THE SIGNS OF THE COVENANTS (5)
THE SIGNS OF THE COVENANTS (5)
JT It will be well to bear in mind what has been remarked, that the ministerial features under which the covenant appears in Exodus, suggest authority and accuracy, important items in relation to the truth. This chapter stresses the thought, the apostle speaking of competency in himself and others as ministers of the new covenant. The position in Exodus is marked by this feature, the Spirit of God introducing Moses almost immediately; first as a babe, then as a full-grown man, then in the school of God for forty years, then as seeing a manifestation of God. Then we have the genealogy coming down from Levi, Aaron being of the same family, and then we have “this is that Moses and Aaron” (Exodus 6: 27), so that we are assured as to the ministers — who they are. Much place is given to Moses, and Jehovah said to him, “See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron ... shall be thy prophet” (Exodus 7: 1), thus the authority is greatly stressed; and throughout his history the Spirit brings forward qualities with regard to himself, such as, that there was no one like him in meekness; Numbers 12: 3. Then in Deuteronomy he is seen as suffering God’s anger on account of the people. In Numbers God is displeased with him on his own account, yet in Deuteronomy it is on account of Israel, so that he rises to the type of the Mediator, even in regard of atonement; he felt the anger of God, he turned it away from Israel: all that is typical of what has come out in Christ, and what is peculiarly seen in Paul’s service. So that the ministry comes through such an one as Paul, made of God a competent minister of the new covenant. Things, therefore, have come to us unmarred, they have come to us as from God, through him.
[p. 212] Ques Is that what you connect the authority with?
JT Well, that is the kind of authority that enters into the effectuation of the covenant; it is not a harsh authority, it is tempered, there is nothing about it to prejudice us, so that what is meant should come to us in its full preciousness; and the thought widens out to all who are in the position of ministers of God, so that the truth is thus exemplified in the one in whom it is presented; it thus gives us impressions, not only by what is said, but by the persons who say it.
Ques It says, “not of letter, but of spirit” (verse 6): is it that the spirit of the covenant is known and enjoyed by us today before the covenant is actually made? The new covenant will be made with Israel and Judah?
JT I think the covenant is already made; it is not like the ten words, it is more the covenant in the spirit of it. In the second giving of the law in Exodus 34: 27, Jehovah says, “after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel”. There is not so much said there, as at the first giving, but we have the word “tenor” which we do not have in the first. The point of the new covenant is that it is in spirit not in letter — the letter kills.
GAvS Would you say that the covenant, although made, has not yet taken effect in regard of Israel, but is being made good in us through the Mediator?
JT Yes, it is really being effectuated now in a greater and fuller way because of what the assembly is to divine Persons. It is not made with the assembly, but it is applied to the members of the assembly, and in a fuller and greater way than it will be applied to Israel. The law is written in their hearts and in their minds; instead of that we have the blessed Holy Spirit Himself in us — “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”, as it says in Romans 5: 5. That is Romans, that is part of the gospel; it is not called the covenant in Romans, but the thing is there; but the Corinthian epistles stress the ministerial side [p. 213] and bring in the covenant both in the first and the second.
Ques Is your thought that there should be a greater answer to it in the assembly than there will be in Israel?
JT Well, there is. Anything that applies to the assembly, or to those who form it, is seen in a greater way there than elsewhere, because of the dignity of the persons.
HB-t Would you say the covenant is with men? it is not the same thought as sons.
JT It is a question of God; the covenant is made with the house of Israel and Judah; and we have part in that because we have such a place as gives us part in it. Sons do not need that assurance, for they are settled in love. Love settles everything in that respect. We shall have no need of a covenant in heaven, for we are assured in the Father’s love, as in family relationship with Him. The covenant is not between the Father and His sons, it is as between God and men.
Ques Is there a distinction made in 2 Corinthians 6 where it says, “I will be their God” and then, “I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”? 2 Corinthians 6:18 Well, that agrees with what we are saying, it is with a people, but not as a family. The thought, “I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters” is not the full thought of sonship, it is more what He is in the way of care here. There will be no such thought in heaven as sons and daughters: it is a figure that might be used in the Old Testament.
Ques Was the apostle encouraged as he saw appreciation of the Man of God’s choice appearing in them? He says, “Such confidence have we”.
JT “Such confidence have we” — that is in himself — “through the Christ towards God: not that we are competent of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our competency is of God; who has also [p. 214] made us competent, as ministers of the new covenant”, verses 4 - 6. I think it is the kind of competency that lifts us out of ourselves and assures us of the ministry. I think the great thought of the minister has to be borne in mind, it is in this confidence, that what you have is of God — “our competency is of God; who has also made us competent, as ministers of the new covenant”; it is the kind of state that is peculiar to ministers.
