These two passages present two principles which the vessel of God's choice must practically learn. They are not confined to the Christian interval alone. They 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 anything 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 what conscious power is found as the soul learns to hold the cross to every motion of human life which works in his body! And the soul learns 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 desire "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection."
Other Cases
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 us understand this. In Abraham's path we are introduced to him, and to the dealings of God with him. In Abraham 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, if he were to accept what is taught there, it would allow him to begin in the place where others ended. But the state of soul and the power of the flesh and the deceivableness of our own hearts, are such that we must 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. Speaking for oneself, and perhaps for others, 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. 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.
Threefold Way
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 worshiper, 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 attempted to realize and accomplish it in the strength of man. All fails and then at last God does by him what he tried 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 decided to deliver Israel, with David at Ziklag, and with Peter in the judgment hall? Each was tried, each sought to do that which was right and of God, but the energy was of man. God did, at the end, by each one the same things which each had attempted to do themselves. We see this around us every day in the history of saints. We know it in our own lives.
History of Saints
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 (if there was no failure or turning aside) the thing is done by God Himself in him. Or if failure supervened and turned 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 attempted 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 and is coldly received or rebuked. If there is gift from Christ, the thing was right and of God, but the energy was self, unbroken. Painful lessons followed, but if we follow that man's history, if he walk with God, he will come forth brightly in useful service to the Lord. God will do by him what he tried to do himself in vain. In Abraham's case we notice he was enabled to take home "the sentence of death" to himself in the sign of circumcision (Gen. 17). Thus he learned the fruitlessness of flesh, and to be cut off from himself in the things of God.
F.G. Patterson