Read Heb. 9
In a preceding paper on the 10th and 11Th of Romans, there was presented the reconciliation of free grace to the whole race of man-be it Jew or Gentile: man under law, or man without law-all being brought in on the level of sin-all being received on the ground of free sovereign grace-with the special and unconditional promises which God had made to the Jews.
My thought now is to enter a little more in detail into the Lord's dealings in the dispensation in which we live. But first I would take a more general view of God's dealings with man from the beginning; and for this purpose I now read the 9th of Hebrews, as the 26th verse of the chapter is the great center truth on which it all hangs. " Now once, in the end of the world, (that is morally,) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
All that God had done up to that point was the bringing out of sin in the first man; but there followed immediately the the putting away of that sin in the second man. Then, passing over the present interval, he speaks of this second man appearing again a second time. Here, then, is the turning point of all God's ways-the death of Christ and its consequences, His coming again to take possession of all that His first coming had given Him a title to. They were His before, " For by him were all things created," &c.; but in His second coming He takes possession of all that which His blood had bought back again to Himself; " For he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."
" And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The end of man is to die, or rather, we may say, he there begins for eternity; and it is terrible to think of beginning in judgment. But God in Christ has introduced another thing; for as the end of man, either Jew or Gentile, is death and judgment, so unto us that "look for him shall he appear a second time without sin unto salvation." The first time He came it was about sin, in the sense of bearing it, being occupied about it. He was made sin-Himself the sinless one-but having put away the sin, He comes the second time without sin unto salvation. In His second coming there is no question about sin whatever, but the full bringing out of God's purpose of blessing in consequence of the putting away of sin. Man's portion is death and judgment, as contrasted with the salvation Christ brings. But mark another thing, in the meanwhile; priesthood comes in. He is hidden from the world, as He said, " the world seeth me no more;" but He " appears in the presence of God for us." The word appears is a legal term, indicating Him as the One who represents His people. So He, as our high priest, is representing us in the presence of God. He has taken His place and, at down at God's right hand, having by Himself purged our sins. And we need such a high priest in our daily walk. But then, as regards His bodily presence, He is gone; therefore we have to walk as pilgrims and strangers in a seducing world, though not of it, with " our life hid with Christ in God."
Then comes out another thing, the veil being rent, He has sent down the Holy Ghost to be in us, and to associate us in heart and life with Him in heaven, thus giving us the proper exclusive heavenly character, of a heavenly people, now on the earth. For Christ being in the presence of God for us, our portion is in heaven. We are in the position of Stephen, who being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up into heaven through the rent veil, saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. The heavens were opened to his spiritual gaze, which is now always true to us; and all we are now waiting for is, that Christ may come and take us up bodily there. The crucifixion of Christ was the utter rejection of the second Adam by the first Adam. This was man's turning point; for man had been tried in every possible way, but all in vain. God says, "What shall I do?" I will send my beloved Son, it may be they will reverence my Son. But when they saw Him they said, " This is the heir, come let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours." All the dealings of God with man, as man, ended here; therefore it is called " this present evil world." The rending of the veil, which closed all the previous dealings of God with man, opened the way to heaven, and while it condemned the sinner, it saved the believer. It condemned the world, but brought out full salvation to all that believe, associating them with heavenly things. For through the rent veil, (that is, Christ's flesh,) we have access into the holiest of all.
Then comes the question how far such saved ones (for I speak now of real Christians) have been faithful in maintaining, as a heavenly witness, their testimony to the world's condemnation, and of their own association, as a heavenly people on the earth, and their head in heaven. But instead of entering on this question now, we will go a little through God's dealings with the first Adam from the beginning up to the introduction of the second Adam. We will trace all the different changes in God's dealings with the first man, till we come to this new starting point, " created anew in Christ Jesus.' God has taken away the first that He may establish the second.
All God's actual dealings with man, till he came to the point of crucifying His Son, show how the patient goodness of God had tried man in every way, until obliged to pronounce man, on experimental evidence, to be utterly bad. Of' course, God knew what man was all the while.
First, then, we will trace God's dealings with man as man. Secondly, with the Jews. Thirdly with this new man in Christ-for in whatever position man has been placed, it has only been to start aside like a broken bow, and to turn from God. This is a solemn truth, and one that Christians ought to know well; for never was there a time when man's thoughts of man were so exalted; when so many efforts were being made; so many theories maintained as at the present, that man as man may be turned to some profit. The great cardinal truth is, that there is no good in man. And it is most important that the soul should thoroughly understand this, as it gives both simplicity and stability. For the simple knowledge that man is thoroughly bad cuts at the root of ten thousand theories all based upon the notion that good is to be found in man. But all these deep-laid theories will drop off by thousands, like leaves in autumn, if it only be believed by the soul that in man good is not to be found. The death of Christ is the great and infallible contradiction to all assumptions of the contrary. " When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Thus on the cross was proved to the whole world that God could find no good in man. It is also given doctrinally in Romans, and historically in the Old Testament.
