Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

by H. J. Vine.

“Let Him Boast”

1 Corinthians 1:31, N.Tr.

In what does this scripture ask us to boast? Certainly not in the state of the world! Its present condition has caused large numbers to abandon their former boastings as to its progress. Nor do the inspired words above quoted encourage us to boast in the assemblies, for the Spirit has pictured their downgrade state for us in Revelation 2 and 3 just as it is seen today. Much less are we exhorted to glory in ourselves, either naturally or spiritually. After showing that God’s way is to choose the despised of this world and set them in Christ, who is their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, the context tells us that He has thus acted so that no flesh should boast in His presence, but according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord.

God has made Him everything to us, therefore our boasting is to be in Him. This citation is from Jeremiah, who, when he spake of the sad state of Israel and its leaders, said, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understandeth and knows Me, that I am the Lord” (9:23-24).

Worldliness and worldly wisdom were dangers to the saints at Corinth; therefore the Apostle shows them that it was the worldly wise, the princes of this age, that crucified the Lord of glory; and He is the hidden wisdom of God, the One who is made wisdom to us who are in Christ Jesus. So he says, “If any one thinks himself to be wise among you in this world, let him become foolish that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise that they are vain. So let no one boast in men” (1 Cor. 3:18, 21). Why? Because we have the Lord Himself whom men crucified to boast in; and we belong to Him. And since we are His, the Apostle adds, “All things are ours. Ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

The way of the Lord is perfect, and this is the way that He has taken to make Christ everything to us. It is the right way and the best way, because it is His way; and surely the Lord is justified in taking His own way—the way that pleases Him. It may be that many neither understand nor appreciate this faultless way of divine grace, for we should surely see and hear more boasting in the Lord if they did. Nevertheless, God graciously saves and sets the soul free by the truth, so that our blessed Lord might be gloried in. Christ who was crucified is God’s power and God’s wisdom, and He takes up those who are little thought of to make Christ their wisdom and glory. Our prosperity and peace and joy are therefore to be found in this way: and since it is the way of the Lord, they can be found in none other. Therefore let him that boasts, boast in the Lord.

“Yea, boast in Him, our living Lord,

Whose glory fills our sight;

In Him whom men once crucified,

We’d find our great delight.”

It was the grace and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ which had brought about the marvellous change in the apostle himself—bringing a proud self-righteous overbearing man to turn from self and the things of self to glory in the Lord—to count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. In me, he said, that is in my flesh, good does not dwell. He, however, learned that all good and all excellency was in Him whom the world had rejected. He was now his sole commanding object. His heart had found in Christ that which made him to be “always rejoicing.” “Mercy was shown to me,” he wrote to Timothy, “that in me, the first, Jesus Christ might display the whole long-suffering, for a delineation of those about to believe on Him to eternal life.” Christ had saved him, the chief of sinners, and his glad heart gloried in Him who had shown such grace to him; and he says, “Now to the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, HONOUR AND GLORY TO THE AGES OF AGES. AMEN” (1 Tim. 1:17, N.Tr.). Zealous of the law he had been a persecutor of Christ: saved by grace he now boasted in Him.

And the same grace took others up for the same end—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and any of us who belong to Christ. The writer of the first gospel knew this well, for when he set out to write the history of the King he mentioned in the genealogy of chapter 1 four women who could but be “debtors to grace alone” as placed in such regal associations. And Matthew himself had great reason to glory in the Lord—in the King of Israel; for, as a farmer of taxes for the Romans, he would be considered a lawless person by the leaders of the nation of Israel, and beneath their notice. Yet the true Head of the nation graciously called Levi. Such is the way of divine grace. With nothing to boast of in himself, and considered disloyal, he is used to give us the loyal and beautiful gospel of Israel’s King.

Mark, too, must have specially entered into the theme which the Spirit inspired him to write of, on the same principle of grace. His is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Servant. In the Acts Mark is distinguished as the one who turned back from the path of service, and left Paul and Barnabas. Afterwards, “Paul thought it not well to take with them him who had abandoned them, going back from Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work” (Acts 15:38). When taken up again by God for the service of giving us the gospel of the perfect Workman, how his heart would glory in Him whose faithful service was such a contrast to his own. The Spirit used him to unfold this in a most striking manner.

