The question is raised, whether the Christian blessings, such as forgiveness, as we know it, justification, acceptance, death to sin, and life in Christ, as also life in the Son, go with quickening, or with the sealing of the Spirit; or as I would rather put it, with quickening or with receiving the gospel of our salvation, followed by the immediate sealing of the Spirit. Together with this comes the question as to the difference between God giving the blessings, at quickening, as the writer, F. W. G. believes, and their being afterwards administered to the soul, which brings the apprehension of having the blessings. There is another thing which is the result of this first, which is also raised by the writer on “Life and the Spirit,” whether the man in the 7th of Romans is a quickened man seeking peace and getting into his standing in Christ, or that of a sealed man, “not in the flesh but in the Spirit,” learning how to abide in Christ for fruitfulness.
Well, my reader, Scripture must settle the controversy, and in lowliness of mind, yet with firmness, as feeling the importance of it, I would appeal to the Scriptures for the settlement of the difference.
The writer quotes such passages as John 3:36; 5:24, etc., to show that eternal life goes with faith and therefore with quickening. He quotes Col. 2:13, to show that quickening and forgiveness go together, and Romans 5:18-19 to show that justification and life go together, and then reaches the conclusion, that all that are quickened, are justified, forgiven and have eternal life.
Now as to eternal life in one sense, they do have it, for no doubt quickening is from the Son, who was the eternal life with the Father from all eternity. The Son quickens whom He will! (John 5:21). But this is not eternal life in the full Christian sense of it. No doubt the moment a soul wakes up to the reality of things, through the call of the Son of God, he gets life, and so far as to the character of it, eternal life. But eternal life is far more than a communication, or a nature; it is the Life of a Person, a Divine Person, and that Person the Son of God! (See 1 John 1:2; 5:20.) He that hath the Son hath the life: and He that hath not the Son hath not the life; Gk.! (See new translation.) (1 John 5:12.) It is the heavenly thing spoken of in John 3:12 in contrast with the earthly things pictured by new birth into the kingdom which was the highest blessing of Judaism! (5:3-10), and of which Nicodemus, a master in Israel, ought to have known about.
But this, i.e. eternal life, was nothing less than in a Person come down from heaven, who was therefore God, yet man too, the Son of man which is in heaven, who was lifted up on the cross, that whosoever believeth might in Him have eternal life! (5:12-16), and this replacing as a present thing the highest blessing promised to Judaism. This was given in connection with the full revelation of God in grace, as righteous, love and light; and in connection with the revelation of the Father, who had given all things into the Son’s hands (John 3:35-36). All through John’s Gospel eternal life is put in contrast to Judaism, and as that life that takes its place.
The Gospel of John judges the world and Judaism from the beginning; only those received the Son who were born of God by His sovereign will (John 1:10-13). Consequently, the revelation of eternal life in John 3 is in connection with accomplished redemption, and the Father revealed in the Son, which the disciples though born of God never received by faith till after the cross, as we see from John 14:9; 16:27-31.
So John 5:24, 25. The dead sinner hears the word of the Son, and lives; he gets quickened, but there is something else he has to do before getting eternal life, he has to believe the Father that sent the Son. (Cp. 1 John 4:14, 15.) This is the full revelation of Christianity again that the disciples never believed till after redemption was accomplished!
This too, is put in contrast to Judaism, as pictured by the pool of Bethesda, which could not give healing to a man without strength. The Lord, in ver. 25 attaches new birth to this dispensation, as in chapter 3 it belongs to the past, as also to the future.
I wake up perhaps by the call of the Son of God, to the fact that He is a reality, God and man in one Person (John 1:1-14). But that is not all the revelation of Jesus as Son of God. He brought grace and truth to man, in contrast to Moses who brought the law, and the truth was of God fully revealed in grace without a veil, and the Father, (5:17, 18), and that we have seen the disciples never received till after He had become the Lamb of God, as accomplishing redemption 5:29-33. He baptized with the Holy Ghost consequent upon this. Vers. 33, 34.
