ARTHUR T.PIERSON 
 
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 Pierson, Arthur Tappan, 183J 
 
 In Christ Jesus ' 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS 
 
 OR 
 
 THE SPHERE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BELIEVER'S LIFE 
 
 BY ., 
 
 ARTHUR T. PIERSON 
 
 Author of " The Crisis of Missions," " Miracles of Mis- 
 sions," " Mani/ Infallible Proofs," " New 
 Acts of the Apostles," etc., etc. 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 1898 
 
Copyright, 1898, by 
 
 FUNK & WAGNAI,I,S COMPANY 
 
 Registered at Stationer's Hall, I,ondon, England 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
To my brother, beloved 
 
 In Christ Jesus, 
 
 •Rev* C. ir. SCOfiClD, 2),5)„ 
 
 whose fellowship in faith 
 
 and Bible study 
 
 have done much to stimulate and 
 
 encourage Christian believers; 
 
 and to all who 
 
 have found in Christ Jesus 
 
 the Sphere 
 
 of all Life and Blessings 
 
 this book is inscribed^ 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 rHKRK is in a Russian palace, a 
 famous *' Saloon of Beauty,'* 
 wherein are hung over eight hundred 
 and fifty portraits of young maidens. 
 These pidlures were painted by Count 
 Rotari, for Catharine the Second, the 
 Russian empress ; and the artist made 
 a journey, through the fifty provinces 
 of that vast empire of the north, to 
 find his models. 
 
 In these superb portraits that cover 
 the walls of this saloon, there is said 
 to be a curiously expressed compliment 
 to the artist's royal patron, a compli- 
 ment half concealed and half revealed. 
 In each separate pidlure, it is said, 
 might be detedled, by the close ob- 
 server, some hidden, delicate reference 
 to the empress for whom they were 
 painted. Here a feature of Catharine 
 
vi iTn Cbrfet 5e0U6 
 
 appears; there an attitude is repro- 
 duced, some adl, some favorite adorn- 
 ment or environment, some jewel, 
 fashion, flower, style of dress, or man- 
 ner of life — something peculiar to, or 
 charadleristic of, the empress — so that 
 the walls of the saloon are lined with 
 just so many silent tributes to her 
 beauty, or compliments to her taste. 
 So inventive and ingenious is the spirit 
 of human flattery when it seeks to 
 glorify a human fellow-mortal, break- 
 ing its flask of lavish praise on the feet 
 of an earthly monarch. 
 
 The Word of God is a pidlure-gal- 
 lery, and it is adorned with tributes to 
 the blessed Christ of God, the Savior 
 of mankind. Here a prophetic portrait 
 of the coming One, and there an his- 
 toric portrayal of Him who has come, 
 here a typical sacrifice, and there the 
 bleeding Lamb to whom all sacrifice 
 looked forward ; here a person or an 
 event that foreshadowed the greatest 
 
irntro&uctorig vii 
 
 of persons and the events that are the 
 turning-points of history; now a para- 
 ble, a poem, an objecft-lesson, and 
 then a simple narration or exposition 
 or explanation, that fills with divine 
 meaning the mysteries that have hid 
 their meaning for ages, waiting for the 
 key that should unlock them. But, in 
 whatever form or fashion, whatever 
 guise of fadt or fancy, prophecy or 
 history, parable or miracle, type or 
 antitype, allegory or narrative, a dis- 
 cerning eye may everywhere find Him 
 — God's appointed Messiah, God's 
 anointed Christ. Not a human grace 
 that has not been a faint forecast or re- 
 flec5lion of His beauty, in whom all 
 grace was enshrined and enthroned — 
 not a virtue that is not a new exhibi- 
 tion of His attrac5liveness. All that 
 is glorious is but a phase of His in- 
 finite excellence, and so all truth 
 and holiness, found in the Holy Scrip- 
 ture, are only a new tribute to Him 
 
ITn Cbr(6t 5esu0 
 
 who is the Truth, the Holy One of 
 God. 
 
 This language is no exaggeration; 
 on such a theme not only is exagger- 
 ation impossible, but the utmost 
 superlative of human language falls in- 
 finitely short of His divine worth, be- 
 fore whose indescribable glory cheru- 
 bim and seraphim can only bow, veiling 
 their faces and covering their feet. 
 The nearer we come to the very throne 
 where such majesty sits, the more are 
 we awed into silence. The more we 
 know of Him, the less we seem to 
 know, for the more boundless and 
 limitless appears what remains to be 
 known. Nothing is so conspicuous a 
 seal of God upon the written Word, 
 as the facft that everywhere, from 
 Genesis to Revelation, we may find the 
 Christ; and nothing more sets the 
 seal of God upon the living Word 
 than the fadl that He alone explains 
 and reveals the Scriptures. 
 
ITntroDuctoris 
 
 Our present undertaking is a very- 
 simple one. We seek to show, by a few 
 examples, the boundless range and 
 scope of one brief phrase of two or three 
 short words: in Christ, or, in Christ 
 Jksus. a very small key may open 
 a very complex lock and a very large 
 door, and that door may itself lead 
 into a vast building with priceless 
 stores of wealth and beauty. This 
 brief phrase — a preposition followed 
 by a proper name — is the key to the 
 whole New Testament. 
 
 Those three short words, ' ' in Christ 
 Jesus y^^ are, without doubt, the most 
 important ever written, even by an in- 
 spired pen, to express the mutual re- 
 lation of the believer and Christ. 
 They occur, with their equivalents, 
 over one hundred and thirty times. 
 Sometimes we meet the expression, in 
 Christ, or in Christ Jesus, and again in 
 Him, or in Whom, etc. And some- 
 times this sacred name, or its equiva- 
 
•ffn Cbrtet ^cens 
 
 lent pronoun, is found associated with 
 other prepositions — through, with^ by; 
 but the thought is essentially the 
 same. Such repetition and variety 
 must have some intense meaning. 
 When, in the Word of God, a phrase 
 like this occurs so often, and with such 
 manifold applications, it can not be a 
 matter of accident; there is a deep de- 
 sign. God's Spirit is bringing a truth 
 of the highest importance before us, 
 repeating for the sake of emphasis, 
 compelling even the careless reader to 
 give heed as to some vital teaching. 
 
 What that teaching is, in this case, 
 it is our present purpose to inquire, 
 and, in the light of the Scripture itself, 
 to answer. 
 
 First of all, we should carefully set- 
 tle what this phrase, in Christ, or in 
 Christ Jesus, means. 
 
 If there be one truth of the Gospel 
 that is fundamental, and underlies all 
 else, it is this : A new life in Christ 
 
ITntroDuctoris xi 
 
 Jesus. He, Himself, clearly and forci- 
 bly expressed it in John xv : 4: * ' Abide 
 in Me and I in you." By a matchless 
 parable our I^ord there taught us that 
 all believers are branches of the Living 
 Vine, and that, apart from Him, we are 
 nothing and can do nothing, because 
 we have in us no life. This truth 
 finds expression in many ways in the 
 Holy Scripture, but most frequently 
 in that short and simple phrase we are 
 now considering — in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Such a phrase suggests that He is to 
 the believer thk sphkrK of this 
 NKW LIFE) OR BFiNG. Let US obscrvc — 
 a sphere rather than a circle. A circle 
 surrounds us, but only on one plane ; 
 but a sphere encompasses, envelopes 
 us, surrounding us in every direction 
 and on every plane. If you draw a 
 circle on the floor, and step within its 
 circumference, you are within it only 
 on the level of the floor. But, if that 
 circle could become a sphere, and you 
 
xii iTn Cbrfet 5e0us 
 
 be within it, it would on every side 
 surround you — above and below, be- 
 fore and behind, on the right hand 
 and on the left. Moreover, the sphere 
 that surrounds you also separates you 
 from whatever is outside of it. Again, 
 in proportion as such a sphere is strong 
 it also proteSls whatever is within it 
 from all that is without — from all ex- 
 ternal foes or perils. And yet again, it 
 supplies y to whomsoever is within it, 
 whatever it contains. This may help 
 us to understand the great truth taught 
 with such clearness, especially in the 
 New Testament. Christ is there pre- 
 sented throughout as the sphere of the 
 believer's whole life and being, and in 
 this truth are included these condi- 
 tions: 
 
 First, Christ Jesus surrounds or em- 
 braces the believer, in His own life; 
 second, He separates the believer in 
 Himself from all hostile influences; 
 third, He protecfts him in Himself from 
 
ITntroOuctotis xiii 
 
 all perils and foes of his life ; fourth, 
 He provides and supplies in Himself 
 all that is needful. 
 
 We shall see a further evidence of 
 the vital importance of the phrase, in 
 Christ, in the fact that these two words 
 unlock and interpret every separate 
 book in the New Testament. Here is 
 God's own key, whereby we may 
 open all the various doors and enter 
 all the glorious rooms in this Palace 
 Beautiful, and explore all the apart- 
 ments in the house of the heavenly 
 Interpreter, from Matthew to the 
 Apocalypse, where the door is opened 
 into heaven. Each of the four Gospel 
 narratives, the book of the Acfts, all 
 of the Epistles of Paul and Peter, 
 James and John, and Jude, with the 
 mysterious Revelation of Jesus Christ, 
 show us some new relation sustained 
 by Christ Jesus to the believer, some 
 new aspedl of Christ as his sphere of 
 being, some new benefit or blessing 
 
irn Cbrist ^cswe 
 
 enjoyed by him who is thus in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 To demonstrate and illustrate this is 
 the aim of this study of the New Tes- 
 tament. And, for brevity's sake, it 
 may be well to confine our examina- 
 tion to the Epistles of Paul, from 
 Romans to Thessalonians, which will 
 be seen to bear to each other, and to 
 the phrase we are studying, a unique 
 and complete relation. We shall trace 
 this phrase in ever}^ one of these epist- 
 les, and find it sometimes recurring with 
 marked frequency and variety, gener- 
 ally very close to the very beginning 
 of each epistle; and usually we shall 
 find also that the first occurrence of 
 the phrase, in each epistle, determines 
 its particular relation to that particular 
 book, thus giving us a key to the 
 special phase of the general subje(5l 
 presented in that epistle. The more we 
 study the phrase and the various in- 
 stances and peculiar varieties of such 
 
f ntro5uctoin2 xv 
 
 recurrence, the more shall we be con- 
 vinced of its vital importance to all 
 pradtical holy living. 
 
 In tracing the uses and bearings of 
 this significant phrase, it will serv^e the 
 purpose we have in view to regard the 
 epistles to each of the various churches 
 as one^ even when there are two. 
 This will give us seven instances of the 
 application of the phrase, which will 
 be found to be similar in the two Epis- 
 tles to the Corinthians and the two ad- 
 dressed to the Thessalonians. We 
 may for our purpose, therefore, regard 
 both epistles in each of these cases as 
 parts of one ; and we shall, therefore, 
 have before us this simple study: to 
 examine the particular application of 
 this expression, in Christ, or in Christ 
 Jesus, as used by Paul in writing to 
 the Romans, the Corinthians, the Gala- 
 tians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, 
 the Colossians, and the Thessalonians. 
 
IN CHRIST JESUS 
 
 THK KPISTLE^ TO THE^ ROMANS 
 
 AT the very opening of this letter 
 (i:5), we read these words: 
 "By whom," or "through whom," 
 we have received grace, etc., /. ^., 
 through God's Son, Jesus Christ, our 
 Lord ; and, in chapter iii : 24, " Being 
 justified freely by His grace through 
 the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus y 
 Here then we have the key to the Epistle 
 to the Romans : Grace, Justification , Re- 
 de^nption, in and through Christ Jesus ; 
 or, to put it briefly, Justified in Christ. 
 This is manifestly the first step, for 
 this conception belongs first in order. 
 We can have, in Christ Jesus, nothing 
 else, unless and until we have first justi- 
 fication — a new standing before God, 
 
 17 
 
18 irn Cbrlst 5e0U0 
 
 Paul is inspired to begin this epistle 
 by shewing that all men, Jews and 
 Gentiles alike, are included under sin 
 and therefore involved in condemna- 
 tion. No sinner has before him any 
 prospedl but divine wrath, until he is 
 first freed from the law, no longer under 
 condemnation . Hence the first unfold- 
 ing of grace in the Epistles is the plain 
 revelation of God's marvelous plan, 
 whereby sinners get the standing of 
 saints. The question, how the con- 
 demned may become j ustified ; the lost, 
 saved; the alienated, reconciled ; this 
 is the question first and fully answered 
 in this epistle. 
 
 If we examine chapter v : i-i i , we 
 shall eight times meet the phrase, 
 through, by, or in Jesus Christ; or its 
 equivalent. And here are represented, 
 as bestowed upon us freely, in or 
 through Him, justification, peace with 
 God, access by faith, a gracious stand- 
 ing, rejoicing in hope of the glory of 
 
"Romans 19 
 
 God; and, even in the experience of 
 tribulation, the love of God shed 
 abroad in the heart, salvation from 
 wrath, reconciliation, safekeeping in 
 His life, perpetual joy in God, etc.* 
 
 Blessed indeed to meet, as we begin 
 our stud}^ of the epistles of the New 
 Testament, this first application of the 
 phrase, in Jesus Christ: Christ is the 
 sphere of our justiJicatio7i, with all that 
 this involves : reconciliation, redemp- 
 tion, eternal life, safekeeping. In 
 Him the sinner at once becomes, in 
 God's sight, a saint, admittted to a new 
 standing, not on the platform of law, 
 but of grace. Outside of Christ, is 
 alienation ; inside this sphere, recon- 
 ciliation; without, death; within, life ; 
 without, enmity ; within, peace. By 
 faith we are taken into Christ, made at 
 once safe from holy wrath against sin, 
 
 *Dr. Handley C. G. Moule, of Cambridge, England, 
 in his matchless commentary on Romans, thus trans- 
 lates verses lo and ii : " Much more, being recon-i 
 ciled,we shall be kept safe in His life ; and, not only 
 so, but we shall be kept always rejoicing in God." 
 
20 iTn Cbrf0t Jesue 
 
 and kept safe from all perils and pen- 
 alties. He, our divine Redeemer, be- 
 comes to us the new sphere of harmony 
 and unity with God and His I^aw, 
 with His life and His holiness. 
 
 As already intimated, each epistle 
 has its own definite limits of application 
 for the phrase, in Christ Jesus, and the 
 divine truth which it conveys ; and in 
 each the range of thought is limited, in 
 the main, by certain typical and rep- 
 resentative events in the history and 
 career of the God-man. In this epistle, 
 it is to the death, burial, and resur- 
 rection of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 the thoughts of the reader are preemi- 
 nently diredled, because these events 
 belong together as forming the very 
 foundation of our justification. Com- 
 pare chapter iv : 25 : " Who was de- 
 livered for our offenses and raised 
 again for our justification." Here it 
 is made unmistakably plain that the 
 death and resurredlion of Christ, to- 
 
IRomans 21 
 
 gether with the burial which lay be- 
 tween, accomplished the work of our 
 justification. Death was the deliver- 
 ing over of our vicarious substitute 
 and surety to the penalty of a broken 
 law ; burial was his committal to the 
 grave, as dead ; and resurredlion was 
 the deliverance from both death and 
 Hades, as the divine sign and seal of 
 His acceptance as our substitute and 
 surety and of His vicarious atonement 
 in our behalf. 
 
 We have heard of a Russian officer 
 whose accounts could not be made to 
 balance, and who feared that the merci- 
 less despotism of the empire would 
 allow no room for leniency in dealing 
 with him. While hopelessly poring 
 over his ' ' balance sheet ' ' and in 
 despair of ever making up his defi- 
 ciency, it is said that he wrote, half 
 inadvertently, on the paper before him: 
 "Who can make good this deficit?" 
 and fell asleep at his table. The czar 
 
22 ifn Cbrfat 5c0U6 
 
 passed, saw the sleeping officer, glanced 
 curiously at the paper, and taking up 
 the pen, wrote underneath: "I, even 
 I, Alexander." The story may be a 
 fidlion, but it illustrates a far higher 
 debt that is forever canceled. Does 
 the hopeless sinner confront his awful 
 bankruptcy and ask in depair, What 
 can pay this my debt to a broken law ? 
 There is One who died and rose again, 
 who from the cross of Calvary, the 
 tomb in the garden, and the throne in 
 heaven, answers, "I, even I, the I^ord 
 Jesus. ' ' 
 
 Let us then fix in our minds that 
 the special horizon of this epistle is 
 bounded by Christ's justifying work, 
 and includes within its scope these three 
 prominent facts: He died. He was bur- 
 ied. He rose again. All the great les- 
 sons here taught center about the cross 
 and the sepulchre. Christ was the 
 second and last Adam; the representa- 
 tive of the race; and so, judicially, he 
 
IRomans 23 
 
 stands for the believer. In His death, 
 the believing sinner is reckoned as 
 having died for sin, and unto sin; in 
 His burial, as having gone down into 
 the grave, the place of death, decay, 
 and corruption, there to leave as cruci- 
 fied, dead and buried, " the old man," 
 the old nature, and the old life of sin, 
 now forever ' * put off ' ' in Christ, * ' the 
 time past of our life sufficing to have 
 wrought our own will;" and, in Christ's 
 resurredlion, the believer is counted 
 by God as having come forth, ' ' having 
 put on the new man, which after God 
 is created in righteousness and true 
 holiness," endowed with a new Spirit 
 of Life, henceforth to * ' walk in new- 
 ness of life. ' ' 
 
 Hence it is that in chapter v. Christ 
 Jesus is set forth before us as the last 
 Adam. The first Adam was the or- 
 ganic, ancestral, federal head of the 
 race ; his a(5ls were representative adls, 
 and, when he fell, the race which he 
 
24 irn Gbrist 5e6U0 
 
 represented fell in him — a truth which, 
 when removed from the realm of mere 
 polemic, controversial theology, is not 
 difficult of apprehension ; for it is plain 
 that Adam could transmit to posterity 
 no better nature or estate than he pos- 
 sessed. We, therefore, inherit his 
 moral corruption and bankruptcy. In 
 order to redeem the fallen race, God 
 gave man a new Adam, another repre- 
 sentative, the lyord Jesus Christ, all 
 whose a(fts in behalf of man are, 
 therefore, representative, not for Him- 
 self only, but for us for whom He 
 stands in God's sight. Consequently, 
 so far as we are, by faith in Him and 
 by the new birth from above, identified 
 with Him — as with Adam by sin and 
 birth from beneath — Christ's acts become 
 our 0W71. This conception of repre- 
 sentation threads the entire Bible, and 
 is so important that it belongs among 
 the fundamental truths of redemption. 
 Only in the light of it can redemption 
 
IRomans 25 
 
 be understood ; but both condemna- 
 tion and justification become divinely 
 luminous in the light which it throws 
 upon these two opposite positions of 
 man before God. 
 
 We may take an illustration from a 
 lower sphere. Here is a man whose 
 father's bankruptcy bankrupts the 
 whole family, so that he with the others 
 is overwhelmed in the general wreck 
 of the family fortunes. There is, how- 
 ever, another party, it may be an 
 uncle, or a grandparent, who, in this 
 crisis, assumes all the liabilities, pays 
 all debts, and thus redeems the family 
 name and credit. Now, is it not plain, 
 without argument, that, so far as this 
 son is identified with his bankrupt 
 father, he is himself financially ruined; 
 but that, so far as he is identified with 
 the party who pays the debts, he is, in 
 the sight of the law, delivered from 
 bankruptcy and financially justified ? 
 
 This lesson finds typical illustration 
 
26 Hn Cbrist^esus 
 
 in the story of Ruth. So far as this 
 Moabitish woman, as the widow of 
 Mahlon, was identified with her first 
 husband, she was involved in his losses 
 and liabilities ; but, when she became 
 the wife of Boaz, the redeemer of her 
 estate and the lord of the harvest, she 
 and her inheritance were redeemed, 
 and she became the sharer of his 
 wealth and social standing. All illus- 
 trations fail in divine things ; but we 
 may get a glimpse, from some such 
 point of view, of the philosophy of 
 the plan of salvation. In Christ, we, 
 who in Adam were condemned and 
 alienated, are justified and reconciled. 
 The believer's vital union with 
 Christ Jesus is set forth, with great 
 clearness of statement, in chapter 
 vi : 4-1 1, where his identification with 
 the Lord Jesus in His death, burial, 
 and resurredlion is so plainly declared, 
 and its practical bearings are shown. 
 Compare II. Corintians xiii : 4. '* For 
 
IRomans 27 
 
 tho He was crucified through weak- 
 ness, yet He liveth by the power of 
 God. For we also are weak in Him, 
 but we shall live with Him by the 
 power of God toward you. ' ' 
 
 In this sixth chapter of Romans 
 seven significant statements are notice- 
 able, and upon them the whole argu- 
 ment hangs and turns: 
 
 1 . Christ was raised from the dead 
 by the glory of the Father ; that is, 
 He was divinely quickened or made 
 alive, so that His resurredlion was a 
 miracle. 
 
 2. We, as believers, are planted 
 together with Him in the likeness of 
 His resurre(5lion ; that is, we share in 
 the very power of God which raised 
 Him from the dead. 
 
