THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD (1)

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD (1)

Romans 1:1-7; Romans 5:8-10; Romans 8:1-4; Romans 8:14,15

SMcC I have been thinking of what Paul refers to in Ephesians 4 in relation to the work of the ministry, and the knowledge of the Son of God. It will be apparent to the brethren that there is something choice and unique about the knowledge of the Son of God that it is referred to in the way in which it is in Ephesians 4 as one of the great ends in the ministry, that we should all “arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man.” The expression itself, “the knowledge of the Son of God” is to be noted. It is said of the mystery in Colossians 2, “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” and I suppose this would be one of the treasures of knowledge, a treasure among the many treasures that are bound up with Christ and the assembly. No other family in the universe of God will understand or have the knowledge of the Son of God in the same way as the assembly has. Along with Paul’s definite commission as to the assembly, the making known of the mystery in relation to Christ and the assembly, there is also this definite commission that Paul has in relation to the Son of God. So that in understanding the Pauline ministry, there is need for seeing the place that the knowledge of the Son of God has in his ministry alongside the truth of the assembly. They run together in the outstanding service of this great minister. I suppose he is without parallel in relation to ministry and service as to Christ and the assembly. The knowledge of the Son of God enters into his glad tidings. Paul’s glad tidings are characterized by this great feature of the truth of the Son of God.

It is, of course, an extensive subject, but we should begin with it in Romans and see how it is threaded into Paul’s glad tidings because it is part of the truth of the glad tidings. The truth of the glad tidings does not only involve the doctrine of the glad tidings. As Paul alludes to it in Galatians, it involves the knowledge of the Son of God, as we have been taught, in all its liberating power, and Paul stresses it in the ministry of the glad tidings. We should see in Romans 1 how it is introduced as marking off God’s glad tidings. It is concerning His Son. Then in Romans 5, the chapter of administrative glory, the reference to the Son of God comes in in relation to the thought of reconciliation and the thought of our practical participation by the Spirit in the life of Him Who is risen from among the dead, the Son of God, the centre of another world. Then in Romans 8 we should see how the thought of the Son of God is brought to our view in relation to the moral question in connection with sin in the flesh. In all these passages we are reminded that God has drawn near to men in relationships intelligible to men, relationships in which the nature and attributes, as has been said of the Godhead, are presented in a way that is intended to win the hearts of men.

AHS Would you say love enters into the matter? I was thinking particularly of the setting in Romans 5, reconciliation; God has reconciled us by the death of His Son, and then “his own Son,” in Romans 8. It was no mere academic thing with the apostle. His soul was bathed in the love of it.

SMcC It is an important thing to see that love underlies all these movements on the part of divine Persons. “God is love” - an absolute statement - and in the divine arrangement into which divine Persons have come and in which they are viewed, it is all based on love because no One of the Persons, either the Lord Jesus or the Holy Spirit, has arbitrarily imposed upon Them the position of subordination into which They have come. They have taken it of Their own voluntary movement in love. Love underlies it in the working out of the divine arrangement in the economy. That is, that the Lord Jesus was in the form of God, and He emptied Himself taking a bondman’s form. It was His own act; it was not imposed on Him; love underlay it.

PB It says in the parenthesis, “concerning his Son come of David’s seed according to flesh ... “ I was thinking of what you referred to in Ephesians 4, “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” They are linked together there, are they not? The parenthesis would bring in the truth of the faith and the Son of God together.

SMcC It is very interesting what we now refer to because David was a great uniting point, a great rallying point, in Israel. There is a link in the thought of the unity of the faith in Ephesians 4 with what comes up in David’s time and history.

EBMcC “God so loved.” Would that come in? You say that it is a love matter and we have it at the commencement that God so loved.

SMcC Exactly. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.” We are reminded thus that God has moved out and presented Himself to us in a relative way. It would impress us with the feature of love which underlies all divine movements, especially entering into this matter of the glad tidings.

WJB The only thing we know about the relations of divine Persons in the realm of Deity is that They love - as to the form of Their relations we know nothing - but we do know that love was there and that love came into evidence, in the Lord Jesus when He was here, did it not?

SMcC Exactly. As has been said before, the great link between the absolute and the relative is love. The love that was in the relative position is the same love which was in the absolute position, and is the great link between the two.

