LIFE OUT OF DEATH
1 Corinthians 15: 35-38, 45-49
I wish to show, dear brethren, as the Lord may enable me, how God reaches all the thoughts that He has in mind to establish on the principle of life out of death, and how that is to have a bearing upon us now. He has established that principle from the very beginning. You remember that He said to Noah that, as long as the earth lasted, “seed time and harvest” should not cease, Gen 8: 22. “Seed time and harvest” involves life out of death. As the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 15 to the one who says, “How are the dead raised? and with what body do they come?”, “what thou sowest is not quickened unless it die”. Every farmer understands it; at seed time he sows a seed, at harvest the fruit of it is reaped. It is not what was sown that springs up; that was just the seed. What springs up is something that derives its character from the seed, but is brought into view in the power of God with a body which God has given to it. So that every year we should be reminded of this principle with God; the seed dies and then life, with glory attaching to it, comes into view in due time. Well, now, God has not had to alter His thoughts in any way. The entering in of sin, allowed by God, has only given occasion for further features of divine glory to shine. We read in 1 Corinthians 15, “that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is natural”. But it is what is spiritual that God has all along had in mind to bring in. According to His purpose, He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Eph 1: 3. He Himself is a Spirit, and He gives us His Spirit, in order that we might be brought into as close affinity to Himself as the creature can possibly be brought to. Wonderful thing, showing how God delights in having His creature near to Him, not simply positionally, but near to Him in his intelligence and affections! But then, God in His wisdom, as having before Him to bring in a spiritual and eternal order of things, has first introduced, according to a line which, I believe, He has always followed, what is natural, in order that it should be a testimony to what He was going to bring in. Mr Raven said years ago2 that God always gave testimony beforehand to what He was going to bring in, and therefore we must see to it that we do not cling unnecessarily to what is natural, because it has got to pass away. The Lord having come in and having died and gone on high, and the Spirit having been given, the day for what is spiritual has come in. Although for the moment the natural still remains and has to be honoured, we have to recognise that what is spiritual and eternal has now come in.
Well now, in keeping with what I have said as to God bringing in life out of death, and moving on that principle, we find the Lord saying in John 12, “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”. He had just said, “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified”. “The Son of man” is the One in whom God sets out all His thoughts regarding man. He has come in to give effect to them and, in order that He should give effect to them, He had to lay down His life. He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone”. That is what Christ is, “the grain of wheat”. Wheat, I believe, in Scripture, always refers to the saints as heavenly and taking character from Christ, as of Christ’s own order of manhood. He is the grain of wheat, He gives character to all those who are the product of His death. So the Lord says, “but if it die, it bears much fruit”. We are part of the fruit. The day is near when the vast extent of the fruit will come into manifestation, the vast number of those who partake in Christ’s life as a Man, and take character from Him.
Well now, that being the case, the Lord speaks of the import of it for us at the present time. You can see how the very fact of the Lord going into death and rising again, and bringing forth much fruit on those lines, establishes a kind of principle. “He that loves his life”, the Lord says, “shall lose it”. If we are not prepared to accept death, we shall lose our life. “He that hates his life ... shall keep it to life eternal”. I believe this is one of the things which the Lord is enforcing at the present time, and it is well that we should understand it. The things that the Lord is bringing before us at the present time, if fully followed up by us, will work out in our finding that we have to hate our life here, in order to keep it to life eternal, and if we do not, if we love our life here, we shall lose it. Alas! there are those who are refusing to pay attention to what the Lord is calling attention to, and they are dropping out of the ranks. They are not, of course, ceasing to be believers, but they are dropping out of the ranks of the present testimony and they are in danger of becoming submerged in the world. Some of them have been taken captive already, that is to say, the pull of things in the world, whether it is business, or position in the world, or money, or social links, or whatever it is, is proving too much for them, and, rather than follow up the truth and follow the Lord, they are allowing heavenly things to go. They are loving their life and will find that they have lost it, whereas “he that hates his life … shall keep it to life eternal”.
