1864 129 In this chapter we find two remarkable facts: the setting up of twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, and twelve stones taken out and set up at Gilgal on the Canaan side. All this has its voice for us. As God would have the children of Israel for ever remember this fresh introduction of His power on their behalf, putting the memorial of it before their eyes, in a manner suited to the dispensation; so He would have us continually to bear in mind the infinitely more marvellous and blessed way in which He has wrought for us in Christ.
It is well to consider the twofold bearing of this type of Jordan. In Colossians 2, iii., we have that which clearly corresponds to these two things. The end of chapter 2 reminds the Colossians that they were "dead with Christ." Verses 12, 13 show the two things. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him, through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead;" and then he repeats it in another form to show what their state was when this mighty change was wrought in them. "And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him," etc. Then in verse 20 he takes up one of these truths — "dead with Christ." This answers to the centre of Jordan, that place where the waters of death were ordinarily rolling, and completely blotting out from view all that was beneath them. "If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world," etc. Then, in the beginning of chapter 3, we have, "If ye be risen with Christ." This answers to the stones taken up out of the water and placed on the other side. "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Then in verse 3 we have both truths again: "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;" and put before us as we now are. "Ye are dead." We have the stones set up in Jordan. And "your life is hid with Christ in God" — that which is represented by the stones taken out and put on the other side. We have our Lord risen from the dead and seated in heavenly places, and we are in Him there. Then "seek those things which are above."
And mark the association: it was not a single stone that was put in memorial, but twelve, both in the river and on the farther side. If the death of Christ alone had been shown, one stone might have expressed it; but our very life, Christ, is in the presence of God. "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." And in this truth we have what ought to be just as much as ever before our souls as the stones were before Israel, though we must own that we are little conversant with it. We looked at the death of Christ for comfort, when our souls were troubled because of sin, and we got the assurance of forgiveness. Have we rested there? Is not this the history of many a soul? But it is plain that it falls far short of what we have here, and that the knowledge of the passage through Jordan is a marvellous step in the ways of God's grace. Therefore we may ask, Have we realized our complete deadness to everything here, as before God? Are we dead to the law, to sin, to the world? Have we seen, as it were, the twelve stones taken out of Jordan, in God's own land?
When this is entered into in spirit, it is no question of the trials of the wilderness alone for the heart. The believer is no longer occupied only with the comfort of such a word as this — "There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man," etc.; but he gets the victory over present circumstances, in the power of what he possesses beyond. It is worthy of remark that to the Corinthians, who were addressed as "babes," having become such as had need of milk, so many allusions were made as to Israel in the wilderness. (1 Cor. 10, etc.) Flesh always falls in the wilderness. It must be judged there. Every person must be put to the proof in the trials of the way. The Lord knows how to do this. But the Jordan for ever closes to faith the question of the circumstances of the wilderness. And what we find here is the constant memorial of it, the abiding token that death and resurrection were needed in order to bring them into the land. And thus are we put in spirit into heaven, where the conflict with Satan is carried on. This is a deeper thing than meeting the trials of the spirit in outward things. Through those we learn profitable lessons, but it is not proper conflict. When by faith we have laid hold of our oneness with Christ, immediately mortification of flesh is the question, and we are in the presence of God to enjoy what He has given us; and there we learn the spring of those things which hinder our communion with God, and which Satan is always on the watch to use for hindering our enjoyment of the full blessing.
Along with this, there is the disciplinary process, which God uses to bring us into a better knowledge of Himself. He desires, too, that we should know what it is to be offering and eating of the fruits of the land. The manna was suited to the wilderness; but when the experience of the wilderness was past, they ate of the old corn of the land — resurrection-food.
The great point I would desire to leave on our souls is this — the amazing pains our God has taken that our souls should have unqualified rest and joy in being one with Christ. We are in Him dead to everything that the flesh values and covets in this world. A Christian is dead not only to the evil of the world, but to its very best — to all that man likes most and that tends to exalt him and give him a place in the earth. The death and resurrection of Christ have given us to know that the flesh is good for nothing; that everything to which man can be formed by moral or religious education only proves that the flesh is thoroughly useless Godward, nay, hateful and already condemned. Man says, "Touch not, taste not, handle not;" but God shows that for us He has done for ever with this principle. All the system of restraint was connected with the old man, which faith now has to treat as dead. My case was so utterly desperate that I needed a new creation. This He has wrought for me in Christ: I am now identified no longer with the old thing, but with His condition, and this is intended to govern my ways. What can be of greater consequence for us practically to bear in mind? It is a truth that touches everything in the walk of a Christian here below as he waits for Christ. Any union with the world in its schemes, objects, and ways is unhallowed union with it — is as unnatural as the marriage of a corpse to a living man. We are not only dead with Christ, we are alive with Him. Do we sufficiently bear in mind that God has, in Him, raised us from the dead? I speak not, of course, as to our bodies yet, but as to our new life. So truly am I one with Christ, that whatever is an object of interest to Him should be an object of interest to me. It is easy enough to take up even souls, preaching, anything, in short, in connection with self instead of with Christ. We have to guard against this continually. Self is apt to be a defiling snare. But let us bear in mind, in order to an unsparing, habitual self-judgment, that we are risen with Christ, and that, as such, our hearts should go out in everything that is precious to God.