The apostle uses a remarkable expression in Chapter 3:3, where he writes, “Ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” What is an Epistle of Christ? and how do we become such? are questions I would desire to speak of for a while.
Alluding to his ministry, Paul says, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men.” We may here remark that when. Christians passed from one assembly to another, they were accredited by letters of commendation; commending them to the care and love of the assembly to which they came, and showing that the bearer was then in the fellowship of the saints. Paul asks, “Do we need again to commend ourselves?” By his ministry he had done this to their conscience in the sight of God, and had been the Lord’s instrument in gathering together the assembly at Corinth. He did not need to commend himself a second time; nor did he need a letter from them to others, as they themselves were his letter, in whom his ministry from the Lord could be plainly seen. But they were more for they were also Christ’s letter, or epistle, ministered by him, written by the Spirit of the living God in the fleshy tables of the heart.
Such, then, is what an assembly of Christians should be; Christ’s commendatory letter to the world around; the grace and truth of Jesus Christ should be so plainly written upon them, as to be known and read of all. And, moreover, as assemblies are composed of individuals; each Christian should be, in his ‘measure, “Christ’s epistle.” His walk and conversation such as to commend “Christ” to those around him Not a mere outward reformation in practice, but the heart inwardly right before God, and the fruit outwardly before others, every action—every thought coming in the power of the Holy Spirit from “Christ” engravers on his heart within.
How, then, you will say, my reader, is such an end to be attained, that you may he Christ’s Epistle, or commendatory letter to the world? Perhaps you are one who can see and appreciate the beauty of such a calling, and yet you feel that you have another question to settle before you could aim at such-that until you learn the cleansing of your conscience, and the putting away of your sins, you could have no leisure. of heart to seek to become the “Epistle of Christ.” Well, dear reader, I am about to unfold to you as the Lord may enable me, how both ends, may be accomplished in you; that you may learn not only to know and rejoice in the complete and perfect putting away of your sins, but also that you may have the aim of your heart directed aright to become an “Epistle of Christ.”
The apostle in the remainder of chapter 3 contrasts two things, “The ministration of death,” and of “condemnation,” and “the ministration of righteousness” and of “the spirit!’ Or, in plain terms, he contrasts the Law with the Gospel. He says, “If the ministration of death written and engraven upon stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?” He refers to the circumstances which occurred in Ex. 34, when Moses returned the second time from the top of Mount Sinai, with the two tables of the law in his hand; the skin of his face shone, so that Aaron, and the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold his face for the glory of his countenance; they shrank away from the glory, and begged him to put a vail over his face. And Moses did so; he put a vail over his face when he talked with the children of Israel, and took off the wail when he went in before the Lord. Why was it, that the children of Israel shrank away thus from the glory in Moses’ face? Why was it that they could not endure to look upon the feeble ray of glory that was reflected there? Simply because that GOD WAS DEMANDING RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM MAN! And feeble as was the ray which shone in His servant’s face, they felt that God had a right to claim righteousness from them, in the righteous claims of His law. They felt that they were unable to respond to His righteous demand, and that if He dealt with them on this ground they must perish, that they had “Come short of the glory of God.” They had been alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revved and they died, it was the sentence of death in their consciences before God. This ray of glory brought out the solemn truth I that man was a sinner, and nothing else. The law demanded that he should not be a sinner, and only revealed to him his desperate condition; and that he had no righteousness for God. If it only told him what he should do, we could understand that it gave the commands of God to a creature who only needed to have his heart directed aright; but when we find that it not only told him what he ought to do, but forbade the evil and lusts of his heart, which had departed from God, we can understand in some measure the force of the word, “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20) not “sins,” but “sin,” the root of evil within. Thus it became a “ministration of death” to the sinner, because he was to live in keeping it; and, “If there had been a law given that could have given life, verily righteousness would have been by the law.” (Gal. 3:21) It forbade the lusts of a heart which was full of lust—required righteousness where there was nothing but sin—and in consequence entailed a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” (Gal. 3:10) Man would evade his responsibility if he could; or try to mingle it with mercy—soften down its stern demand, blunt its keen edge, which has searched his heart and convicted his conscience, or he would try to fly from it altogether if honest, and hide its glory behind a vail. It demanded that he should love God with all his heart, but it gave him no object to love, or to produce the love it required in his heart. God who demanded his love was hidden behind the darkness and terrors of Mount Sinai, as afterward behind a vail. As many (therefore) as are of the works of the law, (that is, endeavoring to live on this principle before God) are under the curse; and therefore it is impossible that it can make a man the “Epistle of Christ.”
