Higher Christian Living
Table of Contents
Higher Christian Living: Grace with Spiritual Exercise
But with regard to our spiritual state before God, if we find we are dry, dull, listless, stupid, and out of communion spiritually, we should seriously consider it, and not go on with a senseless, joyless, lifeless, condition. We should at once pull' up, and place our souls before God. If our bodies were in a disordered state, and we were threatened with a serious illness, would we hang about, and put off using the needed remedies? And why not call a halt when our souls are out of order, and have matters set right before any severe spiritual disease overtake us? Just as deliverance from the law is by the knowledge of God in Christ and our death with Him, so deliverance from an unprofitable and unspiritual state of soul and heart, God-ward and Christ ward, can be remedied only by the Holy Ghost giving fresh working in the soul and fresh unfoldings of Jesus in His attractiveness to the heart: and when communion gets interrupted there must be confession, and under the gracious action of the heavenly advocacy with the Father it will be restored. The chief thing is to give over trying to get it ourselves. Confess the evil state, the weakness, the lifelessness, want of spiritual spring and joy in the Lord, and lay ourselves down before Him in all our unhappiness, but in the acknowledged recognition and confession of our real condition, and leave Him to deal with us as He sees best. If all be cast on God in the confidence of faith and real dependence, Scripture warrants us in saying that He will graciously give us clearance, and fill us with the light and joy of His own presence. If led to act thus of God the change may be instantaneous. The Lord may be working to bring us to our knees, because He means to give us fresh blessing in the Spirit.
But this may go on for a time before the blessing of the Lord-which emancipates, brightens and deepens the divine work in the soul-be imparted. But when we are in despair of ourselves and have our faith more fixed on the Lord to whom we begin to turn and appeal in our felt helplessness, we may encourage ourselves in Him that even this is an installment of the blessing, for to be able to pray and long after fresh power of fellowship with God is surely of the Spirit. And even if there be delay, let us wait only upon God; the blessing will come in due time. We have a notable example of delay in the case of Daniel. " In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all till the whole three weeks were fulfilled." Then the vision of a glorious one is given him, and he " alone saw the vision.” “I was left alone," he says, "and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me." He heard " the voice of his words," with his face towards the ground. A hand touched him and set him upon his knees and the palms of his hands. " And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright; for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel; for (now mark this) from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words:" The exercise went on for " three whole weeks," but now he is told his words were heard " from the first day." And I am come for thy words." " Words' that he felt had been unavailing! But now, when the answer comes, he has no strength left to receive it, and it is only when freshly touched and strengthened that he could say, “Let my Lord speak; for Thou Nast strengthened me." And when he speaks, what does he say—" I will show thee that which is noted in the Scripture of truth." It is for this he has had to wait and pass through such a prolonged experience and exercise of soul. I have referred to this remarkable experience of Daniel to show that our "words " may be heard " from the first day," and yet the exercise of soul that crushes us to the ground, and takes away every bit of strength from us, may go on, and the answer come only after " three whole weeks," that when it comes it may be given us, and fresh strength to receive it, and consist in " that which is noted in the Scripture of truth," read in the light of the heavenly enlightener, and realized in this fresh strength which He has imparted.
Let us not say this is Jewish experience, and such trying soul-exercise is not to be expected now that the Holy Ghost has come and abides in the saints of God: for we read of a Christian apostle that he passed through a similar exercise, and experienced similar delay. " He was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words." Yet he tells us, “Lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." He does not say whether, like Daniel, this extended over " three whole weeks; " but "thrice" tells of continuance of supplication, and delay as to the answer. And when it came it was not the removal of the thorn, but sufficient grace to bear it. " And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak then am I strong."
Paul received a much better thing than he had asked for; for the heightening of the power of Christ to bear the thorn, and, when consciously weak, to be strong in Christ's power, were surely higher blessings than the removal of the source of his weakness. The thorn was such as led him to pray the Lord about it; the delay gave spiritual exercise of soul, and necessitated repeated prayer; and when the Lord's voice is heard it conveys such an unlooked-for assurance that Paul glories in his weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon him. But whether it is " Daniel the prophet," or " Paul the apostle," the lesson is the same—that we are cast entirely upon the Lord as to divine dealing, spiritual exercise, and spiritual deliverance. We ourselves must be reduced to nothing ("though I be nothing," says Paul), that we should have " the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." This is stated in a more detailed way farther on in the same epistle: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not from us; every way afflicted, but not straitened; seeing no apparent issue, but our way not entirely shut up; persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus; that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body; for we who live are al ways delivered unto death on account of Jesus that the life, also, of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh; so that death works in us." This tells us of “the sentence of death in ourselves,” and trust in God who raiseth the dead. This was the experience of the apostle in connection with the gospel of the glory of Christ and the ministry of the same. The “vessel " containing the light of the knowledge of the glory of God-the treasure of a glorified Christ-was broken in pieces that the light might shine out; and because He believed He spoke: "Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also through Jesus." His hopes were all in resurrection. " Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day." The more weight and pressure on the outward man, the more the life of Jesus was manifested; the more the vessel was broken, the more the testimony of Christ shone out; and the more the weakness of man was felt, the more the power of God was experienced. All free spiritual living is the consequence of the sentence of death in ourselves and trust in God, for it is in proportion as we bear about in our body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus is manifested in our body. The Christian life was with Paul a very serious thing. “For me to live —Christ." The Christian life with him was Christ—he was living a life of faith and communion, and he expressed the traits of Christ in his daily life. Our life, motive, power, object, and end is Christ. In Phil. 2 and 3. we have the grace of Christ in being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and the energy of Christ in going through everything to gain Mtn. When we have an epistle of true Christian experience, as we have in Philippians, we have nothing at all about sin, but we have Christ before us as our Object and our Prize, and our joy is in Him. " Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice." —and the man who said so was at that time in prison! He showed such superiority to circumstances, in the divine energy which actuated him, that the prison was nothing to him. Christ was all; and his crying is to know Him-to win Christ! To reach the goal in glory, and have Him there as gain.
