DELIVERANCE
[p. 16] DELIVERANCE
I desire to say a word in reference to one point which has been before us this morning. It is in connection with the subject of these chapters — namely, deliverance. The point I want to refer to for a moment is that it is of the very essence of Christianity that you must ‘change your man’. I have no doubt whatever that we are all hindered through failing to apprehend the first lesson impressed upon us in connection with the wilderness. It is of vital moment to apprehend that we must change our man, the simple reason for that being that God has changed the man before Him. Scripture presents to us two men; that is a truth so familiar that there is no question about it; and my point is that God is no longer testing the first man, but has revealed the second. He has changed the man. I think that comes out in Romans 6. People talk about this chapter and about death in connection with it, but they do not understand its bearing. I believe the object is to show how death is effected in us. We do not apprehend what it is to die except as we apprehend the Man that is before God; therefore we must change our man. There is no doubt about what God has done, and what He has done with regard to us. Our old man has been crucified with Christ. Then of necessity we change our man.
I want to point out, if I can, how it is brought about in us. But whether I can make it plain or not, I am perfectly certain of the importance of the subject. The Spirit of God does not as to us bring out the truth of life in Romans until chapter 8. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. I think that is where we come to life. There are certain things you have to learn before you can enter [p. 17] on that ground; in fact, you cannot apprehend it until you see that one man is superseded by another, and that that other Man who is before God has to fill the vision of the Christian.
I will try to draw the contrast for one instant between chapters 5 and 6. In chapter 5 Christ is viewed entirely, and the Spirit, too, on the divine side. We have expressed in Christ and in the Spirit the attitude in which God is toward the Christian. Everything comes to the Christian through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is presented as the last Adam, through whom all the grace of God is ministered to us, and it is remarkable that even the Spirit of God is brought in, in the same way as on God’s side: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”. It is the only allusion to the Spirit in that chapter. You run down the chapter at your leisure and find how everything comes to us from God, and all through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the last Adam come in. If I want to know what God is to the whole believing family I have to learn it in the One who is Head to the family. I have sometimes said, though it is not always accepted, that I would not admit that the child could be greater than his father — that is, as before God. It is not the way of God, for properly the child derives all from his father. What God is to the head He is to the family. With the head (Adam) of the human family came in sin and the judgment of death, and sin and death became true to the whole family. So also if I want to know what is true to the believer I have to learn what is established in the Head, the last Adam. We learn thus in chapter 5 what God is toward the believer through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In chapter 6 we are on different ground altogether. Christ is brought in as second Man, not as last Adam. The same divine Person, but in another aspect. In connection with this you have to change your man;
[p. 18] the second Man is to fill the vision of the Christian. I not only have to learn that I am superseded in God’s sight, but I am superseded in my own sight — a much more difficult thing. I am not very apt at illustrations, but I can give you one from Scripture. In John 4 the woman of Samaria was superseded in her own sight; she went to the men of the city and said, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” The proof to me that it was so is in her boldness in going to the men of the city. If her vision had not been filled by another I do not believe she would have thought for a moment of doing what she did.
There are two points on which I touch in connection with Romans 6. We have there Christ entered in as man in resurrection to the perfect, eternal satisfaction of God, and in divine acceptance. These two points I want to dwell on for a moment. Christ has entered in as man on the ground of the work He has accomplished for God’s glory as typified in the burnt-offering. He fills the eye of God. He is “raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”. One could not find a stronger expression. He has entered into perfect acceptance with God on that ground. “He lives to God”. People say, Did not He ever live to God? Of course He did, but it is not simply a question here of Himself in His personal perfectness. The point is that He lives to God in connection with having died to sin. How otherwise could we live to God? Because the point of the chapter is to pave the way for the family to come in. He “lives to God” on ground on which we can come in with Him.
I have sometimes thought that the chapter presents to us the idea of the tree of life, but there is one difficulty to my mind. There is the thought in Scripture in connection with the tree of life that it is, so to say, indigenous — it is proper to the scene in which it is. The tree of life was proper to Eden; when you [p. 19] get it again it is in another scene to which it is proper — the paradise of God. Christ is there the tree of life. But you get the principle, I think, in Romans 6. A Man has come in who has perfectly solved the question of good and evil, unvaryingly maintaining the good in the presence of evil. He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; He has been raised again from the dead, and to man is now the tree of life. You have the whole question of the two trees settled, and in this chapter you have the One who is the tree of life to the Christian, in the divine, eternal satisfaction in which man is as raised from the dead. That is God’s man. He lives unto God. That brings in the thought of acceptance. I ask you to carry your mind back to the moment when Christ rose from the dead. Do you not think He came out from the dead to the infinite satisfaction of the Father, and that He entered into the acceptance that was due to Him on the ground of the work He had accomplished for God’s glory? That is the ground for us. But I do not think anyone will accept it unless he is delighted with the Man who has entered in upon that ground. When it is accepted we reckon ourselves dead to sin. We part company with the first man because we are satisfied with the second Man. It is a hard lesson. I know it as well as anybody. It is a long time before we learn it. We are superseded in our own sight by another; and He is the One who has entered in to the eternal satisfaction of God.
Just a word further. In chapter 6 I think sin is regarded as the great dominating principle in the first man. I part company with that man because now the thought in my soul is to join the One who has died to sin and who lives to God. In chapter 7 is another point — we are joined to Him. It is a question of law and husband now, that is, of a bond that God has formed. We die to sin, and we die to the world; but we are “become dead to the law by the body of Christ”. The first bond is dissolved by the death of Christ, that a new bond may be formed that “ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. It conveys to me a great deal. The Christian is lawfully subject to Christ, and is to take character from the One to whom he is joined. That is the idea of a wife. She is to take character from the one to whom she is united. The one who has been raised by the glory of the Father lives to God. It is not only that I have found an object of delight and admiration in Him, but that I am joined to Him, and I am going by Him to bring forth fruit unto God. I am to be a living representation of Him here, because I take character from Him.
We have to die to sin and to the world in the experience of our souls, because we have lived in them; but in regard to the law the bond is dissolved in order that another bond might be formed.
All here this morning would be very tenacious of this point — that we are joined to Christ. Every Christian is joined to Christ. Can we all say we have taken character from Christ in order that we might bring forth fruit unto God? Or, as it puts it lower down (verse 6), “That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter”. Not under law, like Israel, but in newness of spirit, all according to the pattern of Christ. I believe Christ inaugurated a wholly new order of things for man here. He was a man on earth, truly here as man; but such a man as He could not have been unless He were a divine Person. And now He has entered in according to what He has accomplished for God — He lives to God. That is the man for God, and that is the man now for the Christian. To take your character from Him and bring forth fruit unto God is not preaching; it is not testimony (it is testimony in one sense), but it is love. As we read in Galatians 5: 22,
[p. 21] the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, and a variety of other blessed moral qualities.
I am perfectly aware there is now no vine on earth. Christ was the true vine; that is passed away; but I should be sorry to think there was no such thing as fruit to God. We are married to another that we should bring forth fruit to God.
That is all I want to say, taking up what was brought before us by our beloved brother. I am not talking of lack in other people, I feel it in myself. If we want to get a real start in our Christianity we must accept the truth that we have to change our man. Not only has the second Man accomplished all for God’s glory but the first man is set aside, and is superseded by Him who has entered as Man into the glory of God.