“The House of Jacob shall Possess their Possessions” (1)

by Charles H. Welch

No.1. The significance of the word “possess”. 

It seems strange to some believers that there are still those who, while affirming that they believe the Scriptures, nevertheless deny the possibility of a literal restoration of Israel. Some take this attitude because they have already accepted as a principle of interpretation, that the promises made to Israel in the O.T. must be spiritualized and apply now only to the Church. Others reject the idea on moral grounds, “How could God”, say they, “invest such a disobedient and rebellious people with such a title as Kings and Priests?” in apparent ignorance that this very objection is met in such a passage as Rom. xi. 28 where it is plainly stated that the very people who are at present ‘enemies’ concerning the Gospel ‘for our sakes’, are nevertheless “beloved for the father’s sakes” adding as the one grand reason ‘For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance’. It is good to know that the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The text of our meditation is found in the prophet Obadiah, and it is utterly beyond the range of legitimate exposition to read Edom, Esau, Teman and Jacob in such a prophecy and then to read into it references to a church unknown and unborn. However, we are not turning to this utterance of Obadiah in order to deal with Israel and their failure, but to use these prophetic words as a text covering a series of studies relative to ourselves. 

The believer in Christ already possesses all things if he has Christ (I Cor. iii. 23), yet how poor is our experimental acquaintance with this treasure. The church of the Mystery is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, yet who among us can claim to any present approximation of such an inheritance? It is plainly revealed in the epistle to the Corinthians and in that to the Hebrews, that the history of Israel, especially from the Exodus to the crossing of Jordan, sets forth in type the general principles which will be found in the church. While we must avoid reading into this history teaching that is foreign to it, members of the One Body will gather much help and guidance as they ponder Israel’s pathway through those ‘forty years’. 

The hindrances that prevented Israel from taking immediate possession of their inheritance are many and by no means simple. We shall have to examine the record of Israel’s attempts to enter their inheritance, but before doing so, it will be as well for us to examine the word translated ‘possess’. 

The English word ‘possess’ is derived from the Latin possidre, which in turn is composed of pot, the word giving us ‘potent’, and sedere ‘to sit’, the original sense being ‘to remain master’. By other avenues this word is allied to the Greek ‘despot’ which in its turn goes back to the Sanscrit and means ‘the master of the house’. 

Possessions can be of two kinds according to the Hebrew Scriptures. There are those that are such by inheritance, Hebrew nachal (Numb. xxxiv. 13) inherited by lot, in which no idea of merit or effort enters. There are, however, possessions which must be taken and possessed. These are indicated by the Hebrew morash and the verb yarash. 

“And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it . . . . . hast thou killed, and also taken possession?” (I Kings xxi. 16, 19). 

Gesenius gives as the primary meaning of yarash: 

“To take, to take possession of, to occupy, especially by force”, and adds: “This, and not to inherit is shewn to be the primary signification, by the derivatives reshbeth a net, so called from taking or catching: and tirosh must, new wine, from its affecting (taking possession of) the head.” 

This element of seizure, or the putting forth of vigorous effort, can be seen in the meaning attaching to certain modes of the verb: 

“Drive out” (Deut. iv. 38); “dispossess” (Deut. vii. 17); “destroy (margin repossess)” (Exod. xv. 9); “cast out” (Exod. xxxiv. 24); 

all with the sequel, the possession of such possessions for oneself. We believe the testimony of all Scripture indicates that over the entrance to no inheritance will the believer find the words written “WITH VACANT POSSESSION”, every inheritance will be found occupied by a usurper, like unto the Canaanites. 

Moses enunciates a principle that is closely allied with the idea already expressed, when he said: 

“If . . . . . then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours” (Deut. xi. 22-24). 

Here we observe that there are two sides to this question of inheriting. In the first place the action is the Lord’s. He it is Who drives out the nations and grants to Israel the land from which these nations have been dispossessed; but in the second place, Israel had to arise and cross the Jordan and definitely put in an active claim before this possession became a realization. The promise was made four hundred years before to Abraham, but that of itself would not have given Israel possession. Even today as we pen these words, Israel are still without actual possession, even though the title deeds to the land are as good as ever. There are conditions attached which must be fulfilled. Even though Abraham did not actually ‘possess’ the land, but was a pilgrim and a stranger in the land of promise, nevertheless, he too was bid: 

“Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever . . . . . Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee” (Gen. xiii. 14-17). 

It was not sufficient even for Abraham merely to lift up his eyes and look, he must lift up the sole of his foot and walk in order that his title may be established. 