We may have to surrender; the truth may call for it. In our father Abraham are set out the principles upon which God moves in relation to those whom He calls, and there came a point when he was called upon to surrender in the greatest conceivable way. God said to him, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and … offer him up for a burnt-offering”, Gen 22: 2. Think what a test it was to Abraham! All the promises of God bound up with that cherished son whom he loved, Isaac! Did Abraham say the cost was too much? He did not. He “rose early in the morning”. It was three days’ journey and even then they only “saw the place from afar”. Plenty of opportunity for him to have turned back, if he had been so minded; plenty of opportunity for him to say, ‘I am not prepared to go the whole length’; but he did not. That is our father Abraham, with far less light than we have, not so privileged as we are, never going to have such a place in God’s families as the assembly will have; and yet he went forward, without shrinking at all. God had called upon him to surrender his son, and he was prepared for it. He lifted up his hand, ready to slay his son. And then the Angel spoke to him and said, “because thou … hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, I will richly bless thee, and greatly multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea-shore”. That was what came to light as the result of obedience. In fact, in connection with the history of Abraham, there are three distinct lights in which the saints are viewed. First of all, there is “the dust of the earth” (Gen 13: 16); that is innumerable. Then “the stars of heaven”; those are innumerable. Then “the sand that is on the seashore”; that is innumerable. God applies all those three similes to the seed of Abraham, and they are wonderful similes. “The stars of heaven”—“among whom”, Paul says to the Philippians, “ye appear as lights in the world” (Phil 2: 15), heavenly luminaries; that is what the saints are, or should be. And then “the sand ... on the sea-shore”, established by God as a permanent bound to the waves of the sea, so that they cannot pass over it (Jer 5: 22): that is what the saints are in this world; so long as they are here, they are a permanent bound, so that evil is kept in check and does not prevail.
It is a great privilege to be among the seed of Abraham. But then let us see to it that we take character from our father Abraham, who was one who, “being called, obeyed to go out”, as it says in Hebrews 11: 8, and he “went out, not knowing where he was going”. That was obedience and faith. You may say, ‘I do not know where the truth is going to lead us, what is coming next’. That is in principle what Abraham said; but it did not deter him from obeying. He “obeyed ... and went out, not knowing where he was going”. That is what the Spirit of God says. And so, dear brethren, let us consider our father Abraham in the obedience that marked him right through, and the way he was so signally honoured of God in that “he was called Friend of God”, James 2: 23. Suppose I give up, suppose I surrender the truth, suppose I say, ‘I am not prepared for the sacrifices that the truth calls for. I would rather use my abilities and get on in the world and find out what the world is, and obtain a place and a name among men’. How long does it last and, when it is gone, what have you got? I will tell you what we have. We have the circle of the brethren and, even though death may invade it and take away one and another, yet the circle remains; the saints remain, and eternal life is enjoyed among them, and it is a question, therefore, of hating our life here with a view to keeping it to life eternal.
You remember how Belshazzar promised Daniel that, if he showed him the meaning of the writing on the wall, he should “be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about” his neck, and “be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another”, Dan 5: 16, 17. He was not seeking honour in this world; but he said, ‘I will interpret the writing for you’, and he did. And the king, true to his word, had him clothed with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and proclaimed him third ruler in the kingdom. And what happened? That very night Belshazzar was slain, and all the glory that had come to Daniel disappeared in a moment; not that Daniel desired it; he did not miss it. But that is what this world’s glory will do, it will just disappear in a moment. Therefore, is it worthwhile going in for it? Or is it rather not much better to take the lines indicated by the Lord here? “He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If any one serve me, let him follow me”. A great thing!
I will tell you one thing connected with following the Lord, and that is that you are exercised not to allow distance to come in between Him and you. It will not come in on His side, it may come in on our side but, if you want to follow a person, you are concerned not to allow distance to come in between that person and you, or he may get out of your sight. Therefore, you watch your motives and what you are going after, you watch and see whether you are beginning to think things that are different from what the brethren think and, if you do, you get to the Lord about it and ask Him to show you whether your thoughts are right or whether, after all, they are wrong. You want to keep up your links with the Lord in that way and to see that you are not diverted from following Him. And then another thing, and a most important thing in connection with following the Lord, is that you have an attentive ear to what the Lord is saying in the ministry that He gives, because the Lord’s movements are discerned by the ministry that He gives. So the Lord says, “if any one serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall be my servant”. I know it will be so finally, but it is a very important principle for one who serves the Lord in any degree, to be concerned to be where the Lord is, where He is at the moment. It means that we have to exercise ourselves to cultivate hearing ears, as the Lord says, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear”, Mark 4: 9. That is, you have got to see that both your ears are alert to what the Lord is saying, not one ear to what the Lord is saying and another to what certain ones are saying, different from what the Lord is saying. Do we not want to be where the Lord is? In Mark 4, to which I have referred, the Lord told His disciples to “go over to the other side”, and they went on board ship and, it says, “they take him”—Jesus—“with them, as he was, in the ship”. Only Mark records that, that they took Jesus, “as he was”, in the ship with them. And then it says, “But other ships also were with him”. But there was only one ship that had the Lord “as he was”. He could not be as He was in more than one ship. That was the whole point: they took him as He was. There were other little ships. And that is the position in Christendom, alas! now. There is the boat, so to speak, where the Lord is; it is governed by the Lord’s present voice and in it is cherished what He is saying at the present time; then there are others who have a certain part in the testimony, but they are not marked by this distinctive feature that they have the Lord with them, as He is. The Lord was “in the stern sleeping on the cushion”, undisturbed by the storm. The enemy directed all his attention to the boat where the Lord was. It was nearly filled with water; but it could not sink. The disciples “awake him up and say to him, Teacher, dost thou not care that we are perishing? And awaking up he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Silence; be mute. And the wind fell, and there was a great calm”. They got an impression of Him that they never had before, so that there was great gain out of the experience.
