2 TIMOTHY 1 (SECOND READING)
2 TIMOTHY [p. 382] 1 (SECOND READING)
CAC We were speaking last week of what Paul calls the testimony of our Lord. I think he dignifies the glad tidings by speaking of it in that way. We were seeing that it concerns the purpose and grace of God given to the saints in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, so that God has brought in, in His grace, life and incorruptibility. There is a living character of things introduced that cannot be corrupted, and Paul brings this before Timothy as encouragement in view of the corruption of everything in the christian profession.
Life and incorruptibility were ever in God’s purpose, but were manifested by the appearing of Jesus Christ and His annulling death. Now the important thing is that what was in the purpose of God in Christ Jesus before the world was should be livingly in the saints by the Holy Spirit. That is really Paul’s glad tidings and its results. The glad tidings are to this end, that what was in the purpose of God in Christ Jesus before the world was should now be vitally in the saints by the Holy Spirit.
In verse 13 Timothy is enjoined to have an outline of sound words which he had heard of Paul in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Now you have faith and love, that is, in the soul of Timothy. It is not held theologically, but vitally.
Ques What is the meaning of “in Christ Jesus”?
CAC My impression is that the term “in Christ Jesus” covers the whole of Paul’s gospel. To apprehend intelligently what is meant by “in Christ Jesus” would separate us from the whole disordered state of things in christendom.
In 1 Corinthians Paul speaks of “in Christ Jesus”; he speaks entirely from the side of the divine calling and purpose. I do not think that the saints at Corinth had touched it because they were carnal and walking as men. How could carnal people touch what was in Christ Jesus? Paul was trying to show them that what was in Christ Jesus had touched them. It had touched them if they had not touched it. That is, they were sanctified in Christ Jesus; it was a question of how God had been moving to them. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who had been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”. Paul’s object in bringing this [p. 383] in is to shut the flesh out altogether — that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Paul speaks of the testimony of Christ in chapter 1, and the testimony of God in chapter 2 (1 Corinthians). The testimony of Christ was as much as to say that the candlestick was there and all its vessels, but the oil had not been furnished for the light and the lamps were burning dim. The testimony of the Christ was there established in the saints and not anywhere else, but they needed to be spiritual in order to preserve the light to the testimony; it needed spiritual persons. We can look at the thought of “in Christ Jesus” first from the side of divine purpose; there could be nothing defective or enfeebled on that side because it was given to the saints before the world began, and nothing that has happened in the history of the world or the history of individual believers could invalidate it.
“In Christ Jesus” suggests to me that God has another Man before Him, and that in the sovereignty of His mercy, grace and power He has transferred the saints to that Man. He has transferred us vitally to Christ risen by giving us the Spirit. The blessing of Abraham has come to the gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith; Galatians 3: 14. “In Christ Jesus” is connected with the presence of the Spirit in the saints. I cannot think of anything likely to be more establishing than that saints should consider Paul’s use of the term “in Christ Jesus”; it is a great stay for the heart.
Ques Does not Paul open up the truth of in Christ?
CAC Yes, but in Christ seems to me wider in its scope than the church. All the families that are blessed are blessed in Christ “As in Adam all die, thus also in the Christ shall all be made alive”. It is a wider scope and it applies to every resurrection family, but I do not know that “in Christ Jesus” is said of any family but the church. I think it is limited to Paul’s teaching, it is characteristic of his teaching. The words which Timothy had heard of Paul were concerning Christ Jesus, and he was to have them definitely before him; he was to have the outline of what he had heard of Paul. I have noticed how definite people are who have wrong notions. If a person has wrong notions he is precise and clear and knows exactly the scripture he relies on to support it, and that is why christians are so often at the mercy of designing persons. Now we have to be careful that we have an outline, that we know clearly [p. 384] where we are, and what man we are connected with. I think Paul’s gospel is the gospel that applies particularly to this present time. It is the testimony to be rendered, and it is in our times. It has a limited period and we are in that period. “In Christ” covers the whole ways of God in grace with men. I think Adam himself was “in Christ” but not “in Christ Jesus”.