Ques The Lord says, in John 6:63, “the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life”. Should all that is said be of a spiritual kind?
JT Quite so, and over against the letter, you are possessed of the thing itself. I think this thought of the ministers ought to be observed, because it is so stressed in both the epistles, and the reference in this chapter is to Exodus 34. The saints get the truth in an appointed way, and that is through ministers.
Ques Was Paul himself the setting forth of the spirit of it?
JT Yes, he was made competent of God, as the minister of the new covenant.
Ques Is that the way the authority is stressed?
JT That is right. Towards the end of the chapter, we see the merging of the Spirit and the Lord, they merge into one. Authority comes to us in that way, the merging of lordship and the Spirit. “The Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. That promotes liberty, it does not promote bondage.
Ques How is this competency brought about?
JT Well, it lies in the knowledge of God, and of course the knowledge of God is open to every christian, though every christian is not a minister in the sense in which we are speaking of it. The knowledge of God is open to every christian, but the competency of a minister goes beyond that, it is God taking him in hand and fitting him for the ministry.
Ques Would the sufferings have any part in [p. 215] it?
JT No doubt they would.
Ques Is it your thought that a minister is what we speak of as a gifted man?
JT Well, more than a gifted man, though that is the idea; but gift may be held without the authority which love implies.
Ques Would it not involve the following chapter? “We have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God”. 2 Corinthians 4:2 That is right; it involves the whole chapter, you might say. We should go back to the first epistle to see how this ministerial subject is developed; and to see how at the present time the truth comes to the saints in the appointed way, through ministry. These saints were called of God, but that includes what comes through ministry and this comes through competent ministers.
Rem The Corinthians had gift, but they were not competent.
JT No, they were partisans; you cannot get competency in a minister who is on partisan or clerical lines. The subject is most important in both epistles, and links on with Exodus; there you get the kind of persons — “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also behold, he goeth out to meet thee”, Exodus 4: 14. That is the kind of thing that underlies competency, God having taken a man in hand. What can be greater in the mind of God in regard of ministry, than competency; that ministry should reach the saints unimpaired. You get the general thought in Exodus, then you see how it works out, and the pains God took with Moses; Aaron, too, was under God’s eye; he was eighty-three years of age when God spoke about him. He had been in the school of God — who says, “I know that he can speak well. And also behold, he goeth out to meet thee; and when [p. 216] he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart” Exodus 4:14 — that is the idea. Then we get Moses in Midian for forty years; so that he is eighty years of age before God appears to him.
Rem The competency of the minister depends on his being in the good of that of which you were speaking yesterday, of which the cup is the sign.
JT Exactly. You can see what Paul had to go through. He tells us in Galatians, “I went into Arabia” Galatians 1:17. That was the place of learning.
Ques Was that special training for his particular ministry, or is there that which corresponds with it characteristically for all?
JT I think he is the ideal minister in the mind of God.
Ques Do we see his ability in the skilful way he handled the Corinthians, he presents himself as a father and as one who loved them, though he was not loved?
JT I think that is right. You could not get a better illustration of competency than in these two epistles; the wonderful skill manifested in these two letters, in the blending of authority with affection. He was so concerned that the balance should be maintained, that he would not go to them then lest he should use the rod; he sent Timothy, his child. Timothy thoroughly understood the apostle’s spirit.
AEL What about verse 17 of the previous chapter? does the “we” include Timothy? Do you make it apostolic?
JT I think it is apostolic. The thought conveyed is fully expressed in the writer, whoever the others may be. “Who is sufficient for these things?” 2 Corinthians 2:16 is the question that comes up in your mind every time you try to serve the Lord. One thinks of those who minister, what they are, and how they behave. If we undertake to minister, then the mind of God is to come through unimpaired, not only in word, but in spirit; that is to say, I am to [p. 217] be the thing myself, in principle, and that is what Paul has so much in mind in these two letters; to bring out what those who minister should be, he himself being the example; he says, “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God”, 2 Corinthians 6:4.
Ques Is that why you refer to Moses and Aaron?
JT Yes, the two things are seen in two men in Exodus; they are seen in one Man in the gospels; and Paul, I believe, is taken up as a man of like passions with ourselves, our apostle — to illustrate the thought; so that the thing comes to us, not in word only, but in spirit.
Ques Alongside what you are saying about, “Who is sufficient for these things?” would you also have in mind, “Such confidence have we through the Christ towards God”?
JT I think so; your own exercises with God as you stand up to minister make you feel like an empty vessel, and yet you are confident, and God comes in for you.
Ques Would the Lord be to us like ‘our Moses’ in that way? — the Minister and the Mediator?
JT That is the idea, that the thing is brought down to us. The full thought is in Christ: He is “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (Hebrews 3:1), but it is brought down to us in a man like ourselves.
