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e Promise of
Life
By John Nelson Darby
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e Promise of Life: Part 1
Titus 1
It is at the beginning of this chapter that the Spirit
of God marks with an especial character that on which
I desire to speak — the eternal thought of God toward us
which we nd in verses 2, 3. Evil had come in; the Spirit
takes notice of it; and the eect in a most remarkable way
is to throw us back on the whole mind and thought of God
from the beginning. As evil progresses, and corruption
comes in, the apostle turns back to the origin of all, and
coming from the divine nature itself (and all that could
meet the evil, and convey us on, must come from that); that
is, the eternal life which God, Who cannot lie, promised
before the foundation of the world; that which was in the
mind of God as to the thing itself before the foundation of
the world; that which God had in His mind, the counsel of
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God for us before itself was created. It just shows us what
we are, and what man is, with and apart from that eternal
life.
In Ephesians we nd it in connection with Christ
(chap. 3. 3-7): a mystery hidden through all ages in God
until Christ was raised up as Head of the body, the bride.
It is not on this I would dwell. I am not going to speak
about the church, but would turn back to what the life
is, and would dwell on this thought, the promise of life
in the mind of God before the world ever existed. Before
that, I say, this life existed in a person, Christ, the One
Who was in the beginning with God, and was God; that is
the Christ with Whom my life is hidden with the Father.
Being in Himself life, He came into the world as the Life,
and manifested the Life. e thing was embodied in the
person of the Lord as Man; and there it was — the life of
man, not of angels. at which was specially God’s divine
thought toward man is shown out when Christ becomes
Man; and this life is communicated to us, the instrument
used being the preached word of truth. is divine life
had been manifested here in a Man — the Lord Jesus. He
having given it to us, it is now manifested in our bodies. It
has the character of godliness in its manifestation. It tells
you what you are. It is in a poor vessel, and where there is
a wretched will; but it tells you what you are, and what the
world is; it throws out an additional light to show what
man is as a creature totally departed from God.
Morally speaking, the world has grown up in departure
from God; that is, the world we live in — all that we see
around — has sprung up from the creature having got away
from God. But the life we have existed before the creation
of the world; and this portion of scripture is very full of the
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simple, quiet, blessedness of what that life is, practically
manifested and given in Christ. A great deal of evil had
come in. Satan was corrupting the truth by the wild reason
of man’s mind. e apostle specially warns Timothy and
Titus, and throws them back, not on common Christian
profession, but on the faith of God’s elect, the acknowledging
the truth which is after godliness. ey were to be as those
who knew what were the thoughts and mind of God, and
were cast on Him. If I have got divine teaching, I can say
I know the Shepherd’s voice; and if it is not His, I shall
know that too. e truth which is after godliness is not
only acknowledged, but is marked and stamped as of God
by a man living to and for God. Godliness is what a man
would do if instigated by God; and what a man would not
do if God were close by him, it is clear, would certainly
not be for God. A man daily taught by the knowledge
of God how to be living for God would do everything
to manifest the ways of godliness, knowing those ways
because of God. I speak not of doing right instead of
wrong, or of conscientiousness. A believer clearly ought to
be righteous with regard to others; but I speak of godliness.
You never can be for God without knowing what God is.
I cannot walk worthily of God if I do not know Him. I
cannot walk with God without that, though I may walk
uprightly with man. Here it is walking worthy of God, the
loins being girded (aections tucked up). is applies to all
revealed to us in Christ. A believer, as to his motives and
life, has Christ’s mind revealed to him, to show him how
to guide himself through all circumstances. Sorrow could
draw out His heart in divine love, but in motives and all
circumstances He was always Himself (perfect, of course).
It is the mind of Christ that believers are to have. What
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a wonderful place we have got! Only as we are taught of
God can we get hold of this; that is, the hope of eternal life
promised by God before the world began. Mark that; for as
to the Adam life, it never could be that, but a divine life in
those who are saved — a life for heaven. We have got it now,
and we shall be there on account of it. ere will be its full
manifestation, everything there, every word, and all praise
will be according to the presence of God. As participators
of the divine nature we shall be in fullest blessedness there,
where nothing inconsistent with the divine nature can
exist, but everything will be in accordance with that life,
and ourselves as possessors of it in the highest and most
blessed perfection. We belong to that place now, whilst
our bodies are down here. e life we have got came down
from thence, and has its only full sphere of blessing there.
e promise of God before the world began, this life was
in the mind of God for us before ever the world existed. I
do not speak now of predestination, but of the thing itself
in the mind of God before ever the world existed. If we
turn to 1John 1 we see how this Life came down. What
“our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (ver. 1-3).
It is a real Man. e Life which was with the Father was
manifested down here in the person of Christ. In many you
will nd great vagueness of thought in connection with this
life. It is Christ Himself. “When He Who is our life,” &c.
