THE LESSONS WHICH GOD TEACHES
[p. 143] THE LESSONS WHICH GOD TEACHES
1 Corinthians 1: 23 - 31; Genesis 2: 18 - 25; Genesis 3: 20, 21
I desire to bring before you the great importance to us of the present moment, and that, in connection with our place in the kingdom of God. We are put under the sway of grace that we may learn the truth, in order that thus we may know God. God has brought us into His kingdom, that we might learn His lessons. Many of us are too well content with the elements; milk is all we want. When we have come to full age and can judge between good and evil, then it is we want meat. Milk refers to that which is suitable to us — how all on our side is met; while solid food refers to the side of God’s counsel, and is for those whose senses are exercised to discern between good and evil. The Corinthians had not reached that; they had not their senses exercised to discern between good and evil. Had it been so they would have known that there was no good in the flesh, and that all good is in God; it must be, and is, entirely of God. In seeing this you get deliverance from self-occupation; if you would enjoy good, you must find it entirely in God. Christians are sometimes taunted with regarding themselves as better than others; the truth is that a christian has the idea that flesh is worse in him than in other people; but then it is that he can appreciate the good that is in God, and in God only. The Lord Jesus when on earth said there is none good but one, that is God. If Christ were not regarded as God He would not be called good, but He was God, and all the goodness of God was set forth in Him.
Now I wish to shew what God engages to teach you in His school. I beg of you to remember that you are not taught of man, you are taught of God. The anointing teaches you, “They shall be all taught of God”. You have the great Teacher within you, the anointing.
[p. 144] You may get a great deal of ministry, but you need to apprehend that every lesson you really learn is taught you by the Holy Spirit. Now you are in God’s school, and are taught as you are exercised. God does not occupy you much about yourself, but about Himself — and He will impress His lessons upon you. My object is to present to you what there is to be learnt — which God alone can teach you. I take up four thoughts in the last two verses of chapter 1: 30, 31. But I will first mention a principle which will help you, namely, that every lesson which God has to teach you, He has set forth in Christ; that is, Christ is the exemplification of it, in that sense He is the Word. It is set forth in Him, and this is of the grace of God to His people, that the truth might be apprehended by them. Every lesson is set forth in a Man, and that Man is Christ Jesus — the Son of God. The expression in verse 30, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus”, gives the derivation and source of the christian: as Adam was the source from which Eve was derived. God has made the death of Christ to be the birth-place of His people. His death was the end of one generation, but the birth-place of a new generation. The death of Christ was the revelation of the love of God. There was in it the removal of man to God’s glory; but the love revealed in that death became the formative principle of a new generation. We are of God in Christ. A new generation in a new Head.
Now the lessons that we are to learn are not learned in a moment. God does not occupy us with small things, but with great ones. The first thing mentioned here is wisdom — “Christ Jesus” is “made unto us wisdom from God” — Christ is Himself the wisdom of God. With the Corinthians there was the tendency to turn to human wisdom; but to know divine wisdom you must turn to Christ. I understand wisdom to mean resource. Any man may have a purpose, but the question is, has he resource enough to compass his purpose? You apprehend God’s wisdom not only in conceiving but in carrying [p. 145] out His purpose. In Genesis 2, we see that God purposed to provide a helpmate for the man that He had made. It was the purpose of His goodness to do so. Now the wisdom of God is seen in the way in which He carries out His purpose. The way He takes is His wisdom. He brings to Adam not what is foreign, but what is kindred to him — suitable to the man, that thus she may be the object of his affection; she was derived from Adam, and he regarded her as of himself. Thus the wisdom of God provided for Adam a helpmate. She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and he was bound to love her. She was, too, the glory of the man, and I might, in a sense, say the fulness of the man. She was not man, and, in order, inferior to man; but she was the glory of the man. In scripture you see crises and difficulties arising from time to time, but you never find God baffled, either by the malice of Satan or the wickedness of man. God always has resource. Now Christ is the wisdom of God — the setting forth of God’s wisdom. The position of Christ now in regard of Israel is that of being deceased — in a deep sleep as regards them — and this by their own wickedness. But God takes occasion of it to form a bride for Christ. That very sleep has become the birth-place of the bride. You might have supposed that the death of Christ closed all as regards man. No; it has become the birth-place of the church. The great principle which came to light in the cross of Christ was love, and there is no real breathing of spiritual life in any of us till the love of God is made known to us by the death of Christ. The death of Christ is the perfect testimony of God’s love, and every real christian begins his life for God there. The beginning of spiritual life, as such, is in apprehending the love of God. Whosoever “loveth is born of God and knoweth God”. There is a generation here which has been called into existence by the love of God, the testimony of which we have in the death of Christ. This generation testifies to the Son of God. The palsied man [p. 146] in John 5, became a testimony to the Son of God; and those who hear the voice of the Son of God, and live, are in the same way a witness to the Son of God. What I understand by the wisdom of God is that in the decease of Christ in regard of Israel God has brought about a generation born of Himself. And God will eventually make good all in regard to Israel. Now what Eve was to Adam the church is to Christ. The church is the glory of Christ. The church is not Christ, but it is the fulness of Christ, it is His body. Whatever you know of me is expressed through my body. The body of Christ is the vehicle and expression of the mind of Christ. The church is His fulness, for it is adequate for the setting forth of the Son of God. That testimony is in the generation which is born of God. God has sent the Bible into the world, but the proper answer to infidelity is the church. The witness to the Son of God is the church, and this is the wisdom of God. God has found for Christ what Rebecca was to Isaac, one who will share His inheritance in the day of His glory. We learn in Christ the wonderful resource which there is in God to give effect to all that is of His purpose.
