READING ON 2 CORINTHIANS
READING ON 2 CORINTHIANS
JP I suppose the first chapter of this epistle is similar to the first of the other epistle, in that you get in it the way in which Christ is presented in the epistle?
FER I think so. You get the governing thought in the first chapter.
JP Would you say what that is?
FER I think it is as the One in whom the promises of God are established and confirmed, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us ... was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us”.
WM Do these characteristics run through this epistle as in the first?
FER I think they govern the epistle. It is in that connection that we get the thought of the new covenant and reconciliation brought in. The promises of God are all yea and amen in Christ, because Christ is the covenant and reconciliation. The promises could not be fulfilled without the covenant and reconciliation. In regard to Israel the promises were not made good on account of the character of the covenant, the covenant depended on the people — and there was no reconciliation in the law, only the shadows of it.
WM It was a provisional state of things until Christ came.
FER Yes. You get pious men like Daniel and Jeremiah continually referring to the promises — because they had not been fulfilled. Israel was brought into the land provisionally and under a covenant which depended upon their conduct. Therefore, of course, all was provisional.
JP So in Hebrews 11, speaking of the Old Testament [p. 207] saints, they died in the faith of the promises. They did not receive them. They could not then.
JSA You were saying an interesting thing in France regarding the covenant. There could not be a complete fulfilment of it until on both sides there was perfection. It is made good in Christ on both sides.
JP Could you unfold that a little?
FER What you find in Christ you can get nowhere else. He perfectly presents God to man, but at the same time He is all that man could be for God. You get perfection in the disposition of God toward man, but you get perfection as regards man God-ward. Hence everything can be brought to pass in Christ, because you have perfection on both sides.
JP So you say Christ must be the covenant because there is the setting forth of the disposition of God toward man and the perfect answer on man’s part to God.
WM In that way the new covenant and reconciliation cover everything in connection with God’s purpose.
FER They give you what is essential to the promises being fulfilled. You could not have the promises fulfilled without both — the covenant is for man, reconciliation is for God. Things must be brought about in that way else the promises could not be fulfilled.
WM Is the new covenant all that God is toward man, and reconciliation all that man is for God?
FER All that everything is for God.
JP Because reconciliation, as we see in Colossians, embraces all things as well as man.
FER So that God can be complacent in all. Scripture speaks in Hebrews 4 of the rest of God and the rest of God includes divine complacency. It is akin to the thought in the beginning of Genesis when God saw all that He had made; it was very good. God was complacent in it. All that remains, as far as we are concerned, is, that we should be brought into accord with Christ. Ministry comes in to that end. There is a great deal [p. 208] about ministry in this epistle. The main part of the epistle is taken up with ministry and the ministers.
W.M. In chapter 6?
FER The ministry takes its character from Christ and the ministers take their character from Christ. You get Paul caught up into the third heaven as a man in Christ. Paul was the minister in a special way, both of the new covenant and of reconciliation. Then he is caught up to the third heaven so as to be perfectly affected by Christ.
JP So as in the end of chapter 1 of Colossians he laboured to present every man perfect in Christ.
FER That was the effect of Christ on him. “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”.
EA What is it to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus?
FER I think it is the thought of full growth. Every spiritual faculty in full exercise.
WM And that includes every man.
FER That is the bearing of it, just as the gospel is preached in all the creation under heaven. The apostle took up things in that way; to enlighten all men as to what is the administration of the mystery. Many men might not consent to be enlightened, but that did not affect the apostle’s ministry.
WM Where it says, in Christ is the yea, does that mean the confirmation of the promises of God?
FER I suppose so. Some had accused the apostle of levity, and his answer to it is that he was in accord with what he preached. He does not labour in defence of himself, but he tells them what he preached, and that levity is not in Christ. He is the yea and amen, the confirmation and certainty. It is a curious defence, one can only understand it in this way, that the apostle was conscious that in his ministry he took character from Christ. His life and ways were in accord with what be [p. 209] ministered.
WM They were accusing him of lightly changing his purpose and not going to Corinth.
FER Yes, but he presented what he preached. That is his defence. He was not different in that way from that which he preached.
WM It is a wonderful identification of the servant with the ministry.
