Letters on Subjects of Interest
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Letters on Subjects of Interest
Beloved Brother,
I thank you for your letters, which always interest me. God is so faithful to His own, that, if there is any disposition to rise, God humbles, as we see in the meeting at—. He would not have us out of the place of security and blessing. Discipline is more difficult than people think, because they are not humbled enough to think of a brother’s sin. They do not feel enough what one is oneself, nor love consequently for others.
I have been deeply interested and touched by the reciprocity of concern between the Father and the Son in their love for us. (John 17) They communicate mutually, or at least by the mouth of the Son who addresses the Father, and I learn in what way they share this love. The Father has given us to the Son; the Son has manifested to us the name of the Father; He has kept the disciples in the Father’s name. Now the Father is to keep them, and to bless them because they are His own, but also because the Son is glorified in them. The Son has also given us all the words the Father had given Him for His own joy. What a thought that the Father and the Son think of us thus!
Generally in John it is the love of the Father and of the Son which characterizes grace. God is light, but light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not. But if no one has ever seen God, the only-begotten Son who is in the Father’s bosom has declared Him. So in chapter 8 it is His word, and “I am;” in chapters 9, 10, it is grace, and “I and the Father are one.” They would believe they were doing God service [in persecuting His own]; and this, because they knew not the Father nor the Son.
New York, April 23rd, 1867.
The Lord is come from the Father to reveal Him to us as He has known Him. We come from Christ to reveal Him, as we know Him; that is true ministry-a happy and blessed thing, but serious in its character. “Peace be unto you,” said the Lord; “as my Father hath sent me, so have I sent you.” What a mission, although we are not apostles!
September, 1871.
Dear Brother,
That which constitutes the difficulty of the first chapter of John’s first Epistle, and even of all the epistle, is, that the doctrine is there presented in an abstract manner. But in sum I believe that the mind of the Spirit is this: God is no longer hidden. We have fellowship with Him in the full revelation of His grace-with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Under the law God did not come out; man did not go into His presence. Now the Father is revealed in the Son and has given us a life in which we enjoy His fellowship. But then it is with God Himself-no more veil-and God is light He is perfectly pure and reveals everything. Now since there is no more veil and God has revealed Himself, we must walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light. But in this position one is perfectly cleansed by the blood of Jesus; next, we enjoy fellowship one with another.
It is this full revelation of God which is of the essence of Christianity: fullness of grace, introducing us into fellowship, and the Father known in the Son; but it is with God, if the thing is true, and God is light. The fellowship is with God, according to His nature, and without veil. But if we come to Him, it is as washed in the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, and we are before Him, without veil, white as snow. Now the Christian walks in the consciousness of this, having a nature which is connected with it: we are light in the light in the Lord. But this must be in the light, as God is in the light; all is judged according to the revelation of God, who judges all things. One is in the light, as God is in the light. These things are written that we sin not; if any man sin, the remedy is in the first verses of chapter ii. But the verses of which you speak teach us that we are in the light, as God is in the light. Now if we speak of fellowship when we are not in it, we lie, for He is the light.
Letters on Subjects of Interest: The Church
February 10th, 1855.
The time to come is the church’s glory and perfection; the present, that of fidelity and faith, but of a faith which counts on God that the church, by His power, may manifest His glory in this very world by its common superiority to all that governs it and to all that exercises an influence over it. The church is the seat of God’s power in the world. What have we made of it? (See Eph. 3:20, 21.) The Epistle to the Ephesians presents the perfection of the position of the church before God; that to the Thessalonians gives, in a manner most interesting and to me in the highest degree edifying, the perfection of the Christian’s position individually.
March 25th, 1871.
Dear Brother,
One knows little about the history of what they call the church, of what the church is as to its responsibility, nor the walk of the clergy, nor even that of all the world. It is a happy thing only to have the word to follow, and to know that it is the word of God. What an immense privilege to have His word, the revelation of His grace toward us, the perfection of the person of Jesus, and the counsels of God, what God has ordered for our glory! It is in His kindness to us that He will show in the ages to come the unsearchable riches of His grace.
