You ask, Are the two last verses of 1 Cor. 5 practically applicable, now, to those gathered together separate from evil, according to 2 Tim. 2:19-2219Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 20But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. 21If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. 22Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:19‑22)? And, is it correct to refuse obedience until power come in?
To the first, I reply, that the word of the Lord abides forever. Its authority never ceases, and obedience is always due to it. Power has nothing to do with it. Grace is needed to induce the heart to obey, but obedience is always due. The direction relative to tongues has not lost its authority. Were there tongues, it would apply. But its authority remains. This clears up at once the question as to 1 Cor. 5 “Put away from among yourselves that wicked person,” has its own simple authority that nothing can take away. It applies to an assembly including, all saints professing to on the Lord everywhere (see address of the Epistle, c. i. 2); and whenever a wicked person is found in an assembly, the case it applies to is there, and it is a simple matter of obedience.
There are acts of power; as, “I have judged to deliver to Satan.” Paul does not say, “Do you do it?” he does it in all the solemnity of the assembled saints; but there is no command, but a personal net of power, as Paul says elsewhere, “Whom I have delivered to Satan.” (1 Tim. 1:2020Of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:20).)
The declaration or exercise of a personal act of power, has nothing to do with the abiding authority of a command. The power may not subsist—the command does. That it requires the help and grace of the Lord to act upon it, is no more than is true of every command in Scripture. To apply the ruin of the visible assembly to sanction disobedience, is a principle wholly unallowable. I cannot appoint elders; it is not a question of obedience, but authority; and I have not that authority: the assembly had it not when Paul was there, nor can they assume it now. But they were bound to obey the command then-they are so now. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, Christ is; and there is the “within” and the “without.” It is a clearing of the conscience of the assembly: “Ye have approved yourselves to be clear—in this matter. (2 Cor. 7:1111For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Corinthians 7:11).) Otherwise, the assembly would be the positive sanction, and by Christ’s presence, of the association of Christ and sin; and it would be far better there should be no assembly at all than that.
2 Tim. 2:1919Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:19), &c. gives us the general principle, of everyone who calls himself a Christian departing from iniquity, purging himself from false teachers, and walking with those who call upon the name of the Lord out of a pure heart. It is individual duty when evil has come in.
As to the second question, it is practically answered already. In bestowing power, God is sovereign. When the Word has spoken, I am bound to obey. To “refuse obedience until,” is to disobey; to assume on my own will, authority-not wait till God chooses to do that which rests on His will. J. N. D.
“A Learner” asks: “If the Old Testament saints had eternal life, what was the object of renewing the sacrifices year by year?”
It could not be then said that they had eternal life. It was only brought to light through the Gospel. (2 Tim. 1:1010But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10), Titus 1:22In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (Titus 1:2), &c.) We know that they were all born again, but there was no revelation then as to the distinction between two natures. They had the conscience of the “old man” —unpurged, and the desires of the “new man”; but, looked at as men in the flesh, they were under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the Father. Under Judaism, they were servants under the law as a schoolmaster, until Christ, and Christian faith, had come. (Gal. 3) “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son unto your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” That which the sacrifices pointed to and typified had not come: the continued repetition of the offerings showed this. That of which the brazen serpent was a figure had not taken place. “The Son of man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life now named for the first time. In only two places in the Old Testament is it named; and even there it is in view of the future. (Psa. 133:33As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. (Psalm 133:3), Dan. 12:22And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2).) The Son of God had come and had displayed eternal life in Himself. It “was with the Father, and was manifested unto us” in the Son; a Moses or a David could not display it, and it was reserved for Him to speak first of that which He alone could display. He takes away the typical and oft-repeated sacrifices, unsatisfying to God, and leaving man’s conscience unpurged; establishes the righteousness of God against sin; and God, glorified at what He had done, puts Him, as man, in the glory of God in righteousness. Atonement was made, reconciliation accomplished, and now God in righteousness gives eternal life to every one believing on Jesus. “God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” (1 John 5) Our whole state as sinners-what we were, and what we had done, was thus dealt with judicially on the cross, once and forever; and Christ, risen out of the judgment, is our life—we are quickened together with Him, having been forgiven all trespasses. (Col. 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13).)
A new nature, capable of enjoying God, was imparted by the Spirit, through faith in the weed of God, at any time. The recipient of it was born again. Now, more can be said: we have eternal life in Christ—Christ lives in us; and this eternal life brings us into fellowship with the Father and the Son, which could not be till the Father was revealed in Him; and the Holy Ghost given by which we enjoy it.
“M. W. K.”1, What is the meaning of “The author and finisher of faith?” (Heb. 12:22Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2).) 2, Is there any difference, and what, if any, between the words “Faith of Christ,” or “of the Son of God;” and “faith in Christ Jesus?” Has 1 Peter 1:2121Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:21) any relation to this subject? &c.
The Lord is spoken of here as the one who had run the whole career of faith as a man on earth, until He sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. The cloud of witnesses of ch. 11 might fill up their little niche in the career of faith, and be an encouragement to those who were called to walk on the same principle; but there was one who had gone though the entire course, from beginning to end of the pathway. If the fathers had trusted in God and were delivered, He had cried and was not heard. All—even the cup of wrath—must be drained to the bottom before the answer came. He looked for comforters, and found none—His friend betrays; His disciples flee away; Peter denies Him. Forsaken of God, because made sin, He treads with unfaltering step the wondrous pathway, looking to the joy that was set before Him, till lie sat down on high—the “Captain,” or “Leader, and Finisher of faith.” We look steadfastly upon Him, and are not only encouraged, as by the other witnesses, but are sustained and strengthened and upheld in the race that is set before us. In contemplating Him, the new man is in vigor and activity, and the weights and besetting sins are laid aside with ease.
“Author,” in this passage, is the same word as that translated “Captain” in 2:10, and “Prince,” in Acts 15, and v. 31.
The expressions are substantially the same. There is, however, a nice shade of difference. In Gal. 2:16,2016Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20), we have the characteristic way by which we are justified, and by which we live—viz., “on the principle of faith,” Christ being the object of it-in contrast with “works of law.” So “we live,” also, by “faith” in the “Son of God,” as the object and motive and spring of—our life.