IDENTIFICATION

A. C. Clapham

2 Corinthians 5: 21; Joshua 4: 4–6 (to “midst”), 8, 9; Ruth 1: 16–18

I was thinking, beloved brethren, of ‘identification’. In the first passage we read of the profound thought of how the Lord was identified with all our corruption, all our sin—how hateful! How obnoxious the old man, the flesh, is, yet in the greatness of the love of Christ He was prepared to be made that, a profound matter. The Lord was prepared to be identified with all that we were that we might be identified with all that He is. That was the divine way, the only way, love’s way—thorough identification with our state on the cross. What a Lover He has been, beloved, how it draws our hearts out to Him! How we long to be more attached to Him! It was the only way; if we were to enjoy union with that blessed Man out of death.

He had to end that awful state of what man was as fallen. Tremendous that, is it not?

Think of the corruption that is in yourself, in the flesh. Think of the Lord being made that, that holy One, Him who knew not sin. What it must have been to His holy feelings, yet in His love—love to God, love to His assembly, love to His children, love to every one of us—He went that way. What a Lover He is! Oh how great Christ is, the One who identified Himself thoroughly with our state! I think that would be a basic aspect of this matter of identification.

Christ has been down into the depths of death and been identified with all that man was, to remove it in the sight of God and bear God’s holy judgment against it;

the eternal Lover of our souls, blessed Man! So we can be free; we can be free, beloved; free from the flesh, free from the old man, free from sin. That is part of the triumph of the glad tidings, that we can be emancipated and free from the bondage of sin, the bondage of Satan, and all the corruption that man has brought in. Oh what a triumph, but what it cost Jesus!

Now in Joshua 4 it is a question of our identification with His death and resurrection. There are the twelve stones that were placed in the bed of Jordan, where the ark had been, and then there are the twelve stones taken out of the Jordan and set up on the other side. In doctrine it is Colossians 2 and 3; we have died with the Christ and we have been raised with the Christ; that is the doctrine of it. The application of it is that in love and faith we would take it up. I think that is involved in the going down; a man out of every tribe lifted up his stone; it would need power and need faith to lift up those heavy stones, put them on their shoulders and bring them right from the bed of Jordan to the other side. I think that suggests that we have by faith, and in affection, to lay hold of the fact that we have died with Christ. We accept it, we identify ourselves, beloved, with the death of Christ in that way and say, Well, if He died, I have died. He died to the world and died to everything down here, so I have died too. So there is power needed to take up these stones. Then there is the resurrection side—“If therefore ye have been raised”. It is not the ‘if’ of doubt, it is the ‘if’ of consequence in Colossians 3—“If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above” (Colossian 3: 1).

We have not died with Christ and been raised with Christ to go on with this world, to be occupied with the things of this world, or the advancement of the glory of Babylon. We have died to the world and been raised with Christ to be occupied with the things above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. There He is in triumph, in power, and available so that we can set our minds and hearts on things above. Where is our Lord and Saviour now? In the glory, in the place of power. He has been down into death as the Ark of the covenant. He felt it too; the priests suggest His priestly feelings. So, beloved, if we have not done it before, let us accept that we have died with Christ and to all that He died to, and we have been raised with Christ in risen life. What for? To live here for God and God’s pleasure. We are to set our mind on things above where the Christ is.

Young people, go in for the Lord’s things; it will reap dividends; dedicate yourself to the Lord to serve Him while you are young. The world cannot give you anything but corruption; its pleasures are corrupt, it is building up for Babylon, the man of sin and the antichrist; all around is rapidly moving towards that. What is the Lord after but a pure oblation in His people, the pure thing, a pure bride in contrast to the false thing. Christ and the world is a false thing, a corrupt thing; that is around us, the glory of man in the things of God. God is patiently bearing with it at the present time, but there will come some terrible judgments, according to Revelation, on the whole system of Babylon, the harlot, the beast, and the antichrist. So let us be free from all man’s world and man’s glory. The Lord has been separating us from wrong associations in view of being separate and pure and wholly for Him. So thank God we have died with Christ and are risen with Him! Oh, I say, I am glad we are risen with Him, not left there in death. The stones are left there; that is what we are in our sinful history in the flesh; it is buried there till this day; we recognise that that man will not do; he is finished before God for ever. Thank God for that! We have a link with Christ the other side. If we have the Spirit, beloved, we have a link with Jesus. We have a link, not with Him in the days of His flesh, but with the Man that is risen; it involves power, favour, and glory.

