LIFE KNOWN IN CONNECTION WITH CHRIST
J. A. Brown
Ephesians 4: 17, 18; John 1: 1–4; 6: 51, 54–57; Romans 6: 1–11; 8: 1, 2
I would like to speak to you tonight about life, and its meaning. Philosophers have been debating that question for thousands of years. Why are we here? What is the purpose of our existence? But I do not want to speak of philosophy, what scripture calls “vain deceit”. I would like to use these scriptures to speak about what life really is, the life of God, and how you can know that life.
There is only one reference to the life of God in scripture and it is the one in Ephesians 4. It is put in a negative way, describing the nations who “walk in the vanity of their mind” and are “estranged from the life of God”. I want to use that scripture to speak about the life of God.
What is it? The God that I am speaking about is the only living God. There are many gods in this world. Some of them are just lumps of stone and wood. I have seen people bowing down to them at the side of the streets in India. It never fails to affect me, people prostrating themselves before a piece of wood or metal, presenting offerings to an inanimate god, and believing that that piece of stone or wood can do something for them. And then other gods are just myths—they do not even exist in any shape or form; they just exist in people’s imaginations. There are “gods many, and lords many”, 1 Corinthians 8: 5. But there is one living God and that is the God I want to speak about. He is my God. There is no other God and He is living.
People sometimes mock at Christianity and say, ‘Well, maybe there was a God, but He is dead now’. One dear young believer, to whom it was said, You are stupid; God is dead’, said, ‘He cannot be dead; I was speaking to Him this morning’. That is the reality of a personal link with a living God. That is what I want you to have if you do not have it already, the assurance of knowing that there is a living God, knowing Him as One that you have a relationship with, a God who has always lived. There never was a beginning to the life of God. No matter how far back you go. God was there: “In the beginning”, as we read in John’s gospel, “was the Word, and the Word was with God”, so God was there without beginning of existence.
The living God alone can impart life. He did that, as we read in Genesis 1; God created the worlds. It speaks of how He created the animals and the fish in the sea and “swarms of living souls” (Genesis 1: 20). The living God created the universe as a place in which He could put life, and He put life on this planet. Not as far as we know on any other planet in this stupendous universe of which the earth is just a tiny speck, but on this earth God put life, “swarms of living souls”.
Then He created the best and greatest part of that creation. Greater than the galaxies, He created man. That was the top stone of His creation and He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”, Genesis 2: 7. God was pleased with the result. Once He had created man He did not have any more to do in creation. He rested and He saw that it was all very good and He began to commune with man, a living soul whom He had created in His image. God began to talk to man, to enjoy conversations with him.
And then sin came in and the result was death. The first death of a man on this earth was the result of murder, the sin of taking life. Oh how God must have felt that! How He felt the effects of sin. So sin and death came in, and ever since the nations have been walking “in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in understanding, estranged from the life of God”. It did not change God; He is still there, the self-existent living God. But men had gone away from Him and they wanted something else, “estranged from the life of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them”. What a picture it is of sin and the inevitable result of sin, which is death. Romans 5 speaks of that—“For this cause, even as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5: 12).
Well, dear friend, that would have been it— if God had not intervened again, that would have been the end of life according to God. Sin came in and the result of sin was death. God no longer had what He had enjoyed with man—communion, the ability to converse with His creature. Now, we know, of course, that there were men of God in the Old Testament with whom God spoke. But that root of death, sin, had to be dealt with. That is why I read in John chapter 1 because here we have God coming into this world that He had created, into which He had put life, the life which had been spoiled by sin.
Into this world God came in the Person of His Son. I am not going to say very much about these first two verses—they are very wonderful. The truth of the deity of Jesus is in these verses. Jesus, or, as the apostles called Him, “the Word”, was there “In the beginning”. No matter how far back you go—this does not refer to creation, this refers to away before that, as the hymn puts it, ‘before beginnings were’—however Jesus was “In the beginning was the Word”. And then it says, “and the Word was with God”, so, as Mr. Darby remarks, there was a distinctiveness of divine personality, yet “and the Word was God”, the divinity of Jesus in the perfect unity of the Godhead.