It was only when He as the risen, victorious Son of God, the last Adam, had revealed His God and Father to the disciples, and had breathed peace on them, giving them the knowledge of redemption that they received this more abundant life! Eternal life in its fullness! (See John 20:19-22.) And here my reader the writer confounds between the Son of God quickening, as He ever did, from the beginning, as a Divine Person, and Himself as Son of man, the last Adam, the quickening Spirit, giving life more abundantly. In John 5, where the work of the cross is not mentioned though supposed, He is the divine Son quickening. But in John 6 He is not only that, but the Son of man, the true bread from heaven, the true Passover lamb, going back to where He was before; completely judging the flesh, which profits nothing, by the cross, and communicating life more abundantly as the last Adam, the quickening spirit! In this He was fulfilling and replacing the types of the Manna and Passover Lamb! See 5:32, 33, 52-63.
In Col. 2:13, the writer argues that forgiveness and quickening go together. If he had learnt to distinguish between the Son quickening as a divine Person, (John v), and quickening as the raised Son of man (John 6), he would not have made this mistake!
The Son as God quickening is one thing! The last Adam quickening is another. This is life more abundantly! (John 20:22.) And this is insisted on as a state which had never been yet in John 7:39, but was to come in, consequent on the glorification of the Son of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The two things which historically followed on one another are brought together in Rom. 8, viz. the state of more abundant life, characterized by the Holy Ghost, and the Person as God indwelling the believer. Our brother denies that John 20:22 is any communication of life; how he can do so, I don’t know when the Son says,
Receive ye [the] Holy Spirit! {JND New Trans.}
The writer takes away from us the Life which characterizes Christianity! and makes quickening the only life that is communicated! True it is in Christ now as having accomplished redemption; but not as communicated as the Life distinct from mere quickening! And here also the writer would seem to connect our justification with Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and not with faith at all by his sentence in page 6 and line 6, 7, of his paper on “Life and the Spirit.” And I would add he would appear to make our quickening our justification, by his words in the words following. But as this is not followed up I do not dwell further upon it!
What follows in his remarks on Rom. 5:18, as to justification of life, has been already answered. If he had seen the distinction between the Son quickening, and the last Adam giving more abundant life, or as Eph. 2 and Col. 2 puts it, God quickening us together with Christ, where life is seen according to its fullness in the counsels of God, he would have seen that whilst justification and forgiveness do go with life, it is with the full communication of it, of life more abundantly, and not with mere quickening.
It is whom He called, them He also justified, Rom. 8:30, not dead sinners, though as to their former condition they were dead. That calling and life go together it is evident from John 5:25, Rom 10:17, John 11:43, (in type;) and other places.
So Abel heard the call, as shown by his bringing the slain lamb, as a sacrifice to God; and thereby obtained witness he was righteous. (Gen 4. Cp. with Heb. 11:4.)
So Noah, (who had already found grace in the eyes of the Lord,) built an ark to the saving of his house, and thereby became heir of the righteousness which was by faith. Gen 6:8-22, cp. with Heb. 11:7.
So Abraham heard the call, (Gen 12), but was not justified till Gen. 15.
So Israel in type first heard the call, (Exodus 4:29-31), but were not typically justified or saved till ch. 12 and 15.
So the priests were first washed with water, typically the new birth, then sprinkled with blood, and anointed with oil; typifying forgiveness and the Holy Ghost received. So Gideon, a godly man; but without peace, which he got on the presentation of the sacrifice. All justified souls have peace. (Cp. Judg. 6:11-24; Rom 5:1.)
