1 CORINTHIANS 1 AND 2 (NOTES OF A READING)

1 CORINTHIANS 1 AND 2 (^[p. 10] NOTES OF A READING)

1 Corinthians 1:17,18; 1 Corinthians 1:21-24; 1 Corinthians 2:l-5

CAC It was thought that in considering together the precious subject of the Lord’s supper we should first of all get some idea of the kind of persons who can eat the Supper. The thought, therefore, is to see how these people at Corinth came to be the assembly of God, and the features that marked them as the assembly of God. It is clear that the Lord’s supper has its place in the assembly of God, and to understand it we must necessarily be acquainted with the character of the assembly.

Rem I was wondering whether the two verses in early Acts would give the thought. “Those then who had accepted his word were baptised; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls. And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2: 41, 42). They give the setting of those whom we have in view at the present time.

CAC Yes, the same character of things evidently took place at Corinth. The testimony corresponded with that rendered by Peter at Jerusalem. His testimony was that “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”. That was the announcement which promptly affected them. Likewise at Corinth (Acts 18) Paul announced to them in the synagogue that Jesus was the Christ. It is well for us to understand that that is the very essence of the assembly position, it is composed of persons who believe the testimony that Jesus is the Christ.

Ques Do you get that in the opening verses in Corinthians? Paul refers a good many times there to “our Lord Jesus Christ”.

CAC Yes, it is important to look at these things from the standpoint of divine testimony. It is not a question of our personal experience or needs at all, but it is a ^[p. 11] question of a Person to whom God has given testimony that He is the anointed One; He is the Christ, God’s Anointed. It is the testimony apart from all feeling or experience that I or anybody else may have.

Rem “According as the testimony of the Christ has been confirmed in you” (verse 6).

CAC He refers to it further on: “I came to you ... announcing to you the testimony of God”. It is summed up in “Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. We cannot be too simple in regard to it, yet it is most profound because of its stupendous reality. We just believe the testimony. It certainly must come to us as the testimony of God and if we receive that testimony it would result in our identifying ourselves with the Person who is the subject of testimony; and those who do so form the assembly in a place.

Ques Will you say what the testimony of the Christ involves?

CAC It is most important to understand that. The testimony is that there is such a Person as God’s Anointed. There are many prophetic references to Him in the Old Testament, but the testimony now comes to us that Jesus is that Person, that anointed Man of whom the Old Testament spoke. The thought of being God’s Anointed means that He is the Man whom God distinguishes and accredits, and we cannot believe that without being powerfully affected. It is the first thing we come to when we have to do with God; we must accept that He is God’s Anointed.

Rem It was said of Simeon that “it was divinely communicated to him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he should see the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2: 26).

CAC That is the whole thing. Jesus claimed to be the Anointed when He stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4: 18 - 21), and His whole life was the evidence of the fact. I think Paul gave that evidence at Corinth for he “reasoned” with them. It was a matter of careful proof that Jesus was the Anointed.

^[p. 12] Rem The main theme of the first preaching was that God had made Him “both Lord and Christ”.

CAC This lies at the very basis of the formation of the assembly; you have no company to take the Supper otherwise. It is all a question of believing God’s testimony, and His testimony is Jesus. It clears the ground at once. Corinth was full of idols and there were schools of philosophy and a synagogue of Jews, but none of these things had been anointed by God. He had put no distinction on any of them. He had put distinction on Jesus. These things are in a sense simple, but they are immense in moral power and significance. God is distinguishing one Man, He is testifying that Jesus is the anointed Man. It is no question of our exercises at all.

Ques Is there a separating power in it?

CAC Yes, I do not want to go on with anything that God has not anointed. God has shown me a Man who has been anointed. He stands alone — it carries with it a separating power. This is a thing that can be reasoned out and Paul shows there is unquestionable evidence that Jesus is God’s anointed Man. If people do not believe it they do not believe God’s testimony. It was all developed in the life and testimony of Jesus, all was an undeniable proof. “Jesus who was of Nazareth: how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power; who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10: 38). Now God is still submitting the evidence of it to men, and they are responsible to form their own judgment regarding it.

Rem God has raised Him.

Ques Why is it that he stresses the crucifixion?

CAC Because the princes of this world had crucified the Lord. The testimony was all there before their eyes. They did not call the blind man of John 9 or Mary Magdalene as witnesses. They did not call any worth hearing.

Rem It says, “None of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory)” (1 Corinthians 2: 8).

CAC It shows their blindness. It is just to bring out the utter incapacity of men to receive the testimony of God. So there must be certain persons who are called, and to them Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, but He is to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness.

Rem Man after the flesh cannot appreciate Christ.

CAC That is the whole thing, so the belief that Christ is God’s anointed Man really delivers the soul from every other kind of man. That is the kind of man God distinguishes and accredits. A distinct issue was raised that none of us can avoid. The mass of men do not believe that He is the Christ, the fact that some do makes a sharp line of demarcation, and every believer feels that he must be baptised and take his stand with Christ, or be with the world that crucified Him. It is a clear-cut issue.