CD The word is addressed to the “beloved of God.”

SMcC Showing the place that the beloved saints had in Rome; that great metropolis which was the centre of Imperial rule and administration. They had been taken up in the working out of the administration of grace in the glad tidings and had been placed in this wonderful relation to God, so that they are beloved of God. What a contrast it would be to all that entered into the centre and sphere of Caesarian rule and domination.

RMY Putting your opening remarks about the truth of the mystery, Christ and the assembly, so peculiar to Paul, along with this line as to the Son of God, is Paul there joining hands with John? Is that a feature of the truth that must be emphasised in the last days. John coming into the matter?

SMcC Yes, we shall see that later on; only, there is this difference, that John did not have the commission Paul had. Paul was commissioned to announce God’s Son as glad tidings, John was not. John comes in, bringing the Son of God before us in a unique way, as we shall see, especially when doctrinal degeneracy has set in in the dispensation.

CEJ Would the expression “marked out Son of God in power,” stand over against the Imperial system of Rome that you have just referred to? That is, there is another sphere marked by love of which this glorious Person is the centre?

SMcC Exactly. We think of this sort of power. Perhaps sometimes it is thought in speaking of love that we are dwelling on a weak position, but this is not so according to the truth, as we shall see in this epistle. The working out of the glad tidings involves power. It is not a question of light only; it involves that, nor is it a question only of doctrine - it does involve that - but it is a question of power; power entering into the glad tidings, because in the glad tidings we have God’s power unto salvation.

SEE Would the resurrection from the dead mark it out as distinct in that way, giving it a unique distinctness, linked too with Paul’s message to the Athenians in Acts 17?

SMcC The Son of God here is linked with another world. The resurrection of the dead enters into that; the opening up of a new realm of things where the operations that are so effective are unique.

JD As the personification of the glad tidings which you have referred to would be common to Paul, would it have the effect where it is received of attaching the affections of the person who receives it to the Person of the Son of God, and thus set him in relation to another world?

SMcC Yes, exactly. The gospel in that way detaches us from this world and attaches us to the Person who is the centre of another world. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1, “the Son of God, ... has been preached ... (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus),” and then he says, “Now he that establishes (or ‘firmly attaches’) us with you in Christ ... is God.” It is the gospel in its detaching power in relation to this world and its attaching power in relation to Christ, the Son of God, the centre of that world and by the resurrection from among the dead.

VTS In Galatians 2: 20, Paul says, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me.”

SMcC Yes, we hope to see this afternoon how it enters into that side of things. What we should concentrate on in our enquiry now is the radiancy of the glory in the glad tidings. We often speak of the radiation of divine affections in the family, in relation to assembly service and the service of God, but we want to see the radiation of divine love in the glad tidings, that God loves men and He wants to win their hearts. Therefore the attractiveness of the glad tidings from this viewpoint involving the gospel of God concerning His Son.

VTS I am sure we would be thankful for help on this. We have thought that if a man is walking in sin and in a self-willed way we cannot say that God loves that man just as he is, but we have rather become fearful of bringing the love of God into the gospel at all.

SMcC You say that you are fearful about bringing the love of God into the gospel! What do you mean by that?

VTS We have had it said that, when preaching in the open air, you could not say to all passers by in the street, for instance, ‘God loves you.’ The very kernel of the glad tidings is that God has drawn near to men in these relationships, intelligible to men, in which the nature and attributes of the Godhead are presented in such a tender way, so that the hearts of men might be won in all their sin and distance from God. Paul says, “God’s glad tidings ... concerning his Son,” Romans 1: 1 - 3.

HJM Did not Mark in touch with Paul catch the blessedness of that as he writes his gospel, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God,” and filled with God’s drawing near to men tenderly in that regard?

SMcC Exactly. Luke’s gospel surely would show us the wonderful link with humanity in that Christ comes in as Son of man linking on with humanity in all its need and discharging the liabilities of the race, the Head of a new race according to God.

WJB “But when the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared,” Titus 3: 4.

SMcC I was just about to refer to that passage, in regard to our brother’s question. In regard to what you have raised, do you mean that you would not be free to preach in the gospel that God loves men?

