1 CORINTHIANS 15 (SECOND READING)
1 CORINTHIANS 15 (SECOND READING)
Rem We were noticing that the apostle, at the commencement of the chapter, speaks of the gospel which he preached, and that it was according to Scripture. He mentions the great effects of the gospel and that they were all according to Scripture, and I suppose what [p. 116] follows in the chapter is what is involved in the gospel; it shows us what a wonderful thing it is and what is involved in it. It goes far beyond the need of man and introduces the thought of divine purpose.
CAC Yes, and death and resurrection are the way into divine purpose. Therefore Christ has gone that way. It is important for us to see the simple fact that the Lord’s life here upon earth and His death and His resurrection are all on the way to the accomplishment of divine purpose in Him. The purpose of God does not actually come into view until Christ takes His place in heaven.
I suppose the thought of seed introduces the idea of purpose. Something is in view in the sowing of the seed which does not actually appear in the seed itself. It is bare grain; but everyone who sows seed has in view the complete, perfect result, the harvest; the idea is that God is going to perfect all that is in His own mind and resurrection is necessary for that. Nothing can put away sin but death, and nothing can annul death but resurrection; and resurrection is in view of our being quickened to live in an entirely new order of things which is according to divine purpose, something which was in the mind of God before ever He made man of dust.
I suppose the apostle brought all this truth before the Corinthians not merely to counteract the error that was found in the minds of some, but to develop spirituality, and I think spirituality really brings us on to the ground and into the line of divine purpose. A spiritual man would have before him what was in the mind and heart of God.
Ques “The second man, out of heaven” — just to what does that refer?
CAC It has been said, and I think it is right, that the second Man is the thought of pattern, and all that God has in view in the purpose of His love is patterned in the [p. 117] second Man, and He is out of heaven. That is, it does not exactly refer to what He was in the days of His flesh.
Ques What is exactly the difference between the two expressions, “last Adam” and “second man”?
CAC The last Adam is said to be “a quickening spirit” — life-giving Spirit. The first man was Adam: that is, we think of a person when we say, “the first man”, a person that died in the year 930 of the world’s history. That was the end of the first man. He was a living soul, but the last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. He is One who is able to quicken with His own life those who come under His headship, so that they are competent to live in the region of divine purpose. I think it is important to notice the difference between the bearing of resurrection and the bearing of quickening. I expect it has been noticed by all of us that when the two things are mentioned together they are mentioned in that order — resurrection first and then quickening, which intimates clearly that quickening has to do with a life that is beyond death. I have put it sometimes in this way: resurrection stands relative to all that is behind it, but quickening stands relative to all that is before it.
Ques Is quickening the power to live in the enjoyment of all that God has purposed?
CAC Yes; we are not quickened by the last Adam for this world, nor for things connected with this life, but we are quickened by the last Adam in order that we may live in that region of purpose; and everyone that is introduced to that region is going to be patterned after the second Man who is the heavenly One. Now resurrection is on the way to that. Resurrection is relative to all that is behind it. It is the mighty power of God coming in relative to all that has been occasioned by sin. Sin has come in by man, and death has come in by sin. Now God’s answer to all that is resurrection. It takes man completely out of all [p. 118] that he was in naturally; but that is in view of his being quickened so as to live in a new region, a heavenly region, and to live in that region as quickened by the last Adam and as patterned after the second Man.
This is not exactly a question of what is moral. The apostle is not occupied with the moral side here, but that as we have borne the image of the one out of the earth made of dust so we shall bear the image of the One out of heaven. It is a heavenly Christ who is the second Man.
Rem It is not Christ on earth.
CAC No, I do not think it refers to that. Of course, we know that personally everything that attaches to Christ was there essentially, but the setting of the second Man is that He is the heavenly One, and the purpose of God is portrayed in the heavenly One. We are not going to be like Christ as He was here. We are going to be like Christ as He is now in heaven.
Rem So that the perfect Man had to die.
CAC That is, to close up everything connected with the first man. Everything that came in by the first man had to be closed up in such a way as to be satisfactory to God, and it was closed up in the death of Christ; the resurrection of Christ is the way by which we enter into the sphere of the purpose of God. It was not in the purpose of God that we should be like Christ in the days of His flesh, but it was in the purpose of God that we should be like Him as the heavenly One.
