Spiritual Poverty and Heavenly Riches 2
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And thus, as the Lord leads us into the secret, we come into the experience of the Apostle—"Having nothing."
Now I would just direct your thoughts for a few moments in the WAY in which the Lord brought his Apostle here. What an unheard-of way it was! It is enough to strike our minds with wonder and astonishment. He took him up into the "third heaven," (as we read 2 Cor. 12:2) to that blissful abode of eternal happiness and purity, where he saw and heard things "not lawful," nor "possible," for a man to utter; and his soul was bathed in such unutterable bliss and overwhelming joy, that he knew not whether he was in the body, or out of the body. But did this teach him his weakness? Not so; he learned no weakness there—for we read, "Lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations." The pride and presumption of his carnal mind would puff him up; as Deer says, "The heart uplifts with God's own gifts."
There was "given to him, therefore, a THORN in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure." Now here we have the experience of the Apostle in learning the secret of his own weakness. A "messenger of Satan" was sent "to buffet him." There is something very expressive in that word; it means literally, "beating a man with a fist." Here, then, we have the Apostle coming down from the "third heaven," and the Lord sending "a messenger of Satan to buffet him." Whatever this thorn in the flesh was, this vile temptation, as an emissary of the Devil, beat his face to a pulp, smote him with the fist of wickedness, and by these infernal assaults brought him into the greatest distress and horror of mind. Under the pressure of this "thorn in the flesh," "this messenger of Satan," (some vile temptation, no doubt, perpetually haunting and harassing his soul) "he asked the Lord thrice that it might depart from him." Now what was the Lord's answer? "My grace is sufficient for you; for my strength," (not your strength) "is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore," says the Apostle, "will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." He could bear the very buffetings of "the messenger of Satan," he could endure the rankling "thorn in the flesh," he could submit to the vile temptation that perpetually haunted him, in order that he might find the strength of Christ made perfect in his weakness.
But what a mysterious dealing was this! That this highly favored man of God should come down from the "third heaven" to the very gates of hell, (that is not too strong an expression, for "the messenger of Satan" came from hell)—that he should sink, I say, in soul feeling to the very gates of hell, there to be buffeted by "the messenger of Satan;" and all to teach him a lesson that heaven did not teach him, the strength of God made perfect in weakness!
Do you not think, my friends, that if we are to learn our weakness, we must learn it in the same way? How did Paul get his religion? And must we not get ours, in our feebler measure, through the same channels, by the same means, and by the same inward teachings? If we are to learn the secret of Christ's strength, it is not by making daily advances in fleshly holiness, and getting stronger in SELF day by day. It is not by old nature being so mended and improved, as by and by to be transformed into grace, just as the colors in the rainbow are so harmoniously blended that you can scarcely tell where the one ends and the other begins. For this is what is really meant by "progressive sanctification," that the old nature is so gradually softened and blended into grace, that we can scarcely tell where the old man ceases and the new nature commences. I say, did the Apostle learn Christ's strength in that way? No—but by being buffeted by Satan's messenger, and thus being beaten out of his own strength, he found Christ's strength made perfect (what a word that is, perfect!) in his weakness.
If, then, you know not experimentally the meaning of the expression in the text, "having nothing" in self, you may depend upon it, your religion, however highly you may think of it, is but a delusion; or if you have not learned it in some measure as Paul did his, in the experience of a feeling heart. I am not setting up a rigorous standard for conformity; but we must all learn our weakness and Christ's strength in the same way that the Apostle learned his. If you know anything of Christ it must be by learning what you are by nature, and by finding in him a remedy for every malady, and a mercy for every misery.
