says, an
“ heir of glory,” “ joint-heir with Christ.” I have everything
Christ has, as a child with my Father. Now comes conict;
but I have the experience of a free man with God. One
dead, quickened, and raised up together with Christ is the
experience of a Christian, into all which he enters by virtue
of divine righteousness in Christ. In the “ fullness of time “
He came. ey were servants before He came; but now we
are sons, and the Spirit of God is in us the Spirit of
adoption. is is my place. I do not always act rightly in it:
the Holy Ghost reproves and humbles me; but that is my
place.
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e Soul in Adversity
Considered
Psalm 31
THE special subject of all the Psalms is connected
with a remnant of Israel, or with such of the Jews as have
their hearts touched by the Spirit of God, and look out
for deliverance from the circumstances in which they
are placed. In some of them the interest which God had
in them is then taken up, though prophetically, in great
detail; and the Lord Jesus is treated of as passing through
circumstances of great trial on their account. It is not but
that there are many things we may delight in, and godly
souls have found great comfort in all ages in the Psalms, and
rightly so. Still it is well to understand what the purpose
and intention of the Holy Ghost is in them.
In Psa. 1 (which, with the second, is a sort of preface
to the book), it is the distinction between the godly and
ungodly man. e godly are called the righteous, and the
ungodly are always called enemies. at the Lord should
not spare any wicked transgressors is not the grace of the
gospel. ere are many passages where there is the call for
judgment, because there must be the destruction of the
enemy to allow of the deliverance of the Jewish remnant
who seek rest on the earth. We could not consistently use
this language, just as it is in itself, and say, “ spare not
any transgressor.” Having received grace we cry, “ Spare
them, pity them, save them, O Lord.” But judgment will
be executed another day-when the church is out of, and
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the Jews are in, the scene. If they have taken the place
of adversary against the Lord, then it must be judgment.
When the patience of God has been fully exercised, and
the continuance of mercy would only be to sanction and
perpetuate iniquity in the earth, “ the master will rise up
and shut to the door.” en will be a time, not of grace as
now, but of judgment. And then it will be seasonable. e
Holy Spirit will warrant their looking for the deliverance
which will cut o the enemies. e distinction in Psa. 1, and
so throughout the whole book, is between the righteous
and the wicked. “ Blessed is the man that walketh not in
the counsel of the ungodly,” etc. “ e ungodly are not so,”
etc. “ erefore the ungodly shall not stand,” etc.
In Psa. 2 the heathen are raging, the kings or rulers of
the earth set themselves against Jehovah and His Christ.
But God asserts and will enforce the rights of His Son on
earth. Wherever the Spirit of God is working, there is the
cry of the Spirit in the soul which must meet an answer.
Now is a day of unmingled grace; but here the Spirit of
Christ speaks of them as enemies, and is looking forward,
as the only remedy, to their being cut o in judgment, unless
they bow. Christ Himself is interested in this remnant,
and is brought in as bearing their burdens. “ ey parted
my garments among them “ is a direct prophecy about
the Lord. He joins Himself with their sighs. He has been
with them for their sins, and He will deliver them from
their foes. e tone and character of this book gives us the
expectant blessings to Israel in letter: the spirit of it we
take to our soul’s comfort. I nd in my soul certain anxiety
and distress-no doubt very imperfectly expressed-but it is
more or less the same in us as in the remnant; I look up
to the Lord, but it may be my own fault brought me into
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the trouble, and I do not know what to say: then the Spirit
gives me in the Psalms an inspired feeling of what is right
under such circumstances. us I hear God’s expression of
my sorrow. It is a great comfort to the soul, but it must be
understood how far they apply. en again there is sin or
Satan. In either case it is wrath against sin which is the
source of wrath on our departure from God. Here is the
power of Satan and the wrath of God. Christ had to come
under the power of death, and therefore He had to come
under the sin, I do not say morally, but substitutionally, as
bearing the whole burden of our sin; to deliver us He must
take it on Himself. He had to drink up the cup of wrath for
us-whether for Israel for earthly blessing, or for Christians
for heavenly blessing. It is important to see the special
bearing. Yet there are certain principles, immutable and
that always apply, eternal truths that never vary-whether
earthly people or heavenly people are concerned. Only
Christ can put us into blessing. e displayed ways may
change, but the fundamental principle must always be the
same. Sin is at bottom the same, and love is the same too;
though the development of both may not be so.
In this Psalm the evil looked at is the bondage of sin;
not only servants of sin, but slaves of Satan. He is the god
of this world and the prince of its course, and he holds it
under thraldom. ere are two points in verses 7, 8, I wish
to speak about. “ ou hast considered my trouble, thou
hast known my soul in adversities and hast not shut me up
into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large
room.” ese are the two things God has taken notice of. I
would take the great principle of it; true to a Jew, but in a
much larger way to us. We are now identied with Christ
at the right hand of God. e High Priest is there. He
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is carrying on His work there. His place is there. Aaron’s
place is on the earth. God’s love is set on this remnant.
ere they are- there we may be-held in bitter bondage.
It may seem liberty because our wills are in it, but it is real
and thorough bondage. A man knows a thing is wrong and
foolish, yet he goes on doing it. He is away from God; so
that there is no power to deliver himself from sin, from
his passion, and he is not able to keep from it until he
gets back to God. What he did, he did to render himself
independent of God. is ruined Eve. Adam was led astray
by her, and lost all his blessing, though our blessings are
more than Adam lost. Adam thus cast o God’s authority
and became the slave of Satan’s power.
ere is no such thing as independence: man is
perfectly incapable of it. He must have something to
govern the heart. “ Where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.” Not where your heart is, there your treasure
is. A thousand things may govern the heart, but there is
something-it may be vanity, or anything else; but naturally
it is governed without God. If you had been in paradise
now, it would not be independence. “ All power is of
God.” If not, He would not be God. ere can be nothing
independent of Him. Creature independence is but setting
up another god; any other power is not God. Nothing is
independent of God. Satan, cast at last into the lake of
burning brimstone, will show that he is not independent.
e moment the heart departs from God, it must get some
other object. When Adam hears the voice of God in the
garden, he hides himself: that is not to be happy. Sin gave
him the consciousness of his nakedness, and God had
immediately, in his eyes, the character of a judge. Worship
and prayer are vanished, the moment we have sinned and
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God takes this character before us. Man goes out of his
mind if he has not an object. He has lost God as such, and
he seeks some other, of which he makes himself the center.
We have left God, and He has got the character of a judge,
and so the heart seeks something below itself-looked at as
made for God, something to satisfy its nature. An animal
could not carry on a course of sin-it has no intellect to
indulge in sin-but man does; and thus the superiority of
our human nature is used to corrupt ourselves by vices.
Man is a slave: the god of this world, the enemy of our
souls, has got power over him through his passions, and it
is thraldom. A man dare not do anything that would set
him at variance with the world.
Man has lost the knowledge of God (not that there is
a God, but the knowledge of God), and this aggravates
his guilt. He has a knowledge that there is a God, but he
does not know Him. I may know there is a great potentate,
but I may not know him. A man’s intellect may say, “ No
God “; but his conscience says there is a God, though he
has shut God out, and does not know Him. We have lost,
in a great degree, the power of measuring good and evil.
Would not the young man have known it was unseemly
to be feeding on the husks the swine did eat, if he had
been living happily in his father’s house? We are by nature
darkness; God is light. By the fall man lost the image
of God-gained the knowledge of good and evil, but not
the knowledge of God by which we can judge the things
around us. Satan has blinded you by motives. “ I was alive
without the law once, but when the commandment came,
sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was
ordained unto life, I found to be unto death.” e moment
the word reaches the conscience, then you say, “ I am all
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wrong.” ere may be almost despair, but the revelation of
God’s light alone comes in and shows me I was in darkness.
Man’s very unconsciousness of evil, and contentedness
with what he is without God, the thirst in his heart for
other things, and the asking, “ What harm is there? “ prove
he has not God. If you talk of sin when men are enjoying
what they call innocent pleasures, and speak of either grace
or judgment, it stops them immediately; it is all gone. ey
will tell you, “ It is not the time.” Man’s pleasure is never
the time for God’s presence. ey will talk about God, will
tell you what He ought to be, but they cannot bear His
presence. e Lord may use outward means, trouble, etc.,
as in the Psalms; or work without outward means, and then
we know the struggle against sin. “ ou hast known my
soul in adversity.” It is better to be struggling against the
tide than going down the stream with the world. When
the light shines in, there is the consciousness of need; the
world sees it; Satan sees it and says, ere is a soul escaping.
He has got the consciousness that God is not there. It will
be detected if the divine nature is at work in a man.
“ ou hast known my soul in adversity “-not my soul
has known thee. ere is as yet no full apprehension of His
grace. I know I have been wrong, but “ ou hast considered
my trouble.” I am in distress. What am I to do? Well, God
has considered my trouble. ere is not liberty yet; but if
the word has reached the heart, there may be ever so little
perception of God, but there is a link between the soul and
God. “ ou hast known my soul in adversity.” “ Is Ephraim
my dear son? Is he a pleasant child, for since I spake,” etc. If
there is any reader that knows he has been going wrong as
connected with the conscience, and he wishes to get back
to God, I say, God knows it, He considers it- weighs the
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whole process, and He will surely deliver. e soul may
know and have to pass through a good deal of exercise;
but He is considering it. “ Since I spake against thee,” etc.
His eye is always upon it. “ ou hast known my soul in
adversity.”
ere is not only sin but the power of Satan to overcome.
You cannot be independent of Satan. You cannot go after
the smallest vanity, not even a little bit of dress for vanity’s
sake, without making God a liar and believing Satan. Eve
did this when Satan said, “ ou shalt not surely die “-God
knows if you disobey, you will become as He is. He treated
God as a liar, and she trusted Satan for truth, and so God
was entirely cast o. In everything you may be deceived by
the same enemy.
Man incautiously trusts Satan for truth, and even for
goodness. But when you begin to struggle with Satan, he
will trouble your soul, if he sees you want to get away from
him He will send friends and temptations to you, so as to
deceive (and that is the dierence between the devil and
Satan). e Lord comes in; Satan claims his right over us
and says, You have sold yourself to me already; but God
says, “ Is not this a brand plucked from the burning? “
Satan was displayed specially as the adversary when he
said, “ Fall down and worship me.” en the Lord said,
“ Get thee hence, SATAN.” Satan uses scripture for his
own wicked purposes and quotes what God has said-” e
soul that sinneth, it shall die.” You sold yourself to me. No,
says the Lord, My eye is upon you: thou shalt not die. e
judgment of death is with God, the power of death is with
the devil! Christ comes and places Himself in blessed grace
in our place to bear the whole weight of Satan’s power-puts
Himself under the consequences of our sin: “ was made sin
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for us.” us grace brought Him where sin brought us, that
He might deliver us from the whole force of evil. Christ,
having not only delivered us but gloried God perfectly by
the cross, having made good His title at all cost, goes into
that glory by virtue of redemption, with the full joy of the
rstborn among many brethren, enters as Man into the
presence of His Father.
is gives the character of what we are made partakers
of. If He enters there, it is in a certain sense our entering;
it is for us, as “ our forerunner,” in virtue of His entering.
We have entered in Him as our Head; we sit “ in heavenly
places in Christ.” “ ou hast not shut me up in the hand
of the enemy, but thou hast set my feet in a large room.”
ere is liberty. e state of the heart delivered corresponds
with the deliverance into a large place. “ Set my feet in a
large room.” We are in the presence of God without the
possibility of wrath. e cup of wrath has been drunk-it is
not now to drink. God’s eye was upon me when I was in
my sins. He has “ known my soul in adversity,” and I am
brought into the presence of God-into the sunshine of His
glory, without a cloud, by virtue of redemption. It is after
I was a sinner, I am brought there through the ecacy of
the work of Christ.
I am there necessarily to be the proof of the value of His
blood. God looks upon me as the fruit of His Son’s work:
I am set according to the value of God’s Son in His sight.
is is how I know His love, in the perfect favor of God-
not only in divine favor without a cloud, but assured that
there never can be a cloud. And there is another thing-”
Sin shall not have dominion over you.” Not that it will not
be there; but that we are set free from sin and death. e
same power that raised Christ into the presence of God
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has delivered me. I may slip through unbelief, but I am
delivered, and am then one spirit with the Lord.
Satan has no power against Christ up on high; all his
power was exhausted at the cross, and it is all gone. God “
hath delivered us from the power of darkness,” and set our
feet “ in a large room.” at we may enjoy this large room,
the Holy Ghost is given. “ Stand fast in the liberty.”
Satan has no right or title against Christ. In Him I am
delivered. I am entirely out of the enemy’s reach (I do not
mean if going on in the esh): in Christ is my title and
portion. I have received the Holy Ghost. e love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts. “ Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty.” “ If led by the Spirit, we are not under
the law.” By the Holy Ghost, I “ know the things that are
freely given of God,” and have the power of enjoying them
(1 Cor. 2), an “ earnest in our hearts,” 2 Cor. 1.
I add another thing that puts the crown to all: “ we joy in
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I know it is forever.
e Spirit has sealed me “ until the day of redemption.”
Well, now I can trust and joy in God. “ If God be for us, who
can be against us? “ No creature can separate us from the
love of God. ere we nd ourselves; and the apostle is not
afraid to say, “ We joy in God.” is is a “ large room.” All
the holiness of God is our delight. He that rst descended
is ascended into the proper glory; and we are brought into
it all. If I cannot see the end of it, I can see it is boundless
blessedness. And Christ is all and in all. e Lord give us
to dwell there! Surely it is “ a large place.”
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62810
God’s House and the Way
Psalm 84
WE get ourselves so accustomed to certain things by
their constant use that the power of their meaning becomes
destroyed. It may be a bad word or a good word, but words
that would deeply aect others thus fail to move us. is
we nd but too true, as regards the scripture-truth itself.
What an eect such an announcement as that in John 3
(“ God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son,” etc.), would have upon us, if listened to for the rst
time, and the value of its meaning entered into! Just the
same is it with this scripture before us. “ How amiable are
thy tabernacles O Jehovah of hosts,” etc. Would not such a
thought as being in God’s court, as men dwelling in God’s
own house, greatly delight and surprise us, if heard for the
rst time and its meaning understood? What an eect such
a truth as this would have upon us if fully believed-God
going to make us dwell with Himself in His own house!
He does dwell with us now, as we know; but we are
not yet dwelling in His house. God never dwelt with
Adam, nor did Adam dwell with God. He made a suitable
dwelling-place for man and put Adam in it. He did come
down to visit him, but He did not dwell with him. Indeed
the rst time we read of God coming down His word is,
Adam, where art thou? e paradise on earth was not God’s
dwelling-place. We read in the Revelation, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and the Lamb is the light and the
temple of it.
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“ How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts!
my soul longeth, yea fainteth for the courts of Jehovah.”
e heart that has found God longs for a dwelling-place
with Him. It was this desire that moved the disciples on
the mount of transguration to make a request for three
tabernacles. It was Jewish of course; but they could not
bear the thought of the Lord Jesus going away. ey
wished Him to stay with them; they wanted to keep Him
down here. He could not remain, but left them and us
words of comfort. “ Let not your heart be troubled … In
my Father’s house are many mansions,” many chambers.
“ I go to prepare a place for you … I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be
also.” is new thing is brought out here most blessedly-
that man shall dwell with God in His own house. e Lord
Jesus could not stay with His beloved disciples down here,
because it is polluted; but He will have his people with
Himself, where there is holiness, and everything suited
to meet the need and claims of holiness. His people shall
dwell with Him. “ Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am.”
e rst thought in the heart of Moses (Ex. 15), whilst
recounting God’s acts of power and delivering grace, is
the desire to make Him a house: “ He is my God, and
I will prepare him an habitation.” But verse 13 gives us
a fuller thought of faith: “ ou hast guided them in thy
strength unto thy holy habitation “-the redemption song
of the Lord’s strength and power. In verse 17 we get the
clear promise of this new thing-a dwelling-place with
God, which He Himself has made. at is what He will
do for them: not merely a rest in the wilderness, but the
blessed purpose of God is to bring His people into His
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sanctuary which He has made. What! man to dwell with
God! Wondrous fact! e thought of this new thing lls
my soul with the deepest joy.
e heart that longs for God nds rest in the altar of
God. “ ine altars, O Jehovah of hosts,” etc. “ My heart..
crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found
an house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her
young.” How beautifully this parenthesis shows us the
tender care God has over all His creatures! He fails not
to nd a house for the most worthless of birds, and a nest
for the most restless. What condence this should give us!
How we should rest! What repose the soul gets that casts
itself upon the watchful tender care of Him who provides
so fully for the need of all His creatures! We know what
the expression of “ nest “ conveys, just as well as that of “ a
house.” Is it not a place of security-a shelter from storm-a
covert to hide oneself in from every evil-a protection from
all that can harm-a place to rest in, to nestle in, to. joy
in? e term is just as familiar in the scripture as that of
“ the house.” e prodigal well understood the comfort
and plenty of the Father’s house before he turned his face
towards it; but it was the Father that knew the claims of
the house, and He must clothe him suitably for it before he
is admitted into it.
“ Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be
still praising thee.” It is this new thing-that men should
dwell in God’s own house; not be there merely as a visitor,
but a dweller. e visitor does not know all that belongs to
the house; but nothing can be kept back from a dweller: he
is at home, and must know all the privileges and blessings
of the house. Surely there will be perfect blessedness in
that house, where Christ has prepared everything-where
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God is at home and has arranged all according to His own
wisdom and power and glory-the Lamb being the light
and the temple. Now those who dwell there must have the
moral qualities of the house; their tastes, and enjoyments,
and nature, must be suited to the house.
In time past God did come into the temple after a
Jewish order; but the people were shut out from even this
glory- the very opposite to dwelling with God. ey were
a favored people, it is true-separated from the nations by
God’s grace; but they knew not the constant increasing
blessing of the house.
ere is another thing-the way to this house; the road
to that place where God and His people shall dwell. He
has been dwelling with them, but He will have them to
dwell with Him, and His heart has ordered the way. When
we were sinners-merely sinners-and could do nothing but
sin, He put it all away. “ Christ suered, the just for the
unjust, to bring us to God.” He has given us a new nature,
which has the moral capabilities of enjoying a dwelling-
place with Him in His own house.
God has dwelt with man; the God-man Christ Jesus
has tabernacled down here, and His glory was displayed in
grace and truth.
In Ex. 29 we learn a further truth of the tabernacle and
the altar; but the grand thought all through is not only
God dwelling with His people, but He must have them to
dwell with Him.
In Ezekiel we see the glory that had rested on the
temple departing gradually, reluctantly, yet really. But
this had not been the fullness of His indwelling in the
Christian; neither was it His presence in the church which
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is His body. “ Ye are builded together for a habitation of
God through the Spirit.”
How this new thing occupies God-the thought of His
own house! His word declares it; “ prophets tell of it “; grace
puts us in possession of it; faith gives us the enjoyment of
it; the Lord Jesus is the way to it. e First Epistle of John
brings out this truth very fully. (See chaps. 3 and 4.)
Now, how is it that we feel ourselves wonderfully more
united to a Christian we may only have known for half-
an-hour, than to a mere acquaintance we may have known
all our lives? Is it not the reality of the truth, God is there?
God dwells in us, and we in Him. It is something more
than a new nature, for it goes on to say, “ We know that
he abideth in us by the Spirit he hath given us.” In the
next chapter we get that wonderful word, “ Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in
him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the
love,” etc. Oh, the joy this knowledge gives the heart! What
comfort the soul gets in such proximity to God! How the
thought of this house delights one!-this house that God is
bringing us to, where we shall learn Him most fully, and
love Him without hindrance.
How complete, how perfect, is God’s work! He gave
Jesus to die for us, and He has sent down the Holy Ghost
to teach us, to assure our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ
has done everything for us. He has tted us for this house,
and we have in Him all we need. He gives us the moral
qualities of the dwellers of the house, the new nature that
can enjoy the glory of the house. “ Blessed are they that
dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.” Nothing
but praise becomes those who shall dwell in God’s house; it
will be their unwearied untiring employ-continual praise. “
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Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart
are the ways.” If by faith I am dwelling in God’s house, I
have perfect rest. If I am counting on His strength, let my
diculty be what it may, I have entire repose. Communion
with God always gives condence in His power. is is the
key to the psalm before us. If my heart has learned the love
God has for me, and what His purposes are towards me, I
can trust Him to order the way. God’s love was displayed
in His Son-revealed in the gift of Him; and the Son will
give grace and strength for the way. “ Of those thou hast
given me have I lost none.” God has fully provided for our
need. He has quickened us-cleansed us-sealed us. If Paul
had to say, I am not already perfect, he knew it was the way
up, the way to the house, the way home. If my heart is set
upon this glorious dwelling-place, I shall not be so much
occupied about the ease or comfort of the way, as I shall be
to know that it is the way. e glory of the inheritance will
be far more to me than the character of the things that are
round the pathway to it.
Everything may be against me-all may seem united to
hinder my progress. Should I be trying to make myself
comfortable, desiring to settle down in a place and a world
which is striving to keep me from my house and my home,
depriving me of enjoyment and blessing? No; the one
thing that should occupy me is the way out. I shall not be
distressed much by what is going on down here if I can but
learn that it leads up there. Is it the way home? Will it take
me to the house? is will be a vast deal more important to
me than all else. It may be a dangerous road, a rough road,
a dicult road; but is it the way up there? If I do but know
that, I shall not care for the diculties of the hill, nor fear
the danger of the descent. Shall I be looking for an easier
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road, a smoother road? No. Is it the road? Is it the way
there? If I am told there is a lion in the way-well, I have
no fear: God is my strength-I cannot go without Him. “
Are there not twelve hours in the day? “ were the words of
Jesus. He had to suer, so may we; but is it the way there-
the way to the home on which my aections are set-the
way to the home of blessing which the Lord has prepared?
is settles every question, and delivers from ten thousand
sorrows. I do not care for the diculties nor the dangers: it
is the way there. I am kept up in it by the strength of God;
I am kept up through it by the love of God.
“ Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a
well “ (v. 6). e valley of Baca is a place of sorrow and
humiliation, but one of blessing also. To Paul it was the
thorn in the esh-something that made him despicable
in his ministry to the Galatians. It was truly humbling,
and called forth from him a thrice-repeated prayer. But
when he heard the Lord say, “ My grace is sucient for
thee,” he no longer pleaded for its removal. No; he rather
gloried in his inrmity, that the power of Christ might be
known. is was the place of blessing to Paul: he found it
a well. e valley of Baca was turned into a spot of untold
intimacy and nearness to God. With some of us this valley
may be the loss of that nearest our hearts, or the thwarting
of the will-something that will humble us; but it is a place
of blessing. We get far more refreshing from the painful
than the pleasant things. e valley of Baca is made a well.
Of which of your pleasant things can you say, you make it
a well? e refreshment and the blessing come from that
which has pained us, humbled us, emptied us of self! is
is God’s way of showing us what He is; and so, in passing
us through the valley of Baca, He makes it a well.
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So we read in 1 ess. 5, “ In everything give thanks.”
How is this to be done? Did Paul give thanks for the thorn-
the very thing he supposed would hinder his usefulness?
Not whilst looking at the thing itself: it was only when his
eye was xed on the heart and the hand that had done it.
ere are many things in themselves that we cannot give
thanks for-the snapping of the cord nearest the heart, or
the cutting to pieces of what our aections are set upon.
We must see the love that has ordered it, and the hand that
has appointed it; and then we can give thanks.
“ e rain also lleth the pools.” e Lord can make
springs in the desert to meet His people’s need, or send
down rain from heaven to supply their wants. He knows
neither diculties nor impossibilities: to lean upon Him
is undisturbed security. He will bring His people safely
through every trial; and every fresh victory should increase
the strength of their condence in Him.
“ Behold O God, our shield, and look upon the face of
thine anointed.” In every sorrow God is our shield. Oh!
but some may say, My sorrow is brought on by my sin. Sad
it should be so! But even then we can say, “ Look upon
the face of thine anointed.” God can always look upon His
Son with delight; He is ever well pleased in Him: and we
can plead what Christ is. ere is no position a saint can
be in but that he may go to God for help. No; although
his very sorrow is the fruit of his sin, and there is no other
way of getting rid of your sin and out of your sorrow but
by going to God and hiding yourself behind His Anointed.
You may not choose to say, Look upon me; but you can
ever say, “ Look upon the face of thine Anointed.” Christ
is your only shelter. He is a covert in every storm-ah! even
that which your own failure has brought upon you. ere
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is no getting back to God but by hiding yourself in Christ-
taking shelter behind Him.
ere is just one other word about the way, and I have
done. Now, what are your ways? What is your walk in the
way to the place you are going to? Is it in keeping with the
character of the house? Are your ways suited to the home
God has prepared you for?-His own dwelling which He
has prepared for you? Are you so behaving yourselves as
to rejoice in the thought that this world is crumbling? Is
the hope of the Lord’s coming your daily delight? Does it
inuence you in the ten thousand details of your every-day
life? Or are you so walking hand in hand with the world
that the very thought of His coming lls you with shame?
May the Lord grant you grace to take heed to your ways!
May you walk well-pleasing in His sight, caring more for
His glory than your own ease! “ No good thing will he
withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “ Blessed is the
man that trusteth in Jehovah.”
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62793
In Christ
2 Corinthians 12
THERE are some chapters in Scripture which contain
so full and blessed a statement of some great truth of God
that they acquire and retain a peculiar hold on the believer’s
mind. And though all Scripture is given by inspiration of
God and has the same authority, yet this exceptional eect
of peculiar passages cannot be blamed, because it is always
found to be produced by some chapter which contains
a special revelation of God and His ways, or the love of
Christ towards us.
e chapter of which I would now speak can scarcely be
said to have this character. But it contains so complete and
remarkable a display of the extent and wondrous heights
and deplorable depths to which saints may go; of the
mighty principles for good or for evil which are at work
in those natures, in which they have part in the highest
associations on the one hand, and in the lowest degradation
on the other; and of the way in which grace acts to give
predominancy to good in us-it presents such a view of the
whole working of divine grace to give the perfect result in
good and in blessing of the spiritual conict now going on
in us, through the knowledge of good and evil which we
acquired in the fall, that I think it may be fruitful to the
reader if I unfold it a little practically.
e way in which in this one chapter we nd the highest
state to which a Christian can be elevated, an exceptional
one, no doubt, as an experience, and the lowest condition
to which he can fall, and all the practical principles on
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which the divine work is carried on between these two
extremes, is very striking. In the beginning of the chapter
we nd a saint in the third heaven, in paradise, where esh
could have no part in apprehension or in communication.
He knew not whether he was in the body or out of the
body. ere was no consciousness of human existence in
esh: so he could not tell, nor could he utter, what he had
heard when he returned to the consciousness of esh again.
Such is the saint at the beginning of the chapter. At the
end we nd one, perhaps, many fallen into fornication,
uncleanness, and lasciviousness, and unrepentant yet
of their sins. What a contrast of the highest heavenly
elevation and the lowest carnal degradation! And the
Christian is capable of both. What a lesson for every saint,
as a warning, though he may reach neither extreme; and
how suited to give the consciousness of what natures are
at work and of the elements which are in conict in him
in his spiritual life down here! Another part of this chapter
will show us where power alone is to be found to carry him
along his path upon the earth in a way consistently with
the heavenly good to which he is called.
Paul uses a remarkable expression as to himself when
speaking of his elevation to the third heaven: “ I know
a man in Christ.” A few preliminary thoughts as to the
law will facilitate our understanding this expression. e
law gave to man a perfect and divine rule for his conduct
upon the earth. But it never took him up into heaven.
Heavenly beings indeed, such as the angels, act upon the
abstract perfection of this divine rule as it is stated by the
Lord Himself: they love God with all their heart and their
neighbor as themselves. is is creature perfection. But it is
their nature in which God has maintained them.
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121
To prescribe feelings and conduct by law is another thing.
e contents of the law are perfect. It tells us what the right
state of a creature is, and it forbids the wrong that esh is
inclined to. But why prescribe this? No doubt obedience is
a part of perfection in a creature. Mere doing right would
not suce for a being subject to God to walk righteously,
because God has absolute authority over him. us God
can, and (we know) does, prescribe certain particular acts
of service to angels; and they obey. But when a state of soul
is prescribed, why is that? Because it is needed. It becomes
necessary because of the state of the person to whom the
command is addressed. He is otherwise inclined, in danger
from other dispositions of doing otherwise. To command
a person to do a thing supposes that he is not doing nor
about to do it if without a command.
If we add to this that nine of the ten commandments
forbid positive sins and evil dispositions, because men are
disposed to them, or there were no need to prohibit them,
we shall nd that the very nature and existence of a law
which prescribes the good on God’s authority supposes
the evil in man’s nature which is opposed to it. is is a
deplorable truth, take either aspect of the case. You cannot
command love, that is, produce it by commanding it, and
you cannot put out lusts by forbidding them to a nature
which has them as nature. Yet this is what the law does, and
must do if God give one. It proves that what is forbidden is
sin, and that it is in man to be forbidden; but it never takes
sin away. It prescribes good in the creature but does not
produce it. It shows what is right on earth in the creature,
but how far is it from taking man into heavenly places! It
can have no pretension to this.
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Man has now by the fall the knowledge of good and
evil. e law acts on this amazing faculty, of which God
could say, “ the man is become as one of us, to know good
and evil.” But how? Man is under the evil, and law requires
good in him which is not, and shows him all the evil which
is in him. It presses the evil on him and its consequences
in judgment, and as to the good it requires in him, it only
gives the consciousness that it is not there. Further, it shows
no good to him as an object before his soul. I repeat, to
make the distinction clear, it requires good in him, loving
God and his neighbor for example. But it presents no good
to him. ere is no revealed object to produce good nor
be man’s good in him in living power. It works therefore
wrath. Where no law is, there is no transgression.
Now grace works quite otherwise; it does not require
good where it is not, though it may produce good. It does
not condemn the wicked, but forgives and puts away their
sin; it presents to us an object, God Himself, but God
come near to us in love. It does more, it communicates
what is good. It is not a law. It does not require good where
it is not, but produces it. It does not condemn the wicked,
but it forgives and puts away their wickedness. It does not
lead us to carry on the conict between good and evil by
pressing the evil on us, and making us feel it a burden not
to be got rid of, and ourselves slaves to it, which the law
does, making us feel “ this body of death “ as that under
whose power we are, sold to sin, and, supposing we are
born again, making us only feel more truly and deeply that
even this does not make us meet its requirements so that
we should be righteous by it, however much “ to will is
present with us,” but the contrary. In a word, grace does
not, in the knowledge of good and evil with which it deals,
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123
lead us to carry on the conict by the sense of the power
and dreadfulness of evil to which we are subject and its
consequences, but by the possession of perfect and divine
good through which we judge the evil as raised above it, by
the possession of an object perfectly good and which is our
delight as well as our life, by the possession of Christ-being
in Him and He in us.
“ I know,” says the apostle, “ a man in Christ.” But this
we must a little explain and open out. It is often very vague
in many a Christian’s heart. In paradise, without law, under
the law, and through the presenting of Christ to him,
man was responsible for his own conduct as a living man,
for things done in the body. He was viewed as a child of
Adam or “ in the esh.” He stood, that is, before God in
that nature in which he had been created, responsible for
his conduct in it, for what he was in the esh. e result
was, that in respect of every one of these conditions he
had failed: failing in paradise, lawless when without law, a
transgressor when under law, and last and worst of all, the
closing ground of judgment, when Christ came, proved to
be without a cloak for sin, the hater of Him and His Father.
Man was lost. In a state of probation for four thousand
years, the tree had been proved bad, and the more the care,
the worse the fruit. All esh was judged. e tree was
to bear no fruit forever. Not only had he been proved to
be a sinner in every way, but he had rejected the remedy
presented in grace, for Christ came into an already sinful
world, and He was despised and rejected of men. It was not
all, that man, fallen and guilty, was driven out of paradise;
but Christ come in grace was, as far as man’s will was
concerned, driven out of the world which was plunged in
the misery to which sin had led, and which He had visited
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in goodness. Man’s history was morally closed. “ Now,” says
the Lord, when Greeks came up, “ is the judgment of this
world.” Hence it is we have, “ He appeared once in the end
of the world.”
But now comes God’s work for the sinner. He who
knew no sin is made sin for us. He drinks graciously and
willingly the cup given Him to drink. He lays down the
life in which He bore the sin, He gives it up; and all is
gone with it. e very life our sin was borne in on the cross
was given up, His blood shed. He suered for the sins of
every believer, by the sacrice of Himself, He has perfected
them forever. He that is dead is freed from sin. But Christ
died; He then is freed from sin. But whose? Ours, who
believe in Him. It is all gone, gone with the life to which
it was attached, in which He bore it. e death of Christ
has closed for faith the existence of the old man, the esh,
the rst Adam-life in which we stood as responsible before
God, and whose place Christ took for us in grace. What
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the esh,
God sending His only Son in the likeness of sinful esh
and for sin, condemned sin in the esh. In that He died,
He died unto sin once; in that He liveth, He liveth unto
God.
Faith anticipates the judgment, as regards the old
man, the esh, with all its ways. Upon the ground of
its responsibility we are wholly lost. We may learn it
experimentally by passing under the law, becoming hopeless
of pleasing God, as being in the esh, or we may learn it by
nding our opposition and indierence to Christ. But the
whole thing is done away with for the believer on the cross.
He is crucied with Christ, nevertheless lives, yet not he
but Christ lives in him. If the cross has proved that in esh
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125
there is nothing but sin and hatred against God, it has put
away the sin it has proved. All that is gone. e life is gone.
If a guilty man die in prison, what can the law do more
against him? e life in which he had sinned, and to which
his guilt attached itself, is gone. With us too it is gone;
for Christ has died, willingly no doubt, but by the judicial
dealing of God with the sin which He bore for us. If we are
alive, we are alive now on a new footing before God, alive
in Christ. e old things are passed away: there is a new
creation. We are created again in Christ Jesus.
Our place, our standing before God, is no longer in
esh. It is in Christ. Christ, as man, has taken quite a new
place to which neither Adam innocent, nor Adam sinner,
had anything to say. e best robe formed no part of the
prodigal’s rst inheritance at all; it was in the father’s
possession, quite a new thing. Christ has taken this place
consequent on putting away our sins, on having gloried
God as to them, and nishing the work. He has taken it
in righteousness, and man in Him has got a new place in
righteousness with God. When quickened, he is quickened
with the life in which Christ lives, the second Adam, and
submitting to God’s righteousness, knowing that he is
totally lost in the rst and old man, and having bowed to
this solemn truth, as shown and learned in the cross, he is
sealed with the Holy Ghost, livingly united to the Lord,
one spirit. He is a man in Christ; not in the esh or in the
rst Adam. All that is closed for him in the cross, where
Christ made Himself responsible for him in respect of it
and died unto sin once; and he is alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. He belongs to a new creation, having
the life of the head of it as his life. Where he learned the
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utter total condemnation of what he was, he learned its
total and eternal putting away.
e cross of Christ is for the believer that impassable
Red Sea, that Jordan through which he has now gone, and
which is his deliverance from Egypt forever, and, now he
has realized it, his entrance into Canaan in Christ. If Jordan
and the power of death overowed all its banks, for him the
ark of the covenant passed in. It is just his way into Canaan.
at which, if he had himself assayed to go through, as
the Egyptians, would have been his destruction, has been
a wall on the right hand and the left, and only destroyed
all that was against him. He was a man in the esh, he is a
man in Christ. Amazing and total change, from the whole
condition and standing of the rst Adam responsible for
his own sins, into that of Christ, who, having borne the
whole consequence of that responsibility in his place, has
given him, in the power of that, to us, new life, in which He
rose from the dead, a place in and with Himself, as He now
is as man before God.
It is to this position of the “ man in Christ “ the apostle
refers, only that he was given in a very extraordinary
manner to enjoy the full fruit and glory of it during the
period of his existence here below. His language as to this
truth is remarkably plain, and therefore powerful. “ When
we were in the esh,” he says. us it is we speak, when we
refer to a clearly bygone state of things in which we are no
longer. “ When we were in the esh,” he says; that is, we
are no longer in that position at all. “ But,” he says, “ ye are
not in the esh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God
dwell in you.” We are now alive in Christ. “ If ye be dead,”
says he elsewhere, “ to the rudiments of the world, why as
though living [that is, alive] in the world are ye subject to
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ordinances? “ “ For you are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. When Christ who is your life shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
e reader will forgive me, if I have dwelt so long upon
the rst expression of our chapter. I have done so because
of its vast importance. It is the very heart of all Paul’s
doctrine, the true and only way of full divine liberty and
the power of holiness; and because many Christians have
not seized the force of this truth nor of the expressions of
the apostle, they use Christ’s death as a remedy for the old
man, instead of learning that they have by it passed out
of the old man as to their place before God, and into the
new in the power of that life which is in Christ. Ask many
a true-hearted saint what is the meaning of, “ When we
were in the esh,” and he could give no clear answer; he
has no denite idea of what it can mean. Ask him what it
is to be in Christ: all is equally vague. A man born of God
may be in the esh, as to the condition and standing of
his own soul, though he be not so in God’s sight; nay, this
is the very case supposed in Rom. 7, because he looks at
himself as standing before God on the ground of his own
responsibility, on which ground he never can, in virtue of
being born again, meet the requirements of God, attain to
His righteousness. Perhaps nding this out, he has recourse
to the blood of Christ to quiet his uneasy conscience, and
repeated recurrence to it as a Jew would to a sacrice, a
superstitious man to absolution. But he has no idea that he
has been cleansed and perfected once for all, and that he
is taken clean out of that standing to be placed in Christ
before God. But if in Christ, the title and privilege of Christ
is our title and privilege. Of the full and wondrous fruit of
this, Paul for God’s wise and blessed purposes was made
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to enjoy in an extraordinary and special manner. In that,
esh and mortal nature has no part, nor ever can, though
we as alive in Christ have, while in that nature, whatever
be the degree of our realization of it. Paul was allowed to
know it, so that, while enjoying it in the highest degree in
the new man, in his life in Christ-” the life hid with Christ
in God-the “ not I but Christ liveth in him,” he had no
consciousness of that other mortal part which yet burdens
by its very nature (as well as by sin if its will works) the new
and heavenly man in us. He could not tell if he was in or
out of the body; he knew on re-entering his ordinary state
of conscious existence that he had this body; but he could
not tell if he was in or out of it when in the third heaven;
he was unconscious of it altogether.
e reader will remark too how carefully the apostle
distinguishes between the man in Christ and himself as he
had the practical experience of himself down here, having
indeed the life of Christ and the Spirit which united him
to the Head, but having also the esh in him though he
was not in the esh. Of this Paul, of what he was practically
conscious down here, would not glory; but he had been
given to be in the enjoyment of his place as a man in Christ
with entire abstraction, as to his consciousness of it, of
anything else-of such an one he would glory. And so can
we, though we may never have been in the third heaven
to realize fully the glory and privileges of the position we
are brought into, yet we are men in Christ, and we have
known enough-the feeblest saint who knows his place in
Christ has known enough-of that blessing to rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory. He glories in the position
of the man in Christ, which is his most surely and fully in
Christ; and he may realize it too, so that at the moment he
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may not sensibly feel the working of sin in him, though he
well knows it is there. We may be lled with the Spirit, so
that the Spirit is the only source of actual thought in us.
Indeed this is our proper Christian state, not always
with the same activity, it is true, of the Spirit giving the
sensible apprehension of the glory and the things of Christ
so as to elevate the soul to that which is above; but so that
there is no consciousness of anything inconsistent with it
in the mind.
2
ere may be indeed even then when there
is no conscious evil, the eect of obscure apprehension, an
apprehension obscure perhaps even in a way which implies
fault, negligence, want of singleness of eye, spiritual laziness,
swerving from the path in which a single eye would lead
us (though there uneasiness naturally follows in the soul
because the Spirit does dwell in us and is grieved): still there
may be no present disturbing element in the conscience.
3
e being, as men speak, in the third heaven is not always
our place and portion. It is a mistake to think it would
pu us up. A creature is never pued up in the presence of
God and with Him before the mind. It is when the eye is
o Him, when we have been in the third heaven but are
no longer there, that the danger begins. We are in danger
of being pued up about having been there when we have
lost the present sense of the excellency of what is there and
in which we lose the sense of self. is is what we nd in
Paul’s case. e man in Christ has Christ for his title and
2 is is the state described in the Epistle to the Philippians-
the true Christian state.
3 e fact, it is important to remark, of sin being in the esh
does not make the conscience bad. When it becomes the
source of thought or action, then the conscience is bad, and
communion by the Holy Ghost is interrupted. But our chapter
leads us farther into this.
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is entitled thus to all that Christ enjoys, to joys and glories
which mortal apprehensions cannot receive and language
formed by mortal thoughts and ways cannot express, that
are not meet to be communicated in this scene of human
capacities. ey belong to another sphere of things.
But wonderful as that is into which we are brought,
the question of good and evil, the knowledge of which we
have by the fall and cannot get rid of (nor is it desirable or
meant we should), must be thoroughly and experimentally
gone through by us. It has been as to acceptance. In respect
of this it is nally and forever settled before God by the
death and resurrection of Christ. But we have to learn to
judge the evil and to delight in the good. e law, as we
have seen, makes us learn the evil as looking to be judged
for it. In grace we are rst put into the position of perfect
blessing in Christ, and then we judge what is contrary to it.
is is the dierence of bondage and liberty. Still we have
to judge it and grow in our apprehension of good. In the
instruction of our chapter this, as in all God’s ways with
the apostle, who was to be both quickly and fully taught
in order constantly and deeply to teach others, was done
in the strongest and fullest contrast of the extremes. e
third heaven, if it did not set aside the esh in fact forever,
must show what a hopeless unchangeable thing it is. And
so it did. Paul had entered into the third heaven with no
consciousness of the hindrance of the body, still less with
any working in the esh in any way. But he must return
into the practical state of existence in which he had to
serve Christ with the consciousness of what he was as Paul.
And here the only working of the esh, the only way it
took cognizance of Paul’s having been in the third heaven,
would have been, if it had been allowed to do so, to have
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pued him up at having such wondrous revelations. It was
unchanged in evil. Paul must learn this practically, even by
a visit to the third heaven, instead of this amazing privilege
taking away or changing it. It was not allowed to act, but
he must learn truly to judge it in himself.
Note this dierence. It is not necessary when we are in
Christ that esh should act in order that we should learn to
judge it in ourselves. Alas! it is often in that way we do learn
it, but it is not necessary that it should act even in thought.
By God’s ways, and through communion with Him, we
can learn to judge evil in the root in us without its bearing
fruit. If we do not learn to judge it in communion with
God, where there may be very real exercise about it (and
a very great conict of will against God if it has acquired
any head), we learn it in its fruits through the giving way to
the temptation of Satan. When it is not judged, we learn,
no doubt, the evil-not yet indeed the root; but Christ is
dishonored, the Spirit grieved, and, but for the coming
in of grace, sin will in such case have acquired deceiving
power in our hearts.
In what has preceded we have found three important
points brought before us in this chapter. Firstly, the man in
Christ; secondly, the gross evil of the esh if our members
be not mortied; thirdly, that this same esh is not at all
corrected in its tendencies even by a man’s being in the
third heaven nor by anything else. Paul needed a messenger
of Satan to buet him, lest he should be pued up. ere is
another collateral point indeed, which I would here briey
notice: the dierence between our abstract position as
men in Christ (and we are entitled to consider ourselves
as such; it is our true position as Christians according to
grace), and our actual condition with the consciousness of
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the existence of the esh and all our bodily circumstances
and inrmities down here. Into this actual condition we
have now to follow Paul in our chapter and to learn where
power is to be found to walk rightly in it. e esh exists
unchangeable in its nature, a pure hindrance.
First, we may remark that no extent of knowledge,
even where given of God, is in itself spiritual power in
our souls. We cannot doubt that such revelations as Paul
received in the third heaven strengthened his own faith,
made him understand that it was well worth sacricing for
it a miserable life, such as this world’s is, and gave him a
consciousness of what he was contending for, a sense of the
divine things he had to do with, which must have exercised
an immense inuence upon his career in this world. But it
was not immediate power in conict in the mixed state in
which he found himself when he had to speak of “ myself
Paul.” He had, and so have we, to walk by faith and not by
sight. e wickedest man would not sin while his mind
had the glory of God Himself before his eyes; but that
would no way prove the state of his heart and aections
when it was removed. Like Balaam, he would turn to his
vomit again. So in point of fact the Christian, however
strengthened and refreshed by times on the road by what is
almost like sight to him and by communications of divine
love to his soul, has to walk by faith and not always in these
sensible apprehensions of divine results in glory. Not that
he is to walk in the esh or lose communion, but he is not
always under the power of especial communications of the
glory conferred on him and of divine love to his soul. Paul
knows a man fourteen years ago-not every day in that state.
He could rejoice in the Lord always. Some Christians are
apt to confound these two things-special joy and abiding
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communion, and to suppose, because the rst is not always
the case the discontinuance of the latter is to be taken for
granted and acquiesced in. is is a great mistake. Special
visitations of joy may be aorded; but constant fellowship
with God and with the Lord Jesus is the only right state,
the only one recognized in Scripture. We are to rejoice in
the Lord alway.
is the esh would seek to hinder, and Satan by the
esh. Here we nd rst the privilege of having a title to
hold ourselves dead. We are not debtors to the esh. It has
no kind of title over us. We are not in the esh, We may
reckon ourselves dead and alive unto God, and sin shall not
have dominion over us. It is all-important to hold this fast.
e esh is unchanged, but there is no necessity of walking
in it; not more as to our thoughts than as to our outward
conduct. e law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made
me free from the law of sin and of death; sin in the esh is
condemned by the death of Christ; the power it had over
us when under law (if not lawless) it has no longer. When
we were in the esh the motions of sin which were by the
law wrought in us all manner of concupiscence. But we are
not in the esh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of
God dwells in us. We are delivered from the law, having
died in that in which we were held. Our whole condition
is changed. What the law could not do just because it was
weak through the esh, God, sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful esh and for sin, has condemned sin in the
esh. But if the esh be not changed, how is this realized
in practice? It is this which is taught us here. It is rst the
giving conscious nothingness and weakness in the esh.
is is not power, but it is the practical way to it. We are
entitled, as to our standing before God, to reckon ourselves
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dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord, and in practice to hold ourselves, as in this condition,
not debtors to the esh to live after the esh; and sin shall
not have dominion over us, for we are not under law but
under grace.
But our chapter goes farther than this; it shows us
power so to walk. e esh is then practically put down.
e measure, as stated by the apostle, is this, “ Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.” His
object was not to gain this life. Alive in Christ we have
it; but he held every movement, thought, and will of the
esh under the judgment of the cross, and so the life of
Jesus was left free. Such is our path. Admitted into the
very presence of God into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
we judge in its roots in communion with Him according
to His innite grace everything that is not of Christ in
us, and the grace we meet and are made partakers of in
this communion carries us along our road in lowliness and
grace. Our eshly tendencies are thus only the occasion of
receiving the grace which keeps us safe from their power.
I may be humbler than ordinary men if I have dealt with
God about my pride, and so of every danger. e present
power of Christ keeps the evil out of our thoughts. We have
brought God into our life in this respect. It is not merely the
absence, comparatively speaking, of a particular character
of evil. e esh-evil-is judged according to God, and I am
lowly in spirit and walk softly and safely. But where there
are real dangers, God helps us in this. Not only do I bear
about the dying, but we which live are always delivered
unto death for Jesus’ sake. God works: some messenger of
Satan is sent; not sin, far from it (God cannot send that);
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but some humbling process which prevents sin and pride
working, unpleasant to the human heart, but needed for it.
All self-activity of the esh is sin; the body is dead because
of sin if Christ be in me; that is, if alive, it is only sin; and
if Christ is my life, “ the Spirit is life.” My body is not
counted as alive, or to be so in its will. What is of me in
will and nature-me as a conscious living man, a child of
Adam in this world-is annulled, or is a hindrance; it has no
connection with God. A man in esh cannot please God. “
I am crucied with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me.”
We nd in Philippians this condence in the esh
(not lusts of corruption) judged by the apostle. All that
made Paul of undue importance to himself or to others,
and so reectively to himself, was rejected. It would have
been condence in self. Our part is to be in the presence
of God, that all which is of self may be judged. But God,
as I have said, helps us. Here God had, by the abundance
of the revelations given to Paul, given an occasion which
the esh could use. In His mercy He meets the danger for
Paul, which he might not, surely would not, have rightly
met; for God does not aict willingly. He lets loose this
messenger of Satan at him, but to do His own work as with
Job. And Paul has some inrmity which tends to make him
despicable in preaching. “ My temptation which was in my
esh ye despised not,” says he to the Galatians; a natural
counterpoise to the abundance of revelations. What can
the esh do with this then? Well, it would be spared what
seemed a hindrance. To whom? Why, to Paul. Just right.
Paul had to be kept down-terrible truth for us. Must we
be made weak and inecient in order to be blessed and
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used? Yes, if, wretched worms as we are, we are in danger of
leaning as man on the esh’s eciency and strength.
e works that are done upon the earth, God does them
Himself, and above all spiritual work. He gives the increase.
If He puts the poor vessel in a certain sense in danger, and
in many a case where it puts itself, He meets the danger by
striking at its root in self. He makes nothing of self, renders
the incapacity of nature to anything not only apparent, but
apparent to ourselves; and this is what we want. at self
should feel self nothing or a hindrance, is a most divine
work, though it be a shame to a man who has been in the
third heaven, to think himself something in respect of it;
but esh is incorrigible. But as to the instrumentality used,
it is a mean and miserable process, such as becomes making
nothing of esh. If death is our deliverance from all sin, we
must taste it for our deliverance practically. e bitter water
of Marah must be tasted when the salt waters of the Red
Sea have delivered us from Egypt forever and ever. Put the
wood of the tree, the cross of Christ, into our cross, and all
will be sweet. “ Crucied “ is terrible work-crucied with
Christ, joy and deliverance; reproach is cruel, the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
But there are cases where the will and natural reluctance
of the esh to suer are in question; there are also those
which are characterized by the danger of positive evil
working, as pride or vanity in the case of Paul. As to all,
death must be tasted. e nothingness and incompetency
of all esh must be felt where it would be disposed to think
itself competent. It must nd its pretensions arrested and
set aside when it has such, or would be disposed to have
them; it must nd itself consciously weak where it might
hope to be strong or capable of something. As to what self
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would lean on, it must nd itself a hindering esh where it
would pretend to be a helping one. It is really nothing in
the work and path of God; but when it would be positively
something, it must be made to feel itself a positive
hindrance. is is not the end, but it is the way. We must be
humbled when we are not humble, or even in danger of not
being so. is work may come in preventively. But the esh
must be nothing if we are to have blessing; and in order
that the new man, which is content that God should be
all and knows its power is in Christ only, may be free and
happy, and God, as it desires, may be gloried. e power
of Satan and the power of death concur in ministering to
our usefulness in Christ, because Satan wields this power
to kill practically the esh, and we have another life which
lives in Christ and lives for Him.
is question is rst settled as regards righteousness,
as we have seen. We are dead and risen again; but it has
to be practically settled as regards life and power of walk
also. So that we may say, whatever our little measure may
be, “ to me to live is Christ.” But the fact that the esh is
thus practically mortied is not in itself power: we must
be positively dependent on another, glad to be so, if our
heart is in Christ’s service and that we nd His help only
can make us to serve Him. To have Him is joy in every
way. is is what follows: “ I will glory in my inrmities
“; not sin, but what broke down the esh in its will and
hindered sin, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Here is positive power capable of everything, of rendering
us capable of everything in the path of obedience, giving
no power at all out of it, but of fullling in power all the
energy of love in obedience. For the Christian path is
not mere legal obedience which submits to a will which
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arrests and stops our will, but an obedience which serves
with delight in love and in which love is positively and
energetically active in doing good. is path is regulated by
the Lord’s will and fullled by the Lord’s power, but that
power can have no adventitious aid. It must be the strength
in us of a dependent nature. In this is the right condition
of the creature, obedience and conscious dependence, and
both delighted in, on one who has title and alone has title
to all the praise, who loves us and on whose love we lean.
In the path of service, the energy of Christ’s love impels
us, Christ’s power sustains and enables us. Flesh, only a
hindrance to that, must be put down, and practically
annulled, that Christ may work freely in us according to
the blessing of that love. We then say the love of Christ
constrains us. I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me, the only true abiding state of the Christian,
be he babe or father in Christ; only the thing he may have
to do may be dierent and his temptations too. God in
all cases is faithful not to suer him to be tempted above
that he is able. When a man is in Christ then, redeemed,
quickened, and united to the Head, accepted in the Beloved,
the work of God in order to power is to break down and
bring the esh to conscious nothingness wherever it is
needed; not by mending, using, ameliorating, but, if needed
by its will to be something, breaking it down, yea, making it
for man’s capabilities of acting a sensible hindrance. is is
all that God makes of man as to his esh and competency;
but there is a deep lesson of blessing in it besides being the
path of power in service. We are emptied of self; and Christ
(that is, purity, and love, and blessing-God known to us in
grace) becomes everything to us, the more unhindered joy
of the soul made practically like Him.
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But we become now sensibly dependent, and Christ our
power, I do not say sensibly power; for, though there may
be a consciousness of His strength, the service and work
is done indeed, but done without any conscious strength.
It may be done with joy in communion with Christ, and
thus with joy in the service itself. It may be done with
fear and trembling, and hence with no joy though with
condence. at depends much upon how far we have to
meet the sensible power of the enemy, always in weakness
as to self, always in condence as to Christ, though it is
His work, and He the doer of it though He may use us
as instruments. And this operation is not merely an eect
in us, though there be one; it is the positive power of
Christ, a real acting and working of His power, for which
the sensible putting down of esh was only preparatory,
that it might be evidently not the power of esh, and that
there might be no mixture of the two in our minds. Hence
the esh is turned into positive sensible weakness. But the
power of Christ rests upon us, so that it is joy to the soul
because He uses us, connects Himself (so to speak) with
us, deigns to make us the instruments and servants, willing
and rejoicing servants of this power. It is His power, but it
rests on us. is is not the man in Christ, but Christ with
the man-His power resting on him emptied of self.
e path of strength then is the being made sensible
of our own weakness, so that divine strength, which will
never be a supplement to esh’s strength, may come in.
us there is entire dependence, and the positive coming
in of Christ’s power to work by us. If Paul’s bodily presence
was weak, and his speech contemptible, and there was
something which tended to make him despised, by whose
power was it that such wondrous blessing for the whole
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world owed forth on all sides from Jerusalem round about
unto Illyricum?
One or two remarks more, and I will close my imperfect
suggestions on this chapter. First remark that the humbling
process with Paul was no depriving of the abundance of
the revelations, or weakening the consciousness that he
was a man in Christ. is would have been positive loss.
ese were fully maintained and gloried in. e use the
esh would make of them when consciously down here in
the body, in the world, was met by an accessory humbling
process carried on in the esh itself.
Next remark that it is not merely power which is gained
by this process. e discernment of good and evil, in its
more subtle characters, is greatly increased; the judgment
and knowledge of esh greatly strengthened and deepened.
Hence the liberty of the new man with God, condence
in Him, the sense of the careful and gracious interest He
takes in us, and intercourse founded on this condence, are
greatly increased. Further remark, that dealing with self,
our own spiritual condition, is the secret of power, not the
quantity of divine revelations we have to communicate,
valuable as that may be in its place. For power Paul was
dealt with in his own soul, its own dangers and state, and
then Christ’s power rested on him.
Lastly note, that our glorying in our position in Christ
is all right. “ Of such an one I will glory; yet of myself I
will not glory but in mine inrmities.” When I think of
my place in Christ, of the “ man in Christ,” of such an
one we ought to glory. is is no presumption. It cannot
be otherwise, whenever we know ourselves in Christ. Do
you think I can do anything but glory in being in Christ,
and like Christ in glory? Of such an one I will. Let no
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pretended humility deprive us of this. It is legalism. Of
myself, of that of which I have the living consciousness
as a man down here, I cannot glory, unless it be in those
suerings for Christ and inrmities, of whatever kind they
may be, connected with them, which are used to put the
esh down, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
I would add to these one collateral observation. e
Lord can unite discipline with positive suering for Christ,
though the two things are quite distinct. When Paul was
subjected to contempt in his preaching it was for Christ’s
sake he suered, yet the form of it was, we have seen, a
discipline to prevent his being pued up. is may be seen
doctrinally in Heb. 12:2-11. In verses 2-4 we suer with
Christ, striving against sin, even to martyrdom and death.
In verses 5-11 the same process is the discipline of the
Lord, that we may be partakers of His holiness. How wise
and most gracious of the Lord’s ways to turn our needed
discipline into the privilege of suering for Christ’s sake,
so that we can glory in our inrmities! ere is chastening
which has not this character, being for positive evil. In this
doubtless we have to thank God, but it is another thing.
In ne, before God we have the “ man in Christ “-blessed
position-which is perfection where we want it; and as to
our place before men, besides Christ in us as life, the power
of Christ, where we practically want it, in weakness and
imperfection down here, resting on the man for walk and
service before men. e rst is the basis of all our walk, but
it does not suce for power. is is had in daily dependence
in which we walk, as humbled in ourselves, that Christ may
be gloried, and the esh practically annulled.
WE need to be taught of God, what this “ man in
Christ “ means. When we speak of a man in the esh or
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a man in the Spirit, we mean his state or position; what
characterizes him before God. A man in Christ does not
mean what he is in himself. It is the condition of every child
of God “ in Christ.” is chapter, in what follows, shows us
much of what esh is; but in this state-” in Christ,” esh
had nothing to do with it. e body had nothing to do
with it. Paul could not understand it of himself. He says,
“ I knew a man in Christ, whether in the body I cannot
tell,” etc.; that is, it is not what he was as a man down
here. It is the position of a believer contrasted with that
of an unbeliever. “ If any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature.” is characterizes him, and the value and import
of it are unfolded in that passage. And again, “Ye are not in
the esh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin.” It is quite evident it has nothing to do with
anything he has out of Christ. Whatever he was before, he
was in esh; now he is in Christ, and all is measured by
Christ: he has got his place in the second Adam, and not
in the rst. It will show itself in its practical ways, but this
refers to his standing.
I desire to show, rst, the force and bearing of this-a
man being “in Christ.” So long as Christ was in the world,
nobody could speak of “a man in Christ.” “Except a corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.”
God’s grace was working from Adam downwards; but that
is another thing. In order to know what it is to be in Christ,
we must know what this Christ is. Why should God have
peace and blessing for a man in Christ? Because there was
none for him anywhere else. ere would be judgment for
his sin, but no life or righteousness, or power; not one thing
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that he needs before God could he have without being in
Christ. ere is plenty of wickedness and pride, creature
work of our own, but nothing that can go up to God. We
may clothe ourselves in our own eyes, but Adam was naked
before God, even when he clothed himself. ere may be
bright qualities, intellect, etc., but WHO is clothed in
them? MAN. He prides himself in them. But there may be
good qualities in any animal. ere is a dierence between
some and others; some are vicious, others the reverse.
e intellect of man and his wonderful faculties are not
the question, but what do they turn to? Pride, title to be
something, man clothing himself in his pride! Is this the
way to heaven?
God says, “there is none righteous, no not one.” Does
the man think so, who hopes to go to heaven that way?
No! he has nothing else but lthy rags. When the voice
of God is not there, the g-leaves may do very well. ey
may do for man; but when God comes in, they will not
do before Him. God clothed Adam, but then death had
come in. When man clothes himself, it only brings out his
shame. When God clothes him, he is t for God; he has
“put on Christ.”
ere is no desire in the natural man to be with God;
man has no desire to go to God. Conscience drives a
man away from God, and his heart keeps him away. Any
honest unconverted man would own he has no pleasure in
Christ. It is thoroughly brought out that the carnal mind is
enmity against God. e man out of Christ is either a gross
outward sinner, like the publican, or the respectable and
hard-hearted man who has no sympathy with the reception
of a sinner. See what the Christ is, in whom we are. Christ
comes; God occupies Himself with these sinners, but see
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how they treat Him! Knowing all the sin, all the hatred of
their hearts, the breaking of the law, and a thousand other
sins, He came for this reason-He came to seek sinners. e
grace of God, who is love, has risen above all that man is.
If man feels what he is before God, he gets into despair.
You do not trust everyone who comes to you, because you
are sinners. God knows all about you. Christ came because
you are wicked. If this suits you, that is the God you have
in Christ. If it does not suit you, there is judgment for you.
But in Christ God is above all the sin of man, and
because it is what it is, He sends Christ to die. What man
means by God’s goodness is indierence to sin. God never
in grace alters His holiness. Before a man could be in
Christ, the whole work was needed to be done. He made
Him to be “sin for us.” e rst thing is Christ made sin,
and then grace reigns through righteousness. Christ was
entirely alone to drink that bitter cup, and then God could
not only save the sinner but glorify Himself about the sin.
God would glorify Christ in Himself. When Christ was
made sin, God was perfectly gloried. ere was perfect
righteousness against the sin, perfect love in bearing it. He
is gone up to the throne of God as a man. Now there is a
Christ to be in; righteousness is accomplished; the whole
thing is done; and the Holy Ghost is sent down to bear
witness that God has accepted this man and His work.
Righteousness is gloried in the presence of God.
As a Christian, I am a man, not in the esh but in
Christ. e whole work is done that ts Him to sit on the
right hand of God. He has gloried God, and God has
gloried Him in Himself. But before I can have a man in
Christ, I must have a Christ to be in there, on the throne
of God. Directly I take knowledge of what Christ has done
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for me, as applied by the Spirit, I am a man in Christ. It is
not given to every one to have spiritual manifestations, as
Paul had. Paul saw more of what it was to be there by what
he saw here.
Now we see what the esh is in connection with this. In
the beginning of the chapter, we see what the height was
to which a man could be taken. e thief might go into
paradise the same as Paul; but it was a wonderful thing for
a man down here to have these revelations. But in the end
of the chapter we see what the esh is capable of. Nature
cannot go into heaven. If God is pleased to take Paul up
there, there is no consciousness of being in the body at all.
“ A man in Christ “-” of such an one will I glory.” ere
is the glorying of a Christian. How many an one would
say, “You must not glory”; but Paul says, “ I will glory in
it.” ere is a man dead! No, he is not dead; he is alive in
Christ-as a man out of himself in Christ. He will glory in
this; and you could not help glorying, if you really believed
it. It is not thankfulness not to glory in it. You may not
apprehend all about it; but if you believe it, you will glory
in it. If Paul had gone up to a fourth heaven, there would
have been all the more need for the thorn, or he would
have gloried in that. e danger was not when he had the
apprehension of the presence of God, but it was when out
of His presence, when he got thinking of it. e revelation
was not a source of strength; he needed something else.
Whenever he preached, he had something to make him
humble, something to keep the esh down (the thorn, not
sin), something to make nothing of him-breaking down the
pride of man. He was humbled, because in danger of not
being humble. ere was strength for him. If he preached
in a despicable manner, but souls were converted (as they
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were), how was that? If that is the way of getting blessing,
it was not Paul’s power, but Christ’s power. en let me
have the thorn, he says. us we have the danger of the
esh dealt with in humbling him in the presence of man-
breaking down the very thing that would pu itself up, and
Satan that would pu up is obliged to be an instrument to
break it down.
Now I have the power of Christ in the man, not only
a “man in Christ.” While in this world, I want something
to carry me through, and to protect me from being
cheated- something for the conict I am in. at is power
in the Christian, as well as being in the Christ. ere was
something there to keep the nature down that would have
gloried; and, besides that, it was the occasion of bringing
in Christ. ere is always something to glory in in Christ.
Do not believe that the saint is not entitled to enjoy all
the advantages he has in Christ. All the hindrance, all the
wretchedness, made him glory more in Christ. He says, “
erefore I take pleasure in inrmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake:
for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
At the end of the chapter we see what the esh left to
itself even in a Christian is. Flesh in its fairest forms, its
capacities, etc., is all a hindrance. He may only glory in the
old man, in its being dead-” reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” We may rejoice in nding the esh good
for nothing. What man is in esh, and esh is in a man, is
all bad. God says, I will visit you by my word and Spirit,
and then bring you to where I am. e sins are gone. But
the sin is not gone, you say. But “sin in the esh” has been
condemned. Christ has died for it, and I am clear, justied
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from it. I have got out of this condition thus condemned.
If you have got into the third heaven, you may know that
all the esh could do would be to make you proud of it. A
man in the esh cannot please God, and the esh in a man
cannot please God. If you were in the fourth heaven, it
would be just the same. Sinful esh has been condemned.
en I can say, I am dead and I am in Christ, the Man at
the right hand of God. Whether an apostle or the simplest
saint that ever was, I need the power of Christ in the man.
e Lord give us to judge esh, and all the scene around
that ministers to it.
We are apt to make a mistake in speaking of our
weakness and unprotableness, forgetting that it is when
we have done our duty, we are unprotable servants. When
we speak of it, we mean our failure; and so, when we speak
of our weakness of spirituality or conduct we mean failure.
But when Paul speaks of weakness, it is that which makes
room for power (“ when I am weak then am I strong “);
and the result fully produced is with the consciousness of
there being no strength in us. is is a very dierent thing
from our failure. Our failure ought to lead us to humble
ourselves before God for that which led to the failure. If
we have not done what we ought, why have not we? We
cannot glory in not having done it. ere is a strength that
the babe in Christ may have and needs-power guided by
wisdom, and this does not fail. When we have not been
emptied of self and are full of self-condence, we must be
broken down. Pretension to strength is always in the way
for failure. e rst step towards failure is forgetting our
entire and absolute dependence. As Christians we know
we have no strength, but we forget we have none.
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is chapter brings out in a remarkable way the dealings
of God in giving strength. ere is a wonderful scene going
on in the heart of man. God does not let us always see it- it
would not be good for us: we could not bear it. Sometimes
the veil is drawn aside, and, as in the case of Job, the heart is
exposed to itself; God and Satan there. It is a serious thing
when God thus lifts the veil and shows what is going on
for good and evil in a poor little heart like ours! “God hath
set the world in their hearts “; and if it ends there, it is all
vanity and vexation of spirit.
Another question, as a moral question, is the will of
man. When will is not at work and sorrow comes in, it is
the happiest portion. e rst who begins that question is
God. It is a question of Satan’s power, man’s will, and God’s
goodness in the midst of all that. You have the conscience
of evil in your hearts, and the evil is too much for you.
You do not know what to do with it. e conscience of
good and evil has come in by the fall. Adam had the
conscience of good and evil with sin and by sin; he had
it by disobedience. Conscience therefore cannot guide a
man right. e converted man has the light of God to bear
upon it. is shows man what he is. e soul has to own
its badness and say, God is right. I go with Him morally in
condemning myself. God shows man to be vile as to nature,
rebellious as to will, and hateful to God as to his aections;
and it is a blessing when He shows it to us. But it is not
deliverance; this is another thing. e glory of God’s ways
is that He puts us down completely as to ourselves, by the
fact that our salvation is wrought out by Another, when I
had done nothing but sin. I nd God has condemned sin
in the esh. Where? In Christ. I see my sin all measured
and dealt with on the cross.
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As the beginning of the chapter showed us what a man
in Christ gets-revelations, etc. (if we do not have them
now, we shall by-and-by); so afterward we see what esh
in a man is, what it may come to-debates, envyings, wraths,
etc. ese are the extremes of both-revelations in the third
heaven, and esh in its worst character. Most Christians
are in neither one nor the other state practically.
Paul says, “ I know a man in Christ … Of such an one
will I glory.” is is what all Christians should have got
hold of. If you are not a man in Christ before God, you are
lost; it is presumption to think of being anything else. Can
I know that I am going to be like Christ in glory and not
glory in it? We must glory. Paul was not glorying in the
revelations when he was in them-he had no time then to
glory; but he gloried in what was his portion-Christ his life,
righteousness, and glory. Paul speaks of those revelations as
fourteen years ago. It is not intended that we should be
always living in the wonderful enjoyments connected with
the glory of Christ; if we were, it would be sight, not faith.
ere was no danger of being pued up when in the third
heaven, it was when he came down to Paul again that there
was the danger, not while in the presence of God.
By and in Christ I learn now another thing-that it is
not God’s thought at all to alter my esh, my old nature;
the tree is bad. e esh can be pued up in Paul by the
consciousness of having been in the third heaven.
ere is no good in me. I am a sinner-more than being
under the curse of a broken law. Where I am, where my
esh is, I should pervert even the third heaven (v. 7). God
turns that by which Satan would have tempted one into a
rod to keep down his pride. We are not told what the thorn
was, but it was something that made Paul despicable in
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preaching (alluded to in Galatians) to meet the pride that
would come from the revelation. Numbers were converted,
not by Paul’s eloquence, but by the Lord’s power. eir faith
was not to stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power
of God. ere was Christ for the man upon earth. You
must be brought down to nothing, having no strength in
yourselves. e esh was not allowed to act in Paul, a thorn
for it was sent to buet him lest he should be exalted. Such
is the normal condition of a soul-power given not to sin. If
the heart is exercised in dependence, we judge the root of
the evil, and it does not come out. My business is to learn
the evil in my character by judging it and not by its coining
out. If I have a proud character and am humbled before
God about my pride, I go out, and am more humble than a
very humble man by nature. ere is not a bad conscience
by the esh being in me, but I have if I allow it to act: the
thorn is sent to prevent it.
Before we come to power, the question of righteousness
has been settled by Christ being at the right hand of God;
it is a settled thing. It is practically learned when I am
saved; then I have a title to the third heaven; and strength is
made perfect in weakness. e Lord never gives us intrinsic
strength, He makes us feel our dependence. I am made to
feel my weakness when I see how my esh would even
pervert the blessings that are mine in Christ. erefore
will I rather glory in inrmities (not sin, but inrmities-for
example, distresses, persecutions, etc.). e Spirit kept him
from that which would have given him a bad conscience.
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62811
Emmanuel
Matthew 3
THE word of God presents to us this very precious
fact, that we do not only nd there certain truths and
doctrines, but also every relation between God and man
fully developed on earth, and each day we can clearly see all
these things in the Person of Jesus. It is a great mercy of God
to have brought Him so near to us, as so to make known to
us those relationships in the circumstances in which we are
ourselves found. At bottom the life of Jesus was like ours.
