========================================================================
  WRITINGS OF ADELBERT P CECIL
  by Adelbert P. Cecil
========================================================================

A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Adelbert P. Cecil,
compiled for study and devotional reading.

  Chapters: 17

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. 01.00. A Summary of the Epistle to the Romans
    2. 01.00.3.     A Summary of the Epistle to the Romans
    3. 01.01.     Romans 1
    4. 01.02.     Romans 2
    5. 01.03.     Romans 3
    6. 01.04.     Romans 4
    7. 01.05.     Romans 5
    8. 01.06.     Romans 6
    9. 01.07.     Romans 7
   10. 01.08.     Romans 8
   11. 01.09.     Romans 9-11
   12. 01.10.     Romans 12-16
   13. S.   Giving.
   14. S.   I," Sins, Sin.
   15. S.   Sanctification: What is it
   16. S.   The Advocate or the Accuser: Whose Side do you take?
   17. S.   The Lord's Table, and Its Place in the Church.

========================================================================
  CHAPTER 1: 01.00. A SUMMARY OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
========================================================================

A Summary of the Epistle to the Romans by Lord Adelbert P. Cecil


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 2: 01.00.3.     A SUMMARY OF THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
========================================================================

A Summary of the Epistle to the Romans THIS Epistle lays the foundation of
Christianity. Certain brethren from different parts had taken up their abode in
Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. Several of these had been companions and
fellow-workers with the apostle Paul, and had received the truth from him. (See
Romans 16:3-5, etc.). Others had received the truth amongst the Jews who had
been "in Christ" before the apostle himself (Romans 16:7). But neither Peter nor
Paul had been in Rome, when the epistle was written. It was written likely from
Corinth, some little time before the apostle’s last journey to Jerusalem (see
Romans 15:25-26) in which city as we know he was imprisoned, and finally sent as
a prisoner to Rome; but the Church of God had already been founded in the city
before his arrival, and the saints met together as the Assembly in that place.
The apostle wrote them this letter to the end they might be established in the
foundations of the faith. (see Romans 1:11). Blessed it is to have such a
letter; it reveals to us what was the ancient doctrine of the Church of Rome. To
this we adhere, rejecting the modem doctrines that have come into the Church,
and comparing its modem pretensions to the truth, and its claim of
infallibility, with the ancient inspired letter of the apostle Paul to it when
it was first founded. The Epistle does not rise to the height of the Epistle to
the Ephesians, where the eternal counsels of God in regard to Christ and the
Assembly* are set before us, and our union with Christ in glory by the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven; but treats of God’s righteousness revealed in the
gospel, justification by faith, and the Christian’s place in Christ, dead,
risen, and glorified. It might be divided into four distinct parts.

(*I shall always use the word "Assembly" instead of "Church" in this paper. The
Greek word is "ecclosia" signifying a "calling out.")

Part I goes down to Romans 3:20. It treats of man’s responsibility as a sinner,
whether Gentile or Jew, proving both to be under sin, and awaiting God’s
judgment against them; ending up with the whole world being shown to be under
sentence before God. It brings out the necessity for the gospel of God to be
preached, and His righteousness to be revealed, for man had none.

Part II goes down to the end of Romans 8:1-39. It treats of God’s nature, His
remedy for sin, and: His salvation, which again might be divided into four
parts. 1st: God’s righteousness, justifying us from our sins is seen, this takes
in forgiveness. 2nd: God’s love reconciling us from our enmity. (Romans 5:1-12).
3rd: Justification of life from sin, and in Christ, and deliverance from its
power and from the law (Romans 5:8-12.) 4th: the believer’s full standing in
Christ, and his new state by the Holy, Ghost, ending up with his salvation from
the presence of sin and the redemption of his body when the Lord comes. God’s
righteousness is, manifested in Christ, dead, risen, and glorified. 1st:
justifying the believer from all his sins; 2nd: holding him righteous in Christ,
free from all condemnation, and in a position from whence there is no separation
tip to Romans 5:12, we have what God is for the believer through Christ, in
righteousness and love; on to the end of Romans 8:1-39 what the believer’s place
is "in Christ.”

Part III goes down to Romans 11:1-36 -end. It is the dispensational part of the
Epistle. God’s dealings with Jew and Gentile are traced to the end of the age,
and are shown to be on the principle of sovereign grace; and God’s promises made
to the Jewish nation are reconciled with His present dealings in grace with both
Jew and Gentile alike.

Part IV takes us to the end of the Epistle, beginning with Romans 12:1-21. It
applies the preceding mercies of God to the believer’s walk, and is composed of
exhortations and rules which enter into the minutest circumstances of daily
life. The whole instruction of the Epistle is addressed to those who were the
called of Jesus Christ I called saints (see Romans 6:1-23). They had heard the
voice of the Son of God and lived.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: 01.01.     ROMANS 1
========================================================================

Romans 1:1-32

Romans 1:1-17. This is the introduction of the Epistle. Paul begins it by
introducing his apostleship, showing how Christ had called him, and separated
him to the gospel of God (Acts 9:15-16; Acts 26:15-18). He was an apostle by
Christ’s call, the apostle of the Gentiles as Peter was to the Jews (see Romans
5:1-21; Romans 11:13; Galatians 2:8). The gospel* was the glad tidings of God,
showing forth His character and nature, and His actings towards man for his
salvation. It was the subject of promise in old testament writings, but now a
revealed thing in Christ; prophets searched into it and inquired what or what
manner of time the Spirit that was in them did signify, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow, unto
whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they ministered
these things (that is, this grace and salvation) which are now reported unto you
through them that preached the gospel to you with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven (1 Peter 1:10-12). But what was a subject of promise in old testament
writings, was a salvation now preached, and to be now received.

(*Note-"Gospel" signifies "glad tidings.") The subject of the gospel was
concerning God’s Son, come of David’s seed according to flesh, but marked out
Son of God, in power, according to spirit of holiness, by resurrection of dead
ones.* This was what He was according to flesh, and what faith discerned,
according to spirit, even during His life down here, but fully marked out by His
own resurrection from the dead! Son of David was Christ’s Jewish title after the
flesh (Matthew 1:1.) It was His royal title to the throne of Jerusalem. The Jews
had all the privileges as to this title (see Romans 9:4-5), and Jesus Christ
became a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the
promises made to the fathers (Romans 15:8). The Gentiles could claim no blessing
under this title (Matthew 15:22-24). They had no promises after the flesh.

(*NOTE-This is the literal translation.) But He was also marked out as Son of
God in power according to spirit of holiness by resurrection of dead ones! As
Son of God, He revealed God and overleaped all barriers; He was the God not of
the Jews only, but of the Gentiles (Romans 3:29). He could sit down on a well
face to face with a poor Samaritan, could unveil her heart to herself, and then
reveal Himself to her as the Christ. He could say of a Roman centurion, "I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." As Son of God, He raised Jairus’s
daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, and Lazarus; death yielded to His power!
Satan, sin, death, and hades could not stop His victorious progress; and He
raised Himself triumphant from the grave, declared by this act as well as His
previous ones to be Son of God according to spirit of holiness. As such, also,
He reveals God in His nature to us, and as Father, and introduces all believers
into His own place before God and the Father, and puts them in a like
relationship with God, Jew as well as Gentile, 1:e., that of "sons of God." It
was under this title that Paul preached Him in the synagogue at Damascus (Acts
9:20), for it had pleased God to reveal His Son in him at that time (Galatians
1:16.) The Son of God had given him his apostleship for obedience to the faith
amongst all nations! As "Son of David" Christ was not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. As "Son of God," the gospel went out to all,
Gentiles as well as Jews. But if Paul was an apostle by call, the Roman saints
were also the called of Jesus Christ. When a person is made to hear the Son of
God’s voice in the gospel, he is quickened; it is the call of Jesus Christ to
his soul, which converts him and turns him to God; none of the blessings of
Christianity such as forgiveness, salvation, justification, and sealing, are
possessed by him, except as first called of God. It is the first link of the
soul with God, not full Christianity in itself, but all important and all
necessary as the beginning. It is to these called ones, saints, that the apostle
gives the usual salutation of "grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ." Viewed as the body of Christ, they were perfect, and had no need
of mercy (see 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians
1:2; Colossians 1:2; Php 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; also
Philemon,)seeing that the Assembly at his house is addressed. Individuals had
need of mercy, and when Paul addresses an individual, the word "mercy" is added,
owing to the sin and infirmities still in them (see 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy
1:2; Titus 1:4). The apostle now thanks God that the faith of the Roman saints
was spoken of throughout the world. God is my witness, says he, whom I serve in
the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers,
making request if by any means, now at length I may be prospered by the will of
God to come unto you. Ardently did he desire to see them that he might impart to
them some spiritual gift to the end they might be established, and that they
might have mutual comfort from each other’s faith. He had been hindered hitherto
getting to see them, but he felt a debtor to the Greek, and to the barbarian, to
the wise, and the unwise, so that he was ready at any moment to preach the
gospel to them that were in Rome also.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, says he, for it is God’s power unto salvation to
every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; for in it
God’s righteousness by faith is revealed to faith, as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. Mark, dear reader, it is God’s righteousness, that kind of
righteousness, not man’s righteousness for God, but God’s for man; man receives
it on the principle of faith, and it is revealed to faith, where ever that was
to be found. It was no longer a. question of a nation outwardly separated to
God, as the Jewish nation was, with the law, who were under it, as the measure
of their responsibility; that would be man’s righteousness for God; but this,
God’s righteousness for man, was unto all, Jew and Gentile alike, though only
upon all that believed (Romans 1:16-17). In these two verses, we have a summary
of the chief part of the Epistle. What wonderful words! The gospel of God is
about to be declared; it is the gospel of God as to its source. (Romans 1:1.) It
is the gospel of God’s Son, as to its subject and character (Romans 1:9.) In
Romans 1:16 it is the gospel, as the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth, in it God’s righteousness is revealed. It is for man to stand
still, hear, and believe in the salvation of God.

Romans 1:17, The apostle here quotes from the prophet Habakkuk, (see Habakkuk
2:4.) He contrasts the governmental dealings of God with the Jewish nation with
His present dealings under the gospel. The just Jew of that day was to live by
faith in God’s promises, in view of the coming judgment of the Chaldæans. The
just man now lived by faith in the righteousness revealed in the gospel, in view
of God’s wrath revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. It is God’s
wrath from heaven, not merely a governmental dealing like that of the king of
Babylon! The latter judgment had to do with time; God’s wrath from heaven with
eternity. The apostle now turns away from his subject of God’s salvation to show
the necessity of it from man’s state as a sinner. From Romans 1:18-32 the state
of the Gentile world is described. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness, because the Gentiles or heathen are responsible to God for two
reasons-first, that which is known of God is manifest in them; they themselves
were the proof of the existence of the Creator; besides, God had shown it unto
them. The works of creation, the sun, moon and stars, heavens, earth, sea, etc.,
all bore witness to the existence of the Creator. His eternal power and God-head
were thus manifested, so that they were without excuse; but secondly, knowing
God they did not glorify Him as God I neither were thankful, they ceased to
worship Him, then foolish reasonings ensued, (Romans 1:21), and their foolish
heart became darkened; thinking themselves to be wise they became fools, and
they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of
corruptible, man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
Thus false worship ensued (Romans 1:25), and as a judicial consequence God gave
them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their heart to dishonor their bodies
between themselves. Sad picture of the declension of man from the days of Noah.
The state of his heart is described from Romans 1:21-27, and the state of his
mind, from Romans 1:28-32; his body being given up to all kind of wickedness as
the judicial consequence. Love was turned into lust. The heart which ought to
have centered itself upon God was centered on the creature, the truth of God was
changed into a lie, and the creature was honored more than the Creator; thus the
truth was held in unrighteousness, idolatry took the place of the worship of the
true God, though the form of religion remained.

(Romans 1:26.) Wherefore God gave them up to vile affections, etc. How sad, yet
how true. It is an ever true principle, that according to our estimate and
knowledge of God, that our worship will be, and a higher or lower morality will
ensue. But not only did their heart go wrong, and as a judicial consequence the
body was given up to lust, but their mind too; they did not like to retain God
in their knowledge (Romans 1:28), and the judicial consequence was that God gave
them up to a reprobate mind, to practice unseemly things, and to invent all
kinds of evil and wickedness (Romans 1:29-31), and although they knew that the
judgment of God was against those that committed such things, they not only did
the same, but had pleasure in those that did them. Solemn facts as to the
heathen world! God is said to have given them up three times, (Romans 1:24,
Romans 1:26, Romans 1:28), bodies, affections, mind, all given up; you might say
the whole man. You say, perhaps, my reader, Ah! this is the heathen world. Yes,
but tell me about the state of the profession of Christianity to-day; we see,
alas! almost the same things committed in Christendom in the present day as
those described here; and this state is described in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, with one
thing added, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: 01.02.     ROMANS 2
========================================================================

Romans 2:1-29

JUDGMENT is the inevitable consequence of such a state of things, and in Romans
2:1-16, we have God’s principles of judgment in reference to the state of things
described in the last chapter brought forward.

Judgment is first for acts of sin committed (see Romans 1:32; Romans 2:2);
secondly, for despising the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance and long
suffering, (Romans 4:1-25; Romans 5:1-21.) Philosophers might judge and condemn
their fellow-men, but whilst judging others, man condemned himself, for he that
judged did the same things. Would such escape the judgment of God for these like
acts of sin? Nay! And did man despise the goodness and long suffering and
forbearance of God, not understanding that that goodness was calling him to
repentance! Repentance was the only proper attitude for man to take in view of
the judgment of God. This signifies literally "an after thought or reflection,"
or a change of mind. It is always towards God as the object of the mind (see
Acts 20:21) and from sins, or dead works, and in a Christian sense from the
rejection of Christ (see Matthew 3:2; Hebrews 6:1; Acts 2:88). It is produced by
believing the various testimonies of God given at various times; thus the
goodness of God leads to repentance. The reader must distinguish such faith from
faith in the gospel which brings salvation. The latter follows upon repentance.
But would God go on forbearing forever, whilst men went on despising His
goodness? Nay; but man was heaping up to himself wrath, against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. To God was committed the right
of judgment, and He would render to man according to his deeds, according to the
light each man had, whether it be heathen or d Gentile, Jew or professing
Christian; to them who by patient continuance in well doing sought for glory,
honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; but to those who were contentious,
and were disobedient to the truth, but obeyed unrighteousness, there was nothing
but tribulation and anguish, wrath and indignation to every soul of man that
worked evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory, honor and peace
to every soul that worked good, both to Jew first and also to Greek. Here God’s
immutable principles of judgment are brought out, to Jew and also to Gentile.
The Gentile *without law would perish without law, the Jew who had the law would
be judged by the law, that is on that principle, each being judged according to
the light they had, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according
to Paul’s gospel.

(*NOTE- iveyten without law. The substantive form is avopia which is the word
used in 1 John 3:4, to give the true definition of sin. "Sin is lawlessness"
(comp. Romans 5:12 and onwards.) When the Gentile who had not law did by nature
the things contained in the law, these having not law, are a law unto
themselves, which show the work of the law written on their hearts; their
conscience bearing witness with them, and their thoughts accusing or excusing
betwixt themselves. Conscience is here looked at as that faculty of the mind
which God took care that man should have after the fall, which gives him the
knowledge of good and evil. Every man has that, heathen as well as Jew or
Christian. And this gives the measure of the Gentile; responsibility, besides
having the light of creation shining upon him, telling him of his Creator. The
Jew besides this had the law, as God’s perfect measure as to what man ought to
be for Him, when conscience became perverted through the false rules of good and
evil, brought in by heathen idolatry; and this would be the measure according to
which he would be judged. The double ground on which God is going to judge the
world is seen in His dispensational dealings of God with man from the beginning.
Take first the Gentile world; man fills the earth with corruption and violence
after the fall, and God judges him for his sins by sending the deluge, and
sweeps every one off the face of the earth, save Noah and his family. But since
the flood, according to the principles of Romans 2:4, He has been exercising
forbearance, giving His bow in the cloud as a sign of it. When He took up the
Jewish nation and gave them the law at Mount Sinai, and they broke it, the word
was "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book" (see
Exodus 32:33). But on Moses’ intercession the principle of forbearance comes in,
and God goes on with them on the principle shown us in Exodus 34:5-8, not
clearing the guilty, however, and under this principle the people are spared,
only aggravating their judgment if they despised God’s goodness.

Under the gospel, the principle of grace comes in, and Christ is presented; but
alas! men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Greatly
aggravated then will be the professing Christian’s judgment; he will be judged
not only for his sins, aggravated by God’s forbearance with him as with a
heathen and Jew, but also for his rejection of Christ, and despising God’s
grace, which is offered, and that continually in the gospel; besides, Christ is
His rule, which is higher than that of conscience and the law. This however is
not taken up particularly in this chapter.

Thus in Romans 2:1-16 God is presented going to judge men, first of all for
their sins, and secondly for their despising His goodness. God will judge
according to the light men have; in the meantime He is waiting, and that
goodness should lead men to repentance. These are His unalterable principles of
judgment, and it is only those who are born again, whether Gentile or Jew, or
indeed Christian, that fulfill this responsibility to God, that is who patiently
continue in well doing, and seek for glory and honor, and incorruptibility; and
that alone is fulfilled in the new nature, or the circumcised heart, as is
mentioned at the end of Romans 2:1-29.; still if it were simply on the ground of
responsibility all were lost! Man for himself needs the gospel both to be saved
from his sins, and his Adam condition, and to get heaven as his portion. His
original responsibility was only in connection with the earth of which he was
created head, and by his sin lost. Of course being immortal, losing this he
would be banished to hell; but blessed be God, grace offers him salvation and
opens heaven to him. From Romans 2:16-29, the state of the Jew is described, he
boasted of God and of knowing His will, as measured by the law, approved of the
things that were more excellent, was confident that he was a, guide of the
blind, an instructor of the foolish, and teacher of babes. But, alas! whilst
teaching others did he teach himself? no, whilst boasting of the law,* he so
dishonored God, that the name of God was blasphemed amongst the Gentiles through
him Circumcision verily profited if he kept the law, but if he was a breaker of
the law, his circumcision became uncircumcision, and contrariwise in God’s
sight. The poor Gentile, if by grace he kept the righteousness of the law, his
uncircumcision would he counted for circumcision, yea, it judged him who
circumcised broke the law. Circumcision of the heart was what God looked for,
and that was the true Jew who had such a heart; true it was that only grace
could produce such a heart.

(*Note-It is well to mark where the article comes in or not with the law. "The
law" is ordinarily the law of Moses (Romans 2:17-19, Romans 2:14-15, Romans
2:24, Romans 2:26-27; Romans 3:19, etc. See new translation, J.N.D.) "Law,"
without the article, means that kind of principle!)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: 01.03.     ROMANS 3
========================================================================

Romans 3:1-31

WHAT advantage then had the Jew, and what profit was there in circumcision? Much
every way, says the apostle, for unto them were committed the oracles of God. In
those oracles were special promises given to them, as to Messiah, the land of
Canaan, etc., and if some did not believe, that would not make the faith of God
of none effect which were contained in those oracles; He would be faithful and
true in all that He said and did, according to what Psalms 51:1-19. said (Psalms
51:4.) But if cavilers would come in and say, "But if our unrighteousness
commend the righteousness of God in fulfilling His promises, then how can He
punish us;" the apostle answers, this will not hinder Him judging the world,
however opposers might come in and say, "Let us do evil that good may come!" If
God’s justice cannot be glorified in saving all through some refusing, His
justice will be glorified in their damnation. God will assuredly in
righteousness carry out His promises, but this will not hinder Him judging the
unjust that refuse to receive those promises. We get a double view of God’s
righteousness here, it will be displayed in fulfilling His promises to Israel;
secondly, in the judgment of the world. Further down in the chapter it is seen
as justifying the believer through Christ! The argument is now summed up in
quotations from the Jewish scriptures. From their own scriptures, the oracles in
which they trusted, the Jews are proved guilty; there is none righteous, no not
one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable. There
is none that doeth good, no not one! Romans 3:10, Man’s state is all wrong;
Romans 3:11, his mind and heart all wrong; (Romans 3:12), his ways and works all
wrong. And this refers to all, Gentile as well as Jew, none could boast over the
other.

Man’s photograph is taken by God, and is held forth to our view. His picture is
taken from head to foot (Romans 3:13-18), his throat an open sepulcher, with his
tongue he has used deceit, the poison of asps under his lips, his mouth full of
cursing and bitterness, his feet swift to shed blood, destruction and misery in
his ways, the way of peace not known, no fear of God before his eyes.

Now God spoke these things to those that were under the law, so the Jew could
not get out of it, every mouth was stopped, the whole world was under sentence
before God! The Gentiles had already been proved guilty, but now the Jews
likewise are convicted out of their own scriptures. But if this is man’s
condition, and he is already under sentence of death and judgment, how can the
law justify him? By the deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in God’s sight;
by law on the contrary is the knowledge of sin. The office of the law then is
clearly brought out here. It was not given to justify man; it stops his mouth,
it sentences him to death, it gives him the knowledge of sin, but how could it
justify the man described, in Romans 3:10-18? In this part of Romans its chief
office is to stop the mouth, and to bring man under sentence of death,
convicting him that he has no righteousness for God; in Romans 7:1-25 its office
is to give the knowledge of sin, that is, of sin in its root principle, not in
its actions.

