Romans, 1 Corinthians
There is much valuable instruction in considering how the Apostle Paul uses "in Christ" and "in Christ Jesus", for these terms are widely used, sometimes in relation to the Person of Christ, to the blessings or resources that we have in Christ, to our standing before God in divine righteousness, to the new creation work of God in His saints, to the service of Christ, and to other aspects of the truths of Christianity. While on earth the Lord Jesus spoke of the believer being in Him, as in John 6:56, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me" and in John 14:20, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me". The same precious truth is taught in John's 1st Epistle, for we not only know that we abide in the Son as having the Holy Spirit in us (1 John 4:13), but "we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 5:20). It is a most wonderful privilege to have our part and place before God in His Son, being where we share all the blessing secured for us through the death of Jesus, in His place of relationship, affection and communion.
In Romans 3:24 believers in the Lord Jesus are "justified freely by His (God's) grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus", our being free from every charge of guilt founded on the efficacy of the work done by the Lord Jesus on the cross, and abiding in Him as risen from the dead. Our standing in grace and redemption before God is also seen in Romans 8:1, for there is "now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus". The Christian is therefore viewed as being in Him in whom the redemption is, and as having divine life in Christ, for the Apostle adds in Romans 8:2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death". So that the believer, his redemption and the divine life imparted are all viewed as in Christ Jesus.
At the end of Romans 8 we learn of "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord", from which nothing can separate us, for, as has been said, if we are in Christ Jesus, and the love of God is in Christ Jesus, how could it be possible to separate us from God's love? We are not only viewed in Romans as being individually in Christ, but also collectively or corporately, for "we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (Rom. 12:5). Then, in chapter 16, those who help in the service of Christ are spoken of as "helpers in Christ" (Rom. 16:3, 9); those who were Christians before Paul "were in Christ before me" (Rom. 16:7) and a faithful Christian was viewed as "approved in Christ" (Rom. 16:10).
Our standing before God in Christ Jesus is not what we are in the Christian profession, but what God has done for us, even as it is written in 1 Corinthians 1:30, "of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption". It is as being in Christ that we have all these rich blessings. We may be but "babes in Christ", spiritually weak, but Christ is our wisdom to whom we can go for wisdom at all times: He is our righteousness, for we have none of our own: He is the One in whom we are set apart for God's will: and He is our redemption, both as having redeemed us from the consequences of our sins, and who, at His coming to redeem the acquired possession, will redeem us from this world through which we pass through the redemption of the body".
Many servants of the Lord are "instructors in Christ", making known God's will to His saints, and there were such at Corinth, but the saints there owed their God-given place in Christ to Paul, as the instrument used of God, to bring them divine life through the Gospel (1 Cor. 4:15). On account of this there was a real bond of affection between those who were blessed and the servant of God who was the means of their blessing, and it was this that gave Paul the desire that the saints at Corinth might walk in the truth of Christianity; and to secure this Paul sent Timothy to them to bring them into remembrance of his ways "in Christ", that they might walk as Christians, as they had seen him walk (1 Cor. 4:17).
When true believers in the Lord Jesus die, they have "fallen asleep in Christ" 1 Corinthians 15:18, for their body sleeps while they, having been set free from their body of humiliation, are present with the Lord in the heavenly paradise. Such have died with their" hope in Christ" (1 Cor. 15:19), the hope of having their bodies changed into the likeness of Christ's body of glory at His coming again. If "in Christ" in 1 Cor. 15:22 covers the whole human race, as coming under Christ as the "Head of every man" (1 Cor. 11:3), then it would mean in the power of Christ shall all men be raised from death again, true believers at the rapture of the saints to heaven, and the rest of the dead to stand before the great white throne. The Christians' boast, in the midst of trials and suffering, is "in Christ", who will raise them from among the dead (1 Cor. 15:31). At the very close of the epistle, Paul sent his love to the Corinthian saints because they were "in Christ" as believers in Him who was coming again (1 Cor. 16:24).