But when we turn to Christ we find another thing. We see God, manifest in flesh, here below. He who had been under the law, in the position of a RECEIVER, if man had. any answer to his righteous demands; now assuming the place of a GIVER! Let us turn to the well of Samaria, in John 4, and behold Him there, seated in weariness and thirst, asking a sinful woman not for righteousness, but, for a drink of water! The heart rests, and gazes with wonder on such a scene I It tells us that God had descended from the Fiery Mount, and assumed another position now; not that of Demanding, but of Giving! “If thou knewest the gift of God,” and how He has humbled Himself so deeply as to be indebted to a poor sinful woman, whom the world despised, for a draft of cold water; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. (John 4:10) Sin had deprived her of every pretension to righteousness; as well as of strength to use the law; and here at the well of Samaria we find Him revealing Himself to her as a Giver. Winning back her alienated heart to the God against whom she had sinned-following her to the far distant country where sin had driven her from God; and revealing Himself without the terrors of Mount Sinai, in absolute and perfect grace! Yes, beloved reader this is what we need. Here we learn somewhat of the force of these words. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (2 Cor. 5:19) Would you not desire to be a receiver from Him of the gift of God, not a doer? The heart rests in this wondrous One, and is attracted from its hiding place by a God of perfect grace—One who truly searches your heart to its deepest depths—convicts your conscience, but who, nevertheless, has won your confidence, and set you at ease in His presence. A convicted sinner, and the Judge of quick and dead, face to face without an upbraiding word! — “Come and see a man which told me all things that ever I did,” reveals to us a heart laid bare to the springs of evil within: and yet who has no terror for us—for He has won the confidence of our heart to the God from whom we would fain have hidden, if such were possible, the secret springs of evil within. He has adapted His heart full of perfect goodness to our need—His presence there tells us that without this revelation of Himself we were lost: and that He has assumed the place of a seeker, because we would never have sought Him. We had sinned away the blessings with which He had surrounded us in creation; and He could not permit us to retain them in sin, and so had driven us out of them; and to such a position we never can return. The heart rests in the thought that it has seen God face to face with a self-ruined, convicted sinner; having nothing for her but absolute grace! Waiting upon her slowness of heart, without a reproachful word—forgetful of His own thirst, when occupied in awakening a thirst in her soul for the Living Water. Fellow-sinner, wilt thou not “Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace?” (Job 22:21) Does not this sight of Jesus satisfy your heart and give you rest? Has He not won the confidence of your heart, when turning over the secret and blotted pages of your life; and at the same time giving you no motive for concealment—no motive to hide anything from Him? The Truth “of your condition which He came to reveal stares you in the face, forcing you to condemn yourself—while His perfect Grace” has not condemned you, or expelled you from Him. Have you not then, I would ask, learned to trust Him, and have the boldness in His presence with grace, which does not condemn you for your sin, bestows? He does not identify Himself with your sinful state, although He has come so near, (that he did on His cross); but while perfectly pure Himself, He has taught you that you may unburden your weary heart to Him; when you could do so to none other. He brings you into God’s presence, and proves the perfection of His love has revealed itself in Him toward the sinner, when in righteousness He has had to condemn his sin. —And how?