The anointing brings out the moral character attaching to Jesus. There was not a single thing about Him that God was not pleased to distinguish; He loved to put distinction on that Man.

Rem I was wondering whether it went back to the breakdown in Eden. It is a necessity that One who pleases God should come into evidence, and that is the One to whom God is looking.

CAC Yes, that is it. There is a perfect testimony in that blessed Man to all that God is morally. Does that attract me? Do I believe this testimony? If so, I have finished with the world as a system.

We find how very soon there is a sense even in a child of being naughty, very early there is a sense of not being pleasing to God, even at two or three years old! This wonderful testimony comes concerning Jesus — there is everything in Him for God’s delight. If I believe that, I ^[p. 14] must stand by it.

Rem We see it in the first two Psalms. God can anoint the Man in Psalm 2 who pleases Him in Psalm 1.

CAC Yes. This is the supreme question of all time. There is one Man whom God has signalised and accredited, and every other man is discredited. If persons believe that, they are fit for the assembly. It is a question of whether I have believed the testimony. It is what I believe, not a matter of experience or formation.

After the preaching that God had made Jesus “both Lord and Christ”, they recognised what an awful state the world was in and said, We must get clear of it! If I have really believed the testimony of God’s Anointed, I have finished with the world. The world is after money and gain and pleasure. There is not a single thing that God has anointed in it. If there is one divine spark in my soul I am attracted to Jesus. Then I accept baptism, I have finished with the world — that is what baptism means.

This is the kind of company who can eat the Supper: persons who have believed the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed Man.

Ques When did this anointing take place?

CAC It took place at His baptism, which was the public accrediting of that Man.

Rem I suppose we need to see the beauty of His deeds and Person and the immediate effect of what the world has done, and these would help us to have done with the world.

CAC So that all things are exposed. The princes of the world are exposed; they crucified Him, they are exposed. How could I go on with politics and such things if I believe that Christ is God’s Anointed? The assembly is made up of people who have judged these things.

Rem It involves His coming into His rights down here.

CAC Yes, it must involve that, because the One ^[p. 15] whom God has anointed must have the supreme place. God has not adjusted things yet, but when God adjusts everything in the universe He will have that place. What you feel is He ought to fill the scene — the universe. He is capable of filling it, we all ought to have that sense.

Ques Would you say that if we are in the good of God’s testimony, the Lord’s pathway traced through this scene has a different bearing altogether?

CAC Yes, and then, of course, His being crucified brings in another element, because if I accredit the Man whom God has accredited, there is another man who is the direct opposite. That is the best way of learning self. The proper way of learning self is to learn Christ first. It is reached by believing divine testimony, not on the line of my exercises. We see God expressed there; and everything that is pleasing to Him is all there in that Man and not in a world of learning and pride.

Ques Will you say why it is the cross here and not the death of Christ?

CAC We learn the necessity to value the cross, because if I really accept Christ as the Anointed of God and contemplate His character in the gospels, I begin to feel I am not like Him. He is everything that is desirable, but I am just the opposite — that is where the cross comes in. The cross is a judicial matter, it was intended to be so by the princes of this world. Their judiciary sentence pronounced that Jesus ought to be subjected to the utmost degradation. From the divine side we know God would never have let them crucify Him if He had not something else in mind, that is judicially to expose what in us is not in correspondence with Christ. It is exposed publicly for He suffered on the cross what was due to me. He suffered for it, that is God’s side of it. Everything about me deserved to be nailed to that cross; if I believe that I should never want to lift up my head again. God has been pleased to set forth in the most beautiful Man the condemnation of the degraded man - ^[p. 16] what I am. Every one who comes into the assembly comes in in the light of that, and cannot come in otherwise. It is a wonderful company clothed in white raiment in a world of persons in black garments who do not believe God’s testimony.

Rem “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”.

CAC It was to mark in the strongest possible way the contrast between those that crucified Him and the place that God has given Him. He fills it gloriously and He fills it efficiently; we come together in the light of that. This is really the basis on which the assembly of God stands; when once it gets into the soul you cannot get away from it.

We should be reminded of one thing, that faith cannot be maintained in its integrity without the Spirit, and that is why Christians today are in such a lamentable state. At some point in their history they have come to this and they have drifted from it. How is it to be maintained? Only by the Holy Spirit. Christians are often not in the grace and power of it because they are not keeping in the company of the Holy Spirit. I am sure that we have all come to the faith of it. God is committed to that Man and we have committed ourselves to that Man and to His name and His company, but the maintaining power of it is the Spirit. If I do not keep company with the Spirit I wane in my soul. He is the power of things, and the Spirit never deviates from Christ. I may often do so, but I should be kept steady if I kept in the company of the Spirit.