THE NEW MAN
[p. 111] THE NEW MAN
What I want, beloved brethren, is to speak a word of a practical character (though I know I am not a good hand at that). I desire to bring before our souls for a moment, by the Lord’s help, the testimony of the saints here. I do not mean our individual testimony, but what I might call our corporate testimony. What I mean by this is, the front which saints ought to present down here; or to put it in words which will be better understood, the way in which the saints are looked at corporately, as a vessel for the display of Christ here, the expression of the heavenly Man. It is what comes to us here as the new man. And I think we have the realisation of the Lord’s prayer in John 17: 21: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”.
Before I speak of this I would say a word about the contrast in these different epistles, Romans, Colossians and Ephesians, because I think we have been, perhaps, a little too much inclined to regard them simply as stepping-stones from one to another: for example, Romans to Colossians, and Colossians to Ephesians. I do not doubt for a moment there is a measure of truth in that. I have no doubt we apprehend truth in that way. I question if a person who did not know Romans would understand much of Colossians; or if one who did not know something of Colossians would understand much of Ephesians. But it is important to remember that each epistle presents christians in a different aspect. If we apprehend what has come out in one, it does not shut out what has come out in another.
[p. 112] This afternoon we had the christian presented in two aspects very distinctly: as “in Christ”, and in his actual condition down here. If we look at the christian in Romans, we see him in his individuality. You do not get the “one new man” in Romans. The body is only brought in incidentally. The christian is a justified man in the place where he was a guilty man; he is in the Spirit, not in the flesh, or a debtor to it; it is a christian in his individual pathway through the wilderness. We do not get into the land in Romans. When I pass on to Colossians I come to another aspect. It is more corporate. In the passage read, I find the truth of one body. “To the which also ye have been called in one body” (verse 15). I have no doubt the reason is because this part of the epistle shows to us the testimony which is to be presented in saints down here corporately. That no one christian is adequate for the expression of Christ I should think every one would allow. The Lord when He comes is “to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe”. In all His saints. In that day the saints will be the vessel for the display of the glory and beauty of the heavenly Man.
The great point in Colossians is Christ in us; not we in Christ, but Christ in us; because it is more a question of character. “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Then speaking about the new man, he says, “Christ is all, and in all”. Anyone, I think, would see that this is quite distinct from Romans — the individual saint indwelt by the Spirit of God, guided by the Spirit of God through the wilderness. Here we have the proper testimony of saints as one body; the beauty and excellency of Christ as the heavenly Man is to come out here in the one body. As “the elect of God, holy and beloved”, they are to put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.
[p. 113] Above all they are to put on love, which is the bond of perfectness; the peace of Christ is to rule in their hearts; the word of Christ to dwell in them richly. Christ characterises them.
I just pass on for a moment to look at Ephesians. There I find another truth which does not shut out either of what we have seen. Christians are there viewed distinctly in Christ according to the full height of the privilege. I do not mean that it is not touched in Romans and Colossians, but in Ephesians it is distinctly new creation. “Chosen us in him before the foundation of the world”; “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works”. It was really the beginning, God’s start with us. We may not apprehend it that way, but God began that way, and we are a new creation in Christ. That does not shut out the teaching of the other two epistles, clearly; the saints remain in their individuality down here, and the testimony and service which come out in the saints in Colossians abide. The truth in Ephesians fills out the others; and more — if the truth of Ephesians is apprehended, that is, that there is a new creation in Christ, the truth of Colossians and Romans is better understood — we can see better what it is for Christ to be in the saints, and are better able to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I have just said this because I think there is a little danger of looking at the epistles simply as stepping-stones, though I have no doubt we learn in order. When we get to Ephesians we really get to where God started from; when we were dead in trespasses and sins, He quickened us together with Christ. That sheds immensely greater light on what we get in the other epistles; but Colossians continues as long as we are down here; there is to be the testimony of the new man, and at the same [p. 114] time we have to be guided through the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a wonderful thing to be a justified man where one was a guilty man, and to have Christ as the spring of life, no other spring but Christ.
I desire to refer to the exhortations that come out here, and to add one word as to deliverance; we know so little of it. I hesitate to speak of it because one knows it so little, but it is a point of so much moment, we cannot advance in divine things without it. Deliverance is not that which is realised all at once. I do not say it is not ours, but I do not think it is realised all at once in our experience. In Colossians we find the deliverance is very complete. We do not get deliverance in Ephesians. The truth unfolded there does not leave room for it; it is not a question of experience, but of new creation. You can hardly find room in new creation for that which is experimental in the way of deliverance. But when we come, as in Colossians, to the collective testimony of the saints here, it becomes a very important point. So it is in Romans. How can I walk here as reckoning myself alive to God if I do not know that I am dead to sin? I have to accept that I am dead to sin; thank God I am! Sin does not come in between the believer and God. It has been completely put out on the cross, or how could I go on with God? You cannot put “alive to God in Christ Jesus” and “sin” together. There must be the other side of it — that you are dead to sin.
