LIFE IN CHRIST AND IN THE SAINTS
G. C. McKay
Numbers 17: 1–11; Hosea 14: 1–8; Amos 7: 1–3
I would like to speak, dear brethren, about the life that is in Christ as He lives on high and the various evidences of it that are given typically in this account in Numbers 17 in Aaron’s rod.
I would like to speak also about life in the saints, and the abundant evidences of it that there can be. Each of these scriptures I have read contemplates breakdown. Numbers 17 comes in after the great rebellion of Korah. Hosea speaks about the recovery of Israel after going off in idolatry. Amos speaks of a day when Jacob is small, suffering in that way, reduced. What I would like to say is this, the fact that breakdown has come in individually, or whatever way, does not mean that things are going to fail, because they are going to be maintained to the end. We have already thought of it in prayer, how things are maintained to the end by the Holy Spirit being here. I want to speak principally of how the saints are going to be maintained by Christ in heaven, that blessed One that is living in wonderful powerful life, set out in Aaron’s rod that budded.
The setting of the scripture is the rebellion of Korah, God’s judgment coming on the sons of rebellion—the ambitions of the flesh, fleshly assertion in the things of God, the Levites aspiring to the priesthood to usurp a position that was not theirs, and the disregard of God in all that. They challenged Moses in whom the authority of Christ is set forth and they challenged Aaron too, the priesthood of Christ being set forth in him. Over against that, not only is there the judgment that comes on these sinners, as they are described, but God immediately brings in this question of the twelve staves for the twelve tribes in Israel, for the twelve families, and which one is going to be distinguished. It is a section which I believe even the youngest would find interesting, that a prince for each father’s house had to write his name on his staff. They could not deny whose staff it was because each had put his name on it. There were twelve staves and among them, one of them had Aaron’s name on it, but I suppose there would be little to distinguish them if you did not look closely and see the name.
They were laid out overnight before the testimony, and in the morning Moses went in to see the staves, and one of them had burst into life overnight. It is a wonderful picture of resurrection life, the power of life in Christ. The staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded. I suppose it is the first sign, of life in the spring-time, buds appear, the power of life beginning to show itself. Aaron’s rod had budded and brought forth buds, it is the fulness of the life in Christ that is seen. Not only had it
blossomed but bloomed blossoms, not only brought forth fruit but ripened almonds. It is the full, blessed fact of life in a risen and heavenly Christ in power, so that there are wonderful evidences of life in Him.
This is a figure of the life that is in Christ on high as our High Priest, the One who always lives to intercede for us. It does not say He always intercedes for us, for that would not be enough to convey the mind of the Spirit of God, but it says He always lives to intercede for us. Have you thought of that? Have you contemplated that? the life that is in heaven, the life of a Man in heaven, the life of Christ? He is living to God according to Romans 6, and as the living One He is available to us, because the reference is to Aaron, to Christ’s priesthood. He is available to us in the power of His life—that life is for our benefit. In the morning each had to take his staff, his name was on it, he could not deny it, it was just the same staff that was laid up the night before and not a sign of life, just a dry staff. Eleven dry staves were there, and we have to do that too, we have to take our staff and say there is no sign of life in me.
According to nature, according to what I am there is no essential life in me at all, but thank God there is one staff that budded, there is life in Christ, and Jehovah recalls that staff before the testimony. The other staves cannot stand there, they cannot give pleasure to God, but Aaron’s staff is taken before the testimony. It is a figure of the wonderful life that is in Christ.
Hebrews brings that out, not only the apostleship of Christ in bringing out the truth as Moses did, but the priesthood of Christ maintaining everything for God in the saints at the highest possible level, bringing out in the saints power to go through, not only to go through the wilderness but to be maintained in the service of God.
Romans 8 also speaks about Christ interceding for us. The Lord Jesus has died, but then He had been raised up, He is at the right hand of God it says, who also intercedes for us. Then it says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”—the love of that blessed One who is living on high for us.
