We need to be taught of God what this “man in Christ” means. If we speak of a person being in the flesh—a man in grace, or a man in the Spirit, we mean his state, or position, which characterizes him before God. A man “in Christ” does not mean what he is in himself. It is the condition of every child of God “in Christ.” This chapter in what follows shows us much of what flesh is, but in his state “in Christ” flesh had nothing to do with it. The body had nothing to do with it. Paul could not understand it of himself; he says, “I know a man in Christ; whether in the body I cannot tell,” &c.—not what he was as a man down here.
It is the position of a believer contrasted with that of an unbeliever. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” This characterizes him, and the value and import of it are unfolded in that passage. And again, “Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.” It is quite evident it has nothing to do with anything he has out of Christ. Whatever; he was before, he was in flesh; now be is in Christ, and all is measured by Christ; he has got his place in the Second Adam, and not in the first. It will show itself in its practical ways, but this refers to his standing.
I desire to show, first, the force and bearing of this—a man being “in Christ.” So long as Christ was in the world, nobody could say a “man in Christ.” “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” God's grace was working from Adam downwards; but to know what it is to be in Christ, we must know what the Christ is. Why should God have peace and blessing for a man in Christ? Because there was nothing for him anywhere else. There would be judgment for his sin, but no life or righteousness, or power, not one thing that he needs before God, could he have without being in Christ. There is plenty of wickedness, pride, &c., creature work of our own, but nothing that can go up to God. We may clothe ourselves in our own eyes, but Adam was naked before God when he clothed himself. There may be bright qualities, intellect, &c., but who is clothed in them? The man, he prides himself in it. But there may be good qualities in any animal. There is a difference between these and those; some vicious, &c., or the reverse. The intellect of man and his wonderful faculties are not the question; but what do they turn to? Pride, title to be something; man clothing himself in his pride. Is this the way to heaven? God says “there is none righteous, no, not one.” Does the man believe it who thinks to go to heaven that way? No; he has nothing else but filthy rags. When the voice of God is not there, the fig leaves may do very well for him; but when God comes in, they will not do before Him. God afterward clothed Adam, but then death had come in. When man clothes himself, it only brings out his shame; when God clothes him, he is fit for God—he has “put on Christ.” There is no desire in the natural man to be with God; man has no desire to go to God. Conscience drives a man away from God, and his heart keeps him away. Any honest unconverted man would own he has no pleasure in Christ. It is thoroughly brought out that the carnal mind is enmity against God. The man out of Christ is either a gross outward sinner, such as the publican, or the respectable hardhearted man who has no sympathy in the reception of a sinner. Christ comes, and God occupies Himself with these sinners. See how they treat Him! Knowing all the sin, all the hatred of their hearts, breaking of the law, and a thousand other sins, He came for this very reason; He came to seek sinners. The grace of God who is love has risen above all that man is. If man feels what he is before God, he gets into despair.
You do not trust every one who comes to you, because you know you are sinners. God knows all about you: Christ came because you are, wicked. If this suits you, this is the God you have in Christ. If it does not suit you, there is judgment for you.
But in Christ God is above all the sin, and because it is what it is He sends Christ. What man means by God's goodness is indifference to sin. God never in grace alters His holiness. Before a man could be in Christ, the whole work was needed to be done. He made Him to be “sin for us.” The first thing is Christ made sin, and then grace reigns through righteousness. Christ was entirely alone to drink that bitter cup, and then God could not only save the sinner but glorify Himself about the sin. God would glorify Christ in Himself. When Christ was made sin, God was perfectly glorified. There was perfect righteousness against the sin, but love in bearing it. He is gone up to the throne of God as a man. Now there is a Christ to be in, righteousness accomplished, &c. The whole thing is done, and perfect; the Holy Ghost is sent down to bear witness that God has accepted this Man and His work. Righteousness is glorified in the presence of God. As a Christian, I am a man not in the flesh but in Christ. The whole work is done that fits Him to sit on the right hand of God. He has glorified God, and God has glorified Him in Himself. But before I can have a man in Christ, I must have a Christ to be in there on the throne of God; and this after redemption is effected.
Directly I take knowledge of what Christ has done for me, applied by the Spirit, I am a man in Christ. It is not given to every one to have special manifestations as Paul had. Paul saw more of what it was to be there by what he saw here.
