THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD IN THE FULFILMENT OF HIS PROMISES
[p. 85] THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD IN THE FULFILMENT OF HIS PROMISES
JT The scripture we have read refers to establishing, anointing, sealing, and the earnest of the Spirit. You get one element in the knowledge of God in the opening of the epistle and that is the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God is seen in the fulfilment of His engagements. The promises refer to the Old Testament, to Abraham. Jehovah made promises to Abraham, and they were all fulfilled in Isaac. Abraham was the root of promise; in Isaac all were fulfilled. Whatever promises there were, they are all yea and amen in Christ.
Rem It is very important that the soul should be in the light of God’s faithfulness.
JT Yes; this is where establishment comes in: “He is faithful who has promised”, Hebrews 10: 23.
Ques Do you connect His faithfulness with the promise?
JT With the fulfilment of the promise. God makes Himself known as Almighty; He proves Himself such. The promises were made to Abraham; but when Jacob left Canaan, to go into Egypt, God speaks of Himself as “the God of ... thy father”. It was a question of the security of the promises. They are all secured in Christ risen. All the promises were deposited in Christ on earth, but resurrection confirmed them. God’s faithfulness was involved in His name. In Psalm 40 you get, “I have declared thy faithfulness”, and in the knowledge of God as faithful, confidence is established. Promises could only come to any on the ground of resurrection. What God had in view in the promises, He had to make good. It is of great importance to know that God is faithful, for the soul is established in the faithfulness of God. Departure cannot alter God. Jacob was crooked,
but God says, as it were, ‘Do not be afraid, I am the God of thy father’. Jacob was established in another Man, in resurrection; Jacob’s soul was set in the light of Isaac. God assumes a new name, that of Jehovah, and this involves His faithfulness. It goes further than Almighty. Isaac is a very important figure of Christ risen.
In chapter 1 of the first epistle we get “God is faithful”, and again in chapter 10, “God is faithful”; that is not a promise, it is a verity. God takes a man out of this world and makes promises to him. The character of God is involved — His faithfulness — so He reveals Himself to Abraham as the Almighty God. He has proved Himself to be such in the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ means the promises fulfilled to Abraham; but it means a great deal more. The promises of God involve the overthrow of death, for you cannot connect blessing with a dying world, with dying. The promise to Abraham was confirmed in Isaac in Genesis 22, where you have Isaac out of death. The great principle before us is power, and the attestation of the power of God is resurrection. No believer can doubt when he sees the resurrection of Christ; it removes every fear; there is no fear! God has brought one Man out of death — Christ — and He can bring others out. All is secured in Him, and all is good to faith now, and in spite of all the break-down, there is nothing to fear. God’s faithfulness is involved, and His power. Notice the striking character of Abraham’s faith (Romans 4: 16, 21). Abraham had faith in God that He was able to do what He had promised. Abraham had nothing according to flesh; all was secured in another order of Man, Christ risen. Abraham embraced the light; that is the idea of faith. The Philippian jailor believed all the light and acted upon it. Faith lays hold of the light. The way in which God has made Himself known involves the testimony;
[p. 87] one cannot suppose faith apart from the testimony. Faith is the reception of the testimony.
God who “establishes us with you in Christ” is the God who is faithful. All is worked out in the assembly now. The great point to apprehend is the faithfulness of God, it is a great standby for the soul. “For glory to God by us”, refers to the faithfulness of God; our position depends upon it. Paul was a monument of the faithfulness of God, he was of the seed of Abraham. The promises are in abeyance in a public way, but they are not in abeyance to the remnant. God is faithful; He has not given up His promises. You learn God’s faithfulness in Christ risen; Christ went into death. God raised Him.
Ques What is the anointing?
JT The anointing was to distinguish; Israel was to be distinguished. Moses says, “So shall we be distinguished”, Exodus 33: 16. As I understand it, anointing is for the head, a person’s head is anointed. It is one thing to have the Spirit in you, and another thing to have the Spirit on you; you are distinguished when the Spirit is on you. You are marked off by the Spirit of God and others can take account of it. The boldness of a man’s face is changed (Ecclesiastes 8: 1), altered by the spirit; what a great thing it is to be distinguished in that way! There is true nobility in a man walking in the Spirit. It may be true in you, and not on you. In this scripture, you have the anointing, the sealing and the earnest of the Spirit. These are three different ideas. The Spirit distinguished Stephen; he was christianity personified. He was full of Christ; there was nothing else there.
Ques Would the anointing have the blessing of others in view?
JT I think so; it is for testimony here. You see that in Christ, that God anointed a Man for His testimony (Psalm 2). You have the same thought in [p. 88] David. God commits Himself to Christ. He has taken up that Man.
Ques Does this involve spiritual capacity?
JT In John the anointing teaches you. The point here is what God has done. The effect of the Spirit is that the boldness of a man’s face is changed. You come out in the character of Christ. We are established in the anointed One. In Isaiah 42: 1 we read, “Behold my servant ... in whom my soul delighteth! I will put my Spirit upon him”. God would set forth Himself in Christ to gain the affections of His people. In Luke you have Christ saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. It is the Spirit of God. Christ is the anointed One, and He is to be continued; we are anointed. The epistle to the Romans shows how we are brought into accord with the ark of the covenant.
Rem It is the effect of the gospel in the soul.
JT The shittim wood refers to the blessed humanity of Christ. God could set His seal on that. The gold was upon the shittim wood. “Thy law is within my heart”. The boards of the tabernacle were of the same wood.
The point is, it is God which establishes you; God does it. The point is what God can do. The outward effects of the Spirit can disappear, but the Spirit is given to you for ever. The anointing is for testimony, the sealing is for God, and the earnest is for us.
We intelligently answer to God’s Amen. It is the answer in the soul to the evidence of the faithfulness of God. It is future for the nations, but all is good to my soul now.
All promises look on to the world to come. The presence of the Spirit is a testimony to the faithfulness of God. “The promise is unto you, and to your children”, Acts 2: 39. “That the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations”, Galatians 3: 14. The assembly [p. 89] comes into all the promises made to Abraham, but a great deal more too. We have all by the Spirit in Christ risen. We have there all that will be displayed in the world to come.
Where failure has come in the water is required; afterwards the towel to set you at ease in the presence of God. The first epistle answers to the water, the second to the towel. The Spirit removes everything that would cause uneasiness in the presence of God. There is no fear when the soul is in the light of all that God does.
Promises refer to the earth; they involve the question of what God can do in an evil world. The purpose of God is beyond the promises. The promises serve to bring out what God can do, He is bringing in a world according to His own nature, and putting out a lawless world. It is an immense thing to have a sense in one’s own soul that God is able to perform that which He has promised. The power is resurrection — Christ risen from among the dead. The great point is to show all that God has done. He has done these things. The Amen is simply confirmation, or affirmation, the end or confirmation of everything.