Law requires power in man to fulfill it. A dead person has no power; resurrection is by God’s power, and Abraham believed that. If God spoke, the thing was certain. That is why his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. When man justifies God not himself, God justifies him. Abraham believed that God was able to perform what He had said; we believe that He raised Christ from the dead – delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.
There is more in Israel’s history than the law. Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. (See Rom. 4:3). He was reckoned righteous because of his faith. Also, David said, ‘Blessed isthe man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin.’ (Psalm 32:2). No sin was imputed to him. He was held to be wholly clear of it before God; it was forgiven and covered. The responsibility of man was fully met, and he knew it.
Faith was counted for righteousness to Abraham. Circumcision was only a seal of the righteousness he had already before he was circumcised. Therefore he became the father of all who believe (including uncircumcised, believing Gentiles), and more than that, the father of those truly separated to God – circumcised in spirit, not in letter.
The promise to Abraham that he would be the heir of the world was a matter of law, but of the righteousness of faith. Promise is not law: promise and faith go together. If promise had been on the basis of law, faith would have been void – man could not have had an inheritance because of transgression. But the inheritance is of faith, not law, that it might be by grace. Faith just believes in grace.
When Abraham received the promise, as far as having offspring was concerned, he was as good as dead. But he believed what God had said as to his seed. So we have another important principle: grace and promise on the part of God, and faith, and the redemption that is in Christ, on the part of man. God’s power comes in; God raises the dead, and makes them to be as He calls them. This applies to Abraham’s seed, to the Gentiles’ blessing, and to Christ’s physical resurrection.
Law requires power in man to fulfill it. The law being given to the sinner, wrath was the consequence of its imposition. A dead person has no power; resurrection is by God’s power, and Abraham believed that. If God spoke, the thing was certain. That is why his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. When man justifies God not himself, God justifies him. Abraham believed that God was able to perform what He had said; we believe that He raised Christ from the dead – delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. God glorifies Himself in grace by granting divine righteousness to man, when he had no human righteousness before God.
As to ourselves, righteousness is imputed to us, as we believe on the God who raised up Christ from the dead. We do not merely own Christ’s work, but God’s acceptance of that work, and His power to quicken the dead. As John said, ‘God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.’ (Matt 3:9). God demonstrated His power in raising up Christ from death, the state into which our sins had brought Him through grace. Of course, God could not leave Him in death, for He was satisfied as to the matter of sins, and righteously raised Him from the dead – in public testimony.
We have the mercy-seat through faith in His blood. The value of the blood brings the witness of righteousness in the remission of past sins. It justifies us, maintaining fully the justice or righteousness of God. He is just, and the Justifier, not the condemner, of those that believe. The principle of righteousness by faith is incompatible with law: one rests on grace, the other on works; one on God’s work, the other on man’s. In grace, God’s work justifies freely; in law, man’s work in righteousness seeks to make peace, redemption and God’s work unnecessary. Law recognises the claim of righteousness, but man having failed, God has met that claim in grace. The grace that was incompatible with law, met the claim of the law, in order to justify the person who had failed under it.
God being revealed, sin is measured by the glory of God.
After demonstrating that the heathen, the moralist and the Jew had all sinned, Paul returns to the subject of the righteousness of God. Man clearly had none If he had had a righteousness it would have been by the law, so it would only be for the Jews. But all men – Jews and Gentiles – have proved to be under sin, so God has manifested His righteousness by faith, entirely separate from the law. It is towards all, and upon all who believe. It is free, by God’s grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
In chap. 1:17, we were told that God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel. Now in Rom. 3:21, it is wholly apart from the law, the way of man’s righteousness) As all of us are under sin, we are justified by God’s grace, through redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
We have in Christ the atonement or propitiation for our sins, giving us a place of access to God on the ground of redemption. The saints in Old Testament times had been subjects of God’s forbearance. God passed over the sins of the Abrahams, the Samuels, and millions of others on the basis of the propitiation that was to be wrought by Christ. God forgave sins as if Christ’s work had already been accomplished. In His exercise of forbearance, He justified His remission of the sins committed before Christ was here.
Now for those of us who live subsequent to His work, we have God’s full present justice. Christ has been exalted. Now in righteousness God could be just and justify believers in Jesus. This is an immense truth: God’s righteousness has been revealed, justifying those who believe in Jesus and His perfectly finished work. He has gone up on high, having glorified God perfectly on the cross, revealing and declaring God’s righteousness. Man has not accomplished it, man has not procured it. It is of God, it is His righteousness. We participate in it through believing in Jesus Christ.
We have the mercy-seat through faith in His blood. The value of the blood brings the witness of righteousness in the remission of past sins. It justifies us, maintaining fully the justice or righteousness of God. He is just, and the Justifier, not the condemner, of those that believe.
Man cannot boast, for justification is by God’s work – God’s grace received in faith. We cannot mix gaining a thing by working, and receiving it by faith – one excludes the other. God justifies sinners in His dealings for them, not man justifying himself by a law which he could not keep. Sinners are justified freely by (on the principle of’) grace, through (by means of) redemption.
Justification was by faith does not set aside the law. The law brought the conviction of sin, the curse even, from which men under it had to be delivered. Christ delivered men from the curse, thus sanctioning the law to the highest degree. He bore the curse, and established the authority of law as nothing else could. The Jew just had do be convicted of the necessity of grace, redemption and the blood of Christ; he had to recognise his debt and obligations, and that Christ’s work had put an end to those.
The principle of righteousness by faith is incompatible with law: one rests on grace, the other on works; one on God’s work, the other on man’s. In grace, God’s work justifies freely; in law, man’s work in righteousness, seeks to make peace, rendering redemption and God’s work unnecessary. Law recognises the claim of righteousness, but man having failed, God has met that claim in grace. The grace that was incompatible with law, met the claim of the law, in order to justify the person who had failed under it. Had it been a human righteousness, it would have been by the law which had been given to the Jews only. But being the righteousness of God Himself, is unto all.
Thus far the imputation of righteousness goes no farther than the forgiveness of sins. There is more farther on; but here that is all .
A simplified summary of part of the introduction to John Nelson Darby’s Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans , with additional material from the Synopsis.
Not only as believers are we to be free of guilt, but we are to know deliverance from the law of sin and death. We still have the flesh, its will and lusts, and in our own strength there is nothing we can do. But Christ’s death terminated that man. As a result we can be in newness of life, in the liberty of sonship. I am at liberty, because the sin I have discovered in my flesh has been condemned in the cross of Christ. Now by faith I am crucified with Him, and have a new place before God, after the cross, beyond Satan’s power, death and judgment. That place is liberty.
Fundamental Truth – a Summary by Sosthenes on John Nelson Darby’s Article ‘Deliverance from the Law of Sin’.
John Nelson Darby
. Not only as believers are we to be free of guilt, but we are to know deliverance from the law of sin and death. We still have the flesh, its will and lusts, and in our own strength there is nothing we can do. As a result of Christ’s death, the Christian can say, ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death’ (Rom 8:2). As a result we can know newness of life and the liberty of sonship. I am free, because the sin I have discovered in my flesh has been condemned in the cross of Christ. By faith I am crucified with Him; I have a new place before God, beyond death, judgment and Satan’s power. That place is liberty.
