CONDUCTING OURSELVES WORTHILY OF THE GLAD TIDINGS OF THE CHRIST
C. K. Robinson
Philippians 1: 27–30; Romans 4: 23–25; 5: 1–6; 8: 9–15; 12: 1, 2; 16: 25–27
I have been drawn to this verse. Philippians 1, verse 27, in pondering this occasion, and I would like to stimulate every one of us that we might feel the importance and the privilege of conducting ourselves worthily of the glad tidings. In these days in which we are, it is important that we show clearly as believers by our behaviour and conduct that God has blessed us in a distinctive way. I would seek to draw a little from the epistle to the Romans to go over some of the teaching which is in that epistle. Paul here in Philippians 1, in the latter part of the chapter, is a man who is carefully considering what lies before him; is it life or is it death? You get some sense of the inwards of Paul and the affection and desire that marked him that he is pressed by both life and departure to be with Christ, and I trust that we shall see in Romans 12 that a believer in everything that he does acts intelligently and in due consideration for God and God’s will. Paul soberly considers the fact that to be with Christ “is very much better”. That was a very sober statement and not simply to be clear of martyrdom, because that was what was before him. This was not just something that he penned for the epistle, it was a very sober, thorough, and full assessment that for him “departure and being with Christ ... is very much better”. But alongside of that he says, “remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes”. Then he goes on to say,
“Only conduct yourselves worthily of the glad tidings of the Christ”. I want to hold on to that if I can. I firmly believe that we ought to be showing clearly by our conduct in every aspect of our lives that we adorn the truth of the gospel.
In Hebrews 11, alongside what we are thinking of, there is a comment that they “shew clearly that they seek their country” (Hebrews 11: 14). That is what is said of those people who are referred to in that beautiful chapter of faith, that when you looked at the life of one and another they showed clearly what they were seeking. Our life cannot be the same as everybody else’s. There is no way that a believer, blessed with the truths of
Paul’s glad tidings, as taking on the truth and the glory of it, and seeking the help of the Holy Spirit to be formed in it, can live a life that is the same as an unbeliever. It is a moral impossibility, I say that soberly. Paul says, “Only conduct yourselves”, and he does not just say that, he adds that little bit, and that is the bit that I would like to come to in what I am saying, “worthily”. It is the principle of the testimony and of something that is by way of excess. I am sure the grace of that and the source of that is the power and service of the Holy Spirit of God.
I have drawn from the truths in Romans. There are a lot of younger brothers and sisters here which is good to see, and your interest and support is appreciated. The truth of Romans is well worth studying for every one of us. Paul is writing to believers, he says that right at the beginning of the epistle to the Romans, “for obedience of faith among all the nations, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ—to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints”, Romans 1: 5, 6. He immediately identifies his outlook on them in writing to them.
They are marked off by God who has operated according to His divine purpose and has called them in the glad tidings; “called of Jesus Christ”, those who were called saints is how he addresses them. I trust every one of us has a sense that God has dignified you by calling you.
I speak to you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful matter it is to be able to drink into the Spirit of God’s gospel concerning His Son, because the central theme and glory of it is that a Man, who was anointed of God, has accomplished everything for God and for our blessing.
God’s rights had to be met first and that is in Romans 3. God’s righteousness had to be met; sin had come in, and God had lost His creature through sin. Fallen man had come under the liability of a fallen race, yet God has operated in sovereign mercy and righteousness in Jesus Christ and His precious work. The
righteousness of God had been made manifest, “righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe”, Romans 3: 22. We must in this consider the value of the blood of Jesus. God is setting forth His Son a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. Think of God now presenting His Son as a mercy-seat which is the glory of God’s approach to man in mercy. What a glorious matter that is, that man who had failed in everything, to such God is out in mercy in the glory of the presentation of Christ. God’s rights have been upheld, with no aspect of the rights of God diminished. God being God, His holiness and righteousness meant that every aspect according to divine righteousness had to be upheld by the work of Jesus, and blessed be His name, He completed the work to the glory of God. This is a glorious theme that we are able to refer to the work of Jesus, the perfection and glory of it, as available to every man, woman, boy and girl. We speak about the universality of the work of Jesus in the gospel, and God’s righteousness being made manifest as fully met by the work of Jesus. What a glorious matter this is to get into our souls, “God; for the shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus”, Romans 3: 26. The foundation for everything in the gospel is God Himself. Christ has done everything, and the believer comes to have faith in a God who has come out in Jesus.