Luke is another blessed example. With what God-given elegance and beauty does his pen trace for us the Man of all perfection here upon the earth—the Man amongst men! And why should Luke be thus honoured of God for this wonderful service? He was a gentile—the only gentile used by the Spirit to write in the holy pages of the inspired volume. The gentiles were called dogs, and heathen; and it is out of this mass of human imperfection, so despised by the Jews, that grace takes hold on one to show the perfection of Jesus as Man. And his Gospel specially illustrates the teaching of “the apostle to the gentiles.” Well might Luke rejoice in the grace that had taken him up, and glory in the perfect Man of whom he said, He was filled with wisdom and God’s grace was upon Him.

And lastly John. What a vessel of divine grace was he! His brother James and himself were called the sons of thunder. They were characterized by a strong sense of God’s judgment against sin and rebellion. They could not brook even an apparent slight against divine authority. John forbad another, who cast out demons in the name of the Lord Jesus, because he did not keep the company of the disciples, and he received the Lord’s correction forthwith. Both James and John were also rebuked for desiring the Lord to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans who did not receive Him. “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,” He said to them. But divine grace had its way, and John was moulded and mellowed, and brought to rest on the bosom of Jesus, the Son of the Father’s love. Then with a depth of delight and glory which is unparalleled, he penned the gospel of the Word who was God.

Grace brought them all to glory in the Lord—to boast in Him! They had nothing in themselves to boast in, and the heart needs something, or rather some one—a worthy object; therefore He is the One provided for this purpose. He that glories in men is not wise; and he that boasteth in himself is a fool.

It is because there is so much of this that the very word boast sounds a little out of place at first; but it is that which the Spirit of Truth has used for our edification, and we do well to seize hold of the forcefulness and healthfulness of it as so used—“Let him that boasts, boast in the Lord.” We have good reason to do so. We were far from God once, but now in Christ Jesus we are become nigh. The judgment due to our sins would have sunk us to eternal depths of woe, but Christ bore our sins and their judgment away on the cross, and has secured an eternal redemption and an eternal inheritance in glory for us. We were under the authority of darkness even when ignorant of it, but our Lord Jesus Christ went into death to overthrow his power and deliver us, and we are now translated into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love, who is the image of the invisible God. Strangers once to the rich promises of grace, we are now fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Corner-stone. We were once darkness, but now light in the Lord—in Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour—in Him who is now exalted to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, who is Lord over all. Yes, we have indeed good cause to boast in Him.

Rejoice! O my soul, in thy gracious and glorious Redeemer! Art thou asked, What wisdom hast thou for the service of God?—Where is it found? Answer by pointing to Him who is the wisdom of God! Do they inquire of thee as to the righteousness which is thine for His holy Presence? Point again to Him who ever lives before His face! And should any one question the holiness and sanctification which thou rejoicest in, turn the questioner again to thy Lord and Saviour! Yea, and still point to Him should a question ever be raised as to the full and eternal redemption which is thine through grace divine! Delight thyself, O thou soul of mine, in the unmeasured wealth of heavenly favour which is declared to be ours, in the blessed words of the Spirit of Truth, “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification (or holiness), and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let Him boast in the Lord.”

Leviticus and Hebrews

Nearness and Response

One of the great distinctions of this third book of the Bible is found in the name given by Leah to her third son. She called him Levi, which means joined or united, for she said, “Now this time will my husband be joined unto me!”

The near place of the Levites is seen in the fact that they were joined to Aaron (who was of the same family), the high priest who could enter the holiest on the ground of blood-shedding. The Lord said to him, thy brethren of the tribe of Levi shall be “joined unto thee” (Num. 18:2, 4). We are also told that He said of the Levites, “Instead of the first-born of all the children of Israel have I taken them unto Me,” and yet they are rarely mentioned separately in Leviticus, where the priests, the sons of Aaron, are prominent.

Joined to Aaron, and representing the Children of Israel, the Levites kept the charge of the tabernacle; and nearness in relation to the presence of the Lord is indicated in Leviticus 1:1, for Jehovah is not there speaking from a burning thorn-bush, or from a quaking mount which filled the people with fear, but “out of the tabernacle”! There His presence was known, there His holiness was vindicated by sacrifice, there response to His redeeming work was shown in sweet-savour offerings, there the high priest bore the names of all upon his breast and upon his shoulders immediately before God; and, in relation to this holy nearness in the tabernacle, every detail of daily life was correspondingly ordered.

In this day of God’s saving grace, when the assembly in Christ is being called out, those who have eternal redemption in Him through His precious blood are brought into the reality of what was so strikingly typified in Israel. They were redeemed from Egyptian bondage, and they offered what pointed onward to the present “sacrifice of praise,” thanksgiving and worship—the “spiritual sacrifices” which are offered up by Jesus Christ, having been “made nigh” in Him. So intimate is the present nearness, we read, “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit”; and, “Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren”; yea, still more closely are they “joined” or “united” to Himself, they “are members of His body”!

