Before we pass on to our last
important subject we will review some of the ground we have
covered and summarize the steps taken. We have sought to make
things simple, and to explain clearly some of the experiences
which Christians commonly pass through. But it is clear that the
new discoveries that we make as we walk with the Lord are many,
and we must be careful to avoid the temptation to over-simplify
the work of God. To do so may lead us into serious confusion.
There are children of God who
believe that all our salvation, in which they would include the
matter of leading a holy life, lies in an appreciation of the
value of the precious Blood. They rightly emphasize the
importance of keeping short accounts with God over known specific
sins, and the continual efficacy of the Blood to deal with sins
committed, but they think of the Blood as doing everything. They
believe in a holiness which in fact means only separation of the
man from his past; that, through the up-to-date blotting out of
what he has done on the ground of the shed Blood, God separates a
man out of the world to be His, and that is holiness; and they
stop there. Thus they stop short of God's basic demands, and so
of the full provision He has made. I think we have by now seen
clearly the inadequacy of this.
Then there are those who go further
and see that God has included them in the death of His Son on the
Cross, in order to deliver them from sin and the Law by dealing
with the old man. These are they who really exercise faith in the
Lord, for they glory in Christ Jesus and have ceased to put
confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3). In them God has a clear
foundation on which to build. And from this as starting-point,
many have gone further still and recognized that consecration
(using that word in the right sense) means giving themselves
without reserve into His hands and following Him. All these are
first steps, and starting from them we have already touched upon
other phases of experience set before us by God and enjoyed by
many. It is always essential for us to remember that, while each
of them is a precious fragment of truth, no single one of them is
by itself the whole of truth. All come to us as the fruit of the
work of Christ on the Cross, and we cannot afford to ignore any.
Recognizing a number of such
phases in the life and experience of a believer, we note now a
further fact, namely that, though these phases do not necessarily
occur always in a fixed and precise order, they seem to be marked
by certain recurring steps or features. What are these steps?
First there is revelation. As we have seen, this always precedes
faith and experience. Through His Word God opens our eyes to the
truth of some fact concerning His Son, and then only, as in Faith
we accept that fact for ourselves, does it become actual as
experience in our lives. Thus we have:
1. Revelation (Objective).
2. Experience (Subjective).
Then further, we note that such
experience usually takes the two-fold form of a crisis leading to
a continuous process. It is most helpful to think of this in
terms of John Bunyan's 'wicket gate' through which Christian
entered upon a 'narrow path'. Our Lord Jesus spoke of such a gate
and a path leading unto life (Matt. 7:14), and experience accords
with this. So now we have:
1. Revelation.
2. Experience: (a) A Wicket gate
(Crisis)
(b) A narrow path (Process)
Now let us take some of the
subjects we have been dealing with and see how this helps us to
understand them. We will take first our justification and
new birth. This begins with a revelation of the Lord Jesus in
His atoning work for our sins on the Cross; there follows the
crisis of repentance and faith (the wicket gate), whereby we are
initially "made nigh" to God (Eph. 2:13); and this
leads us into a walk of maintained fellowship with Him (the
narrow path), for which the ground of our day-to-day access is
still the precious Blood (Heb 10:29,22). When we come to deliverance
from sin, we again have three steps: the Holy Spirit's work
of revelation, or 'knowing' (Rom. 6:6); the crisis of faith, or
'reckoning' (Rom. 6:11); and the continuing process of
consecration, or 'presenting ourselves' to God (Rom. 6:13) on the
basis of a walk in newness of life. Consider next the gift of
the Holy Spirit. This too begins with a new 'seeing' of the
Lord Jesus as exalted to the throne, which issues in the dual
experience of the Spirit outpoured and the Spirit in dwelling.
Going a stage further, to the matter of pleasing God, we
find again the need for spiritual illumination, that we may see
the values of the Cross in regard to 'the flesh' -- the entire
self-life of man. Our acceptance of this by faith leads at once
to a 'wicket gate' experience (Rom. 7:25), in which we initially
cease from 'doing' and accept by faith the mighty working of the
life of Christ to satisfy God's practical demands in us. This in
turn leads us into the 'narrow path' of a walk in obedience to
the Spirit (Rom. 8:4).