God has called us by His grace that we might be here as witnesses for Him, established "in Christ" (2 Cor. 1:21), mature Christians, knowing in truth that we have been anointed with the Spirit of God for His service, that we have been claimed for God by the divine seal of His Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit gives us the blessed foretaste in spiritual blessing and joy of all that we are to share with Christ in the coming day, according to the promises of God that are affirmed and confirmed in Christ.
At the close of chapter 2, Paul views his service to the Lord as a triumphal procession, saying, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place" (verse 14). The Gospel gave character to those who made it known, so that they were "unto God a sweet savour of Christ", whether in those who accepted the testimony, or in those who rejected it. The message of Christ to those who refused it was a savour of death that brought death to them, but it was a savour of life bringing divine life to those who believed the preaching. How great, how solemn the issues raised in the preaching, so that Paul might well say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Yet he counted on God and His grace, presenting, as God's servant, the word in its purity, speaking "in Christ" the truth of Christ in the sight of God.
In chapter 3 the Apostle reminds the saints of the veil that was upon the face of Moses that hid the glory of the old covenant from the people of Israel; then he tells them that God's glory is still hidden from Israel through the rejection of Christ, but for the believer the veil is "done away in Christ" (verse 14). It is in Christ in heaven that we see the divine glory shining without a veil, and occupation with Christ in glory has a trans-forming effect on the believer as he passes through this world.
The new creation is an entirely new work of God in the hearts of His saints, even as it is written in 2 Cor. 5:17, "So if any one be in Christ (there is) a new creation: The old things have passed away; behold all things have become new". We have an entirely new state as being "in Christ", for God has formed us in a new creation order of things that belongs to heaven and to eternity. The time is coming when God will bring into being "a new heaven and a new earth", when the first heaven and the first earth, which we see today, will have passed away, and then God will make "all things new" (Rev. 21:1, 5). Already we belong to that new eternal scene as being in Christ, as being God's workmanship, and we can even now enjoy that which belongs to the heavenly and eternal scene.
All who belong to Christ should be marked by "the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3). This simplicity is the antithesis of the subtlety with which "the serpent beguiled Eve" and which is one of the characteristics of a world away from God. The Lord Jesus spoke of the simplicity which should mark His own, when He said, "The lamp of the body is thine eye: when thine eye is simple, thy whole body also is light" (Luke 11:34). A single eye to the interests of Christ will keep us free from the world and its spirit, while the mind will be engaged with Christ and His things.
We have seen in chapter 5 that the Christian is viewed as a new creation, a man in Christ, and the Apostle views himself in this way in chapter 12, saying, "I know a man in Christ", then writes of his wonderful experience in being caught up into the third heaven, into paradise, where he heard "unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:2-4). Paul views himself as God saw him, in Christ, apart from all that gave character to him as living in this world in flesh and blood condition, and it is our privilege to take account of ourselves, and of our brethren, in this way. How blessed it is to view ourselves and our brethren in Christ, as having no other features than the features of Christ, features that are ours in new creation, where there is nothing that we have received from Adam, the first man. Then, in protesting to the saints his sincerity in his work for Christ towards them, the Apostle writes, "We speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying" (2 Cor. 12:19).
When Paul went up to Jerusalem the first time after his conversion, he was "unknown personally to the assemblies of Judea which (are) in Christ" (Gal. 1:22). Paul had been well known to the gatherings of the Jews in Jerusalem when he was a persecutor, but he was not known to the Christian assemblies, for they had not as yet seen him. After fourteen years Paul went again to Jerusalem, very much aware that there were "false brethren … who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 2:4). How blessed it was for the godly Jew to be set free from the system of bondage and to be brought into Christian liberty.
The professed Christian has "put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27), and the profession may be real or may not be real, but in the new creation circle all distinctions have been done away, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). In the Christian circle it is of no importance whether a man has been circumcised or not; what is of all importance is that faith in Christ and divine love mark us all (Gal. 5:6). The Apostle again stresses, in Galatians 6:15, that circumcision is of no importance to the Christian, "but new creation", and we are to walk through this world in the light and power of this great truth.