The use of the word ‘tread’ has a bearing also on this matter of conquest and possession. Caleb, said Moses, shall be given the land that he hath trodden upon (Deut. i. 36), and in fact there are five references wherein the word specially signifies the ‘overcomer’. Two passages speaking of Israel, and three of the Lord. These references associate ‘high places’ with the verb ‘to tread’.

“Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and Who is the sword of thy exellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places” (Deut. xxxiii. 29). 

“God . . . . . which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves (heights marg.) of the sea” (Job ix. 8). 

“For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of Hosts, is His name” (Amos iv. 13). 

“For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth” (Micah i. 3). 

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom . . . . . Yet will I rejoice in the Lord . . . . . The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hind’s feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places” (Hab. iii. 17-19). 

We hope, by the grace of God, to be enabled to bring to light lessons from the history of Israel that will not fail to be a blessing, a warning and an encouragement to those of us whose blessings are not to be enjoyed on earth, but in heavenly places, where Christ now sits at the right hand of God. 

Do we, as believers, ‘possess our possessions’? Do we enter into the blessings that are ours in Christ? This series is intended to be a challenge to us all, so that we may be exercised in this matter and under the benign influence of the Word of Truth ‘be filled unto all the fullness of God’. 

Let us consider the matter of our calling. By this we might mean our peculiar calling as members of the Body of Christ, and that is a phase of the truth which we hope to deal with later. At the moment we ignore the dispensational distinctions that exist between one ‘calling’ and another, and look at the subject in its primary significance, namely the fact of the choice, election or calling of God without which dispensational distinctions can have no value, for they could never be enjoyed. Like ‘predestination’, ‘election’ has gathered to itself, though erroneously, the ideas of fatalism and pre-determinedism. ‘Election’ ekloge; ‘elect’ eklektos; ‘to elect’ eklegomai simply refer to the fact that a choice has been made, a selection made. The word lego primarily means ‘to lay’ and its first use is to describe someone asleep in bed. It then, like the Latin lego takes on the meaning ‘to lay in order’ and so by a natural transition ‘to gather for oneself, to pick out, to choose’. However, we are not at the moment so concerned with the actual etymology of the term ‘election’ as we are with the question ‘how far have we realized this fact in our lives and experience?’ Writing to the Church of the Thessalonians, the Apostle said: 

“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God” (I Thess. i. 4). 

“Knowing.” In what way did Paul ‘know’ so profound a matter? He used a word that means “something that has come within the circle of one’s sphere of vision”. In this same epistle we read ‘to see’ your face (ii. 17); ‘to see’ us (iii. 6); which is in the original the same word that is translated ‘to know’. In the same epistle the Apostle refers to current events, using this same word, ‘As ye know’ (ii. 2, 5, 11). What therefore had he ‘seen’ to make him so sure of the ‘election’ of these Thessalonians? Had he seen their ‘work of faith’, their ‘labour of love’, and ‘the patience’ of their hope? Yes, for he follows his claim to the knowledge of their election with an explanation: 

“For our gospel came not unto you in word only . . . . . ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost” (I Thess. i. 5, 6). 

To take another illustration, Peter, writing to the believers among the ‘dispersion’, said of them:

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. i. 2). 

Here once again we see the perfect combination of things high and things lowly; things of eternity and things of time.

We have The Father - - - Foreknowledge. 

              The Spirit - - - Sanctification. 

              The Son - - - Blood sprinkled. 

However, we have omitted one word in our summary, the word ‘obedience’. This is the believer’s response to this gracious choice of God. 

“As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation” (I Pet. i. 14, 15). 

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit” (I Pet. i. 22).

Paul knew the Thessalonian election by their response to the Word; the same was true of Peter’s perception. This he enlarges upon in the second epistle where he speaks of making their ‘calling and election sure’. How could this be accomplished? After speaking of the ‘precious faith’ and the divine power that had given all things pertain to life and godliness, the apostle Peter goes on to urge that to faith should be added virtue, to virtue knowledge, and concludes: 

“For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . . . Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (II Pet. i. 8-10).

