SAMENESS AS MARKING BELIEVERS
W. McKillop
2 Corinthians 3: 17, 18; 4: 7–14; 12: 16–18
What I want to speak about a little, beloved brethren, is the thought of sameness. It is somewhat different from oneness but we can see that it is very close to oneness. Indeed as we noted in 1 Corinthians 12, the one runs into the other. The chapter begins with the thought of the same Spirit and the same Lord and the same God, but goes on to the one and the same Spirit and then one Spirit. When we come to Ephesians the thought of oneness is more pronounced. “There is one body and one Spirit ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”, Ephesians 4: 4–6. In thinking about it, it seems to me that the thought of sameness more has a bearing on what is provisional. Oneness, of course, enters into the provisional time, but I think it runs on into eternity because it will hardly be necessary in eternity to speak about the same Spirit of faith, or the same steps, but the thought of oneness will characterise eternity.
So I refer to this passage in 2 Corinthians 3 to draw to our attention the fact that the contemplation of the glory of the Lord leads on to transformation “according to the same image”; that is to say, the saints as engaged with the glory of Christ become more like Him, but more like one another. It is not that there is not a distinctiveness of spiritual personality.
There is because the Lord has named every one of us, and He has named us differently because we fit differently into the divine structure. At the present moment, we fit differently into the Lord’s operational system, but nevertheless there is to be a sameness about us. The same image would indicate that every time we are especially collectively engaged with the glory of Christ, we emerge from that season characterised increasingly by spiritual sameness.
That is, the image of Christ is seen more distinctly in us all. You will remember that Gideon said to the two who slew his brethren, “What sort of men were they that ye slew at Tabor?
And they answered, As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the sons of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, the sons of my mother”, Judges 8: 18, 19. So I think that increasing spiritual sameness among us, in the way I am speaking of it, comes about from occupation with the glory of Christ, and also from being constitutionally formed in the truth of the assembly, because he says not that they were the sons of my father, but “the sons of my mother”. “They answered, As thou art, so were they”. Well, I suppose from one point of view, we would say we would like to be like Gideon. God spoke most approvingly and encouragingly to him in his preparing to deal with the Midianites. The Lord would speak to us encouragingly and approvingly to further this thought of spiritual sameness.
Keep in mind, as I have said, that that is not contradictory to distinctiveness of personality. But you would expect that persons who are engaged with the glory of the Lord and “are transformed according to the same image” would be increasingly marked by likeness to the Person whose glory has affected them. As we are occupied with the Lord’s glory, His Spirit is engaged in transforming us, for it is His inward work. It really means that morally the image of Christ in all its beauty is seen more and more distinctly in all of us. It is a wonderful result of our being together. We do contemplate the Lord’s glory individually; no doubt that is the joy of our hearts, but there is something special about our being together and contemplating His glory as together, and the Spirit’s operation is to transform us “according to the same image”, as we sang in our hymn, ‘In all thy gracious image shine’ (Hymn 58). We know that finally we shall be transformed to the image of God’s Son. The sons of God will be like one another because they will be all like Christ, they will be all in His image. The Spirit’s work at the present time is to promote that among us so that there is less and less diversity in a wrong sense because the first man is being excluded by us more and more rigidly.
Therefore the Spirit is more and more free to pursue His transforming work, and it is from glory to glory.
That leads me to refer again to Gideon’s remark, “They were my brethren, the sons of my mother”, Judges 8: 19. We ought to be very much like persons who are constitutionally formed by the truth of the assembly. Indeed in Galatians where they were dropping down from the proper level of Christianity. Paul reminds them that we are children of the free woman, and that the Jerusalem above is our mother. There are all kinds of morally malformed humanity about us because persons have the wrong mothers. They have been deformed by the kind of instruction and teaching under which they were brought up. It can hardly be said of them that Jerusalem above is their mother, but we should be able to say, “Jerusalem above ... is our mother”, Galatians 4: 26. The apostle goes on to say in that epistle, “But ye, brethren, after the pattern of Isaac, are children of promise”, Galatians 4: 28.
The pattern to which we are being conformed is that of the heavenly Man, the pattern of Isaac. All this comes about as we are engaged with the glory of Christ. Then as we draw on the resource that is in Christ as our Head, we become increasingly formed and increasingly like one another as children of the free woman, having the Jerusalem that is above as our mother. Then it could be said of such by any one, if we enquired what they were like, as Gideon did, “As thou art, so were they”. And we could say as he said, “They were my brethren, the sons of my mother”.
