THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY (1)

THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY (1)

Romans 3: 21 - 26; Romans 5: 8 - 21; Romans 6: 1 - 5

SMcC One is thinking of how our souls are built up in the knowledge of Christ in relation to the gospel and the assembly, particularly thinking of current conditions and how the truth would meet such in our souls. In referring to the current need, one has especially in mind the need that exists in the souls of the younger believers. We are living in an age that is marked by peculiar superficiality, when so much appearance is put on and becomes crystallised with many and the foundations are not right. Younger believers are very prone to be carried by this superficial character of things because it is developed in the schools in a peculiar way. It is incumbent upon us to see that our foundations are right, so that there is stability inwardly underlying all that we are outwardly, and that stability is developed and acquired as our souls are built up in the knowledge of Christ. Christianity involves the knowledge of divine Persons, and if our souls were built up more in the knowledge of Christ in the gospel, there would be far less ebb and flow in our spiritual experience. We have to own that there is a good deal of ebb and flow with us; some days we are all right and the next day we may be all wrong. God would have us repair, in our thinking, to this matter of what is foundational. There is a great need amongst us for the understanding, apprehension and establishment of our souls in the basic teaching of the gospel, and these meetings have in mind that, as current conditions are felt, the truth may open up in relation to it. It is always so that when current conditions are felt and there is a desire in relation to the truth, the truth will open up. We should therefore be very concerned about this matter of our foundations in relation to the gospel, as to redemption, salvation, deliverance, because in this superficial age, the character of which may be taken on by believers, the tendency is to take things on externally without being established internally in relation to the truth; and therefore when we are tested, it may be at work or elsewhere, we are not able to stand. I am sure the basic weakness is in the teaching of the gospel, because it has not had the place in our souls that it should have had; and therefore we appear to be something we are not. We may be breaking bread, we may be going on and talking about the meetings, and yet not solid rock in our souls; if that is the case, then the slightest wind that comes along moves us.

Now these passages are suggested, to begin with, because they bring Christ before us in a peculiar way in relation to the truth of the gospel. First, one wishes to refer to His mediatorship in the matter of sins, and then to speak of His headship. In Romans 5, it is not headship in relation to the body, but headship in relation to man. Then in Romans 6 we have leadership in relation to salvation, for baptism to Christ Jesus in Romans 6 involves that we come under a new leadership. Christ is the leader of our salvation, that is Hebrews 2. Those who are baptised unto Christ Jesus come under His leadership in the wilderness; baptism introducing us into it.

We have in the mercy-seat, how God has mediated this great matter of sins and it is presented in Romans 3 in an affecting way in regard to Jesus in the mediatorial position. It says in verse 25: “Whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”. Notice the link with Christ personally, through His death: “Through faith in his blood”. In Romans 5 there is another link in that relation, for it says (verse 10), “for if being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much rather, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in the power of his life”. Salvation by Christ’s life is not exactly His life in the gospels, it is His life in glory as risen from the dead and glorified. That life acts in the way of salvation as the believer experiences the working out of it in his soul in the power of the Spirit. But this link of the mercy-seat with the blood is very important in our basic relationships with God. The mediating of the great matter of sins is brought on to our view in this way. In no other way could the matter be mediated, and Christ is the mercy-seat. If only that could get a firm grip of our souls, what effect it would produce in the appreciation of how sins have been met and dealt with to God’s glory. I do not think, speaking for oneself, that we have a sufficient sense of mercy.

JAK What do you think the Lord had in mind when He says: “But go and learn what that is - I will have mercy and not sacrifice”, Matthew 9: 13?

SMcC I suppose He was pointing to the greatness of what was coming in in Himself and in the new dispensation. The Jews, to whom He spoke, were under the law and keeping themselves under the law and did not have much sense of mercy, because they did not realise what great sinners they were. The greater the understanding of our sinnership the more appreciation there is of the thought of mercy. We see sometimes in relation to our children, growing up in households where the truth is known, that the thought of sins and how they have been dealt with by God, does not sufficiently lay hold of them. Whereas if they had been delivered from a life of sin, there may have been more effect on them. Not that we put any premium on living a life of sin.

CAH The great model seems to be the righteousness of God now.

