1908 96 Q. — What is the difference between "dead to sin" (Rom. 6), "dead to law" (Rom. 7), and "crucified to the world" (Gal. 6)? Omega.
A. — It is not only blessedly true that the Lord Jesus "was delivered up for our offences," and that He "died for our sins," but there is the further truth (so little understood by believers in general) that in Christ's death I too have died, outwardly confessed in my baptism (Rom. 6:4-5, 8; Col. 2:11-13), and so passed out of the condition where "sin reigned in death," into another where "sin shall not have dominion over" me; nor am I any longer "under law but under grace," which now reigns (instead of sin) "through righteousness unto life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:20-21, Rom. 6:14).
As has often been remarked, the earlier chapters (1 — 5:11) of Romans deal with our guilt, the "sins" we have committed, of which there is no remission without shedding of blood. But from Rom. 5:12, we have the involvement of universal sinnership, "through the disobedience of the one man" Adam (Rom. 5:19). We were "by nature children of wrath, but now no longer in Adam we are in Christ Jesus; and to such there is no condemnation. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed us from the law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:1-2), so that now we walk and serve in newness of life and of spirit.
That evil principle, or "law of sin and death" which is in us here and elsewhere called "sin" — is the root from which is produced that evil crop ("sins"), and to which the Christian has died. It is not dead "if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves" — nor is it forgiven. But it has been judged and condemned in Christ's death (Rom. 8:3), and I am called no longer to own its authority or reign, but to reckon myself "to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus," in the power of a new and risen life.
So, too, with the law. It is not abrogated, but is in force "for lawless and disobedient," etc., but its jurisdiction is gone for men that are dead, and the Christian has been "made dead to the law by the body of Christ" (Rom. 7:3-4). "But now we are clear from the law, having [or, seeing we have] died in [respect of] that in which we were held" (Rom. 7:6). "I through law have died to law, that I may live to God. I am crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ liveth in me; but that which I now live in flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:19-20).
"Crucified to me, and I to the world." It is crucified no longer sought after by the Christian; its charms are gone. It crucified the Lord of glory. How can it any more be an object for me? "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." And I am crucified to it. No longer of "its own," the child of God is despised and hated by the world, and should be content to be so for the Master's sake. Are we content to be thought nothing of, and to be thus a spectacle to it?
May we seek grace to be truly the followers of the despised and rejected" One of earth, but the "exalted" of the Father, "received up in glory." He will be wondered at in them that believe in the coming day of glory for this earth, when the now reproached sons of God shall be manifested in the same glory with Christ.
1908 144 Q. — What is the difference between "washed us from our sins" (Rev. 1:5); "washed their robes" (Rev. 7:14); and "our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb. 10:22)? R.M.
A. — In Rev. 1. "the disciple whom Jesus loved" addresses "the words of the prophecy" (ver. 3) to the seven churches in Asia, and wishes for them grace and peace "from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth." No sooner is the Lord Jesus in His life and death, resurrection and kingdom relationship before the mind of the apostle than he breaks forth in words that can be taken up by all saints since Pentecost. For the knowledge of Christ's redemption, evokes from our hearts the confession of His worth who died for us and rose again. It is He who has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. We "have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (or offence), according to the riches of his grace" (Eph. 1:7). As this could not be known and enjoyed before redemption was accomplished, so is it characteristic of the time since then and not yet ended. John therefore speaks for himself and for those who have believed on Jesus through the apostles' word. It is the Christian note of praise, and anticipates the universal ascription of glory and might to the One who went down into death for us.
But in Rev. 7 and Rev. 22:14, "Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city") we appear to have rather what applies to an earthly (i.e., a people for the earth, whereas the Christian is for heaven) and millennial people who pass through "the great tribulation" and are not (as we) kept "out of the bonds of temptation which shall come upon all the habitable world." They have been given to wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God," though not in heaven, as verse 16 clearly shows. For hunger, thirst, or the falling of the sun on them, or heat, has not to do with a people above the sun in heaven. Gentiles on earth, they are followers of the Lamb who leads them to living fountains of waters, and, like another company (of Jews, Rev. 14) they are not defiled. Nevertheless, we cannot suppose them at all up to the heights of Christian truth as we enjoy it in the possession of a purged conscience: but their walk is according to their knowledge of what the blood of the Lamb has effected.
"Our bodies washed with pure water" is the effect of the cleansing power of the word of God (John 15:3; Eph. 5:26). As "not by water only but by water and blood," Jesus came, so here we have the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood (Heb. 9:14), and the body cleansed through the operation of the truth, as in John 13. He that is "washed" … "and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean."
1908 176 Q. — 1 Peter 4:1-2. "For he that hath suffered in the flesh," etc. To whom does the "he" refer in these two verses? R.M.
A. — To the believer who, refusing to yield to the solicitations of sin, suffers thereby instead of gratifying the flesh. As Christ once suffered for sins not His own Himself the ever sinless One but ours, so are we called to let this suffice, as well as "the time past of our life," and if now we suffer from without it should be not for sins but for righteousness (1 Peter 3:14), or as a Christian (1 Peter 4:14-16). Arming ourselves "with the same mind" we refuse the evil at whatever cost, that we may live to the will of God.
1909 208 Q. — Col. 1:24. Are the "sufferings" and "afflictions" of this verse the common privilege of all saints, or only peculiar to the apostle Paul? R.M.
A. — To the devout Ananias it was declared by the Lord Jesus that Saul was "a chosen vessel unto me, to hear my name before Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." Taken out from among the people and the Gentiles, Paul was pre-eminently the suffering apostle of the nations.
He here rejoices in his sufferings for them (Gentiles even whom he had never seen!), and fills up that which is behind (or, lacking) of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh, "for his body's sake which is the church." What these afflictions were we may learn in part from such scriptures as 1 Cor. 4:9-13; 2 Cor. 11:23-28; 2 Tim. 3:10-11.
For our sins the Lord Jesus suffered once for all on the cross, and in this He is alone, in which none can share. But if Isa. 63:9 reveals the divine sympathy for His earthly people, how much more does Acts 9:4-5 tell out His identification with the persecuted confessors of His name, the partakers of a heavenly calling. And as every Christian now suffers with Christ, if not indeed for Him, so should he take his share in affliction as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We are called to be followers of the blessed apostle, as he was of Christ, and to "endure all things for the sake of the elect" (2 Tim. 2:3, 9, 10).
1909 352 Q. Rev. 20:5 (3). — In the late W. Kelly's "Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews" appears the following sentence in a footnote on page 129, "Compare the absurd reading of the excellent Alex. MS. in Rev. 20:5." Will you please enlighten me as to what the reading is and why it is absurd? G.P.B.
A. Ver. 5 in the passage referred to is a misprint for ver. 3, where the Alexandrian Codex stands alone (so far as I know) in reading kai esphragisen emmenos auton — "and sealed him abidingly"(!). If only (as the verse shows) sealed for a limited period, is it not false as well as absurd to add the word "abidingly"?