But I wanted to come to Romans 4, “Now it was not written on his account alone that it was reckoned to him, but on ours also, to whom, believing on him who has raised from among the dead Jesus our Lord, who has been delivered for our offences”. I trust every one of us is in that little word, our, “delivered for our offences”. Have you pondered it recently or have you forgotten about it? Did the Holy Spirit touch the heart of every brother and sister to put yourself into this verse and say, Yes, I am included in that? The One who had no offences was delivered for our offences. The One who was spotless, the One who had glorified God in everything “was delivered for our offences”.
I would commend to the brethren a very fine article by J. N. Darby at the end of Volume 10 of the Collected Writings. It is a very sobering article in which he goes over the truth of judgment as presented in Scripture, and in one paragraph he touches just a little on this, ‘but for the offering of Jesus your offences would have meant that you would have been before the Judge’. We should soberly consider these things. I thank God I will not be at the great white throne because Jesus has been delivered for my offences. I trust every one of us can say that; but then not just to say it but that joy and dignity and glory and peace are in your heart and soul. Believers will have to do with the Judge then, a perfect glorious Man in a glorified body at the judgment-seat; but as Mr. Darby beautifully brings out, when we are before the judgment-seat we will have bodies of glory like His own body of glory, and nothing there is based on what is penal. I trust we are all clear, and in the joy presently, of the fact that every one of our offences has been removed by the precious completed work of Jesus.
Think of the offence that stood out as far as God was concerned, that the man after the flesh had to be removed, and so the work of Christ includes both what He endured on the cross and also when He was in the grave. He was buried for three days and three nights. As the old brothers used to teach us, and you can see it in the ministry, The man who was under judgment has gone in judgment. Do you believe in Jesus, our Lord? This ought to be the motivation for my conduct and life in every way down here. He has been raised for our justification. God raised Him from among the dead; as another has said, not just as a receipt for something done. He has placed Him in glory in perfection and in stainless purity. Our justification is in Him, raised and glorified. Who then can bring an accusation against you?
Does that affect your conduct? Does that help you to overcome depression or uncertainty? Do you believe in the God who has justified you in Jesus risen, in another Man who is in another world? What truths these are! I am aiming to put a number of building blocks from the foundation upwards in the soul and heart of a believer, so that you never forget them, and your conduct is such that you walk worthily in the testimony. I will tell a little story that Mr Norman Meek used to tell in the preaching when talking about justification. There was a little boy who was constantly causing problems, and his father took a stick and put some nails into that stick every time his little boy was badly behaved. Then the little boy came to his father and said, I am sorry, I should not have done that, and the father took the nails out. The little boy still could not be calmed and his father said, What is wrong with you now? He said, Dad you have taken out the nails but the marks are still there. Justification means there are no marks; it is stainless, it is complete! I think this is what brings victory into the believer, and if victory is in the soul of the believer conduct will therefore flow from that. As soon as we lose the touch of the victory that is in the glad tidings, and in God and Christ, I am sure our conduct begins to slip.
Then in chapter 5 we get another thought; we have been brought to our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the first time in the epistle that His full title is used. We live in a world where peace is not possible. In contrast to this the believer has settled undisturbed peace with God. This must affect you as an individual, must affect your inwards, must affect your understanding, must affect your mind. Then it says, “we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God”. We are looking on to the world to come when God will give a demonstration of the principles on which His world will be conducted.
How beautiful that God, is towards us in righteousness, and in power, and in love. God is towards us and the believer is drawn into this as beginning to realise clearer than ever that we have an unbroken link with a Man in the glory, our Lord Jesus Christ. All this causes the believer to live his life in relation to the Man in the glory, the One who will reign from shore to shore. You live your life with this outlook.
