LEAVES FROM THE
BOOK
NEW CREATION.
"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth." (Isa. lxv.
17.)
"If any man be in Christ, a new creature : old things are passed away ;
behold, all things have become new." (2 Cor. v. 17.)
"In Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, bnt a new creature."
(Gal. vi. 15.)
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works." (Eph. ii. 10.)
"For to make in Himself of twain one new man."
(Eph. ii. 15.)
"The new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness." (Eph. iv. 24.)
"The new man, which is renewed after the
image of Him that created him." (Col. iii. 10.)
"The First-Born of every
creature." (Col. i. 15.)
"That we should be a kind of first-fruits of His
creatures." (Jas. i. 18.)
"The Beginning of the creation of God." (Rev.
iii. 14.)
I PROPOSE a brief inquiry as to new creation: in what it
consists, how we are brought into it, and its relation to its Head, Christ
Jesus. In the texts above we have all the passages which directly and in terms
speak of it, and from which the doctrine of Scripture must be mainly learnt; to
which a very few more which speak of Christ's Headship or compare Him with the
first Adam must he added, in order to have before us its full teaching.
One
of these other passages, indeed, we may take as the keynote of our inquiry. The
purpose of God, we read, is "in the dispensation of the fullness of times to
head up "- as it is literally -"all things in the Christ, things in heaven, and
things on earth" (Eph. 1. io). Later on in the same chapter the apostle adds
that God has raised Christ from the dead and "has put all things under His
feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body"
(vv. 22, 23). And in the fifth chapter the Church is compared to Eve, Adam's
own flesh, whom God presented to him, as Christ will present the Church unto
Himself. So also in i Cor. xv. 45, Christ is declared to be "last Adam," and in
Rom. v. Adam to be "the figure of Him that was to come." These passages surely
bring us to the heart of the doctrine.
So guided, we may see in the old
creation a type of the new, with necessary contrasts dependent on the
difference between their respective heads. The first Adam, man merely, yet as
that a being in which already there is a union of strangely opposite elements,
the breath of God on the one hand, with the body of dust; offspring and
likeness of God, yet a "living soul" like the beast;- this first man, how
plainly does he figure an infinitely more wondrous "Second Man." The woman
formed out of the man, cast into that mysterious "deep sleep" which so vividly
pictures the Lord's fruitful death, is thus bone of the bone and flesh of the
flesh of her head and lord, before she is "one flesh" with him by union. So in
the Church we must distinguish carefully between these two things, manifestly
different as they are,- new creation and union. Over the whole scene the man is
set, the woman sharing his sovereignty.
Now, if we turn from the old to the
new creation, we need not wonder to find a wider range in the dominion of the
last Aclani. God's purpose here is to head up all things in Christ, both things
in heaven and things on earth, as we have seen. The earth is expressly named in
Isaiah as coming into this: Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and
the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." And Israel is as
expressly promised continuance upon it: "For as the new heavens and the new
earth, which I will make, shall abide before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your
seed and your name remain." To this the apostle Peter clearly refers:
"Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, in which dwelleth righteousness."
Over this whole scene the Lord is,
as Second Man, head and ruler. He is "the first-born of every creature," "the
beginning of the creation of God:" terms which speak, not of priority in lime,
but in excellence and power. The "first-born "is of well-known use in this way.
Thus God says to Pharaoh, "Israel is My son, even My first-born;" and again, in
Jer. 31. 9, "I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born;" and so
once more in the psalms (89. 27), "Also I will make him My first-born, higher
than the kings of the earth." The word in Rev. iii. I 4, again, although the
regular word for "beginning," has very commonly the sense of "principality,"
and is so translated (Rom. Viii. 38; Eph. i. 2!; iii. 1o; V1. 12 ; Col. i i6 ;
ii. Jo, 15; Tit. iii. i).