We have before us, if the Lord does not come in the interim, the pre-eminent occasion when the Lord comes to us and we behold His glory. The wilderness position is that by faith we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. But this is not the wilderness, as I understand it, it is the inside position, and to see His glory requires that we are making way for the Holy Spirit. It is more than what we see by faith. Seeing Jesus crowned with glory and honour by faith stabilises us in our wilderness path, but being occupied with the glory of the Lord as we are together in the assembly, and have broken bread, leads to this blessed gracious work of the Holy Spirit in transforming us “according to the same image”. That is really how the work of God proceeds as the Spirit is free in persons who are occupied with Christ. I suppose we could not explain how it goes on. We are absorbed with Christ; we are not thinking about what is happening in ourselves spiritually, but this is going on and so the “same image” is coming out, and it shines every time with increasing glory, “from glory to glory”.
I read from chapter 4 in part to call attention to what the apostle speaks of as “having the same spirit of faith”. I take it that this alludes to faith as an active principle in the soul of the believer. You can understand the need for it, for he says, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels”. That reminds us that these earthen vessels are fragile and they might be broken at any time, but he says, “that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us”.
The power of God maintains the vessel, earthen vessel as it is at the moment, as it maintains the treasure in the vessel. Think of the blessedness of being able to say that we have this treasure, the treasure of the knowledge of God. Then he speaks about these things he was going through or had gone through, “every way afflicted, but not straitened; seeing no apparent issue”. How often we have encountered something like that in our lives, “seeing no apparent issue”. You say, How will this work out? Well, it adds, “but our way not entirely shut up”. God is going to come into this matter and show us that the surpassingness of the power must be of God.
Then he comes to this, “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body”. The earthen vessel here referred to is our body, but now it is not the condition of the vessel that is in mind but rather its capacity to express something. So it is that the dying of Jesus is borne about in the body. We have been told, and quite rightly I think, that the dying of Jesus refers especially to the time from the Lord’s coming down from the mount of transfiguration to the cross. If we are to follow in His steps, we must expect, beloved brethren, that our ways are going to be increasingly narrowed up. It was so with the Lord. I do not think you find generally speaking references to great crowds following Him after the mount of transfiguration, and when it comes to Gethsemane before He goes on to the cross. He has three with Him. It was a continual narrowing down. You can understand the Lord saying, “how am I straitened”, Luke 12: 50. But “bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”, if we are on this line, we are accepting this narrowing down, this limiting, “that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body”. It is a wonderful triumph of God that in these bodies, that kind of life can be manifested.
Then he says, “for we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus”. Well, that is something to ponder. We hear of persons who are ignorant of God speaking about things happening that are untimely and so on, but here the apostle is saying, “we who live”.
Those are the persons in whom the life of Jesus is being manifested in their bodies. He says, “we who live are always delivered unto death”; that is the divine action. If somebody is delivered unto death, it may not be literal death, but it may be the pressure of death through something that God orders because, in the life of the believer, nothing happens by chance. There is nothing that happens in our bodies, in our circumstances or in our households, that is apart from God having to do with it. So he says, “we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”.
What a triumph for God that in this mortal condition, mortal flesh, not sinful flesh, but flesh that is subject to death, the life of Jesus is manifested. It refers to more than the Lord’s flesh and blood life because that He laid down, but He had life in which He went through death,
“In him was life”, (John 1: 4), and the believer as having the Spirit has life communicated to him by the One who is out of death. So he says, “death works in us”, pointing no doubt to his deep exercise about these believers, “but life in you”. A result of what he was going through was life in the saints.
If we could think about what comes on us as being a question of being “delivered unto death on account of Jesus”, and the great result being life in the saints, it makes it well worthwhile to undergo whatever the Father, in His love and wisdom, brings on us, for He “scourges every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12: 6), and scourging is no light matter. So you can understand why the apostle says, “And having the same spirit of faith”. That is another feature of similarity or sameness among us, that we have the same spirit of faith. I take it that it is faith working actively in our souls. Hebrews 11 would give us a great company of persons in whom the same spirit of faith was operating. If you look at that list, it is extraordinary what some of them went through, even to the point that what they sought was a better resurrection, which meant they faced death literally. So he says, “And having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I have believed, therefore have I spoken”, quoting from Psalm 116: 10. As something comes on us, is the same spirit of faith active in us or do we become despondent, discouraged, distressed? It is a feature of overcoming that the same spirit of faith rises up in the believer, and he is able to maintain his position in the testimony and remain fruitful to God.