Higher Christian Living: Chapter 2 - God's Way of Deliverance
CHAPTER 2.—GOD'S WAY OF DELIVERANCE,
GOD has provided for deliverance in the Epistle to the Romans, showing us in chap. 6. how we may get deliverance from the power of sin, of the presence of which every believer soon becomes painfully conscious. We have died to sin (6:2), we are here taught. By the death of Christ for us we have a perfect standing before the throne of God. By His death, as a practical truth applied to us, we get free from the power of sin. But this part of the teaching of the Romans flows out of our being in Christ, who has actually died, and has risen. Hence, as in Him, His condition as regards sin is ours. He has died to it once for all (10). We as in Him, have died with Him (8). Starting from this we are exhorted to carry it out practically in our walk, reckoning " ourselves dead indeed unto it, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord;" the assurance being added for the saints comfort and encouragement, " Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace" (19). Now this condition, viz., that we have died to sin, is true of every Christian, however little he may have known it, or heard of it. It is not a question of attainment, though the practical carrying out of it is a matter of experience. All the saints in Rome, once bondsmen to sin, were bondsmen unto righteousness, having obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine into which they were instructed (17). Hence they were exhorted to yield their members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness. Their condition, and that of every Christian, as regards sin, depends on the condition of Christ, in whom we are. The walk, the practice, is to be in conformity with it. We are not exhorted to walk so as to attain to it.
Then chapter 7. tells of our deliverance from the law as a husband, and our being married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead " that we might bring forth fruit unto God," and " serve in newness of spirit." To this is added in the end of the chapter an illustration of how deliverance from the body of sin and death is accomplished, or rather it gives us the experience of a quickened soul struggling with sin under law, and always failing to do the good which is, with the mind, approved of and aimed at. “Now it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." The effect is to give a true knowledge of one's self. “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not," &c. " I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" The struggle is given up in despair, for deliverance from captivity is hopeless, as well as of being good or doing good. It is more difficult to convince a soul of being "without strength" than of being guilty: it must wade through the morass of its own experience to convince it of being " without strength: " and the more thoroughly the utter worthlessness and weakness of our own selves is learned experimentally, and the hopelessness of self-effort to give deliverance, or the possibility of deliverance being achieved while struggling against sin under law, the more entirely shall we abandon the conflict, and seek a deliverer. This struggle ends only in despair and wretchedness. But when the eye turns to God in Christ, thankfulness possesses the despairing struggler. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." For what the law could not do, God has done in Christ when made a sacrifice for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh by making Christ sin for us, that we might be made righteousness of God in Him, and thus find that deliverance is secured by our being in Him, and having in Him life and righteousness where no condemnation is. " In Christ Jesus," our new risen Head, we have life not in the flesh, and we have deliverance in the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus: and this is made good to us practically as it was to the apostle—"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of s in and death." The law's righteous requirements that never were yielded while the bootless struggle continued, are now forthcoming. God has condemned sin in the flesh “in order that the righteous requirements of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to Spirit."
I have gone into the subject of deliverance in Christ from our sinful and lost condition more fully than I intended to do; but it is never out of place to " have these things al ways in remembrance, though ye know them and be established in the present truth." But the special pur pose of my referring to it is to bring out this fact, that when we come to despair of ourselves,, God undertakes for us. Whenever the man in the morass said, Who shall deliver me? he found a deliverer in God: and he says immediately, " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He is a delivered. man, and " in Christ Jesus " risen from the dead, in whom there is "no condemnation, " and from whose love there will be no separation. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? “None “shall be able to-separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The love of God in Christ Jesus hath given us this new place, and this love will keep us in it. “It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God, and who maketh intercession for us." Our place is now in Christ risen, and this is known in the Spirit who characterizes it. “For ye are not in flesh, but in spirit, if, indeed, God's Spirit dwell in you." But if that Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you,. He will at length give life to our mortal bodies, and there will be complete deliverance at the Lord's coming. " Because whom he has foreknown he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." This conformity will be in glory and in body as well as soul. " Beloved, now are we children of God, and what we shall be it has not yet been manifested; we know that if He is manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is; and every one that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure." All is thus secured for eternity; and all is of God who "hath commended his own love towards us," wrought out all for us through His Son, and is Himself "for us." What shall we then say to these things? "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
Higher Christian Living: Chapter 3 - In What Christian Living Consists
IT is delightful thus to find our salvation and security in God Himself, and all He has done for us in His own peculiar love in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are thus safe for eternity, so that we have nothing left us to do but be giving " thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." But, as I have been saying already, it is Time, and not Eternity, that is our chief trouble.