From the beginning, trusting to the enemy rather than to God, man has been estranged from Him, and the two questions, “Where art thou?” and “What hast thou done?” showed where man had got to. The responsibility completely put to the test until the rejection of Christ, then God glorified in justice, His love and the counsels of His grace, before the foundation of the world, have been put before us. This places the gospel in quite a particular position, as it shows the relation of responsibility and sovereign grace with great clearness.
More than this, there is no veil on the glory of God. From thence His wrath revealed from heaven, but also the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, a witness that all the sins of those who see it are no longer before God; then all that God is morally fully revealed and shown. We know it according to His glory, and our relationship with God, our position before God, is founded on it. We are changed from glory to-glory, according to this image, for we can pin on it: it is the proof of our redemption, and that our sins are no longer before God. We are renewed also in knowledge after the image of Him who created us; we are created according to God in righteousness and true holiness; for, according to this glory, He puts Him in our hearts to bring forth the glory of Christ in the world. We are like a lantern; the light is within, but to shine without, but a dim glass (the flesh, if it interferes) will hinder the light from shining as it ought. Thus, what is given us becomes an inward exercise, the treasure is in an earthen vessel; and it must be only a vessel that we should he dead, that the life of Jesus should be made manifest in our mortal bodies. It is not only a communication of what is in Christ as to knowledge; but, if it is real, we drink from the source of the river. It is a communication which exercises the soul, makes it grow, and judge the flesh in everything, so that we do not spoil the witness which has been confided to us.
In Christ Himself the life was the light of men, and it is necessary that the light which we receive should become life in us, the formation of Christ in us, and that the flesh should be subject to death. Death acts in us, says Paul, life in you.
That is the history of ministry-of true ministry. What we communicate is ours. It enlightens us, but it acts in us morally; and the glory of Christ is realized in us, and all that does not suit Him is judged. Now the flesh never suits Him.
The death of Christ put an end to all that was of Paul; thus the life of Christ acted by him on others, and only that. This is saying a great deal. Thus, with regard to this, there may be progress. As to my position before God, I reckon myself to be dead; and, as to living, death acts in me. There is the vessel, but it must be only a vessel, and the life of Christ acts in it and by it. If the vessel acts, it spoils all. In fact we live, but we must always bear about death, so that the glory of Christ, the image of God, may shine for others. But all the glory of God is revealed; there is no longer a veil upon it on God’s side; if it is veiled, the veil is upon the heart of man by unbelief. An all-important truth! Under the law man could not enter; God did not come out. He has come forth, but in being nothing, in order to bring out grace. Then, the work of redemption accomplished, He has gone in, and there is no more veil on the glory.
Letter on Subjects of Interest: Fellowship
London, 1871.
I have not the least doubt that the apostle, when he said (1 John 1:7), “We have fellowship one with another,” spoke of fellowship with saints among themselves. There are three elements of Christian life. The first is to be in the light as God is in the light, without a veil. One must be found in the presence of God fully revealed. If one does not keep oneself there, one cannot be in communion with Him.
The second is, that, being in His presence, it is not with us the egotism of the individual, but the fellowship of the saints by the Holy Ghost, in the enjoyment of the full revelation of God Himself.
The third is, that we are white as snow, so that we can find ourselves with joy in this light, which only makes manifest that we are all that the mind and heart of God desires in this respect, that which our heart desires also before him. The idea is abstract and absolute, it is the value and efficacy of Christ’s blood. It is not only the washing away of sin; there is an efficacy besides, which is not lost. My soul once washed, I am always before God, according to the efficacy of this blood. The washing away is rather by water, although in virtue of this blood. (See John 13, and the “red heifer.”) But here it is the value of the blood in itself, and mark it well: “if we walk in the light, as God is in the light.” It is indeed a real state; but the apostle does not say “according to the light.” It is our position, now that the cross has revealed God without veil. As men interpret this passage generally, they ought to read, “If we do not walk according to the light, the blood cleanses us.” But it is not a question of any such thing here.
