Where do I find the Christian in Ephesians?
Not going a journey at all; he is sitting down; and where? “In heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” That is what I am doing now; I am sitting in heaven, settled there. And, Christ being Heir of “all things,” the inheritance is not heaven. The inheritance of Ephesians is different from that in Peter; it is all that Christ possesses, and therefore earth comes in. The inheritance of “all things'' is the heavenly man's hope; but heaven is his home, his position. In Peter, heaven is his hope: he is going towards heaven as his home, and towards his inheritance which is in heaven. There I get a very different condition.
Both these things are true of the same person—both are true of the Christian. It is good to have the trial of faith, it supposes faith to be there; it is good to sit down with Christ where no trial is, and it is good to come down into trial. But these are different conditions. The place of Christ on the mount, when with Moses and Elias (Luke 9), was different in the midst of the excellent glory from that in which He stood when he came down from the mount, and had to meet the crowd, and then cast out the demon. My true position as a heavenly man is to sit in heavenly places in Christ; but on the other hand, as begotten to a new hope by the resurrection of Christ, it is simply going through the world, but it is through the world that I am going. Here I am, a new creature, quickened and raised up with Christ; and what a world am I in! So with regard to Christ's coming; if walking on earth, I am waiting for Christ, the hope of the coming of Christ, and His appearing to set things right here; but if sitting in heaven, I am there in Christ, and wait to be there with Christ actually, and there enjoy Christ fully. The Lord's coming is not spoken of in the Ephesians; the saints are viewed as sitting in heavenly places.
I get these two elements of a Christian's position; and in one sense I do not call one more important than the other. I may look at the Christian at the springhead of peace, in full enjoyment of heavenly places, and in settled peace with God, and fighting for Him in conflict with Satan. But I cannot have him fighting for God in Canaan till I get him into Canaan; I may have him in Egypt under the enemy's power, but that is not conflict with him. He needs redemption by God. But this places him in the wilderness, a second element of his Christian life.
A person acting under the consciousness, and in terror, of Satan's power, fearing he may be lost if left there, is sometimes more in earnest than when he has got peace; but I do not trust this energy. He has not learned what the flesh is, though he may have learned what Satan's tyranny is. It is when he has to say to God that he will find out what the flesh is. A man will always go fast enough if he finds Satan behind him. The Israelites traveled faster when Pharaoh was at their back, than they did afterward in their stages in the wilderness. There was no. murmuring because of the way when Pharaoh was behind them; but then it was afterward, in the wilderness, that they were put to the test. Then came the question, Is Christ sufficient, or is the manna “light food?” If a man is not spiritual, he must get something to satisfy his craving. All this is put to the test; put to the test, not when a man is flying from Pharaoh, but when he is walking with God.
And there comes in the mediation of Christ. In this wilderness state I get Christ between me and God— “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;” but this is not union with Christ: I am looked at in myself; we get individualized. A man may be floundering about, through not having his eye simply fixed on Christ, not knowing how to get to the end; but he finds a thread let down from heaven to bring him to the place exactly where he ought to be, while he is only thinking of the mud, or judging himself for not having valued Christ enough. There are a thousand thoughts and feelings and affections brought out, and into play, as the result of our having resurrection-life. We get the constant loving care and tenderness of Christ brought home to the soul; and there is a necessary character of intercourse with Christ which heaven itself will not give.
This is one part of a Christian. He is a pilgrim and a stranger in the power of resurrection-life, with the mediation of Christ carried on, not to procure for him life, but to maintain him in intercourse and communion with God in the light on the footing of what Christ is there. On the footing of that, himself imperfect, he is maintained in intercourse with a perfect God. Everything that the heart of man can be exercised about is met by the fullness of God through the mediation of Him who is both God and man.
The other thing is this (where there is no question or trial at all), the Christian sitting in heavenly places. And there, let me say, it is not yet the church, though in touching on it we touch the church's position. As resurrection-life did not take a man into heaven, so taking him into heaven does not in itself put him into the church. That is, it may be viewed as an individual thing. When I get into heaven, I am getting wonderfully close to the truth of the union of the church with Christ; still I may look at myself as a single individual in heaven, without at all taking in the unity of the body which is the church. I can speak of the “children of God,” and of “joint-heirs,” without bringing in the idea of “the body.” I take the Christian sitting in heavenly places. As an individual Christian I have done with conflicts when I get there; it is no longer the journey in exercise of heart. I shall still have conflicts with Satin, but these are for God. I may too have daily to judge my flesh in these conflicts; but judging the flesh is not conflict for God; it is a different thing to have conflict for God; and to be judging the flesh as hindering. When in heaven I am in the result of God's work.
