2 Cor. 1
There is, beloved brethren, a revelation from God, of Himself made to us, in His Son—and of the relation in which we stand by grace through Him. I call attention to it as being beyond all His works in creation—and the most wonderful testimony we find in the Word of God. From first to last it is what overtops everything else. It is a revelation of God Himself; and by the only One who was competent to declare God the Father, and that is the Son of His bosom.
Clearly there must be a ministry suited to such a revelation—as there was in olden times, one by Moses, through patterns, and shadows, and types. Up to those days we are familiar with failure and immediate judgments in the world before the flood, but the resources which God had in Himself were infinite, and far abounding over sin and the deluge. All pointed to the Son, and the eye of faith rested on the coming One, whether told of by type, or prophecy, or promise—it was the Son of God. This is not now where we are, but it is well to refer to such, in order to see how careful God is, that not a jot or tittle should fail of all that he has purposed for the glory of Christ.
As for example, in verses 19 and 20 of this chapter, “The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” He secures all blessings to the seed, by their redemption, and gathers up all the promises of Jehovah, and fulfills them in Himself, whether they be promises substantiated by covenant, or whether God gave out His thought by patterns, for “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” said) the God of Israel, and how could He then give out His thoughts to men? He says, “I will bring my ways and thoughts down to their own level, and take up that which they are acquainted with, to teach them.” What a striking example of this, both by colors and metals, was “the ark of the covenant and the covering vail.” A wonderful moment for Moses when he was entrusted with the pattern, and equally so to Bezaleel, who constructed it and overlaid it all with pure gold, and the rings for the staves in its journeyings. How marvelous was the journey—they put in the staves to bear that whose proper place was the holiest of all, and the journey was begun! That is not promise, it is not covenant, but it is promise and covenant substantiated in the Ark, by the Mercy seat, and the Cherubims of glory.
Look at the love of God in seeking to make Himself known and understood, by the Tabernacle of witness; and to show them the way by which they were to approach Him, for He says, “I have come down to dwell with you, and be your help. I have given Bezaleel wisdom and understanding or it could never have been done.” God took the whole of the arrangements into His own hand from first to last. “I must declare Myself.” In the governmental ways of God, it repented Him that He had made man upon the earth and He destroyed it; but I must accept the covenant of the bow in the cloud over Noah’s head, or I shall not understand God in these new lessons of faith and grace. The end of all flesh is come before Him in righteous judgment, but He will go along with man on the earth in virtue “of the sweet-savor-sacrifice on Noah’s altar.” When all that world broke down with which God was connected as the Creator, God took His new place in the midst of His people Israel, before the Ark of the Covenant to seek out a resting place for them. In all their journeyings He went before them, and in their haltings and encampments the Tabernacle became a sacred enclosure for the Ark of the Covenant, as their center of present and abiding blessing. They had to learn by these patterns and pledges of His love, how God delighted in His Israel—precious lesson.
I want to show how God ever delights to go along with His people. It is not only God for us. It is His delight to journey with His chosen, and to bring them into communion with His thoughts—His mind—His ways; and so you will find all the path through the wilderness, God was true to the Ark of the Covenant in the midst of His people, —even their raiment waxed not old. The goodness and faithfulness of Jehovah were thus in keeping with the Ark of the Covenant, which the sons of Aaron bore upon their shoulders, before the eyes of the people, under the leadership of Moses, through the desert.
When the time was come for Joshua to take the command and lead them over Jordan into Canaan, the power and glory of God were necessarily superadded to His goodness and faithfulness. The waters of Jordan rolled back as a heap before “the Ark of the Covenant of the God of the whole earth,” when it would pass by that way, and the walls of Jericho fell down flat: who could question the power of Jehovah? At the close of the holy wars of Israel, God put another seal to His faithfulness, for He hearkened to the voice of a man, and the sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, until the people had avenged themselves of their enemies. And it came to pass as they fled before Israel that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them, and they died; more died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. Never was there a day like it before or after that the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. The rod of Moses is gone, and power is seen in the hand of God, and the captain of the Lord’s host.
Is He changed? No, beloved. God goes on in His own path; and His power is but clearing the way for His glory to dwell in the land of Immanuel; for the staves which were put into the rings of the Ark of the Covenant to bear it withal in Exodus times were drawn out, when the priests brought it into his place, “to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.” In the days of Bezaleel they put in the staves, and commenced their pilgrimage with Jehovah; but in the reign of Solomon, when God had given the people rest, “the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God,” and they drew out the staves of the Ark; and there it is unto this day.
