2 TIMOTHY 2 (SECOND READING)
2 TIMOTHY 2 (SECOND READING)
CAC It is a great comfort in coming together, and at all times, to remember that it is the Lord who gives understanding. Paul says, “Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things”. It is the pleasure of the Lord that we should have spiritual understanding, and the way to get it is to seek the Lord. It is written in the Old Testament that “they that seek the Lord understand all things”, and, “I wisdom dwell with prudence”. Divine wisdom is found with prudent souls. Solomon tells us to find the wisdom that [p. 394] cometh of reflection. We need to be marked by a spirit of prudence and reflection, and then wisdom will be found with us. This is so important in view of the confusion of the last days.
Ques Is that the same as the spirit of wisdom in Isaiah 11?
CAC That is a very fine scripture. All that will qualify Christ for universal government is requisite to qualify the saints of the assembly to act wisely and with understanding in the midst of such conditions that obtain today.
“Think of what I say” gives a special place to the one who was the vessel of the ministry of the assembly. We think of what Paul says. Reflection is needed, the power to consider divine things spiritually; otherwise the mind is occupied with what is of no value in relation to the divine system. There is a difference between wisdom and understanding. There is a system of blessed things, and if we are to act intelligently for God in relation to His system we need understanding in all things. It is all things connected with Christianity, so that we do not act by impulse or feeling, or our own personal view of things, but we act with spiritual understanding. It is most important in these last days that we should be marked by understanding. We see earnest people, who love the Lord, doing exceedingly foolish things, and imagining that they are serving God. That does not further the testimony of the Lord.
In the assembly the understanding or mind has a very great place because there is no edification if there is no understanding. If a person’s thoughts are all mixed up the saints are not edified. The apostle preferred to speak five words with his understanding that he might edify others. Five words marked by spiritual understanding are worth ten thousand words without it. The spirit of enquiry in the temple is the great safeguard of the saints: if we cease to enquire in the temple we shall fail in the understanding of the mind of God. We may do much that is earnest, and in a sense devoted, but it does not help as to the mind of God. What marks Christendom generally is that it has ceased to enquire in the temple; we have to see that we preserve the spirit of enquiry. We have to enquire in that beautiful spirit of Psalm 131; there is a spirit of readiness to refuse one’s own thoughts. A weaned child has had to accept the exercise of being deprived of what was natural, and we have to go through that exercise. There must be a preparedness to be deprived of what we have clung to naturally — our own thoughts [p. 395] and judgment — and we have to find ourselves in relation to another system in which we have everything to learn.
One supremely important matter is brought before us in verse 8, “Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David, according to my glad tidings”. There is an immense amount in that. We might have thought, Why should he have had to say such a thing to Timothy? It is not remembering a fact, it is not remembering that He was raised (the Authorised Version of the Scriptures is a little misleading), but that he should remember Him raised. That is, we do not merely remember a fact, but we remember a Person in a certain condition. It is an important part of spiritual understanding to keep that Person in remembrance. All God’s ways in the past, and the promises, are verified and substantiated now in that Person raised from among the dead. It is of supreme importance that we should remember Jesus Christ in resurrection conditions; we have to keep it ever in mind every day, not the fact that He is risen but that He is in resurrection conditions. That is the One we have to do with. This is the very root of deliverance from all that is of man in the religious profession today; it lies in remembering Jesus Christ raised from the dead. This moves the affections and spiritual understanding of the saints into a new region altogether. Man cannot take in resurrection. F.E.R. used to say that he was astonished at the religious world observing Easter; he could understand their observing Good Friday because the death of the Lord has come into the knowledge of man, but it was always a puzzle to him that they should celebrate Easter, because resurrection opens up a sphere which is entirely outside the range of man’s thoughts and capacities. One could not link the risen Man with things here. The religious system has grown through forgetfulness of Jesus Christ raised from among the dead; that simple and blessed reality has been forgotten instead of being remembered. It is not the fact that has been forgotten; all professing Christians have it in their creeds that He rose the third day, they look on it as a matter of history; but Christ raised from among the dead does not belong to this world’s history at all, it belongs to a region only known to faith. That is what made the breach between Paul and the Jews.
