Reading:
Romans 8:29; Gal. 4:19; Ephes. 2:15-16; 1 Cor. 1:24-30, 12:13; Gal. 3:27-28; Acts 17:31.
"Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in
righteousness by the 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).
The words "the man whom he hath ordained" take
us back to the point where we commenced our
contemplation of things, into the counsels of God before
times eternal. It was then that the Man was ordained.
The history of this world, then, is to be gathered up, to
be summed up in that Man; its destiny is to be
determined in Him.
Let us make a few comprehensive, and yet quite
concrete statements in relation to this fact.
Firstly, God's explanation of the universe is a Man. If we want to know the meaning of the universe, we
must look at a Man: and if we look at that Man whom
He hath ordained, and see Him with the eyes of our
hearts enlightened, through a spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him, we shall see Him as
God's explanation of the universe.
Secondly, God's answer to everything that has resulted from Adam's
fall is a Man.
That is
comprehensive. It is quite beyond our working out; but it does not matter at what point you touch the outcome of Adam's fall, or what phase of the result you touch, you will find that God answers in a
Man, in this Man. You may take any one of the issues of the Fall as
you see them expressed at different points, representing a state full of difficulty, full of complexity, full
of tragedy apparently, and ask, How is this
to be dealt with, to be remedied? God's answer is a Man, and this Man whom He hath
ordained.
I do not want to launch out upon a course of
illustration, but I will give you one example of
what I mean by this. Take Babel. Now Babel
is a problem: the scattering of the people, the
confounding of the language, and all the result
of Babel in nations and diversities of tongues,
with all the weakness that issues from that - a
determined and intended weakness - is a problem of considerable magnitude. It was a sovereign act of God, against a certain kind of strength
which would take charge of the world apart
from God. But Babel itself represents a very big
problem, and a complex state of things, as being
in itself something which God never intended.
It is the outworking of the Fall, and the expression of a curse. It has to be dealt with. The
whole thing has to be cleared up. It can never abide if
God is to have things as He intended. What is the
answer to Babel? It is a Man. It is this Man. All that
situation, that confusion, that tragedy, that evil, will be
eventually cleared up in a Man. There will be in that Man
a unity of all that is divided and scattered. There will be
in that Man a coming to one understanding. We have the
earnest of all this now in Christ. There is such a thing as
spiritual understanding, and it does not matter whether
we can understand one another in our human language
or not, we can all understand by the Holy Spirit the same
thing, and speak an inward language. There is a oneness
of understanding, and the full assurance of understanding
in Christ. I merely instance it and do not stay to work it
out.
Thirdly, God's proclamation to men, in respect of
their salvation, their satisfaction, their fulness, is a
Man. We will break that up in a minute or two.
Fourthly, God's object, in all His dealings with His
own, is a Man. The object of all the Lord's strange and
mysterious dealings, and of all His painful dealings with
His own, is a Man, and He is entirely governed by His
view of that Man in all He does with us. Nothing in all
His dealings is something in itself, but it is all related. He
has His eye all the time upon a Man, and He acts in
relation to us with that Man in view.
No experience of ours, under the hand of God, is an
incident by itself. It does not come into our lives because
of this, or that, or something else as apart. If we go
wrong, God does not chastise us for this or that as a
thing in itself. God's chastisements are not incidental, are
not detached, are not apart, but in relation to an object,
the object in His eye, a Man.
God's dealings, not only with His own, but with the world, which are different kinds of dealings, are in
relation to that Man. If we were able to recognise what
that means, and apply it, bring it into the realm of applied
truth, it would considerably help us in our every-day life.
Now in those statements we have comprehensively
set forth God's object, the great governing reality.
Everything is explained by a Man, and in a Man, and
that Man interprets the history and the destiny of the
universe. It could be put in other ways, and a great deal
more from the Word of God could be cited to show
how
this is so, but we have to go on to break it up further.
