The Believer Established
ADAM OR CHRIST?
I have no greater joy than to see a company like this of
young believers, found together with a desire to know more of the Lord, and to
be more devoted to Him in this world. I feel very dependent on the Lord that He
may help me to say a few words that will help you.
I should like to bring
before you the simple but most important fact that the whole of Scripture is
the history of two men - Adam and Christ - and I want briefly to show you
several ways in which God sets Adam aside and brings in Christ.
The moment
that Adam sinned, God's satisfaction in him came to an end. Instead of
innocence, the germs of all possible evil were found in his heart, and he
became subject to the judgment of God. The full fruit of sin did not come out
in Adam personally; it has taken the whole history of the world to develop and
exhibit it; but every bit of evil that has ever come out in Adam's children was
latent in him as soon as he became a sinner. I will ask you to read four
scriptures which show the true character of fallen man, that is of Adam,
Genesis 6: 5, 6 ; Psalm 14: 2, 3 ; Mark 7: 20-23 ; Acts 7: 51, 52.
These scriptures give us God's estimate of the children of Adam at four great
periods of their history. When man is allowed to take his own course, as in
antediluvian times, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil
continually; when checked and restrained by God's government, as in the time of
David, there are none that seek God or that do good; when His beloved Son comes
to manifest all God's grace, He finds man's heart the same fruitful source of
evil as ever; and the awful climax of the dark history is the betrayal and
murder of the only Just One, and the perpetual resistance of the Holy Spirit.
What a history! And every bit of it, and every bit of sin that you and I have
found in the depths of our own hearts, is just the exhibition of that one man -
Adam. It may be all summed up in a word of three letters - SIN.
It is
very evident that God could neither find satisfaction in, nor bring in blessing
through, a man like that - a man whose every motive and activity only presents
some phase of sin. If blessing is brought in from God it must be through and in
another Man. I think you will see plainly how Adam is set aside and Christ
brought in
PROPHETICALLY IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT.
Two or three scriptures will indicate what I mean,
and you can trace out the subject more fully for yourselves. Genesis 3:15;
Galatians 3:16; Isaiah 11:1; 49:6. It is most interesting in reading the Old
Testament to find that, from Genesis 3 onwards, every blessing that God speaks
of is connected with a COMING MAN It was the Seed of the woman who was to
bruise the serpent's head; it was in that one Seed of Abraham that all the
nations were to be blessed; the Rod out of the stem of Jesse and the Branch out
of his roots alone could bring in millennial righteousness and peace; He alone
could be given for a light to the Gentiles, and to be God's salvation to the
end of the earth. All through the Old Testament we see that every blessing,
whether for Israel or for the Gentiles, was to be brought in by a coming MAN.
Blessing was to come, not in, or through, Adam and his race, but in, and
through CHRIST.
Then, if we turn to the New Testament, we find the
long-promised One here upon earth, presenting to God a perfect contrast to
``the children of men,'' and filling God's heart with satisfaction, so that we
may say that Adam was superseded
HISTORICALLY,BY
THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST ON EARTH.
I want you to call back to your
minds for a moment the four scriptures descriptive of the children of Adam
which we looked at a few moments ago, and contrast them with these wonderful
words, ``In thee I am well pleased,'' Luke 3: 21, 22. If, on the one hand, God
had looked in vain to find one atom of good in Adam personally, or in his race,
on the other He could now gaze with infinite complacency upon a Man who filled
His heart with delight. What a moment it was for God! With what relief, may we
not say, did God's eye turn from the desolate waste of sinful humanity to that
one peerless Object! In the actual history of the world, there was a MAN here
filling God's heart with pleasure - One who had taken part in flesh and blood,
and come into all the circumstances and responsibilities of man, that He might
be found in those circumstances, and under those responsibilities, as the
absolutely perfect Object of God's delight. There was now a MAN worthy of the
opened heavens and the Father's salutation as His ``beloved Son.'' Contrast
that One with Adam - with yourself - and say whether the One is not as worthy
to be the Object of God's delight, as the other is deserving of His judgment?
I will give you two portraits to look at. Here they are -
1. " There
is no fear of God before their eyes." 1. "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
2. " The poison of asps is under their lips." 2. " Blessed are they that
mourn."
3. "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 3. " Blessed
are the meek."
4. "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none
that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." 4. " Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness."
5. "Their feet are
swift to shed blood." 5. " Blessed are the merciful."
6. "Their throat is
an open sepulchre." 6. "Blessed are the pure in heart."
7. " Destruction
and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known." 7. "
Blessed are the peace - makers."
ROMANS 3.
MATTHEW 5.