Writing from his prison in Rome, the Apostle Paul addressed "the saints which are at Ephesus, and … the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:1). The saints at Ephesus were true Christians, faithful in their testimony for Christ and holding fast the truth in which they had been instructed. The Apostle was thus able to open up to them the wonderful counsels of God for the blessing of His own. In doing so, Paul blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). Israel's blessings were material blessings on earth, but the Christian's blessings are heavenly, spiritual and in Christ. We look up to Christ in heaven, knowing that we have no blessing outside of Him. In Him our blessings are eternal and of the richest and most wonderful kind. They are in association with Christ, and can never be lost, for we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, before we had any being.
By nature we were sinners, far from God, but God, in the riches of His grace, has forgiven our sins on the ground of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, secured by the shedding of His precious blood (Eph. 1:7). According to the counsels of God, God will "gather together in one all things in Christ" in the administration of the fulness of times, when all things in heaven and all things on earth will come under Christ the Head over all (Eph. 1:10). When Christ takes possession of all things, we shall share the inheritance with Him, but we already have an inheritance in Him, according to the purpose of God. Faith in Him, with whom we shall share all, has even now given us the Holy Spirit as the seal of God and as the earnest of the inheritance we shall possess with Christ in the day of His millennial glory (Eph. 1:11-13).
To secure all that lay in God's eternal purpose, the Son of God lay in death, having passed through all the judgment of the cross; but to give effect to all that God had purposed in a risen Christ, God intervened and raised Him from the dead. It was according "to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ" that God stepped in to defeat Satan and to secure all He had purposed in eternity. There had never been such a manifestation of God's power as this, for all the hosts of spiritual darkness would have kept, had they been able, God's Christ in death. Not only did God take Christ out from the realm of death, but He put Him on the very highest place in heaven, above all the great names of this and the coming ages. In His place of exaltation, Christ has the church as His companion, His body and His bride, for the display of the coming day.
If, in verse 3 of chapter 1, we are viewed as blessed in Christ, in Ephesians 2:6 we are seen as sitting down, converted Jew and Gentile together, "in heavenly places in Christ". This is how God views His own, and it is our privilege to take account of ourselves as being there. We who were once dead in sins God has quickened together with Christ, giving us His life, and, in raising us up, has given us Christ's place before Him. Soon, for the ages to come, God will display the exceeding riches of His grace to the universe in the kindness shown to His saints "in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:7). Nothing less than our sharing Christ's place in the coming display of His glory would serve to show how exceeding kind God is, and how wonderful is His rich grace to those who once were sinners.
Our place before God "in Christ" is one of nearness to Him, and this has been secured by the blood of Christ. The preciousness of Christ's Person makes known the blessedness of the place of affection that we have in nearness to God, and only the infinite value of His precious blood could have procured this for us. We have been made suitable for this near place by Christ's precious blood (Eph. 2:13), but also as being God's workmanship, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). If we are to display God's kindness in the coming day, He has given us the new creation state in Christ to manifest what He is, in testimony for Him now. In Christ, Jew and Gentile have been formed together into one new man (Eph. 2:15), and in Christ we are growing "unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:21), a wonderful shrine from which Christ's glory will shine forth in the coming day, in the day when He Will be acknowledged Lord of all.
In Ephesians 3:11 we learn that God's eternal purpose is "in Christ Jesus our Lord", for it was not only through Christ and His finished work, but in Christ personally, that God's purpose was to be secured. Moreover, it is in those who are in Christ that God is even now making "known by the church" His manifold wisdom "unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places". The men of this world, blinded by Satan, are unable to see anything of God's wisdom in the church, but the great intelligences of heaven see a wisdom of a far greater character than ever they saw before. In the old creation there was a rich display of the power and wisdom of God; but the all-varied character of God's wisdom is seen in relation to the new creation work of God, in that which He has formed to express the character of Christ down here and to be the vessel of His glory in the coming day.
The opening verse of this epistle speaks of "all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi", for this is the place of privilege of every saint of God, to be graced in Christ, accepted in all His perfections before God and the Father. In Philippians 1:13, the Apostle writes of his bonds as being "in Christ", for it was on account of the testimony of Christ that the world accounted him as an evildoer, even as the Jews crucified Christ between two thieves, treating the holy, spotless Son of God as a common malefactor. All around knew however that Paul was suffering as a Christian even if treated as an evildoer.
