THE POWER OF AFFECTION
[p. 243] THE POWER OF AFFECTION
I would like to add a word on what I deem to be an important point in connection with what we have heard, that is, as to the place which affection has in leading us into the realisation of that sphere of life in which, in the grace of God, we are privileged to be with Christ.
I will just read a verse in Romans 6: “In that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. I think that we should all agree with the remark which was made a few moments since, that the gospel presents to us a Person. He is presented to us in the value of the work which He has accomplished, but it could not be questioned that the gospel presents to us a Person; and it is with a Person that the thought of affection connects itself. When you come to affection it must be so. I can understand anyone having the love of all that is good, but for the true thought of affection with us you must introduce an object; and as we have often been told, a worthy object. And this is where I see the importance of the truth of the gospel centring in a Person.
To a certain extent, I think, in our minds we confuse faith and the working of the Spirit. I am satisfied that they are very much confounded. This may not be understood by all, but I see it very plainly. What I understand by faith is the admission of divine light into the heart. The heart is enlightened by light from God. What I never could have known if God had not been pleased to reveal it, is now light to my heart. The revelation of God — that is, God come out in the revelation of Himself — is the light of the believer’s heart. I do not think you really realise it till the Holy Spirit is received. Then the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. The heart of [p. 244] man was never of itself acquainted with the love of God. I do not say there may not have been an apprehension of grace.
What I desire to say a word about is the way the Spirit works in the believer through affection. I think that is the manner of the Spirit’s work. Evidently our being made acquainted with the love of God must produce a most extraordinary moral change in us. It is impossible for anyone to love God until he knows that God loves him. Scripture is clear on that: “We love him, because he first loved us”. When the love of God is brought home to a man’s heart it must produce a mighty effect in him. Then he loves God; and a great deal more hangs upon this. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”. They are made known to the one who loves God. If we answer to God’s love to us, it is His pleasure to make known to us those things which He has prepared for them that love Him. But the real spring is His love.
My point is that we are led by affection into that sphere of life which is true in Christ; as to the realisation of it, I mean. No one disputes the title to it. The title is entirely in the purpose of God: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should ... have everlasting life”. The title lies in the purpose of God, which is the fruit of His love. The purpose cannot be gain-said; but the purpose, and the realisation of it in the soul of the believer, are two different things, and the realisation is the important point to us down here, and is wrought by the Spirit through the affections. I begin by reminding you that all blessing comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The administration of divine grace is committed into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men. The ground of [p. 245] salvation is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ: “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. The simple explanation is — that the administration of divine grace is committed to Christ as Lord. God’s salvation is set forth in Him. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Now another truth is developed in the latter part of Romans 5, which connects itself with the thought of the Person — namely, that not only does Christ administer all, but that by His own personal perfectness He has secured everything He administers. It is His ‘one obedience’ and ‘one righteousness’, on which it all rests, and by virtue of which He has secured everything. I believe it to be the opening up of an immense field to us. As we trace sin and death to one man, to one act of disobedience, one man’s offence, so we trace everything connected with grace up to one Man, as its first cause, to one righteousness, one obedience, the perfectness of one Man. All this culminates in the cross of Christ, where for us all blessing begins. Our blessings are very great. By Him we have peace with God. By Him we have access into divine favour; rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, the Holy Spirit given to us, the love of God shed abroad in the heart, reconciliation received; we know the terms on which we are with God. Now the Spirit of God begins to teach me that I have to trace everything up to the perfectness and obedience of one Man who has secured these things, that He might administer all on the part of God. I believe that is where the Spirit of God begins to form the first link of affection between the heart of the believer and Christ. As we see these things we begin to appreciate His own personal excellency. And now we derive from Him; you cannot deny your descent from Adam or what you get from Adam and the fall. It is equally true that you cannot deny that what you have from [p. 246] Christ is the fruit of His work, His obedience, His righteousness. He came into the place of man’s disobedience and unrighteousness and perfectly fulfilled obedience and righteousness, all that was necessary for the glory of God, even to the putting away of sin. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”.
I come now to another point which I think stands next in order of apprehension. In resurrection Christ has established a new platform for man before God. The first thought I want you to bear in mind is that of His own absolute perfectness as displayed in man, by which I believe He engages our hearts; then that in resurrection He has established a new platform for man before God, which He is the first to occupy. “In that he died, he died unto sin once: in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”. It is most important to see in Scripture that Christ has taken up a place for man before God in resurrection. God has come out in grace in the Person of the Son to reveal Himself. That is one side of the truth. And Christ has revealed God, and secured everything to us by His own perfectness. But there is the other side and that is that He Himself as Man liveth unto God.
Now I will tell you what the Spirit of God will do. He will work in us by the power of affection to draw us to Christ in that place. It is not here so much a question of faith as of affection, which leads us to the One who has secured everything to us on the part of God, in the place in which He now is. We are drawn to Him where He is now to know His company there. The believer is set upon being in His company. “He liveth unto God”. We want to be with Him, and to be with Him we must be outside of all that is here. It is a question not exactly of faith but of affection, you will not reach Him there but by affection. The Spirit of God draws me to Him by affection, and to be with [p. 247] Him where He is I must be outside of all here which is contrary to Him. He died to sin once. There is nothing in this world that is not dominated by sin, and to be with Him in spirit I must be free of its power. When you get the apprehension of what Christ has accomplished that you might be brought into blessing, and secured in it, you want to be with Him where He is. That is what affection craves, and what affection will have, and what affection does have.
I see it in principle in the demoniac; Mark 5: 18. He desired that he might be with Him. What was not then given to him is given to us by the Spirit of God, that we should join Christ, in the sphere of life into which He has entered, in resurrection. It is on the other side, outside of everything here. We have to remember that He has died to sin, and it is as we have died to sin that we live to God in Christ Jesus. “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him”. You must have that side as well as the other. But it is the Spirit of God working in the heart of the believer by affection to draw him to that ground where Christ is as alive from the dead. And He delights thus to lead the believer to be in spirit with Christ.
I do not go further into it; but it is important to remember that there is the same Spirit of life in every believer, and it is of life, not in us, but in Christ Jesus. That brings in a very important truth, that we are one in Him, one body in Christ. It is there you get the true idea of spiritual unity, “We being many are one body”.
He has entered into that sphere of life as risen from the dead. As “the corn of wheat” He abode alone, but now there is much fruit; but to enter into association with Christ we must reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I begin to get a glimpse of it, and to understand a little how the Spirit of God works through the affections. We have, as I said before, confused two things,
[p. 248] faith, and the work of the Spirit. The knowledge of your title is by faith. If you have not title you cannot travel on that line at all. The title is founded in the work of Christ; but the way in which you apprehend what you have title to is in the Spirit of God working through the affections. You see Christ as the One who has secured all by His own perfectness. He Himself is the Forerunner, and the next thing is, affection desires to be with the One who is endeared to you by the Spirit. Affection secures everything for the believer. I think that is the way we get it, if I do not mistake.