My Dear _____:
I am a little anxious lest, knowing now that you have peace with
God, you should be content, and settle down, thinking that this is all
the blessing that God has provided for you in Christ. Many fall into
this snare, and thereby never understand the place into which they are
brought.
Permit me, then, to remind you, that great as the blessing is, on
the enjoyment of which you have entered, it falls infinitely short of
God's thoughts and God's desires for you. I may be able to make this
more simple, if I direct your attention again to the foundation. The
foundation of all lies in the cross of Christ; for it was there that He
both met, on our behalf, every claim of God's holiness, and fully
glorified Him in every attribute of His character. It is to this He
Himself referred when He said, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I
have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (John 17: 4). And it
is on this ground, as having thus established a claim upon God, that He
prays, "And now, 0 Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (v. 5). You will
therefore see that God's estimate of the work of Christ is seen in the
place which He has accorded to Him at His own right hand. We may even
say more: that nothing less than this would have been an adequate
response to the claim which Christ had, through His finished work,
established on God. And surely nothing less could have satisfied the
heart of God; for who shall even imagine His joy in intervening to
raise Christ from the dead, setting Him down at His own right hand, and
in giving "Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"? (Philip. 2:
9-11). Observe, then, very carefully these three things: first, that
the place now occupied by Christ in glory is the fruit of His
redemptive work; secondly, that He occupies it as Man; and hence,
thirdly, that He is there on behalf of His own. The consequence is,
that God must bring us into the same place; that God's glory is
concerned in according to believers the same place of acceptance before
Him; yea, that His heart delights also to acknowledge thus the work and
worthiness of His beloved Son. Every believer therefore is before
God according to the efficacy of the work of Christ, and in all the
acceptability of His Person, and thus enjoys a position of
perfect nearness, and is the object of the perfect complacency of God;
for he is brought, even now, home to God in Christ Jesus.
I may now lead you to a few scriptures which will abundantly
substantiate the above statements. The very next verse to that which
occupied our attention in the last letter will do much towards this.
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ"; and then the apostle proceeds: "By whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in
hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5: 1, 2). It is thus not only peace
with God that we have on believing, but we have access also through
Christ into this grace wherein we stand; i.e., we are brought into the
full favor of God--into the unclouded sunlight of His presence, and
there we can rejoice--everything being settled and secured--in hope of
the glory of God. So perfect and so inalienable is the place into which
we are brought, on faith in Christ--on faith in Him who raised up Jesus
our Lord from the dead--that, notwithstanding the trials, difficulties,
and dangers of the wilderness-path, we can rejoice in the hope--in the
sure and certain prospect--of the glory of God. There may be, as the
apostle goes on to tell us, tribulations; but if so, we can glory even
in these, "knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience,
experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us"--that love which God proved, commended toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Having too, while
we were yet enemies, been reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more, we are entitled to conclude, we shall be saved--saved
completely, including the redemption of the body (8: 23)--by His life,
the life of the risen Saviour at the right hand of God. And not only
so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we
have now received the reconciliation (see margin) (5: 3-11). Thus we
have as our present portion, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts;
we joy in Himself, we occupy before Him a place of perfect favor, and
rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
But even this is not all. In this same epistle we are taught, not
only that our guilt is gone for ever as soon as we believe in Christ,
that we are justified, etc., but we are also shown to be brought
through the death and resurrection of Christ into a new place
altogether--a place outside of the flesh, because we are "in Christ"
before God. The next section of this epistle, commencing at verse 12 of
this chapter, ending with chap. 8, treats of this subject. You will
thus see that, first of all, everything is traced up either to Adam or
Christ, the two heads, the man Adam, and the second man Christ (5:
12-21). The consequence is, that every one is seen in Adam or in
Christ, and I need hardly say, whether we are in Adam or Christ,
depends upon whether or not we are believers. If through grace we are
believers, we are in Christ. This being so, there are certain blessed
results which I will briefly indicate, leaving you at your own leisure
to follow out the subject.