VTS No, I would be free, but it has been said in relation to all men who would come under the sound of the gospel, especially in street preaching, men marked by distinct self-will and sin, that there would be a difficulty about saying that God loved them. I feel that it has brought us into such bondage that we have lost much that the liberty and the grace and the glory of the gospel is bringing before us, because of a legal outlook that has been marking us in this area.

SMcC Now, you say, “it has been said.” You will pardon my referring to this for a moment. Who has said? Is it said amongst us?

VTS Yes, it is said amongst us.

SMcC Are the brothers here who say it?

VTS I would be thankful if any brother would be free to confirm what I have said.

SEE It has been said in a reading meeting that God does not love the sinner; an emphatic statement which has not passed without challenge, but nevertheless that has been said.

SMcC I think it is important that we should keep before us what man is abstractly. Paul says in Colossians in dealing with the truth of the mystery that he laboured, he combated, to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now that does not mean that only the saints of the assembly were in his view. He laboured to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We need to understand, I think, and perhaps to be enlarged in our outlook in regard to men; what man is abstractly as God’s creature, and God’s love to him in that light.

PB Does John 3: 16 help, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son”? Does that suggest, do you think, the deep feeling of God in relation to men abstractly?

SMcC John 3: 16 and Titus 3 taken together show us both sides of the position. John 3: 16 reminds us of what the world is abstractly as God’s creation. What a wonderful order of things it is! What a wonderful arrangement it is! God loved it but sin came into it and marred it, but God loved it with a view to the extrication of men from the entanglement of sin, and Titus 3 alludes to the love and kindness towards men of our Saviour God. That is very plain, in Titus 3, whether we view the world abstractly or whether we view men. They are part of creation, and God’s love in the gospel bears upon that.

WJB Will you say a word as to, “God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us”?

SMcC What a touch that is in that great administrative chapter, Romans 5, that it was while we were sinners Christ died for us; and now God commends His love towards us! Rightly speaking, He had no reason, as it were, to add anything that would strengthen the thought of His love towards us, because His love is His love, but because of us and the weakness on our side. He “commends His love to us, in that we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.”

FRG The desire has been to confine that to those who were sovereignly chosen for blessing.

SMcC Yes, but what must be kept clear in our minds in cutting a straight line the word of truth is the side of purpose and responsibility. They do not converge. They run parallel but never converge, and we must not run sovereignty into responsibility and weaken what is linked with the latter side of the truth on the part of men.

Rem “He that will, let him take the water of life freely,” is a general statement.

SMcC We preach the gospel to men in responsibility and men are responsible as to the light that is presented in the glad tidings.

EBMcC That He might have mercy upon all.

SMcC It says of God that He does not will the death of any. He will have all men to be saved. Are we going to be more limited than God? Are we going to say that He has only the elect before Him, when the gospel is preached and the scripture says that God will have all men to be saved? The truth has to be kept in balance.

CBS In Acts 9 Paul gets such an impression of the love of God at his conversion that immediately afterwards he preached that Jesus was the Son of God. The love of God to all men that you have been speaking of so affected the apostle that it entered into this question of separation to God’s glad tidings.

SMcC The radiancy of the glory alludes to this in in 2 Corinthians 3. Glory is the outshining of God in love and it should be in all our souls; in fact the preacher should manifest that radiancy in the way he presents the glad tidings.

JP What you are saying now supports what our brother Mr. Taylor has had in mind in bringing before us the fact that the world stands provisionally in reconciliation.

SMcC We must have nothing less than that in mind. Let us think of what the word ‘reconciliation’ means. The world is standing in it provisionally. We might refer to all the wickedness there is around! The point is that the world stands at the present moment provisionally in reconciliation. That is, God’s attitude to it is that of favour.

CD If we are restricted by thinking of what men are, our preaching would be very poor, but it is a matter of the knowledge of God our Saviour.

SMcC In relation to the young man that came up to the Lord, running into the way in Mark 10, it says of the Lord Jesus that He loved him. I suppose the brethren will recall what Mr. Taylor said about that young man. He said he was a grand ruin, but the Lord loved him.

AHS There has been some confusion over the use of the word ‘philanthropy’ in the footnote to the scripture in Titus, but philanthropy after all means love to man, whatever its use may be in the world. A count has been made of the hymns in the hymn book that speak of God’s love to men and I think that there are about sixteen.