SMcC This is the way it is coming out. The righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, as it says, “for righteousness of God is revealed therein”, Romans 1: 17. It is a new kind of righteousness; not righteousness by the law, but righteousness that is to be imputed on the basis and ground of free liberal gift. Romans 5 enlarges our thoughts in regard of the liberality of divine gift and our souls are to be built up in the knowledge of divine giving, so that we can acquire property and much substance in view of the tabernacle and the service of God.

WBG You have something in mind in relation to “his blood”.

SMcC It is important that we should see the place the blood has, because the blood brings in the death of Jesus. The question of sins could not be mediated apart from the death of Jesus, and God has met them on that ground. Think of how long God waited for this! It says, “in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before, through the forbearance of God; for the shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus”, Romans 3: 25. Think of the long time that God waited, all down through the Old Testament that He should be justified in the forgiving of sins, such as David’s sin was! You know, we are so unlike God; we cannot wait. We have got to have things done immediately, especially if it is a question of being justified. But God waited all these centuries, down through the ages, before He was justified by the death of Christ and the blood on the mercy-seat, as the types set out.

Rem So the shallowness that marks many of us who are younger is due to not understanding, in a feeling way, what the cost has been.

SMcC That is what I am thinking of in relation to the blood. The blood brings up the judicial side,

the death of Jesus. The matter of our sins could not be mediated in any other way, in regard to finality, but by that way. Think of the infinite cost that it was to God, that it was to Jesus, that that should take place!

Rem Would Paul show the great appreciation he had of mercy in speaking of himself as the chief of sinners?

SMcC He speaks of himself as being a proud, insolent, overbearing man. Some of us were reading a psalm this morning in relation to the proud. We are very careless in our use of words. A believer should never take that word on his lips about being proud of anything. Sometimes persons say they are proud of their work, proud of their children, proud of the way they have come into things and the way they are shaping up at school. Pride does not come from God; pride comes from the devil; we should be proud about nothing. God abominates pride. It says: “God sets himself against the proud, but gives grace to the lowly”, James 4: 6. If pride is working in my heart, it is a solemn thing to think that I come up against God and He resists it. That is, God fights against pride in my heart. If I am too proud to acknowledge anything, too proud to go down and own where I have been wrong, God is fighting against me; He is resisting me.

Rem That is seen with the publican and sinner who went up to the temple to pray.

SMcC Just so. The point is. Where do things find their origin? Where does pride find its origin? It finds its origin in him, who in the place of power and glory, sought to exalt his throne above God, namely, Satan. Surely, we do not want to take on that feature.

Rem Peter could say: “and all of you bind on humility towards one another; for God sets himself against the proud, but to the humble gives grace”, 1 Peter 5: 5.

SMcC Yes, it should affect us, that He sets Himself against pride, showing how terrible it is in God’s sight. We may not be proud outwardly, but we may be very proud inwardly - we may feel very insulted when anything is said about us or against us that would affect our reputation. But God sets Himself against that.

JAK When Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses. Moses does not say anything, but the Spirit of God brings in that he was the meekest man. The Spirit of God took pleasure in calling attention to Moses, did He not?

SMcC He did. We need to remember that it was to Moses that God says “keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty”, Exodus 34: 7. We should particularly note that word, that God by no means clears the guilty in that sense; that is, sins must be taken into account and they have been taken into account in the blood of Jesus. But the blood, figuratively speaking, is on the mercy-seat, and God has set the mercy-seat forth. That is, the mercy-seat of old was in the holiest, both in the tabernacle and the temple, but the glory of our dispensation is that God has moved the mercy-seat on to the full public view of man, showing how His righteousness is manifested.

Ques Was Moses forbearing in that incident?

SMcC I suppose he was. He realised what we all need to realise, that when it comes to ourselves we can leave things in the hands of God. When it comes to what affects God, we must stand with our backs to the wall and defend the truth at all costs.

Ques Would you say a little more about forbearance for us today as referred to here?

SMcC Think of God forbearing in regard to the matter when man was on trial! That is the point, man was on trial, under the law and, too, in different ways before He was on trial under the law. While the offerings on the altars pointed in type to what was coming in, these sacrifices could never take away sins, neither could they perfect the worshipper who approached. And God forbears with all that, for He waited for the coming of Jesus. It is very affecting, dear brethren, to think of that, how long God had to wait for the coming of Jesus. It was a few thousand years, but His forbearance was there. It is a lesson to us, for we have to see how sins are dealt with. We might rise up in indignation because the standards of human propriety, which we have naturally, have been impugned, or transgressed against in something. There is nothing in that. What should affect us in regard to sins, is God’s holiness. But our dispensation shows that the righteousness of God is now manifested in regard to the passing over of sins.

