THE first great question is, What is Jordan? What does it represent? What is the antitype?
One very important thing in connection with it is, that if you do not know the antitype you never understand the type; nothing has been a more fruitful source of mischief than trying to explain the type without knowing the antitype. Thus those who do not understand Paul's teaching can never interpret the Old Testament. The apostle puts his own teaching in 2 Tim. 3 alongside Old Testament scriptures.
Well, now, as to the Jordan people say, " Jordan is a type of our natural death." If so, what, I ask, is Gilgal? Why, it must be purgatory, for Gilgal comes after Jordan! You see at once the inconsistency of the interpretation. If you understand Paul's doctrine, you will see that Ephesians is the antitype of Josh. 1 may add that an important principle in connection with this subject is, in practice never to be below the type.
Now let us turn to the chapter before us, and see what the type is. It is a type of the truth that we are dead with Christ. It is not the Red Sea. You do not know the Red Sea and the Jordan at the same time; antitypically they occurred at the same moment, for Christ died but once; and these are two aspects of His death. In the Red Sea He meets all, the enemies: that is the aspect of His death towards God. At the Jordan it is its aspect towards me.
Now what do we learn at the Red Sea? It is a very important history, but I do not dwell on it now. I will only say that the Red Sea is where Christ in His death removed every atom of the offensive thing from before the eye of God; there every power was overcome; it is not merely the blood screening from judgment. In Ex. 12 The people have the sense of being sheltered from judgment by the blood; but at the Red Sea the whole thing is judicially removed from the eye of God forever. The old man has been crucified at the cross, that the body of sin might be destroyed; hence the Egyptians seen to-day are to be seen no more forever. It is not Egypt. Egypt is the place where the judgment was. The Egyptian is the person on whom the judgment came. That is in figure the old man; that brought judgment on the place and that is gone completely; as we get in one of the Psalms: " There was not one of them left." That is what God has done for the people, and they are brought to God.
Rom. 3 answers to Ex. 12; Rom. 5 gives more the idea of Ex. 15; everything is, clear. Christ is risen from the dead; not a single disturbing thing is left; all of it is gone from the eye of God, and therefore there is peace. There was never peace till Christ rose from the dead. People think it very dreadful to say so, but how could there be peace until the battle were over? I do not say there was not victory; victory is when you have overcome the enemy, but peace is when you have silenced him. All our enemies are sunk like lead in the mighty waters. " He entered into death that he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil." If you do, not understand the Red Sea, it is no use going on to the Jordan.
Jordan is another aspect of the death of Christ, it is our death with Christ, while the Red Sea is His death for us. The thing I learn in Jordan is, that I am carried over through Christ's death to the place where Christ is, by the Spirit of God. If I were dead I should be happy, I should go to heaven; but the question is, Can I get over before I die? That is the entire question, and it, is the important thing that belongs to us, and not to the millennial saints. God does not deal now with the man that has rejected His. Son, but He changes the rebel into a member of the body of Christ; while in the millennium the rebel will be turned into a subject, because the King will be here. The King is not here now. What then does God do? Through divine grace He changes him into a member of the body of Christ.
There will be no Jordan in the millennium, and it will not be necessary to get across then, because Christ will be here. The great thing now is to get across to the place where Christ is now. Would you like to go? Well you are across, though you have not found it out. Christ would not have it otherwise than that we should be with Him where He is. It would not be enough for Him, that we should only be clear in the sight of God, and rejoicing in the victory. No, He would have us in the place where He is. But you could not get into the place unless death had come in.
Death has come in; in Jordan we die with Him; it is not there He for us. Thank God, He has died for us, and done the work perfectly to the satisfaction of the heart of God forever. He has never any question about me, never. He never sees me in the flesh again. Alas, I may go back to it I But, as one has said, " Woe betide me if I do," because God must judge the root of it in me, and that is the trouble a believer has now-not to be forgiven merely what he has -done, but that the root may be judged. Peter was forgiven for a long time before the root was judged; and that is restoration. " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean." Not forgiven only, but cleansed. The root must be judged. But, you say, it may spring again. Yes, but the least likely bit to grow is the one you dread.
