Devotedness: October 2009
Table of Contents
Devotedness
Begone, each earthborn tie and bond;
Begone affection, deep and fond,
That Christ does not partake;
Have I box of alabaster
Which is not broken for the Master,
To which my heart but clings the faster?
Help me my box to break.
Oh! break, whatever it may be,
That holdeth back my heart from Thee,
Who died my heart to win;
All other love, however dear,
However old or strong or near,
Of which Thou art not theme and sphere,
Is only polished sin.
All other love would cease to flow —
But Thine no chill nor change can know,
In spite of ill return;
The source of Thine is not in me —
In what I am, or I can be;
The deep, deep spring is found in Thee —
It cannot cease to burn.
Upon my callous heart impress
The depth and height of all Thy grace,
That I may love Thee more;
That thou canst call a worm Thy
treasure —
That Thou canst find in me Thy
pleasure —
Tells of a love which none can measure,
But worship and adore!
J. W. T.
The Rams’ Skins Dyed Red
The tabernacle covering of “rams’ skins dyed red” speaks of consecration. When we remember that the ram was the animal used in connection with the consecration of the priests and that this consecration was marked by devotedness, we can readily see how this covering would point to the devotedness of Christ to God. The skins dyed red speak of His devotedness even unto death. No numbers of its measurement are given with this covering, as with the others, for the devotedness of Christ, in His consecration to God, was without measure.
If the rams’ skin curtains speak of the devotedness of Christ in His consecration to God, the life of the Christian should also be characterized by devotedness to Him. Let him heed the exhortation, “That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
J. T. Armet
Devotedness
Devotedness is a much deeper and, at the same time, a much simpler thing than many suppose. Many think that if they are earnestly engaged in the Lord’s work and looking to Him for guidance and blessing, this is being devoted, but it is much more. It is having Christ Himself as the delight and resource of my heart and the bent of my mind towards Him. The highest service we can render the Lord is to serve His heart. We need to be occupied with Christ, with a view to becoming more intimately acquainted with His character, to be studying Him, that we may learn what pleases Him. Many, like Martha, are occupied for Christ; fewer, like Mary, are occupied with Him.
The constraining power of His love in us is the foundation-stone of true devotedness. At His feet is the place where the serving one returns to encamp and from whence he goes forth to serve, refreshed with Himself and the joy of His presence. The Lord’s way with His disciples gives us the pattern of devotion and service. “He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3:14). “The apostles, when they were returned, told Him all that they had done. And He took them, and went aside privately into a desert place” (Luke 9:10).
Things New and Old, 17:309, adapted
Theme of the Issue
Devotedness
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
True Christian devotedness evidently flows from the devout consideration of the mercies or compassions of God to the poor, outcast sinner. The Apostle appeals to the hearts of the brethren as being happily acquainted with the riches of divine mercy to lost and ruined souls. The effect of meditating on this aspect of God’s character is transformation to His image and devotedness to His glory, as our holy, acceptable and reasonable service. Most blessed, precious privilege! And this holy imitation of the divine character, be it observed, is not the result of our own efforts, but flows naturally from the blessed truth that we are made partakers of the divine nature, as taught more fully by the Apostle elsewhere. “Be ye therefore followers of God [or, literally, imitators of God], as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.”
Here pause for a moment and meditate deeply; the subject is vast and most practical. Talking of devotedness, of holiness, of consecration, what is your standard? Is it your own possible attainments by unwearied watchings, fastings, diligence, or what? Self in a thousand ways may be your governing object, but wrong in all. Could God present a lesser or lower object to His children than Himself, as morally displayed in the person and work of His beloved Son? Impossible! “It would dishonor Himself and the grace He has shown us, and it would be the most grievous loss to His children beloved, whom He would train and bless yet more and more even in this scene of evil and sorrow, turning the most adverse circumstances into an occasion of teaching us what He is in the depths of His grace, and filling ourselves with the sense of it, so as to form our hearts and fashion our ways. . . . Neither law nor even promise ever opened such a field as this. The very call so to imitate God supposes the perfect grace in which we stand; indeed it would be insupportable otherwise”
(W. Kelly).