Before He speaks of the communication of life, He speaks
of its manifestation. John could see what it was down here,
amongst friends and enemies. He says, “We have looked
upon, and our hands” &c. e Life which was with the
Father is the life promised before the world began. I get
what it is perfectly displayed. I see this life in One Who, in
due time, fully manifested it as Man. e last Adam is the
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Man in Whom its perfection is seen; a Man in this world,
in all points tempted like us; a perfect Man, without sin,
walking in the world in meekness and holiness, a pattern
set before us to follow.
2Tim. 1:9 shows the way it was given us in Christ. God
connects the two things here: saved by Christ according
to His own purpose and grace given us in Him before the
world began. In this life we see a thing that has its display
in heaven. We have got it now, and in a place where it
is hindered. It leads my thoughts and feelings to be ever
in heaven, where it is as before the world began. ough
displayed in all perfection down here by Him Who has
abolished death, and has brought life and incorruption to
light, the life was in heaven before it was manifested here.
Wonderful truth!
For the power of this life Christ has gone through death
and annulled it. Death is an abolished thing for saints. It
takes us out of all the misery of the rst Adam. It was
not so with saints in the Old Testament. ey could not
say, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” It was
all death to them. Elijah was taken away for a testimony
without passing through death; but Christ passed through
it and annulled it, rose and went up to heaven; and life
and incorruption are thus brought to light. Turn to John
1:4: “In Him was life.” You never could say that of a saint.
God gave us to have that life in His Son. If in ourselves we
might lose it, but if He is my life I cannot. “He that hath
the Son hath life.”
He is the life and light of men, not of angels. is is an
unutterably humbling truth for us. If God was exercising
life-giving power, it was to be manifested in a man, and
therefore the Son of His love becomes Man. God displayed
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it by the incarnation of the Word — the eternal Son. He
was given in promise to us before the world existed: and
He came into the world personally. e Word, made esh,
dwelt among men in all the circumstances in which we
walk. He goes down into the death of the rst Adam and
abolishes death, bringing life and incorruptibility to light,
and goes up to the right hand of God as the display of
this life in a Man up there. What a thought! at eternal
life in this world — a man, a poor man, a carpenter, One
Who had not where to lay His head. e life promised
before the world began now has been made manifest by
the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, and in due time
manifested to those who believe through preaching. Christ
Himself is the great rstfruits of the life that we, as saved
ones, have in Him — He the rstfruits of the great harvest
of God. I repeat, this life, given in promise before the
world existed, was manifested by the Christ, Who in the
power of it passed through death; and in heaven it is now
manifested in the risen Man Christ Jesus: while down here
it is manifested in those who believe through preaching.
at is how we get it. It is preached in the world now.
And what does the world make of it? at is the solemn
thing for your consciences. If we take the world, we get
not the Second Man, but the rst. Turn back to the garden
of Eden, and you get the clue to the present state of the
world and how it began. Man, created in responsibility to
keep his rst estate, was commanded not to eat the fruit
of a certain tree. He eats it, doing his own will, and is cast
out of paradise. And the world begins where paradise
ends; and that is the world we live in, only it is a thousand
times worse, because it has rejected Christ. Yes, the world
around us sprang up when man was driven from paradise.
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A man in a state of responsibility, departed from God,
made the world what it is. And what a world! Solemn as
is the responsibility of man in it, for us who have life it
is only by-the-bye. True, we have to go through it; but it
has nothing to do with the eternal life we have, except as
being the place where the eternal life has been manifested
and brought to us. I would ask, What is man departed
from God about? Making the world a scene of delights
for himself by cultivating the arts and sciences. (You will
nd among the heathen the most beautiful exhibition of
the arts and sciences.) I repeat, man is making a scene for
developing and displaying faculties that have nothing to do
with God (the best as well as the worst have nothing to do
with Him). (To be continued.)
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e Promise of Life: Part 2
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Well, it is in this world that the eternal life has been and
is manifested now. Is it by rst mending and reconstructing
man, by setting the world right, that God gives eternal life?
Is life to be got by reforming the world, by modifying the
evil of the ways and the tastes of man away from God, by
improving man rst without God?
What is man? A responsible being that has never been
lost! A responsible being, I repeat, away from God, and in
departure from God, he has built up for himself a world
without God. Bring God into all the ne things that man
is doing, and what would be the eect? Most of us know
it as a matter of fact that this world, with all its pleasures
and things delightful to the esh, does not let God in, nor
Christ, Who is the eternal life; and I get it as a thing that
comes in between. Eternal life has come down here, and I
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have it in a world that has all its life from the rst man; in a
world entirely departed and alienated from God — a world
that had its origin in man having been turned out of — a
world that, when Christ in divine beauty and grace was in
it, spat in His face and turned Him out. at is the world
I am in now.
