"God...
has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in
righteousness by (in) the (a) man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him
from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
"For
neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all
judgment unto the Son... and he gave him authority to execute
judgment because he is the (a) Son of man" (John
5:22,27).
Here
we have a comprehensive and emphatic statement concerning the
place that the Lord Jesus occupies by the appointment of God His
Father. That place is shown to be inclusive and exclusive. That
means that
1.
God has summed up all things in Christ.
Ultimately there will be nothing outside of Christ, and all that
eventually is found to be outside of Christ will be removed from
God's domain.
2.
Nothing of God can be had outside of Christ.
In
the Bible we have two revelations: one of man outside of Christ
and the other of man in Christ. The emphasis is upon the word man.
The Scripture above says that the final judgment of
the world is in a man; a God-ordained,
God-horizoned man. And it is not by, but
in that Man. What is in that Man in
the matter of righteousness will be the criterion of judgment.
Man Outside of Christ
We
know, not only by the statements of the Bible, but in our own
hearts that man is marred and spoilt by sin. It is an ugly word,
hated by all, refused acknowledgment by many, excused by many
more, but, apart from those in Christ, not confessed or allowed
recognition. In this connection it is very significant that, in a
time of moral landslide and increasing depravity, there is a
great revival of humanism - the theory of man's inherent goodness
and moral greatness: the total dismissal of the fact of sin as
sin. It is called by any other name; even good in
the making. It is not difficult to see through this artifice of
the devil. It is to construct a humanity which, in itself,
is its own saviour, and to wholly dispose of the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This is almost the last word
in human blindness. It is blindness to history. It is blindness
to the moral devolution of recent times.
It does not allow that the last decades have uncovered a depth of
iniquity, wickedness, and "man's inhumanity to man",
beyond description, and that in the areas which have
had more education, scientific research, discovery, and
"culture" (?) than anywhere else on the earth. Such
is the master-deception of the devil! "The god of this world
hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving", says the Word of
God. We must ever remember that Satan's rebellion against God was
on the decision of God to make man. He
knew that the intention of God was to give dominion over the
world to man, and that dominion he -
Satan - both coveted and usurped by the deception of man. This is
all very clearly implied in the titles given to Satan in the
Bible as "The prince of this world", "the god of
this age", "the world-ruler of this darkness",
etc. Hence the double issue of man's deception, seduction, and
ruin: man's separation from God: and the defeat of God's
intention. Man, out of Christ, is such a man, even at what he -
man - thinks to be the highest levels of intelligence,
"culture" and "progress". The Bible says much
about the sinister nature of "the wisdom of this
world", and even foretells that apostasy will go
hand-in-hand with the increase of knowledge. The subtlety of sin
is that to try and eliminate its malevolence it has to be called
by other names. The Bible does not hide the fact of man's sinful
nature, not even to omit mention of the sins of the greatest of
its men of God: Abraham, Moses, David, etc.
It
is now possible to discern the momentousness of Christ. For this
we have to go a long way back, even to a cosmic event before
man's creation, when, the Bible tells us explicitly, God
appointed His Son "Heir of all things". That was the
point of cosmic controversy then, and has been ever since. The
focal point of the conflict of the ages is the predestined place
of Christ as Son of Man, the humanity according to God's
intention, of which Jesus the Christ is the
"Firstborn", "Progenitor", "Pioneer" and
"Head". Countless are the ways and means pursued to
prevent, frustrate, and defeat Christ from coming into His own in
a humanity conformed to His image. In other words, (a)
to discredit and displace Christ; and (b)
to prevent there coming into being a people truly,
by new birth, coming "into Christ". The great
revelation of the New Testament is what is represented by that
phrase "In Christ". The "fall" was not only a
fall in level, from one higher level to a lower; it was a fall out
of God! The momentousness of Jesus Christ is in His
reversal of that, and in Himself restoring man 'into God', his
right place.
This
is the meaning of that darkest and deepest eternal moment at the
end of the Cross when Jesus went out from God -
"Forsaken"; out into the direst distress; out,
that in 'lostness' He might find us just where we are in God's
knowledge and bring us back into God. "Christ died once, the
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter
3:18). His body broken was the reality of which the veil of the
tabernacle and temple was the type. Its rending, as between
heaven and earth, man and God, opened a fast-closed way back into
the realm of God. Surely that was a momentous moment; a momentous
act!
Every
aspect of Christ's person and work, and every aspect of the
Gospel has to do with this. Moreover, every activity of the evil
powers upon the Christian is with the object of cutting in
between him - or her - and the Lord by weakening or damaging the
one tie of that union, namely faith.
Hence
Christ's imperative "Abide in me". Satan "abode
not in God" and see the consequences! Hence the
momentousness of being in, and abiding in Christ, which is in
God.
We
return to where we began. God binds Himself up with His Son for
man. All judgment is, and will be, on the basis of what Christ is
and whether man is in Him or not. The
whole Christian life, if it is true and under the government of
the Holy Spirit, is a lifelong education as to the significance
of Christ; the knowledge of Christ, and, seeing that it is not
merely theoretical, doctrinal, theological knowledge, but very
practical, wrought on the anvil and by the fires of deep
experiences, it is knowledge which is a part of our being, our
constitution. It is knowledge which represents something that has
taken place in us. We are that
knowledge.
When
we first come back to God through Christ we have only a
more-or-less understanding of the depth, the cost, the
momentousness of what we have come into. But as we go on, the
dealings of God with us bring us to an ever-deepening realisation
and appreciation of what Christ is and has done. On the one side,
the depth of our worthlessness becomes more terrible to our
awareness. This is not for our desolation as the end, but to make
us "know" how great is the meaning of Christ from God to
us, and to God for us. The
ultimate vision of the redeemed multitude is that of a worshipping
people attributing everything to
the Lamb.