“So nigh, so very nigh to God,

we cannot nearer be,

For in the Person of His Son,

we are as near as He.”

Aaron might represent Israel before Jehovah, but the Son of God now brings us into the presence of the Father. Through Him we have access to the Father by the Spirit. “Much more” does “the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,” purge the conscience from the merely “dead works” (like those of Israel) to “serve the living and true God” with the sweet-Savour offerings of praise and worship, for the worshippers of today being once purged have “no more conscience of sins.” CHRIST is their one and only High Priest now, and He has “gone into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God FOR US” (Heb. 9:24). Everything in the holiest spoke of Christ in diverse ways. The ark, the mercy seat, the gold, the purple, the scarlet, the fine twined linen yea, and the very tabernacle itself signified His glories in various aspects.

“In Him we every glory view,

Of safety, strength and beauty too;

’Tis all our rest and peace to set

Our Sanctuary, Lord, in Thee”

Contrasting what is now ours permanently with what went before, we find that Leviticus foreshadowed what we have the substance of in Hebrews. It is true, both Leviticus and Hebrews speak of the tabernacle, but the latter of “the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man”! Both speak of Moses, but the latter of Him who is “counted worthy of greater glory than Moses”! Both speak of Aaron, but the latter of God’s Son, “a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedec” who was king as well as priest! Both speak of sacrifices, but the latter of the “one Sacrifice for sins” which needs no repetition! Both speak of sacrifice for sin, but the latter of Him who “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”! Both speak of offerings to God, but, while the farmer speaks of the priest that “standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,” the latter tells of Christ who offered one sacrifice and “sat down in perpetuity at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12, N.Tr.)!

“In God’s own presence now for us

The Saviour doth appear,

The saints as jewels on His heart,

Jesus doth ever bear.”

The beautiful prefigurings given to us by the Holy Spirit in Leviticus help us greatly to understand the present things which are ours in Christ. Great indeed, however, are the contrasts between, the two! In the offerings of old God found no pleasure, we are told, but in the one perfect offering of Christ He has found complete satisfaction! There was no seat provided for the priest of old, but God said to His Son, “Sit Thou on My right hand”! The One who offered Himself has now the most exalted seat in the universe, and He is our “GREAT PRIEST over the house of God”! Perfect is the peace, eternal the rest and holy the boldness which are consequently ours in His presence. God’s holiness has been perfectly met in the one Sacrifice! He can therefore say of us, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember NO MORE”! in contrast to the “remembrance again made of sins every year” (Heb. 10:3), the worshippers today being “once purged,” as we said, have “NO MORE conscience of sins” (v. 2)! and so satisfactorily has the work been done in regard to which Jesus has sat down, the Holy Spirit conclusively declares, “There is NO MORE offering for SIN”! No more remembrance of sins on God’s side! No more conscience of sins on the worshippers’ side! No more offering to be made on Christ’s side! Leviticus pointed on to a work to be done! Hebrews points back to a work finished! and also points up to the Completer of that work!

“High at God’s right hand is seated

Christ, the Lord, the living One,

All His toil on earth completed,

All His work for sinners done.

In the glory,

See Him! God’s Eternal Son!”

It took both Moses and Aaron to typify Christ, for He is both the Mediator and the High Priest; and, like Moses who spoke on God’s part, God’s Son has spoken the words of God; also, like Aaron who represented the people before God, Jesus represents us in His presence now. Moses and Aaron adorned with the garments of glory and the holy crown went inside together, so Christ has gone into heaven itself. He is the Holy One there, and He is there for us. Moreover, so great is He, where two or three are gathered together unto His Name He Himself is present. Visible glory filled the tabernacle in the wilderness, but Jesus Himself is in the midst of His own who are rightly gathered today. Faith recognizes His presence before we see Him in glory, and boldness is ours even now to enter into the holiest, boldness by the blood of Jesus! Full assurance of faith gives us to enter where He is.

Jehovah spake to the people by Moses, “Ye shall be holy: for I Jehovah your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). Every detail was ordered according to that. The without was to correspond with the within.

