Leviticus. 16
THE question is more and more, What is Christianity?
The Old Testament was a shadow. The veil is now rent. The veil signified that the way was not yet made manifest.
There are two points-the difference between Judaism and Christianity. There is responsibility in my Adam state, and responsibility in my new state.
What am I to come to? The thing that cleared the sins also opened the way for me to go to God myself-two distinct things; one, grace meeting responsibility; the other, the purpose of God.
In Romans we get nothing of purpose except in one or two places; you get responsibility in Romans. In Ephesians you get purpose, and almost nothing about responsibility.
Ques. Is there such a thing as going into the holiest till we are out of the 7th of Romans?
Ans. No. The place I get as a Christian is in the presence of God Himself. My responsibility is another question. It is what I ought to be, and the law is a perfect measure of that. God's purpose about me is quite another thing. God never says under the law that I have an evil nature; I may find it out through the law.
In this chapter (Lev. 16) we get the two things-the Lord's lot, the veil rent, and I go into His presence in virtue of His nature. The scapegoat is our responsibility.
Ques. Did Adam enjoy a Sabbath before he fell into sin?
Ans. No.
Ques. Can I be with God according to what God is?
Ans. There it is Christ's work. That is the condition proper to the Christian. Christ perfectly glorified God on the cross, so I am in a far better place than if I were innocent, for I have all the value of Christ glorifying God (John 13). All that God is, He was perfectly glorified in on the cross. The divine nature in Christ did not screen Him on the cross, but led Him to bear sins. But there is more than sins put away. Gad was perfectly glorified on the cross (John 17:4)
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth. It is its nature. In the blood carried into the holiest I get God glorified in His nature. In the cross I get every question of good and evil brought to an issue and settled. God against sin-the devil in his hour and power of darkness-man's wickedness-the perfect man in Christ.
John 3:14-16. At the Reformation they got justification by faith, but they left out too much man's need. In Col. 1:21,22,23, we get perfect security, but perfect dependence. The wilderness is no part of God's purpose. It is a part of His ways. So I have need to be kept constantly.
In 1 Cor. 1:6-9, we have God's faithful love. While the apostle shows they were to be kept blameless, till the day of Jesus Christ, he goes on and blames them all through for everything. He would not go and see them, etc. Men speak of perseverance, but what we get in Scripture is not man's perseverance, but God's.
In Romans we have man walking down here. In Colossians risen, but still walking down here. In Ephesians we are in heavenly places. There is no " If" in Ephesians)
was God's purpose to bring His people into the land. The wilderness was not in His purpose, but when they were in t the way, He cared for them.
Ques. After getting out of the condition described in the 7th of Romans, can one get back under it?
Ans. No. Sometimes persons do nothing but say they are lost, and friends then try to convince them that they are not lost. It would be better to tell them you are glad they have found out they are lost. It is a question of the tree, not the fruit.
The Red sea is death and judgment, Pharaoh and his host. The Red sea and Jordan coalesce-the wilderness being no part of God's purpose. Across the Red Sea is the 7th of Romans. (Laul was in the 7th of Romans three days till Ananias came.
John 16.
The grand fact of Christianity is that the Holy Ghost is down here-the foundation of course the cross of Christ, the revelation of the Father's love in Christ. There are three positions in which we see Christ.
First. On the cross accomplishing redemption. Second. At the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Ghost down here.
Third. Coming again to receive us to Himself.
What we have now is not the accomplishing of the prophecies, except the Holy Ghost poured out. 1 Peter 1:10 gives us the order. We have the sufferings which are fulfilled, and the glories which are not fulfilled. It is the Holy Ghost come down from heaven, and the thing reported to us, not fulfilled. The Church is one, and she stands between the sufferings and the glory.
Heb. 2:5. Here we get Christ crowned with glory and honor, but whilst He is there the Holy Ghost is sent down here.
Union in incarnation is false and pernicious. He was perfect man, and the only one the Holy Ghost could and did sea).; but after He had taken His place in heaven, the Holy Ghost is sent down, and then we get union (Acts 2:33).