To see this, we must follow Him to His cross. The perfect love of God would not flow forth to you at the expense of His righteousness; and if righteousness were to be executed against the sinner, it would but call into question this perfect love. All had to be proved—perfect love to the sinner, perfect righteousness against his sin. We must then follow Him to His cross to understand this—to His cross where “He appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Heb. 9:26) There all came out—the sin of man’s heart, and his hatred to God and good, burst out in its fullest expression in the rejection of Christ. “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause.” (John 15:24,25) But the very thing which expressed the fullest hatred of our nature against God, was only His occasion in doing that which wiped out our greatest sin! And Jesus—capable, as none but He, of bearing the fullest expression of divine judgment on account of sin in drinking the cup of wrath, exhausting it so that none remained—we follow Him to His tomb, from the tomb to the morning of resurrection, from the morning of resurrection to His ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and then we see “the glory of God shining IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST,” a man at God’s right hand! No longer now IN THE FACE OF MOSES, over which we much desire a vail may be placed. Every ray of that glory tells its wondrous tale. It tells us that the sins He bore on His cross are gone; that He has entered heaven as the purger of our sins; and that He has left them behind Him, paid the full penalty for them, glorified God about them, and put them away; gave up the life to which these sins were attached, in which He stood charged with them; and that they are buried in the grave of God’s forgetfulness—righteously buried and forgotten—according to the righteousness of God. Every ray of that glory speaks the blessed news that before God the sins are gone; and the glory that shines in His face has shone into our hearts, giving “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
“And we all with unveiled face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed (transformed) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18) We are able, now, steadfastly to behold that glory, by faith—no need to shrink from its brightness. Quite right that we should shrink from the glory which shone in Moses’ face, owning its full, uncompromising, condemnatory power. No need to shrink from that which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. The brighter the ray, the more fully do we see our sins put away. Thus it becomes to us the “ministration of righteousness” and of “the Spirit,” not of “death and condemnation.” It tells of God’s righteousness in justifying the ungodly; sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God, by the Holy Spirit given unto us. “Christ,” in whose face the glory shines, is written upon our hearts, with the Spirit of the living God, and the believer becomes the “Epistle of Christ, known and read of all.” “With unveiled face, beholding,” he is “transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” And “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” No more the bondage of a soul under Moses-the groaning of a heart whose desires are right, but which possesses no power to bring forth fruit to God; but liberty—the liberty of grace, enabling the believer to be filled with the fruits of the righteousness which he possesses, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. (Phil. 1:11.)
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Cor. 4:7) The earthen vessel—our poor, vile body—has not yet been changed into the likeness of His glorious body (Phil. 3:21), it has not yet been clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life (2 Cor. 5:4); and, therefore, as the frail vessel would lend itself to every evil around, we have to learn to “bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,” to bring the power and judgment of His cross to bear upon all that is of the poor vessel, “that the life also of Jesus (His risen, victorious life—the treasure which we possess) may be manifested in our body.” (2 Cor. 4:10) The more the vessel is kept under, every movement of nature, and flesh, and self judged, the more will the life of Jesus be at liberty to be manifested in our bodies.
God helps, too, to this end—and “we which live (the believer), are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Cor. 4:11) Paul had a thorn in his flesh given him to keep the vessel in the consciousness of its weakness daily, lest it should have been puffed up by the abundance of the revelations given to him. Each believer has his own special danger, and requires the special dealing of God on the vessel to keep it in the place of death, “that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Cor. 4:7) Thus death works in the poor, frail vessel, setting free the life within to act towards others, to His glory.
“Seeing, then, we have such hope, we use great plainness of speechapter” How? “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
I ask, then, my reader, is the gospel of Christ’s glory hid from you? Satan is, in religious things, the god of this world. His every effort is to hinder one ray of this glory finding its way into the hearts of men; he blinds the minds of them which believe not, lest one ray should shine into their heart. He knows that if the feeblest ray of that glory finds an entrance into the heart, his power to delude and to blind the soul is gone. The soul that has apprehended the feeblest ray is lost to Satan forever. And to follow to its source the ray of glory, it is found to come from the face of Jesus Christ, who took His seat on high, “when He had by Himself purged our sins.” (Heb. 1:3.)
May God, who spoke the light out of darkness of old, shine this glory into your heart, and enable you, my reader, with upturned eye and unveiled face, to gaze by faith into the heavens, and behold Him, in whose face God’s glory shines, seated there as the purger of your sins! And then, may you learn to forget those things that are behind, and press forward unto those things that are before, toward the mark for the prize of your high calling of God in Christ! Meanwhile learning to reflect His image, and shine back upon the world, “Christ,” whom it has rejected, and be in your measure His “Epistle, known and read of all!”