JUSTIFICATION AND THE DIVINE SYSTEM
[p. 64] JUSTIFICATION AND THE DIVINE SYSTEM
The principle of justification on the principle of faith was established before law was introduced. It was set forth in Abraham. God said nothing to Abraham about law, but He said something to him about justification, and He gave him the seal of it. The idea of justification comes in in view of another world; we want justification for that. God began anew with Abraham on the principle of righteousness, of His rights; he stands forth as the one in whom God sets forth His rights. When Satan had succeeded in capturing man and the earth it was all darkness. There could not be greater darkness than in Genesis 11; there we find the record of the building of Babel. It is to this time Joshua alludes when he says, “Our fathers worshipped idols beyond the flood;” they were all idolators; Abraham himself no doubt was one. Their God came out in His sovereign rights and took up Abraham; and if He had a right to take up Abraham, He had a right to take up any man.
Here it is justification in view of what God has before Him; it is not in connection with the present system. God would make Abraham the father of the faithful, because He sets forth in him the principle of righteousness. Clearance is in Christ risen. The whole doctrine of the chapter is contained in the last two verses. The people of God in all ages have looked for something new, and the gospel is that which brings in the new thing. Justification gives clearance,. It is a standing in connection with God’s new system; but people must get the Spirit, and that is another thing. You can scarcely get an illustration of justification in natural things; you are severed completely from the old status in the flesh, and there is a new system.
[p. 65] Ques What answers to justification in the history of the prodigal?
I should say the prodigal was justified when he had the best robe on. That is Christ. The best robe suited him for the house. It is not only that a man is acquitted — he is set up anew in connection with the divine system. In justification he is made suitable for God’s system. The point of this chapter is the power of God in raising Christ. The last two verses are the key.
Ques Resurrection is often represented as a receipt: I suppose that is hardly correct?
The receipt, if we may use the expression, must be something received. It would be the Spirit. I would not present the resurrection; I would present Christ risen. That is how you are justified.
At the end of this chapter there is a turning point: Christ is seen as Lord in administration. Chapter 4 shows that the principle of justification came in before law; Abraham was accounted righteous before he was circumcised, and the apostle calls circumcision the seal of righteousness. We believe in Him who raised up Christ from the dead; that is, in God the same One in whom Abraham believed. It involves the setting aside of all that we are in the flesh. In Romans it is not so much Christ, but God in Christ. He has not only raised Christ from the dead, but He will raise us, and sever us from all that is unsuitable to His system. I have confidence in God. He has raised Christ and He will raise me. It is a question of His power. Circumcision is the setting aside of man in the flesh, We are accounted righteous on the ground of faith, but it is because God is powerful. Abraham knew that; he believed that God was able to do what He had promised. It is a question for us of what God can do.
There must be the setting aside of man according to the flesh. God could not use that man for His [p. 66] system. Men are all dead in God’s account, and He could riot build His living system with dead material. Abraham had to learn after God had taken him up, that he must bring in circumcision. God is going to have a new system, and as men in the flesh you and I can have no part in it, nor could Abraham; he must be circumcised; he must learn that the flesh is of no account at all to God; God could not use him thus. God uses us by building us into His system. We are essential thus. The Lord must abide alone unless He dies. There was that vast scene, heaven and earth; what is to fill it? It had been filled before. The tower of Babel, and idolatry, and the Canaanite were there. God will displace them, and that with a living humanity. He breaks through, and raises Christ from the dead! God is powerful! If He is not, all is hopeless, but He says to Abraham, “I am the almighty God”. We get the meaning of the living prefigured in Isaac; He was raised from the dead. The promise of blessing is to the seed of Abraham, that is Christ. Christ undertakes to do the thing; through Him God intends to bring in a new system, and hence the blessing. Isaac is Christ risen.
We are justified by believing on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. The question is, what can God do? He will bring in a new system; but there must be living material. What can He do with us as men in the flesh? We are all dying. If He used such material the building would not last. He must have living stones. This new system has begun already: Christ is the beginning of it. He is working away at it patiently, and it will come out perfect at the end. The Lord is a very particular builder; He is very particular as to His material, but if He builds, it must come out perfect at the end. There had been builders before — for instance, in Babel. In wonderful condescension God presented [p. 67] Christ to the builders, Acts 4. He said, as it were, here is this Stone, what will you do with it? They cast it aside as worthless. Then God proposes to build. The Lord begins with the material right at hand, with those about Him. He turns to Peter with the question, “Whom say ye that I am?” Peter gives the answer, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, and immediately the Lord says, “Thou art Peter”,—a stone (Matthew 16:15,16; Matthew 16:18). He will put him into the structure. Everyone of us, every living stone, is an evidence of divine power.
