THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE NEW SYSTEM
[p. 308] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE NEW SYSTEM
Genesis 8: 20 - 22; Genesis 9: 1.
The desire I have is to show the immutable system of things with which we are connected. It is a very important thing to have our feet on firm ground, and I wish to show, by the Lord’s help, the firmness of the foundation upon which the structure of the new system rests. On the one hand, it is established by the Son: it is not my thought to dwell on that side; but I bring that forward so as to maintain a right balance of things. The system is established by the Son, and I think it may be accepted as a principle that what the Son establishes is established for ever; it is permanent.
The Son coming in, beloved friends, has taken in hand to carry out everything in accordance with His infinite knowledge of the will of the Father. He came, not only to make God known, though that is true, of course. God had not been known, for we are told that no man had seen God at any time. That is a very sweeping statement in view of what came out in the Old Testament; no man had seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. There is a complete declaration of God in the Son. There is no limitation to that; that declaration is absolute and complete; and it is in the light of that declaration that we stand as Christians. It is a wonderful thing to be in the light as God is in the light; to be in the full, absolute, complete declaration of God in the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. We stand in that light. That is one side. On the other side, every divine thought known by One who was in the intimacy of sonship, is unfolded; there is nothing to be added. God had spoken in divers ways by the prophets, and “hath [p. 309] in these last days spoken unto us by the Son;” that is to say, every divine thought has been expressed in the Son; there was in Him a complete unfolding of the divine thoughts.
Now, it is in the light of all that, that we stand; and in connection with that the Lord has brought in a system of things into which every divine thought fits. I do not enlarge upon that; but I think it is of great interest to us to see that there was a place in the divine system for every divine thought. The unfolding of the divine mind in the Son necessitated a system of things in connection with which every thought should be set forth. Well, now, the Son has done all that, and I believe it may be accepted as a principle that what He does is unalterable; it is permanent.
Having said this much, I wish to show the other side, and that is that everything is made to stand on what Christ is as Man. I want to interest your hearts afresh, beloved friends, in that Man. I have endeavoured to guard what I have to say by what I have said, that the saints should be fully established in the light of the Lord’s Person. I believe the Spirit of God would ever keep that before us; that we should be, in the full sense, believers in the Son. One often questions one’s own soul as to what one really does believe, and it is a very wholesome thing to do so. I think that John’s great point in his gospel is to establish the saints in the light of the Son. At the close of his gospel he adds, “many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book”, but “these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through his name”. I need not point out to you, that John’s gospel was not written to unbelievers; it was clearly written for the saints.
[p. 310] Now, as believing in the Son you have come to that which is permanent and immutable; but then it is also needful for us to see, and to be very clear about the fact that the Son became Man. We want to confess Jesus Christ come in the flesh: and I think, in the main, that is the object of John’s epistle that we should confess Jesus Christ come in flesh. You will remember how Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch; he had brought the Christ to the Samaritans, but he preached Jesus to the eunuch. Nothing can exceed the grace, and I may say, nothing can exceed the food for the soul of man, that is embodied in “Jesus Christ come in flesh”. Think of the embodiment of every divine grace in a Man! and think of that as seen in the wilderness, in the midst of what was in every way contrary!
You can never be in circumstances as a believer in connection with the testimony of God that Jesus has not been in. Think of that, beloved friends! But then, think of what that was to God; to look down here where lawlessness and corruption marked everything, and to see One whose every motive had reference to Him. There was the. Infant; there was the Youth; there was the Man; and He is found in all kinds of circumstances. Now, think of what that was to God. The youth of Jesus as well as His manhood was infinite delight to God. Leaving out for the moment the eternal relationship that ever existed between divine Persons, think of what it was for God to see here in a Man, in the midst of men, where evil was continually, nothing but what was suitable to God. What pleasure there was for Him in it all!
Now, to return to the book of Genesis we find in the second chapter the divine thought. We are told in chapter 1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void”. There is nothing disclosed as to [p. 311] what brought about the chaos; but one thing is clear — that man was the great central thought in the mind of God in bringing in the order of things depicted in chapter 1. In chapter 2 we learn the details of man’s creation, and of the sphere in which he was set. But his acceptance with God would depend on his recognising what was due to God. We know the result, he failed to answer to the mind of God, but the divine thought was clearly indicated; man was to be for God’s pleasure in an environment suited to him in every way.