Thus, we have had the state of the Gentiles described at the end of Romans
1:1-32.; God’s principles of judgment described up to Romans 2:16; the state of
the Jews described at the end of Romans 2:1-29. Their advantages would not
hinder God’s judgment in regard to the unjust amongst them, and in Romans
3:10-18, their mouth is stopped from their own scriptures. All the effect of the
law was to prove guilt, and to give the knowledge of sin. Thus, the whole world
is proved guilty or under sentence before God. Man is like a condemned criminal
in the condemned cell waiting the execution of his judgment!

We now come to the second part of the Epistle. God is now revealed to us in His
nature in righteousness, Romans 3:21-31; Romans 3:4, and in love, Romans
5:1-21., etc. The guilty sinner is brought face to face with God, not for
condemnation, however, but for justification. Jesus and His blood are set before
him, as the objects for his faith to rest upon (Romans 3:22-25); and the sinner
is justified on his side on the principle of faith (Romans 3:28.) Romans 4:1-25
presses this side of the sinner’s justification by the great examples of Abraham
and David, the two roots of blessing to the Jewish nation. Both are shown to
have been justified by faith; and as Abraham was justified by faith before he
was circumcised, so he is shown to be the father of faith, not only to Jewish
believers, but also to the Gentiles. The principle of resurrection comes in at
the end of the chapter, by the type of Isaac being raised up from the dead womb
of Sarah his mother, and taken as a type of Christ raised from the dead. Being
justified (Romans 5:1-21) the sinner has peace, access into a new resurrection
place, rejoices in hope of the glory of God, and is sealed with the Holy Ghost,
who by bringing the love of God manifested in the gift of His Son into his
heart, enables him to joy in what God is for him through Christ. He is thus
reconciled to God as an enemy. From Romans 5:8-12 we are led up to what the
believer’s place is in Christ, and are shown his deliverance from his Adam
standing, and state in flesh; first as applied to his soul, then as to his body.
But let us return to our subject, Romans 3:21. In the midst of man’s desperate
need, as having no righteousness for God, and as being a guilty criminal under
sentence of death, God meets him Now righteousness of God is manifested apart
from law; 1:e. that kind of righteousness, not man’s righteousness for God, but
God’s for man And it is now, since the death, resurrection and glorification of
Christ: for without that death, the justice of God could only be manifested in
judgment. Up to the cross, man’s righteousness, if any, was being manifested, of
which the law was the measure, but there was none! Now, in the glory apart from
law, righteousness of God is manifested; it is divine righteousness, not human
righteousness. The law of Moses was the measure of the latter (see Leviticus
18:5) The former could be measured by nothing less than the death, resurrection,
and glorification of the Lord Jesus (see also Romans 10:1-21.)

Law righteousness was what God required from man, and what man had to give to
God Christ as man kept it perfectly in His life, but that was perfect human
righteousness. Man if he did it lived in it, that is he should continue living
on the earth! But here it is not earthly, human, law righteousness, it is
righteousness of God as contrasted with law righteousness, and manifested in
heaven for us, outside this world altogether. It was indeed witnessed to by the
law and the prophets. But it is God’s righteousness, by faith of Jesus Christ,
the glorified man, nor confined as law righteousness was to the Jew alone, but
unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference between Jew
and Gentile, man and man, all have alike sinned and come short of the glory of
God! Man has not only sinned, broken the law, and lost his earthly place in
paradise, and on the earth, but he has come short of the glory of God. It is no
question now of the government of God over an earthly nation, responsible to
maintain their place in Canaan in responsibility to God under the law, but God’s
nature and being is now made known, to save a people for heaven. Christ was the
manifestation of God, and being rejected here, is so in the glory above. He is
the manifestation of God’s righteousness! Now therefore nothing less than the
glory of God is the measure of man’s coming short; he has come short of the
glory of God! Blessed be God, my reader, that there is a righteousness revealed
that fits for heaven itself, and that righteousness we see in Christ. If man has
sinned and come short of the glory, there is divine righteousness manifested in
the glory for man, and seen in the man Christ Jesus!

God then is looked at as the source of the sinner’s justification! It is the
justice or righteousness of God that is manifested! But He justifies freely by
His grace, or free favor, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus!
Instead of law righteousness either in the sinner or Christ, being the ground of
our justification, it is the redemption work that Christ wrought on the cross
Jesus and His blood are thus held before the sinner as the way and ground of His
justification! Blessed be God for it, and it is finished The Lord Jesus laid
down His life a ransom for all, and God has brought out from the dead the man
that paid the ransom, and so the redemption is in Christ Jesus. And God has now
set forth that same glorified man to be a mercy seat through faith in His blood,
for the showing forth of His justice, and whilst that justice is shown in the
passing over the sins committed in times past, that is in old testament times,
it is shown in this present time how God is just, and yet justifies those who
believe in Jesus.

We have different illustrations of redemption in Israel’s history and laws:
first, they were a nation of slaves themselves under Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
originally belonging to God, but having forsaken Him and worshipping idols.
Redemption was the setting free of this nation of slaves from Pharaoh’s power,
on the ground of the payment of a ransom. In the type of the passover lamb, its
blood was shed and sprinkled on the door posts of their houses, for they were
sinners under judgment as much as the Egyptians. In the case of the setting
apart of the first-born children, the representatives of the nation itself,
every first-born child had to be redeemed by the blood of a lamb slain (see
Exodus 12:13.) Then secondly, they were set free by the smiting of the waters of
the Red Sea by the rod of judgment; the way was opened through the waters and
Israel passed through, a delivered people.

They were brought to God in result at Mount Sinai. The blood of the lamb was the
ground of their deliverance, the price paid down to God to satisfy His justice.
The passage of the Bed Sea delivered them out from the dominion of Pharaoh.

Again if one of the Israelites got poor and had to sell his land, his brother
might redeem it. If he got so poor as to be obliged to sell himself to a
stranger, his brother might also redeem him. He would first pay down the price,
and then restore the land to his brother, or if his brother were a slave, set
him free. (See Leviticus 25:47, etc.) So man by his sin has sold himself, and
lost his inheritance, the earth as well. But Christ has paid down His life’s
blood to God, and by that same blood has bought the lost inheritance, (this
latter thing, however, we have not here), and every believer is redeemed to God.
This part of Romans 3:1-31 and Romans 4:1-25, shows redemption by blood, Romans
5:1-21; Romans 6:1-23, redemption by power. Here in Romans 3:24-25 we seem to
have the combined types of the Passover Lamb, Red Sea, as well as the mercy
seat, set up after the people’s arrival at Mount; Sinai. Through the blood of
Christ and His death, resurrection and ascension, we have been ransomed,
redeemed from the power of Satan, and brought to God. God on the ground of
Christ’s redemption and what He is as the mercy seat,* displays His justice, in
justifying every one that believes in Jesus. All that believe are justified from
all things.

(*Dtacriiptov mercy seat, is the Greek word used in Romans 3:25. Comp. Leviticus
16:14-15. It refers to the figure of the High’: Priest on the day of atonement,
after killing the bullock, taking the blood into the holiest and sprinkling it
before God. The mercy seat was God’s throne in the midst of Israel. Every year
the blood was sprinkled on and before the mercy seat! Type of how God is
glorified in His nature by the blood of Christ. Alone on this basis can He go on
with the world.) But some one might ask, what do you mean by justification?
Justification is the judicial sentence of the Judge in favor of the criminal
accused. Romans 8:33 explains its meaning! Who shall lay any charge against
God’s elect, it is God that justifieth! First, then, God is the justifier:
second, we are justified freely by His grace or free favor (Romans 3:24.) This
is God’s side of our justification. Third, we are justified by faith, Romans
5:1. This is our side of it. Faith is like the hand that takes it from the free
favor of God who gives it righteously, for it is His righteousness. Fourthly, we
are justified in the power of Christ’s blood, (Romans 5:9.) This is the ground
of it. Fifthly, it is a justification of life a life perfectly cleared from all
charge (Romans 5:18). This life is in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ raised
from the dead, and is communicated to the soul as a present thing, connecting us
now in spirit with the dead, risen and glorified Christ, and second, is
communicated to the body when He comes again, so that we are completely
delivered from everything that could be touched by judgment before the day of
judgment. This however, shows its connection with life communicated. It is
definitely in the life of the dead, risen and glorified Christ, the Head of the
justified race. Sixth, justification is by works, James 2:1-26. But this is
before the Assembly and the world, not before God, (comp. Romans 3:20, Galatians
1:11. with James 2:18.) This last is a test for those who say they have faith.
Faith and salvation are connected together in God’s word. Works come after as a
proof to men of our justification. Before God, this Epistle teaches there is no
such thing as justification by works (see Romans 4:2). We are justified by
faith! In Romans 3:1-31; Romans 4:1-25 we however only have developed to us,
justification by the blood, clearing us from our sins!

All boasting is now excluded! If justification was by law there might be
boasting, for man could have given a righteousness to God, and could have got a
reward for it! But being guilty and being driven to faith in the blood of
Christ, all this was at an end. He had to receive righteousness from God, and
that a divine righteousness. Forgiveness of sins was his by faith. This was
righteousness on God’s part. God was righteous in forgiving him through Jesus
and His blood. On man’s part it was on the principle of faith. He had to take
the place of a receiver. This excluded works. He was justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. But since this righteousness is divine God is God of the
Gentiles as well as of the Jews. Both are justified by faith, the Jew on that
principle, in contrast to law under which he stood, the Gentile through the
faith actually now revealed. But is not this making void law through faith! Nay,
says the apostle, we establish the principle of law. Supposing a murderer is
hung, the law is established, not thrown away. Christ on the cross established
law. He submitted to the righteousness of its demands, taking as He did the
sinner’s place as his substitute.

Thus the blood of Christ meets all the sins of the sinner, and God’s
righteousness is displayed in forgiving and justifying every believer in Jesus.
The two principles brought out at the end of the chapter are, first, that
justification is by faith, secondly, that this blessing goes out to Gentile as
well as Jew, since God is the God of both


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: 01.04.     ROMANS 4
========================================================================

Romans 4:1-25

Tilts chapter takes the Jew back to the two great roots of blessing in the
history of his nation, Abraham and David, to prove these two points. What shall
we say then, that Abraham our father according to the flesh hath found? For if
Abraham was justified by faith, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God!
But what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him
for righteousness. Abraham then was justified by faith according to Genesis
15:1-21 before God, not by works. He was justified by works, too, as we read in
James 2:1-26, but not before God, it was therefore before men, (James 2:18.) Now
to him that works the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt, God would be
the debtor to man, on such a ground as that! But to him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for
righteousness. It was on that principle Abraham was justified. What has David to
say about it? He describes God’s imputation of righteousness without works in
the words, (Psalms 32:1-2), Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins have been covered, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not
reckon sin! I lay hold on God’s righteousness in justifying the ungodly.
Righteousness is imputed to me; my iniquities are forgiven, my sins covered, and
sin will never be imputed to me! Here righteousness imputed is identical with
forgiveness of sins, the covering of iniquities, and the non imputation of sin;
thus the future safety of the believer is secured, as well as the past. This the
quotation shows. It is applied to an ungodly sinner who trusts in Jesus and His
blood by the righteousness of God! The ground of it is the blood of Christ as we
have seen in Romans 3:1-31. My sins are forgiven, my iniquities are covered, sin
will never be imputed! Oh, dear reader, may you lay hold of this wonderful
simple truth, for God says it in His word! But then, secondly, if Abraham and
David were justified by faith, does this extend to the Gentiles? When was
Abraham justified? Before circumcision or after circumcision? Not in
circumcision, but in uncircumcision; says the apostle; Abraham was justified at
least thirteen years before his circumcision took place, (comp. Genesis 15:17.)
He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had, yet
being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all that believed though
uncircumcised, and the father of the circumcision, not merely to those who were
outwardly circumcised, but who also walked in the steps of Abraham as having
faith. Thus, Abraham was the father of faith both to Jewish and Gentile
believers. He was a believer before he was circumcised, God was his God then,
why then should not the Gentile ’have the blessing, and what had the law to do
with it? He was justified by faith in God’s promise, and the promise that he
should be the heir of the! world came before circumcision.

(Romans 4:13) Promises were what specially characterized God’s dealings with
Abraham, and this was a directly opposite principle to that of law. If they on
the principle of law be heirs, then faith is made void, and the promise of none
effect, because the law works wrath, for where no law is, there is, no
transgression; there was sin, but not transgression. A man might drive across a
wooden bridge recklessly, well, there is lawlessness; but if a law is passed
imposing a fine against any one crossing at a rate quicker than a walk, the
lawlessness becomes transgression, and the wrath of the judge comes down on the
offender. Thus the law works wrath; and where there is no law there is no
transgression, therefore, it is on the principle of faith that it might be by
grace, so that the promise might go to all the seed, not merely to those under
law, 1:e. the Israelites, but to all believers alike as having faith. Abraham is
the father of us all, according to the word in Genesis 17:1-27., I will make
thee a father of many nations, before the God whom he believed, who quickens the
dead, and calls the things which be not, as though they were.

Here in Abraham’s faith another principle comes in, it is not simply the
blessing of forgiveness, and of non imputation of sin, but of heirship, and of a
God of resurrection who quickens the dead. Abraham believed in a God of
resurrection who said to him, pointing to the heavens, "so shall thy seed be."
He considered his body * dead being one hundred years old, he fully owned, too,
* the deadness of Sarah’s womb, but was fully persuaded that a living Isaac
would be raised up out of Sarah’s dead womb, because God had promised it.
Righteousness was imputed to him He looks at an object outside of himself to God
who shows him the stars, and says, so shall thy seed be. Secondly, he reckons
his body dead, and trusts God who quickens the dead. He is reckoned righteous.

(*See new translation.)

Here God is righteous in fulfilling His promises, but faith is imputed to us for
righteousness if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.
Christ is the seed of promise, and the heir of whom Isaac was the type. He
having met all God’s claims against our sins, God is satisfied! God, faithful to
His promises raises him from the dead, thus accepting His work, that our faith
and hope might be in God. We have not even got to look to the future like
Abraham; we believe in a God that has raised up Jesus from the dead. How
marvelous how gracious I our God is the Actor throughout. It was He who
delivered up Christ to death for our offenses It was He who raised Christ again
from the dead for our justification. It is He that justifies or reckons
righteous the believer on account of what He has done! To Him be all the glory!
God being satisfied with His own work done through Christ, all is at rest. I
see, in the Judge opening the prison doors to let my Substitute go free, not
only that the full penalty of my sins has been borne, but that I am clear from
all the charge of those sins through Him who has gone free.

I think that in Romans 3:25, and here in Romans 4:25, we have what answers to
the two goats on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34.) Romans 3:25 answers
to the first goat, the Lord’s lot, when the blood was carried in and sprinkled
on the mercy seat. Romans 4:25 answering to the second goat, delivered up to
judgment, and carrying away the sins to a land not inhabited.

I would like also to say here that all this part of the Romans is almost purely
objective. I mean, that an object is put outside of us for us to believe in. God
is the justifier, that is, an object outside myself. Jesus in glory as the
manifestation of His righteousness, and His blood shed on the cross, are objects
outside myself. We are called to believe on a God who delivered Christ up for
our sins, and raised Him for our justification. These are acts of His justice
done outside of ourselves. True, we believe, and our faith is counted for
righteousness, but it is counted not on account of the value of our faith, but
on account of faith taking hold of that which is of all value in His sight, that
is the blood of Christ, and the heir raised from the dead. God imputes all the
value of His acts to Christ, (what He has done, and is,) to the believer, and
the result is that He is justified from all things, yea, as clear from all
charge as Christ is Himself, also getting the new place of a son, but that is
opened up afterward in the Epistle. The ground of it, however, is laid in Christ
the heir being raised from the dead.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: 01.05.     ROMANS 5
========================================================================

Romans 5:1-21

THIS, God the Judge has done Himself. He has justified Christ, who was delivered
to death for our offenses. That act is reckoned to those that believe and we are
justified by faith. Justification divides itself into this chapter into two
parts; first, justification in the power of His blood (Romans 5:9), the fruit of
which is, I have peace with and am reconciled to God (Romans 5:6-11). Secondly,
justification of life, which is in the Person of Christ (Romans 5:18), the fruit
of which is, we stand in grace before God in a new position, and as justified
from the evil principle of sin itself. The final result is the resurrection of
the body. This second part is seen from Romans 5:12; Romans 8:1-39. We have now
got to the resurrection side of the cross, and Christ risen says to us, as it
were, (as He did to the disciples in John 20:1-31) "peace unto you; behold my
hands and my feet!" Christ made pence by the blood of His cross, and He now
preaches it, as the risen and glorified one, and says, peace unto you. Moreover,
He Himself is our peace, (Ephesians 2:1-22) and therefore we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ! Thus, He is our peace, as well as our
righteousness, and proclaiming it to us we are introduced into the state which
is the opposite of enmity and trouble (see John 14:27; Colossians 1:20;
Colossians 2:1-23. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

I would say here, to help souls, that there are five aspects of peace, as far as
I know, in the scriptures. Three connected with the believer’s standing, and
therefore unconditional, and which cannot be lost. Two connected with his
practical condition of soul, and which, therefore, can be lost.

First, "peace with God," as is mentioned in Romans 5:1-21 is founded on the
fact, that Christ was delivered for our offenses, and raised for our
justification. Thus, I find that God who I thought was against me, is the very
one who delivered up Christ for my sins, and has now justified me through Him
whom He has raised from the dead. My whole mind is changed as to God, I thought
He was my enemy, I now find He is love, whilst I find that was His enemy; I
receive what He has done and, given, and am reconciled and brought nigh to God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, and have peace towards Him. I repeat, it is a
settled state of peace towards Him through believing in His love and
righteousness, as having settled the whole question of my sins, and in having
accepted Christ for me. I no longer hate God as an enemy, I am reconciled to
Him, have peace towards Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly, my peace I give unto you. This connects itself with the possession and
mind of the Spirit, which is life and peace (Romans 8:6). After pronouncing
peace to His disciples the second time in John 20:21-22, Christ breathed into
His disciples His own Spirit of Life, delivering them from their Adam state, and
putting them into the state of sons before the Father; peace being the character
of the new life communicated I But still it is Christ’s peace!

Thirdly, Christ Himself is our peace. This is connected with our complete
bringing nigh to God who were far off, Gentile as well as Jew, all enmity being
removed through the middle wall of partition being broken down, (1:e., the law
of commandments contained in ordinances) by the cross; and believing Jews and
Gentiles united into one, in Him who is the Head of the body, the peace. These
three aspects are connected with three parts of our standing.

Fourthly, in Php 4:6-7, we have the peace of God keeping our hearts. But this is
dependent on the way we conduct ourselves in passing through the various
circumstances of this life. If we take all our trials and difficulties to God in
prayer, like any little child does to its father and mother, and leave them
there, God’s peace garrisons our hearts. This is in regard to the circumstances
of this life, not to our salvation for eternity.

Fifthly, Php 4:8-9, The God of peace shall be with you. When we are divested
from the cares, we can be occupied with the good. And if we carry out what we
have received and heard and learned of the apostle Paul in his writings, then
the God of peace shall be with us. This is also to be enjoyed practically, and
is dependent on our following the directions of Romans 5:8-9. In Romans 5:1
however, we have only the first aspect of peace, peace towards God through our
Lord Jesus Christ! But not only have we peace towards Him as to the past, but we
have also access through Christ, the risen Savior, into a new place entirely. We
stand in the free favor of God as manifested in Christ raised from the dead.
When Christ was raised, He stood with death and judgment behind Him, and glory
in front of Him. Such is the grace in which we stand, blessed be His name, and
we boast in hope of the glory of God. This truth is developed in its fullness
from Romans 5:12; Romans 8:1-39. It is the grace of God, or God’s free favor, as
seen in Christ, wherein we stand as our present, and unalterable place, and His
glory is our hope. It is God’s glory, as it is God’s righteousness and God’s
love further on. In Romans 8:18, where we get more the result of our getting our
place with Christ in that glory, it is the glory that shall be revealed unto us.
This is, however, our hope in the future; but now we boast in tribulation
because we are in Christ’s path here; and this gives us confidence, knowing that
tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and
hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given to us. This is somewhat like the tree put into the
bitter waters of Marah, after the Israelites had passed triumphantly through the
Red Sea with Moses their leader. They then sung the song of salvation, looking
back and seeing all their enemies dead on the sea shore; but three days
afterward they tasted of the reality of the wilderness path, in the waters of
Marah. But as the tree cut down and cast into the waters made them sweet, so the
cross of Christ brought into our circumstances, where we find the sentence of
death now written, enables the believer to find refreshment and healing out of
those very trials which were bitter to him He boasts in tribulation; the death
of Jesus brought in, the life of Jesus manifests itself in His mortal body (see
Exodus 15:1-27., comp. with 2 Corinthians 4:10-11.) Thus though we have
redemption in Christ, of which the pass-over lamb (Exodus 12:1-51.), and the Red
Sea (Exodus 14:1-31.) are beautiful types, and can sing, boasting in hope of the
glory of God, we have to learn in the meanwhile, whilst left down here, the
trials of the wilderness journey. But then we have the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.