The next point is, that it is God's work to bring man back. And mark the blessed way in which God works to bring man back. For after sin entered there was no rest for God or man, but in that rest which God hath prepared. So the only rest the poor sinner can find is in " God's rest." God works and then enters into His rest. Man rests in God, and then works for the glory of God-for there is no rest now but that into which Christ entered; and we which have believed do enter into rest. The Sabbath rest was in connection with Jews as a sign of the covenant between them and God, which supposes that after the work of the week is done, then rest comes; and, doubtless, in connection with creation, it is a blessing to all. When Christ was on the earth the question of the sabbath was constantly raised; and when healing a man on the sabbath-day, they charged Him with breaking the sabbath. And how does He meet this charge? By saying, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." A good and holy God could not find rest, or a sabbath, amidst the wickedness of man. There must be in such a state of things either judgment or working in grace. God's Son, therefore, came down to the earth, not to keep a sabbath in its polluted state, but to work in grace. And through communion in life with the second Adam, (God's rest,) believers get all the fullness Of the blessings of that rest.
But now we will look a little into this working from the beginning. And for this, let us go back to the garden of Eden; for there we shall find man first put to the test in a state of innocence. And what do we find? A total and complete failure; for nothing could possibly exceed man's insensibility to God's authority, to His goodness, and to His truth! Man abandoned God to gratify his lust in eating the forbidden fruit. Nor was this all, for Adam sets up Satan as the one to be trusted in instead of God. God had surrounded Adam with every blessing, and Satan comes and says, "Ye shall not surely die." God is jealous of your prerogative, for He has not spoken truth when He said, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." And on this liar's and murderer's word man treats God as a grudging God. For Satan says, God has kept back from you that which is good. Thus man believes Satan and makes God a liar. I am not here speaking of the rejection of grace, but of the entire casting off of the authority of God and His truth, and of the open manifestation of sin. Thus there was an end, without a possibility of return, of man's innocence. It was gone, and gone forever. There could, therefore, be no return to innocence—no going back to man's Paradisaical happiness; and that he might not live on in his misery forever, God turns him out of the garden and sets the cherubim with a flaming sword to keep him from the tree of life. But what does God do in despite of this failure? He sets aside the first Adam and brings in the second Adam. In Gen. 3:1515And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15), "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Mark, here, the seed of the woman is the second Adam. There was no promise to the first Adam, for he was in no sense the seed of the woman, though we may trust he was a partaker of the blessing. There was grace, but not in connection with the first Adam. Sin had come in by the woman; therefore Christ, the putter away of sin, came in by the woman also. All God's ways and purposes tend to the second Adam, " Who shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The turning point is the rejection or acceptance of Christ. Whenever the least morsel of Christ is apprehended by a soul and used, the Holy Ghost can come in and give power to the testimony, though in the midst of many mistakes. But when Christ is not received and there is dependence on the first Adam and his resources, though there may be the appearance of fruit for a season, perishing must be the final result. I see no signs of idolatry before the flood; but men being the children of the wicked one, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, corruption and violence filled the earth; and these two principles continue up to the end: as you get corruption in the mystical Babylon, and violence in the persecutions carried on by the beast in the latter day. Then in the garden of Eden we get the two trees-the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. The first of these trees shows man's responsibility. The second tree is connected with God's gift of life. And in these two trees are set forth the two great principles that have given rise to all the controversies that have agitated the mind of man from the beginning. The simple truth is this, if man is put under responsibility-say the law for instance—he fails; but Christ comes in and glorifies God by fulfilling pan's responsibilities, and then God can freely give life. Thus, in the work and person of Christ, we get the perfect and eternal solution of every abstract principle. For the very weakest saint knows that Christ bears the whole responsibility, and that He gives life; and he wonders that men should find such difficulty, when to him all is simple. For the soul that has Christ within knows that it is not merely an abstract principle to be reasoned about. For how can the Christian reason about Christ's having borne the curse for Him, while he himself is in possession of life in Christ? The saint owns his responsibilities, but having failed, Christ has come in, and life is given in grace. But now we will return to the double character of corruption and violence which became so insupportable that God was obliged to come in with the flood. Then we get Noah saved out of it, and with Noah God begins the world over again. Man is again put under trial, for God brings in a new thing. Government is added. Thus man is strengthened against the violence which had prevailed before the flood, and which man, not being altered, will still continue. That which is technically called the 'power of the sword' is given into man's hand. " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Well, failure comes in again; for after awhile, Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk with the fruit thereof, and Ham dishonors his father. Before the flood there was the prophecy of Enoch, (see Jude 1414And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, (Jude 14),) which was a mark of what God was going to do; and after his testimony, Enoch goes up to heaven. This is the Church's testimony now, to warn of the coming judgment which will take place when she is removed. Noah's testimony was quite another thing. " He, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house;" for Noah passed through all the judgment and begins the world again. He is the type of Israel in the latter day. But Enoch warned others and then went up to heaven before the judgment came.
