THE WORD OF THE CROSS
J. N. Grace
I have been thinking during the last day or so of the way that we come into the truth of the assembly practically; not just the understanding of it or the doctrine of it but how we come into the enjoyment of the life that belongs to the assembly in a local setting. The assembly itself is heavenly and our blessings are heavenly and when we touch the heavenly side of things we are expanded immediately into what is universal. Ephesians would teach us that, but our entrance into what pertains to the assembly is by way of what is local, and this epistle from which we have read shows the gateway into the local assembly. There is only one door, beloved brethren, and that is by way of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We wonder sometimes why so many of our brethren who have been set free from one system of things, in which we have all had our part, are not doing anything. They are certainly not enjoying anything of assembly life while they are in that position. I believe the whole secret of it lies in the fact that the word of the cross has not been accepted.
We are identified with a vessel which is in reproach and which has been rejected. We can go on with a certain line of things in connection with the gospel in the enjoyment of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, but when it becomes a question of a vessel down here in which God is to be seen in testimony then that involves other exercises. It involves the acceptance of reproach. It involves the acceptance that Christ is rejected, has been crucified. On the one hand this means that God is going on with one order of man only, and that one Man is Jesus Christ. This is the only kind of manhood that is going through in the building of what pertains to the assembly here. But on the other hand it also means that that Person has been rejected—crucified. Do we think sufficiently as to why?
Why did the Lord have to be crucified? The wages of sin is death. The penalty that attaches to sin is death, and the judgment of God upon sin was borne in the three hours of darkness. But why did our Lord have to be crucified? Well, as we have said, it is that man according to the flesh is shown up for what he is. That all that man—man as in the flesh—is worth is the cross.
On the other hand it means this, dear brethren, that the world in every form has rejected Christ, and if we do not accept the word of the cross in some way the world will appeal to us.
Whether it be the Roman world, with its opening up of the highways, God used it in view of the glad tidings being preached. The enemy has used it for the pleasure of man, and there has never been a day in which the tourist business flourished as it does today, which is wholly for man’s pleasure. The political power of Rome is seen today too in its extensiveness in the way that the nations are working, but Christ is rejected. In that Roman world Christ has been rejected; Christ has been crucified. I think we ought to let this sink into our hearts a little bit more and it will keep us in our spirits away from the world where there is no place for Christ.
If it is the world of religion—that is represented in our scripture in the Jew—we are in a centre of things, in this western world particularly, where Christendom has had a tradition for
centuries, where the Scriptures have had sway and are recognised, where there is the public recognition of Christianity, but where the Person of Christ is rejected. It was the Jews who crucified Christ. We could go into many places today where there is an outward recognition of Christianity but the Person of Christ is not wanted. Christ has been crucified by the Jews and by the Greeks. This scripture gives us that. The Greeks would bring in the wisdom of the world—what an appeal that has!—the ‘nice’ things of the world; the education of the world, the music of the world particularly—its entertainment. Well, all I would say is that at Corinth, which was the centre of all that—it was the centre of the Greek world at that time in learning—Paul says, I determined know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Why I emphasize that is because I believe this the doorway practically into the assembly. So long as we do not recognise the rejection of Christ, so long as the world has got some appeal to our hearts, it will mean that the Spirit has no scope with us. But in the acceptance of the word of the cross it means that one man is displaced and room is made for the operations of the blessed Spirit of God; that Christ comes into view as the power of God and the wisdom of God. Our brother has been reading from Proverbs, which gives us wisdom, and the wisdom which comes from above comes from Christ. But He has been rejected here and that wisdom can only be known as room is made for the Holy Spirit in His activities in the local assembly.
It is one thing to have the liberty of the Spirit in our own individual pathway, but it is a far greater thing to know the liberty and movements of the Spirit in the assembly. And our poor brethren who are moving in isolation, keeping themselves from certain features of the world, do not recognise that they are caught up with the world in another form, because they have not accepted the word of the cross, because there is nothing, beloved brethren, between the world and the assembly.
When God came in in the gospel at Pentecost, and through Paul, persons were delivered from their sins and delivered from the world and they found their place immediately in the assembly, and that is the place of safety. Well, they are not here; why then are we saying these things? I am saying these things because I think it is on us to demonstrate that there is no place for man after the flesh, and that we have a judgment of the world in every form, so that what is seen is the operations of the Spirit among us in power and wisdom and grace, so that these persons, our brethren, as they come among us will find something that they cannot find anywhere else, and that what is true and expressive of the assembly in testimony is still down here. Dear brethren, that is my message tonight—“I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified … that your faith might not stand in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power”.
Word in meeting for ministry, Melbourne
9 June 1981