(Concluded from page 86)
Paul knew that God had wrought him (and he speaks of it as to all Christians, as their common faith) for glory, and did not wish to die (he unclothed) as if weary, but that mortality should be swallowed up in life. Christians have Christ as their life, as they have Him as their righteousness, and this being so, as to death itself (2 Cor. 5:66Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (2 Corinthians 5:6)), they are always confident, knowing that whilst they are at home in the body, they are absent from the Lord: Life, eternal life, in Christ they have, but here it lives absent from the Lord, in the earthen vessel; when it leaves the poor earthen vessel which makes it groan being burdened, it will be present with the Lord. Is that better or worse? and where is He? Is it (though it has already the Holy Ghost as the power of life) the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, going to sleep and knowing nothing? Is that the confidence he had, who saw such a power in this life in Christ, that he was not, as his object, looking to die, but mortality to be swallowed up by it; yet when it lost the tabernacle which made it groan, it was not capable of anything but helpless sleep? And remember, Christ is our life; because He lives, we live. Have we lost our connection with Him when we die? Does He sleep in us?
Again (Phil. 1), Paul was in a strait betwixt two, to depart and be with Christ, which was far better, dying—mark what he was speaking of—gain, though living was Christ. That is, he, having the blessed joy of knowing Christ was his life, and living entirely for Him, so that it was worth his while to stay, yet found it far better, gain, to go to sleep and know nothing of Christ or anything else! not having a thought of Christ or possibility of serving Him, his desire, as to his own joy, was to go to sleep and know nothing of Christ at all! Is it not perfectly evident, that when he speaks of being with Christ, and of its being far better than serving Him here, though that was worth while, he speaks of the joy of being there? Who would think, if I spoke of the satisfaction and gain of going to somebody and being with him, I meant I was going to be fast asleep and not know I was there?
But we have more. The Lord declares to the thief, who alone of all men, in that memorable hour confessed Him, that he should be with Him that day in Paradise. Was it not happiness He promised him, being with Christ and in Paradise? Does that mean that he should be fast asleep and know nothing? I ask if it be not supremely ridiculous and flying in the face of the very point of Christ’s words. The statement occurs in Luke, who, all through his Gospel, after the first two chapters, which are consecrated to the poor pious remnant who waited for Christ, and gave a most lovely picture of them—God’s hidden ones in the midst of rebellious and unbelieving Israel—after these chapters, I say, the Evangelist gives the testimony of divine grace in the Son of man and the present state. He proceeds with the genealogy of Christ up to Adam, and then unfolds all through his Gospel, the grace that in the Son of man blesses man, and blesses him now and in a heavenly way. It is not dispensational like Matthew, but grace, and present grace, and heavenly grace by the gospel, the present state of things. It answers, as far as it goes, to the testimony of Paul and the Acts.
Now the poor thief, while a most bright and eminent instance of the power of grace and faith, confessing Christ as Lord, when everything contradicted it, naturally did not go in knowledge beyond his countrymen. He was sure that He who hung upon the cross would come in (not, into) His kingdom, and prayed that Christ might remember him then, in blessed confidence in Him. The Lord’s answer was, according to the whole tenor of the Gospel, You shall not wait for that. I bring salvation by grace: to-day, this selfsame day, you shall be with Me in Paradise—the fit companion of Christ in blessedness.
This, then, is the portion of the departed saint, to be with Christ in blessedness, absent from the body and present with the Lord. I am aware of the miserable subterfuge, by which it is attempted to read it: “Verily I say unto you this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” It not only destroys the whole characteristic point of the passage, according to the tenor of the Gospel it is found in, but it perverts the order of the passage, as it destroys its sense. “To-day” is at the beginning of the phrase to give it emphasis in answer to “when Thou comest.” There is the solemn assertion, “Verily I say unto thee.” To add “to-day” to this is simply puerile, destroying withal the allusion to the request of the thief, which only hopes to be remembered when Christ should come in His kingdom. “No,” says the Lord, with the solemn “Verily” which He used, “you shall not wait till then; this day you shall be with Me.”
