TO BE TO ANOTHER

R. D. Plant

Romans 7: 1–4; Ruth 1: 22; 2: 1–12, 14–16 to “she may glean”; 2 Corinthians 11: 1–4; Revelation 3: 9

What I am impressed with, beloved brethren, is the phrase which is contained in the seventh chapter of Romans verse 4, “to be to another”—“ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another”. We refer to the seventh chapter of Romans quite frequently, and we usually are thinking of the exercises that come out in it as to the struggle between flesh and spirit, and the way that sin operates in our members. Maybe there are those here, believers who know something of that, who know something of trying to improve their life, trying to do things better, do things differently; trying to do good and finding disappointment in it. And the more the man in Romans 7 tries to do what is right the more he finds he still tends to do what is wrong. And so the exercise goes on until he reaches deliverance from it all the end of the chapter. “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7: 25).

In the main I believe that is what we think of when Romans 7 is referred to, and we do not very often speak of these first four verses in the chapter, but they are very important verses. Someone has said, that it is written, in a way, back to front, because the answer to “who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” (Romans 7: 24) is given in verse 4. In other words the answer to the riddle is at the beginning—“to be to another”. I think that is something that every one of us here should know. You may have a knowledge of Christianity, you may appreciate the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be that you have availed yourself of it, I am sure that is so with most, if not all here. But I wonder, beloved, if you have had the experience and appreciation of having to do with the Lord Jesus personally. Mr. J. N. Darby in one of his poems says, ‘Yes, then ‘twas faith—Thy word; but now Thyself my soul draw’st nigh’ (‘Spiritual Songs’ p.2, v.5). I do believe, beloved brethren, that it is a very important thing if we are to be preserved till the end, that we have a personal and living link with the Lord Jesus. You may say, ‘Well, this sounds very basic,’ and I suppose it is, but in the main I think we have appreciated the work of Christ, but I wonder how much we have appreciated the One who did the work?

It is a very striking thing throughout the book of Romans, that there is a lot of reference to the work of Christ. He is set forth as the mercy-seat through faith in His blood. He is also the One who comes forth from death and in His resurrection my justification is secured. And many other things that refer to the work of Christ, but as far as I know there is nothing, you may say, on the personal side as to the Lord Jesus until you come to this matter of being to another, which refers, as the scripture puts it, to a new husband. It is a very important thing in life that we do not try to work out Christian truth without a conscious knowledge with the Lord Jesus Christ personally. What is needed in those exercises is to be to another man. What an awful thing to go through those exercises without knowing the Man who is the answer to them, because the only answer to your struggles, and mine, is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, personally.

I have heard fellowship explained to young people as being like a contract, and of course I understand what is being said, but no contract is sufficient because contracts can get broken. Perhaps you might say you are among the saints as conscious of your duty. But duty is something that wearies us eventually. You may say that you are attracted to the truth. You accept the truth of the gospel, and you accept the truth as to the Lord Jesus and His finished work and so on, and you have compared it with other religions, but you may hold the truth as a philosophy. And other things come in, and the times change, and philosophies change.

Duty wearies. Contracts get broken. The only thing, beloved, that will hold you is affection for Christ. The only thing that works, among the people of God, is love. Love is the only thing that works. The scripture says, “Love never fails”, 1 Corinthians 13: 8. Only love works. You might try all your life to do all kinds of other things, beloved, but you need, and so do I, something of what this verse conveys, that you are “to be to another”, to be to Him. And it uses the illustration of the bond of marriage. They are very searching words actually. Even if you take the words as to the marriage, the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive, and Paul is using it as an illustration. The Jew had the law and was bound by it, and he says, ‘as long as that marriage’, that contract, existed, ‘the woman was bound to the husband, but if he should die she is free from the law.’ So that she can be to another man.

That is a very searching word, which I do not go into, but that is what the scripture says. But Paul uses this, and he says, “So that, my brethren, ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another”. Oh beloved brethren, what a thing. You are not bound you may say by the law. I suppose we never were by the law of the Jew, the Jewish law, but remember the law of God has always been there. Right from the outset since the fall, when the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was partaken of by men, they had a conscience; so there was the recognition by men of what was due to God from the outset. But here he says, you are free from the law, you have been made dead to it by the body of Christ, with a view to one thing, that the believer is governed not by the law, not by rules, but he is governed by his relation to the Lord Jesus Christ—“to be to another”. What a wonderful thing! It is a love matter, beloved. I wonder how much we know Him. How much can we speak about Him? I think we are tested. We were tested in the reading as to how much we can speak personally about the Lord Jesus, and our personal links with Him.