The calling and election from the Godward standpoint had been settled in the counsels of eternity; but for the believer to enter experimentally into these exceeding great and precious promises, in other words, for the believer to ‘possess his possessions’, the knowledge that he had of Christ must be neither barren nor unfruitful; he must prove the reality of the calling of God by the activity of the life within. In the phrase ‘Make your calling and election sure’ the Apostle does not mean what Pilate meant when he said of the sepulcher of the Saviour ‘Make it as sure as ye can’ (Matt. xxvii. 65), where the word used is asphalizo, and which primarily means ‘not falling, unmoveable, safe’, neither did he mean what Paul meant when he said ‘nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure’ (II Tim. ii. 19), where the word used is stereos, something solid or stable. He uses the word bebaios which indicates not so much that the thing itself is solid or firm, but that it has been confirmed, as may be seen from the examples of its translation in the N.T.

The verb bebaioo which gives us bebaios, is used in the following passages: 

“Confirming the word with signs following” (Mark xvi. 20). 

“The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you” (I Cor. i. 6). 

“Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us . . . . . with signs” (Heb. ii. 3, 4).

Here it will be seen that the confirmation was not so much the thing itself, the Word or the testimony, but the confirming of that Word or testimony to the heart and conscience of the hearer, and that by external signs and wonders. Thus, no believer can add to the trustworthiness of the Word of God. He cannot make his calling or election more sure than it is in that sense, but by the added evidence of the new life, the added evidence of fruitful and abounding knowledge of Christ, he will confirm to his own heart the calling he has received. He will, in other words ‘possess his possessions’. 

------------

(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 40, page 201).

------------

The Pleroma (1) - Charles H. Welch

No.1. Introduction and Chart. 

Some lessons taught by the parable 

of the patch. 

The problem of the ages is the problem of the presence of evil, of the apparent necessity for suffering, accompanied with a baffled feeling of frustration. Men like Job, and Asaph, and books like Ecclesiastes ventilate these feelings, but the consciousness of redeeming Love, enabled these men of God to trust where they could not trace. The present study is set forth with an intense desire, to borrow the words of Milton, “To justify the ways of God with men” (see also Rom. iii. 4), to show that there is a most gracious purpose in process, and that there are indications of that purpose in sufficient clearness, to enable the tried believer to say with Job “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”. 

In the opening study, we commence with the primary creation of Gen. i. 1 which is followed by the ‘rent’ of Gen. i. 2. This we denominate “The Beginning” and conclude with “The End” of I Cor. xv. 24-28. The New Heavens and Earth, with its Paradise restored, relates, not to “The Beginning”, but to the subsequent creation of Adam and the Heavens and Earth of the six days. By observing the parallel between the words of Eph. i. 4 and II Tim i. 9 we are able to show that the ages commence with the reconstruction of the earth in Gen. i. 3. What follows is a series of “fillings” in the person of men like Adam, Noah, Abraham or Nebuchadnezzar with the economies associated with them, but all such are provisional, they are failing and typical only, and for this reason we call them but “fillings”. They but carry the unfolding purpose on to “the fullness of time” when “The Seed should come to Whom the promises were made”, in Whom alone all the “Fullness” dwells. Adam was but a “filling”, he was not “the fullness”, that title belongs only to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. 

The only company of the redeemed who are themselves called “the Fullness” is the Church of the Mystery, the church of “heavenly places”, the church which is now closely associated with the seated Christ.

Two words, found in Matt. ix. 16 must ever be kept together in the course of this study, they are the words “fullness” and the “fuller”. We shall see presently that God is preparing during the ages, as it were, a piece of “fulled” cloth, so that at last there may be a perfected universe, the “rent” of Gen. i. 2 healed, and “God all in all”. Fulling involves several processes, most of them drastic and rigorous. 

“Clooth that cometh fro the wevying is noght comely to were til it be fulled under foot” (Piers Plowman). 

Nitre, soap, and the teasle, scouring and bleaching at length make the shrunken cloth “as white as snow” (Mark ix. 3). We can say therefore concerning the fulfillment of the purpose of the ages “No FULNESS without FULLING”. 

We do most earnestly desire that consummation when the Son of God shall deliver up to the Father a perfected kingdom, with every vestige of the “rent” of Gen. i. 2 gone. We do most ardently desire to be found, in that day, as part of that blessed pleroma or fullness, but we remind ourselves that every thread that goes to make that “filling” will have passed through the Fuller’s hands; “fulled under foot” must precede being “far above all”. 