And then we see who created the worlds—it was Jesus—“All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being”. Men would love to be able to do that in their laboratories. They can examine life; they can map out the genetic codes although it has taken them until now to do that with all the computer power that they are capable of. The enormous complexity of life which God created, men are only now beginning to unravel what it means. They can even clone it. They can take a living cell and they can split it in two and another animal exactly the same as the first one will come forth. But man cannot create life, even with all his cleverness. It is this blessed One who created life—“All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being. In him was life”.
Now, dear friend, God came into this world in the Person of Jesus, and in Him is life. I want to put verse 4 in the present tense. He came in two thousand years ago to this world. He came in as “the originator of life”. Peter said that to the Jews—“the originator of life ye slew”, Acts 3: 15. Peter knew the truth of what John wrote here; he knew who the Creator was. John writes, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. I want to say it in this way—in Him is life, and the life is the life of men, because that light is still shining tonight. It shone into this world, a world of sin and darkness, and God came into it in the Person of Jesus. The light of God in the Person and life of Christ shone into this world. I did not read the next verse, but how sad it is “And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”. But that light is still shining, dear friends, and if you have never let it into your own life, I trust that tonight you will do that. What shone in Jesus when He came here is shining from heaven tonight. That is why God has extended this time of the gospel preaching for two thousand years, so that this light could shine into more hearts like yours and mine. In Him is life and the life is the light of men. And, dear friend, what God has in mind in the gospel is that this life might imbue you and be in you a new kind of life, a completely different life. We had in the reading this afternoon some of the teachings of Jesus about this different kind of life. It is not natural; it is not after the first order of man, the order that sinned. It is life according to God; and it is seen in a blessed Man. He came here to exemplify that life and to give it to others but to do that He had to die.
So I have read in John 6. He speaks in this wonderful chapter of Himself as the One who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. What a wonderful thing it is! In verse 33 Jesus says, “For the bread of God is he who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world”. God is still giving life to the world and it is through Jesus. It may be that there is someone here who is not in the enjoyment of this life. I trust that God will reach into your heart and you will get for yourself the light and the life of this blessed Man.
There is no substitute for this life. So the Lord Jesus says, “I am the bread of life—he that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst at any time” (John 6: 35). I know that I am speaking to many fellow believers in this room who have proved this—“he that believes on me shall never thirst at any time”. What a wonderful statement that is! “him that comes to me I will not at all cast out” (John 6: 37). Dear friend, it does not matter what your history is. It does not matter what you have done or who you are.
If you come to this blessed One, in whom is life, He will not cast you out. He said so Himself. And so in verse 40, “every one who ... believes on him, should have life eternal; and I will raise him up at the last day”. All that is available in Jesus, because He is still the source of life.
But in the passage we have read He speaks of His death. For us to have life, He had to die. He speaks in verse 51 of Himself as “the living bread which has come down out of heaven: if any one shall have eaten of this bread he shall live for ever; but the bread withal which I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”, (John 6: 51). That is what Jesus did; He laid down His life “for the life of the world”. Now that is a general statement. But if you are to experience the joy of this life in your soul, you have to have a personal transaction with this blessed life-giving Saviour. You have to come to know Him in all the blessedness of His Person.
Well, this scripture is a very deep one but I just want to put it this way: you have to appreciate for yourself the meaning of the death of Jesus. That is really what John 6 means—a lot more than that could be said about it, of course. In the way in which the Lord Jesus spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He is not referring to the Supper (although that might come into it a little), but what He is speaking about are those who would understand and take to themselves the meaning of His dying and the shedding of His blood.
Have you taken that meaning to yourself? Have you understood, dear friend? I know that Jesus had to give Himself for me, otherwise I would be in moral death. Jesus had to shed His precious blood for me, otherwise my sins would be crushing me, would be on my conscience, bearing me down, like that man in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ with the burden on his shoulders so that he could hardly walk. He struggled up to the cross and looked up, he saw the One on the cross and realised that He was there for him, then the burden fell off his shoulders and rolled down the hill and disappeared forever. Oh, dear friend, this is the personal transaction with Jesus that I am speaking about. Unless you have had it, you are not saved. I have to tell you that. Oh, that you might understand, dear friend, the enormous importance of the transaction that you must have with Jesus. Have it now if you have never had it before.