"The church of the first-born ones" is, in Heb.
xii. 23, distinguished from "the spirits of just men made perfect," the company
of Old Testament saints being clearly designated in this latter way. The saints
of the present are of course not prior in lime to those of the old
dispensation, while in rank they are, according to the sovereign good pleasure
of God toward them. But if ranking as the firstborn, there are thus seen to be
others of the same family, in the common relationship of children with them, of
the same spiritual descent, as children of God; and with all these the Lord
connects Himself as "Firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. viii. 29). These
"brethren" are all believers: "For verily He taketh not hold of angels, but of
the seed of Abraham He taketh hold" (Heb. ii. i6, marg.). And "both He that
sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is
not ashamed to call them brethren" (v. i)
Here the relationship seems
different from that between Adam and his race; yet "last Adam" we are fully
assured the Lord is, and the Antitype of the first. Are we to consider that the
connection of the first Adam and his race is different from that between the
last Adam and His race? That there is such a difference as results from that
between the first and Second Man themselves, is surely true. "The first man is
of the earth, earthy; the Second Man is from heaven: " "the first man Adam was
made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." Thus there is
a difference. Yet in the very statement it is most strongly asserted that as
the first Adam was in his creature-place, as living soul, a fountain of life to
the rate of which he was the head, so still more absolutely is the last Adam "a
quickening life-giving Spirit." It is not simply the Lord here, let us
rernember, but the "last Adam." Surely the force is plain. He is a quickening
Spirit: it is divine life, but it is divine life in Christ, - in the last Adam.
We are children of God; but none the less are we His "seed," seen as the result
of His soul being made an offering for sin (Isa. liii. io).
It may help us,
too, to remember that Adam's race are also called the "offspring of God" (Acts
xvii. 29), and that here Adam was but also first-born among brethren; and in
this way, the natural type illustrates perfectly the antitype, and there ceases
to be really any difficulty.
How we come into the new creation is therefore
plain. In the first moment of divine life given to us are we made a new
creation. Here Adam himself, rather than any descended from him, is the fitting
illustration, because weare not naturally separately "created." Spiritually we
are: God's workmanship each one, needing nothing less than the forth-putting of
almighty power. So the new birth is spoken of as quickening from the dead, or
as creation - things which are never effected by any natural process: "we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works."
Thus, "if any
man be in Christ, new creation," as the Greek may be most literally rendered.
This is the plain, unequivocal statement of how we get to be in Christ. Adam at
the moment he received life was surely perfectly created. He was not first
quickened and afterward created neither is this true spiritually of any saint,
in any dispensation whatever. Thus the place in new creation, or under the
headship of Christ, is given by that which is common to the whole "seed," or
race, and not by that which is the distinguishing feature of one particular
dispensation. If it were by the gift of the Spirit we were brought into the new
creation, the saints of the Old Testament and of millennial times would be
effectually excluded. Everything combines to assure us of what is the truth
here, and to it there is no appearance even of contradiction from Scripture
anywhere. But then what follows in the passage just quoted assures us further
that to every one in new creation, or in Christ - under this headship - the
work of Christ attaches as righteousness: "old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new." This could not be true as applied merely to
personal condition. Granted the life received is divine life - the nature, as
it must be, perfect; yet my condition is not, cannot be, perfect as long as
"sin dwelleth in me," as in every child of man it dwells. "Old things are" not
"passed away," so that "all things are become new," if condition only is in
question. Bring in the value of the cross, and then indeed all is clear. The
new nature and the new standing, never separated in Scripture, however much
they may be in our thoughts, perfectly meet the requirement of the text, and
leave no difficulty. Indeed, if any one will consider the apostle's words in 2
Corinthians xii., and how carefully he distinguishes the "man in Christ," in
whom he will glory, from the "self" in which he will not glory, he will surely
see that it is not a state of that self that he has before him in which he
glories. It is Christ Himself in whom he sees himself. Grace has identified him
with that glorious object, putting away all that he was by the work of the
cross. Thus he can gaze, and rejoice, and worship.
Thus, "in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" becomes a "rule"
to "walk" by. (Gal. vi. 15, i6.) "As" we "have received Christ Jesus the Lord,"
we are to "walk in Him" (Col. ii. 6). Position it is that gives the measure of
responsibility, and new creation furnishes us with position as well as
condition; therefore a rule for walk. We are not only the subjects of a blessed
work of God individually, but belong to another sphere in which "all things are
of God" (2 Cor. v. 18). We are to walk as belonging to this, our eyes upon
things unseen and eternal, strangers and pilgrims here. We are to "walk in
Him," identified with Him by God, and so to identify ourselves. This is what
"avails" before God, -" neither circumcision nor uncircumcision,"- neither a
Jewish nor a Gentile state,- and these two conditions make up the world: "but
new creation."
