Man Restored to God by Christ

In previous studies two subjects have been dealt with, which must now be recalled and carefully remembered. First, that man by his sin, distanced himself from God, passed out of the region of

communion, and was “alienated from the life of God.”! Second, °

in the raising of Jesus of Nazareth from among the dead, God

accepted Him as the One Who perfectly realised His original design in the creation of man, and by that raising finally rejected man in his failure and in his sin. He nevertheless, in that same reception by resurrection, received in Christ all those for whom He stood in the sacred and awful mystery of His death on the Cross. It

becomes evident therefore that when, by the regenerative work of.

the Holy Spirit, man is joined to Christ, he is restored to God.

This restoration is marvellous in its completeness and overwhelming

as a manifestation of the wisdom of God. Some understanding of

it may be gained by an examination under three aspects, as judicial, vital, and governmental.

I. Man’s judicial restoration to God is indicated by the great word justification. The term is forensic. Behind it lies the fact of law, and the more profound fact of justice. The greatest problem in man’s redemption was that of how it was possible for God to be just, and yet to justify the sinner. The answer is to be found in the restoration of man in Christ Jesus. In the mystery of the Master’s passion, He endured what was not His due. Considering this for a moment without reference to the need of the sinner, it is at once seen how that in the realm of law, and in the presence of the eternal principle of justice, these sufferings created a value which was not. required by the One Who suffered, and apart from the fact of man’s sin, is an overplus in the working of the Infinite Order. This value has been created for those who have violated law, and is placed at the disposal of all such. Those receiving the benefit by submission

*Eph. 4. 18.

to, and trust in, the Saviour, are thus so far as the guilt of sin is concerned, justified before God and made nigh to Him.

Yet again, by thus cancelling sin, the perfection of the life of Jesus is made to count for others also, and God imputes it to those for whom the value,of His death has cancelled the guilt of sin. This union with Christ is wrought by the Holy Spirit in the communication of life. This is done when man, under the conviction of the Spirit, believes in Christ, so that God may be “just, and the Justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.”* Man exercising faith in Christ, has imputed to him by the grace of God the value created by Christ’s death, for pardon; and all the perfection of Christ’s life for righteousness. Therefore the sinner standing in Jesus, is a sinner no longer, but a saint, separated in Christ to God, and so restored. He hasnoguilt; that is cancelled. He has righteousness; that is bestowed. Such a one is restored to God, because the reasons of his exclusion are all removed. The sword guarding the way to the tree of life becomes the light of truth, illuminating all the pathway. The veil, enclosing the Holy of Holies, and excluding man, being rent, becomes the glorious portal to the inner places of fullest communion. Henceforward neither hell, nor earth, nor heaven can condemn the trusting soul, for in Christ Jesus every claim has been fully met, and every provision perfectly made.

Il. The fact of vital restoration has necessarily been already stated incidentally, but it now remains to be more fully considered. In order to a right appreciation of this, there must be a clear understanding of the nature of the life communicated by the Holy Spirit. In speaking of regeneration it is not sufficient to say that there is an impartation of new human vitality. Neither is it absolutely correct to speak only of the communication of a new measure of Divine life. It is neither, merely because it is both. Herein is the great mystery and wonder of Christianity. The Spirit imparts in regeneration the Christ life, and that is at once human and Divine. Thus, all essential human life is surcharged with new life of its own most perfect order, but it is also energised with the force of life Divine, in inseparable union therewith. Thus in Christ, man is restored to the possibilities of his own nature, but also he is intro-

*Rom. 3. 26.

duced to a new vital union with God more marvellous as to its

potentiality and possibility than that of original man.

