Collected

Writings of J.N.

Darby

Expository 5

By John Nelson Darby

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Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Contents

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans .............................7

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans .......................26

Notes on Romans: Introduction ..................................145

Notes on Romans 1 .....................................................151

Notes on Romans 2-4 ..................................................168

Notes on Romans 5 .....................................................185

Notes on Romans 6 .....................................................198

Notes on Romans 7 .....................................................216

Notes on Romans 8 .....................................................234

Notes on Romans 9-11 ................................................273

Notes on 1 Corinthians 1 ............................................283

Notes on 1 Corinthians 2 ............................................294

Notes on 1 Corinthians 3 ............................................300

Notes on 1 Corinthians 4 ............................................305

Notes on 1 Corinthians 5 ............................................307

Notes on 1 Corinthians 6 ............................................314

Notes on 1 Corinthians 7 ............................................327

Notes on 1 Corinthians 8 ............................................329

Notes on 1 Corinthians 9 ............................................333

Notes on 1 Corinthians 10 ..........................................349

Notes on 1 Corinthians 11 ..........................................361

Notes on 1 Corinthians 12 ..........................................390

Notes on 1 Corinthians 13 ..........................................400

Notes on 1 Corinthians 14 ..........................................404

Notes on 1 Corinthians 15 ..........................................408

Notes on 1 Corinthians 16 ..........................................426

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1 ............................................428

Notes on 2 Corinthians 2 ............................................444

Notes on 2 Corinthians 3 ............................................450

Notes on 2 Corinthians 4 ............................................460

Notes on 2 Corinthians 5 ............................................472

What Death Is to the Christian: 2 Corinthians 5 .......487

Notes on 2 Corinthians 6 ............................................493

Notes on 2 Corinthians 7 ............................................501

Notes on 2 Corinthians 8-9 .........................................504

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Notes on 2 Corinthians 10 ..........................................507

Notes on 2 Corinthians 11 ..........................................509

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12 ..........................................512

Notes on 2 Corinthians 13 ..........................................526

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

62938

Outline of the Epistle to the

Romans

Rome was the center of the universal empire of the

world, the Gentile metropolis; and Paul had not been

there; but God had made him apostle and teacher of the

Gentiles (2 Tim. 1:11). In fullling his apostolic function,

his heart was naturally drawn toward that seat of the

empire and the Christians living there, or who ocked

thither from all sides, to conrm them in the faith, and to

establish the church forming in that important locality on

the foundations of divine truth. is is what the epistle to

the Romans presents us with. It is a summary of the great

truths which form the groundwork of the gospel of Christ.

Let us consider a little the position of man, and of

the world, before God. Christianity, it is evident, was not

introduced at the beginning of the history of the human

race. Already nearly 4,000 years had elapsed before the Son

of God appeared among men. How many things had taken

place under the eye of God during that long period!

Let us examine the grand traits of this history. God

had created man innocent, and had placed him in a state

of happiness in a terrestrial paradise. He, following the

sad example of his wife who had listened to the seductive

words of the tempter, disobeyed God, and lost at once

his innocence and his happiness. He dares not to present

himself before God. A bad conscience leads him to avoid

His presence, even before the just judgment of God drives

him from the garden, and from Himself, source alone of

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

true happiness. Man, ungrateful, disobedient man, who had

taken Satan for his friend and his counselor, in preference

to God, having believed him rather than God Himself, was

the slave of Satan and his own will, was lost! Being driven

from the garden was but a natural consequence of his fall.

e way to the tree of life was closed to him. He stays in

the world outside, the slave of sin and death.

But God, in driving man out from His presence,

had not forgotten to be gracious; and, in pronouncing

sentence on the serpent, He speaks of a Redeemer who

should destroy the power of the enemy of man. It was

pure grace; and testimony was given of it in the very title

of the Deliverer, “the Seed of the woman,” of her who by

listening to Satan had plunged man into ruin; but before

sending the Redeemer for the accomplishment of the work

of redemption, man must be tried, and in every way, to see

whether, such as he is, he could attain to the power of life

eternal, or secure himself in a state of happiness. God knew

well what he was. Every imagination of the thoughts of his

heart was only evil continually. But we are prone enough to

entertain a good opinion of ourselves for it to be salutary

for us to make trial of what we are, that the conscience,

convinced of sin, may be willing to prot by pure grace

and the goodness of God. So, during centuries, God left

man without checks to the inclinations of his own heart.

e Savior had been announced, it is true, and a living

testimony had been given on the part of God.

e names of Abel, Enoch, and Noah, shine in the pages

of the Holy Scriptures, like lights in those remote ages.

But the light itself shone in vain. Man corrupted himself

more and more, so that after long patience God was led

to wash corrupted humanity in the terrible scourge of the

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

deluge. But He who is ever remembering His mercy in the

midst of His judgments, pointed out a means of salvation

to those who alone had listened to His word; and Noah,

with his family, becomes the parent stock of a new world.

But the terrible lesson of a world destroyed was lost

upon man. Chastisements do not change nature. We

soon nd that idolatry is introduced and propagated in all

quarters of the world. at is to say, to avail ourselves of the

words of the Apostle Paul, the heathen “sacriced to devils,

and not to God.” (1 Cor. 10:2). God called Abraham in

order to preserve in the midst of the world the knowledge

of the true God, and that he might be the depositary of

the promises of God, and that the promised seed should

rise from his family. And Abraham, as well as Isaac and

Jacob, his son and grandson, were strangers and pilgrims

on the earth through faith. Of his posterity the Lord raised

up an earthly people (called Israel, known generally, in the

present day, under the name of Jews), that it might be a

witness and preserver of the doctrine of the unity of the

true God, against the errors of the heathen. In Abraham

the call of grace from out of the world, and free salvation

through faith, had been signally shown in the ways of God.

Now, a striking testimony as to the deliverance by the blood

of a victim, substituted for the sinner whose penalty it bore,

was presented in a gure; and this thought, this answer to

the needs of conscience harassed by the conviction of sin,

was spread through all nations; disgured, doubtless, by

the gross and abominable ideas of idolaters, who falsied

the character of God in worshipping demons; but, in its

rst principle, as in its origin, a divine provision for the

necessity of the sinner before a just God. When God

called Israel to Himself that they might be His people, He

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

put ransom as the ground of their deliverance. e blood

guarded them from the just judgment of God, and guarded

them perfectly.

e people, come out of Egypt, are led through the

desert to be tried, and at last are brought to Sinai. And

now a principle quite new is presented to them. e

covenant of the law is oered to the people; that is to

say, the blessing and the enjoyment of promises under

condition of obedience to the law of God. “If ye obey my

voice,” said Jehovah to the people; “thou shalt be a peculiar

treasure unto me” (Ex. 19:5). “Do this, and thou shalt live.”

is then is the principle of the law of God, a principle

perfectly just, like the law, which was the rule of conduct

which God proposed, and which the Lord Jesus summed

up in those holy words: “ou shalt love Jehovah thy God

with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy

soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself”

(Mark 12:33). It was a perfect and admirable rule of what

man ought to be, and which would secure happiness to

the creatures living according to its requirements. Jehovah

therefore proclaimed the law, under the form of Ten

Commandments, with His own mouth to the people, at

Sinai. If they kept it, they should be blessed; if not, they

would be condemned and cursed.

Now the law, as it ought, proposed to them a perfect

obedience, even (what is in fact alone such) the perfect

obedience of the heart. “ou shalt not covet.” It is evident

that, if God was entering into relationship with man, He

must look to the heart. “ou shalt not covet” (Ex. 20:11).

To act otherwise would be to justify the hypocrite. e law

was thus given. It was a holy, just, and perfect law, which

declared what man ought to be, in order to please God, and

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

to have life eternal. If God was pure, holy, and just, man

must be so to be happy. But mark here, if the law described

what man ought to be, it did not at all declare what God

was, except that He was just, and would punish the sinner.

It is the gospel which shining, while it fully recognizes this

justice and the perfection of the law, reveals what God in

grace is to him who transgresses it. We shall speak of it

presently. Here let us follow our subject. e law, which

required perfect righteousness and obedience in man, had

been given — to whom? To man already a sinner? What

can a perfect law do (and the law of God must be such) for

a sinner? Condemn him in convincing him of his sin. Was

it the law which was in fault? Quite the contrary: it was

its holiness and righteousness which did thus. It was the

necessary result of a perfect law given to a sinner. A rule

gives neither life nor strength; it requires certain things, it

gives nothing.

ere is another result of the law. ere is a will of his

own in man. One knows it, one feels it, one sees it. e

law forbids the gratication of our will. It is the expression

of the will of God which we ought to obey. Our wills

kick against the will of God. We always desire to do that

which is forbidden. Forbid a child to look into a basket

to see what is therein, and a longing will begin to stir at

once in its heart. It would not have thought of it, had it

not been told not to look inside the basket; but now it

wishes to examine it. Sin nds an occasion in the law. e

unbeliever will say, perhaps, “How unjust to give us a law

which can only condemn us!” One might say so indeed,

however useless it would be to contend against God, if it

were true that God had given it in order that we might be

saved through its means; but this is what He has not done.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

God gave the law that sin might be made manifest, and

that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly

sinful — to show, not only that man had committed sins,

but that his will was wicked and corrupt, and so audacious,

that he would commit them in spite of God’s prohibition;

and so wicked, as a will, that a prohibition was only an

occasion for this will to wish to leap clean over the barrier

which might oppose itself to it. It is Christ who saves,

not the law. Israel, to whom God committed the care of

this law, had transgressed it in making a golden calf even

before Moses had come down from the mount with the

tables upon which God had engraved it. e patience of

God, however, still showed itself in sending prophets to

put Israel in remembrance of the requirements of the law,

and of the goodness of God, proclaiming with increasing

light the accomplishment of the promise of the Messiah.

Israel despised their warnings and their testimony. At last

John the Baptist, herald of the King of Israel, of the Christ

of God, arrives; and soon after the Lord Himself appeared

on the scene. “I have yet my Son, my only Son,” said God,

proclaiming Himself under the gure of a parable — “they

will reverence my Son” (Matt. 21:37).

We all know what happened to the Man of sorrows.

“Behold,” said the husbandmen (to use still the words of

the parable), “Behold the heir! come, let us kill him, and

the inheritance will be ours” (Matt. 21:38). e Son of God

appeared — they spat in His face, and crucied Him. Such

is the history of the world: is man wicked or not? And

consider what the Son of man was — it was no more the law;

for, although the Son was born, in His grace, under the law,

He was the manifestation of the love and of the goodness

of God, even towards those who had transgressed it. He

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

did them good — He did not impute their sins to them.

It was God in the midst of men and their misery — God

delivering them from it without imputing to them the sin

that had brought them there. He required nothing, bore

everything, and healed their sick. He gave to eat to those

that were hungry; He raised their dead. It was power and

divine love; but it was the light, it was God Himself; and

whatever His goodness might be, man would not have

Him.

e Jew alas! hated Him; the Gentile, despising Him, rid

himself of Him, to avoid the tumult raised by the jealousy

of the Jews: all, unknown to themselves, accomplished the

will and the counsels of God. e crime, without parallel,

which the sin of man committed, was the testimony and

the accomplishment of the perfect love of God.

e victim of propitiation was sacriced. e blood

which redeemed, which accomplished our salvation, was

spilled. Man had been left without law — corruption and

violence had characterized the world. Man had been put

under the law, with all the privileges of the presence of

God in His temple, with the testimony of the prophets,

the ordinances and the direct government of God; he had

transgressed the law, despised the prophets, and forsaken

God for idols of his own choice. e Son of God Himself,

God manifested in the esh, had appeared on the scene of

misery which man had created for himself by his own sin,

the testimony of the innite goodness of God. e world

knew Him not, the Jews would not have Him — they

all united together in rising against the Lord and His

Anointed. ey spat in His face and crucied Him; they

hated Him without a cause. Sad picture! We prefer our

own way to everything. us man has been tested in every

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

way — the tree was bad. Now comes the question. What

will God be with regard to man, wicked man? A just Judge

doubtless, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, to look

at sin. Grace and love will He be before He begins with

judgment.

It is here that the epistle to the Romans begins its

instruction, addressing the Gentiles on the one hand, and

the Jews on the other. Let us sum up in a few words the

thread of thoughts which the Holy Spirit presents us with

in this important part of the word of God.

In chapter 1, after having announced Christ as the Son

of David, heir of the promises made to Israel, and Son of

God in power, addressing himself aectionately to the

Christians at Rome, he proclaims at once the gospel as

the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew rst; and also

to the Gentile, because a righteousness of God is revealed

therein. Man had none for God; God has one in His grace

for man, sinful and wretched man.

Now, if God has revealed it as a righteousness which

is His own, and which He has made available for man; if

God, I say, has revealed it as a righteousness perfect and

accomplished on His part, it is through faith that we must

receive it. It is faith which receives a revelation; it is faith

which lays hold of and trusts to an accomplished fact. e

Apostle Paul asserts that the wrath of God is revealed

against all unrighteousness. What was there else amongst

the heathen? Against all ungodliness in men who held the

truth in ungodliness. Had not such been the case with the

Jews up to that day? And may we not add now, alas, with

many of the most orthodox persons who call themselves

Christians. e patience of God had lasted long, but He has

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

fully revealed Himself in Christ, and every sin whatsoever,

put into the light, is unbearable.

In the course of chapters 1 and 2, the apostle shows

the horrible iniquity which characterized the state of the

heathen, and the culpability of the Jews. Noah’s family

had known God; his descendants would not retain this

knowledge. Proofs also of scripture, and of the power of

the only true God, surrounded them everywhere! ey

were inexcusable. ey had degraded the very idea of God.

ey were left to degrade themselves. Philosophers and

moralists judged well of this state of things. Were they

changed themselves? By no means. Could God accept of

such things? Surely not. What of the Jews who boasted of

the law, and wished to be the instructors of the ignorant?

ey transgressed the law of which they boasted, and the

name of God was blasphemed among the heathen through

their means.

It was not the outward appearance of man that was of

any value in the eyes of God. He looks at the heart. Did

the apostle deny then the privileges the Jews had above

the heathen? By no means. But the possession of religious

privileges renders those who do not prot thereby more

guilty; so likewise the doctrine of Christ renders more

culpable those who possess it, if they are not real and

living Christians. Now the apostle shows to the Jews, by

passages taken from their own scriptures, that they were

condemned; so that, he says, every mouth is stopped, and

the whole world stands guilty before God. By the works of

the law shall no man be justied before God, for those who

had the privilege of that law were so much the more guilty

in that they had transgressed it. Who can stand before

the law of God? Who can say, “I have not transgressed it!”

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

How can one justify oneself by a law one has transgressed?

By the law is the knowledge of sin. What is to be done?

Hear what the apostle says: “But now the righteousness

of God without the law is made manifest, being witnessed

to by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of

God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them

that believe, for there is no dierence, for all have sinned

and come short of the glory of God; being justied freely

by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith

in his blood” (Rom. 3:21-25).

It is the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of God,

which is the only answer (which God Himself has furnished

to us) to the demand of the justice which condemns the

sinner. It is the righteousness of God by Jesus that makes

righteous the man who has no righteousness to present to

God, so that God is just in justifying him that has faith

in Jesus. What grace! What a blessing for the poor sinner

who has a heart broken enough and cleansed, suciently

true for him to condemn himself! Boasting is excluded

through faith in Jesus. We have now summed up the great

principles of the rst three chapters.

In chapter 4 the apostle, in reasoning with the Jew,

presents to us other considerations in support of the divine

thesis which he treats of. What shall we say of Abraham,

the honored and recognized chief of Israel, and the father

of the faithful? He was justied by faith before the law was

given, before even he himself was circumcised. But this is

not all. On what did he himself rest? On the power of God

who raises the dead. For there he was, as to the promise

that was made to him; and this was imputed to him for

righteousness. “If we believe in him who has raised Jesus

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

from among the dead” (Rom. 4:24). at is to say, faith is

in Him who, not only by the blood of the precious Savior

has satised the demands of the justice of God; but (when

Jesus has borne in our place the punishment due to sin,

has borne our sins in His own body on the tree, has been

delivered for our oenses and died for us) God, in His

mighty power, raised Him, and has there done with our

sins once for all, and has placed us (who believe in Jesus)

in Him, in His presence, fully justied by means of what

Jesus has done, since He has done it for those who believe.

In believing, therefore, in this work of Jesus, we know that

He has taken away our sins, and has placed us in the actual

enjoyment of the favor and of the grace of God, before

whom we nd ourselves according to the ecacy of the

work of Christ, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

is is what chapter 5 reveals to us. ere also we nd two

principles of innite importance.

e love of God does not nd any motive in us, but

in Himself, in His nature, all the while that it nds the

occasion of displaying itself in our misery. e gospel is the

glad tidings, that the love of God has made provision of a

perfect righteousness in Christ Jesus for poor sinners who

had none — a righteousness which we enjoy through faith

in Jesus, so that all is a gift — all is gratuitous — to Jesus

belongs all the glory — He alone is worthy. We are made

partakers of it through grace. Perhaps a man would die for

a good man. It was when we were yet without strength that

Christ died for the ungodly. We may reckon on that love. If

God has reconciled us by the death of Jesus when we were

enemies, He will save us to the end through His life.

e second principle in this chapter is, that the question

is not only concerning the law, we must go back as far as

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Adam, the head of the human race. All fell and were ruined

in him, having superadded, at the same time, their own

sins” e law entered to make the oense abound.” Sin was

already known as a principle: the law in forbidding it, made

of it an oense, a positive and formal transgression of every

act which sin has produced in us. But God be blessed!

Where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded.

But as by the disobedience of one (that is to say, Adam)

many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (we

are made just through the obedience of Jesus) many shall

be justied; so that as sin has reigned in death, grace has

reigned through righteousness unto life eternal by Jesus

Christ our Lord.

Now the unbeliever, man’s wicked heart, may be ready

to say here, “Ah! since it is through the obedience of One

that we are constituted righteous from being unrighteous,

which I am; and since where sin abounded grace has

much more abounded, let us sin that grace may abound.”

Doubtless that is what the esh likes. Here is the answer

of the apostle. How are you made a partaker of this divine

righteousness in Christ? It is because He has died to sin,

that He has done with sin in His death (He, who always

was without sin), and that He is risen; and that you have

been baptized unto His death, in order that you might thus

have part in His resurrection. Now if you are dead to sin

by faith in Him (and that is what faith would say, that is

the meaning of your baptism), how live in sin? You have

no part in the death of Christ if you still live in the esh.

If you are made partaker of justication, it is in Christ, by

the power of the life in which He is risen. To have part

in Christ as being dead and risen, is not to live in sin, but

quite the contrary. So that to enjoy this perfect justication

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

in the soul implies necessarily the death to sin and the life

of God in the soul, because we possess this justication in

Him alone, who, for us, has died to sin once, and lives to

God always. But what is to be done with the law? Here

is the answer. We have shown that the true Christian is

dead with Christ, being made a partaker with Him who

died on the cross. Now, the law knows not how to accuse a

dead man: so that instead of being condemned by the law

as sinners, we live (as of a new life) unto God, in order to

glorify Him by good fruits, which we bear by His grace,

being already fully justied by the work of Christ Himself.

At the end of chapter 7, the apostle pictures the inward

conict which is found in a soul, which, being renewed,

loves the righteousness of the law; and in its desire to

fulll it, makes experience of its own weakness and want of

capacity, and which has not yet learned, notwithstanding its

sincerity, to submit itself to the righteousness of God — a

righteousness already accomplished through grace. e

moment it submits and seeks (not to do something to make

itself better, but) the Deliverer, it is made free. e soul is

made free — fruit of grace — when, instead of looking to

itself, it looks to Jesus and to His work. It will never be

satised with itself if it is sincere, and if it recognizes what

it ought to be before God. But God Himself is satised

with Jesus, and with the work He has done for that poor

soul. He has been fully gloried as to His love, as to His

righteousness, as to His majesty and His claims for the

obedience of man, as to His truth, in every way. God has

been gloried in the work of Christ on the cross, and the

soul can trust itself to it fully before God. ere is, therefore,

no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Now if they are in Jesus Christ, what belongs to them? what

characterizes them? “No CONDEMNATION.” — en

they are made free from the law of sin and of death. Sin,

as a principle of their nature, is no more a law to them.

e conict still continues; but sin is no more a law to us,

because the power of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus

has made them free, which the law could not do because

of the esh. God has made for us, by the coming of Jesus,

sacrice for sin. He has condemned sin in the esh. at

is to say, the law could not get to the end in condemning

this criminal, this rebel, who always justied himself in the

esh which nourished him, and which the law could not

change. Now Christ, as sacrice for sin, in delivering us

from the imputation of sin, having taken it upon Himself,

succeeded in condemning sin in our nature, while making

us ourselves free from the condemnation.

Having life in Him, sin is no more really as it was before;

the believer, born of God, and quickened by the Spirit of

life, loves the things which are of the Spirit; as those who

are of the esh love and seek after the things which are of

the esh.

Now we thus make this solemn discovery, that the

aection of the esh (that is to say, our whole nature

before we are renewed) was enmity against God, and thus

it was impossible that we should please God. Now it is

evident that a real change of heart is necessary when the

question is about enmity against God. For what art thou

that provest that we are not in the esh, but in the Spirit?

It is not something of man, it is that the Spirit of God

dwelleth in us. But if it be thus, the body is not the source

and the motive power of our life. It is considered dead,

for it produces nothing but sin. It is the Spirit who is life,

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

for He produces righteousness. Now we have this precious

condence, that if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus

dwells in us, this same power operates likewise in us, and

God will raise up again our mortal bodies by His Spirit

which dwells in us.

It is those that are led by the Spirit who are real children

of God. And what a blessing! Children of God! is is no

vain title. It is to enjoy the love of the Father — it is to be

assured of His favor. It is to be accepted in the Beloved. It is

to be able to trust ourselves (without the thought that He

is imputing to us our sins from which Christ has washed

us) to the goodness, to the fatherly aection, of God. e

Holy Spirit dwells in the children. He can do so since they

are washed in the blood of Christ, He gives them the full

assurance that they are the children of God. is is then

Christian life. Washed from our sins in the blood of Jesus,

the Spirit that dwells in us leads us by spiritual aections,

and at the same time gives us the perfect assurance that we

are children of God.

Now see the beautiful reasoning of the Spirit of God.

If I am a child, then am I an heir, an heir of God, and

a joint heir with Christ. What titles to the glory! en

the suerings of this present time are not worthy to be

compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Afterward the creation itself, not only the soul, at the time

of the glorication of the children, shall be delivered from

the bondage of corruption. Grace delivers the soul from it

now. Glory is about to deliver even creation itself. We have

salvation. We are waiting for the redemption of the body.

While waiting we have the earnest of the Spirit who dwells

in us, and He groans in us according to God, and gives

a voice to the actual suerings of the creation, although

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

often we ourselves know not what we should pray for — to

help us in our inrmities. Now God who searcheth the

heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit when He

intercedes thus in us. us, in the real believer, who has

submitted to the righteousness of God accomplished in

Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells, as the spring of a faith holy

and innite, while giving me the consciousness of being a

child of God and heir of the glory, and as Comforter amid

the suerings of the present time, urging the soul to seek

relief in God, with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Now in all this, that happy soul is the object of the

thoughts and of the counsels of God. It is not of our own

will that this has happened; neither the Gentile nor the

Jew sought Jesus according to the Spirit. It is of grace. It is

the counsels of the God of love. He makes all things work

together for good — for the very best — to those who love

Him, whom He has called according to His purpose. “For

whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be

conformed to the image of His Son — what grace! — that

He might be the rstborn amongst many brethren. ose

whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom

He called, them He also justied, and whom He justied,

them He also gloried.”

What precious links in God’s ways to assure our

blessing! So that as there is no condemnation for those

that are in Jesus Christ, there is no separation from the love

which has placed them there — never. Behold where grace,

where the love of God, puts us. rough Him we are more

than conquerors in all the diculties and suerings which

happen to us on the road.

Here terminates the doctrine of the epistle properly

so called. In the three chapters which follow, namely,

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

chapters 9, 10, 11, the apostle answers an objection which

an unbelieving Jew might very well make to trouble a

sincere believer of his own nation. “If you say that there is

no dierence; that Jew and Gentile are equally sinners, and

that we must, as being in the same abyss of condemnation,

submit to God’s righteousness; what do you do with the

promise made to Israel? How reconcile the privileges of

that people, as descendants of Abraham, with the complete

leveling of everything, in order to make of all men, without

distinction, a race of sinners in Adam?” In chapter 9 the

apostle answers, “You cannot support your own thesis. If

you trust to your descent from Abraham, without having

respect to the sovereignty of God, you must admit Ishmael

to the privileges of Israel; moreover you must admit the

Edomites as the posterity of Esau.

“God has been sovereign to your prot, and it is well

He is so. Now, He will exercise this sovereignty in favor of

some poor Gentile sinners, in calling some to participate in

the salvation by Christ. But if you will have righteousness,

you have made the golden calf. God did spare you on the

principle of His sovereignty — the passage is quoted from

Exodus, and it is what God told Moses on the occasion of

the idolatry of Israel at Sinai — “I will have compassion on

whom I will have compassion; and I will have mercy on

whom I will have mercy.” Now, if He spared you on this

principle, He will do likewise towards some poor Gentile

sinners.”

Afterward, it is proved by the prophecies, how God

had foretold that there would be only a little remnant

that would be saved from among the Jews; that the nation

would stumble upon the stumbling-stone, that is to say,

upon Christ (He being the end of the law for righteousness

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

to every believer), and that God had declared at the same

time, that whosoever should call on the name of the Lord

should be saved. Precious promise! ereupon He shows

that consequently the gospel was to be preached to all,

that they might all call on the name of the Savior. And

he quotes the testimonies of the prophets against Israel as

a proof of their rebellion against the gospel of Christ. In

chapter 11 He asks, “Will the promises of God fail towards

this people?” By no means. (1) “Already,” says he, “there is a

residue according to the election of grace.” (2) God called

the Gentiles to provoke the Jews unto a holy jealousy:

therefore it was not to reject them. (3) In the latter days they

will certainly be brought back to the enjoyment of their

privileges according to the promises and the testimony of

God. But that God had shut them up in unbelief, as were

the Gentiles by nature, in order that it might be pure grace

on His part towards all, whether Jew or Gentile.

In the chapters following the apostle rests on these

principles (mercy in God) — exhortations to a walk that

responded to this goodness, and that sought only His

perfect will with the intelligence of a renewed mind. He

exhorts them to moderation, to meekness, to use their

spiritual gifts, whatever that might be, with diligence,

conning themselves to what God had communicated to

each of them, to the spirit of grace — of kindness towards

the saints that were in want, to patience when they suered

wrong (“vengeance belongeth to God “), to submission

under the authorities as being ordained of God; in short,

to imitate Christ in their walk, and not to seek to satisfy

the esh. He sums up his doctrine in chapter 15, and

conrms it by quotations taken from the Old Testament,

Outline of the Epistle to the Romans

and sends aectionate salutations to the Christians whom

he personally knew at Rome.

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62940

Exposition of the Epistle to

the Romans

Introduction

It may facilitate our apprehension of the epistle to

the Romans itself, if we take a brief survey of the other

epistles of Paul which complete his teaching on the various

parts of the same general whole — Galatians, Romans,

Ephesians, Colossians. A part of 2 Corinthians furnishes

us with the practical application of it. In the Galatians we

have the rst elements; in Ephesians the brightest results

of the same great circle of truth. But some preliminary

remarks may facilitate our perception of the dierent parts

themselves contained in each epistle. e point I now

refer to is the dierence between the counsels of God and

the responsibility of man. e counsels of God have their

accomplishment in the second Man, who is from heaven.

Every intelligent creature is responsible, and the saint in

a far higher way than a mere child of Adam. But I now

speak of our original responsibility as creatures of God, and

consequently in connection with the rst Adam.

It is a wondrous and blessed truth that God’s purpose

and delight were in men. Before the world was the divine

wisdom centered in them, and that in connection with

the Son of His love. Purpose was before responsibility.

Responsibility necessarily awaited the creation of the

responsible creature; for we do not speak of angels here,

who were a distinct creation altogether, present when this

creation was set up by the power of God. at purpose

of God had in view the last man, the last Adam, the Son

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

of His love, in whom His wisdom and His power were

to be displayed; and it was not revealed till after He had

accomplished His work, on which, connected with His

person, God’s glory in it was to be founded. is is very

distinctly stated in two passages I will now quote. Titus

1:2-3: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot

lie, promised before the world began, but hath in due

times manifested his word through preaching, which is

committed unto me according to the commandment of

God our Savior.” Again, 2 Tim. 1:9: “Who hath saved us

and called us with an holy calling, not according to our

works [that is responsibility, according to which judgment

is], but according to his own purpose and grace, which

was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but

is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior

Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought life

and immortality [incorruptibility] to light by the gospel,

whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a

teacher of the Gentiles.”

e same in substance is stated in Ephesians 1:4,

connected with other passages in the epistle, in which it

is fully developed. In the well-known passage of Proverbs

8, though not of course as a dogmatic statement as in the

epistles, we have the same truth of God’s thoughts and

purposes in man brought out in connection with wisdom

personied, which, in its fulllment, was in Christ. e

object of that passage is not to celebrate — that which every

pious mind surely owns — the wisdom of God in creation,

as often supposed; but declares that wisdom was in God

before creation, before His ways began. “Jehovah possessed

me in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old;

I was set up from everlasting.” Or ever the earth was,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

wisdom was there, is the statement when no creation was.

What was in the mind of Wisdom, of which the created

earth was but the sphere? When Jehovah did create, and

when He ordered our present world, Wisdom was present

with Him “as one brought up with him, and I was daily

his delight, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and

my delights were with the sons of men.” Man occupied

Wisdom’s thought: Wisdom’s delight was there.

Hence when the Word became esh, the angels, that

prior creation, celebrate it, acclaiming this, “Glory to God

in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in men”; not

merely goodwill. It is the same word as when it is said,

“in whom I am well pleased.” Blessed unjealous praise of

those holy beings delighting in God’s thoughts, even if

others were the object of them! For God’s glory was their

delight, and Christ eclipsed every other thought, they felt

and thought according to their perfect nature. Purpose was

thus in the second Man, the Son of God, the Word made

esh, the Son of God’s love, and in those in whom His

delight was associated with Him, to which end He became

man, and all, through His death, was to God’s glory and

righteousness.

But the purpose of God was not rst in accomplishment.

at came with the second Man, when the question of

man’s responsibility had had its full solution and result,

and they were dealt with as lost. e responsibility of

man as such, as a mere creature, was fully dealt with, or

rather man as under it. First as innocent. ere he failed,

tested by the simple claim of obedience without an evil

lust; but (God having been distrusted, and Satan listened

to, in Adam’s, or, however, Eve’s soul) God was lost, and

lust and transgression came in — characterized now man

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

and his ways, afraid of God, and driven out by Him. e

sense of this responsibility was then lost, so to speak, in

utter lawlessness, and the ood and judgment came upon

the earth. Now, after God had established restraint, and

authority in man on the earth in Noe, who also failed

and got drunk, God developed His ways anew in positive

dealings with man, as outside, to bless or to test. But, before

testing, grace was revealed; man was dealt with in grace. A

free unconditional promise was given to Abraham, the new

root of hope and promise by grace.

It is not without interest to notice the distinction of

God’s ways before and after the ood. When Adam

was judged, no promise was made to him. e rst man

had lost all but the judgment he had merited, nor could

promise be made to sinful esh. But the total destruction

of Satan’s power is announced. In judging the serpent, it

is declared that the woman’s Seed, not Adam (clearly he

was not woman’s seed), should bruise the serpent’s head.

e promises were in Christ. en, though individuals

were dealt with in grace, as Abel, Enoch, Noah, there

was no new system or principle set up. Man remained

responsible as man; and the earth was lawless, corrupt, and

full of violence, and so bad that judgment came, and the

world that then was perished. ere was no new head and

root of promise. After the ood, man rose up in rebellion

to make himself a name, not to be scattered; and God

confounded his language, and nations were formed, and

Satan introduced idolatry. Save as an abstract root of all

worship, as the consciousness of God must be, God was

set aside, and men put demons in His place, and clothed

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

deied lusts with His name.

en God called out from the

world which He had made, and all relationship with it, one

to whom He revealed Himself, and whom He made the

head of a family belonging to Him, whether naturally or

spiritually. To this chosen and called one, this new head of

a race, God gave promises directly addressed, not indeed to

man as such, but to the chosen and called one. e promise

was introduced,

and rst deposited in Abraham the father

of the faithful; it was soon after, by a gure intimating the

death and resurrection of Christ, conrmed to the Seed.

It was more than the judgment by which the Seed of the

woman should bruise the serpent’s head; there was direct

personal blessing from God to the objects of it, and this

blessing in the seed of Abraham. e promise and the seed

were fully united in the revelations of God.

After this came another very important dealing of God

with the eshly seed of Abraham — the giving of the law,

the raising the question of righteousness, and requiring it

from man, according to the perfect rule of it as applicable

1 ere appear to me to have been four sources of idolatry: rst,

an ineaceable consciousness of God; deied ancestors; the

stars; and the principle of generation. ese were interwoven,

the last giving rise to corruption inconceivable, the consecration

of degrading lusts. e gods, as popularly known, were deied

passions, as Venus, Mars, and so on, and the powers of nature.

Behind all these was always the unknown God. Conscience

had no part in the scheme; natural benevolence might, as in

India; nor even when something of conscience (for all have one

since the fall) mingled with it, as in the Egyptian Amenti, no

future intercourse with God, transmigration, exaltation to gods

like themselves. But though the root of God-consciousness

was always there, fellowship with God was unknown.

2 A promise not to destroy the earth was given to Noah, but he

was no root of promised personal blessings.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

to Adam’s children: blessing and life dependent on

obedience — an obedience as justly required as the rule of it

was perfect. Here responsibility was distinctly brought into

relief, sanctioned by God’s express authority, and a perfect

measure of it given. We know the result. e golden calf

was made before the tables of the law could be brought into

the camp. To natural responsibility revealed authority and

a revealed rule were added; righteousness was dened and

claimed from man according to his obligations, measured

by God Himself. Transgression came in, as before in Adam.

But then man’s responsibility, to say nothing of God’s

patient dealings with him by the prophets, was dealt with

in another and wholly new way. God came into this sinful

world in grace, beseeching men to be reconciled to Him;

and the promised Seed of David came to the seed of

Abraham, according to the esh. But when He came, there

was no man; when He called, there was none to answer.

Not only sin was developed in lawlessness, and the law

met by transgression, but mercy had been rejected, and

the promise itself, and the promised One, despised. e

trial of responsibility was over; the tree was bad; and all the

digging about it and dunging brought no true fruit to God.

e g-tree on the way bore leaves only, and was judged

forever. e one beloved Son, if He sought fruit, was cast

out and slain. If the King invited guests, His invitation was

despised. Not only God had driven man out of paradise, but

man, as far as he was concerned, had turned God — come

in grace into the ruined world of outcasts — out of it in

hatred against Him. Sin was complete, and man lost. But

now, speaking reverently, it was God’s turn. ey with

wicked hands had slain Christ, but it was according to the

determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. e truth

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

was, He had appeared once in the end of the world (the

consummation of ages — an expression we can now easily

understand) to put away sin by the sacrice of Himself.

Here the Lord, according to every need of man

and the divine glory, met the consequences of man’s

responsibility — made sin, and bearing our sins in His own

body on the tree. Propitiation was perfect, redemption

(not yet as regards exercised power, but moral title in

righteousness in the value of Christ’s work) accomplished;

and here, not only had man’s responsibility been met, but

God perfectly gloried in all that He is: love, righteous

judgment against sin, majesty, truth, and devoted obedience

to Himself at all cost,

and man entered in righteousness into

the glory of God, and as Son established heir of all things.

See John 13:31-32; 17:1,4-5. us in the cross of Christ

the full foundation was laid in righteousness, according

to the righteousness of God, for the accomplishment

of the divine counsels in glorifying the redeemed in the

second Man, the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. e

putting away the sins of those that had part with Him

was accomplished (those that rejected Him were doubly

guilty); the revelation of the righteousness of God had now

its full ground, Christ being at the right hand of God as

3 e more we examine the cross, the more we shall nd how all

good and evil found its issue, and how it connects together the

consummated evil of man in hatred against God manifested

in Christ in love, the full power of Satan as prince of this

world, his hatred against goodness and audacity against the

Lord. en perfection in man in Christ, and love to the Father,

and obedience, (and we may thankfully add to us), the double

character of love to God as man upward and divinely to us,

and all this in the very place of sin where it was needed, Christ

being made sin. en in God perfect righteousness against sin,

and perfect love to sinners. All was concentrated in the cross.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

man in virtue of it, and the counsels of God could be fully

brought out to the glory of God by us, yea, all His plans

for the glory of the last Adam, His beloved Son, and of us

with Him.

us we have these two great subjects before us, the

responsibility of man and the counsels of God. I should add,

to complete these truths, that Christ thus risen becomes

our life; and the Holy Spirit is given to us that we may

enjoy the ecacy of Christ’s rst coming, in forgiveness

and righteousness, and have God’s love shed abroad in our

hearts, and have the earnest of the inheritance which is

before us in glory; consciously sons of God, heirs of God,

and joint-heirs with Christ.

However, the forgiveness of sins and the clearing away

of all that belonged to the old Adam on the one hand, and

the counsels of God on the other, are now through the

cross distinctly revealed and the dierence as clearly seen.

On one hand the evil and our responsibility are met by the

work of the cross; on the other the righteous ground of

the accomplishment of all God’s counsels is laid, so that

they can be revealed. We have seen responsible — man in

his natural state, unfallen and fallen, and that end in the

ood; then in the renewed earth, as to this point, when

man sought to make it his own, and God had divided it

into nations, and these had fallen into idolatry. God called

out one to be a race and people for Himself, and gave him

the promises, conrming them to his seed; then man, this

called people, put under law; and nally the heir of promise

come, and God in Christ reconciling the world. Man had

thus been fully tried in his natural state, and by all that

God could do in dealing with him. e result was either

lawless sin or enmity against God. God Himself, now in

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

His own work of grace, wrought redemption, and, perfectly

gloried in Christ a man amongst men, set Him as man in

righteousness in the divine glory, our forerunner to whom

we are to be conformed. us forgiveness, righteousness,

the setting aside the old thing, were secured, and the

counsels of God brought fully out as to having man with

Himself in glory, in and with His Son the Lord Christ, the

Spirit being given to the forgiven ones, that they might

know this redemption fully, stand consciously in the place

of sons, and have an earnest of the glory.

Of this the epistle to the Galatians brings out very

distinctly the following points: — promise, in contrast

with law, which brought a curse and no justication of

man; redemption from that curse, by Christ’s being made a

curse for us; then through Christ the promised Seed, come

of the woman (once the source of sin), and made under

the law to redeem those under it, meeting the two great

forms of responsibility and consequent judgment before

and after the ood, Himself the Son, that, the blessing of

Abraham coming on the Gentiles too, all might receive the

adoption of sons. us was Christ the fulller of promise

in contrast with the school-master till He came. But, we

being sons by faith in Him, the Spirit is given to us, giving

the consciousness of the relationship. e heirs are no more

servants but sons, and the Spirit is in contrast with the law.

e esh, our evil nature, lusts against the Spirit; but, if led

of this, we are not under law; nor can there be a law against

the fruit of the Spirit. us we have the recognition of the

natural evil of man (not the full inquiry as to our place

under God’s dealings), promise, law, the promised One,

redemption accomplished by Him, and the consequent gift

of the promised Spirit and the sonship into which we are

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

brought. e ways and dealings of God are fully discussed,

our place ascertained; but the counsels of God are not

touched upon. Hence I said it was elementary, though

most important in its place.

e epistle to the Romans discusses fully the ground on

which a man can be put with God in this world; and how

the promise to the Jews, and their present rejection, and the

no-dierence doctrine as to Jew and Gentile, is reconciled

with the promise. Our study of the epistle will bring this

out, with the Lord’s help, in its place. I only remark that it

also treats the responsibility of man and his state, not the

counsels of God. But there are such, and our security under

them into glory is just touched upon in chapter 8, so that a

link with the other point is given. (In the Romans the saint

is looked as alone in this world, not risen, but the old man

crucied with Christ.)

I would now refer to two aspects of man’s state of

sin, necessary to understand the distinction between the

foregoing epistles and the others previously mentioned.

Man may be considered as living in evil ways, alive to sin

and lust, so to speak, but, if so, dead towards God. As to the

former, death must come in to free him from the evil; in the

latter aspect, he is viewed as dead in sins. e epistle to the

Romans treats fully the former, and the remedy by grace;

that to the Ephesians treats man as dead in sins. In Romans

it is justifying and delivering sinful man, and bringing him

out of that condition by redemption; in Ephesians it is a

new creation. Here consequently, while redemption is fully

stated, the counsels of God are fully unfolded, and man

is seen sitting in heavenly places in Christ. In Colossians

we have both aspects — buried unto death, and, when dead

in sins, raised with Christ. e believer is seen risen with

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Christ, having died with Him; but heaven is in hope and

prospect: he is not seen sitting there.

e Ephesians therefore begins with the counsels of

God, rst setting us in our place before God morally like

Himself — Christ’s position, who is gone to His Father

and our Father, His God and our God; then, after briey

stating redemption as that which we have as needed to

bring us there, and indeed to make God known, God’s

purposes as to the Christ Himself, head over all as Man,

are stated; which brings in the inheritance and the earnest

of the given Spirit till the redemption of the purchased

possession, when glory will be revealed. e present

exaltation of Christ, and the working of the same power

in us which took Him when dead from the grave to the

right hand of God, brings us raised with Him to be in

Him on high, the church associated with Him; His body

who is Head over all things, and to it. is work of Christ

is unfolded in chapter 2. Christ is rst seen in death where

we were lying in sins, and (these put away by His bearing

them — going down to death for us) God’s power comes in

and raises us up with Him into the same place of glory and

blessing. us the purpose of God in the sons and heirs, in

the church as Christ’s body united to Him, is fully revealed;

the practical consequence gone into. It is a scheme hidden

from all ages and generations, impossible to exist of be

revealed till the middle wall of partition was broken down.

Chapter 3 gives, not the counsels and work of God, but

Paul’s administration of the mystery.

en the gifts of the Spirit from the Man on high to

build up the saints and evangelize the world, forming the

body in union with Christ, are unfolded; and, from Romans

4:17, practical conduct. It is interesting to see that as we

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

are perfectly brought to God in Christ the conduct of the

Christian is that of our coming out as a child from Him to

display God’s own character, of which Christ is the perfect

pattern in man. is subjectively depends on having put

o the old man and put on the new, which is created after

God, etc., and the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is not to

be grieved. God, as love and light, is the objective measure

to be followed, as by dear children, Christ Himself having

been the perfect expression of both. It is well to note here

that the contrast with, and the superiority to, law is striking.

is takes love to self as the measure of love to others; that,

the perfect giving up of self in love as Christ did. en

we have Christ’s love to, and care for, the church as such;

and nally we are God’s warriors in Canaan — that is, in

heavenly places — and have need of God’s whole armor

against spiritual wickedness, walking in dependence on

God. Such is a brief sketch of the principles of the epistle

to the Ephesians.

In the Colossians saints are not sitting in heavenly

places; a hope is laid up for them in heaven. It goes farther

than Romans, in that we are risen with Christ, a point not

treated of in Romans;

but it does not, as the epistle to

the Ephesians, seat us in heavenly places in Him. We are

to set our aections on things above, where Christ sitteth.

But the Romans and Ephesians view of the case are in

their elements distinctly stated. We are buried with Him

by baptism unto death. is is as Romans 6. e believer

is looked at as previously alive in his sins, as stated indeed

in Romans 3:7. But then he is looked at as quickened

4 We are seen in Christ in Romans 8:1, and the church is

contemplated in Romans 12; but this is assumed—the subject

is not treated.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

together with Christ (Rom. 2:13), which is not in the

Romans, but is in the Ephesian development of the truth;

but it does not reach on to the full Ephesian doctrine, that

we are sitting in heavenly places in Christ. So, further on,

we nd, “If ye be dead with Christ” (Col. 2:20); and “If ye

be risen with Christ,” Col. 3: 1. en it is exhortation: we

are to seek those things that are above where Christ sits.

ere is another truth connected with this which shows

the perfection of scripture and God’s elaborate care in

teaching His saints fully.

In Colossians, save one practical expression which

forms no part of its doctrine, the Spirit is not mentioned.

It is having put o the old man and put on the new — life

as risen with Christ. Ephesians is the full development

of sonship and the body. It is by the Holy Spirit we have

the Spirit of adoption, and are baptized into one body.

Hence His presence is fully noticed in that epistle. e

body is assumed practically in Colossians as chapter 3:

15, but the Head, Christ, is more its subject. e fullness

of the Godhead is in Christ in Colossians. In Ephesians

the body is His fullness, completing the head, who lls all

in all. In 2 Corinthians 4:10 and following verses will be

found the practical power of the doctrine of Romans in

daily operation. Death as to all that was of Adam in Paul

is eectuated in everyday life, that nothing but the life of

Jesus should be manifested in his dealings with others;

God also helping to the same end, by making him pass

5 e quickening together with Christ is exactly the same in

the Colossians and the Ephesians, but resurrection is not. In

the Colossians the believer is raised with Christ, and by faith of

the operation of God who raised Him. In Ephesians it brings

in Jew and Gentile so as to be together in Christ in heavenly

places.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

through circumstances which were death to all natural

life. Compare 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. In verse 14 we have

others viewed in the light of Ephesian doctrine — all men

dead, or Christ need not have died for them.

e glory

of an exalted Christ is what is especially before his eyes

here — the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I trust this survey, though rapid, may enable us to study

with more intelligence the epistle to the Romans, which does

not enter on the counsels of God with any development, but

lays the ground fully for their accomplishment in putting

away sins and giving deliverance from the old man. e

responsibility of man is fully treated, God’s righteousness

explained and established, and grace unfolded as the source

and principle of God’s dealings with us. e special case of

promises to the Jews, which seemed to clash with bringing

all with no dierence into the same standing before God,

is treated in a special appendix.

It may facilitate our inquiries to give the division of the

epistle into the parts of which it is naturally composed.

e rst seventeen verses are introductory, the last giving

the thesis of the whole epistle. From verse 18 to the end of

Romans 5:11 is one great division, where sins are treated

of, and God’s grace in respect of these sins. In this as a

whole, Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20 gives the full proof

that all were under sin; and then the apostle returns to

verse 17, and declares how the righteousness of God is now

revealed, propitiation having been made through Christ’s

blood. Chapter 4 speaks of Christ’s resurrection as sealing

His work to the same purpose. But thus far imputing

6 e interpretation “they have all died,” as a consequence, I

have not the smallest question, is a simple blunder, as indeed

verse 15 plainly proves.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

righteousness is not carried farther than forgiveness of sins.

e rst eleven verses of Romans 5 give the blessed result

and eect of grace in our present standing under that grace.

Romans 5:12 begins a new subject — the old man, the

esh, sin in the esh, what we are as of Adam (not what

we have done, though these are the fruits and the proof of

the other). Here our death with Christ comes in, and life

in Him (not in Adam). It is deliverance, not forgiveness.

is second blessing and our place in Christ and security

through Him are stated in chapter 8. is gives occasion to

bring the question of the law fully before us. It addresses

itself to the child of Adam, but as such we have died in

Christ, and thus it has lost its application to such.

us all have sinned, Jew and Gentile, and had the same

eshly nature. ere was no dierence; and if it was God’s

righteousness, it was as applicable to one as to the other.

But then a diculty arose. ere were promises to Israel

as well as law. What about them? Did not they on God’s

part make a dierence? is is met in what I have called

an appendix — Romans 9-11. From chapter 12 and on, we

have exhortation founded on mercies previously treated of.

e epistle to the Romans furnishes the eternal principles

of God’s relationship with man; the way in which, by

means of Christ dead and risen, the believer is established

in blessing; and the reconciling of these things with the

specialty of the promises made to the Jews by Him whose

gifts and calling are without repentance.

Chapter 1

I may now turn to the details; and rst to the

introductory verses, Romans 1:1-17. We must remember

that the apostle had never been at Rome, and writes upon

the ground of his universal mission to the Gentiles. Hence,

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

while the personal salutations are very numerous, the

epistle is very much of a treatise on the subject he refers to;

what we may call the gospel fully reasoned out, the state

of man, the place the law really held, and, as we have seen,

the position the Jews, who had been nigh, had got into. He

begins with his mission. He was separated to the gospel of

God. He was an apostle by the calling of God.

Firstly, the Lord had personally called him, and given

him his mission to the Gentiles; separating him out of

the whole human race, Jew and Gentile, and connecting

him with Himself in glory; Acts 26:17. “Delivering thee

[taking thee away], from the people [the Jews], and from

the Gentiles, to whom now I send thee.” e Lord had

appeared to him for the purpose of his being a witness of

the gloried Lord Jesus. Hence we nd him speaking of

the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4), and God who

caused the light to shine out of darkness shining in his

heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of

God in the face of Jesus Christ. Hence, too, he says that if

he had known Christ after the esh — that is, in His earthly

associations — as Messiah down here, as a Jew would

expect Him, according to the word, he knew Him thus no

more. e Man gloried, after having suered death and

accomplished redemption, was the Christ he knew. It was

the beginning and head of the new creation — the gloried

Man — the Lord who saved His people as being Himself.

Still the administration of the mercy recognized the place

God had given to the Jews. ere was no dierence; but it

was to the Jew rst, and also to the Greek.

Secondly, he was separated, actually, and sent forth to

active service at Antioch by the Holy Spirit. “Separate me

Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

them” (Acts 13:2). His mission he received directly from

the Lord, revealed in glory. He was separated to the glory, to

the Lord in it. His immediate separation to his actual work

was by the Holy Spirit. He was separated to the glad tidings

of God. is has a double character. It was concerning

God’s Son; but it was the accomplishment of promise on

the one side; on the other, the Person of the Son of God

designated in power through resurrection, the setting aside

the eect of sin, not God’s judgment of course, but that

wherein the power of Satan reigned over man by sin. It

is to be remarked here that the Person of the Son of God

is that which is especially put forward here as the gospel

to which he was separated. We shall nd propitiation and

righteousness fully stated, but rst of all God’s gospel is

concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord — rst, Seed of

David according to the esh; then Son of God with power

according to the Spirit of holiness by resurrection of the

dead. at power, divine power, which raised Him

from

the dead and proved Him Son of God, was manifested all

through His life in the holiness which never allowed sin

to enter for an instant. He was quickened by the Spirit

(lit. in Spirit), but His holiness, separation to God, was by

the Spirit also. Resurrection was the public demonstration

that He was the Son of God with power, victory over the

full wages of sin as seen in this world; but the opened eye

would have seen the same power in the exclusion of sin

itself in absolute and perfect holiness all His life through.

us accomplishment of promise and divine power over

death were there, and the Son of God as Man in absolute

holiness — our Lord Jesus Christ. ey were God’s glad

7 It is not necessarily His resurrection alone. It is abstract; but

this was the rst grand complete proof.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

tidings concerning His Son. Of His work, save in triumph

over death, we have as yet nothing; but God has come in

power and grace, where sin and death reigned. Holiness

has been manifested in man in this world, and death, under

which man lay, has been overcome. It is important to notice

that, in the statement of the glad tidings of God, the Person

of the Son is rst of all brought out: His intervention, in

power to deliver,

promise accomplished, but, above all,

it is the Son of God. Grace has made Him a man, and

resurrection has proved Him Son of God with power

according to the Spirit of holiness. ere is One revealed

to us in perfect grace, but who in grace has a perfect claim

over our souls.

Another thing we may remark in this, as will be further

seen, is that it is what He is from God. God has accomplished

His promise; God has brought in victory over death. It is all

in the Person of the Son, a man; not what man is for God

at all, save the Person of Christ Himself. We shall soon

see that, as God’s Son is revealed in man triumphant over

death, God’s righteousness is revealed too; then fully the

need of man, and how it is met — fully met; but rst, what

God has Himself brought in and for Himself, for grace and

glory, what has more the character of the everlasting gospel

as to the power that is in it — the Person of the Son in the

Man Jesus, and divine righteousness. is is the general

aspect; man’s responsibility and man’s need will come after.

But we must rst have the thing as it is for God and before

God, though all in grace to us.

But there is another point I must notice here, as it refers

to the whole character of the epistle, which is more that of

8 In this it partakes of the nature of the everlasting gospel.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

laying the foundation than of building the superstructure:

the testimony that Christ is Son of God is resurrection,

not glory. e ascension, though assumed, of course, as

is the church, is not mentioned, save in Romans 8: 34, to

bring in intercession. Ascension brought in the result in

the counsels of God; but already in resurrection God had

put His seal on Christ’s Person and work. Redemption was

accomplished; sin atoned for; death overcome; he who had

the power of death brought to nothing in the stronghold

of his power — all accomplished which made glory to be

righteousness. us the whole case between man and God

was met and established upon a new ground. e glories

which result according to the counsels of God are not gone

into. We shall see that our resurrection even with Christ

is not spoken of; our death with Him is, because this was

necessary to close the old evil, and bring us into a state

capable of living with God as fully delivered. Christ’s

resurrection and our death with Him are necessary to make

good our title, and close the old and evil state, and introduce

what is essentially new. Our place in that remained yet to

be entered into according to the counsels of God.

e mission of the apostle was for obedience to the

faith, the subjection of men’s souls to the revelation of

God’s Son, the risen Man, the Lord Jesus — to the truth of

God revealed in Him, and the grace which accompanied

the truth; for both must be there that we may believe. Nor,

indeed, can one be fully revealed without the others, for

9 e believer also is always seen alive on earth.

10 Our resurrection with Christ looks at Him as come down in

grace into our place where we are dead in sin. Our being then

raised together with Him involves union with Him. is is not

the subject of Romans, but individual justication. Christ is

viewed as risen alone.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

grace is part of truth where God is fully revealed; nor could

grace come without the truth, for what would the grace be

about, and how should God be revealed? But God is light,

and God is love; and these, coming to us, are grace and

truth. is obedience of faith was “amongst all nations,”

not of all nations. e grace and truth must go to men as

such. God thus revealed could not be only to Jews: but

the time was not come to subject all nations by power, but

to call a people out of them” to take out of them a people

for his name.” Among these the believers at Rome were

the called of Jesus Christ. To such the apostle addressed

himself at Rome. ey were already there. God did not

allow Christianity to be founded by an apostle at Rome.

ese believers were the beloved of God, and saints by His

calling.

e apostle then enters into his own feelings as to, and

interest in, them; and that connected with his universal

commission to the Gentiles, in which the love of Christ

wrought to make those the objects of his heart, and

precious to him, whom he had not even seen. e apostolic

spiritual power he would impart to them, but in unfeigned

grace he would be comforted in their mutual faith. “Debtor

both to the Greeks and to the barbarians” (for such is the

place of love in power), he was ready to preach the glad

tidings to those at Rome also. He was not ashamed of the

glad tidings; they were “the power of God unto salvation”;

simple words, but how much they contain! It is not God

claiming from man; it is not man acting for God, or making

out the means of meeting Him. But, God acting for man,

it is power at work in man’s favor; and this, not to help or

plead merely, but to deliver from the state he was in — to

save him.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Next, the way. It is such to every one that believed, Jew,

or Greek; they wanted saving. God’s power, there to save,

took man up in his need and sin, not in his titles or claims,

even if given of God, and applied to a lost Gentile as to a

lost Jew. It was for “every one that believed” — the way of it

was faith; the order of it recognized God’s ways. It was “to

the Jew rst, and also to the Greek.” But this did not alter

its character; it was salvation to a sinful Jew, who had to

come in in mercy, just like a Gentile, by faith in what was

on God’s part in grace towards him, though in the order of

administration it might rst be addressed to him.

Further, it is the power of God to salvation, because in

it the righteousness of God is revealed on the principle of

faith to faith. Nothing had to be done by man; nothing

was required from man. God’s righteousness, perfect

and absolute — that on which He would bless without

limit — was revealed for man. More He could not require;

more, as to righteousness, He could not give; and there it

was for man, and revealed, and thus God’s power to save

him. is took it clean out of man’s doings for God; which

I insist on, because it is the great principle of truth, it is

God’s doing for man. It is on the principle of faith that it

might be by grace; man only believed through grace what

was revealed. Hence the believer withal possessed it, and so

Gentile or Jew. But here the object is its intrinsic nature. It

was “God’s righteousness”; it was revealed “on the principle

of faith” (works do not make out God’s righteousness, but

man’s), and hence “for faith.” e just were to live by faith.

is closes the introductory verses. e Person of the

Lord Jesus and the righteousness of God are the great thesis

of the glad tidings of God. One revealed as the Deliverer, the

Son of God, claimed the obedience of faith; the other, still

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

on the principle of faith, revealed as the ground on which

man could have a part in purposed blessing through grace.

e apostle now turns to what made this righteousness of

God necessary to us. “For the wrath of God is revealed

from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness

of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” is is a

most important principle. It is not governmental wrath,

such as bringing the Assyrian against Israel, or leading

them captive to Babylon — a thing of this world, while

God was hidden still behind the veil. It tells us of the

incompatibility of God’s nature with evil. God’s wrath

was revealed against everything inconsistent with His

nature — wrath from heaven against all ungodliness; and,

where the truth was known, and men might seem to be

nearer to God, as the Jews, if held in unrighteousness,

wrath was against such as so held it too. Wrath against all

ungodliness was revealed from heaven; Gentile, Jew, men

in every condition, came under the judgment. It was not a

hidden God dealing in earthly judgment, but God Himself

fully revealed according to His own nature, abhorrent of

evil, in necessary wrath against all evil, wherever it was met.

His nature could admit no evil. Dispensational ways there

might have been — government, patience. But now wrath

was revealed from heaven against all evil, wherever it was

found.

e apostle then shows on what ground the judgment

went, as against all men: on the heathen, to the end of the

chapter; on moralizers, in the beginning of Romans 2;

and from verse 17 of chapter 2 on the Jew, which goes on

to Romans 3:20. e ground of the condemnation of the

heathen is creation testimony, and their not retaining God

in their knowledge; for in Noah that knowledge was. e

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

rst ground is stated in verses 19-20; the second in verse

21. ey turned the glory of the incorruptible God into

images of men, birds, beasts, and reptiles; and as they thus

turned God’s glory into dishonor, God gave them up to

turn man’s too, and they degraded themselves in vileness

as they had degraded God in idolatry. Yet they knew the

judgment of God.

And this made the moralizers, the Socrates, and the like,

inexcusable; they did the things they judged; see Romans

2. But God’s judgment is according to truth against those

who commit such things. Doing them and judging others

was not the way of escaping God’s judgment; or, were

they despising God’s mercy leading them to repentance,

and heaping up wrath for the day of judgment — of the

revelation of God’s righteous judgment? God always

judges evil morally; but there is a day when that judgment

will be revealed, and this dealing with evil take place in a

manifest way, according to the nature of God. Judgment

will be executed. We have seen this innitely important

principle in Romans 1: 17; not dispensational government

on those near or those far o, but God revealing His

judgment of evil in man according to what He is. Hence

the light of Christianity is thrown here on the grounds

of judgment, though the light actually possessed is made

to enter into the measure of retribution; but the nature,

and, in judgment, the authority of God, rejects evil. Jew

or Gentile, it is all alike. When He is revealed, evil is dealt

with as evil. e special advantages of one may enter into

the ground of judgment, and if they have sinned under law,

they will be judged by law. But evil is evil, while God is

God, be the evil in a Jew or a Gentile; nor is there respect

of persons with Him.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

But the revelation of God, which thus brings in the

knowledge of judgment according to truth, necessarily

supposes the truth there, and obedience to the truth

became part of the moral testing of man, as well as law and

natural conscience. Hence, in Romans 2:7-8, we have what

Christianity has brought to light; verses 9, 10, tribulation

and anguish are upon every soul of man that does evil, and

glory, honor, and peace upon every soul of man that does

good — to the Jew rst, and also to the Greek.

e object of the apostle here is evidently not to show

how a sinner could be justied; but that, though God

might follow in His administration of blessing what He

had accorded to the Jewish people, yet now that He had

revealed Himself, He had to do with realities, and that a

godly Gentile was more His delight than an ungodly Jew,

whatever the privileges of the latter. e doer of the law

would be justied, be he Jew or Gentile; not he who had

and broke it. ere was no respect of persons with God,

and conscience might take notice of right and wrong where

there was no law, and thus become a law to a man who had

no law as given of God. So they that had sinned without

law would perish without it. Here the discussion is not, by

what power or grace a man would be led or enabled to walk

conscientiously, but that reality of walk, and not privilege

of position, was what God owned.

It is well to remark that there is no law written in the

heart

of the Gentile — that is the new covenant — but

the work which the law requires the conscience recognizes

as right or wrong. Conscience knows it is wrong to murder

or steal, when no law is given. Man got the knowledge

11 “Written” agrees with work, not with law; the Greek leaves no

question as to this.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

of good and evil by the fall, and it is of all importance to

recognize the dierence of this and law. Law imposes a

rule by authority — here God’s authority; conscience on

the contrary takes notice of right and wrong in itself, as

God does. “e man is become as one of us, knowing good

and evil” (Gen. 3:22). at is, conscience takes notice of

good and evil in itself, as good and as evil, without any law

which prescribes or forbids it; and so far a man is a law to

himself, that is, not having the thing prescribed to him, or

forbidden, as a law does.

It is well also to remark here that verses 13-15 are a

parenthesis. e connection is, “judged by the law in the

day.” Remark here, also, on the side of man’s liability as

before of God’s actings, it is not governmental judgment,

the ways of God with men on earth, visiting, it is true, sins

on a people or on a race with longsuering and patience;

but the secrets of men’s hearts judged — all brought to light,

strictly and rightly judged — according to the necessary

requirements of God’s nature, taking into account the

advantages men have had; not governing in patience, but

judging in righteousness, according to what is good and

what is evil, as none can deny, and where none can escape.

e secrets of men’s hearts would be judged, and men come

out such as they really were, however hidden from the eyes

of men.

In Romans 2:17 the apostle begins denitely with a Jew,

insisting on the same truth, but the converse of what he

had said of the Gentile. A Jew who boasted of the law

and broke it was as bad as he who had none; the name of

God was blasphemed among the Gentiles through them.

He only was a Jew who was so inwardly; whose heart was

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

circumcised in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise was

not of men, but of God.

We come now to a very important principle in the ways

of God, the possession of privileges where there was no

renewal of heart to prot by them, and whether this made

such any better, more agreeable to God — for this the Jew

pretended; Romans 3. e apostle’s argument seemed to

level all. It did morally before God, save as privileges added

to responsibility; but he fully admitted the existence of

very great privileges and advantages where God had placed

them. If the circumcised were uncircumcision really unless

they kept the law, what advantage had the Jew? Much every

way. e apostle fully recognizes their privileges, especially

in having the scriptures, “the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2);

and if some did not believe, their unbelief would not make

the faith — that is, the faithfulness of God — of no eect.

God would be true if every man were a liar. He would fulll

His word. But if His accomplishing it in spite of man’s

unfaithfulness only the more proved His faithfulness, so that

He was the more gloried through man’s unfaithfulness,

this did not hinder His judging the evil: were it so, He

could not judge the world at all. If man’s unrighteousness

made God’s righteousness more conspicuous, why should

God judge him for it? is is a general principle, but it has

a special application to the Jews; for the more the heathen

opposed and were jealous of them, and trampled them

down, so much the more God’s faithfulness shone out, and

He could no more judge the Gentiles, the world, than the

Jews. But it is a general principle that man’s unrighteousness

commending or proving God’s righteousness did not make

it unjust to judge.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

e apostle returns to the form in which it applies to the

Jews — that their falseness made God’s faithfulness to His

promises more glorious, so that he had not to nd fault;

nay, they might do evil that good might come, returning

in this latter to the general principle; as, indeed, some

charged the Christian with holding. As to such principle,

the apostle does not condescend to reason, but simply says,

“whose damnation is just” (Rom. 3:8). No, all our evil does

commend this patient faithfulness of God to His promises,

and to His goodness. Man would soon reject those who

dealt with him as he does with God. But that does not

hinder responsibility, and sin, and judgment.

Well, then, the Jews had advantages; were they, then,

better than the Gentiles? In no way. e apostle had

already proved both under sin. He then quotes, rst

from the Psalms, then from Isaiah, the plain testimony

of scripture, denouncing, as wholly sinners, all they were

addressed to. e Jew boasted these scriptures were for

him, and for him alone. Well, says the apostle, we know

that what the law says, it does say to those who are under

it. Let us then hear its voice to such. is is what it says:

“ere is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:12. e

Gentiles confessedly were sunk in all manner of vice, in

corruption, and idolatry. e Jews were the privileged race,

and the special privilege was that the oracles of God were

committed to them. Well, the apostle owned that the law

spoke to those under it — but it declared there was none

righteous. e Jew was condemned by his own plea.

And now see what is the state of man, under the greatest

advantages, possessing what God has to give, as the elder

brother in the parable of the prodigal son! None righteous;

none that understandeth, no intelligence at all spiritually;

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

none that seeketh after God, in will all wrong; none that

doeth good, no, not one; evil, without exception, when

tried. e full forms of evil in which this state develops

itself are then gone into: amiable characters which some

may have, as animals may; but a heart seeking God, or

fearing God, not one. Every mouth was stopped, and all

the world guilty before God: the Gentiles confessedly

so — lawless and reprobate in mind, working uncleanliness

with greediness; the Jew condemned out of his own mouth

by that of which he boasted. So far from any being justied

by the deeds of the law, law brought with it the knowledge

of sin. Sin was everywhere — law the special conviction of

it. is closes the apostle’s proof of that state which gave

occasion to the wrath of God being revealed from heaven,

the proof reaching as a whole from Romans 1:19 to the

end of Romans 3:20.

en the apostle returns to his proper subject, stated

in Romans 1:17 — the righteousness of God. Man clearly

had none. He was proved, Jew and Gentile, all under sin;

but now God’s righteousness, entirely apart from law, was

manifested. e law and the prophets bore testimony to

it. is is the great leading point; God’s righteousness is

manifested. is is by the faith of Jesus Christ; such is the

manner of its being set forth and received. It is towards all.

Were it man’s, it must be by the law, which is the perfect

measure of that, and, consequently, only for the Jews, who

alone had that law. But it is God’s, and by faith, and so for

all, and actually (since it was by faith of Jesus Christ) upon

all those that believed. For there is no dierence; all are

alike, all under sin; but God’s righteousness was by faith on

every one who believed. e justication is free by God’s

grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

is gives the thesis of the doctrine of righteousness,

as a whole, complete in itself. In Romans 1:17, God’s

righteousness, we are told, is revealed in the gospel.

Now, in contrast with law, which was the way of man’s

righteousness; without law; Romans 3:21, that is, having

nothing to say to it (wholly apart from the law), we know

the manner of this righteousness in its application — it is

by faith of Jesus Christ to all, applicable and held out on

the principle of faith to all, and upon all those that believe.

All were alike under sin, proved so, the justication of all

alike freely by God’s grace, through redemption — that

redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

We have then additional detail, and the manner of

its application to the Old Testament saints and those

since Christ. God, the apostle tells us, had set Christ

forth as a propitiatory, a place of access on the ground of

redemption and blood presented to God as the atonement

or propitiation for sins. Now, as regards the Old Testament

saints, this now proved God’s righteousness in having borne

with them, where they sinned. His forbearance had been

shown at the time; but where was the righteousness in thus

passing over the sins of the Abrahams, and Samuels, and

Davids, and the like? is was now shown. It was in view

of the propitiation to be wrought by Christ, ever present to

God, on the ground of which He dealt as if it was already

accomplished, so far as the forgiveness of sins went.

en, as regards those subsequent to the work, God’s

full present justice was declared — His righteousness

declared at this time; that through which He could be

just and justify, yea, that in which He was manifested just,

besides exalting Christ, is in justifying the believers in

Christ Jesus. is was an immense truth. Forbearance had

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

been before, righteousness in exercising it unrevealed. Now

righteousness was revealed, God’s righteousness, rst in His

exercise of that forbearance, justifying His remission of the

sins committed before Christ, but further (righteousness,

God’s righteousness, being fully revealed), the ground of

justifying those who believed in Jesus, God’s righteousness

in doing so was as clearly manifested as the ground on which

it went was perfectly accomplished. God’s righteousness

was fully proved in setting Christ at His right hand, as

we learn in John 16:10. He is gone up on high in virtue

of having gloried God perfectly on the cross, and God’s

righteousness therein revealed and declared. In the part of

Romans we are now occupied with, we have only the fact

that God’s righteousness is now declared as to remission

of past sins, and justifying believers now, Christ being

set forth as a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. e

value of Christ’s blood brings the witness of righteousness

in remission of past sins, but it brings a known present

justication of those who believe, maintaining fully the

justice of God. He is just and the Justier, not a condemner,

of those that believe.

All boasting then on man’s part is shut out, for it is

God’s work and God’s grace by which man is justied

(clearly not by a law of works, there would then be man’s

boasting), but by the law of faith which simply receives,

through grace, the eect of another’s work. We may see

here that law is used for a regularly acting principle — the

law of faith, the law of works. We shall nd this again.

Hence, as we cannot mingle the two principles of gaining

a thing by working and receiving a thing by faith (and,

indeed, another thing — God’s righteousness, not man’s),

one of them excludes the other, and we conclude, not only

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

that a man is justied by faith through Christ’s blood by

grace, but that it is without — wholly apart from, to the

exclusion of — works of law. God is justifying sinners by

His dealings for them, not man righteous by a law which

he has kept. For all are under sin.

And is God only the God of a people, even of His

people? Is He not God of all nations? Surely He is, and

indeed now in grace, just as He is for the Jew, who needed

it as much as the Gentile. For it is one and the same God

who justies the circumcision (who sought their own

righteousness by law) on the principle of faith, freely by

grace, and, if a Gentile had that faith, justied that Gentile

by the faith that he had. is is the force of the words

translated “by” and “through.” “By” is on the principle of;

“through” by means of, when one possessed it. e Jew

sought righteousness on a wrong principle. e gospel

revealed the true one — faith. If the Gentile had the faith,

he had the justication which was given on that principle.

If then this justication was by faith to the exclusion

of law, did it set aside the law? In no way. e law brought

the conviction of sin, nay, brought the curse, from which he

who was under it had to be delivered; and the justication

of such an one, the deliverance of such an one from the

curse by such a means as Christ’s bearing it, gave the

highest possible sanction to the law. at Christ should

bear its curse established the authority of law as nothing

else did. e apostle had just used it to bring the Jew fully

under conviction, so that the blood of Christ, and grace, and

redemption were needed; and the introduction of them as

needed by the Jew, who was under the law, if it set aside all

righteousness by law, recognized fully the authority of the

law as bringing them under the transgression from which

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

they had to be justied. e paying a debt recognizes the

debt, and the obligation which made it such, though (and

in that in which) it puts an end to it. ere is more than

this in the law, it is true. I only use the image to show that

putting an end to anything may fully prove the obligation

of it.

Righteousness by faith was on a principle incompatible

with law. In one, God’s work in grace justied freely;

according to the other, man’s work in righteousness made

peace, redemption, and God’s work unnecessary. Nor did

obedience under law produce what grace did after all. It

was not, if accomplished, God’s righteousness, but man’s.

But redemption, and grace, and Christ’s blood, eectual

through faith, recognized the authority of law, and gave

its sanction to it, by meeting in another way the sins and

condemnation incurred under it. It went on a dierent

principle, wholly incompatible with law as a way of

righteousness; but it recognized the claim of righteousness

made by the law as made by God, and, when man had failed,

met that claim in grace. e two could not work together,

for they contradicted each other in every point: one rested

on grace, the other on work; one on God’s work, the other

on man’s. One consequently gave man’s righteousness if

fullled, which it was not; the other, God’s by a perfected

work. But the grace that was incompatible with law owned

and met the claim of law, in order to justify freely him who

had failed under it.

But there was more in Israel’s history than law. ere

were the Abrahams and Davids, promises, and divine

faithfulness that owned the promises. What ground did

they stand upon? What has Abraham found? Was he

justied by works? If so, he has whereof to glory. But it is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

not so before God (proof before men, to make it good in

testimony to them, there may have been and was), but before

God he was counted righteous through faith. Abraham

believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness.

If a man works, reward is of debt, not grace; but to him that

works not, but believes on Him that justies the ungodly,

his faith is counted for righteousness. is is established

by the case of David. “Blessed is the man whose iniquity is

forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed the man to whom

the Lord imputeth no sin” (Psa. 32:1-2). Note here that

thus far the imputation of righteousness goes no farther

than the forgiveness of sins. ere is more farther on; but

here that is all. A man is justied from what he is guilty of,

from his sins, and so far accounted righteous. For such is

the force of imputing righteousness. His faith is reckoned

to him for righteousness. It is not put to him to account.

Abraham believed God, and was reckoned righteous

because of his faith. It was not that his faith had so much

intrinsic value, which was put to his account, as so much

righteousness; but he was esteemed or reckoned righteous

for his faith. God held him as a righteous man because

of his faith. So David speaks of one accounted righteous

without any works. No sin was imputed to him. He was

accounted, held to be wholly clear of it before God, when

it was forgiven and covered. e responsibility of man was

fully met, and he looked on as clear from sin.

Was this only for the circumcision? Our thesis is

that faith was counted for righteousness to Abraham.

When? When he was circumcised or uncircumcised?

12 Another word is used for that, as in Rom. 5:13, and in Philem.

1:18, “put that to my account.” Here in Rom. 4 (11 times),

verses 3 to 24, it is to “esteem, reckon, count.” See page 239.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

Uncircumcised. ere is thus, in no less an example than

Abraham, an uncircumcised person justied by faith.

Circumcision was only a seal of the righteousness which

he had when uncircumcised; and thus he was the father

of all that believe (even if not circumcised, as believing

Gentiles), that they might be accounted righteous also

through faith; and, further, the father of true separation to

God (as I understand it, though the form of the sentence be

somewhat strange), not only for circumcised Israel, but for

whoever walked in the faith of Abraham — circumcision,

not in the letter but in the spirit.

e apostle then develops the principles of the case of

Abraham. e promise to Abraham to be the heir of the

world was not through law, but through the righteousness

of faith. If they which are of the law be heirs, faith is

made void. To make Israel as under the law exclusively

heir destroyed the principle on which Abraham had the

inheritance. He had it by faith, and not by any law at all.

Promise is not law; and to found the inheritance on law,

and give it to Israel because of the law, made the promise of

none eect. Promise, and faith in it, went together. Law was

man’s work, and on God’s part requirement from man, not

promise to him. And indeed the law works wrath instead

of giving an inheritance; for where no law is, there is no

transgression, for there is nothing to transgress: working

wrath and bringing in transgression is surely not promise.

But the inheritance is of faith, not of law, that it might be

by grace; for faith just believes in the grace shown, and thus

the promise is sure to all the seed, for grace can give it to

a Gentile, and faith in a Gentile can receive it, not simply

give it to the seed under the law, though faith there could

receive it, but to everyone who had the faith of Abraham,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

who is the father, not of Jews only, but of us all (as it is

written, “I have made thee a father of many nations”)

before God, the God whom he had believed.

But this introduces another principle. When Abraham

received the promise, he was as good as dead. e God

in whom he believed is a God above human failure and

weakness, and calls things that are not as though they

were. Abraham believed God in spite of his deadness and

that of Sarah: it was a quasi-resurrection. is introduces

yet another great and important principle. Grace on the

part of God, and faith on the part of man, we have had,

in connection with promise on the one hand, and the

redemption that is in Christ on the other. Now power

comes in — God’s power; not a dealing with man according

to any good or capacity that is in him, but God that raises

the dead, and according to this power calls things that are

not as though they were. He can make them to be as He

calls them. is applies to Abraham’s case, to the Gentiles,

and, as to the power in its nature, Christ’s resurrection.

Law does require power in man to fulll it. God’s raising

the dead clearly required no power in the raised one; and

things that are not have no capacity to become things that

are. Abraham believed God, considered no circumstances

which, as to man’s weakness, made it impossible; because

He who spoke in truth could do all things in power. is

Abraham assumed. Hence, if God spoke, the thing was

certain. No lack of power would make it fail; and this

owning of what God was, this faith (which through grace

justied God in His word, giving Him His true character)

was imputed to him for righteousness. When man justies

God in His works and words and ways, not himself, God

justies him. ose ways are in Christ. But our faith, though

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

in principle the same, has in one very important respect a

dierent character from that of Abraham. He believed that

God was able to perform what He had said. We believe

that He has raised Christ from the dead. His work is an

accomplished work. He was delivered for our oenses, and

raised again for our justication.

But, note, the faith here spoken of is faith in Him who

raised Christ. Righteousness is imputed to us as believing

on Him who raised up Christ from the dead. So that we

own not merely Christ’s work, but God’s acceptance of it,

and God’s power to quicken the dead; as John said, “God

is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham”

(Luke 3:8). God has in power come in, as satised, to

raise up Christ from the state where our sins (He having

taken them on Him through grace) had brought Him.

Not to speak of His Person, God could not leave Him

there, for He was satised as to the sins, and righteously

raised Him from the dead in public testimony of it. And

now see how complete is the statement we have had as

to our sins. We are justied by God’s grace freely. We

have redemption in Christ Jesus. We have His blood, a

propitiatory through faith in it; God’s righteousness in

remission; justice in justifying the believer, Christ having

been delivered for our oenses, and raised again for our

justication, God Himself having raised Him from the

dead. us all that concerns sins, guilt — what had to be

answered for in the day of judgment — has been fully met;

and forgiveness, justication, redemption clearly brought

out in righteousness, and this by perfect grace; the whole

work of Christ, as to that which had to be answered for,

complete; God’s seal put upon it in resurrection; grace in

this respect complete (for it has much to give also) and we,

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

believers, justied through faith in the sight of God. We

shall see that another question arises. But as regards our

sins, all we have done, what we should have had to answer

for in the day of judgment, the question is completely

settled. God has wrought His own work in grace; Christ,

who was delivered for our oenses, is raised from the dead;

God has put His seal on the completion and ecacy of His

work. It is in the God who has done so that we believe. His

grace has justied us in righteousness.

ere is a point here which it is well to note. We have in

this part of the epistle no experience. Happy in forgiveness,

as a result, no doubt we are; but it is not an internal process

issuing in deliverance in the power of divine grace, but a

complete work done, through which God’s righteousness

is declared, God’s work meeting the sins by reason of which

He has pronounced upon us as guilty — none righteous,

no, not one — and proved us such. He has demonstrated

all, Jew and Gentile, to be under sin, and justied freely

by His grace. It is proved guilt, not experience; complete

justication by Christ’s being delivered for our oenses,

not what passes in our hearts. e experience of what is

within, and the deliverance, comes afterward in Romans

7 and 8.

is shows the completeness of this part of the epistle

as to its proper subject, and how the gospel refers, rst,

to guilt and clearing from it — our justication from that

guilt; not to our state or nature, though the fruits of the

old man constitute that guilt. It shows, too, how a full free

gospel can be preached without touching on our nature,

and state by that; though a solid settled condition of soul

cannot exist without the experience and deliverance of

the subsequent part of the epistle. e natural man can

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

understand forgiveness, the payment of a debt, a child

about to be punished, what it is to be pardoned; but a

soul under the exercises produced by the Spirit of God

can alone understand what sin is within, and deliverance

from its power. It is quite true that to have a real work,

even as to forgiveness, there must be the conviction of guilt

under our sins. Conscience must be reached, guilt must be

owned; the statement of the epistle as to that guilt, that we

are under sin, must nd its personal application and echo

in the conscience, our just condemnation endorsed by the

conscience as to oneself; so that we should be conscious that

we — I have to be freely justied. But we can see that with

the mere consciousnes’s that we have sinned without any

real sense of the existence of the old man, of our exclusion

from God by it, forgiveness can be understood, nay, it

can be supposed, though no real forgiveness is possessed,

nor reconciliation eected. It is not insincerity, it is self-

delusion; but it shows how the gospel of repentance as to

sins of which we are guilty, and remission of these, may be

preached without the experience of what we are in ourselves

having been wrought in the soul. Genuine acknowledgment

of our guilt in the conscience there must be, to have any

reality of repentance or forgiveness, but no experimental

knowledge of self. is may come before the knowledge

of forgiveness, and will generally then be accompanied by

great distress of soul, and forgiveness and permanent rest

of conscience will come together. But the two things are

clearly distinguished in the epistle, the experience of what

we are, coining last; the testimony — God’s testimony,

proof, and judgment as to universal guilt, forgiveness,

and justication, with its blessed results, through Christ’s

work, delivered for our oenses and raised again for our

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

justication — being complete at the end of verse 11 of

chapter 5. Of the experience itself, and our state in the

esh through Adam’s fall, we will speak when we come

to the subsequent chapters. All I do now is to show the

distinction between the two.

But there is another point I would notice before I return

to the course of the epistle’s teaching. In the third chapter

we nd allusion to the mercy-seat; in the end of chapter 4

the history of the scape-goat, at least what answers to the

two. Hence the real word in Romans 3: 25 is mercy-seat,

through faith in His blood. Hence past sins are referred to,

and then, not as yet bearing of sins, but such a glorifying of

God’s character as revealed Him to be just and the justier

of them that believe in Jesus. And this is the testimony to

the whole world. Christ is set forth as a mercy-seat through

faith in His blood. at rst goat was the Lord’s lot. All that

God is has been perfectly gloried in Christ’s death; His

majesty, truth, justice as against sin, love (John 13:31-32;

17:4); without saying who, or how many would be saved.

Hence the message of grace and beseeching can go forth

to all the world. God is satised, gloried, in that blood

He has under His eye, and says “Come.” Here it is used

for forgiveness, and that God might be just in justifying.

In the end of Romans 4 it is, He was delivered for our

oenses; the oenses of those who can speak in faith and

say “ours”; “it was not written on his (Abraham’s) account

alone … but ours also.” And here it speaks consequently of

positive oenses, for which Christ was delivered up (as the

high priest confessed the sins of the people on the head of

the scape-goat); for bearing sins, “our sins, in his own body

on the tree,” is a dierent thing from glorifying God in

His own character, in that He died where sin had come in.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

Both had their place and special importance; one for God’s

glory, and that grace might be free in righteousness; the

other for clearing us from sin, as needed.

I return now to the general subject dened in the rst

eleven verses of chapter 5 — the full statement of the eect

of this redeeming grace of Christ’s being delivered for our

oenses, according to the innite grace of God. We have

two distinct statements in this epistle of the blessedness

of believers — the passage which occupies us, Romans

5:1-11, and Romans 8. e former gives us what God

Himself is for us in grace, with its blessed consequences;

the other, the believer’s place in Christ before God, and

what God is for him there. e latter presents the believer

more fully and completely before God, his evil nature

as detected by law, and deliverance from it having been

discussed; but the former furnishes more largely and fully

what God is in Himself in grace. One is what God is to

the sinner, and hence more what God is in Himself, with

its consequences in grace; the other, the believer in Christ

before God; an advance as to the saint, and most specially

blessed in showing what God is for him, but not so fully

what He is in Himself through Christ to men. is is more

richly unfolded, consequently, in Romans 5:11. We have

the whole rich blessing that ows from Christ, from peace

with God to joying in Him; but it is love commended to us

while we were sinners (and for that very reason more what

it is in God Himself), not a man in Christ before God. Of

this we shall see more when we come to Romans 8.

us much we must already remark that down to the

end of Romans 5: 11, the teaching of the blessed Spirit

refers to sins; from verse 12 to the end of Romans 8, the

question is as to deliverance from sin. e former speaks

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

of Christ delivered for our oenses; the latter of our being

crucied with Him, and so having died to sin. But our

present theme is that He was delivered for our oenses,

and raised again for our justication. We have been also

fully taught that it is received by faith as that which is done;

that God has accepted it as a satisfying propitiation, proved

in raising Christ from the dead — raised consequently

for our justication according to God’s righteousness.

We have had propitiation through faith in His blood in

Romans 3 — God’s righteousness fully declared, just and

the justier of him that believes; and now, in Romans 4,

Christ’s resurrection for our justication when He had

been delivered for our oenses. is work, done outside us,

our only part in which was our sins (and thank God that

we who believe can say they were there), unless we add

the hatred that with wicked hands crucied and slew Him,

the fruit of God’s sovereign and free grace, and Christ

being delivered for our oenses, has God’s seal upon it

in resurrection as complete and satisfying (much more,

though we go no farther here) as it is the fruit of God’s

free grace and love to us.

Hence, not only God’s righteousness is declared, “just

and the justier of him that believes,” but, being justied

by faith, we have peace with God. All that was between us

through our sins cleared away, and God having sealed it to

us by the resurrection of Christ, we, knowing it by faith,

have peace with God. is is a very full expression. Peace

with God is with God such as He is. If there was a thing

that disturbed His holy nature morally, or if our conscience

had got anything on it, we had not peace with God; but

there is not. Our justication is absolutely by God Himself,

known by faith; so that no spot, no cloud remains. We have

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He has

made it, and it is perfect. But by Him also we have access

into the grace or favor in which we stand — our present

condition; a favor better than life — divine favor. When I

look up to God I nd, as my present relationship with Him,

nothing but divine favor resting upon me. e light of His

countenance is unclouded. With the love wherewith He

loves Jesus He loves me, and in that I rest. e hope that is

before me — such is the worth of Christ’s sacrice — is the

glory of God. I triumph in that hope. Into that glory He

will bring me. e hope of it brightens with heavenly light

the path in which I walk.

is completes what I receive as the eect of the blessed

work of Christ and the grace that gave Him, and to me a

part in that work by faith; but it is not all. Twice the blessed

Spirit adds, “Not only so.” I have indeed, in these three

points, peace as to all that could make me guilty and take

away peace, present favor, and the hope of glory; all that is

given me, right into glory, fully stated. Past, present, and

future — an eternal future — all perfectly settled in grace;

but there is the way there, and more than that, the Giver as

well as the gift to think of. All that concerns me as to what

grace gives is complete; but I have much to learn, much

to be corrected, perhaps much to be subdued, much that

tends to hinder my seeing the hope clearly, and xing my

heart upon it. I nd tribulations on the way, and I rejoice

and glory in them also. ey work patience, a subduing of

the will, and the quietness of spirit which that gives.

is leads me to fuller knowledge of myself, separation

of heart from the world through which I pass, a clearer

consciousness (my portion being in another) of what God

is for me by the way; as Israel learned in the desert what

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

they were, and the patient goodness of God all along the

road. ey were humbled and proved to know what was in

their heart, but manna never failed, even if they loathed it;

their clothes waxed not old, nor did their foot swell those

forty years. If, through unbelief they turned back from the

mount of the Amorites, and must stay in the wilderness

some thirty-eight years more, their gracious God turned

back and went with them. But this by analogy; for here the

apostle does not speak of failure, but of tribulation and its

prot — that in which he rejoiced and gloried. In failure

he could not. ere is such an exercise of heart as both

renders us more capable of spiritually discerning what we

hope, and weans from the world which tends to shut it out

of sight. Our hope is clearer, and we more mature in the

consciousness that our whole hope and home is where the

new man nds its portion.

But there is another very important element in this,

besides the subjective fruit in the state of our soul. I have

both the key to all these tribulations and the power which

enables me to bear them, and to know their meaning;

to connect them with a blessedness which lifts us above

them all, and turns us to the grace that uses them, all to

give deeper and eternal blessing — the grace of Him who

withdraws not His eyes from the righteous, who deigns

to watch over us in detail, to follow our characters and

state, and to make everything work together for our good.

e love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. at which

is in God — what He is in His nature — is shed abroad,

is not only known, but pervades in its power our hearts.

It is God’s love, but in our hearts, and this by His own

presence, here noticed for the rst time — the Holy Spirit

given to us. e cleansing and justifying being complete

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

and absolute, every obstacle thus removed, the Holy Spirit

can come and dwell in us, and bring in what God is in His

nature into our hearts. e clearance of evil made way for

this, and now the presence of God, such as He is (and He

is love), lls the heart.