As to what the brother says as to being in the Son having to do with life and nature may be a great deal of it quite true, but all the difficulty is answered by what has been said previously, viz., distinguishing between mere life, and life more abundantly. Are we “in the Son” when we get life, or when we get it more abundantly? Still if “in the Son” means identification in life and nature, it involves position too and I would ask the writer, if all Old Testament saints had life in the Son, how is it that the term is not once mentioned till John 6:56, nor afterwards till John 14, 15, where it is teaching all founded on an accomplished redemption, and the Son of man having been glorified on the cross (John 13:31, 32).
We get that place, consequent on the Son of God becoming a man, accomplishing redemption, and taking his place in glory as the last Adam, yet still Son of God, by birth, as man, and also by position, by resurrection from the dead; and this involves not mere nature but position as also more abundant life communicated! See Heb. 1:5, Rom. 1:4. He has as man, yet as declared Son of God entered into a new state described as, according to [the] Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead {Rom. 1:4}.
And this communicated to us gives us the full place of sons, no longer nepioi Gk., i.e., children under age, but uioi. Gk., in the full place and relationship of sons. See Gal. 4:1-6. But to return to the two passages where the expression “in the Son” is first mentioned. It is
he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him
{John 6:56}!
Could an Old Testament saint do this? A Jew was forbidden to eat blood! Can I be “in the Son and He in me,” if I do not know him? But this was the condition of the disciples in John 14:8, 9.
All then that the writer says in the middle of his paper falls to the ground! “Life from God” Old Testament saints had. The Son quickened when on earth, but, “life in the Son” could not be for any till redemption was accomplished, and He was glorified as man; and was communicated to those who received the blessed revelation of the Son revealing the Father and of an accomplished redemption.
I turn now to Rom. 7. Is it the experience of a quickened man seeking peace and justification, or of a Christian (i.e.,) a man sealed by the Spirit, seeking how to abide in Christ to bear fruit unto God? I say unhesitatingly it is the former. The writer denies it!
True, if a man is delivered from the power of sin, which is here joined with his getting justification of life, he gets into a new standing and state, where he does bear fruit unto God. But it is a new standing and state, not abiding in Christ. There is not a word as to this last.
Now what is the doctrine we have learnt in the Epistle to the Romans, whereby we are to test those who cause divisions and contentions contrary to that doctrine, (Rom. 16:17). It is a sad mark of want of establishment in those who have raised this question, that they lead us back to it, for the Epistle to the Romans was written to the end that the saints might be established! (See Rom. 1:11.) Paul is an apostle called of God. He writes concerning Him who is the subject of the gospel, God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, made of the seed of David according to flesh, but declared Son of God with power according to spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:2-4). Made of the seed of David according to flesh, by resurrection from the dead, He entered into a new state as man according to spirit of holiness, declared Son of God in this new p1ace and state, to communicate life in accordance with that new place and state as the last Adam. Such was the subject of the gospel!
Paul’s thesis then is the gospel, and is addressed to all that be in Rome, saints themselves called of God. If they were dead in trespasses and sins, he could not call them saints, but he speaks of justification to those already called of God!
It is the great subject of the book. The apostle is not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, for therein is righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. This justification, then, is connected with salvation in these verses, and not with quickening (Rom. 1:16, 17).
Rom. 1:18–3:21, takes up the state of the world to bring out the necessity of the gospel, and shows the need of another kind of righteousness than that of law, by which the sinner can be justified. Up to the end of ch. 1 the state of the heathens is taken up, Rom. 2:1-16 the state of philosophers, and the principles of God in judgment. Then Rom. 2:16–3:21 the Jews under law, circumcision and the promises, ending up with Scriptures proving the whole world guilty, and under sentence before God! The law could not justify, it could only give the knowledge of sin!
