The Word teaches us very
clearly that Christ has been taken right out of this old creation
and set at God's right hand in the heavenlies. On the other hand,
it shows us that His being there, and our being in spiritual
union with Him, means that for all spiritual purposes and
resources, we also are in the heavenlies in Christ. Of this truth
there are, again, two sides.
There is the side of what
Christ means to us in heaven as our own fulness; that is, as
fulness for our own spiritual lives. There is also the side of
what Christ being in heaven means as to our vocation, our
ministry, our service.
It may be that we shall not
deal with all that ground at this time, but we might consider
very briefly, and in as simple a way as possible, the former of
these two.
Baptism is union with Christ in
death, burial and resurrection. It is the dividing line where the
old things have passed away, and where all have become new; where
the things which have been, in the main, out from ourselves and
out from the world, have been concluded, and the all things out
from God have had their commencement. That is the Testimony which
we bear in our baptism, and it brings Christ into view in a very
full, rich, and blessed way; in the four ways in which we need to
know Him.
This may be illustrated for us
by Israel's own history, the history which was divided at the
Jordan. We have first those forty years of failing to enter by a
living faith into the full provision of God, and of struggling,
striving to live in self-satisfaction, self-pleasing,
self-gratification, self-glory, the many-sided self life. The
uppermost factor of the forty years is undoubtedly the self-life
of Israel. In spite of all the Divine presence, and the Divine
provision, self is in evidence, and self has certainly not been
put out of sight. Hence there is a history of disappointment, of
failure, of spiritual tragedy. Then there was the Jordan, and a
new history; all things new. The features of that new life are
the features of Christ in heaven for us, when we come by way of
the Cross into heavenly union with Him. We look, then, to see
what those features were and are, as illustrated in Israel's
case.
1. Christ our
Fulness
Deuteronomy 8 gives us the
first. There we have the great presentation of the wealth of the
land. The Word says it was "a good land," a land "flowing
with milk and honey," a land of oil, a land of springs of
water, a land out of whose hills they were to dig brass. It
speaks of fulness of every kind, of resource.
But even it, as a type, pales
before the antitype, and comes far short of that which it is
intended to represent and illustrate. When we come to the
antitype and spiritual counterpart, we can hear one saying
"O the depth of the riches... how unsearchable... past
finding out" (Rom. 11:33): "...in him dwelleth all the
fulness... and in him ye are made full" (Col. 2:9-10). The
Lord Jesus is a rich land, a wealthy land, a land of every kind
of resource.
That is the other side of
Jordan, not on this earth but, spiritually, above. The statement
which sets that forth is Ephes. 1:3 "...who hath blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ."
Familiar as these words and
these thoughts are to us, there are tremendous possibilities of
freshness, and newness, about the enjoyment of these things. I
submit to you quite simply and definitely, that this is the
Christ of the new creation in Whom we are by faith. All this is
gathered up into Him - the new creation in its boundless
resources of spiritual wealth at our disposal, at our command, to
our account, for us - "in him ye are made full,"
"...every spiritual blessing... in Christ." If there is
no fresh glimmer of light and glory associated with the
reiteration of this truth, there is all the more reason why we
should ask the Lord what has happened to us, that we could
contemplate such a thing without a stirring of heart. Now, is
that our Christ, the Christ of our experience, the Christ of our
knowledge? Are we living in the realisation of that, not to its
fulness - because that fulness will never be exhausted - but in
the wonder of the fulness which lies before? - a land flowing
with milk and honey, a good land indeed. Any fresh contemplation
of our Lord in this way should ravish our hearts: Christ, the
fulness of spiritual blessing now, the Sphere of our
experience, our exploring, our enjoyment, our satisfaction. That
is heavenly union with the Lord Jesus. Anybody who is in that is
in heaven. You have not to define and explain to such people what
it means to be in the heavenlies in Christ. They know of what you
are speaking. Spiritual geography is understood by those who walk
up and down in Him and enjoy His fulness.