I wanted then to speak about these things in this verse in Romans. I love Romans because it speaks about the recovery of man. Sometimes we speak about the recovery of the truth, but Romans is the recovery of man for God. It speaks of how God has worked to recover man from his lost and sinful condition, every kind of man—the man away from God, the heathen man; the religious man; and the Jew. You can find out about it yourself. It comes to a point where having investigated every kind of man before God, the conclusion is that “There is not a righteous man, not even one”, Romans 3: 10. Of every kind of man on the face of the earth, past, present or future, there is not so much as one. Then we read how God comes in without law and establishes His righteousness, and shows it forth in the Lord Jesus Christ as the mercy-seat, and God’s wonderful act of favour. You read of how faith works out. It is the teaching of the gospel. Someone said you get the gospel preaching in Acts, and the teaching of the gospel in Romans. I suppose you could say the Gospels give you illustrations of the gospel. Interesting thing to follow up, but the teaching of the gospel is in Romans. And the fulness of the love of God in its expression comes out in Romans 5, “God commends his love to us, in that we being still sinners. Christ has died for us” (Romans 5: 8). What a magnificent display of the fulness of how God has come out to man in the glad tidings from His own side as seen in the book of Romans.

In chapter 6 there begins to be an answer. The man who is envisaged in Romans up to chapter 5, as won over by God’s love, says, ‘Grace has abounded towards me, do I go on in sin that grace may abound?’. He says, “Far be the thought”. And the younger ones here will identify with this I think. Perhaps someone here has been touched by the gospel to this extent. I will take the members of my body which I have yielded in bondage to sin and I will yield them in bondage to righteousness. This is what the gospel properly received does. What a glorious thing when God’s gospel works in your heart, and you are so affected by the love of God in its expression in Jesus that you find that there is a change in you. Because God has operated in your heart and made a new beginning, and you want to give your life, represented by your arms, your eyes, your hands in bondage to righteousness. That is Romans 6. In Romans 7 the man finds that the more he tries to do it, the less successful he is. And at the end of Romans 7 we come to the Man, the only man, in whom everything is achieved. That is Jesus! “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7: 25). Romans 8 is the Holy Spirit, the power that God gives you to live. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 set us free, we may say, in relation to the relation of the Jew, God’s chosen people. And Romans 12 is the yielding of our bodies a living sacrifice to God, and as we do so we find the Christian company. And then how you are in relation to the authorities. And then how you are in relation to the weak brother. At the end of Romans you find that there is a link with eternity, really. Paul’s gospel, a link with the mystery.

Do you find these things attractive, beloved? God has set all these things out in the teaching of the glad tidings, but one thing throughout stands out, beloved, the Man who is the centre of it and that is our Lord Jesus. I might know all the truth of it. I might admire the beauty of it and the structure of it, but beloved, the real treasure is the One who made it all work, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who loved you enough to die for you, and who loves you so much that He lives for you. If we are to progress, and if we are to be preserved in Christianity, I believe we will need a special link, a personal link, with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I leave those words with you.

You know, we sometimes would like a law, in our Christian life, it would seem to make things simple if there were rules to keep. Something that tells us what we can do, and then we can walk close to the edge of it you know. How often we hear the expression, ‘there is no harm in it’. As if we really suspect there might be. So we walk close to the edge of it. And yet the true beauty of Christianity is that you do not go by law, but you are governed by your affection for Christ, you would do anything for the Man who has taken possession of your heart, “to be to another”. What Paul had before him was the One who brought in salvation for him. The One who loved him, because I think Paul sets out this, he says, “the Son of God who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. And he would never do anything, you may say, that was dishonourable to Christ, because he loved Him. His life was towards Him—to be to another—not exactly for another. Not exactly, you may say, setting yourself to do things that would please Him, but to be to Him. Your life is to Him, to Christ.

We have a hymn in the book that attracts me,

‘He drew me with the cords of love,

And thus He bound me to Him’. ...

‘Nought that I have mine own I call,

I hold it for the Giver. (Hymn 187)

Beloved, do not let your Christianity stop in your appreciation of what God has done, do not stop with His work, precious as that is. Do not let it finish with an appreciation of the work of the Lord Jesus, and the recognition of the fact that He shed His blood; do not stop short of the fact that it is not only the work but it is the Person. It is the Person. That is where true Christian blessing lies, and the way that I shall be regulated here. I wonder if these things appeal to you, beloved.

I go to the book of Ruth because I think it illustrates this. We can understand the situation in Moab where Elimelech and his wife had gone to during the famine. But they went to the country of Moab and they continued there. And all that had come in subsequently was death. Moab represents a place that is filled with persons who display the outward signs of Christianity but practise their own will in it. But what you find with Naomi is that she was a person who loved the land and she loved Jehovah, not just for the benefits that used to be there for her. Although a lot of bitterness had come in in relation to all that had happened with her husband and her family as they had gone to Moab, there was something in Naomi that was recoverable; she appreciates Jehovah and she appreciates the land. I suppose in a way the situation in Ruth 1 is very similar to the present day. Moab typically is a place where persons have gone, perhaps discouraged or low in their souls, and there they practise a form of Christianity, but without the sacrificial side that belongs to it. How sad is the public condition of Christianity. But what you find is that there are about five verses of what is negative in the book of Ruth and all the rest is positive.