Where is then righteousness? There is none in man for God. But there is in God for man. Rom. 3:21-31 lays the ground, showing it is in God through Jesus and His blood. Rom. 4 shows that it is on the principle of faith, giving Abraham and David as the two great Old Testament examples. God in David’s case imputes righteousness by forgiving and not imputing sin. (See Psa. 32.) In Abraham’s case, God gives justification in connection with the promise of the heir, Isaac, to be raised up out of Sarah’s dead womb! which two cases bring out the double aspect of justification, in the book. 1st. Forgiveness, and non-imputation of sins, and the result of being reconciled to God up to ch. 5:11: 2nd. justification of life from sin, Rom. 5:12, 8:4. We not only have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, as to all our sins having been cleared away by the work of Christ, but we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand (5:2), and boast in hope of the glory. This latter aspect of justification, as I have said, is argued out from ch. 5:12 and onwards.
But first of all God’s love has gone out universally to all, for all connected with Adam were born in sin—consequently all is headed up in two men, Adam and Christ, sin came in before law.
Through Adam’s transgression all connected with him were born in sin under death’s reign, and liable to condemnation. Through Christ’s obedience unto death, all connected with Him, get grace, righteousness, the final result being, of reigning in life by One. He takes His place as Head of a new race, after his obedience unto death, as Adam became head of a sinful race after his disobedience. Sin, death and condemnation went out to all on the one hand, grace, righteousness and eternal life, present and final, went out to all on the other hand; Rom. 5:18 gives the universal tendency of the consequences of Adam’s transgression or Christ’s work; Rom. 5:19 the application to them who belong to each race. When we get Christ we get delivered from Adam, and his race, and get justification of life in Christ dead, risen and glorified! the final result being the redemption of the body! The law coming in by-the-bye that the offence might abound, and to give the knowledge of sin (Rom. 5:20; 7).
But how get delivered from this Adam condition? ch. 6 explains it; externally by baptism, really by faith, to which is attached justification all through, (Rom. 6:3, 4, and 6-11, 5:1, &c.). But it is justification from sin, (ver. 7), but by death, through, the application of Christ’s act of righteousness in death to ourselves as in the Adam state, our old man having been crucified with Him as well as our sins borne on the cross. But this is deliverance as well as justification, not from sins but from the power of sin, and that as no longer under the law but under grace. (See ch. 6:14.) If a man, is under the law he is therefore under the dominion of sin, and Rom. 7 shows it, but then he is not under grace, he is a slave of sin, not redeemed, not justified! It is in vain that our brother tries to divorce justification from this part of Romans, to maintain a doctrine of deliverance for sealed believers. Rom. 6:7, 8:1-3 clearly show that justification of life from sin goes alongside deliverance from the power of sin. It is through obeying the form of doctrine delivered him, (that is grace manifested in the death and resurrection of Christ,) that he is delivered and justified, and that is by giving up the law altogether as the way of deliverance and justification, which the man has not given up in Rom. 7. Till he does, there is no fruit for God; even though quickened, he is in captivity, under the power of sin! When he does, being now set free from sin, which is nothing but the power of redemption applied to him, and become a servant to God, he has his fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life, (Rom. 6:22, 23). This is in a way the end of the subject, the reigning in life by one Jesus Christ, as we saw at the end of ch. 5.
Rom. 7 {i.e., Rom. 7:7—end}, is a parenthetic chapter showing the bearing of the law on the subject. It is brought in by-the-bye, the apostle speaks, at the end of Rom. 5, but not only that the offence might abound, but to give the knowledge of sin, and as the schoolmaster to instruct that it has no power to deliver, to free from condemnation as to sin, or to produce practical righteousness; in other words to produce that which would justify positively by the law, and so bring life. (See Rom. 8:1-3.)
But first of all the deliverance is stated, (Rom. 7:1-6): then the apostle goes back to the time when we were in the flesh; and shows the action of the law, as to exciting the motions of sins owing to sin being there; forbidding lust, which we never knew as sin until the law forbade it; and thus tracing back lust to its source, thus giving the knowledge of sin.