It is at the beginning of 1 John 2 that one finds that provision made, or what is necessary in case of failure. I do not doubt that the light searches us; but here God does not see evil, He sees the man cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
At verse 8 the consideration of acknowledged sin begins. No doubt the blood purifies us from everything, but when we think of the existence of sin in us, the knowing that the blood purifies us from everything, we are led to another gospel truth, namely, that we are dead with Christ. (Rom. 6; Col. 2; 3; Gal. 2) It is for practice, and is directed against the movement of sin in the flesh. If sin has acted, we are led to confess, not the sin in the flesh, but that which it has produced (1 John 1:9); then we are pardoned and cleansed. This is true at the beginning, but true also in the details of life.
The different characters which Christ takes in respect to these last days are these- “the Holy and the True.” Yes, this is the character which He takes, what He wishes in His own, in their walk, when He shall come soon. We have to watch over ourselves, and over our brethren, that thus it may be. I feel, for my own part, that we have in these days to watch very particularly over this holiness, though it is always an essential thing for the children of God. Evil is in the world, but we are in the hands of God. Christ has entered after the evil, and gained a complete victory over him who was the chief of it; thanks be to Him! He holds in His hands the keys of death and hades; but the time has not yet come to take away the evil from off the earth. God uses it for our good, but the evil is there.
Letter on a Subject of Interest: Romans
Boston, Feb. 17th, 1867.
I do not know if in my “Synopsis” I have sufficiently remarked on the structure of the Epistle to the Romans. However, this point has been much developed in my mind. In the first chapter I end the Introduction with verse 17. Verse 18 begins the argument, which shows the necessity of the gospel, because of the sins of either Jew or Gentile.
From chapter 3: 21 we have the answer of grace in the blood of Christ to sins committed, explanation of the patience of God with regard to past sins, and the ground of justice revealed in the present time. Then, in chapter 4, the resurrection as an accomplished fact is added.
In chapter 5:1-11 he shows all the blessings which flow from that which precedes; peace, favor, glory to come, joy in tribulation, joy in God Himself. This brings out sovereign grace, and the love of God-love which is shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit which He has given us. A chief division of the epistle is found at the end of verse 11 of chapter 5. As far as the end of this verse, the apostle has spoken of sins, then of grace.
Now (from ver. 12) he begins to speak of sin. Before it was our offenses; now it is the disobedience of one. It is Adam (everyone, no doubt, having added his part to it) and Christ. It is no longer, consequently, Christ who died for our sins, but it is we who are dead in Christ which puts an end to the nature and position which we had from Adam. That is also why the apostle speaks of our death, and does not go any farther. If he had spoken of our resurrection with Christ, he would have encroached on the doctrine of Colossians and Ephesians, and would have been obliged to come to union with Christ, which is not his subject here. His subject is, How am I, a sinner, individually justified with God? The answer: Christ has died for our offenses; there are the fruits of the old man put out of sight; then you are dead with Christ-this puts your old man away (to faith).
Besides, chapter 6 answers to the objection, “Shall we sin?” &c. How, says the apostle, shall we live to sin if we are dead? You have a part in this death-certainly it is not to live. Union does not exist at all in this argument; only, if we are dead, we must live by some means or other.
Now it is to God by Jesus Christ. This suffices to show the practical bearing of this doctrine. Union relates to our privileges. We are perfect in Christ, members of His body. The fact that we are in Christ is supposed in chapter 8: 1, and affirmed in a practical manner in verse 9 of the same chapter, but there it relates to deliverance. But the object of the apostle in his arguments is to show that we have done with the flesh, and consequently with sin and that we derive our life from another source; so that justification is a doctrine of deliverance from sin, and not of the liberty of sinning. In chapter 7 death applies to our relations with law. The end of the chapter shows us the experience of a renewed soul (as to the conscience and its position) still in the flesh, of which the law is the rule-the law, which, when we are renewed, is understood in its spirituality. The consequence of all this is developed in chapter 8, which makes us see our position with God, the effect of what we find ourselves in Christ, as chapter 5: 1-11 shows that which God has been for us sinners, and what, consequently, we have learned Him to be in Himself. The end of chapter 8 resumes in triumph the consequences of these truths.
