Henceforth Jacob is a withered man, bearing about in the body the marks of God's judgment. If God gets glory men bear no mark; the smell of fire passes not upon them where faith is.
In the place where God's judgment has been expressed nothing there can harm; no wound is felt when withered by God's touch. The fruit is for men to eat, the root for God to judge: but how blessed is he who knows not only that Another has borne the curse due to eating of the fruit of flesh! Yet did He ever bear fruit to God, doing nothing of Himself, but He nevertheless, to fulfill His Father's will, linked Himself with the chosen doomed to everlasting wrath because of sins, standing in their room and stead, answering to their name, going forth to meet the offended majesty of God. And be knows besides that He in willing grace surrendered step by step, as each requirement of God's will and purpose met His ear, till life's breath was yielded up, the fountain of His blood was laid bare by the Roman's spear; and thus in Him, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, has the direful, unchangeable, ineradicable root—sin in the flesh—been judged for them forever. Such is the cross of Christ to faith.
Fruit is first forbidden of the tree of good and evil knowledge; afterward” flesh with the life,” the blood, shall man not eat.
With man in innocence it is God's glory to be the trusted Judge of good and evil: man in willfulness restrained gives God the glory by counting life the Lord's, and not for self, but to be rendered up as forfeited to Him. Now a further thing is taught, that man's life is not only forfeited, but strengthless for God.
It was forfeited to God before, and man was responsible to recognize God's rights, the sign being that man should not eat flesh with the life thereof. Now God has claimed the strength of man in flesh, for, put to test, he proved unable in righteousness to use it. When God made man his brother's keeper, then man slew him. Therefore life is forfeited that grace may work. The God of glory now calls man in separation and life forfeited; how little learned this last lesson scripture shows, for scarcely had the horror of great darkness passed away, the smoking furnace and the burning lamp, than Abram leaves resting on the Most High God for an arm of, flesh (Gen. 15:8, 12, 17; 16:2-48And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? (Genesis 15:8)
12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. (Genesis 15:12)
17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. (Genesis 15:17)
2And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. 3And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. (Genesis 16:2‑4)), to be His servant in His sanctuary. (Acts 7:77And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. (Acts 7:7))
As it was no given law that Cain should be his brother's keeper, so to be Jehovah's servant in His sanctuary is no law, but according to man's conscience. (Compare Acts 7:77And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. (Acts 7:7) and Gen. 28:21, 2221So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: 22And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. (Genesis 28:21‑22).) This task Jacob undertook in self-strength, and utterly had he failed. God's hand of judgment searches out the spring of mischief, and He finds it in the secret place of Jacob's strength. Thenceforth this is withered. Man eats not of it; urged by his conscience it is set apart for God. The sight of Jacob, from whose loins the twelve tribes of Israel sprang, halting on his thigh, speaks too plainly to be unheeded. So men own the form, but quite deny the power, of the truth, “for the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh.... because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.” The counterpart to this we find in Christendom, in the setting apart of the form of the cross to religious use, but utterly denying the truth of it.
What is the blessed contrast to all this? A man crucified with Christ! Who hung there? Not I, but Christ. He hung upon the tree—the sign of curse, the brand of shame, the mark of perfect evil judged in righteousness—unmingled wrath thoroughly emptied out. The marks of a paid price by which He got right to be Lord of all—by inheritance a more excellent name; in divine title the most excellent. Still, as Son of man He buys Lordship with His blood shed on the cross; and to this the marks of Jesus witness—marks made by the princes of this world, when by the hands of lawless men they crucified and slew Him; but marks, the proof of victory, of the armed strong man overcome, of principalities and powers spoiled—marks that prove Him Lord of living and dead—marks of death and resurrection seen in ascended glory, in the midst of the throne; to be displayed in millennial grace, so that faith which sees shall mourn as though for an only son; and unbelief shall wail because of Him, while enemies are consumed and trampled down, and those who rose against Him made to bow.
What glory to be crucified with Christ! But know that in this cross it was that He became a curse; and the scandal of the cross has not been done away, and brings a curse, a shame, a mock, from those who trust in flesh and persecute because of it. We who glory in the cross may get wounds from men on earth, but before God we bear the brands of Jesus. None can trouble. The withering touch of God's eternal judgment fell on Christ, God gets glory, and the brand to us is one of glory only: no mark of shame, failure, or weakness, of life in flesh forfeited and strengthless, but of life and power, liberty and glory, in the quickening transforming Spirit.
Jacob had a shrunken sinew, for he walked according to flesh, and was blessed there; Paul, the brands of Jesus, walking in the Spirit, and blessed there, for God is glorified in life offered up, and strength in flesh set apart in strengthlessness.
Still the earthen vessel, but the power of God, bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that now and ever the life of Jesus may be manifested in the body; truly also delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that Jesus' life may now be manifested in mortal flesh—blessed, not in flesh, but in spirit. He is, it may be, in endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, straits, stripes, prisons, riots, labors, watchings fastings; but is in the Holy Spirit, the power of God, always rejoicing, enriching many, possessing all things. Thus should he be walking, in flesh truly, but not according to flesh; warring according to God, leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ.