XO 29:1-32{PH 3:14-19{THE first thing after I have learned what Christ is for me in His work-after I have seen that He has accomplished everything as to the putting away of my sin before God, and that I belong to the One who has accomplished it, as I was say-in the first lecture-the first desire that then rises in my soul is, that I should be a manifestation of this Christ to whom I belong-that I should be a " body full of light." As we then saw, we have first the conscience relieved, next the heart satisfied (which we went into fully at, that time), and, lastly, the body full of light. To-night it is the body full of light I wish to speak to you on, and that, properly, is consecration.
I know the erroneous way in which this word is used, but I hope to-night that we shall see plainly what is the scriptural thought of it, In the margin, " consecrate " is translated "filling; " and I hope to show you the manner of it, what it really is, as we look at the way in, which consecration is figuratively brought before, us in the chapter I have read.
The first thing we find is that Aaron and his sons are robed. Figuratively, afterward, they go through the whole course of the work of Christ. There is the bullock, which is the sin-offering, burnt with fire without the camp, which, I trust, every soul here has learned: " He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." This is the groundwork of everything. Then I come to two rams. There is an identity between these two rams; understanding them, you will understand what consecration is.
The first ram goes up wholly to God: " Thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt-offering unto the Lord:. it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord." It is all taken up-every bit of it. This is Christ gone up to the right hand of God. You will all admit this; it is seen at once. But whilst He is gone up there, and I am united to Him in spirit in all His beauty and perfection, r am also left, as to my body,- in this world, to be for Him, down here. The same Christ who is gone up there is the Christ who is down here...in His saints. Up there I am in all His beauty and perfection in the holiest, sustained there in all the sweet savor of that One whom God has taken up. And this we surely all know, otherwise we have not got the sense of our acceptance with God. So it says, `.‘ As he is," not as Fie was. " As he is, so are we." It does not say that we shall be as He is, but that we are at this moment. It is perfectly true that I shall be like Him in the glory in heaven, but that is not what this passage says. It is, " As he is, so are we, in this world "-not in heaven. It is that my acceptance is as Christ's acceptance; we are " accepted in the Beloved," not through the Beloved. The idea is that we cannot be placed in any higher place; and any place except that one up there would neither be commensurate with the work He has wrought, nor satisfy the heart of God for me.
Thus I am left down here on this earth, with no question as to my place up there; and it is Christ up there that is before me, and not either what I was or what I am in myself. " They that know the joyful sound shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." It is there that I am according to my Father's pleasure.
But then comes the third point of which' we were speaking, which is the second thing brought before us in the chapter we have read in Exodus -the second ram-that I am to present Christ here, and that Christ is the One who occupies me. Everything depends as to my being here on what I see there. My appreciation of Christ up there determines my expression of Christ down here.
People ask, What is consecration? I answer, The person most consecrated is the person who 'has most of Christ. And 'now let us mark how this is brought out in Scripture.
See how it comes out in Paul. He says that lie sees Christ; that he has to do with Him `Where He is: "With open face beholding the glory of the Lord, changed into the same image from glory to glory; " and so he adds, " bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus," and "the life of Jesus made manifest in his body." Thus is fulfilled what the Lord says of His disciples in John "I am glorified in them." Nothing in ourselves, like a 'briar once in a hedge, but which, having been grafted, now bears beautiful roses. The rose, though it takes all the life, all the power, of the briar, yet never accepts the slightest tinge or character of the briar. Thus the Lord says, '" I will use in you all that I myself have made." If I "looli at the stem-at the nature-I say, that is a briar; if I look at the top of the tree, I say, I cannot see a trace of the briar. As in Paul: he is the same Paul, but nothing of Paul now comes out; it is all 'Christ. The new life establishes itself there; it draws in all the force of the person as he is naturally, therefore the Lord has the credit of it all.