Have you ever cried to the Lord in your sins, ‘Lord, save me’, and understood that He has heard you and answered you? Oh, what a wonderful thing a transaction is! It is two-way. You cry for salvation and the Saviour comes in, just like Peter did when he sank in the water. Peter cried out, “Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught hold of him”, Matthew 14: 30, 31. Jesus can do that for you. In this blessed One is life! “As the living Father has sent me”, He says, in verse 57, “and I live on account of the Father”.
What a wonderful thing it is, that oneness of life of the Father and the Son! As the note says, ‘I live by reason of his being and living’. What a precious thing the life of Jesus was, and yet He laid it down for you! Do you believe that? The glory of the life of Jesus was like no other life, how precious it was to God, and yet He went on to that cross—“my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world”. He laid down that life as a sacrifice for sin so that we might be able to have this transaction with Him and know what life truly is. “He also who eats me”—that is, takes to himself or herself the meaning of Christ where He is—“shall live also on account of me”.
You may have heard of the death of Jesus often enough in these gospel preachings, but you need to come to it that there is no other way of salvation. The only alternative was death and eternal judgment, but Jesus has gone to the cross and in those three hours of darkness when He bore the forsaking of God, He bore my sins. So I can speak to you as one who, when God looks at me, He sees the blood and the blood has washed my sins away. I would love to know more about the meaning of John 6 but I can say this, that if you know for yourself the blessedness of the giving of the life of Jesus and the shedding of His precious blood, then you can have peace and security and blessing. I trust that everyone here has that—peace, security, blessing. These are not just words. These are what God has in mind for every one of us, for every man, and every woman and every child. You do not need to remain guilty; you simply accept what Jesus has done for you. Have that transaction now if you have never had it before!
Well, I read in Romans 6, “For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all”. That is what Jesus has done—praise His name!—“once for all”. The significance of what He did at the cross was such that it never needs to be done again. I have spoken of His death and its meaning, but we know that He was buried. As Mr. Darby said so simply and yet so profoundly, ‘For Him death was death’. The Originator of life lay in that cold, dark, rock-hewn tomb and His body lay there. But He could not be held by the power of death and He is living. And so in speaking of Him as I do, I am speaking of One who was dead once but is now alive to the ages of ages. What a wonderful thing it is!
Now He lives to God and He wants you to live to God. You will live to God, dear friend, if you are true to your baptism. Now I know that everyone here has been baptised. But it may be, and I have known this experience too, that you say, ‘Well, I believe that Jesus died for me, I know that He suffered to take away my sins and that His precious blood was shed for me, but still I sin. I cannot help it’. Paul addresses that here—“Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Far be the thought”.
If you really appreciate the meaning of the death of Jesus, then you will know something of what Paul is speaking about in this chapter—“Are you ignorant that we, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death? We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death”. So what I am in the flesh, according to nature does not matter any more. That is abhorrent to God. It is put away; that is why Jesus was buried. The burial of Jesus has a huge significance for the believer. I have spoken of His death and of His resurrection, but His burial signified the putting away of a whole order of things from before the sight of God. Do you understand that for yourself? The putting away of what you are, and what I am after nature, God is done with it in the death and burial of Jesus. I was going to say, And I am done with it too. Can I really say that? That tests me. It would no doubt test you too if you were standing here. But God has done with it and He would help us to have done with it too. It says, “For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection”.
Now, this is the life which God has in mind for every believer. It is available to us by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus, but first of all we must be “identified with him in the likeness of his death”. You cannot expect to share in the blessings of this risen life of Christ unless you are prepared to accept that what you are after nature was done away with forever in the sight of God at the cross. The note to that word in verse 5, “identified with”, is very interesting: ‘thoroughly one’; “if we are become” ‘thoroughly one’ “with him in the likeness of his death”. I spoke earlier of the significance of the death of Jesus, of understanding it for ourselves, of eating His flesh, drinking His blood, accepting for myself what the death of Jesus means for me, and understanding all that God has done for Himself in the dying of Jesus, and all that God has done for me in His death. “For if we are become” ‘thoroughly one’ “with him in the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of his resurrection”.