Accompanying this introduction the reader will find a chart which endeavours to set forth in diagram the way in which the Divine purpose in the Fullness is accomplished. At either end of the chart stand between the “Beginning” and the “End” the two creations, the black division that immediately follows the one representing the condition of Gen. i. 2 “Without form and void”, and the black division that immediately precedes the consummation, represents the corresponding state of dissolution foreshadowed in Isa. xxxiv. 4 and II Pet. iii. but associated with “the last enemy”. Running along the bottom of the chart is “the deep”; that was the vehicle of judgment in Gen. i. 2 and which is to pass away at the end, for John says “and there was no more sea” (Rev. xxi. 1). By comparing Eph. i. 4 “Before the foundation of the world” with II Tim. i. 8, 9 “before the world began (literally, before age times)”, we have the start and the finish of the ages indicated. What follows is a series of “fillings”, “stop-gap” types and shadows pointing on. The fullness of time (Gal. iv. 4) did not come until 4,000 years after Adam, and the fullness of the times (seasons) will not arrive until the day which is about to dawn ushers in the glory that will be, when all things in heaven and on earth are gathered together under the Headship of Christ. 

As we have seen, it is not until we reach the dispensation of the Mystery, that we come to a company of the redeemed which constitute a “fullness”, and there we read of the Church which is His Body, “the FULNESS of Him, that filleth all in all” (Eph. i. 23). The Fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ, and the heavenly places, far above all, with which both the seated Christ and His church are associated, constitute a sphere untouched by the catastrophe of Gen. i. 2. This does not pass away. The heavenly places where Christ sits, are far above all heavens (Eph. iv. 10) that is, far above the temporary heaven called “the firmament” which is likened to a spread out curtain and which can be folded up and put aside. This “tabernacle” character of the Adamic earth is of extreme importance; it places the whole purpose of the ages under a redeeming aegis, and the reader is advised to give the article which deals with this aspect careful attention. The chart which accompanies this article should be at hand throughout the series. 

To the reader of The Berean Expositor, the principle of Right Division needs neither introduction nor commendation. Its recognition underlies every article that has been printed in its pages and determines both the Gospel we preach, the Church to which we belong, and the hope that is before us. Dispensational Truth is not confined to one aspect or phase of the Divine purpose, for every dealing of God with man, whether under law or grace, whether with saint or sinner has its own dispensational colouring which is inherent in its teaching and is in nowise accidental. Much has yet to be written and presented along these suggestive and attractive lines of study, but the particular application of this principle now before us, focuses the reader’s attention upon one fact, namely, that while in the mind of God the whole purpose of the ages is seen as one and its end assured, in the outworking of that purpose, the fact that moral creatures are involved, creatures that can, and alas do, exercise their liberty to disobey as well as to obey the revealed will of God; this fact has had an effect upon the manifest unfolding of the purpose of the ages. This is seen as a series of “gaps” and “postponements” which are filled by new phases and aspects of the purpose until at length He Who was once “All” in a universe that mechanically and unconsciously obeyed, will at length be “All in all” in a universe of willing and intelligent creatures, whose standing will not be that of Creation and Nature, but in Redemption and Grace. 

Here we can do little else than indicate the presence of these “gaps”, and consider the terms that are employed in the Hebrew of the O.T. and the Greek of the N.T. and of the LXX. The well-known example of the Saviour’s recognition of a “gap” in the prophecy of Isa. lxi. must be repeated for the sake of completeness and for the value of its endorsement. We learn from the fourth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, that the Lord attended the service in the synagogue at Nazareth, and, apparently, after the reading of the law by the official, He stood up “for to read” the Haphthorah, or the recognized portion from the Prophets that was appointed for the day. He found the place, and commenced to read Isa. lxi. Now it is laid down by Maimonides that “He that reads in the prophets, was to read at least one and twenty verses” but he allowed that if “the sense” was finished in less, then the reader was under no necessity to read so many. Even so, it must have caused a deal of surprise to the congregation that gathered for Christ to read what is one verse in our Bible, an one sentence of the second verse, shut the book and sit down. He did so because “the sense” was indeed finished in “less than twenty-one verses”. He was about to focus attention upon one aspect of His Work, and said: 

“This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke iv. 21). 

The sentence with which the Saviour closed His reading of Isa. lxi. was “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”. The next sentence, separated in the A.V. by but a comma read “And the day of vengeance of our God”, yet that comma represents a gap of at least nineteen hundred years, for the day of vengeance are not referred to until Luke xxi. 22 where the Second Coming and the end of the age is in view. 

The word translated “fullness” is the Greek pleroma, and its first occurrence in the N.T. places it in contrast with a “rent” or a “gap”. The three references in the Gospels are: 

“No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse” (Matt. ix. 16). 

“No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse” (Mark ii. 21). 

“No man putteth a piece of new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old” (Luke v. 36). 

