Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

by H. J. Vine.

Pray Unceasingly

God has graciously unfolded to us the wonderful thoughts that filled His heart concerning His beloved Son before the ages of time began to roll. What exceeding grace is this, and what cause we have, in consequence, to lift up our hearts in joyful praise to Him!

A steady, strong saint of God is one who values this. He greatly rejoices in the purpose of God’s love in Christ. He knows that “the purpose of God according to election” must stand, and stand firmly; it cannot be moved. He also knows most surely that that purpose, so quickly ripening, will very soon be publicly manifested in great glory, fruitful to God’s eternal praise, and be presses forward to that day.

Pray with all Perseverance

In connection with this, however, we need to be on our guard against a Satanic subtlety which ensnares the minds of many in regard to prayer, stealthily steals into the unwatchful Carelessness as to persevering prayer. A kind of fatalism creeps into the spirit, into the believer’s heart. Cold correctness in terms and expressions may remain, and the truth of the Epistle to the Ephesians, that God works all things after the counsel of His own will, still be spoken of. Nevertheless, prayer becomes dull, formal, and selfishly narrow, lacking fervency, frequency, sympathy, and intelligent urgency. But the significant fact should be carefully noticed that it is in the Epistle to the Ephesians, in which the eternal purpose of God is spoken of, that we are warned in this very connection of the devil’s artifices. Praying in the Spirit “with all perseverance,” as well as at “all seasons,” is enjoined at the end of it, crowning a sevenfold list of invincible armour pieces, for preservation practically, in the present struggle (chapter 6).

It should also be remarked it is for “all the saints” that prayer is to be made. This will preserve us from a sectarian or party spirit, which is so fatal to the saintly warrior. We are also here told to pray that the “mystery of the gospel” may be boldly told out; and thus we shall be maintained in heart and mind with God in communion about both; and kept back from the selfish and hurtful narrowness which has so effectually enfeebled numbers of Christian soldiers. Boldness is indeed needed, for in its final issue, although the mystery of the glad tidings makes known an order of marvellous blessedness, it involves the eventual overthrow of the present system of nations. We may therefore well be told to pray with all perseverance.

Pray with Joy and Thanksgiving

It is also clear that prayer should not be despondent. It is to be persevering truly, yet to bring in a tone of despondency is to dishonour the One from whom we rightly expect. Paul spoke of “making request with joy.” This may well be the case with us also, knowing the all-sufficiency of our blessed God and Father upon whom we are happily dependent. He is able to do far exceedingly above all our asking, or even our thinking. Colossians 4:2 likewise tells us to “persevere in prayer,” but at the same time adding, “watch in the same with thanksgiving.” As we think of the grace and greatness of God our Father, we have good reason to pray with joy and with thanksgiving; yea, in all things to give thanks.

How grateful, too, it is to Him who loves us to see our hearts thus turning to Himself. He observes His own with divine interest and pleasure as they are journeying heavenward.

Sitting one day in a café I saw a young convert enter accompanied by two relatives. I knew of him, but be did not know me. I wondered if he would give thanks to God for his meal. I felt keenly for him. Young in the faith and surrounded by worldlings, I knew he would need to have divine courage. I was filled with joy as I saw him bow his head and give thanks to God. He had no idea that a sympathetic stranger was observing him; but how encouraging it is for us to know that our God and Father Himself lovingly observes His own, and values the prayers and thanksgivings and praises that rise from their hearts.

No Limitations

Many impose limitations as to prayer where God does not. We are to be always in the spirit of prayer, for we are exhorted to “pray unceasingly.” When we are thus characterized, our conduct and conversation, whilst always with grace, would be such that we could at once turn happily and reverently to God in prayer and speak freely to Him. The two short verses of 1 Thessalonians 5 are of immense importance, “Rejoice evermore. Pray unceasingly.” Prayer and joy travel happily together, hand in hand along the path of faith to the heavenly goal on high.

“Preserve me, O God,” our Lord Jesus Christ prayed as He trod the path; but He added, “My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth.” He saw also the goal before Him and continued, “Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16). We learn in Him who knew the purpose of God so intimately the importance of prayer.

Limitations as to place are also sometimes made, but in 1 Timothy 2:8 we read that men should “pray in every place,” whilst verse 1 exhorts that “all men” should be remembered; for our Saviour God desires that “all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.” The risen Man Christ Jesus, who once gave Himself a ransom for all, being now the one Mediator, the only Mediator of God and men. Prayer and thanksgiving is consequently to mark us for all men in every place.

