DELIVERANCE FROM SIN AND THE WORLD
[p. 308] DELIVERANCE FROM SIN AND THE WORLD
The subject that I have before me for this evening, and for some subsequent occasions, is that of deliverance. The great importance of it to every one of us will be admitted, since we cannot be for God here except as delivered, and deliverance has come in to that end. God has taken in hand to set us free from all that to which we were in bondage in order that we might be for Himself; and I think that every right-minded person would admit that God is entitled, by the very nature of what He is, to have all for Himself. Such a thought as that is not naturally in the mind of man; but for all that I maintain that it is a right thought. “The Lord hath made all things for himself”, we read in Scripture. God never created man for man’s satisfaction, but for His own satisfaction. I think there was to be satisfaction for man; but his satisfaction was in his being for God’s satisfaction — all was very good in God’s eye.
I dare say some might think at first sight that this is a strange chapter to take up as a text on which to speak about deliverance; but really it is not so strange as it may appear, for there is in it a kind of bringing together of the truth of both Romans and Colossians. Deliverance, in the way in which I want to speak of it, is three-fold. Tonight, I take up the subject of deliverance from sin, the world, and the power of Satan; these are rightly put together in a line of a hymn, and are inseparably connected. That is one aspect of deliverance, and a very important one too. Another aspect of deliverance, which is distinct from the first, is from the law. And the third aspect is from [p. 309] the flesh. All three are distinctly treated in Scripture, though they coalesce in the believer. My subject tonight is deliverance from sin, the world, and Satan’s power.
I think one may readily see that if you are delivered from sin and from the world, you are delivered from Satan’s power; because, as far as I understand it, it is by sin and the system of the world that Satan can act upon us. He is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience”; and the power by which Satan holds men in bondage is sin and the world. The connection of the three is so intimate that it is difficult to draw a definite line between them, except in saying that they are three distinct things; for Satan existed as a being before sin, and sin existed before the world, so that evidently the three things are in themselves distinct.
Now in regard to the passage I read (I commend it to your study when you have leisure), I would remark that though it starts from a very small beginning, it opens out into a very large circle. The beginning is in the last verse of chapter 2. “Born of God” is the beginning with every one of us; we are subjects of the work of God. “Every one that doeth righteousness is born of God”, that is John’s beginning. I may say in passing, that John does not, like Paul, take up the saints on the ground of their responsibility, for that is not exactly John’s line, but on the line of the work of God in them; and the beginning of the work of God in the soul evidently is, that a man is born of God. Then if you run down chapter 3 the next thing is the calling; that gives our position. “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God”. Then you pass on to another point, the nature which is suited to the calling. “He that doeth righteousness [p. 310] is righteous, even as he is righteous”. And there is another element connected with it, but I cannot go fully into that point at present, and that is love; though righteousness and love do not stand on quite the same footing. But they are the two proper characteristics of the Christian, he is righteous as Christ is righteous, and he loves his brother. Then in the latter part of the chapter, in connection with this question of love, is opened out the Christian circle. “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren”. It is that which made me say that in this chapter you touch on one side Romans and on the other Colossians. You are brought first to the great truth of a man of another order — “He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous”, and then to the truth of the Christian circle; Romans gives the one and Colossians the other.
Now, of necessity two things are involved in the chapter, deliverance from sin and from the world. Deliverance from sin is really involved in doing righteousness. How do you know that a person is righteous as Christ is righteous? Because he practises righteousness; he has been delivered from the dominion of sin. Then again, in having passed out of death into life we have passed out of the system of the world, because the world is in death. John looks at things morally, and for him the world is death, and believers know that they have “passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren”; therefore practical deliverance from sin and from the world is involved in the chapter, and I want to show how it is effectuated in the believer. Possibly many here know it well enough, much better than myself; but to all of us, to the most advanced and to the youngest, this question of deliverance is a very important one indeed. I do not judge that it is effected simply [p. 311] by the acceptance of doctrine. I think you can understand the expression, that you must get a certain amount of leverage in the soul in order to bring about practical deliverance from sin and from the world. To talk about the Christian practising righteousness unless as set free from sin is out of the question, you must have died to sin to live to God. And further, it is not true of anybody that he has passed out of death into life except as set free from the world — “He that hateth his brother abideth in death” — that is the world morally. I will return to that point, but what I want to show you first is the leverage, that is, the power by which God effectuates deliverance in the soul of the Christian. If I were to put the question, “How is deliverance effected for the Christian from sin and from the world?” the natural answer would be, “By death”. I admit it; it is effectuated in that way. But then the Christian has to die to it, and how is he to be brought to that? I dare say some would answer, “We have died to it in the death of Christ”. That will not do. I say the death of Christ is your title to die to it, to die to one as to the other. “Our old man has been crucified with him” — that is your title to die to sin; and the world is crucified to the believer in the cross of Christ — that is your title to die to the world. I quite admit the title of the Christian to die by the death of Christ both to sin and to the world; but my present point is what it is that gives power in the soul to die to sin and to the world. I believe Scripture makes it very plain; if a Christian is going to travel that path, and to enter into the thought of God about him, he must be attracted by the grace of God and by what God presents. I do not approve of asceticism, people may make an effort in such ways to cut off the connection, but I believe it is all totally false; I do not think they know what they are doing.