 3. Our old man is crucified with 
 Him ; that is, the former sinful nature 
 is judicially regarded as crucified, 
 dead, buried, and left in the tomb of 
 Christ. 
 
ITn CbtiBt 5esus 
 
 4. That the body of sin might be 
 destroyed, that henceforth we should 
 not serve sin ; that is, the power of sin 
 as our master is pracftically broken, 
 and we are released. 
 
 5. We believe that we shall also live 
 with him. Surely, we are not to refer 
 this only to our final resurredlion; from 
 I/is resurrecftion, onward, forevermore, 
 our life is one with His. 
 
 6. Death hath no more dominion 
 over Him, and so we in Him are de- 
 livered from all that dominion of sin 
 which is implied in death as its judicial 
 penalty. Compare verse 14. 
 
 7. In that He liveth. He liveth 
 unto God ; and to us also God is to be 
 the source, channel, and goal of our 
 new life, and so we are to manifest our 
 unity with Him. 
 
 This teaching is so wonderful that it 
 would be incredible were it not found 
 in the inspired Scripture, and thus 
 sealed with the authority of the Divine 
 
1Roman0 29 
 
 Teacher. It is manifestly a revelation 
 from God, for it never would have 
 entered into the heart of any mere 
 man, untaught of God, to conceive it. 
 
 This reminds one of a most forcible 
 utterance of Sir Monier Williams, Pro- 
 fessor of Sanskrit in Oxford Univer- 
 sity, and, perhaps, the greatest living 
 authority on all questions affedling the 
 literature and faiths of the Orient. At 
 an anniversary of the Church Mission- 
 ary Society in I^ondon, some ten years 
 ago, he delivered a most remarkable 
 address, in which he said that, when 
 he began investigating Hinduism and 
 Buddhism, he began to believe in what 
 is called the evolution and growth of 
 religious thought. But he adds, and 
 we give his own memorable words: 
 
 ' ' I am glad of the opportunity of 
 stating publicly, that I am persuaded I 
 was misled by the attra(5liveness of 
 such a theory, and that its main idea 
 was erroneous. . . . And now I crave 
 permission at least to give two good 
 
30 ITn Cbr!0t 5e6us 
 
 reasons for venturing to contravene the 
 favorite philosophy of the day. I,isten 
 to me, ye youthful students of the so- 
 called sacred books of the East: search 
 them through and through, and tell 
 me, do they affirm of Vyasa, of Zoro- 
 aster, of Confucius, of Buddha, of Mo- 
 hammed, what our Bible affirms of the 
 founder of Christianity, — that He, a 
 sinless man, was made sin ? Not merely 
 that He is the eradication of sin, but 
 that He, the sinless son of man, was 
 himself made sin. Vyasa and the other 
 founders of Hinduism, enjoined severe 
 penances, endless lustral washings, in- 
 cessant purifications, infinite repetitions 
 of prayer, painful pilgrimages, arduous 
 ritual, and sacrificial observances, all 
 with the one idea oi getting rid of sin. 
 All their books say so. But do they 
 say that the very men who exhausted 
 every invention for the eradication of 
 sin were themselves sinless men made 
 sin f . . . This proposition put forth in 
 our Bible stands alone ; it is wholly 
 unparalleled ; it is not to be matched 
 by the shade of a shadow of a similar 
 declaration in any other book claiming 
 
IRomans 31 
 
 to be the exponent of the docflrine of 
 any other religion in the world. 
 
 ''Once again, do these sacred books 
 of the Bast affirm of Vyasa, of Zoroaster, 
 of Confucius, of Buddha, of Moham- 
 med, what our Bible affirms of the 
 founder of Christianity, that He, a dead 
 and buried man^ was made life ? Not 
 merely that He is the giver of life, 
 but that He, the dead and buried man, 
 is life. . . . All I contend for is, that 
 such a statement is absolutely unique; 
 and I defy you to produce the shade of 
 a shadow of a similar declaration in any 
 other sacred book of the world. And 
 bear in mind that these two matchless, 
 unparalleled declarations are closely, 
 intimately, indissolubly connecfted with 
 the great central fadls and doc5lrines of 
 our religion : the incarnation, the cru- 
 cifixion, the resurredtion, the ascen- 
 sion of Christ. 
 
 * ' The two unparalleled declarations 
 quoted by me from our Holy Bible 
 make a gulf between it and the so-called 
 sacred books of the Bast, which severs 
 the one from the others utterly, hope- 
 lessly, and forever; not a mere rift which 
 
ITn Cbrfst Jeene 
 
 may be easily closed up, but a veritable 
 gulf which can not be bridged over by 
 any science of religious thought; yes, 
 a bridgeless chasm which no theory of 
 evolution can ever span." 
 
 Prof. Max Miiller, in addressing the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, de- 
 clared, in a similar strain, that ' ' the 
 one key-note of all these so-called sacred 
 books is Salvation by works. Our own 
 Holy Bible is from the beginning to 
 the end a protest against this dodlrine. ' ' 
 
 What Sir Monier Williams and Prof. 
 Miiller thus affirm of the Word of God, 
 as to its unique and wholly unparal- 
 leled teaching, we may find illustrated 
 especially in this epistle. Here, if any- 
 where, we have the Sinless One made 
 sin for sinners, and the Dead One raised 
 from the dead to become life to believ- 
 ers ; and here, if any-where, we have 
 salvation by faith put in most vivid 
 contrast with salvation by works. 
 
 We can not leave this thought with- 
 
TRomans 
 
 out at least hinting at its apologetic 
 and evidential value. The question 
 can not but arise: Where did the writers 
 of this Bible get conceptions so original 
 and unique ? The world of mankind 
 was forty centuries old when the New 
 Testament began to be construcfled, 
 when the earliest books first appeared 
 in the primitive Church. At least five 
 great world kingdoms had in their 
 way carried civilization to remarkable 
 heights of development : the Egyptian, 
 Assyrian-Babylonian, Persian, Greek, 
 and Roman. Progress had not been 
 along the lines of commerce, martial 
 prowess, material grandeur, and im- 
 perial splendor, alone, but philosophy 
 had won some of its proudest triumphs. 
 The race had done much of its subtlest 
 and most original thinking before the 
 Nazarene began his career of teaching. 
 Now, how can it be accounted for that 
 a few humble fishermen of Judea, or 
 even a trained Hebrew scholar who 
 
34 ifn dbrfst 5e6us 
 
 had the advantage of Roman citizenship 
 and Greek culture, should have given 
 to mankind absolutely new ideas, and 
 those, too, on the most vital themes? 
 How came it that such new and mar- 
 velous conceptions are found in the 
 Word of God, and nowhere else f 
 
 There is but one explanation : The 
 world was visited by the Son of God. 
 He told of heavenly things. He re- 
 vealed the mind of God on subjedls 
 hitherto unveiled. What He had 
 heard in a celestial school — the Uni- 
 versity of God — what no scholar or 
 philosopher of earth had even imagined 
 — He testified, and some received His 
 testimony and set to their seal, experi- 
 mentally, that God is true. And so it 
 comes to pass that the Bible — because 
 it is what it claims to be, God's Word, 
 conveying God's thought — gives us 
 absolutely new ideas of the way of 
 salvation, of the sinless sin bearer, of 
 the Risen I^ord of lyife ; and announces 
 
IRomattd 
 
 the simple terms whereby He becomes 
 to the believer, the sphere of a new life 
 — his Justifier, Reconciler, Savior. 
 
 I>t us tarry at the threshold of our 
 study of this theme, to praise Him 
 who in the Gospel of Christ has 
 brought to light, life, and immortal- 
 ity; who has made the cross of Calvary 
 a tree of life, and the sepulchre in the 
 garden a doorway of life, and the faith 
 of a little child the condition of life, to 
 every penitent and believing sinner. 
 Toplady says : 
 
 * ' When Christ entered into Jerusa- 
 lem the people spread garments in the 
 way: when He enters into our hearts, 
 we pull off our own righteousness, and 
 not only lay it under Christ's feet but 
 even trample upon it ourselves." 
 
 Let a quotation from another writer, 
 referring to Isaiah Hii : 5, enforce this 
 same lesson: 
 
 ' * Let every poor sinner, and let 
 every preacher to sirmoxs put this great 
 
36 IFu Cbdst 3e0U5 
 
 truth where God puts it, in the very- 
 center and midst, as the most vital 
 and important of all truths. How 
 simple this verse which expresses it ! 
 It states FACTS, fa(5ts to which the 
 prophet looked wonderingly forward, 
 facets on which we look gratefully 
 backward. He, the mighty and the 
 holy One, He was wounded, bruised, 
 chastised ! He was treated thus, not 
 because //<? deserved it, but for oursakes, 
 because we deserved it. His punish- 
 ment is our peace. His stripes are our 
 healing. His death our life. O great- 
 est of all facts! well mayest Thou 
 have the central place in prophecy, the 
 central place in our hearts ! This is the 
 Gospel. To believe this is to be saved; 
 He has borne the stripes and pun- 
 ishment due to each believer, who will, 
 therefore, have none to bear. To be- 
 lieve this is to be happy, for it is to see 
 a substitute in our place of doom and 
 death, setting us free! To believe this 
 is to be holy, for faith in such fa6ls must 
 make us love the One that suffered in 
 our stead, and hate the sin that brought 
 sore stripes on Him. Brother, canst 
 
IRomans 37 
 
 thou make it singular, and say, ' He 
 was wounded for my transgressions; 
 He was bruised for my iniquities; the 
 chastisement of my peace was upon 
 Him, and with His stripes I am 
 healed?'" 
 
 The 2oth of January, 1896, marked 
 the centenary of John Howard, the 
 philanthropist, who went on his famous 
 *' circumnavigation of charity " to let 
 light into the dungeons of the world's 
 prisons. His was a life of singular 
 self-sacrifice for others. Beginning 
 amid the cottages of Cardington, and 
 undertaking reforms among his own 
 tenantry, his work grew wider until 
 from the jails and prisons of Britain it 
 embraced the cells of the imprisoned 
 everywhere. In Bedford jail, where 
 Bunyan had spent twelve years a cen- 
 tury before, Howard found men and 
 women, who were felons, living in a 
 common day-room, their night-rooms 
 being two dungeons * ' down steps. ' ' 
 
88 irn Cbcist 5esu6 
 
 There was only a single courtyard for 
 debtors and criminals, there was no 
 apartment for the jailer, and the sani- 
 tary conditions bred fatal jail fever, 
 which proved destrudtive also outside 
 prison walls. Howard's whole soul 
 was so moved that he ' * emptied him- 
 self ' ' of all that mortals prize, to go on 
 his wide mission of love, and become a 
 servant of servants to the lowest and 
 vilest classes. 
 
 The inscription on his monument is 
 eloquently suggestive : 
 
 Vixit propter alios salvos fecit. 
 
 This was, indeed, the vidlory where- 
 by he overcame. He lived for others, 
 and he gave his life for their uplifting 
 and salvation. He was so indifferent to 
 fame that he forbade a projedl to build 
 him a memorial. And, as Dean Mil- 
 man says, ' ' the first statue admitted 
 to St. Paul's was not that of a states- 
 man, warrior, or even of a sovereign ; 
 
IRomans 
 
 it was that of John Howard, the pil- 
 grim, not to gorgeous shrines of saints 
 and martyrs, not even to holy lands, 
 but to the loathsome depths of dark- 
 ness of the prisons of what called 
 itself the civilized world. ' ' 
 
 Let us not forget where Howard 
 learned his life lesson of philanthropy : 
 it was from One of whom it was said, 
 in taunt sublimely true: 
 
 " He saved others, 
 Himself He can not save." 
 
 The Son of God and Son of man 
 gave Himself a ransom for many. It 
 was by His death, burial, and resur- 
 redlion that He made possible a sphere 
 of life for you and me. Life for us was 
 purchased by death for Him. And 
 this first of New Testament epistles is 
 the revelation of the first conditions of 
 our salvation. His cross abolished 
 our judgment ; His burial abolished 
 for us the fear of death and the grave ; 
 and his resurreAion became to us alike 
 
40 ITn Cbrist Jesus 
 
 the hope and the pledge of life, both 
 for soul and body. 
 
 It is plain that to be in Christ Justi- 
 fied, is far more than Pardon or even 
 Reconciliation ; it includes being 
 counted as just^ and put upon the same 
 standing as Christy before God. 
 
Summary of Teaching in Epistle 
 TO THE Romans. 
 
 «JV« 
 
 >Nrath. 
 
 C^^ISj^ 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 JUSTIFIED. 
 
 Christ, the Sphere of 
 
 Justification, Reconciliation, 
 
 Eternal, I^ife, Peace with God, 
 
 Safe Keeping, 
 
 Deliverance from the I^aw and its 
 
 Penalties. 
 
 A New Standing in Grace. 
 
 regeneration by the Holy Spirit; 
 
 Harmony with God 
 
 and with 
 
 Holiness. 
 
 '«', 
 
 •y^c 
 
 9oeo 
 
 <i JamiaN 
 
Corfntbfans 43 
 
 II 
 
 THE KPISTI.KS TO THK CORINTHIANS 
 
 In the First Epistle, the first chapter 
 and the second verse, we first meet the 
 phrase which we seek : * ' Sanctified 
 IN Christ Jesus," and, according to 
 the rule that has been found to be true, 
 this proves upon examination to fur- 
 nish us with the key-note of both of 
 these epistles. 
 
 This thought is further amplified in 
 the thirtieth verse of the same chapter, 
 where, as from an exalted mountain 
 peak, we seem to scan the whole horizon 
 of our salvation and of the work of 
 Christ. We are there taught that, 
 being ' ' in Christ Jesus, ' ' we find Him 
 *' made, of God, unto us wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sandlification, and 
 redemption." But, in these epistles, 
 
44 -ffn Cbrf6t 5esu0 
 
 sancflification in Christ Jesus is as 
 prominent as justification in Christ 
 Jesus has been found to be in the Epis- 
 tle to the Romans. In the latter, the 
 death of Christ was made most promi- 
 nent ; here, it is our life in Him and 
 His life in us. There, our thoughts 
 were diredled mainly to His cross and 
 passion; but here, it is to His Spirit, 
 as bestowed upon the believer and 
 dwelling in him. Or, to speak more 
 accurately and carefully, the thought 
 of the Apostle Paul begins, in the 
 Epistles to the Corinthians, where, as 
 we might say, it ends in the Epistle 
 to the Romans. In the latter epistle 
 we follow Christ through His death 
 and burial to His resurredlion, when 
 He comes forth from the grave en- 
 dowed with the Spirit of life. But the 
 Epistles to the Corinthians start — may 
 we not say ? — from His inbreathing of 
 the Spirit into His disciples on the 
 day of His resurrec5lion and the sub- 
 
Corintbfang 45 
 
 sequent induement of the disciples 
 with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 We might compare the two epistles 
 thus: 
 
 Romans : Justified in Christ Jesus by 
 His blood. 
 
 Corinthians: Sanctified in Christ 
 Jestis by His Spirit. 
 
 And, through both of the Epistles to 
 the Corinthians, the golden thread of 
 connedlion is thus our union with Christ 
 by the indwelling and inworking of 
 His Holy Spirit. 
 
 In First Corinthians (vi : 17) is the 
 brief but grand statement which illu- 
 minates and illustrates both of these 
 letters: 
 
 * * He that is JOINKD to THK lyORD 
 
 IS one: spirit." 
 
 In this language we have repre- 
 sented the highest conceivable unity. 
 The stones of the building may be re- 
 moved; the branch may be cut off from 
 the vine, and the limb severed from the 
 
46 irn Cbr(6t 5esu0 
 
 body ; the sheep may wander from the 
 shepherd, the child from the father ; the 
 bride may be divorced from the bride- 
 groom; but you can not divide spirit 
 asunder. Therefore, when we are told 
 that * ' he that is joined to the Lord is 
 one Spirit, ' ' we have the highest pos- 
 sible representation of unity — a unity 
 which nothing can dissolve. 
 
 In the First Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians this unity with the Lord Jesus 
 is exhibited as involving especially 
 the following privileges and duties : 
 
 First. A new knowledge of God, or 
 insight into Divine things. (Chap- 
 ter ii. ) 
 
 Second. A new indwelling of God, 
 we becoming His temple (iii : i6), and 
 hence a new possession of us by God. 
 
 Third. A new possession in God as 
 our portion, (iii : 21-23.) 
 
 Fourth. A new stewardship in God, 
 with corresponding obligation, (iv : 
 
 1-2.) 
 
Corintbians 47 
 
 Fifth. A new separation unto God 
 as His holy abode, (vi : 1 1-20.) 
 
 Sixth. A new sandlity even in secu- 
 lar toil, as a calling in which we abide 
 with God. (vii : 20-24. ) 
 
 Seventh. A new subje(5lion, even of 
 the body, to His glory, (ix : 27.) 
 
 Eighth. A new communion with 
 God. (x : 16-17.) 
 
 Ninth. A new service to God, made 
 possible by communion with Him. (xii. ) 
 
 Tenth. A new dominion of love as 
 the controlling power, (xiii.) 
 
 Eleventh. A new holiness and deco- 
 rum in public assemblies, (xiv.) 
 
 Twelfth. A new victory over death 
 and the grave, (xv.) 
 
 This analysis is not, of course, ex- 
 haustive, but it serves, so far as we 
 have carried it, to communicate to us 
 how truly all the thoughts of these 
 epistles revolve about the phrase we 
 are considering, and the thought which 
 it embodies. 
 
48 iTn Cbrfst 5e0U0 
 
 To resume: Christ is here represented 
 as the sphere of san(5lification and per- 
 sonal holiness. Being in Him, we have 
 in Him unity with God by the Holy 
 Spirit, which Spirit becomes the new 
 element or atjnosphere of that life of 
 which Christ is the sphere. We have 
 thus a new knowledge of God and a 
 new indwelling of God in us; we thus 
 possess God and are possessed by Him, 
 separate and subje(5l unto Him, so that 
 even our bodies partake of His life and 
 immortalit3\ As Romans deals largely 
 with what we are by our entrance into 
 God, in Corinthians we are confronted 
 with what we are by God's entrance 
 into us. There, it was the new sphere 
 of life; here, it is the new atmosphere 
 of life. There, we in Him; here, He 
 in us. 
 
 In Second Corinthians, the same 
 great thought is further expanded and 
 enlarged. Take, for instance, the first 
 chapter, from the twentieth to the 
 
Corlntblans 49 
 
 twenty-second verses, where we are 
 taught that in Him we are established, 
 anointed, sealed, and have the earnest 
 or foretaste of our future inheritance. 
 The dominant thought here is the 
 privilege we have in and through 
 Christ. Paul makes very emphatic 
 and prominent our transformation into 
 His image (iii : i8) ; our new crea- 
 tion in Christ Jesus (v : 17) ; our 
 separation unto Him (vi : 14-vii : i); 
 our unselfish liberality as the fruit of 
 our union with Him (chapters viii 
 and ix) ; our abundance of revelation 
 in Him (chapter xii) , etc. 
 
 Here, again, we have attempted no 
 exhaustive analysis, but have only 
 sought to hint at the contents of the 
 epistle, or draw the outline of this 
 wonderful range of thought. 
 
 In these two epistles, then, we have 
 Christ as the sphere of our holiness, 
 and privilege in Him ; we have in Him 
 everything else, and the very antici- 
 
50 irn Cbrist 5e6U0 
 
 pation of heaven itself. We have 
 conformity to His likeness, cleans- 
 ing from sin, power over sin, fellow- 
 ship with God, and revelations of the 
 bUss of paradise, even while upon 
 earth. 
 
 If, in these two epistles, any thought 
 overtops the rest, it is that of the new 
 creation in Christ Jesus (chapter 
 v: 17), where the word "creature" 
 should undoubtedly be rendered 
 ' ' creation. ' ' Comp. G^alatians vi : 15. 
 The parallel passage is in Revelation 
 xxi : 5, where God says: " Behold, I 
 make all things new. ' ' Here that is 
 true of the individual which is there 
 to be realized of the whole creation. 
 We enter into Christ Jesus, and we 
 have in Him the entrance into a new 
 world, ourselves becoming a part of 
 that new creation. 
 
 A careful comparison of Second 
 Corinthians (vi : 17-vii : i) with the 
 twenty-first chapter of Revelation 
 
Corlntbians 51 
 
 (3~5) will show how closely these two 
 passages correspond. 
 
 Here, also, we see how and why- 
 Christ becomes to us the sphere of 
 new power in becoming the sphere of 
 new life. A sphere contains an at- 
 mosphere, and that atmosphere may 
 be quite diilerent from that which is 
 outside ; it ma}^ have different quali- 
 ties, and be capable of supporting life 
 in a far higher degree. So, what we 
 could not do, outside of Christ, becomes 
 both natural and possible in Him, be- 
 cause we have new appetites, desires, 
 and affinities. The old passions, habits, 
 bondage, are displaced by a new life, 
 capacity, and freedom. 
 