God has not Evolved or Produced a
Religion
God has not evolved or produced a religion, that is, a
system of religious teaching and practice. That is where
so many have gone astray, and, as a consequence, you
get the clever and scholarly works on the religion of the
Semites, and all that sort of thing. To these are added
works on comparative religions, with Judaism and
Christianity included. The whole matter is reduced to
comparative values in the religions of the world, as to
which is the best, and if it can be proved, as many have
tried to show, that Judaism was better than all the
ancient religions, and Christianity better than both
ancient and modern religions, then it is to be concluded
that Christianity is the religion for the world. This is a
missing of the point. It is not a thing that we are likely to
be caught in, but we have to recognise this truth for
ourselves, and see where men have gone astray. God
has not evolved or produced a religion: God has
presented a Man.
God has not Presented a Set of Themes
God has not presented us (in the first instance) with a
set of truths, themes, subjects, although the Bible may be
full of these. He has not presented us with them, but with
a Man. We are never called upon to preach salvation to
anybody: we are called upon to preach Christ, and the
salvation that is in Christ Jesus: "...it was the good
pleasure of God... to reveal his Son in me, that I might
preach him among the Gentiles..." (Gal. 1:15,16). Any
truth, any doctrine, any theme, any subject which is not a
revelation of Christ, and a ministration of Him, and which
does not bring into Christ and make Christ Himself
greater and fuller in the life, has missed its intention, has
been divorced and separated from the purpose of God,
and does not stand with God at all. God has not
presented us, in the first instance, with a set of truths,
themes, subjects, though there be found great themes in
the Word of God, such as atonement, redemption, and
the many others; He has presented us with a Man.
Everything with God from eternity to eternity is
inseparably bound up with a Man.
Perhaps you are wondering what is the practical
value of saying such things. The practical
value is this, that you never come into the meaning and
value of the things, even should you deal with them all
your life long, if they are taken as things in themselves.
The only dynamic in any truth is the living Christ.
Sanctification is Christ, even as justification is Christ.
These are not things to be taken and stated, laid hold of
and appropriated as things in themselves: Christ is made
unto us sanctification and redemption.
Now one or two qualifying statements need to be
made alongside of that. While it is true that God has not
presented us, in the first instance, with truths, and so on,
but with a Man; while it is true that God has not evolved
a religion, but presented a Man; while we are called to
preach, not salvation, but the Saviour, we must
remember that, even then, it is not with a Man officially
that we have to do, but with what He is personally. By
officially, we mean it is not the office that He occupies as
Redeemer, Saviour, Mediator, or any other of the
designations which may be given Him, representing His
official work, with which we have to be concerned. That
is not the first thing, but the Man Himself. We are not
saved by coming to Him in His official capacity as
Saviour, we are saved by vital union with Him as a
person.
It is not by our objective vision of the Man that we
receive all God's meaning. There is great meaning and
great value in Christ, viewed objectively; that is, as
having summed up in Himself all that we need, and our
holding fast by the fact of the completeness of everything
in Christ. There is a real value for the heart in that, but it
is not in having to do with the Man objectively alone, but
subjectively, that we come into the Divine intention. The
full hope of Christ is not Christ in salvation, but Christ in
you. There are the values associated with Christ in
salvation, but such a conception may be no more than of
the official values of Christ as placed out there. The
practical values of Christ are only known subjectively;
they are what He is in Himself, and not what He is in
office. You will see what we mean as we go on. It is
very important for those of us who have responsibility in
the things of God to recognise these differences.
Vital Union with Christ the Basis
of God's Success
The point is this, that the basis of God's
success is vital union with Christ, what we sometimes
speak of as identification with Christ. God depends for
His success entirely upon Christ within, and therefore, as
we have said before, the one thing that God is after, and
the one thing that the Devil is against, and will counter by
every means of substitution, imitation, counterfeit, and so
on, is getting Christ within men. Oh, how far things can
go, and yet fall short of that! This is where the
importance comes of recognising the difference between
doctrine - even the doctrine of salvation - and the Man, the
Person. We can preach the doctrine to men and get an
assent, the consent of the mind to the doctrine, so that
we have our catechumens, our classes for instructing
converts in the doctrine; and when they have come to the
place where they say, Now I understand the doctrine, it
is all clear to me now! we think they are ready to be
brought into the Church. The matter is much simpler than
that; and it must be more than that. You cannot educate
anybody into the kingdom of God, not even with
Christian doctrine. No one ever passes into the kingdom
of God by understanding Christian doctrine intellectually.
