The Will of God. (6) - by C. J. Holdway

No.6. The Way of Responsibility

In the last article reference was made to the adoption, or ‘placing as sons’. This we suggested involved responsibility, and it is of this we wish to think more fully in the current article. 

We commenced this series of articles with the consideration of Rom. xii. 1, 2 which includes the exhortation to be ‘transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that . . . . . will of God’. Hence, as we saw, the renewed mind is of the utmost importance both in discovering and confirming the will of God as it is carried out. Probably the mind plays a far greater part in discerning the will of God, and in the Christian life in general, than we are wont to think. 

Yet this is no easy way out of the problems which confront us concerning the discernment and fulfillment of the will of God. Something of the problem is indicated in Rom. viii. 5-8: 

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” 

In this passage the noun and verb translated ‘mind’ both have the significance of ‘what one has in mind’, ‘to regard, care for’. That is to say it is the content of the mind which is in question. “They that are after the flesh . . . they that are after the spirit . . .”. The significance of the Greek kata translated ‘after’ is that of ‘going along with’; they that go along with the flesh are compared with those who go along with spirit, and here a tragedy is revealed. It is quite possible for believers who have experienced regeneration by the Holy Spirit to ‘go along with the flesh’. There are those of whom Paul speaks in Phil. iii. 18, 19: 

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” 

The content of their minds is ‘things on the earth’; they are those who, in the context of the chapter, have ‘confidence in the flesh’ (verse 3). They seek to live the Christian life in the wisdom and strength of the flesh. “They are the enemies of the cross of Christ”; “the carnal mind is enmity against God”. The primary thought behind ‘enemy’ is something ‘hated, odious, adverse’. Small wonder that the Apostle speaks of such ‘even weeping’, for here are believers whose minds are filled with matters odious to God and opposed to the cross of Christ. Their end is ‘utter loss’: they have not been prepared to ‘count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus’, and if they so continue, the fulfillment of their lives will be nothing, they have sown to their flesh and will reap ruin (Gal. vi. 8). How sad it is that ‘many walk’ so. 

But there are those who ‘go long with’ the new nature begotten in the believer by God. Such occupy their minds with spiritual things (Rom. viii. 5). They find that ‘to be spiritually minded is life and peace’: a clear inference, surely, that if our minds are occupied with spiritual things we shall find we are doing the will of God, for the things of the spirit are the things of God. 

It is precisely the same verb ‘to mind’ (phroneo) which Paul uses in Phil. ii. 5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”. Let this disposition, intention, or purpose be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; let the content of your mind be as the content of His mind. Clearly the content of His mind was ‘things above’. It is not surprising, then, to find Paul using the same verb in Col. iii. 2 “Set your affection on things above”: the things above occupy your minds, not those upon the earth. The previous verse perhaps makes clearer what is entailed in setting the affections on the things above:

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” 

“Seek after, search out, inquire into, investigate” those things which are above. Obviously this entails effort and the expenditure of time. The passive aspect of it is that we should be mindful of the things above, the active that we search out, give diligence to the things above. Nor should “Bereans” need any exhortation so to do, professing to emulate the Bereans of Acts xvii. 11, who ‘searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so’. A different word is used for ‘search’, but it is one which is at least equally strong, meaning ‘to search out’. Again there is emphasis on zeal in connection with the Scriptures and things above in II Tim. ii. 15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God”. The word ‘study’ is perhaps rather limited compared with the original, which would better be translated “Give diligence”. Clearly in the context of ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’ study is involved, but diligence also is required. It is not enough to do study for the purpose of preparing a talk, and then do no further ‘searching out’ until another talk demands it. So also diligence is required in making time for the things of the spirit, and sometimes in making the effort to search them out. 

We need to ‘let this mind’ be in us ‘which was also in Christ Jesus’. We need minds so occupied with the things and will of God that there is nothing we count so dear as to keep us from the things of the spirit. If we find the prospect daunting, let us remember that the one who exhorted ‘Let this mind be in you’, himself said: 

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Phil.iii.12). 

Again he strikes the note of diligence in the word he uses for ‘follow’; it is the word often translated ‘persecute’. He will give all the zeal and intensity, the persistence and patience which is the mark of a persecutor, to the attainment of that for which he has been ‘apprehended of Christ Jesus’. But has he not already done enough? He has, he tells us, ‘counted loss’ all the things of the flesh in which he might have confidence, and counts them but dung that he might win Christ. His all prevailing passion is, he tells us, “That I may (come to) know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” (Phil. iii. 10). He continues (15-17): 

“Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (mature), be thus minded . . . . . Brethren, be followers together of me.”

Become fellow-imitators of me in being ‘thus minded’. As Christ was completely devoted to the mind of God, so Paul was completely devoted to the mind of Christ, and his desire for other believers is that they should be equally devoted to the mind of Christ. 

