2 TIMOTHY 2 (FIRST READING)
2 TIMOTHY 2 (FIRST READING)
Ques What is the thought of Onesiphorus finding mercy?
CAC If a man is faithful in his course down here it is a matter of mercy, and all reward will be on the ground of mercy in that day when God takes account of the service of His saints.
Rem I had regarded Onesiphorus as having by his act identified himself with Paul in the reproach of the testimony.
CAC Yes, and there was a sure compensation for him in that day. Everything will be gathered up in that day. The apostle had said just before, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day”. Our vindication belongs to that day.
[p. 389] Rem The great thing is to leave it to that day.
CAC Saints had been turning away from Paul, forgetting all that they had got from him, and were actually speaking ill of him, but Paul committed his cause to the Lord.
Rem He was in no way soured by it.
CAC No. I suppose we do not know the One whom we have believed if we get soured. If “that day” were always in view it would give great solidity to things; there would be no dropping out because of discouragement; if we “faint in the day of adversity” our strength is small.
Ques What is the force of being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus?
CAC There is no limit to the supply. It becomes of great importance in a day of departure that we should be on the life-line; that is, that things should be vital. The grace that is in Christ Jesus is very vital. I take it that it is a new order. He says in chapter 1: 13, “Hold fast the form of sound words ... in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus”. That is the line of life; everything that is really life is in Christ.
Rem Faith and love are inseparable.
CAC It was what marked believers when they were really in life that they had faith in Christ Jesus and love to all saints, and the thing is to be of the order of those who are strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. God has brought in His anointed Man. He has not only brought Him into heaven as His anointed Man, but He has brought Christ Jesus in on the earth in His saints. It is faith and love in Christ Jesus, and saints are in Christ Jesus. God has brought Him here morally. It is vital to christianity that there is a people living piously in Christ Jesus, actually down here on this earth. People are more taken up with the things that are in Christ Jesus on the line of purpose and have lost sight of it on the moral side. God has actually brought in that order of Man in Christ Jesus. Paul says, In Christ Jesus I have begotten you. When born we are not very big, but that is the line we are on, and it is a great thing to grow in it, and to be strong in all the qualities that mark God’s anointed Man. The idea of being strong suggests that you become a man; Timothy is addressed as a man, “thou, O man of God”. Do not let us be content to be babes; we have to grow up morally. It is a perfect contrast to what Adam was as fallen man. It is brought about in the very place where Adam failed; in a world that is full of the qualities of [p. 390] the fallen creature God has brought in all the qualities of His anointed Man, and saints share the qualities and the Spirit of the anointed Man, the Christ. Faith and love are to mark saints down here.
We could not be established in grace and yet desire to maintain any status as men in the flesh — the only order we have to maintain is that of men in Christ Jesus. As we are sitting here, it is all very well, but alas! in our responsible life we often practically lose sight of it and get into a very mixed condition morally. It ought not to be so; there ought only to be the condition that is of Christ; it should not be mixed — partly Christ and partly Adam — such a thing was never God’s thought. Everything came out in Christ; all has been seen in a Man in this world. It has been seen of angels.
Rem And we receive the Spirit of that Man.
CAC God’s thought of bringing a Man into this world is an immense thing. You have to go through travail of soul to reach it; it is not easy, but through exercise and travail that new order of man is brought in. Paul said he travailed in birth for the Galatians that Christ might be formed in them. He went through great exercise of soul for them. God was bringing in Christ and they had gone back to Adam. If it had been possible for the flesh to have been formed according to God, the law would have done it, but the material was so bad that God had to set it all aside to form Christ and to bring Christ into this world. We ought all to see that nothing will do for God but the life-line.
Ques We only reach it through travail of soul, you say?
CAC It cannot be reached in any other way. Ishmael had to be cast out; it was very grievous in the sight of Abraham. It was like casting out his own bowels. That which he had cast out was the thing nearest to his heart; and so it is with us, the thing nearest to self, our very being morally, has to go that something new may be brought in — the anointed Man down here. We have connected the anointed Man too much with heaven.
Ques Will you define the state reached which the apostle has before him, Christ formed in you?
CAC I think it is the kind of man. In the Galatians it was very obvious that Christ was not formed in them. A people occupied with days, weeks, months and years, circumcision and uncircumcision, is not formed after Christ. It is not normal [p. 391] that converted people should take up and occupy themselves with these things. The apostle is labouring to bring them to recognise an enduring order of things where “neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation”. That is salvation. Nothing is of any good that does not work by faith and love. Faith works by love and that is quite a different thing. A new kind of man is formed which is after Christ. Faith working by love is Christ formed in saints. Paul saw it worked out in the Colossians and in the Ephesians. It is what you can take account of, it is not a thing outside what you can take account of. Paul had heard of it in the Colossians; Epaphras had come and told him of them; Christ was being formed in them. Faith working by love is christianity; the Man was really being brought into the world. It is a great thing. It is God’s intention to bring a Man into this world. It takes all the saints to make up that Man and that is in Christ Jesus. Christianity is a continuation of Christ in the saints and nothing else is. God’s triumph is seen in the saints in Christ Jesus.
