FAITH RESULTING IN CONFIRMATION AND ASSURANCE
[p. 323] FAITH RESULTING IN CONFIRMATION AND ASSURANCE
2 Peter 1:1-21; 2 Peter 1:11-18
JT It is in mind to call attention to confirmation and assurance in the profession of christianity. The first chapter we read is peculiar in this sense as speaking of the way the blessing we enjoy comes to us ‘through’ certain qualities or attributes of God, not merely as light, but by certain qualities which are spiritually tangible and which become substantial in us. In the first verse faith is said to be received, “through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. In verse 3 His divine power has given to us “all things which relate to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us by glory and virtue”. Then “He has given to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. Christianity has to do with substantial things; it is not mere doctrine. The result is the believer is able to give an account of how things came to him. Then again, we are to have certain qualities in other qualities, “In your faith have also virtue, in virtue knowledge, in knowledge temperance, in temperance endurance, in endurance godliness, in godliness brotherly love, in brotherly love love”. The apostles had not followed cunningly devised fables but were “eyewitnesses of his majesty”. All these things are very positive and assuring.
Ques How about faith standing in relation to the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ?
JT That is the first great element in christianity. Faith is mentioned first, but righteousness is the instrumentality through which we have the faith. The existence of “like precious faith” in us is a [p. 324] testimony to the righteousness of God. This quality being in man is proof of the righteousness of God. It is not inherent in anybody; it is a gift, a mercy received from God through His righteousness.
Ques And the fact of our faith shows how much we have responded to the light God has given?
JT You are directed back to God’s operations from the time sin entered into the world. Man got a conscience, it is true, but there is this principle of God’s righteousness operating. God’s clothing sinners with coats of His own making was a matter of righteousness on His part. Adam had faith as the result of this, for he called his wife’s name Eve. There was something there; it was of God; it was righteous that God should make the clothes. Faith is the essential quality in man that lays hold of what God is doing, carrying out His counsels for man in spite of what had come in.
Ques In the confusion of sin it was essential that man should have something outside the confusion; was that faith?
JT Yes, God proceeded from His own side and what He did was right. Faith came in in that way, not as inherent in man, but as a gift to be received. What God was doing had life in view, and faith comes in on that line. So Adam had faith. The righteousness of God was there before, but faith comes in on that line, in relation to its operations.
Rem Faith is the substantiating of things. Hebrews 11 gives us the life circle founded on faith.
JT Yes, so Hebrews 11 is the “substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. We have the promise of life before the world began, and sin having come in does not alter God’s thought; He had life in mind.
Dr. V.S. Was the promise between divine Persons?
JT It was to someone. He made the promise anticipatively of man. The need of eternal life did [p. 325] not exist while man was innocent, but sin came in, and it brings out the resources of God and that He had life for man in His mind. His wisdom must always enter into His operations; He could not be taken unawares, so to speak. Morally, the most difficult feature God had to meet was the spoliation of His great thoughts by sin coming in, but He had His resource.
Ques How about “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”? Are they substantial consequences of faith?
JT Yes. The order is cumulative; it is “Grace and peace ... in the knowledge”. We enjoy grace and peace in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. It is a great thing to have the knowledge of God, “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” (Jeremiah 9: 24), but these qualities are concurrent with the knowledge. What richness there is in the believer’s heart! This gives us the objective first of all, but the Spirit in us is the power by which we know. Faith works by love. As loving Him we dwell in Him and He in us. In the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord we have a multiplication of grace and peace to make us free and happy and uncomplaining.
Rem When Isaiah got the consciousness of God, he said, “Woe unto me”, and Gideon said, “Alas;” but we have peace.
JT Peace is a quality in the soul of persons who already know the gospel; the multiplication of grace and peace is for christian enjoyment. “Of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace” (John 1: 16).
The next thing here is that His “divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness” — it carries on the thought of grace and peace. It is His divine power now; it is on the side of God,
[p. 326] the Almighty God. What can He not do? Where did Rahab get her knowledge from? She knew all about the passage of the Red Sea, and what was done to the two kings on the further side of Jordan; she knew that Jehovah had given Israel the land. She had substance — she had flax spread out on the roof. She had that with which she could hide the spies, a peculiar material in her house. She had also a cord, a line of scarlet thread; indeed she had all that was necessary for the testimony at that moment. She had the idea of the way of God — a way that began when sin came into the world. Instruction in the way of God involves another way altogether, not the ordinary way: this woman was able to send out the spies by “another way”. What she had was strong enough to let down the spies with; she had substance. If you get a bit of truth into your soul it works out in addition — something is brought to you that adds to what you have got. You have the same thought in Romans 5, tribulation works endurance, and endurance experience, and so on. It supposes the existence of substance and contributes to it, these qualities effecting all this substance in the soul. It is important to arrive at what is substantial in our christianity; that things should not be just theoretical with us. It is with this in view that God moved and made the covering for Adam and his wife, so that the man is able to move in life. What took place in Adam’s soul we are not told and we must not say too much about it for he is not included in the men of faith in Hebrews 11, but we are told that he called his wife’s name Eve, the mother of all living, pointing to the faith in his soul. Adam heard what was said to the woman and he grasped the meaning of it and moved accordingly. Righteousness is what is instrumental in effecting substance, so that we have faith; it is not a negative but an active thought. Everything that God does is living, and we move with God in [p. 327] what He does. It was so with Abel and Enoch and with all the men of faith. Enoch walked with God, that is, he moved in relation to God. God would draw us into the spirit of His activities as the living God.