FER Yes. Then he takes up the ministry and the ministers and shows the process by which the ministers were trained. If any one wants to go to college for the ministry he ought to study this second epistle.
GR I am afraid not many would go in for the ministry.
FER No, it is rather a rough training, not pleasing to the flesh.
JSA But then the apostle had the Son of God revealed in him and that is what we need not less than he, for the ministry.
FER It is very important in regard to all ministry of Christ, that we should be according to what we preach. Not preaching one thing and being another, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life”.
GR There would not be very much power in the ministry if it were not so.
FER We shall be judged in a way by what we minister; people are pretty quick to detect any inconsistency between what a man ministers and what he is.
GR Is it not a fact that it is what we are that is effective, not what we say?
FER It is largely so at all events.
WM Is that the principle set forth by the Lord, when He says, being challenged as to who He was, “Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning”?
FER Of course in His case it was absolute. You get the thought with the apostle, “thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life”.
GR And so to the Thessalonians he says, “[p. 210] how holily and justly ... we behaved ourselves among you”.
JA We ourselves ought to detect these differences.
FER It is remarkable that when the apostle was accused he turns to what he preached, afterwards he explains why he did not go to Corinth, but not at first.
GR Of course in Christ all is yea, no nay at all.
WM Their charge would mean as though the apostle had said yes, and then acted nay.
FER “That with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay”. I think we ought to go a bit back to understand the point that you cannot get the promises of God until you get the new covenant and reconciliation. They are essential to the promise.
GR That is, there was no man to receive the promise until Christ came; no vessel.
FER You cannot get the covenant nor reconciliation except in Christ.
GR I thought of that word in Isaiah 50, “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?” How could the promises be fulfilled?
FER A covenant demanded a man. The first covenant looked for something from man, but in the new covenant the Man is found.
GR In connection with that, what is the force of the term, a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one?
FER It is there a question simply of promise. In the case of Abraham there was no mediator. When it is promise there is no mediator. When it is a question of covenant a mediator is needed. Promise is simply the expression of divine purpose, and depends on nobody except God Himself; but when it is a question of covenant, it is the bringing two together, and hence the need of a mediator. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant and Christ of the new. God is one in regard to the promises. Galatians speaks of promise, not of covenant.
[p. 211] WM Why bring in the mediator at all in connection with the law? I refer to the scripture, “Now a mediator is not a mediator of one”.
FER To show the law was not of promise.
WM Because he is speaking of the two principles, promise and law.
JB In regard to the covenant made to Abraham, did it take more the character of promise?
FER It is purely promise; it is not covenant exactly.
JB He says, “ye shall keep my covenant”.
FER That was simply the covenant of circumcision. It was not a covenant in the sense of law; to my mind covenant is essential to the fulfilment of promise. God will find His own way to fulfil the promises, the fulfilment is dependent on God; but for man in order that the promises may come into effect there must be covenant.
W.M. Why?
FER Man having departed from God must be made acquainted with the terms on which God is with him. The promises have reference to the blessing of man, and hence in order that the promises may be fulfilled there must be covenant.
JSA And that you take to be the idea of covenant just as a testament or will shows the disposition of the testator. It is his disposition towards those to whom he leaves under his will.
WM This disposition is love.
FER It is righteousness, that is God’s mind in regard to man; that is, in other words, the rights of mercy, and Christ is the perfect expression of it.
WM I do not know that I catch the connection exactly.
FER The covenant is seen in its principle in mount Zion; but then there must be the mediator of the covenant because the transgressions which were under the first covenant had to be taken up. God has in Christ taken up the transgressions under the first covenant [p. 212] and Christ is really the new covenant. He is the true mount Zion. Mount Zion shows the rights of mercy. It is on that ground God is with us and will be with Israel, and that is what the new covenant expresses, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness” (the rights of mercy), “and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”.
GR Then is writing the law in their hearts a means to make the vessel fit to receive the promise?
FER I think so. There must be a work of God in man. As to the positive character of the covenant it is the ministration of righteousness.
JP So it is described in chapter 3.
FER The ministration of righteousness in contrast with the ministration of condemnation. The law was the ministration of condemnation because it took account of man’s condition. The law did not bring condemnation or death; it ministered it, but if it was ministered by the law it must have been there. The law took account of the state of man; that was, that man was already under condemnation and death. The law ministered that.