[p. 312] I repeat what I said at the beginning, that God, by the very nature of what He is, is entitled to have everything for His own satisfaction; that God created everything, man and everything else, for Himself. If you do not accept that you cannot know what sin is. The point of departure was when man listened to the temptation to act for himself; sin came in, and man stepped outside the circle of divine satisfaction. The evidence of sin was this, that self became an object to man, he was to be governed by his own will, that is sin; you get a definition of it in this chapter, “sin is lawlessness”. Man’s thoughts centred round self, and self became the great controlling principle with him. It has been said, and I do not think the expression is too strong, that man set himself as a rival to God; for what God is entitled to, man claimed on his own account, and the world was all built up on that. Satan greatly helped man to that end, for he is the god and prince of this world; and it is by the system of the world that Satan keeps man in bondage. That is the working and connection of things. When the Lord came into the world, and was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, Satan in one of the temptations takes Him up apart into a high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, saying, “All this power will I give unto thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it”, and if you will but acknowledge me as the prince and god of this world, “all shall be thine”. The Lord met it in the perfection of truth, in the power of the word of God, “It is written, Thou shalt worship Jehovah thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”, and He rebuked him too. I only refer to that in order to make plain the connection between these three things, sin, the world, and Satan.
[p. 313] This is the one chapter in Scripture in which we get a definition of sin; “Sin”, we are told, “is lawlessness”, the two things are precisely equivalent, that is, lawlessness is sin and sin is lawlessness. The principle of sin is in the indisposition of man to be under restraint of God. That was the effect of man listening to the enemy, he became as God. You remember what the temptation was — “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”; man became an object to himself, and in becoming an object to himself set himself as a rival to God. When the man of sin is revealed, he shows himself that he is God, and claims to be worshipped as God — man has gained his end, he is bolstered up by Satan, and thus it is that you get the climax and full expression of sin in “the man of sin”, “the son of perdition”. It does not appear to me as if Satan came to the front; he has taken the place of god and prince of this world, but his way is to act through man. You find in the Revelation a trinity of evil; there is the first beast, which I suppose represents the great Imperial system; and the second beast, that is the personal Antichrist, the man of sin; and finally there is Satan, who has then been cast out of the heavens, and who gives his power and authority to the beast — he is the ruling spirit. And Satan exercises great power in regard to man now, through the system of this world; for this world has been built up in sin, and man has turned everything to account for his own satisfaction, to his own ends, to please himself, and through this great system Satan works on man and holds him in bondage. I do not go further into it, but only allude to it in order to show the intimate connection between sin, the world, and Satan.
I think you will understand now that if one is to be for God he must be set free from sin and the world; for if I am in bondage to sin and to the [p. 314] world, I am practically under the power of Satan, the enemy of God; and more than that, sin and the world are so totally opposed in nature and principle to God that I could not possibly be for God if I were not free from their power. Christ died for our sins, “that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”. It is a great thing to understand where the secret of deliverance lies, how you are practically set free from sin and the world in such a way as that you can live to God. It is a blessed thing to live to God as dead to sin. We read of Christ, “In that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. He died to sin to live to God. As to His own personal path, of course that was ever to God; but He died to sin once and lives to God, that we too might die to sin and live to God. It is a great thing for all of us to reach that point; for God is entitled to have everything for His own satisfaction, and to live to God, as I understand it, is to live for His satisfaction.
There are two things in Scripture to which the Christian is said to die, sin and the world. In regard to law you are become dead to it; God has released you from one bond, and formed another. Then in regard to the flesh, “you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”; that is the change that takes place in the Christian, he is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. You are never said to die to the flesh, that I know of, but by the Spirit you “mortify the deeds of the body”. But you can very well understand that in each case deliverance stands on a different basis. The law is compared to a husband; and you could not be free from law if God had not dissolved the bond. On the other hand, you could not be in the Spirit, if you had not received the Spirit of God. But in regard to sin and the world,
[p. 315] which is my point tonight, we have to die.