We, who know ourselves a little, wish that we were as safe for Time as for Eternity. Our salvation and our security are in God's hands, and cannot fail; but, though saved by God's grace, and thus as completely delivered and brought out from beneath all our responsibilities as fallen children of Adam, as if we had never had any connection with Him; yet, now that all our sins have been forgiven, that we are justified from all things, and as to our consciences, so perfectly cleansed from dead works, to serve the living God that we have no longer to think of ourselves as sinners, but as characteristically saints-"Them that are sanctified," yet we are set up afresh in a new position, and with a new life in Christ, and are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; are sealed with the holy Spirit of God who dwells in us, sheds abroad God's love in our hearts, causes Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith, is the power of the new life for endurance of trial, power in conflict, service, and prayer, is the Spirit of adoption and the earnest of the inheritance; and our new responsibility is to live, walk, work, and worship according to the place and portion we have in Christ, and the epistle of Christ written by the Spirit of God, seen and read as such by all men. Living by the faith of the Son of God walking in the Spirit, it is our new responsibility to be an expression of the grace, goodness, and holiness of God, in a world that is without God " or mortifying the deeds of the body by the Spirit, and walking in newness of life, having put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ in having put off the old man, which is corrupt, and being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and having put on the new man which is created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." "Risen with Christ, seek the things above, where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; have your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth: for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God."
Our whole business is to fill all our relationships with the beauty and fragrance of the heavenly things, and enjoy the place, portion, and life we have in Christ “who is gone into heaven." The display of a heavenly life in the Spirit in this earthly sphere, where Christ is not, is now the privilege and requirement of our new responsibility, as those who have life in Christ glorified, and are blessed in Him with all spiritual blessings. It is the magnitude of our privileges, blessings, and prospects that render the discharge of our new responsibilities a matter of such grave solicitude. And the chief cause of our failure, perhaps, may be similar to our failure as already described, when struggling to do good under law, and without having a due sense of the necessity of God's interference and divine deliverance. God did not only see His people's sorrows in Egypt, and come down to deliver them, but He joined Himself to them as their Director, Guide, Protector, and Provider, taking them out of Egypt and into Canaan. He charged Himself in grace to do everything for them, and in the desert, for forty years, He led them about, gave them food from heaven, and water from the smitten rock, and when He took them miraculously across the Jordan and into the promised land, He appeared to Joshua, as the Captain of the Lord's host, with a drawn sword in His hand, and He led them on to victory, and gave the land to them for a possession. “This people have I formed for myself: They shall show forth my praise." And just as really are believers of the present dispensation in their different position, as heavenly, taken in hand by God, not only for the deliverance which He gives in redemption and salvation, but for the life of faith, the conflict with wicked spirits, their testimony in the world, their service, walk, and worship. They are privileged to reckon upon God, and lean upon His grace in faith and prayer. This is God's mind concerning us: " Ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his marvelous light: who once were not a people, but now God's people; who were not enjoying mercy, but now have found mercy." Out of His fullness have all we received and grace for grace. He was manifested in flesh full of grace and truth. We now in Him are left here as His representatives, and to display the same excellencies that He exhibited when on earth. For this we have the Holy Ghost enabling us, by abiding in Christ, to bring forth fruit. “Hereby is my Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples." “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control." God's Spirit, in conscious union with Christ, is the source of this fruit-bearing. By His in-dwelling He not only acts in repression of the evil of the flesh (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:16,17), but as the expression of Christ in His goodness, grace, and holiness (2 Cor. 3; Phil. 2:15; Eph. 5 '2). The Christian epistles generally give us, in the beginning, a statement of the grace and privileges in which we have been set by God, and then follows a statement of the duties flowing from our new place of blessing. “It is God who worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure." “Grieve not the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation?" “For the grace of God that carries with it salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and piously in the present course of things, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
As I have already said, grace sets us in a place of unspeakable blessing in Christ, but it also enables us in the happy liberty of grace, to discharge all our functions in all spheres, relationships, and circumstances, from new motives, with newness of spirit, and is newness of life; and with a new power, the Holy Spirit of God. We find ourselves here as members of Christ, and we have consequently our ecclesiastical responsibilities to " walk, worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and meekness. With long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." In the end of this same chapter, and in chapter v., we have personal and social godliness carried on, by the Spirit whom sin would grieve, on the model shown us of God Christ as Love (Eph. 5.1 2), and as Light (Eph. 5:8,9,14). And in the end of Eph. 5 and beginning of Eph. 6, we have Christians addresses in reference to their relative duties as wives and husbands, parents and children, masters and servants; the relationship of the Church to Christ lending weight to them all. There are earthly duties to be performed by the heavenly