 To clearly apprehend all this won- 
 derful truth and freely enter into this 
 privilege, is the ideal condition of a 
 disciple. The idea of a new creation 
 suggests to us also the kindred idea of 
 a new adaptation, or affinity for God, on 
 the part of the believer. Every form 
 
52 -ffn Cbdst 5e0U0 
 
 of animal existence, and even of vege- 
 table existence, demands what we call 
 its appropriate element; that is, a 
 sphere of life with conditions which 
 are necessary to its development, and 
 even to its very subsistence and ex- 
 istence. We call the air the element 
 of the bird, because the air and the 
 bird are manifestly made for each 
 other. We call the water the element 
 of the fish for the same reason of 
 mutual adaptation. The bird can not 
 live in the water, and the fish can not 
 live in the air. We observe that the 
 bird has a breathing apparatus adapted 
 to the atmosphere, and the fish has a 
 breathing apparatus adapted to the 
 water. If either were to exchange 
 places with the other, there must be 
 corresponding changes in its physi- 
 cal structure and adaptation; the bird, 
 to live in the water, must have gills 
 instead of lungs, and the fish to live 
 in the air must have lungs instead of 
 
Corintbfans 53 
 
 gills. So the bird's wings must change 
 to fins and the fish's fins must change 
 to wings. In fadl, there would have 
 to be changes in the whole stru(5lure, 
 which it would be possible only for the 
 Creator to effect. How wonderfiilly 
 analogous to the case of the disciple! 
 In order to enter into Christ Jesus and 
 to exist in the new atmosphere which 
 we find in this new sphere of life, that 
 atmosphere must become our element; 
 and there must be changes, which cor- 
 respond to strucftural changes, which 
 must take place in our very mental 
 and moral constitution. As it were, 
 the lungs must change to gills, or the 
 gills to lungs. This is what we call 
 * ' the new birth, or regeneration. ' ' So 
 far as we are concerned, the a<5l by 
 which we enter into Christ is the a(5l 
 of repentance and faith, repentance 
 being the leaving of the old sphere of 
 life behind us, and faith being the en- 
 trance into the new sphere. But there 
 
54 iTn Cbrist ^esua 
 
 must be a divine adt, corresponding to 
 our human a(5l — an acfl of regeneration 
 on God's part, corresponding to the ac5t 
 of appropriation on our part ; other- 
 wise, even if it were possible for us to 
 enter into the new sphere, we should 
 find oui selves unable to live or abide 
 in it. This is the mystery of the new 
 birth. 
 
 If any man be in Christ, he is by 
 necessity a new creation. He must 
 be born from above, born again, born 
 of the Spirit, enabled to breathe the 
 new atmosphere and live in the new 
 element. Whether the human acft or 
 the divine a(5l has the precedence, we 
 are neither concerned to inquire, nor 
 are we capable to determine. There 
 is a profound mystery about the whole 
 subjedl upon which the Word of God 
 sheds no decisive light; but the para- 
 dox is not a contradidlion, nor does 
 the mystery involve an absurdity. It 
 is sufficient for us to know that we 
 
Corintblans 55 
 
 shall never enter into Christ save by our 
 own consent, and to know with equal 
 certainty that we shall never enter 
 into Christ without God's new creative 
 adl. 
 
 Here we must leave the mystery, 
 while we bless God for the privilege. 
 
 It will be seen by any thoughtful 
 student of the Holy Scriptures how 
 grand and important is the truth which 
 thus meets us in these two Epistles to 
 the Corintians. The indwelling of 
 God in Christ is the full, final, and 
 most complete argument for, and ex- 
 hibition of, that do(5lrine of separation, 
 which runs from Genesis to Revela- 
 tion, throughout the entire Scripture. 
 We may say that there are at least 
 seven stages in the development of this 
 doctrine: 
 
 First. Separation by covenant, as 
 when Abraham was called out from 
 his country and his kindred. (See 
 Genesis xii : 1-7.) 
 
66 fn Cbrfst Jesus 
 
 Second. Separation by divine fellow- 
 ship, so exquisitely presented in Ex- 
 odus (xxxiii : 14-16). Moses repre- 
 sents tliefa<5l that God's presence goes 
 with His people as the one fadl that 
 separates himself and the people from 
 all the others that are upon the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 Third. Separation by ordinances. 
 See Leviticus xx : 24-26 where three 
 times God addresses His people as a 
 separated people, and makes the cere- 
 monial distinc5lion and difference be- 
 tween clean and unclean beasts, fowls 
 and reptiles, to be the outward sign of 
 this separation. 
 
 Fourth. Separation by vow, as in 
 the case of the Nazarite, in the sixth 
 chapter of Numbers, where four con- 
 ditions are made prominent : 
 
 ( 1 ) The suppression of appetite. 
 
 (2) Indifference to public custom. 
 
 (3) Absolute withdrawal from death 
 or corruption. 
 
Corfntbians 57 
 
 (4) Supreme loyalty to God over all 
 human kindred. 
 
 Fifth. Separation by obedience as 
 presented in the entire book of 
 Deuteronomy. (Compare Chap, vii.) 
 
 Sixth. Separation by wedlock or 
 espousal. See Jeremiah iii : 14 : *' I 
 am married unto you." Compare 
 Kzekiel xvi. Compare also Bphesians 
 V : 25-33, where this doctrine of the 
 divine espousal of His people in Christ 
 is expanded and applied. 
 
 Seventh. But, when we come to the 
 Epistles of the Corinthians, we have 
 the last and greatest of all the modes 
 of separation : 
 
 The indwelling of God in the believer 
 by the Holy Ghost, which makes man 
 God's habitation, temple, holy of 
 holies! There are two ways in which 
 a man shows himself to be the owner 
 of a house: First, by purchase; second, 
 by occupation. He buys the dwelling, 
 and then he enters into it and lives in 
 
58 iTn Cbrlst Jesus 
 
 it. And these are the two ways in 
 which God is represented as making 
 the believer His special dwelling- 
 place : First, ye are bought with a 
 price; second, the Spirit of God dwell- 
 eth in you. There can be no separa- 
 tion more unmistakable than this. 
 We have been purchased by redeeming 
 blood for the habitation of God through 
 the Spirit^ a?id throiigh the Spirit God 
 actually does indwell i?i every true be- 
 liever. 
 
 Such indwelling of God should in- 
 sure the holiness of the believer. 
 Walter Scott wrote of a certain ac- 
 quaintance: **I can not tolerate that 
 man; and it seems to me as if I hated 
 him for things not only past and 
 present, but for some future offense 
 which is as yet in the womb of fate. ' ' 
 The Holy Ghost's inhabitation should 
 leave no possibility of adlual sinning 
 nor room even for the thought of sin. 
 And where is such cleanness of soul 
 
Corfntbians 
 
 to come from, apart from Christ? 
 *'By no political alchemy," Herbert 
 Spencer tells us, ' ' can you get golden 
 condudl out of leaden instinAs. ' ' The 
 power to set the heart right, to renew 
 the springs of acflion, comes from Christ 
 through the Holy Spirit. 
 
 We thus reach the second stage of 
 our journey through these paths of 
 God's truth. And we here find Jesus 
 Christ our I^ord presented as the 
 sphere of the believer's holy living — 
 his sandlification as well as justifica- 
 tion, his higher salvation from sin as 
 well as from sin's penalty. Salvation 
 is not by charadler, but it is not inde- 
 pendent of charadler. Heaven is not 
 and can not be the home of saved 
 souls, if it be not also the abode of 
 san(5lified souls. God could have 
 nothing less than a clea7i house where 
 He lives. Nothing defiled or defiling 
 can enter there ; and He, whom the 
 Epistle to the Romans shows as the 
 
W ITn Cbrist 5eau6 
 
 secret of our entrance into a justified 
 state, is here revealed to us as in- 
 breathing the very Spirit and Life of 
 God, whereby we are made partakers 
 of the Divine nature, and thereby 
 possible partakers of the Divine bliss. 
 
II 
 
 Summary of Teaching in Kpisti^k 
 TO THEj Corinthians. 
 
 o\3T: of ch^j 
 
 ^\tX^* 
 
 etc. 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 
 SANCTIFIED. 
 
 Christ the Sphere op Santifi- 
 
 CATION. 
 
 Holy in Christ. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, the New Atmosphere 
 
 AND Element of the Believer's I^ife. 
 
 Unity with God by Partaking op 
 
 His Nature. 
 
 Inhabitation by God as His Temple. 
 
 Possessing God, Possessed by God. 
 
 Separated Unto Him. 
 
 ^ A New Creation y ^ 
 
 '^\^ IN Christ. X ^ 
 
 .*^ 
 
 'U/l |0 AbmS 
 
(3a[atian5 63 
 
 III 
 
 THK KPISTlvK TO THK GAI.ATIANS 
 
 Of this epistle, chapter first, and 
 chapter second, as far as verse 14, are 
 historical and introdu(5lory, and the 
 proper argument of the epistle is not 
 fully entered upon until this prelim- 
 inary or prefatory portion is passed. 
 But, so soon as we touch the body of 
 the epistle proper, we find the phrase 
 in Christ or its equivalent, with Christy 
 abounding. See ii : 15-20. 
 
 Not only does the relation of the be- 
 liever to Christ, as the sphere of his 
 being, again appear here, as the con- 
 trolling thought of this epistle, but in 
 no equal number of words found any- 
 where else is the subjedl presented with 
 such completeness and comprehensive- 
 ness. Every variety of expression is 
 here found, such as ' * by the faith of 
 
64 f n Cbr(0t 3c6m 
 
 Christ, " " crucified with Christ, ' ' etc. ; 
 but the most striking words which 
 arrest the eye are these: "^ I live ^ yet 
 not /, but Christ liveth in me. ' ' 
 
 Here is the key to the Epistle to the 
 Galatians: **In Christ crucified, 
 YET LIVING UNTO GoD. " As a beHever 
 I am in Christ, and therefore I am dead 
 to the law and to its penalty; I am in 
 Christ, and therefore alive unto God, 
 and dead to the world (vi. : 14) and to 
 the old self -life, and to the power of the 
 flesh, (v : 24.) 
 
 There are thus four aspects of the 
 crucifixion — in a sense a four-fold 
 crucifixion of the believer : he dies to 
 the law both as a justifier and an ac- 
 cuser; he dies to the world with its 
 fascination and domination ; he dies 
 to the flesh with its affedlions and 
 lusts ; and he dies to himself that 
 Christ may live in him. 
 
 The full significance of this teaching 
 ^11 be seen only when the exadl Ian- 
 
(5alatian6 65 
 
 guage is carefully noted, even to the 
 changes of voice, mood, and tense in 
 the verb, and of prepositions which here 
 are to be found in great variety. To 
 begin with the prepositions: in verses 
 19-20 of chapter two, we have in the 
 English version seven prepositions: 
 through, to, unto, with, in, by, for; 
 and in the Greek three, Sia, ev, vitep; 
 others being suggested by the case of 
 nouns and by the construction of the 
 sentence, and which the English trans- 
 lation admirably renders by the seven 
 prepositions there found. But let us 
 notice also the changes of verbs : "I am 
 dead," or, '* I died" (R.V.) ; "lam 
 crucified," or, ''I have been crucified 
 (R. v.); " the world is crucified," or 
 ' * hath been crucified unto me ' ' (R. V. ) ; 
 and, * ' have crucified the flesh. ' ' One 
 can not but observe the marked change 
 in the last case, where we have not the 
 passive but active voice ; and not with- 
 out reason. For in part our crucifix- 
 
•ffn Cbrfst ^csns 
 
 ion with Christ injudicial, co7istructive^ 
 passive, belonging wholly to the past 
 and completed work of the cross; but in 
 part it is pracftical, adlual, destrudlive 
 of a present power and enemy ; and 
 ac5live, as something in which we take 
 adlive part. So far as the law is con- 
 cerned, I have nothing to do as a 
 believer but to accept Christ's satis- 
 facflion of its claims by His death, and 
 His purchase of my justification by His 
 obedience. The whole transadlion is 
 as much a past one as a canceled debt 
 or a ransom paid. I, through the 
 law, which brought Him to the cross 
 as the sinner's satisfac5lion and surety, 
 died, in Him, to the law, both as my 
 vindicator and accuser. And so, in 
 His death, with which by faith I am 
 identified, the world is for evermore 
 made my enemy because it was His, 
 and I am in Him exposed to its 
 derision as was He. To be in Christ 
 implies that I am no more in the world 
 
©alatlans 67 
 
 as tlie sphere of my true life, love, and 
 satisfac5lion. This again is a past trans- 
 ac5lion, tho it may become more 
 and more a pradlical reality as I come 
 more under the power of that trans- 
 a<5lion. But, as to the flesh with its 
 affe(5lions and lusts, is not that a daily 
 dying to which I consent as a present 
 fact, and which implies present pain f 
 The faith whereby I am made one with 
 Christ as the sinbearer impUes no par- 
 ticipation in His vicarious agony. He 
 suffered for me, the just for the unjust, 
 that He might bring me unto God. 
 But I did not suffer with Him on the 
 cross, nor in any sense share that vica- 
 rious death, save as He was my sub- 
 stitute that I might not come into 
 judgment. He bore my sins that I 
 might not bear them; and from the 
 moment of my full acceptance of Him 
 as my Savior and Substitute and 
 Surety, my penalty is borne and my 
 judgment is past. 
 
fn Cbrlst 5e0us 
 
 Not so of 'Ciix^ flesh crucifixion. It 
 is something to which I consent as a 
 present experience. It has to do, not 
 with a justification which He bought 
 for me and which I afterward accepted, 
 without participation in the process ; 
 but with a sandlification that is wrought 
 in me by the indwelling Spirit and 
 which I am now to participate in, 
 working out my own salvation with 
 fear and trembling, knowing that it is 
 God that worketh in me both to will 
 and to do. This is the mortifying of 
 our members which are upon the 
 earth, referred to in Romans viii : 13 
 and in Colossians iii : 5 : * ' Mortify 
 therefore your members." Mortify 
 does not mean to reckon dead but to 
 make dead. Here is a daily, pra(5lical, 
 painful death which by the Spirit we 
 in a sense inflict on ourselves, not in 
 any meritorious sort, but as a matter 
 of choice, that we may be adlually 
 identified with Christ in holy living 
 
©alatians 09 
 
 and serving, as we are judicially one 
 with Him in the justifying efficacy 
 and effe(5l of His crucifixion. 
 
 Thus the Epistle to the Galatians 
 meets the believer where the Epistles 
 to the Romans and to the Corinthians 
 leave him, and urges him forward. It 
 is the epistle of ' ' newness of life, ' ' cor- 
 responding to His/orfy days* walk after 
 His resurredlion. How beautiful, and 
 how significant! In Romans, we saw 
 the believer in Christ expiating the 
 law's penalty and satisfying its claims, 
 dying, buried, and then rising by the 
 power of the Spirit, prepared to live 
 unto God. In Corinthians, we saw him 
 inbreathed and indwelt of the Spirit 
 and finding in the Spirit his divine 
 element, the source and secret of con- 
 tinuous life and permanent and indis- 
 soluble union with Christ. And now 
 the Epistle to the Galatians opens up 
 before the believer a complete life walky 
 corresponding to the path which the 
 
70 iTn Gbtist 5e6us 
 
 risen Christ pursued between the 
 sepulchre and the ascension. That 
 walk of His in newness of life covered 
 forty daySy the period of completeness, 
 and it stands for the rounded-out life of 
 the believer, after he is risen with 
 Christ and has received the Holy 
 Spirit, whose indwelling makes such a 
 "walk" with God, in the Spirit, pos- 
 sible. 
 
 For this reason it is that nowhere 
 else but in this epistle do we find the 
 four foes of the holy life, all put before 
 us in their relations to Chris f s cross. 
 
 First of all the law, which is our foe, 
 because its voice is always and justly 
 condemnatory. Turn which way we 
 will for legal justification, it meets us 
 only as an accuser. If we attempt 
 to atone for our past disobedience, it 
 reminds us that there can no possible 
 amends be made by us, because dis- 
 obedience is death, and we are dead to 
 God and to all hope — we have not even 
 
(5alatian0 71 
 
 life in us to become the basis of fellow- 
 ship with God. Or, if we attempt to 
 start anew, henceforth to obey, the law 
 reminds us that the sin of the past 
 would make our acceptance impossible, 
 even if we could henceforth perfedlly 
 keep the commandments of God ; and, 
 moreover, that such obedience is im- 
 possible because of the sin which is 
 the very root not only of all our sins, 
 but of our depraved being or nature 
 itself. But the law is slain as our 
 enemy, for when Christ died for us, He 
 put the law power out of court, so far 
 as our judgment is concerned, so that 
 even the law can no longer lay any- 
 thing to the charge of God's eledl. 
 
 But there is a second foe: the world; 
 and what shall I do to meet that and 
 overcome it ? This is the vicftory that 
 overcometh the world, even our faith. 
 He has overcome the world, and He 
 bids us be of good cheer. John xvi: 
 33. We have only to accept our 
 
72 fn Cbrist Jcem 
 
 justified standing in Him and reckon 
 on His death for us and His life in us, 
 and the power of the world is broken. 
 Because it was and is His enemy, it is 
 also ours; but because it was and is 
 His vanquished foe, it is also our sub- 
 dued, defeated, overcome foe. The 
 powers of the age to come we have 
 tasted, and the powers of the present 
 evil age are driven back, and so a 
 second foe is defeated. We look at 
 the unseen and eternal, rather than 
 the seen and temporal, and walk by 
 faith, not by sight. 
 
 But there is a third foe of our spiri- 
 tual life and holy walk, and how shall 
 we meet it? It is \h& fleshy with its 
 affedlions and lusts warring against the 
 Spirit with the aspirations and affinities 
 for God which the Spirit makes pos- 
 sible. Here again we are crucified 
 with Christ. We take our stand at 
 the cross and consent to be nailed to 
 it, voluntarily, acftually; to submit to 
 
<Balat(an6 73 
 
 the pain whereby the flesh dies; the 
 hands are pierced that carnal work 
 may no longer be done in the energy 
 of the flesh; the feet are pierced that 
 no longer we may walk according to 
 the flesh; the brow is pierced with the 
 thorn-crown that our head may not 
 any longer be held up for human dia- 
 dems and fading laurel wreaths; the 
 side is pierced that the heart may relin- 
 quish its fleshly energy and preference, 
 and be occupied with God. This is, 
 let us not deny it! a painful process — 
 it is the voluntary and daily crucifix- 
 ion of the fleshly affedlions and lusts. 
 And so, but only so, is a third foe de- 
 feated by the cross, which we take up 
 daily, that we may follow Him. 
 
 Another foe remains, subtlest of all 
 — the self -life. What a host of foes in 
 one ! The self-trust that prevents trust 
 only in Him, — the self-help that turns 
 us from our only true Help, — the self- 
 love that makes our own advantage an 
 
74 f n Cbtf0t Jesua 
 
 idolatrous objedl, — the self-pride that 
 absorbs us in our own supposed excel- 
 lence, — the self-defense that makes us 
 our own champions and promotes end- 
 less strife, — the self-glory that puts 
 even the glory of God in the back- 
 ground. 
 
 What shall be done with the self-life ? 
 lyCt us learn here that the only hope 
 again is in being crucified with Christ. 
 On the cross His self-life, though 
 never corrupted by sin, was given up 
 for others. He gave Himself for us. 
 And He says to us, if any man will 
 come after me, let him deny himself — 
 not his self-indulgences, which may 
 only change their form — but him^^^. 
 Much that we call self-denial is not 
 5^^-denial at all. We cut off some 
 branch of our selfish enjoyments, but 
 the only effec5l is to throw back the sap 
 into the other branches to make them 
 more vigorous and fruitful. The ax 
 must be laid at the root of the tree ; 
 
(Balattans 75 
 
 that is denial of self. And then, as 
 Dr. Moule beautifully says, the great 
 gigantic, arrogant, nominative **/" is 
 * ' infledled into the prostrate, humble, 
 objedlive me^' — ' ' I am crucified with 
 Christ. Nevertheless / live, yet not /, 
 but Christ liveth in me. ' ' 
 
 There remains but one more/b^ — 
 the devil — and we shall see that his 
 defeat is presented to us, not in this 
 epistle, but in the Epistle to the 
 Bphesians ; and for the obvious reason 
 that that V\€iory is connedled not so 
 much with the death of Christ as with 
 His ascension to the heavenlies. Here 
 we have to do with those foes of holy 
 living whose defeat is particularly as- 
 sociated with His cross. I am crucified 
 with Christ, and hence I am dead to 
 the law, I am crucified to the world, 
 I have crucified the flesh, and the 
 self-life is nailed to the cross that the 
 / might no longer be adlive but pas- 
 sive — the me in whom He dwells and 
 
76 iTn Cbtf6t 5e6U6 
 
 works. I can not be crucified to the 
 devil, nor can I crucify him ; even to 
 the crucified disciple he appears as a 
 wily foe, constantly on the alert, and 
 we need to mount with Christ to the 
 heavenlies before Satan is beneath our 
 feet. 
 