In chapter 1:1 He speaks “out of the tabernacle,” and in the last chapter all estimation is “after the shekel of the sanctuary” (27:3) The book begins with the burnt-offering ascending as a sweet savour to the Lord wherein the offerer is “accepted,” and it closes with persons and things being “holy unto the Lord”—the words “the Lord’s” and “holy unto the Lord” being repeated over and over again. This nearness and the response to Him are expressed in abundant offerings to the Lord, and in the divinely ordered details which He gave of instructions as to sweet-savour offerings and others also prefigured the work of Christ by which we draw nigh as worshippers today; and the ways which are well pleasing in His sight take character from this. In the case of Israel, Leviticus instructed them as to the minutest details, as to priestly consecration, as to food, uncleanness, relationships, separation, land, houses, cattle, etc., but in regard to the redeemed today much stands in contrast to what was said to Israel; and we read in Ephesians 2:2:10 that “we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” The practical details given in Ephesians flow from the knowledge of saving grace, whereas those in Leviticus from law; nevertheless they pointed forward to the “better” things of which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks.

When the glorious consummation of the wonderful designs of God is fully reached, we read, “Behold THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God,” Near to Him then for ever, there will be a full response to God in love and holiness, in praise and worship, and in every beautiful detail of living activity amidst scenes of stainless glory. All will be intimately and eternally “JOINED” TOGETHER in abiding splendour and grace.

Surveying the vast extent of the divine designs opened before our view, we see that the ruin in Genesis yielded the redemption in Exodus, and the redemption in Exodus yielded the tabernacle approach of Leviticus, which indicated vividly the present realities made ours through faith, and in the Spirit’s grace and power—realities entered into by faith now, and soon to be actually displayed in counselled glory, when God’s tabernacle is seen shining forth in heavenly brightness and blessedness.

Light Divine

God has graciously made the path of His will known for all His saints; others have made difficulties, and talk and write of the surrounding darkness as Newman did when about to go over to Rome, “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom.” J.N.Darby wrote the truth, “Light divine surrounds thy going.” There are difficulties, for the Scriptures recognize these as “perilous times,” but the saints are in the light, however feebly they apprehend it; and the truth is given to enable them to meet the difficult times. “The true light now shines” (1 John 2:8). Difficulties do not make the day dark; they should stimulate those who are “in the light” to overcome them in faith.

Light For All

Perhaps nothing has so effectively warped and dwarfed those who have been delivered from the world systems of religion like such expressions as “special light,” “more light,” “new light,” and “the light is with us.” This claiming of “light” above others is the cause of pride and hardness of spirit, plainly showing from whence it comes. It is remarkable that in his early efforts to seduce the saints from the simplicity that is in Christ SATAN appeared as AN ANGEL OF LIGHT (2 Cor. 11:14); not an angel of truth, be it noted; there is no truth in him, and where pride and hardness of spirit are, there is truth certainly lacking—for grace is only, found with truth. In view of this let us beware of talk of special light.

THE TRUE LIGHT shone forth amidst the darkness of this world when our Lord Jesus Christ came into it, and it shone for all, but the darkness did not apprehend it. But some discerned it and received Him and such were born of God. They believed on His Name, and the right was given them to take the place of God’s children. They came into the true light. This is true of all who have believed. No longer belonging to the darkness, we have been set in His marvellous light, in the light as God is in the light, on the ground of the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, which cleanses us from every sin. The apostle could write to those who had been reached by the gospel at Thessalonica, saying, “All ye are sons of the light and of the day; we are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the truth as well as the way and the life. He is also the true Light which men who walk in darkness hate. The children of God, however, have received Him, and there is no advance beyond Him. Let it be remembered, however, He shines for all, though all do not receive Him. Like the sun in the heavens, He is “the light of the world.” It is health—spiritual health—to recognize this. “The true light now shineth!”

The Spirit of God in the writings of John closes us up to Christ, the Son of God, encouraging us to abide in Him whom the world knows not; nevertheless if He speaks of Him as the taker-away of sin, it is the “sin of the world”; as the Saviour, He is “the Saviour of the world”; as the bread out of heaven, He gives His flesh “for the life of the world”; as the sent One, that “whosoever” believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life; or, as we have seen, as the true light, He is the light for all, “THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.”

Love in Redemption

In creation the eternal power and divinity of God are declared: in government His authority is displayed: in redemption His great love is revealed.

The present gospel of the grace of God has to do with the last; the future gospel of the kingdom with the second; and the everlasting gospel with the first. In its special bearing, this is also future.

The gospel of the present period, and that which is involved in it, is what we desire to speak of. The preaching of it is in the Acts of the Apostles and its teaching is in the Epistle to the Romans. The latter instructs us that those who have received the gospel are justified freely by God’s grace “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24). It was the love of God which planned and provided this redemption in Him.