And of course the pressures come and then the tribulation, “And not only that, but we also boast in tribulation, knowing that tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope.” This is like every week in the life of the believer. So often we prove the great blessings of the Lord’s day, and yet immediately on Monday you get tribulation, this working endurance, endurance experience, and experience hope. These are four linked principles which follow one after the other, and all lead to a greater appreciation of the indispensable service of the Holy Spirit of God. I am concerned that the believer does things intelligently. You look at everything that occurs in your daily life, or in your collective life among the saints, and perform an intelligent assessment of what you are doing. Is your conduct worthy and showing a right representation of the truths of the gospel? So he says endurance, experience; and experience, hope. One of the scarcest commodities around us is hope. Hope looks on to the coming of the Lord, to another day when we will be with Him, and to the world to come. All these things are part of the hope of the believer. You think of the hope that the gospel gives you—the past is dealt with righteously and to the glory of God, and hope for the future and for what is immediately in front of you. So the past is dealt with, you have hope for the future and you have the present service of the Holy Spirit of God.
What assets these are that the believer has. Let our conduct be worthy of such assets. You live your life on a different principle from the people round about you. You are probably well aware of that but perhaps never thought about it. Is it on the principle of man’s calculations, or have you arrived at it that you are living your life on the principles of the truths of the gospel? Whatever happens by way of tribulation will work endurance and experience and hope, “and hope does not make ashamed” because not only has God blessed you with the work that His Son has done including justification, but He has also given you of His Holy Spirit and “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”.
Then in Romans 8 the truth is dealing with the inwards and members of the believer. Chapter 7 gives the great inward battle between the good that you want to do, and cannot, and the evil that you do not want to do that you do. You desire to be to Another who has been raised from among the dead, and you face the exercises of Romans 7 in the light of a Man who has been raised from among the dead, and with the inward power of the Holy Spirit that helps you to reach through to the truth of deliverance. You say gladly and cry out of conviction, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Very few of us can truly say that we have arrived at deliverance. The truth is there and the glory of it is that deliverance has been effectuated for us by God, and then we seek to come into the gain of it by firm attachment to Jesus and by proving the power of the Holy Spirit. When we come to Romans 8 Paul opens up the great matter of the service of the Holy Spirit. It is not exactly the believer over against the world, but the Spirit over against the flesh, and the Spirit leading you and helping you through so you are living your life on a new principle. You know it is a shame that every one of us does not give more place to the Holy Spirit; I would say that without apology. I do not need to know how much place you give to the Spirit, you do not need to know how much I do, but I know for both of us that we can give more place to the Holy Spirit of God.
Have you pondered the greatness of this gift? Could God have given you anything more to sustain you, and give you power over every influence in the world, and every influence in yourself according to the first
order? God could not have given us a greater gift than the Holy Spirit—a divine Person. Our greatest Friend we have in heaven is Jesus and the greatest Friend we have on earth is the Holy Spirit of God. I feel that if we gave more place to the Spirit of God it must show in our conduct and bearing. I am not just thinking of our outward conduct, but conduct in my spirit, in my bearing, and in every relationship. Romans 8 brings up the truth of fulfilled responsibility by the power of the Holy Spirit. So wherever you are, and in whatever relationship—as a brother, as a son, as a father, as a mother, as an in-law, as a local brother, or a local sister, or as among the saints generally, and then widening out to what you are as an employee or an employer or as a retired person perhaps, all these things show how we are in relation to every walk of life. In saying this I want to stir a desire with every one of us that our conduct, in every aspect and sphere in which we are, ought to worthily reflect the fact that we have embraced the truths that are in Paul’s glad tidings. There is much involved in Romans 8 for it brings us on to the truth of sonship; another gift and blessing in the gospel.
This must be one of the most elevated verses in the truth of Romans, “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. It is a good verse to remember every time you start the day. There are a few verses in Scripture that are like that; you think about them before you go out every morning. I should remember that I should be led today by the Spirit of God and therefore act worthily as a son of God. You say, I would rather leave that just for Lord’s day. It is the intention of the Lord and the Spirit to bring us into the greatness and glory of a right representation of the truth of the gospel in every facet of our lives.