Peace with God but not delivered from the Law of Sin
Some believers do not experience deliverance from the law of sin, even though they have peace with God. Deliverance from the law of sin and death cannot remain a theory.
Such persons are sure that they have been sealed; they are conscious of the Spirit’s dwelling in them, but are not delivered from that law of evil that works in the flesh. Of course there will always be conflict between the flesh. That will remain to the end, though perhaps in a more subtle form. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8). If the truth of Christ is in the heart, we are aware that there is that which is not of Christ, and have sensibilities and moral feelings as to what is contrary to Him. He is the life of the new man; His grace is sufficient for us and His strength is made perfect in weakness.
The forgiven soul has liberty before God, peace and a purged conscience. In Rom. 5:2 the redeemed soul has a favour which is better than life (this grace wherein we stand).
Effect of Deliverance
Because of deliverance we have: –
new relationships, and
power over sin in the flesh.
Redemption brings us into a place of favour under grace, and delivered us, so we do not have to meet God in our own righteousness. This more than forgiveness and justification from guilt. It is the position of the new man. Many mix up the old man and the new. They have a true but sense of the riches of God’s grace; they enjoy forgiveness and eternal blessings. But that is not conscious sonship: in Christ, and Christ in them.
Why do we fail in practical deliverance from the law of sin? We enjoy liberty through grace, but we do not find sufficient power to resist evil. Now, the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection has closed all association with the first Adam’s place. Law can no longer bind us: through God’s grace, we have new place and standing before God, based on redemption and divine righteousness – a place in sonship. Hence the Lord said, ‘My Father, and your Father; my God, and your God’ (John 17:20). We are in Christ before God, and, by the Holy Spirit, we know it. We know acceptance. Blessed be His name!
We are therefore in a new relationship. Death has put us out of relationship with all a living man is connected with – sin, the world, and all that is in it. That is what has happened to us if Christ is in us.
I look up. Christ (and I am in Him) is the very object and perfection of God’s delight, so I lack nothing; I am acceptable according to God Himself; I have nothing unacceptable.
I look Is all perfect? Though I earnestly love Christ, I find what displeases me, and even more so God. What is more, there is no excuse, for Christ is power as well as life.
Our responsibility as Christians is to walk here as Christ walked, manifesting the life of Jesus in our mortal flesh. The question is not acceptance, but holiness, or acceptableness. As partakers of the divine nature, His judgment is ours.
The Flesh is still there
But this leads us to the very point in question. We hate the evil, yet the flesh is still there. How far we are free from it, or how far it has still power in us? We may writhe under the cords that bind us, and yet not be able to break them and be free. We are so weak. But, being renewed, as born of God, we hate the evil, and strive to live free from it. We do not succeed. We learn that there is no good in us. We hate the evil, but it is too strong for us.
Now comes deliverance, through the working and power of the Holy Spirit, in the faith of what our blessed Lord has wrought. He not only bore our sins, redeeming us and clearing us from guilt, but He died unto sin. When Christ was made a sacrifice for sin, God condemned sin in the flesh. ‘He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him’ (2 Cor. 5:21)
The hateful sin in me has been condemned in Christ’s death. So I reckon myself dead. The old man has been crucified with Christ. Of course I am not actually dead, but in faith I acknowledge this truth. The full result will be the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness, but the work has been done already.
The Old ‘I’ Gone
Up to this point, though I have been a quickened soul. as a child of Adam, I have been practically under the law. Now I have died with Christ, so as no longer to be a child of Adam. The old “I” of my corrupt and sinful nature, has died with Christ. I am delivered from the law, so that I reckon myself dead. There is no condemnation either – that was borne on the cross by the sinless One. We have not overcome ourselves: He overcame so that we might be delivered. So God pronounces, ‘Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3). Christ died and rose again; the Spirit now gives us the power of deliverance down here.
‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty’ (2 Cor.3:17). This liberty has a double aspect – liberty before God as a son and in Christ, and liberty from the law of sin in the flesh. I have a new place in Christ, in that I have died to the old Adam – and am now alive in Christ. Instead of dying physically, I have found a Deliverer, and I reckon myself dead, because Christ (who died) is in me as my life. The Holy Spirit gives me adoption, and the consciousness of being a son. The flesh may be still there, but I am not a debtor to it, but I am no longer a captive to the law of sin. On the contrary, Christ’s grace is sufficient for me, strength being made perfect in weakness. I am at liberty, because the sin I have discovered in my flesh has been condemned in the cross of Christ. Now by faith I am crucified with Him, and have a new place before God, after the cross, beyond Satan’s power, death and judgment. That place is liberty – liberty before God and from the law of sin. I am dead to sin, having died with Christ.
Romans does not go further than death, and Christ being our life. In Colossians, we are raised with Him, and are also dead to the world.
Christ’s work is so perfect, that we could, like the thief on the cross, go straight to paradise. But we are left here in the world, and have to do with the old man – the flesh, with Satan and with the world around. But we are free, redeemed out of the state and standing that we were in. As believers sealed with the Spirit, we are consciously sons in true liberty. But there is more still: when we have learned what it is to have died with Christ, the soul is set ‘free from the law of sin and death’ (Rom 8:2). As dead, we justified from sin – not sins.
A dead man no longer has a perverse will or evil lusts. But having the flesh we still have them. So unless we mortify the deeds of the body, an evil power is at work, giving us a bad state and weakened spiritual judgment. The flesh has does not answer to deliverance, and though we might have not lost the sense of our standing with God, and have liberty in one sense, our flesh works as if we had no spiritual power in Christ.
The Conflict
Now, in such cases, the remedy is not to deny our deliverance; Entangling our souls again in the yoke of bondage does not give us power. Slaves are not combatants, the yoke has to be broken. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty’ (2 Cor 3:17). Where there is liberty and spiritual power, there is also conflict. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal 5:17). Hence in Rom, 6:11, we are free, dead to sin, and alive in Christ to God. Are we going to give ourselves to sin, or to God, to righteousness, the fruit being holiness, and the end everlasting life? (See v. 20-23). Our standing is perfect; our state no way so. How far do we live up to the life which is ours in Christ, through Christ in us? In 2 Cor. 4:10 we have, “Always bearing about in the body the dying [not the death] of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body.”
Our normal condition is to be ‘with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord’ (2 Cor. 3:18). We are changed into the same image; by faith we feed on Him in His humiliation as the bread come down from heaven; we live by Him; we abide in Him, and we grow up unto Him, who is the Head, in all things. Though the flesh is still here, the heart is elsewhere, so the flesh is inactive, it being suppressed by the dying of Jesus. A living body has its own will and acts according to it, but ‘If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ (Rom 8:10). Alas, we do not maintain this normal condition and God disciplines us, sometimes with a thorn in the flesh. We pass through temptations and snares, and pray constantly not to fail. But if we fail, we have an Advocate with the Father. Power is there in Christ for us; we are spiritually free. There is no excuse for failure – but we do.
Sonship
A son is always a son and knows it, even though he may be a naughty, rebellious son. He can never be a slave, He is not under the law of sin, but he may be practically governed by it in his ways, because he is not profiting by the grace and power of Christ. The standard of his Christianity becomes frightfully low; he sees “no harm” in things which, in earlier times, he would have shrunk from – not because they were prohibited, but because the life and Spirit of Christ in him found no food or attraction in them. This is a sad state. The remedy, however, is not making him doubt of his adoption, but presenting the claim of Christ’s love to walk worthy of the calling wherewith he is called.