Naomi hears the word that Jehovah was operating in Judah, and she begins to move back. She is a woman in whom there is light, and her life begins to be governed again by the light that she had. That light as to God affects her daughter-in-law. It is not initially as to Boaz as a person, but initially she is affected by coming to appreciate light. I would encourage all of us here that if God’s light is in us, let it be visible by walking in relation to it. Ruth was affected by it. “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the fields of Moab; and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley-harvest”. The time had come for Ruth, who had moved in relation to light from God, to be introduced to the mighty man of wealth.

I think you find here how a soul comes into contact with Christ, typified in Boaz. You may say, she had been attracted by light, notwithstanding the sorrowful conditions that were there, in a broken down state of things, such as we have today. But the time had come now for her, personally, to have to do with Boaz. And she goes into the fields to glean. And I would encourage the younger ones particularly to glean in the fields, because God has made provision for the gleaner. I firmly believe this is so, and I know there are some here, especially young ones, who do read and study the Scriptures and the books, and I would encourage them to do that. Make sure you know what you are reading, of course, and make sure that you glean in the fields which belong to Boaz. Glean in the fields which belong to Christ. God has made provision for the gleaner.

As she goes into the fields to glean, she is noticed. I often used to say before, as to young people, perhaps some of the young men, who say, ‘Well I do not read much ministry’, I would encourage you to read the Scriptures and to read ministry. You say, I cannot do much, I can only read a little maybe—but do so. Ask the Lord Jesus to help you. Ask the Spirit to help you as you read, and I will guarantee that within a very short time something will come into the meeting that will link with what you read. See if it does not begin to work and begin to glean, she started to pick up what the reapers had left behind. Begin to pick up things that speak of Christ. It was the barley harvest, which was the first harvest. It refers to the resurrection of Christ. She goes in the field and picks up these pieces that were left after the reaping, she gathers them up and Boaz noticed it. I think the Lord would notice it too. You say, maybe, it is not very much to be a gleaner, I am not going to produce very much, but you will produce something. You will produce something that speaks of Christ, and not only Christ, but Christ in resurrection.

It is one of the features of what you get in this chapter, it is the field that is being reaped; the barley field speaks of the resurrection of Christ. That is the field to be in. Boaz has to say to her, “Go not to glean in another field”, Ruth 2: 8. There are many fields which are being reaped at the present time in the world and in Christendom, but there is one field which belongs to the Lord Jesus, not only as the One who died, but as the One who is raised from the dead, and who lives. So Boaz notices her and a wonderful relationship begins to be built up with him, who is the mighty man of wealth.

In our time Jesus is the mighty man of wealth. Everything that is for God is in the hands of Christ. He is the mighty man of wealth. And He notices this someone who is gleaning among the sheaves. I hope the younger ones here were listening to the reading. I do not expect you to have remembered everything that was said—I do not know if too many of us would remember everything that was said—but there will be something in the meeting which was just for you. The thing to do is to look out for what was just for you, that is gleaning. You pick something up, and you find the Lord Jesus will encourage you. Beloved young ones—I do not like to make a point of the young ones—but particularly at the present time, keep your mind and your activities on the field that is being reaped. You may say there is much by way of Christian endeavour about and I can fully understand that, but the barley field refers not only to Christ, it is Christ in resurrection. It is Christ the One who is raised. And she continued from that time, from the barley harvest to the wheat harvest. And the wheat harvest, as we have been taught, refers to the saints as raised. The barley harvest is Christ as raised, the wheat harvest is the saints as raised with Him. She continues on to the thought of the saints being raised with Him. Now that is some field that is being reaped there, beloved. They said at the tomb, “He is not here, but is risen”, Luke 24: 6. The question is raised, if He is not here, then where is He? He is risen and ascended, a glorious, living Saviour.

Then Boaz says, “And when thou art athirst, go to the vessels and drink of what the young men draw. Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground”. That is like Christian fellowship. There may be young ones here, some may not even be breaking bread, some may be interested, some are quite young, but you know you are very welcome as you come among the people of God to drink from the vessels among the saints. These were young men who belonged to Boaz—to Christ typically. What precious things these are, as we see the goodness of Christ typically as he gradually and in his kindness deals with this young woman with a view to her blessing. She bowed herself on her face down to the earth, and the relationship builds up, and he speaks about under whose wings thou are come to take refuge. These scriptures only give us illustrations, beloved, but do you see how important it is that a relationship builds up between myself and Christ Himself “to be to another”? What you find is that it develops here with this young woman, and you get that secret transaction on the threshing floor. And there has to be a secret transaction with each one of us, between ourselves and Christ, it is a private matter, it is something between you and Him. She becomes totally and absolutely committed to Him, and you find that He does not fail. He never fails. He had the ability to discharge the debt that was upon her. He had the means to do so. He had the title to do so and most important of all, He had the love to do it. The Lord Jesus has the love to take you on—“to be to another”.