The picture is not identical in
each case, and we must beware of forcing any rigid pattern upon
the Holy Spirit's working; but perhaps any new experience will
come to us more or less on these lines. There will certainly
always be first an opening of our eyes to some new aspect of
Christ and His finished work, and then faith will open a gate
into a pathway. Remember, too, that our division of Christian
experience into various subjects: justification, new birth, the
gift of the spirit, deliverance, sanctification, etc., is for our
clearer understanding only. It does not mean that these stages
must or will always follow one another in a certain prescribed
order. In fact, if a full presentation of Christ and His Cross is
made to us at the very outset, we may well step into a great deal
of experience from the first day of our Christian life, even
though the full explanation of much of it may follow later. Would
that all Gospel preaching were of such a kind!
One thing is certain, that
revelation will always precede faith. When we see something that
God has done in Christ our natural response is: 'Thank
you, Lord !' and faith follows spontaneously. Revelation is
always the work of the Holy Spirit, who is given to come
along-side and, by opening the Scriptures to us, to guide us into
all the truth (John 16:13). Count upon Him, for He is here for
that very thing; and when such difficulties as lack of
understanding or lack of faith confront you, address those
difficulties directly to the Lord: 'Lord, open my eyes. Lord,
make this new thing clear to me. Lord, help Thou my unbelief!' He
will not fail you.
We are now in a position to go a
step further still and to consider how great a range is compassed
by the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of Christian
experience and for the purpose of analysis, it may help us if we
recognize four aspects of God's redemptive work. But in doing so
it is essential to keep in mind that the Cross of Christ is one
Divine work -- not many. Once in Judaea two thousand years
ago the Lord Jesus died and rose again, and He is now "by
the right hand of God exalted" (Acts 2:33). The work is
finished and need never be repeated, nor can it be added to.
Of the four aspects of the Cross
which we shall now mention, we have already dealt with three in
some detail. The last will be considered in the two succeeding
chapters of our study. They may be briefly summarized as follows:
1. The Blood of Christ to deal with sins and guilt.
2. The Cross of Christ to deal with sin, the flesh and the natural man.
3. The Life of Christ made available to indwell, re-create and empower man.
4. The Working of Death in the natural man that that
indwelling Life may be progressively manifest.
The first two of these aspects are
remedial. They relate to the undoing of the work of the Devil and
the undoing of the sin of man. The last two are not remedial but
positive, and relate more directly to the securing of the purpose
of God. The first two are concerned with recovering what Adam
lost by the Fall; the last two are concerned with bringing us
into, and bringing into us, something that Adam never had. Thus
we see that the achievement of the Lord Jesus in His death and
resurrection comprises both a work which provided for the
redemption of man and a work which made possible the realization
of the purpose of God.
We have dealt at some length in
earlier chapters with the two aspects of His death represented by
the Blood for sins and guilt and the Cross for sin and the flesh.
In our discussion of the eternal purpose we have also looked
briefly at the third aspect -- that represented by Christ as the
grain of wheat -- and in our last chapter, in our consideration
of Christ as our life, we have seen something of its practical
outworking. Before, however, we pass on to the fourth aspect,
which I shall call 'bearing the cross', we must say a little more
about this third side, namely, the release of the life of Christ
in resurrection for man's indwelling and empowering for service.
We have spoken already of the
purpose of God in creation and have said that it embraced far
more than Adam ever came to enjoy. What was that purpose? God
wanted to have a race of men whose members were gifted with a
spirit whereby communion would be possible with Himself, who is
Spirit. That race, possessing God's own life, was to co-operate
in securing His purposed end by defeating every possible uprising
of the enemy and undoing his evil works. That was the great plan.
