CHAPTER 1—THE ORIGIN AND SOURCE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
THE Scriptures bring us the knowledge of a Savior, and of a salvation in Him with eternal glory, which places those who believe in God's Christ outside " the world," and introduces them into a new world where they enjoy, in new creation, their portion in Christ glorified in the heavens, and their association with Him in that celestial sphere in which He now dwells. Christianity is entirely spiritual and heavenly. “How shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” asked the Lord, at the time He was pressing such “earthly things “as being born of water and of the Spirit, and entering the kingdom of God. Even a Jew should have recognized the new birth according to Ex. 36. But Christianity has not only brought in “the Son of Man who is in heaven," but also the " heavenly things." “As is the heavenly One, such are they also who heavenly ones."
A New Man—" the last Adam "—in life and righteousness, in the Person of the Risen Christ, has been introduced as the Head of a new race who are promised the heavens as their dwelling-place, and " the things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God " as their possession. " Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior," to save us out of this earthly scene by giving us glorious bodies like His own, and taking us to be where He is. He said to His disciples, “If I go away, I will come again, and receive you to my-Leif, that where I am there ye may be also." “Where I am," means the Father's house in heaven—the blessed home of all the children God. This is the home of love; but there also is the seat of government and glory, the golden city, where the Lamb and the Bride, the Lamb's wife, shall be displayed in glory.
The knowledge of Christ personally in His life of grace, in his atoning death, and victorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, and where He now is, gives life and salvation. And the experience which flows from a spiritual acceptance by faith and in the power and grace of the Holy Ghost of the facts regarding " our Lord Jesus," and our identification with Him in position, life, righteousness, love, hope, and joy before His God and Father, affords a vantage ground of signal value, and gives a magnificent equipment for the every-day exigencies, difficulties, and trials of the Christian life. For an intelligent knowledge of Christ and Christianity tells us of every question having been settled when Christ died and bore our sins in His own body on the tree. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." And being begotten of God by the word of truth we are His children. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the children, of God." “Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it;" and we are “members of His body," whom He " nourisheth and cherisheth:" and He will one day present it a glorious Church to Himself. We begin our course as Christians as children of God and members of Christ, all that we are as children of Adam having been completely answered for and settled between God and Christ on the cross when He said, " It is finished, and gave up the ghost." We have now only to live by the faith of the Son of God, enjoy our portion in Him, and live so as to be a living expression of Christ. This can be done only by the Spirit of God keeping us beholding the glory of Christ and being changed into the same image. But this is not without its trials and difficulties. There is nothing more trying than to be incapable of enjoying Christ and not abiding in Him. The experience that is like wintry weather is very unpleasant—sun for a few moments, then clouds and rain, if not frost and snow, when Christ's love should constantly constrain.
The want of the continuance of a happy spiritual state is what greatly tries most Christians, and renders them displeased and disappointed at their want of spiritual life and progress. Their enjoyment of Christ is like an intermittent spring that for long seasons runs dry. Once the waters flowed forth in full stream, but they have now ceased thus to flow. They wish so much always to be enjoying that of which they have had soul-filling experience in seasons of near and real communion with God. It is more distressing to a true spiritual believer to have to go on from day to day in a dull, dry, sunless, and joyless state of soul and heart than were his body afflicted, or his temporal affairs in a depressed condition. There is, in fact, no trial so intolerable and depressing, as the want of conscious enjoyment of happy, holy, soul-filling, fellowship with God through Jesus Christ. Something has gone wrong in the soul's condition, and what it is, and where, cannot be found out. For there is no conscience of indulging in any known sin or of retaining iniquity in the heart such as to make the Lord refuse to hear. Still there is a clouded state of soul, and no fellowship in the Spirit with the Lord. There is neither dew nor rain to make the garden of the soul fresh with budding life, and to send forth the fragrance of its spices scenting the genial air. The well-known scriptures no longer take hold of them, and prayer is like speaking to some one on the other side of a high wall whom they cannot see. To be thus in a state of distance, and seemingly shut out from society with God and Christ, and all holy, spiritual saints, by a soul's very condition unfitting him for it is depressing in the extreme. Many Christians would not know the meaning of all this, for they have only had quickening, and have never had the enjoyment of nearness of communion with God in new life in a risen and glorified Christ in the power of the Spirit of God. But the soul that knows the joy of dwelling in God and God in us—of having fellowship with the Father and the Son and joy full, cannot be satisfied to go on without realizing it. Nothing else can satisfy.
How are we to get rid of this sleepiness, unprofitableness, and want of spiritual freshness, lack of fellowship with God and joy in Him? It is not so easy to answer such a question without knowing the causes that have led to the sad state described. Also, God is so sovereign, and so surprises us by the communication of His grace in unlooked for ways, that he might set aside all our thoughts by the manifestation of the exceeding riches of His grace in Christ Jesus towards us. Possibly, in many cases, there may be the need of a deeper sense of sin, and the judgment of our entire evilness and lost state in God's sight; for the root of sin in the old nature not having been dealt with, there may not be full deliverance of soul in the Spirit revealing Christ's work and God's condemnation of tale flesh in the sacrifice of Christ. This needs to be seen to as it is at the very foundation of living to God.
(To be continued).