Thus the presence of the Holy Ghost in our bodies is the power by which the
Christian boasts in hope of the glory of God. This is more than justification,
peace, standing in the favor of God, in and boasting hope of His glory. Not only
have we these blessings through Christ given us outside of ourselves, but the
Holy Ghost makes good in our souls the love of God that has given us all these
things in Christ. Here is another gift of God! Christ is the gift of God; but He
is outside of us! He came down from heaven, died, and was raised again, and we
have justification, peace, the favor of God, and the hope of glory through Him.
But He having gone back to heaven, the Holy Ghost came down and He also is given
to us. He sheds abroad God’s love in our hearts, and is the earnest to us of the
glory. Hence, hope makes not ashamed! But the apostle cannot have done with this
love of God! He must go back to its source, and let us know all about it! When
we were yet without strength, he says, Christ died for the ungodly; for scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps, for a good man some would even
dare to die, but God commendeth His love towards us, in that whilst we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Here we get two things, God’s love as the source of
our reconciliation, and Christ’s death the channel and way of it. And it is a
manner of love not seen in man. Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, but
here is a love that in Christ dies for one without strength, yea, for the
ungodly, yea, for sinners! And is this after the manner of men, O Lord God? Oh
my reader, think of this; it is the nature of God to love His very enemies!

I ask you, do you believe this? After God had put His creature through a
four-thousand year test to see if there were any that would understand, and seek
after God, God came down in the Person of His Son to reconcile the world to
Himself! And forasmuch as only death could make the peace, and lay the ground of
the reconciliation, for those without strength to do it, who were moreover
ungodly, sinners and enemies, so Christ died for us.

How then can He ever give up the objects of his love? The apostle argues down
from God to the sinner; he argues in fact, if God gave Christ to die for us
whilst we were yet sinners, much more then being now justified in the power of
His blood, shall we not be saved from wrath through Him? for if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled we shall be saved in the power of His life. Oh, my reader, consider
this! never argue as men do from your side up to God; that is, if I am in such a
state, God will be in such a state to me; but argue as the apostle does, from
what God is down to yourself. Think, if God loved me so much, when I was without
strength, when I was ungodly, When I was a sinner, yea, when I was an enemy, and
by faith I took hold of His love and Christ’s death for me when I was in that
state, and became justified and reconciled; how can He ever cease to love me,
after I am justified and reconciled. Nay, much more, says the apostle, we shall
be saved from wrath, saved in the power of His life through Him. But what is the
life in which we shall be saved? For salvation is here looked at in its final
result in glory! It is the life of the risen, glorified Savior, whom a God of
righteousness and love has raised from the dead, which is in the glory already
and beyond the power of wrath! It is eternal life in the Son of God which is
given us by the love of this Savior God. Thus we do not rest on experiences
going on inside ourselves, though they be all the Holy Ghost’s work, and we may
glory in them all, but we rest for peace on God’s love towards us in giving His
Son to die for us, a gift entirely outside of ourselves, and in a life which has
been raised out of the dead, which is ours by God’s gift forever! But, besides
this, we boast in God Himself! He is fully revealed in His nature! It is the
righteousness of God. It is the love of God; all for us instead of being against
us. Through Christ whom He has given to die, and whom He has raised from the
dead, we have now received the reconciliation. He made peace by the blood of His
cross. The God of peace has brought Him again from the dead! We by grace have
received this one, and are thus brought nigh to God in perfect peace! We have
received the reconciliation * We boast in hope of the glory (Romans 5:2), We
boast in present tribulation, we boast in God Himself. Oh I what a God we know!
May the reader find his rest in Him.

(*Atonement "should be here translated" reconciliation.”)

I would mark here, first, as to the difference between justification, and
reconciliation. We are first justified by faith, and the first fruit is we are
reconciled to God, have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a
guilty criminal that is justified It is an enemy that is reconciled. We are not
only guilty criminals under sentence of death, but enemies of God as well,
hating His perfect love as seen in the gift of His Son, and displaying the
height of that enmity in rejecting Him I But, blessed be God, His love has
mounted above the enmity; the very spear, mark of enmity, brought forth the
blood and water by which we are reconciled and justified, made fit for His
presence Second, the word "boast" translated "rejoice" (Romans 5:2), "glory"
(Romans 5:3), and "joy" (in Romans 5:11,) signifies the unalterable state a soul
is in that has accepted Christ. It is a different word from that mentioned in
Php 4:4, "rejoice" in the Lord alway, and again I say "rejoice." Unfortunately
our translators, good as they were for the time when the Bible was translated in
that day, did not mark the difference between the two words! We do not always
enjoy the Lord! But every Christian boasts in hope of the glory of God Every
Christian boasts in what God is for him in Christ (Romans 5:11.) It is the
normal state of the Christian! It characterizes his whole condition! We are the
circumcision, says the apostle (Php 3:3), who worship God in the Spirit and
boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh! But joy and
rejoicing is dependent on many things, (see Php 3:1; Php 4:11.) It is our
privilege to rejoice in the Lord always, but then we have to be above
circumstances, as realizing that we are in the Lord who is above them! So in
John 15:11; 1 John 1:1-4, joy is the consequence of obedience and unbroken
fellowship with the Father and His Son But here, Romans 5:1-11, "boasting"
depends on nothing but the possession of the Holy Ghost and knowledge of our
standing and hope. We boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
we have received the reconciliation!

Up to this point in the Epistle from Romans 3:21, we have had two great points
brought out in regard to our salvation! First, we have been justified from all
our sins and their consequences! Second, we have peace, and are reconciled to
God from our enmity. In the former case His relation towards us is that of
justifier, in the second that of reconciler. The Holy Ghost seals this double
condition, new birth may have taken place before, but the knowledge of
redemption, and of God’s acceptance of it brings the seal of the Holy Ghost!
(comp. Acts 10:43-44; Ephesians 1:13.) From Romans 5:12 to the end of Romans
8:1-39. we have full justification of life in Christ from sin, as a principle
(not sins), as well as deliverance from its power, giving us a new place in
Christ before God which connects itself with a new state in spirit through the
Holy Ghost being given, first applied to the soul now, and finally to the body
at the return of the Lord! From Romans 5:12-21, the heads of the two races are
compared. Adam and Christ! If God is love, it must flow out to the whole Adam
race, not merely to those under law as the Jewish nation was. And so the whole
question of man’s state universally is raised, and the apostle has to go back to
the beginning, before the law came in, to show that condition. As by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for
all have sinned! We inherit sin and death by virtue of our personal connection
with Adam by birth. But we also inherit death by virtue of our personal sins.
Now from Adam to Moses sin was in the world, but sin, as a principle and in the
form of transgression, was not put to the account of persons, when there was no
law. Man was under the power of sin, but unconscious of its presence, as a
distinct principle in him, till the law came in. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, not sins, except in the form of transgression in the act. The apostle is
speaking all through this part of Romans of our natural state as connected with
Adam. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, proving sin’s presence,
even over them that had not sinned after the manner of Adam’s transgression, who
is the figure of Him that was to come. The character of sin was not
transgression before the law. Adam transgressed a given law, not to eat of the
tree; the children of Israel likewise transgressed the ten commandments after
they were given, but between that time there was no transgression; still there
was sin, and death reigned in the case of those who sinned, even over those who
died in infancy, and had not committed personal sins. All this proves that man
was born in sin, and under its consequence, death, independently of law and
transgression. Adam being in Romans 5:14 introduced as the figure of Him that
was to come, the two Heads of the two races of men are now compared (Romans
5:15-19). Then the law came in by-the-bye, that the offense might abound (Romans
5:20), and the excess of grace to meet all the consequences of Adam’s
transgression is shown.

Romans 5:15. Not as the offense so is the act of favor! For if by the offense of
the one man the many have died, much more the grace of God, and the free gift in
grace, which is of the one Man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many. Romans
5:16, And not as through one that sinned, so is the gift. For the act of
judgment was of one offense to condemnation, but the act of favor was of many
offenses unto justification. Romans 5:17. For if by the offense of the one man
death reigned by the one, much more they that receive the abundance of grace,
and of the free gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
The persons, their acts and the results in death and life are compared, and the
excess of grace over the results of Adam’s sin is beautifully shown.

Here we have a threefold comparing of the results of Adam’s transgression, and
of God’s grace in Christ.

1st, through the offense of the one man, the many have died; 2nd, the judgment
was of one offense to condemnation; 3rd, death reigned over all his descendants.
In regard to Christ, 1st, the grace of God and the gift in grace, which is of
one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many; 2nd, the free gift is of
many offenses unto justification; 3rd, they that receive the excess of grace,
and of the free gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:18-19 are the summing-up. Therefore as by one offense the consequences
of that offense went out toward all men to condemnation, so by one act of
righteousness, 1:e., Christ’s death, the consequences of that sot went out
towards all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience the
many were constituted sinners, so by the obedience of One shall the many be
constituted righteous! Romans 5:18 is the bearing towards all, of the fruit of
each act. Romans 5:19 is the application to those connected with each Head.
Adam’s act brought sin, death, and condemnation, as the consequences to all his
descendants. Christ’s death meeting the threefold consequences of Adam’s sin,
brings grace, righteousness and eternal life to all connected with Him The first
result on the one side was condemnation; the first result in the other,
justification of life and reigning in life by one, Jesus Christ. This is not
merely being cleared from all our sins by Christ’s death, but it is in a life
that has died to sin and is alive to God, even the life of Christ raised from
the dead and in glory. It is by virtue of this that the many connected with
Christ are constituted righteous, and finally will be in glory.

Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. At the beginning of the chapter, then, we had justification in the power
of Christ’s blood clearing us from all the sins of our first Adam condition;
here at the end of it we have justification of life in the risen, glorified
Christ, the Head of a new race; Christ’s act of righteousness on the cross being
that which glorified God, and in which sin in the flesh was condemned. It is
looked at here as a positive act of obedience, which is the ground of our
deliverance from the Adam condition, and our full justification. What a
marvelous summary of the history of man from the beginning we have in these
verses Adam falls, and brings sin and death into the world These two principles
are personified in these verses, and are said to reign over man (Romans
5:14-21). Until the law sin was in the world, man was lawless (comp. 1 John 3:4;
Romans 2:12), doing his own will, but sin was not imputed, either as a principle
nor in the form of transgression, nevertheless death reigned over him. In Moses’
time the law entered, giving the knowledge of sin, and that the offense might
abound. The law now became as a husband to the Jew, and exercised dominion over
him But this marriage, instead of checking the dominion of sin, caused the
offense to abound, as is said in Romans 5:20; Romans 7:1-5; Romans 7:8. But now
the conscientious Jew was in a miserable plight. Sin exercising dominion one
way, the law the other, by forbidding even the first motions of sin in the
heart. Hence the spirit of bondage and fear. But thanks be to God, grace has
come into the world by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:15; John 1:17); has met the power
of sin reigning in the power of death at the cross; through righteousness has
condemned it and put it away, and has reigned victorious unto eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. All that accept this grace are not only forgiven,
and justified from their sins, but they stand as justified in the life of Christ
risen and glorified, and are delivered from the dominion and power of sin,
through having died to sin, and being alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is, however, anticipating the doctrine of Romans 6:1-23. The death of
Christ in Romans 5:18 is rather looked at as the burnt-offering, the peculiarity
of which was, that the whole animal underwent the judgment of God, but it was
for the offerers acceptance, not for the pardon of his sins (comp. Leviticus
1:1-9). At the cross of Christ not only was the justice of God satisfied, as to
the sins committed by man, but God was glorified in His nature in the very place
where sin was condemned. His love and righteousness were fully manifested and
glorified by an obedient man, so that God gave Him glory in answer to it, and we
are accepted in the Beloved! This explains the term "abundance of grace" (Romans
5:17). Adam and Christ are here looked at as the Heads of two races, but not so
till after their acts of disobedience or obedience. Adam became Head of a fallen
race after his disobedience (See Genesis 4:1). Christ became Head of a new race
after His obedience unto death. We are attached to one or the other. Reader,
which are you? In Romans 6:1-23 two masters, sin and righteousness, attach
themselves to the Heads of these two families, and of those that belong to them.
In Romans 7:1-25 two husbands, law and Christ, that apply themselves to
descendants of each in these two conditions. If I am in Adam, sin is my master,
and the law was the Jew’s husband in that condition. But if Christ’s,
righteousness is my master, and Christ is my husband,’ and the new rule of my
life!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: 01.06.     ROMANS 6
========================================================================

Romans 6:1-23

We are taught here the means of our deliverance from our connection with the
first Adam, with sin, death and condemnation attached to that connection! It had
been said, "where sin abounded, (that is, before law came in, or after law came
in) grace did much more abound." A man might then say, Shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound? Let it not be thought so for one moment! How can we that
have died to sin live any longer therein? It is a question of living under the
power of sin or not. But if we have died to sin by the act of Christ’s death
being applied to us, how can we live any longer in that life over which sin had
dominion, and to which it attached itself? Now the apostle brings in two ways
and means by which we have been delivered. Externally by baptism, really by
faith. Romans 6:3-4 show the former way, Romans 6:7 and following verses the
latter. Know ye not, says the apostle, that as many as have been baptized unto
Jesus Christ, have been baptized unto His death? Therefore we have been buried
with Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, we ought also to walk in newness of life Here
clearly baptism is the external means of our connection with Christ in death.
The baptized person is put into the water, which is the figure of Christ’s
death. He is buried under the water, the figure of being buried with Christ. Now
as Christ was raised by the honor the Father put upon Him, the baptized person
ought to walk in newness of life. Mark, my reader, this is his responsibility.
There is nothing said about his having life or not, but he ought to walk in
newness of life. Unless he has faith besides baptism, this he will not do. But
if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him,
that is, I take it by imputation when He was crucified, that the body of sin
might be annulled, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that has died
has been justified* from sin.

(*Note.-The original Greek word here signifies "justified.") But this introduces
a second means of connection with Christ in death. It is by faith (comp. Romans
5:1), not only by baptism. Baptism gives me externally a place with Christ in
death, and so I am placed on Christian ground, where I ought to walk in newness
of life; but as I said before, if faith is not added to baptism, there is no
living connection with Christ. Baptism is not unto life, but unto death; but if
I believe, I am justified from sin; and I have really as well as externally, a
part with Christ in His death. He that is dead is justified from sin, that is
from the very root and principle of it, not only from its acts. But if we be
dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him.
For in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth, He liveth
unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin, and
alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus God accounts to us all the value
of His Son’s death and resurrection so that we, believing, reckon ourselves as
having died to sin with Him, and to be alive unto God in Him. This is the
reckoning of faith, as water baptism gives us that place externally, short of
living unto God. This truth is now applied to our walk from Romans 16:18-27. Let
not sin reign in your mortal bodies; ye are dead. Yield yourselves unto God as
those who are alive from the dead, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for
ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Thus the law is looked at as the strength of sin, and applies to the condition
of the first Adam, over which sin has dominion. But then, shall we take
advantage and sin because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid. Sin
is looked at all through these verses as a master; if I yield myself a slave to
that master, I am a slave to that master, whether of sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness. But thanks be to God, that we are not the servants
of sin, but we have obeyed the form of doctrine delivered unto us, that is, of
Christ’s death and resurrection; and we are set free. But then, having been set
free by faith in Him dead and risen, we have become servants unto righteousness.

Wherefore yield up yourselves to this new master, to righteousness unto
holiness. Did you gather any fruit from the things whereof you are now ashamed,
for the end of those things is death? But now being made free from sin, and
having become servants of God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end
eternal life; for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin is always looked at in these chapters as a master reigning over man, and to
whom he is a slave. It is not the responsible man, either unconverted,
quickened, or delivered; but it reigns over the unconverted Adam man, and even
over him converted, as we see in. Romans 7:1-25., till delivered and in full
salvation. Adam was first created upright, spirit, soul and body. Sin entered at
the fall. The old serpent then put poison into man’s nature, and from that time
it has been transmitted to all Adam’s descendants as we have seen. It entered
the world by Adam (Romans 5:12). It hath reigned since in the power of death
(Romans 5:21). It exercises dominion over (Romans 6:14) and pays wages to its
slaves (Romans 6:21). Death alone can close its reign. Thus what the awakened
soul looks for is deliverance from its power and empire, as indeed the bitten
Israelite looked for from the bite of the fiery serpent! That deliverance is
effected by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and is
identified in this chapter with our full justification (Romans 6:1-23), not only
from sins, but from the principle of sin, the character of which is lawlessness
(see 1 John 3:4). This brings in the principle of association with Christ.
Externally by baptism, but really and virtually by faith, and as to the new
state (Romans 8:9), by the Holy Ghost. We are dead with Christ, buried with
Christ, risen with Christ, only Romans does not mention this latter, which we
have in Colossians and Ephesians; but we are alive to God in Jesus Christ our
Lord! The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).

Thus we see how Christ is our life, as well as our righteousness. And it is not
only that He is given to us by a God of love from the other side of the cross to
die for us, thus meeting our state as ungodly sinners, but He is given to us
here, as a present gift from the glory side of the cross. This gift received
puts the receiver in Him who has died to sin and lives to God. We therefore, are
to reckon ourselves to have died indeed unto: sin, but alive unto God in Jesus
Christ our Lord. In Romans 8:2-11 this connects itself with the: communication
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that sets us free from the law of sin and
death, and in final result leads on to the quickening of: the mortal body at the
return of the Lord from heaven. But in Romans 6:1-23. it is the life of faith’
which reckons itself dead to sin, and alive to God’ in Christ, yields itself
practically up to God, and as the result obeys; and these are the two great
principles of the Christian life, faith and obedience.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: 01.07.     ROMANS 7
========================================================================

Romans 7:1-25 In this chapter the Christian’s deliverance from law is described.
"I speak to them that know law" (that is as a principle), says the apostle;
"that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth." The Jewish nation
was dispensational under the law. It was needful then specially for the Jewish
believer to know his relation to the law now he had become Christ’s. He was
under it as a husband, to raise the question of righteousness after man had
become a slave; of sin. The apostle uses the illustration of a: woman married to
a husband. She was bound by law to her husband as long as he lived, but if he
died she was loosed from the law of her husband, so then if while her husband
lived she was married to another man, she should be called an adulteress; but if
the husband should die, she was free to be married to another man. Then applying
the double illustration, the apostle says, Ye therefore, my brethren, are become
dead to the law by the body of the Anointed One, that ye should be married to
another, even to Him who has been raised from the dead, that ye might bring
forth fruit unto God. The law and Christ are here therefore compared to two
husbands, the law applying to the condition the Jew was in as a child of Adam,
only put into relationship with Jehovah on that ground. As long as he lived in
that relationship he was under law’s dominion, and law’s rule, but having
accepted Christ, as seen in His death, he became dead to the law. Death
dissolved the relationship, and resurrection introducing him into a new place,
he was married to another, even to Him whom God raised from the dead, now to
bear fruit to God. Thus he became connected with God’s Anointed as to a new
husband, and came under a new rule, the rule of God’s Christ, instead of the
law.

It was like a wild briar in its original earth, that produced plentifully the
briars and thorns, and as we see at the end of the chapter, the new bud of the
good rose put in only seemed to languish as long as the tree remained in the
barren earth, but now it is cut down and taken out by the skilful gardener from
its original place in the rocky, barren soil, and transplanted into God’s new
ground in Christ; where the new bud, unhindered by the growth of the old briar,
and fed by the good new soil, brings forth beautiful roses to God’s glory. In
the end of the chapter we see the struggles of the new life to bear fruit before
it is transplanted, but in Romans 8:1-39. we see the new plant in the new place
bearing fruit to God.