There is another thing in Ex. 3:8: God says, " I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." That was the purpose of God concerning His people, and that Christ has accomplished. Have you a doubt about it? It is accomplished., He has done it perfectly. Some one may say, I never knew it. And why? Because you never cared for it. But do you think God does not care whether you have it or not? It is the deep delight of His heart that you should enjoy it. Caleb could say, If the Lord delights in us He will bring us in.
Did you ever consider in the case of the prodigal son, who it is delights to bring him in? Why, it is the Father. It is the delight of the Father, then the delight of the prodigal. It is He who says, " Bring hither the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry;" let him- share the joys of my house. The fact is, beloved friends, and it is a wonderful thing to say it, God never had one to share the joys of His house until the prodigal came; not one. Not one could He have till Christ came. The thief on the cross was the first sample brought up to share divine joys in company with the Son of God. Who can deny it? But, you say, were there not many saved before? Yes, but never brought into the place in company with Christ, because Christ was not there..Think of the delight with which He said: " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise."
I desire to call your attention to the fact that God never had a people to share His joys till now. Hence He says to the servants, " Bring hither the fatted calf." The fatted calf was the thing reserved, and reserved until the guest came. Who was the guest? The poor sinner brought in by the Son: that is the guest. The lost sheep brought in on the Shepherd's shoulders, and by the power of the Spirit working in that same prodigal. The Shepherd had given His life for him, the Holy Spirit had accomplished a divine work in his soul, and the Father was waiting to receive him with unspeakable delight. "It is meet," He said, " that we should make merry and be glad."
That is what answers to the passage I have read in Exodus. God would bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey. But Moses never did; it was Joshua who brought them in. What is the antitype? First the gospel is, that the joys of heaven are made known to me, a sinner here upon the earth, by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven.. "The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The gospel is, I am delivered from Egypt, and I have the Spirit sent down from a glorified Savior to light up my heart with the joys of heaven, the joys of the Father's house, until I come home. Thus the Spirit comforts me until I come home., That is the gospel. Now I come to the church.
Well, not only is God's Son up in heaven, but God has brought up His own to enjoy heaven now. We are not there fully yet; but the point, is, we can come to the spot now where Christ is; that is, in spirit. As we sometimes sing:
" In spirit there already."
or, as we sang just now:
" And see the Spirit's power
Has oped the heavenly door;
Has brought me to that favor'd hour,
When toil shall all be o'er."
Have you got the right of entrance there, and have you ever been there? That is the question.
I ask then first, What is your title? We have a right to be there because Christ has cleared away the whole thing that hindered. You may say, I see that, but I have never enjoyed being there. That is true perhaps, and I go with you in that and say, would that I enjoyed it more; still, the fault is not with God; it is our own. A person may not enjoy it, but there it is for him. Whether he does enjoy it, is practically to be known by the way he is at his work. I say to a working man, Would you like to go home? Oh yes, he says, that is what I long for. I never see a man well-ordered who has no home. A Christian is not right if he has not a home. Where is his home? Up there above. " In spirit there already."
You get the idea in Psa. 23 " He maketh me to lie down in green- pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters." It is refreshment, and therefore it is said, " He restoreth my soul." He invigorates it. It is not " Whene'er I go astray;" that is not the right thought. This restoration is to help you on, to invigorate you. Like a man going to rest at night at home in very happy circumstances, and in the morning he goes forth cheerfully to his work; or like a person going out warm on a cold day-that is exactly the idea. It is the delight of God to have us there, and the Spirit come down leads us there.
It must surely greatly interest me to see the delight the Father has that the prodigal tastes the joys of His house. That is the gospel a wonderful thing. But when I come to the church, and know that Christ, cast out of this earth, has been raised up to heaven, and seated on the right hand of God, I understand how the purpose God had before Him, has been brought about: that His people should now through the Spirit, and death with Christ, travel there and enjoy the very spot where He is. This is greater still.
Have you ever been to this place? Would you like to go there? Will you go there? That is the question raised, and that I want you to answer. " Wilt thou go with this man?" What! leave all my associations here, kindred and every tie, to go with Him? Yes! Rebekah has heard such an account concerning Isaac that she will go to him where he is.
You could never be satisfied with or enjoy the mere relation of the facts. How could you? Suppose I tell a boy at school, who has never had a home, to go to such-and-such a place and he would find it his home. He might say, I was never there. The fact is he has no idea of a home, and has no power to fix his heart upon it. He has neither father nor mother; he is an orphan. It is not that he can be so happy at school as at home, but he has no tie to a parent, or he would be glad to go home; it could not be otherwise. It matters not how happy the school may be, or the things here. The question I put to my heart is, " Wilt thou go with this man?" If you had found out the preciousness that is in Christ, would you not long to go to the place where He is?