It is important to understand that deliverance in the sense of known relationship with God, is different from deliverance as having died and having been risen with Christ. In the first it is the place we are in, in the latter it is the experience of walking in power as belonging to that place. Though the flesh is in us, we seek grace and strength from Christ. We can do nothing without Him.
Deliverance from the law of sin is the normal Christian state. We know the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and the power of the Spirit of God. We have true liberty: that is based on Christ’s once dying to sin, and for sin. See Romans 6 and 8. Grace is sufficient for us; our strength made perfect in weakness (we know that); so that there is no excuse for us to sin, even though the flesh is still in us.
Until we have learned that, we do not get freedom. Freedom is the portion of every Christian taught of God. We have strength for it in looking to Christ. The Lord is so gracious!
The moment I, as a poor sinner, look by faith to Jesus as my divine sin-bearer, all my sins are gone – they are put out of God’s sight for ever. Christ is in heaven – He could not take my sin there. I am pardoned through His blood, peace having been made through the blood of the cross. And the glorified Man is in heaven, appearing in the presence of God for us – of His Father and our Father, of His God and our God.
A preaching on Genesis 3 by John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby
After covering the basics of the gospel, Darby said that sin must be put away perfectly. The sinner brought back to God must be spotless. Christ did not enter heaven again until He had settled the whole question of our sins and of sin itself. The moment I, as a poor sinner, look by faith to Jesus as my divine sin-bearer, all my sins are gone – they are put out of God’s sight for ever. I am pardoned through His blood, peace having been made through the blood of the cross. And the glorified Man is in heaven, appearing in the presence of God for us – of His Father and our Father, of His God and our God. No sin there
Man has a Conscience
Man is by nature a ruined sinner, shut out by sin from the presence of God with no way back in his present state. The last Adam brings us back, not to an earthly paradise, but into the very presence of God in heaven. God does not bring a sinner back to innocence, but to the “righteousness of God”. The believer is “made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)
Man has a conscience – he knows good and evil. Even if a godless man steals, his consciences tells him that he has done wrong.
Now look at Satan’s temptation. He wanted to make God’s creatures think that God had been keeping something that would be for their good back from them – that He was jealous of their becoming as Himself. Satan’s great lie was, “Ye shall not surely die.” (v.4) It is his constant aim to make men believe that the consequence of sin will not be all that God has said it would be.
The Woman’s Sin
The woman listened to Satan; she lusted. Her heart was away from God, so she followed her own way – just like men do now, trying to make themselves comfortable away from God. Would you to meet God just as you are? God would say ‘Come and be judged’. So you would hide from God, as Adam and Eve did. Not only did they hide themselves from God, they hid themselves from themselves and from one another: the covering of the fig-leaves was just to hide the shame of their nakedness. And when they were hiding away from God, they were away from the only source of blessing. The light had come in and they wanted to get as far from it as possible.
Let us look at the character of their sin. They believed that the devil had told the truth, and that God did not. Satan wanted them to think that God was keeping from them the very best thing they could possibly have. And men are still believing the devil’s lie – hoping to get into heaven their own way, when God has said that nothing defiled shall enter in. Men are looking to Satan for happiness, instead of believing God. They cannot believe that God wants to make him happy.
Now I may say, ‘I have done very little wrong.’ But I am still making God a liar. All Adam did was to eat an apple. What harm was there in eating an apple? Alas! Adam and Eve cast off God, and that was the harm. Whether it was eating an apple, or killing a man, as Cain did later, the principle was the same. It was casting aside God’s authority, and making Him a liar.
Adam hides himself from God. He wanted to get out of His presence? But the God of love brings the knowledge of the harm into man’s conscience. He does that in love, for if He were dealing with men in judgment He would have left them under it.
God called to Adam. When God speaks, it awakes the conscience; but this is not conversion. God speaks to show man to himself, and bring him back to blessing. His conscience is awakened and that brings him back to the presence of God. You would not hide from a policeman if you have done nothing wrong. But you try to hide yourself from God, because you have done what you know He hates, and that separates you from Him. Man cannot bear to meet God. Innocence, once gone, can never be restored.
The Effect of Sin
Sin has made man get away from God, and it has forced God to drive him from His presence. Man is out of paradise: toil, suffering, sorrow, sickness and death tell us that. And there is only one way back to God, and that is through the Second Man. Christ comes in by the door into the sheepfold, so there is no getting in some other way. He is the door, and whoever enters must come by Him. The flaming sword shut every other avenue to the tree of life. There was no possibility of creeping up to it by some unguarded path.
We also try to excuse ourselves. Adam laid the blame on the woman. “The woman whom thou gavest me, etc.” (v.12) It was as much as saying, ‘Why did you give me this woman? It was your gift caused the sin’. But Adam is condemned by the very excuse. “Because thou hast hearkened etc.” (v.17). Our excuses become our condemnation.
God does not comfort Adam or his wife. He shows man his sin to convict his conscience, not to make him happy. If my child has been naughty, do I wish him to be happy about it? No, I want to forgive him, but he must first feel his sin. God must have us see that we have sinned against Him. We justify God in condemning us. To see sin as God sees it is repentance. It is “truth in the inward parts.” It is holiness and truth in the heart.
God’s Way
God did not leave these poor condemned sinners without comfort. He said to the serpent, “The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head.” It was a new thing that God was bringing in – a new person and a new way. Christ was ‘the seed’. Blessing would come by the Seed of the woman through whom the curse had entered. This was perfection of grace. If sin had come in, sin had to be put away entirely. He who shut man out from heaven has fully provided that which shall shut him in again. We brought back to God through the precious blood of Christ. Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. That is God’s grace.
” God commends his love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.” (Rom. 5:8 Darby) We do not want a good Adam, – but a great God and Saviour. In the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, see all the wrath of God for sin was laid upon Jesus.
Sin must be put away perfectly. The sinner brought back to God must be spotless. Christ did not enter heaven again until He had accomplished this. “When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down,” (Heb 1:3). When all was finished, He took the throne of righteousness. Adam was cast out of the earthly paradise; Christ, as the last Adam, is in the heavenly paradise.
God justifies me when He says, ‘My Son has been given for your soul, and died for sin’. I am clothed with Christ; I am become the righteousness of God. What more could I have or want? I do not know Him fully, but He has redeemed me; and I am in Him that is the life. He is in me, and I in Him; and where He is, there I shall be in due time. I am still in the body, and bear about with me the bondage of corruption; but Satan’s power is crushed. The serpent’s head is bruised. He has been overcome: Christ went down under the full power of him that had the power of death; and He came up from it triumphant, for it was not possible He should be held by death.
He has overcome
We are told, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7). We are not to overcome him (we could never do that), but when he meets Christ in me, he cannot stand that, he must flee.
The Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven in love, devoted Himself to God for our salvation. He drank the cup of wrath for sin; He tasted death, shut out from God’s presence that He might bring us back into the presence of God without judgment and without sin. This makes us happy and blessed for ever. He knew what the holiness of God was, and what His wrath was; and therefore He knew what He was delivering us from. How I shall hate sin, if I have seen Christ agonising for mine upon the cross! This changes my heart.