SMcC The love of God enters into the gospel testimony and if we cannot speak of God’s love to men in the gospel, we will need to have another revision. We want to be sober about the matter. It is one of the great things in the glad tidings, God’s love to men; that God in the light of Luke 15 is before us, drawing near with a view to the extrication of men according to divine primary rights. The sheep and the lost piece of silver and the younger son express primary rights, that the creature belongs to God.

GCL Paul refers to men in his address at Athens, “Being therefore the offspring of God.” No matter how far down they were in sin, he would bring in all the responsibility that men had to God and God’s feelings in regard of it.

SMcC He seeks to touch them on that line from a lower level. You will notice in Acts 17 that Paul does not preach the Son of God. He is not on the high level of the Son of God in his preaching there, but he is drawing their attention to physical limitations to show how God has come into the matter of physical limitations, making “of one blood every nation of men,” appointing the boundary too, “if indeed they might feel after him,” showing how we may bring the physical side into the glad tidings. What is in mind in the gospel of the Son of God is more the spiritual side in relation to what is linked with another world.

AGL Mention has been made of the beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God, in Mark’s gospel, and the gospel ends with the commission to preach the glad tidings to all the creation. Paul in Colossians speaks of the glad tidings having been announced to the whole creation under heaven. Is the point of creation the matter that you are stressing?

SMcC The whole creation is affected by the glad tidings. You can see that in Australia and New Zealand. Where would creation be at the present time if the power of the glad tidings were not here? You can see the lengths to which lawlessness would go, and to which evil would develop. The glad tidings has a great effect on creation.

AGL Do we not need help to view men as fellow creatures, creatures of God?

SMcC We want to get alongside men and help them in view of their extrication. The Lord is, on the eve of the translation, impressing us with the great work of recovery that is going on, and we want to be in it; involving men, who may have no link yet with God, as well as those who have been withdrawn from, and our brethren around us in the systems. We should be more and more concerned about their recovery.

JD What is said here, “grace and apostleship in behalf of his name, for obedience of faith among all the nations.” Would that help in regard to what you are saying?

SMcC It is a very interesting expression, is it not? “By whom we have received grace and apostleship.” We can see how the arbitrary side (and I speak of it in a right way), is somewhat tempered and modified by that expression as is always the case, as, for instance, in priesthood based on sonship. Apostleship is linked with grace here.

EBMcC We speak of God revealed. Is His righteousness revealed that He may display His love? He has the groundwork in that righteousness, so that love is not hindered from flowing?

SMcC Exactly. Every attribute would be the expression, in its working out, of His love. Mr. Raven pointed out years ago that even the lake of fire was a necessity of love.

CEJ Could you say a word as to love, mercy and grace?

SMcC Mercy and grace are activities. They are the working out of love in activity; mercy having to do with the depth of the need, grace having to do with the active will and evil in opposition to God. Mercy is never said to reign. It “glories over judgment,” we are told in the epistle of James, but in this epistle grace is said to reign, not mercy; grace is reigning but the mercy seat is set forth. It is the basis of the operations, but grace is reigning.

Rem Mercy and love are put together in Ephesians, are they not? “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us.”

SMcC We can understand mercy coming in there because it is the depth of need, there is not a pulsation towards God - “dead in your offences and sins” - God intervenes in mercy, in the sovereignty of His mercy, and according to His love, the love of purpose that would have us there with Christ above, but then it says, “ye are saved by grace.”

Ques What about the recovery of our brethren who have been withdrawn from, having regard to what was said earlier as to the restricted outlook in respect to the glad tidings and love to all men?

SMcC Well, the Lord is helping on the lines of recovery everywhere. Those who have departed from the faith are coming back, and the brethren are helping them on priestly lines, as room is made for priestly service and priestly help.

NBS Would you say a little more on the thought of reconciliation? You spoke of contemplating it. Perhaps you had that before you in chapter 5.

