The New Creation

The Work of Redemption.
OUR thoughts are thus led up to God as acting in a fallen world where man had been found out by the law to be helpless as well as evil. It now becomes us to look at the way and action of the blessed God in such a world, and for such a creature as man; and that has been, and is redemption.
Redemption is God’s principle in this world. Creation was for redemption, and not redemption after creation―because in counsel the Lamb offered Himself before the world was (Psa. 40, Heb. 10) And the saints are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1) And in the garden of Eden itself, before the transgression, in the sleeping man, and the woman taken out of him, there was the type of redemption or life drawn out of death (Gen. 2); and the moment sin entered, the secret of redemption was published (Gen. 3:1515And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)).
But beside all this, Leviticus 25, which is the special Scripture upon redemption, shows us, as I have observed, that redemption was God’s principle; for there we are taught that neither the people nor the land could be sold forever, but always subject to redemption, or, as we say, by way of mortgage. And if the Israelite had no kinsman able or willing to redeem him or his land, the Lord Himself would redeem both in the fiftieth year, or year of jubilee. Thus it is clearly apparent that redemption is God’s principle. But what does it imply? The paying of a price, a full price for the thing or person sold. The purchaser of an Israelite, or of his possession, was to have the full money weighed out to him ere he could be required to restore the man or his land to the kinsman. The Scripture shows, in like manner, that our glorious kinsman (the God of heaven and earth, manifest in the flesh) has by Himself paid the full price of our redemption, paid the debt that lay upon us and our inheritance. For in the balances of the throne of God (where righteousness was seated) the price was weighed, and weighed with the nicest hand, that no wrong might be done to any one through man having sold himself and all that he had by his sin. And thus Scripture calls Jesus a redeemer, in the sense of this glorious chapter on redemption (Lev. 25) He visited and redeemed His people. And the price that He paid was His blood, or Himself. “He gave himself a ransom for many” ― “a ransom for all―to be testified in due time.” “By his blood having obtained eternal redemption for us.” “Thou Last redeemed us to God by thy blood.” And many such passages tell us.
And the scales of the throne of God tested the weight of this price before it was paid. They had before tried the weight of the blood of bulls and goats, but they found all such blood to be light and insufficient. But when the blood of God’s own Lamb, God’s divine Son, was put into that balance, which was thus held by the hand of Him that sat on the throne, Who judges right―the balance stood, the will of God, the Great Creditor, was satisfied. And by the satisfying of that will we are sanctified (Heb. 10) By the payment of that price our persons and lands are repurchased by our glorious Redeemer or Kinsman.
I do confess, to touch the doctrine of repurchase or redemption appears to touch the dearest thought in the mind of God, for it is, as Leviticus 25 blessedly shows us, as I have said, His own principle. And why is it so dear to Him? Because it glorifies His love, that is, Himself, above everything; for it shows such a way of self-sacrifice in God, that though this ransom, this price of redemption, demanded the Son from His bosom—the Isaac―yet the Isaac was delivered.
And what comfort to the conscience to know that the full price has been paid. What comfort to a poor redeemed Israelite it must have been to know that his creditor, to whom he had sold himself, had been paid the uttermost farthing of his demand by his gracious Kinsman. The heart gets comfort from knowing that God’s love was gratifying itself in the work of our redemption. But the conscience gets ease from knowing that God’s righteousness has been honored and secured, that the demand of His throne has been fully answered. And the adequacy of this price of our redemption is variously witnessed to us. I would exhibit the testimonies to it thus: ―
(1.) Before the world began it was fixed on at such a price in the covenant. Its sufficiency was even then recorded in “the volume of the Book” (Ps. 40.; Heb. 10)
(2.) From the beginning of the world it was pleaded at such a price, whether shed on the altars of the worshippers, or put on the lintels of the houses of the redeemed (Gen. 3:88And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8); Ex. 12) And as such price it was owned of God.
(3.) At the end of the world it was offered on Calvary, and then in the rending of the wail God publicly owned (as before in the volume of the Book He had secretly or in counsel owned) the value of His blood as the ransom or price of redemption.
(4.) It is now preached by the Holy Ghost in the Gospel as such sufficient remission of sins (Heb. 10:1313From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. (Hebrews 10:13)).
