The Three-Fold Position

Ephesians 1:3-12, 19-23; 2:4
WE have in this epistle the three-fold position of the believer. 1st, his individual position as belonging to the family of God (v. 5); 2nd, his corporate place as belonging to the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:19-23); and 3rd, as belonging to the house of God (Eph. 2:19-23). This is the only position the Church of God has, in reality before God the only ground there is to stand upon. The professing Church has departed from this ground. If there is a company in this town gathered to the name of Jesus Christ, this company has professed to return to this ground, from which the Church as a whole has fallen; but this is still the only ground to stand on, all else is sectarian. It is noticeable that in the preceding epistles death is written on every form of the flesh Man iii the flesh has no place in Ephesians; the flesh is accounted a bygone thing. The death of Christ applies to everything, to every form of flesh; this we see in the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians. But in Ephesians there is no thought of man in the flesh; nothing of man is seen there, except as a bygone thing; the epistle begins with Christ in glory. It is of the greatest importance to see that we must understand the cross before anything else. To understand the Church without the cross is Satan. This is shown in Matt. 16
Peter gets a revelation from God about the Church; then Christ gives to him the keys of the kingdom of heaven; but immediately after this Jesus forbids his disciples to say that He is the Christ, and talks to them of the cross. Peter rebukes Irma saying, " This shall in no wise be; " immediately the Lord says, " Get thee behind me, Satan" (verses, 21-23). Far and wide we see this acceptance of positive truth without the truth of the cross. Christians' talk of being in heavenly places, but when you press the cross as bringing in death to the world, the flesh, &c., they do not, like it. This is of Satan, and will be judged. We must hold the cross with the positive side of truth.
In Rom. 3:23-24, we see the first form of the cross: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"—" being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus," the cross meets us in our sins as guilty criminals. Christ laid down His life; His blood, was presented to God and became a mercy-seat, and through that God is just to forgive. We have the other side of the propitiatory sacrifice in Rom. 4:23-25, when the sinner comes to God and trusts in Jesus and His blood, he finds that the blessed Lord has been to the cross, and borne his sins, and has been raised again, and the believer finds himself as clear before God as Christ Himself; alb sins put away, never imputed to him, never reckoned against him.
Rom. 1 and 2. give the condition of man; first, as the heathen judged by the light of creation and conscience, then as the Jew under law. The Gentile is proved lawless, and' the Jew proved a law-breaker. In Rom. 5:10, man is seen to be the enemy of God. His enmity mounted to its, height when Christ was crucified (see John 15:22-24). The Son of God spake words and did works which none other could do, and man rejected and hated Him. What a picture of mart's enmity is that scene, where the soldier pierces with a sword the side of Christ, and from that side flows blood and water, the blood which meets the-question of our sins, and the water of the word of life which purifies and regenerates the soul, and daily cleanses us from defilement. This is the ground of peace with God.
Thus the death of God's Son meets our state as enemies of God. Rom. 5:12; shows our state as born in sin. " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and thus death passed upon all men, for that all sinned." Verse 18 shows how the death of, Christ meets this state.... "Even so by one righteousness the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." God's righteousness condemned sin in the flesh. Thus, not only our sins and our enmity were met by the death of Christ, but also sin in the flesh. At the cross man's history closed, and we in Christ's death are dead to sin. Rom. 7 shows law as applying to man in the flesh, and it applies to the state of sin—the law gives knowledge of sin, and brings the sinner's conscience under condemnation when sin has been brought to light by it. Without the law sin was dead. Paul was alive without the law once, before his conversion, but When the law came sin revived, and he died. The law which was for life he found to be unto death. Therefore, we must have deliverance from law as well as from sin; in Rom. 7 there, is not yet knowledge of this deliverance. At the end of the chapter, it is a quickened soul, but not knowing deliverance from the law. In verse 14, reassuring himself by the law, he finds himself carnal, sold under sin. In verse 17 there is discovery of two natures; “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." In verse 18 is the discovery that even with the 'new nature there is no power over sin. First, is the discovery that he is carnal; there -is no distinction between the natures; 2nd, that there is a new nature, distinct from sin in the flesh; 3rd, that there is no power; and 4th, he gives up and exclaims: " Oh, wretched man that I am," &c. (24 and 25 verses). Even with the new nature there is no power. Christ in glory is the source of power and strength; this is our new standing in Christ; not only all our sins are put away; and never can be brought up again, but the death of Christ gives deliverance from sin. And as to the law which could not give power to deliver or to serve God, he has died to it.
