CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SUPPORT
[p. 470] CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SUPPORT
I desire to say a word or two as to the way in which the completeness of the believer’s justification comes out in this passage. I have no idea of entering into what is presented to us in the passage as to the purpose of God, for you get an unfolding of the purpose of God here in relation to saints (verses 28, 29). “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose”, etc. But what I wanted to say a word about is as to two thoughts which are found in what follows: the one is, “Who also maketh intercession for us”; and the other, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” I want to bring before you, on the one hand, the way in which the believer is represented; and on the other hand, the love of the One who represents him. Believers are represented before God; Christ makes intercession for us; that is representative; but there is another point of all moment and that is the love of the One who represents us. We are supported by His love: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loveth us”. The love of Christ is the real support of saints down here in the conflict to which they are exposed as in the wilderness.
Now I do not think this interferes with the ground which you get in other epistles, like Colossians or Ephesians; I think it answers more to what took place typically with the children of Israel in the wilderness. When they came out of Egypt it was the work of the enemy to harass and cut off the weak. Romans refers [p. 471] to the wilderness: chapter 6 answers to the bitter waters of Marah; chapter 8 to the brazen serpent; and between the two (chapter 7) is the ground of law. The real support of saints in suffering here is the love of Christ — and “we are more than conquerors through him that loveth us”.
It is a very important point to see that God has been pleased to set forth the justification of believers in Another. I should find it difficult to prove in myself that I am justified. If I were challenged on the point I should be compelled to refer to Another. No one can prove in himself his justification. In a certain sense, I think it may be different in the time to come. In the millennium a man will, I suppose, be outwardly and manifestly clear of the judgment of death that is upon him, though even then the Lord is their righteousness. No one now can say, I am perfectly clear of death. You are free from it as regards God, and the acceptance of it is to you a means of deliverance. “Death is ours”; but you are still subject to it, as to your life on earth, and so long as you are subject to it it is evident you could not in yourself prove that you are justified. You are compelled to point to Another in order to demonstrate the fact that you are justified. Christ “was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification”. If you ask me to give proof and evidence that I am justified in the eye of God, I can only point to Christ risen. If I am not clear of death in myself, I am clear of it in Christ risen. He is risen for our justification.
I can go a point further; I say this — I am livingly connected by the Spirit with the One in whom I am justified. He is my life. That is the work of God as I understand it. The Spirit of Christ effects this. I am connected with Christ by a living link, but He is “raised again for our justification”. Christ is the end of the law for “righteousness to every one that believeth”. Christ is the righteousness of the believer.
[p. 472] The point of justification is not merely that you are clear before the eye of God, but that you are out of the reach of the power of the enemy. You see it in the history of Israel; they were sheltered from the judgment of God in Egypt, but there was another thing, that they should be beyond the reach of the power of the enemy. It was the purpose of God to destroy the enemy — to break his power, that the people might be for ever free of Pharaoh and his hosts, of everything that was against them. Pharaoh really represented the power of the spiritual enemy, and justification is not merely that you are clear of the judgment of God, but that you are free from the power of the enemy. He is now declared to be the enemy of God.
Well, now, what I see is this: If I look at Christ risen, I see my justification. Supposing there was such a thought in the mind as that a believer was justified in himself, it would be very possible to bring a great many charges of inconsistency against him; and no doubt many Christians are greatly troubled by the sense of their own failure. They measure their acceptance before God by their own state, and so get into bondage. As long as that is the case you expose yourself to a certain extent to the power of the enemy. What I see that God has done is this, not only has Christ been delivered for our offences, but that we might be conscious that we are completely justified in the eye of God. He was raised again for our justification, and we are justified with respect to the judgment of God that was upon us. We are justified as completely under the eye of God as Christ is risen, not only as to the offences, but as to the judgment of God that was upon us.
That is the way in which the Red Sea presents itself to me; not exactly as final judgment, but the judgment of death that lay upon man. It is deliverance from the power of death. Through the grace of God I am clear of that, because not only was Christ delivered [p. 473] for our offences, but raised again for our justification. It is useless to charge me with inconsistencies. I admit them, and am fully conscious of them, but my justification is complete in the sight of God in Christ risen from the dead. Not only shall I never come into judgment, but I am free before God from the penalty of death that lay upon me; even while down here I have life in the One in whom I am justified. That is what the apostle appeals to in chapter 8: 33; “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth”. Now mark the rest. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died”, he does not stop there, “yea rather, that is risen again”. For justification the apostle does not stop short of Jesus risen.
Now I come to a further point, “Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession”. That is, that the One raised for our justification represents saints in the presence of God. What for? That they may not fail. He makes intercession. You could not have a greater proof of God’s purpose than the completeness of Christ’s work than that the One who was delivered for our offences is risen again, and is so free of all that He died for that He is at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us. God has not only freed us from His own judgment, but He has freed us from the power of the enemy; we are free from fear of accusation of all kind — all charge of inconsistency, or whatever it may be.
One word more and one of great moment, and that is that Christ loves you. A great many people hold doctrinally that He makes intercession for us, but have a very poor sense that He loves us. It is a wonderful thing to think that He loves us. He is not only so free that He can make intercession for us but He loves us. The passage quoted, “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?” is a passage applicable to Christ Himself. These verses were true of Christ in [p. 474] a certain sense in the presence of God (see Isaiah 50: 8, 9), He is out of death. And then He is risen, not only to make intercession for us, but to support us in the pathway here, and to uphold us in conflict.
This does not go so far as the priest in Hebrews. It is not here a question of conducting us into spiritual privilege, making us conscious that we are His companions in the sanctuary. That is not the point. The point here is more what we are exposed to. The Christian is exposed to what Christ was exposed to — “For thy sake we are killed all the day long”, etc. We may go to the wall in the world, and get into a good bit of opposition and persecution, but we are more than conquerors through Him that loveth us, and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. He is so free that He can represent us in the presence of God, and, on the other hand, nothing can separate us from His love.
I venture to say to all here, that is true to the youngest. Christ is the representative of all; He loves all. He is not your representative because you appreciate Him or understand it. He is the representative of the least as well as of the most advanced. All need Him — none of us can do without Him. Then He loves us all. What a thought for us — exposed as we are to conflict down here in this world! You may say you do not know much about the conflict — “killed all the day long; accounted as sheep for the slaughter”. But you may have to know it; you may come into it, and you may depend upon it, that whatever pressure or trial you may come into, nothing will separate you from His love; whatever opposition you have to encounter, you are more than conqueror through Him that loves you. That is the great point. It is a blessed thought to me that Christ can carry me superior to anything and everything to which I may be exposed. On the one hand, no charge against me can stand in the presence of God, because Christ is my justification;
[p. 475] on the other hand, in all the trial and pressure down here I am supported by His love. And the apostle goes still higher, in a certain sense, when He says nothing shall separate us from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. I do not think that is exactly the love of God as enjoyed in the holiest, or in heaven, but rather love which reaches us down here in the conflict to which Christ was once exposed, and we are thus supported in the pathway of Christ Himself.
Well, beloved brethren, it was only just those two thoughts I had before me — Christ our justification and our support. Christ risen represents us in the presence of God, on the one hand; and on the other, we are supported by His love down here.