Thus the law of Moses can never produce fruit for God. When we were in the
flesh, says the apostle, the motions of sins which were by the law did work in
our members to bring forth fruit unto death. The old saplings of the briar would
seem to shoot out with all their native strength; and the digging and dunging
all made it worse, the earth was such that only produced briars and thorns. But
now we are delivered from the law, having died to that wherein we were held,
that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Thus all Christians stand before God as having died to the old husband, law. All
Christians stand as related to the new, the Christ! and Him raised from the
dead. And as no woman can be married to two husbands at one time without being
guilty of adultery, so no Christian can be under the law and under Christ too at
one time without being guilty of spiritual adultery. This at once clearly
explains the truth of the doctrine at the end of this chapter. The Holy Ghost
could not possibly teach the sin of spiritual adultery; but if the experience at
the end of the chapter is that of a man who has the Holy Ghost, then He would be
teaching it, for it is nothing but the experience of a man under the old
husband, law; and therefore of a man still as to his experience on the ground of
the flesh; whereas a man who has got the Holy Ghost is not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, and therefore not under the law, but under grace. The chapter might
be divided into three parts. 1st, Romans 7:1-6 the deliverance from the law is
stated. 2nd, Romans 7:7-13, man’s former state in the flesh having been alluded
to (Romans 7:5), the law’s action upon it as giving the knowledge of sin, and
condemning him to death who gave way to its first motions is shown. The law is
holy then, sin exceeding sinful. 3rd, (Romans 7:14-25) sin’s working death in
the man through the law, is shown, as also the struggles of an awakened,
quickened soul, to get righteousness and life through the law; but then the man
finds his mistake, comes to the knowledge of sin, as a distinct evil principle
in himself, but not himself, and his captivity to it; and learning that it only
works death in him, he looks away to Christ for deliverance, and finds it in God
through Christ. But without this needful experience and knowledge of sin, a
superficial hearer would say, returning to Romans 7:7, Is the law sin, for you
teach, Paul, that a man must become dead to the law, as well as to sin? God
forbid, says the apostle, the law made me, as an unsaved man, know sin. I would
not have known sin, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust; but sin taking
occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of lust. Apart from law,
sin was dead, lay dormant in the man; the school-boy cut the table, ignorant
that there was his evil will inside him, causing him to do the mischief, but now
the schoolmaster issues a command that the boys are not to cut the table. This
immediately fills the boys with an evil desire to do it; perhaps some had never
thought of doing it before the command was issued. This is lust! The law not
only forbids the evil act, but the desire to do it. Now if the boy is attentive
to the lessons of the schoolmaster, he will come to the knowledge of the naughty
will inside him, that makes him desire to cut the table. And this is what
happens when the soul is awakened!* but unawakened the man follows his own
lusts, and the end is death-awakened he comes to the knowledge of sin, finds he
is under sentence of death, forgiving way to its first motions, and accepts the
sentence, coming to repentance.

(*Note.-In James 1:15, sin follows lust, for there it is looked at in the act;
but in Romans 7:7-8, it produces lust, because it is looked at as the evil
principle of the nature.)

Thus it was with Paul; he says, "I was alive without law once, but the
commandment having come, sin revived, and I died." He accepted the sentence of
death on himself when awakened. The law then is nothing but a ministry of death
to man, for it forbids lust, under the penalty of death, but every man lusts,
and thus the sentence of death is written on him The commandment which was unto
life, Paul found to be unto death, for sin taking occasion by the commandment
deceived me, and by it slew me. Behold people to-day going Sunday after Sunday,
and hearing the ten commandments read in so called churches. Sin deceives them,
makes them think that the law is the way of justification and life. Sin thus
deceives them, and uses the holy law of God to kill them. Alas, with the
majority it is not like with the apostle, a learning of sin’s deceptions now,
and its cruel and terrible nature now to slay him; but they go on sleeping under
the venom of the serpent, and die, without rousing out of their sleep of death.
And oh, terrible thought, only to wake up to these deceptions in hell! From
Romans 7:14-25 the apostle in answer to the question, "Was then that which is
good made death unto me," still further brings out the horrible nature of sin,
and shows the fruitless struggles of an awakened soul under the law to free
itself from its dominion, till it looks away to the Savior God through Christ
for deliverance. Sin is thus looked at as a monster that has laid hold of its
victim, using the good holy law of God to deceive its victim, who vainly thinks
that that is the way of righteousness and life; it stirs up its very motions by
the law, and then uses the law to sentence its victim to death. Paul discovered
all this when light from the glory began to shine into his soul The law cannot
work life in the soul of such e. man, sin works death in him by that which is
good, 1:e. the law.

We come now to the struggles, and progress in knowledge of an awakened soul,
measuring itself by this spiritual measure, the law, and finding all its efforts
to come up to this spiritual standard fruitless. There is no mention of Christ
or the Holy Ghost in the whole passage. It is the experience of a quickened
soul, born again, turned to God, but still without deliverance and salvation,
still under the captivity of sin, and measuring itself alone by law standard. We
know that the law is spiritual. This is Christian knowledge, but I am carnal,
sold under sin; he supposes the case of a man not yet a Christian, still under
law.* For that which I do, my conscience does not allow, but what I would that
do I not, but what I hate that do I. But then if this is so, the will and
affections are right, and the man consents to the law that it is good. And again
if the will is right, he is renewed, for naturally the will is on the wrong
side, and if so, it is no more he that does the evil, but sin that dwells in
him. This is progress in the awakened soul. Now there is the knowledge that the
evil principle of sin is distinct from the new I, that wills to do right. In the
flesh, 1:e., the Adam nature, on the contrary, dwells no good thing.

(*Note.-That is why the Apostle changes from the past into the present.)

Here there is a decided advance in knowledge. In Romans 7:14, there was
confusion between the natures; "I am fleshly," he says there, but in Romans 7:18
there is the flesh and sin it, distinct from the new I. Another thing is found
now, that though the will is right, there is no power to perform what is good:
he repeats what he had said in Romans 7:15. but there it was to show he was
fleshly, here it is, that he has no power to perform what his new I wants to do;
for the good he would, he does not, but the evil he would not that he does. Thus
a soul if only turned to God and quickened, but not delivered, is still
virtually under the power of sin. The Apostle repeats, if my will is right it is
no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me. He finds then a law that when he would
do good, evil is present with him; but he delights in the law of God after the
inward man. Thus he is really born again, but he finds another law, 1:e., the
flesh, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to
the law of sin that is in his members. This is insupportable! Born again, he
desires the good, he must be free, but the very light he has got shows him that
his whole Adam nature is sinful, and too strong for him, so that he cries out,
Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death! The
whole natural man is seen sinful and even as quickened he is without strength.
He must be delivered. How get deliverance? He looks away from the man here, to
God, and finds Him a Deliverer through Christ dead, risen, and glorified. The
man up there he finds as his positive righteousness, and God’s gift of eternal
life to him; and is justified and free. In himself he finds no good, and no
strength to fulfill the positive righteousness of the law even with his new
nature, and its desires after it, but in God he finds a Deliverer who has
already opened the path through death for him by Jesus; and this Jesus in glory
God gives him as His gift of eternal life, the life that has passed victoriously
through death and conquered. He finds a new man in a new place for him in glory,
and learns to connect himself as born of God with Him. Yea, Romans 8:1, he finds
himself "in Him." The experience of this chapter has taught him this great
lesson that he has two distinct natures now in him. He himself identified with
the new nature serves the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. At the
same time he has found deliverance from his Adam standing and state through
Christ Romans 8:1-39. shows the reality and power of the deliverance itself. He
is in Christ, in a man to whom no condemnation is attached, and the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free from the law of sin and death.
The teaching of Romans 7:1-25. must not be confounded with the teaching of the
3rd and 4th chapters. There the law proves guilty, it brings under sentence of
death for the things done. Here it shows the wretchedness of the man himself
under the power and dominion of sin. By law is the knowledge of sin. In Romans
3:4., he finds in God a justifier from his sins, but here also giving him a new
place in Christ, (at least in Romans 8:1-39.), and delivering him from his Adam
condition; and the law that applied to it.

It is to be noted in the types, that the law was given at Mount Sinai to an
already typically redeemed people, who had been brought to God. It belonged to
the wilderness, not to Egypt. And if we see only in the history of Israel the
history of a redeemed people that is the reality of the things typified, we
shall get into confusion, and be in danger of misapplying the law, that is of
applying it to Christians.

Now the doctrine of the new testament is as clear as noonday on the subject,
that the law is not to be applied to Christians, it was not made for a righteous
man! How then are we to reconcile the fact that the law was given in the
wilderness, and not in Egypt before redemption? The simple answer is that the
passage of the Red Sea is not only the picture of full redemption, but also of
a: typically baptized people brought in to external relationship with God,
outside the heathen and Jewish world of which Egypt was the type. See 1
Corinthians 10:1-13; Hebrews 2:14-15; Hebrews 3:4. By these Scriptures, we see
that the Christian profession is in the wilderness, not in Egypt; brought into
that place by baptism, which we have introduced as giving an external
deliverance from Adam connection in Romans 6:1-5. Now the mass of these
Christian professors, as we know, are ungodly people, and it is a lawful use of
the law, as 1 Timothy 1:1-20. shows, to apply it to such; to test their reality.
Real Christians are not under it in any way.* Love is the fulfilling of the law,
and it is their nature to love., But God allows all this testing to go on
amongst His professing people, to know what is in their hearts, and to make them
know that grace and Christ are the only ground on which they will ever enter
heaven as the rest of God. The sin of profession is, I believe, accepting the
law as the ground of entering heaven, just like Israel accepted it, going away
from the promises. God allowed it to raise the question of righteousness with
them, and so in the lawful use of it to-day. It is remarkable that before
entering Canaan, Israel is brought to the brazen serpent, the type of the
judgment of Satan and sin by the cross; showing in type that the way into
heaven, and deliverance from perishing by the bite of the serpent is alone
through Christ lifted up on the cross, and rising again in eternal life. And
this is really only the foundation and beginning of real, vital Christianity
according to John 3:14, and yet the type comes at the very end of the wilderness
journey. It is the lesson over again of Romans 7:8. Only I believe Jordan
teaches fully death to sin, and to the law, and introduction into the heavenly
places in Christ! We are just landed there as to our standing in Romans 8:1-2,
but that is all. The general practical life is in the wilderness.** (*Note.-Nor
indeed, the Gentile profession, as a dispensation. (See Rom 9:-11.; Hebrews
7:18-25.))

(**Note.-But though Christians are not under the government of the law, they are
under the government of the Father, and of the Lord I (See 1 Peter 1:17; 1
Corinthians 11:27-34.)


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: 01.08.     ROMANS 8
========================================================================

Romans 8:1-39

We are now landed in the height of our place "in Christ" as shown in this
epistle. The full place is summed up in the first three verses. To stop short in
Romans 7:1-25., is to stop short of the Christian position. That it can be
Christian experience is impossible. From Romans 7:7-25 of Romans 7:1-25. the
words I, me, and my, are mentioned nearly fifty times. What is the meaning of
the phrases used "I am fleshly, sold under sin," if Christian experience? What
is the meaning of the cry, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? Is
a man that is "a slave of sin," who always breaks every commandment of the law,
and who is crying out for deliverance out of a condition he is still consciously
in, viz., his Adam standing, a Christian? Will you make a Christian an idolater,
a blasphemer, a murderer, a thief, a covetous person? Yet this you must teach if
you say that the man, who says, "the good (1:e., the law) that I would I do not,
but the evil that I would not, that do I," is a Christian. Besides there is no
mention of Christ or the Spirit once, till he thanks God, Romans 7:25. It is
occupation with self, seeing the holiness of the law in its demands, and finding
his utter powerlessness to do good (which is always the law in Romans 7:1-25.)
though he wishes to I do it. That it is the experience of a man dead in
trespasses and sins is also impossible, for there is the will to do good; he
delights in the law of God after the inward man, and with the mind he himself
serves the law of God. We are therefore left to the conclusion that it is the
experience of a new-born soul, with the will and the mind turned to God, yet
occupied with self, and not yet delivered from the Adam condition and from the
law. Directly it accepts the man in glory, instead of the man here, it bursts
out in songs of praise, and concludes, "there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus;* for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

(*Note.-The last clause of Romans 8:1 is not in the three most ancient
manuscripts, and is rejected by chief authorities.)

First, there is a new standing given in the Head of the new race, to whom no
condemnation is attached. Second, there is the positive communication of the
Spirit of life in Christ that has set us free from the law of sin and death
(comp. John 20:22.) Thirdly, what the law could not do, in that it was weak
through the flesh, God has done. Beautiful summary of Romans 5:1-21, Romans
6:1-23, Romans 7:1-25. Romans 5:1-21, we have our portion in Christ the Head of
the new race, in justification of life; Romans 6:1-23, deliverance from the law
of sin and death; Romans 7:1-25. what the law could not do (Romans 7:5-24), God
has done (Romans 7:25; Romans 8:8). He has judged sin in the flesh, by sending
His own Son, and making Him a sacrifice for sin, that the law’s righteous
requirement might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit. Thus the only ones who fulfill the righteousness of the law, are those
that have died to it in Christ’s death, and who are alive to God in Him, in
possession of His Spirit of life; and grace is the only power over sin, as the
law is the strength of sin. It could neither free from condemnation, deliver,
nor produce the righteousness it required in us; it could give the knowledge of
sin, and condemn the man to death who gives way to its first motions. But God in
grace has condemned the sin and delivered the man: what the law could not do We
are now in our individual standing place, and this beautiful chapter brings out
all the consequences of this position. First, the Christian is in Christ, in
possession of the Spirit of life in Christ, delivered, and sin condemned.
Secondly, the Spirit of God indwells him, giving him a new state, and as a
distinct Person dwelling in him making him know his place as a child of God,
etc. (Romans 8:9-30). Thirdly, God is for him (Romans 8:31-39). What a chapter!
May the Lord give the reader sweet thoughts on it.

What we have first is the Spirit of Christ characterizing our new life as born
of God. There is an introduction in power of the Spirit in Romans 8:2, that we
have not in Romans 7:1-25.

Christ communicated His Spirit of life to His disciples in John 20:22, already
born of God. It is not merely in Romans 8:5-8 the flesh and new nature as we
have in Romans 7:1-25., but we are of the flesh or of the Spirit. It is the mind
of the flesh or the mind of the Spirit. The delivered man is characterized and
energized by the Spirit of God. They that are of the flesh do mind the things of
the flesh, they that are of the Spirit the things of the Spirit.* The mind of
the flesh is death, the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. The mind of the;
flesh is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Enoch pleased God
in his day, as a man of faith walking according to the light he had, in
relationship with God revealed as Creator, yet on the ground of sacrifice
pointing forward to Christ who was coming, and waiting for the promise. But in
his day God was still testing man, as to whether he could recover himself, and
so still owned him so far when there was faith, as walking on that ground. It
was not proved that they that are in the flesh could not please God, and so the
"common appellation" for saints in the old testament is, "the just.", But now
everything has come out, man has been weighed in the balances and found wanting;
he has: rejected Christ, as well as broken the law. "They that are in the flesh
cannot please God.”

(*Literally Ofichnuta crap, Opcivripairveiliaroc It is not "carnal mind,’" and
"spiritual mind," but "mind of the flesh," and "mind of the Spirit.") But
Christians are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be "the Spirit of God"
dwell in them. The Spirit communicated to the believer puts him into a new
state, taking him out of the flesh, and brings Christ as life into his soul,
enabling him to write His death on the old Adam body and condition. It is the
Spirit of Christ, because the Head of the new race breathes into us His Spirit
of life, and so it is Christ in us. And yet it cannot be separated from the
Spirit of God, who is semi further down as a distinct Person dwelling in us. But
if Christ be in us, the body is dead * for sin; but the Spirit is life for
righteousness. The Christ with whom the Christian is one, is a Christ’ that
died; hence death is written on the old Adam body, which henceforth, as dead for
sin, becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. Without the death of Christ applied
by faith to it, it is part of the flesh, the old Adam nature; but now the life
of Christ fills it, that has passed through death, and the Holy Spirit indwells
it; so that if this last is so, He, as the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the
dead, when the Lord comes, will quicken our mortal bodies, on account of His
Spirit that dwells in us.

(*(Comp. Romans 4:25,) Christ was raised for (eta) with the accusative) our
justification, not "because of.")

Here is the full answer to the cry of Romans 7:24. Thus the presence of the
Spirit of God in the body puts us into our new Christian state, as being no
longer in the flesh. It brings Christ into us, writing His death on our Adam
bodies, and is the earnest of the future quickening of the body at the first
resurrection when Christ returns.

He is now seen as not only forming and characterizing the new Christian state,
but as a distinct Person indwelling us (Romans 8:11; Romans 8:16; Romans 8:26).
Surely then we see that we are not debtors to the flesh for anything; if we live
after the flesh we are about to die, but if we through the Spirit do mortify,
put to death, the deeds of the body, we shall live. For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. Thus we see that the Spirit not only
forms and characterizes the new Christian state, but He is the power of
practical Christian life every day. By Him we mortify the deeds of the body, by
Him the sons are led. Moreover we have not received a Spirit of bondage again to
fear, but we have received a Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of
God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if
so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together. As we read
such wonderful scriptures the heart naturally’’ breaks out in such a song-
“Happy they who trust in Jesus, Sweet their portion is, and sure, When the foe
on others seizes, He will keep His own secure:

Happy people, Happy, though despised and poor.”

Yes, dear reader, in that poor little cottage home of yours, or in that dark
room in the back street, you can sing, if a believer, Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God
(1 John 3:1).

Suffering here is the Christian’s portion, glory there with Christ as His fellow
heirs. We have in the following verses, Romans 8:18-29, a sample of what
suffering with Christ is. But in view of the glory that shall be revealed unto
the children of God, the apostle, and we also, may well reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that shall be revealed unto us. The anxious expectation of the creature waits
for the manifestation of the sons of God; for the creature was made subject to
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him, i e, Adam, who hath subjected, the
same; in the hope that the creature itself shall] be delivered from the bondage
of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. So that
whatever the suffering now, there is a glorious future yet for this creation. It
groans and travails, but the Lord is coming, then the sons of God will be
manifested with Him, and creation shall be delivered; it still groans, and not
only it, but we ourselves who are still linked to the creature by our bodies,
but having the first-fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies.

Salvation in this aspect is future; we are saved in hope of this future. The
groaning mentioned is a different groaning from that of Romans 7:25. There it
was, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" a groaning in the sense
of an undelivered soul, not in the liberty of grace; and no doubt not
understanding the redemption of the body either; but here it is a groan like
Christ groaned at the grave of Lazarus, as feeling on His spirit the ruin of
creation, and the dominion of sin and death over it. In this way we are
privileged to suffer with Christ, and this is the portion more or less of all
Christians; only that our bodies are more or less linked with sin, and not fully
redeemed. In another sense Christians are called to suffer for Christ (see Php
1:29; 1 Peter 4:14); through enduring persecution, either from the world, or
trials amongst the saints inside the assembly (see 2 Corinthians 1:2). But we
must not confound these sufferings with what Christ suffered for us in atonement
on the cross. There He stood alone under our judgment, bearing the wrath of God
for us, that we might never have to bear it. But here the subject is, suffering
with Christ, having the same spirit whilst passing through a groaning creation.
And even the presence of the Spirit of God in our bodies makes us groan, but He
also helps our infirmities, and though we know not amidst the pressure of things
what to pray for as we ought, He makes intercessions within us with groanings
that cannot be uttered. But He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of
the Spirit, because He makes intercessions for the saints according to God. But
if under the pressure of trials we know not what to pray for as we ought, this
we do know that all things work together for good to them that love God, (and
now comes the summing up); these are the called according to His purpose; for.;
whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the first-born amongst many brethren!

Five blessed links of an everlasting chain that connect us with the passed and
future eternities follow. Foreknowledge, Predestination, Calling, Justification,
Glory! The second is founded on the first. It is not the same as it. See John
6:64-65. Jesus foreknew who would not believe, and should betray Him Founded on
this He added, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come to me except it
were given him of my Father. But oh, the infinite grace of God! every dear
Christian is predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. This voice
makes itself heard in the soul, in due time He calls us. We are awakened,
brought to repentance, He justifies us. Finally He glorifies us! God’s grace has
never done with us till we are conformed to the image of His Son. Who is He! The
first-born amongst many brethren; the chiefest amongst ten thousand, the
altogether lovely! Song of Solomon 5:10-16. From Romans 8:31 to the end, we have
God for us. This is manifested in three ways: First, He has not spared His Son
(Romans 8:32); secondly, He has justified us (Romans 8:33); thirdly, nothing can
separate us from His love as displayed in Christ Jesus our Lord! The Apostle
always argues down from what God is to us. It is not, because we are so and so
for Him that therefore He will be so and so for us No, but God is for us, just
as we were, nothing but sinners. Who then can be against us? He has not spared
His Son, how shall He not then with Him also freely give us all things! But
secondly, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that
justifieth, who is he that condemneth? The apostle here alludes to Isaiah 1:8-9,
where Christ is heard confessing His confidence in Jehovah, as the One who
justified Him, when man condemned Him It is most interesting to see how the
apostle here quotes the very same passage to bring out the justification of
God’s people now! the same justification that applies to Christ, applies to the
assembly as one with Him. But then, thirdly, Christ died, yea rather, has been
raised up, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us. Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? That love was tested
down here by tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and
sword, and nothing stopped its flow. It has gained the victory, and has been
brought into our hearts by the Holy Ghost, so that even though passing through
all like circumstances, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us,
though for His sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter. But it is not only that no circumstances can stop us, but not
all the powers of the unseen world which are next mentioned; death, life,
angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, etc., nothing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.

