ROMANS 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 469] ROMANS 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It is good to see that in receiving what comes to us from God through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have in every case what cannot be improved upon.
The Son of God is the great subject of the gospel, and what comes in by Him and through His death cannot possibly be improved upon. If God brings in righteousness, which He has brought in on the ground of redemption, it cannot be improved upon. We may have to add other things that have their part in the economy of blessing.
Rem So that finality is reached, would you say, and the soul comes into peace.
CAC And it leads up to that wonderful statement that being justified by faith we have peace with God; that the state of the believer through grace is divinely perfect, it cannot be improved upon. You cannot improve upon peace with God in that sense.
Ques Is there a difference between believing on God and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ?
CAC I think that now these things go necessarily together; you cannot have such a thing as a person merely believing on God; because faith must take its character and derive its substance from the revelation of God. It must be a complete revelation. In the Old Testament we read very little about faith. I believe it is only mentioned in Habakkuk 2: 4, “The just shall live by his faith”, and that was a prophetic statement. It is not till God comes into view in the fulness of His grace and in the light of redemption that you have adequate conditions for the development of faith in the human heart.
Rem We see the great advantage of being brought into [p. 470] the faith period.
CAC I should think so! It is quite certain the revelation of God cannot be improved upon, nor can what has come in by Christ and His death. If you lived a thousand years you would never advance on what you began with, though your apprehension of it may increase; the thing itself is as great at the beginning as at the end; and God has been pleased to act in such a way that wherever faith is He associates with it this blessed reality of divine righteousness.
Rem The great point really is the light of God in revelation.
CAC Perhaps there are some just waking up to beginning at the right end; that is with God. All that has come in by way of sin and death leaves room for the blessed God to bring out what is in His heart for man. The epistle leads up to reconciliation and the saints brought into the children’s place and sonship. It would help us greatly if we saw that we started with the best. The youngest babe in Christ starts with it, he is invested with a perfect divine righteousness that meets every divine requirement of God on the line of righteousness.
Rem It leads to God being absolutely glorified.
CAC That is it. So that God should be the spring and source and ground of our joy at the very outset. So with regard to justification it requires not only the death of Christ. Christ is the Mercy-seat as risen; He never had that place before He was risen. The thought of death was there, but there was not exactly the thought of resurrection in the Mosaic mercy-seat. You would not get the complete thought without resurrection; that is why the Old Testament comes short, you could not have the thought of resurrection with any sacrifice.
Rem In the offering for the cleansing of the leper, the bird set free alive seems to suggest resurrection (Leviticus 14).
CAC One bird had to be, and it comes back typically from death, but not actually. So with Isaac: “Whence also he received him in a figure” (Hebrews 11: 19). This question of justification [p. 471] could not be settled apart from resurrection, for man is under death as the judgment of God, therefore death needs to be set aside.
Rem It involves the truth of another Man.
CAC I think this truth of justification and divine righteousness touches the state of man as well as his guilt.
Rem The person needs justifying. The death of Christ deals with offences and clears them, would you say?
CAC The death of Christ deals with the whole state of man. So that in the blood on the mercy-seat the whole matter of the state of fallen man is met, and God glorified in it all; and the justification is on that footing.
Rem It must be effected in another Man or it would be removal simply and nothing brought in for God.
CAC There are different aspects of this justification. “Justification freely by his grace”, “Justified in the power of his blood”, “Justified by faith”: all are different aspects of this wondrous favour of God to man.
Ques Why is Abraham brought in (chapter 4)?
CAC Abraham leads on to this thought of resurrection. He had to learn he was dead and nothing could be brought in according to the mind of God, except in the power of resurrection.
Ques Is resurrection a revelation?
CAC Yes. It has been said that God is revealed in these early chapters in righteousness, in power and in love, and His power is revealed in the resurrection of Christ and becomes available to every poor sinner that realises he is as good as dead. In regard to justification we are as helpless as if we were actually dead!