I think that “in Christ Jesus” stands in relation to what is outside time, to what lies in the purpose of God outside time; but it is being effectuated today, so there is faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Speaking generally, faith is connected with divine Persons, and love has its activity towards the brethren.
It is remarkable the way that Paul presents the truth of “in Christ Jesus” to young converts; it is good to get an elementary thought of it. I believe the first mention historically of “in Christ Jesus”, is in 1 Thessalonians, the earliest epistle written. Paul says in chapter 5: 16, 17, “Rejoice always; pray unceasingly; in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus towards you”. That is the way that we are started on the line of “in Christ Jesus”. We get the thought of a company of persons in this world marked by joy, by continual prayer, and by giving thanks in all things — that is God’s will in Christ Jesus. We see the new order of man. That is how Paul brings it out to people who have only been converted a few weeks — God’s will in Christ Jesus. We are to begin to move on that line. What a comprehensive thing it is to be characterised by always rejoicing; nothing is more uncommon in this world than a person who is always rejoicing. We are bound to see something special in that. Then there is “pray unceasingly” — that is, persons whose very life-breath is a prayer, it is the very breath of the soul. And “in everything giving thanks”; no murmuring or discontent or complaining of the weather or circumstances or anything else, but thanksgiving. That is the elementary presentation of being “in Christ Jesus”; it is the will of God in Christ Jesus. It has helped me much to see this; it gives one a good practical start of being in Christ Jesus. Paul speaks of assemblies in Judaea being in Christ Jesus, and the fact that they were had brought down on them persecution. People moving on this line will be persecuted, for the world does not like the presence of people who rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything [p. 385] give thanks. It is a condemnation of the world and every one in it. These Thessalonian believers did not know a tenth part of what the youngest person in this room who is breaking bread knows today. Paul was leading them to it in a very simple way, telling them this was the line they were to be on now — rejoicing always, praying unceasingly, and in everything giving thanks. Thus we move on the line of the will of God in Christ Jesus. Paul brings the Thessalonians to it experimentally, not doctrinally. Paul opens the subject out very carefully in Romans, and shows how God disentangles us from what is connected with us as in the flesh. When God took hold of us we were bound up in liabilities connected with the flesh and Adam, and we could not shake ourselves free, but God has come in to disentangle us. Paul shows that we get liberated from the question of sins, from the state of sin, and from the law, and then in chapter 8 we come to be in Christ Jesus. It is the complete disentanglement from every question that has arisen from our responsible history in flesh. Every question is solved, and now we are in Christ Jesus and have the Spirit — that is Paul’s gospel.
Rem The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free.
CAC That is when we get it vitally in our souls. Paul says to the Galatians, “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision has any force, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love”. When all in Asia turned away from Paul, it was not only the truth of the assembly they turned away from, but the truth of the glad tidings as personified in Paul — that is, all connected with the precious title “Christ Jesus”, and the precious term “in Christ Jesus”. We should set the greatest value on those words.
The presentation of this truth must have been very testing, for under the influence of these two leading brethren Paul mentions (verse 15) they turned away from him. We can easily be ashamed of the testimony, so Timothy is exhorted not to be ashamed of it; it is a test to every one of us, whether we are moving on the line of “in Christ Jesus”. Am I always rejoicing? Praying without ceasing? Giving thanks in all things? That is the line of the testimony.
In verse 14 Paul says, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”. I think the good deposit was the truth which was in Christ Jesus; it is a priceless [p. 386] jewel and Timothy was the custodian of it. We cannot keep it by natural power or by putting it in a creed; Timothy had to keep it by the Spirit. What has led to everything that is wrong in christendom is that they relied from early days in the history of the church on a creed for the preservation of the truth, and not on the Spirit. Creeds are not vital, they are not sufficient to preserve things. I often think that the man who had a talent and wrapped it away in his napkin was putting it in a creed, and so it was unproductive and yielded nothing for the Lord. We want things, not in our creeds but in our lives. They are to be vitally in the saints.
Rem The woman in the gospel who had an issue of blood, got virtue out of Christ.