He was in all things tempted in like manner as ourselves.
It was indeed God manifested in esh; but it was also life,
and the expression of a life; perfectly acceptable to God.
In order to make progress in spiritual life we must study
the Lord Jesus; whether in the grace of His Person or in
the circumstances of His life; or, lastly, in the glorious
position He has near the Father, and which we shall by-
and-by share with Him.
We see in Christ, from the beginning, the
accomplishment of the life of faith, which was tested, in
Him, and of which He manifested all the perfection.
Jesus is to us a tender and mighty friend; and, while
traveling through the wilderness, we know that at the end
of the way will be found the glory in which He now is. at
is what is said in Heb. 12:1-3: “ Wherefore seeing we also
are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus the author and nisher of
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our faith “rather “ the leader and completer of faith.” As
captain, He has gone before us; as shepherd, “ he putteth
forth his own sheep,” and also “ goeth before them.” He “
despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God. For consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds.”
Divine life is seen in that Man who walked in the midst
of all diculties and temptations, who surmounted all, and
who, alone amongst all, was not touched by the evil one.
Now He has entered the glory at the right hand of God;
and we shall share with Him that glory when He shall
appear, since we shall be made like unto Him.
We shall see a little how the Spirit of God presents
Jesus to us, at the beginning of His life, when He enters
that painful race of faith.
An important thing to remark is, that the light manifests
all that is in man.
It is true that God saw what was in the heart of Abel
and of Cain, before anything of it was manifested; just as
He saw a remnant in the midst of the Jews, in whom grace
was working; but things were never brought to light under
the law. God was, as it were, hidden behind a veil, and
He allowed many things because of the hardness of their
hearts, as Jesus told His disciples; for the full light was not
yet manifested. But in Christ the light shone in the world.
In the Christian, who possesses the life of Christ, that
which is true in Christ is true in him, as it is said in 1 John
2:8: “ Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which
thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is
past, and the true light now shineth.”
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It is always well to bear in mind that, in the former
dispensation, God hid Himself, but that He sent certain
messengers who were to reveal what was entrusted to
them, but without making God known. e law did not
manifest Him fully. It is true it says, ou shalt love; but
not, I love thee; it does not reveal a God of love. It does
not show us what God is, save that He is a just God and
executes vengeance. It tells us nothing at all of what God is
for man, nor of what He is in Himself. e law did indeed
make known to men what they ought to be toward God,
but it was silent as to what God is for them.
A man is always under law, as long as he is occupied with
what God demands from him, instead of understanding
what God is for him; for this would produce much
more excellent eects. God, being thus hidden, required
obedience in order to grant life. It was no question of being
able to place oneself in the presence of God. e high
priest alone presented himself once every year into the
holiest of all; for the way into it was not yet made manifest,
and there were many things that God bore with, without
approving them. ere were ceremonies and ordinances,
which were intended to remind man of his dependence,
and to bring him into relationship with God, according to
certain things which acted upon the esh and adapted to
the esh, because man was in it, and God placed Himself
in a relationship with him. e holiness of God who was
hidden was not seen, but there were ceremonies which
maintained the relationships between that God who
remained hidden and man.
But when God manifests Himself, it can no longer be
so; for God is holy, and He is love. He is perfect in holiness,
and man must necessarily enter into relationship with
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what God is. God can forgive sinners-can wash them; but
He cannot bear with anything that does not answer to His
holiness. If there is grace, there is also holiness, but God
cannot, because of His holiness, bear with man, a sinner,
just as he is; for God is “ of purer eyes than to behold evil.”
Let us meditate upon the example of Jesus, the Light
upon earth, entirely separated from sinners, which
constituted the perfect beauty of His life. On one hand, we
see that He is alone, perfectly alone; He is the most isolated
man that one can imagine. e disciples themselves know
not how to sympathize with Him. e woman of Samaria,
to whom He addressed such touching words about the
water “ springing up into everlasting life,” can understand
nothing else but “ the well is deep.” She says, “ From
whence then halt thou that living water? “ If Jesus says, “
Look on the elds, for they are white already to harvest “;
if He speaks of “ a meat to eat “ that His disciples “ know
not of,” it is ever the same. He meets with no real sympathy
in the midst of men. We feel that this was painful to Him,
because He had a man’s heart, and would have desired to
nd some one who could understand Him; but He found
nothing anywhere. On the contrary, as to Him, we see that
He has a perfect sympathy toward all. Jesus was the most
accessible man, most within the reach of the simple, of the
ignorant, and even of the most degraded of sinners. He
manifested in His life something that had not its equal.
No, there never was all that holiness and love, which is
above all our thoughts.
ere is so much selshness in the heart of man that the
love of God is to him an enigma still more incomprehensible
than His holiness. No one understood Jesus, because He
manifested God. I do not as yet speak of His work, but
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of what He was, when He was manifested in the midst of
the world. He had to show that all the ceremonies cannot
make God known; for the thing is impossible. Jesus alone
manifested God as He is, and man also as he is.
No religion as such can change man. Man puts on
religion as a clothing; but his religion leads him farther
away from God.
e rst thing God does is to lay us bare in His presence;
He takes away everything. He is occupied with us, and
not with our religion. en is all quite removed, and we
stand before Him, such as we are. Well! that is what took
place when Jesus was here below; and therefore He was
unwelcome and found Himself in conict with every one.
It is impossible we could like to nd ourselves in the
presence of God, just as we are. A man accustomed to
dirt does not know he is dirty, because his whole way of
living is fashioned to it; but if he nds himself in certain
circumstances, which give him light as to himself, he will
feel disgusted to see what his whole life has been. Such is
the heart of man; but when the light of God shines in his
conscience and in his soul, he sees himself such as he really
is in the sight of God, although there be doubtless some
defect in the perception of it. is is very humbling; one
does not like it, for it is too painful. Once more I say, before
God it is not a question of our religion but of ourselves.
Such is the necessary eect of the presence of God in
the world. e light shows us in God all condescension, all
goodness, all grace: and in man a selshness which betrays
itself before God. One sees that man cannot be saved
through himself. A certain man says, “ Suer me rst to
go and bury my father.” Is it not as good as saying, ere
is something else that holds the rst place when Christ
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calls me? It is not my will to serve God entirely. “ I have
bought ve yoke of oxen,” says another; and a third, “ I have
married a wife.” What does this mean? at the heart is
xed on quite another thing; that it prefers its oxen to the
feast that God has prepared. us all is made manifest, and
the heart is laid bare.
All disappears before the testimony of God. Man’s self-
righteousness and his pride lead him to hide from himself
his own state, in order to take advantage of a religion which
descends from his ancestors. But John the Baptist said
(Matt. 3:7-9), when he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees
come to his baptism, “O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to ee from the wrath to come? Bring forth
therefore fruits meet for repentance; and think not to say
within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I
say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham.” It is God who works as He pleases,
and in His own power, to create children unto Himself. All
your pretensions, as Jews, descendants of Abraham, God
takes no account of. He works in that supreme power, in
which He is able, even of stones, to raise up children unto
Abraham; and that is the reason why He takes no account
of your righteousness: He must rst have sinners.
ere is yet another thing to observe here. John says
(Matt. 3:11, 12), “ He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with re: whose fan is in his hand, and he will
throughly purge his oor, and gather his wheat into the
garner; but he will burn up the cha with unquenchable
re.”
Jesus is going to establish His kingdom, and that will
soon come to pass. It is a kingdom in which that which
is not according to His heart will be burnt with re. Such
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was the testimony of John. “ e law and the prophets
were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is
preached.” God had given the law to that people which
He had gathered and ranged round Himself; He had sent
prophets who, as witnesses for the moment, called upon the
Jews to walk according to the law. John the Baptist came
to announce to them quite another thing: e kingdom of
heaven is at hand. God is about to establish a new order of
things: are you in a state to enter it? Have you energy to
penetrate there? Judgment is there also. He has His fan in
His hand. Have you any fruit? If not, “ the ax is laid unto
the root of the trees.” “ ink not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father.” us it was that John
taught; such is the place he takes. As to Jerusalem, it is
about to be set aside, and John preaches the testimony of
repentance and of the kingdom about to be established;
he presents himself in order to draw out every thought
towards Jesus. After having announced the testimony of
repentance, the Lord Jesus presents Himself to our hearts
and souls. Let us rest-rest our thoughts upon Him, who
shows Himself to us personally.
e object of God is not only to cause sin to be felt,
although that must take place, but to make Jesus known
and to place the soul in the enjoyment of God Himself-to
act in grace towards it in order that it may forget itself and
be lled with the thought of Jesus. is is the way God does
it. He presents the Lord “ as a root out of a dry ground.”
ere is in Him no beauty for man, as there was in the
temple; nay, nothing of that which attracts the esh and
might tempt it- nothing of all that. It is on the contrary, a
root that none “ should desire.” To the eyes of esh there is
absolutely nothing to render Him lovely. Who is it then?
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It is a poor man who goes preaching! He “ hath not where
to lay his head.” He is a man condemned by every clerical
authority, by all the wise men and all the Pharisees. e
Sadducees condemn Him, the priests condemn Him. us
was Jesus received. In Him is “ no beauty that we should
desire him.” It was needful He should present Himself
thus, that it might be shown if the heart could discern God,
and because He would not supply food to eshly feeling.
He must put the heart to the test, to prove whether God
is enough for the heart, and whether the moral beauty that
is in God-His love, His holiness, His word that penetrates
within the heart; whether, in a word, all that is innitely
precious in the divine nature- can be discerned by man.
When He comes as the light, He never adapts Himself
to that which He is going to destroy in the heart: man would
do it, and he would call this religion; but it would only be
to hide God, or to deny Him. us the Lord Jesus presents
Himself without anything which could attract man, and
that is what we nd here. Of course every testimony of
grace and goodness, necessary to our poor heart, is there;
but nothing to meet its desires. e testimony given by
Jesus was perfect and placed before the heart the grace it
needed, to be rendered capable of tasting the grace of God
itself.
Jesus has shown Himself to our faith in all the grace of
His divine Person; but He took His place among men as
being nothing, save as the object of faith.
e angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says to him:
“ Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which
is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he
shall save his people from their sins,” Matt. 1:20, 21.
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It was as Oshea that God caused Joshua to be called,
which means Savior, for God had charged him to bring
Israel into the land of Canaan. It is God Himself, it is
Jehovah, who comes as Savior. It is the rst thing that
is presented to us: “ Behold a virgin shall be with child,
and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” What
a great and precious truth-” God with us! “ en God, so to
speak, begins over again with man.
As soon as Jesus appears, Satan seeks to destroy Him.
It is astonishing to see how forgetful man is. e magi
who came from the East had owned Jesus as King of the
Jews born in Bethlehem; they had borne a testimony to
Emmanuel, to the Son of David. e shepherds, after
having worshipped, had spread abroad what the angels had
told them; and in spite of that, Jesus, although approved of
God, was disowned and rejected by men.
God begins over again the whole history of Israel in
the Person of Jesus. He must call His Son out of Egypt,
where He had sent Him, because men wanted to slay Him
the moment He had come into this world. Israel was really
lost, and God must begin over again all their history in the
Person of Jesus. Herod seeks the young child to destroy
Him. us we nd that opposition shows itself against
Jesus, even from His cradle.
Satan has carnal motives enough to persuade souls to
do away with God. His great work is to supply us with
motives powerful enough to lead us to do without God,
and to shut Him out of our hearts. Here we nd the way
he begins. He stirs up Herod against Jesus. en Joseph
takes the young child and departs into Egypt. After that he
returns into the land of Israel and dwells in Nazareth, for it
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was written, “ He shall be called a Nazarene.” is is in fact
where Jesus begins in the midst of the world. And who is it
who dwells there in Nazareth? It is Jehovah, the Savior; it
is “ Emmanuel.” And what is that city? It is so bad a place,
that to be found there is enough to make men say, Ah! I
will have none of it. Nathanael said to Philip, “ Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth? “
It is God whom I rst see in the Person of Jesus; but
God in the circumstances which the esh repels, because
it is wicked. To know God the esh must be entirely
mortied, and grace in our hearts must lead us to value
the love of God in spite of the esh. is is the history of
Christian life.
Outwardly Jesus was only a poor Nazarene; but perfection
was in His ways and in His heart, and it manifested itself
in the midst of every diculty, of all contempt, and all
that was false. Faith alone could discern the ways of Jesus
through want and every misery. e broken heart saw this
perfection of goodness manifesting itself in the midst of
every care. It is necessary our hearts should see also, in that
despised man, God Himself, who reveals Himself to our
souls and takes His place in our midst.
en Jesus comes to John to be baptized. John forbad
Him, because he owned the dignity of His Person. “ I have
need to be baptized of thee; and comest thou to me? “ Jesus
then “ said unto him, Suer it to be so now; for thus it
becometh us to fulll all righteousness.” Whom do I nd
here? It is the Lord Jesus and His Person owned; but, in
spite of that, His will is to take His place with the least of
the saints. “ us it becometh us to fulll all righteousness.”
Who are they, these we? It is John and Himself. Where does
He place Himself? He places Himself there, in connection
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with the rst movement of His Spirit in the heart. I place
Myself with those who repent, said Jesus. ere are some
who come to be baptized; I also, I come to be baptized.
As soon as there is a movement of repentance in the heart
of the sinner-a response to the testimony rendered by the
word- Jesus takes His place there with that heart. It is not
only that He manifests as an object that which, by faith,
becomes the crucifying of the esh, but He goes with the
heart also, and the poor heart sees all that; and what a
consolation for us! e one in whom the fullness of the
Father was manifested is there, and it is the Son Himself.
If a soul is broken down- well! Jesus is with it. If it is in
fear, because already “ the ax is laid unto the root of the
trees,” He is there to encourage it and to show unto it His
grace. He takes His place with His people, and thus we
see the perfect goodness of God. It was He Himself who
produced this movement of repentance in that heart, and
He takes His place with that soul; Jesus is there. If He
is to us the most high God, the One who manifests all
this light, He is there also as man, meeting the least of our
feelings. He is with us, believers, in all our misery and in all
our circumstances.
e consequence of the baptism of Jesus is that the
heavens are opened unto Him. It is not only the God
incarnate, but heaven is opened over Him; He has the full
approbation of God, and thereby we see all the extent of
that grace presented to sinners. Never was heaven opened
before. God had sent messengers, but never had there been
on earth a man upon whom heaven opened.
When Jesus has accomplished the work of atonement,
He places us in the same position as Himself. “ I ascend
unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your
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God.” Heaven is open. ere is no longer any veil on our
heart.
As man, Jesus was perfectly righteous, and although He
placed Himself in the position of those poor sinners who
drew nigh to God, He was none the less acceptable to God;
and indeed never was Jesus so acceptable to God, as when
He bare our sins on the tree. It was at the moment of His
death that He perfectly gloried God in all that He was as
man, and that He also at the same time bore testimony to
the perfect and innite love of God towards sinners.
Heaven is opened on Jesus-well! it is also entirely
opened on us. No sin can be tolerated before God; all that
is not of Christ, on whom heaven could be opened, God
beholds, and He cannot tolerate sin. But there is no longer
a veil as to us: we look on His glory in Jesus with unveiled
face; and the glory of God shines on man as he is in Jesus,
just as it shone on Jesus Himself. All that is not Christ is
condemned. All that is reprobate is manifested by Himself.
ere is another consequence of the acceptance of
Jesus; it is the Spirit of God, who descended upon Him
like a dove, and the voice from heaven, which made itself
heard, “ saying, is is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.”
Such is the position Jesus takes. He manifests His grace
in testimony to man when he is in his sins. He adapts
Himself to the circumstances of the sinner in his lowest
state; He identies Himself with him in the rst step he
takes under grace, but at the same time we see as to Himself
that there is a voice “ saying, is is my beloved Son.” is
is the perfect Man in the presence of God-the friend of
poor sinners, and the expression of all that God loves to see
in man in the midst of the world.
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But further (Matt. 4), if we are the children of God,
His beloved children, as we believe, loved as Jesus is loved
(as He said Himself: “ at the love wherewith thou hast
loved me may be in them, and I in them “), we are through
grace in the same position as Himself in the sight of God.
But it is needful that this perfectly beloved Person should
be tested, and we, not merely to know if we are children of
God, nor as sinners; as such, we have already been tested,
and we know we are lost. It is needful that grace should
work; and when it is a question of grace, it is always the
perfect grace of God toward sinners. All that is good must
be on God’s side, for in man there is nothing. e light
manifests that in God there is nothing but that which is
good, and in us no good thing. is love of God, in us,
produces a new life. We are in the position of children of
God, like Jesus; but then, the Spirit of God being in us, we
must be put to the test. ere are many things which hinder
us from enjoying the love of God. ere is selshness, self-
love, levity: therefore we must be put to the test, as Jesus
Himself was. Paul says, “ We glory in tribulations also …
and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts.”
us we are conscious of being children of God,
being looked upon by Him as Jesus Himself. en all is
begun; but all is not nished. As to acceptance indeed all
is nished. e child that God may have just given me is
truly my child, though its education be not gone through;
but it is as much my child, though just born, as when he
will be twenty.
Jesus, owned of God, takes His place according to
our weakness, and He is “ led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” What Satan always
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seeks is to make us forget our position as children. In
ourselves we are slaves of the devil; but we have been set
free by God. Satan wanted man to abandon his rst estate
which he had in Eden; and he succeeded. ere were “
angels which kept not their rst estate,” neither did Adam
keep his. Whatever the position in which man was placed,
he always failed. Nadab, Abihu, Solomon, were not able
to keep the estate in which they had been placed. Satan
always seeks to make us fall. Hence, although God brings
into blessing, He brings us also into trial; yet we know that
“ He who hath begun the good work will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ.” If Jesus leads His sheep out, “ he
goeth before them.” Satan rises up to make us fall if he
can; but man must in this world undergo the temptations
of the devil. Well, Christ also underwent them, and in that
position He acted as we ought to do ourselves. He does
not at rst say to Satan, “ Get thee hence “; but He places
Himself in the same position as ourselves, and He fasts
forty days and forty nights. But He is there with Him who
said to Him, “ is is my beloved Son.” He was conscious
of being the Son of God; yet, as man, Satan begins to
tempt Him. Do something, he says, inconsistent with
your position, something that is not obedience, to please
yourself, to satisfy your own will. “ If thou be the Son of
God, command that these stones be made bread.” But
Jesus answers him, “ It is written, Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.”
If Jesus had obeyed Satan as the rst Adam did, He
would have fallen; but He could not. Grace places Him in all
the diculties in which we may be found ourselves. What
is precious for us (it matters little in what circumstances) is
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that in Jesus we nd not only life but also the maintenance
of that life.
I have life, because God gave it to me; but in a practical
sense, if I do not eat I cannot live; John 6. ere is not in
our souls one single spiritual quality but what comes from
God. And, besides, see how Jesus acts practically. ere is
not a single word in the book of God which cannot feed
our souls; and therefore it is important for us to know how
to handle that word by the power of the Holy Ghost, in
order to be enabled to keep Satan at a distance.
“ en the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and
setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto
him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for
it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Satan quotes to
Him a promise, but Christ will not abandon the position
of obedience, and He answers him, “ ou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God.” We have here a principle of the utmost
importance. We have indeed the whole word of God, as a
means to gain the victory over Satan; but it is in the most
simple obedience that we nd strength. If Christ has not a
word from God, He does nothing. He came to do the will
of His Father; and if that which He is asked to do is not
according to that will, He does not act.
e true aection of Martha and Mary leads them to beg
of Jesus to come, saying to Him, “ He whom thou lovest is
sick.” is appeal was very touching; but the Lord does not
respond to it immediately: He had received nothing from
God, and He does not go. He does not listen to His natural
aections. He had indeed healed others that were sick; but
if He had healed Lazarus, Martha and Mary would have
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learned nothing more. Jesus then suers Lazarus to die,
and allows their heart to feel all the bitterness of death,
that they may learn that the resurrection and the life are
there.
Such is the obedience which is the principle of the life,
and not the rule only; and, as a Christian, I ought to do
nothing but what God wants me to do.
But besides I nd here another important principle,
which is, that I should have in God such perfect condence
that I never need to make a trial of it. It is tempting God
not to have the certainty that He loves us. I ought so to
reckon on His love and faithfulness as not to need even to
think of it.
Again, Satan says to Jesus, “ Cast thyself down.” Ah! I
need not do it, thought Jesus; I know full well that God will
keep Me. e Jews said, “ Is Jehovah amongst us, or not? “
Well, in that they tempted Jehovah. We ought to have such
assurance in God as to be able to think of nothing else but
His will.
As soon as the devil said to Jesus “ and worship me,”
then it is plainly Satan, and the Lord answers, “ Get thee
hence … ou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve.”
e two great principles in which Jesus walked are
obedience to the word without having any will, and perfect
condence in God. We also can reckon upon God, because
we are sure to have Him for us.
I would also call your attention to the way in which
Jesus placed Himself in our position. We see Him taking
His place with sinners who needed repentance, but in the
act which was the beginning of the divine life in them,
associating Himself with them in that baptism where
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their heart responded to the testimony of God about their
sins. ey were truly the excellent of the earth, those poor
publicans and sinners.
Jesus is found in the position of the obedient Son,
and thus fullling all righteousness. Heaven opens. Is
the temptation there? Jesus is found there also. He is
everywhere in order to sympathize with sinners. When
He presents Himself in this world, it is God Himself who
comes, and He shows in Him all that He would put in us.
It is a God who has placed Himself in such a position that
esh nds nothing there. One must absolutely learn that
it is the heart which must value God in His love, in His
holiness, and in the midst of a world entirely lying in the
wicked one.
How blessed to have Jesus! He puts Himself in our
place; and we have to do with a God who has manifested
Himself in the midst of the world, and who would have us
for Himself, but without sin. Having put away our sins, He
draws us to Himself, but without sin, to bring us to enjoy
what He is, in spite of every obstacle, and of all that is in
the esh. He would have us to enjoy perfectly that God
whom, by His grace, we have known as He is.
May God grant unto us to value the perfect beauty of
that Jesus who came to us! We know Him. Ah! how happy
are we to be enabled to say, “ I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have
committed to him! “
May God show us all the perfection of Jesus, and that
even in temptations; for we shall nd the beauty of One
who will not forsake us up to the time He will have placed
us in the same glory with Him!
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62812
Come Unto Me
Matthew 11:25-30
THE Lord, though deeply and thoroughly sensible of
Israel’s rejection of Him, bows completely to the will and
wisdom of God in it. (See Isa. 49.) “ I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them
unto babes.” In this His blest supremacy was fully shown.
“ Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” e
knowledge of God makes all necessarily good to us, for it
comes from Him. It may be very contrary to our nature. To
Jesus men’s rejection of His message was of course painful.
It threw Him on the sovereignty of God His Father whom
He knew, in the fact that His Father had hid these things
from the sages of the world, and revealed them to the
despised and weak. He acknowledged the Father in the
thing done, and in its suitableness to the whole order of
God’s dealings in such a world. at of course was all that
the Son of God, or we taught of the Spirit, could desire; but
it was in circumstances which required perfect submission
of heart and will.
But this perfect submission of the Son gave rest, and
brought His Person out to light. If He was thrown entirely
on the Father, it was because He was Son, and because
of His entire rejection in that character, in which, while
perfect and showing who He was, He had not taken His
glory, and would have taken but the earthly dominion. e
secret was that this was but “ a light thing.” All things were
delivered to Him of His Father, and by reason of the very
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glory of His Person, being Son of God, no man knew the
Son but the Father. His service now was to reveal the Father
in the prerogative of grace. For none knew the Father save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.
“ Come unto me,” says this only patient witness of love-
” Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden,
and I will give you rest.” Here I am, the rejected One, to
whom in sure title all things are delivered of my Father; but
One whose heart has bowed in all long-suering of love,
who has learned submission, who has felt what it is to be
pained and scorned and outwardly to nd no refuge but
submission. Come to Me. Men may have rejected Me, but
I am the Son, and none knows the Father but as I reveal
Him. Whosoever is burdened and passes not on with this
haughty world, whosoever labors and is heavy laden, here I
exercise My love. “ Come to me, and I will give you rest.” I
have learned how to speak a word in season to him that is
weary. (Compare Isaiah 50 and the end of Rom. 8, with its
full extent of blessing to us.)
It was the Lord’s submission under such circumstances
which brought the sense to His soul, and the revelation
to others, of a much better portion than that of Messiah
according to the law and the prophets. In regard to this, so
to speak, He was rejected, and blessed be God for it! He
had manifested patient gracious love to the nation, but they
repented not even where His mighty works were done. e
dispensation, although Messiah came in Person, ended in
failure. “ en I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent
my strength for naught and in vain.” He had stretched out
His hands to a rebellious and gainsaying people. When
He came, there was no man. For His love He had hatred.
Reproach broke His heart. His hopes for the people, the
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title that He had, the title of His own love, were cast aside.
Still there were babes who saw what was hidden from the
great. “ So it seemed good in thy sight,” was the hinge of
the Lord’s comfort. is was enough. But what follows on
this rejection? “ All things are delivered unto me of my
Father “; a wider, fuller, and more real glory. Yet, high as He
is, He bids all come and declares He will give them rest-
the rest of the revealed Father’s love.
ere is none else to come to. All have proved faithless.
Come to Me! Who could say this but the Son of God?
Who could give rest to all that come but the Son, Jehovah
Himself? But One will give rest freely and bountifully, the
meek and lowly Son of God. He gives rest supreme, as one
who knew what peace was in trouble as none ever did. He
speaks the secret of it to others. “ Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and
ye shall nd rest unto your souls.” It is not now “ I will
give.” at He could do as Jehovah and God the Lord; that
He would do. But the word here is, “ ye shall nd.” I have
learned the way. (“ Lo! I come to do thy will, O God.”) It is
found in the path which Jesus has trodden. He alone trod
it, or could tread it, perfectly in this world.
And yet it is not violent or laborious. In one sense it
is easy, as the Lord says. Submit! Say, “ Even so, Father;
for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Such is His yoke, and
thus we learn of Him, who ascribed all to the Father, not
to the circumstances. Hence He gave thanks to the Father
always for all things, as we may and ought to do in His
name. “ It seemed good in thy sight.” at was enough. It
was perfect submission, and the Father beamed out in it.
Its value hangs on the perfect knowledge of sonship. e
whole is most blessed, and to be learned only in Christ.
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e inniteness of the Son’s divinity was kept up, in His
humanity, and therefore apparent humiliation and present
inferiority, by His absolute inscrutability therein thus
specially and signally maintained; while His oneness with
the Father was made known in His competency to reveal,
and supremacy of will in revealing, the Father. Both hold
their place most beautifully, maintaining the Person in the
glory of communion with the Father, and the inscrutability
of God thus manifested while the Father was revealed.
How wise, perfect, singularly divine, is Scripture! ere
is nothing at all like it. No wit of man could have framed
such a sentence as that.
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62813
Jesus the Suerer
Matthew 26
I FEEL some diculty in speaking of the subject
before us here, not as to the doctrine itself but simply for
the excellency of it; for where Christ is presented in His
own perfectness all our thoughts are so inadequate. e
excellency of the Lord so surpasses all our thoughts. He
is sucient to be the Father’s delight: surely He ought to
be ours. But it is of importance that our hearts should be
occupied with Him, and this in His low estate. He is at the
right hand of God now: we should look at Him in glory
that we may be changed into the same image; but when we
look to be the same mind as Christ, we must look at Him
down here. us in Phil. 2, “ let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus “-when was that? When He who
being in the form of God in all the glory up there thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, made Himself of no
reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and
was made in the likeness of men; then when He was a
man, found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
ere are the two steps as it were as He is descending: rst,
when being in the form of God He came down to be a
man; and then when He who so humbled Himself became
obedient unto the death of the cross.
is is the way in which He came from the actual glory
of God-came down: nothing stopped Him even then. But
here He is before men. Putting away sin He was alone
with God. It was all darkness: man had done his worst,
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and Satan. It was what the twenty-second Psalm brings
before us when He speaks of the bulls of Bashan (v. 1-18).
“ But be not thou far from me “-it was an appeal to God
in what I may call human trials; He was cast into that-
all this wickedness; His rejection in His perfectness cast
Him upon God; and then to nd He was forsaken of God!
ere we get the ecacy of the sacrice in putting away
sin. But it is the traits of Christ’s character in the path I
desire to speak of.
If we come to the cross, we must come by our wants and
sins; no one comes truly, unless he comes as a sinner whose
sins brought him there. But when we pass through the
rent veil into the presence of God in perfect peace through
the ecacy of the work He accomplished, and look back
at the cross by which we came, in contemplating it in a
divine way we nd that the cross then has in it a glory
and excellency all its own, of which everything in God’s
ways is the result-even the new heavens and the new earth.
God was perfectly gloried in it. It was the climax of good
and evil: all was met there. We must come to the cross as
sinners to nd the good of it; but if we have found peace by
it, coming into God’s presence reconciled, it is everything
we shall see forever. We never shall forget the Lamb that
was slain. But still we can contemplate it in a divine way.
I get in the cross the perfectness of man’s sin, positive
enmity against God present in goodness. Nothing would
do for man but to get rid of Him-” Him ye have taken
and by wicked hands have crucied and slain.” “ If I had
not come and done among them the works which none
other man did, they had not had sin,” then they would have
been justied in rejecting Him, “ but now have they both
seen and hated both me and my Father.” ere I get the
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extreme of man’s wickedness: when God was presented
in goodness, it only drew out his hatred. e power was
present in Christ to meet all the eects of sin by His
word: the manifestation of it drew out the enmity of man’s
heart against Him, and they crucied Him. ere you get
all that man is brought out in the presence of God. He
had broken the law before; and now God had come in in
perfect goodness and power (power that could remove all
their distresses), but it was God’s power; and they would
not have it, they crucied Him. On the other hand we see
there all the power of Satan: therefore it says, “ Now is
the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this
world be cast out “: they were all led by him against Christ:
“ this is your hour and the power of darkness.” He had
overcome him in the temptation in the wilderness; it is said
in Luke he departed from Him for a season. Now He says,
“ e prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me
“: he who had power over the earth (for Satan was really
the prince of this world) had come back and succeeded in
moving up the hatred of man’s heart against Him.
But now see the absolute perfectness of the second
Man” But that the world may know that I love the Father,
and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do.” I get
in man (more than man) perfect love to the Father and
perfect obedience, and when He had the dreadful cup to
drink (mark the absolute need there was of it!) that perfect
obedience and love to the Father made good in the very
place where He stood as sin. On the other hand in the
cross I nd God’s innite love and grace abounding over
sin: perfect love, giving His Son for us; and then at the
same time perfect righteousness judging against sin, and
God’s majesty vindicated. “ It became him for whom are
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all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through suerings.” I see thus perfect evil in man
and Satan, perfect good in man (but He was God), and
perfect love in God, and righteousness in God against
sin when it was met as such, all brought out in the cross;
evil and good meeting there. And it is what has laid the
immutable foundation in righteousness for all that will
come in in goodness and blessing in the new heavens and
new earth, resting not upon responsibility but upon the
accomplishment of the work the value of which never can
be known.
e more we think of the cross (we have come as
sinners needing it, but as Christians, reconciled to God,
we can sit down and contemplate it), we see it stands
totally alone in the history of eternity. Divine glory, man’s
sin, Man’s perfectness, Satan’s evil, God’s power and love
and righteousness, all were brought out and met there.
Accordingly it is the immutable foundation of man’s
blessing, and of everything that is good in heaven and
earth. en, when our souls are reconciled, we look at Him
and learn of Him: “ Take my yoke upon you and learn of
me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall nd
rest.” He sees that the world had given Him up: there was
no rest upon earth. He searched with wonderful patience
for a place of rest, but there was no such thing to be found.
He knew it, and had tried it; the Son of man had not where
to lay (not merely outwardly) His head, but to rest His
heart; no more than Noah’s dove found rest for the sole of
her feet. “ I looked for some man to take compassion, but
there was none.” Yet feeling this, it is just there He says, “
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and
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I will give you rest: take my yoke,” etc., “ and ye shall nd
rest unto your souls.”
I desire then that, while we rest in the blessed ecacy
of the sacrice, our thoughts should be formed by the
blessed One-that is the practical secret of going through
this world;
“ He that eateth me shall live by me.” No doubt the taste
ought to grow continually in us. ere are the two sides of
Christian life; if it is to give courage, victory over the world,
I look at His glory as in Phil. 3 ere it is the energy that
runs after to win Christ at the end, counting all else dross
and dung. In the second chapter it is the other side, not the
object, but His lowliness in coming down is set before us.
In Matthew He is specially the victim. All through in
a wonderful way you get His entire submission, but along
with that, what is most striking, the depths of His path of
suering. inking of the cup He says, “ If it be possible, let
this cup pass from me.” In Luke we read of His sweating
as it were great drops of blood; it is as a man there. But you
nd this extreme sense of what the terribleness of God’s
wrath was. In the measure in which He knew what it was
to be holy, He felt what it was to be made sin before God.
In the measure in which He knew the love of God, He felt
what it was to be forsaken of God. His suering was in
that sense perfect, innite, in that He was contemplating
it with His Father. Looking at it with Him, He says, “ If
it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” You nd His
soul going through this utter depth, so that He sweat as
it were great drops of blood; but when He comes back to
His disciples, there is not a trace of it. He speaks to them
as graciously and tenderly, entering into their thoughts as
if there was no cup at all to drink. “ What! could ye not
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watch with me one hour? “ It is wonderful to trace this,
you will nd it all through Christ’s life, perfect sensibility
to all that was around Him (except in the extreme case
when He was forsaken of God), but always Himself-never
governed by it though He felt it all perfectly. e instant
He turns round to the disciples, He has nothing to do but
manifest the greatest tenderness and kindness. You see it
all through; even before Pontius Pilate He says nothing,
He is as a lamb led to the slaughter; as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth; He was
dumb unless kindness and good was to be done to another:
then He is as if nothing was happening, perfect goodness,
perfect sensibility to all. It is His perfect submission, His
perfect sense of the dreadful thing He was just about to go
through we see; yet, because He felt it entirely with His
Father, He could turn round and be just as perfect as to it
with His disciples.
Now they come to take Him. He looked for some to
take pity, but there was none, and for comforters but found
none. He is God over all, yet still and thoroughly a man.
Yet, as another has said, He never asked them to pray for
Him; but says, “ Tarry ye here and watch with me.” To
me it is most precious to nd thus, that He who was with
God and was God made esh, felt as a man in everything.
When asking His disciples to watch with Him, He knew
the world was against Him: He looked to those that He
had been most with, that they should be with Him. But
He must have nothing. He was tested and tried to the last
degree of human suering and sorrow, standing alone in
this, praying in an agony and alone. Where were the people
that were going to prison and death with Him? ey were
asleep, deceived; asleep in the presence of the glory of the
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kingdom on the mount, asleep in the garden! at shows
what poor things we are-not sin exactly; but it shows what
Christ was to have as His portion in this world; none to
sympathize with Him. Mary of Bethany was the only
one, but for the rest never one had sympathy with Him;
never one that wanted it that He had not sympathy with.
Moved by Judas they say, “ To what purpose is this waste?
“ What kind of hearts had they? It is just there God gives
testimony to Him. In John (chap. II) you have testimony
borne to Him as Son of God in raising Lazarus. God
would not allow Him to be rejected unless there was this
testimony. en Mary puts this ointment upon Him; and
when all were against Him, the Greeks come up desiring
to see Him; and the hour is come that the Son of man
should be gloried. “ Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit.” ere is that care in which God secures
a testimony to Him; but I do not think you will ever nd
another instance of sympathy with the Lord’s heart. How
would you like that? It is dreadful! It was a dreadful world
to Him. He was perfect and went through it. Here at the
very moment that He asked them to watch with Him, they
are asleep.
en He goes all alone with His Father, going through
it in spirit with Him. Now, that the answer to that cup
might be fully drawn out, He cries, “ If it be possible, let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will but as
thou wilt.” It was not possible. “ And being in an agony he
prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Now having
been in this agony He comes back to His disciples and says
to them in the gentlest way, “ What! could ye not watch
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with me one hour? “ What gentleness of grace-” watch and
pray lest ye enter into temptation.” Now He is thinking
only of them. Where is the cup? He had gone through it all
with the Father, and therefore His heart is ready in service;
even at that very moment He is ready for any service. If
we in our little measure carried all our exercises, our little
troubles, to God, to go fully through all with Him, our
hearts would be all free and happy to turn round and care
for others.
e depth of His misery He went through perfectly in
His spirit with God; it was fully out with God: and for
that reason being thus fully out, He could turn with perfect
peace to say to others, “ Watch and pray that ye enter not
into temptation.” It is the only place you get His sense of
where He was-His saying, “ Watch and pray.” Everything
that meets us is either a temptation or an occasion of
obedience. It was to Him an occasion of perfect obedience:
“ e cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink
it? “ Everything you meet with is a case in which you
serve Christ or do your own will, and this is entering into
temptation. See how He speaks in grace to Peter: “ e
spirit is willing, but the esh is weak.” Oh I know you love
Me; your hearts are all right, but it is this poor weakness.
What perfect grace! Counting on their hearts in one
sense when the temptation was coming; and when they
had totally failed, He thought of the danger to them and
says as to it, “ Watch and pray … the spirit is willing but
the esh is weak “; when the instant before His sweat was
as it were great drops of blood. What perfect submission!
What lowliness of heart! And therefore what perfection of
service, of love to God and to others! Just what we should
do. “ He went away again the second time and prayed,
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saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from
me except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and
found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he
left them and went away again, and prayed the third time
saying the same words. en cometh he to his disciples and
saith unto them, Sleep on now and take your rest, behold
the hour is at hand.” You have no need to watch now; the
time for it is over.
All through this is the character of Christ-He had gone
through it with His Father. On the cross it is-as in all the
rest-entire complete submission. He is a victim here, led as
a lamb to the slaughter. Even with Judas-” he that betrayed
him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss that
same is he: hold him fast.” It is terrible to think of Judas
urging them to hold Him fast! In Judas you get lust of
money; you see a progress of sin. He was a thief and had
the bag, and bare what was put therein. en Satan tempts
him to betray Him, I do not doubt with the idea that He
would get free. en after supper Satan enters into him,
and he was hardened against all natural feeling, for many
a bad man would not betray his friend by a kiss. “ And
forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and
kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art
thou come? en came they and laid hands on Jesus and
took him.”
en we get simple submission on the part of Jesus, meek
and lowly in heart. He might have had more than twelve
legions of angels; “ but how then shall the scriptures be
fullled that thus it must be? “ Mark what is most striking
here: at this last wonderful moment when He was going
to drink that cup of wrath, when the Word, the blessed
Son of God as a man, was going into that which none
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of us can fathom, that there is nothing like in heaven or
earth-to endure that which was due to sin-the Scriptures,
the word that God had spoken, must be fullled. What a
testimony of their being the expression of divine thoughts-
of His Father’s mind, even to the Lord Himself! And
so they ought to be to us. When Satan came, he gets a
text-” Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” When Satan
comes again, “ It is written.” Now at this last moment the
Scriptures must be fullled. Scripture to Him suced as
the expression of God’s mind. He was in perfect innite
communion with the Father. Look at the gentle patience
with which He speaks to the multitudes” I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on me.”
In John we look at the divine side of it, “ No man laid
hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” e
time was come, “ All this was done that the scriptures
might be fullled.” What a scene of obedience, of perfect
submission to God’s mind! e moment it comes to this
point, “ all the disciples forsook him and ed.” He was to
have no comforter. When He is brought to the chief priest,
He answers nothing until the high priest adjures Him. If
a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing, etc., is a witness
whether he hath seen or known of it, if he do not utter it,
then he shall bear his iniquity. So He utters it then: “ ou
hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, From henceforth
shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of
power and coming in the clouds of heaven.” On His own
testimony they condemn Him. He was the truth, and was
put to death for being the truth. It was the same way before
Pilate, who asks, “ Art thou a king? “ Jesus answers, “ ou
hast said.” We have seen the perfectness of Christ with His
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Father in all the depths of that which He had to suer; also
His way-the same blessed way-before men. “ It was not
an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it;
neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself
against me, then I would have hid myself from him.” In
every circumstance He went through all that was most
absolutely painful to man’s heart, and at the same time was
there the expression of divine goodness.
I will now just look at the same scenes as they are
presented in John and Luke. In John it is the other side of
these truths; it is all through the divine side. When they
come out to meet Him, He asks, “ Whom seek ye? “ and
they went backward and fell to the ground. Looking at it
as a Man, He had only to walk away. It is the divine side
of power, while we see His absolute submission as man: “
therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my
life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me,
but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down and
power to take it again.” He says the second time, “ Whom
seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered,
I have told you that I am he; if therefore ye seek me, let
these go their way.” He puts Himself freely forward, the
divine Person giving Himself, and lets the disciples escape.
ere is no attachment to Himself manifest on their part;
but He lls the gap, and they are safe. It is the same on the
cross: there is no cry of “ my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? “ there; it is His divine perfectness above it all.
“ After this [having committed His mother to the disciple]
Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that
the scripture might be fullled, saith, I thirst.” en He
said, “ It is nished, and he bowed his head and gave up
the ghost.” When all that the Spirit of God had said would
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come was fullled and nished, He gave up His own spirit
to His Father-it is the divine side of it all you see in John.
In Matthew we get the victim; He is the lamb going to
the slaughter. But I must say a word on Luke.
In Luke we get the perfect blessedness of the Lord and
His suerings in Gethsemane more fully than anywhere
else, but on the cross not one expression of sorrow; He is
fullling Scripture. Just as in John we have seen the divine
side, here I nd Him still more distinctly brought out as a
Man. “ Being in an agony,” in deep aiction of soul, He is
cast as man on His Father-” he prayed more earnestly.” So
great was His condence, perfect in His agony. It is there
we nd “ his sweat was as it were great drops of blood
falling down to the ground,” and an angel from heaven
strengthening Him. So also in Luke you get Christ praying
much more often than in the other Gospels, because the
object is to present Him to us as Son of man. On the cross
you do not get one expression of sorrow-He had gone
through it perfectly (I speak of the cup). “ My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? “ is not in Luke. e
sorrow was there, it is true, but it is not that side. We get
then the perfectness of Jesus who had gone through it all
with His Father in the garden. And so entirely is He above
it that at the close occur the words, “ Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit: and having said this he expired.”
We have the blessed Lord thus presented in these various
characters.
John gives a divine Person: “ as soon as he had said unto
them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground
“; He could have gone away, but it was not for that He had
come: “ If ye seek me, let these go their way.” You see divine
power and the divine perfectness of love, not exercising the
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power, but putting Himself forward to stand in the gap
that they might escape. And on the cross He gives up His
own spirit. In Luke 1 nd His own sorrow and suering as
man in Gethsemane, more than in the other Gospels: and
on the cross above all the circumstances He commends
His spirit to the Father. In Matthew He is the sheep going
to the slaughter.
e more we look to follow the blessed Lord in His
path here, the more our hearts are bound in right aections
to Him. He stood alone, ever as a man down here perfectly
alone; and there is nothing more trying. “ All ye shall
be oended because of me this night.” Again He says, “
Behold the hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be
scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone,
and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me
“-nobody else! He looked for compassion, and got none;
for some to watch with Him, and they fell asleep: to stand
by Him, and they all forsook Him and ed. He is betrayed
with a kiss. He felt it all: it was not an enemy, but thou,
a man, my companion; “ yea mine own familiar friend in
whom I trusted which did eat of my bread has lifted up his
heel against me.” Follow Him all through: it puts down the
pride of the heart; it sets us men very low, but it sets Him as
man in a wonderful perfectness; not man in the glory, but
a man going through everything that could test the heart
in the purest possible way; a man tested in every possible
way, bowing His head as a victim, feeling it so that His
sweat was as it were great drops of blood, going through
it all as man so that our hearts might follow Him- going
through every depth, and we poor creatures only standing
by to look at Him. It is well if we are not asleep too! at is
where it draws out the aections. It sifts the will. e will
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and aections never go together; will is self, aections rest
necessarily in another. He is the perfect object-” therefore
doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I
might take it again.” To see Him in the meekness of His
path giving Himself for us, never turning Himself aside,
perfect in going through all, just as quiet with Him as if
nothing had happened. He suered it so with God. We
want our hearts to get right; we want our wills to be broken
down; if we go and look at Christ as thus presented to us in
Gethsemane, can we seek to satisfy the will now?
us I get what is outside myself as an object that
sets my aections perfectly right, and that does not leave
a possibility of my will working. Looking at One that is
beyond me, I nd One that does not leave the possibility
of the working of my will, but that draws out the energy of
the aections of my heart and sets my will aside. He could
say, “ erefore doth my Father love me “: so blessed was
it, so perfect was He in it, that it gave a cause to God to
love Him. Only divine perfectness could give a cause for
divine love. e heart knowing that He is now in glory
gets lled. “ I am the bread that came down from heaven,”
that we might abide in Him. “ Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus.” We are to be like Him
in this character-He humbled Himself, He went always
down till God took Him up. Are we content to follow
Him? Looking at Him and seeing His perfectness, are we
content to have all our aections lled with Christ, and
no will at all? We are going to be with Him forever; and
we can enjoy what He is in heaven, in which His perfect
blessedness is before our hearts and has been tested by us.
How far have our hearts tasted of that bread, and how far
are we kept, our wills subdued and occupied with Christ? It
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is what God the Father delights in. ere is the ecacy of
His work as the foundation; but how far is Christ Himself
the object of our souls’ delight, dwelling on Him so that
they are kept awake? ere is nothing that forms the heart,
breaking down the will in us, like the delight that we have
in Christ in fellowship with the Father.
e Lord give us while resting in His precious blood to
go and contemplate Him, feed upon Him and live by Him:
“ He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” See Him
the lowly blessed patient One at God’s right hand now,
the One that God has given to keep our hearts right in the
world of folly and pride. e Lord give us to live by Him.
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Christ Dealing With
Conscience and Heart
Mark 7
IT is said that the Lord is the truth, “ I am the way, the
truth, and the life “; and He does bring out everything in
a remarkable way. He shows out what God is in Himself,
and what man is; and God’s grace has come with Him: “
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
In this chapter we nd truth rst, truth as to man’s
condition; but there is also the grace of God’s heart. It is
a great thing to have the two together. If truth had come
without grace, we could not have borne it a moment.
Man is a sinner utterly unt for heaven; but it is immense
comfort that grace and truth have come together. God’s
two essential names are Love and Light. If we had not
love with light, it would have condemned us; but we have
perfect light in presence of perfect love. Our comfort is that
light does come and reveal everything. Being in God’s very
nature, we cannot separate the two things, light and love.
Just the same things appear in the details of the Christian’s
life.
In many instances in Scripture we see how light
penetrates: but there is an attractive power along with it.
ere is never real working in man’s soul without attractive
power. e Christian stands “ accepted in the beloved “; but
the light of God comes in on all his ways. Take the prodigal:
the light shines in and shows that he is a lost sinner, but
there is attractive power too. “ I will arise and go to my
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188
father.” Take the woman that was a sinner. ere was a
sense of sinfulness because light comes in; but the measure
in which light shone into her soul cannot be separated
from the love that came with it. Take Peter, falling at Jesus’
knees, and saying at the same time, “ Depart from me.”
Wherever the blessed God reveals Himself to our souls,
nothing is left in the dark. If anything is not completely
revealed it may come out in the day of judgment; but all is
revealed. We have a perfect revelation of God as light and
as love; and both are working in the soul.
If you have an idea of God’s love without the conscience
being reached, it may pass away as the morning dew. It
is a blessed thing that we are brought to God, and that
everything is fully out. e blessed Lord bore our sin; there
was full light and full love at the cross. ere are two parts
in the gospel; one is the revelation of God; the other is
the work done by the Lord standing as Man for us on the
cross. First we nd the revelation of God Himself, then the
work of the Lord.
In the chapter I have read it is rather the character of
the Lord as thus revealing God than the work which He
has done. Here you see rst, religious, very religious, man;
the authority of the elders, the cleansing of the outside.
It is much easier to wash one’s hands than to wash one’s
heart. Man hides the state of his heart by all these outward
things. e Lord comes in, searching and judging all the
religion of man. Where the heart has not been puried,
where the soul is not right with God, religion only hardens.
Cain was just the expression of this; he was just as religious
as Abel, and his religion cost him more than Abel’s.
“ Ought “ is not the question now; there is another: what
we have done and what we are. e question is not whether
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189
the law is right, but whether I am right. Abel recognized
that he was wrong, a sinner out of paradise and without
hope, unless God would save the lost. Cain’s oering was
nothing but perfect hardness of heart. If the light of God
shines into my soul and nds nothing but sin and impurity,
my conviction is that I cannot go to God in myself, unless
He has found and given a blessed way. e real question
for people’s souls is, not what they ought to do, but what
they have done and what they are. ink of the audacity
of people coming to God as they are! Man is doing all he
can; his thought is trying a way to satisfy God and purify
himself outwardly-he feels he cannot inwardly. Here it is
not professed religiousness, but the heart of man detected.
e Lord goes right through this veil that is over the heart
of man to the heart itself, and He tells what proceeds from
it. What about the good? He says nothing of it whatever.
In us dwells “ no good thing.” Man is a judged creature. He
will set up man in a thousand ways; but God has judged
him. ere are the natural faculties of man-all true; but
what has that to do with the soul? “ When his breath goeth
forth, all his thoughts perish.”
When God was not dealing in a special way with man,
he became so bad that God had to bring in the ood. en,
when He did deal in a special way, the golden calf was
made as soon as the law was given. Last of all He sent His
Son. We are now living in a world where man has rejected
God in grace.
e rst thing we read of man was that he departed from
God; that was Adam. We see the same in Noah before,
in Solomon after, as in the Israelites when they made the
golden calf. When the priesthood was instituted, Nadab
and Abihu oered strange re. ere was the patience of
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190
God going on saving souls all the time: I do not deny this.
Man was lawless when he had no law; he broke the law
when he got the law: he was God-hating when the Lord
Jesus came into the world. It is better that the light should
come in and show me what I am.
God has since set out a meeting-place with man-the one
way, the altar of the tabernacle. is is God’s one meeting
point with man. If you do not come as a sinner, you do not
come in truth, you do not come for grace. Having ripped
up the veil with which man tries to cover himself, the
Lord showed what the heart of man is-a terrible picture,
and terrible because true. He whose love spoke it, comes
as light into the world. When light comes, I do not say,
man is a sinner, but I am a sinner; “ And we indeed justly.”
ere is truth. So far we have it told, but grace had come to
tell it. en all dispensations are set aside, and God comes
out as sovereign. ere are two things in the gospel: God
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and Christ
made sin by God. Here it is God coming into a world of
sinners.
People know there is a judgment coming, and they hope
to get into some kind of preparation for that judgment. In
contrast with this thought we have, “ Knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” ose who are
Christians ought to judge everything by the judgment-
seat of Christ. It is very fruitful to the Christian, but is not
in itself Christianity. e grace of the gospel is the very
opposite to judgment. God comes into a world of sinners
not imputing their sins. e gospel is this blessed truth,
that God is dealing with men above all their sins. He comes
into this world to show holiness itself-a holiness that never
could be contaminated, and to bear love into a world of
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191
sinners. e Syrophenician had no title to promises. Being
of a doomed race, as to dispensation, she had only curses,
the very opposite to promises. e Lord rst deals with her
on this ground:
“ It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast
it to dogs.” He brings her to her true place as He always
does. You may try and spare the soul, but it must be in truth
before it learns grace. Would you all say, “ Yes, Lord, but the
dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table? “
She had not a word to say for herself; but she had a word to
say for God. e publicans and harlots justied Him, and
He justied them. So it always is where He works in grace
and truth. I believe there is overowing goodness for the
children; but there is something for the dogs too. Could
Jesus say there was not? It was real knowledge of God and
herself.
e heart must be brought to this, “ I have no
righteousness, I have no promises, but I have God come into
the world to us as sinners, and because we are sinners.” He
never said “ Come to me “ till He had rst come Himself.
ere was perfect light to convict, but the convicted sinner
nds himself in the presence of perfect love. Have you ever
said “ Yes, Lord,” owning that you had no righteousness
and no promises; only that you trust the perfect love that
brought Christ into the world? en the thought of what
God is towards you takes the place of what you are towards
God. Here I am, just as I am, in the presence of perfect
love-love that cannot deny itself. e sinner nds he has
a title in God’s heart when he can nd none in his own.
e woman that was a sinner loved much because much
was forgiven her. It was a broken heart that met the heart
of God, and the heart of God met a broken heart. It is
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192
wonderful when the heart of man really meets the heart
of God. e moment I am brought through grace into full
distinct consciousness that there is no good in me, I nd
this; I nd the perfect blessed love of God which has met
me where I am in His presence.
At the cross you see sin meeting God, Christ being
made sin for us, and the nature of God gloried-far more
than merely sin being put away. While the Lord puts away
sin, He prepares the way to the accomplishment of all the
counsels of God. At the cross I nd man made sin in the
presence of God-a divine Person too, of course; and this
not to screen but to sustain Him. ere is love that has
met me in my sins, and now there is righteousness in the
presence of God, our Forerunner being there. e truth is
there; but there is also the perfect love of God to put away
sin. e heart is then free to trust the love unhinderedly.
Remember this, beloved friends: I am not my own at all
now; I am in a new place altogether-a place into which I
have been brought in perfect love, in divine righteousness,
in the presence of God Himself. We have power now-the
power of the Holy Ghost. e Christian is in this world to
show what Christ is. If you call yourselves Christians, you
are the epistle of Christ: it is not merely said you ought to
be, but you are. He sends you back to the world to witness
what God is. You have responsibility as a Christian now,
not as a man. All responsibility ows from the place we
are in. If Christian responsibility is measured, as a child of
God, nothing that does not suit the blood of Christ suits
you. Is Christ the motive of everything you do, and this in
things of every-day life? For you are not to be heroes and
heroines. Is Christ all and in all? “ Be ye therefore followers
of God, as dear children.” Walk as children of the Father.
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193
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e Word Made Flesh
John 1:1-13
THERE is one remark that furnishes a most important
key to the Gospel of John, which is illustrated very simply
and manifestly in this rst chapter. e object of the Holy
Ghost is to assert the personal glory of Jesus; and hence
it is that there is not perhaps a single chapter in the New
Testament that presents our Lord in so many dierent
aspects, yet all personal, as this opening chapter of his
Gospel. His divine glory is carefully guarded. He is said
in the most distinct language to be God as to His nature,
but withal a man. He is God no less than the Father is, or
the Holy Ghost; but He is the Word in a way in which the
Father and the Holy Ghost were not. It was Jesus Christ
the Son of God who alone was the Word of God. He only
after a personal sort expressed God. e Father and the
Holy Ghost remained in their own unseeable majesty. e
Word had for His place to express God clearly; and this
belonged to Him, it is evident, as a distinctive personal
glory. It was not merely that He was the Word when He
came into the world, but “ in the beginning was the Word
“ when there was no creature. Before anything came into
being that was made, the Word was in the beginning with
God; not merely in God, as if merged or lost in God, but
He had a distinct personal subsistence before a creature
existed. He “ was in the beginning with God.” is is of
immense importance, and with these truths our Gospel
opens.
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en we nd His creation glory stated afterward. “ All
things were made by him.” ere is nothing which more
stamps God to be God than giving existence to that which
had none, causing to exist by His own will and power. Now
all things exist by the Word: and so emphatically true is
this that the Spirit has added, “ and without him was not
anything made that was made.”
But there was that which belonged to the Lord Jesus
that was not made: “ In him was life.” It was not only that
He could cause a life to exist that had not before existed,
but there was a life that belonged to Him from all eternity.
“ In him was life.” Not that this life began to be: all else,
all creation, began to be; and it was He that gave them the
commencement of their existence. But in Him was life, a
life that was not created, a life that was therefore divine in
its nature.
It was the reality and the manifestation of this life
which were of prime importance to man. Everything else
that had been since the beginning of the world was only
a creature; but in Him was life. Man was destined to have
the display of this life on earth. But it was in Him before
He came among men. e life was not called the light of
angels but of men. Nowhere do we nd that eternal life is
created. e angels are never said to have life in the Son
of God. ey were kept by divine power and holy. eirs
is a purely creature life, whereas it is a wonderful fact of
revelation that we who believe have the eternal life that
was in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and are therefore said
to be partakers of the divine nature. is is in no way true
of an angel. It is not that we for a moment cease to be
creatures, but we have what is above the creature in Christ
the Son of God.
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And this “ light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehendeth it not.” It is striking to remark here the
entire passing over of all the history of the world of which
we are apt to make so much, yea, even of the dispensational
dealings of God with men. All is passed by very briey
indeed-those ages that man thinks all but interminable, in
which God gave being to the creature and in which He
may have changed over and over again the various forms
of the creature, where science is endeavoring to pursue its
uncertain and weary way. All this is closed up in the few
words, “ All things were made by him.” Scripture, and this
chapter in particular, summarizes it with striking brevity.
“ All things were made by him.” e details of it were left
completely aside. What was good for us to know we are
told in Gen. 1 ere is nothing like that chapter even in
cosmogonies which borrowed from it. And all that man
has thought or said or written about a system of the world
is not to be named with it for depth or certainty, as well as
for simplicity, in the smallest compass.
But there is a reason why all such matters vanish after
two or three words. It is because the Lord Jesus, the Word
of God, is the object that the Holy Ghost is dwelling on.
e moment that He is brought out creation just pays
Him homage, owning Him to be the Creator, and is then
forthwith dismissed. “ All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made.” It is
enough to say that He created all. He remains in His own
grace. Now we learn what is the Spirit’s object in this. It
was not to give us details of the creation; it was to acquaint
us with Jesus as the light of men.
In what condition then did He nd men? Were there
not great dierences among them, as was thought? ere
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were some, most indeed, idolaters, yet wise and prudent,
worshipping stocks and stones; and others who were not
idolaters but very zealous for the law as given by Moses.
Not that a word is said yet about the law, nor about any
dierences, but that the Word of God was the light that
manifested everybody: whether Jews or Gentiles, they were
only darkness. It is not therefore only that the physical
creation is passed by most curtly, but the moral world is
closed with almost equal brevity. “ e light shineth in
darkness,” and whatever the boasting of the Gentiles, and
the law of the Jews (which was real as compared with the
Gentiles), here all is measured and put out, as it were, by
the true light, the Word of God. Jew or Gentile, they are
but darkness, and the light shines in darkness, and spite of
all its pretension and pride, the darkness comprehended it
not. “ e natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God.” When the Holy Ghost is come down, things
are also tested and convicted by Him; and He is brought
forward by Paul somewhat as John here introduces the Son
of God. It shows how poor all of man is in comparison
with God, and how little he is capable of appreciating the
truth in the Son or by the Spirit.
en we nd John brought in. e reason why he is
singled out from all others I believe to be this: he was the
immediate forerunner of the Lord Jesus. He would surely
not have been named here if it were not, because he was
the moon that derived its light from the sun-from the Lord
Jesus just about to come. His was only a derivative light,
and he seems brought in here because of that peculiarity.
Other prophets were too distant from Christ, but John was
near enough to be an immediate precursor of the Messiah.
“ ere was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
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e same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light,
that all men through him might believe.” It is no question
of law-testing or proving. All this was very important in its
place; but the glory that the law had is completely eclipsed
by a brighter glory. Scripture therefore takes pains to say,
John “ was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of
that light.” He might be a burning and a shining lamp (as
it ought to be in chapter 5), but he was only an earthly and
derived light. “ He was not that light.” “ at was the true
light “; Jesus is the light, the true light, which (as rightly
rendered) on coming into the world lighteth every man. It
is speaking of the eect of Christ’s coming into the world.
It is not every man that cometh into the world; but that,
when He comes into the world, He is the One that casts
His light on every one here below. ere had been a time
when, as it is said in the Acts, God winked at the ignorance
of men; but now everything must appear in its own light
or rather darkness, because the true light was come; and
therefore when He comes into the world He lights every
man there: all are brought out just as they are and none can
escape. “ He was in the world, and the world was made by
him “; and the awful result of this darkness was that “ the
world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.”
e world was guilty enough, it was so dark that it did
not even know Him; the Jews had abundance of truth by
which they might know Him, but their will was still more
set against the Son of God than even the poor Gentiles. “
His own received him not. But as many as received him, to
them gave he power [title or right] to be children of God,
even to them that believe on his name: which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the esh, nor of the will of
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man, but of God.” What a blessed place! and blessed to
know that this is our place to which grace has entitled us
now in His name! May we seek to make Him known to
every creature with all our hearts in the measure of power
the Lord has given us, honoring thus, and in every other
way, the Lord Jesus, whom the Holy Ghost loves to honor.
We have other glories of His brought out afterward. We
hear of Him as the Son, the Lamb of God, the Baptizer
with the Holy Ghost, the King of Israel, and the Son
of man. All these are successively unfolded to us in this
chapter. Indeed it would be dicult to say what glory of
our Lord is not presented here except that of Priest and
of Head of the church. John never gives us the priesthood
of Jesus. He touches what is close on it, when He speaks
in his rst epistle of advocacy with the Father; but the
business of John was to show His divine personal glory,
yet as man on earth. Priest was what He was called to be
in heaven; and as Head of the church He is there also. But
John shows us what He was in Himself as coming from
heaven, and that He does not lose one whit of His glory
by becoming a man. In His being Priest and Head of the
church we see special glories which He received on going
up to heaven, and these Paul develops fully. John’s point is
God and the Father manifested on earth in the Person of
Jesus Christ His Son.
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62764
e Presence of the Holy
Ghost on Earth
Consequent on Christ’s
Exaltation to the Right
Hand of God
John 1:29-34
THIS chapter is remarkable inasmuch as it brings
before us the various titles or names of Christ, almost all
that He is in His varied titles, unless indeed the relative
ones. You do not see Him as Head of the church, nor as
priest, nor Christ; but you get Him as only-begotten Son
of God, who reveals the Father, Son of and King of Israel,
the Lamb of God, Life, the Light, the Word, the Creator,
the Son of man, the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, all
the names that tell what He is in His own Person. In an
abstract way you have what His nature is, His personality,
light, life: only that, when John brings in man’s condition
with the testimony to what man is as rejecting Christ, “ e
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not.”
e three other Gospels present Christ to man to be
received, and close with His rejection, but this Gospel
takes up His rejection from the very beginning, “ He was
in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not; he came to his own and his own
received him not,” and you then have what grace does and
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the objects of grace distinct. After the abstract statement of
what He was comes the testimony, not of what Christ was,
but what He became. “ e Word became esh and dwelt
among us.” ere His Person, as incarnate, is brought out,
not what He was abstractedly but “ became esh.” en,
in the verses I read, you get His work. You have thus what
He is essentially and in His nature, then what He became-
incarnation in a word, and also His revealing the Father-”
No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten
Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him “; and also we receive of His fullness. He becomes the
source, and He is the fullness of which we have all received;
and then in the verses read we get the work of grace from
the very starting-point of the Gospel.
You get this work in two parts; it is the second I shall
chiey speak of; but the rst is Christ as the Lamb of
God, and then He is the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost.
It is not that He does not exercise also His priesthood-He
does; but it is not the subject here. I guard this because it
is important to remember that He is Priest. But here He
is the Lamb of God, and He that baptiseth with the Holy
Ghost.
is last is a wonderful expression, and contains in it
the whole power of our relationship with God. It does not
weaken the truth that He is the Lamb of God; yea, it is as
to us founded on it. He is that, as is said in Gen. 22, “ God
will provide himself a lamb “-One therefore that is t every
way, perfectly acceptable and accepted, as perfect for the
thing He had to do as God’s mind was who gave Him to
do it. e Son of God is the Lamb of God. Just as the rst
man brought in sin, so the second was to put it clean out
of the way. ose who rejected Him, of course, as He said,
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died in their sins, but He is the One that takes away the sin
of the world. ere will be a new heaven and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness; that, and that only, will be
the full result. e sacrice has been made, the Lamb has
been slain; but the grand result will be that God will have
a heaven and an earth before Him in which there is not an
atom of sin, but wherein shall dwell righteousness.
We had an innocent world, paradise: this was soon
over; then a sinful world, though with grace working in it;
but we shall have, not an innocent nor a sinful world, but
a righteous world; and it will be founded on that which
can never lose its value so that itself never can be touched.
It is the immutable basis of God’s new creation, which is
therefore immutable in its blessings where all His ways are
manifested. at will be the full result of the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. e rst world was set in blessing, but
it depended on the faithfulness of Him who was placed at
the head of it; the nal one rests secure on the value of that
which is perfected, coming after a work nished and done,
a work in which God has perfectly gloried Himself. e
basis of the new creation on which it is founded is nished,
nished completely and absolutely.
e work upon which the security (morally speaking) of
the new heavens and the new earth is founded is nished-
nished so that Christ who wrought it is sitting at the
right hand of God, and sits there until His enemies are
to be dealt with. e work is nished, nothing can ever
be added to it, nor can it lose its eect with God; and the
blessed result is that which will come in as I have said.
e work is done: all moral questions have been settled
at the cross, what sin is, enmity against God, what perfect
love to God the Father and obedience in man to Him is,
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what righteousness against sin is, what love to sinners, have
all been shown in the same wondrous work. Unless in the
cross, men try in vain to reconcile righteousness and love,
love and God’s dishonored majesty, truth as to the wages of
sin, and His goodness-all the attributes together.
If Adam and Eve had been cut o when they ate the
fruit, it might be quite righteous (you might say they got
what they deserved), but there would have been no love in
that. Or suppose, on the other hand, every sin had been
passed over, what people call goodness-the natural man
would think this very right and call it love, but then sin
would be no matter, and righteousness not exist; and so
the majesty of God, which has been utterly trampled in
the dust by the success of Satan with man, must remain
so cast down; there would be no means of conciliating the
righteousness and majesty of God with His love.
e moment I get the cross, all that is settled; it became
Him; it became God, in bringing many sons unto glory
to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through
suering- that became God. His majesty is maintained in
the highest way. e Son must suer if He takes up this
cause. en I nd perfect righteousness against sin, but
along with it innite love to me, a poor worthless sinner.
ere I get, consequently, the Son of man gloried and
God gloried in Him, and all moral questions in presence
of God’s revealed nature settled forever. All is perfectly
settled according to God’s nature and for God, and by
that which passed between God and Christ alone, perfect
consequently according to their perfection. As to myself,
if I look at the cross, I say, the only part I had in it was
my sins and the enmity that crucied Christ. I am put in
my place and humbled, and yet I see the great righteous
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basis of all-divine counsels in it and innite love to me; but
this brings me to know myself too. Nothing ever showed
like the cross the full development and manifestation of
evil. Let people say what they like, the perfect development
of evil was there on our part, and the full development of
good before and from God.
When I look at the present eect of all that in this scene,
in a broad sense there is none. e scene is not changed,
looking as the general state of things. Christ has gone to
heaven when He had by Himself purged our sins; but as
to the state of the world at large there is no eect, though
many souls are saved. You get new forms of evil-indelity as
to this love and righteousness, and so on; but as to the state
of the world, it remains in the same state, modied only by
the rejection of Christ. Sin has not gone out of the world;
men are trying to bind it and restrain evil, as of old they
bound Legion with fetters and chains; they have set to do
their best, and a bad set-to it is, but there it is, to be bound.
ey talk of progress, and in a certain way, as to physical
discoveries and conveniences, there is; but is there morally?
I do not see any progress in the obedience of children, nor
in the devotedness of servants, nor in faithfulness in all the
relationships of life; but I see wonderful restlessness, and
greater than ever.
ere is progress in railways and telegraphs, and so on,
or we might not have been here together as we are; but that
has nothing whatever to do with the relationship of man
to God or to his neighbor. Cleverness in what is merely
material is neither here nor there as to moral state: you
might get the cleverest man in telegraphs or science, and
nd he was a blasphemer or a man walking near to God;
it has nothing to do with it. And, after all, when you die,
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what will it be to you whether there is a telegraph or not?
e soul’s state belongs to another sphere of things, save as
it ministers to his will and lusts, in which good and evil are
brought to an issue through the cross and God revealed in
grace and righteousness, perfectly gloried (as indeed there
only) as well as our sins borne. e work is all done and
nished on the cross, and accepted too in righteousness;
and Christ is sitting down at the right hand of God until
He takes His great power and reigns. When the Lord Jesus
Christ comes again, He will reign until all His enemies are
put under His feet, and blessedness is complete in a new
heaven and a new earth.
But then I get a second thing, which is that in order to
do all this He became a man, and, consequent upon His
going up to God, risen from the dead, the Holy Ghost
is now come down. e presence of the Holy Ghost on
earth is consequent upon Christ’s exaltation to the right
hand of God. His presence here is that which puts a man
down here who has the Holy Ghost into association and
relation with Christ in heaven. And so, further, you get
the great truth that God now dwells down here on earth.
And this is an immense truth; it never was the case before
redemption. God never dwelt with Adam though He came
down to visit him innocent, nor with Abraham. But the
moment that Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, He says,
in Ex. 29:45, 46, “ And I will dwell among the children of
Israel, and will be their God, and they shall know that I am
Jehovah their God, that brought them forth out of the land
of Egypt, that I may dwell among them.” And all this was
written for our admonition, and God showed Himself in
the shekinah glory of the tabernacle dwelling between the
cherubim upon the mercy-seat.
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Now, however, it is the Holy Ghost who is come down,
and who dwells either in the individual believer or in the
assembly of God, the temple of the living God; and the
consequence of this to me is that I have the knowledge
of the whole value of the work that is done, and I have
got, through the Holy Ghost here, complete and entire
association with Christ where He is, and I rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Until that comes, God dwells already
in those who believe in Christ. Mark how it comes in; He
was anointed with the Holy Ghost; “ And I knew him not,
but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said
unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and remaining on Him, the same is he which baptiseth
with the Holy Ghost.” Before I get the baptizing (Christ
is not said to be baptized but anointed and sealed) on the
day of Pentecost, Christ had been anointed and sealed. He
had taken this place as a man, as the pattern of it all; as
Son, as a man here, the place into which He introduces us
by redemption, the relationship in which He is with the
Father and into which He introduces us.
