ACCEPTANCE AND DELIVERANCE
ACCEPTANCE AND DELIVERANCE
JBS Our subject this evening is our acceptance with God, how we are received, and our enjoyment of it. You find many who know their reception and yet do not enjoy it. Could the prodigal doubt his reception when his father covered him with kisses? It was so great that he did not make the proposition he had intended: “Make me as one of thy hired servants”. You are justified when you believe that God has raised Christ from the dead. In the eye of God the man under judgment has gone in judgment in the cross, and you are not in Adam but in Christ risen from the dead. But you are not in liberty until you are delivered from the body of this death. It is when, like the prodigal, you are oppressed with your unfitness for God that you cry out from the inner man, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7: 24), and then by the Spirit you know that you are in Christ, and there is no condemnation there. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8: 2).
John’s gospel begins with the brazen serpent, not with Exodus 12, because, though God’s grace is accepted, there is not generally in believers a freedom from the old man in the life of Christ. They see that the old man is removed from God’s eye in the cross, but they are not practically set free from the old man in themselves, unless they know they are in Another - in Christ Jesus.
“They began to be merry” is heavenly enjoyment; you are on divine ground. If the Shepherd had not gone out, the Father could not have come out, and the prodigal could not have gone in. The Father’s heart can now come out in all its mighty volume, as we see in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. We get the doctrine of it in Romans. The first impression the [p. 298] Holy Spirit makes on your soul is that God loves you. Romans 5 is acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given. The one impression made on the prodigal by the father’s reception of him was - I love you. No one is in the happiness of acceptance till he knows liberty. John’s writings set forth our resources. Israel had to learn that they were unmendably bad. They were redeemed out of Egypt, but they had not learned themselves, and they really never accepted the wilderness until after Numbers 21. The Holy Spirit, who tells me that God loves me, is the same who tells me that I have life in Christ; Romans 8: 2. I remember before I knew deliverance I have said, when I looked up to God, I was unspeakably happy; but when I looked at myself I was like the prodigal, conscious of my unfitness; I was not enjoying the great supper. When I had learned “that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7: 18), then I cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” I wanted to be freed from my old self. This the brazen serpent typically sets forth; your eye rests on Christ made sin and you are free. You might, like Israel, take thirty-nine years in learning the wretchedness of yourself.
Ques There are four types in the Old Testament - the blood, the Red Sea, the brazen serpent, and Jordan. What are the four points?
JBS The blood is shelter from judgment. The gospel in christendom does not go beyond the blood on the lintel, and though the believer is thereby sheltered from judgment, yet he is harassed by Pharaoh and the Egyptian (Satan and the flesh).
In the Red Sea you appropriate the death of Christ for you; you see the water on either side of you, but God has made a way through it for you by the death of Christ, of which the water is the type. When you come to Christ risen you have peace with God, you enjoy your escape, but you are not in liberty yet - not [p. 299] consciously severed from the old man, knowing that you are in Christ. This you get in type in the brazen serpent. In Jordan you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world.
Would you be glad to be severed from the old man - to be morally apart from that man in another Man - Christ risen? You will not seek this until you are sick of your self. Then the Spirit will invest you with “the best robe”, set you in Christ, and in His life you are free. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. It is very blessed that we can be free of the old man - the body of sin.
Ques Do we get all in the story of the prodigal?
JBS We get the line of it. The prodigal is in liberty when they began to be merry. Peter calls it “joy unspeakable”.
Rem I wish for it.
JBS Then you will surely get it. He satisfieth “the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145: 16).
Rem In Luke 15 we see the work for us and in us.
JBS The Shepherd brought the lost sheep to the house. The woman with the lighted candle represents the evangelist’s work. The prodigal came to himself when the light had entered him; then he arose, and his father ran to meet him, and covered him with kisses. Finally, the best robe is put on him, and they begin to be merry. The heart of God can now fully express itself to a thief or to a Saul of Tarsus.
Ques Do you say that peace is not enjoyed till we know that the old man is crucified?
JBS You could not enjoy God’s presence, that is, the great supper, nor can you make merry until you are in liberty. You require not only to be clear of the old man in the eye of God but for yourself. You are not free from the old man until you know you are in Christ. At the end of Romans 8 you are established in the love of God which was made known [p. 300] to you in chapter 5. You cannot enjoy the great supper until you are out of Romans 7. You must know in your soul “that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing”.
There are two parts in the natural man, one his mind, the other his body. The snare of the Corinthians was with the mind, and the apostle shows that the way to be diverted from their own wisdom would be by beholding Christ in glory, while the Galatians would renounce the religion of the flesh which they were seeking to build up, by giving Christ - the greater than Isaac - His true place in their hearts. Then Ishmael would not be tolerated.
Ques How can I always be living in the Spirit?
JBS I give you an illustration. A sailor said he did not mind any weather so long as he could see the sun. You must keep your eye on Christ. You will find that when you visit anyone with the Lord before you you get on well.
I asked a young man occupied with holiness by faith, Do you believe that the old man has gone in the eye of God in the cross? He said, Yes. Then I added, If you were walking in the Spirit of God, would you not see that man gone from your own eye. too? He was obliged to say, Yes, or he would have made the Spirit of God not to be one mind with God. Many a soul is not properly started by the gospel that is preached. It is of all importance that a soul should be directed to the One whom he has offended. Supposing I go to a house where I am intimate, and see a child in the corner in disgrace. I do not ask the child how he feels; I speak to the parent to see whether I can bring good tidings to the child. The father tells me that he has broken the clock, but that as he cannot mend it he will mend it himself. I have now good tidings for the child; not only does the father effect reconciliation, but it must be to his own satisfaction, because he has done it himself.
[p. 301] Ques Do you distinguish between what the soul accepts in faith, and what the Spirit makes good in you?
JBS Yes; for instance, to say you get holiness by faith is not true. By faith you are assured that God sees you in Christ, but you do not know that you are in Christ but by the Spirit. The objective side of truth which has been brought out so fully has done harm to souls when the Spirit’s work in you, which is the subjective side, has been overlooked. The late trouble was connected with the objective side; they would not have the subjective. All is yours before you enjoy it, but you only enjoy it when you possess it. The legacy is yours, but to enjoy it you must get possession of it. The man who is only on the objective side loses sight of the Spirit; the man who is only on the subjective side loses sight of Christ, and that all is in Him for you. It is for you before it is in you. You do not get to heaven by attainment but by union with Christ.
Ques Can you get higher than joying in God?
JBS It is joy because of reconciliation in Romans 5. Reconciliation is that everything has been removed. The newly-born soul’s joy is that he is out of the ruin; the prodigal’s joy is in the father’s house. The “great supper” is the celebration of grace, which no one enjoys until he knows deliverance or liberty.
Ques What is the path to liberty?
JBS The only way to liberty is to leave Adam for Christ — to change your man; then it is “not I, but Christ liveth in me”. There are two sides; one, that you are cleared in the eye of God in the cross; the other that you know you are in Christ. Then you are free: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. The flesh is set aside as you walk in the Spirit. You must accept the fact that you have died with Christ. To this you are committed in baptism. The mark of a man walking in the Spirit is that his body is a living sacrifice.