 What wonder, then, that in Gala- 
 tians vi : 15, as in II. Cor. v : 17, we 
 have Christ presented as the sphere of 
 the new creation. In Christ Jesus 
 neither circumcision nor uncircumci- 
 sion availeth anything, but a new crea- 
 tion ; no forms, ceremonies, rites, reg- 
 ulations of the outer life can efiecfl or 
 affedl the new position in Christ. We 
 enter into Him by faith, and find that 
 we are in a sphere where all things are 
 new. 
 
 No law thunders its alarms there : 
 we are on Zion, not underneath Sinai. 
 The world makes no appeal there, for 
 its gold would be trodden under feet 
 as refuse, and its crowns are all seen to 
 
©alatlans 77 
 
 be withered and worthless. The flesh 
 has no control there, for the law of the 
 Spirit of life controls the whole being. 
 The old self sways us no longer, for 
 what used to exalt itself against God 
 and usurp authority, is content to be 
 servant of servants to Him. We are 
 in Christ, in a new world of privilege 
 and possession. lyike Him in His 
 forty days' walk we are living a 
 supernatural life, a life more in heaven 
 than on earth, a life in the power of 
 the Spirit, a life which defies all the old 
 forces that swayed us, as He was no 
 longer under the limitations of the 
 liuman and the natural. The new 
 walk with God in Christ is a walk in 
 an essentially new world of depend- 
 ence on God and of power in God. Of 
 course, no rites will avail to introduce 
 us into such a new world — renewal 
 alone would suffice. 
 
 Here, then, we have found Christ 
 the sphere of a new life which comes to 
 
78 ifn Cbri0t Jesus 
 
 us by the surrender of the old. We 
 cease from all dependence on the law 
 that we may know the power of grace. 
 We cease from all dependence on the 
 flesh that we may walk in the Spirit, 
 and no longer fulfil its lusts. We 
 cease from walking with the world 
 that we may walk with God, and we 
 resign the self-life that the Christ-life 
 may be fully regnant in us. 
 
 This epistle suggests a possible and 
 pradlical walk with God. But its 
 secret is a new atmosphere of life. 
 There is a displacement of a hostile 
 element, that once made holy living 
 impossible, by another element which, 
 so far as it prevails, renders deliberate 
 sinning quite as impossible. 
 
 '' Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall 
 not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For 
 the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, 
 and the Spirit against the flesh ; 
 for these are contrary the one to the 
 other; that ye may not do the things 
 
0alatfan0 79 
 
 that ye would." Gal. v : 16-17. 
 R. V. 
 
 Rev. F. B. Meyer says: 
 
 * ' In the best of men there is a ten- 
 dency to do certain things they ought 
 not, but the more they are filled with 
 the Spirit, the more it is true of them 
 that they are kept from doing what 
 otherwise they would. When I was a 
 boy I used to go to the Polytechnic in 
 Ivondon, where my favorite diversion 
 was a diving-bell, which had seats 
 around the rim, and which at a given 
 time was filled with people and lowered 
 into a tank. We used to go down 
 deeper, deeper into the water, but not 
 a drop came into that diving-bell, tho 
 it had no bottom, and the water was 
 quite within reach, because the bell 
 was so full of air that, tho the water 
 lusted against the air, the air lusted 
 against the water, because air was 
 being pumped in all the time from the 
 top, and the water could not do what 
 it otherwise would do. If you are full 
 of the Holy Ghost, the flesh-life is 
 
80 irn Cbrist 5e6U5 
 
 underneath you, and tho it would 
 surge up, it is kept out. ' ' 
 
 To one who walks in the Spirit, the 
 lusts of the flesh become impotent to 
 control, until the spiritual man comes 
 at last to marvel that he ever felt cer- 
 tain inclinations and passions swaying 
 him. I^et us once more hear the old 
 eastern story : 
 
 ' ' The haughty favorite of an Orien- 
 tal monarch threw a stone at a poor 
 priest. The dervish did not dare to 
 throw it back, for the favorite was 
 very powerful. So he picked up the 
 stone and put it carefully in his 
 pocket, saying to himself : * The 
 time for revenge will come by and by, 
 and then I will repay him. ' Not long 
 afterward, walking in one of the 
 streets, he saw a great crowd, and 
 found to his astonishment, that his 
 enemy, the favorite, who had fallen 
 into disgrace with the king, was being 
 paraded through the principal streets 
 on a camel, exposed to the jests and 
 insults of the populace. The dervish 
 
(Balatlans 81 
 
 seeing all this, hastily grasped at the 
 stone which he carried in his pocket, 
 saying to himself: ' The time for my 
 revenge has come, and I will repay 
 him for his insulting conduct.' But 
 after considering a moment, he threw 
 the stone away, saying: * The thne for 
 revenge never comes; for if our enemy 
 is powerful, revenge is dangerous as 
 well as foolish, and if he is weak and 
 wretched, then revenge is worse than 
 foolish, it is mean and cruel. And in 
 all cases it is forbidden and wicked.' " 
 
 Not only for revenge, but for all vol- 
 untary sin, the time should never come 
 to a regenerated child of God. The 
 believer, having received the Spirit of 
 God as the indwelliyig Spirit, must 
 accept Him pradtically as the inwork- 
 ing Spirit, and follow His gentlest and 
 faintest motions and leadings. There 
 is something higher than even to be 
 taught by the Spirit, namely, to be led 
 of the Spirit. We fear many have 
 been taught who have not been led; 
 
82 irn Cbrfet ^cbwb 
 
 and failure to be led makes us more 
 and more incapable of being taught, 
 for the disobedient soul becomes callous 
 to divine impression. He who is risen 
 with Christ, and has the Breath of 
 God in him, should live as a risen, 
 quickened, breathing son of God, and 
 walk in the Spirit in newness of life. 
 
 This expression, first found in 
 Romans vi : 4, is one of singular mean- 
 ing, and the whole Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians is a commentary upon it. L^et 
 us, therefore, tarry to examine it more 
 carefully. ''That, like as Christ was 
 raised from the dead by the glory of the 
 Father, eve7i so we also should walk in 
 newness of life. ^^ 
 
 Two things here are very noticeable. 
 First, there is to be a walk in newness 
 of life, and, second, it is to find its type 
 and likeness in the resurredlion life of 
 the Lord Himself. 
 
 This phrase, "newness of life," 
 occurs only here, and itself opens up 
 
(Balatians 
 
 an immense territory of thought. 
 Even in the life of the God-man there 
 was, after His rising from the dead, a 
 newness of life 7nanifested, which is the 
 type and pattern of what our life may 
 be and ought to be in Him. 
 
 We observe apparently new condi- 
 tions in our Lord's post-resurrec5lion 
 life on earth. Up to this time Christ 
 had a mortal body, born of a woman, 
 made under the law, and subjec5l to 
 human limitations, identified with the 
 condition of humanity. Death was 
 possible to that body, and adlually en- 
 dured by Him as part of His humilia- 
 tion. But, after the resurrecflion, when 
 He rose to die no more, and death had 
 no more dominion over Him, He was, 
 indeed, the '' Prince of Life." 
 
 His life was now and henceforth a 
 resurredlion life. He was ' ' declared 
 to be the Son of God with power, 
 according to the Spirit of Holiness, by 
 the resurredtion from the dead, ' ' 
 
84 iTn Cbrlst Jesus 
 
 It was a supernatural life. His 
 rising was a miracle. If the Scrip- 
 tures are very minutely examined, it 
 will be found that He appears to have 
 come forth without human or even 
 angelic aid. Tho the angel rolled 
 back the stone from the door of the 
 sepulchre, it is never once intimated 
 that Christ waited for that before He 
 left the sealed tomb; it would rather 
 appear that He emerged from that 
 closed tomb as one who could not be 
 thus holden. And so there is more 
 than an intimation that He sloughed 
 off those grave wrappings, and left 
 them in their original convolutions, 
 undisturbed, as they were wrapped or 
 rolled about Him. This was what 
 convinced John that the resurredlion 
 was miraculous. He saw the long 
 linen cloths — ^which, with a hundred 
 pounds of spices, had been tightly 
 wrapped about His body and His 
 head — lying on the floor of the rock 
 
©alatfane 85 
 
 tomb, exa(5lly as He had been enveloped 
 in them — His body, endowed with 
 resurredlion power, slipping out from 
 these tight and heavy cerements of the 
 grave, because they could not hold 
 Him fast. See John xx : 7-8. Observe 
 the word, evrsrvXtyjusvov. And all 
 through those forty days Christ seems 
 to have been independent of former 
 conditions and limitations. He en- 
 tered within closed doors. He assumed 
 different forms, He appeared instantly 
 and as instantly vanished; and finally 
 ascended as one whom even gravitation 
 no more controlled. 
 
 All this suggests what is meant by 
 our walking in newness of life, and 
 why such a simile is connected with it, 
 " that, like as Christ was raised from 
 the dead," etc. Our life in Him 
 should be a life subjedt to entirely 
 new conditions — essentially a resur- 
 redlion life, a life supernatural in 
 power, possible only by the Spirit of 
 
86 iTn Cbrl5t ^csus 
 
 Holiness, a life no longer under the 
 dominion of former lusts, fleshly bond- 
 age; essentially a divine life, in which 
 celestial forces prevail ; a life of 
 heavenly knowledge, and strength, 
 and peace, and patience, and power ; 
 a life of heavenly frames, having the 
 lamb-like, dove-like quality. Our 
 resurredtion life may be and should 
 be like His, more of heaven than of 
 earth, a mysterious life that no worldly 
 man or worldly-minded disciple can 
 understand or explain. 
 
 This epistle contains an instrudlive 
 allegory or parable, that of Hagar and 
 Ishmael, the pertinency of which is not 
 seen by every reader. Let us close 
 this chapter by a reference to it. 
 
 In chapter iv : 22-31, this history is 
 presented as having a deeper allegorical 
 meaning than the mere surface reveals. 
 This Hagar is Mount Sinai, which 
 gendereth to bondage. Sarah repre- 
 sents grace, and Isaac, her son, the 
 
©alatlana 87 
 
 liberty of faith. Hagar represents 
 law, and Ishmael, who is her son, 
 represents the bondage which unbe- 
 lief engenders . The territory in which 
 both for a time sought to live is the 
 believer's own experience. But the 
 two are incompatible and irrecon- 
 cilable. Faith and unbelief, liberty 
 and slavery, love and fear, hope and 
 despair, can not abide together. And 
 God says to every child of His, ' ' cast 
 out the bondwoman and her son, for 
 there can be no common inheritance 
 for the son of the bondwoman and the 
 son of the freewoman. Give your 
 heart wholly to the dominion of grace 
 and faith." 
 
 The same lesson is taught in He- 
 brews xii : 18-29, ill that other parable 
 of Sinai and Sion. Leave the mount 
 that quakes and burns, with its black- 
 ness and darkness and tempest and 
 trumpet and awful voice of law; and 
 live on Mount Sion, the place of the 
 
•ffn Cbrl6t 5esu0 
 
 king's palace, with its holy memories, 
 experiences, and prospecfts. There 
 you look back to Calvary's cross, up 
 to heaven's daily blessing, and forward 
 to the far but near horizon of the 
 blessed hope. Faith reconciles ; faith 
 saves, not only from hell, but from 
 the inward slough of despond and the 
 torments of fear. Faith makes real 
 the encampment of God's holy angels 
 about the believer and the fellowship of 
 all redeemed souls in heaven and 
 earth. Faith makes you conscious 
 and confident of your heavenly citizen- 
 ship, and your interest in atoning 
 blood, which calls not for vengeance 
 but for mercy. 
 
 All these lessons are summed up in 
 that one verse: " That, like as Christ 
 was raised from the dead by the glory 
 of the Father, even so we also should 
 walk in newness of life. ' ' 
 
Ill 
 
 Summary of Tejaching in Kpisti,^ 
 
 TO THE GalATIANS. 
 ^\ OF CHRls^ 
 
 .v'^ 
 
 A« 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 CRUCIFIED. 
 
 Christ, the Sphere of 
 Self-Renunciation. 
 Dead to the I^aw, the World, the I ^ 
 
 Flesh, and the Self-I^ife. 
 A New Creation in Christ, a New 
 
 World in Him. 
 Walking in the Spirit with New 
 I^ife and Liberty. 
 Finding, Through Death, New- 
 ness OF I^IFE. 
 Sowing to the Spirit. y «■ 
 Reaping I<ife Kver- ^ ^ 
 
 LASTING. 
 
 .0* 
 
 \. 
 
 ^W//Mos •ejn-*^'*^ 
 
}6pbe0fan6 91 
 
 IV 
 
 Thk Kpistlk to thk Ephesians 
 
 The very first verse contains the 
 expression, '■^ faithful in Christ fesus^^ 
 and the third verse furnishes the key- 
 to this epistle in one short sentence, 
 comprising the sum of all its exalted 
 teaching: ** Who hath blessed us with 
 all spiritual blesshigs in Thk hkavkn- 
 i,iES IN Christ. ' ' 
 
 This letter to the Ephesians lifts us 
 to the very summit, the third heaven 
 of privilege, and is especially rich in 
 that phrase which we are now devoutly 
 tracing throughout the New Testa- 
 ment. We find here at least ten sepa- 
 rate uses or combinations of the words 
 in Christ or in Him, as applied to the 
 present estate of the believer, and as 
 exhibiting His possible heavenly life 
 
fn Cbctet 5C0U0 
 
 even while on earth; and there is one 
 besides which refers to coming bless- 
 ing. These features of this Epistle we 
 shall find singularly true also of the 
 companion Epistle to the Colossians. 
 
 In this epistle we are declared to be, 
 IN CHRIST, chosen, predestinated to the 
 adoption of children, accepted; to have 
 redemption and forgiveness, to be 
 quickened or made alive, raised, seated 
 in the heavenlies; to have been sealed 
 and to have obtained an inheritance : 
 these are the ten present blessings, and 
 the one, yet future, is that in Him we 
 are to be gathered together in one, 
 with all saints, at His coming. 
 
 The peculiar truth thus introduced 
 to our view in this epistle is, there- 
 fore, the heavenly nature and divhie 
 fulness of this sphere of the new life. 
 When by faith we enter into Christ, 
 the life we are introduced into, is not 
 earthly, but essentially heavenly. It 
 is not to be confounded with joys and 
 
JEpbesfans 
 
 privileges which are of this world, 
 however pure and lawful. In Christ 
 we are lifted above the level even of 
 saintly communion as such. Our 
 human ties and relations with God's 
 own people are very precious, but that 
 of which the Spirit here treats is some- 
 thing higher than the human relation 
 which disciples sustain here to each 
 other. We ascend in thought above 
 the Church on earth, with its assem- 
 blies of saints, its sacraments, ordi- 
 nances, and fellowship ; here we are 
 viewed as one with Christ aiid one in 
 Christ, He, indeed, in heaven, and 
 we on earth; yet our life in Him a 
 heavenly life because it is in Him who 
 is in heaven. Hence the word 
 '■'places^'' supplied by the translators, 
 may mislead, for we are not as yet in 
 heavenly places, but in earthly places, 
 though we may and ought to be in 
 heavenly states of mind, heart, and [ 
 experience. 
 
94 ifn Cbrtet ^cens 
 
 The difference is not a mere verbal 
 distindlion. A devout woman whom 
 I once visited, to condole with her on 
 the recent departure of an aged and 
 most saintly mother, said to me with a 
 smile: **For forty years, my dear 
 mother's mind has been in Heaven." 
 And I could not but recall those ex- 
 quisite lines of Goldsmith: 
 
 I^ike some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale but midway leaves the 
 
 storm, 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are 
 
 spread, 
 Rternal sunshine settles on its head. 
 
 While yet in the body and on earth, 
 the mind and heart may be in Heaven; 
 we ought to be essentially living on a 
 higher, celestial level. This is the 
 grand possibility and privilege to 
 which the Holy Spirit turns our eyes. 
 And, as all saints are, alike, in Christ 
 Jesus, they are all in Him o?te. This 
 thought of our unity in Christ runs 
 side by side with the other, of our high 
 
Bpbesfane 95 
 
 privilege in Him, throughout these 
 chapters: in fadl, this unity is itself 
 one of the most exalted forms of this 
 heavenly life, and is more emphasized 
 here than perhaps anywhere else, 
 more figures being here employed 
 to give it expression than in the whole 
 New Testament besides. 
 
 lyet us first of all glance at the teach- 
 ings here contained as to this U7iity of 
 saints m Christ Jesus, 
 
 To begin with, the conception of 
 Christ, as the sphere of all holy living, 
 implies this unity. This sphere is in- 
 visible, however real, and our entrance 
 into it and our abiding in it are not 
 therefore matters of sense. Our place in 
 it has to be obtained or received through 
 the Spirit's working, and recognized or 
 perceived through the Spirit's teach- 
 ing. We must also recognize the place 
 of other saints in the same sphere, by 
 the same spiritual discernment. As we 
 come into contact with true fellow-be- 
 
96 iTn Cbrl0t Jesus 
 
 lievers and perceive in them the Christ 
 image — as we see that they breathe the 
 same air and live the same life, that 
 they also belong to Christ and partake 
 also of His Spirit, our conception of the 
 unity of all believers in Him grows 
 continually in vividness of impression. 
 We can not help our love going out to 
 them; to whatever different sphere 
 they may belong, in family, .social, or 
 national life, they belong with us to 
 that supreme sphere which is celestial 
 and eternal. And here is the only 
 real hope of unity in the Church: it is 
 found in the recognition of our mutual 
 relation to Christ, and in Him to each 
 other — as our Lord prayed, ' ' that they 
 also may be one in Us. ' ' 
 
 The spheres of family life, social life, 
 church life, and national life are all vis- 
 ible, and they impress us with a vivid 
 sense of our unity, as brothers, neigh- 
 bors, fellow church members, fellow 
 citizens: but, to a true child of God, the 
 
:6pbe6lan5 97 
 
 invisible bond that unites all believers to 
 Christ is far more tender, and lasting, 
 and precious; and, as we come to 
 recognize and realize that we are all 
 dwelling in one sphere of life in Him, 
 we learn to look on every believer as 
 our brother, in a sense that is infinitely 
 higher than all human relationships. 
 This is the one and only way to bring 
 disciples permanently together. All 
 other plans for promoting the unity of 
 the Church have failed. L<et us live 
 more and more in Christ, and then we 
 shall and must live more and more in the 
 bonds of a holy love and peace. It must 
 be first of all the unity of the Spirit. 
 
 This unity in Christ is so prominent 
 in this epistle that we must not lightly 
 pass it by. Besides the general con- 
 ception of Christ as the sphere of holy 
 life, common to all these epistles, we 
 shall find the following other figures 
 used here to express the same thought: 
 
 I. The body of which He is the 
 
irn Cbrl6t ScsuB 
 
 head and we the members, i : 22, 23, 
 ii : 16, iv : 12-16. 
 
 2. God's workmanship — itoirjua — 
 same word as in Rom. i : 20, a creatio7i 
 with a definite purpose, or objedl, and 
 we, all, parts of that sphere of crea- 
 tion — "God's poem," ii : 10. 
 
 3. A commonwealth^ ii : 12 — itoXivEia 
 — a community in which we are citizens, 
 introduced into it by the blood, ii : 19. 
 
 4. A temple, with the middle wall of 
 partition broken down, ii : 14. *' He 
 is our peace. ' ' Two courts — one. 
 
 5. One new 7na7i, ii : 15, a very 
 remarkable expression, eva naivov 
 avBpaoTtov, nowhere else used. 
 
 6. One household of God, ii : 19, 
 oiHstoi, members of one household. 
 
 7. One building or temple, in this 
 case with reference to the one founda- 
 tion, etc., and one habitation of God 
 through the Spirit, ii : 20, 22. 
 
 8. Fellow - heirs. iii : 6. Three 
 words : dwKXrjpovojxa — dvddoojua — 
 
Bpbesfans 
 
 6vpijj,eToxa, participators of one inheri- 
 tance. 
 
 9. Family, itarpia. iii : 15. Tribe 
 or race from one father — an amplifica- 
 tion and expansion of the idea of one 
 household. 
 
 10. One body and one Spirit, iv : 4. 
 The septiform of unity is contained in 
 chapter iv, one body, one Spirit, one 
 hope, one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
 tism, one God and Father. 
 
 11. The bride or wife, v : 22-32. 
 
 12. The panoply, vi : 10 and the 
 following verses. All true believers 
 are wearing the same armor, and pano- 
 plied in the same Divine power. 
 
 This unity with Christ and in Him 
 is in this epistle ma.de to depend on 
 our partaking of His Spirit, and hence 
 the prominence of the Holy Spirit, to 
 whom the references are very frequent 
 and varied: 
 
 i : 13. That Holy Spirit of promise 
 whereby we are sealed. 
 
100 iTn Cbrf6t Jesus 
 
 i : 17. The Spirit of wisdom and 
 revelation in the knowledge of Him. 
 
 i: 19, 20. The Spirit of power who 
 wrought in Christ and raised Him 
 from the dead. 
 
 ii : 18. The Spirit of access, by whom 
 we have access to the Father. 
 
 ii : 22. The Spirit of inhabitation 
 whereby God dwells in us. 
 
 iii : 5. The Spirit of revelation of 
 the mystery of Christ. 
 
 iii : 16. The Spirit of strength and 
 might in the inner man. 
 
 iv : 4. The Spirit of unity in the 
 body. 
 
