THE WRITING OF GOD
[p. 316] THE WRITING OF GOD
It is evident that what the apostle had before him when writing this passage was not what saints knew or might know, but what was written of God in them. That which is written is permanent, while that which a man knows may pass away. Writing is the great point in this chapter.
The Corinthians were a letter of commendation to the apostle, and that because there was the writing of Christ in their hearts. It was this thought of writing which led the apostle on to speak about the new covenant. The old covenant (that is, the ten commandments) had been written on tables of stone, but the new covenant is written in the hearts of the saints.
Now what God is concerned with is that which is written in our hearts, not what we know; of course we must know, for the mind is the eye to the heart, but what is written is indelible, being by the Spirit of God. What is written is of course what you have known, but the point is that what is written by the Spirit of God is ineffaceable. Many christians are eager about and content with knowing the truth, but God is bent upon that which is written in the heart.
There are two sides therefore to ministry — the objective side, that which is presented to the saints for the enlightenment of the soul, and that which is effectuated in us by the Spirit. The latter is in a sense the answer to the former. The apostle is speaking here of that which the Spirit of God had written in the Corinthians. Memory may enable me to retain an address, but what is effective and abiding is that which is written in me of the Spirit. “The same anointing teacheth you of all things”; this refers [p. 317] to what is written on the fleshy tables of the heart. The writing of the living God cannot be effaced; it is that which will remain with us for eternity.
Now I will refer to what is written. In Hebrews 8 we get the terms of the new covenant, namely, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ... saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour ... saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”.
Here we have the terms and the people with whom the covenant is to be made — the house of Israel and the house of Judah; but my point in turning to the passage is because it shews that God’s laws are to be written in their hearts. This will be so in order that they may be a reflex of His mind, and in a sense of Himself, and that every one of them may have individual knowledge of God — “all shall know me, from the least to the greatest”. Another point comes out in the last verse, “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old”. So that it is enduring, will not become old; there never will be another to succeed it. Now you will observe that these three thoughts come out in the chapter we have read. The apostle speaks of himself as minister of the spirit of the new covenant, not of the letter, and tells us that the Lord is the Spirit.
The new covenant is contrasted with the system which ministered death and condemnation. The ministry in the new is of the Spirit, or life, and of righteousness, and its glory is enduring.
The first covenant was an external system, under which, if the people could have abode in it, they [p. 318] would have maintained themselves in relationship with God and thus have lived; but it was none the less, when spiritually known, a ministration of death. The law brought death home to a man. As we read in Romans 7, “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died”. The first covenant was never God’s pleasure, had it been so it could not have been superseded; but at the same time the pleasure of God was hid in it, so the apostle speaks of the spirit of it. Now in Christ there has been upon the earth a perfect reflex of the mind of God in a man. I speak of what the Lord was down here — a perfect reflex morally of God.
I direct your attention to such a psalm as the sixteenth, where we see a perfect answer to the goodness of God. This is the spirit of the new covenant, that there should be a reflex of God down here. Israel, so far, will be this when the law is written in their hearts. When Christ became man He said, “Yea, thy law is within my heart”, and this principle will be fulfilled in Israel hereafter; they will love God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves.
Now in regard of christians it is not the law written but Christ written, and for this reason, that Christ has been here under the eye of God, the perfect reflex of Himself; and that therefore nothing inferior to that will suit God now. It is by the Spirit of God that Christ is written in the heart, and Scripture shews us the correspondence of christians to Christ. Turn to John 1: 18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. Now in 1 John 4: 12 we read: “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”. In these two passages we get precisely the same introductory clause. “No man hath seen God at any time”. There was first the perfect declaration of God in Christ personally, and then in christians we get the continuation of that which came out in Christ; that is, a perfect reflex of God in His moral being — the expression of the love of God. That is what is to come out in christians. Christ’s disciples were known by having love one to another. That is what is to be written in the heart, and if so it will come out in our ways; thus it is that Christ is the Spirit of the new covenant. It is easy to take up the letter: injunctions as to the conduct are the letter, and that kills — but the Spirit quickens, and “the Lord is that Spirit”. Whether in the present or in the future every family will take its character morally from the One who was God’s reserve, and in whom God could be perfectly reflected in a man here.
It is in the apprehension that the Lord is the Spirit that a man is made alive. It is when Christ is appreciated as last Adam that the Spirit quickens. Underneath the letter you get what was the mind and thought of God, and that is that there should be a perfect reflex of Himself here, and this is what came out in Christ.
Now holding truths would not effect this, and indeed nothing short of what is written. We are acted upon by the expression of what God Himself is, as revealed in Christ, namely, grace and truth and goodness and love. It is as we appreciate that, we are affected and formed both Godward and in our walk and ways one towards another.
I turn now to another point which is very important, because it conveys the thought of individual dealing of the soul with God. “Much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory”. Righteousness — that is, the being justified in God’s sight — involves the individual application of God’s grace to myself. “All shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness”. I know what I have myself been, and appreciate God’s dealing with me in grace. And thus it is that I acquire an individual knowledge of God. Now this is the second term of the new covenant; that which is connected with the ministry of righteousness. The first term refers to what is moral in the reflex of God here, and this is the most important point with God, but the second conveys the thought that I have the privilege of knowing God in grace for myself.
Now I will speak of the last point, and that is that the new covenant is enduring. “If that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious”. That in which God had no pleasure could not abide, and for the reason that what does not touch the heart effects nothing for God.
It is not my mind that God places value on, but the heart. The first covenant did not secure the affection of Israel; but the second covenant will, and for this reason the first had to come to an end. The new covenant is morally perfect, and therefore does not come to an end. It is in every way excellent, it is according to the will of God, it is that in which He has pleasure, and which answers His own proper thought — that is, men here morally the reflex of Himself, and individually knowing Him. Nothing that is moral — that which is of the work of God in saints — will ever pass away. If we see an aged saint like Simeon, in whom a foundation has been laid of God, and who has received light from God, and who has left himself in the formative hand of God, we can estimate the moral structure built up and perfected. Do you think that is going to pass away? It will abide; Christ is written in lines which cannot be effaced, for they are engraven by the Spirit of God. There is nothing more blessed than to think of the work of God in a man — first laying a foundation, and then building up a spiritual [p. 321] structure, making and bringing to result that which will never pass away. It will remain when the outer man perishes!
What is written is of Christ, and that as the expression of what God Himself is — for God is going to be all in all. The apostle prays in Ephesians 3 that the saints may comprehend “what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”, and what for? That they may be “filled with all the fulness of God”, that is, that there should be nothing of God morally lacking in saints down here. The Ephesians were to be the reflex of God down here, and this was to be brought about by their being “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”.
Now do not be content with what you know. The apostle was concerned about what was written, and that was Christ; and because it was morally perfect it was enduring.
I add one more word in connection with the glory of the Lord in verses 17 and 18. This came out on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter speaks of Christ having received of God the Father honour and glory — the recognition of who He was, and the expression of infinite delight in Him. What is the effect upon us of beholding that? It is a moral transformation. If I enter into that perfect satisfaction of God which has found its expression in Christ I am lifted up above all down here. “Are changed into the same image”. Christ was exalted as man to the right hand of God, to the infinite satisfaction of God. We behold this — we see who He is, and what He is, and the practical effect is that we are lifted up in moral superiority to everything that would affect and influence us down here.