family, and these duties are to be discharged in the liberty of Spirit, and in the power of our new relationship to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. There is also the divine armor in chapter vi., all of which is moral, showing us that good state of soul is required to maintain the Christian warfare which is with wicked spirits in the heavenlies—and this, too, is done as being in Christ and filled with the Spirit. If Satan finds the whole armor of God not put on he gains an advantage over us, for he would bring before us our bad moral state to make us doubt the goodness of our spiritual position and blessing in Christ Jesus. " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the panoply of God that ye may be able to stand against all the artifices of the devil." This is a specimen of the way the Spirit speaks of us, and to us, in the epistles. Our responsibilities as forgiven, justified, saved, and heavenly men, flow from our new and unvarying position and relationship, and we are also empowered by the Holy Ghost to discharge the duties of the abiding relationships of nature as new creatures in Christ Jesus. They are, thus, the privilege 3 and blessings in Christ, and the responsibilities which flow from them with the grace, power, and motives for the discharge of them: and whether it be ecclesiastical or personal godliness, as we have in Eph. 4, or social and relative godliness, as in chapters v. and vi., the duties to be performed are to be discharged by persons set in the highest sphere, and blessed in the richest manner, by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who have been under the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus, and united to Christ and made members of His body, the Church, and also an habitation of God in Spirit—and by the same Spirit having Christ Jesus dwelling in the heart by faith, rooted and grounded in love to enter into all our portion in Christ, and to enjoy according to the power that worketh in us our connection with all the fullness of God. Thus we have the grace and truth which was in its fullness in Christ (John 1:14) reproduced and expressed in the midst of the darkness of this world, and in the midst of the evil where the god of this world seems well-nigh triumphant. In our new state, sphere, and circumstances with the Holy Ghost in us as our living power, we are set down to glorify God in our body: and although it is desirable for our own happiness that we perform all our duties in the Christian life in the enjoyment of liberty and sunshine, yet it is a happy thing that the whole range of responsibility can be met and answered by us as honestly serving the Lord Christ, let the day be bright or cloudy, wet or dry, hot or cold; and whatever may be the state of joy or sorrow in which we find ourselves.
Higher Christian Living: Chapter 6 - Filial Relationship and Spiritual Liberty
BUT we must now, for a little while longer, turn our eyes to the right hand of God, where the ascended One, who is man, now is seated and glorified with the glory He had with the Father before the world was. As we have already stated, God's purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began is to have His own Son, the glorified Man as the center in glory of a new order of men (redeemed from the ruins of Adam and dead, and risen with Christ), united to Him where He is, and have a common relationship, place, and share with Him in all the glory, and blessing, wherewith His God and Father hath blessed Him in the. heavenlies. Consciousness of oneness. with Czarist, in glory, and the knowledge of the mystery, Christ and the Church give full deliverance of soul; and seeing that this is " the present truth " that needs to be insisted on with constant iteration, we would conclude with the presentation of a condensed epitome of the Christian position, and the importance for deliverance, freshness, and spiritual progress of enjoying in. the Holy Ghost that blessed glorified Second Man who has glorified God on the earth, and who has been glorified by God, and with God in the highest heavens.
Where there is faith in a risen and glorified Christ there will be the conscious enjoyment in Him of divine life, filial relationship, and spiritual liberty. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," and He is with all who believe the gospel of the glory of Christ. The Spirit of God is with those who accept the ministration of life and righteousness in Christ, from the glory of God, and He gives them to know Him, and what God has given us in Him. Trace the path of the Son of God, from His coming in flesh to His ascension into the glory of God, and think of Him as the humbled, victorious, and exalted man. " That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him. God has been revealed on earth as a personal God (for " God was in Christ ") and in His relationship as a Father in the person of the Son of Man born of the Virgin. He was born holy-" that holy thing that shall be born of thee." He lived a life of obedience, dependence and holiness, and as God's Pious One, God the Father could claim Him at His baptism, as His by the voice from heaven. " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Heaven opened to Him and the Holy Ghost descended like a dove and rested upon Him, " for him hath God the Father sealed and sent into the world," and told forth at once His relationship to Him, and his well-pleasedness in Him. Thus attested and empowered as God's Sent One, He " went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil, for God was with him; " and when man rejected Him God testified again from the holy mount, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." God owned Him at Jordan as His Pious One in His private life, when " He was about the age of thirty; " and now on the holy mount He owns Him in the transfiguration scene in His public life, as the Servant Son of Jehovah, the Messias promised to the fathers; and His place in the midst of His people in the kingdom is given Him in glory, and the Father's voice from the holiest proclaims this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. From this place in glory which His own intrinsic excellence as Son of God, and His upholding the glory of God in Israel as the Son of Man, the Jehovah-Messiah had given him, we hear from the conversation of the glorious men who appeared, Moses and Elias, how that they talked of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem; and when the vision was past He descended from that " holy mount " to travel onwards as the rejected Son of Man to Calvary to accomplish His decease for God's glory and our redemption; for, " except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but, if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.... Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.... And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what death he should die.... Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." God has been glorified by Him in His holy life, and God glorifying death by which at once God in all He is in His nature, character and requirements was magnified, and His glory retrieved and established over sin and Satan, and in the very face of the enemy. God as love as well as light has been glorified in the death of Christ; and not only according to the requirements of man as represented in the court, and at the brazen altar, but according to the necessity of God's nature as He is in Himself in the holiest of all, where all that the light of His glory reveals is of gold. God has been glorified about sin in the sinless One made sin for us; and where the first man was disobedient unto death, the second man has been obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He gave up Himself in obedience to glorify God, and God came in righteousness and in the might of His power wrought for Him and raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in His heavenly glory above every name that is named, both in this world and that which is to come, and has given Him to be head over all things to the Church which is His body the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
The old man came to the end in Christ's cross, and we have died with Christ and are risen with Him, and by faith we are the sons of God and the Risen Man, the last Adam is our life as He is our righteousness. As in the old creation we were in our sins and guilty, and lost in our Adam-head, so in our risen Lord-the Second Man-we are forgiven, have redemption, are saved, and have justification of life; for, as by one man's disobedience we were constituted sinners so by One Man's obedience we are constituted righteous. And not only so, but we are made one with a glorified Christ by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. We are saved by grace-God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, not as incarnate, but as risen from the dead, for Christ in the flesh is known no more (for He is not here, He is risen) therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold they are become new, and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son; and in this new, peaceful and happy condition we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation. There is a new creation, and Christ glorified is the Head of it, and we, as individuals have our place in Him, and part with Him, for our new creation in Christ and union with him is individual. By the disobedience, sin, and fall of the first Adam, we all went down under death; by the obedience, suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, the last Adam, we are all raised up with Him, and have life. In the beginning the heavens and the earth were created, and then man was formed on the sixth day, but all this is reversed in Christ, who dies for man on that sixth day, rested in the grave on the seventh day, and on the first day of the week was raised from the dead as the Second Man of heavenly origin, and constituted the Head of a new order of men who, it is God's purpose, should be associated with Him, one with His own Son, the second Man, the last Adam, as the Son of Man but Son of God, in his Manhood as we are, and indeed more closely than we were with the first-not Christ, as is often stated, united to men before and without redemption, which gives us a place in the glory with Him, and He has done all that is needed to bring us there. Of old, before the foundation of the world, He rejoiced in the habitable parts of Jehovah's earth, and His delight was with the sons of men. God prepared Him a body and He came in time, and to do God's will in our salvation, becoming a man, made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, and now crowned with glory and honor. As man in the glory He had with the Father before the world was, and having become our life, and accomplished the work of redemption on the cross, and gone into glory, gone up on high as man, He has sent down the Holy Ghost, Himself our abiding righteousness, that we might know that we are in Him, and He in us; not yet with Him, but in Him, and knowing it by the Holy Ghost (John 14), as it is written, " If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. God has quickened us together with Him, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But, as said, not yet with Him, or partaking of the glory. Christ as raised from the dead is the head in glory, and we are members of His body. " He is the Head of the body the Church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence " (Col. 1:18). It is a striking fact that Christ the firstborn from the dead is " the Beginning: " the Rock on which the Church is built is Christ: the Son of the living God, the firstborn from the dead. God's risen Son is the Head of His body, the Church, the Beginning of God's new work, just as He is as firstborn of every creature, " the Beginning of the creation of God," " for by Him were all things created-all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist," so as risen He is " the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead," that in all things He might have the preeminence. We who believe have our place in Him who is " the Head of His body, the Church, " and have all our privileges, and blessings in Him, and being united to Him by the Holy Ghost come down from Him to seal all believers, and be the earnest of glory with Him, we wait for His coming that we may be conformed to His image in glory.
The Spirit contrasts the first Man, and the Second Man in 1 Cor. 15 The first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening Spirit.... The first man out of the earth, made of dust; the Second Man, out of heaven. Such as be made of dust, even also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly (One), such also the heavenly (ones). As we have borne the image of the (one) made of dust we shall bear also the image of the heavenly (One)." " For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be confirmed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." " Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to Himself a glorious Church not having a spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27). Whether as individuals, or as members of Christ's body, our prospect is to be like and with Himself in glory.