Paul could say, probably with unmatched devotion, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God”. But here he uses a different word for ‘mind’: nous, it is ‘the organ of thinking and knowledge, the understanding; or especially, the organ of moral thinking’. It is that which is filled either with the ‘carnal mind’ or ‘the mind of the spirit’. This is the word he uses when he says, ‘we have the mind of Christ’ (I Cor. ii. 16). The Companion Bible note on Rom. vii. 25 includes this comment: “mind = mind (the new nature) indeed”. It is this which Paul says in Rom. xii. 2 needs to be ‘renewed’ that being thus transformed, we may ‘prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God’. It is also plain from the first two verses of Rom. xii. that the renewal of the mind comes as we present our bodies living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. 

We have the responsibility as believers to see that the content of our minds, the ‘minding’, is worthy of the ‘mind’ which is given to us. This mind, the organ of our thinking and understanding, may be strengthened and nourished if occupied with ‘those things which are above’; it will certainly be choked and weakened if occupied with the things ‘which are upon the earth’. The more it is occupied with the things of the spirit, the more effective it will become and the more certainly shall we fulfil the desires of God for us. But if constantly kept occupied with the things of earth, with the ‘mind of the flesh’, it should hardly surprise us if we find great difficulty concerning the will of God. Someone once said ‘Love God, and do as you please’: if we love Him sufficiently to count all things but loss, if our minds are so completely taken up with Him, then the things we do will be such as will please Him. 

We pointed out in the first article that in Rom. xii. 2 it would be more accurate to render ‘the renewing of your mind’ as ‘the mind’, and that the word for ‘renew’ includes the preposition ana, which in a composite word has the significance of ‘up to, towards, up, . . . . . hence with a sense of strengthening’. The mind of the believer needs to be strengthened by being occupied with the things above. This results both in the transformation of the life, and the proving ‘what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God’. 

However, few of us attain to the standard put forward by Paul in Phil. iii., and, as we have seen, even he was not satisfied with his attainment in this connection. Are we then doomed to a Christian life in which we just manage to ‘muddle through’? Must we then ‘do the best we can’ and leave it at that? Can we never satisfy our God by fulfilling His wishes for us? It is at this point the great doctrine of Justification by Faith comes to our aid. For in Rom. xii. we read of the conflict between ‘the good that I would’ and ‘the evil which I would not’. The solution is in verse 25: 

“So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” 

Paul at least, of the next chapter clarifies the matter:

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. viii. 5-8). 

Here is a clear denial of the idea wrongly attributed to the doctrine of Justification by Father, that the one justified can now do as he pleases, living a carnal life. For those who ‘mind’ the things of the flesh ‘cannot please God’. It is plain that the mind which serves ‘the law of God’, is a mind which is occupied with the things of the Spirit. If our thinking and our desires are directed to pleasing God, then, and only then, our endeavours, our intentions are accepted as well pleasing unto the Lord. As some one has put it “The Will of God for us is that we should will to do the will of God”. Our minds and our ‘minding’ should be directed to God and set ‘on things above’, for ‘as he thinketh in his heart, so is he’ (Prov. xxiii. 7). The believer is what his thoughts are. Am I no better than my thoughts? What a challenge to us all! 

The responsibility for our thoughts rests squarely with us. It is true we cannot keep wrong thoughts out of our minds, but we are accountable if they remain there. Luther is reported to have said, in this connection, “You cannot stop the crows alighting on your heads; but you can stop them making nests in your hair”. Many thoughts, in the course of the day, come into our minds from ‘the world, the flesh and the devil’, we have the responsibility not to welcome them into our minds. Our responsibility to God is to be able to say with Paul: 

“With the mind I myself serve the law of God.”

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 47, page 177).

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The Goal of God. (I Cor. xv. 28).- (13)

by Charles H. Welch

No.13. “Satisfied . . . . . with Thy likeness.” 

We have devoted a number of pages to the references found in the Scripture to the “Image”. These studies would however lack completeness if we did not give some consideration to the word ‘likeness’. This must therefore occupy our attention. 

D’muth ‘likeness’ occurs more times in the prophet Ezekiel than in the rest of the O.T. Apart from the references to Adam in Genesis, the references in the remainder of the O.T. do not contribute anything to our special theme except the one found in Daniel. We will, however, supply the reader with these references in order that he may “see whether these things are so”. They are II Kings xvi. 10; II Chron. iv. 3; Psa. lviii. 4; Isa. xiii. 4; and xl. 18. 

It is our boast that the reader of this magazine manifests the true Berean spirit, and we hope that some at least are ready to interpose with a question “What of the passages which forbid the making of the likeness of anything; these are found in the law and you have not given the references”. The answer is that beside d’muth there are two other Hebrew words that are translated “likeness”, t’moonah “the likeness of anything” (Exod. xx. 4), and tavneeth “the likeness of male or female” (Deut. iv. 16). 