If you are not there, all that
we can do is to be like the spies, and report upon it, and it is
left with you to say whether you are going in or not. It is left
to the crisis of faith or unbelief, just as it was of old. Do you
believe that that is the Christ Whom God has presented as the
Sphere of your life? If so, go up and possess; appropriate by
faith the fulness that is in Christ for every need which arises,
for every demand which confronts you. Break free from any kind of
stereotyped demands in the realm of special ministry. That may be
the true requirement of some; but every one of us knows from day
to day within our own life, without going outside into a circle
beyond our own personal spiritual life, that we must be in the
place of enjoying the Lord, having our own personal spiritual
need met by Him. Then we must go in and possess. Let us face the
whole issue in this definite way: Lord, it is clearly represented
in the Word that You are the fulness of God for me! Here is a
need, a spiritual need. In order that You should be glorified in
me, I by faith take You to meet this need! That is very simple.
That is almost the infant class of things, but it is a very
effective way of proving the Lord. Do not sink back afterward and
decline into discouragement and say, Nothing has happened! Stand
your ground just as Israel had to stand their ground and prove
thereby that the Lord had indeed given. They never knew
experimental enjoyment, until they in faith had stood upon the
gift and said it was theirs, and held on to it as theirs.
Sometimes you have to dispute your rights in Christ with the
enemy. He tries to take it, to drag it away, and rob you of it;
but you have to hold on, and say, This is mine! So that the first
presentation is Christ as our wealth, our exceeding great reward,
our riches, our fulness.
2. Christ our
Victory
The next is that which is
represented by Jericho. Jericho is a matchless example and
illustration of what Christ is to faith in the realm of victory.
Jericho undoubtedly links with Jordan. Jordan represents God's
miracle by which all things are secured on resurrection and
ascension ground: and the Lord is saying, in effect, Now that you
are on that ground, you have not to fight the battle of Calvary
all over again; the battle has been fought. The holding up of the
mighty waters of Jordan; the cleaving through the powers which
could overwhelm, and drown, and destroy; the resistance, the
overpowering might of God, as represented in the Jordan; the
exceeding greatness of His power in making the place of death the
place of life; all that is the scene of the full victory which
for ever after is to be enjoyed, not by way of fighting for it,
but by way of standing in it. Jericho was never a fighting for
victory; Jericho ever witnesses to standing in a victory. You see
how utterly the old creation is eliminated from a Jericho
campaign.
Nowadays, in the natural realm,
if you are going to seek to capture a city, you do not walk
round it once a day and go home, and do that for seven days in
the week. That is not the way of nature. You bring up all the
resources at your command, every force at your disposal. You
employ all the natural means you have, and focus everything upon
the situation. Jericho was a scene where natural methods, natural
means, natural processes were ruled out entirely. The people of
that country, who were used to other kinds of warfare, no doubt
looked over the wall and thought these people exceedingly
foolish. Among themselves they must have reasoned, What do they
expect to gain by that? They saw the children of Israel come out
in the morning, and perhaps they expected there would be a stiff
fight, but they watched them walk round without saying a word.
Israel walked round quietly and silently, and went home again:
and that seemingly was all that took place. The next morning
Israel came out in the same way, and the people probably
exclaimed, Here they come again! What are they going to do today?
And in their perplexity Israel's foes must have thought, This is
a strange way of making war! The next day Israel went round again
as before.
You see how utterly foolish to
this world is the wisdom of God, and how utterly weak to this
world is the power of God. Christ crucified is the wisdom of God
and the power of God. The old creation is set aside, and a new
position, a heavenly position, is brought in. We know the sequel
proved the power of God. They were not, then, fighting for a
victory at Jericho; they were standing by faith in a victory
already won.
That was the basis of their
conquest of the land. There were seven days, a day for a nation.
Principalities and powers were falling, while they silently
walked round. Oh, the mighty power of a living faith in a
victorious Lord because of His Cross! A nation fallen in a day,
and that while a people silently moved in faith in what Calvary
had already done. Seven days and the whole land is boxed! Seven
times round and the gate is open, and they go up into the land!
If ever an old creation element comes back, as it does sometimes,
there is arrest. But whenever the old creation elements are kept
out, there is progress.