Ques It is said sometimes Christ raised for our justification is a proof that God is entirely satisfied as to sin; is that right?
CAC I doubt whether it is so presented in Scripture. If divine Persons take a thing in hand, nothing can be required to assure us of the satisfactoriness of the work. They must [p. 472] operate successfully for God to be God. It does not require the evidence of resurrection that the work was done. The rending of the veil was the most striking intimation that God was entirely free to come out in the revelation of Himself to His poor creatures, but that was not in evidence. It is “raised again for our justification”, so that we should get a most exalted thought of our justification. It places us in the place and perfection of Christ. He is entirely suitable for God and for His world, and we stand in that. So in Galatians he speaks of being justified in Christ, that is, in another Man. We are placed with God in suitability to all that God is. “Righteousness of God” means that everything is according to God’s thought; it is His estimate of righteousness.
Ques Would you say something as to divine reckoning?
CAC That is very important. God has a way of reckoning and we have to come into line with it. He reckons on the principle of what has been effected by the death of the Lord Jesus; what God does has always to be based on that. On the other hand God is pleased to put a foundation in the soul of man which is this principle of faith, which is as purely of God as the work of Christ on the cross. It was not likely that God would move to no effect, and however wonderfully He moved, it would have no effect if there were no principle in the heart of man to link His grace with. New birth is at the back. So that man becomes receptive, and where faith is He is pleased to bring in righteousness — His own righteousness — and identify the soul with it. This is the first element in the divine adjustment that God effects for men.
Ques It is a long way to “this favour in which we stand”. What would be the difference between what we receive by faith and what we have by the Spirit?
CAC It is striking to see that in the first four chapters there is no reference to the Spirit, except in chapter 1 in reference to the Lord’s resurrection — it is all faith. And whatever light comes to us from God becomes the substance to us in our souls; and there must be something there for the [p. 473] Holy Spirit to connect Himself with. Faith brings the light of God and of redemption — all that we preach in the gospel — until there is something there in the soul for the Holy Spirit to link Himself on to. Where there is new birth there is. A newborn soul must thirst for God, and any ray of light from God is exceedingly precious. In this system of blessing, of faith, there is something for the Holy Spirit to link on to.
There is no mention of the Spirit until now, and it does not say when the Spirit is received. I used to think Paul ought to have put in a chapter here to say how the Spirit is received, but what he is doing is building up the soul of man, so that there should be something built up there for the Spirit to recognise, and he drops on us all at once by saying, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. What I have to take care about is that I have to be very exercised that I am marked by such features that the Spirit can put His seal upon. It all comes to us through the gospel. There is no such thing as finding faith in the fallen man.
Ques All in christianity is on the principle of giving, would you say?
CAC And our great business is to learn it — that we may learn God. There is one thing I want as born anew — I must have God. Very often we start from our own side, and very likely we shall finish there. We want to start with God. Nicodemus had the idea. I do not know why he should be run down; he was a very fine character. He said, “We know that thou art come a teacher from God” (John 3: 2). He was not content with what was outward as a ruler of the Jews or judaism, but he saw before him in Christ One who could unfold God to him.
God means to gratify His own heart. He might have left Adam alone. I think Adam never expected He would come into the garden. He came seeking man, that is why He came. He set His heart on that creature, and said, I am not going to be robbed of him, I am going to have him for My pleasure [p. 474] and My glory. It has been said, God is sufficient for Himself in everything, excepting His love. God’s love would not let Him rest.
In every soul born anew there is some impression of Christ and some appreciation of Christ, from Abel downwards.
Rem The psalmist said, “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Psalm 42: 1).
CAC People are not satisfied because they do not thirst. “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink”. However much you try, you cannot make people thirst.
Rem Cornelius said, “We are all present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God” (Acts 10: 33). And it says the Holy Spirit fell on them.