Now, after sin came in Abel was agreeable to God, but he disappeared in death. I allude to that for a moment. Abel was agreeable to God in the measure in which he recognised what was due to God. Do you understand that? There could be no possibility of ministering to God’s pleasure apart from recognising what is due to Him. Now, Cain had no idea of what was due to God. Abel recognised what was due to God, but he died on account of this. Now, what I wish to show you is this, that Abel was to be replaced. God would not be without some point of contact with the earth. He would ever have some link here. Seth was Abel’s successor. I touch on that to lead up to what I specially wish to point out. Seth is an appointed one; his name signifies that Cain slew Abel, but God appoints another man. I do not say that God formally named Seth, but the point is that he is regarded as one appointed. I have no doubt it is an allusion in type to Christ. He was rejected here, but God has appointed Him a place. It is a great thought for the soul that whilst the Man who recognised what was due to God on earth has been put to death, God has given Him a place; that there is a Man appointed by God who has taken the place of the man who has been put to death here. In this way Seth, who takes the place of Abel in testimony, is a type of Christ.
[p. 312] That leads on to Genesis 5. The fourth chapter, as most of us here recognise, is the history of the Jew, but chapter 5 is the history of Christianity, as seen in Enoch. It may be but dimly set forth, but there it is. On the one hand, there is the testimony of the sentence of death on man; that remains; that marks the present moment. No matter how old a man lived, he died; but now what I want to show you is, that in the midst of that, there is something for God’s pleasure. A man appears of whom it is said that he lived sixty and five years and he begat Methuselah, and after he begat Methuselah he lived three hundred years, and “he walked with God”. It does not say of Abel that he walked with God. Abel recognised what was due to God; but here is a man who walks with God. If there ever was a man privileged it was Methuselah; for one-third of his life he lived with a man, his father, who walked with God. What a life was that of Enoch! He walked with God, and he was a prophet. The man who walks with God is in the mind of God. Enoch was a prophet, and he prophesied, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. What a testimony! In the midst of corruption and lawlessness there is one man walking with God; we are told that he walked with God three hundred years, and he prophesied. Although a solitary man in the midst of a world alienated from God, he testified of the Lord and His “holy myriads” coming to execute judgment on the ungodly and against their hard speeches which they spoke against Him. Enoch walked with God, and spoke with God.
Enoch was Christ in type as establishing in principle
[p. 313] an order of man that would Live; he did not die; morally a man that walks three hundred years with God is entitled to live; “he was not”, we are told, “for God took him”. There was the testimony of life in the midst of lawlessness, corruption, and death. Enoch was not, for God took him. “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death”. “Before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God”. In this way he is a type of Christ. The Lord Jesus, as here among men, was to God’s pleasure. He had a title to go up in the light of what He was as Man on earth, and He did ascend, in principle, on the mount of transfiguration, and when He ascended there, He was transfigured before them. That was the testimony. He was entitled to transfiguration on account of what He was as Man.
But Enoch did not terminate the world that was so lawless; that remained for Noah to do; that was Noah’s work; hence, the anti-type to Noah is, I think, Christ, as it were, come down from the mount. Noah also walked with God. Was there ever a walk with God equal to that walk from the mount of transfiguration to Golgotha? Did not that walk glorify God perfectly? It did. The Lord walked with God up to the mount of transfiguration. He was to the pleasure of God going up, but He was also to the pleasure of God going down. He went down from the mount of glory to Calvary. The apostle said of himself and others with him that they were “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”. Think of how that Man died. He descended from the mount of glory; He descended to the cross. So, when we come to Noah, we find that his name signifies, “Rest”. Every attribute of God rested in Christ. In Him we see a Man going down into death deliberately for God’s will; and Godrests in Him. And further, God was free [p. 314] in the light of what He found in that Man to obliterate the world that then was; that world which was so alienated from God in lawlessness.
