ROMANS 16 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 594] ROMANS 16 (NOTES OF A READING)
Rem I should like to refer to the question again as to “the love of the Spirit”, whether it has reference to Him as a divine Person, or as a feature of the Spirit in the saints?
CAC Perhaps we might bring both thoughts into it. The Spirit does love, because the Spirit is God, and God is love, and we need not leave out that thought surely; but I should suppose that Paul was thinking of the love that the Spirit produces. A divine Person who is here and dwelling in the saints is a Person who loves and therefore is producing an animating cause for love in those in whom He dwells, and this chapter reminds us very definitely that christianity is a matter of persons, not a system of teaching as people think. All that has come to pass in divine working in the kingdom of God comes out in persons, and I have no doubt this chapter is to bring that out, for about forty persons are named here. Is it not very affecting that each saint is an extraordinary person? We used to hear a while ago about ‘common people’, but God does not have that kind of thing, every saint is of an extraordinary nature, he is part of the greater things that have come in through the death and ascension of Christ and the descent of the Spirit. The Lord said the Father would show Him greater things than these, and He is doing it at the present time — much greater things than anything on earth yet known. He is showing them to the Son and the Son is showing them to us by the Spirit. Sometimes it is said the saints speak too much of themselves, but I have always found they do not think enough of themselves. The great object of Scripture is to show us how great we are as in Christ, and as indwelt by the Spirit. So no saint is lost in a crowd.
Rem It speaks of the stars and that He calls them by name. In a certain sense the apostle views the saints as stars.
[p. 595] CAC Yes, and the sisters are not left out — nine sisters are mentioned.
Rem I suppose this is the scriptural example of a letter of commendation.
CAC I think it would be so.
Ques Have you any thought as to why the reference is to the assembly so much in this chapter?
CAC Well, I thought it was to show that though the epistle generally deals with what is individual, it supposes the saints are walking together in assembly conditions, and so we get the five references in the last chapter to indicate that they are so regarded.
Rem I think that is important, that the result of the epistle would be to leave us with that; because the assembly is the great end in view.
CAC If all are one body (chapter 12) and indwelt by the Spirit, well, you have the assembly.
Ques What is the spiritual force of “Amen”?
CAC I suppose it is really, “So be it”. It is the word the Lord uses many times when He says, “Verily”.
Ques Does it suggest fulfilment?
CAC Yes. When we say ‘Amen’ do we not commit ourselves to what has been said?
Rem Every divine thought for men is verified in Christ.
CAC Yes.
Ques What do we understand by a salutation, it is very frequent in this chapter?
CAC I suppose it is an expression of spiritual affection. It says of the Lord as Priest that He was saluted of God. It reads in the margin, Saluted of God as high priest according to the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 5: 10). It is the recognition by God of Him in that office. I suppose if we salute the saints, we accord them the place due to them in the divine thought. They saluted the saints at Rome as called of God and set up in Christ and in the Lord. And all are not alike; I think it implies that the grace of God is all-varied and [p. 596] comes out in different ways, and it is our privilege to recognise it where we see it.
Ques Would you say a word about “worthily of saints” in verse 2?
CAC Well, saints should surely be very ready to recognise the grace of God and the work of God as it comes before them in saints. And they were to help Phoebe in any way she needed.
Ques How would you distinguish between this and Gaius setting forward the brethren on their journey “worthily of God” (3 John 6)?
CAC Well, they were brethren engaged in the Lord’s work, but Diotrephes opposed them; he was not acting worthily of God. They were to be duly recognised as the Lord’s servants and therefore honoured and helped.
Ques Do you think this is a kind of pattern of a letter of commendation?
CAC You mean he said nothing but what was true? A sister who had served the assembly and been a helper of many and even of Paul — she deserved a good letter! It shows what a position a sister may have.
Rem He ranks Priscilla and Aquila almost on the same level.
CAC Yes.
