THE FEASTS (2)
THE FEASTS (2)
We have already seen that after a man has accepted the way of approach to God (the first man having been shewn to be set aside as regards God, from his birth), these institutions instruct us in the conditions under which the soul is qualified to draw near to God. You begin with keeping the feast of unleavened bread — there is no reserve, no cherishing of the old leaven — the corrupting principles. When you come to verse 9 of this chapter the whole ground is changed. All is now the other side of death. We get the idea of this in Romans 7. You are married to Another, who is on the other side of death raised up, that you may bring forth fruit unto God. This is a great point for the soul to arrive at. You come to it in the feast of first-fruits, in which we see the beginning of God’s harvest. What is to mark us as responsible men down here is sincerity and truth — conformity with what has taken place at the cross, and many christians do not go beyond that, but this ends with our natural life here. “The grace of God ... hath appeared ... teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”; but that is not the land of promise. We have to take account of ourselves not only as subjects of God’s grace, but also of His work, and in the reality of this we are on the other side of death. The sheaf of first-fruits is waved for you, and you are joined to another; all is God’s work, and you are bound to take account of yourself as the subject of God’s work. What is true in Christ is made good in us by the Spirit of God. “Which thing is true in him and in you”. The apostle brought the light of God’s thought as to saints to bear upon the Galatians [p. 264] to shew them their contrariety. It was little present good to them that they were “the sons of God”, the apostle had to remind them of it, and brought the light of it to expose the folly and weakness of what they were going on with. They were hindering the work of God in them. It is a great thing to find that you are connected with the first-fruits of resurrection, and the question should be raised in our minds, how we can be in accord with Him who is raised up from the dead, and if we are this we shall not be in accord with the fashion and appointments of this world. All fruit for God must be from us as joined to the One who is risen; the secret of all fruit is that Christ is the spring. If there is any fruit it is of Christ, not of us. “From me is thy fruit found”. The apostle looked at things morally, he saw what came out in the converts, rather than the converts themselves. Fruit is for God, service is towards men. All exercise of gift is manward. You bring forth fruit in your life. All testimony may be comprehended in one single word — Christ; and the testimony of Christ is a sweet savour to God.
We come now to the two wave-loaves which were baken with leaven, and the fact of that necessitated a sin-offering, because man down here is represented in the loaves. At the day of Pentecost the church was not perfect; there was leaven there. It is not so with the heavenly city, there could be no sin-offering in connection with that. We want to apprehend in our souls what the church now is. Imperfection came in very early, but still there was a company set apart for God by the Holy Spirit, they formed the dwelling-place of God, were sanctified to God manifestly. The teaching of the two wave-loaves is unity. We understand but little of the unity of the Spirit, but it is a very important point. The Spirit in coming sealed a complete testimony of God’s mind. Paul did not add anything to it, he expounded it. The house and the body were both there, and the gentile was brought in before Paul began.
It is interesting to read christianity in the feasts, we [p. 265] see thus that when God was apparently giving the law, He was really foreshadowing christianity. It was a great day for any of us when we apprehended the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit remains though there be leaven, there is nothing perfect down here. The unity of the Spirit is a necessary consequence of the Spirit’s dwelling. The Spirit is here to set aside practically the flesh; unity can only be brought about in the setting aside of the human will. The greatest obstruction to the work of the Spirit is man’s will. Though there is failure, God has not given up the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit brings in the will of God, and so sets aside every man’s will. The unity of the Spirit is a vital principle, and you have to take care that it is not marred through your will. A few people now gathered in a place does not necessarily constitute the assembly. We need in this day to go on upon low lines, we cannot assume to be anything. We have to go on with those who are in subjection to the truth. 2 Timothy 2. The truth is properly a bond between all christians; the one who is true clings to the truth, and the truth must hold saints together. Truth is the expression of things as they are rightly, so that everything is in the light. Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the truth. You have the Spirit in you as the Spirit of truth. We may hold the truth in terms, but that is not the question. We have the truth in us by the anointing.