THE TRUE SEAL OF GOD
[p. 328] THE TRUE SEAL OF GOD
In the progress of christianity in the world we find when we get to this chapter that things were somewhat changed. Jerusalem is no longer the scene and centre of the Spirit’s activity, as it had been at the outset; but yet some authority was still recognised as connected with Jerusalem.
The question which was referred to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem arose at Antioch. Antioch seems to have become the scene of the Spirit’s activity.
According to the account given here, it was the brethren who proposed that Paul and Barnabas should go up to Jerusalem; but in the Epistle to the Galatians we learn that Paul in going up had the mind of the Lord — he went up by revelation.
The point raised was whether it was necessary to circumcise the gentiles according to the law of Moses. Judaisers could not deny their conversion and blessing; but they wanted to impose the law of Moses upon them — the yoke which neither their fathers nor they had been able to bear. It was a subtle effort of the enemy to spoil christianity by proselytising gentiles, and I want to get beneath the surface of the effort and to shew the meaning of it and its application to us. The effort was practically to deny the presence and power of the Spirit. From the outset there had been efforts in different ways to set aside the power of the Spirit, and to what end? To make room for the flesh. There cannot be place both for the flesh and for the Spirit; these, we read “are contrary the one to the other”, the one does not allow the other, they are mutually exclusive. The fact is that the Spirit was not communicated until the state of man in the flesh had been closed [p. 329] for God; and that was in figure set forth in the brazen serpent.
This great question, then, had to be fought out first at Antioch, and then at Jerusalem. The effort was virtually to make christianity a Jewish sect; but the truth was that with God all was new in the power of the Spirit, and that thus there was no difference between Jew and gentile. The Jew believed in the Lord Jesus, and so too the gentiles, and consequent upon believing, they had both received the Holy Spirit. The power of the Spirit was practically to set aside Jew and gentile — as in the cross every man had been removed from before God.
Barnabas and Saul had been sent out on a missionary journey from Antioch, and they had now returned to report all that God had wrought by them. Special good had been wrought of God there, and for this reason the enemy made an effort to mar and spoil the work. Now through grace the difficulty that had arisen was wisely settled; had it been settled at Antioch it might not have satisfied the Jews; so the question was referred to Jerusalem, and then word was sent down to Antioch that no burden of law should be imposed upon the gentiles.
It is noticeable that the wiser men did not speak until after the “much disputing” (verse 7). Simon then declared how God had made choice that the gentiles by his mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe, and that God bare witness, giving them the Holy Spirit. Then Paul and Barnabas declared what “miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them”. James afterwards brought scripture forward to substantiate the blessing of the gentiles, showing that even in the millennium the gentiles would be blessed, and would not need to be circumcised. The real mischief at work was, that while contending for the form and shadow, there was danger of losing the substance — [p. 330] the moral force of circumcision was lost by insisting on circumcision in the flesh. The judaising teachers who were pressing this had their own end to serve in doing so. They wanted to save the flesh, and as a result the power of the Holy Spirit would be set aside; so too in our day, by training and education and ordination, men are supposed to be fitted for the service of God. But these things neither fit a man to be a priest toward God nor a levite toward men.
Circumcision was a seal, but only typical. The apostle Paul speaks of it in Romans 4 as a seal of righteousness. It began with Abraham; there is no trace of it before that, and in Abraham’s case it was “a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised”. A seal attests or confirms. God put a seal upon Abraham, and it was a confirmation on the part of God of Abraham’s righteousness. So now, God puts a seal upon the christian. A believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is sealed, not by circumcision but by the Holy Spirit. Where the power of the Holy Spirit is you get complete circumcision — the putting off of the body of the flesh. Thus circumcision is in spirit, not in letter. A man when converted believes in the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, and God in imparting the Spirit puts His seal on him, and the effect is this, that the truth of the Lord Jesus is confirmed and established in his soul. Then it is by the Spirit of God that we confess Jesus as Lord.
There was in circumcision the idea of cutting off; yet at the same time it recognised the man, or order of man, who was circumcised. Circumcision literally recognised the man after the flesh, although in the form of it there was the cutting off. Now when we come to the seal of God in the gift of the Holy Spirit there is no recognition of that man — the man has been cut off for God in the circumcision of [p. 331] Christ, and the office of the Holy Spirit is to practically set aside in the believer what has been cut off for God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer means true circumcision; and the Spirit is at the same time the Spirit of another order of man. When a man receives the Spirit he is in Christ, that is to say, he has received the Spirit of another Man, and hence the Spirit will not allow the man after the flesh. This is of the essence of christianity. The one man has been cut off as before God, and the Holy Spirit given to the believer. God’s ways are bound up with two men — one has been removed and another brought in. If you do not see this, you will never understand christianity according to the mind of God. The effort all around is to make out that man as man is suitable to worship God, and to serve man down here, and that, even apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. Man as man does not appreciate God, and if that be so he can neither worship God, nor serve man according to God; and the first point of appreciation is the righteousness of God. There are many estimable people, amiable and exemplary in their homes, who cannot bear the idea of righteousness of God, and yet that is the first principle in man’s relations with God — man being a sinner. How then can man worship God? People speak of God as being love and as almighty, but I should like to ask them, What do you think about God being righteous? Man does not care for God’s righteousness, nor does he find pleasure in the power of God, nor even in His grace.
Now I ask, How can a man worship a God whom he does not appreciate? Worship is the fruit of appreciation of God according to what He is revealed to be. It is when the believer receives the Spirit that he so appreciates God as to be able to worship and serve Him, and then only can he serve man [p. 332] according to God. Many will do great things nowadays — devoting their wealth — seeking to serve God and man with their natural powers. God is not served in that way. Man may be endowed with great natural powers, and yet have no appreciation of God. Do you think that a man could be a good evangelist if he did not worship God in the Holy Spirit? It is only when a man serves and worships God in the power of the Spirit that he can rightly represent God to man.
Now if I do appreciate God, that means that I am of another order of man; I have the Spirit of another Man and He completely sets aside for me the man after the flesh. I have to learn that flesh is no good for God. I could not serve God in the best things of flesh, nor do they assist in the appreciation of God. Supposing that the Spirit of God came upon a man and enabled him to accomplish great feats, such as Samson did — that could not in itself give him the appreciation of God: but having received the Holy Spirit the believer has the appreciation of God not only in His righteousness and in His power, but in His love. Our relations both to God as priests and to man as servants have to be carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The effort of the judaising teachers was to revive an antiquated seal in order to maintain the status of man after the flesh, and thus to blind saints to the fact that in the cross man had been completely cut off for God. The Holy Spirit will put no sanction upon flesh, but sets Himself against it, and forms the believer according to that Man of whom He is the Spirit. It is true that many of the duties which attach to the life here do not belong to the order of life in which Christ is. We have not yet completely done with the things of flesh, but the point for us is deliverance from the rule and control [p. 333] of the flesh, so that our souls may be governed by the appreciation of God.
It is not difficult to see the subtlety of the enemy in insisting on the antiquated seal in order to set aside the power of the true seal. May we give more place to the Spirit of God!