Now we see what the flesh is in connection with this. In the beginning of the chapter we see what the highest was to which a man could be taken. The thief might go into paradise the same as Paul, but it was a wonderful thing for a man down here to have these revelations; but in the end of the chapter we see what the flesh is capable of. Nature cannot go into heaven. If God is pleased to take him up there, there is no consciousness of being in the body at all. “A man in Christ,” “of such an one will I glory.” There is the glorying of a Christian. How many an one would say, You must not glory thus; but Paul says, I will glory in it. There is a man dead! No, he is not dead, he is alive in Christ, as a man out of himself in Christ. He will glory in this. You could not help glorying if you really believed it. It is not thankful not to glory in it. You may not apprehend all about it; but it you believe it, you will glory in it. If Paul had gone up to a fourth heaven, there would have been all the more need for the thorn, or be would have gloried in that. The danger was not when he had the apprehension of the presence of God; it was when out of His presence he began to be thinking of it.
The revelation was not a source of strength. He needed something else. Whenever he preached he had something to make him humble—something to keep the flesh down (the thorn, not sin, but something to make nothing of him, breaking down the pride of man). He was humbled because in danger of not being humble. There was strength for him. If he preached in a despicable manner, but souls were converted, as they were, how was this? If this is the way of getting blessing, it was not Paul's power, but Christ's power: then let me have the thorn, he says, Thus, we have the danger of the flesh dealt with in humbling him in the presence of man, breaking down in the very thing that would puff itself up; and Satan who would puff up is obliged to be an instrument to break it down. Now I have the power of Christ in the man, not only a “man in Christ.” While in this world I want something to carry me through and to protect me from being cheated—something for the conflict I am in, that is, the power of Christ, as well as being in the Christ. There was something there to keep the nature down that would have gloried, and besides this, it was the occasion of bringing in Christ. In Christ there is always something to glory in. Do not believe that the saint is not entitled to enjoy all the advantages he has in Christ. All the hindrance, all the wretchedness, made him glory more in Christ. He says, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities,” &c.
At the end of the chapter we see what the flesh left to itself, even in a Christian, is. See what it is—flesh in its fairest forms, its capacities, &c., all a hindrance. We may only glory as to the old man in its being dead— “reckon yourselves to be dead,” &c. We may rejoice in finding the flesh good for nothing. What man is in flesh, and flesh in a man, is all bad. God says, I will visit you by My word and Spirit, and then bring you to where I am. The sins are forgiven. But the sin is not gone, you say. But “sin in the flesh” has been condemned. Christ has died for it and I am clear, justified from it. I have got out of this condition thus condemned. If you have got into the third heaven, you may know that all the flesh could do would be to make you proud of it. A man in the flesh cannot please God, and the flesh in man cannot please God. If you were in a fourth heaven, it would be just the same. Sinful flesh has been condemned. Then I, a Christian, can say, I am dead and I am in Christ, the man at the right hand of God. Whether an apostle or the simplest saint that ever was, I need the power of Christ in the man.
The Lord give us to judge flesh, and all the scene around that ministers to it.
We are apt to make a mistake in speaking of our weakness and unprofitableness, forgetting that it is, when we have done our duty, we are unprofitable servants. When we speak of it, we mean our failure; and so, when we speak of our weakness of spirituality or conduct, we mean failure. But when Paul speaks of weakness, it is that which makes room for power (“when I am weak, then am I strong”); and the result fully produced is with the consciousness of there being no strength in us. This is a very different thing from our failure. Our failure ought to lead us to humble ourselves before God for that which led to the failure. If we have not done what we ought, why have not we? We cannot glory in not having done it. There is a strength that the babe in Christ may have and needs—power guided by wisdom, and this does not fail. When we have not been emptied of self and are full of self-confidence, we must be broken down. Pretension to strength is always in the way for failure. The first step towards failure is for getting our entire and absolute dependence. As Christians we know we have no strength, but we forget we have none.
This chapter brings out in a remarkable way the dealings of God in giving strength. There is a wonderful scene going on in the heart of man. God does not let us always see it—it would not be good for us: we could not bear it. Sometimes the veil is drawn aside, and as in the case of Job, the heart is exposed to itself—God and Satan there. It is a serious thing when God thus lifts the veil and shows what is going on for good and evil in a poor little heart like ours!
