2 CORINTHIANS 5 (FIRST READING)
2 CORINTHIANS [p. 261] 5 (FIRST READING)
CAC It is striking the way these things are brought out, not in the way of teaching but shown as worked out in the experience of a man. These marvellous unseen things had a very practical effect on the man who was looking at them, so that, whether clothed upon or absent from the Lord, his exercise was to be agreeable to Him. It is a point of great importance that we should constantly seek to be agreeable to the Lord. The reason we do not make more spiritual progress is often a practical one. People think they will get on by coming to readings and listening to ministry, but a little practical adjustment of our ways so as to be agreeable to the Lord would help much towards spiritual progress.
Rem You would not have us stay away from meetings?
CAC No, but our home exercises should correspond with what we hear. A soul makes progress when there is some definite adjustment in view of being agreeable to the Lord.
Rem We have to mourn that we are not.
CAC Then we ought to alter our ways! If you feel you are not agreeable you alter your ways so that you may be. A saint cannot go on with a thing that he feels is not agreeable to the Lord. All will be manifested at the judgment-seat, but before that what a blessed thing it is to be agreeable to the Lord! Paul was conscious of being already manifested; the only effect on him of the thought of the judgment-seat was to make him persuade others; the thought made him concerned about others, not about himself. Everything that concerned himself was [p. 262] manifested to God, and he can say as well, “I hope also that we have been manifested in your consciences”. There was perfect transparency Godward and manward. I think the saints could take account of him, that his motives as well as his actions were according to God and to Christ.
Ques Do you think the judgment-seat will bring out motives?
CAC In 1 Corinthians 4: 5 it is a question of motives, the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Lord will “bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and shall make manifest the counsels of hearts”; there it is what is hidden from man’s eyes, but here it is the actual responsible history, what is done in the body.
Ques Is it since we were born, or since conversion?
CAC It is as long as you have had a body.
Rem Some have said, ‘If all our sins are washed away, how can they come up before the judgment-seat?’ That is quite true, but you would like to know all about it, would you not? The whole responsible history will be manifested — the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil. It is not to decide if one is saved, because when saints get there they will be in glorified bodies.
Ques Is it public, or between the Lord and the soul?
CAC I think it is a manifestation to individuals; I do not see what would be gained by making it public.
Rem There will be something found in every saint that God can mark with His approval.
CAC Yes, there will be a thought, if nothing else; there will be those “that thought upon his name”, Malachi 3:16.
Ques What is meant by “the terror of the Lord” in this context?
CAC I should think that if Christ is on the [p. 263] judgment-seat it brings in that thought; it is very solemn.
Ques Does verse 10 apply to both saints and sinners?
CAC Yes, the “all” is universal, it takes in everyone.
I suppose the judgment-seat covers all, though at different times. I would include the great white throne in Revelation 20. If everything is to be scrutinised, how solemn it is! We can understand the apostle speaking of it as the “terror of the Lord”; it is not too strong a word.
Rem To bear that in mind would keep us from lightness and levity.
CAC It is a very solemn thing here; with many it will be found that they have done nothing but evil.
Ques Would that not be the unsaved?
CAC Yes, the judgment-seat here is a general thought.
Ques Do not the saints judge the world?
CAC That is not exactly sitting in judgment, but rather administering what is right. It is a solemn thing for saints to consider that everything is going to be scrutinised; it is a wholesome thought for us to consider what we are doing with our bodies all the time. If we are not exercised, we need to bear in mind that everything is coming out, and the Lord’s estimate will be manifested plainly to us. Being zealous to be agreeable to the Lord is a question for the heart, but there is the other side for the conscience. We need both — every solemn warning as well as encouragement. The thought of the judgment-seat would keep the conscience in exercise and would have a very preservative effect.
Ques Is this a judgment of works, not sins?
CAC Well, it is “those he has done, whether it be good or evil”. It is not a question of sins being brought into judgment as sins; it is not the imputation of them, but it is a question of the Lord’s estimate of everything in our lives.
[p. 264] Ques Where do you get the thought that verse 10 refers to sinners as well as saints?
CAC I get it from this, that we must all appear before the judgment-seat; it is a general principle. Will anyone escape being manifested? They will all be judged at different times, but all will be manifested; the estimate of Christ will be passed on every man. Everything will have to pass the standard of that Man. We know from other scriptures that the saints will pass the judgment-seat at the beginning of the millennium, and the wicked at the end, but everyone will be manifested there at some time or other.
Ques Is it not a different kind of judgment?
CAC I do not think there is an atom of difference in the estimation, whether it is of a saint or of a sinner. If a thing is wrong, it is wrong, and as bad in a saint as in a sinner; the estimate of the judgment of Christ will be passed on it.