(5.) Finally, through eternity, its simple value is to be our praise. And thus is the price of our redemption variously witnessed to us. God delighted to own it, it is true. He was glorified in this well-settled purchase; His love was gratified also. The heart, as led by Scripture, may indulge itself in all these blessed thoughts and assurances. But I speak now only of the value that the soul finds in looking at the blood of Jesus as the money or the price paid down for our ransom. The conscience gets its desire from that fully answered. As such price, I again observe, the blood is to be trusted. And as such price it is called the “blood of the everlasting covenant,” being that consideration―full, adequate, well ascertained and settled consideration―on which the covenant stands; which ratifies it, therefore; which gives it its character of being at once a holy and yet gracious covenant preserving the holy rights or righteousness of God, and yet providing abundant grace for sinners. “This is the new covenant in my blood.” No other blood Gould do. That of bulls and goats had been tried under the law, but it was found light and inadequate. And let me add, that no thoughts of God’s love are to interfere with the demands of His righteousness. These demands must be answered, as they have been indeed in this redemption of sinners by the blood of Jesus. God’s love, it is true, is without measure. But that love is not a mere emotion, a mere sentiment that can exercise itself as it will. It is rather that which, al an unutterable cost, provided redemption for the guilty, a righteous ransom for sinners. Love in God was that which sat down and counted the cost of making sinners its object. If we think of love, without believing the provision it made for the demands of righteousness, we are dealing with a sentiment of our own, and not with the blessed revelation of God.
But this rather by the way. I have here principally been considering redemption as that which marks God’s purpose, and is the principle of His action in our world. It was His counsel before the foundation of the world, and will be celebrated in the praise that is to surround the throne forever and ever.
But in the Scriptural character of redemption there is more than mere repurchase or ransom. In the ordinances of Israel a redeemer was a well-known personage, and his set, vices, as set forth under the law, were various: ―
(1.) He had to ransom the person or land of his brother if sold (Lev. 25) This I have been noticing.
(2.) He had to avenge the blood of his brother if shed by a murderer (Num. 35)
(3.) He had to raise up seed to his brother if he had died childless (Deut. 25)
Our blessed Lord Jesus fulfils al] these duties, having in grace made Himself our Kinsman, by taking on Him the nature and the cause of the “seed of Abraham,” through “God our all”: ―
(1.) He has ransomed or repurchased both us and our inheritance, which had been righteously forfeited to God by transgression, paying the full price, weighing out the uttermost farthing to His most just demands upon us, not indeed in silver and gold, but in His own most precious blood. (See Acts 20:2828Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28); Romans 3:24, 2524Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:24‑25); Ephesians 1:7-147In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:7‑14); Colossians 1:14,14In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (Colossians 1:14) 1 Tim. 2:88I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. (1 Timothy 2:8); Hebrews 9:1212Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12); Hebrews 10:11,11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: (Hebrews 10:11) 1 Peter 1:18, 1918Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:18‑19)).
(3.) He quickens us or raises up seed to His brother―rebuilds His kinsman’s house, by making us children of God again―a seed which Adam never produced, creating us anew, giving us to be the sons of God, which the flesh never did. (See Romans 9:88That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. (Romans 9:8); Gal. 3) And this is all. These things contain deliverance, life, victory, justification, and all we need; whether we look to ourselves dead in sins, but made alive to God, whom we have wronged and offended, or to the devil, who has beguiled us. This doctrine of a Redeemer is the ancient religion―the only religion from the beginning―to unfold which, in all its incidents and results, is the great theme and purpose of the Book of God.
Thus the Redeemer is the great personage in the Book of God from beginning to end. His work sustains the praise of God Cor ever. He was revealed long before the law, and has now survived the law―for we are now “dead to the law,” but shall live to Him, as we live by Him, forever.
The Last Adam A Life Giving Spirit.
THIS notice of the Redeemer has presented Jesus, the Son of God, to us as Repurchaser, Avenger, and Quickener. Such, as we have seen, were the three characters and duties that belonged to the Kinsman or Redeemer under the law, and which meet all our necessities. But our meditations now must lead us to the quickening spirit, or to Jesus, the Kinsman, building up His brother’s house.
At the beginning Adam was the channel of life from God to that family whom God had set up as His image here, over the works of His hands. But sin entered, and death by sin. Then came forth the promise of the woman’s seed, who was not only to have His own heel bruised, and to bruise the serpent’s head, but also to become the channel of life to man, now dead in trespasses and sins. And accordingly, by faith, Adam calls his wife “the mother of all living,” thus owning that the dead sinner must now find life in a newly constituted fountain. Adam, as God’s creature, becomes unfruitful to God, and the woman’s seed is revealed to faith as the channel (or source) of life.