One of these portraits is Adam - or, in another
word, yourself - and the other is Christ. Compare the dark and ugly features of
the one with the fair, heavenly beauty of the other, and tell me which you
prefer! Will you not say with an enraptured heart, "Thou art fairer than the
children of men! " That is really to say, "I prefer Christ to myself." It is a
grand moment in the soul's history when that point is reached, and immense
issues hang upon it. But before going further with this, I must say a few words
on another subject which has an important bearing on what is before us.
Before anyone can really see, or enter, into divine things he must be born
again. There is no capacity in the child of Adam, as such, to enter into the
thoughts of God. If he is to be brought into touch with God, there must be a
new moral being formed in him, so that we may say that Adam is set aside
MORALLY, BY THE NEW BIRTH.
I
know that I am speaking to those who believe in the absolute necessity of the
new birth. Indeed, John 3:3-6, leaves no room for hesitation as to this on the
part of any who believe the Scriptures. But have you really considered why the
new birth is so absolutely necessary? A simple illustration may serve to point
us to the answer! I had to see about some work being done the other day, and
was asking the contractor how much it would cost. `It won't cost very much,'
said he, `because we can use all the old material.' Now that is precisely what
God could not do. There must be a new start altogether with new material. The
child of Adam, as such, breaks God's law and despises God's grace; divine love
fails to reach his heart, and divine light upon his conscience only drives him
behind the trees of the garden, as in Eden, or away from its searching
scrutiny, as in John 8. If there is to be anything for God in man, or any
capacity to estimate things according to God, a man "must be born again." There
must be an effectual operation of God by His word and Spirit producing a new
moral being in man, the effect of which is that he begins to think God's
thoughts about himself. God rejects the old material altogether and begins
entirely anew, and the one who is born again begins to learn the true character
of the old material - i.e. all that he is as a child of Adam and a man in the
flesh - and to be as dissatisfied with it as God is. You may see this in Job
and Saul of Tarsus. One of them said, "I abhor myself," and the other said, "I
know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." Such language
as this is the mark of one born again. He identifies himself with that new
"inward man" which is of God, and he judges everything of a contrary nature to
be sin. In itself this is not a happy experience. It is not very pleasant for
one who has been self-sustained and self-satisfied in a moral and religious
life to find that there is not one bit of good in him. Some may discover this
by a single flash of divine light, as in the case of Saul of Tarsus, and others
may have years of struggling and disappointment before they learn it, but it
must, and will, be learned sooner or later by every one that is born again.
If not very pleasant it is very needful, that we should be made to
cry, "O wretched man that I am! " for only thus are we truly prepared to drop
ourselves and rejoice in all the grace that comes to us through and in Christ.
Some people seem to get as far as being dissatisfied with themselves, and there
they stick in the mud. There is something wrong if you stick there year after
year groaning over your own badness. God would bring you to judge yourself, but
He would not keep you there, and I should be glad if He gave you a push off
that mud-bank to-night. He wants you to have the gladness of knowing that you
are in the favour and acceptance of CHRIST, the risen and glorified Man. God
would not give you anything less than this, and you could not desire anything
more. God would have the faith and affection of your heart turned from yourself
to Him - from Adam to Christ. If you are disgusted with yourself, you will be
glad to know that you are entitled to give yourself up altogether, and enter
upon the new ground that Christ is everything for you, and that you are in all
His acceptance with God. But in order to do this, the work of the cross must be
known, and that brings me to the next part of my subject. You have to learn
that the first man, Adam, has been set aside
JUDICIALLY, IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
If God has
let you down, with His candle in your hand, into the dark recesses of your
being as a child of Adam, to find that there is nothing there but sin, you
cannot rest until you know that it has all been taken into account and dealt
with to His perfect satisfaction. The cross of Christ shows you how God could
provide for His own glory while taking into consideration everything that you
are. God has not overlooked, or ignored, the sinful state in which you find
yourself as a child of Adam. He has had it brought before Him, and it has
received its full condemnation, and is removed judicially from His sight for
ever. I said, a few minutes ago, that the whole character of Adam and of his
children was summed up in three letters - S, I, N. When the One who knew no sin
went to the cross, He was made sin for us, 2 Cor. 5:21. The Holy One of God was
upon that cross " for sin " (Rom. 8: 3), so that when He hung there all the sin
that is in you was brought before God, for He was your Representative. Having
taken such a place in deep, divine love, all the desert and consequence of sin
must needs come upon Him. There was no mitigation of the awful judgment that
sin deserved. The full flood-tide of judgment rolled over Him, and, as you see
those waves and billows sweeping over Him - as you see Him going into the deep
waters, and brought into the dust of death - you may say, `That is my portion
before God.' As a child of fallen Adam you could not be restored to innocence,
or brought back in righteousness to God. Divine justice could only pass upon
you the sentence of utter condemnation. If that condemnation had fallen upon
you in your own person, you would have been lost for ever, but, thank God! it
has fallen upon you in the person of Him who took your place upon the cross.