As to your question on the Psalms, you must not believe what they tell you. From the confession of Mr. Newton, never from mine, his views are found in the Psalms, not in the Gospels. My doctrine is exactly opposed to that of Mr. Newton. He taught that Christ was born in a state of distance from God, and could only meet God on the cross; only by His piety He took away many of the consequences of His native position. On the contrary, I believe that He was born, and lived until the cross in perfect favor with God, and that in grace He entered in spirit into the troubles and sorrows of His people, and particularly at the end when His hour was come. On the cross He, in fact, drank the cup. But I do not at all think that it is a question of His sufferings only in the Psalms; I believe even that a much fewer number of Psalms apply directly to Christ than people generally think. The Psalms, looked at in their prophetical sense, depict the circumstances and trials of the remnant of Israel.
That Christ has shared in spirit the sorrows of His people I do not doubt: but I say that very few of the Psalms are direct prophecies of what has happened to Him: some of them are, as is unquestionable. But I think that the New Testament shows us very clearly the relationship of Christ with His people. No doubt the New Testament is not occupied with the remnant as the Psalms, nor with the future of Israel as the prophets, because it is a question generally of deeper truths, more important, and of another character; but it puts these things very clearly in their historical place, and quotes the prophecies which bear upon them. We see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, announcing that which should happen either to the disciples in the midst of the people or to the people themselves. The Old Testament gives us the details as to Israel, and speaks more of the result, because that is the subject of which it treats; but the New Testament makes us see exactly the place of these things with regard to Christianity, which is its subject, and it resumes, as far as is necessary, the subject of the Old. As to the sufferings of Christ, it gives them to us historically, and in quoting the passages of which the Old Testament has spoken, it often presents to us the feelings of Christ more intimately than the Psalms do, and at other times quotes these last as explaining the history of what is past.
For my part I take what I find in the Old Testament as the same authority as the New. If the Old Testament says, “In all their afflictions he was afflicted,” the New makes us hear Jesus, who Himself said, weeping, “How often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” I quite understand that many Christians do not well apprehend that which concerns the remnant of Israel, as well as the interest which the Lord has in it. That does not trouble me; but when one explains the. Psalms, one must explain them according to their true sense, and I believe this gives a much deeper sense of the patient grace of Jesus. At all events, I think it is important that this should remain a means of edification, and not a subject of contest; without that the person of Christ loses His savor for the heart, or at least the heart loses the sweetness of His grace. If one says that these sufferings (which I do not admit) are not to be found in the New Testament, but in the Old it is clear then that, in explaining the Old, one must speak of them. But the Lord speaks of His position as Zech. 13 describes it, and consequently of the state of the remnant.
Generally the New Testament has not the remnant for its subject, but Christ the Savior, and Christianity; but it also treats of the first of these two subjects in its place. Chapters 1, 2 of Luke are almost entirely occupied with the remnant historically and prophetically. Chapter 10 of Matthew only applies to this subject, and comprehends the whole time to the end, to the exclusion of the Gentiles and Samaritans. It is the same thing under another form in chapter 11.
They say that Christ only suffered in expiation and in sympathy. Do you think He suffered nothing when He rebuked the scribes, who hindered poor souls from receiving Him? Read chapter 23 of Matthew. Did not His heart stiffer? “He suffered, being tempted,” is an important truth in the word. When He asked His disciples to watch with Him, He was not yet drinking the cup, but He sweated as it were great drops of blood. This was not sympathy; He sought it, but did not find it. It is a very serious thing to deny the sufferings of the Son of man. There was sympathy at the tomb of Lazarus, but on approaching death, and always more or less, He suffered-He, in love, in grace, doubtless, but really; not, assuredly, because of what was in Him, or of His own relationship with the Father, but “it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings.”
