JORDAN AND GILGAL

The brazen serpent was a figure of the death of Christ as that by which man’s life in the flesh is ended judicially. This is apprehended by the one who believes in the up-lifted Son of man. And this in order that the believer might live in the Spirit, and thus live in the life of Christ. “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Cor 15: 48. It is only in the life of the heavenly Man that we can enjoy heavenly things.

Jordan is a type of the death of Christ as the way into blessing. In appropriating the death of Christ in this sense, the believer in spirit passes out of the world system, and joins Christ on the resurrection platform, and thus takes heavenly ground. He no longer accounts himself as alive in this world. The purpose of God was that we should be blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. God could not take up man for blessing in the Adam state, therefore it was necessary that His Son should become man, die, and rise again, and become Head, that God might take up man for blessing in Him, and in association with Him. It is our privilege to realise this now in spirit, we shall do so in actuality when He comes, and for ever. He has entered upon this heavenly ground through death, and we must follow Him by that way to reach Him where He is, that is the anti-type of the passing through Jordan into Caanan. While it is a fact that we are still on the earth, our blessing does not lie here. God may grant the use of the things of this world, food and raiment, and the like, but these things are not our blessings; they are connected with Christ in the place where He is, the things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. We are looking for the time when we shall leave this earth and be for ever done with this world system. We can live outside it in spirit now. It is one thing to know that according to divine purpose everything has been secured for us, and given to us in Christ, and that He has called us to heaven (Eph 1: 3; 2 Tim 1: 9), but then we have to enter in and take possession, or we do not get any present gain. The gospel not only proclaims the salvation of God, it is at the same time the call of God. When God first sent Moses to the children of Israel, He called them to blessing in a land flowing with milk and honey. The way they came into it was by passing over Jordan, in figure through death. So with us we can only come into blessing through death, and in Christ, as having died with Him, being risen with Him, and quickened in His life. All this has to be taken up in faith, and experimentally by the Spirit. The natural man has no taste or desire for the things of God, no capacity for communion with God. He loathes the bread of God, Num 21: 5. It is only in the life of the heavenly Man we can enter upon the enjoyment of heavenly blessings, there must be the new man for the new place.

Then if God can only take us up for blessing in Christ, it follows that we can only enjoy the blessing as we learn to take account of ourselves as in Christ. In 2 Cor 12, Paul says, “I know a man in Christ”. He had learned to take account of himself as in Christ. He could say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”, Gal 2: 20. Thus he connected his individuality, not with Adam, but with Christ. This point must be reached by each one for himself by the teaching and work of the Holy Spirit. It is not enough to know that our old man has been crucified with Christ, there must be the reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. That is, we learn to take account of ourselves in that way. In Colossians we go a step further; we have died with Him, and are risen with Him, we are not only freed from the dominion of sin, but from the condition of men alive in this world. In taking account of ourselves in this way we have in spirit passed out of this world, we are over Jordan and have joined Christ on resurrection ground. This is the mind of God for every saint and should be taken up in faith by each one. This point has to be reached in our spiritual history if we are to come into the enjoyment of heavenly blessings. If we are subject to the Spirit, He will form us in the life of Christ, and will lead us on in this direction, “He shall guide you into all the truth”, John 16: 13. No one could take such a course except in the life of Christ and as attracted to Him in the affection begotten by the knowledge of His love. He manifests Himself to us, and thus draws us to Himself.

Now comes another thing; as soon as they had passed over Jordan, before they tasted the old corn of the land, or entered upon conflict with a view to take possession, they must be circumcised; death must be applied to themselves. That is in figure the putting off the body of the flesh by the death of Christ. The flesh, that which is natural to man, is a positive hindrance, it cannot appreciate divine things, it cannot enter into heavenly blessings, nor fight the battles of the Lord. To start with it has to be put off. This is a serious lesson to learn, yet apart from this it is quite impossible to enjoy association with Christ; this is what answers to eating the old corn of the land. Our privilege is to live with Him in the things in which He now lives, to seek the things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. If on the other hand we are bent on gratifying the flesh, it is evident we have not put it off, we are not on heavenly ground. If we tolerate the flesh, it will certainly lead us back to the world, there only can the flesh find its enjoyment. And the result is our taste is vitiated, we lose the desire for Christ and heavenly things. This is the case with many who still keep up a routine of religious activity and going to meetings, but finding it irksome, are all the time lusting after the things of the world, and consequently are deprived of all happiness and contentment, for after all there is nothing in the world which can really satisfy the heart. Satan is behind all this, he is ever seeking to hinder saints entering into blessing, and continuing in it. We must expect conflict. For this conflict we need to be strong in the Lord, this involves the continual refusal of the flesh, the habitual return to Gilgal. For Israel, Gilgal was not only the starting point, but the place of the camp, the place of their abode, from which they started afresh for every fresh conflict. When they failed to do this, as when they went up to Ai, they were defeated. The judgment of the flesh has to be kept up, “Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth”, Col 3: 5. We come into blessing through death, but then there is the continual application of death to our own flesh, we have to make up our minds to suffer in the flesh that we may live in the Spirit. But life in the Spirit is great gain, that is what is really life. And when we are living in the life of Christ the world becomes a dry and thirsty land where no water is. There is abundant compensation for what we must surrender here, in all the good things which the Spirit would lead us into, of that which God has given us in Christ, in the land of promise; there is the milk and honey, and the old corn of the land. He lives in the Father’s love, and would minister it to us in communion with Himself, so that we may find in it refreshment, sweetness, and solid food for our souls. We may expect conflict with spiritual powers of wickedness, the lords of darkness. Satan will oppose us at every point as we seek to maintain our confession, he is ever seeking to rob us of our prize. We can only stand in this conflict in the power of the Lord, we need to be strong in the Lord, but this supposes the entire setting aside of the flesh: we cannot forget Gilgal, the true circumcision must be known, and maintained. One chief reason why saints are so impoverished, and have so little satisfaction and happiness, is that they are not prepared to suffer in the flesh, in surrendering what ministers to it. If Christ had to suffer the judgment resting on man in the flesh, that we might come into blessing, it is evident that we must be prepared to judge in ourselves that for which He had to suffer if we are to enter into and abide in the blessing.

From Words of Grace and Encouragement vol 6 (1906)