SMcC In chapter 5 we come to the great administrative chapter. The knowledge of the Son of God has in mind our full liberation. That is to be kept in mind. Romans has in mind our full liberation from sin, the world and Satan, and the thought of the Son of God enters into the glad tidings. Paul’s glad tidings have it in mind because we shall never be happy and free in the assembly, unless we are set free, fully liberated. Romans 5 impresses our minds with things from the divine standpoint, the wealth of the administration that is towards us in view of our being set up in relation to the liberty that the glad tidings brings in.

PB “For if, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much rather, having been reconciled, we shall be saved in the power of his life.” That is very emphatic and wonderful, is it not, “saved in the power of his life”? That brings the glory and power of the gospel into our souls, does it not?

SMcC It is to show us the fullness of the provision that is made. “For if, being enemies, we have been reconciled,” that is historical. “We have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much rather having been reconciled” - again what is historical - “we shall be saved in the power of his life,” showing how the present bearing of the truth comes in in regard to this character of the glad tidings. We are saved through the intrinsic value and worth of that precious life, the life of the Son of God as risen from the dead.

Ques Does that bring in the administrative side that you referred to in relation to this chapter?

SMcC Exactly, for it says “we shall be saved in the power of his life,” that is, the power of the life of God’s Son, not His life here but His life there involving the heavenly position.

Ques It would help if you would say why you referred to Romans 5 as the great administrative chapter.

SMcC I think it is important that we should have this side before us in view of the younger brethren, so that they might be wholly liberated as affected by the wealth that is in the administration here, so that as they go on to face the working out of the truth experimentally of Romans 6, 7 and 8, they have this in their minds. It is to steady us and help us in the working out of the experimental side. We have the Spirit referred to here, not as received exactly, but as administered, “the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”

EBMcC We are then formed in love, are we not, because “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” Everyone that has the Spirit has the love of God shed abroad in his heart. Is that right? Will he be hindered by legality?

SMcC Exactly, showing how early this subject of love comes up in Romans. We might have left it till Romans 8; it is brought into Romans 8, but here it is like the children of Israel early in the wilderness. The glory is brought to their view. It is not exactly a question of what their state is here; the emphasis is on divine administration, the wealth of it, and what it involves in the saints. It is like a view of the glory in the wilderness.

RHG In Saul’s day everyone that was in distress and in debt was attracted by affection to David. Were they brought into liberty in that way?

SMcC That is the point. David represents this side of things, “come of David’s seed.” It is the glory and the wealth of the administration of grace entering into the glad tidings as Paul presented it. In stressing the side of the assembly in Paul’s ministry, we must stress this side, because unless our young people are liberated in the wealth of the administration of grace as in Paul’s glad tidings, they will not be rightly in the assembly.

GHC Would chapter 5 give us the compassions of God?

SMcC Well, I would say more than the fifth. I think the compassions of God would involve the soul experiences of Romans 6, 7 and 8; so that the whole matter is affecting us and leads us to present our bodies as an intelligent service to God.

PB Would the administration of this grace be expressed in what follows in verses six to eight? After it speaks of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us, it says, “for we being still without strength, in due time Christ has died for the ungodly,” that is, still without strength, Christ had died for the ungodly, and then it continues, “For scarcely for the just man will one die, for perhaps for the good man some one might also dare to die; but God commends his love to us, in that we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.” Would that show the administration of this grace that you speak of?

SMcC Exactly, and the dark background. Romans would impress us with the dark background; but also with the way that God has come into the circumstances, extricating man, not leaving man to himself, but coming down on the basis of redemption and extricating man and setting him up in the power and wealth of this administration.

HL Does Exodus 17 fit into this chapter at all, God’s provision for the people after they are liberated, and the rock is smitten, though they do not drink there. Is everything there provisionally from the divine side?

SMcC Exactly, so that Amalek has to be faced in that light. Our young people need help in their souls as to the wealth of the administration of grace that is presented here, so that as they go through the exercises and experiences of Romans 6, 7 and 8 involving full deliverance, they are strengthened in the going through by what we have here. It is not a question of what they are in the good of (Romans 5), it is what faith lays hold of as towards us in the wealth of the administration of grace.

DJM It says, “sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under law but under grace.”

SMcC That is, it becomes a great asset in your soul as you enter the difficult and testing experiences of Romans 6 where the waters of Marah involve such bitterness. You begin to touch wilderness life as a believer and the waters are bitter, but the wealth of this, as in the seventy palm trees and the springs at Elim, is a suggestion of this kind of thing; the wealth of the administration is there (not that you can say much about it) in your mind according to Romans 5, and strengthens you as you go through chapters 6, 7 and 8.

