Jim Gray
THE DEATH OF THE LORD AS BEARING ON CHURCH BREAKDOWN
I have been thinking of the death of the Lord Jesus. Sin cannot be bypassed by God: sin had to be judged and condemned and sins had to be atoned for. That comes into the death of the Lord. It is a very wide matter. What was on my heart was the bearing of the death of the Lord on the ground of our gathering. The offerings that come in here are the sin offerings, ''for of those beasts whose blood is carried as sacrifices for sin", but it is not to do with individual sins. If you look at Leviticus 4 you will find it is to do with the breakdown of communion in the whole camp. That is a serious matter. What I was thinking was that the Lord Jesus took account of the failure of Israel in the camp and that is a word of appeal to Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah and accepted Him as their Saviour to leave Judaism in Jerusalem and go without the camp. It would be a very sore matter for a true Jew to leave the camp. We are speaking in regard to history. They would do it with sorrow in their heart, going out to Christ, crucified outside the gate. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, felt the breakdown of the people, he himself in the midst of it. So the Jew at this time, the appeal being made to him before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, would feel it, leaving Jerusalem, leaving the camp, leaving Judaism, to go to Christ. They would gladly go to Christ, but the setting of the opprobrium of the whole thing would be on their spirits.
Now, we come to the present time and we would all understand, the younger ones too, that the camp for us is Christendom. What was set up in its beauty by God, the house of God established on the earth in Acts 2 In the power of the Spirit, and all the demonstration of power that was there when they "began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth", v 4, what glory there was in it for God, yet breakdown came in. I think the Lord Jesus in His death took account of the breakdown. It is a sober matter to consider, but it is a wholesome matter. Let it sink into our hearts, that the ground on which we gather is righteous ground. It is ground tor every Christian, but it is ground prepared by Christ through His death. I think the Lord of glory who died on the cross and bore the judgment of sin and the substitutionary work tor sins, took account of the breakdown, the ecclesiastical breakdown. I think it entered into His work of atonement. I suggest that tor consideration.
It seems to me that the bearing of this scripture, with the "sacrifices for sin" being referred to, through which He atoned for our sins, has also in view the establishment of ground where communion can be restored as a whole. Leviticus 4 brings out that communion was broken: it was not broken just for individuals. The blood was carried into the holiest and sprinkled before the veil and also anointed on the altar of incense, in view of the establishment of communion tor the people. It relates, as far as I can see, to the collective setting of things, and confirms the righteousness of a collective setting as established in the death of Christ. The Lord's death has established that, collective moral ground: “therefore let us go forth to him". You count on others being exercised. We have found one a other on this ground, dear brethren, but the ground was not prepared by us: it was prepared by Christ in His death, through the sacrifice for sin that is typified in the offerings, and here in this place the blood is carried into the holies and the bodies burned outside the camp, two sober matters as to the death of Christ. As looking down the dispensation, I think the Lord encompassed it all. That is how it has come home to me in recent times that the Lord has encompassed the whole matter of the failure, so that there is always room for recovery, because the ground remains. It does not change. We may fall away from the truth and depart from it, consider the whole breakdown of what we may call the brethren movement, and the disunity that has come in and the diversity and groups. We carry with us the opprobrium of all that in our hearts, as we "go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach". Love towards all the saints remains in our hearts. How you feel for the saints who are caught up in systems of men, not knowing where to go, caught up in the turmoil of the breakdown, yet, thank God, to get our eye on Christ because the ground of gathering remains. "Go forth to him without the camp" always remains because it is established in His death, and as we come to a judgment of our departures - and we have known our departures - in the presence of God, we can go forth to Him because He already has made atonement.
That is the glory of the death of Christ, dear brethren, that He has already made atonement. It was not an after-thought. The work of Christ encompassed everything in relation to the dispensation, to see the saints through, morally, on righteous grounds. We would not be boastful or precocious but humble Christian people as taking this moral ground. We take it in relation to the light we have. It is a question of being morally in keeping with the ground the Lord has established in His death and, in this scripture, communion is based on the sin-offering, so that praise to God, as it says, "sacrifice of praise", is meant to continue. I think it is a collective setting: "therefore let us go forth" involves that there would be others exercised, exercised as individuals, but, as going forth as individuals, we find one another in relation to outside the camp, as feeling the awfulness of what God's name is attached to in the camp, ecclesiastically. How the Lord felt ecclesiastical sin! How we should feel ecclesiastical sin! Moral sin and immorality is one thing in the eyes of God and by nature it shocks us more than ecclesiastical sin, but ecclesiastical sin may be greater in the eyes of God if we can speak of comparisons, but the Lord Jesus faced the matter of ecclesiastical failure in His atoning work.
I put this forth suggestively because it seems to me that it is a very important matter as bearing on the righteousness and legality of the ground, not our ground, but the moral ground that is there, and it is the responsibility of every Christian to take that ground. It is not optional; it is obligatory. "Therefore let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach" is obligatory; obligatory on every Christian to take that ground. And that ground always remains and it is righteous because of its righteous and moral basis. So our exercise is to be in accord with that, to delight to be in accord with that, so that we fulfil assembly obligations in regard to assembly life. Morally I should be in accord with it, in my public life amongst the brethren, my practical life in my household, my life in my private setting, my prayers, my devotions. I am using the singular to bring out the fact that it is on each one of us. It is not an official position at all; it is a moral position, but it must be filled out in every circle in which I walk and move. Each circle must be in accord with the death of the Lord so that the Lord then can acknowledge it. There is no public indication. There is no distinguishing one company from another publicly, but secretly the believer would know something, as gathered to the Lord's name outside the camp with others, of the blessedness of His presence. You cannot assume it. It is not because I belong to a company that I know it, but as taking this ground and being morally in accord with it so that every part of my walk is affected by it. We have not exactly to be apologetic to anyone about the collective setting of things or of maintaining it because we did not establish the ground: Christ established it in His death.
May the Lord help us in these things in relation to our present testimony, for His Name's sake.
EDINBURGH
18 April 1995