Then you come to Romans 12; now having gone through the previous teaching there comes an important time in a person’s life when you respond to the compassions of God. All that we referred to could be embraced in that scripture; the compassions of God from my history, the compassions of God that have justified me in another Man for another world, that have reconciled me to Himself according to the death of His Son, that have given me a resource in the Holy Spirit of God. Then you seek “to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. Again it is something that you know what you are doing. My next question is, Have you done it? Younger brothers and sisters here, have you committed your life to Jesus? Have you distinctly at a point in your time committed your life, soul and body to Christ? You present your body, you lay it on the altar, you are dedicating yourself. It is your intelligent service, you know what you are doing.
The other thing is that you do not take it off the altar, it is there for life. You have dedicated your life to Jesus, you are dedicated to the will of God, seeking to reflect in whatever way you can the life of the Lord Jesus.
Time does not permit going into it, but in the rest of chapter 12 Paul begins to link the truth of the gospel with the truth of the body and the working out of the truth. I am sure the features that are referred to in the second part of this chapter are just examples of worthy conduct. So you could put the list down there and consider how well you are doing against that, “abhorring evil; cleaving to good—as to brotherly love, kindly affectioned towards one another; as to honour, each taking the lead in paying it to the other”, and so on. Then further down, “Have the same respect one for another ... providing things honest before all men—if possible, as far as depends on you, living in peace with all men ... If therefore thine enemy should hunger, feed him; if he should thirst, give him to drink ... Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. Would not these be positive and healthy features in every local company? How can I add worthily to the practical demonstration of the truth of the gospel working in me and in my locality? This is a concern. I speak to brothers and sisters who carry some sense of
responsibility; as you carefully consider the structure of your local meeting, how is it structured? How are the brethren getting on? How are the younger brothers coming on and the younger sisters coming on? Is the teaching being taken on? Are the scriptures especially being read? Is the ministry being read? Is there evidence of prayer?
I say this with a desire that our conduct might be more than ever worthy of the blessing that we have been brought into. We all appreciate the blessings. Therefore, I am sure in the present day we must see that the enemy is seeking more than ever to gain an inroad in any aspect that he can. I say soberly, I think he is very active at younger brethren and younger households in the faith. Let us be concerned that we are well grounded in the truths that are in the gospel. You come through to the end of the epistle and find everything is going back in a doxology to God. The securing of praise to God is surely the aim and object of everything that transpires in our lives. I have only touched on a fraction of what is in the epistle to the Romans but perhaps it will stimulate every one of us to desire to understand more the glad tidings of the Christ and lead us to conduct ourselves worthily of such glad tidings so that there will be glory to God as a result. For His name’s sake.
Address at Chelmsford, 26 July 2003
EXTRACTS
Paul could speak experimentally of the power of God as it had wrought in him. You are calling attention to the power that works in us—that will presently extend to our bodies. It is the same power, but it has not yet done so, because our bodies are still mortal. It will extend to our bodies as we are alive here when the Lord comes for us. It will affect those who are in their graves also, that
is, the power of God will take effect in them. The power is not working in them while they are in their graves. They are in dissolution. Faith alone can grasp the idea; that all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. How can they hear His voice? It is only as the work of God takes place instantaneously in them, giving them power to hear His voice, and they shall come forth. That is one of the most wonderful things entering into this subject. It is said of the Lord Jesus that He is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, Romans 1: 4. However long a man may have been dead, the Lord can raise him. Wonderful! You may say his body could not be found; and that is true as far as human ability is concerned, but God can find it, and faith knows that. The power that works in us, that Paul speaks of here, will extend presently to our bodies as alive down here and will also extend to those in their graves, so that all will go up together with Christ.
J. Taylor (Vol. 52, pp.305, 306)
God has called us to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and to the fellowship of all those blessings which are given to us in Him, so that we may be prepared to accept the fellowship of His death and to be practically separate from the whole judged system of the world. Thus separate, we are free to be bound together in holy love as saints and brethren, and in eating the Lord’s supper to show forth His death until He comes. But while doing so “until he come”, we are not bereaved of the One we love. He has said, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you”. That is, ‘ to you who love one another’. He makes Himself a very present reality to our hearts, though He is entirely hidden from the eyes of men.
C. A. Coates (‘The Food of Life’, p.150)
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