That is Christ in heaven, our
full and inclusive victory. I glory in this fact, that now Christ
in heaven is far above all rule, and authority, and principality
and power. Jordan meant that all those nations were already
defeated under the power of God, and faith entered into what had
already taken place. God hath set Christ at His Own right hand,
far above all, and faith brings about the manifest downfall of
the nations, whose downfall has been brought about by Him in His
Cross; that is, as to the spiritual hierarchies that govern them.
Christ is our complete victory in the whole spiritual realm. Do
we believe that? We do not believe it sufficiently. Our
difficulty is to arrive at that, but that is the position. If the
Word of God means anything, that is the truth.
3. Christ our
Sustenance
Then the Word says that, when
they went into the land on a certain day, the manna ceased, and
they did eat of the old corn of the land. We will only stay for
one word on that. It is a word which comes to us in the New
Testament, with which we are very familiar: "When Christ,
who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him
be manifested in glory" (Col. 3:4). Christ will be
manifested from heaven, but as Christ in heaven He is our life.
We understand "the old corn of the land" to be Christ
in His ascended, heavenly place as the life of a heavenly people.
The manna was for the wilderness, but the old corn for the land.
The latter speaks of Christ in resurrection. It is not Christ
coming down from heaven to us as an earthly people now, but
Christ as sustaining us in a heavenly position. The truth is that
Christ can keep us in a heavenly place, can maintain us there in
the "above all" position.
4. Christ our
Rest
We know what the third and
fourth chapters of the letter to the Hebrews have to say about
their going in. Those who failed to go in failed, it says, to
enter into His rest. Those to whom the Gospel was afore preached
failed to enter in. That is remarkable! The Gospel was preached
to them. These are they to whom the Gospel was afore preached.
What is the Gospel? To answer the inquiry in that connection, it
is Christ as our rest. That is the Gospel: and the Gospel of
Christ as our rest was preached to them in type, and they to whom
the Gospel was afore preached failed to enter in. Then, says the
Apostle, "Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that
rest, that no man fall after the same example of
disobedience." They failed! God set forth another day,
saying, "Today if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your
hearts..." The Gospel is preached to believers to enter into
His rest. The Lord Jesus put this in the germ form of truth when
He said: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest
unto your souls." Christ in heaven is our spiritual rest,
heart rest.
What is the essence of rest? It
is satisfaction and assurance. If you are satisfied, you are at
rest, no matter how much work you have to do. And if you are
quite sure that your work is going to be successful, you have
assurance, and you are in rest. Everything for us is based upon
Christ having entered as the Forerunner, and having become our
Rest. We shall labour: we shall pour ourselves out; we shall
spend; we shall be spent; but in it all there can be real heart
rest. We shall be assailed: we shall be pressed on every side; we
shall be cast down; we shall be tried; but Christ can still
remain our rest: for in the first place, we know that these
things are not going to be to our destruction, since He has
destroyed the power of destruction; and, in the second place,
that our labours are not in vain, because He has swallowed up
death victoriously. He is our Rest.
Faith is the
Basis
Here you have the four sides of
Christ in heaven, and of what He is for us as there. Faith is the
ground upon which Christ as all that becomes real to us. Let us
ask the Lord to give us a real, spiritual, quick, living
apprehension of this great truth concerning our Lord Jesus, the
great realm of the new creation into which we are brought, and
let us apply it, practise it, put it into operation from day to
day.
You may have to go into a place
where there is not much spiritual wealth on the outside, not much
upon which to feed. Remember you have Christ, the whole land,
lying before you. You may have to go into scenes where there is
anything but rest, spiritual rest; where all is fret, care,
drive, strain. Remember that you are in the land; you are in
Christ; you have Him as your Rest. You may have to go into the
conflict, into the battle, into the tremendous activities of the
enemy to overthrow you. Remember you are in Christ, Who is
victory, complete, final victory. That remains true, whatever the
enemy may say about it.
Christ is all that we need for
a life which is glorifying to Him. It is what Christ is, what we
have in the new creation.