I earnestly entreat you not to make these things a matter of controversy; it is rather a question of worship: to contest these points injures, and tends to destroy, all holy affections. When I see Paul explaining himself as he did at the commencement of chapter 9 of the Epistle to the Romans, shall I say that Christ, whose Spirit pressed the apostle to these sentiments, remained Himself indifferent to the unbelief of the well-beloved people? He died for the nation;—it is clear that it was expiatory, but it is a proof that He loved it as a nation. The sufferings of Christ are air important point, and the New Testament, as well as the Old, shows that Israel was in a peculiar manner the object of His affections, which made Him suffer. Now His sympathy was with the sorrows of humanity, but He felt, and He explained the iniquity which put an end (save in the sovereign grace of God) to all the hopes of Israel, and to the enjoyment by the beloved people of all the promises. When He says, “It cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem,” and that He called it “the city which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them which are sent unto thee”-was this said in hard indifference? The suffering was not expiatory, and He could not have sympathy with the iniquity which did that. These words only reproduce with a more touching affection, and a heart in which all egotism and self-interest were absent, the expression in the Psalms.
No doubt one may represent these things badly. The affections of the Savior are too delicate a subject for one to handle roughly without straining them, or, so to speak, hurting them; but that one should deny them is distressing to me. The Messiah has been out off, and all the hopes of the beloved people are lost with Him—to be recovered, no doubt: now, I do not believe that Christ did not suffer about it.
Letters on Subjects of Interest: Justification
Canada.
Truth is eternal, and love lasts forever; both are in the precious Savior; let us hold them fast by grace. In these last days all gets more and more enlightened as the dawn of day appears; I can say that the truth of eternal things has a reality which it never had before. Christ becomes more and more everything. The things which perish have only an appearance. We have always to fight, but that which is unseen is eternal, and is ours by grace. May Christ dwell in our hearts by faith!
The objection made to the use of 1 Cor. 7:14 has no force. Amongst the Jews, if they married a Gentile woman, or vice versa, the Jew was not unholy, but he had profaned himself; the children were unholy, and he had to send away both the woman and children. The husband did not cease to be a Jew, although a profane Jew; but his children were unholy, and from that time could not even be profaned, for that which is already unholy cannot be profaned.
Now, grace having come in, it was the obverse which took place. The unbelieving husband did not cease to be unbelieving, but he was relatively sanctified (not holy); then the child was holy, not inwardly in his soul, but he had a right to the privileges which belonged to the people of God upon the earth, privileges of which the child of a mixed marriage amongst the Jews was deprived, because he was profane. He was not more a sinner than another, but he was excluded from the center, where were found the blessings granted by God to His people, and they were great ones, as the apostle said.
We are in these last days, and evidently God acts in grace to take His people out of the evil, and the judgments; but there must be more devotedness, more separation. May God act in His goodness! There is still much more to be done in calling souls, and in establishing them in the truth, that they may not be carried away by every wind of doctrine. There is so much unbelief, and the human mind is so active, that souls are exposed to dangers of all kinds. God keeps them, and His own are, after all, always in safety; only the snare is no longer formalism, but the rejection of all, or the substitution of opinions for divine truth. I always think that it is a fine moment for him who is decided. One must be an out-and-out Christian, and accept the foolishness of God as wiser than men, and the weakness of God as stronger than men. A humble walk, in entire dependence on God, in looking-at Jesus Christ, is singularly blessed, in these days; and the rest will soon come.
I do not know what thing we have to do down here mere important than better to know God, and to serve Him; but what I look for, above all among the brethren, is devotedness. I do not doubt that their place is just the witness of God, not after any wisdom in us, but by the sovereign goodness of God, and by more or less knowledge of Him. But the witness is not complete if there is not devotedness. It is not that I regard doctrine as of no importance. The more I advance, the more I see that in evangelicalism unity is lost, that it never had but resists the doctrine of Paul, not only as to the church (which has been clear for a long time), but even as to our entire position as Christians. I am daily more explicit in my witness on this subject, when the occasion requires it. It may be useful to argue, but I believe that clearness of testimony is useful, so as to render the testimony without fear. The times are too serious; only one must know what we are doing, and what is the question in reality. But the controversy with respect to righteousness, and thus with respect to the law, has manifested the thing.