Festus summed it up when talking to Agrippa; he says, This is a matter between the Jews and Paul, about certain questions of their system of worship, and “one Jesus, which was dead,
whom Paul affirmed to be alive”. That is the whole question; it was concerning One Jesus who was dead — Festus could speak positively of that fact. But Paul affirms Him to be alive. If He is living, where is He living? In this world? That is the whole question. As to this world Jesus is dead; that is an historical fact. It needs faithful men to stand at the present time in the light of another world, and in the light of One who is raised from the dead. The Lord never touched the world after His resurrection; He was known in the circle of His own, and He was the subject of testimony, but He was outside the whole course of this world. Now where is He living? If every promise of God and every part of the blessing of God, and all that is precious in the sight of God is substantiated and verified in One who is raised from among the dead, does that not move the believer as to his faith and affections completely outside this present world? It delivers him from the whole effort of christendom to connect divine things with man as living in this world; it delivers at a single touch from the whole system of corrupt christianity. It is something to remember; “Remember Jesus Christ”. If we are prepared as faithful men to stand by that, we shall find that it puts us in a very restricted place in this world.
Nothing but this will bring us to take up the ground of having died with Christ — that is the real secret of everything. Have we died with Christ? Paul speaks of it here with an ‘if’, and the ‘ifs’ of Scripture are things to be very carefully noted. It is seeing the greatness of the Person who is on the other side of death, and seeing the greatness of all that is substantiated in Him, that prepares the heart to take up this attitude of having died together with Him.
We get here the thought of God’s elect. Paul affirms that Jesus is living — that is the public aspect of things, and that involves the whole system that is connected with Him as living. In maintaining that Paul incurred the anger of the religious men after the flesh; they persecuted him with relentless enmity; but he says, I am prepared to suffer and to endure because God has His elect, and His elect are going to obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. That is something outside the course of this world. All this is positive blessedness which will prepare us to be dead with Christ, and prepare us for separation. Paul is going to lay it down as a necessity that the path of separation should be taken; and if [p. 397] we are to take the path of separation we must have some substance in our souls, so he brings in all the spiritual assets.
Ques Is this the highest form of salvation?
CAC I think it is, because the salvation that is in Christ Jesus would involve ultimately having a body of glory like Christ. The salvation that is in Christ Jesus is very great because it involves a new place altogether; it involves eternal glory, a new sphere, a new condition — the condition of the risen and glorified Man. My impression is that the term “in Christ Jesus” is not applied to any company of saints save the saints of the assembly. The thought of “in Christ” would probably include the Old Testament saints, too; for instance, “the dead in Christ shall rise first”, and “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. “In Christ” takes in the whole company, whatever family they belong to. I think every saint, from Abel down to the last saint there will be, can be said to be “in Christ”. There is no blessing for man except in Christ, but this term “in Christ Jesus” is specially linked with Paul and his doctrine, and has to do with the saints of the assembly. I do not think there is any scripture that applies the term to other saints.
Ques How far does “in Christ Jesus” take us?
CAC I think it takes us into all that is in the purpose of God. It is in that risen and glorified Man in whom every thought of God is substantiated, the Man of purpose, so we are fully furnished without requiring a single element that the world could offer. When the heart sees that, it is prepared to die together with Christ. Dying together with Christ has an if attached to it. In Colossians it says, “If ye be dead with Christ ... why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” There is an if — you could not say that all christians had died together with Christ; they have not come to it, they have not put the stones in the Jordan.
Ques Have they not all been baptised?
CAC Yes, the children of Israel were baptised in the Red Sea, but they did not put the stones in the Jordan until forty years after.