GR The law was ordained unto life.
FER But it became a ministration of condemnation. It brought home to man what man already was.
WM Do you think the law raised the question whether man in the flesh was fit to be the vessel of the promises?
FER He was not fit to be the vessel of the promises and the law brought that home to him.
WM “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law”.
FER Man was already under death. The law did not bring that.
WM The new covenant brings righteousness and the Spirit, and one can understand the promises being made good.
FER Exactly, because it is the ministration [p. 213] of Christ. The Lord is the Spirit. The rights of mercy are established in Christ. That is what I understand by righteousness. Mount Zion shows that, while everything has been forfeited by the unfaithfulness of man, God restores everything in the sovereignty of mercy in a risen Christ.
JB And behind that mercy is the love of God.
FER Exactly, “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us”.
GR Would you say that in the measure in which we are brought into accord with Christ we enter into the enjoyment of the blessing?
FER Quite so. You start by apprehending the rights of divine mercy in Christ. God has the right to have mercy and He has exercised that right, and the moment we believe in Christ we receive the Holy Spirit who attaches us to Christ.
JB Is that where the mercy-seat would come in?
FER Yes, it is to declare God’s righteousness, that is, the rights of mercy.
JSA Although it has come out distinctly now, it was always true as to the saints. It was the ground on which God had to do with Israel, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy”.
FER It was in anticipation of Christ.
WM Is that why verse 20 sets forth that being in the good of the new covenant we are brought in, “unto the glory of God by us”?
FER Yes, and then we get the idea of being attached to Christ. God “hath anointed us, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”.
WM And we come into the blessing by being firmly attached to Christ?
FER Yes.
JP That reading is pretty nearly a scripture for “attachment”.
FER That is what God is doing. The Lord says in John 12, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”. He is the presentation to us of the rights of God in mercy. God has right to have mercy on man, and that right is set forth in Christ as Man. That is the new covenant.
JP He is delighted to exercise the right.
FER He has done it and set it forth in a Man. That Man has a title to all men and all have title to that Man. He is the Mediator of the new covenant to bring together God and man.
JP The title does not lie in any difference between you and anybody else?
FER Not a bit. I have no more title than any other man, but I have as much, and Christ has equal title to everybody.
WM You call that the right of God in mercy, it is universal.
FER Yes, God has come out in that way and set forth His rights of mercy in a Man.
GR I suppose the thief on the cross gives a good illustration of it, “Lord, remember me”.
FER I think so. Read attentively Romans 11. The gentiles are come in on the ground of mercy, and, provisionally, the Jewish branches are cut off, but they, too, will all come in on the ground of mercy.
AWS How do we come into the possession of our rights in Christ?
FER I would not talk about ‘our rights’. I think we come into blessing by having our eyes open to the apprehension .of Christ. All these rights of God are set forth in One who is the first among men, the Head of every man. Therefore, Christ has title to enlighten every man, and every man has title to Christ.
GR That is where the preaching comes in?
FER Yes, there is only one thing to preach, and that is Christ. You want to enlighten men.
JSA But it shows more and more what is vitally important, that is the question of being attached to [p. 215] Christ; because if everything, from the forgiveness of sins to the new covenant and eternal life, are found in Him, everything depends on our being attached to Him.
FER Exactly. Until you are brought into attachment God will not take account of you. There may be an antecedent work of God in you, but, until you have the Spirit and are in attachment, you are not recognised as Christ’s.
GR “If any man love God, the same is known of him”. He does not know any one else.
GWH The Spirit is the link.
FER Yes, and it is by the Spirit that you realise everything which is set forth in Christ, I mean you realise then things in their application to yourself. Until you come to use a thing, it is no good to you.
GWH I suppose, too, the teaching of the new covenant is by the Spirit. It is the Lord that is that Spirit.
FER Yes, it says so. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”.
GWH That is the effect of it.
FER Yes, we are all changed into the same image from glory to glory. Like the Lord and like one another.
GWH And that is why we enter into the moral good of the new covenant.
FER I think so. You come to appreciate and understand the terms on which God is with you. The benefit of that is this, you make use of it as a question of approaching God. When I am acquainted with the terms on which God is with me, I am free to approach God. So it is with a man in employment. As the man in employment knows the terms on which his employer is with him, he uses that with his employer. The same is true in a family.
