Fundamental Truths of Salvation

By Edward Dennett

Chapter 10

STANDING AND RESPONSIBILITY.

No exposition of the salvation which is connected with faith in Christ would be complete, without some explanation of the perfect place of blessing into which we are thereby brought. There is little doubt indeed that many quickened souls are also kept in the bondage of doubt and anxiety through their ignorance of what Christ has really accomplished on their behalf; and it is perfectly certain that they can have no adequate apprehension of their responsibility without a knowledge of their position in Christ Jesus.

Every one understands that forgiveness of sins is the immediate portion of the believer in Christ. But great as is this blessing, it is but a small part of the provisions of grace. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ” (Rom. v. 1.) The very next verse speaks of two additional blessings: "access by faith into this grace in which we stand, " i.e. into the full favour of God in Christ; and “ rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, ” i.e. the full fruition and consummation of our present blessings. But these gifts of God's grace through Christ belong to us here, as justified men; and in the same way we can turn to other passages which speak of perfect and everlasting reconciliation. (See Col. i. 21, 22.) But there is something beyond all this; as indeed we partly saw when treating of " deliverance.”

What then is our standing, position, or place before God? It is in Christ where He is. Let us explain. We have seen (chap. viii.) that every believer is regarded by God as having died with Christ; that the apostle could write to the Colossians, “ Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ” (Col, iii. 3); and the context (v. 1) of the same passage speaks further of our " being risen with Christ. ” Turning to another epistle we get even more. “ But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. ” (Eph. ii. 4-6.) These expressions refer to something already accomplished, and we learn from them that, though we are still actually in the body on the earth, we are before God seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that the work of Christ on our behalf is so efficacious and wonderful, so God -glorifying, that God even now can righteously accord us a position in Christ in the heavenly places. For Christ “ has not only borne our sins, and died to sin, and closed the whole history of the old man in death, for those who believe, they having been crucified with Him; but He has glorified God in this work (John xiii. 31, 32; xvii. 4, 5), and so obtained a place for man in the glory of God, and a place of present positive acceptance, according to the nature and favour of God whom He has glorified; and that is our place before God. It is not only that the old man and his sins are all put out of God's sight, but we are in Christ before God.” Every believer therefore has been crucified with Christ, raised up with Him, and is now seated in Him in the heavenlies. He is thus taken altogether out of his old standing - his Adam standing; for “ he is not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in him (Rom. viii. 9); and his new standing is in Christ, and thus of necessity in Christ where He is. Hence too the measure of His acceptance is the acceptance of Christ; “for as He is so are we in this world. ” (1 John iv. 17.)

This is often very difficult for the young believer to understand. Be it therefore very distinctly noted that it is no question whatever of attainment or experience, that it belongs to every believer; and the difficulty will vanish if the eye be taken off from self and directed to Christ. If we look within, consider our weaknesses, failures, imperfections, sins, well might we be perplexed to understand how such imperfect ones, as we are practically, could have such a perfect and inalienable place before God. But when we look at Christ, at His precious blood, at what He was to God on the cross, and what He accomplished there, we instantly confess that He is worthy of the place He fills. Here is the whole secret. It is in His worthiness we stand. All that we were, as to the old nature, is gone from before God: Christ only remains, and we in Him. Our place, standing, is thus God's response to the worthiness, the merits, of His own Son. He can therefore righteously shelter us by the blood, bring us out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the Jordan, and set us down in Christ in the heavenlies.

And just because our standing is in Christ, it is unalterable and immutable. Knowing this, the completeness of our redemption, because of our union with that blessed One who is risen from among the dead, we have abiding confidence and peace. We may change, fluctuate in feeling and attainment, but Christ can never change; He is "the same yesterday, and to -day, and for ever. " (Heb. xiii. 8.) And hence, since our standing is in Him, we dwell for ever in the light and presence of God; for our home is before Him, though we may sometimes forget it; and where should we dwell but in our home? The more fully there fore we understand our true place and standing in Christ, the more familiar shall we be with the presence and glory of God.

But such a wondrous place or standing has its responsibilities; and it is to these we would now turn. As we have seen, we are in Christ before God; and, marvellous fact, Christ is in us down here (see John xv. 4; Gal. ii. 20; Eph. iii. 17; Col. i. 27, etc.), and this defines and measures our responsibilities; for if God has given us a place in Christ where He is, it is that we may exhibit Christ where we are. A few illustrations of this may be collected from the Scriptures. “ He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. ” (1 John ii. 6.) Taking this in its most general form, we may ask, And how did the Lord Jesus walk? Ever as the heavenly One upon the earth. As when speak ing to Nicodemus, He could say, " The Son of man which is in heaven” (John iii. 13), so was it during the whole of His earthly sojourn; for the life He lived was a heavenly life — as One who had come forth from the Father, revealing Him, and unfolding the perfectness of heaven upon earth. He could thus say, “ He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ” (John xiv. 9); for morally He was the perfect presentation of the Father. So ought we to walk - as belonging not to earth, but to heaven, and unfolding the ways of heaven upon earth— as samples of the heavenly character; for we are dead with Christ. We have not only died in Him to sin, but we have also died with Him from out of this scene in which we move, and have been raised together with Him. Our citizenship, or commonwealth, is in heaven (Phil. iii. 20), and in accordance with this character must be our lives. This responsibility is summed up, in its double aspect, by the apostle Paul when he says, “ Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus ' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Cor. iv. 10, 11.) Thus it is death on the one side, and life on the other: death as to all that we were in the flesh; life as to all that we are in Christ, or rather, Christ Himself as our life - manifested even in our mortal flesh. Hence the obligation to mortify our members which are upon the earth (Col. iii. 5) -an obligation which distinctly flows from the fact that our standing is in Christ risen. The apostle shows that he had apprehended the responsibility when he says, " To me to live is Christ " (Phil. i. 21); and just in proportion as we approximate to the ability to say the same thing will be our understanding of our true place in Christ.

