The thief was taken to paradise with Christ straight from the cross, paying indeed the penalty of his sinfulness to man, but the blessed Lord had borne his sins, and put them away out of God's sight; yet in general we [instead of being taken away forthwith as he] are left to pass through the wilderness, and to manifest the life of Christ—be the epistle of Christ down here.
Now, as this new life is a holy life in its nature, so it has its objects—the sphere in which it lifts. They that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit; and He takes the things of Christ, and shows them to us. Now we are united to Christ in glory, one spirit as joined to Him, sitting in Him in heavenly places, and predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, that He may be the first-born among many brethren. We look to have our vile body fashioned like His glorious body. He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; as is the Heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly. In our bodies we belong to the old, we have our treasure in earthen vessels. But we are entitled to hold ourselves for dead, crucified with Christ. If Christ be in us, the body is dead because of sin; and Christ being in us as our life, nothing can satisfy the desires of this new life but full conformity to Him in glory, who is its source and power.
The turning of the heart, then, towards this full conformity as the one object of holy pursuit and progress, is clearly pointed out in scripture. First; I will quote Col. 3, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Now this affection is the very essence of sanctification, as is evident, and we must not suppose that we, have not these things revealed to us. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But we have received not the spirit which is of the world, but that which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. So Paul, declaring his own walk, and what became Christians, says, “Be ye followers of me.... for our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Savior, who shall change our vile body and fashion it like his glorious body.”
But more precisely, as connected with sanctification, the Lord says, in praying the Father for them, “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” And then, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth. He sets Himself apart as the Man in glory to whom we are to be conformed, the Son of Gods in whom the whole truth, according to God's mind as to man in His purpose, is accomplished, that it may be brought, in living truth and power, by the Holy Ghost, and wrought in us. Which thing, says the apostle, is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing, and the true light now shineth.
Conformity to Him in glory is the grand result. He is there in it; and the Holy Ghost, taking the things of Christ there, forms us morally into His likeness. Such is God's way. Let us take other passages which, while they show this, show the completing of it in God's measure at His coming. In 1 John 3 we have, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself as He is pure.” Now the first thing we have to notice here is the blessed truth, how thoroughly we are associated in the mind and word of God with the blessed Lord all through. The world does not know us, because it did not know Him. We children; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. This is the sure hope before us, according to God's purpose, and we know it will be accomplished.
What it is has not yet appeared, but we are so identified with Christ, that this we know, that we shall be perfectly like Him, conformed to the image of God's Son. And now see the present and sanctifying effect. He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. The sure certainty of being like Him gives the measure and character of our hearts' desires and affections, and we purify ourselves as He is pure. Sanctification, in its development, is the removal of everything, thought, or motive unsuited to that in which Christ is revealed to us as man in glory, and the realization in our minds of that which is revealed. In this there is growth. So we read in 2 Cor. 3:18. The veil being taken off the glory of the Lord: We with open [unveiled] face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. This is the same truth; beholding in spirit the glory of Christ, the exalted Man, we become continually more like Him.
Another remarkable passage is in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13, as showing when and where the great result is brought out and manifested. “The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, as we do toward you, to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” Now this connects, in a most remarkable manner, present holiness in the saints and the appearing of the Lord. The apostle looks to their present state, but draws the veil, and shows it in its full manifested character when Christ appears; so that, if we do not know how to connect these two things, the sentence becomes unintelligible. Present holiness, in its nature and character, is what is manifested in us when Christ appears. So we are told that ministry is that we may grow up to Him who is the Head in all things, and the apostle labored to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And our walk is to be worthy of God, who has called us to His own kingdom and glory. How high and holy is this calling! what a character it gives to the saints! what an association in heart and spirit with a glorified Christ on high!
Our conversation, our living associations, are there, and we wait for Him just to change our vile body, and all will be suited and in order.
We have, as a rule, to pass through the world; but the holiness introduced into it is that which is above, suited to the expression in motives and thoughts of what that glorified Man is, who is the object of our affections, who has sanctified Himself, that we may be sanctified through the truth. We are an epistle of Christ here. If God chastises us, it is that we may be partakers of His holiness. We are completely associated with the Second and glorified Man, who is not ashamed to call us brethren. Our holiness is wrought out in our lives down here; but it is formed up there in fellowship with Himself, where our affections and minds get into the state to be manifested down here. There is in that a bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus, that His life may be manifested in our mortal bodies; but the whole positive side of forming and progress is in realizing what He is, separated from sinners, up there, the positive blessedness of the perfected Man.
This produces what He was down here, the perfect man down here, and this is what the perfect man [literally, full-grown] means in the New Testament: heirs morally, one who not only knows the forgiveness we need as regards the sins of the old man, but has learned his place and character in the new—has the positive side in Christ. But how blessed is this full association with Christ, the Man of God's purpose, who is according to His heart, and which by the Spirit brings us to know and enjoy Him where He is, and become continually more like Him, to whom we are to be perfectly like when with Him in glory!
May the Lord only give us diligence of heart in seeking it. To be in the holiest, where God is, and to know what holiness is there, and to find Christ there in glory, and to know God's thought and purpose as to man, and to know that we shall be formed in glory like Him, sons in the Father's house—what infinite joy!—and to know it is our portion, as scripture teaches, and that He is not ashamed to call us brethren, in what was ordained before the world for our glory. God, even if it be by chastening, makes us partakers of His holiness, and the Son the pattern of our glory, ourselves brought into fellowship with Him according to Eph. 1:4, 5. Such is the joy and hope of God's children.
(Concluded from page 327)
J. N. D.