“Where He displays His healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more:
In Him the tribes of Adam boast
More blessings than their fathers lost.”*

All man’s inability is overcome in God’s ability. The sinner is lifted from the impotence of his fallen nature, into the potency of the perfect Man Jesus in co-operation with the might of the Eternal God. What wonder that Paul exclaimed, “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.”2

The great theme of the Colossian epistle is that of the perfection of the Church in the perfection of the Christ. All its sublime doctrine gathers around two main statements, first, “It was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell” ;3 and second, “In Him ye are made full.”4 The fullness dwelling in Christ is fullness of Deity, which is fullness of life, fullness of light, fullness of love. It is in Him and in His fullness that man is made full. Can anything be added to such statements as these 2 Some idea of their value, and yet of the difficulty of expressing that value, and even of appreciating it, may be gathered from examining one paragraph in that letter.5 Here the word “mystery” occurs thrice. First, the apostle refers to the Church as the mystery “which hath been hid for ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to His saints.” He then declares the mystery lying behind the mystery of the Church to be that of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And yet further on he speaks of “the mystery of God, even Christ.” Evidently here the apostle is moving backward through great mysteries of effect to the primal mystery of cause. Let this threefold mystery be stated thus:

1. Christ.

2. Christ in the saints.

3. Christ in the Church.

The central mystery is that of Christ Himself, the mystery of His Person, in its unity of the human and the Divine, and the mystery of His passion in the preparation of the life, and the pro-

*Watts, *Phil, 4.73. *Colin rev”Col, 2.70, Cok 24-22 S pitiation of the death; a veritable mystery, most evidently revealed and most absolutely defying analysis or explanation.:

Then follows the mystery of personal realisation, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ the human and the Divine, in one indissoluble unity in the believer, administering the virtue of His life through the value of His death.

Then finally the Christ in all believers, finding at last His own completion, His body through which in conjunction with Himself all the infinite fullness of the Infinite God, is to find through unending ages, a medium of manifestation, is to be in fact the new form of God through which His wisdom and His love may be known by other creations through the never-ending ages.

This stupendous vision of the issue of the Christ and His work in its individual application with regard to trusting souls, reveals how in Christ, man is restored to God by actual sharing of the life Divine. God in Christ in a new sense, shares human life. Man in Christ in a new sense, shares Divine life. This is the final realisation of the Atonement, and consists in man’s restoration to God on a

basis infinitely beyond that from which he fell by his sin.

Il. The sequence of this vital restoration in the life of man is that of governmental restoration. As at the first, man ruined himself by rebellion, so now his redemption being accomplished by the operation of God in Christ, within the realm of law and of justice he must abide in the will of God. This is not an arbitrary and capricious requirement. It is rather, as the whole history of man in his ruin demonstrates, a necessity upon the fulfilment of which love must insist, or cease to be love. Outside the realm of the Divine will, man is in the place of ruin and of death. Within that will, he is in the sphere of permanence and of perfection.

Now, however, it is possible to refer to abiding in the will of God in new terms, which are the terms of a plenteous redemption. To abide in that will is to abide in Christ. The restoration of man to God in Christ being, as has been shown, vital as well as judicial, it is therefore governmental also, in a way which reveals the infinite love and wisdom of God, as perhaps it is nowhere else revealed, because it appeals to man at the point of his supreme consciousness of weakness. ‘The God-man is the meeting place between God and

man. Rejecting man, God enthroned Jesus. Rejecting himself,

man enthrones Jesus. Thus the Divine and the human will move

into union of decision and purpose. God and man meet in Christ.

Upon this basis, the Spirit communicates the life which creates

vital relationship, and that life henceforth becomes the directing,

controlling, suggesting principle in the life of the saint. Moving

along the line of the perfect will of God, as it ever has and ever must,

it regulates all the life of the saint, within the government of God,

“casting down reasonings, and every high thing that is exalted

against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into. captivity to the obedience of Christ.”* It is because of this that the

Christian is no longer under the law, which consists in commandments outside the personality. He in Christ, answers the law of the Spirit of life, which is at once a perpetual illumination, and a

constant power. God in Christ by the Spirit works in “to will and

work, for His good pleasure.”’*

It was in view of this great truth the apostle declared “for if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be kept safe in His life.”* Thus plenteously indeed, even in superabounding fullness, does Christ answer the call of man distanced by sin, in restoring him to God. In Christ, man is restored judicially, and there is no condemnation; vitally, and there is no separation; governmentally, and there is no alienation.

*2, Cor. 10. § (margin). *Phil. 2. 13.
*Rom. 5. 10. Bishop Handley Moule’s translation,