Rem I suppose it is well that the letter should be really a testimony to the bearer and not to the writer; sometimes it is a tribute to a fluent writer.
CAC That is so.
Rem The point is the assembly; namely the assembly’s service.
CAC In Aquila and Priscilla there was a personal devotion to Paul who was minister of the assemblies. They had understood what he had said at the end of the chapter, no doubt, that he linked the mystery with the gospel; that is, I suppose Paul’s gospel includes the mystery.
Rem He had had dealings some time or other outside Rome with those mentioned in [p. 597] this chapter.
CAC I suppose so. He speaks of one brother, Epaenetus, who is the first-fruits of Asia. He must have come into touch with him at some time or other there and he was converted, and now this beautiful touch is brought in that he is the first-fruits of Asia for Christ. So the assembly is not only of Christ and in Christ, but for Christ- something in a practical and blessed way for Christ. (He was, I suppose, writing this from Corinth — at the close of the epistle he was just about to go up with the offering of the saints from Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem.) “For Christ”, that is the first feature that should mark the assembly as convened. Its first feature is not that it is for God, but for Christ. I was thinking that when we come together it is to eat the Lord’s supper, and the emblems suggest the Lord to us, and if we rightly eat the Supper we should realise the assembly is for Christ. It leads on to His taking it up for the service of God, but we should not take that up rightly unless we realise first it is for Christ. We sometimes go on to what it is for God, when we have not reached what it is for Christ, and it does not prosper, it is not pleasing to divine Persons. And He is going to present the assembly to Himself.
Rem We can understand the assemblies being thankful that Paul’s life was saved.
CAC We have all reason to be thankful that Paul’s life was not cut short before Colossians and Ephesians and Philippians were written. It would have been a bad job for us if he had been killed then!
I think the Lord has been helping us for many years as to this, that it is so that Christ is for the assembly and the assembly for Christ. The Supper presents to us Christ for the assembly, and the spiritual answer to that is that the assembly is for Christ, and if the conditions are there He comes to us, and we ought to recognise Him as coming to us. The saints are unified by their thoughts of Christ. If we took the Supper spiritually there would not be a divergent thought, we should be unified, and if so we should be for Christ. We really come to the wonderful new place we have [p. 598] on the ground of the death of Christ, which no saint ever had before and never will have after we are gone. It is not a question of what has been removed by His death — atonement or propitiation; if that is in our mind we do not understand the Supper one bit! It is the Lord in death, the loaf and the cup both present that, but He was in death that an entirely new order of things should be brought in, and as we apprehend that, we apprehend we are of Christ. We shall never apprehend ‘for Christ’ unless we apprehend we are ‘of Christ’. The life which we have is the result of His death. Andronicus and Junias had the advantage over Paul; they had come to the truth of what it was to be in Christ before him. It is the result of His death, a new position no one ever had before.
Ques Do we come together to be ‘for Him’, having no preconceived thoughts, but simply that before us?
CAC Yes.
Rem We are quite clear and in a known relationship, everything having been cleared up; our love goes out to Him and we desire to be for Him.
CAC Yes, so that there might be a company to which He can come, which is what characterises this time in the heart and mind of Christ, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. In the activity of His love He comes to His own; and what happens when He comes to them must be realised.
Rem Should this not be so before we come? We do not want to think of ourselves at all.
CAC And we should understand that we are together entirely on the ground of His death, not on the ground of what it has removed, but on the ground of what has come in entirely new; that is, we are the fruit of His death, as it says, “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit” (John 12: 24) — so not one thought of what we are as children of Adam remains in our mind. It is a great pleasure to the Lord to see [p. 599] us enter into that, and that we should take on the character of the assembly, because the assembly lives of Him, it has His life.
Rem The passover comes first, so that we are free to be for Christ; our side has been settled and we are free to be for Him.
CAC You would say, the passover settles all the old? I think that is true.
Rem He takes away the first that He may establish the second (Hebrews 10: 9).