THE SAINT NOW
[p. 166] THE SAINT NOW
The cause of confusion to many souls is the inability to distinguish between the standing of a saint now and in any other time. And the distinction cannot be seen or maintained if Christ’s position be not clearly seen and maintained.
Let us examine and trace how the difference of His position affects the saints. Before the death of Christ man was under trial. God had made trial of man in every way since his first trial in Eden. Left to himself for more than fifteen hundred years, ending with a development so fearful — violence covered the land — that God repented that He had made man upon the earth; and the end of all flesh was determined on; Genesis 6. Noah was saved, and placed on the earth under a new covenant. From this there was entire departure. Babel was built; men combined in self-dependence and disregard of God, who had set them on the earth on new terms. Then Abram was called out, and to his seed — Israel — everything that could be done for man was done; as it is written, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” At length the heir came, whom they ought to have received; but they caught Him, and cast Him out of the vineyard, and killed Him. Every effort to restore man has proved in vain. The “corn of wheat”, the blessed One, must abide alone unless He dies; but if He dies, He delivers up man in His own Person to judgment, and out of death He brings forth much fruit. The Son of man must be lifted up; there is no door for life to man but through the death of Christ. It is the Son of God, coming into the world from God’s side, who bears the judgment on the first man, and then, rising out of it, becomes the Head of a new race. Hence the trial of the first man must be over, and life now flows from the Son of God, risen out of the judgment on Adam; for “in Adam all die”; but “He that hath the Son hath [p. 167] life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. Man in his sins must either receive life from the Son now, or suffer judgment from Him hereafter.
As the trial of the first man is over, everything now depends on the position of the second Man. If the trial of the first man is not over, then Christ is not the Head of a new race; but if Christ be Head of a new race, then the first man is no longer under trial. The atonement has been made, not by man himself, thus entitling him to retain his status; but he having been proved thoroughly incompetent (the wine out in his brightest moment, as we see in John 2), and incapable of retaining any blessing or favour bestowed, God, from His own side, brought in salvation. He laid help on One that is mighty; He gave His Son.
The simple fact that the atonement was provided for the sinner by God, proves the entire incompetence of man to meet the first need of his case. And while it determines the utter inability of man, it sets forth the grace of God, providing in mercy for the sinner; and with this purpose, to bring in a new order — a new man, born of water and of the Spirit. The trial of the first man is over in the cross of Christ. In crucifying the Son of God man has no cloke for his sin, for “they have both seen and hated both me and my Father”. The act that proved man irretrievable brought in the sacrifice.
Now it is evident that, as the first man is no longer under trial, and as Christ risen from the dead is the last Adam, every position of the believer here must be determined by the position of Christ. If Christ were on earth, the believer would be an earthly man fully and perfectly according to the mind of God for a man on earth; but if Christ be in heaven, he lives according the heavenly man, with no place here.
Christ being now in heaven, the second Man, there is no link to Him there but through the Holy Spirit, through whom is made known to the soul the mind and [p. 168] objects of the heavenly Man. Christ is the heavenly Man, and because He has been refused a place here, He now is known to His saints where He is, and thus the heavenly status is known and enjoyed by the saints still on earth.
Properly, the heavenly standing is not fully known until we pass away from this scene; but this peculiar blessing came in consequent on the rejection of Christ, and is made known to us through the Spirit sent down from heaven. This then causes a great difference between the saint now and in any former or future dispensation. The saint now has to do with a Saviour who is in heaven; and hence, through the Spirit, is constituted heavenly in tastes and objects, while empowered to fill in a superior manner every claim and relationship appointed by God for the earthly man. The saint’s blessing and position now is determined by the second Man. If Christ were on the earth, ruling in His might here, the man of the earth would be maintained here, as God had appointed, and this will be fully exhibited in the millennium. Then man will live here in the enjoyment of every earthly blessing; nothing to mar the ordering and favour of God and man; and he himself kept through grace in accordance with the law, which defines the course and walk of a man on earth. The fact of Christ’s absence involves an entirely different position for the saint now. He is not where Christ is, and Christ is not where he is; he is not of earth but on earth; he is of Christ in heaven, but he is not in heaven. It is anomalous to find a saint where the Lord is refused, and hence possible only to faith to apprehend his true status in consequence. It is so anomalous and strange that, practically, souls go back to the dispensation before the coming of Christ, or, more properly speaking, to His first advent. They own His coming into the world as the Saviour, and they prolong, as it were, that period indefinitely. They do not see His rejection; and while they own His death [p. 169] sacrificially, they adhere to the former dispensation, only adding to it the sacrifice of Christ. Now this presupposes the state of man to be just the same as before the death of Christ.
In current theology two things are thus really overlooked; first, that the trial of the first man is over in the cross, and an entirely new man brought in; and secondly, the fact of Christ’s rejection. Now without seeing both, there can be no comprehending the status of the saint of this period.
The first point to be settled is, whether the first man is still under trial. Is God seeking or using any methods, with the view of testing man’s ability to do anything for himself? Has it not been proved that the old bottles cannot hold new wine, and that there is no competence in the first man to retain, or to turn to good account, the favours and ordinance of God? Man has failed in his own condition, and in relation to God, either to enjoy and secure to himself the blessing of earth, or to revere God through means of the imposing temple ritual. In the one case the wine is out; in the other, the house of God becomes a den of thieves; see John 2.
But now there has been an atonement in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the man who has failed; and as the atonement has been provided by God for man, it testifies of the entire inability of man to do anything for himself; and as it is in God’s hand only, He does not restore that which had ever proved itself unworthy and incompetent; but He introduces, in Christ risen from the dead, an entirely new man. If man, since the sacrifice, is still under trial, one consequence or another must ensue. The trial must either be successful — and if man answered to the trial, then he is sinless — or if unsuccessful, then there must be another sacrifice; for if man is under trial again and fails, there must be another atonement, or he is lost. Now to escape this dilemma, there are in the present day two systems of theology. One, the Romish, maintains [p. 170] that the sacrifice or mass is a continual one; and hence there is no room for seeing that there is an end of the old man judicially in the cross, or that the new has come in and is before God in His Son, risen from the dead. The first man is looked at as still the one under trial. The other — Protestantism, set on foot by the reformers — admits that the sacrifice is one and sufficient, but with no consistency; for practically they neither own that the trial of the first man is over on the cross, nor Christ’s rejection from the earth. Hence the law is their rule of life, and the believer seeks a position on earth as if Christ were reigning. They call the sacrifice of Christ a full and sufficient atonement, but they do not see it as brought in by God in His love, when the first man was proved utterly worthless; or that the believer is risen with Christ, in whom and from whom he receives a new life. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit, and therefore everything for the saint now is determined by the position of Christ the second Man.
Nothing is more evident than that, the atonement being provided by God for that which has been proved thoroughly worthless and unfit for Himself, He does not restore it; He judged it on the cross of His Son, and, in Him risen, receives every returning prodigal in a new nature and life. To sum up, Christ’s position in heaven determines ours. He is where we are not. We are where God’s Son has been refused. We are surrounded by man who refused Him, and who is no longer under trial, because God has brought in a new man in His Son who is in heaven. Hence the status of the saint now is heavenly, united to Christ in heaven by the Holy Spirit sent down; through grace he acquits himself in a superior way in every duty incumbent on the first man, as God has appointed: but he has no link or place here, as the millennial saint will have; for then Christ will be reigning here, and the saint will be where He reigns, instead of, as now, where He is refused.