You may have all that, and yet have a serious breakdown
before long. You may have an awful condition amongst
your so-called converts in the face of all that. It may be
found in the long run that they were never really saved,
though they were baptised on the grounds that they
understood all that you could say to them about Christian
doctrine. Thus, on the one hand, perfectly honest people
may make a grave mistake, and, on the other hand, the
Devil is out to give a tremendous amount of what comes
just short of new birth. He will readily allow things to go
so far, provided they do not go that far. But once that
thing is really done, you have the basis for everything.
You have the basis for the doctrine in a living way, the
basis of complete assurance, the basis for everything,
once Christ is within. God's objective is reached with
regard to the starting point, and everything is possible.
That is what I mean by the difference between doctrine
and the Person, between the official and the personal.
The basis of God's success is Christ in you, union with
Christ, identification with Christ in an inward way. This is
laid down in the Word of God as the principle upon
which God works in this dispensation from first to last.
The Perfection of the Divine Provision seen in Relation to
(a) The Problem of Human Life
Let us take some of the passages to which we
have referred at the commencement of our meditation, and see how they are but a
following out of this very principle laid down as the basis upon which God works
through this dispensation. Turn to Gal. 3:28,
"There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there
can be no male and female: for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus."
This is the way in which God solves the problem
of human life. As we find human life on this
earth today it really is a problem. It is up
against that problem that, all those well intentioned people who have round-table conferences of an international character always
come. You call your round-table conference,
and you have your representatives of the
different nations of the earth, East and West,
North and South; you have your different
representatives of the social realm, your working man, as he is called, and your aristocrat,
your capitalist, the employer and the employee;
and in order to get different points of view, you will have your male and your female. You
laboriously work: a proposition is made, but
someone from the other end of the earth cannot
accept that; it is not suitable to their realm of
life, to what obtains in their nation. Then, of
course, the employee cannot bring himself to
see the point of view of the employer, neither
the employer the point of view of the employee;
and there is not a little difficulty in a man seeing
a woman's point of view. How many round-tables have been held, and how many of them
have been successful? The amazing thing is
how men go on with their conferences! As long
as we have been living, men have been having
conferences, and what is the upshot? Every
one gets just so far, and then there is dead-lock.
But they will have another one, and they will
go on to the end trying to solve the problem
of human life on that level of discussion, of
conference.
Now God is perfectly aware of the whole
situation. He is far more aware of the difficulties
and the problems than anyone else. From His
standpoint there are a great many more factors
and features in the whole situation than have
ever been manifested to men. But He has a
solution, an infallible solution, and one which has fully
proved itself wherever received. What is God's solution
to the problem of human life? It is a Man.
(b) The Problem of Race
Here we have it: "...neither Jew nor Greek..." That is the national problem. If
you are familiar with the background of Galatians, you know that it was a national problem
that gave rise to that letter. Jewish believers were assuming a status above
other believers. They were saying, Well, we are the Jews and
they are the Greeks; we stand in one realm and they in
another! We, as the Jews, have certain privileges and
advantages, which they have not: we stand in a more favoured position than they do; we are altogether
superior! Greeks or Gentiles are spoken of by Jews as
"the dogs", the outsiders. How are you going to deal
with the national problem? You will never finally solve
that problem by a round-table conference. It is that
problem which is so pressing in the world today,
between the superior and the inferior races, between
those who have the advantage and those who have not
the advantage.
God's solution to the problem is a Man. In Christ
there can be neither Jew nor Greek. Has not the Man
solved the problem? You and I who come on to the
ground of the heavenly Man, who forsake the earthly
ground, forsake the national ground, and come on to the
ground of Christ, find blessed fellowship. Oh, what
perfect fellowship! What profitable fellowship! What
prospects loom up in view; how fruitful it all is! So far
from being a way of loss, it is blessedly full of value.