You will remember in Deuteronomy 26 when the man brings his offering he says, “I have not eaten thereof in my mourning” (Deuteronomy 26: 14).
That is one in whom the same spirit of faith has operated; whatever caused his mourning, he would not let that reduce what was for God. And so he says, “we” (that is Paul and those with him) “also believe, therefore also we speak”. That should really be the basis on which we speak. As I speak to you now, beloved brethren, what should be in my soul, and I think is in some measure, is the same spirit of faith. I am not saying something to you that is just theoretical, but I say it as believing God. I think that characterised Abraham pre-eminently that he believed God, that what He promised He was able also to do. So Paul says, “knowing that he who has raised the Lord Jesus shall raise us also with Jesus, and shall present us with you”. What a wonderful termination to the whole time of testimony, the whole period of faith, that the God who has raised Jesus will raise us with Jesus if we have fallen asleep and He shall present us together. Paul is saying that he and those with him would be presented with the Corinthians. That is a comforting thought, that those we have loved, and those we labour with, and those we go on in the testimony with, those whose company cheers our hearts, we are going to be presented together by the God who raised Jesus and who is able also to raise us.
In the last scripture the apostle is speaking here as feeling in his spirit the unkind and false accusations that were made against him. He says, “But be it so”, that is, what the persons were saying earlier in the chapter. He says, “But be it so, I did not burden you”, that is, he was no burden to the saints in any sense. He says, “but being crafty I took you by guile”, and I think Mr Darby’s footnote is one of the most helpful at this point, ‘The apostle is not saying that he did this, but is answering a charge that he had kept up appearances by taking nothing himself, but knew how to indemnify himself by using Titus in order to receive from them.
The charge was false, as he proceeds to show’. He shows it by alluding to the fact that, in spite of these false and malicious accusations, what characterised him and Titus and the brother he sent with Titus and others, was that they walked in the same spirit and they walked in the same steps. So this is to comfort us when we are unjustly and unfairly accused of things. He says, “But be it so”. I have not time either to answer to it, or to spend time worrying about it or thinking about it, but I just wanted to point out to you that what characterised Titus and the others with him, and what characterised me was that we “walked in the same spirit”; that would be the Spirit of Christ. As he says earlier in this chapter, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved” (2 Corinthians 12: 15). That is the Spirit of Christ in the servant and in those with him.
Then he says, Have we not walked in the same steps? There was nothing devious in Paul’s walk, nothing in Titus’ walk that differed from Paul’s, nothing in this other brother in his spirit or walk that diverted or differed from Paul’s and Titus’. So I thought to mention this to encourage us because one of the things that is most difficult to bear is unjust accusation. I think we see here how it is to be met; that persons who have the same spirit, the Spirit of Christ, are walking in the same steps, and they are not diverted from that by what may be said about them, what they have done, what they have ministered, what they are doing. Again I would say, I am not speaking merely theoretically; this passage, as I speak, is a comfort to me in myself, and it is a comfort to anyone who, for the Lord’s sake, is serving the saints, who loves them with the same kind of love as Christ loves, and who is serving for His sake, “ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”, 2 Corinthians 4: 5.
It is a lovely answer, I think, and a morally overcoming answer to the false and unfair charge that was levied against him. As Mr. Darby’s note says, the apostle is answering a charge, and the charge was false as he proceeds to show. But he shows its falsity by calling attention to the spirit and the steps of these man and himself. What characterised them was the same spirit and the same steps.
Well may the Lord encourage us to go on this way, because one of the hardest things to bear is to be unfairly accused, charged with something that is not right, but there is not time for us to answer things. So he says, “But be it so”. Then the answer that could not be rebutted was that he and the others were walking in the same spirit and in the same steps. May the Lord give us grace to do that until He comes for us, for His name’s sake.
Address at Denton, Texas
10 November 2001