1 CORINTHIANS 10 (FIRST READING)
1 CORINTHIANS 10 (FIRST READING)
CAC We must all be struck with what great prominence is given to Christ in this scripture. Moses is clearly a type of Christ, and the spiritual food, the manna, which they ate is also a precious type of Christ. Of the rock of which they drank it is expressly said, “The rock was the Christ”.
Ques How is it that they fall in the wilderness after that?
CAC That is just the matter we have to take account of. Though the children of Israel had part in such a [p. 21] wonderful economy the most of them had failed to get the gain of it. We are told that what happened to them is typical of ourselves and for our admonition, so that we may not be strewed in the desert but that we may go right through into the land.
Ques Is it a question of getting to heaven?
CAC No. I think it means getting into that which divine love has in view for us at the present time, of which we may possibly come short. We may fail to give God place because we fail to appreciate what He has brought us into. So it was with Israel; they failed to appreciate Moses, the manna, the Rock, the faithfulness of God and the promise of the land. That is why they came short. We have been brought into a wonderful economy of wealth. I suppose that we have all been baptised to Christ, put into relation to Him as Lord and Head, and have acquired the knowledge of the gift of the Spirit. Well, do we appreciate these things? The only way to escape falling in the wilderness is to appreciate Christ and the Spirit. The way of escape is Christ and the appreciation of Christ. That will keep us safe and nothing else will. Nothing but the appreciation of the grace that has come to us in Christ and the Spirit will keep us. Indeed if we have not that we may eventually fall.
The first part of the chapter links on with the first chapter of the epistle, where we find that Christ is the wisdom and power of God to those whom He calls. If we fall under the power of these things under which Israel fell, God has only one way of recovery — by reviving in our souls the appreciation of Christ and all that has come to us in Him.
Ques Does it involve the eating and drinking? In John 6 there is appreciation on the one hand and appropriation on the other.
CAC The point here is that you may eat and drink [p. 22] and yet be strewed in the desert; thus it is a solemn warning.
Now, christianity began with these precious things. People were baptised to Christ and to His death and ate and drank; they broke bread. I think the apostle has in view the whole christian period. It is by the allowance of the five things enumerated in this chapter that the christian profession has slipped away. God in His faithfulness provides a way out, and Christ is the way out. The Israelites lusted after the food of Egypt. Well, we are in danger of that. If people go back to the world they cannot retain their appreciation of Christ. But in God’s faithfulness He provides the way out. If we drop down in our souls we are likely to return to former interests in the world.
So nothing really stands but the faithfulness of God; we gradually acquire a sense that anything that is stable is of God. He has provided an issue, that is, renewed appreciation of Christ which He in sovereignty brings to pass in the affections of His people. The Israelites did not appreciate the wonderful things into which God had brought them. God has recovered things in the whole christian profession. I think the way out is brought about by the ministry of Christ which continually goes on for the deliverance of souls from these various snares. If we drop back to the flesh nothing will recover us but the faithfulness of God bringing Christ before our souls.
The sovereignty of God operated through Paul to the Galatians with a renewed ministry of Christ, bringing sonship before them. Most of us have dropped back in our history at some time. These things happened to them as types; the real working out of the thing is now. What happened to them happened typically, but it has happened to us! This is written to preserve us, and we are preserved by the appreciation of Christ. If we are away in the smallest degree we must cry to God to bring us back [p. 23] to it.
Ques Is this idolatry something more than before?
CAC Paul had very much before him the thought of idolatry of which the assembly at Corinth was in danger.
Ques Do we see everything taken account of as in nature?
CAC God takes account of what is in man’s nature, and it is very encouraging that He provides what will keep us free from every tendency of man’s nature. These are all things to which man’s nature is very prone. God foresaw that all these things would arise in the assembly. All these things that they did we are very prone to do. The point here is that we should not allow ourselves to be moved away from the appreciation of Christ. Murmuring was when they spoke evil of the land; it was questioning divine faithfulness. It speaks, too, of tempting the Christ. They had thirty-eight years’ experience of the grace of Christ, and yet they complained that they had been brought to the land to perish. Who had been ordering for them? When things do not go as we wish we are very apt to tempt Christ, especially when the government of God may involve suffering and trials that may press very heavily on us. There is a temptation to forget that Christ has ordered every step of the path in the wilderness. Whatever we learn of the wretched tendency of our own hearts leads us to have more confidence in God. It is most important to see that we only stand through the faithfulness of God; if we stand otherwise we had better be afraid. God had given them the very best that love could give. It was peculiarly grievous to Him that they despised the pleasant land; such perished in the wilderness; it brought down that direct judgment of God. In our own case we learn that that is the character of our flesh. When we do not learn by divine teaching what our flesh is, we have to learn it under very humbling experiences. God has to teach us that according to the flesh we [p. 24] have derived from the serpent, and then we have to learn that the serpent has been lifted up. The very flesh to which I have yielded has been condemned in God’s Son. The Corinthians showed contempt for what was most holy; therefore many were weak and sickly among them and many slept.
Ques Why does he say, “I speak as to intelligent persons”?
CAC I suppose they could be regarded in that light as having the Spirit. He puts it upon them to judge what he was saying. Compared with that he brings in the thought of the cup and the bread; they were not thinking what they were doing and he challenges them. He had before him the whole scope of divine blessing that has come through the death of Christ; it is a general thought. The cup of blessing is rather wider than the cup of the new covenant; he has in mind the whole wealth of the economy of grace which has come to us in the value of the blood of Christ. People take up these things with very little appreciation of what is there. The saints know it is their common portion. They bless the cup and they respond to it; they bless God for the great blessing that has come to them in Christ. Such will escape the dangers of the earlier part of the chapter.
We do not feel strictly limited to the new covenant when we take the cup. We are left at liberty to enlarge on it; we take the cup of blessing. Who can limit that? It is not easy to bring in limitations there because it says, “They shall all know me”, Jeremiah 31: 34. What you get under the new covenant is the whole settlement of sin, and the saints have affections of a new kind in which they can bless Christ and the blessed God and can appreciate all the good and blessing that has come through the death of Christ. It has been said that there is less liberty in reference to the cup than there is in connection with the [p. 25] loaf, but there ought to be more liberty. Christ has mediated the cup of the new covenant to us, the blessing that has come to us from the heart of God.