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2 CORINTHIANS 5 (SECOND READING)

CAC This part of the chapter is deserving of attentive consideration; it is the crown of the apostle’s ministry in this epistle. The love of Christ is the spring of everything that is for the pleasure of God; the love of Christ in which He went into death will be the underlying cause of God’s pleasure throughout the universe. We do not arrive at a divine thought save as we are held by the love of Christ. In the consecration of the priests, the blood of the ram of consecration was put on their right ear, right thumb, and right toe; that is, the whole man had to come under the devoted love of Christ told out in death. What we have here in verse 14 answers very much to that. If God is to have His place there must be a priestly state. The trouble at Corinth was that whilst the tabernacle of testimony was there priestly condition as lacking so everything had got out of order. The apostle is working to bring about priestly state so that the tabernacle may be in order. If we are held by the love of Christ we come to this divine judgment. It is very important that this truth is put before us as the judgment of a man held by the love of Christ, and if this is so the blood will be on his ear. We have not sound judgments because our ear is open to all kinds of judgments of men. The ear is the avenue to all that is within so, if the ear is not kept, consecration will not be effected. We should judge everything from the standpoint of the love of Christ that went into death; everything inconsistent with that is not worth anything to us. People read all kinds of books and absorb all kinds of thoughts, and that is the reason why priestly ^[p. 269] service is so deficient. If the ear is not kept the hand and foot will not be, so the service and walk will be more or less on worldly principles and will not be according to the holy grace and dignity of priesthood.

There was only one way in which the love of Christ could touch men and that way was by dying for them; no other way could have helped man. He said, as it were, ‘Nothing will do but that I must die for them’; that was His estimate of the condition in which men were, so One died for all. It shows the state in which men were; there was no hope at all of God having any pleasure in man after the flesh. It shows the entire setting aside of man in the flesh; all were dead, so there was no use considering man any longer from the point of view of God’s pleasure, but man’s worthlessness had been demonstrated in the way of love. It is not that God came in with a smashing blow, but Christ came in in love and went into death. If we are held by the love of Christ we drop man after the flesh altogether as dead and done with, because nothing whatever springs out of man in the flesh for God’s pleasure. We learn that lesson first. Everything for God’s pleasure flows from the love of Christ. It is wonderful to think that what God had in mind was good pleasure in men. Some have been celebrating today God’s good pleasure in men; that is the thought of reconciliation, but it did not come to pass by Christ coming into the world. The heavenly hosts celebrated it then, but His death was necessary before it could come in; it was only by death that God’s pleasure could be brought about. Think of God looking to find His pleasure in us! It was His eternal purpose but it was brought about through Christ.

Ques Is it the object of Paul’s ministry to make this known to us?

CAC Yes, to bring us all into the circle of divine pleasure. No ministry is more needed than the ministry ^[p. 270] of reconciliation; it brings the soul consciously into the circle of divine pleasure.

Ques Do we see it in type in Luke 15?

CAC Yes; there it was a scene of pleasure for the Father; His heart sounded the key-note of divine merriment. The point of the love of Christ here is the devoted love of a blessed Man who went into death to establish the delight of God in man. He came forth to be the true ram of consecration, so that there might be a consecrated company set in the presence of God, not only for their happiness but to minister to the pleasure of God.

Ques Have we been thinking too much of our own side?

CAC Yes. It is so important that we should be held by the love of Christ, because then we should look at things as the love of Christ regards them. The first thought of His heart was not to meet the need of man, but to fill up the pleasure of God in man. “Glory to God in the highest”, “On earth peace”, “Good pleasure in men”, these were the things in the heart of Christ when He went into death, and if the love of Christ holds us these are the things we shall be thinking about.

Rem The love of Christ takes in divine counsel.

CAC Christ appears in the universe in manhood in a power of love that can give effect to all the delights of God. He is the source and object of every movement of life; there is not a movement in my soul that He is not the source of, and not only that, but He is the object before my heart. He has come and gone into death, and He is the living spring of life, ‘Life-giving Head Thou art’. Being the source of life, He becomes the object also of those who live; they live to Him.