CD In the last verse of Exodus 14, “Israel saw the great power which Jehovah had wrought against the Egyptians; and the people feared Jehovah and believed in Jehovah, and in Moses his bondman.”

SMcC It is all to encourage us in faith. Peter uses this remarkable expression “in your faith have also virtue.” Now that is an interesting thing linked with Romans 5, because the believer needs virtue as he goes into Romans 7 and Romans 8. Some of us can recall what a terrible experience it was. Some of us perhaps very nearly went out of fellowship over it. But this matter of virtue, courage, as strengthened by the wealth of the administration of grace in Romans 5, the support of the new husband and the idea of the glory of the Father in chapter 6, all these are strengthening elements to faith, so that we have virtue in our faith and go forward in facing the full analysis of good and evil in our souls.

PB It says in Romans 5: 3, “we also boast in tribulations,” and then in verse 11, “but we are making our boast in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom now we have received the reconciliation.” That is real virtue, is it not?

SMcC So that what we have been considering represents the very elements of glad tidings, the fundaments of the glad tidings, and we must not think that we are beyond these things, because the Lord is stressing that we should know God better as in relation to the fundaments of the gospel. That is our difficulty and our deficiency. We do not know God well enough in the fundaments of the gospel.

Ques “Access by faith into this favour in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.” I was thinking of ‘access.’ It is remarkable how early it is brought in in Romans 5, showing the way that God would encourage us from the very outset. The very administrative act of shedding abroad in our hearts God’s love, is to inspire confidence in the believer so that he goes forward. He had a heart that had been marked by a lack of confidence in God, and God says, as it were, I will begin there, I will establish a beach-head there and from that beach-head extend the area of the operations until the whole body is secured in Romans 12.

PB Would that bring us to chapter 8, “For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Is that the soul substantially formed as a result of the administration of grace as represented in chapter 5, and experience with God in the following chapters?

SMcC Exactly, so that it is really a land touch in the wilderness. Rightly speaking, sonship belongs to the land, to the heavenly side, but it is like the territory that they occupied in Numbers 21, provisional territory in which they lived for the moment, not permanent territory. Permanent territory is Colossians and Ephesians.

But God gives us this provisional enjoyment, as it were, just as we are about to cross over.

EAK Are not our actions and our attitude to one another governed by our knowledge of God as made known in the glad tidings?

SMcC That really enters into the foundations. If we do not apprehend God rightly, we will not be right in our relations with one another. Romans is filled with military expressions, but what we have failed perhaps to see, at least one can speak for oneself, is that the warfare has to do with yourself! We are very good perhaps at making war with others, and in the matter of conflict involving others, but what about ourselves? The way that Romans speaks of war and conflict is in relation to myself and what is going on in me, sin and its operations in me.

RHG Is the great thought in the Son of God that all that God is in grace is established in blessed Man?

SMcC Exactly, and His love, in that tender relationship. The nature and attributes of God are presented in these known intelligible relationships, the relationship of Son of God. He is representing God, bringing the heart of God near to men.

HSH “His Son,” and in Romans 8 it is “His own Son.” That is calculated to move our hearts, is it not?

SMcC That is very interesting. It is as if it would show how the thought is intensified the more you go on in Romans, so “His own” comes into Romans 8.

CBS Could you say a little more about our young people not being rightly in the assembly, in view of what you have been saying as to grace. Do you mean that the assembly being the vessel of divine grace, as we are to come into it we are to reflect it, and be exponents of it? I just thought that in view of so many young brethren being here, we perhaps could get clear what you have in your mind.

SMcC I would like to make clear that I was not saying that the young people here are not rightly in the assembly. I was referring to the fact that generally we would not be rightly in the assembly unless we were rightly affected by the rudiments of the teaching in the glad tidings. It is that which liberates us - God known in righteousness and in grace and in other ways in the rudiments of the teaching of the glad tidings. We can thank God for the young people and for their being here; only that we are saying that these experiences are very real and we need to link on with them more sympathetically and get alongside of them, especially in going through these matters involving deliverance.