Is Christ alive for evermore? Well, He is our life. Is
He righteousness? He is my righteousness; and, though
all the results are not yet accomplished, we have certain
knowledge of the work He wrought, and we now rejoice
in hope of the glory. e heaven was opened, the Holy
Ghost came down like a dove, and Christ took this place
amongst us, the Son of God amongst men-us-Himself the
expression of the place into which God by grace brings
everyone that believes on Christ. You read in Prov. 8, “I
was daily his delight rejoicing always before him, rejoicing
in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were
with the sons of men.” And when the Lord Jesus Christ
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became a man, or the Word became esh, as set out in this
chapter, we get the angels declaring God’s predilection as
to the race of men: is it not beautiful to hear them, with
unjealous hearts, delighting in God’s glory, announcing the
blessing to others: “ Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good pleasure in man “?
I speak of the thing in itself, not of the accomplishment
of the results, for the present eect was not peace but
division; but, when His people take the rst step in the
right path in obedience to the word, He falls in with them,
they indeed confessing sin, He fullling righteousness.
And thus, at His baptism I get the blessed Lord, coming as
a man, as He did publicly then, in full obedience, entering
by the door; and He then receives the Holy Ghost, who
comes down on Him as such. And how could He receive
the Holy Ghost? Because He was righteous in Himself,
and we through His work. He was both anointed and
sealed, and thus we nd Him attributing His works to
the Spirit: “ If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils.” It
is remarkable how the Trinity is brought before us in this.
e Son wrought on earth, cast out demons by the Spirit,
and the Father that dwelt in Him, He did the works. His
work showed how the Trinity is brought out in specic
connection with that purpose in man, through which the
Son became man. It is rst fully revealed in the passage
in Matt. 3 Christ the Son was there, the Spirit descended
upon Him, and the Father owns Him, a man on the earth,
as Son. So through the eternal Spirit He oered Himself
without spot to God. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, says
Peter, with the Holy Ghost and with power.
I notice all this to show how He who was God over
all, blessed forever, took, in sovereign grace, His part with
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man. is was the great preliminary path to all blessing.
He upon whom the Holy Ghost descended and abode, He
it was who baptized with it: not that it was only this, for
we must be sprinkled with blood to have it, and He must
be gloried as man to give it. Hence, we read, He being
by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of
the Father the promise of the Spirit, hath shed forth this.
But here He entered truthfully on the path of all this, He
associated Himself with the godly remnant, Himself to be
the channel, through redemption, of His own blessings to
others. us Christ was anointed as man and was baptized
with the Holy Ghost. We enter into the intelligent
place of the blessings which are ours in Him before the
accomplishment of the result. We are brought into the
same place and relationship, and know the fruit of His
being the Lamb before the results are actually produced
externally.
But, further, before we arrive at the glory, He is entered
as man, He is gloried, and so I get an object; I rest in the
thought of being gloried with Him, but I cannot rest in
myself. I look all around in the world and try everything
in it; but Christ says “ Are you weary of all that?” “Yes.”
“en you come to Me and you shall nd rest.” ere is
that which gives the heart rest. You may be weary and
heavy laden without being able to explain it; now, are you
that? Christ is the true rest. God found His rest in Him,
and never anywhere else. God could not rest even in the
exercise of His love, or any object till Christ was there. He
could exercise His love, but not rest in it; but in Christ God
did nd His rest. I do not talk of His own blessed nature,
of course, sucient to itself; but never anywhere else here
could God nd rest. And so can I a poor wretched creature,
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a vile sinner. Well, come, see a man that told me all that ever
I did, and this is the One who can be my rest, for He knows
all and is perfect love and grace to me when He does. As
an object I have nothing more to seek, I have found my
rest where God found His, and I have found God Himself
in love. As to my circumstances and sinfulness, I nd a full
discovery of all that, and at the same time in the Lamb of
God, who meets it all and puts it all away forever; and so
through Christ I know God. Very glad I am that God does
know all. us all was in that which He did, and now I
can have truth in the inward parts in God’s presence. Take
the poor woman in the city that was a sinner: the Pharisee
says, “ If he knew what she was, he would not let her touch
him; he is no prophet,” but Christ shows He was a prophet,
for He tells out what was passing in Simon’s heart. He did
know all: but there was that which Simon did not know,
the perfect grace of God towards the sinner; and then
He takes up the poor woman’s case, and says to her, “thy
sins are forgiven “; “thy faith hath saved thee “ (this goes
farther), “ go in peace.”
We have the real declaration of the Father in Christ,
and His love shown by the work in which righteousness
was established: I nd the perfect love of God, honesty in
the conscience and heart by the knowledge of it, and I nd
these nowhere else. I can nd no person that is perfect in
searching my heart out to the bottom, and with perfect
love to me, and that has the right to be perfect love to me.
But I have got all that in Christ. I nd this blessed One,
the perfect sinless Man, and Him sealed with the Holy
Ghost that I might understand He so came, and that I
might be sealed with the Holy Ghost through the work
that He has accomplished.
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If an angel wanted to see God, he must look on Man,
on Christ, “ God manifest in the esh, justied in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up into glory.” en, with all this
goodness towards us, where has this Man gone, the One
who gloried God perfectly in the place of sin? He was
God, manifested in love to man; and if you have not yet got
the blessing of it, still it was God coming to win back the
condence of your heart to God.
e beginning of all sin was loss of condence in God.
e devil suggests to Eve, “ Why should God keep back
the fruit of that tree? He knows if you cat it, you will be
like Him “; and so condence was lost. But, if I do not trust
God to make me happy, I must try and make myself happy;
and thus enter lust and sin and transgression and ruin. But
Christ comes into this world where I am a sinner, and in
Him I get God winning back my heart to Himself, not by
hiding my faults-I get them all told out and put away-and
the condence of my heart won, so that I can trust God;
and more, I know God’s heart a great deal better than I
know my own. I cannot trust my own heart a minute. Test
it: I say I love the brethren; but am I not cold sometimes?
I have a double heart (I do not say willfully but there it is);
and I must humble myself before God about it, but I cannot
deny it. Do you nd anything like that in God? I nd the
perfect love of God in the gift of His Son, and there is no
double heart there. And so I get rest. If our heart condemn
us not, then have we condence before God.
But this is not all. If Christ was the manifestation of
God in love to us, He was man made sin before God, and
if, won by His grace to conde in God, you set out towards
God, you will nd the cross in the way, Man made sin
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before God; but then the whole question settled there, and,
coming by faith, the question settled for me touching all my
sins in His presence, settled by what is done and nished,
and that according to the glory of God’s own nature; so
that I can even look sin in the face fully, and nd it has been
judged for me, while also I have the perfect love of God
resting on me in perfect holiness and righteousness, and I
am standing in the light as God is in the light in virtue of
that which is nished. rough Christ I am brought into
God’s presence, accepted in the Beloved, as white as snow,
while God is perfect in righteousness in accepting me, and
grace reigns through righteousness.
us it is we get the double character of Christ
manifested down here: God in grace towards us; and man
made sin before God, but as putting it away for us by His
work in drinking the cup His Father had given Him to
drink; and, mark, the only part that we have in that work
is the sins that put Him to death; and the hatred that did
it, when He gave Himself up to it in love. But this is all
nished; and when Christ had by Himself purged our sins,
He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high; and
thereupon not only is it the fact that the Holy Ghost comes
down, but Christ receives it again, “ being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which
ye now see and hear.” And I nd this, that in virtue of that
work of putting away my sins, and having cleansed me and
washed me and justied me and redeemed me to God, the
Holy Ghost also is given that I may go and understand
and enjoy all that Christ is, all that Christ has done, and
that He has made my portion in consequence. True, I am
here in weakness, a poor earthen vessel that the excellency
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of the power may be of God; all quite true. But I have the
relationship. I am a child, I want to be taught by my Father;
and alas! it may be sometimes a naughty child and I want
to be whipped by my Father, but I am a child, a partaker of
the divine nature.
Now, it is this distinctive character of the Holy Ghost
come down that I want to speak of. It is what constitutes
the state of the Christian. He is a man who stands
between the rst coming of Christ (and the work He then
accomplished) and the second coming of Christ, when he
is going to enjoy the glory; and, between these two, he has
the Holy Ghost. He has all the benets, not as to his body
but as to his standing before God, of Christ’s work. Look
a little at that.
Him that has taken this place, as now redeemed-I speak
of those who are believers-the Holy Ghost is come down
to dwell in. You get it in the gures. When the leper was
cleansed, he was washed with water, sprinkled with blood,
and anointed with oil (the gure of the Holy Ghost): the
word of God applied to us in the power of the Spirit, the
water-the blood, now the blood of atonement-and the
anointing. Being quickened, born again of water by the
word, must go rst; and then the blood; but the Holy
Ghost is there too, and the love of God shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us. Just trace that a
little.
e rst thing I nd in the third chapter of this Gospel
is, we are born of the Spirit, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit; and in that I get an immense truth that I
have a nature capable of enjoying all divine things, which
the esh is not. I have often said, if you put a natural man
into heaven, he would get out of it as fast as he could; there
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is nothing there that he likes: even an honest worldly man
will own that. en in John 4 there is another thing: Christ
speaks of the gift of God which should be a well of water
springing up unto everlasting life. It is not only life holy
in its nature, but, in consequence of the Lord Jesus Christ
having gone up, I have the whole power of life there, and I
go right up into its blessed results, through the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has associated my heart livingly as born of
God with all the things that belong to one born of God;
with that of which he that is born of God is joint-heir with
Christ.
He became a man, and will be a man forever. In one
sense He will be a servant forever. In Ex. 21 a Hebrew
slave who had served seven years was to go out free; but
if his master had given him a wife, and he said, I love my
master, I love my wife, I love my children, I will not go
out free, then his master was to bore through his ear with
an awl to the door post, and the slave was to remain so
forever. Now the Lord could have had twelve legions of
angels, and gone out free. But He would not, and so He
is a servant and remains so forever. In John 13, “ When
Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, and that he was come
from God and went to God, having loved his own which
were in the world, he loved them unto the end “; and, “ He
riseth from supper, and laid aside his garment, and took
a towel and girded himself; after that, he poureth water
into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to
wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.” He
would still be a servant, could no longer (it is true) have
part down here with them; but He would not give them
up, and so they must have part with Him. ey were clean
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by the word spoken, but in their path could pick up dirt.
Dirty feet will not do for heaven, and the blessed Lord still
does the work of a servant. I, says He, am going to wash
them. Peter hesitates, and the Lord says, If I do not wash
thee, thou hast no part with Me. You are clean, but you
are taking up dirt on your feet in the way; and so the Lord
washes them. is is His present service. And in Luke 12
He says, “ Let your loins be girded about, and your lights
burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their
Lord.” “ Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when
he cometh, shall nd watching; verily I say unto you, that
he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat,
and will come forth and serve them.” As if the Lord should
say, “ I am going to be your servant in heaven.” We are
going to sit down and eat things in heaven which acquire
innite value from His ministering them to us.
e next thing is a clear distinct consciousness that
the work is nished. e Holy Ghost is sent down from
Christ when He is gloried and God has given the positive
testimony that He has accepted the work and of that to
which it leads. Christ has gone into the glory, and I am
going to be like Him, and thus I get the blessed assurance
of the ecacy of His work when He came rst. He says,
“ Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall be like him.” No question about that. He came
to be a man, all alone, however, amongst men, and ever
accessible until He had redeemed us, and now He has
taken us into association with Himself, and I know it by
the Holy Ghost. By the Holy Ghost also I know that I am
in Him there now, as John 14:20. We have not yet got all
the fruits, but I have the knowledge of the fruits of what
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He has done by the Holy Ghost. In John 14 He says, “ I go
to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am ye may be also.” is was the rst great point
and nal result in blessing.
en He shows them what they should have upon
earth, meanwhile. ey knew where He was going and the
way, for He was going to the Father, and they had seen the
Father in Him. e revelation of the Father in the Son
gave that which was the highest heavenly blessedness, was
the full revelation of all the blessedness that is to be theirs,
and revealed the way, because in coming to Christ they had
found the Father. Philip says, “ Show us the Father and it
suceth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time
with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip? he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father.” And now I know what
the springs of blessedness are in heaven, because I have
seen the Father in the Son. Do not believe for a moment
that God has not revealed the things He has prepared for
us. “ God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit,” and
“ We have received the Spirit which is of God, that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
I nd thus the Father revealed in the Son, but there was
yet more present comfort by the Holy Ghost. ey ought
to have known the revelation of the Father in the Son, but
one thing they could not know until the Comforter was
come, and “ In that day ye shall know that I am in my
Father and ye in me, and I in you.” You shall know that you
are in Me. People tell me I cannot know, that I must wait
until the day of judgment; but in that case I cannot have
any peace here because I do not know how it will turn out
then. Am I not to have part in the day of grace? and that
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is now. And what it is that I have? What I really have is
that Christ has put away the very sins for which otherwise
I should have to be judged. And more, I know that I am in
Him, and He is in me. But men say it is so presumptuous
to say I am in Christ. Presumptuous! why, Christ told me I
should know it; very much more presumptuous to doubt it.
“ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him,
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” And do you
think God dwells in me without my nding it out? I may
not be able to explain it to another: that is a question of
intelligence in Scripture and even of gift; but “ where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” “ In that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”
e Holy Ghost dwells in us, and there is the power to
overcome temptation, wisdom from God, power to realize
the presence of Christ, to live looking on the things that
are not seen, joyful liberty in our path with God. Mark the
practical consequence of this knowledge as to the character
of our walk. I say I am in Christ; but you cannot be in
Christ without Christ being in you: then do not let me
see anything else in you but Christ; do not let the esh
come out. We fail, I know, but that is the right practical
consequence. So what is to be looked for in the Christian
is that he is to be the epistle of Christ. is is my place, and
the practical measure of my walk is that I am dead and the
power of the Holy Ghost within so full that nothing but
Christ is seen. We are in Christ and Christ in us.
And consequently there is another thing. If I am asked
to prove the love of God, I say, “ Hereby know we love,
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because he laid down his life for us,” but, as to enjoying
it, “ the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Ghost.” I know the love of God, by His dwelling in
me who is love: God is love, and the Holy Ghost dwells
in me. Not that you cannot learn more, innitely more. I
know my Father, but there are ten thousand things in His
mind that I do not know yet. For a man to say that he does
not know his own father would be dreadful, though there
are multitudes of things in his father’s mind and character
that he may not yet know. “ We have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” “ I am in the
Father,” that is Christ’s own place, “ and we are in Christ.”
is is not only the fact of acceptance but relationship, for
we are sons. And the Holy Ghost gives us the consciousness
of it. And what do all duties ow from? Relationship. You
cannot have the holy aections and true duties of a child
of God without being a child of God, and knowing that
you are one. e Spirit of God “ beareth witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God,” and so I enjoy the
aections which belong to a child.
Now is that connected with coming before God as a
Judge? It is, in virtue of Christ’s work, which put away my
sins; I am a child in virtue of that which has made me as
white as snow. True, if I merely take a cold dead sense that
I am safe, there is no aection in that. But our relationship
with God and our Father is identied with our being safe.
Christ’s death for me is, indeed, a motive to make me feel
thankful beyond all expression. But there is beyond this as
present power that we are taken into an association with
Christ, which is so complete, that we know-know now-that
“ when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see
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him as he is.” He would not leave us without our knowing
His love perfectly in the way that He has established me in
blessing; and, while I have the perception of the glory and
the earnest of the inheritance, the love of God is already
shed abroad in my heart; the Holy Ghost dwells in me and
gives me consciousness of all that has been done for me, of
all that has been given to me.
And if this is true, if I have indeed come to Christ
and drunk, then out of my belly shall ow rivers of living
water- ow out, that is, to others. God rst gives us to enjoy
Himself: “ we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
and then there is the activity of His love reproduced in our
little measure, though in the truth of its nature in us.
“ You know Me? “ He says. “Oh, yes,” I say. How do
you know it? “Because I was a poor vile sinner, and Christ
came and laid down His life for me.” “ You know that?
en go and carry it to other people.” I was a poor sinner,
and am made the righteousness of God in Christ. ink
what a blessed place that is! And I have that blessed place
before God, “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ,” and in spirit I can now enjoy it, and that
is the place I get with God: as a son, as Christ is Son;
as to relationship with the Father, “my Father and your
Father.” And then He gives me a share in the activity of
His love in carrying it out to others. “is spake he of the
Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for
the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was not
yet gloried.” Plainly this is not the Spirit as He wrought
in them to make them believe, it is clear, for those who
believed should receive Him; but, in virtue of the work of
Christ gone into the glory, the Holy Ghost has come down
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and associated me with Christ in all that He has as man,
and then sends me to bear witness to others of it.
But if He takes the things of Christ and shows them to
me, what is the eect on me as I pass through this world?
“e whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in
pain until now “; and, “we groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of the body.” What was
Christ in this world? and what does He feel about this
world? Could He set it to rights? He could not. If He was
love, could He look with indierence at its misery? Neither
was that possible. His holiness and His love must be
sources of sorrow in this world, as of blessed communion
above whilst He was here. Having the Spirit of Christ I
may be privileged to suer for Him, I must suer with
Him; my heart takes up the voice of the groans of creation
and carries them up to God. I may not know what to ask
for as a remedy: there may be none here. But being here
with the spring of divine love in me, the mind of the Spirit
is there, the Holy Ghost intercedes in me according to
God. It shows what an astonishing place we are in, what
a wonderfully blessed place God has put us into while not
yet in the glory.
Again, the Holy Ghost having sealed my pardon and
given me the consciousness of my relationship as a son,
with all that I am walking in in spirit, I turn to see the full
eect before the glory which He has revealed to me is mine
in possession. e Holy Ghost cannot reveal a glory to me
which He does not reveal as mine; but these glories are
given us because we are sons and are joint-heirs with Christ.
We are predestinated “to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the rstborn among many brethren
“; and, whatever the Holy Ghost has revealed of all this
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blessedness, He reports it to me as mine. “To the glory of
God by us,” it is said, and again, “ which God ordained
before the world to our glory.” 1 Peter 1:10-13 shows very
clearly the order of the revelation of all this. e prophets
of old “ searched what or what manner of time the Spirit
of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testied
beforehand the suerings of Christ and the glories that
should follow, unto whom it was revealed that not unto
themselves “ (not that they will not be there, but their
actual condition is what he is speaking of) “ but unto us
they did minister the things which are now reported unto
you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” We
have them not yet, but they are revealed and reported to us.
en “ gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to
the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.”
e Holy Ghost has been sent from heaven for the
purpose of this revelation. “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” e apostle
does not quote the passage to show it is our position, as so
often quoted, but exactly the contrary. Such was the Old
Testament state, but we have received the Spirit which is of
God, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. I have got into the relationship of a son and I
know it by the Holy Ghost. My chief joy surely is fellowship
with the Father and the Son, and this hereafter in glory in
the Father’s house. Do we know nothing of what is there?
Much, in one sense everything; it is revealed; but take yet
another blessing besides God’s presence. e Holy Ghost
shows me another thing: there is not one of you that I shall
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not see perfectly like Christ in the glory. e Lord Jesus “
shall come to be gloried in his saints and to be admired in
all them that believe.” ink of my seeing Christ admired
in all of you!
What is my desire now? at you may be like Him.
at desire will be satised perfectly, and it is an immense
joy. Nothing is too great for us to expect, now that we know
that the blessed Son of God has suered for us and been
made sin. And see the way that Christ gives: Not as the
world giveth give I unto you. e world gives, gives away:
Christ never gives away. e way He gives is to take us
into the enjoyment of all that He has Himself. He wants
to have us in the same blessedness with Himself. “ Peace I
leave unto you, my peace I give unto you.” He says, “ My joy
fullled in themselves.” He says, “ I have given unto them
the words which thou gavest me,” and “e glory which
thou gavest me I have given them,” and “ at the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them “; but the
way of it is, He has brought us into the joy of relationship
to the Father with Himself. It is the Giver that makes the
blessedness even more than the gift. Suppose my mother
gives me a trie: it is not the value of the trie in itself, but
the giver that makes the value.
And I know all now by the Holy Ghost, so that I
abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost. ere
are two kinds of happiness. ere is the happiness of hope
that we have; and what is the other kind? Rest in perfect
aection; God loves me as He loves Jesus, and I rest in
that. To talk about our love to anyone is no proof of love.
e deepest aection may show itself, but is not loquacious
about itself, at least when it condes in its object; nor is
the declaration of our great love a proof that all love much,
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nor complaint of our want of aection a proof that love is
wanting, though it may be often that we are thinking too
much about it. If there be condence, the heart rests in
the value of the love of the one conded in, and rests in
thinking of its object, which is true aection. Supposing a
child told me, “ I love my mother quite enough,” I say, “ You
are an unfortunate wight; you do not love your mother a bit
if you say that.” But suppose a child says, If you only knew
my mother, her unwearied love, her patience with me, and
I often so foolish, forgetting her wishes! I made a noise
when she was sick, and yet her love never falters, never
wearies; I say, at child loves its mother. When I have
a sense of the love that outreaches all my thoughts, and
thank and bless and wonder and adore at its greatness, and
in the sense of it, my heart thinking of Him-that is love to
God. But, if I look into my own heart (I do not speak of
judging known failure) and measure my love, and complain
of my not loving God, in such case you are under law as to
it. e law required it, and necessarily and rightly: but that
is law. “ Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that he
loved us.” Hence too, when our loving Him is spoken of in
1 John 4, it is not said we ought to love Him, true as it may
be, but we love Him because He rst loved us.
Well now, the practical eect of receiving the Holy
Ghost and abiding in Him is that I am called upon to walk
as Christ walked: “ they that are after the esh do mind
the things of the esh, but they that are after the Spirit the
things of the Spirit.” You cannot have a man living without
an object, and whatever the object may be, it characterizes
him: if it is money, he is a covetous man; if it is power, he
is ambitious, and so on; but if I get Christ the object of my
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love, I follow Him, and the Holy Ghost reveals to my heart
all things that relate to Him.
You cannot have the love of Christ in your heart without
loving what He loves, and this not only as to the things the
heart delights in, but the persons dear to Him. We shall
love all saints, even if going astray, with the patient love
with which Christ loves them, if lled with His Spirit,
while walking with Him in the joy of communion.
See the apostle in the opening of 1 Corinthians. When
he saw them at Corinth all going wrong, he begins by
saying all the good things about them he can: “ enriched
“ by him in “ all utterance “ and all knowledge, coming
behind in no gift, “ waiting for the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ,” who would conrm them, to the end that
they may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God was faithful, and so on. And then he begins to blame
them for everything they were doing. Men falsely suppose
that the full assurance of salvation, and of nal salvation,
weakens the bond of duty. First, it is a base principle that
only dread of damnation can keep us in the path of duty.
But further, a child’s duties are always there because he is
always a child and never can be anything else. All duties
ow from the place you are in. You can speak of duties only
in the relationship from which they ow. You must be a
Christian, a child of God, to be under obligation to fulll
the duties incumbent on such. And, indeed, the aections
belonging to their relationship also have no place till then.
e consciousness of the relationship must be there. How
can a child love a father if he does not know whether he is
such? “ We have not received the spirit of bondage again
to fear, but the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba,
Father.”
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Scripture does not recognize as a Christian a person
who does not understand that he is a child of God; he
may be on the road, but he has not arrived at his Christian
standing. I want no self-condence, but I want honesty-a
divinely given recognition of the relationship in which
God has set us, and of which we have the consciousness
by the Spirit. In vain we pretend to such a place by merely
seeing what Scripture says about it. I would rather see
anxiety for holiness and God’s glory in a person who had
not got assurance, but who was in earnest, than condence
in one who was careless. I quite understand how many
dear souls regard this as presumption; I remember when
I was awfully afraid myself. But what Scripture tells me
is, “ we have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear.” Being children, we are not to be looking up to God
as a judge. I am not thinking of God that way; He is one,
of course, but that is not my habit of thought about Him.
e very person, who is presently to sit as Judge, has hung
on the cross for my sins, and put them away, before He is
Judge. God would have us before Him in reverence surely,
but not in terror. I come to Him as a Savior, and I nd the
sins I should have had to be judged for have all been judged
already; and when I come before Christ on the judgment-
seat, as we shall, why, there, as the Judge, is the very One
who has put them all away! How can He impute them to
me? We must all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ;
quite true, but remember we shall all be gloried before
we go there. We shall be raised in glory if we have died,
or changed into the same if yet alive, as it is written, “ our
conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile
body and fashion it like unto his glorious body, according
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to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself.”
One word more. How far, beloved friends, how far,
knowing I am a child and that here, and in a path according
to God’s will, led by the Spirit of God-how far can I at
present look to be like to Christ in this world? I look to
be quite like Him in the glory. ere is a great deal, and
among true souls too, of looking to be conformed to the
image of God’s Son now. Now there is utter deadly error
in that, though not intentional error. ey reason, from the
desire of uniformity in the renewed soul, to the possibility
of it by faith. But this leaves the truth of God out of sight.
If I say I have no sin, I deceive myself; but Christ had no
sin. Have you no sin in you? It is not said that we ought to
be like Christ down here, but that we ought to walk as He
walked.
Again, when I come to know redemption in Christ-and
only thus, for this is properly deliverance, having died and
risen with Christ, not merely knowing that He has borne
my sins-then “ the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” e
word “ free “ has two senses in our language: one, as when
you say “ that horse is free from vice,” that is, he has none;
and the other, as when you say, “ that slave is free,” which
is quite a dierent thing, and it is in this sense I am free
from the law of sin and death. I nd sin is in me, though
it was all condemned on the cross of Christ, but I am free
from its law, and it is by the knowledge of redemption and
deliverance that I get into this liberty.
Who shall deliver me! Why do you not deliver yourself?
I have been trying at it, but I cannot. I do not submit to the
condemnation of sin in the esh, so as to understand that it
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was put to death on the cross; I do not come to that, until I
nd I cannot myself get the better of it. You get all this in
Rom. 7 It is not the true Christian state, but the one there
nds rst that there is no good thing in his esh at all. And
what next? Why, that it is not himself, “ it is no more I.”
What next? Oh, I must get the better of it. Try away, I say,
try away. I cannot succeed. And now you learn that there is
no power in yourself to do it. “ To will is present with me;
but how to perform that which is good I nd not.” I need
another, a deliverer, and I learn the power of life in Christ,
of Christ Himself; but with the knowledge that I have (as
regards the old man) died with Him, and that there sin in
the esh was condemned when He was a sacrice for sin,
but that it was in death, so that I am dead to it for faith.
And I do not believe as I have said, that a person has ever
got out of Rom. 7 who has not got into it. In my case, like
thousands of others, before I got forgiveness, I had found
out what I was; I learned the seventh before I learned the
third. But when a full gospel is preached and forgiveness
known, the knowledge of self will still be by law, but the
form of it is modied. e way more often is, “ I hope I
am not deceiving myself; I thought I was forgiven. How
is it I do so-and-so? how is it I nd this power of sin still
here? “ e esh is never changed. e truth is they are
distinct points, and treated apart; only self-knowledge is
the deeper point, and so treated last. But it is law, not for
condemnation, but powerless to free, though it may kill
and condemn too. (Compare 2 Cor. 3)
After man was made, the whole history is, whatever
God sets up right, the rst thing man did was to spoil it.
Adam eats the fruit of the tree. Noah is put in authority,
and the rst thing he does is to get drunk. God gives a law,
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and they set up a golden calf. e priests are consecrated
and oer strange re the rst day, and die; and Aaron is
never allowed to go in his garments of glory and beauty
into the most holy place. Solomon fails in the kingdom
and it is divided. Nebuchadnezzar is set at the head of the
government among the Gentiles, and he sets up a great idol
and punishes those that serve the true God, and Gentile
authority becomes that of the beasts. It put Christ to death
when He came in grace, lusts against the Spirit where He
is, and, if one is called to the third heaven, would pu him
up about it. And, now, it is not that there is any change in
the esh; but I am not to fancy, that, because esh is there,
I must let it act. No, I must reckon it dead, and should
in practice “ always bear about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our body.”
e Holy Ghost gives us a blessed sense of relationship
with the Father; and what, accordingly, you are called upon
to do is, in the power of the Holy Ghost, so to live and
walk as that nothing but Christ be seen in you.
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62766
Born Again
John 3
THE truth connected with the Holy Ghost, together
with Christ and His work, is the great safeguard against
the error by which Satan is working in the present day.
e enemy’s craft must be met by the truth of God. In
this chapter we have the work of the Spirit in quickening
souls, and this is brought out, in contrast both with God’s
previous trial of Israel, and with man’s natural power in the
reception of outward evidence. From chapter 2: 24, etc.,
we see the need of getting hold of God’s truth for our own
souls. e profession of Christ may be ever so sincere, but
apart from life and fruit it is worth and is nothing. e
people saw He was the One who should come, the Person
sent from God, and they had right thoughts about His
works, and yet all that went for nothing and was worthless
in the sight of God. e solemn question was, What was
in man? e conviction spread amongst them that He was
the Messiah, because of the miracles He did, and they were
ready to have Him in their own way. Nicodemus said, “
We [not I] know that thou art a teacher sent from God,”
etc.; but the wickedness of man’s heart was not all come
out. Man proved what he was in the treatment he gave
the Lord Jesus, notwithstanding the undeniable evidence
vouchsafed in His works that He was come from God.
ere are none so hostile to truth as those who know, but
will not have it. e spies who had been up and seen the
land were those active in speaking against it. You cannot go
the way of the cross without having its trial and diculty,
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as well as its innite gain. e cross is not pleasant, of
course, and it never was intended to be pleasant. Directly I
see that Christ has a right and claim on my conscience, my
nature rises to resist His power; I see He ought to have the
rst place, and that other things should give way. is I do
not like. e cross must be contrary to our nature.
e Lord now meets Nicodemus with the declaration
that he must be born again, or rather anew (which is a
stronger word that “ again,” or “ from above “). It is the
same expression in the original as “ from the very rst,” in
Luke 1:3. You may nd lovely qualities in human nature;
but nature never loves Christ, where the cross and the glory
come together.
e new birth is a thing totally new. “ at which is
born of the esh is esh.” Christianity does not alter it at
all. Man is in love with creation, and neither loves God
nor believes His love. e creation is ruined, spoiled-not
willingly, as man is, but still it is fallen. Man’s will is gone
away from God. His intellect may be all very well in its
way; his disposition may be amiable, but you never nd one
who naturally seeks after God. Nay, you generally nd the
most amiable person the last to turn to God. Man must
be born entirely anew; he must come into heaven with a
nature altogether distinct from that which he has got. Man
will use his good qualities as well as his bad, just as an
animal but with more intelligence. e eye must be opened.
It is a new ground and way of perception, by which we can
even see the kingdom of God.
ere was neither holiness nor righteousness before the
fall. e original state was something distinct from both.
Adam was innocent, but not properly righteous or holy.
To apply innocence to God, or to the Lord Jesus, would be
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absurd. God is holy; seeing what is bad, and abhorring it,
which holiness, negatively at least, consists in. A righteous
man judges what is contrary to justice, and hates it. An
innocent man did not know things in themselves good
and evil, though, of course, he knew that it was his duty
to obey God. Adam’s sin was in trying to be like God; our
goodness is in desiring to be like Him. Ought we not to
seek to be like God-to imitate Him, as Paul exhorts? We
are called by glory and virtue, and are seeking to remind
our souls that God’s counsel is that we shall be conformed
to the image of God’s Son. is one thing we should do,
“forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things which are before.” Adam knew nothing
of this; his whole moral nature was entirely dierent. In
sinning man got his conscience, and was ruined in getting
it, because it was a bad one. Consequently he was afraid of
the God he wished to be like. He lost innocence, and we
never regain it, but we are renewed after the second Adam.
We are, after the image of God, created in righteousness
and true holiness, made partakers of the divine nature,
and brought to judge of sin as God judges it, and to love
holiness as He loves it.
It is after God we are created again; Eph. 4:24. Not only
have we, as men, the knowledge of good and evil, which
made the man afraid of God, and hide himself, but now
in being born again it is another thing. We have life in our
souls in a divine way.
We have the holy moral nature that God has, and in
this nature there is a positive delight in the righteousness
of God, which does not condemn it, because it is the same.
is new nature feeds upon, and delights in, what is of
God, and is satised with the object before us, even Christ
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Himself. God has chosen us in Him that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love-He has us before
Him in this the image of His own nature. In Christ we
have all that God delights in brought out and displayed in
the man. He is the perfect and blessed display of all God is,
and He is the expression before God of what He has made
us to God. We have the image of God in the man, and,
more than this, we have what man is for God.
is quickening of the Spirit has a double character; it
is death in both. We are dead, and are to reckon ourselves “
dead indeed unto sin,” etc. is is liberty. But there is death
practically, or putting to death, and that is what we do not
like, for this is the cross. We like the liberty, but not the
mortifying, or putting to death, our members on earth.
e sentence of death that God has passed on esh
and sin is an unchangeable sentence, and it is a positive
blessing to have done with the esh, for it is a condemned
thing. e sentence was executed upon Christ, the new
man, that we might live after the power of that new Man-
Christ. ere is an important point as to this, which is
often confounded and mistaken. We must live that we
may die-not die that we may live, as is often represented.
Men talk of death before they have life, but they are wrong.
Death, morally, is the consequence of having life. And this
is just the dierence between a monk-not using the word
oensively-and a Christian. As a monk I mortify myself
in order that I may live, instead of rst having life, as a
Christian, from God, that I may die. “ Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter,” etc. (v. 5).
“ Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth.” God
has begotten us by the word. “ Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” “ He that hath received
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his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.” “ e
word giveth light and understanding to the simple,” and
the eect of the light’s coming in by the word is to bring
the judgment of everything in man, as it brings delight in
that which is of God.
“ at which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” ere is the
communication of a new nature in believing; and, when
born of God, the truth sancties and cleanses. ere is “
the washing of water by the word “; but this cannot be till
after we are born of the Spirit by the word. ere would be
no sense in saying, that which is born of water is water; but
that which is born of the Spirit is of the spiritual nature of
God, not of man’s nature.
e “ living water “ made the woman at the well, to
whom Jesus spake, hate herself. It detects what is in man.
Hence Christ could say to His disciples, “ Ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken to you.” In the
new and holy nature, in which I am created of God in
Christ, I can now take up everything that I delight in, and
I can judge everything contrary to it. us the word has a
cleansing power. Baptism may be the expression and gure
of it here, as the Lord’s supper embodies the truth of John
6 (“ whoso eateth my esh,” etc.)-though I do not say that
the Lord referred to either institution, but to the reality of
which each is the sign. e substance of the thing is not the
putting away the lth of the esh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who came by water-not by water only, but by water and
blood. It will not do to look at ourselves with approbation.
See what is said of the king of Tire. (Ezek. 28). We must
not look at self, nor take pleasure in it. We want an object
outside ourselves-even the renewed man does. e moment
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there is the communication of the divine nature, there must
be delight in Christ Himself.
is is brought out in this double way in John 5 and 6.
In chapter 5 there are dead sinners quickened, or raised.
is speaks of God communicating the divine nature. I do
not speak of faith now, but it is God’s own power that is
spoken of-God quickening. In chapter 6 we get faith still
more fully insisted on: and here is the object of my faith
presented. is is perfection-to be so occupied with Christ,
as to be forgetful of self. While told to reckon ourselves
dead, we are looked on as dead already in Christ. How is
this? Christ is looked on as coming down into the place
of death, that there, where I was without stirring, Christ
might be and rise up out of it for my deliverance. Because
of what He suered on the cross, as manifested in the
power of His resurrection, “ old things have passed away,
and all things have become new.” God will have none of
the old thing now. It is deled and corrupted and good for
nothing.
“ All things have become new,” not renewed. “ In him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He is the
eternal life that was with the Father and is manifested unto
us. is is not the man that fell out of paradise! How then
can God and man be connected? “ Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” ere was
the inseparable barrier of man’s will on one side, and the
power of death on the other. erefore he says, “ I have a
baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till
it be accomplished! “ But “ if it die (the corn of wheat), it
bringeth forth much fruit.” “ e exceeding greatness of his
power,” etc. (Eph. 1:19), is in resurrection. en, passing
over the allusion to the church, in the next chapter we
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read, “ You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins,” etc. In connection with, and the basis of, it all is
Christ, who is dead and risen, with whom we are quickened
together. e second Adam has not His place as Head of
the family. except by death rst. Why? Because redemption
could not have been wrought. Nor would it have been,
as now, a question of God’s righteousness. ese being
accomplished, He is entirely and in everything tted -to be
the head of the new creation. is new link is wrought by
the word. e living word, by the Spirit, is the power, and
resurrection-life with Christ is the standing into which we
are brought.
Christ, we may observe, speaks to Nicodemus about
the things that he, as a Jew, ought to have understood.
(Compare Ezek. 36) He says, “ If I have told you earthly
things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you
of heavenly things? “ God’s earthly things were not evil
or eshly things, but the promised earthly portion which
the Jews were to look for. In the latter day they must
be sprinkled with water, and have a new heart from the
Spirit, before they can inherit. is Nicodemus should
have known. en there are the heavenly things, which are
better. “ e wind bloweth where it listeth,” etc. ere is
the sovereign acting of His grace. He will take any poor
sinners of the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, and bring them
into the blessing He has to give. “ God so loved the world.”
is goes beyond the Jews. It is not here that God so loved
Israel.
For all alike, Christ was needed. For the best, the Son of
man must be lifted up, and for the worst God would give
His only-begotten Son. Under promises, law, or nature,
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death must come in, if man is to be saved. In nothing can
they be taken up in their own title.
What are we brought into by that which Christ has
done? He says, “ We speak that we do know, and testify
that we have seen.” Here was the double revelation of God.
Christ is speaking as a divine Person, and as one who has
seen divine glory. “ No man hath seen God at any time: the
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him.” He knew, and saw, as One familiar and
at ease with the Father and the Holy Ghost, with the glory
of the Godhead. He was Himself in the unity of the divine
essence. And though we were not only men outside it all
but fallen men, yet now, as born of God, what are we not
brought into! We have resurrection-life in Him; we are one
spirit with the Lord. It is not the poor thing of the mere
renewal of good qualities; but it is Christ, the Son, Himself
making us partakers of His own things.
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62768
e Well of Water
John 4
IN John 3 we had the quickening power of the Spirit,
the contrast of the old and the new creation. Here we have
another thing, the dwelling of the Spirit in the believer. “
e water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water, springing up into everlasting life.”
A man must be born again-born of water and of the
Spirit, if he has to say to God. is is what has to be
presented to the sinner: “ Ye must be born again “; while at
the same time we know it must be God’s work. Not that it
is said in a legal sense, “ Ye must,” etc., because we know a
man cannot accomplish it of himself. But there is a moral
necessity for it, because, until born again, the sinner cannot
have one desire or anything in him suited to God. It is the
requisite owing from what God is, and what the sinner
is. But there is no such necessity for the indwelling of the
Spirit in the believer. Instead of being requirement, it is the
expression of pure grace; not so much necessary to man, as
it is given by God.
erefore not only the Jews, but the Gentiles might
have it. “ If thou [the poor Samaritan] knewest the gift of
God,” etc.
For the Jew even it was necessary to be “ born again,”
and that was the instruction in chapter 3. In chapter 4 it is
a pure gift of which He speaks, and He would show that
the worst of Gentiles might have it, as well as an Israelite.
e Holy Ghost that is given brings in power, as well as
a new nature. e new nature has certain characteristics-
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love, holiness, etc. “ He that is born of God sinneth not,”
but there is another thing-power, and without this the
very desire for holiness will occasion distress of soul and
sense of condemnation, and there will be neither peace,
joy, liberty, nor consciousness of relationship, all of which
are founded on the indwelling of the Spirit of God. e
Holy Spirit produces these eects in the soul in which
He dwells, bringing forth in us what is like God. us we
see the dierence between the Holy Ghost quickening, or
giving a new nature, and the Holy Ghost dwelling in us
and giving us power.
e woman, as we know, comes to draw; the Lord
requests to drink. She is surprised at His asking her
for water. Before, we have seen Him talking to a Jew, a
Pharisee, an honored Rabbi; but here was a despised
Samaritan. She was astonished at His having overleapt all
bounds and come in perfect freedom to speak to her; but
here was the gift of grace come down to her as well as the
Jew. Passing over the details of her conversion which are
most interesting, we will notice the lowliness of Jesus in
His actings towards her. His position here is founded on
His entire rejection as coming in the way of promise. He
is on His way, as rejected, to Galilee, the place where God
visits His remnant. “ e people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light.” He left Judea, and God leads
Him through this wretched apostate race-just a picture of
the Lord’s actings now in sovereign grace, gathering out
Gentiles, before He comes to the remnant.
at which lays hold of a sinner is sovereign grace. He
is rejected by man, and man is rejected by God. ere is
mutual and complete rejection. Promise is gone, because
Christ, coming with the promises, was rejected. “ My soul
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loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.” It is now a
rejected humbled Christ, bestowed as the sovereign gift of
God. “ If thou knewest the gift,” etc. God was giving freely,
and He who gave was there. He who could create another
heaven and earth, if He pleased, came to ask drink of her!
What condence in His grace it inspires! He does not
expect her to ask of Him until He has asked of her. Our
pride would say, If I accept favors of God, He will accept
favors of me. Here is God Himself coming, and saying, “ If
thou knewest the gift of God,” etc. He would be dependent
for a drink of the brook by the way. Such was the position
He took. When He could put Himself in such a place as
to ask favor of her, all the sluices of her condence are
opened. “ He must needs go through Samaria.” e path
led through. at was the road in which His love, in coming
down here, put Him.
ere is nothing so hard for our vile hearts to understand
as grace; but there is nothing so simple in God’s presence.
If you knew the Person of Him who asks you, you would
believe the perfectness of grace coming down to the
wretchedness of man to bestow. It is not how you must be
this or that; but here is God come down to you.
He is at perfect ease with her, though she had been up
to this going on in hersins; she a Samaritan, and yet there
is God conversing with her! e revelation of God in this
way gives the consciousness that we can get what He has
to give.
e moment a soul apprehends what there is in Christ,
it has the blessing. “ Sir, give me this water,” etc.
Verse 16. ere is a thought added now. e sins have
to be made known. ere is no understanding of what He
has to give until the conscience is reached, and she has the
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238
conviction of sin. If the things of God could be received
by the understanding (natural), man would in a sense be
a match for God. Clearly man is not in that position with
God. But when the conscience is opened, it brings the
sense of need. en the sinner sees nothing but sin, and
that nothing but God’s grace can meet it. A man never
gets spiritual understanding until God has dealt with his
conscience. Until the esh is in a measure judged, the
Christian has no power to understand God.
When I know the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, I
know that I have everything I can need, because everything
is in Him-love, power, holiness in Him. “ He that drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
A detected sinner is in a dierent case from being in
possession of the well; and yet the detection was on the
way to it. To bring this well into the heart He must convict
of sin. She must consciously stand in the presence of God.
Do we think of that-that we are in the presence of God?
We should never sin if we did.
e woman follows the natural course of her own
thoughts in talking about the water from the well (v. 11,
12). But Christ says, “ e water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water,” etc. In using what sin gives
in this world, it is soon spent; its strength is gone in the
spending: the spring becomes dry. But with spiritual things
it is just the reverse. e more I spend, the more I have
got. “ To him that hath shall more be given.” And it leaves
no desire for anything else-no hankering after what I have
not got. “He shall never thirst “-never thirst after anything
else, while there will be the increasing sense of need of the
living water continually. I cannot say this practically of one
whose soul is hankering after earthly things. When there is
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this hard crust over the soul, there is need of humbling; but
the natural state of a Christian is to go on and have more
given. A Christian sunk down into the esh is thirsting.
If one went down to the bottom of his soul, one might
nd the well; but there ought to be rather the sense of
possession than of need in the soul.
Here is rest and power. We have not only everlasting
life in Him from whom we shall never be separated; but
the man has a well of water in himself. “It shall be in him a
well of water,” etc. is is power coming down from God-
heaven is brought down into my heart. It is the power of
divine life bringing me into fellowship with the Father and
the Son. It is nothing short of all that is in God dwelling in
me. I have got something that lays hold of that life-the gift
of God. Mark, it is here the well of water in the individual.
ere is an eternal spring in my own soul. ere is a power
in the person associating him with all that is in God; the
man drinks it in-receives it as a thirsty person-and then it
becomes in him a well which makes him partaker of what
is in God. It brings into intercourse with, and feeding in
spiritual apprehension on, the things of God.
is has not reference to outward gift, but to the living
power in the soul, embracing all that the Father and the
Son have, and it has the character and stamp in the person
of the eternal life to which it springs. ese everlasting
things belong to the person who enjoys them; the water
“ springs up to everlasting life.” In Rom. 8 the Spirit is
brought out as life and power. As the breath of life was
given to the rst Adam, and he became a living soul, so we
have the “ Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” After life there is
power also. is is the consequence of the sentence passed
upon sin in its whole nature-not on sins only. Christ on
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240
the cross condemned sin in the esh. God has dealt with
it and judged it on the Person of Christ. ey are distinct
and connected in a moment. As soon as I am quickened,
there is the inquiry, How am I to get rid of this sense of sin
in the esh? It is already condemned: not only are the sins
condemned but the principle of sin is, root and branch. “
ey that are after the esh mind the things of the esh;
they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” ere
is not only desire but power; “ that the righteousness of the
law might be fullled in us, who walk not after the esh,
but after the Spirit.” e Spirit is not only the source of
the nature, but the power that puts this new nature into
living connection with its object. It is not only the esh on
one side and the new nature on the other, but I have the
Holy Ghost in the new nature. God has condemned sin in
the esh by the death and resurrection of Christ. ere is
the revelation of the Father and the Son, received by the
soul in which the Holy Ghost dwells. e Holy Ghost now
works in power on the new nature, because Christ has dealt
with the old. is is not like the Spirit as given to Balaam,
but it is showing how the believer receives the Spirit after
he is quickened. “ Not in the esh but in the Spirit,” which
puts me on the ground of what God is to me, and not what
I am to God. As to our standing, this is our position-the
Father loves me as He loves Jesus. I own no life but what
the Spirit gives, and because of the Spirit dwelling thus in
me as the grand link with the Father and the Son, there is
not a bit of the believer belongs to sin or to the devil, but
spirit, soul, and body we belong to God. “ e Spirit is life
because of righteousness.” Another thing is, that He will “
quicken these mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in
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us.” In the burial of a Christian we commit his body, not to
the earth, but to Him who redeemed it.
Verse 14. ere is also relationship-” sons of God.” If led
of the Spirit, I am a son, and have the “ Spirit of adoption.”
I am thrown into entire association with Christ; I am a
child of God and have the consciousness of the Spirit of
adoption. “ e Spirit beareth witness with our spirit,”
etc. We are set there by sovereign grace. It is not what we
think about it, but what we are-” the sons of God by faith
in Christ Jesus.” e Holy Ghost cannot lead us to say, ‘I
do not know whether I am saved’; ‘I doubt’; ‘I hope to be
saved.’ e Holy Ghost brings it into the heart, and gives
the blessed sense of the relationship.
When the High Priest went into the presence of
God, the light shone upon all the names engraven on the
breastplate, etc. at was an inferior relationship, but it is
true that the same delight which the Father nds in Jesus
He nds in us. ere is the shedding abroad in the heart of
divine love by the Spirit, just as a candle sheds abroad its
light in the place where it is. So, if the Holy Ghost really
dwells in my heart, God’s love is there, for God the Holy
Ghost is there. ough it is my heart, it is God’s love that
is there. e Spirit sheds it abroad by being there, just as
Christ, being in the heart, draws down His own love into
it.
Again, if the Spirit thus dwells in us, there will be the
consciousness of groaning with the creation around. If we
walk through the world with Christ’s love lling the heart,
there is not a single thing but what will awaken sorrow-the
sorrow not of irritability but of love. Christ did ever the
work of love, but with what a sense of the way in which
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death had come in! He was always sorrowing, because He
was all love.
e Son of man was “ acquainted with grief “-not only
trouble, but grief. It went to His heart. We hear Jesus
groaning at the grave of Lazarus, though He knew what
deliverance He could eect. If we had been going to do
it, we should have gone gaily in, because going to bring
comfort to the family; but Jesus had such a sense of the
groaning of creation that He “ groaned.”
“ e Spirit also maketh intercession for us “ by putting
us in communion with God’s love. e Spirit, by dwelling
in me, makes me to realize love in the midst of sorrow.
Instead of selshness, it produces prostration of spirit in
the sense of what is around. e Spirit takes up the sorrow
which nature sinks under, but helps my inrmities by
putting me into connection with the perfect love of God
shown in Christ’s humiliation. e Holy Spirit being given
to us in Christ- God’s having come down to us in all our
necessities, we are carried back into the midst of the sorrow
and the sin in the sense of that in which believers groan.
is woman at the well (John 4) was conscious of the
creation she belonged to. She had no power to overcome
sin; but perhaps well wearied out with it-coming in the
heat of the day to draw water, not at the hour that others
came, for shame. She did not know what she was coming
for now; and when she had got the living water, she went
back to the city to tell the Samaritans. us should we
carry the love which has delivered us, back into the world
from which we have been delivered.
“ e Spirit helpeth our inrmities.” Our understandings
are not fully informed of what we want; but the “ Spirit
himself,” etc.-and “ He that searcheth the heart knoweth
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what is the mind of the Spirit.” If God searches our hearts,
what does He see there? A quantity of sin, to be sure; but
He sees desires there. “ e Spirit maketh intercession
according to God,” and yet from Floor creatures who do
not know what to ask for. e use the Holy Ghost makes
of it is to take up all the groaning. Every groan I utter is the
positive witness of blessing in the midst of sorrow, because
of the intercession of the Spirit according to God. What a
well of water! It is not crying out for self; but so realizing
the blessedness of God’s presence in the midst of a world
and a body not yet set free by His power, selshness gone,
and a means opened, while in the body, of being the vessel
of the intercession of the whole creation. All our own
suerings are lost in the thought of its being the path to
glory. Christ’s heart was moved when He saw sorrow. He
would not have us cold and indierent to it, nor yet, on the
other hand, selshly aected by it, but full of tenderness
and compassion towards those who are suering. “ He
hath set us an example, that we should follow his steps.”
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Death With Christ
Rom. 6
THIS chapter is the application of Christ dead and
risen to the believer’s walk, and is the proof that grace
disallows sin. Hence we have here Christian practice, and
the ground of that practice. We are called to liberty, and
not slavery, even in holiness. ere is righteousness, but it is
of that sort which bears fruit. ere is evidently wonderful
depth and value in it, as there must be in all that which
comes from God. Nor is it merely the producing fruit
down here (that is man’s thought), but it is fruit that goes
up to God; for whatever comes from Him goes up to Him.
e meat-oering might be eaten, but all the frankincense
went up to God. When Christ was down here, He oered
Himself in His life as a sweet savor; Eph. 5. It comes down,
and goes up to God again. is is Christian morality; and
where this is wanting, it is all nothing. e value is in the
motive.
us, there may be two men-the one doing everything
for his own pleasure, the other for the sake of those around
him: the one acting on a merely selsh principle, the other
feeling aright as the father of the family. erefore we have
constantly to judge ourselves, that we be not judged. e
Christian, in judging himself, must be grieved when he
sees how many other things come in, and mix up with that
which he presents to God. Self is apt to enter, and spoil
the savor of the ointment-not, perhaps, in others, but to
himself before God.
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We have seen that chapter 4 of this epistle brings out
faith in the God who had intervened in power, and raised
Jesus, who was under the power of death, and set Him at
His own right hand. We thus believe “ on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” He had said of Himself,
“ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,”
speaking of His body.
In chapter 5 faith is applied to justication, and then the
law comes in by the bye-righteous of itself, but convicting
of unrighteousness those to whom it was given; for they
could not keep it. Man must be innocent or saved. If a
man is innocent, he does not want the law. Adam could
not have known what it meant if it had been said to him,
ou shalt not lust, and, ou shalt not steal. Whom was
he to steal from? Man was addressed in the law as a sinner,
and it was not given till 400 years after the promise. By
one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, by the
Other’s obedience many were made righteous.
is display of grace seemed to make it no matter how
the believer lived, and to meet such a thought as that we
have chapter 6. e perverseness of the esh will turn the
law to a purpose quite opposed to that for which God gave
it, and grace to a dierent purpose from that for which it
was bestowed. e law, that was meant to convict man of sin,
they use for self-righteousness; and grace, that is intended
really to make a man holy, they turn into licentiousness.
Although it is true that souls were quickened before
Christ came, in virtue of His coming, we learn this truth,
that man is lost, a fallen sinner, before he is the head of the
fallen family: and so Christ was the Righteous Man before
He became the Head of the redeemed family. Man naturally
likes unholiness; and how is he to get rid of this? Nay, “
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how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
“ e motive to, yea ground of, a Christian life is that we
died with Christ; and we have life through a dead Christ,
with whom we died. If we have justication, we are made
partakers of His life, and there is the spring of holiness.
e blood of atonement was put on the ears, hands, feet;
marked by this, they had then to watch. Nothing is to be
allowed in thoughts or ways that would sully the purity of
that blood. How can a man live in that to which he died?
It cannot be. If I once died to sin, I cannot live in sin. God
forbid! ere is putting your members to death; but you are
not told to die, as having died already. e cross of Christ
has killed sin. I can now deal with this old thing as not me;
I have done with it; and I have got a new life, by which the
other is overcome.
What Christ have you a part in? A dead Christ. “
Buried with him in baptism,” etc., raised up by this new
power, “ by the glory of the Father “; and I can rest upon
that expression, because it can feed the heart, and meet the
subtlety of the world, and the subtlety in ourselves. ere is
nothing connected with the glory of the Father that was not
concerned in the resurrection of Christ. ere was specially
shown the power of God, and the Father’s love. ere His
own glory is concerned in it, for it is the Father’s own Son,
who was one with Himself; and the righteousness of God
is also concerned.
He shall convict the world of righteousness. “ ou
wilt not suer thine Holy One to see corruption.” He was
God manifest in the esh, justied in the Spirit, seen of
angels: angels must be witnesses of this great work of the
resurrection of the Son.
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ere would have been a gap in heaven if Christ had
not been raised up from the dead. Now we see (I do not
say realize) what this newness of life must be. Ought not I
to see divine righteousness in it? Ought not I to see divine
love in it? Ought not I to see the glory of His Person in
it? And the aections have to do with this too, for He has
gone down into the depths of the earth; and how came
He there? Because I was a sinner. And do I not see that
He who was there so low deserved to be raised? Who was
it? e Person of the Son of God. When speaking to the
woman of Samaria, He Himself said, “ If thou knewest
who it is that said unto thee, Give me to drink.” He rst
speaks to her conscience, after He said, “ Give me to drink
“; then to her understanding, for “ I perceive that thou art a
prophet.” en the Person of the Lord Jesus lls her heart,
for she goes and tells others about Him. And this is where
we are brought. e heart follows Christ, as it were, and
goes up with Him into the new life. Everything is dead
below.
“ is is the victory that overcometh the world, even
your faith.” I do not say there will be no conict. And
the heart has done with it. How very near it comes to
me! “ Planted together.” And this is no mere intellectual
perception, but, as I see that Christ was there for my sins,
it is the very way in which my need is all met. “ We have
been planted together in the likeness of his death,” etc. It
comes to me here, and for my sins. And was divine love
the less because down here, and not up above? It is in that
I learn it, because it was for my sins. Was divine power
the less? It is here I learn it. His heart followed me to be
made sin, and now mine must follow Him in resurrection.
We have no half Christ. We are planted together in the
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likeness of His death, and planted together in the likeness
of His resurrection.
He not only died but is personally accepted. It was “
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we henceforth
should not serve sin.” You were slaves (speaking after the
manner of the country)-under the title of dominion by
another-not knowing at night what they should do in the
morning- naturally slaves to sin or slaves to the law. Not
that the law was sin: see John 8:33, where the Jews are
addressed as under the law. “ e servant abideth not in the
house forever, … but the Son abideth ever. If, therefore, the
Son hath made you free, ye are free indeed.” It is perfect
liberty. He that has done with sin must be dead to it. You
cannot charge a thing upon a man that is dead. Why did
you do so-and-so? “ He that is dead is freed from sin.” All
is gone to which it attached. Do you ask, How can that be
said, when I nd I am not dead? Because it is with Christ
you died. Christ was put in your place; He has taken it on
Him, and done with it. e very things that distress me
now are the things that put Christ to death. He has done
with sin; therefore mortify it. “ Reckon yourselves to be
dead unto sin, and alive unto God.” I should not need such
a word as that “ reckon,” if there was no need of mortifying.
It is holy liberty from sin we have, and not to sin.
“ Walk in newness of life.” “ Have your fruit unto
holiness.” But the great doctrine of grace is-saved by a
mediator. “ Enter not into judgment.” If judgment takes its
course on me, it is all over with me. Wash yourself ever so
clean, the instant you see the eye of God upon you, you see
yourself as one out of a lthy ditch. Job wanted a “ daysman,
who might lay his hands upon both.” e more delicate the
conscience is as to the sense of the least delement, the
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more the need of the mediator is felt. You say, I nd that
which ought to be dead is still alive. Did Christ die for the
sins you have not, or for those you have? e very things
you are nding out are the very things He died for. e
more jealousy of conscience, the better, only be sure to see
the grace too.
We have a new thing in Him; He is raised from the dead.
Judgment cannot touch it-death cannot touch it. ere is
not a single thing He has not taken upon Himself. And
now we are planted in a new state of existence altogether.;
in that we live, we live in Him, just as much as we died
with Him. He died, not for Himself, but He was made sin,
etc., and in everything He was put to the test. He learned
obedience by the things that He suered. He went through
everything- the scorn of the world, the power of Satan-
even to the wrath of God. He was tempted in all points
like as we, yet without sin. Satan never could nd anything
in Him. It was His meat to do His Father’s will. But it is
never said He could take delight in the suering for sin;
therefore He says, “ If it be possible, let this cup pass from
me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Now He lives beyond it all in resurrection. He had the
Spirit of holiness. All His life through, this was true of
Him; but He was put to the test in everything. But now we
see Him in new life. He is no half Christ then. He died to
sin, but lives to God; therefore we are to reckon ourselves
dead to sin, and alive to God.
is is a very practical question. Not that you are to
say, If you have not the realization of this, you cannot have
the value of the blood. No; but you must know the value
of the blood, and so have it in Christ, that you may live.
e groundwork of living to Him is to have died to sin
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with Him. at is the position-” Reckon yourselves,” not
experience yourselves, etc. “ Let not sin, therefore, reign in
your mortal bodies,” etc. It does not say, Be alive to God,
and therefore reckon yourselves, etc. In the power of this
I can be living before the world as belonging to God, as
I can live before God in the sense of acceptance, because
justied by Christ’s blood. Live to God. How can I do
otherwise than hate myself to be doing even a right thing,
and not doing it to God? e worst thing possible is to be
bringing corruption into the best things.
“ Yield yourselves to God.” Did Christ ever do anything
for Himself? His was a life of love. He had not time even
to eat-always living for others. He not only did things that
were commanded, but because they were commanded.
What a blessed thought-to have done with self! It is the
best thing in the world. “ Sin shall not have dominion over
you,” etc. Oh! but you say, It has dominion over me, and I
am afraid God will not have me. What are you doing with
grace? How can you come to God for anything, if you are
not standing in grace? To whom can you go, if you are not
in grace? Rom. 5 comes before chapter 6, and if you try to
reverse them, you get into chapter 7. If, because I do not love
Christ as I ought (which is a higher thing than the law), I
doubt whether I am His, I put myself under law-only it is
making Christ the law instead of the ten commandments.
It is not realizing grace, for grace is favor to those who do
not deserve it. It is the subtlety of the heart again to abuse
grace, where we do not ignore it as we have seen.
“ Ye became servants of righteousness.” A person
is not to be licentious because free from the law, but he
has to produce “ fruit unto holiness.” What is holiness?
Separation from what is evil. Adam unfallen was not, but
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innocent. God is holy, Christ is holy; so are we holy, for
we hate sin, and love righteousness, though we cannot
do it as God does. Holiness must have God for its object.
Christ never needed an object of faith, though He walked
in obedience and dependence, as the Holy One of God.
We must have an object, Paul had. He saw the Lord in
glory, and bore “ fruit unto holiness.” What fruit does sin
bear? None; it brings in death and judgment. But what is
meant by “ fruit unto holiness? “ We must like what God
likes; and what is the consequence of this? We become
separate from unholiness, and increasing by the knowledge
of God. Not only actual fruits (that is true-a tree must be
known by its fruits), but this practical bringing forth fruit
is connected with the righteousness of God. “ e secret
of Jehovah is with them that fear him.” ere is constant
reference to God’s will. “ If the eye be single, the whole
body will be full of light.” We have to learn God, not just
slipping and getting on, but with consecration of the heart,
growing up in the knowledge of God-not only servants to
righteousness but “ to God.”
God’s own character needs to be wrought in us. Christ
thought it worth while to leave heaven, that we should
be free to go up there, and made to bring forth fruit unto
holiness down here.
ere is a positive joy in pleasing God. “ e gift of
God is eternal life.” It is all grace; and I would rather have
eternal life as the gift of God, than ten lives of my own ever
so long, because it is the proof of His love to me.
May we grow up to do His will, remembering it is
founded on reckoning ourselves dead unto sin, and alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord! us may we
live out of the world, as to separation from its evil, as He is!
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62769
Rivers of Living Water
John 7
IN this Gospel we get not only the testimony to the
Jewish people of the Messiah and the message of the
kingdom, but the glorious doctrine of the Person of Christ,
the rejection of which rendered it more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah than for them.
In the previous Gospels we have the Lord set before
us, as Son of Abraham, Son of David, Son of man, the
Messiah, the servant, the perfect Israelite. is Christ-
rejecting generation not only broke the law but discarded
the promises as well. Abraham’s seed but rebels against
Abraham’s God, they who had the promises must now
come in on a common level with the Gentile through grace.
God is faithful to His word, that is true; but it is only under
mercy they can be saved. We have no historical account of
Christ in this Gospel-no genealogy, but we are taken back
to the beginning ‘a the book of Genesis; and get a truth
deeper, higher, and far beyond that of the other Gospels,
even the glory of Christ as it ever was, before He became
the Incarnate Word: and this is so blessed for us, for we get
eternal life in Him-in Him who has life in Himself. It is not
the promises we get (though we get them too), but it is the
Promiser Himself. It is this blessed One who is our life-life
that existed before worlds began. He had a former glory,
but this glory of His Person, where is that to be found? In
His redeemed, there it will be displayed. Christ came to
His own, but they received Him not, and since then they
have been treated as reprobates all along. Up to Christ’s
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253
rejection God tried man; He left him without law, put him
under law, gave him priesthood and prophets, and in due
time sends His only-begotten Son. All was without avail.
Did they reverence Him? No. is is the heir, said they; we
will kill him and the inheritance will be ours, bringing to
light that most dreadful truth, “ e carnal mind is enmity
against God.”
Man would not have the holiness of God, neither would
he have the love of God. And now God brings in a new
thing-a spring of life, and puts away sin through the death
of His Son; and Christ, having died for sin, takes His seat
at the right hand of God, victorious over all, and sends
down the promised Spirit to enable us to walk before Him.
In chapter 6 we get Christ feeding the multitude who
followed Him (and the disciples too).
ere are three great feasts spoken of that the Jews
always kept-the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of
Tabernacles. In this last feast the vintage was pregured,
the showing by a gure they had been a people who had
dwelt in booths, but now had rest. Christ could feed them
in the wilderness, but He could not go with them to this
feast; for before Christ could enter on a rest down here,
the work of redemption must be accomplished, and the
church must be taken. erefore He said, “ I go not up yet
unto this feast, for my time is not fully come.” His brethren
may go, but He could not now declare His glory and enter
upon His rest. But there was an eighth day, when comes
rest: then He would keep the Feast of Tabernacles, then
should God’s holy rest be on the earth, God’s church being
in the glory.
We get the Spirit spoken of in three ways: rst, all saved
ones from the beginning to the end are born of the Spirit;
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secondly, the Spirit in them a well of water springing up;
thirdly, rivers owing out. “ In whom, after ye believed,
ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise.” e Holy
Ghost was not yet given, we read, “ because Jesus was not
yet gloried.” Mark, before the disciples could receive the
Holy Ghost, the work of atonement must be done, and
Jesus be a gloried Man, seated up there at God’s right
hand. Who? A Man. Why? Sin is put away. Yes; Jesus, as
Son of man, is gloried; as Son of God He was ever the
gloried One. God was so gloried by the work of His Son
that, so to speak, He became His debtor. How did the Son
of man glorify God? By suering for my sins on the cross.
God’s judgment was perfectly met, and God perfectly
gloried the Man Christ Jesus who endured the wrath. e
exaltation of this gloried Man is the witness that my sins
are fully put away. What does God say about my sins now?
“ eir sins and iniquities I will remember no more.”
Where was the truth of God displayed that said, “ In the
day thou eatest thou shalt surely die,” and Satan’s lie fully
proved which said, ou shalt not die? On the cross Christ
died. God is love. e majesty, the holiness, the love of God
were magnied on the cross. e question of sin is settled.
e Son of man is gloried. God the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit have all been occupied about my sin. What a
footing I have! Done with sins, no more conscience of
them: Christ has taken them clean o. He could not bring
us into God’s presence with ONE sin upon us. No; though
they were “ as scarlet, they shall be white as wool.” Christ
became obedient unto death; and this settles the whole
thing, and gives power to the poor sinner. With what holy
freedom I can go into God’s presence, when I know Christ
is there, seated at God’s right hand, as my forerunner! I
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have a perfect righteousness, a perfect love, and a perfect
obedience to appear in. What comfort and what joy! You
could not go into God’s presence with one sin upon you: it
would be folly to think of it-madness to attempt it. One sin
unpardoned would unt you for enjoying God. You must
be perfectly clean. e blood of Christ does cleanse from
all sin, so that the soul in the presence of God can enjoy
God-we “ joy in God.”
e gloried Jesus, seated in heaven, sends down the
Comforter to give us power for fellowship with Him.
See the place He has taken, one with the redeemed on
earth. Never until after the resurrection does He call His
disciples “ brethren,” nor does He say, “ Peace be with you,”
before then. He did say, “ Fear not.” (But He had not made
peace.) “ All mine are thine, and thine are mine “-all are
ours in Christ. We have His righteousness; we wait for the
hope. We have the earnest; we wait for the inheritance.
We have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. And
when we view the holiness, the power, the love of God,
how delightful is the thought, He is my Father! e love
wherewith He has loved His own Son He hath bestowed
upon me. No man hath seen God at any time; but we learn
what the Father is by the Son. We see in Him the out-
owings of the divine fullness; and we must drink at this
rock. It is not enough for us to see: we must draw from
Him: and there will be the conscious out-owing of what
He is. What a character that truth should give us! One with
Christ in heaven, “ Head of his body, the church “; a living
union with Him: God for us, Christ in us, the Spirit’s seal
on us. “ If any man thirst.”
We must remember we do not drink for others, and
other cannot drink for us. I must FEEL my own want and
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I must bring my own want to Christ myself. ere must be
a thirsting before there can be a drinking. Have I a want in
my heart that Christ cannot meet? No. Is there a spiritual
want in the soul that goes to Christ without nding relief?
No. “ If any man thirst.” Now there must be a need, and
that need must be felt, known, and brought to Christ.
en, no matter what it be, He says, “ Come unto me and
drink.” “ If ye knew the gift of God ye would ask of me,
and I would give you living water.” ink, beloved friends,
of Christ sitting at a well. Which of us would not gladly go
to Him with open hearts, and let Him read out of them all
their need? He is not to be put o. He knew her need, and
left her not until she felt it, and He met it. If we are to be
useful to poor sinners, we must be more like Christ. Why
we help them so little is, that we do not come down low
enough to them in grace. ink of the place Christ ever
took towards them, and follow Him, being partakers of the
grace, and remembering the word, “ if any man thirst.”
In the last chapter of Revelation we have another word.
Now, having this water of life in us, we are in a position
to say, “ Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
freely.” We have not the Bridegroom, we wait for Him; but
we have the Spirit, the living water. We can count on the
grace and love of God, knowing it will not fail for any who
cast themselves on the blood of Jesus.
Before Abraham Was, I Am
257
62770
Before Abraham Was, I Am
Jam 8: 58
THE Jews were immersed, not in the truth of their
system, but in the mere ignorance of acting on present
appearances. is is a deep essential principle of error,
which one has to watch-not seeing God and things
according to His mind (which was exactly in question),
but the mind of man in the things of God. Hence precisely
the present state of the church. It was the grand question
between Jesus and the Jews, the point in which Jesus has
to be recognized, and in which faithfulness to Him rests,
as in Him to His Father, in this respect. e Jews therefore
said to Him, “ ou art not yet fty years old, and hast
thou seen Abraham? “ ey thought the sense of this the
same, because they looked not beyond the outside. But, on
man’s ground, the Jewish reasoning was generally correct.
It was utterly wrong morally, without conscience, therefore
without God and that which God alone could teach.
ey now brought it to the point of the mere manhood
of Christ-the point of their darkness. Our Lord, as the
truth, could but give the light. “ Before Abraham was [was
born], I am.” Ye know not My existence, My being. “ Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” e great
truth was told, the essential vital eternal truth, on which all
hung, without which there could be no truth, nor coming
unto man, nor bringing man back in redemption to God.
For how could he be restored by that which was not? And
this was true of everything save One. Should dust be a
redeemer? Yet out of dust man was to be redeemed.
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e great truth was declared. Lie there could be
none against it. e necessity of the existence of the
Savior assumed the nothingness of all else-could be, not
falsied, but only denied by violence. ey might say it
was blasphemy, and take up stones in their zeal for God,
rejecting Him manifested. “ en took they up stones to
cast at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”
e time of their iniquity was not come: His time was not
come. But what circumstances! and with whom discussed!
and what a truth! Do we believe it? Do we, I say, believe
it-that Jesus (a man even as we are, save sin) was “ I am?”
All is told, if we believe Him thus dead and alive again; for
therein is the redemption, and through this must He pass.