Higher Christian Living: Chapter 5 - The Effect of Association with a Risen Christ
IT generally happens that souls that are stranded need both more of the grace of God and of the truth of God. One told me lately of a ship stranded on the east coast of England which has occupied them all the winter in getting it off the sandbank on which the storm had driven it. They tried to dig it out, and they also tried to take advantage of the ebbing and flowing of the tide to accomplish their purpose; but had it not been for an exceptionally high tide they had never been able to get the vessel floated and saved from becoming a wreck. This tells of the need of special grace for stranded souls. Christians who get stranded need a high tide of God's grace to get them off the sand-banks where they are lying in all their helplessness. But when the tide rises sufficiently high they have nothing more to do than spread their canvas and sail away from the place of their imprisonment into the deep waters of redeeming love. The state of the disciples at the death of Jesus is a picture of the state of many disciples still. They were completely confounded when He died and was laid in a sepulcher. He had told them repeatedly of His approaching rejection, death and resurrection, but His words seem to have made no impression upon them, and did not remain even in their memories. Those who came to the sepulcher had to be reminded by the angels that the Lord had told them " that he should rise from the dead on the third day." " Then they remembered his words." It is sad to reflect how slightly we hear " his words." Not a thousandth part of " his words " in the pages of the Holy Scriptures have ever touched our souls, or are even remembered by us so as to be available in an emergency! The narrative of Luke 24 is very interesting and instructive in regard to this subject. When the women came to the sepulcher and found not the body of Jesus " they were much perplexed there about." But as they were perplexed about Jesus He sends His angels to solve their perplexity by giving them " his words" about His rising again. " Why seek ye the Living One among the dead? He is not here, but is risen; remember the words he spake unto you." Angels may be the ministers, but the words of Christ are the means they use in their ministry, and these words accomplished their purpose. Resurrection was an entirely new condition before God; and were the fact of it possessing their souls, and they themselves knowing the meaning of it, their perplexity would be at an end. The cross shut the door of death upon all that man is in the flesh, and resurrection opened the door into a new condition, a new connection, and a new world. Christ in resurrection is the second man-the Last Adam, the Head of a new race; and after He had glorified God upon the earth, and finished the work given Him to do-in order that He might be glorified in regard to sin, and we redeemed from our state of sin-God raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand, and began a new and spiritual system with Him as its center, and all who now believe in Him as His members, and also associated with Him as co-heirs. The world had been made for man, and man had been made for the world. But man sinned and fell under judgment with its death-penalty; and the earth has been groaning under the weight of this primeval sin and its fearful consequences ever since man fell from his allegiance to God. Adam had been disobedient unto death; but Christ Jesus had become obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; and now, as set at God's right hand, a new world is begun in connection with Him; and a new race of risen men, united to Him as their Head, is begun. The sphere of created man was the earth, but the sphere of redeemed man is not the earth, but the heavens. " The Man Christ Jesus " is there; and believers in Him are united to Him there by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven; and they are awaiting His return to take them thither in glorified bodies. Resurrection, then, is the door that leads into this new world; and the risen Jesus, assuming still the place of Teacher, leads His disciples into association with Himself by opening to them the Scriptures, and opening theit their hopes had been blasted, for they say to him that this prophet was He whom they had expected to redeem Israel, and now this was the third day since He was crucified. There was also a rumor that He was risen, but this had had no hold of their minds, else they had not left the city where He was likely to show Himself alive. They had looked for a living Messiah to deliver Israel according to the prophets-as Moses had delivered the people out of Egypt. But that either " the sure mercies of David " should need resurrection as a foundation for their realization, or that a new dispensation of a wider kind should be begun in connection with Christ risen from the dead-were things that they did not apprehend. Into this was the Lord's intention to lead them, so He says, " O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into his glary. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." " But their eyes were holden that they should not know him." They were partially right. It was true that this was He that should redeem Israel; but it will not be now, but, when He comes in His glory. They did not believe " all that the prophets had spoken.." For then they must have seen that it behooved Him to rise from the dead. If the prophets spoke of death and glory, surely the natural inference was that resurrection must come as the link between them. Thus by their own Scriptures of the prophets the Lord led them on from the too great narrowness of a contracted Judaism into the wider regions of resurrection and glory, and all through solid painstaking, expounding unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. What a blessed time to have the Lord Himself doing this! And what a thought this gives of the importance of the Old Testament Scriptures! As we open them let us say to ourselves, " Here are the things concerning Himself." The travelers having now reached the village whither they went, the intelligent stranger made as though he would go further; for what title had he, a stranger, as he seemed to be, to obtrude himself upon them? What right had such an one to their house or table? If Jesus be but a stranger in our eyes He will still walk outside. Till we know Him as Son of God, the dead and risen Savior, surely He will not dwell with us. But the heart may outrun the understanding, as it did in the case of those two disciples. Their eyes were not yet opened to know Him, but their interest was concentrated in Him because their hearts were touched by the teaching of His lips and the attractiveness of His person. This made them constrain him to abide with them. " Abide with us; for it is toward evening and the day is far spent, and he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave unto them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight." He allowed Himself to be "constrained to tarry with them," for He could be with such as had an ear for His teaching, and a heart for Himself. But if He is with them, it is as their Master and Lord. This he showed them by assuming the Master's place at the table. And when this was done their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. He was no longer the interesting and instructive traveling companion teaching them out of all the Scriptures; but He was now known as " Jesus Himself." What a revelation! What a discovery! He was indeed risen, and this was Himself sitting in association with them at the evening meal! His work for the time was done. He is now gone to appear elsewhere to others, and He would have them drawn to the spot, where He is