Nothing can separate us from it, and it is active. Just look at the figure—it is budding, it has blossoms, it has ripened almonds, the fulness of life, all in Christ. In Christ, that is where our life is; if there is any life in us it is through Him and in Him that life exists. In Christ, everything is seen fully. If you take the matter of faith, in Hebrews 11, you have those who walked the path of faith and died in faith, but in Hebrews 12 you get the Leader and Completer of faith. It is not only that the Lord’s pathway was a pathway of faith, but in Him the whole thing was set forth in perfection from beginning to end. He is the Originator of it and the Completer of it, so everything is in fulness in Christ. In us there is so much that is mixed and partial, but everything is in Christ in fulness and this scripture brings out the life that is in Christ in fulness. He is living to intercede for us, He is caring for us, He is available to us.
My thought is this then, if these wonderful features of life come out in Aaron’s rod, should they not come out in the saints? Should features of life, powerful life and beautiful life not come out in the saints? Beauties mark this rod, it is a beautiful rod, it is Christ in resurrection, a heavenly, risen Christ. It is remarkable the figures in the Old Testament that give us Christ exalted on high, the blessed anointed One, to bring out His beauty and His glory. There is the oil upon the head, in Psalm 133, that ran down upon the beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments. It is Christ on high glorified, and His wondrous grace and beauty on high as our great High Priest, and here you have the wonderful glory and greatness of Christ living on high. If only I could get hold of that thought more, and would that I could convey it and by the Holy Spirit bring it into our hearts more, that Jesus is a living Man; He is living in fulness of life on high, pleasing to God in every way. But then, He is living on our account too, living to intercede for us and to maintain us in life. We will only be maintained in life
and continue in the testimony for God’s pleasure as we have that blessed One in the faith of our hearts and in our affections, that we might appropriate Him as High Priest. His love is there, nothing can separate us from it.
He will take us by the hand, as Hebrews tells us. He takes hold of the seed of Abraham. He will be gracious and understanding too for all our weaknesses and all that side of things. He is fully qualified as Hebrews brings out, through suffering in the pathway here, through His death and resurrection; and through who He is, He is qualified as priest after the order of Melchisedec, a priest who lives in indissoluble life— indissoluble, it cannot be changed, no dissolution attached to that life, it is eternal, the life of a blessed Man who is also a divine Person. He is living in resurrection power and His grace and love are towards us, and we have to lay hold on Him so that we understand there is a living Man in heaven. As for myself, I am just a dry stick, I am just a stave and there is no life in me, but there is life in Christ. You have to acknowledge that, you cannot pretend to anything yourself, but God has chosen One Man to be High Priest. Then how beautiful to think of it, that He is available for us, the rod of Aaron is available to administer in grace towards us. No doubt much could be drawn from that doctrinally, but you can see, even from a glance at some of the epistles and the gospels, that life is in us because it is in Christ.
It says in Romans, for example, that not only have we to be saved through His death and the shedding of His blood, but we have to be saved in the power of His life. We are actually saved currently because of the power of life in Christ, and that includes His grace towards us as our High Priest caring for us. If life has to be maintained in us, it only can be so because of the One who lives on high for us and intercedes for us and cares for us. In Romans He intercedes to get us through the wilderness, through all the tribulations and distress. In Hebrews He is
the great High Priest who intercedes to maintain us at the highest level at the service of God, that we might approach with a pure heart, that we might be able to enter into priestly activity towards God Himself. For that life is necessary in the saints.
It says in Romans 6 that He died to sin once for all, and in that He lives, He lives to God. A verse in Hebrews speaks of Melchisedec, one of whom the testimony is, that he lives. The testimony is that he lives, not like the dying priests of the Jewish dispensation. How wonderful to embrace that in your soul and to understand a little of it, so that there might be life in our souls. We remarked in the reading that life has to be developed in us, eternal life being an end to be reached. There is the thought of justification of life in Romans, something coming out in the saints. Then there is the thought of grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Life is clearly in view. We get walking in newness of life down here in Romans 6.