Then we have another most terrible thing. After the flood idolatry comes in.
There were two great results of the breaking down in righteousness of those in the place Noah was set in. First, the association of man to get himself a name" let us make us a name"-and in doing this they were associating themselves against God. For, speaking of intrinsic title, God is the only one who has any right to a name; and the only name God will allow to be set up on the earth is that of the man Christ Jesus. Thus, in man's effort to make himself a name, we see the principle of pride brought out, and the very judgment they were seeking to prevent, by getting themselves a name, was the very judgment with which God visited them. " For the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the earth." Then in one man, Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one in the earth-" a mighty hunter before the Lord"-we have the individual development of will and tyranny in government, instead of righteous government. Then in Babel, in the association for a name, the principle ofpride. Thus we get the two great acts of corruption.
Then devil worship comes in; for when men were scattered abroad on the face of earth, not liking to retain God in their knowledge, they began to offer to devils and not to God. (1 Cor. 10:2020But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. (1 Corinthians 10:20).) They became conscious of dependence in spite of themselves; and therefore it is said in Josh. 24:22And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:2), " Your fathers served other gods." The scripture never speaks a word in vain, and now we can understand the meaning of the call of Abraham, and what he was called out from. God appeared to Abraham and called him out from serving other gods, to serve the living and true God. The world was sinking fast into idolatry, and there was not only man's pride, in getting a name and greatness on the earth, and tyranny and self-will in government, but, alas! the coming in of Satan's power in demon worship: for it is in idolatry that Satan's great power comes in. And here it is important to mark that Satan's power must not be confounded with man's wickedness. Satan's power is altogether another thing, and quite apart from man's wickedness, though often most mischievously confounded with it. Now God is calling a people out; before it was only individuals whose hearts were successively touched with grace. But now God is distinctly separating a people to Himself. Thus Abraham is called the father of the faithful; and God has a special stock on earth called out of the surrounding idolatry, to be a depository of the promises of God, called the olive tree in Rom. 11 In Abraham we find three great principles election, calling, and promise. Abraham did not get into the land until Terah his father was dead. He came into the land of Canaan, but God gave him none inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on, yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession. Therefore " by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, for he looked for a city which bath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
After this we get another think. A people were to be redeemed. Redemption was, in a figure, brought in when God -visited Egypt in judgment and with a mighty arm brought out a people to Himself. The blood of the pascal Lamb was the sign of their shelter from judgment, also of their separation to God Himself. Here we see the distinctiveness of His love in that it was to Himself that they were brought. As it is said, " How I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." Then the Red Sea passed brings out the song of salvation. Then from the Red Sea to Sinai it was all grace; God dealt with them in grace. They murmured again and again, but they got the quails and the water as they wanted without any reproach. It was perfect unmingled grace. At Sinai another change takes place, another principle comes in. The promises which were given to Abraham without any condition are taken by the people on condition of obedience. "All that the Lord bath spoken we will do." This was entirely a new condition and principle. Man now puts himself under covenant with God, in which man is to perform his part and God His. Thus Israel put themselves under the Law, to obtain by their own obedience that which God had promised unconditionally. But before they get what God had spoken, the ten commandments, they had made themselves another god; for they had lost sight of' the man Moses and made them a golden calf and said, "These be thy gods, 0 Israel "-the very thing out of which Abraham had been called! Idolatry they had turned back to, the " serving other gods," and cast off the true God altogether. Thus all was gone. Then we have another change, another principle in action. The Mediator is brought in, and it is then in connection with a mediator between themselves and God. And the mediator Moses, in pleading with God, pleads His promises and comes in as mediator between God and man, to maintain man in the blessings in which he could not maintain himself. Moses was but a shadow of Christ, and not the very image. Aaron is the next, established to be priest in the temple and to offer sacrifices; but just as his consecration is ended, strange fire is offered by his two sons Nadab and Abihu.
