FOR CHRIST
[p. 189] FOR CHRIST
Titus 2:9; 2 Corinthians 11:1-3; Philippians 3:7-15; Ephesians 5:25-27
We were recently looking at several scriptures which speak of the saints as being of Christ. We were saying that we were “of Christ” in the sense that we derive every blessing from Him — the moment we think of blessing, Christ comes before us at once — and then we are “of Christ” in the sense that we derive character from Him.
Now I want to say a few words, with the Lord’s gracious help, as to what we are, for Christ. We are of Christ in order that we may be for Christ. There are four different ways in which we are for Christ presented in the scriptures read. In the first we see the teaching of grace and its effect. In the second it is a question of being for Christ in our affections. In the third it is a question of the energy of the Spirit; and then in the fourth the thought is that we are for Christ as the result of the service of His love. These are the points that I wish to present.
What we find in Titus 2: 14 is that the Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. What marks the present course of things is “lawlessness”; there is no fear of God, no subjection to God. “Lawlessness” is the great feature of this world; it is behind all the wickedness and lust; people are not subject to God. Now Christ has given Himself for us in order to take us out of all this, and this is an immense deliverance for our souls. I put it to my own heart — Am I delivered from all lawlessness? A departed servant of Christ has said that there are only two exercises of life to God, obedience and praise. Obedience is the contrast to lawlessness. Lawlessness means that I do what I like, I say what I like, and I go where I like. I may ask God to bless me in it, but that does not save me from lawlessness. The Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, that we might be a people really for Christ in our practical ways; that is why He died. Christ wants a people redeemed from all lawlessness; it was for that He gave Himself.
I am sure no one here needs to be told that the grace of God has appeared in the Son of God. Now why has God taken [p. 190] this way of grace? In order to secure His rights, to get that which is due to Himself in the hearts of men. He has gone about it in the way of grace. I might turn, as an illustration, to the opening of the gospel of Mark, as presenting the way in which the grace of God has appeared. The grace of God has appeared in this world in the Son of God. The Son of God came to set men happy and free in all their relations with God. First of all, the word of God was being spoken, and the poor man could not hear it; the Lord had to drive out the unclean spirit in order that he might hear the word of God. He could do that, He could overthrow the power of Satan in grace to man. Then there was the sick woman; she was in utter weakness. He removed the weakness so that she might minister to Him. God wants the service of men. We are set free to serve God. Then the leper was cleansed, and lastly the man was forgiven his sins. Whatever interferes with man’s happy and free relations to God is removed by the Son of God. A divine Person has appeared in this world, and the grace of God has appeared in that Person. It appeared in the Son of God, and there was not a thing wrong with regard to man’s relation to God that He could not put right in grace. Does that Person attract your heart? The business of evangelists is to preach Christ so that people may be attracted to Him. The grace of God is presented in the Son of God, and the effect is that souls are attracted, and being attracted to Him they come under the teaching of grace and find their delight in doing the will of God, as we see in Mark 3:33-35. That is the effect of the teaching of grace. Those spoken of here had been attracted to Christ, and had come under the teaching of grace; they were a sample of the “peculiar people, zealous of good works” to secure whom Christ had come into the world, and was about to give Himself. God has saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. We are now attracted to Christ as One who has died, and, if we have seen the grace of God in Christ, we do not want to go on with lawlessness any longer. We want to be in the same relation to things in this world as Christ is. Our question is — What doth hinder me from being true to my baptism? If I am attracted to Christ I am attracted to One who has died to this world and has been raised by the glory of the Father, and I do not want a place in this lawless world. God says in Psalm 149: 4 that He will beautify the [p. 191] meek with salvation. We come out in this world in the moral beauty of a people that have been redeemed from all lawlessness. Salvation is the beauty of the saints. The reason why we know so little of priestly privilege is because we are not much in the moral beauty of being clothed with salvation.
“By the grace of God I am what I am” — that is the language of a sober man. How many of us can really say that? I dare say a great many of us feel it is not true of us. The man that does not want to be anything at all but what the grace of God makes him is a sober man. By the grace of God I. am what I am. The Christian comes out in a character which the grace of God gives him. He lives soberly, justly, and piously in this present world. The one who is taught by the grace of God discharges every obligation; he has power to do so by the Spirit. And then there is godliness (piety) and it seems to me that piety is fast dying out. I think the majority of Christians who lived fifty or sixty years ago were much more characterised by piety than the mass of Christians today. What is piety? It is bringing God into everything. I do not fancy that the majority of Christians give God a very great place in connection with their everyday lives. People think they can go on very well without bringing God in. But the grace of God teaches otherwise. It is as we live soberly, justly and piously in this present course of things that we are a people for Christ. Christ came into this world and gave Himself so that He might have a people here for the will of God. It was a pleasure for Christ to look on that company sitting round Him and own them as His mother and His brethren, and He looks down here for that peculiar people still. We are to be for Christ in our practical behaviour and ways — for His pleasure in everything.