Ques Would it be right to say that the Lord’s being here was connected with the will of God, but the Lord in heaven is connected with the purpose of God?
CAC Yes, I think so. God had to be glorified in regard of all that had come in in connection with the man made of dust. He has been glorified, and in resurrection the Lord emerges from all the consequences of what came in by the man made of dust. He has been in death,
[p. 119] He has been in burial, because if He had not been buried the thing would not have been complete.
He removed every liability that had come upon the inheritance, and He has done it all in absolute perfection. So that nothing need be added to what has been done on that line. In the death and burial of Christ there is the entire end and removal of everything that was unsuitable to the purpose of God. It is good to look at it from that side, not simply as meeting need; it did meet need but it removed everything that was unsuitable to the purpose of God. That is true for every believer. It is not any special class; it is not some extra-special people who are going to be raised, though there are some who teach that now.
Ques Was not the Lord Jesus also the “bare grain”?
CAC Quite so, because all the purpose of God was inherent in Him. The potentiality of it all was there to be brought into fruition through death. He was the “grain of wheat” that fell into the ground and died to bear much fruit. It is all in view of the purpose of God.
Rem We have to make this distinction in regard of the Lord, that there was no question of corruption with Him.
CAC So that you could not say of the Lord that He was sown in corruption. That is very important to keep in mind. He saw no corruption, because corruption is the evidence that death has got the victory. God’s Holy One saw no corruption.
Ques Do you distinguish between quickening and resurrection?
CAC Yes, very much so, because resurrection takes you out of all connected with the former history. Resurrection took Christ out of everything that was connected with the former history of man. He came into it in grace. He bore the sin; He entered into death; He took everything that had come in upon man made of dust, but in [p. 120] resurrection He emerges from it all. That is the resurrection side. It is emerging, just as in resurrection a man emerges from the grave; he leaves all that behind. Now what is going to happen to him? Well, he is going to be quickened. It is always in that order wherever you find resurrection and quickening together; resurrection comes first. You are brought out of the old, but now you are going to live in the new, and the last Adam has quickened everyone who stands in relation to Him; He has quickened them with the life of purpose.
Rem It is those who are raised that are quickened.
CAC Yes, they are raised and quickened so that they can live in the region of the purpose of God. Of course, all this is anticipated morally: we have come, through infinite grace, under the quickening power of the last Adam now in a moral sense, so that we can touch the region of purpose, and we can live in it. We can respond to God in fresh affection in the region of His own purpose. I suppose, in order to reach the purpose of God in an experimental way we have to learn death; that is, there is no other way in. That which is sown is not quickened unless it die. I believe there is a great moral principle in that: death is upon every single thing that I derive from the man who was made of dust, and if I am to live in a region where death is not I must learn death to that order. So that a moral learning of death is necessary if we are to live in the region of the purpose of God.
Ques Would you link this with the new covenant?
CAC Yes. I think the new covenant will really be brought into result on the principle of resurrection. As regards Israel, they are a valley of dry bones, and they are very dry! There is no remedy except in the power of resurrection and quickening; so that the new covenant will be entered into and enjoyed on the principle of life out of death. They will have to learn that death is upon [p. 121] them. I do not think that any person of Adam’s race who has to do with God is excluded from learning that death is upon him, and in learning that lesson he acquires power to apprehend the wonderful fact that the last Adam quickens that we may live in a region outside of death altogether. The wonderful triumph of God! We may well say, “Thanks to God, who gives us the victory”. He puts us in possession of the complete victory before we are actually in it; but Christ is in it, and it is far better for us that He should be in it.
Ques Were the Lord’s movements in John 20 on the quickening line?
CAC I think so. That is the scripture which I should use to illustrate the thought of quickening, because He breathed into them. It was a wonderful thing to breathe into them. He imparted to them His own life and in that life they were rendered competent for the enjoyment of the privilege of association with Him, and they were also competent for testimony as sent by Him into the world.
Rem That was life out of death — the other side of death.
CAC Yes.
Ques Would you say that the whole of John’s gospel leads up to that?