But the introduction of the Holy Spirit in this place

is a truth of the utmost importance. e baptizing with

the Holy Spirit was one of the two great acts ascribed to

the Lord in John 1. is is the practical application of it

consequent on the value and ecacy of that blood by which

the sins of those that believe have been put away. So, in

the Old Testament, the leper was washed with water, then

sprinkled with blood, and then anointed with oil. So we are

washed with the word, sprinkled with Christ’s blood, and

then anointed with the Holy Spirit. It is not being born

again. at applies to the Holy Spirit’s work in unbelievers:

it is after we believe that we are sealed. Farther, this sealing

is, I think, always associated with forgiveness. “Repent and

be baptized,” says Peter, “for the remission of sins, and ye

shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” In Acts 10:43,

it is when Peter is announcing the remission of sins that

the Holy Spirit comes down on believing Cornelius. And

here in Romans the mention of the Holy Spirit comes in

when forgiveness and justication have been made known,

as in Romans 4, and indeed in Romans 3, and before the

experience of what we are, and our being in Christ, is

entered upon.

is has its practical importance for souls. e ground

of acceptance is clear; the fullness of God’s grace to us in

Christ, and the hope of glory connected with it, is made

sure to us by His death. We are forgiven and sealed. e

grace presented to us here is not a matter of what is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

commonly called experience, but God’s perfect love to us

when we were sinners, and had no experience of good, at

any rate, at all. It depends on Christ’s work for us, the value

of which is on us before God. Being thus accepted, we are

sealed. e completeness of this as to salvation, and joy in it,

condence in God, it is of moment to see. Experience has

its place, and an important one, but God’s love in salvation,

and judgment of Christ’s work, is of all importance. Some

Christians would oblige souls to have the experience of

Romans 7, in order to the salvation of Romans 5 being

true. It may come before. When it does, and acceptance in

Christ is seen in simplicity, all the subsequent Christian

life is one of assured grace, save cases of special discipline.

But the acceptance of chapter 5 may be known by itself

rst (but then justication as forgiveness, applies to what

we have done, and is not our being the righteousness of

God in Christ); but if so, self-knowledge and our place in

Christ must be learned afterward.

Remark, farther, how, while the enjoyment of the love

is by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the knowledge and

proof of it is in a work done outside of us, and wholly

independent of us, indeed for us, when in an evil and

wholly incapable state. “For,” continues the apostle, “when

we were yet without strength in due time Christ died

for the ungodly.” Ungodly, and without strength — such

was our state when the glorious work of God’s love was

accomplished for us. But this gives us the certainty that the

purity and perfectness of God’s own work and nature were

in it. It suits us, is without a motive for it in us save our

ruined state. God’s love as of Himself alone is its source

and ecient cause. It is what is His own. Perhaps for a

righteous man some might die — for some good one — dare

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

to die; but God commends His love (that which is proper

and peculiar to Himself) in that, while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

We now get a principle of grace full of blessing for us.

e Holy Spirit, who reveals the truth, does not reason from

what we are to what God will be. Such is ever the reasoning

of awakened man, and naturally so, because for conscience

and judgment it must be so; only there is defective sense

of sin, and a vague thought of mercy which enfeebles the

eect of what sense of it there is. But even in the repentant

soul this reasoning takes place till we have really met God,

and known His grace; as the prodigal talked of being made

a hired servant when he had not met his father. e Holy

Spirit makes us see clearly that we are lost on the ground

of judgment; but He reasons from what God is and has

done to the consequence for us. He reasons according to

the grace which He reveals. So here (vss. 9-10), much

more being justied by His blood, we shall be saved from

wrath through Him. If when enemies we were reconciled

by His death, much more, being reconciled, we shall be

saved by His life. e Spirit thus reasons from what God is

in grace to its consequences with us, not from our state to

its consequences with God. Wherever this last is going on,

the soul is yet in a legal state. ere is either carelessness

and self-delusion, or a mixture of law and grace. In the

Holy Spirit’s teaching there is no mixture; but either clear

condemnation on the ground of responsibility, or salvation

and blessing from grace through righteousness.

is closes the rst addition to the full statement

of salvation found in verses 1-2. Hope does not make

ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our

hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us; and then we reason

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

from divine grace to its blessed consequences. But this is

not yet all — “Not only so”; thus, knowing God, we glory

in God Himself, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom

we have received the reconciliation. We rejoice not only in

the salvation received, but in the God who is made known

to us in it; as He has been revealed through the work of

our Lord Jesus Christ, we joy in God. Blessed truth! It is

natural we should rejoice in the salvation given, in the hope

of glory, but it is more yet to have learned to joy in God

Himself, and to know Him so as to do it. is closes the

rst part of the epistle. Justied, in God’s favor as a present

place, and having glory in hope, we have the love of God,

a key to all we nd on the way, and joy in Him whom we

have known through this great salvation.

But in this mere Judaism disappears, and the apostle

consequently takes a wider range of thought, and views the

whole state of man through the sin of him who stood rst as

man before God, and involved his race in the consequences

of his defection from God. Each one has added his own

sins, and that constitutes personal responsibility: but there

is the universal state of all. Adam involved his whole

race in sin and death, and in alienation and exclusion

from God; only each added his own part; and thus (the

reasoning passes from verses 12-18) by one oense, though

all were not condemned because of grace, yet the bearing

and tendency of the act was universal on the whole race;

so by one righteousness was it for justication of life. All

were not justied, any more than all condemned; but the

bearing of the act in each case was universal, and had the

whole race for its sphere, as that on which it bore, to which

it applied. It is not upon all, but the bearing and direction

of the act in each case. It is the same word as “unto” all,

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

in contrast with “upon” all that believe, in Romans 3:22.

Adam’s work bore on all, and so did Christ’s work too.

en, in a parenthesis from verse 13 to the end of verse

17, we have the place the law holds in connection with

this point, besides the act of the two great heads of ruin

and blessing. Sin was in the world from Adam to Moses,

when no law was yet there; but specic acts could not be

put to charge where there was no law forbidding them.

e word “imputed” is another word here from the general

word for “imputing righteousness,” and means putting a

specic thing to the account of anyone; (which the other

does not), being found, as already stated, in Philemon 1:18

Where no law forbade an act, you could not charge it as a

transgression. Yet death reigned — the eect and witness

of sin being there — over those who had not sinned after

the similitude of Adam’s transgression (that is, who had

not violated an actual commandment, as Adam did). is

is a quotation from Hosea 6:7, where the same principle

as to Adam and Moses is stated. ey (Israel), like Adam,

have transgressed the covenant. Adam had a formal law; a

formal law was given under Moses. But between the two,

where there was no formal law, sin and death were found.

e ruin was universal; ought not the grace and bearing of

Christ’s act to be so? at is the force of Romans 5: 15. But

what was the bearing of the law on this? at, when grace

came in, it had a multitude of oenses to deal with, as well

as in general sin and alienation from God; such is verse 16.

en the superiority of grace is farther shown in verse 17;

that (whereas by one man’s oense death reigned by one)

not life should reign, but they who receive abundance of

grace and of the gift of righteousness would reign in life by

One, Jesus Christ.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

us, in every way, “much more” could be said of grace

than of sin. It might have a multitude of oenses to deal

with, but it must at least be as large in its bearing (and as

to those to whom it was addressed) as the sin of man. It

was also by One Man, of whom the rst man had been

but the image; the rst, the responsible man; the second,

the Man who was in God’s counsels before the world

began. Farther, if it was applied, it was not merely meeting

the case, and life reigning where sin and death had, but

those who received abundance of grace and of the gift of

righteousness would themselves reign in life. is is the

bearing of the parenthesis of verses 13-17.

In verse 18 we have the universality of the bearing of the

act of Adam and of the blessed Lord; in verse 19 the positive

eciency or eect on those who were actually connected

with these two heads. “Many” is “the many” — the mass

of persons actually connected with each of these heads.

e sin of Adam did not conne itself, in its eect, to

him. By the disobedience of one, the many connected

with him were constituted sinners. By the obedience of

Christ, the many connected with Him were constituted

righteous. is is not responsibility and imputation (there

every one is dealt with according to his own works, to

which judgment and propitiation apply), but a state into

which the many were brought by the head to which they

belonged, in contrast with personal responsibility. One

man’s — Adam’s — disobedience involved those connected

with him in the condition of being sinners; the obedience

of One — Christ — constituted those associated with Him

righteous, putting them in that state and condition before

God. It is in contrast with individual responsibility, though

each individual connected with the head is placed in the state

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

consequent on what characterized his conduct. e “many,”

in their condition, were such before God in consequence

of the conduct that characterized the head. It was not what

met the actual conduct of the individuals, but a state of

the individuals, which was the result of the characteristic

action of the one who stood as the representative and head

of his race before God. It was a state dependent on the

conduct of the head. is is the great point here. e Lord

and Adam, by their act and conduct, bring those connected

with them into a certain condition.

e law came in by the bye in contrast with a state

into which the respective heads brought those connected

with them. What is important to see in this passage is,

that the state was the consequence of the conduct of the

head, not the conduct of the members met by that of the

head. Judgment refers to works; this is a state the result of

Adam’s disobedience or Christ’s obedience. e law came

in between the two with a special object; it came in that

the oense might abound. is is not the state constituted,

but the act of the person under the law which forbade their

acts, in contrast with that which aected the universal race

by one man’s disobedience, and all believers in Christ by

His obedience. e law came in by the bye between the

two heads of opposite states, the disobedient and the

obedient Man, and came in with this intent — to make

positive “oense” (not sin) abound. God can do nothing

that sin may abound; but, where sin already is, He can send

a special prohibition of it, a law, which brings it out in a

fuller character — that it is not only evil but a deance of

His authority, an oense and a transgression; a law which

the perverse will of man uses as a provocation to oending.

Such was the law.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

en the apostle changes his term to go back to his

main theme, saying (not where “the oense,” but) where

“sin” abounded, wherever a child of Adam was, law or

no law, wherever the evil was, grace (God coming in in

paramount goodness) did much more abound. Sin had

reigned unto death, as the present proof of it in all men.

Had righteousness, the natural correlative of sin, reigned,

it must have been condemnation; but God is love, rich in

mercy, and so grace reigned, the sovereign title of God in

goodness; but then there must be righteousness, and so it

is: grace reigns through righteousness. Not man’s indeed,

or it would not be grace; but through the obedience of

One, the many are constituted righteous, and grace reigns

through righteousness (it is the abstract statement of the

nature of what is opposed to sin’s reigning) unto eternal

life, (as sin to death), through Jesus Christ our Lord. A full

and clear statement of the ground and way of our salvation!

It is remarkable how, in a few words, scripture brings out

the whole truth. In these few words the whole source, and

way, and end of our salvation are completely and clearly

stated.

In Romans 6 the practical consequence is gone into, the

state and condition reviewed experimentally. Now there

is deliverance from sin, and the bearing of the law upon

the question is gone into; and thus experience comes in.

e doctrine as to how we get out of the power of sin is

stated distinctly in chapter 6. We may note here that in

the rst division of the epistle (Rom. 1:18 to Rom. 5:1)

we have no practical conduct as the fruit of grace. We

have full exhortations in Romans 12 and the following

chapters as the result of the whole truth, specially indeed

of Romans 6; but in the former part the result of our walk

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

in judgment is stated, but no connection of walk with the

grace there spoken of. You have the full complete clearance

of the guilty sinner, all having been proved to be under sin

and guilty before God, but no consequences drawn as to

conduct. e righteousness of God is declared in clearing

from guilt and forgiving, in justifying the ungodly, peace

with God, standing in His favor, and the hope of glory as

the consequence; God Himself joyed in; but no consequent

walk. God justied the ungodly righteously, and they had

peace. Salvation is stated by itself, as far as brought to us

here by grace. Here, where the state is spoken of, divine life

is fully spoken of; not indeed the details of practice in the

way of exhortation, but the principle of divine life in power,

delivering us from sin, and setting us in divine liberty in

our walk; a liberty, that is, which comes from God, and

in which we yield ourselves to God as those that are alive

from the dead.

e point settled in the end of Romans 5 is, that by

One man’s obedience the many in connection with Him

are made righteous. e conclusion the world and eshly

reasoning would draw from this is, that if it be, so we

may live on in sin. To this the apostle answers in what

follows. His obedience was unto death. It is by having part

in Christ’s death that we have part in this righteousness.

But having part in death (that is, dying) is not the way

to live on in what we are dead to. How shall we that are

dead to sin live any longer therein? Our very profession of

Christianity by baptism was that of being baptized unto

His death, having a part in it, made one plant with Him in

His death.

Our resurrection with Christ is not spoken of here; that

involves union with Him. But we have been buried with

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

Him by baptism unto death; the old man is a judged and

crucied thing, by our very profession of Christianity, that,

as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we also should walk in newness of life. It was not

now merely a holy blessed life in all that was good, true as

that was in Christ’s own life down here; but divine power

came in when, for us, He was dead, and bringing Him into

a new place as man according to all the glory of the Father

engaged in His resurrection: so our life was to be a new

one, analogous to that. And if it be true that we are planted

in the likeness of His death, the other will follow, as surely

as life in resurrection by the glory of the Father followed

in His case. In its full result this is true even of our bodies.

As yet this consequence is not fullled; but in His death, as

Christians we have avowedly and professedly taken part, so

that death to sin is our settled portion down here.

We draw the conclusion as to life, morally now, in full

power hereafter. But death to sin we have professedly

taken our portion in, “knowing this, that our old man is

crucied with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,

that henceforth we should not serve sin.” e body of

sin is, I apprehend, sin as a whole. e word translated

“destroyed” means annulled, rendered powerless. at body

(which if alive as the old man, is the seat of lust and doer

of sin) is crucied, so as in this character to be set aside

and annulled; it has closed its existence. He that is dead is

justied from sin. It is not here “sins” or guilt; a man who

has died may have to answer for sins, but you cannot accuse

him of sin. He has neither evil lusts nor a perverse will.

And the question now is of our state and condition.

But we see the power of death destroyed by the

resurrection of Christ. He is risen, He dies no more; death

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

has no more dominion over Him. For His death was not

a mere natural consequence, so to speak, of His state. He

came about sin, to take our place as sinners, and died to

sin. It was with the object of grace to us, and in respect and

view of sin that He died, and did it once, when He had,

for our sakes, need to do it. But He did it once for all. It

was a work which He had to do in respect of sin, and He

has done it — has no more to do with sin. Sinners He will

judge, no doubt, but He has done with sin, as occupied

with it, once and forever. Up to the cross, He, the sinless

One, had to do with sin; on the cross sin was the whole

question, though for the glory of God He was made sin;

but now He has done with it once and forever. He lives

past having to do with sin. ere is but one thing, even

viewed as man, which constitutes His life, one thing which

lls its outgoings — God. In that He lives, He lives to God.

In His life down here He served God perfectly, and

lived by the Father, and every step was perfect, having

God His Father always before His mind; but He had to

do with sin all around Him; He was pressed by it, grieved,

a Man of sorrows through it; He had for us to be made

sin. Perfect in love manifesting God, perfect in obedience

as Man come to do His will, still He came about sin, and

was necessarily assailed by it in all around, and, as I have

said, was nally to be made sin for us, when fully proved

the sinless one Himself — He who knew no sin. But now

He has done with it forever. He died to it here, passed

(perfectly accomplishing His work) through death out of

the whole scene where He had to do with it, in resurrection

into a new state as man, where, in thought, object, and

life, He has to do as to His state of life with God only. In

that He lives, He lives to God. Naught where He is but

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

what is lled with God — so lled that nothing else can

be there save what ministers to His glory. It is not merely

the perfectness of His intention (this was always as perfect

as His walk; in this sense He always lived to God), but

that in which and to which He lives, where for His soul

naught else is. It is a blessed thought of man’s life, and

shows, though the esh be always the same, what the true

Christian state is. Compare 2 Corinthians 1:9; 4:10,12.

His death was a single act in which He died to sin; His life

a perpetual present, in which God is all from His soul to

His object.

So we are to reckon ourselves (our old man being

crucied with Him) dead to sin, and alive to God through

Him. It was a new and free life; for the believer was entitled

to reckon himself dead unto sin; it was his condition and

place as a believer to do so. If we are alive, we are alive

to God, not through Adam at all, but through Jesus

Christ our Lord. us it was wholly new, and, reckoning

ourselves dead to sin, entirely free — able to yield himself

to God. Compare Romans 12:2; and read “intelligent” for

“reasonable.” It is not that sin in the esh has not its lusts;

but the believer as such does not let it reign in the body

to obey it in its lusts, seeing he is free in the power of a

new life; for so the believer is accounted free to walk in

the power and after the things which belong to this new

life. He holds the reins, and does not allow sin to use the

body for its lusts — the lusts of sin. Nor does this freeman

give up his members to be instruments of righteousness

unto sin — that evil thing to which he was once a slave.

He yields himself to God as one alive from the dead, for,

as to his life born of Adam, he had died to sin, but now

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

lives, and yields himself and his members as instruments of

righteousness to God.

For sin has not dominion over us, because we are

not under law, but under grace: a grave and important

sentence. Being under law leaves me under the dominion

of sin. What we want is a free life, free from bondage to

sin; for he that commits sin, says the Lord, is the slave of

sin. Law gives neither life nor freedom nor strength, nor

even an object which may turn our hearts elsewhere. It

forbids, rightly and necessarily, the sins, but gives no life

nor power. But under grace we have power. Life is given,

strength is given, and an object is given; none of which,

as we have seen, law gives. us, under grace, sin has no

dominion over me; under law it has. It is beautiful to see,

while it is all grace, still how we are given to yield ourselves

to God — true freedom, in which sin has no dominion over

us; and, while the power comes from on high, we are really

set free, and allowed to give ourselves willingly and freely

to God.

Here, then, the apostle takes up this freedom and

reasons on it — freedom, not in the old and sinful Adam,

but, in that I am alive to God through Jesus Christ, I am

free. e law forbids sin and lust, but does not deliver. I

am not under it. I am freed from the dominion of sin, and

not under law; freed from the dominion of sin, because I

am not placed under law but under grace. Shall I then sin

because I am not under a law which forbids it, and which

curses me if I do it? God forbid.

And now he returns to the great principle of the Gentile

condition. If I yield myself to sin, as a slave, to obey it, I am

its slave; and sin reigned by death without law being there.

Death was the natural and appointed wages of sin, and

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

that as the judgment of God. We could not say obedience

unto life; for if we obey, we are alive unto God through

Jesus Christ our Lord, but it has the fruit of practical

righteousness. And note the character here of what is

opposed to sin; not in itself righteousness — the doing right

as known by conscience or law — but obedience. We are

alive to God, and that is, and must be always, obedience. We

cannot live to God otherwise than in obedience. So Christ

lived. He was the obedient Man — came to do God’s will.

His Father’s will was the motive of all He did. He lived by

every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. His

path, consequently, was practical righteousness, and the

pattern of it. So the apostle thanks God that, whereas they

had been slaves of sin, they had obeyed from the heart the

form of doctrine delivered to them.

And here we learn the spring and character of this

obedience. It is the obedience of faith, the reception of the

word of God into the heart. is forms the link of obedience

between the soul and God. e same reception of the word

gives life. Of His own will begat He us by the word of

truth, that we might be a kind of rstfruits of His creatures.

It is life, it is an obedient life, in truth, the life of Christ

in us; and He is the obedient Man. us made free from

sin — for this is the great point here — they had become,

yielding themselves up to obey, slaves to righteousness

(using “slave” as a gure he excuses, for it is true liberty, but

to make it plain to esh’s inrmity of understanding); for

as they had formerly given up their members as slaves to

uncleanness and to lawlessness, only to be lawless, letting

loose an evil will which bore no fruit, so now he exhorts

them to yield their members (for they were free) slaves to

righteousness. But here there was a blessed result, holiness,

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

a separation of heart to God in the true knowledge of Him,

the soul brought into His image, as expressed in Colossians

3:10 and Ephesians 4:23-24 (there more in its nature, here

in practical growth, but the same general truth).

e apostle continues the gure, and appeals to their

consciousness of what had passed. ey had been slaves

of sin, and in no way subject to righteousness. What fruit

had they then in the things they were now ashamed of? It

was fruitless wasting of their members in lawlessness, and

the end death. But now, free from sin — his great theme,

as we have seen — free in the sense of out of bondage, no

longer sin’s slaves (such alone is the sense of the words

here), and become slaves to God, entirely given up to serve

Him, we have our fruit unto holiness; not only the end

everlasting life, but by the way growing in knowledge of

God, and likeness to Him, and separation of heart to Him

from all evil, according to what He is. Walking in the path

of obedience to Him, and so with Him, the soul is in that

delivered from the power of evil, which is in will and lust,

neither of which is its obedience.

is is an immense privilege, this growing up into the

knowledge of God and intimacy with Him, acquaintance

with God. Will never can do this. But in our right place

with God we grow in His knowledge, we live more in those

things that are found with Him — that He takes pleasure

in; and that is holiness. Obedience is not holiness, a heart

given up to obey God; but it is the path in which holy

aections, springing from Him, and free before Him, are

found. e end is everlasting life, received in its full result

in glory, as it is in the purpose of God. But that is the gift of

God. e path to it is the path of obedience and holiness,

but itself is the gift of God. Death we have earned — it is

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

the wages of sin; but the gift of God is eternal life through

Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not merely that eternal life is the

gift of God, but the gift of God is nothing less than eternal

life. Death is purposely looked at in its simple character of

death. No doubt it is judgment on sin here in this world,

and implies, unless redemption comes in, the judgment

which comes after. It is the present eect of judgment on

sin, and the divine ocer and witness of sin, to conduct us

to judgment, according to wrath revealed from heaven. But

here it is the end of life which fruitless sin worked. It does

lead to judgment — judgment of works done while living.

God gives eternal life.

To recapitulate this important chapter. First, in reply

to continuing in sin, we have found part in death, Christ’s

death, in order to be justied; that is not living on in such

a life, but the contrary. Christ has died, and we esteem

ourselves dead (compare 1 Pet. 2:24; 4:1), the Christian

being thus alive to God in the power of a new life. e

rst principle then, in which the esh’s judgment of the

eect of the obedience of One constituting us righteous

is controverted, is that we have part in the righteousness

by having part in death, by being associated with Christ

in His death (that is, in death to sin, which, clearly, is not

living on in it). And we are to reckon ourselves dead, and

alive to God in Jesus. But then comes the diculty. We are

not really dead, though called on to account ourselves so:

how can we be free from the power of sin? is brings in

the contrast with law. Law did not give power over sin in

the esh. It forbade its working and fruits, as it ought to

do, but gave no freedom from it, no power against it. But

sin shall not have dominion over us who believe, because

we are not under law but under grace, and grace does give

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

power — does set free. I am not to let sin reign; and this

frees me from dominion. I am made free from sin, that

is, delivered from captivity to it. Being free, I am to yield

myself to God and righteousness, give myself up to Him,

and my members, once instruments of lusts, as instruments

of righteousness. It is the freedom of grace and divine life

in power.

is is the general doctrine: Christ having died, we

reckon ourselves dead as if we had done so. He who is

become our life, the true I, has died. I have died — have

been crucied — with Him, and, as a Christian, do not own

the esh to be any more alive at all. I speak of all that has

happened to Christ as if it had happened to me, because

He is become my life, and I live by Him; as a son (whose

father had not only paid his debts, but made him a partner)

would speak of “our capital, our connections,” because he

is partner, though he brought nothing in, and all was done

and acquired before he became partner; so we in much

truer, because living, association with the Lord. Only, as

I have remarked, we have not ascension, nor union with

Him, nor resurrection with Him, which involves it; but the

death of the old man, and life in Christ, and so freedom

from sin — the full answer to the allegation that having

righteousness in Him gave license to sin. One important

remark to make here is, that the true question is one of

power. A rule of right is not power over an evil nature.

Of this we shall see more; but even here we nd that the

reigning of sin in our mortal bodies, having dominion over

us, is the real question. In point of fact we are not under

law; but that is subsisting power in life, grace which gives

it, for a mere (however just) claim of righteousness from

one that was a sinner. e rst answer to the allegation

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

that being constituted righteous by Christ’s obedience

gives license to sin is, that we have been planted in the

likeness of His death — have been crucied with Him. is

applies to sin in the nature. But, besides this, we have grace

contrasted with law, giving liberty from the dominion of

sin and the slavery we were under to it, which law did not.

We are free to live to God.

On this follows a full discussion of law. We are free

from law, following the same great fundamental principle

that we have been crucied with Christ. Now law has

power over a man as long as he lives. is is illustrated

by the case of marriage, and the law or bond of husband

and wife, which lasts evidently as long as one lives, and

can no longer; the survivor is free to be to another when

one is dead. It is of all importance to the understanding

of this chapter to see that the whole subject treated is the

bearing of the law — the connection of a soul with it. First,

the doctrine on the subject and the distinction of a soul

being under law, or connected in life with a risen Christ;

and then the experience of a soul quickened and renewed

in its desires and delights, but not knowing deliverance by

the knowledge that it has died with Christ, and is now

connected with another — Christ raised from the dead. e

description of the deliverance follows, and the condition of

the delivered soul in chapter 8.

Law has power over a man as long as he lives — and

cannot have it longer; the person to whom it applies exists

no longer. If one to be punished for crime dies, law can

no longer reach him. We have seen, in chapter 6, that the

fact of not being under law does not cause to live in sin;

but that, being under law, one has no power to resist it. It

requires, but it does not free from the dominion of sin. But

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ.

Had the law reached ourselves, it would have been death,

but it would have been condemnation also.

But we are

delivered, being dead to the law, by the body of Christ. e

gure is changed. Death puts an end to the bond, but it is

we who die; yet not actually we, but Christ eectually for

us; and now we are united to Him who is raised, that, the

power of life being there, we should bring forth fruit — not

merely be dead to sin — unto God.

Having thus died as Adam’s children, in that Christ

has died, we are no longer in the esh, in that nature or

place and standing before God. We do not stand as Adam’s

children before God at all. We have died as such. We say

therefore, “when we were in the esh” — a thing we could

not say if still in it; when we were, the motions of sin which

were by the law wrought to bring forth fruit unto death.

e prohibition of a will or lust, though right, does but

provoke; it makes you think of the object, and does not

take away the lust; it does not change the nature. Were I to

say to a lover of money, “You must not desire that gold,” it

would only awaken the desire. Do I resist a willful child?

He only pushes the harder against the obstacle opposed to

him. e motions of sins are by the law — a poor way of

holiness or righteousness. ey wrought in us to produce

actual sin unto death. But now we are delivered from the

law, having died in that in which we were held. e life in

which we were connected with it is ended; the bond which

attached to that life exists no more, ending with the life it

subsisted in. e law addressed itself to the child of Adam,

and required from him what was according to God’s will.

Man was in sin, not subject to the law of God; nor could

13 Compare 2 Cor. 3, and Gal. 2:19,21

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

his sinful esh be so, or it would not have been sinful esh.

e law only stirred up that esh in its will and lusts, but

now with Christ we have died; the bond with the law is

broken in our death with Christ, and we are connected with

Christ risen, serving in the newness of the spirit, not in the

oldness of the letter; bound to a husband — not however

the law, but Christ. We could not have both together.

at is the great point here. Romans 6 laid the

groundwork of doctrine and truth, namely, that our old

man is crucied with Christ. We are for faith dead. Chapter

7 takes up the eect of this on the connection of the child

of Adam with law.

Death has dissolved the bond,

and we are to

another — to Christ risen, now to bring forth fruit to God,

for we are alive unto Him. e whole point of the passage

is, that we cannot have the law and Christ together — the

two husbands at once. It is impossible. But our deliverance

from the law is by having died to sin. Christ risen is now

our life and husband, where there is power to bring forth

fruit to God, which the sinful esh never could do. e

contrast of Christianity with law is not only for justifying,

but for life, obedience, and fruit-bearing. Under law we are

under the dominion (not guilt merely) of sin; in Christ

made free, and able to bring forth fruit to God.

But this is not all. e law has its use, namely, in bringing

out the consciousness of what we are — of our state. Was

it the fault of the law, this dominion of sin, while we were

under it? Nay, it was the fault of the sin, and lust which

the law condemned. “But that,” says the apostle, “I had not

14 It is not, “that being dead in which”; as if the law had died.

e text has been (in error) changed in one letter in Greek to

keep the apparent comparison perfect, to the destruction of the

whole doctrine of the passage.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

known, unless the law had said, ou shalt not lust.” If he

had murdered, he would have known the fact; his natural

conscience would have taken cognizance of it. But we are

not treating of sins now (as before observed), but of sin. I

had not known that, unless the law had dealt with its rst

movements as evil. Many have committed no crimes — have

neither murdered, stolen, nor committed adultery; but who

has never lusted? It would be to say, I am not a child of

Adam at all. And note here, we are not speaking of guilt by

acts, but of state; not of judgment, nor of forgiveness, but

of deliverance, of setting free. And note further here, how

great the error is of those who hold lust not to be sin if not

consented to. e object here is to detect the evil nature

by its rst motion — lust. Not, indeed, what we have done,

but what we are; and the sinfulness of esh is detected by

that rst movement, which is lust — will in evil. It proves,

by its sinfulness, the sinful source in me. I know that in me

dwells no good. Important though humbling discovery!

Not, I repeat, what I have done, but what I am; but how

important that! What simple folly the thought to make the

child of Adam good, unless he be born again!

God’s way is, not to improve the wilding, but to cut it

down and graft it. en, when we are grafted with Christ,

the fruit of that life is to be brought forth. Law does not

condemn the nature nor consequently treat man as last.

Law supposes it is yet to be proved and trusted, but forbids

what is its only rst movement — lust. Law thus gives

the knowledge of what it is. e true force of the word

translated “nay,” in verse 7, is “but.” And note, it is sin, not

sins; for he would not, as natural men do not, have judged

and taken cognizance of lust in himself as evil and sin,

unless the law had said, ou shalt not lust. e law was

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

thus a means, not of righteousness, but of the knowledge

of sin. By it, moreover, sin deceived and killed us. It took

its occasion, or point of attack, from the law. us did

Satan come when Adam was innocent. Now sin takes the

prohibition to provoke the will and suggest the lust; for,

till the law came in and forbade it, the conscience took no

cognizance of lust.

We must remember he is not treating of sins, but of sin.

is was provoked and stimulated by the commandment;

without it, sin was dead. But when the commandment

came, sin revived, and guilt and death came upon my

conscience. Otherwise there was no sentence of death in

the conscience by sin. Sins would be judged in the day of

judgment, bringing condemnation; but a sinful nature,

as such, does not give a bad conscience. We remain alive,

untested, unawakened. I was a living child of Adam,

unconscious of sin, as we see hundreds; but when the law

of God forbade lust, the conscience was aected, and I died

under its judgment. What had said, Do this and live, and

was thus ordained for life, I experimentally found to be

to death. I took up the law, thinking I had power to be

good and righteous by it: sin proted by it thus to deceive

me and bring me into death by the commandment. Still it

was to prot. Sin became by the commandment exceeding

sinful. It was there, and I unconscious of it as a fatal evil

in my esh (we are not speaking of committed sins); but it

appeared as sin when the law came, and became exceeding

sinful. It appeared in its true nature of sin, and took the

characteristic, moreover, of opposition to, and transgression

of, the holy, just, and good will of God.

But another element comes in here: the spiritual

judgment which can thus estimate all this — “We know.”

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

is is a technical expression for knowledge belonging

to the Christian as such. (See 1 Cor. 8:4; 2 Cor. 5:1; 1

John 3:2; Rom. 5:13; and other places.) We know the

spirituality of the law; not applying it to crimes merely,

but to the inward man. But if I look at myself as a child of

Adam, I am carried a captive to sin, sold under it. I say, a

child of Adam; for the apostle says, “in me, that is, in my

esh.” He is looking at the man as standing on that ground

with Christian knowledge as to it, but as married to the

rst husband — the law: “When we were in the esh.” It

is Christian intelligence applied to the judgment of the

state of (not an unrenewed person in mind and desire, but)

one under the law. Hence the law only is mentioned, not

Christ or the Spirit, till the cry for deliverance from that

state come. It is not a question whether the esh is in us;

but “when we were in the esh,” the motions of sin there,

we being met in that state by the requirements of law in

our conscience, not as redeemed and dead with Christ,

delivered and having the power of life in Him, consciously

in that state.

ree immensely important lessons are learned, under

divine teaching, in the conict connected with this state.

First, in me, that is, in my esh, dwelleth no good thing.

is is not the guilt of having sinned, but the knowledge of

what we are, that is, as esh. Next, I learn that it is not I; for,

being renewed, I hate it — would it not at any time: the true

I hates this. It is then sin in me, not I — a very important

lesson to learn. irdly, if it is not I, it is too strong for me.

To will is present with me; but how to perform that which

is good I know not. But it is well to enter into this a little

more in detail. It is not really any individual person, but

the judgment of a nature; but a nature which (till I know

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

redemption, and that I have died to sin with Christ, and

am in Him) constitutes myself, for the conscience. It is to

be remarked that the will is supposed always right, and

good never to be done. is is not the Christian state. We

can do all things through Him that strengthens us.

Further, the man here is a slave; in Romans 8:2 he is set

free. In Romans 7:5 we are supposed to be in the esh; in

Romans 8:9, we are not in the esh, if the Spirit of God

dwell in us. If a man be not dead with Christ, he is fully

in the esh. If he do not know it, the conscience and mind

are on that ground with God. What he is, not what Christ

is, is the ground on which he judges of his state before

God. As to his conscious standing, he is in the esh; and

it is the process of deliverance from this by the thorough

humiliation of self-knowledge that is here described.

e operation of the law is what is contemplated; grace

working in the man, but he, as to his mind and conscience,

under law undelivered. By the law is the knowledge of sin.

Grace has given him to see that the law is spiritual. It is not

sins, but sin, which is in question. Conscience has by grace

recognized that the law is good, yea, the spirit consents to

it; more than that, he delights in it, after the inner man. He

is a renewed man.

We have rst, then, the state of the man. Light from

God has come in. e law is spiritual for him; but he is

carnal, a slave to (sold under) sin; for he sees himself in esh

still alive — in that life of a child of Adam in which the law

asserts its claim. “I am (that is consciousness, individually)

carnal,” “sold under sin.” at is, you have a man looking

at himself as in esh, and knowing that the law is spiritual,

perceiving it by divine teaching.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

We have then, further (this being the state of the person’s

soul), two points in respect of the law — nothing, mark, in

respect of Christ and the Spirit. He is not there yet, but

on the way, getting, while taught of God, knowledge of sin

(that is, of himself under law). In the rst case he is doing

evil, but would not; he does what he hates. He does wrong,

but would not. He consents to the law that it is good. His

conscience and mind accept it as right — coincide with it,

but he does the contrary; but thus under grace, by this very

word, he is taught that it is not he does it, but sin that

dwells in him. He has a new man, a new life, in which,

thus taught, he can treat sin as a stranger, though dwelling

in him — as not himself. And now he has experimentally

learned, not mere doctrine, even though taught of God,

as to something outside himself — “we know” — but

something about himself, and a great lesson too: “I know

that in me, that is, in my esh, dwelleth no good thing.”

e esh is a judged nature, a great point of progress. And

now the second point in the renewed man comes out — the

positive will to do good. He delights in the law of God in

the inner man — not merely consents, having it as his own

approved rule in conscience, but he would do good; but

evil is there — he cannot perform good. Power is wholly

wanting: the law gives none. ere is a law in his members;

a constantly operating power of evil which brings him into

captivity, though now against his will.

Poor wretched man! But (immense advantage) he

knows it; he knows himself. Desires and eorts to do right

have resulted in this — in the knowledge of himself and

his real state: in him, that is, in his esh, there is no good

thing. But it is not (now he is quickened of God) himself

at all. But that makes out no righteousness for him, no

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

deliverance from the power of sin; he is still under it, being

under law. It is an immense lesson to learn, that we have

no power. (Like the poor man at the pool of Bethesda,

the disease of which he had to be healed had taken away,

even if he willed, the strength through which he could get

healed; John 5.) us taught, the man ceases to look to

being better, or to doing; he has learned what he is, and

looks for a Deliverer. e moment God has brought him

there, all is clear. He thanks God through Jesus Christ our

Lord. But though the subject treated be the experience

of the soul under the law when its spirituality is known

through grace, the thing learned is not what the law is, but

what sin is — what we are. By the law is the knowledge of

sin. Hence, though the process be carried on under law, by

which through the secret working of grace that knowledge

is acquired, yet the thing we have learned to know — what

sin in the esh is — is always true.

Hence, although as we have said it is the description

of a soul under law, yet it is in a way in which the lesson

remains for the Christian at all times. Not that he is ever

under law, or in the esh — he never is: he has died as

connected with that rst husband, and for faith the esh

is dead, and he is delivered; but the lesson he has learned

remains always true. In him, that is, in his esh, dwells

no good thing. And it is experimentally known. e esh

may deceive him if he is careless, and he forget to bear

about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, but it can

no longer deceive him as to what it is itself. He may have

left a door open in his house to an unfaithful servant, but

he does not now take him for a trustworthy or unsuspected

one. And the dierence is immense. e power of esh is

broken. And, further, he has no thought of being in the

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

esh before God. e Galatians show his position. “e

esh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

esh, that ye may not do the things that ye would.” “But

if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” You are

not in Romans 7, though the evil esh be there. You are

free with the liberty wherewith Christ has set you free. Be

not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Hence, too,

after the deliverance is spoken of here, the abiding fact of

the two natures is armed, though going on further than

the law, the subject before us. “So, then, I myself with the

mind serve the law of God; with the esh, the law of sin.”

In result, then, the state described is that of a soul under

the law, but sin comes to be known, and conict with this

remains — esh remains esh. But it is a very dierent

thing to have to say to it, when we have no strength, when

we are sold under it, and it has us down, in the combat,

under the law of sin, and to be able to say, “the law of the

Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the

law of sin and death.” e natures are the same; but it is

one thing, having them, to be under the law, which is the

strength of sin, and having died with Christ to have the life

and Spirit of Christ, which is the strength of godliness; to

be led captive as a rule or law by sin though hating it, or

to rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

is freedom, and the state of the believer in it, we shall

nd developed in chapter 8. e two points before us are,

deliverance, and the abiding of the law of sin in the esh;

only that it is not I. at is the mind which serves the law

of God. at is experimental and learned.

But there are two things the apostle now assumes of the

Christian. What constitutes him such — being in Christ,

and the Spirit of God dwelling in him? What belongs to

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

such is another thing. at is being a Christian. But we

must remark that the measure of walk and practical eect is

limited, as all here is, to human responsibility. One passage

alone connects us with the counsels of God, and then only

as a great general truth. But the result in practice takes the

measure of human responsibility, whatever the deliverance

needed to enable us to meet it.

For the man in Christ, then, there can be no

condemnation. Such is the rst statement in this chapter. It

will be remembered that it was said there were two passages

descriptive of the Christian’s blessing, Romans 5:1-11, and

Romans 8, the former already treated of, and what now

occupies us: that, the blessing owing from what God was

towards us in grace; this, the believer’s status before God.

Hence here it is “there is no condemnation for those who

are in Christ Jesus” — not for those for whose sins Christ

has died. ese last are forgiven, the man justied and fully

blest; but it is not his new standing as one who has died as

in the esh, and is alive to God in Christ; who is married

to Him that is risen from the dead. How could there be

condemnation for those who are in Christ? It would be, so

to speak, like condemning Christ.

But the reason is given in connection with what

precedes; and that on the side of good in the power

of life in Christ on the one side, and as to the evil, the

condemnation of sin in the esh, on the other. e being

in Christ is the great and sure ground; but the conditions

and ground of it are added when this is the case. e law

of sin and death has lost its power. I have another principle

of life in power in me, which has its own constant nature

and rule; for such is the force of “law” here — “the law of

the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” is alludes to the breath,

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

or spirit of life, breathed into Adam. Now it was spiritual

or divine life in the power of the Spirit of Christ in us;

and this had its constant law and character, and was power

which had made the Christian free from the law of sin and

death — the deadly principle which ruled in him before,

as alive in the esh. It is there, no doubt; but he is set free

from it. It has no dominion. ere is another operative life

and power, which has its own determined and unvarying

characters, and which works in power; so that I am not

under the dominion of sin. at is the side of God — what

I am before God in life.

en comes the evil nature, and why I am not condemned

for it. e law could not work good nor righteousness in

me because of it; it could not bring the question of esh

to an end before God; it could neither justify nor deliver

me; could not clear me of the evil that is in it before God.

Where sin in the esh was, law could not hinder its acting,

nor justify me while it was there; it could not operate the

good it required. It only required the good, and provoked

the sin. But “God, sending his own Son,” sinless surely, but

in form and fashion of one of these sinners in esh, “in the

likeness of sinful esh, and for sin” (that is, as a sacrice

for sin) “condemned sin in the esh.” e evil thing, so

hateful, condemnable for God and for the new man, has

been condemned when Christ was a sacrice for sin. Death

and condemnation of sin in the esh went together, and

I am dead to it; and its condemnation is past and settled

when Christ was a sacrice for sin. ere is no allowance

of it, which the new man even could not bear. A nature is

not to be forgiven. But its condemnation was in that which

removed all condemnation from me, and was at the same

time death to it.

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

us there can be no condemnation for one in Christ.

Not only are the sins blotted out, but the nature which

produced them has been condemned, that is, sin in the

esh; and, as to my actual state, the law of the Spirit of life

in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of it. us

the old man is condemned and dead, and the new man lives

and walks, so that the claim of the law (its righteousness,

the sum of what it requires) is fullled in us, because we are

not under it, but under grace. e law of the Spirit of life

in Christ Jesus has set me free, and I walk not according

to the esh, which the law forbids, but according to the

Spirit, against whose fruits there is no law; yea, through

the power of the Spirit of God I walk after that which it

leads me into — the life of Christ in this world. And this

walking after the Spirit gives its true character to the walk

of the Christian in this world.

As I have said, as Christ is contrasted with law for

righteousness, the Spirit (Christ as life in the power of

the Spirit) of God in us is contrasted with the righteous

but powerless law for our walk and rule; deadness to sin,

and life in the power of the Spirit of God. is the apostle

develops. In fact, commencing with the “no condemnation”

to the end of verse 11 is the unfolding of the answer to

“Who shall deliver?” On the words “who walk not after the

esh, but after the Spirit,” hangs a full description of both;

of the Christian life as owing from the Holy Spirit, and of

the esh. Each has its own objects according to its nature.

ere are things of the esh and things of the Spirit — not

merely right and wrong, but objects which belong to each.

us there are two natures, with their respective objects,

and with the new one the power of the Spirit of God,

instead of one, the old one, and a law which fruitlessly

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

forbade its desires as well as its acts. ey that are after

the esh are governed by its principles: mind, will, have

their object in the things which that nature craves after.

ey that follow the leadings of the Spirit are under His

power in the things the Spirit brings to us, and sets the

mind upon. Now the mind of the esh is death; the mind

of the Spirit is life and peace. at is, they are characterized

respectively by these things as immediately and necessarily

owing from them, or accompanying them. For the mind

of the esh is enmity against God, resists His authority,

rejects His will, rises up against Him and His authority,

does not like it should exist, and consequently hates Him.

It is not hence subject to the law, nor can be. Its lusts will

not have what it claims, nor its self-will bow to the claim

itself. God comes in by law, asserts authority, and forbids

lust; but the esh knows no obedience, loves its will and

its lust, and hates God. Self-will cannot like subjection

because it is self-will, nor lust what forbids lust. But God

must come in thus with law to esh. What is essential to

esh, it is essential to God to contradict, and it is enmity

against Him. ey that are in the esh cannot them please

Him. ose whose life is in the rst Adam cannot please

God. ere the esh leads and governs. eir place of

standing is in Adam life. But this is not so if the Spirit of

God dwell in us. is characterizes, leads, forms the life of

him in whom it dwells. God’s Spirit, in living power, forms

and characterizes the state of the soul.

is, then, characterizes the Christian, and distinguishes

him: the Spirit of God dwells in him. Such an one is not

in the esh (that is not his standing), but in the Spirit. is

is clearly and in terms the contrary of the state, “when we

were in the esh”; that is, of Romans 7 experience. en

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100

the motions of sin, which were by the law wrought in

our members to bring forth fruit unto death. And, note,

it is not here being born again. It is the Spirit of God

dwelling in us. True, if we are born again, there are new

desires, the evil of the esh is felt. But this is not liberty

and power. But where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty,

with God and from sin. It is the fruit of redemption by

Christ — of the ministry of righteousness and the Spirit.

Christ has redeemed, justied, and cleansed us. e blood

of sprinkling having made us perfectly dean

in God’s

sight, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, the seal of the

value of that blood, and consequently, so coming to dwell

in us, gives us the consciousness that we are in a new place

before God — not in the esh, not in our natural Adam

state, but in the condition in which the Spirit sets us in

God’s presence. is position belongs only to those who

have the Spirit. It is the Spirit of Christ. If any man have

not this, he has not the proper Christian place, is not of

Christ, does not belong to Him according to the power of

redemption, which brings us before God according to its

own ecacy, of which the Spirit’s presence and indwelling

is the characteristic seal and living power — that by which

those who have entered into this place are distinguished.

Being born again does not give this. It may (and by

itself, does) lead to the cry — “Who shall deliver me?” It

does not tell us we are redeemed. It gives desires and hopes,

but may equally increase fears, because it strengthens the

sense of responsibility, giving spiritual apprehension of the

measure of it; but it gives no power of deliverance from the

evil it makes us sensible of. But the redemption which is

15 Compare the case of the leper, washed, sprinkled with blood,

and then anointed.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

101

in Christ delivers. ere is no condemnation for those who

are in Him. And if we are in Him, He is in us, the power, as

the source, of a new life; yea, that life itself. And this is the

Christian; such an one is actually His

(Rom. 8:9). ose

born of God may be under the law as to their state of mind,

dwelling on their own responsibility as alive in esh, this

side of redemption — married to the rst husband, and the

bond not broken by death, as to their state. ey are not

united to the second husband in their faith — to Him who

is raised from the dead — passed into a new sphere (which

is indeed the fruit of redemption for us), where there can

be no condemnation; for we are accepted in Christ, and

the presence of the Holy Spirit characterizes our position.

We now nd in verse 10, the power which produces

the eect, doctrinally stated in chapter 6 as our position.

“If Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of sin.”

Sin is its only fruit if it live; but if Christ be in one the

power of life, the body, as to all will, has its place in death.

What then is practically life? e Spirit that is to produce

righteousness. is is the full answer to its being liberty to

sin, or leading to it, because we are not under law. But this

deliverance goes farther. If the Spirit of Him that raised up

Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He who raised up Christ

from the dead shall quicken our mortal bodies by reason

of His Spirit which dwelleth in us. is is full and nal

deliverance, even as to the body. We may remark that the

Spirit is spoken of in three ways here: as the Spirit of God,

contrasted with esh — with man as he is; as the Spirit

of Christ, or Christ in us, formative of our practical state;

16 It is of Him, not for Him. Note in verse 1 we are in Christ;

here verse so He is in us—two things inseparable. One is in a

place before God; the other, power of life before the world. It

is the practical development of John 14:20.

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102

thirdly, as the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus, and the

assurance of our mortal bodies being quickened, and thus

our possessing full liberty in the highest sense. For all this

is not forgiveness sought, nor justication, but deliverance

from a state we are made conscious of being in.

A further remark (which leads us to the structure of the

whole chapter) has here to be made. In the verses we have

been considering, the Spirit, though spoken of as indwelling,

is viewed as the source and power of life characterizing the

man: “e Spirit is life because of righteousness.” After this

He is spoken of as a distinct and separate Person, acting on

and in us — “with our spirit.” is is the second part of the

chapter. e third and last part is, not what God is in us by

His Spirit, but for us, securing us in the blessing which it

is His purpose to give.

We may now come to the second part of the chapter. It

is preceded by two verses of practical consequence; verses

12, 13. “We are not debtors to the esh.” It has no claim or

title over us. It has done us all the evil it can, and only evil;

and it has been condemned on the cross of Christ, and we

are dead to it, having been crucied with Him. Living after

it ends in death, but, mortifying the deeds of the body (the

things which ow from its will if left to work), we shall

live. But now the instruction goes farther, and shows us

the relationship the Spirit brings us consciously into, and

not merely the state as hitherto; “As many as are led by the

Spirit of God these are the sons of God.” is ows directly

from the whole position we are brought into, in contrast

with that we were in under the law — a position God has

brought us into by grace, through redemption — not the

bondage and fear in which we were toward Him under the

law; the fruit of divine grace in Christ — not the eect of

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

103

failure in responsibility in presence of a divine claim upon

us. We are sons of God, and cry, “Abba, Father,” having the

consciousness of being sons by having the Spirit, which is

in us a Spirit of adoption.

It is well to remark, as so frequently occurring in this

chapter, that “for” expresses in very many passages no direct

inference on the part of the apostle, but introduces some

statement conrmatory of the general principle which is in

the apostle’s mind. us, in verses 13, 14, there is no direct

inference, though the connection be more immediate in

verse 13. Verse 14 goes on to give the whole condition of

him who has the Spirit, suggested by the mention of the

Spirit exercised in moral power over the walk in verse 13.

Such a mortifying of the deeds of the body is natural in

the Christian, for such is their real state and character as

having the Spirit. But it is in no way “Ye shall live, for,” etc.

But he has in all the chapter the man in Christ before his

eye, showing what is his character, and what qualities and

privileges belong to him as such.

We have now to consider what is said concerning the

Spirit as dwelling in us. We are sons, and by the Spirit cry,

“Abba, Father,” in the consciousness of being so. e Holy

Spirit Himself (here we have Him denitely as a distinct

Person) “beareth witness with our spirit that we are the

children of God.” It is a distinct denite testimony of the

Spirit who dwells in us that we are such; not a proving

by the word on examination of ourselves (a false and

unscriptural and evil procedure), but the testimony of the

Holy Spirit Himself dwelling in us, which He bears to us

as so dwelling in us. We have the consciousness and estate

of the mind of the Spirit in us; but He Himself, as dwelling

in us, bears consciously also to us the witness that we are

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104

sons. We are in the conscious relationship, but He who is

in us gives the condence — producing testimony.

But if we are children, we are heirs. We are heirs of

God naturally as His children, and (as Christ is the great

heir and rstborn) joint-heirs with Christ. But then the

whole path and character of Christ as Man characterizes

us. His life and Spirit being in us, the spring of what we

are, our mind must be in character and nature His. But He

suered here, and now is gloried as Man, ready to inherit

all things. We too, then, must suer with Him; not exactly

for Him — this is a special privilege — but with Him. He

could not (walking in holy love and grace, holy in all His

ways, and heavenly) but suer in the midst of a sinful

world rejecting His love. His Spirit must have been ever

grieved by sin, and the sorrow that was all around Him. So

the saint in the measure in which he walks in the power of

His Spirit, as he says in Timothy, “If we suer with him, we

shall reign with him” (2 Tim. 2:12). It is a whole Christ: the

same life has its natural consequences here and in heaven

in the place of sons; a heavenly Man in this world, and

in the heaven of God in holy glory. We are co-gloried,

and co-suerers. But the suerings are not worthy to be

compared with the glory. I apprehend “in us” is our whole

state as well as our persons.

We have, then, a beautiful connection of the suering

and glory, through the dwelling of the Spirit in us. He

gives us to know we are sons, and is an earnest and revealer

of the glory while we are in this world of sorrow. e

creature is in the state which results from the fall, but grace

causes it on the other hand to wait for our being in glory

for its deliverance. It must be so; the unintelligent creature

cannot be brought to the rest of God’s glory when the

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

105

heirs for whom it is ordered are not there. It waits for the

manifestation of the sons. e liberty of grace it cannot

enter into (which is intelligent and spiritual — “soul-

salvation “); but the liberty of glory will be its deliverance

also. It was subjected to vanity, not by its will, but by reason

of another, Adam — but not ever to be left there. It also will

have its deliverance in the liberty of glory; for this applies

to the whole state of things, not merely to the relationship

of souls with God.

Such is the general statement. And in this we get the

rst and fullest glimpse in Romans of the counsels of God.

We shall nd something of them as to the Jews in chapter

11, but in this the general result in the sphere of glory of

the Son of man, though only briey stated in connection

with the subject of deliverance, which here applies to the

whole creation. But this is the general statement of this

truth.

What follows is our personal connection with it as

Christians. We know (we Christians, having the mind

of Christ, know) that the world which esh is trying to

improve as its home is groaning and travailing in pain

through the fall (though grace and deliverance and

reconciliation are received by us). And this is not simply

true of the creature around us: our body is part of this.

We being creatures have to wait for the redemption of

this — the actual adoption and salvation. e redemption

of the body and of the purchased possession, in a general

sense, go together. e redemption through His blood, the

forgiveness of sins, we have; but the Spirit we have received

in consequence is only the earnest of the other. It is in this

sense we are saved in hope. What was in God’s purpose

to give us in salvation we have not yet (that is in glory

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106

with Christ); but the work is wrought which saves us, and

we have it by the Holy Spirit. We stand (having received

the Holy Spirit) between the accomplished work which

saves us and entitles to the inheritance (and know it is

accomplished, having, withal, been sealed for the day of

redemption), and the exercise of power which shall bring

the full redemption in when Jesus comes again. We, by the

Spirit, look back to the accomplishment of the work, and

understand its value; and by the same Spirit look forward

to Christ’s second coming to accomplish all and bring

in the glory. Meanwhile we have these earthen vessels,

our unredeemed bodies — unredeemed as to power and

deliverance; for the body also is the Lord’s, bought with a

price; and though we have the rstfruits of the Spirit (for

the Spirit will again be poured out as the latter rain for

millennial blessing), we suer with Him who suered here,

connected with the glorious inheritance by the Spirit, and

with the creation fallen in the rst Adam by the body; and

we groan (saved in hope) for the redemption of the body,

and wait for that and the inheritance with patience — for

that which is not yet seen.

We have seen that the Spirit bears witness with our

spirit, that we are sons, and so heirs — heirs of God, and

joint-heirs with Christ. For the inheritance we wait. But He

takes part also in the inrmities in which we nd ourselves,

through our connection with the fallen inheritance through

the body. But the part we take through the body in the

suerings of the fallen creation is not in the selshness of

a suerer, but we become, by the Holy Spirit, the voice of

all this sorrow according to God. ere are cases, no doubt,

where we know the will of God, and can (praying in the

Holy Spirit) expect an answer according to our demand of

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

107

God. But there is a mass of sorrow which we feel according

to God by the Holy Spirit, for which we know not what

to demand as we ought; but the sense of the evil pressing

on the heart is wrought by the Holy Spirit, and, in our

weakness through this poor body, the mind of the Spirit is

there through the Spirit’s working.

us He who searches the hearts, and scrutinizes

what is found there, nds, not our poor selsh feelings or

complaints, but the mind of the Spirit — what the Holy

Spirit has produced in them; for the Holy Spirit Himself

makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be

uttered. He makes intercession for the saints according to

God. Wonderful privilege in our sorrows and suerings,

that, when God searches the heart, He nds the mind

formed by the Spirit there, the Spirit itself, as in us, making

intercession for us according to God It is a privilege to

be in suering thus, God by His Spirit taking part in it.

As Christ personally felt all the sorrow perfectly through

which He passed, so we through grace by the Spirit take

our part in it (not according to selshness, but) according

to God, with the increased sense of our inrmity and

weakness of our dependence and connection with a fallen

creation from which we cannot escape down here, and

feeling it so much the more as we see the glory, but given

by the power of the Spirit to take part in it according to

God — to be its voice, so to speak, in grace felt by ourselves,

though having part in it. It is the mind of the Spirit in it

which God nds in us when He searches the hearts, and

the Holy Spirit Himself is there making intercession for

the saints according to God. It is wonderful grace: the

heart of man is searched; the mind of the Spirit is there,

because the Holy Spirit Himself is there interceding, but,

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108

though Himself, in groans which are in our hearts. But

(for such is the force of it), though we do not know “what

to pray for as we ought,” we do “know that all things work

together for good to them that love God.” God works of

and from Himself in our favor — and makes everything

work together for our good. We know not what to look for.

Perhaps in the present state of things there is no remedy,

no direct setting aside or remedy for what makes us groan;

but this is certain — God makes all things work together

for good to those who love Him. e sorrow may not be

remedied, but the sorrow is blessed. We are called according

to God’s purpose, and God orders everything for our good.

is evidently brings in God working for us (without

us — not in us); and this is the third part of the chapter.

e work in us we have seen, in life by the Spirit, and

the presence of the Spirit giving us the consciousness

of being sons, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, and

helping us — taking part in the scene of the inrmities

and sorrow — being come down from heaven to dwell

in us while we are in the midst of and, as to our bodies,

connected with, the fallen creation, subject to corruption

through the rst Adam. e will is right; power is there by

the Spirit for the inner man, and hope of the glory to come;

and that just makes us feel the inrmity and sorrow, but felt

through the Holy Spirit according to God. It is a blessed

place, and shows how true and complete is the deliverance

from the power and evil of the esh; for in that, in which

by the body we are connected with the fallen creation, the

will is not — “not willingly,” though we be still subject to

the eect as sorrow. As for the will of the esh, it is dead

and condemned; but, on the contrary, He who searches the

hearts nds the mind of the Spirit — a divine sense of the

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

109

evil, and sorrow through it; the Holy Spirit interceding for

us, in that which is beyond the measure of human thought,

but God entering, as in our hearts, into the sorrow. It is a

wonderful deliverance in, though not yet out of, the sorrow.

We have now brought to us the counsel and favor of

God — His own purpose. If through grace any have loved

God, they were called according to His purpose. e purpose

is not here, nor indeed anywhere, simply sovereignty in

election. It includes that to which they were called. ey

were foreknown; but whom he foreknew He predestinated

to a glory which was in His mind and counsels before the

world began, namely, to “be conformed to the image of his

Son, that he might be the rstborn among many brethren.”

Here we may remark the epistle goes wholly beyond and

out of its general subject — the responsibility of man and

his failure, and the way that it is met by the death of Christ.

But the delight of divine wisdom was in the sons of men

before the world was. Hence the Son became a man that

His redeemed ones might be conformed to Him in glory.

Meanwhile the rst Adam was set in responsibility, and

this had to be met, and was met in the cross, but therein

a righteous ground laid also for the accomplishing the

counsels of God, which consequently was then revealed.

See Titus 1:2; 3 Timothy 1:9; Romans 16:25-26. Compare

Ephesians 3 and Colossians 1. In the Romans, however,

the instruction does not go beyond the individual, even in

speaking of the purpose of God. We are predestinated to

be conformed to the image of God’s Son, that He may be

the rstborn among many brethren. is surely is clearly

sovereign grace. To set poor worms, and dying worms, in

the same glory as the Son of the Father has nothing to

do with responsibility, or meeting it; although the act by

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110

which our failure in it was met did lay the ground for it, in

that Man perfectly gloried God; and hence Man is set in

God’s glory. Our sins and our sin were met on the cross,

as we have seen. But besides that God was gloried; and

man, exalted to His right hand, entered into the glory as

our forerunner. For, besides His personal and eternal title,

it is because of what He did for us that Christ is entered

into the glory. Here then we pass beyond responsibility

and get on purpose: only that in this epistle we do not go

farther than the individual place. We are to be conformed

to the image of God’s Son. And so scripture constantly

testies. “We have borne the image of the earthy,” says

1 Corinthians 15, and “we shall bear the image of the

heavenly Adam.” “When he shall appear, we shall be like

him,” says the apostle John (1 John 3). “He will change

our body of humiliation, and fashion it like his glorious

body,” says our apostle (Phil. 3). Such as to this point is the

wondrous counsel of God. For how, as to state, could we

conceive anything more glorious, more blessed, than to be

conformed to the image of God’s Son; to see Him as He

is, and be like Him?

e Spirit then blessedly states the security of those

whom God has predestinated to be so conformed, stating

the steps by which they are brought to the great result,

only omitting wholly the work in us, which had been fully

stated previously, because He is speaking of that which

God is for us in His own purpose as its source (and securing

that purpose in grace up to its accomplishment), and not

of man’s responsibility and the necessary requirement of

God’s nature and righteousness. ese have been discussed

in the previous part, both as to guilt and righteousness, and

as to nature and state, so as to render it possible to have

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

111

to say to the holy God. Grace has wrought that, but has

wrought what was needed that we might be reconciled to

God. Here (as already stated), alone in Romans, he touches

on purpose and counsels. So in Ephesians 1:4. ere it is

so according to the purpose of His own will. Men must be

holy and in love to be before Him; but making us sons is

according to the purpose of His own will. He might have

made us something lower — could not, indeed, if we think

of Him. It was part of His perfection to think and purpose

thus. But we can think as a fact of a lower place. But His

counsel was to make us sons, “that in the ages to come

he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his

kindness towards us by Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). Part of His

glory — of what angels learn — would have been lost else;

part of the glorious oering of the atonement. is could

not be. Well, He called them, justied them, and brought

all to perfection in His plan — He gloried them. It is not

as yet in historical accomplishment, but all one unbroken

chain with God.

We have then the great and blessed truth derived from it

all — God is “for us”: if so, “who shall be against us?” (Rom.

8:31). It is the great central truth of grace: God is for us.

He is for us, in giving, in justifying, and in securing that

in all diculties nothing shall separate us from His love.

And rst, in giving, “He that spared not his own Son, but

delivered him up for us” (vs. 32): with Him given, we can

reckon on receiving everything else. No gift like this: how

should He then not give everything else? Again, it is God

Himself who justies. It is not here justied before Him,

but He justies us Himself — little matter who condemns

us then. God is for us in this also. Compare Zech. 3

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112

Further, there are diculties, trials, dangers in the way,

death, the high and holy place so far removed, Satan’s power

against us. First, as to diculties and trials, we more than

conquer. It is the very path of blessing and honor: there

Christ trod; there His power and mind are with us. Take all

on high moreover, or in the depth: angels and powers, all

are creatures — creature power or creature weakness. ey

cannot separate us from the love of God: this is more, more

sure, more strong than any creature; yet it is in Him who,

as Man, has met for us all of hostile power and death in

the way, and is on high for us. It is the love of God, the

sureness of divine love, and that in Christ Jesus our Lord,

who has been through all, and is now on high for us. is

secures us against all and through all for glory.

Here alone in this epistle, to bring in His intercession,

the ascension is spoken of: “It is Christ that died, yea,

rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand

of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Rom. 8:34).

He has gone down to the depth for us in sorrow and the

ruin of man, and risen in power and victory over it now as

the exalted Man; He is interested in us, intercedes for us,

nding needed help and mercy: what then shall separate

us from His love? Here it is the love of Christ, that we

may know Him and His love, as Man gone down to depth,

and gone up on high as Man, still interested in and caring

for us. In verse 39 it is the love of God in Christ, that we

may know the love to be divine, supreme, and immutable,

above everything that might separate in us — stronger than

everything which, without us, might seek to separate us

from this love.

is closes the doctrine of the epistle, carrying us on

personally to glory, according to God’s counsels, but not

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

113

beyond our personal place according to those counsels; and

surely it is high and blessed enough. Otherwise the epistle

goes no farther than the responsibility of man, of which

the law is the perfect rule, and where even redemption and

the Spirit (our being dead to sin, and alive through Christ

to God) have set us free; it is still “the righteousness of

the law is fullled in us who walk after the Spirit.” It is

being thus dead and alive in Christ which is the way of

deliverance. But no one can read Romans 6: 14, and Romans

7, without seeing that the great object of the apostle is to

show that being taken wholly from under the law and put

under Christ — being delivered from the law — is the way

of godliness as well as of peace; that the law, which gave

no new life and left sin its power — left us therefore under

its power, is contrasted with our having died, for faith, to

sin, and with being alive through Christ and the power of

the Spirit. at is, obligation, sin, and no new life, which

is our state under law, is contrasted with life and the Spirit

(having died to sin), giving us power and liberty, though

the esh remains just the same when the mind is renewed,

and man is viewed as living still in this earth, only in the

life of Christ, and dead to sin.

But in one case we, even if renewed, are still under the

power of, and slaves to, sin; in the other, we are set free to

live to God. Law is bondage to sin; our new place is life and

liberty, sin in the esh being condemned in the cross. e

natures are the same; but to be bound by the evil one and

unable to deliver ourselves is a dierent thing from being

set free by power and able to keep it under. But this we have

through the very fact that this epistle connes itself to the

responsibility of man and the way God has met it in grace,

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114

man’s justication and deliverance, with only just a slight

mention of counsels at the end to bring in his security.

us the whole ground of his personal standing as

so justied (God’s salvation), is with wonderful fullness

completely set forth, searched into, and grounded on God’s

work of grace, from the utter sinfulness of man alienated

from God to the perfect security of the called one, so

that nothing can separate him from God’s love. is is

of unspeakable value. Sin is fully stated, searched out; the

law, as condemning and convicting of sin, forgiveness,

justication, deliverance from the power of sin, all gone

into; every question examined relating to how a man can

be just with God; divine judgment, and human experience,

fully ventilated; and divine righteousness, through grace,

eectually established as the ground on which the believer

stands, and which he will never be o. It does not go

far on into counsels and privileges connected with the

establishment of Christ’s glory as Head; but our standing

is most completely revealed and gone into, in the Holy

Spirit’s reasoning, by the word of God.

e three following chapters are a special appendix, for

the purpose of reconciling the doctrine that there is no

dierence between Jew and Gentile with the faithfulness

of God to the promises made to the Jew, or Israel. e Jew

might say, “I have nothing to answer to your plea against me

by the law. I did break it, and hence must give up my claim

under it to be a favored people. But there were promises

even before the law, and not with a legal condition. How

do you set these aside, so as to make no dierence between

Jew and Gentile?” is had a color of reason, and the Spirit

of God, jealous of God’s faithfulness, and of the sureness

of the promise made to His people, now fully dears up

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

115

this point, showing, and that triumphantly, how Israel

had forfeited it altogether, and yet that God, faithful to

Himself, would accomplish these promises all the same;

only that thus, in His divine wisdom, the Jew would have

to come in as a mere sinner, entitled to nothing, just as a

Gentile would.

But the apostle was charged by the Jews with

indierence to Jewish privileges. Against this he eagerly

defends himself. He had, he declares (the Holy Spirit

bearing witness to him in his conscience), as much love as

Moses when he wished himself blotted out of God’s book

if they were not forgiven. He too, had

(as beside himself

in zeal for them) wished himself accursed from Christ for

their sakes, and thus recognizes all privileges as theirs. As

the Lord, in the parable of the prodigal son, speaks of the

elder brother, “All that I have is thine,” so all, even Christ

Himself, according to the esh, came of them. Nor had the

word of God none eect, but all were not Israel that were

of Israel. And now the apostle brings in the sovereignty of

God.

And here I may remark, it is not national election, but

precisely the opposite; the sovereignty of God setting aside

national election, which was the ground the law took. e

Jews claimed that, and the apostle is setting it aside, and he

does it thus, You claim to be children — exclusively children

of promise, as Abraham’s natural seed: but it is written, “In

Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen. 21:12). You must let in

the Ishmaelites, if you take it as a descendant according to

17 I do not read it as “could wish,” but as “had.” He refers expressly,

I believe, to Moses in respect of his love to the people. As to

God’s people, I believe if we have Christ’s Spirit, it cannot be

otherwise. It is not a sober wish, but the desire of the blessing

of God’s people at all costs to self.

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the esh. e Jew would answer, “Ah, that was a slave — not

a true child of promise.” Still it showed that the children

according to the esh are not the children of God, but the

children of promise; for this word is of promise (so we

should read it): “At this time will I come, and Sarah shall

bear a son” (Gen. 18:10). Nor is this all; when Rebecca had

conceived by one, Isaac (here there could be no subterfuge

as to a slave), before the children were born and had done

good or bad, it was said the elder shall serve the younger.

If it be title according to eshly descent, you must let in

the Edomites. If the Jew did not consent to this, he must

consent to sovereignty in election.

is sovereignty (vs. 24) God would use in favor of

Gentiles as of Jews. But the apostle treats some other points

and objections before arriving there. Verse 14, we have the

common objection suggested, there is unrighteousness with

God. e apostle then quotes Moses in reply, arming that

sovereignty, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,

and will have compassion on whom I will have compassion”

(Rom 9:15). is was sovereign, but it was sovereign mercy.

And when we examine this and the following case, in both

we nd the wickedness there. For sovereignty in mercy and

compassion supposes the evil, and pardoning was not as

to good. But when we examine the case, this will appear

more strongly still. When the passage quoted from Moses

was spoken, Israel had made the golden calf, and God had

threatened all with excision, and on Moses’s intercession

retreats into His own sovereignty to spare any. Had He

not been sovereign, had He acted in righteousness, all (save

Moses and Joshua) would have been cut o. But He was

sovereign, and could use mercy, and He did. e apostle

draws the general conclusion. It is not willing or running

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117

on man’s side, but God that shows mercy. No righteousness

was attained by man’s willing or running, but by God

showing mercy when man was unrighteous.

So on the other side, in the case of Pharaoh, God was

showing His power and making His name known, and

Pharaoh is set up as one in whom it is to be done. He was

already a wicked man who deed Jehovah: “Who is Jehovah

that I should obey him? I know not Jehovah.” Well, says

Jehovah, you shall know, and all the earth too; and hardens

him, that he may be a monument of His judgments to

those that deed His power. Both were wicked — Israel

and Pharaoh. Righteousness would have condemned both.

He has mercy on one, and hardens the other. He has mercy

on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He

hardens, where simple righteousness would simply have

condemned both. is is sovereignty. He proves Himself

not merely righteous (the day of judgment will prove that),

but proves Himself God; and this is of all importance for

us all: without it none would be saved.

But then there is still the human objection, which the

apostle clearly states, and looks man in the face, “Why

then doth he yet nd fault, for who hath resisted his will?”

Here it is not simply righteousness, but power exercised

according to His will. It is the objection of man, referred

to the impossibility of resisting. e sovereign exercise of

God’s will is no answer really on man’s part to the guilt of

the exercise of his own. But man does so because, if God

does what He pleases, man pleads it as an excuse: it rests

with God, and why blame man? But the apostle does not

reason on the unreasonableness of it, but, as is most tting,

puts God in His place, and man in his. e thing formed

is not to say to Him that formed it, “Why hast thou made

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118

me thus?” God, as the potter, can of one lump make a vessel

to honor and another to dishonor. If He does, none can

say, What doest ou? ere is no word that He has done

so; but the rst of all righteousness is that God should

have His place, and this the apostle asserts. is is the rst

point — God will judge man. It is not for man to judge

God. God is sovereign. No word that He does make a

vessel to dishonor; but if He did, man could only bow.

en see the holy wisdom of God. He has power to do

what He sees good. “What if God, willing to show his wrath

and make his power known, endured the vessels of wrath

tted to destruction, and that he might make known the

riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy” — on the vessels

“which he had afore prepared unto glory?” First, man is not

to reply to God. He has power, if He saw good, to make

vessels to honor and dishonor of the same lump. en the

case is put without weakening that. What if He endured

vessels tted for destruction? not which He had tted, but,

like Pharaoh, showing His wrath on these already such;

and then make known the riches of His glory on vessels

of mercy. And now the work on them was His doing,

which He had afore prepared for glory. ey were vessels

of mercy, and He prepared them for glory itself. So with us

who have believed through grace. e others were vessels

of wrath, and in them (tted for destruction) He displayed

His wrath and made His power known, as in Pharaoh. All

were evil to begin with. He displayed His divine title and

ways in both mercy and glory. He is sovereign in Himself,

preparing for glory “even us,” says the apostle, “whom he

hath called of Jews and Gentiles.” He forces the Jew to

admit the sovereignty, or he must admit Ishmaelites and

Edomites, and have been cut o himself — all but Moses

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119

and Joshua; and then shows He uses this sovereignty to

call Gentiles, who had no title by promise, and Jews, who

had forfeited it. He then quotes Hosea, stating both: the

Gentiles, Hosea 1; the Jews, when rejected, Hosea 2;

and then Esaias’s testimony, that only a remnant of Israel

would be saved; and but for a very small one they would

have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. What is the result?

Gentiles, not looking for righteousness, have found it — the

righteousness of faith; and Israel, following after the law

of righteousness, did not attain to it, seeking it by works

of law, not by faith. For they stumbled at the stumbling-

stone which Isaiah had declared would be laid in Zion — a

sanctuary indeed, but a stumbling-stone; but it would be

by faith that they would have the blessing. He that believed

should not be ashamed; but, as a body, they had stumbled

at the stumbling-stone.

But this must be more fully developed. For we have now,

not the sovereignty of God letting in the Gentile and sparing

a remnant of Jews through mercy, but Israel’s rejection, as

to the mass, as a nation, and the question whether it was

nal. e desire of the apostle’s heart was for the salvation

of Israel. He testies of their zeal towards God, only it

was not according to knowledge; and this last statement

he now develops to explain their casting away. e next

chapter treats the question whether it is nal or not. ey

were ignorant of God’s righteousness (his great theme in

the epistle), and, setting about to establish their own under

the law, had not submitted themselves to the righteousness

of God. at was Christ, and Christ was the end of the

law — closed it wholly for righteousness to every one that

believed. e schoolmaster went on in his oce up to faith

18 Peter, speaking only of Jews, quotes only Hos. 2.

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120

for those who had been put under his care till the time

appointed of the Father, and so practically and usefully too

for many a soul (for most Christians are under law). en

came the Son, and the whole economy and dispensation of

the law closed. So it was in dispensation — they could not

have two husbands at once; and so it is in conscience, for

such is the mind and truth of God. It is another ground and

way of righteousness. One is by our doing; the other God’s

righteousness — ours by faith in Christ who has perfectly

gloried Him. Christ closes the claims of God against

us by law, which is condemnation and death; and He is

Himself our righteousness who believe through grace.

But here the special point is, He is the end of law. It is

done with for righteousness: Christ takes its place. e law

knows nothing but the person who is under it fullling it.

It says, he that doeth these things shall live in them; and

this is most righteous. e righteousness which is by faith

speaks wholly dierently. It is, “If thou confess with thy

mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God

hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”; for the

real question is the salvation of the sinner, not the keeping

of law to live. e allusion is to Deuteronomy 30, where

the question of responsibility was closed as to keeping the

law; and, the people being in captivity for their sins, the

keeping of it to live was wholly over, they being cast out

for not doing so.

e apostle introduces Christ as the hope then, as

indeed He was to the Jew: only through Him could the law

be written in the heart according to the new covenant, even

in Jewish hopes; and then he turns to the proof of Christ

being the one whom Israel was thus taught to look to; but

then it let in the believing Gentile: “Whosoever believeth

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121

in him shall not be ashamed.” Wherever the word was

in the heart and in the mouth, that is, the word of faith

preached; for law was over, and faith was not law — it was

another way of righteousness. Law spoke one way, faith

another. We have then, on the statement of the principle

which let in the Gentile, the no-dierence doctrine coming

out beautifully in contrast with the rst use of it. First, we

had, “there is no dierence: for all have sinned”; here, “no

dierence, for the same Lord is rich unto all that call on

him.” “For whosoever [how the apostle glories in these

“whosoevers”!] shall call on the name of the Lord shall be

saved” — consequently a Gentile who did.

e original immediate application was deliverance in

Zion for a remnant; Joel 2:32. But God had furnished the

blessing in terms which let in the Gentile too when the

time was come, and this way of grace of His was more

important far than the Jewish privilege. is supposed the

testimony which made known the Lord on whom they

were to call.

is brings in the relative position of Jew and Gentile

under it. e testimony in grace proclaimed to Israel was a

clear doctrine of the Old Testament, for which he quotes

Isaiah 52:7. But they had not all obeyed the testimony. So

Isaiah declares in chapter 53: 1: “Who hath believed our

report?” So faith comes by this report; that is, the testimony

heard — and that by God’s word. But were the Gentiles

not the object of God’s testimony? Has the testimony not

been sent? God’s testimony was meant for the Gentiles.

It is gone out into all the world. e main object here I

believe to be to show that, in God’s mind, testimony

(God’s testimony) was to go out to the whole world — not

how it was done. But was Israel unaware of this bringing

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122

in of the Gentiles? e ancient testimony of Deuteronomy

32 proved the contrary. When Israel rst was established

as a nation before God, Moses foretold their departure

from Him as a foolish and unwise people. ey were to

be provoked to anger by those that were no people. But

Isaiah is very bold. God was found of them that sought

Him not (the Gentiles); made manifest to them that asked

not after Him (again the Gentiles); but to Israel, “All the

day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient

and gainsaying people.” Grace had not been wanting, but

there was no response. God had called in vain; the divorce

had come. See Isaiah 50.

Was the rejection then of Israel nal? Surely not. e

apostle then gives three proofs that it was not nal rejection:

a remnant was owned now; the reception of the Gentiles, to

provoke the Jews to jealousy, not therefore to reject them;

and, nally, the testimony that the Redeemer would yet

come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and

so Israel be saved as a whole — “all Israel” — not merely the

Jew, nor yet as a remnant. With this the like responsibility

of the Gentile is revealed. First, then (as himself of Israel

according to the esh, and blessed), he declares God has

not cast away Israel; but as in the days of Elijah, when he

even pleaded against them as wholly adversaries to God

and His prophet, a remnant according to the election by

grace had been preserved, so now, of which he, Paul, was a

proof. But “if by grace, not by works, otherwise grace was

no more grace.” Israel had not obtained what they sought

amiss, but the election had obtained it, and the rest were

blinded. And so it was written, as Moses testies (Deut.

29:4), and David, in spirit, in judgment on their rejection

of Christ (Psa. 69:22-23) — from the close of their history

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

123

in the wilderness dealt with in patience till Messiah was

rejected; and they now stumbled at the stumbling-stone

and were blinded. But was it that they might fall? Was

this God’s purpose about them? Nay, but their fall was the

occasion of salvation to the Gentiles to provoke them to

jealousy.

is is the second proof it was no nal purpose to cast

them o. It was ordered to provoke them to jealousy, that

is, not to cast them o. And so the apostle labored. His

service to the Gentiles he magnied as tending to this; so

far was he from thinking little of Israel. For if their casting

away was the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their

restoration and fullness? is leads the apostle to bring

out the relative position of Jew and Gentile as to the place

of promise in this world — a most important point, and

bringing out the real position of the Gentile professing

body in this world; and into this I must enter a little.

When, after the ood, men had (casting o God) set

up to make themselves a name, that they might not be

scattered, God scattered them in judgment and formed

them into nations. ey gave themselves to idolatry, and

God called Abraham (Josh. 24) — when they were in

this state — and made him the root of a separate family

in which the promises were according to the esh, or in

Christ in a special way by grace. Up to that there had

been, for good, no head of a race or family. For Adam was

the father of sinners; Abraham, of the seed of God in the

world. In him election, promise, and calling were thus

established — not merely individually in grace, but as a root

and tree of promises. He was the rst-fruit, the root. e

natural tree was Israel. Some of the branches, for he will

say no more, were broken o. It is looked at as a continuing

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124

tree of promise, and Gentiles by grace grafted in in their

place, to partake with them of the root and fatness of the

olive tree. We have not here Jew and Gentile brought into

one new man — one body in Christ; not a body united to

Christ in heaven, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile;

nor a mystery hidden from ages and generations, but Israel,

the olive tree of promise, subsisting from Abraham, in

possession of the promise, and now some broken o from

the place where they were because of unbelief. e root

remained in the same tree where they were, and Gentiles

were grafted in among them; for they were not natural

branches, but only had their standing by faith.

e Gentiles were not to be high-minded, but fear.

God had not spared the natural branches; what of the

Gentile, who was only grafted in? It is not the church as

the body of Christ. ere is no breaking o there. en

the Gentile is fully warned, and shown the principle of

God’s dealings — the goodness and severity of God on

them which fell, the Israelitish branches cut o; “In thee

goodness, if thou continue in his goodness.” Otherwise the

Gentile branches would be broken o, as the Jewish. Have

they so continued? Has Gentile profession continued in

the faith and walk once delivered to the saints? If not, it will

be cut o, as the Jews were — solemn word and warning to

Christendom.

But the tree of promise remains, and the Jewish branches

will be grafted in again into their own olive tree — the

original place of Abrahamic promise, “for God is able to

graft them in again.” Not again into the church; for, so far

from being there, they were broken o when it was founded

(as touching the gospel, enemies, to let in the Gentiles);

but still, for the fathers’ sake, loved as a people chosen of

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125

God, elect ones — enemies as touching the gospel; that

is, Jews (God’s chosen people as such), but broken o for

unbelief, as the Gentiles in similar case would be, and the

Jews grafted in again. e Jewish system closed, we know,

to let in the Gentiles. e Gentile will close, to let in the

Jews back as such to the place of promise, which will then

indeed extend, in its own way, over the earth. Not that there

was any failure, nor could be, as to God’s accomplishing

His own work of grace; but blindness in part had happened

to Israel till the fullness of the Gentiles had come in, all the

Gentiles who had part in Christ’s glory — the true church,

in a word — what completed the number thus brought in

by the gospel.

en the Gentile history of grace and the church would

cease, and Israel be saved as Israel, as a nation (which of

course cannot be while the church time is going on, where

there is neither Jew nor Greek); and not only the Jews

but all Israel; when Christ should come, the Deliverer,

out of Zion — not from heaven to take to heaven, but

turning away ungodliness from Jacob in the place of His

power on the earth. e Gentile professing system will

be cut o, unless popery and indelity be continuing in

God’s goodness. And, note here, it is not God’s goodness

continuing. Only just then it is displayed in the fullest way;

the fullness of the Gentiles will be come in, and taken up

then to heavenly glory. But as a system on earth, they will

not have continued in God’s goodness, and, as such, they

will be cut o. ese are the ways of God on the earth,

not the security of the saints for heaven. ere is a place

of promise and blessing into which men are introduced;

and they outwardly partake of what can be participated in

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126

on earth, but are not necessarily really partakers of Christ

(Heb. 6).

God’s covenant to take away Israel’s sins is sure. It shall

be accomplished when Christ comes; for, note, the apostle

speaks of Christ in Zion in a time yet to come; for God’s

gifts and calling suer no change or setting aside, and Israel

is His, by gift and calling, as a people. “As touching the

gospel, they are enemies,” the now rejected nation; but, as

touching election, ever and unchangeably loved as a people,

and that in connection, not with law, but with Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob. e law was conditionally blessing: “If ye

will obey my voice … ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto

me.” With Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, it was purpose,

and unconditional gift and calling. is dierence runs

through scripture. Daniel 9 refers to Moses; in Leveticus

26:42, it is Jacob and Abraham; so in Exodus 32:13; and

in many other places. e nal restoration of Israel will be

on the ground of the promises made to the fathers, “for his

mercy endureth forever.”

But there was a display of God’s wisdom in this, which

the apostle does not forget. Israel had promises. If they had

come in on the ground of these, it would be so far a right,

though grace had originally given them. But they would

not, but rejected Christ, in whom all is to be fullled, and

thus they became a mere object of mercy, like Gentiles,

though God was faithful to fulll them. As the Gentiles

had been unbelieving, and mercy had been the only ground

of their entering in, so now the Jews had not believed in

the mercy shown to the Gentiles, had rejected the grace

that let them in, and were mere objects of sovereign mercy

themselves.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

127

It will be seen that I translate Romans 11:31 dierently

from the Authorized Version;

but I am satised it is the

only true way. As it stands in English, it directly contradicts

verse 28. ey are not saved by the mercy to the Gentiles, if

they are enemies as concerning the gospel for the Gentiles’

sake. God had concluded all in unbelief, that it might be

pure mercy to all. It is this that calls out the adoring praise of

the apostle in contemplating the depth of the riches of the

wisdom and knowledge of God. us he closes his survey by

the Spirit of the redeeming and justifying grace which had

dealt with sinners, and of that wisdom which had known

how to conciliate this faithfulness to His promises, on the

part of God, with those who were heirs of the promise

coming under mere mercy, as behooved a sinner and the

riches of God’s grace. He now, though briey summing up

his doctrine farther on, turns to the practical consequences

which should ow from these mercies of God.

e practical exhortation takes the ground of the

whole doctrine of the epistle, with which indeed the last

special part as to the Jews closes withal — mercy on all,

Jew or Gentile. ere was no other ground of hope, and

this mercy had been fully developed in the doctrinal part.

e rst general principle refers directly to the doctrine

of chapter 6. We have seen that the rst part, closing at

Romans 5:11, gives neither experience nor practice. It is

just the full mercies of God in redemption. en, set free,

and in the new power of the Spirit of life, we present the

body having no will (an instrument I dispose of), a living

sacrice, holy, acceptable to God, which is my intelligent

service. I am not innocent, I am not under the dominion

19 ” So these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order

that they also may be objects of mercy.”

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128

of sin, and I have the privilege in the free power of life to

give up my body as a sacrice wholly to God, but in living

service. It is consecrated to Him, set apart, and acceptable.

e intelligent soul knows what it is doing in this. It is

not a blind ceremony, done according to rule, nor a legal

obligation, a yoke “neither we nor our fathers were able to

bear”; but the free service of a willing mind, oering with

intelligence all its powers to God, and in particular that

body which (if it governed us — had a will of its own) would

be the seat and power of sin bringing us into captivity, but

is now a living sacrice to God, and an acceptable one.

is answers perfectly to the practical point of the

epistle, while in Ephesians the Christian is seen as having

been dead in sins, and a new creation as directly coming

from God. Hence the Christian walk is seen as following

God in love, and being light in the Lord. e epistle to the

Romans does not reach that ground. It has seen the body

as the practical seat of sin, and as such called esh, and

brought in death. We are to reckon ourselves dead; but then

(being alive to God in Christ, free from the law of sin and

death, through the power of grace) we can yield ourselves

to God as those that are alive from the dead — present

our bodies a living sacrice to God. It is the purpose and

divinely wrought will, the intelligent service of the free

Christian, who has to view his dealing with the body as a

sacrice to God though a living one.

e next point is that, the world around us being all

astray from God, an immense system built up by the enemy,

we cannot as Christians be conformed to it; only it is not a

mere outward discordance, but a dierence owing from an

inward renewing of the mind. Hence it goes much farther,

having its positive side. e Christian seeks through this

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129

world the path of God’s will — that good, and acceptable,

and perfect will of God. Not acceptable to us, as sometimes

said, but in itself, acceptable to God Himself, that is, in

its very nature acceptable to every one that judged rightly.

is is a great privilege, to have a will of God in a world

departed from Him. Christ has marked it and revealed

it, in walking with divine perfectness as Man in a way of

which His walk was the perfection and the pattern. It was

not mutual righteousness, for all were against Him, and

went their own way; it was not, I need not say, wrong. It

was a heavenly way on the earth, a life of perfect obedience;

but a life of grace on the earth — God manifest in the esh.

ere needed no way in paradise, but to remain where and

what man was.

Where the whole system was departure from God,

when man had left Him, there was no right way in it, none

but to return to God; but back again — this was impossible.

Innocence was over, never to be recovered; the tree of life

was lost. e Son of God could bring down heavenly

motives on earth, and live a life of grace and separation

from all evil in the midst of all the evil in the world, holy

and obedient, displaying a new and divine character on the

earth, heavenly in its nature, yet adapted in grace to man,

such as He was on the earth. is way we have to learn,

to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will

of God — that will Christ came to do, and in which He

has walked in the midst of evil; a way not only right, but

of obedience; God fully restored to His place, and man to

his as a perfect one, of grace (that is, above the evil, but

suited in goodness to those in it) not only to seek and save,

but in our own demeanor so as to represent God. Here,

however, it is represented in its character of God’s will. It

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130

is the obedience of one who has yielded himself to God,

and now seeks what His will is, knowing it is perfect, and

delighting in it, in itself, and as obedience.

is self-sacricing subjection to the will of God

hinders our setting up self, and that by its very nature; and

the mind takes quietly its place where God has set it. is

it does with more rmness, because one does it as serving

God. He quietly serves there, where God has set him,

and made it a duty. What he does in faith, he does with

God in service. And each takes his place in the one body

as God has set him, connes himself to its own service,

and waits upon it — one body in Christ, and all members

one of another. Here alone we nd the body in the epistle.

Christian position is assumed in various respects. We are

in Christ, we are members of His body; the developed

doctrine of the epistle enters into none of this. e point

of exhortation is not going beyond the gift given by grace,

but serving in it.