First. He is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
Second. He baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost having come, it is all over with the world as it is.
God has tried man in every way that He could command. First, innocent; second, under law; third, sending His Son, and they killed Him. The world put an end to itself.
You cannot honestly say Father, unless you know you are a child. People do, and they are sons, but they ought to know it before they cry Abba, Father. Christ was the Creator, but He did not come till incarnation. The Holy Ghost spoke through the prophets and quickened souls, but He never came till redemption was accomplished and Christ had ascended. In the gospel of John sins is not the subject, but sin.
As God said to Cain, " Where is thy brother?" so He asks the world, "What have you done to my Son? " and the world answers, " Crucified Him." That is man.
The Holy Ghost convinces or demonstrates to the world its sin, as above. Second, He demonstrates righteousness. Man's? No, God's righteousness. We have just to believe what it says. God is always righteous. How is it demonstrated? " Because I go to my Father." Christ glorified God on the cross (John 8.), and God glorifies Him at His right hand. That is the demonstration of God's righteousness. You might have had God's righteousness, man set aside, and no love, or you might have had man's idea of love forgiving sins, but where would righteousness be? But in the cross you have both.
What have we got then? When He glorified God on the cross He was made sin for us. Then the Redeemer when glorified wants His redeemed. Thus I am made the righteousness of God in Christ.
Third. There is demonstration of judgment. The proof that Satan is the prince of this world, is the cross, and as such he is judged; judgment not executed yet, but he is judged. Why is Christ gone away and the Holy Ghost here? Because Christ has been crucified, We have not the Bridegroom, but we have the Holy Ghost, showing us the things we are to have, and so we cry, " Come, Lord Jesus." Do you believe that Christ will not be satisfied till He has you in glory? Then you want Him every moment. Our condition is, having the Holy Ghost. Our proper hope as Christians is, waiting for His coming. Not waiting is the unbelief of a fallen church. People say, "He comes when I die." Does He? I read that when He comes I shall be raised, but you say when He comes you die. It is unbelief.
Ques. Explain " in Romans and in Ephesians?
Ans. They are the same thing. In Romans you get the fact merely, but in Ephesians you get the counsels of God regarding us as in Christ Ques. If I am dead in Romans, and not raised, how am I in Christ?
Ans. You reckon yourself dead. In Colossians I am dead in my sins, not alive in my sins. So Christ came, and, so to speak, became dead and then rose and raised me with Himself, but not in heavenly places. In Eph. 1 am put in heavenly places. Leviticus, first and second chapters, apply only to Christ.
Ques. Do we get the Jordan in Romans?
Ans. No.,
Ques. Do we not get the Jordan in the 4th of Romans?
Ans. Only as far as death-not risen.
Ques. Do we get the Red Sea in the 4th of Romans? Ans. No. In the Red Sea Christ died for me. In Rom. 4 it is bearing my sins.
Ques. In Romans do we not get experience, such as joy in God, that is the result of resurrection?
Ans. No. We have joy in God in consequence of being justified.
Ques. State the difference between verses 9, 10 and 11 of Rom. 8?
Ans. When the Holy Ghost dwells in me, I am not in the responsibility to answer for myself, Christ has answered for me, and I know my place by the Holy Ghost given to me. Second, I get the Spirit of Christ; that is, I am characterized by the Christ Spirit. Third, my body will be raised too. But while here we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice. My body is to be like a carcass, moved about like a stick.
Ques. Last night, when you were ministering to us. were you like a carcass moved about like a stick?
Ans. Whatever was John Darby-yes. The Lord uses our affections and minds. Whatever I am as a man He uses, but He must use it. If I use it, it is naught. The old man and the flesh are synonymous terms. The affections are all right. God created them; but if the will mixes itself' in it is sin.
Ques. If you live after the flesh you will die?
Ans. That is abstract. It is a truth.
Ques. Is that an unconverted man?
Ans. Do not bring a thought into a text that is not there, but get out of it what thought is there.