JB Would you say that is, “accepted in the beloved”?
FER It goes to [p. 216] that.
WM I suppose the truth of the second epistle would enable us to become worshipping priests?
FER I think so. You get an idea which is pretty much akin to the Hebrews, “beholding ... the glory of the Lord”. I think it is you have entered the holiest, for the glory of the Lord is connected with His place as the ark of the covenant. If you entered the holiest you would find the ark of the covenant and the mercy-seat.
GR Speaking of the glory just now, what is the difference between the gospel of the glory of Christ and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
FER There are the two things, the proper place of Christ as the last Adam, which is really the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, but there is also the revelation of God in Christ. He is the temple and the anointed Man, the last Adam in relation to man. But in the last Adam God is revealed. It is the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but connected with His own particular place as the last Adam.
JP And that is His glory.
FER That is His glory. Adam, as figure, had that place; now Christ is the image of God.
WM The same Person, from another side, is God Himself.
FER Therefore, you get the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
JB The church has no glory of its own.
FER Nothing but what is reflected. We behold the glory of the Lord and are changed.
WM Into the same image, means we all get like one another.
FER Yes; it is the idea of reflected light that we get in the heavenly city in the Revelation, precious stones and the like. We ought all to be able to see how essential the covenant is. You cannot conceive anything more important. And the great interest of the covenant is that it is set forth in a Man.
WM So that the way we approach God is [p. 217] by Christ,
not simply mentioning His name but by being morally of Him.
FER He has come in to take a certain place in relation to men, and He has accomplished redemption that He might be the expression of divine righteousness to man, and that is the right of God to show mercy. The law set forth what one may call the primary rights of God, for God had certain rights in regard of His creatures; God has the same rights in regard of every intelligent creature whether angel or man. But then man did not answer to those rights. Then God takes up other rights, which He sets forth in redemption, and that is His righteousness. Through the grace of God men do answer to that. We come in on that ground when our eyes are opened, and we are led to recognise the mercy of God in Christ.
JP That is, as to the primary rights of God, God had those resources in Himself, and they have come out in Christ, and that is why He is the wisdom of God.
JA Mercy might well find a large place in our hearts.
FER Yes, we are not come unto mount Sinai, that is what you may call the primary rights, but to mount Zion.
WM And you get in Romans, “That he might have mercy upon all”.
JB Mount Zion is to be His dwelling-place for ever.
FER Yes, it is His delight. Now I think we might look at reconciliation as another point of very great importance in connection with the promises. There must be reconciliation. That is for God, while the covenant is for man. Reconciliation stands in contrast to alienation, that is, moral distance. Sin brought in alienation, and in contrast to that everything has to be brought into complacency. The prodigal not only came back to the father, but the father had complacency in the prodigal. Reconciliation is essential in the accomplishing of divine purpose just as the new covenant is essential to us.
JSA [p. 218] And it was spoken of by the prophets in a way, “the times of restitution of all things”.
WM Reconciliation, like the new covenant, is in Christ.
FER But reconciliation involves the question of state.
WM “Holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight”.
FER It means the displacement of man’s glory, self-conceit, and self-sufficiency, and all that has been judged in the death of Christ, so that all should come under the eye of God in Christ.
WM It is Christ in the saints.
FER Everything will come under God’s eye in Christ. Israel will. You get that typically in the furniture of the tabernacle. Israel came out of Egypt and has still to come under God’s eye in Christ, and even the nations will come under the eye of God in Christ. So it is now in regard to the church, reconciliation is in Christ. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself”. The point is, that in Christ is perfect divine complacency in man. On the one hand, Christ is the expression of God’s righteousness to man, but on the other hand, Christ is all that man should or could be, so that He is the point of complacency for God.
GR Is that involved in such expressions as, “in the Lord have I righteousness and strength”?
FER That is our side; it is the covenant. But then God has complacency in Him. Christ is the true sabbath. God has perfect rest in Him and will have only Him before Him.
WM So that in the world to come God will have perfect complacency in everything.
FER Yes, Christ has tasted death for everything and everything comes into reconciliation in Christ.
WM God will see one Man only.