But the apostle passes on to more general service, as

giving, unfeigned love, and then many other points in

Christian life. But all this part of his exhortation refers

to personal qualities or characters, and state — the spirit

in which we are to walk. If a man give, it should be with

freedom of heart; his love is to be unfeigned, abhorring

evil and cleaving to good, kindly aections, brotherly love,

and putting others before oneself. Grace and generosity

of heart should in general characterize the Christian;

sympathy with others; not heeding the fashion of the

world or high things, but associating

with those of low

estate (it is not “condescending “); walking so as to have

things irreproachable before men, and, as far it depends

20 ”Condescension” is a false translation of the Greek.

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131

on oneself, walking in peace with all; in nothing overcome

of evil, but overcoming evil with good — a noble, indeed

divine, principle. I am myself by grace in spite of the evil of

others, I do not avenge self, I am above the evil of others,

as God is, in principle doing good to those who hate us.

All this is personally characteristic — the spirit in which

we walk.

Romans 13 turns to relative duties, with the addition

of the Lord’s near coming. Two principles are presented

thus in the chapter: duty, to which he exhorts as the

principle of love with which they were imbued in Christ;

and that the night was far spent, the day at hand. First, he

exhorts to subjection to the civil authority. ese are God’s

ordinances: the powers that exist are ordained of Him — a

precious direction, sparing us all question of who has the

right, and political partisanship. “e powers that be”! that

is all I have to concern myself about. ere is no power

but of God. Where power therefore is, it must be of God;

and I own Him in it. Wherever power is established, the

Christian obeys. Resisting it is resisting God’s ordinance.

ey are God’s ministers to maintain order. On the same

principle we pay tribute. From this the apostle passes to

every one’s due, tribute, custom, honor. e Christian

pays it, owing no man anything, save one debt that always

remains; and this it is which fullls the law, for love to our

neighbor will work him no ill. e principle of love makes

good the requirements of law, which the law itself could

never make good. is is the rst great principle.

en the thought of the Lord’s coming is used to enforce

all: “It is high time to awake out of sleep; for our salvation

is nearer than when we believed.” e night of this world

is the absence of the Sun of Righteousness. Let us clearly

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132

conceive this. In the busy and pleasure-seeking course of

this world, for him who has understanding, and to whom

Christ is known, it is still night; the gloom of night is over

it, but the day has dawned to his faith, the Morning Star

is arisen in his heart, but the world is asleep in the still-

continuing darkness of night. For us indeed the night is far

spent, but the world is asleep in the night. e waking soul

sees in the horizon the Morning Star, the dawn along its

edge, and waits for day. e heart is in the day, and walks

as in the day. As Christians, we have done with works of

darkness. In conict we are still; but our armor against

evil, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, is the

light in which we walk. e power of light, and truth, and

godliness, and judgment of evil, which belongs to that day,

is in our heart, and the weapons and snares of darkness are

foiled and detected, getting no entrance into, no hold on,

the soul. We walk honestly as in the day, we put on in our

ways and heart the walk and character of Him who is the

true light of it, the Lord Jesus Christ. Having the hope of

being like Him there, we purify ourselves as He is pure,

we walk as He walked. We do not provide for the lusts of

the nature which belongs to the darkness to satisfy it, but

walk as Christ walked. Such is the Christian in view of

Christ’s coming and bringing on this dark and benighted

world the light and day of God, in His eectual power;

and such are the two springs and characters of Christian

conduct; recognition of, acting up to, every relative duty in

love; and knowing the time, the near approach of day to

which he belongs. Compare 1 essalonians 5. “e night

is far spent, the day is at hand.”

e apostle now in Romans 14, turns to special cases

of the spirit in which Christians should walk in their

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

133

relationships with one another. ere were those weak in

faith, not living fully in the light and power of the new

creation as dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world.

It was weakness of faith, but Christ was loved; they were

the purchase of Christ’s precious blood. Christ had died for

them. ey were to walk in grace, receiving the weak, but

not to doubtful questions which might bewilder his faith.

And as to that, wherever he was weak (meats, days, etc.), as

a Jew might well be, though it be weakness, the weak should

not judge the strong as doing evil because his conscience

did not allow him to do it, nor the strong despise the weak

because he had scruples which a fuller faith would have

delivered him from. It was judging another’s servant. He

stood or fell to his own master, and God was able to make

him stand fast, weak as he was. at every one was to be

fully persuaded in his own mind, not act on another’s faith.

To Him they must look as the Lord to whom they were

responsible, as Him to whom they had to live.

e apostle, as ever, then breaks out as to that which

belonged to Christ in this respect. Christ was Lord of dead

and living; to this end He died and rose again. Finally, He

alone was judge. It was to God every one would give account

of himself. All would be before Christ’s judgment-seat;

every knee bow to Him; “every one of us give an account of

himself to God.” is, rather, the Christian should judge,

not to put a stumbling-block in his brother’s way. It is

uncharitable to destroy, as far as the bearing of our act goes

in leading him to violate his conscience, or drive him back

from Christ, as if Christ made lawless the one for whom

He died. He that serves Christ in these things is acceptable

to God, and approved of the sound judgment of men. We

are to follow what makes for peace, and edies others. “To

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134

the pure all things are pure”; no meats are deled meats,

if the heart is pure; but if a person deles his conscience,

even through an unfounded scruple to him, it is unclean.

Happy for him who, in boasting of his liberty by faith, does

not go beyond his faith in what he does — does not oend

in what he allows himself to do; for whatsoever is not of

faith (done with God as that which is allowed with Him)

is sin. If a man thought he ought to honor such a day, or

abstain from such and such food, and, to show his liberty,

does not, to him it is sin. It is not of faith with God. If a

man has faith as to these things, it were better to keep it to

himself before God than stumble his brother by acting on

it where it does so.

e rst seven verses of Romans 15 are a summing up

of the same point, and belong to Romans 14. e strong

are to bear the inrmities of the weak, and not to please

themselves. So acted Christ. He did not seek to please

Himself, bearing in meekness the reproaches that fell on

Him, and walking so faithfully, so perfectly with God that,

when men were disposed to reproach God, the reproach

fell on Christ; so perfectly did He present God in His

ways — the image of the invisible God. Christ served others

(such should be our path), He did not please Himself; His

life, on the contrary, was a life of reproach which He bore,

but it was the reproach of God He bore. e quotation of

this passage gives occasion to the apostle to justify his use

of it by a principle of the utmost importance, that what

was written aforetime was written for our instruction; that

walking in patience, perhaps in reproach here, the comfort

of the scripture might be ours, that we might know that

God’s mind was in it, our reproach His reproach, because

as serving Him we had our part with Him, and hence have

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

135

hope and bright condence of soul in any and every trial

in the whole path of faith. For all these things brought the

apostle and the right-minded saint into the patience of the

gospel; and this is the path of love, serving others, and for

Christ’s sake. But God is the God of patience (of patience,

how great with us all!) and, blessed be His name, of comfort

too. What a name to give to God, perpetually bearing

with us, with our stupid, ignorant, and often inconsistent

hearts, and occupying Himself with all our little trials to

comfort us! He consoles those who are cast down, never

withdraws His eyes from the righteous, is patient where

we are impatient even with Him, and comforts us in grace.

So have we to walk, like-minded one toward another, and

receiving one another as Christ received us — weak in

faith, that we might be to the glory of God. is closes the

exhortations of the epistle.

e apostle proceeds to sum up briey the leading

elements of what he had taught, especially the letting in

of the nations to the privileges of the gospel. Christ “was

a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to

conrm the promises made to the fathers.” e nations,

on the other hand, had no such promises; they had to

glorify God for His pure mercy. We have already seen how

the accomplishment of promise to the Jews has become

pure mercy by their rejection of the Christ of promise.

e apostle then quotes several passages from the Old

Testament, showing that this mercy to the nations was

always contemplated of God, and that there should be a

root of Jesse, and One rising to reign over the nations, in

whom the nations should hope. e apostle then thinks of

them as such, and says, resting on this word “hope,” “now

the God of hope [for the full promises are not fullled,

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136

and He gives us hope, and we are saved in hope as to that

fullness] ll you with all joy and peace in believing, that

ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy

Ghost.” Such is the natural condition of the Christian,

full of joy and peace in believing; the Holy Spirit dwelling

and acting in him so that his spirit rises in abundant hope,

trusting in God, and looking forward to the bright and

holy and blessed time when all shall be accomplished in

the light — when we shall be with Jesus.

Paul then refers to his ministry. He trusted that they

were able to edify one another; but he wrote to them as

having this ministry to the Gentiles conded to him;

ministering the gospel of God, in order to the oering up

of the Gentiles as an oering to God, acceptable, sanctied

by e Holy Spirit. us a divine public ministry was

conded to him by Jesus Christ in the things pertaining

to God. In this the apostle presents himself guratively as

a priest (such is the force of the word “ministering” the

gospel), oering up those of the nations to God; for such

are Christians — an oering out of the world to God — a

kind of rst-fruits of His creatures. So the Levites were

oered up, instead of the rst-born of Israel. We are

consecrated, sanctied to God by the Holy Spirit.

He then shows the power with which he had labored,

and how he had gone, not where Christianity was already

planted, but to poor souls far away from God and light.

Now his ministry was closed in these parts. He had

accomplished his service; others might build up, but

his work was done. He was a master-builder to lay the

foundation; resisting indeed energetically the inroads of

evil, but even he had his own place, and only that. It was

an energy which had a sphere where energy had its place.

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

137

He could preach, in spite of every danger, where no one

had been; he could form, establish, ordain, enter into all

details needed for this, and resist evil and false doctrine,

so that his building might not be thrown down; and from

Jerusalem to Illyricum he had fully preached, completed,

or lled up the measure of the gospel work. Christianity

was founded, and his work was done. e Greek world

was Christianized and settled, as far as true church work

went. e Latin world was before him; those who were at

Rome also; for his work was done in those parts, and there

was no more place for him; there he would be out of his

place — ill-placed. A man, even now, may nish his work in

a place (the formation and establishing work), and only be

in the way if he remains, hindering others, and so felt — an

energy not adapted to the quiet care of everyday service,

which occupies itself with the details of souls, and would

only harass them. It is wise to learn when this is so, and

work elsewhere when God calls. At any rate his service in

the Grecian sphere of his labor was closed; he had no more

place in these parts.

But God would not allow Latin Christianity to have an

immediate apostolic foundation. Christians were already

at Rome, as we learn from the epistle, and Paul, as we

nd here, did not go on (when his service was closed on

the eastern side of the Adriatic) to pursue them with free

apostolic energy in Rome, but goes to Jerusalem with alms

and oerings. e apostle went only as a captive to Rome.

Christianity (save those residing there as inhabitants)

began as a captive in Rome. He had been long desirous

of going there, but even now does not speak of it, though

laboring wherever he found himself, as a general rule, at a

place which was a direct object of apostolic labors. He did

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138

not found the church at Rome — it was already there. He

could not say, “where Christ was not named”: it is only,

“When I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you;

for I trust to see you on my journey, and to be brought on

my way thitherward by you, if rst I be somewhat lled

with your company.” Spain he was going to; he would see

them on the way. at Peter had been, or was there, the

epistle wholly excludes the idea. Christianity founded itself

at Rome. No wise master-builder was there. It is not the

custom of God to take worldly capitals as the center of

His work. “Hazor aforetime (we read in Joshua) was the

head of all these kings.” It, and it alone, was destroyed of all

the cities that stood still in their strength. Paul was going

to Spain. He would see them on the way. But as far as

scriptural history goes (that is, in God’s representation of

the closing scenes of the gospel), he never goes to Spain,

is brought a prisoner to Rome after two years’ captivity in

Caesarea, remains two years captive in his own house in

Rome; and there, with the judgment of the provincial Jews,

the history closes. is is a remarkable, and I believe, not

unintentional account of the character of Paul’s intended

visit to Rome, coupled as it is with the actual history of his

imprisonment and arrival there as a prisoner more than

two years after. We have his early history in Galatians for

doctrinal objects, but no such history of frustrated plans in

any other epistle. at was at Rome only, and recorded by

the Holy Spirit — surely not without intention.

But now he went to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.

His apostolic ministry was closed in the east; he undertakes

a diaconal service to Jerusalem, and never resumed a free

apostolic service again, as far as we have any direct historical

account. His purpose, as stated in this chapter, he certainly

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

139

did not fulll as intended. (See verse 23.) Indeed his fears

as to what might happen in Judaea are stated in verses 30-

32. I do not enter here on the question, on which so much

has been written, whether he was freed from a rst captivity

in Rome, and again taken prisoner. It depends mainly on

inferences from 2 Timothy, compared with Philippians,

Philemon, and Acts 20. e direct scriptural account closes

at the end of the Acts, supplemented by what we have here

(Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon having

been written in captivity); to which there must be added

Hebrews, if we esteem it to be written or composed by

the Apostle Paul — Hebrews 13:23-24, applying directly

to the question. e question aects in no way the moral

or ecclesiastical bearing of any of the epistles.

e close of the service of the great apostle, as we have it

in scripture, is deeply aecting: made even here so like his

Master, though at a distance, as it could not but be; but all

failing in this world, and closing, however wonderful — yea

divine — the energy in exercise in the work, resulting in

failure here, because of the materials with which the divine

workman had to deal; yet the ultimate purpose of God only

so much the more wonderfully accomplished, the work

only so much the more evidently divine, when we consider

the materials wrought on, and the failure as displayed in

them. Compare Acts 20:29-33; and still more Isaiah 49:4-

6. But the comparison of our chapter (verses 23-33) with

the closing chapters in the Acts will bring home to us more

than any commentary the true state of the case: only in

Acts 19:21 we should read, I have no doubt, “in spirit,” the

Greek having the practical force of “his spirit.” Chapter 21:

4 must be compared. I would remark that the Jews, who,

to please their countrymen, had recommended him to go

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140

into the temple, never once appear in the diculties they

had brought him into by it. But the Lord stood by him and

strengthened him, and all was ordered of God.

A witness to all the authorities from the Sanhedrim

to the Emperor, the providence of God had ordered his

path, and the Lord’s grace sustained him in it. If the free

service of apostolic power in the Spirit was now to close

in an unwilling captivity, yet he is delivered by the Jews to

the Gentiles to suer at their hands, in the perfectness of

grace, if not in the perfectness of the blessed Lord Himself.

For who is as He was? No highs and lows, as the energy

of the apostle could and did experience, but the calmness

of unvarying perfection was there, if it were not in the

thought of drinking the cup none else could, and that, if it

could be, was more perfect than all.

If as yet a stranger at Rome, his heart is at home with

many there. No forgetfulness of service to himself, nor

of that done to the Lord, marked the apostle’s spirit. His

heart, too, for nearly all had an epithet or a remembered

service, which went to their heart, and individualized and

gave reality to the remembrance. He could not write to

them as an assembly he had had to say to, for there was

(Romans 16: 5) one there, yet he could write to almost all

as saints that he had known. He lled himself in spirit with

their company, as those known in their faith and service.

And this, under the circumstances, is as beautiful as it is

apposite. He was apostle of the nations, and as such had

his service at Rome, as elsewhere; but the apostle of the

nations had bound by the links of faith, and with a large

and individualizing heart, one and another and another to

the service that he was performing for Christ, and by the

heart that performed it. We do service as a whole, so did

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

141

the apostle — a whole that embraced all the counsels of

God; but he did it with a heart that could link up all the

elements into the bonds of a charity which thought of each

to make them a whole in Christ in love. e fruits will be

hereafter. We nd many here, remark, who in various ways

served diligently in the sphere in which God had placed

them; from those who were of note among the apostles,

to Phoebe, the deaconess or servant of the church at

Cenchrea, who had been a helper of many. None of them

are forgotten before God, although their names are not

recorded even by the mindful fervency of the apostle’s love.

e apostle then judges those who cause divisions

and oenses, contrary to the doctrine they had learned:

activity of mind, seeking personal self-importance,

working mischief to themselves and others. Such activity

separates the heart from God, with whom subjection of

spirit is always wrought in us, a conding learning in the

secret consciousness that all is received from God. We see

this spirit so sweetly in John the Baptist; and so wherever

the Spirit of God works. Its coming from God brings

not only knowledge but the love of God into it. It is no

charity to sanction such workings of the human heart. We

are to avoid them. And faithfulness in this, in ever such a

weak one, brings a testimony from God with it which has

power — more power than the pretension of man — and

works by the Spirit to preserve the saints wherever the

Spirit of God rules in the heart, wherever the soul is

subject to God. e rest are made manifest. e hearts

of the simple are preserved: the mischievous though fair

speeches are judged for them.

is leads to a most beautiful principle for the guidance

of our hearts, which Christianity alone can give: “I

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142

would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple

concerning evil.” e wisdom of the world must know

its crafts in order to avoid them; but God has a path of

His own in the world which wisdom has traced. By His

teaching the heart is well informed in what is good — good

as to the path which is in this world: Christ’s path, the path

of divine goodness and wisdom as to everything around in

man. Learning this, I need not know all the evil or any of

it. I shall walk in the wise and holy path I know, and need

not know the rest. It is avoided and remains unknown,

and the heart more conversant with what is good, lovely,

and of good report. is is a most healthful and blessed

preservative, a path marked out of God for us in this world.

It is great grace. If I know the one right path across the

waste, I need not learn all that lost themselves in it. “By

the words of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of

the destroyer” (Psa. 17:4). It was sucient for the blessed

Lord to say, when tempted for us, “Man shall live by every

word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt.

4:4). We have the salutations of, as well as to, the saints;

for fellowship in love characterizes the spirit of the gospel.

We have also what shows us Paul’s way of writing his

epistles, save that to the Galatians; he dictated them while

another wrote. Here one Tertius wrote it, and salutes with

the rest. From 2 essalonians 3:17 we learn how they

were veried, their accuracy secured. For letters which

had the character of commandments of the Lord (1 Cor.

4: 37) this was important.

e salutation at the end

came from his own hand, which veried all that was in

the epistle as his, that is, as of apostolic inspired authority.

21 Hence what came from his own experience, however elevated,

was distinguished (1 Cor. 7:12).

Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans

143

We see what he thought of his own epistles; the accuracy

he thought important, just because they were not his, but

from the Lord. e reader may remark the three steps in

the reception of divine truth in 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.

e things freely given of God are known, revealed by the

Spirit, then communicated by words

which the Spirit

taught, and then received through the grace of the Spirit.

Compare, as to the two rst points, 2 Peter 1:19-21. So at

the end of our epistle.

e apostle closes with ascription of praise to the only

wise God; but, in doing so, and owning Him as He who is

able to establish them according to His gospel, he recalls the

character of the testimony contained in that gospel — that

of which he speaks in so many places in so remarkable a

manner. In this epistle he has not developed this mystery;

his object was to show how a soul stood in liberty before

God; and that is individual, and must be so. Conscience

and justication are always necessarily individual. Still he

supposes the Christian estate (as in Rom. 8:1) that we are

in Christ, and (Rom. 12) that we are one body in Christ; as

here the full scope of the counsels of God in the mystery

hidden from ages. None of them is unfolded in the epistle;

but his preaching of Jesus Christ was according to the

revelation of the mystery, which set Christ at the head of

all things; and not only so but brought Jews and Gentiles

as one body, with all distinction lost, into union with Him

in heaven as Head — a truth which left the system of

the law entirely aside, though conrming its authority in

its own place. is had been kept secret since the world

began, but was in the counsels of God before the world was

22 It is not “comparing,” but using a spiritual medium of

communication.

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144

(compare 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; Eph. 1; Eph. 3; Col. 1), and

was revealed now that the foundation for the heavenly and

eternal blessing was laid in Christ’s work.

But a very important principle is added here; it is not

“the scriptures of the prophets” really here, but “prophetic

scriptures.” Such was this epistle, and Ephesians and

Colossians — in a word, all the inspired epistles; and by

these this truth was made known to the nations “according

to the commandment of the everlasting God.” He whose

counsels were not conned to Judaism, but who had His

own purpose in the Son, and now revealed this to the

nations, and commanded it to be sent forth to them; He,

who, while He had been in a special manner in time God

of the Jews, had His counsels and views in man, and in

the Seed of the woman, would accomplish the counsels in

power. And now this original purpose of God was made

manifest for the obedience of faith to all nations. But

the inspired and prophetic character of the scriptures of

the New Testament is here distinctly armed. e only

question is: Since there were such, are those we have in the

New Testament they? And outward and inward testimony

makes this good to the soul taught of God.

Notes on Romans: Introduction

145

62941

Notes on Romans:

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

e following little work is composed of notes taken

down from lectures, which had an entirely practical object.

ey have been corrected, as such notes generally need to

be; but I have thought, as the aim was entirely practical, a

short analysis of the structure of the epistle might help the

reader in understanding it.

ere are two great subjects in scripture, when the

truth is fully brought out as in the New Testament: the

responsibility of the rst Adam and his children; and the

purposes of God in the last Adam. e work of Christ

accomplished in His innite love meets both for those that

believe. He has met their responsibility in dying for them,

and bearing their sins; and, glorifying God in that death,

laid the ground of the accomplishment of those purposes

in their favor. Of this latter part, the epistle to Romans only

just leads us to the edge in Romans 8, and the very last verses

of the epistle. e epistle to the Ephesians unfolds it fully.

Hence the epistle to the Romans considers men as walking

in sins — the Ephesians as dead in them, and establishes

the truth of a new creation, not the justifying of a sinner,

though sealing that truth. Colossians is between both. is

I cannot go farther into here. ese truths are incidentally

mentioned in other parts of the New Testament. But the

structure of the epistle to the Romans is very important

as to the truth it contains, and this I will now endeavor to

point out.

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e rst 17 verses of Romans 1 are a kind of preface, in

which, in the rst instance, the person of the Lord Jesus,

the Son of God, is put forward as the primary subject of

the gospel: seed of David according to the esh, and so

fulllment of the promise, and proved Son of God with

power according to the Spirit of holiness, in which, while

His life was according to that power, resurrection was the

proof of it, so that power was witnessed as well as promise

fullled, and that in the place of man’s weakness and Satan’s

power, and even where man in life was tempted.

At the close of this passage he declares he was not

ashamed of the gospel, for it was God’s power to salvation

to every one that believed, Jew rst and then Greek.

Because God’s righteousness was revealed in it on the

principle of faith, and so to faith wherever that faith was

found. He was a willing debtor in grace to all, according to

this gospel. He then shows why God’s righteousness must

be revealed, the only ground for man to stand on. Because

the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against all

ungodliness and unrighteousness where the truth was

held in unrighteousness; not governmental judgments,

as in the Old Testament, in Israel, and even in the ood,

but the necessary rejection and judgment of all sin by the

very nature of God. He then proceeds to show the state

of sinfulness which called for this wrath, and made this

righteousness necessary.

All are under sin. is reaches from Romans 1:19 to

Romans 3:20, when he returns to the righteousness of

God again. Gentiles are proved guilty, Romans 1:19 to the

end; moralists, Romans 2:1-46, where responsibility and

the place of conscience are dealt with; the Jews, Romans

2:17 to 3:20 (in the last section, verses 1-20, admitting

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147

their claim of the law as theirs, and addressed to them,

and showing what it said of them). en, from verse 21,

the righteousness of God is treated of, and declared in

propitiation through Christ’s blood for Old Testament

past sins of believers, and present revelation of it, so that

God was just, and justied believers. is only conrmed

law in its requirements.

In Romans 4 the resurrection of Christ is applied as

the seal of this work, but it does not carry righteousness

farther than forgiveness, and all applies to sins and

oenses — things done when each individual has his own

place.

Romans 5:1-11 draws the blessed conclusion, peace,

favor wherein we stand, and hope of the glory of God; then

glorying in tribulations, God’s love being known for the

prot derived, and nally in God Himself, through Jesus,

through whom we have received the reconciliation. Here

rst the Holy Spirit, as given to us, comes in.

From verse 12 of Romans 5, the apostle treats not of sins,

where all must be individual, but of sin, and so heads all up

in Adam and Christ, the disobedient man and the obedient

man, and distinguishes the law as that which came in by

the bye to make the oense abound; but what were really

in question, were sin and grace — grace reigning through

righteousness by the obedience of Christ. e question

here is not of sins, but of sin; one man’s disobedience, not

each man’s oenses, though the obedient man had to meet

these too. But if one man’s obedience made us righteous,

might we live on in sin? is leads to the truth that the

profession of Christianity was the profession of having a

part in death, hence not of living on. Christ died to sin

once and lives to God; we are to reckon ourselves dead and

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alive to God in Him. us the old man is counted dead:

how shall we live in it? is sets us free — free to live to

God.

Romans 7 applies this to law, because law has power

over a man only as long as he lives. We are dead to it by the

body of Christ; and are married to another, Christ risen.

e end of the chapter gives the salutary experience of the

state of the renewed mind under the law, which leaves a

man captive under the law of sin in his members. In Christ

all is changed, the man is delivered, though the esh, as

such, would serve the law of sin; but (chapter 8) there is no

condemnation in Christ, the power of life in Him has set

us free, and sin in the esh has been condemned when He

died a sacrice for sin. en comes the Holy Spirit in us;

rst as the power of life and the new man, and deliverance

into resurrection (vss. 9-11), then His presence in us, a

person dwelling in us. Being sons, He gives witness with

our spirit that we are so, shows us the glory in hope, and

helps us in our inrmities on the way, gives a voice in our

hearts to the sorrows of a creation subject to vanity, of

which we are a part as to our body.

From verse 28 we have the security and portion in every

respect derived from God’s being for us, from His own

foreknowledge, to glory itself.

Romans 5:1-11 gives what God is for sinners in grace

and its fruit; Romans 8, the state of the delivered soul

before Him. What leads up to the former being our sins

met in grace, in Christ’s propitiation — to the latter, our

sin from which we are delivered by our having died with

Christ, and so being freed from it, and alive in Him. In the

former case the sins are forgiven, in the latter the sin has

been condemned, but in a sacrice for sin, and we, having

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149

died with Christ, are delivered. is nishes the doctrine

of the epistle — the way in which God in grace has met the

sins, and the sinful nature of man, his whole condition in

Adam, through Christ.

e place of Romans 9 to 11, as reconciling the

obliteration of Jew and Gentile in Christ with the special

promises to the Jews, is suciently indicated in the notes

themselves. On the hortatory part which follows no notes

were furnished me. I give here a general idea of the contents:

the details must be learned from the chapters themselves.

It begins with the principle of all practice connected

with the doctrine of the epistle, which supposes man a

sinful creature, and dealt with in grace. e Ephesians

takes higher ground, as the Christian is there simply a new

creation, and so associated with God; and as dear children,

God’s own ways and dealings are the principle and pattern

of the Christian’s walk. His works are foreordained, as is his

place. See Romans 4 and 5, where God, as love and light,

gives the measure of our ways. In Romans we have sinful

man dealt with in mercy, the death of the old man being

alone the means of walking aright. In both Ephesians and

Romans Christ is the pattern in absolute giving up of self.

“I beseech you,” says the apostle, “by the mercies of God,

that ye present your bodies a living sacrice” (Rom. 12:1).

e two hinges of all Christian service — the mercies of

God, and our presenting ourselves, made free by grace, as

a living sacrice, holy and acceptable to God. e unity of

the body is then assumed, which is no part of the doctrine

of the epistle; any more than our resurrection with Christ,

which involves it; on this are grounded our duties within

amongst the saints, and as such.

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Romans 13 gives our duties to those around, with a

double motive: love to the neighbor fullls the law, and the

night far spent, the day at hand, full deliverance drawing

near. en in Romans 14 is our relation to Christ, and

consequently to all who belong to Him, that we should not

put stumblingblocks before the feet of those with whom

we are alike subject and responsible to Him, and for whom

He died. is part goes down to the end of verse 7 of

Romans 15. en he sums up what he had been teaching

concerning Jew and Gentile, to whom reference had been

made in what precedes concerning the weak in faith.

e whole closes with the statement of his thoughts

and plans, and his salutations, which are more numerous

than usual, as forming a link between him and the saints at

Rome, whom he had never seen. e last verses of all are a

statement of what the work was that was going on by his

means according to eternal counsels, and now made known

for the obedience of faith by prophetic scriptures.

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151

62942

Notes on Romans 1

Chapter 1

I take up this epistle to the Romans, not with intention

of entering into every detail, but to trace the general idea

of the purpose of the Spirit of God in it, and the course

of the apostle’s reasoning. We have before noticed the

distinction between the epistles of Paul and those of John.

e main subject of John’s epistles being the character of

the divine life which was with the Father, manifested in

the Son, and communicated to us through the Spirit — so

that the divine nature in us should be able to realize the

aections of the child of God; of Paul’s, the presenting

of man to God. us the general scope of John’s epistles

is, rst, the manifestation of the divine life; second, the

communication of it; while Paul’s epistles have another

character altogether — insisting on justication, and

revealing the counsels and ways of God, and the consequent

relationship in which the redeemed are put before Him.

e great subject of the New Testament, besides the

blessed person of the Lord and the revelation of God in

Him, is the manifestation and communication of the divine

life, the making us partakers of the divine nature, and the

bringing man to God according to His righteousness and

counsels in Christ. e child derives his life from his father,

and there results not merely likeness of character but a

peculiar relationship.

I would just advert here to the four truths prominent

in the New Testament: rst, the manifestation and

communication of life; second, the accomplishment in

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Christ of all the promises given from Adam downwards,

presented in Christ to the Jews, His people; third, mercy to

the Gentiles (as in Rom. 15:8-9, Jesus Christ was a minister

of the circumcision for the truth of God, to conrm the

promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles should

glorify God for His mercy); fourth, our place as sons,

and the church as united to Christ, its Head. e rst is

especially in John’s epistles — the manifestation, then the

communication, of the divine life. e second and third

are found in Romans, with the groundwork of our place

as sons, and only a glance in the second part at the fourth,

which is fully brought out in Ephesians. e character of

this is only hinted at practically, not taught, in Romans.

e fourth point of truth, which is revealed in the epistle

to the Ephesians, is distinct from the promises to the Jews

and the mercy to the Gentiles, being a new thing, though

connected with the latter. e seeing these distinctions

greatly facilitates the understanding of the epistles, and

clears up passages, otherwise obscure.

In Romans we have two great subjects brought out: the

accomplishment of the promises made to the Jews; and

mercy to the Gentiles; and, in so doing this, Paul lays the

foundation of all relationship between God and man. e

beginning of this rst chapter is thus an introduction to all

that is afterward unfolded in the epistle. Remark here, that

in the rst presentation of the gospel, it is the person, not

the work, of Christ which is found in grace, but important

as to the claim of subjection to Him, Son of David and Son

of God with power. en, in verse 16, he is not ashamed

of the gospel, because the righteousness of God is revealed

in it. e epistle to the Romans has this large character

naturally enough, as it consists well with the address to the

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153

great center of the world’s empire; for Paul was writing to

the Romans, whom he had never seen, as the apostle of the

Gentiles, and takes his stand on the high ground of being

the one to whom God had committed His counsels. So

Peter, in addressing the Jews already scattered in the world,

presents resurrection as a living hope, and, speaking to them

on this new principle of resurrection, says, “as strangers and

pilgrims,” thus carrying on what was consequent upon it,

in reference to those who are to participate in it.

In a great many of the various epistles we see the

instructions and exhortations suited to the varied need

of those addressed and called out by their state: as, in

Corinthians, moral evil is treated of; in Colossians, warning

against slipping away from the Head; in Galatians, falling

from grace through the adoption of the law, is insisted on;

in essalonians, the coming of the Lord and the errors into

which trouble of mind had thrown them in this respect.

But the epistle to the Romans, being addressed to the

capital of the world and to those with whose circumstances

the apostle was not familiar, takes the wide scope of man’s

responsibility, Jew and Gentile, and how grace has met it,

and lays the sure foundation of the relationship of man to

God.

ere are two parts in the doctrinal teaching of this

epistle. Up to the close of Romans 8 forms the rst part; and

Romans 9-11, form the second part; while the concluding

chapters are occupied with precepts. In the rst part you

get Jews and Gentiles reduced to the common condition of

sinners; but the Jew would object, and say, If this be so, that

there is no dierence between the Jew and the Gentile,

how then is God to make good His promises to the Jews?

is diculty is answered in Romans 9-11, the infallibility

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154

of the promises of God being shown in Romans 11. But

the common ground, on which both Jews and Gentiles are

set, is in perfect salvation in Christ Jesus, and remains in

all its force. It is important to remark in this epistle the

way in which Paul sets man aside as being proved a sinner,

poor, vile, and lost, and that he does this to bring God in. It

is not merely that he introduces man as a sinner, but man

must be thoroughly put down, in order to bring in God

Himself instead of man, that God may act toward man in

His own way and according to His own character.

We see a striking example of the same way of exhibiting

grace in Ephesians 2. After the Jews and Gentiles had been

spoken of as alike children of wrath, all is passed over, and

God is brought out in His own character as rich in mercy,

showing what He has done, and what He is to such as they

are. We can have no settled peace or rest of heart till we

are on this ground; nor can we know God so as to trust

Him, to rest in Him, and adore Him, till we prove Him

thus. en it is a settled question: our hope and trust are

in God, as it is written, “who by him do believe in God.”

erefore the apostle does not say we are justied before

God, though it be true, but it is God who justies, that

the heart might be brought to rest in God Himself. Paul,

though righteous as to legal righteousness, had gone to

the extreme extent of what sin really is: it was not a mere

looseness of expression when he called himself the chief of

sinners, for Paul in heart was the wickedest man that ever

trod the earth; not, of course, guilty of immorality (as he

says of himself, as touching the righteousness which is of

the law he was blameless) “After the strictest sect of our

religion I lived a Pharisee”; but he was the ardent enemy of

Christ, and it was when he reached to the highest point of

Notes on Romans 1

155

his wickedness, “being exceedingly mad against them,” that

at that moment he was “separated unto the gospel of God.”

He knew what grace was.

I will now rapidly go over, without entering into detail,

what man is, and has shown himself to be. ough cast

out of paradise, God had borne with man, but at rst left

him to himself, though not without a testimony; but the

result of leaving man to himself was such corruption and

violence, that he must be destroyed from o the face of the

earth. God put a close to his abominations by a ood. e

promise having been given as a witness that grace was the

true source of blessing, the law followed, and it was broken.

e prophets came next, and they were rejected, stoned,

and slain. And last of all God sent His Son: Him the world

killed. It was not merely that man had broken the law, and

slain the prophets, but when the goodness of God came,

they hated Him revealed in goodness. Well, Jesus prays for

His murderers, pleading their ignorance, “Father, forgive

them, for they know not what they do”; as in the case of

one who owed ten thousand talents, and, forasmuch as he

had nothing to pay, his lord forgave him the debt. (And

this is what I take to be the meaning of the parable, though

it has a general application.) So the Holy Spirit takes up

again and carries on this very intercession of our Lord,

when forgiveness of sins is preached by Peter at Jerusalem,

saying, “And now brethren, I wot, that through ignorance

ye did it, as did also your rulers … repent ye therefore and

be converted.” And what was the result? Did they repent?

No; not only had they killed the Prince of Life, but they

now ll up the measure of their iniquity in stoning Stephen,

thus rejecting the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the grace

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156

and goodness of God in the gospel of Christ gloried, as

in His humiliation.

At this point it is that Saul of Tarsus comes out, and

so mad against the followers of Christ that he was the

very apostle of the enmity in the heart of man against the

testimony of the Holy Spirit to the grace and goodness of

God. But here God meets him in the way, and his mouth

is closed as to goodness in man; for while all God’s means

were used to bring man’s heart to return to Himself in

blessing, Paul was found in the most active hostility to

Him, being determined to put a stop to this testimony of

grace and goodness if he could. en the Lord appears to

him in glory in connection with the church, owning all

the saints as Himself, “Why persecutest thou me?” — “for

he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” us Paul sets

out as being the leader of the active energy of man in

opposition to God, that he might be a perfect witness of

the grace that overcame him, as he anew sets out on his way

testifying that there is grace and forgiveness for one such

as he. Everything that could have religiously sustained his

heart was broken down when God met him by the way.

Take conscience, for instance: outwardly he was blameless,

yet thought he ought to do many things contrary to the

name of Jesus of Nazareth. How terrible must it have been

to Paul to nd that his natural conscience, blameless as it

was, had left him all wrong, as of no avail! We know that

he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor

drink, so terrible was the upsetting of his soul. en take

the law, his boast and glory as divinely given: it had been

his ruin before God in self-righteous enmity to Christ.

e religious teachers he had looked up to, the priests and

Pharisees, and his own zeal, had only brought him into

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157

opposition and open rebellion against God. Everything in

which his heart had trusted left him a mere sinner, naked

in the presence of the glory of God, his enmity only the

greater by that trust. us ended all means, leaving Paul a

“child of wrath,” as he says, “even as others.”

ereupon Paul starts, not from what he is, but from

what God is; he starts as the Lord’s servant: “Lord, what

wilt thou have me to do?” He starts as a called apostle,

separated unto “the gospel of God.” It is not merely the

gospel of Christ, but the gospel of God. It is a wonderful

expression, as the gospel of God is the activity of God’s

love going out into a world of men as hopeless and bad as

Paul had been; it is now dealing with man, through Christ,

on the ground of what God is. e gospel of God is God’s

own good news in giving His Son to carry this message of

mercy and grace to lost man, made eectual in His work.

e Jews accused the Lord of breaking the sabbath, the

sabbath being the sign of the covenant between God and

His people, and to be kept the seventh day, a rest connected

with the rst creation. God’s rest is at the end of labor. It

was founded in Israel on the principle of the law. Man’s

labor in righteousness gave him rest at the end. But in

fact, when divine truth came in, we nd in John 5:17 there

was no sabbath for Christ in this world. Sin had come

in, and there is no rest for God where sin is: “My Father

worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). us He had

come down where sin was, and He was working in the

accomplishment of that grace, which gives a better rest to

man. Paul comes in here as the servant, or slave, bound to

the work: a bondman to Christ, separated unto the gospel

of God; that was his business, and if he could further the

gospel by making tents, of course he would continue to

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158

make them; but he was an apostle called to the gospel of

God. And where God gives ministry, it is as the vessels of

God’s activity in grace, for the calling of sinners and the

building up and edication of His saints.

It is very important to distinguish between teaching the

church, and the testimony of grace to the world. e Old

Testament is full of mercy; but even so there could yet be

no proclamation of an accomplished work of redemption.

But further, that is not the church (nor indeed is the church

the doctrinal subject in this epistle). It was what He had

promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

e church was not the subject of promise, but the “gospel

of God” was: from the beginning it had been said, the seed

of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head. e Gentiles

had not the promises, though there were special ones to

the Jews. e promises of God were made to the second

Adam, and not to the rst; the promise in Genesis that the

serpent’s head should be bruised was made to the Seed of

the woman, which Adam was not. So it is said: to Abraham

were the promises made, and to his seed; and that Seed was

Christ. e promises, then, were entirely connected with

Christ, who is the Seed in whom all these promises center.

e person of Christ, as we see here, is the great subject of

the gospel even before His work, though we could have no

part with Him without His work. is is of all importance,

as God is now claiming subjection to His Son. ere is not

an indel or a rebel, however great, who shall not bow the

knee to Jesus; if in grace, it is salvation: but, if the heart

does not bow to the grace, the knee must bow under the

judgment.

In verse 3, “concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,

which was made of the seed of David according to the esh,”

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159

the apostle is bringing out the double character of the Lord.

In verse 1 we have the person of the Son as the subject of

the gospel; then, secondly, as the seed of David according

to the esh, according to promise. en Paul brings out

denitely the character of the Son, “declared to be the Son

of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by

the resurrection from the dead.” us we have the Son of

God with divine power, though clothed with humiliation.

en, again, we have the Son coming down in the midst of

delement with divine power, passing through it according

to the Spirit of holiness. is was shown through all His

life by absolute separation from all delement. He passed

through the whole scene of evil untouched and unsullied

by sin, though in contact with it, touching those in it all

around, yet separate Himself. He touches the leper, who

saw His power, but was uncertain of His goodness: and

was He deled? No! but in touching it He chases away the

uncleanness without becoming unclean Himself, and none

but the Son of God could do this. But His was perfect

grace coming down into the delement, banishing and

dispelling it, without receiving it Himself.

But, besides sin and delement in us, the manifested

power of Satan was this — that he had the power of death,

and this Satan had on man by the judgment of God

Himself; for God had said, “In the day thou eatest thereof,

thou shalt surely die.” us man was under the power of

him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and if

the Son of God is to deliver man from under the power of

Satan, He Himself must go down to his stronghold, this

last citadel of Satan. He must Himself go down under the

power of death, if He could not be holden of it, that He

might “deliver them who through fear of death were all

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160

their lifetime subject to bondage”; and He, the Son of God,

feared it, as He piously should, as the judgment of God

(Heb. 5); but He was heard in that He feared; He bore it as

the judgment of God, but He broke all the bars by which

Satan held us, and He has set us free. Satan committed

himself entirely by putting his hand on the spotless person

of the Prince of Life, who bore our sins; and in His rising

from the dead, the sins, and Satan’s power, were all gone

before God and for faith.

e resurrection shows the divine power of the Son of

God. When Peter said, “ou art the Christ, the Son of

the living God!” the Lord said, “Upon this rock I will build

my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against

it.” at is, all Satan’s power over the rst man manifested

in death shall not prevail against it: for that is the

meaning of the gates of hell. Man had been tried by every

means — without law, and he was lawless: by the law, but

he only brought forth wild grapes: but all this depended on

the responsibility of man, not on the power of God. Satan

prevailed against man by his lusts, and led him on to the

second death. But if it is the Son of the living God who has

entered into the conict, and founded the church on His

work and victory, the gates of hell, the power of death, shall

not prevail against it.

e Spirit of holiness always displayed in life is

demonstrated by the resurrection from the dead, and here

observe that it is “from amongst,” or “from out of,” the dead.

e twelve believed, as did Martha, in the resurrection of

the dead, as there will be a resurrection of all the dead,

good and wicked; but they were questioning one with

another what the rising from the dead should mean;

Mark 9:10. It is the coming in of God’s own living divine

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161

power, breaking through the bands of death, and taking

up those that are God’s from amongst the wicked dead.

is resurrection, realized in the power of the Spirit, is our

present standing, though we still wait for the redemption

of the body. e very same power, we learn in Ephesians,

which raised Christ from among the dead, has wrought in

us — “quickened us together with Christ.”

e Son of God goes down in grace for us to the very

place in which we were by sin, and by His own divine power

breaks the bands of death, and takes us up from under its

power, and places us, according to the ecacy of His own

work, in the presence of God. us, all that my sin could

do has been met by divine power and put away, rendering

void of power him that had the power of death, that is, the

devil. How marvelous the grace! e consequence is not

merely that there ought to be holiness in us, but that there

must be holiness in nature, though vigilance be needed to

maintain it in practice.

How did Christ rise out of the grave? By His own divine

power, as by the glory of the Father, and in the power of the

Spirit; and it is the same divine energy which is the spirit

of holiness in walk, raising me from the dead now in spirit,

that is, the power of the new life in me, and by reason of

which even the resurrection of my body will take place.

All that He has done is mine, but I enter into it by virtue

of a life which is a holy one. It is not merely a duty to be

holy, but there is holiness in us, because we are partakers of

justication, of the whole ecacy of His work, by means of

a life which is essentially holy, for it is Christ’s.

is is the gospel of God, that He, in the activity of His

own love, in the person of Christ, has come down here, and

walked in holiness where sin was, and gone down under

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162

the power of death, though He could not be holden of

it, that He might deliver us from the power of him who

had the power of death. I am now raised spiritually and

morally by the very same divine power that will raise up my

body. “By whom we have received grace and apostleship

for obedience to the faith.” All will be called to bow to the

revelation of Christ, who was dead and is alive again for

evermore.

“Called saints,” or “saints called” (vs. 7). It is the same

principle here as the apostle called. We are saints called,

thus showing the grace of God, as it is not to us by birth or

descent as the Jews, but it is all of grace. So Abraham was

called, and chosen, and faithful. If we are called, it is not

of the will of man, nor of the will of the esh, but of the

will of God; and we are bound to give thanks, in that “God

hath saved us and called us with an holy calling.” What a

very dierent thing it is in our souls, for what a dierent

thought we have of God when we believe the activity of

God’s love! It is not only that “God is love,” but that God

is active in His love.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the

Lord Jesus Christ.” Alas! we pass over these gracious words

very lightly. e apostle felt what he said in the power of

the Spirit; favor and peace from the Father and the Son.

Mercy is only added when the epistles are addressed to

individual saints, but when the saints are looked at as a

whole, they are seen as the fruit of mercy shown; being seen

by the eye of God as under the inuence and energy of

the love and grace that had saved them: but as individual

saints they need mercy every moment. e apostle looked

at them as under the eye of a Savior God, and he wished

them to have the full manifestation of what was in the God

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163

that had saved them. All the eect of there being no cloud

between them and God.

God is never called the God of joy, though He gives joy;

but constantly the God of peace, and the apostle desires their

peace from God should be undisturbed — having perfect

peace in Him in the midst of this whirlwind of passion;

he desired for them all the eect of the consciousness of

their position, all the aections suited to this relationship.

If a child feels towards his father as towards a master,

he does not know his position; if we have not unlimited

condence, we have not found our place. e saints in lial

love will address God as their Father. In the government

of the church it is the Lord Jesus we shall address; this

distinction should always be marked. In all our petitions,

failures, confessions, and need, we go as individuals to God

as our Father; but in everything relating to church conduct,

we go to Him who is the Head of the church. If we have

not the unlimited condence in God to go to Him with

our very follies even, we do not know Him as “the Father.”

If Christ said, “It is my meat to do the will of him that

sent me,” Paul could say, through grace, “whom I serve

with my spirit in the gospel of his Son.” It is not service

at all, if it be merely outward; unless we can say, “Of thine

own we have given thee.” All true service must ow from

communion with the source of service; it is no service if we

are not drinking in Christ, and conscious that we are doing

His will; if I should take up any service, without being

condent that God would have me do it, there would be

no power in it. Service then, if real, must ow from direct

communion with God. We may go on in a course of action

as a consequence of communion for a good while. us, for

instance, we may compare the state of the essalonians

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164

with that of the church of Ephesus in Revelation. To the

essalonians it is said by Paul, that he knows their work

of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope: here we

see the three cardinal points — faith, hope, and charity,

as springs of work, labor, and patience; but not so in the

address of the Lord to Ephesus — it was work, labor, and

patience; but there was not the present spiritual power,

which comes from God direct, therefore the candlestick

was threatened to be removed. How often do our attempts

at service ow more from thought of something we may

have to do, than from direct communion with God! It

then becomes, or is in danger of soon becoming, the mere

activity of the esh, and at any rate is the drudgery of duty

without power, instead of serving with the spirit; what a

comfort that all my life through I may be serving the Lord

with my spirit!

is world is a wilderness, a labyrinth, but God is

guiding us through it. When Israel were in the wilderness,

was there any path for them? None! “ey wandered in the

wilderness where there was no way.” We read that Moses

said to Jethro, “He might be to them instead of eyes.” No,

says God, I will be as eyes to you; for as Israel departed from

the mount a three days’ journey, the ark of the covenant of

the Lord went before them, to search out a resting-place

for them, not merely to bring them at last into the land.

Now, the place of the ark was in the midst of the camp,

and they were to keep the charge of the Lord; but when

Israel journeyed from Sinai, it went before them. Again,

God says of Israel, “ough I have scattered them amongst

the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in

the countries” (Ezek. 11:16). Is God less than this to

us? No; He is leading us through this world’s labyrinth,

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165

where there is no path, no way but Jesus; for He is our

only track in this wilderness of sin and sorrow; but what

an unspeakable comfort to have such an One! Yet we need

perfect dependence that we may discern the perfect path

that has in it the track of the Lord’s own footsteps: to this

end, esh must be mortied, and the will subdued.

“Without ceasing I make mention of you in my prayers.”

See the apostle’s wonderful energy with God, and this is

one mark of spiritual power, the capacity of keeping up our

interest in all saints everywhere, in our soul, in intercession

for all saints in every place; and this leaves us in entire

dependence on the will of God, for no real spiritual power

ever takes us out of the place of waiting on God: so with

Eliezer, he says, “Lord, let the damsel to whom I say, Let

down thy pitcher,” and so forth, “be the same thou hast

appointed for thy servant Isaac”; and when the woman had

given him drink and his camels also, he does not yet say,

Oh, here is the answer to my prayer, but he is still waiting on

God, and, wondering at her, held his peace, to wit, whether

the Lord had made his journey to prosper or not; and when

the camels had done drinking, he said, “Whose daughter

art thou?” and when he found she answered the description

of that which to him was divine direction, as the word is to

us, he bowed his head and worshipped the Lord. Success

often takes us out of the place of communion, because it

is our success when we do not acknowledge God in it. e

faith which waits on God turns to God when the blessing

comes, and the joy is much greater.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power

of God unto salvation.” God coming in, in power — this

is the gospel character, it is complete, and it is of God;

no mixture. e “wrath of God, moreover, is revealed from

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166

heaven”; not merely governmental wrath here on the earth,

as bringing Nineveh against Israel, or carrying Judah to

Babylon, but wrath from heaven. It is not yet manifested,

though it was seen to a certain extent in the deluge; faith

sees it in the cross.

Now, it is the nature and character of God that is

brought out to meet what man is. God now looks upon

what man is, in the presence of what He is, in respect to

the very perfectness of His nature, and the activity of grace

that has brought out what man is. is can only show man

utterly a sinner. Is it claiming righteousness? No; for now

man’s righteousness is entirely set aside, as the ground of

his standing before God. But we have God’s righteousness

made known, meeting the necessity which the proof of

man’s utter sinfulness brings before us, not something to

grow up to righteousness, but perfect now. It is revealed

from faith to faith, it is said, that is, faith is the principle on

which it is revealed. God’s righteousness, being a perfect

and an existing thing, complete in itself, is revealed, and

that not on the principle of man’s working, but of faith,

and so to faith; so that the man, be he who he may, that

has faith, gets it. If it were given on the principle of human

righteousness, the righteous man would have it, and the

law be the rule; if on the principle of benevolence, the poor

man would have it; but it is neither. It is on the principle

of faith.

I would desire that our hearts might rest on this

wonderful truth, the activity of God’s love coming down

into a world ruined by sin, and under wrath. God Himself

is the rest, as He is the guide all the way; His divine favor

and unchanging love and goodness accompanying and

abiding with us all the journey through. ere is no rest but

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167

in His own way. e more pains God has taken to set man

right, have only proved the more that the tree is bad; the

more you dig around a bad tree, the more bad fruit it will

produce. It is all God’s working and God’s righteousness,

not of man’s working nor man’s righteousness, though that

working of God will alone produce fruits of righteousness

in man.

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168

62959

Notes on Romans 2-4

CHAPTERS 2-4

I take the close of Romans 3 as being the summing up,

and application of the apostle’s argument, drawn from the

sin of the Jews and Gentiles; then in chapter 4 he passes

on to another principle, as brought out in the testimony

of Abraham and David. But in this rst part of the epistle

the apostle opens out man’s need, and the way in which

it had been met by redemption, as that on which alone

the soul could rest. Having in chapter 1, from verse 18,

gone through the horrible evil of the Gentiles and man

generally throughout the world, and showing that without

any subsequent revelation, through the knowledge of God

possessed by Noah, and God’s dealings with men through

the creation, God being to be understood by the things

that are made in His eternal power and Godhead, they

were left (Rom. 1) without excuse, conscience itself telling

them what was right and wrong, and that hence, as they

did not like to retain God in their knowledge, He gave

them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own

hearts; for if a man is left alone of God, he always turns to

the lust of his own heart. us God in judgment brought

upon them, that as they had not discerned what became

God, they should not be able to discern what became man.

It is God’s way, when the light He gives is rejected, to

give men up to blindness, and this giving up by God is an

act of judgment on God’s part; as these Gentiles, not liking

to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to

a reprobate mind. It was so with the Jews; rejecting the

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169

testimony God had given them, God says by the mouth

of the prophets “make the heart of this people fat, and

their ears heavy” (Isa. 6:10); of the Gentiles it is said, “who

changed the truth of God into a lie”; so of the professing

church, fallen from the light, God says, “I will send them

strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” us we see,

whether Jews, or Gentiles, or nominal Christians, the eect

of man being given up of God — what man is when left to

himself, and the judgment of God in his neglect or abuse

of light. Natural light was given in the beginning in the

testimony of creation, and man began with the knowledge

of God as thus dealing with him; but men did not like to

retain God in their knowledge. ere is the pleading, too,

of conscience, for every man has a conscience, distinct from

grace. But conscience cannot bring us to God. Conscience

is the sense of responsibility, united to the knowledge of

good and evil, and this last part acquired in the fall. But we

must remember, if the conscience becomes awakened, it is

not life and peace, and therefore only drives us away from

God, like Adam in the garden hiding himself from God.

As the Gentiles did not like to retain God in their

knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So the

Jews, having been disobedient to God’s testimony, sentence

is passed upon them by Isaiah seven hundred years before

it was accomplished: “Make the heart of this people fat,”

etc., for such is the patience of God; as Stephen also says,

“Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did

[in the past dispensation], so do ye [in this dispensation].”

Both guilty of the same sin, and according to Peter’s

testimony of the witness given to Jesus, those very things

by which Christ was testied to have come from God, will

be the very thing that will lead the Jews to receive the false

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170

Christ in the latter day. “Ye men of Israel, hear these words;

Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by

miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him

in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know” (Acts 2:22).

Compare this with 2 essalonians 2:8, “en shall that

wicked one be revealed … with all power [miracles], and

signs, and lying wonders.” us as the Jews rejected what

God did in their midst by Jesus of Nazareth; so they will

receive what Satan will do by that wicked one; and all this,

as the apostle goes on to say, because they received not the

love of the truth.

As in Romans 1:18-32; and Romans 2:1-16, all the

Gentiles are brought in guilty, so, in spite of real privileges,

the Jew: from Romans 2:17, and then from Romans 3:9-

18, we nd all are under sin — the Jew under law, as well as

the Gentile without law. Both are alike equally guilty; for if

the Gentiles be given over to a reprobate mind, the Jew is

proved by his own scriptures, which he boasted belonged to

him only, to be just as bad. us, there is none righteous, no,

not one; there is no understanding; none that seeketh God,

the will being gone wrong; blind in mind, and perverse

in will, and guilty before God; not only as to the nature

being sinful, but as slighting the testimony, rejecting the

light which God had from time to time revealed to them.

But the God of judgment was there, and now it is proved

that by the deeds of the law no esh can be saved, for by

the law is the knowledge of sin. us we see how those

under the law are brought under condemnation, as well as

the heathen they despised; it is useless for a Jew to attempt

to get in by his own condition, for the law he boasted in

condemns him. If it applied to him, it condemned him it

applied to. e Gentiles have no right to put themselves

Notes on Romans 2-4

171

under the law; but we all do so somehow or other; and as

a process it may turn to good in the conviction of sin; but

as a position, and if we stay in it, see where it brings us!

“e Lord looked down upon the children of men, to see

if there were any that did understand and seek after God.”

No; they have all gone out of the way; and the Jew learned

by the law which he claimed, and with reason, to belong

to him only, that on his own ground he was utterly guilty,

though the apostle does not here bring against them their

hardness of heart in rejecting Christ; and thus both Jew

and Gentile are alike thoroughly guilty, and every mouth

stopped. Such is the end of man’s righteousness.

But now by grace all is changed. e righteousness of

God without law is revealed, and the apostle then develops

this truth very fully, as far as its principles go. In point of fact,

this joins on to Romans 1:17, the intermediate verses giving

the proof of what made God’s righteousness necessary.

He states the nature of this righteousness in a direct and

absolute manner, and in contrast with man’s. It is altogether

on a dierent principle; it is righteousness, not even mercy,

though the fruit of grace, but it is a righteousness without

law at all; it is God’s righteousness, and who can give law

to Him? Had it been man’s righteousness, law would have

been the measure and principle of it; but being God’s

righteousness, it is altogether on a dierent principle from

law. As man stood in sin, God’s law only condemned him,

and it cannot give life. Put a man under righteous obligation,

and it is all over with him, because man is a sinner. Man

has a will (I speak practically, not metaphysically), and law

brings it out; and man’s will never submits, for it would

cease to be a will if it did; it is not subject to the law of God,

neither indeed can be. God never meant righteousness to

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172

be by the law; it would have been cruelly mocking man,

who is a sinner, to have proposed it to him. e law was

given, that the oense might abound — not that sin might

abound, for sin was there before the law was given; but it is

not oense, or transgression, until there is a law; and thus

it is that the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there

is no transgression.

It is not said there is no sin; but where there is nothing

to transgress, there can be no transgression. us every

mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty

before God. And now the righteousness without the law

is manifested, not merely it exists, but it is manifested; it

existed long before in the counsels of God, none being

ever justied otherwise, but it was not manifested till the

gospel was brought out and preached; therefore the apostle

says, “to declare at this time his righteousness.” No sinner

ever stood, or ever could stand, in God’s presence, from

Adam downwards, save in God’s righteousness; but it had

not been manifested until now. “But now the righteousness

of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by

the law and the prophets.” us the law and the prophets

only showed what God was going to bring in, but did it

not in themselves; but the gospel of God on the contrary

is founded on God’s righteousness, and therefore it is

manifested at this time, but witnessed by the law and the

prophets; it was witnessed to, before it was manifested.

In Romans 3 we get all brought in guilty, and then it

shows how we are to get into the presence of God. Can

man that is a sinner approach God? No; nor can he make

out a righteousness by law, by which he could; but then

God’s righteousness appears in its stead. Christ has been

made a sacrice for us, He has answered for all we have

Notes on Romans 2-4

173

done in the old man, and as man now He is in the presence

of God for us, and we are there in Him, in all the favor

and acceptance in which Christ Himself is — always there

as He is. is is how man gets the righteousness of God;

but in Romans 3 only the former part is distinctly stated.

e claims of God against the old man have all been met

in Christ Jesus, and we are made the righteousness of God

in Him. God’s righteousness, though in fact including

all, is yet more particularly viewed here as meeting the

guilt of the old man. In the end of the chapter we have

the answer to God’s perfect demands. e sin, whether

of Jew or Gentile, is put away by the blood-shedding of

Jesus, and God’s righteousness manifested in forgiving.

is righteousness is now the starting-point of faith: we

have met God here. But this showed the righteousness of

God in His patience with, and forgiveness of, the sins of

Old Testament believers. e patience had been shown of

old. e work of Christ showed the righteous ground of

this patience. We, or they, are all fully justied by Christ’s

blood.

In Romans 4 we have another thing, resurrection

in principle. Abraham believed God. is is faith in its

groundwork. God is believed. Next, in its object, not only

did he believe in the resurrection, but in the God that

raised. So with, us; we do not merely believe in Jesus, who

rose from the dead, but in the God who raised Him: the

power that came in to give Christ, as man, a place before

God, which was the plain witness to the value of His work,

in putting away our sins.

In referring to Abraham, who had nothing to do with

law, we nd the double character of faith, its nature, and its

particular object in the Christian; in the second character

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174

of justication, he says, “Abraham believed God, and it

was counted unto him for righteousness.” It is not here

said that he believed in God, but he believed God. Such

is faith in its subjective elementary character; we set to

our seal that God is true; and that is how Abraham got

his righteousness. It was not man’s working, but one that

worked not. But the word of God reveals God Himself,

and God in grace; hence, though there may be much

struggling rst, when we simply believe God, we believe in

Him that justies the ungodly, and of such David describes

the blessedness.

But the character of our faith is carried farther here;

the object is God who raised the dead. Our condence

is a righteous one: we believe on One who raised up

Him who had been delivered for our oenses — raised

for our justication. But there is this dierence between

Abraham’s faith and ours. He believed in God’s power to

fulll His word. We believe that God has raised up Jesus

after He had stood in our place as sinners. We have thus

the resurrection of Christ applied to our justication. Yet in

all this part of the epistle justication does not go beyond

forgiveness, as Romans 4 plainly shows. Righteousness

goes farther, but not what we have here. Here we have the

active clearing away of all the guilt that attached to the

deeds of the old man. is completes the work of grace for

us, as responsible beings. e eect is, we have peace, stand

in divine favor, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God; we

glory in tribulation by the way, for it is for our good, and

we have the key to all in the love of God, shed abroad in

our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. Besides, we joy in

God Himself, thus revealed in the perfectness of His grace

towards us when we were sinners.

Notes on Romans 2-4

175

Having shown thus the result of grace, in the beginning

of Romans 5, in the way in which God justied each

individual sinner, passing by sins, the apostle turns to the

headship of the two Adams, and shows where the law came

in. Our place is not in the rst, not under the law, but in

the second, according to the ecacy of the work He had

wrought. What went before applied to our sins. Now he

speaks of our nature and place.

I will summarily review his reasonings founded on this,

before entering into detail. e disobedience of one made

the many sinners — the obedience of One constitutes the

many connected with Him righteous, and thus we are

righteous by the work of another. In Romans 6 he goes

on to notice that some will say, “Oh, if Christ has done

all, it is no matter what I do: if it is righteousness without

works, then we may walk as we like.” e answer is, not

“at ought not to be,” but “at cannot be,” for we speak

of death — I have part in righteousness by death. If the

thing be real, I cannot live in what I am dead to, and that

makes this become impossible; if I live, being thus dead, it

is by being alive to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord. A new

and holy life (for it is Christ in the power of resurrection)

brings with it, not only hatred of sin, but deliverance; the

same principle is applied to law in Romans 7. If I am dead

to the law by the body of Christ, I am delivered from that

which had power over me while I was alive, that I may walk

in newness of life.

We have the application of Christ’s death and

resurrection to man, for his justication before God, in the

beginning of Romans 5; as dead to sin and consequently

leading a holy life, in Romans 6; as dead to the law in

Romans 7. e law, as Galatians also teaches us, has killed

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176

you, therefore it can do no more; its greatest work was, so

to speak, to kill Christ, as in grace taking its curse; but He

rose again, and we are in Him beyond the law — in Him

who had borne its curse. ereupon chapter 8 brings out

the Christian in perfect liberty, in the last Adam of Romans

5 in virtue of His being risen. ere is no condemnation for

him who is in Christ. e Christian is necessarily viewed

in Christ in chapter 8, but resurrection with Christ is not

developed in Romans as a doctrine. e power of a new life

in the Spirit is stated in verse 2; the condemnation of esh

on the cross, so as to put an end to that for faith and before

God; our aections consequently showing our life in Him.

Being thus fully and freely justied and accepted in Christ,

we are only waiting for the redemption of our bodies.

It is now not man’s righteousness; if it were, it must be by

the law and for those who have it. It is God’s righteousness

for all, and is upon all who believe, and no man can come

in any other way; if it is God’s righteousness, He cannot

accept a Jew in preference to a Gentile, and as it is His

“to all,” it is as free for sinners of the Gentiles as the Jews.

As regards the standing and peace of the soul, it is deeply

important to see that while what we are ever struggling

for is to get something in which we can come before God,

it is God who comes before us in the gospel with His, as

our only righteousness; it is unto all, but upon those who

believe. Mark here another thing that is connected with

peace of soul: some may say, “I do not deny His divine

righteousness, I believe it; but how am I to know that I have

a share in it? Is it applied to me? I want it applied to my

soul.” Well, God has applied it to you, if you believe, if, in

the consciousness of your sinfulness, you have believed the

record that God has given of His Son, then you have had

Notes on Romans 2-4

177

it applied to your soul, for it is upon all them that believe;

you are righteous. If you go on tampering with sin, or the

world, God must work this out of you, that is true; and

the same is the case, if there be much of the pride of self-

righteousness. But the thing that is believed is what His

Son is, and has done; if there is tampering with sin or the

world in our souls, it prevents our laying hold of the truth;

nor even if we have found divine righteousness, can we

have the joy of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, for God must

be real to us. But what we have to rest on is Christ’s dying

for our sins, and the acceptableness of Christ’s person.

Many a Christian would be glad to rest, and, as they

think, to rest there. But in the last thought they deceive

themselves; they look for something better in themselves

than they found; but that is not submitting to God’s

righteousness, not resting in what Christ is. ey have not

learned the value of the cross, nor its meaning. If they had

learned its value, they would not be trembling for fear;

for how could they be trembling if they knew that their

sins are put away? How could they be looking for good

in themselves, if they knew that the cross was the nal

condemnation of all esh in itself? You say you have no

other condence than the cross; that may be as to your

conviction of the truth, and you may feel your need of it

in a certain sense, so as to know you cannot do without

it. I suppose you do, or you would not look to it; but you

have not yet learned the value of the cross, which purges

the conscience by the absolute putting away of sin. And

the secret of it is, that you still look for something besides

sin in yourself; that is, there is still the looking for, still

some hankering after, your own goodness lurking within;

you do not think yourself as thoroughly bad as the cross

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178

proves you to be, for you are what needed it, you are sin

in your nature as in your acts. God has condemned sin in

the esh, as needing that abhorrence on His part, and that

is all you are in yourself (Rom. 8:3). You have yet to learn

that it is the ungodly whom God justies; you will have

more than that, but you must come to that rst. It is “being

justied freely by his grace, through the redemption that is

in Christ Jesus”; it is not mere justication from sins, but

actual deliverance — entire redemption. us, in the gure

of Israel, it was a question between God and Pharaoh: “Let

my people go” (Ex. 5:1). It is real positive redemption, not

merely a forgiveness, but Christ has brought us out free

from all the title Satan can have against us, or power he can

have over us, according to the righteousness of God, and

for Him. If I buy a slave, he is mine, and no one can have

any right over him, and that is true with regard even to our

poor bodies — they are to be free from Satan’s power: God

will have us entirely for Himself, by the work of Christ, and

that according to His own holy nature and life, and His

divine righteousness in judgment. Not even the smallest

particle of our dust shall remain in Satan’s kingdom, and

this is why redemption is mentioned last in 1 Corinthians

1:30: as it is brought out, too, in the similitude, as to this,

of Israel in Egypt. It was one thing for them to be screened

from the destroying angel by the blood on the door-posts

in Egypt, and another and very dierent thing for them

to be brought clean out of Egypt by the passage of the

Red Sea; thus being entirely delivered from the power

of Pharaoh. And more than this: Christ has broken and

destroyed all the power of death by which Satan held us,

and taken him captive whose captives we were, and made

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179

us, who were Satan’s captives, the vessels of God’s power

and testimony against Satan.

“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through

faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness” (Rom.

3:25). Here we have the connection of the blood of Christ

with God’s righteousness. It has been declared. It rested

only in promise until Christ came in the esh; it was not

manifested till then; so that like Adam, Abel, or Job, they

rested on the promises of righteousness, because the blood

was yet to be shed. But now it is declared in having been

fullled, in that Christ sits at the right hand of God, or

rather, to conne myself to this epistle, that He is risen.

And there is an amazing dierence between resting on the

promise (though this is most blessed) and on a fulllment.

A man in prison with a promise that his debt shall be paid

is no doubt happy; but it is not the same thing as walking

at liberty with the knowledge that it has been paid.

It is not forbearance now, but accomplished salvation,

God’s own righteousness declared. Can He forbear

with that? e time of forbearance was in the time of

the Old Testament saints; then God was forbearing,

because of what He was going to do, and has proved His

righteousness in doing it by the death of Christ. But that

is not our condition. We have God’s righteousness at this

time, this present time. He is not speaking here of what is

past before Christ’s death, but of the fact of righteousness,

and our present state of conscience, of the better thing

God has provided for us, as regards our standing before

Him. For if I sin, I do not want a prophet to come and

tell me my sin is just put away, I can say I know the blood

has been shed; therefore I know as a present thing that

every sin is put away. It is a settled question. We can add

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180

much more even; because, though the fact is assumed of

our being in Christ, and His resurrection mentioned in

Romans 8, the subject of this epistle is Christ’s death and

resurrection, as justifying and delivering us, we can speak

of being with Him. e Ephesians looks at us as dead

in sin, and quickened with Him, and sitting in heavenly

places in Him. Colossians takes up both, only it does not

go on to our sitting in heavenly places in Him; but sets us

as risen and looking up to heaven where He is. It is such

a righteousness, that He, who accomplished that through

which it was to be revealed and made good, has, in virtue

of what He has done, sat down at the right hand of God;

and our life is in Him there. Abraham could not say, “I am

one with a man at God’s right hand,” for Christ was not

there as man then. But the believer in Christ can say so; for

as surely as the rst Adam was turned out of paradise, so

surely has the last Adam entered heaven, and that as man,

in the glory He had with the Father before the world was;

and I am as sure of my place in Christ, as of my place in

Adam.

Well, then, it is such a work as God recognized in

righteousness, and such an one as has fully satised

God — nay, more, has gloried Him, as indeed it must

have done, to satisfy Him in divine righteousness. Still, we

can say it has gloried Him. See John 13:31-32; and John

17:4-5. As regards the blood, He is just to forgive. It is

His own righteousness which is upon the believer, and He

must own it; and here too is the resting-place of faith. is

is justice; but the opening of my heart is under the sunshine

of grace at the outowing of love. To see ourselves perfectly

cleansed makes us hate sin, as a man who is thoroughly clean

will not like to get a spot on his garment; while one who

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181

is already deled will not care about getting a little more

so. When the blood was put upon the lintels of the door-

posts, it was to keep the judgment out, and God passed

over; for had He come in, He must have judged them as

they deserved, for they deserved judgment as much as the

Egyptians, nay, more, for they knew better. erefore it was

grace keeping God out as a righteous judge, and according

to His righteousness; but at the Red Sea they were to stand

still, and see the salvation of God. It was God overriding

every barrier, coming in and taking them completely out

of the place of judgment and bondage, and bringing them

to Himself. While the one was keeping God out, the other

was bringing God in, or rather bringing them to God.

As an ungodly man I am justied by the blood; but

as a Christian I am accepted in Him. But many, many

Christians keep outside; looking at the cross only as an

object of hope, they have not entered into God’s presence

by it. Has the cross then left me outside? No; it has saved

me from judgment, and I have entered into God’s presence

by it, and therefore value it. How many do we see as sinners

trembling at the foot of the cross, feeling their need of it,

but getting no farther!

We are not under law as innocent beings, for man is

a sinner, and the law cannot allow of even a lust; then

where is the use of giving the law to man that is a sinner?

What is the use of my giving a righteous measure to a man

who is unrighteous? What the use of my giving a true

measure to one who uses fraud in selling his goods, but

to teach him where he is wrong? So God never gave the

law to man to make him righteous, but to convict him and

show him where his sin is. Man may abuse the grace, to

continue in sin; but that does not alter the nature of God’s

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182

righteousness. If a law is given to man already a sinner, it

can only be to make him know himself a sinner.

“Is he the God of the Jews only?” He will justify the

circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through

faith; that is, the Jews who sought righteousness, obtained

it only on the principle of faith; and the Gentiles, inasmuch

as it was on that principle, possessed it through the faith

that they had. Do we then make void the law, or more

properly, law? No; we establish law, not Moses’ law, but

the principle of law. If a thief is hanging on a tree, is that

making void the law? No; so far from making it void,

hanging establishes it. But if after the punishment he rose,

the law would have inicted its penalty, and he would be

beyond its reach. So then Christ died, and He established

the law, and faith comes in and says, So far from making

void the law, when Christ died for my sins, He established

the law. But that does not put me under it: if under it I am

lost, not merely as a sinner, but by the law itself. Nothing

establishes the law like the death of Christ.

e Gentiles having been proved lawless, Romans 3,

gives the Jew under law, condemned out of the law. Christ

was under the law; He kept it, and died under its curse.

And is He under it now? No; He is dead to the law, and

risen from the dead. I am the sinner He died for; He has

borne the curse, and it is all gone, and it has lost all power

to touch me, for I am one with Christ, I stand in Him, in

the presence and favor of God, as dead and risen again in

Christ. He gave all His sanction to the law — suered it,

if you will.

In Romans 4, in referring to Abraham and David as

believing God, he then goes on to show the ground on

which Abraham gets the promises. e blessing belongs

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183

to me in uncircumcision, as righteousness was reckoned to

him in uncircumcision, and that on the principle of faith,

thus stopping the Jew’s mouth, and hence to the Gentiles.

en in David we have the same thing, “Blessed is the

man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin.” e law on

the contrary worketh wrath. erefore it is of faith, that it

might be by grace, not to that only which is of the law, but

to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the

father of the faithful, before Him whom he believed, even

God, who quickeneth the dead.

e dierence between us and Abraham is this: He

believed God was able to perform; we believe He has raised

up Christ from the dead. e deliverance has been eected,

the power shown, as well as our sins been put away. He was

delivered for our oenses. Was it eectual? He is raised

again for our justication. All is complete and accepted,

and Christ as man has left the dead — is out of and past all

the consequences of sin; for judgment itself He has borne

for us.

Beloved, in a day like this, what a thought it is for us

that we are set in God’s righteousness before Him! His

righteousness has set aside all man’s reasonings, as the

rising sun not only dispels the darkness, but causes even

the stars to vanish because of its brightness. When Christ

is rst revealed to the soul it is always humbling, because

it displays what it really is before God, and brings the

conscience into play, while the heart mourns its having

despised and rejected such a One. I do not say that the

aections may not be found towards Christ without this;

but there must be sooner or later such a revelation of what

Christ is, as to show us what we are; and it is that which

breaks down what is inside, foolish and vain desires, self-

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184

will, sinful thoughts and feelings, and everything that is the

opposite of Christ, thus showing us not only that we have

committed sins, but that we are sin. en He reveals to us

the unclouded favor of God into which we are brought,

according to the love which sought us, and gave His Son

for us, and brought us there in righteousness.

Notes on Romans 5

185

62973

Notes on Romans 5

Chapter 5

How the heart must rejoice in the wonderful way in

which scripture is made so plain, as to all that is of greatest

importance to our souls! While our minds might be

wondering and reasoning about many things that may be,

scripture is simple and denite as to what is; although there

are depths in it which we cannot fathom. All the simple

truths which are necessary to our nding forgiveness and

joy, being at peace with God, are contained in this chapter,

as the result of what we have been already considering. e

general subject of the epistle shows how God and man can

be together — how man can come in peace to God. e

object of the epistle is not to bring out truths connected

with the church as such, but the relationship of individual

souls with God.

In Romans 3 we saw the way in which the blood satised

God, to save us from judgment. Christ came down and

made propitiation for our sins in His blood, and having

gone through all that sin deserved, He rose from the dead,

and entered, an accepted man, into the presence of God;

and now all that was His by right is made ours in Him. At

the close of Romans 3 the instruction as to the blood, as

the ground of acceptance, is nished; and the epistle goes

on with the result of this, and passes to the resurrection of

Christ as God’s public seal on the work so far.

Romans 4 shows righteousness imputed through faith,

but identies it thus far with forgiveness; Abraham believed

God, who could — we in God who has — raised up Jesus.

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186

Having exhibited the intervention of God in power in His

love to bring Christ up out of the place in which He was

for us, and so set us before God in righteousness, according

to the ecacy of that which He has wrought (proved in the

place He holds in resurrection) we have thus peace with

God. We are indeed sitting together in Christ in heavenly

places, but this is Ephesian truth, not entered on here; only

we are said to live by Him, and it is assumed we are in Him.

We stand in perfect favor, and rejoice in hope of glory.

is Romans 5 follows out the subject of our acceptance,

as founded on the death and resurrection of Christ,

showing fully our condition before God. is, as founded

on what precedes, closes with verse 11, and then begins

quite a new subject; the contrast of our connection with

the rst and last Adam. is latter part treats of sin, not

of sins; of man’s disobedience, and one Man’s obedience.

Romans 4:25 is properly in connection with the rst eleven

verses of Romans 5.

Remark, that it is not said, He was raised because of our

justication, as is often said, and it is in a certain aspect

a truth, but here it is, “for our justication”; and the next

verse shows this, for God never separates justication from

faith. We cannot have justication without having our souls

brought into living connection with God by the exercise of

individual faith. e rst result of this faith will be peace

with God; the second, we have access into the grace, that

present divine favor wherein we stand; and third, we rejoice

in hope of the glory of God. All the past connected with

the old man, all our sins and oenses being put away, and

a new place given before God, instead of the judgment we

deserved, there is perfect peace. Secondly, we have present

personal introduction into the full favor of God, but not all

Notes on Romans 5

187

yet in possession; therefore we rejoice in hope. Christ has

borne all that deserved judgment, and entirely left our sins

behind as regards the believer, who can never come into

judgment before God for them, although of course there

will be the Father’s chastening for sin. But it is impossible

that judgment can be the portion of those whose sins

Christ has wholly borne away, entering and placing them,

in virtue of it, in a new place of righteousness before

God. As impossible as it is that Christ’s work should be

inadequate, or that God should punish the same sin twice

over, so impossible is it for God to punish the sins of those

who believe. If any one had to be shut out of heaven, so to

speak, it must have been Christ, because He had taken the

sins; but He was accepted, received up to glory; therefore

the matter must be settled for me, if I believe (Heb. 9:27-

28). He did not hold back: our sins in all their horribleness

were laid upon Him (as on the day of atonement the high

priest confessed the sins of the people), when judgment

was fully passed upon Him. e judgment of my sins

has all been settled between the all-seeing God and His

spotless Son. ere we have not a hope merely, but settled

peace. “He by himself purged our sins, and sat down on the

right hand of the majesty on high.” He must have failed, or

else I have perfect peace; and I know He did not fail.

Romans 5:1. e reference to faith here often deceives

people, who would make their faith the object, and so turn

back upon themselves for something to give them peace.

Peace never rests upon experience. ere will be experience,

but peace is the answer of God to all the exercises of my

conscience. I cannot trust my own heart, but I can trust

God’s heart, and it is in believing what this is that I nd

peace. e more Christ is worthy of being loved, if I bring

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188

my own selshness into it, the more horrible must it be to

God: “as dead ies cause the ointment of the apothecary to

send forth a stinking savor.” I cannot trust my own heart

or its feelings, for it is deceitful above all things; but I can

trust Christ’s — He has never deceived me. True, I shall

have experiences — must have them, but I am not justied

by experiences: it is the answer of God to them that gives

peace. ere may be joy at times, when there is not settled

peace, but it rests on feeling. ere is a joy which ows

from a knowledge of forgiveness of sins, and this is justly

called peace. But the solid security of the soul ows from

the second subject of this epistle, beginning verse 12, not

that Christ died for our sins, but that we have died with

Him. Peace means that which is settled. Faith looks at its

object, not on itself, and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not called on to believe that we do believe, but

to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, by whom we have

access, and are brought into perfect present favor, every

cloud that could hide God’s love removed, and can rejoice

in the hope of the glory of God. “y favor is better than

life, therefore I can praise thee while I live”; so that in

the midst of wilderness weariness we can rejoice. ere

is a striking description in Revelation 4 of the scene in

heaven — the twenty-four elders seated on their thrones

in the presence of God revealed in this Sinai character.

When terrible judgments are about to fall on the earth,

they are sitting in perfect peace; and when it is said, “Holy,

holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” instead of it making them

tremble and fear, “they worship him that liveth forever and

ever.”

“Rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.” How could I

think of being there, if it was not all of grace? He has not

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189

only given us blessings, but associated us with the Blesser.

“e glory thou hast given me, I have given them.” Here

is the Christian position as such, and then all brought

out: for the past, the works of the old man, peace; for

the present, favor; for the future, glory. What more do I

want? What more can I have? Yes, there is more, “not only

so”; there are present realities for the saint to learn in the

wilderness — tribulation. e more faithful the saint is, the

more trouble he will have; the more blessings he has, the

more trial, because there is much to be removed that would

hinder the blessing when given. What need, then, in all the

tribulation of the way, to know that my peace is settled;

that the matter of my justication is a nished thing!

Else, when I come into the trial, I shall be likely to think,

How can I suppose now that I have God’s favor. All seems

against me, and I shall not be able to “glory in tribulation.”

But see what the result of tribulation is — “tribulation

worketh patience.” I need my will to be broken, I shall expect

to get a thing and never have it; I may have to cry to God

three weeks, and fast, as Daniel: I have to learn patience,

and in it learn the rashness of my heart that would expect

everything at once. And so “patience works experience.” A

man in earnest to do right will, if his will be at work, be in

a hurry, but he will have to nd out that he must wait for

God’s help, as Moses had to do, who kills an Egyptian in

his haste without God’s bidding, and Pharaoh hearing of

it, o he goes. He has, in blessed true-heartedness, chosen

to leave the court of Pharaoh’s daughter, where he had

been brought up, and to take his place with the aicted

brick-makers. But though sincere and devoted, and with

a right intention, giving up the high position in which

providence had placed him, his esh had to be broken

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190

down, and this was through forty years’ tribulation in the

wilderness, keeping his father-in-law’s sheep. He was

learning experience, and experience works hope; because

what hindered and dimmed the hope is broken away by

the process; earthly hope has died away, and the heavenly

become more real and bright; and because in it I learn what

God is. Moses had more knowledge of what the people

were to be delivered for, when he went to Pharaoh by God’s

sending; he knew nothing of the Canaan they were to go to

when he slew the Egyptian.

“Hope maketh not ashamed.” In learning experience it

may be I struggle against God; but we shall nd it is of no

use to struggle in tribulation against God’s hand, for He

will hold us there until we submit; but in the end it will

cause me to hope, “because the love of God is shed abroad

in my heart.” is gives me the key to all the tribulation,

and enables me to glory in it. It is the fruit of God’s own

love. I conde in Him. How do I get this? By the Holy

Spirit which is within me, “the love of God is shed abroad

in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” It is not mine but His,

God’s love shed abroad; God, who is love, is in me, God’s

own love: this brings us back to a strength of hope which

nothing can shake. Notice, it is shed abroad in our hearts

by the Holy Spirit, who maketh intercession for us.

A man may say in the face of all this, But suppose I do

not feel it? Well, then, you are going back from faith, and

looking to your feelings. How do I know that I have it?

Am I perfect? No; the love is enjoyed within, but God has

graciously put the proof of it without me; I know it, because

I believe that Christ died for the ungodly. I am simply an

ungodly one and have no strength at all, no feeling at all,

and Christ died when I had no feeling at all. Christ died

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191

when I had no strength, and could do nothing at all. e

greatest thing in heaven was given for the worst thing on

earth, a sinner. I am a sinner, therefore Christ died for me.

“For scarcely for a righteous man would one die.” is is

what distinguishes God’s love from man’s: while man must

have some motive on which to act, something to draw out

his love, God’s love, on the contrary, springs from Himself;

for God could nd no motive in us, we were hateful.

How dierent is the Holy Spirit’s reasoning from that

of the natural man, or even it may be of the quickened soul,

who, judging of God by himself, would say, He must judge

me, for I know I deserve it! But “God commendeth his

love … much more then, being now justied by his blood,

we shall be saved from wrath through him.” e Holy

Spirit reasons downwards from what God is in grace, to

the full eect of that grace; not upwards as man does, from

his responsibility to what God will be. e Holy Spirit

unfolds what God is, to meet the wants of my soul. True it

is, the sinner deserves judgment, he needs not merely to be

made better (that will not do), he wants a Savior. Here is

reasoning God will allow, He will allow it till we have got

a Savior; but here, when the Holy Spirit reasons from what

God has done for the sinner, it is quite another thing.

It is much harder to learn that we are without strength

than that we are ungodly. If a dead Christ is made a Savior,

a living Christ will be a friend to you. A dying Christ for

you (the weakest thing, as it appears in nature, though it

was God’s strength), and now how will He not do all you

want of Him in His life? If He died for you when your sins

were on you, how much more will He care for you now your

sins are gone! A living Christ cannot be to destroy you, if

a dying Christ has saved you (mark, not only the power of

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192

the argument, but its grace in taking away all torment from

the heart, for “fear hath torment”).

Verse 11. “Not only so, but we also joy in God,” not

only joy and happiness for ourselves in our security and in

what He has given, but we can joy in God. We rst rejoice

in the things given, but do not rest here, we rejoice in Him

who gives them, and delight in the things that God is in

Himself. He is holy; He is love; He is great in goodness.

I can boast in Him who has so loved us, and say what a

God I have, what a God to me. Holiness would naturally

terrify us: but we are in the light, and we can sit down with

joy in the presence of Him who is the source of all our

blessings.

If my will is not broken, it is true I cannot joy in God, I

cannot even joy in tribulations; because He has to deal with

me in such a way as to break my will, and we never like that

process; but afterward, when we are walking with Him,

when He has broken it down, we can joy in Him. And so

if I stray in practical walk, I do not doubt my salvation, but

I cannot joy in God, though we know joy is there; we only

joy in God when walking with Him. If I stray I can reect

about the joy, but I must take a double step in getting back:

I must judge the sin according to the judgment of sins on

the cross, where the sin I have committed is put away, and

return to God’s unchanging grace, before I can again joy

in God.

is closes the whole subject of our sins, and God’s

justifying us from them by the death and resurrection of

Christ, and the blessed fruits which ow from it, which, as

to the revelation of God, go higher than the demonstration

of my state in Christ, which follows to the end of chapter

8. e Holy Spirit is going to show in whom we get our

Notes on Romans 5

193

place before God, and draws now the contrast between our

headship in the rst and in the last Adam, thus laying a

great foundation for the principles He is going to bring

out, and in which, having treated our sins and individual

responsibility, He treats the question of sin, and the nature

common to us all.

Verses 13-17 are in a parenthesis, and the notice of

this makes the passage clear; read verse 18 in connection

with verse 12. He heads all up in the obedient Man and

the disobedient man. ere is no longer the distinction

between the Jews and Gentiles as families, nor even

between man and man, each one of whom has his own sins

and responsibility, but the living ones are all headed up in

Christ, the unbelieving ones not, but in Adam only. We

have no allusion to the bride, or union of that character

here, but it is the individuals all seen in their Head. We

get then the doctrine of these two men, from verses 12-18,

sources of life to all connected with them, and the obedience

of one, and the disobedience of the other, constituting us

righteous or sinners, though each of us may have added his

own sins.

But before turning more particularly to that, we will

look at the contrast of grace with the law, of which the

whole passage treats: “until the law sin was in the world,”

but the times of this ignorance God winked at, inasmuch

as He did not treat with them as breakers of the law,

when there was no law; but when there was law, they were

governed by the law, and therefore Israel had the rod held

over them, they were to be chastened for breaking the law,

and banished ultimately into captivity. But the Gentiles

have sinned without law, and He will judge the secrets of

men by Christ Jesus; law never made sin, the sin was going

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194

on all the time from Adam to Moses, but law made the

transgression. e sign of sins was present when there was

no law, for death was there. My child may have a bad habit

of running about the streets, but if I command him not, it

is another thing, it is disobedience then, but before it was

only a wrong thing that needed to be corrected. ough

not after the similitude of Adam’s transgression; that is,

though not disobedience to a positive commandment

men are sinners still, though they have not broken a given

law. (It is a quotation from Hos. 6:6, “ey, like Adam,

have transgressed my covenant.”) Sin was always there,

death was always there to prove it, but law was not always

there. “Imputed,” in the phrase “sin is not imputed where

there is no law,” is a dierent word from “imputed” for

righteousness, and the like. It signies a positive existing

act reckoned to the account of a person, as in Philemon

1:1,18.

e argument in this passage is, you are not going

to shut up God to the Jews: sin was in the world before

Moses, and the sin is not larger than God. If sin had been

there God must go there. Christ did not come only for

those under law; we must go up to the two heads, Adam

and Christ, and so take in those who sinned without law,

even between Adam and Moses. Grace overrides it all,

“law entered that the oense might abound” — you (Jews)

have added oense to oense, you need it all the more, for

you have been guilty of positive transgression, but the free

gift is of many oenses. Verse 17. If God comes in, you

will reign in life, not only sin having reigned, now life will

reign, but you will reign in life. God’s heart comes in, and it

is greater in its eects than all the evil there has been. Verse

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195

18. See the generality of all this upon all to condemnation,

not in result, but in desert, for grace comes in to deliver.

By one righteousness the free gift came towards all, not

in the sense of application, the meaning in each case is to

or towards all (Greek eis), not upon all (Greek epi). As the

one oense did not rest in its eect on Adam only, but run

over to all, so the eect of the one work of righteousness

did not end in Christ, but passed on toward all, “Except

a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth

alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Verse 19.

