The power of resurrection-life
takes all strength from Satan: "He who is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him
not." In our earthly life, the flesh being in us, we
are exposed to the power of the enemy, though Christ's
grace is sufficient for us, His strength made perfect in
weakness; but the creature has no strength against Satan,
even though it should not be drawn away into actual sin.
But if death is become our shelter, causing us to die
unto all that would give Satan an advantage over us, what
can he do? Can he tempt one who is dead, or overcome one
who, having died, is alive again? But, if this be true,
it is also necessary to realise it practically. "Ye
are dead . . . therefore mortify" (Col. 3). This is
what Gilgal means. Nay, we are always to bear about in
the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of
Jesus may be manifested in our body (2 Cor. 4: 10) [1].
The matter in hand was not
yet the taking of cities, the realisation of God's
magnificent promises. Self must first of all be mortified.
Before conquering Midian, Gideon must cast down the altar
that was in his own house.
Circumcision, the
application of the Spirit's power to the mortification of
the flesh
Remark further, the
wilderness is not the place where circumcision is carried
out, even though we may have been faithful there. The
wilderness is the character the world takes when we have
been redeemed, and where the flesh which is in us is
actually sifted. But death, and our entrance into
heavenly places, judge the whole nature in which we live
in this world. But then, consequent upon our death and
resurrection with Christ, it is practically applied, and
circumcision is the application of the Spirit's power to
the mortification of the flesh in him who has fellowship
with the death and resurrection of Jesus (compare 2 Cor.
4: 10-12). Therefore Paul says (Phil. 3), "We are
the circumcision." As to an outwardly moral life,
Paul had that before. Had he now added true piety to his
religion of forms, the true fear of God to his good works?
It was far more than that. Christ had taken the place of
all in him—first of all as to righteousness, which
is the groundwork. But further, the apostle says, "That
I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, being
made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection from among the dead."
Therefore it is in "pressing towards the mark"
that he waits for the coming of Jesus to accomplish this
resurrection as to his body.
The circumcision
of Christ
In the Epistle to the
Colossians, chapter 2, he speaks to us of the
circumcision of Christ. Is. it only that he has ceased to
sin (the certain effect indeed of this work of God)? No;
for in describing this work he adds, "Being buried
with him in baptism, wherein also we are risen with him,
through faith of the operation of God who hath raised him
from the dead." The consequences of this heavenly
life are found in Colossians 3: 1, which is in immediate
connection with the verse just quoted. Here also the work
is crowned by the manifestation of the saints with Jesus
when He shall appear. Not the rapture; the heavenly part
is omitted in Colossians, save that our life is hid there,
and that what is there is an object of hope; we are made
meet for it, which indeed is just what is done here.
Our Gilgal
Our Gilgal is in verse 5:
"Mortify therefore." It is not "die to sin."
Mortify is active power. It rests on the power of that
which is already true to faith: "Ye are dead:
mortify therefore." This being the standing, it is
realised. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead,"
said the apostle (Rom. 6), when speaking on the same
subject [2]. This is the practical power of
the type of the stones brought from Jordan. They are a
symbol of our place, being the result of death with
Christ who was dead [3].
But we are also raised up together with Him [4], as having died with Him. But
there is another aspect of truth, we were dead in sins.
He came down in grace where we were, on the way down, so
to speak, atoning for our sins. God has quickened us
together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses [5]. All that He did was for us; and
now, associated with Him in life, united to Him by the
Spirit, I am also sitting in, not yet with, Him in
heavenly places [6].
I appropriate to myself, or rather God ascribes to me,
all that He has done, as though it had happened to myself:
He is dead to sin, in Him I am dead to sin. Therefore I
can "mortify": which I could not do as being
still alive in the flesh. Where was the nature, the life,
to do it in? I am risen with Him; I am also in Him
sitting in heavenly places. But here it is not the
Ephesian doctrine—which teaches the purpose and
counsels of God, and, Christ being exalted to the right
hand of God, shews the simple act of divine power which
takes us when dead in sins and sets us in Him—it is
the process, so to speak, through which we pass as having
been alive (not dead) in sins, and passes us through
death, in Christ, into a better life. The other is
equally true, so I have spoken of it; but, it is the
change, the essential but subjective change spoken of in
Colossians as far as death and resurrection with Him go,
which is our present subject in Joshua.
The mortification
of our members accomplished through grace
Now, circumcision being
the practical application of that of which we have been
speaking—the death of Christ to sin, to all that is
contrary to our risen position, "the body of the
flesh"—we remember the death of Christ, and the
mortification of our members on the earth is accomplished
through grace, in the consciousness of grace. Otherwise
it would only be the effort of a soul under the law, and
in this case there would be a bad conscience and no
strength. This is what sincere monks attempted; but their
efforts were not made in the power of grace, of Christ
and His strength. If there was sincerity, there was also
the deepest spiritual misery. In order to mortify there
must be life; and if we have life, we have already died
in Him who died for us.