True Christian Devotedness
The Standard
One word of inspired authority settles the whole question to faith forever: “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.” This is the standard and the measure of devotedness. Being the children of God, we are partakers of His nature, and we ought never to admit a standard lower than the nature of which we are partakers. God was manifested in Christ Jesus, the express image of His Person. It is in Him that we see our new nature presented in all its perfection and in all its fullness, but in Him as man, and as it ought to be developed in us here below, in the circumstances through which we are passing.
It is indeed humbling to think that we have answered so little to the call of God to be imitators of Himself as His children. But He has given us an object in which He manifests Himself that He may lead and attract our hearts to follow Him, and this object we know as the One who loves us and gave Himself for us, and the only object the Christian should ever have. “There is a sense,” says one, “in which God is, morally, the measure of other beings — a consideration which brings out the immense privilege of the child of God. It is the effect of grace, in that being born of Him and partaking of His nature, the child of God is called to be an imitator of God, to be perfect as his Father is perfect. He makes us partakers of His holiness; consequently, we are called to be imitators of God, as His dear children. This shows the immense privilege of grace. It is the love of God in the midst of evil, and which, superior to all evil, walks in holiness and rejoices, also, together in a divine way, in the unity of the same joys and the same sentiments.”
J. N. Darby,
Things New and Old, 18:104
“One Thing”
“One thing thou lackest” (Mark 10:21).
In the story of the rich young ruler, two truths come prominently before us. First, we learn that in many ways our lives may be excellent, and yet lack “one thing.” Second, we discover that this “one thing” is single-hearted devotedness to Christ.
Of all the different characters that came in contact with our Lord in His earthly course, none perhaps presents a more sorrowful end than that of this rich young ruler. There was so much at the commencement of his story that gave promise to a bright future as a disciple of Christ; yet, in the end, we read he “went away grieved.” As far as we have any record in Scripture, he is never again found in the company of Christ and His own. Therefore, even if at heart a believer, he missed the blessing of the company of Christ in the midst of His people and failed as a witness for Christ in the world.
The Good Qualities
This young man was marked by many creature excellencies and much moral beauty. He was an earnest young man, for we read that he came “running” to the Lord. He was reverential, for he “kneeled” in His presence. He had a desire after spiritual blessings, such as eternal life. His outward life was blameless, for he had observed the outward law from his youth. All these qualities, in their place, are beautiful and attractive, and the Lord was not unmindful of these excellencies, for we read, “Jesus beholding him loved him.” Yet, with all these excellencies, the Lord discerned that there was “one thing” lacking.
Three Tests
To make manifest the one thing lacking in his life, the Lord applies three tests. As with the young man, so we may be living outwardly decent and blameless lives, and yet our witness for Christ be marred by the lack of “one thing.” It will be well therefore to prove ourselves by the three tests that the Lord sets before the ruler.
First, he was tested by his earthly possessions.
Second, he was tested by the cross.
Third, he was tested by a Person —the rejected Christ.
There was something he was asked to give up, something to take up, and someone to follow.
The first test is earthly possessions. Taking them in the widest sense as all those things which would be an advantage to us as living in the world, we may ask, “Have we weighed up all these things in the light of Christ and counted them but loss for Christ?” Have we reckoned up the advantages that birth may confer, the ease and worldly pleasures that riches can secure, the position, honor and dignities that intellect or genius or accomplishments may command? Then, without minimizing these things, have we looked full in the face of Jesus — the One that is altogether lovely — and, seeing that He is incomparably greater than all these things, have we, in the power of affection for Christ, deliberately made the choice that Christ shall be our great Object, and not these things?
The second test is the cross. The Lord says to the young man, “Take up the cross.” Are we prepared to accept the place in relation to the world in which the cross has set us before God? Paul could say, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal. 6:14). The cross stands between us and our sins, the old man and judgment, but have we also seen that it stands between us and the world? If we take up the cross, not only is the world condemned for us, but we shall be utterly refused by the world.