Are we in the first or Second Adam? Excepting the useful and searching Epistle of James [which has another and practical bearing] among the writings of the New Testament, only those of Paul treat of justification. John is occupied with the principle which is included in it, but not under this form. No doubt he includes the doctrine as that of the Spirit, but to be risen with Christ, and thus presented before God, is Paul’s doctrine. Only if we are occupied with this doctrine, we must watch that the divine character should be fully developed-in our own spirit and in our own faith, I mean to say. That is what Paul does fully, in the manner, doubtless, which is peculiar to him: that is to say, in that line of truth in which he was guided by the Holy Spirit. And it is marvelous to see the manner in which it is outside the law, and, being outside the law, these legalists are contemptible, as far as their doctrine is concerned. We are to be the followers of God, Christ being our model, and to let the divine life in us be seen by a complete sacrifice of ourselves, and that towards God, so that the principle may be perfect. I have been occupied with that lately, and I think of sending an article on this subject to.... I believe God has lately been helping the brethren in their publications, and it is a mercy on His part. But we have to render a much more extensive testimony than we do. The workmen must have faith for all that they do. Often the complaints and questions as to the state of the brethren arise in a great measure from a lack of faith among those who express them. However, I fear the world for them. Sometimes bold assertions take place: here the evil is least; but devotedness, separation from the world, absence of conformity to the world, that is what I look for...The Lord is ever the same, so is it with man morally.
September 11th, 1841.
Justification is one point, and two things uniting with it: firstly, that the blood has washed us from our sins, and that is, perhaps, justification, properly speaking. But in fact one can add to it our acceptance in the Beloved. If any man practices justice, he is just, as Jesus Christ is just; for to practice justice flows from the life of Christ in us; but by this life we are united to Christ in us; we enjoy His righteousness before God, being rendered accepted in the Beloved. The resurrection is the pivot of it, being the proof of atonement; it introduces Christ, according to the power of this eternal life (in which we participate) in the presence of God. It is around the person of Christ, looked on as risen, on which all the troths which are found in the word turn. The union of the church with Him is the complement of them. Resurrection leaves behind it in the tomb all that could condemn us, introduces the Lord into this new world, of which He is the perfection, the Chief, and the glory: now we are united to Him.
October 7th, 1841.
... I do not exactly like this expression: “Christ has obtained justification from God,” because it presents God as unwilling, and even opposed to the thing, whilst it is the, will and the heart of God, who has prepared us the sacrifice, and all. It is true that the justice of God required the atonement and the sacrifice of Christ. It is, however, He whose love has provided for all our wants in that respect. Also it is He who justifies. (Compare Zech. 3) The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks rather of our acceptance under the form of our presentation to Him, of sanctification in the outward sense. “That he might sanctify the people by his blood.” Also He has perfected them; they can keep in His presence as being in Him, according to the perfection of the sanctuary, without blame, without spot. Justification is the idea of a tribunal, of a judge, so to speak. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the sanctuary, and of presenting us there. The foundation is always the same: only we can look at it in different ways, and each one gives us more light on the perfection of the work of Christ, and on the effects of this work, which we enjoy.
1 Peter 1:19 speaks rather in the sense of redemption, ransomed from the hands of the enemy. The obedience of Christ during His life tended towards the perfection of the sacrifice-it was not expiatory, but perfectly agreeable. It was a question of the acceptance of His person, as necessary to His work, but this obedience was not expiatory. If the grain of wheat had not fallen to the ground, it would have remained alone; but His complete obedience rendered Him perfectly agreeable to God, as also He was. (See Phil. 2) Under the form of justification, it is the Epistle to the Romans which treats most expressly the subject of our acceptance. What I wished to say in making use of the expression, “Christ has obtained justification,” will be understood in comparing the way in which this epistle explains itself. (Chap. 3: 24.) “Having been freely justified by his grace, by the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” You see the way in which it is presented, as flowing from the free gift of God. This is important for the state of the soul, and that grace should be clearly understood.
January, 1842.
