THE INNER MAN
THE INNER MAN
... While the outer man is perishing the inner man is being renewed; this is quite contrary to all human judgment. One is failing, and to man’s eye, all is going; while, on the contrary, the new, the inner man is coming out day by day in a fuller way. I have no doubt, though we do not see it, that the close is the most advanced [p. 145] moment, the ruin in Eden all removed, and in its stead man clothed in the most superb way.... We all admire roses growing on a briar, and we like to see and eat the apples from the graft on a crab tree; but the greatest living wonder is to see Christ displayed in our bodies, where the briar or the crab tree still exists. It is not dead, but to be treated as dead while it is alive. If it were really dead there would be an end of exercise, and an end to the daily marvel of the life of Christ manifested in the mortal body....
I am seeking to press that it is as we are in heaven — Christ’s place — that the unfitness of the old man is exposed, and the necessity and fitness of the new man is known.
I was dwelling this morning on Christ as the Solomon or wisdom. I read Proverbs 8, drawing attention to the little company at Bethany, how they were occupied with the Lord in glory. They had known Him in His life down here, and after His death here an entirely new thing engrossed them — the Lord in heaven — with the certainty that they were as dear to Him there as they had been when He was here, and as fit for Him there as here. In the evening I spoke on Isaiah 6, where the prophet was cleared before the throne, connecting it with 2 Corinthians 3: 18, where it is not that we are cleared but assimilated to the glory of the Lord our Saviour. Peter in Luke 5 was not only cleared but made fit to be a companion for his Saviour here. We are still more, we are made fit to be His companions in glory. In Isaiah’s time the Person who finished the work had not come, the excess of grace could not be known; now we are not only cleared but we are fit to be companions of the One who cleared us in the highest glory to which we are assimilated — all glorious within. It is very fine!
What are the marks of being heavenly? There are marks of being in health, you cannot mistake them, they speak for themselves.
Farewell! Rejoice in the Lord always.