FER Yes.
GWH In Christ He has reached His rest now.
FER It says, “In whom I have found my delight”. Christ went into the reality of the distance to remove it, and now He subsists as the point of complacency; that is the truth of the present moment.
JSA But it shows the infinite importance of the Son becoming a Man. I do not think we realise that adequately.
FER I do not think that we do.
WM That brought in complacency at once.
FER It did not exactly remove the distance, but it brought in the point of complacency.
WM Do you think there is any analogy in that Adam was set up as head and then marriage came in, then the nations, then Israel, and that all these will be seen in connection with Christ in the world to come?
FER Everything is taken up in Christ. He takes the place of Abraham, and of Isaac, the risen man; of Jacob, for He will rule over the house of Jacob for ever; of Moses as the apostle; of Aaron as priest; of David as king. So too of Solomon, every position. So too of the head of the gentiles. Every position is taken up in Christ. God will gather together in one all things in Christ.
JB And He will fill all things.
GWH When it says in Hebrews, we are to labour to enter into the rest, is it that we are to apprehend Christ as the rest of God?
FER I think so.
WM Not to apostatise.
FER Of course the time to come is strictly speaking the rest of God, God will rest in the fact of everything being put under Christ.
JP As you said just now, Christ is the sabbath. It will be a sabbath-keeping.
FER In Genesis you get the seventh day, but that seventh day has not been completed yet. It is a long day; God rested from the labour of His hands on the seventh day, but that seventh day is continued. The rest was broken in upon, but it is to be continued.
JP [p. 220] Christ is the Head of the creation of God, and it is in the fact of His being the Head that God will find rest in the creation.
GWH What is the relation between reconciliation and new creation?
FER I think new creation is essential to reconciliation, there is no reconciliation in the flesh. Reconciliation is in Christ, and hence what has come to pass in us is what is witnessed in the cross; that is, the having put off the old man and put on the new, and the new man is created after God.
JP If reconciliation involves state, new creation is necessary for the state.
FER Yes, the renewing of the Holy Spirit. We have the word or testimony of reconciliation, for reconciliation exists for God, but then it is a very important point that reconciliation should be made good in us and that involves new creation.
JB-n Does not Scripture say we are reconciled by the death of His Son?
FER Yes. There was the putting off of the old man in the death of Christ, and Christ is the new man morally.
JB We become the righteousness of God in Him. Is that what you mean by state?
FER In the new man is state, but not the righteousness of God exactly.
JB We come unto complacency.
FER Yes, we come into divine complacency, but it is in Christ. I think Mr. Darby expressed it that we might be the delight of God as regards righteousness. There is the thought of complacency like the father in the prodigal. The prodigal had on the best robe and the ring and the shoes, and the father said: Let us make merry. You get in it the rights of God in mercy. He delights in them, and He wants us to delight in them.
WM Where the distance was, Christ is.
JP That passage in Colossians makes it very plain [p. 221] that reconciliation is in contrast to alienation. “You that were sometimes alienated”.
FER Exactly. But you are reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, which is the termination of the old man, to present you holy, unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. That is the new man. It is according to what God is Himself.
Ques Will you please say a word in connection with the judgment-seat of Christ and new creation. The apostle puts new creation after the judgment-seat.
FER There is the question of our responsibility, but the judgment-seat of Christ has reference to the kingdom more than to the thought of new creation. The apostle brings it in in connection with his ministry. “We persuade men”. There is no practical difficulty about that, because though we are a new creation in Christ we have not come to the end of our responsible course down here, and we must get the estimate of Christ in regard to that. We are left here in the absence of Christ, and there may be some mixture, a bit of new creation coming out as ruling a man, and yet he has service and work in which he is responsible to Christ; and I think we must all receive His mind as to the way we have carried out things in our pathway here, and that is what will come out at the judgment-seat of Christ. I do not think that is inconsistent with the thought of new creation; the judgment-seat has reference to the whole of our responsible course from beginning to end, but when once converted and renewed then it is that new creation becomes the governing principle and rule of our walk. We walk according to the rule of new creation.
EA Why should the judgment-seat of Christ have to say to our life before our conversion?
FER It says: “the things done in his body”.
EA Does not that refer to after we are converted?