What is the sense of “Verily I say unto thee this day”? It only destroys the solemnity of the assertion, but, “Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise,” more than fulfilled the hopes of the thief, and revealed to us other than earthly joys, when we leave this world to depart and to be with Christ. The wickedness of the Jews as an instrument, fulfilled the promise in breaking his legs, as it did that in which the work of redemption was accomplished, which gave the poor thief a title to be there.
Such too was the expectation of Stephen, when death arrested his course here. He saw Christ and looked to Him to receive his spirit. Did He receive it? And was it only to put an end to his service and joy alike, and put him to sleep?
The intermediate state then is not glory, for that we must wait for the body. It is “raised in glory”; “He shall change our vile bodies and fashion them like his glorious body.” But it is blessedness where no unholy evil is. It is being with Christ Himself, the source of joy ineffable. The hopes and “always confident” of Paul, of Stephen, were not disappointed, nor did the assurance given by the Lord to the thief, fail of fulfillment. I ask if the bright hopes spoken of in 2 Cor. 5, Phil. 1, in Acts 7, and the Lord’s words to the thief, for any honest mind, can mean going fast asleep and knowing nothing? When the Lord described the state of the rich man and Lazarus, did it mean that either the wicked or the just were asleep and knowing nothing? I shall be told it is a figurative description. I admit it fully; but it is not a false one, and it is not a figure of men going to sleep and knowing nothing.
But further, if 2 Cor. 5:6-86Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6‑8), means being happy with Christ, it means being happy with Him when we die. Death is the subject spoken of, for the apostle had despaired of life (2 Cor. 1), and “Absent from the body and present with the Lord” is not resurrection; it means leaving the body, not taking it. “Departing and being with Christ”. is not His coming and raising or changing us to be in glory. The apostle is speaking there again of death, remaining here or leaving the world. It was “dying” which was gain (Phil. 1:2121For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)). Life and death are in distinct contrast in ver. 20, and then ἀναλύω is used for dying (ver. 23), as is ἀνάλυσις in 2 Tim. 4:66For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. (2 Timothy 4:6). The attempt to apply ἀνάλύω or ἀνάλυσις to Christ’s return because it is used for breaking up from or leaving a festival, is a poor conceit, contradicting the express statements of the passage. The word means “disuniting or destroying what is united,” and so is used for “death.” Neither Philippians nor 2 Tim. 4 leave a trace of doubt in the matter. The effort to pervert Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43), and Phil. 1:20-2320According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:20‑23), is only a proof that the force of the passage cannot be got over, and the character of the effort to set them aside betrays itself.
How a spirit enjoys Christ we cannot tell as to the manner of it, but there is no difficulty whatever. My spirit enjoys Christ now in spite of the hindrance of the poor earthen vessel it is in, and though now we see Him not, yet we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is not my body which enjoys Him now, but my soul spiritually with the hindrance of the earthen vessel, and absent from Him; then, without the hindrance of the earthen vessel, and present with Him. The believer may rest perfectly assured that departing from the body, he will be present with the Lord, and if His presence is joy to him, that joy will be his. No one would be more anxious to press the Lord’s coming and our waiting for Him, and the importance of the resurrection. I would urge it, as I have urged it, on the saints, and indeed upon all in its due place: but not to weaken that all live to God, even if they are spirits in prison, nor the excellent joy and blessedness of being with Christ when we depart, that to die is gain. It has justly cheered and shed heavenly light on many a dying bed, and yet will, if the Lord tarry; and the scripture is as plain as to the happiness of the saint on his departure, as to his being with Christ, far better as to joy, than the most successful service here, as it is that Christ will come and take all His saints to be with Him forever in glory, like Himself, though the latter is the full and filial state of eternal blessedness, when the marriage of the Lamb withal shall have come, when we shall be forever with the Lord.
J. N. D.