II. Now this leads me to the second part of the text, "Possessing all things." I hinted that these two clauses of the text, so far from being really contradictory, had a most blessed and harmonious consistency. They dovetail into each other; and so far from being inconsistent, heighten and illustrate each other. When we look at a beautiful picture, we do not say, that the shade disturbs or destroys the light, or that the light disturbs and destroys the shade—but we see that the light and the shade mutually relieve each other. So in a beautiful prospect, sunlight and shadow do not destroy each other; but the light sets off the shade, and the shade sets off the light. The light and the shade are really contrasting; but the contrast enhances the beauty of the landscape. It is true, a reasoning man may say, "Having nothing and yet possessing all things!—It is a flat contradiction!" We may fancy an infidel, or a person that had never seen the Bible, picking up a leaf in the street, and reading, without knowing it to be the word of God, this list of apparent contradictions. Would not the pride of his heart rise up, and would he not throw it away with scorn and say, "The man that wrote it is a fool." But seen in the Spirit's light, we find that so far from contradicting each other, they beautifully harmonize.
For instance. "Having nothing," that is the needful preparation, the indispensable preliminary to "possessing all things;" and only so far as we "have nothing," do we "possess all things." But how do we possess all things? Not in self; that is very clear. We possess all things in Christ. We find the Lord himself, if I may use the expression, puzzling his opponents by the apparent contradiction between those Scriptures that speak of him as God, and those that speak of him as man. For example; he asked the Pharisees, "What do you think of Christ? Whose son is he? They said unto him, The Son of David. He said unto them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" (Matt. 22:42-45.) The difficulty was, to reconcile how David could call him Lord, if he were David's son? How could the son be Lord, and the child reign over the father? Now that difficulty could not be explained except by acknowledging Christ's divine nature, in which he was David's Lord; and his human nature, in which he was David's son. By seeing the union of the two natures in one glorious Immanuel this apparent contradiction disappears, and we see a blessed harmony in the very seeming inconsistency.
So in this passage, "having nothing, and yet possessing all things"—how can that apparent contradiction be reconciled? It is thus—"having nothing" in self, "possessing all things" in Christ. And just in proportion as I have nothing in self experimentally, so I possess all things in Christ. For my own beggary leads me out of self to his riches; my own unrighteousness leads me, under the Spirit's teachings, into Christ's righteousness; my own defilement, into Christ's sanctification; my own weakness, into Christ's strength; my own misery, into Christ's mercy.
But how do we "possess all things" in Christ? Let us take for our guide what the Lord the Spirit says in that striking passage, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30.) Let us see, then, how of God Jesus is made these things unto us.
1. Look we first, then, how he is made RIGHTEOUSNESS. Assuming that the Lord has, by his inward teaching, brought us down to poverty and beggary, our own righteousness has disappeared; we have "seen an end of all perfection, and found God's law exceeding broad." Now this has prepared our soul for the reception of Christ's righteousness. I do not wonder that men who hold freewill views should call Christ's imputed righteousness "imputed nonsense;" such blasphemies (for they are blasphemies) do not strike me as amazing. As long as we hold the principle of freewill in the creature, all that Christ is and has for his people is nonsense, because it is giving us what we do not want, bestowing on us a treasure we do not stand in need of; so that the expression, however blasphemous (and it is most blasphemous), is fully consistent with the whole scheme of human freewill and creature righteousness.
But when the Lord makes known by his teaching in the conscience, that we have no righteousness; that, as the Prophet speaks, "all our righteousness are as filthy rags," (and what a figure is that!) and convinces us that we must have a perfect righteousness in which to stand, or sink into hell under the overwhelming wrath of God; as the Spirit opens our eyes to see the glorious righteousness of the Son of God, and that all the obedience, both acting and suffering, of Jesus is imputed to those who believe on his name—having none of our own, we are led, taught, and guided to embrace this imputed righteousness as all our justification before the throne of God.
And thus the deeper we sink into a conviction that we have no righteousness of our own, and the more we trample under foot our own filthy rags, the higher do we rise in an experimental reception of Christ's glorious righteousness as suited to all our necessities. Thus, not having any righteousness of our own, not an atom whereby God can be pleased, we indeed "have nothing;" yet, in having Christ's righteousness, we "possess all things." We possess a full satisfaction made to God's righteous law; all the demands of God are honored, justice is completely fulfilled; not a single atom is missing, not a single iota deficient, not a thread in the garment lacking.
