The Disaster Resulting from Confusing Divine Truth
"The Lord said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
thine enemies the footstool of thy feet" (Acts 2:34-35).
"Jesus standing
on the right hand of God..." "The Son of man
standing on the right hand of God" (Acts
7:55-56).
"If Christ is
in you"; "...his Spirit that dwelleth in
you" (Romans 8:10,11).
It is a matter that
should be clearly understood by all Christians that to
confuse the truths of God is very often to nullify their
value in the life of a believer, and worse than that, to
bring about a condition which is a positive contradiction
of what is fundamental to true Christianity. With great
seriousness then we seek to discriminate between the
different essential aspects of the truth, and the
above passages represent one of the instances of immense
importance. Although there are three quotations given,
there are only two really separate matters signified. The
first two are but two sides of one thing, but while those
two and the third constitute a full Christian
life, and are essential to such spiritual fullness, they
are two distinctly different things which must on no
account be allowed to overlap.
Christ
in Heaven: (a) 'Sitting'
In the first two Christ
is represented as in heaven at God's right hand, but in
two postures, 'sitting' and 'standing'. There is no
contradiction here. We must remember that we are in the
presence of language which is figurative. In His
"sitting" - "made to sit" (Ephesians
1:20): "Sit thou" (Acts 2:34) - there is the
Divine attestation that His work was complete and
perfect, and that as Son of Man He had won and inherited
the place of absolute honour and glory. "We see
Jesus... crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews
2:9). The right hand is first the place of honour. It is
of great significance that the new dispensation
commencing with Pentecost begins with Christ sitting at
God's right hand. All begins with a work completed! The
seventh day the day of rest - becomes the first day. The
colours of the rainbow end where they began. It is the
law of the octave, the eighth is as the first and marks a
new beginning. Our Christian life begins at the point
where the work is already completed in our Representative
Son of Man. There is nothing to add to it, either in need
or possibility. Immediately we try to contribute
something to it we in effect, for ourselves, nullify
it all, and God stands back. We shall come back to that
again presently.
Christ
in Heaven: (b) 'Standing'
With regard to the
second posture of Christ as in heaven - "standing on
the right hand of God" - this is seen when the Church is in the conflict, or when
things are needing to be done for her, not in the sense
of her justification, but for her defence and support in
adversity. Thank God, there is One in the glory standing
up for us, and He will see to it that the enemy
overreaches himself, as in Stephen's case. Much could be
said about that, but it is not our subject just now.
We pass straight to the
third position of Christ:
"Christ
in You"
Any mental difficulty
as to two so widely separated locations of Christ at the
same time is got over by the further words "By his
Spirit that dwelleth in you". Christ and the Holy
Spirit are one.
Here we cross over to
another phase of things entirely, and the only link
between the two is that the second is the outworking of
the first.
"Christ in
you" is unto our being "conformed to the image
of his (God's) Son" (Romans 8:29). It is to work in
us that which has been perfected by Him. It is the whole
realm of our being made Christ-like; having all the
faculties and features of Christ, which are resident in
the new life received at new birth, brought to maturity.
Every spiritual and Christly virtue has to be brought to
full growth; love, meekness, goodness, gentleness,
intelligence, etc.; so that we are not just theoretical
and doctrinaire Christians, but real ones, spiritually
responsible and accountable, with the root of the matter
within. This, however, necessitates much discipline; what
is called 'chastening'. This discipline, which employs
many forms of adversity and trial, has the effect of
bringing to light what we really are in ourselves, and it
is an ugly picture. Our own features do not
improve as we go on. We know ever more what poor,
wretched, and deplorable men we are, and - but for the
grace of God - hopeless. But something is being done deep
down which will show itself in due time to the glory of
God.
Confusion
Leads to Paralysis
But here is the point
of our peril. Let no child of God whose heart is toward
the Lord, who has not deliberately and wilfully
and knowingly resisted the Holy Ghost, ever for a single
moment confuse 'chastening' and its accompaniments of
self-discovery with judgment. You do this at the peril of
the joy of your salvation. If a child of God who loves
the Lord and wants nothing more than to be well-pleasing
unto Him should think that he is under the judgment and
condemnation of God because he is finding out how evil
his own heart is, that thought carries with it the
suggestion that Christ did not die for our sins;
that the wrath of God was not exhausted on Him and
by Him when He was made sin for us. It goes back behind a
completed work and Christ's sitting at God's right
hand, and contradicts and denies the very bed-rock of our
salvation - justification by faith. Satan is again given
the place of power so far as such an one is concerned
by such a thought. No, a thousand times No! Although I
may discover unimagined depths of iniquity in my own
heart, if I have put faith in Jesus Christ as the bearer
away of my sin and myself, His perfections are placed to
my account and God sees me in Him. This will never, never
become to me an occasion for living complacently on the
ground of what I am in myself. Without working through
all the reasons for and the nature of Christian growth,
with all the values in service which issue from it, let
me keep on this emphasis. There are so many dear children
of God who have so confused the two things mentioned as
to be in an altogether negative condition. They are
paralysed by their sense of sinfulness. They have seen
the need for a subjective application of the Cross of
Christ, and have recognized that when Christ died, they
died in Him; but the realization that the work is not yet
completed in them has resulted in their living in
a world of death, and knowing little or nothing of the
fact which cannot really be separated from union in death
with Christ, that is, union in resurrection and
exaltation. If such an one should read this, may I say to
you that if you are unhappy, worried, depressed, or
negative, uncertain, lacking in absolute assurance, and
therefore limited in your usefulness to the Lord, you
have entirely misunderstood and misapprehended the truth
of union with Christ. You are really a contradiction to
what you claim to believe. It would be better that you
put back your subjective truth until you have got fully
and firmly established in the glorious facts of what
Christ sitting at God's right hand really means for you.
Nevertheless, it is possible to be moving triumphantly
and strongly in the path of a deep inward work of the
Spirit, while knowing utter dependence and weakness.
Let me appeal to you
again that you do not let these two things become
confused. If you come upon fresh realizations of your own
worthlessness, say, Yes, that belongs to the realm of
God's work in me, and He will deal with that, but it
makes no difference whatever to my acceptance in the
Beloved so long as I do not condone my wrong, excuse
it, and accept it. Remember, dear friend, that God
demands the first ground, the ground of our settled faith
in the finished and perfected work of Christ, in
order to make any beginning inside of us. It would be
fatal for Him to touch the inside had He not got that
objective faith. We must be careful that we do not upset
God's order and bring ourselves on to false ground. This
can only result in destroyed testimony and much
gratification to Satan at the Lord's expense in us.
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jul-Aug 1965, Vol 43-4