And now we have what is, perhaps, the nearest approach to Gethsemane in John’s gospel. It may be it refers to the same occasion, I cannot say. Think of the Lord speaking of His soul! In another place He speaks of His spirit. He speaks of His body, too. “Now”, He says, “is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour”. His complete devotion to the will of God is brought out. “But”, He says, “on account of this have I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name”. What moral excellence comes before us as we contemplate the movements of Jesus, and His feelings, His expressions, His thoughts, what was passing through His soul! It was not an unfeeling matter with Him to go into death. Far the reverse! But He says, “Father, glorify thy name”. That is to say, God is to be known in all the riches of His grace as marked by the power of resurrection, as able to bring in a world the other side of death, and, thank God, that world has already commenced, because resurrection is an actuality in the Person of Jesus. It is held in faith by us; but it is actuality in the Person of Jesus. “I am the resurrection and the life”, He says to Martha; John 11: 25.
The world that is beyond death has already begun, for the Father has raised up Jesus from among the dead by His glory (Rom 6: 4), and we are linked up with it as united to Christ by the Spirit. We belong there, dear brethren. These things are to lay hold of us, so that things that would hold us here become less and less important in our eyes and we become detached from them and attached in our thoughts and affections to Christ where He is and the assembly that stands related to Him.
And so it goes on: “There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify it again”: the first, doubtless, referring to the resurrection of Lazarus, the second to the resurrection of Christ. The Lord says, “Not on my account has this voice come, but on yours. Now is the judgment of this world”. Now let us take account of these words. The judgment has been pronounced, it has not yet been executed. God would have us come into accord with Himself before He executes it. You remember that, when He executes judgment on Babylon, He judges our judgment upon it. The world is exposed in its true moral character as utterly opposed to Christ and to God, and as that by means of which the enemy would hold the saints of God in bondage. We are to have our eyes open to see the true character of it, in order that we may come into line with God and have the same judgment of it that He has.
The Lord says, “now shall the prince of this world be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. And then it says, “But this he said signifying by what death he was about to die”.
The death of the cross! Mr Taylor said years ago, ‘It is a wonderful tribute to the personal influence of Christ that millions have been attracted to a crucified Man’. That is the position: millions prepared to identify themselves with the reproach of a crucified Man, because they have been drawn and attracted to Him by the Father! And so He says, “I, if I be lifted up out of the earth”—referring to the death of indignity, despisal, shame and scorn, the death of the cross—“will draw all to me.’’
When we come to the end of the gospel, we find the Lord saying to Peter, “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst where thou desiredst”, John 21: 18. The Lord shows how that as a young man he was marked by a good deal of independence and self-will, even in service, for I suppose girding himself would refer to service. But He says, “when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and bring thee where thou dost not desire. But he said this signifying by what death he should glorify God”. The very stretching out of his hands indicates that he would die by crucifixion, as in fact he did, as history records. The Lord was giving him the privilege of dying in the same manner as the Lord Himself died, so that there should be the full acceptance by Peter of the reproach of Christ and, dying in that way, he should glorify God. Well now, dear brethren, it is for us to make up our minds whether we are going to follow the Lord. Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me”. Peter immediately turns. How fickle we are, how changeable we are! As he turns, he is rebuked, because he “sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following”. Instead of fixing his eye on Christ and following Him, Peter turns and sees John already following without being told. And he says to the Lord, “what of this man?” The Lord “says to him, If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me”. That is the last recorded word to Peter, “Follow thou me”, and is in line with what the Lord says here, “If any one serve me, let him follow me”. We want to be sure that we finish up, either as Peter finished up or as John finished up. It is remarkable that those two servants are brought together in John 21, Peter laying down his life for Christ’s sake and incurring the full measure of the reproach of Christ in that but glorifying God in it, and John, who goes on in life until the Lord comes—not that John did personally, of course, but he sets forth the idea that there will be such. It may be that the Lord will grant it to us to be among them. There will be those who will go forward in life and be here in life when the Lord comes.