I lay this down as an undoubted principle, that the title of a Christian to die is in the death of Christ; it is not that I have died in the death of Christ, but the death of Christ is my title to die. I could not think of dying to sin if our old man had not been crucified with Christ. That is my title to die to sin. What I understand by it is, that all that comes under the idea of our old man, what a man is as in the flesh, God has dealt with judicially in the death of Christ for Himself and for me too. If it were not so, you could not die; if our old man had not been crucified in the cross of Christ, you would be on the footing of responsibility as to the old man; but our old man has been dealt with in the cross of Christ, that we might not be on that footing, but that we might be privileged to die with Christ.
And in regard to the world, the same truth applies. The apostle says, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” that is, that for the Christian the world has come to an end in the cross, as Christ Himself said as to it, “Now is the judgment of this world”. Our title to die to sin and to the world lies in the cross of Christ, and were it not for that we should still be alive in the responsibility of the old man. That is the first thing we have to learn, for we have to apprehend the truth of God in divine order. First we have to learn the great work that Christ has done, the foundation of righteousness, and the grace in which God presents Himself to us; and until that lesson is learnt the soul cannot learn any other. Peace, and favour, the hope of glory, and reconciliation, all express the grace in which God presents Himself to us, for “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. If you are not established in the grace of the gospel,
[p. 316] it is futile to attempt any other lesson; but the instant the soul is established in the sense of what God is toward it in grace, then the question is raised, what am I going to be for God? And it is a very simple answer — I am to live to God. And how are you going to live to God? Not on the old footing, that is perfectly certain, because there is no such thing as man living to God on the footing of a man upon earth now that Christ is gone. Christ has been rejected; His life is taken from the earth, and therefore it is totally impossible to live to God on the footing of a man upon earth. On what footing, then, are you going to live to God? I want to bring before you, in the answer to this, what really gives a person power to reckon himself dead indeed unto sin. It is in the apprehension of Christ as the second Man that the soul is drawn away from all that is connected with sin, and from all that in which sin is operative. That I believe to be the leverage by which a soul is enabled to die to sin, that is, to reckon itself dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. I would that I might be enabled in a few words to bring before you what God has brought to pass for Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the second Man. God has secured this — that man should be to His infinite and eternal satisfaction. I am looking at the Lord Jesus Christ now in a different aspect from what He is as making known to me the grace of God: He has done that, and I know nothing about the grace of God except what reaches me through the Lord Jesus Christ; but now I apprehend Him as the second Man, who has entered in to the eternal satisfaction of God. He is thus to us the tree of life; and it is in our apprehension of Him thus that we are enabled to reckon ourselves “dead indeed unto sin”, for we have in view the thought of being alive unto God in Christ Jesus. It is a wonderful privilege to join Him, to be [p. 317] of His company; but you first have to learn what He is as Man before you can have the thought of joining Him, and by that I mean that you account yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. He is the second Man, who has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. There has been a Man here upon earth who has held everything for God; One who, in the presence of all the power of evil and everything adverse, has held, as I may say, the fortress completely alone, not another with Him, for the glory of God; One in whom the question of good and evil has been completely solved, who was divinely perfect in the knowledge of good and evil, and in whom was the perfect refusal of evil and the unvarying and consistent choosing of good. It is a great thing to apprehend that, in the midst of the terrible confusion of this world, the great question of good and evil has been completely solved in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have in Isaiah the expression, referring I suppose to Christ, “Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good”. That was perfectly illustrated in Christ down here; but that is not all the truth, for He went down into death, to bear the judgment that rested upon man, for the glory of God, and He comes forth from the dead by the glory of the Father (though the glory of the Father was indeed there before He was raised — God had been completely glorified). And all this has come to pass in a Man: the question of good and evil is solved, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is done with in that sense, for what came in by it has been answered: God has been glorified in the putting away of sin, and Christ as Man raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father, so that “in that he died, he died unto sin once; in that he liveth, he liveth unto God” — all to the perfect satisfaction of the heart of God. And on that [p. 318] ground we can live to God, we can reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. The question has to be raised in people’s souls whether they prefer Christ to Adam, the second Man to the first. And yet there are very few Christians who could give you any very clear idea of the second Man. If I prefer the second Man to the first, I am delighted to think that I can be in His life in the presence of God, entitled to account myself alive unto God in Him. Then comes in the other point, that if I am to be in His life, I must part company with the first man, and in this everybody has to begin with himself. It is not quite so easy as it may seem. The first man comes very close home to us, and in that sense sin comes very close home to us, because the whole spirit and principle of the first man is wrong, and you cannot touch the first man without touching sin, The moment I become an object to myself sin is proved to be there; I have to cease from that, because I have learnt that I am in the company of One who is to the perfect and eternal satisfaction of God. Christ has to be presented to us in this way; and the question has to be raised in the soul of every Christian, whether he prefers the second Man to the first. We belong to the second Man, and we have to appreciate the second Man; and as we appreciate the second Man, we are emboldened and enabled to part company practically with the first, and that is how we die to sin. The believer practises righteousness, and proves that he is “righteous even as He [Christ] is righteous”. But you will never practise righteousness save as you appreciate the second Man. The Son of God was manifested to undo the works of the devil, that is what is brought out here; He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin; “whosoever abideth in him sinneth not”. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil”; the children of God do not practise sin, but they practise righteousness, they belong to Christ’s company, and are righteous even as He is righteous.