A FEAST FOR THE LORD.
(Luke v. 29 ; John xii. 2, 3.)
I FIND but two cases in which a feast was
said to have been made expressly for the Lord; and these two seem to be in
designed and beautiful contrast with one another. In the first case we find Him
in company with sinners; in the last with saints. In the first case He is come
down upon the ground natural to us, where alone He could meet us all; in the
second, He has taken us through all that appalls nature, and set us down in
triumph the other side of it. But in each case His people are feasting Him.
If the hymn we sometimes sing has meaning for us, and "His joys" indeed "our
deepest joys afford," this feature in these two cases will attract us surely.
It is something to find, in a world so unlike Him, a table now and then really
spread for Him. It is blessed to know that we have, if we will, materials
wherewith to furnish such a table. Let us briefly look at these two, this way:
Levi's feast we naturally begin with, as simple as it is beautiful in its
meaning. A publican had just learned in his own soul a fact of mightiest import
beginning to he disclosed, that God was seeking sinners,- not the spiritually
whole, but "maimed and,sick and halt and blind," - and seeking them to save
them. It was not the blessing merely he had got, but a disclosure of the heart
of God in its innermost depths. The music and the song of the Father's house he
had learnt as the echoes of the Father's love making all glad with its own
gladness, and here, down here in the world and at his door, was One in whom
this love was told out as nowhere else, and, as nowhere else, embodied.
It
was little to let into heart and house that which was its joy and sunshine; but
Levi knew that where it was let in it must and would be true still to its own
character. He who could not enjoy the glories of heaven alone, could not be
content in Levi's house alone. That house, by the fact of Christ being in it,
must become a little picture of the Father's house to which He belonged, and
receive its prodigals too with open arms and joyous welcome.
So Levi made
Him a feast; and He, as understood and welcomed, took and maintained there His
place of Welcomer; was fed in feeding; rested, in giving rest; and the Spirit
His witness testifies His satisfaction in the fare He got. For of all who
received Him, not all understood Him so; of all who welcomed, not all feasted
Him.
And is this our joy in the Gospel still, that the Lord should have His
feast with us, which cannot be that unless the door is open and the invitation
out, and publicans and sinners are made free to enter? Or is any desolate heart
now needing to be made aware of such a Christ so seeking sinners, that where'er
He feasts He must have open doors for them? Down in a world of sinners still,
still such is He, (though absent), in His Gospel and His Spirit evermore the
same!
Here He must begin with us upon our ground, but not to leave us here.
The feast at Bethany tells another story. No publicans sat at the table there,
and yet do not imagine them excluded, save only as Levi in fact, no doubt, sat
there, publican no longer. But a company of people were gathered there, full of
wonderful experiences and partakers in a mighty triumph. They had found death
no difficulty to Him, with whom Levi's guests had found sin no difficulty. He
had made Himself a real crown (not such as human malice was soon to invent for
Him) out of the thorns He had taken out of their path of sorrow. And now having
seen His victory over the "last enemy," and sharers of the triumph He had
achieved in their behalf, they make Him a feast - a supper - once more; and He
can feast.
It is all a picture, a type for us: a type of triumph still more
assured, still more complete, still more wonderful; announced already in words
which, however at the time misunderstood, would interpret themselves yet to the
hearts of His own, and so interpret Him. "I am the resurrection and the life:
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that
liveth and believeth in Me SHALL NEVER DIE."
Lazarus, dead and risen, was
our type and yet was not; for our death has been Christ's alone, and His life
is ours forever. And in the knowledge of it, its warm flush in our veins,
communion, service, worship, have indeed a distinct character, He Himself a
central, vital connection with them, -and Himself has (who can doubt?) His
feast If He could feast thus with His delivered ones, with the shadowed cross
even then, full in view,- if Mary's ointment then (her constant memorial),
could anoint Him for His burial,- already for His burial, - shall we not feast
Him yet, and serve, and worship, when we are with Him in the eternity to us so
near?
And now? how many of us are qualified and prepared to make,- yea,
more, are actually making Him this supper now?