When it is a matter of application, it is the “many,” not “all,”

that is, the many respectively connected with each head,

therefore I can go to all to preach the gospel — to every

creature, saying to the sinner, the blood is on the mercy-

seat; but to the believer I can say,. You are righteous, “so by

the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

What comfort there is in the simplicity of scripture!

In the next chapter we get, as the certain eect of this

newness of life, the principle of death and resurrection

brought forward. But if you do not see the need of your

having righteousness in Christ you do not know yourselves,

you do not know the holiness of God’s heart, and the

unholiness of your own. Christ’s death may be considered

as in itself glorifying God, apart from its results; but we have

the double eect or aspect of the death of Christ shown in

the two goats, one of which was the Lord’s lot, and the

other was for the bearing away into a land of forgetfulness

the sins of the people; the rst was for the glory of God, the

second for the sins of the sinner, in the conscience of what

he had done — both were needed. I have sinned, says the

awakened conscience; but all my sins were laid on Christ,

says the believer.

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196

Verse 20. e entering in of law was that the oense

might abound; wherefore the law? not to make sin abound,

but to make sin exceeding sinful, and that the oense might

abound, “but where sin abounded, grace did much more

abound,” and abounding grace has been shown, for God

gave His own well-beloved Son: and sin was suered to rise

up to its full wickedness, even in putting Christ to death,

and then to show how powerless sin is in the presence of

God’s grace, that very thing, in which its greatest evil was

shown as hatred against God, is that which puts it all away;

God’s grace rolls over it all, yet thus in righteousness. He

has thus shown the utter impotency of sin in His presence.

It is not said righteousness reigned: if it had, it

would have been for the eternal condemnation of all

(righteousness will reign when He comes in judgment),

but now grace reigns through righteousness, grace goes on

in spite of all the neglect in men’s hearts to it — it reigns;

it does not give up its ways and purposes; grace reigns over

sin, man is unable to get the mastery over Christ’s love

but Christ’s love overcomes man — it overcame everything

that lay in the way of His fullling His Father’s will, and

His obedience overcame everything; grace reigned on

the cross, yet righteousness was there; grace reigns in the

subjection of our hearts — where sin did reign, grace reigns.

Grace means love working where there is evil. How? By

the obedience of One: hence, it is through righteousness.

en if there is the reign of grace in the heart, there

must be practical holiness, a righteousness consistent with

it; if God’s love works in the heart, it is to produce in it

something like Himself. His love is such as has never been

seen before in heaven or on earth. His perfect love and

grace, and righteousness bring out what God is, Christ is

Notes on Romans 5

197

grace reigning: and God has the upper hand even as to our

sins, and has put them away.

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198

62974

Notes on Romans 6

Chapter 6

We get in this chapter the practical application of the

great principle of which the apostle has been speaking at

the end of the preceding chapter, namely, our connection

with the second Adam, as previously with the rst. We

shall see that it is practical in its nature, and we shall do

well to see the double aspect of it; the power of practice

and the real groundwork of that power. Liberty is always

the ground on which grace sets us, and liberty is the only

ground of the Holy Spirit’s power. Liberty is that to which

we are called, it is not slavery, even unto holiness, but liberty

always, but that liberty death to sin. e apostle rst sets

forth the ground simply and clearly, and then proceeds to

the fruits, for there is actual righteousness which bears fruit.

As He says, “Now being made free from sin, and become

servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the

end everlasting life.”

ere is wonderful depth and value in this chapter, as

there must be in that which comes from God. is practical

righteousness does not merely produce a fruit down here,

that is man’s thoughts, and man’s thoughts end always with

himself; but owing from Christian life, as we shall see,

and walking in the path suited to it here below, it frees from

obscuring lusts, and tends to purify the heart practically, so

that we see God. It has fruit unto holiness. e daily details

of a Christian’s life have thus the deepest importance, not

only as doing right, but that this produces fruit that goes

Notes on Romans 6

199

up in holiness to God, leads to a state of soul in which God

is known and enjoyed, the soul being set apart for Him.

All that comes from God must go back to God again:

so in the meat-oering — the frankincense which was laid

on the meat-oering was burnt, and the savor of it all went

up to God: the priest might eat of the meat-oering, but

the sweet savor of all ascended up to God; just as Christ

Himself came down from God, His whole life down here

being one continued savor rising up to God, and at the end

He oered up Himself, a sacrice well-pleasing to God.

e reality of the fruit of righteousness is that it is living to

God, as the apostle says, “Be ye therefore followers of God

as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ hath loved us,

and given himself an oering and a sacrice to God for a

sweet-smelling savor.” is is Christian morality, it is God’s

nature in man. Here, however, it is only seen as a fruit or

eect — the divine life coming down from God, to God

it must return, and where this is wanting, it is all nothing.

All the value of an action is in the motive. Fruit will be

manifested; but it is not so much what a man does, as his

motive for doing it. Even in nature, two men may do the

same thing from very dierent motives; the motive of the

one being himself and his own pleasure, will be evil; while

the other, being the good father of a family, and doing it

for their good, his motive will be good; it is in the motive

of our ordinary actions that we have to be continually

judging ourselves, that we be not judged of the Lord. e

saint, in judging himself, must be grieved when he sees so

many other things come in and mix up with that which he

presents to God; self comes in, and like the dead ies, spoils

the savor of the ointment. It may not be seen by others,

but our own hearts before God know how very much of

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200

self comes in, making the ointment send forth a bad savor,

yet we know God graciously and lovingly accepts all our

service through Christ, being a discerner of the thoughts

and intents of the heart. e great principle laid down in

Romans 3 is that the blood meets our sins.

Romans 4 brings out faith in the God who had come in,

in power, and raised the One who was under death — raised

Him from the dead. “Believing on him that raised up Jesus

our Lord from the dead.” Christ was put to death in the

esh; looked at as man, we see Him going down into death,

and a divine power coming in, and raising Him up again.

It is precious to our souls to observe in scripture the same

divine power is attributed to the three Persons, thus giving

us a proof of the Trinity being engaged in the work. e

Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple (this spake he of the

temple of his body), and I will raise it up in three days”; and

again, “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father” (Rom. 6:4). And He was “quickened by the Spirit”

(1 Pet. 3:18).

In the former part of Romans 5 we get faith applied to

justication; the conclusions from Christ’s being delivered

for our oenses, and raised again for our justication, and

the results of this are given: we have peace, present favor,

and hope of glory; we rejoice in tribulations, for God’s love

is shed abroad in our hearts, and nally, are able to joy in

God.

en comes, beginning with verse 12, the question of

sin in our nature, where all heads up in Adam and Christ,

and we see that the law was brought in by the bye, when

man was already a sinner, with no thought of producing

righteousness, but that the oense might abound and so

manifest man’s sin. e law is righteous, and comes in,

Notes on Romans 6

201

convicting of unrighteousness those to whom it was given,

because those to whom it was given could not keep it.

Man’s only ways of being with God are, to be innocent,

or to be 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 Adam, “ou shalt not lust, thou shalt not

steal” — how would it have applied? Whom was he to steal

from? But the law supposes lust to be there, therefore says,

“ou shalt not lust.” e commandment which forbids,

supposes the forbidden thing to be there, or the tendency

to it, where the thing prohibited is a sin in its nature. e

fruit of the tree was in the garden, which was the very

thing prohibited to Adam; but till Satan got hold of Eve,

there was no lust to eat of it. “ou shalt not eat of it,” was

a simple test of obedience, but even then the object was

before them. A right rule only proves a fraudulent thing to

be fraudulent, it does not make it right.

It is impossible for a man to be saved by the law, as the

law supposes the presence of sin; an innocent person does

not know what sin is, but man by the law is addressed as

a sinner, that he might be saved by grace; but God having

now come in, He could not conne Himself to those merely

under law, but extends His grace to all — grace is the only

ground He can be upon. Again, the law was not given till

four hundred years after the promise. e promise was rst.

In Romans 5:19, we have the two headships brought

out in their results. By one man’s disobedience, etc., and,

note here, all are thus alike, the individual’s sins do not

come into account, though they do in judgment, for we

are judged according to our works. But here, one man’s

disobedience made us sinners, and one Man’s obedience

makes us righteous. at seemed to make it no matter

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202

how we lived; but the subject of Romans 6 is just to meet

such a thought as this. e perverseness of the esh will

turn the law to a dierent purpose from that for which

God gave it, and grace for a dierent end from that for

which God bestowed it. e law that was given to convict

man of sin, man takes up to make a righteousness of his

own out of it; and grace that was really given to make man

holy, man turns into licentiousness. ough it is true that

souls were quickened before Christ came, by virtue of His

divine power to quicken whom He would, yet we get this

great fact, that Adam became a fallen man, a sinner, and

lost, before he was the head of the fallen family. So Christ

nishes the work for righteousness before He becomes the

head of the redeemed family.

We have not only come into the position of fallen Adam,

but we have got a nature that likes sin; and where there is

the life of Christ there is a nature which loves holiness: this

is the argument of the apostle. But if a man naturally likes

unholiness, how is he to get rid of this? His reply is, “How

shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” It is

not an argument as to what we ought to be. at which

forms the groundwork of Christian life is that we have

died with Christ. It is never said to man, You ought to die

to sin. e believer is placed in Christ. How? In a Christ

who has died and is risen. at life which I have in Christ

is after Christ is dead and risen again; thus I have life in a

Christ who has died (that is where I exist), in whom I have

died unto sin, for if we are made partakers of justication

through Him, it is because we are made partakers of His

death. But, if, as regards the old sinful Adam, we are made

partakers of death — have our part in and by it — we cannot

live on.

Notes on Romans 6

203

To follow more precisely the apostle’s argument: If I

am a Christian, justied by Him, it is that I have part in

His death. It is my very profession. I have been baptized to

His death. But if I have died to sin to be made righteous, I

cannot live in it because I am righteous. You have died unto

sin in Christ. ere is more than that when we look into it,

as to detail: the blood of atonement was put upon the tip

of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great

toe of the right foot of the priest, thus showing that we are

not only saved by the blood, but that nothing was to be

allowed in thought, word, or deed, discordant with its holy

claim. ere is that which becomes a Christian, but that is

not what is brought out here, but the truth of our having

part in His death, so that we are to reckon ourselves alive to

God through Him, not through the rst Adam in his esh.

How have you got your place, your life, your character

in Christ, but through a dead and risen Christ? Well

then, if I am dead, I am not still alive. Hence it is that the

exhortation is never to us, to die, for we have died with

Christ. How then can a man live in that to which he is

dead? It cannot be. If I am dead to sin I cannot live in sin,

God forbid! ere is putting to death, for practically we

are to mortify our members, that is power, but we are never

told to die to sin. You may try to die to it, but it will not do.

It is still there. But the cross of Christ has for faith killed

your sin, when He put your sins away.

We rst get a new life and a new nature, and then we

can begin to kill the members of the old nature, reckoning

oneself dead, otherwise it is hopeless. I can now deal with

this old thing as not me, for now I have a new thing which

is me, therefore I do not admit that old thing to be me at

all. I have forever done with it, having got this new thing

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204

by which the old is overcome. In this chapter 6, the apostle

is speaking of our liberty, as scripture always addresses the

believer as dead with Christ.

What Christ have you a part in? Not one living on the

earth before death, but in His death, though He be now

alive again. “Buried with him by baptism unto death, that

like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

us we get the glory of the Father as all engaged in the

resurrection of Christ, and in result, as the measure of our

walk down here. “By the glory of the Father.” I can rest

upon that expression, because it is that which can feed the

heart, for Christ, as man, is brought out by and into the

full glory of the Father, and that which meets the subtlety

of the world’s pretension (for the world had rejected Him),

and the subtlety in our hearts, for all that leans to what

obscures that, is the old man, which would have, not that

which is of the Father, but of the world.

e Christian is fed and settled by what shows the

perfection of Christ, as raised by the glory of the Father.

ere is not a single thing that was connected with the

glory of the Father that was not made good by the death

and sealed by the resurrection of Christ. Take death, for

instance, God’s righteous judgment, but the ruin of His

creature, and the present display of Satan’s power. We had

all come under the power of death. Divine power comes in,

and raises Him who, in grace towards us, went down under

death, and by raising Him makes good God’s judgment,

while it sets aside what it was exercised in, and destroys

him that had the power of death, that is the devil. ere

was the power of God, the love of the Father shown out

besides, for it was the Son who was there; and yet His

Notes on Romans 6

205

righteousness, too, for Christ had fully gloried Him there,

where it would seem impossible, made sin — and in death,

its wages — for us. Was ever the love of the Father drawn

out in like manner, as in the resurrection of Christ? Never!

ere was in Christ’s death a fresh motive for the Father’s

love, in the Son’s sacricing Himself to show forth the

Father’s glory. en the Father’s own glory was concerned

in it, because it was the Father’s own Son, one with Himself,

who was under death; therefore the Father must come in

and raise Him up, for His own glory.

en also the righteousness of God is concerned. e

world was to be convinced of righteousness, therefore God

could not leave His soul in hell, neither could He suer

His Holy One to see corruption. He was God manifest in

the esh, justied in the Spirit, seen of angels, received up

in glory. e angels must be witnesses of this great work

of the resurrection of the Son of God. ere would have

been a hopeless gap in heaven, could it have been possible

(which it was not, He could not be holden of it) for Christ

not to have been raised from the dead and set at the right

hand of God.

Now we see (I do not say realize) what this newness of

life must be. e character of this newness of life is that I

know the Father. Ought I not to see divine righteousness

in it? Ought I not to see divine love in it? Ought I not to

see the glory of His person in it? When I see Him who

went down into the lowest parts of the earth, I see the

Father’s glory going down, so to speak, there, to raise Him

up to His own right hand, and this it is that associates my

thoughts with, and gives me the knowledge of, the Father’s

glory. e soul, in the power of the Holy Spirit, entering

into the knowledge of the Person of Him who went down

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206

into the grave, must be lled with adoring wonder and

praise, for the heart, seeing the Father concerned about

Christ, goes up to the glory of the Father. Where God has

thus made the soul to comprehend that a once dead Christ

has ascended up to God, that is everything. For how could

you or I rise up to see the glory of the Father? Impossible!

But His glory is brought near to me, when I see the Father

raising up a dead Christ, knowing that Christ was in the

grave, because of sin, though Son of God, and that He is

now with God in heaven.

us my aections are drawn out, when I see who it

was that went down to death for me. For how came He

there? Because I was a sinner, yet He gloried His Father

in all that He, the Father, was. And do I not see that He,

who was there so laid, deserved to be raised? For who

was it? e blessed Son of God, who had taken the form

of a servant, and was found in fashion as a man. Do you

think that a poor unconverted person sees that the Father

must have raised up Jesus, even for His own glory, seeing

who He was, and what He had done? No; and therefore,

when speaking to the woman of Samaria, when He had

said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that

saith to thee, Give me to drink,” and she replies, “Give

me this water,” and there was no intelligence of what He

presented to her; then He speaks to her conscience, “Go,

call thy husband,” and that opens her understanding. “I

perceive thou art a prophet”; but when Jesus saith unto her,

“I that speak unto thee am he,” then the divine knowledge

of the Person of the Son of God opens out to her soul.

And the Person of the Lord lling her heart, she goes and

tells others about Him. e revelation of the Person of the

Son of God to this woman’s soul, was the turning-point

Notes on Romans 6

207

in her history. So it is with us. When we have intelligently

received the Person of the Son of God, not as a doctrine

merely, but as the object and power of a new life in our

souls, then our hearts follow Christ, as it were, and go up

after Him in spirit in this new life, and everything is dead

to us below. is is the victory that overcometh the world,

even our faith. I do not say there will be no conict, but the

heart has done with everything out of Christ. en, how

very near it comes to us, yea, is realized in us! “For if we

have been planted together in the likeness of his death”;

that is, entering into, and associated with Him in death

down here. Grace comes down to us here, and Christ goes

down to death for us.

Was divine love the less, because it was down here, and

not above? No: it reached even to my state of sin, for it was

to sin that Christ died, as He did for my sins. Was divine

power the less? No: He has destroyed, on the contrary, the

power of death, and him who held it. It is there I learn that

the Son of God must go down unto death, if He is to deliver

me from sin; and as His heart followed me down here to be

made sin, so now my heart is to follow Him in resurrection

(for if I have a portion in His death, I shall have also in

His resurrection). For I cannot have a half Christ, and it is

not merely that my sins are put away, because justication

includes not merely the fact that He died, but also that He

is personally accepted of God, and if He raised again, it is

in the power of a new life. So that our old man is crucied

with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that

henceforth we should not serve sin, or as the word is, that

you should not be the slaves of sin, for you were slaves unto

sin, but now you are freed (justied) from sin. He does not

speak merely of sins. But no one can charge sin, the activity

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208

of lust and will, on a dead man. You were slaves, properly

speaking, under the title of dominion by another, for the

slave is ordered wherever his master pleases, not knowing

at night what he should do in the morning; naturally we

are slaves to sin.

e passage in John 8:33 is remarkable, as showing

that it was slavery to sin under the law, for the Jews being

addressed as under the law, it says, the servant, or, slave,

abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth ever;

if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free

indeed. So we are freed from the slavery in which we were

held, and in perfect liberty, all having been left behind in

death, for he that has done with sin must be dead to it.

When a man is dead you cannot charge him with anything;

his life has ceased to exist, he is out of the scene. If you say,

How can I be free from sin, when I nd it still in me? at

is gone to which sin was attached. We are not told to die,

for we are dead, and you cannot be charged with sin if you

are dead, neither can you be under its power. Do you ask,

How can that be, when I nd I am not dead? Because it

is in Christ you have died. Christ was put in your place. Is

Christ in the grave? No; the thing to which sin is attached

is gone, is done with, for He has died. Do not say it is

not so. Are you wiser than God? for God says it is so. e

tree and the fruit are both judged in God’s sight. Christ

has died for the tree and its fruit, as that which could be

charged on you, and died to sin, so that you may reckon

yourself dead to it. Christ attached sin to Himself on the

cross, and it is gone forever; there is an utter end of sin

for faith; it is the vile thing I hate. Am I distressed about

my evil deeds? ey are the very things that Christ’s death

put away. Am I distressed about sin in the esh? I am not

Notes on Romans 6

209

in the esh, I have died to it, for I have my life in Christ,

who has died. “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed

unto sin.” I should have no need of such a word as reckon,

if there was no more actual existence of sin in the esh; I

am called to mortify, in living power in Christ, the deeds of

the body, not to die to sin, but to reckon myself dead. It is

holy liberty from sin we have, and not liberty to sin. I am

to reckon myself to be what faith shows me Christ is in my

place; and walk in newness of life,

then there will be the

fruit unto holiness.

I would make two remarks here. First, the fruits are

produced; still, the grand doctrine of Christianity is, that

I am saved by a mediator; if I have to answer for myself, I

am lost; “Enter not into judgment with thy servant” (Psa.

143:2). If God enters into judgment with me, all is over with

me. e whole doctrine of grace is, saved by a mediator; for,

“if I wash myself in snow-water, and make my hands never

so clean, yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine

own clothes shall abhor me.” e instant I see God’s eye

upon me, I shall see myself as one out of a ditch, yea, my

clothes shall abhor me. Job wanted a daysman, to lay his

hand upon both. My coming to God depends upon some

one coming between.

e conscience should be delicate as to the slightest

approach of evil, only let it be in liberty. e more delicate

the conscience as to the sense of the least delement, the

more the need of a mediator is felt. But you say, I nd that

23 Verse 1 of Romans 6 treats of continuing in sin, because of

grace; since one Man’s obedience saves me, I cannot, for I have

my part in death. at is not living in it. Verse 15 supposes me

free in the power of a new life. Am I to sin in this freedom, or

give myself up to God? Which is the meaning and character of

this new life I have through Christ?

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what ought to be dead in me is still alive. Well, did Christ

die for the sin that you have not, or for the sin you have?

e very sin you are daily nding out in yourself, this is the

very sin for which Christ died.

Jealously of conscience about sin is right, the more the

better, only with it remember the grace which has put it

away. Christ has set me in a new life through Himself,

raised from the dead, so that death cannot touch it,

because He lives beyond its power; judgment cannot touch

it, because He has borne it and died, there is not a single

thing that could ever possibly come against me, that the

blessed One did not allow to come against Him. Yea, He

took it all upon Himself, and we are clean out of the Red

Sea, on the other side; that life which we now live, we live

by Him, reckoning ourselves dead to sin, because He died

unto sin; He died not for Himself, but to sin, to enter into

a new state of existence as man, and we live through Him.

See the holiness of Him who was “made sin.” He was taken

through everything, He was thoroughly tested in every

way, to try if He were in anything unwilling to obey. What

if He had shrunk? But no, every evil was refused by His

blessed holy nature. He learned obedience by the things He

suered. 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 are, sin apart — Satan

found nothing in Him. It was His meat and His drink to

do His Father’s will.

But it is never said He took delight in suering for

sin, but He says, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from

me”; the having His Father’s countenance withdrawn from

Him, when bearing the sin, He could not nd delight in;

but He had said before, “I delight to do my Father’s will.”

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is cup, He asked that it might pass from Him; no other

cup did He ever ask to be withdrawn, and now He said,

“Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” He would

rather suer this than that God should not be gloried.

We can now share the suering for righteousness’ sake,

but the suering for sin we cannot share; He made an end

of that, and now He lives beyond it all in resurrection. He

had the Spirit of holiness (all His life through this was true

of Him), and during His life down here it was fully tested,

but now we see Him alive again, “raised from the dead,

according to the Spirit of holiness”; therefore He is no

half-Savior, for He died unto sin, and now He liveth unto

God. erefore we are to reckon ourselves to be dead unto

sin, and live unto God. is is a very practical question, for

it is not that you are to say, if you have not the realization

of this, you cannot have the value of the blood; no; you

must rst know the value of the blood, and so have it all in

Christ. e groundwork of living to Him is to be dead to

sin; but we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin in Him. It

can avail nothing to exhort you to live to God, if you have

not the life of God in you. ere is the double thing, the

position in which God has set you, and the fact that people

expect to see what you really are manifested.

It is not said experience yourself dead to sin, but reckon

yourself; nor is it said you may reckon yourself so, when

you see yourself walking with God; neither does He say,

when sin does not reign in your mortal bodies, then reckon

yourselves dead to sin. No; that is not grace; but the Holy

Spirit draws the practical consequence from all which faith

teaches. is is the only means of living godly before the

world.

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Righteousness, as stated in the end of Romans 5, shows

me how I am enabled by it to live before God; I can only

be living before the world, then, as belonging to God; so I

can only be living before God in the sense of acceptance,

being justied from sins by the blood, and now dead to sin,

reckoning myself so, because Christ who is my life died

unto sin, and I am free. en how blessedly comes in “yield

yourselves,” not merely to righteousness, though it be so,

but to God, never stopping short of God. If I do a right

thing, and do not do it to God, all is short of its true end

and character; my heart is not right in its aim and motive.

I should really therefore yield myself to God. Did Christ

ever do anything for Himself? No; for in the gospels we

see His was a life of love. He had not time even to eat;

always living for others. He not only did things which were

commanded, but because they were commanded; the will

of God being not only the guide, but the motive of all He

did. He gave Himself for us, but a sacrice and oering to

God.

Well, then, if you are delivered from sin, you are

delivered from yourself, and what a blessed deliverance, to

have a right to have done with myself! It is the best thing

in the world to have done with myself. “Sin shall not have

dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under

grace.” If we are under the law, we are under the dominion,

as well as under the curse of sin. “Oh, but,” you say, “sin has

dominion over me, therefore I am afraid God will not have

me.” What are you doing with grace? How can you dare to

come before God for anything, if you are not standing in

grace? It is only as you are under grace, that you can have

any power over sin. If you are standing in grace, you are

under favor, because God is good — you are free, but you

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213

are under grace; therefore Romans 5 comes before Romans

6, righteousness before holy liberty in life, and if you try to

reverse them, you get into Romans 7.

If, because I do not love Christ as I ought, which

is a higher thing than the law, I then begin to doubt

whether I am His or not, I am still under law, but with a

higher standard, Christ being the law, instead of the ten

commandments. It is not realizing grace. God loves the

holy angels, but that is not properly speaking grace. Grace

is love towards those who do not deserve it. Oh! but you say,

if a man is delivered from the law he may become careless;

the subtlety of the heart is such that it is quite true it may

abuse grace. Law is given to convict of sin; man uses it to

make out righteousness; grace to free man from sin, and

give him power over it, and he uses it to licentiousness. But

a person is not to be licentious, because he is free from the

law — “ye became the servants of righteousness.”

If we are led of the Spirit, we are not under the law, but

we shall be led in holiness; we have liberty, and not slavery,

but it is divine deliverance from the power of sin; we yield

ourselves wholly to God, because we are free to do so, and

if God has given you liberty, will you be a slave again to sin?

But now being made free from sin and become servants to

God, ye have your fruit unto holiness. What is holiness?

Separation from, and abhorrence of what is evil, and for us

by separation of heart to God. I should not call Adam holy,

but innocent; God is holy, for God abhors evil, having full

knowledge of it, and delights in good; Christ is holy; we,

too, are holy, for in the new man which we have put on, we

hate the evil and love the good, though we cannot do it as

God does. Holiness in us must necessarily have God for

its object. In walking in righteousness, the heart has to say

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to God obediently; the will is not in activity, the lusts not

at work. e eect, through grace, is growing separation of

heart to God, and acquaintance with Him. us you have

your fruit unto holiness. What fruit does sin bear? None; it

only brings to death. I walk in what is pleasing to God, and

thus, the new man being active likes what God likes; and

what will be the consequence of this? In the moral activities

of this new life, I get separated from the inuence of evil,

increasing in the knowledge of God; not only actual fruits

produced (though that is true, as the tree will be known by

its fruits), but this practical bringing forth of internal fruit

is connected with righteousness according to the will of

God, and a walk with Him in the light.

e secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him;

I get drawn away from the spirit of the world — this

practical walking with God is connected with growth in

the knowledge of God, leads me on in likeness to Him: in

everyday life to have a constant reference to God’s will, leads

into the light practically. “If the eye be single, the whole

body will be full of light.” Learning God — going on with

God, not merely slipping and then getting on again. It is

not simply desiring to live to Christ, but our hearts should

be more withdrawn from everything around, a thorough

consecration of the heart, a growing up in the knowledge

of God in heart and spirit; and there will be this growing

up unto God, if our life be yielded to Him — servants to

God — having God’s will as our blessed privilege. God’s

own will, owing from His nature, should be our will.

What is higher or more blessed than this? It is what Christ

had; Christ thought it worth while to leave heaven to do

God’s will, that we might be drawn up there, and made to

bring forth fruit unto holiness down here.

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215

ere is a positive joy in pleasing God, it is perfect

liberty. e gift of God is eternal life; and it is sweet to see

that while grace leads us through the path of righteousness,

it is still all grace. I would rather have eternal life as the

gift of God, than ten lives of my own, because it is the

proof of His love to me. e Lord grant that our hearts

may be so grounded in grace, that we may indeed yield

ourselves unto God, and be growing up in the doing of His

will — remembering it is founded on reckoning ourselves

dead to sin, and alive unto God; thus we live out of the

world, as to separation from evil, as He is.

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62975

Notes on Romans 7

Chapter 7

You will remember what we have been treating of up to

the end of chapter 3, all under sin, and propitiation made

for our sins by the precious blood of Christ. All our actual

guilt dealt with; so that we cannot overrate the importance

of the subject. So in Romans 4 we have seen the apostle

developing the grand doctrine of the resurrection — the

believing in God as the One who raised the dead. It is not

merely putting away sin from the guilty person, but it is

God acting on the very Person who was delivered for our

oenses, and for a little moment under death.

e power of this raising the dead was rst exercised

on the Person of Christ, here looked at as delivered for

our oenses, and raised again for our justication — that

is, the application does not go beyond the justifying eect

of resurrection, the new position of Christ as delivered for

our oenses, and so raised again by God, a witness of the

ecacy of His work, and the new place He has thus entered

into as Man. Elsewhere we learn what the exercise of the

same power of God is in us who believe, so that we are

viewed as risen with Him, but this is Ephesian teaching.

ere we see the saints quickened by the Spirit of God,

in the exercise of the very same divine power that raised

Christ from the dead and quickened together with Christ,

the same being thus associated with Christ in resurrection.

In Romans 5:1-11, we have the results of this resurrection

of Christ. e justication of the sinner by faith, in putting

away sins by the blood, and a full justication through the

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217

resurrection of Christ, peace, present favor, hope of glory,

rejoicing in tribulations, rejoicing in God Himself.

From verse 12 to end of chapter, we get our connection

with the rst Adam, and the Last, so that not merely

individual sins are in question, but a single head involving

those connected with it in the consequences of his act,

and in the partaking of a life or nature derived from that

head — the one constituting his family, sinners; the other,

righteous. e esh says, if one man’s obedience makes me

righteous, I may continue in the sin of my old nature! No:

you are dead to sin, and what you are dead to, you cannot

live in.

In Romans 6 the objections of the natural man to the

obedience of Christ constituting us righteous are all met,

as the apostle connects practical righteousness and a holy

life with being dead with Christ, and the reception of a

new life to God through Him as a necessary result. is

important point we must pursue a little more fully. e

Christ in whom we have part, as thus interested in His

obedience, is Christ who has died and is risen; and if we are

associated with Him, we are associated with Him in death.

e public profession of Christianity was baptism to His

death. We have been planted in the likeness of His death,

we cannot live in what we have died to.

is treats of our continuance in sin, the principle and

condition of our Adam nature. But more, if planted in the

likeness of His death, we shall be of His resurrection; that

is, the power of His life will show itself in us.

He does not say we are risen with Him; which would

in itself suppose full redemption, with life, and a place and

condition before God. Here it is practical, a new character

of life — we are to walk in newness of life. I am, then, to

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reckon myself dead, and alive unto God, through, or in,

Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet it is not as raised with Him,

but quickened by Him or in the power of His life. When

quickened together with Him, He is looked at as dead, and

union is involved in it; not “with” here, but we have the

new life through Him. Hence, I am free, for I reckon the

old nature dead.

Here comes in the second point of the chapter. To

whom am I going to yield myself, if thus free in life — to

sin again? God forbid. I am a slave, to use a human gure,

says the apostle, to Him to whom I give myself up, not

therefore surely to sin, but to God; and my members as

instruments of righteousness to God. e law I am not

under; that comes requiring, and really addresses itself to

me as alive in the esh. But the absence of legal requirement

does not lead me to sin, my freedom is to serve God, to be

obedient. Such is life through Christ.

But there is more: what fruit had we in the things we

are now ashamed of? None; and they end in death. But

now we have, in the path of obedience, fruit — fruit unto

holiness. “Show me thy way,” says Moses, “that I may know

thee” (Ex. 33:13). In the path of obedience will is not at

work, lusts are not at work; we are with God, we have

His mind, our hearts are separate to Him, we know Him

better. Hence, in increased spiritual discernment of good

and evil, and conscious knowledge of God, there is fruit

unto holiness, intelligent separation of heart to Him, ever

better known.

e beginning of the chapter raises the question of

continuance in sin, when another’s obedience makes us

righteous; the end, when set free, to what we yield ourselves,

and its blessed fruit, yet bringing out all as grace. e gift

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219

of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And

let us remark, that while it is for righteousness and for

obedience — for the new nature loves both — it is to God,

we yield ourselves to God. What a blessed freedom of

heart and position, to be able to give ourselves up, and up

to God Himself, in the knowledge of Him! In the chapter

which follows he shows how, as dead, we are not under law,

which claims, and is not freedom, nor delivers at all, so as

to be free to yield ourselves thus to God.

Romans 7, then, applies this doctrine of being dead to

our position in respect of the law. e practical eect of the

new nature in me, if not freed from the law, is to give me

such a sense of what God is, and what self is, as to make

me perfectly miserable. It gives me the sense of good and

evil, but good unattained, and evil to which I am a slave.

But this Romans 7 shows the eect of my being dead, on

my relationship with law: I am delivered from it. It is not

merely that we are justied, nor yet merely that we have

a new nature, but that we are delivered from the law. e

apostle takes care to show that there is no fault in the law,

but that we are delivered from it.

As many as pretend to take their stand with God, as

being under the law, are under the curse, “for as many

as are of the works of the law are under the curse” (Gal.

3:10). It is not that the works are bad, but the eect of our

being under the law puts us under the curse. It is useless

for you to talk of using the law, not for justication, but for

sanctication, or as a rule of life: you cannot use the law

for this or that according to your own fancies. It will use

its rights over you as it pleases. God is saying by the law to

those who are under it, “You have not obeyed Me, and I am

going to curse you.” You cannot deal with God’s law as you

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like; for if you will have God’s law, you must take it with all

the consequences God has attached to it.

ere is no power whatever in the law to sanctify. It

is not in the capacity of the law to sanctify a sinner. It is

holy, just, and good, but when applied it must condemn

the sinner. It must condemn all under it. It requires

from themselves obedience to it. Nothing ever so fully

established the claims of the law as God’s Son dying under

it. Of course, the positive eect of our being under the law

is, that it of itself puts us under the curse. But we know that

the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.

Assuredly, the law is good; it would be blasphemy to

think otherwise. But the question is, what is the lawful use

of it? It is never said that it is good to be under the law,

though the law is good in itself. e law is good to detect

the state of the heart. Who is there that has not broken

the law? Who has not lusted? Who loves God with all his

heart? No; you love yourselves better; and who loves his

neighbor really quite as well as himself? Not one of us;

then we are all under the curse, if we are under the law. e

law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the

law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and

disobedient.

e law is useful as a weapon, but it is one that has no

handle; for if I, a man in the esh take it to use against

others, it pierces me through quite as much as those against

whom I wield it. It is as sharp for me as for them. See

John 8, where the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus

a woman taken in adultery; their wicked hearts thought

to prove Jesus to be in the wrong, whether in condemning

or saving her. If He condemned, He was no Savior — the

law could do as much; if He let o, He had set aside the

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221

law — profound wickedness! ey quote the law; very well;

but it is as much a law to themselves as for her; for Jesus

said unto them, “He that is without sin among you, let him

rst cast a stone at her,” “and they which heard it, being

convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one.”

Christ having thus condemned them all by the law, He then

takes up the woman in grace, and says to her, “Neither do I

condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” e law was made for

unrighteous persons. Why do I say to you, that you must

not lust? If lust were not there, where would be the use of

it? But if lust is there, what can the law do but condemn

it? As a system, the law was given 2,600 years after sin

came in, and what could it do but condemn? It was never

meant to do anything but to condemn, to prove the heart,

and to give the knowledge of sin: we should thoroughly

understand what deliverance from it is, if we would be truly

free in Christ — children of the free woman. It is surely

useful always, as God’s weapon to convince.

In Romans 7, the apostle applies the doctrine of death

to the law, and he opens it in this way, “Know ye not that

the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” It

is true even of human law, and physical death. He proceeds

with the analogy of husband and wife. You cannot have

two husbands at one and the same time — we cannot have

Christ and the law both at once. We are bound up with

one or the other, as a principle, to God. e woman cannot

have two husbands. “Wherefore ye are become dead to the

law by the body of Christ.” It is not that the law has died,

we are dead; the image, so far, changes, but the bond is

broken; and this dierence is blessed, because I hold also

my old evil nature for dead, and this is by the body of

Christ. In His death, as we have seen, I reckon myself dead.

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222

e law was never abrogated, and the principle of it was

sanctioned as of God, and those that have sinned under it

will be judged by it. Verse 6 correctly reads: “but now we

are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were

held.” It is not then, that the law is dead, but we are dead to

that by which we were held. Hence, note, death to sin goes

with it. erefore, the apostle says, we are dead to the law

by the body of Christ, because Christ was made a curse for

us, and died under it, as bearing the curse. But how? Why

the law applied its full curse to Him, as willingly oering

Himself, and He died under it.

e law as a weapon took its full eect on Christ. It did

everything it possibly could, by way of its curse coming on

Christ. e curse of the law was the death of the sinner,

and Christ in grace was made sin for us; therefore, what

could the law do more than spend its full curse on the head

of Him, who was made sin for us, who died under the law?

Christ was born under the law and kept it. He puts Himself

under its curse, and goes through it all, and rises entirely

out of it. And faith applies Christ’s position to the believer.

But alas! to how many Christians law is Christianity. But

Christ comes as a Mediator, and takes my place, my whole

cause: and faith has received all that. He thus was in my

place, bringing all the good of it to myself, as if I were in

His place. He is not speaking of union with Him now, as in

Ephesians 1 come and have my place actually and livingly

in Christ, for He is the quickening Spirit, the last Adam,

who comes and gives me a portion with Himself in His

present position. All question of the claims of the law upon

the believer has passed away in Christ, for in Christ he has

died to the life and position in which he could be under it;

and now I have a life in Christ after the whole question of

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223

law is settled before God. I am married to another husband,

to Him who is raised from the dead.

e Jew is still fully under the law. e believer has died

to it in Christ. Does this weaken the power of the law?

No, not at all, it has all its power. See Galatians 2:19-20. I

through the law am dead to the law. But it cannot put forth

its killing power on me, if I am dead. It has killed me, and

that is what delivers me, for I am in Christ, and it killed

Him. e law found sin in me, and executed all its full

curse upon Him, who was made sin for me; and now I can

reason about it in peace, because its curse is gone, which

has been fully borne by Christ.

e law was formerly the religious tie with God, but

now another is our tie with God. For it is not now the law,

but my new husband, Christ in resurrection; we are dead

to the law by the body of Christ, that we should be married

to another, even to Him that is raised from the dead, that

we should bring forth fruit unto God. And because of this

new graft in the heart of the believer, God is looking for

new fruit; for God has ceased to look for fruit from man’s

nature, it has only brought forth wild evil fruit. is was

fully brought out in the cross of Christ; but now there is

the new thing, on which God’s mind is set. Well, then, as

we cannot have the two husbands at once, so if in any wise

we are under the law, we are under its curse; and what is

more, you cannot get from under its curse, for you have sin

in your esh, and the law can never allow the working of

sin in the esh, it must necessarily bring out its curse. You

talk of sanctication, but you are not sanctied enough for

the law, for it will not let you o in any wise. You may have

the desire to be good, but you have not yet owned how

thoroughly bad you are. God is not looking for any good in

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you, for He says, “ere is none that understandeth, none

that seeketh, none righteous, no, not one.” Now this you

do not believe, for you are thinking there is some good

in you, or hoping for it; you do not believe yourself to be

thoroughly bad, as God says you are. And the very way

God brings to our consciences what we really are, is that

He often leaves us under the condemnation of the law, that

it may prove to us what our true state by nature is; and

when we have learned this, we shall be glad enough to be

delivered from the law.

Do you say, that being taken from under the law leads

to licentiousness? What! do you mean to say, then, that

Christ’s life in us leads to licentiousness? It is true that the

esh will abuse everything; but the living power of grace,

the reality, what there is in the life of Christ, cannot be

believed in by those who say, that if we are not kept under

the law we shall sin.

If you use the law for sanctication, you do not know

yourselves; and if you think you will be holier by living

under the law, it is plain you do not know what it is. I

dare any one of you to be under it in God’s presence. No;

not one of you could stand under it in God’s presence for

one single moment: “In thy sight shall no man living be

justied.” is is the ground the law will take with you; it

can take no other, for the law knows nothing of grace — it

would not be law if it did. Again, I say, you are not really

reduced to the sense of what it is to be brought under the

law, if you present yourself to God to be judged by it, and

the law always brings into judgment, and then all is over,

all is lost. e law allows of no excuse. It will have a perfect

righteousness in use.

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225

But farther, when we were in the esh, the motions of

sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to

bring forth fruit unto death; that was not the fault of the

law, for while there is will in man, man can never produce

what God desires. e law is applied to man as he is, it

does not speak of the new nature. e law says, I must have

obedience to God. You say, Oh! but I have esh in me. I

know ‘nothing of that, says the law. I hate these lusts, you

reply to it. So do I, says the law, and that is the reason I

am cursing you, for you have them. e law allows of no

excuses, and this is its value; it would not be a perfect law

if it did, for it would be a bad law if it allowed any evil

or failure. Do you love God with all your heart? No; you

know you do not. en you are under the curse. Do you

love your neighbor as yourself? No; I do not deny there

may be much kindness of feeling, sympathy, and the like;

but if your neighbor loses his fortune, do you feel it just as

much as if you had lost your own? No, you do not. en

you are under the curse. e eect of a law where there

is a will is that it brings out the will; for it makes a man

strive against that which checks his will, but that is not the

fault of the law, but the fault of sin that there is in him.

It is in fallen human nature to will to do a thing that is

forbidden; for instance, if a cup were turned over on the

table, and at the same time it was declared that no one

must know what was under it, all in the room would desire

to know it immediately. us sin, taking occasion by the

commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Now, we are delivered from the law. But do you really

believe that it is deliverance? If not, you do not know what

esh is, neither do you know what holiness is. Still, the

law is good of itself: that must ever be guarded. It would

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be blasphemy to speak ill of it as God’s law. But now we

are delivered from the law, having died in that wherein we

were held, that we should serve in the newness of the spirit,

and not in the oldness of the letter. e law is not dead.

It is still in full force against the unrighteousness of the

man who is under it; but I have died under it. e law has

condemned me, and spent its full curse on me in Christ.

e moment I get life in Christ, I am in partnership

with Him, and partnership involves participation in all

the advantages of the one with whom we are admitted

partners. All my debts having been discharged withal, I

am brought into the position in which Christ is. I brought

nothing in. His kindness brought me in. But then I speak

as a partner would of his capital, customers, and the like; so

we, of being dead, alive, and the like. And now I can serve

in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the

letter. We do not blame the law. God forbid! But I had not

known sin, but by the law, “for when the commandment

came, sin revived and I died.” us death was brought into

my soul by the knowledge of sin; but will that bring to

God? Never! It shows my need of grace and a deliverer.

e law says, ou shalt not lust; then it is all over with

me, for I am one with Adam, and I am full of lust. “Sin,

taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all

manner of concupiscence”; that is, the law suggested it, by

forbidding it.

Suppose a person to say, “I am going to do such and such

a thing,” and I say, “Oh, don’t do that,” when self-will is at

work, he desires the more to do it immediately. It is useless

to try and combat with sin in this way. Yet the awakened

conscience and the prohibition combine to make one know

that it is wrong, and put me consciously guilty before God.

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227

e commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to

be unto death. is was not the fault of the commandment,

but being a sinner, the commandment which should have

been the ministration of life, which said, “Do this and live,”

necessarily became the ministration of death.

Let me return now to verse 5, which contains an

important principle, from which all this sorrow ows.

“When we were in the esh”: compare this with verse 9 of

Romans 8, “But ye are not in the esh” (though the esh

may be in you). Now this is the key to all that has been

said, and gives it its full power. If you are dead with Christ,

and have life through Him, you are not in the esh, but

in the Spirit. e natural man, we know, is in the esh,

nor does the law quicken him. But there is a further case.

Suppose him quickened and under the law: still the law

takes up man in the esh, in principle, as to his position

and conscience, and condemns him in the very thing in

which he stands, as to his own consciousness before God,

that is, his own personal responsibilities, but according to

God’s intention.

Now, as regards my conscious position, I am always in the

esh, that is, as a child of Adam, on my own responsibility,

till I know myself to be dead with Christ, and redeemed

out of it. e being born again only makes me apprehend

the spirituality of the law, the force of “ou shalt not

lust.” It does not show me sin in nature, but it gives me

the knowledge of it by its rst movements, and the painful

discovery that, when I would do good, evil is present with

me. I still do what I hate, and do not do what I would. It

does not give the Spirit, which does give power, as it is the

witness of liberty, but leaves a man just where he was in his

responsibility, according to the rst Adam’s place, and says,

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“Keep the law, and there is life; do this, and live”; and if

there be life communicated, it does not hinder the working

of the esh, which yet it still condemns, and our conscience

says, rightly. us the fact of being quickened by God does

not give deliverance, while the conscience is under the law,

though such have really a part in it; but it gives through

the law the deep sense of the need of deliverance, because

we cannot succeed in what we really desire. e law and

esh, and sin and death, go together, they are correlative.

But if I have died, the other three have lost their power

over me. If dead I am clearly no longer in the esh. I say,

When we were in the esh, the motions of sin which were

by the law wrought in our members to bring forth fruit

unto death. But as to our conscious place, we all are in the

esh, unless the Spirit of God by virtue of redemption

dwell in us. Redemption, therefore, and the knowledge of

redemption (of our having died, moreover, with Christ),

is what we need for this deliverance. e apostle, while

ascribing the eect to the law, yet carefully guards the law:

“Was, then, that which is good made death unto me? God

forbid! But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in

me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment

might become exceeding sinful.”

is brings us to the main point of the chapter, not only

esh, of which we have spoken, but the operation of the

law, and its eect, and that even on those who can delight

in it spiritually. It works death; for we, Christians, know it

is spiritual, but I as a child of Adam, am carnal, sold, that

is a slave, under sin; and sin only becomes exceeding sinful

by the law, working in me all manner of concupiscence. It

has not, then, as such, sanctifying power. It cannot make

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229

me holy. Is not the law good then? Yes! it is holy, just, and

good. But I, as in the esh, am not subject to it.

e apostle asks two questions here: Is the law sin? No,

he says; but he would not have known sin, nor had sin on

his conscience, but for it. Secondly, was it made death to

him? No doubt sin wrought death in him by it. And this

is its use. ere is the knowledge of sin, and sin becomes

exceeding sinful. Note here, it is all along sin, not sins. Paul

had nothing externally on his conscience; but when the law

became spiritual to him, then he found lusts and sin. at

is what is discovered here, it is not what we have done, but

what we are, that is, in the esh.

ere are three things in this chapter. In the rst six

verses, we have the doctrine — we have died to the law

by the body of Christ, and we are married to another,

even Christ risen from the dead; then verses 7-13, the

conclusion, with the inquiry, is it sin? does it work death?

and verses 14 to the end, experience, before being delivered

from the law. And here it is of importance to mark how the

apostle says “I” and “we.” When he says “I,” he is taking us

in our individual state; but when he says “we,” then it is as

Christians, as believers in Christ, that he is speaking of us.

If he says “I,” then he is beginning to deal with individual

members; for if I begin to talk of myself, then I nd sin in

myself every day. It is a personal, practical consciousness

of what is working in my heart. But that is not my place

in Christ, and there is the dierence. And this gives us the

key to the passage. It is one who has Christian knowledge,

judging what esh is, but what it is in its eect on me in the

presence of, and under the law. It is what I am in myself,

that is, in the esh. I am carnal; in me, that is in my esh,

dwells no good thing. In this part of the chapter, all is “I”

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230

and “me” therefore, which are used some thirty times; but

he never speaks of Christ or of the Spirit at all until the

close of the chapter. It is the experience of what the esh

is, viewed in the light of the requirements of a spiritual law,

deliverance being yet unknown, and not the knowledge by

faith of what I am in Christ. It is the personal experience

of myself in esh, but mixed with the clear knowledge of a

Christian, who looks back at it; but not the state of a man

in Christ, whom the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus

hath made free.

What is in Romans 7, then, is a man under the law. It

is not simply the eect of conict between the new and

the old nature, but the eect of being under the law when

both are there. It does not say that Christ is good, but takes

much lower ground, and says that the law is holy, just, and

good. Romans 7 is the discussion of the law applied to the

practical experience of a man, struggling to live righteously

under it. A natural man cannot delight in the law of God

with his heart, the new nature does; but then, according

to that nature, we see he always wills what is right, yet he

never does it, because he has no power. Now, do you not

nd that, in a vast majority of cases, what you want is power

to do what is right? Well, then, the law will never give it

you; for the law is as weak to give you power to do right, as

it is strong to condemn you when you do wrong. e secret

of it all is, that when in the esh there is no power, and it

is all self till we see that; and till Christ is known as the

Deliverer from the law, it is always I, I, I, and we shall be

oundering about, and only getting deeper and deeper into

it, like a man in a morass, who attempting to lift one leg

out, only sinks the other deeper in the mire; there may be a

desire to get out, but he must have a deliverer; there is ever

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231

the desire to be this or that, or to do this or that, being thus

occupied with self instead of Christ. It is true you ought to

desire holiness, but how are you to get power to be holy?

Suppose you were, what will never be, a great deal

more holy than you are, would that give you peace, when

you have not been brought to a righteous standing before

God in Christ? If you think your own holiness could give

you peace, you are not even depending on His blood, and

certainly you do not know yourselves. What then is all this

struggling meant for? Just to let you know you cannot have

peace in this way, nor righteousness and holiness in the

esh and by the law, that you may know yourselves, and

what esh is.

ere is such a tendency in us to be thinking of these

I’s and me’s, thus to set up self in God’s place, that God

says, Well, you shall have so much of self, that you shall

be thoroughly glad to have done with yourself, and to this

end, God often suers us to be brought through all this, to

be put under the law, with a new nature and a good will,

which only leads to “O wretched man that I am,” for it is

only man. ere is the love of good, but no power to do

it, for man is as powerless as he is wicked. He is, through

laboring to do, brought to cry out, “Who shall deliver?”

He is looking for another to deliver him; he gives it up as

a hopeless thing, yet cannot, dare not, do without it. It is

not that man is to get a better self, but a deliverance from

self. is may be the work of a day or years, according to

circumstances; man is brought to his own level, and then

God in grace can come in. en comes thanksgiving, “I

thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” e only way

by which man gets power is by being shown that he has

none of himself, and then he is not delivered by getting

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232

victory, and so peace, but by nding he is in Christ, has

died to and is out of the esh, and only in Christ, through

whom he lives before God. en God can give him power.

“When we were without strength, in due time Christ died

for the ungodly.” Man must know God as his Savior, before

he knows Him as his strength. ere must be salvation;

then comes peace, and progress.

e doctrine, then, in Romans 7, is that we cannot

have Christ and the law, or the two husbands at once; but,

that we are dead to the law, and bound to Christ risen.

e motions of sin which were by the law did work in our

members to bring forth fruit unto death. But it is not the

fault of the law, yet it brings death into our consciences; the

law, moreover, is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin;

and it serves to the renewed man to teach him by practical

experience what sin really is, and makes it exceeding sinful.

e fruit of the experience gained under it is, rst, to know

that in me, that is, in my esh, dwells no good thing — not

what I have done, but what I am, that is my esh; next,

to distinguish between self and sin, for I hate it, its very

pressure makes me know it, thus taught of God; but, thirdly,

that if I do hate it, it is too strong for me, has still power

over me; a law in my members bringing me into captivity.

But this powerlessness, thus learned, when I feel the evil

and the burden, leads me to have done with self, and look

for a deliverer; a deep and weighty lesson; but having been

crucied with Christ, I am delivered; hence, here he thanks

God. e doctrine he had taught already; he is now come

to the point where the eect is realized. e law has spent

its full curse on the person of Christ, and so on us also, as

reckoned to our favor, as associated with Christ in death;

now we are married to Him risen.

Notes on Romans 7

233

e law is often applied by God to bring home to the

soul a sense of its powerlessness, for it is easier to learn we

are sinful, than to learn that we have no power. Conscience

will soon tell us we are sinful, as regards acts, but it requires

this divine teaching to know the sin in our nature. We often

need to be brought through struggle after struggle, before

we acknowledge that in our esh dwells no good thing,

that we have no power; we may assent to it as a doctrine,

but we must also experience the truth of it in the secrecy

of our own souls.

It is a humbling, but most protable lesson; the

dierence is evident always to every experienced eye,

indeed, to oneself, as to condence in self, besides turning

to the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free.

e Lord give you to weigh well this important

principle, that there is no forgiveness of sins but of grace,

through Christ’s death. For an evil nature, for sin — Christ

having died for us, as “for sin,” — is condemned in His

death, and we are set free, for we have died with Him. Also

remember this, that it is the discovery of what we really are,

that settles the question of the law. en we shall be glad

to get rid of what only can and ought to bring a curse upon

us, and to be brought into fellowship with Christ the Lord.

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234

62976

Notes on Romans 8

Chapter 8

In this well-known and remarkable chapter, we have the

results of what we have been considering in what precedes.

Romans 5:1-11 gave us the peace, present grace, and hope,

which Christ’s dying for our sins gave us, and what God

is to us in and by it. is chapter gives our state and place

before Him, and as such in the world, a kind of picture of

what a Christian is.

ere are three distinct parts in the detail of this chapter.

First — Our state in Christ — the fruit of the grace of God.

“e law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made

me free from the law of sin and death,” brought out in its

inward power and fruitfulness, and with that, sin in the

esh condemned, but in Christ’s death a sacrice for it.

is part goes down to verse 13. Second. — e person

and presence of the Holy Spirit in us, down to verse

29. ird. — ere is a transition from the work of God

inwardly, in our souls, to the outward security, what God

is for us, what we count upon Him for; and that makes it

so sweet, for He says, “nor any other creature.” And surely

any creature whatever must be inferior to God: therefore

he says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” So that

from verse 29 to the end of the chapter it is God for us, the

outward security, so to speak, unconnected with the work

within us, that he had spoken of in the beginning of the

chapter, though preserving them in divine love, in whom

it is wrought, for the glory; and so entirely is this the case,

that when he says, “whom he justied,” he does not add,

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235

“them he also sanctied” (though that be true), but “them

he also gloried.”

I repeat again these three distinct parts in the chapter.

First. — e inward eect of the living power of the Spirit

of God in our souls, down to verse 13. Second. — e

personal presence of the Holy Spirit in us, down to verse

29. ird. — From verse 29 to the end of the chapter, all the

saving power of what God is, according to His counsel, for

us outwardly, not looking at His work within the soul, but

maintaining it to the end.

It may be noticed by some that I have said nothing

on the last verse of Romans 7. “With the mind I myself

serve the law of God; but with the esh the law of sin.”

Now a godly person might suppose having come to the

deliverance there is in Christ Jesus, that conict then was

all entirely over. Now that is not the case, as it is after the

soul has known deliverance by Jesus Christ that this great

principle clearly comes out, “with the mind I serve the

law of God”; as the apostle for the same reason could tell

us what that state was. I cannot do this till I have known

deliverance. I cannot calmly describe how one sinks, as I

have said, in the morass, till I am out of it. I am crying

out for help, for my safety; but this last verse states the

abiding general principle (esh remains in us after we

have known deliverance), and hence the conict to keep

it down; therefore in Romans 7:25, we see there is conict

after deliverance, as before, because there are conicting

principles of nature contradictory one to another: but we

are no longer under the law after deliverance, we belong to

another. Moreover, the power of the Spirit is there in us.

us in Romans 7 the new nature and the esh are

opposed to each other, but under law, while in Galatians

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236

5 it is the opposition of esh and Spirit. “e esh lusteth

against the Spirit and the Spirit against the esh,” because

in the Galatians it is about those who have the Spirit, and

therefore you get real power here, after the deliverance,

which you do not get in Romans 7, because they have not

received the Spirit. So that in Romans 7 it is not esh

lusting against the Spirit, but man under the law; whereas

in Galatians it is added, if we walk in the Spirit, we are

not under law. erefore he does not say here (Rom. 7),

“the esh lusteth against the Spirit,” but he cries out, “O

wretched man that I am who shall deliver me? for what I

would that I do not, but what I hate that do I.” But ye (that

believe) are not in the esh, but “in the Spirit.” “As many

as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

erefore in Galatians, when they have got the Spirit, they

are exhorted to walk in the Spirit. But if they have the Holy

Spirit, why this exhortation to walk in the Spirit? Because

the esh is still there, and lusteth against the Spirit.

But when a man is led of the law, he is still, as to his

standing and conscience, in the esh, though, if really

Christ’s, he cannot be entirely holden there. But you are

not led of the law. “For ye are not in the esh, but in the

Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you.” And if ye

be led of the Spirit, ye cannot be under the law, for when

really under the law, ye must be led of the esh; for sin loses

its dominion as well as its power to accuse only by our not

being under law, but under grace, because the law can in no

wise place us in known grace nor give the Spirit. erefore

if under it you cannot be led of the Spirit.

Now then we are prepared to see the deliverance and

the extent of it, and also that it is God’s deliverance. In

the rst three verses of this chapter we have the results

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237

of the argument in the end of chapter 5, and in Romans

6 and 7. In verse 1 we have the result of chapter 5, as in

the last Adam, then the displacing of the Adam nature by

our being dead with Christ by the power of the Spirit of

life in Him. In verse 2, and in Romans 6, dead to sin, and

alive to God through Christ. In verse 3, as in Romans 7,

dead to the law; and then in Romans 8, no condemnation

to them who are in Christ Jesus. Still he does not merely

repeat what is there, but brings forward according to the

full light of faith, and divine teaching, the actual condition

of the believer, which that reasoning had brought him up

to. at prepared the way, in contrast with the old state in

Adam, and in replying to objections. is gives the actual

condition of him who is delivered.

e conclusion is in the rst verse by itself; “ere is

therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ

Jesus.” ey have passed out of the esh as before God and

are in Christ who has died and risen again; and, having

suered for our sins, is past death and judgment and the

whole condition of sin, even as having to say to it for others.

ere cannot therefore be condemnation for me in Him.

e “therefore” is not a consequence drawn as an argument,

but a great moral result demonstrated by the condition of

things developed in what precedes.

Verse 2 begins the full resulting view, as “for” is constantly

used by the apostle — the result of what is passing in the

apostle’s mind — not the proof of his textual argument. e

power of life in Christ, acting in and for itself, has set me

free from the law of the old man altogether; I may foolishly

listen to it, but I am not, really, at all under its power. Just as

the breath which God breathed into Adam’s nostrils gave

him power to use his previously formed body, so the power

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238

of life in Christ enables me to serve now in the liberty

and power of that life. But another truth comes in to make

this good — redemption and resurrection. If it were only

a new nature, new in its desires, it would give the sense of

responsibility, the conscience of sin, and, in the hatred of

it, the knowledge that God must be against it, and thus

fear and dread as regards God. is is Romans 7, and in

principle, law; but what law could not do, God has sent His

Son and accomplished. e blessed and sinless Lord has

come, and in the likeness of sinful esh, and for sin, that

is, as a sacrice for sin. us God has condemned sin in

the esh. It has been dealt with; that which my conscience

recognized, which held me in bondage, cannot accuse me

any more. Its condemnation is past, but executed, and I

have, in that same work of Christ, died to it. I live to God

through Him that is risen, to whom I am bound. us verse

3 shows me that work of God which leaves me free to live

in the life of verse 2. e actual requirements of the law will

be thus fullled, because I am not under it, and I live by a

life which does not do what is contrary to God’s will.

Under the rst Adam, who brought in sin and death,

there was nothing but what pressed down; while in the

last Adam, the Lord from heaven, it is all lifting up, but

lifting up from under the power of sin, as well as from

its condemnation — perfect liberty. God has come in in

delivering power; but you say, How is that? God’s Son

went down under death for our sins, and rose in the

power of the life of the Son of God without them, and by

association with Him, we are taken from under our sins,

and the law of sin in the old man, into resurrection-life

with Him. us, then, if I am dead and in Christ risen,

there can be no condemnation, for I have died under God’s

Notes on Romans 8

239

judgment against sin, and am alive after the judgment

has been executed for sin on Him who died for it. I am

alive only to God in Him, not in the esh in which sin is,

the sense of sins put away; there can therefore now be no

condemnation, for it is God Himself that justies.

God came in in power when man was a sinner, by

Christ’s coming and taking us out of the old, and putting

us into the new condition altogether. erefore now it

is no question of hope, where faith is simple. I do not

hope anything about the cross, because it is a past thing,

executed and done. We do not now trust in a promise for

salvation, but in the fact, the accomplishment of a promise

(of course we do trust in a promise for every day’s need and

deliverance, but that is quite another thing).

By one righteousness the free gift is of many oenses

unto justication of life. And the way He is bringing them

is beyond death, and hence deliverance from the guilt of sin;

but through death alive in God’s presence, and thus not in

the esh, in which the power of sin was, but in Christ, and

there is no condemnation there; and then the reason he

gives for this, saying, “e law of the spirit of life in Christ

Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

And here is the secret of the walk, “who walk not after the

esh, but after the Spirit,” for now he enters on the power

of the Spirit, but still, rst, on the power of life, for what we

do not get in chapter 7, we get here fully, that is, Christ and

the Spirit. Having laid the foundation in virtue of what

Christ has done, and having given us life, He then works in

us; for this is what we nd, the living power of the Spirit

of life in Christ setting us, as associated with Him, out of

the sphere of the power of condemnation, death, and law;

because my life, as a Christian, is through Christ, so that

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240

the righteousness of the law might be fullled in us, who

walk not after the esh, but after the Spirit. It is this which

introduces the doctrine of the Spirit’s presence, of which

this chapter now proceeds to speak. “What the law could

not do” (that is, eect righteousness by keeping it in the

esh), he that walks in the Spirit does; he fullls the law,

and that is the practical result of our position, but the law

could never give that power.

I desire to call attention again to verse 1: there is

great force and power in it. It does not say you are not

condemned, but, “there is now no condemnation,” and

that goes much farther; for if there is any question of sin

on the conscience, the nearer we are to God, the more

distressed and anxious we shall be, and therefore the soul

needs this full assurance. Could anyone say there was any

condemnation for Christ? and that now even, as regards

His connection with us? surely not! for He is the Holy

One, the accepted Man in the presence of God, having

perfectly gloried Him in His work for us. en how can

there be any condemnation for the one that is in Him, for

whom this work was wrought? erefore he says, “ere is

now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

is is more than saying to them for whose sins Christ

died, than if it was said on Christ Jesus — as Aaron wore

the breastplate as part of the vestment, so that the names

of the children of Israel were borne on his heart; and when

the light of Jehovah’s countenance fell on Aaron with full

favor, the same light shone on the names engraved on the

breast-plate. But this in Romans 8 is much more, being

in the presence of God as Christ is; all the old sins gone;

himself, as to the old man, dead with Christ, and he himself

before God in perfect acceptance.

Notes on Romans 8

241

Romans 8:2. “e law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus

hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” e old

man could never get rid of its law (law here is power, or

nature acting uniformly), but here we have another man,

the new man; and that has its law, and what is that? life

in Christ: a law as uniform in its spirit of action as any

natural law. And this law of the Spirit of life in Christ

Jesus is godliness, associating with Him out of the sphere

of sin and death. e law, dealing with the old man, had

no power against this law of sin and death — this contrary

spirit of action; but now there is the new man, with a new

law, and that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus;

but he does not speak of walking in the Spirit, till he has

said, “no condemnation,” as there is no power for walk till

that question is settled. We saw in chapter 7 the desires of

the new life, but working towards the law, and, therefore,

no power; but here it is life itself in Christ acting in its own

law.

Romans 8:3. “For what the law could not do in that it

was weak through the esh.” e law was not in fault. It

failed through the weakness of the esh; you cannot make

anything perfect out of bad materials. A man may be a very

skilful workman, but if you set him to work on bad materials,

all his skilfulness would prove of no avail. If it is to carve

on wood, for instance, he may display the most exquisite

taste and workmanship, and produce that which all must

admire, and declare to be perfect, and without a blemish

or a fault: but if he were to attempt to do the same on clay

instead of wood, or on rotten wood, it would crumble to

pieces beneath his hand, and thus all his skill would go for

nothing; so the law attempting to work on the esh only

crumbles it to pieces. e law never eected the giving of

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righteousness. It promises life to those who keep it, but it

never gives life; what man could not do, God can do. “For

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,” in dying the

just for the unjust. God condemned, or, as you might say,

executed sin in the esh for us by the death of Christ. He

did not die only for my sins (though that is true), but for

my sin. e root of sin that is in my nature, and that which

worries and distresses the heart of the sincere believer daily,

is put away for faith by death, and we are dead to it, as well

as those sins that are committed; for the heart says, and

rightly too, that God ought to condemn it, and trembles;

now how is this to be met? By God sending His own Son

in the likeness of sinful esh and for sin, or as a sacrice

for sin.

en He condemned sin in the esh, and put it away

in Christ’s sacrice; thus the whole thing is settled, and

that which was a weight on my spirit, and a thorn in

my conscience is taken away by the very way in which

the condemnation has run out in all its full force, in

the crucixion of Christ. God has settled the question,

condemning the sin in you, which you condemn. But

where has He done it? Outside of yourself altogether; for

if God sets about delivering, He does it perfectly. If Christ

has died, not only for your committed sins, but your sin in

the esh, it is real through redemption: for He does not

leave us under our sins, but takes them away, and forgives

them. And not only this, He takes away the condemnation

of sin in the nature, by God’s judgment being executed on

the sinless esh of the person of His own Son. us sin in

my esh is judged, as well as my committed sins. is is

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243

what the heart wants to be delivered from, and what it is

in conict with every day. e tree and the fruit — the root

and the sap, that harasses the heart, is settled, and that by

God sending His own Son. ere was the greatest grace to

meet it; and the very thing that harasses you most God has

provided for in sending His own Son.

Well, then, in verse 3, I get the result of Romans 7 met.

“In that the law was weak through the esh, God sending

his own Son,” etc. Well, but you say, I have sin working

in me still, what am I to do? Why, the very thing that

distresses you is the very thing that God gave His Son for,

“and for sin” and so “condemned sin in the esh.” is it is

that gives the real liberty to the Christian, not liberty to

sin, but liberty from sin.

Romans 8:4. “at the righteousness of the law might

be fullled in us, who walk not after the esh, but after the

Spirit.” He is not taking up the old man here, but the walk;

and mark, there are two principles of walk — after the

esh, and after the Spirit. Flesh is not changed; if it were,

why be exhorted not to walk after it? But no; the esh is

the same as ever, but the believer now has power over it,

he does not walk after it, although it be there. e esh is

in him, but he is not in the esh. ere is no excuse for a

Christian walking in esh, because the Spirit of Christ is

in him. But, mark further; we all, even as believers, have

the esh, but that does not necessarily make the conscience

bad, but I must have conict with it, then it is no hindrance

to communion; but if I yield to it, I get a bad conscience

and lose communion, and I have to confess my sin before

communion can be restored. For instance, if I have pride

in my nature, that does not hinder communion, if I go to

my Father and plead with Him about it, and ask Him to

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help me to keep it down, and walk in gracious humility,

to deliver me; instead of losing communion, I have

communion with God about it. But if there be neglect,

instead of getting strength from God to overcome it, I

may go out in the morning without carefulness and get my

pride wounded: for if a person does not show me as much

respect as I think he ought, then my pride comes out in

some unhappy manifestation, and my conscience is deled,

and my communion with God hindered, and the Lord

Himself dishonored. e very fact of my having indwelling

sin is but the occasion of communion, or a barrier to it,

according as I am dead to it, seeking God’s face, or yield

to it.

Romans 8:5. “ey that are after the esh do mind

the things of the esh; but they that are after the Spirit,

the things of the Spirit.” It is “after the Spirit,” the man’s

condition is looked at here as spiritual. Every nature has

its object, which is its “mind.” ere are two principles

here, each having its own object; the very brute creation

have their desires, the esh its more deliberate objects. e

spiritual man obeys the tastes and appetites of the Spirit

instead of the esh.

Romans 8:6. “To be carnally minded is death” (or, which

is better, the mind of the esh, and the mind of the Spirit.

It is what each in its nature desires, not a state). If the esh

run its course, death, the seal of condemnation, must be

upon it. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after

this the judgment”; “but to be spiritually-minded is life and

peace.” Now we are getting the real, practical, inward thing.

ere are two kinds of peace — peace in the conscience,

and peace in the heart. “To be spiritually-minded is life

and peace.” is is a far higher thing than simply peace in

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245

the conscience. It is peace in the heart and aections. e

aections are at rest, and then there is the steady pursuit

of things for which our consciences will not accuse us, for,

delighting ourselves in the Lord, there will be peace. If you

are restless and discontented in your mind, you are not at

peace, you are thinking about yourselves! self has come in,

so we want something for self. e Spirit turns the eye

away from self towards the Lord. e things of the esh

are too small to ll the heart, and the heart likewise needs

enlarging to grasp the things of the Spirit; and herein is

the contrast between Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon

on this very point.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, “ere is no good thing

under the sun”; “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Why

so? To him, self was seeking its own satisfaction. Here,

then, was no rest, no peace; it could not be otherwise. No

human object could satisfy an immortal soul, nor could a

dying man get rest in what he was to die out of. Yet, when

thinking of himself, it was all I, I, I, I did it, and I found it

vanity; but in Song of Solomon we see all his blessedness,

because he speaks of Christ being all to him there. As it has

been said, in Ecclesiastes the heart was too great for the

object; in Song of Solomon the object is too great for the

heart. We want a largeness of capacity for the enjoyment

of God Himself; a largeness of capacity which none but

God can give, and none but God can ll. Where that is,

“life and peace” are. What peace and joy and communion

a Christian, so walking, has in his heart! But when self

comes in, even if we have assurance, there is no peace of

heart, because there is always a liability to have it wounded,

and if it be not, self is never content. If we know ourselves,

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we shall soon see that it is the central thought of every

irritated heart.

Romans 8:7. “Because the carnal mind is enmity

against God.” Now, here we get a deeper thing still than

lawbreaking in itself; an unsubject will always is the spirit

of hatred against Him to whom we feel we ought to be

subject, and this brings on the full judgment of self; for

while there may be peace of heart and peace of conscience,

yet a man nds that the mind of the esh is enmity against

God, for he nds that he, according to the esh, has a will

that will not be subject to God, and it would not be a will

if it were. e esh has not only desires, but a will that is

not subject to the law of God, nor ever can be. e law

not only declares right things, but also the authority of the

Law-giver, and that brings out the rebellion of the esh,

for the esh immediately says, I will, and I won’t. If you are

guilty of breaking one commandment, you are guilty of all;

for the unwillingness to submit is as much shown in the

breaking one, as in breaking all. I may require my child to

obey in three things, and in two of them he may obey me,

because he does not want to do otherwise; but in the third

he does not obey, not liking to do it, and therefore takes his

own way instead of submitting; the sin was in the will, for

he was as guilty in disobeying me, as if he had disobeyed in

all: “So, then, they that are in the esh cannot please God,”

because of the will in the members.

Romans 8:9. “But ye are not in the esh, but in the

Spirit.” Now we get the liberty, for you are not set in the

esh, but in the Spirit. is is the new nature having its

source in the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit working in

it. e man is not in the esh, is not in that place, and

standing, and nature before God (he does not say that esh

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247

is not in the man), but in the Spirit; that is, all the Spirit

delights in and descries, characterize the man before God,

according to the nature and place he has in Christ, though

there may be much failure in carrying it out. “If so be

that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” It is not merely God

working for us, but in us. We are born of the Spirit, thus

we get the new nature, but then, besides the new nature

we want power and liberty, and therefore, consequent on

redemption and our cleansing by blood, the Holy Spirit,

who is God, dwells there to work in the new nature, and

this gives living power. For if I have the new nature only,

this gives good desires, but I do not accomplish them, as

in Romans 7; but here it is “if so be that the Spirit of God

dwell in you.” It is not merely that we have new thoughts

and desires, but He, who is really God, dwells in us to give

us power to accomplish them.

It is blessed to see how he brings in God as the real

practical deliverance of the man who was before in the

esh. For it does not say, “if born of the Spirit,” though

that is true, but, “if the Spirit of God dwell in you,” a truth

founded on redemption, and our being delivered by it,

cleansed through Christ’s blood, so that the Holy Spirit can

dwell in us, the power of God Himself working in us. And

if the Spirit of God works powerfully in a man, when did

it rst work and manifest itself in the true and perfect path

of a man before God? In Christ; so this is called now the

Spirit of Christ, because shown in the fruit, in walking like

Christ, in the practical formal characteristics of meekness,

lowliness, gentleness, obedience, heavenly-mindedness,

etc., which the Spirit took in Christ (for these were the

natural found characteristics of the Spirit in Christ), but

formative in us of that which was so perfectly in Him.

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248

Romans 8:10. “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead

because of sin,” that is, Christ being power and life in us,

we take it for dead, for if alive, it only is and can be sin:

“but the Spirit is life because of righteousness,” its natural

practical fruit; I only am and own that as life. at is, the

old man in us (the body with a will is called the esh) is

as dead, shorn of will, for I judge it: but the Spirit is life,

already manifesting the fruits of righteousness in us, to the

praise of the glory of God.

But, farther, the body itself will be raised. “He that

raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your

mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” How

entirely are the saints separated from this world! Even

their resurrection is dierent; the world; that is, the wicked

dead, will not be raised by the Spirit of Christ, but the

just will be raised by His Spirit, for He dwells in them.

“If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead

dwell in you” (here is the link), you will be raised because

of the same Spirit dwelling in you. “He that is joined to

the Lord is one spirit.” us we have three aspects of the

Holy Spirit: the Spirit of God contrasted with the esh;

the Spirit of Christ as characteristic of our walk in the

world; and the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus, pledge of

our resurrection — the triple character of the Spirit of God

as given to the Christian. At the end of verse we get the

answer to verse 24, of Romans 7, “O wretched man that

I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Here there is full deliverance, not only for the soul now, but

for the body also. “He that raised up Christ from the dead

shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that

dwelleth in you.” We shall be brought up to the very image

of Christ; even our mortal bodies shall be fashioned like

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249

unto His glorious body. e liberty of glory is contrasted

with the liberty of grace. Now we are in the liberty of grace,

then in the liberty of the glory, the creature being sharer in

the latter.

In speaking of the Spirit of God, He is spoken of up

to verse 11 as being life, and after that as distinct from

one’s life in Christ, as a present Person, as dwelling in us

and witnessing with our spirit. See how strikingly these

two points of view are brought together in verse 27. It

attributes the thoughts and feelings which God searches

out to my heart, because it is in my heart that the Spirit

works, but it goes on to the source: in my heart it nds the

mind of the Spirit according to the doctrine of verses 5-7,

which is wrought by the Holy Spirit; and lastly, it is the

Holy Spirit Himself who makes intercession in the saints.

It is me, because it is wrought in my new nature; but as to

the power that wrought it, it is not me. e Holy Spirit

does it in and by me. It is me as to the act, but it is He as

to the source. We have the new nature given to us, and the

Spirit is the source, nor is the stream separated from it; this

is the teaching up to verse 11; but the Holy Spirit dwells

in us. Well, a groan comes out, and I may not understand

what to ask for, but through the Holy Spirit my groan is

according to the mind of the Spirit, by the Spirit of God

which is in me; but this brings in the last truth referred to,

His intercession. It is the Spirit Himself in me; He makes

intercession according to God, and “God that searcheth

the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.” It is

attributed to my heart, but to Him also that produced it.

It is me, and at the same time it is the Holy Spirit. I have

anticipated in my reference to this verse, because it made

plain the doctrine of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. It

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250

is a sweet thing to know that the Searcher of hearts nds

the Spirit’s mind and intercession in us, in place of sin and

the esh.

We will now open out the doctrine itself. “e Spirit

itself beareth witness with our spirit.” e Spirit is life,

as we have seen, but we must understand that we are

sealed after we have believed. It will be said, “Yet, I cannot

believe without the Spirit.” Most true, it is His work, we

are born of God by His quickening power, through the

word, whence also it is by faith; but, then, because ye are

sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your

hearts. e indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a very dierent

thing from the quickening power of the Spirit. e Old

Testament saints were the subjects of this quickening

power of the Spirit, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

could not be till Jesus was gloried. Instances are given in

the Acts, where there was an interval in time to make us

sensible of the distinction of the two.

Well, there is a new nature, but there is neither strength

nor power in it. We cannot act without the Spirit. e

very characteristics of the new nature are dependence and

obedience, and the Holy Spirit is the power in answer to

this dependence, and hence it is we are led by the Spirit.

e Spirit does not lead the esh, but it teaches me to

reckon it dead, and to mortify my members upon earth.

Yet it is the whole man He leads, for I do not call the esh

Me, if I reckon myself dead, but that is “if the Spirit of God

dwell in you.”

en we are temples of the Holy Spirit, which is in us,

which we have of God. A temple is that in which God

dwells, and my body is this temple. Surely this is a most

solemn motive against sin, for how can I go and dele

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251

God’s temple? In John 14:16 the Lord says, “I will pray

the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that

he may abide with you forever.” So also in John 16:7, He

says, “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not

away the Comforter will not come unto you.” e rst

Comforter, Christ, did not dwell, that is, abide with them;

He had to go away, and further, He was not in them, but

the other Comforter was, as He said, to dwell or abide with

them, and should be in them. Christ was with them and

went away; but the Holy Spirit, the other Comforter, was

to be in them, and abide forever. ere is no strength in us

to give power to the truth we receive, or to enjoy the things

we have believed. But the Holy Spirit not only presents the

things of Christ to us, but at the same time enables us to

enjoy them, and to walk in the power of them.

In 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 we nd three things about

the Spirit. First, divine instruction received by the Spirit’s

revelation to the vessel of truth, verse 12, “Now we have

received.” Second, communicated to others by the Spirit,

verse 13, “Which things also we speak.” ird, spiritual

capacity to discern; it also gives the truth living power in

the souls of those who are taught, verse 14, “e natural

man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.”

ere is a solemn truth connected with this, namely, that

the Comforter is really come, for He could not come till

Jesus was gloried; and if the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us,

we are called to walk not after the esh, but after the Spirit.

Being born of God, and sprinkled with the redeeming

blood of Christ, we get the Spirit indwelling. is blood

is the foundation of His presence, for by it we are clean,

and He can dwell there, the seal and witness of the value

of Christ’s work.

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252

e Spirit was abundantly prophesied of in Ezekiel

and Isaiah: “I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed.” us to

the Jews there were abundant promises that there should

be the pouring out of the Spirit; and the Spirit was the

quickener of every saint in the Old Testament times: but

now there is another thing, for the Holy Spirit is really

given to us; and He could not be given till redemption was

fully accomplished. It was only promised till then, as Israel

well knew; but it was promised, and therefore Nicodemus

ought to have known that, “except a man be born of water

and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of

God” (John 3:5). But there is another thing, besides being

born again, upon the coming down of the Holy Spirit, the

seal was upon the value of Christ’s work. e seal was not

put upon what we had done (our real fruits are the fruits of

the Spirit, when we already have it), but upon what Christ

did. e Lord’s own anointing, when baptized, was the seal

to His personal perfectness — “Him hath God the Father

sealed.” But then, could He put the Holy Spirit on me? No;

this would be sealing the esh; but on Him: “After that ye

believed, ye were sealed.”

e Holy Spirit was also given to testify of Christ’s

glory as the risen Man. In Acts 2:33 we see Christ taking

the place of the Head of the body, the church, at the right

hand of God, having received of the Father the promise of

the Holy Spirit.

us we see the gift of the Holy Spirit was entirely

dependent on Christ taking His place at the right hand of

God, as we read in John 15:26, “Whom I will send unto

you from the Father”; and the eect of this was felt in the

apostles. ere was a total dierence in them before and

after Pentecost. ey then preached Jesus crucied. Were

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253

they afraid? No; Peter goes and charges those who had

denied Him with being guilty of a damning sin, when

Peter had committed the same in a much worse way

himself (having been His companion) in denying Him;

and how could he do this? His own conscience was purged,

for Christ had died in the interval, and the Holy Spirit had

been given, and thus he, who before followed trembling

(Mark 10:32), had power now; for he had none before. As

it is said, “When they beheld the boldness of Peter and

John, they marveled,” Acts 4:13. I am not speaking of

miracles, the mighty signs and wonders that were wrought

by the power of the Spirit of God (Rom. 15:19), but of

the boldness in which the apostles spake after that they

received the Holy Spirit. As we see all through the Acts,

the boldness in which the apostles spake and acted was not

the boldness of the esh, but that of the Spirit of God in

them.

We have a beautiful type in Aaron (looked at as Christ)

who was anointed without blood. But the sons of Aaron

(the church) must be sprinkled with the blood and oil. So

the leper was rst sprinkled with blood, and then over that

with oil. Christ was anointed down here, which was the seal

of His own personal perfection before the blood had been

shed. But we, when we believe the atonement, are anointed

and sealed, because of, and as a testimony to, the value of

His work; “He that establisheth us with you in Christ, and

anointeth us, is God.” Christ sends the Holy Spirit, and

the Father sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in

us as the Spirit of adoption. e eect is to connect us with

all the glory into which Christ will bring His church, and

to associate us with Him now in the place where He is in

the presence of the Father, and this as the children of the

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254

Father. And this truth, that the Spirit is sent to us and in

us, gives the character of our walk down here.

We are to mind the things of the Spirit; and what are

they? Anything in this world? No, nothing, if it be not His

service there. “He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto

you.”

He gives us the knowledge of past redemption, present

joy and peace, and future glory. e Holy Spirit teaches

us the glory of the cross after we have known its saving

power, for then we are inside the cross. Whatever is

morally glorious you see it in the cross — love, obedience,

righteousness, holiness; law, and whatever was morally bad,

met there too, condemnation, sin, and death. God and sin

met together in the person of Christ on the cross, but in

the way of redemption for us, while it enhances the iniquity

of sin.

When I have found peace, then I can say, “Now is the

Son of man gloried” (and so He ought to be), and now

He has accomplished that work, and is gone on high, and

we have glory in Him; and surely there is no joy like that

into which we are brought, the joy of knowing that, in that

act of deepest suering for my salvation, Christ and God

were most fully gloried. If Christ suered all that agony

for my sin and vileness, surely there never was a moment in

which God could look on Him with greater delight than

this. And I have now got all the eect of this; I am the

fruit of the travail of Christ’s soul. e light of God’s love

rests upon Christ Himself, and we are in Him — “I am in

my Father, ye in me, and I in you.” We have the blessing of

union with Him now, and there is but one thing more — to

be with Him forever. e Comforter is the perpetual

remembrancer of that word, “So shall we ever be with the

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255

Lord.” e church is to be brought to Christ, as Eliezer

went to fetch Rebekah to Isaac; and as all along the road he

was telling her of the one to whom she was going, just so

the Holy Spirit is leading us in the way, the cross being the

starting-point, giving the whole character of the road all

along the journey answering to it, while He is telling us of

the Father’s house, and place of the heavenly Bridegroom.

ere may be trial in the way, but what is all that

but dung and dross to the heart whose aections are on

Christ? Poor Rebekah, if she thought of her father’s house,

where was she? In the wilderness, with a stranger, and an

uncertain future; but if she thought of what was before her,

then it was all joy and certainty as to the future. e cross

is the very commencement of this journey, as separating us

from the world, and if we would know the Spirit’s power

in our souls, we must keep in the narrow path of separation

from the world all the journey through. Do not make the

wilderness the object of your hearts (Israel did this); or at

least do not rest in it. You may desire earthly good, and you

may get leanness into your soul: “If ye live after the esh, ye

shall die”; but let our walk down here be like Paul’s, “is

one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,

and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”

Let us be so pressing on to the glory, that everything in this

world may be things behind us, that we have left, turning

our back on. We are going to Christ, and He will present

us to Himself, and to the Father, without blemish and

without spot, for He shall see of the travail of His soul and

be satised.

We have before noticed that there are three parts in this

chapter — three distinct subjects. First, the work of the

Spirit of God in us, the eect produced in ourselves, as the

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256

power of life, even to the resurrection of the body; that it

was the fruit and operation of God’s Spirit in us extending

to the resurrection. Second, it is not only the eect that is

produced in living power in us by the Holy Spirit, but the

presence of the Holy Spirit Himself in us, distinguishing

between that which is born of the Spirit and the personal

indwelling of the Holy Spirit. ird, what God is for us

in His outward operations. e moral eect of this is, not

only that God has worked in me by the Spirit and thereby

put me in a certain position, but that the Holy Spirit is

with me in that position; what God is for me also, so as to

secure and bless him in whom He has wrought. It is not

merely that a certain work is wrought in me, but God is

in me, for me, and with me. us, rst, there is that which

God has done with me; second, what God is in me; and

third, what God is for me.

is last is brought out at the end of the chapter: what

God is for man, and not what man is for God, but man

looked at as a saint; for when the apostle has brought

distinctly out what man is, then he brings out what God is

for man, such as he is, as a sinner, summed up in Romans

5; and then what the position of the saint is in his life and

trials, and God in and for him as such. erefore God is

fully set forth, that our hearts may rest in what He is, and

not in what we are. e rejection of God’s Son proved

what man is; but those who believe rest on what grace is,

as we saw at the end of Romans 5; and now, made alive to

God, they know their position with God according to His

predestinating power, and the glory to come. Faith rests

on what God is, and on what God has done, as showing

what He is withal; God has quickened us and sanctied

us, and we have a place with God through this, but what is

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257

wrought in me is not the object of faith: faith rests on what

God is, as thus revealed in His word, which is our warrant

for believing.

e witness in power is the Holy Spirit. It is not only

believing that the Spirit quickens, but that we stand before

God in the Spirit according to the place He has given us

actually in Christ, and that if we believe in what God has

done, in that He has quickened the dead, and brought

into His presence with power Him who had gone down

under death for our sins, when everything was against us

(for sin can nowhere be shown out as it was on the cross,

when He who hung there was made sin and a curse for us),

and that we know He is now the very delight of God — a

man in heaven — not only as to His person, but His work,

we are brought thus to see what sinners we were — lost

sinners — transgressors from the womb; but at the same

time, to see His grace which has wrought deliverance, and

that we are placed in Him who is thus accepted. And God

has so brought out and applied to our hearts all this grace,

that we can now say, “God is for us,” for this is the great

general truth at the end of chapter 8; the Holy Spirit giving

us to understand it by bringing it home to our hearts, in the

conviction of what we are in ourselves, and in Christ; what

God is, and that He is for us, “What shall we say to these

things? if God be for us, who can be against us? “

e testimony of the gospel always comes to convince

of sin, but at the same time to speak of His grace — what

God is for us; but then, it must be received by faith, for

we have no power in ourselves to enjoy God, and it would

24 Hence, in a certain sense, Romans 5 goes beyond Romans 8,

as revealing what God is in Himself to a sinner, not what we

are made before Him.

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258

never be properly faith if it were not by God’s power, as it

is said, “We are kept by the power of God through faith,”

but why through faith? Because faith leads my soul into

the understanding of His love. us leading the heart to

trust in Him, and not in ourselves, in a way that makes us

understand and prize what God is (not in the heart’s love to

Him, but in His love to it), as known in all the dealings of

His grace, keeping us by His power; not keeping as we keep

a precious jewel, which is unintelligent and uninterested in

all our care, but as creating an answer in our hearts to what

He does. His power never fails: we are kept by that, but it

is through faith, that we may have the enjoyment of it, as

being brought to delight ourselves in Him, by whom we

are kept.

In the three things brought out in this chapter, we have,

rst, the new nature, which has spiritual faculties, capable

of enjoying God; as a child, for instance, has the capacity of

enjoying its relationship to the parent, but must also be in

the relationship to have the aection in exercise; so we are

conscious of our place through redemption, but then we

want power, because the new nature is a dependent nature.

e rst man sought to be independent, and so became the

slave of the devil; the second man did nothing of Himself,

He came to obey — He took the form of a servant. It is

the same place we are in, and having a dependent nature,

we want power as we have seen in Romans 7, where there

is a new nature “delighting in the law of God after the

inward man,” but neither object nor power; for we must

have something to love, and then power to love it, for in

Romans 7 the soul has neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit

till the end of it, when he nds the Lord Jesus Christ, and

then exclaims, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our

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259

Lord,” and because he can say, “ere is no condemnation.”

Now, the soul has got an object, and it has got power,

Christ revealing the Father and the Spirit, and it is no

longer a question of conscience. It is not that he is without

a conscience, but his conscience is purged by the blood of

Jesus, and then there is the power of the Spirit of God in

him, and having the new nature, there is the development

of God’s things in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit; for

the Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows

them to us, and is the power in us also to understand them,

as the Lord said, “He shall take of mine and show it unto

you,” and “shall be in you.”