It is true, most simply true, the center-wondrous,
wondrous to us-of all the manifestation of God, and rightly
in its glory to chosen sinners; lovely in its blessing to all
sinners; deep therefore necessarily, in its condemnation of
blind rejecting sinners. “ Without controversy, great is the
mystery of godliness; God manifest in the esh, justied in
the spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed
on in the world “-and yet, more wondrous still, “ received
up into glory.” us, as to essential truth, He was “ I am.”
en, as to the dispensation, the thing thus revealed,
or rather discussed with the Jews, is the subject of John 8.
e Lord is traced as the light of the world; as Son of man
lifted up; all through as the Son in the power of life, in
person as Son, up to this great revelation of “ I am “: the real
truth and fulller of all Jewish hopes, and the basis of all
common promises, and this as, and by, the word-the essential
characteristic. I know of nothing that has so astonished my
mind as this revelation of “ I am,” or the real thought that
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259
Jesus could say, “ I am “; the connection of these-to man-
inconvertible possibilities, and the concatenation in which
all the dealings of God are brought out as fullled in it,
while yet He remains truly God; and yet could say therein,
“ the Son of man, who is in heaven.”
How manifest it is, that nothing but the gift of faith
could, even in a single tittle, understand or know the truth
in the Person of Jesus! while yet, by the perfection of its
manifestation in the esh, every soul was put under the
responsibility to receive it as the true word of God, our
God, in love. e broad penetrating fact, “ I am,” the all-
embracing word, must at once close all controversy. We
must be opposers or bow before the throne of God. We
must stand in awe of Jesus. Well may it be said, “ Kiss the
Son! “ Lord Jesus! what sort of subjection is this we owe
to thee? We have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear;
but now our eyes see thee, we abhor ourselves. Oh! can we
see this in Jesus? Have we seen it? None can see it out of
Him. It is the truth only in Him. Surely we should move
mountains if we believed it: yet it is simple truth.
Dwell on it, my soul! Jesus, that thou knowest,
that stranger in the world among His own, is “I AM.”
Henceforth let us be dead to all but this. I do indeed stand
incapable of utterance. I do read and talk with Jesus, I watch
Jesus in His ways, a servant, and, behold, He, even He, is
“I AM,” with whom I am, whose way I follow, whose grace
I adore. Christ is the union of these two things: the man,
the rejected man, whom I look at now with most thankful
sympathy, and, behold, the presence of God! How low it
lays men’s thoughts, experience, judgments, notions! e
perfection of God was there-God rejected of men. What
can meet or have a place along with this? Let this be my
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experience. Glory be to God Most High. Amen. Yet to me
it is Jesus; in truth it is “I am.” Here I rest; here I dwell; to
this I return. is is all in all. I can only be silent, yet would
speak what no tongue can utter, and no thought can think
before it. is we shall learn, and forever grow in-more
beyond us forever, for here is God revealed in His essential
name of existence-God revealed in man, in Jesus! I know
Him, am familiar with Jesus, at home with God, honoring
the Father in Him, and Him as one with and in the Father,
yea, delighting to do it. But I say, do we believe it?
I do believe it all: and yet, as it were, believe nothing. I
am as nothing in the thought of it, yet alive for evermore by
it, blessed be God and His name. All shall praise Him so.
Yea, Lord Jesus, God Most High, so shall it be. Lord Jesus!
ou art “I am,” ou art “I AM “; yet didst ou take little
children in thine arms; yet didst ou suer, die, and be in
the horrible pit-yea, for our sins! us I know the mercy-
seat: I know that there is no imputing sins to me, that I am
reconciled to God, and that God is the reconciling One.
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62771
e Resurrection and Life
John 11
THE Lord had been now rejected, both in His words
and His works. In chapter 8 He convicts by His word.
“ Before Abraham was, I am.” ere was in that the full
manifestation of who He was; but they rejected it. In
chapter 9 He shows His works; but this testimony is also
rejected. And then He shows how all is in grace and in
chapter Pp speaks of gathering His sheep. When He said,
“I and my Father are one,” they took up stones again to
stone Him; and then He goes again beyond Jordan. In
chapter it, in connection with the raising of Lazarus, He is
spoken of as the Son of God; afterward, in chapter 12, as
Son of David and Son of man.
What is here specially brought out is Christ’s exercising
power-life-giving power. Not so much His holiness or His
love; though they were there as perfect as ever, but not what
He was specially manifesting. He has come where death
was; and He was going to raise out of it, rst, the soul,
and then the body. “ Because I live, ye shall live also.” is
brings out something of the character of Martha. Martha
loved the Lord, and the Lord loved Martha. She received
Him into her house. He made His home there, as it were.
ere was condence in His kindness, and that kind of care
and interest between them that, directly Lazarus was sick,
they sent to tell Him, taking it for granted He would come
because of the intimacy they had. “ Jesus loved Martha and
her sister and Lazarus.” ey were a believing family; and
we nd that, when people are believers, there are dierent
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characters. We see here what Christ delighted in-what
fruit of the Spirit was acceptable to Him. He said of Mary,
“she hath chosen that good part.” God may make men as
active as possible, like Paul or Boanerges, when He wants
them; but communion is the most precious thing to Him.
ere is a dierence between Peter and John. His heart
rested with satisfaction on him who leaned on His bosom.
Christ had come into this world, when moral death
reigned, to bring in blessing from Himself. But here is a
death which could come in and take a man out of the reach
of the blessing of healing which He Himself came to give.
Death was the harbinger of judgment. No man could
recover from it; no man could cure it; no man could escape
from it. And they knew that it would carry on to judgment;
for it brings with it the testimony of sin. God could kill
and God could make alive. Nature always shrinks from
death, because there is this consciousness of its being the
eect of sin. Christ comes into this place of death; and
the mere relieving man’s misery down here, which He did,
never could touch death. Man having now rejected Him,
it was needful to show that, if man was a murderer and
would even put Him to death, He had a power which
could deliver out of death. Death had lost its power in His
presence who was come to bring in life. During all His
course He had been ready to heal the sick with a word, and
they expected He would do so with Lazarus. But now He
would let the evil go to its fullest extent, that we might see
His title to do it all away. e Lord, though He heard that
He was sick, remained in the same place. When He was
coming, He said, “ Lazarus sleepeth.” e moment we see
death coming to believers we can say, is is no judgment;
“ this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.”
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263
In connection with Christ, no evil can triumph; but even
death can turn for the glory of God. And, mark, it was not
for some vague good at a distance, but “ that the Son of
God may be gloried thereby.” e power of life has come
into the very place of judgment. We have not to wait till we
get to God, but God comes in delivering power to us who
were “dead in trespasses and sins.”
Chapter 8 is the truth of God and the Son of God
connected; “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” And,
besides that, life came by the Son. He could have healed
Lazarus and remained safe in Jerusalem: but now He does
this miracle in the most public way. And He did this that
all the purposes of man might be brought out. Contrast the
way in which He raised Jairus’ daughter-in private.
e foundation of the faith of God’s people is in
resurrection-”for your sakes,” v. 15. ey were to believe
in Him, “the resurrection and the life.” “Grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ.” e law was not truth. e law put
man on his responsibility; but now man was taken up as
dead already: this was truth. e law put a man on doing-”
do and live.” It told him the rightness of what ought to
be, but did not tell him what he really was. It answered
the purpose for which it was sent; for it made the “oense
to abound.” e law did not tell man what he is, nor what
God is to man-love; but when I get the truth, it sets me
free. While I am under a yoke, I am made to toil, toil, toil.
e yoke draws me down, and I have no power under it.
“O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” ere
is no deliverance in that; but if One comes in who says,
You are a wretched sinner, dead in trespasses and sins; but
I can deliver you by bringing in a righteousness of God-
which sets me free in heart and conscience. I can stand in
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God’s righteousness before a God of truth and love. “If ye
continue in my words “; these words He addressed morally
to all.
ere is another thing. “e servant abideth not in the
house forever,” but comes in on the condition of conducting
himself well in the house, and, if not, to be turned out. “But
the Son abideth ever.” We are made free, and may “go in
and out and nd pasture” as children of the house. “ If the
Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Christ is
the proof of God’s love-righteousness the proof of what
Christ is. I have a place as a son because of what Christ is
as a Son. He came in the power of life; not dealing with
man as he is, and trying to mend him; but giving life, thus
treating him as dead. “Martha said, I know that he shall rise
again,” etc. But Christ spoke, neither of the resurrection
of believers, nor of the resurrection at the judgment. He
would show her that death was nothing in His presence.
“I am the resurrection and the life.” She said a true thing
when she said, “He shall rise again at the last day.” But
this did not touch Lazarus’ case. If you have to be called
up at the last day, you do not know but you may rise to be
condemned then. Besides, his mere natural life would be
subject to death again if he were raised up now, unless He
who raised him were “the life” as well as “the resurrection.”
Christ does not say, I am the life and the resurrection,
but, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Death has come
in; therefore He must bring in resurrection rst. He is the
life giving One who has come in and destroyed the power
of death. Death shall have no more dominion. Death had
dominion over the rst Adam; but the last Adam gained
dominion over death. And He has quickened us together
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265
with Him, and has taken us out of that state as having
nothing whatever to do with it.
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62772
Constancy of Christ Our
Comforter
John 13
IT is evident that Jesus here addresses the disciples who
then were around Him; but what we see there of Jesus
draws the soul to Him. at which draws the sinner, which
gives Him condence, is what the Holy Ghost reveals of
Jesus.
I desire we should consider what is found in verse 1,
that is, the constancy of Christ’s love-a love that nothing
damped nor weakened. If we think what the disciples
were, and the world, and the adversaries, we shall nd that
Jesus had a thousand reasons putting a stop to His love.
We see round Him three kinds of persons-the disciples,
the indierent, and the adversaries. e latter are more
especially the children of the devil. ey are those who,
when they saw the Lord was going to take the kingdom
and reign over those things, said, “ We will not have this
man to reign over us.” ere are some who from the bottom
of their hearts have the certainty that Jesus is the Christ,
and who will not have Him. e adversaries may draw
away the indierent. All that was in this world was of a
nature to destroy Jesus’ love, had it not been perfect and
invariable: for there is nothing that wounds love more than
indierence.
We naturally love sin, and we would make use of all that
God has given us to satisfy our lusts. Jesus saw all that. He
saw the disgusting state of this world and said, “ How long
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267
shall I … suer you? “ When we are in the light of God, it
is thus we judge sin.
Where are the parents who would not desire their
children should avoid the corruption they knew themselves?
It was because Jesus knew the sad state of man that grace
led Him to come to take him out of it. God sees everything.
In His compassion He takes cognizance of everything in
order to meet our wants. But what does He meet with?
Indierence of heart. e heart of the natural man sees in
Jesus something contemptible. He cannot acknowledge his
own state, and he will not be a debtor to God to get out of
it. He prefers remaining in indierence with respect to that
God who loves him; and, again, let us remember that there
is nothing that discourages love more than indierence.
Jesus met with hatred also. All those who loved not the
light, because their deeds were evil, hated Jesus. Pride, carnal
assurance, self-will, everything in man, repelled God. ere
was nothing in this uncleanness, this indierence, and this
hatred, that could attract the love of Jesus. at love might
have been led to give up when, for instance, Jesus saw that
Judas was betraying Him.
If a person were going to betray us, we should be too
much occupied with ourselves to think of those who will
not betray us. is was not the case with Jesus.
Although iniquity abounded, Jesus showed all His love;
and nally, His disciples themselves forsake Him also!
ose who loved Him were so selsh and so much the
slaves of the fear of man that it was impossible for Jesus to
reckon upon them. Such is the heart of man that, although
a man may love Jesus, yet his heart is worthless. Jesus had
to love in presence of a hatred which never relented. He
loved us even when we were covered with uncleanness,
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268
indierent, full of hatred for the light and having denied
it a thousand times. He who knows himself best knows
best how true this is. If we were to treat a friend as we treat
Jesus, friendship would not last long.
What a contrast we shall nd, if we consider how
dierent that which Jesus found on earth is from what He
enjoyed in heaven! ere He found the Father’s love, and
in the presence of that perfect love, the purity of His own
could not be manifested, because it found no obstacle. But
here below, remembering what He had left, He loves His
own, even in their uncleanness; this itself draws out upon
them His compassion. e object of grace is iniquity and
evil. e indierence of His own proved to Jesus all the
extent of their misery and the need they had of Him! Even
the hatred of man showed that man was lost. God came
to seek man, because he was not in a state to seek God.
How many things God has borne with! What indierence,
what betraying, what denials! One would be ashamed to
act with Satan as one acts with the Lord. Nevertheless,
nothing stops Jesus: He loves His own unto the end. He
acted according to that which was in His heart, and all
the wickedness of man was for Him only the occasion of
manifesting His love.
e Lord has done all that is necessary to re-establish
the soul in relationship with God. Sinners as we are, the
grace of God came to seek us. Righteousness and the law
require that evil and the wicked be removed. John the
Baptist required repentance; it was the beginning of grace.
But pure grace (far from saying to man, Leave thy state
and come to me) comes itself to man in his sin; it enters
into relationship with him, that God may be much more
manifested, than if there had been no sin.
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269
Grace applies what is in God to the need which is
produced by the ruin where we are. Jesus loves unto the
end.
What consolation to know that Jesus is all that is
needed for all that we are! is places us in that which is
true, and leads us to confess the evil which is in us, and not
to hide it. Grace alone produces sincerity; Psa. 32:1, 2. A
man who has a profession to follow wants to appear strong
even when he is weak. Grace produces truthfulness-makes
us acknowledge the weakness and inrmity in which we
are. If we were in the place of Peter, we would do what
Peter himself did, if we were not kept. Jesus loves His own
“ in the world,” in their pilgrimage and their circumstances,
in spite of their misery, of their selshness, and of their
weakness. All that Satan could do, and all that was in man,
was quite of a nature to hinder Jesus’ love: nevertheless, “ he
loved them unto the end.”
Can you say, “ I have a share in that love, in spite of
my weakness? I have understood the grace and the
manifestation in Jesus of the love of the invisible God.”
Have you acknowledged that it was necessary that Jesus
should come into the world, in order that your soul might
not go to the place where there is “ weeping and gnashing
of teeth? “ Have we made up our mind to acknowledge
ourselves to be what we are? is is disagreeable to the
esh, it is painful; like the thorn of Paul, it is something that
continually tells him, ou art weak; and that is precisely
why God allows it to remain. Is the esh suciently
mortied in us for us to be content that Jesus should be all,
and ourselves nothing, and for us to rejoice in seeing our
weakness, since it is to manifest the strength of God in us?
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Jesus has not forgotten any of our wants. e heart
which is free from selshness thinks only of that which
love would do. us it is that Jesus, on the cross, does not
forget His mother, but commends her to the disciple whom
He loved.
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271
62774
Christ the Hope, and the
Holy Ghost, With Our
Responsibility
John 14
THIS chapter is an answer to the distress of the hearts
of the disciples, and in it we get two things set before them:
rst, the glory of Christ’s Person with His coming again;
and, secondly, the coming of the Comforter.
e rst great truth that He brings out is that they
belong entirely to another place. is world is not good
enough for them. He was going away from them, and this
was something to trouble their hearts. erefore He brings
before them Himself, as the object of comfort, “ Ye believe
in God, believe also in me.” By believing in God, you get
comfort; so it will be by believing in Me.
e occasion was a sorrowful one surely; for to know
Christ and yet not to see Him, not to have Him with them,
might well trouble the heart. ey had taken Him for their
portion, and left everything else. ey had so entirely
conded in Him, so rested on Him, that His going away
might well trouble them.
e great broad principle set forth in answer to this is
comprehended in what He is. And it is as though He said,
Do not suppose I am going away to be alone in heaven.
No, it is for you I am going. “ In my Father’s house are
many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.” ere is
“ room enough and to spare.” is was another thing to
comfort them-a place in the Father’s house. e home of
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272
the Christian is there where Christ is. He was not going for
Himself only, just to relieve Himself from the desolateness
of the world. He was going to His home as the Firstborn
among many brethren, and all the rest will have their place
there too at His coming. “ And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.”
is is the language of aection. He does not say, I will
send for you. No, that would not satisfy the heart-” I will
come.” He would not be content without having them
where He is, and without coming to fetch them. He could
not leave them down here in this polluted world. “ Where
I am, there shall my servant be.” And there will be the word
for them, “ Well done, good and faithful servant, enter,” etc.
He takes their hearts out of this world altogether-not their
persons yet indeed, for they were to be left without Him
for a season.
We see the absolute intimacy that existed between them
from 1 John 1, “ at which was from the beginning …
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon, and our hands have handled,” etc. ey knew Him
well; so that, when they were to go, they would not be
going to a strange place, because they knew Him there. If
my father were gone away to a distant country, my heart
would go after him there, and would be more at home in
that place where he is, than here, although I knew not the
place, for I have never seen it. Note that the Lord never
supposes for a moment the slightest doubt of their being
there. ere is the most perfect certainty for them, because
Christ would be there Himself. e question of tness
could not come in; for does not Christ know whether you
are t? ere would be diculties in the way-in the world
“ tribulation “; the road may be rough, but the home is
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273
certain. He has taken our sins and blotted them out, and
therefore He can speak as one who knows the full value of
His redemption.
“ Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Suppose
I were going to a strange place, I should want to know the
way. He says, “ I am the way,” etc. I am going to the Father’s
house, and you shall be there too. And what makes the
blessedness of the Father’s house? e Father being there,
and brothers and sisters there, it is not the place nor the
state that we think about in connection with the Father’s
house (though there are these as well); but the great thing
to our hearts is the Person there-the object in the house-
the Father. None can go to the Father “ but by me.” If I
know the Father, I know where I am going. It is He makes
it a home to me. When the prodigal returned to his father’s
house, there was great rejoicing-the fatted calf killed, etc.;
but it was the spring of joy in the father’s heart that made
them all so happy there, whether servants or sons.
Jesus says to them, “ He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father.” As if He had said, You have got the thing you
are looking for, if you have Myself. You have not to wait to
get to heaven to know Him. “ He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father.” If they knew where they were going, they
also knew the way-” I am the way,” etc. In seeing the way
in Him, I nd I have known the Father, before I get home
to the Father’s house. He has done that work which makes
me t to be there. He has come down and brought the
Father to me through the ecacy of His work. en I have
got home in one sense. How can I get farther than to the
Father Himself? You have the thing you are seeking after.
You have found the Father in Me, and you have found the
way to it.
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When Christ is rst revealed, it makes us feel our
untness, but He purges the conscience. e work which
has purged sin away is done. e believer is justied from
all things. If a man believes in Christ, he has a new nature.
Can the esh believe in Christ? “ Flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee,” etc. e soul that believes has all the
ecacy of Christ’s work, blood-shedding and sprinkling. I
have the happiness Christ has. What is this? All that results
from unhindered fellowship with Him. Another thing is
the power by which we enjoy it-another Comforter, and
this given to be down here. It is here the Father reveals the
Son, and this would be a Comforter that would never leave
them.
Every one who believes in Christ, resting on His work,
shares the blessings of the Comforter now given and
abiding. A person is not a Christian unless his body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost.
e Holy Ghost is not known as an object (though He
distributes to every one severally as He will), but He is in
us- living spiritual power in us. Christ did not dwell so in
us. Christ was with them three years, and then went away
from them; but the Holy Ghost never goes away, and is
promised to be in them “ a well of water,” etc. e eect of
the Holy Ghost’s power is to bring Christ back to us; not
in person, as an object, but Christ becoming, by the power
of the Holy Ghost, life in me. “ To me to live is Christ,” etc.
Christ Himself is He whom the Holy Ghost shows to me.
ere is a blessed living object in Christ which I do not
nd in the Holy Ghost. ey could not say of Him, “ We
have handled him,” as of Christ.
“ At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and
ye in me, and I in you.” ey were very muddy as to this
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275
before, “ In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father
“in the Godhead is this blessed One who was down here
as a servant-” and ye in me, and I in you.” Is this home
strange to me? No; I have been eating with Him since His
resurrection. Not only do I know Christ as an object, but the
Holy Ghost makes me know I am united to Him. ere is
consciousness by the Holy Ghost of this union. And does
the one who knows he has it think much of himself for
that? No; there can only be wonder and astonishment at
such grace; and there is nothing so humbling. e law may
torture the conscience, but grace humbles. ey could not
know it while He was here; but they would know it in that
day, when they are “ members of his body,” as Paul speaks.
en there are responsibilities which belong to us as such.
“ He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself so to walk,
even as he walked.” “ He that hath my commandments and
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” If God has loved us
in sovereign grace and goodness when sinners, He has also
gracious aections towards us when we are saints. ere
is the every-day government of the soul in His hands. He
that loves Me shall be loved of My Father. is is not a
question of whether they were to be saved, but the daily
manifestation of Christ to the heart. A father might take
care of his children, and love them when they are pleasant;
but he cannot manifest his favor to them, if they do not
please him. God will not fail to keep them according to
the prayer of Jesus, “ Holy Father, keep them whom thou
hast given me.” He will keep them, but this is the way He
keeps-revealing Himself in happy intercourse according to
their walking with Him in obedience.
Mark the position of believers: until we make our home
in the Father’s house, He makes His home in us.
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62775
Christ on High, and the Holy
Ghost Here Below
John 16
THE Gospel of John brings out specially that which
refers to the Person of Christ in contrast to all that is
Jewish. At the beginning of it we see Him presenting
Himself in divine right and power to “ his own,” while “
his own received him not “; and towards the close we see
Him leaving those who had thus rejected Him, and the
Comforter coming to take His place- to take of the things
of Christ, and testify of Him to the world, and to be the
guide and support of those whom He was leaving behind.
In this chapter we see the twofold character of the work
of the Holy Ghost: His way with the world, and His way
towards the saints.
Verse 2. e rst thing the Lord shows the disciples here
is, that they are to have the same position as their Master:
opposition and rejection. e opposition of the world often
comes from entire blindness. “ Whosoever killeth you will
think that he doeth God service.” Such is the blinding
power of unbelief! It was so with Saul. He thought he “
ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth,” Acts 26:9. Man walks in darkness, because he is
darkness, his conscience is darkness, and in consequence of
false instruction his mind is blinded too. What a man does
conscientiously, he always does with earnestness, though
he may be acting wrongly with a blinded conscience. A
person may be very conscientious in resisting the truth.
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277
What is called conscientious acting is often nothing in the
sight of God but the conduct of one who is thoroughly
blinded by Satan.
Verse 3. “ ese things will they do unto you, because
they have not known the Father, nor me.” God had given
them every evidence of who Christ was, but, in spite of
all that God could give, they rejected Him. “ is is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness … ”
All ignorance is the fruit of sin; but here it is willful
blindness. ey “ loved darkness rather than light.” Notice
here the sin of rejecting light. No general acceptance of
truth will do, if it does not enter the soul as of God. e
way in which God was proving men now, was whether
they would own His Son. He presents Jesus as an object,
in order to put men’s hearts to the test, and if Christ is not
received, all general acknowledgment of other truth goes for
nothing. ere is such a thing as a man screening himself
from the charge of rejecting truth by just taking a little, as
much as will satisfy his conscience; but the great test to the
heart is whether he receives that special testimony which
is not accredited in the world. If Christ, the Son of God, is
rejected, this is everything for condemnation in the sight
of God.
By rejecting Christ, men proved they did not know
the Father. If Christ had come, saying that God was not
Jehovah, they would have been right in not receiving Him;
but He always identies Himself with the Father, and so
men were proved the very enemies of both.
“ And these things will they do unto you,” etc. Very
often when we have received truth from God, we must be
content without being able to satisfy others that it is truth.
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278
And if others cannot understand, so neither can we explain.
We must go on patiently, though we have to act in a way
unintelligible to many. We must expect to be despised. e
Lord set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem; and it was
the very thing that brought out man’s opposition. e path
of faith can never be understood, though communications
of truth may be.
Verse 5. “ None of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?
“
We are constantly acting in unbelief in this way. e
Lord often tries our hearts. e disciples were thus tried
in the prospect of the Lord being taken from them. What
comfort they had had in His blessed presence! And now
sorrow lled their hearts (v. 6). e sorrow was legitimate,
but they were lled with themselves-their own grief,
instead of seeing how God was working, and what were His
purposes. e real truth was, that the Son was going back
to the Father. We may lose God’s purpose of blessing to our
own souls, by not seeing His mind in that which grieves
us. e disciples were shut up in their own sorrows and
thoughts, instead of inquiring where the Lord was going.
But He would comfort them, in spite of this weakness of
faith, and gives them the promise of the Comforter (v. 7).
What a wonderful blessing the presence of the Holy
Ghost must be, when it needed that the Lord Jesus Christ
should go away in order that He might come! It is well
for us to ask ourselves whether we do really believe in the
personal presence of the Holy Ghost down here. A soul
might say, “ Ah, if I had the Lord here to direct me, how
well should I do and bear! “ But if we know redemption-
deliverance through the death and resurrection of Christ,
we have Him still with us, and in the best and nearest way.
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For the Holy Ghost dwells in us to unfold Him to our
souls, to teach us the glory of Him who has loved us and
shed His blood for us, who has all power, Head over the
Jews, Head of the Gentiles, Lord over everything. Nor is it
only the glory of His Person, but our union we learn. “ At
that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me,
and I in you.” We have the Holy Ghost too as the guide;
and the Lord would have us guided not ignorantly but in
intelligence. e presence of the Holy Ghost presupposes
judgment having passed upon the esh, which naturally
resists guidance, and the esh must not be allowed place in
the Christian, if he would be guided of the Spirit.
In chapter 14 Christ says, “ e Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name,” etc.; but in chapter 16 the
Lord speaks of sending Him by virtue of His own personal
title. Going up to glory as Son of man and as Son of God,
He sends the Comforter, in virtue of His own ocial glory.
en we see the work of the Holy Ghost (v. 8, etc.).
e world He will convince of sin, and righteousness, and
judgment. His oce again is to guide the saints into all
truth (v. 13-15).
“He will convince the world of sin, … because they
believe not on me.” It is not here as Messiah to the Jews
that the Lord speaks of Himself, but as the Son of God
to the world, as such. It was “sin” not to know the Father
nor Him. e charge here is not that of having killed the
prophets or broken the law; but “they believe not on me.”
God had sent His Son into the world, and He had been
cast out. (He says this in view of its accomplishment.) e
very presence of the Holy Ghost stamps the world with
this sin. He could not be sent here, unless Jesus had been
rejected-unless God’s own Son had been cast out. He had
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wrought always: this is His personal mission and presence
on earth.
God said, “ I have yet one Son; it may be they will
reverence him.” It was His last trial of a world lying in
the wicked one, full of all kinds of corruption. He was
reconciling the world unto Himself, and saying, as it were,
Receive My Son, and I will not impute your sin; but they
cast Him out and slew Him, and thus proved that willful sin
was in man. ere was the perfect light of God in love and
grace, in the Person of His Son, coming down to earth, and
men loved darkness better. is was their condemnation.
It is not God coming in the terrors of the law to frighten
men, but in grace to attract; and they will not have Him.
ere is no reason why the Son of God was rejected, but
the utter wickedness of man’s heart.
It is a moral thing, this unbelief. It is a demonstration
of what the heart is by nature. e Lord cannot now with
wicked hands be crucied and slain; but the moral guilt is
just the same; for the natural man will not receive Christ,
he does not want Him. To those who do receive Him, God
says, “ eir sins and iniquities I will remember no more.”
But of the world it is said, “ e world seeth me [Christ]
no more.”
is rejection of Christ is the one great sin that the
Holy Ghost deals with the world about. Why do people
prefer vanity-everything-anything-to God’s Son? Because
they are perfectly opposite to God, and that is sin. It is
the plant and pith and sap of that which is in my heart
by nature. And if the world is convinced of sin, there is
an end of righteousness. e only righteous One who ever
came into it was rejected and allowed to suer before God.
On the cross God leaves the righteous One to be utterly
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rejected. But righteousness came in by this way; and it was
proved when He, who had been obedient unto death, went
back to the Father. What an answer to all that He had
done was there in this acceptance! He had accomplished
all that gave Him a title to be at the right hand of God; He
had proved Himself t for God’s throne.
When the Holy Ghost thus convinces the world of
righteousness, it is not a testimony of man’s fall from God,
or of man’s corruption, or of man’s failure under law, but
man’s rejection of the One who is accepted at the right hand
of God. It is His righteousness and God’s righteousness
thus vindicated. “ Ye see me no more.” All was ended as
regards the world. When God’s Son was rejected, there
was to be no more connection with the world, as the world,
till the vindication of His title in judgment. “ Now is the
judgment of this world.” en I come to see that I, in heart,
have thus rejected Christ. I saw no beauty in Him; not one
aection was set upon Him. Education may have led me to
own Him after a certain way, and there is mercy in that; for
knowledge of scriptural truth may be used by God: just as
when a re is laid, you have only to put the light to kindle
it. But we have all been either despising Him, or in active
will rejecting Him. e world is given up to judgment,
while God is still dealing with it in blessed patient grace.
We see no sign of judgment yet, though the saints may be
rejected now as Christ was. But it is our place to walk as
strangers and pilgrims here below. All that is of the world,
and the prince of this world, is judged by the presence of
the Holy Ghost.
Let me x your attention on the perfect, divine
righteousness accomplished by Christ. What the Holy
Ghost tells our souls is this, that it is such a righteousness
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as is t for God’s own throne. ere is where I rest as my
title to glory. Fruits will follow, of course; but my title to
heaven is in the divine righteousness of Him who is there
for me.
“ He will guide you into all truth.” is has nothing to
do with the world, as the world. But as when the Lord said,
“ What I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto
you.” “ All truth “ is the whole truth of the glory and Person
of the Lord Jesus Christ-all ours. We know but little of it, it
is true; but the Holy Ghost is down here to unfold it to us.
He brings down to us the things from heaven, the glories
of the Father and the Son, the fellowship with the Father
and the Son, not what is going to happen to Nineveh. All
the counsels of God in Christ are ours, in the power of the
Holy Ghost. What a wondrous eld of spiritual thought
in this new world to which we are introduced! It is lled
by Christ for our own use. Our portion is to see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is not speaking to us
of miracles, but taking the heart of the saint into all that
God has to say about His Son Jesus. What a blessed place
the saints are in! the Holy Ghost to reveal to them all that
God delights in as regards the Lord Jesus, His Person, His
work-all that the Father has given Him-all His coming
glory.
We may not say, “ ese things are too high for me.” e
question is, not that we have not been far from Him, but
if He is near to us. Suppose my father is the great judge of
the country, I ought to be outside the arm of the law, but
I am interested because it is my father’s work. How that
little word “my”--”our”--comes home to the heart! And all
things are ours.
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283
While the Holy Ghost shows us all the fullness of
the Father’s house in the glory of Jesus, our hearts are
attracted by Christ Himself. When He gives the capacity
to understand the glory, He says, I have given it all to you;
you shall share it with Me.
And, beloved friends, we shall see Him again in all His
glory. e secret of our joy now is, that He gets Himself His
right place in our hearts. It is the perfection of His grace
that He should draw them to Himself. ere must be this
work in the heart, as well as the arrow in the conscience to
show us what we are; or else it will be as the morning cloud
and the early dew. Remember too, we are not of this world.
He has separated us to Himself, and we are to walk with
Him as His people.
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62776
e Son Pleading
John 17
IT is very natural that Jesus should have deeply felt,
before leaving this world, all the circumstances in which
His disciples were about to nd themselves. At the moment
when the Son had accomplished His work, and completely
gloried the Father in the midst of all the diculties and
all the malice of Satan (a moment which has not had,
and which will not have, its equal, whether in time or in
eternity), it was natural, I say, that He should put all before
the Father.
Not only has Jesus perfectly gloried the Father, but
there is no one who, like Himself, has felt all the eects,
all the consequences of sin. He realized all, and has placed
us in the same circumstances as Himself. He felt and
expressed all the weak position of His disciples, according
to all their need, and according to all the resources which
He knew to be in the Father.
He said these things in the world, where He had been
the Man of sorrows, and where He had suered much. In
virtue of the work He accomplished, He can enjoy all the
privileges of His work; but He takes this into consideration,
that His disciples are left in the world.
e natural heart does not feel the privileges of the
child of God. e natural heart does not feel its wants.
Pride does not see diculties; hence it “ goeth before
destruction.” e natural heart escapes many things which
are a weight to the child of God. We see that in Jesus. He
does not hide from Himself His position. “ I have,” He
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says, “ a baptism to be baptized with,” etc. He did not hide
from Himself the state to which sin had reduced men, and
the consequences of sin. Love overcame the weight which
He had always on His soul, as we see in Gethsemane;
yet He remained calm, because He committed all to the
Father. We see Him entirely, alone, but calm, full of love,
and always capable of acting in love.
At the time then that one does not feel grace, one has
not the same wants. e thoughts of being brought low,
manifested in this chapter, do not nd any sympathy in
the natural heart. Christian men are too disposed to avoid
knowing this state of abasement; but therefore they do not
know the immense resources which are in God. Such is the
folly of our hearts!
In verse to we have the position where Jesus places
His own in their privileges. In presenting to them their
resources, He then speaks to the Father. It is the expression
of the Son’s heart. “ e hour is come “-an hour more
memorable than that of the creation-an hour during which
evil and its eects were conquered.
e glory which He claims is not that which ows
from the will of the Father, and which He possessed, as
Son, before aiming into the world: it is another thing. It is
because He had humbled Himself, not to do His own will,
but to do that of the Father, because He had been obedient
unto death, and had taken upon Himself the consequences
of sin, that He could be gloried in saving His church.
e abandoning of His own will shows itself in the
answer which He made to two of His disciples, who asked
to be placed, the one on His right hand and the other on
His left, in His kingdom. at is not in My power, answered
Jesus; but in my Father’s. is giving up of His own will to
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us is of innite value; it is thus that we can have a share in
His glory; for, if He placed Himself under the power of
Satan, it was because He was capable of doing it. He must
needs be the Son of God to accomplish this work, and He
would do it in grace: otherwise we should have no share in
it. He has taken the glory as man that we might possess it;
for we could not have that of the Son.
He was, in death, under the power of Satan, but He
could not be held by it; and it was so in order that we might
have a share in this glory. He puts Himself in the lowest
place in order to be able to say, Father, glorify Me; and not,
I am gloried. Mark well, that though He was humbled, it
was perfection, in order that the heart of the Father should
be satised in glorifying Him.
What power of Satan was not destroyed when the
Prince of Life underwent death! us God has been fully
gloried, and Jesus also, because as man He has fully this
glory. Why did the Son need to be gloried? It was for
us. He had placed Himself as low as our sins had put us.
Now He glories the Father in His own (v. 4). We see
that power has been given Him “ in heaven and in earth.”
is power was given Him because He humbled Himself.
is is very precious: for it is because He was man that it
could be given Him; because it was His as Son. It was in
order that He might give life to all those whom the Father
gave Him, and that He might claim His right for them,
and against those who do not recognize Him. He does not
speak much of the latter in this chapter, because His heart
was full of His disciples.
He is the Head of creation: “ e rstborn of every
creature: for by him were all things created, that are in
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
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they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before
all things, and by him all things consist,” Col. 1:15-17.
All that glories our Head ought to be precious to us.
It was needful He should reconcile all things, according to
what is said in the same chapter: “ And he is the head of
the body, the church: who is the beginning, the rstborn
from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-
eminence. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell;
and, having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say,
whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven,” v.
18-20.
Christ was Head of the creation, and Head of all men;
they are given to Christ, and He refers all to His Father.
It is God who gives. “ is is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent.”
Power was given Him, and He should give eternal life
to as many as are given Him. is life is to know God the
Father. “ I have gloried thee on the earth; I have nished
the work which thou gavest me to do.” Jesus begins to
speak of the work which He accomplished on the earth. “
I have nished the work which thou gavest me to do.” “ I
have gloried thee on the earth.” What is it, that the rst
Adam had done? He had owned neither the power nor the
goodness of God; he had denied all that God was towards
him. e last Adam, on the contrary, had felt all that which
pride prevents us from feeling. He felt the forsaking of
God as to His soul; and He could say, “ I have gloried
thee.” e more evil there was done here, the more the
Father was gloried. Never did irritation enter into Him;
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no contradiction ever prevented His having the same heart
for man and for God. What is precious is, that it is man
who has perfectly gloried God: He would do it, and He
has accomplished it. It was in man that it was needed to be
done, for it is in man that God was dishonored; it is there
that Satan reigns and governs; it is there that the image of
God is marred; it is there that God has been dishonored
before the angels; but it is there also that He has been
gloried in Jesus-man-not by avoiding the evil but by
placing Himself in the midst of all this evil. e more evil
there had been, the more the Father had been gloried.
As man Jesus accomplished the work that the Father gave
Him-the work of grace; it has been perfectly accomplished.
Hence the Father can rest in His Son, having been fully
satised. He could say, “ is is my Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” And hence God can pour out His heart into the
heart of a sinner.
God could give outward blessings, as the sun and the
rain in their season, but He could not be in communion
with man. His heart can speak of Jesus-man; He could not
keep from saying, “ is is my beloved Son “; no more than
John the Baptist, when seeing Jesus, he said, “ Behold the
Lamb of God.”
e heart of the Father wanted to save. He committed
this work to the Son, and this work was perfect. Hence
Jesus could say, “ And now, O Father, glorify thou me.”
ere is nothing more to be done. What rest for the soul!
ere is nothing but glory to receive. All the rest is done.
is word “ now “ shows that God had found in Jesus that
which perfectly responded to His heart.
ere is rest. ere is perfect equality. Jesus can say, with
a boldness which shows who He is, “ Father, glorify thou
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me with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was.” And we, by the Holy Spirit, are admitted to these
conversations between the Father and the Son. Already,
by the Holy Spirit, we, in our measure, understand what a
place the Lord has given us.
e holiness and righteousness of God could nd
nowhere to rest, like the dove out of the ark. But in Jesus
He has found perfect rest. God sought morally as we
seek a friend; He has found it in Christ; He cannot seek
elsewhere.
From verse 6 Jesus speaks of what He has done for
His disciples: “ I have manifested thy name unto the men
which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were,
and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.”
“ I have manifested thy name unto them “-the name of
Father. For Christ there were certain relationships, which
He could not know save as man, and as man of sorrows;
but He knew the Father and committed Himself to the
Father. “ I have manifested thy name unto the men which
thou gavest me.” He was placing their hearts before the
Father, where He was Himself. As He knew the Father, so
He makes Him known to them.
If any one has been very kind to me, how would I speak
of him to a person to whom I wish to make him known?
Whilst He was down here, He spoke of the Father in
telling them all that He knew of Him. He tells them that
He is His Father and their Father.
God can seek nothing in us, but He can give us all,
nding all in Christ. Oh! may we realize what Christ has
revealed to us, namely, that the Father is for us. Is this the
habit of our souls?
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We become the objects of the communications between
the Father and the Son. e greater things are, the more
magnicent and intimate, the more are they worthy of
God, and by innite grace we are the objects of them. I do
things which I should not do if I knew the Father better;
and I should also do things which I do not. It is a question
not only of not doing what is forbidden; but also of being
in the relationship of father and child.
e soul is elevated. e Holy Spirit makes us feel the
love of the Father. He brings us into liberty by showing us,
not that we are little, but how great God is. When we are
altogether pre-occupied with Him, this liberty produces
a holiness which has immovable foundations. God and
Christ were occupied with us, when Christ was still in the
world and in our position; He has put us where He is.
at produces eects of holiness, because it always
brings us nearer to the Father, who is light and holiness.
When I see the fruits of the Spirit, I say, God is there, for
He is God. It is not only this that God works in me, but
also that I partake of His nature by the Holy Ghost which
is given me.
Jesus, having manifested the Father’s name to His own,
comes now to speak to Him of their position in the world,
while separated from Him. He introduces that by saying
that the disciples had received Him not only as Messiah,
but above all that they had understood this revelation of
the Father, that they were no longer of this world, and that
they had understood that all came from God.
“ ey have known,” says Jesus, “ that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” ey saw the
relationship of unity with the Father, relationship until
then unknown, and which has been made manifest in the
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humiliation of Jesus. e Son has been manifested, not
only as a Jew, but as man, and man in the lowest place: in
that position He received all from the Father. e Father
sends the Son, and the Son says, “ ey have believed that
thou didst send me.”
When the Lord speaks to His disciples, He speaks to
them according to the position of grace which He made
for them, and not according to the realization which they
had of it. God always speaks to us as to children who know
that they are children: it is their own fault if they forget
it, or if they do not know it. Jesus says, “ Whither I go ye
know, and the way ye know,” John 14:4. Philip says, “ Show
us the Father.” Well, it is the same thing with regard to the
action of the Holy Ghost.
Many Christians have not understood that they are
one with Christ and they have to be reproached with this:
for Jesus said, Ye shall know I am in you, when the Spirit
shall be given unto you. He speaks not according to what is
realized, but according to His love and the privileges which
He has given us. He has made us partakers, not of His
divinity, but of all that the Father gave Him as man. He
has such condence in His disciples, that He gives them
the words which the Father gave Him. “ I pray for them: I
pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me: for they are thine.” I pray for those who have received
thy words.
e Lord acts as apostle for the world, but as priest for
His elect, for those who are manifested. ose who are not
yet manifested are doubtless known of God; but they do not
receive all the care which is necessary to Christians in order
to be kept in this world. ose who are not manifested are
not thus responsible; but as to Christians, all that makes
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them feel their responsibility is very precious; for they are
placed here below as representatives of Christ.
Jesus says, “ As thou hast sent me into the world, even
so have I also sent them into the world.” And where is the
one who, understanding that he is sent as Christ, does not
also feel that he needs grace in order to represent Him? It
is then most important to understand the position of the
elect who are intrusted with representing Christ before the
world (not however that this touches salvation) Jesus says, “
I am gloried in them “; and those who are not manifested
do not glorify Him. It is therefore only for those that are
manifested that He prays; and it is they who become the
subject of the communications between the Father and the
Son.
at which is dear to the Father is dear to the Son;
if the Son loves the Father, He must pray for us; if the
Father loves the Son, He must glorify His Son in us. It
is a wonderful position which the Lord has made known
to us. ese are the two motives which, His work being
accomplished, Christ presents to the Father. If Christ
had been the Messiah owned by the Jews, He could have
remained in the world: but as priest, He could not remain
there; and, as to us, we are exposed to all the evil without
having the presence of Christ, and we need something sure
to rest upon. is leads to a much deeper sounding of the
heart.
ere was no such need of a clean heart, when Jesus
was upon the earth. His disciples could go and ask Him
what the will of the Father was; but now we must have,
by the Holy Ghost, the intention of Christ; and this takes
place when we realize the communion of the Father. It is
a position still more blessed than that which the disciples
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had. On the other hand, the Christian who is not in that
communion may go astray. All intelligence depends upon
the state of the soul. It is not with us as with a servant to
whom it is said, Do this. It is the presence of the Holy
Ghost which makes us know the intention of the Father:
only we must walk in Him.
We cannot walk in the world with blessing if we are not
in communion with the Lord, and then we are only like
servants. e Christian has forgotten that, and thence it is
there is so much darkness. Christ is no longer in the world;
but as yet, we are in the world, and we have to manifest
things which are outside the world, which are in heaven.
Hence it is impossible to discern the things of God with
the esh, even for a Christian who is not faithful, for he
loses all discernment, and he lowers himself to the level of
all that surrounds him, if he does not seek exclusively the
approbation of the Father.
Jesus says, “ Holy Father, keep “ them; that is, for His
disciples. He is “ Holy Father “ for the disciples, and “
righteous Father “ for the world. “O righteous Father,” He
says, “ the world hath not known thee.” e world and I
can no longer walk together; and the Father had to choose
between the Son and the world. “ Keep them,” not with
respect to the things of this world, but as y children, for
glory; not to spare them suering, but for eternity.
He cherishes us as a Father, who does not permit a
single hair of His children to fall without His permission.
ose things which appear paltry and little are of some
interest to a father and mother. Now God loves us with
a perfect love. He takes cognizance of all that relates to
His children, and of all that concerns them in whatever
degree it may be; and all that does not lead us into the
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294
glory He takes cognizance of. is is why He chastens us,
for He is the “ Holy Father.” He keeps us from evil by the
warnings of His grace, by His word, by reproof, by the joys
of the family of God (a great means which the Holy Ghost
employs), and by the chastisements which He allows to fall
upon man outwardly, so that the inward man be kept.
e esh always pens itself in, because it is selsh. When
we are in the Spirit, there is always unity. ree things
especially compose the joy of Christ. Being the object of
the Father’s joy, His heart enjoyed His communion, and
this also belongs to us. Obedience was His food, His meat,
the joy of His soul. It is the same with us. As we are the
objects of the exercise of this love of the Father, there is a
joy for us in the exercise of that love. He makes us partakers
of that joy. If there is a conversion by our means, the joy
of Christ is in us. It is the Spirit which acted in Christ.
He could be a fountain of love, although His heart was “
withered “ through all that was in the world. Wonderful
position! a position of responsibility, it is true; but the joy
of Christ who is for us, not only the joy which we shall
have in heaven, but which we have already in this world.
e world hates as soon as there is a manifestation of
Christ. It cannot be otherwise. We must reckon upon this,
that, if we hold forth the light, we shall be hated, even
amongst Christians. ey do not nd that lovely; but the
gospel will never be lovely for those who will not receive
it. All that is lovely in nature is not the oense of the cross.
If I weaken my Christianity by Judaizing, I shall be
received; for man will consent to give to God, provided
he also be a little gloried. But, if there is nothing but the
cross, man hates; whereas the moment one recognizes ever
so little of the world, we are not hated. It is needful we
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should count the cost, whether with the forces which we
have, we can ght, or whether Satan is stronger than we
are; and this will not be the case, if we keep ourselves in
communion with the Father.
It is true that it is not agreeable to be hated. All that
leads us to be agreeable to the world, and to the customs
of men takes away the oense of the cross, and renders
us agreeable to the world, but puts us at a distance from
Christ.
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62777
Jesus the Willing Captive
John 18:1-10
Two points attract and ll our hearts in this passage. First,
the perfect willingness with which Christ gives Himself
up, the unhesitating way in which He presents Himself to
the armed band come out to seek Him, fully knowing what
was to befall Him. “ Jesus, therefore, knowing all things
that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto
them, I have told you that I am he. If, therefore, ye seek
me, let these go their way,” proving that, while He oers
Himself, there is a full and perfect deliverance for us. “ Of
them which thou gavest me, I have lost none.” e Lord
presents Himself, that none of us might even be touched
with the power of the enemy. It was the same self-devotion
on the cross; though here it was the power of Satan, but
He had gone through it. When led into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil, He bound the strong man, and
introduced present blessing into the world; but we as men
were unable to prot by this, because of a moral inward
incapacity to receive the blessing that came. Outwardly it
was received in healing diseases, etc., but men had no heart
to receive Him. If He turned out the legion of devils from
him that was possessed, men turned Him out. e hearts
of men in such a condition were glad to get rid of Him; and
this shows another and a deeper evil to be remedied -that
man morally has departed from God, and that he is himself
irremediable-that nothing will do but a new creation: “ If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” us here the
Lord has not only to conquer Satan, but to underlay man
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in his moral departure from God. “ is is your hour “” My
soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.”
Satan brings all this darkness and death to bear on the
soul of the Lord, his object being to get between His soul
and God. So, the more pressed by Satan, the nearer to God
He is. erefore it is said, “ being in an agony, he prayed
more earnestly “; and• in consequence He receives nothing
at the hand of Satan, but of His Father. “ e cup which
my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? “ Before He
left Gethsemane, the whole power of Satan was morally
destroyed. He had gone through the hour with His Father,
and now takes the cup at the hand of His Father, as an act
of obedience.
He is now as calm as when doing any other miracle
(healing the servant’s ear), as if nothing had happened. It
was their hour, and the power of darkness was upon them,
not on Him. “Whom seek ye?”--”I am he.” “As soon then
as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward,
and fell to the ground “; but He presents Himself again (as
He says in John 14:31: “ But that the world may know I
love the Father … Arise, let us go hence “) saying, “ Whom
seek ye? … If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way,”
and they were not touched, as a token of the complete
deliverance of us all.
At the cross He cries out, “My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? “ He went through the hour in
Gethsemane, and here drinks the terrible cup. His soul
had drunk the cup of wrath, and only one thing remained.
He said, “I thirst “: this He said that the scripture might
be fullled; and crying, “ Father, into thy hands I commit
my spirit, he gave up the ghost.” Here we learn the perfect
deliverance that has been obtained for us, and that all is
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perfect light and joy for us. If I look at Satan, I see his
power annihilated and destroyed. If I look at wrath, He has
drunk it to the dregs. He entered into all the darkness and
the wrath of God; but before He went out of the world He
had passed through it all, and went out in perfect quiet. e
work is so perfectly done, that death is nothing. “ His hour
being come that he should depart out of this world unto
the Father,” He passes out of Satan’s reach, and beyond all
wrath, to the Father.
No believer is any longer under the power of Satan.
us Israel of old, though once under Pharaoh in Egypt;
but when delivered he was never under the power of the
Canaanite, except when he failed, as we know in the case of
Ai; so we may fail too, but we are in that new creation that
has passed all the power of Satan and the wrath of God.
Do your souls realize the truth that Christ has “abolished
death, and brought life and immortality to light,” so that
our souls are brought into the light as He is in the light?
It was not true when He was down here; but now we are
brought into the light where there is no darkness at all. May
our souls know and enjoy the true and perfect deliverance
that is our portion in Him!
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62778
e Exercises and End of
Grace
John 20
IT is remarkable the instruments God uses to display
His grace towards man, and the dierent exercises of heart
persons go through, which prepare them for the service
on which they are to • be sent. ere is a loneliness which
may even be occasioned by a man’s own folly, in which he
nds himself without a single thing to get comfort in, that
he may prove that to be in the Lord which he would not
know in any other way.
God cannot associate Himself with evil. ere must
be death upon nature altogether. e corn of wheat would
have remained alone without death. Christ was alone
as to Himself; comforters He had none. “ I looked for
some to take pity, but none.” “ ey gave me gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
ese are expressions of this loneliness. He was walking
in undeviating devotedness with His Father all the way
through; but there were none to enter into it, though,
speaking of His disciples, He graciously says, “ Ye are they
that have continued with me in my temptations.” Could
He have said more if they had been faithful in sympathy all
the time? Our poor hearts have to learn the way the Lord
meets the soul that waits on Him.
We see, in the case of Mary Magdalene here, and in the
other Mary too who broke the box of ointment on Him,
there was something that made them lonely. What made
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Lazarus’ sister Mary lonely? She had found something
that took her clean out of the world. Martha was careful
about the supper; but with Mary it was not the supper but
Himself. His object was not to come for earthly refreshment,
but to pour into His people’s hearts the revelation of the
Father. Martha was not wrong in preparing the supper, but
in trying to get Mary away from the Lord. If she had been
right, she would have been glad to do it all herself. ere
was not the joy and delight in her heart that there ought
to have been. Mary had found one thing that isolated her
heart in the most blessed way. Her aections were alive to
all the evil that was coming (not as a prophetess, but her
spirit was in the thing), and at the right moment she went
and spent the ointment on Him. He says of her, “ She hath
done it for my burial.”
In this Mary (the Magdalene) we get yet another
thing. Seven devils had been cast out of her, that is to
say, the expression of complete diabolical possession,
indicating the extreme of wickedness. at isolates a
person, who is separated from nature, as it were, by the
extent of wretchedness. When the spirit is touched, she is
separated from the evil. e eect of nding Christ in such
circumstances is that He becomes everything to her. (ere
is not the same intelligence in her as in the other Mary; we
do not nd her, as the Magdalene, at the tomb.) She could
not leave in the same way. When she lost Christ after the
esh, she had nothing. She was terribly broken to pieces
by evil, and Christ was gone. ere was something human
connected with her aection; there was also culpable
ignorance in what she did; but the Lord had compassion
on her; and more, He manifested Himself rst to her.
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e disciples saw, and believed. ey perceived He was
gone, but understood not the Scriptures. Mary had no
home, and when she found not the body of Christ, what
had she? e disciples were not isolated in the same way;
they go away to their own homes. She, in her ignorance,
but withal in her love, says, “ I will come and take him
away.” is last is very precious. It is a great thing, when
Christ has such a place with us as to be everything. In one
sense this is the door by which all must pass through; at
death, if not before, nature must decay and vanish. What is
more nothing than death? All here is gone. We may learn
this spiritually, or by circumstances, or at the moment of
death itself; but learn it we must. We must nd everything
but Christ nothing.
Christ calls her by name. When He comes and calls His
sheep by name, it is all right. She had now got Him back
after death. Nature had, as it were, passed through death,
as Isaac. Nature had mixed itself up with her aections, but
now she has got beyond that; all is given up to God. e
promises made to Abraham were all surrendered up by him
when Isaac was to be taken. Mary Magdalene thought she
had Christ back when she had not. She thought of Him
corporeally, but she must have Him in another way. It will
be so with the remnant of Israel by-and-by. ey will have
Him corporeally then, but now He says, “Touch me not,”
etc. I am going to another place. I am taking your hopes or
your promises in another way, and not in esh. If He was
to take it, it would be when the just shine in the kingdom
of the Father. He says, “ Go tell my brethren, I ascend unto
my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.”
I am giving you something entirely new-not My presence
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yet-not power yet; but where He was going Himself He
would take us.
He does isolate us: He does pass us through dierent
circumstances; but whether gradually or suddenly, His
object is to break down everything of nature, and this in
grace to us. Here for the rst time He says, “ my brethren.”
He never called them “ brethren “ denitely until now. He
had been heard from the horns of the unicorns; Psa. 22
During His life He had declared the Father’s name. Now
He declares that the love wherewith He is loved is that with
which we are loved. He could not say that during His life.
During His ministry He was making known the Father,
walking with the Father, speaking to the Father. Now He
takes them into the same relationship. Why? Because the
redemption was accomplished.
Christ never addressed His Father as God-never less
than as Father. During His life as given in the Gospels,
all His life through, it was always, “ Father.” When on the
cross it was, “ My God, my God,” until all was nished,
when He said, “ Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit.” In making the atonement, what was not against
Him? ere was one thing that could not be against any,
and that was love; but there could be none as to the feeling
and manifestation of it then. He was forsaken; and the more
the love was known, the more terrible it was. He was dealt
with according to the majesty of God, the righteousness of
God, the truth of God, the holiness of God. All that God
is was made good against Him. God was thus putting away
sin, and Christ was glorifying God about the sin.
But now, being dead and risen, He comes up to put His
disciples into the place of full blessing. e work is done,
and there is no sin left. Everything that God is is now
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brought out in blessing, and all the sin is put out of the way.
He is declared to be the Son of God with power, according
to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
He goes up to God, and takes us too. I am going to My
God, and He is your God too. He is going into all that is
blessed. I am not going to be present with you corporeally,
so that you can “touch” me; but I am going to My God and
your God, My Father and your Father. Such is the word to
this poor desolate woman. She was a t messenger, by her
very nothingness, to witness of Christ and His work and
fullness.
“ I go,” and faith goes too, entering into that within
the veil. It enters into all that which God is. Where we
live is within the veil. Sense may come in and hide God’s
presence; but the atonement has brought us into it, and
into the very same relationship which Christ has as risen.
We sometimes enjoy peace, we enjoy scripture, a hymn, or
prayer, without realizing the presence of God; and then
there is not the same power, or the same exercise of heart
in it. I can own the blessing, and rejoice in the blessing,
without having my heart searched out; but if in these I
have the sense of Him, my state is very dierent. It is very
important, not only to have a right thought, but to have
it with Him. If you search your own heart, you will nd
that you may sing without realizing Jesus Himself. en
the heart is never probed, the evil is not detected, and the
power of grace is not the same. By the atonement sin is put
out, and God is brought in. God exercises our hearts about
good and evil by rst giving us the good. ere must be the
possession of perfect good, and then there is holiness, and
not merely the exercise of dread and fear. Our hearts must
follow Him where He is gone. We cannot “touch” Him.
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May the Lord give us to live a life in which He is
everything!
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62779
Peace
John 20:19
“ THEN the same day at evening, being the rst day of
the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples
were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood
in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” It
is a great thing to say with authority, “ peace,” and a great
thing for the heart to feel the power of these words.
e Lord had said before, “ My peace I give unto you
“; and this too is the portion of believers now; but the
disciples had not peace without: witness the doors shut on
account of the Jews. ey thought it had been He who
should have redeemed Israel; but now they were in much
confusion of heart, and great fear of those without.
ey still trusted in the Savior, in a sort, though He
was not returned, and therefore they were in dismay as
regarded their hopes, and they feared because of the Jews.
God might sustain their hearts, but there was nothing to
rest on as a present thing.
Now to this point the soul must be brought-to see no
hope but in Christ, even though at the same time Christ
may not be found.
e Spirit of grace, speaking to the sinner, convinces
him of his lost condition; but the power of grace alone can
give peace in the knowledge of sins forgiven.
It is to be remarked here that the disciples had leaned
on Jesus as the Messiah; their thoughts had been that
He should have redeemed Israel (that is, lead them on to
comfort and blessing). ere was this character of trust
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in Messiah, through whom, while with them, they lacked
nothing, for He gave them power and blessing; but to the
disciples at that time all this was gone. Jesus on whom
they rested, to whom they looked for support and strength,
was not there; and to them that knew Him not as risen,
everything was gone. So we may hear of Jesus’ name and
His love, and this may please and attract the mind when
the Lord is working in grace; but, at the same time, it is
like the disciples resting on a living Savior, but with no
knowledge that we are lost. Jesus may have so attracted
our minds, that the world may appear to us but loss, and
nothing but Jesus valuable; and we may say even as the
disciples, “ Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words
of eternal life “; but this is not seeing that we are lost, or
knowing the power of the resurrection.
e convincing of sin is a time of most special distress:
the world gone, Jesus lost as to sense and appearance and
not found again; but it is when in this state and condition
Jesus reveals Himself. And how? Saying, “ Peace be unto
you.” And this is not simply blessing and strength to the
weak; it is not supply to need that suits the lost: there must
be a Savior for the lost. A man in want may go to the world
for supply, and will do so undoubtedly if he be unregenerate;
but if a soul feels itself lost, nothing will satisfy him till he
nds a Savior.
And here the value of the cross comes in. e cross
is not only the image of our lost condition, but all that
belongs to us is there expressed, as borne by another, and
here the case of a sinner is met. We may have been before
looking for supplies from Jesus to meet our supposed need,
but the discovery of our being lost is only met in the cross.
e natural man may see it a happy thing to have his sins
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forgiven; but to see the power and the eect of the cross,
the wrath borne, the cup drunk, to see the curse laid upon
Jesus, meets the need of those who have a sense of what
is due to sin. e heart that knows what it is to be lost
responds to this, a new light breaks in on the soul in the
perception in Jesus of what sin has done; had we to learn it
in ourselves, it could only be everlasting destruction. And
what is the sense of a curse passing on the head of that
blessed One, if it was not for us? It does not merely draw
our aections, but the knowledge that we are lost is forced
upon us in the death of Jesus. What sense is there in the
Son of God in the grave, if not for us? A sinless person in
life and conduct, “ the brightness of God’s person,” and
perfect as man; what relation has this to us? what bearing
has it on our souls?
I speak not now of grace or supply to the believer, but
what meaning is there to our souls in the cross of Christ?
what sense is there in the death of Christ, if you are not lost?
-lost by all the evil, the sin, the vileness, the transgression
that required nothing other than the blood of Christ to
blot it out. If your condition is not that to which the blood
alone is the answer, let it alone; but if it be, there is One on
whom the judgment of God came for sin-One in whom all
is accomplished for us, and there it ends. e knowledge of
this by the Holy Spirit brings the complete sense of ruin,
but with it the perception of being saved, for the knowledge
of our being lost, when fully known in Jesus, brings with
it the knowledge that we are saved; and then come those
blessed words, “ Peace be unto you.” But the poor disciples,
with the power of Satan round them and Jesus gone, is the
state of those who do not fully understand the power of
deliverance in the cross.
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e Lord said of Job, “ Hast thou considered my servant
Job, that there is none like him? “ e candle of the Lord
shone upon them; but in the character of Job, it is revealed
to us that none can stand in the presence of the adversary.
e comforts of the Lord are rst of all withdrawn from
Job, and then an evil disease cleaves to him; yet in this he
sinned not, nor charged God foolishly; but afterward we see
him entirely broken down in the presence of the adversary.
He was a man whom God could point out as having none
like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man; yet
could he not, with Satan as his adversary, stand before
God; and this causes him to make himself more righteous
than God, and to curse the day on which he was born. Yet
what is the result but the opening of the lips of Job to say,
“ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now
mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes.” Not so Christ; He was one who stood
before the adversary in the presence of the Lord. And the
resurrection proved how unfailing His service was; and we
learn in the sorrow and the suering of His righteous soul,
and in His death, what sin is. e Lord coming under the
title of death which Satan had against us, bearing our sins.
is is what the cross is. e suering went on in the soul
of Jesus when sore amazed in the garden; it went on in the
soul of Jesus when He said, “ My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? “ In the weight of the wrath upon Him,
we learn what the cross was; and if you feel that you are
lost, you will know the meaning and the value of it.
It is not a crucied Savior now, but a risen One who
speaks to us, the giver of all victory to us over all that was
against us, having delivered us from suering under it;
and consequently the word “ peace be unto you “ is the
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309
authoritative expression of one who knew the ruin, and
yet could say “ Peace,” because in the full knowledge that
everything was done that could bring peace to the soul, for
He had risen from the power of sin and death, having met
the adversary to the face; and what could a risen Savior
say but “ peace “? Could He speak of wrath when He had
borne the sin and the curse, and was risen over it all? What
could He say but this? And it is a risen Savior who does
say “ Peace “ to those who, though they have no peace, yet
know the meaning of the cross. What the cross showed the
requirement of is nished forever, and therefore to those
that believe it is “ peace,” “ peace.”
e rst person whom the Lord addresses after His
resurrection is one out of whom He had cast seven devils;
but grace had won her aections. She was drawn to Jesus,
though looking indeed for the living among the dead, but
still she was looking for Jesus; and the Mary He singled out
to reveal Himself to was the one in whom the full energy
of evil had been shown out; and to her the blessed Lord
spoke that one word which revealed at once to her, that He
who had died was alive again-Mary-giving her a hope that
was beyond destruction, because Jesus lived beyond the
grave. Jesus, He whom her thoughts and aections were
set on, was alive for evermore; and all her hopes rested in
the endless life of Him who died for her. What could be
darkness to her if Jesus was alive? e darkness had been
gone through, for in Jesus’ death she had tasted it for a
time; but He was risen for evermore, and the riches of
God’s grace through the power of Christ, we nd now rst
revealed to one who had been possessed with seven devils.
And if the Lord speaks “ peace “ to the soul, what is
the meaning of it? is gives it power, that it is not a mere
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passing word of kindness, but peace, eternal peace, because
peace is made by His having borne our sins, by virtue of
what He accomplished on the cross. It is on this ground
He says “ peace “; and if you see that in this sense He never
speaks “ peace,” till He is risen, you see that “ being justied
by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” “ Much more then, being justied by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him,” Rom. 5:1, 9. Have
your souls known this peace? and have you known what
it is to be lost? Not merely acknowledging the need of a
Savior, or looking for supplies from Jesus, but knowing that
what was due to you was borne by Jesus?
It presses too keenly on the heart and conscience to
look at the cross unless you can say, It is peace.
e careless heart of man cannot bear to look at the
cross, except he be at the foot of it, acknowledging his need
of it; for he has to measure himself by the wrath poured out
on Jesus. But if your back is turned on the cross, there is
none to give peace. e cross may cause us shame when it
leads us to see what sin is; but itself, it is the power of God
unto salvation. Haste then to God who beseeches you to be
reconciled. And may the Lord, in the riches of His grace,
show you the vileness of sin, and that Jesus has drunk the
bitter cup of wrath but is now the risen Savior; that you
may enter this life of peace through Him who, in that He
died, died unto sin once, that he who lives might live unto
God.
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62780
Lost or Saved
Acts 26
THE peculiarity of the gospel is its activity towards
man- dealing with individuals to whom it is addressed,
and not merely propagating opinions. It is quite intelligible
that a person may like to spread his opinions, but he will
soon get tired of it. e gospel deals with man individually,
and goes out actively towards man: neither Judaism nor
heathenism ever did this.
e character of the gospel is as when Paul preached it,
that it turned “ the world upside down.” Nothing was to
stand before it; nothing could be allowed with it: Judaism,
heathenism, etc.-it overturned all. It brought in the claims
of God upon ‘individuals. It not only brought truth about
God, etc.; but it showed those addressed to be in a certain
position towards God. e gospel comes and says, “ You are
lost “; and it does turn the world upside down. It is a new
thing for them to be told, You are all wrong. Paul did this.
He stated soberly what it was-gave proofs of it, but could
not convince man’s mind. He treated every living soul as a
sinner, a child of wrath, a child of disobedience. at must
be from God, not man, and it turns the world upside down.
Paul was sent out to all the world, and so were others also;
Cor. Is: to. His mission was peculiar; and he brought
the claims of God before men, calling everyone to repent,
warning them they were all away from God, and telling
them to submit to the gospel.
It is a solemn thing for a man to stand up, and say, “
You are all lost.” And this is what Christianity tells us is
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the state of all by nature; and yet it comes in grace. It is
not law: the law never did that. It came to a people already
redeemed. ey had been brought out of Egypt, and now
God said, You are to have that law, and to you only can
I give it (any who come in as a Jew may have the same
privileges). e law maintained the unity of the Godhead,
and it gave a rule of life, or rather principles of blessedness
for a creature, if he could keep it. It was given to a feeble
people to maintain the truth until the “Seed” came; but
it dealt with man (while convincing him that he could
not keep it) on his own ground that he could keep it. e
Jews to whom it was given were a specimen taken from
human nature to test it, and to prove whether any good
thing could come out of it. What is the good, you may say,
of telling men they are lost? Why not leave it till the day
of judgment? is would not be grace; it would do for law,
but not grace. ere was most important truth conveyed
in the law-one God, etc.; but He was behind the veil. He
sent out to tell man what He was, but He hid Himself in
thick darkness. He never revealed Himself under the law.
He gave a law telling men what they should be, but could
not reveal Himself. He would not have put man to the test
if He had, for “God is love,” and love could not deal in law.
If God had revealed Himself, He would have said, “ You
are perfect sin; but I am perfect love, and can put away
your sins.” “Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound.” e gospel tells you not only that you have done
wrong, but that you are a sinner in the presence of a God
who reveals Himself. It comes revealing God in such a way,
that the contrast between Himself and you is brought to
light-sin and light. “ Light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness,” etc. Christ never turned away any; but He
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313
did not cover over man’s sin-He brought it to light. ere
is truth as well as grace. He came presenting God to the
conscience of man, and laid it open and bare before Him.
Why should God trouble Himself about my sins, and
not leave it all till the day of judgment? It is all grace that
makes you conscious of what you are in His presence now.
ere is life-giving or quickening power from Him, which,
however terrible the conviction arising from it, brings a
longing for holiness when I have not got it. ere is a new
nature that cannot get peace for itself; it has the desire
after holiness, but knows it has not got it. It is there, heavy
laden, though delighting in God, and desiring Him. ere
is a consciousness of a burden, but no power to get from
under it. ere must be something else. e gospel brings
salvation to the person for whom it is wrought.
ere must be righteousness; but the new nature is not
righteousness. I have to nd out, not only what is in my
heart, but what is in God’s heart about me. Confessing my
faults will not make me happy. Can I be happy, if I have
oended my Father, because I feel sorry about it, without
knowing what His thought about me is? e gospel
brings knowledge of divine love in salvation. e gospel
is the perfect full answer from God to the desires He has
produced. In a word, it is salvation.
Paul, when the gospel came to him, was full of himself,
self-righteousness, and self-complacency. He had been
spending his life in doing things to make himself righteous
in God’s sight, and then found out that it was all in vain,
and that the “ carnal mind is enmity against God.” Self had
been the object of all. He had been spending all his activities
to drive God out of the world, and hinder the gospel of
His grace; if he could have done it, he would. at is the
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character of every one by nature; though not so energetic
as Paul, they are the enemies of God. Will a wealthy man
like to hear money spoken of as good for nothing? If he has
none, perhaps he will be glad to hear it; but men do not like
what they pride themselves in to be made nothing of. God
and man are at enmity. Man is righteous in his own sight,
and how will he like to hear his own righteousness called
“ lthy rags “? “ He eateth and drinketh with publicans
and sinners “ was the complaint against Christ. Will He
go to the sinners and slight their righteousness? Will they
have such a God as that? Saul was an enemy of God, when
in his own sight he was righteous. He wanted his eyes
opened, and that is what he got. “ When it pleased God
to reveal his Son in me.” Two things must accompany each
other-the revelation of God’s Son and the knowledge, by
that revelation, of ourselves. Paul had all manner of truth
before; but God was not revealed to him.
So you too may have plenty of truth or doctrine and not
know God. If God is revealed to me, it is because I have not
known Him before. Could you be conscious of being in the
presence of God--every one is in His presence; but could
you be conscious of it-and not know what you are? When
the eye is open, we see with the truth of God. Philosophy
argues about God, but what are the thoughts of man about
Him? ink of a man with plenty of money being told the
Lord was to come to-morrow. What would he think of his
money? Would he not hide it? We live the life of fools in
this world (I do not mean Christians, but in our natural
state); and what is more, we know it, but we do not like to
know it. “ e fool hath said in his heart, ere is no God.”
You must take a child to get the simple expectation of good
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from this world: men do not expect it; they know they are
pursuing what cannot satisfy them.
In verse 17 of this chapter we get a new starting-point.
Paul was one to whom the gospel came thus, his enmity
having reached its height, he was turned “from darkness
to light, from the power of Satan to God.” Paul tasted the
perfect grace of God, that left not a thought of sin between
Him and Paul. “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” He saw
Christ, and was taken up in the midst of his enmity and
sin, and made an apostle, “ to turn from darkness to light.”