 V : 9. The Spirit of fruitfulness in 
 all goodness, etc. 
 
 V : 18. The Spirit of fulness, mak- 
 ing all our life spiritual. 
 
 vi : 17. The Spirit of truth whose 
 sword is the Word. 
 
 vi : 18. The Spirit of supplication 
 and intercession. 
 
 Thus there are at least twelve or 
 
Bpbesians lOl 
 
 thirteen references to the Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 Here, then, is the added teaching 
 of the Epistle to the Kphesians, as 
 compared with the preceding: 
 
 Christ is the sphere of all heavenly 
 privilege and blessijig. We have first 
 of all fellowship with Hi7n, so that, as 
 He is so are we in this world. We are 
 so in Him that God looks on us only 
 as in Him, as having been and done 
 and borne and achieved all that He 
 has, Himself. In Him we are God's 
 elect, accepted, forgiven, redeemed, 
 raised from the dead, sealed as His 
 own, and seated with Him, in the 
 heavenlies. 
 
 Our fellowship is thus with the 
 Father, in Him, as close as His own 
 fellowship. 
 
 And our fellowship is also with all 
 saints in heaven and on earth, of time, 
 past, present, and future. We all be- 
 long, in Him, to Him and to one 
 
102 iFn Cbrf0t 5e5U6 
 
 another, and the more we know Him, 
 the more we shall know and love all 
 who are His and who are in Him. 
 
 If there be anything higher than 
 this, it is the heavenly life involved in 
 all this teaching. We are already in 
 heaven, so far as this becomes real to 
 us,' and have the earnest or foretaste 
 of the one final inheritance of all saints. 
 
 For example, take chapter vi : lo 
 and following. In our wrestling 
 against the powers of darkness that 
 encompass us round in the sphere of 
 the earthly^ what a refuge to be con- 
 sciously environed by the heavenly I to 
 feel Christ as between us and all hostile 
 principalities and powers. Observe, 
 however close our foes may be, the 
 panoply is between us a7id them. And 
 so it is of the believer. Christ is the 
 panoply of our warfare. He is next 
 us and between us and all our foes. 
 How elaborately this thought is 
 wrought out in this chapter. The 
 
iBvbcBiam 103 
 
 powers of darkness are here repre- 
 sented in a sixfold aspec5l, as assailing 
 the head, the heart, the vital parts, and 
 the feet, and as needing to be met by an 
 all-encompassing coat of mail. 
 
 How are they to be confronted? 
 Only in Christ. He is to be the hope 
 of salvation, and so a helmet for the 
 head; He is to be our righteousness, 
 and so a breastplate; He is to be our 
 truth, and so a girdle that holds us and 
 embraces us; He is to be our sandals, 
 and so alacrity for our feet; He is to 
 be the sword of our defense and 
 offense, and the shield that quenches 
 all the fiery darts of Satan. 
 
 We have, therefore, Christ here pre- 
 sented, not only as the heavenly sphere 
 of fellowship with God and with 
 saints, but as the sphere of absolute 
 security from all foes. 
 
 There is added one word of warning. 
 It is amazing that the epistle which 
 thus reveals our highest privilege 
 
104 iTn Cbrigt 5e0U0 
 
 should close with the most terrible 
 caution against Satanic wiles. Here 
 where the Spirit of God is most con- 
 spicuous as the indwelling power of 
 the believer, the spirit of evil is the 
 most conspicuous as the spirit that 
 worketh in the children of disobe- 
 dience. 
 
 Why is this warning ? Because we 
 are never in so great danger as when 
 we have most confidence that we are 
 filled with the Spirit. We are just 
 then most apt to be confident that all 
 our impulses and leadings are Divine 
 leadings, and so we forget to try the 
 spirits whether they be of God. There 
 are men and women who claim to be 
 Spirit filled, and yet are daily doing 
 things that are uncharitable and un- 
 righteous ; who apologize for many 
 things that are not only foolish and 
 imwise, but unholy in tendency and 
 selfish in spirit; running to all sorts of 
 fanaticism and folly, perhaps into im- 
 
;6pbe0lan6 105 
 
 purity and iniquity, under the plea 
 that they are guided by the Spirit, 
 until the reality of the Spirit's guid- 
 ance is brought into contempt. Now 
 observe that this epistle itself puts us 
 on our guard against all this subtle 
 error. It gives us two or three criteria 
 whereby to know the Spirit's leading. 
 
 1. He is the Sipirit of odedie7ice. Chap, 
 ii, 2-6. Any spirit that leads to dis- 
 obedience, that makes us slaves to 
 fleshly lusts, the wills of the flesh and 
 of the mind — and the course of this 
 world — is of the devil. 
 
 2. He is the Spirit oi unity, iv : 3,4. 
 Any spirit that sows seeds of strife, 
 bitterness, rancors and enmity among 
 disciples, is not of God. 
 
 3. He is the Spirit whose /rz^eV is in 
 all goodness, and righteousness, and 
 truth. V : 9. By their fruits ye shall 
 know them. 
 
 4. He is the Spirit whose sword is the 
 Word, vi : 17. And any guidance 
 
106 iTn Cbrtet Jeem 
 
 which is not through the Scriptures 
 and conformed to and confirmed by 
 them, is false and delusive. 
 
 No other epistle is so emphatic in its 
 presentation of the danger to be appre- 
 hended from hostile and demoniacal 
 principalities and powers, even in the 
 heavenlies. We can never get so high 
 in our spiritual life that we are beyond 
 the reach of Satanic wiles and lies, and 
 sedu<5lions and suggestions. Nay, it is 
 the most mature disciple that Satan 
 most surely assaults. While we are 
 under the sway of fleshly appetites, and 
 of worldly allurements, the Prince of 
 Darkness may safely leave us to our 
 bonds. But when these bonds are 
 broken and we are enjoying the liberty 
 of sons of God, then we are sure to be 
 the objec^ls of his malignant assault. 
 It is as in human wars; no general-in- 
 chief troubles himself about helpless 
 captives; it is the soldier that is free to 
 fight and strong to overcome, that he 
 
iBpbesfans 107 
 
 watches and seeks to vanquish and 
 destroy. 
 
 If there be any one aim in Bphesians " 
 which marks this epistle as separate 
 from all others, it is found in iii : i8, 19. 
 * * — that we may be able to comprehend 
 with all saints what is the breadth and 
 length and depth and height," etc., to 
 measure the immeasurable dimensions 
 of this sphere of heavenly life, and love, 
 and privilege. The two prayers of 
 Paul which find record in this epistle 
 (i : 16-23, iii • i4~2i), find in this their 
 great petition, that the eyes of the heart 
 may be so opened and illumined as 
 that the Ephesian disciples may clearly 
 see and know what is the hope of their 
 calling, and what the riches of the glory 
 of God's inheritance in the saints, and 
 what is the exceeding greatness of His 
 power toward believers ; and to know 
 the love of Christ, which passeth knowl- 
 edge. 
 As believers we discredit our own 
 
108 fn Cbrist Jesus 
 
 privileges and possessions. The state- 
 ments of the Word of God seem incred- 
 ible — they pass our comprehension and 
 even apprehension . We can not believe 
 that such things are true. And except 
 the Spirit of God shall open our eyes, 
 illumine our understandings and hearts, 
 and so enable us to know, we shall be 
 blinded by the very glory of our own 
 privileges in Christ, and shall account 
 the whole of this, not only a mystery, 
 but a myth — a poem, a dream. The 
 Holy Spirit alone can make us either 
 to possess or to apprehend what an 
 inheritance we have in God. 
 
 The fourfold work of the Spirit is 
 therefore presented in this epistle as 
 nowhere else within the same brief 
 compass : First, anointi7igy which 
 affects the understanding ; second, 
 renewing, which reaches the disposi- 
 tion ; third, sealmg, which affects the 
 heart and conscience ; and fourth, yf//- 
 ing, which makes speech and condu<5l 
 
Spbeafans 109 
 
 full of God. But let us observe that 
 first of all comes that anointing, which 
 makes apprehension of these spiritual 
 truths possible. He must become to 
 us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation 
 in the knowledge of Him before He 
 can make any other of these blessings 
 realities. 
 
 lyCt us then seek to reach to the 
 greatness of this truth. Christ Jesus 
 is essentially a heavenly sphere of 
 life. In Him we are already exalted 
 to the heavenlies. He in heaven 
 as the head imparts to the body an 
 essentially celestial experience, the 
 earnest of the full and final inher- 
 itance. 
 
 Among these heavenly powers and 
 privileges we may find here suggested 
 even if not expressed : 
 
 1 . A Heavenly Knowledge of Divine 
 Mysteries. 
 
 2. A Heavenly Life or Divine 
 Quickening. 
 
110 iTn Cbrtst Jcewe 
 
 3. A Heavenly Union with Christ 
 and His Saints. 
 
 4. A Heavenly Fellowship with all 
 Holy Being. 
 
 5. A Heavenly Earnest or Foretaste 
 of Bliss. 
 
 6. A Heavenly Access with boldness 
 unto God. 
 
 7. A Heavenly Frame, renewed in 
 love. 
 
 8. A Heavenly Walk or Conduct, 
 manifest in all the life. 
 
 9. A Heavenly Growth to the ful- 
 ness of stature. 
 
 10. A Heavenly Strength and Power 
 to overcome. 
 
 11. A Heavenly Assurance or Seal- 
 ing of the Spirit. 
 
 12. A Heavenly Security within the 
 panoply of God. 
 
IV 
 
 Summary of Teaching in Kpisti.E) 
 TO Kphksians. 
 
 0\3T: of CHRxst, 
 
 ,foes. 
 
 'ni,^ 
 
 %. 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 
 ASCENDED. 
 
 p)xalted to heavenly sphere of 
 
 Privilege and Blessing. 
 
 One with God and with All Saints. 
 
 Christ the Sphere of the Heavenlies. 
 
 New Bond of Fellowship with all 
 
 Holy Being. 
 
 Foretaste of Heaven. 
 
 Filled with the Spirit. 
 
 Participation of Christ's 
 
 ASCENSION I,IFE, 
 
 AND Victory over 
 Principalities and 
 
 Powers. v^ •'*'*' 
 
 //Bu Z^^\^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 ^'°amia.oj-s*«^"' 
 
Ipbillppfans 113 
 
 THK EPISTlvK TO THK PHII.IPPIANS 
 
 Observe how the opening verse sal- 
 utes all the saints in Christ Jesus, thus 
 bringing to our view this remarkable 
 phrase in the very salutation of the in- 
 spired writer — the inscription on the 
 letter. Immediately after, in the elev- 
 enth verse, we have the chara(5leristic 
 sentence which again, as a key, unlocks 
 the doors of this epistle : '^Beiyig filled 
 with the fruits of righteousness which 
 are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and 
 praise of God." 
 
 This suggests as a ruling thought 
 that in Christ we are full of all the fruits 
 of such abiding, and that no circum- 
 stances can destroy our fruitfulness, 
 and, among other fruits, our peace, and 
 rest, and joy in God. This is the divine 
 idea which we meet at every turn. 
 
114 i[n Cbriat 5e0U0 
 
 So soon as the writer corapletes this 
 initial sentence he proceeds to illustrate 
 its truth in his own experience of trial. 
 He records his adverse surroundings, 
 which, were he not in Christ, would be 
 unbearable. He writes as one who is 
 at that time in bonds for Christ (i : 13), 
 a prisoner at Rome, and in danger of 
 martyrdom. And yet all this turns to 
 his fuller salvation, and even to the 
 furtherance of the Gospel. His fetters, 
 instead of a restraint, are made to ex- 
 pand and enlarge his service, as part 
 of his privilege to suffer for His sake 
 (i : 29), and even to witness for His 
 truth ; for, as he was chained in suc- 
 cession to soldiers who were members 
 of the Praetorian guard, he took oppor- 
 tunity thus to spread through the 
 whole Prsetorium the good tidings of 
 grace. 
 
 In the second chapter he enjoins the 
 Philippians to have in them the same 
 mind as in Christ who ' ' emptied ' ' Him- 
 
IPbllippians 115 
 
 self, and became obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the cross. Then, in 
 chapter iii, the opening exhortation is, 
 ''Rejoice in the Lord," while in the 
 third verse one of the three marks of the 
 true circumcision is that we ''rejoice 
 in Christ Jesus." This chapter is 
 wholly occupied with the experimental 
 illustration, furnished in Paul's own 
 life, of how a man who is in Christ 
 Jesus finds in Him the sphere of his 
 perfect satisfadioyi. For Christ's sake 
 he had given up and counted as loss 
 whatever he had previously counted 
 as gain; and had made the sacrifice not 
 grudgingly or of necessity, but cheer- 
 fully and of choice, because in Christ 
 he had found such full compensation 
 that all else seemed refuse, to be trod- 
 den under foot. The world's most 
 precious jewels, the diadems which 
 carnal men most value, seemed to him 
 utterly contemptible beside what he 
 perceived and received in Christ Jesus. 
 
116 iTn abrf6t 5e0U6 
 
 The epistle we are now examining 
 is like one long song in the night, a kind 
 of prolonged echo of that midnight 
 prayer and praise which marked Paul's 
 first experience in the city of Philippi 
 when, in answer to the vision of the 
 appeal from Macedonia, he had hast- 
 ened thither, and got, as his reception, 
 a scourging, a thrusting into an inner 
 prison, and a torturing in the stocks. 
 Yes, the man who sang and prayed in 
 that inner jail is the man who in this 
 epistle, a prisoner at Rome, sings, 
 * * Rejoice in the Lord, alway ! and again 
 I say. Rejoice! " (Chapter iv : 4). 
 
 If this epistle has any special key- 
 note which is the controlling thought, 
 in all these melodies of a holy heart, it 
 is this: in Christ jksus satisfied. 
 
 If the studious reader of the New 
 Testament would test this for himself, 
 let him take the fourth chapter, for 
 example, and give it a thorough 
 examination. It will be found to con- 
 
IPbtUpplans 117 
 
 tain between the fourth and nine- 
 teenth verses at least seven applica- 
 tions and illustrations of that sub- 
 lime injunction, which so marks not 
 only this chapter, but the whole 
 epistle. 
 
 lyct us keep before us the grand 
 thought that evidently was the domi- 
 nant one in the writer's mind, that he 
 who is in Christ Jesus, has entered 
 into the sphere of complete joy, where 
 he finds full compensation for all self- 
 denials and sufferings. Without at- 
 tempting to import any thought into 
 this chapter, but simply to discover 
 what is there, let us note the progress 
 of the Spirit's teaching. 
 
 I . If we are in Christ, He is between 
 us and all our hostile surroundings. 
 Perhaps, like Paul, we are encompassed 
 by foes and what men call fears, adlu- 
 ally prisoners for the Gospel's sake 
 with martyrdom in prospedl. What 
 is the Spirit's word to us ? " I^et your 
 
118 ffn Cbrist ^cens 
 
 moderation be known unto all men, 
 the lyord is at hand. ' ' 
 
 We may be permitted to doubt 
 whether even such English words 
 adequately render the brief but sublime 
 original. Let your mildness, gentle- 
 ness, forbearingness, to eTtieiue^y be 
 manifest to all men — the Lord close 
 by — very near — ( syyv^). This latter 
 expression has been perhaps hastily ap- 
 plied and limited to the Lord's second 
 coming. But may the thought not be 
 even more comforting than this ? 
 When, looking at your human environ- 
 ment, you find cause for disquiet, alarm, 
 fear, and are tempted to resistance and 
 self-defense or vindication, God says 
 to you, let your forbearingness be mani- 
 fest unto all men — remember that the 
 Lord himself is nearer you than any- 
 one else, between you and your foes. 
 They can not come within the sphere of 
 your security, nor come betv/een 3^ou 
 and Him. Paul himself found that 
 
IPbUlppfans 119 
 
 when all men forsook him, the Lord 
 stood by him and strengthened him. 
 And no man perhaps ever lived, whose 
 peace was more absolutely uninter- 
 rupted by hostile surroundings, or 
 whose sense of his Master's close 
 proximity proved more absolutely 
 satisfying and sufficient. Are you in 
 Christ Jesus ? Remember He is near, 
 very near, next you in respedl to inter- 
 position, between you and all human 
 foes. 
 
 2. If you are in Christ Jesus, you 
 have absolutely no cause for anxiety. 
 ** Be anxious about nothing, but in 
 everything by prayer and supplication 
 with thanksgiving, let your requests 
 be made known unto God. And the 
 peace of God, which passeth all under- 
 standing, shall guard (as a garrison) 
 your hearts and minds through Christ 
 Jesus." (Verses 5 and 6.) 
 
 In their way no more striking verses 
 are found in the Word of God. To him 
 
120 irn Cbrlst ^csus 
 
 who is in Christ Jesus all anxiety is a 
 sin ; be anxious for nothing. There 
 is a refuge from all fretting care — in 
 everything by prayer and supplication. 
 A curious triad ! Anxiety for nothing ! 
 Thanksgiving for anything ! Prayer- 
 fulness in everything ! And instead 
 of anxious care, peace which passeth 
 understanding — a deep abyss of per- 
 plexity and anxiety exchanged for an 
 unfathomable deep of Divine peace — 
 what an exchange ! Christ, the sphere 
 of the peace of God, because within 
 that sphere is the God of Peace (verse 
 9). The sphere of our satisfadlion 
 and compensation and consolation is a 
 fortress through which no foe can 
 break — we are literally garrisoned by 
 the peace of God. Be anxious for 
 nothing ! He is between you and all 
 care. 
 
 Is this an impracfticable ideal ? I<et 
 a simple illustration help us to see how 
 wholly pra<5lical and prac5licable this 
 
IPblUppfans 121 
 
 divine injunction is. There is a vast 
 difference in the point of view from 
 which circumstances are regarded. If 
 they come between us and God they 
 may hide God from us ; if He comes 
 between us and them, He may hide 
 them from us, or even impart to them, 
 when in themselves alone, they are 
 dark and sad, a lustre and a glory. 
 When the moon comes dire(5lly between 
 the earth and the sun it may totally 
 eclipse the orb of day ; but when the 
 earth and sun are in another relative 
 position, the moon is at the full, and 
 becomes not an obscurer but a refle(5lor 
 of the sun's light. Our blessed lyord 
 would have us so abide in Him that all 
 care should be shut out, or our very 
 anxieties be transfigured into occasions 
 of thanksgiving. 
 
 3. In Christ Jesus you have 2i per- 
 petual the^ne of most exalted thought^ 
 and a perpetual stimulus to holy living, 
 (verses 8, 9). Paul puts before us on 
 
122 IFn Cbrlst 5e0U0 
 
 the one hand whatsoever things are 
 in themselves virtuous, or inherently 
 desirable; and on the other whatsoever 
 things are of good report, or honorable 
 and influential for good ; and he bids 
 us think on these things. And where 
 shall we find more abundant food for 
 such thoughts than in Christ Jesus — 
 the sphere of all excellence? What- 
 soever is true, pure, lovely ; whatso- 
 ever is honest, just, and of good report 
 may be found in Him as nowhere 
 else. And he who is in Christ Jesus, 
 is in the very circle and sphere of such 
 moral and spiritual perfecftion. All 
 other objedls and subjedls of thought 
 are shut out by the enamoring vision of 
 His loveliness. When we refledl, more- 
 over, that nothing molds chara(5ler and 
 condudl like the obje(5ls of thought — 
 that to them we are always assimilated, 
 and that the very source and spring of 
 all condu(5t and even of motive is found 
 in the thoughts — it will be readily seen 
 
Ipbflfppfang 123 
 
 that it is of the highest consequence 
 that we be insphered in Him whose 
 presence makes impossible even the 
 conception of whatever is impure or 
 degrading. Here is the inspiration to 
 exalted and heavenly refledlion, medi- 
 tation, and assimilation. Here we be- 
 hold as in a glass the glory of the Lord 
 and are changed into the same image 
 from glory to glory. 
 
 4. In Christ Jesus we find the secret 
 of perfect contentment. In whatsoever 
 external state we are, Christ as our 
 sphere, constitutes our true internal 
 state. Complete in Him, satisfied in 
 Him, all discontent is shut outside such 
 a sphere of life. He is between the 
 believer and all discontent. When 
 tempted to repine and murmur at 
 our lot, we have only to remember 
 that strictly speaking there is no * ' lot ' ' 
 — no chance in our lives — that every- 
 thing is arranged, prearranged for our 
 perfe(5ling — we shall be more than 
 
124 irn Cbrfgt 5e6U5 
 
 content, we shall learn to rejoice and 
 glory in tribulation. We would have 
 our condition just what and only what 
 He wills. Like Pastor Schmolke, with 
 fire sweeping over his parish, death 
 coming into his home, and paralysis 
 and blindness smiting his body, one 
 can still sing, 
 
 " My Jesus, as Thou Wilt." 
 