Ques Is this the same as the Lord returning as in the parable of the talents?
CAC There it is the judgment of service; it is the responsibility of the servant to use the Master’s goods; it is a question of how they are used and the service is judged. Here the judgment is general; it is on what is “done in the body”. It all came out before in Paul. For a saint there can be no sense of condemnation because we are relieved of all that, but we are to be exercised in view of being manifested. The thought of the terror of the Lord moved Paul in his service. All this in the first and second epistles had a great bearing on those who had come in as false apostles, deceitful workers transformed as ministers of righteousness. They were not converted men, but found prominence in the christian circle as teachers and preachers, and they undermined the work of the apostle. This all had a bearing [p. 265] towards them.
Ques Will our works affect our position?
CAC Not in heaven, but the place we have in the kingdom; one is over ten cities and another over five, and so on. We are in the Father’s house as sons, and there is no difference in glorified bodies. The saints are in them before they come before the judgment-seat; they are all like the Lord Himself.
Rem The love of Christ is the motive of service, “The love of the Christ constrains us”.
CAC It is very important for us to arrive at this judgment: “having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died”. This is what Paul had come to in his own judgment; it is not simply a fact of truth. Shall we get any of the good of what follows until we arrive at the same judgment?
Ques Is the “all” the same as in verse 10?
CAC Yes; the all is contrasted with “they who live”, they are a limited class. It is a solemn thought that all are dead; that is the judgment you come to as being in the embrace of the love of Christ: “one died for all, then all have died”.
Ques Is not verse 13 very important? To God Paul was beside himself, but he was sober for their sake.
CAC We can let ourselves go unrestrainedly Godward. If we think of God’s love, and His purpose in Christ, and all the blessed things He has prepared and freely given, we can let ourselves go and there is no need for restraint; but, when it is a question of the saints, we have to consider what we say or do. Godward there is nothing but pure joy, you are not detained or hindered by any thought of yourself; but if you think of others you have to be sober.
Ques Would you say it was more than once?
CAC Paul tells it as if it were a thing he knew about, not at any particular time, but rather habitually. If beside [p. 266] himself to God, he would be sober towards men.
Ques Does “sober” give the thought of being temperate and controlled?
CAC You would consider what is good for others; you do not go in for rhapsody, but consider what will be good for your brethren. The apostle took a sober account of the need of the Corinthians; he does not let himself go in his epistles; he held himself in check soberly. He had a good deal in his mind that he could not bring out because they were not fit for it.
Rem The expression, “the love of Christ”, only occurs three times in the New Testament — here, in Romans 8: 35 and in Ephesians 3: 19.
CAC It is the love of the Man. What are the three aspects of it?
Rem In Romans 8 it is the love of the Priest, in Ephesians it is the love of the Head, and here it is connected with the Lord.
CAC There is something peculiarly touching about the love of Christ, that blessed anointed Man; we have His love as Priest and as Head, as you say. Could we speak of it here as connected with the consecration offering? He has gone into death to secure a consecrated company. The triumph of His love is that He secures a company absolutely devoted to Himself, and that is for the pleasure of God in reconciliation. That love embraces the soul; it is the love of Christ that holds us. “Constrain” is the same word as in Luke 22: 63, where they “held”
Jesus. It means that we are in the embrace of the love of Christ and held by it, and in this way we live, quickened by the voice and love of Christ. Every one according to flesh becomes of small account in the light of that, and in this way we can arrive at the truth of what follows.
Ques What would you say as to not knowing [p. 267] Christ after the flesh?
CAC He has died; there is no Christ after the flesh now; He is the risen, ascended, glorified One. If we are in Christ we are in the risen One and therefore in new creation, an entirely new beginning. This is the estimate of things that the soul who is in the embrace of the love of Christ comes to; we anticipate the glorified state. Old things are not yet actually passed away; we are in the same bodies and the system of the world goes on as it did but, in the mind and consciousness and judgment of the one who is in the embrace of the love of Christ, all these things are gone. Men after the flesh are gone, new things have come in and we can live in the blessedness of new creation, anticipating in spirit the glorified state. This delivers the soul from the whole system of present things; if we do not know any man after the flesh we are pretty much out of the world. We do not take account of a man except as one for whom Christ died: the mightiest monarch on earth is only a poor sinner for whom Christ died for the end of all his importance and glory has come in the death of Christ. That is the inward consciousness of the soul. Outwardly we give him respect, but inwardly all after the flesh has gone in the death of Christ. All the great activities of men, great generals and admirals, are nothing in the saint’s inner consciousness and judgment. It is not that he does not recognise them and give them the honour due to them, but in his own spirit and mind they are only poor sinners for whom Christ died. We belong to a system where all is of God.