“God hath set the world in their hearts;” and if it ends there, it is all vanity and vexation of spirit.
Another question, as a moral question, is the will of man. When will is not at work and sorrow comes in, it is the happiest portion.
The first who begins that question is God. It is a question of Satan's power, man's will, and God's goodness in the midst of all that.
You have the conscience of evil in your hearts, and the evil is too much for you. You do not know what to do with it. The conscience of good and evil has come in by the fall. Adam had the conscience of good and evil with sin and by sin. He had it by disobedience. Conscience therefore cannot guide a mar right. The converted man has the light of God to bear upon it. This shows man what he is. The son has to own its badness and say, God is right. I go with Him morally in condemning myself. God show man to be vile as to nature, rebellious as to will, anal hateful towards God as to his affections; and it is blessing when He shows it to us, but it is not deliveracte. This is another thing. The glory of God's ways is that He puts us down completely as to ourselves, by the fact that our salvation is wrought on by Another, when I had done nothing but sin. I find God has condemned sin in the flesh. Where? In Christ. I see my sin all measured and dealt with on the cross.
As the beginning of the chapter showed us what a man in Christ gets—revelations, &c. (if we do not have them now, we shall by and by); so afterward we see what flesh in a man is, what it may come to—debates, envyings, wraths, &c. These are the extremes of both—revelations in the third heaven, and flesh in its worst character. Most Christians are in neither one nor the other state practically.
Paul says, “I know a man in Christ. . . Of such an one will I glory.” That is what all Christians should have got hold of. If you are not a man in Christ before God, you are lost; it is presumption to think of being anything else. Can I know that I am going to be like Christ in glory and not glory in it? We must glory. Paul was not glorying in the revelations when he was in them—he had no time then to glory; but he gloried in what was his portion—Christ his life, righteousness, glory, &c. Paul speaks of those revelations as fourteen years ago. It is not intended that we should be always living in the wonderful enjoyments connected with the glory of Christ. If we were it would be sight not faith. There was no danger of being puffed up when in the third heaven, it was when he came down to Paul again there was the danger; not while in the presence of God.
By and in Christ I learn now another thing—that it is not God's thought at all to alter my flesh, my old nature; the tree is bad. The flesh can be puffed up in Paul by the consciousness of having been in the third heaven.
There is no good in me. I am a sinner—more than being under the curse of a broken law. Where I am, where my flesh is, I should pervert even the third heavens. (Ver. 7.) God turns that by which Satan would have tempted one into a rod to keep down his pride. We are not told what the thorn was, but it was something that made Paul despicable in preaching (alluded to in Galatians) to meet the pride that would come from the revelation. Numbers were converted, not by Paul's eloquence, but by the Lord's power. Their faith was not to stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. There was Christ for the man upon earth. You must be brought down to nothing, having no strength in yourselves. The flesh was not allowed to act in Paul, a thorn was sent lest, &c. Such is the normal condition of a soul—power given not to sin. If the heart is exercised in dependence, we judge the root of the evil, and it does not come out. Our business is to learn the evil in my character by judging it and not by its coming out. If I have a proud character and am humbled before God about my pride, I go out, and am more humble than a very bumble man by nature. There is not a bad conscience by the flesh being in me, but I have if I allow it to act. The thorn is sent to prevent it.
Before we come to power, the question of righteousness has been settled by Christ being at the right hand of God; it is a settled thing. It is practically learned when I am saved; then I have a title to the third heaven; and strength is made perfect in weakness. The Lord never gives us intrinsic strength, He makes us feel our dependence. I am made to feel my weakness when I see how my flesh would even pervert the blessings that are mine in Christ Therefore will I rather glory in infirmities (not sin, but infirmities—e.g., distresses, persecutions, &c.) The Spirit kept him from that which would have given him a bad conscience.
Rev. 6 is complete in itself, the state of the sphere of which it speaks being gone through (with the question of full judgment, which was not yet come, raised) till the whole scene is broken up, so that people thought the full judgment was come. It is a preliminary scene. We could not have the beast, for this is definitely formed in its day and final judgment comes on it: it was for its time. The saints under the altar had to wait.