THE SCOPE OF GOD'S GRACE
THE SCOPE OF GOD’S GRACE
When we read the epistles to the Romans and to the Ephesians carefully, we cannot but see the difference between where the gospel places us on earth, and where the knowledge of the mystery puts us. In Romans I am a justified man going on to glory, fulfilling (because walking in the Spirit) the righteous claims of the law - all that God had required of a man, magnified in our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence such an one presents his body as a living sacrifice, and serves according to the gift given to him of God, known by the measure of faith. As a christian, he is hated by the world; so that he might be killed here. “For thy sake we are killed all the day long” (Psalm 44: 22). There [p. 345] is nothing of the mystery in all this, though no one could walk in the truth of the mystery if he had not all this; I am through grace as much an Ephesian saint as I am a Roman saint; but I must be the lesser, or I could not be the greater.
In Romans I am a delivered one on the earth, walking in the life of Christ, by the Spirit dwelling in me. In Ephesians I am a member of the body of Christ, united to Him who is the Head in heaven, and a member of His body set there where He is, by the same power that placed Him there. The power that put us there works in us here (see Ephesians 3: 20), and now I am not only a justified man going on to glory, but I am united to the exalted Man; and in His power I am an expression of Him where He has been rejected. The body of the exalted Man is down here on the earth, to grow up unto Him in all things, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4: 13).
Now we are not only opposed by the power of Amalek, who cut off the weak ones, but the whole subtlety of Satan is arrayed against us, in order to prevent our being in heavenly beauty down here. Satan cannot deprive us of our heavenly position, but he tries to prevent our carrying it out.
This is the scope of the grace given to us in the whole, though we grow into it in part. The only way to grow is to be conscientiously true to what we do see. “He that hath, to him shall be given”. The more separate I am from the world, and the less I am conformed to it, the less am I warped, and the better I can “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12: 2). Every true heart knows his own world. My world may not be the world to you. Music is one man’s world; painting, another man’s world; politics another’s, riches another’s, his family another’s, and so on. Whatever is most difficult to you to surrender [p. 346] is your world; and as you advance, according as you seek separation to God, you have to separate from what you are most bound by, for it is that which influences you most. It may be a very paltry thing. Isaac was warped by his son’s venison. Peter wanted to stand well with those who came from James.
The Lord give you to see the whole scope of His grace, and give you grace to lay aside every hindrance, dealing honestly and truly with the one next to you; as they say in the country, ‘cutting the gad next the throat’. Many occupy themselves with the branches instead of with the root. The root is the seat of the evil, and the Spirit of God always leads us to it. The Lord be with you and bless you much.