Another form of our responsibility is found in the passage, “ Be ye therefore followers (imitators) of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Him self for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” (Eph. v. 1, 2.) The same thing is enforced by the apostle John. Herein we have known love, because He has laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John iii. 16.) We have also an example, in one particular direction, given in John xiii. After the Lord Jesus had washed the feet of His disciples, “ and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, (your) Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." (John xiii. 12-15.) The love of Christ therefore to us, even in yielding Himself up to death on our behalf, is proposed to us as our example. If He laid down His life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, love's uttermost expression, and this -- no degree short of this is our responsibility.

But mark the language of the first of the passages which we have cited; and see how carefully the Spirit of God has defined the character of the love which should also flow out from us, and thereby guarded it from degenerating into human kindness and amiability. It is, "As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet - smelling savour." While therefore we are under responsibility to love our brethren to the uttermost, God, and not they, is to be the object before our souls. It must be expressed as to Him; and can therefore only be expressed in the pathways of obedience. “ By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. ” (1 John v. 2.) Accordingly, our Lord's sacrifice of Himself is characterised as “ obedience unto death ” (Phil. ii. 8); and He Himself thus speaks of it: " I have power to lay it " (His life) “ down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. ” (John X. 18.) Thus Christ must be before our souls - Christ in motive as well as act, in treading in His path of love, in seeking to love one another, even as He hath loved us. (John xv. 12.)

The apostle Peter gives us another aspect of our responsibility in the presentation of Christ in walk, an aspect towards enemies or persecutors. “ If, when ye do well, and suffer (for it), ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. ” (1 Peter ii. 20–24.) It is thus Christ, in whatever way we look; for since He is our life, our responsibility is to live Christ. “ I am crucified with Christ: never theless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. ” (Gal. ii. 20.)

It may tend to simplify the whole subject, and aid in its apprehension, if we refer briefly to two other passages which treat of it in another form. Ephesians iv. 20-32, and Colossians iii. contain a number of practical exhortations which are all based upon our standing in Christ. We take the latter to indicate their general character. The first part of the chapter (Col. iii.) deals with our death and resurrection with Christ, on which we have already touched. Following upon this we have practical directions. Then the apostle lays the foundation of all. “ Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new (man), which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond (nor] free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, " etc. (Col. iii. 9-12.) Without entering upon a detailed exposition of the passage, it will be observed that the ground of the exhortations lies in the Colossian believers having “ put off the old man, ” and having “ put on the new. ” But when did they put off the old man? It was in the death of Christ that our old man (Adam) was crucified. (Rom. vi. 6.) And when did they put on the new man? In the resurrection of Christ. (Col. ii. 11-13; iii. 1-5.) And herein lies the whole of our responsibility. For if I, through grace, have put off the old man, my responsibility is, to live no longer according to the old man, but to mortify my members which are upon the earth; and if I have put on the new man, I am under the obligation to walk accordingly, For we have been brought, through the death and resurrection of Christ, out of the old state and standing in which Adam was all and in all, into the new, where Christ is all and in all. If there fore Christ in glory is the measure of my standing, He also is the measure of my responsibility, and these two things are always connected in the word of God, as they should also ever be connected in our own souls. “ If any man be in Christ, a new creature” (2 Cor. v. 17), i.e. he is brought into that new creation of which Christ is the beginning and the Head; and hence every believer is responsible to walk in accordance with the character of the place into which he is brought.

"O Lord! when we the path retrace
     Which Thou on earth hast trod,
To man Thy wondrous love and grace,
     Thy faithfulness to God;

Thy love, by man so sorely tried,
     Proved stronger than the grave;
The very spear that pierced Thy side
     Drew forth the blood to save;

Faithful amidst unfaithfulness,
     'Mid darkness only light,
Thou didst Thy Father's name confess,
     And in His will delight;

Unmoved by Satan's subtle wiles,
     Or suffering, shame, and loss,
Thy path, uncheered by earthly smiles,
     Led only to the cross:

We wonder at Thy lowly mind,
     And fain would like Thee be,
And all our rest and pleasure find
     In learning, Lord, of Thee."

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