Short Articles 2

“I enjoin thee before God who preserves all things in life, and Christ Jesus who witnessed before Pontius Pilate the good confession, that thou keep the commandment spotless, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in its own time the blessed and only Ruler shall shew, the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship; who only has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom [be] honour and eternal might. Amen” (1 Tim. 6: 13-16). Commentators have discussed at length the question as to which of the ‘Persons’ of the Trinity these words refer to. Those who apply the whole passage to the Son can urge that “the blessed and only Ruler” is equivalent to “our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ” in Jude v4, and that in the Revelation, the title “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19: 16) is definitely given to Him whose “name is called The Word of God” (v13). However, I would suggest that we have raised a question that may have had no place whatever in the mind of the apostle.

Not only in reading the epistles, but even in their own prayers, Christians often feel embarrassed by the ‘Persons’ of the Trinity, but no trace of similar embarrassment can be found in Scripture. Indeed, paradoxical though it may seem, the difficulty we find in interpreting this sublime doxology (and similar Scriptures) is proof that no difficulty of the kind presented itself to the mind of the apostle. For with him, “Jesus Christ” was “our great God and Saviour” (Titus 2: 13), and there was no turning away from the Son to the Father, but by a natural transition his thoughts about “our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6: 14) became merged in the thought of God.

World events have stimulated renewed interest in the subject of the Lord’s return, but to be of any spiritual benefit that interest must be accompanied by a moral effect. Things to come are not just events but are bound up with Christ personally (see 1 Thess. 1: 3; 1 Tim. 1: 1 etc.) and must, therefore, to have a profound moral and spiritual effect on the enquirer into them. When John the Baptist announced the coming kingdom, implicit in his message was the fact that Messiah was coming: “prepare ye the way of [the] Lord, make straight his paths” (Matt. 3: 3, my emphasis). This necessary preparation was moral, and so in Luke 3, John warned those who heard him preach to “Produce therefore fruits worthy of repentance” (v8), and “the crowds asked him saying, What should we do then?” (v10).

Such was the requirement demanded by God in relation to “the hope of Israel” (Acts 28: 20)—what then of “the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2: 13, 14)? Where the heavenly hope is in the heart, then “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3: 3). The one is the outcome of the other: if I have that hope in a real sense, then it must have a moral effect on me. And in proportion to how much I really hope, so will the moral change be present in me. Will an interest in prophecy by itself accomplish this? Never. Why? Because hope in Scripture is not about events but about a Person (although the events involve that Person). When John wrote, “every one that has this hope in him” (1 John 3: 3), to what hope was he referring? The hope of glory: “Beloved, now are we children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (v2, my emphasis). Now, we are children of God—that is what we are already. What we shall be is not yet clear to us, but we know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Not as He was when here, but as He is—crowned with glory and honour. Beloved, that is our hope—to be like Him! Hence Paul can write of “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col. 1: 27). Let us, therefore, live in a way now that takes account of what we shall be then!

When the Assembly came into being, the Christians were “every day, being constantly in the temple with one accord, and breaking bread in [the] house” (Acts 2: 46; see also Acts 5: 12). Some of their evangelical activity also took place in that location (see Acts 3: 1-26; 4: 1-4; 5: 20-21) such that “every day, in the temple and in the houses, they ceased not teaching and announcing the glad tidings that Jesus [was] the Christ” (v42). This is unsurprising, as the final cleavage with Judaism had not taken place. Evangelical activity also took place “in the synagogues” (Acts 9: 20; see also Acts 13: 14; 14: 1; 17: 1, 2, 10, 17; 18: 4, 19; 19: 8) in houses (see Acts 10: 33; 11: 12), and “in the school of Tyrannus” (Acts 19: 9). In Acts 4 we read of Peter and John coming “to their own [company]” (v23) and “the place in which they were assembled” (v31) shaking. We also read of an “upper chamber” (Acts 1: 13) in which the saints met to pray, of them being “all together in one place” (Acts 2: 1), and of how in “the house of Mary, the mother of John who was surnamed Mark” many “were gathered together and praying” (Acts 12: 12). Much later, in Troas, the saints were “assembled to break bread” (Acts 20: 7) in another “upper room” (v8).

Turning to today’s situation, a great deal of emphasis is now placed on halls built or hired for use by Christians (such that ‘church’ is now associated more with the building than the people). Whatever may be read into various Scriptures, there is no clear evidence of such things in the NT. Saints often met in houses (see Rom. 16: 5; 1 Cor. 16: 19; Col. 4: 15; Philemon v2) and evangelical activity either took place in the open-air or in the meeting-places and houses of unbelievers. Testimony, for example, is not connected to a building but to people—“known and read of all men, being manifested to be Christ’s epistle” (2 Cor. 3: 2, 3). Certainly, practical arguments can be made for having a hall, but at the same time they often exert a significant drain on the resources of the saints. What is clear is that the common belief that a hall is a necessity, is not supported by the testimony of Scripture.

Many believers are under the impression that the law is to be their rule of life, but this is contradicted by Paul’s teaching in which we are said to be “dead to the law” (Rom. 7: 4) having “died with Christ” (Rom. 6: 8), for clearly “law” only “rules over a man as long as he lives” (Rom. 7: 1, my emphasis). It is as being “to another, who has been raised up from among [the] dead” (v4)—that is, “clear from the law” (v6)—that can we “bear fruit to God” (v4).