There was a time when the apostle was alive without the law once, without conscience as to its real claims; but when quickened, when called of God, then the commandment came, sin revived, and he died. Sentence of death was written on his conscience. Now, if as it is being taught, justification, death to sin and life to God come with quickening, how is it that the apostle after quickening was only brought to own the sentence of death in himself, so that by obeying the doctrine delivered, he should be set free by the death and resurrection of Christ. But here is a man, according to our brother, already dead to sin and alive to God and justified, and yet the sentence of death written on his conscience as a quickened man. The truth is, quickening does not meet the need of the conscience, as it does not meet the requirements of God, but the death of Christ does, first, for forgiveness and justification from sins, second, for justification of life from sin, deliverance from its power.
If a man has not been brought to the knowledge of sin, that in him, that is in his flesh, dwells no good thing, he is unrepentant as to the full doctrine of it, he has never fully judged himself as a man, and therefore is not fully saved.
Both forgiveness of sins and deliverance and a new standing in Christ come after repentance, and therefore after quickening, otherwise a dead sinner can repent. But Rom. 7:13-25 is only the illustration of sin working death in the apostle by the law, i.e., by that which is good. He is learning its horrible nature, but under law, evidently quickened, but not delivered, not in his new standing. First, measuring himself by the law, he is fleshly, a slave of sin! (Rom. 7:14.) Is this a sealed man? I pity him. Second, he finds his will right, and so concludes he has got a new I, distinct from sin, (Rom. 7:17). But third, he finds though he has got the new nature, he has no power, for the good he would, (that is to keep the law; always the measure of good in this chapter,) he does not, (Rom. 7:18, 19). Consequently sin has dominion over him, he is under the law and not under grace; 4th, the struggle goes on till he gives up the man here as a wretched man, gives up the law as the way of deliverance, and cries Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver from this body of death! (Rom. 7:24.) He thanks God as His deliverer through Christ. God has not only given Christ for him to die, (Rom. 5:9,) but to him in the glory for present justification of life, freedom from condemnation, joined to the communication of the Spirit of life from the last Adam, setting him free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1, 2).
Sin, law, death, captivity, inability to do good mark the man in Rom. 7. Freedom from condemnation, the Spirit of life and liberty, peace, sin condemned, not in the flesh but in the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, sonship, mark the 8th.
Looking at all this the doctrine of our brother is most serious, it brings Christianity down to the former level. It tacks all the blessings of Christianity on to a quickened man under the law, instead of seeing that that man’s state won’t do for God, setting it aside, and replacing it by Christ in glory, and our standing in Him, and the seal of the Spirit that goes with it, which takes us out of the flesh, and puts us in the Spirit. It is the old story of trying to patch up the old garment with the new, putting the new wine into old bottles, the old bottles of man in the flesh, or Judaism if you like, instead of setting that man aside, not attaching the blessings of Christianity at all to what is Jewish, (but that is Rom. 7, a man in the flesh under law,) but setting it all aside, and attaching all to Christ, the Head of a new race in whom is justification, eternal life, and all the Christian blessings. If any man be in Christ it is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. Quickening, if not more, is Judaism in its best phase, but to be in Christ is to be of a new race; and redemption, justification and all Christian blessings are attached to Him.
Thus whilst Rom 7 cannot be the experience of a man dead in trespasses and sins, for he wishes to do good, he learns to discern sin, and that in him dwells no good thing, he delights in the law of God after the inward man; on the other hand, it is not the experience of a sealed man, for with the Spirit comes the knowledge of all things freely given to us of God, 1 Cor. 2:12; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; the soul also cries Abba, Father, (ch. 8:15), and in Rom. 7 there is neither the one nor the other. The Spirit sets free from the law, but here is a man under law, not seeing his way out, not seeing his way into the glory, whereas the Christian boasts in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2).
Therefore it is the experience of a quickened man still under law on the way to getting the best robe put upon him, but not yet having it on, (see Luke 15), and struggling till he takes the man in glory and a standing in Him instead of himself, and a standing in Adam and in the flesh. This connects itself with the gift of the Holy Ghost, bringing into a new state, and giving the knowledge of sonship. (Cp. John 14:20.)