Encouraged in Prayer

May it be ours to be encouraged by these scriptures in unceasing and persevering prayer; and may we make happy and intelligent progress in the same through the knowledge of our God and Father, from whom we may well ask with joy and confidence. There is no need to be discouraged. His resources are inexhaustible, and the armour provided is perfect and invincible. (1) The girdle of truth. (2) The breastplate of righteousness. (3) The preparation of the gospel of peace. (4) The shield of faith. (5) The helmet of salvation. (6) The sword of the Spirit, God’s Word. (7) PRAYER.

Our God is the “God of all encouragement,” as well as “the Father of compassions;” therefore, if we have been ensnared, or become careless, we can wake up now and give ourselves to prayer in the Spirit:

“WITH ALL PERSEVERANCE;”

“AT ALL SEASONS;”

“FOR ALL THE SAINTS;”

“FOR ALL MEN;”

“AND IN ALL PLACES.”

Very soon God’s purpose in Christ of everlasting glory will be seen bursting forth in beauty and splendour, brightening all with its blessed beams. To that gladsome time we are hastening onward; and now, if we would run well and worthily, prayer in the Spirit must be the breath which constantly and inspiringly fills the lungs of our souls: making us speed forward, superior to mundane and Satanic influences; giving us wing for flight and joyful communion with God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ on the journey.

“Haste thee on from grace to glory,

Armed by faith, and winged by prayer,

Heaven’s eternal day’s before thee

God’s right hand shall bring thee there.”

Rendered Fruitless

Many who once served the Lord well have been spoiled for His service and rendered fruitless by being caught by one or other of those evil currents that are flowing so strongly in Christendom, legality and lawlessness. Let us beware of them. I was travelling by train one summer evening to a neighbouring town with the gospel, and as I sat reading, a small silky seed carrier floated in through the open window and lighted upon my book. God had constructed that tiny carrier so that it should bear upon the Summer breeze the seed to which it was attached to suitable soil, that it might there become fruitful. The current of the express train, however, had caught it, and there it lay upon my book useless for the purpose for which it was made. I stuck it to the inside of the cover of my book, and prayed that I might not be caught in any of the evil currents which are running so strongly in Christendom today and that are rendering useless so many. The little seed carrier is still where I put it years ago. Fruit, a hundredfold or a thousand-fold, might have come from it by this time; but it is fruitless, and useless too, except as a warning to me and to you to keep clear of every evil current. All our salvation and preservation is in Christ Jesus.

Renewal

“Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

How encouraging for the weary, how cheering for the weak, how heartening for the heavily burdened, for those who faint by the way, to know that they may renew their spiritual energy and strength. Many a man whose health and physical strength are gone would give much to be sure of such a renewal. It is of great importance for the children of God to understand God’s way of renewal for themselves.

The praising psalmist sang, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: … thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s!” He experienced the reality of it. Again he sang, “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art very great. Thou renewest the face of the earth.” Creation experiences it likewise. When, however, we think of the new creation to which we belong, we may well ask, “Is renewal to be known there too?” Certainly, for we are told in Colossians 3:10, we “have put on the new man, which is renewed” also.

In the early part of Romans we are taught how God has wrought in and through our Lord Jesus Christ for our everlasting welfare. In righteousness and love He has secured our justification and reconciliation, having predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, and, setting our hearts at rest as to these things, giving us liberty in the power of the Spirit to walk so as to please Him. We are then instructed how to respond to His great compassion toward us (Romans 12:1-2). We are to yield our bodies to Him and be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The body being presented to God, and the mind rightly renewed, we prove for ourselves “what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Progress in being “transformed by the renewing of the mind” can only be ours when we are at peace with God through the work of Christ, being reconciled to Him through the death of His Son. Where doubts still cloud the mind, how can there be advance in the knowledge of divine things? The exhortation, or rather beseeching, to thus respond follows the teaching which gives us this divine assurance. At the very start, when God began His work in us—the work which He will carry on and complete—a renewing of an eternal character took place with us. That was done once, and done for ever. In we only place it is named in Scripture it is said to have taken place in the spirit of the mind (Ephesians 4:23), and a different word is used for renewing, ananeō, for it is new in an abiding sense. In Romans 12:2 it is anakainōsis, to be renewed in a fresh way. In the former scripture three things are stated concerning us: (1) We have “put off the old man”; (2) “Being renewed in the spirit of the mind”; (3) “Having put on the new man” (see New Trans.). These things have taken place; but the renewal according to Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:16, and Colossians 3:10 still goes on. This word is used five times, the other two being Titus 3:5 and Hebrew 6:6.