Ques Is it the same as in Romans 14: 8, living or dying to the Lord?

CAC There it is considering the claims of the Lord,

^[p. 271] for He has rights and claims, but here it is the attraction of love that if He died for all, then those who live are under the necessity of love to live to Him. When the Lord rose from the dead He took the place of Head in resurrection, and on the first day of the week He became the source of life. There were Mary, Peter, the two going to Emmaus — how the Lord touched each of them! His life-giving touch was on every heart and the result was they lived to Him; only one Person was to be thought of.

Scribes and rulers and the potentates in Jerusalem, with all the paraphernalia of the religious world, were nothing to them! There was only one Person out of death; He had touched their spirits and had become a life-giving Head to them and they lived to Him. We can understand that they had no thought but for Him. The Lord’s supper ought to be to us what the Lord’s actual presence was then. It is that which brings Him to mind in His absence and should be a life-giving touch to our spirits; it should make us feel that we have only one Person to think of and to live to.

Rem The two on the way to Emmaus and immediately returned to the company.

CAC Yes, they were held by the love of Christ so had a correct judgment; they wanted to be in the place where the Lord’s interests were. It is from the standpoint of the pleasure of God that we know no one according to flesh. It is very wonderful because, “if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”. He has died and now He is risen and glorified: if we are in Christ, we are in a risen and glorified One.

Rem Christ according to flesh is received by everyone, but the only way we can know Him is in glory.

CAC The moment we touch that side, man feels that he is out of his depth; it is new creation ground. Those ^[p. 272] who have been touched by the love of Christ and live to Him are in Christ, but it is in Christ as the risen One. The starting-point of new creation is resurrection, it is outside the natural sphere. It is a new spiritual order and old things have passed away. Old things would be connected with man after the flesh, law, ceremonies, things men could touch and handle; all these have gone in the death of Christ. New creation gives the idea of an altogether new sphere, a new region.

Ques What was it to know Him after the flesh?

CAC The disciples had known Him as a Man walking about in this world; then they lost Him, He had gone in death, but on the resurrection day they found Him in a new condition as risen from the dead. It is not that we forget what He was morally, for He “is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come” (Hebrews 13: 8), but He is, as to condition, no longer after the flesh; He is risen and glorified.

Rem It is not only resurrection, but ascension. We could only know Him in glory.

CAC Yes. Paul’s first introduction to Him was in glory, and Paul is the pattern man in christianity. There is a great talk in the religious world about the historical Christ. It is not that we forget what He was on earth, because everything that came out in Him abides. Whatever was true morally of Him when here is true today, but there is a complete change in the condition of His manhood; it is a resurrection and heavenly order and we come into that order spiritually. “The old things have passed away; behold all things have become new: and all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”.

Reconciliation is the full light of Paul’s gospel as presented in this epistle. God is known in reconciliation; He has come out in Christ to place things before Himself ^[p. 273] according to His pleasure. Flesh has no room; every man is out of court, and only Christ remains. It is in Christ and by Christ that God reconciles. God brings about a state according to His pleasure; He establishes His pleasure and beseeches men to come into it. When God comes out in Christ it is not to talk to men about their offences; He says, as it were, ‘I leave all that. Come into the circle of My pleasure’. God is saying to every sinner under heaven, ‘I am not taking account of your sins now; I have Christ before Me, the object of My pleasure, and I invite you to come into that circle’. Four of the most amazing words in Scripture are, “Be reconciled to God”. One line of Paul’s gospel is summed up in them; the other line is sonship. Now it is a question of ministry. Paul says, “God ... has ... given to us the ministry of that reconciliation”; that is, it is brought to men by a man, Paul, so it is a human voice that speaks. It is grace that takes up a man, the chief of sinners, and God says, ‘I will make that man My mouthpiece through whom I will speak to men in grace, and I will beseech them through the voice of that man’.