This is as we have ever seen the case with man. Though vengeance is taken, man goes on sinning, and the Lord goes on raising up saviors and deliverers, until the time of Eli, when not only his wicked sons were destroyed, but God's strength, the ark, was delivered into the enemies' hands.
Mediatorship and priesthood having both failed, and the ark, the very place of God's presence being delivered into the hands of the Philistines, where there was faith in Israel in the little remnant of that day, it could only say, " Ichabod," " The glory has departed."
But before taking up David, we will return to Abraham again, and take up promises made to Abraham, to show their distinctiveness from the Church. First, the way in which Abraham is the father of many nations, as in Gen. 12. The reasoning of Paul in Galatians is founded on Gen. 12 They were Jewish promises. All the earth had fallen into idolatry and Abraham was called out of this idolatry, that God might make him the stock of promise-the olive tree. (as in Rom. 11) The 2nd and 3rd verses run thus:-" I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Abraham is the vessel, so to speak, in which the promises are deposited. (I drop the great nation, that being Jewish.) Then in the 22nd of Genesis, this promise is confirmed to the seed. Abraham offers up Isaac and receives him back in a figure; Isaac thus representing Christ in resurrection. Then God says, "By myself have I sworn that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed AS the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea shore. This multitudinous seed are the Jews. "And thy seed (Christ) shall possess the gate of his enemies." "And in thy seed (that is Christ) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." " In thy seed," that is the one seed, Christ. The promises that were given to Abraham were confirmed to him in (the one seed) Christ, for there can be no mixing up the two. For Isaac, being raised from the dead, though but in a figure, we know must keep the promises distinct. Therefore the apostle argues in Galatians 3:2020Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. (Galatians 3:20), " If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Thus those who believe in Jesus are "heirs according to the promise," made not to the multitudinous seed, but to the one seed which is Christ. There are two sets of promises—those to Abraham's seed, as the stars of heaven for multitude, in connection with the land; then Isaac being offered up in a figure, confirming the other promises in which all the families of the earth will be blessed in the person of Christ the one seed. Mark that both of these sets of promises are unconditional. For thus Abraham was made the depository of the promises given to him unconditionally, both with reference to Israel and the nations. But in Ex. 19, where God says, " Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bare you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself," we have an entire record of simple grace, without any condition whatever, from the Red Sea to Sinai. But at Sinai the question of condition comes in. " If ye be obedient, ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." And Israel said, " All that the Lord bath spoken we will do." And how long did it last? It was gone directly. Whatever depends on man's stability is gone before he gets it. And so before the ten words reached Israel they had worshipped the golden calf, thus casting off God entirely. And thus Israel had lost their immediate connection with God, for it was then ordained in the hands of a mediator, having broken down in theirs. God says, Let me alone and I will consume them in a moment; and Moses says, " Why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought up. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thy servants," &c.; then goes on pleading the unconditional promises figurative of Christ, and says it is thy people. And God turns from His wrath and goes up with the mediator. " My presence shall go with thee"-not with the people. God calls the people the mediator's people. What beauty and grace there is in this. First, God says, I will consume them in a moment, they are so stiff-necked. But their ornaments are put off, and Moses pleads their very stiff-neckedness as a reason why God must go up with them. Thus was their stiff-neckedness counterbalanced by the grace. For the moment grace is brought in by the exercise of mediation, the very stiff-neckedness which prevented God's going up with them lest He should consume them, was the very thing pleaded by the mediator why God must go up with them. Then God acts on a different principle. Mediation is the grace which maintains people in the blessing brought by redemption; and this principle brings in priesthood. Here mark, for it is important to see, that redemption brings in priesthood, and not priesthood redemption. Priesthood maintains the people in the presence of Him who redeemed them; for if I am to walk with a holy God, I must have that intercourse maintained. If God has redeemed us to walk in the light as He is in the light, we need the priesthood to maintain us in the light. But if you confound redemption and priesthood, you will never find settled peace, for you will be looking for acceptance from something to be done or interceded for. But priesthood maintains our communion with a holy God.