The moment I, as a poor sinner, look by faith to Jesus as my divine sin-bearer, all my sins are gone – they are put out of God’s sight for ever. Christ is in heaven – He could not take my sin there. I am pardoned through His blood, peace having been made through the blood of the cross. And the glorified Man is in heaven, appearing in the presence of God for us – of His Father and our Father, of His God and our God.
The epistles to Timothy and Titus are not addressed to churches, nor were they to be communicated to the churches as such. Of course the church of God has them, guiding us as to the individual conduct which is an unceasing obligation for Christians.
1 Timothy
The epistles to Timothy and Titus are not addressed to churches, nor were they to be communicated to the churches as such. Of course the church of God has them, guiding us as to the individual conduct which is an unceasing obligation for Christians.
Timothy had been charged insist on sound doctrine. However he has to draw attention as to the right order in the church. The first letter gives us the order of the church under normal conditions; 2 Timothy, shows us the path of faith when things are abnormal – in disorder.
You have in 1 Timothy 3:15 the principle of Timothy’s conduct.
2 Timothy
In 2 Timothy Paul was at the close of his career, and though the church had fallen into disorder, there is no other epistle in which he insists so much on the unfailing courage and energy of the saints. He calls upon them to endure the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. We do not have the outward church connected with the body of Christ, but simply individual piety and devotedness wherever he could find it.
Chapter 2:18-22 is indicative of the tone of the instruction as regards the state of the church. The faith of some had been overthrown, so he refers first to the sure foundation of God, the Lord knowing them that are His. Whoever names the name of the Lord is to depart from iniquity. That is individual responsibility. Then he takes the great house as the analogy of the church publicly, showing that in such there are vessels to dishonour, and to be a vessel to honour, a man has to purge himself from these. Then he is to follow righteousness, etc., with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. This distinguishes those who are really saints. Paul associates himself with them, and warns of perilous times in the last days – a form of godliness denying the power. He insists, besides his personal authority, upon the known scriptures as a child might read them, and asserts that they are sufficient to make us wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. They have been given by inspiration of God, and are adequate to make the man of God perfect [or complete, fit], thoroughly prepared for undertaking all good works.
Originally by JND. Lightly edited by Sosthenes, September 2014
In Ephesians we have the relationships of the saints with God the Father, and with the ascended Christ.
In Ephesians we have the relationships of the saints with God the Father, and with the ascended Christ.
First we have our calling, involving our relationships with God and with the Father. Then we have our acquaintance with all God’s plans, everything being headed up in Christ. Hence we know our inheritance, and our place as heirs, the Holy Spirit having been given as earnest till the redemption of the inheritance.
In chap.1, Paul prays to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (Christ being looked at as man), that the saints might know what God’s calling and inheritance is, and that we might appreciate the power that works in us. This power was shown in Christ, when God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, setting Him over all things, and making the church His body and completeness.
Then, in sovereign grace, we are quickened, raised, and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ. This shows the exceeding riches of His kindness to us. The Gentiles were afar off; the Jews were dispensationally near, all forming one new man in Chris – the dwelling-place of God on earth by the Spirit. Thus we have the assembly connected both with Christ as His body on high, and as God’s dwelling-place on earth by His Spirit.
The mystery is now introduced for the first time. It is a witness of the all-various wisdom of God in heavenly places. The apostle then prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that we may realise the full blessedness of this, Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. Being rooted and grounded in love, we are to be able to comprehend the infinitely wide extent of the character of God’s glory, and to know the love of Christ. So we can at the centre of it all according to the fullness of God Himself. With this he ascribes glory to God in the church in all ages, implying the distinct, continuous existence of the assembly.
Note that in chapter 3:15 read “every family,” instead of “the whole family.” (As in Darby version) In verse 18, the breadth, and depth, and length, and height is not “of the love.” The whole of chapter 3 is parenthetic, and the first words of chapter 4 connect themselves with the beginning of chapter 3.
At the start of chapter 4 the apostle unfolds, in connection with the headship of Christ, the various unities into which we are brought. There are three unities: a real one, one of profession, and a universal one in God. First, one body, one Spirit and one hope. Secondly, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Thirdly, one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in us all. We are to walk in lowliness, so as to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Then we have the gifts – instruments of building and edification. The gifts are from the ascended Man, who overcame Satan and led him captive, so as to gather and perfect the make those who were formerly Satan’s captives, the instruments of His own warfare in power. At the same time He who ascended is the One who first descended into the lower parts of the earth, so as to fill all things. The measure to which the saints are to be brought up is that of the stature of the fullness of Christ Himself; the body being fitted together, and supplied by every joint in order for its own building up. We start with the individual. Then we get exhortations connected with the new man being created of God in righteousness and true holiness. It is only the new man which has to do with righteousness and holiness.
We are to be imitators of God, and act as Christ Himself has acted in love – the perfect expression of God – the new man. Furthermore, in this new man we are light in the Lord. The measure of our walk and works is the light itself, of which Christ, if we are awake, is to us the perfect outshining. Hence we are to be wise in the midst of this world. In going through our relative duties, Paul speaks of the relationship of the church to Christ, founded on the working of His love. He first gives Christ’s giving Himself for it; next, Christ sanctifies and cleanses it by the word; and, thirdly, He presents it to Himself a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Two things are to be noted:
That, in the analogy with Adam and Eve, Christ stands in the place both of Adam and God.
The intimate connection between Christ’s present operation and the glory.
He sanctifies and cleanses the church, so that He might present it to Himself. Then, the church, as well as being His wife, is presented as His body. According to the analogy of Eve. Christ is looked at as nourishing and cherishing it, as a man would his own flesh (chap. 5).
Finally, Christians are exhorted to put on the whole armour of God, and in His might enter into combat, entirely dependent on Him (chap. 6).
Originally by JND. Lightly edited by Sosthenes, September 2014
We ought to remember what we are in ourselves, when we talk about exercising discipline – it is an amazingly solemn thing. When I reflect, that I am a poor sinner, saved by mere mercy, standing only in Jesus Christ for acceptance, in myself vile, it is, evidently, an awful thing to take discipline into my own hands.
Excerpts from a Paper by J N Darby entitled ‘On Discipline’
John Nelson Darby
We ought to remember what we are in ourselves, when we talk about exercising discipline – it is an amazingly solemn thing. When I reflect, that I am a poor sinner, saved by mere mercy, standing only in Jesus Christ for acceptance, in myself vile, it is, evidently, an awful thing to take discipline into my own hands.
But the church may be forced to exercise discipline, as in the case of the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 5. I believe there is never a case of church discipline but to the shame of the whole body. In writing to the Corinthians, Paul says, “Ye have not mourned,” etc.: they all were identified with it. Like some sore on a man’s body, it tells of the disease of the body, of the constitutional condition. The assembly is never prepared, or in the place to exercise discipline, unless having first identified itself with the sin of the individual. If it does not do it in that way, it takes a judicial form, which will not be the ministration of the grace of Christ. Its priestly character in the present dispensation is one of grace.
All discipline until the last act is restorative. The act of putting outside, of excommunication, is not (properly speaking) discipline, but the saying that discipline is ineffective, and there is an end of it; the church says, “I can do no more.”