Turn to Rom. 12 Here We read: "I beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service:" People read this, and fancy that they are giving God something; but this is not the fact at all. I will explain to you what it does mean, by turning to the seventh chapter. Here you find that you have the new nature, but you have also with it a very unpleasant guest, which makes you cry out, " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? " As another has said, " The body is the flesh when there is a will in it; " and when there is no will it is Christ's. Well, I want to subdue the flesh, and who does this for me? Why, Christ. " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And I say to Him: I was a sufferer from this noxious guest, but now I have got deliverance; and as it is you who have done it, I give that body to you, which is the least I can do. I give you nothing but an empty house, and you may make the most of it. " Present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable [not legal] service; and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed." It is not reformation, it is transformation. I find my deliverance in Christ, and now I would present my body to my deliverer; but that body is only an empty vessel, one which He must fill self, and His filling it is consecration.
Hence consecration is not that I have given Him anything, for I have nothing to give. People talk of consecrating their talents, their property, and so on, and I know in a certain sense what they mean; but the fact really is, that I put aside everything in me which would hinder the expression of Christ flowing out in me, that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in my body. For this the apostle prays in the third of Ephesians, "'that Christ may dwell in your hearts: " the true force of the word is domicile. That He may so dwell there that we "may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height " of God's own favor-the full scope of blessing; " and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Christ is that fullness, and having Him thus dwelling in the heart is real consecration. Such a man has nothing in him but Christ. Go to him about anything, and it will be Christ that will come out; mark, Christ; not the man himself improved.
We find parallel truth in John 15 and 17. In chapter 15. we get service; but in chapter 17 I am to represent Christ where Christ is not. As has been said, Christ first places us as Himself before the Father, and then sets us as Himself before the world. As such I do not come out as a better man myself, but I come out Christ. What a wonderful display of divine power! God, so to say, says: My secret is, that now that Christ is cast out of the world, I will have thousands of souls living Christ in the scene that has rejected Him. You have, as it were, cast out the sun, but I will have thousands of planets deriving light from it. Thus, " Christ shall be magnified in my body," not in my heart, mark; for "the life that I live I live by the faith of the Son of God." " It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me."
What did the apostle seek for the Galatians? Was it to get them clear of their sins? He does not say a word about them. It is that " Christ may be formed " in them.
I know what wonderful results men have brought about by tillage and gardening, and how they have brought common plants into a very uncommon state; but, supposing, that by cultivation I could bring myself into the most wonderful condition of perfection, I would much sooner have Christ than anything that could be brought out of me. I look up into the heavens, I go into the presence of God, and what do I find there? Why, that I am there before God in all the beauty of Christ, and I am delighted-as delighted as I can be. And, having seen my place there, I come down here—what for? To show out the beauty of a man? Not at all! I have learned Christ up there, and I only want to be Him down here.
And it is not a future thing, either, it is altogether a present thing though, of course, the future must be settled first. If your future be not settled it is no use my speaking to you at all; but, the future being settled it is the pre- sent that is all-important. And what is the present thing to be?'P I say it is to be Christ. The future is that which. cannot be altered, cannot be improved, cannot be lost. Oh but your realization of it maybe clouded! And so it may. If you walk carelessly you will lose your peace—forget that you were Purged from your old sins. But when your soul is restored when you get your peace back again—what peace, it is that you get?, Is it a new one, or is it the same that you lost? Of course it is the same that you lost. .
So I go a great way with the Wesleyan. I will talk to him as much as he likes about the present. If you say, to me that everything depends, as to the present upon my walk, I say I agree with you. But if you go on to say there is fear of my being lost in the future, I say I cannot go with you there. I say as the, aged shepherd says: " Giving all, diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they shall make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfaithful in the knowledge of our. Lord Jesus Christ." There must he the continual adding, or you will not keep up the testimony. Do you think if Jonathan had gone on adding to his testimony to David that he would have perished on Mount Gilboa? not 'he! But I do not agree that he is lost forever in consequence. That is the Wesleyan doctrine.