What a chapter! The Christian is seen in Christ at the beginning, Romans 8:1-2.
Secondly, the Spirit of God is seen in him, Romans 8:9, first bringing Christ as
Life into his soul, and secondly, indwelling him as a distinct person as God,
bearing witness with his spirit that he is a son, Romans 8:10-30. Thirdly, God
is for him, Romans 8:31,-end. The Spirit also intercedes for him on earth, and
will finally raise up or change his body; whilst Christ intercedes for him in
heaven, and nothing therefore can separate him from the love that does this,
till He returns to fetch him home. The second part of the Epistle is done. From
Romans 3:22-26, we have seen God’s righteousness as an objective thing in Christ
justifying the believer from all his sins through Jesus and His blood.
Justification is by faith, not by works, as Abraham’s and David’s examples show.
David’s example showing the negative side; sins forgiven, iniquities covered,
sin not imputed. Abraham’s showing the positive side: it was a faith resting in
a God of resurrection, raising a living Isaac out of Sarah’s dead womb. In the
one case, it was a righteous God forgiving sins; in the other case a righteous
God fulfilling His promises, which came before law and circumcision, and went
out to the Gentiles through Christ, the Heir now come. This ends Romans 4:1-25.
It is a present blessing to us, for we believe on a God who has raised Jesus
from the dead. Peace, present favor, and glory are the result for us, Romans
5:1-11. We enjoy present; tribulation with hope of glory in front, by the! Holy
Ghost, who also makes us joy in God Himself, revealed in love, as well as in
righteousness! This introduces God as a Reconciler as well as a Justifier, and
both in present blessing. Believers are now justified by His blood, they have
now received the reconciliation (Romans 8:9-11). Up to this point sins are
treated of, Christ was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our
justification. From Romans 5:12, to end, Adam and Christ are compared as the
Heads of two races. Adam bringing in sin, death, and condemnation to all his
descendants, by his one offense; Christ bringing in grace, righteousness and
eternal life, leading on to the full result in glory, by His one obedience unto
death. This results in a justification of life from sin for the believer, not
merely justified from sins. Romans 6:1-23. applies Christ’s death for present
deliverance from the dominion of sin, as well as for justification; Romans
7:1-25., deliverance from the law, as applying to the Adam condition; both
expressed for present deliverance, in Romans 6:22; Romans 7:6, by the words,
"Now being made free from sin," and "Now we are delivered from the law" And
Romans 8:1-39. shows him his full standing in Christ, in the words, "there is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" His state as not
in the flesh but in the Spirit follows; the Spirit indwelling him making him
know his place as a son, and being the earnest and pledge of the resurrection of
his body, when the Lord comes. Lastly, God is for him, and nothing can separate
him from His love. The little word now, applied to justification in Romans 5:9,
to reconciliation in Romans 5:11, to deliverance and freedom from sin Romans
6:22, to deliverance from the law Romans 7:6, and to the Christian’s full
standing in Christ, in justification of life from sin, Romans 8:1, shows
clearly, that all these different lines of doctrine are only several parts of
one great salvation, and that salvation is all received in Christ at once, when
the poor sinner believes. He needs to be established in its different parts
afterward, as this Epistle clearly shows, but the different parts of the
salvation are not consecutive, but run in parallel lines, making up one complete
whole, though the call takes place first! May the Lord bless this to the help of
the reader, is the prayer of the writer!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: 01.09.     ROMANS 9-11
========================================================================

Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36 The apostle now turns back to the
subject of Israel, and the Gentiles. He has now gone into the great subject of
man’s personal relationship with God, the law question, and God justifying
Jewish and Gentile believers alike, on the ground of the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus. But then there was the question of promise. The promises were
given to the Jew; how was it that the Gentiles had the blessing? Had God cast
away His ancient people forever? The apostle answers these questions from Rom
9:-11. His deep affection for his own nation bursts forth. Deep anguish and
uninterrupted pain had taken hold of his heart; he could even have wished
himself accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the
flesh, who were Israelites, whose was the glory, and the covenants, and the
giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose were the
fathers; and of whom after the flesh the Messiah came, who is over all God
blessed forever. In the dispensations of God Israel had the central place
amongst the nations. But now, where was that nation? About to be handed over to
judgment. Not as though the word of God had failed, for, He proves from Israel’s
own history, that they were not all Israel who are of Israel, neither because
they were of the seed of Abraham were they all children, otherwise Ishmael would
have come in for a share of the promises, as well as Isaac; but the scripture
said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." The same thing took place in regard
to Esau and Jacob, for before the children were born, and had done anything good
or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works
but of Him that calleth, it was said, that the elder should serve the younger;
according also as it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. The
truth was, God was a sovereign, and He acted according to the principles of
sovereign grace and His own choice, as was manifested in Israel’s own history,
so that on this principle He could let in the Gentiles, as He was indeed now
doing.

Israel as a nation was saved from ruin, on the occasion of the golden calf, by
the principle of God’s sovereign grace, when all was over on the ground of the
law which was then broken, for He said again on that occasion, "I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion." God was a sovereign. He had mercy on whom He would; and whom He
would He hardened, as was manifested in the case of Pharaoh, Israel’s enemy. So
that Israel had to own that they themselves owed everything to the sovereignty
of God. They could not claim an exclusive right to anything. It was no use
either arguing against God. Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it,
Why halt thou made me thus? Had not the potter power over the clay, out of the
same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and one to dishonor? At the same time
whilst He made known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He had
before prepared for glory, He endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath
fitted for destruction (not whom He had fitted), in order to make known His
wrath and His power. On these principles of sovereign grace, He called the
Gentiles as well as the Jew, as Hosea had prophesied (Hosea 2:23). In the case
of Israel a remnant should be saved otherwise they would have been like Sodom
and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:9).

What then shall we say, as to the present state of things? That the Gentiles
have attained to righteousness, that which is on the principle of faith. But
Israel, who pursued after a law of righteousness, have not attained unto that
law. Wherefore? because it was not on the principle of faith, but as of works.
For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone, 1:e. the Lord Jesus Christ, as it was
written, "Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offense; and
whosoever believeth on Him should not be ashamed" (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16).
The apostle’s desire after Israel now breaks out again; he confesses to their
having a zeal after God, but not according to full knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For the
end of law is Christ for righteousness to every one that believeth. Where the
law ends for righteousness, Christ takes its place. So it is in the history of
the soul.

(Romans 9:5-14.) The two righteousnesses are now contrasted. Moses wrote
concerning the one, "the man having done the righteousness should live in it."
The law was man’s righteousness, it was God’s perfect measure for His creature.
It required man to give the righteousness to God that the law demanded; if he
did he lived in it. The righteousness of faith, on the other hand, brings
righteousness to man. It speaks on this wise, " Say not in thine heart, who
shall ascend up to heaven, (that is to bring Christ down from above); He has
come down even to death; or who shall descend into the deep, (that is to bring
up Christ again from the dead). He has been raised; God has raised Him; a dead,
risen, and glorified Christ is set forth as the display of the righteousness of
God. This is in direct contrast to human righteousness, which would be keeping
the law. And now what saith the righteousness of faith? The word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach
concerning this dead, risen, and glorified Christ; that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, Jehovah Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; thus,
first, we have a dead and raised Christ set forth as the display of God’s
righteousness. Secondly, the word of faith brings it up to the man’s mouth and
heart, for him to believe. Thirdly, confessing with his mouth Jehovah become a
man to die for him, and believing in his heart that God has raised this man from
the dead, and accepted Him, he is saved.

Two scriptures are now quoted in confirmation; "Whosoever believeth on Him shall
not be ashamed." This applies to Gentile as well as Jew, to all that call upon
Him. And then the second scripture from Joel 2:32 is quoted, which brings out
that Jesus quoted above is the new name of Jehovah after He became a man;
"Whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah, shall be saved." In the very next
verse (Acts 2:21) to where this is quoted the apostle Peter applies the name to
Jesus, the man approved of God. This latter quotation seems to answer to the
word, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the *Lord Jesus;" the former to,
"and" believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead." Jesus is the
name uniformly in scripture connected with the thought of salvation. It
signifies Jehovah the Savior.

(*Note- When the title "Lord" is without the article, as it is in Romans 9:1-33;
Romans 12:1-21; Romans 13:1-14; Romans 16:1-27, it is ordinarily Jehovah, unless
other grammatical rules so order it. The Septuagint translates it given. (See
New Translation, J.N.D., Revised Preface to 2nd Edition).)

If then it was God’s plan that the Gentiles should attain to righteousness, even
the righteousness which is of faith, and that the principle now of attaining it
was according to the Scripture, "Whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah
shall be saved;" how could they call on Him of whom they had not believed? And
how could they believe on Him of whom they had not heard? And how could they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they are sent? As it
is written, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace,
and bring glad tidings of good things" (Isaiah 52:7). It was the purpose of God
that Israel, converted themselves by the gospel, were to be the heralds of God’s
salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 52:10). But alas, the prophet has to
break out in this lamentable strain at the beginning of Isaiah 53:1-12.: Lord,
who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Israel itself had not believed the gospel. Nevertheless the great point was
established, that faith came by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But had
not the Gentiles heard? Yes, for the Scripture said, "Their sound is gone out
into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the earth;" (Psalms 19:1-14),
so Israel ought to have known that it was God’s purpose to bless the Gentiles,
seeing that the testimony of His creation power had thus gone forth. But the
apostle says, "Did not Israel know? for Moses had said, I will provoke them to
jealousy by those that are no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you"
(Deuteronomy 32:21). Isaiah also testified boldly, saying, "I was found of them
that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me;"
whilst to Israel he said, "All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a
disobedient and gainsaying people." Thus Israel clearly ought to have known from
their own scriptures about God’s purposes to bless the Gentiles, as well as
about their own rejection. Thus the present position of Israel and the Gentiles
is established from the Jews’ own scriptures. What had they to say now against
the Gentiles being blessed through the word of hearing? But then the question
rose, "Hath God cast away His people?" for they had the promises. Nay, verily,
says the apostle, for there remained to that day an election according to grace,
of which Paul himself was a sample. God hath not cast away His people whom He
foreknew, and a witness of this was given to Elijah in his day, when Israel had
apostatized from the worship of Jehovah to Baal, and when the prophet himself
interceded against them; for Jehovah then said, "I have reserved to myself
seven-thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal"; so the apostle argues,
"there is a remnant at this present time, a remnant according to the election of
grace." Be God had not cast away His people. In this chapter this question is
answered by three strong reasons. First, because an election remained, which we
have already seen; secondly, because salvation had come to the Gentiles, in
order to provoke Israel to jealousy (Romans 11:11); thirdly, because the
Redeemer would return to Zion, and would turn away ungodliness from Jacob
(Romans 11:26).

Thus Israel was dependent on the same sovereign grace for their not being
finally cast away which now received the Gentiles. But if it was of grace, then
it is not of works. It is a totally opposite principle. The present conclusion
is, Israel hath not obtained what he sought for, but the election hath obtained
it, and the rest were blinded. He quotes Isaiah to show this in regard to all
but the election (Isaiah 6:9), and also David, (Psalms 69:22-23). But then the
question comes in as to the mass that were cast off, "Have they stumbled that
they should fall altogether"? Nay, but through their offense salvation is come
to the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. Thus Israel is not cast off for
this second reason. The Jew still remains in the world, though cast out for a
time, and the remnant received into the assembly. What God is doing now is that
He is showing mercy to the Gentile, and by that dealing provoking Israel to
jealousy. The apostle’s heart enlarges as he now dwells on the future ways of
God in regard to His earthly people: he says, if their fall is the riches of the
world, how much more their fullness! If the casting away of them be the
reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of them be, but life from the
dead! The apostle here bursts out with fervent desire in regard to his brethren
after the flesh. He seems to have the history of Joseph before him, who after
having been rejected of his brethren, and put into the pit and the prison, was
exalted to the throne of the world, next to Pharaoh. His advent was the riches
of the world, during the seven years of plenty; and then on the return of his
brethren to him in repentance in the years of famine, it was like life from the
dead! So will it be when Israel is finally restored. The apostle now gives a
lovely sketch of the ways of God from Abraham downwards, to illustrate his
previous arguments. To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed, but if
the first-fruit was holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are
the branches. The Jewish branches were taken off, some of them, and the Gentiles
being a wild olive tree were graffed in. Boast not against the branches. For
unbelief the Jewish branches were broken off, and you Gentiles stand by faith.
Be not high-minded, but fear For if God spared not the natural branches, 1:e.,
Israel, take heed that He spare not thee, Gentiles! The goodness and severity of
God is thus manifested; to them that fell, severity, but to you Gentile,
goodness, if you continue in His goodness; otherwise you also shall be cut off.
And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in again,
for God is able to graff them in again If the Gentile was cut out of the olive
tree, which is wild by nature, and was graffed contrary to nature into a good
olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed
into their own olive tree! And now he finally unveils the purpose of God, to the
intent that the saints might not be wise in their own conceits, that blindness
in part had happened to Israel, till the fullness of the Gentiles had come in,
and so all Israel should be saved, as it is written, "there shall come out of
Zion a Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my
covenant with them when I shall take away their sins" (Isaiah 59:20). Thus God
is true to His promises. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Israel is still beloved for the fathers’ sakes, and will finally be graffed in
again to their own olive tree. The Gentiles could only claim the ground they now
occupy through mercy. Israel will finally get the blessing on the same ground.
They originally had the promises! God will assuredly fulfill His promises to
them. He hath not cast away His people!

Thus we have had a beautiful summing up of the ways of God-Israel first growing
out of the original stock of promise; on account of unbelief some of the
branches broken off; the Gentiles, or wild olive tree, gaffed in; then Israel
again, on Gentile apostacy, graffed into their own olive tree. Well might the
apostle burst out in his song of praise (Romans 11:33-36), as he grasps hold on
God’s wonderful ways. An important truth comes out here, as shown in these
chapters, that the Gentiles stand as a dispensation solely on the ground of
sovereign mercy on God’s side, and the righteousness which is by faith. This was
the wonderful truth recovered at the Reformation! To forsake this ground then,
as they are doing, is to forsake their own mercy. To go to the law, which never
belonged to them, is to destroy themselves! They stand by faith Oh the blindness
of the Gentile profession! The Gentiles therefore will be cut off, and Israel
finally graffed in again. The olive tree is simply a beautiful symbol of the
line of promise running down from Abraham to the second coming of Christ. But it
is promise, the only standing of the Gentiles is "by faith;" if they depart from
this they will be cut off. The reader will observe that Romans 11:1-36. to
Romans 11:26 refers entirely to God’s ways with Israel, and the Gentiles. It has
nothing to do with the position of the body of Christ, or the Assembly, as such.
It is wholly a profession of faith in both cases. Israel failing through
unbelief, the Gentiles standing by faith. The principle is the same in John
15:1-7. It is not union with Christ, which is by the Holy Ghost, (see 1
Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 12:13,) though it may go so far
as a profession of unity! The vine is a unity, so is the olive tree. But in both
cases branches can be taken away, which in the vital unity of Christ’s one body
is impossible. You cannot cut off a member of the body of Christ Union with
Christ is more than faith, which is always connected with life in Scripture!
(See John 1:12; John 3:16; John 3:36; John 3:24, etc.) Life is given to sinners!
The Holy Ghost seals believers! (Ephesians 1:13; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Galatians
4:6.) Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things! Let us recapitulate a
little! This is true, as a summary of the doctrine of Rom 1:-8., concerning
ourselves individually! It is also true concerning the ways of God
dispensational towards Israel and the Gentiles in Rom 9:-11. God is the source
of our individual salvation, Christ is the workman, and the result is that by
the power of the Holy Ghost we are finally brought to God, body as well as soul.
So also in Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21; Romans 11:1-36, God is sovereign in
calling and finally blessing Israel and the nations. Thus in Romans 9:1-33. we
have Israel as God’s chosen nation traced down from Abraham, then God’s
sovereignty working through Christ, and letting the Gentiles in; they standing
on the around of the righteousness by faith, Romans 10:1-21., and in Romans
11:1-36. Israel finally graffed into their own olive tree. Thus God’s promises
will be all fulfilled, and Israel with all the nations will finally be blessed
and brought to God at the return of the.. Lord from heaven. The unbelieving mass
alone will be cast out, whether Jew or whether Gentile! Well might indeed the
apostle burst out in the magnificent strain he does at the end of our chapter!

Thus Part 3, is ended. Paul ends by applying the truth already brought out to
practice.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: 01.10.     ROMANS 12-16
========================================================================

Romans 12:1-21; Romans 13:1-14; Romans 14:1-23; Romans 15:1-33; Romans 16:1-27

Romans 12:1-21. is founded on the doctrine of Romans 1:1-32; Romans 2:1-29;
Romans 3:1-31; Romans 4:1-25; Romans 5:1-21; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 7:1-25;
Romans 8:1-39. The believers at Rome are thus described as having obeyed the
form of doctrine delivered unto them. They had been justified and saved in
Christ on the ground of His death and resurrection, and by faith in Him. All was
on the ground of pure mercy and grace as we have just seen in Romans 11:31. The
Gentiles who once disbelieved had obtained mercy through Israel’s unbelief; so
now, Israel had disbelieved in the mercy extended to the Gentile that they also
might obtain mercy, 1:e., might come in at the end, on the ground of pure
sovereign mercy, after having utterly failed in their responsibility, and
rejected the promises. Now in this practical part of the Epistle he applies all
this compassion of God shown to objects who had utterly failed in their
responsibility, and yet had been picked up and saved and made objects of God’s
mercy, as a motive to entire devotedness to Him.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the tender mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service. What different morality to that under law! Under it, man in
the flesh had to obey given commands, and so give a righteousness to God; here
the flesh is given up! I am laid on the altar of God, and my body is presented
on the ground of the death and resurrection of Christ a living sacrifice, set
apart, acceptable to God, which is our intelligent service. It is as we bear
about in the body the dying or putting to death of the Lord Jesus that the life
of Jesus will be manifested in our bodies. The ministry of righteousness has
written Christ on our hearts, and it is as the death has power over the old
nature that the life will manifest itself. We are called to be imitators of that
devoted One who offered Himself to God for a sweet smelling savor. We are
associated with Christ dead and risen; let our walk be worthy of this position
and flowing from it! This is Christian morality! But if I am dead and risen,
what have I got to do with the world? I am out of it, just as Israel after
having crossed the Red Sea was out of Egypt! What have I to do with Egypt’s
fashions, Egypt’s clothes, Egypt’s flesh pots! Conformity to the world * is a
shame for a Christian! It is linked with the flesh, on which the ministry of the
Spirit writes death! But if I let that Spirit work, I am transformed by the
renewing of my mind; and the power to do this, is to have the heart occupied
with Christ in glory, (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). In that way I learn now what
good and evil is; it is by a new rule, even by Christ in glory! I prove daily
what the will of God is! Thus the body presented a living sacrifice to God,
nonconformity to the world, and being transformed by the renewing of the mind
fill up the Christian morality of this passage.

(*NOTE.-With Israel in the flesh there was no world, except the nations outside,
with whom they were forbidden to have intercourse. Godly or ungodly were all
mixed up together, and there was no separation! But Christians are in a Christ
outside the world altogether. Alas, how Christendom has lost this truth!) When
we are thus devoted to the Lord we find ourselves amongst a new set of people,
unknown before but now known to us. They are members of the body of Christ. Are
we to seek high things for ourselves here, like we did when in the world? No,
just the contrary. We are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to
think, but soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of
faith! We are to find out each our place in the body and to fill; it up to God’s
glory.

Romans 12:4. The truth of the Assembly being the body of Christ, is here brought
in to show the relative bearing of Christians one to another. All members have
not the same office. Thus we being many are one body in Christ, and every one
members one of another. The members of our bodies, though many, do not interfere
one with another; so is it in the assembly of God!; There are different gifts;
whether prophecy, or service, or teaching, or exhortation, or giving, on ruling,
let each one use his gift according to his faith in responsibility to the Head
alone. Here, perfect liberty of ministry is brought out. There is no mention
here of man’s interference and man’s ordination. Every one if he has a gift is
responsible to the Lord alone to use it. This is not the license of the flesh
but the liberty of the Spirit. Notice also, these gifts flow out from one body,
not from many bodies. We being many are one body in Christ, and every one
members one of another.

Exhortations follow which enter into the minutest concerns of daily life. Let
love be without hypocrisy, let not shyness, conventional usages, or selfishness
hinder me showing it. Abhorring evil, and cleaving to that which is good, be
kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. In honor each one taking
the lead to pay it to the other. As to diligent zealousness, not slothful, in
spirit fervent, serving the Lord. As regarded hope, rejoicing; as regarded
tribulation enduring, persevering in prayer. Is a saint in need? help him. Is a
saint or even a stranger passing by the road? open thy house to him. Are you
persecuted? bless them that curse you; do any rejoice? rejoice with them; do any
weep? weep with them. In respect to one another, think the same thing, not
thinking high things, but going along with the lowly. Not wise in our own eyes,
recompensing to no man evil for evil; providing things honest in the sight of
all men. Everything is summed up in the little verse, "Be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good." If I am insulted, trampled upon, spitted upon like
the Lord, what matters it? He gives His power. When He was reviled, He reviled
not again, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. He overcame
evil with good in His life; He overcame it in death and rose conqueror over it
all. Having been made conquerors through His victorious life, let us be
followers of Him Subjection to the higher powers, owing nothing to any but to
love one another, and watchfulness in the anticipation of our full salvation,
fill up Romans 8:1-39. Let every soul be subject to the authorities that are
above him. There is no authority except from God, and those that exist are set
up by God; rulers and magistrates are the ministers of God in temporal matters
for good. If I resist them I resist the ordinance of God.