As to the nature of all this, the spirit in which it should be conducted, it is priestly; and the priests ate the sin-offering within the holy place, Lev. 10. I do not think any person or body of Christians can exercise discipline, unless as having the conscience clear, as having felt the power of the evil and sin before God, as if he had himself committed it. If that which is done is not done in the power of the Holy Ghost, it is nothing.
It is a terrible thing to hear sinners talking about judging another sinner, sinners judging sinners, but a blessed thing to see them exercised in conscience about sin come in among themselves. It must be in grace. I no more dare act, save in grace, than I could wish judgment to myself. “Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,” Matt. 7:1, 2. If we go to exercise judgment, we shall get it.
Wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He is in the midst.
If anyone, through the flesh, separated from two or three walking godlily before God in the unity of the whole body of Christ, it would not merely be an act of schism, he would … deprive himself of the blessing of God’s presence.
If the evil is not put away, but persisted in, is the Spirit of God with those who continue in the evil, or with him who will not? Or is the doctrine of the unity of the body to be made a cover for evil?
I cannot stay in evil to preserve unity.
If any Christians now set up to be the church, or did any formal act which pretended to it, I should leave them as being a false pretension.
A Letter by J N Darby on Separation
I am not so afraid of leaving an assembly, or setting up another table, as some other brethren
Wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He is in the midst.
If any Christians now set up to be the church, or did any formal act which pretended to it, I should leave them as being a false pretension.
John Nelson Darby
I write rather because of the importance of the point than for any immediate occasion of circumstances: I mean leaving an assembly, or setting up, as it is called, another table. I am not so afraid of it as some other brethren, but I must explain my reasons. If such or such a meeting were the church here, leaving it would be severing oneself from the assembly of God. But though wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, He is in the midst, and the blessing and responsibility, of the church are, in a certain sense also, if any Christians now set up to be the church, or did any formal act which pretended to it, I should leave them as being a false pretension, and denying the very testimony to the state of ruin which God has called us to render. It would have ceased to be the table of the people and testimony of God, at least intelligently. It might be evil pretension or ignorance; it might call for patience, if it was in ignorance, or for remedy, if that was possible: but such a pretension I believe false, and I could not abide in what is false. I think it of the last importance that this pretension of any body should be kept down: I could not own it a moment, because it is not the truth.
If anyone, through the flesh, separated from two or three walking godlily before God in the unity of the whole body of Christ, it would not merely be an act of schism, he would … deprive himself of the blessing of God’s presence.
But then, on the other hand, united testimony to the truth is the greatest possible blessing from on high. And I think that if anyone, through the flesh, separated from two or three walking godlily before God in the unity of the whole body of Christ, it would not merely be an act of schism, but he would necessarily deprive himself of the blessing of God’s presence. It resolves itself, like all else, into a question of flesh and Spirit. If the Spirit of God is in and sanctions the body, he who leaves in the flesh deprives himself of the blessing, and sins. If, on the contrary, the Spirit of God does not sanction the body, he who leaves it will get into the power and liberty of the Spirit by following Him. That is the real way to look at it. There may be evil, and yet the Spirit of God sanction the body (not, of course, its then state), or at least act with the body in putting it away.
If the evil is not put away, but persisted in, is the Spirit of God with those who continue in the evil, or with him who will not? Or is the doctrine of the unity of the body to be made a cover for evil?
I cannot stay in evil to preserve unity.
But if the Spirit of God, by any faithful person, moves in this, and if the evil is not put away, but persisted in, is the Spirit of God with those who continue in the evil, or with him who will not? Or is the doctrine of the unity of the body to be made a cover for evil? That is precisely the delusion of Satan in popery, and the worst form of evil under the sun. If the matter, instead of being brought to the conscience of the body, is maintained by the authority of a few, and the body of believers despised, it is the additional concomitant evil of the clergy, which is the element also of popery. Now, I believe myself, the elements of this have been distinctly brought out at [Plymouth?]; and I cannot stay in evil to preserve unity. I do not want unity in evil but separation from it. God’s unity is always founded on separation, since sin came into the world. “Get thee out” is the first word of God’s call: it is to Himself. If one gets out alone it may require more faith, but that is all; one will be with Him, and that, dear brother, is what I care most about, though overjoyed to be with my brethren on that ground. I do not say that some more spiritual person might not have done more or better than I: God must judge of that. I am sure I am a poor creature; but at all cost I must walk with God for myself. . . .
Some get hold of a particular evil which galls their flesh, and they leave. Do you think that the plea of unity will heal? Never. All are in the wrong.
I should not break bread till the last extremity: and if I did, it would be in the fullest, openest testimony, that I did not own the others then to be the table of the Lord at all.
Suppose clericalism so strong that the conscience of the body does not act at all, even when appealed to; is a simple saint who has perhaps no influence to set anything right, because of this very evil, therefore to stay with it? What resource has he? I suppose another case. Evil goes on, fleshly pretension, a low state of things on all sides. Some get hold of a particular evil which galls their flesh, and they leave. Do you think that the plea of unity will heal? Never. All are in the wrong. Now this often happens. Now the Lord in these cases is always over all. He chastens what was not of Him by such a separation, and shews the flesh in detail even where, in the main, His name was sought. If the seceders act in the flesh, they will not find blessing. God governs in these things, and will own righteousness where it is, if only in certain points. They would not prosper if it were so; but they might remain a shame and sorrow to those they left. If it be merely pride of flesh, it will soon come to nothing. “There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest.” If occasion has been given in any way, the Lord, because He loves, will not let go till the evil be purged out. If I do not act with Him, He will (and I should thank Him for it) put me down in the matter too. He loves the church, and has all power in heaven and earth, and never lets slip the reins.
I should not break bread till the last extremity: and if I did, it would be in the fullest, openest testimony, that I did not own the others then to be the table of the Lord at all. I should think worse of them than of sectarian bodies, because having more pretension to light. “Now ye say we see.” But I should not (God forbid!) cease to pray continually, and so much the more earnestly, for them, that they might prosper through the fulness of the grace that is in Christ for them . . . .
We need to watch ourselves, lest, after having been preserved from the corruption of the age by the very precious truths revealed to us in our weakness, we should be taken in the net of presumption, or thrown into insubordination. These are things which God can never recognise or tolerate, since we are called to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
John Nelson Darby
This article by John Nelson Darby was published in JND’s Collected Writings Miscellaneous 5.
‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.’ (Psalm 126:5); ‘
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.‘ (Matthew 18:20)
Man’s pretensions and energy manifest themselves strongly, But to learn to be still in a clay of grace, and know that God is God, is completely above the education of the flesh.
The spirit of the age affects many Christians, who labour to restore old things for the service of God. They should be broken before Him with the sense of their downfall.
To confess openly that which we are in the presence of that which God is, is always the way to peace and blessing. Even when only two or three are together before God, there will be no disappointments nor deluded hopes. God’s word for the remnant is, “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” (1 Peter 3:15) He is the only centre of gathering.
The Holy Spirit does not gather saints around mere views, however true they may be. It is not q question of what the church on the earth is, or has been, or may yet be; He always gathers saints around that blessed Person, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matt. 18:20.
We need to be watchful against boasting, as people do in these days. We need to be still, in the presence of God. There is much independence and self-will almost everywhere.
