" The sentence of death." (2 Corinthians. 1:10.)
" The power of his resurrection." (Philippians. 3:10.)
CO 1:10 HI 3:10The passages at the head of this chapter present two principles which the vessel of God's choice must practically learn. They are not confined to the Christian interval alone; but have been the lessons variously taught, and more or less intelligently learned by the elect, at all times, and in all dispensations; though the clear, doctrinal meaning was not known until New Testament times.
They are, as we may speak, in a certain sense, correlative. The vessel is taught experimentally the first of these; and in the same way he finds the second working in him. What has " the power of his resurrection" to do with aught but a dead man? Surely nothing! Therefore if death works in him, life works also in him in the power of resurrection. This power is of God alone.
These are the great lessons set for every saint while here. The measure in which they are learned is quite another matter; as is also the soul's apprehension of the lesson. But oh, what conscious power is found, as the soul learns to hold the cross, to every motion of human life which works in his body! to bear about in himself the sentence of death, morally or physically, that he should not trust in himself, but in God who raises the dead. Then death works in him, and life towards others.
The former principle-" we have the sentence of death in ourselves "-is preparatory to the de-desire " That I may know him and the power of his resurrection." And this will be seen as we examine other cases in Scripture, " written for our learning."
The history of the " father of the faithful " will help to this end. In Abraham's path we are introduced to one, and the dealings of God with him, in whom we see the gradual unfolding of God's lessons for the soul, before the doctrine of these things is developed to us in the New Testament Scripture.
Like ourselves in our measure, he had to pass through all in an experimental way, to reach the perfect end. With the saint in the New Testament, did he but accept what is there taught, it would be with him that the place where others ended he would begin. But the state of soul, and the power of the flesh, and the deceivableness of our own hearts, are such that we must, alas! learn, too, all the lessons in an experimental way.
In Paul we see one who learned these things practically, but with much difference from ourselves. How frequently, alas! we learn them through failure, in which we experience (more like Peter) the extricating ministry of Christ. Paul's case differed much, for in him we see rather the true heart taught, the singleness of eye met, so that he had more of the preventive or preserving ministry of Christ, rather than the restorative or extricating, while, at the same time, he was passed through circumstances of varied kinds that the lesson might be experienced in his own soul. We see failures in his life, but they were few.
We all experience, in a sense, the threefold way in which God revealed Himself to Abraham. He was called by the " God of Glory" (Acts 7:22And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, (Acts 7:2)). He was sustained by the "Almighty God," and all was provided by "Jehovah Jireh." This was his history as a saint. But all was not revealed to him at first: the flesh had to be broken, fallen nature exposed, law had to be tried and found fruitless for faith, promise had to be rested upon, and then the fruit of accomplished promise had to be surrendered for the power of resurrection on Mount Moriah. Until this came he never was really and fully a worshipper, nor did he ever know God by that new name, " Jehovah-Jireh." I do not dwell much upon his earlier history, He did what true children of God do also, until they learn otherwise. He saw, when called of God at first, that which it was God's will should be done or possessed, and he assayed to realize and accomplish it in the strength of man. All fails, and then at last God does by him what he assayed to do himself. The end in view was right and the motive was right, but the energy put forth was of " man." He had not yet taken "the sentence of death" to himself, nor had he learned " the power of his resurrection."
Was not this so with Moses when he assayed to deliver Israel? With David at Ziklag? With Peter in the judgment hall? Each was tried, each sought to du that which was right and of God; but the energy was of man, and God did, at the end, by each one the same things which each had assayed to do themselves. We see this every day around in the history of saints. We know it in our own. Often, too, we have seen, in the first freshness of soul in a young saint apprehending the truth, a deeper and more spiritual recognition of the will of the Lord than at later times in his life. He may have turned aside from the performance of it, or he may have sought to do it in the power of man, thinking that because it was right and of God, he should do so. Years after the thing is done (if there was no failure or turning aside) by God Himself in him. Or, if failure supervened and turning aside, it was forced upon him through sorrows and trials and breakings of the flesh, and of the will of man which had come in to hinder.
You see it, too, in those that have assayed to serve in the gospel or in the church. The energy of the heart which pushed forth the young man as a servant, fails, he breaks down, he is coldly received, or the like. If there 's gift from Christ, the thing was right and of God; but the energy was self—unbroken.
