IN CHRIST
IN CHRIST
This chapter corresponds with the early part of 1 John 3, “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”. That is much akin to being “servants of righteousness”.
It is a great thing to get hold of the fact that Christ has accomplished redemption, and become the Centre and Sun of a new system; He is the Sun of righteousness. This is the first principle we have to understand in order to enter into what it is to be in Christ Jesus. Being set free from sin, we have become servants to righteousness; we reckon ourselves alive unto God in Christ Jesus, where sin is not. “In him is no sin”; if we abide in Him we do not sin.
In Romans 5 we get Christ as the Head; He has come into the place of Head of every man provisionally, a place which He will occupy in the world to come. Romans 5 gives Christ’s position; chapter 6 gives ours.
Redemption is in Christ Jesus; Romans 3: 24. The purpose of God has been to take up His inheritance, and He takes it up in Christ; He has made Christ the Heir of all things. Redemption has come in that Christ may take up the inheritance as having removed all the encumbrances which lay upon it. Being in Christ involves having a link with Christ, and that link is by the Spirit, and a man must be free of liabilities — he must have received forgiveness — before he could have the Spirit.
[p. 209] Sin is looked at in chapter 6 as a kind of rule; the reign of grace is contrasted with the reign of sin in chapter 5: 21. Sin in the flesh is taken up in chapter 8, but in chapter 6 it is looked at as the universal ruling principle here.
The gift of the Spirit puts a man in Christ. No one is righteous relatively until he is in Christ; to be righteous relatively you must stand in relation to Christ as the divinely appointed Head, as the earth stands in relation to the sun. This goes further than justification. Justification is relative to offences, and is equivalent to forgiveness, but righteousness is relative to sin. Israel will stand in relation to Christ, and then they will be righteous. We are in Christ by the Spirit. By receiving God’s testimony in the glad tidings we are justified from offences; then we receive the Spirit and are in Christ, and then we belong to the order of things according to God which is established in Christ. We are attached to Him in whom is no sin, and “whosoever abideth in him sinneth not”.
To present every man perfect in Christ is looked at as the effect of ministry, but it takes time to arrive at that, We begin as babes in Christ, and have to go on to be full grown in Christ. On God’s side there is the complete setting forth of all His mind in regard of us in Christ, but on our side we have to grow up into Him in all things. If you want to know your righteousness, or sanctification, or redemption, it is all set forth in Christ, but we have to be expanded in intelligence, and to grow up into the apprehension of all that is God’s will for us as set forth in Christ. The apostle laboured hard to bring the saints up to that, but there are many obstacles which stand in the way. Salvation is all perfect to be entered into, but it takes a long time to enter into it fully. We get liberated from one thing and then another, but God would have us brought into perfect freedom in every respect. If the Spirit [p. 210] of God brings about attachment to the new system of which Christ is the Centre, certainly there must be detachment from things here. The apostle had nothing before him for the saints short of presenting every man perfect in Christ. We are not to be occupied with our progress; it is other people who see growth. Those who bemoan making no progress, never make any progress at all. I am convinced that the great point for our apprehension is the light of Christ as the divinely appointed Beginning, and Head, and Centre of the divine system according to the purpose and will of God.
Rem Righteousness is the rule of that system, just as lawlessness is of this.
Yes; we come under the law of that universe of which Christ is the beginning and Head. Christ has come into our view in that light, and it is in that way that we become servants of righteousness. The practice of righteousness is the proof that one belongs to that order of things of which Christ is the Head and Centre. Righteousness is doing right, it is fidelity in every divinely appointed relationship, and we practise righteousness as standing relatively righteous to the Centre and Sun of God’s world. Under the law of Moses it was a question of God and one’s neighbour, but now we have to take account of the divinely appointed Head. It is the righteous One who has accomplished righteousness, and in virtue of having done so He is the Sun of righteousness. He could not have done it had He not been God. The righteous One is divine, and now He is the Sun of righteousness, and we are righteous by standing in relation to Him.