JWH The setting forth of the mercy-seat was something that God had looked forward to for a long time. First of all it was in the holiest, where the cherubim looked down upon it and guarded it, but now it has been brought forth for men.

SMcC The cherubim are symbols of God’s government and what is in keeping with it. Their looking down upon the blood would point to how that government has been satisfied. Now we come to the full and complete thing in the blood of Jesus, so that God should “be just and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus”.

Rem “There will I meet with thee”, Exodus 25: 22.

SMcC That is it; we have a meeting place there! That brings up in our souls the question of what we know about this meeting place, which reminds us of how sins have been dealt with. It necessitated that a divine Person, coming into manhood, would be found in death, in the place where He is made sin and where He has to say: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Sins were being mediated in that regard; they were being met by God on that principle, through the Mediator, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Timothy 2: 5. The redemption is in Christ Jesus, and that blessed Man, is the Man in whom the question of sins was met, when He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

JAK What do you think of the expression “the power of his blood”? You referred to the power of His life.

SMcC You mean in Romans 5. You will notice that ‘the power of’ is interpolated. It is added to give force to the expression in both sections. The blood bears on the negative side, for all that stood against us morally has been met by the blood. We shall be saved from the wrath which would rightly come upon us in regard of our sins through the blood. Wrath is not being executed at the present time, according to the truth of the gospel. It has been revealed from heaven, but it is not being executed in the present dispensation. It will be executed, but as justified through the power of the blood, we are saved from it. It is the marvellous effects of the death of Jesus in the great mediation of this matter of sins which stood between us and God.

Ques Does the idea of what is efficacious enter into that?

SMcC Of course it does. That is, blood is the only means of efficacy in regard of cleansing from sin.

Rem In Exodus 25 it is not only “There will I meet with thee”, but “and will speak with thee”.

SMcC It is important that there is not only this matter of our basic relations on the ground of sins being dealt with, and where the claims of the throne have been satisfied, but opening up these wonderful thoughts in regard to us and the blessedness of our relations with Him. So that ought to help us to see that nowhere is it contemplated that relief is the great end in the gospel. The blood, of course, does bring in relief, but it has in mind these uninterrupted relations with God where His mind is opened up, His thoughts unfolded.

WBG The epistle is written to Christians, which would just enforce what you are saying as to the need of this in our souls in a foundational way.

SMcC That is the point. I think there is a great need in our local gatherings (at least I would presume here as in our own), of establishment with the young, and with those of us who are older, too, in regard to the glad tidings. You take the woman in Luke 7, what an appreciation she would have of the mercy-seat! I should think we should far less easily fall into sins if we were more conscious of this meeting place, and what Christ is to us as the mercy-seat. God setting Him forth, and then faith in His blood. The setting forth is God’s active side; but faith in His blood is our active side, how we come into the matter.

WBG So that the conditions are not impossible. In spite of all that is set out in the early chapters of Romans, this is the way God meets it.

SMcC That is the point, and it is very interesting to see the reasoning in Romans 5, because so often the negative side is brought up. So often we enlarge on negative conditions. We say, Modern conditions are so bad! Well, they are, but what Romans 5, in its reasoning, shows is that if that is so - much rather what has come in in Christianity would help us. It says in Romans 5: 15: “For if by the offence of one the many have died, much rather has the grace of God, and the free gift in grace, which is by the one man Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many”. And then verse 17: “For if by the offence of one death reigned by the one, much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace, and of the free gift of righteousness, reign in life by the one Jesus Christ”. That shows that we cannot bring up the negative side as an argument for our getting into difficulty and remaining in difficulty because the truth of the gospel shows us that if the negative side is so, then, in the “much rather”, the grace side, the positive side, abounds in the means of help for our salvation.

WBG So that this was really written for us “upon whom the ends of the ages are come”, when all these difficulties will be multiplied.

SMcC Romans was written to those in a city, in a metropolis that was renowned, not only then, but it is renowned now as its fame has been handed down through history. We see how salvation comes in in the midst of that, that believers might be completely saved from a system of things where death reigns, as attached to a Person who has mediated the great matter of sins between God and men. He has mediated by means of His death and His resurrection; we must not forget that, Romans 5 brings it in.

WBG Is the power of His life being ministered to us now by the Spirit?