The law had a function as “our tutor up to Christ” (Gal. 3: 25, my emphasis)—for “I had not known sin, unless by law” (Rom. 7: 7). Now, however, “faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Gal. 3: 25) and as “led by the Spirit, ye are not under law” (Gal. 5: 18) and “shall no way fulfil flesh’s lust” (v16). The law only proved our incapacity to keep it, and having brought in Christ, God would have us now “follow in his steps” (1 Pet. 2: 21) and “even as he walked, himself also [so]to walk” (1 John 2: 6).

The measure by which we are to walk here is not the law, “holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7: 12) as it is, but a higher standard: Christ. The fruit (and the word is singular) of the Spirit cannot be produced by law-keeping. Where do we see “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5: 22, 23) perfectly displayed? Christ! Of course, the Lord, as come under law, was perfectly obedient to it, but as the Son of the Father, He was the perfect expression of the Father’s heart. It is only as feeding upon this blessed One as the “bread of life” (John 6: 35) that we will become like Him.

Take another example: we read that “the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Gal. 5: 14, my emphasis). Is that the ultimate standard then for the Christian? Many would say it is, but the Lord instructed His disciples “that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15: 12, my emphasis). Thus the standard is raised beyond where the law can take us, for the measure of Christ’s love is “That one should lay down his life for his friends” (v13). Now see the practical outcome: “we ought for the brethren to lay down [our] lives” (1 John 3: 16). Is this a demand of the law? No, but “because he has laid down his life for us” (v16). It is occupation with Christ and not law-keeping that enables us to so love our brethren that we are willing to die for them.

It is a very different thing to have the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit going on in me in the conscious certainty that God is for me (because under grace) than having it in the fear that He is against me (because under law). When I see evil in myself, and if I think that God will be against me because of it, then I shall have no strength for conflict and be utterly cast down and worried as to my acceptance. But if I am certain that God is for me, then the consciousness of this will give me courage, and I will ask Him to search out all my evil and lead me in the way everlasting (see Ps. 139: 23, 24). The true Christian position is that God is for me, against my own evil.

When man was at enmity against God, God was love towards man—our enmity was met by His love. The triumph of grace is that when man’s enmity had cast the Lord out from the earth, God’s love brought in salvation by that very act. In the fullest development of man’s sin, faith sees the greatest manifestation of God’s grace. And that grace is so abounding that it has given the believer the same portion that the Lord Jesus has, for we are “heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs” (Rom. 8: 17). It is not only that grace has visited us—found us where we are in our sins—but that it has also set us where Christ is, and that we are identified with Him in all but His essential glory as God. We have been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 1: 3, my emphasis).

Now I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt or hesitation about God being for me. I shall then be saying, ‘I am unhappy because I am not what I should like to be’. But that is not the question. The question is whether God is what we should like Him to be—whether the Lord Jesus is all we could wish. Certainly, it is a good thing to come to it that “in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (Rom. 7: 18)—and that realisation ought to humble me—but Christianity is not introspection but occupation with Christ. What I find in myself is repulsive, but if that is all I can think about then I will make no progress. If I understand that God is for me, then the immediate effect of the consciousness of sin should make our hearts reach out to God and His grace as abounding over it all, resulting in an increased adoration of God. Law brings despair, grace brings victory. Let us therefore be always taking up those words of faith that, “If God [be] for us, who against us? He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all …?” (Rom. 8: 31, 32)! Remember, God is for us, not against us.

How pertinent is Ps. 83 today in relation to God’s earthly people: “They take crafty counsel against thy people, and consult against thy hidden ones: They say, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be mentioned no more. For they have consulted together with one heart: they have made an alliance together against thee. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur also is joined with them: they are an arm to the sons of Lot. Selah” (vs. 3–8).

In our day, antisemitism has bubbled to the surface again (it was always there) and governments strive to contain the evil. They will not be able contain it, because its source lies in Satan, the “great red dragon” (Rev. 12: 3). Indeed, since “the whole world lies in the wicked [one]” (1 John 5: 19), governments are hopelessly compromised—along with every aspect of the world’s society. As Christians, we should be acutely aware that where Jews or Israel are concerned, the fingerprints of the devil himself may be on what we see and hear in the media of this world. We are to be wise, not naïve.

In Greek, the words holy (agioV) saint (agioV), hallowed (agiazw), and sanctify (agiazw) all have the same root.

To be sanctified is to be set apart for holy purposes—that is, for God. Thus the seventh day was hallowed (see Gen. 2: 3), the tabernacle and its contents were sanctified (see Exod. 40: 9), and the Lord Jesus was “sanctified and sent into the world” (John 10: 36). This aspect of sanctification is a matter of position in relation to God. What is profane is what is far away; what is holy is what is near.

As believers, we are “elect” (chosen) … “by sanctification of [the] Spirit” (1 Pet. 1: 2), and as those who have responded to the Gospel, we can be said to “have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ” (Heb. 10: 10).

However, if we have been set apart to God, it follows that since “he who has called you is holy” we must be too, hence: “be ye also holy” (1 Pet. 1: 15). This aspect of sanctification is a matter of practice—how we behave. God has called us to a holy place of nearness to Himself, and we are to live up to our calling.

God’s will for the believer is “your sanctification” and so we are to “abstain from fornication” and each is to “know how to possess his own vessel” (his body) “in sanctification and honour” (1 Thess. 4: 3, 4). We are not left to do this by ourselves. We are given the Holy Spirit in order to live lives that are practically set apart to God, and He does this by occupying us with Christ through the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus prayed to His Father, “sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth” (John 17: 17) and Christ is sanctifying the Assembly, “purifying [it] by the washing of the water by [the] word” (Eph. 5: 26). We become practically holy as we “sanctify [the] Lord the Christ in your hearts” (1 Pet. 3: 15)—give Him the position of honour and devotion there. May it truly be the case with each one of us!