I now turn to the subject of man's failure-Israel failing under the law-mediation comes in; and priesthood failing under Eli-the ark is gone-then there is another, redemption by power. And now the link between Israel and God is royalty, sustained in the person of David the king. This was the last link between Israel and God; His patience still forbearing. And now we get royalty sustaining Israel under the condition of obedience. The temple was newly set up and filled with God's glory. But royalty fails in David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. The obtaining and enjoyment of promised blessings must not always be taken as a mark of God's approval. Jacob told a lie in order to obtain the promised blessing. Solomon had asked of God wisdom, and God added riches and honor, but then he obtains the promised riches and honor, by disobedience; for he multiplied to himself horses and chariots which God had forbidden. We require faith for the means, as well as the end. That is, we must wait patiently for God Himself to make good to us the very blessings He promised. Then again, Solomon loved many strange wives, and they turned away his heart from the Lord. In the very three things God had forbidden to a king Solomon failed. Let us ever remember that our one business is to walk with God, in the humble and lowly details of every day life, waiting on God to arrange everything for us; for God's ways towards us show out His character and His faithfulness, in making good to us what He has promised. For if we obtain the promised blessings through our own contrivance, they will be accompanied by sorrow and chastening; nay, the very blessings themselves may become the source of sorrow, because we always have idolatry in the heart. But God meets this failure in royalty by another and fresh promise, in Shear Jashub, " a remnant shall return." Isa. 7:33Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field; (Isaiah 7:3). (See margin.) The nation was at that time cut off. "Make the heart of this people fat," &c. Now God promises another thing; a seed is promised to David. Before it was the seed of the woman, but now a seed is promised to David, to sit upon his throne forever. After this, God says, in Ezek. 21:2525And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, (Ezekiel 21:25), " Thou profaned wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end. Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." After this God entrusts power in Gentile hands. The first was Nebuchadnezzar—power in one man—for man's vain thought is, if I could do all that I wish, I should make the world a paradise. Well, God tries him, and what is the result? The golden image is set up, and God's own people are cast into the fire, for refusing to fall down and worship it. Secondly, the impiety of Belshazzar follows, in prostituting the vessels of the temple to the honor of his false gods. And thirdly, Darius sets himself up to be the true God. Here are brought out three principles of evil, which will be fully developed in the latter day. Cyrus then comes in as the restorer, setting it all aside-typical of Christ. Then prophecy comes in to sustain the remnant until the Messiah came. Then in the rejection of Christ, it was not merely the manifestation of man's sin, but the utter hatred of man's heart against God. " They have hated both me and my Father." Thus the tree was proved to be utterly bad, and the more it was Jigged about and dunged, the more bad fruit it produced." " Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Then Pontius Pilate being the governor of Judea was the representative of the authority which God had put into man's hand, and which the Lord owned when Pilate said to Him " Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and power to release thee? to which the Lord replied, " Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above; thus teaching Pilate that having received the power from God, he was responsible to God for the exercise of it. And how did he use it? In condemning God's Son. Thus the very one who should have wrought justice in the earth delivers up Christ to be crucified, at the same time knowing Him to be innocent; as he said, "Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault with him." Thus was fulfilled that word, "I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness that iniquity was there." What comes then? The solemn sentence is passed. The world is condemned. " Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." "The world seeth me no more." The death of Christ closed the scene. Then the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. The very thing that brought out the judgment revealed a heavenly salvation, which was before hidden by the veil. The death of Christ is the end of the world morally. Man has been tried in every way, and failed, and sin in every shape and form has been brought up to a head, and met in this one act of rending the veil. For " once in the end of the world (morally) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." When the sin is proved, it is put away. " They have seen and hated both me and my father." The very act that proved their hatred of God, put away their sin. "If I had not come, they had not had sin, but they have seen and hated both me and my Father." That very crowning act of the utter enmity and willfulness of man, brought the sinner to God, without the sin. For the Lamb, without spot, by one act, divine in power (by Himself) put away the sin "by the sacrifice of himself." The veil being rent, we with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord. As to our bodies, we know they are still on the earth, but our position, morally, is in heaven, Christ being there. The high priest under the law stood, but this man, after He had once offered sat down forever. The whole work being accomplished, thus connects us with heaven. We are only waiting for the redemption of the body—we are accepted in the beloved. He is my life and my righteousness, and I want nothing more. All belongs to me now, by virtue of life in this heavenly man, now in heaven itself for me. We are only waiting His return, but our conversation is connected with Him up there now, for we are always confident while waiting, which may be in order to our ripening. There are three things connected with this position. First my life is hid with Christ; second if I die before He comes, my spirit goes up to Him immediately—"Absent from the body, present with the Lord;" thirdly, if He come and take me up before I die, then I shall return with Him. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory." But while He is up on high, we are members of His body down here, and cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." And consequent on our position, we ought to be as pilgrims and strangers on this earth, for we stand between the once offered and appearing Jesus. We have neither the world nor the glory yet; but we are identified with the rejected one. Christ's portion is our portion: we get it along with Himself, and we are to be conformed to Him now. We are member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones—His bride; and when that is made ready, He will come and take her up to glory.
The Lord give us to know the wonderful grace of Christ, who, "Though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty might be rich"—"Who loved us and gave Himself for us," according to His perfect work, which has set us in the presence of His father in love.