The third test is a rejected Christ, for the Lord says to the young man, “Follow Me.” Are we prepared to identify ourselves with One who is hated and rejected by the world, One who was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, who, in His passage through this world, had nowhere to lay His head, who died an ignominious death upon a cross of shame, and was buried in a borrowed grave, One who in resurrection was still found in company with a few poor fisher folk, One who was and still is in the outside place of reproach? Are we prepared to go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach?
Thus the tests in that day, as well as today, are, Can we give up earthly advantages, take a place outside the world, and follow Christ, the One who is in reproach? These tests come to us as they came to the young man, and the question for each one is, What answer shall we give?
Like Demas or Peter
We may answer these tests in one of two ways. First, like the young man of whom we read, who “went away grieved,” we may turn back to the things of earth. He did not turn away in anger or hatred of Christ. He had no fault to find with Christ, but the world was too strong for him. Like Demas of a later day, he loved this present world. Second, we may give an answer like Peter and the disciples, of whom we learn that they left all and followed Christ (vs. 28).
Devotedness to Christ
The one thing the young man lacked was single-hearted devotedness to Christ. So he “went away.” The disciples with all their ignorance, their weakness and their many failures, were drawn to Christ in affection and so left all to follow Him.
How often since that day has the history of this young man been repeated! Is there anything sadder than to look back and remember how many young men and women made a good start and seemed to promise well, but where are they today? In spite of excellencies such as earnestness, sincerity and zeal, they turned back, if not to the gross world, to the corrupt, religious world, and the reason is plain: They lacked the “one thing” — that single-hearted devotedness to Christ that sets Christ before the soul as the first and supreme Object of the life. It may be they put themselves before Christ, or the need of souls before Christ, or the good of saints before Christ, or service before Christ, with the result that, in the end, they turned back to the things of earth. There is not sufficient power in the love of souls, the love of saints, or the desire to serve to keep our feet in the narrow path. Only Christ Himself can hold us in the outside place of reproach, following closely after Him.
H. Smith, adapted
Christian Devotedness
If there be one thing of importance now, it is Christian devotedness. I do not separate this from Christian doctrine, but founded on it; I do not surely separate it from the presence and power of the Spirit (one of the most important of these doctrines), for it is produced by it. But Christian devotedness founded on the truth and produced by the power of the Spirit I believe to be of the utmost importance for the saints themselves and for the testimony of God. I believe surely that doctrine is of deep importance now: clearness as to redemption, the peace that belongs to the Christian through divine righteousness, the presence and living power of the Comforter sent down from heaven, the sure and blessed hope of Christ’s coming again to receive us to Himself that where He is we shall be also, that we shall be like Himself seeing Him as He is, and that if we die we shall be present with Him, the knowledge that risen with Him we shall be blessed not only through but with Christ, and the deep, practical identification with Him through our being united with Him by the Holy Spirit. All these things, and many things connected with them, held in the power of the Holy Spirit, separate us from the world, shelter the soul by the spiritual possession of Christ glorified, the conscious possession of Christ, from the cavils of current infidelity, and give a living spring to the joy and hope of the whole Christian life. But the expression of the power of them in the heart will manifest itself in devotedness.
Christianity has exercised a mighty influence over the world, even where it is openly rejected, as well as where it is professedly received. Care of the poor and the supply of temporal wants have become recognized duties of society. And where the truth is not known and Christianity is corrupted, diligent devotedness to this, on the false ground of merit, is largely used to propagate that corruption. And even where infidelity prevails, the habits of feeling, produced by Christianity, prevail, and man becomes the object of diligent, though often of perverted, care. The testimony of the true saint surely should not be wanting where falsehood has imitated the good effects of truth. But there are higher motives than these, and it is of the true character of devotedness I would speak.