If anyone speaks of separation from evil, without being humiliated, let him take care lest his position becomes simply sectarian, and produces doctrinal heresy. Sectarianism is the most natural weed of the human heart. (Sectarianism is getting an interest in a little circle round ourselves.) Nearness to Christ would keep us from that.
Now I know, at the present time, of no service which is worthy of Him, if it is not done in humiliation. This is not the time to speak of a place for ourselves. If the church of God, so dear to Christ, is dishonoured in this world; if it is scattered, ignorant, afflicted, the person who has the mind of Christ will always take the lowest place. True service of love will seek to give according to the need, and because of the need, he will never think of slighting the objects of the Master’s love because of their necessity.
Men taught of God, for His service, go forth from a place of strength, where they have learned their own weakness and their own nothingness. They find that Jesus is everything in the presence of God, and Jesus is everything for them in all things, and everywhere. Such men, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, are real helps for the children of God, and they will not contend for a place, or a distinction, or for authority, among the scattered flock. A man in communion with God about the church will show his willingness to be nothing in himself, and he rejoice in his heart to spend and to be spent. He is faithful in the path of separation, in sorrow, and in the conflicts he is obliged to pass through.
When persons think of the church, they would rather think of the church in power. We can learn from the conduct of Zerubbabel, recounted in the book of Ezra. Also, despite the position Solomon had occupied, as heir, in days of his prosperity and glory, he did not speak of either his birth or his rights.
If we speak of our testimony upon the earth, it will soon be evident that totally in weakness. Like the seed by the wayside, the testimony will likewise ends in shame.
Neither the anger, prudence, or pretensions of man can do anything, in the state of confusion in which the church is now. I freely own that I have no hope in the efforts which many make to assure themselves an ecclesiastical position. When the house is ruined in its foundations by an earthquake, it matters little how one tries to make it an agreeable dwelling place. We had better remain where we first discovered of the ruin of things by man’s action – with our faces in the dust. S uch is the place which belongs to us by right, After all, it is the place of blessing.
I have read of a time when several were gathered together in such sorrow of heart, that for a long time they could not utter a single word; but the floor of the meeting room was wet with their tears. If the Lord would grant us such meetings again, it would be our wisdom to frequent these houses of tears. “They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy.” Psa. 126:5.
This is not just true for the earthly remnant; it is also written for us. I would willingly take a long journey to join these afflicted ones; but I would not go a step to to receive power from men, however excellent, to overturn the present and reconstruct the future.
J.N.D.
Lightly edited by Sosthenes – May 2014
I am indebted to our brother Jeff in Illinois for bringing this article to my attention. S.
Dans l’état de confusion où se trouve l’Eglise, et dans l’oubli même qu’il y en ait une, il est tout naturel qu’on agisse en pareil cas d’après ses convictions individuelles. Mais lorsqu’il s’agit de détruire l’unité de l’Eglise, la question est plus sérieuse. Les Baptistes sont une secte, et c’est assez dire, à mon avis, pour ne pas en être. Si un frère croit devoir être baptisé, je n’ai jamais même cherché à l’en détourner, bien que, s’il a déjà été baptisé, je crois qu’il se trompe dans sa manière de voir. Mais, s’il croit que c’est selon la Parole, il fait très bien, selon moi, de le faire. Seulement qu’il ne rompe pas l’unité du corps.
Lettre de J N Darby sur le Baptême
John Nelson Darby
La lettre suivante écrit en français, tirée du Messager Evangélique (lettre n ° 431), par John Nelson Darby, expose sa position sur le baptême, en particulier le baptême des croyants, pratiqué par les baptistes et d’autres chrétiens évangéliques. En raison de la confusion qui règne autour de cet important sujet, il convient également de publier ma traduction (légèrement modifiée) ici. Voici la version originale.
Montpellier 1851
A Monsieur L. F.
L’état de l’église
Dans l’état de confusion où se trouve l’Eglise, et dans l’oubli même qu’il y en ait une, il est tout naturel qu’on agisse en pareil cas d’après ses convictions individuelles. Mais lorsqu’il s’agit de détruire l’unité de l’Eglise, la question est plus sérieuse. Les Baptistes sont une secte, et c’est assez dire, à mon avis, pour ne pas en être. Si un frère croit devoir être baptisé, je n’ai jamais même cherché à l’en détourner, bien que, s’il a déjà été baptisé, je crois qu’il se trompe dans sa manière de voir. Mais, s’il croit que c’est selon la Parole, il fait très bien, selon moi, de le faire. Seulement qu’il ne rompe pas l’unité du corps.
Les baptistes citent: «Ainsi il nous est convenable d’accompli toute justice.»
Ayant dit cela, je vous donnerai quelques principes généraux sur ce sujet. Les raisonnements des baptistes sont si loin de me convaincre (j’ai lu le traité laissé à Montpellier par M. Devine, qui ne dit rien d’autre que ce que j’avais déjà lu souvent) que je trouve dans ces raisonnements, sans qu’ils s’en doutent, le renversement des principes fondamentaux du christianisme, et une ignorance complète de ce qu’est le baptême chrétien. Ils parlent du baptême de Jean, et de ce que le Seigneur a dit : “Ainsi il nous est convenable d’accompli toute justice” (Matthieu 3:15) Réfléchissez-y. Est-ce que le chrétien accomplit la justice en satisfaisant à ce qu’exigent des ordonnances ? Est-ce là un principe chrétien, ou le renversement du christianisme ? De plus, le baptême de Jean est absolument nul pour les chrétiens; c’était un baptême pour les Juifs seuls, baptême qui supposait l’entrée, par la repentance, dans ces privilèges du royaume, et ne supposait nullement la mort et la résurrection de Christ, mais exactement le contraire. Ce baptême n’avait pas non plus lieu en Son nom, ni en rapport avec les vérités annoncées dans l’Evangile. Par conséquent, ceux qui avaient le baptême de Jean étaient plus tard baptisés au nom du Seigneur, comme s’ils n’eussent encore reçu aucun baptême. (voir Actes 19:4-5). On vient donc m’engager à me faire baptiser comme obéissant à une ordonnance, pour accomplir la justice (principe qui renverse le christianisme dans ses fondements), et d’un baptême qui est l’exclusion de la mort et de la résurrection de Christ (seul vrai sens du baptême chrétien). Or, historiquement, ce baptême appartient d’une telle manière à un système qui précédait le christianisme que l’on baptisait celui qui l’avait reçu aussi bien qu’un Juif ou un païen. La mort et la résurrection de Christ forment la base d’une nouvelle création à laquelle le baptême de Jean ne se rapportait nullement. Lorsque j’entends de pareils arguments, ils ne font donc que me convaincre que ceux qui les emploient (tout en étant très sincères), ne comprennent pas les premiers éléments du sujet qu’ils traitent, et, sans le vouloir ni le savoir, renversent les fondements de la vérité chrétienne.
Mais il y a encore d’autres points qui me font rejeter le système baptiste : c’est que je nie leur principe d’obéissance à une ordonnance et en particulier à l’ordonnance (disent-ils) du baptême. Le baptême est un privilège accordé et l’acte est celui de là personne qui baptise, non de celle qui est baptisée. Je nie qu’il y ait une telle pensée dans la Parole que l’obéissance au baptême, ou qu’il y ait un commandement adressé aux hommes, d’accomplir l’acte de se faire baptiser.