I read in Corinthians because, I know it is collective there, but I think it bears upon what we are saying—interesting thing that Paul writes in such a way to Corinth. Corinth was a remarkably unruly assembly and what was there was really in a sense outrageous. There was open unjudged sin there, and it was a city that was riven by tensions, by party feeling. It was a city of great architecture and great renown, ability, all these things, and initially Paul had indicated that he could not stay there, but he gets a vision in the night from the Lord indicating to him that He wanted him to stay; He says, “I have much people in this city”, Acts 18: 10. You may say, Why Corinth? Why, of all the places that could be? Paul laboured so long, eighteen months there. I think this chapter gives you the clue. It was not that at Corinth he was seeking to set out a model assembly as far as conduct, or doctrine, or knowledge was concerned; Paul’s labours at Corinth were with one thing in view, as he says to “present you a chaste virgin to Christ”—that from a place which was so outrageous publicly. Paul had committed to the Lord Jesus that he was going to work there, with a view to one thing that he would present a “chaste virgin to Christ”. What an affecting thing! It was not that they made him very welcome, it was not that he was given what was due to him there. They accused him of laziness, of living off the brethren, he was a poor speaker they said, all these things you can find in the epistles. But Paul toiled with one thing in mind, and I think you can look at Corinthians and say in actual fact, although there is much by way of instruction as to assembly order that comes into it, the object in Paul’s mind at Corinth was to present them “a chaste virgin to Christ”. There was to be what was for Christ alone, not for public display, not something that was to adorn their lives, or ornament their church, but that there was to be something particularly and only for Christ in what was there.

He toiled ceaselessly to that end, saying at one point, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be the less loved”, 2 Corinthians 12: 15. And he is concerned here because he says, “I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ”. The enemy was working at Corinth, and the striking thing is that the attack was not through the affections, the attack was through the mind. Eve was deceived not in her affections by the serpent, because as we have been taught the serpent was a loathsome creature, and there was nothing there that would attract Eve’s affections but he operated on Eve’s mind and here at Corinth he says, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ”.

I believe, beloved brethren, that at the present time the enemy is working on the minds of the saints. He worked on the minds of the saints at Colosse. Philosophy was the danger there, and vain deceit, where they would add something of man, something of man’s efforts, something of man’s glory, to what was being produced for Christ. That was the Colossian error and something of that was happening at Corinth. Those that were teaching there were bringing in something that was affecting the mind, and he says it had almost got to the point (and you would scarcely credit this), but he says, “if indeed he that comes preaches another Jesus ... ye might well bear with it”. Solemn thing that, you may think impossible, but beloved brethren, in the experience of some here, we have come very close to that kind of thing. He says a similar thing at Galatia too. Amongst all the teaching, beloved, amongst all the things that we say, amongst all that makes up your life, let this one thing be paramount. Develop, and we may say, feed, a personal, living link with the Lord Jesus, which is just between you and Him. And your life, let it be to another.

I just finish with that word in Revelation. Not to speak about the substance of those verses to Philadelphia but he says, “I make them of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee”. What a wonderful thing that at the end of the day, when as the hymn says, “When all has gone by” (Hymn 19), that the Lord Jesus Himself in His blessed love says, I will cause others to know “that I have loved thee”. All that secret relationship nurtured in the hearts of saints through the generations, being gathered up where there has been an attachment to Christ and loyalty to Christ, and at the end the Lord Jesus says, They shall know “that I have loved thee.”

Well, I leave these things with the brethren. It is poorly put, but I believe it is essential at the present time, that we are not in fellowship or in the fellowship only on the basis of what is contractual, or our duty, or philosophy, but it is based upon personal attraction to Christ. You know, at the presentation of the Lord’s supper, which comes in at Corinth, the word is, “this do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11: 24), or as the footnote says, ‘For the calling of me to mind’. You may say, What about the announcement? It goes on to the announcement, it says “ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come” (1 Corinthians 11: 26), and that is important as well. But the first thing at the Supper is the Lord Jesus’ own request, “this do in remembrance of me”. What lover would not be there? These things affect me, beloved. I do not think Ruth would have missed the Lord’s supper. I think there is something special there, at the very beginning, the outset of that service is an opportunity for our souls to express their deep affection for Christ. It is what He has asked. It is not to do with the public. The public side is the announcement of His death until He comes; the private side is that there is a bond between you and Him, which not time or anything will sever. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Aberdeen, Scotland
26 February 2011