THE WARFARE
THE WARFARE
Every believer is a child of war from his conversion. The first gleam of light was resisted in his soul. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”. The blessed God through His power opened our eyes, and turned us from darkness to light. This is a time of no ordinary conflict. Satan, like Pharaoh, tries every expedient to divert the soul from the salvation of God. The awakened soul sees the impending judgment, like Israel in that terrible night of death, when there was not a house in which there was not one dead; and when the shelter of the blood is an unspeakable relief to the burdened soul. After this ensues an entirely new exercise, if there be true progress. The convert, though relieved [p. 253] of the fear of judgment, still suffers from fear of the enemy’s power. The power of death is not annulled. The Spirit of God leads this soul to feed within on the lamb roast with fire, and eaten with bitter herbs.
This is the real groundwork in the soul’s peace, but it is not assured until the resurrection of Christ is laid hold of by faith; justification is not known till then. Then there is not only a rescue from judgment, but a new sphere, even righteousness, and where judgment cannot come, is entered on. A great deal of conflict is endured before the believer reaches that happy place, where he has peace with God, and where there is not a disturbing element to arise to shade the perfection of the grace wherein he stands. I believe we do not distinguish enough between one conflict and another, and that very often we may imagine we are in a conflict farther on, when we really are only in one very early in our history. It would help souls much to ascertain the nature of the conflict to which each is exposed in the different stages of their history.
If I am not clear of Egypt, my conflict is with its power. The stage a soul has arrived at can be discovered by that which it dwells upon. The light just received in the progressing soul is newest to it, and is that which most occupies it. What is known is considered secure; what is new must be made so. Thus invariably the one on [p. 254] the Egyptian side of the Red Sea, while in a measure rejoicing in the shelter of the blood of Christ, feels the pressure of Egypt’s power by which his soul is continually darkened. His conflict is with the darkness which clouds his soul. It is not God as a Judge he dreads, but the power of the enemy to condemn him, because of the sin in him. When he is bright he is clear, and in speaking to others is often very vigorous and useful in dwelling on the efficacy of the blood, which he does really enjoy. Romans 3 describes his state. If any one is really out of Egypt, he must be in the wilderness. The general state of souls, even where the gospel is truly preached, is on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. They see the way over; they rejoice that they see the salvation of God, but they are not over in faith. It is the most difficult stage in the believer’s history. I mean by difficult, that it is the one where most are detained. They hold in doctrine, it may be clearly enough, the truth that the way has been cleared by the Lord Jesus Christ; but notwithstanding, they are not so sensibly over, as to know that sin has been condemned in the flesh; that the Egyptians will be seen again no more for ever and that not one of them is left.
If one is on the resurrection side, he is brought to God, and an entirely new conflict engages him. The knowledge of being brought to God in divine righteousness must precede any true sense of the wilderness. I am not really out of Egypt until I know that I am brought to God, and when I do know this, I know that His love is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit which He has given me, and I “joy in God”. One who is out of Egypt, dwells on the bright side, but one who is not, dwells on the suffering side; for as a rule, a soul is not beyond what mostly occupies it. When we are really delivered from this present evil world, it becomes a wilderness to us, and we can be no longer conformed to it. We drink death (Marah) to our natural lusts. We abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin”. The manna in the present energy of the Spirit is our daily support. Its having been received as a theological truth that a devoted christian should turn his back on the world, led eventually, through the enemy’s perversion, to monasticism.
In the history of a believer, no sooner does he seek to walk here in simple dependence on God, than the enemy in a new form confronts him, to turn him from the wilderness. Very few have resisted Amalek. Many, who through divine light have learned to rejoice in being [p. 255] brought to God, and have really desired to be unhindered in their new joys, have been deterred from the wilderness by the power of the enemy. Are they to deny themselves when they have the opportunity to gratify themselves? Will the grace of Christ and the supply of the Spirit be enough for them? Why should they then immolate themselves? Such are the suggestions of the enemy. A famine was too much for Abraham; a Shalem mastered Israel. If the wilderness be not accepted in the fulness of the grace which is provided for us, we must be subjected to the discipline of the wilderness to learn the desperate depravity of our own hearts. No one is really broken until he has learned that “in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing”. Many have learned that there is sin in them, and that our old man is crucified with Christ, who have not yet learned to have no confidence in the flesh. The discipline of the wilderness leads to this, so that one could not boast or feel elated with anything one has done.