Painful lessons followed (than which there are 'few more so), but if we watch that man's after history, if he walk with God, he will come forth brightly in useful service to the Lord: God doing by him what he assayed to do himself in vain.
In Abraham's case we will examine the moment when he was enabled to take home " the sentence of death" to himself in the " sign of circumcision" (Gen. 17.), thus learning the fruitlessness of flesh, and to be cut off from himself in the things of God.
Nearly fourteen years had passed since the birth of Ishmael, this son of the bondwoman: this effort of the energy of man to accomplish the thoughts of God. He was born and was brought up in Abraham's house for twice seven years. All seemed outwardly promising for the time; but Abraham had trodden for those fourteen years a path which was self-devised. These years are passed over as a blank in his history-utterly unrecognized. And oh, how many histories of God's saints will be found a blank by-and-by! The power of man was seeking to further the things of God. But this he must discover, in one short interview, in which his whole path and his Ishmael are totally ignored; not by words, indeed, but by the simple revelation of God Himself-the Almighty One who was all-powerful, in contrast with quasi-power in man.
Let me ask my reader, has he ever known cases analagous to this? Has he not seen with an enlightened eye lives of apparent usefulness-and this, too, in ways supposed to be of God-blown upon in one moment by some truth flashing upon the soul, which judges all? How multitudinous are the paths that would fade into a mist as one flash of divine light is shed upon them! Yea, even those which are based upon the word of God and His known will in the truth, not to speak of the ten thousand paths and ways of supposed service, which have no warrant from it at all: the former done in the strength of man and worthless, the latter I care not to analyze, so worthless are they.
" And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God [El-Shaddai] walk before me, and be thou perfect.... And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him" (Gen. 17). What a moment was this! To discover in that interview that he had never yet touched the pathway of the Lord. He had walked by the light of his own eyes. All was worthless, all was ignored, he has but to listen as he lay on his face before God, until the whole unfolding of God's mind, thus far known, is heard, and the previous fourteen years is treated as a blank in his history. One sentence alone passes his lips in this whole chapter, one cry from his heart is heard. It is the struggle of one who now feels that nothing of God was in those many years of hope, that he must now step off this self-devised pathway on to the path of God, leaving all behind as a mistake, as the effort of man to accomplish the things of God.
What a moment for the soul! Have there not been such-like soul-awakenings in God's saints at times? Moments when all was fading away which had delighted the eye, and the heart's cry was heard: " O that Ishmael might live before thee!" Must all then go? Is there not some remnant of former days which may be spared? Has all been a mistake? Is all to be thus ignored? God may pity the soul in this-though not His purpose. He may say, as it were: " And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee." And the link may be spared and blessed in an earthly way, but it never enters the path which is divine: " But my covenant will I establish with Isaac."
Seven times do we now hear the utterances of God in His unchallengeable " I will " (vs. 2-8). Those purposes are announced, into which man could never enter as co-worker with God. "I will make my covenant with thee;" and I "will multiply thee exceedingly:" " I will make thee exceedingly fruitful;" "I will make nations of thee;" " I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and to thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." Compare Gal. 3:2929And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29); Phil. 4:1919But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19).) " I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land whereon thou art a stranger;" and " I will be their God."
Abram has but to hearken, to receive, to hear, all that God Himself would do by him. Abram's strength was but that of man, it could but mar the power of God in resurrection. He must accept the seal of this new creation, he must take " the sentence of death" home to his own soul in the " sign of circumcision"-the seal of the righteousness that he had by faith, being yet uncircumcised.
Mark the significance of all this, expressed in the changing of his name at this time. Rather, let us say, in God imparting to that name the breathings of His own. Instead of Abram he would now be Abra-h-am. The breathings of the name of Jehovah, the self-existing God; are imparted to his; he is made, as it were, a " partaker of the divine nature." (Cf. 2 Peter 1:44Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4).) He belongs to the new creation of God.
This was the sign of " the sentence of death" upon man, and the entrance into that where " all things are of God" of which circumcision was the seal. The work of God would be done in the vessel by Himself alone. The human vessel must bow. It must take this sentence home to itself. In spirit it must enter into the new creation with a new and divinely-breathed name. The vessel must be will-less and powerless in His hand.