God had a completely new system before Him. Thus when the Jews rejected Christ, He set to work to establish a kingdom of His own. He could not use the Roman empire; it was of no use to Him; He would have a kingdom of His own. The first system, and that which still exists, began with Babel. It has continued on and finds its answer in Babylon. The scene of God’s system is not to be merely heaven, it will be the heavens and the earth. The idea of heaven is prominent in scripture, but it is not so prominent in the gospel as is commonly assumed. Heaven is mentioned only twice in Romans, the great gospel epistle; and in the first instance it is to tell us that wrath comes from it. God calls things that be not as though they were. That is what God can do. He can account us risen though we are not so actually; He can account us so because He is able to raise us. Abraham knew that God was powerful, that He was able to give him an heir notwithstanding that both he and Sarah were as good as dead. The birth of Isaac was on the principle of resurrection.
Ques How did Abraham get the idea of a city?
I think he had light as to what God had in His mind, and this involves a city. It involves three things; a kingdom, a city, and a house. The announcement of these three things is the gospel. The kingdom is necessary because there was an [p. 68] adverse kingdom — there was opposition. Nimrod had a kingdom, but it was a rebellious one. Nimrod was a rebel, and his kingdom has gone on. The Lord proposed to establish a kingdom which would break to pieces every other kingdom that ever had been. The kingdom comes out in Matthew 13. The Lord would have a kingdom of His own; then He would have a city of His own; chapter 16 is the city, and it has foundations; it is built of living stones. It must have moral elements, elements of continuance — so when Peter confesses Him to be the Son of the Living God, the Lord says to Him, “Thou art Peter, and on this Rock I will build my church”. Matthew 16: 18. Then the house is the place where there is a sphere of affection. It is the saints taken up in still another way. All three, the kingdom, the city, and the house are found in the saints. Thus the announcement of the gospel depends more on what is down here than on what is in heaven.
The kingdom has to do with what is adverse. The city is a metropolis; it has to do with government. In Matthew we see that government is in connection with the assembly. The assembly is the only authority that we recognise down here. Every kingdom has a metropolis; every metropolis has a home in it. It is one thing to be in the king’s house, where his affections are known. It is another thing to be in the metropolis to pay court to him there. And it is still another thing to be simply a subject of the empire, off in one of the provinces. A man could be merely a subject without much education or polish; a farmer could make a very good subject, though he would not shine in the capital. A young convert may be a good subject, but you do not see much of Christ shown in him; he has not had time to know Him. But we want to see the polish and cultivation of the capital; the capital is the place where we want to be. Peter was like the farmer, a good subject,
but not polished. The Lord says, “Learn from me”. Matthew 11: 29. Then the Lord walks on the water, and Peter walks on the water to get to Him. Matthew 14 and 15 and part of chapter 16 are a sort of college course; the Lord is preparing us for the capital. It is with that we must have to do. Chapter 16 is the capital, and in chapter 18 we see the bearing of it; it is the recognised source of authority. It is in this world that you are put into your place. It is a great thing to have your place in the capital.
Ques Is not every one who is a believer in the church?
You must leave room for building. I like to think of the Lord as a Builder. If you are self-willed, or set for advancement in this world, He cannot use you. We get our place now; there will be no building in the millennium.
Ques But surely every believer has some place in the house?