In Numbers 21, just as Israel was leaving the wilderness, they betray the alienation of their hearts from God. They spake against God and against Moses. The fiery serpents indicate their unaltered state from the days of Eden; but God comes in, in the fulness of His grace, and confers new life (verse 9), and the power of the Spirit (verses 16 - 18), now a gift (Mattanah). A new day opens on my soul when I know that I have an entirely new state, with a life I had never enjoyed before, and with the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, springing up into this new eternal life. Quite a new conflict now is encountered. A being with a heavenly life, and a heavenly power, must necessarily contend for a heavenly place. Historically now the wilderness has been left for Canaan. Hence the battles with Og. king of Bashan, and Sihon, king of the Amorites, ensue. This is the power of the enemy arrayed against a man heavenly in nature, but still encumbered by the flesh and its hindrances. The direct opposition is vanquished by divine intervention, but [p. 256] then follows Balaam, the enemy in another form, who beguiles and ensnares them, casts a stumbling-block before them. Through his counsel the Moabites draw them into social intimacy, and thus they become morally deteriorated and corrupted. The flesh ministered to, they sink lower than ever before. If Israel had learned in their early history that without faith in God they could not face the giants of Canaan, now they learn that though they had left the wilderness, and had conquered Og. king of Bashan, and Sihon, king of the Amorites, yet they were not superior to the susceptibilities of their nature. Alas! how many after learning the great truths in Romans 8, and after being more than conquerors through Him who loved them, have been drawn aside by allurements of the world, in some form or another; and sink lower than those who had not enjoyed the same measure of truth. Every conscientious believer must be aware how continually he is invited, like the Corinthians, by the world. When he is opposed by the world God intervenes for him, but if he yields to its invitation, eats of the king’s bread, or drinks of the king’s wine, making himself at home with the Moabite socially, he is overcome and degraded. It is quite a new order of opposition when I am invited, when my tastes are appealed to, when I become an object of attention and not of opposition.
Thus Balaam threw a stumbling-block in the way of Israel. If we are taken in this snare, we are every way corrupted. Whenever we are induced to gratify the flesh, we are sure to adopt a religion which suits the flesh; and this is the key to the religious systems in christendom. If the flesh were treated as dead, a religion which acknowledges and works on it could not be accepted; and no one can ever give up a religious system truly until he first learns that the flesh has now no place before God. We enter now the holiest, through the blood and the rent veil — Christ’s flesh — and hence there is no admission for ours. If the flesh be acknowledged, there must be a [p. 257] worldly sanctuary; and as with Israel, a turning aside to man’s religion. Hence the real remedy for, or prevention of, this snare is the acceptance of death with Christ, that which Jordan typifies.
This being accepted, and Jordan crossed in spirit, a new man in a new place, a new conflict has to be encountered. This is the Lord’s battle par excellence. Once having entered on heavenly ground in spirit, you are prepared for the conflict before it is engaged in, prepared with the Lord inside before you contend with the enemy outside. The fighting hitherto has been to reach the spot where the real contention Lakes place. All the way from Egypt to Canaan there has been fighting; but now on heavenly ground, the contention is Christ, to set forth Him, the heavenly Man whom God has glorified, in the very place where He has been rejected. It is not now divine life and ways in our own circumstances, but to reproduce the heavenly Man superior to our own circumstances in every detail down here, as it relates to God and ourselves. Hence the practice in Ephesians ranges from the church, the centre of Christ’s interest, to our own domestic circle. We have to be above our own natural feelings and circumstances in every detail of these circles. In Ephesians we have not only entered heavenly places, and are in possession, but we are dwelling there; that is our place, and hence the practice does not come until after the prayer in chapter 3, which expresses our blessings, when seated there; and this, I judge, is typified in Deuteronomy 26. Having entered into the blessedness of our new position, as really united to Christ, the conflict now is to set forth the heavenly and exalted Man in every detail down here. Hence all Satan’s power of every character, though concealed in wiles, is arrayed against us. But through the armour of God (His power as it were personally investing us) and unswerving dependence, we can maintain our high position here, and reproduce Christ as the glorified One in the spot where He was rejected and refused. The power invisible to man’s eye, acts for us when we have proved our faith in God by our patience.
Nothing is more striking than the great issues which have sprung from apparently the most trifling occurrences. Peter changing his companions (Galatians 2: 12), led to Barnabas’ separation from Paul. No doubt Paul’s imprisonment in Rome led to the defection of those in Asia, and in our own day the greatest opposition has arisen through the accepted teacher, unobservedly at first, leading in a line foreign and apart from the heavenly truth. The chief and highest conflict then is to set forth the exalted Christ in every detail, in relation to God, His people, and ourselves. The conflict never ceases, at least we are not to be unprepared at any moment for it, either in the wilderness race, our daily life, or an assault on the Christ for whom we stand. The Lord give us grace to “stand”, and “having done all to stand”. The better we stand for Christ, the better shall we behave, in His grace, in our own circumstances.