We are not only living in darkness, but we are darkness
until our eyes are opened. e sun does not give light to a
blind man, and such are we till our eyes are opened. When
a person sees with the eyes of God as to himself, as to light,
as to God, this is repentance, not salvation yet; and a sinner
needs salvation. I cannot get the sun at all, without having
a little heat; but this is not peace. You must be at home
with God to have condence -you must see Him. e
consciousness that we want God, and the consciousness
of knowing Him, are dierent things. It is what God has
done for man that is salvation, not what He has done in
man. We can tell men they are lost, because we know it for
ourselves. We can tell them they are lost, because we know
we are saved. When I have got the remedy and know it will
cure, I can tell of it. I know there are sins, but I have got
Christ. I have got something beyond the new nature that
longs for holiness. I have forgiveness-no mention of sins
against the man who believes in Christ.
e gospel not only tells men they need forgiveness, but
it tells them they have it-not a single spot-all the sins gone.
Any Christian can say he has it, who knows and believes
the gospel. But how can you say that? you ask. Does not
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God say so? Perhaps you are not caring for it! It is terrible
if you are not-terrible that God should send His Son and
you not care about it! is is worse than breaking the law,
for the blood was shed to wash away that sin. Now when
atonement has been made, and is rejected or treated with
indierence, what can be done? For “ there remaineth
no more sacrice for sin.” By the gospel we announce
the forgiveness of your sins, and a perfect righteousness
wrought out for you. Have you got it? Do you think God
has sent His Son to atone for our sins, and to work out
this righteousness, and we not need it? If you need it, have
you got it? Nay, do you know you want it? Have you ever
been in the presence of God? Have your eyes ever been
opened to see your nakedness in the presence of God? e
blind man does not know his state. When God has clothed
a man, he is not naked. God clothed Adam with skins.
When a man has put on Christ, surely it may be said, “ By
grace are ye saved.”
Christ has wrought out a righteousness in which we can
be in the presence of God, and in which He can Himself
sit on the throne of God. He has clothed me with divine
righteousness as well as given me forgiveness, and He
preaches peace. I know, when clothed, I have perfect peace.
After this, there is the full and blessed result in glory. What
Christ is entitled to we get. He has a title to everything,
and I have a portion with Him in all that He has. e
work which has earned the glory for Him as Son of man
gives it to me. When He comes, we shall come with Him
in the glory. ere is the “inheritance”; but, what is better,
we are to be with Him who is the universal Heir. He has
nished the work for salvation. For whom? For me; for
every believer.
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Do you say, Ought not I to wait till I am in the glory,
before I believe that I am cleansed from all sin? Surely
not. e angels will see it then; but we, are not we to see
the salvation? We do when we have faith. ose who only
expect to see it when they get there will not see it at all.
Ought I to wait till then to know the cross of Christ? e
eect of knowing it is forgiveness. Am I to wait to know
righteousness then? e only way to have it is to see Him
by faith, while we cannot see Him. e gospel reveals
the answer of God to my soul, that what I want I have
in Christ-forgiveness, righteousness, life, peace, glory. My
sins are borne away already, and my title to glory just as
perfect as when I get there. “We have redemption through
his blood.” e consequence of knowing I have it, is that I
can walk with God.
How can you walk with God if you have not peace, if
you have not forgiveness? if you are not cleansed from sin?
Could Adam walk with God when his conscience told him
he had sinned? No. But the gospel brings salvation, as it is
said, “ e grace of God which bringeth,” etc. Now, have
you got salvation? If your eyes are open, you will want it;
have you got it? God does not deceive you. He does not say
you are saved, if you are not. e craving after it is not the
answer to it. If He has given the craving, He will complete
the work; but it is not the answer. If you say, How can I
tell? you have not submitted to the righteousness of God;
you are going about to establish your own righteousness
by the fruits of grace you want to nd in yourself, and so
to get a proof of your standing before God. But will fruits
of grace give you forgiveness, righteousness? ey are not
the blood of Christ; they are not Christ. How can they
cleanse from sin? God delights in the fruits of grace, but
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they cannot put away sin. It is the work of Christ on the
cross which alone does that. God has set Him at His own
right hand; and when I believe it, I see how God has loved
me. May you be in yourself so broken down, that you may
nd One who never breaks down!
Grace reigns through righteousness, and will produce
all manner of fruits through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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62782
How Are We Saved?
Romans 1-8
I SHOULD like to go a little into the question, How
are we saved? In the rst eight chapters of Romans we
get the gospel fully brought out. It is just the answer to
the question, How can a man be just with God? is is
the great question of the whole epistle. We do not get
resurrection with Christ in this epistle, nor is there union. It
is death with Christ, and life through Him. When you get
resurrection with Christ, you are associated with Him in
life; and when union is taught, you never nd justication;
for a new creation clearly does not want justifying. is
is the teaching of Ephesians, where you get nothing
about justication, but all the privileges and duties of the
new creation. In Romans we get sinners, and they want
justication. In Ephesians we are looked at as “ dead in
trespasses and sins.”
ere are two parts of justication-” from sins,” and
“ of life “; the rst, the clearing me of my old state; and
the second, the putting me into a new place before God.
ese two parts, are treated of distinctly in chapters 1 to 8
of this epistle, dividing them into two parts, the rst part
ending at chapter 5: it. In chapter 1 we see the ground that
called for justication-” e wrath of God revealed against
all ungodliness.” It is not governmental wrath, but wrath
against the sinner; and “ all have sinned, and come short
“-of what we ought to be? of the law? All this is simple,
but the word says, “ short of the glory of God.” e whole
dealings of Christianity are on the ground of that. You
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must either walk in the light, or have nothing to do with
God. It is not God hidden behind a veil, and setting up a
law as to what you ought to be; but you are to walk in the
light, as He is in the light. So we are taught in that verse
of Col. 1, “Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light.” A man’s being born again does not make him meet,
his being quickened makes him feel the need of it; there
is another thing needed that ts you for glory, and that
is Christ’s work in grace. e rst thing we get about the
gospel is, that it is “ concerning his Son Jesus Christ,” not
about ourselves rst. People have lost sight of the claims of
Christ. He is become the author of eternal salvation unto
all them that obey Him.
ere are two things found here (chap. 1:2-4) in the
Person of Christ. First, He is in connection with the
promises. People rest on promises. But the promises
are fullled by Him and in Him: Christ is Himself the
accomplishment of the promises. “For all the promises of
God in him are Yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of
God by us.” is was by means of His incarnation, and
suerings, and death: “come of the seed of David according
to esh.” He fullled the promises; but I do not mean to
deny that we have precious promises to help us on the way.
But there is another thing shown us in verse 17: “erein,”
in the gospel, “ is the righteousness of God revealed.” Faith
receives God’s righteousness in contrast with the law which
claimed righteousness from man. en he goes on to lay
the ground why there must be a righteousness of God,
because there is none in man. “ Holiness “ is connected
with the nature of God. e reason I am so bold about the
gospel is because it is the righteousness of God.
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In chapter 1 the fact is rst stated that the righteousness
of God is revealed; in chapter 2, the proof of this and the
condition of man. In chapter 3 the apostle gives us rst the
privileges of the Jew; then he says, the very thing you boast
of is that which condemns you: “ Now we know that what
things soever the law saith,” etc. en all are brought under
sin. en he turns (v. 21) to the question of righteousness.
What is wanted is tness to stand in God’s presence, and
not come short of His glory. It was “ witnessed by the
law and the prophets.” e Lord our righteousness was
witnessed in the prophets, but manifested now. Now it is
without law. ough he speaks of righteousness, he does
not go beyond faith in His blood; and then he takes up the
Old Testament saints.
“ rough faith in his blood.” Propitiation meets God
as a righteous, holy Judge. When a person has oended
or wronged another, he requires a propitiation. God
provides the propitiation, and sets Christ forth as such.
He had forborne with the Old Testament saints. Here His
righteousness in doing so is declared. God’s righteousness
is now not only revealed, but also imputed, to the believer.
en he takes up Abraham and David, and shows that
they both concur in this testimony: justication or
righteousness does not go farther than forgiveness here
(chap. 4: 3-5). ere is a great deal more in justication, but
we are not come to that yet. e accounting righteous in
this part of the epistle is the same as forgiveness. What is
a propitiation for? Is it not for sin? God sitting as a Judge,
and man brought before Him guilty? e death of Christ
glories God Himself. It is of immense importance to see
the way God takes to put away the sins of the old man;
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there can be no peace without it. It is another thing to see
how God makes a new man.
We get two distinct characters of blessedness in these
chapters: the rst, chapter 5:; the second, chapter 8. In
chapter 5 I get higher things about God than I do in
chapter 8. In chapter 5 I nd what God is to the sinner; in
chapter 8 it is what He is to the new man in Christ Jesus.
God is more fully revealed in the absolute goodness of His
character in chapter 5, because it is there His dealings with
the sinner, as guilty before Him, and having come short
of His glory. But the saint is in a higher place in chapter
8-there God is for me. In the rst place (chap. 5), God is
known as the Justier; in the second (chap. 8), as Abba,
Father. Part one ends at chapter 5: 11; that is the way God
deals with a sinner about his sins. Now we come to part
two. Part one has nothing to do with experience.; there I
get my debts paid; this may produce very happy feelings,
as we see in chapter 5. Part two has everything to do with
experience. “ No condemnation “-then it is not sinners. In
chapter 4, “ Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin.” A man in that sense is faultless before
God, Christ has made an atonement, and if you believe
in Him, no sin will be imputed to you. Quickening is not
introduced in part one; man’s nature is not there treated
of; it has to do with sins and the remedy- Christ dying
for our sins. In part two it is sin and the remedy, my dying
with Christ. e whole work was settled on the cross, but
it is presented in resurrection. We must have resurrection
to make it complete. It must be complete to be presented.
“Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall
raise up us also by Jesus, and present us with you,” 2 Cor.
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323
5:14. Sanctication comes before justication when they
are spoken of together. “ Ye are washed, sanctied, justied.”
It is the fruit, and not the tree, that is judged in part
one. e tree itself is judged in part two. In chapter 3 we
get faith in the blood of Christ. In chapter 4 it is faith in
the God of resurrection-” if we believe in him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” I nd the sinner in his
sins, Christ dying, and the sins not imputed to him. Here
is a man who has done this, that, and the other, and Christ
died for him. God has raised up Christ, and I believe in
Him, and am justied. It is ratied. Justication was not
completed on the cross, the work by which we are justied
was; but I do not get the assurance of it until I see Christ in
resurrection. “ If Christ is not risen, ye are yet in your sins.”
If my surety is not out of prison, I cannot say I am justied.
Supposing me in prison for E.’s debt, my acquittance is
his justication, not my paying the debt. ere are the two
things necessary, not only the mortgage paid, but also the
deed signed. e work on the cross is that by which I am
justied, He was raised again in order to our justifying. He
was delivered, our oenses being before His mind. He was
raised, our justifying being before His mind.
en chapter 5 begins, “ Having been justied, we have
peace.” Here we get the whole past, present, and future:
justied as to the past; having peace with God, and standing
in the favor of God, as to the present; and rejoicing in hope
of the glory of God, as to the future. Peace, favor, glory,
what more can you want? We may get all sorts of troubles
here, but what a mercy God sees me righteous! He never
withdraws His eyes from the righteous. I am a righteous
man; now I can glory in tribulation, etc. I have the key to
all this. I have learned by all this process not only what
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I am, but what He is. I have the Holy Ghost in me, as a
consequence of justication, shedding abroad the love of
God in my heart. I can joy, too, in God Himself (before
whom, in chapter 3, I was guilty, and my mouth stopped),
not only that I know myself, but I know God too-God in
His own absolute goodness. Peace is a fuller deeper thing
than joy; when I know that all is settled, and that I am
reconciled, then I have peace. A person may have joy, and
not yet know himself reconciled. e prodigal may have
had a measure of joy in leaving the far country, but he has
not peace till he has met the Father, and learns what is the
Father’s heart toward him. is is all individual. I have got
my sins, my peace, my joy, etc. You have got yours.
But when you come to chapter 5: 12, we get all in a lump.
All ruined in one man. We have had a man’s actions rst;
now we come to man’s condition. Adam ruined us all. It is
the state of the race, and not of the individual. I get entirely
away from God, and I have a nature away from God. If this
be known without any knowledge of the grace of God, it
must drive a man to despair, but God never allows it to be
so quite. Grace has put away your sin. Another thing God
says-” You have died “; but then, if I look at my experience,
it contradicts that. I say, “ How can I have died when I nd
the nature there? I have got in a passion.”
In chapter 5: 12 we come to the nature, and I get more
troubled about sin in me than by my past sins. But here
we nd the remedy too; not that Christ has died for my
sins, but that I died with Christ to sin. e doctrine is, “ By
one man’s obedience,” and “ by one man’s disobedience.”
Oh! then, if by the obedience of one I am made righteous,
I can live on as I like? No; the apostle says, “ You have
died.” How can I live on if I am dead? is is justication
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325
of life here. We have now the positive side of justication:
“ ere is no condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus.” As we see, in the rst eleven verses of chapter 5,
the blessedness of the believer as the result of what the
apostle had been bringing out in the previous part of the
epistle, Christ dying for our sins, so in chapter 8 we have
the blessedness which is the result of what the apostle had
brought out from chapter 5: 12 to the end of chapter 7.
In part one we had what the sinner has done, put away;
in part two it is a question of what he is: acceptance would
be connected with part two. Righteousness imputed is not
the same thing as reckoning a person righteous. If I pay
E.’s debts, he is reckoned righteous; but the character of
imputed righteousness is something to go on with. “ Sin is
not imputed when there is no law,” v. 13. It is as plain as A
B C. How can a man break a law when he has not got it?
You cannot say to the Gentile, “ You have transgressed the
fth commandment,” because the law was never given to
him. In Hos. 6 we read, “ ey, like Adam, have transgressed
the covenant.” Adam received a commandment, and lived
so long as he obeyed it. And under Moses Israel received
the law, by keeping which they should live; but from Adam
to Moses there was no commandment, yet death reigned
over those who had transgressed no given law. We nd no
forgiveness here. Sin is never forgiven, but condemned. “
God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful esh,
and by a sacrice for sin, condemned sin, in the esh,” chap.
8: 3. Sin is got rid of by death. If a man dies, there is an end.
Chapter 5: 15. We see that the grace must have an
aspect as large as the sin. e presentation of grace is to the
whole world, but its application is only to those who receive
the gift. Verse 18: “ As by one oense towards all unto
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326
condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all unto
justication of life.” e one righteousness, as God’s gift,
is unto all, but it is only upon all them that believe; chap.
3: 22. e contrast here (v. 18) is not between the persons,
but the one oense and the one righteousness. e gift of
righteousness is unto all: just as the sin of Adam addresses
itself to the whole race, so does the one righteousness. “
Justication of life? “ Here I get justication connected
with life (not only from my sins), but I have got life; v. 20.
“ e law “ comes in by the bye. e law required man to
make out a righteousness. e law entered that the oense
might abound.” It is not that sin might abound, but “ the
oense.” God never made sin abound. Sin abounded over
the whole race, and there grace much more abounds. e
law not only made sin more manifest, but also aggravated
its character. e authority of God has been brought in,
and despised. A child might do wrong without knowing
it; but when the father gives him a command about it, it
becomes disobedience. In chapter 2: 12, what is translated
sinned “ without law,” is the same word as in John 3:4 (sin
is the “ transgression of the law “), which should be, “ sin is
lawlessness.”
What is the meaning of Heb. 9:26, “ Christ put away sin
by the sacrice of himself?” I believe it extends to the new
heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
So also “ the Lamb of God which beareth away the sin
of the world.” e work that accomplishes it is done, but
the power is not yet put forth; 1 John 2:2. “ Propitiation
for the whole world. at is, atonement has been made,
and the blood is on the mercy-seat, so that all hindrance
is removed. In Heb. 9:26, 28 we get the two things, to put
away sin,” and “ sins borne “; just as we get the sin-oering
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327
and the scape-goat on the day of atonement. e blood
of the sin-oering was rst sprinkled on and before the
mercy-seat, then the sins of Israel were confessed over the
head of the scape-goat; Lev. 16. e blood on the mercy-
seat now is the ground of invitation to the sinner. I say
now to the sinner, Christ has died, and the blood is on
the mercy-seat, and you will be received if you come. If he
accepts the invitation, I can tell him more.
Not only has the Lord Jesus put away sin, but He has
borne all your sins, and confessed them as if they were His
own; and they are all gone. It is never said Christ died for
the sins of the world. In Rom. 6 and 7, I am dead and
justied from sin. Now I can reckon myself dead. It is not
I; I have had enough of “I.” Now Christ is I. If I am alive
through Christ, I died through Christ. “I am crucied with
Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me.” A young man has had debts, but his father has paid
them and made him a partner in his own business. Now
he speaks not of my business, my concerns, etc., but our
business, our concerns. But here, in Romans, he is keeping
up the individuality; so we do not get union, or such
words as “ risen with Christ.” In Romans, Colossians, and
Ephesians we see three stages of advance: in Romans, dead
with Christ and alive in Christ; in Colossians, dead with
Him and risen with Him; in Ephesians, dead in trespasses
and sins, now quickened together, raised up together, made
to sit together in Him in heavenly places. In Romans the
individual is cleared from what he was as a child of Adam,
and gets the privileges of a child of God.
Chapter 6: 16. Now you are perfectly free: what are
you going to do with yourself? You were a slave to sin:
now yield yourself to God. In chapter 7 we have the same
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328
principle applied to law. Verse 4, having died to the law by
the body of Christ, now I am connected with Christ-Him
who is raised from the dead. e deduction is, you cannot
have both the law and Christ. Verse 6 should be, “ having
died in that wherein we were held.” It is not the law that is
dead,. but I am dead. e law is the jailer, I am the prisoner.
e mistake people are making is that they are killing the
jailer instead of the thief. e jailer is not dead, the thief is.
Now, if you look back, you will see the condition of a man
under law. It is the experience of a quickened soul under
law. Experience comes in here, and not in the rst part of
the epistle. If a man is not absolutely lawless, conscience
puts him under law. He says, I ought to do this, and I ought
to do that.
e regular Hyper-Calvinists put a man in Rom. 7, and
keep him there. ey put him in the seventh before he gets
to the third. In chapters 2 and 3 it is what a man has done.
In chapter 7 it is what he is in himself. It is not that I
have done bad things, but “ I know that in me, that is in
my esh, dwelleth no good thing.” is must be learned
experimentally, and not merely known as a doctrine. e
soul here learns three things; rst, that in himself, that is,
in his esh, dwells no good thing; secondly, he sees that
the esh is not himself, for he hates it; thirdly, that it is too
strong for him, and he cries out for deliverance. It is God
bringing a man to the full knowledge of himself; then he
says, “ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver? “ etc.,
when Christ comes in, and we have the full deliverance of
chapter 8.
“ When I was in the esh,” chap. 7: 5. Many Christians
would not know what that means at all. It is the state of
the past. is chapter is experimental, and the truth must
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329
be learned, not merely as a theory, but experimentally. To
say my sins are forgiven is not experience; but if you tell me
something about myself, my experience answers to it, or it
does not. We never give up the esh till we have learned
how thoroughly bad it is. I must learn to say, “ It is not I,”
though not to say it lightly, because as a child of Adam
responsible, it is I; but I have found out another I. As to the
esh, there is no question of forgiveness. I do not forgive
an oending power, I want deliverance from it. In Romans,
my being alive in Christ is stated as a fact, but the doctrine
is not brought out as in Ephesians. e more spiritual we
are, the more we shall see the innite value of the cross. “
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord
Jesus,” etc. (2 Cor. 4)- always keeping it before my faith-
holding the cross to the esh, because I am not in the esh
(otherwise I could not do it).
People talk of whether future sins are forgiven. All my
sins were future when Christ died for them. But I ought
not to talk of future sins; there is grace enough to keep
me from them, and I must not excuse them. Souls have to
learn what sin is. Christ, having met the consequences of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, becomes the tree of
life to me; and then I learn.
Rom. 5:1-11 is what God was in love to the sinner.
Chapter 8 is the condition of the believer with God.
Would you not like to feel better in yourself? at is I.
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62786
Indwelling of the Holy Ghost
1 Cor. 6
THERE is nothing, perhaps, more striking in reading
either the Gospels, or the Epistles, the sayings of the
Lord Jesus Himself, or what, in some respects, are more
wonderful, the statements of the apostles, than the entire
familiarity that appears in them, with the highest divine
things. It is never, of course, nor could it be, that familiarity
which, in human things, because of their imperfection, takes
away reverence. But the nearer we are to God, the more we
see His blessedness, while there will be the reverence that
becomes His presence; at the same time there is perfect
familiarity with the highest divine things. It stamps the
one born of God; it stamps the divine revelation that we
have. I can tell that the Father loves the Son- nothing can
be simpler than the expression; but what a thing to know
His divine aections in themselves! It is not merely that
He loves me, as is very true; but the Father loves the Son.
So with the divine counsels. He hath “ made known unto
us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure,
which he hath purposed in himself.” It is all brought out; as
it is expressed in that word, “ Ye have an unction from the
Holy One, and ye know all things.”
It is not that simply certain testimonies have come
out; this was the case with the prophets; or that certain
commandments have been given which are the most perfect
expression of what man ought to be, as in the law; but God
has revealed Himself, and that in the perfectness of His
own love, that He might be known. Along with this, and
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331
especially characterizing Christianity, there is not only the
perfect revelation of Himself in His own nature as God,
as light and love, revealing the Father, Son, and Spirit; but
He has given us the Spirit. Having made us “ partakers of
the divine nature,” that we might be capable of enjoying
what He is; He has also given us the Holy Ghost, that we
might know what He is. You get, rst, our being set before
God in perfect acceptance, “ accepted in the Beloved.” And
then, beyond that, the truth that God has not only revealed
Himself to us, that we might have condence in coming
to Him in Christ, but that He reveals Himself in us after
having set us in Christ there, that the conscience should be
placed in His presence.
At the same time we read in Ephesians of being “
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man “;
it is also said in the same Epistle, “ that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith.” So that He who is the center of all the
thoughts and counsels of God, of all His glory as revealed,
the Son Himself dwells in us, and sets us thus in the center
of all this glory, that we should comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height. It is
not only that there has been a revelation to us of the Father
and Son, and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
but that He has so associated us with Christ as dwelling in
us, and that by the power of the Holy Ghost, that He sets
our souls in the center of all these aections, and of all this
knowledge and glory.
erefore the apostle cannot exactly say what it is, but
only says “ what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and
height,” and adds, “ and to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that ye might be lled with all the
fullness of God.” He has been a man, and dwelt among us,
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yet He dwells in us, and His love passes knowledge. is
brings us into such blessed intimacy, though ever more
adoringly; for the more we know Him, the more we shall
see that He is God. So even with Christ Himself. We are
there in the same glory with Himself, but this only brings
us into the capacity to know the innite blessedness of
His Person. We see this in the scene of the transguration.
e moment there was the thought in the heart, “ Let
us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses,
and and for Elias,” the Father says, “ is is my beloved
Son: hear him.” Christ stands alone. Yet we now, by the
grace which associates us with Him, are brought into that
which is divinely blessed and perfect; such is the peculiar
blessedness of Christianity.
It is not now merely sending out a law to show what
man ought to be, but it is eternal life given, in the true
knowledge of the Father and Son, and this in the power of
the Holy Ghost. erefore the aections of the heart are
of the Spirit, and are lled with the Spirit, and they have
their play in all true Christian aection. Being brought into
such a place, all our ways, the condition of our soul and
our conduct of course, are looked for to be conformed to
that of which Christ Himself is the perfect expression. It is
not merely that there is a certain rule of conduct, as in the
law, but it is Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith; so that
our thoughts, and feelings, and aections should ow from
that source through the Holy Ghost. at is what is meant
by being “ lled with the Spirit.” We all have the Spirit, but
we are not all “ lled with the Spirit.” He is the one source
of everything where the heart is lled with Him.
at which is here brought before us is not only the
blessedness of the place we are put in, but the conduct of
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the Christian suitable to it in every respect. And it is that
which suits the presence of the Holy Ghost dwelling in
him. Whatever is not t for His presence is not t for the
Christian. It will come down to the most ordinary things
of life, because there is a path which is pleasing to God in
this world-there is one way for a person to walk, and no
other. Supposing a son has left his father’s house, and has
gone o to a strange country; he may not be outwardly
given up to what shocks the conscience, but he cannot, as
long as he is there, do right; he must go back in order to
do what is right; until he does this, in all he does there is
not one thing that is right. is is the way with man in
the world. He has left God, and cannot do anything right,
never can do anything positively right, till he gets back.
If we are in our right place, we do not want a way. Adam
wanted no way in the garden of Eden; his business was to
stay where he was. In the world, where wickedness is, we
want a way; but there is no way really, because we have
departed from God. But when the Spirit of God has come
into it, He has created a path for him that believes. For the
Jews in the wilderness, where the cloud went, there was a
way directly. God can make a way for Himself, no matter
how wicked the world. If I injure a man, it is wrong; and
if he revenges himself, it is wrong; but Christ can make a
way through it all. He can give me to walk with wisdom
and patience in all circumstances. He can bring in motives
and principles for every diculty of this world; and that is
where the Christian has to walk. “ He that saith he abideth
in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.”
e life of Jesus should be manifested in us. Our life
ought to be the expression of this new thing-that is, divine
life in the midst of a world that is away from God. Nothing
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but Christ can do that, and it is Christ in us. e power of
it is by the presence of the Holy Ghost acting upon “ the
new man which after God is created in righteousness and
in true holiness.” It is not the old thing corrected at all,
because the old man never can have the divine motives, but
its own motives. It may be corrected in an outward thing,
for people are not all thieves and robbers; but it never
can have the motives that belong to the divine nature,
and therefore, though it may be decent and respectable, it
never can be right. It is the nature that has departed from
God, and it cannot be right before Him. We read that that
which we have (the new man) is “ after God, created in
righteousness and in true holiness.” And in another part it
is said that it is “ renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created him.” e measure of spiritual knowledge,
as to the walk and aections, is the image of Him who
created us; and where do I see this perfectly? In Christ. He
is “ the image of the invisible God.” e power of that life
was shown in the resurrection; the character of that life was
shown in all His path on earth. He was “ declared to be the
Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead.” e declaration of the
power of the life was in resurrection; the character of it we
see in the Son of God walking in this world; and Christ is
our life.
“ Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own.” It is redeemed. “ Ye are bought with a price.”
Being redeemed by God, the body, which is our servant
and vessel of working, is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
ere I get power, and power by One dwelling in me,
whose presence is that which must measure everything I
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335
do. erefore He says, “ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Such
is the measure He furnishes us. He gives us intelligence,
and aections, and objects, which the law could not do, but
Christ does. He gives us a blessed hope too; but He dwells
in us now. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost:
and we are called upon so to walk, that in nothing, in word
or thought or act, we should grieve the Spirit of God. It
is a wonderful measure in this case. e Spirit has these
thoughts and feelings, and He produces them in us.
Mark then how Christ is connected with this: “ Know
ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? “ What
sweetness there is in that But it is not merely a fact; it is the
principle by which I measure all conduct in His presence.
How do I come there? I have it all of God. “ Know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God? “ What a feeling God
must have about me-to make a poor creature like me His
temple-the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost! To think
that God’s mind about such poor creatures should be that
He would make me a temple of the Holy Ghost! that He
has given me the Holy Ghost to dwell in me! For this there
is absolute cleansing; for He could not dwell in a deled
tabernacle, and thus He seals till the day of redemption.
God has given me the Holy Ghost to dwell in me in virtue
of having cleansed me, the seal of redemption and earnest of
glory. God’s mind has been, having cleansed me, to give me
the perfect witness and testimony of His own innite love.
“ He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in
him.” He gives us the Holy Ghost to dwell in us, the seal of
His love and of the redemption that He has accomplished.
He makes our bodies the temple of the Holy Ghost; and
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while this is the measure and test of all that is according to
God by His own presence, that presence is the expression
of God’s perfect love; for His love is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us.
And here he appeals to them as to not sinning. How can
you go and sin with a body that is the temple of the Holy
Ghost? It is not merely breaking such a command, or the
like; but the motive here is, “ What! know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? “ And you are going
to commit sin with it? All exhortations are founded upon
the blessed place into which He has brought us. “ Know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which ye have of God? “ God Himself
has given it, to put you in connection with Himself, and
are you going into connection with sin and vileness? It
is applied to purity of life. e body is the vessel of the
presence and action of God by the Holy Ghost. We do fail;
but that is the power; and we are renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created him. What a place we
are set in! It makes us feel our wretchedly low ways and
shortcomings-and so much the better. If we are humble,
we do not need to be humbled. If a man is not humble, he
needs to be humbled: if he is humble, he is the recipient of
grace; “ for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto
the humble.” And wherever a person is really humble, he
may have a great deal to learn, but at any rate he is in his
right place with God. Instead of His having to contend
with us, we are the objects of His blessing. If it is not so,
humbling must come in. “ What! know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you,
which ye have of God? “
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en comes the second motive. “ And ye are not your
own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in
your body.” It is a motive-not simply power in the presence
of God, but a positive motive from the perfect work of
Christ; we are not our own. If we were, we were lost. If we
are to have blessing, to be a blessing, it is in this-that we
are not our own at all. Wherever I act in my own will in
anything, I am wronging God of His own title through the
blood of Christ. We are not our own. Christ is ours: but
there is a second thing-not only that Christ is mine, but
that I am His; and the heart delights to be His, and not its
own, because it has learned His love to us, who has loved
us, and given Himself for us.
erefore, in the knowledge of this eternal love, our
delight is to belong to Him, and this too as to practice. “
Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your
body.” It is not merely saying, Do right; but He puts us
at once in connection with God. ink of our glorifying
God! Christ could do it as a man; but can I, wretched as
I am, glorify God? Yes. If I am walking in His Spirit, and
having no motive but Christ, it brings in the power of God,
which the world knows nothing about. We are called to
glorify God in our body: it belongs to Him-it is God’s;
and what a relief it is when I think that this body, which
was the wretched slave of sin, now belongs to God! It is
His property. It has been taken out of its old condition
entirely, and it does not belong to my corrupt will at all. I
am not a debtor to the body, but it belongs to God. is
is an immense joy, and it shows that everything has been
done for one; for even this poor wretched body belongs to
God, and I am to use it thus-to glorify God.
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ere we have the two great leading motives and
springs of conduct which the apostle sets before us here
as to our faith and conduct; namely, that our body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost, which we have of God; and that
we are bought with a price, and belong to God. e power,
intelligence, and all, is that which we have of God; it is the
Holy Ghost, of which our body is made the temple; and
when I look at the body in itself, it now, through the work
of Christ, belongs to God. e Holy Ghost dwells in me in
power and intelligence; my body is made His temple, and
I must use it according to that presence which I thus have
of God. I am not my own at all-I am bought with a price-I
belong to God.
e Lord give us in joy of heart, in unfailing, deep
thankfulness of spirit, to know that, on the one side, our
bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost; and, on the other,
that these bodies are bought with a price, and that they
belong to God!
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339
62784
God’s Wisdom in Christ
1 Corinthians 1
ALL the foolishness of man, even of the saint, is the
occasion of bringing out the wisdom of God.; all thoughts
are turned into good by Him; not that this is any excuse
for our foolishness. ere are two things brought out here:
rst, all that is of man is broken to pieces; secondly, God
comes in, and the righteousness of man, his carelessness,
sin, everything is thoroughly broken to pieces. No esh can
glory in His presence. en would He have men not glory
at all? Not so.
Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord.” And this is
perfect in strength, wisdom, holiness; he will never have
to be ashamed of that which is perfect, and will never
pass away, when everything else does fade away. What a
glorious thing for the saint! It seems wonderful for a poor
sinner to be able to say he may “ glory in the Lord.” What
a tendency there is in nature to glory in anything else! Man
must glory in something; it may even be that he boasts of
being the worst of sinners. He may glory in his sins, his
wretchedness, anything that attaches to self. When God
comes in, there will soon be an end of this; he will hide
himself fast enough then, and be ashamed of everything
he has gloried in before. e state of man by nature is “
without God,” even though he may be blessed by Him
with all natural things; he would be glad to be out of God’s
presence if he could, but in one sense he cannot. “ If I take
the wings of the morning,” etc. You cannot y from His
presence; yet you are miserable in it.
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If a man sets up to be righteous, God will break that
down, as He did in Paul. We are easily satised with
ourselves; a very little righteousness will do. And there is
another thing too: man is content with doing his own will;
he knows no obedience. Will that do when God comes
in? Christ came not to save the righteous but sinners;
therefore, if man is to be saved, he must be treated as a
sinner. Where was all the boasted righteousness of Saul of
Tarsus? He must be taken up as a poor sinner. All man’s
self-righteousness turns out to be pride when it is traced
to its root. e “ elder brother “ in the parable says, What,
will He take in a prodigal? His pride will not let him come
in to be in company with such an one. ere are plenty of
elder brothers now, and younger ones too. Vain man would
set up to be wise: he is like a wild ass’s colt. What is his
wisdom? He picks up little scraps of knowledge, and calls
that wisdom; it is man’s wisdom, spinning thoughts to exalt
himself. Man is “lighter than vanity.” But “there is a path
which no fowl knoweth, and the vulture’s eye hath not seen
it.” Real wisdom lies there. All that does not give rest to the
conscience is folly and fades away.
Carelessness, and boasting of sin and self-righteousness,
are both folly and vanity. e dierence between them
is that the self-righteous man is more proud than his
neighbor; but in the presence of God there is not a single
motive that he would be glad to have never had. ere is a
way of deliverance open from the judgment. God speaks, “
Where art thou? “ You are naked in His presence; but there
is a resource in Christ’s love, and this is granted here, not
when we get to heaven. ere is heart enough in Jesus to
open the heart of the vilest sinner. “ Doth no man accuse
thee? No man, Lord. Neither do I accuse thee,” etc.; John 8.
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341
ere is love to meet the need: therefore I have no need
to hide my sins; it leaves no room for guile in the heart; it
oers no temptation to whitewash myself; but when Christ
comes, it puts away all this.
Christ Jesus, “ has been made to us wisdom from
God, and righteousness, and holiness (sanctication), and
redemption.” When we got eternal life in Christ, there
was death in us; but life is come, and that life is in the
Son. Christ is made unto us of God “ wisdom.” What kind
of wisdom? Divine wisdom. How could God love such
an one as I am? ere is Christ’s wisdom. When Christ
is made wisdom for me, I can do without my own, and
learn of Him as a little child. How was He wisdom? He
went down into the place where death reigned, and got
the victory over death. e world sinned against God, and
He is come into it in mercy: that is wisdom. Wickedness
is going on in the world; why does He patiently bear with
it? He is saving sinners by Christ the Lord: that is wisdom.
“ Righteousness “ is God’s own perfect righteousness.
Not only can I get “ wisdom,” which makes me calm and
quiet, but “ righteousness_” in which there is not a aw;
and through His grace He is made to me “ sanctication “
also. e rule and measure, the power and setting apart of
the new life, are all in Christ. It is not like Israel, set aside
by circumcision, Red Sea, etc., but in Christ. Christ is the
key to the puzzle of this world. By Him I may no longer
tremble in terror before God. No; but I can glory in Him,
worshipping Him who is all I need. e more I weigh and
ponder it, the more perfect and the more wonderful does it
seem. We are not to be nibbling a little bit of the law, and
to think Christ has done all the rest. Grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. He is a full Savior; and hence we learn
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that He is “ redemption “ too. By this the power of evil and
death are set aside. We wait for the redemption of the body.
I have got “ redemption “ now in my Head, and the fruit of
it fully I wait for. Why do we wait? It is the time of His “
longsuering.” “ We wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith.” Now, in the best and highest sense we are redeemed
to Him. “ We are in him that is tree, even in his Son Jesus
Christ.” We not only have the life of Adam, but are of
God in Christ- this is balm to the heart. What a dierent
position we are in from a sinner trembling before a judge!
Whence does all this come? He has taken our hearts up
in grace, and will wring them, as He took Job and wrung
him, to show what was in it. What came out was in it, or
it would not have come out. “ Glorying in the Lord “ is
real humility: in it I confess I am ashamed of myself, but I
acknowledge Christ.
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343
62785
Christ and the Spirit
1 Corinthians 2
WE get two things very distinctly here: the wisdom of
God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world to our glory (and that in the Person of the
Christ), which the princes of this world did not know, or
they would not have crucied the Lord of glory; and then
we are told that, as “ no man knoweth the things of a man
save the spirit of a man which is in him, so the things of
God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.” erefore
the world is in total ignorance of the things of God. And
so we nd with men as such. ey may be very learned
and clever; but they do not know them. Nay, it is rather
their boast that man can know nothing but what he sees,
together with a few conclusions which he may thence draw.
And it is perfectly true too, and therefore one of the most
fashionable indelities of the day at the same time. Of all
that is outside sense they are utterly ignorant; and so they
must be. With all the learning and talent that is in man, if
he meddles with things beyond these, he puzzles himself
hopelessly. He only comes either to say, there is no God;
or if there is, he does not know what that God is, just as
Pilate asked, “ What is truth? “ He will make quantities of
speculations and very clever ones, but can go no farther. Yet
he has a conscience. ere is a sense of being responsible
to some one. ere is a knowledge of the judgment of God
(kept out greatly, it is true, by man’s will; but God took care
when man fell, that he should carry a certain knowledge of
good and evil with him after eating of the forbidden fruit).
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So he does carry a conscience-hardened perhaps, but there
it is to get hardened and perverted. You may see it in the
case of the poor woman taken in adultery: all her accusers
went out one by one convicted by their own consciences.
So it has always been, whether God gives man a law,
or man is lawless, still there it is-a knowledge of good and
evil. And so there is an instinctive sense that there is a
judgment, but utter ignorance of what God is, except that
He takes account of what man does. ere is some feeling,
too, at times, that He is good and must be good; but there
is no knowledge of the Spirit of God or of His intentions.
Of course, beyond this, there is Christianity in its general
truths oating about us.
But it is wonderfully expressed here; the wisdom of God
in a mystery, hidden wisdom, which none of the princes
of this world knew. ere cannot be a more wonderful
expression than that, for Christ is the wisdom of God as
well as the power of God, and Christ they crucied. e
rst thing we learn is, that these counsels of God were
before the world. I am now speaking not of election, but of
the plans and thoughts of God before the world was. ere
is the distinct contrast in this verse, thoughts and counsels
of God ordained for our glory before the world in which
we are now living with all its responsibilities. Now these
counsels, which were before the world, had been brought
out consequent upon the death of Christ.
I would insist for a moment on this, that there is a
world which has its own thoughts and objects; but that
world crucied the Lord of glory. All that had the wisdom
of this world and its power were found in opposition to
Christ. e governor Pilate, the chief priests and elders
of the people, Jew and Gentile, the secular power and the
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345
religious power, refused the Lord of glory. And also there
is a world in which we are living which has through the
cleverness and skill of man under Satan formed round man
a wonderful scene so far as man’s thoughts go, pleasures,
sciences, and the development of the things given in
creation; developing again the talents of man amid these
things; wonderful combinations exhibited; great skill
in turning things to man’s use; beautiful music with rich
harmonies: all constituting just Cain’s history again. He
had built his city, he had his articers in brass and iron (and
so have we now); he had harp and organ (and so have we
now); pleasing himself without thinking of God, shutting
God out and making the world pleasant to the natural
feelings apart from Him. It was then and is now alike.
Now Christians are apt to go along with this world
and all these things because they have natural powers to
appreciate them. ere is nothing wrong in these things of
the world themselves; it is in the use man makes of them
the right or the wrong consists. ere is no conscience in
these things, no spiritual aections in them, no moral good
in them (all God’s creatures, of course). Nor are the things
evil. Why, in heaven we read of the harpers harping with
their harps. It is the use that is made of these things that is
wrong; and Christians are very apt to slip into the world’s
way, and not see the value of what they do, from mere
natural delight in things here. It is a world that is forming
pleasures for itself out of what God did create; but it does
not care for God, for it rejected Him. It did not know the
Lord of glory, for it is a Cain-world, with plenty of music
of its own of course; and Christians take it up as something
good that they can share; whereas it was nothing but Cain’s
world to begin with and Cain’s world to go on with.
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But mark there is another thing altogether-a reality that
was before the world and which is known only by faith. It
is the more solemn because human responsibility began
only with this world. e rst Adam was the responsible
man, and he failed, and all are sinners since. is is what
came in; it was not the counsel of God (in a sense a counsel
known to Him of course), it was not a denite design. My
responsibility is not God’s counsels, and that came in after
these counsels were formed. And this is the way of God’s
dealings and the way He always dealt-He has a thought
which He will bring about; but in the meanwhile things
are trusted to man, just as in the case of Adam. God had
the intention of having the second Man and all His glory
set up in Him. is is what God had in His mind. It was
purposed in Christ before the world existed. After that
God set up the rst man Adam; and he-Adam-is the man
of responsibility-not the man of God’s counsels.
And you nd the two great principles in the garden at
the beginning in the two trees there-grace that gave life,
and responsibility to obey or disobey. e law took up the
same two, but put the responsibility rst-this do and live.
Again a breach followed. Man made a golden calf at once.
en when God set up the church, all went to sleep, wise
as well as foolish, or said, “ My Lord delayeth his coming.”
en God brings out His counsel ordained before the
world-that He will bring man into His own glory as well
as sinless into His presence in Christ. He forms the church
to reign with Christ in that glory. And nothing of this
will He fail to accomplish in result; but rst He puts man
in responsibility, and man has to learn his total failure in
himself, being powerfully convinced by the Spirit and the
word of God, so as to be cast upon grace, and nd glory.
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347
Now it is the place we get into thus that I desire to
touch upon. You may nd it in the scheme of God, but yet
a soul must go through the question of responsibility for
himself.
He must own failure and the way in which he has
failed- that in his esh there is no good thing at all-and
then, entirely cast on grace, nd Christ. Now Christ as a
Savior meets this position and need by putting Himself in
charge of the glory of God which we had compromised.
He came in the likeness of sinful esh and for sin, and has
met responsibility completely and perfectly, both as regards
our sins and the glory of God. “ He bore our sins in his
own body on the tree “; and again, “ now is the Son of man
gloried, and God is gloried in him.” He has completed
the work, sins are gone, and God’s glory is• perfectly
accomplished; so that all is nished, and the foundation
laid, not on the responsibility of the rst man, but on the
accomplishment of God’s work by the second Man, and
thus the whole question is ended. And Christ meets the
other want also. He is the life; He is both the trees; for
the ruin that came in is met by Christ on the cross, and
innitely more, by Christ becoming our life. It is all met
now before the things are accomplished in glory, while, as
regards the peace of the soul and the redemption of the
sinner, and his meetness to be a partaker of the inheritance
of the saints in light, it is now a settled thing-perfectly
settled; for he now has life not of the rst Adam, but of
the Second. In his mortal body it is now the life of Jesus
that is to be manifested; it is Christ who is our life. is
shows that the rst thing is judged totally; if any man be in
Christ, not only is he a new creature but all is new.
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And you nd this borne out through scripture. In
Ephesians it is not a man living in sins but one dead in sins,
so that he is not there meeting sinners in their condition
as such, but regards them as created in Christ Jesus, God’s
workmanship. Consequently there we have the whole full
result-ourselves set in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
brought out. In Romans we have the condition of the
sinner most completely met. And so the whole thing is
settled. ere is a world that Satan has formed round the
rst man, and the question is whether a believer is to go on
with it. We have to go through it with this testing us-shall
the glory revealed by the Spirit of God, or the world Satan
has formed round us in nature, possess our hearts? I am
not talking now of sins; but it is a solemn question whether
this world possesses our hearts or not. e character of
things now is not gross immorality; but is the rst man to
be exalted, or the Second? Of course there is immorality;
but you nd persons boasting of a general improvement of
society, and with some ground it may be, yet it is all beside
the point. Externally it may be something less gross than
in times that have passed, but which man is exalted in your
hearts-the rst, or the Second?
Now the thought and counsels of God, in Christ
rst as center, are ordained for our glory that we may be
practically drawn out from the world (in spirit altogether).
He has called us in Christ and by Christ, and has made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light. And are our hearts there?-bodies not of course yet,
but our hearts? “ Behold what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons
of God; and we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” “ If so be that
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we suer with him, that we may be also gloried together
“--suer truly as regards this world, though at the same
time we nd it too is all ours, while it does not yet appear
what we shall be. en how far are our hearts set upon that
which we are going to be? It is wonderful how the scripture
insists upon this with Christians. See in Colossians how
it is declared we are dead and our life hid with Christ in
God: we get the same share with Him. God has associated
the Christian with Christ. Now as to your hearts, beloved
friends, are they associated with Christ or does the world
and its fashion get hold of you? It touches us all: we all
have to go through it; and it is the purpose of God that you
should walk by faith and not by sight. If a man saw God,
the greatest sinner in the town would not go and sin in His
face. Like children in a school, it is when the master’s back
is turned that they fall into mischief.
But mark again this-God begins by a perfect redemption:
you must not have the slightest cloud upon that part of
the truth. Trial of you and your responsibility have nothing
to do with judgment and acceptance: on this there is no
question. “ ere is none righteous, no, not one “; and if God
enter into judgment with us, no esh should be saved, no,
not one of you: if you have anything to do with judgment,
you have certainly to do with condemnation, and nothing
short of it. And yet we shall appear (be manifested) at the
judgment-seat of Christ-that remains quite true; but to the
believer it is not judgment; John 5.
Now God, anticipating all this, brings down the full
testimony that you are total sinners, and that in your esh
dwelleth no good thing. God will show you it all, that He
may bring it home to you, by your fears even, if Christ is
coming; for you would not feel easy if He came. But God
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will bring you to this point if you are to get peace. He has
done with esh, He has condemned it; and so you can have
nothing to do with looking for good in it, because He has
condemned it. e body is dead because of sin. If it is life,
it is alive in sin!
It is not a question of amiable qualities-you nd them in
a dog; but it is a question whether you like to do your own
will; for if you do, you are in rebellion against God. But
God has perfectly redeemed the believer out of all this. He
has gone through the whole scene of man’s responsibility,
without law, and under law; lastly He sent His Son who
was only rejected and then declared “ now is the judgment
of this world.” And there is your judgment; you are of that
world and belong to it, and you have been judged in its
judgment on the cross. Stephen charges the Jews that they
had received the law by the disposition of angels and had
not kept it” which of the prophets have not your fathers
persecuted? “ As your fathers resisted the Holy Ghost, so
do ye-killed the prophets; rejected God’s Son; resisted the
Holy Ghost, and this of God’s people on the earth!
Well, it is all judged. And if through grace we have
been individually brought to a consciousness of it in
our own souls, then we are cast exclusively on Christ,
and the question is not whether you have failed in your
responsibility, but whether God has failed in His work.
is is all the question; and herein too is the truth of the
gospel.
What ruined the church (that is, as a thing in man’s
hand, not of course God’s work) was, that the sense of
complete redemption was quite lost; the fact, I mean, that
man does not stand before God in his condition as a child
of Adam at all, but in Christ, after Christ has done God’s
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work for him. And each one must learn this in his own
consciousness for himself. Christ has borne the things God
must have judged man for; and yet more: He becomes our
life. Consequent on this work which He has done, we can
say we have died with Him; and He is our life. e tree is
ended, as well as the fruits. e body of sin is gone for faith;
and therefore one can say, “ I am crucied with Christ:
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” is
is “ I “ now. I do not admit the esh to be “ I “ any more. He
is my life; “ Christ liveth in me.” is is what deliverance
means-not forgiveness only but deliverance. Deliverance is
that we are not in the esh at all, not in that which has man’s
responsibility before God. ere is therefore no question of
meetness. Christ is meet for heaven; and whosoever is in
Christ is also meet for heaven. You must add to the value
of Christ’s work before you can add to the title of your
meetness for heaven.
en comes another thing. e moment the Christian
is seen in Christ-that not merely He has borne my sins,
but I am in Christ-there is one who can be sealed with
the Spirit of God. If he is born again and washed by the
blood of Christ, the Holy Ghost can dwell in him. We
must never confound the quickening of a soul with the
presence of the Spirit which seals Christ’s work. e Holy
Ghost quickens my soul, and brings me under the blood
of sprinkling whereby I am as white as snow: after this the
Holy Ghost comes to dwell in me as thus washed clean.
God sees me perfectly cleansed and the Holy Ghost is the
seal of it and of me-all in virtue of the ecacy of Christ’s
blood.
e presence of the Holy Ghost is a consequence of
redemption. When Christ had by Himself purged our sins,
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He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,
and “ being by the right hand of God exalted and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,
he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear “; and
further, “ because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit
of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry, Abba Father,”
and then you see at once this gives me a capacity to enjoy
whatever God opens up to me. But Paul says, “we speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery “; but even a crucied Christ
was a stumbling-block to a Jew and foolishness to a Greek.
Ah! you may be a Jew or a philosopher; but are you not a
sinner? is is all God knows about you. You must all meet
God at the cross of Christ, or be judged.
Having brought this in, the apostle goes on to say, “ we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden
wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our
glory; which none of the princes of this world knew, or they
would not have crucied the Lord of glory.” Now here we
nd Christ in the glory-a man there; and, connected with
Him, God can bring out all these counsels. Christ, who
is the center of it all, is actually a Man in heavenly glory;
and, further, the Holy Ghost can come down and unfold
all this. Man is in the glory of God, as Stephen shows
at the very turning-point of man’s depravity in resisting
the Holy Ghost. en the mystery comes out. e Holy
Ghost having been sent down, associates us with it on the
footing of a place in Christ (the old man is set aside-” ye
are dead “). We stand in a righteousness in Christ which is
God’s righteousness, when man had none. Now the Holy
Ghost can bring in all the heavenly glory, and this is what
He is doing for the Christian. We have the life and the
righteousness of God in Christ.
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Let me ask you who profess the Lord, are you so distinct
in judging all that belongs to nature that this is true to you?
ere is plenty to learn, I know. We have to be humbled and
proved to do us good at the latter end; but why? Because
we have been redeemed out of Egypt. You do not nd this
in connection with Israel until they were redeemed from
Egypt. Have you really taken the place of being delivered
from this present evil world? Has your heart taken its place
where the second Adam has set you?
Oh, but you say, I do not know the things that are there.
Why do you not? Have they not been revealed? People
quote this passage, “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him,” to show how
great these things of God are-they have not entered into
the heart of man. “ But God hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit “: such is the scripture-just the opposite of the
common use of it. You see God means us to know them,
though we may have been bad scholars at the lesson. But
He has given us a title-to what? Simply to be pardoned? Is
that all? Is it nothing to say, I am come to God the Judge
of all; I can look down upon things that are for judgment,
the reproach of Egypt being done away; I am in Christ,
and see the glory of the Son of God and Son of man-the
Son who earned God’s love? Yes, earned it! for He says, “
therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my
life.” Is it nothing to see the Lamb slain? Have we not far
more than pardon?
And where is to be your place? You are going to be like
Himself. Did you never think of this? “ As we have borne
the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly.” “ And we have received the Spirit, not which is
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of the world but which is of God, to know the things which
are freely given unto us of God.” It is not the redemption,
though we must know that truly and get clear as to it; it
is more. Again I ask, Have your souls never tasted what it
is to be where there is nothing but holiness-not a jar with
what God is? What a delight! And all around not a aw,
not a thing that does not answer to the glory of God as
God and to the love of God as love! Nothing. Christ is the
center of it, and we, in a certain sense, so too, as in Him. Are
our souls living there? Well, you will get a white stone; but
you say, Am I to have God’s approving delight upon me?
Yes. And the new name. Ah, this will be a secret between
you and Christ. Is there nothing in that? Is there nothing
in His approbation so put upon us? Does it not come into
your heart as that which is unspeakable joy? Again “ the
glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof.” But if I see the Lamb in the midst of the throne,
Ah! I say, now I am indeed at home, that is the sight that
dazzles every other, and that is the sight which is for me;
the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple there. We shall
sit on Christ’s throne with Him-conferred glory surely but
none the less real. Will this be nothing?’ ere will not be
a thing in Christ’s heart that is not satised towards us,
and is this nothing to us? And is it nothing to us to see the
Man that suered for us gloried? Now the Spirit of God
has taken these things and revealed them unto us that we
may live in them.
And mark the order at the end of the chapter-” what
man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man
which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God; now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we
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might know the things that are fully given to us of God,
which things also we speak not in the words which man’s
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth “-lit
up in Paul’s heart, like a candle in a lantern. And now he
is communicating them by inspiration. He gets them by
revelation and communicates them by inspiration. Oh,
what a thing it is to hear vain men babbling about the
Scriptures and talking of what is right and wrong in them
forsooth! Here I have such things as these in the revelation
given by inspiration, and men must seek to nd faults
here. How busy measuring spots in the sun and the bumps
upon it if they can, when it has been the light of the world
ever since it was created! First there was the revelation
of the things, after that the communication of them by
inspiration; but then “ the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned; but he that is spiritual judgeth all things.”
Here I get the receiving of what is revealed and inspired-
three things in all. First, revelation, and this some would
deny altogether; second, communication by the Holy
Ghost, and some will not deny that the word of God is
in it, but that Scripture is the word of God. I say, Nay, it
was the revelation from God to man but it came out from
the man as pure as it came in-” we speak not in words
which man’s wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth,” and as he says again, “ we have not corrupted
the word of God,” we have given it by inspiration as we
have received it by revelation. And now I get the third step,
which explains the indelity as to all the rest-” the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God “: that is
the truth of the riddle. He is a natural man and does not
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receive the things of the Spirit of God at all, it is only by
power of the Spirit of God that they are received. “ Who
hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him? but we have the mind of Christ.”
ere is a great deal to learn yet truly, but it has all been
given to us. We know in part as to details; but still the
counsel of God in Christ, who is the wisdom and power of
God, has been revealed, and revealed too through the cross
in which the natural man has been totally judged, while
also, consequent upon the exaltation of the second Adam
to the right hand of God, it has been given forth to us by
the Holy Ghost. Our Lord said after His resurrection, “
I go to my God and your God, to my Father and your
Father “; that is, if I am going into the glory, I go as your
forerunner, for I take you into such relationship. It is
ordained for your glory. Beloved, do you believe that, that
all these wonderful counsels of God are ordained for your
glory? Do you believe?
O the wonderful goodness of God! He is showing to us
the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards
us through Christ Jesus. Are our hearts touched by it? or
is this wretched world which rejected Christ still clinging
to us as a briar might when we walk through a eld? Has
the power of the divine Spirit separated our hearts from it,
and set our aections on things that are above, and not on
the things on the earth? Weigh this. If Christ has died in
love and given us that place where He is, see whether your
hearts are living in what He has brought you to, or in what
He has brought you out of. e friendship of the world is
enmity to God. Our Lord give us to know the unspeakable
love that has given us such things. Presumption! Suppose
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the prodigal son had said “ the best robe is too good for
me.” Too good! What business had he in the house at all?
God has gloried Himself in the wonderful work of
grace; and I must take my place according to what He has
made it to be, and nothing loth to do it either. And yet
our glory is in a certain sense poor, compared with seeing
Him gloried. e Lord give us to live, in our life in the
esh, that inward life in connection with Christ which is
practically dead to the world and alive to God through
Christ, to nd the blessedness of His love in these things
born in our hearts.
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62787
Victory
1 Corinthians 15
THERE are two characters of relationship into which
we are brought: one is our union with Christ; and the
other our relationship along with Christ to God as our
Father, He being the rstborn of many brethren. “ As is the
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we
have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly.” is last is the result in glory, but
it is founded on the great truth of “ As is the earthy, such
are they also that are earthy, and as is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly.” It ows from our connection
with the second Man (He, Head of a spiritual race, as the
rst Adam was head according to the esh).
is is a dierent thing from His relationship to the
bride, and the headship of the body. It teaches us how the
whole of the Old Testament scripture looks at our history
in the rst Adam, closing that history entirely, and then
brings in a new One. is is not brought out until the
second Man is raised from the dead. He was in Person the
same before, but He was not head of a spiritual race until
He was raised. “ Except the corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone,” etc. It was only then that
He could take such a position with His disciples as to say,
“ I go to my Father and your Father.” All thought of any
union as man, with Christ, is wrong. He could not unite
Himself with us in sin: He could show compassion, but
it was impossible there could be any connection between
us in the esh, as men in nature, and God. When Christ
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takes a new position, outside every position in which esh
could be taken account of, we are united to Him in spirit;
but the whole history of man shows the impossibility of
connection between man in nature with God. “ Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” “ And as I said
to the Jews, even so say I to you, Whither I go, ye cannot
follow me now.” Flesh, corrupt and corrupting, cannot
enter into glory.
True, esh works in the believer; but Scripture goes
deep and brings out this truth, “ in me, that is in my esh
dwelleth no good thing.” So the apostle afterward says, “
When we were in the esh.” I do not know whether you
would be able to say that-when I was in the esh. If we
can say so, our responsibility now is to walk as men in
the Spirit. A Christian is not to walk as a man, but as a
Christian. ere are duties of husbands, wives, children;
and the relationships between man and man have to be
sustained of course; but before God I am not looked at as a
man in the esh at all. e esh tries to hinder. It comes to
be a hostile power to what I have from the last Adam; but
if you walk merely as men, you are lost.
Flesh showed its weakness. e word to Adam did not
provide for sin, and supposed no lust in man. In the garden
of Eden lust came in, sin came in, and the separation was
complete between God and man. Adam then became head
of an excluded race.
Law, given afterward, supposed men needing life, but
invoked responsibility. Man left to himself became corrupt
before God. e earth was lled with violence. en a ood
came. en came the law as a trial of man. Promise was not
a trial of man, but it manifested grace without a question
of man. ere was no promise to Adam, the promise was
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to the second Adam, the Seed of the woman. God cannot
promise to sin. ere was no question of responsibility
in promise. He gave it to man and left it. Afterward the
question of righteousness is raised.
We too often may little weigh what the terms of the law
imply. Were I to say, If you do this, you will get a fortune,
this implies that you have not a fortune without. You
cannot say, Do this and live, if you have life. When God
said to man, “ Do this and live,” it implied his being dead.
Man did not think so, but it was the ministry of death
and condemnation, because it demanded obedience, which
man could not render. Law does bring out man’s guilt; he
cannot be subject to the law of God.
But there was another thing that proved his guilt far
more thoroughly. Will they accept God’s terms when He
came to them in grace? Christ came, and in His life was
the perfect manifestation of goodness. He came amongst
men to do them good, healing the leper, etc. But could esh
nd anything attractive in Him? He was an outcast among
the people to whom He brought home the goodness and
love of God.
When law was given, they were not subject to it; and
when Christ came, they would not have Him. erefore
the Lord said, “ Now is the prince of this world judged.” “
ey have both seen and hated both me and my Father.”
Man, tried in every way, is proved to be bad.
In other circumstances, namely, that of the Christian,
there is the esh lusting against the Spirit, and the same
impossibility of its pleasing God. All esh shows utter
rejection of God Himself, and is proud of itself all the time.
Before God executes judgment, man has entirely cast God
o. e wonder of the cross is that He came-the sinless
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One came into the very place where esh is. “ He who
knew no sin was made sin for us.” He nds Himself in
the fully revealed position of man before God; He puts
Himself there in grace and in obedience too. ere was
more than that: “ He bore our sins in his own body on the
tree.” He was “ made sin,” and put it away by giving up the
life in which He bore it. God deals with Him about sin,
and the very life ceases in which He takes it, and then He
rises up. God had dealt with it, putting an end to it entirely
on the cross. ere was an end of the old man; and now
it is said, “ Reckon yourselves to be dead,” etc. “ He that
is dead is freed from sin.” Christ has taken the place of
the rst Adam in sin. All that I was in, Christ has stepped
into and borne. He rises up, and I have an entirely new
position. I am now in Christ. He has closed forever the
history of the esh (we have it as an enemy-but its history
is closed forever before God) and commenced a place for
us in Himself, the second Adam. “ Father, glorify thy Son.”
Christ returned to His place before God, having
accomplished righteousness. He is Head of a new race, a
family of His own. He has new glory as thus Head of a
race. We are livingly united to Him, being in Christ. “ As
is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” We
are not in esh, but before God in virtue of accomplished
righteousness. All God’s dealings with man before
were grounded on sin having come in; so law, promise,
government, until Christ came. Now His dealings with us
are founded on righteousness. God has His righteousness
before Him in a man. e Son of man has gloried God
on the earth, and God has gloried Him in heaven. It is
as a man He is there, though He is much more to be sure.
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Life I have in Him and righteousness. Life is in the Son,
the second Man, and I can treat the esh and all connected
with it as an enemy. As to that, I am dead: esh has no
place now. I have life in Christ and dead as to esh. I have
nothing to say to it, no relationship with God in esh; I
have to pray against it, ght against it, read, and use all the
means I can against it; but I am not in it. ere may be
confusion in the mind, but not in the relationship. God can
have nothing to do with esh. “ Reckon yourselves dead,”
for Christ has died. It is not said, Die, to the esh. e esh
will keep itself alive as long as it can. It will try to mend
itself-try to be better. ere would be no sense in telling
the esh to die. But Scripture says, Ye are dead. Flesh has
been judged in Christ, and therefore I am entitled to say, I
am dead and am a new man. en walk in the Spirit, walk
as Christ walked, as the second Man, not as the rst. You
cannot get back to innocence, the uprightness of creation.
True, you are upright, if in the Spirit, but more, righteous
and holy. All this is equally true about sins. As surely as
the rst Adam was turned out of the earthly paradise and
became head of a race, so He, the second Man, is Head of
a race for the heavenly paradise.
Faith takes absolutely what God says. Where does it
take its place? Half way, or entirely, with Christ? Flesh never
can take its place before God. Faith says, I have no place
before God but in Christ Himself. He is righteousness on
the throne of God. Any half-savior or half-place would not
do. We grow up into His likeness: but our place before
God is the same at rst. Christ’s life upon earth is a perfect
pattern for us, manifesting God in all His ways.
Our position before God is one of full favor. And we
have the hope of glory before us. How it elevates the
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heart-not us! Grace humbles us, but elevates the heart. I
have boldness before Him in the day of judgment. When
we reach the heavenly tribunal, we shall be like Him, the
heavenly One.
Grace alone does it. It enables us to discern between
esh and Spirit, not only between what is right and what
is wrong; but we can say, at is esh, or is is Spirit. It
may look very fair, but if it is esh, it comes to nothing. If
all the world thinks a thing good, that is not Christ and
I would not believe it. If a man walks with the Lord, the
esh is judged. ere are the dierent growths of the babe,
the young man, the father; but if we walk with Him, we
discern what a thing is. e esh is very subtle, but it will
not last out when the Lord tries me; the wood, hay, and
stubble will not stand. Gold is a rarer thing in the world
than wood, hay, and stubble, but it lasts longer.
Can you then say, “ When I was in the esh,” with the
very distinct consciousness that you are not in it now? en
you are called not to walk as if you were in it. e Spirit
does not make a fair show. You may walk with Christians,
but you cannot walk with Christ without the power of the
life in exercise-not going to look for the power, but having
it. May the Lord give us to know what it is to be in the
Spirit and not in the esh! It may try the conscience, but
the end will be peace and joy.
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62801
Jehovah My Shepherd
Psalm 23
THE blessings into which, as the Shepherd, the Lord
leads the ock are not merely temporal but spiritual. e
veil is now rent from top to bottom, and we are brought
to God. God is not only caring for us all the way, but the
exercise of our souls should be to walk in the light with
Him, and, if by any means, to attain to the resurrection
from the dead. e care He takes is to bring us up to walk
in the power of that heavenly glory with Himself. “ Keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.”
God is not only known to us as Jehovah, giving us mercies
all the way along the road; but it is the Father blessing us
with spiritual things. True, the hairs of our head are all
numbered; but there is discipline for our souls as well,
which leads into blessing.
Any pious Jew, having a renewed nature, in old time
might know and use this psalm, saying, “Jehovah, my
Shepherd.” e holiness of God was not fully revealed; and
therefore the conscience not disquieted, and the distance
not felt. ey knew the favor of God and counted on His
goodness then; but now we are brought into the light and
see what judgment is. e veil is rent, and God’s holiness
is manifested; for we are in the light, as He is in the light,
through Jesus. “ e darkness is past, and the true light now
shineth.”
Now that sin has been fully shown out-the death of
Christ proving what the enmity of the heart was-this
matter must be settled. I cannot say, “ I shall dwell in the
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365
house of the Lord forever,” if I have not the knowledge
of sin forgiven. I cannot talk of condence, if I have a fear
of judgment and I see the desert of sin in the light of His
holiness. I cannot consistently speak of One who may be
my Judge, that He is my Shepherd, and I shall dwell with
Him. To know Him as our Shepherd, we must not have it
an unsettled matter about sins being forgiven. God cannot
let sin into His presence.
ere must be a conscience purged. Christ has been
accepted, and He puts us into His place, having made peace
through the blood of His cross. “ He has put away sin by
the sacrice of himself.” “By one oering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctied.” He has “entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”
God does not see sin in Jesus; indeed in Him was no sin:
and we who believe are in Him; therefore He sees no sin
in us. e comfort and peace Christ had, as a man walking
on the earth, He gives us. “ My peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto you.” Now I have come to put you in the
place of unhindered condence with the Father; and that
is, what you could never have, if the least sense of sin were
upon you. e peace is made: therefore He can not only
say, “ Peace I leave with you,” but “ My peace I give unto
you.” ese were not idle words, and we can see how He
could give it to us, having brought us to God and put away
everything against us.
Now the question is one of happiness with God.
Conict by the way there is also of course; but God is my
Shepherd. Not only has He done something for me, but
He is something to me: therefore it is said “ that your faith
and hope might be IN GOD.” I believe in God as seen in
Christ, as one who has loved me perfectly and manifested
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His love by putting away my sins. “ e kindness and
love of God our Savior towards men hath appeared.” e
thought I may now have of God is that He has done all
this for me, and that He is all this to me. I may fail and so
get into evil, and this will make me ashamed; but it should
not destroy my condence, because my faith and hope are
in God Himself. Now God is my Shepherd, and we may
have condence in Himself, for it is not merely said, He
has done this, and He will do that, but “ I shall not want.”
ere never can be a want to the soul that has the supply.
It is the application of this power and goodness of God to
my every-day need that I shall feel, and all this must go on
the ground of sin forgiven. Now I have found out, not only
my need of being justied, but that He has justied me.
Whom He called, them He also justied; Rom. 8.
e starting-point of Christian experience is “God for
us”; and “if God be for us, who can be against us? “ I am the
object of His favor, which is better than life. “He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the
still waters.” I shall nd good everywhere. I shall lie down,
no one making me afraid. ough the wolf may prowl
in the way, I lie down in green pastures. It is “ He leadeth
me,” and that must be in perfect peace and enjoyment “
beside the still waters.” is is the natural Christian state.
We realize all things ours, for God is for us; therefore we
may lie down. We shall have conict, etc., but amidst it all
enjoyment. If the sorrow gets between our souls and God
so as to produce distrust, it is sin. Even if sin comes in, sad
as it is, He can restore the soul. Whether from trouble, or
from oending, He can restore. See what thoughts are here
given about God! e Psalmist does not say, I must get my
soul restored, and then go to God, but “ He restoreth my
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soul.” So “ if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father.” Who can restore but He? ere may be something
to correct in us, if not actually a fall. ere may be hardness
in my heart, which trouble shows me, and the like. For our
good in this way He sends trouble, as well as that which
is our proper portion following Him who was the “ Man
of sorrows.” But if He restores, it is “ for His name’s sake.”
Here am I, a poor, fainting, wretched creature, and the
Lord comes in and lifts me up-why? “ For his name’s sake.”
Whatever I am, God is for me; and not only in this way,
but also against enemies. “ For, though I walk through the
valley,” etc. (v. 4). Man had reason to quail at death before
Christ came; but now in the fullest sense, we need “ fear
no evil.” Death is “ ours “ now. “ We have the sentence of
death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God who raiseth the dead.” If they took my life,
they could not hurt me, for I am trusting to One who could
raise me. Paul as good as says, If they take this life, I have
lost nothing; nay, it is positive gain, for it hastens me on
the road. Death is not terrible now. Why? “ ou art with
me.” It is terrible without this. “ y rod and thy sta they
comfort me.” It is not a rod, but ine, so I shall fear no evil.
No one can compete with God. Death is the very thing by
which Christ has saved me, and it is that by which He will
take me into His presence-” Absent from the body, present
with the Lord.” It may come as a trial to exercise my soul.
Well, I have to remember, “ ou art with me.”
ere is not only failure in life and failure in death to
meet, but there are mighty enemies (v. 5). Nevertheless I
can sit down amongst them, and nd everything given me
for food. I feed on this dying Christ, and it was in His
death Satan’s power was most put forth. In another light
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Satan comes and tempts me with the esh, but I can say to
him, I am dead; I have a right to say it-I may fail in saying
it, but that is another thing. Satan cannot touch anything
but my esh; and if I am mortifying my members, he has
no power. If my members are alive, Satan cannot count me
dead. In the presence of all then I can sit down and say, I
have done with them all-” for ou art with me.” I have
found that power by which they are made nothing to me.
en we arrive at further security, joy, and blessedness still:
“ ou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
Now that Christ has ascended and the Holy Ghost has
been given, there is triumphant peace and abounding in joy
through the power of the Holy Ghost.
I now nd God Himself the source of all, and not only
this as a present thing, but seeing what God is, I can say,
“ goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I will dwell in the house of Jehovah forever.” We
shall never want goodness and not nd it. “ Goodness shall
follow me.” Assuredly the goodness of God is better than
man’s, even if we could get this. ere is a place to dwell
in: that is my hope. For us it is the Father’s house. ere
are not only blessings conferred, but a place to dwell in
with the Father forever. As He brought Christ through, of
course He will bring me through too, and I am there now
by faith. I am at home with my Father. He would have us
feel that all the correctings and chastenings by the way are
founded upon the fact that He is for us. When peace is
really settled through the work of Christ, I have all these
exercises; and what is known only to faith at the beginning
becomes afterward experience, though always faith too;
but, every step having had this experience, we can say that
we know it. Whatever it be we meet with by the way, we
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know it is all for good, and we shall dwell forever with
Him. Wonderful grace!