CAC Yes, a person always rejoicing and breathing an atmosphere of prayer and never complaining even when things are adverse, that person could say, I have touched the hem of His garment and I have virtue out of Christ. We are very much nearer to Him than that woman was when she touched the hem of His garment. We are in personal contact with Him every moment by having His Spirit, and we need to wake up to the realisation of it. We all know very well that, when we are in personal contact consciously with the Lord, we do not fail or dishonour Him by any defection or wrong conduct; it is when we get away that the soul soon gets clouded. We are open to exposure ourselves then, for Satan, apart from the mercy of God, can do what he likes with us. You find that christians away from the Lord behave worse than people in the world. The reason is that Satan has a special object in getting them to behave badly. He does not trouble about people in the world, but he lays himself out to get christians to do things which bring reproach on the name of Christ.
It is through the gospel that we learn first that all God’s thoughts of blessing towards us are in Christ Jesus, and that by the call of God we are in Christ Jesus. We all attach through God’s grace great importance to the truth of separation from iniquity as laid down in chapter 2, but on what principle are we going to be separate, and what is the grace and power to enable us to do it? I think it is the apprehension of what is in Christ Jesus. This light comes to us in the gospel, but it does not commend itself to the mind of man. It is a stumbling-block to the Jew, the religious man, and foolishness to the Greek, the intellectual man, but to those who are called it is Christ the [p. 387] wisdom and power of God. A called person has retired from the religious man and the intellectual man, has discarded the whole as worthless; that is the moral separation that cuts down to the root of everything.
Onesiphorus was wholly governed by what was of God; he discerned that Paul was the vessel of the testimony at the moment, but it seems to show that things were not right with the brethren in Rome, for they did not know where Paul was. It says, he “sought me out very diligently, and found me”. Paul was in Rome and there was a large company there, but they seem not to have known where to find him; so when Onesiphorus came up from the provinces with great desire to find Paul he had to be very diligent in searching for him. That was true brotherly love, and he was not ashamed of the chain. Could we be singled out as moving on altogether different lines from the bulk of christians and moving in such a way as to refresh the Lord Himself? Paul was representative of the Lord Himself. Paul is our apostle, in a special way to us gentiles, and he is the man with the pitcher of water for us. It is a good thing to follow Paul and sail with him; he connects us with a source of supply and satisfaction that cannot be touched by any circumstances of the christian profession.
The first epistle to Timothy gives us the gospel in its bearing on the condition of man; it speaks of the Saviour God who will have all men to be saved, and of the Mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all. The first epistle presents the gospel in relation to the need of man, and the second epistle presents the gospel in relation to the purpose of God. We do not give up the first epistle by going on to the second. What we learnt in the first is still true but now we are looking at the second volume of the gospel. The assembly is the third volume, and that makes up the threefold cord. The gospel is what there is for men in the grace and love of God, but the assembly is what is secured for God and Christ.
In the first epistle we see that all the elements of departure were there; law-teaching, giving up of piety, and giving up of all divine order; but in the second epistle these things have become characteristic of the whole profession. We are therefore glad to move off on to the line of faith and love in Christ Jesus and to keep things by the Holy Spirit. I cannot keep things by doctrine, but I must keep them by the Spirit. We have [p. 388] seen people who have known the New Testament truth as well and better than we do, and yet they have turned aside from the testimony because they did not keep things by the Holy Spirit.
It is interesting that Paul asks for present mercy for the house of Onesiphorus, but as to Onesiphorus himself, “The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord in that day”. That is the day when everything comes to light; we should not naturally have thought of mercy in that day. It indicates that in regard of what is connected with responsibility the thought of mercy goes right through to the judgment-seat of Christ. I think when we get there we shall feel in our souls that whatever the Lord commends and approves, or any crown of righteousness He gives, is all mercy. Paul said, “having received mercy of the Lord to be faithful”. If any of us are a little more faithful than our brethren it is mercy.
‘How shall I meet those eyes?
Mine on Himself I’ll cast,
And own myself the Saviour’s prize,
Mercy from first to last’.
That is how I shall stand at the judgment-seat of Christ. Possibly Onesiphorus was no longer here, his pathway of testimony was over, and so Paul’s desire for mercy in the present is for his house, but as to Onesiphorus himself, he looks for mercy in that day. We shall have to come back at the judgment-seat of Christ, if never before, to the thought of pure mercy.