to manifest His presence. After He had left them they continued to talk of Him as they did when He had joined them in the way; but how different were the communications! The Risen One has appeared to them. He has taught them the things concerning Himself. " And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the Scriptures? " Hearts are compared now. Their reasonings and sadness have left them, and their hearts are warm towards Him, for they have both seen His person, and heard His words. Then He was alive, and they had seen Him, and heard Him, until their hearts burned within them, and they felt themselves drawn to the Risen One. " And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the Eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of bread." When the Lord met them they were journeying to Emmaus-traveling from Jerusalem, the Divine center of blessing, and the place where the Lord Himself was to appear speaking peace. But the same hour that a Risen Savior is seen by them they hasten back to the city to tell their brethren the glad tidings that they may rejoice together. And when they reached Jerusalem they were met with the gladdening intelligence " The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." Then they, too, add their testimony, " And as they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them." He comes into the midst of the disciples just as they are talking of Him as the Risen One. He delights to reveal Himself wherever His saints have their lips and hearts engaged about Him. He now speaks peace for He has made peace by the blood of His cross; and has already preached peace in the way by expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself as the One who ought to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory. He confirms their faith by showing them His hands and His feet. " Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself," and when they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He took what they had, " and did eat before them all." What pains the Lord takes to give His people assurance of the fact of the resurrection and His identity. If they can be firmly established in this, then all their fears, perplexities, reasonings, sadness, folly, and slowness of heart to believe all will be gone; and He can lead them on to enjoy the new things in this new condition with Himself. He teaches them further out of Moses, the Psalms and the prophets, and opens their understandings that they should understand the Scriptures. " And he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of these things. He promises the Spirit to give them power in testimony; led them out as far as to Bethany, lifted up His hands and blessed them, then as He was blessing them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned unto Jerusalem alone with great joy. The teaching and revelation of Himself as the Risen One leads His disciples on from fear, perplexity, sadness, slowness, trouble and terror, to great joy and continual praise. Te Parson and the word of Christ Himself, the teacher, are the certain cure for religious depression and lowness of spiritual conditions.e things. He promises the Spirit to give them power in testimony; led them out as far as to Bethany, lifted up His hands and blessed them, then as He was blessing them He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned unto Jerusalem alone with great joy. The teaching and revelation of Himself as the Risen One leads His disciples on from fear, perplexity, sadness, slowness, trouble and terror, to great joy and continual praise. Te Parson and the word of Christ Himself, the teacher, are the certain cure for religious depression and lowness of spiritual conditions.
Higher Christian Living: Chapter 7 - The Mystery Essential to Resting/Building Upon Christ
A FINAL word is still required on the Church and the soul. " Christ and the Church " known in the grace and power of the Holy Ghost is essential to the setting of the believer in full liberty and perfect peace before God, and for giving him the full knowledge and proper life of a Christian. Before the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the baptizing of believers into one body, nothing higher was experienced than a forgiveness that rested on work yet to be accomplished; but by Christ's coming, suffering, and death that work has been accomplished, and in the sphere of resurrection and glory the believer who finds Christ as his Savior, finds his place in the Spirit here as he finds his place and privileges in Christ where He is, and he finds that he is part of the new work, which God is accomplishing in righteousness for the glory of His obedient Son in calling out a people who shall be united to Him as His body, who has been baptized into One by the Holy Ghost come down as the assembly of God on earth. He is the Head in glory, believers the members on earth; and while they maintain personal piety, as they have individual relationship as children of the Father, they have this new relationship, also of members of Christ, and they having corporate privileges have also their ecclesiastical duties flowing from this which cannot be neglected if they would fully be the epistle of Christ or give a scriptural idea of Christianity to the world (John 17:21). if God has given me a place as a member of Christ, and made me part of "His body," there can be no longer any question as to sin or redemption, for all these matters have been fully settled by Christ, that we might be associated with Him in glory where He now is. " Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it," and now being His, He has it as His object to fit her here for presentation to Himself in glory, a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. God is working for the glory of His Son, and Christ is working for the presentation in glory of the Church to Himself, and if this is God's purpose in Christ Jesus concerning us, shall it not be carried out to its consummation?
Did you ever ask yourself the question, Why was Paul in an agony, and why had he "great conflict " for the saints when he observed any indications of " not holding the Head," and why so anxious they should be in possession of all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the full knowledge of the mystery of God? The answer is given by himself; " In which (mystery) are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And I say this that no one may delude you by persuasive speech.... For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and ye are filled full in him." His agony for the saints is that they might know the mysteries of God which is Christ in you the hope of glory; " filled full in Him," they needed nothing from outside sources, such as philosophy and superstition. But there were men presenting these helps to faith which rationalism and ritualism supplied, and he knew that nothing short of full knowledge of the mystery according to the divine revelation for the period can preserve believers from the dangers of the day, and He keeps them to Christ the Head of His body, in whom the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily, and they " filled full " or complete in Him, and if they knew this and lived in the faith and consciousness of it they needed nothing outside of Christ. Then philosophy is of no use, they were full already, and had no room for it, even were it what it professed to be, and farther on he shows they had died and risen with Christ, and lived in a sphere to which ordinances did not apply, for ordinances are for men living in the world, but they have "died with Christ from the elements of the world." Holding fast Christ, the Head, they would find from Him all the body got that which made them to increase with the increase of God; not of man!