From that moment faith apprehends this mystery, and looks for life, not to the flesh in Adam, but to the woman’s seed. According to this is the mystery of the barren wife, of which we see so much in the Scriptures. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, the wives of three leading Patriarchs, all belong to this class; and their bareness, healed by the mighty power of God, sets forth the mystery of life received, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God―of God, not acting through Adam or flesh, as at the beginning―but in His own way of sovereign grace and power, as through the woman’s seed. This is very simple. Hannah, in after time, rehearses the same mystery. So Elisabeth in the times of the New Testament. But at length the true seed of the woman is manifested, begotten indeed as the woman’s seed, in the simple, sovereign energy of God, so that all His types now appear to have been but faint resemblances. For it is not a barren wife receiveth strength to conceive seed, but a virgin―the new thing in the earth― “a woman encompassing a man”―a woman alone getting seed, according to the very first promise.
This is the new source, the new channel of all life. Jesus, the Son of God. God manifest in the flesh. The word made flesh. The Lord from leaven made the Second Man, and as such “a quickening spirit,” out of whom all life is now drawn―the flesh being dead in sin―cut off from the living God.
The first man had been “a living soul.” The Second is a “quickening Spirit.” The first had a life subject to death, or subject to be cut off from all communion with God. The second carries a life which has triumphed over death and all its power. The first was of the earth, the second is the Lord from heaven. The first was but natural, the second is spiritual.
And thus all that live by Him (Jesus) are spiritual. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He is not a living soul, but a quickening Spirit; and His nature gives character to that life which He communicates, as Adam’s earthly nature would have given character to all that derived life out of it, had it not corrupted itself; and as now dead in sin, it gives character to all flesh, which is still taken out of it, and accordingly corrupt and dead as to God.
Thus the Son of God lithe “quickening Spirit,” not the Holy Ghost, but Jesus the Son. The Holy Ghost afterward dwells in the new creature, but that new creature is “in Christ,” having derived its life out of Him who is the quickening Spirit. And that which is born of the Spirit being spirit, a distinct principle of life in us, it has its due acting’s, its own proper faculties and affections. Thus St. Paul speaks of serving in the Spirit (Rom. 1:99For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; (Romans 1:9)); living and walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:2525If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)); understanding in the Spirit (Col. 1:99For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; (Colossians 1:9)); having strength or faculty to comprehend in the Spirit (Eph. 3:1717That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17)); having a conscience in the Spirit (Rom. 9:11I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, (Romans 9:1)); living in the Spirit of God (Col. 1); having bowels in the Spirit (Phil. 1:88For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:8)). These are a few instances wherein the Spirit is owned as a principle of a distinct life, the spring of its own peculiar faculties and affections; as it will, by and bye, be also the life of its own peculiar and united body (1 Cor. 15:4444It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:44)). The sleep is evidently only of the body. (See 1 Corinthians 15:51, 5251Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑52).) For then the spirit, that which has already been detached from the corruptible body, and gone to Jesus (Acts 7:5959And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (Acts 7:59)), will take up and seat itself in the glorious body.
This is a blessed truth, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” As one has said, “The person of every believer bears the image of the two Adams.” The image of the first Adam is wholly sinful, as Adam was. The image of the Second Adam, distinctly considered, is wholly righteous, as Christ is. This new life, drawn from the Second Adam, Christ, “the quickening Spirit,” is spirit, the new creation, the new man, the inner man, the divine nature in us, life of the risen Jesus, which the Holy Ghost can own as His temple, to form, and fill, and nourish, and so strengthen with His own might, as to give it to stand in the battle with that which is still in us of the old Adam.
The Indwelling of the Spirit.
Thus do we see our own creation in Christ Jesus―and this meditation leads us to another on the Holy Ghost, which I would now for a little pursue. As soon as we become spiritual-or one spirit with Jesus—as joined to Him, we become such as the Holy Ghost can own. And in this age He does so own us. For it is the Lord in us whom He thus owns, and Him He can own, of course, everywhere. He could never own or adopt the flesh―and the law never took us out of the flesh―but the word of grace unites us as one spirit to the Lord. Nay, the Holy Ghost did not acknowledge flesh in unfallen Adam, for Adam was not a temple of the Holy Ghost. But He can own even a poor sinner who, by faith,1 is one with the Son. An individual body He owns, just because He finds the Lord there (1 Cor. 6:17-1917But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:17‑19)). Our collective bodies or the church He owns, because, in like manner, He finds the Lord there (Eph. 2:20, 2120And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: (Ephesians 2:20‑21)). He makes both of these His temples―dwelling in them―because the Lord is there in this age.