It is the presence of the Holy Spirit with a soul that has

been quickened and knows redemption, having submitted

to the righteousness of God, and not as quickening the

soul at conversion, which is the subject here; nor is it the

Spirit, as He is with the church, which truth is taught in

another place, but it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in

man, in the believer; as the great subject of the epistle to

the Romans is, how God can be just and the justier of

the sinner, and man stand accepted before Him — the

relation of an individual soul with God. erefore the great

fundamental truth is what man is for God, and what God

is for man, and lastly, what through grace man becomes

before God. In the early chapters we saw what man in his

natural state is for God; in Romans 5 what God is for the

sinner; but in Romans 8 what man is in Christ is brought

out, and thus what God is for him, as in this place — “as

many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of

God”; he does not say as many as are quickened by the

Spirit, though that is true, for they must be quickened,

before they can be led by the Spirit. ey are also sealed;

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260

then again, if they are led by the Spirit they are not under

the law, but, being sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of

God. For the Christian is looked at here in his own place,

according to the word. If any man have not the Spirit of

Christ, he is none of His.

In John’s Gospel we see, as truly as the Son was sent

from heaven, so truly was the Holy Spirit sent from heaven;

the Father sent the Son, and the Father and the Son sent

the Holy Spirit; the oce of the Holy Spirit is quite

distinct from the work of the Son come in the esh. We

will now refer to some passages in John’s Gospel, that we

may understand it. In John 16:7, He says, “It is expedient

for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter

will not come unto you: but if I depart, I will send him

unto you” — a living mighty agent, God the Spirit, who

comes down and dwells with you, and is in you, and He

remains. Christ must go away, but He shall abide with us,

and be in us.

Of the Holy Spirit the Lord says, “whom the Father will

send in my name,” and again, “whom I will send from the

Father”; that is, Christ obtains it for us, and the Comforter

comes from the Father to put us, through that name, in

relationship with the Father; then secondly, Christ sends

Him from His Father, and the Holy Spirit comes to tell us

all the glory into which Christ has entered as Man. But, that

we may be distinct and clear upon the subject, we will look

at John 14:16. “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you

another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever”;

and then, verse 17, “for he dwelleth with you, and shall be

in you”; and then, in verse 20, “At that day ye shall know

that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” e

Holy Spirit in thus coming down gives to the believer the

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261

consciousness.of being in Christ, and His being in them,

“He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” e disciples

ought to have known that He was in the Father, and the

Father in Him, as He said, Believest thou not that I am in

the Father, and the Father in me? (vs. 10). But they could

not know while He was on the earth of the fulllment of

these words, “ye in me, and I in you.” As He says, “At that

day ye shall know,” etc.; then in verse 26, “e Comforter,

which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in

my name.” Here we have the Father sending in the Lord’s

name; and in chapter is: 26, “When the Comforter is come,

whom I will send unto you from the Father”; and then in

John 16:13, “when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will

guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;

but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he

shall show you things to come.”

Here, then, in John 16 we get the fulllment of this

great promise, that the Holy Spirit was to come down to

reveal Christ, and to abide forever; for here the Holy Spirit

is looked at as upon the earth, telling of the things He has

heard, taking of the things of Christ, and showing them

unto us; thus carrying on the whole work in our hearts, and

then that He is to abide with us forever: for the ecacy

of Christ’s work must fail, God must fail, before the Holy

Spirit could be taken away, as it is in virtue of our being

sprinkled with the blood of Christ, that the Holy Spirit

is given. e Holy Spirit is in us, in virtue of the work of

Christ, being the great testimony of God’s estimate of the

value of the blood of Christ, and of the glorication of the

Man Jesus. We may grieve Him, and hinder His operations

in us (alas! we do grieve Him), nevertheless, that cannot

drive Him from us, as His presence in the individual is not

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262

in consequence of the condition of the individual, but in

virtue of the blood of Christ, and that must be given up

before the Holy Spirit could be removed; for the anointing

oil, when the leper was cleansed, was put upon the blood; as

Peter also teaches when he says, 1 Peter 1:12, “By them that

have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost

sent down from heaven.” e Holy Spirit came down upon

the person of the Lord when He was upon earth at His

baptism, as a seal of His personal perfection, “him hath

God the Father sealed”; but when He ascended up on

high He received it for others (Acts 2:33), and therefore

promised (Acts 1:5), “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy

Ghost not many days hence”; which actually came to pass

at Pentecost. See Acts 2. So also in John 7:39, “is spake

he of the Spirit,” which, in virtue of redemption, they were

to receive,” for the Spirit was not yet given, because that

Jesus was not yet gloried.”

In Acts 19:2, Paul asks, “Have ye received the Holy

Ghost since ye believed?” ey answer, “We have not yet

heard whether the Holy Ghost is come.” ey were John’s

disciples, and therefore it was not that they questioned the

existence of the Holy Spirit, for indeed, every thoughtful

Jew acknowledged the Holy Spirit as spoken of by the

prophets; but they had not heard whether the Holy Spirit

had come in power, as spoken of in John 7; and according

to the words of John the Baptist: “He shall baptize with

the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 3:11). So again in Galatians,

“Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of

his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”; and in

Ephesians, “After that ye believed, ye were sealed with the

Holy Spirit of promise.” In these two passages we have the

same truth taught, having got redemption through His

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263

blood, they have the Holy Spirit as the seal and the earnest

of the inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased

possession.

e Holy Spirit was obtained by the work of Christ,

and given to those who believe in consequence of faith, the

seal of God set on those who believe in that work. Being

sprinkled by that blood we can be sealed; the blood being

that on which the anointing of oil comes,

as the seal of

that work, which God had wrought in Christ, and the

earnest of the glory to come; while the soul rests on that

work of which the Holy Spirit is the seal. e Holy Spirit

is the strength of fellowship in two ways, giving us rst

the knowledge of present favor, as adopted children; and

secondly, of our union with Christ, our forming part of

the body or bride of Christ. us we have seen redemption

accomplished; the present work of the Holy Spirit in us;

and glory in prospect. And if you are to bear fruit, you must

be both quickened, and have the Holy Spirit; for others

must see the fruit by my life, because they cannot see the

faith.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20-22, “All the promises of God in

him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by

us.” And mark the power and blessing of these two little

words, “by us.” Now, could this be said of us unless we

had the Holy Spirit giving us the blessed knowledge and

consciousness of our place?” Now he which establisheth us

with you, in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath

also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our

hearts.” He hath planted us in Christ, and hath anointed

25 is refers to the cleansing of the Leper. In the consecration

of priests: the oil and blood were sprinkled together on Aaron,

his sons, and their garments, with him, after the blood was put

on the ear, the hand, and the foot.

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264

us, and hath sealed us for the day of redemption, and given

the earnest of it in our hearts.

In verses 15 and 16 of Romans 8, he says, “Ye have not

received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have

received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,

Father.” In these two verses the blessed Comforter, who

dwells in us, associates Himself with us, to witness with

our spirit that we are the children of God; working in

our hearts, and creating in us the condence and proper

aections of a child to the Father. As the Holy Spirit in

me is the power by which I cry, Abba, Father; so He also

reveals the object that attracts my best aections.

e Holy Spirit always reasons downwards, from God

to man, for He reveals what God is, and therefore He says,

“If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with

Christ.” If God has made you His children, will He leave

you without an inheritance? In truth He will not; but the

moment you bring God in, then you get the consequences

down here. For if you get all this glory, you must have the

cross here, for we do not have a half Christ; “If so be that

we suer with him, that we may be also gloried together”:

and mark what stress he lays on the word with, “joint-heirs

with Christ,” “suer with Christ,” “gloried with him.” It is

thought by some to be a great attainment to see the union

of Christ and His church, but it was living association

with Christ that was presented in the words, “Saul, Saul,

why persecutest thou me?” And Saul was arrested and

converted along with the revelation of Jesus Himself, by the

knowledge of the fact that those whom he was persecuting

were the members of Christ’s body. It could not be said of

Paul, “Ye have been with me from the beginning,” for Paul

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265

saw the Lord only in glory, and therefore he says, he did

not know Christ after the esh.

Well, then, you are members of Christ’s body, of His

esh, and of His bones; therefore you must have His portion

down here, as well as up there. If we have fellowship with

Him in the whole spirit and tone of our minds, we must

suer as Christ did in passing through this world, seeing

the sin and misery all around us, or it may be sorrow on

account of the state of the church. All this must make one

go through the world as a man of sorrows and acquainted

with grief; not merely suering for Him, though that is the

highest condition, no doubt, but suering with Him; it is

the necessary consequence of being associated with Christ.

e world’s joy can have no place in our hearts, if

walking in fellowship with Christ, for if we go on with the

world, Christ will not accompany us there. Jesus groaned

down here, and deeply, in spirit, and so do we, as part, too,

as regards our bodies, of the groaning creation; but does

this set aside the word of our Lord, “that they might have

my joy fullled in themselves?” No, not in the least; for

there is still joy by reason of the eect of God’s presence

in the soul, as an earnest withal of the inheritance of glory,

which makes me say, “I reckon that the suerings of this

present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory

that shall be revealed to us.” But, then, the eect of the

blessedness of God’s presence gives a deep and sorrowful

sense of God’s absence from those around, and of the

passions and miseries which sin has brought in; every

misery becomes a groan in my heart, every sorrow presses

on my spirit, because it is a sign how sin has come in, and

has ruined all man’s natural blessings, and made him more

than a stranger to all spiritual ones.

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266

e more my heart understands what God’s presence

is, the more deeply my soul will understand the place the

creature has got into. What a wonderful position this puts

us into, one of association with God! When Christ passed

through the world, did He screen Himself from sorrows?

No, not even from death: “inkest thou that I cannot now

pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more

than twelve legions of angels” (Matt. 26:53); But did He

do it? No; He went through the midst of it — suered it

all. He ate and drank with publicans and sinners; He went

to the grave of Lazarus, and groaned, because He saw and

felt the power of death on all around.

But He passed through it all in the power of love. As to

the condition of the world, we are glad in one sense, that as

it is, it is not God’s, though we know it will be by-and-by,

when taken out of the hands of the usurper. It would be too

sorrowful to think it was God’s now.

Romans 8:23. “Even we ourselves groan within

ourselves.” As far as the body is concerned, I am connected

with the creation, and therefore subject to vanity, sickness,

and death: but still, I have the Holy Spirit in me, and He

groans in me, so that my groaning is not selshness, but

groaning in a divine way, according to God, which is the

second eect of the power of the Holy Spirit in me. He

bears witness to what we are, rst, as children and heirs;

and then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I have a sense

of the vanity of this perishing world and everything in it.

Christ suered for righteousness as well as for sin. In the

rst kind, we are called to have fellowship with Him. It is

that which He endured through the whole of His course

down here. e latter suering, for sin, we could have

no part in; this He endured alone upon the cross, as that

Notes on Romans 8

267

beautiful passage in Peter suggests, “For it is better, if the

will of God be so, that ye suer for well doing than for evil

doing. For Christ hath also once suered for sins, the just

for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”

But our part in sorrow here ows thus also from the

sense of the subjection of all around us to vanity and the

bondage of corruption. It is a very sorrowful thought.

We do not hear that Jesus ever smiled. Weep He did, He

was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But it

was because He was heavenly, and love, yet also because

He was a man. And we have to remember that in us this

feeling ows, when a right one, from the same causes. We

are partakers of the divine nature by exceeding great and

precious promises; the Spirit is life as the spring to the rill,

and the Spirit of God dwells in us, making us know we are

sons and heirs of God. is we have seen: as heirs, we shall

be in glory like Christ, and the creation is waiting for our

manifestation, for it was not by its will it was subjected,

but through us. But to the groaning creation we are united

in our bodies; we draw our sense of the sorrow from more

than our being lookers on, and we feel for it from more

than selsh grief, we feel for it through the Holy Spirit

according to God. Our groans are well the groans of our

hearts, but they are the mind of the Spirit, and more, the

groans of the Spirit in us, a divine sense of the sorrow

around us, yet in the sympathy of a human heart, the mind,

too, of the Spirit as acting thus in man. us when God

searches the heart, He nds my heart with divinely given

feelings, and this He loves; the mind of the Spirit, which

meets His holy requirements, is acceptable to Him, and

the intercession of the Spirit itself for the saints. But it

does not follow that our intelligence can estimate the evil

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268

or know a remedy, yea, till Christ comes, there may not be

a remedy possible. But the heart is formed after God’s in

respect of the need and sorrow, and this is very precious.

As regards ourselves, it leads to another clear judgment

and consciousness as to our position. Our portion we have

not, but our blessed apprehension of it by the Spirit, is

what gives us the clear consciousness of the existing evil

and sorrow, but then it gives us also the consciousness,

that, while yet having it all only in hope, we await only the

redemption of our body to be in our glorious estate. ere

is no doubt as to our title, no question as to the salvation

of our souls, no uncertainty as to the possession of what we

hope for. We do not see it, that is the reason we hope, not

because it is doubtful. It rests on God’s word, and Christ’s

work, and we have the seal and earnest of the Spirit. Further,

the power of evil does not give weariness or impatience:

we wait with patience for that we do not see, because it is

settled; of that patience we have need. Meanwhile, as we

have seen, the Spirit helps our inrmities; and this brings

out another glorious and precious truth, and ground of

assurance.

We have seen the spiritual man, feeling according to

God the burden of corruption on creation, but not knowing

what to ask as a remedy: yet if we do not know what to ask

for, we do know that for those that love God all things

work together for good, even for those who are called

according to His purpose. For we have now brought before

us not the state of things through sin, but the purpose of

God as regards the objects of that purpose, in the midst of

that state of things, and in bringing them to glory.

In general the epistle to the Romans deals with man’s

responsibility, and God’s blessed remedy in Christ, but here

Notes on Romans 8

269

the epistle rises up to the purpose of God formed before

the responsibility began; it reaches to the point where that

to the Ephesians begins. e saints are called according to

this purpose. Compare Titus 1:1, 2; and 2 Timothy 1:9.

God foreknew these persons and predestinated them to a

state equally in His purpose, for the glory of Christ, namely,

to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be

the rstborn among many brethren. Wonderful place! but

the place of God’s counsels for them, who works all things

after the counsels of His own will, not relative to anything

that we are, save as connected with Christ’s becoming a

man; but the fruit of God’s will, so that we measure it by

that. But how blessed for us, not only as intrinsic glory,

but as likeness to, and association with, Christ, the Son of

God! He is the rstborn among many brethren. Such is

the counsel of God — to associate us with Christ, in the

place of sons, and conform us to the image of Him, the

rstborn. Our responsibility was as children of the rst

Adam; the purpose of God concerning us in connection

with the last Adam. is is a glorious and blessed truth.

“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; 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.” Being in this place, we

are, then, anew responsible to show forth the life of Christ,

and glorify Him; but this is founded on the possession of

life. is purpose God pursues and accomplishes. Whom

He has predestinated to this, He calls; whom He calls, He

justies: whom He justies, He glories. He carries it on to

the end. We have nothing here of sanctifying.

e true Christian life, the life of the Spirit, has been

fully expounded in the early part of the chapter. Here it

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270

is God for us, not His living work in us, nor the presence

of the Holy Spirit; these are the two subjects treated in

the previous part of the chapter. We are now at the third

part — God for us, His securing those thus quickened

according to His purpose, from purpose before the world

on to glory, the actual introduction to blessing being by

God’s own calling: all is the blessed fruit of God’s being for

us. is is the triumphant question of the apostle, “If God

be for us, who can be against us?” e great and blessed

truth, the result of all his inquiries and discussions, which

have led him up from the responsibility of man through the

activity of God in grace, bringing him out of the condition

man was responsible in (while eectually meeting that

responsibility by the precious work of Christ, maintaining

it, but clearing us of our guilt) up to the purpose of God as

to us, and thus closing with the blessed testimony that God

is for us. But this last is also fully and beautifully developed.

First, we have the great principle, and the absolute security

it aords: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” His

being for us precludes the thought of any being against us

to any real eect.

But further — God being for us is considered, in giving,

in justifying, and in all that, as diculty or danger, might

seem to hem our way, or separate us from His love. “He

that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us

all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

See how again, as remarked elsewhere, the Spirit reasons

from what God is and has done, to consequent blessing

to us, not from us to God. at is true in judgment; but

in grace it is from God in all its fruits to us. He has not

spared His Son, to give everything else, is, after that, a

simple thing.

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271

Next, as to accusation. We are God’s elect: who shall

lay anything to our charge? God will not be in fault in

choosing us for blessing. It is He Himself that justies

(not here, note, justied in His sight, or before Him); but

He justies, who shall condemn? Little matter if anybody

does. But then, as to the assurance of love in spite of the

diculties and dangers in the way, all is met, and the very

witness of love is in it. It is Christ that died, yea rather, that

is risen again, who makes intercession for us. Who shall

separate us from His love? He has considered our whole

case, gone Himself into what was needed for it, but has

triumphed, and is now risen, and sits as Man at the right

hand of God, the sure guarantee of the full and blessed

result, and is now occupied with carrying on our cause on

high. He has gone down into the depths for us, He is at

God’s right hand securing all for us; He enters now into all

our case here in intercession.

What is to separate us from His love? Diculties there

may and will be, but we shall be more than conquerors

through Him that loved us; they are but the occasion of a

sure display of His faithfulness and love who has entered into

all, and now lives for us. Death, life, angels, principalities,

powers, things present, things to come, height, or depth, all

may be passed in review; creatures high and low, death, or

life, which may seem ever so dangerous; but all creatures,

or whatever may befall us, cannot separate from the love of

God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord; creatures are less in

power, are nothing compared with Him; death is the proof

of His love, and of our being with Him, in life, living by

Him, because He lives.

Divine love is above all, or proved in all, and in one

who has shown it in perfect interest in us. Nothing can

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separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus

our Lord. e triumphant security of God being for us, a

God who gives His own Son, who justies; and who shall

condemn? A love almighty as God’s, but manifested in

human sorrows, in Jesus, yet in Jesus the Overcomer, to

whom all is subjected: such is the source and security of

blessing which keeps and enriches our hope. God is for us.

is closes the doctrinal part of the epistle; a supplementary

instruction was needed and is given, before the apostle

turns to practical exhortation.

Notes on Romans 9-11

273

62939

Notes on Romans 9-11

Chapters 9-11.

What about the promises made to the Jews, that is, to

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? at the Jews had broken the

law, and were guilty, was plain enough — guilty beyond the

Gentiles: their mouth was stopped. But God’s mouth had

spoken: what about His promises? “No dierence” could

not be said there; faithfulness could not be wanting on His

part. is subject is now treated: how to reconcile the “no

dierence” doctrine, and special promises on God’s part to

the Jews. Romans 9, beginning with the deepest expression

of heart interest in God’s people, of whom he was himself

one, treats the question of Israel’s hereditary claim, and the

admission of the Gentiles to blessing. Romans 10 tells how

Israel lost the blessing, and the plain testimonies of the

prophets as to it. Romans 11 presents the question: is their

present rejection nal? and shows it is not, and that they

will be re-established as a nation.

In the beginning of Romans 9 the apostle recalls

carefully all the privileges of the beloved people. Far from

him was the wish to diminish their importance, or deny

God’s delight in them; so far from indierence, in his

ardent heart he had loved them as much as Moses, who

would have been blotted out of God’s book rather than not

see them forgiven. All divinely conferred privileges were

really theirs: and it was not that the word of God had taken

none eect; but all were not Israel who were of Israel; nor,

because they were the natural seed of Abraham, were they

all children, that is, according to promise. And here he has

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just glided, in admitting their privileges, into the heart of his

whole argument. e natural seed were not heirs, because

they were the natural seed. If that were so, the question

was really solved. And this he goes on to prove. Ishmael

was the natural seed, but sovereign grace maintained its

prerogative. In Isaac shall thy seed be called; but the Jewish

objector might say, Yes, but Hagar was a slave, and Ishmael

slave-born. Well, but take Esau and Jacob of one mother,

that is an unexceptionable case. Yet Jacob was chosen, not

Esau, and it was of pure grace, before they had done good

or evil. e circumstances were natural, but the principle,

pure sovereign grace, is to set aside the national pretensions

of the Jews. ey must let in Ishmaelites and Edomites, or

allow God to be sovereign.

en they would, as now, accuse God of unrighteousness.

His answer is, sovereign mercy alone has spared you. If

God had not retreated into His own sovereignty, and said,

I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, all Israel, save

Moses or Joshua, would have been cut o at Sinai. ey

existed as a people only by virtue of this sovereignty. at

sovereignty God would now use in favor of Gentiles, whom

He called along with Jews. As to the general question, it is

not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of

God that showeth mercy. He hardened, when He saw t

to display judgment, those who despised Him. And if one

demanded, why He yet then found fault? e answer is,

You judge God! Who are you, a man, to reply to Him, and

nd fault with God?

ere is, then, the unqualied assertion of God’s power

to make vessels of dishonor, if He pleased, but careful

avoidance of the thought that He had made any. What if

He had borne with vessels tted to destruction, all ready

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275

for it; but made known the riches of His glory to vessels

He had afore prepared for mercy? ere is the maintenance

of God’s absolute prerogative. No reasoning allowed to

weaken, or even call in question, the patience of God, with

vessels tted for destruction; and purposes of glory, for

which God prepares the vessels of mercy. us the claim

of Israel to hereditary privileges — to the exclusion of the

Gentiles, was barred. It involved the admission of those

He would not hear of, races forbidden to enter to the tenth

generation; and showing also, that they were excluded

themselves, if they did not admit the absolute sovereignty

of God. e apostle applies this sovereignty to the call of

the Gentiles along with the remnant of Israel, conrming

his doctrine.

From verse 27 he conrms this reasoning by positive

quotations from the prophets. Esaias declared that a

remnant should be saved, that, if a very small one had not

been left, Israel would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah;

and shows the real cause of this. ey had sought indeed

righteousness, but it was by their own works, and rejected

Christ, stumbling at the stumbling-stone, as it was written:

while the Gentiles, who sought it not, had come in under

mercy, for whosoever believed in Him would not be

ashamed. Into this subject, in respect of Israel, and God’s

ways with them, and His testimony to those ways, he enters

more fully in Romans 10.

But a few remarks remain to be made on Romans 9,

besides the general view I have taken of it. ere is progress

in the assertion of God’s prerogative, though the object

of the assertion of it be His title to have mercy on the

Gentiles. In Ishmael and Isaac it is the simple denial of

hereditary right. All are not Israel who are of Israel; but it

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276

goes no farther than promise. It is not the children after

the esh, but according to promise — Isaac, not Ishmael.

But in Esau and Jacob the principle of simple sovereignty

comes in. Both were children of Isaac, and alike so, but the

elder was to serve the younger. Jacob was chosen according

to the purpose of God. And thereupon the principle of

sovereignty is asserted in verse 15, still only in view of

mercy. It is not of him that wills, nor him that runs, but of

God that shows mercy. And this applies to hardening (not

to making evil), so that He has mercy on whom He will,

and hardens, to display His righteous judgment, whom He

will. And the reply to objections is, not rst, explanation,

but putting man in his place, and God in His.

It is not man’s place to judge God: none can say to

Him, What doest ou? He is the potter, with power

over the clay to make what He pleases. But once man is

silenced, then there is explanation. What if He bears, with

great longsuering, with vessels tted for destruction, as

He did with Pharaoh; as He did with the Amorites and

Canaanites; and prepared, as He had to do, if He would

have any, vessels of mercy for glory? And so He called from

among lost Gentiles, for that is the key to the exercise of

His sovereignty, and Jews were really the same, to be His

children in grace. Such is the unfolding of this principle

of sovereign grace, without which not one soul would be

saved, for none understand, none seek after God, not one

of himself will come that he might have life. Judgment

is according to works; salvation and glory are the fruit of

grace.

But to return to God’s ways with Israel: Romans 10. e

apostle now declares, not merely the privileges of Israel, but

his earnest desire that they might be saved; they have zeal

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277

towards God, but not the knowledge of His ways. eir fall

lay in this: they sought to establish their own righteousness

by works, and did not submit to the righteousness of God.

How strange, yet how tting a word! If we are to go up, as

responsible, to judgment, it must be by our works. We are

judged according to them. But we are sinners, and there

is no possibility of our standing on this ground; yet this

our pride will not admit; it will hope to bring it about, if

it does not possess it. Grace provides righteousness for us.

We have it not for God, He has it for us, and gratuitously

in Christ; and we have to own that we cannot in any way

make good our own case with God, and must submit to

His righteousness. is, neither the Jew, nor man in any

age, by his own spirit will do. He will blame it as a way

of sin, as if he really cared for holiness; but nds he must

come down, and confession come in.

Now the apostle shows that the ruin of Israel was

supposed in their own law. e law gave the intelligible

principle “do and live”; but after having done that, and

shown ruin and judgment on failure, it speaks of the

return of the heart to God, when under the eects of the

judgment, and when the plainly revealed ground of legal

righteousness was over (Deut. 30). And the apostle then

introduces Christ, as the true object, when once this was

the case; the end of the law for righteousness to every one

that believeth. Just as all hope of righteousness by doing

was over in the case put in Deuteronomy, so in every heart,

when honestly given up, as it must be by everyone that

knows himself, instead of judgment, we have in grace, on

the part of God, Christ for righteousness, and the law

done with, an end to it; while its judgment was sanctioned,

righteousness introduced by grace, on another ground, and

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278

as to this, an end of the law. And in fact, Christ is the

end of the law, and another ground of relationship with

God. So it is believing on, and confessing Him, the Lord

Jesus, and we are saved. But then this lets in everyone that

does so, and the national relationship drops. “Whosoever

believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” And now, as

before, we had “no dierence,” in that all have sinned, now

we have “no dierence,” in that the same Lord is rich unto

all that call upon Him. Sin had leveled all alike before God.

Grace raises up all alike through faith. And so it is written,

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be

saved,” and so, a Gentile, if he call.

And this brings in the testimony and belief through the

word, with the question of the bearing of this on Jew and

Gentile. ey must believe, to call; and hear, to believe. It

is a report, a testimony, to the Jew as to the Gentile; and so

their scriptures spoke of Him who brought good tidings,

and hailed them. All had not believed; and this proved it

was a report even to the Jew, and it was gone out into all

the world. is is the general thought. en, specically

applying it to Israel, Moses had plainly declared they

would be provoked to anger by them that were no people,

and God would be found of the Gentile who sought Him

not. And as to Israel, there was no want of grace, but grace

they had rejected. God had stretched out His hands all the

day to a disobedient and gainsaying people.

We now come in Romans 11 to the assurance, that, in

spite of all this, God has not cast away His people. All

Israel, that is, Israel as a people, will be saved. In showing

this, the apostle gives most solemn instruction, and urgent

warning to the Gentiles. e apostle’s own heart answers

the question, and he is himself a proof that God had not

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279

cast away Israel; just as in Elias’s time, when he interceded

against Israel, as wholly gone, God had an election out

of it: so now the apostle was the proof of it, and there

were others too, besides him. Only it was by grace, not

works — the theme he ever insists on. e election had

obtained what Israel was seeking for; the rest were blinded,

as the prophets had said they would be. Was then this

stumbling at the stumbling-stone, which brought in judicial

blindness on the people, in order that they should fall, and

be nally rejected? In nowise. Moses had told of old in

Deuteronomy 32, that it would so happen, for the letting

in of the Gentiles, to provoke Israel to jealousy. But if to

provoke to jealousy, it was not to reject. is was second

proof of his thesis — that God’s people Israel were not cast

o. And if being brought low was for the blessing of the

world, what would the future restoration and fullness be,

but as life from the dead for this poor dark sin-stricken

world?

e apostle magnies his oce of apostle to the

Gentiles, by showing its bearing thus on the Jews to put

the Gentiles in their place, and guard them against the

pride of supposed superiority in the esh. And here comes

in the solemn warning addressed to them. e stock of

promise, beginning with Abraham, was naturally carried

out in this world in the Jews; the root bore the branches,

the Gentiles had no ground for pride. Abraham was the

root of promise, and Israel the natural branches. Some had

been broken o; true, because of unbelief, and the Gentiles

had been graed into a root to which they did not naturally

belong; and they were graed in on the principle of faith,

contrary to nature, as the old branches had been broken o

for unbelief. e Gentiles stood thus only on the ground of

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280

faith; if, therefore, as a body they departed from it — did not

continue in God’s goodness, which, contrary to nature (for

the question is not of the body of Christ, but their outward

connection with the place of promise in this world) had

graed them into the olive tree of promise, to partake of its

root and fatness, they would be in turn broken o.

We have here nothing to do with the church, or union

with Christ; but with the tree of promise in this world,

beginning with Abraham, to whom and to whose seed the

promises were made. Goodness, on the principle of faith,

had given Gentiles a part in these, which the Jewish branches

had lost, but the stock was not Gentile, but Abrahamic and

Jewish, and what the Gentiles had by faith, they would lose

by the want of it. And such were God’s counsels. God was

bringing in by this means a number of Gentiles, and for yet

better things, and when by this outward system of Gentile

association with the promises their number was complete,

the time of the blindness which had come upon Israel as

a nation, for that purpose, would be over, and Israel as a

whole, as a nation, would be saved. God would give them,

not then, as such, the heavenly portion of the church, which

is not here in question, but graft them back into the place

of promise, the enjoyment of what the root Abraham bore

in blessing. And that would be by the coming of Christ,

who would turn away ungodliness from Jacob. What is

taught here, then, is a tree on the earth with Abraham for

its root, who, when God had formed the nations, and all

had fallen into idolatry, had been called out from among

them, according to election, to be father (or root) of a race

blessed with the promises of God.

Israel was the natural heir according to the esh;

but when He, in whom the accomplishment of these

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281

promises is, came, they rejected Him through unbelief,

and were broken o, the election continuing in the place

of promise (not added to the church here); Gentiles were

graed in contrary to nature, to enjoy the blessing of

Abraham — those very nations out of which Abram had

been called. is was by faith, not by descent of nature.

If they left this, they would be cut o, cease to have, as so

called, the promises on earth — at any rate, they were not

to boast against the branches, for the root bore them, not

they the root, and the cut-o branches could and would be

graed in again, that is, Israel restored in its original place

in the enjoyment of promise. As regards the gospel, they

are enemies as a people, in order to the bringing in of the

Gentiles; but as touching the election of the people, they

are beloved for the fathers’ sake. We see evidently here, it

is the election of the people, it is in contrast with blessing

by the gospel, and the ground of their being beloved is

the fathers, as we nd constantly in the Old Testament, as

Exodus 32:13; Leveticus 26:42; and other passages. For of

His gifts and calling God does not repent.

e Spirit of God shows out, then, the wonderful

moral wisdom of God in these counsels. e Gentiles

had of old been unbelieving, so now it was pure mercy to

them; the Jews had rejected this mercy to the Gentiles, and

were themselves in unbelief, so that it had become pure

mercy now to them also. us God had concluded all in

unbelief, that all might be mere objects of mercy. e Jews

had promises, and if they had received Christ, faithfulness

would have fullled them in Him. As is said in this epistle,

“Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the

truth of God, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for

his mercy.” But the Jews rejected Christ, and so came under

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282

mercy like the Gentiles. is it is that makes the apostle

cry out as to God’s deep wisdom, that this rejection of the

Jews brought mercy to the Gentiles; and brought, seeing

they rejected Christ in unbelief, the Jews on the footing of

mere mercy also, though God only showed Himself more

abundantly true to His promise, which He accomplishes in

spite of all. We have to read verse 31, “Even so have these

also not believed your mercy, that they also might obtain

mercy.”

is closes, and closes by a full exposition of God’s

counsels as to His ways on earth, the doctrine of the epistle,

and as the previous part had shown how Jew or Gentile

came alike upon a new footing. Justied by God, this shows

His plans and counsels, according to which room was left,

not only to admit Gentiles individually, but for the chain of

promises to take a Gentile form, and withal a distinct system

to be set up, the purposes of which being accomplished, the

course of God’s dealings would ow back into the ancient

channel of Jewish promise, and inheritance of blessing, but

by grace. e church is not spoken of in teachings, but its

existence assumed in practical exhortation in Romans 12.

e rest of the epistle, save a verse or two of Romans 15, to

which I have referred, is preceptual and hortatory, founded

on the mercies revealed; mercy on which we entirely

depend.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 1

283

62943

Notes on 1 Corinthians 1

Chapter 1.

THE rst epistle to the Corinthians consists of details

more than of great truths, and therefore not so much has

been written on it. Sosthenes is associated with Paul, as

having labored there, where he had also been chief ruler

of the synagogue; Acts 18. e association of others does

not hinder the sole authorship of Paul. So, in addressing

the Galatians, he speaks of “all the brethren which are with

me,” because he was showing that the whole church of

God was against them.

Verse 2 brings to view the roots of the main question of

the church of God, two classes of persons being taken up

there. is gives importance to the epistle. “Unto the church

of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctied in

Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place

call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs

and ours.” ose that call on the name of the Lord Jesus

are professors, assumed to be faithful till they went or were

put out, not necessarily the body of Christ but the house of

God. e assembly in Corinth, as elsewhere, is recognized

as representing the church there. ey were not born like

the nation of Israel, but saints by call; sanctied in Christ

Jesus, not after an external sort merely. e universality of

the application is carefully maintained, its divine claim

over all Christians everywhere. e direct address is to

the Corinthian assembly, but the apostle takes in all the

Christian profession elsewhere. He addressed them

as saints, and I have no doubt that he considered them

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284

truthful, unless they were proved hypocrites. But calling is

professional simply; just as John says that whosoever shall

confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him;

but of hypocrites this would not be true. ough there

might be hypocrites there, they would be characterized

as of the church of God at Corinth. It is not what my

judgment of individuals may be, but the statement of what

their character is in such a place. ere may be, and there

was, an assembly of God in Corinth; and the apostle treats

them as sanctied in Christ Jesus; then the rest as calling

on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is a dierent

thing from sanctied in Christ Jesus. ough a man who

calls on the name of the Lord, unless he be a hypocrite, is

sanctied, yet the calling on the name of the Lord does

not give him title as such to be styled “sanctied in Christ

Jesus.”

e epistle is addressed to the church of God with all

that call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; that is,

generally, till chapter 10, to the house of God; after that,

to the body specically. ere is a dierent state of things

now. If men take the name of the Lord, they are bound

by all that is written to such; but it does not follow that

Paul would have written such a letter to them now, nor

do I believe he would. He gives meat in due season. He

would have to do with what is practically fallen away from

the truth, and he would not deal with this as with a body

of persons like those gathered in Corinth. As yet we have

not the fact that false brethren had crept in. “Sanctied

in Christ Jesus” is not the same thing as “sanctied by

blood” in Hebrews, but quite dierent ideas; the latter not

necessarily rising beyond external consecration, though,

where faith is, it consecrates to God.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 1

285

In Ephesians 4 the distinction reappears more denitely,

which we have seen in 1 Corinthians already. First, “one

body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of

your calling”; next, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” the

wider circle of profession; and then the largest of all, “one

God and Father of all,” returning to the intimacy of His

children “who is in you [or ‘us’] all.” So the apostle, in Acts

17, quotes a Greek poet, “for we are also his ospring.”

Compare also Ephesians 3:15, “Every family”; and Adam

was thus called son of God. It is not, of course, the spiritual

bearing of the name; it is used as here naturally. At the

time when the epistle was written, all that bore the Lord’s

name were looked at as true believers, unless proved to

the contrary. It is wholly dierent now; and Paul would

not have written to them as to the Corinthians, though

professors are now bound by what he then wrote, because

they make the profession.

We shall nd another thing in the epistle: that the

consequence of the association in verse 2 is, that the local

church has taken the standing of the whole body. It will

come out more in 1 Corinthians 12; but in associating all

professors of Christianity with the church at Corinth, he

deals with them as they stand, upon the ground of the body

of Christ, though only a local assembly.

It is striking to see how the apostle, after the salutation in

verse 3, takes up all that he saw to be good, as a testimony to

their reality, before he begins to deal with the evil (vs. 4-9).

“Ye come behind in no gift.” ere was gift, but very little

grace. “e testimony of Christ was conrmed in you”; “In

everything ye are enriched by him in all utterance, and in all

knowledge.” ey had the truth and power to communicate

it. ey were waiting also for the revelation of our Lord

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286

Jesus Christ; not exactly His “coming,” nor more (I think)

than that He is hidden as yet. ere is nothing about the

rapture here, nor the judgment. In Hebrews 10:26 it is the

stronger word, meaning complete knowledge, or, as often

elsewhere, recognition. Peter, in his second epistle (chap.

1:5-8), uses the two words. A speculative mind might learn

all ever so accurately, without faith or renewal.

e testimony is said to be “of Christ” here, “of God”

in 1 Corinthians 2:1; because it is, not another testimony,

but another way of looking at the same. Here it is personal

to Christ. Christ’s testimony conrmed in you is the

testimony of God brought to you. You give a dierent name

to a thing from the dierent feeling you have about it. In

chapter 2:1 he did not bring what was human, because it

was the testimony of God; and he determined not to know

anything among them but Jesus Christ and Him crucied.

Words are used, but really with the power of them. He did

not come with man’s wisdom and man’s speech to bring

God’s testimony; but it was the testimony of Christ all the

same. e great thing is to see why he uses a word, not that

it is a dierent thing necessarily, but why that particular

word comes in. It is God’s testimony, not man’s.

It is striking, I think, that the apostle addresses them

here as “sanctied,” enriched with gift, etc., and also says

they shall be conrmed to the end, that they may be

blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; but then

he goes on to blame them for everything. ey had got

testimony to their place in Christ by the gifts, etc. ey

had the Holy Spirit in consequence of their faith in Christ,

and then he reckons on God’s faithfulness; so that there

is a point of departure from which he can deal with them.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 1

287

Many were to be blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus;

how be so blameable now?

1 Corinthians 1:8-9 are exceedingly important. He had

the hope that they were saints in a general way; then he

casts them on God’s faithfulness; so that they would be

blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one of

the blankest cases of the perseverance of the saints (not

happily, but commonly so-called); for, at that time they

were going on exceedingly ill, yet there he introduces that

they would be not safe but blameless. is he connects

with the faithfulness of God. Jesus Christ will conrm you

to the end, and God is faithful by whom ye were called.

“Fellowship of his Son,” which follows just after, means

having a part together, and with Christ (koinonia) and in

the blessings that are with Him. Partaking (metokee) is

not communion (koinonia), which last is a closer thing. I

partake of a thing, and in that measure have it in common

with another. It is more in the character of communication.

For instance in Hebrews 2:14 we have the dierence in

an important case. “Forasmuch, then, as the children were

partakers of [kekoinoneken] esh and blood [because we all

had it, it is all in common], he also himself likewise took

part [metesken], of the same.” Some misused it to teach that

He took sinful esh, which is nowhere said; but Christ did

take esh and blood. In Luke 5 the two words are used in

a general way. “ey beckoned to their partners” [metokois],

verse 7, while [koinonoi], verse 10, shows they had common

share, with nothing very denite for distinction. Words are

used sometimes in a less, sometimes in a more, denite

sense. We use a great number of words which have merely a

dierent shade of meaning without an intention of making

a dierence. You might say, ey both live in the same

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place, or in the same locality, but you do not mean another

thought. Locality is the more general term. So going shares

or partnership might have a shade of dierence.

e rst thing we come to is denite: “I beseech you

that ye all speak the same thing,” etc. (1 Corinthians 1:10-

12). en we have the character of the preaching of the

gospel, that what is foolishness to man is what God has

taken to put down esh, the foolishness of preaching, and

the shame of the cross to bring everything to naught by

it. It is hard to keep steadily before your mind that, if you

want to do God’s work, you must have what the world

will not have; and it is so, that no esh should glory in

His presence. It pleased God, when in the wisdom of God

the world by wisdom knew not God, by the foolishness of

preaching to save them that believe. Otherwise it would

have been man’s wisdom, that is, in the power of his mind.

I do not believe that a single thought of God ever enters

into man’s mind by intellect. It is always by conscience, not

by intellect. ere is faith, and there is love; but conscience

is the topknot, as you call it. And in that way all the

philosophy of man goes at once. e fact is, God is not

in His place at all if my mind sets to work to judge about

Him. It is when I say, “I am a poor sinner, and I believe

in God,” that God has His right place, even if my heart is

wrong; still the conscience is that which directly owns the

claims of God. ere is no knowledge of God in intellect.

Responsibility comes in thus. God is revealed, and

the moment there is a revelation, it is revealed that I may

receive ideas which my mind of itself cannot take up; but

if I have received an idea, I am responsible to be found

in the right place by it. If I have the idea that you are my

child, I am responsible to act as your father; but the mind

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is incapable of forming an idea of God, and that is where

the philosophers have all gone wrong. ey say the mind

can form an idea without man’s conscience, but it cannot:

though it does not follow that God cannot reveal it to

him. It is the supposition that the power within us is the

measure of all that we can be apprehensive of. is I deny

altogether; it is a total mistake. Suppose a poor old woman,

and a strong man gives her his arm, that would not be

power in her.

If there comes a revelation of God, there is the

responsibility to receive it, but it does not follow that my

mind could have formed the idea. In these days it is well to

be clear as to this. e worst kind of indelity says, “Man

can have no idea beyond his senses, and a few original

deductions which he may draw.” I reply, All true; but that

leaves you as ignorant of God as an animal. Do not pretend

that there is nothing outside of yourself, and here comes in

revelation. Like the woman in John 4, conscience has to be

reached from without: “If thou knewest the gift of God.”

e woman says in eect, “What of that?” And then how

does Christ deal with her? “Go, call thy husband, and come

hither,” and this arrests her. Real intelligence of God is in

the conscience. I do not say the heart may not be drawn.

As to the distinction between “conscience” and “heart,”

the aections are in the heart, and conscience is my

responsibility for right and wrong. You may have natural

feelings moved like the women of Jerusalem beating their

breasts because some one was going to be put to death;

but what detects the work of God is when these two go

together. You may meet with natural conscience alone,

which is much like Judas, who went and hanged himself.

God is light and love, and if He reveals Himself, you need

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have both. Where the light comes and deals with the

conscience, the love attracts the heart, and both are moved.

us Peter went to Christ and said, “Depart from me, for

I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Why did he go to Christ at

all? So I say, “I am a guilty sinner,” when the light comes

in; and where the work is of God, it is accompanied by the

attraction of love. ere may be much of natural feeling

which is of no value. Just as in a time of the cholera raging,

there is excitement enough in the terror of the moment;

but the cholera goes, and all that goes too.

e heart is used for all sorts of feeling. What is

described in the prodigal son is that he began to be in want.

at proves nothing but that the soul was originally made

to be fed. He had not yet come to himself; but the eect

of beginning to be in want, when God had not revealed

Himself, was that he went farther and farther away. So it is

with every man who goes thoroughly into the world until

he gets tired of it. Coming to himself may follow a remorse.

e conscience may be reached by Satan. Man commits

murder, and it has passed into a proverb, “Murder will out.”

at is conscience. Man got it at the fall, and carries it with

him. Adam had no knowledge of good and evil, but was

subject to God’s authority, and for that reason the thing

imposed upon him in the garden was neither good nor evil

in itself except by the command. Now we have the sense of

wrong. If a child only six months old slaps his mother, he

knows it is wrong. Conscience may be dened as my own

mind judging of good and evil as God does. at is why it

is such a totally false thing to make it a law. A law is a thing

imposed upon a person, whereas the essence of conscience

is that I discern between good and evil in myself, and that

becomes a law to me. Law is imposed by a lawgiver, as God

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291

does. In the garden Adam was going against subjection to

God: “thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife” (Gen.

3:17).

As to the dierence between wisdom and understanding

(vs. 19) in English, wisdom is the attempt to use what a man

has learned, but you could hardly call it that in Greek. We

may say that the understanding of the prudent is more the

character of discernment, whereas wisdom is acquaintance

with truth more. In the Hebrew a great many more words

are used for wisdom than we have in English. In Isaiah 29

(verse 14 quoted here), the prophet is taking up the case of

Christ’s coming. He had taken up Sennacherib and that

leads him on, and he launches out into the Assyrian of the

last day. at is how the prophets speak, and that is what

Peter means by “of no private interpretation.” You cannot

take up a few words without the connection. In Isaiah 33

the whole scheme is developed. 1 Corinthians 1:20 is a

quotation from Isaiah 33:18, which follows, “ine eye

shall see the king in his beauty”: sinners are afraid, and

then he says, Where is the wisdom of man? Here they were

‘counting up the towers’ and so on; but to what purpose

after all?

e “foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:21) is more the

way of doing it, the means, but it also takes in the thing

preached: you cannot separate them here. e “power of

God” (1 Cor. 1:24) is not exactly the same as “kept by

the power of God.” In the latter it is more absolutely in

Himself, and Christ is the one in whom it is all deposited;

but when you speak of “Christ the power of God,” it is

more the means by which it is brought out. In the one

case it is “unto salvation” because righteousness of God is

revealed in it: there is power of God in it to save us.

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e expressions “foolishness of God,” and “weakness

of God” (vs. 27) are used merely to put the thing in the

strongest way. For instance, death is weakness: “crucied in

weakness”; yet everything of man was set aside by it, and in

that sense the weakness of God. It is the setting up of God

absolutely. e weakness of God was the gospel, that is, as

man would speak of it; and foolishness as man looks at it.

And God chose that — took it on purpose, though to man

it was merely some one hanging on a gibbet, and yet God

was gloried in it. As to “things which are not” (vs. 28), out

of death is a thing which is not, but the apostle takes it as

an extreme case in the whole scene of God in Christendom.

God has brought to naught all of heathenism and Judaism.

At the end of our chapter we get the fuller expression

of what a Christian is: “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who

of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and

sanctication, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Not wisdom

in the mind being acted upon and so I am wise about God,

but “of him,” that is of God, “are ye in Christ Jesus.” I am

of God, and I have my wisdom and righteousness, and

sanctication, and redemption of God, all in Christ. I am

of God in Christ, and have all there of God in Christ. It

comes from Him; it is not my thinking about Him. And

so man is totally set aside, esh is put down. e world by

wisdom was not to know God, but I am in Christ as a new

being, a new creature, created again; and I have wisdom,

righteousness, sanctication, and redemption all in Christ.

ese verses are a remarkably complete statement of what

a Christian is, with full redemption itself at the end, body

and all.

Here it is the measure and character and fullness of

sanctication; it is not legal nor outward, but what is in

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293

Christ. It is practical: sanctication always is, except in

Hebrews. We have the nature and the quality of it. If we

look at Christ we see what sanctication is. People talk of

its being imputed, but that is absurd. ink of the absurdity

of talking about imputed redemption! But in Christ all

these things are real to me. I say, what wisdom I have! Am

I a Platonist? No, Christ is my wisdom. Righteousness is

imputed; the term is applicable, but you do not get it in this

passage. What sanctication I have! Christ and redemption

too when it is all complete in glory. It was all accomplished,

but is not yet in its full eect.

As to the order of the words, I take it that wisdom is

separated somewhat because that is what the apostle has

been talking about. is was not man’s wisdom: God had

chosen the foolish things of the world, and so on; and then

he brings out that Christ is made unto us wisdom, laying

a little more emphasis on wisdom. ere is a question of

dierent text here, I know, and very likely it may be taken as,

“who is made unto us wisdom of God”; but that only gives

an emphatic character to it, and there is no real dierence.

Redemption comes in at the end as the full complete thing.

e dierence between ek and apo (vs. 3o) is that, when we

say we are “of God,” it is positive life; the other is “from,”

on God’s part; whereas we derive our life and nature from

God by the Spirit’s quickening power. In John 3 it is ek:

“that which is born of the esh is esh,” etc.

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62944

Notes on 1 Corinthians 2

Chapter 2

In 1 Corinthians 2 we have the apostle’s use of what

precedes, and it is remarkable how he sets man aside

altogether, and then takes the ground, that when he came

to this wise people he knew nothing but the cross, and not

only this, but that, looked at as a man, he was in weakness

himself, and in fear, and in much trembling. He has only

the foolishness of the cross, and his speech and preaching

are not with man’s wisdom, that their faith might stand in

the power of God.

In the rst ve verses we have Paul coming to

sinners — his way with these wise ones. ere was neither

excellency of speech nor wisdom to man’s eye. It is not

strictly the cross of Christ but Jesus Christ, the positive

fact of preaching Christ; and then he takes Christ in the

lowest and most degraded way, Christ and Him crucied.

e preaching of the cross is not exactly the same thing,

but the point is that he was not reasoning philosophy with

them but preaching Christ and then, if you take up Christ,

it is in this way, as crucied man.

It is dicult for us, used as we are to look upon the cross

as redemption, to feel what the eect was on a number

of philosophers, what it was to go and say, ere was a

man gibbeted in; trust him. To man it was the grossest folly

that could be. And see, it is Jesus Christ, His Person here,

He crucied. He adds, “which none of the princes of this

world knew,” or “they would not have crucied the Lord

of glory” (1 Cor.2:8). Because He was that, you get His

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295

Person, and not merely the fact of the cross. And it is a very

strong thing to put before man; it is what wrote folly on

their wisdom and on the grandeur of this world.

e moment man is a sinner, it is another thing

altogether; and, the innite love of God coming in and

speaking to man as man, what comes of all grandeur and

of all wisdom and of all else? e whole of man in esh

is swept away by it. All that esh could glory in is there

totally put an end to. ere is no kind of eshly glory in the

cross whatever. It was God’s wisdom to do this: no dignity,

no heroism, but shame, reproach, ignominy, and death;

it is all of man brought down to where nothing could be

found — no, not a stone to put his foot on, to keep it out

of the water. None but slaves were put upon the cross, and

this is what God takes up to bring the world to nothing,

rst to nothing in judgment, and to nothing too, when we

know He is in glory.

en it brings forth God, man put out and God brought

in. e moment I get that side, I have the Lord of glory,

divine righteousness, divine wisdom. “We speak wisdom

among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this

world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught:

but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” First, he

brings the cross to man in every shape and way, and when

he has done that, he says, I have crucied you, and am

coming to tell you what God is in doing so.

“em that are perfect” in verse 6 are those that are

brought by the cross into this new condition with God;

it really is in resurrection if you come to examine it. ey

are grown men in that condition. What the apostle is

looking at here is a person who had the esh put down

with death written on all; all brought into God’s presence

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and all the world put an end to; there is a new state of

things altogether; the beginning of the new creation; what

the Holy Spirit reveals and the Lord of glory. It is that the

person is brought into the state that the cross brings into.

You do not begin expounding blessedness and glory to a

person who wants his conscience reached; but the contrast

here is the world and the man who has been brought

out of the esh into God’s place of blessing in the new

creation. “Perfect” is in contrast with carnal and babes in

1 Corinthians 3:1; it is the full-grown man. Judaism was

esh in that sense of the word: “as unto babes in Christ” is

another thing. You have three things, carnal men, natural,

and spiritual men. You may meet a person you cannot

concur with because, though having the Holy Spirit, his

practical state is “carnal,” yet not “natural.”

In Galatians the apostle says, “the heir, as long as he

is a child, diereth nothing from a servant, though he be

lord of all”; but here he is talking of Christianity in so low

a state that he could not talk with them of certain things.

As to knowledge they were “perfect,” but in practical state

he could not deal with them as such. I believe there are

real Christians who are not perfect in this sense. If one

does not know the forgiveness of his sins, he has not the

consciousness of his new standing and is not perfect. e

apostle is here speaking of their standing, he is taking up the

question of those who had God’s wisdom instead of man’s.

When he came to sinners, he preached Christ crucied;

and when he had people in a Christian state, he speaks of

all the fruits in glory. When he says, “Ye are carnal,” it is the

particular state of certain Christians who ought to be up to

the measure of their standing, but are not.

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297

“e wisdom of God in a mystery” (1 Cor. 2:7) is all that

is unveiled of His counsels in Christ; everything that God

has done in Christ. If they had seen all the glory of God in

Christ, they would not have hung Him on the cross. ey

crucied the Lord of glory, but they would not have done

it, had they known. Verses 9 and 10 are in contrast with

the Jewish state of things, “As it is written, 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.” ere you get the Jew, the prophet declaring

that it had not entered into man’s heart; “but God hath

revealed these things unto us.” In the Old Testament these

things were not revealed, but now they are. He is speaking

of the whole Christian condition and not of the state of

the individual, and he takes up the Christian therefore

in his full character, and not in his gradual progress, or in

his faulty want of development. Verse 9 is often quoted as

of present application to the Christian, but the apostle is

quoting it to show what is not the Christian state; for to us

God has revealed these things by His Spirit.

In verse 10, and on, you get three distinct steps: the

Spirit of God revealing, whether to Paul or others; then the

Spirit of God communicating what was revealed; and last,

the receiving by the Spirit. e Holy Spirit in us searches all

things; there is nothing hid. e prophets searched “what

or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in

them did signify”; having the Spirit they began searching

out. It is the Spirit in us who searches. ere is a power of

the Holy Spirit to give all the counsels of God. You nd

elsewhere that the Spirit of God is identied with the

person He dwells in. He makes intercession for the saints

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to God (Rom. 8). I have not the word only, but the Spirit

within me, and the mind of the Spirit according to God.

As to man, what man knows the things passing in his

mind? Only the spirit of the man knows; now we have

the Spirit of God, and He knows the things of God, and

therefore we know them. Paul then goes on to unfold this.

It was revelation to Paul and communication by Paul in the

words of the Spirit, and the reception spiritually by spiritual

men. To this we may add having the mind of Christ, which

should be common to all Christians. ere is what I have

somewhere lately called the intelligent and the intelligible.

e intelligent is capacity without a thought, but add the

intelligible and you have the thought as well as the mind.

So we have revelation rst; then the words were adequate;

and then the third thing that through the Spirit I receive it.

I know people talk about inspiration, and of Shakespeare

being inspired and so on; it is all very well, but did such

men have a revelation — a positive new thing from God?

e rst thing is revelation; what is called inspiration is

not so clear. It is possible I may have a revelation from

God and never say a word about it. Paul had a revelation

and told us nothing about it. Inspiration is an ambiguous

word altogether, and people may be deceived by it; but

when it comes to a positive revelation, men know they

have no place at all in that. en the Holy Spirit forms the

communication too. It is like a fountain, the water is the

same, and it comes out as it went in.

I do not think “comparing” in verse 13 is right at all. It

is “communicating” spiritual by spiritual; he has the Holy

Spirit’s words and communicates the Holy Spirit’s words,

and that whether he be writing or preaching. ere may

be things which I am quite sure of, but which I may put

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299

in a way that is not the Holy Spirit’s way. When Paul was

preaching, it was not “comparing” at all. “We speak not in

the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the

Holy Ghost teacheth.” In speaking I speak as from God,

or else I ought to hold my tongue. “If any man speak; as

oracles of God.” is does not mean according to scripture,

but as from God; of course it will be according to scripture,

but that is not the thing there. is strikes at everything

that is of man. “He himself is judged of no man,” in verse

15, is man as man in contrast with the Holy Spirit.

In the last verse we have the same contrast with the Old

Testament: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord

that he may instruct him?” and in answer to the challenge

of the prophet it is, “but we have the mind of Christ.” If I

have Christ’s mind, I have the thoughts that are in it and all

that is included. We have not the divine mind abstractedly,

but we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; and then comes

all the revelation of the mystery.

I must bring the cross to a poor sinner whoever he is. A

person’s cleverness will not answer in the day of judgment;

the cross is the answer of divine wisdom. Suppose he had

made all the telegraphs in the country, when he is dead,

what becomes of them to him? God will give you, not

cleverness in your mind, but the Holy Spirit, and the truth

of God, and the mind of Christ. John says, “Ye have an

unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” And

there is no part of God’s counsels that is not now brought

into light. As to this the intelligent and the intelligible go

together; with us creatures, you cannot get the capacity

without the thought.

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62945

Notes on 1 Corinthians 3

Chapter 3

1 Corinthians 2 speaks of preaching Christ crucied

to them, and 1 Corinthians 3 deals with Christians. In 1

Corinthians 3 it is his second visit to them. e carnal state

was not going on while he was there. I do not think he

had been twice to Corinth when he wrote this epistle. He

wrote this from Ephesus, and the second from Macedonia,

when he had sent Titus with the rst. Although he says,

“is is the third time I am coming to you,” he does not

say he had been. He had meant to come by Macedonia

unto Corinth, but they were in such a state that he would

not go. I do not think that he had been there more than

once. In verse 1 he says, I “could not speak unto you as unto

spiritual,” and still he could not. “I have fed you with milk

and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,

neither yet now are ye able.” “Hitherto” gives the time all

the way along, he could not bring these things before them.

God had said, “I have much people in this city,” but

God makes communication to hearts ready to receive

them. It was so with Mary Magdalene, her heart clings

thoroughly to Christ: the disciples go home, but she stays,

and she communicates to the eleven our highest privileges

at this moment, and that is because she was thinking about

Christ. “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend

unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your

God” (John 20:17). Such is the message He gives her; it

is the rst time we have so full a statement. It was the

personal aection of her heart set on Him through the

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301

attractive power of grace. So with the woman in the city

that was a sinner. So with Mary that sat at His feet and

heard His word. She comes and anoints Him for His

burial. You will always nd the apprehension of the mind

of Christ ows from personal attachment to Himself.

ese people at Corinth were fond of their show-gifts and

of themselves, therefore they could not be carried forward.

“He that planteth and he that watereth” (vs. 8) are merely

instruments in God’s hands — ministers of what God gave;

they may be and are distinct in their labors, but are only

ministers. One plants and another waters, and everyone

shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

But they were all one as instruments in God’s hand who

gave the increase; yet the Lord owned their labor to each.

en we come to another important truth, though it is

only the outside now; he goes farther in the second epistle.

We have the outward house here. ere is a dierence

between Christ’s building and man’s building, even where

the men were God’s ministers. In these days it is a very

important distinction where church questions have come

in from Rome to brethren, if you please, on all hands.

Christ says, “Upon this rock will I build my church”: there

I have Christ’s building. Of course Satan cannot prevail

against that, but it is not all built yet, for it is going on; and

therefore Peter, who alludes to it (1 Peter 2:4-5), does not

give anybody at work; and so Paul says, “groweth unto a

holy temple in the Lord.” ere it is Christ building, but

here it is man working; and directly we see responsibility

we have possible failure. “Let every man take heed how

he buildeth.” at never could be said of what Christ is

building. But what has been done by the system of popery

and all church doctrine is to identify with Christ’s building,

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that which is connected with man’s building. Against His

work the gates of hell shall not prevail; whereas, when it is

the thing set up on earth, we have “let every man take heed

how he buildeth,” where he does not say the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it.

In Ephesians 2:22 it is not man’s building; there is

nothing of man in Ephesians, but just the counsels of God.

In 1 Corinthians 3 we have the apostle as the instrument

of the communication, but it is God’s counsels and work

to bring us into Christ, and so on. e church is the house

as well as the body. In what Paul began to build there is

wood, hay, and stubble, and that is wider than the body. e

house built by Paul supposes wood, hay, and stubble built

in, and there are both doctrines and professors; for if a man

professes, he professes something.

In the apostle’s days the house built by man may have

been co-extensive with the body, but we read of false

brethren creeping in very early. At rst “the Lord added,”

and there it was co-extensive. When the three thousand

were added, they were for certain all real; they were co-

extensive as a fact, though not the same idea. en there

was the trusting of God’s building in the world to man’s

responsibility. It had been the same with the law, the

same with the priesthood, the same with the government.

God set up everything rst in man’s responsibility, and all

fails; but all will be accomplished in the Second Man in

power — in rule and priesthood in Melchisedec, the true

son of David.

A man may build with doctrines. We are not going to

learn doctrines in the great day: they are used now, and

you cannot separate these things. A good man may be a

good builder, and all be well; but a good man may be a bad

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303

builder, and be saved, while his works are burnt up. e bad

who corrupts is burnt up — he himself is destroyed. It is

an amazing thing to see that there is a church — building

going on upon earth which is not Christ’s building.

Whenever there is anything for man to do, there comes the

question of his doing it properly. Philip brought in Simon

Magus, and there was man’s building along with the good

work which Christ was doing.

e “day” (vs. 13) has always to do with judgment.

It is the day that tries the work; it is simply and entirely

judgment. e day shall be revealed in re which shall try

people’s work; that will no doubt happen when Christ is

revealed. But the object in speaking of His revelation in

contrast with having the Spirit and gifts now (1 Cor. 1:8),

is totally dierent from this, where it is expressly judgment.

I may think of both, and of my appearing in glory too.

e work might be tested any day, but, as stewards of the

mystery of Christ, when that day comes, God will make

manifest the counsels of their hearts.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16, we have “Know ye not that ye

are the temple of God?” Here it is a collective thing — “ye

are.” e temple is the habitation in which God dwells. In

Ephesians 2 the apostle says, “groweth unto a holy temple.”

In Ephesians it is a thing of God’s work and therefore

perfect, whereas here it is a present thing — what is actually

on earth. When discriminating so, there are certain things

you must take into account.

Language in scripture is used about people tly, and

you cannot take them otherwise. If you did, it would be

misapplied truth. ere is meat in due season as well as

good meat. If I gave meat to a babe six months old, I should

choke it.

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ough wood, hay, and stubble are built in it, it

continues the temple of God. Our Lord said, “Ye have

made my Father’s house a den of thieves”; but suppose I

should go and say, as a general thing, “My Father’s house

is a den of thieves,” it would be very inaccurate. Until God

judge a system, it remains in the responsibility in which

He originally set it. Apostasy has not yet come in; it may

be commencing a little now, perhaps, the spirit of it is at

work; but positive apostasy is the giving up the name of

Christ. In 1 Timothy he says, “Some shall depart from the

faith”; and so they did. I think it took place immediately:

but that is a dierent thing; it is only “some,” a matter of

individuality.

We must not confound building with wood, hay, and

stubble, and deling the temple. In the former, the man

builds upon the foundation, whatever he builds with, and

he himself is saved, though building (it may be) with foolish

doctrine. e other was positively seeking to corrupt the

temple of God itself with false doctrine. A Christian may

introduce bad doctrine, and still be saying there is no Savior

but Christ. If he teaches perfection in the esh, that must

be burnt up. Going to convert the world is wood, hay, and

stubble, although we ought to have done it. But the man

who is seeking to dele brings in fatal errors, and he is not

a Christian. I do not know of any Christian who has done

this, though it is possible that a person may propagate what

he has learned and been deceived into, and thus become

an instrument of Satan for deling the temple; to “dele,”

and to “corrupt,” and to “destroy,” are the same here. But

the Gnostics were delers; Socinians are such. A Christian

may be snared into it, it is true, and he then becomes an

agent of Satan in the esh.

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Notes on 1 Corinthians 4

Chapter 4

is chapter is a remarkably beautiful working of the

apostle’s heart, but with no particular subject in it. “Ye are

full, ye are rich; ye have reigned as kings without us.” is,

in a sense, is written in irony, but all is of exceeding interest

(1 Cor 4:8-13).

“I know nothing by myself” (vs. 4), means I know

nothing against myself as an accusation. It is an old English

form which was familiar enough two hundred years ago;

you will nd it in Bishop Hall’s writings, though quite

obsolete now. “Yet am I not hereby justied,” means that

that does not clear me, for the Lord judges or examines me.

“en shall every man have praise of God” (vs. 5) does not

mean that every man will have praise, but that the praise

would be of God. When God makes manifest the counsels

of the heart, some will get praise; this indeed will be worth

something, but now it is all a mere nothing.

“Who maketh thee to dier?” (1 Cor. 4:7) is, If anyone

has more gift than another, where does it come from? It all

came from God. One was saying, I am of Paul, and another,

I of Apollos, but the apostle says to such, It is all yours; and

if one is greater than another, who made him to dier? Just

as John says, “A man can receive nothing except it be given

him from above.”

From 1 Corinthians 4:14, though he bears everything,

he lets them know he has power and warns them. Some

said he was not coming, but he was, and he would show

the value of their speech. He does assert his power, though

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very gently, and indeed he was afterward afraid he had said

too much. “My ways in Christ” (vs. 17) are the ways in

which he conducted himself among the saints, as “I teach

everywhere in every church.” “e kingdom of God,”

(vs. 20). He preached the kingdom of God, as elsewhere

he says, “Ye all among whom I have gone preaching the

kingdom of God.” He was the minister of the kingdom of

God, the minister of the new covenant, and the minister of

the church.

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Notes on 1 Corinthians 5

Chapter 5

Now we come to their faults and to discipline.

“Commonly reported” means that it was a generally known

thing. e rst thing we may note is the apostolic power of

delivering to Satan. He had judged that, because he could

bind on earth: it was apostolic power. Its object, he states,

was for the destruction of the esh, that the spirit might

be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Properly there is no

such thing now. If a person is now put out from fellowship,

he is not delivered to Satan, though in result he might

possibly come under Satan. I know nothing that is a denial

of this, though there be no gift of such power. If a person

is excluded, it is not delivery to Satan. at made me say

he might come under Satan; he is liable to it. To be thrown

out into Satan’s world is not delivering him or committing

him to it. I know of nobody but the apostle who had the

power. If there is anybody now to do it, all well; but I do

not know how. e church is not commanded to do it here.

He says, I have judged already — to deliver such a one to

Satan. is was his own act; he did not tell them to do so.

He does tell them to put such a one out.

ey had not been instructed as to exclusion and

discipline; but still in mind and heart they ought to have

been broken down: at the least they should have been

humble and mourning, as we see in verse 2. If the state

of the assembly is so inrm, or so divided, that they

cannot act, it is bad indeed. e diculty is, the tendency

to produce division. If the power of the Spirit of God is

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not acting on our consciences, one takes up one thought,

and another another. at is what he means by “having a

readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is

fullled” (2 Cor. 10:6). But here there was power to bring

the matter on; he himself could come in in power, but he

was afraid, lest Satan should make a split between him and

them, and that is what he means when he says, he is not

ignorant of Satan’s devices. en he tells them to purge

out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are

unleavened. You are not a new lump if you do not purge

out the old leaven. God had made an unleavened thing,

and they would lose their character by not acting upon it.

You are not a new lump at all, if you do not put it away.

“As ye are unleavened” is their standing, and you give your

character up if you do not act.

If they were not united in the assembly, they should

humble themselves. I have often said in preaching to

sinners even, that a man who has been brought up in a

dirty house does not feel that it is dirty; and so if half the

assembly be as bad as the bad one, the assembly must be

cast on the Lord and mourn, and therefore in verse 2 he

does not say how it is to be done, but till “he be taken

away from among you.” ey ought to have been before

God about it, for they had not got directions what to do.

But when they did get them, they acted. If there is a case

of agrant sin, and the assembly does not act, what then?

Practically it is no assembly at all, if its will goes with the

oense. If any sided with the evil-doer after the testimony

of the Spirit of God had reached the conscience of the

body, then he treated them as the evil-doer. e duty is

all plain; if there is a wicked person, the assembly must

put him out; and a person so put out is not looked at as a

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brother, and they cannot admonish him as a brother, and

I could not have fellowship with him as a brother. Before

action I should consult with the brethren only, but should

call the assembly together to act. If one had a case like this,

say, or that could not be mentioned to women, it should of

course be done in a way not to be oensive. But if it is an

assembly, the Lord is there, and you must prove yourselves

clear in the matter. If the assembly will not put the evil out

when it is a case of gross sin, I should have no more to say

to it: they would not prove themselves clear.

Leaven is the thing that deles and corrupts; and

others were involved in it because they would not judge

it. Suppose you commit a sin, and I treat it as all very well,

and keep your company just the same; why, of course I

should be known by the company I keep. e proverb is

common enough. e leaven was there; and the apostle

speaks to their consciences about it. If such a person left,

you cannot put a man out if he is out, or has gone out

deliberately; but I should announce that he is out. at is

hardly putting out, it is his going out. I should say he has

left under the charge of such a sin, and gone out of the

way, and is outside until he clear himself. If a man has gone

out of this room, I cannot put him out, but he is out. As to

inquiry, a few brothers may engage in that, but you cannot

have a judgment on an individual unless the assembly does

it. It is very right that one, or two, or three should inquire

into the facts; but any wise godly brethren may do that, and

the conscience of the assembly must thereupon be brought

into action. If only some act and put him out, the rest may

say they did not do it, and their conscience is not clear.

You must take each case in detail by itself; if one go

away so, he has left the assembly; and if he leaves it under

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a charge against him, he must clear the charge before he

comes back. He cannot come back without the case being

judged by the assembly. It may be investigated by brethren,

but not judged. Further, it should be named, if it be a case

of sin and guilt.

If a charge of fornication, say so; it is uncleanness; and

if it was a public scandal, I should not be in any hurry to

receive back. It is not a nice principle to talk about the

honor of the assembly being involved; but the Lord’s

honor should come in. Yet, for the good of the individual, it

should be done if the soul is really restored; though it be a

strong case of public scandal, let him in again; never mind

what people say. Here is one: A man overwhelmed with

sorrow, and the apostle tells them to receive him, though it

was such a scandal that its like was not even named among

the Gentiles. A man may confess his fault, but this does

not say his soul is restored. If it is a matter that nobody

knows, and the man consults you and confesses all the

fault, and is restored, you must judge whether it is a case for

the assembly to deal with or not. If it is a matter between

two brethren, the two might settle it. e “old leaven” is

the leaven of the old nature; the “leaven of malice and

wickedness” may be a more active expression. I am not to

keep the feast with the old nature at work.

When a man is put out from the assembly, he nevertheless

belongs to the house. It is like a naughty child turned out

of the drawing-room; he belongs to the family still. ough

the church cannot commit to Satan, to put away abides a

positive duty. We have to obey. It is a commandment of the

Lord. If you speak of delivery to Satan, it is a question of

power. So far as the child’s present position is concerned,

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311

he is outside the sitting-room; and until he behaves aright,

he cannot be let in again.

Christ is sacriced for us, and we are keeping the feast.

at leads to the fact that unleavened bread was connected

with the sacrice by which redemption was wrought. No

leaven was allowed in the house at all. Redemption is

not an unholy thing. I must have sinlessness along with

redemption. In the type you have bitter herbs, unleavened

bread, and the passover meat. Here we are keeping the

passover, and we must not have leaven, for sin and Christ

cannot go together. Intercourse in the main would cease

between you and a person so put out. I might invite him

to my house for conversation, to see if he were restored;

but even that is a delicate thing to do. In my intercourse

with him, it would be with the fullest sense that he had put

himself at a distance. It would be really ungracious to him

to let him feel at ease with me in the place he occupies. You

must not weaken the action of the assembly.

Two might be put away together for the same thing,

and one might be restored without the other, and received

before the other, or dealt with dierently. In withdrawing

from another (2 ess. 3:6), I should treat him coolly.

If he complained, I should say, It is quite right; there is

my authority in scripture, and I must do so. Here in 1

Corinthians 5:11, it says, “no, not to eat.” I would not dine

with such an one; I would give him to eat if he were hungry,

but not eat with him. Take a wife whose husband is put

out. It may seem awkward, but her action is not keeping

company with him as a case of will; it is one of subjection

to authority.

Matthew 18 is another thing; it is only an individual

direction. If the church acted, it would be on another

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scripture. Refusal to make good a wrong after all these

pains might be a ground for the church to put him out. Do

you ask if such a brother might not keep the whole thing in

his own bosom. at depends on the case. “ou shalt not

suer sin upon thy brother.” If it were merely the idea of a

wrong, or he thought the brother was all right after some

personal matter, he might say, I forgive you; but otherwise

he would be doing him harm by not taking it up. Charity is

a keen discerner in all such things. If it is merely personal,

I have a title to forgive.

1 Corinthians 5:11 is not a list of those who are to be

put out. ere is no such list. is would leave a thief or a

murderer in communion. How to know a covetous man

may be hard; there are cases which are plain enough, but

prudence in a family is so close on covetousness, that you

can make no line, nor can you act on your own conscience

with respect to a man that may be covetous. If a case

arise, and the assembly is spiritual, the Lord will make it

clear. You will nd that where a congregation of saints is

spiritual, what is false and hypocritical cannot last there any

length of time at all. But you cannot put out any man until

he has done something to act upon. He will deaden the

meeting of course, but so does all that is wrong. After he

is out, the assembly cannot deal with him, though perhaps

an individual might in mercy. When he is humbled, we

should seek to restore. I do not think there is the power

to restore that there ought to be amongst us. If there were

more spiritual power, there would be more actual power

over the conscience.

It is sometimes a question, How long is the assembly

to go on treating as a brother one whom they have

admonished? Samuel mourned for Saul to the day of

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313

his death. Some have been under rebuke, or outside for

years. Such cases have arisen sometimes when young

persons have been thrust forward into preaching, and had

the attery of women, etc. ere ought to be an anxious

desire for restoration of those put away. ere must be

holiness, but still a yearning of heart over such, a spirit that

would induce brokenness on the oender’s part. I am not

conscious of any unfaithfulness as to dealing with evil, nor

generally am I aware of hardness towards evil-doers.

1 Corinthians 5:5 shows that the ultimate end of

discipline should be restoration. You deal with him as a

member of Christ, and discipline him as such while he is

within, and you put him outside that he might be broken

down and brought in again. “Spiritual” has a double

character. If I say that man is very spiritual, it may mean

he has spiritual apprehension of divine things, or it may be

spoken of the assembly. ere is a dealing with things and

with the conscience of the assembly. e assembly is the

rst thing to prove themselves clear in the matter. “em

that sin rebuke before all” (1 Tim. 5:20) might be done

sometimes when people are put out, instead of doing so.

“Rebuke” is convict as well as reprove; convict is before all.

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Notes on 1 Corinthians 6

Chapter 6

We come now to details of laxity as to going to law

with unbelievers, to doing wrong instead of bearing it; and

to the question of meats. Also he turns back to the great

snare at Corinth, that is, its corruption through the esh;

and with that we get the individual as the temple of God.

It is very remarkable how, in the New Testament, the

highest and most wonderful things of Christ are very often

brought in and are approximated to ordinary life. Here they

are said to be going to judge angels. e Spirit of God brings

in the glories of another world and throws their light right

into the commonest things here below. ere is no other

way of judging them like that. If he is telling a servant not

to purloin, he gives the whole scope of Christianity for the

motive in Titus 2:9-14. And here these Corinthians were

for squabbling at law: “Why,” says he, “you are going to

judge the world, yea, angels!” So again, in contrast with

fornication, he says, Your body is the temple of the Holy

Spirit. It is the revelation of such motives brought to bear

on everyday conduct that is so wonderful. Flesh is there,

and you have to apply these elevated things to judge it.

Chapter 12 in the second epistle is most striking that way,

in the beginning Paul being caught up to the third heaven,

and at the end bewailing the uncleanness among them.

Here our very bodies are members of Christ being indwelt

by the Holy Spirit.

e saints are to judge the world and the angels,

when Christ comes again; in one sense all through the

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315

millennium, but in the main when He comes. Do not you

know that? he says. ey had, no doubt, been taught by

him. Corinth was a dreadful place. When they wanted

to say a man was living in luxury and debauchery, they

called it Corinthianizing. It was a proverb, “Everybody

cannot go to Corinth.” And by these things the church

was infected. ere always is the tendency to be aected

by the atmosphere which surrounds us. e habits of the

world have a kind of power that must be felt if there is not

a spiritual power to resist them.

In 1 Corinthians 6:5 he speaks to their shame; the

smallest — that is, in spiritual power — ought to be able to

judge the things that pertain to this life. And he tells them

they ought rather to suer wrong than go to law before the

unbelievers. ey were in a terrible state, they came behind

in no gift, and they came forward in no grace. His object is

to avoid suits between brethren. e Lord says, we are not

to resist evil. It is a question of grace, though righteousness

is in it. If I can keep Christ’s character, I would rather do

so than keep my cloak. It is more sorrowful for the heart to

lose Christ’s character than to lose the cloak.

e Old Testament saints will be associated with Christ

in the judgment of the world. But the apostle is from time

to time writing about the resurrection and the rapture, and

he thinks only of those to whom he is writing. He does say,

“that they without us shall not be made perfect,” and our

Lord speaks of Abraham and others sitting down in the

kingdom of God. But Paul is writing to certain persons

for a certain purpose and to suit them, so that, while other

dogmas may be behind, but very few passages refer directly

to them. You will nd truth in scripture connected at one

end with God, and at the other end with man; but if you

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cut these ends o, you will nd you have got a dry stick

instead of a plant. And as it is connected with man, in

order to get at the mind of scripture you must put yourself

in the place of the people the apostle is addressing and in

that way look at it.

I believe the saints of the Old Testament will be there

because I see “thrones, and they sat upon them, and

judgment was given unto them,” etc. (Rev. 20:4). You

gather it from passages in that kind of way. No doubt they

will be raised and will not be made perfect without us but

with us. e “saints of the high places” in Daniel 7 are the

slain remnant under the beast. To be on the thrones of

judgment, I suspect, is the lowest part of the glory. So in

Laodicea the overcomer is to sit upon the throne. No saint

will miss that.

Mark here in verse 11, “and such were some of you; but

ye are washed, but ye are sanctied, but ye are justied,

in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our

God.” Sanctication is before justication; and when they

come together, it is so habitually. You are sanctied to the

blood of sprinkling (1 Peter 1:2). Now I think scripture

speaks as plainly as possible of progressive sanctication;

but still, when you have sanctication and justication

spoken of together as two things, sanctication comes

rst. e reason is that, if you put that last, you would have

the man with a perfect title to heaven and yet unt for

it. But again you never nd tness for heaven connected

with progressive sanctication. ere is plenty of scripture

about sanctication as to the fact, “growing up to him in

all things,” “purify himself even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3),

these all show progress when I am a Christian, but are not

connected at all with tness for heaven. On the contrary

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317

you get “giving thanks to the Father who hath made us

meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in

light,” speaking of all Christians together. en there is

the poor thief who went straight to paradise; of course

he was t for it. Scripture is plain enough on progressive

sanctication too: that is likeness to Christ here.

A man is set apart to God, like a stone in a quarry,

and the Spirit of God takes him out; he is quickened by

the Holy Spirit and put into the value of Christ’s work.

“Sanctied by blood” is in Hebrews; which is merely that

now this covenant is brought in, for He died for the nation,

and the blood of the covenant was shed, and God lays the

ground for the people to come in under it; but if they did

not, that lay with them. But ‘sanctied to blood’ (1 Peter

1:2) is by the Spirit of God. Sanctication of the Spirit

is not in Hebrews at all, except that we have a glimpse of

it in “follow after holiness.” Having been washed in the

passage we are considering is the development of the truth,

speaking of the lth they were in. It is application of the

word: “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken

unto you”; and he gives the character of that as being

sanctied and justied. If “sanctied by God the Father”

in Jude is right, the meaning is He did it in His counsels

in grace.

You get no work without the whole Trinity. In

the miracles of Christ He says, “the Father that dwelleth in

me, he doeth the works.” “My Father worketh hitherto and

I do work.” en “If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils.”

So we are God’s children, and have the life of Christ, and

it is the Spirit of God we are quickened by.

Instead of the Trinity being some out of the way doctrine,

it runs through the whole of the scriptures. Communion is

26 See New Translation, “beloved in God the Father.”

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318

with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit.

Again in prayer “through him” — Christ — “we have access

by one Spirit unto the Father.” You rst get it where it is

so beautiful to me in the end of Matthew 3. ere Christ

is taking His place among the remnant and is baptized

by John the Baptist — not that He needed repentance, of

course. But then immediately you get heaven opened, and

the Holy Spirit comes down, and the Father owns Him

as the Son. And there I get my place as a Christian sealed

with the Holy Spirit. I too am a son. Heaven is opened to

me, and the Father owns me: and in all this I get the rst

full revelation of the Trinity, where Christ rst takes our

place in grace coming to fulll righteousness: the rst time

heaven is opened: and here I get the place of a man in the

counsels of God the rst time the Son takes His place as

a man. It is all the more striking because the next thing is

that He takes the other side of our place: He is led of the

Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Christ at His baptism says “us”; but though others came

acknowledging their sins, He had none to acknowledge,

He came fullling righteousness; He was taking His place

with the excellent of the earth, and that runs all through,

Christ taking His place with His disciples. It is here that

the question is raised whether He was a good Jew. “Doth

not your master pay tribute?” they mean, to the temple

service. And Christ says, “Of whom do the kings of the

earth take tribute, of their own children or of strangers?”

and when they say of strangers, He says, en are the sons

free. at is, they could not claim it of Him: “nevertheless,

that we oend them not,” He tells Peter to go to the sea and

cast in a hook for a sh and in its mouth he should nd a

piece of money which he was to pay “for me and thee.” He

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319

commands all the creation of God, and that very thing in

which He shows divine knowledge and then divine power

was the very thing in which He ranks Peter with Himself.

“Ye are washed” is the aorist middle in Greek, (“you

have washed yourselves”) constantly used in that way in a

passive sense in the New Testament. What is commonly

called passive in Hebrew is used as a reective verb in the

same way. As to “in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the

Spirit of our God,” the Greek preposition en is constantly

used thus; but “by” would be better in both cases. When it

is anything of power, we have en as is well known, not for

instrumental meaning, but “in virtue of.” You cannot take

a word in one language as answering exactly to another

in another language: you will make all sorts of confusion

if you do. From the dierent relationships of words, it

would have conveyed a dierent thought to a Greek from

its circumstances, though it is the same word that is used

in dierent positions. You get Paul passing over where he

talks of honor and dishonor, from en to dia; that shows “by”

is not quite identical; dia is the instrument, but en is not

exactly that, but more intimate.

By all things lawful, not all expedient (1 Cor. 6:12),

he means that there is no dierence to him, but he will

not allow anything to have power over him. e moment

it governs, lust has power over him if it is only eating

something nice. ere are a number of details here next:

meats for the belly, and the body not for fornication but for

the Lord; also the Lord for the body. He has taken up the

body as well as the soul, though He has not yet redeemed

it out of its present state. It is for the Lord therefore and

not for its own lusts. And what the Lord has done is, He

has made it the temple of the Holy Spirit. It awaits its

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redemption in the sense of taking it into glory; my soul has

the liberty of grace, and my body waits for the liberty of

the glory, and all creation waits. Yet the body now belongs

to the Lord, and He takes it for Himself, and the Holy

Spirit dwells in it as a temple. “And in your spirits which

are God’s” in the last verse is a clause left out in all the best

manuscripts.

When he says “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,”

it is with the thought of authority. It is the Lord Himself

you are joined to; the person is none less than the Lord

Himself. But one could not intelligently say “members of

the Lord,” because then you lose the thought of lordship.

Jesus is the personal name: He was raised individually, and

if God raised Him up, He will also raise up all His members

(Rom. 8:11). On the other hand, “God shall destroy both it

and them,” means there will be an end of them. Its present

state is all destroyed. e whole topic is clear and shows

the absurdity of the thoughts of annihilationists. Man

is redeemed, the spirit returns to Him who gave it: God

having breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life,

man became a living soul. But then these are distinct things,

the spirit (it is plain) being that higher part in which we are

in some sort of connection with God. In 1 essalonians

5:23, the spirit is that by which we are connected with God.

God formed man’s body out of the dust of the earth — not

so the animals — and then breathed into man, and so he

became alive. Notice the way of doing it too, God taking

counsel about it: He had nished the whole creation and

pronounced it good, but He did not say so of man. He

nished with the animals, and then He says, “Let us make

man,” and so on. Man might be at enmity to God, but still

there is a relationship to Him, be it bad or good. Hence

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321

misery is nal, supposing it to be misery, because man has

a nature to be so. And thence too the poet says, “we are his

ospring.” Take the bad part of a man and you see it, the

mind of the esh is enmity against God: even when wicked

and bad, he has to do with God. In ordinary language the

two words — soul and spirit — are used for one another.

“From all lthiness of esh and spirit,” is simply

contrasting body and spirit. I get my spirit sanctied in an

amazing way when I love God. But then clearly the soul,

if you come to make the dierence, is the lower part: there

is the dividing apart of soul and spirit, the word of God

can come in and make the dierence between the two. In

one sense I have a soul like an animal, though very much

higher in character. As I said to the annihilationists, any

stupid child in the streets knows that, if you stick a man,

and all his blood runs from his body, he will die just like a

pig. ere is that animal life. e rst proposition in logic

is ‘man is an animal.’ But if he becomes a new creature

in Christ Jesus, of course his identity is preserved, — as to

who, but not as to what he was before. If you say what he

was before, it is not the same. e soul is morally changed

because I love God instead of hating Him.

In the case of dying the connection of soul and body is

lost for the time, but it is not so when the body is changed,

for the links go with the body. at was just the diculty

of the Sadducees, in supposing seven men with one wife,

when they get into resurrection. In the esh we have the

devil’s sin, that is, pride against God, and the spirit’s sins

in our bodies. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, we have seen that it

is the natural man, the man without the Holy Spirit. A

man is not a man without body, soul, and spirit. ey may

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be separated for a little, as when he dies. Sometimes it is

called, inner man and outer man, soul and body.

Spirit and soul are never separated; one is the higher

part of the other, so to speak. e word of God is the

only thing that can distinguish them. Philosophers were

wrong, as Aristotle. To them it was merely mind and the

animal soul, which loves, for instance, one’s children. I have

a mind that thinks about children, and so on: that is all

right so far; and philosophers recognized that there was

this in man, but they went no farther than this intellect.

We know there is a link between man and God, and that

is responsibility too, though now man has got into enmity.

e “dividing asunder” in Hebrews 4 is that which just

gives the dierence between the two, for it cuts them into

two. Heathens saw the superiority to beasts, but I do not

believe the intellect which they owned has anything to do

with God. All philosophy is a perfect delusion, intellect has

nothing to do with God at all. God may act upon it: that

is another thing.

It is not, of course, as with a stone that God acts upon

man, but it is through his conscience. It is not the activity

of man’s intellect at all. A man of considerable intellectual

powers is all the more likely to go wrong. God may take a

chosen vessel and t it for Him to act in and by, but never

for the vessel to act. Wherever the vessel acts, it shuts God

out. at is what Paul insists on so much in the opening

of this epistle. And faith is never in the intellect; and, what

is more, the intellect never knows a truth. Intellect knows

consequences, but these are not truth. at is, truth is not

the object of intellect, but of testimony. is is where the

dierence lies. You tell me something and I believe you, but

the thing that receives truth (on, I believe, a testimony) is

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not intellect. “He that receiveth his testimony hath set to

his seal that God is true.”

e very thing by which man proves there must be a

God is a proof that he cannot know God. Take this world:

there is evidence of skill, there must have been a designer,

some one must have made it. So with a watch (the common

illustration), some one must have made it. So to the indel

geographer they brought once a globe; and when he

asked, who made that? “Nobody” was the reply. What do

you mean? I ask who made that globe? “Nobody”; and of

course, he was confounded. I am not capable of conceiving

of such a thing existing without a cause; but if I see it there,

I must get a Former of it. I am so constituted that I cannot

think of such a thing without a cause. is is exactly what it

amounts to. God must have wrought: without a cause you

cannot think it out. I cannot conceive of anything existing

without nally a causing cause. But a cause uncaused is

above me! e thing that proves He must be proves I

cannot tell what He is. Logic says, If so-and-so is true,

then so-and-so must be; but this does not say that it is,

which is a very dierent thing to my soul. If I say “must be,”

that is a mere inference. e moment I get a testimony that

it is, how dierent! I get a divine testimony, and set to my

seal that God is true. is is faith, divine faith. One thing

ows from another, and I cannot help inferring. at is the

constitution of man, and he must think according to what

he is, he cannot think otherwise.

Intellect never discovered anything in divine things;

it may deduce correct conclusions, but it never can go

above itself. at is another way of looking at it. If intellect

pretends to go above itself, it is an absurdity on the face of

it. If it pretends to rise to God, He is not the true God at

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all, but the mere conclusion of my mind. God can act on

me, as physic acts on man; but that is not what I am. God

has given us receptivity so far as that goes. It is as simple as

ABC. Here is God, and if I bring Him in, it closes reasoning;

and if I leave Him out, everything is false. I may have the

farthings, but no pounds in the account. Nine-tenths of

our ideas come from relationship, not from intellect; just

as a child knows its father. Relationship is never known by

reason: mind is fond of a kind of metaphysical reasoning

about this, but it is all folly. e moment relationship is

formed, all moral duty ows from it, and from it alone.