We are to be strong in the grace of the anointed Man, in all the moral beauty of that Man. We cannot limit grace in that blessed Man; He is the embodiment of all grace and the source of it for His saints. We begin very small, we get introduced to it by the gospel. Paul said, I have begotten you; he had really begotten them through exercise; they were the product of his exercise as well as his preaching. He did not go home and go to sleep; he went through travail of soul on their behalf. We often come into things through the exercise of another; someone perhaps has been praying for us. We first touch things through exercise, and it is only through exercise we enter into this new order of things, and then we have to grow.
Ques What helps us to grow?
CAC We need to have food. We desire the sincere milk of the word, as Peter says, that we may grow thereby. We grow through our own exercises. The apostle had done everything for his converts; he had mothered and fathered them. It would be very wonderful to have someone like that to look after our souls! Growth has largely to do with ministry and pastoral care in the assembly and constantly coming into contact with people desirous of helping us; and then God’s dealings with us in discipline and the many exercises that turn us to [p. 392] prayer; prayer is a very important part of growth. It is a very great thing to have the new order of things before the soul. God’s thought is to have a new order of things in Christ Jesus. You touch the line of life, are alive unto God. It is not eternal life, but the life-line in contrast to all that is here morally. Food is very important. The point about food is that you become characterised by what you feed on; it is made part of your constitution. You do not merely eat for comfort and enjoyment but that you may be strengthened and built up; so with spiritual food, it is that we may be built up constitutionally, so that we are coloured by the very things we have been feeding on. We should not come to meetings merely to get cheered up because we are feeling depressed.
Rem An atmosphere of love would promote growth. Would you say a little more about the ‘in Christ’ condition?
CAC It is the one thing that will preserve us in a day of departure. When people turn away, the thing is to go on with what is ‘in Christ Jesus’. It is an expression used a good many times. I think there is the thought of continuity. Things are to be kept. Faithful men are to be raised up to keep this line of things before saints; it is a great thing to keep these things before us. One is thankful to see faithful men raised up for this purpose. Very few really understand what it is to be in Christ Jesus. If you asked the saints in T., nine out of ten would not know what you meant; you would be amazed at the answers you would get. Souls get occupied with their blessings; they are justified in Christ, accepted in Christ and so on. It is all quite true, but does not bring in the moral truth of saints being livingly connected with Christ Jesus in this world. Objective truth alone does not produce exercise. Saints are often content with seeing all in Christ, but the moment you touch the truth of God’s thought that the Man should be brought into the world, it produces exercise and travail of soul. It is God’s intention to bring in Christ in me and in all my brethren. Paul laboured to present everyone perfect in Christ. He wants to bring the Man into the world. The truth is we are absolutely justified in another Man, but we cannot separate from this the subjective side of things. It is true we are justified in Christ. All believers are justified in the Man who sits at God’s right hand, but we have made many scriptures run on that line that really do not. There are many scriptures on the moral line. It is the moral line that is to be [p. 393] worked out in saints. We are to be livingly in Christ Jesus down here, and people reach it through exercise. Romans 7 and Romans 8 are different. Romans 8: 1 is on the moral line, you become translated to the new line morally. In chapter 8 “in Christ Jesus” is outside the range of condemnation; there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. You are connected livingly with this new order of things. In Romans when you touch “no condemnation”, conscience does not condemn you. In chapter 7 you delight in God’s will but could not do it; now you delight in it and do it. It is really the Spirit of life in another Man; you are free. It does not suppose that souls in the good of justification are not free from conditions of sin. If a soul is justified it touches new ground where there is no condemnation, in Christ Jesus, outside the region of sin and death. There is freedom of spirit. Paul states it first abstractly, that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, then maintains it as an absolute fact, “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”. He had proved it; he speaks of it abstractly first, and then as one who was in the good of it. When we see what christianity is, we are profoundly self-judged; we are all so small and feeble in our apprehension of it. The first verse of chapter 8, “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus”, follows on chapter 7, but he is in the good of it by walking according to Spirit; there is nothing else in Christ Jesus but what is of the Spirit. The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled; this is the very lowest platform on which Scripture contemplates saints. It is the proper platform for every babe in Christ. Higher truth is found in Colossians and Ephesians.