UNION
[p. 113] UNION
I think it is a little remarkable to notice how the thought of union appears through Scripture. You will find it pervading Scripture from the beginning. In the first great relationship formed was the thought of union; God made a woman and brought her to the man, and union was brought about. That thought came out very early in Scripture. Then the same thing came out in regard to Israel. God was a husband to them, but they were like an unfaithful wife. Then when we come down to our own time and the church, we get again the thought of union. It fills a large place in connection with christianity. In this chapter there is the thought of union — to be married to another.
In the beginning God did not think it well that man should dwell alone. After the fall a husband becomes a necessity. It is from a husband we get support. Christ is that to us that we may bring forth fruit to God. Israel, too, will be brought back to their Husband, to Jehovah, that they may bring forth fruit to God.
This thought of union pervades Scripture, Christ as the Bridegroom. The Lord speaks of Himself in that character. “The bridegroom cometh”. It is a very wide expression in regard to Christ. It is the One who comes to enter into relationship with what is for God down here, and all will obtain the moral support of the Bridegroom.
Now I want to come to the point of this chapter. It is of all moment that we should bring forth fruit to God. God looks for fruit. The Lord cursed the fig-tree, but there was fruit to be found for God. Now the mystery is solved and we know the secret through which fruit is brought forth. No one would contest for a moment that it is suitable that there should be fruit for [p. 114] God. It is wonderful that God should care for fruit. God is good — all will admit that — and God delights in that which is good. He has no pleasure in evil, but He has delight in that which is good, and fruit is good. God is pleased to present to us what I may call a great central figure. That is of all moment to apprehend. All Scripture is detail. The more you read the more you see it. For all has to be put in its place, fitted in with the central figure, and you must get the figure before you to understand the detail. If you have not got the central figure into which the detail fits you will never understand Scripture. The object of preaching is to present to us the attraction of Christ. Christ is the great central figure, and we become attached to Christ by the Spirit of Christ. What the preacher presents is the attractiveness of Christ. “I ... will draw all to me”. That is the way I should judge the effectiveness of a preacher. The measure of a preacher is his ability to present the attractiveness of Christ. Their great object is to enlarge us in the apprehension of the attractiveness of Christ. What is preached is in the name of Christ, and His name is presented as a name of attraction. The apostles knew full well how to present Christ, and they presented all the attraction in Christ in a powerful way. If we assume to preach, our point should be to present the attractiveness of Christ.
Now there is another thing God has in view, and that is that He has the purpose to deliver us, to detach us from all those things by which men are bound. If there is attachment on the one hand, God is working equally on the other hand to bring about detachment. Souls are drawn to Christ but there is another object in view, they are to be delivered from this present evil world. Christ died for our sins; He was the blessed expression of grace and truth, but with the end in view that He might deliver us from this present world according to the will of God and our Father. I could not impress upon you too strongly what this world is in the eye of God.
[p. 115] Scripture speaks of the friends of the world as adulterers and adulteresses; stronger language could not be employed to describe those who go on in commerce with the world. They are unfaithful, they enter into commerce with that which is hateful to God. Deliverance from sin means that we are dead to the world. There is deliverance from law in chapter 7 and in chapter 8 we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. All these things go together, and the Spirit lies at the bottom of all. The Spirit is life. A man cannot deliver himself from sin, it is only by the Spirit of God that a man can take that place. And so, too, in regard to the law; we are free from law, for God has dissolved that bond in order that we might be married to another and bring forth fruit to God.
Now the real secret of all deliverance lies in the Spirit of God, or attachment to Christ. It is only in that way that any of us is kept in this world. We are kept on the principle of attachment to Christ. The one who is true to Christ is not prepared to go on in sin. He will not be lawless, but duly subject to Christ, walking here under the rule of Christ. That is where we want to be found down here. People try all kinds of experiments to escape the world, but they do not succeed. But the divine way is for people to be kept in their souls, and the principle is attachment to Christ. A faithful wife’s constant thought is fidelity to her husband.