Duty has nothing to do with intellect. is it is that makes

us totally dependent. Man at the outset tried to get out of

dependence on God, and really got into dependence on

the devil and his own lusts. “By every word of God shall

man live” was dependence and obedience, and that was

where Christ was: it is the proper place of every intelligent

creature, who ought to be both dependent and obedient.

en we have here that the body is the temple of the

Holy Spirit. He acts on the soul and on the heart-Christ

dwells in our hearts by faith-but the body is His temple,

and therefore it is to be used accordingly. A great deal

of mischief springs from not recognizing this. e body

is only in its right place when it is a vessel which I am

just using for God. e body of the Christian is a member

of Christ, because he is His, and I am this, and my body

is part of Him. It is a temple of God, because the Holy

Spirit dwells there. My body is His temple; it is simple

statement: but the Holy Spirit is to guide me. “Ye are not

your own.” We have the two great leading principles of

Christian condition: the body the temple; and I am bought

with a price; and for both reasons we must glorify God

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325

bodily, because it is purchased, and is possessed by the

Holy Spirit dwelling in it. is gives a great distinctness to

the reality of the personal presence of the Holy Spirit. Too

often people talk about the Spirit working in their hearts,

with the thought only of a mere inuence. Even that does

produce a certain state of heart in such, it is true; but that

my body is His temple gives reality and personality clearly

and in power.

Well, then, I am not to go and abuse the temple of

God. is is peculiar to saints since redemption. “He that

is joined to the Lord” is a real thing. If I am joined to the

Lord, I get all the fullness of Him that dwells in me; which

shows the great dierence between life and union. People

say we are united by faith, and again by life; but neither

is true; we are united in life, but the union is by the Holy

Spirit. e Old Testament saints might be united in heart

and spirit, but this was no union as in the New Testament

saints.

Persons dwelling together is not a body. ere could not

be a body until Christ was at the right hand of God: and

you must get the head before you get the body. You have a

divine Son, the Son of God, quickening whom He will, but

no body formed until the Holy Spirit is given. A person

cannot be said to be a member of Christ until he be sealed.

Take the apostle for three days and nights. e saints were

not the body of Christ until the day of Pentecost. ere

may be souls in that state now, quickened but not having

received the gospel of their salvation; and so doubting and

fearing. But we should not judge of souls because they

say, “I doubt,” and “I do not know”: so many think it is

presumption to say, “I am a child of God.” ey will tell

you, “I am afraid to talk in that way. I have a humble hope

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326

things will be all right; and sometimes I feel happy.” Now

suppose I hear at their prayers, one saying, “Father,” when

speaking to God, and another saying, “Be merciful to me a

sinner,” then I learn the dierence.

ough one call upon God as Father, it is far happier

for a soul to see clearly; but when a soul cries Abba Father,

he has just the same title to the Lord’s table as I have. e

principle is very simple. e Lord’s supper has the character

of the one body, inasmuch as “ye are partakers of that one

loaf.” If one calls God Father, he is a member of Christ,

being sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are not always

judges; but the principle is simple. e man that is sealed

with the Holy Spirit is a member of the body of Christ,

and the Lord’s supper is a sign of the unity of the body.

As a member of the body, that is his place. Intelligence

is not the test of communion. I do not bring my degree

of knowledge of what I have, but I come because I am a

member of Christ; and if another comes, of course it is

the same thing. e consciousness that God is his Father

is upon the testimony of the Holy Spirit. He must have

faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, not merely in

His Person; he receives the Holy Spirit, and is, of course,

member of the body of Christ.

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327

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Notes on 1 Corinthians 7

Chapter 7

e apostle turns to marriage in this chapter, and then

the general truth of staying wherein you are called. It is a

beautiful passage of scripture, as to the holiness of marriage.

We must deal with every subject from God.

In 1 Corinthians 7:12, “To the rest speak I, not the

Lord,” is very precious, because the modern indel speaks

of inspiration as if it were the highest expression of the

inner life. Now I nd the apostle making a dierence here,

which is instructive. He says, “As I have received mercy of

the Lord to be found faithful,” as a man, I give you this

experience; and to the rest speak I, not the Lord. Scripture

therefore meets everything, repudiating the whole system

of those men who deny inspiration, carefully distinguished

between Paul’s best thoughts and the Lord’s commands.

On this subject Paul will not give us a command, and he is

inspired to tell us that. And very precious that is in itself.

We have his spiritual judgment, and him clearly telling us

that that is not the command of the Lord. He is inspired to

make that dierence. Not all that is in scripture is inspired,

for you get the devil’s words and wicked men’s words, but

the writer who gives them is inspired to make the record.

1 Corinthians 7:14. “For the unbelieving husband is

sanctied by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctied

by the husband: else were your children unclean, but now

are they holy.” It is in contrast with the Jews; if a Jew had

married a Gentile wife, he had to send her o, and her

children o too, or he profaned himself. If the Jew were

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328

to be holy, they must all go. e Christian system being

gracious, it is just the opposite, and the Christian, instead

of being profaned by the unbeliever, sanctied him or her,

and the children too. ey are “sanctied,” just in the sense

opposite to that in which a Jew was profaned.

e other leading thought of the chapter is, that I am

to leave what I cannot abide in with God. Christ being

rejected, and the power of evil having come in, though

marriage is all lawful, and so on, yet let even those that have

wives, be as though they had none (vs. 29-31), even using

this world in everything as not a possession of mine, as not

belonging to me. And so in verse 23. Do not be slaves of

men if you can help it; yet stay where you are if you can,

with God. A servant in most cases in the New Testament

was a slave; masters might be heathen, and so on. Be free

if possible; that was to be preferred, but not to be an object

for the heart to be set on.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 8

329

62950

Notes on 1 Corinthians 8

Chapter 8

Here we come to things oered to idols. ere are

two distinct directions about that. ey had to own the

idol was nothing, and yet own it was something to the

consciences of men. Looked at it in itself, as an idol, it was

nothing; and the meat oered to it was what God created.

But then the consciences of men got into connection with

demons about it. He says at rst, “We know that an idol is

nothing in the world”; and then again, “As touching things

oered to idols, we know, for we all have knowledge.” But

knowledge only pus up, and the man who knew all this,

might go with a clear conscience himself and eat this meat,

but would stumble his brother who had a weak conscience.

In verse 6 the word “in” should be “for”: “Of whom

are all things and we for him.” I believe that is the right

force of eis. And in the same passage, the dierent uses

of the words “God” and “Lord” are seen very clearly. It is

not the divine nature as such, but the place that the divine

Persons hold in what men call the economy of grace. e

Father rested in simple Godhead, but the Son has become

a man and taken the place of Lord in His manhood. en

when I speak specically of God, I speak of the Father.

As to Christ, “he shall call his name Jesus” — Jehovah the

Savior — for He shall save His people from their sins; but

the place He has now taken is that of Lord. “God hath

made him whom ye have crucied both Lord and Christ.”

It is not that He ceases to be Jehovah, but He has taken

the place of Lord, while the Father rests in simple abstract

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330

Godhead. I notice it, because in Christ as Lord I get the

grace administered. I am a child with the Father, but if

I am looking for administration, I go to the Lord: “Lord

Jesus receive my spirit.” “Lord, we have heard by many

of this man,” and so on. “To us there is but one God the

Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ.” It does not say what

the nature of that Lord is. He is God and He is man both,

but you have the place, the leading place He has taken.

“All power,” He said, “is given to me in heaven and on

earth; go ye therefore, and disciple all nations.” Deling

the conscience (vs. 7), means that, if a man has a conscience

about anything as evil, he must follow his conscience, or he

deles it. Mark here, there is no building up on knowing

evil. If I think I ought to eat herbs, I must eat them or my

conscience is deled. I must depart from iniquity; but I

cannot build up on the negative.

In 1 Corinthians 8:11, “shall the weak brother perish?”

is the tendency of my eating so far as I can go, because I am

leading him to sin against his conscience. It is not that the

Lord will not step in and save him, but that is what I am

doing. We have the same truth in other forms elsewhere,

“for if ye live after the esh, ye shall die” (Rom. 8:13): that is

the end of living after the esh. It is nothing about eternal

death or eternal life either. He is dead already, and the end

of those things is death. Death is the judgment of God. If

a man lives in those things, he shall die. God has shown the

end of certain things to be death, and if I drag my brother

into those things, and their end is death, then, though I do

not believe from other texts that God will leave him there,

yet I am making my brother perish.

It is a great thing never to twist a single text of scripture

to a doctrine. God is wiser than we are, and He has made no

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331

mistakes. I see people afraid of certain texts about certain

doctrines, and I feel, therefore, that doctrine is not a settled

thing with them. It is the same in eect in Romans: “Destroy

not him with thy meat for whom Christ died” — destroy

my brother for a bit of meat! e moment I see that the

end of these things is death, and I am making my brother

do one of them, it is plain at once that I am destroying my

brother, and God’s act to him would be in spite of me. It is

quite true, that the moment I look at a believer in Christ,

there is no “if,” nor can be, as to his security; he is accepted

in the Beloved, and there is no “if anything”; he is sitting

in the heavenly places in Christ, and the whole matter is

settled; but that is not all that God has chosen to do about

him. He has chosen to put him through the wilderness

when he has redeemed Him, and then we have “ifs” and

“whens” without end: “If ye hold fast,” in Hebrews; “If ye

continue,” in Colossians 1:23, and so on. But what we have

along with it is, absolute dependence upon Another, and

infallible faithfulness in Another. As I have sometimes

said, I may be standing with my child on the top of a rocky

precipice, and he is apt to run about foolishly, and I say to

him, “If you tumble over, you will be smashed to atoms”;

but I have not the slightest idea of leaving my hold of him,

or of letting him fall. Now we are kept by the power of

God through faith unto salvation. is shows we need to

be kept; but on our side it is dependence on the power that

does keep. You cannot confuse that with acceptance; but it

is constant dependence upon God keeps my soul in a right

state towards Him.

e cautions in God’s word make me think of God’s

perfect love and faithfulness in keeping me; that occupies

me in my proper place of dependence. It is the confusion

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of this with acceptance that makes all the diculty. I could

not say to you now, “If I were to go to Belfast,” for I am

here; and so is my standing before God absolute. “Who

will conrm you to the end” proves that I want conrming.

God puts me in a place where the manna will not be

wanting one single morning, and so I live by every word

of God, and this brings one back to a blessed sense of

dependence continually. Redemption brings one into the

wilderness, and then what do I nd? at God has been

thinking of the nap of my coat all the way, nor has my foot

swollen along the road, while He leads me there to humble

me, and prove me, to know what is in my heart; and again,

“that thou mightest know that man shall not live by bread

alone, but by every word of God.” (Also Deut. 8:15-16.) It

is not merely that I am safe in Christ — accepted — but I

am kept by the power of God in dependence upon Him;

and there it is that I get “ifs” and “ifs,” but none upon

the faithfulness of God or a doubt about it. It is only as

regards myself that I nd the constant “if” that keeps me

in dependence. On His side, “I know my sheep and am

known of mine, and they shall never perish, neither shall

any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:14,28).

Well, then, the hand must be there to keep me. It makes

the perfect faithfulness of God receive us, but then we are

dependent upon that faithfulness.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 9

333

62951

Notes on 1 Corinthians 9

Chapter 9

In 1 Corinthians 9:18 we nd the word “abuse” again;

but the Greek means that I use outright for myself. It would

not have been abusing his power in the gospel, but he did

not use that power as something to which he had title of

possession; he only thought about it as a thing he could

use for the sake of the gospel. ere is really no thought of

“abusing” in it. It would not be “abusing,” to take a salary, or

whatever you call it. “Abuse” is a bad word, but it is dicult

to give the sense in one word; no single English word

suits. As to the other passage — “Using this world and not

abusing it” — you hear it quoted by people who are up to

their neck in it; and it is, perhaps, more important to notice

it there than here. It is using this world as not having it in

possession; simply handling it therefore, and that not as

property.

e general subject here is ministry. False teachers had

gone to Corinth, Judaizing and seeking their own, and, by

way of getting a great credit, took nothing. Paul, nding it

out, would not take anything either; not that he had not the

title. He was an apostle, and the Lord had so ordained, that

they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel; but

he would not use the power. Whatever it was, Paul would

not take it, and the assembly as an assembly has nothing

to do with it; community and fellowship in the act is all

very nice, yet if they do it together, it is not as an assembly,

though in fellowship. If I go to preach and teach, it is as

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334

sent of the Lord, though, of course, it is always happy to do

it in fellowship.

An assembly would be to blame if they knew an

evangelist laboring, and did not assist him. ey would be

losing one of their privileges. e Philippians were very

forward to do it, and so it was now with some. Perhaps

it might be to help some other gift, and in another place.

I think that is a most happy thing to nd, and would

not only have blessing on the one side, but on the other.

Locality makes no dierence. An evangelist is a servant

of Christ, not of the assembly. In Philippians, “now at the

last your care of me” (Phil. 4:10) is a beautiful expression of

the delicacy of the feeling of the apostle; they had left him

a long while, or he says so, and then adds, “but ye lacked

opportunity.” If things were right in an assembly, all this

would be done happily. In many places there are collections

at times for brothers at work at home and abroad, which is

all very right too. I did not mean that the assembly should

not together assist, but that it should not have a control of

the preacher in any way; he is responsible to the Lord, and

not the assembly’s servant. On the other hand, if they knew

any reason for not sending to him, they would be bound

not to help him.

If a preacher gives up his trade for the Lord’s sake, of

course he may “live of the gospel” by being maintained and

fed, getting food, raiment, and what he wanted. He may,

if he have energy, work like Paul all night, and so support

his house as to prevent selsh people, like some at Corinth,

from saying, He is doing it for his pay. Not many have

energy enough to do the two things, and do them well. If

you have a man preaching, supply him while he preaches;

he that plows should plow in the hope of getting the fruit

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335

of his plowing; so Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 that

he must work, or else he will not get his wages. ere is

a question of translation whether it is “rst laboring,” or

“rst partaking.” It is a mere comparison like the other; if

a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned unless he

strive lawfully. Only he must rst labor to be a partaker.

e verses before show that he is to endure hardness as

a good soldier, and he is not to entangle himself with the

aairs of this life. We have something of the same kind in

verse 24 of our chapter: “know ye not that they which run

in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize?” Even what

Christ has sent me, I do not take up, for His sake. I glory

in this that I have given up everything I had a title too, for

the gospel’s sake. It is a very strong expression, Better for

me to die than for me to do anything that would hinder

the gospel. He was ashamed of the Corinthians.

Paul was not under yoke to anyone in his service, only to

the Lord, of course. He was free in that sense; it is what he

calls willingly and unwillingly in this chapter. He did it not

for his own will, but still he was free from man. Peter did

not send him. at was what they charged against him; he

had not seen the apostle; he did not come from Jerusalem,

and so on. In verse 19 we nd what “free” is: “ough I be

free from all, yet have I made myself servant unto all.” In

2 Corinthians 11:12 he says no one shall stop him of his

boasting, and he will do as he had done, that he might

cut o occasion from others, “that wherein they glory, they

may be found even as we.”

In 1 Corinthians 9:20-21, he sought to win Jews, not to

Judaize. Judaizing was very common. In itself Judaism was

God’s dealing with human nature, to see if good could be

got out of esh. God dealt with Adam and then with the

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336

Jew (promise coming in between), but Judaism was God

taking up man on his responsibility, and giving him a rule

or law, and with it all appliances to help, a priesthood and

temple, every kind of help to a man as man, to see if any

good could be got from him.

It was the orderly essaying and proving whether man

could be on terms with God. He could not please God;

but yet it is the constant tendency of human nature to go

back and try again, for it does not bow and own; there is

no good in it; and so it is always talking about keeping the

law, but never does it. Really man’s responsibility is not in

question at all. ere is such a thing; but Christ came to

seek and to save that which was lost. “I know that in me,

that is, in my esh, dwelleth no good thing.” But that is it

which has been brought into the light and condemned, and

I have therefore now a right to say I am dead. “rough

the law I am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”

I am dead and nished as a child of Adam. Because this

is not apprehended, there are always some remains of

Judaism. “When we were in the esh, the motions of sins

which were by the law did work in our members to bring

forth fruit unto death.” And the result is, we discover we

are lost. Take the whole system of setting up law in any

form, and the moving of men’s hearts by it: it all owns man

still — alive in the esh. You get it grossly in a self-righteous

person, and in a mixed shape in those who try to put law

and grace together; but in each and all it is just human

nature thinking it can be something. ere is something

terrible in putting a man under law after grace has come

in; it is setting him to responsibility after esh has been

proved unable to meet it.

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337

After the second word “law” in verse 20, there is a

clause left out, which is, “not being myself under law.” It

is recognized as in the text by all who have examined it.

He puts subjection to Christ in the place of being under

law. All that he means by “to them that are under the law,

as under law,” is some such thing as that he would not eat

pork, if sitting at table with a Jew. Timothy was circumcised

on some such principle. He had no right to be circumcised.

It was an arbitrary act (for his father was a Greek), unless

he wished himself to be a Jew. Paul yielded to the Jewish

Christians in that case, and did it to please them; but

notice that the moment he got into a scrape about it, not

one of those he sought to please showed his face to help

him. In dealing with Jews he adapted himself to them, but

directly that the Jews made the law necessary, he withstood

them. He would not give in about Titus, because they were

making it necessary. But here in Paul’s own case there was

no necessity; it was his own adapting himself to them, and

just what we all ought to do. His action at Jerusalem was a

further case. e Spirit had told him not to go up, and he

could not do anything right there, though nothing wrong

either. It was merely to please himself, and under other

people’s advice, doing this and that after he had left all

such things entirely.

ere is no limit for the early primitive church but the

death of the apostles. Peter speaks of his decease, pointing

to a change. But what we have in principle for ourselves

is, “that which is from the beginning.” If it is not from the

beginning, it has no claim of authority at all. “If that which

ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye

also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” ey had

wanted at the council of Nice to establish the celibacy of

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the clergy, but one old bishop got up and told them they

would only be putting a snare to their feet; that was about

nine years before some tried at the rst so-called general

council to lay it down as a rule, but they were hindered,

though the spirit of asceticism had come in. A century

afterward you nd the strongest denouncement of these

notions. Chrysostom has two treatises against them.

Alford’s translation is not to be depended upon. It may

be useful to a person who can judge for himself. He had an

active mind in raising questions, but I never regarded his

judgment in settling them. His was not a sober judgment,

and not therefore one to be trusted. What I dread in these

new translations is that there is a kind of conservatism of

an old doctrine governing them; as, for instance, Alford

retains, “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

us you nd him keeping to the old thing because it is

there. None of them knows scripture or has got truth from

scripture, but they bring their thoughts to scripture. Some

modern scholars have changed that text, and besides it

is clear enough in other passages, as Romans 2:12, “they

that have sinned without law, shall also perish without

law”; which is in contrast with them that have sinned

under law. It is clear contrast there and that in the English

translation itself. But they had a doctrine which was that

the transgression of the law was sin, and so in John they

put it, “sin is the transgression of the law”; but where their

doctrine was not in question, they translated it as “lawless.”

In John it is positively contrary to scripture; for when it says

“they that have sinned without law,” how can this be if sin

is the transgression of the law? And again, how then could

sin by the commandment become exceedingly sinful? And

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339

again, “for until the law sin was in the world”: how could

that be if sin was but the transgression of the law?

“Sin is not imputed when there is no law,” it is true.

But this is not the word elsewhere rendered “impute”; it

means the particular sin is not put to account. You are a

sinner and lawless when you have no law, but I cannot say

to you, Such and such a thing is forbidden. As if my child

runs into the street, instead of doing its lessons, I cannot

say in a particular sense, “You have been disobedient”; but

if I have told him not to go out into the street, then it is not

a general question of his idleness, but I say I am going to

whip you for that particular thing. In Romans 5:13, what

the apostle is reasoning on is that death was a proof that sin

was there before there was law. You cannot conne grace to

the Jews, for then you make it narrower than sin; for death

and sin were there, and all had sinned, and if you shut up

grace to those under law and do not let in the Gentiles,

you are making sin a more powerful thing than the grace

of God. Death was reigning there before ever Moses’

law came in, and that is the meaning of the expression

“who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s

transgression,” a quotation from Hosea 6:7, “but they like

men” — Adam — “have transgressed the covenant.” ese

Gentiles never did that, the Jews did. ey transgressed it,

and Adam too transgressed the commandment he had; yet

these Gentiles were under sin and death, though they had

no law at all. You must now take up Christ as answering

to Adam in headship, though rst he adds more, that the

law entered that the oense might abound, but where

sin — not oense — abounded, grace did much more

abound. e dierence between “impute” in Romans 4-5,

is that in chapter 4 it is reckoning a man to be something;

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340

in chapter 5 it is putting so much to his account. It occurs

again in Philemon 18, “put that to my account.”

In reading the verse in 1 John 3, “Sin is lawlessness,” it

would not have the same eect if you reversed the words

as they stand as in our version; but as in the Greek with

the two articles, it is a reciprocal proposition. “A blow is

sin”; but you could not say, “sin is a blow.” But “lawlessness

is sin”; and “sin is lawlessness”; and he who practices sin

also practices lawlessness. It is kai (and) that is used to

connect the sentence, which I think brings it back to an

abstract proposition. In Romans 5:5, Adam had a law and

Moses had a law, and sin was in between and death too. I

think you see at once that a law is in contemplation; not so

lawlessness, which is expressed by an abstract word.

Sin, I believe, is a man having a will of his own. It so

far takes in law that, the moment you have got a creature

of God, there was some rule or will of God that that

creature ought to obey, but if he does not, he is lawless.

To sin, in Greek, is to err, to miss anything, as, not to hit

when shooting at a mark, or to reel o when you ought to

keep on; to leave a straight right path is the etymological

meaning of this word. But it is a very dierent thing to

bring in the thought of law. If I say, “them that have sinned

without law,” it makes me think of a law though they

have had none. You cannot in the abstract sense think of a

creature that has to say to God, without thinking of God’s

authority expressed somehow, and this would be a law to

him, which also was true in the garden of Eden. But when

a fruit was particularly forbidden, it was a legal covenant;

“if you eat that, you shall die” — a positive rule. Well man

eats it and gets a conscience, and so on. Afterward Moses’

law was a perfect rule for man in that state, for a child of

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341

Adam that had got away from God. ere is no means

in it of bringing him back to God, and therefore it says,

“the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither

indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7): it has got a will of its own. at

state we have brought out in our chapter where we were

reading, in which Paul is said to be under law to Christ, and

yet not himself under law. It is the abstract idea of being

subject to the rule of Christ, and so on; yet he states at

the same time that he is not under law, he will not hear of

that in any way: but he adds “not without law to God,” nor

lawless therefore as regards God, and yet he is not under

law, while he is rightly subject to Christ.

e mischief of maintaining law is that it sets up esh,

treating man as alive. Now the doctrine of Christianity is

that man is not alive. e law has power over a man so long

as he lives. Well, if I am alive, I am a responsible man in the

esh, and lost and condemned. But now we are delivered

from the law, having died in that in which we were held,

and that is where there is no allowance of sin; and he brings

in a nature to which the power of Christ is added. He does

not set about to leave the man alive and then bring the law

to a man that will not bow to it. He did that once of old,

but now in Christ we have a new life with power in it, and

in that respect the Christian scheme is as plain as possible.

It is not bringing a law to a nature that cannot be subject

to it, but the bringing in a new nature that delights to do

the will of God. You contrast the new nature with will, and

then add the Holy Spirit for power.

In Romans 8:10, “the body is dead because of sin.” If my

body is alive, in the scriptural sense of evil, it is esh, but

of course this body is a mere instrument. e Jesuits said a

body ought to be a mere carcass and obey. “On account of

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342

sin” is the practice. e only source of life to the Christian

that he owns is the Spirit. I hold my body dead, because if

it is alive it will be a fountain of sin. Sin in the esh is clear

in scripture. You never get esh alone unless merely as to

the body, as “the life I live in the esh.” e “body of sin,”

in Romans, is taking it as a whole: as I might say the “body

of heaven,” the whole of it. In Colossians 1:22 it is “body

of the esh”: it is the idea of the whole thing going as one

lump. I do not doubt there is an allusion to the body, but

the thought is the whole thing. is body is looked at as

the seat of sin, I have no doubt.

We get the two parts of the thing from being dead with

Christ, dead and alive to God through Jesus Christ our

Lord. en follows,” the law of the Spirit of life in Christ

Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” In

the Spirit of life I get power. en comes the other side:

“God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful esh

and for sin, condemned sin in the esh.” e law could not

do this; it might curse, but it could get nothing good out of

me. Where I was, Christ came there to die, and there and

then God condemned sin in the esh. Christ was made sin

for me, and that which was tormenting my mind God has

condemned altogether, and there is an end of it for faith.

It is like “put away sin by the sacrice of himself,” only

this goes farther. First, as to sins, the Lord bore them and

put them away; then I nd there is a tree of evil in me, what

of that? It is all condemned upon the cross where Christ

died, and you are consequently to reckon yourselves dead.

I have done with it — sin in the esh: that is, faith has. I

know it is more dicult for us to lay hold of that, than to

lay hold of the forgiveness of sins, because it contradicts

our experience. If a man comes and tells me my debts are

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343

all paid, I believe that; but if he said, “You are dead to sin,”

I say, “How do you mean that; for I was in a passion this

morning?” and in this way experience contradicts it. But it

did die in Christ’s death; it is all dead and gone, because

I am in Christ, and Christ is my life. And when the esh

comes and shows its face to me, I say, You have had your

day, and have been ended. I have a right to say this, knowing

that Christ has died, and God condemned sin in the esh

there. I have a perfect title to do so, and also I have Christ

as my power. Being a partaker, in 1 Corinthians 9:23, is the

joy of seeing souls saved, and being saved himself.

Now we come to one of those verses people are afraid of

looking in the face. “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;

so ght I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep my

body under, and bring it into subjection, lest, that by any

means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be

a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:26-27). e word “castaway” troubles

some. People have tried to make out that a castaway is

not a castaway. I see no diculty in it at all. e apostle

supposes a case: one is preaching to others, and perishes

himself. Paul was perfectly well assured as to himself; but

he says if he had been merely preaching, he would have

been falsely assured; but if not merely beating the air, he

was rightly assured.

e running to “obtain” is the general idea of the

incorruptible crown of glory. He has salvation in his mind:

“that I might be all means save some,” and so on. He is not

thinking only of the reward of service, but he takes it all

here in the most general way. Scripture is plain enough:

“Every man shall receive reward according to his own

labor.” “ere is no man that hath left house, or parents, or

brother, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake,

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344

who shall not receive manifold more in this present time,

and in the world to come, life everlasting” (Luke 18:29-30).

ere is that which characterizes the faith of the Christian,

and makes eternal life the reward. ere is the keeping of

the body down, that is, the contrary to preaching. I am not

merely a preacher, but a liver, “lest, when I have preached

to others, I myself should be a castaway.” You must run

lawfully, as a Christian, not merely preach; or you may have

all the sacraments, as they are called, and yet fall in the

wilderness. ere must be reality, whatever else there is.

ose who weaken the force of the word “castaway” do

so right in the teeth of the passage. It has no reference to

the quality of the preaching, for the apostle says, “So ght

I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body,

and bring it into subjection.” “I myself,” is not my service,

nor my preaching. To be a castaway is to be lost — to be

“punished with everlasting destruction from the presence

of the Lord.” What Paul means is, he is not only a believer,

but is living like a believer, or he might be cast away as

well as other people. I have not the most distant doubt

that God will keep His people; they shall never perish. But

suppose I say, “If such a person stayed in such a room, he

will never have consumption.” So if Paul himself had been

preaching only, not living, he would have been a castaway;

but he was not that, and he was stating how he was living

that he might not be a castaway. e point is, that you must

strive lawfully and according to the rules. Now the rule of

Christ is, you must live as well as talk, or else be afraid of

the consequences. “If ye live after the esh, ye shall die”

(Rom. 8:13).

In Revelation 22:14 we read “Blessed are they that do

his commandments, that they may have right to the tree

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345

of life.” But I have no doubt it should be read, “Blessed are

they that wash their robes,” and so on. I believe the book

of life is nal, and all the devils cannot blot a name out of

it. Where it speaks of blotting out, it is like a registry of

votes. If it is proved that a certain name has no right there,

it is blotted out. Every professor’s name is in the book of

life: but if God wrote it, it will never be blotted out. A

mere professor writes his name himself, but he has no right

to be there, unless God has written his name, and it will

be blotted out. In Revelation 22:19 it should be “tree of

life,” not “book of life.” God takes away no name that He

has written. In Revelation 13: 8, it should be, I doubt not,

“written from the foundation of the world,” and not “the

Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”; and such

a name will not be blotted out. I suppose the book of life

(Rev. 20) is after the names are blotted out, for verse 15 is

“whosoever was not found written in the book of life was

cast into the lake of re.” Although they are there judged

for their works, their names were not in the book. Blotting

out is, because a man’s name was there that had no right to

be there. Moses had the same thought. He says, “blot me

out.”

“Life,” and “living” in scripture, when God uses it, is not

always the thought of mere life; as “Oh, that Ishmael might

live before thee.” It is divine favor also. is is one of those

cases in which I do not see that those who make diculties

have in the least gained anything. I do not think that the

idea of blotting out is all; there is the reality. God puts

absolute principles, which lead to certain consequences,

and if a cap ts, let a man wear it. People try to torture

passages to make them consistent with doctrines, instead

of taking the doctrine from the passages. Take “if ye live

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346

after the esh ye shall die”; I am not going to weaken that.

Again, “to them who by patient continuance in well-doing

seek for glory, and honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;

but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the

truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth

evil” (Rom. 2:7-9). en, says some one, a man is saved by

his works; eternal life is dependent on patient continuance,

etc. It is practical Christianity brought in at once. I resist

altogether the attempts to enfeeble that pressure on the

conscience which I see in scripture. “Work out your own

salvation.” is not temporal salvation; it is in contrast with

Paul’s working, as he might say: I was laboring for your

salvation when I was with you, and now you must do it

for yourselves, because I am here in prison; but you have

not lost God by losing me: “God is working in you both

to will and to do” (Phil. 2:12). You torture the scripture

otherwise. In Philippians, salvation is always looked at

as with glory at the end. It was not the mere salvation of

Paul’s body in Philippians 1:19. We always have that truth

in that epistle founded on redemption. e cross has laid

hold of me for the glory, but I have not yet laid hold of it,

and what I ought to apprehend is that for which I have

been apprehended. And God’s way was when He laid

hold of Paul to put him through the wilderness, and make

him work out his salvation to the end. When I say God is

keeping His people, I ask too, Why has He to keep them?

Because they want keeping or they would fall.

You have the two things in John 10:28: “ey shall

never perish,” inwardly, nor be “plucked out of my hand.”

But this is not to weaken the plain positive passages which

are given as warning, and meant to be as warning. We

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347

have the “ifs” in Hebrews, and in Colossians 1:23, “if ye

continue,” and so on. Now I suppose I believe that God is

keeping His saints, and still I say to you, “If you continue to

the end you will be saved.” A methodist thinks and will say

the same, but he thinks such an one might be lost after all;

while I am perfectly certain that he will never perish, that

is, if he really has life at all.

Dierent states of soul need dierent treatment. We

must give meat in due season. A passage which might

help on one, might pu up another; that is a question

of spiritual wisdom in dealing with souls. All that I feel

anxious about is the maintenance of the positive dealing

of scripture with conscience. Take that passage in Romans

we referred to: “Who will render to every man according

to his deeds; to them who, by patient continuance,” and so

on. Well, a man says, ere may then be good people, and

if they work good, they will get glory, and honor, and peace.

But I say to him, “You are wrong entirely; there is none

good but God.” ere is plenty of scripture to meet such

a case, but we need not weaken this sentence in Romans

in order to do it. It is the necessity of God’s nature, that

there must be a certain life and character in a man for him

to be with God. We have a scripture that God has given

that nature, and that He will keep it to the end; but the

latter does not enfeeble the fact that the nature is such as

it is. You must have that life and walk in that life, or you

will not be in heaven. us we have broad dealing with

conscience, and that is what we must not weaken. We have

it plain enough in scripture, unmitigated and unenfeebled.

Consciences want it, they are slippery enough. If I use it to

weaken a person’s faith in God’s delity, I use it wrongly;

but I want to give it all its force as it stands, while giving

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348

meat in due season. Suppose I found a person slipping into

sin, and I say to him, “Well, never mind, God is faithful”;

though that is abstractly true, it is not what I should use

to him then, but just the opposite. Yet if God did not keep

me, I know I should be soon slipping o somewhere.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 10

349

62952

Notes on 1 Corinthians 10

Chapter 10

is chapter is a continuation of the same subject.

All Israel were “baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in

the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did

all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the

spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was

Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased;

for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Cor. 10:2-

5). ey were, as we may say, in the Christian profession,

standing in this world. Paul is proving that a person might

persist in the outward observance of Christianity, and yet

be lost. But there may be such a thing as having the shield

of faith down as a chastisement perhaps, but that would be

the only case I can recognize of loss of assurance where it

has been really known; that is, I mean where a man is given

up to it, and to the ery darts as a kind of chastisement.

I remember a person who was away from fellowship for

fourteen years, and a high Calvinist spoke to him as a child

of God, which became the means of bringing him in again.

He had got pued up, was a kind of prophet, Irvingite,

and so on, and the devil had blown him over. Very solemn

indeed! But I do not want a soul to lose his assurance; it

may be the power for bringing him back. I do not say of a

child that is naughty, he is not a child, neither do I wish him

to think he is not. If you nd a person in despair, you may

feel it is the divine nature there. God reconciles absolutely

His holiness and His faithfulness, and all else. We may be

taking them apart, but He never does.

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350

We have in this chapter certain truths typically

presented — the keeping of Israel as a whole, or to the end,

as well as the fall of these individuals. In Numbers 15 we

have the security of God’s purpose most beautifully set

out. In Numbers 14 He says their carcases shall fall in the

wilderness. He pronounces judgment on the whole nation,

save two persons. e entire people refuse to go up and take

possession of the land, and the Lord says, “doubtless ye

shall not come into the land,” save Joshua and Caleb. en

in Numbers 15, “e Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak

unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be

come into the land,” and so on, and goes on with His own

intentions just as quietly as if nothing of Numbers 14 had

happened. “Baptized unto Moses,” is what we call being

associated with him in these ordinances. “Baptized with

the baptism of John,” was objectively the thing to which

they were brought: so it was baptized “unto” instead of

“into.” e Greek preposition eis refers to the point you are

going to, unless hindered. I might say I am going to Rome,

but robbers might come in and stop me, but eis has that

force. Pros is “towards” with the accusative; with the dative

it is rather “there,” but with the accusative it is distinctly

objective. e sickness is not unto (pros) death, but for the

glory of God, that is, it was with that object in view. In

Ephesians 4 ministers were given with a view to (eis) the

work of the ministry, eis the edifying of the body, and pros

the perfecting of the saints. e prominent thought is the

perfecting of the saints, the more immediate point is eis:

the former was, that is, an eternal thing, but the work of the

ministry was a present thing, and what they were at then;

the perfecting is a denite result in view.

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351

In the middle of this chapter we go from the outward

thing to the inward. We have had not merely those who

call on the name of the Lord Jesus, but those who were

baptized to Moses, and did eat the same spiritual meat,

and so on. ese really partook of the privileges and yet

were lost. You may have really Christ, and yet God be not

well pleased with you. A person who is living after the esh

shall die. He therefore cannot have the real thing. is

passage is not a warning against having a thing and in any

way perishing, but against having the signs of the thing

and then perishing. It is addressed to saints “with all those

who call on the name of the Lord Jesus,” however bad they

might be at Corinth.’ It would be a very dangerous thing to

say that people were outside warnings and dangers because

they themselves are so bad.

We have here a kind of Sardis, and a terrible thing it is

to have a name to live, and yet be responsible. “I gave her

space to repent, and she repented not.” e whole professing

church will be cut o; they wax worse and worse, but still

the responsibility is there, though they have left their rst

love. To the essalonians Paul had written, “Ye are not of

the night that that day should overtake you as a thief.” It

will overtake the world so, and the Lord writes to Sardis,

“lest I come as a thief,” that is, treat you as the world. ere

will be a testing-time, and then some will be cut o. In the

beginning of all, the Lord added daily to the church such

as should be saved; but when we come as far as Jude, we

see apostasy coming in, evil men creeping in unawares. In

verse 8 fornication refers to the particular danger they were

in. All their relatives around them went on in that kind

of thing, and they themselves were therefore in danger of

slipping into it. Fornication was not a type. ese were

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the things that happened then in Israel, not the gures of

things for us, but the judgments that came from them are

our warnings.

As to their idolatry, I doubt if a single sacrice, unless an

ocial one, was oered to God all through the wilderness.

In Acts 7:42-43, Stephen says, “Have ye oered to me

slain beasts and sacrices by the space of forty years in the

wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and

the star of your god Remphan, gures which ye made to

worship them.” e ocial ones probably were maintained,

or might be; and at large what they did oer might be

professedly to the Lord; for when they made the golden

calf, Aaron made proclamation, “To-morrow is a feast to

Jehovah.” God had ordered them to bring the blood of

every beast they slew to the tabernacle, or rather the beast

itself.

In 1 Corinthians 10:11 the “ends of the world” is the

completion of the ages. To me the world now is not under

any dispensation, but the whole course of God’s dealings

with it are over until He comes to judgment. Man was

under responsibility from Adam to Christ, and then our

Lord says, “Now is the judgment of this world” (John

12:31). Historically I see this: up to the ood no dealings

of God, but a testimony in Enoch. We see a man turned out

of paradise, and presently God comes in by a solemn act,

and puts that world all aside. en after the ood we see

various ways of God with the world. He begins by putting

it under Noah. He gave promises to Abraham, then law

raising the question of righteousness, which promise did

not. Law was brought in to test esh, and see whether

righteousness could be got from man for God. en God

sent prophets until there was no remedy, and then He says

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353

there is one thing yet I may still do: I will send My Son;

and when they saw the Son, they said, “is is the heir, let

us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours” (Mark 12:7),

and then, so far as responsibility went, God was turned out

of the world.

en comes the cross, and atonement for sin, and a

foundation for a new state of things altogether, and that

was the completion of the ages. God is not now dealing

with man to try if he is lost or not, and so in John’s Gospel

man is gone from chapter I. e rst three Gospels present

Christ to man, and then He is rejected; but in John 1, “He

came to his own, and his own received him not. But as

many as received him, to them gave he power to become

the sons 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 man, but of God.” ere we nd God’s

power coming into the world, and the Jews all done with:

only some receive Him who have been born of God, and

so John’s Gospel is thoroughly what men call Calvinistic.

As to invitations, it is not incorrect to say to an

unconverted man, “Come to Jesus.” We may go “as though

God did beseech you by us … be reconciled to God.” God

is obliged to have ambassadors for Christ now that Christ

is gone. Beseeching is, so to speak, more than saying,

Come. Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and

are heavy laden,” in the chapter where He had already said,

“We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we

have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented” (Matt.

11:17). ereon He begins to upbraid the cities wherein

most of His mighty works were done, declaring woe unto

them; and then comes, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of

heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from

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the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matt.

11:26-26). And then He says, “Come unto me,” etc. He

speaks of the judgment as already come upon them; then

there is nothing for it, for no man knows the Son but the

Father, neither knows any man the Father save the Son.

He bows to His Father completely in rejection, and it is

consequent upon that rejection, that, like Noah’s dove, He

nds there is no single place for Him to put His foot upon;

and so now He says, If you want to get to heaven, come to

Me outside the world. e gospel tests, and people will not

receive the gospel any more than they could keep the law.

In 1 John 2:13 we read, “I write unto you, fathers,

because ye have known him that is from the beginning”;

that is, they knew Christ had come into the world. ey

knew a great deal about Him, but no man can fathom the

Son but the Father. “Son” is that being who was in the

form of God, Christ, who “made himself of no reputation,

and took upon himself the form of a servant” and so on;

but if you ask how God can be a servant, you plunge into

diculty by getting into the reasonings of men.

Returning to our chapter, we have now identication

with the table; the eaters are partakers of the altar. In eating

of it, you identify yourself with the body of Christ, for “we

are all partakers of that one bread.” Someone once wrote

to ask what was the proof that it was the body of Christ!

And I found from another that it was understood only to

speak of the unity of those who were actually partaking.

But what the apostle is saying is, If you go and eat of

these idolatrous altars, you identify yourself with them. As

Israel after the esh, if they ate of the altar, they identied

themselves with it; so if you partake of the table of the

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355

Lord, you have a common part with others with it. It is not

itself identity with the body, but that which is the sign of

it. You cannot partake of Christ and of demons at the same

time; this is, “cannot” morally. e peace-oering gives the

understanding of it: some was burnt on the altar, but of

the esh the priest ate the part oered to God, and they

themselves, the oerers, ate the rest.

e principle was that the eaters were identied with

the altar. If it were a thanksgiving, it must be eaten on the

same day, but two days were allowed in the case of a vow,

because there was a stronger energy in it, and none might

be eaten on the third day at all. And so, if they were at

table at a feast, he says, Eat what is set before you, unless

it is given you as having been oered at an idol’s temple,

and then eat not. Of course you could do the act of eating

of idols’ sacrices, but you cannot eat to God and to the

demon together. en comes the question, whether it is

only those who are eating who are identied; and the

local church is spoken of as the body of Christ, but I must

take in all Christians when I go out into the mystic body.

e communion (koinonia) is merely the external act of

partaking, but if it is of Christ, it is the whole body. I

cannot call an assembly the body of Christ, except so far

as it may represent the whole body. At the altar there is

identication, I am in communion with it; you do not get

communion with the Lord’s table, but taking a part in it (1

Cor. 10:21).

ere is a distinction: the Lord is the One who is over

me. I do not think Christ is ever called the Lord of the

assembly. He is the Lord of the individual, but not of the

assembly. Head of the church implies union. Head of the

body is not the same thought as the head of every man;

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356

that includes wicked men as well as good. e head of my

body is head, and therein is union; but when I speak of

head of every man, it is lordship over man. In Ephesians

5:29, “Even as the Lord, the church,” should be “Christ the

church.”

“He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” is spoken

of us, because He is a glorious person, and I by the Holy

Spirit am one with Him who is such; but that is very

dierent from the thought of Lord of the assembly as such.

e thought destroyed the unity of the body, and this was

the use that was made of it. He is Lord in the assembly. I

suppose every Christian would own the title of authority

in the Lord. Christ is generally the ocial name; it is not

an absolute rule, but in most cases we have lost the “the

Christ” in the English. ere is a Greek rule, that if you

have the article and the thing that governs the genitive, you

have the article with the name, and there is a question then

whether you say “the Christ,” or “Christ.” “e Christ” may

contemplate the church too, as in “so also is the Christ.”

In “whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,” he takes

the lowest character rst, and says, “He that believeth that

Jesus is the Christ is born of God,” that is, he that has faith

in His person.

e thought that was put out as a diculty is, that

the unity is merely the unity of those who are actually

partaking. e bearing of it all is to make independent

churches, whereas the apostle is here looking at them in

connection with the fact of their partaking at the table;

but he adds it is the communion of the body of Christ;

and then we have the whole body, while those who may be

present stand as such for the time.

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357

In 1 Corinthians 12 you have two statements. Verse 12,

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all

members of that one body, being many, are one body; so

also is Christ,” literally the Christ. en in 1 Corinthians

12:27, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in

particular,” takes in the whole thing, and the character that

belongs to them. In our chapter we have two things; for if

I speak of Christ’s body, there is His literal body and His

mystical body. His literal body is broken, and His mystical

body is a united one.

e “one bread,” in 1 Corinthians 12:17, represents

Christ; it is the loaf on the table. We all partake of it, and

are therefore one body; “for we are all partakers of that one

bread.” Before it is broken, in a certain sense, it represents

the body of Christ before it was broken; but it does not

form a sacrament in that state, because we have not the

gure. It is true I eat Christ as the living bread that came

down from heaven, but I go back to do that after I have

eaten of Him as broken. I cannot think of the body of

Christ without bringing in the mystic body, and verse 16

identies me with the thought of the body it belongs to. e

communion of the blood is always identication with the

blood of Christ as shed for us. I do not know another word

so good for it as that. Israel had their character from that

with which they are connected; so with us, it is with Christ,

with His body and His blood. It is not the spiritual feeding

of my soul, but it is in the sense that my hand is partaker

of the life of my body. “Joint participation” does not express

it, because that is rather the act of partaking, or might only

go so far. I may partake and not be in communion with;

but it is in the latter way we are identied with Christ as

His body.

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358

“Demons” refers to idols’ temples as such, because it was

to demons they oered, and not to God. It is monstrous to

apply it to any professing Christianity. In verse 20 we have

distinctly what is the meaning of “the cup of demons.” If

any tried to eat of the Lord’s table, and also of the table of

demons, that would be saying, “I can eat with a demon, and

I can eat with you.” is would be provoking the Lord to

jealousy, as in verse 22.

e diculty we started with seems all cleared to my

mind by 1 Corinthians 12:27. e Corinthian church was

not the body of Christ. It is a sheer attempt to make one

meeting independent of another. at is not the apostle’s

mind through this chapter at all. But it is what was

attempted by connecting the lordship of Christ with the

assembly as such. Some said Christ was Lord, and they

obeyed the Lord, and acted under obedience to the Lord

in any one place, and nobody else had anything to say to

them. At rst I could not think what they were aiming

at, insisting on His lordship in this way, though a man

surely is not a Christian if he does not own the lordship

of Christ. “Calling on the name of the Lord” is a sort of

denition of a Christian. What we have been considering is

ecclesiastically a less vigorous attempt at the same purpose.

ey asked what proof we had that the Lord’s supper

was an expression of the unity of the body. It was this that

made the separation in — . Now what brought me out of

the Establishment was the unity of the body: otherwise I

could have gone into some independent church or set up

one for myself, perhaps. I do not think many would deny

that there is one body in words; but the practice denies it.

I could not go to any loose table as the Lord’s. People

do and call it the Lord’s, of course; but I do not call it so

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359

or I should be there. Many go with a good conscience, I

doubt not; but they do not meet on the principle of the

unity of the body. If all the Christians in any place come

together, they would not be a church and members; there

are no members of a church. e idea and the term are

unknown to Scripture altogether. Members of Christ’s

body, and therefore members one of another, is right, and

that only. ere is not the most distant approach to the

common idea.

“All things are lawful” (1 Cor 10:23) is connected with

what is sold in the shambles. e apostle alludes to the

custom of selling carcases for food in the common way

after the animal had been oered in an idol’s temple. But

suppose we were sitting at a table with a person just come

out from idolatry, and he said, “at joint was oered to an

idol.” His conscience is not free, and for his sake I do not

eat it. To me it is all common meat.

In Acts 15 the commands to abstain from blood, from

things oered to idols, and from fornication, are obligatory

on a Christian now. ey are not from law, but from Noah.

Not that I should think if I had eaten blood, that I was

deled by it, for it is not the things that go in that dele.

e above three things are special: one is life, and belongs

to God; then idols are the giving up of the true God

altogether; and fornication is giving up the purity of man.

ey are the three things which form the standard elements

of what I have to say to God in. e two are plain enough:

the third may be less clear. If a man came to me and said,

at rabbit was caught in a trap,’ I could say, Well, I will

not eat it, simply for his sake.’ To me these three principles

are the expression of man as belonging to God, and not to

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360

his own lusts. As to blood, it is the life, and clearly belongs

to God, but I leave every man’s conscience to himself.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 11

361

62953

Notes on 1 Corinthians 11

Chapter 11

Here we have another instance of how the greatest truths

are brought into connection with commonplace subjects.

Here is a question, whether a woman is to have a covering

on or not. e whole ordering of God is brought in to say

whether a woman is to wear a cap on her head (vs. 3-16).

It was the custom there with women inspired by demons

to have their hair owing out wild, and this was not the

order for a woman. ey were to recognize the authority

of man if they prayed or prophesied. Women did prophesy,

for Philip had four daughters that did. e woman had her

place for praying and prophesying, but not in the assembly.

Men are to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands. If a

woman’s husband were unconverted, it would not be right

for her to pray with him if other men were there.

In nominal Christianity we have to take things as we

nd them. I have known a converted husband, when he

went from home, tell his wife to pray with the household,

including unconverted men; but I do not believe it was

right. e woman’s head was to be covered. e apostle

shows by her hair that God had covered her, and her mind

and will are put on the same ground. A woman ought to

be covered at family prayers, or as one of Philip’s daughters

prophesying in her father’s house. e principle applies to

both praying and prophesying. e man is the head of the

woman, and she puts a covering on her physical head to

show that there is authority over her. e apostle takes the

state of the head of the body as a sign of the condition

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362

of the man or woman in respect of their moral head. e

woman’s head — the man — is her head really, and she

must cover her own head in sign of her subjection; and

so she says in eect, I have no head myself; the man is my

head, and I am in subjection. e man could not do that, or

there would be no visible head. A woman’s gift ought to be

conned to women, or to her own family.

As to the dierence between preaching and teaching

(1 Cor. 11:4), in point of fact, all preaching is teaching

now. At rst they went and announced the fact — “Jesus is

risen from the dead.” I have not to do that so much now; I

have rather to describe the ecacy of the eect; though I

believe the more these things are set out as facts the better,

although they are now all admitted.

e more we make our preaching the history of a fact,

the more powerful it will be. You do bring facts before

people if you say, is was God’s Son, and so on; otherwise

it is teaching, except so far as we press the facts.

I do not accept a woman’s going out to evangelize. I

never saw a woman meddle in teaching and church matters,

but she brought mischief upon herself and everyone else. If

she sits down with a company before her to teach them, she

has got out of her place altogether. We read of Tryphena

and Tryphosa, who labored in the Lord, and the beloved

Persis too — each in her own place of service. You nd all

honor done to women in the Gospels; but the Lord never

sent out a woman to preach; neither did a man ever go and

anoint Christ for His burial. e women’s prophesying was

not preaching. ere came an inspired teaching, to which

they gave utterance. I believe it was in an extraordinary

way, as Philip’s daughters. Women can be used, as Mary

Magdalene was sent by Christ to His disciples. If Christ

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363

sent a woman to carry a message, the best she could do

would be to go and carry it. It was a mere message; it is no

place of teaching; no matter what the message is, it is but

a message. Suppose it was written down and was special

instruction, the teaching then was in the message, not in

Mary Magdalene’s place. Scripture says, “I suer not a

woman to teach” (1 Tim. 2:12). She was not to teach at all.

She can lead on those who are converted without setting

up to be a teacher. Teaching is expounding to people put

under you to receive certain doctrines.

e apostle is not speaking of wearing the sign of

subjection at all times, but I believe it would be very comely.

“For this cause ought the woman to have power on her

head because of the angels” (1 Cor. 11:10). She is therein

a spectacle with all present to the angels, and angels ought

not to see disorder among Christians. e whole subject

is modesty, and order, and comeliness, and things in their

right place. erefore the woman ought to have power

on her head on account of the angels, that is, the sign of

subjection to her husband. Angels should learn something

in the church.

As to the “image of God,” in verse 7, “image” is

something that represents another, and so a man represents

God, though certainly he has failed to ll it up. e image

of Jupiter was not necessarily like Jupiter, but it was made

to represent him. So man keeps the place, though he has

fallen in it — the same place in which God put him. He

was made sinless, but beside that he stood as the center of

an immense system: no angel was that, no angel was the

one single center of a system all around him. Adam was.

And indeed to be that is just what men are driving at in

one form or other in the world, and in the church, and in

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364

Christendom. If Adam had remained, all his family would

have been looking up to him. Here man is spoken of as

“the image and glory of God” and in James “made after the

similitude of God.” But he is not in likeness now.

e rst Adam was the image of him that was to come;

the last Adam takes the place of the rst: only the last Adam

was in counsel before the rst was in responsibility. e last

Adam was rst before God, and when the rst has failed,

the counsels are brought out in the last Adam. You get the

rst man put in responsibility after the counsel, and then

the second Man was brought out in the accomplishment

of counsel. at settles all Calvinism and Arminianism and

such like systems. All the responsibility goes on until it

has been thoroughly brought to an issue at the cross, and

man will not have God at all: but in that cross God does

a work that lays the foundation of everlasting glory; and

then as soon as that is done, all these counsels are revealed,

not accomplished yet, but revealed. us since the cross

man’s responsibility, as such, is over; it is not that he has

not debts and sins, or that he was not responsible: all that

is true, but God was rejected nally, and God comes and

works His own work all alone by Himself. When that is

done, He tells out His counsels and what He is going to

do. At the beginning of Titus, we read “the acknowledging

of the truth” — the gospel comes and man is responsible

to own his ruin — “in hope of eternal life, which God that

cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in

due time manifested His word through preaching which

is committed unto me according to the commandment of

God our Savior.”

First, He begins with Adam, and that is all ruin. 2

Timothy 1:9-11 gives us “who has saved us, and called

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365

us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but

according to His own purpose and grace which was

given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is

now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus

Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life

and incorruptibility to light through the gospel; whereunto

I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of

the Gentiles.” It was all in God’s counsels settled in Christ,

but when Christ came, it all came out to us. It is a mistake

to think predestination in itself has anything to do with

the counsels of God. If God came down now and chose

fteen of us who are here, it would be just the same as if

He had done it before the world began. It would be just as

arbitrary, as the world would call it, to take fteen now, as

to take fteen before the world began. But He chose us in

Christ before the foundation of the world.

“Incorruptibility” refers to the body. “Mortal” is never

applied to anything but the body. e corruptible mortal is

that which goes to dust; incorruptible and mortal alike have

only to do with the body. So we see in 1 Corinthians 15.

It is not necessary that the body should go to corruption:

the incorruptibility of the body is brought to light by the

gospel. We do not nd it in the Old Testament, having

little hints here and there and that is all; eternal life is

mentioned twice in the Old Testament; “life for evermore”

in Psalm 133, and “some to everlasting life” in Daniel 12:2.

You may perhaps spell it out, and some of them did, the

Pharisees for instance. Hezekiah says “the living shall

praise thee” in contrast with the dead in Isaiah 38 When

we are raised and changed, the “incorruptible” will be made

apparent; when the dead are raised in incorruption, they

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366

will not corrupt any more. Immortality may refer to the

soul; there is no diculty about it.

At 1 Corinthians 11:17 we have the assembly, and in

terrible disorder. “Heresies” and “sects” are the same. It is

no use taking up words in an exclusive way; as, for instance,

to distinguish worship and homage. We use “worship” now

for worshipping God; but when our version was made, it

was not at all so. It says “they worshipped God and the

king” in the same sentence, and so in the church of England

marriage service the man says, “with my body I thee

worship.” It did not mean worshipping God at all. Here we

have three words, heresies, divisions, and sects. Schism is a

positive division; heretic is merely a man being at the head

of a school of doctrine, as that of the Epicureans. ere were

many schools of doctrines, or heresies. In modern language

the word has come to mean false doctrine. If we were all

breaking bread together, I might make a party and yet no

schism, but it might go on to that. “Damnable heresies”

means bad doctrine. We are to reject a party school in the

church: “a man that is a heretic after the rst and second

admonition reject.” Have no more to do with him.

In our chapter the apostle says, “First of all, when ye

come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions

among you.” I do not suppose they had openly divided,

but they were making parties; and he says there must be

heresies among you, though no division yet, but that came

from the setting up of these schools. Heresies and sects

are not exactly the same. ere are only two words in this

text; “divisions” is the word schismata (vs. 18), and the word

heresies (hairesis) (vs. 19), is often translated “sects.”

In 1 Corinthians 11:18 “the” church would not do at

all. It is not the church, but in that character of meeting,

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367

whenever the church met as such, not restricted to the

breaking of bread on the Lord’s day (for so the rst day

of the week was called): when the assembly met together

the apostle taught the people. ey might not have broken

bread whenever they came together. If notice was given

that the assembly would meet for a particular purpose, it

would still be the assembly, though all did not come; it is

the assembly when they come together as such. A reading

meeting would not be such though all were there, because

that is not the character of the meeting. A meeting for

prayer is an assembly, but hardly the assembly of the place.

Meetings are meetings of the assembly if it is understood

that they meet as such, but the meeting must be accepted

by the assembly. What I look for is the consciousness of

meeting together in the Lord’s name as one.

It will be observed that Paul received his instruction

concerning the Lord’s supper by revelation. e church and

the unity of the body was the very thing entrusted to Paul.

It is the local assembly here — the saints at Corinth, but

what is wanted for action is that the whole assembly should

come together for the purpose and with the intention of

coming as such. Sometimes the Lord’s supper is taken in

a private house when a person is sick, and if it is done in

unity, it is all well and very nice, but when a person is sick,

I might not do it for other reasons. In the early church

they used to send out a piece of bread dipped in the wine,

to show that they were one. If I were ill for two or three

weeks, I should bow to the chastening. A few might go to

an isolated one, and break bread with him, if it is done in

the spirit of unity; but if done in a party feeling, it would be

wrong. It need not be named rst if there is condence; but

if there is distrust, it should be named. We have no rule as

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to breaking bread oftener than every Lord’s day. But I took

the Lord’s supper with the young men who were reading

with me, every day for a whole year. So the early church

did.

e words “take, eat” (vs. 24) should be omitted: I

suppose he expresses what is weighing on his mind, and

“take, eat” does not come into his mind. To “be guilty of

the body and blood of the Lord” (vs. 27) is disrespect to it.

Suppose I spat upon my mother’s picture, in spirit I should

be spitting upon my mother; it would be doing scorn to my

mother, and so it would be in this case; to be guilty of it

means to be guilty in the way you are dealing with the body

and blood of Christ. Some leave out the word “unworthily”

in verse 29, but it has been used before, and the sense is all

right: it is in verse 27, and therefore it means so eating and

drinking, that is, unworthily. e eater and drinker in verse

29 is the same as in verse 27. “Not discerning the Lord’s

body” is that a person takes it as his own or common bread

and wine, perhaps drinks and gets tipsy. Carousing would

not be discerning the Lord’s body. It has nothing to do

with being unworthy to eat or drink, but is the manner

of doing it: in Christ, he is worthy; out of Christ, he is

unworthy, which is another thing.

ere is another principle at the end of the chapter

which is not without its importance, and that is the

government of God over His saints. “For this cause many

are weak and sickly among you and many sleep; for if we

would judge ourselves, we should not be judged; but when

we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should

not be condemned with the world.” It is nothing dicult,

but very important. We are chastened that we should not be

condemned. “Come not together unto condemnation” (vs.

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369

34), is to judgment, it is your own fault that you should have

to be accused and judged. e word “condemned” (vs. 32)

is distinctly in contrast with “judged” as well as in contrast

with “chastened.” “Condemned” is right in verse 32; but

he eats and drinks judgment, or fault, or crime; for it is

the thing a man is accused of to himself. “Condemnation”

is not right in verse 34; “If any man hunger, let him eat

at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation,”

judgment or fault. Our word “crime” is from the Greek

word: it is the judgment that is passed, but it comes to be

used also for the fault itself.

ey were told to “tarry one for another,” because each

had been eating his own supper before his neighbor’s came,

making a picnic, as it were, as they pleased. I do not know

that they became actually drunk, but some were what one

calls carousing. It is all readily understood, if you remember

that they were taking a meal before the Supper. It is “the

table of the Lord” in 1 Corinthians 10, and “the supper of

the Lord” in our chapter. We must keep each in its own

connection. In 1 Corinthians 10 it is the table of the Lord

in contrast with the table of demons. ere is no thought

of that here, but the apostle is on another point, and with

those who had nothing to do with demons. ere was

that which represented the body of Christ, and they were

carousing, and getting tipsy or very near it; it was now the

abuse of what was on the table.

In general the weakness and sickness would fall upon

those doing wrong, but God might take away one righteous

man to chastise the assembly, though it was not the case

here: this applies only to the persons, the individuals who

were guilty of the disorder. I think that the assembly ought

to have judged it, and restored order: there was guilt in

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the assembly too. If an assembly is in a bad state, the Lord

can combine the two, and wake up the conscience of the

assembly. If the Lord take anyone so, it may be to his glory:

in such a case he would be a martyr. When God deals in this

way with individuals, we are outside of all dispensations.

ere are two principles in Job, chapters 33 and 36. In

Job 33 God deals with men “in a dream, in a vision of the

night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings

upon the bed, then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth

their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his

purpose, and hide pride from man.” ere God stops him.

en, in Job 36, we have more; not that God only deals

with man in His own sovereign way, but “He withdraweth

not his eyes from the righteous, but with kings are they

on the throne, yea, he doth establish them forever, and

they are exalted.” ere we have the special fact, beyond

the general care of God; just as in the case of Laban and

Jacob, God is also always looking at the righteous, blessing

them, as a rile. “As kings are they on a throne”; that is,

guratively. ey are righteous people that God owns, and

that God also chastens. We nd it more distinctly when

there is a particular government of God, as in Ezekiel

18; and sometimes the sins of the fathers were visited

on the children. en, in the church of God, we have it

denitely and little known. e apostle can tell them why

this chastening came, “and if he have committed sins, they

shall pray for him, and they shall be forgiven him,” that is,

unless it is a “sin unto death.” Only, observe, the assembly

ought to know why they are in such and such a condition.

I do not doubt there are now quantities of discipline and

sorrows that come upon the saints as discipline; I do not

say all: you may nd a man born blind who neither sinned,

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371

nor his parents; or, again, “this sickness is not unto death,

but for the glory of God”; or God may unite both. He

might have chastened Lazarus, and yet used it for His own

glory.

Discipline may be to check a tendency. Paul had a thorn

in the esh, that he might not be pued up. e order

is, we are chastened for a fault, but there may be much

more. Paul meets with a messenger from Satan to buet

him. If a godly person were taken aside from an assembly,

the assembly ought to inquire why it was so. It might be

because they did not give heed to him; but that becomes

a question of spiritual discernment. In Job the righteous

are in contrast to believers. e value of the Book of Job is,

that you get the great principles of God in connection with

man. God was using everything for the purpose of helping

the righteous man, and Satan was bringing in all that he

could against him; and that before there was either law or

gospel. As I observed just now, all sickness need not be

discipline. Suppose God saw some evil among the saints:

He will take means, in various ways, to arouse them to a

sense of it. In nature you nd a quantity of hidden caloric

constantly, that comes out the moment there is something

to call it out. It is a wonderful thing, when we think of God,

that God not merely has saved us, but never withdraws His

eyes from us. In a way it is as wonderful as is the salvation.

ose who did not bow were cut o — “shall perish by the

sword” — “Hypocrites in heart,” “cry not when he bindeth

them” (Job 36:13) goes further still. Notice, it was not

the devil who began with Job, but God set Satan at work.

e devil did not know what God was doing. “Hast thou

considered my servant Job?” (Job 1:8). It was a great conict

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372

between God and Satan, with a man between them. Satan’s

object, of course, is all mischief, but God allows him.

ere is a dierence between chastening and scourging.

Chastening is a general word (as, for instance, the education

of children) and the same word is used for “teaching,” and

a certain correction and discipline, and even punishing too;

but when you come to scourging, it is the positive action

and punishment. As a general rule, if we judge ourselves,

we shall not be judged of the Lord. All will come out at

the judgment-seat of Christ; it will make no dierence,

whether we have been chastened for it or not. It will all

appear. I cannot know as I am known. I cannot give account

of myself to God, if I do not give account of everything.

And that, I believe, is a great blessing.

None of my sins will come up in that day as a question

of judgment on myself. As to imputation, “He hath not

seen iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel,” when

they were iniquitous and perverse all the while. But at that

day I shall see all God’s ways to me, and His dealings with

me all through. If I look back now, I can see faults before I

was converted, and nothing else; and. after that, faults that

I have to be humbled for, and I say, How could I do so? Yet

it does not rest on my conscience as though it was there.

And then I shall see the goodness of God, with a blessed

sense of how He has brought me through all, and what

God has been to me in it all, with no question of judgment,

or thought of it, for I have not then a nature that sins, even

as to my body; I am a new creature.

ere should be fear of one kind in connection with

the government of the Father, but it is not servile dread;

“Blessed is the man that feareth always” (Prov. 28:14). “Pass

the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Peter 1:17).

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373

And that is connected with the Father, and he continues

as to the cost of redemption for motive: you know what it

cost to redeem you out of your sins, and now, upon that

ground, you think of your Father upon whom you call.

ere is no fear of God when I am going to meet Him, but

now is the time to walk in His fear. If a Christian sins, it

brings down a dealing of God with him, unless he confess

it at once, and then God has no pleasure in aicting. We

nd plenty about it in James 5:14-16, and in 1 John 5:16:

such as, “God shall give him life for them that sin not unto

death,” and so on. I remember once saying to a person, “If

you do not bow and break o that particular thing, you will

not get well of your aiction.” And three days before he

died, he said, “I would not bow to the will of God; now it

is too late.” I have no doubt he went to heaven.

I could not say that, according as we love Christ here,

we shall enjoy Him hereafter. Reward is for our labor: as

to our place, we all get the same glory as Christ, “when he

shall appear, we” — that is, all Christians — “shall appear

with him in glory.” And Paul cannot have anything better

than that; but when you come to labor, it is a very dierent

thing, and reward is accordingly. e essalonians will

be Paul’s crown, but they will not be ours; that is clear.

We know not how this will be accomplished, but in glory

Paul will have them as his crown, yet he will not take away

Christ’s crown; for it was all grace that did it, though

Christ is pleased to reward the labor when it is faithfully

done, owning, not me, but the grace of God that is in me.

e reward has nothing to do with motive, and never is the

motive for action in scripture; it is the encouragement in

the service, when the person gets into trial by the motive.

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374

Well, it is a great thing to see that there is this present

government of God. ere are cases where evil is the fruit

of sin, believing or not believing; evil is in the world, but

much is positive discipline, where, if there were faith to

deal with God about it, the discipline would be removed.

James 5 can be acted upon where there is faith to do it. I

have known it acted on, and the use of oil also, in two cases

where they asked for it themselves. In one case the doctor

had said nothing could be done for her, and she had better

go home to die. She recovered, and was walking about that

week, and taking care of the poor. She had three daughters

after that. In the other case I remember, the one prayed

for was out in the street, and at a place where there was a

very broad crossing; but a boy had placed a barrow across

the path, and she stumbled against it. Her own brother

who was passing ran to help her, and found it was his own

sister, whom he supposed to be dying at home. Another

case was that of J — , who was ordered not to speak or stir

by the doctor; but he rode over to a place some twenty-

ve miles. When the brethren went in, he was vomiting

blood, but he rode back the twenty-ve miles; afterward

he walked fteen miles. It was a prayer-meeting in his case,

but he was not anointed with oil. He was twice married

afterward. Other cases I have had myself, having laid my

hands on a baby once. Such things have generally been at

the beginning of an awakening: there is an energy of faith

that brings in God more directly. It is a question of faith

very much, but this necessarily in the sick person. Some

have professed to have the faith constantly, but I do not put

much condence in that. I believe God would answer the

prayer of anybody that cried to Him.

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375

Discipline would not go on after the prayer of faith.

James refers to a case of discipline distinctly. Paul was sick,

and the Lord had mercy upon him, but we do not know

that he was prayed for at that time. He could perhaps have

raised himself, but the apostles never wrought a miracle for

their own comfort. Paul left Trophimus at Miletum sick.

e words, “And if he committed sins,” show that James

refers to discipline. And the forgiveness is a question of

present government, as the church can also forgive. I do

not think we lay to heart enough the fact of government

in that way. ere is many a case, I am satised, which is

real chastening, and all the doctors are of no use. It may

sometimes be without any specic sin. I used, at one time,

to be ill every year, and I laid it to this, that I did not keep

close enough to the Lord in service. But you must take

care that such a thought as that does not become legal.

We read, “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it

that it may bring forth more fruit.” is is not always for

discipline; it may be for instruction. e Lord can combine

the two. When Paul had a thorn in the esh, whatever it

was, it made him contemptible in his preaching, and was

discipline, lest he should be pued up; and so it was his

glory and his discipline. e Lord can unite these things,

but we cannot. Yet in His hands it may be our honor and

our discipline at the same time.

Paul did not fail in asking the Lord to take away his

thorn, though he may have failed in spiritual discernment:

it is not the granting of a thing that proves whether it is

right or wrong. Our Lord asked that the cup might pass

away, and it did not, though the asking was in perfect

submission, and He had His answer in resurrection. Yet

“for this cause came I unto this hour” (John 12:27). A

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376

person losing his mind may be in discipline; for “Aiction

does not spring out of the dust” in any way. Take Job: he

had elephantiasis, or whatever you call it; and when he

had a house, there were plenty of winds to blow it down,

and plenty of people to sweep away his cattle; but it was a

particular use of these by Satan, and all within God’s limits.

To return to our chapter: — we come now to spiritual

manifestation. is is all the true order of the church. You

do not get a hint that there were any elders, nor a suggestion

to make them; either there were none or they disappear

from view. And it was the Lord’s goodness to give us here

divine instruction how to go on, and give it in a way that

suits us now. ere may have been elders, but if so, seeing

that they are not mentioned here, it is all the more strong

for us now. In the action of the assembly the conscience

of the assembly must be cleared: elders by authority

could not do that. ey could not put out. I remember a

terrible hubbub in Geneva on this. I said only engineers

can make a good road, but, when made, all the carters in

the country can use it, and their elders — wise and godly

brethren — were of immense value; but the action in actual

discipline, publicly, must be made by the assembly; for the

assembly has to clear itself, and no other way will do. As

he says, “You have proved yourselves clear in this matter.”

Suppose the elders had put a person out rightly, this would

not clear the conscience of the assembly. It would only

lead ultimately to sorrow that they had to put him out. A

brothers’ meeting can only deliberate and take counsel, and

perhaps the matter will be better weighed there than with

a whole body of people.

e rst thing here in 1 Corinthians 12 is to distinguish

the Holy Spirit from demons. e Corinthians were very

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377

fond of gifts, and so were liable perhaps to be ensnared by

satanic manifestations; but no demon would say “Lord.”

If any spirit said “Lord,” that was by the Holy Spirit. e

point here was to distinguish between a good spirit and a

bad one. It should be “no one can say.” Sometimes the use

of “man” is mischievous. It may be spirit, angel, devil, or

anything else; it is merely a being, and “man” in English is

wrong. Evil spirits are at work now, and in the same way

exactly. When the apostle was preaching, there came one

and said, ese men show us the way of salvation. Now,

apart from experience, you would not expect a demon to

say that. How were they to distinguish? Mormonites used

to go and preach the Lord’s coming and baptize, and then

when they had so laid hold of people, they would preach

other things altogether. False doctrine may not always

be the direct action of an evil spirit, but often it is. ere

is more the action of Satan in certain cases than people

suspect. I do not doubt that in Irvingism there was much

of it. And then if they were treated as Satan they would

have no power at all. I was told at — they had a great

deal more charity than I had; I really have no charity for

the devil. When asked in Somersetshire to meet certain

people, I would not go. Prince (of the Agapemone) stated

publicly in the town of Bridgewater, that they could not

preach or do anything because of the brethren who were

there. And I believe he said the truth. So in W — ’s case, I

said that I would not go near, unless the Lord led me there,

and then He would give me strength. S. wanted me to go,

and I said no. H. came and I went with him, and the rst

night, I said, “I cannot say, but I think it is of the devil.”

W — had stopped them from breaking bread; he said that

“whenever there was any evil and nobody knew it, they

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were all contaminated, and they ought not to break bread,

as they were all of one body,” and so he stopped them. His

wife could hardly contain herself against me. e next

night I thought over it and cried over it before the Lord,

and the following day I said it was the devil. e whole

thing passed, and they have gone on happily there ever

since. I believe he was pued up, and that his wife was the

real secret of it, and the devil was there. He had been much

used, ve hundred being converted in one year: it is said

nine hundred, but an opponent said there were not more

than ve hundred. All are going on happily now, though

they were very angry with me then. “Anathema Jesus” was

the utterance of a man. e spirit said it, but by the man’s

mouth, of course. Anathema is a curse. It is never used in

a good sense in the New Testament. e anathema among

the heathen was a thing devoted to the gods and was killed.

“Anathema maranatha” is a curse on him when the Lord

comes.

We have then “gifts,” “administrations,” and “operations”;

the Spirit, the Lord, and God. ere are diversities of gifts,

but one Spirit. If they were demons, they were diversities

of spirits; you might have a legion of spirits in a person, or

“seven demons.” But here it is one Spirit.

Administrations were by one Lord, so that anyone in

any service is the Lord’s servant. We have the unity of

the Spirit in contrast with these demons; next various

administrations, but one Lord; and then these operations,

which were a secondary and narrower thing, but one

God. One God worketh everything; it was divine, one

Spirit giving gifts; one Lord with administrations under

Him; and then it is God that is working everything. “e

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379

administrations” may be wider than “the gifts,” if we take in

elders; but in Romans 12 they all run together.

e manifestation of the Spirit was not given to every

man. If I work a miracle, or speak with a tongue, that

is a manifestation of the Spirit, but it does not say that

a manifestation was given to every man. e point was,

that these Corinthians who were fond of gifts were using

them wrongly, speaking with tongues that were of no use

to anybody; but the apostle says the tongues were given

you to prot with. If it is not to prot, you are not to use

it, whether the Holy Spirit is there or not, that is, in the

gift. e order and moral rule of the Spirit is paramount

to mere power by Him. ere may be power, but a person

is not to use it else; “the spirits of the prophets are subject

to the prophets.” I may have a real moving of the Spirit,

and am yet to hold my tongue for all that. If three have

spoken, and I have ve prophecies to tell, I must hold my

tongue. e church suers both from presumption and

unused gifts — it varies in places. I believe there are many

gifts repressed. e principle here is distinctly stated, that

power is not to guide us. e rule for my using it is that it

prots those to whom I speak. If one spoke not to prot,

the others are to judge; and if they tell him of it, to do it

as gently as they can. It is not the prophets only who are

to judge. It leaves it open to those who had the capacity to

do it.

In the Old Testament prophets, the relation between

power and exercise of gift may have been dierent, though

there is something like it in “while I was musing the re

burned; then spake I with my tongue.” We now have the

Holy Spirit, but then a man was like a tube or a pipe to

carry a thing, and they began to search “what or what

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380

manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them

did signify, when it testied beforehand of the suerings

of Christ, and the glory that should follow; unto whom it

was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did

minister the things which are now reported unto you with

the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:11-

12). But now all that the Holy Spirit gives He gives to the

person who receives it, and that makes a dierence in the

nature of the thing. As to ourselves, whatever the Holy

Spirit reveals to any of us, of course we have it in the word,

but the Corinthians received it for themselves. When God

shone into Paul’s heart to make him an apostle, He shone

into his heart the things he was to be an apostle about, and

we have them in the written word — words, as we were

seeing, given by the Spirit for the purpose. So I now drink

for myself, and then communicate it; rivers of living water

ow from me. So God shined into Paul’s heart for him

to give out. He had it to use in the consciousness of the

possession of the thing itself for himself.

In John 3:11 we read, “We speak that we do know, and

testify that we have seen”; but it is Christ who is speaking

there who says, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but

he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man

which is in heaven” (John 3:13). It was Christ telling them

heavenly things, and that a man must be born again, or

else he could not have them. e point was that man, as a

man, was gone and done with, and Christ had brought in

what was heavenly. e “lifting up” was the cross, not the

ascension. “We have heard out of the law,” they said, “that

Christ abideth forever, and how sayest thou, the Son of

man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?” (John

12:34). And in John 8:28, “When ye have lifted up the Son

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381

of man.” Clearly it is Christ rejected from the earth, and

not yet in heaven. But a Christ rejected from the earth is

a total breach between God and this world. It was alone

between God and Christ. e whole question of sin was

settled when Christ was lifted up from the earth before

He went to heaven. Everything in this world was shut

out; even the disciples were shut out. He said to them “ye

cannot follow me” now; and then God is gloried as the

consequence of the cross. We have it in the tabernacle;

when a man went into the court, he met the altar rst. e

rst thing we meet is the cross. Christ was lifted up in view

of the world; but He is neither on earth nor in heaven, and

the grand question is, when man turns Christ out of the

world, can He do such a work that God can take Him to

heaven? “I will draw all men unto me” is in contrast with

the Jews who rejected Christ. He will draw all men unto

Himself. In John 3 it is not merely that man is a sinner, but

“we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen,

and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly

things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of

heavenly things?” He brings down heavenly things which

no one receives at all; and so in the next chapter He goes to

Samaria, and grace comes out in God giving from Himself

without expecting anything of man. “God giveth not the

Spirit by measure” is there spoken of the Lord. I believe it

is an abstract principle that the Holy Spirit comes, and is

not a mere inuence of which you may have more or less.

Remark in our chapter that we have an intimation of

the deity of the Holy Spirit as well as of His personality.

“It is the same God which worketh all in all,” and then “all

these worketh that one and self-same Spirit.” And then

you have what is more often practically lost sight of, the

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382

personality of the Holy Spirit. “He divideth to every man

severally as He will.” You cannot say this of an inuence, for

it is He worketh and He wills; which is the most distinct

expression of the action of a person. I think the place in

which we nd the Holy Spirit in scripture is striking, I

mean as acting in us. In the order of God’s dealings — He

is not the object, but as a divine power, He is the agent.

e Father and Son are objects, but the Holy Spirit is the

agent, and so is more mixed up with things in us, because

acting in us; so that there is a natural liability to lose sight

of His personality. e Father and Son are objects of faith.

“We have fellowship with the Father, and with His Son

Jesus Christ”; through Christ “we have access by one Spirit

unto the Father”; so that the Spirit is working in us. e

Father sent the Son, and He went back to God; but the

Holy Spirit’s being in us is mixed up with the workings of

our minds.

We have three things in Romans 8:27, He that

searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit;

then the Holy Spirit Himself also and that in us, for our

bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. is is not a

mere inuence, which is a very common idea. You nd

persons when you speak of “the Spirit of Christ” take it as

a term of Christ’s character. It may include that, but also

very much more. Scripture is plain enough: only we are apt

to get confounded in our minds. e Spirit is life, and He

is the spring and power, and power of life in us. It is from

Him the life comes; “the body is dead … but the Spirit is

life”; it is the Holy Spirit in us. He is the power of the life,

and characterizes it, and righteousness is the eect.

In Romans 8 we read of Him both as working in life in

us, and also a distinct Person. First as a nature and character;

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383

and then (for we cannot separate a spring from its stream)

after verse 14, we have Him as a Person in us and with us:

“the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit,” and

there He is distinct. e Spirit is life, and then He bears

witness, which separates the two. “If any man have not the

Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” is the indwelling of the

Spirit, but it is characteristic there. An unsealed soul is not

Christ’s in the sense of being a Christian, as God owns a

Christian to be. It is not that he does not belong to Him,

for He belonged to Him before, but I cannot call a person

a Christian who is not sealed. He may really be Christ’s

in the sense that God is bringing him into it all; but he

has not got into Christian place and standing. “We have

not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we

have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba

Father.” And “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,

he is none of his,” refers to that. It is a person who is not

an unbeliever. ere was no verse in Scripture so dicult

as that to me for years, until I saw that the whole chapter

refers to the Christian position as such. It is not merely

life: we receive the Spirit as life, and as a Person. e two

are true.

In Romans 8:14 He is a distinct person from us; in

verses 12-13, it is transitional. Romans 7 closes with “Who

shall deliver me?” and we get the deliverance up to the

resurrection of the body in Romans 8: “e law of the Spirit

of life in Christ Jesus” comes rst, then the body is dead;

as I said it is spring and stream; neither one is the other;

the spring is not the stream, nor the stream the spring: yet

if you stop the spring, there is no stream at all; but beside

that, there is a divine Person who makes my body a temple;

the same Holy Spirit, but in a distinct character. In “Ye are

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not in the esh, but in the Spirit,” it is the esh contrasted

with the Spirit, as you have in Galatians. He is the Spirit of

life; we are in the Spirit; the Spirit of God dwells in us; and

then we have the same Spirit in His formative character;

then, “if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin”;

and then, “the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the

dead.” e Spirit is rst, the opposite of the esh; next, He

is formative of the new man; and then I nd Him raising

up the body into glory.

e Spirit dwells in me. He is called the Spirit of

Christ, because He expresses Christ in me. e opening

of Romans 8 is closely connected with romans 7: “e law

of the Spirit of life,” and so on, sums up Romans 7 with

the character of the deliverance. By the body being dead is

meant that there is no life, it has no life, but is a corpse, and

the Spirit is life. As to the words — “is none of his,” though

I may be sure that God is working, yet I cannot say such

an one is His until he is sealed. I cannot say till then, as

an absolute fact, that he belongs to Christ. en he would

know it himself, for God has given to us the earnest of the

Spirit. e man is wrought by God for it, but that is not the

same thing as his being in the place.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2

Cor. 3:17) means that where the Spirit is, the man is

free. Redemption sets a man at liberty, and then, when

he has the Holy Spirit, he knows the liberty and enjoys

it. A person is sealed when he can say, Abba Father: only

there are some who say, “Father” in prayer, and yet have

unbelieving thoughts about themselves. It may be such an

one from bad teaching is afraid of acknowledging what he

is, but he has the Spirit of adoption. He has liberty too

with God, and there is the important place to have it. He

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385

has a consciousness that God is his Father; it would be

much better to be able to tell other people so. A man in

Romans 7 has not that liberty, which in type comes in with

Israel, before they had crossed the Red Sea. It precedes

sometimes the rst part of Romans 5, though not always,

but it is modied if it come after. It is connected with our

dying with Christ, not with Christ’s dying for our sins. e

fact in Romans 5 that I am forgiven, when I know that,

modies it. Forgiveness is not death with Christ, but the

knowledge of forgiveness brings in a character of love and

mercy and non-imputation, which greatly modies the

remainder. e deliverance by the doctrine of the death

is in Romans 5, whilst Romans 7 comes in to show the

bearing of the doctrine of death on law; but the knowledge

of forgiveness modies the power of the law. Romans 7

might be a person who has the Holy Spirit, but only in a

certain sense. In that chapter he takes the thing in itself

completely, in its full actual character, and this does not

touch the question of forgiveness at all. e sealing comes

upon the knowledge of the work by which we are forgiven,

not upon the knowledge that we are dead. But one may

be in a legal state though knowing forgiveness. e full

character of Romans 6 is Jordan, not the Red Sea. e

Red Sea is that Christ died and rose, Jordan is my dying

and being risen with Christ; but when I look back with

clearness, I see that I died and rose with Christ, and then

I get Jordan. We get the consciousness consequent upon

Jordan.

Marah throws in the bitters of the way. Circumcision is

not in the wilderness, which so far complicates it; they have

to drink death in the wilderness — the bitter water — for

they have been saved through it; and they have to get it

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applied; but when I have the full consciousness of liberty,

I must go through Jordan, and then circumcision comes;

the reproach of Egypt was never rolled away until then.

It was not, of course, that they were not out of Egypt, for

they were, and in the wilderness; and there we have the two

parts of the Christian life: the going through the world as a

wilderness, and that distinguished from sitting in heavenly

places, or the land. We must have death and resurrection for

both; but if it is in Christ only, I am but in the wilderness;

but if I get Jordan, then I have the realization of my having

myself died and risen. en I get circumcision, and never

till then. ose who had only a place in the wilderness, and

its character, were not circumcised, and therefore they had

nothing heavenly, unless it is said that any one tasted of it

from Eshcol. I think we have something of this in John 3.

We must have Christ’s resurrection even to get the earthly

blessings of Israel, and therefore, in Acts 13 Paul says, God

raised Christ “up from the dead, now no more to return to

corruption”; and “I will give unto you the sure mercies of

David” (Isa. 55). Israel could not have them without death

and resurrection, and therefore the sure mercies of David

are proof of resurrection; there was nothing sure till that.

If they trusted to a living man, all failed. en only I have

them so, and a master of Israel ought to have known that.

erefore when I have heavenly things brought in, I have

the cross to bring them in. I do not merely have the death

and resurrection of Christ as that which delivers me from

Egypt — “by these things men live, and in all these things

is the life of my spirit” (Isa. 38:16), which is true — but I

have also all things brought to me, as risen with Christ,

through the Jordan.

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387

Circumcision, in the end of Romans 2, is looked at as

a real thing, and all is the work of the Spirit, when you

come to the actual application of it. I have forgiveness of

sins, and deliverance from esh; and not only practically

mortify my members, but I say, I am dead; for I have died

with Christ, and that is Jordan; then we have liberty, and

what is heavenly.

Romans 3 to 5:11 link with the Red Sea, and Romans

6 with Jordan. I am dead, only I am looking back: rst, I

must have Christ entirely alone — lifted up; then I must, so

to say, put myself in Christ by faith. I died then, and then

I myself am actually dead also, across the Jordan; and then

I get into this heavenly standing: not merely am brought

into a wilderness, for there it is that esh is tested, but into

the land where I am ghting, so the Lord’s host in Canaan,

and have nothing to do with esh, but am risen, and only

that, and therefore I am simply the vessel of God’s power

against God’s enemies. Notice, that the beginning of the

wilderness is a little picture of grace, which stands by itself

entirely: for the things Israel were chastened for afterward,

they then had blessing about. If they wanted esh, quails

were sent at even; but afterward, in Numbers 11, the

Lord smote them with a very great plague for the same

murmuring for esh.

Strictly speaking, Jordan is connected with Ephesians

only. Colossians may be in advance of Romans, introducing

resurrection; but it is only partial in Colossians. You are

there risen with Christ, but not sitting in the heavenly

places; you are risen, but still on earth, and that is more

like the Red Sea than Jordan. If ye be risen, seek the things

above. It does not say you are sitting in the midst of them.

In Romans you are not risen; in Ephesians, both risen and

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388

seated; in Colossians it is rather between the two. You do

not get the Holy Spirit in Colossians at all, save once the

“love of the Spirit.” We have death with Christ in Romans,

resurrection with Christ in Colossians, and sitting in

heavenly places added in Ephesians. Not that it is all the

apostle is teaching; he takes much for granted also, as “in

Christ,” for instance: such an one had title to everything,

and he speaks so in Romans. You are alive in Christ, but

he does not there speak of with Christ. With Christ I have

come out of death, which is dierent from receiving life. If

I have come out of death, and am risen with Christ, that is

very dierent from simply receiving life. If I look at Christ

as having given life, it is a divine person quickening me;

but if, as risen with Him, I look at Him as the one who has

gone into death, and with whom I have risen, then I have

gone through death; and so it is that risen with Christ is so

much more than life through Him simply.

In Romans 7 the experience is that of a man quickened

but not dead. In the early part of the chapter we have the

doctrine that we have died, and so we cannot have the two

husbands; and the law cannot have power over us, because

we have died. It will be seen therefore that Romans 7 is the

application of the doctrine of Romans 6 to the question

of law, and there the experience is given of a man that is

under law who cannot say he is dead. ere it is not “risen

with Christ,” but married to another who has risen. You

cannot have law and Christ together. en the gure is

changed; for it is we that have died, though it is the same

in principle. And in the end of the chapter we have the

experience of a man that is under law, and not delivered;

he has the life given, but he is not dead and risen. It is the

fullest expression of a man under law, and having life. And

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389

as such we are delivered by nding out, not merely that

Christ died for our sins, but also that we have died with

Christ. And this is the doctrine of Romans 6.

In Ephesians the principle of the body is brought in.

We are in sins, and Christ dies, and in the coming down

to that, He put away all our sins, and then God comes

and raises us all up together, and this involves union in

one body. In Colossians it is only just brought to the edge

of what is called “one body” (Col. 3:15), but in Ephesians

the body is the great subject — Jews and Gentiles all one

body — and then “quickened together with Christ” (Eph

2:5), and “raised up together” (that second “together” is Jew

and Gentile), sitting in Christ, but not with Him.

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62954

Notes on 1 Corinthians 12

Chapter 12

Turning to 1 Corinthians 12 we have both the

manifestation of the Spirit and miraculous gifts. e

apostle was speaking in contrast with demons, etc., but it

is a manifestation of the Spirit in power: so in chapter 14,

if all prophesied, they were convinced of all, and judged of

all, and thus the secrets of his heart were made manifest,

and so, falling down on his face, he worshipped God, and

reported that God was in them of a truth. It is more the

outward manifestation that is in his mind here. It applies in

principle to what remains now. ere is the word of wisdom,

etc. Speaking by “two or three, and that by course,” applies

now. I never did speak, if three had spoken. Simply reading

a chapter is not speaking. Ordinarily we call prophecy the

foretelling future events, but this is not the meaning of the

word. It is “forth-telling,” not “foretelling.” We have this

prophecy spoken of in verse to, for edication, exhortation,

and comfort, but not as inspiration of some new revelation.

e word is used both in a general way, and as a direct gift.

