THE CHRISTIAN'S ORIGIN AND RESOURCES
THE CHRISTIAN’S ORIGIN AND RESOURCES
There are two things I wish to bring under notice in this passage — the first is, “of him are ye in Christ Jesus”, and the second, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”. We see from the earlier part of the chapter that God’s calling puts no sanction on the great things of this world — the things in which man has his glory — these will never be sanctioned by God. Glory all belongs to God, and He will conform man to His glory.
When the Son of God was born into the world He was laid in a manger because there was no room for Him in the inn. The Son of God had no place in the system of this world. The slave will find in Scripture guidance, and so too, the wife, husband, and child, but the man of the world will find none. He will find the world exposed. The great things of this world all fell before the testimony of God. Philosophy, judaism, idolatry, etc., these were brought to naught, because the testimony of God brought in the light of God. Idolatry never satisfied the conscience of man; what he needed was the light of God, and then in his eyes the systems of the world fell, and they would never have reared their heads again if the testimony had not been corrupted. Paul detected the danger of this corruption in his day, and uttered his warnings against it. Satan was announced as transforming himself into an angel of light. Thus, the powers of evil that had been set aside, found a new home. It is not difficult to find judaism, idolatry, and philosophy in professing christianity, and to see how the testimony of God has thus been corrupted.
But to return to our passage. We have this simple statement, “of him are ye in Christ Jesus”, which [p. 471] indicates the origin of christians and the stock from which they are derived. The Spirit of God is in christians as living water from Christ, and it can be said of them, “they are of God”. Their moral being is derived direct from God. That is the difference between natural birth and spiritual birth. Life in a natural sense is the effect of the operation of certain laws by God’s appointment. The spiritual being is derived direct from God. One born again is born of the Spirit of God. Every christian derives his moral being direct from God. In having the living water you have that which Christ alone can give. You are born again, as in John 3, and as in John 4 you have the gift of God, that is the living water. It is as having received the living water from Christ that we never thirst again — we are in Him — now we can say we are of God in Christ Jesus. That is the state of the christian. You are not in Adam, but in Christ, who is made unto us wisdom from God, the object being that we should glory in God. Wisdom and righteousness are intimately connected in Scripture. In Proverbs 8 wisdom is personified. Wisdom says, “I (wisdom) lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment”. Righteousness and the paths of judgment lead to enduring substance for man. Many men acquire substance in the form of riches, in this world, but that is all perishable, and one will have to leave it. You cannot get durable riches in this world — everything degenerates.
I desire now to give you an idea as to wisdom. One great point is that wisdom finds a way. It is so even in this world. A man of wisdom is a man of resource. Difficulties and perplexities come along, but that man is not entirely shut up. He finds a way. So Christ is the wisdom of God; He makes a way; He leads in the way, and the man who apprehends Christ apprehends that there is a way, and that is the way of righteousness. Man as such is become like a dead fish in the stream. He goes along with the current of the world. The worldly man has no way. Chapter 7 of Luke supplies an illustration of wisdom. Jesus says, “Wisdom is justified of all her children”. Christ was Himself wisdom. In the passage in question you see a child of wisdom, and she finds a way. Simon did not see that Christ was wisdom, and hence his mind was involved in perplexity. He began by thinking that Christ was possibly a prophet, and invited Him into his house, but the way the Lord acted and spoke puzzled him. He did not apprehend that Christ was wisdom. Nothing blinds a man so much as self-confidence. A man trusts his own judgment and does not seek for wisdom from above.
The woman of the city, though foolish enough in this world, found a way. She was led in the way of righteousness, and where do you think that way led to? It led to Christ. Her sense of Christ was that He brought God near. She evidently had that idea in connection with the Lord. The murderers said, “Who can forgive sins, but God only?” but God was there. He was the creditor. The Pharisee did not comprehend the Lord’s parable, and therefore was left in the dark. The sinner found a way. Christ was her wisdom, and gave her a path. He was her righteousness, and she was attached to Him. Christ is wisdom to us. Had it not been for Christ we should have been left in utter darkness. Men may attempt to give you light in the way of scientific investigation, but they cannot lead you to the final conclusion of investigation, nor will the investigation bring to you the light of God. If men give up the revelation from God, what are they going to put in its place? They do not pretend to have come to the end of all knowledge nor that they have arrived at the secret and spring of everything. I admit men’s ability and diligence, but they have no way. Christ is made unto us wisdom from God. If I am attracted to Christ, He is my righteousness in the presence of God. I have a way that leads to God. He is the sun of the moral universe. If there is a physical universe there is a moral universe, and of that He is the sun that will rise with healing in His [p. 473] wings.
Christ is not only wisdom and righteousness, but He is sanctification. The passage does not set forth what Christ does, but what He is. He is wisdom and righteousness, and He is, too, sanctification. If we comprehend Christ in the relation in which it has pleased God to set Him to us, He is sanctification to us. The secret of holiness lies in the knowledge of God; the secret of sanctification is in the knowledge of Christ and of the relation in which it has pleased God to set Him to us down here. He is the Minister of the sanctuary — the first-born among many brethren. We get Christ thus as the principle of sanctification. Ruth illustrates this very well. Naomi had two daughters-in-law. The one, Orpah, kissed her mother-in-law and left her; the other, Ruth, clave unto her. I see sanctification in the one, but not in the other. Orpah returned to her own idolatrous people. Ruth’s thought was that Naomi’s people should be her people, and Naomi’s God her God. That meant to Ruth that she was separated from the abominations of her own people. She was sanctified. And if we are determined in the same way to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart, we shall find ourselves in contact with the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am more and more convinced that attachment to Christ is the true secret of sanctification. The Lord Himself says, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”. He sets Himself apart from all that belongs to Him for the moment, that we might be sanctified. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. It is the like of you and me that He calls brethren. Are we attached to Him as He is to us? Are we close to His trusted side? There is nothing delights me more in Scripture than to see in John 20 the pleasure of Christ, and His readiness to be found in company with His disciples. His attachment [p. 474] to them in resurrection remained all that it had been before. He says, “Go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father”. The value of coming into the assembly is that we see the Lord. He makes us conscious that He is in the midst.
There is one and only one principle of sanctification, and that is attachment to the Sanctifier, and you will be practically set apart then from all that is in the world. We shall be apart from the vessels to dishonour.
The last point is that He is redemption to us. He is not simply our redeemer. Compare John 11, Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live”. His coming out as the resurrection and the life will have its full effect. Exactly the same thing is true in redemption. When He comes there will be the redemption of those that believe in Him. Redemption lies in His Person. All power and energy of life are in Him. If we die we shall rise again. Redemption with regard to us means complete conformity to Himself. He has acquired the right to our bodies, and that right will be made good when He comes.
It is very important that Christ should completely fill our vision. You must not only take into account all that Christ has done, and does, but what He is, and is made unto us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.