How will it now be effected? The answer is again to be found in
the death of the Lord Jesus. It is a mighty death. It is
something positive and purposive, going far beyond the recovery
of a lost position; for by it, not only are sin and the old man
dealt with and their effects annulled, but something more,
something infinitely greater is introduced.
Now we must have before us two
passages of the Word, one from Genesis 2 and one from Ephesians
5, which are of great importance in this connection.
"And the Lord God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of
his ribs, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a
woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is
now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called
Woman (Heb. ishshah), because she was taken out of Man
(Heb. ish)" (Gen. 2:21-23).
"Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it;
that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of
water with the word, that he might present the church to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph.
5:25-27).
In Ephesians 5 we have the only
chapter in the Bible which explains the passage in Genesis 2.
What we have presented to us in Ephesians is indeed very
remarkable, if we reflect upon it. I refer to what is contained
in those words: "Christ ... loved the church". There is
something most precious here.
We have been taught to think of
ourselves as sinners needing redemption. For generations that has
been instilled into us, and we praise the Lord for that as our
beginning; but it is not what God has in view as His end.
God speaks here rather of "a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but .. holy and without
blemish". All too often we have thought of the Church as
being merely so many 'saved sinners'. It is that; but we
have made the terms almost equal to one another, as though it
were only that, which is not the case. Saved sinners --
with that thought you have the whole background of sin and the
Fall; but in God's sight the Church is a Diving creation in
His Son. The one is largely individual, the other corporate.
With the one the view is negative, belonging to the past; with
the other it is positive, looking forward. The "eternal
purpose" is something in the mind of God from eternity
concerning His Son, and it has as its objective that the Son
should have a Body to express His life. Viewed from that
standpoint -- from the standpoint of the heart of God -- the
Church is something which is beyond sin and has never been
touched by sin.
So we have an aspect of the death
of the Lord Jesus in Ephesians which we do not have so clearly in
other places. In Romans things are viewed from the standpoint of
fallen man, and beginning with 'Christ died for sinners, enemies,
the ungodly' (Rom. 5) we are led progressively to "the love
of Christ" (Rom. 8:35). In Ephesians, on the other hand, the
standpoint is that of God "before the foundation of the
world" (Eph. 1:4), and the heart of the gospel is:
"Christ ... loved the church, and gave himself up for
it" (Eph. 5:25). Thus, in Romans it is "we
sinned", and the message is of God's love for sinners (Rom.
5:8); whereas in Ephesians it is "Christ loved", and
the love here is the love of husband for wife. That kind of love
has fundamentally nothing to do with sin as such. What is in view
in this passage is not atonement for sin but the creation of the
Church, for which end it is said that He "gave
himself".
There is thus an aspect of the
death of the Lord Jesus which is altogether positive and a matter
particularly of love to His Church, where the question of sin and
sinners does not directly appear. To bring this fact home Paul
takes that incident in Genesis 2 as illustration. Now this is one
of the marvelous things in the Word, and if our eyes have been
opened to see it we will certainly worship.
From Genesis 3 onwards, from the
'coats of skins' to Abel's sacrifice, and on from there through
the whole Old Testament, there are numerous types which set forth
the death of the Lord Jesus as an atonement for sin; yet the
apostle does not appeal here to any of those types of His death,
but to this one in Genesis 2. Note that; and then recall that it
was not until Genesis 3 that sin came in. There is one type of
the death of Christ in the Old Testament which has nothing to do
with sin, for it is not subsequent to the Fall but prior to it,
and that type is here in Genesis 2. Let us look at it for a
moment.
Could we say that Adam was put to
sleep because Eve had committed a serious sin? Is that what we
have here? Certainly not, for Eve was not yet even created. There
were as yet no moral issues involved and no problems at all. No,
Adam was put to sleep for the express purpose that something
might be taken out of him to be made into someone else. His sleep
was not for her sin but for her existence. That is what is
taught in these verses. This experience of Adam had as its object
the creation of Eve, as something determined in the Divine
counsels. God wanted an ishshah. He put the man (ish)
to sleep, took a rib from his side and made it into ishshah,
a woman, and brought her to the man. That is the picture which
God is giving us. It foreshadows an aspect of the death of the
Lord Jesus that is not primarily for atonement, but answerable to
the sleep of Adam in this chapter.
