THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TRUTH
[p. 437] THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TRUTH
It appears to me that in the issue of a new serial it is important to make plain that the object in so doing is the maintenance and setting forth of that which is true in doctrine, not the promulgation of that which is new. That there has been in the present century a remarkable revival of the truth of the Church no intelligent Christian can, I think, gainsay; and the effect of this has been felt, far and wide, beyond the immediate circle which has been formed by the truth thus revived in God’s goodness.
In later years the question has arisen as to how the great truths involved in the Church, such as the calling of God, eternal life, new creation and union are to be maintained. The effort to secure them by the use of fixed statements and conventional terms, devoid of elasticity, has proved entirely inefficacious; as has also the mode of attaching everything to the believer as a possession, the good of which is experienced in the power of the Spirit. Souls trained in this school must necessarily stop short of any apprehension of new creation.
It is now largely admitted that a Christian’s apprehension of God’s calling cannot be anything beyond the measure of God’s work in him. He may claim standing and privilege, have prophecy, understand all mysteries and all knowledge intellectually, have faith to remove mountains, and, without love, be nothing. A Christian’s measure for God and for the assembly is love, and love is evidently the work of God in him.
Now this brings me to the conclusion that the real and only way to secure truths which have been revived is in our being the expression of those truths; holding the truth in love; and at the same time watchful that, while having the full light of God’s will in Christ, we do not arrogate to ourselves anything beyond what we [p. 438] are as the effect and fruit of God’s work in us; for it is evident that we cannot have the conscious sense of any truth, save as we are in the state which corresponds to that truth (1 Corinthians 1: 30); and it is, I think, unsafe to talk much of things of which we have not the consciousness.
While speaking thus of consciousness, I do not mean to put it in the place of faith. The first light of God in the soul is by faith. We are justified by faith, saved by faith, sons of God by faith, risen together with Christ by faith, and Christ is to dwell in our hearts by faith. So that in the Christian course the scope of faith is more and more enlarged.
At the same time it is certain that a large part of the New Testament is occupied with bringing before us the work of the Spirit of God in the believer, which forms him for approach to God in the consciousness of his soul; and consciousness in this sense must be in the new man. The old man has nothing to say to it.
As a proof and illustration of what I have said, I would draw attention to the epistle to the Hebrews. In the first ten chapters we have but little unfolded as to the state of the Christian (save a state of unbelief and danger of apostasy). What is brought to light is the new order of things which is the necessary moral consequence of the sacrifice and priesthood of Christ, not only in the setting aside of what previously existed, but in the introduction of that which is perfect as both expressing and answering to God’s mind.
In chapters 11 to 13, however, we get the question of Christian state elucidated, and learn how it is formed. The first great principle of it is faith, which is, for this moment, the principle of living. This is not peculiar to Christianity, for it was announced as a principle to the prophet Habakkuk in view of the coming of the Lord. What I understand by this is that the soul is in the light of God’s testimony, not in the moral darkness which is around. This testimony is for us of the [p. 439] glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God. This principle of faith puts us in the line of the witnesses. It involves that the soul is in the light of God’s pleasure and perfect satisfaction. But in chapter 12, we have not, so far as I know (after the opening), any allusion to faith, but in a sense what is greater than faith, namely, the chastening of God, and its voice and meaning to those who are the subjects of His discipline; together with the purpose to which the chastening is directed. The chapter necessitates a distinction between mere professors and those who are really of God. In His discipline God does not occupy Himself with bastards; they are not genuinely of Him, though they may be in the place of profession; and hence they are not disciplined. Those who come under discipline are the objects of love — they are of God, and thus sons; and if even they have not accepted the assurance of this by the Spirit, they may learn by discipline that they are loved of God. Though they may not bear themselves towards God as sons, He bears Himself towards them as Father. Thus the soul is practically led into the reality of the relationship, which is the most essential step in the question of Christian state.
Then, concurrent with this, we have the object of chastening, namely, that we may be morally according to God, as partaking of His holiness, and yielding peaceable fruits of righteousness. Thus we have in principle the having put on the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. In the new man the believer is holy and without blame before God in love. In the putting on of the new man there is of necessity the having put off the old.
Thus we have light as to the formative principles of Christian state, and the means by which it is effected in us. As the result of this there is the ability to apprehend the breadth and length and depth and height, the whole range and extent of things before God, the fruit of His sovereign will; and to distinguish [p. 440] between that which is for God, and that which is for man. In the case of the children of Israel, in coming to mount Sinai where God addressed them, they came to that which could and did affect man as man. It was not a scene of judgment; but it had a good deal of that character. There was that which was tangible and terrible to the senses, and calculated to inspire man with awe, and to forbid his approach to God, or even the hearing of His voice.
But Christians have come to another order of objects, none of which could affect or be appreciated by the natural man (1 Corinthians 2), and they can be appreciated by the Christian only in the measure in which he has been formed of God according to His nature. Then it is that he can discern the difference between the things which are for God, and those that are for man. At the same time he apprehends that his own true blessing and position are bound up with the things which are for God.
Thus the mount Zion, the city of the living God, and the Church of the firstborn ones which are written in heaven, are evidently for God; that is, for His glory and pleasure, and for the display of Himself, of His longsuffering mercy, His government and His grace. With these our calling as “in Christ” is identified; and in the soul’s apprehension of these objects we reach the point where God, and He only, is “judge” — all is under His eye. Then it is that we have the consciousness of all that which is for man: the perfecting of “just men” through redemption, the new covenant in its Mediator, and the blood of sprinkling speaking of the removal of death in righteousness, instead of the answering a call for vengeance. In this way our souls are in the brightest light as the fruit of God’s work in us; and in the apprehension of the greatest things which are for God, we have not only the faith but the consciousness of all that is of God’s grace for man. Truly we can then say that we have been brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light.