CAC It is very fine. There was faith there undoubtedly, and it was while Peter was yet speaking that the Holy Spirit fell on them. It would be nice to have people converted the first sentence of your preaching! I do not see that anybody will drink until they thirst.
Ques Would not thirst be accumulative, each impression creating further thirst?
CAC Yes, on the line of thirst we should increase; we want to cultivate intense appreciation of every bit of light we get — elementary or advanced. The elementary is perfect, so it brings a delight and satisfaction. It leads up to peace with God; there is serenity and peace, the outcome of what has been learned of God. If we just gave ourselves up to seek the knowledge of God all the time, what a happy people we should be.
Rem We need things in order.
CAC It would help us to apprehend this epistle to see that everything is set out in divine order. We do not begin rightly unless we begin in Romans 3. God’s glad tidings — what is in His heart for men — is fully provided and supplied in absolute perfection, so that you cannot improve on it. So this fifth chapter is a most wonderful unfolding of the structure of grace in a man. It is not a matter of doctrine, as we [p. 475] may sometimes think, but there is the consciousness that God is pleased with us. The soul is filled with the consciousness that God is delighted with me. I do not know the gospel unless I know that.
Rem It can only be in Christ.
CAC Well, does not God put you in Christ? And every part of the gospel is primarily for His own satisfaction and glory. What a wonderful moment it is for the soul when it wakes up to the fact that the glory of the blessed God is bound up with my blessing!
I suppose we have all noticed that there is no appropriation until we come to this chapter. The truth of the glad tidings is presented down to the end of the fourth chapter in a general way. Things are stated from God’s side, but there is no evidence of their being taken up till the fifth chapter. I was wondering whether it did not suggest to us the importance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus as being necessary before there could be appropriation by the saints of what is in the mind of God, particularly of course in regard of justification.
Ques You would say we could not come into the good of these things apart from the resurrection of Christ?
CAC Is it not true that the thing was never defined till then? It could not be defined or appropriated before, as it did not exist. There are many souls who are blessedly attracted by the perfection of the Lord Jesus as presented in the gospels, who rightly find comfort in His grace and find Him precious, but He was not then risen from among the dead.
Rem It is a retrospection with us, justification by faith and by blood, we look back.
CAC I think it is good for us to remember that we all have to learn the gospel after we are converted. Often the beginning is vague and uncertain, and therefore souls are not immune to doubts and misgivings, and even those who may be putting their trust alone in the death and the blood of Christ may not really have divine peace. They are converted,
[p. 476] they have definitely turned to God. And many people are justified in the sight of God who have not apprehended it for themselves. As we have been seeing, if one has the faith of Jesus, God justifies him, and if one has the faith of Jesus Christ, God justifies him; but he may not have the consciousness of being justified so as to have peace with God. I do not see how one could have that without the truth of resurrection. The style and manner of our justification are defined in a risen Christ, so you could hardly get it at the cross. I think God could pronounce many a person justified who does not at all apprehend it, or the character of the justification, because he has not come to the faith of God as the raiser of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead for our justification.
They have not reached God’s starting point, for that is resurrection. We must start there — it is important to get hold of that in our relations with God. The saints in early days had to wait for Paul till they knew this. The disciples on the day of Pentecost did not know it. Resurrection is a thing that is impossible for the human mind to entertain. It can only be known to faith. It is as impossible to conceive of by the human mind as creation is.
Rem “In him everyone that believes is justified” (Acts 13: 39). It is the truth of an ascended Man.
CAC Does not that bring in something very positive? Not only are sins gone, they have been borne and put away on the cross, but it does not quite give the full thought of being justified. God has put Him in a position where it is absolutely impossible for sin or sins or death to have anything to do with Him. And He is put there for our justification, because God’s mind is that we should be as clear before Him as Christ.
Ques The being justified on the principle of faith and in the power of His blood — are they two parts of the same thing?
CAC Well, the efficacious ground of it is the blood which meets the glory of God. It meets the question of sin and sins and settles everything for God; but does not give us [p. 477] what J.N.D. calls a subsisting righteousness. It is a clearance, but hardly gives a new status.