What a beautiful picture has the holy Spirit made use of in Psalm 45:14, to show us Christ's imputed righteousness, where, speaking of the Queen, he says, "She shall be brought unto the King in clothing of needlework." What a sweet expression that is, if I can explain it without vulgarizing it! Every stitch in the clothing of needlework must have had the needle to pass through it. And O, what a succession of laborious stitches must the clothing of needlework have gone through in which the church is attired! Now, when we look at every holy thought that passed through Christ's mind, every holy word that dropped from Christ's lips, every holy action performed by Christ's hands; at every holy emotion, every holy prayer, every act of obedience, from the moment that he came into the world until the moment he died on the cross, we see how stitch by stitch the justification of the church was wrought out. We thus see how all the demands of the law were completely satisfied, and how the Queen stands before her Bridegroom in the clothing of needlework. And when Jesus looks upon the clothing of needlework, he sees that every part of that clothing has been accomplished by his own hands. Thus, however needy and naked we are as to our own righteousness, when standing in his righteousness we possess "all things," and we need no more.
2. So with respect to WISDOM; for he "of God is made unto us wisdom." We have none; not an atom, not a grain of true wisdom. But Christ is "made unto us wisdom," in all the circumstances of life, in all the difficulties of the way. So that we cannot come into any condition or circumstance of difficulty, for which there is not a provision in his wisdom. Having none of our own, in him we possess all wisdom.
3. So with respect to STRENGTH. Strength of our own we have none. We are all weakness, and cannot stand a day. People talk of their firm standing; but if God were to deal with them, as with Job, take away the hedge, and let Satan come upon them with one of his temptations; if he did not support them, they would be at once swept away.
Christ being strength to the soul, he supports it in every state into which it may come. Not having any of our own strength, we have the strength of God; not the strength of a man, like ourselves, but the strength of God in every state. So that, as the Lord said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you." Our sufficiency is in his strength, not in our own. Our strength fails when we need it most. His strength is suited for every place, for every case, every condition, every circumstance; so that a man may say, "Christ is my strength; I therefore have strength; for I have just as much as is suited to my day;" as the promise is, "As your day is, so your strength shall be."
4. And so with respect to SANCTIFICATION. We have none in ourselves; but Christ of God being made unto us "sanctification," we have all holiness in him. Holiness is to have Christ dwelling in our hearts; to have him making our bodies his temple, and working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight. He is the fountain of holiness. There is an external sanctification, whereby the church was sanctified in him before the foundation of the world; and an internal sanctification by his indwelling presence. Shall I go then to the filthy streams, or to the fountain of living waters? I might as well dip a cup into the common sewer, or fill a goblet from the puddle that rolls down the dirtiest street in London, while a fountain of pure water was at hand, as look to my own holiness, when "the holy child Jesus," the Son of God, is sanctification to all that believe in his name; internal sanctification by his indwelling Spirit, and external sanctification by his covenant headship.
So I might similarly carry out every other circumstance. Happiness, in this world, we have none; life is a blank; afflictions, troubles, and trials are our lot here below, for "through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom." Can we find comfort here? It is blighted. When the Lord drove Adam out of paradise, he planted the cherubim there with the flaming sword pointing every way; and man will never enter this paradise again below. But in Christ we possess all things.
Thus the Lord leads us into these two branches of divine truth, by showing us first that we have nothing, and then, that in him we possess all things. There are two rooms in the chambers where God brings his people, as he says, "Come my people, enter you into your chambers." These are the two rooms in the spiritual chambers—the room of self-abhorrence, and the room of admiration of Jesus; the room of humility, and the room of exaltation; the room of poverty, and the room of riches; the room of beggary on our part, and the room of wealth in him; the room where all that the creature has is felt to be a blank, and the room where all that Jesus gives him, and all that Jesus has, is seen to be the source of eternal bliss and happiness.
So that these two branches of divine truth, so far from clashing with each other, sweetly, gloriously, and blessedly harmonize. And just in proportion as we are let down into the one, we are led up into the other; and just as much as we know spiritually, experimentally, and vitally of the one as "having nothing" in self; just so much shall we know spiritually, experimentally, and vitally of the other to "possess all things" in Christ.
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