Then there is the other point, namely, death to the world. And I will tell you what I think emboldens a person to enter upon that ground — it is, that it begins to dawn on the soul that there is a circle here upon earth, in which is expressed the character and ways of Christ, a circle outside of all the distinctions of flesh, a circle in which is so expressed the truth of Christ, that “we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren”. It is not a circle of amiable, cultivated, or refined people, but one where are expressed, “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; if any man have a complaint against any”; and the peace of Christ rules in the heart, and the word of Christ dwells there in all wisdom. It is the new man, where “Christ is all and in all”. I dare say some might ask me, ‘Where is that found?’ I will tell you where it is found — in Scripture. It is a great point to see that a thing is found in Scripture. People want to see it in fact; I say it is lamentable if you cannot see it in fact, but if I see a thing in Scripture that is enough, I will not have anything else, because that and that only is the right thing. I see such an idea in Scripture as a blessed circle where there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, bond nor free, but where Christ is all and in all; and where instead of the communion of knowledge, or of education, or art, or science, or anything of that kind, what is expressed is the character and qualities of Christ, such as He was here. It is a heavenly circle, too; and that is what is really reached by a person that is dead and risen with Christ. I believe that [p. 320] the apprehension that such a circle is revealed in Scripture, and the anxiety to reach it, encourages and strengthens a person to accept the place of death to the world, for if I am going to have part in that circle, all that binds me to the world must go. Society and the organisation the world presents to me, is no longer an attraction, because of what I have discovered in Scripture. I have learnt by experience that if you are attracted simply by the character of any particular company here upon earth, you will find that company will fail you, you will discover all kinds of flaws on closer acquaintance. But if you are attracted by what Scripture presents, if you get the scriptural ideal, the effect will be that you will be anxious to constitute one of such a company, and that the power of Scripture will be maintained in you. It is sometimes urged on us that we are set to reform the world; but if I have got to reform the world, the first I have got to look after is myself. As the apostle says to Timothy, “Take heed to thyself”. But whether it be a question of death to sin or to the world, you cannot bring yourself to it by effort or self abnegation; you will come to it when you really feel the necessity of it. If I have got any apprehension at all of what Christ is, as Man living to God, then the necessity comes to me, if I am going to join Him, I must die to the man that is here. And then in regard to the world, if I get, by the grace of God, any idea of that circle of blessing to which Scripture refers — “Passed out of death into life because we love the brethren”, then I must part company with the organisation and rudiments of this world, because it is a sphere of things to which all that is of the world is perfectly foreign, and which nothing but the power of God can support. And it is in that way, by the light of these things breaking across the soul, that one is strengthened and encouraged; it finds a certain [p. 321] leverage in the apprehension of these things which enables it to accept the place of death to sin and to the world. Take the Christian circle as it is brought out in Colossians 3, do you think any man of the world would be at home in that circle? He would not care to be in it; I do not think it would be the least attractive to him. But if you have got any thought of what is agreeable in the sight of God, that is a circle which is exceedingly beautiful and blessed to His eye, it is “the elect of God, holy and beloved”, it is the reproduction of Christ under the eye of God, an out-of-the-world, heavenly, condition of things down here upon earth.
It is just that which I commend to you. I fear lest souls may not quite have understood all that has been presented, but I beg of you not to reject a thing because you do not understand it at the moment. Have a little patience; try to understand it; try to see if there is not something in it. I think you will find that there is a great deal in it.