CAC It has it in view. I think that the work of God from new birth onward has the purpose of God in view. When man is born again there is the seed of divine purpose deposited there, and it has in view what God is going to do in the resurrection and heavenly world. In John’s gospel that is particularly in view because it is to a large extent the gospel of purpose. It is not like Luke, the gospel of grace meeting man in all his need. John is the gospel of purpose and the two go on together; they are bound together. Paul speaks to Timothy of God having saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according [p. 122] to our works but according to His own purpose and grace, and the two things go together — “Purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, but has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Timothy 1: 9, 10. That is very much what we get here: it is life and incorruptibility.
Ques You spoke of new birth and quickening. Are they the same thing?
CAC Oh no, not a bit of it! New birth has quickening in view. New birth is the initial work of God by which a man becomes sensitive Godward. I have compared it sometimes to the sensitising of a photographic plate. It undergoes a process which makes it sensitive to light. Now that is like new birth. A man that is born anew becomes sensitive to divine light so that it acts upon him and there is an element of moral cleanness introduced into the soul. That is all, you can say, on moral lines, but it has in view the purpose line. There are two great lines in Scripture: there is the moral line and the purpose line, and presently, of course, in resurrection they will both coalesce. There is the line on which God has worked with us morally, and there is another line on which we are looked at as subjects of purpose, and they both coalesce eventually.
Ques The order in John’s gospel is born again, resurrection and quickening. Is that the moral order, the order in which they are understood?
CAC I think so. God always has His purpose in view, and I suppose Paul is leading the saints to contemplate what God has in purpose. He calls attention to the varied works of God which can be seen in nature — different seeds each having in view its own result, and different kinds of flesh, and different kinds of bodies. He is [p. 123] getting higher and higher to the heavenly bodies, all leading to the distinctiveness of what is connected with divine purpose, with what is connected with the last Adam and the second Man.
Rem The Corinthians appear to have spent a great deal of time on that which will go into death, but the apostle seems to emphasise that which is coming out of death.
CAC Yes, and it would make us all spiritual if we were just to recognise the importance of what is coming out of death. There are a great many things that are attractive, but they are going into death; but there is another order of things which is going to emerge from death, and we want to cultivate that.
Ques Has the reference to sowing any moral bearing on our exercises?
CAC I think it has. What is sown has a distinct relation to what is raised. To put it simply, we ought to feel, when we bury a saint, that we can say that we are sowing a seed which is suitable to spring up in resurrection to take its place in the world of purpose. That is, we look at the saint’s body as identified with the presence of the Spirit and with all that has come out by the Spirit in that body. We bury the saint — Scripture always puts it that way: it never says we bury his body. “Pious men buried Stephen”, Acts 8: 2. All that the man is is identified with his body. It was so with the Lord: the angel said to the women, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay”, Matthew 28: 6. It is very wonderful. Now you think of that in relation to the burial of a saint. You think of all that has been identified with that body through the grace and work of God. That body has been the temple of the Holy Spirit; that body has been a member of Christ; is not that a seed suitable to spring up in the region of purpose? When we bury our brother or our sister we [p. 124] should have a sense of the dignity and value that attaches to that body. We ought to be able to say that we are sowing a seed that is suitable to be raised at the resurrection of the just.
Rem That is a very precious consideration — very precious!
CAC It is important that the work of God is identified with the body in which it was worked out, and that is really what gives value to resurrection. Certain elements have appeared and have been developed by the work of God in a saint and those elements are indispensable in God’s eternal world. He must have them in His spiritual and imperishable universe. So that resurrection is an absolute necessity from God’s stand-point.
Ques What have you to say about the treasure in earthen vessels?
CAC The idea is that we have the treasure in earthen vessels now. We have the treasure in vessels made of dust, but God is going to have the treasure in a vessel that is suitable. The jewel is going to be put in a casket worthy of it, to God’s eternal praise.
Rem God is not going to lose any of the results of His work.
CAC I think that underlies this thought of the seed. The apostle introduces the thought of seed first in connection with the necessity of death and quickening; but then when he comes to speak of the burial of the saint he speaks of sowing. Well, we do not sow without some expectation of a crop, and the saints are going to be raised in the condition of purpose. How wonderful to take hold really of that! When you bury a saint you think of all that has come out morally in him. His body has been the temple of the Holy Spirit, and things have been worked out in that body that are morally of God; but that body is not in the condition of purpose, and never was so. I do [p. 125] not know anything more dignified than the burial of a saint. It is the most dignified moment in his history, because then you can say, ‘Victory’. I would not say ‘Victory’ now. There may be, perhaps, a long chapter of defeat in front of me; but when the saints come to bury me they can say ‘Victory’ because everything connected with responsibility is ended, and the next time you see that saint whom you bury he will be in the condition of purpose. It is very fine!
