THE SPHERE OF LIFE NO. 1
[p. 44] THE SPHERE OF LIFE NO. 1
The judgment of death on man has been borne by the Man Christ Jesus. This judgment on man must be removed before eternal life could be given; it could not be entered into or enjoyed, save by those no longer under judgment — such have passed from death to life. Hence it is said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3: 14, 15). Man is lost; the world is under judgment, and out of it Christ has been lifted up. Faith in Him lifted up is our step out of all that was under judgment. We pass out of death into life. Eternal life could not be given to the man under judgment of death; therefore it could not be conferred until the Son came, through death to destroy him that has the power of death, and it is in the Son that we have it. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2: 14). The saints, prior to the death of Christ, were all their lifetime, through fear of death, subject to bondage. But Christ, having borne the judgment, and having bruised the serpent’s head, is henceforth the life of every one believing in Him risen from the dead. Hence, the life is not in the man who was under judgment, but in Him, the second Man, who has borne the judgment and is beyond it. As with Israel, when the one bitten of the serpent looked at the brazen serpent lifted up, he lived; so now, as there is faith in Christ lifted up, and as the eye of faith rests on Him there, so is there assured possession of eternal life in Him. While there is any uncertainty or indistinctness in the soul as to life being not in the man under judgment, but in Him, who by death has. gone out of the whole scene of death and judgment, there is not an assured sense of the great gain accruing [p. 45] from the gift of God. The gift of God is eternal life, but this cannot be entered into until a complete transfer has been accepted from the man under the wages of sin, to Him who is alive from the dead. Eternal life is in Him, the Son of God; it is beyond everything of sin and death. He is our life, and He is outside of everything in any way connected with man’s state. He has died unto sin, and “in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God” (Romans 6: 10). You must not only have faith in His blood, you must feed on His death; that is, you must appropriate His death before you can know Him as your life. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6: 53). You must feed on the death of the One who bore the judgment of death, and removed it, before you can know that He who has done so is your life. When you are enjoying Christ in glory, you are enjoying life in its own proper sphere and fulness. The soul must pass this step before Christ can be known as He is. You are fully clear of the judgment, and of the man under judgment by faith in Him lifted up. He is the beginning of the eternal and heavenly things, which were manifested here in His Person. I must be morally out of the one before I know the other.
Hence, in the epistle of John you travel from light to love. All inconsistent with God is first removed, and then the love is entered on; and then you are assured that as Christ is at God’s right hand, so are you in this world. Life in Christ can only be enjoyed and entered into in the sphere where Christ is, and the Holy Ghost ever leads to that sphere. It is not enough that one is over Jordan — that he has died with Christ, but he must be in the sphere of life to enjoy Christ, who is his life. Such an one now seeks the things which are above, where Christ sitteth. He is dead, and his life is hid with Christ in God. Once the Spirit has been received, He always tends to, and reaches up to Christ in His own sphere; hence it is said of the Spirit in the believer, “springing up”, not to heaven but “unto eternal life”.
Now mark, that having died with Christ and being clear of the old man, as at Gilgal, the rolling it all off being known, circumcision, consequent on, and subsequent [p. 46] to, being risen with Christ and seeking the things above, I reach that point in the history of my soul where I have been instructed in Him in “the truth as it is in Jesus”, the having put off the old man, and the having put on the new Man; that is, I practically enter into it; but it is true of every believer, as in Christ before God. The first step is, that Christ having died for me, and that I having died with Him, am apart from everything connected with sin and death; and now, in the second step, I accept the practical severance from all of the old man, both as to will and habits. I am outside of the man on whom man in the world can act, while I walk in faith.
Now, as in the type, the old corn of the land was not eaten of, and the manna had not ceased until the day after the Passover. When I have accepted “the truth as it is in Jesus”, of having put off the old man, and having put on the new, I reach Him where He is everything and in all. Then we eat of the old corn of the land. We enjoy Him — the Eternal Life, where He is. In the heavenlies you do not eat manna, but the old corn of the land.
One word more. There are three witnesses that God hath given us eternal life and that life is in His Son — the Spirit, the water, and the blood. The Spirit, who is the truth, is first in order, though last in finishing. He leads me into it, and connects me eternally with it.
The next witness is the water — second in order, because it conveys the assurance that I am purged from every moral pollution by the death of Christ, typified by the two washings in Leviticus 14. And this really does not come out effectively and fully, until I am at Gilgal; that is, in the realisation that I am apart from the old; and that, in the putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ, I am in the new.
The third witness (the one we know first) is the blood. There is a full and complete expiation of my sins.
Unless you are in spirit where Christ is, believing on the Son of God, you are engaged with a conflict which is not heavenly; and though you may have the support of Christ here individually as the manna, yet you are not with the consecrated company feeding on the old corn of the land, because you are not in spirit where it is.