SMcC Well, it enters into this great matter of our salvation in that way. It says in verse 10: “For if, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much rather having been reconciled we shall be saved in the power of his life”. Now salvation from wrath as linked with justification in the power of His blood and also reconciliation are both faith matters. That is, they are complete matters, there is no progress in them or development in them. They are absolute, complete. We come into them through the liberality of divine gift as presented in the gospel. But salvation by the life of Christ is not absolute in that sense. Salvation by the life of Christ, in its present form.

involves what is wrought in us. It is what we experimentally enter into and participate in by the Spirit, not exactly by faith but by the Spirit.

Ques Should that have a place in our gospel preachings?

SMcC It should. That is, the life of Christ has great saving effect in this sense to the believer. The meaning of it is, that as the believer in his affections is held in relation to Christ, in the power of His life, he is saved from the influences of sin around. There is nothing like the power of attachment to a Person, and immediate spiritual contact with that Person, to save us. Why is it that we are not saved? Why is it that young believers and old believers get into sin, and get out of fellowship? Why is it? They may give all kinds of excuses, all kinds of reasons, they may blame the brethren, or blame this and that; but the real point is that they have lost touch with Christ. That is the whole point.

CAH Would you say the power of His life was expressed in resurrection? The apostle in Philippians 3 speaks about his seeking to attain to the resurrection from among the dead. That would not be actual in his experience, but it was what he had before him, that he might be, at the present time, in the power of His resurrection.

SMcC Well, it involves His resurrection, but Romans 5 involves what is actual, in a spiritual way, not in a physical way. Through the Spirit, the believer has contact with Christ and the power of that life in which Christ lives, saves him.

CAH Yes. I understand that, but I thought “the power of his life” was already expressed in Christ in resurrection and that we enter into it as brought into it by the Spirit.

SMcC That is what we are saying. The life we are speaking of is the life that comes on to view in resurrection. It is miraculous. The life that was in Jesus in the gospels is presented in testimony in the glad tidings. So the word by the angel was: “Go ye and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”, Acts 5: 20. That is life in testimony in Jesus, but that is not exactly what we have in Romans 5. There it is the character of indissoluble life, life that death cannot touch, life that has come on to view in resurrection and glory. And it is life that the believer, by the Spirit, can participate in spiritually.

CAH It came into expression in Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

SMcC Yes. During the forty days, for instance, they were in touch with a Person in whom this life was seen. How wonderful it was! There it was tangibly before them, they could handle it! The Lord says, “Handle me and see”. This kind of life is not like that of the Greek philosophers - something we have a lot of platitudes about. It is life that has come on to view in a divine Person, in manhood, and the believer is to participate in it by the Spirit. We can only come into it by the Spirit, because the Spirit is the great means of contact between the soul and Christ.

CAH It is worked out in us.

SMcC That is the point. It is what is worked out in us - whereas reconciliation and salvation from wrath are not worked out in us. Salvation from wrath and reconciliation have been wrought outside of us in Christ in His death. Salvation from wrath is linked with being justified through His blood and reconciliation is through His death. That did not happen in us. That happened in Christ, outside of us. But salvation in the power of His life is something that is worked out in us, by the Spirit.

CAH So that we have not yet come to resurrection; when we do, we shall be in the same life that Christ is in, shall we not?

SMcC We have not come to it literally. Colossians says: “in which ye have also been raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”, Colossians 2: 12. We come to it by faith in our souls, but literally we shall come to it at the rapture.

Rem His life before death was a testimony to us.

SMcC In His life here God rendered testimony to men of the character and kind of a life that He was going to bring men into. But the life that is referred to here, where it says, “we shall be saved in the power of his life”, is a life that is out of death. It is not exactly the life that was before death, but the life that is out of death. We are saved in the power of it. As the efficacy of it, in the power of the Spirit, works out in us, there is salvation for us.

Rem At the present moment, do we apprehend it by faith?

SMcC Well, not this. Salvation in the power of His life is not a matter of faith. It involves the Spirit. Reconciliation is a matter of faith. Salvation from wrath as justified through His blood, is a matter of faith. It is presented in the gospel and we can accept that by faith. But - “we shall be saved in the power of his life” - is a continuous present matter that works out in the believer in his contact with Christ through the Spirit.

Ques Does this link with John 6, the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Son of man?