But who is He that shall take type out of type—pattern out of pattern—promise out of promise—yea, and prophecy out of prophecy? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou canst tell? Who is He that shall embody all these in Himself, and for the glory of God, and for the blessing of His people, by His birth, by His death, by His resurrection, and His second coming?
The power and the glory of God had alike displayed themselves in Jerusalem, by the destruction of the Adonizedic confederation under Joshua, through the hailstones, and afterward in rest and peace by Solomon.
Leaving behind us at this point the ways of Jehovah in the history of Israel, let us look at the place in Bethlehem where the young child lay. The Son born was introduced—the One on whom every hope and expectation of covenanted blessing hung for faith; the Man of God’s councils and purposes before the world was; the bearer of all our wretchedness; the bringer in of gladness; and made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. What was the state of the world when He came? It was in the fullness of the time God sent forth His Son, and with this view let us look at the Gospel history.
Do you not delight to see in the various records of the whole evangelists that blessed One? What is the value and glory of the life of Christ to God and to us, as we see the Son of man acknowledged and greeted from the heavens by the Father himself? Who can carry God’s thoughts out of counsel and pattern in which He put them? Who, but the Son of His love, who was the One with Him in counsel, and now in operation I look at the cross of Christ; are not the sacrificial types taken out of pattern there? Assuredly, and confirmed in that death. If I look at His life: how was He born into this world? was it not as “the appointed Heir of all things—the Son of God—Son of Adam—Son of Abraham—and as Son of David?” “Where is He that is born King of the Jews,” say they who followed the star. But the Messiah was rejected in those rights and titles; nevertheless He tells His disciples, “There be some of you standing here that shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in His kingdom.”
The Ark, when carried into its place in the temple, had nothing in it save the two tables, which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the Lord made a Covenant with the children of Israel. It waited for its fulfillment and manifestation, till He should come, of whom it was written in the volume of the Book, Lo I come, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy Law is within in my heart.”
What is the spot on earth, which this Jehovah-Jesus makes His starting point? The Lord bad spoken by His prophet, “out of Egypt have I called My Son”—and in Matthew we follow Him from thence, into the river of Jordan, where aforetime the typical Ark stood firm, till all had passed over—but now He to whom this Ark pointed, identifies Himself with his forerunner and the repentant remnant, and supersedes all in the title of “the fulfiller of all righteousness.” The voice from heaven—the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him—show what a new beginning this was between the heavens and the earth, as centered in this Jesus-Messiah. The whole power of the devil, and his temptations in the wilderness, do but turn it into a fruitful field, for the opened eye. Jesus “saith to him, Get thee hence, Satan.”
The Wilderness, Jordan, and the land of Israel, prove who He is that was passing through, presenting Himself and the Kingdom. In chapter 17, He goes up into the holy mount, for the highest place is His, to take in righteous title as the obedient One. But He must die, to carry others in, where He alone could go. There was a moment of silence between the heavens and the earth, so to speak. By His birthright, and as the obedient Servant, in wondrous ways, He had won everything in righteousness, that Israel and Solomon had forfeited by sin, so that the Voice on Tabor accredited Him “as My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” when He received from God the Father honor and glory. He left the rights and titles of the kingdom, for another day and from the excellent glory; He accepted His decease at Jerusalem, and came down to die that He might accomplish our redemption, and take His place as second Adam at the right hand of God where He now is.
Tabor is changed for Mount Calvary, and the throne of David for the Cross, and the royal scepter for the reed. He goes forth as a lamb to the slaughter, and what love to us that death declares! Now raised from the dead by the glory of the Father! What an object He becomes for our hearts to rest in, who loved us unto death. Those who in simple faith will follow Him as disciples, must need travel by His cross. That wonderful group of chapters in the middle of John’s gospel is on this account peculiarly ours. They will not belong to people in the millennium. We are told of the delight in which the Son came down to reveal the Father and the delight of the Father in that well beloved Son, a man down here. I have spoken of Him as having gone away but to prepare a place for us, as His own—who are not of this world. Our place on earth, corresponds necessarily with our position in the heavens with Christ, and likewise with the purpose, and objects of the Holy Ghost, which He seeks to carry out practically in us by divine operation. If Paul be faithful to the testimony of our Lord, (for example) what place could he be found in but a prison below, as agreeing with his Lord in heavenly glory. So also, Stephen the martyr below, in testimony to the Victor above You will see now why I have read this chapter in Corinthians, that you might know what fellowship with Christ is, in His rejection, and in present sufferings, as identified in testimony with His present glory. Are you afraid to look at tribulation now with Christ for the truth’s sake? Or with the revelation God has made of Himself, and of His mind to us as the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort? Take care that our afflictions spring from the right cause, and do not lose their luster, and character, as the afflictions of Christ, the proper fruit in this epistle, of following Christ? It is not the ordinary trouble and afflictions of the wilderness I speak of but we which live, are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
Beloved, are we alive to the fact that God has come out in a new revelation, and in new relations to His saints, and made good to those who will accept and share this pathway of His Son. It is a new path, in which you are called to honor—the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. It leads not to prosperity on earth like Solomon, but to the Cross, and the abounding consolations of Christ? I have to carry about in my body the dying of Jesus, that all may be kept down in me, that would be counter to that death; lest the flesh should escape, and by means of its desires &c., give a handle to the devil.