The liberty is that I have died out of the state in which I was, and now I am in God. The natural man must either be lawless or under the law, or must die from under it. After that I find certain things in me, for I am a responsible being, but that is not me. I am dead and out of it. I have got Christ for nay life. I can then take hold of Christ's death as my death; so I am not in the flesh at all. The man who confesses sin as if it was imputable is not free.
Ques. Must I not be holy?
Ans. Yes; but if you are making holiness your life, it is not Christ, and you are responsible to represent Christ.
There is no intercession for the sins of a believer, In the Hebrews the intercession is to maintain my place free from sins. God could say, " I have not seen iniquity in Jacob;" yet the Spirit of God in Moses was seeing nothing but sins in them. You cannot get the place by duties, but you get duties by the place.
Ques. How are we to get power?
Ans. 2 Cor. 12:2-10. Infirmities are not power, but they bring power when a man is thoroughly put down. As long as I act in nature that is not power. Moses had great natural ability, and he had to flee and be at the back side of the desert.
Ques. Why do you call sin in a brother failure, and not sin?
Ans. It is both, and worse in a brother than another.
Ques. Why is it that in the Hebrews, where we are looked upon as having no conscience of sins, we yet come to obtain mercy?
Ans. It is always mercy—Epaphroditus when sick obtained mercy, and Paul also.
Mark 2:17.
AR 2:17{Christ the Savior came to seek sinners, and does not seek righteous persons; even were there any such, there would be no need to seek them, but in His sovereign grace and perfect goodness He came to seek sinners. He does not send them away but seeks them, and can sit and eat with them whilst being Himself' altogether holy. This is the manifestation of God in love in the midst of sinners to win the hearts of men, and to produce confidence towards God in their hearts, and to bind all the faculties of the soul with the power of the perfect object, and to form it according to the image of that which leads it, and which it contemplates; whence to inspire this confidence, since good was come into the midst of evil, and had taken part in the wretchedness in which fallen man lay-a goodness which did not drive away the sinner on account of his sins, but which invited him to come.
Man's ruin began when he lost confidence in God: the devil had succeeded in persuading Eve that God had not permitted man to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because He knew that, if he did, he would be as God, knowing good and evil; that God had forbidden him to touch the tree from jealousy; and, if He did not wish that we -should be happy, we must make ourselves happy. And this is what Eve sought, and what all men seek who do their own will. Thus man fell, and thus man remains in all the wretchedness which is the fruit of sin, awaiting God's judgment upon the sin itself. Now, before executing judgment God came in love as Savior to show that His love is greater than sin, and that the worst sinner can have confidence in this love that seeks sinners and adapts itself to their wants, which does not demand righteousness from man, and brings him salvation and grace by which to present him finally to God as His righteousness through the work of Christ: but He comes in love to sinful men to reconcile them with Himself. Instead of punishing them for their sins, He finds occasion to manifest the immensity of His love in coming to those who were lying in sin, and in giving Himself as a sacrifice to put it away.
In His life Christ presents this love of God, God Himself manifested in love to man; in His death He is as man before God, made sin for us in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, and that the righteous God, the God of love, never might remember our sins. He manifests God's love towards man. This law was the perfect rule of that which man ought to be as son of Adam; it demanded of man that he should be such, and pronounced a curse upon the man who did not do that which it required. It added God's authority to that which was fitting to the relationship in which man finds himself, and gave a perfect rule for conduct to man in these relationships; a rule easily forgotten or broken in the fallen state of man. It did not give life, nor strength, nor objects to attract and rule the heart; but it established the relationship of man with God and with his fellows, and cursed all those who had not kept it, that is, all those who were under it.
The flesh does not submit, nor can it submit, to the law of God: grace then, whilst it establishes the authority of the law and the curse itself, since Christ the blessed Savior has borne it, must needs change everything in the ways of God. Forgiveness is not the same as the curse, and paying a debt is very different from demanding the money. It is quite just to demand payment, but if the debtor has nothing to pay, he is ruined, whereas, if he pays, he is set free. Christ has done more; not only does He pay the debt, but He has acquired glory for those that believe. Not only has He freed the debtor from his debts, but He has given Him an immense fortune in God's presence.
J. N. D.