 5. In Christ Jesus, the believer finds 
 strength for all things. Christ is be- 
 tween him and all weakness ; and he 
 can say, * ' I can do all things in Christ 
 who strengtheneth me. " When Paul 
 confronted the thorn in the flesh and 
 besought the Lord thrice that it might 
 depart from him, he learned that great 
 lesson that His grace was sufficient for 
 him ; His strength is made perfedl 
 in weakness — notice made perfect — 
 not only made manifest. Had God 
 said to him, * ' I will reveal my strength 
 in your infirmity," it would have been 
 a great assurance ; but, far better than 
 
pbdfppians 125 
 
 this, only in the weakness of man 
 can God display the perfectio7i of His 
 strength. The weaker we are and feel 
 ourselves to be, the stronger He can 
 prove himself to be; so that only when 
 we become perfedlly hopeless and help- 
 less in ourselves and absolutely aban- 
 don ourselves to Him, can He fully 
 and perfedlly glorify His own grace. 
 Omnipotence needs impotence for its 
 sphere of working. 
 
 6. In Christ Jesus we learn also a di- 
 vine unselfishness, all selfish motives being 
 displaced by a noble benevolence. This 
 thought is more obscure than some 
 others in this chapter, but like a nugget 
 of gold that a pickax dislodges, it is 
 none the less valuable because it needs 
 a little search to detecft it. Twice in 
 this triumphant chapter Paul refers to 
 the bounty of the Philippians. Once 
 before, and again, they had sent to 
 minister to his necessity, and now once 
 more through Bpaphroditus. Paul was 
 
126 ITn Cbrist 5e6U6 
 
 a prisoner of the Ivord, and might be 
 supposed keenly to feel all neglec5l, and 
 correspondingly appreciate all care for 
 his temporal wants. But, although in 
 that position and condition where tem- 
 poral needs are greatest and temporal 
 bounties most grateful, we see in this 
 prisoner of the lyord not a trace of 
 jealousy for himself and his own comfort. 
 * ^Not because I desire a gift, but I de- 
 sire fruit that may abound to your ac- 
 count. ' ' 
 
 Such unselfishness shines with a 
 sublime light when all the dark, dismal 
 surroundings are taken into considera- 
 tion. Here is a man who in Christ 
 Jesus has learned to be so content that 
 he is equally happy when he abounds 
 and when he suffers need. When, 
 after an interval of seeming forgetful- 
 ness and negledl, the Philippian disciples 
 again sent their gifts to relieve his 
 wants, and comfort his confinement, he 
 *' rejoiced," but not at any increase of 
 
pblUpplans 127 
 
 personal ease, or supply of personal 
 want — no! he rejoiced that now at the 
 last their care of him had again flour- 
 ished — the word literally means to burst 
 out into leaf and bloom — as a tree in 
 spring. There had been a season during 
 which they seemed barren of unselfish 
 ministries ; but now, as in a returning 
 springtime of verdure and blossom, 
 their care of him had burst into beauty; 
 and he rejoiced at their gifts, as signs 
 of healthy and vigorous life, or as he 
 says later (verse 1 8) , because this offer- 
 ing to him was a sacrifice acceptable, 
 well pleasing to God, a sweet savor of- 
 fering; the tree by bursting again into 
 bloom gave forth an odor, a fragrance 
 of sweet smell, that ascended to God ! 
 Paul lost all sight of himself in his holy 
 jealousy for their growth in grace, and 
 especially in the consummate grace of 
 giving! Who could learn such un- 
 selfishness and self-oblivion save he 
 who in Christ Jesus constantly com- 
 
128 irn Cbcfet Jesus 
 
 muned with the One God-man who 
 even on the cross forgot His agonies in 
 the prayer for His murderers, and who 
 was wilHng to bear the cross and ac- 
 cept such soul-travail as was never 
 known before nor since, if He might 
 bring many souls unto glory ? 
 
 7. Last of all, in Christ Jesus we find 
 every need supplied. Christ is the sphere 
 of God's riches in glor>^ All want is 
 outside of Him ; and all supplies are 
 found in Him. 
 
 And so Christ is the sevenfold 
 sphere of the believers' satisfaction. 
 He is between us and all hostile 
 threats, and fears, and foes; between 
 us and all anxieties and cares; between 
 us and all unlovely and harmful 
 thoughts; between us and all murmurs 
 of discontent; between us and all weak- 
 ness and failure; between us and all 
 selfish absorption in our own advan- 
 tage; between us and all possible need. 
 Within this sphere of our new life, 
 
IPbilipplans 129 
 
 if our faith be but equal to its perception 
 and reception, we shall find a personal 
 and protedling Presence ever at hand; 
 a perfedl peace, passing understanding; 
 everything lovely and of good report 
 for contemplation and assimilation; all 
 strength, Divine strength perfected; all 
 serenity and contentment; all unselfish 
 jealousy for others' growth in grace, 
 and every supply for every need of 
 spirit, soul, and body. What a sphere 
 of satisfadlion and exultation ! 
 
 This epistle especially unfolds to us, 
 and emphasizes for us, that great truth 
 that in Christ Jesus we have a sphere 
 oipe-rfed peace. 
 
 How much we need it and how far 
 we are from it, in our ordinary experi- 
 ence, no one needs to be told. And yet 
 it is perfecflly obvious that all anxiety 
 is both foolish and fatal to all health 
 of body or of mind. It can not avoid 
 or avert any certain evil, while it can 
 crowd the unknown future with imag- 
 
130 ifn Cbrfst 5e0U0 
 
 inary and uncertain calamities and dan- 
 gers, until we are half insane with the 
 terrors our own imagination has con- 
 jured up. Anxiety thus creates false 
 fears, while it makes real calamities 
 doubly hard to bear. Bven science 
 and atheistic worldly wisdom says : 
 " Be anxious about nothing." 
 
 * ' Modern science has brought to 
 light the fadl that worry will kill, and 
 determines, from recent discoveries, 
 how worry kills. Scores of deaths, 
 set down to other causes, are due to 
 worry alone. Anxiety and care, the 
 fretting and chafing of habitual worry, 
 injure beyond repair certain cells of the 
 brain, which being the nutritive center 
 of the body, other organs become 
 gradually injured ; and when some 
 disease of these organs, or ailments 
 arise, death finally ensues. Insidious- 
 ly, worry creeps upon the brain in 
 the form of a single, constant, 
 never-lost idea ; and as the dropping 
 
lPbf«ppfan6 131 
 
 of water over a period of years will 
 wear a groove in a stone, so worry, 
 gradually, imperceptibly, but no less 
 surely, destroys the brain cells that 
 are, so to speak, the commanding offi- 
 cers of mental power, health, and mo- 
 tion. 
 
 ''Worry is an irritant, at certain 
 points, producing little harm if it comes 
 at intervals or irregularly. But against 
 the iteration and reiteration of one 
 idea of a disquieting sort the cells of 
 the brain are not proof. It is as if the 
 skull were laid bare, and the surface 
 of the brain struck lightly with a 
 hammer every few seconds, with 
 mechanical precision, with never a 
 sign of a let-up or the failure of a 
 stroke. Just in this way does the 
 annoying idea, the maddening thought 
 that will not be done away with, strike 
 or fall upon certain nerve cells, never 
 ceasing, and week by week, diminish- 
 ng the vitality of these delicate organ- 
 
132 ifn Cbrfst Jcem 
 
 isms, so minute that they can only be 
 seen under the microscope. ' ' 
 
 Do not worry. Do not hurry. * * Let 
 your moderation be known to all men. ' ' 
 Court the fresh air day and night. 
 Sleep and rest abundantly. Sleep is 
 nature's benedic5lion. Spend less nerv- 
 ous energy each day than you make. 
 Be cheerful. ' ' A light heart lives 
 long. ' ' Think only healthful thoughts. 
 " As a man thinketh in his heart, so he 
 is. " " Seek peace and pursue it. " 
 Avoid passion and excitement. Asso- 
 ciate with healthy people. Health is 
 contagious as well as disease. Don't 
 carry the whole world on your 
 shoulders, far less the universe. 
 ''Trust in God and do the right." 
 Never despair. * ' Lost hope is a fatal 
 disease. " " If ye know these things 
 happy are ye if ye do them." 
 
 If such be the voice of worldly wis- 
 dom, let us listen to the wisdom that 
 is from above. And remember the 
 
pbillppfans 133 
 
 sublime saying of the sainted George 
 Miiller. When his helpers were asked 
 how they could account for the fa<5l 
 that his serene calm was undisturbed 
 when, with two thousand orphans to 
 clothe and feed, there was neither food 
 in the larder nor money in the bank, 
 and his one resort was prayer — the 
 answer was, that it could be accounted 
 for only on his own philosophy : 
 Where anxiety begins, faith ends; 
 And where faith begins, anxiety ends. 
 
V 
 
 Summary of Tkaching in Kpisti^e: 
 
 TO THE PhILIPPIANS. 
 
 0\3'^ OF CHRisj, 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 SATISFIED. 
 Christ the Sphere of Per 
 FECT Compensation and Supreme 
 Satisfaction. 
 Gain for All I^oss, Joy in the Lord. 
 Perfect Peace in All Circumstances. 
 Strength for All Duties, Content- 
 ment IN Every State, and Supply op 
 Every Need. 
 Present Fellowship in Christ's 
 Sufferings. 
 Future Fellowship in His 
 Resurrection. 
 '^ .\^ To I,ive is Christ, ^ <•* 
 
 \ 
 
 'J'^JS^ To Die is Gain. ^^ ^' 
 
 .,»»-*' 
 
ColO00ian0 137 
 
 VI 
 
 Tun KPISTLK TO THK COI.OSSIANS 
 
 In Colossians again we meet the 
 phrase, in Christ Jesus, in the very- 
 salutation, i : 2. And in the prayer that 
 immediately follows, that ye might be 
 filled with the knowledge of His will, 
 etc. (Tt\i]pGoBrfTe.^ 
 
 Here we first strike the great word 
 of this epistle, which is nTirjpao^a — an 
 untranslatable word. 
 
 The substance of the teaching of 
 Colossians is this : In Christ Jesus we 
 have the pleroma of God. This idea 
 is inwrought into the strudlure of 
 the epistle and curiously into its lan- 
 guage.* 
 
 * We meet here and there words into which the root 
 irXi7po(i> enters : rr\y\poi9riTe, i : 9. irav to nkrjpMfjia, i : 19, 
 2 : 9. avravaTrXrjpoi, i : 24. TrArjpaxrai, to fulfil the word, 
 i : 25. TrXrjpoi^opia?, 2 : 2, full assurance. Tren-Ar/pw/aei/ot. 
 
 10, complete. TrejrATjpo^oprj/nei'oi, iv : 12, complete in 
 full measure. 
 
138 f n Cbrfet 5e6U0 
 
 The idea is that all this divine ful- 
 ness dwells in Him, and may dwell in 
 us by our dwelling in Him. 
 
 This introduces us to the Power and 
 Perfection of Christ, as the sphere of our 
 New Life : in him, complete. 
 
 Here, as in Bphesians, there are ten 
 blessings that are already ours, and 
 one that is to be ours at His coming. 
 And it is curious to compare the ten 
 things of Bphesians, with those of 
 this epistle : 
 
 EPH^SIANS. COI.OSSIANS. 
 
 CHOSEN. ROOTED. 
 
 PREDESTINATED. BUILT UP. 
 
 ACCEPTED. ESTABLISHED, 
 
 REDEEMED. FILLED FULL. 
 
 FORGIVEN. CIRCUMCISED. 
 
 QUICKENED.* BURIED. 
 
 RAISED.* QUICKENED.* 
 
 SEATED.* RISEN.* 
 
 SEALED. SEATED. * 
 
 OBTAINED INHERITANCE. HID. 
 
 TO BE GATHERED IN ONE. TO BE MANIFESTED. 
 
 Three in both lists are alike (which 
 we mark with an asterisk), all the rest 
 are unlike; but in Bphesians the list 
 has reference to oneness of saints in 
 Christ and the present privilege of 
 
Colosslana 139 
 
 life in Him; in Colossians, to the com- 
 pleteness of all and every believer in 
 Him, and the perfedlion and power 
 which are realized in Christ. 
 
 Hence the same figure in both epis- 
 tles: Christ the Head of Body; there 
 with reference to unity, and here, to 
 vitality. The ruling thought then in 
 this epistle is found in the fulness of 
 Christ, as the sphere of our life. He 
 is filled with God, and in Him we also 
 are filled with God. In fadl the word, 
 pleroma, as already remarked, can not 
 be translated. It means more than 
 fulness. It is a term used by philoso- 
 phy, and borrowed by Paul from philo- 
 sophic authors. They claimed to know 
 the secret of something that filled up 
 all human deficiency — a plenitude of 
 knowledge and power. Paul claims 
 that in Christ the true pleroma is found: 
 that He as the Son of God has all the 
 plenitude of the godhead in Him, in 
 full measure, and running over — and 
 
140 fn Cbrfst 5CSU0 
 
 so, if we are in Him, all that Divine 
 pleroma becomes ours. Whatever per- 
 fedlion is in God, in His knowledge, 
 power, strength, wisdom, love, holi- 
 ness, thus fills up to the full our meas- 
 ure of capacity. 
 
 In the light of this truth the whole 
 epistle becomes luminous. 1:27. Paul 
 speaks of the riches of the glory of this 
 mystery — which is Christ in you, the 
 hope of glory; and in Verse 28 : That 
 we may present every man perfedl in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 Again in i : 19. It pleased the 
 Father that in Him should all the ple- 
 roma dwell. 
 
 ii : 3. In Whom are hid all the trea- 
 sures of wisdom and knowledge. 
 
 ii : 6,7. As ye have received Christ 
 Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted 
 and built up in Him and stablished in 
 the faith. 
 
 Note particularly verses 8, 9, etc., 
 as the heart of the epistle. He warns 
 
Golo66ian6 141 
 
 against philosophy, which holds out 
 its false pleroma, and says : In Him 
 dwelleth all the pleroma of the god- 
 head bodily, and ye have the pleroma 
 in Him. 
 
 If the word pleroma is untranslat- 
 able, what shall we say of the thought 
 of the epistle ! What words shall ade- 
 quately translate such a conception into 
 human language, or convey it to hu- 
 man minds! It is the same essential 
 idea as that which seeks expression in 
 that last and greatest parable ever 
 spoken by our I^ord: The vine and the 
 branches. There several words form 
 the salient points of thought, arresting 
 attention : Vine, branch, and fruit; 
 abide ^ ask ; love, joy. The grand 
 word of the seven is abidk, and the 
 grand lesson is absolute and perpetual 
 dependence on the one hand, and per- 
 fe(5l and perpetual fulness of blessing 
 on the other. Let us remember that 
 in the vine dwells all vegetable fulness, 
 
142 iTn Cbrlst 5esu0 
 
 all the fulness of soil and sap, of life and 
 strength; and that the branch abides in 
 the vine that it may be filled with all 
 the fulness of the vine. Branch life, 
 like limb life in the body, can never 
 become independent. The child may 
 outgrow the mother's care, and sup- 
 port and nourish the parent; but the 
 branch can never outgrow its depend- 
 ence, nor can the limb ever become 
 independent of the body. The same 
 in nature and nurture, in root and soil 
 and sap, in life and growth, the very 
 leaves, blooms, clusters of the branch 
 are the leaves, blooms, and clusters of 
 the vine. It is the full life of the vine, 
 pushing its way through the branch's 
 channels, that exhibits itself in every 
 new twig, bud, flower, grape; and, as 
 the grape rounds out into luscious ful- 
 ness, it is the vine which imparts its 
 own fulness in the juice and color and 
 perfedtion of the cluster. The disciple 
 abides in Christ, and so his asking 
 
ColO00fan6 143 
 
 becomes Christ's asking; his love and 
 joy are in fa(5l Christ's love and joy- 
 abiding in him and filling him. So 
 what in the parable is suggested 
 or enfolded, is, in this epistle, un- 
 folded. In Him dwelleth all the ful- 
 ness of the godhead bodily and sub- 
 stantially, and we are filled full in 
 Him of the same pleroma of God. 
 The thought is inexpressible. Even 
 the Holy Ghost finds no intelligible 
 terms to convey it; all attempts are like 
 groanings unutterable. 
 
 The ten or eleven specific statements 
 of what the disciple has in Christ, all 
 have reference to this pleroma or ful- 
 ness of power and perfe(5lion. We are 
 rooted in Him — and so like a plant we 
 have fulness of strength and life — so 
 well expressed by the roots which take 
 fast hold on the soil and absorb what- 
 ever promotes growth and strength. 
 
 We are built up in Him — like the 
 building which gets stability from its 
 
144 ITn Cbr!6t ^cb\x6 
 
 rock foundation, and beauty and com- 
 pleteness as carried on to completion. 
 
 When we are taught that in Him 
 we are circumcised, buried, made alive, 
 risen, seated, hid in God, and to be 
 manifested when He is — one of the 
 greatest thoughts of the Word is put 
 before us. Christ is the great Represe^i- 
 tative Man — the second and Last Adam, 
 the Son of Man. All that He experi- 
 enced, from His miraculous conception 
 to His session at God's right hand, is 
 representative — that is, it is in our 
 behalf, typical as well as historical, 
 and we are to look upon ourselves as 
 going through all these experiences 
 in Him. When Adam was on trial, the 
 whole race he represented was on trial, 
 and his fall was representative. When 
 Christ was on trial, it was a represen- 
 tative of the race — the Last Adam — 
 who was tempted, and triumphed. 
 God in Christ sees us, who believe, 
 victorious over the devil and Death, 
 
Colossfans 145 
 
 the world and the flesh. It is a great 
 mystery of Grace; but in Him we were 
 circumcised, and put away fleshly lusts 
 — in Him buried, that the old corrupt 
 nature might be left in the tomb, and 
 in Him by the Holy Ghost we were 
 made alive unto God, raised to live a 
 new life, by His power lifted to the 
 heavenly sphere of life; so that now our 
 real life is not that which is seen. It 
 is a hidden life. The world knows us 
 not, because it knew Him not. The 
 springs of our true life are in Him, and 
 in heaven. This thought is not capable 
 of conveyance by human language or 
 illustration. Zechariah seeks to fore- 
 cast it in the vision of the Golden 
 Candlestick, whose lamps are fed 
 through golden pipes from the two liv- 
 ing olive trees . Every disciple is united 
 to Christ by unseen channels, and the 
 life we live is by the faith of the Son 
 of God — as the branch receives life from 
 the vine, or the plant from the sun and 
 
146 iTn Cbrlst 5esu0 
 
 air of heaven. Every day of holy living 
 is a day of living contacft with the invisi- 
 ble world and the unseen God — Heav- 
 en's power communicated to earthly 
 beings. And not until Christ is mani- 
 fested, coming out of His long hiding 
 beside the Father, will this hidden life 
 of ours appear. When He is manifested 
 in glory with His resurredlion body, 
 and ours is made like unto His and we 
 are seen bearing His perfecft likeness, 
 it will be seen that all this is absolutely 
 true; as He is, so are we in this world. 
 Christ came to do God's will, and 
 took in His incarnation a body pre- 
 pared for Him, and in a higher sense, 
 another body — the Church — after His 
 resurredlion. This body is thus seated 
 with Him in the heavenlies, and all ene- 
 mies are to become the footstool of Christ 
 and His mystical body, bruised under 
 His feet. We have a right in Him to 
 this exalted seat in the heavenlies, and 
 to sit down with Him in peace, as 
 
Col06d{an6 147 
 
 those who have the sense of a finished 
 work and completed conquest, hence- 
 forth in Him expe<5ling — anticipating, 
 that all foes will be made our footstool. 
 So far as we can take this in by faith, 
 they are already subdued. He says, to 
 every believer who can receive it, 
 *' ' Stretch forth thy withered hand ! ' 
 and henceforth to find restored faculties 
 for holy work; ' Rise, take up thy bed, 
 thou paralytic! ' henceforth to find 
 power to walk with God; 'Woman, 
 thou art loosed from thine infirmity! ' 
 henceforth be erecft and upright and no 
 longer bowed down and bent into de- 
 formity by Satan." 
 
 The greatest difiiculty to-day among 
 us believers is that we have no true 
 apprehension of the adlual present ful- 
 ness, the pleroma of divine power, wis- 
 dom, strength, vi(5lory, which is in 
 God for us, and may be found in Christ, 
 as the sphere of our full life and energy. 
 There is the secret of all failure : we do 
 
148 -ffn Cbrl5t 5e0U0 
 
 not avail ourselves of this fulness of 
 God. We do not pradlically believe 
 our high calling, nor perceive the riches 
 of the glory of God's inheritance in the 
 saints, and consequently the exceeding 
 greatness of His power to usward who 
 believe — the standard of which is the 
 working of that omnipotence in Christ, 
 when God raised Him from the dead 
 and seated Him at His own right hand 
 in the heavenlies. Oh, the unclaimed 
 riches of the believer in Christ Jesus! 
 
 This pleroma may be viewed in two 
 aspe(5ls, and is so presented in this 
 epistle: The completeness in Christ, 
 first, as my representative before 
 God; and, secondly, as God's represen- 
 tative before me. 
 