Motive and Merit
As to reward, as motive or merit, it is clear that any such thought destroys the whole truth of devotedness, because there is no love in it. It is self, looking, like “James and John,” for a good place in the kingdom. Reward there is in Scripture, but it is used to encourage us in the difficulties and dangers which higher and truer motives bring us into. So Christ Himself, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” Yet we well know that His motive was love. So Moses: “He endured as seeing Him who is invisible, for he had respect to the recompense of reward.” His motive was caring for his brethren. So reward is ever used, and it is a great mercy in this way. And every man receives his reward according to his own labor.
The Spring and Source
The spring and source of all true devotedness is divine love filling and operating in our hearts, as Paul says, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” Its form and character must be drawn from Christ’s actings. Hence grace must first be known for oneself, for thus it is I know love. Thus it is that this love is shed abroad in the heart. We learn divine love in divine redemption. This redemption sets us, too, in divine righteousness before God. Thus all question of merit, of self-righteousness, is shut out, and self-seeking in our labor set aside. “Grace,” we have learned, “reign[s] through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ.” The infinite, perfect love of God gives us now to enjoy divine love. I speak of all this now in view of the love shown in it. This knits the heart to Christ, bringing it to God in Him, God in Him to us. We say nothing separates us from this love.
The Order of Effect
The first effect is to lead the heart up, thus sanctifying it: We bless God, adore God, thus known; our delight is in Jesus. But thus near to God and in communion with Him, divine love flows into and through our hearts. We become animated by it through our enjoyment of it. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord; not the less God, but God revealed in Christ, for there we have learned love. Thus, in all true devotedness, Christ is the first and governing object; next, “His own which are in the world”; then, our fellow-men. First their souls, then their bodies, and every want they are in. His life of good to man governs ours, but His death governs the heart. “Hereby know we love because He laid down His life for us.” “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but to Him which died for them, and rose again.”
We must note, too, that all idea of merit and self-righteousness is utterly excluded, so it is a new life in us which both enjoys God and to which His love is precious. It is not the benevolence of nature, but the activity of divine love in the new man. Its genuineness is thus tested, because Christ has necessarily the first place with this nature, and its working is in that estimate of right and wrong which the new man alone has, and of which Christ is the measure and motive.
But it is more than a new nature. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and God’s love is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. And as it springs up like a well in us unto eternal life, so also living waters flow out from us by the Holy Spirit which we have received. All true devotedness, then, is the action of divine love in the redeemed, through the Holy Spirit given to them.
Natural Benevolence
There may be a zeal which compasses sea and land, but it is in the interest of a prejudice or the work of Satan. There may be natural benevolence clothed with a fairer name, and irritated if it be not accepted for its own sake. There may be the sense of obligation and legal activity, which, through grace, may lead farther, though it be the pressure of conscience, not the activity of love. The activity of love does not destroy the sense of obligation in the saint, but alters the whole character of his work. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” In God, love is active, but sovereign; in the saint it is active, but a duty, because of grace. It must be free to have the divine character to be love. Yet we owe it all and more than all to Him that loved us. The Spirit of God which dwells in us is a Spirit of adoption, and so of liberty with God, but it fixes the heart on God’s love in a constraining way. Every right feeling in a creature must have an object, and, to be right, that object must be God, and God revealed in Christ as the Father, for in that way God possesses our souls.