There are two things: God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, and God has put in us the word of that reconciliation. Besides giving Paul the ministry God put the testimony of what was in His heart into Paul. This is like Galatians 1: 16, where Paul says, “God ... was pleased to reveal his Son in me”. God revealed His Son in the heart of a man, so that that man might go to the nations and preach His Son as glad tidings. Paul could say to the nations, ‘You can come into blessed relationship with God as sons’. The two lines of Paul’s ministry are sonship and reconciliation. God put the word of reconciliation into Paul; he says, ‘You can come where there is not a spot or shadow of distance’, “Be reconciled to God”. The way it is put is so wonderful. Then Paul is ambassador ^[p. 274] for Christ, so Christ is entreating through His ambassadors, and God is, as it were, beseeching. Paul does not quite say that God is beseeching but he puts it as near to that as possible.

Verse 21 is the ground of it all. He was made sin for us, and the answer to the atoning work of One who knew not sin was that we might become God’s righteousness in Him. We have sometimes heard that Christ in glory is the answer to the atoning work, but that is the answer to the Person. God’s answer to the Person was by putting Him in glory; His answer to His atoning work was by putting the saints in glory; nothing but that could be the answer to His work. Christ was so infinitely delightful to God that He puts Him in glory. No work was needed to put Christ in heaven, He could have gone there at any time; but the answer to His work is that saints become God’s righteousness in Him. We cannot understand what it was for Him to be made sin; “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us” is one of the most solemn statements of Scripture. I suppose the myriads of redeemed who have become the righteousness of God in Him, for ever glorified in Him, will be the setting forth to the universe of the value of His being made sin. The saints’ becoming the righteousness of God is so absolutely of God. It is not like Romans 3, the righteousness of God upon all who believe, but they are become the righteousness of God in Him just as He was made sin. There is not an atom of flesh there, but all is of God and so eternally for the pleasure of God. It is not here the Father and His children, but God and man, not a family thought, not sonship, but God and man. Men have become a positive delight to God; they are His righteousness in Christ.

Saints are privileged to come in spirit into all this now.

Reconciliation in its full results is future, because it involves having a glorified body. The “best robe” is that nothing comes under God’s eye but Christ; spiritually we can touch that order of things even now. It is Paul’s gospel but saints need it. It is a splendid gospel for sinners; it is like the four rivers of Eden in Genesis. Eden means pleasure, and four rivers flow out of it. The gospel is a universal testimony that God’s pleasure is established in Christ. Paul’s gospel goes out, north, south, east and west like the rivers, and that was universality. God is inviting all men to come into His pleasure in Christ. There is nothing saints need more than to be evangelised! How feeble we are in the gospel! A brother once said to another, ‘You have never known what it is to be an object of delight to the heart of God’. That might be said of many of us; if we do not know that, we have not received Paul’s gospel. That is reconciliation, we are objects of delight to the heart of God.

The prodigal is brought into the circle of divine pleasure; he lived in the consciousness of the father’s delight in him. If you had said to him, ‘What kind of terms is your father on with you?’ he would have said, ‘The best of terms’. If you had said, ‘What kind of terms are you on with your father?’ he would have said, ‘I am an object of delight to him’. How few christians have entered into this! The Corinthians did not, as they were not in a priestly state. The priests were washed, brought under the value of the blood, and clothed; that is, in figure, made delightful to God so that they could come near to Him, be consciously pleasurable to Him. What a spring for service to God if we are consciously in that, knowing that our very presence is a delight to God. The priests sent up the sweet savour of the different offerings which brought the perfections of Christ to God. The offerer brings Christ for acceptance, and the priest ministers for God’s delight.

Rem Were all the offerings offered on ^[p. 276] the burnt offering?

CAC The burnt-offering was always the measure of God’s thought for His people, so the morning and evening lamb were a perpetual sweet savour of Christ; it was official, it was how God viewed His people. When we bring our offerings we are consciously identified with the delight of God in Christ. Such a person is in reconciliation, he can come to God with no thought of himself. He is only thinking of Christ and he is a positive delight to God, a contribution to His praise.

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