 It must be remembered that He is 
 both the Son of Man and the Son of 
 God, and perfedl in both relations. 
 
 It is a curious facfl, showing the mar- 
 velous completeness also of the teach- 
 ing whereby this truth is presented, 
 
ColO00(an0 149 
 
 that there are but two cases in this 
 epistle where this word, pleroma, recurs, 
 and they mark the divisions of thought 
 we are now considering. Chap, i: 19. 
 It pleased the Father that in Him 
 should all fulness dwell . This is spoken 
 of Him as Head of the body^ the Churchy 
 which is a human institution, composed 
 of redeemed sons of men. Chap, ii : 9. 
 For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of 
 the godhead bodily. Here the state- 
 ment is made as to His relation to the 
 godhead, not manhood. 
 
 In Him we are circumcised, buried, 
 risen, seated at God's right hand; that 
 is said of Him as my representative; 
 what is true of the Head of the body, is 
 true of the body whose head He is. 
 
 But, when we are told that in Him 
 we have redemption, that by Him God 
 reconciles all things to Himself; that 
 in Him are hid all the treasures of wis- 
 dom and knowledge, it is manifest that 
 the fulness of God toward us is meant. 
 
150 f n Cbrfat Jesus 
 
 These two thoughts may find an 
 imperfect illustration in an advocate 
 at court. Let us suppose a very difii- 
 cult case at law, but on which every- 
 thing hangs, property, reputation, char- 
 acter, life. I secure the services of the 
 most competent and eminent of law- 
 yers. Now, what does he do ? First, 
 he represents my case before the court, 
 but he also represents the court before 
 me. He could not take my case in 
 charge if he did not understand my case 
 perfedlly, nor could he if he did not 
 understand the law perfe(5lly. Christ 
 is my advocate before God, for He is 
 the Son of Man and understands me; 
 He is the Son of God and understands 
 Him ; and being perfedl in both rela- 
 tions, He becomes my Mediator; in Him 
 I have a perfedl representative god- 
 ward, and God has a perfedl represen- 
 tative manward. 
 
 The pradlical bearing of this double 
 truth is immense; a whole lifetime will 
 
(IoI066{and 151 
 
 give us but a glimpse of the infinite 
 value of such a Savior. As son of man 
 everything about His human charadler 
 and life has reference to the believer. 
 As He is, so are we in this world. 
 Because I believe in Him, and am 
 united to Him, all His experiences be- 
 come my own. His sinless perfecflion, 
 His divine patience. His holy obedi- 
 ence. His triumph over Satan, are im- 
 puted to me: in Him I am presented as 
 perfedl before God. But, as Son of God, 
 whatever He is to me, God is. I am to 
 know the mind and heart and disposition 
 of God toward me by knowing Christ's 
 attitude toward me, because as He is, 
 so is God in Heaven. Hence He said 
 to Philip : ' ' Have I been so long time 
 with you, and yet hast thou not known 
 Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me, 
 hath seen the Father; and how sayest 
 thou then. Show us the Father? " 
 
 In this Epistle to the Colossians we 
 reach almost the climax of the Scrip- 
 
152 iTn Cbctst 5esu6 
 
 ture teaching about the second and last 
 Adam. Four or five passages need to 
 be carefully studied by those who would 
 take in the full meaning of this won- 
 derful teaching: Psalm viii, compared 
 with Hebrews ii : 6-18, Romans v : 12- 
 21; I. Cor. XV : 21-28, and 45-49; and 
 the Epistles to the Kphesians and the 
 Colossians. In the Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans, Adam is the figure of the Com- 
 ing One. V : 14. In I. Corinthians, 
 He is the Lord of resurre(5lion life and 
 vidtory. In the Epistles to the Ephe- 
 sians and Colossians, He is the repre- 
 sentative of the believer in His whole 
 human and heavenly experience. He 
 stands in his stead, and in His own 
 miraculous birth, circumcision, bap- 
 tism, temptation, crucifixion, burial, 
 resurredlion, ascension, session at God's 
 right hand, and coming again, the 
 believer may see, set forth, his own 
 regeneration, separation unto God, con- 
 fession of faith, conquest over Satan, 
 
(IOlO66fan0 153 
 
 satisfaction of legal penalty, life in the 
 Spirit, exaltation to heavenly privilege, 
 and inheritance of final glory. 
 
 This prepares for the absolute climax 
 of this teaching in Hebrews ii, where 
 we see Jesus Christ, finally exalted to 
 universal dominion, and, in Him^ the 
 redeemed Adamic race once more raised 
 to the throne and scepter. The Eighth 
 Psalm is not to be fulfilled in the first 
 Adam, whose fall wrecked all his pros- 
 pedls of sovereignty, until the second 
 Adam restores the ruins of the first, 
 and gives lost man his true seat at 
 God's right hand. 
 
VI 
 
 Summary of Teaching in Epistlk 
 TO THE Colossi ANS. 
 
 CHRJ5J, 
 
 ^w\n, Inco 
 
 •"•P/e/, 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 
 COMPLETE 
 
 Christ the Sphere of the Trite 
 
 Pleroma or Fulness of God. 
 
 Believers, in Him, Already Seated 
 
 AT God's Right Hand. 
 Identified with Christ and in Him 
 
 WITH God. 
 Partaking of the Divine Fulness 
 WHICH Dwells in Him. 
 Our Life Now a Hidden Life in 
 Him 
 Awaiting His Mani- 
 festation. 
 
 ''/fe 
 
 ^''^^^nuappjH-'^^'^^ 
 
 .«>^' 
 
 .nV 
 
XLbceealoninne 157 
 
 VII 
 
 THE) KPISTlvKS TO THK THKSSAI^ONIANS 
 
 The keynote of both of these letters 
 is promptly struck in the third verse 
 of the first chapter, in the phrase, 
 patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Here we are turned toward the future, 
 the second coming of Him in Whom 
 we find the sphere of our final triumph 
 over all foes. Hope looks forward to the 
 future and fixes its gaze on this con- 
 summation, and hence becomes the pro- 
 found secret oi patience in present trials. 
 The same blessed thought reappears in 
 verses 9, 10. ^'' To serve the living 
 God, and to wait for His Son from 
 heaven. ' * 
 
 These two epistles therefore carry us 
 to the climax of the glorious truth 
 which has lifted us to higher and higher 
 
158 ITn Cbrist ^esus 
 
 elevations, as we have gone from sum- 
 mit to summit in studying this prog- 
 ress of docftrine; here the Holy Spirit 
 gives us a glimpse of our final, ulti- 
 mate, and complete vi(5lory in Christ 
 over all enemies and all trials. 
 
 It will be remembered that, in the 
 Epistles to the Ephesians and the Co- 
 lossians, we found one blessed privilege 
 to lie in the future: in . the former, our 
 gathering together unto Him; and in 
 the latter, our manifestation in Him. 
 Here we are emphatically reminded of 
 His reappearing, at which time this 
 gathering together of all saints is to 
 take place about the very Head of the 
 mystical body; and their manifestation 
 in Him, because He himself is to be 
 manifested in glory. 
 
 The Holy Spirit guides the pen of 
 Paul to write of these two future and 
 crowning relations of blessing that yet 
 await all God's saints. Comp. II. 
 Thess., ii ; I, $, "By our gathering 
 
^beasaloniana 159 
 
 together unto Him," and, " the bright- 
 ness of His coming " — the epiphany of 
 His Parousia. Here we have both 
 thoughts; and in fadl both are found 
 in the one verse which opens second 
 chapter: '* Now we beseech you, 
 brethren, by the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christy and by our gathering 
 together unto Him.''^ 
 
 To get even a glimpse of this truth, 
 we must first know what is included in 
 this second advent of the Son of God, 
 as it is set forth in these two letters to 
 Thessalonica. We present the follow- 
 ing as a partial analysis of their 
 contents, but sufficient to hint at the 
 wealth of suggestion herein to be dis- 
 covered: 
 
 1. The reward of service. I.,ii:i9. 
 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown 
 of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the 
 presence of our I^ord Jesus Christ at 
 His coming ? 
 
 2. The final perfe(5lion in holiness. 
 
160 irn Cbrlst 5esu6 
 
 I., iii : 13. Unblamable in holiness at 
 the coming, etc. 
 
 3. The reunion of departed and sur- 
 viving saints. I., iv : 13-18. 
 
 4. The triumph over death in the 
 resurre(5lion of the dead and the trans- 
 lation and transformation of the living. 
 Ibid. 16, 17. 
 
 5. The final consummation of salva- 
 tion. Living together with Him, for- 
 evermore. Ibid. 17. 
 
 6. The avenging of saints upon all 
 adversaries. I., v : 9; II., i : 7-10. 
 
 7. The ultimate gathering together 
 unto Him. II., ii : i. 
 
 8. The destrudlion of the man of 
 sin. II., ii : 8. 
 
 9. The obtaining of the glory of our 
 I^ord Jesus Christ. II., ii : 14. 
 
 10. The final, eternal glorification 
 of saints in Him. Ibid. 16. 
 
 When Christ comes again to com- 
 plete our salvation, there will be at least 
 a fourfold triumph: 
 
Q^bessalonlans 161 
 
 1. Over sin, in unblamable holiness. 
 
 2. Over suffering, endured at the 
 hands of the wicked. 
 
 3. Over death, in resurredlion and 
 translation. 
 
 4. Over Antichrist and the devil. 
 And in this triumph the saints are 
 
 to be in every respect copartakers with 
 Christ. His triumph is theirs, and His 
 joy is theirs. 
 
 Only in this grand consummation 
 will it be possible to understand what 
 it is to be in Christ Jesus. In our present 
 experience several necessary hindrances 
 exist to our full realization of the bless- 
 edness of our estate in Him. 
 
 I . First , All this sphere pertains to the 
 invisible. We as yet belong to a material 
 and temporal order. Things visible and 
 sensible appeal to us, because our phys- 
 ical senses are on the alert to receive 
 impression. We walk by sight natur- 
 ally and inevitably; and the unseen and 
 eternal can be apprehended and appre- 
 
162 ITn Cbrl0t 5e6U0 
 
 dated only in part, dimly, even by those 
 whose inner spiritual senses are exer- 
 cised to discern good and evil. To see 
 the visible we need only to open our 
 natural eyes — it is easier to keep them 
 open than shut, and to walk by sight 
 requires no e£fort. But to see the in- 
 visible and feel the power of the eternal, 
 is not natural nor easy; it requires 
 sedulous and constant effort — the daily 
 divScipline of our higher senses. These 
 things evade and escape us if we are 
 careless, nay, unless we are most 
 prayerful and careful; and at times the 
 most devout and circumspe(5l believer 
 loses the vision of their entrancing 
 loveliness, preciousness, and glory, and 
 sets his eye on the lower good that 
 seems so much easier both to see and 
 grasp. But when Christ comes again 
 and is manifested. He will be revealed, 
 and all our being will be filled with the 
 enamoring sense of his reality, and we 
 shall never lose sight of Him more. 
 
tTbessalonians 163 
 
 The now unseen and eternal will then 
 be as vividly real as any objecfls of 
 sight or sense. 
 
 2. Secondly, This sphere of our life 
 in Christ is now of necessity partial. 
 We are in this world, however little we 
 may be ^ it, and we can not escape 
 more or less of its contact, however free 
 from its contamination . Our enj oyment 
 of Christ is interrupted by earthly and 
 carnal surroundings, even when the 
 lower cravings are subdued. From 
 time to time we are recalled to a painful 
 sense of the facfl that sin is in us, how- 
 ever free we may be from sins and sin- 
 ning. We are compassed about with 
 infirmity of body, mind, and will; and 
 the thorn in the flesh can not be wholly 
 forgotten even in the all-sufficient grace. 
 The weakness is there, even while the 
 strength is made perfe(5l, for that is the 
 condition of its perfedl exhibition and 
 manifestation. Perhaps it is not too 
 much to say that perfedl enjoyment of 
 
164 -ffn Cbri6t ^eeue 
 
 God is impossible, for our condition and 
 characSter are yet imperfecfl or unper- 
 fedl. How different when the last bond 
 is broken, the last tie severed, and we 
 are free to be only in Christy not even 
 the body longer hindering our perfecfl 
 resemblance to Him and perfect com- 
 munion with Him ! What approxima- 
 tion to perfec5lion may be possible, prob- 
 ably no saint has yet known or shown; 
 doubtless greater measures of resem- 
 blance to Him and more complete ab- 
 sorption in Him are possible and prac- 
 ticable than any saint has ever yet ex- 
 perienced; but it is plain that we must 
 wait until He comes, and we meet Him 
 face to face, and with bodies fashioned 
 like unto His, ourselves without blem- 
 ish, as He is, before our inspherement 
 in Him can reach its completeness. 
 
 3. Thirdly, Our sphere of life in 
 Christ is now coyitested. We are in the 
 midst of adversaries, and sometimes 
 their presence is more vividly and aw- 
 
XTbessalonlans 165 
 
 fully real to us than that of our Advo- 
 cate. Without are fightings, within are 
 fears. However secure in Christ, we 
 feel the danger to be constant and im- 
 minent. The five foes of whom we 
 have found the Holy Spirit reminding 
 us, are not slain, nor are they, to our 
 experience, routed. They reappear 
 with such frequency that we are never 
 wholly free from their taunting, tortur- 
 ing presence. What saint, from Paul 
 to Miiller, has ever entirely found con- 
 scious liberty from the law in grace! 
 How we need to keep reminding our- 
 selves that we are on Sion, not under 
 Sinai! How perpetually are we shad- 
 owed by the sense of condemnation! 
 Who has ever entirely escaped the al- 
 lurements of the world, so that he is 
 adlually dead to its censure or ap- 
 proval, indifferent to its opposition or 
 cooperation, insensible to its attrac- 
 tions and its ridicule? Who is there 
 who is nevei- worldly-minded and finds 
 
166 ITn Cbrfst 5e0U0 
 
 no need of a new turning of the mirror 
 of the mind from the lower to the 
 higher realm ? 
 
 Has any saint ever found the flesh 
 and the carnal man .subdued? The 
 very fadl that every one of us finds the 
 flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the 
 Spirit contending against the flesh, and 
 that we feel these to be contrary, one to 
 the other, so that we may 7ioi, according 
 to the Spirit, do the things that we 
 would, according to the flesh, shows 
 how to the last we have to acknowledge 
 our deliverance to be but partial. 
 
 Need it be said that the self-life is never 
 wholly destroyed in us while we are in 
 the world ? We may think that self 
 is dead, but our very thought is an evi- 
 dence of its survival, and perhaps a 
 proof of its pride. We slay self in one 
 form, and it seems to be the more alive 
 in every other, until what we think the 
 death of self-praise, proves only the 
 boastfulness of a conscious humility 
 
tTbessalonians 167 
 
 which is proven, by such conscious- 
 ness, to be no humiHty at all. Here 
 is the subtlest of our foes, and the most 
 persistent of life, as well as the most 
 multiplied of form. 
 
 And as to the devil, obviously he is 
 not dead. The saintliest priest of God 
 can not stand at His altar without the 
 unseen Satanic foe at his right hand 
 to resist him. We go up to the heaven- 
 lies in the rapt communion with God, 
 but in the heavenlies are the hostile 
 principalities and powers (Kph. vi: lo). 
 There is no escape from the approach 
 of this devouring lion. We may in- 
 deed escape his jaws and his paws, but 
 we hear his roar and we tremble as we 
 remember how many in their securest 
 moments have become his vidlims. 
 
 The day will come, when even Death, 
 the last enemy, will be destroyed, and 
 we shall be free to enjoy Him who is 
 our life, without even the presence of 
 a foe. What a life that will be in Him 
 
168 ITn Cbriat 5e6U0 
 
 — when the law is forever silenced as 
 our accuser, and Sinai's summit forever 
 disappears ! What a freedom when sin 
 no longer dwells in us, but our very 
 nature is purged of its hateful presence ! 
 What a deliverance, when the world 
 to come displaces the world that now 
 is, and there are no allurements that 
 draw from God! What a death, when 
 self gives up the ghost, and the life of 
 Christ is all the life we know ! When 
 the flesh and carnal mind are eternally 
 gone, that the Spirit may rule every 
 motion within us! And, when the bot- 
 tomless pit closes its doors over the 
 adversary of God and man, never again 
 to release him; and, before the Lion of 
 the tribe of Judah, the lion that roars 
 in our path and seeks to devour our 
 souls, falls in final destrudlion — what a 
 shout of deliverance will ring through 
 all the universe of redeemed souls and 
 unfallen angels! 
 
 Over these two epistles might be 
 
Q;be00alonlan0 169 
 
 written one sublime word, victory. A 
 salvation complete and glorious draws 
 nearer than when we believed, and 
 this is held up before us continually 
 in these two letters. The phrases 
 which abound here are found in their 
 variety and combination nowhere else, 
 for they grow naturally out of such a 
 soil : ' ' patience of hope, " ' ' joy of the 
 Holy Ghost," '' to wait for His Son 
 from heaven, " ' ' God who hath called 
 you unto His kingdom and glory," 
 * ' at the coming of our lyord Jesus 
 Christ with all His saints," ''the 
 I/)rd Jesus shall be revealed from 
 heaven," etc. And, as these phrases 
 abound, so these epistles abound in 
 arguments for holy living drawn from 
 the glorious and blessed hope which 
 illumines the future. There is scarce 
 a grace or virtue in the whole blessed 
 catalogue of saintly excellencies and 
 adornments, for which this future 
 vidlory and glory presents no new in- 
 
170 f n Cbrfst Jcens 
 
 centive ; obedience, service, patience, 
 fidelity, self-denial, love, meditation 
 on the Word, joy, comfort, stedfastness, 
 zeal, san(5lity, honesty, hope, conso- 
 lation, vigilance, humility, gentleness, 
 supplication, separation to God, peace 
 — all that is most lovely and most 
 helpful is made to hang upon the 
 cherishing of the blessed assurance of 
 our final triumph and blessedness, in 
 Him who is the Coming One. Only so 
 far as this blessed hope is obscured or 
 pradlically becomes inoperative in our 
 lives, will our charadler and conducfl as 
 disciples degenerate. 
 
 Let us remember that the coming of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ is the con- 
 summation of all things which pertain 
 to our redemption. It introduces the 
 sublime closing scenes in the whole 
 history of salvation. There is much 
 that can not be revealed to the Church 
 and to the angelic host in the age that 
 now is, and God waits for the ages to 
 
^bc00alonlan0 I7l 
 
 come to make known His manifold 
 wisdom and grace. He finds in our 
 present experience no data from which 
 to convey a fit knowledge — no dialect 
 sufiiciently meaningful to express the 
 inexpressible things which must wait 
 for the revelation of experience. 
 
 The more devoutly we study the 
 Word, the more we shall discover that, 
 like our I^ord's first advent, the present 
 revelation of grace is a necessary hid- 
 ing of God's true power ; new condi- 
 tions are necessary for a full disclosure. 
 When He comes again He will not 
 come in disguise, but in proper attire 
 and with proper attendance. He will 
 be revealed as never before. And all 
 spiritual truth and fadl, pertaining to 
 the believer, waits for His true epiph- 
 any, when His glory shall emerge 
 out of clouds into fulness of revela- 
 tion. We can only, like the Thessa- 
 lonians, ' * serve a?id wait. ' ' To the 
 most mature saint, that coming day is 
 
172 irn Cbrist 5esu0 
 
 to be as absolute a surprise as the 
 third heaven mysteries were to Paul. 
 God has something beyond all we 
 have conceived, waiting for us, at 
 Christ's appearing. The words used 
 to intimate it are the best human 
 language supplies, but the mold is 
 too small for the conception, and so 
 cramps it and so distorts it. We 
 must see in order to know^ and for 
 that vision we wait, with longing and 
 expedlant eyes, until the dazzling 
 splendor of the coming King shall 
 declare what no words can reveal or 
 unveil. 
 
VII 
 
 Summary of Tkaching in Kpisti^k 
 
 TO THB ThKSSALONIANS. 
 
 OF 
 
 ^^^tST 
 
 .Tttina- 
 
 '^^Z. 
 
 IN CHRIST 
 
 GLORIFIED. 
 
 Christ the Sphere of Victory 
 
 Over All Foes. 
 
 Sin, Antichrist, Satan, Death at 
 
 lyAST Vanquished. 
 
 The Sphere also of Final Glory. 
 
 The Hidden I^ife Manifested and 
 
 ^ \ Salvation Consummated at His Second 
 
 Advent. 
 
 Fruition of Hope, Victory Over 
 
 Grave. 
 
 Gathering Together Unto 
 
 Him. 
 
 Reward for Service. 
 