God forbid that I should suggest
that the Lord Jesus did not die for purposes of atonement. Praise
God, He did. We must remember that today we are in fact in
Ephesians 5 and not in Genesis 2. Ephesians was written after
the Fall, to men who had suffered from its effects, and in it we
have not only the purpose in Creation but also the scars of the
Fall -- or there would need to be no mention of "spot or
wrinkle". Because we are still on the earth and the Fall is
a historic fact, 'cleansing' is needed.
But we must always view redemption
as an interruption, an 'emergence' measure, made necessary by a
catastrophic break in the straight line of the purpose of God.
Redemption is big enough, wonderful enough, to occupy a very
large place in our vision, but God is saying that we should not
make redemption to be everything, as though man were created
to be redeemed. The Fall is indeed a tragic dip downwards in
that line of purpose, and the atonement a blessed recovery
whereby our sins are blotted out and we are restored; but when it
is accomplished there yet remains a work to be done to bring us
into possession of that which Adam never possessed, and to give
God that which His heart desires. For God has never forsaken the
purpose which is represented by that straight line. Adam was
never in possession of the life of God as presented in the tree
of life. But because of the one work of the Lord Jesus in His
death and resurrection (and we must emphasize again that it is
all one work) His life was released to become ours by faith, and
we have received more than Adam ever possessed. The very purpose
of God is brought within reach of fulfillment by our receiving
Christ as our life.
Adam was put to sleep. We remember
that it is said of believers that they fall asleep, rather than
that they die. Why? Because whenever death is mentioned sin is
there in the background. In Genesis 3 sin entered into the world
and death through sin, but Adam's sleep preceded that. So the
type of the Lord Jesus here is not like other types on the Old
Testament. In relation to sin and atonement there is a lamb or a
bullock slain; but here Adam was not slain, but only put to sleep
to awake again. Thus he prefigures a death that is
not on account of sin, but that has in view increase in
resurrection. Then too we must note that Eve was not created as a
separate entity by a separate creation, parallel to that of Adam.
Adam slept, and Eve was created out of Adam. That is God's method
with the Church. God's second Man' has awakened from His 'sleep'
and His Church is created in Him and of Him, to draw her life
from Him and to display that resurrection life.
God has a Son who is known to be
the only begotten, and God is seeking that the only begotten Son
should have brethren. From the position of only begotten He will
become the first begotten, and instead of the Son alone God will
have many sons. One grain of wheat has died and many grains will
spring up. The first grain was once the only grain; now it is
changed to be the first grain of many. The Lord Jesus laid down
His life, and that life emerged in many lives. These are the
Biblical figures we have used hitherto in our study to express
this truth. Now, in the figure just considered, the singular
takes the place of the plural. The outcome of the Cross is a
single person: a Bride for the Son. Christ loved the Church and
gave Himself up for it.
We have said that there is an
aspect of the death of Christ presented to us in Ephesians 5
which is to some extent different from that which we have been
studying in Romans. Yet in fact this aspect is the very end to
which our study of Romans has been moving, and it is into this
that the letter is leading us as we shall now see, for redemption
leads us back into God's original line of purpose.
In chapter 8 Paul speaks to us of
Christ as the firstborn Son among many Spirit-led "sons of
God" (Rom. 8:14). "For whom he foreknew, he also
foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he
foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he
also justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified" (Rom. 8:29,30). Here justification is seen to
lead on to glory, a glory that is expressed not in one or more
individuals but in a plurality: in many who manifest the image of
One. And this object of our redemption is further set forth, as
we have seen, in "the love of Christ" for His own,
which is the subject of the last verses of the chapter (8:35-39).
But what is implicit here in chapter 8 becomes explicit as we
move over into chapter 12, the subject of which is the Body of
Christ.