Dr. V.S. Faith is manifested in the way in which it is made good in our souls.
JT Yes. We have initiative ideas in Genesis, and the evidence of God’s righteousness is simultaneous with faith in Adam’s soul. God’s righteousness as meeting sin is seen in the expression of His sovereign rights in mercy, and faith on our side goes on with it.
All these things are to assure us, so that we may never fall, but that an abundant entrance is ministered to us into “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. The everlasting kingdom is one that is already beginning, but which goes on. God had walked in the garden and Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking — it is a remarkable expression. God had walked in the garden, and He has not given up walking. He is still walking, and as clothing Adam He provides conditions so that Adam might fall in with Him again. The Adam who has come down to us is in relation to Seth, not Cain, in relation to one appointed in place of Abel whom Cain slew. Then Enoch also walked with God, and so did Noah.
Ques Is faith an original thought with God?
JT I think that is right; it was one of His resources as sin came in. His righteousness is manifested and faith comes in contingent upon that. Faith is the substantiating of things. Hebrews 11 is a chapter of substances.
Rem Faith uses what God has righteously provided.
JT Yes, so that evidence of life in Adam’s soul was simultaneous with what God had done. Death [p. 328] had taken place to provide those skins. So Adam’s name for his wife is most wonderful, that he should call her Eve, the mother of all living. How did he get the word ‘life’ or ‘Eve’, or the idea of what was living? It is wonderful that all this should be effected in his soul as a matter of faith. Faith has entered “through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ;” one divine quality effects another quality. The righteousness of faith in Romans 10 tells you what you are to say, and what you are not to say. Scripture is said to be a preacher, it has a power capable of affecting a man’s mind.
Ques Is this touched on by the Lord when He says, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5: 17)?
JT It is what God had been doing, and it is continuous — the word is ‘worketh’ — it is the continuity of God’s operations. How great is the value to us of getting into that current, “through the righteousness of our God and Saviour”. Two divine Persons are brought into it. Such righteousness is imputed to us in Romans 4.
Rem The sovereign work of God coming into expression, there is an immediate answer by faith in the heart of the creature.
JT As we saw with Rahab, she had substance for that particular moment in the testimony. She had thread, and it is spoken of as a cord, and also as a line. Her faith was morally great enough to protect her, it is an evidence of substance. If you act on one bit of light, that helps you in other things. You have the expression “righteousness unto holiness” (Romans 6: 19); the qualities are cumulative. Then, He has called us “by glory and virtue;” a man thus called will never revert to his conversion only, but will be occupied with building up a constitution now. He is getting daily confirmation in this building up of things. When the blind man is challenged in John 9 he spoke historically to his neighbours at first,
[p. 329] but when he answers the Pharisees he says, “I see”, not ‘I saw’ — it is where he is now.
Ques What do glory and virtue mean?
JT It is God’s glory, but such as He has in mind for us. It is the gospel of the glory of another world. God began with Abraham by glory; the God of glory appeared to him. God has another world in His mind; a glory system comes into view for the saints and has a present living effect on our souls. When I was young, I remember how the glory of the great American Republic was presented to our minds to induce us to go out. A young man goes out and becomes an American citizen, and the greatness of the system fills his mind. That gives us something of the idea of the system, but how poor it all is, how disillusioned one is later! God has a glory system, and of that we can say, ‘The half hath not been told!’ In Hebrews 12 the first thing we are said to have come to is mount Zion, and see what it opens up to you — God who is rich in mercy! Then you get the citizens, the innumerable company of angels: what wonderful society this new system opens up to us! Then there is the assembly of the firstborn ones — sonship. Your conversion opens up to you this great system of things, this glory sphere.
Ques What about verse 10?
