THE DEATH OF CHRIST

Jeremiah 13:1-11; 2 Kings 5:13,14; John 20:19-22

I have a simple impression, beloved brethren, about the death of Christ. I feel very limited in speaking about it, but it is fundamental to the believer’s life. The death of Christ is something that we should contemplate and feed upon. The scriptures we have read, especially the second one in relation to Naaman and his flesh becoming as the flesh of a little child, bring out the moral results of the death of Christ. Then the scripture we read in John brings out the spiritual results of the death of Christ. It involves the Lord’s side; it goes on to the line of purpose. Think of all that is secured through the death of Christ, all that God has done in the death of Christ. The scripture in 2 Kings speaks of what is removed in the death of Christ, and the scripture in John’s gospel brings in what is introduced through the death of Christ. How wonderful then the death of Christ is for us! The hymn writer appreciated that when he wrote those words,

‘O Lamb of God, still keep us

Close to Thy piercèd side’ (Hymn 256)

How often we find in our experience that we stray and get into difficulty, but then we can get back to the death of Christ and find safety and peace as being true to the death of Christ, being conformed to His death. These are significant exercises in our lives, but how precious it is to prove the blessing of appreciating and being true to the death of the Lord.

Where we read in Jeremiah, the prophet is told to go and buy a linen girdle and to put it upon his loins. This would suggest the place that we have in God’s affections, and that never changes. Later on God said, “For as a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah”. But then there was this matter of instruction to Jeremiah, “dip it not in water.” The water here would suggest death. God was speaking to Jeremiah and teaching him a lesson; he had to go all the way to the Euphrates, which as we know is a long journey. He had to go all the way there and hide the girdle in the rock, and I suppose he then went all the way home again. Then he would have to go all the way back, and during that time, Jeremiah must have had time to wonder, ‘What is this all about?’ When he went back and got the girdle, he said “I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and behold, the girdle was spoiled”, and then he said, “it was good for nothing”. What a matter to arrive at in our lives! It reminds us that whatever is in us, if it is not in keeping with the death of the Lord, is good for nothing. I would have to say that about anything that is of the flesh in me. So it speaks about the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem; all that belongs to us after the first order. God says plainly here, in what you might say are five words with the understanding, “it was good for nothing”. We must come in our lives to realise that anything that is not in keeping with the death of Christ is good for nothing. It has to go, and indeed before God it has already gone. The exercise for us is to be true to that.

That is why I read in 2 Kings about Naaman. He was a great man, a mighty man of valour, “but a leper” (v.1). He too went on a journey; he had ten changes of raiment with him, but really they were all good for nothing. What good would ten changes of clothing be to someone who had leprosy? They would just cover up the condition that lay underneath. So eventually, Naaman did as he was asked to do; “his servants drew near, and spoke to him and said, My father, if the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he says to thee, Wash and be clean? Then he went down, and plunged himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean”.

What a wonderful thing! Naaman would see that his flesh had become as the flesh of a little child. What a change in him! And what a change can take place in us. I do not suppose we could apply the seven times too literally, but it might be like the first seven chapters in Romans. In each one, you might say, you are plunging in the Jordan; it is not enough just to do it once. That is another exercise in our lives – to continue to go down; perhaps the seven would suggest that too. This is not something that is just done once and then left. It is a continuous matter to keep going down, to increase in our appreciation of the death of Christ and all it has removed, and also all that is introduced by it. You might say Naaman had “obeyed from the heart the form of teaching”, Rom.6:17. I suppose Naaman would have been able to grasp many things in his mind, but it came to a point when his servants pleaded with him; they say “My father”, and it reached his heart. In principle he obeyed from the heart. The seven times is like a form of teaching – the matter had been made good in his heart. I suppose too the fact that his flesh became like the flesh of a little child is really like the beginning of Romans 8; “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus” (v.1). Think of the moral beauty that was arrived at in this man who was a leper. He represents all of us; we have all been lepers. That is the condition of sin in the flesh and we have all been in it. But what a transformation takes place as we apply the death of Christ to ourselves. Paul wrote about always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, and the footnote there says that it refers not only to the fact that Jesus has died, but it is the moral character of death (2 Cor.4:10 note n). I am challenged by what I am saying, but the moral effect of the death of Christ in us is that we become cleansed.

On Lord’s day we read of that in Acts 10; God speaks about what He has cleansed (v.15). From His side there is what He has done, but from our side it involves a moral process. Cleansing is not exactly a judicial act. Redemption and forgiveness from our sins involve a judicial act, but cleansing involves a moral process. Something of that should go on throughout our lives so that we should arrive at this wonderful matter of being as a little child.

We read in John’s gospel, and there we have the side of purpose. We also read on Lord’s day in Acts 10 about Peter when he went to Joppa. It is interesting that he chose to lodge with Simon the tanner. I do not suppose you would naturally choose to lodge with someone who is a tanner. There used to be a tannery in Fife and the smell from it was repugnant. I assume Simon’s business as a tanner would have been at his house, because I do not suppose in those days that someone would live in one place and work in another, yet Simon Peter chose to go there. He did not lodge at the house of Dorcas, which might have been more congenial, although he did eventually go there to raise up Dorcas, but he went to the house of Simon the tanner in Joppa. I think that Peter felt the need to be kept close to the death of Christ in view of all that was opening up. Think of all that was going to open up in relation to the purpose of God! The avenue into it is really the death of Christ. All of the things that would hinder us from entering into the purpose of God are removed, so that we can have full liberty in what belongs to God. David, too, is another one who in principle appreciated the death of Christ. He spoke about Goliath’s sword and he said, “There is none like that: give it me”, 1 Sam.21:9. Death became his servant.

We read in John’s gospel of the Lord Jesus coming in and He said, “Peace be to you. And having said this, he shewed to them his hands and his side”. We know that that is a distinct aspect of John’s writings, that he presents the Lord’s side. That would lead us on as we contemplate it. We spoke on Lord’s day about the thought of the assembly as coming out of His death. There is what has been removed in the Lord’s death, but think of what has been introduced – this wonderful vessel, the assembly. So we have moved from what is moral to what is spiritual in this wonderful vessel. Perhaps the psalmist alluded to it when he spoke about what was curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth (Ps.139:15). This vessel, the assembly, is coming to light. How blessed it is, and because of His death, the Lord has this liberty on the ground of resurrection, in a sinless condition. Of course it was so for the Lord, who was ever without sin. We have been reminded recently in ministry that for us as risen in Him, that is a sinless condition. Practically we know that we are still in a fleshly condition, but the position that we have before God in Christ must be a sinless condition, because it is His place that we share. The Lord had the liberty to come to them in this scripture, and He breathed into them the Spirit of an ascended Man. He is the last Adam, a quickening spirit. There is a new generation which is of Himself, of His own kind and it all really anticipated the assembly. How wonderful the assembly is! This is the longest dispensation, which is an evidence of how gracious God is; He has allowed the dispensation of grace to be the longest. But it is also because it is the dispensation in which the assembly is being formed. We might say simply that it requires so many individuals to comprise the body of Christ, so that there should be a full expression of Christ. It is a remarkable matter. The assembly is a creature vessel; we never have part in deity, and we understand that we have limitations. But I think it is good to remember that the assembly, although a creature vessel, is not man-made. The assembly is not a man-made vessel; the hymn writer says, ‘Whose builder is her God’ (Hymn 221). She is heavenly in origin and destiny; again that hymn writer refers to her ‘origin celestial’. Think of what the assembly is, the product of divine workmanship; it comes out of Christ’s death and it will be for Him eternally.