CHAPTER 2: 11 - 18
CHAPTER 2: 11 - 18
FER Now that they have a place in heaven, the saints can look clearly at things down here on earth. We never get a clear view of things here till we are conscious of having a place in heaven, and that is why so few understand things down here; we are hampered by these things and cling tenaciously to them. We never get free of the place here till we see we have another place. There is no other way. We might have the place here as uncomfortable as you like, but that would not deliver us from it. The latter part of [p. 219] the chapter is a sober and divine view of all that is down here. When Paul came down again after he had been caught up to the third heaven, he took a very sober view of things here. In the first part of the epistle we get a place in heaven, and all the rest from verse 11 on is that we are sent to carry out cheerfully everything that is appointed to us here. I have a place in heaven, and every time I retire to it I find a welcome.
In verse 12 the whole condition of their past life is summed up in a few statements; it is wonderful! It is the description of the state in which God had previously left them, and it is all in contrast with Israel. It is the position down here that is in view. The apostle would not draw such a contrast in regard of heaven; there he proves similarity, not contrast. Jews were dead in sins, and Gentiles also; they are quickened with Christ and raised up together. ‘Risen’ and ‘seated’ are expressions applied to Jew and Gentile, and also to Christ, but ‘quickened’ is not stated of Christ. When we are quickened then the same expressions which are used in regard of Christ are used also in regard of Jew and Gentile, and this in view of union — of being joined to Christ where He is; that is, in the enjoyment of the love of God. But when the apostle looks at things down here, the distinction between Jew and Gentile is taken into account, and then he shows how the whole position of things is altered. If all the saints were in “heavenly light” there would be no difficulty about maintaining unity; the pettiness of what comes in to disturb it would in that light appear simply contemptible — bits of envy, jealousy, and self-assertion! In “heavenly light” there is no place for what we are in nature. The difficulty is that so few of us are in “heavenly light”.
“Raised us up” is, I think, complete deliverance — emancipation from everything in connection with our [p. 220] place on earth. The bonds are all broken, the grave clothes gone! We are lifted out of everything of death. When raised up you are fully in the resurrection sphere, and the power of the natural sphere is completely broken. We are in the same sphere that Christ is in. In Colossians the being risen with Christ is looked at on the side of our experience, but here it is looked at as the work of God’s love to satisfy Himself. The spring is love, and therefore if He works He works for the satisfaction of love. Lust works for its own satisfaction, but by so doing degrades its object for its selfish gratification. Love works to satisfy itself by elevating its object. Here it is viewed as God’s work: “He has raised us up”. We are become nigh “in Christ Jesus”; the nearness is in another Man, and the old man is gone in the blood of Christ (see verse 13). If God pronounces the sentence of death on man, the man must go, he cannot be reprieved. ‘The man that was under judgment had to go in judgment’. I like that statement immensely.
In Romans 3 it is God’s side; it is by the man under judgment going in judgment that the righteousness of God is vindicated. This paves the way for God in the triumph of resurrection to bring in another Man. “Righteousness of God” is in contrast to the sin of man. God is declared to be righteous, and the blood is the witness that sin was removed, and then God is free to act. It is a most wonderful thing that the decks, so to speak, are cleared, and God is free to begin in another Man in resurrection. Resurrection is the glory of God; it is on the line of divine glory, but righteousness is in contrast with sin.
I used to connect righteousness with resurrection and glory, but when we come to test things they do not always stand. Scripture presents things much more wisely than we can, and is always right.
Ques What is the meaning of John [p. 221] 16: 10?
FER There was no righteousness here, and therefore Christ had to leave this place. Sin was proved to be here, and no righteousness. They killed the Just One — the only Just One — and so He went to the Father. Christ was a divine Person come forth in the communion of the divine counsel to accomplish a divine work. It was not possible that He could be holden of death. His going to the Father was no question of righteousness in John’s gospel; when He goes to the Father it is simply taking a natural course, only He goes back as Man. He was raised up by God, but as a divine Person He says, “I will raise it up”, John 2: 19.
Ques Has Christ no place in the declaration of the righteousness of God?
FER Psalm 40 is, that He was there to do the will of God, and that was that He should put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; that is the declaration of God’s righteousness. We have a place in Christ, and at the same time God has given us a witness of His righteousness. In giving effect to His purpose, He has not compromised His righteousness. Therefore the blood was put on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. The other Man has been brought in in divine righteousness, because the first man has been cleared away. Righteousness (which is the clearing away or removing of the man) is the basis, and paves the way for God to give effect to His purpose without compromising His glory. In Abraham God took up a “wholly right seed”, and yet when planted it bore wild grapes. They proved unrighteous, but this paved the way for God’s righteousness; their unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God: it proved the righteousness of God in condemning all alike. The result of the testing was that the seed of Abraham proved worse than all, and there is proved to be nothing for God in flesh, and then the true Seed comes in — not the seed after the flesh, but that [p. 222] by promise. The man under judgment must go in judgment: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.
Satan has changed his tactics now; he had succeeded in degrading man by idolatry, but now he transforms himself into an angel of light. He would bring man under law, and thus man is set upon his legs again; he professes to keep the law, and he takes up Christianity as an outward thing; but what about Christ? What about the Man risen from the dead? The end of Satan’s pretended ministers of righteousness shall be according to their works.
Verse 16 is the cross, and the purpose of it is stated in an abstract way. The effect is, there is a new man where the old man was. The new is Christ, the old was Jew and Gentile. The great point is, everything must go that does not take its character from Christ; that is now your genealogy, your starting point. There are many things that go to make a man what he is in this world: self-confidence, haughtiness, education, and the like — he would not be much thought of if he had not these. But “in Christ Jesus” you begin with totally new qualities. Instead of self-confidence you get confidence in and dependence on God, and you get meekness and lowliness too; it is as complete a metamorphosis as ever could be!
Peace is not patched up here; it is in ‘abolishing’ the enmity that peace comes in. “Making peace” refers to what lay between Jew and Gentile: it is not peace with God. In Colossians it is more reconciliation, and in view of God. It was not paring on this side and on that side to make them agreeable to one another, but both are put out, and then they are brought in “in Christ Jesus”. People do not apprehend the gravity of accounting themselves alive in Christ Jesus; it means the refusal of all that is of me; the best of me has to go, and the qualities of Christ [p. 223] alone are to be seen. The day is coming when the Lord alone will be exalted.
In verse 17 we get a remarkable statement as to Christ. He comes and preaches peace. He comes as having slain the enmity. It is in a moral way He comes. It is His coming out in resurrection. Christ’s ministry after the flesh was limited; He was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God; but it is in resurrection that the announcement comes to the Gentiles. It is “evangelising peace”. He made peace, and He announces it. If He did not, who could? If one died for all then were all dead, and if all were dead, who was there to announce peace? He announces it by the Spirit. The effect of it is that “through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (verse 18). We get here the three Persons of the Godhead; it is remarkable that the three divine Persons are bound up with those called of God. It is “through him”, “by one Spirit”, and “the Father” is the object.
It comes out in John’s writings that the Father sent the Son, and that He would send the Spirit so that they might understand what the Son had said to them. There is no access to the Father apart from the power of the Spirit; there could be no worship of the Father by Jew and Gentile apart from the Spirit. Here we get what makes the worshipping company. Here it is not individual approach to the Father; it is collective. The principle of it is, that we cannot have the privilege of sonship apart from Christ. He has His place in connection with it, because He is the First-born among many brethren. We cannot enjoy sonship apart from Christ and the company with Him, and that brings in the thought of the assembly. If we are in the light of the assembly we find there are others there, too.