Now in Ruth there is a sister who is identified with the testimony. The knowledge of God to her was seen in her mother-in-law, full of bitterness, nothing attractive outwardly. You dear young people, you may think, Well, a lot of the brethren are older, and I see nothing very attractive about them, and not many young people to have fellowship with; but if God is with His people, if God is with those older people, if the Lord is with them, that is the attraction and the most important thing. So Ruth here sets forth a beautiful committal in identification with the testimony in reproach. Naomi represents the testimony in reproach; she is a disciplined woman; she had gone through bitterness, had lost her husband and her sons. You might say, What was there attractive to Ruth, this young person? Naturally young people like young people. What was there that was attractive? The knowledge of God! The testimony was with Naomi as far as Ruth was concerned; the testimony to God was with that poor old woman, Naomi. Ruth was tested, as the Lord would test us; He tests us as to our fidelity and reality, as to whether we are going to follow Him whatever it costs; whether we are going to accept this path of separation; whether we are going to be true to the revival and continue whatever the cost. Ruth was tested, but love rises to the test; it always will.

What the Lord appreciates more than anything is affection for Himself. What is first love?

Affection for the Person. The Philadelphian principle is a moral recovery to first love. We should love Christ for what He is Himself, even apart from His benefits and blessings. You love Christ for His Person. The Spirit and the bride say, Come; Christ as the Bridegroom is everything to the bride. I believe that just before the Lord comes bridal affection will be increased. I think we shall be prepared for that cry, the Spirit and the bride say, Come. “Go forth to meet him”; we are going out to meet Him. While there is the profession without the Spirit—it looks the same in imitation—there are those with the Spirit who go out to meet Him. That cry went forth in the last century, “Go forth to meet him”; in our hearts and spirits and exercises we are to go forth to meet Him; the Bridegroom is on the way. So there is no substitute for attachment to Christ; be zealous in your intimate links with the Lord, nearness to the Lord; there is no substitute for that.

Ruth shines as a devoted one who is prepared to be identified; “Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”. You might say to Ruth, a young person, and attractive, Would you like to be married? Would you like another husband? ‘No’, she says, ‘the knowledge of God is so great to me, Naomi’s God. I am prepared to be identified with the testimony in reproach’. So we commit ourselves to the local position; they may be aged, they may be suffering, but you commit yourself because God is there. If God is there and the Lord’s pleasure is there in the local assembly you are committed to that. You get out to every meeting; you would not go on holiday, would you, for a week where there is no meeting?

You would not just go on the Lord’s day to the meeting and then have the week away from the brethren without any meeting? I do not think Ruth would do that; she says, “Where thou diest will I die, and there

will I be buried”. Wherever Naomi was she would be with her. That is, she would be with the saints in the suffering position. “And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded”; beloved, we are to be steadfastly minded, each one of us. We are to be steadfastly minded to go on with the testimony, to go on with the truth, to go on with the word of God, to go on for His pleasure whatever the cost, whatever the suffering, whatever the exercise, whatever the opposition of the devil. Let us be steadfastly minded as moved by affection for Christ. So Ruth is fully identified with the testimony in a suffering position.

She was rewarded, you know; they soon come to the barley harvest, do they not? Christ is risen! Hallelujah! She is gleaning in the fields in the next chapter; she is a good Corinthian sister, true to the fellowship, gleaning in the fields, not missing a meeting if she can help it; that is Ruth in her devotedness. The love of Christ promotes devotedness; the love of God promotes confidence; I think that is what Mr. Raven said. So Ruth is devoted, she is not going back to Moab and to idolatry, she goes on right to Bethlehem, and later in the book, as the brethren well know, she is married to Boaz. That is choice, is it not, typically to be married to Christ, the mighty Man of wealth, and the royal line comes through her, Obed, the worshipper, and Pherez. To have these things just in the mind as knowledge is not sufficient; you need the energy of life; you need the energy of a Pherez to maintain things for God. May we be like Pherez, overcoming and thoroughly identified with the testimony, for His name’s sake.

Address at Redbridge
10 May 1980