But more: " The power of his resurrection" must be known, for it alone can avail in a dead man, to lift him out of the dead and into this new sphere. (" He considered his own body now dead." " He hesitated not at the promise of God through unbelief.")
This power now comes in: " As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be." She, too, must be made partaker, as it were, of the di vine nature; she must, like him, have the breathing of God's name put to hers, that she may in figure be of the new creation also. " And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be the mother of nations, kings of peoples shall be of her." Again he falls on his face-now as Abraham. He " found strength in faith, giving glory to God." Abram once had fallen on his face and listened; but now " Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him."
This was " the power of resurrection," now the resource of, God. Human strength and human hopes were dead in Abraham and Sarah, the " sentence of death" taken home to their souls, that they " should not trust in themselves, but in God that raiseth the dead." " Against hope he believed with hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be" (Rom. 4:1818Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. (Romans 4:18)).
But there was more taught here. God had said, at the moment when he first appeared to Abraham as the Almighty, " Walk before me, and be thou perfect."
Hitherto the Lord had been his shield and his exceeding great reward. His guardian care had marked his path—his shelter from his foes. Now more was asked: God's new name would bring fresh responsibility. El-Shaddai had been revealed Himself, who could do all things, who only needed an empty vessel under " the sentence of death," to use. " Perfection" must now be found. This was the answer of the soul to the revelation of God, the soul responding, as face answers to face in the glass, to all that God is-as thus known.
We have then: 1, Circumcision first brought in, the sign of the sentence of death and the cutting off from ourselves; 2, the power of His resurrection follows, as that of God, who would work in a dead man; 3, we have perfection required in those in whom the other two are seen.
Thus were the roots of these things learned in practical power by the vessel of promise, afterward to be known in their spiritual significance in New Testament times.
When therefore we turn to Paul in Philippians we find all there. The vessel is there in its moral beauty and perfection, as far as this can be reached below. The workings of flesh are not there, nor sin, nor the weakness of man, as a vessel of mercy upon the potter's wheel. No flaw is here. The vessel is not now marred in the hands of the potter. True, it is not yet transformed into the potter's image in glory, but through the dealings of God with the vessel it is rendered so that the " Treasure" is shining out in every phase. Christ is motive, Christ is energy, Christ is end. The potter is now seen in the vessel.
We find those great principles which we saw in Genesis 17., in Philippians 3. Paul has gone through the prefatory work. Four years in prison, chained to a soldier, had wrought its work. The soul had been stripped of all its " desirable things." The labor for Christ which was his life was now arrested, as to outward warfare in the work. Brighter lessons were in store: lessons for the church of God, in all ages of her sojourn here on earth, were to come forth from the Roman capitol, where he wore his chain.
He takes the conscious place—not now merely as learning the fact of death to all the energy of man, as Abraham—but of accepting it. " We are," said he, "the circumcision." The painful lesson is past. Christ had passed away from the earth: He had died to the scene, and died out of it, to rise into that new place, now fully taken, as " the beginning of the creation of God." Head of that new order of things, associated with Him, ",circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands," we partake of all that into which He as Man had entered. We are circumcised in Him, as Sarah was in Abraham. " We are the circumcision, who worship God by the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:" the " sentence of death " to all that savored of the energy of man, even at his best, and the flesh only to be ignored, even in its best phase.
There all that savored of this, all that of which man could boast, is cast aside. Of all men he had that of which he could boast as to the flesh. Not the " flesh of sin " here, but that which looked fair in man's eyes, and was the best fruit that man could produce, as such, in divine things. By birth, by religious zeal, by righteousness of the law which applied to man in the flesh, all was surrendered in that moral death, of which circumcision was the seal.
But more: " all things " were counted loss, they but stood in the way of that which was "all his desire." " That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection." Here was another of those striking points found in Genesis 17.: the desire in gazing at Christ in glory, to know Him there—gone up to that scene where all His glory shone. And here on earth, as a vessel indeed, will—less, powerless, empty, finding that power which raised up the Son, out of every sorrow and grief by the way—and by which, at last, He rose from the grave-working in the vessel, wielding it and using it for the purposes which alone were His, to work, while here, for His glory.