I say it is important to maintain that the first great thing-we learn is, that believers have perfect security as to the 'future; that is settled, and we need say no more about it. The work of Christ now is to occupy me with the present. It is clear that I am up there in all the beauty and acceptance of Christ, and nothing but Christ, and now I am to live down here, not as a comely and excellent man, but as that Christ in whom. I am set before God. And the High priest who sustains me 'up there in all the brightness of that scene, is the same One who has to do with me in all my weakness down here.
I come now to the division of this ram into different parts. It is divided into four parts, and these four are necessary to constitute us true expressions of Christ down here. There is the blood, the ground for the oil, first. It was sprinkled on the right ear, the right hand, and the right foot-all that is external in you; the blood is the ground for the, Spirit of God to rest k. on. The second part is offered up; it 'was first waved for a wave-offering before the Lord, then taken and burnt "upon the altar for a burnt-offering for a sweet savor before the Lord." Next there was Moses' part. And lastly, there was a part which was fed upon by. Aaron and his sons.
We will look now, for a little, more carefully -at the second division, which takes in from the nineteenth to the twenty-fifth verses. In this division is the fat and the inwards, which there is no difficulty at all in interpreting: it is Christ. In the case of the peace-offering in Lev. 7, all the fat was offered up; it was the excellency of the ram; but the right shoulder was retained, and became the part of the priest who offered up the fat and the blood. But here, in the ram of consecration, I have God's portion; to Him is -offered up the excellency of Christ, both as to strength and as to beauty, and I have in it no actual part except that of contemplation of what is given to the Father. The fat and the right -shoulder-the excellency of Christ-are waved in their hands, burned, and taken up to God. And, as we thus contemplate God's part in Christ, " our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," and our " joy is full." I look at it, I am occupied with it-with the practical contemplation of the Son of the Father-though I cannot feed on it; it is something in Christ that is beyond us. " We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
The excellency and the grace of Christ are put before us for our contemplation. If your heart has never been thus occupied with contemplating Him as He is, you do not know what it is to "sit down under his shadow with great delight." It is after the saint is set in heaven in the highest place that that prayer in Ephesians comes out,. "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith"- -that you may be filled with Christ in this;.. highest place: " filled with all the fullness of—God;" that you may " know the love of Christ which, passeth knowledge"-which you cannot take in, but which you can contemplate.
I think I may say if you do not contemplate, Christ, you do not feed on Him. I am brought-. into communion with God about it, though I— cannot enter into the greatness of it. I do not; actually partake of it; I cannot appropriate Christ in His magnitude, but I contemplate Him. Knowing myself up there accepted in the Beloved, here, as I go along, I am occupied with looking at that Christ. It is " the excellency of the knowledge of Christ," as Paul says; and he never got to the end of it. A person who does not thus contemplate Christ may be very zealous as to his conduct, but it will never be anything but a lower kind of conduct. When I look at the Son of God in the Gospel I contemplate Him, not- as a person ata distance, but as One to whom I am united. The church, in Scripture, is often looked at as Christ's feet; so I say, I belong to Him. As a member of His own body, contemplate Him.
Do you contemplate Him?' I have heard people talk of reading some biography, and express themselves with the greatest delight over the lovely life of the person Written of.' Well, I am studying Christ; I am, contemplating His excellency, learning to see Him as God saw Him. But you can never get up to it. NO, I cannot; but I can contemplate it, and as I do so be changed into the Same image from glory to glory.".
We get next, in verse 26, Moses’ part: "Thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and wave it for a wave-offering before the Lord: and it shall be thy part." The breast was, then, Moses part, and not Aaron's and his sons at all. It gives great help to the soul, and a godly tone, the abiding sense of' Christ's thoughts about one-His sympathy.
But r pass on to the fourth division: " And thou shalt take-the ram-of the consecration, and seethe his flesh in the holy place. And- Aaron and his-Sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and' the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." They feed' upon, it. Now feeding is appropriation.