After the first eight chapters of
Romans, which we have been studying, there follows a parenthesis
in which God's sovereign dealings with Israel are taken up and
dealt with, before the theme of the first chapters is resumed.
Thus, for our present purpose, the argument of chapter 12 follows
that of chapter 8 and not of chapter 11. We might very simply
summarize these chapters thus: Our sins are forgiven (ch. 5), we
are dead with Christ (ch. 6), we are by nature utterly helpless
(ch. 7), therefore we rely upon the indwelling Spirit (ch. 8).
After this, and as a consequence of it: "We ... are one body
in Christ" (ch. 12). It is as though this were the logical
outcome of all that has gone before, and the thing to which it
has all been leading.
Romans 12 and the following chapter
contain some very practical instructions for our life and walk.
These are introduced with an emphasis once again on consecration.
In chapter 6:13 Paul has said: "Present yourselves unto God,
as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God". But now in chapter 12:1 the
emphasis is a little different: "I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service". This new appeal for consecration is made to us as
"brethren", linking us in thought to the "many
brethren" of chapter 8:29. It is a call to us for a united
step of faith, the presenting of our bodies as one "living
sacrifice" unto God.
This is something that goes beyond
the merely individual, for it implies contribution to a whole.
The 'presenting' is personal but the sacrifice is corporate; it
is one sacrifice. Intelligent service to God is one service. We
need never feel our contribution is not needed, for if it
contributes to the service, God is satisfied. And it is
through this kind of service that we prove "what is the good
and acceptable and perfect will of God" (ch. 12:2), or, in
other words, realize God's eternal purpose in Christ Jesus. So
Paul's appeal "to every man that is among you" (12:3)
is in the light of this new Divine fact, that "we, who are
many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of
another" (12:5), and it is on this basis that the practical
instructions follow.
The vessel through which the Lord
Jesus can reveal Himself in this generation is not the individual
but the Body. "God hath dealt to each man a measure of
faith" (12:3), but alone in isolation man can never fulfill
God's purpose. It requires a complete Body to attain to the
stature of Christ and to display His glory. Oh that we might
really see this!
So Romans 12:3-6 draws from the
figure of the human body the lesson of our inter-dependence.
Individual Christians are not the Body but are members of the
Body, and in a human body "all the members have not the same
office". The ear must not imagine itself to be an eye. No
amount of prayer will give sight to the ear -- but the whole body
can see through the eye. So (speaking figuratively) I may have
only the gift of hearing, but I can see through others who have
the gift of sight; or, perhaps I can walk but cannot work, so I
receive help from the hands. An all-too-common attitude to the
things of the Lord is that, 'What I know, I know; and what I
don't know, I don't know, and can do quite well without.' But in
Christ, the things we do not know others do, and we may know them
and enter into the enjoyment of them through others.
Let me stress that this is not just
a comfortable thought. It is a vital factor in the life of God's
people. We cannot get along without one another. That is why
fellowship in prayer is so important. Prayer together brings in
the help of the Body, as must be clear from Matthew 18:19,20.
Trusting the Lord by myself may not be enough. I must trust Him
with others. I must learn to pray "Our Father
..." on the basis of oneness with the Body, for without the
help of the Body I cannot get through. In the sphere of service
this is even more apparent. Alone I cannot serve the Lord
effectively, and He will spare no pains to teach me this. He will
bring things to an end, allowing doors to close and leaving me
ineffectively knocking my head against a blank wall until I
realize that I need the help of the Body as well as of the Lord.
For the life of Christ is the life of the Body, and His gifts are
given to us for work that builds up the Body.
The Body is not an illustration but
a fact. The Bible does not just say that the Church is like
a body, but that it is the Body of Christ. "We, who
are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of
another." All the members together are one Body, for
all share His life -- as though He were Himself distributed among
His members. I was once with a group of Chinese believers who
found it very hard to understand how the Body could be one when
they were all separate individual men and women who made it up.
