STABILITY
[p. 174] STABILITY
This passage is remarkable for the way in which the apostle vindicates himself from the accusation of levity which had been brought against him. He meets it by showing that what marked him was the stability that was in Christ, which had its reflection in the saints. This is the subject of the passage. The stability of everything is in God, for there is no stability in man. This thought is taken up (1) on the divine side, in the confirmation of His purposes and counsels in Christ; and then (2) on our side — in the way in which God produces stability in us; how He works in the saints to establish them in Christ. The conduct of the apostle himself was not marked by lightness, for he had the sense of how God had established everything for Himself in His Son; and the apprehension of this cannot fail to give a man stability of purpose. It is a great thing that saints should be able to stand here firm, apart from the course and current of things around, and in spite of weakness within. This we never can do except as we have an apprehension of the purposes of God, and that all are established in Christ. Then we get a remarkable expression, “Unto the glory of God by us”. This refers to the present, I believe. When saints are established according to the stability of God’s purposes in Christ, then it is “unto the glory of God by us”.
It is noticeable that Paul’s statement of truth, even in regard to the names of the Lord Himself, often takes the contrary order to John’s. Paul began with Christ at the highest point, namely, the Son of God as He had been revealed to him. The twelve on the other hand began with him as Messiah,
[p. 175] and they go on to the greater glories. John says, “These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”. Paul says, “The Son of God, Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 1: 19). Now Paul was the first who preached that Jesus is the Son of God, and we never get the full truth of the gospel until we apprehend the glory of Christ’s Person. “We ... beholding ... the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image”. No one, until he apprehends that Jesus is the Son of God, has got to the greatness of the gospel, and consequently to the greatness of the grace of God. The more sense you get of the glory of the Lord, the truth of who He is, the greater sense you have of the grace of God; and why? Because it is the Son of God Himself who is the full expression of the grace of God. The Gospel presents a work; but the truth of the gospel centres in a Person, and that Person is the full expression of the grace of God in all that He is as Man. In the end of Luke we get the commission that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached ... among all nations”; but that is not the full height of the gospel. But in Galatians, “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son ... to redeem ... that we might receive sonship”; then it is that we see the greatness of the gospel of the blessed God. The greater apprehension I have of the glory of that Person whom God sent forth — His Son — the greater apprehension I have of divine grace. It is a great point to remember that the measure of the grace of God is bound up with the glory of Christ’s Person.
Now it is important to apprehend that the purposes of God are for Himself. Every promise is an expression of divine purpose. It is that to which God has engaged Himself. There were many promises in the Old Testament; and there are promises in the New. The former refer to earth — promises [p. 176] made to Abraham and to David. The great question of the Old Testament is whether God is to have the earth, or man. In the New Testament the field is enlarged. We get what carries us back to eternity, the hope of life “which God ... promised before the world began”. The promises of the Old Testament are not yet fulfilled. They were confirmed to the Seed, and the Seed was Christ; and it was therefore impossible to get the fulfilment till Christ came. There was a provisional fulfilment, but all ended in failure; for when the vessel of promise came they killed Him. There was thus a complete breach between God and the world; not only with the Jew but also with the Gentile. This being so, where are the promises? The answer is, God has ordered and established everything for Himself in Christ; and when we see how God has done this, then it is we are established.
God does not make promises without power to fulfil them. Now, every promise of God has its confirmation in the Son of God, Christ Jesus. The great importance to be attached to the Son of God is this, that no one else could be morally competent to hold everything for God. You could not really have the Seed of the woman, who should bruise the serpent’s head, nor the Christ, who should fulfil all God’s will, apart from the Son of God. If things are to be held according to God’s nature, it must be in some one of His nature. Death was to be annulled, and life and incorruptibility brought to light. Christ enters into death and annuls it, and as raised from the dead is a quickening Spirit to men. As such He can free man from the judgment of death, and raise him up in life. The Son of God is a life-giving Spirit. Believers are so completely freed from the judgment of death that now, what before confirmed the distance between man and God, brings us to the Lord. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord”. See what a change God has wrought in His grace! Death is now the servant of the believer: in fact it releases the believer so that he goes to be with the Lord. Now every promise of God is established in this One, the Son of God, who has annulled death and raises man up in life.