Love Yielding to God
What is supposed here is not a law contending or arresting a will seeking its own pleasure, but the blessed and thankful yielding of ourselves to the love of the blessed Son of God, and a heart entering into that love and its object by a life which flows from Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Hence it is a law of liberty. The heart ranges in the sphere in which Christ does. It loves the brethren, for Christ does, and all the saints, for He does. It seeks all for whom Christ died, yet knowing that only grace can bring any of them; it endures “all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”; it seeks to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”; it desires to see the saints grow up to Him who is the Head in all things and walk worthy of the Lord; it seeks to see the church presented as a chaste virgin unto Christ. It continues in its love, though the more abundantly it loves, the less it be loved. It is ready to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
The Governing Factor
A governing motive characterizes all our walk: All is judged by it. A man of pleasure flings away money; so does an ambitious man. They judge the value of things by pleasure and power. The covetous man thinks their path folly, judges everything by its tendency to enrich. The Christian judges of everything by Christ. If it hinders His glory in oneself or another, it is cast away. It is judged not as sacrifice, but cast away as a hindrance. All is dross and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. To cast away dross is no great sacrifice. How blessedly self is gone here! “Gain to me” has disappeared. What a deliverance that is! Unspeakably precious for ourselves and morally elevating! Christ gave Himself. We have the privilege of forgetting self and living to Christ. It will be rewarded, our service in grace, but love has its own joys in serving in love. Self likes to be served. Love delights to serve. So we see in Christ, on earth, now; when we are in glory, He girds Himself and serves us. And shall not we, if we have the privilege, imitate, serve, give ourselves to Him, who so loves us? Living to God inwardly is the only possible means of living to Him outwardly. All outward activity not moved and governed by this is fleshly and even a danger to the soul, for it tends to make us do without Christ and brings in self. It is not devotedness, for devotedness is devotedness to Christ, and this must be in looking to being with Him. I dread great activity without great communion, but I believe that, when the heart is with Christ, it will live to Him.
The form of devotedness, of external activity, will be governed by God’s will and the competency to serve, for devotedness is a humble, holy thing, doing its Master’s will, but the spirit of undivided service to Christ is the true part of every Christian. We want wisdom; God gives it liberally. Christ is our true wisdom. We want power; we learn it in dependence through Him who strengthens us. Devotedness is a dependent—as it is a humble —spirit. So it was in Christ. It waits on its Lord. It has courage and confidence in the path of God’s will, because it leans on divine strength in Christ. He can do all things. Hence it is patient and does what it has to do according to His will and word, for then He can work, and He does all that is done which is good.
Opposition and Rejection
There is another side of this which we have to look at. The simple fact of undivided service in love is only joy and blessing. But we are in a world where it will be opposed and rejected, and the heart would naturally save self. This Peter presented to Christ, and Christ treated it as Satan. We shall find the flesh shrinks instinctively from the fact and from the effect of devotedness to Christ, because it is giving up self and brings reproach, neglect and opposition on us. We have to take up our cross to follow Christ, not to return to bid good-bye to them that are at home in the house. It is our home still, if we say so, and we shall at best be “John Marks” in the work. And it will be found it is ever then “suffer me first!” If there be anything but Christ, it will be before Christ, not devotedness to Him with a single eye. But this is difficult to the heart, that there should be no self-seeking, no self-sparing, no self-indulgence! Yet none of these things are devotedness to Christ and to others, but the very opposite. Hence, if we are to live to Christ, we must hold ourselves dead, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Obedience
It has another character: Whatever its devotedness and activity, it is obedience. There cannot be a righteous will in a creature, for righteousness in a creature is obedience. Adam fell, having a will independent of God. Christ came to do the will of Him that sent Him, and in His highest devotedness, His path was that of obedience. “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given Me commandment, so I do.” This both guides in devotedness and keeps us quiet and humble.
Our conclusion, then, is simple, undivided devotedness to Christ; Christ the only object, whatever duties that motive may lead to faithfulness in; nonconformity to the world which rejected Him; a bright, heavenly hope connecting itself with Christ in glory, who will come and receive us to Himself and make us like Him, so that we should be as men that wait for their Lord; His love constraining us, in all things caring for what He cares for, Christ crucified, and Christ before us as our hope, the centers around which our whole life turns.
J. N. Darby, adapted from
Collected Writings, 16:234
“Me Ye Have Not Always”
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Was there to be no testimony to this deepest character of His glory? His grace had prepared a suited vessel for it in one who in heart entered into the true character of what was transpiring. It was Mary — she who had learned to know Him as no one else seemed to have known Him in the Gospels. Her heart anticipates what lay deepest in His heart, even before it had found expression in His words. The secret of the Lord was with Mary, as with all who fear Him, and so, with intelligence of the suited moment, she took the “ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.” “Because of the savor of thy good ointment, thy name is as ointment poured forth.” So it was that day — “the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.”
