We have spoken of the need of
revelation, of faith and of consecration, if we are to live the
normal Christian life. But unless we see the end God has in view
we shall never clearly understand why these steps are necessary
to lead us to that end. Before therefore we consider further the
question of inward experience, let us first look at the great
Divine goal before us.
What is God's purpose in creation
and what is His purpose in redemption? It may be summed up in two
phrases, one from each of our two sections of Romans. It is:
"The glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and "The glory
of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).
In Romans 3:23 we read: "All
have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God". God's
purpose for man was glory, but sin thwarted that purpose by
causing man to miss God's glory. When we think of sin we
instinctively think of the judgment it brings; we invariably
associate it with condemnation and hell. Man's thought is always
of the punishment that will come to him if he sins, but God's
thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. The
result of sin is that we forfeit God's glory: the result of
redemption is that we are qualified again for glory. God's
purpose in redemption is glory, glory, glory.
This consideration takes us
forward into Romans chapter 8 where the topic is developed in
verses 16 to 18 and again in verses 29 and 30. Paul says:
"We are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified with him. For I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed to usward" (Romans
8:16-18); and again: "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" (Romans 8:29,30). What
was God's objective? It was that His Son Jesus Christ might be
the firstborn among many brethren, all of whom should be
conformed to His image. How did God realize that objective?
"Whom he justified, them he also glorified." God's
purpose, then, in creation and redemption was to make Christ the
firstborn Son among many glorified sons. That may perhaps at
first convey very little to many of us, but let us look into it
more carefully.
In John 1:14 we are told that the
Lord Jesus was God's only begotten Son: "the Word became
flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of
the only begotten from the Father)". That He was God's only
begotten Son signifies that God had no other Son but this one. He
was with the Father from all eternity. But, we are told, God was
not satisfied that Christ should remain the only begotten Son; He
wanted also to make Him His first begotten. How could an only
begotten Son become a first begotten? The answer is simple: by
the Father having more children. If you have but one son then his
is the only begotten, but if thereafter you have other children
then the only begotten becomes the first begotten.
The Divine purpose in creation and
redemption was that God should have many children. He wanted us,
and could not be satisfied without us. Some time ago I called to
see Mr. George Cutting, the writer of the well-known tract Safety,
Certainty and Enjoyment. When I was ushered into the presence
of this old saint of ninety-three years, he took my hand in his
and in a quiet, deliberate way he said: 'Brother, do you know, I
cannot do without Him? And do you know, He cannot do without me?'
Though I was with him for over an hour, his great age and
physical frailty made any sustained conversation impossible. But
what remains in my memory of that interview was his frequent
repetition of these two questions: 'Brother, do you know, I
cannot do without Him? And do you know, He cannot do without
me?'
In reading the story of the
prodigal son most people are impressed with all the troubles the
prodigal meets; they are occupied in thinking what a bad time he
is having. But that is not the point of the parable. "My son
... was lost, and is found" -- there is the heart of the
story. It is not a question of what the son suffers but of what
the Father loses. He is the sufferer; He is the
loser. A sheep is lost: whose is the loss? The shepherd's. A coin
is lost: whose is the loss? The woman's. A son is lost: whose is
the loss? The Father's. That is the lesson of Luke chapter 15.
The Lord Jesus was the only
begotten Son, and as the only begotten He had no brothers. But
the Father sent the Son in order that the only begotten might
also be the first begotten, and the beloved Son have many
brethren. There you have the whole story of the Incarnation and
the Cross; and there you have at the last the purpose of God
fulfilled in His "bringing many sons unto glory" (Heb.
2:10).
In Romans 8:29 we read of
"many brethren"; in Hebrews :10 of "many
sons". From the point of view of the Lord Jesus it is
"brethren"; from the point of view of God the Father it
is "sons". Both words in this context convey the idea
of maturity. God is seeking full-grown sons; but He does not stop
even there. For He does not want His sons to live in a barn or a
garage or a field; He wants them in His home; He wants them to
share His glory. That is the explanation of Romans 8:30:
"Whom he justified, them he also glorified." Sonship --
the full expression of His Son -- is God's goal in the many sons.
How could He bring that about? By justifying them and then by
glorifying them. In His dealings with them God will never stop
short of that goal. He set Himself to have sons, and to have
those sons, mature and responsible, with Him in glory. He made
provision for the whole of Heaven to be peopled with glorified
sons. That was His purpose in redemption.
But how could God's only
begotten Son become His first begotten? The method is explained
in John 12:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a
grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself
alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." Who was that
grain? It was the Lord Jesus. In the whole universe God had only
one 'grain of wheat'; He had no second grain. God put His one
grain of wheat into the ground and it died, and in resurrection
the only begotten grain became the first begotten grain, and from
the one grain there have sprung many grains.
In respect of His divinity the Lord
Jesus remains uniquely "the only begotten Son of God".