FER I should think it takes in all; it refers to a man’s entire history.
[p. 222] EA Nothing could be rewarded before conversion.
FER But I think a man has to get Christ’s estimate of all his course.
LFB In view of man’s responsible term of life.
JB-n To show God’s grace in connection with us.
FER You would not object to get Christ’s estimate of your pathway.
WM You have what is expressed in the first epistle of John: “boldness in the day of judgment”.
FER There are a lot of intricacies in regard to our pathway. Before our conversion God had us in view, and certain things were working which you never have understood. You will get light on that at the judgment-seat of Christ.
GWH There will be no condemnation there.
FER It is not even a question of reward. It is that you may receive the things done through the body. What I understand is that you will get the estimate of Christ of the things done through the body.
JSA And you will get the right thought of the motives and counsels. The apostle says in effect: ‘I could not be sure of my motives till I see things aright in that day’.
JA A great incitement to lay up a good store.
WM When the apostle says: “sinners; of whom I am chief”, he looked back upon his whole course.
FER I think so. I have taken up the thought of the judgment-seat from Mr. Darby. It was his thought and I think a just one.
EA Are we to understand from Paul’s word that there never was a greater sinner than he?
FER I think in his own eyes there never was, he looked upon himself as being peculiarly bad on account of having persecuted the saints. He had been the apostle of persecution and blasphemy.
WM And I suppose for the same reason he calls himself, “less than the least of all saints”.
FER I think so. It was genuine. He never forgot he had been [p. 223] the apostle of persecution.
JNH Do you mean the apostle of man’s will?
EER Yes. He was the special apostle of man’s will. He blasphemed the name and haled men and women to judgment.
JNH He desired letters to Damascus to that end.
FER He never lost the sense of all that.
JNH It has been said he hated Christ more than any man when he persecuted the church.
FER And he hated all connected with Christ. He hated the idea of the rights of God in mercy. He could not bear the idea of all men being equal, he stood out for the idea of righteousness by law. You get the same kind of spirit in Jonah. He could not bear to go to the Ninevites to give them a warning. He hated the idea of it and reproached God, and said, ‘I knew that Thou art gracious’, etc., actually reproaching God with being gracious and long-suffering.
JSA The Pharisees would not learn that God would have mercy and not sacrifice.
FER And the Lord reproaches them with that.
EA What does it mean: “and not sacrifice”?
FER I think God does not care about sacrifice on the part of man, for man cannot render anything to God. God delights in mercy, and will have man to delight in His mercy.
GR David points that out, when he says: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?” And the answer is: “I will take the cup of salvation”.
FER You get the sacrifices of righteousness, the fruit of our lips, but then that is in the sense of divine mercy. I think it is important to see how essential the covenant and reconciliation are to the accomplishment of divine purpose. Then you can understand how Christ is the Yea and Amen of all God’s promises, because He is the covenant and He is the reconciliation.
GR In connection with that why does the apostle say: “unto the glory of God by us”?
FER Because we are for the moment holding [p. 224] everything for Israel. The glory of God is maintained now in the church, the true Israel. God has no glory in Israel literally, but He has it in a way in us. It is an interesting point in connection with the heavenly city that in the gates of the city are the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. What do the Jews care now about the promises? They are almost the most ungodly people on earth. They care for little except money; the church is holding the promises.
WM And so the saints now are the Israel of God.
FER The consequence is that Israel will be dependent on the heavenly city for light.
WM I suppose we might have to explain things to them yet.
FER Yes, I have a sort of pleasure in the thought that I may be sent out on some errand to earth. The thing is that we know more about Israel’s calling than they do themselves.
WM You could explain for instance eternal life better than they.
JSA And what the Shepherd is.
JB-n How do you explain Luke 16?
FER I think a rich man makes a mistake in holding his goods for himself. The thought of their being another man’s is that they are Christ’s. One is simply here as a steward.
JNH Although riches are called “the mammon of unrighteousness”.
FER If you take them up as stewards you can use them safely. I have nothing of my own at the present time. I only have in my hands what I regard as being another’s. But the time will come when I shall get my own.
GR So today it is not the mind of God for you to give a tenth.
FER No. It is all His.
WM You have the light of your own things now.
FER Yes, the light, but you have not got them yet.