But our brother will retort, you are confounding the blessings given on God’s side at quickening with the administration of them given in the gospel, which brings the apprehension of them in the soul. Now what does our brother mean?
Does he mean that justification can be administered like forgiveness at baptism, and be lost again if I do not walk with God? Would it be morally right for God to forgive or justify me if unrepentant of my sins or sin? Yet I believe our brother would own that repentance must come after quickening.
God’s purpose to forgive and justify, which He manifests in quickening, is very different to the actual thing done upon repentance and faith. It is in vain to say the prodigal had on the best robe before he came to his father, or the kiss, type of justification and reconciliation; he had not, and to say so would be to deny Scripture; and this agrees with the Scripture, Rom. 8.
Why then, it will be asked; is it that Christians sealed by the Spirit are found in the experience of Rom. 7. I answer simply that they are put under law by Judaizing teachers, and taught that the 7th of Romans is the Christian’s experience, just what our brother is doing, at all events in regard to unestablished Christians. And one has in consequence to teach them over again the doctrine of justification by faith, and this to those who hold high pretensions of superior light and knowledge (Gal. 3). May the Lord deliver and give light and establishment to see where all this is leading to.
Just one word more as to what a person has to believe to get the sealing of the Spirit. Our brother seems to assert, that it is faith in the Person apart from the work that brings the sealing. He seems to teach that a man can be sealed by the Spirit through faith in the Person without knowing the efficacy of Christ’s work, page 14, 8 lines from bottom. Let us again appeal to Scripture to decide the difference.
What did the disciples already born of God believe, to get peace, and the consequent impartation of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that set them free from the law of sin and death, in John 20:19–22. They believed in the risen Person of the Son of God, who showed them His hands and His feet, a proof of His work accomplished, as a consequence of the proclamation of His word, peace unto you. They received His word, and got peace; with that proclaimed the 2nd time, founded on the revelation of Himself as the sent one of the Father, came the impartation of His Spirit of life, eternal life in its fullness, which in Romans 8 is joined with the gift of the Holy Ghost.
So on the day of Pentecost, the people were first awakened through the preaching of Peter to the fact that Jesus was the Christ, i.e., the Anointed. They heard the word, and so were born of God. (Cp. 1 John 5:l.) But till Peter preached repentance and remission of sins in the name of Jesus Christ, they were not sealed with the Holy Ghost! (Acts 2:36-38). But remission of sins is joined with the work in a special way. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). JESUS is always the name connected with salvation, and how are we saved from our sins except through His work. (See also Acts 2:23.) In Acts 8:32-35, this is especially seen in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, who was reading Isa. 53, about Jesus as a lamb led to the slaughter, when Philip met him, and to whom, when he asked what it meant, Philip preached JESUS as the explanation.
So in Acts 10, it is through His Name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins, JESUS is the Name of God’s Anointed one! Perhaps this name has escaped the view of our brother in this matter. So the apostle Paul was not sealed till he arose and was baptized and washed away his sins, calling on the Name of the Lord. Again the Name of JESUS, but in connection with the washing away of His sins. Our brother will say, this is governmental! True, but still it is in connection with the washing away of his sins.
So in Acts 19 the whole force of the passage is that before Paul met with the men, they had only received John’s baptism, that is believing in a Christ that was coming. But when they believed Paul, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, that is of Jesus made Lord, who had already died! Jesus signifying Jah, Savior! Jehovah become a man to save His people from their sins, by dying for their sins and being raised for their justification! (Rom. 4:25).
In Rom. 5 we have the Holy Ghost given consequent on the one who was delivered for our offences, [again the work] and raised again for our justification.
In Rom. 8 consequent on Christ accomplishing His act of righteousness on the cross, on His being raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and there in that new place given as God’s gift of eternal life, Himself the Son revealing the Father! (See Rom. 5:18; 6:4, 23; 8:3, 9-18.)