In the beginning of the second chapter, Paul appeals to the consolation that is "in Christ" for the unity of the saints in likemindedness, as having "the same love", with nothing being done "through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind", esteeming others better than themselves (Phil. 2:1-3). The consolation that is in Christ personally, and the Christian consolation ministered by His own, comforts the people of God in times of trouble and sorrow, and was specially realised by Paul in his imprisonment. This precious comfort from the saints would be ministered if they sought to have the lowly mind, "which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5), and this the Apostle exhorts the saints to have.
Whatever the Jew, or the man of the world, might pretend in the way of righteousness, Paul claimed to have none of his own. His desire was to be found in Christ, having God's righteousness by faith (Phil. 3:9); and he pressed on in the race of faith, "toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14). Paul had nothing outside of Christ, nor has any true Christian, but with Paul it was realised in his soul, and evident in his life, and it should be the same with each one who truly knows Jesus as Saviour.
Epaphroditus had brought a gift from the saints in Philippi to the Apostle in prison, which he viewed as "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God", and as he thought of the needs of the saints at Philippi, he wrote, "But my God shall abundantly supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:18-19). All the resources of God, His riches in glory, are in Christ Jesus, and from those infinite stores God is able to meet our every need, whether spiritual or material. As in chapter 1:1, so at the close of the Epistle the saints are again viewed as "in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:21). It was a delight for Paul to view the saints as in Christ, where they are seen in all that He is, in His perfections and as the Beloved of the Father. This is how we too should take account of the saints of God.
How good it is when the saints can be spoken of as "faithful brethren in Christ", for they are then not only viewed as in Christ before God, but as walking faithfully for God in this world (2). Their "faith in Christ Jesus" was known to Paul, and because of this he was able to give thanks to God for them (Col. 1:3-4). It was in Christ, the Son of the Father's love, that they had redemption, even the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:14). Paul was not content to see believers remain immature in the things of Christ; his aim ever was to "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. 1:28). It was a real encouragement for him to behold the order of the saints at Colosse and to know of the stedfastness of their "faith in Christ" (Col. 2:5).
Not only are individual believers viewed as in Christ, but Paul writes "of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 2:14). Although in Judea, they were not Jewish assemblies but Christian assemblies, assemblies of God. In verse 16 of chapter 4 we read of the dead in Christ who shall rise first at the rapture of the saints to heaven. There is a very great difference between those who have died in their sins and those "which sleep in Jesus" (1 Thess. 4:14). Having died "in Christ", in the faith of Christ, they will be the first to receive the quickening touch of Christ when He comes to claim His own to take them to heaven. While waiting for the coming of Christ, we are to heed the many exhortations that have been given to us, among which are, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thess. 5:18). God desires that His own, true believers in His Son, should be marked by constant thankfulness of heart, expressed in thanksgiving.
There may be some difficulty as to the actual translation of verse 6, but "every good thing … in Christ Jesus", whether in the Apostle or in Philemon, brings before us the fruits of Christ's grace manifest in His own. The Lord said in Matthew 7:20, "by their fruits ye shall know them", and how good it is when we can recognise and acknowledge what is seen of Christ in those who are His. It may be difficult for a simple Christian to distinguish between natural grace and that which is the fruit of Christ's grace, but one who is living near the Lord will know the difference.
In verse 8 Paul writes of being "bold in Christ" to enjoin what was convenient in relation to Onesimus, the slave of Philemon, who had run away from his master, but who had been converted through the Apostle in Rome. What Paul was about to ask for, he was asking with Christian boldness, because he was asking for Christ's sake and not for any personal favour for himself. How good it is when we ask for Christ's sake, whether from the Father, the source of all, or from any of His own who have been enriched of Him.
In most of Paul's epistles the term "in Christ Jesus" is found, the exceptions being 2 Thessalonians and Titus. Many aspects of the truth are embraced in this term. Sometimes it refers to what is in Christ personally, sometimes to what we have in Him as believers, or simply that we are believers, but each mention must be examined in its context to discover the truth it contains. There are two mentions in First Timothy, and seven in Second Timothy, but the two in the former are to be found in the latter, so that by looking into those in Second Timothy we shall find something of the truth contained in the expression in both epistles.
