LETTER BY C.A.C.
[p. 236] LETTER BY C.A.C.
My dear E-,
I am rejoiced to have your letter and I thank God for any exercise that has been awakened among the dear saints as to the assembly.
I think it is a great mistake to look upon the truth of 1 Peter 2 as being objective. In fact a very superficial examination of the scripture is sufficient to convince one that this view of it is untenable. It is not a question of what believers are according to divine purpose, but of a spiritual structure which is being built up here and which takes the place of Israel and a material sanctuary. It is that in which God finds what He can appreciate — “spiritual sacrifices” — and it is that also which is here in testimony for God, that in which His character and excellencies are shown forth. This latter is in connection with the kingly priesthood.
Ninety per cent of the difficulties in connection with 1 Peter 2 would be removed if souls were experimentally in the good of chapter 1. Very few believers have apprehended the two great truths of chapter 1: soul salvation and redemption.
Soul salvation is complete inward deliverance from all that is of man and connected with the earth by the knowledge of Christ in glory. If the glory is shining in my heart, and filling me with joy unspeakable in Him who is outside the whole sphere of sight, I am completely delivered, as to my affections, from the world and what is of man. This is what the Holy Spirit calls the salvation of the soul. That is, it is inward in contrast to outward deliverance.
Then redemption is not, in Peter, from sins, etc., but from “your vain conversation ...”. That is, the death of Christ has completely set us free from earthly religion. The whole history of man in the flesh has closed in the death of Christ,
[p. 237] and if this be the case it is very evident a system of religion which recognises man in the flesh is absolutely worthless. It is a religion for a man entirely rejected by God. When this is apprehended it gives complete deliverance from fleshly religion, and prepares the soul to understand that we can only be for God according to His work in us. All flesh is withered grass. Flesh cannot be built up a spiritual house! There must be an entirely new start — “being born again”, etc. But new birth is only the start — the basis, so to speak, of the subsequent work. It is morally the entire displacement of flesh, and therefore in connection with it there comes obligation to lay aside all that is of the flesh (1 Peter 2: 1). These things, if retained, must prove an effectual hindrance to growth. Then notice, the growth is “up to salvation”. That is, we have to grow up to the completeness of the divine deliverance, the measure of which is association with Christ, and this consciously known in the soul. It is thus that we are formed as “living stones” for the spiritual house, and prepared to come to the Living Stone — the One cast away as worthless by men. In conscious association with Him who is outside man’s world as the rejected One, we are built up a spiritual house. It is a pernicious self-deception for one to take it for granted that all this is true of him when he has not grown up to it, and in character and constitution he is not really a living stone. That it is true for every believer is blessedly certain, but we must grow up to it.
As to failure, it is important to remember that, solemn as failure is, it does not undo the work of God in the soul. One might lose all the joy of association with Christ, but when the backslider was restored he would be restored to what he was before. That is, he would be restored to that which he truly is according to God’s work in him.
As to your third question, I am sure that it is quite impossible that union with Christ could be known before deliverance.
I believe you are right as to worship. We are much [p. 238] hindered by the thought that we must bring something. We should like to be ministers of the sanctuary, but it is the Son as Priest who is this. If it is what we bring, our capacity must be the measure of what is there, but if it is a question of what He brings He becomes the measure of what there is and this is inconceivably great.
May God bless you in every way and help His beloved children to apprehend the great thoughts of His love in a deeper and fuller way.