How did this power work in Paul? Look at the man who above all on earth was filled with such mighty energy in the service of Christ in the gospel: shut up as a malefactor in prison, suspected by his brethren, shunned by all for a time, cut off from the work which was more than life to him. His great heart had swelled with the hope that, as he had evangelized the eastern world" From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum," he had fully preached " the gospel of Christ " —he would now go forth to the western world, as far as Spain—carrying the word of life.
Caught in the toils of a prison, the great vesse learns, after four nears of exercise, to say: " I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." God was doing greater things when the great vessel to whom the gospel of the glory of Christ was committed was set aside from its active work. Most of the brethren were waxing confident now (as in quietness of heart, his case in God's hands, he waited on His vindicating love), his bonds were known to be for Christ; others were the more bold to speak the word without fear.
But God was making the vessel for His use. It was on the potter's wheel. There were greater things to be done by him than his heart had devised. It was a light thing to evangelize the western world compared with the writing of those epistles which came from his prison in Rome, to instruct and comfort and rejoice the hearts of millions of His saints for well-nigh two thousand years. To this end " the power of his resurrection " alone could work. And if " the fellowship of his sufferings " reached even to " conformity to his death," it was but the path by which he would arrive at " the resurrection out from among the dead," and thus be more like Christ.
There again we have " perfection " seen in the vessel, as far as such can be reached while here on earth. This " perfection " is always dispensational in its character, and answering to the revelation of Himself which God has been pleased to make from time to time: as Almighty, or Jehovah, or the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is important for us that we understand the different ways that perfection is looked at in the word.
1. We have positional perfection, as we may term it, which every soul that belongs to Christ possesses in Him; the standing of the saint as set free under the gospel now set forth. This positional perfection is in contrast with what a Jew under the law could possess; because " the law made nothing perfect." Under the gospel the conscience of the believer is perfected by the precious blood of Christ. When " once purged," no charge of sin can ever press itself on the worshipper. By one offering, Christ has perfected continuously the sanctified ones, that is, those separated to God by His blood.
But more: he has died with Christ out of the old status, which he possessed as a child of Adam. He is risen with Christ into a new sphere, too; he has been quickened together with Christ, and raised up together (Jew and Gentile) and seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Every soul who is in union with Christ stands in this " perfection " before God. I do not speak here of their realization of such. Paul labored that he might present every man perfect in Christ. (Col. i. 28.) In this there is no intrinsic perfection in the saint, it is his dispensational standing. He is complete in Him who is the Head of all principality and power. He is circumcised (positionally) in Him by the passing out, in the circumcision of Christ, into that new order of things, that eighth day, to which circumcision belonged. (It must be performed in the type on that eighth day.)
2. There is a moral perfection which is attainable here below on earth, to which Paul exhorts and in which he walked himself. (Phil. 3:1515Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. (Philippians 3:15).) This is what the Spirit of God wrought in the vessel, in the condition found in Philippians, producing in it a reflex and an answer here to all that Christ on high is: with the hope filling the soul, to be conformed to Him in His path on earth, reaching even to the grave, and out of which the power of His resurrection would raise it if it reach " conformity unto his death." "All things were loss and dung in seeking for such perfection; but it was attained by the setting aside of all that man could glory in, and it was wrought by the Holy Ghost in an empty, will-less vessel, hastening on to the goal. " Let as many as be perfect, be thus minded:" attainable, indeed, by all, though perhaps few really attain it, for want of a single eye.
3. But "perfection" itself could never he reached on earth. True, the positional perfection, all who are Christ's possess in Him. Moral perfection would be attained by the true-hearted saint who yielded himself to the workings of the Spirit of God. But the end would not be reached while here. Nor until the mighty power of Christ would be put forth, and " mortality would be swallowed up of life," and He would change our vile body (or " body of humiliation") that it might be fashioned like unto His glorious body (or " body of glory") according to the power whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. Of this Paul would say: " Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."
Thus the father of all that believe learned his threefold lesson experimentally in his path of old; and the leader of the people of God, in New Testament days, learned it in his. He was a man of like passions as ourselves, but a man with a single eye, a single motive, an undivided heart. He waits on high with Christ for the fruit of all that the potter's hand had skilfully wrought, not a flaw remains, no more crushings are now required. He enjoys the " far better" thing meanwhile. By-and-by "This corruptible shall have put on incorruption: and this mortal shall have put on immortality," and the Master's handiwork will shine in him, as a " vessel of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory."
(Concluded from page 151.)