JT You use diligence to make it real in your own soul. This glory and virtue is a wonderful thing; it is presented to draw us out of the world. Virtue is the power to say ‘No’ to evil, and ‘Yes’ to the good. So the cord, the golden thread, of virtue runs through Hebrews 11. They had opportunity to have returned, but they did not; the glory drew them out of the world. When the Lord called Peter, it was the call of glory and virtue. He had seen the power the Lord had over the sea, and he fell down at Jesus’ knees. It was the power of the glory that led them to forsake all.
[p. 330] Ques What is the meaning of partaking of the divine nature?
JT The word ‘partaking’ involves substance, it suggests what is tangible — it is a very wide thought. The divine nature is not Deity; it is what is of God in us. The expression only occurs here in Scripture. It alludes to what Jesus was here, or is, and we partake of that. That through these qualities “ye may become partakers of the divine nature”. There is that in God as made known, which finds expression in man as partaking of the divine nature through these greatest and precious promises. He promised eternal life as anticipating the need that would come in through sin. So here, glory refers to the objective; virtue is the subjective. How the glory shone in Jesus here objectively! but then the virtue presents Him in every sense. In Luke 5 the ships were full of fish and the disciples drew them to land, but then they left all and followed Him. Jesus was here, and the glory shone, and on their part there was the power to say ‘No’ to evil and to cleave to the good. So that when the Lord asks, “Will ye also go away?” Peter at once answers, “To whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal”. The glory had claimed them. He says, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. He had virtue in his soul. Virtue is moral courage to stand for God here, and that is a daily matter. These things are given to us that we should prove them and work them out into spiritual substance in our souls. This word ‘virtue’ is wonderful — it involves that the flesh is not to be admitted at all. Virtue is the quality in yourself. It was virtue in Adam which led him to name his wife Eve. Where, we might ask, did the word come from? Faith knows how to name things according to what has come in on God’s part. Faith lays hold of what He has done or is doing. Adam had called his wife Ishshah before this; he [p. 331] knew what to call her when God brought her to him, but now he calls her Eve, “because she is the mother of all living”. It alludes to what God does.
Ques “Life and godliness” — does the life involve godliness?
JT It is life down here, to be known and enjoyed down here. Godliness is bringing God into your circumstances.
In chapter 3 Peter alludes to what is unstable and to ill-established persons, and says in verse 17, “Take care lest, being led away along with the error of the wicked, ye should fall from your own stedfastness”. As we have seen earlier in chapter 1, one quality as received fits us for the reception of another, leading up to our partaking of the divine nature. Then in verse 5 of that chapter, consequent on all this, the believer is to have in his faith virtue, and in virtue knowledge ... Then the apostle goes on in verse 10, “Use diligence to make your calling and election sure, for doing these things ye will never fall”. So that our establishment and confirmation is on very palpable grounds. We possess substance and can give an account of how we acquired it, through one instrumentality and another.
WJH Peter showed he had substance when he said, “Silver and gold have I not; but what I have, this give I to thee” (Acts 3: 6).
JT Yes, and he was ready to share what he had.
Rem Job, too, would be able to give an account of how he received his great property.
JT It is very interesting to see in Job’s case, that the second family was of the same size as the first, but the property is doubled. The first family is transposed into the second by a spiritual process, whereas the other substance is doubled. That is to say, the personnel of the institution is increased in quality; there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job. “He takes away the first that he may establish the second” (Hebrews 10: 9). Job’s first family is taken away in judgment actually; but today the first ceases to be the first as accepting baptism and education in the school of God. The point is He establishes the second: we are to be established.
Ques And the way we are established is through these qualities being added?
JT Yes. The principle of faith is that the first is set aside, not only in principle, but in fact. It is by displacement: faith disallows the first. Paul describes what he was after the flesh in Philippians 3, but it was all displaced in his soul. Faith lays hold of the principle, but faith supposes displacement, and we begin to accept this for ourselves, and our children as to what we profess to have done with. Ishmael is in principle the first — the mocker, the one “born after the flesh”. You get these features brought together in two brothers constantly throughout Scripture: Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Ephraim and Manasseh. The first is set aside and the second is established; that is a principle which faith lays hold of. We are prone to maintain the first by educating our children for the world, and in other ways. Job’s family is on the principle of the second. Even Christ after the flesh did not fully answer to the purpose of God. He partook in blood and flesh in order to set the condition aside, and in order that we might reach Christ as He is now. It was Christ as He now is that was in the mind of God. “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”. The divine thought is the second. “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit” (John 12: 24). Christianity is developed out of what Christ is now, but all on the principle of the setting aside of the first. We have things in faith, but it involves the displacement of the first. “Ye shall never fall” is a very [p. 333] strong statement.
Rem Peter said he had left all and followed Christ.