To apprehend the position of the law well is a difficult thing, because we must be fully led by the Holy Ghost, in order not to be ourselves in some way under the law, as to our feelings at least. One must have well apprehended the power of the work, and of the resurrection of Jesus; without that one would be without the law, if one were not under the law. We are by no means under the law. Grace does not recognize any participation of the law in our hearts; but how so if we recognize the law as good? Because Christ exhausted it in His death. He was under the law until His death, and in His death, but evidently He is not so now. He can use the law to judge those who have been under the law, but we are united to Him. As Adam was only head of the old family after his fall, so Christ is only Head of the new family as risen from the dead. He places them in His own position as a risen man; they begin with Christ there. They recognize the power of the law, but it has put to death Jesus-there where it has lost all its power and its dominion over the soul. We belong to Another. We can use the law, if there is need of it against the unjust, because, having the divine nature, we can handle the law, and it cannot inflict that mortal wound on the divine nature from which it has gone out. We can show where man is, if he is under the law, to make the perfection of redemption come out by that. That is what the apostle does in Romans and Galatians, to make one understand that we are no longer under the law; because we are dead with Christ. By the law we are dead to the law, we are crucified with Christ. A Gentile was never truly under the law. In becoming a Christian he takes Christ at a point where He has done with the law, but having received the Spirit of Christ, he has no more need of the law to discern the perfection of redemption; he has intelligence to understand the things accomplished in the history of Messiah-His perfect work. But the thing is far from being clear in the minds of Christians, for in fact most of them have made a law out of Christianity, and have put themselves under the law.
They must come out of that to enjoy peace, but to them the discussion about what the law is, is a very important and opportune thing because of that; besides, the human heart puts itself so naturally under the law, that it is very important that each soul should be well enlightened on. this point. The law, let us always remember, reveals to us nothing of God, except that the law implies a judge. It gives us the measure of our responsibility, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor.” There is the law. One can say that the gospel gives us new motives for accomplishing the law, but these motives are drawn from a fact which gives Christ over our hearts all the right to which the law could pretend, and puts an end by death to the power of this latter, for we are dead and risen with Christ. We shall do and avoid many things which are found in the law, and the summary which has been given to us remains the principle, or the fruit, of the life of Christ in us. It is accomplished in all that flows from this life, but we are by no means under the law, for we are one with Christ, and Christ is not under the law. The law not only condemns the conduct, but the men. The law does not only say, “Cursed is everything,” but “cursed is every one that persevereth not.” Thus one must be under the curse if one is under the law. But it is because we are not under the law that we can employ it if it is needed. The Jews wished to employ it against the adulterous woman, but they were under the law in the flash. Their law pierced their hearts to death and condemnation. Christ used it, or at least left it its efficacy, because that, although He was born under the law, it could not reach Him for condemnation, the life of God in Him being perfect. United to Him in resurrection, we can use it, because we are beyond its reach by the death and resurrection of Christ, enjoying His life in our souls. That is why one is always more or less under the law until one has understood the resurrection of Christ; and also, every time that the flesh obscures the power of our redemption, I hope you will be able to understand these few remarks.
As to the Epistle to the Philippians, it offers another very interesting feature-the desolation and personal experience of the apostle. He views the church as deprived of his care; and he himself is oppressed for the moment by the power of Satan. Thus he enters, in a very touching and powerful manner, into all that which concerns the struggle of the church, and into all that which is important for it during the period of its loneliness; also he offers the graces which would prevent it from falling into the miseries which arose in consequence of the absence of the apostle. Hence the great use of this epistle for the present time. They began to preach Christ with a spirit of dissension, and not to be of one mind, to murmur. He shows what the riches and graces of Christ consist in, particularly necessary for such a state, alas! much ripened since then. Why should I say, alas? for all that will turn for salvation, and show that the coming of Jesus is nearer.
September, 1871.
Dear Brother,
That which constitutes the difficulty of the first chapter of the Epistle of John, and even of all the epistle, is that the doctrine is there presented in an abstract manner. But on the whole I think that the thought of the Spirit is this: God is no longer hidden; we have fellowship with Him in the full revelation of His grace-with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. Under the law God did not come forth; man did not go into His presence. Now the Father has revealed Himself in the Son, and has given us a life in which we enjoy fellowship with Him. But then it is with God Himself-no longer a veil, and God is light; it is perfectly pure, and reveals all. Now that there is no more veil, and that God has revealed Himself, one must walk in the light, as He is in the light. But in this position one is perfectly cleansed by the blood of Jesus; then we enjoy fellowship one with another. It is this full revelation of God which is the essence to Christianity: fullness of grace introducing us into communion, and the Father known in the Son; but it is with God, if the thing is true, and God is light.