Now in 2 Corinthians 11 the apostle speaks as having espoused the saints to one Husband, and his great fear was that they might be corrupted. This suggests to my mind the thought of being for Christ really in our affections. As a matter of fact the saints have been corrupted, and the result is that Christianity has become a great religion on earth. Christianity never could have become a great religion on earth unless the saints had been corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.
We have to go back, each one of us, through exercise of heart and conscience, to the first love of the assembly. It [p. 192] could hardly be said of us that we have lost our first love, because we never properly had it. I question whether many of us have known much about first love. The apostle’s great desire in preaching the gospel was to secure something for Christ. There may be a thousand people that will go to be with Christ when they die, but what is there for Christ now? There should be something for Christ now, and we should be here for Christ now. The apostle knew for himself the love of Christ; he says: “the love of Christ constraineth us”. The Spirit of God wants a response to the love of Christ. How does this espousal to Christ take place? We see an illustration of it in Jeremiah 2: 2: “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”. God could look back on that moment, I suppose seven hundred years before, when the people went out of Egypt and stood on the wilderness side of the Red Sea, and had nothing before their hearts but Himself, and they sang there, “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation”, Exodus 15: 2. There was no lusting after Egypt, no hesitation about going on to the land. They were in full response to God; it was the moment of their first love, it was a moment when He was supreme in their hearts. It delights Christ to look down here and see a heart that only beats for Him.
Now I pass on to Philippians 3: this chapter is intensely interesting. We see a man who has discarded everything that is of the flesh and is going on in the energy of the Spirit. This is the pathway for us. We see the downward pathway of Christ in chapter 2, but in this chapter our pathway is upward. There is an Object presented, there is a goal in view, and that is CHRIST. He is the prize. We are going to be with Him and like Him. Are we pressing on to this in the energy of the Spirit as Paul did?
One values the knowledge of Scripture, and it is very well to be walking as a Christian ought to walk, but there is something that goes very much more to make the saint a joy to the heart of Christ, and that is a heart really set upon Christ. I think people often make a great mistake as to the power of the Spirit. I believe the action of the Spirit of God is, to a large extent, hidden from human eyes. The energy of the Spirit would put us in company with Paul in Philippians 3. It is open to us to be filled with the Spirit, and the effect [p. 193] of it would be that our souls would get into the race which the apostle was running with his back upon the world, and his eyes upon CHRIST, the One who was in resurrection, and at the right hand of God. Where is the desire to be “thus minded”? That is what Christ is looking for.
Now I close with a few words on Ephesians 5:25-27, where we find the thought of the service of Christ’s love. The whole thing is taken up here as the work of Christ. He loved the assembly and gave Himself for it. It is all viewed here as the service of Christ’s love. We go outside our responsibility here, and think only of what Christ is doing. In the first place He has loved the assembly and given Himself for it. Christ has a title to the assembly, and on that ground He serves her in love to fit her for presentation to Himself. Do you think Christ can look with complacency on a spot or wrinkle or any such thing? No, He is set on removing everything that is contrary to the thoughts of His love. I believe the Lord calls attention in our hearts to that which is not pleasing to Himself in our conduct and ways. Every Christian knows what it means. You know that the Lord has called attention to something in your ways that does not please Him, and when the Lord pointed it out you either took the side of Christ’s love with regard to it and judged it and set it aside, or you have shut out Christ’s love for the sake of that wretched thing. It is a very solemn thing not to respond to Christ. He is continually pointing out things in us that do not please Him. How much there is about us that is not for Christ! Do we want to give it a place? Christ is getting us ready morally for presentation to Himself. He wants us to be without spot or wrinkle, and nothing will satisfy Him until He has done it. May we be for Christ in our practical ways, in our affections, in the energy of the Spirit, and as being sanctified and cleansed by the service of His love, so as to be morally suited for presentation to Himself! May the Lord give these things a place increasingly in all our hearts!