RECONCILIATION
[p. 279] RECONCILIATION
I want to set before you, if I can, what has been on the minds of the brethren here in the way of exercise; that is, how God looks for results, and how He reaches them in us. These verses show how He reaches His purpose in us, and the result is reconciliation, that is, God’s good pleasure in what He effects. As of old, when He began to operate on the earth and in the heavens, He expressed His satisfaction in what He did. He said things were very good; not yet that He was well pleased. There was a measure of satisfaction in what was there as His own handiwork, but the time of good pleasure in men was yet future. When the Son became Man the testimony of the heavenly host was, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. It is not only that He found it in Jesus, but the potentiality of the situation is what the angels celebrated. God had men before Him, and men in whom He should have good pleasure. Wisdom, speaking at the outset of God’s operations, according to Proverbs 8, speaks of its own delights, “My delights were with the sons of men”. Wisdom saw the sons and found delight in them; that is, men in that peculiar relation, not children of men, but sons; those who should in God’s time come under the perfect influence of Christ. The habitable parts of the earth were of interest, and the sons of men there.
Now when the Son became Man the heavenly hosts, it is the collective idea, celebrated God’s good pleasure in men. That was not apparent in Genesis 1 or 2, though we do get there a suggestion as regard the sabbath. God rested on the sabbath from His labours. God wrought one thing after another until He reached the sixth day, and then He rested from [p. 280] His labours. In Exodus 20 the sabbath is brought in as one of the commandments which Israel was to observe; but in chapter 31 we have a beautiful thought added, that God rested and was refreshed. The Spirit of God leaves those words “and was refreshed” until after Moses had been on the mount, during which time Jehovah was unfolding Christ to him typically. One thing after another is opened up and unfolded to Moses, all of which combined speak of Christ. These were patterns, God’s heart being engaged, not with material things, but with Christ. He was engaged with the Man that was to come, so that He adds to the thought of the sabbath, as if to say, ‘I have found My rest in this Man, not only My rest, but My refreshment too’. Sleep to the labouring man is sweet, but refreshment is an additional thought, and God finds that in Christ. In that way we have foreshadowed in the types the great truth of reconciliation in its highest form, that God not only rested in that Man, but there was all that followed, yea, all that preceded it too, the outgoings of the heart of One whose every thought was Godward.
When Jacob gathered his sons together to tell them what should befall them in the last days, he takes account of them as sons, but in all the varied workings of the flesh. Notwithstanding that, at the end of the prophecy he blessed the tribes, for God had a distinct blessing for each. But when you come to Moses, they are seen apart from failure. In Deuteronomy 33 you find no mention of failure; on the contrary you see the tribes as the product of the work of God. The brazen serpent had come in, setting aside in them that which spoke against Moses and against God. All that is dealt with on the cross. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness”. (John 3: 14) The old man is crucified, not simply removed. He is not let off easily. So the brazen serpent, followed by the springing well, is a type of [p. 281] the means by which Moses, the man of God, takes account of things from God’s point of view. Regarding the tribes in the light of the purpose of God, it is said; “What has God wrought?” Everything must conform to His thoughts. God being what He is, and having come out in Christ, now has a Man who not only does all His pleasure, but who also secures all His pleasure. There is not only the Yea in Christ, but there is the Amen. The Amen is by the Spirit. So that the blessing of every tribe in Deuteronomy is an Amen. As you get in the Psalms, “Let all the people say, Amen”. (Psalm 106: 48) Amen means that the heart is entirely with God. There is complete agreement between the hearts of the people and the heart of God.