It has often been pointed out that in 2nd Timothy we see the failure of the church, and have the instruction for the direction of the faithful in the last days. Although man fails, and the outward testimony of the church is in ruin, there can be no failure in the carrying out of God's promise, for it depends, not on the fidelity of man, but on the faithfulness of God. This is what the Apostle begins with in his second epistle to Timothy, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:1).
God's promise of life is also mentioned in Titus 1:2, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began", so that God's promise tells us what He determined to do in regard to the communication of eternal life to His own, to those He had chosen to be the companions of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God's promise, His eternal purpose, cannot be frustrated by anyone, nor can the failure of man hinder what He is determined to do; and with the failure of the church before his eyes, Paul, by the Spirit of God, falls back upon the eternal purpose of God.
This life that God has promised is the eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. It is in Christ Jesus now where He is in heaven; it was in Him essentially before time began, and ever remains in Him in this way (John 1:4); and when He came into Manhood to carry out the Father's will, the Father gave to Him as Man "to have life in Himself' (John 5:26). This eternal life is in God's Son, and true believers have it in Him now, and shall have it in Him and with Him for all eternity (1 John 5:11). The Spirit of God presents through John eternal life as even now possessed by the saints in Christ, but Paul is used by the Holy Spirit to present it as connected with our glorified condition with Christ in a coming day, so that it is a "blessed hope", the "hope of eternal life" (Titus 1:2; Titus 2:13; Titus 3:7).
How very comforting it was for Paul, in seeing the departure of many from much that they had been taught, to consider God's purpose, and this is evidently before him as he writes to Timothy "of God, Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9). God's purpose is "in Christ Jesus" in Whom there can be no failure. When on earth the Son of God was proved to the utmost in all the sorrows and sufferings through which He passed, and was shown to be absolutely reliable. The sufferings and judgment of the cross but proved the perfections of God's Christ, in whom His purpose centred. The fulfilling of God's purpose does not rest on the fidelity of the believer, but on Christ, Who has passed through death, and Who now lives in the presence of God, having laid in redemption the basis for all that was in God's eternal purpose.
God's grace that has brought us such infinite blessing also resides in Christ, and is given to those who were chosen in Christ before the ages of time. What God had for us in eternity has been "made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (verse 10). These are wonderful revelations! Death has been set aside by the death and resurrection of God's Son, our Saviour, and the life promised by God, and the incorruptibility of the bodies of glory we shall receive, have been presented to us in the truth of the gospel.
In 1 Timothy 1 Paul writes of what he was before the Lord called him, then speaks of the grace of our Lord to him being "exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 1:13-14). As in Ephesians 2 the Apostle takes account of faith as not being of our selves, but the gift of God. Christ is the object of faith, whether for salvation, or to live for God's will here below. So also is it with love; we love because He first loved us, shedding abroad His love in our hearts so that there might be a response to Him and to His Son. This love was manifested in Christ in this world, but is also seen in Him where He sits in God's presence.
Paul knew for himself the faith and love that were in Christ Jesus, so was able to write to Timothy, "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:13 ). It was most important for Timothy to have the truth of God ministered by Paul ever before him, but this precious outline of Paul's ministry was to be held in relation to Christ, not simply as abstract doctrine, but truth as to a living Christ in glory with Whom he was to be occupied, and from which love to Him could not be separated. Faith in Christ and love to Christ are so indissolubly united that they are spoken of as if they were one, "faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
At the close of 2 Timothy 1 the Apostle had written, "all they which are in Asia be turned away from me", but Onesiphorus had remained faithful to him, "and was not ashamed of his chain as the prisoner of Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 1:15-18). If we cannot rely on the support of saints in times of difficulty and crisis, we can always rely on the Lord to be sustained with the grace that abides in Him, and that was given to us by God in Him before the ages of time. We are not to be strong in ourselves, else we shall certainly fail, but we are to draw upon God's resources in Christ.