Not to discourage do I say
this; for as soon as the heart turns truly to Him, wherever we are - aye, in
Laodicea,- He will come in and sup with us, as well as we with Him. And when we
let Him do for us what He would do, be to us what He would be, then we shall
give Him a supper; and the joy of it will be the foretaste of eternity.
"DESPISE NOT PROPHESYINGS."
(1 Cor.
xiv.)
THE fourteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians is remarkable as being the
only scripture in which the order of the church when "come together into one
place," is declared. This should give it surely some importance in the eyes of
those who believe that He who "loved the Church, and gave Himself for it" has
not ceased to love and care; and moreover that the Head of it has not given up
His headship.
For those who think the mere matter of the conduct of the
meetings of the saints a thing of no or of small importance, it is well to note
how solemnly the chapter closes with the assurance that the things the apostle
wrote, were "commandments of the Lord." Have they ceased then to apply, or been
recalled - these commandments? Or was all this care taken for the Church at the
beginning, and is it now no more?
"Surely not the care," people reply; "but
the gifts regulated in the chapter have ceased, and therefore the regulation of
them also." But then it is not true that the chapter as a whole occupies itself
with merely the regulation of gift. It rather gives, as I said, the regulation
of the assembly as "come together." "Let your women keep silence in the
assemblies" did not stir the question of whether they had gift or not. Some in
fact did prophesy, the chief thing regulated in this chapter; but the thing
here is, they might not do it in the "assemblies;" outside that, what they or
others might do is not in question at all.
Then again, "Every one of you
hath a psalm, hath a doctrine (a teaching)." The latter surely has not ceased;
no, nor the former, for there is no ground for supposing it was any inspired or
even freshly prompted utterance. What was to guide in the bringing forth of all
this in the assembly, was the principle, "let all things be done unto
edifying." Thus the whole chapter treats of the assembly, and the case is
supposed of an unbeliever coming in, while such and such things were going on
in the assembly, and what the effect would be upon him who came in. Now suppose
certain gifts had ceased - as plainly "tongues" and "interpretations" have -
this would not destroy the general principles which were to govern in this
"coming together." Points of detail might cease to apply, while yet the
principles remained untouched. Even in those days the gift of tongues might be
wanting in some assemblies; but that would not affect the general application
of the chapter to them. If they had but a "psalm" or a "teaching" it would
apply. Indeed these were, and are, a sort of type or sample of what occupied
the assembly when come together - the psalm addressing itself to God in praise
or prayer with the melody of hearts conscious of His "favour better than life,"
while the teaching addressed itself as from God to men. The one was worship;
the other ministry. Certainly, if these two abide, we are not altogether
destitute of what may furnish forth our assembly; and had we nought else, the
principles of the chapter would apply to us.
It is indeed plain, that the
apostle has especially upon his mind two things as connected with the assembly,
but which affected his mind very differently. These were prophecy and the gift
of tongues. He saw them priding themselves upon the latter, and falling into
utter folly in their pride, so that they were actually exposing themselves to
shame even before unbelievers through it; speaking with tongues that no one
understood, and where no one could enter into or be edified by it.
Comparatively speaking, prophesying was made of little account in the presence
of this more showy gift. That which was "a sign to those that believed not" was
usurping the place of that which spake unto believers "to edification and
exhortation and comfort." If in the assembly, then, the rule was that all
things should be done to edifying, the prophesying which was expressly intended
for that, was really the greater and the better thing. Thus he bids them "covet
to prophesy," but on the other hand "forbid not to speak with tongues." They
hold in the apostle's estimation a widely different place. I am in a measure
prepared to hear of the disappearance of that which men were so much abusing.
On the other hand, the more I think of the place which prophesying holds with
him, as that which was for "edification and exhortation and comfort," so that
he exhorts them to covet it as what edified the assembly, the less I can
suppose it possible to pass away until the Church is perfected and removed to
heaven.
On the other hand I can understand it still being a thing slighted
and overlooked by men to any conceivable extent. I find, both here in i Cor.
xiv. and again in i Thess. v. 20, (which latter passage couples together the
two warnings, "Quench not the Spirit,- Despise not prophesyings"), the
assurance that they were already doing so. There was that in the nature of this
precious gift which exposed it peculiarly to the slighting and dis-esteem of
man. What had then begun may well have advanced in our day to the denying of
the gift altogether.