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Representative of Christ
2 Corinthians 3
THIS chapter brings out the way in which the power of
the truth works on our souls to bring us into the presence
of the Lord. It begins with the eect of this in testimony to
others; and then lets us know how the eect is produced-
what a Christian, and so what the church, really is.
e Corinthians had been calling in question the
apostolic authority of Paul. How does he meet this? He
appeals to themselves, to their own calling of God when
they were turned from idols to Him, “ as the seal of his
apostleship.” It is as though he said, “ If Christ has not
spoken by me, how is it that you are Christians? “
So chapter 12: 3-5 is not at all a precept to doubt, to
examine and call in question their own Christianity. e
apostle is showing the absurdity of their doubt of him.
“ If you want to examine me, examine yourselves: you
commend my ministry, because you commend Christ.”
en he goes on to tell us what a Christian is. He is a
representative of Christ, just as much as the tables of stone
were the representation of the law. Only in that case the
writing being with the Spirit of the living God, not with
ink,
Christ is engraven on the heart by the power of the Holy
Ghost, and they known and read of all men. e world
ought to see Christ engraven on the heart of a Christian,
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just as much as Israel could see the letter of the law on the
tables.
It is written on the “ tables of the heart,” by the “ Spirit
of the living God.” us merely outward conduct (though
there must be that for the world to see) will not do, but
Christ within, as the motive and end of all we do.
ere is a certain external respect for right and wrong
as the result of the Bible and professed Christianity in
these countries, which we do not nd among the heathen.
us a man may be following lawful pursuits, and be all
that is correct outwardly and morally, yet, if Christ is not
the motive, it is all good for nothing. God did not send
His Son into the world to bring in a negative Christianity.
ere must be that result which is worthy of the work. It
must be evident through the power of the Holy Ghost.
ere will be failure, for we are poor feeble creatures; but
the world will see where we are going by the road that we
take. A man may get on slowly or stumble, but it is evident
what road he is going.
We have to look to ourselves and see how far we are
devotedly following Christ, with full purpose of heart-how
far we can say, “ is one thing I do “; but we must take
care at the same time not to get into legal bondage by this
standard. If I say, “ Here is a rule of conduct: follow it,” this
cannot reach the heart, the aections. e ministration of
the letter brings only failure, condemnation, and death; for
it prescribes a rule which man, being a sinner, can never
follow. It does not change man, but it puts him under death;
it proves him “ ungodly and without strength.”
We may turn even Christ into that letter of condemnation;
we may take His life, for instance, and make it our law. Nay,
we may turn even the love of Christ into our law; we may
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say, “ He has loved me, and done all this for me, and I
ought to love him, and do so much for him, in return for
this love,” etc. us if we turn His love into a rule of life, it
becomes the ministration of death; for the only thing a rule
can do is to condemn. With the children of Israel Moses
put a veil upon his face, for they could not bear the sight
of the glory-it condemned them. Man tries either to hide
his condemnation from God, or his conscience from His
condemnation. He excludes himself from God-from the
glory of His holiness and from His glory as seen in Jesus;
and when His glory shall be revealed in the end, it will only
bring out condemnation more fully.
In contrast with this ministration of death and
condemnation, we see the ministration of the Spirit and
of righteousness. Now have we this? It is not Christ down
here. e Holy Ghost here supposes Christ to be gone:
and now it is the power of the Spirit of God revealing the
glory of Christ to the soul. What has the Holy Ghost to
tell us of Christ? He reveals Him not only as the pattern
of godliness, but as always manifesting grace. e Father
sent the Son to be the Savior of vile, miserable sinners: and
Christ says “ him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast
out.” “ ey that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick.”
e whole life of Jesus was a manifestation of grace.
He laid Himself aside for others. He gave Himself to all
who came to Him. He “ had no time so much as to eat “;
in the midst of a world of wickedness He was the perfect
manifestation of the goodness of God. And this was not
all. He died for sin, put Himself under the whole power of
God’s wrath for sin-He was laid in the grave-He ascended
into heaven; and sent down the Holy Ghost as a witness to
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His glory, and as the minister of righteousness. So it is now
God ministering, not requiring.
If I am brought to look at Jesus, I can say, He bore my
sins-I did them, but He bore them-He gave His soul an
oering for my sins; He has taken the whole charge of my
sin. I trace my sins up to the cross and there I have done
with them. ey are all gone.
Where, then, do I see the glory? Is it on Sinai; or in the
face of Jesus Christ who has put away all those sins which
were revealed and condemned at Sinai? He has entered
into heaven, because they are put away. In Phil. 2 we see
Christ in heaven, not only in virtue of the glory of His
Person, but because of the work He has accomplished. “
Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him,” etc.
We are thus able not only to bear the sight of that glory
of God, but to rejoice in it. Our souls rest in it. We do not
ask to have it veiled, but that we may see every ray of it.
Our hearts can satiate themselves there, because it is the
testimony to the love of God, and the perfect putting away
of sin.
ere is also the ministration of righteousness. “ Seeing
then we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech.”
It is not a little hope here and a little despair there, but
it is a message of perfect righteousness to the vilest. “ By
the obedience of One many were made righteous.” Now,
it is God putting in fruit, and not requiring righteousness.
What is the practical eect of this work of Christ
received in the heart? Not to make a man careless about
sin. Not to give him liberty to sin because Christ has borne
the wrath due to it. e last verse shows how we are made
this living epistle. Contemplating Christ we become like
Him. If the Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows
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them to me, I can say, “ What a Christ I have! “ and there
is the spirit of holiness at once. I long for Christ, and look
at Christ, and thus I get like Him. e very thing which
brings an accomplished righteousness to my conscience
makes me like Him. en, mark, there is no veil on the
heart or on the glory. e Holy Ghost dwelling in us has
taken it away. And it is said of Israel, “ When they shall
turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” When
Moses went in to the Lord, he always took o the veil; but
the children of Israel could not bear the sight of the glory;
so he put it on when he appeared to them.
For believers, there is no veil anywhere. ey can look
at the glory because it tells of salvation, not of judgment-
accomplished salvation and eectual righteousness. What
perfect liberty to be in the presence of God and enjoy
Christ in all His fullness! (v. 17). “e Lord is that Spirit
“; that is, Christ is the mind of the Spirit in all these Old
Testament things.
en what is the consequence of this ministration
of the Spirit? What follows my knowing that I am the
righteousness of God in Christ? that God delights in
me? I have a constraint upon my heart to serve Him and
follow Him. If I think of His love, have I any fear? I do fail
constantly: has God any afterthought about me, or about
my sins? ere is no uncertainty: nothing is between me
and God but the love which has placed me there; without
spot and in perfect freedom, for He has given Christ for
me. It is now, not God requiring anything from me, but
God giving things to me; and this, that His Son may be
gloried in me: not that man may be gloried, but His Son
Jesus gloried. God is making a marriage for His Son. We
have to be the epistle of Christ. We have this privilege-to
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glorify and manifest Christ. We should be delighted to be
this epistle, cost what it may. Christ died for me, and I have
to represent Him. Of course I may fail, often and again;
but the heart at liberty before God will run in the way of
His commandments; and this because the aections are
set upon God and the glory of Christ. My life, my daily
path, must be an answer to the love of God. I am debtor to
Christ, for He loved me and gave Himself for me. What
an amazing privilege to be permitted to glorify Him in any
little way in our path down here!
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2 Corinthians 4 and 5
THE apostle speaks here of the ministry that he had
received. A man of like passions with us, he was one who
in a wonderful manner lived with God so as to carry out
this ministry; he labored more abundantly than they all.
Still what he ministered we receive; only he was a vessel
lled in a more than ordinary degree. But this same blessed
truth, as it especially regards the testimony, is committed
to us, whatever the measure, whether the greatest as an
instrument or the least, and therefore the thing that he
ministered is ours; so that we are vessels each one in his
own little measure of that with which he was lled.
e ministry of the Spirit, contrasted with that of the
Old Testament prophets, shows that the things must be
possessed for ourselves before they can be ministered to
others. Now this is not characteristic of the prophetic
ministry; for the prophets found that it was not to
themselves that they ministered. ere are three steps in 1
Peter 1:10-13 as to this. First, the Spirit of Christ which
was in the prophets testied beforehand of the suerings
of Christ, and of the glories that should follow. Next, these
things are now reported unto us by the Holy Ghost sent
down from heaven, that is, after Christ was gloried. en
we are to have girded loins and “ hope to the end for the
grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus
Christ.” We stand between the suerings and the glories,
with the Holy Ghost sent down, waiting for the revelation
of Jesus Christ, in the distinct confession therefore of what
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the suerings of Christ have wrought; and our loins are to
be girded while here.
e apostle here shows how the testimony is carried
out; it is not “ thus saith Jehovah,” but it is carried out
in the place in which we stand as possessing the things
ministered. “ God who commanded,” etc., hath “ shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Paul had had a revelation
of Christ in him, “ when it pleased God to reveal his Son in
me.” e revelation of Christ in him was that by which he
might preach Him, and it was not only to him but in him-
this latter of course in a remarkable way; but in every one of
us according to our measure..To Paul it was the revelation
of Christ in glory; but He was revealed as Son of God, and
this is the character of the testimony. It is the expression in
the power of the Holy Ghost of what we have in Christ.
It is the ministry of the “ gospel of the glory of Christ,” “
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ.” We may see its character and where it sets
us. God speaks from heaven; it is not law. His voice then
shook the earth: only once more He will shake not earth
only but also heaven, so that now we have the last things.
It is the glory he is speaking of in contrast with Moses
who put a veil over his face. His ministry was of death and
condemnation, and even that reection of glory man could
not look, at, because it came as a legal claim upon man, a
demand or exaction from God. If it had come alone, man
might have thought he could stand it; but, accompanied by
the glory, it was impossible. e moment the glory of God,
the light of God, shines into a man’s heart, the conscience
is awakened: the light once there, the man cannot stand
in God’s presence. Mount Sinai was the administration of
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it. e ministry of the law (2 Cor. 3) was but the glory of
the reection; all was condemnation, because it was God
requiring from men what they ought to be. Man must
either hide himself from God when he hears His voice, or
hide God from himself.
e “ glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ “ is not a
little bit coming down with Moses, but a man gloried in
heaven who was just before on the cross. Such is the great
groundwork of the whole standing of this ministry. When
we see the glory of God, we see it in the face of Jesus Christ
who hung on the cross-it means that. Sin and death and
the grave and the power of Satan are all put away together;
and now He who has done it has gone far above all heavens.
It is not that God is requiring from men what they ought
to be, but He is giving to men from Himself. All passes
exclusively between God and His Son on the cross. e
only part we had in it was the sins that He bore and the
hatred that He met with. at is our sin, our comfort too.
ere sin had reached its climax in antagonism to that
blessed One, and there I see God putting away sin; the
work is done, death left behind, and from the glory where
He has been received comes the testimony that sin is gone,
the work accomplished. Man can now be in the glory, and I
get the witness of complete redemption-the glory of God.
My sins and my sin are cleared away. I have a poor body of
humiliation here, but the glory of God is ministered to me
by the gospel of the glory.
I see the Person who was made sin for us, who bore
Himself the wrath of God. He has passed out of it all and
is in glory by the work He wrought. He, the Son of God,
was there before the world was; but He is there now in
virtue of the work He has accomplished, and the testimony
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that comes forth is this, “ e Man that bore all your sins,
the Man that Satan did his worst against, is in glory! “
ese suerings of Christ are over, and over with God’s
testimony to their worth. I have His estimate, for He has
set Him at His own right hand in glory; and when I get
there, I see it “ in the face of Jesus Christ.” is gives a very
distinct character to the ministry and to the position we are
in. We are brought by Him to believe in God who raised
Him from the dead and gave Him glory. ere, when I was
only in the energy of sinfulness, God has wrought a work
by Him so eectual that He who did it is at God’s right
hand, and now I can see the glory and delight in it. Instead
of seeing the glory of God as in Moses, “ We all, with open
face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed.” Oh,
let me see that! e glory is the proof to me that sin is
put away. My sin-bearer is in glory. Of course I delight in
that. e Holy Ghost comes down because of it, and I am
sealed. e Christian stands with the Holy Ghost come
down from heaven, looks back at the suerings of Christ,
resting in the ecacy of the accomplished work, and looks
forward to the glory. He knows God’s acceptance of the
accomplishment of the work, and what it leads to, because
Christ is in it as a man. It is not only that the man who
bore my sins meets me as a poor sinner, but He treats every
Christian as Himself. When He revealed Himself to Paul,
He said, “ Why persecutest thou me? “ If Christ owns me
as Himself, what am I waiting for? I am waiting for Him
to come and take me to Himself, for I have the love of God
shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost, and my title to
glory is the Son of God in heaven. If I die, I go to Christ,
but I am waiting now for Him to come, and bring me into
that which He has given me as mine, for the Holy Ghost
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is sent down to tell me that it is mine. He being in the
glory will have me there. “ Christ was once oered to bear
the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” He
has done the work that saves, He has redeemed me to God
and sent down the Holy Ghost; and now I am waiting for
Him to come to take me up to be like Himself and with
Himself forever.
In the early part of chapter 5 the apostle speaks of the
power of life, that has so come down into the place of death,
that he can say, I do not want to die or be unclothed-I
see a power come in by which I can be changed into the
glory without dying at all. Of course he did die; but it is
important to see it as a present living power. So he says,
“ We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” e
power of death is broken. If I die, says the apostle, it is all
gain. “ Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” My
spirit will be with Him, and I shall be raised when the time
comes. He brings in this blessed truth: the testimony being
of the glory of Christ, and Christ in glory the proof that
the work is perfectly accomplished, and He sitting down
because it is nished; we being sons of God; and the Holy
Ghost come down to dwell in us, and make us understand
that our sin-bearer is in the glory. e only thing we have
to wait for is, that He should come and take us to Himself.
We are delivered from this present evil world and we
belong to Him.
It is very striking the way in which the Lord speaks to
Paul in Acts 26. “ I have appeared unto thee to deliver thee
from the people [Jews] and from the Gentiles.” at is, he
was one completely connected with Christ as his life and
hope; and, seeing the One that was in glory, he was neither
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Jew nor Gentile. He belonged to Christ in glory. So do we.
Of course we have not had a vision; but what he testied
we receive and the gospel has associated us so completely
with Christ in glory, that we lead the life of Jesus here.
Our forerunner has gone in, and He sends down the Holy
Ghost to be the seal of each person in this very position.
“ He which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath
anointed us is God.” e establishing was in Christ, and the
anointing was with the Holy Ghost, giving Him as the seal
upon our persons and the earnest in our hearts. “ To them
that look for him will he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation “; that is, He will have nothing more to
do with sin, because He came once to put it away-the rst
time. at work is nished. ose who believe not on Him
will die in their sins. “ To those who look for him “ will He
appear with nothing to say to sin: it is a resurrection unto
life. “ I will come again to receive you unto myself, that
where I am there ye may be also.”
If I go up before the judgment-seat of Christ, in what
state do I go? Why, Christ has come and fetched me! If I
think a great deal of any one who is coming to me, I go
and meet him at the train myself. is is the way I go up
before the judgment-seat of Christ: Christ has had such
delight in me that He has fetched me! Another thing is: in
what condition do we appear there? “ Sown in corruption,
raised in glory.” We shall be before the judgment-seat of
Christ gloried already! Nothing can be simpler. “ Who
shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body? “ Did you ever think of this? It is a
very great blessing. ere we shall have the unceasing grace
that has followed us and cared for us all the way through,
and at last brings us there gloried like Christ. Of course
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in looking back I see it in measure, but then I shall know
even as I am known. Do you simply read the fullness of
redemption in that way? Now that my sin-bearer is at
the right hand of God in glory, what need I fear when I
come before Him? I shall bear His image. Blessed thought
of God! erefore we wait for Christ. He is Himself our
hope, and we have life in Him.
When a Christian dies, he is “ absent from the body,
present with the Lord,” his spirit goes to Christ: but he
is not looking for that, he looks to be conformed to the
image of His Son in glory. e whole condition is met
there. Christ then sees of the fruit of the travail of His
soul, because He has made us perfectly happy and satised.
He was entirely alone upon the cross for us; it was God
dealing with sin. Now His suerings are over and we are
looking at the glory of God. I see Him there-I am here
upon the earth. He is sitting on His Father’s throne, and
we are waiting “ not that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life.” He has done the work that makes us individually t
to be together with Him in His glory. at is what makes
the coming of the Lord so precious. “ Every one that hath
this hope in him puries himself, even as he is pure.” us
the position of the Christian is distinct-we are standing
between the suerings and the coming of Christ. Soon we
shall see Him and be like Him. e hope of the coming
of Christ was the rst thing lost in the ruin of the church,
leading to the practical state of Christendom at present. “
If that wicked servant [he is a servant still] say in his heart,
My Lord delayeth his coming.” What made him eat and
drink with the drunken was his heart’s saying, “ my Lord
delayeth.” He did not say He would not come back when
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the end of the world comes, and He sits upon the great
white throne, and earth and heaven ee away-which is not
His coming!
How is it that saints do not see the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ? People wonder that godly men do not see it,
though the wise just as much as the foolish virgins went
asleep. What then changed the state of things? “ At midnight
there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go
ye out to meet him.” ere is a positive revelation that the
thing that wakes them up is the testimony that the Lord
is coming. e separation took place then. “ en all those
virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.” e wise virgins
had oil still in their vessels, but they had given up expecting
the Bridegroom, and gone to sleep in some comfortable
place. Once in the comforts of the world they slept more
or less, and the Lord wakes them up with “ Go ye out.”
Do you think that, if the Lord were to come to-night, you
would have bright well-trimmed lamps?
Just one word as to the full eect of the evil of these
last days. I must warn you that we are in “ perilous times,”
though they are blessed times for all that. I say it because it
is of such moment, now that we are in 2 Timothy times He
speaks of the state of things and says, Where am I to look?
It is the Scriptures that direct the Christian, and knowing
too of whom they are learned. “ Continue in the things
that thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them.” en he adds, “ And
that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through
faith that is in Jesus Christ.” If I go and learn of Paul, then
it is all right; but if you say, e church teaches, then how
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am I to know? for you all know how the Scriptures are
called in question now, and this is Christendom.
e word of God is a two-edged sword; it has no
handle: all is blade. It is the word that judges people, and
they cannot judge it. “ It is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.” A man comes to me and tell me about
various readings and the like: I reply, How do you like “ a
man that tells you all things that ever you did? “ e word
of God does not talk about all sorts of ne bits of learning,
but it deals with a man’s conscience. at is the way that
the word of God is known. Nathan comes and tells David
a beautiful story of a little lamb. “ Oh! he deserves to die.”
You are the very man! Just look at the Samaritan woman.
e Lord had been talking to her about wells of water, and
never said one word about the rest, till at last comes “ Go
call thy husband.” What is to be done with such a person
as she was? “ I have no husband.” She tells the truth to hide
the truth. e instant the conscience is reached, there is
intelligence of the word of God.
One of the very rst things that struck me fty years ago
was that, if the truth is made subject to materialism, this
is not having to say to God. When I get into the presence
of God, my conscience is there. Faith’s roots are in the
conscience. e place where the word of God gets is never
in the intellect, always in the conscience; and this must be
and ought to be, because it is God’s word. If I question, it is
at once starting a lie in order to know whether God’s word
is true. When God comes with the point of His sword,
He reaches the conscience, and I know very well that the
sword has a point. When the Lord, the second Man, goes
to meet the whole power of evil, when Satan comes and
tempts Him, what is the Lord’s sucient argument? He
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comes to bind the strong man; what is His weapon? He
quotes a text out of the Old Testament, a book that men
think so little of now. “ It is written.” at was sucient
wisdom for the Lord and sucient answer for the devil.
He had not a word to say. e Lord Jesus coming as a man,
everything depended on His getting the victory.
When I look at 1 Cor. 2 I read, “ Now we have received
not the spirit that is of the world, but the Spirit that is of
God; that we may know the things that are freely given
to us of God.” I nd “ the natural man understandeth not
the things of the Spirit of God.” “ What man knoweth the
things of a man but the spirit of a man that is in him? “ No
one knows what is in my heart if I do not tell it. “ Even so
the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.”
ere are three things. e Spirit unfolds and reveals the
things; by words given of the Holy Ghost we communicate
them; and by the Holy Ghost too they are received. e
word consequently is the resource in the time when people
know not what to say about the church.
People speak of “ apostolic succession.” ere is no “
succession “ in the truth. It is such a comfort that what I have
is straight from God. e truth is the expression of what
is in the blessed heart of God. I have the truth in Christ.
Such is the very character of those who walk correctly. You
see the blessed testimony of it in Rev. 3 “ Because thou hast
kept my word and hast not denied my name.” An open
door He set before them: none could shut it. “ ou hast a
little strength.” ere was not a great deal to say, but what
characterized them was what God delighted in, “ thou hast
kept my word.” e name of Christ was valued in the soul,
and the word of Christ had its authority for the conscience
and was treasured in the heart. He kept the heart in grace.
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He tells them, “ Behold, I come quickly.” He is waiting till
His enemies are made His footstool, and meanwhile He is
sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God. He
is set down with His Father on His throne. What about
His friends? ey are waiting for Him to come and receive
them unto Himself. e power of evil He will set aside, He
will come out of heaven.
Christ does not take the inheritance alone; all things
are to be gathered together in one, and He Head over all.
In Phil. 2, when speaking of subjection, we hear, “ of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth “;
but when of reconciliation, “ of things in earth and things
in heaven “ only; Col. 1:20. But there is a bride- we are like
Eve, who was the spouse, the helpmeet, for Adam in the
creation he was lord of: she was associated with him who
was lord. “ Christ is given to be head over all things.” It is
not only that Christ is Lord of all things, but there is a holy
bride made ready, the Lamb’s wife.
What I desire is that your souls may see that the
accomplished work of Christ has set Him in the glory. en
the Holy Ghost having come gives us the consciousness
of this, and puts us into association with the glory that is
coming. It shows us that our place is where Christ is then
there is the patience of Christ.” “ou hast kept the word
of my patience.” He says, I am expecting that day. If I wait
for the glory, I know that He is waiting for it too. en,
when we do go before the judgment-seat of Christ, we go
there gloried.
We are passing through this world, and we have this
treasure in earthen vessels. I turn now to the practical eect
of it. How are we to walk according to the power of the
grace He has put us into? We are poor feeble ones, yet
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Christ’s members, and through this revelation we know we
are to walk in this world according to the power and grace
of Christ. We have seen what the ministry we have received
is. ere is no veil at all; there was a veil before, “ e Holy
Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest “; but now we have “ boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Christianity is
the unveiled glory of God. It is the wonderful and blessed
truth that there is no veil; the glory of God is unveiled, but
it is in the face of Jesus Christ. “ erefore seeing we have
this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” By
manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man’s conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. e veil may be on
a man’s heart, but there is no veil on the glory. at was
the case with the Jew-the Jew might spit on Christ’s face.
We are all lost in our natural state; but if this remains hid,
there is nothing to go back to, nothing remains but ery
indignation.
en you come to the men who have received the truth.
“ God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts.” It is the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. e full glory is revealed; that glory
thus given shone in our hearts by the power of the Spirit of
God, and I come to the person who exhibits it. “ In the face
of Jesus Christ.” “ e grace of God that bringeth salvation
to all men hath appeared.” I have the fullness of the gospel-
the gospel of the glory of Christ, for this is the full force of
the word. e only thing to wait for is the coming of the
Lord to make it good to us.
Now we come to the walk meanwhile. Grace has
brought me salvation, and I am looking to the glory to
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put me into the full result. I know Christ is there in the
glory of God. I know the righteousness of God and where
that righteousness brings me. But “ we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may
be of God, and not of us.” “ Troubled on every side [that
is the vessel], yet not distressed [God is there]; perplexed,
but not in despair [God is there]; persecuted [that is the
vessel], but not forsaken [God is there]; cast down [that is
the poor vessel], but not destroyed.” What God has done is
to take all this perfect salvation, this glory of His Son, this
treasure, and put it all in a poor earthen vessel that feels all
the diculties and trials of the way, but has the grace of
Christ.
So the more of the glory Paul had, a great deal the more
he had of trial; he despaired of his life. “ I had the sentence
of death in myself.” Why so? “ at we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.” He was there
in despair of his life, so what is bringing death to a dead
man? He held himself really to be dead to the world, he
had the treasure in an earthen vessel. God was with him in
the vessel’s weakness. ere I nd the Christian’s path. e
salvation is complete, our sin-bearer is in the glory. Paul
had this treasure in an earthen vessel; he held himself to be
dead to sin and everything, though he was not insensible
to the trial, yet God was in it; and there he learns that the
treasure is not here but there, and that there is no possessed
power, but a possessed treasure in a dependent man. e
treasure is never touched, and I learn continual dependence.
If it is even an apostle, the vessel of the treasure must be
a dependent man; and that is how we must walk. When
you come to giving out the light of testimony or anything
else, the treasure must be there or you have nothing; and
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the vessel must be nothing, or else you get treasure in the
esh. If I am alive as to the esh and let it act, it spoils the
treasure; if the lantern is not clean, the light will not shine
out. I have Christ revealed in my soul; but if esh comes in,
it spoils the testimony.
Every Christian gets the sentence of death on the old
man. “ Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” e old man
was crucied with Christ, but all the treasure of the glory
of God is in this vessel. If I am not to spoil it, I must hold
myself a dead man. If I reckon myself dead, and a man comes
and asks me to amuse myself, why, I say, I am dead! I have
lit the light in the lantern: if the lantern is perfectly clear,
it will shine out. I must have my body and my esh kept
down. I have a gloried Christ; I have the Christ revealed
in my soul. e esh is in me_; but it is my privilege for
my own sake as for His to give it no place. I say I am not
a debtor to the esh to live after the esh; I reckon myself
dead. Before God a Christian stands only a new man, “
crucied together with him “; Christ lives in me. Suppose
temptation or persecution comes, I quietly reckon myself
dead: if I do not, I am frightened at all sorts of things. I
am not afraid of my own reputation. “ I have the sentence
of death in myself that I should not trust in myself, but in
God that raiseth the dead.” He takes up “ Christ in me “:
he says, “ always bearing about in the body,” etc.: he was
associated with Christ. Christ has really died for us on the
cross; so Paul takes up death in Christ practically and says,
“ always bearing about in my body,” etc. He realized his
place. at is, I reduce it to practice, and learn that esh is
esh and must not stir; and if I am full of Christ, it will not.
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e esh is not one atom changed, but I am not following
it.
e rst thing Noah does after God had blessed him
is to get drunk. Aaron’s sons at the beginning oer strange
re! Christ-man crucies! If Paul is taken up to the third
heaven, the esh will be pued up about it. If it be under the
power of the cross in death, that will do-” Always bearing
about.” If a Christian is full of Christ, he is not distracted
by the things that the devil puts before him. Suppose a
mother heard that her child was run over at the other end
of the town, do you think she would look at the ne things
in the shops as she went along? No, she would not know
that the things were there, she is full of her child. “ is one
thing I do.”
Many of you have sorrows, trials, diculties. “ We
which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake,
that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal
body.” I see you are in earnest, you are carrying about in
your body the dying of the Lord Jesus, you must realize
it. Paul was in earnest and the Lord comes in and helps
him and brings him within an ace of death that he may
realize it. at is His way with us if we are in earnest too.
If there is any tendency in the esh to spring up, put the
red hot iron on it. “ Death worketh in us.” Christ’s death
so wrought in Paul that nothing but life wrought from him
in the Corinthians: that is testimony. at is, there should
be such truth of death in us that nothing but the life of
Christ should be seen from us. I see a man entirely superior
to circumstances. is death I have been brought close to
was nothing to me. He can say, “ God which raiseth the
dead.” “ When we were evil entreated at Philippi, we were
bold in our God to speak the gospel of God with much
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contention.” It is complete superiority to circumstances.
ere were the stones ying around Stephen and killing
him; yet “ Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Jesus said, “
Father, forgive them.” Stephen is the copy of Christ; in the
midst of death he is completely superior to circumstances.
Now, mark, this is directed to you. “ All things are for
your sakes.” Do you believe that? Everything. You are so
beloved of God: Paul for your sakes, Peter for your sakes,
Christ for your sakes, the object of God’s delight, the Son,
the gift, the glory, all for your sakes. God gave His Son to
death” All to the glory of God by us.” Oh, if we only saw it,
we should get out of the little narrow path of minding our
own things. It would not be subjection to circumstances,
the instant that was seen. “ ough perplexed, not in
despair “; we should be made to feel our powerlessness,
what the powerlessness of poor wretched esh is as a
man. “ All things are for your sakes … for which cause we
faint not; for though,” etc. You have this treasure; if God
puts you through the circumstance which puts down the
entire man, He makes everything work together for good.
And remember “ He withdraweth not his eyes from the
righteous,” no, never for an instant. It is only the outward
man perishing.
Beloved friends, this is the place He has given us in the
circle of His thoughts. Well, if my outward man perish, it is
only that the inward man may be renewed day by day. Look
at Israel going through the wilderness; why their clothes
did not wax old upon them, nor their foot swell those forty
years. e Lord was thinking of the very nap of their coats.
ey were exceedingly evil and naughty; they would not
go up. ey feared the people of the land and heard that
the cities were very great and walled up to heaven. It is all
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unbelief. What does it matter about a city being walled
ever so high, if the walls fall down when we blow a ram’s
horn! But the children of Israel would not go up, so God
says, If you will not go up, you must stay in the wilderness,
and He turns back with them! ere is His faithfulness to
be leaned upon. “ He withdraweth not his eyes from the
righteous.” e inward man is renewed day by day.
We get diculties: still God’s eye is upon us; but I never
could spend one instant fearing them, if my heart would
only recollect, when I know not how to meet them, that
the power of God has been in exercise to lead me through
the trial and everything, and His eye is upon me. If we only
could remember it! “ Our light aiction which is but for a
moment,” etc. I may have to be afraid of my life: no matter,
it only touches my outward life. Everything that kept the
esh down, in a certain sense, he has reward for: verse
17 is the eect. e glory had been put into an earthen
vessel, and the vessel has been dealt with in death, and now
it is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. If
testimony, it is through this process. “ Our light aiction
worketh for us … the things seen are temporal.” e mind
is all xed on that which is eternal. He is breaking down
the vessel, and soon he will have the glory, and then there
will be no vessel seen at all. Now there is the Christian!
But as referring back to the old ministry, there are three
things it cannot do. It does not give life; it does not give
strength: and what is more, it does not give an object. No
object is presented by law to my soul. I may believe in
God- ell right. But I have Christ-well, I have life; but I
am a poor weak creature in myself-well, I have strength
(by the Holy Ghost); and what is more, I have an object
in Christ. It is a totally altered state and condition. Christ
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is always thinking of me. He is a living Person; and I have
grace sucient for me-a strength needed, and He will
help me in my circumstances on the Way to death; and
more, I am going to be with Him and like Him forever in
glory. is is Christian standing. en Paul is brought into
the experience of what the poor earthen vessel is. He is
learning to reckon it dead every day by having an earthen
vessel; if it meddles, it mars the testimony. e power is
not in the vessel at all, and, if it acted, it brought something
that broke down the esh. I have the blessed word of God
revealed in simple purity and kept in the heart of him that
receives it. “ Always bearing about in the body “: that is
where growth is, the sense that all the glory revealed to us
is His.
We have heard some of our brethren speak of having
knowledge. I must get to know the thing. It is not
insincerity; but esh and blood cannot understand it. “
Flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father
which is in heaven “; still, “ blessed art thou.” But in the
same chapter the Lord has to say to Peter, “ Get thee behind
me, Satan.” ere is no question that it was real. God had
revealed it to him: “ upon this rock I will build my church.”
If He was going, to build His church, He must die, and
therefore He began to show unto His disciples how that
He must go unto Jerusalem and be killed and raised again
the third day. “ is be far from thee,” Peter said. ough
there be a blessed revelation of God, it does not follow that
the esh is practically broken down in the measure of the
truth we hold; but it is not insincerity. If I have the glory
there, it is what suits it here. e esh does not like the
cross, and if the esh is not broken down to the measure
of the revelation, it must be treated as Satan. ere is the
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practical Christian, placed between the suerings and the
glories; the presence of the Holy Ghost in him reveals the
glory of God. Instead of being a terror to me, He reveals all
that glory and Christ in it-my delight. Satan’s power over
me, sin and death, are all gone; and what I wait for now is
that I may be with Him forever. Meanwhile He has said, “
I am gloried in them.”
Now let me ask you, can you say that you so see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that salvation is
settled for you? at you are set down in the very glory
which to Moses could not but be a terror, but is now the
proof of salvation? Is that what the glory of the Man who
is in glory has done for you? Can you say, with your heart
lled with the Holy Ghost, Well, I have done with the
world, I am waiting for God’s Son from heaven-the Man
who has got the victory, to come and take me to Himself? I
am like a person here in a poor place, I have sent on all my
furniture and everything before me, I am only waiting to
be taken into the place prepared: nothing detains me here.
Have you been bearing about in your body the dying of the
Lord Jesus? Have you seen what this wretched esh is that
you are to be practically delivered from? And it is innite
goodness to put this treasure in an earthen vessel which,
if it stirs, spoils the whole thing. If I look at my place and
standing before God in Christ, I say, I am not a child of
Adam at all, I am a child of God. Beloved friends, are your
souls really believing what Christ has done, and that He
is in the glory because of it,, and that you are saved by the
nished work His Father gave Him to do?
ere is no uncertainty about Christ at all. “ Wherefore
also God hath highly exalted him.” Do you see that, when
you stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, you stand
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there gloried? Has not Paul been with Christ these
eighteen hundred years? Do you think God is going to
take him out to judge him? ere I stand with Christ,
my sin-bearer: the blessed One who put away my sin and
accomplished righteousness is in the glory. I have a full and
only hope that this blessed Jesus at a time known to God
will come again and receive me to Himself, “ that where
I am, there ye may be also.” en I shall be like Him and
with Him where He is. And by faith we know this now:
the word of God has told it us. And what I have by the
word of God and by the power of the Holy Ghost in me
is certain.
e Lord give you, if you have not known it, to receive it
now, that you may have the stony places broken down, and
that the word of God may nd an entrance and give you
light that you may understand the wisdom of God and see
Him who died upon the cross! He has nished everything
and is coming again to satisfy His own love; then “ he shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satised “ in seeing
us in the same glory as Himself. May He give us now to
bear about the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of
Jesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies!
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62791
Death to the Believer
2 Corinthians 5
REDEMPTION sets us at rest and in peace in the
presence of God. e whole character of Christian life
ows from being brought back to God, and thus we are
called to walk with God. To believe that we are brought
back into the presence of God is not presumption; it is
faith. It is presumption to think that we can be saved in
any other way.
e character of our life is that of constant dependence
on divine power. If we are “troubled on every side “ without
being distressed, it must be because the power of God is
working. If “ perplexed “ without being in despair, it is
because the power of God is there. But then I must hold
myself entirely as a dead man as regards nature, and in the
possession of a new life in Christ. “ Always bearing about
in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our body,” 2 Cor. 4:10.
With Paul the esh was not allowed to interrupt the power
of this divine life, so that it owed on in an unhindered
way. is is a blessed state, and we should know it in our
measure. Whenever the life is in activity it always rests on
its object; while the character of the life is that of perfect
obedience and simple dependence. e obedience of
Christ is very dierent from our thoughts of obedience,
which often imply a will opposed to God, and moreover it
involves in us much that is to be abstained from, as well as
many claims to be yielded to. With Christ the Father’s will
was the motive, the only motive for whatever He did or
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suered. Hence the motive I have in acting, as far as I am
a new creature, is the doing of God’s will.
It is an important fact that sacred scripture never tells
me to die to sin, for this I never could do. But the scripture
tells me that I am dead, having died with Christ, and this is
Christian liberty. I begin with being dead with Christ. For
I cannot die to sin, when sin is the character of my whole
life apart from Christ. But how then have I this death? I
have another life; I am alive in Christ. I am to mortify the
esh most surely, but then it is only in the power of this life
which I have in Christ that I am able to do that; and God’s
dealings with us will help us therein. But when I look at
self, this is not faith: I cannot indeed see what the life is
which I have got, it is all so marred. But when by faith I
look at Christ, faith’s object, I see it all-love, joy, patience,
obedience. And we are partakers of this life, as Christ said,
“ Because I live ye shall live also.” And again, “ God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” I thus
get condence with Him, and then His perfectness, which
shines as light, shows me all my inconsistencies; and the
more I see of them in the light of Christ’s perfectness, the
better.
In the power of this life I nd myself practically dead,
and I see my house in heaven, as it is expressed in verse
2. is makes me groan. But why do I groan? Because I
have seen and tasted the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but in person I am not there yet. e groaning is not
from disappointment, but from earnest desire, “ Earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from
heaven “ (v. 2). As yet we are not in the positive possession
of this glory, but longing to possess it; for faith rests on
the ground of our position in that deliverance which has
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been wrought for us. Hence there is no Christian, however
weak, but has a title to long for the glory to which he has
been predestinated. It is true of every believer, that “ He
that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who
also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”
But we must not think that the earnest of the Spirit is
the earnest of God’s love. It is the earnest of the inheritance,
the earnest of glory; as in Ephesians it is said, “ In whom
also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession to the
praise of his glory.”
What God has done to save, He has done perfectly.
He has loved us also perfectly, and because of this “ we
have boldness in the day of judgment.” Not only have we
boldness before the throne of grace, but “ boldness in the
day of judgment.”
Christ also, into whose presence we go, if we depart, and
before whose tribunal we are to appear, gave Himself for
us, as the apostle says, “ Who loved me, and gave himself for
me.” He gave not His life only, nor merely His word, but all;
His aections, His heart, all that constituted Himself. We
have not a thought of blessedness in Him, but He has given
it to us. For though we are the subjects of redemption, He
who has wrought redemption has an eternal interest and
stake in it; as it is said, “ He shall see of the travail of his
soul and shall be satised.”
ere is no kind of hesitation or fear about himself or
about believers when Paul says, “ We must all appear,” or,
as it might be read, “ We must all be manifested before the
judgment seat of Christ.” Faith realizes this manifestation
before God as a present thing, and this is most healthful
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to the soul. It is that which gives activity to conscience,
which is a most necessary thing in our daily walk with
God and before men. Paul’s conscience was always at work.
He exercised himself day and night to have a conscience
void of oense towards God and towards men. His was a
purged conscience, still it was an active and an exercised
one; and it was manifest before God.
It may be that there is no outward or allowed evil, but
there is something in every heart which we cannot help
knowing that we are sparing, something that is not Christ
in us. But we must be manifested before the tribunal of
Christ. All is indeed grace, but the present working of
grace is to exercise the conscience. e eect of grace is
now to bring into the light and to make manifest. Having
salvation in Christ, and being seen in Him, and righteous
too in Him, and consequently having peace of conscience
and rest of heart, I can aord to judge myself: to judge
myself in the light which makes all things manifest. e
Lord grant us deliverance from every reserve in our poor
hearts! For there is power of life in Christ to enable us to
triumph over sin and death, and to live not unto ourselves,
but unto Him who loved us, and died for us, and is now
seated at the right hand of God. We are already risen in
Him and are to be manifested with Him in the glory. Shall
I then allow any wretched object or idle vanity to occupy
me instead of Christ? It may be perhaps some folly, or
some piece of self-importance, or some evil disposition, or
even the cares of this life! All this grieves the Holy Spirit of
God, and the consequence is, that the eye is dimmed and
the power is gone. Of the good Shepherd it is said, “He
restoreth my soul”: and therefore our hearts should not be
satised to go on at a distance from the Lord, or in a state
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that will not bear to be manifested by the light. When life
acts, it acts upon its object; and just as far as I am occupied
with an object outside of myself, I get rid of self. is is true
even naturally.
e life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son
of God; and hence I do not measure sin by breaking
commandments merely, though that of course is sin, but
rather by the presence of the Holy Ghost in me; as it is said,
“ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption.” If I grieve the Spirit I lose my
discernment, and sin dims my power of sight, and deadens
my spiritual senses; so that the Spirit of God is obliged to
bring me to the miserable work of being occupied with
my sin (as Peter was) instead of being occupied with all
that is precious and joyous in Christ. It is very grievous
that, instead of doing the work which it is His delight to
do-even revealing Christ-He is obliged to reveal our sins
to us, till we weep like Peter over our self-condence and
departure from the Lord. All is manifest unto Christ.
For a moment look back on all your ways from your
youth upwards (but you cannot bear to do this if you have
not settled peace), look at them all, and look at them all
in the light of God’s word and Spirit. Look at your sins
before conversion and after conversion: how many there
are! By this review, again and again, as humbled and led of
the Spirit, I get a special increase of blessing. I retrace the
foolishness and sinfulness of my doings and the patience
and long-suering of my God. I see Him guarding me
here, teaching me there, lifting me up when I was ready to
fall, and comforting me when I only expected punishment;
and hence I adore and praise Him the more! But if it be
thus in looking back now, how much more will it be in the
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401
moment when set in the glory! I shall then know Him and
see Him, and trace all His ways in the fullness of that light
which now, in the measure of it I possess, manifests Him
and myself in contrast. For surely it is just in the measure in
which I can judge my ways in His presence, that the eect
is adoration and praise.
It should always be remembered, that Christ is not our
life without being our righteousness; and that neither is He
our righteousness without being our life. If this be surely
grasped, it will enable the soul to look at the judgment-
seat of Christ with perfect calmness; and only, as has been
stated, to use the thought of our being manifested there to
give present activity to conscience if thinking of oneself, or
if thinking of others to persuade them, if haply they may
be brought now in grace, into the light in which all will be
manifested ere long for judgment. “ Knowing, therefore,
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” And then the
apostle immediately adds, as regards himself, “ But we are
made manifest unto God.” is is a present thing. It is the
light in which he is already manifested, and in which he
seeks to walk. e knowledge and power of the life we
have will bring us peace in the place of terror, for Christ
is the object of this life. “ For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in
the face of Jesus Christ.” is fullness of glory, the glory of
God Himself, we have as the treasure in our own souls, that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
Paul goes on to resurrection, and comes back again to the
object of his faith, and then sees himself in the glory. I look
to attain to this resurrection (Phil. 3), and would have my
conversation in heaven. In result we get a double truth, the
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402
power, the expectation working in us, and the blessed fact,
that He will Himself receive us into the glory. e doctrine
of all this is found in the last verse of the chapter. “ For he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Condence is founded on His being made our
righteousness, who was made sin for us! But there is
another thing which is exceedingly sweet to me, a profound
consolation, a wonderful depth of joy, namely, to look on
Christ, and to say, He is my life. Death has no power over
the life of Christ. Divine power, working in life, swallows
up death, and brings entire deliverance from what sin has
wrought. e same divine power which wrought in Christ,
in raising Him from the dead, is now working in us and
will raise us up by Jesus. And then how plainly do we see,
that God does not take counsel of man! He takes His
own thoughts and executes His counsels in the riches of
His grace. e prodigal’s own thought was to be made “
a hired servant.” But the father received him according to
his thoughts, robed and fed him according to his thoughts.
So the Lord has set us in His place as man. As He said,
when on earth, “ Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”
e world gives something out of itself; but Christ brings
us into Himself-into His joys, into His peace, into His
glory. If Christ comes, mortality will be swallowed up of
life; if He does not come, I shall give up mortality. We
shall all appear before the judgment-seat, but before that
we shall be up in the glory; received there by Christ, as He
says in John 14: “ And if I go and prepare a place for you
I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where
I am, there ye may be also.” Can I then be afraid of the
tribunal? No. e more we learn of God’s ways, the more
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403
we shall delight in God’s ways. It is an amazing and solemn
thought, that we are made manifest unto God! But faith
realizes this position, namely, our position in the presence
of God. “ Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord,” what
then? Is he afraid? No! But the knowledge gives activity
to love. “ We persuade men.” Paul stood in the presence
of God, and manifest to God; and if we thus stand in the
presence of God, we shall nd out how little the heart
knows of “ bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord
Jesus.” We do not nd it out, unless we are thus in the light.
e right eect of the judgment-seat is, not what shall
be disclosed by it in future, for that is Christ, and I have
solid peace because it is Christ in whose presence I shall
appear, but the present power to be before it, making it the
test of conscience now, and the standard by which we try
our thoughts and ways. May we each know it, and walk in
it!
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62792
e Power of Life in Christ
Risen
2 Corinthians 5
THE hope of the believer is not death. It is “not to
be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be
swallowed up of life.” He need not be unclothed, that is,
of himself. e purpose of God is nothing less than that
we should be conformed to the image of Christ; Rom. 8.
Our proper hope is to see Him as He is, and be like Him.
It is the power of divine life conforming us to Christ the
Head that we hope for; and this is what He has wrought us
for. Being in utter ruin, we can now only look to what are
God’s thoughts and purposes about us, and therefore hope
comes in as a very necessary help; but hope is not all our joy
now, and when we get to heaven, there will be no hope left.
Our proper joy is not hope at all, though now, seeing there
is nothing satisfying here, one of our greatest joys is hope.
What He has brought us into now is not subject of hope
at all. We do not hope for the divine nature or the love of
God. e divine joy of the believer is having these, while
rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.
We have a hope in death, but death is not our hope.
ere is that in it which is more than hope-the possession
of life; and that death does not touch but set free. ere
are some things we should be at home in. We should be at
home in God’s love; and at the judgment-seat of Christ,
being like Him, we may be at home. True, we are at home,
too, in conict here, temptation, etc.; the promise is “ to
e Power of Life in Christ Risen
405
him that overcometh.” But, in spite of conict, our hearts
should be at home where God has put us.
When death comes in, it breaks every possible thought
of nature; it is a terrible thing in this way: every thought
of man gone-not a single thing to trust in-everything in
nature broken down.
Another point is, it is the power of Satan which none
can control. God has the power of life, but if He had called
in question Satan’s power in death, He would have annulled
His own sentence. Death must come in, breaking every
tie of nature, and bringing in every terror connected with
Satan. e sentence must be executed by God Himself,
and therefore it is the judgment of God. ere is judgment
after it. “ It is appointed unto man once to die, but after
this the judgment.” What can this judgment be? If I die
and God brings me into judgment, I must be condemned
for the sin that brought me there. “ Death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned.” (I am not now speaking
of deliverance.) In every sense death is a terrible thing.
Besides the natural dread that even an animal has, there is
a terror in it, because all ties are broken by it; everything,
however loving, is gone, when death takes it. e power
of Satan ushering into judgment, it can bring nothing but
condemnation for sin. It is also what God has put as a
stamp on man, and no skill of man can avert it. It comes
with bitter mockery amidst all the progress of which man
boasts. In all this we see what death is in itself, as the
wages of sin. But there is another way to look at it. e
way God has taken it up and entirely delivered us (those
who believe); and now, if there is a bright spot in a man’s (a
Christian’s) life, it is at his death. It brings in a bright gleam
of the future, entirely by Christ. “ If one died for all, then
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406
were all dead,” etc.; “ that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death … and deliver them who
through fear of death,” etc. is blessed truth is simple in
itself, familiar to us, that the Son of God, of whom it is
said that it was not possible He should be holden of death,
did come down into it, has gone under it, and is risen. e
second Adam came into the very place of the rst Adam.
en we were under sin, judgment, wrath, condemnation,
and He has been under it all-He was made sin. Had
God not measured the sin? Yes. Did He not know the
consequences of it? Yes; and He “ spared not his own Son,”
etc. Did Christ not know all that was involved in it? Yes;
and He came in the full love of His heart to accomplish the
purpose of God-to drink the cup; but such was His agony at
the thought of what the cup was, that He sweat great drops
of blood. It was the thought of sin, death, and judgment
that made Him shrink from the cup, but He went through
it with God. e power of death was gone, in a sense, when
those who came to meet Him saw Him, “ ey went back
and fell on their faces.” He had nothing to do but to go
away then, but He did not: He oered Himself up. His
disciples might go away, because He stood in the gap. us
He takes the cup as judgment, suering the penalty of sin.
It is not now Satan (as in the agony in the garden) but
God. When on the cross He cries, “My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? “ He drank the cup thoroughly on
the cross, then He died. His body went down to the grave.
Was it the power of Satan when He said, “ Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit?” No. He gave up His spirit,
waiting for the resurrection. He went down under death,
took up the whole thing-sin, Satan’s power, wrath, etc. He
was made sin for us. “ He died unto sin once.”
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407
We have thus seen what death was for Christ. Now see
what it is for us. In nature it is everlasting wrath: but there
is not a bit of the wrath, not a bit of the sin, remaining
for the believer. Is God going to judge the sin He has put
away? No; there is not a trace of it remaining. “ He has
put away sin by the sacrice of himself”--”condemned sin
in the esh.” e strength of it all is in this-that He was “
made sin,” because He had no sin of His own. He suered
for it once, the just for the unjust; 1 Peter 3:4. “Condemned
sin in the esh.” God has done it once for all, and now
He lives, and there is no more about the sin. “ Christ was
once oered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin,” having nothing more to say to it, and apart from the
question of sin altogether, to take us into glory.
Looked at as the nature, He had no sin, but I had sin,
and that is put away; sin is entirely put away, abolished
forever. He has come up from under the consequences of
death, after sin is put away. e life He took up is in the
“ power of an endless life.” I have new life in Him, life
born of the Spirit, and “the life that I live, I live by the
faith of the Son of God,” etc. en what about the old
man practically? As I have this new life, the old man is
reckoned dead. I am dead. What is dead? e old man; I
am “baptized into his death.” e “ corn of wheat “ must
die. Death ended all connected with it, for dying is unto
that by which I was held. e law has killed me. e eect
of the law, if we see its value, is that it has killed me, and I
have life in Christ. Scripture does not speak of our dying to
sin, or of our dying to ourselves; but we “ are dead,” and are
to “ reckon ourselves dead.” “Wherefore, if ye be dead with
Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as thou alive
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408
in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? “ e old man
is an antagonist in its will; but I am dead to it. I have done
with that which hindered my going to God. Has not a man
done with that to which he has died? Literally, when death
comes, I shall have done with what is mortal. Mortality is
to be “ swallowed up of life.” e old nature is a thorn I
shall be glad to get rid of; it is mortal, corrupt, and now by
sin under the power of Satan. But then it will be gone, this
corruption and mortality. e mortal body having died, I
shall have nothing more to do with death or the old nature.
What of the new nature? Is this done with? No; it is
getting home, where the aections will have full play. In
death we have done with the old nature, the rst Adam,
and get a great deal more of the Second. is is “ far better.”
I shall have got rid of mortality when I die. “ erefore we
are always condent, knowing that whilst we are at home
in the body we are absent from the Lord.” Who is this
person? e new man. I am absent from the body, present
with the Lord. Leaving this wretched poor mortal, to be
with Christ, is positive gain. It will be better still to be
gloried in the body with Him, complete in all with Christ;
but now it is “ gain “ to die.
What was Christ’s own thought about dying? What He
said to the thief shows: “ is day shalt thou be with me
in Paradise “; and to His disciples He said, “ If ye loved
me, ye would rejoice, because I go to my Father.” In Christ
there was the perfect consciousness of gain. Was Stephen
less happy in his measure when he died? Hear him saying,
“ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” e fact of death is leaving
the old man entirely behind, and going to be with Christ.
ere is positive gain in having done, in measure, by faith
now, or in fact by-and-by, with the mortal.
e Power of Life in Christ Risen
409
en there is the dying daily. But there is not a single
thing in which death can come, but it is positive gain, and
for the life of the spirit. e sorrow which comes in by the
breaking of natural ties is for blessing, reducing the esh,
etc. If there is will in the sorrow, it is bad; but trial is to be
felt. Peter did not like the thought of the cross; his esh was
not broken down to the point of the revelation he had from
God. en there must be a process gone through to break
it down, either with God in secret or through discipline.
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410
62796
Not Law but Promise
Galatians 3
THE way in which the law is placed in contrast with
promise and faith in Gal. 3 is very striking. It is not merely
that man is a sinner and that there is a judgment (a truth
so solemnly revealed in Scripture), nor is it the operation
of the law, experimentally known as spiritually bringing
death into the conscience, as we nd it opened out in Rom.
7 e law and promise in grace are brought before us as
two systems, both of God, but contrasted in their nature
and opposite in their eects, and absolutely exclusive one
of the other; existing at separate times, though the second
could not disannul the rst, and whose co-existence, as the
ground of man’s standing with God, is in their very nature
impossible. Both are positive dealings and revealed ways
of God with man, each of its own kind. Man had been
turned out of paradise for sin, and he is an outcast from
God and all intercourse with Him, such as he once had
upon earth. is is his state; but it is no special revelation
Not Law but Promise
411
to him in that state. A judgment
4
awaits him too. is will
hereafter show God’s righteous way with sin, and natural
conscience bears the reex of it within, in spite of all the
sinner’s eorts to get rid of it. It is to come, however; not
a present dealing with man or a revelation by which he
is placed in a special relationship with God according to
the terms of that revelation. He has to answer as a fallen
sinner for his conduct-terrible but righteous truth! but he
is in no present revealed relationship with God. Not so
where the promise or the law has come in. en man has
as a present thing to do with God according to the terms
revealed by Him. ese are of two kinds, as here brought
forward- promise and law; only we have to add, that the
Seed to whom the promise was made is now come, and
has accomplished the work of redemption for the heirs
according to promise.
e Galatians were not rejecting the promise or Christ;
but they were adding the law to Christ as completing
God’s will. is it is that the apostle resists, and declares
4 It is well to remark here, that judgment is always and
necessarily condemnation, whenever it is entered into so
as to pronounce on the acceptance, or otherwise, of a man
in consequence of his conduct. For this reason God cannot
judge His own work, as He created it. It would be judging His
own competency as a workman or Creator. He saw it all, and
behold it was very good. Now, if man has left his rst estate
and got away into sin by self-will, and has thus given occasion
to the existence of judgment on him, what can judgment be
but condemnation? at is, there is no judgment if man be not
departed from the state God put him in. If he be, judgment as
such must be condemnation. What grace may do is another
thing. Hence the really awakened conscience says, Enter NOT
into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in thy sight shall
no man living be justied.
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412
the incompatibility of the two. Not that the law was against
the promises (for if a law had been given which could have
given life, righteousness would have been by it); but that
the one system was in fact opposite in its principle to e
other. ey were two distinct ways proposed for having life,
righteousness, and the inheritance. One brings a curse and
nothing else; the other a blessing after God’s own heart,
and nothing else. One is founded on man’s responsibility,
the other on God’s gift, when man had failed altogether
under that responsibility.
e best way I can treat the subject is to follow the
contrast the chapter presents, and then unfold, as clearly
as I can from Scripture, the positive doctrine on which our
present state, as “ delivered from the law,” is founded.
First, then, as to the contrast, they did not obey the
truth as to the cross if they annexed the law to Christ. e
law applied to life in the esh and its obligations. e cross
declares its condemnation and end in death, and death to
it. ey had not received the Spirit by law but by faith.
ey had had the Spirit, had begun in it when they had
not the law at all, and they were now looking to be made
perfect through the latter, but this was by the esh; for the
law supposed esh to be alive and applied to it. Further,
he who showed the power of the Spirit, and ministered
it, did it, not by the works of the law but by the report
of faith. But it was admitted by the few that the blessing
was in Abraham. But he got it by faith, and was counted
righteous by it without any law at all- not only without it,
but on a contrary principle. ey which are of faith (that is,
who stand on this principle before God) are blessed with
faithful, that is, believing Abraham. Now the law is not on
Not Law but Promise
413
this principle. e law is not of faith but on the principle of
doing-getting the blessing by doing. But that is not faith.
And remark more than this: not only is the blessing
by faith, not by law, not on this principle, and the
accomplishment by oneself or another of the law, but as
many as are on this principle-as many as stand on the
ground of their obligation to keep the law-are under the
curse. “ As many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse.” e works of the law are not bad works; they
are right works, loving God and our neighbor, and not
breaking the commandments which forbid sin. But they
that are of the works of the law (that is, that are placed
or place themselves under the obligation of the law, of
doing these works) are under the curse. He does not say
he who has broken the law, he who sins, he who has done
evil, but he who is of the works of the law, who goes upon
the principle of being under its obligation, and bound to
accomplish it, is under the curse.
Nor is there a hint of any one’s keeping it for us, so that
we should not be under the curse when we are under the
law. All that are of the works of the law ARE under the
curse; because, according to its declaration, everyone is so
that has not kept it. And no man under it has kept it, for
he is in esh; and this is not subject to it nor can be. He
must get o this ground to escape its curse. But this can
be only by death. e Jew was under it, and all else would
have been condemned as lawless had they not come under
it then; but, for every one who believed of those who were,
Christ took the curse on the cross. It is not pretended that
He kept it for them, so that the curse was not needed for
their breaking it, because another had kept it for them, for
then He had not needed to bear its curse. No: the curse
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414
of its head remained there and was borne on the cross;
and thus they were redeemed from it, and then, the whole
system of God under law being closed and the middle wall
of partition broken down, the blessing of Abraham (which
was of faith) could ow forth on the Gentiles who had
faith. It could not till then. While God maintained the
obligation of the law as a dispensed system among men,
the Gentile must have submitted to it and become a Jew
as to law if not as to race, he must have submitted to its
obligation, while God maintained it. But the dispensation
of law had now closed by the death of Christ, and the
blessing of the promise by faith could ow forth to them
who believed.
is brings forward another point in the argument:
the historical part of it. A subsequent act cannot disannul,
even amongst men, a solemnly conrmed covenant. Now
God had given the promise to Abraham without law, and
conrmed it to Christ 430 years before the law came. is
therefore could not disannul the previously conrmed
promise, nor alter its terms. It could not be disannulled,
and it could not be added to. It must be fullled as it was
given.
Now God had given the inheritance to Abraham by
promise. But if of law it was not of promise. And mark,
this is the truth for us. It is not of law, not on that principle.
If it be, it is not of promise. But as given of God, it is of
promise. e two systems are contradictory in their nature.
e inheritance could not be by both; but it was rst given
by promise, and the law coming after could not make this
Not Law but Promise
415
of none eect.
5
What was then the use of the law? It was
added to produce transgressions-not to produce sin, for
sin was there. But law made sin transgression. It entered
that the oense might abound. Sin by the commandment
became exceeding sinful. But it could not interfere with
the promise to the Seed. e promise was prior to and
independent of it. It was added, till the Seed should come.
is is a very distinct and clear statement. Putting man
under law was a temporary expedient, though a most
righteous one, and founded on principles of everlasting
truth in itself; namely, human responsibility and a perfect
rule for it. But it was a principle which with a sinner (and
man was a sinner), could only bring a curse, and was meant
to bring it, not as the nal or abiding way of God, but
to bring man’s position clearly out by raising the question
how righteousness was to be found or obtained. e law
was given by Moses. e law was right, essentially right;
but it was after the promise, and until the Seed. It was
never God’s way of man’s obtaining righteousness. It
was addressed to sinners. It convicted of sin and made it
exceeding sinful. Righteousness is not by law, nor is life,
nor the inheritance.
If indeed a law had been given which could have given
life, then righteousness would have been by it. But no such
law was given. Righteousness could not be and was not by
5 e following verses, which often perplex readers, when
viewed in connection with this are easy to understand. God
is one: the promise was to Christ the Seed. Its fulllment
depended therefore only on God. In the case of the law there
was a mediator, which implied another than God, who was
also to get the inheritance on the terms of his own obedience.
Hence it did not rest simply on God’s faithfulness to His
promise, but on man’s obedience.
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416
it. Scripture has concluded all under sin that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
e doing that man may live, the keeping of the law, is not
the way of righteousness. It was used for a time to bring
man more fully under the conviction of sin. Righteousness
never was, is not, and never will be, for sinful man on this
principle. He was tried under it for a time, to bring sin
clearly out; and then the promise resumed its indefeasible
rights in the person to whom the promise was made;
and righteousness and the inheritance stood on entirely
other ground. Before faith came (that is, the principle of
Christianity and grace), the Jews were kept under law, shut
up to the faith to be revealed. After faith came, they are
not under the schoolmaster-not under law at all-delivered
from it-hence not held to it as an obligation; for I cannot
be obliged by that which I am not under. Nor has another
to fulll therefore the obligation because I have failed to
fulll it, because we are not under it. We are sons, that is,
in direct communion with the Father; if we are taking the
pedagogue’s orders as between us and Him, we are not.
Such then is the elaborately reasoned out contrast
between these two ways of God: law, dealing with the
responsibility of man; and promise, declaring the gift of
God. e one claims, and is founded on the principle
of doing on man’s part, so as to make out righteousness
in man, of which the law was the measure; the other is
characterized by believing God, and that being the ground
of counting a man righteous, not his doing, or responsibility
to do, anything. With this the law in its nature could have
nothing to do. It is not of faith, but of doing, whoever does
it. But we are not righteous on this principle. ey are both
ways of God, both right, but one brings a curse, the other
Not Law but Promise
417
the blessing. In a word they are contradictory in nature and
in principle. Further, they were mutually exclusive of each
other. e promise could not be disannulled nor added to by
any after act. e law was merely added temporarily till the
Seed should come to whom the promise was made. When
once the system of faith came, those previously under ‘law
were no longer so at all, nor consequently responsible to
or under obligation in respect of it. It was no longer at all
presented as a ground on which man had to stand with
God. If we
6
are not under obligation to it ourselves, no one
had to undertake to fulll it in our stead, to make good our
failures under it, for we are not under it. e righteousness
of God is come in.
6 It may be well for the reader to remark that “we” is often used
for Jews here as in other parts of scripture. ey were under
the curse of the law. Christ was made a curse for them (Jewish
believers) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the
Gentiles. e legal curse being done away, which was connected
with Jews and the law, the original promise could ow freely
out on Gentiles that we (Jewish and Gentile believers) might
receive the Spirit.Hence in verse 23 he says, We were kept
under the law; but in verse 26, Ye are all the children of God,
for the Gentiles were too. e law had run up to the cross and
the curse, but could go no farther. e promise and blessing
owed forth on Jew and Gentile through faith. Hence the
statement of verses 27-29. So in the beginning of Eph. 2 If any
one now puts himself under law, they put themselves under
the curse; for the law is not an arbitrary enactment, but a real
moral one, so that its judgment is felt to be righteous in the
conscience. But then it is condemnation and death, and there
is no hope at all. ey are fallen from grace. Christ is become
of no eect for them. So far is He from fullling the law for
us when we break it, that, for him who is under it, Christ is
become of no eect.
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418
Let us turn now to God’s ways in promise. e earliest
revelation of God (on the fall) was a declaration that the
Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. It
was not a promise to Adam, but a revelation of another
than him, who should destroy the power which he, by his
unfaithfulness, had let in to rule on the earth. On this,
individual faith could rest, and we know did rest, in the
Enochs and the Noahs; we may trust in Adam himself and
many others of his posterity. Still the world grew desperate
in wickedness, and God determined to destroy what He
had created, and brought in the ood upon this world of
the ungodly. e world began anew, and alas! it was soon
seen, sin with it. But God would not allow that they should
be unrestrained. Man built the tower to have his own way,
and not be dispersed; and God confounded his language
and dispersed the race, forming countries, and tongues,
and languages. Mighty hunters there might be, and have
been; but a divided world and antagonistic races. But the
world had gone away from God and, as we know from
Joshua, had begun to worship demons. And now Abraham
is called. ere was no law, no condition, no righteousness,
no requirement of it. He is called to break with and quit
the providential order which God Himself had established
in the world, his country, and his kindred, and his father’s
house. Country was that new thing of God’s establishment,
which His judgment on Babel had formed-God’s order
in the world. Abraham was to leave it; not to act against
it, but to be apart from it for God in the world. is was
a most important point, and becomes so the more we
examine it. It takes Abraham up on ground independent of
the common responsibility of men. e world lay under it;
sin was there, and a judgment to come. Grace here works.
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419
Abraham is called out from among them, and separated
from them, and positive revealed blessing is deposited
there, and entirely and exclusively there.
is was an immense fact. It is not man responsible and
liable to judgment. It is not merely grace working, so that a
man may have, individually, share in divine life, and divine
favor, and heaven; but one called publicly out from the
whole system. of God, and made the head of a race (now a
spiritual one), and all blessing deposited in him, and wholly
in him. is was a new thing on the earth. In a general way
one may look at Israel as the natural seed according to the
promise, but the details of that part of the history need not
detain us here. ey were according to esh, and the seed
of promise was denitely to be accounted heir.
But it is this principle itself which is important. Grace
calls out one to be the head of a new race, in which the
blessing of God was to be “ the blessing of Abraham.”
is had nothing to do with judging on the footing of
responsibility; or any rule or measure given on which that
judgment was to be founded. is may be a deeper motive
for faithfulness and service than any other, but so it is.
But it is one called out from a responsible world which is
under judgment for its failure not to give an exact rule by
which that failure can be measured, but to set sovereign
blessing in him, and by subsequent revelations, in his Seed.
As Adam was the head of a sinful and condemned race,
Abraham was the head of a blessed race, of whom it could
be said, “ now are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according
to promise.” is, by grace, will be true even of Israel in its
day; they tried to have it by the works of the law and so lost
it, but God will, for all that, faithful to Himself, accomplish
His promises. But this for the moment I pass by.
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It suces to point out here the position of Abraham,
called to be the deposit and stock of promise and blessing, “
Get thee out of thy country and out of thy kindred, and out
of thy father’s house, to a land that I will show thee: and I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
thou shalt be a blessing. Blessed is he that blesseth thee,
and cursed is he that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed.” Blessing characterized his
calling. He is blessed and a blessing. Blessing is measured
out by dispositions towards him. And he is the one source
of blessing to all the families of the earth. is is a very
remarkable position and a most blessed, and, in its character,
a divine one, which we shall do well to consider as regards
ourselves. I will suggest a word or two in a moment. But,
remark here how divine a one it is in its nature. God is
blessedness in Himself. It characterizes Him. He is the
source of it to all who have any. is was, derivatively, just
Abraham’s place. He was made blessed, in this sense had
blessedness on the earth, distinctively and especially so;
he was the source of it to all the families of the earth. If
there was a curse, it was only for enmity to this. is is a
most precious, and in character divine, place for a creature;
a creature blessed no doubt, and quickened of God; but
thence only the more precious because the more real.
us the place of blessing is denitively settled as of
pure grace without law-grace abounding over the whole
sinful condition of man, and owing from and measured by
the self-originated fullness of divine love, of which it was
the display and revelation. is is what characterized it in
Abraham- grace putting man in a divine place of blessing.
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But this comes more distinctly and blessedly out
when we proceed to consider the way in which it was
accomplished.
It was conrmed
7
to the Seed, that is, to Christ; and
that, as we shall see, by an obedience and in a way far
beyond all legal obedience which might have fullled the
duties incumbent on the rst Adam, and been contained
authoritatively as duties in the law. e promise was given
to Abraham in chapter 12. It is conrmed to the seed in
chapter 22, after Isaac had been oered up. Abraham was
called to surrender all he loved, all the promises where
God had deposited them; for in Isaac his seed was to be
called; an entire surrender of self-” thine only son, whom
thou lovest “-and of all even that God had given him, as
founded on life in this world, in the seed he had received of
God according to promise. He must reckon on God alone
and resurrection, and give up all in life down here. And
he does. Isaac is surrendered in devotedness to God, and
God trusted for promise which must be in resurrection.
is was all out of the very reach and nature of law. It was
not the claims of obedience to legal righteousness in man,
but absolute surrender of self and righteousness and all to
God. All was oered up in sacrice. Law obeyed is life
accomplishing its duties. is was the surrender of self
and promises and all to God-the sacrice of all to God. It
was the well-known gure of Christ’s oering up Himself
(only in Him it was really accomplished) and rising from
the dead. en, not till then, the promise was conrmed
to the seed. at is, the promise was conrmed to Christ
on the ground of an obedience innitely above all law, and
as having passed through death (and law has power over a
7 To Christ, not “ in Christ.”
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422
man only as long as he lives), and as risen from the dead,
and to us in Him.
In the meanwhile (but 430 years after the promise, as
we have seen, and hence leaving it in full vigor) the law
came in, and required human obedience to the exact rule of
righteousness: in a word, it declared (under pain of God’s
curse for failure) all that man ought, as such, to be and
to do. It came in by the bye to bring out transgression, it
made sin exceeding sinful, and, from the inability of man to
establish righteousness for himself before God, it brought
him under the curse. e authority of this righteous claim
could not be disregarded, and Christ bore its curse; that,
while maintaining its authority, the curse brought by it
might be removed. His death, which met and satised its
curse, took from under it all that are in Him. For they died
with Him in that in which they were held, and rose in
the liberty in the which He had made them free, the law
having no further claim or dominion over them as risen
which it held as long as they lived. But they had died and
were now risen, to bring forth fruit to God, in connection
with their new husband, Christ risen from the dead. Hence
too sin had not dominion over them, because they were not
under law but under grace.
us man’s righteousness, which, if there had been any,
would have been under law, was out of the question. e
curse had been the fruit of the trial. e Scripture had
concluded all under sin.
But the obedience of Christ, spotless and blameless
under law as He had been, went innitely farther than law,
and indeed was on another principle. It was the voluntary
surrender of self and life to glorify God. at self and life,
which law would direct, and the love of which became
Not Law but Promise
423
the measure of love to others, was wholly given up. e
curse and wrath due under law and to sin were undergone.
“ erefore,” could Christ say, “ doth my Father love me,
because I lay down my life that I might take it again.” Of
this the law knew nothing. It was absolute obedience in the
total surrender and devotedness of self to God’s glory and
purposes and our salvation. And God was gloried in Him:
God was, and hence God has gloried Him in Himself.
And man is entered into the glory which the Son had with
the Father before the world was, and is entered righteously.
God has displayed His righteousness in setting Christ, the
man who had gloried Him, at His right hand. us divine
righteousness is established in giving Christ the glory
which He deserved through His work for us. But then we
must be in this place of glory, for it was for us He did it,
and He must see of the travail of His soul in bringing into
His own glory those whom His Father had given Him. We
wait therefore for the hope of righteousness by faith, the
hope that belongs to righteousness; and what that is we
see in the glory into which Christ has entered, where the
righteousness of God has placed Him as man.
us grace could reign through righteousness unto
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It was a
glorifying God in the giving up Himself, and that to
death, and the curse, and wrath, through the Eternal
Spirit oering Himself up without spot to God, and God
in righteousness setting Him in glory at His right hand.
us man took this place in righteousness, according to the
purpose of God, we being made sharers therein by grace;
and now, having seen the full result in glory founded on
righteousness through Christ, let us see what the blessing
is.