And when Christ hung upon that cross, God saw you there; and when He died and
was buried you disappeared judicially as a child of Adam from God's sight for
ever. God would have you to know this - it is a part of the gospel - "that our
old man has been crucified with him," Rom. 6:6.
It is on the ground of
this great judicial act that the believer is entitled to reckon himself dead to
sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus, and when he is brought to this by the
Spirit he has deliverance. I think we may say that Adam is displaced by Christ
EXPERIMENTALLY, WHEN THE BELIEVER GETS
DELIVERANCE.
All his efforts to improve himself are then at an
end; and the awful misery of perpetual disappointment as to the success of
those efforts is ended too, for he tastes the joy of being free from Adam, and
is consciously in the liberty of life in Christ Jesus. This experimental
setting aside of our old man is the proper and necessary counterpart of the
judicial setting aside of which I have already spoken. When Paul said, "I am
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"
(Gal. 2: 20), he expressed what he had really reached in the experience of his
soul. He had done with himself. It was now for him, "Not I, but Christ." He not
only believed that he had been set aside judicially before God at the cross,
but he was in the good of a perfect deliverance for himself, so that not one
thought of self-amendment crossed his mind. That is the grand test as to
whether you have reached this. You might be very well up in the doctrine of
deliverance, and yet all the time be secretly attempting to correct and improve
yourself, and suffering a good deal of private vexation and disappointment on
account of the failure of your attempts. I know how long I struggled on in this
way myself, praying and striving to be more holy and Christlike, and
continually disappointed with the result. I do not think that it ever occurred
to me in those days that I was trying to improve the man whom God had set
aside. It was at a moment when I was utterly discouraged, and ready to give up
the whole thing in complete despair, that God showed me how I was attempting to
work upon the old material which He could only condemn, and that my disgust and
despair as to myself were only a feeble echo of His. I shall never forget the
joy of finding out that in the depth of my disgust with myself I was thoroughly
at one with God. God had ceased to look for any good in me, and had Christ
before Him, the perfect and infinitely acceptable Object of His heart; and I,
in my nothingness, had ceased to look for good in myself, and was tasting the
deep joy of being in CHRIST, and free to have Him as my Object; while, as to
life, I entered in some degree into the blessedness of knowing that it was "not
I, but Christ liveth in me."
Struggle and effort in themselves will
never secure blessing, but by leading to despair and complete self disgust they
serve a divine purpose in the experience of the soul. I would rather see a soul
in honest exercise, however legal he was, than see the light and careless
acceptance of divine truth in the head without one atom of effect on the
conscience or the heart. I do not think God gives us anything without preparing
us for it by making us feel the need and the value of it. It is a divine
principle that " He satisfieth the longing soul."
In these days, when
ministry of the word is so plentiful and so accessible, and all difficulties in
the way of learning truth intellectually are so minimised, it is of the deepest
importance to remember that we only get from God what our souls have hungered
and thirsted for. Soul-exercise will assuredly express itself in prayer, and
the result will be deep and rich blessing. Do not rest until you are in the
liberty of life in Christ Jesus! Remember that it is to set you consciously in
this deliverance, and to maintain you in this liberty, that the Holy Spirit has
taken up His abode in you, and these are the lines upon which He would set you
and keep you.
Intimately connected with deliverance is the great fact that
Adam is displaced
CHARACTERISTICALLY, BY
CHRIST BEING FORMED IN US.
The expression has just been under
our notice - "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Again in chapter 4, the
apostle says, " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you." The great evil that the apostle had to contend with
in Galatia was, that they were bringing in the law as an addition to Christ.
Now what would be effected by the law, if all its precepts and regulations were
carried out? It would form man in the flesh according to God; it would make
Adam what he ought to be for God in this world; the law would form Adam in us.
But the apostle indignantly repudiates this altogther. Peter and Barnabas might
through fear dissemble, and keep up their religious character in the eyes of
their legal brethren by not eating with the Gentiles, but Paul says, `I have
done with all that. The man whose appearance you are improving, and whose
character you are maintaining by this parade of sanctity, I have done with. I,
through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ.' Who would think of doing anything to improve the appearance, or
maintain the character, of a crucified man? That man had gone from God's eye
and from Paul's eye too. Paul had entirely given up the man to whom law and
ordinances applied.
Then, if that man was gone was there no other?