The love of God has found its expression in righteousness; love is really the source of righteousness, and if we come under the influence of righteousness we come under the influence of love; the two are now inseparable. It is wonderful that love should [p. 211] have come out in the way of righteousness and redemption. Righteousness simply means what is right. God has seen fit to take up all the liabilities under which man lay, and Christ came to do His will. Surely it was right that He should do so if He saw fit. You cannot separate righteousness from love. God made the creature and He loved the creature, and it was His love which gave Him the right of redemption.
Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. God intended to bring in eternal life, but there were rights of God to be regarded, and grace came in and took up all the liabilities in order that it might issue in the blessing of eternal life for man.
Ques What is it to be alive to God in Christ Jesus?
It is moral. I have the appreciation of God which I had not before; there is the recognition of God in my heart, and hence I count myself to be alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
The first great thing is to come under law or rule, then everything is right. The earth is under rule or law to the sun, and then it gets the benefits of rain and sunshine, and consequently it brings forth fruit. So with us; we are held by a moral bond to Christ, and therefore we are righteous in being attached to Christ the Head by the Spirit; we are bound up with a system of which the rule or law is righteousness. The result is we have our fruit unto holiness, because we get the benefit of the sun and the rain, and so there is fruit.
The fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ; we are cleansed from all unrighteousness by getting into the bond of righteousness. The great thing is to be in the reality of the bond, and not to be content with the mere statement. Christianity is a system of which God is the Author, and Christ the divinely appointed Head, and we are to be under the rule which characterises that system. Christianity anticipates the world to [p. 212] come. The true starting-point, the beginning of real awakening on our side, is when we reckon ourselves alive unto God in Christ Jesus. It involves that we have apprehended that God has come out in the revelation of Himself, and that necessitates another world, for this world could not subsist in the light of that revelation. All that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — can only go on in darkness. The revelation of God necessitates another world, and that involves a new Head.
Everlasting life is the great end and issue of God’s way. The law brought in a ray of light, but it did not bring in what was in the heart and mind of God. Romans 5 gives us the issue of God’s way, but chapters 6, 7 and 8 show how we are brought into liberty of soul in order that we may serve God. It is proper for the Christian to joy in God, but the question is, how are we to do so: chapters 6, 7 and 8 come in to show us the way of liberty.
God never calls upon us to believe anything about ourselves; we are to believe much about God and Christ. We take account of ourselves as being dead indeed unto sin; virtually we are free of a lawless world, free from its influences. Then in chapter 7 we are free from legality; most people think there is something due from them to God. Then in chapter 8 there is freedom from the flesh. There is a way by which we can be free from all these things, and until we are free we cannot really serve God. We must be in liberty in order to joy in God, and to serve Him. The highest point morally is in chapter 5, because it is the presentation of God to us, but we need what is unfolded in chapters 6, 7 and 8 in order that we may be free. The three chapters go together, they are not successive. We are not absolutely free from the three things spoken of — sin, law, and the flesh — but we are freed from their domination.
[p. 213] Being freed from sin we come under the principle and rule of God’s moral universe. Christ has been looked at too exclusively as a rival Head to Adam, but there is only one Head, Christ is the Head of every man. He is the Head of a vast, divinely conceived system, and if we are attached to Christ we belong to that universe, and we have to be delivered from this world, which is not according to God, but is Babylon. Jerusalem has been swallowed up by Babylon, and of that world Satan is the god and prince. The world that was came under God’s judgement, and He allowed Babylon to swallow it up. Rome is the continuation of Babylon. The political Babylon has been wounded, but Babylon has come into the church, and we are now in the time of the Mother of harlots. We need to keep ourselves “in the love of God”, “praying in the Holy Spirit”, and “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life”,
Ques What is it to be “quickened together with Christ”?
It is the anticipation spiritually of what will take place when the Lord comes. It refers to the work of God in us, in virtue of which we anticipate in the point of view of our spiritual being what will take place when the Lord comes. Quickening our mortal bodies will take place then. In Ephesians 6 the parts of the armour taken up are those in which Christ will come out when He comes again. He will “put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head”, Isaiah 59: 17. We anticipate that. These things are needed to enable us to stand, and maintain the rights of Christ. All preaching is really proclaiming the rights of Christ, but for that the armour is needed.