The Lord’s Estimate
of Her Devotedness
But what is so precious here is the way our Lord expresses His estimate of the act of her devotedness, in contrast to the thoughts of His poor disciples who understood nothing. “They had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste?” Judas adding, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” Then Jesus said, “Let her alone; against the day of My burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but Me ye have not always.” He will receive no more the anointing of our hands; He has passed beyond the reach of such, though not beyond the expression of our love. Yet, there is a sense in which His own will have Him forever and in a more blessed way than they had Him while He was yet with them upon earth. The part that Mary chose by His grace we know shall never be taken away from her. Still, there is a way in which we have Him now in this day of His rejection that we shall never have Him in glory. There is a fellowship of His sufferings, more intimate and sweeter, if possible, than the fellowship of His glory. What if we were to miss it? This is what affects my heart. If Mary had failed to seize that last night, to render love’s adoring testimony to His preciousness, she never could have recalled it through eternity. How exquisitely suited to the moment was that testimony to the perfect fragrance of His death before God, whom men counted worthy only of a malefactor’s cross! She had come beforehand to anoint Him for His burial, and how soon the opportunity would have been forever lost! It is not that love will not find suited ways of expressing itself to Him in the everlasting glory, but it will not be in the way in which He looks for it now, and misses it, if wanting.
The Awakening of Love
Has He not died and risen again to win our hearts for Himself? In Luke 7, He recounts every token of the sinful woman’s love, for it was precious to Him. Can we, as His forgiven ones, be known in a cold, heartless world as plainly as she —by love that seeks to lavish its expression on this precious Object? “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Not that the action of this dear woman in Luke 7 is to be confounded with the outwardly somewhat similar one of Mary of Bethany, as though it were of the same order of intelligence. But they were both the expression of love, of real devoted attachment to the person of the Lord Jesus, each in its own place and measure. The former was the first awakening of love, as when first He attracts the heart to Himself by all His blessed grace; the latter was the fruit of the deep-tried experience of what He is in Himself.
Perhaps we ask, How can we know what would suit Him now? Ah! love finds it out, because it studies its object, as Mary did, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Thus she gained the instinctive intelligence with which she acted. The possession of intelligence of the mind and will of the Lord is the firstfruit and proof of love, and love needs to be guided by the intelligence it thus gains in order to express itself acceptably to the Lord. Mary Magdalene needed it when she thought of carrying away the dead body of the Lord. But she loved Him, and this detained her in the place where she acquired the intelligence in the richest way. Then again, love has its own way of expressing itself, that no mere intelligence could imitate. But into how many innumerable details the principle enters, love finding its joyful liberty only in carrying out His will under His eye, in every particular of the life, love giving its peculiar character and acceptance to the obedience.
Our Estimate of Him
The very way we have Him now, in the presence of the world that has cast Him out, affords constant opportunities for our love to express itself. In the glory there will be no self to deny, no cross to take up, no world to refuse, no breaking of the dearest ties of kindred, no misjudgment of fellow-believers to face, no loss of any kind to encounter for love of Him. All hearts will flow together to Him there. Now these things test our estimate of Him and afford the privilege of proving what the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord is to our souls.
Alas! in the base treachery of our hearts it is too easy to escape it all. If you go with the ordinary profession of His name, use the security that infinite, sovereign grace has given you from judgment to come, to settle down at ease in the world that has rejected Him, do good to men, as with the ointment sold for so much and given to the poor, these things will gain for the Christian the favor and esteem of the world, and the reproach of Christ will be unknown. But at what incalculable loss His touching words remind us, “Me ye have not always.”
Our Opportunity
When the glory comes, “His servants shall serve Him,” perfectly then, as surely as we shall “see His face,” love finding new ways to express itself to its object in the glory, but if He came tonight to take us into it, never again would He call us to go forth to Him outside the camp bearing His reproach — never ask again, “This do in remembrance of Me,” leading our hearts to announce His death — never look for or receive from bridal affections formed by the Spirit the cry that bids Him “Come” — never look for us to be identified with His interests in the church and His testimony to the world. All this and much more is over forever and the opportunity past if we miss it now. “Me ye have not always.”