Outside of Christ, the unbelieving remain “in sin.” This stands in contrast to being “in Christ,” just as being “in the flesh” is in contrast to being “in the Spirit.” The unbeliever is in sin, and sin is in him: the believer is not in sin, though sin is yet in him.

Now the redemption which is in Christ Jesus involves, eventually, the complete deliverance of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and also the deliverance of the inheritance, the purchased possession, where bondage is now through Satan’s power. The love of God has secured this eternal redemption in Christ Jesus righteously through Christ’s death; and believers, though still waiting for the redemption of their bodies, can say even now, In Christ we have redemption through His blood (Eph. 1:7). The redemption is theirs; and soon, the display of it will unfold the vast and varied riches of all that is now enfolded in it, to the praise of God’s glory; while our hearts shall rejoice in and praise the love which brought it all to pass; when spirit, soul and body shall reap the glorious results of that redeeming love.

Those who share in this were once like others—away from God and “in sin.” They were reached by the gospel of God’s grace;—called, and justified, they are brought to have part in these things by faith, even before they are actually glorified. Christ having stepped into their place in grace, He opened a way by His death and resurrection whereby they could come into His place now before God. He died to sin once, and now He lives to God. Those who are His can consequently reckon this change of position theirs, for He took it for them. So it is written, “Reckon ye yourselves also dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). It is in Him they are thus livingly brought into the good of redemption now before God; for the redemption is in Him in whom they are now alive to God.

Moreover, the wonderful gift of God is also in Christ Jesus. This we are told at the close of Romans 6. The gift of God, or the act of His favour, is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (N.Tr.). Promise having been made of life on God’s part, He has now secured this for those who were once in sin, through the death and resurrection of Christ. By man sin came, and death by sin: by man also, our Lord Jesus Christ, righteousness and life are secured; and, in free favour, God has now given to US eternal life in Him. The grace of God has over-abounded where sin abounded, that eternal life might be ours, and that through righteousness. It is ours now as God’s gift, though we await its fullness in glory. This life was necessary if we were to enter into the riches of redemption; and, eventually, those who receive this abundance of grace, and of the free gift of righteousness, shall “reign in life” by Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:17).

The love of God having thus wrought for those who were once guilty and subject to condemnation, they are now placed where there is no longer anything to condemn. They are

“IN CHRIST JESUS.”

“The love of God is commended toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Now He has raised Christ from the dead, all the sin and condemnation having been borne. There is now nothing to condemn in Him raised in life, and we are in Him. Redemption is in Christ Jesus, and we are there. (“CHRIST JESUS” is a name used of Jesus in resurrection.) Life is in Him, and there we now live to God. God’s gift to us is in Him, and we are there too. How naturally therefore those precious words of Romans 8:1 come to us, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

“NO CONDEMNATION, OH, MY SOUL ’TIS GOD WHO SPEAKS THE WORD.”

Before there could be any condemnation for one of His own, let it be said with reverence as with truth, the One in whom they are must be found subject to it Himself; but, thank God, that can never be. Nor is it only that we are clear of condemnation in Christ Jesus, for in Him we have the positive blessedness of God’s love as our present portion, even as the last verse of Romans 8 tells us, “The love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No condemnation for those in Him! but the love of God is theirs, and nought can separate them from it. Eternal praise to our redeeming God.

We may well glory in the Lord, boast in Christ Jesus, and be strong in the grace that is in Him! We have seen from Romans 3-8 that—

(1) Redemption is in Christ Jesus;

(2) We are alive to God in Him;

(3) God’s gift is in Christ Jesus;

(4) There is no condemnation there;

(5) But God’s love is in Him.

Redemption, as we have shown, has placed us where the love of God that planned it is; and it has done so in such wise that all the praise is to the glory of God’s grace, which is His love in activity, taking us into favour in His beloved Son. Each one of us therefore who knows this can say what the Apostle said concerning all those who belong to Christ, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In closing, it must be said, Though this belongs to all the saints, yet, if like Caleb and Joshua, we would rejoice in the wealthy Canaan freely given to us of God, communion with Him, as we abide in Christ, is to be maintained. Thus we shall dwell in divine love. Christ fed upon, as the One who went into death for us and rose again, is the food and strength of this communion, even as He said, “He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in Me and I in him.” Mark, it says, “Dwelleth!” not a happy visit on some special occasion, but—

“DWELLETH!”

This ends our reading for this session. Until next time, have a great day, and God bless.