Second, owe no man anything unless it be to love one another. He that loveth
another has fulfilled the law. All the commandments mentioned are summed up in
the word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Love therefore is the
fulfilling of the law; it is the character of the new nature; it fulfills it by
the power of the Spirit without being under it. It is literally the fullness of
it.

Third, and now, knowing the time, it was high time to awake out of sleep, for
now is our salvation (that of the body when the Lord comes), nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Paul exhibits himself here
as the servant waking up God’s household in view of the coming of the Lord;
"Wake up," put off your night clothes, put on your day clothes, the Lord is
coming. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to
fulfill the lusts thereof. Practical Christian life shows itself in. starving
the flesh, and putting on more of Christ every day.

One more thing remained, and that was a matter of minor differences between Jews
and Gentiles. There were questions of meats and observing days, which brought
out the need of forbearance one with another (Romans 14:1-23). The Jews coming
out of Judaism had especially difficulties about these matters. Those who saw
their liberty are exhorted to forbearance, and to receive the weak brother. Who
were they to judge another man’s servant? to his own master be stood or fell.
Jesus was their Lord.

If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord, living and
dying, we are the Lord’s. To this end Christ died and rose again that He might
rule over dead and living. Why dost thou then judge thy brother? for we shall
all be placed before the judgment seat of Christ. Everyone there would have to
give an account of himself to God. This is applied wholly here to those
questions that might arise amongst brethren. The judgment of the dead wicked
will not take place till one thousand years after this. (See Revelation
20:1-15). The great thing, instead of judging, was not to be a stumbling-block
or occasion of falling to my brother. If my brother is offended with my meat, I
give it up rather than stumble him. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom
Christ died. We are not to let our good be evil spoken of. The kingdom of God
was not meat or drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
The great thing was to follow after the things that made for peace, and that
edified one another. It is not right to eat meat or drink wine nor anything
whereby my brother is stumbled or made weak. If I have faith, have it to myself
before God. Blessed is he that does not judge himself in what he allows. But he
that doubts is condemned if he eat, because it is not of faith, but whatever is
not of faith is sin.

If I am strong, and through this see my liberty in such matters, yet I am to
bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please myself. We should seek to
please our neighbor for his edification by the example of Christ, who in
pleasing His Father brought Himself under the reproach of them that reproached
God. (Comp. Psalms 69:9, with John 2:17.) A quotation of the Scriptures is here
brought in, and it is connected with the God of the Scriptures, who wrote
everything for our learning, that we through endurance and the comfort of the
Scriptures might have hope. And then God is shown to be the God of patience or
endurance, and consolation. Might He cause the saints to be like-minded
according to Christ Jesus, that we may with one accord and one month glorify the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this spirit of forbearance the
Christians were to receive one another, even the weakest, as Christ also
received them to the glory of God. The general subject of the Epistle here
closes. The apostle just gives a summing up of what he had said before as to the
ministry of Jesus Christ. He was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of
God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. (Comp. Acts 13:32-35.) The
Gentiles only had a part through mercy, and through Israel, (see Psalms 18:49;
Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalms 117:1; Isaiah 9:1-10.) The apostle looks on here to
the millennial day, and prays that the God of hope might fill the believers with
all joy and peace in believing, that they might abound in hope through., the
power of the Holy Ghost! Beautiful connection between the God of hope and the
coming scene of blessing into which believers are to be introduced. From Romans
15:14-21 he excuses his writing to them by setting before them his own ministry.
God had called him by His grace to be the minister of Jesus Christ to the
Gentiles. He likens Himself, in Romans 15:16, to a priest offering up the
Gentiles to God through the gospel service as an accepted offering, being
sanctified by the Holy Spirit. This was his special service, as Peter’s was to
the Jews, as we have already seen, and distinctly marking off the heavenly
character of the present dispensation from all preceding, even from the ministry
of Jesus Christ whilst He was on earth, which was in connection with confirming
the promises made to the fathers, as we have seen. Thus a heavenly people are
being called out to have their part in the future scene, besides the earthly
blessing coming to Jew and Gentile mentioned in Romans 15:8-12. In connection
with this ministry to the Gentiles he speaks of his work (Romans 15:17-22), and
then speaks of his coming to them at Rome. But in the meanwhile he was going up
to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. There had been a contribution made for
them by the Gentile assemblies. When therefore he had performed this ministry he
would come to them by God’s will, and in connection with this visit to Jerusalem
he prays to be delivered from the unbelievers in Judæa, ending up with the
salutation, "Now the God of peace be with you." He is the God of patience and
consolations, if there are difficulties betwixt brethren (Romans 5:5). He is the
God of hope when a coming Christ, and the future blessing of Jew and Gentile are
looked for (Romans 15:13); and the God of peace when he looks for turmoil and
trouble in Judæa. (Romans 15:33).

Salutations to various saints, and exhortations to beware of those who cause
divisions, close the Epistle. A blessed ending! We are introduced into the
family circle, and shown God’s delight in His people. The earthly kings of
Israel and Judah had chronicles written of them. God writes chronicles of His
heavenly saints. Every one of their characters and deeds is written in heaven.
The sisters are especially mentioned here. They all have their sphere of
services for the Lord. They may be servants of the assembly, (like Phoebe,)
succorers of many; helpers in Christ Jesus like Priscilla, who with her husband
Aquila, were the first with whom the apostle sojourned in Corinth. These were
willing to lay down their necks for the apostle, for whom the whole assembly
gave thanks. The assembly apparently met in their house (Romans 16:5). Others
also bestowed much labor on these servants of the Lord, labored much in the Lord
like the beloved Persia. Nothing is too little to be put down. Epænetus was the
first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ. Amplias is his well beloved in the Lord.
Apelles is approved in Christ. What a bond! The little words, "in the Lord," "in
Christ," are mentioned ten times in Romans 16:1-16. They speak of unity! Of Him
in whom the saints find their common place above. They speak of the ground of
all their union and blessing. Christ is in them all; they are in Christ The
world has no part in this holy circle. They are outside it all, they are "in
Christ.” But if they are "in Christ," and thus separated, men causing trouble
may still come in. He exhorted the saints to beware of those causing divisions
and contention, contrary to the doctrine they have learned, and to avoid them.
By such strange doctrines parties would be formed, and the doctrine was to be
the test. The saints were expected to prove that doctrine, and thus to be able
to test the teachers by it. What is it, my reader, as set forth in this blessed
Epistle?

First (Romans 1:18; Romans 3:20), The necessity for the gospel is brought out,
man, whether Gentile or Jew, being looked at as guilty and under sentence of
death for his sins, with no righteousness for God, and God as a Judge going to
judge him.

Second (Romans 3:20; Romans 8:1-39.), God is revealed in His righteousness and
love, as Justifier, Reconciler and Deliverer through Jesus and His blood. First
(up to Romans 5:12), justifying the believer from his sins, and reconciling him
to Himself. Second (from Romans 5:12; Romans 8:1-39), delivering from the power
of sin, (man being looked at in this part as a slave of sin by birth) and giving
him a new standing in justification of life in Christ before Him, in a life to
which no condemnation can be attached, and from which there can be no
separation. The Holy Ghost seals faith in the death and resurrection of Christ
for justification and peace in Romans 5:5, and deliverance and a new standing in
Christ in Romans 8:2-9. Third (Rom 9:-11.), Israel as a nation had the place of
privilege and the promises, but they failed in responsibility, and were now for
a time set aside, the Gentiles taking their place on the ground of sovereign
grace, and the righteousness which is by faith; but to be finally restored on
the ground of sovereign mercy at the second coming of the Lord from heaven.

Fourthly, the mercies of God are now applied to the believer’s walk. On the
ground of his place in Christ dead and risen, his body is to be presented to God
a living sacrifice. The world left behind, he is not to be conformed to, but
Christ being his present object, he is to be transformed by the renewing of his
mind. He has got a new corporate place, too, outside the world, as a member of
the body of Christ, and he is to realize his place in it, and act it out as in
relationship with Christ and all the members of His body. He is to be subject to
the powers that be, owing no man anything but love, watching for the coming of
the Lord; tender to and ready to receive his weak brethren, and respecting their
consciences, in view of the judgment seat of Christ. Such in short summary is
the doctrine of the Epistle.

If teachers as tested by this doctrine did not bring it they were to be avoided,
as causing division. They might belong to the saints themselves, and even arise
amongst the elders (see Acts 20:30). They were to be avoided. No office or gift
was to hinder the saints in carrying out this rule. A great mark would be, they
serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. In the midst of divisions
the saints are thrown upon the God of peace. He will bruise Satan, the author of
divisions, under their feet shortly. Different salutations ensue which close the
Epistle. A little appendix is added in which the mystery of the assembly is
alluded to (Ephesians 3:3-11; Ephesians 5:32; Colossians 1:26-28; Colossians
2:2). The apostle desires the establishment of the saints, first, according to
his gospel; second, according to the mystery. The general subject of the Epistle
has been to individuals. Their corporate relationships have hardly been touched.
These are however founded on the truths brought out in this Epistle. The
doctrine of the assembly is fully brought out in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
The mystery had been hid up to this time, but was now made manifest in the
prophetic scriptures. Up to Christ God had been dealing with man, or with a
nation called out from the other nations, but still, good and evil all mixed up
together, and separated from the Gentiles by their legal system.

Now the gospel went out to Jew and Gentile alike, and those who received it were
saved out of the world and out of Judaism, and united to Christ in heaven by the
Holy Spirit, in which unity they formed one body, to be manifested in this world
as such; such was the mystery that was unknown in the Old Testament times. It
was now revealed, and all nations were required to obey; God was to have all the
glory.

Now to Him that is able to stablish you according to my gospel, says the
apostle; (this is the first thing); then, secondly, according to the revelation
of the mystery which was kept secret before the world began, but now is made
manifest, and by the prophetic scriptures, according to the commandment of the
everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith; to God
only wise be glory through Christ Jesus forever. Amen. May the reader be led on
to see the beauties of this mystery, and to learn all the spiritual blessings in
heavenly places he has in Christ.

A.P. Cecil

Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Most likely this text has not been
proofread. Any suggestions for spelling or punctuation corrections would be
warmly received. Please email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: S.   GIVING.
========================================================================

Giving. The great characteristic of the present dispensation is that God is
revealed as a Giver. In its season during the legal dispensation, that is from
Moses to Christ, He made certain requirements on man; for man had been created a
responsible being, put into relation with His Creator as a creature, and under
obligation to Him. The law was the perfect measure of those obligations due from
the creature to His Creator. But addressed as it was to man already fallen under
the power of sin, it could only bring out his infinite distance from God. And
just as every standard puts to the test all things that are put under it, so the
true use of the law was a test to bring to man’s conscience his guilt, and to
give him the knowledge of his sinful state by nature. In this way it was a most
useful schoolmaster to the Jew who would learn its lessons. Shutting him up to
death under its demands and putting him under the curse, it would show him that
the only way of deliverance and pardon was through the promised Messiah. In due
time the Messiah came, and the change in God’s dealings with man was most
sweetly brought out in the Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus the Jew in John
3:16, and with the Samaritan woman in John 4:10. These were the words, "God so
loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish but have eternal life," and again, "if thou knewest the
gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest
have asked of him and he would have given thee living water." God was now
revealed as a Giver, giving His Son; the blessed and only way by which poor
guilty man, born in sin and lost, could have his sins met and answered for; the
only way by which he could be delivered from his state of sin, and set in a
place where he could really please and glorify God. And since the Gentile born
in sin (yet having the light of creation and conscience as his rule), and the
Jew (having the law as his perfect standard), have both been proved on that
ground utterly lost, and shut up to death, so now Christ having been revealed to
the whole world as the gift of God, both Gentiles and Jews are shut up to Him as
the only way of salvation. In scripture, we have in various places, God figured
in relation to His creature as a creditor, and the sinner His debtor. (See Luke
7:41; Matthew 18:23-24.) In Luke 16:1-31 : we have man in relation to God, set
before us as an unjust steward, who has wasted his Master’s goods, who has
already had to give an account of his stewardship, and received the sentence
that he can be no longer steward.

Everything was committed to him, intrusted to his charge in the garden of Eden.
Adam had dominion over the earth, and all its treasures, but alas! the one thing
that God kept to Himself, as it were in His secret treasure box, man broke open
and stole, and he has forfeited in consequence his own life, and all the
treasures of the earth. His history since has been the misappropriation of his
Lord’s goods to his own use. Now, all this brings out that man is in debt to
God, and not only that; he is a thief and unfaithful steward that has
misappropriated his master’s goods. But behold the giving God as displayed in
the gospel! He has given His Son; His Son has paid the debts of every repentant
sinner in His blood; not only that He has repurchased the earth and its
treasuries, and though rejected now, will finally return again to take it in
power, reigning over it in partnership with His fellow-heirs, to whom in the
meanwhile He has given as their own superior portion the glory of heaven. Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. And now my reader, before I go on, one
word to you. Have you taken the place of the happy receiver? Have you, like the
poor woman in Luke 7:1-50 :, owing your Lord the five hundred pence, taken your
place at His feet, saying, Nothing to pay, yet owning your debt and your guilt?
If so, behold His wounded hands and side pierced on the cross for you; there. He
bore your sins, there He paid the debt, and the consequence is, that on the
righteous basis of His blood having been presented to God, free forgiveness
comes to you from your creditor. He frankly forgives or remits your debt.

Christ was the grand exhibition of the giving God. He who was rich for our sakes
became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. (2 Corinthians
8:1-24 :) He emptied all His heavenly riches into our penniless stores, to pay
our debts, yet of such worth was He, that all who believe in Him are lifted out
of their abject poverty, and put into connection with Himself in His present
rich place in heaven.

[*We never read of the blessed Lord asking for money, or for anything but a
glass of water from a poor sinner. He trusted His Father’s love and care too
well for that; and as if to teach His dear dependent ones a useful lesson in
this way, when at the very beginning of His life of service He was tested by
Satan, He refused to turn stones into bread, saying, "Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
(Matthew 4:1-25.)] May the Lord open my readers’ eyes to understand about God in
His wondrous grace. Surely to do this is the foundation and source of all
giving. I shall never understand the principle of giving till I understand the
grace of God in His ways of giving salvation to me. Then having received all
from His hands, having had all my sins answered for and blotted out, and having
been put into connection with the infinite worth of His blessed Son’s person who
is in the glory, my state as a child of Adam is ended at the cross. I have
eternal life now in the Son, and am able to go forth like the giving God to give
to others; I see Him as my pattern and example, as shown in Christ, both as a
giver and dependent one; and I am privileged to go forth and empty into the
penniless stores of others what God has given me, either as Creator or Redeemer.

Giving to the world. — Now giving has as its object two classes of people:
namely, the world and the church. To the former, the dealing of God is that of
pure grace, asking nothing, requiring nothing. To the latter, being under His
government, there are more or less conditions attached. We shall see this
brought out as we look at the various scriptures that bear on the subject. In
Matthew 5:1-48 the Lord says, that whereas it was said in old time, An eye for
an eve, and a tooth for a tooth; I say unto thee, that ye resist not evil. Give
to him that asketh of thee, and to him that would borrow of thee turn not thou
away. I am not to ask questions if the recipient is worthy, neither surely am I
to give the amount that he asks, but to give, for God gives. The people brought
their sick to the Lord: the Lord having power and grace healed them, requiring
nothing, asking nothing. Many were utterly unworthy objects; yet He was the
exhibition of the giving God, and He gave freely. So again the Lord says, that
whereas it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy, I say
unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye
may be (in character) the children of your Father which is in heaven, for He
maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust. He makes no difference in these respects in His favours. The
evil despise His benefits, the unjust give Him no thanks, but His sun rises, His
rain descends upon the most unworthy. So are we called to be perfect as our
Father which is in heaven is perfect. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again,
we are told, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth, (Psalms 37:21),
beautifully harmonizing with the God who is rich in mercy, who has shown us that
mercy in quickening us who were dead in our sins. (Ephesians 2:1-22 : See also
Luke 6:30-36.) Again, he that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord, and
that which he hath given will He pay him again. (Proverbs 19:17.)

Giving to the saints. — But there is something even more precious than giving to
the poor of this world, in the eyes of the Lord, and that is expressed in the
words, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me. (Matthew 25:40.) And again, The poor ye have always
with you, but me ye have not always. (John 12:8.) This latter passage no doubt
refers to the Lord Himself, but when linked on with other passages which show
that His people are seen as Himself, it becomes a principle of much value to us
as to giving. In giving to the least of the saints, I am giving to Christ
Himself, and He was the real poor man, still poor as exhibited in His saints. A
principle of great value comes out, in regard to the way of using the means the
Lord has given us, in Luke 16:1-31 : There man, as I have shown before, is
looked at as having utterly failed in his stewardship, and as having received
the sentence that he should be no longer steward. The unjust steward of the
parable then says, "What shall I do, for my lord taketh away my stewardship? I
cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put
out of my stewardship, they may receive me into their houses." And so what does
he do? Between the time of the sentence and the execution of it, in making up
his lord’s accounts, he makes friends with the lord’s debtors; he so uses his
lord’s money that, when he is put out of his lord’s house, these friendly
debtors may receive him into their houses. And so man has been found unfaithful
in his stewardship; he has lost his place on the earth (Israel had that place
specially in the land of Canaan). Now the question is how to make the best use
of the unrighteous mammon, so as to be received into heavenly habitations. Now I
believe the debtors signify the Lord’s people, all of whom are more or less in
debt to Him: how many actually in their money affairs! The wise way of using my
money, the unrighteous mammon, is so to make friends with it, that they might be
my welcomers into the everlasting habitations in the glory. (See Luke 16:1-12.)
But I think in reference to helping the Lord’s saints, that there is a
difference between them and the world. For instance, the Lord in paying down His
life’s blood on the cross for our sins, only paid the debts of those who in due
time repent of their sins, and believe on Him for salvation. So in helping God’s
saints who have got into actual debt through their folly, I believe the way is
not to help them without sincere repentance on their part, and a resolve to walk
in the ways of the word in regard to those things, which says, Owe no man
anything, but to love one another. (Romans 13:8.) If I help a saint, for
instance, encouraging him thereby to set up in business without capital to carry
it out; I am only encouraging him in a path of dishonour to the Lord, in which
the Lord can by no means go with me. Under the government of God I believe the
principle is true as set forth in Psalms 37:25 : "I have been young and now am
old, and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their
bread." God has promised food and raiment to His children (Matthew 6:24-34),
with the caution, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. The words, "Are ye not much better
than the fowls? How much more shall he not clothe you, oh ye of little faith?"
come in with unmistakable truth to faith wherever it is. Again, Your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. See also Luke 12:22-31.
Again, Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such
things as you have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,
so that we can boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can
do unto me. (Hebrews 13:5-6.) All these sure promises ought to give confidence
to the saints in the care of the Father, and prevent then from ever getting into
debt, like other men. And indeed how can I give to others if I am in debt
myself? I am then giving what is not my own, a terribly solemn thing when it is
professedly done in the name of the Lord: I am taking what ought to be in
another man’s pocket, and giving it to the Lord. Is not this hypocrisy? But
lastly the question comes in, How much are we to give to the Lord? Now, dear
reader, this question would never come in, if you understood that you and all
yours are entirely bought for the Lord. Israel’s men, women, and children, and
cattle, were all for Jehovah. All had to come out of Egypt. Moses would not hear
of the compromise, that the men were to come out of Egypt, and the wives,
children, and cattle to be left behind. Not a jot or tittle was to be left in
Egypt or to be lavished on Egyptians. All was for Jehovah, and for the support
of their families and other Israelites through the wilderness, but for nothing
more. And so in a much higher sense all that the Christian possesses is the
Lord’s. The Lord says as to the principle of it in Luke 12:33, Sell that ye have
and give alms; provide yourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the
heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
On the day of Pentecost all was given up, and laid down at the apostles’ feet,
to be distributed equally amongst all. Truly this did not go on in the later
times of the church. But the principle surely remains, and so in 1 Timothy
6:1-21 : the rich are exhorted to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to
distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good
foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life. And
such principles as are shown in 2 Corinthians 9:8-11, and Ephesians 4:28, would
surely be a check to saints who seek to get rich, as showing that the only
purpose of labouring, and getting the blessings of God on it should be for the
purpose of being an increased blessing to others, to abound in every good work,
to have to give to him that needeth. As to usury, it was absolutely forbidden
between Jewish brethren: to the stranger they might lend on interest, but not to
their brethren. If they took a pledge it was to be restored before evening, lest
their poor brother should cry to God and He would hear him for He was gracious.
Dreadful is it to hear of brethren who boast of their high standing and
privileges in a heavenly Christ, yet lowering themselves below the level of the
righteous Jew in their walk, leading their poor brethren into sin, in the matter
of buying farms or land, which they cannot pay for, and then exacting interest,
notes, and all kinds of things afterwards, for the payment of it, thus becoming
their oppressors. May the Lord lead His beloved saints to consider His
principles in giving, and to abound individually in every good work! In looking
over then what has been said on the matter, we have found that the great source
and motive power of giving is in the revelation of God Himself in the gospel. He
is the Giver. He has given His Son. His Son has been to the cross, and paid the
debt of every repentant and believing sinner; He has gone up to glory, as the
accepted man, and by the communication of His own Spirit of life, believers are
now connected with Himself in that place. Christ thus becomes the great pattern
and example of giving, and, the believer having been set in connection with Him
in glory by the Holy Ghost come down, he is sent forth to exhibit Him in this
world, and in principle to give up himself and all he has for the good of
others. Then we have seen that giving has a two-fold sphere of action, namely,
towards the world, and towards the church. Towards the world, the attitude is to
give as the Father gives: He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good;
He sends His rain on the just and on the unjust. Towards the saints, we have a
special relation in regard to giving, they are members of the household of
faith, and are one with Christ by the Holy Ghost. In giving to them, we do it
unto Him. But here we are brought into the sphere of the direct government of
the Lord; who never even at the beginning, in regard to His own, paid the debts
of any but repentant sinners. Consequently, in giving to the saints, we are to
act wisely towards them for their good, so helping the Lord’s debtors as that we
may be received into everlasting habitations. The Father has conditions Himself
of helping His children, and we are to be imitators of Him.