“That which is put in to fill up”, is the translation of the Greek pleroma a word of extreme importance in the epistles, and there translated “fullness”. In contrast with this “fullness” is the word “rent” which in the Greek is schisma. Two words translated “new” are used. In Matt. ix. 16, and in Mark ii. 21 agnaphos not yet “fulled”, or dressed from gnapheus, a “fuller”, and kainos which is used in Luke v. 36, meaning “newly made”. In place of “put unto” or “put upon” used in Matt. ix. 16 and Luke v. 36 we find the word “to sew on” epirrhapto employed in Mark ii. 21. One other word is suggestive, the word translated “agree” in Luke v. 36. It is the Greek sumphoneo. Now as these terms will be referred to in the course of the following exposition, we will take the present opportunity of enlarging a little on their meaning and relationship here and so prepare the way. 

Pleroma. This word which is derived from pleroo “to fill”, occurs seventeen times in the N.T. Two of these occurrences occur in Matthew and Mark as we have seen, the remaining fifteen occurrences are found in John’s Gospel and in Paul’s epistles. It is noteworthy that the word pleroma, “fullness” is never used in the epistles of the circumcision. When Peter referred to the problem of the gap suggested by the words “Where is the promise of His coming?” he referred his readers to the epistles of Paul who, said he, deals with this matter of longsuffering and apparent postponement and speaks of these things (II Pet. iii. 15, 16). The word pleroma is used in the Septuagint some fifteen times. These we will record for the benefit of the reader who may not have access to that ancient translation. I Chron. xvi. 32 “Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof”, so, Psa. xcvi. 11; xcviii. 7. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” Psa. xxiv. 1, and with slight variations Psa. l. 12; lxxxix. 11. In several passages, the fullness or “all that is therein” is set over against flood or famine, as in Jer. viii. 16; xlvii. 2; Ezek. xii. 19; xix. 7 and xxx. 12. Some of the words used in the context of these Septuagint references are too suggestive to be passed over without comment. Instead of “time of healing” we find “anxiety”, the land “quaking”, “deadly serpents” and a “distressed heart” (Jer. viii. 15-18). Again, in Jer. xlvii. 2 (xxix. 2 in the LXX) we have such words of prophetic and age time importance as “an overflowing flood”, Greek katakluzomai, kataklusmos and variants, a word used with dispensational significance in II Pet. ii. 5 & iii. 6, and preserved in the English cataclysm, a word of similar import to that which we have translated “the overthrow” of the world. The bearing of II Pet. iii. on this gap in the outworking of the purpose of the ages, will be given an examination in this series. In the context of the word “fullness” found in Ezek. xii. 19, we have such words as “scatter” diaspero, a word used in James i. 1 and I Pet. i. 1 of the “dispersed” or “scattered” tribes of Israel, also the word “waste”, which calls up such passages of prophetic import as Isa. xxxiv. 10, 11 and Jer. iv. 23-27, where the Hebrew words employed in Gen. i. 2 are repeated. The pleroma or “fullness” is placed in direct contrast with desolation, waste, flood, fire and a condition that is “without form and void”. 

Schisma, the word translated “rent” in Matt. ix. 16 is from schizo which is used of the veil of the Temple and of the rocks that were “rent” at the time of the Saviour’s death and resurrection. 

Two words translated “new” have been mentioned. One agnaphos refers to the work of a “fuller”, who smoothes a cloth by carding. The work of a fuller also includes the washing and scouring process in which fuller’s earth or fuller’s sope (Mal. iii. 2; Mark ix. 3) is employed. A piece of cloth thus treated loses its original harshness. The whole process of the ages is set forth under the symbol of the work of a fuller, who by beating and by bleaching at length produces a material which is the acme of human attainment, for when the Scriptures would describe the excellent glory of the Lord, His garments are said to have been “exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could white them” (Mark ix. 3). So too the effect upon Israel of the Second Coming is likened to “a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s sope”. The other word translated “new” is kainos and has the meaning of “fresh as opposed to old”, “new, different from the former”, and as a compound, the meaning “to renew”. It is this word that is used when speaking of the New Covenant, the new creation, the new man, and the new heaven and earth. We shall have to take this into account when we are developing the meaning and purpose of the Fullness. Job xiv. 12 reds “Till the heavens be no more” which in the Septuagint reads “Till the heavens are unsewn”. The bearing of this upon the argument of II Pet. iii., the present firmament and the fullness will appear more clearly as we proceed. 

----------------

(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 41, page 233).

-----------------

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.”

------------------

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

----------------

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

---------------

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

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

---------------