Dear friend, this is what God has in mind for all of us, that we might be “of his resurrection”. Just to quote again from the verse that we read in John 6 where Jesus speaks of the living Father sending Him, “and I live on account of the Father, he also who eats me shall live also on account of me” (John 6: 57). This is what God in the gospel has in view. It is not just salvation, blessed as that is, essential and necessary prerequisite to all of the blessings that God has in His heart for man. But Jesus says, “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”, ‘by reason of his being and living’, the note says. Now, just think of what that means: “he also who eats me shall live also” by reason of My being and living. So His life is my life.
You say, Is that possible? Yes, it is. Of course, we are still in the flesh and we shall be until we hear the voice of Jesus and see His face, but meantime God has given us the power for it, the Spirit of life. We will come to that. But what I am speaking about now is simply being true to the meaning of your baptism. When we were baptised, there was a meaning to that, a going out of sight under the water, where life cannot exist. That is the meaning of baptism, something put away for ever in the sight of God, and “he that has died is justified from sin”.
The Holy Spirit is the power for this life. So in verse 11 Paul says, “So also ye, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. But you say, I still sin; I still do things that I should not do. Well, God knows that, but this is, “reckon yourselves dead to sin”, to the principle of it. Dear friend, if you, by the Holy Spirit, are alive to God, the power of the principle of sin will be broken for you. I know it is testing to say that, but the Holy Spirit is the power for it and I want to speak now of the Spirit of life. The whole principle of sin was broken in the death of Jesus. For the believer who is alive in Christ Jesus, the same holds true, the power of the principle of sin is broken. It is not that we do not fail—I know that better than anyone in this room. We still slip and God in His grace and goodness helps us. You can still cry out “Lord, save me”, and He will save you. But the power of sin is broken, not only at the cross, but in the life of the believer, and the power for it is only in the Spirit of life.
“There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus”. How I love this verse! I have spoken of the feelings that you sometimes have of wretchedness when you are struggling with what you are, and with what that brings you to do. I have known that, “For I do not practise the good that I will”—you want to do what is right—“but the evil I do not will, that I do”, Romans 7: 19. You go round and round, trying to get out, and it is sometimes like a vicious circle. But then you come to it, you have no strength in yourself—“O wretched man that I am!” and you call for, help, “who shall deliver me out of this body of death?”, (Romans 7: 24). Oh, dear friend, if you have never done it before, cry for help to Jesus—“Who shall deliver me?”, “Lord, save me”—and He will answer you in that transaction that I spoke of.
The Christian’s life really begins with a transaction with Jesus and it continues as a series of transactions with this blessed, living One and all in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus”. I read these verses because they tell us that “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”. This is what God has in mind for us in the gospel. The gift of the Holy Spirit is just as great a gift as the gift of His beloved Son. Do you understand that? When Jesus came here, what a gift of God it was. John 3: 16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”. The gift of the Holy Spirit was just as great a transaction, just as great a gift. How we need Jesus, but how much too we need the Spirit of life! This is the key to life, the Spirit of life. There are many other references I could have read about the Holy Spirit as the power for life. John 4 would have been another good one, “a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” (John 4: 14).
Oh, my friend, if you have never asked the Father for the Holy Spirit, then do it now! He would love to give you this living water, “springing up into eternal life”. There is no substitute for life; the only alternative is moral death. But God has life in mind, not only for every believer, but for every man and woman and child on this whole earth, all six thousand million of them, every single, living, human soul on this earth. God has in view life according to Him, not natural life, “estranged from the life of God”, but He has life according to Himself in view, and He will give you the power for it in the Holy Spirit who will spring up within you, and there will be praise for God. Well, if you have not got this life, find it now in Jesus, and if you have not got the power for being maintained in it, then find it in the Holy Spirit! May you do so for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Edinburgh
23 December 2002