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424
It is the fruit of God’s promise to Christ, the Seed.
Whatever God’s heart could do to show His love, and that,
His love to Christ, and according to the claim Christ had
on it, that is the blessing. God, in whom is blessedness, was
showing how He could bless, as in Eph. 2, that in the ages
to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Christ was the One
to be blessed.
He was the Seed to whom the promise was made.
He was the One who-sin being come in-had established
God’s glory in love, majesty, righteousness, truth, inevitable
judgment, salvation, as no innocence could have given
occasion to; yet at His own cost. Hence man is in glory.
e blessing is the Father’s love to Christ, and the glory
in which He is, in virtue of that and of having gloried
His Father. Such is the place into which we are brought by
faith. He in Himself, in Person, the only-begotten, is the
Firstborn-as re-entered into glory-of many brethren. He
brings many sons to glory.
is blessedness we have in the present sense of divine
love; the love of God shed abroad in our hearts; God
dwelling in us and we in Him; the consciousness, through
the Holy Ghost, that we are in Christ and Christ in us; in
the consciousness that we are sons, through the Spirit of
His Son sent forth into our hearts, crying, Abba Father;
the looking for glory, to be like Him and with Him; the
consciousness of the Father’s love resting on us as on Jesus.
More than the promise of the Father to Christ, chewing
His love to the Son, and having our place in Him before
the Father and enjoying His own love, we cannot think of.
God has made Christ as Man, and us in Christ, the pattern
of what His blessing in love is. As it was said of Joseph, “
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425
In thee shall Israel bless, God make thee like Ephraim and
Manasseh.”
And this fullness of love constituting our blessedness
ows forth in love in the expression of it to brethren; and
to sinners it ows out. “ ou shalt be a blessing; and in
thee shall men be blessed.”
How brightly does the consciousness of this shine in
Paul! “ Would to God that not only thou, but all who hear
me this day “ (there was overowing uncalculating love)
“ were “what?-” not only almost but altogether such as I
am, save these bonds.” ere was the consciousness of such
blessedness that the best thing divine love could wish was
that they might be as he was. Oh what true consciousness
of blessedness, what genuine love! Oh, how dierent in
spirit, temper, tone, foundation in righteousness, divine
out-owings of grace, the love of God satisfying itself in
good, from “ Do this and live,” were it even done!
ere is righteousness, but not man’s, under the law,
whoever has accomplished it, but God’s in setting Christ
at His right hand in glory, who had given up Himself and
all promised, as come in the esh, for God the Father’s
glory, according to the everlasting purpose of blessing
and displaying Himself in blessing; of which Christ, the
promised Seed, rst of all was the object; then, if we are
Christ’s, we also are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to
promise. And how the divine Person of Christ comes out
to view in this! For God, in a certain sense, was debtor to
Him for the maintenance of His glory-yea, for the only full
bringing it out in redemption. So that, as we have seen, He
righteously enters into it as man. But to whom can God be
debtor in any sense? Who can make a “ therefore “ for God
to act upon or love? But Christ in the divine counsels has.
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426
I conclude, then, that life, righteousness, and the
inheritance do not come under law, nor by the law: I cannot
have righteousness by it, nor be under it at all, if I have it
by Christ according to promise. Nor have I righteousness
by any one’s fullling it for me, for then it would be under
and by the law; but if righteousness come by the law, then
CHRIST IS DEAD IN VAIN.
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427
62797
Sovereign Grace in Christ
Ephesians 1
THERE are two ways in which we may look at our
relationship to God, and rightly: rstly, our coming to
Him; and secondly, sovereign grace in the dealings of God
towards us.
Of Abel, it is said, by the Holy Spirit, God had respect
unto his gifts; he came with his needed oering. We are
looked at in the Epistle to the Hebrews as drawing near to
God. Who could draw near unless he could bring Christ as
an oering? We must have that sacrice in order to bring
us near; consequently in that case our relationship to God
is measured by our need. We come near because we nd
we cannot do without it, and we accept that oering as
needful to accomplish it.
In another way we never know the measure of God’s
blessing until we look on our relationship as measured by
God’s thoughts of us-by all that which He loves to display
when He satises His own heart of grace with His ways of
showing it out. We never enjoy our true blessing unless we
see how He thus feels and acts. My mind must rise above
what I am to what God is; then it is that one is formed by
the revelation of what God is. To this we are called.
We must come in by our need, as the prodigal did.
Man cannot by searching nd out God. ere cannot be
any knowledge of God in grace by man’s competency to
know Him. ere would be no need of grace if he could
know God without it. If I can claim this grace, I do not
need grace at all. e way a sinner must come in must be
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428
by his need. us must one begin to learn grace and love.
But when I have got to God, it is another thing. en He
would form our minds and hearts by what He is Himself.
I come as a sinner, because I need it-just as a hungry man
needs food; but when brought I have fellowship with the
God who has brought me to Himself. e measure is given
in this epistle” growing up into Christ, in all things.” It is
a wonderful thing that God has called us into fellowship
with Himself- to have the same thoughts, the same feelings
as God, and to have them together! All ows down from
Him, and we are brought into it by grace, and we enjoy it
just so far as we are emptied of self.
First, He makes us partakers of the divine nature-the
same nature as Himself. is gives the capacity-I do not
say power. e new nature is capacity; the Holy Ghost is
power. e new nature is entirely dependent and obedient.
e Holy Ghost being there gives me power. In the First
Epistle of John this capacity is brought out in a remarkable
manner; chap. 4. Every one that loves is born of God-has
this nature; and he that loves is born of God and knows
God. en being partakers of His nature, we, by virtue of
the blood being sprinkled on us, have received the Holy
Ghost which gives power.
In order to communion, it is plain that there must
be perfect peace as regards the conscience. ere is no
communion in conscience. I am alone as to my conscience,
and so are you. In order to communion, I must have nothing
to settle with conscience: a perfectly purged conscience is
the basis of communion. We must know that God has
settled the whole question of sin. e moment a child of
God fails, communion ceases. e Spirit then becomes a
reprover to bring him back; but there is no communion.
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429
Communion is the full enjoyment of God and of divine
things, when there is nothing to think of as regards oneself.
God can now let ow into his heart who has a conscience
purged, all that He delights in. He loves to communicate
what He Himself has joy in. All that Christ is, is for us to
enjoy. You are called into this place of Christ Himself-of the
Head of the body; and that the delight God has in Christ
should ow down into your heart. How rich then the saint
must be! But he is entirely dependent on the Spirit of God
for power. ere is no power to enjoy anything without
Him. ere must be an emptying from self to enjoy what
He gives. e Spirit of God has no place to act where self
and imagination are in exercise. It is not the glory at the
end that is so much the object of the believer’s thoughts,
as the source of it-God Himself. ere is more happiness
in the fact of being in communion with Him than in the
things He communicates: and I say again, because of its
importance, a soul cannot have the enjoyment of the things
of God without having peace, which is connected with the
conscience.
e beginning of this chapter shows how we are
presented to God. It is a test, whether the judgment-
seat brings any terror to your minds. Does it give you any
uneasiness? How does the saint get there? Christ comes
to fetch him. He said, “ I will come again and receive you
unto myself.” Do you ever think of your coining before
the judgment-seat being the eect of His having come to
fetch you? Not sending for you, but coming Himself for
you, because of His desire to have you with Him where
He is, to be fashioned into the same image. You are to bear
the image of the heavenly, as you have borne the image
of the earthy. When you are there before the judgment-
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430
seat, you will be with Him, and like Him: every trace of
God’s unwearied hand, all His patience, here brought out.
We shall be like the One who is the Judge. You will never
(of course I speak to saints now) be before the judgment
seat of Christ without His coming to fetch you into the
same glory in which you are to be. It is the knowledge of
grace, of redemption, that leaves me at perfect liberty; and
all my life should be a witness to the enjoyment of this
blessedness into which we are being brought. e whole
of this is through looking at Christ. He is the Firstborn
among many brethren in the Father’s house. We shall be
with Christ and like Christ before God the Father. ere
will be the blessedness of being with Christ in the presence
of the Father, loved as He is loved. is is what we have in
this chapter-set in Christ and in the presence of God.
“ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” We are blessed with Christ, and God is the God
and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is “ my God
and your God,” Christ said. ere is no measure of any
relationship out of Christ-nothing but condemnation out
of Christ. If I have known what it is to be condemned, if
I have known what sin is, and how God hates sin I know
there can be no hope for me out of Christ. But God has put
away sin. God does not look at my sin, but on Christ. Just as
I know my condition in Adam as ruined and condemned,
so I know my place in Christ as accepted. How it throws us
out of self-importance, self dependence, self-glorying! We
enter into the presence of God in Him who has perfectly
gloried God. He is the God as well as the Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ. ere is that wrought in Christ which
was hidden from ages and from generations, and He has
gone back in virtue of what He has done to vindicate the
Sovereign Grace in Christ
431
character of God. We enter into the blessing in Him who
has done all. We shall know God in virtue of what the
Father bestows upon us. e Father brings many sons unto
glory, and brings them back perfect through the work of
Christ-” Blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ “:
none can be forgotten; not an aection of God’s delight
is wanting. He brings us into His presence without one
reserve of the aection that Christ has. We are brought
back to Christ. erefore all that Christ has we have.
How he goes on to unfold it! “at we should be holy
and without blame before him in love.” He is not content
with a mere general account, but brings it out in detail that
we may know it. Suppose I saw a person with an excellent
character, and I felt I could never be like that person, I
should not be happy. e fact of the excellency of the person,
without the possibility of being like him, would make me
miserable; and to have him always before me would be all
the worse. But in heaven I shall be with Christ, and see
Him, without the possibility of being unlike Him. What
divine inventiveness of love to make us happy, innitely
happy! What God does, and is, is innite; and it is so much
the better that He will be always above us.
We shall have perfect freedom of intercourse with Him.
Moses and Elias were speaking with Him of His death:
by-and-by it may not be so much of His death; but there
will be communion with Him in all that He has.
“ Without blame.” He would release me from all that
would hinder my loving Him: therefore I am made “ holy
and without blame.” ere is the proper joy of the heart”
Before him in love,” but no thought of equality; “ wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.”
en there is another fact-” Chosen in him before the
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432
foundation of the world.” us we have His heart set upon
us in eternity. e soul knows there is a personal love from
God towards himself, and the heart delights in that. So
with Christ. In Rev. 2 there is the white stone He will give-
proof of personal delight. ere is the individual rejoicing
in the love of Christ.
How the Spirit seeks to draw out our aections by all
this! He tells it all, and would have us know and enjoy
it..He would have us know that we are going to heaven,
and why. He would form our hearts by what He is doing,
while bringing us in, “ having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children “ -still in Christ and with Christ-”
by Jesus Christ unto himself.” It is through Him, and in
Him, and with Him I nd it. It is having my heart xed
on God and the Father, that my aections may be drawn
out to Him, and all is because “ accepted in the beloved.”
God has not blessed angels like this. We are not servants
only (we should be servants, to be sure), but we are brought
into the condence of children. Ought not a child to
have condence? We have received the Spirit of adoption
whereby we cry “ Abba Father.” Our heart should answer
to God’s outgoings of heart in grace, and reect this grace,
“ to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the Beloved.” He has done it all.
Remark here, that there is not a word as yet about the
inheritance. I dwell on that, as showing how the aections
of the saints are formed. If I speak of the inheritance,
it is something below me. All prophecy concerns the
inheritance. But I am looking at what is above me, and my
own blessedness is in what is above me. Subjects connected
with the church, blessed as they are, as prophecy, etc., are
below. He will exercise us about these things, but let me
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433
rst get my relationship with my Father known. Do not
talk of me, of what I have, but of what Christ is, and what
He has. My soul must enjoy the love that has given it all.
e love that has saved is more than the things given. It is
of importance to the saints to feel this in the presence of
God. It is not mental power, but the heart right-a single
eye-that is the great thing. Unless a soul gets its intelligence
and direction from God, it never understands the ways and
aections of God. His own aections must be known and
valued. If I have not known my place in the aections of
my Father, I am not in a position to have the communion
of His thoughts and purposes. When we were dead in sins,
His heart was exercised for us. e sinner is here looked at as
dead, not “ living “ in sin (as in Colossians) and chastening,
etc., for that, but in Ephesians “ dead,” not a movement of
life, when God comes and creates the blessing according
to His own will. When our souls have known the value of
Christ’s sacrice bringing us to God, we are seen not in
ourselves at all but only in Christ. en there is perfect rest.
Afterward He can tell us about the inheritance; and
then the prayer is that we may know the hope of His calling
(His calling is not the inheritance). He has called us to be “
before him in love “ (v. 26); then verse 11 begins about the
inheritance. Now I will chew you what Christ’s inheritance
is, and you are to have it too. I must know I am a child and
have the thoughts and aections of the child before I can
have to do with the inheritance. e end of the matter is
that we are brought in to share the inheritance.
How far are your hearts conding in God’s love only for
your wants, etc.? but how far is your condence and delight
in Him for Himself? e heart of the child will delight in
the aections of the father. Do your thoughts about God
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434
ow from what He has revealed to you of Himself? or
are you reasoning about God-will He, or will He not, do
it? When it is a settled thing with me that I am a sinner,
what have I to reason about? We want to be brought to
this simple conviction: I am a sinner; and if I am a sinner,
what am I to do? Can I look for anything from God on
the ground of righteousness? No. When brought to God, I
am brought to grace. What He is is the spring and source
of the whole matter. We are in Christ. It could not be
otherwise. We stand there now, by virtue of the atonement,
in that position which makes the sin the very necessity for
God to bless. Christ died for my sins, and God is “ faithful
and just to forgive us our sins.”
God is going to take us to heaven, to be happy with
Christ there: but He makes us happy out of heaven too.
It is a dicult thing, but He does; and He would have
the saints living up there where God is, and where we are
going, and free from this present evil world.
Growing up Into Christ
435
62799
Growing up Into Christ
Ephesians 4
ONE cannot help seeing in such a passage as this
the profound interest the Lord takes in blessing. ere is
profound love in it, as well as that it is a fact that He delights
in blessing. His purpose is to bring us into the enjoyment of
His own blessedness. His thoughts are blessings; and there
is none anywhere else but in Him. If I speak of blessing, it
must be what is in the heart of God. A father’s thoughts
of giving to his children are measured by his love for them.
When we see what is in God’s heart for us, and that all His
thoughts have the form and power of blessing, what must
be for us! He is bringing us to the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ-this is to be the result; but it is the
principle and spring of blessing that was in my mind to
speak upon. He is conforming us as to His own thoughts
in blessing at the end. e objects of such love, we, abject
sinners, taken up by Him show the greatness of His love.
Christ is the great workman of it all. It is by Christ that He
does it. When God sets about to bless, it is by the Son of
His love. It is an immense foundation for us to rest upon-
not only strong but wide and large and deep. “ He that
descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, that he might ll all things.” “ He descended rst
into the lower parts of the earth.” What then is to escape
the power of Him, who has been borne up to the throne
of God, after going down to the very lowest place of death
under sin? He has been in the lowest place of misery and
death, and is taken up to the highest place of glory-the
Collected Writings of J.N. Darby
436
throne of God- and all between is lled up by Christ. us
nothing can escape. He went down to the place of death
and sin, “ made sin for us,” and went up to the throne of
God. ere is strength for me a poor sinner, something
to rest on. Yet it is not distant from us, but we have the
consciousness of its being in and around us. In Revelation
it is said of the heavenly city, “ the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”
e Lamb is nearer to my heart than any. He has known
me better than any, better than I know myself; and this
Christ who dwells in our hearts by faith is the One we shall
meet there. I shall nd One in heaven nearer and dearer to
my heart than any one I know on earth. Nothing is so near
to us as the Christ that is in us, and nothing is so near to
God as Christ. Yet the world is in a man’s heart. All that is
agreeable and outwardly good in this world nds its echo
in a man’s heart, and all the evil that has come in nds
its place there too. Christ was here amidst it all. He met
every whit without having the evil in Him, yet He knows
it all. Everything we feel, all that passes through the heart
of man, Christ has gone through, not by grasping at the
thing but by resisting the evil. With all the sensibilities of
the heart to good or evil (and this makes the heart of man
such a wonderful thing) Christ can meet all. e center
key to all this is Christ: He has power to put away the evil.
If there was one thing where my heart could not rest on
Christ, it would be dreadful. All have the knowledge of
good and evil, even the unconverted man. Without Christ
he sets about racking his heart to nd any good thing
that is under the sun. All the best aections of a man are
the occasion of his greatest distress, because sin has come
in: the heart gets pulled and torn every way, but must go
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through it. See a wife losing her husband, a mother her
children. e instant I see Christ in all this trial, I nd the
perfect good God delights in. Divine sympathy is found in
God Himself. I may have trial and conict, I must have it
in passing through the wilderness; but I become weaned
from the thing that was a snare to me by looking to Christ
in it.
Present condence in Christ is needed in trial (losing a
near relative, etc.), but the practical eect is that every trial
a man goes through gives him (if the heart is thus trusting)
to know more and more of what Christ is to meet the need,
and more of Christ as possessing Him.
“ I bare you on eagle’s wings, and brought you unto
myself “; and there we nd all the unfoldings of what God
is in Christ. I cannot do without Christ. I want manna in
the wilderness: God gives it to me; and not only do I get all
this, water, manna, etc., but I have Christ Himself in it all.
No matter what it is that exercises my heart in the
knowledge of good and evil, and the need of the heart
in consequence, it makes Christ more known and more
enjoyed. Our natural portion as Christians is to enjoy
God. Where has God planted us? In the enjoyment of an
accomplished redemption; and the result is that love has
not only been manifested towards us, but poured out in us.
e love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which He has given unto us. We dwell in God; for
His love is innite, but I am in it. I dwell in it, and He
dwells in me; I, a poor little thing, nothing, dwell in Him. I
must learn it, as a sinner, in Christ. A proud sinner will try
to prescribe to God this and that, but God will have His
own way; and blessed it is that it should be so. “ Builded
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit “-this
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is the “ vocation.” What a thought! What a bringing down,
not of heaven, but something more, by special blessing
bringing Him down to dwell in us. God would not dwell
in angels: there is not the same want in them, but He
will make Himself better known to angels through His
kindness towards us by Christ Jesus. ere is a great deal
more for us than the bringing down heaven. “ Whosoever
shall confess Jesus the Son of God, God dwelleth in him
and he in God.”
What is the rst practical eect of this calling to be
“ the habitation of God through the Spirit “? “ With all
lowliness and meekness,” etc. (chap. 4: 2). “ A vessel of
God “! All the passions of the esh there, but having the
presence of God makes us unspeakably happy: that is our
portion! “ In all lowliness,” etc. A man who is humble
needs not to be humbled. ere is no safety but in being
low. en what is the consequence if self is not working
and there is lowliness? Why, love works. I cannot be happy
with you really, if self is working; but if self is not working,
love is, and I am full of love towards you all. What a spring
of blessedness in communion there is! so far as self is down,
broken to pieces, there is an out-going of perfect love to
the brethren. “ Love is of God.” His nature is at work when
we love one another. e spring of the fellowship we nd
just now is God being here. God is our joy, and love (God’s
own nature) working, and God our common object. ere
are trials and diculties for us all; but there is blessed joy
in knowing one another thus, and seeing Christ in one
another. “ Receive ye one another to the glory of God.”
If we meet a Christian, though he may be a stranger, we
can be more intimate with him than one’s own family who
are not. Why? Because God is there. Another thing-there
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is the consciousness of what this unity is. “ ere is one
body, and one Spirit, etc., one Lord, one faith,” etc. We are
brought together, not only through being united, but by
what we possess together, whether we be outwardly rich
or poor. He has his particular trials, and I mine; but both
have God.
“ One God and Father of all, who is above all, and
through all and in you all.” God is above the world: you
cannot tell me of one thing God is not above, and therefore
there is not one thing that can separate me from His love.
He is “ through all.” You cannot nd yourself in trouble and
God not there; you cannot nd yourself in any diculty,
perplexity, and not nd God through it all. And He is “
in you all “; He has come to be the spring of all happiness
in us. If I know what water is, it is by drinking; if I know
what sweetness is, it is by tasting it; if I know God, it is by
His being in me. We can look upon one another and see
God in us all. en these light aictions, what are they?
God is come to take possession of us, and He is the spring
in our hearts also. He comes to make us love, because He
loves. We shall nd it is fully so in heaven. If anything is
a safeguard against evil, it is that such an one dwells in
us; but it is more, it is the spring in the new nature, God’s
nature.
e perfecting of the saints is before God and should
be before us. Christ is the object of His thoughts; and He
will have these loved ones like Christ: therefore what God
does is to make them grow up unto Christ. In the unity of
the body, and in all the communion, and through all the
exercises of heart, we have the end of all. In ministering to
you or you to me, it is to grow up into Christ that there may
be more of Christ in us. All the ow of Christian aection,
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all the enjoyment we have here, is for this end. I can look at
my brother and know he is going to be in heaven with me.
e enjoyment of all this shuts out the world-you are not
thinking of your cares and troubles now. Fellowship with
the brethren is perfect deliverance from all that is of the
esh; esh cannot enter into it; all that is of the world is
gone. I am dead to all. Every bit of fellowship I have with
a brother is a proof that outside things are now done with.
e more we are individually full of divine things, the more
this communion with each other is realized. Two together,
if both are spiritual, open the sluices that all the wells in the
world cannot dry up. e power of the Holy Ghost that
makes me now overcome evil will make me enjoy heaven,
where there is nothing but good: “ they that dwell in thine
house will be still praising thee.” e power of evil, of the
world, of Satan, is all gone. Our common joy now is in
Christ, in the communion of His love; and, when we are
with Him, it will be completely without alloy.
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62800
e Panoply of God
Ephesians 6
ONE great thing in Christianity is, that it brings us back
to God. Not only have we mercies from God, providential
and the like, but we are brought to God. Towards the Jew
God had a veil before His face, and He said, “ I dwell
in the thick darkness “; and once a year, on the day of
atonement, the blood was sprinkled on the mercy-seat; but
now once and forever sin is put away by the sacrice of
Christ, and we are brought into the very presence of God.
Good and evil being known, the question between good
and evil had to be settled before God. e redemption of
the cross brings us out of the evil-from the evil to Himself.
God’s Son suered the just for the unjust to bring us to
God. e consequence of this is that the whole life of the
Christian is to go on with God-every day becoming better
acquainted with God- everything going on in the presence
of God. All our ways are elevated by this. If only a servant,
he serves not only his master but Christ; and therefore, if
he has a froward master, he can serve him just the same,
because it is Christ he serves. All the life of the Christian
is perfect liberty, because he is in the presence of God; it
is liberty from sin, from fear, from wrath. Children are to
obey their parents in the Lord. e commonest things in
life are raised in their character through service to Christ.
e parent must not allow evil in the child, but train them
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and the
master to the servant must forbear threatening. In virtue
of our place before God, our liberty and happiness are as
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perfect and blessed now as they will be hereafter; only the
body will be set right then.
en, after speaking of the common details of life,
the apostle rises up to speak of the proper position of
the Christian as such-free in all things; but we are to be “
strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” He goes
on to speak of the whole armor of God. We are supposed,
though in conict, to be in our proper position of blessing
with God, standing in the power of redemption, not having
to get there. e warfare is to stand when there. Satan’s
aim is to get us out of that place. ere can be no conict
between us and God, but between us and the power of evil.
ere we ght as being God’s army. We are naturally under
Satan’s power, but redemption brings us into God’s army.
is was the position of Israel when warring with Amalek:
they were on God’s side; and He said He would have war
with Amalek from generation to generation.
Christ’s conict in Gethsemane was quite another thing.
He was enduring, but He was accomplishing redemption
too. We have it through Christ, and now have to stand.
God can never use our esh, but Satan always can; there is
the dierence. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. e new nature
Satan never can touch, but unjudged and undetected esh
he can, causing one to fall. e rst and last thing and all
through as a question of power is entire dependence. Satan
will come in all manner of ways-worship, etc.; and, if the
esh is not judged, he will deceive us by it. e thing is,
we want the evil of the esh detected by the word of God
and not by temptation. “ e word of God is quick and
powerful,” etc. ere is no good in the esh. is, when I
see how bad my esh is, casts me only on God and makes
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me feel the need of dependence. With our Lord Jesus there
was entire dependence, and this is the perfection of a man.
With us how dierent it is! You know how many things
you do of your own suggestion, not perhaps knowingly and
willingly, but you are betrayed into it.
“ To stand against the wiles of the devil “-that is the use
of the armor of God.
Christ has overcome, and therefore we have only to
resist the devil who will ee. If we resist him, he knows that
he has met Christ who has all strength against him, for He
has vanquished him. e devil can never touch Christ in
you-only the esh; so, if there is a fall, it is a proof you were
walking in the esh. “ We wrestle not against esh and
blood,” etc. e contrast here is between the conict with
men that Joshua led the children of Israel against (esh and
blood as man, not sinful esh, is meant here). Now we are
not ghting with men, but we are Christians ghting with
all these mighty beings, whose subtlety we are apt not to
detect because they are so elevated-” against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickednesses in the heavenlies.”
Satan can easily overcome us with his wiles, if we are
not found in the strength of Christ. I must have God’s
armor.
Man’s armor, intellect, or power is nothing in conict
with Satan. Satan used his wiles with Christ, but He
answered him with the word of God, and there was no
power against it. We must have the whole or complete
armor. If I have a breastplate but no helmet for my head, I
am assailable at this point. If it is only a matter of theory
with me, I shall forget my helmet; but if I am in the place of
dependence, I shall feel my need of it and take care to have
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it on. Independence makes us careless. If Satan can get a
Christian to give an unchristian testimony to the world, he
is satised. If he can dim the heavenly testimony for Christ
here, his object is gained. Christ was God’s testimony here.
We ought to be so now; and what Satan is striving at now
is to dim it. God would have us “ able to withstand in the
evil day,” etc. All this time is an evil day. ough there is
darkness in the world, we ought to be light in it. ese
are peculiar days of evil-heresy, indelity, etc. So to an
individual there are peculiar seasons of buetings, tossings,
exercises, evil days; but to stand is the great thing. We are
sitting in unchangeable blessedness before God, but our
position in this world is standing. So David sat before the
Lord, yet he had to ght the battles of the Lord.
Our salvation is complete and perfect, for we are set
down with Him who has by “ one oering perfected
forever them who are sanctied “; but we are standing in
conict-just as the poor man out of whom Legion was cast
was sent back to his house to tell them how great things
the Lord had done for him. e world (Gadarenes) would
not have him, and the world will not have us; but we are to
be God’s army in this world and a witness to them, though
they will not have us. It is a question of struggling against
Satan while having the esh in us.
erefore we need the “ loins girt about with truth “-the
aections girt up by the power of truth, and not to have all
hanging loosely about. It is not merely having and knowing
truth that will do. If the loins are girt about with truth, if
the heavenly calling has power over you, you cannot follow
the world; your aections will be in heaven, and Satan can
have no power with you. e “ loins “ represent the inward
bracing of the man’s thoughts and feelings, and aections.
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All that is going on in the mind needs to be exercised in
the truth so as to be girt with it. I can never use truth but in
the presence of God, because truth is light, and light makes
darkness manifest. Man on a sick bed will show what is
in his heart. ere is sincerity there at last, when brought
into the presence of God and abstracted from other things.
ere may have been much profession before, yet nothing
but what is real stands before God.
All the perfection of divine life in man we get in Christ,
and He is our example. In having on the armor of God
we have on what Christ was and had (for example, the “
breastplate of righteousness “). All these things which are
ours in Christ should be applied to us. Take truth-Christ is
the truth and the righteous One. He is my righteousness.
But it is here used for conict against Satan-not for God,
but for practical power. I must have it before God rst,
or I shall not be able to contend with Satan. I am made
righteous before God-this is a settled thing; and now I
want all that Christ is and has been for my power against
the enemy. If a man have a bad conscience, there can be
no power against Satan. ere must be the “ armor of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left.” e loins
must be girt with truth rst, and then a man will walk as in
the presence of God. ere will be a savor of Christ’s ways
in his character. What a dierence there is between a man
walking before God, and one walking before men! What a
trouble there is to keep things straight for a man walking
before men! While one who is walking before God, though
in the presence of men, can leave things quietly to God.
e real dierence between a mere professor of Christ and
a Christian is just this.
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“ Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace
“ means, not only having peace with God, but walking in
the spirit of peace. ere is sure to be peace in the spirit of a
man who is girt about with truth, and walking in the power
of divine righteousness. A man who has been walking with
God many years will be more gentle with others than one
who has just begun to know Him; he will neither crave
things, nor be irritated at evil in another, for his own soul
has tasted what the peace of God is, walking with God in
the power of it. Even suppose a man has all this on, there is
the need of dependence. Independence is sin, and there is
need therefore of always being in conict, and having the
undeviating condence that God is for me.
e thing wanted then is the “shield of faith.” Satan
comes and tempts me: Is God for you? How do you know?
ere are of course dierent kinds of temptation-not lusts,
but questions whether God is for me, come what will. en
the shield of faith is needed. Christ was in an agony in
the garden, but He could say, Abba Father, all things are
possible to ee. On the cross, when He said, “ My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “-” but thou art holy
“-God has His place, come what will. We are not to be
afraid with any amazement. If Satan succeeds in terrifying
a man, he ies, and there is no armor for the back. Of Saul,
David said, “ the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away
“(amongst the Philistines). “ e shield of faith “ is that
by which one is able to quench all the ery darts of the
wicked. At Christ he threw a ery dart when he said, “
cast thyself down.” Are you quite sure God is for you? Cast
yourself down and try. No, says Christ; I know God is for
me, I need not try. “ It is written, ou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God.” e dart is quenched by the word of God.
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If the dart of doubt or fear, etc., gets in, you have no power
at all.
e moment the heart gets troubled, remember, “ if God
be for us, who can be against us? “ If thoughts arise about
yourself, “ if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” God is for us through
all, even chastening. If there is an Achan in the camp, God
says, I will not go out with you: and they are beaten by a
very little city. If God be for us, who against? e “ shield of
faith “ is mentioned after the others, because there cannot
be this lively faith (not the certainty of salvation is meant
here but practical faith) if sin is allowed, and if the loins are
not girt about with truth, etc. Recognizing ourselves as a
people connected with God, in respect to this power that is
in Him, is just faith. Moses might have reckoned on God
through all the murmurings of the people.
All this is defensive armor-” the helmet of salvation
“ also. ere is not a single blow aimed by the Christian
warrior yet. What is the helmet? God has saved me and
will save me. “ Goodness and mercy have followed me all
the days of my life; and I shall dwell,” etc. It is a general,
broad, full apprehension that all through God will be with
me and for me; not only faith in the particular thing, and
at the particular time, but as expressed in Rom. 8 Nothing
can separate from the love of God: therefore I may lift up
my head with joy.
Now I can use the word of God oensively, as “ the
sword of the Spirit “; now I can ght. We ought to be
able to confound every enemy, not with man’s wisdom,
intellect, and understanding, but in the power of the Spirit.
Do others not believe in it? I am not going to give up the
sword of the Spirit because you do not think it will cut.
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I know it will cut, and therefore use it. ere is a power
and authority felt by the person who uses it. ere must
be a sense of dependence for this; and therefore prayer, the
sense of dependence expressed, is needed-” praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” Of one it
was said that he labored earnestly in prayer for the saints.
is was because of the sense of the conict from Satan
going on with the saints; therefore labor needed watching
thereunto ‘with all perseverance and supplication for all
saints. If other things come in, I have no power to turn
everything into prayer; therefore watching is needed. Give
yourselves to prayer. You are in God’s interests connected
with all saints; therefore pray for all saints.
ere is nowhere that conict is so much felt as in
prayer: that is where Satan desires to come in.
Verse 19. We should be bold for God in such a world as
this. How far are you identied with Christ in the world?
And are you careful to avoid everything that dishonors
Christ? Whatever destroys Christ’s character before men
is really a fall, though it may not be positively gross sin.
IT might seem strange at rst sight that, in an epistle
in which we get the greatest unfolding of the privileges we
have as saints, at the same time, conict is most brought
out, where we have specially the relationship of Father and
of the bride, there specially, in conict, saints are called
upon to take the whole armor of God, in order to be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil. It may seem strange at
rst sight here to talk of armor, but just where it is needed
is such a place; and we never get into conict till we realize
privilege. Mark, it is not conict of esh and Spirit, but
warfare in heavenly places against spiritual wickedness; not
the same as in Galatians, the esh lusting against the Spirit.
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Here we are in the new creation, Christ having ascended
on high as Head of it, having led captivity captive, and
having taken us so thoroughly out of Satan’s hands that
He can make us vessels of His glory in this world; and that
very thing brings us into conict. If we have hold of this
place, which is ours in Christ Jesus, we must reckon on
having special conict. We cannot cross the Jordan without
nding the Canaanite and Perizzite in the land.
e wilderness on the other hand tests the heart,
but it is not Canaan. ere it is not wilderness exercises,
it is wrestling against, not esh and blood, but spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places. e subject we had lately
was our being dead with Christ and risen with Him,
brought into the heavenlies in Him, a most valuable and
precious truth to get hold of very distinctly. It is the place
of every Christian, but not realized by many. To most one
has to speak of the blood on the door-posts rather than of
the Red Sea (that is, the death and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ having entirely delivered them out of Egypt).
e whole question of sin was settled by the cross.
As man was driven out of the rst paradise because sin
was completed, he is brought into the second because
righteousness was completed, and the whole question of
sin settled by Christ, now sitting at the right hand of God
in glory. Not a thing between God and the saints as to sin,
but we have them passing through exercises of heart, all in
them tested and tried in the wilderness.
en is the Jordan: passed through death and risen
again, they get into the land of Canaan and eat the old
corn. “ Blessed with all spiritual blessings,” etc. It is a place
that is ours in spirit now and shall be realized hereafter.
It is the character of the epistle all through true as to our
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title. But rst we nd Canaanites in the land. We are sure
of our place in Him, but His enemies are not yet all put
under His feet; and the very fact of our being there in Him
is to put us in conict with these spiritual enemies. When
people speak of Jordan as death and Canaan as heaven,
they forget that ghting characterizes Canaan. As soon as
Joshua comes into the land, a man meets him as captain
of Jehovah’s host with a drawn sword. A redeemed people
are Jehovah’s host, and so completely Jehovah’s servants,
that He uses them to execute His judgments against His
enemies. How could they ght Jehovah’s battles with the
esh? If He uses a people, He must have them dead as to
the esh.
Paul does not simply reckon himself dead to sin, but
when it was a question of service, it was always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, etc. He kept
all that was of Paul completely down, so that to him to live
was Christ, and nothing of Paul appeared. We are delivered
to death, that the life, etc. What has a dead and risen man
to do with the world?
As soon as Jordan is crossed (not only dead and risen,
but circumcised, putting o the body of death mortifying
the esh), the old corn of the land is eaten, the reproach
of Egypt being rolled away. We never get circumcision
in the wilderness. What have we as dead and risen with
Christ, to do with this world? True we have to run across
the wilderness to glory; but as one with Christ in heaven,
we are the witness and testimony of what a heavenly Christ
is in the world that rejects Him. And in maintaining this
place, will Satan (do you think) let you alone? Indelity,
superstition, and worldliness, these are things by which
Satan is seeking to get souls into his power. His wiles are
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things that puzzle (the cities walled up)-great forms of
piety, without the power, as seen in this day. en we have
these instructions for putting on the whole armor of God,
in order to be able to ght against spiritual wickedness. We
are not to get through in our own strength, and we have
to nd out what this armor is which we have to be clothed
with.
e loins girt with truth is the rst thing. Subjection to
the word points out our soul’s state, and therefore it comes
rst. ere can be no divine activity till the loins are girt
about-a common gure in eastern countries, where the
long garments are girded up, not to impede. So we get the
soul into order through the power of the truth applied, and
everything-the thoughts, and intents, and purposes of the
heart tested by it. e Lord said, “ Sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth,” John 17. We have in the word
all the thoughts of God, that can judge and bless man, and
Christ is the center of all. He was the light in the world.
He brought out all the darkness in it, and applied the truth
to it all. He brought out all that is divine and heavenly in a
man, in contrast with all in men.
People think the world is a ne place; but Satan is the
prince of it-they do not believe it; but he proved himself to
be so, by bringing all against Christ up to the cross, and he
will head up the world against God soon. Death had not
been executed up to the cross. e truth, Christ Himself;
came into the world, discerning the thoughts and intents of
the heart. When the truth is eectually applied, we get the
loins girded, the whole condition, as it were, tucked up and
not trailing, ready for the activity of service. I have to meet
Satan, and carry on the Lord’s battles, in conict against
spiritual wickedness in heavenly places; my heart is rst to
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be tested, and to be brought into a heavenly world. Christ
brought it there, and He says, Is heaven in your heart? I
get the revelation of all in me that is against Christ, and
all that is heavenly in Christ; my condition is the eect of
truth. He was it, I get it from Him. I do not want armor in
walking with God- I want arming against Satan.
Next, the breast-plate of righteousness, not righteousness
with God, but taking up armor against Satan, my condition
of soul and heart being right. My feet walk through the
world, shod with the preparation, etc. It is the practical
eect of the condition of my heart, and what a blessed
condition! It is not selshness, saying, “ I must maintain
my rights.” But when a soul is at peace with God, he will be
meek and lowly, like Christ; he goes out then in the spirit
of peace, and carries through the world the character and
spirit of Christ. “ Peace that passeth all understanding “
keeps his heart and mind. How a man full of peace subdues
all around him! Christ practically had perfect restful peace;
He carried it with Him in all He passed through; in Him
we have the fruits of righteousness sown in peace.
First, then we have the loins girt-the truth of God
applied -to bring the soul into a right condition; secondly,
practical righteousness (breastplate); thirdly, the feet shod
with the gospel of peace. Now, we have to take up the shield
of faith. I need not be thinking of self, though it is quite
right to judge myself. I am to have practical faith in God.
We are not called upon to confess sin but sins, although
confessing the sinfulness of my nature, but it is never to be
made an excuse for sinning. If I sin, I have failed in keeping
my eye on God, and so have failed in keeping sins down,
and in keeping the enemy closely shut up. e shield of
faith is to have the eye on God, with perfect condence that
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He can keep us walking in the light, as He is in it. Satan
may do what he pleases, shoot his arrows from his lurking-
place; but they cannot break through the shield of faith.
e victory has been attained over him by Christ as man.
He not only put away sin, but through death destroyed him
who has the power of death. We are exhorted to “ resist the
devil,” etc. Flesh does not resist him, and if he is resisted,
he knows he has met Christ in us and runs away. It is not
a question of the power of Satan, but of faith, of looking
to Christ. e ery darts of Satan never get through the
shield of condence in God; my weakness is just what His
strength is made perfect in. What so weak as death? Christ
crucied through weakness. What so contemptible to man
as the cross? But it is the wisdom and the power of God.
When we own ourselves weak, then we have power from
God to overcome Satan. He is a most subtle enemy, he
knows how to deal with man, and is much cleverer than the
wisest of men. erefore when you see learned and clever
men give way to folly, you must remember that Satan is
behind it all; they are using his strength, and he is laughing
at them. If the shield of faith is down, the ery darts will
get in.
How blessed to know we have Christ to go through
everything with, and, having him, all the evil in the world
cannot overcome us. It is not “Because I go to the Father,
you shall overcome the world “; but “ I have overcome it.”
Still we have to be overcomers in a world where Satan, as
the power of evil, was never more actively employed than
at present. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit. Having full condence in God, we can hold up
the head, because we have for an helmet salvation. First,
godliness of walk; second, peace of mind; third, condence
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in God and salvation covering him. e believer can now
be active. He takes the sword of the Spirit, and ghts,
shielded from all the attacks of Satan. Now, there can be
activity in using the sword of the word.
But we do not always judge ourselves; we do not always
look to see whether we are walking in a practical sense of
being all for God, so that God can be all for us when in
conict. e rst great thing, if we are to be active for the
Lord, is being right with the Lord. Look at Paul, always
self-judging, keeping under his body; always completely
for the Lord, and the Lord completely for him. Ever in the
secret of the Lord’s presence, he got the power of God for
service-the strength of God made perfect in his weakness.
He was not hindered, or distracted by circumstances,
whatever came; he never drew back; he had the secret of
the Lord, and could go out in service, according to what
His presence and glory required. Herein do I exercise
myself to have a conscience void, etc.
“ Praying always,” etc. We now get the word of God
and prayer. Mary sat at the feet of the Lord, and heard His
word. en, in Luke, the disciples say to Him, “ Lord, teach
us how to pray “; again, “ Men ought to pray always and not
to faint.” e apostles appointed deacons to serve tables,
that they might give themselves continually to prayer,
etc. When the Lord was in an agony of prayer, Peter was
sleeping instead of watching, and so went out and denied
his Lord, whilst the Lord witnessed a good confession; and
when the soldiers came to take Him, He had calm power.
If you want to know what prayer is, see the Lord agonizing
in prayer in Gethsemane: that is prayer-no hurry or bustle,
but the soul perfectly calm with God.
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Has God given us to be associated with His own
interests? Do I not yearn for the conversion of sinners?
Do I not yearn to see a saint representing Christ more
perfectly? I must go to God about it in earnest prayer and
supplication, watching with all perseverance for the answer.
e same word that is used for the praying of the Lord in
Gethsemane is used by Paul here-agonizing in prayer for
saints. We get this earnestness in supplication from being
in the interests of God, and knowing that His interests
have to be carried on in earnest supplication and prayer,
watching thereunto. I have to get with God in prayer, if
preaching the gospel. Prayer is the expression of entire
dependence on His power; not simply asking God about
things, but agonizing for the answer. People think that the
apostle Paul is beyond, sailing over the heads of all others;
but what is his language? “ I was with you in weakness and
many tears.”
Faith goes with God’s aairs to God, so interested with
Him about them, that we make them our own. God takes
the people delivered by His Son out of the hands of Satan
for His own servants, saying, I want Christ to be gloried
on the earth, and you are to do it. We may be poor feeble
things, but we have the same interests as Christ, and His
strength is made perfect in our utter weakness. What a
blessed place to be in! Being made Jehovah’s host, to battle
against His enemies and Satan. ose in the forefront
of the battle need more the whole armor, because more
exposed to the ery darts, and more in the way of the
enemy’s snares and dangers; those who lag behind are not
in the same danger. But more strength will be given to meet
and overcome everything, if there is perfect dependence
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on and faith in God, as in John, “ is is the victory that
overcometh the world, our faith,”
John 5:2. But in no place need one be more unceasing in
prayer and watchfulness than in the forefront of the battle.
In bearing witness for Christ, we rst have the helmet
of salvation from Christ. How little we know how to watch
unto prayer! Is all that you and I pass through in the day
turned into prayer, and supplication in the Spirit, watching
thereunto for all saints? Do you nd you are continuous
in prayer? Do you nd your heart going up in earnest
agonizing supplications for the saints? Nothing I nd so
dicult, and nothing so tests my heart, as to the right way
to think of others, as asking, Is my soul so interested in
others that I can have continuous and earnest supplication
going up for them? To do so, the soul must be right with
God. I must think of myself else, and that stops intercession
for others.
It is an amazing thing to walk with God in the light,
so as to be able to take up His interests; provided with
this armor, which we have to keep on, to stand against
Satan. Satan has no strength against those who are faithful
to Christ. It is not leaning on human wisdom. Satan is
much cleverer than all the learned men down here. You
will always nd it is where redemption is not fully rested in
that Satan plays all his tricks. If the nished work of Christ
were really known, and full and complete redemption
rested in, superstition and ritualism would have no ground
to stand on; the foundation of it all is, that something has
to be done by man to make the soul right with God. If
Christ has settled the whole question for me, I do not want
any of their means to settle it. e Puseyites can speak
beautifully of the incarnation; but they cannot bear to
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hear of the nished work, or of Tour place with God being
once and forever settled by redemption. e sophistries of
rationalism and indelity cannot tell on a soul that knows
Christ, and has Him dwelling in the heart.
Oh! beloved friends, may the Lord keep us in more
entire dependence and unbroken communion with God,
ever walking in the presence of God, in the light, till that
blessed day, so soon coming, when Christ will rise up and
take us to Himself!
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62802
Christ and His Reconciliation
Part 1
THERE are two ways in which we may approach the
gospel of the grace of God: rstly, the conscience convicted,
and seeing how God has met the condition of man, as in
Rom. 1-3; and, secondly, the counsels of God from which
it all ows. We may trace Him up from the poor sinner in
his need, or we may see the grace from Him owing down.
In this chapter we have much of God’s thoughts about
Christ Himself, as in Heb. 1, where He is presented to us
as “ heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds,”
etc., “ upholding all things by the word of his power,” “
when he had by himself purged our sins.” It begins with
this wonderful counsel of God in grace coming to meet
the need, notwithstanding all He was in Himself. In the
chapter before us in Colossians we have the glory of this
work in Christ; then its extent is shown; and what is so
precious is that when we begin at the other end (conscience
and the sense of need) we reach the same point; but there
is a fullness and a strength gathered in looking at the place
and purpose of God from all eternity, beyond what we get
from the need of the sinner being met. It is quite needful
in whatever way it is brought to us, that the conscience
should be reached, because God cannot reveal His glory
to unawakened man. Understanding must come through
the conscience, as in the case of the woman of Samaria.
Her spiritual knowledge was gained through the exercise
of her soul with Jesus. Where there is not a living work in
the conscience, there never can be a link between the soul
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and the living person of the Son of God. is always is
the beginning. e word of God reaches the conscience,
and sets it in the presence of the living God. He has made
that one step essential to the sinner. is woman heard the
Lord speaking to herself. at is the all-important thing,
and there can be no truth in the soul till then. What is all
the Bible worth to me if my soul is a stranger to God? If
we bring in all the purposes of God, then they must bear
upon the conscience this way. A sense of God’s love to the
soul, etc., will never be truly realized till it is apprehended
as owing downwards from His glory.
We will look into these verses which succeed the prayer
relating to the saints’ growth in grace, etc. (v. 12) (for it is
well for sinners to see the state of the saints, if only to know
that they are not saints), “ Giving thanks unto the Father,”
etc. Here is the certain settled knowledge of being t for
the inheritance of the saints in light. en we are t for
heavenly glory! is made us t for that.
(1) e extent and nature of this tness-made light in the
Lord. “ Ye were darkness, but now are ye light “: and there
is the full consciousness of it, for there is thanksgiving. e
saints themselves have that knowledge and apprehension
of being t. See the condition of the saints-” Delivered
from the power of Satan, and translated into the kingdom
of God’s dear Son.” e Christian, can say, I was darkness
but am now in the place of Christ as to my standing before
God.
(2) e means by which we have been brought into this
condition: “ rough his blood “; and not only redemption,
but the sins forgiven. I was a slave, but am now a redeemed
soul in the kingdom of the Son. It is accomplished between
Him and the Father; a settled thing in bringing a poor
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lost sinner and setting him in the presence of God. Had I
any part in it? No. He did it through His blood. When we
simply believe, we always know it is by Christ’s blood we
are purged. You may not be sure you are a believer; I do not
ask you if you know this: but do you believe that Jesus is the
Son of God? If the soul rests on Jesus, there is not a cloud;
but if on yourself, you may well be uncertain, because you
have got into the mud of your own hearts. But in Jesus
there is nothing but blessedness: light, nothing but light;
every step of His path perfect light. Faith is believing what
Christ Himself is; therefore it immediately breaks out in
this passage about the glorious object, “ Who is the image of
the invisible God, the rstborn of every creature.” ere are
distinct parts of Christ’s glory here brought out. e Lord
Jesus created all, and therefore He is the Head of all; not
only as Adam having dominion, and everything brought
to him to name, but “ by him’ were all things created “; and
He must be above everything and everybody: “dominions,
principalities, powers,” etc. en there is another character
of headship in verse 18: “Firstborn from the dead.” None
could go lower than death, but we see Him going down into
it, and rising up from it, and He lls all things. Everything
is created by Him and for Him; and, mark, He takes them
as man. “ What is man? “ etc. (Psa. 8). Mark another thing
also in this verse 18. He is Head of His body, the church;
she is His helpmate, His bride.
e next thing is, we nd His inheritance deled-God
dishonored-the world ruined-and man guilty! e angels
have not kept their rst estate above, and man has not kept
his state below-none have kept it. But He must be gloried
in bringing it all back again, and the rst thing was for
God to be honored, for He has been dishonored; therefore
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He must make peace through the blood of His cross. In
making atonement there were in the type two goats to be
taken, one lot for the Lord, and one for the people. e
goat on which the Lord’s lot fell was to be oered for a
sin-oering; but the goat on which the lot fell on behalf of
the people had to be presented alive before the Lord, so as
to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness; and that
goat was to bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not
inhabited; and he shall let go the goat into the wilderness.
Has God been gloried then? Yes, fully gloried, God’s
requirements more than met. And who do I nd has come
in to repair the breach? It is the Son of His love. I nd it all
done. And where could God ever have been gloried as in
the work of His Son? He gloried God. “ I have gloried
thee on the earth.” Could Adam have so gloried Him in
Paradise? Such love for a sinner could only have been shown
in the redemption of man. e mercy-seat is sprinkled
with blood. God’s lot, not the people’s lot, is a token of
perfect peace being made with God through the blood of
the cross: yes, everything reconciled in heaven and in earth:
it does not say under the earth, that is not mentioned here.
us we have the basis of everything ransomed to be with
God and for God forever and ever. It can never stand on
creation title; though heaven and earth will stand in the
presence of God, but it will be in redemption title alone. “
We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a.
new earth.”
“ You hath he reconciled,” etc. is is a thing to give
thanks for now. If I am to return in heart and mind to
God, I must be reconciled. God saw the need, and from
the fullness and perfectness of His own love He did it all.
“ We have known and believed,” etc. Such is the condition
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of the Christian; and if you ask a proof of it, this is the
answer- He laid down His life. “ You that were sometime
alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled.” Not only have we a wicked
nature in us (“ children of wrath “), but more than this, we
have done wrong, thought wrong, spoken wrong; and then,
besides that, our hearts are alienated, the sure consequence
of sin. Did you ever see a servant or a child do wrong, and
glad to meet his master or parent afterward? Does not the
sense of having done wrong keep them away from those
against whom they have sinned? Yes. Alienation of heart
there is, because we do not want God to come and say
to us, as to Adam, “ Where art thou? “ ere is rst, lust,
then the commission of sin, then the mind turned away
and at enmity. en, in this condition, God comes to bring
it back. How can He do it? Ruined, unhappy, wretched as I
am, if God is for me, I can come to Him. Grace can come
and make me happy. God comes in grace to win me back
when thus alienated, and tells me He has dealt about my
sins. is will bring me back. Law convicts, but never wins
back-never. It is as though we said to God, My conscience
makes me dislike you-makes me unhappy with you: take
away my sins; and I will come back. is certainly is in
substance what the gospel of God says to us both about our
sin and about His grace.
And will He half reconcile? No, He has completely
done it: “ In the body of his esh through death.” ere
were you under your sins. Christ came as a real true man
about these sins that are distressing you and keeping you
away from God. I see Him made sin, bearing to take the
dreadful cup of God’s wrath: all the sins laid upon Him
like the scapegoat: Jesus Christ coming in a body, not
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with a message that it shall be done. No, the thing is done.
God has visited sinners in love. I meet God by faith there
where He had met me; and I see in the body of Christ’s
esh through death, He has put sin entirely away. I have
nothing to do with it. Who could do anything to add to
such a work? Men may wag their heads at it in derision,
but the work is done fully and completely. Christ is gone
up; and He is gone to present you holy, and unblamable,
and unreprovable in His sight. Was there any mistake, any
uncertainty? No, the soul knows and feels that God has
done it. If He has me in His sight, He must have me holy
and unblamable and unreprovable, and He has made me
so: and when He nished, the work, He sat down. “ After
he had oered one sacrice for sins, forever sat down on
the right hand of God.” Well then may it be said, “Giving
thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet,” etc. e
work is done; and now God sends “ to declare,” as the
apostle says, “ his righteousness.” Did you accomplish it?
Did you do anything towards it? Nothing, but your sins.
He has made peace. Our souls then can rest in this blessed
peace. And it is not only that I have this peace: no, God
has peace for me; and the nearer I get to God, the more
I see the fullness and perfectness of this peace. It is God’s
peace, and I have peace in it. All there is according to His
own perfectness. He rests in Christ’s work for my sin. If
He had nothing more to require, what can I require? All
the ground of my connection with God is that His love has
been manifested in putting away my sins; and I have peace
in that. If you think you must satisfy God as a creditor, you
do not know God. God is love, and He is known through
the cross. If I own God as my Savior and Lord, it marks all
my character. I have new objects and new motives. I may
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do the same things, harmless in themselves perhaps, but I
have a dierent motive in doing them when I know God.
It is not what a man does that marks his character, but why
he does it. When I know God in Christ, I go and do right
things because I love God. I may be outwardly correct and
moral, but the spring and motive may be all wrong at once.
A child may see if you say He has translated me from the
power of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. If I
have peace with God, there is nothing between Him and
me. e peace is made. It is a thing accomplished.
Now, are you reconciled to God? Grace, and glory, and
love then are brought before your soul by the Holy Ghost;
and you will be changed into the same image from glory to
glory, etc. If I know I am to be like Him at the day of His
appearing, I shall be purifying myself, “ even as he is pure “
now. May the Lord work in our hearts by His own Spirit,
conforming us who believe into the image of Jesus, soon to
be conformed to the Firstborn in glory.
PART 2
Besides the Person of the Lord coming out fully in this
chapter as Head of His body the church, and Creator of all
things, the main subject that is developed in the epistle is
life, much more in its detail than in the Ephesians, where
we have rather the glories of the church of God in contrast
with the previous heathen, or even Jewish, state. Here, in
Colossians, it is the life of Christ in us, and does not go as
far in regard to privileges. e apostle gives us the saints
risen with Christ, and then takes this life and shows what
it is. But in doing so he puts the Christian fully in his place
with God in that life. e Christian is taken as indeed
risen, but yet on the earth, just simply having life yet not
sitting in heavenly places. He puts the Christian in the
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power of resurrection, and the life of Christ in resurrection
in the Christian. But heaven is looked at still as a matter
of hope: you are looking up to it-” your life is hid with
Christ in God”; but you are not seated there yet; whereas
in Ephesians we are there in Christ. In Colossians he looks
at what the power of that life is, and the Christian as risen
put in this place before God; and then he shows the power
of this life in the details of daily life.
“ And have put on the new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him.” e
knowledge which we have in this new life is renewed after
the image of God Himself. A life has come in which has
overcome the world, and I get into the new place which
Christ is in as man before God. us we have Christ’s place,
but still down here; then what the power and character of
that life are practically, as passing through this world just
as Christ did. He was properly a heavenly man passing
through the world, overcoming everything, and having all
His joy in His Father, and He puts us into that life, both as
to its acceptance and as to its power. (You do not get here
all the privileges that ow from it.) Consequently the only
proper place of one looked at as risen with Christ is the
place He has before God.
You have the Head largely brought out here, the object
and source of it all. “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily.” In Ephesians we are the “fullness of
him that lleth all in all,” for we are looked at as His body.
On the one side all the fullness of the Godhead dwells
in Him, a real man, and on the other you are complete
in Him and have everything in Him. e fullness of the
Godhead has been revealed in Christ, and we are complete
in Him before God. He sets us in connection with Him
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in virtue of Christ who is at God’s right hand, and we are
waiting for the hope which is laid up in heaven.
“ If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and
be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” Speaking
of the Christian in Christ, you never get any “ if.” I could
not say, “If I was at C---,” for here I am. ere is no “if “ to
your place in Christ, no condemnation. But there is another
aspect in which we may look at the Christian; he is running
a race towards glory. You have it especially in the Hebrews:
the saints are viewed there as on earth, Christ the Son of
God and man as in heaven; and so you do not get the truth
there of their being united to Christ-the body to its Head.
Whenever the Christian is looked at in his path through
this world, then the “ ifs “ come in; only with them you get
the blessed testimony to the faithfulness of God in carrying
us through to heaven. With acceptance and the value of
Christ’s blood, there are no “ifs “; but when I am running
the race, then I say I must get to heaven. When Israel was
redeemed out of Egypt, there was no “if” then: so the one
oering has perfected forever them that are sanctied. I
am “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
“; but why do I want to be kept? I nd with this revelation
that I have a need of being kept, so that I am constantly in
need of being entirely dependent every instant upon this
grace; but with it the positive revelation that the grace will
not fail. erefore dependence is maintained, and it is very
blessed to be kept in dependence. A man has to learn his
entire dependence, as the Lord says, “Without me ye can
do nothing.” is man does not say, but thinks he can do a
great deal; and so we have to learn dependence, but at the
same time the blessed truth of the unfailing faithfulness of
God. “He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous “;
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He always has His eyes on them for blessing, though He
may have to chasten them.
“Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
Why do you say that? Because the devil would pluck them
out if he could. Before we come into the eect and result of
all in glory, it is the wisdom of God that I should be called
to lean upon Him. So He puts one through this process
where one’s faith is constantly exercised; and then I have to
learn too that He never fails me. I have to learn myself and
to learn God. It is painful to learn oneself, but then there is
the blessed truth of the unspeakable condescension of God
in taking notice of our state and circumstances. Interested
in us every moment, as I said before, “ he withdraweth
not his eyes from the righteous.” Intercourse with God
is maintained; it is the path we have to walk in as being
redeemed. Supposing we were to give up Christ and have
done with Him, then we should not have life or peace
or anything. Some of the Hebrews seem to have been in
danger of drawing back and are warned accordingly.
We will see where God has set the Christian. Seeing we
are risen with Christ is more than seeing we are forgiven.
Forgiveness is the perfect clearing away of every spot (the
rst thing we need). Guilt is all gone in the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, where we had no part but
our sins and the wickedness that crucied Him. “ Without
shedding of blood there is no remission.” If we were not
perfected in conscience before God, Christ must have
suered often. What is to put sin away if it is not put away
now? I may hate it and judge it more (that is the work
of the Spirit in me), but I speak of the putting it away
once for all. “ Now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrice of himself.” He
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came the rst time to bear sin; when He comes the second
time, He will have nothing to do with sin, He comes to
receive us to Himself. We stand between the rst coming
of Christ, in which He wrought redemption on the cross
and gave Himself to put away sin, and the second coming
of Christ, when in virtue of that work He comes to receive
believers to Himself; and the Holy Ghost is come down
meanwhile to give me the full sense of what He did the
rst time, and the bright and blessed hope of what He will
do the second time. We have nothing between, except of
course the operations of the Holy Ghost, for the work of
the Spirit is going on, most blessed in its place, to lead us
on to grow up unto Him in all things; but, as regards the
work of Christ, He sits in the presence of God because all
is done. ere is no progress in the value of Christ’s blood,
nor in the righteousness of God which we are in Christ.
e rst thing then is redemption-a work which delivers
us from the place we were in, and brings us into the new
place that Christ is in before God as man. God takes away
the sins, and gives us all Christ besides. It belongs to us as
being in Christ, though in this epistle it is more Christ in
us.
As for the glories of Christ that are to come-all things
created by Him and for Him, and He taking them all up
as man-we read that He is going to reconcile the whole
state and order of things in heaven and earth; but you “
hath he reconciled.” e Christian does not wait till then.
I am perfectly reconciled to God. ere I was a stranger
and an enemy, away from Him; and here I am, my sins
entirely gone, and my heart, by this wondrous revelation
of love, brought back to delight in God. I am reconciled;
and a great and blessed thing it is. If I am reconciled to a
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person with whom I have been at enmity, there is nothing
any longer between us; if there is anything, then I am not
reconciled. If you have an after-thought, a misgiving, “
after all I do not know whether it is all right,” then you are
not reconciled; the heart is not free.
But we do by faith get perfect liberty with God through
the precious blood of Christ, and the power and presence
of the Spirit of God giving us the consciousness of it in our
souls. “You hath he reconciled.” He makes this dierence
between us and reconciling the things around us, which
will not be till the new heavens and new earth. e state
of things will be reconciled, which is not so now, for the
world has rejected Christ, and will never see Him in that
way again; but we, believers, are reconciled to God. It is
God’s estimate of Christ’s blood that is the measure of my
acceptance with Himself; it gives me peace. I have been
reconciled to God in the consciousness of the perfect
love that gave Christ; but beside that I am brought into
perfect favor with God, the favor which rests upon Christ.
It is not merely that the old things are swept away, and
my sins washed out in the blood of Christ, but the perfect
love of God is revealed in doing it. I come back to God in
unbounded condence and innite love. is is the place of
the Christian. Christ, being in us, teaches us, and conducts
down into our souls this love of God; and the heart is thus
reconciled in blessed peace and righteousness, resting in
the consciousness of His perfect grace towards us.
If you look up to God and get into His holy presence, do
you feel perfect liberty with Him? Poor unworthy creatures
we certainly are in ourselves (and in the light I see more
how worthless I am); but God spared not His own Son.
ere is no doubt or cloud as to that which He is for our
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souls, because it has been perfectly revealed to us in the
word of God, as it has been proved in Christ Himself and
the cross.
Redemption and forgiveness is the rst thing;
reconciliation is the second. en mark another thing,
beloved friends: “who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness.” e world is blinded; where God is not known,
they are in pitch darkness. ey may be very clever on
everything else; but this has nothing whatever to do with
God. Man’s mental powers may be great; he may be full
of science; but the moment his breath goes forth, all that
is gone. “ e light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not “ -that is, on Christ’s coming into
this world. Wherever the light does come in, wherever
God is known, what is the eect? It reaches the conscience.
If man’s mind were capable of judging what God is, or of
knowing what He ought to be, then he would be master
of the subject. Do you put God in that place? When God
comes in, it is to put me in my place, and Himself in His
place, as with the woman of Samaria in John 4. All true
intelligence of God comes in by the conscience. e heart,
no doubt, is attracted by His grace; but all true knowledge
of Him comes in by the conscience, though it may be
developed afterward. It is not only light but unspeakable
love has been revealed, and He has delivered me fully and
brought me into the very place in which Christ is before
God. I am “ translated into the kingdom of the Son of his
love.” It is the operation of grace which does come in, and
makes us know what we are-true moral light in the soul;
but the eect is to take me out of darkness, and put me “
into the kingdom of the Son of his love.”
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ere is another thing in which many feel more
diculty. “ Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light.” Here we are told of meetness. For what?
For the inheritance of the saints in light-that is, in glory.
But, as a Christian, I am not looking to get at it-He “hath
made us meet.” May I not say, See what a work God has
done! Yea, I am to give thanks for it too. e thief was t
to be Christ’s companion in paradise that day. Christ was
there for him on the cross; and the value of the work of
Christ was proved in taking that man straight that day to be
His own companion above. Did God put him in unt? Of
course not. Fit for what? Fit to be with Christ in paradise.
Exactly so am I, having “ redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins,” then reconciled to God, and
delivered from the power of darkness, and made meet to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. All
that is done, that it may be known now by faith. By grace
I do value the death of Christ; but God values it a great
deal more. ere is where my sin can be fully estimated:
I hate it, and confess it; but after all a holy God sees it a
great deal more deeply than I do, however sincere I may be.
God knows all my sin, and He knows that Christ has put
it away. I am left here for two things-to learn a great deal
about myself, which is ever humbling; and to learn of God
in Christ the unutterable patience and love and goodness
of God.
“ For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do
not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be
lled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding.” I have not merely, as in the law,
what a man ought to be; I have now been taught of God,
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and know what God is, and that I am His child-brought
to Him by redemption. He says that you are a partaker of
His holiness; He is making you enjoy His love: now you
must not do anything that would hinder your enjoying it,
or that would grieve the Spirit. You are brought into the
light, and everything that does not suit the light must go.
It is not merely avoiding crimes and positive sins, but you
are to be lled with the knowledge of His will. God has
a thought, and a mind, and a path, for His children; and
this is Christ’s path, that we should walk in His steps. “ He
that saith he abideth in him, ought himself to walk even as
he walked.” Did you ever see Christ avenge Himself? Did
you ever see selshness working in Him? or trying to get
rich, or seeking for pleasure or amusement? en you go
and walk like Him, as a person redeemed to God by the
precious blood of Christ. It is a great mercy that God has a
will about us and a path for us.
I am the way,” says Christ. “ He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” It
is following His steps, walking in the spirit and mind in
which He walked. “ I have set the Lord always before me.”
You will see how the apostle brings that out, “at ye
might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” Here
am I called to-day and to-morrow to walk worthy of the
Lord- nothing that I do, say, or think, which should not be
worthy of Christ Himself. Here it is all growth: I have got
the life. I say to a child, “ You go and walk worthy of your
family “; but if he has no sense of what his family is, it is no
use telling him to walk worthy of it; but if he has the sense
of the integrity and standing of his family, then he knows
how to walk worthy of it. “In all things behaving ourselves
as the ministers of God.” You get the word “worthy” in
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three ways. In essalonians, “Walk worthy of God, who
hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.” In Ephesians
it is the same thing practically: “Walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called.” Here, in Colossians, it is,
“Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” Did He ever
do His own will in anything? No, He did His Father’s. Are
you content never to do your own will, but to take Christ’s
will as that which is to be the spring and motive of all you
do? en communion is not interrupted; and it is joy and
blessing beyond all human thought. You say, “ Am I never
to do what I like? “ Like! Do you like not to be always with
Christ? is detects the workings of the esh.
en comes the activity, the growing acquaintance
with God, “ Increasing in [or rather, by] the knowledge of
God.” e full joy of heaven is the knowledge of God. If
I am going after the world, will this be increasing by the
knowledge of God? It tests what I like? Do you like to be
away from God, and to do your own will sometimes? But
He says, “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law
is within my heart.” Do you delight to do it? Oh, what a
thought it is, that in this dark world God has perfectly
revealed Himself in Christ, nay more that He dwells in
us! “ Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Christ, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God.” ere is God by His
Spirit.
Now mark how this works. “ Strengthened with all
might, according to his glorious power.” I shall nd
plenty of diculties in the way, and temptations of all
kinds-possibly death, as has often been the case in some
countries; but we are strengthened with all might. ere
is the strength. I have been brought into close relationship
with God, and there I get this power. Unto what? “Unto all
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patience.” is sounds a poor thing, but you will nd it is
just what tries you.
“ Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be
perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” And again, “ e
signs of an apostle were wrought in me in all patience.”
Are you always patient? Do you not want divine power for
it? I may want a setting right in the church of God, or in
the Lord’s work, or in a thousand things; but I must have
patience. I must wait on God.
Supposing my will is not at work, there comes meekness
and gentleness. Even things that try, I can take gently and
meekly and quietly with others, and then he adds, if that
is the case, my life is in full display before God, and there
is the enjoyment of God. I enter into all this blessedness, I
am not merely “ made meet,” but “ giving thanks,” because
I am in the positive and blessed enjoyment of all. When
I am walking in patience of heart and long-suering, my
soul is with God. I get the blessed enjoyment of what He
is, and I grow by the knowledge of Him; “ To him that hath
shall be given.” If I am honest, I say, “ I do not know what
His will is “; perhaps there is something in myself that I
have not yet detected. Here I have all these exercises; but
it is in the sense of the divine favor resting on me with the
consciousness of a child of God. e more a child is with
his father, and delights in him, of course the better he will
grow up, understanding what his father likes. It is so with
us before God.
Later on we are told, we “ have put o the old man
with his deeds “; and then it is added, “ Put on, therefore,
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suering
“-the graces belonging to the Christian. You must have
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475
the consciousness of what you are as the elect of God, and
then put them on in that blessed consciousness. It was thus
Christ ever walked as man.
“ Strengthened unto all patience.” You will nd there
is nothing that tests the strength of your soul like waiting
for God. We think we must do things that we think right;
we must rather learn to wait. Take Saul, for example, in
2 Sam. 13. He ought to have waited, and said, I can do
nothing. We have but a little while more to go through the
wilderness, but it is with God.
And now, beloved, I only ask, but I earnestly ask, you,
Are your souls free with God, reconciled to Him? Are you
before God in virtue of the cross? or will you pretend to
stand before Him as a Judge? “ Enter not into judgment
with thy servant,” says the Psalmist, “ for in thy sight shall
no man living be justied.” He who will be the Judge rst
died on the cross as the Savior. When I appear before Him,
I nd the Person who Himself put away my sins, and in
whom I am now resting.
e cross of Christ is where everything is morally
perfected. ere the whole question of good and evil was
solved. e world despises the cross; and God meant it to
be a despicable thing-a gibbet. “ But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise, that no
esh should glory in his presence.” ere, on the basest thing
in the world, He has hung salvation. But the moment I am
inside, I nd everything in the cross-the uttermost sin of
man in enmity against God, all the power of Satan, but the
perfect man in Christ. “ e prince of this world cometh,
and hath nothing in me.” But, on the other side, God is
there in perfect righteousness against sin, and in perfect
love for the sinner; and as you go on, you nd that the
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476
new leavens and the new earth-all things in short-will be
perfected by the cross. ere I have perfect righteousness
against sin, and perfect love towards the sinner; and I nd
peace and rest, not merely rest but God’s rest. For He rests
in His love, in the blessedness of those He has brought
near in Christ, and He will bring them into His rest in
glory.
e Lord give you fully to see the place where He has
brought you, and, in the consciousness of your relationship
with God, to set it forth, and walk worthy of the Lord
unto all pleasing. Surely we have to give “ thanks unto the
Father,” when we see the unutterable love that is in it all:
He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us all. en follows the suited Christian walk. e Lord
give you to see, beloved, with the eyes of faith what God
was and wrought in Christ, so that you should be before
God according to it, as reconciled to Him, and then seek to
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in
every good work, and increasing by the knowledge of God.