JT Yes, and in leaving all, he came into spiritual substance. Peter in his epistles is dealing with the government of God. We can never tell what God may allow to come upon us by way of test; the government of God runs right through. We can never tell what test He may allow, but, as built up in spiritual substance, we shall never fail. David numbered the people at the very end of his life and encountered the government of God in judgment — a solemn fact. Peter and the others said to the Lord, “We have left all, and have followed thee”, and governmentally he gets a hundredfold now and in the world to come life everlasting.
Ques Is the knowledge spoken of in verses 5 and 6 practical?
JT Just so, but it is not knowledge obtained at the universities; it is not philosophy or vain deceit, but such knowledge as virtue would accept. It is very important to have such knowledge in our houses. Many of us admit things for our children which we would not allow for ourselves.
Ques So this knowledge is really christianity?
JT It is practical; you know how to distinguish, even as to the creature, between good and evil. You may say they are creatures of God, but they do not dominate you. Knowledge understands, and then temperance follows; you are balanced in your use of things here. Paul is the supreme test in Peter’s mind; he brings in things on the highest level, and these the unestablished wrest to their own destruction. It depends on the Lord that we get knowledge, and know how to use things temperately. And then we have endurance and brotherly love, and in brotherly love, love. Love is of God.
Ques All this has the divine economy in [p. 334] view?
JT Yes. The divine government is the supreme test. It began in Eden when God placed the cherubim and the flame of the flashing sword to guard the way of the tree of life. This thought of divine government goes right through.
Ques Would you say it falls more heavily on those who have been long on the way, and less heavily on those who are young and less established?
JT I think that is right. David is tempted at the close; it says God tempted him, and he fell under the divine test. We sometimes wonder why this or that happens, but we ought to know why. When David brought in the ark, he went six paces and then offered sacrifices; he made provision in that way for the last step. Peter is warning us that we might not be idle nor unfruitful as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderfully Abraham answered to the test! God honours us if we stand to a severe test.
Ques What does idleness convey?
JT There are people that trust to their conversion and go no further, such people are bound to be idlers; they are not working with God, and building up substance. Every day we should go over these items. “In your faith have also virtue” — have it; it is a continuous thing.
Rem All these qualities are inward.
JT Yes. We have knowledge in a general way in verse 5, but verse 8 gives us another side; we are progressing in these things “as regards the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is the knowledge of Him where He is. Peter had had a revelation as to who Jesus was.
Rem Proverbs 31 tells us the virtuous woman did not eat the bread of idleness.
JT She is just a type of the assembly in the persons who form [p. 335] it.
EF Was the mount of transfiguration present to the mind of Peter?
JT Undoubtedly. Many hang on the historical fact of conversion. Peter relates what is truly historical, but then the testimony involved the “power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. There were those who should see the kingdom of God coming in power. Here Peter puts it in another way, “We have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly imagined fables, but having been eyewitnesses of his majesty”. “This voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”. It is the only account of the transfiguration given to us by anyone who witnessed it. The wonder is that he said nothing of it till he was about to die. He knew, as about to pass off the scene, that every bit of truth was needed to confirm the brethren. It entered into the testimony given by the apostles.
Ques How do we get this confirmation and establishment as regards ourselves?
JT On the principle of faith; that element being introduced into the soul, the divine qualities proceed on the principle of displacement. ‘Majesty’ is Peter’s own word, supporting what he had said on that line in regard to the Lord on the holy mount; it was on palpable incontestable witness. They were “eyewitnesses of his majesty”. They saw it; there was complete testimony to it from the three. Peter tells us of it with his own pen. There was irrefutable testimony to the “power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:” they saw this glory on the mount. The Lord was transfigured on the mount; it was not an external power applied to Him, but something inherent that shone out. They saw it “being with him on the holy mountain”. It was the Lord transfigured, it was Himself, and they were with Him. It was personal. In 2 Corinthians 3: 18 it is said, “We
[p. 336] all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. We are transformed as beholding the glory of the Lord, but in Him, as a divine Person, the power of transformation was inherent. In John 12: 41 it says, “These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”. The prophet spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but they saw His glory and spoke of Him; the reflection of what Peter, James and John saw shone on the prophet. Now the believer lets in the testimony of these things, so that the word of prophecy is made surer. This epistle is written to confirm us in things already received.
Ques The displacement would come in in connection with the working out of good and evil?
JT Yes, in our own souls. Verse 12 shows they had to be reminded of known things, he would stir up their “pure minds;” he calls on christians to fall back on what they already have. Christianity is substance.
WJH The vision itself in the soul of Peter would be great substance.
JT Yes, the leading apostle needed it. Peter representing the kingdom and the government of God had this vision granted in view of his ministry; the kingdom had come for him in power.
Pages 337 to 443, ‘Putting on the New Man’ and Other Ministry, 1937 (Volume 206, first half only).