Ques Where are we if we have not put the stones in Jordan?
CAC Living in the world. The Red Sea is the way out as to public profession, and in public profession every baptised person has gone out from the world; he is committed to the position publicly, but we have got to come to it affectionately.
[p. 398] None of us knew anything about baptism when we were baptised, we had to learn it afterwards. Paul in writing to the Romans does so on the ground that they had been baptised, and as having been baptised they had taken the ground of being dead to sin; they were on that ground publicly, and he reasons from that standpoint. But when we come to the stones being put into Jordan, that was not a command, Joshua was not told to put the stones in the Jordan; he did it by spiritual intuition. I think the if raises the question whether we have put our stones in Jordan. “If we have died together with him, we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together; if we deny, he also will deny us; if we are unfaithful, he abides faithful, for he cannot deny himself”. It is put that way; it is a question of ifs, and it is very good to remember it. This was a statement which the earlier saints were very familiar with, Paul could refer to it as a known word, “The word is faithful”. This was doubtless an early Christian hymn, and it would not be amiss if we had it in our hymnbook; it shows the kind of hymns that the earlier Christians sang. Living together with Him is dependent on having died together with Him. It is right and of God that these questions should be raised. What are we doing? Are we living in the world, or have we died with Christ? There is a possibility of any of us not having died with Christ, and if we have not we are not living with Him — that is quite clear. If we endure, we shall reign; if we deny, He also will deny us. If we are unfaithful, well, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. We have to come back to Him for everything; if all fails we remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead. If we remember that and take account of it and all it involves — He does not live in this world — if I believe and love, am I going to live in the place where He is dead, as Festus said, or am I in my affections and mind going to take the place of having died with Him in view of living together with Him? All turns on that. Are we going to live where Christ died, or is it a necessity to us to die in order that we may live where He lives? Nothing can do us more good than to pay great attention to that word, “Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead”, to let our mind dwell on that Person living. That is Paul’s affirmation, He is living. If God’s salvation and blessing and the revelation of God in love are all bound up in my heart with that Person, what is the effect? I am prepared to die [p. 399] together with Him in view of living with Him — that is simple Christianity.
Ques Jesus Christ covers all that came out in that Person for God in His whole life. Is that gathered up in the thought of resurrection?
CAC Yes, because nothing is lost; all that came out is substantiated in that Person. He is lost to this world; it has completely lost Christ. Jesus is dead — that is what Festus said, and it is true; but then nothing that came out here in Him has been lost. It has been transferred to another sphere outside the life of this world, outside the reach of sin and death, outside every corrupt influence, and outside church failure; it has been transferred to the resurrection sphere.
Paul says, Remember that. In the election of God He has nothing else in view for every saint, but then it needs a Paul to be prepared to suffer and endure if the elect of God are to obtain it. Paul suffered in order that the elect might obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Then Paul goes on to quote this faithful word.
Ques Would this help us in the path today?
CAC I think it would, because we belong to a Person who is outside the whole course of this world. One could not think of Him in Parliament; then one could not be interested in getting people sent to Parliament, because that is a sphere where He is not. The religious systems of this world are designed to carry on in relation to this world; one cannot bring the risen Man into that. He is not in that order of things; therefore we want to go on with the order of things where He lives. Where does He live?
Ques Was He not in the religious systems when here?
CAC In a certain way He was. He recognised the temple as His Father’s house, but it was not His Father’s house at the end. There was a religious system that was connected with life in this world, and God has discarded that altogether. Paul maintained that God had discarded it, and he suffered as an evildoer because he maintained that God had discarded the religious system connected with life in this world. Paul inaugurated another system which stands connected with the sphere where Jesus lives.
We need to know the risen Man outside of everything here if we are to be morally separate from things here, and find the company and support that we want. We need the company [p. 400] and support of those near to the Lord; and if we are to find the company of such we must be governed by these great and forcible realities.