God has now secured all for Himself in the Son of God. He is morally competent to hold all as being of God’s nature. He is suitable to be Heir of all things. He is the last Adam with universal dominion. He has brought in life. How? He makes us to be partakers of His nature. He will do this for Israel by-and-by, though not in the same sense as the Christian, but the law will be written in their hearts. No living soul could understand this if they did not apprehend that Jesus is the Son of God. “For whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen”. Nothing is lost for God. Whatever may be the incapacity of man, all is secured in the Son of God. If we are taught by grace the stability of all the promises of God, then it is that we get “unto the glory of God by us”. God has plans and purposes of His own; and more than that, the establishment and confirmation of all this is in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the Vessel: the One in whom all is to be fulfilled is a quickening Spirit. Man by nature is under death; and the Son of God, who has died for all, is a life-giving Spirit; otherwise we have no power to release ourselves from the judgment of death upon us. The promises were confirmed to the seed — Isaac, who was in figure risen from the dead. Man is raised up in Christ’s own nature — “quickened together with him”; that is, he is made to live before God in the divine nature.
This is one side; the stability of every promise [p. 178] is in the Son of God. Now I want to dwell on another point: namely, the work of establishment in us (verses 21, 22). Now we all have to do with God in our responsibility and walk. Every Christian has responsibilities here, for we are in the scene of them; and the title “the Lord” connects itself with this. We have to walk under His authority. What we do in word or deed has to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. “Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord”.
But there is another thing — there is a work of grace going on in the believer underneath all that — silently carried on by God, not by man. God may use a vessel to bring truth before you; but you are taught of God. There is no real teaching in divine things save by the Spirit of God. We have no need that any man teach us. “The anointing which ye have received ... teacheth you”. There is a work going on in the believer which is forming him in the divine nature; and as we are formed in the divine nature, we are established in Christ. Only one word expresses the divine nature, and that is love. How far have you travelled on that road? As a test I offer a suggestion to you. Read 1 Corinthians 13 (from verse 4) and instead of reading “charity” read “I”. Then you can measure yourself. I suffer long and am kind; I envy not; I do not vaunt myself; I am not puffed up, etc. Love is your measure for God and for the assembly. If you are formed in the divine nature you can say “I”. The truth is stated in an abstract way in 1 Corinthians 13; it is what is properly descriptive of the divine nature in a scene of contrariety. Our stature is what we are as formed in the divine nature. If a Christian is not the expression of it, there is no expression of it here. Christ was it when here. It is God who works it.
[p. 179] He sets to work to establish His promises in Christ; and then it is He who works to establish us in Christ. “Now he which ... hath anointed us, is God”. Christ when here was anointed, and in the Spirit’s power set God forth perfectly in goodness. He could have set God forth perfectly without the anointing; but He received the anointing as having become the vessel in which God was to be set forth. The anointing to us is that we are divinely taught, in order that we might rightly represent God. “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us”. In the Lord there was the fulness of intelligence; and the way in which it worked out was in a full presentation of God in this world. We get divine intelligence by the Spirit; and we get that so that we may set God forth. Christianity is wonderful. The divine nature came out perfectly in Christ as Man here; now it is to come out in the Gentiles.
Then “Who hath also sealed us”. The sealing is His attestation; and if we walk in the Spirit we give proof that we have the seal of God upon us. Christ had the seal of God the Father upon Him; and the attestation to the Christian, too, is the gift of the Spirit.
Then we get “hath ... given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. We are joint-heirs with Christ. The Spirit is the earnest in our hearts now of the inheritance.
All these things tend to give stability to the Christian. The testimony of the apostle gave him stability; his ways were in keeping with the testimony. It is God who establishes us, and who has anointed and sealed us. What an honour to have God’s seal upon us! If we walk in the Spirit He owns us. There is no greater proof of my being His than that I am no longer a slave of the flesh. I then give [p. 180] proof that I have the seal of God on me. “Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”.
We have to wait for the inheritance; that is the fulfilment of all the promises of God. This all comes out in Ephesians 1. We have not only an inheritance in Christ, but we have the earnest of it “until the redemption of the purchased possession”.
May God be pleased to open the subject up to you. We all want stability, and it flows from seeing, first, that God has established everything for Himself in Christ; and secondly, from His work in us. The glory of God is the first consideration. If this is not first secured, as it is in Christ, in whom everything is established, there could be no glory for God anywhere else.
May God grant that His corresponding work may go on in us, that we may be established. It is all God’s work. If you take this in, you will get a sense of what divine grace can do; and the effect will be that you will stand apart from the whole course of things here.