This renewal of the Holy Spirit spoken of in Titus 3:5 is still going on; but if a man professed the faith of Christ and apostatised, we are told in Hebrews 6:6, it is impossible to renew him again to repentance after he has outwardly partaken of the great benefits spoken of in verses 4 and 5. The fact is he was never a true believer at all, and his own course proves it. Those, however, who are true children of God are to make progress in the direction which the Word of God indicates by the renewing of their minds. The Apostle Paul tells us that notwithstanding all the labours and afflictions which were his, he experienced a daily renewal. “Though our outward man perish,” he writes, “yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16); and what he says immediately after gives us the secret of this: “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The latter engrossed his attention, for Christ is the Centre of them all.

In bringing these remarks to a close we must turn to Colossians 3:10, where we have the divine Objective of this great work of renewal, the Objective too which is to be before the hearts of all those who are the happy subjects of the renewing of the present time. Again, as in Ephesians 4, it is said of such, “They have put off the old man and have put on the new”; but it is added as to 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 or free: but CHRIST IS EVERYTHING, AND IN ALL.” There it is! Our renewing is according to the image of Christ. No lower standard is put before us. He Himself is the image of God. Notice again how this renewing is connected with the mind. The reading should be “renewed into full knowledge.” How important it is, then, that our thinking should be in the divinely indicated direction. How many allow their thoughts to go far astray. The Apostle warns us of those who “mind earthly thing”; and he fears lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so our thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to CHRIST, for it is to Him we are espoused by divine grace (2 Corinthians 11:2-3).

Our renewal, therefore, has in view Christ being “everything and in all”—the One who loved us and made us His own eternally through His sufferings and death; the One whose moral glory shines so perfectly in His lowly pathway, making God Himself known in His love and holiness; His grace and righteousness; His compassion, kindness and long-suffering; in His justice and mercy; telling out the “great love” wherewith He loved us at Calvary, when He became the propitiation for our sins. It is now that He is everything and in all in the new man, but soon the purpose of God shall be brought to its counselled perfection, and amidst the splendours of the glory of God all the saints shall shine in radiance divine, fully conformed to the image of God’s Son, with Himself the Centre of all, the joy of every heart, the praise of every mouth—“THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.” Lord, hasten that day, for Thy name’s sake. Amen.

Revelation and Reconciliation

Behold in a far-off city a youth of unhappy countenance. A deep sense of disgrace weighs heavily upon his spirit. He is also struggling against adversity, although in his distant home he has a wealthy, godly father, who loves him dearly. The fact is, he has committed a serious misdemeanour, and through misrepresentation he believes his father has turned his back upon him altogether.

One day, amidst his sorrow and suffering, a revelation comes to him in a letter from his father, who had discovered his whereabouts. That revelation undid all the misrepresentation and chased the sadness from his life, for it made known to him what he was unable to discover himself: that his father’s heart still loved him, and that he desired his return. This revelation changed his thoughts, and resulted in reconciliation to his own joy and satisfaction, and more especially to that of his noble father.

Our illustration only serves to show the difference between revelation and reconciliation. The one comes to us and the other brings us to GOD. But the wonderful revelation of God Himself, which comes to man is necessarily beyond all human comparison, for it must be miraculous in that it is the making known of the Creator to the creature who had sinned against Him, having fallen under Satan’s misrepresentations and consequently deserved His judgment and not His favour—His frown and not His smile. To such the great and holy God has been pleased in grace to make the revelation of Himself; and that the misrepresentations of Satan might be undone in the thoughts of all who believe, His great love to usward has been made known in His Son and in His atoning sufferings and death for us upon the cross, so that we might be brought to Him in reconciliation.