Yes. Paul could not only speak of the setting aside of a man perfectly
worthless, but of the bringing in of a MAN perfectly acceptable to God. "I
live; yet not I, but CHRIST liveth in me." His great heart travailed in birth
again for the Galatians that CHRIST might be formed in them. Religious
ordinances could never effect this; it can only be effected as we go on in the
Spirit. The Galatians had begun in the Spirit - they had begun by renouncing
themselves and finding Christ to be everything - but they were now seeking to
be made perfect by the flesh. A solemn picture of what our hearts are ever
prone to do! The Spirit of God would maintain us constantly on the same line,
for it is only as we keep upon the line where we found deliverance that we can
stand fast in liberty. Upon that line we have done with ourselves as in the
flesh; we have a new Person before us as the Object of faith and affection, and
as we thus drop ourselves and have Christ as our Object, He is formed in us.
What has been judicially accomplished at the cross has its counterpart by the
Spirit in our souls, and it is upon that line that Christ is formed in us. We
have before us a MAN who has taken up on the cross our whole condition as in
Adam, that He might end it in death; and now as the risen and glorified One, He
fills, not only the heart of God, but the heart of everyone who is in the
Spirit, with unspeakable rest and satisfaction.
It is thus that CHRIST
is formed in us, and the effect of it is, that we come out in new character.
The fruit of the Spirit - " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance " - is what Christ is characteristically.
It is not Adam elevated or improved, but Christ. In Colossians, this precious
truth is further developed, where believers are said to have "Put off the old
man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ
is all and in all." On this ground we are exhorted to "put on therefore, as the
elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of
mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one
another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so
also do ye. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of
Perfectness." That is, Adam in every phase and form is set aside, Christ is
everything and in all, and all that Christ is characteristically, takes the
place of the selfish and hateful things characteristic of Adam. I am sure that
the very mention of these things should have a deeply humbling effect upon us.
I leave it to each one to ask his own heart how far all this has been effected
and made good in him by the Spirit of God. But my purpose is not so much to ask
how far you have got into this as to bring before you the blessed object at
which God is aiming. If you understand the purpose of God, and the line upon
which He is working, it will give character to your exercises and point to your
prayers, and I am sure you will get on.
I can quite understand a young
believer saying, `All this is very beautiful, but where is the power to carry
it out in a practical way?' The answer may be briefly given. Our only power is
the Spirit of God, and Adam will only be displaced by Christ
PRACTICALLY, AS WE WALK IN THE SPIRIT.
You may
learn from Romans 8:9 that the Spirit gives character to our state as
Christians. We were once characterised by the presence of a nature that was
nothing but sin: we are now characterised by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you." The presence of a divine Person dwelling in us must bring in
power, hence we read in Galatians 5:16, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The Holy Spirit is dwelling in
us to maintain us practically in the power of the truth that has been before us
to-night. He would maintain us in perpetual distrust of ourselves, so that we
should have no confidence in the flesh; He would maintain us in perpetual
occupation with Christ, and give us unfailing joy in him. So long as we walk in
the Spirit we do not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
If this is the case
- if the Spirit of God is our only power - how important and solemn is that
other word which we read in Ephesians 4:30, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are seated unto the day of redemption." If we grieve Him, we shall
certainly not be supported by His power. And how may He be grieved? Surely by
the allowance and toleration of that which He is here to resist; by making
provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof; by attempting to cultivate
and improve the man whom God has entirely set aside; by indifference to Christ.
May God give everyone here to see the solemn importance of being on the line of
the Spirit of God! If you are not on that line, you are failing to answer to
the Purpose of God in saving you, and you are sure to be disappointed in your
expectations. On the other hand, if you are on the line, you will find that
instead of Christianity being a failure and a disappointment, your heart will
be filled with supreme satisfaction and joy, and you will be maintained here by
the Spirit in a way that is pleasing to God.
Then there is a grand and
crowning aspect of the subject before us which must not be forgotten. All the
counsels of eternal love will have their full fruition in a coming day, when
Adam will be superseded by Christ
PHYSICALLY,
FOR WE SHALL HAVE BODIES LIKE HIS.
We have borne the image of
the earthly, but we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. "Flesh and blood
" - that order of bodily condition which pertains to Adam - " cannot inherit
the kingdom of God." We shall have spiritual bodies; that is, bodies of which
the vital principle will not be blood, but the Spirit of God. Christ -
quickened by the Spirit and glorified at the right hand of God - is the
First-fruits of the harvest, the First-born among many brethren, the Pattern,
even as to bodily condition, of the heavenly company brought to God in grace on
the ground of His death. He will change these bodies of humiliation into
conformity to His body of glory; we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. Adam will be completely and eternally superseded by Christ.
I
trust that you will prayerfully consider the great subject which I have thus
imperfectly brought before you. I have said enough to show you how it is
interwoven with the whole of Scripture, and how it touches every point of your
spiritual life. The great question of all time - a question answered by the
history of the ages, by the cross, and by the glory - a question to be answered
now by our hearts - is, Which man will do for God - Adam or Christ? And when
that is answered there arises another - Which man will do for me? Which man am
I occupied with, or ministering to, or exhibiting? ADAM OR CHRIST?
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