Now I come to the next point — righteousness. Christ Jesus has been made to us righteousness. If I take account of this company as forming part of a generation begotten of God, it is looking at them apart from what we are in flesh. The time will come when we shall pass out of the relationships which belong to us in flesh; but as born of God we are eternal. But we are all here in connection with life in flesh, and have all had to do with sin. If this be so, the first necessity for us according to God must be righteousness; so we read at the beginning that God made coats of skin to cover Adam and Eve. Christ is become our covering in the eye of God. Whatever you have done or will do, and whatever is in you, if you are a christian you are accepted of God in view of the world to come. Nothing affects the question of our righteousness, for Christ is our righteousness.
[p. 147] We have on the wedding garment. The wedding garment was provided — the guest had to take it up. A man who comes in without the wedding garment will be cast out; he is bound to come in according to the order of the feast; and that is Christ for righteousness and that covers our nakedness.
But, further, Christ is made unto us sanctification. Christ is the expression of our sanctification. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. Our sanctification is perfectly set forth in Christ. If you can appreciate Christ as Man, raised from the dead, but not yet in possession of His rights, you will understand Christ as Sanctifier. We see Jesus in the place of man, taking the ground of praising God. Our sanctification consists in this, that we are the brethren of Christ and in association with Him. Go tell My brethren, “I ascend into my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, that was their sanctification. The character of sanctification is set forth in Christ raised from the dead, living to God but not in possession of His rights, and there is a company in association with Him. It is a great thing to get an apprehension of Christ as our sanctification, expressing what man is now for God. The closer we get to Christ the more we appreciate that we are a holy priesthood, forming part of the priestly company which draw nigh to God. Sanctification, which is perfectly set forth in Christ, has its application to us, if we have faith in the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Now one word as to redemption — Christ is made unto us redemption. We see the thought of this in Philippians 3: 20, 21. As christians we are brought within the range of the influence of Christ. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me”. It is a great thing to be within the range of His influence. It is very subduing. He will subdue all that is discordant to Himself. Adam loved his helpmate, and there was nothing discordant. The proper idea of husband and wife is [p. 148] that the wife comes within the range of an influence which will not be content until all is according to the man himself Now that is what Christ is doing if you are near to Him. The subduing process will go on until you are completely like Himself. It is going on effectively now in a moral way, and it will go on even to the body, for He will have our bodies like unto His body of glory. Christ will have nothing which is discordant. What is true now morally will eventually be true in regard of your body. So we get here that Christ is redemption to us. We shall be like Him, for nothing will complete His satisfaction until we get deliverance from the poor weak body and are conformed to His image. Christ is made unto us wisdom from God — also righteousness and sanctification and redemption; so that he that glories may glory in the Lord. All this is what God has provided; and He teaches us as to them that we may be satisfied with the goodness of His house. Christ is the great lesson book (I speak reverently) of His people. He is meek and lowly in heart, and if you come near to Him, you will prove His subduing power. There are great lessons to be learned in God’s school and their effect will be for eternity. Now is the opportunity afforded us of becoming acquainted with them. These are not new thoughts, they were in the mind of God from the beginning, but have all come out in Christ. May we be more drawn to Christ, so that our hearts may come under the influence of all that Christ is.