Lastly, I would allude to the principles of assembly giving. God, besides having
saved believers by His Son’s blood, and set them individually in connection with
Him, has set up an assembly in this world. It was formed consequent on the
rejection of Messiah by Israel at the cross, by His exaltation to heaven, as
man, and the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Saved by the
cross, and connected individually with Christ raised from the dead, believers
were on that day united to the glorified man by the Holy Ghost come down,
baptised into one body, and builded together to be God’s habitation by the
Spirit.

Believers were thus formed on earth into a distinct assembly, separated from Jew
and Gentile. They gave up everything; no one accounted anything that he had as
his own. All was laid at the apostles’ feet, and served for the common need of
all. (Acts 2:41; Acts 2:45.) There was a daily ministration of the proceeds. In
due time murmurings arose amongst the disciples, the Greek proselytes supposing
that the Jews were more favoured in the administration. The apostles also found
that the temporal care of the saints interfered with their primary work of
preaching the gospel. Consequently seven men of honest report were chosen by the
multitude, whom the apostles might appoint over this business, whilst they
devoted themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The seven having
been chosen, the apostles laid their hands on them, and they were appointed to
look after the need of the poor saints. (Acts 6:1-7.) Afterwards we see the
local office reproduced amongst the Gentile churches in the deacons (see 1
Timothy 3:1-16 :), who had to have certain qualifications as to their character,
to be set apart for the office. We see then by this that God has appointed a way
for looking after His poor in the various local assemblies gathered to Christ’s
name. The money is put into the hands of these responsible qualified men, and it
is their business to care for the need of the poor saints at each assembly. So
far then as to the order of the church set up at first, everything was simple.
Each assembly had its local officers chosen by the assembly, and appointed by
apostles. And thus the poor saints were looked after. Now the assembly is
scattered in various sects and denominations, and only a few are gathered back
to the name of the Lord Jesus on the original ground of the church of God.
Perhaps in such an assembly there is not a single man with the necessary
qualifications in it for such an office. What are the saints to do? Moreover,
there are no apostles to lay hands on the men even if they were there. The first
thing to do is to confess the ruin of things and wait on the Lord; surely not to
set about appointing deacons without qualification as set forth in the word, and
without authority to appoint them. This would be to make the confusion worse,
and to hide from the gathered saints the existing ruin. The great thing now for
the saints to do is to abide strictly by the word, and to mark in their brethren
the qualifications necessary for that place, and if there thankfully to own it.
For instance, a deacon must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much
wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience; and such were first to be proved. So their wives must be grave, not
slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. The deacons were to be husbands of
one wife, ruling their children and their houses well. If the gathered brethren
discover such qualifications in their brethren, they should cheerfully and
thankfully commit the money affairs of the assembly to such; and they would
become responsible for the special need of the poor saints in that locality. So
far as to God’s order and provision for the local poor in each assembly.

Second. There may be a special need at a special time, in any given assembly,
such as there was in the apostles’ day amongst the poor saints at Jerusalem. We
have already glanced at the way by which this need was met at first. After the
great conference held at Jerusalem (as to whether the Gentiles were to be put
under the law or not) was finished, the apostle Paul settled to remember the
cause of the poor saints there amongst the Gentile churches. (Galatians 2:10.)
In 1 Corinthians 16:1-3, we see there was to be a special collection made for
the poor saints at Jerusalem. The way it was to be collected was for every saint
in each local assembly to lay by him in store as God had prospered him every
first day of the week. Then when Paul came there would be no necessity for a
special collection. The money would be all ready. In 2 Corinthians 8:1-24; 2
Corinthians 9:1-15, we find that the Macedonian assemblies had gone ahead of the
Corinthians in their collection, so much so that the apostle took occasion to
stir the Corinthian assembly up. Three great points were placed before them:

1st. Christ as the great motive power and example of giving (2 Corinthians 8:9);

2nd. the gift of the manna and the way it was collected and distributed (2
Corinthians 8:14-15);

3rd. the governmental results in blessing as to giving. (2 Corinthians 9:6-11.)

First then as to the motive. Christ who was rich, for their sakes became poor,
that they through His poverty might be made rich. Of course His example is an
illustration of how saints should give their money in the same way as Christ had
given Himself up to death to reap for them spiritual blessings in the heavenlies
in Himself. They had been set in connection with Christ by His grace, bought by
His blood. All they were and all they had were His; and now, as made rich, it
was their privilege to go forth as givers of Christ’s bounty to others, and to
supply their bodily need as their Lord had supplied their spiritual need.

Secondly, the principle and way of collecting the money is shown by the manna.
God rained down the manna for the daily supply of the whole nation. Some
Israelites gathered more and some gathered less, according to their eating.
(Exodus 16:14-18.) It was then apparently all brought together, as the money on
the day of Pentecost, and divided with an omer. (Compare Exodus 16:18 with Acts
2:44-45; Acts 4:34-35.) Those that had gathered more thus supplied the need of
those that had gathered less. So it was now the privilege of the richer
assemblies amongst the Gentiles to supply the need of their poorer brethren at
Jerusalem in this way (2 Corinthians 8:13-15), on the ground that God’s bounty
was to all. Titus was sent by the apostle to stir up the Corinthians to this
grace; also another brother, whose praise was said to be in the gospel in all
the assemblies, and who was also chosen by the assemblies to travel with the
apostle in regard to this collection. (Ver. 16-21.) Another brother was also
sent, who had been found diligent in all things. Certain men, approved also by
each assembly, seem to have gone with Paul with this bounty to Jerusalem. So
careful was the apostle that everything should be done above-board, and for the
glory of the Lord. (See 1 Corinthians 16:3; Acts 20:4; 2 Corinthians 8:1-24 :)
The governmental results of giving are shown in 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 : He that
sowed sparingly should reap also sparingly, and he that sowed bountifully should
reap also bountifully. God was able to make all grace abound towards the saints,
so that they, having all sufficiency in all things, might abound in every good
work, etc. These blessings were not given with the object of making the saints
comfortable in this world, but that they might be enriched in everything unto
all bountifulness; that they might have to give to him that needeth. (See vers.
5-11.) May the Lord greatly stir up His assemblies in this grace, giving them
opportunities of showing this grace to their brethren in other assemblies, and
in perhaps distant lands! But there is one point more in regard to assembly
giving, which cannot be passed over, and that is the care of the labourers. The
special gifts that Christ has given to the church to carry out the gospel to the
world, and to build up and feed the saints, are the evangelists, pastors and
teachers. (Ephesians 4:11-12.) Such passages as 1 Corinthians 9:1-19; Galatians
6:6-10; Php 4:10-19, bring before the saints these as special objects of the
Lord’s care. In Israel’s economy the Levite was to be specially cared for by the
people giving their tithes to him. In the Christian economy there is no stated
rule; only special principles are given to be carried out by the motive power of
the love of Christ. These servants of Christ were figured as out on a warfare,
planting a vineyard, feeding a flock. Did anyone go out on a warfare at his own
charges? Did anyone plant a vineyard and not eat the fruit of it? Did anyone
feed the flock and not drink the milk of it? Besides, as the law said, You must
not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. Those who ministered at the altar
ate of the things of the altar: so had the Lord ordained that they who preached
the gospel should live of the gospel. For though the apostle glorified in
preaching the gospel without charge, and that he might give no occasion laboured
with his own hands, yet he thus puts the need of Christ’s servants before the
saints as objects for their care. So in Galatians 6:6 : Let him that is taught
in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. In the
Philippian Epistle we have a sweet instance of how an assembly cared for the
apostle Paul from the very first. (Php 4:15.) He had hardly left before he
received at Thessalonica a love-gift to supply his need. And now they had been
helping him again when a prisoner at Rome; and he writes to them full of love
and thankfulness for their care. Epaphroditus had been their messenger to carry
the gift to the apostle, and in doing so he had apparently been sick nigh unto
death. (See Php 2:29-30.) Is not this a wonderful picture of reciprocal love
between the assemblies in the apostles’ days, and the labouring servants of the
Lord? This was no cold formal putting so much into the money-box every week for
unknown labourers, or giving so much into the ministers’ fund; but the assembly
had the need of the labourer on their heart, and their own messenger (perhaps
going naturally to Paul at the time) conveyed it. Such a thing was an odour of a
sweet smell, acceptable, well-pleasing to God. Thus we have three things
specially connected with assembly-giving:

1st. God’s provision for the local poor in each place;

2nd. the special need of poor saints in an assembly in another place;

3rd. the provision for the servants of God. May the Lord graciously use this
little paper to stir up His saints as to the principles of giving, both
individually and in the assembly! It is, I believe, greatly needed amongst the
saints at the present time. Many of God’s servants going about find that what is
eating out the very life of many assemblies is covetousness on the one hand;
then often, when God does not prosper saints in their ways of making money, and
they get into debt, they plan all sorts of schemes of getting out of it, which
are not of God. I believe the great corrective to this is to know God’s
principle of giving, which, if carried out, would correct this evil tendency;
and consequently health and blessing would flow in to the saints. It is
remarkable that the very first sin which had to be judged, after Israel entered
the land of Canaan, was the sin of covetousness. Beloved readers, saints of God,
have we considered this enough? But surely it is most significant. Covetousness,
as defined by the Lord in Luke 12:1-59, is it not this? — man laying up
"treasure for himself — and is not rich towards God." A. P. Cecil.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 14: S.   I," SINS, SIN.
========================================================================

"I," Sins, Sin.

There seems to me great confusion in many between our ever unchanging
personality, and consequent responsibility, and the sin that dwells in us, as
well as the sins we commit. Man is spirit, soul, and body (Genesis 2:7), a
responsible being. Sin was introduced into him at the fall, as a distinct thing,
an evil principle. (Genesis 3:1-24 :; Romans 5:12.) Sins were the evil fruits as
the result. Coming under the power of sin, the fleshly tendency became
predominant, and so the term flesh was stamped on his moral condition (Genesis
6:3), and as to God he became dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1.) Now
the Epistle to the Romans brings out the threefold thought distinctly. There is
the responsible man, the sins he commits, the sin that entered into him at the
fall. In Romans 1:18-22; Romans 2:1-16 we have the responsibility of the heathen
set before us, consequent on the light of creation shining upon them, and their
conscience giving the knowledge of good and evil (Romans 2:14-15): the judgment
of God is against the heathen for not walking according to that knowledge. But
God is wroth with the responsible man for his sins (sin is not responsible), and
He will judge the responsible man for his sins and rejecting His forbearance and
goodness. (Romans 2:2-6.)

Romans 2:17-29; Romans 3:1-20 take up the responsibilities of the Jew, as also
his privileges, bringing out the law as the measure of those responsibilities,
and he, the responsible Jew would be judged by the law, which, besides proving
guilty of sins, gives the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:19-20.) Man’s universal
moral character is described from head to foot (Romans 5:10-18), then the law
applied, proving guilty of sins, and giving the knowledge of sin. Thus the three
things are clearly brought out in the history of man’s responsibility. There is
himself — the responsible "I" — guilty of sins, and, if he will learn, the law
will give him the knowledge of sin. (Romans 5:19-20.)

Romans 3:21; Romans 8:1-39 : to end give the doctrine of man’s salvation from
this lost condition. He is saved from his sins, and from the power of sin. God
is revealed in three characters, answering to the three conditions man is seen
under. He is Justifier for guilty man. (Romans 3:4 :) He is Reconciler for man,
his enemy. (Romans 5:1-12.) He is Deliverer for man born in sin. (Romans 5:12;
Romans 8:1-39 : to end.)

Sins are the subject up to Romans 5:12; sin from Romans 5:12; Romans 8:1-39 : to
end. The blood of Christ is presented to God, since all have sinned; and God on
that basis displays His justice, in justifying everyone that believes in Jesus.
The sins, figured by debts in scripture, are remitted or forgiven, the man is
justified, or cleared from guilt. (Romans 3:23-26.) The sinner believing is
forgiven, his sins are covered, sin is not reckoned. (Romans 4:7-8.) All his
sins have been borne by Jesus on the cross, and therefore can never be reckoned
to him. He is cleared from all charge, and accounted righteous. (Romans 4:23-25;
Romans 5:11.) From Romans 5:12; Romans 8:1-39 : to end, man is looked at as
connected with Adam, born in sin, and God as his Deliverer — first, from the
present power of sin, as to his soul; secondly, as to his body when the Lord
comes. But here we shall see clearly the distinction between the responsible "I"
(man, composed of spirit, soul, and body), and the sin that dwells in him,
whether in his unconverted or saved state. "As by one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned."
(Romans 5:12.) Clearly this brings out, first, men; secondly, sin entering;
thirdly, all have sinned. The figure always used is that of sin, a master or
king ruling over man, and man is looked at as its slave. In Romans 5:12 sin
entered the world; Romans 5:21, sin reigned unto death; Romans 6:23, it pays
wages to its servants, men — namely, death.

Now, this is all in reference to the unquickened, to man born in sin. Man,
therefore, is sin’s slave till delivered. Romans 5:18-19 gives the ground of
deliverance; Romans 6:1-23 : gives the deliverance applied; in Christ’s death he
has died to sin, and is alive to God in a new condition. Sin therefore now has
no more dominion over him, he is no longer under the law, but under grace. He
was the servant of sin, but having obeyed the form of doctrine that was
committed to him, he has been set free. Sin is actually in him still, but he is
not to let it reign. Having now become a servant to God, he has his fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life, as to his body. (Romans 6:14-23.)

Romans 7:1-25 : shows how the law, applied to the condition of man born in sin,
could no more deliver him than it could justify him. Useful as a schoolmaster,
it could give the knowledge of sin as a distinct evil principle in the man, if
its lessons were learnt, but, instead of delivering, could only condemn. It is
figured by a husband, from which, as well as from sin, the master, the believing
sinner is delivered by the death of Christ. The law is not sin, it is holy,
just, and good; and that for two reasons — it gives the knowledge of sin, and
condemns the man to death who gives way to its first motions, and commits sins.
Man in the flesh is the evil tree, bringing forth fruit unto death, and sin is
the poisonous sap in the tree. But, except in verse 5, the figure used is always
that of a master and slave, and I do not know anywhere in scripture where sin is
figured by a tree. Man is, but not sin. So (ver. 8), sin works in the man all
manner of lust; verse 11, sin deceived, slew me; verse 13, sin by the
commandment became exceeding sinful. But in all these verses sin is seen
distinct from the man who is responsible. From verses 14–25 we have a quickened
soul, coming to the knowledge of deliverance. First, in comparing himself with
the spiritual claims of the law, he finds himself carnal, sold under sin, a
slave. But then, finding he wills to do right, he finds a distinction between
himself quickened and sin dwelling in him, but it is a matter of knowledge and
experience. Then (ver. 18) he finds he has no power over the evil, though
quickened; in the flesh dwells no good thing. The struggle goes on till he finds
himself a wretched man altogether, even though quickened; and who shall deliver
him? He looks away to God, and finds God a deliverer, giving him Christ as his
life, who has opened the way clean through death for him, and finds he is in
Christ, and no longer in Adam. For the Spirit of life of the risen and glorified
Christ communicated to him sets him free as a present thing from the law of sin
and death. Sin in the flesh is condemned on the cross, but there is no
condemnation to the man that is in Christ Jesus. Now in all these scriptures we
find man in his distinct personality, whether unconverted, quickened, or fully
delivered, but it is the man; and sin is a distinct principle inside him. It is
a question between sin, when he comes to the knowledge of it, or God as a
Deliverer through Christ, for the law, as we have seen, cannot deliver.

Man, then, ever remains in his distinct personality — first, seen in Romans 1:,
2:, 3: 20, as an object of judgment, and directly responsible to God; secondly,
Romans 3:12–viii., finding justification from his sins, reconciliation from his
enmity, deliverance from the power of sin in God through Christ, finally to be
delivered, as to his body, from the presence of sin when the Lord comes. But it
is the same person justified, reconciled, delivered, and redeemed, though
entirely newly created, and made like the Lord Jesus at the end, when He comes.
His sins, looked at as debts, are forgiven the moment he trusts in the blood of
Christ, not because he has died with Christ, but because Christ died for him.
His sin he is delivered from through his having died with Christ, and Christ
risen and glorified being God’s gift of eternal life to him. The word of God,
through the death of Christ, purifies his soul from sin, he has died to it;
besides it produces a distinct new nature in him, so that "I’’ is now distinct
from the flesh; he has two natures. Besides, by the communication of Christ
glorified to him he is set free in spirit now; the full deliverance will be
applied to his body (Romans 8:11; Romans 8:23-25) when the Lord Jesus comes. He
will then be delivered from the presence of sin. Then, thank God, there will be
the full shout, O, death, where is thy sting? O, grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be
unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear reader, I hope you are among this happy people, and I trust some dear
children of God will be cleared up in their souls, and the sense of their
responsibility too will be quickened by seeing from scripture the distinction
between "I," sin, and sins. A. P. Cecil.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: S.   SANCTIFICATION: WHAT IS IT
========================================================================

Sanctification: What is it?

Sanctification signifies literally a setting apart to God - like a vessel for
the use of God in his temple. (See 2 Timothy 2:21.) The ground of it is the
blood of Christ. (Hebrews 10:29.) The measure of it is the person of Christ. (1
Corinthians 1:30.) The power of it is the Holy Ghost. (1 Peter 1:1-2.) The
application of it is by the word of God. (John 17:17-19.) Sanctification is both
positional and practical. As to position, all believers are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus once. (Hebrews 10:10.) To all believers,
Christ is made unto them sanctification. (1 Corinthians 1:30.)

All believers have sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of
the blood of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:2.) All believers are sanctified through
the truth. (John 17:19.) All believers are sanctified through faith. (Acts
26:18.) As to practice, the apostle desires that the God of peace may sanctify
believers wholly (oloteleis); 1:e., entirely to the end. (1 Thessalonians 5:23.)
The will of God was their sanctification, which is divided into four parts 1st.
Abstaining from fornication and uncleanness.

2nd. Positive practical holiness, which is the same word as sanctification in
the original language.

3rd. Love to one another.

4th. Orderly walk, and working with their own hands. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-12.)
The Lord also prays for the believers as to practical sanctification. "Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17.) The epistle to the
Hebrews is the great epistle on sanctification. The object of the apostle in
writing the epistle was to separate or sanctify the Hebrew Christians from
everything to Christ. They were still clinging to Judaism, the Jewish religion,
which had just crucified the Lord.

Hebrews 3:1-2, shows them to be sanctified brethren in association with the Son
of God. Hebrews 8:1-13; Hebrews 9:1-28; Hebrews 10:1-39, shows them to be
sanctified worshippers in association with Christ the glorified High Priest, the
centre of worship.

Hebrews 12:1-29, they are disciplined to become partakers of the Father’s
holiness, because they were settling down in the world, and clinging to the
earthly religion.

Exhortation, Hebrews 13:13.

Let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.

If a man purge himself from these (1:e. vessels of dishonour), he shall be a
vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use. (2 Timothy 2:21.)
My reader, the first Adam and his descendants have set themselves apart to evil
and the rejection of Christ. Christ, the last Adam, set Himself apart from all
evil to God, and by His death and resurrection is now fully separated to God. Do
you belong to Adam, or to Christ? A. P. Cecil.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 16: S.   THE ADVOCATE OR THE ACCUSER: WHOSE SIDE DO YOU TAKE?
========================================================================

The Advocate or the Accuser: Whose Side do you take?

