The Lie, Enmity, and Death Annulled in Christ
But this implies or postulates that the three-fold result and mark of the broken union is absolutely ruled out and non-existent in Christ. Or to put to around the other way, Christ is the opposite and the negation of the lie, the enmity, and death. So it is that the most spiritual and heavenly revelation of Christ, as given in John's gospel, is in terms of life, light and love. Light and truth are interchangeable names. In this record Christ makes these thing far more than abstractions, He makes them personal, and says, "I am these." There is no darkness, shadow, lie, or lack of absolute transparency in Him. There is no enmity, strife, schism, or warfare in His nature, nor in His attitude or relationship toward men as men (only with evil in the world and in men). In Him there is no separation from the Fountain of life. He can say, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 1125). All this negation of the result of broken union with God was because there was no self in Him. It can be easily seen that the whole effort of the devil - in its many forms - was to get Him to act on some line of self. Self-interest, self-realization, self-defence, self-preservation, self-pity, self-independence, self-resource, etc., etc. To have succeeded in this matter at any point would have been to drive a wedge between God and man anew, and to have defeated the whole plan of redemption. But the pure ground of utter selflessness was maintained at greatest cost and through most fiery trial, and the prince of the world was helpless. The union remained intact. Life, light, love are triumphant because "self" is utterly negatived. But this is all as to Himself, and thus far it remains His uniqueness. He abides alone if it stays there.
Christ's Humanity Shared - By the Cross
So we pass on in John's gospel to the point at which certain come saying, "We would see Jesus" (John 12:21). To this inquiry or quest Jesus makes a reply which means two things. One: 'To see me as others are seeing me here and now is not to see me at all; that is to see and not perceive.' The other: 'To really see and know me, union with me in an organic way is necessary; that is, what is true of me in my relationship with my Father and His relationship with me must become true in an inward way where you are concerned.' Hence: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it beareth much fruit." (John 12:24). 'I did not come to abide alone.' What is true of me as to union with the Father is meant to be for you in me.' But at this point we are carried by the Person of the Cross. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour" (John 12:27). "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die" (vv. 32-33).
The Apostle Paul has covered this whole ground in one comprehensive, illuminating, and explanatory statement. We indicate the points of emphasis.
"The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died (in him); and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again".
Someone has freely translated some of the above thus: "I behold the love of Christ, I see in his one death the death of all of us already accomplished after the manner of his death - the death of all that separates us from God."
This is all saying very strongly that, to really know Who Christ is as the One in Whom alone God and man are brought together, we must come to the Cross in an experimental way. We must apprehend His death as ours, and then, also in experience - through faith - know a risen life in Him in which the old self-life has been put away.
The Person of Christ Illumined by the Cross
But we must step back for a moment. What was the real meaning of the Cross and what did it effect? All we have said about the Person of Christ was true of Him altogether apart from the Cross. For Him the Cross was no necessity. There came a time, however, when He had to be made what He Himself was not. To redeem us, He Who knew no sin had to be made sin in our place. In that hour He was placed in the position of man as the victim of satan's lie with its darkness. So also was He made to take upon Him the enmity of our fallen state, and in that deep experience, in that representative position He lost the consciousness of the Father's love. There remained but the third phase of that responsibility - death. For one terrible, eternal "hour" Christ was separated from - lost union with - His God. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). The mystery is too deep for us, but the fact and the reason are clear and unmistakable.
So He died, "He tasted death" - awful death, which is the full and naked consciousness, awareness, realization of utter separation from, and abandonment by, God! But in Himself He was God's sinless Son, and, as such, He could not be held of death (Acts 2:24). In virtue of His essential sinlessness He survived the wrath which rested upon what He was made for that dark hour. He overcame and destroyed the causes, the ground, the strength and the originator of death.
It took more than a man to do this. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself".
Thus in the Cross all the cause and nature of separation from God was destroyed, and in Christ rise that union is perfect for us. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8).
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 5)
No comments:
Post a Comment