What a tragedy that even so many of the Lord's own
people have not forsaken national ground. What
prejudices and implied limitations there are through
pride. How they limit, how they blight, how they keep
out the fulness of Christ, and make God's intention
impossible. Get off that ground on to the ground of
God's Heavenly Man, where there can be neither Jew
nor Greek, and the national problem, as a part of the
human problem, is solved.
(c) The Social Problem
Then further it is said, "...there can be neither bond
nor free..." The social problem is dealt with, the
problem of the master and the
slave. How are you going to solve the problem of the
employer and the employee? You will only solve it in
the Man, but in Him you will solve it in truth. Then, if the
Jew thinks that nationally he has an advantage over the
Greek, and if the master thinks he has an advantage
over the servant, and, as is often the case, particularly in
the East, the man thinks he has the advantage over the
woman, how are you to get over these problems?
God's salvation is a Man. You do not, of course, get rid
of the facts; the distinctions are not abolished here on
the earth - and God forbid that we should attempt such a
thing - but on the ground of the "new man" we are made
as one. There we meet on a different ground altogether.
In Christ there can be neither Jew nor Greek, neither
male nor female, neither bond nor free, neither superior
nor inferior: advantages and disadvantages disappear.
(d) The Religious Problem
The Apostle refers again to both the national and
social problems, as you notice, in Colossians 3:11, but
he also expands a little: "Where there cannot be Greek
and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision..." Here he is
perhaps putting his finger a little more firmly upon the
Jew and the Greek problem. He is now stressing, not
only the national, but the religious problem. How acute
that was. In Christ there is no religious advantage over
others; no one is in a position of less advantage on
religious grounds than others. Then he speaks of
barbarian and Scythian. This is a further reference to the
racial question. These represent different levels of
civilization and cultivation, and the Apostle is clearing up
the problem by saying that in Christ such distinctions
have no place.
(e) The Problem of Human Destiny
Then another aspect of this is brought before us in the passage in 1 Cor. 1:24-30.
"But unto them that are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom
of God... But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
was made unto us wisdom from God, and
righteousness and sanctification, and redemption..."
Here is another problem, that of human destiny, and this
is gathered up into two words, and words that are
frequently repeated, wisdom and power, power and
wisdom. The question here
at Corinth is a reflex of Greek philosophy, which had
crept in with its subtle and pernicious suggestions. The
question is that of reaching the super-man status. That is
the question of philosophy - the highest wisdom and the
greatest power. Wisdom and power are the two
constituents of the super-man. Philosophy has always
had in view the thought of man reaching his destiny, the
idea that man has a great destiny. Man has indeed a
meaning, a great meaning; there is bound up with man a
great idea. With many of the Pagans, the idea was that of
the deification of humanity, of man slowly evolving until
he becomes deified. So that the great man is to be
worshipped. Their heroes were worshipped as
approximating to their ideal, and this was all a movement
toward the ultimate deification of humanity, and the
characteristics of this supreme super-man, as thus
conceived of, were wisdom and power. They were
always stretching out for a superior wisdom to bring
them into a place of superior power, and thus to realise
the great destiny of man. The problem of human destiny
was dealt with in the light of wisdom and power.
That lies behind the world today. Is it not this that we
are meeting with now in dictators, in men who would
dominate the world? It is a case of wisdom and power
reaching such an altitude of human status that everything
is brought under the dictator's dominion. He is regarded
as the embodiment of the world's highest wisdom and
greatest power. That is man. Such will be the Devil's
man on the human level.
The question of human destiny is quite a living one for
us. It is just as real and important and right a question for
believers as it is for the world. It is not the world which is
really in line with the destiny of man. There is no getting
away from the fact that man has a marvellous destiny.