Rem In conformity to His body of glory!
CAC Yes, “it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”. That is, it is all in the condition of purpose.
Ques Would you say that the apostle would have us to anticipate that in the Spirit?
CAC That is exactly what he had in mind in writing this, to carry them a step further than he had in chapter 11. It is all very well to go as far as chapter 11, but one should not stop there, because if the Lord convenes us in assembly by the Supper He sets us together in the presence of His having gone into death, and all that has been secured on the line of the will of God and the covenant; but the will of God and the covenant both have in view the purpose of God. So that after the breaking of bread, and after we have enjoyed together the blessed communion connected with the accomplished will of God and the covenant, I believe the Lord’s intention is that we should pass on into the region of purpose; and if Christ gets His place as Head in our midst He comes there in relation to purpose. If Christ takes His place as Head — He is the last Adam and He is the quickening Spirit — He would give us the consciousness of living with Him as quickened by Him, and living in the region of purpose.
[p. 126] We reach it spiritually. We are still in flesh and blood condition but we can touch it spiritually. All that the apostle speaks of here in connection with the last Adam and the second Man, the heavenly One, can be touched spiritually now, and I believe it is touched in the assembly when conditions are suitable for it. Paul could not develop this as teaching in connection with the assembly because the Corinthians were unspiritual; they were carnal and there was such gross disorder and such very diminutive stature that he could not develop the thought of purpose in relation to them; but in chapter 15 he brings it all out in connection with resurrection. So you can understand that he begins the next chapter by a reference to the first day of the week which is a purely spiritual reference.
Rem Your numerous references to purpose stir up our hearts to know more of what purpose involves.
CAC Well, it says, “Some are ignorant of God: I speak to you as a matter of shame”. Now that ignorance of God is relative to purpose; so that these unhappy and misguided men who were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead were entirely ignorant of God in relation to His purpose. We do not really know God until we know His purpose. The nature of God, the wisdom of God and the glory of God all come out when you see His purpose, when you see how entirely He has cleared the scene of everything that came in by the man made of dust, and has established a new scene in connection with the last Adam and the second Man, where all is heavenly and where there is not a single thing about it that does not answer to the expectation of God to the fullest extent. I think it is very important that we should learn to think of things on the line of purpose.
Rem That would help us to “be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord”.
CAC And it teaches you to look at the saints in the light of the calling. I do not know anything more important in a practical sense than that we should look at each other in the light of the calling, because there is no imperfection in the calling, and the calling is according to purpose. Now when you think of a brother or sister you may see blemishes and defects, and we can all see them in each other when we get on that line, but if you think of the saints on the line of calling — and I would say without hesitation that the greatest thing you can say of any saint is that he is one of God’s called ones, because everything is bound up in that — what a wonderful company it is! You feel that the greatest honour that God could confer upon you is to allow you to sit down with a few people whom He has called according to purpose. It is fine! There is nothing small about that! You begin to realise that they are a great people — “Thy people ... a great people”, 1 Kings 3: 8. It is not as though you were thinking of the saints in an untrue way. The greatest reality possible about us is that we are called ones; so that when you can discern evidence of a work of God in a soul, however initial or small it may be, you feel yourself entitled to conclude that he is a called one; and it is, “Whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son ... But whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified”, Romans 8: 29 - 30. He is obliged to wipe out everything connected with the guilty history — “but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”. It is a golden chain stretched across time into eternity and no power of earth or hell could ever break the links in that chain. When you think of the brethren in that light you think truly of them. You may look at me and see all sorts of things, but what about the calling? What gives me value, if I am any value at all, is the calling. So Paul says, “For consider your calling, brethren” 1 Corinthians 1: 26. Just look around and see these poor, simple, weak things, people of no account in this world — oh, but they are called! They are called! What dignity! It is all going to issue in that wonderful scene where everyone will bear the image of the heavenly One.