We have not it in the special way.

e baptism of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13) was on

the day of Pentecost, and when an individual believes, he is

sealed and anointed. “In [or by] one Spirit “is” in the power

of.” A person says by one Spirit he was baptized, instead of

saying in the power of one Spirit: it may become equivocal.

You have been baptized by the Holy Spirit coming. By

the coming and power of the Holy Spirit we have all been

made one body, and if I have the Holy Spirit, I am brought

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391

in, and am united by it. By being sealed, I am joined to the

Lord. God puts a testimony of salvation on a man, and we

cannot really say what he is until then, even though I may

feel sure he is being wrought in by God. Yet he has not his

place along with Christ in this world until then. We cannot

say a person is saved until God has put His seal upon him.

It is baptism into one body, and drinking of one Spirit.

ey are shades of thought. It reads, “For by one Spirit,”

and “for as the body” (vss. 12-13); but the word “for,” in

more than half the cases, is not a connection with what has

gone immediately before, but rather a reference back to

some great principle.

e body (1 Corinthians 12:12) is for eternity, though a

person when he dies passes out of the body, as manifested

in time; he ceases to be part of that which was formed of

God, by the Holy Spirit down here, but in result the whole

will be Christ’s body. If a person dies, he is like any one

on furlough, and forms no actual part of the regiment in

active service. We must recollect that the Holy Spirit has

come down to earth. Christ, as God, created everything,

but that was not His actual existence as when He came,

but still He had been working, and had created everything.

And so as to the Holy Spirit Christ said, “If I go not away,

the Comforter will not come” (John 16:7). Now, every

direct action of God on the creature is by the Spirit: yet He

came on the day of Pentecost. Our Lord says, “When he

is come,” and so on. Of course, when He forms the body,

He forms it where He is; but as God He does not give up

the person that dies, neither his body, for He has got it all

in His hands, and under His eye, to be raised. Even the

body is not given up, but it ceases to be in that corporation

which the Holy Spirit has formed on earth. If one die, he

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392

belongs to the body, and is held to belong to Christ. His

body is in the dust, and his spirit is with Christ.

When you get to the “nots” and the “onlys,” it is a

dangerous thing. If you say, “He is not of the body,” naturally

you conclude that he did not belong to it at all. If you say,

“belongs only down here,” you exclude the body for Christ

in eternity. If I say, at is in Scripture, I bring my text,

and there it is: if I say, “not,” then I must know the whole

of the scripture to say so. In our knowledge, negatives are

universals, and armatives only are particular.

In Ephesians 1, we may notice, Christ is head in title,

and not yet: in God’s counsels the church is Christ’s

body, neither present, future, nor past, for it is all in

counsel; but here, in Corinthians, it is the actual thing in

accomplishment, distinct quite from Ephesians, which

is purpose and counsel. And here, too, it is the nature of

the thing. en we have the dependence of the members

down here; and it is important to see that all this is down

here, because when I read, “He set some in the church, rst

apostles, secondarily prophets,” and so on (vs. 28-30), then

all this is not in heaven. e apostle says, “in the assembly”

(vs. 28), so not “in the body,” because it is a matter of

historical fact. e body is a gure; and he is stating the

fact of the realization of this in the assembly; so that it

would not suit so well to say, “He set some in the body.”

1 Corinthians 12:25 — “e members should have the

same care “proves that all the saints ought to have a care

one for another; and that would include every member of

the body on earth. “e same care,” he says: it is not simply

his taking a care for them, but I ought to care for you in the

sense of love, and interest and heart being there; it is not

“taking care of,” but a dierent idea. We are all one body:

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393

my hand is interested in my eye, and my eye in my hand.

All are dependent one on another, in spite of themselves,

though it ought to be in love.

“Now ye are the body of Christ” (vs. 27). e local

assembly stands as a whole body. You cannot say that the

assembly in Corinth was the whole body of Christ, but

it was its local expression. You could say the same of any

place. It is all that expresses the truth of the assembly there.

A wise masterbuilder would not know what to do with a

ruined house. So, if Paul came down, I do not know to

whom he would write now. ere is a danger of losing, in

a local assembly, the truth of the whole body, and so of

having only the representation instead of the reality. I fully

recognize that in the principle of meeting this is the only

thing that God owns; but in our owning the local thing, I

dread losing the whole thing. At Corinth the one answers

to the other.

We get an exact list of gifts. e apostle’s object was

to give the manifestations in the church. Barnabas was an

apostle too beside Paul and the twelve. ere are dierent

words rendered “gift,” and they have shades of meaning.

“Gifts” (charisma) (vs. 4) is the giving when there is need

strictly, and “gift” (dorea) (Eph. 4:7) is the freedom of the

gift, and so on. We should look for such gifts as will edify,

and desire them. Here they were vain of their tongues; but

if you were to talk Chinese, nobody would understand you.

You had better seek what will edify; if you prophesy, you

will help others. So, if a man desire the oce of a bishop,

it is a good work.

In our chapter it is power by the Holy Spirit come down;

in Ephesians 4 we have Christ as the Head coming for

His body. ere Christ gives from on high. Here the Holy

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394

Spirit comes down, and is distributing. ere is capacity as

well as gift. In the parable in Matthew 25 our Lord gives to

every man according to his several ability. God had formed

the vessel for the purpose. In Luke a great deal more is

thrown on man’s responsibility; in the talents it is more

God’s grace. In Luke, therefore, you nd ten cities and ve

cities in reward; while in Matthew both are alike, and here

“Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the

joy of thy Lord.” It is responsibility, and reward according

to labor, in Luke.

Some of these gifts have been called sign-gifts, because

it is said they were a sign to unbelievers. ey were for the

inauguration of Christianity, but there is no intimation of

their continuance. e church continues, if you take the

secret wisdom of God; if you take the revealed statement

of God, there is no intimation of remaining here. You will

never nd the church contemplated as remaining, so as

to put o the coming of the Lord. In the parables with

reference to it, though we have “After a long time,” yet the

servants to whom the talents were entrusted are the same

as those who are judged; the virgins who slept are they who

are roused and so on. So with the seven churches, all was

existing then, and yet it has been all going on.

As to the signs, we read, “conrming the word with signs

following” (Mark 16:20), as a promise. Moses wrought

miracles, and Elijah too, in the midst of apostate Israel.

But not so the other prophets. Isaiah and Jeremiah worked

no miracles, nor John Baptist. When God is introducing

something new, you have them — wherever the thing

was to be made good in testimony for our poor hearts to

sanction the truth. I see no restoration of miracles, or of

anything indeed. ere will be miracles at the end on the

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395

devil’s part: power, and signs, and lying wonders. ere

was no statement to the church that it must lose them at

a certain time, nor that they must go on for a certain time.

Some ask as to the continuance of apostles and elders. is

was what they said to me in Switzerland: “How can you

think of God setting up a church with elders and apostles,

and yet making no provision for their continuance?” I said,

It is so, because God did not mean the church to continue.

We see this to be the way God used miracles. Of course,

He could work a miracle at any time.

It is to be noticed, that, in verse 26, the apostle does not

say (though it would be right to say it) that if one member

suer, all the members do suer with it. God has tempered

the body that it should be so; and I trust it is in measure

the case. e realization of it is diminished by divisions and

distances, and all that kind of thing; but do you suppose

that, if there is a great work of blessing going on in India

or Canada, there is not a blessing, too, in Ireland? Of

course there is, as far as living energy goes. e thing is

true, though spoiled in a measure. In an assembly where

a brother is not walking in the Lord, if the gathering is

spiritual, they will feel it, and there will be an immediate

consciousness that something is grieving the Spirit. But

if my soul is deadened, as you may sometimes see, of

course it is not felt so distinctly. If a person cuts my hand,

I do not merely say, “Why did you cut my hand?” but my

whole body feels it. If an individual were chastened, the

assembly feels it in a measure; if they were insensible to it,

they would be all the more hardened. e suering here

is any kind of trial, but it applies to chastisement, because

we have all one life. It is, by there being one Spirit in it all,

that it is so, and it always has a certain eect, though the

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396

body may be so divided as to feel it but little. We can be

awakened by the work of the Spirit and the word of prayer.

If any can apply the word, let them apply it. When there is

sin in an assembly, if they judge it, they prove themselves

clear; but if they do not, things will get worse, or the Lord

deal with them. “Leaven” would apply to both the sin and

their refusing to judge it. e thing the apostle wants in 2

Corinthians is to bring them all into obedience: he says,

“When your obedience is fullled” (2 Cor. 10:6). Our own

condition is of rst importance. We are never independent

of the state we are in, or of the Lord’s judgment of it.

“Now ye are body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27) is an

important principle. e local assembly stands as the body

of Christ, for it acts for the whole body, and is recognized

as the whole body in a certain sense in its acting. If a person

is put out at Belfast, he is put out from the whole body.

Suering aects the whole, though it takes place locally,

and action is of the same character in that sense; and then,

in verse 24, God hath done “this,” that there should not be

a schism in the body; that is, given such provision, though

it is seen in individuals in various places. Verse 24 includes

all persons who may be exceedingly valuable and yet not

appear at all. It does not bring in a question of a schism.

ere could be no schism in the body itself; but, taking the

whole thing, he says God may put honor on one person,

and there may be another very quiet with a little gracious

word of counsel to the rest, without outward honor put

upon him.

In “covet earnestly the best gifts,” the emphasis is

on “best,” gifts that edify. e desire should be in the

individual and in the assembly. Suppose I felt the assembly

wanted teaching, I might earnestly desire to be able to

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397

unfold Scripture to them. Gifts belong to the whole

body of course, though they may be used locally. Take the

highest gift, and apostle, he was not an apostle merely in

a particular place. An evangelist is the servant of Christ,

not of the assembly; but wherever he may be, he is of the

church himself. If there is no assembly gathered where he

is, then he is alone; but if there is an assembly, he is of

it. And the rst thing in him is to gather to Christ. Say

that I go to Galatia, and the Lord converts fty, they are

gathered to Christ, not to the assembly I had come from.

An evangelist would be for the edifying of the body of

Christ, inasmuch as he brings the souls in and adds them.

How could you build up a church without people, without

bricks (or scripturally I should say, “stones “)? I should in

this connection be jealous of two things exceedingly: of a

person separating himself in spirit from the saints; or of

the assembly thinking his work was their aair. I think it

is of great importance that the workman should be clearly

Christ’s servant; but if he works in any spirit of separation

from the saints, I could not go with it. An evangelist may

not necessarily gather to anything that was there but to

Christ, with a full knowledge of redemption; and having

Christ and a full knowledge of redemption, they could not

go on with anything else.

Now-a-days the great thought commonly even among

Christians is the conversion of souls to go to heaven; then

(in Paul’s time) there was no thought of anything but the

church, and converts went in as a matter of course. One

is thankful where there is now any better sense; one hears

of souls converted all over England and small gatherings

springing up. Bringing converts to a full knowledge of

redemption does not always bring them unto the ground of

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398

Christ: anybody that has a pastor’s heart and power should

look after such. Paul himself was more than an evangelist

merely, but he gets Timotheus, Silas, etc., to go and visit

these places where he had labored, and see how they were

going on. Paul wanted Apollos to go to Corinth (1 Cor.

16:12); but from a beautiful feeling Apollos would not go,

for they were saying, “I of Paul, and I of Apollos.” Paul had

no jealousy, and wished him to go; but Apollos feared the

eect of it, and would not. In the time of a revival I said to

S. in Kingstown, What are you going to do with all these

converts? He said, e Lord will take care of them. e

result was that it all died out. I do not think this was the

case with our brethren in France; when they were blessed,

they stayed and gathered the converts to the table. e

nearest local assembly may be a long way o. I think there

is responsibility on all the church of God.

is does not really confound gifts with assemblies. e

assembly would not act collectively merely, though it would

have fellowship with laborers. When Paul laid hands on

any to give him a gift, he was glad to have the testimony

of the elders with his own. As to elders themselves, the

apostles chose elders, but it is not said that hands were

laid on them, yet I believe it was so. He says, “Lay hands

suddenly on no man” (1 Tim. 5:22), but does not state that

it refers to elders. Remember all this is very dierent from

“gift.”

I do not want to leave the thought as to the care of souls

that are converted. If you look at a pastor, you see in his very

expression a dierence from an evangelist. An evangelist

will say, “O Lord, look at these poor sinners”; and a true

pastor will say, “O Lord, look at these poor sheep.” ere is

this point too: the character of revival preaching does not

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399

tend so much to gather together perhaps, though having

a measure of excitement in it; and souls so converted have

no thought of being gathered, and it is very dicult in

a revival work to bring souls into a condition to receive

further teaching. I remember an expression of one who

“wanted a sermon to pull him up.” ere is dear — whose

preaching is exciting, but nds the converts who get a taste

for worship go elsewhere, and those remain who want the

exciting preaching. But there is a kind of looking after

people that I should not give in to. You cannot follow

into ways which cultivate a thing that is not according to

God. It is an anxious thing when souls are brought in; an

evangelist will not be careless about his converts, but then

his special work occupies him. I believe there is many a gift

that is not developed from want of devotedness.

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62955

Notes on 1 Corinthians 13

Chapter 13

In the beginning of 1 Corinthians 12 the apostle

supposes all manner of gifts, but no grace. (is is of

moment, too, in the opening of Heb. 6) A person may

have the faith here spoken of without reality. He is talking

of faith to remove mountains, not of faith in the Lord

Jesus Christ’s person. We nd power and grace constantly

distinguished. We nd the power and not the grace in the

Old Testament, in such an one as Balaam for instance, but

not exactly such instances in the New Testament: there we

nd Judas rather.

We have a blessed description of love in this chapter.

“God is love.” It is sovereign goodness, coming out of itself.

It goes beyond “e love of God shed abroad in our hearts

by the Holy Ghost.” It is the same love, but here it is in its

dierent characters. “ough I bestow all my goods to feed

the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and

have not charity (love), it proteth me nothing.” It is not a

denition, but the way love works. But what we nd here

is divine love in the world; which is such a dierent thing

from law. It is what is above all the evil that is round it, and

therefore can feel for all the evil; love is aected, but never

touched in itself by it. at is what I see in its working. So

we see Christ going through this world. Love is a sovereign

thing. ere are two kinds of love, both divine: a downward

love which is sovereign in its nature — God really — which

is in our hearts in a certain sense through the Holy Spirit;

and then I nd another which goes upward, and there is a

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holy aection to which I am subject. We nd an analogy to

it in husband and wife. us, where divine love is working

in my heart towards others, it goes downwards; but when

I get the state of my soul, I must look up and I am subject.

In “walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and given

Himself for us” (Eph. 5:2), we have divine love. is is the

giving up of myself altogether; and then I get to God, who

is the object. And therefore it is said that we are light, but

it is never said that we are love, because love is sovereign,

and we cannot say we are that.

In our chapter we have love in the character of the Spirit

of Christ working us. I must have a power that is above all

the evil that is around me, and yet walk in graciousness

through it all; and this is the reason the love of the law

would not do for this world. If I love my neighbor as myself,

it is not enough for a world of evil; there I must have a love

that can go on, and be superior to all the evil, and this is

what Christ was. It can feel all the evil too. Having no self

in it, it has no self roused by all the evil that is around,

and therefore it can feel for the people that are there. It

“suereth long,” that is downward; it “seeketh not her

own” — downward too. It is not merely that it delights in

God, and in what is blessed here, but it is looking around

in the midst of evil and selshness.

“Rejoicing with the truth” (as it reads in the margin). It

is in the truth, no doubt. e truth is there, and I rejoice

with it, and take delight in it. Suppose the truth is being

preached; my heart goes with it, and is delighted.

“Believeth all things” is not being suspicious: one

believes readily. It “hopeth all things”; it does not mean

ill, it does not think of evil. Evil tends to depress the soul,

but God is above all that. I nd constantly the danger of

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thinking the evil is greater than the good; but if I bring in

God, He is greater than all opposed. Christ was here in the

world with no thought of suspicion, and that is the spirit in

which we are to walk through the world. If you are always

suspecting people, who will trust you? I feel the great

diculty in seeing the evil, which is apt to get the upper

hand of your mind; though it is no good deluding oneself

that it is not there, because it is there. But love will go on

in heaven when there is no evil to think about; prophecies

will fail, tongues cease, and knowledge vanish away. “When

that which is perfect is come” (vs. 10) means the time of

glory, when everything is perfect, and these partial things

will have ceased. Knowledge now is in degree, “we know in

part”; all that kind of learning will pass away. Learning is a

proof of ignorance, and this will not be then. Even in divine

things we learn, and all that is testimony to ignorance. It

gives a great idea of the littleness of man in that way. All

these partial instruments of communicating will be done

with when I know as I am known: which is, I believe, God’s

way of knowing; it is not knowing in part; it is not so much

the measure as the manner of God’s knowing. God can

create ideas. I know so far as things are knowable to be

known. Now we see “darkly” what we do not see clearly.

It is just as I see through a window, instead of seeing the

object at once. It is an extraordinary expression; we do not

see clearly, but in a mystery, not like plain open things. It is

an enigma, though I do not like that word, because it does

not suit divine things.

“Faith, hope, and charity,” or love, are not put accidentally

here. ey are the three things that are characteristic of

the Christian state now, “putting on the breastplate of faith

and charity [the same word], and for a helmet the hope

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403

of salvation” (1 ess. 5:8). Some ten times in the New

Testament faith, hope, and love are put together. ey are

positive elements, faith and hope referring to the present

state I am in, and charity to the present and eternal state.

Faith lays hold of an object, and hope desires it. e word

“charity” is an ecclesiastical word. Love is really what God

is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and this never

fails. When we possess a thing, we have done with faith and

hope as to it: they have passed into positive fruition, as we

say. ere will be love in heaven, but we shall not have faith

there, because there will be sight; and we shall not have

hope there, because we have got possession. “Now abideth”

shows the three as present things, but charity never fails.

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62956

Notes on 1 Corinthians 14

Chapter 14

In this chapter the apostle is referring to these tongues

which shall cease; the Corinthians were vain of them; and

he says they are not to use them save conditionally.

1 Corinthians 14:3-4 is the way in which prophecy

works, rather than a denition of prophecy. It is speaking

unto men to edication, and exhortation, and comfort. It

can be now, of course, in that way; knowledge and doctrine

abide, though the giving forth of revelation does not,

because all is revealed (that is, in the word). We speak of

revelation in a lower sense, when anyone gets something

he had not before; but then that is only what is already

in the word. It is not so much here a question as to the

character of the prophecy, but he contrasts the prophesying

with tongues, when no one understood them; and it is as

regards those who are within, not those who are without.

In “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the

understanding also” (vs. 15), suppose I was praying, and did

not understand what I was saying, what good would there

be in that? In “my spirit prayeth,” it is just as it might be in

a groan that could not be uttered. e tongues, in a sense,

superseded the confusion of tongues. Instead of grace

conning itself to Israel, the gift of tongues opened it up

to all nations. We see a specimen of it in Acts 2; it reversed

Babel, as it were. Only on the day of Pentecost it was all

plain and simple; but now the Corinthians were abusing

it. e moment it was given, it was for all the nations in

carrying the gospel to them.

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405

e saying Amen, in verse 16, is general, I think; it

would include the Lord’s supper too. But if some prayed in

Dutch or Persian, nobody here, at least, could say, Amen.

A very wonderful thing were the tongues. ere is little

dierence between “when ye come together in the church,”

in 1 Corinthians 11:18, and “the whole church be come

together into some place,” in 1 Corinthians 14: 23. It may

be more emphatic in chapter 14, that is all. e way the

dierence at all comes about is in 1 Corinthians 11; it is

the character of their coming together, in assembly; here is

the whole assembly come together. e one is a character; the

other is a thing. e “unlearned” persons (vs. 23) are those

not taught in the word. is is true of an unbeliever, but

we have the unbelievers named also. e word is “idiotes,”

and a person not instructed in an art was called such; a

private person. It makes two classes, the untaught in the

things of God, and the actual unbeliever. ere were no

catechumens at that time. When the catechumen was rst

invented, they were allowed to hear the rst exhortations;

and when the church part came on, they were all sent out.

at is the origin of the word mass, from “Ite: missa est.”

(e formula of dismissal by the ociating minister.)

In thinking of the one who was “convinced of all, and

judged of all” (vs. 24), we must remember how instruction

was obtained; Peter and John were not taught as Rabbis

were. ey had not rabbinical instruction, though this was

much esteemed of course. How many poor people now will

say, If a man is not a clergyman, how can he know anything

about it? at would be the feeling. Such a one, convinced

and judged, will “worship.” Because he nds God working

thus, and falls down and owns Him. e presence of God

acts upon his spirit, and bows it; and his conscience is

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reached. e secrets of his heart are told out to himself.

God’s presence nds it all out to himself, without his

speaking to others. It is the power of the Spirit of God on

a man’s conscience.

In 1 Corinthians 14:25 “God is in you” is collective. Ev

is used for “among” and “in,” when the noun is collective.

“In you” is perhaps better, because it looks at the assembly

as a whole. Verse 26 does not imply a censure, nor that the

things were all looked out ready. He speaks of a revelation,

and this could not be a cut and dried thing. But they were

abusing the power of the Holy Spirit: there was no order.

Verse 30 is merely the general spirit of subjection. But now

there is no revelation. I do not think one was to wait (?

‘speak’) till another had done; order is before power. God

is never the author of confusion. 1 Corinthians 14:32

teaches that the moral power is superior to mere power.

e “tongue” is subject to me, as we said before. Whatever

I might have in power, if it were spiritual wisdom not

to speak, I should not speak. e moral judgment of the

prophet is superior to mere power, however real and mighty.

Verse 34 is the tenor of the law, if not a particular law. e

apostle is peremptory about it in Timothy. “I suer not a

woman to teach,” he says. I think it is a little out of place

for a woman even to raise a hymn; but I do not object, if

she do it modestly. If three women were on a desert island,

I do not see why they should not break bread together, if

they did it privately. A man and his wife being alone, I see

no objection to their breaking bread, if they themselves feel

free and are disposed.

1 Corinthians 14:12 and 14 are separated by a chapter

on love. Charity comes in, by the bye, in the middle, to

teach them how to use their gifts. He brings in love too,

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407

as the root of all right action, as of everything else; and

then he goes on to the order and exercise of gift. We have

the doctrine in 1 Corinthians 12, and the exercise of gifts

in 1 Corinthians 14. ere is no law as to the order of the

morning meeting. If a person had a word to say before

the breaking of bread, I should not object; but I enjoy

prominence given to the breaking of bread on the Lord’s

day morning.

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62957

Notes on 1 Corinthians 15

Chapter 15

e apostle now speaks of resurrection. His keeping it

till the last, in this way, is remarkable. We have a great truth

brought out in the chapter, in the total identication of

Christ with men — saints, but man as man, because he says,

if men do not rise, Christ is not risen. I have not the least

objection to verse 22 as it stands in the English Version, for

all the wicked will be raised, as well as the righteous. As in

Adam everybody in Adam dies, so in Christ all in Christ

will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:21 is more general;

it is merely the fact that resurrection comes by man. You

could only say “in Christ” of the wicked, if you take it in

the power of Christ. e whole account is the resurrection

of the saints. When you take in resurrection of the dead, it

is abstract, and it is resurrection that is insisted on.

e destruction of death, if you take it for the wicked,

will be the second death. e wages of sin is death in

general, but strictly the rst death; though wrath of God

from heaven is revealed along with the gospel. I know of no

scripture that speaks of Christ bearing the second death.

He bore what brings us into it. It is a great thing to keep

to Scripture. “e lake of re,” “the second death,” is not

annihilation.

You must recollect that all that is behind death is fully

brought out on either side by the gospel. e Pharisees spelled

out something of resurrection, but life and incorruptibility

are brought to light by the gospel. In the Old Testament

eternal life is mentioned but twice, and both times in

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409

connection with the millennium; and in the judgment on

Adam there is no judgment beyond death — “dust thou art,

and unto dust thou shalt return” — that is all. Of course,

when God was driving out the man, the woman was to

have sorrow in her conception, and so on; and plenty more

comes out in the other scriptures; but as for the present

state, death of the body was what was imposed on him as

the consequence. ere were other intimations in the Old

Testament, whence the Pharisees had gathered the truth,

but it was a matter of spiritual apprehension. All the Old

Testament saints will be in the resurrection, though I do

not know that they are included in this scripture. “ey

without us shall not be made perfect” (Heb. 11:40).

e resurrection of Christ from among the dead is the

testimony to God’s acceptance of those that are raised. It is

merely a question of time. If the dead are raised altogether,

then they are all to come together into judgment. But God

takes Christ out — the seal of His perfect acceptance — from

the rest of the dead; and when the time comes, we shall be

taken out from the dead in just the same manner. God

does raise the wicked, and Christ will judge the wicked,

and then He will give all up to God.

ere is a passage in Philippians 3 as to the resurrection,

which makes it simple about the body: “Our conversation

is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it

may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according

to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all

things unto himself” (1 Cor. 15:20-21). It is wonderful

what revelations we have of the plans of God, compared

with the darkness of man! Romans 8:11 also refers to

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resurrection — “shall also quicken your mortal bodies by

his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

In our chapter two things are evident: one that is always

our portion in spirit, that is, the time when the dispensation

and ordering of things will cease; and the other, the actual

having to say to God, “He must reign till he hath put

all enemies under his feet.” ere is the whole system of

dispensed power which comes in by-and-by; and then you

get God all in all, when all mediatorial provision to bring

it about is complete, and He will render up the kingdom

to God. In one sense we reign forever and ever, but all the

governmental system that brings the thing about will be

closed.

e Apostle John does not give dispensations, but deals

more immediately with natures; what he does is evidently

the bringing out the manifestation of God. “No man hath

seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son, who is in the

bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” “If we walk

in the light, as God is in the light,” and so on; it is the

revelation of God’s nature.

But here it is all a system of counsels and power, which

is, in a certain sense, provisional, and so only for a time.

e object is, that God — not the Father — may be all in

all. And there comes a blessed fact with it that the Lord

Jesus never gives up His manhood; “then shall the Son also

himself be subject.” You have the sonship in John most

fully. Christ was God, and came to be a servant, presently

to take the government, and all authority and power is put

down, and then He takes the place of subjection, and all

as man. It is not that He is not God, for He is God all the

time. His divinity comes out in John at every step. He is

never as a mere man in John’s Gospel; yet He never goes

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411

out of the place of a person that receives everything. He

has taken the form of a servant, and says, “I have gloried

thee on earth,” and now “glorify thou me.” He does not

say, I glorify Myself. And again, “Now is the Son of man

gloried, and God is gloried in him; if God be gloried

in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall

straightway glorify him.” In John 17 He speaks as Son of

God; “Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy

Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power

over all esh, that he should give eternal life to as many

as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they

might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ

whom thou hast sent.”

It is beautiful to see Him God, but man, all through

that Gospel! at is just what Satan tried to get Him out

of down here; but no, if Satan says “Give up your place

as a servant,” He says, “at is where I am now come.”

Nor does He ever cease to be the rstborn among many

brethren, and that is a wonderful thing to us. But you never

nd the glory of His person touched, however much He

comes amongst us, and at His baptism by John, He quite

takes His place as a man. Of course, there was no need for

Himself to be baptized with the baptism of repentance;

but in grace He takes the place with those who did need

it; whereon immediately heaven is opened to Him, and the

Holy Spirit comes down, and He is sealed and anointed by

the Holy Spirit. If the Father owns Him as His Son, there

also He takes His place with us.

When heaven is opened to Stephen, at once we see

the dierence. Stephen has an object in heaven which he

is looking at, and which forms him into the same image.

But when heaven is opened to Christ, heaven is looking

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412

down at Him, not He at an object there. And so the glory

of His Person is always secured. In the transguration

He was in exactly the same glory as Moses and Elias, and

they were as He; but, the moment the glory comes out

and the Father’s voice is heard, Moses and Elias are gone.

Even where His saints are in the same place with Him,

the glory of His Person is completely secured. It was so

at the transguration, as well as at His baptism. And the

nearer we are to Christ, the more we shall see the glory

of His Person. It is blessed to see this. He still remains

the rstborn among many brethren. If were only an angel,

there would not be much in it.

Psalm 8 will be made good at the beginning of the

millennium. His enemies will be made His footstool

according to Psalm 110, but the same general sense. He

is sitting at His Father’s right hand now, but when His

Father makes His enemies His footstool, then He begins

to trample them down. In Psalm 8 He gets this power, and

is set over the works of His hand. He has three distinct

titles to this place over all things: He created them in

Colossians, and therefore is Head over all things; then, in

Colossians and Hebrews, He takes it as Son, because, if

He is Son, He is heir; and then there is a third title, as Son

of man He takes it to Himself, but in the way of doing it,

He takes it in redemption: God reconciles everything by

Him. e full result of Psalm 8 will not be reached until

death is destroyed. God puts all things under His feet as

Son of man at the beginning of the millennium, and then

He begins to put them down, and, when all is done, He

gives the kingdom up. e kingdom of heaven is going on

now; not the kingdom of the Son of man, though He is

King, and entitled to take the kingdom at any time. He

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413

is ready to judge both quick and dead; only He is sitting

there till the moment, known to God, when He is to take

the kingdom manifestly, and in actual execution. Now it is

all a provisional state. He is sitting on the Father’s throne,

and has not taken His own at all; still the kingdom belongs

to Him; only it is going on as in the parables of Matthew

13, a kingdom without a king, in patience, not power. is

is not a kingdom in the literal sense, but the shape the

kingdom takes before the King takes His power, though

He is King.

e destruction of death will not be until the great white

throne. e taking of the kingdom will be a total change

in the order of things; but the great dierence will be, that

(instead of a rejected Christ, and the Holy Spirit giving

power to go against the stream) when the Lord comes, the

stream is in the way of righteousness: power and glory, and

everything, are in the way of righteousness. Now people

have to make sacrices; if they follow Christ, they have

their cross. Only He is excepted who did put all things

under Him: otherwise it is all without exception. We have

it in Psalm 8, and quoted in three places — Ephesians

1:22, Hebrews 2, and this chapter. It is more developed

in Hebrews 2; it says, we see not yet all things put under

Him. Half the psalm is fullled, but not yet the other half.

He is crowned with glory and honor, but we do not see

everything put under His feet, and there He sits on the

Father’s throne. In Ephesians He put all things under

His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the

church, which is His body. In Psalm 2 we have Him as Son

of God and King of Israel down in the earth: only He is

rejected, and then we have the state His rejection leaves the

Jews in, until Psalm 8, when we have everything put under

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414

Him. We nd the Messiah’s glory and title set aside for a

time, when those who followed with Him are in trial and

diculty; and then Jehovah’s name is excellent in all the

earth, when the Son of man is set over everything, and this

is seen in Psalm 8.

at gives the whole scheme of God’s ways in Christ,

not the church, but as to the earth. In the end of John 1

Christ is owned according to Psalm 2, “the Son of God

and King of Israel.” And Christ says, You shall see greater

things than these — the Son of man on the throne. And

then, in John 2, we have the millennium settled among

the Jews on earth, the water of purifying turned into the

joy of earth at the marriage, and with a scourge of small

cords He purges the temple. ose are the two sides of the

millennial character, and that is why it is called the third

day. You cannot make anything of those days in John, if you

do not see it is the remnant up to Nathaniel. e history, in

fact, has many days; but the days taken notice of are John

Baptist’s ministry, Christ’s, and then the third day. It is just

the same at the end of John: this is the third time that Jesus

showed Himself, and that third time is the millennium.

It is meant to be mysterious, and it is so. e rst time

He sent His disciples for a haul (Luke 5:6), the net brake;

but now, when the Lord comes back again, the net did

not break, although there were so many shes (153). It is

purposely mysterious, I do not doubt. ere had been the

revelation to omas before; and He had shown Himself

eight days before that. is was the third time, when He

gathers them at the end. Paul’s ministry is entirely left out

here, but we have Peter and John’s ministries: — Peter’s, to

feed the sheep; and, as for John, the Lord says, “If I will that

he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”

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415

(John 21:22); and this is what John did; he goes watching

over the church until Christ come.

In our Lord’s speaking with Peter (John 21), two words

are used: phileo (I am attached) is more intimate, agapao

(I love) is more general. Peter says, I love you with the

intimacy of a friend. It is curious, that, though the verb

phileo is used, the noun from it is never used in the Greek.

e Lord uses the general word rst, and probes his heart;

and then again, “Lovest thou me?” and the third time He

says, “Aectionest thou me?” “I not only love you,” says

Peter, “but have aection for you.” I think there is great

instruction there. e Lord never reproaches Peter, but

goes to detect the root that had produced the fault: and

Peter is not really restored until he had judged the root. I

do not mean that he may not have confessed it honestly,

but he is in danger of the same again. e moment he

had been put to the test, he did not know the Lord at all,

and nothing but divine knowledge could have said that he

loved Him. Divine knowledge could say all things; and

then, when the Lord has completely humbled him, He

puts entire condence in him: “Feed my sheep.” e very

thing Christ loves most on this earth He trusts to this man.

It was a complete destruction of Peter’s self-condence,

and then he knew what the resource for a poor sheep was:

since he had judged himself thoroughly, he knew where

to take the sheep. e Lord never can trust anybody that

trusts himself. It is not that a person is not sincere. Peter

was perfectly sincere, but he did not know himself.

en the Lord, we may say, leaps over to His coming. en

there was another thing as to Peter I may mention — He

puts an end to his will. Peter had declared he would follow

Him to prison and to death — the thing he could not do.

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416

If only a servant girl asks him, “Are you one of them?” he is

afraid, and begins to curse and swear. e Lord now says,

“When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst

whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou

shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee,

and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. is spake he

signifying by what death he should glorify God” (John

21:18-19). ‘When your will is gone, you will follow Me.’

e very thing he said he would do, and could not, because

he trusted the esh, that thing, when he had no condence

of his own, was what he would do, and really did so. It was

a thorough breaking down of the esh, and then Christ

trusts all to him, both His sheep and His lambs. ere is

a dierence there: rst, “Feed my lambs”; then, “Shepherd

my sheep”; and then, “Feed my sheep.” “Shepherd,” in that

way, is sometimes important; the elders are called on to

shepherd the ock; the Greek word means not to feed

merely, but to care for and watch over them. We have no

ascension here; all passes over to Christ’s coming: we have

nothing of Paul, but only Peter and John; Peter, the apostle

of the circumcision, and John’s ministry going on till the

Lord came.

To return to our chapter. It may be remarked that the

baptism for the dead, in 1 Corinthians 15:29, means, that

you take your part with the dead, and for the dead, whether

it be Christ, or anybody else. It is a very old thought.

Doddridge had it two hundred years ago; he says, Here’s a

man who has fallen in the ranks, and another steps forward

in his stead; what is the good of that, if nobody rises?

“I die daily” (vs. 31) is an outward thing. e dierence

of the glories is, I believe, between the heavenly and the

earthly. “So also is the resurrection of the dead” — the state

Notes on 1 Corinthians 15

417

of the resurrection is more glorious than the state down

here.

All that is told of the rst resurrection is testimony

against the entire idea of taking people to judgment in

the way the evangelical system does. “We must all appear

before the judgment-seat of Christ” — be manifested

there — that must be, but the saints are in glory before

they arrive there: therefore the idea of a judgment, whether

they are to have the place or not, is altogether too low. e

real power of redemption has been lost sight of, and the

resurrection itself is the fruit of that redemption. Just as

Christ Himself was taken from among the dead (besides,

He “could not be holden of it “) by the glory of the Father

owning Him in righteousness as Son, so the saints will

be taken out too. But there the resurrection was putting

the seal of acceptance publicly upon Christ’s whole work;

and everything is settled. Whereas, also, if the saints alone

are raised, and taken out from among the wicked dead

presently, it too is a positive testimony to their acceptance.

In Mark Christ told them, after the transguration, to

tell no man until after He should be risen “from among

the dead.” e disciples were wondering what this rising

from the dead should mean; that was what astonished

them. Every Pharisee in the country believed there would

be a resurrection; but a rising out from among the dead

they could not make anything of. e whole idea of a

judgment to come to settle a person’s case seems to me

to upset all Christianity. Paul has been eighteen hundred

years in heaven, and you are going to take him out to judge

whether he is to be there or not! It is absurd upon the

face of it. People fancy that the testimony to the fullness

of redemption weakens morality: nay, but the fullness is

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in Christ, and being in Christ I also see that Christ is in

me. en if Christ is in you, let us never see anything but

Christ in your ways every day. All duties ow from the

place we are in already. You could not have the duties of

children to me if you are not my children, nor could you,

if you slaved yourselves to death, become my children. But

if you were my children, you would have the duty of living

as such. A woman cannot act as the wife of a man, if she

is not his wife, and so on. But then the duty is there if the

relation is. Are you sure of being saved forever? asks one.

Well, is that my child? Yes; then he is my child forever.

God gives a ground for all action, but it is not duties and

conditional promises: you cannot have a duty without rst

putting a person in the place it belongs to. And then God

gives a new nature that delights in the duty, whereon He

sets you to do it.

But I was alluding to the fact that we are raised in

glory, and surely, if we are there, the question of judging

whether we are to be there is all nonsense. And so the rst

resurrection is not merely a notion about some high-own

thing. “Some have not the knowledge of God”; for this

denying the resurrection was connected really with a moral

state; there was no real knowledge of God. A Christian

might have fallen into such a state, but the knowledge of

God is that revelation of God to the soul which is estimated

by the new nature, and is the spring of all acquaintance

with truth. A saint may fall into such a state, for the esh

in the saint is as bad as in the sinner, or worse. Paul here

states the fact, “some have not the knowledge of God,” just

as we were saying, the other day, a man asleep is, as regards

others, just the same as a dead man. Some needed the

exhortation, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the

Notes on 1 Corinthians 15

419

dead.” Such are thinking after the esh, instead of thinking

after Christ, though before God not really in the esh.

e knowledge of God is immensely important; if I

have not light, I do not know what light is; the knowledge

of a being ows from partaking of the nature of that being.

An animal does not know what a man is, though there may

be greater men, and stronger men, and wiser, than myself.

Hence “he that loveth not, knoweth not God.” If God is

love, and I have got His nature, then I know He is, and

what He is. But there are some people who have not the

knowledge of God. As I said, you must have the nature of

a being to know that being; and now I know what God is,

because I have been made partaker of the divine nature,

or else I had not the knowledge of God. “We” walk in the

light, as God is in the light, and that was the dierence

between Israel and Christians. God was behind a veil to

them, but now He has come out in Christ, and that veil

is rent, and we come in. And so now the wrath of God is

revealed from heaven; that is not the government of God

sending the people to Babylon, or elsewhere, but wrath in

full, or else there must be no “ungodliness.” And the death

that rent the veil, and let God out, put away the evil that

kept us outside. Of old they might have learned at least

some of God’s ways: for “He showed his ways unto Moses,

his acts unto the children of Israel”; that is, if they were

spiritual. Moses says, “Show me thy way, that I may know

thee.” at was something of it, but the Christian, properly

speaking, knows God. Galaatians 4:8 gives you, “When

ye knew not God,” and then, “After that ye have known

God.” ere is a moral estimate of what God is. If I nd a

ritualist, I say, You do not know God, you could not, as long

as you bow down your head like a bulrush, as Isaiah says

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420

(Isa. 58: 5), and think God can be worshipped by all these

mummeries; you do not know God really.

ose in 2 Peter 3, who were “entangled” and

“overcome,” had known Christ in a supercial way; there

was no real change of life, no vital change, only an outward

change through the knowledge brought to them, but, as

the old saying is, “A washed sow is no sheep.” It takes a new

nature really to know God. Knowing Christ may be a little

dierent from knowing God; knowing God is knowing

His nature, whereas Christ has come, and there might,

in another way, be such and such a knowledge of Him.

Without knowledge of God, you may get your feelings

moved about the truth. Look at Balaam. He can say, “Let

me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be

like his”; but there was no change as to his life, or anything.

ere may be such now, with no real knowledge of Christ.

e outward manifestation of Christ may have come to a

person, without any knowledge of what was inside. “When

they knew God,” in Romans 1:21, was the knowledge of

God as in Noah, the preacher of righteousness; but they

turned that into idolatry. ey knew there was only one

God in Noah’s time, and they gave that up for idols. In

one sense you may know everything, if you merely take

the acquaintance with it. In Romans Paul is convicting

the Gentiles on two grounds — their knowledge of God

as in Noah, and on the ground of the creation — glory of

God. e startingpoint of the Gentiles was the knowledge

of God, and they did not like to retain Him in their

knowledge; that is the way they lost it, because the human

mind, in a moral sense, cannot hold it. It is ginosko in

Greek, in “After that ye have known God” (Gal. 4:9). It is

the word constantly used in such a connection. e word

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421

epiginosko is more, it is consciously to know. He says of

the Corinthians, they were ignorant of God; I think the

knowing of God, in Romans, is a little more, because they

had knowledge, for they started from a point, and it was

abandoned.

Now we have another very important thing, “e rst

man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was

made a quickening Spirit,” and so on. (1 Cor. 15:45-48).

As we were like Adam, we shall be like Christ. ere are

many important things here. “e second Man” is the rst

truth; that is, we have no acceptance of the rst man at

all; we have acceptance of people, of course, but that is

in the second Man, not in the rst. God’s thought is to

bring in a second Adam, and the rst is set aside; and as

the rst Adam was a head and center, the second Adam is

looked at as a head Man, and in a far higher way. In many

places people think there is a great deal going on towards

perfecting man, but, instead of that, Christ sets him on one

side. Christ was “the, last Adam” before He rose as to His

Person, but not as to His state. Adam was so in the garden,

in his person, in paradise, but was not exactly head of a

race until he was outside; and this has its importance. So

Christ was not Head of a race really until He had died and

risen, because He died. Christ comes among men down

here, and men will not have Him, but in His death their

system is totally closed. Another man is set up: “Except a

corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone,

but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Man rejected

Christ, and that nished man’s history. When Christ has

risen, He begins a new state altogether, but it is in the last

Adam. He is the last Adam; there could be no other after

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Him. “Adam,” in contrast with “man,” is looked at more as

the head of a race.

en notice the enormous dierence between the

two Adams. e rst was a living soul, the second a life-

giving Spirit. is is the very thing those who deny the

immortality of the soul insist on, for they say animals were

living souls, and so they were. But we know that after death

comes judgment (Heb. 9:8), and that single text shows

that after death the whole question comes in of judgment

for what a man did when he was alive. ese people talk

of Hebrew and Greek about it (that is, one of their chief

people, and one may say several), but he only proved that

he knew nothing about the language, and could not even

look out words in his dictionary; and yet it raises a cloud of

dust. God had quickened Christ, but Christ is a quickener

both of soul and body, and that is the way there is a spiritual

body. Christ was born of a woman, “made of a woman,” it

says, “made under the law.” “Made” is not the thing, but

it is a word that signies, “to begin to be,” and that was

not before; because “under the law” would not do. I could

say, He became a man, but I could not say, became of a

woman. “Became,” in English, supposes a person to exist

already, and then to become something, which is not the

case here. And “was made” does not do, because it looks as

if He was made what He was not before. Christ was always

a quickening Spirit — He quickened from Adam. It is the

contrast between the rst Adam and last; the one received

life, the other gives life; and then we shall be like Him who

is from heaven.

As to soul and spirit, spirit is the upper part, and life

was communicated to the body through it. Soul, when you

make the dierence, is that which you have in common with

Notes on 1 Corinthians 15

423

the beasts. e word is used in the Hebrew for everything;

conscience, soul, spirit, and heart. Heart thus is really a

gure, for else it is a piece of my esh connected with the

circulation of the blood. Take “if our heart condemn us

not,” there it is in the sense of conscience: “Love God with

all thy heart,” there it is the aections.

e “earth,” in 1 Corinthians 15:47, is the ground the

man is made of. I think we have to recollect that, in divine

things, the force of words is known by the meaning of the

thing. It is not so in human science, but the opposite. Our

Lord asks, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even

because ye cannot hear my words.” Nicodemus shows what

this is when he asks, “How can a man be born again?” It

is of the rst importance to lay hold of what the Lord is

speaking, though we might learn Greek too; it is all well in

its place. “We have borne the image of the earthy, and shall

also bear the image of the heavenly.”

When we learn that “in a moment, in the twinkling of an

eye, at the last trump,” we shall be changed. e last trump,

among the Romans, was the signal for all to start from

the camp. ey sounded one trumpet, and pulled down

their tents; then a second, and put themselves in order; and

when the last was sounded, they all started. It is the same

idea in 1 essalonians 4; it is there the military technical

shout when they were all called into the rank again from

standing at ease (originally it was the sound given to the

rowers to pull together). We have three there: the Lord

rst; then the archangel carrying it on; and then the trump

of God that completes all. “en shall be brought to pass

the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory;

O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?

e sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law;

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424

but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory, through

our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yes, “the strength of sin is the law.” It is astonishing the

way people cling to the law for morality. I know nothing

that shows more the perversity of man’s mind than this. It is

clear enough. “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye

are not under law, but under grace.” To put under law is to

bring in sin, for you cannot keep it, and so it is “the strength

of sin.” e motions of sin were by the law. Law addresses

itself to a nature, and forbids the sin, without changing the

nature, or anything else; and it enfeebles the whole spirit of

a man, by bringing his conscience into bondage. Indeed sin

takes occasion by the commandment. If in this table, now,

I had a drawer, and something in it, and I said, “Nobody is

to know what is there,” why, there are lots of heads in this

room would be curious to know what it was directly. And

the law is “the strength of sin,” by binding the soul down to

guilt: not that this is a fault in the law, but because of what

my nature is, law does provoke. And then, besides, it ties the

guilt down on the conscience. Law gives no life, no power,

no object, but it provokes the lust, is the occasion of sin,

and xes my guilt upon me. Christ gives me an object, and

life, and power, and delivers me from all that was against

me. e law tells me to love God, and I ask, Why so? I have

no nature that does. It states the duty, without acting on

the person’s heart one atom, but the sin that is committed

it ties down upon the conscience. And it is very useful to

tie sins down upon the conscience, but that is all it is useful

for. Where Paul says, “Touching the righteousness which is

in the law blameless,” in Philippians 3:6, it was outwardly

true: but he says in Romans 7:14, “We know that the law is

spiritual,” which is another thing. In Philippians he alludes

Notes on 1 Corinthians 15

425

to sins; so with the ruler, who says, “All these things have I

kept from my youth up” (Luke 18:21). But the Lord tests

him with, “Go and sell all that thou hast” (Matt. 19:21),

and that will not do for man.

e moment of the rapture (vs. 54) is not in the scope

of the prophets, and Paul merely states the fact without

time. In Isaiah 25 we have the Gentiles brought in, and

the Jews restored, and he puts the fact of the resurrection

in without the precise order of events. e testimony of the

Lord’s coming is striking, for it is when He comes the rst

resurrection takes place. I say this, because it is considered

to be a kind of bit of superior knowledge. 1 essalonians

4 gives it. ere are two classes taken up, and they will be

setting on the thrones of judgment, but it does not say

exactly when.

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426

62958

Notes on 1 Corinthians 16

Chapter 16

We have in 1 Corinthians 16:8 an important principle

as to work. ere are many adversaries, but a great and

eectual door is opened to me, and so I will stay. It is a

very dierent thing to have the door closed, and to have

many adversaries. We shall soon nd out when the door

is closed. I think it requires patience; and you may nd

amazing opposition. I remember only two people coining,

for eight weeks at one place where everything was against

me, but at the end of that time forty or fty came in, and

several were converted. At another place, where all was for

me, even the clergyman, it all came to nothing. e highest

leading is direct leading by the Spirit of God. I do not say

we have that now as Paul had it; but there is being guided

by His eye, while, too, it is a great mercy to be held in by

bit and bridle. Take the fact that Paul and Silas were going

to Bithynia (Acts 16), “but the Spirit suered them not.”

en they were called over to Macedonia; and this was

positive direct guidance as to where they were to work: and

Paul went afterward to Ephesus, and stayed there a couple

of years, and all Asia heard the word of God. I believe the

Lord might now put it upon a person’s heart to go to a

particular place. I remember once going to Cork, and could

not tell why I went, and there was great blessing. It is better

for evangelists to go two and two, but it is dicult to get

enough for it. We lean but little on the power of the Spirit

of God. We have a network of railways, and use them, but

Paul did his work on foot, and did a great deal more work

Notes on 1 Corinthians 16

427

too than we do. I use a railroad, of course, but if one can go

on foot, it would be a deal better.

In 1 Corinthians 16:15 I see the Lord providing

spiritual authority: “they addicted themselves”; it is the

word for appointing ocers to a regiment. It is not an

ocial authority, but an action on the conscience of the

person — it is a moral authority, and not ocial. ey were

not teaching, but they were serving the saints, and acquired

a just and happy inuence over them: and wherever an

assembly is going on well, and there is a number there,

there will be something of this kind. In Switzerland we

were very much opposed about ministry, but they failed

in their scheme. To get something we had not, they chose

elders, saying Luther sanctioned them. One of them came

to me, and said, “I am an elder.”

I said, “Suppose I am unruly; what will you do?”

“Why, I will come and visit you.”

“Well, you are here now: what have you to say to me?”

“Why, I am an elder.”

“Who made you an elder?”

“I was chosen an elder.”

“But I did not choose you.”

And, quite confused, he had to own, “I cannot be an

elder to one who did not choose me.”

“And do you think unruly people will own you, even if

they did choose you? Not they.”

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428

62960

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

Chapter 1

Paul, was at Ephesus, intending to go to Corinth, but

they were in such a bad state there that he could not go,

but he wrote a letter, and then went up from Ephesus to

Troas, in hope to meet Titus with an answer to his letter.

He went into Macedonia, met Titus, and wrote them the

second letter, now that his heart could open out more upon

blessing. He could go farther on in the truth now, though

they were still babes, yet he could lead them on.

Paul could go much nearer to Ephesian truth here, and

we have the basis of that in a verse or two, though he does

not enter into it as the unfolding of God’s counsels. As

regards the person of the Christian, it is,” If one died for

all, then were all dead”; that is Ephesian truth as a basis

in the individual. “Bearing about in the body the dying of

the Lord Jesus “is Roman truth, which is much beyond

the rst epistle; but his mouth is opened and enlarged.

In Ephesians he gives the counsels of God, but here he

can take the foundation in Christians. And here there was

another thing had happened which gave occasion to this;

he had gone through the terrible persecutions at Ephesus

when the town clerk dismissed the assembly (and he

seems, indeed, to have gone farther than we have details

of in Acts), so that he despaired of his life. He had been

through this which had brought him to the point of all

that he sets out in the second epistle — that life was in God

who raised the dead, and the esh was dead. at is Roman

truth — dead with Christ; but there are two ways in which

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

429

men are looked at — as living in sins, or living to sin, if

you please; and on the other hand as dead in sins. It is the

same state, but in two dierent aspects. If I look at a man

living in his lusts and pleasures, fullling the desires of the

esh and of the mind, then he is both living in sins and

dead to God. I may take him up on either side, and say,

You are a living man in sins, and you must die: or I may

take him up as dead in sins, and say, Life is God’s gift; and

without it you cannot enjoy Him, or know Him, for you

are dead. Death is brought to a living man in sin, and the

new creature to a man that is dead. If the man is dead, as in

Ephesians, we have all the counsels of God, a totally new

creation of everything else, and of the man too, and that is

here in Corinthians, not merely “he is a new creature” but

there is (that is, the whole thing is) a new creation. You

have the man practically realizing death, and also as already

dead, and the new creation brought in.

What I have indicated is the main thought of the

epistle, and then we hear afterward about collections of

money. It is addressed more specically to the saints. In the

rst epistle there is instruction for the whole of professing

Christendom, and governmental directions how to get

on. Here he is thinking of the saints, and opens his heart:

it is to the saints which are in all Achaia, where Corinth

was situated. e word “saints” looks at them as to their

standing. Sanctied of the Spirit is always assumed to be

a real thing, although there may be a false person amongst

those so spoken of. I do not think the word “saint” is ever

used, except upon the supposition that they are really so.

Sanctied by the truth is like it, but not sanctied by blood

as in Hebrews 10. It is not the individual himself sanctied

by the Holy Spirit in such cases. See in Hebrews, “hath

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430

counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was

sanctied an unholy thing.” ere was positive apostasy

from that kind of sanctication, and yet he there speaks to

them as sanctied. e true value of the sacrice is not only

to t them for God, but to set them apart for God. It is

like the word calling: “many are called, but few are chosen”

(Matt. 22:14).

e apostle addresses them here as the “church of

God”; in Romans there is no recognized church: there

was a church assembled there, but he was dealing about

individual justication; he had never been at Rome so as

to recognize the church. In essalonians it is “the church

of the essalonians which is in God the Father.” ey had

just come out of idolatry, and there was but one God, and

He was God the Father. Here it is ecclesiastical rather, the

church of God; he is dealing with God’s assembly in the

world. For the same reason he says to Timothy, “the church

of the living God,” and tells him how he ought to behave

himself there: he adds “living,” in contrast with dumb and

dead idols.

We get hold of the starting-point of this epistle in

seeing that God had comforted Paul by the coming of

Titus, after all his troubles at Ephesus, and about Corinth

too. When he reached Macedonia, “without were ghtings,

within were fears”; and then comes Titus, and that is where

he is in this epistle. He had gone through all at Ephesus,

and at the same time had the pressure of the Corinthian

state on his heart, and not only their state, but sorrow that

he had ever written the rst epistle at all, because he was

afraid he had alienated the Corinthians from him. And he

was now “joyed” by the coming of Titus.

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

431

He sets out God as “the Father of mercies, and the God

of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that

we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble

by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of

God.” (Read also 2 Cor. 1:5-7.) en, in verse 8, he begins

with the circumstances we were referring to in Asia, but

says “we had the sentence of death in ourselves”; he was

almost put to death, but God did not allow him to be killed,

and this met a man who held himself to be dead already.

e sentence of death was written on him, and he held

himself dead in himself, so that his condence was not in

any life he had as a man, but it was in God who raiseth the

dead. It was the carrying out of Romans 6:11: “Reckon ye

yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,” that was counting

himself so. We have three things: God sees us as dead; ye

are dead; live it. Faith says, I reckon myself dead; Paul was

doing so, and is made to carry it out. In Romans he applies

it to sin, but here it is to everything. His condence is in

God, and God did deliver him, and did not allow him to be

killed, though he feared it. 2 Corinthians 1:11 refers to the

part all the saints had in the power of deliverance that was

with him. It is a remarkable expression, “e gift bestowed

upon us through the prayers of many persons.” is was at

Ephesus.

e country called Asia in Scripture is proconsular Asia,

the southwestern corner of Asia Minor. I do not know that

all Icaria was taken in. en above that was Bithynia, and

Cappadocia, and Galatia, and Armenia, and so on. I do

not know that it was quite down to the sea in the south,

but near the southwestern corner. I would take in Lydia

too. When he says, “All they that be in Asia,” that is the

portion spoken of. Ephesus was a great center then, where

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432

was the temple of Artemis or Diana, “that all the world

worshipped,” one of the seven wonders of the world.

As to the general use of the Greek word in verse 4,

“encouragement” is better than “comfort”; but it is the

word for “exhort, and comfort, and encourage”: it means to

stir up our hearts.

“e suerings of Christ abound in us” (2 Cor. 1:5)

means suerings the same in character; as in Colossians

he says, “I ll up that which is behind of the suerings of

Christ.” e Head had suered, and Paul was suering too

for the elect’s sake, and doing so in the sphere that was

given him. And you can see by their prayers they were all

interested in what Paul had from God; they enjoyed it too,

though the thing was bestowed upon him: just as we do

now when praying for a brother in his labor. “Filling up

that which is behind” signies that there was more to be

done. e Head had done His part, of course: Paul’s was

not atonement. I think this was conned to the Apostle

Paul. Peter and the rest never suered for the church,

though they suered for Christ’s sake, but Paul suered

from the Jews, which Peter never did. Paul was a minister

of the gospel to the whole creation which is under heaven,

and a minister of the church to complete the word of God;

and this is not said of anybody else, it is Paul especially. I

do not say that we ought not to suer, for we ought; but a

dispensation was committed to Paul, and we could not say

this. We may have our share in the privilege, as some great

banker takes up a large loan, and other people take up bits

of it. All that take under him have their share.

e gift bestowed in verse 11 was his life spared, though

I do not doubt it was all that he had as an apostle included.

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

433

en Paul gives what I was saying about his journey

round the Aegean sea. “In this condence I was minded

to come unto you before, that you might have a second

benet, and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come

again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought

on my way toward Judea” (2 Cor. 1:15-16). Paul thought to

have gone up the west side of the Aegean to Macedonia,

and then to have come down the west side again, whereas

he did not do so, but came down the east side of the

Archipelago again. He says it was to spare them that he did

not go to Corinth; if he had gone, it must have been “with

a rod.” But when Titus came, he heard it was all right, or

at least in the main. Now here we have an instance of what

we see in Paul: the instant he touches a certain string, o

he goes on that string. His mind was so full of Christ, that,

if he touches that, he goes away into it all; it is so here.

He mentions Christ, and away he is into a whole range

of truth in Him. is would not, however, have been so

appropriate in the rst epistle. “Our word,” he says, “was

not yea and nay; for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was

preached among you by us was not yea and nay, but yea is

in him; for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in

him amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. 1:19-20).

Paul says it was not lightness, nor was it uncertainty,

but it was to spare them he came not as yet unto Corinth,

and he wrote to them instead of going. He says, “not yea

and nay,” not changing, not the lightness of a mere foolish

human mind. In 1 Corinthians 16:5 he says, “I will come

unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia”; this was

that they might have a second benet and in verse 7 he

adds, “for I will not see you now by the way,” only he did not

tell them why just then. He had intended to go by Corinth

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434

into Macedonia, and come back again by them, but he says,

I will not do that now, so he says in 1 Corinthians 16. He

had intended, and then did not go. And here he asks, “Did

I use lightness?” No, it was another thing.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20 “the promises” are all made to

Christ, and not directly to the church. ere are promises

by the way, such as, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake

thee” (Heb. 13:5); but all the promises in chief are to

Christ. ere never was a promise to a man, that is, a sinner,

because the rst thing that was said for faith to hang upon

was a judgment passed upon the serpent; but it was Christ

(the Seed of the woman) who was to bruise the serpent’s

head. ere was no promise to fallen Adam, and had he

been unfallen, he would not have wanted a promise. It was

a revelation of the last Adam to which his faith could cling,

but it was no promise to himself. In judging the serpent

God says, “ou shalt bruise his heel” (the heel of the

woman’s Seed); but “the Seed of the woman shall bruise

thy head.” e Seed of the woman is Christ, not Adam.

e promise in Christ, in Ephesians 3, is everything that

God has promised, eternal life, and especially the Spirit,

“that ye might receive the promise Of the Spirit through

faith.” And then everything else is thus involved in Christ.

Promise is an abstract idea, which takes a form as may be

needed — bruising the serpent’s head; promise of eternal

life given is in Christ Jesus before the world began, and

so on. ere is no promise to the Gentiles. ere is a

revelation made to the Gentiles about them, as, “Rejoice,

ye Gentiles, with his people”; or, “e promise is unto you

and your children, and to them that are afar o, even as

many as the Lord our God shall call”: but all is in Christ.

ere is to the ten tribes; and many statements are made

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

435

about them in the abundance of revelation. “Afar o,” both

in Acts and Ephesians 2, leaves it open. e apostle seizes

the word “whosoever” in Acts 2, and gives it to Gentiles,

or anybody else. He often takes up a word, and gives it a

larger application than it had originally. e apostle does

not himself apply it to the Gentiles in Acts 2, but, while

it is quite true that Peter had the Jews and the ten tribes

in his mind then, yet in the mind of the Spirit of God it

embraces Gentiles also.

In Galatians the promises to Abraham were to Christ

and to Christ only: that is the whole of the apostle’s

argument. ere were two classes of promises and all go

with Abraham. Abraham is the beginning of promise. If

we go back a little, there were no dealings of God before

the ood. He turned man out of the garden, if that can be

called a dealing, but nothing between that and the ood.

en when God brings in the new world, in Noah He

brings in government to restrain man; there is the power

of the sword. After this, that it might be understood all

was pure grace, God begins with promise. In the ood

judgment came in; and thereupon the devil comes in and

says, I govern the world, and men take up their idols. Well,

God divided the world into nations and Abraham becomes

the root of God’s ways, and we nd promises, election, and

calling.

Abraham is the root of the olive tree: the promises are

given to him; he is the elect and called one. And God gives

the principle of all divine life, faith. Notice that, because

people say, Had not God Himself settled all these things

already? I say, Yes, because when He settled them, He called

me out of them, to go out by faith: “Get thee out of thy

country, and from thy kindred and from thy fathers, unto a

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436

land that I will show thee” — I had formed this world into

nations, it has gone to idolatry and taken the devil for its

god, and now you must come out and belong to Me. Well,

he left his country and kindred, but not his father’s house,

and therefore he did not get to Canaan then, but after his

father’s death he went to Canaan. And Abraham was the

rst person who was the head of a family; Adam was the

head of an evil race, man. We nd plenty of saints, but no

heads; but Abraham was to be father of the faithful. And

it is then that God calls out this distinct person to be a

stranger and sojourner.

ere were two classes of promises; that a great nation

should spring from him and his seed, to be as the stars

of heaven (that is not “thy seed,” or one). But in Genesis

12, God says, “in thee shall all the families of the earth

be blessed,” that is not Israel. en we nd that promise

conrmed in Genesis 22. It is never said, “to thee” and thy

seed, “to Abraham,” but” in thee.” But when Isaac had been

oered up and been received in resurrection, then he says in

Galatians, “to Abraham and to his seed were the promises

made.” Genesis 12 gave it to Abraham, and Genesis 22

conrmed it to the Seed. e promise is made to Abraham

personally in Genesis 12, and conrmed to the seed, Isaac,

in Genesis 22, and that is a gure in which Christ had died

and risen. at was conrmed to Christ (but not in Christ),

and the law which came later on could not disannul or add

to it. Hence therefore you cannot bring in the law now; law

cannot be tacked on to promise. en you see there was

only one Seed, and that is Christ, and then he adds, If I am

in Christ, I have the promise. at is the way he brings the

Gentile in. e Jews were the natural seed, but he says, the

promise of the blessing was to the one person, Christ. Very

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

437

well, I am in Christ, then I have the promise; “If ye be in

Christ, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to

promise” (Gal. 3:29).

It is not a promise to the Gentiles, but one conrmed

to Christ and then to the Gentiles in Christ, through the

Spirit. Genesis 15 is specic to the Jews, and in Genesis

22 is promise to the seed. e stars of heaven are the Jews

only, as Moses says, “Behold ye are this day as the stars of

heaven for multitude” (Deut. 1:10). It is a great thing to see

what the Lord is pointing out in a passage. And He takes

two illustrations of a great number — what we see in the

heavens, and what lies on the seashore.

Some people think that the law was added to recover

Israel afterward. But this was not a thought common to

Paul. What he says is, You cannot add the law. And we nd

another thing (which is what such would say still more);

that is, they add grace to the law, and try to get out that

way. is is exactly what they had at Sinai; they broke the

law then and there, and God spared them by grace and

put them back under law. e rst time Moses went up

the mount, he did not put a covering over his face, and it

is then he nds the people round the calf, and that they

had broken the law fundamentally before they had it, that

is, before they had it in full; though they had undertaken

to be obedient to the Lord, they had gone aside from Him

already. Still God spares them in His government, and in

answer to Moses says, “Whosoever hath sinned against me,

him will I blot out of my book” (Ex 32:33); but He brings

them back under law, and it was the ministration of death

and condemnation mingled with forbearance, which is not

absolute law, but law mixed with grace.

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438

e rst time the law was given on the tables of stone,

it never reached them at all. Moses broke them. You could

not put the law by the side of the golden calf. Moses did not

know what to do with the tables. He had not asked God

about it, at least I always thought so, it was his righteous

indignation. “And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh

unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing, and

Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his

hands, and brake them beneath the mount” (Ex. 32:19).

God could not break His law, of course, but man could

not have it. ey never did have pure law, therefore; but

when he went up the second time, God shows Himself

in His proclamation before him: “e Lord God, merciful

and gracious, and longsuering” (Ex. 34:6, and the people

who were spared are put back under law, though grace

accompanies its application to them.

Moses put the veil on whenever he came out: that was

to keep the glory on. ere is no veil on the glory now;

the glory could not come out then, for glory with law is

death and condemnation. Now, the veil is entirely o in

Christ, because the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,

after He has been on the cross, is the proof of salvation.

And therefore now I can look at it and be changed into

the same image. e veil is o the glory and on their

hearts — Israel’s — and not on the glory; but when it shall

turn to the Lord, the veil that is on their heart shall go

also. All the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, is

promised, everything about Christ that was told in the

Old Testament; but there is added here another thing, it

is only through the Holy Ghost. “All the promises of God

in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God

by us. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ,

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

439

and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us and

given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor. 1:20-

22). at brings in an immense element. In Exodus 24 the

covenant was sanctioned by death; if it is law, it is death and

condemnation; if characterized by death, it is salvation. e

blood was to conrm the covenant; but if it is a covenant

of law, it conrms it to condemn me: if it is a covenant of

grace it conrms it to save me.

Well, all these promises of God are yea and amen, to

God’s glory; but it is “by us”; we are brought in, and then

He shows how it is. “He which establisheth us with you

in Christ and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also

sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”

(2 Cor. 1:21-22). It is this security we get established in

Christ by God who seals us with the Spirit. e sealing is

an additional thing which is by the anointing. “Unction”

is the same as “anointing”; it is exceedingly beautiful, and

an additional instance of the way in which Christ has

associated us with Himself. It is Christ’s own anointing

is the testimony to our being baptized by the Holy Ghost:

“Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and

remaining on him, the same is he which baptiseth with the

Holy Spirit; and I saw and bare record that this is the Son

of God.” e way that we get the Holy Spirit brought into

us is that Christ received it. He is the Lamb of God that

takes away sin; and the other element in John’s testimony

to Him is, that He baptized with the Holy Spirit.

ere is another thing to be remembered here: Christ

received the Holy Spirit, consequent upon His work being

nished. “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 hear and

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440

see.” Christ being perfect, God puts His seal upon Him:

“Jesus of Nazareth anointed with the Holy Ghost and with

power.” en comes in redemption, and consequent upon

that He receives of the Father the Holy Spirit for us. is

makes it a heavenly thing for us, for it unites us with Him

while He is there, and that is the reason we have assurance.

Christ is gone, and the question is, “Is His blood accepted?”

e Jews cannot tell this till He come out; but we do not

wait for that, because the Holy Spirit has come out, and

having come He unites me with Christ who is there. We

have a gure of it in Leviticus 9 Moses and Aaron went in,

and came out and blessed the people, and so God testied

His acceptance of the sacrice. But we do not wait for that.

While Christ has gone in as a heavenly Lord, the Holy

Spirit has come out, Christ gone up on high receives the

promise of the Father and sends Him down. God puts us

into Christ, and gives the Holy Spirit, and the consciousness

of being in Christ, and that is the sealing. And I have the

earnest of the Spirit in my heart, which, to complete it,

means that I am going to have the glory.

Baptism of the Spirit and anointing agree in substance,

except that one thinks of anointing as more of active

continuance. Sealing and anointing are coincident again

in a sense, but that sealing is personal, and anointing has a

more general bearing. When anointed I can say God has

put His seal upon me for the day of redemption. And there

is more; for not only does the Holy Spirit seal me and give

me title, but He is the earnest of the inheritance too, and

in me as such. Sealing is prominent among us, because we

want security, and to be sure of it, and we have that by this

one fact, that the Holy Spirit is given to us in this way,

consequent upon Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God.

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

441

In the Old Testament the leper was washed with water,

sprinkled with blood, and anointed with oil. In the case

of the priests, the oil and the blood were mingled. It was

put on the tip of the right ear, and thumb of right hand,

and great toe of right foot. e blood of Christ is applied

to all our thoughts, acts, and walk; and then the anointing

oil follows, the Spirit to sanctify all my thoughts, acts and

walk; and then beside the oil was poured on his head, the

whole man as such anointed.

e sprinkling of the blood in 1 Peter 1:2 is used

with reference to salvation. ere is never re-sprinkling

of the blood. ere is the sprinkling of the blood of the

covenant (the covenant sealed), and the leper sprinkled,

and the priest sprinkled; but there is no re-sprinkling. In

Numbers 19 when a man had to be restored, the ashes were

put into running water, and then he was sprinkled with

it. e Spirit of God brought to remembrance what the

blood had done in putting away sin long ago. For a ground

of communion, the blood was always there before God,

seven times sprinkled. e ashes were brought, to say, Sin

was dealt with long ago: how came you to dele yourself,

forgetting that you were purged? Leviticus is the book of

the oerings, but we have this in Numbers as it applied to

our path and journeyings.

In “sanctication of the Spirit unto obedience and

sprinkling of the blood” (1 Pet. 1:2), we are sanctied to

the obedience and blood-sprinkling of Christ; and Christ’s

obedience is not what we are apt to think of as obedience,

but in its nature quite dierent from legal obedience,

because the law of God meets a will of mine and says, You

must not do this or that. But Christ says, “Lo, I come to do

thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:9). And in Christ’s obedience

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442

the will of the Father was His motive. Suppose my child

was anxious to run out and see the judges come in, and

I say, Sit down and do your lesson; and he then does so

cheerfully. is is all well, but Christ never obeyed in that

way. He had no will of His own to be rst stopped. I have

a will, and it is obedience, when it is checked, to stop. e

only apparent case of anything of the kind in Christ was

when wrath was coming in, and in itself He could not

desire that; yet He adds, “not my will but thine be done”

(Luke 22:42). In ourselves we never ought to do anything,

except because it is positively God’s will. In the passage,

the object is put rst, and the blood sprinkling next.

“Sanctify and cleanse it,” in Ephesians 5:26, is when

evil has come in, you must have it judged; you must have

cleansing then. Christ was sanctied, He set Himself

apart; but Adam had not thought of that in the garden. It

is absolute as regards the person, and progressive as regards

the state. e moment I have a new nature, I am absolutely

set apart to God. In Ephesians the order of it is as if I were

to say, “he cured me of that fault, having beaten me.”

“Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy

Ghost” (Acts 2:33) means having received it for us. Christ

received the Holy Spirit a second time. It was anointing

in glory. e baptism of the Holy Spirit took place at

Pentecost; then in Acts 11 it is only an analogy to show

that God would have the Gentiles as well as the Jews: nor

do you get baptism spoken of there. ey do not say in

Acts 19, “we have not heard whether there is any Holy

Ghost”: for every Jew knew that; but it is “whether the

Holy Ghost yet is,” pointing to a coming of the Spirit, the

time of which they were ignorant.

Notes on 2 Corinthians 1

443

e Spirit Himself is the earnest, the pledge of the

possession. Sealing is the act of giving the Spirit. I put a seal

on a document, and that is the same idea. e anointing

was putting oil on a man’s head, and it is the general fact

that the oil is put there, but the sealing is the eect on the

individual. If I say at a coronation, “e queen is anointed,”

it is a simple fact, but that fact secures her there as queen.

e anointing is a great deal more than the sealing.

John says, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One,

and know all things” (1 John 2:20) and yet he is going

on teaching them still. e babe in Christ, having this

anointing, knows his security, but that does not hinder

the apostle from teaching him all the while. e promises

of God are in Christ to God’s glory, and “by us,” and the

way they are by us is that God has xed us rm in Christ,

and has also given us the anointing, and has sealed us; and

this same Holy Spirit, who is the seal, is the earnest of

the things I am sealed for. e earnest shows the present

relationship settled, and gives the enjoyment of God’s love,

and I know my relationship with the Father as a child; but

I have not an atom of the inheritance, only the earnest yet.

e Holy Spirit will never leave the heirs. We have a

testimony that we shall not lose the Holy Spirit in Acts

1 where it says that through the Holy Spirit Christ gave

commandments to His apostles, after His resurrection. He

had not lost the Holy Spirit as a man by rising; and that

brought me to a very blessed and happy thought, because

now it is something like the steam in an engine, where half

the force is lost in making the engine go, but when I get

to heaven there will be no such diculty to contend with.

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444

62961

Notes on 2 Corinthians 2

Chapter 2

To return to our chapter: now Paul tells them to restore

the poor man dealt with in the rst epistle. He says, “I

determined this with myself that I would not come again

to you in heaviness; for if I make you sorry, who is he then

that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by

me?” and so on. He takes the greatest pains in linking up

the Corinthians with his own heart (2 Cor. 2:3-5). “But if

any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part

all of you, that I may not overcharge you”: because if he had

said, You are all bad, this would overcharge them, for he

saw that they were grieved as well as himself. In not having

dominion over their faith, he wanted them, with himself, to

act in restoration; “Forgive him and comfort him, lest such

an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.”

“I wrote,” in verse 3, refers to the rst epistle, and so in

verse 9, I have no doubt. I do not believe much of what

they say in these modern times about aorists. I think it

is nonsense the way they have attempted to connect the

English and Greek tenses. Verse 6 does not imply that

they were not unanimous, it should read “the many.” He

was afraid about some at the end of the epistle, that they

had not repented properly themselves; those that did not

repent he would have treated as the man himself. If all are

not agreed in matters of discipline, they must wait, not

as allowing evil; but if they wait, their way will be made

clear, or else there is not power enough to set things right.

e eect of spiritual power is to make all those who are

Notes on 2 Corinthians 2

445

spiritual act together against the evil. e Greek word for

many in verse 6 does not give countenance to a majority

acting. e eect of the Spirit of God there is to give God’s

view of the case, and to put out the disobedient with those

who go with the disobedience. He tells them lower down,

“Ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

ere is little power among us to restore, because there

is want of spirituality and of that love which cares for the

members of Christ. ere is righteousness, and evil is not

allowed. I have not observed any particular defect as to that,

but I think the failure is the want of love to the members

of Christ and looking after such. e eect at Corinth is

given in 2 Corinthians 7:11: “For behold this self-same

thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness

it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea, what

indignation, yea, what fear, yea what vehement desire, yea

what zeal, yea what revenge! In all things ye have approved

yourselves to be clear in this matter.” And when that was

so, then he is anxious they should care for this man. He has

been down himself, but he was a member of Christ and

washed in His blood, and they are to take care of him. If

the body of Christ and the love of Christ were there, the

person, if a Christian, would be miserable until he were

received in again.

In this case it was a man broken down with overmuch

sorrow. ere is no restoration properly, and they were in

no state to restore until they hated themselves for their own

part in all this. And it is so with us all as principle, though

we may have a clearer judgment than another as to how to

act. I have no gift myself, I avow, in discipline. I see another

thing, that where the general state of any gathering is weak,

a person may be left out as a proof of their weakness; for if

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446

there were more spiritual power, he would be humbled and

brought in. At Corinth Paul had no occasion to write this,

until the man were broken down about it himself; nor is it

any good to attempt to restore a man until his own soul is

really restored. And as to putting out, that may be done as

mere bold righteousness. is man, when Paul writes this,

was grieving over his sin, and you may say restored in soul,

but he was not ocially restored. To know when a soul is

restored requires spiritual power. Peter bows to the rebuke

of the Lord, but he does not say, “I love thee more than

anybody else.”

What we need to do is to take the sin of another upon

ourselves (like the priest eating the sin-oering). If there

were power, though we cannot always hinder sins, yet

they would be checked. e Corinthians would not act as

priests until Paul forced them to it. e assembly should

make the sin their own before God; and that is where

I have seen a real pastor: wherever there was an evil, he

would lay it on himself, because he had not looked after

such an one enough, or else not rightly. “Lest Satan should

get an advantage of us” means that Satan was trying to

make a division between the Corinthians and the apostle.

Paul himself had been sorry he had written his rst letter,

and that though it was an inspired one; his own heart had

got below its level. It is beautiful to see him urging both

righteousness and grace; and in the end Satan did not get

an advantage — they were of one mind in the Lord. “In

the person of Christ “means as if He were there to do it

with authority. It is not limited merely to “in the sight of

Christ.”

We see what exercise of heart it had been to Paul: he

came to Troas, and was so full of care for them, that when

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447

he did not nd Titus there from them, he could not stay,

but goes on to Macedonia to meet him. And another thing,

he is able to thank God for it all, “which always leadeth

us about in triumph in Christ.” He might have said, “If

I had had but a little more faith, I might have stayed at

Troas, and preached the gospel there,” but he comforts

himself that he is led about in triumph everywhere. It is the

thought of captives led in a triumphal procession; He was

Christ’s prisoner. He was feeling about the saints, having

left Troas when an open door was there. “Well, God leads

me about in triumph wherever I go.” We see a heart that

has been beaten about, and it is over-full here. It is deeply

instructive, and beautiful too. “A sweet-savor in them that

perish” is an allusion to an old practice after victories, of

burning incense to the gods, and then sometimes they

killed some of the people. e gospel was a sweet savor

anyway, but it was for death if it were rejected.

If a person preaches, and sees no results, it may be the

Lord exercising his faith and patience, especially if he thinks

he has a kind of right to convert everybody. Sometimes a

person may have a gift, but he does not go to the right

place — goes where the door is shut, instead of open. When

the Moravians rst went out to Greenland, they were there

thirteen years without a soul; they were arranging to go

away, but thought they would try one year more, and then,

as they were reading the account of Christ’s suerings,

some one came and listened, and said, “Read those words

again,” and it resulted in his conversion, the truth burst

out, and numbers were brought in. You do have to look for

guidance in work; you may be forbidden to preach in Asia,

and be sent to Macedonia instead, and if you follow the

leading, and go to Macedonia, you will get the working of

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God directly. Paul says God makes manifest the savor of

His knowledge by us, for we are unto God a sweet savor of

Christ. He did not distinguish between saints and others,

but “God led me about in triumph, because I do not know

what best to do.” Of course, his was not simply evangelical

work and gift, but he was an apostle and teacher. If a person

is an evangelist, he will be saying, ese poor souls are all

perishing; he must not blame another laborer, or undertake

another’s work — he will take up the work before him in

love to souls. Paul had been at Troas before, going down to

Ephesus. Originally he had the dream there, and was called

over to Macedonia. I do not know if he preached there, but

he had been there. He had stayed at Ephesus, and now he

was going back.

e only way to obtain guidance in work is by living close

to the Lord. We shall not have, “Separate me Barnabas and

Saul” now, but the Lord will send by laying it on one’s heart

to go, and then that may be by circumstances, or otherwise.

I may be led to preach, and nd the way opened up by a

circumstance of some kind; led by an outward thing, like

a horse or a mule, that has no understanding. at is what

people call providences, but it is a bit or a bridle. To what

degree we have the guidance denitely is another question,

but there is such a thing as an entrance here, and a dream

to go there; of course, there was nothing in the word of

God directly telling me to come to Belfast. In the absence

of guidance, do nothing, but be a testimony where you are.

“Preach the gospel to every creature” is a general truth, only

we get guidance in doing it; an open door is guidance in

itself, in a certain sense. If your eye is single, your whole

body will be full of light; and if I do not nd my whole

body full of light, well, I say to myself, “Your eye is not

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449

single,” it is no use to say it is, for it is not. I may nd that

out as one eect of my doubt.

ere may be direct guidance, I cannot call it into

question: when it is given, it is not fanaticism. We get

right impressions by living with Christ. John did not go

and get a place near Christ in order to know His secrets;

but he had a place near Christ, and then the secrets were

given to him. Only you cannot go properly to Christ, as

John, to ask, unless you are living near Him. Only “trust

in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own

understanding” (Prov. 3:5). You must live near the Lord, or

you cannot reckon rightly on being guided. God’s mercy

may come in at any time, but “the secret of the Lord is with

them that fear him.” I should be lled with the knowledge

of His will, and all spiritual understanding.

In 2 Corinthians 2:17 Paul turns back to himself:

“We are not as the many which corrupt the word of God”

(that is, adulterate it, or make a trade of it), it is but to

suit yourself to your customers. Paul might say, “I come

now from God, and I speak in God’s behalf, in the sight of

God.” You cannot have a more simple statement of what

carrying the word of God is. e gospel of God is the good

news God has sent, but the gospel of Christ is more the

subject of the good news. e gospel of the kingdom is the

subject again; it is not the source of the kingdom. To me it

is a very solemn statement about the gospel here.

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Notes on 2 Corinthians 3

Chapter 3

“Do we begin again to commend ourselves?” the apostle

had just said. “We are not as many which corrupt the word

of God”; but later on he ought to be commended by them.

It did look very like commending himself, and yet there

was no need, or ought not to be. It is all beautiful in a way,

for there is a great deal of heart in it. “Ye are our epistle,”

he adds. It is beautifully simple. You are my letter of

recommendation. It shows how careful he was in dealing

with them. It is not like the Epistle to the essalonians,

which is the freshest of all the epistles: a very dierent kind

of feeling runs through it.

“Written in our hearts” still brings in that he loved

them. It is all as if a person said, “Who is this Paul? Where

is his letter of commendation? What kind of a man is he?

He did not come from Jerusalem.” Well, he says, Look at

the Corinthians: that is the kind of man he is. He has been

blessed to all these souls, and, more than that, they are

walking well. And one of the rst things he brings in is, “Ye

are in our hearts,” and he gives a reason, which he could not

give in the rst epistle, “Ye are my epistle, because ye are

Christ’s epistle”; they were a recommendation of Christ.

at is, the saints are Christ’s letter of recommendation to

the world — a great deal to say; and he does not say they

ought to be, but that is the place you are in, to recommend

Christ to the world.

It gives you a statement of what a gathering is — the

epistle of Christ — though it is true of individuals. Ye are

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451

declared to be “written, not with ink, but with the Spirit

of the living God”: that is how it was. “Not in tables of

stone, but in eshy tables of the heart,” Christ engraven by

the Spirit of God on the people’s hearts; that is what the

church is; and that, too, while they were going on so badly.

He would not say, “at is the epistle of Christ,” though it

was true in a sense, but, “Ye are.”

“Not in tables of stone.” is is work written on a man’s

heart within; the law was a claim on a man’s outside. It

is a comparison of opposition; instead of getting claims

from man in esh outside him, it is Christ engraven, in the

power of the Spirit, inside him. e law, written on stone,

is death and condemnation, and Christ, engraven on the

heart, is the ministration of righteousness. God used law to

test esh: “I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not

known lust, except the law had said, ou shalt not covet”

(Rom. 7:7). But to get good, God does not go outside a

man to claim good from what is bad, but God brings a new

nature that produces the good. Man takes up esh, but it is

not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. But,

instead of that, God gives a new nature that delights in

what is holy, and writes Christ in a man’s heart. And this

is what makes them “the epistle.” We have it in another

gure at the end of the chapter, “We are changed into the

same image”; and in the middle of the chapter he states

what does it — “the Spirit giveth life” (vs. 6). Verses 7-16

are a parenthesis. “Now the Lord is that Spirit” (vs. 17).

It says “letter,” instead of “law,” because it is general; if

one take the letter of the gospel, it would kill people. So

Scripture says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” And if

I meet a brother in Germany or France, I always kiss him,

but when I come back to England it seems so dreadfully

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cold; yet the spirit of that instruction is clear, and I can act

on it here as well as in France. e letter always kills. Take a

particular instance: If you brought a particular lamb to the

priest, which had a black spot on it, you brought a curse on

yourself. I have brought a lamb without a spot, and I get

a blessing. e spirit here is the mind of the Holy Spirit

in the letter. If you had the letter which in the main was

the letter of the law, yet the Lord is the spirit even of that,

because, if it say you must have a lamb without blemish, in

Him I have that. ere is often a diculty to distinguish

between the spirit of a Christian and the Spirit of God,

and consequently whether it should have a large or small

S, because the Spirit is so connected with what is put into

our hearts.

“Able ministers” (vs. 6) is qualied or capable. It is one

of the most absolute statements you can nd. It is the

activity of our minds that hinders. God uses the vessel to

act on and in; and that sweeps away human understanding.

It is just in the measure in which we are conscious of being

mere vessels, and put condence in nothing within us, that

we are tted to serve. God works in us to will and to do. It is

not that we are mere pipes to carry something, but He acts

in us and on us, and we have to take care that we give out

purely what we have, taking care rst, of course, what we

take in. What we have to give out is really a revelation — a

revelation that ts in with a certain consciousness in the

human heart that there is a God, and so on; but there is

a certain nature that wants God, a very important thing

in its place, for there are atheists in the world. Well, the

moment we see all this is revelation, it is not our thought.

We never obtain anything, the moment we begin to spin

thoughts out of our minds; all is spoiled then. It is the word

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453

of God we need, and this discerns the thoughts and intents

of the heart. ere we have God’s thoughts brought to us,

just as Christ Himself was sent out from God.

ere are many such scriptures as, “I hate thoughts,

but thy law do I love”; “When his (that is, man’s) breath

goeth forth, they perish.” “e Lord knoweth the thoughts

of man that they are vanity.” In fact, men thinking are

just like a spider spinning a web out of its own body, and

thoughts are of no more worth. It is immensely important

to be clear as to this. He adds, “What hast thou, that thou

didst not receive?” is is very distinct; and again, “not to

think anything as of ourselves.” Of course, if God acts in

my mind, I think; but then they are thoughts He has given

me.

“New testament” (vs. 6) is the “new covenant,” which

we nd also in Jerermiah 31; it is new in contrast with

the old. It is characterized by the forgiveness of sins, and

a man no more teaching his neighbor. en the prophet

says, that they shall no more say, “Know the Lord, for they

shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest

of them.” e two chief points are the knowledge of God

as Jehovah, and the forgiveness of sins. God’s part of that

covenant has been done, and Israel would not take it up:

so we now are getting the blessings of it, without its being

made with us. Our Lord says at the supper, “is is the

new covenant in my blood”; and here Paul calls it the same,

saying he is an able minister of it. How could he minister it

before it was made? e foundation has been laid, and we

have the ministry of it. Christ shed His blood, and then the

grace was proposed to the Jews; but they would not have

it. Peter, in Acts 3, told them Christ would come back if

they would have Him, but they would not. God gives the

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blessings to others, and announces them by His ministers.

But the covenant is not made with anybody. It cannot, in

any sense, be a new covenant with us, because we have no

old one. “is shall be the covenant that I will make with

the house of Israel,” God says. “After those days,” it is said,

He puts His law in their hearts, He forgives their sins,

makes them know Himself: that is the new covenant, and

a very important one too.

We are under no covenant, though we have the blessings

of it (unless you take in a way the covenant conrmed to

Christ). First, there was a covenant made with Israel at

Sinai, on condition of obedience — “If ye obey my voice,”

and they said, “Yes.” Well we know how they failed. Finally

Christ dies, and in dying lays the foundation of a new

covenant which was, “I will put my laws into their hearts,

and in their minds will I write them”; and “eir sins

and their iniquities will I remember no more,” and “ey

shall all know me.” Now that will be made good to them,

but meanwhile we are getting the benets, the ground of

the whole having been laid in the cross of the Lord Jesus

Christ. All the spared Jews will be righteous, but not

necessarily those that are born afterward. As for Gentiles,

they never had a covenant. In Isaiah and Jeremiah “my

people” is Israel, and has nothing to do with Gentiles. e

“blood of the new covenant was shed for many,” which is

not Israel only.

A covenant does not always suppose two parties.

In Galatians it is only one. A covenant means any term

on which God takes me into relation to Himself. e

argument in Galatians is: a mediator is not of one; but God

is one. Now the law was ordained by angels in the hand of

a mediator, and if you have a mediator, you must have two

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455

parties. But here you have only one. So now all depends on

the sovereignty of God only, and therefore it is infallible.