Rem That is found in a living Person.
CAC Yes. All the bad has gone in the value of the blood, but there is something left — Christ risen from the dead, after the value of the blood had been fully secured. So there is a risen Man in God’s presence who is perfectly suitable to God, now and for all eternity; and He is the believer’s righteousness.
Rem It says, He has entered in once for all into the holy of holies “by his own blood”, in Hebrews.
CAC He has gone in on the same ground on which we can go in.
Ques “But ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6: 11). How does that come in?
CAC Is he not bringing in there the full value of what he had developed (”Ye have been washed”, etc.), into which the Corinthians little entered? It all stood in the value of that Name and in the power of the Spirit. He looks at it in its completeness.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ” is the risen and glorified Man, and we (those who have) have appropriated Him thus, and we have peace towards God — there is appropriation.
Rem The appropriation of that blessed Person as He now is must be a complete justification.
CAC Indeed it is. It is the fixed position in which believers are set who have the faith of resurrection; that is, confidence in God who has raised Christ from the dead. So all our intercourse with God is based on that fact, that He is the raiser up of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. How perfectly free that makes us with God. We have a consciousness of having a fixed favour with God.
Ques Why is it so many have not peace?
CAC Because in most cases the risen Christ has never been set before them as the expression of God’s thought for them, or it has not been taken in. I know I was breaking [p. 478] bread a long time, and preaching the gospel too, before I took it in.
In the religious world there is very little said about the resurrection and its bearing on the position the believer is in with God. Justification by faith is the doctrine of Protestantism, but the real value of it is not widely known.
Rem It is the knowledge of how God has taken up the sin question and settled it for His pleasure.
CAC That brings the sense of divine favour into the soul.
Ques Why does it say here, “We boast in hope of the glory of God”?
CAC Because there is the assured conviction in the heart that the more the glory of God shines out the better it is for us. We should like that every trace of the glory of man should disappear and only the glory of God shine out; that would be the supreme blessedness of every saint of God. It has been the glory of God particularly to raise His Son from the dead; it is the glory of God in a special way as we know it.
“Did I not say to thee, that if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” (John 11: 40). The death of Lazarus was an opportunity for the Son of God and for God to be glorified. God is really glorified in resurrection.
Rem It is all working out for everything to be as God wishes, and that is reconciliation.
CAC The apostle is bringing out all this that we may be qualified to be in the assembly properly. Those who know God in the power of resurrection are sure that in His own time He will set aside everything that is not in correspondence with His glory, whether death, sin or Satan’s power.
He is going to clear the whole scene of everything but His own glory, and the saints delight to think of it.
Rem And we can live in the enjoyment of it now.
Rem It says, “Who has raised him from among the dead and given him glory, that your faith and hope should be in God” (1 Peter 1: 21).
Rem “Preaching by Jesus the resurrection” (Acts [p. 479] 4: 2).
CAC I doubt if we apprehend the Lord’s death or His life in a divine way apart from His resurrection. His resurrection throws divine light on both. All must be seen in the light of resurrection.
Ques It says “we shall be saved in the power of his life” — not by His death, emphasising the fact that everything is in a risen Man, would you say? Does it not bring in the priesthood of Christ?
CAC Well, you see that raises the question whether we are near enough to get it. I think all the grace that is in Him is available for saints, but it is only acquired in personal nearness to Him. And it is not exactly His life in heaven, but His life is available for us. It is like the woman who touched the hem of His garment, it needed contact. I think it is His life in contrast with His death. The One who died is the living One, living in nearness to be made use of. We need to be preserved from every form of the power of evil; we do not need to be saved from God, do we?
Rem If the death, so the life. If something is brought about by the death, then something is brought about by the life, the argument is.