In Ephesians the side of the mystery that comes first into sight is we in Christ; in Colossians it is Christ in us. " In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and Tin, you." This is the day when the Holy Ghost is giving this knowledge. Our position and privileges are connected with ye in me, and our enjoyment of them and walking in accordance with them are connected with I in you,. The first puts us in association with Christ in heaven, as members of His body: the other sets us down in the Spirit on earth as God's habitation, and in fellowship with Him, for the conduct of the Christian life: and He presses upon us the absolute necessity of being in possession of the revelation of the mystery that by means of the full knowledge of the Christ whom it sets before us, and our oneness with Him, we may be consciously holding fast the Head, and finding the perfection of healthy Christian life which it affords. When this is known and realized in the power of the Spirit how perfect the deliverance of soul we experience! Could a question arise when the soul is enjoying all that is in Christ, the glorified Head of His body, the Church? " He is the Head of his body, the Church, who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that he might be first in all things." He who has been declared to be the Son of God (Cor. i. 18), the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, the Creator, upholder and final cause of creation; " All things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and to him all things subsist." He is " before all things " in the old creation: and He is also before all things in the new creation; " the Beginning, the First-born from the dead," and " he is head of his body, the Church," as such that in all things He might be first. Paul seems to coin a word for first here: " He himself first," (proteuron). If God has given Him this place as the risen and glorified Man, and the Spirit in His word holds Him before us in this place of dignity and rank, it must be pleasing to God, and in the mind of the Spirit, when we give Him this first place in our souls as Head of His body, the Church, not as a mere floating theory in the mind, not meant to be carried out, but in full knowledge of the truth in the Word, and in the hearty experience of our souls who delight to know Him in this place of sovereign grace according to the Spirit's latest revelation concerning Him: and there is nothing can give us such elevation of mind, joy of heart, and spiritual repose and confidence as our union to God's Son in heavenly glory by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. This lets us into the secret of the Apostle's " great conflict" for the saints, that they might have the full knowledge of " the mystery of God," for unless the Christ or the mystery is known in connection with His Church and His place of preeminence as Head of His body, the Church, as the glorified man be apprehended in the Spirit, He is not known at all according to the Christian revelation for " Christ and the Church " is the very fullness, core and center of it; nor is the believer in fellowship with the Spirit's objects, who is not heeding the behests of His Church-calling (Eph. 4:1) by neglecting to walk in accordance with the requirements of ecclesiastical godliness. There are great difficulties. No doubt of it: hence the Spirit says:-" Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit." Act on this as a basis if you would know the emancipation of soul from the thraldom of human views and systems. If one would not think of pleading difficulties as a reason for not observing the personal and social morality of the end of Eph. 4-not to lie, steal, slander; why plead difficulties as a reason for not observing the ecclesiastical godliness of carrying out the truth of the one body with Christ, its center in glory, and the Spirit, its bond on earth? That soul must be undelivered who ignores the fact that there is " one body and one Spirit," for he cannot know union with Christ above by grace, and a sense of it in the unity of the Spirit, who is not carrying it out in practice. The maintenance of the truth of the one body is essential to spiritual deliverance and Christian morality. I mean to say that the knowledge and state of soul in the consciousness in the Spirit of living oneness between the soul and Christ as members of His body are needful to our full deliverance, for then we live in resurrection and in conscious union with the risen and glorified One, who has a body down here that He is nourishing and cherishing as Himself, and an assembly that He is about to present to Himself all pure, spotless, and glorious like Himself, and which is to be His companion in glory when He reigns over" the world to come." Having this divine consciousness of spiritual oneness with Christ, and being part of His body here, and delighting personally so to act towards Him and His members as to evince my sense of the greatness of being a member of Christ and having a place with others in the body of which He is the Head, and the Spirit the living Bond, and of my privilege with all who call on the Lord out of a pure heart to give, let it be but the feeblest expression of this new, divine work by walking and worshipping with all whose hearts are touched in the unity of the Spirit, and to have communion of the blood and body of Christ, and show the unity in our joint partaking of the one loaf. When divine knowledge pours into the soul about the glorified Man, the Head of His Body, the Church, and the Holy Ghost gives living freshness and consciousness of our place in Christ, the holding the Head is not a mere doctrine, but a precious spiritual reality in which the free, happy spirit exalts and delights in knowing in enjoyed consciousness in common with all those whose eyes have been opened to see the glorious One " Head of his body, the assembly" at the right hand of God. This is the sphere of love as well as of glory, for to find Christ and have Him now as the Spirit reveals Him to faith, gives us a taste of love that surpasses knowledge, and we find ourselves at the center of a unity in glory whose dimensions are limitless; we know, also, that in Him we are in contact with all the fullness of God; and that God now dwells in the saints in the power that worketh in us and shall have " glory in the Church in Christ Jesus unto all generation of the age of ages. Amen."
" THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME."
(Gal. 2:20.)-When we come to glory, it will not be the golden city, nor what we are, but Christ Himself, that will be the absorbing object of our hearts. Even when down here in humiliation, do we not see that directly He appeared on the scene, no one could stand; He the alone One to open His mouth, to be listened to, and as they failed to see Him as the One, the All, so they failed to get blessing.
Higher Christian Living: Chapter 1 - The Origin and Source of the Christian Life
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).