CO 3:1-18{I DESIRE in these lectures to go over very old ground, and look at the different stages in christian life. As the Psalmist says: " Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces."
We begin with what the apostle taught the Corinthians, though in practice they did not answer to it. First we see where the soul is placed. There are two things brought together in this chapter: what the law was, and what Christ is. This is important, because people are often not clear of the law. I am sometimes struck with the standard a person has in his life and ways. The law is looked at as that which is the rule of life. The young man in Mark 10 is considered an example of a very good life. But you must have one or the other; either the law, or Christ.
People try to make a compound of the two, but it is impossible; they are quite distinct. There has been the greatest moral revolution that can possibly be conceived: the demands of the law came from glory; but, instead of drawing man, it repelled him. See Moses and the people in Ex. 34 The revolution is, that now the glory, instead of repelling, attracts; it is the expression of God, the thing of all others that invites you, and forms you in correspondence with itself. The law was in the glory once; now there is a Savior in the glory. It is a wonderful thing that, instead of demanding from us righteousness, there is a Savior in that glory who met all demands. He has led us into the enjoyment of the Father's heart in that bright scene that suits Him; it is a complete revolution. The prodigal had only two places: a great way off, or in the Father's house. The thief on the cross was on the verge of divine judgment under the law, but he got that most wonderful step, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise."
You must connect your life as a Christian with the law or with Christ; there is no middle course. Being saved by the blood of Christ, I have the righteousness of God. But the thing that is now sought is what suits man, not what is according to the glory of God. Once we find out that God has placed us according to the desires of His own heart in divine glory, the glory becomes the measure of His grace. Why? Because God has carried out the desire of His own heart, and that has placed me in a scene where there is nothing to check the full flow of His love. That is grace, and there is only law or grace. If a person has not got a good foundation there is no build; g on it, no going on; there is no progress but in keeping with glory; no formation, though there may be intelligence; no growth.
The apostle first shows how God has brought us into connection with the glory by our Lord Jesus Christ. The law in Exodus xx. was given from the glory too, but instead of drawing, it repelled. When Moses came down from the Mount the second time, his face shone, and they could not bear it, because the law was there. It was not grace yet, but God showed all through His desire to connect His people with His glory. The house was filled with His glory, but man did not answer to it.
In Ezekiel they were so contrary to God that the glory departed. We read in the first chapter: " And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it." What does this point out? The glory was about to leave the scene because of the wickedness of Israel. But when the vision of its retiring was shown to the prophet, there was a spot of amber in the midst of it; and in that amber spot the figure of a man. God had spoken to man, and He desired to dwell with man. The pillar of the cloud showed that; and here we find, in the brightest spot of the retiring glory, there is the figure of a man. Thus man drove away the glory, and it never came back to earth until Luke ii. 9, where we see it come to announce the fact that a Savior is born which is Christ the Lord. The glory was connected with Christ's coming to the earth.
In chapter 9:29 we get the close of the Lord's ministry on the earth. After thirty years of domestic life He entered on His public service; that public service culminates here; and glory salutes Him; the glory invites Him. There is not a word about us here. Peter says, " We were eye-witnesses of his majesty." Here it says, " They feared as they entered into the cloud." They were afraid because death had not yet tome in. Moses and Elias may be said to represent the law and the prophets, whilst Jesus was the one righteous Man who had met the mind of God on earth, in everything. He had answered to all God's requirements of man; He had met all the mind of God in public and in private life, and glory salutes Him.
But now was to be fulfilled that wonderful word: " I love my wife, I love my children, I will not go out free." " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone."
The meaning of this is, that by dying, He produced a company of the same stock and order as Himself. " Both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all of one." One what? Put any noun in there and you spoil it. All of one; not one life, not one glory, but ONE; His own order. We read of brothers of Christ in the gospel narrative, but there were never any such, in its proper character, until He rose from the dead.
John 13 presents to us the thing as effected: "Now is the Son of man glorified." A man is in the glory; He has gone in as the representative man. He came from heaven down here, He went up to the Mount of Transfiguration, and from thence to the cross, as a victim. He will not go out free. He came down from the mount of glory to bear the judgment of that man who did not do the mind of God in anything; He went down to death and bore the judgment of sin; and " If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." He glorified God under our judgment, as well as in every single net of His daily life down here. God was glorified in Him, and " God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." He was raised from the dead " by the glory of the Father."
I pass on to Acts 7, where Stephen sees the glory of God and Jesus. Ezek. 1 is fulfilled: a Man is seen in the glory, and henceforth the glory, instead of terrifying, becomes the place that invites the heart. Saul finds a Savior in the glory of God, and straightway he preaches Jesus, that He is the Son of God. Stephen is an example of a believer; Saul of an awakened sinner. Some may say, I do not know whether I have seen a Savior in glory. I do not say that such a person is not converted, but I do say that he is not without fear, and " fear hath torment." If you have not seen Christ in glory, you have not learned divine righteousness; you are not suited to God. It is not a question of my conscience, but I get the sense that God is perfectly satisfied about me. We never get peace but in connection with righteousness. In the glory it is a ministration of righteousness. On my side it is peace; when the Lord rose from the dead He said, "Peace be unto you." There was not one disturbing thing left. It is " being justified by faith we have peace with God."