Now the effect of all that is fruit for God. In deliverance and salvation you will have fruit. The same principle guarantees deliverance from what is not according to God. The same power which enables me to bring forth fruit is the same power that maintains me in deliverance from this world. The point is fruit-bearing. There was no fruit-bearing till Christ came. God’s design is that whatever fruit there is should be by Christ. Then we can understand the character of fruit acceptable to God. God looked for fruit, but He did not find it. All God’s ways looked forward to Christ.
[p. 116] Now that One has come and He is the true Head and the beginning and centre of the universe of God, and that world of glory and blessing in which God will be glorified. Christ is the Head of every part of it. Therefore in that system God will be glorified and there will be fruit for Him. Nothing can be more important than the apprehension of Christ in that light. When Adam was here he was not the real man for God, but now the real Head is before God, and everything is attached to that Head. We could not say that Christ was fruit for God. It would not be reverent to speak thus. But God looks for fruit from man and Christ is the source of all fruit, and in Christ we learn the character of fruit acceptable to God. We must not bring Christ down to our level. He is the source of fruit. He was the true vine, not the branches. The fruit came out on the branches, but they were dependent on the vine. So now in Christ you learn what fruit is. Fruit is the expression of Christ in us. What can be acceptable to God except what is of Christ? We get it as the effect of union with that One, thus He is expressed in us. It is the result of attachment to Christ. God has been pleased to bring me into attachment to Christ by the Spirit of Christ, and in proportion as Christ is appreciated I bring forth fruit to God. So it is not difficult to discern the character of fruit. Christ now is expressed in us by the Spirit of Christ, and the fruit of righteousness is by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. It is not only that there is fruit-bearing, but we know by Christ what the true character of fruit is. Christ brought all that was divine into manhood. Love and joy were not expressed in a man until Christ came. He was everything that was acceptable to God, the delight of heaven, and we are brought into attachment to Christ that He might be expressed in us down here: and that is fruit for God. The earth is the scene of fruit for God. Christ was the true vine, and now we are married to Him who was [p. 117] raised from the dead to bring forth fruit for God.
Now anyone will see how that is connected with the thought of deliverance. There is no fruit for God in the world either at its best or its worst. God has tested that system and it is obnoxious to Him. It is a system governed by principles intensely hateful to God: lust and pride and the mammon of unrighteousness. Riches are worshipped, for they minister to pride, and pride and lust are entirely opposed to God. So the friend of the world is constituted the enemy of God.
Now God has set Himself to allure us from all that system, and it is by the power of the attraction of Christ. We know the One now who is the beginning and centre of another system, and He has tasted death in order that the system should be set forth. The Spirit of Christ attaches the soul to Christ, and it is a great thing when that is brought about. When you get appreciation of Christ you get fruit for God.
This chapter takes up the detail of the things that hold us. We shall never get deliverance doctrinally. Deliverance is only to be found in the appreciation of Christ. Salvation is in Christ Jesus. You grow up to salvation because salvation is in Christ, and if a man is conscious of attachment to Christ he knows that what God has brought about is to deliver him from all that held him in bondage. Then he brings forth fruit to God, While bringing forth fruit he has part in the expression of Christ down here. The great witness to Christ down here is the Spirit of Christ. It is Christ characteristically in the saints. Nothing short of that can be a true witness to Christ. Now what we want is that every saint might be brought into the reality of the witness, that he might have part in the expression of Christ down here on earth.
These chapters are of the greatest moment to us. They indicate the divine starting-point. He is the true Husband, and the object of it all is that we might be consciously connected with the One who is Head.
[p. 118] I can only bring forth fruit in proportion as I have appreciation of Christ. Christ has given me living water to bring that about. The Spirit of Christ is given to lead us into the appreciation of Christ in that light. Fruit is not connected with heaven but with earth. Our relation to Christ is very different to what Israel’s will be. We are united to Him, brought very close to Him that we might have a great knowledge and apprehension of Christ and become vessels in which Christ is expressed. You get liberty from the world. There is no contentment in the world, but it is found in Christ, and when you have found it in the appreciation of Christ He will be expressed in you and there will be fruit for God. God does not intend us to be self-sustained, but dependent on Another — on Christ — to bring forth fruit.