We had alluded to this afternoon a point of importance: the difference between deliverance and liberty. Deliverance from sin is by the word and is effected at the outset. Liberty lies more in the power of the Holy Spirit, and is a law. The idea of deliverance is, I think, very much enlarged in Colossians. I will tell you why: the new man is brought [p. 115] in; the point is testimony, and the testimony is that of the new man; therefore deliverance is very full indeed. What we get in Colossians goes even to this: ‘We have put off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; we are dead to the world’; that goes a very long way. The death of Christ is very absolute here. With Him it was actual death, and a complete bringing to an end of all that we are morally, good or bad. I do not talk about good in respect of God, but there may be certain things estimable in man down here. In the death of Christ all that we are was brought to an end, morally, before God. There is the ground of deliverance; we could not have it otherwise. It is not a deliverance I have to work out, and in a certain sense it does not depend upon my realisation of it, though it is no good to me if I do not realise it. It lies in the death of Christ; all the springs of my being were judged in the cross of Christ; so that the old man and flesh does not come in now between God and me. It is not merely sin, but the christian has put off the body of the flesh, that which fitted me for the course of things down here. In Colossians it is taken up more as the religious course of things. What have I to fit me for the course of man in the world? The life of the flesh: and every christian professes to have put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, “buried with him in baptism”. What I avow is this — that I have no life for the world morally (not actually of course); I am entitled to avow it because of what has taken place in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. A great privilege it is to know that nothing whatever stands between God and me. I am before God according to His quickening power, everything removed that stood between Him and me.
This is brought before us to pave the way for the proper testimony of christians here, the corporate [p. 116] testimony. The saints are to be the expression of Christ here; it is an important point to regard. It is, as I have said, a very different thing from going through the wilderness in the power of the Spirit of God, which I find in Romans. In Colossians 3 there is something morally outside this world. When you come to talk about the new man you must remember you have something outside the course of this world altogether. The body of Christ is outside this world; it is here, but as to its nature, by the very fact of being united to the Head, it is outside the course of this world. And so the new man; it is a new creation, not suitable for the scene here. I have put off the body of the flesh that fitted me for this world, its philosophy, religiousness, and so on; and now I come into the presence of something which, in its nature, is outside this world — the new man. We find it very difficult to understand its place and character in this way: christianity is so mixed up with the world. Real christians have got so mixed up with the world that there is great difficulty in distinguishing the new man. It is “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”. That is the first characteristic of what we have put on. The word there, “renewed in knowledge”, means that account is taken of a completely new order of objects. The word in the original is very strong. Suppose we were placed in heaven, and had to look at everything and everyone as it is before God, that is to say, morally, I think we should be taken aback to a very great extent, because we are so little accustomed to it. We judge of things according to appearance, according to what is external. This was the case with the Corinthians. But suppose we were in heaven, in the conscious presence of God, then everyone and everything has to be looked at as to what they are before God, and therefore, through [p. 117] grace, the first may be last and the last first. The first in nature, last in grace. The new man is renewed in knowledge. Mark this! You begin to get a knowledge, a view of things according to the image of Him that created him; all is measured by Christ. Do you think the Lord, when here, judged things according to appearance? Do you think He took account of people as the world takes account? Nothing of the kind! He took a true estimate of everyone and everything according to God. “As I hear I judge”. That was His principle. He was dependent. This then is the first characteristic — “renewed in knowledge”.
What is the next thing? “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free”. It is all outside this world, outside the wilderness. I find Jew and Greek down here; but in the new man it all vanishes. We have to take account of saints in that way, apart from all that distinguishes them in this world. When we look at saints in that light, as the vessel of testimony here, we have to leave aside all these artificial distinctions, and to view them apart from it all, because we look at them as before God. It is a tremendous lesson; the sooner we set ourselves to do it the better! We shall have to know it perfectly in heaven; everything will be seen there according to its true worth. The sooner we learn to judge of ourselves and one another, according to what we are by the grace of God, the better. When we get outside wilderness circumstances we learn to look at things as God sees them, and we see the first last, and the last first. Everything is overturned in the presence of God. Thank God we can learn it! It is a wonderful thing, with our judgment and thought of things formed by the world in which we have been brought up, to find all reversed when we look at things in [p. 118] the presence of God. I can bear to see it all reversed in His presence. Christ is now “all”, the Object, and “in all”.
Now we get exhortations. “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”. It is Christ under the eye of God here. The first man, as I may say, is gone; every distinction in flesh all gone, and you have the saints now in your eye according to what they are in God’s eye, Christ in them. You see them as the elect of God, holy and beloved. We naturally look at each other according to our peculiar eccentricities, and judge each other hardly oftentimes. We are to look at each other as “the elect of God, holy and beloved”. Christ has passed out of this world, but He is here in the new man. The new man takes the place of Christ here in a way. The saints are here as the “elect of God, holy and beloved”.
Then he speaks of what is suited to it. Christ is the standard of conduct, beloved brethren. All this truth never came out until Christ was entirely out of this scene, every link with the flesh broken. When He was raised from the dead, and at the right hand of God, this wonderful truth came out. I do not think this truth could have been borne before; I do not think we could bear it now, except by grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, to break away from everything here, and view the saints as they are before God holy and beloved; then to put on all these things, and above all, love, which is the bond of perfectness.
As I said before, no one saint is adequate to be the expression of Christ down here. One trait may come out in one saint, another in another; but we [p. 119] need to be placed in relation one to another in order that the varied beauty of Christ may be reproduced. However we mar it, or spoil it, down here, it will come out in the day of the glory of Christ. He will be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe. We want to look at each other apart from the eccentricities that distinguish us down here, and to see instead the saints as the vessel for the display of Christ. The more we know what the saints are before God — a new creation — the better we shall understand it.
This was what was before my mind; and I think it is a day when we need to have it brought before us, and our hearts recalled to it: to get outside individual peculiarity and see what the saints are as the vessel of God’s testimony down here. Deliverance is a very important feature in it. Indeed, I do not think we can enter into the truth except as deliverance is ours. We have put off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Then the realisation of it is another matter. We have all of us taken the place of being dead to sin, dead to the world in the death of Christ; but the realisation is another thing. Thank God! it has all been wrought for us. It does not depend upon our realisation, it belongs to us. The great thing is to enter into it, so that we may bear our part in the testimony which God has been pleased to bring about on this earth for His Son, who has been rejected here on this earth.