TRUTH AND ITS EFFECTS
TRUTH AND ITS EFFECTS
Every truth has its own proper effect. Our blessed Lord was “the truth”; the fruit of it was fully seen in Him. As we receive the truth we are sanctified; we are set free from what we are naturally, and introduced into an entirely new order of being. It is therefore very interesting to note the separate and distinct effects produced, according to the measure or the nature of the truth apprehended in faith. Each truth has its own effect, and no truth would produce the effect of another truth. There is no confusion. If the desired effect is not possessed, the truth that would produce it is not apprehended in faith.
It is very evident that the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ, laid hold of by faith, could alone produce peace. But then, consequent on justification, I have to reach deliverance; that is, that I am free in the life of Christ from the law of sin and death. I am not only cleared from all guilt, but alive in the One who cleared me, because not only did He die for my sins, but “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, ... condemned sin in the flesh”. I do not reach to the proper effect of justification until I have deliverance. Any one can notice that if justification be known, and yet deliverance — the practical experience that I am free from the law of sin and death — be not reached, the believer, in so far as he is conscientious, is occupied with his own state, and does not come up to the proper effect of justification.
[p. 370] The proper effect of one dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ is the absolute surrender of the body to the Lord. It may be objected that many are very clear about the efficacy of the work of Christ, who do not present their bodies a living sacrifice. True, but if the proper effect of the truth has not been produced, it is plain that it is not the truth that is at fault, but the way it has been received. It is impossible that one should be clear from all sins by the blood of Christ, and free from the law of sin and death in the life of Him in whose death God condemned sin in the flesh, and not feel that truly the only reasonable service is that the body should be a living sacrifice to the Lord. The effect of a truth always defines the measure of it that one has apprehended in faith. One might scan the whole range of revealed truth, but the exact measure of it that has been received in faith will be defined by the effect that it has produced.
Hence, when there is any limitation of the grace that justifies us and sets us up free in the life of Him through whom we are justified, there must necessarily always be a corresponding lack in self-surrender to the Lord. We too often expect to find souls clear as to a truth, though in practice we see that they are far from it; and we are often too much occupied with their acceptance of the truth verbally, instead of judging by its effect on them how far the acceptance is in faith. It is quite true that if there is defect in the knowledge of a truth, there must be a defect in its effect; though it is better, and conduces more to prosperity, when the effect of truth is in a measure beyond one’s knowledge of it.
If the truth of Romans produces such a very marked and blessed effect — that is, if the knowledge of justification and deliverance produces the effect of my body being presented to the Lord a living sacrifice, let us now see what would be the effect produced by learning our approach to God as set forth in Hebrews, where we have the right of entrance into the holiest, (the brightest spot [p. 371] with God) through the blood of Christ. In Romans I am clear of all sins, and in the life of Him in whom sin was condemned in the flesh. There can be no deliverance if this latter be not known; but in Hebrews I can, through the blood, approach God, my heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and my body washed with pure water. The two parts of Roman truth are thus assured. The effect of this nearness is that I am running on to heaven in the power of faith; while here on earth, and visibly, as in chapter 13, we express the characteristics of God’s people on the earth, from “brotherly love” up to “obey your leaders” — the proper expression of christians on the earth, and the effect of the truth that they have approach to God, in the holiest, unseen by man, where the Lord Jesus is the great Antitype of the ark of the covenant, which was all that ever was in that place. His blood entitles us to be there; and He is there Himself, the concentration of the glory of God, “crowned with glory and honour”. He is there as the burnt-offering — glorified. Thus there is now the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
In Colossians we find a remarkable confirmation of how a particular truth has its own and peculiar effect. The Colossians were simple and earnest, noted for their faith in Christ, and love to all the saints, but they were in danger of being carried away by religiousness. Now the truth which would preserve them from this was the mystery of God, even that the church is the body of Christ, and that from the Head everything flows, “from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. There is no one who, when clear as to Romans — dead to sin and alive to God — does not incline in some degree to religiousness and devotionalism, unless he apprehends the mystery; then he values nothing but Christ who is his life. “Christ is everything, and in all”. He is not only dead to sin but dead to the world.
[p. 372] Again, surely we can easily admit that no one is heavenly in power and practice who does not enjoy in spirit that he is heavenly. Many desire to be apart from the ways and influences here, but no one can come forth in the tastes and power of a heavenly man here, who has not first the truth that through grace his place is in heaven; that in spirit he has crossed the Jordan, and is in association with Christ where He is, a member of His body, in the sense and possession of the power which led him up there; so that he can come forth here to act in all the marvellous practice detailed in Ephesians 4 - Ephesians 6. Many try to be unearthly and unworldly, but nothing will produce the true type of a heavenly man in practice but the truth that we are heavenly, that our citizenship is there. And assuredly if the Holy Spirit has not led us there, as Stephen was led up there, we cannot have Christ’s power here, to act for Him and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. We cannot have the works if we have not the faith; and it is by our works that we show our faith.
I may add that when the Lord’s supper is apprehended in faith there is a manifest effect. How could I really call to mind the death of Christ for me in the place where it occurred, without being in heart dissociated from that place? How could the scene where He died be the scene of self-gratification or distinction for me, when His death was, according to my faith, vividly before my eyes? Must I not, as I enter into what He endured for me, long to be apart from all that in myself and around, for which He died? The more my heart is drawn to Him, because of His great love for me, the more do I shrink from all that is of man and seek to walk in His ways and for His glory.
One example more. Could any one in faith hold that the Lord is in the midst where two or three are gathered together to His name, and not have a very sensible effect from this truth, an effect that no other truth could produce? No one can define or imitate the influence of the [p. 373] presence of a loved one; how much more when that Person is the greatest and the dearest to us! The effect of His presence cannot be defined, but one is very conscious of it, and according to the measure of faith, He sways and controls every act and sentiment. Could I truly believe that the Lord was present, and not be controlled and influenced by Him, in conscious happy subjection to His will, and yet in gladness of heart, that while the One most loved is so near me, His light which cheers my heart so keeps my flesh in check that I am enabled to wait on Him without distraction?
I need hardly give more instances, because once a principle is apprehended the verity of it will continually be corroborated. If one has the truth of the kingdom of heaven in his heart, he regards everything on this earth as it is in the mind of God according to the effect of His word. His word becomes his rule for everything. Thus his faith in the kingdom is proved, and all that concerns the Lord here on earth and in that relation is before him. The word of God is the sovereign authority to him for everything. The maxims and wisdom of man are refused; he is here as a pilgrim and stranger, in a land from which the King, his Lord, has been rejected; and he will not be swayed in anything by principles in vogue here, even though the abrogation, as it surely will, should expose him to suffering. So also, if I hold in faith the truth of the Lord’s coming, I am becoming more and more separate from everything here; I am going forth to meet the Bridegroom.
May each of our hearts be exercised, not only in ascertaining whether we hold this or that truth, but whether we so hold it that its effect is demonstrated by us as “doers of the word”. May the truth in all its parts be more and more endeared to our hearts, rejoicing that as we hear His voice, some new and distinct effect is produced; for surely He has His own way of forming us into likeness to Himself. Amen.