Nor has this revelation come to us in writing only, as in the letter of our illustration, though the Bible, inspired of God from Genesis to Revelation, is indeed the perfect written revelation from Himself, a treasure of priceless value, to be prized and studied prayerfully and carefully by all the redeemed; but the final and supreme revelation of God Himself is made in a living Person of whom the written Word tells, in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word who was God, who became flesh so that He might be fully made known. In His ways, in His works, His walk and His words, in all that incomparable life and death recorded for our hearts’ meditation and adoration in the four Spirit-given gospels, we behold God manifest in the flesh, God revealed in infinite perfection. The works of God in creation, in providence, or in government could but show some of His glorious attributes, but His Son, a real Man amongst men, seen in moral, spiritual and Divine perfectness and power always, revealed the invisible God Himself to us. The Holy Spirit the Comforter, who has been given from our exalted Lord to dwell in us, brings us the written Word, where we behold the wondrous glories of this revelation, which is declared to us in the Son of the Father’s love, to whom we sing,

“Thou wast the Image, in man’s lowly guise,

Of the Invisible to mortal eyes,

Son of His bosom, come from heaven above,

We see in Thee incarnate, ‘God is love.’”

Again, the change brought about in our thoughts by the knowledge of the love of God, was not sufficient of itself to bring us into reconciliation, for, as we have seen, sin, which is such an awful thing in God’s holy sight, must be righteously dealt with. Christ, who knew no sin, was therefore made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him, and be consequently set before God in reconciliation in the rich enjoyment of His love, in perfect consistency with all the holiness of His character and nature. If in His goodness we were brought to repentance on account of our sins, if our sense of need caused us to think of Himself, if our deep poverty brought us to consider the wealth of His abundance, if the fear of perishing made us seek His mercy, then, His love, told out to us at Calvary, and “commended to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us,” received in faith into our hearts, banished our guilty dread; and thus, believing the truth of God, even “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). And joy in God in reconciliation follows, as the next verse shows so blessedly.

Neither the perfect revelation nor this wonderful reconciliation was known before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were not found in the Old Testament. We read, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18, New Translation). In regard to the Second we are told, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their offences” (2 Corinthians 5:19, New Translation); and, as we have seen, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ was necessary to bring it to pass righteously; thus having put away the sins and the enmity at the cross, He ascended to the right hand of God. From thence He gave gifts to men, and empowered them as appointed ambassadors to proclaim the word of reconciliation from God, as though beseeching men to be reconciled to Him. He gave to them also the ministry of reconciliation, so that the reconciled might be instructed in all the new things which are theirs in Christ, and that they might be maintained in fullness of joy before God revealed as Father in the Son. No one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son is pleased to reveal Him (Matthew 11:27), nor could any be reconciled to Him save through Christ’s death upon the cross.

In revelation God is fully made known to us in Christ; in reconciliation we are set in full favour before God. To us God is brought in revelation; to God we are brought in reconciliation. In the first we have the true and exact representation of God to us, for He is otherwise invisible and beyond the creature’s ability to discover, yet in the Son of the Father’s love become Man, we behold “the Image of the invisible God”—the perfect representation of Himself—the invisible become visible. In the second we are restored to God through our Lord Jesus Christ for His own pleasure and satisfaction, so that He can now say, “It is meet that we should make merry and be glad” (Luke 15:32).

In Colossians 1 we have stated the most complete expression of the revelation of God in Christ. In Hebrews 1:3 we are told that He is the “effulgence of His glory and the exact expression of His substance” (New Translation). In John 1 we read of Him as “the Word,” the embodiment and expression of God’s mind. But it is in Colossians 1:15 we learn that the invisible God Himself is imaged—perfectly expressed—in the Son of the Father’s love. We have there not only His substance, and not only, His mind, but HIMSELF revealed. This, of course, takes us back to the Gospels, where we are enabled by the Spirit to behold Him who was God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16), Him who came to undo all the evil works and misrepresentations of the devil (1 John 3:8).