In 1 Corinthians and Galatians, there is the corporate form of evil. In Corinthians the world is seen in its wisdom and power. In Galatians in its religion (read 1 Cor. 1:17), “Not with wisdom, of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect." (verse 19), " I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," &c. This is a prediction fulfilled at the cross; there, all wisdom and power is brought to naught. The Corinthian saints were copying the wisdom of the philosophers, the followers of Plato, &c.; and allowing the worldly element to creep in. This is the beginning of sects. The cross judges all the wisdom and power of the world. The Jews were looking for the power of a king, i.e., for Messiah to come as a great temporal prince. When Christ came as a humbled man He was rejected. The Greeks sought after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified! It is important to learn that the beginning of sects was the human wisdom of the world. The saints were beginning to say, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas. What is the meaning of all these different sects in Christendom in the present day, and all these learned colleges, all turning out ministers of different schools of opinion. It is all human wisdom! Of course the man that says this is accounted a fool, but it is better to be a fool with Paul and Christ, than to be the most popular minister in the world. They were saying at Corinth, " I am of Paul." "No," says Paul, '" Of God you are in Christ Jesus. Of God, that is yqur origin; in Christ Jesus, that is your position."
In the Epistle to the Galatians we have the religiousness of the world set before us, immediately after Paul, left. Judaizing teachers came down, speaking against Paul, and saying that besides believing in Christ the Galatians must be circumcised, and must keep the law.
Judaism had now become the world as much as the heathen, having crucified the Messiah; this was the religious side of the world. Law was being mixed. up with grace. Paul says in verse 8, that they were to receive no other gospel than that he had preached unto them, not even though he preached it himself, or an angel from heaven. In chapter 3. We have the gift of the Spirit given, justification and the position of sons, and in chapter v. the walk of believers all through to be on the principles of faith and grace and not on the principle of law. Law could not justify nor give life, it could only give the knowledge of sin. Our walk is by grace, by faith and in the Spirit, chapter 5. verses 5 and 6, and verses 16 and 17, and not by law. Only those who walk by faith, and in the Spirit fulfill the righteousness of the law. Look at the cross 6:12, 14, and we see the world crucified, Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world." We are delivered by death from these two sides, human religion and human wisdom. At the cross the believer had his end as man. Do not say, " There is no harm in this thing or that, if I have died and risen with Christ I am a heavenly person; how, then, can I be happy, mixed up with the world Can I be happy frolicking and dancing and skating 'with those who are going on the road to the lake of fire? The last thing they are thinking of is Christ. Christians mixed up with the world are the unhappy ones. What is the result? When they come into the company of spiritual Christians they make them sad; walking with God is true happiness. Let us see how the cross separates us from everything here, it is like the Bed Sea separating from Egypt. The cross of Christ saves us out of a judged thing. Have we learned to see the world in this light? Judgment is on all. “Now is the judgment of this world" (John 12:31). The Epistle to the Ephesians views the believer set down in heavenly places in Christ. His new history begins with Christ in glory. What a blessed place! The Spirit accounts us as holy children connected with Him who is holy. He is set apart, and we are also set apart in connection with Him—children by adoption. In the 19th and following verses of chapter 1. is the exceeding great proof of God's mighty power and love. Christ is taken from the dead and put "far above all principality"&c. above the highest archangel. Where were we as men? dead in trespasses and sins walking in the world fulfilling the lust of the mind; and God in His mercy raises us up out of this dark scene in the world, and the Church is seen in the Head, seated in heavenly places. The Church is related to Christ, we are all members of one family and one body, of which Christ is the Head. Eph. 1:19-23; 2:1-8.
In the 2. Chapter v. 19-23, the Holy Ghost is the builder and inhabiter of God's temple. We want to realize the exceeding greatness of the power and the love which has put Christ as Man above everything, and which has ' set the Church in union with Him. It is this same power and love that has brought back a few saints. Ibis Church ground. The only power by which this company can stand is that which is mentioned here. God has given man gifts of ministry in this day and we rejoice in them, but what we want particularly is to get back to the source of this power, to be dependent on the Head solely and wholly—the reality of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the house of God on earth. The 4. chapter appertains to the Christian's walk. He is to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called.
