1894 31 Beloved Brother,
In reading the letter signed "C." in the Bible Treasury, vol. xix. pages 379, 380, I could not help being struck by the subtlety shown in the extract he quotes from the paper to which his letter refers. The sentence quoted reads, "Personally He (Christ) ever was God; but without ceasing to be that, He has taken a place, as the Second Man, and as He is in that position, so shall we be." Now, it will be noticed that emphasis and stress are laid upon "place" and "position," the deductions and conclusions are made to rest on them. The simple-minded reader is induced to believe that the personal nature and glory of the Blessed Lord are duly recognised: but on examination of the teaching in question, it will be apparent that the dishonouring statements refer directly and positively to the Person of the Lord. For how can omniscience be predicated of a place? or "having life in Himself" he made to refer to a position? The same question may be asked in reference to omnipotence and omnipresence. What have they to do with position or place? I do not attempt to quote scripture to show how again and again these attributes of divinity are asserted of Him, who is God manifest in the flesh. My object is to draw attention to the sleight and cunning craftiness whereby, under pretence of dealing with the characteristics of "place" and "position," the direct personal glories of the Lord Jesus are denied. Nor can it be admitted that "the Second Man" is a place. God formed the first man, and put him in the garden He had made. But the man was not the place, nor was the place the man, as was sadly proved when God drove out the man. So the Second Man is gone to prepare a place (the one belonging to the first having been lost) for His own, to which what He is personally and His work give the title and the blessedness. Nor does it appear correct to assert that "as He is in this position, so shall we be." He is the Head of the body, we are not. He is to be the firstborn among many brethren. In all He is to have the pre-eminence. In virtue of the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. He will sit upon the throne of His glory. All things are to be put under Him. None of these facts can be truly applied to us.
May it not confidently be asserted that all a believer's blessedness and blessing depend absolutely upon the personal glory of the Lord Jesus? and that this wicked attack of the enemy is scarcely more dishonourable to Him than it is destructive to the blessedness of the believer? If He could say, He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye, responsively we can say, He that toucheth the Person of God's Christ touches the fountain of our life. O for fervent love to His adorable Person, so that the slightest reflection upon His glory may awaken a holy jealousy in our hearts, constraining us to cling more devotedly to Him!
Yours in Him, Adelphos.