I know what some say, Can we not have Him with us here? That is like Orpah: she kissed her mother-in-law, but she would not go with her.
She could not leave her country, she did not love enough; Naomi was not indispensable to her. If the Lord were indispensable to me, this Josh. 3 would be the delight of my heart. You say, would you go and leave everybody and everything? Yes! But do not say, beloved friends, " leave everybody;" because, mark the practical effect, you would come back to them a better man if you had crossed over. If you went over there, and entered into what belongs to you there, you would come back a better man. In Colossians a man is told not to be bitter to his wife; but in Ephesians, where he comes from heaven, he is told to "love his wife as Christ loved the church." You see how great that is. It is an advantage to all, because he comes back to resume his ties, and fulfill his obligations, in a better way.
Well, there are three reasons for our crossing over: first, the delight the Father has in having us there, and the delight of Christ in having us there, and, secondly, our delight in being with Him; and a third is, it is what suits us, because we have a heavenly nature. No place else suits us, because we are like exotics. We have got into the sunlight, and it suits us. I say, I can enjoy myself now! I come home from business cares, from being always on the alert, all the day long, and now I relax myself, I am at ease; around me all suits me.
But there is another thing I have already alluded to, and it is this: If you do not go over, and do not become acquainted with Christ's circumstances there, you never can demonstrate Him down here. I can understand a person saying, I do not know how to do this. You may be a very good wilderness man, but not a heavenly one. He is not a thorough Frenchman who has never been to France. You may be a redeemed man running on to heaven, but that is not being in heaven. An Ephesian is one coming from heaven. He is not only raised up, but he knows he is raised up, to the spot where Christ is; he has by faith crossed over to heaven, and now comes back from it; and yet still is in the place where Christ is in spirit, though not yet in body. But He will " change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Then in body too, we shall be with Him forever.
Let me dwell a little on the subject, to explain what I mean. If I die, I shall go to heaven; I may have a happy death-bed; but I call that dissolution. Now I am going to use a new word, which I trust will make it plain. I call Jordan liberation. I call actual death dissolution.
I trust I have stated to you plainly that God has accomplished it all; and if I am not enjoying it, it is because I do not care about it; and in practice, God does not "cast his pearls before swine." There is nothing more pernicious practically with ourselves than exhibiting more affection than is valued. If you value it, His word to you is, " I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me." It is not that it is not there for all alike, but you do not enjoy it, because you do not value it. If you valued it, you would be in it, for " To him that hath, shall more be given." It is blessed truth I am telling you; but of what use is it telling it to you, if you do not care for it, do not value it?
Now, I will explain. You know what a happy death-bed is. I have seen a person so really filled with the sense of the blessedness of being with Christ in heaven, that there was actual delight at the thought of being released. That is dissolution. The last tie and the greatest is broken. The greatest tie is the one you cling to most; it is the hardest thing to get rid of. There is a saying that if you had twenty-one links to this earth, and twenty of them were broken, you would stick to the last harder than all the twenty. Dissolution is, the links are all worn out, and a man gets a brighter sense or what it is to go.
I visited a poor woman on her death-bed who had a large family. I said something to her about them, but she replied, " I could not turn my attention to them now. I could not be disturbed now from the delight I have in the prospect of soon being with the Lord." She was ready for dissolution.
I believe there are hundreds who are really over Jordan in spirit, who have never accepted Jordan-never accepted liberation. They have learned they have a Savior in the glory,, and know the perfect satisfaction they have in that scene of light, because of their Savior there, but they have not accepted Jordan; that is, their tie to the earth is not cut. You say, what should I do if every tie here was cut? Well, that is the proof that you have not liberation; and if you say your natural death only can do it for you, you are making liberation less than dissolution. In a spiritual death-bed you are still in the body; in a natural one you leave it; and 'yet I say the former is the greatest. Paul says, "to God I am beside myself," lost altogether. That is what Jordan is; that is what liberation is. It is not merely I ought to be, but I am loosened to everything by the commanding attraction of the Lord Jesus. Christ, and the delight of heart I have to go to the place where He is. The known welcome that awaits me in that scene enables me to say, I must stand loose to all here. That is not when we come to a death-bed, but when in the prime of life, and surrounded with everything here that the scene can afford to make one happy in it; when I have found out that I can cross over, that. I am over, I know that it is better to be there.