 ''/f: 
 
 '/o 
 
 "^nnqiJi^n •^\?^^ 
 
conclusion 175 
 
 VIII 
 
 CONCI.USION 
 
 As we review our studies of this seven- 
 fold group of letters to the early Chris- 
 tian disciples, we find, first, a very re- 
 markable completeness of presentation of 
 this great privilege of the believer. 
 He is IN Christ Jksus. In Him, he 
 finds a new sphere of life with seven- 
 fold blessing. First, justification with 
 its new standing and acceptance before 
 God. Second, sanctification with its 
 new power for holy living in the Spirit 
 of God. Third, fellowship with God 
 in the a(5lual pracftical walk in new- 
 ness of life. Fourth, exaltation to the 
 heavenlies in an earnest or foretaste of 
 a heavenly life. Fifth, compensation 
 for all present self-denials and suffer- 
 ings and renunciations for Christ's 
 
176 f n Cbrfst 5c5U0 
 
 sake. Sixth, identification with Christ 
 in His present hidden life at the right 
 hand of the Father. Seventh, glorifi- 
 cation when He comes to be admired 
 and adored of all His waiting body, 
 the members, whose manifestation 
 awaits His final epiphany as their head. 
 To this scarce anything could be 
 added. All that subsequent epistles 
 can do is to amplify what is here sug- 
 gested. 
 
 We notice also a marked progress of 
 thought which is the more remarkable 
 inasmuch as the canonical order of the 
 books we have studied is not their 
 chronological and historical or ^er. As 
 to the composition of these letters, 
 First Thessalonians, one of the last, 
 belongs first. We might almost say 
 the canonical order reverses the his- 
 torical. And yet the order of the teach- 
 ing, as we have seen, is exa(5lly cor- 
 respondent to the order of events in our 
 Lord's human life, so that we can not 
 
Concluafon 177 
 
 imagine these epistles to have fallen by- 
 accident into their existing arrange- 
 ment any more than ''a dropped 
 alphabet could be picked up, an Iliad, ' ' 
 or fragments of many-colored glass 
 could be thrown together into a mosaic. 
 Behind the order of these books, as 
 they appear in our New Testament, 
 must lie a guiding Hand. 
 
 Manifestly there are, in our Lord's 
 human and mediatorial life, seven 
 marked stages, which naturally asso- 
 ciate themselves with certain events 
 whose order is unchangeable: 
 
 1. His death, burial, and resur- 
 rec5lion. 
 
 2. His breathing of the indwelling 
 Spirit into His disciples. 
 
 3. His forty days of walk in resur- 
 rection newness of life. 
 
 4. His ascension to the heavenlies 
 and gift of the Spirit in power. 
 
 5. His compensation for suffering in 
 the joy set before Him. 
 
178 Hn Cbrist ^csns 
 
 6. His session at the right hand of 
 God — the hidden life above. 
 
 7. His manifestation or final epiph- 
 any in His second advent. 
 
 But this is exadlly, and in every 
 particular, the order of thought as 
 found in these epistles, which, as we 
 have said, are not in the order of their 
 produdlion by the inspired writer. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Romans the 
 death, burial, and resurredlion of our 
 lyord are the center of the argument, 
 and are specially conspicuous. 
 
 In the two Epistles to the Corin- 
 thians, the grand controlling, per- 
 vading conception is that of the Holy 
 Spirit, as the very breath of God, 
 imparted to disciples, and becoming 
 in them the secret of holiness. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Galatians the 
 emphasis is upon the walk in the 
 Spirit, wherein the lusts of the flesh 
 are no longer fulfilled, and new liberty 
 is found for service. 
 
Conclusfon 179 
 
 In the Epistle to the Kphesians we 
 are taught that, in Christ, we are as- 
 cended into the heavenlies and, while 
 living on earth, essentially experience 
 heavenly joys. Notice here also the 
 emphasis upon the Pentecostal gift of 
 the Spirit, as the Spirit of Love and 
 Power. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Philippians, the 
 great thought is the joy set before us, 
 which makes all the best things of earth 
 to seem mere refuse and dross , to be 
 trodden under foot; and all partaking 
 of Christ's sufferings, nothing but an 
 occasion of rejoicing. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Colossians, we 
 see our privilege of being, in Christ, 
 seated at God's right hand, so that we 
 reckon on all future vicflories over sin 
 as already accomplished. 
 
 In the Epistles to the Thessalonians 
 our ultimate participation with our 
 ascended Lord in the glory of His reap- 
 pearing and the final triumph over 
 
180 fn Cbrlst ^cbvlb 
 
 death and the grave, are set be- 
 fore us. 
 
 It might be observed that this order 
 is conspicuously similar to that in the 
 Intercessory Prayer in John xvii, where 
 we are led on from the sanctity ^ or 
 separation unto God, of the believers, 
 to their unity with Christ and each 
 other, and then to their final beholding 
 and sharing of l^\s glory. 
 
 The present schemes for church unity 
 too often overlook the fadl that the 
 basis for all true unity must be found, 
 not in a new organization more com- 
 pact in character, but a new sanctifica- 
 tion, more complete in its nature. The 
 Epistle to the Kphesians first, of all the 
 epistles, unfolds the oneness of believers 
 in Christ Jesus. Paul ascribes to Him 
 the making one of both Jew and Gen- 
 tile, and the breaking down of the 
 middle wall of partition — that balus- 
 trade of stone separating the court of the 
 Gentiles from the Holy Place, beyond 
 
Concluaion 181 
 
 which it was death for any Gentile to 
 pass. And there was a further * * mid- 
 dle wall of partition," which excluded 
 even Jews from the court of priests, and 
 from the Holiest of All. Bph. ii : 14. 
 
 That epistle, which also in the fourth 
 chapter gives the septiform of Christian 
 unity, teaches us that it is a unity of the 
 Spirit, and only as that Spirit of God 
 is in adlual control, can there be a true 
 inward unity. Such unity as Christ 
 prayed for is dependent on sandlity, 
 and prepares for glory. Let us be con- 
 tent with no other — unification is not 
 always unity. 
 
 The companion thought to all this 
 is one which ministers to our highest 
 consolation and comfort: "Herein is 
 our love made perfedl that we may 
 have boldness in the Day of Judgment, 
 because, as He is, so are we in this 
 world." I. John, iv : 17. The only 
 way for lyove to be made perfe<5l, so as 
 to cast out fear, and so that we may 
 
182 f n Cbtfst 5CSU6 
 
 have boldness in the Day of Judgment, 
 is to remember and realize our complete 
 oneness with Him — that, as He is there, 
 so are we here; all that He is and has 
 attained, obtained, secured, by His 
 atoning death and holy obedience and 
 mediation, He is and has, as our repre- 
 sentative — the second Adam. 
 
 Neither the Day of Judgment nor 
 the day of reward is wholly future. 
 Every day is one of award. When- 
 ever we confront the Word of God, 
 His Holy Spirit, His law, our own con- 
 science, the all-knowing God himself, 
 we are in the virtual presence of His 
 mercy seat and judgment seat. And 
 in the midst of all the terrors of His 
 omniscient eye, there is but one de- 
 liverance from mortal fear — we are hi 
 Christ and identified with Him. God 
 sees us not as we are in ourselves, but 
 as we are in Christ Jesus ; and con- 
 demnation is impossible, as impossible 
 to us as to Him. And so, wonderful 
 
Conclusion 183 
 
 as it seems, because we are in Him, 
 His reward is ours, and to realize in 
 any measure our oneness with Him is 
 so far to anticipate and make present 
 in foretaste our day of coronation and 
 glorification. Our one aim should 
 therefore be a full appropriation by us 
 of all that is freely given to us, and 
 appropriated by God for us in our 
 Lord Jesus. We should seek to cast 
 out unbelief, and in faith receive and 
 enjoy all that our God has bestowed 
 and challenged us to claim as our own, 
 in Him. 
 
 The study of this subjedt, as thus 
 unfolded in these epistles, is 
 
 A study of salvation. This word is 
 used in the New Testament in at least 
 three very distinct and yet associated 
 senses: 
 
 1. Of an accomplished fact, Luke 
 xix 19. " This day is salvation come 
 to this house. ' ' 
 
 2. Of a process to be carried on 
 
184 iTn Cbrist 5e0U0 
 
 through life. Phil, ii : 12. "Work 
 out your own salvation, ' ' HaTEpydied^e, 
 work out thoroughly, carry to comple- 
 tion 
 
 3. Of a Ji7ial result in perfeBion in 
 glory. I. Peter i : 5 : '* Kept by the 
 power of God through faith unto sal- 
 vation, ready to be revealed in the last 
 day," aTtoxaXvcpBrjvai, to be brought 
 to light as something hitherto hidden. 
 
 It is worthy of particular notice that 
 the first and last are simply bestowed 
 by grace as a gift of God, not of our- 
 selves or having any diredl connec5lion 
 with our endeavors or cooperation. 
 But the second depends upon our joint 
 a(5lion with God. '' Work out your 
 own salvation, for it is God who 
 worketh in you both to will and to 
 work. ' ' All through, the salvation is 
 wholly a divine work; but it is beau- 
 tiful to observe how clearly defined in 
 each case, and how distindl, our atti- 
 tude is. When salvation comes to us 
 
Conclusfon 185 
 
 as to Zaccheus, our attitude is simply 
 that of the faith which receives, ac- 
 cepts, appropriates the gift of God. 
 The salvation, which we work out with 
 fear and trembling, demands a love re- 
 sponsive to God's love, and which 
 yields our will to His will, and leads 
 us to work as He works in us. The 
 salvation which He reserves for us and 
 reveals at the final advent of our lyord 
 in glory, is one upon which our hope 
 is to fix its gaze and which it is to 
 hold in perpetual contemplation. 
 
 Taken together these three give us 
 the complete conception of salvation. It 
 begins \xs. justification^ which is received 
 at once and forever as the free gift of 
 God by faith in Christ. The process 
 of salvation is sanctif cation, in which 
 our new love to God leads us to will 
 what He wills, and work out what He 
 works in. The completed and glorious 
 salvation, which awaits us at the last 
 day, is oui glorification, which our hope 
 
186 Hn Cbrist Jesus 
 
 is to anticipate and contemplate as a 
 final state of perfec5lion. 
 
 A comprehensive presentation of the 
 whole matter may be found in Titus ii : 
 11-13, which is a very conspicuous 
 statement of the entire work of Christ 
 in human salvation. Here are two 
 appearings or epiphanies of our I^ord. 
 At the first, there is a salvation 
 brought to all men ; at the second, 
 a salvation perfedted in glory for 
 saints ; and, between the two, there 
 lies the experience of the disciple 
 in this present evil age, when he is to 
 work out his own salvation — by deny- 
 ing himself ungodliness and every 
 worldly lust, and by living soberly 
 (as to himself), righteously (as to 
 other men) , and godly (as to God) . 
 
 No man has any proper sense of the 
 grandeur of Christ's work of salvation, 
 who does not apprehend the threefold 
 aspecfl of that work ; and much con- 
 fusion of ideas will be avoided so soon 
 
Conclusion 187 
 
 as we get these distindlions clearly 
 fixed in mind. 
 
 For example, how much needless 
 mystification has come from not proper- 
 ly understanding the two apparent con- 
 ditio7is of salvation in Paul's famous 
 ' ' word ' ' or message ' * of faith ' ' in 
 Romans x : 8, 9, lo. Here inquirers 
 after salvation have often stumbled, 
 because confession with the mouth 
 seems coupled with belief in the heart, 
 as though the two were equally 
 necessary to salvation ; whereas, in no 
 other case is confession thus made 
 essential. For example, Philip told 
 the eunuch, Acts viii : 37 : "If 
 thou believest with all thine heart 
 thou mayest." And Paul told the 
 Philippian jailer (Acts xvi : 30, 31) : 
 * ' Believe on the lyord Jesus Christ and 
 thou shalt be saved." There is no 
 mistaking New Testament teaching on 
 this point. See Adls xiii : 38, 39, 
 where Paul in the synagogue at 
 
188 f n Cbrtet 5csu0 
 
 Antioch in Pisidia says : "By Him 
 all that believe are justified from all 
 things." 
 
 How then can this same Paul 
 teach Roman Christians that confes- 
 sion with the mouth is essential to 
 salvation ? 
 
 If we notice carefully the language 
 he used, we shall see that the reference 
 is not the same, in the two parts of his 
 message. 
 
 The message of faith : With the 
 heart man believeth unto righteous- 
 ness, and with the mouth confession is 
 made unto salvation ; the former is 
 the salvation that comes at once to 
 faith — righteousness mainly in the 
 sense of justification ; the other salva- 
 tion is that which is to be worked out 
 by us in obedience and conformity to 
 God, and, of this obedience, confession 
 is the first great adl. Hence also Paul 
 says, if thou shalt confess with thy 
 mouth Jesus as Lord — that is as adlual 
 
Concluefon 189 
 
 ruler and sovereign of thy whole self — 
 thou shalt be saved. 
 
 Again let us observe the growth of 
 this complete salvation. Justification 
 is instant deliverance from the penalty 
 of sin ; sandlification is progressive 
 deliverance from the power of sin ; 
 glorification is final deliverance from 
 \he. presence of sin. 
 
 How blessed pradlically to learn this 
 holy lesson ! We first repent of sin 
 and believe on the name of the Son of 
 God. We have thus immediate salva- 
 tion. We are accepted in the beloved 
 and have new standing by grace, out 
 of the reach of all condemnation and 
 judgment. And now, as saved saints, 
 we are to begin a life of new and lov- 
 ing conformity to the will of God. 
 We are first of all to confess Him as 
 both Savior and Sovereign, Prophet, 
 Priest, and King. Then we are to 
 study conformity to His will and con- 
 secration to His service, and so grow 
 
190 iTn Cbrfet 5e0U0 
 
 in grace and knowledge of Himself, 
 changed into His image from one 
 degree of grace and glory to another ; 
 and so we shall find our salvation itself 
 growing; we shall be saved from the 
 dominion of sin, the sway of self, from 
 unfruitfulness and unfaithfulness, and 
 saved from final apostasy. 
 
 And when He comes again our 
 blessed hope will find fruition in the 
 perfection of a faultless as well as 
 blameless charac5ler, and a perfec5l con- 
 dition of heavenly bliss and glory. 
 
 Such is the salvation found in Him 
 who is the sphere of the believer's life, 
 the objedl of his justifying faith, his 
 sandlifying love, his glorifying hope. 
 Where else has any such salvation 
 been found, ofiered, or even sug- 
 gested ? We hear much of the other 
 * ' great religions of the world, ' ' but 
 not one of them has even hinted 
 the possibility of such a salvation. 
 For that the race had to wait for a 
 
Conclusion i9i 
 
 diredl revelation from God out of 
 heaven. 
 
 One thought remains to be con- 
 sidered : the conditions of our entrance 
 into this sphere of being. How am I 
 to get into Christ Jesus and so abide 
 in Him ? There are two sides to this 
 matter: hy faith as my own adl, by re- 
 generation as God's adl. On the one 
 hand I repent of sin, and trust in Him 
 as my Savior. I deliberately choose 
 to be in Him, in Him to live and move 
 and have my being, to have Him sur- 
 rounding and separating me from all 
 else unto Himself, and providing me 
 in Himself with all my needs and de- 
 sires, and protedling me in Himself 
 from all my fears and foes. But all 
 this would not introduce me into 
 Christ as the new sphere of my life, 
 but for the power of God. It is not 
 enough to enter a new sphere of life. 
 I must have capacity to live in that 
 new sphere and to breathe its atmos- 
 
192 irn Cbrl0t 5e6U0 
 
 phere. Every form of life has its 
 sphere, and requires adaptation to it. 
 As we have already seen, what is life 
 to one animal may be death to an- 
 other, and reversely. If the bird is to 
 live in the water, it needs gills; if the 
 fish is to live in the air, it needs lungs. 
 Every sphere of existence has its laws, 
 and demands adaptation of nature to 
 enter into and live in the new element. 
 Hence He who created us must re- 
 create us, giving us the power or 
 right to enter this new sphere of being, 
 and the power or capacity to receive and 
 enjoy life in Christ Jesus. Both sides 
 of this great matter are presented to 
 us in one or two verses in John i : 12, 
 13, " As many as received Him^ even 
 to them that believe on His name^ to 
 them gave He power (right or au- 
 thority) to become the sons of God; 
 which were born not of blood, nor of 
 the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man , but of God . ' ' Here the believing 
 
Conclusion 193 
 
 or receiving is the human adt of faith, 
 and the giving of power or capacity 
 to become sons of God, to be born of 
 God, is regeneration, the Divine adl of 
 new birth. 
 
 What a privilege to be thus insphered 
 in Christ ! Who can describe the 
 security, the absolute safety of a dis- 
 ciple who abides in Him ? The more 
 we search into the wonderful Word of 
 God, the more shall we be persuaded 
 that there are concentric circles about 
 God, and that the closer we get and 
 keep to Him as center, the more im- 
 munity we shall have from evils of 
 every sort. In the inmost circle of 
 intimate fellowship perhaps no saint 
 has ever yet dwelt. But who can 
 limit the possibilities of a holy life ? 
 What closeness of union and com- 
 munion may yet remain to be enjoyed 
 by some who more completely than 
 has ever yet been realized, hide them- 
 selves in the pavilion of God and abide 
 
194 Hn Cbrtet 5e0ug 
 
 in the secret place of the most high, 
 under the shadow of the Almighty, 
 covered with His breast feathers and 
 trusting under His wings! Psalm xci. 
 
 The whole challenge of our theme is 
 in the direcflion of 2, full conformity to 
 Christ. And what is conformity, but 
 transformity ! Rom. xii : 2. To be 
 conformed is to be transformed, to be 
 so assimilated to God as to lose one's 
 spiritual separation from Him. 
 
 Dr. Edward Judson calls attention to 
 a sort of fish, or water animal, ' ' which 
 resembles seagrass, and hides itself in 
 the midst of marine vegetation. Below 
 is the head, looking like the bulb of 
 the plant, and above is the body and 
 the tail, looking like the blade of sea- 
 grass. The ocean currents sway the 
 fish and the grass alike, and so the 
 little fish escapes being devoured by 
 its enemies. It swims along, and one 
 can hardly perceive where fish leaves oflf 
 and the grass begins, so perfedl is the 
 
Conclusion 195 
 
 disguise. So a great many Christians* 
 lives are so blended with the world that 
 they can not easily be distinguished. 
 They are swayed by worldly maxims 
 and habits; they share with the world in 
 its sinful pleasures. The difference 
 between such Christians and worldlings 
 is not apparent. If this is the kind of 
 Christian life you are living, you need 
 not be afraid of persecution; the world 
 wiU not think it worth while to molest 
 such a Christian as that. You will not 
 know what it is to drink of the cup 
 that Christ drank of, and to be baptized 
 with the baptism that He was baptized 
 with. But let a man come out into the 
 front, let him engage in some aggres- 
 sive Christian work, and he will meet 
 the same opposition which was experi- 
 enced by the One who said: * I came 
 not to send peace, but a sword.' " 
 
 May we not add, that it is the privi- 
 lege of a disciple, on the other hand, to 
 be so insphered in Christ as to be identi- 
 
196 ITn Cbrfat ^esus 
 
 fied with and inseparable from Him, 
 so that it may be a grand fadl, ' ' For 
 to me, to live is Christy Oh, that the 
 child of God might be so assimilated to 
 Him that he could no longer be dis- 
 tinguished from Him in characfter and 
 life! 
 
 What a life that would be that mor- 
 tifies all that is evil and unlawful, and 
 sancftifies all that is lawful and good. 
 
 Surely it is high time for believers 
 to awake out of sleep ! What awful 
 apathy and lethargy exist in the matter 
 of spiritual life and power and vi(5lory ! 
 If such final glory and triumph are 
 assured in Christ Jesus, may not the 
 very promise and /n^i^^c/ of such vic- 
 tory, the assurance of such a destiny, 
 inspire and insure present holy living ! 
 These Thessalonians turned from idols 
 to serve the living God and to w^ait for 
 His Son from heaven. They served 
 the better because they waited. Hope 
 readied on faith and love and obedi- 
 
Conclueion 197 
 
 ence. No believer can truly believe 
 that such final perfedlion of chara<5ler, 
 conquest, and reward is before him 
 without being a stronger, better, 
 holier man for the outlook. And the 
 close of the first epistle is the sublime 
 expression of this argument. 
 
 " Abstain from every form of evil, 
 And the very God of Peace 
 
 Sandlify you wholly. 
 And your whole spirit, soul, and body be pre- 
 served blameless 
 Unto the com.ing of our I^ord Jesus Christ. 
 Faithful is He that calleth you, 
 
 WHO ALSO WILL DO IT." 
 
VIII 
 
 Genkrai. Summary of Tkaching 
 Romans to Thkssai.onians. 
 
 ^^^ OF CHR:^^ 
 
 %** ^^^-"^""^ '""'^'^^^ & 
 
 ^ ^^ IN CHRIST ^\,\^ 
 JUSTIFIED, SANCTI- 
 FIED, CRUCIFIED, ASCEND- 
 ED, SATISFIED, COMPLETE, 
 GI.ORIFIED. 
 Christ the Sphere of 
 Justification, Sanctification, Newness 
 OF lyiFE, Heavenly Foretaste, Compen- 
 sation, Completeness, Glorification. 
 Believer Identified with 
 His Death and Resurrection, His 
 Holy Spirit, His " Forty Days, 
 His Ascension, His Joy After Suf- 
 fering, His Seat at God's 
 Right Hand, His Second 
 
 
 "^ Xw Coming. 
 
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