GAvS How solemn then to have low thoughts of such an one who is qualified and dignified of God to minister.
JT The intent is that God’s rights are maintained in authority, but in such authority. Moses was said to be “very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth” Numbers 12:3 and he is said by Jehovah to have been “faithful in all my house”. Numbers 12:7 The apostle says to Timothy, “in meekness instructing those that oppose”. 2 Timothy 2:25 Yes — in meekness.
LM Would this ability imply experience and [p. 218] education with God? Passing through discipline is to fit one for this.
JT I think so, that is what Exodus shows. The age of the two ministers before they are taken up is another matter; God had cultured them before He used them; for the great thought is, “I have made thee God to Pharaoh”, Exodus 7:1 not “a God”, that would be idolatry; but he was to be representative of God, there is no less thought than that in the minister.
HB-t Should it be necessary for this able minister of the new covenant to bring a letter of commendation?
JT Apparently they had asked him to. They probably thought more of their local ministers than they did of him. There might be humiliation behind that, they might have intended to bring him down to their own level, whereas God had given him a place and he was in accord with it. He should not need a letter of commendation, they were the fruit of his work.
HB-t He could appeal to the spiritual, to the wise, among them in relation to his authority.
JT Quite so. The more spiritual brethren are the more they will value what God has formed in that way.
Ques You spoke of Moses being God, is that extended? It speaks in Psalm 82 of God judging among the gods, is that the thought that was seen in Moses, extended?
JT Quite so. It is the word ‘Elohim’ there, the same word as in Genesis 1; it is in the plural, showing it is a question of representation; just as an officer may be representative of the king. It is not idolatry, it is the thought of the representation of God. Moses was God in that sense, for all that God is, was behind him; and how can you have ministry otherwise? It is a question of what God sees in qualified vessels; hence the anointing is to qualify you, to dignify you, as representative of God. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” Luke 4:18, says the Lord, and that was for ministry.
Ques Is that brought out in Hebrews, where it speaks of the Lord having “a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is mediator of a better covenant” (Hebrews 8: 6)?
JT Just so, He was equal to it. The word “glory” is stamped on this chapter right through, that is the idea in the thing we are brought into, hence the need for competent ministers.
Ques Is there need to go in to God for this? It says, “as for you, ye shall be called priests of Jehovah; it shall be said of you: Ministers of our God”, Isaiah 61:6.
JT Very good; that confirms what we are saying.
Now perhaps, after having said all that about ministers, we might say a word or two about the covenant itself. It is “not of letter, but of spirit” (verse 6); then it says, “the Spirit quickens”, and after that we have a parenthesis, running on to the end of verse 16, where we are told that “the Lord is the Spirit”, but in between those statements there is this wonderful amplification of the subject, in the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of righteousness, and the ministry that abides, all abounding in glory. It is said that “the Spirit quickens”, so that the ministry of the Spirit has the effect of quickening the affections, not only instructing. It is an administrative thought.
Ques Is it the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the covenant that is expressed in the Person?
JT Yes, I think it is the merging of authority with the Spirit — “the Lord is the Spirit”. The parenthesis enlarges on the thing ministered; it is full of the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of righteousness, and the ministry that abides. It is expressed in the voice of authority, but it is full of affection, that is what quickens, love quickens, but love in that way — love brought in authoritatively in the Lord, yet it is the Spirit.
Ques Is that the thought of, I will give “thee for a covenant of the people”? Isaiah 42:6.
JT That is right, that He is Himself the covenant.
Ques How does that work out for us?
JT [p. 220] Well, practically, it is what Christ effectuated in dying; His blood is that of the new covenant, it is the testimony of a love that was behind His death. God gave that up, He gave up such a life as that! Never among men had there been such a life as that, yet God gave it up, the blood is the testimony of that, He gave it up for us.
Rem In Hebrews it says, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10); then of the sanctified, it says, “I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them”, Hebrews 10:16.
JT Yes, there is a transposing of the words in chapters 8 and 10. The law is written both in regard to your intelligence and affection. Romans introduces the thought of the covenant without naming it, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, it is already there — it is by the Spirit. Here he takes up this formal word “new covenant”; it is calculated to steady the saints and induce confidence in God, and he brings out here that the Lord is the Spirit of it. What could be greater than that! It is not simply writing in the mind and heart, but Christ is written; it is the full thought, the Person. As written upon we are more passive — Ye are “manifested to be Christ’s epistle ministered by us, written, not with ink, but the Spirit of the living God”, he is really alluding to his own service amongst them in the power of the Spirit. Now, when we come to the end of the chapter, we are not passive, we are active; that is to say, we are “beholding”, our minds and our eyes are all brought into this; we are turned away from all else. This is the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus, the glory as effectuating the covenant; the allusion is to Moses. The glory is brought in to draw us aside from earth and impress us with the magnitude of the thing that is [p. 221] brought to us. We are so small in our thoughts and so earthly, so that the truth is presented in this glorious way.