SMcC What is to be noted there, is that it is eternal life. The life in Romans 5: 10 is not eternal life, although the one merges into the other. The life that is referred to in verse 10 is life in an active form in the soul of the believer. It is active in Christ and it is active in the believer in the power of the Spirit in his contact with Christ. Eternal life is objective in Romans. It is positional and fixed. Life in Romans 5: 10, is active and operative in the soul of the believer.

WBG Would John touch this in his epistle, when he says: “as he is, we also are in this world”, 1 John 4: 17?

SMcC It involves that. The Song of Solomon would show us how it works out. It says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth”. Well, how wonderful that is! That is immediate contact with Christ, and this life works out in that contact. So that, if contact is lost with Christ, you lose desire for prayer - for reading - for the meetings - and you gradually drift and drift and you may get out of fellowship. The whole secret is contact has been lost with Christ and you are not saved. In other words, instead of being saved through contact with Christ in the power of that wonderful life, you are in bondage and you come under the power of sin.

Ques Would you say something about the thief? What part had he in this kind of life you are speaking of now?

SMcC He went to be with Christ. He did not need the salvation in the power of Christ’s life that we are speaking of.

Rem Whereas he had full part in the former life you were speaking about.

SMcC The testimony of that life was borne to him, but salvation in the power of His life has to do with present circumstances. The thief went out of them right into glory, into paradise, so he did not need salvation in the power of Christ’s life. He was justified in the power and efficacy of Christ’s blood and Christ’s death.

Rem He had every right and title to accompany Christ.

SMcC Certainly. So has every believer on that ground. It is important that we should see the absolute side of the work of Christ. There can be no advance on it or progress in it. Salvation from wrath is complete. I cannot do anything to add to that. Reconciliation is complete, outside of me. I cannot do anything about that. But of course, I can grow in new creation. I do not grow in reconciliation, although I may grow in the appreciation of it, but there is growth in new creation. So you have “a man in Christ” (2 Corinthians 12: 2), which shows a developed thought.

CAH How about Judas? Judas knew all about the life of Christ before He died, but he did not partake in this life at all.

SMcC Oh no, he was an apostate. He comes under the category of Hebrews 6; he was enlightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift, but he had no part in these matters vitally. There was no vital link with Christ. That is very solemn. We may be in these meetings and we need to search our hearts as to the work of God in us. Can I search myself and put my finger, figuratively speaking, on the work of God in me? If I cannot, I may be a Judas. We must be able to discern the work of God in us, otherwise we may be a Judas and be carried in the wave and current and stream of apostasy leading on to the man of sin.

CAH He was even an apostle.

SMcC He was, it shows how far persons can go. Every person who goes out of fellowship, in principle is moving in the stream and current of apostasy. Apostasy really means giving up things. You give up the truth, you give up Christ, you give up Christianity. Persons who go out of fellowship are giving up things; they are moving in that stream.

JAK You think then that when failure comes in with us, it is because of the lack of our conscious link with Christ?

SMcC I am sure it is. What will hold us is where our foundations are fixed in stability through contact with Christ. You take that woman in Luke 7 as she approached, as we would speak of it, the mercy-seat. Do you think she would ever forget it? Do you think when some allurement would come up in the world, some temptation come along, that she would forget that contact with Jesus or when He said: “Thy sins are forgiven”? Think of the tears! Think of how she felt about her sins! Think of what she felt about the Saviour, about Jesus! Do we appreciate our Saviour, Jesus, in that light? We shall not readily fall into sin if we do. We shall not readily get cold. Why we get cold is because we have lost contact with Jesus.

Rem It is the love of the Christ that constrains us.

SMcC So this matter of salvation in the power of His life is very important. It means that I have to keep near to Christ. If I do not keep near to Christ I shall be lost. When I use the word ‘lost’, I am not speaking about being lost eternally, but I will be lost in the world, lost to the testimony. You see brothers and sisters who lose interest and get cold; they blame the attitude of the brethren or something else, but the whole point in the matter is that they have lost contact with Christ, and the enemy has got room to put the wedge in and to bring in the distance.

Rem You do not hear John, who leaned on Jesus’ bosom, complaining; we would not either, if we were near to the Lord in that way.

SMcC The place in the bosom of Jesus was unique to John, but it illustrates what we are talking about, and the importance of being near to Jesus, near to the Son of God, for salvation is in the power of His life. That Person is our life as it says in Colossians - “Christ ... who is our life”, Colossians 3: 4.

