DECEMBER 16TH, 1897

DECEMBER 16TH, 1897

As regards the point to which you refer, I think that faith apprehends the testimony which God presents. It appears to me that Christ risen is now the great testimony of God. In Him thus God has expressed His mind and pleasure in regard of man, and it is not only that man is justified but that he should be before God outside every order of man down here, in association with the One through whom he is justified. This is true for every believer, but I do not think that it is available save as there is in us the corresponding work of God, that we are quickened together with Him, and thus we can enter into the light of God’s pleasure. But it was God’s testimony from the outset in the operation that raised Christ from the dead. Ephesians and Colossians speak so much of the work of God in the believer and its effect that it would be impossible to apply them indiscriminately to all christians. Romans is God’s testimony and therefore to all. “Raised up” in Ephesians is what God has effected in Jew and gentile, not exactly the light of His testimony in Christ. I do not know if the above will at all make matters clear but I think it runs with J.B.S.’s thoughts.