LIFE AS PRESENTED IN SCRIPTURE
[p. 8] LIFE AS PRESENTED IN SCRIPTURE
Psalm 133: 3; Romans 6: 22; John 17: 3
I have doubted sometimes if it be sufficiently seen that, when life is spoken of in Scripture, it is presented to us as a moral state into which one is brought through faith (the just shall live by faith), to which the nature begotten in the believer of the Spirit by the word necessarily answers. This moral state is formed by, and dependent on the way in which God is pleased to reveal Himself. The contrasts in which life is presented to us in the word may serve to the elucidation of this. I think the mistake has been made of viewing life too much according to natural ideas, as a sort of deposit in the believer — though indeed there be a seed of God in him — but in viewing it in this way, the moral character and import of life appears to me in measure lost.
Two or three passages will show the contrasts to which I have referred. In Psalm 133: 3, life for evermore is the explanation of “the blessing”, and it is identified with Zion, and therefore with all the moral force of Zion. “There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. In Daniel 12: 2, eternal life is contrasted with shame and everlasting contempt; in Matthew 25: 46, with everlasting punishment; in John 5: 24, with a state of death, and so too, in Romans 6: 23. These passages are of moment, not exactly as describing what life is, but as showing it to us in contrast either with death as a moral state in the present, or with shame, contempt, and punishment in the future.
I may here notice the moral sequence which we find in Romans 6: 22. It begins with liberation from sin and bondage to God, it goes on to fruit unto holiness,
[p. 9] and the climax is eternal life; there is evidently a moral progression here, though it doubtless ends in glory. And this brings me to another point, namely, the kind of persons who are spoken of as passing into life, of whose course down here life may be regarded as the consummation. In Matthew 25: 46, it is the righteous. In Romans 2: 7, it is those who, by patient continuance in good works, seek for glory, honour, incorruptibility.
Now I think it will be evident that life thus regarded could not be viewed as existing, so far at least as man’s participation in it is concerned, until the necessary conditions should be there according to God. I do not, of course, intend to give always to life, as presented in the word, precisely the same force. This must be ascertained from the particular context in which it stands. Hence, in the Old Testament, it doubtless refers to a state of blessing to be enjoyed on the earth under Christ, when the law is written in the heart; while in the New, it is in the Son of God, Christ Jesus, carrying with it relationship and inheritance in Him, and is the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose.
Now for the display of life it is plain from Scripture that two conditions were necessary; the first was the manifestation of life, of and according to God, in a man, the sphere of it being properly in glory, and this in One who is a quickening Spirit, the second Man, out of heaven; the other was the removal of sin from before God, and that in such a way as that the glory of God might come in where the full power of sin had been; and with this was the condemnation of the state of the first man. Now in the incarnation of the Son of God, the first condition was, in measure, fulfilled, and the second pledged. He was the living bread come down from heaven, and the bread that He would give was His flesh, which He would give for the life of the world.
[p. 10] I will endeavour to trace a little the way in which eternal life is developed in the writings of the apostle John. In John 17: 3, its character and privilege are described by Jesus Himself as the knowing the Father as the only true God, and Jesus Christ His sent One. This indicates at once its moral character, and renders it manifestly inseparable from the Son. Now what was necessary as from God was really present when the Father was manifested in the Son, become Man; but there yet remained to be accomplished the setting aside of the flesh that man might be wrought for the blessing; and to this I suppose the Lord refers in speaking of the brazen serpent in John 3. Nevertheless in the manifestation of the Son there was something far in advance of all that had ever been before. Light had come in as to the portion which the grace of God had in reserve for man. In John 3, the Lord speaks of eternal life through the giving of God’s Son as the witness and expression of God’s love to the world, and it is into the enjoyment and joy of this love that the believer in the Son is brought. This is eternal life, and is far beyond any question of kingdom. In John 4, the worship of God as Father is spoken of, the result of the living water in the believer; it springs up unto everlasting life. Thus we have God known in His love, and worshipped as Father in Spirit and in truth. In chapter 5, it is the effect of hearing the voice of the Son of God, and there is the consequent passage from death unto life. Here, as I have before shown, it is an entire change as regards the state of things in which a soul lives morally. In chapter 6, the Son of God incarnate is presented as the bread of life — the bread of God — and the way of life for man was to eat of this bread; all the grace of God was seen in the form in which the life was presented to man. At the same time He would give His flesh for the life of the world, and His death of necessity became the test of faith. Except they ate His flesh and drank His blood they had no life [p. 11] in them, and the Lord warns them that His words must not be understood in a carnal sense, for they were spirit and life. The true secret underneath all, was that the Father was drawing souls to the Son; and in an incarnate and crucified Christ faith has a portion given and enjoyed in communion with the Father and the Son. And this is eternal life, which for us will find its completion in resurrection at the last day.
I think the passages cited show that the idea of life, in the first revelation of it in Scripture, is a moral order of things into which the believer enters through grace, where wholly new objects are presented to him, which he is capable of enjoying in virtue of a new nature implanted in him. And the same thing is evident in the first epistle of John, where the believer is viewed as being in life, enjoying the knowledge of the Father and the Son — born of God that he may enjoy it — having confidence with God, knowing the love of God, into the enjoyment of which he is introduced, and delivered from fear because love is made perfect with us, “because, as he is, so are we in this world”. And, in chapter 5, the apostle reverts to the fact of the eternal life being in the Son, and ends with the expression, “He is the true God and eternal life” that is, that eternal life means a new order of things, so far as man is concerned, true only in the Son, and in believers as abiding in Him. The boundaries of the land of Israel’s inheritance might be limited, and there might be a limit to the subsistence which the land could afford; to Christ there can be no limit; the extent and area for blessing, so to speak, and the power to maintain those blessed are illimitable. In the writings of Paul, life is viewed rather as a display in the future, in which God’s eternal purpose for man’s glory will find its accomplishment. It was promised in Christ before the world was; it is now brought to light by our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled [p. 12] death; and grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus, though the apostle recognises the present power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and exhorts Timothy to grasp eternal life, yet he speaks in general of eternal life as the consummation of the believer’s course, but which is at the same time the fruit of God’s eternal purpose. It is all the difference between a state of life in Christ in glory, and a state of life in blessing on the earth under Christ. The apostle Paul, speaking of life more in display, connects it with Christ in His present position in glory, rather than, as is the case with John, with the Son become Man.
There is another point, in connection with what I have said, of considerable importance, and that is, that life, as to man’s participation in it, is in Scripture commonly linked with faith. The necessity and fact of new birth is constantly spoken of in the word, and in Peter the gospel is said to be the word by which it is produced; but it still remains true that faith is the way of life, and this is of the highest moment, because, though a soul may not in believing be very intelligent as to the import and moral bearing of faith, it really means the receiving of Christ, and the consequent renunciation of self and the world. What is done administratively in the putting off the old man and putting on the new, is really effectuated morally in faith in Christ crucified and risen. A soul is thus committed to Christ, in principle owning that, as to its own condition, it is lost; and having thus been drawn of the Father to the Son, the Spirit is received, the power and witness of the state of life and blessing in Christ, into which it is brought. My impression is that it is in this way life is presented in Scripture; not so much as a deposit in the believer, though indeed Christ lives in him in the power of the Spirit, but as a state of blessing, whether in Christ in glory, or under Christ on the earth, into which a believer, conscious [p. 13] of his own state of ruin by nature, is through grace brought, and for which he is wrought by the power of God.
May the Lord give us to know the greatness of the blessing.