Gesenius is of the opinion that t’moonah is from a root that means ‘pretence’ and tavneeth is from the root which means ‘to build’, and so this word is often rendered ‘pattern’ as in Exod. xxv. 9; I Chron. xxviii. 11, etc. One occurrence of t’moonah must inevitably come into our study at the close, and that is Psa. xvii. 15. We must however adhere to the Divine choice of word in Genesis and seek the teaching associated with that word first

Commenting on damah Parkhurst says:

“The general idea of this difficult and extensive root seems to be equable, even, level, uniform, conform . . . . . Symmachus (Greek version of the O.T. similar to the LXX) appears to have given nearly the ideal meaning of it, Psa. lxxxix. 7, where he renders it exisasei, shall equal.” 

In Isa. xlvi. 5 this approach to the idea of being equal is clearly seen: 

“To whom will ye liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be like?”

Parkhurst’s translation is: 

“To whom will ye equal Me (or make Me equivalent), or liken Me that we may be equal (or conform)?”

It must not be assumed that by so understanding the word translated ‘likeness’ in Gen. i. 26, that there is imported into the record an unholy suggestion at ‘equality’ with God. It simply indicates that this was a ‘likeness’ whose parts are equable and conform to its archetype. By the use of the word ‘image’ we learned that Adam was ‘a shadow’, and by the word ‘likeness’ we learn that he did set forth in some measure of correspondence, the glory of Him Whose title is “The Image of the Invisible God”. Further, in some forms of the verb, the dominant idea is that of an image in the mind: 

“I thought” (Numb. xxxiii. 56); “I have compared” (Song i. 9); 

“He meaneth not so” (Isa. x. 7). 

Here it is ‘an image, or idea of a thing in the mind’ that is uppermost, and that is by no means absent from the intention of Gen. i. 26. In the nature of things, it is manifest that the creature, innocent and perfect though he was when he came from the hand of his Maker, could never carry the awful burden involved in the fact that he was made in the image and likeness of the Creator. In its full sense Adam was made in the image of God that he might be as it were, “God made manifest” on the earth, but it was as a shadow only of that full and glorious manifestation that was alone possible to Him Who is “The Image of the Invisible God”. 

Further light is found on the meaning of the word ‘likeness’ where, following the statement repeated from Gen. i. 26, the record of Gen. v. 3 adds: 

“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.” 

While, in this case physical likeness must be included, whereas it is impossible to so read it in Gen. i. 26; the impression which Gen. v. 1-3 leaves in the mind is that the image and likeness of Gen. i. 26 is very real and must not be explained away because of its manifest difficulties. 

We pass from these references, to the New Testament, to consider those passages where homoios ‘like’, homoioo ‘made like’, homoioma ‘likeness’ and homoiosis ‘similitude’ occur. First of all we establish the connection between the N.T. words and the passages we have been considering in the O.T. James speaks of men who are “made after the similitude of God” (James iii. 9) and uses the word homoiosis. In the first epistle of John, the glorious restoration which has already been seen recorded in I Cor. xv. and Rom. viii. (the exchange of the earthly for the heavenly image, and the conformity to the image of God’s Son) is spoken of in terms of ‘likeness’ homoios. 

“When He shall appear, we shall be like Him” (I John iii. 2)

In Heb. ii. 17 in bringing many sons to glory, we learn that it behoved Him “to be made like unto His brethren”, and this is more fully stated in Heb. iv. 15, where we read He was “in all points tempted like as we are”. The significant addition “yet without sin” is given emphasis in Rom. viii. 3 where it is written that God sent His Own Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh”, and Phil. ii. 7 declares that “He was made in the likeness of men”. The O.T. references point ever upward, but many of the N.T. references point downward, speaking of humiliation and descent from glory. This coming of the Saviour down to where His people were completed the ‘likeness’ from every aspect. Christ is like God, Christ is like man; conversely God is fully revealed in Christ Who is His likeness, and man is fully prepared for glory in Christ whose likeness he must one day bear. 

The Psalmist said: 

“I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Psa. xvii. 15). 

The primary meaning of the word translated ‘satisfied’ is ‘to be filled’. It occurs with such a meaning in the same Psalm, in verse 14 ‘full of children’, which is placed in strong contrast with ‘satisfied’ or ‘filled’ in resurrection glory. 

The goal of God thus expressed is seen in the climax prayer of Eph. iii.: 

“That ye might be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. iii. 19). 

There is no burning desire expressed in prophecy, that does not find its satisfaction in the blessed doctrine of ‘likeness’. There is no glorious doctrine of the Gospel of grace that does not look directly to this same element of ‘likeness’. Sin is the very opposite of the likeness of God; righteousness, sanctification, glory and peace are but phases of the Divine Image. When the likeness is complete, then, and then only will the goal of God be realized, and God will be “All in all” to His moral world even as He is already in the world of things. 

At some other time we may be permitted to pursue this theme along the practical path, learning the necessary lesson, that they who hope one day to be like Him in glory, should at least seek grace to be somewhat like Him during their pilgrimage here below. We can but leave the suggestion with our reader and pray that we all may desire to “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things”,

- End -

"All in All" (audio) - by Charles H. Welch

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 44, page 91).

http://charleswelch.net/BE%20Vol%2044%20Final.pdf

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