One Sunday I was about to break the bread at the Lord's table and
I asked them to look very carefully at the loaf before I broke
it. Then, after it had been distributed and eaten, I pointed out
that though it was inside all of them it was still one loaf --
not many. The loaf was divided, but Christ is not divided even in
the sense in which that loaf was. He is still one Spirit in us,
and we are all one in Him.
This is the very opposite of man's
condition by nature. In Adam I have the life of Adam, but that is
essentially individual. There is no union, no fellowship in sin,
but only self-interest and distrust of others. As I go on with
the Lord I soon discover, not only that the problem of sin and of
my natural strength has to be dealt with, but that there is also
a further problem created by my 'individual' life, the life that
is sufficient in itself and does not recognize its need for and
union in the Body. I may have got over the problems of sin and
the flesh, and yet still be a confirmed individualist. I want
holiness and victory and fruitfulness for myself personally and
apart, albeit from the purest motives. but such an attitude
ignores the Body, and so cannot provide God with satisfaction. he
must deal with me therefore in this matter also, or I shall
remain in conflict with His ends. God does not blame me for being
an individual, but for my individualism. His greatest
problem is not the outward divisions and denominations that
divide His Church but our own individualistic hearts.
Yes, the Cross must do its work
here, reminding me that in Christ I have died to that old life of
independence which I inherited from Adam, and that in
resurrection I have become not just an individual believer in
Christ but a member of His Body. There is a vast difference
between the two. When I see this, I shall at once have done with
independence and shall seek fellowship. The life of Christ in me
will gravitate to the life of Christ in others. I can no longer
take an individual line. Jealousy will go. Competition will go.
Private work will go. My interests, my ambitions, my preferences,
all will go. It will no longer matter which of us does the work.
All that will matter will be that the Body grows.
I said: 'When I see this
...' That is the great need: to see the Body of Christ as
another great Divine fact; to have it break in upon our spirits
by heavenly revelation that "we, who are many, are
one body in Christ". Only the Holy Spirit can bring this
home to us in all its meaning, but when He does it will
revolutionize our life and work.
We only see history back to the
Fall. God sees it from the beginning. There was something in
God's mind before the Fall, and in the ages to come that
thing is to be fully realized. God knew all about sin and
redemption; yet in His great purpose for the Church set forth in
Genesis 2 there is no view of sin. It is as though (to speak in
finite terms) He leaps in thought right over the whole story of
redemption and sees the Church in future eternity, having a
ministry and a (future) history which is altogether apart from
sin and wholly of God. It is the Body of Christ in glory,
expressing nothing of fallen man but only that which is the image
of the glorified Son of man. This is the Church that has
satisfied God's heart and has attained dominion.
In Ephesians 5 we stand within the
history of redemption, and yet through grace we still have this
eternal purpose of God in view as expressed in the statement that
He will 'present unto himself a glorious Church'. But now we note
that the water of life and the cleansing Word are needed to
prepare the Church (now marred by the Fall) for presentation to
Christ in glory. For now there are defects to be remedied and
wounds to be healed. And yet how precious is the promise and how
gracious are the words used of her: "not having spot"
-- the scars of sin, whose very history is now forgotten;
"or wrinkle" -- the marks of age and of time lost, for
all is now made up and all is new; and "without
blemish" -- so that Satan or demons or men can find no
ground for blame in her.
This is where we are now. The age
is closing, and Satan's power is greater than ever. Our warfare
is with angels and principalities and powers (Rom. 8:38); Eph.
6:12) who are set to withstand and destroy the work of God in us
by laying many things to the charge of God's elect. Alone we
could never be their match, but what we alone cannot do the
Church can. Sin, self-reliance and individualism were Satan's
master-strokes at the heart of God's purpose in man, and in the
Cross God has undone them. As we put our faith in what He has
done -- in "God that justifieth" and in "Christ
Jesus that died" (Rom. 8:33,34) -- we present a front
against which the very gates of Hades shall not prevail. We, His
Church, are "more than conquerors through him that loved
us" (Rom. 8:37).
The Normal Christian Life - Chapter 12: The Cross and the Soul Life