Oh, to know the power of these words to stir up our souls to more devotedness that will make the most of the days as they come, and so quickly passing, never to be recalled! Oh, to be found for Him, in the face of everything, accounting anything in which we taste the fellowship of His sufferings our greatest present gain and glory.
J. A. Trench, adapted
The Power of Devotedness
The power of intelligent devotedness is the understanding of the perfect purging of our consciences. Many do not understand this; they are aiming at getting it, and that is a complete reversing of God’s order. We have a purged conscience, not by anything that we have done, but by the blood of Jesus. He has set us down within the veil. We are within the holiest with a perfectly-purged conscience, with “no more conscience of sins.” More than this, the priesthood of Christ comes in to maintain me practically where the blood of Christ has set me, and the advocacy of Christ restores me if I sin. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The moment I have judged myself about the sin, I am entitled to know that it is gone.
What a wondrous place to set the believer in at the very outset of his course — in the unclouded light of God’s own countenance! But what are we to do? to rest there? No, but that is the foundation on which the superstructure of practical devotedness is based. Legalism says that you must work yourself up into this place of acceptance. The gospel says, Christ has put me there. Antinomianism says, “I have it, I possess it all in Christ,” and there it ends. But no! the gospel puts me there to run the blessed race that is set before me, to become like Christ.
Christ Outside the Camp
Hebrews 10 sets me down within the holiest, and Hebrews 13 leads me without the camp. I find Christ, as it regards my conscience, “within the veil.” I find Christ, as it regards my heart, “without the camp.”
If I know the comfort which flows from being within the veil, I must seek practical identification with Christ outside the camp. Christ within the veil tranquilizes my conscience; Christ outside the camp energizes my soul to run more devotedly the race set before me. “The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:11-13). No two points are morally more remote than inside the veil and outside the camp, and yet they are brought together here. Inside the veil was the place where God’s glory dwelt; outside the camp, the place where the sin offering was burned. It is blessed to see Jesus filling up all that is between these two points. The camp was the place of ostensible profession (in type, the camp of Israel; in antitype, the city of Jerusalem). Why did Christ suffer without the gate? In order to show the setting aside of the mere machinery of Israel’s outward profession.
We may be clear as to the work of Christ being done for us, but is tranquility of conscience all I want? It will be found that the joy, peace and liberty flowing from our hearing Christ’s voice inside the veil are very much dependent on our listening to His voice outside the camp. Those who know most of suffering with Him and bearing His reproach will know most of the joy with Him within the veil. Our conduct must be tested by Christ. The Holy Spirit will be grieved if the saint pursues a course contrary to that which Christ would have pursued, and then the soul must be lean. How can I be enjoying Christ if I am not walking in company with Him? Where then is Christ? “Outside the camp.” “Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” Because Christ is not of the world, the measure of our separation from the world is the measure of Christ’s separation. When the heart is filled with Christ, it can give up the world; there is no difficulty in doing it then. The mere saying, “Give up this” or “give up that” to one loving the world will be of no avail; what I have to do is to seek to minister more of Christ to that soul.
C. H. Mackintosh, adapted
Christianity Under Attack
A recent issue of the American magazine, Newsweek, was entitled, “Everything you think you know about Iran is wrong.” In a series of articles in the issue, the authors labored to show that while there still needs to be concern about Iran, many of the ideas held in Western countries about Iran are distorted. Among other things, the premise was put forward that Iran did not really want to have nuclear weapons, that it did not really want war with Israel, that president Ahmadinejad’s views do not necessarily represent those of the people of Iran, and that many of the Iranian people are moderates who want peace, not war. There may be some truth in all of these statements, but the end result of the articles is to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that does not really want to cause the terrorism and bloodshed that have been attributed to it. This is in spite of the fact that Ahmadinejad apparently believes that he is destined to usher in worldwide Islamic rule.
