We deem it needful to call the reader’s attention to the truth set forth in the fifth verse of our chapter (2 Cor. 5) winch was only hastily glanced at in the closing lines of our paper for July. “Now he that wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”
The believer then, whoever he be, is God’s workmanship. What he is, he is through God’s own work. The same truth is stated in the second chapter of Ephesians, where we read, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” This, we may truly say, is a point of the weightiest moment. It claims the grave attention of the reader who desires to be thoroughly established in the truth of God as to what a Christian — what Christianity really is. It is not a mined lost, guilty sinner seeking to work himself up into something or other fit for God. It is the very reverse. It is God, in the riches of His grace, on the ground of the atoning death of Christ, taking up a poor, dead, worthless, condemned thing — a guilty, hell-deserving sinner, and creating him anew in Christ Jesus. It is, as it were, God beginning a new — on the new, as we may say — to form man in Christ, to place him on a new footing altogether, not now as an innocent being on a creation basis, but as a justified one, in a risen Christ. It is not man’s old condition improved by human effort of any sort or description; but it is God’s new workmanship in a risen, ascended, and glorified Christ. It is not man’s old garment pieced or patched by human device in any shape or form whatever; but it is God’s new garment introduced in the Person of Christ, who having, in infinite grace, gone down into the dust of death, and endured, on man’s behalf, the judgment due to sin, the righteous wrath of a sin-hating God, was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and is become the Head of the new creation — “The beginning of the creation of God.” Revelation in. 14.
Now, it must be perfectly clear to the reader, that if our Lord Jesus Christ be, in very deed, “the beginning” of God’s creation, then we must begin at the beginning, else we have done absolutely nothing at all. We may labor and toil — we may do our very utmost, and be perfectly sincere in our doing — we may vow and resolve — we may seek to improve our state, to alter our course, to mend our ways, to have in a different way — but all the while, we are in the old creation, which has been completely set aside, and is under the judgment of God; we have not begun at “the beginning” of God’s new creation, and, as a necessary consequence, we have gained nothing at all. We have been spending our strength for naught and in vain. We have been putting forth efforts to improve a thing which God has condemned and set aside altogether. We are, to use a very feeble figure indeed, like a man who is spending his time, his pains, and his money in painting and papering a house that has been condemned by the government surveyor, on account of the rottenness of the foundation, and which must be taken down at once.
What should we say to such a man? Should we not deem him very foolish? Doubtless. But if it be folly to paint and paper a condemned house, what shall we say to those who are seeking to improve a condemned nature — a condemned world? We must say this, at least, they are pursuing a course which must, sooner or later, end in disappointment and confusion.
Oh! that this were understood and entered into! Would to God that Christians more fully entered into it! Would to God that all christian writers, preachers, and teachers entered into it, and set it forth distinctly with pen and voice! At the least, we earnestly desire that the reader should thoroughly grasp it. We are most fully persuaded that it is pre-eminently, “Truth for the Times.” It is truth to meet the need of thousands of souls — to remove their burdens, relieve their heart and conscience — solve their difficulties — chase away their clouds. There are, at this moment, throughout the length and breadth of Christendom, countless multitudes engaged in the fruitless work of painting and papering a condemned house — a house on which God has pronounced judgment, because of the hopelessly ruined condition of its foundations. They are seeking to do little jobs of repairs here and there throughout the house, forgetting, or perhaps not knowing, that the whole building is very shortly to be demolished by order of the Divine Government. Some are doing this with the utmost sincerity, amid much sore exercise of soul, and many tears because they cannot succeed in satisfying their own hearts even, much less the claims of God. For God demands a perfect thing, not a patched-up ruin. There is no use in seeking to cover with paper and paint old walls tottering on a rotten foundation. God cannot be deceived by surface work, by shallow outside appearances. The foundations are bad, the whole thing must come down, and we must put our whole trust in Him who is “the beginning of the creation of God.”
Reader, pause here, for a moment’s calm and serious reflection. Ask yourself the question, “Am I seeking to patch up a ruin? Am I seeking to improve the old nature? Or have I really found my place in God’s new creation of which a risen Christ is the Head and Beginning?” Remember, we beseech you, that you cannot possibly engage in more fruitless toil than seeking to make yourself better. Your efforts may be sincere, but they must, in the long run, prove worthless. Your paper and paint may be all good and genuine enough, but you are putting them on a condemned ruin. You cannot say of your unrenewed nature that it is “God’s workmanship;” and, most assuredly, your doings, your good works, your religious exercises, your efforts to keep the ten commandments—nothing, in short, that you can do, could possibly be called “ God’s workmanship.” It is yours and not God’s. He cannot acknowledge it. He cannot seal it with His Spirit. It is all false and good for nothing. If you cannot say, “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God,” you have really nothing. You are yet in your sins. You have not begun at God’s beginning. You are yet “in the flesh;” and the voice of holy scripture declares that “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8.
This is a solemn and sweeping sentence. A man out of Christ is “in the flesh;” and such a man cannot please God. He may be most religious, most moral, most amiable, most benevolent, a loving husband, an affectionate father, a most excellent master, a generous Mend, a liberal giver, a genial companion, a patron of the poor, upright and honorable in all Ids dealings; he may be an eloquent preacher and a popular writer, and all the while not be “in Christ,” but “in the flesh,” and therefore he “cannot please God.”
Can aught be more solemn than this? Only to think of how far a person may go in all that is deemed excellent among men, and yet not be in Christ, but in his sins — in the flesh — in the old creation — in the condemned house. And be it noted, that it is not a question of gross sins, of scandalous living in all its varied hideous shapes, of immorality, in its deeper and darker shades; no, the declaration of holy scripture is, that “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” This truly is most soul subduing, and calls for deep and solemn reflection on the part of every thoughtful and earnest soul.
But it may be that, to the reader’s view, difficulties and stumbling blocks still surround this most weighty subject. He may still be utterly at a loss to know what is meant by the expression, “In the flesh.” If so, it will, we fondly hope, help him, not a little, to remember that scripture speaks of two men — “the first man” and “the second man.” These two men are presented as the heads of two distinct races. Adam fallen is the head of one race; Christ risen is the Head of the other race. Now, the very fact of there being “a second man” proves that the first man has been set aside; for if the first man had proved faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. This is clear and unquestionable. The first man is a total wreck — an irreparable ruin. The foundations of the old edifice have given way; and albeit, in man’s view, the building seems to stand, and to be capable of being repaired, yet in God’s view it is completely set aside, and a Second Man — a new edifice set up, on the solid and imperishable ground of redemption.
Hence, we read, in the third chapter of Genesis, that God “drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.” In other words, the first man was driven out, and every possible way of return was closed against him, as such. He could only get back by “a new and living way,” namely, through the rent veil of the Savior’s flesh. The flaming sword “ turned every way,” so that there was positively no way by which the first man could ever get back to his former state. The only hope, now, was through “the seed of the woman” — “the second man.” The flaming sword declared, in symbolic yet impressive language, the truth which comes out, in the New Testament, divested of all symbol and shadow, namely, that “They that are in the flesh cannot please God” — “Ye must be born again.” Every unconverted man, woman, and child, is part and parcel of the first man, fallen, ruined, set aside, and driven out. He is a member of the first Adam — the old race — a stone in the old condemned building.
Thus it stands if we are to be guided by scripture. The head and his race go together. As is the one, so is the other; what is true of the one, is true of the other. They are, in God’s view, absolutely identical. Was the first Adam fallen, when he became the head of a race? Was he driven out? Was he completely set aside? Yes verily, if we are to believe scripture, then the unconverted — the unregenerated reader of these lines is fallen, driven out, and set aside. As is the head, so is the member — each member in particular — all the members together. They are inseparable, if we are to be taught by Divine Revelation.
But, further, was every possible way of return finally closed against the fallen head? Yes, scripture declares that the flaming sword turned “every way to keep the way of the tree of life.” Then is it utterly impossible that the unconverted — unregenerate reader can improve himself or make himself fit for God. If the fallen head could not get back to the tree of life, neither can the fallen member. “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” That is, they that are on the old footing, in the old creation, members of the first Adam, part and parcel of the old edifice, cannot please God. “Ye must be born again.” Man must be renewed in the very deepest springs and sources of his being. He must be God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them. He must be able to say, in the language of our text, “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.”