But where does my heart go to out of the world? To
that blessed life I have in Christ. I may have got it but
yesterday, but the thing I have received was up there for
me before the foundation of the world. I have got Christ as
my life: “the life I live is by faith of the Son of God;” and
it was in God’s mind to give me this life before the world
was. “He that hath the Son hath life” — a life not of man
at all; and having got it I am to show what is the eect of
it, and from whence I got it. What is the life I got from
the rst Adam? All sin; if put under law, not subject to it;
a life with lusts and a will of its own. I judge it altogether.
When Christ was here, the tree being bad had judgment
pronounced against it. e esh is a judged thing. I nd
only sin and condemnation in connection with it, but I get
God dealing with this sin in the esh: “What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the esh, God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful esh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the esh: that the righteousness of the
law might be fullled in us, who walk not after the esh,
but after the Spirit.”
Mark, it is not only sins remitted, but sin condemned.
Oh, I say, sin is in the esh; I have got it, and I hate it!
It is lusting in me, making me dislike what Christ likes
whilst my heart is set on Christ. But I nd God has dealt
in judgment with it, and put it away on the cross. He
condemned it where it was put away, and that is where I nd
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I am. I have sin, but I am not to be judged for it — Christ
was of God made sin for me. He, in grace, has taken it. My
soul in the power of this truth gets perfect peace. I have no
more conscience of sins; I am no longer dreading God’s
judgment, because I am forgiven; all has merged into the
deliverance Christ has given. I have perfect liberty; sin has
not dominion: I judge this esh of mine, and all its lusts
and will entirely, because it is a judged thing. I am crucied
with Christ; I stand in a new condition; I have eternal life
in me, Christ being my life. I have liberty and joy by His
going through death; I have died, and am risen with Him.
is is where I am brought by grace.
I have not only a life of him that departed from God,
but as a believer the life of Him Who came into the place
where I was away from God, to bring me back to God. I
belong to Him; I am risen with Him, where the eternal life
is to be displayed. In spirit I am up, there now whilst in the
body waiting for Him to come. I am in a world that is merely
by the bye to me, only a thing I have to pass through; not of
it, even as Christ was not. He passed through and left us an
example that we should follow, walking in His footsteps.
I am to reckon myself dead. “As we have borne the image
of the earthly, even so,” etc. A believer does not belong to
the rst man, but to the Second. e life of Christ is his,
and that is all be owns as his life — that life so blessed, so
divine, that the world would not have it, and shrunk from
it because it was so perfect, and God took it up and put it
on His throne as the only place tted for it.
Christ down here displayed everything that characterizes
this life. I should like to mark one or two traits of it. One
is that quiet condence with God that springs from, and
is the fruit of, divine love, that which can trust God and is
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capable of enjoying blessed communion with God, enabling
one through all things and circumstances here to walk
conding in God. One could not have had that condence
if Christ had not died to put away sin, and brought me
into relationship with God. Having a purged conscience,
I can delight in God; and as regards my walk through this
world, Christ is my life, my all. I am consciously dependent
on Him. As we pass on through this world we have to
overcome. How? “is is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith.” Life has this especial character. It
avoids evil, and walks in grace through the world. If I have
the life of Christ, I am to walk down here as He walked, in
practical life, “Always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Lord,” etc. with the consciousness that it came from
God, promised before the world was.
We shall most surely nd defectiveness in this from
not having self-judged, and the spirit free to enjoy Christ.
We have to watch that things of this world do not narrow
up the life that is to be made manifest. Do we not nd
continually that we get under the power of circumstances,
by which the heart is often narrowed? How often we have
to say, I did not think of that at the right moment! But
if always bearing about the dying of the Lord, it would
be always easy to manifest His life. If the heart be full of
Christ, it will always be ready for Christ. e tendency of
saints is to have the heart narrowed up — not ever ready
for God and their neighbor. It would not be so if we could
only get the heart exercised under a deep consciousness of
what the life we have got is, and what the world is, what
a. poor, little, wretched thing it is. Having hearts exercised
to discern good and evil whilst down here, we should
pass through this world as pilgrims and strangers, having
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cleansed consciences able to judge the esh as being only
the old thing. Life being given, the world (grown up from
man rejecting God) is the place where this life is to be
exercised, and we get various exercises. See what Paul
passed through “We who live are always delivered unto
death,” etc. He gloried in tribulation and in inrmities if
only the life might be manifested. I desire that your hearts
should get hold of what this eternal life is, so to live in the
power of it, that you should see how it came into the world
revealed in Christ.
Seeing all its blessedness and beauty in Christ, the heart
clings round it. In Him the life was the light of men. What
a thing — in the place where Satan rules to have God’s own
life given to us in His Son, and that we live in Christ only,
but ever remember that this life has no anity with the
world! We have to manifest the light of life in the midst
of the world that will not have Christ; and, alas! how
constantly everything tends to make us live by sight instead
of by faith. But whatever we fail in, we shall certainly nd
that God has given us everything in Christ.
Oh, may He give us to know more and more what
that eternal life is which was promised in Him before the
foundation of the world! J. N. D. (Continued from page
117.)
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