Rem There is no real unity apart from what we get in the last verse?
JT No, it is the unity that abides, and we are all satisfied in it.
Ques Is the glory of the Lord here the glory of the Person who was great enough to bring in the great thoughts of the love of God in the covenant?
JT That is the idea; He has effectuated it.
Ques Would it be right to say that the law is written or effectuated in the heart in Romans 5 — the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit given to us — and in the close of chapter 8 it is written in the mind?
JT Just so; and chapter 8 also says, “all things work together for good to them that love God” Romans 8:28, that is the answer to chapter 6. The apostle has all that in mind in using these terms. We are all sharers in this glory, but not in a passive way, for at the end of the chapter we are active, we are brought into the thing and we have joy in it — “from glory to glory”, is a system of unending glory.
Ques Is this realised specially at the Supper when the saints are together?
JT Exactly, that is where the glory comes in and we are satisfied. We have all been made to drink into one Spirit; the saints are satisfied with this realm of glory. Why should we not be? What could be greater!
Ques Has it any connection with the Holiest, the ark of the covenant being called the glory? Psalm 78: 61.
JT I think it has a connection but it is not now one man going in once a year, we have access at all times, and what could be more attractive than the face of Jesus at any time? Think of the glory of the Lord, the glories of that face!
Ques You have spoken of our sitting together at [p. 222] the Supper as having drunk into the new covenant. Would that prepare us to consider the glory of the Mediator?
JT I think so. It is to set us free — “Perfect love casts out fear” 1 John 4:18. It is unending glory, ever expanding, glory to glory.
Ques Would it be appropriate to say something about “the Lord the Spirit”?
JT Yes, it is a merging of the Spirit with lordship. Divine Persons are before us, authority is there and the Spirit is there, and the Spirit is merged in the way He effectuates the thing in our hearts. The blood of the covenant is in Christ’s death, that is one thing, that is the basis; the second thing is, that He effectuates it in our hearts, that is what is in view in this chapter, and that is what the apostle is aiming at in regard to his own ministry — what can I do in the hearts of the saints? How am I affecting them? The Lord is effecting things by the ministry and by the Spirit.
HB Does putting the law in their inward parts imply formation?
JT It does, and how important it is to have the inward parts searched out. It says, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts”, Proverbs 20:27. Everything is searched out by the light; it is to make room for this. In Romans it is just by the Spirit, but here you have the added thought of the Lord, for I am constantly rebellious, and His authority helps me in restraining the rebellion, so as to bring in this positive thing by the Spirit, the love of God.
Rem I am always to be held in subjection that His work may go on.
JT That is the idea; he speaks not only authoritatively and correctively, but he brings in love. The “Spirit of the Lord” expresses authority. You may say, ‘Not so’, but the Lord says, ‘It is so, and must be so’, and He brings in discipline to make it so. That [p. 223] is authority, but all in order that He might bring in the love of God.
JG If we follow up this line, it would lead us to say that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
JT That is how Romans works it out; Romans underlies this epistle. Chapter 8:38 is a persuasion from experience that nothing can separate us “from the love of God”. We have had the love of God in our hearts, but there is also, “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God”, 2 Thessalonians 3:5. Transformed from glory to glory, is a positive change, that is what is meant; it is not an external change but a substantial change “from glory to glory”.
Ques It would be, not only the cloud covering the tabernacle, but the glory filling it.
JT That is the idea; filling it so much that even Moses cannot enter, that is, the idea of mediatorial authority ceases there. God is there, and He says, as it were, ‘I want all this for Myself’. Authority ceases, not that it is abolished, but it is not necessary, God is there — “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”, 1 John 4:16.
Ques Will you say a word as to, “according to the same image”?
JT Well, it is like the Lord, of course; but it is sameness in all of us, it is the great unifying principle, we are like one another for we are all like the Lord. That would dissipate any personal animosities, rivalry or pride. We begin to see what the brethren are; if I say anything against one of them, I say it against myself.
Ques What is the idea of “image”?
JT I think it is representation, the representation of Christ. It all goes with what we are saying. Ministry is the representation of God, but in what you take on of the glory there is the representation of Christ as the One who has effected it.
Ques I might say, I will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain.
[p. 224] If I got before the Lord and beheld His glory, there might be a change brought about.
JT I am sure there would be. Laban said, ‘Jacob has acquired all this greatness at my expense’. That is what we get to when we take up business to make gain It is all very well to take it up to make a living, but beholding the glory of the Lord eclipses all thought of gain. You need to go to business to make a living to provide things honest before God and men, but not to get gain.