"HAVING NO PART DARK"

“HAVING NO PART DARK”

“The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. The judgment of God was on the body. “They knew that they were naked”. We can hardly conceive what the consequence of sin was in the mind of Adam when the voice of Jehovah was heard and they hid themselves among the trees of the garden. “The wages of sin is death”. All are under the sentence of it, and as there is conscience there is a proportionate fear of it. The resurrection of Christ is the proof that the grace of God has found a way of deliverance for the condemned sinner. “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead”. Unless we understand that a sinner is naked under the judgment of God, we shall never be able to comprehend the scope of His grace. If any one die under judgment he must remain under it, and at the great white throne the judgment is pronounced. Hence in the gospel the first thing assured to the soul is perfect escape from judgment through the blood of Christ; and next, that through His resurrection, the believer is justified through faith in God who raised Christ from the dead; “by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand”. That is, that I am not only sheltered by the atoning blood of Christ, but where I was under judgment, I am in the favour of God at this moment. Who can describe or conceive the magnificence of the translation from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love Now as I am saved from future judgment, and set up by God in the Spirit of Christ in the very spot of my ruin, it is plain that the body, which was under the judgment of God before grace was known, must now be, par excellence, the medium through which the greatness of His favour will be known and demonstrated. Hence in Romans 8 2, I learn that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. I am in the Spirit free from the principle of sin and death in the body, and hence I am then called upon in Romans 12 to present my body “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”.

This is of the greatest importance, because we see on every hand that the lack of grace, of the power of Christ in every saint, is betrayed in some way in the body.

“^[p. 285] The shew of their countenance doth witness against them”. There is a dark part. It is of the deepest interest and beautifully consistent that the body on which rested the judgment of God, but which now in Christ is redeemed through His blood, should be the index, here in the sphere of its former ruin, of the power and effectiveness of His grace.

It has been said that the first thing God did for fallen man was to clothe him with skins, thus indicating that the grace of God would address itself first to the deepest need; so the apostle, when he refers to the eternal day, says, “If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked”.

We are consequently prepared to find that from the moment the light of God enters a soul, there is, according to its power, a distinct trait of it in the body of the believer. It is not a thing exclusively inside. When the prodigal came to himself he said, “I will arise”. His body indicates that there is a new power within him. In the same way the woman of Samaria leaves her water-pot, and goes to call her townspeople whom she had avoided in the morning. The children of Israel expressed their value of the shed blood and their need of it, when with loins girt, and shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands, they ate the passover. When there is a defect in my act, there is a proportionate lack in me of the grace to produce it. There is a stone before the wheel, there is a dark part. This accounts for the partial way in which believers leave the world, where judgment lay on them. They have not a true sense of the judgment to which they were exposed; and therefore they have not a true appreciation of the blood shed by which they are sheltered. If they had, there would be a manifest separation from the place of judgment. Wherever there is not a true sense of the judgment, there cannot be a full escape from it. One may, like Peter in Luke 5, be drawn to Christ, and that even with a measure of devotedness, but the first great step was not learned, until he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”.

The sense of death and the fear of judgment are the first fruits of the light of God in the soul. There must be the agonizing cry, “What must I do to be saved?” before there is a real sense of what His grace effects through the work of Christ. The greater the distress, the greater the delight. They bear a relation to each other. As the light engrosses me, I am controlled by it. When there is a check, the darkness is not overcome. The light made the prodigal move towards the father, and then he received the father’s kiss; he is then at a stand until the clothes, etc., are put on him, and he can enter into the house. The dark part is the hindrance. The light effects or produces the move. Hence the work of the Spirit in conversion is represented by a woman who lights a candle, and sweeps the house. And as light begins the work, light only can complete it. It is light which leads the soul to God; it is light which introduces it into its new place with Him through grace. If I do not enter into the holiest, I am obstructed by the darkness — I cry out, ‘I am not fit’, ‘I am not worthy’, and so forth; but really the dark part hinders, and I do not enter into my true place. This one might confine to the soul inwardly; but the fact is, the more I know the place where grace sets me, the more am I personally affected by it. The blind man (John 9) had not only the light in him, but this light soon placed him before all men, as the one who had the light, until he gets outside everyone, worshipping the Son of God in the fulness of light. When I am controlled by light I am characterised by it. It is a great thing to see that a defect inwardly is betrayed outwardly; as it is written, “He setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil”. One cannot penetrate into the heart and see the defect, or lack of grace there, but every defect is sure to transpire externally. I may try to excuse myself for a hasty word, or for an uncourteous manner, but the real defect is within.