And thus the believer is not only “spiritual,” as being by faith “one with the Lord,” but he becomes a “temple of the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost enters and dwells in Him. Then the Spirit bears witness with the believer’s spirit (Rom. 8:1616The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16)). His own spirit tells him he is a child, because, by faith, he is one with the Son of God’s love. And the Holy Spirit joins in this testimony, because He has entered us as owning the Son in us, and thus in us cries or breathes out, “Abba, Father.”
But even this “indwelling of the Holy Ghost” is matter of revelation, as well as our oneness with the Son, or our being “Spirit.” Therefore it is neither to be prayed for nor experienced, but believed. Sweet and refreshing, and purifying fruit of this indwelling will surely be known and enjoyed; and that more or less as we walk in holy diligent cultivation of the spiritual mind, and in our communion with God. And that will be our experience. But at first we are not to put the soul to any effort to experience the indwelling of the Spirit, but to believe the revelation that He does indwell. And the happy way to reach experience is simply to have faith in the revelation. And it is, moreover, on this very ground that our responsibleness arises. We are all debtors, under this age, to walk in the Spirit, just because we have the Spirit. Beliers in old time were not thus “spiritual.” A prophet, or the like, may have been called “spiritual “while the Spirit was in him to prophecy, but that was far different from being “spiritual,” in the sense of being in-dwelt by the Spirit for constant though varied need of the soul.
From all this we gather that the Spirit is imparted by the word of the Gospel―that “word” is the seed of new or spiritual life in us, and is received by faith: and then the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us thus spiritual, or one with the Lord. And this shows us there is connection, but not identity, between the “word of grace” and the Holy Ghost. The word of grace gives liberty to the sinner, purifies the conscience, makes us one with the Son, and thus prepares us for the entrance and indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
All the elect have been born of the Spirit, have derived their life unto God from the woman’s seed, the head of the new creation. But not till Jesus, the Son of man, was glorified, did the Holy Ghost dwell in the elect as now He does. He was given occasionally, at all times to God’s servants, for official service and testimony (Ex. 31; Num. 11:2727And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. (Numbers 11:27); Deut. 34; 1 Sam. 10; 1 Chron. 28; Neh. 9). That was, hover, different. For then, according to the order and notice of Scripture, the Holy Ghost was still in heaven, as in Isaiah 48:16,16Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. (Isaiah 48:16) but now dwelling in, and given to, the saints. He is owned by the same Scriptures of God as on earth (Acts 2:2828Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. (Acts 2:28); Eph. 4; John 14:1616And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (John 14:16)).
Resurrection God’s Secret from The Beginning.
OUR meditations thus conduct us through great things of our God, which, however, we must not dismiss till we look at resurrection, which, with its results, is to be the great presentation of the blessed and wondrous purpose of our God.
God’s secret I judge to have been resurrection from the beginning. That which He graciously calls “my covenant “was established on that principle. It shows itself in God’s dealing with Adam. It was intimated by the very first promise of the woman’s seed, for that was something above nature, above flesh and blood. It was, as the prophet calls it, “a new thing in the earth.” And though the Son of God became the woman’s seed by incarnation, yet, in the mighty results of that, and in the character of the Bruiser of the serpent’s head, indeed in all that we now enjoy, either of His person or His work, it is in resurrection we know Him. As the apostle says, “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we Him no more.” And accordingly we are now, even in this first promise about the woman’s seed bruising the serpent, to have respect to Christ in resurrection, for there, and there only, the full fruit and issue of that bruising is to be enjoyed. And afterwards resurrection is connected with God’s secret or covenant in His dealing with Noah. “The end of all flesh is come before me. Make thee an ark of gopher wood.” Here again resurrection was God’s relief or resource when He took cognizance of the utter corruption of all flesh in His sight. For the ark was the chariot of God’s salvation conducting Noah out of the old into the new creation. It was plainly the symbol of death and resurrection. “Everything in the earth shall die,” says the Lord to Noah, “but with thee will I establish my covenant; “thus revealing the secret that His covenant, His purpose touching this creation, was to establish it in some condition after death had ruined it, or on the ground of resurrection.