God created man with an object far greater than anything
the princes of this world have ever conceived, and so the
question of human destiny is a right and a proper one,
and perhaps one of the greatest. But the question which
goes with it is, How is the end to be reached? Wisdom
is quite right. This "one new man" is to display the
manifold wisdom of God unto all supernatural
intelligences, to be the embodiment of Divine wisdom on
all its sides. Power is quite right. There is no doubt at all
that this one "new man" is to be the instrument of the exercise of the infinite power of God, to be a
display of God's mighty power. These things are a right
consideration for us: they present a legitimate question,
the problem of how to reach the super-man status. That
was the question with the Greeks all the time. The
answer of God through His Word is a Man whom He
hath ordained. The answer is Christ within, the power
and the wisdom. Christ within, in the power of death and
resurrection, solves the problem of human destiny.
This world has tried to solve this problem by
numerous systems of philosophy. If you sit down to
investigate any one of them, you will find it is an attempt
to solve the problem of human destiny, the meaning of
man, and the meaning of the universe, and how man and
the universe are to reach their predestined end. The
world is full of systems of philosophy which are seeking
to answer this question. The Lord answers it in a simple
and direct way, and says that the solution to the problem
is a Man, and that Man, in the power of death and
resurrection, dwelling within. How are you and I to
realise God's predestined purpose? This is the answer: "...Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). But this
is Christ within as the wisdom and power of God. This
wisdom is so simple. What does Christ within mean in
relation to that great ultimate purpose of God? It is the
earnest of that to which the Apostle by the Spirit
elsewhere gives expression: "...foreordained to be
conformed to the image of his Son..." (Rom. 8:29); and
again: "...until Christ be formed in you..." (Gal. 4:19).
When that is done the world
will
be occupied by a great
corporate Man of God's own kind, and the end will be
reached. That Man is Christ, in His fulness - His Body.
How then are you going to solve these problems?
Well, Plato will tell you all about it in his Republic! Oh,
the laws and the regulations! Oh, the observances! See
all that you have to take account of, to do, and not do, to
institute, and carry out. It is all a tremendous system to
bring man up to standard. The Lord's answer is a very
much simpler one than that. Let Christ but dwell within,
and He will work to bring you up to His own level. Give
Him a chance within, and you will be conformed to His
image; Christ will be fully formed in you. And when that
is true of the whole Body, you have the one new,
universal Man. Is that not wisdom? Oh, the
poor philosophers! How they have exhausted their
brains, and many of them have gone mad in the attempt
to solve the problem of human destiny. The Lord's
wisdom is so simple. Christ in you is the wisdom of
God. That is how the whole problem is met. You have
not to think everything out, plan it all, work to a colossal
system of rules and regulations and observances; you
have simply to let the Lord within have His way, and the
end is sure. The problem of the universe is solved
without any mental exhaustion. It is a matter of life. The
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the wisdom of
God so simple. Men are spending the centuries wearing
themselves out, and what is the result? Look at it today. What a sad picture of the upward progress of
humanity! But God is effecting His purpose, and in the
unseen there is a Man growing that is to fill the universe.
God's way is so simple and so effective. If you want to
solve the question of wisdom and power, this is it.
Wisdom is the question of "how". Then it becomes a
question of ability when you know how. Christ within is
both the "how", and the "ability".
All this, and much more (the Word is full of it and we
shall never exhaust it all) comes back to the one thing:
ALL THINGS IN CHRIST. God's answer to
everything, God's explanation of everything, God's
means of realising everything is a Man, "the man Christ
Jesus". When this world has run its evil course, this
inhabited earth will be judged in a Man. Men will be
judged by what their inward relationship is to that Man.
The question at the judgment will never be of how much
good or bad, right or wrong, more or less, is in a man; it
will turn upon this one point, Are you in Christ? If not,
more or less makes no difference. God's intention,
God's proclamation is that all things are in His Son. Are
you in Him? Why not? The basis of judgment is very
simple. It is all gathered up in a Man, and what is in that
Man of God for us. That is the basis of judgment. It all
comes back to the very simple, and yet comprehensive
and blessed truth, that it is what Christ is that satisfies
God, reaches God's end, and meets all our need. It is all
summed up in a Man, "the man Christ Jesus".
The Lord continue to open our eyes to
His glorious and Heavenly Man, who is also the Divine
Servant.