How? Turn to the antitype: just read one verse showing this in Eph. 1 " That ye may know... what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." That is the power that has taken me up with Christ: the same power that has brought Christ up has brought me up. Is that a known thing? If you have not known it, you cannot enjoy it. You may say as in Peter, I am in the pathway. Yes, following His steps, and you may be suffering for righteousness' sake, and watching against thee power of the enemy and the like. And that is all very blessed, but that is the wilderness, and this is a different thing altogether. I am not dwelling on that side now; I am trying to set the other before you, and to lead you to delight in it, and to see the delight the Lord has in having you where He is.
Turn now to Luke 2:2929Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: (Luke 2:29). " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." That is dissolution, not liberation: Simeon is going to die. I hold liberation is, that I am cleared by Christ's death from every tie to this world, and I have gone up to the spot where He is, and come back again to resume every tie in a new power. If I did not get over I could not do it. What power do I come back with? A heavenly power. Do you think that is an extraordinary thing? But if you know the Father's heart, and Christ's heart, you cannot for a moment doubt the reality of it. Christ is raised up by the mighty power of God. Now, the members of His body are brought up by that same power. All are raised up. All.
You may say, I never enjoyed it. Perhaps not, but it does not make it the less true. A child when he is born has five senses; it is a long time before he knows he has them, but it is none the less true. A child may be born a prince, but he does not know it; and this is like many Christians. But what is the worst part is that they do not care to know it. When the apostle is writing to the Ephesians, he lets his heart flow out, for they were in a fit state to receive what he had to impart. Hence he says, " When I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you." I want the "eyes of your hearts to be enlightened." I want you to know these things, for you are in a condition for it.
Simeon's case is a happy death-bed: but it is not liberation. There is a perfect sense that all is cleared, but he wants to go away, and not to come back again. Liberation is: I am going clean away, but though I go away thus, I shall come back again a new kind of person, in a new power; a new person influenced by the place where I have been.
Look now at Stephen. " But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." I say, beloved friends, that is liberation, He had not a single regret; he gladly gave inp everything-everything for Christ. He went to the other side before he died; he was perfectly over. Christ had gone in and cleared the way for him. If the way had not been cleared, he could not have gone over. It was a new thing which was never opened out before. Heaven opened to a believer for the first time. Now Stephen is brought into liberation. And this is true for us all. How? By the Spirit of 'God, who abides in me down here. I do not say we have all visions like that, but we have the thing. This is the opening of the new line, if I may so speak, and all must go by it some day: but what I want you to know, and what I am seeking to get definitely before you, is that we may go over now. Do you enter into the delight the Father has that you should enjoy the place where Christ is? As a believer in the work of His Son, He sends down the joys of heaven by the Holy Ghost to you here; that is the fatted calf; and now in spirit He will have you come up to the place where the joys are Therefore in the prayer in Eph. 3, the apostle says., " That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." That is the answer to Deut. 26 " And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and he brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey."
Thank God, I can go over now. It is my right, and it suits me to go, and I have preponderating reasons besides this. I know it is the delight of the Father's heart to have me there. I have the sense that I am in the very scene now where my Lord is, and there to get properly qualified for His service. What is my duty now? The bride's duty: to set forth that blessed One on the earth where He is not. How do I get qualified? By having to do with Christ's things where He is. That is the difference between heaven and the wilderness. In the wilderness Christ supports me in any circumstances: in heaven I am in His circumstances.
I am in the wilderness always in one sense; but I have to stand for Christ here; and I stand here in the power of the Lord.
In Psa. 22, I see that there is nothing against me that Christ has not met, and overcome for me. In consequence of this, Stephen can stand superior to everything here. The holiness of God has been maintained by the work of Christ, and now, if I take the order in this psalm, I see how he meets all the power of evil. First, there is the reproach of the people. Stephen is superior to it. In the power of Christ, the power that put him up there, he is superior to the power against Christ here. He is a heavenly man, he is above his circumstances and standing for Christ; and as to the reproach of the people he is superior to it. What about the bulls of Bashan-ecclesiastical power? Superior. What about bodily weakness-being brought into the dust of death? Superior. What about the lion-Satan? Superior. What about the horns of the unicorn-death? Superior, superior to them all! As to his murderers, so superior that he could kneel down and pray for them. He was there to set forth a rejected Christ upon the earth in His own power. He is over Jordan; he had liberation before dissolution.