Yet there is a sense in which, from the resurrection onward
through all eternity, He is also the first begotten, and His life
from that time is found in many brethren. For we who are born of
the Spirit are made thereby "partakers of the divine
nature" (2 Peter 1:4), though not, mark you, as of ourselves
but only, as we shall see in a moment, in dependence upon God and
by virtue of our being 'in Christ'. We have "received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of
God" (Rom. 8:5,16). It was by way of the Incarnation and the
Cross that the Lord Jesus made this possible. Therein was the
Father-heart of God satisfied, for in the Son's obedience unto
death the Father has secured His many sons.
The first and the twentieth
chapters of John are in this respect most precious. In the
beginning of his Gospel John tells us that Jesus was "the
only begotten from the Father". At the end of his Gospel he
tells us how, after the Lord Jesus died and rose again, He said
to Mary Magdalene, "Go unto my brethren, and say to them, I
ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your
God" (John 20:17). Hitherto in this Gospel the Lord had
spoken often of "the Father" or of "my
Father". Now, in resurrection, He add, "... and your
Father". It is the eldest Son, the first begotten, speaking.
By His death and resurrection many brethren have been brought
into God's family, and so, in the same verse He uses this very
name for them: "My brethren". "He is not ashamed
to call them brethren" (Heb. 2:11).
God planted a great number of
trees in the garden of Eden, but "in the midst of the
garden" -- that is, in a place of special prominence -- He
planted two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Adam was created innocent; he had no knowledge
of good and evil. Think of a grown man, say thirty years old, who
has no sense of right or wrong, no power to differentiate between
the two! Would you not say such a man was undeveloped? Well, that
is exactly what Adam was. And God brings him into the garden and
says to him, in effect, 'Now the garden is full of trees, full of
fruits, and of the fruit of every tree you may eat freely. But in
the very midst of the garden is one tree called "the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil"; you must not eat of that,
for in the day that you do so you will surely die. But
remember, the name of the other tree close by is Life.'
What, then, is the meaning of these two trees? Adam was, so to
speak, created morally neutral -- neither sinful nor holy, but
innocent -- and God put those two trees there so that he might
exercise free choice. He could choose the tree of life, or he
could choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the knowledge of good and evil,
though forbidden to Adam, is not wrong in itself. Without it
however Adam is in a sense limited in that he cannot decide for
himself on moral issues. Judgment of right and wrong resides
not in him but in God, and Adam's only course when faced with any
question is to refer it to Jehovah God. Thus you have a life in
the garden which is totally dependent on God. These two trees,
then, typify two deep principles; they represent two planes of
life, the Divine and the human. The "tree of life" is
God Himself, for God is life. He is the highest form of life, and
He is also the source and goal of life. And the fruit: what is
that? It is our Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot eat the tree but
you can eat the fruit. No one is able to receive God as God, but
we can receive the Lord Jesus. The fruit is the edible part, the
receivable part of the tree. So -- may I say it reverently? --
the Lord Jesus is really God in a receivable form. God in Christ
we can receive.
If Adam should take of the tree of
life, he would partake of the life of God and thus become a 'son'
of God, in the sense of having in him a life that derived from
God. There you would have God's life in union with man: a race of
men having the life of God in them and living in constant
dependence upon God for that life. If on the other hand Adam
should turn the other way and take the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, then he would develop his own manhood
along natural lines apart from God. Reaching a peak of attainment
as a self-sufficient being, he would have the power in himself to
form independent judgment, but he would have no life from God.
So this was the alternative that
lay before him. Choosing the way of the Spirit, the way of
obedience, he could become a 'son' of God, living in dependence
upon God for his life; or, taking the natural course, he could
put the finishing touch to himself, as it were, by becoming a
self-dependent being, judging and acting apart from God. The
history of humanity is the outcome of the choice he made.
Adam chose the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil and thereby took up independent
ground. In doing so he became (as man is now in his own eyes) a
'fully developed' man. He could command a knowledge; he could
decide for himself; he could go on or stop. From then on he was
"wise" (Genesis 3:6). But the consequence for his was
death rather than life, because the choice he had made involved
complicity with Satan and brought him therefore under the
judgment of God. That is why access to the tree of life had
thereafter to be forbidden to him.
Two planes of life had been set
before Adam: that of Divine life in dependence upon God, and that
of human life with its 'independent' resources. Adam's choice of
the latter was sin, because thereby he allied himself with Satan
to thwart the eternal purpose of God. He did so by choosing to
develop his manhood -- to become perhaps a very fine man, even by
his standards a 'perfect' man -- apart from God. But the end was
death, because he had not in him the Divine life necessary to
realize God's purpose in his being, but had chosen to become
instead an 'independent' agent of the Enemy. Thus in Adam we all
become sinners, equally dominated by Satan, equally subject to
the law of sin and death, and equally deserving of the wrath of
God.
From this we see the Divine reason
for the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We see too the
Divine reason for true consecration -- for reckoning ourselves to
be dead unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and for
presenting ourselves unto Him as alive from the dead. We must all
go to the Cross, because what is in us by nature is a
self-life, subject to the law of sin. Adam chose a self-life
rather than a Divine life; so God had to gather up all that was
in Adam and do away with it. Our 'old man' has been crucified.