So in His dealings with Abraham. Abraham was to have a son and an inheritance on the same principle. He and Sarah were without children, and without so much ground as to set his foot upon. But he was to have a seed as numerous as the stars, and an inheritance that was to stretch northward and southward, eastward and westward. And this was all called “God’s covenant” with him, again plainly telling us that God’s purpose or secret, or covenant, rested on resurrection, rested on the setting aside the flesh in its strength and resources, in doing something beyond and above nature, which is the same as resurrection, or the quickening of the dead and strengthless body of Sarah. And accordingly Isaac is born out of the dead bodies of Abram and Sarah. With Isaac is God’s covenant. Ishmael may be blest―as he is ―but with Isaac, and Isaac alone, is the covenant plainly again telling us that God has taken resurrection as the principle of His action, the ground of His counsels. Man may receive blessing in nature, it is true, and in the divine overflowing’s of goodness such Ishmael promises are enjoyed every day, but the covenant is with Isaac. The real abiding and sure blessing, is all, not in nature, or mere flesh, but in resurrection.
And the inheritance comes in the way of resurrection as well as the seed or heir. It lay under the bondage of corruption for a time. It was in the hand of the Amorite while he was filling up the measure of his sin. But then it is rescued from such a pit of corruption. It passes through its baptism or circumcision. It, and all its fruits, go through a process of sanctification. Like a leprous house, it is cleansed by the dead and living birds, and thus as in resurrection, it is fit for the people who were in covenant with God; a risen inheritance becomes a risen people, and Canaan was thus a sample of the whole creation, which is now as dead in corruption, but to be raised in glory (Rom. 8)
The dispensation of the law then takes its course. But it was not God’s covenant. It was man’s covenant, because it took flesh and blood for its principle. It was flesh and blood, or the strength of the natural man, which is addressed or operated on, and thus it was man’s covenant, and not God’s. But it aided in the full conviction that man could get blessing from it.
God is then manifest in the flesh. The Son of God becomes incarnate. In His own person He stands untainted. He renders to God a beauteous offering of perfect human fruit. Flesh and blood in His person was the loveliest piece of creation God ever looked on. It was indeed a meat-offering, an unleavened sheaf out of the earth. But it must be set aside ere the head of the serpent can be bruised by this promised and precious seed of the woman. Not, however, set aside like flesh and blood in all beside as worthless, but set aside by a meritorious death, that by death this woman’s seed might destroy Him that had the power of death, the old serpent who had brought death. And such is the end of flesh and blood in the Son of God. And therefore, in it, we are not to know Him any more. We are to know even Christ Himself now as dead and risen (2 Cor. 5)., the Lord of a new creation, up to which He has won His way by fully meeting all the penalty which the old creation has incurred; and in which new creation we (by faith in His atonement and victory for sinners accomplished by His death) stand with Him, a dead and risen people, the true circumcision, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
And I cannot close without alluding to a blessed instance of the Lord retiring to thoughts of resurrection as His relief, when He looked on the end of flesh. I mean in His visit to Jerusalem. (See Mark 11.) He came down to Jerusalem. He looked on man then as of old He had looked on him in the days of Noah. But all was evil. And lie said of it, represented in the barren fig tree, “No fruit grow on thee henceforth forever.” And having pronounced this doom on flesh, even in Jerusalem, the most favored nursery of it, He went out to Bethany. And what was Bethany but the witness to resurrection? There Lazarus was, who had actually been raised; and there Mary was, who had the faith of the resurrection. So that Bethany was the same relief to the thoughts of Jesus now, as the Ark of gopher wood had been to His thoughts in the days of Noah.
And touching all this, faith is our duty. For faith takes us into God’s counsels about the covenant. Faith says, as God says, “the end of all flesh is come before me,” and resurrection, the Ark of gopher wood, becomes the believer’s object or resource, as it is God’s. It is the thing we look for, as it is the thing that the blessed God has promised. And thus faith takes us into God and His secret. Precious faith, we may well call it, that thus takes us up in spirit to that light in which the mind of God dwells, and in confidence to that work which God has accomplished.
And precious hope, which carries us beyond the present Ishmael blessings of nature, and gives us desire for the inheritance in resurrection according to God. Creation is but the avenue or ante-room. Without faith in resurrection “the power of God” is not known (Matt. 22:2929Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)), “knowledge of God” is not attained (1 Cor. 15:3434Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. (1 Corinthians 15:34)), for creation did not show God fully―but redemption, leading to resurrection, does.