I read the later verses in Corinthians, just that we might have before us what God has before Him. It says, “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit”. And then later it says, “the first man out of the earth, made of dust; the second man, out of heaven”. Now we get the expressions, “the last Adam” and “the second man”. “The last Adam” is finality. The idea of the second Man is that he displaces the first. It is well to keep that in mind. There is “the first man out of the earth, made of dust”. Adam was never any more than that, even before he sinned. It is not a question of what he became as a result of sin, it is what he was constitutionally. How infinitely superior, then, is “the second man, out of heaven”, personally belonging to heaven, characteristically of heaven! It goes on to say, “Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”. We are to take account of what we are. There is another thing in connection with what we have been saying as to God’s thoughts being brought to pass out of death, life out of death, and that is that in the death of Christ, there have been brought into expression certain moral excellences by which we are to be formed. In the first instance, of course, death was the expression of the necessity for the ending of the man who had sinned. When Christ went into death, it was vicarious. Death did not attach to Himself personally, it had no claim nor power over Him, save as He yielded up His life. He had authority to lay it down, He had authority to take it again. So that, if the Lord went into death, it was because the first man’s history had to be ended in death. That is one thing we have to accept, that the first man’s history has had to be ended, because it could never produce what could satisfy the heart of God, in order to make way for the bringing in of the second Man and those who derive life and character from Him. But then, in the laying down of His life, there was the perfect expression of love. Love is of God, and we are to be formed in love. How can the holy city come down “out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Rev 21: 10), unless it is formed in love? Love is the glory of God. The glory of God is His nature in expression and we are to come down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, having it substantially, and how can we be formed in love unless we learn it in Christ? “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives”, 1 John 3: 16. The more you think of these things, the more you will see that everything by means of which we are to be formed has come into expression in death. There has been the expression there of the complete judgment of all that is contrary to God and its removal. That has to be formed in our souls. There has been the perfect expression there of love, love that is of God, and we have to be formed by that.
We are set together in local companies, dear brethren, that we should learn how to practise love and how to develop it, in order that we may love one another. It is not difficult to love someone on the other side of the world, if you know something about them; but we have to learn to love those that are nearest to us. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35. That is in the company. Now we have to learn that in death. We could never be formed if Christ had not died. Another thing you learn in the death of Christ is His infinite devotion to God and to the saints, too. How are we to learn to be devoted? We are to learn to be devoted; but we can only learn it in Christ. The grain of wheat has fallen into the ground and died, and without it there would not be the “much fruit”; but the “much fruit” is the result of its having died. I believe it is important that we should see thus the place that death, as learned in Christ, has in our education and formation. The more we give our mind to it and take account of what has come out in expression there, the more we shall find that the Spirit will form us according to it, and that is what God is looking for. “Such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”. Well, Christ is the heavenly One. We are the heavenly ones. Are we like Christ? Or are we putting any obstacle in the way of the formative work of the Spirit with us? That is the question for us to raise. That is what God is working to, complete correspondence to Christ in everything. It must be so, for we are to be the body of Christ, “the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Eph 1: 23. Bear with me for saying it, but there is not much time left. It is urgent that we should give our full attention to these things that the Lord is bringing before us, because what is in mind in them is that there should be full correspondence with Christ brought to pass among the saints. It is not for us to say what it is going to involve, or to wonder whether it is possible, whether it is the word of the Lord or not. If we have ears to hear, we shall not have much difficulty in determining whether what comes to us is of God or not. “If any one desire to practise his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or that I speak from myself” (John 7: 17), is what the Lord said. Therefore, if we are willing to do the will of God, we shall have no difficulty in deciding what is of God and, if what is of God comes to us, then it is for us to follow it up.
May the Lord help us in these things!
LARKHALL
22nd April 1961
From Ministry of the Word, 1961
____________________