Salvation in the power of His life means that He is everything to us as we keep in contact with Him spiritually.

WBG Would the rest of chapter 5 show the way this Person has cleared the ground for us?

SMcC The rest of the chapter opens up the truth of the headship of Christ. Up to verse 11 of chapter 5 the subject is sins, the plural, relating to our guilty acts and the mediation of Christ stands related to it, through the mercy-seat and the blood on it and His death. Now when we come to verse 12 another subject is opened on our view, not sins, in the plural, but sin in the singular. It is the active root principle of sin which is never forgiven and never will be forgiven. Sins are forgiven, but sin is never forgiven. God has expressed His utter condemnation of it at the cross, in the forsaking of Jesus. There was only one thing that could be done with it. God condemned it. Jesus was made to be sin - the very thing - as it says, “Him who knew not sin, he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21. Now this matter of the headship of Christ in this setting is very affecting because we want to see that if we are going to be saved in the end of the dispensation, we need to understand Christ’s headship in this relation, because what the man of sin and the antichrist open up to our view is headship in another relation. The world will choose a head, and the moment that takes place, the apostasy breaks out in full bloom and not until then. It is when the world appoints a rival head that the apostasy extends itself publicly. But through the gospel the believer is introduced to God’s appointed Head of man, the one Man, Jesus Christ. Notice the prepositions here in this chapter the ‘throughs’ and the ‘bys’. It is not exactly what we are coming into now, but the greatness of what is toward us, the liberality of divine giving in order that our souls might be built up in spiritual substance in view of the service of God.

Rem The contrast is between the one Man and the one man.

SMcC That is right, the two men. The first man, and the second man out of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God’s appointed Head for man. It is very affecting, and Luke would help us as to it, how the Lord in coming into humanity, as the Son of man, has come on to the side of humanity to take up all that stood against humanity, the liabilities that humanity incurred through the failure of its first head. The new Head takes them up and discharges the liabilities, that we might go free and come into the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. Notice the gratuity and liberality of the terms in this chapter!

Rem It is remarkable how God can gather up so much in Christ to bring out the favour of God.

SMcC It is. It shows the triumph of God in that way over all that opposed Him, over all that stood against God in the scene which His own hands had created. He has come into it, and mediated this great matter of sins and taken up the great matter of the principle of sin itself that has ruined the world and marred the world for His pleasure. He has taken it up in the one Man, the divinely-appointed Head, and the gospel presents that Head. We should see to it, in the gospel, that this new Head is presented to men, because there is forgiveness in this new Head, justification in this new Head, the gift of the Spirit related to this new Head. Satan is about to introduce the rival head. Well, there will be nothing but condemnation and disaster, ruin and chaos, through him. God has met the dislocation and the chaos and the ruin that sin has brought in, by this divinely-appointed Head. So that if believers are attached to Him, they are attached to Him in righteousness. It is not only that righteousness is imputed, but they are constituted righteous. They are moving in the orbit of this glorious Centre, the divinely-appointed Head. They are not lawless. They are moving as the stars in relation to the sun in the astronomical sphere; they are moving in relation to Christ and held in righteousness.

WBG It is affecting that the apostle Paul should bring this forward for us, he knowing to the full what it was to be under another head.

SMcC Just so, and how it should affect our souls and affect the young believers, because they say so much is against them, but what we want to see is how much more is for us. That is the great point that everything is for us, so we get the expression here in verse 17: “For if by the offence of the one death reigned by the one, much rather shall those who receive the abundance of grace, and of the free gift of righteousness, reign in life”. Now it has often been noted, and will bear repeating, that there are three ideas of life presented in Romans 5: Salvation in the power of His life - reigning in life - and justification of life. Reigning in life means that I am superior in my circumstances, superior to all that I am naturally. So many just give in to themselves, and go under the power of what they are naturally, saying, What can I do about it? You can do everything about it, on the basis of the free gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace. You can be dominant or superior in yourself, through grace and by the Spirit, in your circumstances. Think of what the idea of reigning brings up now: my business does not control me; my family does not control me; men in the world do not control me. I am in control, through divine grace. I am reigning in life. You are dominant in your circumstances. They are not controlling you, you are controlling them. But then the matter of justification of life means that I am what I say. If I say I am a believer, I live and act like a believer, on the lines of righteousness. My life justifies what I am. I do not tell people: Well, the work of Christ has set me free - I do, in a sense - but then my life shows that I am justified; that is justification of life.