Then in Romans 7 you find what you are, that there is no life in you, you find in the flesh there is nothing for God at all, you find you need a new husband, as it says, “ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God”, Romans 7: 4. The object is that there might be fruit in us because we have such a Husband and such a Deliverer, that there might be life in our souls. By the Spirit there is also such a thing, even in the wilderness path, as the Spirit life on account of righteousness. These are wonderful things, dear brethren.
The Lord Jesus says in John’s gospel, “because I live ye also shall live”, John 14: 19. If we are going to live at all, if there is any spiritual life in us, it is because He is living, that is its origin. The great thought is that the saints are to be maintained in life and vitality down here, not murmuring in the flesh, but judging the flesh and esteeming what is in Christ.
I went to Hosea because of the remarkable assembly of figures of life that come into chapter 14, I do not know if there is any other place in scripture where you get such a varied and rich collection of statements about a person. It is about a recovered believer, someone who went off and was recovered. I wanted to point that out. Aaron’s rod that budded came in on account of failure, meaning that in spite of the failure the saints are going to be maintained in life, in spite of all that is around in Christendom, in spite of all the rebellion that exists. Here you get Ephraim, and as you read through Hosea, and find the sad things that are said about him, and how God appealed to him, you see how dreadful was his state, but when we come to chapter 14 he is recovered. There is life in recovery. Recovery is not just to a position, recovery involves life springing up again in a person’s soul.
Job speaks about that, how if a tree is cut down, there is hope for a tree. Sometimes we think if someone loses their way, leaves the company of the saints and goes off, perhaps in very great self-will, there is no hope, but Job says there is hope for a tree that is cut down. If God acts judicially in regard to a person and he finds himself under God’s discipline, then there is hope for that tree. It speaks most beautifully of what might happen with such a tree, as life begins to show itself. The scripture I am alluding to is in Job 14: 7–9, “For there is hope for a tree—if it be cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender branch will not cease; Though its roots grow old in the earth, and its stock die in the ground. Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and put forth boughs like a young plant”. Thus in recovery there can be remarkable freshness of life, and that is what recovery involves, I think, freshness of life being secured for God. Everything, in a sense, now, is on the basis of recovery, if we are here in any measure in this great matter of life it is because we have been recovered persons. We have to take things up on that kind of basis. Nebuchadnezzar was a tree cut down too. It speaks of the stock or stump of that tree bound with bands of brass and iron, and God not allowing anything to develop, but eventually He did and so recovery involves life.
Here, at the beginning of Hosea 14 a change takes place. There is an appeal to which Ephraim must have answered, “Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah; say unto him, Forgive all iniquity” and so on. There is a return to God, and following on the first three verses which speak about recovery and repentance, which is essential, you find God begins to speak most wonderfully about Ephraim. “I will heal their backsliding”—healing is necessary, if we have damaged ourselves in self-will there has to be healing brought in, all the damage has to be repaired in our souls and minds and consciences. Then, “I will love them freely”.
You think of all the things that are said of Ephraim, that is Israel, in a condemnatory way and then God says, “I will love them freely”. There is going to be no limit, for through repentance God brings about recovery, and we know through the work of Christ there is a basis for God’s love to flow, “for mine anger is turned away from him”.