The covenant refers to what God is in Christ; reconciliation, to what man is in Christ. All is in Christ; that is the status. I am given my status before God first in Romans 6. I reckon myself dead unto sin and alive in Christ. Much more is needed, for we need income to support such an important position here on earth, so there is the work of God in the souls of His people to that end. Romans 8 begins, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”. That is light. These chapters are not dealing with our experiences, but the normal working out of the truth. There is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. They are beyond that, and then the apostle adds, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free”. There is in that way in these chapters between Romans 5 and 8 the working out logically of the truth to the end, that God should reach His results in men down here. Romans is the wilderness; it is our position here. Sin is still here in all its force, but our old man is crucified, the Christian’s old man. Look abroad in the world; there is no evidence of that there, but look at the people of God. One loves to look at their [p. 282] countenances, to look at them from the top of the rocks as Balaam did. The body of sin is destroyed in the saints of God, so that sin, as a principle in all its power, is broken by the crucifixion of our old man. God has dealt with it so that sin should not reign in us. So that in Romans we learn to reckon ourselves dead to sin. We are still in the presence of it as to fact, but we reckon ourselves dead to it. We are superior to it. That is a very practical thought. I have to do with it every day, but the attitude of my soul is that I am dead to it. We are not taken out of the world, but we are kept from the evil. Light is in the soul of the believer so that it enables him to take up the attitude as regards sin, of being dead to it, and alive to God. As far as Paul was concerned, he was in the fulness of it when he said he was beside himself to God, and he would live in that ecstasy all the time, but he thought of the saints and added, “whether we be sober it is for your cause”. The light in my soul still enables me to take up that attitude. So that the believer is looked upon as superior to sin; he has the power in his soul.
In Colossians the principle is that he is dead from, not sin but from the elements of the world. He is dead from these things: his back is to them. He goes out of the world. He is looking at things above where Christ sitteth. “Ye are dead ..”. It is the position of the believer as regards this world and its attractions. There is no motion in him. He is dead and gone as regards this world, but his life is hid with Christ in God. He has a life, but it is elsewhere. It is hidden. I am not dwelling on Colossians, but desire only to show how matters stand.
In Christ God has found an outlet for what He is, for His love. I do not know a better way of expressing it. He has made it available to us. God has not only found an outlet through the cross for His love,
[p. 283] where it was expressed towards all, but an inlet. In writing to Titus he says, “After that the kindness and love of God ... appeared”. (Titus 3: 4) But then it has not only appeared, it has found an inlet into my heart and yours. I have often thought of Lydia. The Lord opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. The Lord had the key of her heart. There is a Man who has the means of opening human hearts. He opened Lydia’s heart and for a definite purpose: to attend to the things spoken by Paul. Paul sets forth the full divine thoughts and facts, hence the great importance of opening our hearts to attend to the things, not only to listen. They must be attended to if we are to be in the sense of what God is. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us”. (Romans 5: 5) A wonderful operation that! It is all from the divine side. It is a divine act. He sheds the love abroad, so that a new thing has come to pass; the love of God is now in human hearts, not only in Christ. There are very great limitations in human hearts. We all readily admit that. How very tiny and how very irregular or deformed are things with many Christians. Certainly it is so in young Christians. Romans 8 presents things in their true position, in Christ Jesus. One rejoices in that, that all the love is there. It is in One great enough to contain it, so to speak. I see all the love of God vested in a Man.
Now the answer to what God is to me in Christ is what man is to God in Christ. God having given us a status in Christ, works effectually in His people, and will never give up in the least degree until He brings about in us that which He has purposed and shown in the pattern. These verses admit that we do not know how to pray as we ought. There is every comfort in it. It shows divine consideration, how God begins with us. There is what we do not know, and then there is what we do know. The [p. 284] Spirit of God acts in a very simple and considerate way. It is just as well we should acknowledge what we do not know and assert what we do. We do know that all things work together for good to those that love God. That is advanced knowledge in a certain way. In Thessalonians you find in chapter 2 the idea of a nurse with her own children, and then a father with the children, and then finally the word of God. Not, as Paul says, the word of man, but God’s word, that works effectually in the believer, so that not only do I know God, but that, knowing Him, I am governed by His principles, as principles that operate universally. One is able to walk by himself now in relation to God. You are not disturbed by adverse circumstances. David could say, “Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great”. “All things work together for good”.
From that point in Romans 8 the Spirit of God develops the divine purpose, that those whom He has called He also has predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. God is not going to leave us in an infantile state, for there must be development, and He may cause things to happen to accomplish His will. That will is that there should be a company conformed to the image of His Son. Every year adds to the dreadfulness of what man has become as left to himself in this world. We read, “God gave them up”. (Romans 1: 26) What a terrible thing! Christians are not left in that way. God has undertaken to accomplish something. He has set out the pattern in Christ, and there can be no deviation from that pattern. The work goes on to the end that all should be conformed to the pattern, the image of God’s Son.
Well, God is working for results. I apprehend that the testimony of our Lord is that He brings about reconciliation. We are brought to God, according to His pattern.