We are told in Genesis 6 that “it repented God that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart”. We see thus how great a place men had in God’s heart. I think parents are in the best position to judge as to the parental affection of God, because I think God has placed in the heart of every father, of every parent, a testimony to what is in His own heart. Man had a unique place with God, but he had become so utterly corrupt that it grieved God at His heart that He had made him. But there was one man there, and he found favour with God. It may be said of Noah that he was a type of the Lord Jesus as here in this world, in the midst of men, a testimony for God, and in a sense, God rested in him. In other words, God had found a head. But Christ was to be the One Head, and He has been tested. The gospels show how perfectly He answered to the test. In pondering the gospels you see how suitable it is that He should be Head, as Man, for He glorified God in every way. And then, think of the wisdom of Christ, and the love of Christ; look, too, at the interest He took in men. Well, God has found in Him a Head of another world: all the qualifications for headship came into evidence in Christ; and now God is free to set aside an order that does not please Him.
Christ, in the perfection of His own Person as Man, goes down into death. Noah did that in type. The world has in judgment to be purified, but a man that is agreeable to God goes down into the gulf; all is covered in judgment; the whole scene is engulfed in the judgment of God. But under the cover of the ark there was, in principle, every element of the world that God was going to establish. That was the type, but in Christ there was nothing wanting [p. 315] when He went into death: every element of the world that God was to set up was in Him, all covered, but there; it only awaited the moment for all to burst forth into life; and it did burst forth on the first day of the week after the Lord’s death. What a scene that was! The bands of death were broken, and the Lord comes forth, even as Noah came out of the ark. He is there, and His own are there. Every single element, everything that belonged to God was treasured up in Christ; nothing was let go. The fact is this, the world that we, as of Him, are connected with is a world out of death; every part of it is out of death.
Now, that is the connection in which baptism stands in the New Testament. Peter referring to the deluge says, “the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven”, 1 Peter 2: 21, 22. Do you move about in this world as a baptised person? There can be no part in the new order of things apart from baptism. I do not now refer, I need not say, to the figure, but to the answer of a good conscience towards God, what is due to God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It says further, “who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him”. Can you have any shame as to your baptism in the light of that? I have not in mine, in the light of that wondrous system set forth in Jesus Christ raised from the dead, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him.
It is a wonderful thing to walk through this world as a baptised person, as one truly in the light of the resurrection of Christ, the conscience fully awake in the light of the resurrection of Christ [p. 316] and His present position at the right hand of God. A “like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us”. It is a very practical thing to accept that. There will be no need of baptism in the world to come. Baptism is for the present moment; it saves us now from this present evil world. You will remember how Peter commanded them to be baptised at Caesarea. In this way the Gentiles were brought under the wing of the Lord. That is a great thought for us. We are under the protection of the Lord. As baptised in the name of the Lord you are under the protection of the Lord, and what can touch you?
Now, I wish to dwell for a moment on the thought I had before me specially, and that is to show you that on the ground of all I have been saying as to Christ as Man, there is the immutable foundation on which the new system rests. Noah instantly recognised that which was due to God; so he built an altar, and offered up a burnt offering to God. It is one thing to see the Lord going down into death, and in His death terminating, in principle, the world that was in rebellion, and another thing to see Him as the burnt offering. Would that one could unfold the full force of the burnt offering. You cannot understand the burnt offering unless you see what Christ was here on earth. It refers to the Lord getting a body and saying, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”; “a body hast thou prepared me”. So that we have to ponder the Lord’s life here upon earth in order to see the full import of the burnt offering. He goes into death; He goes into it voluntarily. Noah’s name signified “Rest”.
Now, in the burnt offering the Lord smelled a sweet savour, or a savour of rest. I wish I could convey to you in any measure what that was to God; the infinite delight that God had in Christ as in death. He offered Himself, we are told, by the eternal Spirit without spot to God. It is not here [p. 317] a question of the Lord dismissing His spirit in virtue of what He was in His own Person. He offered Himself by the eternal Spirit for a sacrifice without spot to God. And now, God says something in His heart; it does not say that He said it to anybody else; He said it “in his heart:” you may depend upon it, it was a theme of infinite importance when God said, “in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for man’s sake”. The imagination of man’s heart as it remains is only evil continually; that is, man’s heart in the flesh. Ah, but God has found Another, and the foundation rests on Another; it rests on what God has found in that One, for He says, in His heart, that He will not curse the ground again for man’s sake. But then there is more than that; it is not only, that there is to be no more curse, there is to be no more change while the earth remaineth. He says, “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”. You may say that refers to the present order of things, literally; well, it does; but we have to take it typically; and what I understand by it is this, that God has founded an order of things on Christ as the burnt offering which is not to be changed. If God has rested there, the system He establishes upon it remains. It rests on the foundation of what Christ as Man is to God, tested fully by the cross.