If we enquire, then, as to the nature of this
"prophesying"- a "prophet" was, according to the strict meaning of the word,
"one who spoke for another;" and the name was given among the heathen to those
who spoke for a god and made known his will to men. It was by no means
necessarily in the utterance of prediction properly so called; for this another
word was used which the Scriptures do not employ. Even a "poet" was a prophet,
as one who spoke for the Muses, thus speaking, as was supposed, under a sort of
inspiration, not merely from his own mind. So even Paul speaks of a "prophet"
of the Cretans.
The New Testament knows nothing of a mere seer of the
future. The prophet was one who spoke for God. Thus "a man of God" is so often
the beautiful and significant designation of a prophet. In days of darkness and
apostasy they stood forth on His part whom men had forgotten, and brought His
word and will to them. Their predictions were but a part of these utterances,
which dealt with the moral condition of those addressed, calling them to
repentance; encouraging, warning, comforting, exhorting, instructing in
righteousness. Of such the most distinctive feature was that they were "God's
men." Very significantly the apostle Paul speaks as if "all Scripture" were
written for such. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto
all good works." (2 Tim. iii. i6, 17.) Here was the necessary condition of
prophesying, that truth and devotedness to the living God which enabled them as
living near Him to know His mind. This underlay that saying of Amos, "Surely
the Lord God will do nothing but He revealeth it to His servants the prophets."
Like that again in Revelation,- "to shew unto His servants things which must
shortly come to pass."
It might be thus made known in different ways - by
positive fresh revelation, which for us, since the completion of the word of
God, has ceased to be; or by the Spirit in living freshness, using that Word
according to what Paul says to Timothy. The man of God it is who in either case
has the mind of God as to the scene through which he passes. To such an one
"the knowledge of the Holy is understanding."
Now, if this be the basis of
prophesying, it is no wonder that the apostle so highly values it. If
prophesying be just speaking for God, God's own utterance in the midst of His
people, it is easily to be seen how people should be exhorted to "covet" it,
and that earnestly. "Love," seeking not her own, would yet seek that which was
so profitable "to edification and exhortation and comfort." Distinct enough
from "teaching," it did not necessarily infer any gift for the latter, nor
indeed any for public speaking at all. "Five words," and those not the
speaker's own, might suffice: the word of God simply read might carry its own
simple and intelligible meaning to the hearts of all present. Not eloquence in
anywise, nor the power of presenting the truth in orderly arrangement, was
needed. The Divine utterance might come in broken words and sentences, and be
still the fulfillment of the injunction, "If any man speak, let him speak as
oracles of God," so that even the simplest there, or the unbeliever coming in
there, should come under the power of that word, be convinced of all, be judged
of all, and the secrets of his heart being made manifest, should fall on his
face, and worship God, and report that God was of a truth there. The apostle
coveted this for them, and would have them covet it also for themselves; this
direct dealing of God with heart and conscience from which man might indeed
shrink, but which was fraught with blessing for him none the less.
* A
teacher's meeting is quite distinct from the assembly coming together. He is
responsible for teaching surely; and the saints no less to hear; but it is
another matter.
A chapter which regulates the assembly's coming
together, ought to assure us of its special importance in this place. That
importance is that the voice of the living God should be heard by His people,
distinctly addressing itself to their need, their whole condition at the
moment. How different a thing from people speaking to fill up the time; or the
cleverest speaker, to supply the absence of a teacher; or once again, the
teacher himself because he is a teacher, or has something in his mind which has
interested or impressed himself! "The word of the Lord by the prophets" was
none of these: it was a direct address from the heart of God to the hearts and
consciences of His people. And still, "if any man speak," he is to speak "as
oracles of God," as God's mere mouthpiece.
But it is one thing to affirm
that that ought to be, another thing to say, it is. It is one thing to say, "I
should do this," and another thing to say, "I have done it." Lowliness here
will surely be the truest wisdom. We need claim nothing: "He that judgeth is
the Lord."
A FRAGMENT AS TO DISCIPLINE.
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