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477
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e Freshness of Faith
1 essalonians 1
THERE is great power of walk shown forth in this
chapter. It brought persecution, but the word had power
in them. e world’s hatred of them was a proof that there
was testimony to the truth. ere was the witness of it
constantly brought before others, as well as this inward life
in power and suering. ere were faith, hope, charity (or
love) (v. 3), these three great elements of the power of life
in exercise. ey were laying hold of things unseen, which
was faith. ey were waiting in hope for what was to come.
And there was the activity of love. ey were not going
on listlessly, but divine energy was manifested in their
everyday life. When patience was exercised, it was the “
patience of hope,” and what they had to do was done in
faith. How strong a link this was between them and every
other Christian! When the living power was seen, they
were recognized as God’s children: the stamp of God was
upon them. We know that divine counsels and thoughts
of grace were the spring of it all; but there was that which
could be seen.
e word was in the Holy Ghost on hearts; it was not in
word only, for there was power. ere must be unhesitating
condence in the things laid hold of; then there is power.
If I say merely, “ I suppose these things are true,” this is
not assurance. But they received the gospel “ in much
assurance.” e result was complete distinctness from the
world, which became their enemies. is was not the most
pleasant part. ey had “ much aiction “; but then there
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was also “ joy in the Holy Ghost.” To the Corinthians he
says, “ As the suerings of Christ abound in us, so our
consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”
ese essalonians were living in another world after
the word came to them in power. ere was a divine spring in
them that nothing could touch. In other places they might
be getting on more quietly; but there was power here, and
all they did was connected with God: all was done under
God. is is what we have to seek. en the testimony
went forth, they scarcely knew how; but people saw there
was this link with God. ey did not trouble themselves
about what was said of them. “ Your faith to Godward is
spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything. For
they themselves show of us,” etc. at is, the world became
a constant witness of what Paul’s preaching was. It could be
seen from the conduct of those who received it.
If we were all thoroughly faithful, the world would begin
to talk about it, and there would be persecution, no doubt.
“ Let your light so shine before men,” etc.; not, let your
good works shine, but “ your light.” “ Holding forth the
word of life,” etc. ey saw not only what the essalonians
were doing, but they took knowledge of the new truth Paul
was preaching to them. ey “ turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from
heaven.”
First, there was a total break with all they were going
on in before. Not only did they abandon all the wickedness
the heathen were living in, but next they served “ the living
and true God.” ey had a new center of all they did. ey
“ turned to God,” the living God. “ ey turned … from
idols.” e characteristic of these was something for and
suited the esh. Men were looking to that which the esh
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likes, and averting what the esh did not like. ere was
no connection with God, nor link for the conscience in
having to do with idols; but a license for lust, and all that
is agreeable to the esh. ere are those now who look to
their idols to help them to pleasure and money: where is
the moral dierence between stocks and stones, and what
is of a more rened kind now in our day? e essalonians
turned to God, who gave perfect present blessedness. He
is a true God for the conscience as well as for the heart.
e world at once sees if God is the center of a person.
e heart is not morbid, but thoroughly happy in God; it
has perfect satisfaction in Him. is is what makes such
a dierence in life. When a man is happy-happy in that
which is eternal, what he cannot be deprived of, and which
prevents his desiring other things- this is the spring of all
he has to do. He acts for the glory of God, whether eating
or drinking, or whatever he does.
Besides this new spring and center for the present,
there is something else waited for which gives a form
and character to this blessing, “ waiting for his Son from
heaven.” A most extraordinary thing to do! Waiting for
God’s Son! that is, all our hopes are clean out of this world.
Do not expect anything from earth, but look for something
from heaven, and this God’s Son Himself, “ even Jesus
which delivered us from the wrath to come.” is forms
a background in all the scene. ere is a wrath to come to
get out of. Not merely was man to be judged, but the whole
scene is to be judged. When Christ returns to this earth,
it will be to judge it; and they had nothing to say to the
judgment. ey were looking for Christ. ey knew there
was wrath coming, but they had nothing to say to it. ose
who were looking for Christ were entirely delivered “ from
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480
the wrath to come.” is gives a very distinct position to
the Christian.
ere was of course very little depth of doctrine among
the essalonians. ey had been only just converted; and
this letter was written to them directly after. But there is a
great deal of the present living power of faith. “ Your faith
groweth exceedingly,” 2 ess. 1. Truth, when a person is
walking in the spiritual joy and energy of the Holy Ghost
after being newly converted, is very dierent from people
holding dull doctrine merely. Here is the historical fact of
wrath passed. At Christ’s rst coming He had taken up the
whole question of wrath; and they had turned to God who
had laid all their iniquities on another. A divine Person
had taken all upon Himself-put all away entirely. All the
question is totally and nally settled: sin is borne once,
and He who bore it is raised from the dead. is is what
proves my sin put away before God. e fact that God will
judge the world, by that Man whom He hath ordained in
resurrection, is what gives me the consciousness of being
entirely free from it, because it proves He is risen from the
dead.
is sets me in perfect freedom; and it does more,
because it links me up with Christ in heaven. I know He
is coming. Why? Because I know Him there. is divine
Person before my soul-this Christ-the Man who, innitely
interested about my sins, died for me, He is waiting in
heaven. It is now the patience of Christ. He is expecting
until His enemies are made His footstool. So we are
waiting. Our interests are entirely linked up with His, and
thus we are waiting for Him, while He is waiting to come.
ere are three ways in which Christ’s coming is put
before our souls in Scripture. First, it is the fulllment of
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481
our hope. We are waiting, our bodies to be raised, when we
are to see Him and be like Him. is gives a strong living
link that takes the heart out of present things-one object
before our souls, a living Man who is coming again. We are
really waiting for something: for what? For the Person who
has so loved us. is is connected with two great systems,
the government of God, and the church of God.
Government under Christ is going to be set up. All
things are to be put under His feet. is applies to the
appearing of the New Testament, the day of the Lord, if
you look at it as to wrath-” the brightness of his coming.”
I shall be happy long before that. Why then do I long for
His appearing? Because Christ will then have His rights.
It will be the setting up of divine power in goodness, the
setting up of divine righteousness too in goodness. is
will be the liberty of glory. We have the liberty of grace
now, but not His glory. We wait for that. e great center
of all is Christ taking His rights. He has not these now. He
has all His personal glory; but He will come in His own
glory and in His Father’s and of the holy angels. is is
the heavenly part of the government of God, but there is
that on earth also which will be the manifestation of God’s
power to put everything in order where Christ has been
crucied and cast out.
Government also applies to the church, to the saints. Are
we not under government? To be sure we are responsible.
If we know to do good and do it not, we are guilty. We are
to walk even as He walked. He was the display of divine
life in a man. Not merely is there in Him the perfectness
of a man before God, but the perfectness of God before
man: therefore His example is far more than the law for us:
Another thing is the Holy Ghost given. We are responsible
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482
for gifts bestowed by the Holy Ghost (as in the parable of
the talents). If I have any service as a Christian, I must do
it or I shall be chastened. He takes away what He has given
if I do not use it. All this is connected with government.
As His sons we are all alike saved; liable to judgment as
regards our wrong ways, but in blessedness. e “day of the
Lord” will be deliverance for all those waiting for Him.
ere will be the display of all previously gone through.
We shall appear with Him. We always nd responsibility
connected with the appearing.
Another, third thing, entirely distinct, is connected
with the church’s proper blessedness. He has taken it up
and given it that same place as Himself. We are wrapped
up with Christ as part of Himself-entirely outside, or
rather inside, the question of His kingdom. No question
of government as to that, but the outgoing of the heart of
Christ-loved as Himself.
It is as connected with this we are caught up to meet
Him- His heart identied with mine-not a thought
moving His heart that does not touch mine. is promise
is given us in John 14. “ I will come and receive you.” ere
is no thought of anything to do with the world, judgment,
or government there, but one single thing, “ I will come
and receive you unto myself.” e secondary and inferior
thing is the inheritance that we shall have.
Caught up into the Father’s house rst, we get the
inheritance as Christ, and with Christ. “ We have borne
the image of the earthy,” and we “ shall also bear the image
of the heavenly “; no question of degrees of blessedness
or rewards, but all conformed to His image-He the “
rstborn of many brethren.” e next thing is, we come
into the Father’s delight, as Christ is-loved with the same
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483
love as He is (the full enjoyment in immediate presence);
it is given us now in spirit-” thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me.” We shall enjoy this blessedness along with
Christ Himself, and be with Him forever. “ So shall we
ever be with the Lord,” 1 ess. 4.
ere is, of course, a great inheritance, but not a word is
here about that. “ Comfort one another with these words.”
ere is rest in this prospect. We cannot help resting there;
and when He comes, we shall come with Him. Our joy is
to be with Himself. We shall be displayed, but this is not
our proper joy. e church’s and saints’ place (I speak of the
church including all the members together, and the saints
individually for themselves) is associated with Him as His
body, and to be with Him when all is displayed. If we have
entered into the reality of His love, and of our union with
Him, it is the great joy and delight of our hearts to think
of being with Him.
e consequence of all this is, that when He comes
forth, the church, as the armies which were in heaven,”
come with Him. ey must be with Him before they come
with Him. How have they got with Him? When He rises
up from His present place, we shall go too. He is now hid
in God, so are we. He is our life. When He shall appear,
we shall also appear with Him in glory. He comes out, the
Rider on the white horse, and we come with Him. We have
the same portion as Himself. We are still waiting; but He
is coming to take things into His hands. At His appearing
everything must be in order. He cannot be in a world where
all is disorder and going on in willfulness. at will be “ the
day “-the display of His power; but besides and within this
we have our own portion.
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484
We love His appearing, but we love Himself better.
erefore we wait for Him to take us to Himself. If our
hearts have known what Himself is, we cannot confound
His taking us to Himself, with His appearing. We are
“members of his body.” “Our life is hid with Christ.” He
is to take us up to the Father’s house, the fullness of His
own blessedness- with Christ; the blessed outshining of
His Father’s love connects itself with the church’s position.
All through there is an identity of blessedness with Christ
in life, hope, object, all. If this hope is let into the heart,
there must be a break with the world. I cannot be waiting
for God’s Son from heaven if I am expecting wrath; and
I cannot be waiting for God’s Son from heaven if I am
linked up with the world. If this world is the scene where
my heart is building itself up, if I have an object in this
world, Christ will spoil it all.
Suppose God said, “ To-night,” etc., would you say, is
is what I want? If not, there is something between your
aections and Christ.
No trial can touch a person who has Christ for his all.
He may have lost this or lost that; but if he has Christ, he
has that which he cannot lose.
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Promise of Life
Titus 1
IT is at the beginning of this chapter that the Spirit
of God marks with an especial character that on which
I desire to speak-the eternal thought of God towards us
which we nd in verses 2, 3. Evil had come in, the Spirit
takes notice of it, and the eect in a most remarkable way
is to throw us back on the whole mind and thought of
God from the beginning. As evil progresses and corruption
comes in, the apostle turns back to the origin of all, and
coming from the divine nature itself (and all that could
meet the evil, and convey us on, must come from that);
that is, the eternal life which God who cannot lie promised
before the ages of time; that which was in the mind of God
as to the thing itself before the foundation of the world;
that which God had in His mind, the counsel of God for
us, before itself was created. It just shows us what we are,
and what man is, with and apart from that eternal life.
In Ephesians we nd it in connection with Christ
(chap. 3: 3-7): a mystery hidden through all ages in God
until Christ was raised up as Head of the body, the bride.
It is not on this I would dwell. I am not going to speak
about the church, but would turn back to what the life is
and would dwell on this thought, the promise of life in
the mind of God before the world began. Before that, I
say, this life existed in a Person, Christ, the One who
was in the beginning with God and was God; that is
the Christ with whom my life is hidden with the Father.
Being in Himself life, He came into the world as the life
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and manifested the life. e thing was embodied in the
Person of the Lord as Man, and there it was, the life of
man, not of angels: that which was specially God’s divine
thought towards man is shown out when Christ becomes
Man, and this life is communicated to us, the instrument
used being the preached word of truth. is divine life had
been manifested here in a man-the Lord Jesus. He having
given it to us, it is now manifested in our bodies. It has the
character of godliness in its manifestation. It tells you what
you are. It is in a poor vessel and where there is a wretched
will, but it tells you what you are and what the world is; it
throws out an additional light to show what man is, as a
creature totally departed from God.
Morally speaking, the world has grown up in departure
from God: that is, this world we live in-all that we see
around-has sprung up from the creature having got
away from God, but the life we have existed before the
creation of the world, and this portion of Scripture is very
full of the simple, quiet blessedness of what that life is,
practically manifested and given in Christ. A great deal
of evil had come in. Satan was corrupting the truth by
the wild reasoning of man’s mind. e apostle specially
warns Timothy and Titus, and throws them back, not on
common Christian profession, but on the faith of God’s
elect, the acknowledging the truth which is after godliness.
ey were to be as those who knew what were the thoughts
and mind of God and were cast on Him. If I have got
divine teaching, I can say, I know the Shepherd’s voice, and
if it is not His, I shall know that too. e truth which is
after godliness is not only acknowledged, but is marked
and stamped as of God by a man living to and for God.
Godliness is what a man would do if instigated by God;
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and what a man would not do if God were close by him, it
is clear, would certainly not be for God. A man daily taught
by the knowledge of God how to be living for God would
do everything to manifest the ways of godliness, knowing
those ways because of knowing God. I speak not of doing
right instead of wrong or of conscientiousness. A believer
clearly ought to be righteous with regard to others; but
I speak of godliness. You never can be for God without
knowing what God is. I cannot walk worthy of God if I
do not know Him. I cannot walk with God without that,
though I may walk uprightly with man. Here it is walking
worthy of God, the loins being girded (aections tucked
up). is applies to all revealed to us in Christ. A believer,
as to his motives and life, has Christ’s mind revealed to
him, to show him how to guide himself through all
circumstances. Christ was always Himself, never guided by
circumstances. Sorrow could draw out His heart in divine
love, but in motives and all circumstances He was always
Himself (perfect, of course). It is the mind of Christ that
believers are to have.
What a wonderful place we have got! Only as we are
taught of God can we get hold of this, that is, the hope
of eternal life promised by God before the world began,
mark that; for as to the Adam life, it never could be that,
but a divine life in those who are saved, a life for heaven;
we have got it now, and we shall be there on account of
it; there will be its full manifestation, everything there,
every word, and all praise will be according to the presence
of God;. as participators of the divine nature we shall be
in fullest blessedness, there where nothing inconsistent
with the divine nature can exist, but everything will be in
accordance with that life and ourselves as possessors of it
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in the highest and most blessed perfection. We belong to
that place now, whilst our bodies are down here; the life
we have got came down from thence, and has its only full
sphere of blessing there.
e promise of God before the world began, this life was
in the mind of God for us before ever the world existed. I
do not speak now of predestination, but of the thing itself
in the mind of God, before ever the world existed. If we
turn to
John 1, we see how this life came down (v. 1-3)-” What
our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” It is a real
man. e life which was with the Father was manifested
down here in the Person of Christ. In many you will nd
great vagueness of thought in connection with this life. It
is Christ Himself. “ When he who is our life,” etc. Before
He speaks of the communication of life, He speaks of
its manifestation. John could see what it was down here,
amongst friends and enemies; he says, “ We have looked
upon, and our hands,” etc. e life which was with the
Father is the life promised before the world began. I get
what it is perfectly displayed. I see this life in One who,
in due time, fully manifested it as man. e second Adam
is the Man in whom its perfection is seen; a Man in this
world, in all points tempted like us; a perfect Man, without
sin, walking in the world in meekness and holiness, a
pattern set before us to follow.
2 Tim. 1:9 chews the way it was given us in Christ. God
connects the two things here: saved by Christ according
to His own purpose and grace given us in Him before the
world began. In this life we see a thing that has its display
in heaven. We have got it now, and in a place where it
is hindered. It leads my thoughts and feelings to be ever
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in heaven, where it is as before the world began. ough
displayed in all perfection down here by Him who has
abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to
light, the life was in heaven before it was manifested here.
Wonderful truth!
For in the power of this life Christ has gone through
death and annulled it. Death is an abolished thing for
saints. It takes us out of all the misery of the rst Adam. It
was not so with saints in the Old Testament; they could not
say, “ Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” It was
all death to them. Elijah was taken away for a testimony
without passing through death, but Christ passed through
it and annulled it, rose and went up to heaven, and life
and immortality are thus brought to light. Turn to John
1:1, “ In him was life.” You never could say that of a saint.
God gave us to have that life in His Son; if in ourselves we
might lose it, but if He is my life, I cannot. “ He that hath
the Son hath life.”
He is the life and light of men, not of angels. is is an
unutterably humbling truth for us. If God was exercising
life-giving power, it was to be manifested in a man, and
therefore the Son of His love becomes man. God displayed
it by the incarnation of the Word-the eternal Son. He was
given in promise to us before the world existed; and He
came into the world personally. e Word, made esh,
dwelt among men in all the circumstances in which we
walk. He goes down into the death of the rst Adam, and
abolishes death, brings life and incorruptibility to light, and
goes up to the right hand of God, as the display of this life
in a man up there, What a thought! at eternal life in this
world-a man, a poor man, a carpenter, one who had not
where to lay His head. e life, promised before the world
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began, now has been made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior Jesus Christ, and in due time manifested to
those who believe, through preaching. Christ Himself is
the great rstfruits of the life that we, as saved ones, have
in Him-He the rstfruits of the great harvest of God. I
repeat, this life, given in promise before the world was, was
manifested by the Christ, who in the power of it passed
through death; and in heaven it is now manifested in the
risen Man Christ Jesus, while down here it is manifested in
those who believe through preaching.
at is how we get it. It is preached in the world now;
and what does the world make of it? at is the solemn
thing for your consciences. If we take the world, we get
not the second Adam but the rst. Turn back to the garden
of Eden, and you get the clue to the present state of the
world and how it began. Man, created in responsibility to
keep his rst estate, was commanded not to eat the fruit of
a certain tree; he eats it, doing his own will, and is cast out
of paradise; and the world begins where paradise ends; and
that is the world we live in, only it is a thousand times worse,
because it has rejected Christ. Yes! the world around us
sprang up when man was driven from paradise; a man, in a
state of responsibility, departed from God, made the world
what it is; and what a world! Solemn as is the responsibility
of man in it, for us who have life it is only by the bye; true,
we have to go through it, but it has nothing to do with the
eternal life we have except as being the place where the
eternal life has been manifested and brought to us. I would
ask, What is man, departed from God, about? Making the
world a scene of delights for himself by cultivating the arts
and sciences. (You will nd amongst the heathen the most
beautiful exhibition of the arts and sciences.) I repeat man
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is making a scene for developing and displaying faculties
that have nothing to do with ‘God (the best as well as the
worst have nothing to do with Him). Well, it is in this
world that the eternal life has been and is manifested now.
Is it by rst mending and reforming man, by setting the
world right, that God gives eternal life? Is life to be got by
reforming the world, by modifying the evil of the ways and
the tastes of man away from God, by improving man rst
without God?
What is man? A responsible being that has never been
lost? A responsible being, I repeat, away from God, and in
departure from God, he has built up for himself a world
without God. Bring God into all the ne things that man
is doing, and what would be the eect? Most of us know
it as a matter of fact, that this world, with all its pleasures,
and things delightful to the esh, does not let God in, nor
Christ, who is the eternal life; and I get it as a thing that
comes in between. Eternal life has come down here, and
I have it in a world that has all its life from the rst man;
in a world entirely departed and alienated from God; a
world that had its origin in man having been turned out
of paradise; a world that when Christ, in divine beauty and
grace, was in it, spat in His face and turned Him out. at
is the world I am in now.
But where does my heart go to out of the world? To
that blessed life I have in Christ. I may have got it but
yesterday, but the thing I have received was up there for
me before the foundation of the world. I have got Christ as
my life-the life I live is “ by faith of the Son of God “; and
it was in God’s mind to give me this life before the world
was. “ He that hath the Son hath life “-a life not of man
at all; and having got it I am to show what is the eect of
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it, and from whence I got it. What is the life I got from
the rst Adam? All sin; if put under law, not subject to it;
a life with lusts and a will of its own. I judge it altogether.
When Christ was here, the tree being bad, had judgment
pronounced against it. e esh is a judged thing: I nd
only sin and condemnation in connection with it, but I
get God dealing with this sin in the esh-” What the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the esh, God
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful esh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the esh: that the righteousness
of the law might be fullled in us, who walk not after the
esh, but after the Spirit.”
Mark, it is not only sins remitted but sin condemned.
Oh! I say, sin is in the esh, I have got it, and I hate it.
It is lusting in me, making me dislike what Christ likes
whilst my heart is set on Christ. But I nd God has dealt
in judgment with it, and put it away on the cross. He
condemned it where it was put away, and that is where
I nd I am. I have sin, but I am not to be judged for it-
Christ was made sin for me, etc. He, in grace, has taken
it. My soul in the power of this truth gets perfect peace. I
have no more conscience of sins; I am no longer dreading
God’s judgment because I am forgiven: all has merged into
the deliverance Christ has given. I have perfect liberty; sin
has not dominion. I judge this esh of mine and all its lusts
and will entirely, because it is a judged thing-I am crucied
with Christ. I stand in a new condition. I have eternal life
in me, Christ being my life; I have liberty and joy, by His
going through death. I have died and am risen with Him.
is is where I am brought.
I have not only a life of him that departed from God, but
as a believer the life of Him who came into the place where
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I was away from God, to bring me back to God. I belong
to Him-I am risen with Him, where the eternal life is to be
displayed. In spirit I am up there now, whilst in the body
waiting for Him to come. I am in a world that is merely by
the bye to me, only a thing I have to pass through-not of it,
even as Christ was not. He passed through it, and left us an
example that we should follow, walking in His footsteps. I
am to reckon myself dead. “ As we have borne the image
of the earthy, even so,” etc. A believer does not belong to
the rst Adam, but to the Second. e life of Christ is his,
and that is all he owns as his life-that life so blessed, so
divine, that the world would not have it, and shrunk from
it because it was so perfect, and God took it up and put it
on His throne as the only place tted for it.
Christ down here displayed everything that characterizes
this life. I should like to mark one or two traits of it: one
is that quiet condence with God that springs from, and
is the fruit of, divine love, that which can trust God and is
capable of enjoying blessed communion with God, enabling
one through all things and circumstances here to walk on
conding in God. One could not have had that condence
if Christ had not died to put away sin and brought me
into relationship with God. Having a purged conscience,
I can delight in God, and as regards my walk through this
world, Christ is my life, my all. I am consciously dependent
on Him. As we pass on through the world we have to
overcome. How? is is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith. Life has this especial character. It
avoids evil and walks in grace through the world. If I have
the life of Christ, I am to walk down here as He walked, in
practical life, “ Always bearing about in the body the dying
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of the Lord,” etc., with the consciousness that it came from
God, promised before the world was.
We shall most surely nd defectiveness in this from not
having self judged and the spirit free to enjoy Christ. We
have to watch that things of this world do not narrow up
the life that is to be made manifest. Do we not continually
nd that we get under the power of circumstances, by
which the heart is often narrowed? How often we have
to say, I did not think of that at the right moment! But
if always bearing about the dying of the Lord, it would
be always easy to manifest His life. If the heart be full of
Christ, it will be always ready for Christ. e tendency of
saints is to have the heart narrowed up-never ready for
God and their neighbor. It would not be so if we could
only get the heart exercised under a deep consciousness of
what the life we have got is, and what the world is, what
a poor little wretched thing it is. Having hearts exercised
to discern good and evil whilst down here, we should
pass through this world as pilgrims and strangers, having
cleansed consciences able to judge the esh as being only
the old thing. Life being given, the world (grown up from
man rejecting God) is the place where this life is to be
exercised, and we get various exercises. See what Paul
passed through, “ We who live are always delivered unto
death,” etc. He gloried in tribulation and in inrmities if
only the life might be manifested. I desire that your hearts
should get hold of what this eternal life is, so to live in the
power of it, that you should see how it came into the world,
revealed in Christ.
Seeing all its blessedness and beauty in Christ, the heart
clings round it. In Him the life was the light of men. What
a thing-in the place where Satan rules to have God’s own
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life given to us in His Son, and that we live in Christ only,
but ever remember that this life has no anity with the
world! We have to manifest the light of life in the midst
of the world that will not have Christ; and, alas! how
constantly everything tends to make us live by sight instead
of by faith! But whatever we fail in we shall certainly nd
that God has given us everything in Christ.
Oh, may He give us to know more and more what that
eternal life is which was promised in Him before the world
began.
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62805
e Saving Grace of God
Titus 2
THE more we study the word, the more we see how it
takes us out of the present world, and how it associates us
with all things that are of God. When we come to what
is Christian, it is not what the law was (that is righteous
claim), but the revelation of God’s grace and God’s mind to
give what takes our hearts from this world, and associates
us with a revealed scene that is not this world at all, but
outside it all. is is Christianity in its practical character;
it is an association completely of our hearts with things not
seen. When we walk right, we walk by faith.
“ Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye
do, do all to the glory of God.” Servants are not to purloin.
Why? “ at they may adorn the doctrine of God our
Savior in all things.” Paul was so full of Christ Himself
that he could not speak without bringing Christ in. He
cannot say, “ Husbands, love your wives “ without saying
what Christ was Himself, “ even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it.” It is no mere morality, nor
a question of results.
e Christian is a person whose mind has got hold of
the revelation of God by the power of the Holy Ghost.
“ He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the
earth; he that cometh from heaven is above all.” e Lord
says, “ No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that
came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is
in heaven.” He comes and brings from heaven the full
revelation of what He knew. is is the reason that no one
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received His testimony. He brings in these heavenly things:
all His words were the expression of what He was, at the
same time perfectly adapted to man down here, while all
the fullness of the Godhead was in Him. We nd in Christ
that which is entirely divine and perfectly human. It is the
bringing down of these heavenly things perfectly adapted
to what man was on the earth; and now He sets us to
walk through the world according to that which has been
revealed to us. So with the servant: it is the motive power.
If one say, You will be killed if you do that, my answer is,
If I die, I shall only go to heaven. Earth loses its power
and so does lust. “ Not purloining “: the commonest duties
are connected with motives which take the heart above
everything here.
ere is no diculty in the world that this principle
does not rise above. You can never take a person entirely out
of everything that surrounds him without a motive above
them all: you may take him out of one thing or another, but
not out of everything. en the motive is everything done
for Christ; and everything else is advanced and elevated
because the motive is elevated. If the things in this world
cease to be motives (of duties there are plenty), in the
commonest things you get the soul lifted out of the world;
the governing motives are above it. e Christian is thus
unassailable. If men try him by pleasant and natural things,
he is kept; for they are not Christ, and for him “ to live is
Christ.”
e law brought in the authority of God, and of course it
ought to have been obeyed. e law took up the relationship
in which men stood with God and with one another, and
said, You must walk according to these words. Duties were
there, and God took man according to the way he ought
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to act, keeping the relationships as they stood; but there
was no revelation of Himself. God’s authority was there
in claim, but this was not a revelation of love. Law told
them what they ought to be as the means of nding out
what they were. Christianity is a dierent thing; it is God
revealed in grace, coming amongst men. What the law told
was this, on the contrary’: that God did not yet come out
to man; and that man could not go in to God. Christianity,
while fully upholding the authority of the law, is just the
opposite: God did come out; and man is gone in.
e law was not an arbitrary thing, but the commandment
was holy, just and good. e apostle, as touching the
righteousness which is in the law, was “ blameless “; but the
moment the law added this, “ ou shalt not lust,” to the
perfect rule from God for a man where he was, it might as
well have said, You must not be a man, for man was already
fallen and a sinner. God added that to the rule of ordinary
relationships, and it reaches the conscience.
But Christianity tests man in another way, namely, by
the very revelation of God. God did come out in blessed
perfect grace and unutterable goodness; His Son became
a man. Still it was the revelation of God, and men would
not have God, but they rejected and crucied Him. Now
the condition of man is proved; the judgment of the world
is pronounced. “ If I had not come and spoken unto them,
they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their
sin.” “ Now have they both seen and hated both me and my
Father.”
Man was thus fully tested. A nation was taken up to try
thorough agriculture of the human heart; but it brought
forth sour grapes. en God said, I have yet one Son, it
may be they will reverence Him when they see Him. But
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said they, “ is is the heir, come let us kill him, that the
inheritance may be ours.”
Christianity is the testimony that man is lost. You have
thus the rejection of Christ bringing in the condition
of the whole world before God. Not only is man out of
paradise; but he has turned God out of the world. In the
cross, in which man showed his enmity to God, the blessed
work of redemption was wrought, the sacrice put away
sin was accomplished, and man has gone into glory. As
the law was the testing of man as a child of Adam, so
in the gospel I have now got the “ Second man “-much
more than a man, of course-gone into glory. e more we
meditate on the cross, the more we see the place where sin
above all was manifested, the place where obedience was
perfected. Sin was at the highest point, and there was the
absolute perfection of obedience; I see sin where obedience
is perfected. Christ was there glorifying God in the place
of sin. ere was the absolute perfection of obedience, and
the absolute completion of man’s sin. Where was judgment
shown in its fullest character? Not in the condition of the
sinner, but in Christ made sin for us. e perfect love of
God was shown there; what man is, was shown there, what
Christ was, what God was also in judgment against sin.
But the consequence of the cross is that man is in glory,
and believers are justied and cleansed through Christ’s
blood, all cleared and cleansed. en the Holy Ghost
comes down, dwells in them, and connects them with the
Man in glory. Paul rst sees Christ in the glory; he did not
lose Him in the clouds like the others, but he saw Him rst
in the glory beyond the clouds. “ Delivering thee,” in Acts
26:17, means taking thee out from among “ the people and
from the Gentiles “: he was neither Jew nor Gentile; he
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was completely associated with Christ in glory. e gospel
went out to every creature, coming out from heaven on the
ground that Christ is in heaven.
e Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them
to you. All your relationships as a Christian are in heaven.
is is where the Christian is in these verses in Titus.
He has the Holy Ghost to go according to the heavenly
Christ; he looks back to what I have been speaking of; he
stands between the rst coming and the second, having a
clear apprehension of the eect of the rst and also of the
second. is is not prophecy at all, which foretells things
coming on the earth: there is no prophecy of heaven.
Prophecy refers to the government of this world. Hence
John the Baptist says, that he was talking of things on the
earth. When Christ came He told them heavenly things,
and, having been sacriced to put away sin, by the baptism
of the Holy Ghost associates with Himself there.
e Christian is a person who has the Holy Ghost and
who stands between the rst coming and the second. Israel
is a witness of God’s dealings on the earth; the Christian
is a witness of His sovereign grace that gives man a place
in heaven. Prophecy told of a day of darkness coming on
the earth. “ We have also the word of prophecy more sure
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a candle
that shineth in a dark place.” A candle is a very useful
thing. What do you get in the Revelation? Trumpets, seals,
vials, all judgment; but this prophecy is my candle, and I
see where all evil will end. It is all very useful as a warning;
but when Christ as the day star dawns in my heart, it is
attracted out, it is of the place. “ I will come and receive
you unto myself “-that is in heaven! e Lord teaches us
to look for Him in aection: we are converted to this-” to
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wait for his Son from heaven “; we are not converted to
prophecy. Grace has appeared, and it teaches us to look for
the glory of His appearing. Compare verse 11 with 13.
It is hard for us rst to feel, “ In me, that is in my esh,
dwelleth no good thing,” and next, to know that the world
is judged.
e gospel is grace addressed to the lost, not probation
to see how I shall turn out. It has turned out that I loved
every vanity better than Christ, that is, in short, that I am
lost.
e owers of human nature are often no less pretty:
the blossoms on the crab are as pretty as those of the apple.
Character is not the question, but motive. A cross man
may be breaking his heart about his temper (there is the
same dierence in dogs; of course an amiable dog is much
pleasanter to meet than a cross dog). It is conscience, not
character at its best, which shows I have had to do with
God. In the gospel I nd what I am, and what God is; I
have found a grace which has met man in this state. e
gospel turns me from what I am right over to what God
is to the lost. I am guilty by what I have done; I am lost by
what I am. e fullest grace comes in; but grace connects
me with the fullest salvation. e Savior has come to deliver
me out of the condition I am in. All I have done, all my
condition as a child of Adam, I am completely done with;
I have got to the end of myself. Salvation is a big word. I
have my place in the Man that is gone into paradise above,
not in the man that was turned out of paradise on earth.
at is the way grace appears: it is not help; it is salvation,
the blood of Christ the ground of it. I get sins sent away,
the conscience made perfect, and Christ always appearing
in the presence of God for me: there is not an instant of my
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life as a believer that Christ is not before God for me. I am
now a man saved, justied, cleansed, made the temple of
the Holy Ghost. ere I stand in that Man in glory.
Now the Christian is taught by grace-” Teaching us
that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” I am
redeemed out of the world, but I have got to walk through
it. How did the present world come? God never made this
world or age (of course I do not mean the physical world),
He made paradise. Sin and the devil made this world; for
morally speaking God did not make it. Cain goes out from
the presence of Jehovah; he settles, when a vagabond, in
the land of his vagabondage, and builds a city. Next, the
city must be a pleasant place; what harm was there in brass
and iron? None whatever; but there was a great deal of
harm in going out of the presence of Jehovah. What harm
was there in the trees of the garden? If you bring in God
and Christ in speaking to the men of the world, they will
turn you out; they say, It is not the time for it. Well, it may
not be; but it is never the time with man to bring Christ in.
e world is all built up away from God; man will not have
God come into it.
You have the whole life of the Christian practically
summed up in three words, “ soberly, righteously, and godly
“: “ soberly “ with self-restraint; “ righteously “ as regards
others; “ godly “ with God. In this new place, with new
motives, he is to live in the power of his new life; he has an
object out of the world.
Faith, human faith, is always the spring by which
anything in this world is done; God gives me what is
divine. A man is always what his object is; if Christ is a
man’s object, he is a Christian. “ at I may win Christ,”
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this was Paul’s object. He had found the blessed Son of
God willing to become a man to save him; he is looking for
Him; he wants to see the One that loved him.
I am not speaking of doctrine, of an item of knowledge,
but of what I am converted to; it is the thing for which a
man is converted, the object. As I have borne the image of
the earthy, I am going to bear the image of the heavenly. I
am going to be with Him, and I want to be like Him. You
will nd this strikingly as the hope of the Christian; and so
the Lord never says a word that goes beyond the present
life; He takes care not to put His coming in a shape to
make it necessarily more distant. e virgins that fall asleep
are the same virgins that awake; this is the principle. e
servants the lord gave the talents to are the same servants
with whom he reckons. at in the seven churches we have
history I do not doubt; but does He give it as history? No,
He takes care to give seven churches then before Him; He
will never
sanction the heart making a delay. You are to live as you
would live if you were expecting Him every day. Whether
changed or raised, then we shall be with Christ and like
Christ. Christ will be satised; so shall I. e thought
and purpose of God is to have us like Himself and with
Himself. He is still gathering out souls. But on the other
hand we are to be “ as men that wait for their Lord.” If a
mother is expecting her son from America, she is always
expecting him, for she loves him. When a person is really
waiting for Christ, he has the room of his heart ready for
Him. He has given Himself to have us for Himself, with
hearts united, gathered up, to Him; a peculiar people, a
people of possession, manifesting the character of God in
grace till He display it in glory.
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Now, beloved brethren, where are we? Can we say, “
is present evil world,” not in hardness as if we did not
once belong to it, but as the world that has rejected Christ,
and of which Satan is the prince? e world is not only a
sinful world outside the earthly paradise, but a world that
rejected Christ when He came into it.
e things I shall have in heaven are to form my heart
now. Our hearts are so dim to see these heavenly things,
but it is God’s thought to reveal them to us. “ Now we see
through a glass darkly “-true, but we see the same things.
1 Cor. 2, often quoted to prove I cannot know them, really
proves I can. “ But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit.” Christianity says He has revealed them all. Quite
true, it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive
them. In the Old Testament they did not know them (of
course not); but the Holy Ghost has come down to reveal
them to us. e veil is rent, the way into the holiest of all
is manifest. ere is a perfect contrast as to the condition
of the saint now. I am associated with Him. now; I know
I shall be like Him then. He has become a man for the
very purpose to have me with Him in glory. I know that
righteousness is there, and through the Spirit I am waiting
for the hope of righteousness by faith (that is, for glory),
for Him to bring me actually there. I am so identied with
Christ that, when He appears, I shall appear with Him in
glory.
Has this power over our hearts? Are your hearts settled
as to the perfectness of His work? Is there such love to
Him that you wait for Him who loves you?
e Lord give us in these last days to have hearts thus
watching, taking His word, and clinging to it. is gives us
what is heavenly, and perfectly suited to us while here.
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e Suering Son of Man
Hebrews 2
AFTER the rst four verses, which belong to chapter
1, we get a statement of the position of our Lord: all things
are not yet put under Him, but He is crowned with glory
and honor. In chapter 1r the apostle had spoken fully of
the divinity of the Lord: in chapter 2 after the rst four
verses, we have His humiliation, and then the thought of
God with respect to us in His becoming man. In chapter 2
we get what ts Him to be the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession; then in the close of chapter 4 he takes up
His priesthood.
It is a wonderful thing that “ the Word was made esh
and dwelt among us,” and that He is gone up, as Man, to
sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is sitting
there as having nished and accomplished the work which
He came to do: “ when he had by himself purged our sins,
he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” He
is still there in His service as Priest.
“ For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the
world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain
place testied saying, What is man that thou art mindful
of him? or the Son of man that thou visitest him? ou
madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst
him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works
of thy hand.”
In Psa. 8 we get the purpose of God as to man: in Psa. 2
we get the dealings of God with Israel, and the rejection of
Christ. “ ou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,” Psa.
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2:7. Christ has this double character: He is King in Zion,
and as born in this world, He is the Son of God according
to Psa. 2 Accordingly in John 1 Nathanael so owns Him as
Son of God and King of Israel: “ Rabbi, thou art the Son
of God; thou art the King of Israel,” John 1:49. e Lord
says to him, “ Henceforth ye shall see heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
man,” John 1:51. He takes that other title, that larger wider
character that was purposed of God as declared in Psa. 8 It
is not there that He is the Son of God and King in Zion,
but that He is the Son of man. So in Dan. 7:13, 14: “ One
like the Son of man came to the Ancient of Days … And
there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom,
that all people, nations, and languages should serve him:
his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.” He is the heir of all
God’s purposes as to man: all that He had created as God
He was to possess as man, but (sin and evil having come in)
He comes and takes the redemption title. Psa. 8 is quoted
in Eph. 1:22, and also in 1 Cor. 15:27, where resurrection is
spoken of, and here in Heb. 2 very denitely and distinctly.
We are joint-heirs with Christ: the thoughts and purposes
of God are all in man. “ For unto the angels hath he not put
in subjection the world to come.” “ My delights were with
the sons of men,” Prov. 8:31. erefore when the blessed
Lord becomes a man and the angels celebrate His birth,
they say, “ On earth peace, good pleasure in men,” Luke
2:14. en when He is rejected by His people as Son of
God and King of Israel, He takes this wider title as Son of
man, having charged His disciples strictly not to speak of
Him as the Christ. As the Son of man He takes the wider
title, but then He must suer to accomplish redemption.
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Corinthians 15 puts in a still stronger way His dominion
over all things. “ But when he saith, All things are put
under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put
all things under him.” en what is said in our chapter
is that that is not yet accomplished: He is sitting on His
Father’s throne, not on His own at all. “ But now we see not
yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus … crowned
with glory and honor “: we see part of the Psalm fullled,
that part in which He is personally crowned with glory
and honor, but all things are not put under Him. It is this
that makes our new place. erefore we nd in this whole
epistle that it looks at us entirely as walking on the earth; it
is not union with Christ in heaven here, the church being
only once mentioned in a general way. If I take the mystery
then I get union with Christ, one spirit with Him; but this
is not where the saint is seen here, but as a pilgrim and
stranger in the world.
“ is man, after he had oered one sacrice for sins,
forever sat down on the right hand of God.” It is not like
Aaron standing there, “ oering oftentimes the same
sacrices which can never take away sins “; the apostle
contrasts that distinctly in Heb. 10 Christ is gloried in
heaven, but the things are not under Him yet. ere is far
more of contrast than of comparison in Hebrews. Take
Aaron’s priesthood, and you nd a constant repetition of
these sacrices in contrast to Christ’s own sacrice: you
get many priests, whereas Christ has an unchangeable
priesthood. e veil showed “ that the way into the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest “; now “ we have
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus “;
and, instead of a high priest not going in lest he should
die, we nd Christ seated at the right hand of God. Christ
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did not sit down till that work was completely nished;
the Holy Ghost insists upon it in connection with the
perfect purging of our conscience. You have in Hebrews
the testimony of the Holy Ghost, but not His operation
in us, nor do you get the Father; because it is a question of
our standing with God as such. e question is, Does the
sacrice of Christ make the comers thereunto perfect? is
part of the Epistle says it does: it is a conclusion drawn in
chapter to, having been largely reasoned out in chapter 9.
Now “ the worshippers once purged “. have “ no more
conscience of sins.” Christ purged our sins by His work,
and the divine testimony by the Holy Ghost purges the
conscience. If the “ one sacrice “ did not make perfect
those coming to God by it, they could not be made perfect
at all. “ Nor yet that he should oer himself often, as the
high priest entereth into the holy place every year with
blood of others, for then must he often have suered since
the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of
the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrice
of himself.” If He did not suer for sins, He could not
put them away. He must drink the cup at the dreadful
moment. It was not a mere form of suering that Christ
went through, but suering such as we cannot fathom.
If the work was not done in that one oering, it never
could be done, “ for then must he often have suered,”
and He is now in glory. As regards our approach to God
the conscience is purged and perfected forever; “ the
worshippers once purged “ have “ no more conscience of
sins.” ese priests were always standing (“ standeth “ is the
emphatic word in verse 11), “ oering oftentimes the same
sacrice which can never take away sins; but this man, after
he had oered one sacrice for sins, forever sat down on
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the right hand of God “ (He did not sit till He had nished
His work), “ from henceforth expecting till his enemies
be made his footstool.” He has nished the work for His
friends-believers, I mean; they have no more conscience of
sins, “ for by one oering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctied.” It is not a question of the work done
in us; He appears in the presence of God for us, He is in
glory, sitting there because His work is nished, giving the
testimony that we are clean and our conscience is purged,
besides that He has obtained this glory. “ By one oering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctied.”
“ Forever “ is a very strong word in this passage, it
expresses a thing that is continuous and uninterrupted. As
He sits there continuously, so we are perfected continuously.
We are always there before God according to the value of
the work of the Lord Jesus. In Hebrews to you get not
only the goodwill of God (“ en said he, Lo I come to
do thy will, O God “), but the work done divinely, and the
testimony of the Holy Ghost that it is done. I have got
God’s will and thought towards me; then by the oering
of Jesus Christ I have got the work done, and I have got
His testimony, “ Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us … and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more.”
Whenever I know really by faith the value of the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I cannot go to God with the
thought that He imputes anything to me: I may be in the
dust before Him if I have sinned, but I know He cannot
impute it to me. e thing is done once for all; as those
priests were standing because it was not done, so Christ is
sitting because it is done. “ Giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
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of the saints in light,” Col. 1:12. Do not suppose that it is a
light thing, having our conscience thus perfect before God;
if we fail, we cannot be exercised about it too deeply; but
let us be exercised ever so deeply, the question when I come
before God is, not what I have done, but what Christ has
done. If I go on the ground of what I have done, I can look
for nothing but judgment. “ Enter not into judgment with
thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justied.”
e value of what I have done is that I am perfectly lost;
but what is the value of what Christ has done? If I go to
God really, I nd Christ in the presence of God for me, the
perfect witness in God’s sight that sin cannot be imputed
to me. I cannot walk with God otherwise. Can I, if I am
a criminal, talk of walking with a judge? Suppose a child
has been disobedient and naughty, he cannot feel free and
happy when he sees his father. You cannot have blessed
and holy aection without a conscience that is perfect. You
must get a clear conscience to have a free heart. In order
to lead me to walk in fellowship with God, He makes my
conscience perfect because Christ bore my sins, and He is
now sitting at the right hand of God. He, “ when he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on high.” He did not sit down till He had nished
the work, till He had blotted out our sins, all our sins. If
that work has not been completed and nished, so that He
has no more to do, it cannot be done at all. It is the contrast
of Christ’s work with the Jewish way of going on that we
get here. erefore do we thank the Father, “ which hath
made us meet,” etc.
ere is where I see Christ. I see Him sitting at the
right hand of God as our Priest, and by His work, nished
before He sat down, my conscience is perfected forever. We
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are now between this work of the Lord and His coming
again. “ So Christ was once oered to bear the sins of
many: and unto them that look for him shall he appear the
second time without sin unto salvation.”
e question for us all is, not whether we own Christ,
but whether we own Him as our Savior, or own Him as
Judge and then have to answer for all our sins. Christ is
sitting at the right hand of God, all things are not yet under
Him; but the work has been perfectly accomplished which
gives us boldness to enter into the holiest. ere is no veil
now. e veil has been rent.
If I look back, I see that the rst paradise-the garden of
Eden-is over; this world is not paradise, I am sure. Well,
what is the state of things? We see in the world sinfulness,
corruption, misery, wars: Christ is hid in God, but there is
another paradise, and Christ is there, though we are not
there yet. Meanwhile, “ being justied by faith we have
peace with God “-not joy merely, but peace. A very great
word is “ peace.” ere is not a single thing between God
and us except Christ as the testimony that the work is done.
It is interesting to see the four things in this chapter
(Heb. 2) which made it necessary that Christ should suer.
e angels-witnesses of God’s glorious power in
creation- are in a certain sense passed over, but there is
no jealousy in these blessed creatures, and when the Lord
becomes man,, they say, “ Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good pleasure in men.” e rst thing that
caused the blessed Son of God to become man was the
glory of God. Nothing but the cross maintains the glory
of God. e more we look at it, the more we see that the
cross stands alone in the history of eternity. “ For it became
him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
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in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of
their salvation perfect through suerings.” If the blessed
Lord undertakes the work, He must go through it really. If
we sinners are to be received to glory, Christ must suer.
It is only through the cross, morally speaking, that perfect
righteousness and holiness and perfect love are reconciled.
If God had cut o Adam and Eve when they sinned, where
would have been His love? If sin had been passed over,
there would be no righteousness in that; but the moment I
get the cross, I get the fullest and most terrible testimony
of God’s righteousness against sin. e more you look at
it, the more you see how all good and evil were brought
to a complete climax there. You get sin and wickedness
at their height at the cross. It draws out the complete
absolute enmity of man against God. en I get another
thing, the full power of Satan. I see in the cross of Christ
man’s perfectness as well as man’s absolute sinfulness; I see
His perfect obedience to the Father and His perfect love
where He was made sin for us; and I see God’s perfect
righteousness against sin. All that man was in wickedness;
all Satan’s power; all that God is in righteousness and love
was brought out at the cross. “ How shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation? “ e whole thing has been
settled, and Christ is sitting down at the right hand of God
because it is settled.
I get another thing too in this chapter-Satan’s power
destroyed; “ that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil.” His power is
destroyed, though its eects are not yet gone. “ Resist the
devil, and he will ee from you,” James 4:7. We may listen
to his wiles, but his power is destroyed. Satan put forth his
whole power against Christ, and he was allowed to succeed
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apparently, but his power was broken in resurrection. “ ou
hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive,” Psa.
68:18. e results are not produced yet, but the work is
done that will produce them.
en I get a third thing. Christ came “ to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people.” You get the
double character of Christ’s work in Scripture. e blood
presented to God gives us the propitiation side, while
the scape-goat gives us the substitution side. e blood
is the perpetual witness before God. e scape-goat has
borne away all my sins, not some of them, not my sins up
to August 10th, 1874, but all my sins. I cannot think of
sinning to-morrow, and I can feel only the sins that are
on my conscience (conscience deals with past sins); but
when I look at the work of Christ He did not bear my sins
merely up to a given day, but “ once for all.” e scape-
goat has carried them to a land not inhabited. I get this
double character of the work: the blood under God’s eye,
the perpetual testimony there; then, if through grace I do
come, I nd that Christ has been substituted for me, and so
the whole thing is settled. I get God’s glory requiring this
sacrice; I get Satan’s power destroyed; I get the precious
blood before God, and Christ bearing my sins in His own
body on the tree. It gives me boldness.
ere is a fourth thing in this chapter. Christ suered
that He should know how to succor them that are tempted.
“ For in that he himself hath suered being tempted, he
is able to succor them that are tempted.” e believer is
looked at as a poor weak creature always in Hebrews. e
priesthood of Christ in Hebrews is not about our sins (it
could not be, because we “ have no more conscience of sins
“), but about our weakness. When faith has got hold of the
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fact, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that Christ has borne
my sins, and I come to God by Him, I come in virtue of
the work that has purged my conscience. What I do get in
Hebrews is, that Christ can enter into all my temptations.
I nd temptations every moment, the world is a snare; if
I want to live godly, I need His sympathy. Christ found
none in this world. He, the most accessible and gracious
of men, sympathized with everybody, but there was no one
to sympathize with Him. He can understand the nature of
all these trials and temptations of mine. He knows them a
thousand times better than I can, because He has suered
a thousand times more.
ere were then these four reasons for Christ becoming
a man:-
(1) For the glory of God.
(2) To destroy death which was the power of Satan.
(3) As regards sins, “to make reconciliation [atonement]
for the sins of the people.”
(4) To be “able to succor those that are tempted.”
As to our walk through this world with all its trials and
diculties, He can enter into all, feel it all, sympathize with
it all. Christ having accomplished the work, He could take
His people straight to heaven (therefore the thief could
go at once to Paradise); but in an ordinary way He leaves
them to pass through the world where they need His help
in their weakness.
When it comes to sins, I get (in the Epistle of John) “
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.” Righteousness is not touched: the
value of the propitiation cannot be shaken. In virtue of this
propitiation instead of imputing sin, the advocacy of Christ
is brought out for me. It is not a question of imputing sins,
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because Christ has already borne them, and God must
despise that blood before He can impute sin to me.
You nd in John’s Epistles that he does not speak of access
to God but of communion with the Father. Communion
with the Father and the Son is totally destroyed for the
time by an idle thought. Perhaps I may have been in a state
of carelessness, and the eect of Christ’s advocacy is to
make me conscious of this. Whatever the esh produces
in my nature God can have no fellowship with. But grace
is at work: it is not a question of imputation because Jesus
Christ the righteous is there, the Advocate is there to restore
my soul. e eect of my failing is that He intercedes for
me, and the Spirit of God brings home the word to my
conscience, “ How can you who are sanctied to God act
thus? “ I may get outward chastening too, if needed. “ He
withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous,” and there in
Job He is speaking of chastening. ere is not an instant
that the high and holy God is not thinking of me a poor
worm-not an instant.
“ He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet,”
John 13:10: e Lord is speaking of water there, not of
blood. “ You are picking up dirt in your walk: I cannot stay
with you down here, but I am not going to give you up.”
Where was He going? To God. rough the Spirit and
the word they really were washed, and He washes the feet.
Everything inconsistent that has come into my ways or
heart, He cleanses the heart from it. is is not the subject
here in Hebrews, but the ground and character of our
approach to God.
If I fail through carelessness or want of prayer, I get
grace working to restore my soul, as in 1 John 2:1. Never be
content if your communion is interrupted; whenever you
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get into the presence of God, if the light of His countenance
is hindered in any way, do not you be content.
ere is no perfection for the Christian till he is like
Christ and with Christ in glory. “ And as we have borne
the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly “; there is no other perfection for the Christian.
We are “ predestinated to be conformed to the image of
his Son “; it is looking at this that leads us on in practical
holiness. When I know I shall be perfectly conformed
to Christ in glory, then “ he that hath this hope in him
purieth himself, even as he is pure.” If anything hinders
my being positively in the light of God’s countenance, let
me judge it; as we go on with the Lord, we shall learn to
see better what hinders us. ere is growth in this surely,
but there is no growth in the value of His blood, no growth
in the value of His work. If we fail, grace is there to restore
the soul to communion; and coming to God we nd it out.
“ For both he that sanctieth and they who are sanctied
are all of one “-one set, as it were, in glory (the expression is
a very abstract one)-” for which cause he is not ashamed to
call them brethren.” is is not forgiveness merely. What a
thought it is! It is God’s revelation to act on our aections.
What unutterable grace it is! How thoroughly we see these
are divine thoughts!
e moment, beloved friends, God is showing “ the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards
us through Christ Jesus,” we cannot wonder at anything.
When the angels themselves see the thief on the cross, the
woman that was a sinner, one of us, in the same glory with
Christ, and like Him, ‘they will know the exceeding riches
of His grace. e moment I see the blessed Son of God
come down here, and die on the cross, what can be too
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much to expect? e most wonderful thing of all is the
cross: after this no glory is too great. at which we have
to desire is hearts that own the unspeakable fullness of the
work of Christ, and in everything down here to glorify
Him. We need the abiding sense of dependence so as to
look for that strength which is made perfect in weakness,
the care of Christ, the grace and mercy of God in passing
through this world.
e Lord give you, beloved friends, to see the full
ecacy of His nished work, and then to keep in the sense
of entire dependence, seeking continual grace from Him. It
is death to mere nature of course, but “ it is joy unspeakable
and full of glory.”
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62808
Purged With Blood
Hebrews 9
“ AND almost all things are by the law purged with
blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
In the latter part of this text we nd an exclusive and
distinct proposition-that without shedding of blood there
is no remission.
In the aming sword placed in the garden of Eden, after
man’s disobedience, we nd his positive exclusion from the
presence of God; in our being out of paradise, we see the
existing fact, that we are in a state of exclusion from God.
And the question now is, have we any access to God-to
that which is far above paradise?
It is not only that we are out of paradise, but that we
stand in all the accumulation of our transgressions. In the
rst act of sin we nd that the will of man is disobedience
to God; and every act of his since has been treasuring up
wrath against the day of wrath.
When our conscience is awakened, we learn how
productive of fruit our evil nature is, and whenever we see
that all is gone (for innocency once lost is lost forever),
then we nd there is no competency in us to enter into
association with God. at which was man’s privilege in
paradise has been lost, and we nd ourselves not only evil,
but daily accumulating transgressions. And can we then
enter into the place of God’s holiness? is is the only true
question. Let me ask you- Is there nothing your consciences
own as needing remission? Murder and theft, etc., which
are the consequences of the condition man is in, through
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transgression, are owned by all as evil. e natural man
may see the blessing of moral conduct as giving happiness
on earth, but can discern nothing beyond. But when we
look within the veil, it is altogether another thing. Our not
wronging our neighbor may produce temporal happiness:
but the revelation of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
awakens the mind to a new inquiry-its tness for the
presence of such holiness; and this question is soon settled:
we nd it utterly impossible. It is not tting us for happiness
in the world as it is (that is not the question); but making
us competent to be associated with Christ in the glory He
is in when He appears. Does the world know any- thing
about it? Is this what they look for? Do they not rather say
it is presumption to think any can have association and
fellowship with God? e world is a witness to itself that it
presumes no such thing.
God’s testimony is, “ ere are none righteous, none
understand, and none seek after God.” But suppose we
have received an understanding to know Him that is
true, then still the question is-How are we to stand in the
presence of the glory? Can one in a sinful condition abide
in His presence? Can we say we are t to be partakers of
the glory? ere is nothing in the world t for this. It is
vain to plead the highest morality, or the most rened
amiability; they are not the things to qualify us for heaven.
We may nd the character of evil all around: all are guilty,
for all come short of the glory of God. e evil of the root
from which it springs may be easily discerned in the fruits.
Now there must not only be a renewing, but a complete
purging of the conscience. And I plead this, that without
the shedding of blood there is no remission: all other ways
are the eorts of man to depreciate the righteousness of
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God- the substitution of something instead of God’s way
of salvation, which is most presumptuous and subversive
of the great testimony of God, that without the shedding
of blood there is no remission. e accumulated sins of our
evil nature must be put away. e Spirit of God can have
no part but bringing us to the knowledge of the hatefulness
of sin, and the necessity of the blood shed; and whenever
the soul is awakened to what sin is in God’s sight, there
cannot be peace until the Spirit which shows the necessity
of holiness, and reveals that of God, thus teaches us that
nothing but God’s own ecient act can put away, by the
shedding of the blood of Jesus, that which God testies
against.
e shedding the blood brings it to the actual power
of death-the taking away of the life of him whose life is
given; and why? Because there is the forfeiture of life, and
therefore the necessity of the life being given, the blood
shed, to blot out the sin; and here we nd Christ stepping
in, and all the believer has entirely shut up in Christ, in
whom we have a new nature whereby we can delight in
God, and not forgiveness only; and this the consequence of
the work of Christ alone, shedding His blood before God,
oering His life as a ransom to God, presenting that which
was adequate for the purpose, but without which there is
no escaping the consequences of sin. “ It pleased the Lord
to bruise him.” e blood was shed, but it is manifested as
His own voluntary act. At the same time His side is pierced
that we might know the act complete. is is presented
to our faith as a thing requisite, and which could be done
in no other way. Christ had no associate, no companion;
but once alone and forever the thing was done; and the
revelation of it by God to the soul is salvation. is is a
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transaction between God and the Son; the thing done is
the ground of remission of sins to every one who believes.
I have not peace in anything in which I take a part, but
peace in that in which Christ acted alone. Man’s part in it
was only stretching out the sinful hands which crucied
Him, and this is all he had to do with it. Is it, I ask, by any
act to be done now that peace is obtained? No; it is simply
by the blood which has been shed, the putting away of sin
by the sacrice of His death, which can give peace through
faith.
If once we see ourselves morally dead in trespasses
and sins, and that without the full forfeit of life there
is no remission, we shall see, as regards the cleansing of
the conscience, there is nothing but the blood for us. But
who did this? It is the act of God to provide Himself a
Lamb, by the shedding of whose blood the conscience of
those admitted into the holy presence of God is eectually
purged.
Can you say paradise is lost, and disobedience and sin
are here, and yet I shall force my way back to God? What
hope can those have who are not washed in the blood,
taking a worse ground than that which excluded them from
paradise (with thus accumulated sin upon them), treasuring
up wrath against the day of wrath, and despising that blood
which cleanses from all sin, counting it an unholy thing?
He who seeks God’s holiness and passes by Jesus, going to
God in his sins, passes by the blood, rejects the testimony
of God, and despises Jesus.
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62809
e Will of God, the Work of
Christ, and the Witness
of the Holy Ghost
Hebrews 10
THE basis of the argument of the apostle in this
chapter lies more in the contrast than in the comparison
between the law and the good things to come. e law, he
says, had only a shadow, not the very image of things. For
example, under the law the priests ministered in inrmity;
now Christ ministers in glory. ey oered oftentimes the
same sacrices, which could never take away sins; He one
sacrice-once for all. en there was a veil; now there is
none. en the priests could not enter into the Holiest;
now we have boldness to enter in by the blood of Jesus.
e law had a shadow of good things to come, not the very
image. It was a mere gurative witness of the things that
were to be spoken after. Just as the shadow of a man gives
some general indistinct idea of him, but does not present a
single feature clearly; so it was with the law. It could never
make the comers thereunto perfect, as the repetition of its
sacrices showed. Now the unity of the sacrice proves its
perfection; and the present position of the worshippers
gives the most complete contrast possible to that under the
law, though there is a certain measure of analogy.
ere are three things brought out in this scripture:
rstly, the source from which all blessing springs; secondly,
the means by which it is accomplished; and, thirdly, the
testimony by which it is known.
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523
is last is a most necessary part of the matter, in order
to our communion; because, unless we know sin to be all put
away, it would be absolute madness to attempt to enter into
the presence of God: a Jew even would not have thought of
such a thing, much less a Christian. If I am not as clean as
an angel, the presence of God is no place for me; and the
attempt to appear in it would be to follow the example of
Cain, who thought to stand before God as a worshipper
without blood. We may cry to Him from the depths, of
course, and He will ever hear; but if the conscience be not
perfect, we cannot go into His presence to worship.
With the Jews this perfection was of course only
ceremonial; with us it is real: with them the veil hid God;
now that it is gone, and that we enter into the holiest of all,
there is the greater need of perfection of conscience. is
is why the apostle insists so strongly on the word “ once.”
Indeed all the reasoning of the chapter depends on it. “
Christ was once oered to bear the sins of many.” “ Once,
in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin
by the sacrice of himself.” “ We are sanctied through the
oering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” If those
sacrices could have wrought perfection of conscience,
would they not have ceased to be oered? Christ was once
oered, thereby proving the perfect result of His word; it
needed no repetition. at is why he says, elsewhere in this
epistle, that, if this be rejected, “ there remaineth no more
oering for sin.” If that has not made perfect, there is no
hope. If that be rejected, there is only “ a fearful looking
for of judgment.” In the repetition of sacrice there was a
remembrance made of sins. It was not God’s saying, eir
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Christians
now have often a mind to be in the same place still, and call
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524
their unbelief humility. With the Jews, of course, it must
have been so, because it was not possible that the blood
of bulls and of goats could take away sins. erefore God
changes the whole thing. “ He taketh away the rst, that he
may establish the second.”
is brings out the rst principle to which I alluded,
namely, the source of all blessing. It originates in the divine
will. “ Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” It originates in
the will of God, and not in the will of man: this is only
sin. As a creature, man should have no will of his own,
just as Christ had none. e principle of His obedience
was not a controlling power, hindering the operation of
His own will; but, ‘ Lo, I come to do thy will, O God! “
is was perfect obedience as a man. God’s will was His;
and that will alone brought salvation and life, where man’s
will had only brought sin and death. is gives stability
and perfection to everything, to nd its source and origin
in the will of God. If it had been the result of my will, all
would have been vacillating and changing as man’s will is;
and, moreover, if we had earned heaven by our own will,
there would have been no love of God in the matter, and
we should lose the sweetness of holding everything as the
fruit of divine love.
is will of God is not presented to man to do; it is the
Son of God who says, “ Lo, I come to do thy will, O God! “
Men could never have done the will of God; the second
Adam does it. As belonging to the rst Adam, our place
is to confess that we have not done, and that we never
could do, the will of God. When brought back to Him,
of course we have nothing else to do, for we are sanctied
unto obedience; but, as regards acceptance, it is the result
of the work of another. “ By the obedience of One shall
e Will of God, the Work of Christ, and the Witness of the Holy Ghost
525
many be made righteous.” God does all for us in grace,
and leaves man out in both the will and work. Salvation
is the result of God’s will and Christ’s work. And it gives
quietness and condence in this work, to see that it was not
a work done to turn God towards us, as it were, but that
from all eternity it was counseled by Himself. We have the
source of all in the unchangeable purpose of God.
Secondly, we have the work itself. It is a wonderful thing
for us to be thus let into what passed between the Father
and the Son before the world was; and most blessed to see
the freewill oering of Christ. If it were God’s will to be
the author of our salvation, it was equally Christ’s to be the
instrument of it; and whilst He, in order to be so, makes
Himself a servant, His divine power is still evinced in the
very expression, “ Lo, I come to do thy will, O God! “ at
could be said by none but by one competent to execute
any command of God. Supposing that command had been
to make a world, instead of to save one, Christ was the
only one who could do such a will; and in fact, both divine
power and divine love were evinced in redemption and
resurrection, in a higher degree than in creation.
In verse 5, where the quotation is from Psa. 40, the
verbal dierence is considerable, but the sense identical. “
A body hast thou prepared me,” and “ Mine ears hast thou
opened,” or “ digged,” are both expressions of assuming
the form of a servant. e ear receives commands, and the
boring of the ear was making one a servant forever. So
when a body was prepared for Christ, He took on Him
the form of a servant. us far we have the will of God
working in grace, and Christ undertaking to accomplish it.
en in verse 11 we have the contrast between the
priest standing, and Christ sitting. His work is nished-
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526
there is nothing further to do; and He sits down till His
foes be made His footstool. “ Forever,” in verse 12, means
“ continually “ or “ constantly,” not that Christ will never
rise again; but as regards His sacrice for sins He will
never have to rise again to do anything more. Having
oered one sacrice for sins, He sits down till His foes be
made His footstool. As regards His friends, all is done-
not as to intercession of course-but as to acceptance and
perfecting the conscience. But He has still to deal with His
enemies; therefore is He waiting, still retaining His servant
character, until God makes His foes His footstool. We
too are expecting, till Christ rises up from the throne and
judges His enemies. is is not done yet: else wickedness
would be purged from the earth; and it explains the call for
vengeance in the Psalms, which sometimes puzzles people,
“ Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered,” etc.; and, “ Of
thy mercy cut o mine enemies.” ese surely are not the
cries of the church. She does not want to see her enemies
judged but saved. She goes to meet the Lord in the air. Not
so the Jewish remnant. It passes through great tribulation;
and “ except those days were shortened, no esh should be
saved.” So they call earnestly enough for deliverance. But
such is not our part at all; we are associated with Christ
while expecting; in grace now, and in glory by-and-by, but
not in judgment.
In verse 12 we have seen that Christ’s one sacrice
was such that He has sat down forever; so in verse 14 we
read, that “ by one oering he hath perfected forever “-or
“ continually “-” them that are sanctied.” us we are
continually perfect; not practically here-though the Spirit
sancties the heart and aections as far as this goes-but
here the work of Christ makes the conscience constantly
e Will of God, the Work of Christ, and the Witness of the Holy Ghost
527
perfect. “ e worshippers, once purged, should have no
more conscience of sins.” us we are brought into the
presence of God, never to have any more conscience of
sins. “ For by one oering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctied.” We are called so to know Christ’s
work, as to see that it is quite impossible for us to have
sin on us before God. Sin cannot be in God’s presence.
ere is nothing but perfection there; and we are there
because perfected forever by the one oering of Jesus. We
are in God’s presence because we are clean, as clean as He
could wish us to be. “ e blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin.” It is quite true we have to keep
a conscience void of oense, and not to grieve the Spirit;
but we are sealed of God unto the day of redemption; and
there can be no mistake. e Holy Ghost could not dwell
in us unless cleansed by the blood of Christ; and then He
is the witness, not to the fruits, but to the virtue of that
blood. e fruits could not be produced unless He were
there of course, because they are “ the fruits of the Spirit
“; and when produced, the order is, rst, the internal ones,
then all the rest. “ Love, joy, peace,” precede the outward
manifestations of the Spirit’s presence.
e Christian ought to keep himself in the present
communion of his known place before God, because
then, besides the joy, the Holy Ghost has its full ow in
using him as a vessel to others, in God’s service; whereas
otherwise He must occupy us with ourselves. I have not
only communion, but power, only as thus in immediate
intercourse with God in His presence.
We now come to the third point. Having seen the source
of all in the divine will, and the accomplishment of all in
the divine work, we get the testimony to it all in the divine
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528
witness. “ Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to
us; for after that he had said before, is is the covenant,”
etc., then He said, “ And their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more.” And here is the secret of settled peace.
If I think that God will ever remember sin, I am denying
the will, the work, and the testimony of God. In short, if a
believer in Jesus, it comes to being a sin to have the least
thought of God’s ever imputing a sin to me. It is just as
much a work of the esh as to commit the sin. He does
not now impute sin, and He never will. “ Where remission
of these is, there is no more oering for sin,” sweeps away
every refuge of lies, and lip the blessed foundation for full
condence. “ Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter
into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus,” shows that the very
way we enter into God’s presence proves that the thing
which shut us out is gone forever.
“ Our bodies washed with pure water,” refers to the
priests, who were washed with water, sprinkled with blood,
and anointed with oil. e latter is not mentioned here.
After they were once washed, the priests needed only to
wash their hands and feet. e anointing with blood of the
ear, the thumb, and the toe, was the application of the work
of Christ to the whole moral man. e work of Christ is
always set rst, then follows the work of the Spirit. In
Ephesians it is said, “ Christ also loved the church, and
gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the word.” erefore in the
tabernacle the rst thing you meet is not the laver, but the
altar. As a sinner, I must rst meet the blood; then I am
tted for service, by the removal of all that is contrary to
God: but I cannot skip the altar to reach the laver; I must
e Will of God, the Work of Christ, and the Witness of the Holy Ghost
529
there own myself a sinner rst; then I can delight in the
holiness of God, and understand it, too.
e apostle then goes on, “ Consider one another to
provoke unto love,” etc., that is, having got to God in grace,
we must be diligent in acting towards others in grace. He
introduces “ Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves
together,” to meet the tendency there was to avoid public
testimony, and to think that private faith would do in times
of persecution such as these were. is was their natural
tendency; and, whether it be persecution or reproach, it
is the same thing. e latter is perhaps our snare. “And
so much the more as ye see the day approaching”; for
judgment is surely coming. If the power of evil increases
there is the more need to cling closely to Christ. And we
must not suppose that the world is improving because the
Spirit is working; on the contrary, this is just the proof that
judgment is nearing. e more rapidly souls are gathered
in, the more reason have we for believing the coming of
the Lord to be at hand. Whilst the long-suering of God
is salvation, the hope should ever be a present one to the
church. It was the wicked servant who said, “ My lord
delayeth his coming “; yet He did delay it.
en, in verse 26, it is as though he said, If you do not
hold fast-if you will give up, and abandon this perfect
sacrice, then there remains nothing further; there is
no year of atonement to come round again with a new
oering; but just as those who believe are eternally perfect,
so he who refuses is left remediless. It was he who despised
Moses’ law who died without mercy, and not he who broke
it; so it is he who counts the blood of the covenant an
unholy thing, and does despite to the Spirit of grace, that
shall be counted worthy of a sorer punishment; not he who
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530
fails. “ If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for
our sins “; such is the gracious provision for failure through
inrmity- advocacy, righteousness, and propitiation. But if
a man, after having seen all the grace and fullness that are in
Christ, deliberately choose sin as his portion; and, rejecting
the blood of the new covenant as insucient, turns back
again, then he must take the consequence. God’s grace
is His last resource, so to speak, for winning man. If that
does not suce, judgment must take its course; and “it is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” On
this ground the position is at once that of “adversaries,” and
we know Him that hath said, “ Vengeance is mine, I will
recompense.” “Let us, therefore, hold fast our condence,
which hath great recompense of reward “; and let us
remember that we shall “have need of patience; but yet a
little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not
tarry.”
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