Normally it is so; at the beginning every believer received the Holy Spirit and was thus constituted part of the house. It is best however to keep to the order of Scripture; if you do, you must leave room for building. If you follow the order of Scripture, then you see that being a stone comes after salvation. The order is, “as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow up to salvation”: then comes, “if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” 1 Peter 2: 2,3; and after that we have coming to Him, the Living Stone, and our being built up as living stones. That is the order of Scripture. What constitutes a stone is vitality, i.e., the believer is moving toward Christ. Scripture says, that after a man comes to Christ He is built in. He must get the material to build with. The thing to see is that there was terrible opposition to the house; it was the same opposition that confronted Christ. Who could stand it? Only those who could walk on the water. You [p. 70] must be fitted to face the world power and overcome it. God set up here at the beginning a perfect system; He gave it over to man in responsibility, and in his hands it has become a complete wreck. It is really a question of what you are. A living stone is one who comes to Christ; he really overcomes all the world power. Who would be able to walk on the water? A babe could not; it takes a strong man to do it. It is coming to Christ as the rejected One; coming to Him against all the power of the world, as the One disallowed of men, it involves the giving up of all that you are as a man in the flesh. It takes a strong man, and a man of courage, to walk on the waters. Peter began to sink. It is a wonderful thing to be able to walk and get to Christ. From the divine side every man indwelt of the Spirit is in the house. A living stone is one who surmounts the world power; he is completely identified with Christ in the world that rejected Him. Only one who had overcome the world could occupy such a position.
Ques Then you would not say that every believer is a stone in the house The state of things at the present time is very extraordinary. These are certainly difficult days. We should bear in mind that if the Scriptures present Christ as a Builder, they must present Him as building what is perfect. We must go back to the beginning to see what things meant then. Every single stone in Acts 2 was living — they had all overcome the world.
It is a question here of what you apprehend. You have faith in the God who raised Christ from the dead, who raised Him by His power. Faith is the light you have. The working of God raised Christ from the dead, and He will bring everything into life — you and me and all. It is a question of the working of God; if He has raised Christ He can raise you and me. Faith is the understanding you have of what [p. 71] God will effect; it is the evidence of things not seen. I am delighted with the thought of God; I know what He can do; He can raise me, and you, and Israel, and all; and He will do it. Faith is that by which we rest in the knowledge of what God can do.
The gospel involves a new system. It involves the complete setting aside of this system. No intelligent Christian could be satisfied with the system that exists today. The apprehension of God’s mind causes a man to walk aside from the world. Circumcision follows justification, man after the flesh and his system have to go. What good is it to talk of being justified if we are satisfied with the world? This world has no place with the enlightened Christian; it is not suitable to him. You recognise that in righteousness God will set it aside. I think we should wake up to the introduction of a new system. That is what the gospel means. It is not difficult to see that the new system involves the introduction of the kingdom, the city and the house. These three things are necessary if you are to have deliverance here. Everyone of them had an answer in the saints at the beginning. When the Holy Spirit came down there was protection in the saints for men, and there was rule, and a sphere of affection.
The “country” is still another idea, and would take in the sphere to which the testimony of God applied. The bride is still another thought. It brings in the thought of what the church is to Christ personally, and not so much as those who are used of Him. You can take account of the saints as those whom the Lord can use for blessing to humanity, and you can take account of them as loved of Him, and reciprocating His affection. Most of us begin small and we do not expect much. We find much more than we expect. Nathaniel found the Son of God and the King of Israel; he had not looked for much. It would be a great thing if the Lord would [p. 72] stir us up to go in for these things. That is His present effort.
The house cannot be found at all now; but you can find an answer to it if the saints are close together. God is love, and to find the house you must have love. The great practical value in putting it forth today is, that though you cannot find it, you endeavour to walk in the light of it. You get back to the beginning and walk in the light of what was set up then. If there are a few believers in New York who love the Lord, and walk in the light of the Lord, what a triumph that is for God! A poor lonely Christian coining up from the West Indies or anywhere else can find warmth there.
If you want the Lord to use you let Him put you in your place in the building. That is how He can use you. In any of the cities at the beginning you could find the believers going on in love; you could find a home there. If the Holy Spirit is ungrieved in us, you do find some characteristics of the house. We should be concerned to make it apparent that there is good among us. The characteristics of the house are a question of quality. God is love, and you would expect in His house some manifestation of His nature. Only in that connection can you have gospel work. We should try to get close together; we should be men enough to surrender our own rights and ambitions; we should see that God has a new system. Would that God would arouse us and bring us into line with Himself.
It would be difficult to find anyone now who has not heard of Christ. It is difficult to know how to enlighten those around; we must be cast on the Lord about it. It is best to work away on those around within our reach. The Lord, I believe, has much people in New York, but we are riot equal to it. We are not capable of much, but if a few are going on in love, there is good there, and good is of God.
Pages 73 to 107 “Summary of Addresses and Readings, Woodstock, Ontario, November, 1904”.