Thus in. the epistles before the Ephesians we have seen Christ's death applied toevery form of man in the flesh, in that to the Romans the blood of Christ is applied to the sins; the death of God's Son to our state of enmity this one act of accomplished righteousness to our condition as born in sin. We are also dead to the world by that same death which could only give the knowledge of sin, and bring in condemnation on the conscience of the convicted sinner. In the 1st of Corinthians the human wisdom and power of the world is judged by that same cross, and in the Epistle to the Galatians its 'religiousness. We who believe by the cross are crucified to the world, and the world is crucified unto us. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, cleared from all this we have the positive three-fold position of the Christian looked at individually and corporately; 1st, in relation to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. The Christian is thus a member of the family of God, and all God's purposes and counsels are unveiled to him. 2nd, he is related to Christ as head of this body, as a member of that body. 3rd, to the Holy Ghost came down the builder, and inhabiter of the House of God. May the Lord lead each one into the full apprehension of this blessed place, so that each one may walk worthy of such a calling.
Or course, Rom. 6 does not speak of resurrection, for the question there is about sin. Colossians speaks of resurrection, because there we have the world. We get free from the power of sin by death with Christ; and from the world by resurrection with Christ, which takes us into a new region.
Leviticus
NEXT in order in the word, and in harmony with the order of the moral teaching just noticed, we read of, defilement from the working in one way or other of nature in man. Thank God we look to be free from the body of sin, the flesh. We have, however, to learn what the flesh is in God's sight, and the working of it. What a humbling lesson for man is this! How the Israelitish man or woman must have felt it, when he or she was considered unclean from the action of nature within them, as set forth in chapters 12.-15; communicating, too, defilement to any places or things brought into contact with them (4:4-12). And we who never were of the seed of Abraham after the flesh, and were never placed under the law to prove the burdensome character of its ceremonial, we have each and all within us, and are to be aware of it, that hateful defiling thing called " the flesh," of which the, ceremonial purifications remind us. What came from an Israelite's flesh defiled that person. What comes from the heart of man, the working of the evil nature within him, defiles the man (Mark 7:21). The Israelite's nature did not defile him, but the outflow of it did. So the flesh within us does not defile us, though the actings of it does. And God is holy. Compromise therefore, on His part with uncleanness is impossible, hence provision to cleanse the defiled one is made the subject of divine revelation, and that in both Old and New Testaments.
In the cases of defilements treated of in chapter 11. no '‘ sacrifice was required, 'only washing with water was enjoined. In cases, too, where a person unclean from the working of his nature, touched another, the one touched, though thereby defiled, needed only washing with water for himself or herself (15); but the person who communicated the defilement needed sacrifices to be offered up, before he could be clean. Nothing less than the death of Christ, as set forth in type, could avail, for such an one before God. What ruin has been caused by the fall, ruin irretrievable, unless God had interposed with the Lamb of His choice, His own well-beloved Son. Such, surely, must be the thought of anyone who ponders over these chapters in Leviticus on the one hand, and over the analogous New Testament teaching on the other. But viewing the provisions which God made in both Old and New Testaments for those who might be defiled, what harmony do we trace in His ways! By sacrifice and by washing with water was cleansing effected for the Israelites. To the teaching of 1 John 2:2, and of John 13:1-10, we turn for that which is needed for us, and learn of the untiring grace and service of the Lord, whilst in heaven, for, and to His people on earth. Light, too, is cast upon the Old Testament, as the ceremonial observances of the law are seen to be figurative of that which is really requisite for the Christian, whether the flesh has been working in him, or he has, been defiled by contact with something unclean from without. We say for the Christian, because in these chapters under review (12.-15.) the children of Israel, God's recognized earthly people, are those for whom the revelations were vouchsafed.
With purification after childbirth, this series of laws. Commences (12). For seven days, if the mother had given birth to a son; for fourteen, if, she bore a daughter, she was unclean. For thirty-three days more, or for sixty-six, according to the sex of the child, the Israelitish mother continued in the blood of her purifying, until the end, of which period she could not eat of hallowed things, nor approach the sanctuary. Her child, if a son, was circumcised on the eighth day. She, at the expiration of forty or eighty days presented herself before the Lord with the offerings appointed by this law. A lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtle dove for a sin offering. But if too poor to provide a lamb, she might substitute a bird for the burnt offering. To bear children was woman's lot, yet that made her unclean, and she had to feel it and own it. She felt it, as she was debarred during the above-named days from partaking of the hallowed things, or of approaching the sanctuary. She owned it, as she drew 'near with the appointed sacrifices, which proclaimed her need of atonement and of a substitute to die for her. She who had brought a living creature into the world, had need of the death of the sacrifice on that account on her own behalf.