In the Book of Joshua, before a single conflict, there was a table spread, and they had done with the manna. God had spread a table for them in the presence of their enemies. (chap. 5.) When they got across the Jordan, they sat down and ate the “old corn of the land.” The manna (the provision for the wilderness) had ceased, and they were eating the old corn of the land;” they had Christ looked at as the natural growth of heaven. It is not for my wants that I have Christ in heaven; I have no wants there, I have Him there to enjoy Him, to sit down at God's table and feed with everlasting delight upon what God delights in. It is the “old corn of the land” that I sit down to there. And mark the difference as regards the passover. They did not eat it with the good upon the door-posts, as in Egypt; they were there enjoying the results of redemption in the consciousness of the quiet security of the land. The aspect of the blood in Egypt was that of keeping God away as a judge. They were sitting down too in the plains of Jericho, in the presence of that great city, the type of all the power of the enemy; and there they ate the “old corn of the land” (Jericho's land in a certain sense), before one bit of conflict began. So with the Christian.
And here comes in the connection between our sitting in heavenly places and our passage through the world. I should be manifesting distinctly what is heavenly here, and thus be practically a heavenly man in the midst of worldly men. I should be a heavenly man, as one that is there and at home there, sheaving out what I have learned and enjoyed there. Christ was, while walking and acting on earth, “the Son of man which is in heaven.” He manifested towards the world the blessedness of the spirit and tone and character of heaven. He could not be Messiah for the Jews without being the Son of God for men.
If a Christian man is not walking in the Spirit, if the flesh is not subdued, he cannot display to the world the temper and spirit and character of heaven—he is manifesting something else. But the conflicts of the heavenly places (Eph. 6:1212For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)), are not merely conflicts in the subduing of our flesh; they are conflicts carried on in realizing and laying hold of the things in Canaan that belong to ourselves and others. If Joshua and the Israelites took cities in Canaan, it was because they were in Canaan. Our enemies are there, and there it is we should meet them. There are things in which we have to be, faithful on earth; but there are also things that belong to us because we are sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. A man may be consistent in the one, without displaying the heavenly man. You may see seine tolerably consistent on earth, whose souls are not seeking to realize what is theirs in Christ: Satan's effort is ever to hinder our doing that. We cannot carry the flesh into the heavenly conflict. If my flesh is not mortified, I cannot wield the weapons of that warfare. The flesh always brings in Satan's power, who has got a title against it; and God can never act with, the flesh, or display His power for us against our enemies, where it is allowed. if we were walking as born of God, and as having on the whole armor of God, the flesh being habitually mortified, he could have no effect; we should be able to go on in the simplicity of our own service and he could not come in with his wiles, as in the case of Achan (Josh. 7), and of the Gibeonites (Josh. 9). The moment we get upon heavenly ground, as soon as ever Joshua is in Canaan, I see the Lord's sword drawn, and the question is “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” So with us, there is the drawn sword. The moment we get into heavenly places, the Canaanites are against us. The church of God should be seeking to realize by faith whilst down here all that belongs to it as sitting there in Christ. As soon as Joshua crossed the Jordan, it was Canaan; but Canaan and conflict.
All this has the character of the power of God brought in where evil is.
As Christians we have to be pilgrims in consistency with our condition in the wilderness. The Lord may give us palm-trees and wells of water (Ex. 15:2727And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters. (Exodus 15:27)); the ark may go before us to search out a resting place (Num. 10:3333And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days' journey: and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days' journey, to search out a resting place for them. (Numbers 10:33)); but if we are not prepared to go with the cloud whenever it moves, we are not pilgrims and strangers, and we in heart go back to Egypt. But the heavenly man, besides his being a man with resurrection-life and the pilgrim of faith, is to be the manifestation down-here in the world of that which is heavenly. It may be in the power of hope, but the thing which he presents is that which is his now. He shows plainly and distinctly that he is in Canaan, and acts upon the ground of being there. If the land was not as yet cleared of its inhabitants, whose abominations defiled it, still Joshua knew what was suited to it; and therefore, when he had taken the kings and hanged them, he did not leave them there after the sun went down (Josh. 10). He could not allow God's land to be defiled.
As to what the Christian is “hereafter,” it may be said he is a risen man still, a heavenly man still. Hereafter, as an individual, he will be the perfect result of the power of God, not in the midst of evil, but of the power of God that has put aside time evil: There shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads' (Rev. 22:3, 43And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. (Revelation 22:3‑4)). It is not another man, but the same man, in the perfect enjoyment of blessedness: in the midst of good.
There are many points of view in which who and what is a Christian now and hereafter might be taken up. The question is far from being exhausted.
One branch of the subject, not touched upon as yet, divides itself into two parts—heirship, and reigning with Christ. He is an heir, as well as a child, an “heir of God” and a “joint-heir with Christ” (Rom. 8:1717And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:17)). Again, he will reign with Christ; and it may be of use to see what part in our life here is corresponding to that of reigning. The inheritance is connected with our being children, “if children, then heirs,” &c. The moment a person is in the position of a child, there is an heir, The reigning part we find connected with suffering: “If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.” Both these things are no doubt spoken of the Christian; still this is the principle, “if we stiffer with him,” &c.
Again, there is another character which this statement suggests to the mind, and this is his priestly character. I but refer to this now. We are kings and priests unto God. In taking up this it would be interesting for us to see the present intercessional character of priesthood; for in reigning by and by it will be as a royal priesthood, rather than intercessional.
J.N.D.
(Concluded from p. 122)
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