But this leads us to another point. How is any one to get into this marvelous position? How can any soul take up such language? How can any one whose eyes have been opened to see his utter and hopeless ruin, as connected with the first man, as standing in the old creation, as a stone in the old edifice — how can such an one ever reach a position in which he can please God? The Lord be praised, scripture gives an answer, full, clear, and distinct, to this serious question. A Second Man has appeared upon the scene — the seed of the woman, and, at the same time, God over all, blessed forever. In Him all begins afresh. He came into this world, born of a woman, made under the law, pure and spotless, free from every taint of sin, personally, apart from every claim of sin and death, standing in the midst of a ruined world, a guilty race, Himself that pure, untainted grain of wheat. We see Him lying as a helpless babe in the manger. We see Him growing up as a youth beneath the parent roof. We see him as a man working in a carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. We see Him baptized in Jordan, where all the people were baptized confessing their sins — Himself sinless, but fulfilling all righteousness, and, in perfect grace, identifying Himself with the repentant portion of the nation of Israel. We see Him anointed with the Holy Ghost for the work that lay before Him. We see Him in the wilderness faint and hungry, unlike the first man who was placed in the midst of a paradise of creature delights. We see Him tempted of Satan and coming off victorious. We trace Him along the pathway of public ministry — and such a ministry! What incessant toil! What weariness and watching! What hunger and thirst! What sorrow and travail! Worse off than the fowls and the foxes, the Son of man had not where to lay His head. The contradiction of sinners by day, the mountain-top by night.
Such was the marvelous life of this blessed One. But this was not all. He died! Yes, He died under the weight of the first man’s guilt. He died to take away the sin of the world, and alter completely the ground of God’s relationship with the world, so that God might deal with mail and with the world on the new ground of redemption, instead of the old ground of sin. He died for the nation of Israel. He tasted death for every man. He died the just for the unjust. He suffered for sins. He died and was buried, according to the scriptures. He went through all — met all — paid all — finished all. He went down into the dust of death, and lay in the dark and silent tomb. He descended into the lower parts of the earth. He went down to the very bottom of everything. He endured the sentence passed on man. He paid the penalty, bore the judgment, drained the cup of wrath, went through every form of human suffering and trial, was tempted in ad points, sin excepted. He made an end of everything that stood in the way, and, having finished all, He gave up His spirit into the hand of His Father, and His precious body was laid in a tomb on which the smell of death had never passed.
Nor was this all. He rose! Yes, He rose triumphant over all. He rose as the Head of the new creation — “The beginning of the creation of God” — “The first begotten from among the dead” — “The first-born among many brethren.” And now the Second Man is before God, crowned with glory and honor, not in an earthly paradise, but at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. This Second Man is the last Adam, because there is none to come after Him, we cannot get beyond the last. There is only one Man before God now. The first is set aside. The last is set up. And as the first was the fallen head of a fallen race, so the last is the risen Head of a saved, justified, and accepted race. The Head and His members are inseparably identified — all the members together, and each member in particular. There is no difference. “As he is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17).) There is nothing before God but Christ. The Head and the body, the Head and each individual member are indissolubly joined together — inseparably and eternally one. God thinks of the members as He thinks of the Head — loves them as He loves Him. Those members are God’s workmanship, incorporated by His Spirit into the body of Christ, and having no other existence, no other footing, no other rank, position, or station whatsoever but “in Christ.” They are no longer “in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” They can please God, because they possess His nature, and are sealed by His Spirit, and guided by His word. “He that hath wrought them is God,” and God must ever delight in His own workmanship. He will never find fault with or condemn the work of His own hand. “God is a rock, his work is perfect,” and hence the believer, as God’s workmanship must be perfect. He is “in Christ,” and that is enough — enough for God — enough for faith — enough forever.
And, now, if it be asked, “How is all this to be attained?” scripture replies, “By faith.” “Verily, verily. I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Mm that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)