^[p. 287] If we study the Corinthians we shall see how they betrayed the grievous lack within in their outward ways and behaviour. They had never truly received Romans 6, that as having died with Christ they must reckon themselves dead. The flesh thus unjudged was exposed in various ways, and this is very much what we see now in christendom. They exalted human wisdom, accepted one teacher to the prejudice of another. They had no sense of defilement from the presence of a wicked person in the assembly. Their outward conduct betrayed their inward state, they appeared at the world’s law courts against one another. In their hearts they had no divine apprehension of God’s building, or that they were the temple of God. They had reigned as kings in their outward life. Now the truth which the Spirit uses to correct their unholiness was that the body was the Lord’s — “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit ... do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? for ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body”. The apostle adduces his own manner of life as an example for them: “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”.

Hence also when the chastening of the Lord is spoken of, it is altogether with reference to the body: “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. Many believers might be able to say that they have not gone to the extremes that the Corinthians had sunk to. But all evil has a beginning, and if the dark part had been judged in time, they never would have departed so widely from the truth.

But mark now the good side! How strikingly the body is the exponent of the grace, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body”. The inward thing was the glory, the outward was the life of Jesus in my body. “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body”. We do well to bear in mind the colour-blindness from which one suffers when there is not a true reckoning of oneself dead, because the old man has been judicially terminated in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the measure of the grace actually received is indicated in the manner of life of each believer.

Now the Galatians were legal. They thus betrayed their dark part. They had not practically learned Romans 7. Having begun in the Spirit, they were seeking to be perfect in the flesh. There can be no progress until the dark part which is the immediate hindrance be removed. It is, as I have said, the stone before the wheel. This state shows that they had not learned “that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing ... but how to perform that which is good I find not”; that my body is in itself a body of death, no power in it to do good. My power is the Spirit dwelling in me, my body is His temple, and He only can overcome the dark part in me, and lead me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Hence it is not a legally righteous man who can restore a wanderer, but the spiritual. It is only in the Spirit that I am out of bondage, and through the Spirit I may not do the things that I would, and it is then that His fruit is seen in me. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”. First the inward points are enumerated, and then the outward; and the latter are more in number than the former. The flesh overcome, the Spirit has His own way in His temple, — my body.

Again, in Colossians, the apostle apprehending the dark part from which they were likely to suffer, presents the mystery of God, as the only truth which could preserve them from it. The dark part with the Corinthians was betrayed in self-indulgence; in the Galatians, in being circumcised; but the snare in the Colossians was ^[p. 289] the possibility of working the old man into a christian state. Hence both mind and body were addressed, and they were in danger of being beguiled by the enticing words of man’s wisdom. From this snare nothing could save them but the knowledge of the mystery; which, as it is Christ in us, would necessarily supplant everything of man. Christ would be everything. The old man would be entirely supplanted. The full antitype to Gilgal would be known, as in Colossians 3: 12 - 14. All of the old man was to be left behind, for “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”; consequently, the external character declares the magnitude of the inward change. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another ... even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful”. Almost all these are visible.

It is plain from the scriptures I have quoted, that as the dark part is removed, so is there a demonstration outwardly of the grace within which has affected it; and that when this great work is hindered there is an indication in the manner of life that is outside, of the defect inside. We can often notice defects in the manner of life; but it is not easy to ascertain the lack of grace inside, to which we are to attribute it. The stronghold of one’s nature is of course the last to surrender. It may sustain many an assault, and there is often a desire to conceal it, as the parent bird will endanger its own life, to save the nest. There may be a distinct sense that the Lord is directing His word to the removal of this dark part, and at the same time I may feel that I am subjected to discipline, in order to lay low this only son — this last link to the old man. There is, as is evident, a hindrance to testimony, and to sanctification, while any ^[p. 290] dark part exists. If there were no dark part, the whole body would be light. As in the heavenly experience, we should be “lights in the world”. The light in a christian is unseen when he is not actively in the power of light. Scripture calls this condition sleep; hence it is said, “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee”. Sleep is bodily inactivity. The virgins slumbered and slept. There is light from the body when there is no fear of those who kill it (Luke 12), and when there is no taking thought for what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, and no doubtful mind. So that one’s greatest moral height is that “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death”.

Now, when this is the simple purpose of the heart, there is no thought of any progress in holiness or testimony, but by supplanting the natural darkness in me; for I was darkness, but I am now light in the Lord, and the more the darkness is superseded by the light in me, the more sanctified I am, and the more the dark part is reduced the more the light shines forth in practical testimony. Thus the two things most desired by every true christian, holiness and testimony, are produced in me at one and the same moment.