Let us turn to another example in Phil. 1 " For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." Paul longs for dissolution, but still he is quite ready to stay; but he says, " To be with Christ is far better." You say, perhaps, he was never there. Yes, he was in paradise as " a man in Christ." How did he get there? By his own death? No, Christ's death had relieved him of all the encumbrances connected with the flesh; "Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell." He was set so free that he could rise up in the Spirit to the very spot where Christ is. He would like to remain there, but it was needful for the Philippians he should remain here, and he says, " I know I shall remain."
Now turn back to Joshua for a moment. You understand now, beloved friends, what I feel in speaking on a chapter like this. I say that we all ought to be delighted, we all ought to be ready to leave everything here to go over there. What, if you get happy in the Lord? Yes, when you are happy in the Lord, what comes into your mind? I do not think when you are thoroughly happy in the Lord that either the greatest O mercy or the greatest sorrow comes into your mind. That is what comforts many a one who is really wee in spirit, but who has not accepted Jordan.
I want you to accept Jordan. That is liberation. I am over through Christ's death. Through my own death I shall get to heaven when I die. But the question is, Can I get the power to reach there now? I say you ought to be glad to hear that you can. Like as to a schoolboy I say, Would you not like to go home?
His parents might be constantly sending him favors at the school, but do you think all these would satisfy him? No, he says, I would rather go home. That is the very spirit I want you and all to have. I thank God I can go home because of Christ's death; I am not waiting for my own death. I can go over yonder and get qualified now; otherwise it is no use trying- to act for Christ here. I say if you have not been over you have not the real thing, you do not know how to go on in testimony for Christ. Not all the books in the world will teach children how to behave; it is the way they are brought up at home; it is the associations they are in. And so with you. It is by beholding the glory of the lord, you are changed into the same image.
" Hereby shall ye know that the living God is -among you," says Joshua. That is exactly what Stephen finds. The power that put him up there, that power enables him to stand superior to the whole force of the enemy here. He stood unswervingly against all his foes. And that not merely as a stone wall, but with divine feeling; kneeling down, he prayed for the men who were battering him to death.
What is it to have the power of Christ? Where do I get it? By going up there. In Eph. 1 The power comes to put you up there; and then, after showing you that place
One thing more. You will find in dissolution as well as in liberation that there is not a drop of water. The waters rose up very far from the city Adam; there was not a drop to be seen; all was clear.
Now the feeling I have myself is this. If I knew liberation better, I should meet death better. I have no doubt many a soul finds when the question of dissolution comes, the moment of death, he knows he is not over. But I say I am by grace over. I am in liberation; I go over to be qualified, and I come back here a new kind of person. I do not think there is a single practical thing in the Epistle to the Ephesians you can do if you are not a heavenly man. You have not the requisite power else. How else could a man love his wife " as Christ loved the church "? You might be an extremely amiable, a devoted and affectionate man, but it is another thing to love as Christ loved the church. You have not the power for it, hence your best love is unlike Christ's love to the church. How could these words be addressed to any man, except one who came with Christ's power? Every other practical thing is just the same. We are to love one another " as Christ loved us and gave himself for us." If I turn to Rom. 1 find a different thing altogether. There, " Love is the fulfilling of the law." But in Ephesians it touches everything; wives, children, servants, and all. Not a word about children in Romans, Peter, or Hebrews. Not a; word about these for a wilderness man. Only in Colossians and Ephesians do you get the children mentioned. And why? Because here you have come up to God, and you can take in the whole scope of His grace. In Romans you are a delivered sinner on the earth, and your family is not touched on. In Peter the wives are mentioned but not the children.
Oh, the immense blessedness of having this power, when we come to the practical side of our lives as Christians here! For this I need to keep my heart more fixed upon the place where Christ is. Nothing will draw my heart there like dwelling on the delight the Father has that I should be there, and the delight of the One who has brought me there. There I learn the blessedness and the freshness of His love, and there I become qualified to stand for Him in the place where He is not.
(J. B. S.)