I will try to explain the difference between appropriation and contemplation. In the contemplation of Christ, the saint knows very well that he will never come up to what he is contemplating, is he therefore, to say he will' never be able to do anything as Christ would do it? No; may be but an atom, but still I am a member Of that Christ, and His life is mine. So I eat the left shoulder, though I never eat the, right.- I appropriate the strength of Christ, though I can never do the thing in the magnificent way in which He did. Peter walked: on the water but doe's he do it' with the dignity and the power of Christ"? No. Christ is the right shoulder; in all, the dignity and quietness' of power. Peter is only the left: he looks away to the winds; and begins to sink into the-waves.
Thus it is not a question of my being a better man than I was, or of my having a better nature than another man, and therefore it often comes out with most power when there is the worst nature. The- question is whether I,‘ in doing anything, am going to do it as Christ would.
You say, How will you find that out? 'I answer that I believe the contemplative soul will discover it. I believe Mary had much more of it than Martha. Martha did not know the right` way to carry out her good intentions. But' Mary " sat, at Jesus' feet, and heard his word,," so she learned what He was from Himself.
The nearer I am to the Lord the more I know His mind; and that is to me the great interest in reading the gospels. He stands out there before me in the wonderful unique majesty of God, manifest in the flesh. You say, I am reading the gospels. But I ask, What sort of a view are you getting of Christ as you do? Is it a natural one, such as you could get in that book lately published, " The Life of Christ? It is a spiritual view that you need. I study to get a fuller and more perfect view of Christ at the right hand of God, and as I read I learn how God sees Him. I contemplate that which has all gone up to God, and in this contemplation know what practical fellowship with the Father and the Son is as I walk through this world. I may not have chapter and verse for an action, but the more I am in His transcendent company the more I get to know what Will suit Him, and I say, No, Christ would not write such a line as that; and I rub it out. In business, in my home life, I say, Christ would not do that; 'and I will not. And so Christ becomes my standard. It is not that I have given something to Christ, but that I myself am more occupied with Him, have more His mind. So consecration is not that I have given more of myself to Christ, but Christ has got more possession of me. As to what feeding on Christ is, I need surely scarcely try to explain. As food is the only support and strength of my natural body, so I look to Him for the support and strength of my soul. And I have nothing but Him to sustain me. " Not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
And now, in closing, let me ask you to think for a moment what a wonderful position we are set in on this earth. When ruin has come in, the only thing to meet it is the highest truth. When the captives returned from Babylon, they kept the Feast of Tabernacles first of all; they commemorated amidst the ruin the wonderful position God had set them in on the earth. And what do 'we commemorate? The wonderful position God has set us in in heaven. There is not a single thing to disturb the calm, settled delight that the Father takes in me there, and down here I am contemplating the blessed One who has taken me into His own scene, am also feeding on Him, and am left to be the expression of Him before the world.
Just to think that we are walking about here on this earth, in our homes or our business, with one standard before us-Christ! It is the one who is most happy in the enjoyment of God's presence who is the most susceptible to things here, and to the way in which they act on him. You will not not fail as you seek to set Him forth, but it is an immense comfort to know that in Your dills seeking to be like Him you will be cheered. There is this difference between the works of' the flesh and the fruits of the, Spirit that in bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit you are always happy, whereas, in doing the works of the flesh there is always bitterness. Even if You are successful in what you aim at, it leaves a taint of its own bitterness behind it.
"Christ shall be magnified in My body! " What a wonderful triumph! The body that Satan had the dominion over-at first through sin this very body, brought back by grace to God, becomes the medium that-is-to set forth Christ. He says;, I am possessor of it now'; if it go into the grave Twill raise it up again; and whilst-it is here, I will so work' in it by power that, whatever be the character of this perilous world, it shall be, in it a representation of myself.
What-could be a greater delight-to you than to know-that you are representing Him here where He is not? There can be no change as to what is mine up there where' He' is, but now,, down here where He is not, I am- called to be an exposition of' Him whilst He is away. The Lord lead our hearts, beloved friends, to understand: what a wonderful calling ours is,, and enable us to be more and more expressions of, the grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His name's sake. Amen.
(J. B. S.)