When our souls are at peace with God through the death and resurrection of Christ, when we are brought to know our acceptance in Him who has ascended on high, and as united to Him by the Spirit there we know Him as the Head of His body, the assembly, and also know that all the fullness of the Godhead resides in Him, then we are free in the power of the Spirit of God to go back and behold in the wonderful Gospels the marvellous expression of that fullness in the Man who glorified God on the earth and completed the work He entrusted Him to do. Faith, having followed Him up to where He is as the Man glorified by God on high, goes back to follow Him as the Man who revealed God here below. The Spirit was given when Jesus was glorified (John 7:39) and it is in His power we rightly appreciate the infinite excellencies exhibited in the Man of the Gospels. In the Acts and in the Epistles (which give us the preaching and the teaching) we necessarily have progress; but in the four Gospels we behold perfection, for God Himself is there revealed in Jesus, in Him who is the same yesterday and today and for ever. In keeping with this the meat offering, which so beautifully typifies Jesus on earth, was to be appropriated by the sons of the high priest (Leviticus 2:3, 10); strength in the power of the Spirit of sonship being needed to be able thus to appreciate Him. “All the males amongst the children of Aaron shall eat it” (6:18). On the other hand that which resulted so richly from the death of Christ—“the wave breast and heave shoulder,” speaking of His love and His strength, were food not only for the sons, but also for the high priest’s daughters (10:14). This gracious provision of God, foreshadowed in the sacrifices of peace offerings, yields precious communion with Himself for all the saints, whether strong or feeble. We can all feast our souls in nearness to Himself upon Christ who died for us and rose again.

As we thus feed upon Him in the grace and energy of the Holy Spirit, our ability to take in more perfectly the revelation of God is increased. If in that revelation we are enabled to see the disclosure of Him to whom we are reconciled through Christ’s death, it is in the reconciliation we rejoice before God and increasingly value the infinite glories of Him who has been revealed in the Son of His love.

Not confined now to the favoured nation of Israel, this is the time spoken of as that of the “world’s reconciliation.” Israel being broken off through unbelief from the good olive of promise, we have been grafted in (Romans 11:15, 17). The appeal “Be reconciled to God” is sent out now to Gentile as well as to Jew, and in higher and fuller blessing still, those who believe today are reconciled in one body to God by the Cross (Ephesians 2:10), and they form the one new man in Christ. They are reconciled to the fullness which dwells in Him now; and eventually all the positions of dignity and honour in the heavens and upon the earth—thrones, lordships, principalities and authorities—the visible and the invisible, will be reconciled by Him, the Supreme One, who holds as the Head of the body, the assembly, the pre-eminence in every circle of splendour and glorious majesty. Therefore He re-adjusts all for the good pleasure of our God and Father. Having so done with the assembly now “in” Himself, He will subsequently and consequently do so “by” Himself with all the vast range of positions of dignity which we have mentioned. All enmity and alienation having been removed by His death upon the Cross we are already presented in holiness and without blame in the presence of all the fullness as is well-pleasing to God our Father.

Being reconciled already then to Him who has so blessedly been revealed, we may well rejoice in the new things and the new relationships which are ours “in Christ,” where there is “a new creation,” where “all things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17, New Translation). Members now of the one body of which Christ is the Head, fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God, sons before Him as alive from the dead, all that is suitable to this is ours for faith to apprehend and appreciate.

The glory and the grace of that which is ours through revelation and reconciliation, the dignity and yet the joy of it, the greatness and yet the satisfaction of it, the holiness and the love of it all, produce a wonderful effect upon us practically as its reality is delighted in.

Even that proud monarch Herod, and that representative of Rome, Pilate, the governor, who were at enmity before, were reconciled at the base rejection of Jesus. What shall mark those who are accepted in His eternal acceptance before God? “Go, be reconciled to thy brother” (Matthew 5:24). Has unnecessary estrangement came in between wife and husband? Let her “be reconciled to her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:11). Has alienation troubled members of a family where Christ is owned as Lord? Surely the sweetness of reconciliation will be solicited and secured where God’s grace is experimentally rejoiced in. How good is the rich blessing of the reconciliation which is of God!— Sinners, at enmity once, now reconciled to God Himself.

Soon, in scenes of holiness, love and majesty, where nought to mar can ever come, the abiding results of the wondrous death of God’s beloved Son shall eternally endure. There the reconciled ones shall worship and serve the revealed One. There all shall be to His own good pleasure, to His everlasting satisfaction and joy.

Salt is Good

In Leviticus 2:13 it is said, “Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt”; and the preservative character of what it signifies is clearly emphasized by the Holy Spirit in the precious words of Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt.”