But ere we leave this mystery of resurrection, I would look at the mind of the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 5, as connected with it.
There is, I believe, in the opening of that chapter, an allusion to the tabernacle and the temple, which were successively the dwelling-places of the Ark. The tabernacle conducted it through the wilderness, and it was a temporary thing, made of clothes and boards, all liable to be soiled and torn, and broken in their passage. The temple in due time received it in the land, and then it entered its abiding place, which nothing could move or injure. And this temple was just as costly to the eye as the tabernacle had been unattractive. The tabernacle had appeared but as a dirty badger skin house, for all the glory was then concealed, but the temple now appeared full of magnificence to every beholder. “See what manner of stones and what buildings are here.”
But withal, they both contained the very same ark. It was conveyed from one to another, as being the chief thing round which all else, be it unsightly or glorious, gathered. And so with us, as the Apostle here intimates. We have the earnest of the Spirit, we have life of God in us life from Jesus, the quickening Spirit, and the Holy Ghost Himself dwelling in us―and this is the great thing after all. This is as the alit to which all, whether tabernacle of temple, was but secondary. This is the present glorious tenant of our “vile body,” the earthly house of this tabernacle; by and bye to Is the glorious inmate of the “glorious body, the house of God not made with hands.” The same ark, the same Christ, the same Spirit. And by this God shows that He already owns us as decidedly or simply as ever He will. “He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.’ God has put His hand to us already; God has got His own interest or kingdom in us even now, just as God hath appropriated the tabernacle to Himself, unsightly as it was, as surely as He afterward did the beautiful temple.
And this is the simple joy of faith, that God has already laid His hand on us, and put His glory in us, so that it is His interest and His care to preserve us, according to which the Spirit given is “the earnest,” as He is here called.
And in passing through these verses, the apostle, I judge, glances at Adam as created. “Since that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked.” Adam was naked. His nakedness, it is true, expressing his unconsciousness or innocency, but expressing his exposure or liability also; for, being only a creature, he was open to the assaults of the enemy. But when the saints reach the house of God, then it will not be nakedness or exposure, but clothing and security. Then it will not be a mere creature, but a creature thus enclosed, as it were, in God’s own workmanship, he himself wrought by God for a house built by God. And being thus clothed, there will be no nakedness, no liabilities any more. It will not be Adam again. And from this our apostle seems to draw a great inference. In verse 16. he says, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh.” He had surveyed resurrection. He had looked in spirit at the temple in contrast with the tabernacle. The eternal house in contrast with the earthly house. He had owned God as the builder of that temple, and as the Giver of the Spirit to dwell in it forever. He had longed for the clothing of glory as something far beyond even the nakedness of innocency. And under the light and sense of all this, he now loses sight of flesh or old creation. He cannot return to it. He has seen “a glory that excelleth.” He has seen resurrection or new creation in Christ, the Son of God, outshining all the old thing as begun in earth and in flesh. He cannot look again at flesh; yea, Christ Himself in the flesh has been outshone by Christ in resurrection. Christ in flesh had been lovely, it is true, the loveliest piece of the old creation that had ever been presented. It had a glory―as the law had a glory―but like the glory of the law, that glory of Christ in the flesh was now outshone, and the Apostle had turned from it to the “more excellent” glory. Paul, as it were, could give up Christ in the flesh, when he got this view of resurrection.
And having taken before us this place, having shown himself in this attitude of soul, he shortly tells us the main character of this object that was now filling his vision, the feature of this new creation in the Son of God, which was now spread around him. That it was a grand system of reconciliation, devised and perfected by God Himself; by which, even now, the rebellious might enjoy in spirit a full return to God through Jesus, and walk before Him, not in the distance, and darkness, and death of their own condition in sin, but in the light and liberty, the assurance and joy of his own righteousness.
This was the present aspect of the new creation, by and bye to be perfected in that state of resurrection to which he had been before looking, and the light of which had, as we saw, led him to these present thoughts. And such will be our eternity, shining in the righteousness of God with glorious bodies; living, moving, and having our being, not in Adam or flesh, but in Christ, and in glory. And at last there will be “the new heavens and the new earth,” the former things will have passed away: even the kingdom will be given up, and “God will be all in all.”
He that sat upon the throne, said
“Behold I make all things new.”
 
1. Union with Christ is rather by the Holy Ghost. But faith is, of course, essential.