Letters on Subjects of Interest: Numbers
April 19th, 1845.
Lately I have read, to edification, Numbers, and the Epistle to the Philippians. The establishment of the rod of Aaron, a priest in grace, whilst being in authority, after all the murmurs of the congregation; its employment, although this was by Moses; its lack of employment at the time of the new complaints of the congregation;-all this has singularly instructed me. At the same time when God had judged and disciplined the people, the manner in which He immediately speaks (chap. 15.) of all His promises and of the land as being theirs, having been given them by Him, has touched me much. His promise and His thoughts for His people are as firm as if nothing had happened. The responsibility and the sustenance of the priests as such, and of their families as families, and the points of difference, have also edified me much.
That which has struck me much in the Epistle to the Philippians, is how the apostle has his death continually before his eyes; then, that the trials which he had endured had acted as good discipline, causing Christ to be all for him, himself being nothing. And what peace this gives! He does not know if he is to be condemned. As to himself the arrangements of the magistrates did not enter his thoughts; as to himself he does not know what to choose; but it is good that he should remain for the church: thus it is decided. He judges his ease, by the sole consideration that such a decision will be for the good of the church, and thus Christ will make it decided. Is it thus that we trust Him, dear brother? Alas! no; at least too often we are not sufficiently emptied of self. We cannot say with the apostle, “I have learned.” This is what we must learn. Well! it is the life of this man, so faithful, so devoted, and so gifted of God, the life of the Apostle Paul, taught and disciplined in this manner, and the perfect calm with which he enjoys the consequences of this discipline, which has lately been to my edification in reading this epistle.
November, 1855.
Without getting much new, I have greatly enjoyed, and I hope profited by, the word. The Psalms have been the subject of our conversation, and a number of passages here and there have had more force and clearness to my soul. I have been much struck with the effect of the judgment-seat of Christ upon Paul. He sees all the terror of it, but the only effect is, to engage him to persuade others. The Christ before whom He would appear was his righteousness and judged according to this righteousness; thus there was no possible question. That which judged, and that which was before the judgment, were identified; it was one side of the truth, and of the nature of God. The other side is love. Now it is this which consequently puts itself into activity; he persuades others because of this terror. I know few passages which show with more force what is the power of the gospel, and the perfection of justification. But there is a precious operation of this judgment-seat: the apostle realized the manifestation before him; he did not fear being manifested in the future; he was, in fact, manifested to God; conscience perfectly purified, relatively to God, took all its power, and, keeping itself in the presence of God, all that was not according to that presence was in fact manifested in the light. It was necessary, and by grace he had the light of God, to show, to have the consciousness that there was nothing. It is very important to be there. Many things are judged there which often are not judged in a tolerably regular Christian life; and when the conscience is before God and clear, love is free. One knows also in this manner what it is to be bearing about always in one’s body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal bodies; or rather, in walking thus, it should be so-one is fully in His presence.
Among other things, I have also been struck with chapters 15 and 17 of Genesis. It seems to me that the disinterestedness of Abraham at the end of chapter 14 was the reason that God in grace said to him, “I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.” At first sight one would have thought that Abraham would have nothing to do but to rejoice in unspeakable joy in thinking that God Himself was his reward; but he says, What are You going to give me? God condescends in grace when it is a question of a true want founded upon a promise. But there is an element which impresses its character upon this grace: “I am thy shield, and thy great reward.” The blessing does not surpass the wants or the personal privileges of Abraham. Quite naturally his heart enters into it and it is the development of the want of the heart according to its proper state. It is an immense favor, but a favor which, in a certain sense, measures itself by the wants of the creature. In chapter 17 God says, “I am God Almighty.” He does not say “Thy.” It is what He is in Himself. “Walk before me and be thou perfect,” upright. Abraham falls down, and God talks with Abraham. He promises him the son, and then reveals to him, like a friend, what He is going to do. Then Abraham, instead of asking for himself, intercedes for others. Also one may remark that chapter 15 does not surpass the Jewish promises; in chapter 17 he is the father of several nations. It is the difference between the goodness of God who binds Himself in grace to us and our needs, and communion with Himself.
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