We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones.
The Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter 5, verses 25 to 33 (cont’d)
“Continuing W. Kelly’s sound exposition of this portion of the Epistle):
“Of course, the death of Christ was essential, in order that the gospel should now be preached to the world. This, too, is the ground on which the heavens and earth will be cleared of all that now pollutes and defiles. Everything for the justification of God in the past, and for the outflow of the love of God in the future, is founded upon the death of Christ. Hence the momentous value of His redemption, for earth and heaven, for Jew, Gentile and Church of God, for time and eternity. But, beside, there is great force in the word, ‘Christ has delivered Himself up for it’ (the Assembly). There was nothing in Christ that He did not give. It is not what He did, nor only what He suffered, but He gave Himself.
“Of course, it implies all that was in Him and of Him, but it goes a great deal farther, because it is absolute self-renunciation in love for the sake of the object that He loved; the perfect pattern of the very fullness of love, which it is quite beyond any human relationship to emulate. Justly does the Spirit, in addressing the Christian husband, show us that Christ in all things has the pre-eminence; ‘He delivered Himself up for us’. What is the consequence? The Church is without sin before God-sins are blotted out forever-redemption is effected-Satan is defeated-divine wrath and judgment borne-ordinances, which were against those that were under them, are nailed to the cross-the enmity is gone-the new man is formed; and all this, and much more than this, founded upon Christ’s surrender of Himself. The effect for us is that here we have, in unclouded light, without doubt or question, Himself in love, as the object of our souls to delight in and submit to and serve and worship evermore.
“I have no more right to believe that Christ gave Himself for me, than I have to believe that my iniquities are completely purged out by His precious blood. If I believe the one, I owe it to God to believe the other; and the ground of my faith is God’s testimony to the perfectness of what Christ has done according to the glory of His person. God sets such value upon His work of suffering on the cross that He can perfectly love me. We are free. We have redemption through His blood. But it is in Him, not only through His blood, but in Him; as it is said in chapter 1, ‘In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace’. So that it is of great importance that while we hold redemption, we should not hold it, if I may be allowed so to say, apart from but in Him. And what will enable me to estimate and hold fast the preciousness of this work is His person; we must remember not only what was done, but who He was that did it. If you in self-judgment cleave to Him and to these two blessed truths in Him, there never can be a cloud upon your soul as to your own perfect deliverance from all charge before God.
“But now comes another thought. If Christ has completed this, if it is a past thing, never requiring to be re-touched, we enter upon the second proof of His love, `in order that He might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word’. I take it that the sanctifying the Church spoken of here, though connected closely with its being purified through the word, is a distinct thing. These are two operations, and there is an important difference between sanctifying the Church and cleansing it. This sanctifying does not merely refer to our growth in grace; it is connected with Christ.
“It is not the Spirit of God merely working in the believer. Men talk as if it were the business of the Son to justify, and of the Spirit to sanctify. But we are washed, we are sanctified, we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:1111And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)). All that by virtue of which we are washed and sanctified and justified, is Christ; and it is by the Spirit of our God. The Spirit of God is the active agent in the justification, no less than in the sanctifying; but it is always by using Christ. Thence there is a great danger in disconnecting Christ from sanctification. Christ gave Himself for the Church that He might sanctify and cleanse it. His blood is involved in His giving Himself, though this is more than that.
“In fact, all that which flows into and from redemption, properly so called, is supposed in verse 25: ‘The Christ also loved the Assembly and has delivered Himself up for it.’ This is a past thing, followed by that which is going on all the time of the Church’s existence upon the earth. As the fruit of His love comes the death of Christ for us-His giving Himself for the Church. And now you have, founded upon the cross, the sanctifying and cleansing that goes on continually. But how is it wrought? In both cases it is by the washing of water by the word.
“This shows us the immense importance of the word of God. Of what moment it is for every child of God to value that word and to seek to grow in acquaintance with God through it-to increase in the knowledge of God! So far from our belonging to the Church, or rather to Christ, being the sum and substance of all we have to learn, it is only the foundation; and it is after we know this that there follows all the sanctifying and cleansing by the washing of water by the word.
“So that it is clear we have three fruits of the love of Christ that are very distinct indeed. The first is that He gave Himself (that is, unto death).
The second is, the present work of His life. Since the cross, He is occupying Himself in heaven about the Church; He is taking care of His members, working by the Holy Spirit, and applying the word of God. And all is connected with Himself, because the whole starting point is Christ’s love to the Church. He is sanctifying and cleansing now by the washing of water by the word; but we know that our sins were put away by His blood.
“Before we turn to the third effect of His love, allow me to say here that a fresh application of the blood of Christ is unknown to Christianity. There are Christians, no doubt, who tell you that you must have fresh recourse to the blood; but they have no Scripture for their thought. On the contrary, it weakens the fundamental truth of the efficacy of Christ’s own sacrifice, which it is intended, after a human fashion, to commend and exalt. Such is the effect of forming our own thoughts of the use that is to be made of any truth, instead of simply bowing to the word of God. The moment we take a truth out of His connection for us, it is like rooting up that which has its own due place in the garden of God, where it produces its proper abundant and precious fruit, but which becomes a withered thing when man takes it into his own hands. Repetition as to this would prove imperfectness.
“This foundation has been laid so completely in the Epistle to the Hebrews that it never requires to be laid again. There is no more the possibility of a fresh sprinkling of Christ’s blood than there is room left for His dying once more to shed His blood. When a soul has found Him and been washed from sin in His blood, there it abides forever. This is what makes the sin of a Christian to be so serious. If you could begin again, what is the effect? Not very different from that which his confession before a priest has upon the Romanist. People soon learn to trifle with sin and to get hardened by its deceitfulness. Although it is a different thing where Christ is looked to, still the moral effect is much the same, as far as the making light of sin is concerned. If a person can again and again start afresh, as if a trifle had happened, and begin over and over again for every new downfall, sin is never felt nearly so deeply. For on one side we are bound to bring no stain upon that which is washed in the blood of Christ, yet, on the other, we are conscious of constant failure.
“Is there then no resource? Is there no renewal of access to the cross? It would be a tremendous thing if there were no provision against our failings and falls, no means of dealing with these departures; but there is a resource, and we have it here-in order that He might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word’. You have similar truth set forth in its individual application in John 13. There it was on the ground that the disciples were His own; that He loved them, and that whom He loved He loved unto the end; and then we find that, being exposed to defile themselves in the world, the Lord would guard them against two things: first, the anxiety lest He should cease to love them because they were unfaithful; secondly, the danger of their using His faithfulness as a reason for trifling with sin. Christ will never cease to love, nor will He trifle with sin or allow us to trifle with it. He keeps us always resting on His blood.
“But then, supposing one is guilty of sin after receiving remission of sins, what is to be done? Let us go and spread it out before God. The veil is not set up again because you have acted foolishly outside it. You are entitled to draw near and spread out your failure before God-to come to Him on the very ground that you are washed in the blood of Christ. What is the effect of this? and what is this the effect of? It is because Christ is sanctifying and cleansing, keeping up the washing of water by the word. There may be this corporate aspect of it, as well as the individual both are true. It is true for every soul and for the Church at large. Christ is always acting in the presence of God on behalf of the Church; and the consequence is the needed reproof and chastening. A man is brought to feel what he has done. Some word of God, either in his own meditation, or through others, flashes upon his soul. He is convinced of his folly; the will has ceased to act; the word of God is brought home with power by the Holy Spirit; the man bows under it to the Lord.”
(To be continued, D. V.)