In Gal. 3:13, 14, we have the Holy Ghost given consequent on His work on the cross, and justification by faith through it, and in Gal. 4:4-6 consequent on redemption, and our getting our full place as sons by faith through it.
In Eph. 1:13, the Jews who believed had first trusted in the Christ through hearing the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation. They heard, they lived! (Cp. John 5:25; 1 John 5:1.) But “trusting” is a very different word from “believing,” which follows: we read afterwards, in whom having believed they were sealed {see Eph. 1:13}!
But who was the One in whom they believed? Why the One who was the subject of the gospel of their salvation, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and was raised again according to the Scriptures! See 1 Cor. 15:2-3. May our brother be greatly stirred up to preach the One who is the subject of the gospel, and preach in connection with Him the gospel with increased earnestness, and he will find that souls in receiving the gospel, will be sealed with the Holy Ghost!
Quickening then comes when first called of God, then repentance, then remission of sins. (Cp. Psa. 32:1-4; Acts 2:37, 38.) Together with that comes the full revelation of God in grace, and the Father, in the gospel, (putting the quickened man into a new standing and state, as justified and having eternal life), and the seal of the Spirit, giving both the knowledge of remission, justification, deliverance and sonship. The sealed man cries “Abba, Father”; and this in direct contrast to having the spirit of bondage again to fear, which is Romans 7.
I would add a word as to Life, as marking the epistle to the Colossians distinctively from the Spirit as we have it in Ephesians; as has been remarked before by our beloved departed brother, J. N. D. But what sort of life is it? I answer unhesitatingly, it is “the life that constitutes Christianity!” The measure of good to walk by of a man merely quickened is the law! But the measure of the Christian walk is the will of God as displayed in the Lord Himself as the heavenly man on earth. See Col. 1:9, 10. The meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light is alone in a righteousness and life suitable for the heavenly inheritance: Col 1:12, of which the Son was the beginning as the risen and ascended man, Head of a new creation, (vers. 18, 19). In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and He was Head of His body the Church, the mystery hid from ages and generations, but now revealed, and in the Colossian aspect, “Christ in you” the hope of glory,(ver. 27). Will our brother say that this was no further communication of life than quickening? If he does he is blind to what really constitutes it! Is Christ as the Life of His body, the Church, merely a new birth, a new nature! If so then all Old Testament saints necessarily belong to the Church, and what is distinctive in Christianity is all gone
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him
(Col. 2:6).
Is this mere quickening? Then how is it that when the Son came into the world only those received Him who were already born of God? John 1:10-13. All the rest of the world knew Him not, or rejected Him. Again, our brother argues, that quickening together with Christ (meaning quickening), and forgiveness go together. Yet, he says, we must have life in Christ, (meaning quickening) in order to be dead with Christ. How is it then that circumcision, or death with Christ and burial with Christ come in Col. 2:11, 12, before our being quickened together with Him in ver. 13. But if quickened together with Him takes in Life in its fullness, in the Christian sense of it, then all is plain.
Quickening could go on under the law, and with its many shadows, its meats, drinks, holidays, Sabbaths. Not so the Christian life which is in a dead, buried and risen Christ, and communicated to us in resurrection power, so that we seek the things above where the Christ our Life sits at the right hand of God. When He our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4). No doubt Old Testament saints will appear with us, yet as a distinct class; not as belonging to the Church of the firstborn written in heaven (Heb. 12:23)!
Finally Old Testament saints could have life without putting off the old man at all, but we who have life more abundantly have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, etc., where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. And will our brother say that Christ in us for Life is no more than quickening? (Col. 3:9-11).
Born of God or quickening, truly is life, but it is a nature. I am born of God! But here it is Christ in all, for life! That is not mere nature otherwise it is a fresh incarnation of Christ! Yet blessed be God it links itself with the nature and is characterized elsewhere by the Holy Ghost! Christ in all is the Christian life!