I will quote one or two things familiar to you in this epistle.
Not only is it God for us, but our present circumstances contribute to us, for “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” See how He turns everything to account. Everything will work out fuller glory if you will only go down by obedience to the Father and in communion with Christ into the place of death. In chapter eight you will find how He uses Christ as known to us by the word in the power of the Holy Ghost to produce what is like Christ. We ought to press it home. It is not only coming relations with the eternal glory, and a revelation about God the Father and the Son of His love, but each and all in the precious and divine activity of this living love are brought now into this combination and wrought out in these afflictions for Christ in us. If he wants to cultivate the grace of giving, he counts upon the grace of Christ in their hearts, and so tells them— “You, know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” Is there a heart here today could refuse it? What does He do to bring out the grace of giving? He is presenting Christ! He does not do it by compulsion or duty, but “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is not expecting less of us; on the contrary, the Spirit knows how to touch our affections. Where is there a heart which does not own the constraining love of Christ? Under this power its best and truest affections will respond to Christ. Let the state of any heart be what it may, I know of nothing that will reach that heart and touch it but the presenting of Christ. Shall I be the contradiction of what He was? Shall I be a false representation on this earth of what my blessed Lord was? Suppose Paul wants to correct the self-importance of the flesh, he does so by seeking to cultivate the gentleness of Christ, or suppose these Corinthians were guilty of the folly of comparing themselves with themselves and one with another. “You are not wise,” he tells them and brings Christ into their midst. If I compare myself with another the flesh would make it my advantage so to do. The gentleness of Christ or any other excellence which marked Him humbles us all down to the dust. You know Christ, or you are not a Christian at all. You know the meekness of Christ. This meekness and gentleness would be disqualifications in the progress of this world and its objects, but in the Church this gentleness of Christ is the riband of blue, and is connected with your whole vocation. It is not by telling me to adorn the doctrine that it is furthered in me, but by the presentation of Christ to the heart. I cannot refuse that Christ, and the Spirit is free to cultivate or supply to us the very grace that may be deficient or lacking. Will you be the subjects as well as the objects of these wonderful manifestations? Paul himself going along through this world not only gets the consolation, but he is able to comfort others, and the grace by which he comforts others is for us to use today in everything here, afflictions, tribulations, working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
I have to do with a new standard of computation, and if you compare losses and gains with things that are eternal, you will have a new principle of arithmetic, I am quite sure. The debtor and creditor side will get reversed, so also, by what reckonings will you estimate things seen unless it be with things that are not seen?
Nor will the apostle finish this epistle without making Satan himself tributary to him and a positive gain.
“There was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”
I am indebted to him for the thorn in the flesh. It is the only epistle where you will find absolute weakness is reached and counted indispensable that the grace of Christ may be found out and proved in its sufficiency. “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.” I would not be without them for anything. I have found out a new pleasure by means of infirmities, and have reached the power of Christ. By strength shall no man prevail——weakness is my fortune. We preach the power of Christ, and we preach the grace of Christ—though He were crucified by weakness He liveth by the power of God, and the apostle refused every other path. It opens resurrection to us as the way out with Christ into the future glory, The Lord make this epistle wonderfully clear and marvelously dear to us. That as true hearted and willing disciples we may follow a rejected Christ, taking up the afflictions of Christ so that the consolations of Christ may abound. In this course we shall find nothing but things around contributing to work out for us, a far more exceeding, and eternal weight of glory. Living in the power of things not seen and eternal and bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus? we shall be reaching absolute weakness through it, that the life also of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal body. “For me to live is Christ,” will thus not only be a text, but find its personification—to the glory and praise of the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.
All this is the effect of our going in the current of the Spirit, and God working by the Holy Ghost, nothing so blessed for the servants, as being used of God instrumentally and knowing it. God then does not refuse to shake the foundations of the prison, and the result is irresistible. We afterward find the rulers brought down down to the feet of these two men of might. The Lord by His grace open our eyes to follow in their footsteps. Amen.