Again, being all of grace, on a foundation of the counsels

of God, it takes the character of an everlasting covenant;

Hebrews 13 Under the old covenant God was testing man,

and that word “old” signies it was ready to vanish away;

then we read of a new covenant — new, because another

was before it; and it is everlasting because, without testing,

it was settled in the counsels of God Himself. David says

clearly enough, “Who hath made an everlasting covenant

with me, ordered in all things and sure,” because it was all of

grace. In Hebrews we read, “We have an altar whereof they

have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle.” Nazarenes

had no right to come to the altar of the Jews, when the

Jews had an altar; and now we have an altar whereof Jews

have no right to eat. It is the simple but thorough contrast

between Judaism and Christianity, the old thing and the

new.

en we have another contrast: death and condemnation

characterized the law in contrast with the gospel, which

is the ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit. It

is the presence of the Holy Spirit, righteousness being

established. e law claimed righteousness and could not

get it; now, I have righteousness made out for me, and

established. A righteousness being established, the Holy

Spirit can come and minister righteousness. In Galatians

it is characterized by the Spirit: “He that ministereth to

you the Spirit,” and so on. Indeed the whole blessing now

is stamped with the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is what

characterizes the thing — the ministration of the gospel. It

is the presence of the Holy Spirit, and divine righteousness,

instead of condemnation and death. e law required

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456

righteousness and no lust. is must be death to a man;

it is so in his natural condition. “When the law came, sin

revived and I died.” e old covenant was conned to the

law. Only the second time it was under half grace. Moses

says, “Blot me out.” “No,” God says, ‘I shall not: everybody

shall answer for himself.’ at is the law in principle; yet

grace is introduced. God tells Moses to lead the people, but

His angel shall go rst. e contrast here is, if that which

is done away took place in glory, much more that which

remains is glorious.

2 Corinthians 3:13 is a very important one, because his

argument runs from that to the word “veil.” It is “that the

children of Israel should not look”; for “could” is not right

either; it is about half-way between. e use of the Greek

word diers: but here in verse 13 it is not “so that they could

not,” nor “that they could not,” but “so that they should not,”

as nearly as one can say it. In the words “look to the end,”

the apostle took the law as so many commandments about

sheep and bullocks, without ever looking beyond. Christ

is really the end of it all. Moses put a veil over his face,

because they could not bear to look at his face. ere is no

veil now; but they were afraid of the glory. e law being

a ministration of death and condemnation, they could not

look at that. If you connect the least glimpse of the glory

of God with the law, then a man cannot look at it; just

as they had before said to Moses when God spake out of

the re, “You go and speak to God for us, lest we die.” e

apostle takes the law absolutely here as law — death and

condemnation; but the way in which it worked in Israel

then was that it hindered their looking to the end of that

which was abolished. So Moses put on the veil in order that

they might not see the glory itself. at was before he went

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457

in to the Lord. e veil was not put on in order to hinder,

but it was put on to the hindrance of their looking. “It

came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai

with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he

came down from the mount that Moses wilt not that the

skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when

Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the

skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh

him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the

rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses

talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel

came nigh and he gave them in commandment all that the

Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And till Moses

had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face”

(Ex. 34:29-33).

e reason they were afraid to look at Moses was because

the glory was there. ey could not look to the end; they did

not know when they oered a sacrice that this was typical

of Christ. e “end” is clearly God’s purpose in it, and this

was what they could not look to. It was a glory which came

requiring righteousness, and this too they could not meet.

In Christ Himself you have the explanation of all these

images of the law. e veil is now done away, but it is on

their (Israel’s) hearts still. When Moses was turned to the

Lord, the veil was taken o, and so it shall be with their

hearts when they are turned to the Lord. “It shall turn” (vs.

16) refers to Israel’s heart when this is turned to the Lord.

ere was no glory the rst time on Moses’ face because he

had not been in such close intercourse with God. e whole

thing is a beautiful picture of grace and law, for Moses was

under grace. God says to him, “ou hast found grace in

my sight” (Ex. 33:17).

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“e Lord is that [the] spirit” (vs. 17), means that the

Lord is the spirit of the Old Testament, I believe: the Lord

was the real spirit of all those ordinances. It is a beautiful

expression to me of what the gospel is in contrast to law.

us the glory itself is the proof that I am saved.

“As in a glass” (vs. 18) is better left out; “we all with open

face, looking on the glory of the Lord.” ere is no veil now

on the glory of Christ, nor is there on our hearts when

we believe. ere is no idea of reection in the passage:

the Greek means ‘looking into a mirror’ sometimes, but

not necessarily. I do not like the idea of Christ being a

reection. People talk of our mirroring Christ from this

verse: it is all absurd; how can our mirroring the Lord

change us? I look with perfect liberty, for “where the Spirit

of the Lord is there is liberty,” and I see (I do not mirror)

“the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” and the eect

of seeing is that I am “changed into the same image from

glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” e reason

is plain. If the law looks for righteousness in man, man has

it not, and so is afraid of the glory; the moment there is the

least glory shown out, man shrinks from it. But now the

glory of God is shown in the face of Jesus Christ, and what

is that from? It is the eect of His having gloried God,

and therefore God has gloried Him, and every ray of that

glory is the proof that my sins are gone. “From glory to

glory” means that I make progress. “Changed” is the same

word as “transformed” in the Gospels.

“Into the same image” is a strong expression. If I have

a good picture of a man, I say, “It is his very image.” And

such is the intended eect of this looking at the glory. We

see it in Stephen when he is stoned, as he looks up and

sees the glory of God and Jesus. Christ had said, “Father,

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459

forgive them, for they know not what they do”; and the

view of Jesus in the glory of God draws from Stephen

the prayer, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts

7:60). And again, on the cross Christ says, “Father, into

thy hands I commend my spirit”; and Stephen says, “Lord

Jesus, receive my spirit.” He is changed into Christ’s image.

He did not say, “for they know not what they do,” for this

would not be true then.

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62963

Notes on 2 Corinthians 4

Chapter 4

Paul comes now to the ministration of it. He says “we

faint not.” We are right out in the light. But then there is

another thing, and that is — he explains how he gives out

the word of God as purely as he took it in; he did not handle

it deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commended

himself “to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

e consequence is, there is no veil, and not only no veil on

the face of Jesus Christ, but Paul put no veil on by want of

faithfulness on his part; so that really, if any were lost, it was

not through any fault of Paul’s. e veil, if any, would be one

on their own hearts. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them

that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the

eyes of them that believe not.” “Are lost” is characteristic. It

has nothing to do with time at all; it is “the ones that perish.”

ere is no veil on the glory, and if my gospel comes out in

all its glory, the devil has put a veil on the hearts of them

that believe not. is would be true now if the gospel was

preached as clearly and powerfully as Paul did.

A man now, if he does not actually refuse a message, may

hear it and be instructed, and come again and again. If it is

actually hid to him, it is all over. I can say that of the thing

I preach, but not of my own preaching. I should say just as

much of what I preach that, if a soul does not believe, he

will be condemned. ere is a dierence, of course, between

coming and hearing, and positively rejecting.

“e manifestation of the truth” is here in connection

with the word of God. I have no doubt Paul did it

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461

practically too. ere is another thing in the preaching

that makes a dierence; there was then a great deal

more preaching of the person of the Lord and less about

being saved than there is now. I do not mean that there is

anything wrong now, but there was a claim put in by God

to submission by men to this Son of God; and if that claim

were rejected, there was no hope for them. It was not the cry

to “poor sinners” (they were that of course), but it was “Here

is Christ: now submit to Him.” And if they said, “We will

not bow,” it was all over.

I think the more we get back to the old manner of

preaching the better, especially as in Acts — preaching

Jesus and the resurrection, though all the world now

acknowledges Christ risen from the dead. I am satised, the

more we insist on the fact, the more real power there would

be to set people free. I know we are so accustomed to these

things that they have lost their edge; but suppose I were to

say to Jews, “ere is a man in the glory of God,” they would

stop their ears and stone me. Ask anyone, “Do you believe

there is a man at the right hand of God, because He died

for our sins?” It is the insisting on the fact that is important.

Suppose you were sitting down and talking to some man,

and then found out it was the Son of God! e habit of

hearing is so deadening.

Yet by calling yourselves Christians you already say that

you are in a world that cast out the Son of God.

Well, Paul could say, “not walking in craftiness, nor

handling the word of God deceitfully.” He faithfully

declared his message and that is the rst point we have.

Here is the full glory without a veil; no veil on it at all so

that if it were hidden to any, it would be to such as were

lost, being blinded by the devil. For Paul did not preach

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462

himself, “but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your

servants for Jesus’ sake.” “For God who commanded the

light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts.”

ere we have a very important thing in the character of

the gospel compared with the prophets, for even in the

communication the Holy Spirit shines into Paul’s heart and

gives him the sense of the value of all this for himself rst,

but also in such a way that he would give it out to others.

He says, “when it pleased God, who separated me from

my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his

Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen,

immediately I conferred not with esh and blood” (Gal.

1:15-16) and so on. We nd there a revelation of Christ to

himself, and for himself, but he was also to give it out, just as

here “God shined into our hearts,” not “to give” exactly, but

for the shining out of the knowledge of the glory of God in

the face of Jesus Christ.

ere is more power when I say in me, than to me, and

it was in him, for his own soul as well as for others. In John

7:58 a man comes to Christ and drinks and then “out of his

belly shall ow rivers of living water.” e man does not

thirst for rivers, but he thirsts to drink, and the draft taken

becomes rivers. “In me” in the passage from Galatians does

not refer to the church, but to God’s Son. In the Acts you

nd Paul preached that Jesus was the Son of God, and this

is what Peter never did. We meet with all sorts of notions

of that kind if you look for them, such as that Paul did not

know anything about the church until he was in prison at

Rome. e old Latin quotation is to the point, “He reads

scripture well who brings back a meaning from it instead of

carrying one to it.”

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463

We now come to the instrument; we have had already

the fact of the ministry. “We preach not ourselves but

Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’

sake; 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.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels”; the treasure

and the instrument. God caused the “light to shine out of

darkness” (vs. 6). God did so in Gen. 1 He who did the one,

now does the other. Saul was in this darkness, and God said,

as it were, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Not that

in Genesis it was the beginning of light, as I believe, but

still so God says to Saul’s heart. In Genesis it says “darkness

was upon the face of the deep”; it does not say that darkness

was everywhere. e face of the deep was without form and

void, it was chaos; there it was all dark, and God said, “Let

there be light, and it was light.” Scripture does not tell us

when God made the light, though “all things were made

by him, and without him was not anything made that was

made” (John 1:3); whatever it was He created it.

All geology is left in the background when you see the

dierence between the rst and second verses of Genesis

e rst gives us, that the things that were made “were not

made of things that do appear” — “in the beginning”: there

it was. “And the earth was without form and void”; it was all

chaos and darkness. And then He makes this earth as we

have it. And, just as by His own at and power God made

the light, so He acted in Paul’s heart. Universal creation is in

verse 1. en follows specic forming of this world which

had fallen into a state of chaos — Scripture does not say

how — and of darkness. In verse 3 He begins this form of

earth which we have now, with shes, animals, and so on.

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All that we nd in the chapter is this earth as we have it

now, except in verse the fact of universal creation by God.

Verse 3 resembles God’s dealings with a soul to bring it out

of darkness as a general idea, but I could not take it in detail.

It looks as if all creation were made in analogy with spiritual

things; trees as kings and empires; and grass for people, and

so on; but I could not take it more in detail, and it is only an

image: there is no doctrine as to it.

ere might have been millions and millions of years

between those two verses. In Genesis 1:1-2, I suppose

geological times all came in there. Philosophers, who have

examined the matter most accurately, have made twenty-six

or twenty-seven catastrophes occur, and give the dierence

by the strata containing various shells and other fossils.

But all that, if so, would come between those two verses,

there is plenty of room for it all. For my part I do not believe

ninetenths of what they say about time. For instance, one

of the greatest indels in London made borings in the

Nile and brought up a piece of burnt brick, from a depth

of twenty-eight feet, proving that man’s hand had formed

the brick, and by this he made out that so many thousands

of years had elapsed since it was deposited, long before the

time of Adam. But there were no burnt bricks in Egypt till

the time of the Romans, and when told so of course he had

not a word to say. And you constantly nd such things.

“Hath shined in our hearts to shine out.” e light is put

in a vessel that it may shine out. Paul was in open enmity

at the time, but it was the revelation of the glory of the

Lord to him — “shined into our hearts.” In verses 4-6 it is

Christ’s person that is presented, and in a certain sense that

is as high as you can go. Paul’s gospel here is conned to

that, but I do not say that is everything, for at the end of

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465

chapter 5 we have more, “God reconciling,” and so on. But

here he is speaking of the glory; and redemption was not

accomplished and brought down to man until Christ went

into the glory. It is clear that no man can eat bread come

down from heaven, unless as he eats the esh and blood

in that way: “except ye eat the esh of the Son of man and

drink his blood ye have no life in you” (John 6:53); but when

we know that — here “eaten” — all His life becomes the very

thing that takes possession of our aections.

He was the invisible God; His coming down was the

testimony of love, and there I see God in another character.

It was not God sitting in righteousness and holiness, for

that was law, but God come down in love. True, that was

of no avail, because of man’s wickedness and therefore Paul

goes on “we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God

did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye

reconciled to God 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” (2 Cor. 5:21). at is, we have Him on the cross

for the embassy; but when I have the embassy I say “God

was in Christ reconciling”; that is the message.

In John 17 there are two glories, so to speak; the glory

as God and the glory as Man, and it is the latter He gives to

us. In John you will always nd Christ’s oneness with the

Father and yet He receives everything, and so it is He says,

“Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which

I had with thee before the world was.” It is a glorious thing

being God and being one with the Father; but then, all that

He has as man we have. ere is His unity with the Father,

and we cannot have that; but as it is displayed in man, we

have it all. He goes up on high into the glory He had with

the Father before the world was; He will come again and we

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shall see Him as He is. I do not believe the world will ever

see Him as He is; esh and blood would be struck down

blind if they were, as Paul was.

e treasure is the light of the knowledge of the love of

God; and it is in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the

power may be of God and not of us. He puts this amazing

glory in the vessel in order that all the power may be of God.

ere is no tness between the vessel and the thing that

is put into it, and there you will nd God and the vessel

both brought in. “We are troubled on every side,” that is the

vessel; “yet not distressed,” because God was there; “we are

perplexed,” see no way out; “but not in despair,” for there

was a way out after all, for God was there; “persecuted, but

not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” e vessel is all

broken and dealt with, but still God is there all the while.

Into such an earthen vessel all this glory is put, and so in

that sense we can now rejoice in the hope of the glory of

God. e vessel is made nothing of, but it is sustained by

another power, which is neither the treasure nor the vessel,

and so the man is dependent.

en you come to the way the vessel is dealt with.

A thing with a will is not a vessel: a person is acting for

himself if he has a will; he must not think or will anything

for himself, and therefore it says, “Always bearing about in

the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.” at is obedience,

of course. Christ was obedient unto death; that is not a

man’s will, and I am always to bear about in my body His

dying; that is, Christ’s dying or being put to death. ere are

two Greek words used in verses 10 and 11, for “dying” and

“death.” e rst is the fact of death, just the matter of fact,

and the other is rather the moral character of it, or includes

that here. e fact in Christ becomes the moral character of

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467

us. As we have it in Peter, “Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath

suered for us in the esh, arm yourselves likewise with the

same mind.” Christ did actually die, and Peter had just been

speaking to them not to suer for evil doing, but, if it were

God’s will, for well doing. Christ had once suered for sins:

arm yourselves, therefore, with the same mind. is would

be carrying about the dying Christ had died; and this dying

of Christ I apply to myself, so that the body never stirs, and

the will of the body never moves.

We have, then, these two things: rst, Paul, as a faithful

man, never allows the vessel to have, for one instant, a will

or a thought of its own. Just as much as Christ died, and

completely died, so Paul was carrying this about constantly,

and says, “Now you are as dead as Christ was.” And, though

Paul was very faithful in that, the Lord helped him by

sending him through circumstances, so that he despaired

of his life. It was not a chastening, but he was having the

sentence of death written in himself. He held himself

practically for a dead man, and the Lord says, “Well, now I

must bring death right on to you, and so you will be a dead

man.” In his case, it was making it good by the trials he went

through, and with this object, that nothing but the life of

Christ could come out. e Lord says, “I must make this

thorough, that he may realize it fully in himself”; and then

Paul sums it up by saying, “So then, death worketh in us,

but life in you”; that is, Paul was so entirely a dead man, that

nothing but the life of Christ wrought in him towards the

Corinthians. Wonderful description! If the vessel thinks or

acts, it is spoiled. ere is the glory of God in the face of

Jesus Christ to come out, and if the vessel is anything, by

so much the light is hindered; but if the vessel is kept dead,

nothing but the life of Christ is there to come out. It ought

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468

to have been the same in them as in himself, but it was not;

of them he says, “life in you.” Death was working in him,

and so nothing but Christ’s life worked out in them. Death

and life are both taken morally in this verse.

Read verses 10-12. ere would be no “so then,” if it

had been death in the Corinthians already. ere was

nothing but the vessel seen. It is a wonderful thing to say

for anybody, but it is said of Paul. It did work among them,

but it was in them. What was it that wrought that way

but the power of the life of Christ in Paul, to eect all this

humiliation in them. ey had all the engraving of Christ

in their hearts, but it was all lled up with mud, and nobody

could read it; and now the mud was all cleaned out, it could

be read. e treasure was, as we have seen, the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ. It “shined” into Paul’s heart. But

the vessel is in danger of working, and so he applies Christ’s

death to the vessel, and then there is nothing but Christ’s

death to come out. But it was death to him as a man.

Paul may have been at work as a tentmaker at this time;

he was doing so habitually there. He was very willing to

receive from Philippi, but he would not receive anything

from the Corinthians, because they were fond of their

money. He went on working both at Ephesus and at

Corinth. We know he worked, and we know he read too,

for he asks for his books in the end of Timothy. en, “we

having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I

believe, and therefore I have spoken; we also believe, and

therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord

Jesus shall raise up us, also by Jesus, and shall present us with

you” (vss. 13-14); that is, ‘I do not mind death, I have faith in

my Lord.’

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469

e next verse in Psalm 116 is, “I was greatly aicted; I

said in my haste, All men are liars.” Everybody was against

him, and in the pressure of it he said, “All men are liars.” It

should be, “I said in my anguish or distress,” in the sense of

the pressure upon him; and then it may apply to the Lord;

but, certainly, I should not apply it to Him if it were, “I said

in my haste.” In the Psalms, except in a very few, you must

always rst take the remnant in, but sometimes Christ will

quote a passage which does not at all apply to Himself in its

next clause. us, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit,”

is followed by, “ou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of

truth” (Psa. 31:5), but this would not do. It was necessary

to bring Christ in if any blessing were to be given to the

remnant. We nd the remnant in Psalm 1 and 2 as an

introduction. In Psalm 1 they come with judgment; in

Psalm 2 with the King in Zion, and they are called upon to

trust Him. In some of the Psalms we have direct prophecy

of Christ, but in spirit He is connected with them all.

Verse 13 of our chapter, already quoted, is the great

principle that, though the whole power of the pressure was

upon him, even as to life, yet Paul went on preaching just

the same. He tells the essalonians he was “bold in our

God,” despite what had gone before, “to preach the gospel

of God with much contention.” is is not an authority for

preaching, but it is the going on in spite of the opposition of

man, and it is an encouragement against the opposition of

man.

is chapter is a wonderful picture, for we have the

whole glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and this put

into a vessel, and for all that it is such a thing, that if the

vessel is not absolutely dead, it will so far be spoiled. And

that is not all: there is the positive power of God beside;

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470

you must have the vessel made nothing of, so as not to spoil

the treasure, and then, when you have done that, some other

power must come in and act. It is a wonderful description

of ministry in its sphere and operation in creatures like

us; and, looking death in the face, to continue still. Verses

10-11 have both the same end: only he puts “mortal esh,”

when he is actually delivered to death. e eect of that is,

that Paul becomes a vessel of absolute life to others. All was

for God’s glory, but as its object, it is for the elect’s sake,

the church. “All things are for your sakes, that the abundant

grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to

the glory of God.” ere we have the truth of the church,

that everything was for their sakes — all this even in Paul.

en it had another eect. He says, “For which cause we

faint not, but though our outward man perish, our inward

man is renewed day by day.” ere was a power sustaining

him, and the inward man was renewed. And then he tells

us the bearing of the next world upon him: “Our light

aiction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far

more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” us I am

going to get all the glory, and this practically acts to perfect

the man while he is not looking at the things which are

seen, but at the things that are not seen. e vessel would

be linked with this world, and the new man and the Spirit

are linked with the other. Now he puts all the glory into the

vessel, and the vessel is made nothing of — it goes through

the process of annihilating, and then he nds the result.

Paul’s testimony is wonderfully complete in this chapter,

and its eect in us is carried out in its fullest way.

e dierence between the Old Testament and the New

is this: the Spirit gave them no communion and left them

to “search” what He signied; but whatever He reveals to

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471

me belongs to me, and so “all things are for your sakes”;

only then, Paul laid it by, as it were, and speaks of” what I

have committed unto him against that day” — all his own

happiness for the other world. And now he says, Work away

through this world and get there. is is all applicable to the

saints at large now in their measure. He himself has broken

all links with the present world, and now says, “e life I

live in the esh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” at is

what we should seek to realize in our service; we ought to be

always in immediate contact with Christ, and to bring out

nothing else but according to divine wisdom and guidance

in dealing with others. And it should be recollectively so;

it is not merely in the main that Christ is the object, but

there is another thing, the not being distracted, and also

the having our object recollectively: constantly carrying it

about with you. If, for instance, I am ministering, I should

be consciously ministering direct from Christ to the people.

e apostle expresses it when he says, “Whether we are

beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we are sober, it is

for your cause”; if he was out of sobriety of thinking, it is to

God; or if he was in sobriety, it was for them. It shows what

a serious thing ministry is, blessed indeed, but most serious.

In Philippians, Paul said, “I am in a strait betwixt

two.” To depart was far better, he says, but to stay was at

least more needful for them. “Yet what I shall choose I wot

not.” It is worth my while to live, because I am working for

Christ; and if I go to heaven, I cannot do that. To live is

Christ, and dying is gain, and he does not know which to

choose; it is better for the Philippians he should stay, and so

he says he shall.

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62964

Notes on 2 Corinthians 5

Chapter 5

We have had the subject of ministry, and the vessel for

it, and he has spoken of the far more exceeding and eternal

weight of glory, and now we have the purpose of God as to

the servant, the glory of God by us, and next the way that

all this bears upon the responsible state; and then, lastly,

we have the love of Christ constraining him. We have the

whole scope of this in the new creation, just touching on

Ephesian ground, and then the whole basis of it in Christ

Himself. First, we have the counsels of God in bringing us

to that weight of glory; then he takes it up and contemplates

it on the responsible side; and then comes the love of Christ

constraining him. All link with this world is broken by the

death of Christ; and at the end of chapter 5 the ground and

basis of all that in the gospel of Christ’s death. It is not then

the gospel of the glory; incarnation and death are the two

great facts.

In the opening of the chapter, he says, “we know that if

our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have

a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal

in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to

be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if

so be, that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For

we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened,

not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that

mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Cor. 5:1-4). He

has this death, and now he says the thought of God goes

beyond all that, and I have a “building of God, a house not

Notes on 2 Corinthians 5

473

made with hands”; but I am not tired and weary, wishing to

be unclothed, and done with all the trouble; but what I am

looking for is, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

at is, the power of life comes and swallows me up entirely,

so that all that is mortal is lost in life.

Verse 3 is supposing that these are Christians: there is

no thought about losing the reward. “Naked” is simply what

Adam was before God clothed him. It is quite true that all

those at the’ great while throne are naked of Christ, though

each has got his body; this is not mortality swallowed up of

life, but, on the contrary, it is going into the second death.

Verse 3 brought in the idea of death. I am groaning and

burdened, but then I have seen such power in Christ, that

I am not weary and seeking to get out of it all. See verses

1-5. en from this he begins the responsible side down

to the end of verse 12. Verses 12 and 13 are transitional:

and that introduces to the new creation; but it is not now

responsibility, which is Romans ground. en we have the

love of Christ constrains us, and hence the committing the

ministry of reconciliation to him.

As to the dierence between the gospel of the glory

and the gospel of the humiliation, the latter is pure grace

in God, manifested in Christ here. John’s writings show

God revealing Himself in Christ to man in His life down

here. What we have habitually in Paul is man manifested

in righteousness before God. e gospel of humiliation is

perfect grace; it is God coming down here to man where

he is, visiting him in his condition as such a one on earth.

e gospel of the glory takes this treasure and unfolds it.

In Phililppians 2 we have the whole line from the time

when Christ was in the form of God till He was on the

cross, when, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled

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Himself, and became obedient unto death. ere is the

manifestation of God down here among men as sinners.

Well, I say, here is God come right down to me in love, and

if I cannot trust anybody in the world, I must trust God

now. e woman that was a sinner loved much; she did not

know her sins were forgiven, nor could she have explained it

theologically, but she trusted Christ, and loved much; and

that is the bearing of the humiliation. But in the gospel of

the glory man is looked at as the old man totally set aside,

yet man is in glory in virtue of the complete work that

redeems us and justies us, and gives us a place in the glory.

e glory is the testimony to the ecacy of the work; the

humiliation is the testimony to the greatness of the love. Of

course it is all the same gospel.

I must have faith in Christ as a sacrice. If I do not eat

the esh and blood, I cannot properly eat the bread come

down from heaven, because I must come to God as a sinner.

Death is due to the sinner; regrets will not do. We nd the

women weeping after Christ as He goes to the cross, but He

tells them to go and weep for themselves, for judgment is

coming on them. If I realize that the work of Christ for the

sinner is death, then I can freely look at all the blessedness

of the grace of God and enjoy it.

e gospel is both the gospel of the glory of Christ, and

the gospel of the grace of God. It was grace to put the best

robe on a man, and to bring him into the house. After all it

is not that Christ is in glory merely, but in the riches of His

grace God visits me as a sinner. If one sees a poor vile sinner,

then it would be the riches of the grace that would be made

conspicuous. e person of Christ comes out greatly in all

that; it is not simply, Here is forgiveness for you, but “God

was in Christ reconciling,” and this is His person.

Notes on 2 Corinthians 5

475

en we have another thing. After saying, not for that

we would be unclothed, “but clothed upon, that mortality

might be swallowed up in life,” he says, “now he that

hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.” God has

wrought all us Christians for the house not made with

hands, eternal in the heavens. He has not given it to us yet,

but He has wrought us for it, and given us also the earnest

of the Spirit. We have not it yet; God has wrought us for it

and given us the earnest. is it is that gives me condence.

He calls it “our house,” not my house. us I have two truths

certain. I am wrought for it, and I know it now while here,

for God has given me the Holy Spirit. Now, supposing

death comes: well, it is “I am always condent, knowing

that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from

the Lord,” though” willing rather to be absent from the

body, and to be present with the Lord”: such is the certainty

of being clothed with glory.

en comes in the sad fact of death and judgment; but

by getting Christ in the glory I have all I can possibly need

to meet that — “willing rather” (“pleased rather,” is the

word) “to be absent from the body, and to be present with

the Lord.” I am looking for the mortal to be swallowed up

of life; but if I die, I must wait a while with Christ. As to

the judgment, does it take away my condence? Not at all;

it stimulates my zeal, for I have not to think about myself,

but only about other people as to that. ey are all dead in

sins, and so he says, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the

Lord, we persuade men,” for we must all be manifested at

the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive

the things done in his body, according to that he hath

done, whether it be good or bad.” e judgment takes

eect upon them; yet Christians too shall “be manifested,”

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476

and I am manifested. It refers to all. We shall “receive the

things done.” If Paul has built with wood, hay, and stubble,

he will suer loss; that is only an illustration. e wicked

will receive the bad, and if I have gone on very poorly, I

shall have the eect of that. It has all nothing to do with

righteousness for me: this Christ is already. e wood, hay,

and stubble are to be burned up, though that scripture has

its own special connection. So he says, “Wherefore we labor

(or are zealous) that, whether present or absent, we may be

acceptable to him.”

We are on the responsible side here: Paul says, “Whether

I am dead or alive, we are all going to come before Christ.”

First, we have the purpose, and then the responsibility, but

it does not destroy Paul’s condence — “accepted” is no

question of judgment. “erefore we labor,” is what Paul is

bent upon doing. We have a complete thing — security and

condence — and we gladly labor because of it — not to get

it. “e terror of the Lord” is the fact itself. He says, “we

persuade men.” e thing the judgment sets Paul to do is to

persuade men — other people who have reason to be afraid.

e love of Christ constrained him. Paul, then, in the view

of this, judged everything as a present thing, as it will be

judged in the day of judgment. Paul and everybody must

be judged, and that makes him persuade other people, for

he himself must be manifested too. He adds, “We are made

manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in

your consciences.” It is all out before God, and I trust it is so

before you. ey might have charged him with being beside

himself, and he says, If I am out of myself, I am with God;

or if I am in myself it is for your good; that is the dierence

between the two states. It is wonderful how Paul did keep

himself dead; and most humbling to us. Mark, it is not a

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477

question of gifts at all; but there was not one bit of esh

living: practically he was always bearing about in his body

the dying of Jesus.

Now we go father than responsibility into the

unconsciousness of the state that people are in, which was

learned in grace; but the eect of the fullness of grace was

to make him say that not merely the people had sinned, but

also there was a day of judgment. “We thus judge, that if

one died for all, then were all dead.” What is the use of his

going down thus into death, if men were not all there in that

horrible pit? e epistle to the Romans takes up the conduct

of men, and there is Christ’s work. e Ephesians takes up

the state of men, and then there is a new creation. And that

is here: “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the

esh, yea, though we have known Christ after the esh, yet

now henceforth know we him no more; therefore, if any

man be in Christ, it is a new creation.” We have done with

man altogether. I do not know anything on the world’s side

of Christ’s grave except this, that they are all dead in sins.

Christ coming down into the world was Christ’s coming

to men in this life to conrm the promises made unto the

fathers; but He there tested man, and the cross shows there

was no ground to go upon. Now we know a dying Christ, for

men would not have Him, and so everything is gone, and

God does not own this world at all. at is the way Peter

meets the Jews as to the very fact: God hath exalted Him

whom ye by hands of lawless men have crucied and slain,

and that is where you are with God.

In interpreting “If one died for all, then were all dead,”

if people would get God’s mind, they would not say absurd

things. As for all dying with Christ, I deny it altogether,

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478

and do not admit that we must get God’s mind through the

Greek.

It is a total departure from the apostle’s argument, and

contradicts the next verse. e theory is that people live and

die; but “they which live” are those who are not left in that

state. e next sentence is demonstrative of it: “He died for

all, that they which live”; that is not all. e aorist gives the

historical fact, but it does not say that the historical fact is

the consequence of Christ’s having died. Why did Christ

go down there? It was because they were all in the pit; and

then the point is that some live (not all), and if they live,

they are to live to Him that died for them and rose again.

If it were translated, “then all died,” it would be historical.

ere is no consequence in it, and “then” is not time, but

“consequently”; the Greek in this verse for then is ara, which

is nowhere time. It is not consequence, though it may be a

fact. e proper force of ara is illative in later Greek. (at

is, it introduces an inference).

Again the whole object of the apostle too is lost by the

change. Responsibility is not where I am, but what I have

done. If He died, then indeed that is their state. e thing

we do not nd in Scripture is substitution for all. On the

great day of atonement, there were two things in the sin-

oering of the people — the Lord’s lot and the people’s lot.

e Lord’s lot was killed, because it met the whole character

of God; God was completely gloried in Christ, and the

gospel goes out to the whole world. en with the people’s

lot, the sins of the people were confessed on its head; that

is the scapegoat; in that I nd Christ for His people, and

in the other atonement, Godward. at, of course, was

for those whose sins he confessed. In Romans 3 we hear

of the “righteousness of God unto all, and upon them all

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479

that believe.” It goes out toward all, and is upon believers.

Many a one will say that Christ bore the sins of the world;

but if so, how can God ever impute them? He could not,

nor does Scripture ever say so. en the Calvinist only

takes the blood upon the mercy-seat; really he denies the

propitiation. We have the satisfaction to God’s glory, and

then the gospel goes out and says, “We beseech you to be

reconciled to God: come in.” When they come I can say, I

have something else to tell you; Christ bore all your sins,

and it is impossible God can ever impute them or any one

of them. An evangelist would not be right in saying, “Christ

bore all your sins.” If he makes it personal, God of course

knows His own elect from all eternity, but we can only know

them as they are shown out in life.

Well, Christ died, “that they which live should not

henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which

died for them and rose again.” Death has come in, and

the whole world is the wrong side of the cross now, except

believers. Christ was not crucied in the world, but lifted up

from the world, and this is distinctly the ground Scripture

takes. As Messiah He came to the Jews; but if we nd Him

lifted up from the earth, the world has rejected Him, and

all God’s counsels come out, and we nd propitiation for

the race of Adam. But the world is gone — “the world seeth

me no more.” Every eye shall see Him when He comes

in judgment, but as to dealing with the world as such to

reconcile it, it is all over. e devil is the prince of this world,

and he is judged. I grant all the privileges as a nation that the

Jews had; but it is no use talking now about a poor Jew, for

he has lusts in his nature, just like a Gentile, and by nature

he is a child of wrath, even as others. e very thing that

comes out is, I have no good in me at all. I am lost already, I

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480

have sinned, and I have sin in me. is, for faith, cuts down

the state of probation altogether. A state of probation is

estimated by the day of judgment, and then we could not

tell till the day of judgment what the result of probation

would be. e testing of man now is by the presentation of

the gospel, and he sees the condition he is in before God by

the gospel. But “if any man be in Christ — a new creation.”

It is one short absolute sentence. It brings in the new

heavens and the new earth — everything to be made new.

If we trace the presentation of the gospel in the Acts 1

do not think we nd anything there strictly of the glory,

though all recognize Christ in the glory. ey are all to the

Jews in Acts; even in chapter 13 it is so; but Paul there does

not go beyond Peter. At Athens it is only his defense at

Areopagus. We never nd, in Peter’s preaching, even that

Jesus is the Son of God: but Paul preached this as soon as he

began. e burden in Acts is, that the Jews rejected Christ

whom God raised up. Peter says in Acts 5:30, “e God

of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged

on a tree”; but we do not nd grace coming down in its

completeness. e facts are there, of course, but the point

is that the Jews had rejected the One whom God raised up.

It is not even that He is the Son of God. When Peter says,

“raised up his Son,” it is really “servant” in that passage. See

Acts 3:15,26; 4:27,30.

e rst thing a sinner needs is, that Christ died for

him; to preach Christ in the glory involves this, but where

the gospel is preached, no matter how far you go, if there

is a real work it attaches you to the place where the Man

you preach is. Suppose John the Baptist says, “Behold the

Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” this

goes right on to the new heavens and the new earth. All

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481

that His disciples reached is, “we have found the Messiah.”

If you preach the greatest glory, you will nd souls saying,

in the sense of contrast, “Why, I am all in my sins,” and

in that way the glory works in the place the sinner is in; it

attaches itself to the condition of the man, and then reaches

his conscience; it gets hold of persons where they are. If

it reaches a man, he nds out his own sinfulness, and so it

touches the conscience. It is striking in Acts to, though you

get the Gentiles there, it is remission of sins that is preached

for “whosoever believeth in him.” Peter says, “God anointed

Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power;

who went about doing good, and healing all that were

oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we are

witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the

Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on

a tree: him God raised up the third day, and showed him

openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen

before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him

after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to

preach unto the people, and to testify that it was he which

was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To

him give all the prophets witness that through his name,

whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of

sins. While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost

fell on all them which heard the word” (Acts 10:38-44). He

testies of Christ in full, and thereon preaches remission of

sins, and then the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard. It is

because there was a dealing with the Jews all through the

Acts that we do not nd the full and positive glory there. It

is only in the last verses of the Acts that the Jews are given

up. So we have no gospel of the glory actually preached, nor

of the grace either in the strict sense of the term as we have

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482

been speaking of it. Even Stephen preached Jesus and the

resurrection, not more.

In John 15:26-27 we have witnesses. “When the

Comforter is come, whom I shall send unto you from the

Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the

Father, he shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness

because ye have been with me from the beginning”; and

He says, “He shall receive of mine and show it unto you”

(John 16:14). Well, the apostles had to add the exaltation

of Christ, ascension too, to the repentance and remission

of sins which were to be preached in His name among all

nations beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). But that is

the furthest we nd in the Gospels and even in the history

in the Acts.

It is remarkable how we think to get something all

settled and complete for a long while, and then nd it is

only provisional; if you take it as settling things in the world,

it soon proves very provisional. Until Stephen is killed we

have the fact of the Jews having rejected the person whom

God has exalted. Christ intercedes for the Jews on the cross

and the Holy Spirit comes in with the testimony. “And

now brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as

did also your rulers” (Acts 3:17) and so on. Grace begins at

Jerusalem, and they are called to repentance; then in Acts

3 after the fact of the establishment of the church amongst

the Jews (though it is striking how provisional it all is), and

having told them too in Acts 2 that they had by wicked

hands crucied and slain Jesus of Nazareth (judgment

accordingly), next in Acts 3 he says, Repent and be

converted, and then Christ shall come back again. In Acts

2 it is more individual testimony, and in Acts 3 it is wider in

the character of testimony. In verse 26 it is not “raised up” in

Notes on 2 Corinthians 5

483

the sense of from the dead, His Son Jesus, but as Moses had

said, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you”

(Acts 3:22).

It is quite true God knew the Jews would not repent;

and we have the church begun to be formed in Acts 2. en,

when Stephen is put to death, the oer to the Jews is over.

Christ had interceded for them; Peter said, Repent and

Christ will return. ey would not, and it was all over. ey

had had the law, the prophets, the Messiah, and now the

Holy Spirit. ey had broken the rst, stoned the second,

killed Christ, and resisted the Holy Spirit. Stephen goes

to heaven, and then there was an end to Christ’s coming

back for that time to the earth. God goes on with the Jews,

but looked at as a people, it was over for them now, and

the church goes on forming. God gathers in by the gospel

message into the church “such as shall be saved,” instead of

gathering together the nation. It is the salvation of the soul,

but it is the preserving those of Israel. ey all thought that,

if God did not spare a remnant, they would be as Sodom

and Gomorrah, and that is what the Lord says to them. At

the last, when the end comes, all Israel will be saved and all

the wicked will be cut o. All the grace is displayed here,

though all is provisional.

In the Acts the gospel is not developed as in the

epistles, though it is the same truth so far as it goes. Death

and resurrection embrace the whole thing if you regard

it as to foundation. Death is the end of the old thing, and

resurrection is the beginning of the new. Besides being

atonement and the putting away of Sins, it is the end of

the world as such, and the beginning of the new creation.

Satan has no more power, and neither has sin. Death is put

away, so that, looked at as to the establishment of the thing,

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484

resurrection is the basis of it all. As for the church, there

is much developed of blessing in various ways. When Paul

states what the gospel was which he preached, it is Christ’s

death and resurrection. It is evident that, when a person is

raised, he is brought into a new place, and that, though all

the result may not be before him yet. And again it says Paul

preached Jesus and the resurrection. If I were preaching

among nominal Christians, I should bring out the whole

scheme of what God’s intentions are.

e church is relationship to the risen Christ; “children”

means relationship to the Father. ey are both immense

privileges. In Ephesians 1 the mystery is not exactly

introduced, but God puts us in a place and as it were says,

I can tell you My mind: and that is how the church comes

in. Saints were children and heirs, but diered nothing

from a servant; but when the Son comes out, they get the

place of children. en, being in this blessed place, He says,

“I will unfold to you all that I am going to do.” We might

have children without glory, but not the church without

Christ in glory. e basis of all is laid in resurrection. When

we see Christ’s place is that of Son naturally, then He

takes manhood to bring us into such a place, but there is

nothing to do with the church in that; as we have in John,

“My Father and your Father, my God and your God” (John

20:17). ere is not a word of the church as such. We are

with Christ a gloried Man, members of His body, of His

esh, and of His bones, and there we have the mystery.

To look again at the gospel of the humiliation, as it is

called; it gives a character which the gospel of the glory does

not. e gospel of the humiliation is God in grace, whereas

the gospel of the glory is man in glory — fruit of grace, of

course. Romans 5 and 8 are very like to the two. In Romans

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485

5 we have the grace of God on to our joying in God, and

higher things than in chapter 8, though we do not have

the man as high. In Romans 5 it is more the revelation of

what God is and of our joy in Him. But if we take people

then in Romans 8, we have them higher up in Christ. ey

are the two passages which give the blessings that belong

to Christians. In chapter 8 we have that fact of the gospel

that the man is in Christ before God, but we have a great

deal more of God in the rst part of chapter 5. In a certain

sense it is a lower part of the work, for it is only meeting

the sinner’s need by Christ “delivered for our oenses and

raised again for our justication.” “erefore being justied

by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus

Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this

grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory

of God; and not only so, but we glory in tribulation also,

knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience

experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not

ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our

hearts.” ere I have what led him to say in our chapter (2

Cor. 5) that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto

himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them”; but in

the second part of Romans 5 we have what led him to say,

“for he hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us,

that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

In the gospel of the humiliation we have God in Christ, and

in the gospel of the glory we have man in Christ. e latter

is a glorious result of the other, no doubt, but it is a dierent

aspect of the gospel.

Notice the omission of the “you” in verse 20 of our

chapter. “Did beseech by us”: there is the verb only without

the pronoun: he is saying how he preaches to the world,

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486

begging them to be reconciled. What he says is, “when

I preach the gospel, this is what I do”: of course it means

to the world. If he is an ambassador, he is an ambassador

to somebody. It would be conned to the apostles to go as

absolute ambassadors. ere are not now ambassadors in

quite the same way, but in some degree.

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What Death Is to the

Christian: 2 Corinthians 5

2 Corinthians 5

e 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 conict here, temptation and so forth; the promise

is “to him that overcometh.” But, in spite of conict, our

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488

hearts should be at home where God has put us. We cannot

be at home where no water is. So far as the Spirit of God

animates and lls us, we nd no water here. 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” (Heb. 9:27). 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” (Rom. 5:12). (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

What Death Is to the Christian: 2 Corinthians 5

489

of the future, entirely by Christ. “If one died for all, then

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” (Heb. 2:14-15). 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,” and so on. 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

oered Himself up. His disciples might go away, because

He stood in the gap. us He takes the cup as judgment,

suering 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

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490

down unto death, took up the whole thing — sin, Satan’s

power, wrath, etc. He was made sin for us. “He died unto sin

once.” 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 sacrice 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

suered 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 oered to bear the sins of many, and unto

them that look for him shall he appear the second time

without sin” (Heb. 9:28), having nothing more to say to it,

and apart from the question of sin altogether, to take us into

glory.

Looked at as to 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” (Heb. 7:16). 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,” and so on. 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

unto Christ’s death. e “corn of wheat” must die. Death

ended all connection with it, for dying is unto that by which

I was held. e law has killed me. e eect 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

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491

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 though alive in the world,

are ye subject to ordinances?” (Col. 2:20). 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 aections 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 condent, 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 in the glory 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.

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492

ere is positive gain in having done, in measures, by faith

now, or in fact by-and-by, with the mortal.

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.

Notes on 2 Corinthians 6

493

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Notes on 2 Corinthians 6

Chapter 6

“Workers together with him.” “With him” is not exactly

right; the “with” is there, but not the “him.” I believe the idea

is that of workers with one another; they are companions

or journeymen, because they work together. “We then as

co-workers beseech that ye [Corinthians] receive not the

grace of God in vain.” ey had all received it; but whether

they had all received it in their hearts is another question.

He looks at them as Christians, but he had become uneasy

about them because they were going on so badly. It is no

use trying to weaken these particular statements which we

often nd in Scripture. It is not bearing fruit merely, for if

they did receive it in vain, they were not quickened at all. It

is not that I have received grace to no purpose, if I am saved

by it. I have received the gospel to a very great purpose if I

am going to heaven. e grace of God comes to people, and

then, as in Hebrews 6, they have tasted the good word of

God; and in such cases as theirs it was not possible to save

them after, because they had “fallen away.” In the parable

of the sower, it says “received the word.” A man may receive

a tract and tear it up, and throw it away; or if he reads it, he

may treat the truth the same.

Isaiah 49 comes in here, because there we have their sin

before Jehovah, and next against His Christ. “Listen, O

isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from afar; Jehovah

hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my

mother hath he made mention of my name, and he hath

made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his

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494

hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in

his quiver hath he hid me, and said unto me, ou art my

servant, O Israel, in whom I will be gloried.” And then

Messiah says, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my

strength for naught and in vain, yet surely my judgment is

with Jehovah and my work with my God; and now, saith

Jehovah that formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered,

yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God

shall be my strength.” en in verses 7 and 8 we come to

the Redeemer of Israel, and God owning Messiah in

resurrection glory, though Israel has rejected Him, and now

is the accepted time when Christ has been heard though

rejected. It is Christ who has been heard in an accepted

time, and Isaiah applies it to the Jews at the end; but we

come in between, and by the Holy Spirit come down we

believe, though without seeing, and get heavenly things;

they will believe and see and get earthly things. We have the

better thing now. “I have heard thee” — Christ. Christ used

the acceptable time in His ministry, though, if in Christ, we

are accepted, of course.

In our chapter we must link together verses 1 and 3.

Paul had the ministry of reconciliation, and he would give

no oense lest it should be blamed. ere were three things

that came from God in Christ: God was reconciling; was

not imputing trespasses; and did commit this ministry to

Paul. Christ had to die rst, of course, and this rest follows;

but the agents should walk so that no slur could be put upon

the ministry. He is here stating what his ministry was and

what he went through in it. He stood there to represent

God, and had to conduct himself so that nobody should

have anything to say. But he had the devil against him and

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all things. An ungodly walk would bring reproach against

the testimony of course, but here it is of ministry he is

speaking.

It is better to leave out the “yets” in verses 8-10. Some

looked on him as a deceiver, and some looked on him as

true; “unknown and well-known; as dying, yet behold we

live”; for a kind of ‘yet’ comes in here. It is the Holy Spirit

in verse 6 and the power of God in verse 7. God acts by the

Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit was a direct manifestation

of power and grace, yet He might be directing and guiding

without apparent power. People have gone all wrong about

the Holy Spirit; and we have not the signs now. In Galatians

he appeals to all Christians, “received ye the Spirit?” and so

on. Instead of persons looking whether they have the Holy

Spirit as they do now, he speaks to them as having the Holy

Spirit; he is not speaking of tongues, but of what ought to be

found now. I have no doubt Paul displayed the Holy Spirit

in a way that we do not (I do not mean with signs); but we

have grieved Him so that there are dierent degrees of the

consciousness of the presence of God. For instance, in a

gathering there is a solemnity at a time when not a word

is uttered, and at another time they hold their tongues

only because they have nothing to say. I have no doubt the

presence of the Holy Spirit was much more sensible than

it is now. At the present time how could you ask a number

of persons, “How did you receive the Holy Ghost?” when

they do not know whether they have the Spirit or not? I can

show you books by bishops and others who say that at rst

the church had the Holy Spirit; but now we have not, and so

we have to go to college; and all that kind of thing.

e recompense in 2 Corinthians 6:13 refers to himself.

ere is a great deal in that condition of the apostle, which

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is very instructive. He represented God as he ought to do;

his vessel was all smashed — all that would be reckoned in

a man — and consequently the power of God could come

out in him. e vessel is all done with, and God is there.

at was so in Paul, and he approved himself as given here.

is has nothing to do with signs, but is what should be

now. “Conrming the word with signs following” (Mark

16:20) was at the rst, and was all provisional. en the

church lost power, when it gave up waiting for God’s Son

from heaven, though that, I believe, was ordered in God’s

wisdom. e church was never looked at as continuing;

we assume a false thing, in such a way, looking at it. en,

people say, the church was only set up for thirty years or so.

Of course God knew about it, but He does not put it out as

to continue, but to go and meet Christ and come back. ey

all slumbered and slept, but they ought not to have done

thus. e fact is stated, yet it is sin. e church did go to

sleep, but there is no pre-arrangement for its continuance; it

is the same virgins who do go out to meet their Lord when

they awake. “If that evil servant shall say in his heart, My

Lord delayeth his coming,” shows just the same; and it is

the same servant who is punished. ere is no arrangement

made for continuing the church.

If you say, en are we not right to help ourselves as

best we can? I reply, Very well, go and make apostles, then.

People say that the church is competent like every other

society: it all sounds plausible. I know of no prohibition

against carrying about the mass, and the “Corpus Christi,”

or whatever you call it. Some do make elders; but why

do they not make apostles too? at is what I said once,

and they felt the folly of it; but they could make only an

imitation of elders. We have certain things which guide

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us as to practices; there are young widows as well as old

widows; and all such directions are available for the present

time. What is said about bishops would be guidance for

those who have it on their hearts to exercise oversight. It

was this that broke them down at Geneva. When I went

there, three brethren would not speak to each other. ey

were called pastors, and I asked who made these three

pastors. ey had chosen them and would have them. “Oh,”

I said, “you assumed the power to make them, and now you

must take the consequences.” Yet we nd ample provision

for godly men, but appointments must fail. Suppose it said,

ere must be order among you here, whom are you going

to put in authority? In 1 Peter 5 the elders are not ordained.

It is a more general use of the term there. I see no elders

among the Jews; elders might be known very well without

ocial appointments.

ey were not straitened in Paul’s heart (vs. 12). Paul’s

aections were as large, and full, and free as could be. e

same thought is in what our Lord says, “how am I straitened

until it be accomplished!” en come verses 14-16, giving

the relative position of believers, and as the temple of the

living God. Unbelievers, as amongst them, are not alluded

to here, though there might have been such. e coming

out is from the world. It would embrace anything where

you have to act in common. e “unclean thing” was the

heathen world then, no doubt, but it is much more than

that now. You could not apply this to Protestantism and

Romanism; for we are perfectly warranted in treating

Protestantism as the world. Popery is a dierent thing. In

Sardis Protestants are treated as the world, for we nd there,

“I will come on thee as a thief,” which is what it was said He

would do to the world in writing to essalonica; but He

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says He will overtake them so. ey have the responsibility

of Christians, and are treated as the church in responsibility,

and yet they are dealt with as the world.

Verse 14. It is a new subject altogether; but if a Christian

gets into the world, the heart gets narrowed, and then into

deeper sin. e “world” is a great system, which the devil has

built up round man, to give men their sphere of enjoyment.

We have a beautiful expression at the end of the chapter:

“I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and

daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” at is added here

to what is quoted from Isaiah. Lord and Almighty are the

two Old Testament names of God. He was “Almighty” to

Abraham, and “Lord” to Israel; and now He says “Father”

to you, and ye are My sons and daughters. Isaiah could say,

“doubtless thou art our father,” and it may be in that general

way that He will be as father to the remnant. “Belial” is a

words that means wickedness. e separation applies to

everything. Not to those who are married; have instruction

elsewhere about such, not to leave the one the other: “for

what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy

husband? or how knowest, owest thou, O man, whether

thou shalt save thy wife?” (1 Cor. 7:16).

2 Timothy 3 would apply to Protestantism now; and

to more that is not Protestantism — wherever we nd the

form of godliness, but the power denied, and from all such

we are to turn away. It is not merely open wickedness, it is

more; it is a form of godliness. I think people ought to have

a great tenderness towards Protestantism; they do own the

word of God. ey may be the more guilty, having the more

light, and not acting up to it: but they systematically, at least,

own God’s authority in His word, while many others put

the church in its place. Romanists say positively, quoting

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from Augustine, they would not receive the gospel if the

church had not given it to them. ey say you must have

the church to authenticate the words, and that is denying

the direct authority of God over the conscience, unless

somebody else comes in to give authority. e priest will ask

you, How do you know it is the word of God? and in that

way they always take indel ground. Such is their principle.

ere is an utter denial both of the truth of the word

and of its authority; and beside that, they have put in the

Apocrypha — have corrupted the word of God. If any will

not believe the word of God, unless the church says it, it is

not the word they believe as such, but the church. It is under

the power of Satan, I doubt not, that there is brought in not

merely a denial of authority in the word, but also the setting

up of the right of private judgment. Now this is meddling

with God’s rights. If I send a message to my servant, and

you will not let him have it, you are not meddling with the

servant’s rights so much as with mine. And God has sent

this message to those who call themselves Christians; but

if you will not let them have it, that is meddling with God’s

rights, and not merely with man’s. In a certain sense, man

has no right to the word of God; he is a vile sinner, and has

not a right to anything. But if I set up and judge the word of

God, this is open indelity. I take the ground that the word

of God judges us, not we it otherwise it is clear that there is

no owning the word of God as His word. e moment it is

said, I must judge, I am in the place of authority, and in the

place of the word. I have nothing to do with judging.

If I were asked how I know it is the word of God, I

should reply as I once did to a priest: I asked him, if I took

a knife, and gave him an awful gash in his arm, how would

he know that this was a knife I had. He could not say the

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same of the Maccabees: no one dare say that. And I will tell

you why: because the writer himself, at the end of the book,

says, “If I have done well, and as is tting the story, it is that

which I desired; but if slovenly and meanly, it is that which

I could attain unto.” And again, he says something like

this: It is not good to be always drinking wine, but to drink

sometimes a little water.

As to teaching children the word of God, I have often

said that it is like coals in a grate where there is no re; but

it is known that coals make a re, and if a re is wanted, the

coals are not thrown out, but they lie there all ready. So with

the knowledge of the word of God in people and children

too, though we know very well that educational knowledge

of the word is not faith. And in using the word of God, we

should try to deal by it, and not reason about it. I remember

once a man in a coach saying to me, “You use that book, but

I do not own it.” I said, “at is all very well, my friend; but

I have a well-tempered sword, and it would be no use for

an opponent to say whether he owned it or not.” e point

for us is not the rejecting of the word, but using it. I told

him, “I believe God loves me perfectly; but supposing there

is no God at all, you have done heaps of things that your

conscience condemns.” He owned that, and said he was very

unhappy.

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Notes on 2 Corinthians 7

Chapter 7

In this chapter, he applies the promises to the

Corinthians themselves: “Having therefore these promises,

dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all lthiness

of esh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

First, rescue them out from the mass, and then purify them

t for God. e point here is, their being set apart to a holy

God, and then in detail purify everything. We also nd in

Leviticus, “Be ye holy, for I am holy: sanctify yourselves, for

I am Jehovah that has sanctied you: for Jehovah your God

is holy,” and such like words. at is, when they have been

brought out of Egypt.

“To die and live with you,” is not to die to sin rst.

Scripture never says we have to die to sin. “I die daily” is

a dying in an outward sense every day. Paul’s life was not

worth sixpence, as men speak. en we have a beautiful

expression, “God that comforteth them that are cast down.”

God lets us be cast down that we may be comforted of Him.

It is not a cold dead thing. People speak of the apostles as if

they were like vultures soaring above the heads of others,

and pouncing down when they were obliged to do it; but

it is not so. “ough I made you sorry with a letter, I do not

repent though I did repent.” Paul said he “did repent,” and

when writing an inspired letter! e power of the Holy

Spirit makes him write it, and then, when he looks at his

own heart, Titus was so long coming, that he thought the

Corinthians would not have him; and that was his sorrow.

Such is the human side of Paul, and is very instructive.

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ere is a thing that strikes me very much in Paul, that

we may nd at the bottom of our own hearts, too, perhaps,

but there is a kind of character in it — a claim that he feels

upon the aections of the people, and that of the strongest

kind. “Ye have not many fathers, but in Christ Jesus I have

begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15). ere is a

kind of claim of relationship, which in the state of the

church we cannot have in the same kind of way now.

Sorrow led to repentance (vs. 9). ere is more in

repentance than a certain feeling, for when the Jews asked,

Men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter says, “Repent,

and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the

Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). ey were already pricked in their

hearts. Sorrow before God led to judgment of the sin. One

man had done the act, but they had all gone in heart with

it; and now they sorrow, not the man only. Conversion,

repentance, being born again, and faith, all go together;

and yet I must believe in order to get it, and still they all go

together. “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ

Jesus” (Gal. 3:26); to be a child you must believe. A blow and

pain are identical as to time, though I must give the blow, in

order to the pain. Where there is not that settled estimate

of the will and mind that looks back and judges everything

under grace in the power of the word, there is repentance

and judgment of self all one’s life.

Verse 11 is the eect of their repentance (vs. 10). All the

outward things in which repentance showed itself prove

its reality. In verse 8, “repent” is another word in Greek

meaning “regret”; so in verse to it is, “worketh repentance

to salvation not to be regretted.” It is not connected with

a judgment of the evil, and is sometimes used for remorse.

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When he says, “Repentance not to be repented of,” you get

a very dierent idea from the expression “Repentance not

to be regretted.” e gifts and calling of God are without

change of mind. In the passage “It repented God that he

had made man upon the earth,” it is not the change of mind

in God, but when the thing changes, God does not like it;

not because God changes, but because He Himself does

not change. e Greek for repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:9

is used for change of mind; you would not nd that with

Judas; it is remorse there, regret.

It is very beautiful to see the way in which Paul’s heart

was in them all: even natural aection is beautiful in such

a world as this; but all this work had tended to check their

love towards him; they had gone to the other side, so to

speak. Moses was trained in all the habits of a court, and

then when he had been forty years in the desert, and God

would send to the court for His people, he said, “I cannot

speak” — he quite fell over on the other side; that is how we

change. But Paul had written, that his care for them might

appear, and he heartily rejoiced in the joy of Titus, and was

glad to say he had condence in them in all things.

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Notes on 2 Corinthians 8-9

Chapters 8- 9

We now come to what Paul is ill at ease in, and that is

getting money from them. He would not take any for

himself, but he would for others. He told them about

Macedonia, and takes occasion of the forwardness of

others; he knows the forwardness of their mind; had

boasted Achaia was ready a year ago; he goes all round

about the bush with it, as it were, but thought it better to

send somebody, lest his boasting should be in vain, and he

be ashamed of it in the presence of the Macedonians, who

were coming with him. e man Paul, as the instrument

comes out in all that.

It would be very sad that there should be any poor

among us, and for them not to be cared for. e laying by

here was for the poor at Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 16 did

not contemplate anything but the poor. Here every man

was to lay by, but “God loveth a cheerful giver”; and again,

that it “might be ready as a matter of bounty and not of

covetousness.” And then the administration of it abounds

with many thanksgivings unto God.

We see, all through, beautiful heart exercises; and then

he says all this wonderful work of grace, “the experiment of

this ministration,” glories God, and calls out “their prayer

for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of

God in you” (1 Cor. 9:14): blessed exercises of heart on both

sides, one towards the other.

ey would be making “themselves friends of the

mammon of unrighteousness.” We nd three things in

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505

Luke just before it. e rst is the grace of God towards

us, in three parables of chapter 15. In the rst and second

we have the absolute grace that seeks: Christ the Good

Shepherd, and the Holy Spirit lighting up the light of

truth. Nothing at all is done by the persons, who are the

mere objects of the saving grace. e great subject is, grace

is God’s joy; the shepherd is happy, the woman is happy, and

the father is happy. It is God’s happiness to have souls back,

and He is saying here, “I am going to save sinners, whether

you Pharisees like it or not.” In the third parable, we have

the prodigal’s reception by the father when he comes back:

rst, the working of sin, next the working of grace, and

then the father’s reception. We have the whole series of

gracious dealings, till the man has on the best robe, and is

at the father’s table. at is, grace in chapter 15 has come,

and visited man, and takes him out of Judaism and all else

(for God will not have the Pharisee); and then we nd that

man is a steward out of place in chapter 16. In the Jews,

the whole thing was tried under the best of circumstances.

Man, Adam, was a steward, having the Master’s goods

under his hand, but he is turned o because he is unfaithful;

and then comes this question: How can I — if I have these

goods under my hand as steward, and am turned out of

place — how can I take the mammon of unrighteousness,

and use it to advantage? I do not use it for myself now, but

with a view to the future. e steward might have taken

the whole of the £100 to spend it, but if so, that would not

do for the future, and therefore, while he can, he uses it to

make friends then and there; that is the aim of it. Just while

I am here, I have the mammon of unrighteousness, and,

as we have it in 1 Timothy 6:17, I am not to trust in the

uncertain riches, but so use them as to lay up in store a good

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foundation against the time to come. I turn this mammon

of unrighteousness into friends, that, when it fail, I may be

received into everlasting habitations. I am put out of all that

man has as man, that I may yet have it for a time; but by use

of it I get reception into everlasting habitation. I use this

world for the future. “ey shall receive you” is a mere form

for “you shall be received.” Suppose it is now a person under

grace; we nd him acting in grace with things here, in view

of the future; it is his preference, he would rather look out

for the future. “When it fail” is when all this scene is gone,

and the life ends: that is, when stewardship is over.

en, in the third case, our Lord draws the veil, and

says, “Now look into the everlasting habitations.” e poor

man Lazarus died, and was carried by the angels into the

bosom of Abraham. Here is a rich man using all for himself

now, and you see the result; then do not use the world

for your present enjoyment, but use it in view of another

world. “Remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy

good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he

is comforted, but thou art tormented” (Luke 16:25). If we

do not use this world’s things in grace, after all we cannot

keep them; and therefore, He says, you have the privilege of

turning them into friends available for the future. It shows

how the other world belies the whole of the present. God’s

blessing on a Jew was marked by the possession of such

things, but the Lord shows the other world to tell him how

all these things are changed.

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Notes on 2 Corinthians 10

Chapter 10

In this chapter we have the character of Paul’s ministry,

“bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience

of Christ.” I suppose Paul was some poor-looking man

instead of being a ne commanding person — “in presence

am base among you.” In verse 5 I have put “reasonings” for

“imaginations.” e word has the force of both. In verse

6 “when your obedience is fullled,” means he waited for

them to go with him in all. ere is the greatest grace in this,

for he comes with authority behind, and has what I may call

a rod for them, if needed.

In 1 Corinthians 10 we have a clue to all these

diculties with these false people, and also to what his

thorn in the esh was. “We will not boast of things without

our measure, but according to the measure of the rule

which God hath distributed to us” (vs. 13). ese people

had come and acted as if they were originally authorized,

where God had not give them any measure. Paul had had all

the diculty, and persecution, and danger; and then it was

all very comfortable for them to step in and try and spoil

his work. He had not gone outside his measure. All very

right in a good spirit that apostles should water what Paul

planted, but that is if it is done in a right spirit. ese were

coming without being asked, and that to spoil the thing.

Paul did not boast of things without (that is, outside) “our

measure,” things of other men’s labor. “Enlarged by you” (vs.

15) simply means, they were to help him to go on to other

places.

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It all shows how the apostles went through the same

kind of diculties that we do. Suppose we saw all the

churches of the country giving up justication by faith, how

we should feel it! We should think it was all no use. But

God met this at Corinth, and would now. Here were people

drunk at the Lord’s supper, and pued up about wickedness,

and so on.

All these things were there, but power by the Spirit of

God met them. Now people try to take an advantage of

it in this way; they say, All these churches are just as bad

as the Established Church, or anything else now. It is a

great mistake, for now we nd all is the world, and not the

church at all. We have no church to appeal to, no grace or

life to appeal to. It is not a question of more or less outward

wickedness; they are not out from the world to walk in the

Spirit, so that the exercise of the power of the Spirit may

come in.

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Notes on 2 Corinthians 11

Chapter 11

“As a chaste virgin” (2 Cor. 11:2) is individual. It is the

whole, but it must be individual. Verse 4 refers to false

teachers who might preach another Jesus or another

gospel, but it was not another. Here he feared they might

“be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”; in

Galatians it was not so much corrupting the gospel as

presenting another, which was not another, for there could

not be another. Paul says, “though I be rude in speech” (vs.

6), and “in speech contemptible”; he was behind no one and

he pleads hard with them. Poor Paul! he had a heart in these

people and could not give them up. “I did not take your

money; is that the wrong I did you? I did not do any other, I

am sure.”

2 Corinthians 11:15 is very solemn. You may even

get Satan’s power at work in the form of ministers of

righteousness: Satan can ape in that way. Of course, he

can never be really Christ. It is not that everybody who is

ignorant and preaches below the full truth is Satan’s agent,

but there are those that bring in a working of Satan. It is

people here; but there always will be some doctrine at the

bottom of it. It appears these false teachers were pretty

impudent, for he says, “If a man bring you into bondage; if a

man devour you; if a man take of you; if a man exalt himself;

if a man smite you on the face.” It is wonderful what people

will suer from what is false — very much more than they

will endure from what is true. at which is false pleases the

esh. Take any system: it is surprising with what rapidity

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people learn a system. And you will always nd Satan’s

teaching is always learned a great deal more rapidly than

God’s.

It is in verse 16 he begins to talk about himself. “If they

boast, I must boast too, so much so that you have made me

make myself a fool about it.” In the two last verses of the

former chapter he was ready to glory, “but he that glorieth

let him glory in the Lord, for not he that commendeth

himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth.”

Yet, he adds, “I must glory: you have forced me to it”; and

the Lord has allowed it for our instruction. “I speak as

concerning reproach,” he says (for some had said “his bodily

presence is weak and his speech contemptible “) “as though

we had been weak; howbeit whereinsoever any is bold,

I speak foolishly, I am bold also; are they Hebrews? so am

I,” and so on. We have here a wonderful picture of Paul’s

life, telling what it really was. Paul does not boast of being

a Hebrew, but no one had any advantage over him in that

respect.

“e care of all the churches” (vs. 28) is not the taking

care of them, but care for them as now for Corinth. It is

wonderful to see the power of the apostle, the way in which

he could take up all the highest doctrines and yet go into

detail about all these other things. We see a exibility

of power that is astonishing, a generalizing power and an

individualizing power that he is never tired in using. In

us the tendency is to get weary when we see one or two

gatherings going wrong. Verse 29 is sympathy with the

saints.

Paul gloried in what he had gone through, he required

power to go through all these things; it was not in his own

power he went, and the sustaining is wonderful. Suppose

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511

a man preaching in this town was ogged for it, and he

goes and preaches all the same at a neighboring one! So he

says, “But even after that we had suered before and were

shamefully entreated, as ye know at Philippi, we were bold

in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much

contention” (1 ess. 2:2). Nothing broke him down: he

was not cowed a bit after having his feet in the stocks. How

naturally the apostle writes! After a kind of conversation

in verse 31, he comes out with something he had quite

forgotten, but that now occurred to him. It made little of

himself to have escaped in such a way, but he did not mind

that; it was what he was glorying in.

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62970

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12

Chapter 12

Here Paul says, “I will come to visions and revelations

of the Lord”; and then we come to inrmities and

persecutions, a kind of honor on one side; but the Lord is

able to unite what is in one sense honorable with discipline

in the esh on the other side. It was Paul’s honor in that

he was suering for Christ, but along with that it was

discipline to the esh. We have another aspect here to these

inrmities, for they are the same though looked at in a

dierent way.

Verse 2 should read, “I know a man,” not “I knew”; he

knew him while he wrote. e fourteen years ago is when

it happened. “I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago

caught up.” e term “in Christ” is important, because

that takes him out of himself; for he says, in himself he

will not glory, but of such a one he will glory. e sense is,

a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up.

For it really was Paul; but he will not allow it was himself,

because whether in the body or out of the body he cannot

tell. He had not a consciousness of human perceptions; he

perceived these things now, but then he did not know how

he knew or saw it all. ere is consciousness of the body

and so he could not say whether in or out. His perceptions

were gone from him; and when he got back, he could not

tell about them; he did not receive them humanly, neither

could he communicate them humanly. e church he

had by revelation as he says. We have it as a thing we are

accustomed to, but to have had it all come in fresh — a

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12

513

revelation — a thing we have never known nor heard

of before, is an amazing thing: and especially so to him, a

strong Jew.

e third heaven here is in a dierent character from

paradise. e third heaven is going on high — a degree of

exaltation; paradise is rather the character of the thing. Our

Lord went to paradise, but paradise is the character. e

word “paradise” means nothing but a Persian garden; there

they had beautiful gardens. e third heaven is hardly the

heaven of heavens. ere are the sky, the created heavens,

the starry heavens, and then the heaven where the throne

of God is placed, though this again is a gure no doubt.

“Heaven itself” in Hebrews 9 means the reality, and not the

gure. We see the same thing in Ezekiel, where he saw the

covering of the cherubim and above that the throne of God

or the gure of it. ese have not exactly to be atoned for;

but wherever any creature has been, it has to be cleansed.

We have also the tabernacle for a type. e camp is the

world; the court gives the rst heavens; the holy place the

second; and the most holy, where the ark was, the third, with

the throne of God. e brazen altar was not in the world,

because Christ was lifted up out of the world. en the holy,

and the most holy; the expression “heaven of heavens” is

used, I take it in rather a general way. “Rejoice, ye heavens,”

is in contrast with earth and that you nd constantly; only

we have in the tabernacle something more specic, and the

Jews constantly used it so, and spoke of three heavens. It

was very natural, if God had said Moses was to make all

these things after the pattern of things in the heavens, that

they should call them so, the three heavens, because there

were the three places. e tabernacle represents three

things: Christ Himself; the church because God dwells

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514

in it; and the creation or created heavens. Christ Himself,

for the veil is His esh — through the veil, that is to say, his

esh; next, as we have seen, we get, as shown in creation,

the three heavens; and then we have “but Christ as Son

over his own house, whose house are we.” It is not His body

there, because we have it as the dwelling-place of God. We

never nd the temple in Hebrews, because the temple is

the permanent thing, the millennium, while in Hebrews

the saints are looked at as strangers and pilgrims in the

wilderness.

e thief was not in the “body.” e very thing the Lord

taught the thief was that he was to be in paradise before the

“body” was formed. It is not into His kingdom, but “Lord,

remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.” He

had learned as a Jew that a Christ should come, and there

Christ hung upon the cross. He owns Him there as Lord,

and the Lord says, ‘I cannot wait for that kingdom, but you

shall be in paradise today.’ at is, it is the happiness of soul

meanwhile. at is the character of Luke all through in

grace. We have no “abomination of desolation” in Luke 21,

but we have Titus’s army, and Jerusalem trodden down of

the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles shall be fullled.

All is referred on to the kingdom. Our Lord said at the

passover, “I will not any more eat thereof until it be fullled

in the kingdom of God.” He looks at the present things:

they are always brought in, though they are carried on. In

these things Paul’s ministry and Luke run together a good

deal.

It is when Paul speaks of paradise that he speaks of

hearing things he could not utter: that is where blessedness

is. e paradise of God, and my Father’s house are very

dierent ideas. We have not the Father in Revelation

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515

except “having his Father’s name written in their foreheads”

(Rev. 14), after the opening chapters. ere is brightness

and blessedness there, but not fellowship with the Father

exactly: we have not that in the Revelation. We have all that

is descriptive of glory and blessedness, and beauty, and so

on — golden street and glass, and all the pictures of things,

which, if we compare scripture with scripture, we get to

understand. We have the capital of God’s dominion where

He has the garden of His delights; but this is a dierent idea

from the relationship of the Son with the Father; and we

are going into all that. One is secured delight with God and

the other is with my Father; and this is the highest way of

blessing.

e “place” John speaks of in Revelation 14 is a place in

these mansions; as if He said, ‘Do not you fancy I am going

o to leave you in the lurch,’ as men speak. “I am going to

prepare a place for you. It is not only a place for the high

priest, but for the priests, for all of you, and I am going to get

it ready for you.” As regards locality, this is not brought into

question, but it is the Father’s house; and the place of it we

really know nothing about. We say going up to heaven, but

then that to Australia would be going down, and yet it is all

quite right; it is only language adapted to our thoughts and

feelings as men. ere is no place with God in a sense, and

no time either, but we speak as men. God is “I am,” the self-

existing One. Yet all these things are real, when you come to

the moral relationship — very real indeed.

e “not lawful” in verse 4, means not morally possible.

It is not that the things were not capable of being uttered,

but that they were unutterable in their character. It is not

like “cannot be uttered,” but a thing that morally cannot be

done. I say, such a thing cannot be, without meaning to say

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516

that the thing is not physically possible, but that it is a thing

not to be done or thought of. I do not know any one word

good for it. In Romans it is the denial of the utterableness

of the groans. en we have the glories of the man in Christ

in the third heavens. We are not to be taken up there for

unutterable revelations, but for unutterable glory we shall

be. We are sitting in heavenly places in Christ; the man in

Christ, is in Christ where He is.

Satan accuses the brethren before the throne. We have

Satan in the opening of Job coming among the sons of

God, where the government of God is carried on. “Spiritual

wickedness in heavenly places” is in contrast with earthly

things. Joshua wrestled with esh and blood, we do not; but

it is where our blessings are, and this does not say anything,

except that they are not on earth. We shall rise into the air,

and meet the Lord there rst; we shall be in the Father’s

house, and we shall be free of all the heavens then; the

Father’s house is the highest thought we can have.

e government of Israel was carried on at the altar of

incense, and that rather belonged to the most holy, though

it stood outside, and the eect of the sin of the priesthood

was that, after the death of Nadab and Abihu, they could

not go inside, had it not been that the priest would have

gone in and out continually as in the millennium. e

incense belonged to the inner place. God spoke to Moses

from the cherubim, but Moses was distinct from all the rest,

for he found grace in God’s sight.

ere was nothing in the government of God in Israel

that corresponded to the church of God. God governs us

now according to the relationship in which we are placed;

Israel was governed according to what a man ought to be,

for although God was in heaven, in a certain sense, He

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517

governed on earth. Although what they had were shadows

of things in the heavens, yet it was real government by them

by earthly means. God gave distinct law, which goes to the

extent of what a man ought to be and no farther: but we are

brought into the light to God, as His own children, with

tness for the heavenly places. ere may be something of

likeness in the individuals because saints in Israel had to go

and suer like us; but this was exceptional, while with us it is

the reality. Israel’s calling was a very dierent thing from the

exercises of individual faith. But God had to deal with the

individuals on what was really higher ground than that of

the calling within which they were. Individually Abraham

must go higher up to get with God, even as a gure he is not

in the plain but on the mountain.

Discipline is government. We ought to walk in the light

as God is in the light. We have two things, the veil rent, and

our calling into God’s presence without a veil; and also we

have a Father who is holy: “Holy Father, keep them in thine

own name.” And then we have a third thing, and that is “the

Lord” in the general administration of things — the general

idea of the Lord’s disciplining. e whole place of the

Christian is a dierent thing from Israel’s. God may show

His government as He did in bringing in the ood, and if

He need He will. Righteousness does exalt a nation, though

the direct government of God is over. Not a sparrow falls to

the ground without Him, but direct government with laws

leading to certain results is over, though what a man sows

he reaps. God does not let the reins out of His hand. He

takes His people of old and deals with them as a nation, but

now His children have the fullest revelation of His dealings

with them, and that as children, and He does not even say

“not a sparrow falls to the ground without (God, but) your

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518

Father”; as one who has to you the place and tenderness of a

Father, and not a thing can happen to you without His care.

Well, we are in Christ; we have not these visions and

revelations of course (they were special to Paul), but we have

this association above, and the place of a Christian in which

we can glory. All that was revealed to Paul belongs to us.

We are not made the vessel of its revelation as he was, but

all things are ours, just as much as they were Paul’s, and it is

“a man in Christ,” and of such an one will I glory. If I look at

myself “in Christ,” I can glory, not talking of revelation now,

but if I say “myself,” I cannot glory except in my inrmities;

“for though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for

I will say the truth; but now I forbear, lest any man should

think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he

heareth of me” — revelations, of course, were neither seen

nor heard — “and lest I should be exalted above measure

through the abundance of the revelations, there was given

me a thorn in the esh, the messenger of Satan to buet

me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” Now we have

the vessel again — we have had it before — we have the

immense revelations that he had, so that he could not tell

them, and then the vessel in which the revelations were, and

which had to be put down.

And another thing we have in passing; we see here a

proof that no extent of divine communication ever corrects

the esh, even where it is real; but the esh is a judged thing,

and a hopelessly bad thing. If we take the esh by itself, it is

lawless, so that God has to bring in the ood upon it. If you

take it under law, then it is not subject to the law of God,

neither indeed can be. en if we take esh in the presence

of Christ (that is, God come in grace), it crucied Christ; or,

if we bring in the Holy Spirit, men resist Him; and then, if

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12

519

we put esh in the third heaven, he will be pued up; and if

there were a fourth heaven, and he be put there, he would be

more pued up still. Such is its character; all the eect of the

abounding of grace and glory is only to show its character

out. Here the Lord had to put Paul in danger, and gave him

a femedy; the esh is not exactly corrected here. Morally

all the Lord could do was to keep the esh down for him.

Paul was a man, and he must be dealt with as a man in his

responsibility. e time was not come to give him glory

instead of esh, and so he is dealt with as he is.

It is a great point — man’s real condition. All would

own that esh is bad in a general sense, but because they

think so, men would correct and improve it. We are bound

to do good to every man, whoever it is, even as man; but

the pretension of men is, that at bottom there is something

good in a man, and so ultimately you may make anything

out of him. And so they are working education for one great

thing. Of course, everybody has to learn something, but

the common idea of education now is an indel idea. ey

give everybody votes, and then it follows that they must be

educated in order to know how to use their vote. e whole

thing is nonsense — a mere question of the passions of

the esh. In some states they compel education. God has

committed children to parents, and the parent is bound to

care for his child. No state can come in between God and

the parent. If the state come in, you will have to leave the

state. It is from no resistance of the power that I say so, for

that would be wrong directly; but it is the word of God that

gives the state its authority, and therefore I submit or go.

If you were compelled to be a soldier, if it is against your

conscience, you must be shot, or something else: that is all.

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520

But we have not got quite to the end of the thorn in the

esh. It is called the “messenger of Satan,” because it was

an instrument of Satan; just as in Job’s case, when Satan

brought sickness and disease on Job, the Lord let Satan

loose at him; so it was Satan’s messenger here to buet

Paul. It is an additional proof, that no grace ever mends the

esh. Put the esh down; everything is useful for that. It

was putting down the esh, making Paul contemptible; it

was a sort of counterpoise to the abundance of revelation.

He besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from

him; but the esh must be put down. “You must trust My

grace, and the character of My grace is that My strength

is made perfect in weakness. If it is My strength, it is not

in man’s power that it is made good.” Of course it was all

through death: Christ was crucied through weakness, and

that He might destroy him that had the power of death;

and the character of Christ’s strength working in us is the

putting down of all our strength, and then His power can

work — “Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in inrmity,

that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” We have the

man in Christ rst, then we have from the “in Christ”

abundance of revelation, which might pu up the esh, and

then esh is made totally nothing of, a hindrance put upon

it, and Christ’s power brought out. Only in the case of Paul,

all this was for Christ’s sake, though it was a thorn in the

esh, so that it was his glory in the other aspect of it, and

he was suering for Christ. All this is very instructive as to

any ministry, because the power of ministry is in putting the

man down that Christ’s power may be there. God’s power

is a very dierent thing from man’s. Man may take a vessel

and do what he likes, but he cannot t the vessel with any

conscious power in itself. God cannot use the vessel until its

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12

521

qualities be mere qualities, and this connection with man’s

will and energy be broken.

Men are found constantly trusting in means. Now I

quite admit certain things, and all things are lawful to me,

and I am thankful for any facility in my way, but trusting in

such things will not do. e Holy Spirit is acting, and when

He works, all else must fall into low place. e apostles

went on foot, and we go by rail; but ten thousand times

more was done then, because the Holy Spirit was carrying

on things everywhere. “Your faith to Godward is spread

abroad” (1 ess. 1:8). at is better than any railroad; the

power of the Spirit of Christ was what he reckoned on and

trusted to, and that really did the work. We go looking at

what are facilities for the body, human things, and things

which we are thankful for; and they get trusted, instead

of the power of God. In Paul’s day these things were not

known, and yet immensely more was done, because the

Holy Spirit wrought. We see it clearly enough. Instead

of three thousand souls converted by one sermon, it takes

more like three thousand sermons for the conversion of one

soul. Yet God is working now remarkably through mercy;

He comes in and acts sovereignly. Take printing again, it is

all very well; God can use such things as well as anything

else. All things are lawful, but it is the trusting to these

immense facilities that is our error. Here was a little handful

of essalonians converted, and all the world is really

preaching the gospel by telling what had happened there:

“from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in

Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith

to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak

anything.” All the world was talking about it. “Why, there

is such a people started at essalonica, they have given

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522

up all their idols, and they are waiting for God’s Son from

heaven.” e world itself spread it — there was such a power

in the testimony.

Some use placards. I leave every conscience free to judge

for itself, but I should not use them. I doubt very much that

more work is really done by it, but I leave every conscience

free. I would trust God for it all, and meet people as God

brings them. I would not announce even a gospel meeting,

except among the saints, and I should be glad of their

fellowship in it. I was in Edinburgh once, and there was a

certain person who asked me to go on with his meetings. I

did not, but I got to know some of the people with him, and

talked to them about the Lord’s coming. ey considered

it quite a wild thing, but yet thought I ought to lecture

about it, but I would not have any bills. ey wanted them

to be put in the shop windows, but I would not have any.

Well, we had the meetings on the Lord’s coming — a set of

lectures — and this man who had been very violent came.

We had twenty people from dierent congregations — just

the people I wanted — and it set the Lord’s coming as a

thing on its legs again; and then some of them set up a kind

of society for having lectures every year.

I nd these things going, and it is a very serious question.

I see a great deal of work doing, and work that I delight in

abstractedly, missionary work, tracts distributed, and so

on; but I see, too, that the world and the church are mixed

up together, and the manner of doing these things is of the

rst importance in doing them. Am I to do good, or seem

to destroy my good by mixing with the world? ere was

a dear old man — an Independent secretary for the Irish

schools — and he asked me if I would be on his committee.

I said, ‘I cannot go with an accredited religion through the

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12

523

world.’ ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘we must be accredited with the world.’

‘But I will not be so,’ said I; and look! here come all these

people with their guineas. Why, even Peter himself could

not be a member of your society, for he says, ‘Silver and gold

have I none.’ It is very often the question whether the way

of doing a particular thing is right. By the manner you may

do a great good, or a great deal of evil. Am I to accept the

evil in order to do good, or am I to trust the Lord? What

God is now doing is separating the precious from the vile;

and this is not a matter about which I have no feeling. It is

often pressed upon my spirit, Am I to put water in the wine

that people may drink it? At rst, I did not care where I

went — into a church or elsewhere — to preach the gospel,

or into a Methodist chapel, and so on. I have no principle

that directly hinders me, but one day, at Plymouth, they

brought me short up, for I had in the vestry to write down

who ordained me, and this brought me to a point. ere

was the question straight out: Am I to accept that, in order

to get an opportunity to preach to ve thousand people?

Spiritual means, of course, can be used, such as saints going

round to houses in the way of positive love to make the

preaching known. e means are all in our power.

It was that verse in Jeremiah 15:19-20, that laid hold on

me, “If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou

shalt stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious

from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth; let them return

unto thee, but return not thou unto them. And I will

make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall; and they

shall ght against thee, but they shall not prevail against

thee? for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee,

saith Jehovah. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of

the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the

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524

terrible.” Jeremiah is in exactly that position. Jerusalem

is looked at as a blessed thing and as a wicked thing, and

so is the church now in a sense. And after speaking of all

that conict in Jeremiah’s spirit, the Lord says to him, “If

thou separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as

my mouth.” At the rst beginning that sentence laid hold

of me. An indel might say of the church, ‘Down with it!

Down with it!’ and I could not say, “e temple of Jehovah,

the temple of Jehovah are ye.” So, then, what am I to do?

Separate the precious from the vile. And then comes the

question, What means am I to use for doing that which I

desired to do? and can I associate myself with worldly

means for a divine thing?

I know that preachers come by rail, preach, and are

away again; but I doubt that more work is done. I doubt

that this great employment of means to carry things

through has any real power in it. Some ask how would

I compel them to come in; but this is compelling them to

come in to heaven, not to come in to the preaching. e

question is, are the means I am employing, such that I am

not mixed up with the spirit of the world and the mere

world’s instrumentality? ough I quite believe God

is using means, many means that I could not use, it does

not move me. Take the handbills; it does not follow that

these people would not have been converted if there had

been no handbills. Yet I have not the most distant idea of

even convincing other people about it, or of binding their

consciences. We have to go on with the Lord. I see God

working in all kinds of ways. One gave it me as a reason

for staying in the Establishment, that he was useful

there, and that he had such numbers of people to hear

him there, that he would never get elsewhere. And that

Notes on 2 Corinthians 12

525

might be quite true as to fact. I am delighted when good

is done; but what I see, even as a fact, is that where there

is earnestness and faith, God blesses the earnestness and

faith. But there is a quantity where there is a ood; and if

the earnestness is great, it is like a river swollen, that carries

down a quantity of mud with it, and there is a bar made

outside. After a revivalist sermon, for instance, you nd the

greatest diculty in the world to get the people to go on

without excitement. Still I rejoice that many are converted.

God may use all sorts of means that I could not use; but

He can do what He pleases — I must do what is right. If

I cannot do what others do, I should be very wrong in

condemning them for using such and such means. It is not

merely placards that I speak of; but it is a large question that

one has to be exercised in — what means can I use? I can

suppose one who has not had his conscience awakened,

going on with this and that — take a clergyman saying that

children are converted in baptism; or any one kept excusing

plenty of inconsistencies, and worse, where numbers are

converted by the preaching; but that justies nothing. Take

women again, who are going about preaching, but I do not

believe it is right, however many conversions there may be.

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526

62971

Notes on 2 Corinthians 13

Chapter 13

If we take 2 Corinthians 12 as a whole, we have the third

heavens at the beginning, and the grossest, vilest sins a

Christian can fall into at the end; but between those two, we

have where the real power is to avoid the sins, and that is to

have the esh put down, and the power of Christ resting on

him. en Paul refers to the persons who had sinned — “I

write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all

other, that if I come again I will not spare.” He was afraid,

lest there were debates, envyings, and strifes, and so on

among them, and he would not spare them.

en follow some verses in 2 Corinthians 13. “Examine

yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own

selves.” Most are familiar with what the real truth of it is;

that the beginning of verse 3 is connected with verse 4:

“Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, examine

yourselves,” and so on. e last part of verse 3 with verse 4

is a parenthesis. e apostle had already shown that these

false teachers had been calling him in question; he had been

giving the proofs of his ministry, and at last he says if you

are looking for proof of Christ speaking in me, examine

yourselves, as much as to say, “You foolish people, you are

calling me in question; look then at yourselves.” He adds,

“Except ye be reprobates.” A reprobate is one cast out as

good for nothing; a gure from reprobate silver. He means,

“If you are Christians, Christ has spoken by me, and it is by

my means you are Christians.”

Notes on 2 Corinthians 13

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“We shall live with him by the power of God toward

you” (vs. 4) is, I take it, like saying life works in you, the

power of God manifested towards them; but Paul was

dead as a man; yet, by the power of God that wrought in

him, he lived with Christ. at helps to introduce “examine

yourselves,” because he did not doubt they were living. He

says in one place, “I protest by your rejoicing I die daily.”

But if dead here, he had life in Christ which is much more

solid, I am sure. is examination could not be to pacify

themselves. It is not my examination of my spiritual state

which gives me peace, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I

ought not to get peace in looking at myself, though I trust

there are signs of grace there; but really, unless a man has the

Spirit of Christ, he is not competent to examine himself;

and if he has the Spirit of Christ, there is no sense in doing

it. One was insisting on this examination, and I asked, Are

you competent to judge without the Spirit? It is a blessed

thing when souls are brought to nd out that there is no

good in themselves, that is, in their esh; and then they

do not look for any; they nd that Christ appears in the

presence of God for them, and then all is settled. Nobody

ever gets clear about it until he knows there is no good in

him, and then he looks at Christ.

“ough we be as reprobates” (vs. 7), is as though he said,

“you may consider me good for nothing, but I hope you will

be all right.” It is a kind of taunting speech, not bitter, but

yet taunting in a way — “what are you all about?” “Wish

your perfection” (vs. 9) is, he wishes everything complete in

them; not so much looking at them as full-grown men, but

with everything complete.

In the benediction “Lord Jesus” is title; Jesus is a name.

We are accustomed to take Jesus Christ as a name, which

Collected Writings of J.N. Darby

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it is not. e communion of the Holy Spirit is the power of

the Holy Spirit in us.

Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Most likely this text

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corrections would be warmly received. Please email them to:

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