Now, there is just one other thought, and that is, that God blesses, not only Noah, but Noah’s sons. The scriptures previous to this speak of no merit in the sons; everything depends on Noah; he prepared the ark for the saving of his house. There was no merit attributed to Noah’s wife or family; all hinged on Noah; and it is obvious that in this Christ is in view also. But on the ground of the burnt offering, Noah’s sons are blessed with him. The Lord established a title, as it were, for Himself [p. 318] on the ground of what He was as Man, but He could hot bring men into favour on the ground of what He was on earth; He had to die; and in His death He terminated the old order of man morally; and in doing that He glorified God. He glorified God in His death, and now, beloved friends, He has established a title for men; He has the right to bring in men; this is, in virtue of His death. If He had gone up from the mount of transfiguration He would have been alone; the grain of wheat would have had to abide alone; but on the ground of His sacrifice. He has established a title for men. So on the ground of the burnt offering God blesses Noah and his sons. Now, in principle, that is Christianity.
Is it not a joy to your soul that you are linked up with Christ? Have you believed on Christ? What does that involve? That you believe in another order of Man. If I believe in God’s Son, I believe in a Man that is capable of bringing in a new system of things, a new set of relationships; but if my faith is in Christ, it is in another Man; that signifies that I have cut my connection with the old man; and now I am linked up with Christ before God. Notice, Noah had gathered up his family and put them into the ark; his affection was seen in taking care of them, but it was another thing to bring them in, as it were, before God. We are before God on the ground of the burnt offering. And now Noah and his sons are blessed; God blesses Noah and his sons, we are told, and says to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth;” that is, the earth is to be replenished, so to speak, by that kind of people. One might wonder that God would venture to replenish the earth when it grieved Him in His heart that He had made man; now, here He blesses man and man’s sons; what is the secret of it? The secret of it is that that Man has glorified God on earth and the earth is to be replenished by Him.
[p. 319] Now, Abraham is said to be the father of a multitude; they would be numerous as the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the seashore. On what ground? What kind of a seed would that be v Abraham’s seed are of faith. We get into connection with Christ on the principle of faith. We belong to the multitude of Abraham’s children. To my mind, we should treasure in our souls above everything the thought that we are linked up with Christ. God blessed Noah and his sons, and He says, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth”. The Lord Jesus is going to bring in a race of men that will be in every respect to God’s pleasure. He has brought in the idea in His own Person first. He has set forth the idea, and now there is redemption through His blood. He brings in a new order of men really by writing the law upon their hearts.
How is Israel to live? There is the blood of the covenant and the writing of the covenant. The blood of the covenant is the death of the Lord; but there is also the writing. God says, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts”, Hebrews 8:10. Such are the people who live before God.
The beginning of the Acts indicates the same thing. A company was there in which God had pleasure; they were the fruit of Christ’s work. If you do not see that, you will never understand the church. The church is formed of men patterned after Christ. The Lord set forth the pattern in His life here, and then He brings in a race patterned after that. Well, I say, that race lives. Abraham said, “Oh that Ishmael might live before thee”. Think of God permitting a bondslave’s son to live before Him! That was Israel after the flesh: Israel was shown to be in bondage at Jerusalem. Is that an order of men to live? God says, “No”, the man that is to live is the Man that goes down into death and rises [p. 320] again; for Isaac was raised from death in figure; so we brethren, says the apostle, as Isaac, are free. Ishmael is not to live before God, but a company, a race of men set at liberty, formed after Christ.
I do not proceed further. I hope I have made clear what I desired to say. I desire specially that our hearts may be assured of the ground on which we stand. It is the ground of what man is as seen in Christ; what God has found in man as in Christ, May the Lord help us to rest in it.