Le Baptême est envisagé comme un Privilège
Premièrement, je nie que l’idée d’obéissance à une ordonnance appartienne au système chrétien. Je reconnais que Christ a établi le baptême et la Cène; mais l’obéissance à des ordonnances est ce qui a été détruit, comme principe, à la croix. (voir Col.2:14; Eph2:15). Lorsqu’il s’agit de la Cène, “faites ceci en mémoire de moi” est une direction à l’égard du but du symbole. Toutes les fois qu’on en mangerait, on devait le faire dans ce but. Ce n’est pas un commandement pour le faire, mais une direction pour le faire avec intelligence lorsqu’on le ferait.
Pour le baptême en particulier, le commandement donné est d’aller baptiser, c’est-à-dire que cet acte était l’acte des apôtres en recevant les Gentils dans l’Eglise. Et ceci est si vrai que les apôtres n’ont pas pu être baptisés, mais ont fait baptiser ceux qui recevaient leur doctrine.
En examinant les cas présentés, je trouve que le baptême est envisagé comme un privilège accordé à quelqu’un que l’on admet dans la maison de Dieu, et n’est jamais un acte d’obéissance, ni de témoignage. “Quelqu’un pourrait-il refuser l’eau”, dit l’apôtre “pour que ceux-ci ne soient pas baptisés, eux qui ont reçu l’Esprit saint comme nous-mêmes ?“(Actes 10:47) “Qu’est-ce qui m’empêche d’être baptisé ?” (Actes 8:36) dit l’eunuque. Evidemment, dans ce cas, il ne s’agit pas d’obéissance, mais d’un privilège accordé, d’une admission aux privilèges dont d’autres jouissaient. Je ferai remarquer en passant que, bien qu’il soit clair qu’un adulte, païen ou juif, a dû croire pour être baptisé, les mots : “si tu crois de tout ton cœur, cela est permis” (Actes 8:37) sont rejetés, comme étrangers à la Parole par toutes les personnes qui se sont occupées de l’authenticité du texte. Les apôtres ont reçu l’ordre du Seigneur pour baptiser.
J’ajoute que l’idée des baptistes que le baptême est le signe de ce que nous sommes est aussi contraire à la Parole, car il est dit : “Vous êtes ensevelis avec Lui dans le baptême, dans lequel aussi vous avez été ressuscités.” (Colossiens 2:12). Cela n’est donc pas basé sur la supposition que nous sommes déjà morts et ressuscité. Au contraire : en figure nous mourons et nous ressuscitons dans le baptême même, c’est-à-dire qu’il signifie que nous ne l’étions pas auparavant. C’est le signe de la chose par laquelle nous entrons, et non pas le signe de notre état à nous.
Je rejette entièrement tout le système baptiste, parce que je reçois les enseignements de la parole de Dieu. Je suis parfaitement convaincu qu’il est faux dans toutes ses parties. Il y a un ordre de baptiser donné aux apôtres, mais le baptême n’est pas le sujet d’un commandement particulier pour celui qui est baptisé. La différence est du tout au tout dans le caractère de l’acte. Si je donne l’ordre à mon agent d’affaires de remettre cent francs à telle personne, ou si je confère une lettre de bourgeoisie à quelqu’un, c’est tout autre chose qu’obéissance de la part de celui qui les reçoit.
Le baptême est la réception d’une personne au milieu de l’Assemblée chrétienne
Cependant rejeter ce qui et faux n’est pas tout ce qu’on a à faire. Il s’agit de connaître la vérité pour pouvoir glorifier Dieu; mais la question est devenue beaucoup plus simple. Le baptême est la réception d’une personne au milieu de l’Assemblée chrétienne ici-bas, dans ce monde. Je ne crois pas que celui qui lit le Nouveau Testament sans prévention pourrait le nier. Qui donc alors doit être reçu dans cette Assemblée, le baptême étant reconnu être le moyen de les recevoir (car je suis d’accord sur ce point avec les baptistes)? J’accepte bien que, à l’égard des hommes faits, païens ou Juifs, en un mot à l’égard de ceux qui n’ont jamais été reçus (car ce serait aussi le cas d’un quaker ou de l’enfant d’un baptiste) ce sont ceux qui croient qui doivent être baptisés, car on ne peut recevoir un adulte (qui doit agir selon sa responsabilité à lui) que sur sa propre responsabilité. C’est tout simple, à moins qu’on ne le pousse à la rivière, l’épée dans les reins, comme fit Charlemagne à l’égard des Saxons.
Mais la question qui reste est celle-ci ! Est-ce que les enfants de parents chrétiens doivent être reçus au sein de l’Assemblée ?
Il faut ici que je dise un mot à l’égard de l’Assemblée même, parce que je crois que ce qui fait naître les difficultés, c’est l’ignorance de ce qu’est l’Assemblée de Dieu sur la terre. Je dis l’Assemblée et non les assemblées. Les baptisés devenaient, par le baptême, membres de l’Assemblée chrétienne sur la terre, non d’une assemblée. Or cette Assemblée est la maison de Dieu où demeure le Saint Esprit. Le monde est le désert où règne Satan. L’Assemblée est “l’habitation de Dieu par l’Esprit” (Éphésiens 2:22) . Dans cette Assemblée on est admis par le baptême, et il est si vrai qu’elle est l’habitation de l’Esprit que le chap.VI des Hébreux suppose que l’on peut être rendu participant du Saint Esprit sans être converti. Dans ce cas, celui qui avait l’Esprit ainsi, n’était pas réellement du corps de Christ, mais il possédait le Saint Esprit dans le sens d’un don, étant dans la maison où l’Esprit demeurait et agissait. Ainsi Ananias et Sapphira ont menti au Saint Esprit. Dans ce cas-ci, c’était de la présence qu’il s’agissait, non d’un don, mais la chose est la même pour le point qui nous occupe. Or il s’agit de savoir si les enfants des chrétiens peuvent être reçus dans cette maison, ou si l’on devait les laisser dans le monde où règne Satan. Il ne s’agit pas de commandement; je nie tout commandement pour une ordonnance et en particulier pour le baptême. Il n’y en a pas pour un adulte. Il s’agit de savoir quelle est la volonté de Dieu à l’égard de ce privilège. Or il est clair pour moi, d’après la Parole, que les enfants doivent être reçus. Il est de toute évidence que ç’aurait été un changement introduit dans le système de Dieu, de ne pas les recevoir, changement qui, du reste, n’a pas été signalé. Or voici quelques passages qui me font voir, d’une manière positive, les pensées de Dieu à cet égard. Avant de les citer je pose comme un principe reconnu, car je le crois scripturaire, que le baptême est le moyen voulu du Seigneur pour recevoir extérieurement dans l’assemblée de Dieu et que sa signification est la mort et la résurrection de Christ. Mais ici, je dois en passant, faire encore remarquer que les vues de plusieurs sur ce point sont décidément antiscripturaires. Ils supposent que les ordonnances et en particulier le baptême sont le signe de l’état où se trouve celui qui y participe. Or cette idée est opposée au témoignage de la Parole. Le baptisé participe figurément à l’acte de l’ordonnance qui n’est nullement un signe qu’il y participait avant. Ainsi, le baptême n’est pas le signe qu’un homme participe à la mort et à la résurrection de Christ. Le baptême est (en figure), la participation à ces choses par cet acte même. Le témoignage de (Colossiens 2:12) est positif à cet égard : “Vous êtes ensevelis avec lui par le baptême dans lequel vous êtes ressuscités avec lui. C’est dans l’acte que la participation a eu lieu; il n’est pas le signe d’une participation qui le précède. Il en est de même à l’égard de la Cène, on y mange (en figure) le corps rompu; on y boit le sang répandu. Ce n’est pas une figure qu’on l’a déjà fait. Ce même principe se trouve en Rom.VI, 4; d’autres passages le confirment.