In Isa. 6 we see a man before the Savior was in glory. This great prophet is unfit for God's work because he is not free in the presence of God's glory. We see in chapter v. what a man he was; but he was unfit for the service which God had called him to, because he was not perfectly at rest in the presence of the glory of God. You may be very well versed in Scripture, and yet you may not have found that you have a Savior in the glory; that in the very brightest spot of God's glory there is most attraction for your heart, because your Savior is there. Righteousness has looked down from heaven; peace and truth have kissed each other. Stephen saw his Savior in glory. He does not tell the people what he saw; he says "the Son of man" to them, but He was the Savior for himself. From the spot that fear came, relief came. One of the seraphim flew from the glory down to Isaiah (not from Isaiah up to God), having a live coal in his hand. There was no abatement of divine holiness, but still he could proclaim, " Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." Where fear was evoked, there was generated relief. Then it is, " Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" " Here am I;" (says Isaiah) " send me." See the effect! If you are not right up there, you cannot go for God down here.
We read, " As he is, so are we in this world." As He is, not as He was. He was on the cross; He is not there now. It was "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me," but now He is "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father." Now as He is so are we. Is that in heaven? Not at all; "in this world." In the place where I was at a distance from God, failing in everything, love is perfected in me. Christ has so met the judgment of God for me, that my soul gets the sense of being as fit for paradise as He is. The thief on the cross was fit for paradise. " Christ died the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."
People may say, " That gospel is too high, it would not convert any one!" However it converted Paul. We have his conversion related three times. Once to the Jews, once to the Gentiles, and then typically. I have a terrible world to go through, and God desires me to know as I go through it that it is all bright up there. I have a Savior in glory, and I belong to the scene where He is. What is the effect here? I am ready; send me. If the heart is not established in grace, you cannot go.
In the Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul goes back to what he had previously taught the saints in Corinth. Instead of the law, they had Christ written on their hearts. The treasure was in an earthen vessel. As in a standard rose-tree, the new graft is put into the old stem, so they had the rose graft; the apostle did not allow them to say they had not the graft; they had it; but they had not the rose, because they did not keep the stem in self-judgment. The young man in Mark 10 judges of himself by his relation to man. If I have not God's idea about what I am, I shall never be able to form a right idea about anything. In Psa. 73 when the Psalmist is outside the sanctuary, he judges of everything in relation to himself; but when he gets inside, God eclipses everything.
When I have to do with glory, I myself am nowhere; I have to do, not with the law, but with Christ in glory. Then Christ is to come out. If I am true to that I shall not give way to self-indulgence. That Savior in glory was the one who was written on the fleshy tables of their hearts, as the law was on the tables of stone. What an immense thing! You may say there is very little expression of it. True, but it remains a fact. You must get the thing before you can get the expression of it. The Lord's walk on earth was one of perfect beauty; He left manna on everything He touched; and I, now united to Him, am of a new order and lineage. I am the same man that I was; I have not got out of nature; but all the principles and springs of my action are different. I have the same natural duties that I had before, but now I am maintained by a different power. The wheel of a mill may be turned by water, and it will do, so long as there is the right supply; but if the water fails, the wheel stops. If the wheel be turned by steam, its working is not dependent on natural supply. So in grace. I have got a new power instead of nature, a power to conduct me according to the divine nature through all for God here on earth. All through Scripture we see that when God communicates anything to man, He repels the flesh. It was so with Moses, with Ezekiel, and with others. There must be nothing here to interfere with the divine action.. " Old things are passed away; all things are of God." The reason there is so little growth is that there is so little association and occupation with Christ where He is. The glory invites now, instead of repelling, and the practical effect is, " changed into the same image."
May you retire into the secret of your heart and wait on God, and think that God's heart is so relieved of everything about you, that He sees you according to the Son at His right hand. Amidst all the confusion and contrariety of this scene I know how He feels about me. You might read the Bible through and through from morning till night, and yet not grow; growth never takes place but in association with Christ Himself. Look at the two disciples going to Emmaus. What a wonderful exposition of Scripture they had! It gave them light, but no more. But when they saw Himself there was formation; they were in concert with Him; they went the very same way He went: they returned to Jerusalem. You may read Scripture, and you may get light from it, but it does not take form and power unless by faith you see Him where He is; because glory not only attracts me, but it forms me. Beloved friends, the Lord give to each one of us the happy sense as we retire in private with Himself, that we have got a Savior in the brightness of God's glory, to the delight of God's heart: and that we can find our home there. God delights in Him, He gave Him to bear the judgment of our sin; many accept Him as the scapegoat, and know that their sins are borne away to the land of forgetfulness, and that truly is a relief to the heart; but that is only what suits me. It is not that which brings me into union with God's heart about me. What God is thinking about is, that He has glorified the One who glorified Him; and I have got a Savior at God's right hand. You may say, Oh, that is too high; I have got the first, and that is sufficient for me. I can only answer that, if you do say so, you are not thinking of what God rests in.
May we have a deepening sense of with what delight of heart we can look up and say, It is in the brightness of God's glory that I have a Savior. He is before the Father there, and He looks at me in Him. The more I am occupied with Him there, the more I am fashioned as to what He was in walk and course down here; and thus characteristically I am like Him here.
(J. B. S.)