Former Muslim Terrorists
In another incident last year, a group of three former Muslim terrorists were scheduled to speak at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Prior to their speaking, more than one newspaper hinted that they had fabricated portions of their past and protested that the real reason for the engagement was to promote Christianity. They pointed out that because these terrorists had converted to Christianity, their speaking was “inappropriate in a government setting,” as they might “profess evangelical beliefs.” Other incidents could be multiplied. In some areas of the U.S.A. now, Muslim students are allowed time for prayer in public schools, led by a staff member, while prayer by Christians is not allowed. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the airport authority has suggested that some taxicabs be labeled “sharia,” so that Muslim drivers will not be compelled to carry Orthodox Jews or people carrying alcoholic beverages. This has not been implemented yet, but the suggestion was made.
Sikhs
Lest it be thought that we are targeting Islam, incidents concerning the encouraging of other false religions could be brought forward. In 1990 a decision by the Solicitor General of Canada permitted Sikhs who wanted to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to be excused from wearing the traditional headgear of the uniform, as their religion required them to wear their turbans at all times. In contrast, several years ago a Christian medical doctor who was invited to give a presentation to the Canadian Senate on the question of legalizing gay marriage was repeatedly interrupted, forced to shorten his speech, and finally stopped altogether. It is reported that some senators who disagreed with his Christian view were so enraged that they could hardly speak.
Hindus
Hinduism is usually presented as a peaceful and tolerant religion, in spite of its caste system that keeps many in terrible bondage, its practice of sati (burning a wife on her husband’s funeral pyre), and escalating attacks on those of other religions, particularly Christians. It is a well-established fact that human sacrifices are still practiced among Hindus.
The True Picture
It gives us no pleasure to expose all these things, and it is not our purpose to spend our time in tearing down other religions. However, some facts are helpful in showing us the true picture. While all this goes on, Christianity is attacked at every turn. At the time of the tsunami several years ago, India refused foreign aid because they knew that Christian organizations would be some of the first to respond, and they would bring not only aid, but also the gospel. More recently Myanmar refused foreign aid workers for the same reason, although they were in desperate need of help. Bhutan (a Buddhist country) has singled out Christianity as a threat, more than any other religion. In much of Western Europe and North America, traditionally part of Christendom, any reference to the Bible and any mention of the Lord Jesus has been strictly forbidden in public circles in the past few years. Several years ago an evangelical rally in San Francisco was condemned by the local government as a hate group. A prominent Christian leader in the U.S.A. recently remarked, “We are, after all, a society that abides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage and often treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition.”
The Choice of Barabbas
While believers are understandably distressed at all this, we should not be surprised. The world made its decision when it was presented with a choice between the Lord Jesus and Barabbas. The Word of God records that Barabbas had made insurrection, committed murder, caused a tumult, and was a robber. Yet the world chose Barabbas and demanded that the Lord Jesus be crucified. Since then Satan has been both the god and the prince of this world, and men have suffered the consequences of that awful choice. It is true that the world does not like terrorism, robbery and bloodshed, but it preferred to cope with all this rather than have the presentation of Christ.
So it remains today. The terrorism and other acts of war that have occurred over the past few years have sobered this world to some extent and taken away the sense of peace and safety that was prevalent in the Western world. However, these things have not, for the most part, turned the world to Christ, but only brought out a strong and determined resolve to force Christ and His claims out of the picture. The Word of God tells us that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13).
The Christian’s Place
Our part as believers is, first of all, to recognize all this and not to be unduly distressed or downcast as a result. On the bright side, we can look up and know that our “redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). Also, this attitude should give us energy to redouble our efforts in the gospel, for the time is short. God has left us here to be living witnesses for Him, and there are many opportunities in spite of the apostate attitude that has overrun former Christian countries. We can be thankful for the liberties God has preserved to us, while recognizing that events are heading up to a day when Satan will attempt to destroy all worship of the true God and substitute the worship of himself. However, God has said, “Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (Psa. 2:6). Christ will reign in righteousness, and we will reign with Him.
W. J. Prost