1877 326This is a practical question for Christians in these days. It is not a
question of whether we are Christians or not, though it may often test the fact.
Happily, simple faith in the Person of the Son of God and His work settles that
question. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." (Acts
16:31.) "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." (John 3:36.) "We
are justified by his blood" (Romans 5:9), as well as numberless other passages.
But the question is, as professedly saved ones, Do we take sides with the
Advocate, or with the accuser of the brethren? The advocacy of Christ is founded
on His righteous person, and His perfect work. (See 1 John 2:1-2.) His blessed
work clears us from all the guilt of our sins, and in His blessed person we have
entire deliverance from our Adam state, He Himself — the dead, risen, and
ascended One — being our righteousness before God. It is on this ground that He
intercedes, and does the work of an Advocate. If we sin (after our relationship
with the Father, as children to Himself according to the good pleasure of His
will, has been settled), then the advocacy of Christ applies. "My little
children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we
[children] have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he
is the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 2:1-2.) The office of the Advocate,
then, is not to get righteousness for us, nor to put away our sins, nor to make
us God’s children, This is all settled, in virtue of Christ’s death and
resurrection, by faith in Him. "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool; for by one offering he hath perfected
for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:12-14.) He is Advocate to
maintain us as children before the Father without sin, in face of the accuser of
the brethren. (See Revelation 12:10.) When a child of God sins, communion is
interrupted; the relationship remains, but the Father has no fellowship with the
sin of His child. The Advocate pleads against Satan who accuses. The Father
hears the pleadings of the Advocate, who thereon applies the word to our walk
(John 13:4-5), brings us to the confession of the sin, upon which the Father is
faithful to the righteous Advocate, and just to the Advocate who made
propitiation, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9.) Thus communion* is restored, and the child of God
walks in the joy and light of his Father’s countenance. Thus the Advocate is
literally the Manager of our affairs in our Father’s court, and has reference to
His government of His children in this world. It reconciles the fact of a
naughty child and of a holy Father.

[*Fellowship, or communion, means the association of two of more together,
having common thoughts and feelings together.] The Advocate does two things. He
pleads with the Father for us; He applies the word to us. The one maintains our
cause, if we sin before the Father, against the accuser; the other brings up our
practical state to our standing, which is always maintained without sin by the
righteous Advocate who has made propitiation. The failure in our practical state
is from the fact of our having the flesh still in us. Our actual state is that
of having two natures in one person. "With the mind I myself serve the law of
God, with the flesh the law of sin." (Romans 7:25.) By faith, and in Spirit, we
are no longer in the flesh, yet actually flesh is in us (though by faith we
reckon ourselves dead); hence failure when we are careless, and let flesh act.
There is no excuse, but the fact is that we do fail through unwatchfulness. Our
standing as children ever remains the same (even though we may have sinned),
owing to the righteous Advocate who has made propitiation. "If any man sin, we
have an Advocate." But we have failed in our practical state, we are defiled.
That our bodies are washed with pure water remains true (Hebrews 10:22); we have
had once the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5), we are born again (John 3:3),
we need not then to be put into the hath over again.* But we have sinned, we
have got our feet defiled in passing through this sin-defiling world. This will
not do for the Father’s presence. What does the Advocate then? He applies the
word to us, washing our feet; the world judges us, leading us to confession and
self-judgment. The remembrance of our Advocate who made propitiation brings us
back on our knees to our Father who forgives us, and cleanses us from all
unrighteousness. Thus the blessed work of the Advocate is, on the one hand, to
plead for the children before the Father, if they sin; on the other hand, to
wash their feet with the word, bringing their practical walk and state up to
their standing before Him.

[*(John 13:10.) Literally, "He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet,
but is clean every whit, and ye are clean but not all."

Satan, on the other hand, is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses them before
God day and night. (Revelation 12:10.) He is the author of divisions between the
children of God, by accusing them one to the other. (Romans 16:17-20.) He would
hire Balaam to curse the people of God, and, failing in that, he would use the
same prophet to teach Balak to mix them up with the nations around, and partake
of their sinful practices. He would excite Jehovah to try Job, speaking bad
things of him before Jehovah’s face. (Job 1:2 :) He would tempt David to sin in
numbering the people of Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1), and move Jehovah against
Israel to destroy them. (2 Samuel 24:1.) He would resist Joshua the high priest,
and seek to prevent his filthy rags being taken from him, and his being clothed
in new raiment. (Zechariah 3:1.) This is the accuser’s wretched work. Those that
follow him are called false accusers, slanderers [literally devils, because
doing the devil’s work]. He whispers in the ear of a minister’s wife (1 Timothy
3:11) a false story about some brother or sister in Christ. She spreads it
about, and so the evil spreads, which perhaps may end in an assembly being
broken up. Some aged sister sits leisurely at home (Titus 2:3), and, not having
much to do, is ready to hear stories perhaps from some worldly person about some
child of God. She spreads them about to others who come to see her. It is a
slander, a lie, and so the devil does his work; and perhaps some child of God
gets a wound, or is hindered in the work of the Lord for years.

I would solemnly ask every child of God who reads this paper, On whose side are
you working? When some slander is uttered about a child of God, do you plead for
him, go home and pray for him? If you know he has failed, do you go in love and
humility, and take the word to him, and wash his feet? (John 13:14.) This is the
blessed work of the Advocate. — Or do you listen to the story, go and spread it
lightly to some one else, without knowing whether it is a fact or not? And if
you are hurt by some brother, do you go in a pet to God, or pray in anger at him
at prayer-meetings (1 Timothy 2:8), and so accuse him. This is to do the devil’s
work. But how happy is it for us to be associated with the blessed Advocate; on
the one hand pleading for our brethren if they sin, and on the other, carrying
the word to them, and washing their feet! May the Lord grant His people
increasingly this grace, so that the saints may see their blessed privilege of
love to cover sins (Proverbs 10:12), plead for their brethren if they sin, and
act in faithfulness to them, in carrying the word to them, washing their feet,
so that they might be cleansed from the defilement; these last, overcoming the
accuser by the blood of the Lamb, on the one hand, if they sin, and, on the
other hand, openly resisting him by the word of their testimony, like the
blessed Lord Jesus Himself! He answered the devil, when tempting Him to sin, by
"It is written;" and so should we. If we sin, thank God we can always answer Him
by the blood of the Lamb, which is the balm for every wound. Thus the blood of
the Lamb and the word, the sword of the Spirit, are our instruments against the
devil down here; whilst the Advocate maintains our cause before the Father up in
heaven. Here in every case we are maintained, and are overcomers, nay, "more
than conquerors, through him that loved us." A. P. Cecil.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: S.   THE LORD'S TABLE, AND ITS PLACE IN THE CHURCH.
========================================================================

The Lord’s Table, and Its Place in the Church. The Epistle to the Romans lays
the foundation of Christianity. There, first, we see man, whether Gentile or
Jew, a guilty sinner under the judgment of God which awaits him, and God as a
justifier through Jesus and His blood; secondly, man, connected with Adam, born
in sin, and God a deliverer through the same Jesus, whom He gives as His gift of
eternal life. (Rom 1:-7 :) The fruit is that the Holy Ghost is also given to him
that believes, and Romans 8:1-39 : shows his full place as being in Christ, and
Christ in him, and the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, bearing witness with his
spirit that he is a child of God. In this position he waits for his body of
glory, and the deliverance of creation by the second coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ from heaven.

First Corinthians follows in beautiful order. The individual place of the
Christian having been settled, his corporate place in the church of God is then
seen. We have there the internal condition of an assembly of God laid before us,
and the true place the church holds in the midst of the world explained. It is
addressed to the assembly of God at Corinth, which is looked at under two
aspects, namely, the body of Christ and the temple of God. In 1Co 1:-10 :, the
church is looked at as the temple of God, and in 1Co 10:-14 : as the body of
Christ. This double portion is seen in the first few verses, where the saints
are first looked at as sanctified in Christ Jesus, and then as those who in
every place called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See 1 Corinthians
1:1-3.) The first great point in the epistle is to bring out the three great
foundations on which Christianity as a corporate thing is founded; to correct
that human wisdom which was acting amongst the saints, and creating Paul,
Apollos, and Cephas into heads of schools of opinion, and thus forming sects.
These three great foundations of corporate Christianity are, first, the cross of
Christ as the judgment of everything of man as looked at in the flesh. (See 1
Corinthians 1:18-29.) Second, Christ in glory made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, justification, and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30-31.) Third,
the Holy Ghost come down here as the Revealer and Communicator of that wisdom of
God, which was written in Spirit-taught words, namely, the scriptures. (1
Corinthians 2:6-16.) This is Christianity in its foundation-principles as
contrasted with the world’s wisdom and power. The fruit of these three great
principles that make up Christianity is seen in 1 Corinthians 3:1-23. The temple
of God is formed by Paul, the wise master-builder; God had handed over the work
of His temple to him to lay the foundation, namely, Christ Jesus, and to other
Christians as the builders to build upon it. The walls were being built of gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; and the builders were warned as to
the material with which they would build it; but the assembly or the temple was
God’s, and God the Holy Spirit dwelt in it. All this is brought in as a
corrective to the evil of divisions, which was the fruit of that human wisdom
that created great philosophers in Greece, as the heads of human opinion and
schools of thought. This leaven was working among the saints at Corinth. The
true corrective power was for the saints to see that the vineyard was God’s,
that the building was God’s, that they were the temple of God, and that God the
Holy Spirit dwelt amongst them as in a house. Paul, Apollos, and Cephas were but
labourers in the vineyard and in the temple, servants of Christ, stewards of the
mysteries of God; but the assembly was His, not theirs.

Thus we see that, Christ having been rejected of the world, it has been judged
by His cross; and God having exalted Him to His right hand in consequence of His
obedience unto death, the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven, and baptised all
believers into one body, and builded them together on earth to be His
habitation, His temple. How important, then, for the saints in these last days
to gather on these principles, to realise the judgment of the flesh, their place
in Christ where He is, and their union with Him by the Holy Ghost come down, as
members of His body, builded together as God’s temple and under God’s rule.

It is only as thus gathered that God can in any way own a remnant as His
assembly. For where the people of God are united together in any other way than
to Christ, the Head of the church in heaven, and where they submit to human
rules and ordinances, instead of the Holy Ghost, they are verily a sect; they
are not gathered as God’s assembly, and He cannot own them as such.

Now the church set up in its responsibility to God is the way in which it is
looked at in the Epistle to the Corinthians, especially in the first ten
chapters. It is looked at in chapter 3: as the temple of God, founded by Paul,
built up by christian builders, and the Holy Ghost dwelling in it. In 1
Corinthians 12:1-31 : it is the body of Christ, as we shall see further on.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13 introduces us to the assembly of God gathered together to
exercise discipline, and the Lord’s table is introduced as the place on earth
from which the evil that had got into the assembly was to be put away. (See
vers. 4, 5, and 7, 8.) Consequently the Lord’s table held a special place, as it
were, in God’s temple, that is, the then gathered assembly; just as the feast of
the passover had its place amongst the Israelites as the memorial of their
redemption out of Egypt. At that feast the lamb was slain, the blood was
sprinkled, and each household fed on the roasted lamb inside their house, under
the shelter of the blood, and at the same time put away all leaven out of their
house. So Christ, our passover, has been once sacrificed for us on Calvary’s
cross, and Christians gather to the Lord’s table, on the ground of the blood of
Christ, to remember this, and feed on the Lamb slain, which they see by faith in
the memorials spread before their eyes, having put away all evil from amongst
them, of which the leaven was the type. (See vers. 6-11.) If any Israelite ate
leavened bread, he was cut off from the congregation of Israel; so a Christian
who eats the Lord’s supper, having fallen into sin morally or doctrinally, ought
to be put away from the assembly.

Thus we see that the Lord’s table holds a most important place as the gathering
place for the assembly of God. It is the memorial of redemption from sin, Satan,
and the world, and consequently sin and untruth can have no place there. If it
enters as a public known thing, it must be judged and put away, as the leaven
was put away from the houses of the children of Israel when they kept the
passover. Thus the death of Christ holds a double place; whilst it is that which
saves and redeems us, it is at the same time that by which all evil is judged.

Thus the temple of God is kept clean; thus the assembly preserves its character
of being an unleavened lump. (Vers. 6, 7.) Formed by the exaltation of Christ to
the right hand of God on the ground of redemption, and by the descent of the
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, the assembly was a new creation outside the
world; it is called practically to walk up to its standing, by exercising
discipline and putting away manifested evil from the midst. This the assembly at
Corinth were not doing. A man had committed adultery among them; and, instead of
mourning that such a sin was there, and that it was not taken away from them,
they were puffed up, and glorying in their gifts. The apostle, therefore, writes
to them, and connecting the holy name of Christ with the assembly, and bringing
to their remembrance His power for the judgment of the evil, he forces them to
do it, not for the destruction of the man’s soul, but on the contrary for the
destruction of the flesh; the outside thing which he would not judge, that his
spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

All this brings out that God’s assembly is the place of judgment for the saints
on earth. The world is outside, and God will judge it in the day of judgment;
but the responsibility of the gathered assembly is to guard the Lord’s character
and doctrine; hence discipline must be exercised. There, also, difficult cases
amongst the saints should be settled by some wise brother or brethren; for
saints should never take their causes before the world’s law-courts. (See 1
Corinthians 6:1-3.) The world’s law-courts are the place of judgment for the
world; but the assembly of God, of which the Lord’s table is the place of
gathering, is the place of judgment for the children of God.*

[*I do not mean that all cases of judgment must be actually settled at the
Lord’s table; on the contrary, to do so would be to bring confusion into a most
sacred feast. Still it is the place where the saints gather, and the place
whence all evil is put away.]

1 Corinthians 10:14-22 brings out the more blessed place the Lord’s table holds
in connection with the communion of the saints, and the unity of the body of
Christ. It is the place where the fellowship of the saints with Christ, and His
death, and with one another, is exhibited, and that on the ground of the unity
of the body of Christ. The assembly is the body of Christ. (See chap. 11: 12,
13.) The Lord’s table is the place where that unity is exhibited by the members,
all partaking of the one loaf, the symbol of unity. (See 1 Corinthians 10:17.)
This is put in contrast with Israel, and the Gentiles, in 1 Corinthians
10:18-22. The Israelites, by partaking of the sacrifices offered on the altar of
Judaism, showed their fellowship with that system of worship. The Gentiles, by
partaking of the sacrifices offered on their altars, showed their fellowship
with that system. But they offered to demons, consequently it was fellowship
with demon worship. At the Lord’s table the Christian exhibits fellowship with
the Lord, and His altar, His death, and that as a member of the body of Christ
with the others gathered on that ground. This would show the Corinthians the
utter impossibility of mixing up fellowship at the Lord’s table with fellowship
with devil worship. Thus we see that the Lord’s table holds the very central
place in christian worship; so much so that if saints are not gathered as
members of Christ’s body to that table, there is no exhibition of the church of
God in the place. The Lord’s table is where the members of Christ are gathered
as members of one body, to show it by partaking together of the one loaf, which
is the symbol of unity, and where the authority and claims of the Lord are
owned. It is the Lord’s table. The Lord therefore invites; the assembly, as
representing Him there, receives in His name. Romans 15:7.) In 1Co 11:-15 : we
have an orderly exhibition of the assembly and its working. 1 Corinthians
11:1-16 gives the introduction to it, in showing God’s present order in His
creation, and the place the man and the woman hold in regard to it. Thus whilst
these verses go wide of the assembly, yet they bring out the place the man and
the woman hold in it. And this, too, explains why there are regulations about
the praying and prophesying of the woman with her head covered, this having
reference to her place in creation; whilst, inside the assembly, there is the
absolute prohibition, in other places, to speak when the assembly is gathered
together.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 shows plainly that the Lord’s supper is the assembly
meeting, though the apostle would not allow that the way in which they were
celebrating it was to eat the Lord’s supper. They were mixing it up with a
common meal, and making it a time of feasting, forgetting altogether its real
import. To correct this the apostle lets us into the secret of having had a
spiritual revelation from the Lord in glory in reference to the administration
of the Lord’s supper. Before leaving the world (we know, in fact, before the
Lord’s death) He instituted the feast, putting it in the place of the passover,
which was the memorial of Israel’s redemption out of Egypt. But the full
revelation of Christianity had not been brought out then. But now the Lord,
having been finally rejected by Israel as a nation, had taken a new place at the
right hand of God, so that not only was the kingdom of heaven set up in a new
form, but the assembly of God, the body of Christ, was formed. The special
revelation of this mystery was given to Paul, namely, that Jew and Gentile were
now fellow-heirs, members of one body, common partakers of God’s promise through
Christ by the gospel (Ephesians 3:1-21 :); and the Lord’s table was the place
where the truth was exhibited, as we have seen in 1 Corinthians 10:1-33 : In the
kingdom the Jew always had the first place, and the Gentile was to get the
blessing sent through him; but in the body of Christ there is no difference —
Jew and Gentile are quickened out of a state of death together with Christ, are
raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. The
cross of Christ ends the enmity; the law of commandments contained in ordinances
that kept them apart is abolished, and one new man is formed, united together on
earth by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven, and to Christ the Head in heaven.
The further revelation connected with the unity of the body of Christ did not
annul the former institution as given us in Luke by the Lord Himself. In fact we
have it renewed from the glory in almost the identical words that we have it in
Luke, only with the further light which had come in since the rejection of the
Lord. Thus the individual remembrance of the Lord, which is so precious in the
original institution, is still there. The little photograph, as it were, of our
absent Lord, as pictured in the broken bread, and poured out wine, is handed
round to each one. "Do this in remembrance of me," comes out in all its original
freshness. But, besides the original thought of the Lord’s absence, is brought
in the blessed thought of His coming. "As oft as ye eat this bread and drink
this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come." It is the gathering of the
family of God at the Lord’s supper to remember their absent Lord, to remember
His death for them, to show His death till He come. The aspect of the Lord’s
death is rather His death for us here, which seals to us all the blessings of
the New Testament, though also we show His death, which leads us on to the
judgment of the flesh. (See verses 20, 27.) In 1 Corinthians 10:1-33 : it is
fellowship with the sacrifice — we participate together as members of the body
of Christ in His death; but here it is more individual — we remember the Lord
dying for us, we show His death till He come. But this last thought, as I said,
leads us on to the judgment of the flesh, for the flesh killed the Lord; to
allow it at the Lord’s table, to eat and drink in an unworthy manner, is then to
allow that which killed the Lord, and to be guilty of His body and blood. Thus
we are led to individual self-judgment. And where there is not this in exercise,
the Lord’s hand is laid on us in chastisement, sickness or even death, to the
end that the flesh in us may be judged.

1 Corinthians 12:1-31 : brings out the truth of the presence of the Holy Ghost
in the assembly, and His workings in the several gifts He gives to men; then the
unity of the body, formed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and its working in
the members. Thus, the Lord’s supper being the great assembly meeting, we are
prepared to see there how the Holy Ghost works in the assembly, which is now
wholly viewed as the body of Christ, not using one member only (for the body is
not one member, but many), but working in the unity of the whole body which
should be there exhibited; many members, and yet but one body. Thus the
principle of one-man-ministry and many different bodies is entirely set aside.
The double principle in the order of God’s assembly, is many members, yet
working in one body. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 : shows the true character of Christ
and the Spirit, which is love, the true bond of union of the members. 1
Corinthians 14:1-40 : regulates the working of the assembly, for the Corinthians
had turned the liberty of the Spirit into license. But all through the principle
is, the reality of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the assembly, His free
workings in the members of the body which He Himself formed, and His character
love, which should mark each member. In the assembly the women were to keep
silence, for it was not permitted to them to speak.

Thus we have seen in this blessed epistle the assembly in its double aspect of
being the temple of God, and the body of Christ. In the former aspect it was the
fruit of the wisdom of God in contrast with that human wisdom which was forming
sects and parties, following leaders. It was founded on the cross of Christ
which judged the flesh, Christ Himself in the glory, God’s wisdom and the Holy
Ghost come down here as the Revealer and Communicator of that wisdom. In 1
Corinthians 5:1-13 the Lord’s table is seen as the gathering place of the
assembly on earth, a place from which all evil must be put away, as the leaven
from the houses of the Israelites when eating the passover. Thus the assembly is
the place of judgment for the saints on earth, where also amongst wise brethren
any difficulties among the saints may be settled. (1 Corinthians 6:1-20 :) In 1
Corinthians 10:1-33 : the Lord’s table is seen connected with the thought of the
assembly being the body of Christ. There the saints have communication together
over the Lord’s death. There they exhibit the unity of the body. This also
guards them from fellowship with any other false system of worship. In 1
Corinthians 11:1-34 : we see the Lord’s supper plainly shown forth to be the
assembly meeting, yet seen rather in the family aspect of the supper, the saints
there individually. remembering the Lord’s death till He come, and exercising
themselves in habitual individual self-judgment before they come there, so that
the flesh might not dishonour the Lord. The great thing to realise is that it is
the Lord’s table — the Lord’s supper. The Lord is present in Spirit, though
actually absent in body. His authority, therefore, should be owned there.
According to the word in Ephesians 4:4-5, there is one body and one Spirit, even
as ye are called in one hope of your calling, ONE Lord, one faith, one baptism.
The ground of gathering is the unity of the body, the centre of gathering is the
Lord’s person, the place of gathering on earth is the Lord’s table. Here the
Christians gather to be occupied with the Lord Himself, to break bread (Acts
20:7) in remembrance of His death, and to worship the Father through Jesus
Christ. (1 Peter 2:5.) May the Lord bless these few thoughts to the reader, that
he may be enlightened both as to the true place the church holds, and as to the
place the Lord’s table holds in connection with it. A. P. Cecil.


========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-adelbert-p-cecil/
========================================================================