This exhortation has the last days specially in view, for the epistle was written to tell us of the conditions of these last days, and of the divine resources that are available in Christ to enable us to be faithful to the Lord, and to follow the divine directions given for those who desire to be faithful amidst the departure from the truth that had been ministered by Paul. Only as we are strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus shall we be able to separate from the iniquity that abounds in the professing church, and "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:19-22).
Many are the aspects of the salvation that God has given us, but here our salvation is presented as in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:10), a salvation that is linked with eternal glory. Paul had already said that God "hath saved us" (2 Tim. 1:9), for we do know salvation from the guilt of our sins, from the judgment of God, from the power of Satan, and from the fear of death as presently enjoyed. Again, we need salvation for every step of the journey home, and for this we have a risen, glorified Christ on the throne of God, a great High Priest, Who saves to the uttermost them that come to God by Him (Heb. 7:25). Then we look for salvation out of this world with all that is against us as God's saints, and this we shall have at the coming of the Lord to take us to Himself (Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5).
Whichever aspect of salvation we may take, it is in Christ Jesus. He is the Author of eternal salvation (Heb. 5:9), and the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10), having secured the salvation for us by His death upon the cross, and there overcoming all our foes, and is leading us through the wilderness to where salvation will be found in its completeness. Indeed, He is Himself viewed as salvation, even as the aged Simeon declared, "mine eyes have seen Thy salvation" (Luke 2:30).
Paul endured all his privations and tribulations not only for Christ, but for those who belonged to Christ, the elect of God, that the salvation in Christ Jesus might be brought to them in his testimony, and that they might obtain it in its fullest sense when they entered into the eternal glory with Christ. The salvation is not exactly the eternal glory, but it leads us into it. When Christ changes our bodies of humiliation and conforms them to His own body, we shall have been saved from all that we have had to face in this world where all is opposed to God and to all who are His; and the glory that we shall then have is not only that of the millennial display of Christ, but the eternal glory of God that is found "in the assembly in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 3:21).
There were many saints of God in a past day who lived by faith, but all were not marked by the features of Christ, for Christ had not yet come to give the example of the life that was altogether pleasing to God. In the hand of the Lord was no sword to deal with His enemies as David did, yea, and even Abraham to rescue Lot from the hand of the kings. He did not hate His enemies, as they did of old (Matt. 5:43), but in compassion offered them divine blessing. His, as Man, was an altogether different kind of life that was pleasing to God, but that brought out the dreadful evil of the heart of man, even the religious man that professed to serve God.
When on earth the Lord said to His disciples, "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:20), for to be a follower of Jesus was to take up the cross (Luke 14:27). Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:12, tells us the same thing, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Having suffered so much for Christ, Paul was a suited instrument to speak of this. We may not suffer in the same way in these western lands of Christendom, but suffer we shall if faithful to Christ, following in His steps. Alas! we know little of it, and we have to confess it is because of our lack of fidelity to our absent Master.
In 1 Timothy 3:13 the Apostle writes, "For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." This was exemplified in Stephen, one of the seven deacons chosen to serve in the daily ministration in Jerusalem, who, having served well, was used of the Spirit of God to bring home to the rulers of Israel their guilt in slaying Jesus; and how bold he was in faith in doing so, sealing his testimony with his blood (Acts vii). Boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus comes by serving God under the control of the Spirit of God, as filled with the Spirit.
Timothy had known the Old Testament Scriptures, an inestimable privilege; but the knowledge of the Scriptures was not enough to bring salvation to the soul. The Old Testament Scriptures are full of Christ, and it is when the soul rests on Christ, of Whom the Scriptures speak, that the salvation of God is obtained. Many of the Jews had a good knowledge of the Scriptures, yet they persecuted Christ, for they had not the faith in Christ Jesus that alone could bring them salvation. It is the same in Christendom. How good it is to know the Scriptures; but faith in Christ is necessary for the divine blessing.
Come! cries the waiting Church, the prize is won,
The waning stars grow pale, the moments fleet.
Come! cries the voice of Him who leads her on.
The desert Guide, the holy Paraclete.
Come. Jesus Lord! the bride repeats the call.
Merged in His glory, veiled, for Christ is all!
E. L. Bevir.