The spiritual 'teaching of this for us we have already referred to. But this chapter is especially important in these days, for it gives the lie to one of the latest authorized dogmas of the Church of Rome-the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed she is, but immaculate was the, Virgin at no time of her life, and the ordinance appointed in this chapter (12), to which the Evangelist Luke tells us she conformed, plainly proves it. Unclean according to the law for seven days after the birth of her son, she came' the expiration of the appointed forty days with two birds, the one for a burnt-offering, and the other for a sinoffering; and the priest, whoever he was, offered them to, make atonement for her. The offerings she brought — two birds—attested her poverty on the one hand, and her condition as a sinful creature on the other. The low estate of David's royal house, and direct line told a tale of the failure, great and grievous, of his offspring, who had once sat on his throne. Her burnt-offering and sin-offering spoke clearly of her condition as a child of Adam, but also of God's grace, which could meet it by sacrifice. Her immaculate conception! How would she have recoiled at the bare idea of it! Mercy, favor too, unsought and undreamt of, she frankly and fully owned. But to the figment of her conception without a stain her offerings unmistakeably give the lie. What a position was hers that day. Her need of atonement by blood she confessed, as she stood before that altar and witnessed the death of the birds, but the occasion which thus called it forth was the birth of Him, by whom that atonement was to be really, fully, and finally accomplished. He was perfectly holy, and this law said nothing about the child. She was unclean as a mother, and nothing but blood-shedding could atone for her.
We now come to the law (13.-14.) relating to leprosy, which was stringent and precise. It was stringent, for the Lord would have the camps in the midst of which He dwelt cleared of every leper (Num. 5:1-4). It was precise in the directions for determining the presence of the disease, for a person's social position was affected, and his ecclesiastical privileges remained in abeyance all the time that he was afflicted with it. Animals, it would seem, were not subject to it. Only man, and what was immediately connected with him, as garments and houses, were liable to it. Now the disease we learn was not unknown till after the Exodus (Ex. 4, 6, 30, 31). Nor was it peculiar to the Israelites, though to them only did God...give instruction about it. And never were they to forget those instructions, or to ignore them. In the wilderness, as we have seen, they were to put them in force. In the land, too, they were to observe them (Deut. 24:8). Those which regard man, and garments are recounted in chapter 13.; whilst the cleansing of the leper, and of the house is set forth in chapter 14.
The whole of chapter 13. forms but one revelation, and is addressed to both Moses and Aaron. In it the marks of leprosy are minutely detailed for the especial guidance of the priest, who was to examine the suspect person or garment, and judge, of the case; and from his decision there was no appeal. Momentous, indeed, were the consequences, for the garment might have to be destroyed, and the person shut out of the camp till the Lord, in his sovereign mercy healed him. Any mistake therefore in judgment would be fraught with most serious results. Hence the Lord gave those directions that no one should be put outside the camp, who ought to be in it, and that no one should remain Within, when it was clear that he ought to be out. In all this the priest had to act as guided of God. Suspicion would not be sufficient to brand the, person as a leper. Nor was the priest left to his own device to decide what constituted leprosy. The Lord revealed all that in His word, to it the priest was to be subject, and by it alone he was to be guided. Vesting the power of exclusion from the camp in the hands of the priest, a ailing sinful creature, it was of the utmost importance that it should not be abused; so Jehovah made known in his Word, which was within the reach of all, the arks by which the priest could discern whether the person, the, garment or the house was really smitten with this plague. .
As regards man this disease 'had its seat in the flesh below the skin. To a casual observer a disease in. the skin might be mistaken for that of leprosy, and at first sight the priest might have been uncertain about Care was needed, so the person might have to be shut up a week for the priest to pass judgment on the case. And, if need be, a second week might be required ere certainty could be arrived at (13:4-8; 21, 22; 26-28; 30-34). If at the expiration of that time the disease had not spread, the man was clean; if otherwise, he was unclean. So if there was-raw flesh visible and, the hair had turned white, the person was a leper, and therefore unclean, for the virus was still actively at work. But if a leprosy had broken. out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy had covered all the skin of him that had the plague from the head even to the foot, wheresoever the, priest looked; then the priest was to consider, and. if the leprosy had covered all his flesh, he was to pronounce him clean,it had all turned white, he was clean (12, 13): Whilst, the disease was active the man was unclean; when it had ceased to work, and had all come out, he was clean. Anyone, at any time, as these. directions 'teach us, might become a leper. It might, be an old leprosy breaking out afresh (v. 11) or it might be a disease from which that person had hitherto been exempt; but whenever that plague attacked a person, and the priest had pronounced. him unclean, be had to leave his place in the camp, his tent, his social circle, and, everything he valued, and to be outside in the wilderness, with his upper lip covered, his clothes tent, his head bare, and crying, " Unclean, unclean!" dwelling outside and alone till Jehovah, in His mercy, should heal him.
(To be continued.)