CAC And He is available. When here on earth it was so, the woman drew virtue out of Him. It is Christ near (that is why I said not in heaven) so that He is available. Should any of us be preserved from evil at a distance from Him? So the real power of deliverance is not in doctrine, it lies in appropriating what is in the living One. There is no distance, we have no journey of any kind to take. He is near.
Rem He was raised “by the glory of the Father”. Are we to appropriate the Father like that?
CAC Well, that glory is now to throw its lustre over our everyday practical life. The glory of the Father wrapped itself round the Lord and brought Him out of Joseph’s tomb. The glory of the Father would operate in the saints to enable them to walk in a different kind of life from what they ever did before.
First we get boasting in the hope of glory and now it is boasting “in tribulations” — what a contrast! It is exceedingly practical; tribulations test the value that we put upon God, things that are trying and testing, and a very little thing may upset a saint, something that is contrary to our thoughts. It just shows we are practically infidels, we do not set any value on God! We drift along asleep sometimes and the tribulations compel us to make practical use of God, they are a help to us in that way. We find a rude shock was not to be deplored but to boast in, it found an avenue that the blessed God could be known as a reality — as He had not been known before.
If we bring God in it effects us profoundly. Many are having severe tribulation at the present time; those who bring God in find they develop the quality of endurance, a precious feature of Christ which is so pleasing to God. Endurance is the ability to go on when things are most trying to you, which do not suit you at all, because you are finding the value of God.
Ques “And endurance, experience”, what does that mean?
CAC It is really a wonderful thing, because it means the practical proving of what God can be to His people in tribulation — not believing it, but proving it. The more we prove God, the more hopeful we are because we are fully satisfied that He will not change. The word experience means proving it. An old lady used to put T & P against texts in her Bible — ‘Tried and Proved’. We should covet experience; what is the good of a lot of doctrine and no proving of God?
Rem Paul said, “I believe God”.
CAC That brightens all the future, because hope grows out of experience. We may say reverently, God loves to be proved. He will never let you down. And that leads Paul to bring in the fact that the Holy Spirit has been given to us.
We have noticed that there is no reference to the Spirit before this chapter, but it is rather important in this connection,
[p. 481] because the eighth chapter is the chapter of the Spirit — it is not really his subject here. The point is that we should be established in faith. We should bear in mind that the Spirit will never carry us one inch beyond our faith.
In the first four chapters the apostle is occupied in building upon faith. The Spirit will support us in everything of faith, but we must not expect He will help us beyond our faith.
It is essential that Christ should be known as risen, for there is nothing for the Spirit to link on with till Christ is known as the righteousness of the believer. He must link Himself on to what is perfect, He cannot link on to what is imperfect. In Ephesians 1 they had received a full gospel, so there was something in them He could identify Himself with. He could never identify Himself with doubts and fears. “Filled with the Spirit” is the normal condition for a believer. I should not like to say I was, I should like to be. If I gave no place to the flesh I should be filled with the Spirit. Believers are often like a bottle with a cork in, there is an obstruction. The Spirit will not remove the cork, it is for me to do that.
“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. It brings before us the delight of the Spirit of God to make us conscious of the love of God by bringing before us the death of Christ. And the Spirit of God would occupy us more with the death of Christ. We do not yield ourselves to the Spirit in occupying us with the death of Christ, that He might develop precious thoughts of it with us. We cannot help being occupied with it one day a week, but there are six days when the death of Christ perhaps has not very much place with us. We need to ponder it every day.
Rem “Through the death of his Son” is a touching expression.
CAC Yes, it is. We cannot think that the blessed God ever forgets — it is the death of His Son; and if we are moving in fellowship with God the death of Christ has an increasing [p. 482] place with us, and the Spirit of God would use it to give us a profound sense of the love of God. The death of Christ does not leave anything behind.
Rem It is not so much the thought of sacrifice here as an expression of the perfection of divine love.
CAC That is what it is here. So that it is in spite of what we were as sinners — that we might know the heart of God. It is not so much the efficacy side, but more the witness of it.