Once we have learned that the old man is "corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," deliverance is the greatest relief; and the relief is always in proportion to the sense of pressure. There is sowing in tears, deep distress when one cries out, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" It is in answer to this that deliverance is first learned—"I thank God through Jesus Christ." If the distress was great, the relief is accordingly great.
But the deliverance is not only learned once and forever, it has to be continued, practically, every day. There is the continued need of deliverance. "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." As I appropriate His death, as I reckon myself to be dead unto sin, I eat the bread of affliction indeed; I am alive unto God in Jesus Christ. I am free. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." No one abides in practical deliverance who does not value it. There is no conscious relief when there is no pressure; and hence, when it is a relief, there cannot be continuance in that from which I am relieved. I have sown in tears, I have been sore distressed because of oppression, but I now reap in joy. I am in the blessedness of relief.
It is thus very evident that as the Spirit leads a soul to any and every gain in Christ, His first action is to "mortify," that is, He does not suffer that in me to remain which would counteract His work. The removal is death to him, but I am more than requited by the gain.
It is evident that one is not justified until he is, by faith, resting on Christ risen, believing in his heart that God hath raised Him from the dead. And now being justified by faith, he is as clear of all that was against him as Christ is—the new history begins. But as there had been a sowing in tears up to this before reaping in joy, so now there must be a practical deliverance from the flesh (dead to sin and the world) a deliverance which must be kept up, so that the flesh ever suffers. It is a great day when one has learned that the man under the judgment of God (the wages of sin) has been judged in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that it is my great privilege to say, "I am crucified with Christ." I am delivered from myself, and Christ lives in me. It is an immense relief when I have learned that by being dead with Christ I am dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus; but though it is a very great gain to have learned it, yet, as I have said, it is not once and forever, but having learned it, you are to continue in it. The Corinthians had the Spirit, and the Galatians had the Spirit, but they did not continue in practical deliverance; they did not walk in the Spirit. They were not "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."
When Christ obtains His rightful place in the heart, then Ishmael must go out. It was grievous to Abraham (Gen. 21:1111And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. (Genesis 21:11)). It is grievous to man naturally, but the joy of the Lord is our strength. Now this opens up to us in the daily history. In the Old Testament the discipline occurs when the blessing is reached. That which would mar the blessing is then by discipline removed, so that the blessing may be unalloyed; while with us there is first, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." And then there follows by the hand of God the discipline to help us: "We which live are alway delivered unto death." As to principle, we must suffer before we reign. Now in every increase of the Spirit's work in us, there is, by His power, a corresponding abnegation of the flesh; that is, that I conscientiously deny myself where, at one time, without any reproach of conscience, I gratified myself. The liberty of the Spirit is better than the gratification of the flesh, so that even what was gain to me, I now count loss for Christ. And under the discipline of God I am confirmed in the step to which I have been led by the Holy Spirit. "We which live are always delivered unto death." The Spirit arms me with the death of Christ in order to deliver me from that which would naturally fascinate me. I suffer in the flesh as I hear about the dying of Jesus, while God, in addition, to help me, rolls in death in such a way that I am set free from the temptation; the snare is broken and I am delivered. Jacob had broken from the false gods which Rachel countenanced before Rachel was taken away.
In a more general way, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so does our consolation by Christ. It is in the presence of our enemies that the table is prepared (Psalm 23); that is, that where there was suffering or reproach for Christ, the promise is that there, and connected with it, there should be a distinct mark of favor. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you"-as Paul and Silas at Philippi, or Stephen before he was stoned.
I trust that my reader will appreciate the manner and order of God's way with him individually.
First, as he is led by the Spirit; that is, as his conscience is enlightened and as he accepts the Word in faith, so does the Spirit expose the flesh in him which would interfere; and as he is delivered from this, as being dead with Christ, so is he established by a discipline which annuls it, as the stone before the wheel. So that with every divine acquisition there is a sowing in tears before there is a reaping in joy. Job passes through a great ordeal before he learns himself, and then his captivity is turned, and the favor of God abounds to him. David at Ziklag was reduced to the lowest point, when he had no resource but to encourage himself in the Lord his God (1 Sam. 30:66And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:6)).
I must add a little respecting how the servant is subjected to this mode of preparation in a peculiar and an enlarged way. Though the servant be enlisted and ordained for service before he knows anything of it, yet his service in public is only genuine as it is a transcript of his exercise or drill in private as only known to himself. The Lord subjects him to trials and sorrows in order that he may be able to comfort others as he was comforted of God. No servant is competent or effective in imparting to others but as he has been taught of God, and has been formed in His school to be an exponent practically of the truth he would impart.
Noah was the true preacher, for his work corroborated what he announced. Moses was forty years in the wilderness before he was sent to conduct Israel through it into the land. Joshua, after being in the land, and seeing the greatness of it, had to tarry in the wilderness forty years before he conducted Israel into it. I need not add how the prophets, even as to bodily sufferings, were prepared for the service to which God had called them. It is remarkably exemplified in both Paul and John. Paul was reduced in person before he was qualified for his chief service. John was an exile in Patmos when he wrote the Revelation; the natural brightness wanes and disappears before he is conducted by the Spirit to a full survey according to God of the things here in this scene of desolation and opposition, and of the glory of Christ, and of the bride. He sowed in tears, but he reaped in joy. Little anyone can apprehend, but as he is in it, the nature of the joy which the Lord vouchsafes to the one suffering in any measure for Him. As the real nature of things here is disclosed to him personally, so is he conducted into the real nature of the things in God's presence, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. The one continued and ever increasing comfort, "I was brought low, and He helped me."