God has put us all in Christ and crucified Him as the last Adam,
and thus all that is of Adam has passed away.
Then Christ arose in new form; with
a body still, but 'in the Spirit', no longer 'in the flesh'.
"The last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor.
15:45). The Lord Jesus now has a resurrected body, a spiritual
body, a glorious body, and since He is no longer in the flesh He
can now be received by all. "He that eateth me, he also
shall live because of me", said Jesus (John 6:57). The Jews
revolted at the thought of eating His flesh and drinking His
blood, but of course they could not receive Him then because He
was still literally in the flesh. Now that He is in the Spirit
every one of us can receive Him, and it is by partaking of His
resurrection life that we are constituted children of God.
"As many as received him, to them gave he the right to
become children of God ... which were born ... of God."
(John 1:12,13).
God is not out to reform our life.
It is not His thought to bring it to a certain stage of
refinement, for it is on a totally wrong plane. On that plane He
cannot now bring man to glory. He must have a new man; one
born anew, born of God. Regeneration and justification go
together.
There are various planes of
life. Human life lies between the life of the lower animals and
the life of God. We cannot bridge the gulf that divides us from
the plan above or the plan below, and the distance that separates
us from the life of God is vastly greater than that which
separates us from the life of the lower animals.
In China one day I called on a
Christian leader who was sick in bed, and whom, for the sake of
this story, I shall call 'Mr. Wong' (though that was not his real
name). He was a very learned man, a Doctor of Philosophy, and one
esteemed throughout the whole of china for his high moral
principles, and he had long been engaged in Christian work. But
he did not believe in the need for regeneration; he only
proclaimed a social gospel.
When I called on Mr. Wong his pet
dog was by his bedside, and after speaking with him of the things
of God and of the nature of His work in us, I pointed to the dog
and inquired his name. He told me he was called Fido. 'Is Fido
his Christian name or his surname?' I asked (using the common
Chinese terms for 'personal name' and 'family name'). 'Oh, that
is just his name', he said. 'Do you mean that is just his
Christian name? Can I call him Fido Wong?' I continued.
'Certainly not!' came the emphatic reply. 'But he lives in your
family', I protested, 'Why don't you call him Fido Wong?' Then,
indicating his two daughters, I asked 'Are your daughters not
called Miss Wong?' 'Yes!' 'Well then, why cannot I call your dog
Master Wong?' The Doctor laughed, and I went on: 'Do you see what
I am getting at? Your daughters were born into your family and
they bear your name because you have communicated your life to
them. Your dog may be an intelligent dog, a well-behaved dog, and
altogether a most remarkable dog; but the question is not, Is he
a good or a bad dog? It is merely, Is he a dog? He does not need
to be bad to be disqualified from being a member of your family;
he only needs to be a dog. The same principle applies to you in
your relationship to God. The question is not whether you are a
bad man or a good man, more or less, but simply, Are you a man?
If your life is on a lower plane than that of God's life, then
you cannot belong to the Divine family. Throughout your life your
aim in preaching has been to turn bad men into good men; but men as
such, whether good or bad, can have no vital relationship
with God. Our only hope as men is to receive the Son of God, and
when we do so His life in us will constitute us sons of God.' The
Doctor saw the truth, and that day he became a member of God's
family by receiving the Son of God into his heart.
What we today possess in Christ is
more than Adam lost. Adam was only a developed man. He
remained on that plane, and never possessed the life of God. But
we who receive the Son of God not only receive the forgiveness of
sins; we receive also the Divine life which was represented in
the garden by the tree of life. By the new birth we receive
something Adam never had; we possess what he missed.
God wants sons who shall be
joint-heirs with Christ in glory. That is His goal; but how can
He bring that about? Turn now to Hebrews 2:10 and 11: "It
became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of
their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that
sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one: for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."
There are two parties mentioned
here, namely, "many sons" and "the author of their
salvation", or, in different terms, "he that
sanctifieth" and "they that are sanctified". But
these two parties are said to be "all of one". The Lord
Jesus as Man derived His life from God, and (in another sense,
but just as truly) we derive our new life from God. He was
"begotten ... of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 1:20 mg.),
and we were "born of .... the spirit", "born ...
of God" (John 3:5; 1:13). So, God says, we are all of One.
"Of" in the Greek means "out of". The first
begotten Son and the many sons are all (though in different
senses) "out of" the one Source of life. Do you realize
that we have the same life today that God has? The life which He
has in Heaven is the life which He has imparted to us here on the
earth. That is the precious "gift of God" (Rom. 6:23).
It is for that reason that we can live a life of holiness, for it
is not our own life that has been changed, but the life of God
that has been imparted to us.
Do you notice that, in this
consideration of the eternal purpose, the whole question of sin
ultimately goes out? It no longer has a place. Sin came in with
Adam, and even when it has been dealt with, as it has to be, we
are only brought back to the point where Adam was. But in
relating us again to the Divine purpose -- in, as it were,
restoring to us access to the tree of life -- redemption has
given us far more than Adam ever had. It has made us partakers of
the very life of God Himself.
The Normal Christian Life - Chapter 8: The Holy Spirit