Baptême et Petits Enfants
Ayant mis ce principe au clair, et ayant montré que l’idée baptiste n’est pas fondée, que la Parole contredit leur idée que le baptême est le signe qu’on est déjà mort et ressuscité, tandis que la Parole enseigne que nous y mourons et ressuscitons (en figure); ayant, dis-je, tiré tout cela au clair, j’en viens aux passages qui m’autorisent à croire que les enfants des chrétiens sont les objets de cette faveur, le baptême étant le moyen de les en faire jouir.
Le chap. 18 de Matthieu est un passage frappant, montrant de quelle manière Dieu envisage les enfants. Le Seigneur a pris un petit enfant (v.2), non une personne convertie (il distingue même (v.6) un enfant qui croit, des autres) et il déclare qu’il faut devenir tel; que leurs anges voient continuellement la face de son Père qui est dans les cieux (v.10), c’est-à-dire qu’ils sont les objets de Sa faveur spéciale. Mais le témoignage est quelque chose de beaucoup plus précis que cela : Ils sont perdus; Christ est venu, est-il dit (v.11), “pour sauver ce qui était perdu“, car “ce n’est pas la volonté de votre Père qui est dans les cieux, qu’un seul de ces petits périsse.” (v.14). En recevant un petit enfant en son nom, je reçois Christ, et je reconnais que, tout en étant enfants, ce petit être est perdu; mais qu’il est l’objet de l’amour du Père que je connais, et qu’il n’y a pas d’autre moyen de salut, même pour un enfant, que la mort et la résurrection de Christ; et je l’introduis dans la maison par ce moyen. Le témoignage est donc plus fort, que nous sommes nés enfants de colère.
J’ai déjà montré que le baptême n’est pas un témoignage rendu à l’état de l’individu, mais l’admission de l’individu est un témoignage à la valeur de l’œuvre de Christ. Le baptiste, je le sais me dira : “Mais vous admettez un petit païen ?” La Parole me dit tout le contraire. Elle dit que si l’un des parents est chrétien, les enfants sont saints; or ils ne sont pas saints de nature; c’est une sainteté relative, c’est-à-dire un droit d’entrée dans la maison. C’est le sens de ce mot dans la Bible. Ils ne sont pas souillés, profanes. Un Juif qui épousait une femme des nations était profané, et les enfants profanes, et la femme devait être renvoyée avec eux. Mais le christianisme est un système de grâce, et la femme, au lieu de rendre son mari profane, est sanctifiée, et les enfants sont saints. Et ceci est la force propre et la portée évidente du passage, car il s’agit de savoir si un croyant devait renvoyer sa femme non convertie. Ainsi les enfants, étant saints, ont droit d’entrer dans la maison, et c’est l’avantage réel dont ils jouissent.
Parler d’enfants légitimes est un non-sens, car ce ne sont que les lois modernes qui ont fait faire cette distinction en pareil cas.
On me demandera [peut-être] pourquoi [alors], ne pas donner la Cène aux enfants ? Je réponds: parce que la lumière de la Parole m’en empêche. La Cène, envisagée sous ce point de vue, est la figure de l’unité du corps. Nous sommes tous un seul corps, en tant que nous participons tous à ce seul pain. Or c’est par un seul Esprit que nous sommes tous baptisés pour être un seul corps, c’est-à-dire qu’il faut être baptisé du Saint Esprit pour prendre la Cène.
“Enfants, obéissez à vos parents”, ne saurait se dire si les enfants n’étaient pas dedans. On n’adresse pas des préceptes à des païens. Je vois donc que Christ, qui a reçu les enfant, veut que nous les recevions en Son nom, et qu’en le faisant nous le recevions, Lui. Remarquez qu’en Matthieu 18 , le Seigneur applique la parabole de la brebis perdue aux petits enfants (c’était, à la lettre, un petit enfant qui était là). Je repousse entièrement toute consécration à Dieu en dehors du baptême. Non seulement cette pratique baptiste est une convention humaine, mais (sans le vouloir, j’en conviens), c’est prétendre pouvoir présenter les enfants à Dieu sans la mort et la résurrection de Christ. Si l’on peut les présenter à Dieu par la mort et la résurrection de Christ, ils sont les sujets du baptême : le faire autrement c’est nier le christianisme; ne pas les consacrer, c’est impossible pour un chrétien. Selon moi, le baptiste prive son enfant de la protection de la maison de Dieu et des soins de l’Esprit et le laisse dans le monde où Satan règne, au lieu (quoiqu’il soit heureusement inconséquent) de l’élever dans la discipline du Seigneur…
Résumé
Enfin je nie entièrement qu’il y ait un commandement d’être baptisé, comme affaire d’obéissance. Je dis que le principe est faux et que le baptême est toujours présenté dans la Parole d’une manière entièrement opposée à cette idée qui fait le fondement du système baptiste; qu’il s’agit d’une réception dans l’église, de la jouissance du privilège de l’introduction dans la maison où est l’Esprit, que citer le baptême de Jean-Baptiste, c’est l’ignorance des premiers principes du christianisme et de la nature même du baptême chrétien, et que le baptême, envisagé d’après la Parole comme étant une réception par l’Eglise, appartient aux enfants des chrétiens, selon la faveur de Dieu, et parce qu’ils sont saints. C’est le contraire de la profanation d’un juif qui avait épousé une étrangère. Les enfants sont saints comme dans le cas d’un Juif ils étaient profanes. Je répète ceci, parce qu’on cherche à employer ce mot pour affaiblir cette preuve scripturaire, tandis qu’il ne fait que rendre plus claires la vérité et la portée des passages.
Voilà un aperçu de ce qui, j’en suis parfaitement convaincu, est la véritable idée selon la Parole. Cette Parole ne laisse absolument rien du système baptiste. Cependant si quelqu’un, individuellement, pense qu’il n’a pas été baptisé, je ne le blâme pas s’il se fait baptiser, au contraire, je respecte sa conscience comme la conscience de celui qui croit devoir ne manger que des herbes. Mais si, de ce manque de lumière on fait une secte, je le condamne totalement. Or il est de toute évidence que le système baptiste est pure ignorance. Il est vraiment impossible qu’un homme puisse parler d’accomplir la justice en se faisant baptiser d’après l’exemple de Jésus avec Jean-Baptiste, s’il possède la moindre lumière sur les voies de Dieu en Christ. Il peut être sincère, mais son ignorance est très grande à l’égard de la vérité de l’Evangile.
There is more in Israel’s history than the law. Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. (See Rom. 4:3). He was reckoned righteous because of his faith. Also, David said, ‘Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin.’ (Psalm 32:2). No sin was imputed to him. He was held to be wholly clear of it before God; it was forgiven and covered. The responsibility of man was fully met, and he knew it.
