COMMUNION WITH THE DEATH OF CHRIST AND THE ENJOYMENT OF ETERNAL LIFE

1 Corinthians 10: 16; Luke 15: 23, 24; Colossians 3: 3

There can be no question that there is a great lack of the enjoyment of the blessing of God among us. A great deal has been said about eternal life, but it is very little known in the enjoyment of it. Life is happiness, and happiness lies in the knowledge of God, and in the enjoyment of His love. There is a sphere to which that life belongs, and where it is enjoyed; where there is life, and nothing but life; where darkness and death can never come. This world is a scene of darkness and death, moral death, and physical death; there is nothing of life in it. ‘Life’s eternal home’ is in the Father’s house. It is where Christ lives. “Your life is hid with Christ in God”. It is outside this world, hidden away with God. It is the sphere of spiritual merriment—“Let us eat and make merry”. It is the circle of divine affections which exist between the Father and the Son, into which we are introduced, as those taken into favour in the Beloved. In this sphere it is our privilege to be before God in love. The prodigal in the far-off country, away from his father, was dead; when clothed in the best robe, and come into the father’s house, he was alive. We can only live in conditions suited to life. At the beginning God created a sphere and conditions in which man could live, and then He created man to enjoy life in that sphere. So it is in the new creation. In Christ God has created a sphere and conditions in which life is possible, and in Christ He creates the spiritual man, who can enjoy life in that sphere. “With thee is the fountain of life”, Ps 36: 9. It is God’s desire for His people that they should enjoy life. He delights in the happiness of his children. He has given to us eternal life in Christ. Christ died that we might have eternal life, John 3: 14. The Holy Spirit is given to be the power in us, to enjoy this life, John 4: 14; 20: 22; Rom 8: 2. Nevertheless, there is a great lack of this enjoyment among the saints, and this accounts for the hankering after the world, and the things of the world which is so prevalent among us. Many are not satisfied or happy; they are like the Israelites, thinking of the flesh-pots of Egypt, and craving for the leeks and onions of that country, Num 11: 5, 6. They are turning to the world, thinking to find life in the things of it, but instead of life they find death. “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die”, Rom 8: 13. Life is in Christ, and in the sphere in which He lives, and can only be enjoyed in communion with Him. But we cannot be in communion with Him in life, if we are not in communion with His death. Here is where the secret of the want of happiness lies. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” In partaking of the Lord’s supper we declare that we are identified with the death of Christ. In the act of eating we express our communion with His death. But the question may be raised as to how far we are true to this—are we in our life and ways consistent with this declaration? And this not only when we are partaking of the Supper, but always. It should be characteristic of us as saints. If I am in communion with the death of Christ, I am practically free from that to which He died. We may consider the practical bearing of the death of Christ in three aspects. He died to sin, the flesh and the world. He was made sin on the cross, bore its judgment, and died to it. He died to sin, that we might be free from it, that we might live to God. Do we reckon ourselves dead to it, so as to have done with it practically, in order that we may be here for the will of God instead of doing our own will? If I am reckoning myself dead to sin, I judge its motions, and put to death the deeds of the body. So that with an ungrieved Spirit I am free to live to God. Then the whole state of man in the flesh has been judged in His death, so that we might put it off, Col 2: 11; 3: 9. The flesh is what is natural to man, not physically, but morally. It is the source of his desires, will, energy, and emotions. Originally it was right and proper to man as God created him, but as it exists now, it is corrupted by sin, and become the source of all that is evil, “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God”, Rom 8: 7. This has been fully brought to light by God’s testing of man in that condition, during 4,000 years, and finally by the revelation of Himself in Christ. In Colossians 2: 11, we read, “in whom also ye are circumcised … in putting off the body of … the flesh by the circumcision of Christ”. To be using it, improving it, or gratifying it, would be a practical denial of having put it off. In every form of worldly religion, the flesh is recognised in one way or another. There is the effort to suppress its evil tendencies, to call forth its energies for good, or to act upon its emotions. God has repudiated it and judged it totally in the cross of Christ. The question for us is, Are we in communion with the mind of God? Are we true to our circumcision? Do we renounce the flesh with its will, its energy, its mind, as well as its lusts? If so we are practically free from it, Phil 3: 3. If the flesh is tolerated in any way, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and we are spiritually weak, we are incapable of enjoying divine things. If we recognise the flesh we are not in communion with the mind of God, and we are outside the activities of the Spirit of God. Lastly, we may consider the bearing of the death of Christ upon the world system. He died for us that he might deliver us from this present evil world, Gal 1: 4; Col 2: 20. He could say in view of His death, “Now is the judgment of this world”, John 12: 31. Can we say with the apostle Paul, “The world is crucified to me”, Gal 6: 14? Are we dead to it? Or are we as those alive in it? According to the truth in Christ, we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. Are we in communion with the death of Christ in this respect? If we are we shall be practically free from it in every form, socially, politically, and religiously. And it is well to remember that the world has its religion, as well as its pleasures and politics; its places of worship, as well as its theatres, &c. All goes to make up the great world system. And it is all outside God’s world, the great system which He is establishing for His eternal glory, and for our eternal blessing.

What we need to be exercised about is that we should be true to what we profess. This is the only way of happiness. If we are not true to the cross, we grieve the Spirit, and there can be no true joy if the Spirit is grieved, Gal 5: 22. The Spirit will ever be true to the death of Christ, and would maintain in us what has been made true for us in His death, and would continually lead us into that which is really life, conducting us to Christ, in the sphere in which He lives with the Father, where eternal life alone can be known. This is according to the will of God our Father.

From Words of Grace and Encouragement vol 7 (1907)