In this beautiful God-given type, the meat-offering was mainly in view, the salt in it was the seasoning. So now, graciousness of speech is the main thing regarding those who are saved by grace, but it is to be seasoned with salt, with the moral savour of the truth. This must not be lacking, though it be but the seasoning and the grace principal. Grace and truth subsist by Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord; and of His fullness His own have received “grace upon grace.” We can readily see why it reads thus in John 1:16, and not “truth upon truth.” Men wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. To be like Christ, His redeemed ones need to remember that the provision of grace is one thing and the seasoning of salt another. There must be grace in abundance and the powerful salt of the truth, wisely limited, lest it be harmful. A supply of nourishing food may be rendered nauseous by a too abundant supply of the otherwise good and useful salt.

Salt, as we have seen, was to be used with all the offerings of Jehovah’s redeemed people, Israel, and, generally speaking, it was a divinely-given symbol of truth in regard to preservative and moral savour. It was used in the oblation of the meat-offering, and in other offerings (Leviticus 2:13), also in connection with covenants (Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5, etc.); and in judgments (Genesis 14:3; Deuteronomy 29:2; Judges 9:45; Jeremiah 17:6). These uses eloquently proclaim the enduring nature of that which is thus strikingly typified.

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ consequently come to us with freshness and forcefulness, making their meaning and connection of teaching pointed and clear. He said, “Every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. SALT IS GOOD: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another” (Mark 9:49-50). Eastern salt was different to that which is commonly used now. It was not pure chloride of sodium, but was mixed with vegetable and earthy substances, and, when exposed to the adverse influences of sun and rain, might become savourless and useless. This gives point therefore to the words of Matthew 5:13, too—“If the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” These words, which speak with such wholesome warning, are similar to those of Luke 14:35, “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.”

We do indeed need to use our ears to hear the truth of God in these days of moral corruption, when social, commercial, political, and professedly Christian circles are being invaded with influences, principles and doctrines destructive to the truth. Both Mark and Luke record the Lord’s words, “SALT IS GOOD,” as we have seen. In the former we are exhorted to have salt in ourselves, and “HAVE PEACE ONE WITH ANOTHER.” This is important, and it is what is to characterize us inside—“one with another.” Then what is to mark us outside—“toward them that are without”—is given in Colossians 4:5-6, “Let your speech be with grace seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Among the children of God, self-judgment and peace are to prevail within; while graciousness of speech (preserved by the truth), wisdom and zeal, are to be become them without. The salt of the covenant of our God is needful for the maintenance of peace inside, and for the presentation of divine grace outside. It is to be applied to ourselves individually in the first instance, and it is to give a savour to our speech in the second.

An earthly remnant of Israel will bear testimony before men soon when the heavenly bride of Christ, the assembly, has been translated to be with the Lord. This remnant will take the place that the disciples of Christ had when He was on earth, before the Spirit was sent from Christ on high, forming the one body of which He is the Head. Then, as Matthew 5:13-14, shows, these godly Jews will be the salt of “the earth” and the “light of the world.” Were it not so, all would go to corruption and darkness after the Lord takes up the assembly from the earth; but, as the Word shows, this remnant of the Jews will have the testimony of Jesus, “which is the spirit of prophecy”; and truly those who are then benefited (just before God’s kingdom is established upon earth) will say, The salt is good! and they will glorify their Father who is in the heavens!

It is now, however, before that time, as we await the coming of our Lord, that we are to have salt in ourselves. The truth in self-judgment is to have its right place in us. Not some sort of morbid censoriousness of others, but the wholesomeness of the truth applied individually, for thus peace will be maintained collectively—“the uniting bond of peace”! What a powerful and practical effect results where the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life is truly before us when, self-judged, we sing to Him:

“Learning of Thee to walk in grace

And fellowship with God!”

And when the truth of the offering and sacrifice of Christ deeply affects, us, when the song of faith flows from exercised souls to the Lord Jesus Himself,

“Our sins, our guilt, in love divine,

Confessed and borne by Thee;

The gall, the curse, the wrath were Thine,

To set Thy ransomed free.”

When self-judgment produces such holy harmony, uniting us before the Lord, whose love went under all our judgment, it can be gratefully said, “SALT IS GOOD.” 1 Corinthians 11:31 says, “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” When our risen Lord had left the tomb and death and judgment behind Him, He said to His own, “Peace be unto you.”

Yes, “Salt is good” within, but also without, as we said; for grace and truth bring blessing to men, where the law failed to do so; therefore the glad gospel of God can be told forth to all, with wisdom, zeal, and gracious speech, seasoned with salt.

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