And then we get these images, these figures of life developing—“I will be as the dew unto Israel” it is the divine favour beginning to affect the people, and we get the blossoming, “he shall blossom as the lily”. I suppose the lily in scripture is a symbol of the perfection and beauty of spiritual life, the work of God in the saints, “he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon”—cast forth his roots suggests a development that is not seen, what is beneath the surface. The roots are being spread, involving that the person is stable and developed in his spiritual affections; he is finding his place, finding his feet again but in a secret sense. “His shoots shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree”—there is a spiritual touch about the person. These are all features that should come out in us now, dear brethren, because we are recovered persons, and that is what God is looking for, the power of life in recovery. It all depends on Aaron’s rod that budded and our great High Priest on high who intercedes for us. Why would we ever return I suppose, but that He intercedes for us? His beauty as the olive-tree speaks of the spiritual beauty, then the smell as Lebanon. These are real things, it is more than poetic, there is spiritual meaning in it; in a person in whom there is spiritual life, there is a spiritual smell, a good odour; when you are in their company there is something fine about them, something that will do you good, something pleasing about them in a spiritual sense.
So they return and sit under God’s shadow. They shall revive as corn, is another allusion; there is to be a crop for God. The blossom of the vine means that, through this, there is to be an element of joy. We spoke about joy in the reading and it comes in in recovery, “they shall ... blossom as the vine—the renown thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon”. It might seem an unusual scripture to select for life coming out in the saints, for persons bearing fruit to God as being to Another, as coming into the gain of the life that is in Christ. That is the way we all have to come, the way of repentance and recovery so that these beautiful features should be seen in us. The green fir tree is the permanent feature that appears. He says, “I am like a green fir-tree”. It is not just a momentary matter, the person is going to remain green, whatever the weather, there will be life. There are different voices in verse 8, “Ephraim {shall say}, What have I to do any more with idols?” And then in the brackets God speaks and says “I answer {him}, and I will observe him”—God is watching and He will answer him. And then Ephraim says, “I am like a green fir-tree”—he is conscious of the life that is in himself in recovery. Then God says, “From me is thy fruit found”. It is all from God, which relates to what I was saying, if there is anything in us it comes from Christ on high, from our great High Priest.
Now, in Amos, Jacob is reduced, he is small. You do not get here an array of beautiful features of life, but you do get life. Things are small, but there is a shooting up of the latter growth in this short section—something shooting up. We do not live in great times. We need to admit, to understand Jacob is small. How much we ought to feel things, dear brethren, the failure in responsibility, all that has come in. We can perhaps look back to what Christ has secured for Himself in the past, but the point is, What is there now? Now is the time of the latter growth. Thank God I think we can see that, a shooting up of the latter growth among the saints. There is something in the way of life showing itself, and may it show itself more.
There is a concern about it because the locusts are about to destroy it in the vision. The prophet is affected by this, concerned because God showed him locusts destroying it all so that there might be nothing at all.
Now one of the reasons I read this scripture was this, that in such a situation where there is evidence, really undeniable evidence of life, in whatever small a day, there is something called for, I think, in us, and that is a spirit of intercession—Amos intercedes. I suppose we could bring into it too what we have been speaking about, the intercession of Christ as our great High Priest. There is intercession, “I said, O Lord Jehovah, forgive, beseech thee!”
What a feeling intercession! “How shall Jacob arise?” Jacob speaks of Israel in its responsibility, “How shall Jacob arise?” How will he arise and take up his responsibility in the presence of God, for he is small? It says, “Jehovah repented for this—It shall not be”. So the locusts did not come and the latter growth was preserved. I think we ought to be concerned about that, dear brethren. We know Christ is concerned, and I believe if there is anything amongst us in the way of life, it can only be preserved by the intercession of Christ, our great High Priest. But then, I think there should be a corresponding sense in our own souls of the need to intercede with God that the locusts
should not come, that there should not be anything that would call a halt to this matter of the latter growth. We should look round our localities, look for it and see it and foster it and pray for it shooting up. It points to the presence of the Holy Spirit that something shoots up. That is the thought in it. The Holy Spirit is here to the end of the dispensation in the souls of the saints, and so you get the shooting up of the latter growth.
Well, I trust these thoughts might commend themselves to us, and might stir us up and encourage us too, so that things might continue among us in life as we lay hold of our great High Priest on high, for His name’s sake.
Address at Dundee
28 June 2003