The first thing the apostle reminds us is, that the very ground on
which we are--the ground taken at our baptism--shows that we profess to
be dead with Christ; and this, as is seen in Col. 3: 3, is true of all
believers before God. If you carefully read Rom. 6 you will at once see
that the apostle urges our responsibility on this foundation. Hence
myself is gone from God's sight as well as my sins, otherwise the
apostle could not say, as he does, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (6: 11).
In the next chapter he teaches that we "also are become dead to the
law through the body of Christ," etc.; and this prepares the way, after
a discussion of the effect of the application of the law to one who is
quickened by the Spirit of God, bringing thereby to light the constant
presence of sin in the nature and the utter contrariety between the new
nature and the old (7: 13-25), for a full statement of the truth as to
the believer. "There is therefore," he proceeds to say, "now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus," (8: 1), so complete is the
deliverance, as well as forgiveness, which we have in Christ. Nay more;
he tells us, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the
Spirit of God dwell in you" (8: 9). He thus shows that the believer's
standing is not in the flesh, not in the first man Adam at all, but he
is before God in a place which is characterized as being in the Spirit;
that is, the Spirit, and not the flesh, characterizes his existence
before God, because, in the death of Christ, the believer's evil nature
also was judged; for "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (8: 3). Then,
after pointing out further blessed consequences of having the
indwelling Spirit, he declares that "all things must work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to
God's purpose," since "whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren," etc. He then asks the question, "If God be for
us, who can be against us?" and he answers by reminding us that God, in
delivering up His Son to death for us all, has given us the proof that
He will freely give us all things. This leads him to the triumphant
conclusion that nothing can be laid to the charge of God's elect; that
since God Himself has justified them, none can condemn them; that since
Christ has died, and has risen again, and is even at the right hand of
God to make intercession for us, nothing can ever separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (8: 31-39).
Now it would be a fatal mistake for you to rest in the fifth
chapter, if you would know the fulness of God's grace, and the wondrous
character of his salvation; for, unless we go on to the eighth chapter,
we never know what is true for us and of us before God--the complete
and perfect deliverance every believer has, though he may be ignorant
of it, in Christ. And it is of the utmost importance that you should
see that these blessings which have been indicated are in no way
connected with attainment. All that I have pointed out is the portion
(whether he knows it or not) of every on who cries "Abba, Father," of
every babe in Christ.
But even now there is much more beyond; and if you will turn with me
to Ephesians, I will indicate in a few words--for I am unwilling to
prolong this letter--the full character of the believer's place before
God. Look, first, at the wonderful expressions in the first chapter:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ
to Himself, according the the good pleasure of His will, to the praise
of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved" (1: 3-6). Look at each of the sentences I have underlined, and
you will see how perfect is our place before God. For he has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings, etc.; it is His purpose that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love; and He has made us accepted
in the Beloved.
In the next chapter we have the steps by which we have been brought
into the heavenly places. "God who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,"
etc. (2: 4-6). Here we are regarded as having been dead in sins; Christ
is looked upon in this epistle as having gone down into that
condition--dead, as it were, in the place of the sinner; God, being
rich in mercy, and acting from His own heart of love, came in, in
grace, and quickened us together with Christ and then He
raised us up together and seated us together in Christ in the
heavenlies; so that He has brought us into His own presence; and hence
our present place--our place now, even while we are in the body--is in
the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Nothing short of this expresses the
fulness of His grace, or satisfies His own heart.
There is one more scripture I desire to bring before you, and then I
have done. "As He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17). As
Christ is at the right hand of God--the delight and joy of God's
heart--there in all the perfectness of His person, and in all the sweet
savor of His sacrifice, so are we in this world; for we stand not in
ourselves but in Christ, and are therefore invested with all His own
acceptance and fragrance before God.
The Lord give us to have clearer apprehensions of the place into
which, in His unspeakable grace, we are brought in Christ Jesus.
Believe me, dear ______,
Yours affectionately in Christ, E.D.