The stones set up in
Gilgal were taken out of the midst of Jordan, and Jordan
was already crossed before Israel was circumcised. The
memorial of grace and of death, as the witness to us of a
love which wrought out our salvation, by taking up our
sins in grace, and dying to sin once, stood in the place
where death to sin was to be effected. In that He died,
He died unto sin once; and we reckon ourselves dead to
sin. Christ dying for sins, in perfect love, in unfailing
efficacy, and His death to sin, give us peace through His
blood as to both, but also enable us through grace to
reckon ourselves dead to sin, and to mortify our members
which are on earth.
In every circumstance,
then, we must remember that we are dead, and say to
ourselves, If through grace I am dead, what have I to do
with sin, which supposes me to be alive? Christ is in
this death in the beauty and in the power of His grace;
it is deliverance itself, and introduction morally into
the condition in which we are made meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. As to the
glory, as running the race down here, the apostle says,
"I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." But
that is another subject.
The life of a
risen man
Thus, in being dead, and
only thus, will the reproach of Egypt be taken away.
Every mark of the world is a reproach to him who is
heavenly. It is only the heavenly man who has died with
Christ that disentangles himself from all that is of
Egypt. The life of the flesh always cleaves to Egypt; but
the principle of worldliness is uprooted in him who is
dead and risen with Christ and living a heavenly life.
There is in the life of man, alive as such in this world
(Col. 2: 20), a necessary link with the world as God sees
it, that is, corrupt and sinful; with a dead man there is
no such link. The life of a risen man is not of this
world; it has no connection with it. He who possesses
this life may pass through the world, and do many things
that others do. He eats, works, suffers; but, as to his
life and his objects, he is not of the world, even as
Christ was not of the world. Christ, risen and ascended
up on high, is his life; he subdues his flesh, he
mortifies it, for in point of fact he is down here, but
he does not live in it. The camp was always at
Gilgal. The people—the army of Jehovah—returned
thither, after their victories and their conquests. If we
do not do the same, we shall be feeble: the flesh will
betray us. We shall fall before the enemy in the hour of
conflict, even though it may be honestly entered into in
the service of God. It is at Gilgal the monument of the
stones from Jordan is set up; for if the consciousness of
being dead with Jesus is necessary to enable us to
mortify the flesh, it is through this mortification that
we attain to the practical knowledge of what it is to be
thus dead.
We do not realise the
inward communion (I am not speaking now of justification),
the sweet and divine enjoyment of the death of Jesus for
us, if the flesh is unmortified. It is impossible. But if
we return to Gilgal, to the blessed mortification of our
own flesh, we find there all the sweetness (and it is
infinite), all the powerful efficacy of this communion
with the death of Jesus, with the love manifested in it.
"Always bearing about in the body," says the
apostle, "the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be manifested in our body." Thus
we do not remain in Jordan; but there remains in the
heart all the preciousness of this glorious work, a work
which the angels desire to look into, which is for us,
and which Christ, in His love, appropriates to us. We
find Him with us at Gilgal—a place of no outward
show or victory to attract the eyes of men; but where He,
who is the source of all victory, is found in the power
and the communion which enable us to overcome.
The twelve stones set up in the
midst of Jordan
But there were also twelve
stones set up in the midst of Jordan; and indeed, if we
apply the power of the death of Christ to mortify the
flesh, the heart—exercised in, and fully enjoying
heavenly things—loves to turn again to Jordan, to
the place where Jesus went down in the power of life and
obedience, and to gaze upon that Ark of the Covenant,
which stood there, and stayed those impetuous waters till
all the people had passed over. One loves, now that He is
risen, while viewing the power of death in all its extent,
to behold Jesus there, who went down into it, but who
destroyed its power for us. In the overflowing of the
nations, Christ will be the security and the salvation of
Israel; but He has been our security and our salvation
with respect to much more terrible enemies. The heart
loves to stand on the banks of that river—already
crossed—and to realise, while studying what Jesus
was, the work and the wondrous love of Him who went down
into it alone, until all was accomplished. But
in one sense we were there. The twelve stones shew that
the people had to do with this work, although the ark was
there alone when the waters were to be restrained.
The Psalms and
Jordan
In the Psalms we can
especially there contemplate the Lord, now that we are in
peace on the other side the stream. Oh, that the
Christian—each one in the assembly—knew how to
seat himself there, and there meditate on Jesus gone down
into death alone, and death when it overflowed all its
banks, bearing its sting and the power of divine judgment
with it! In doctrine the Psalms set forth also the
connection between the death of Jesus and the residue of
Israel passing through the waters of tribulation in the
last days.
In Canaan, at
Gilgal
Behold, then, the people
out of Egypt and in Canaan, according to the faithfulness
of 'God's promise; but as yet nothing of Canaan possessed,
nor any victory gained. It is a type for us of what is
taught in the Colossians: made meet to be partakers, but
the inheritance of the saints in light still in hope [7]; not only redeemed out of Egypt,
but brought into Canaan, the reproach of Egypt being
rolled away, and the people of God having taken their
place at Gilgal—the true circumcision of heart of
which we have spoken.
Israel encamped at Gilgal.
The Passover kept
in the Land, the memorial of accomplished salvation
The character of their
communion with God is then pointed out, before their
victories. They keep the passover in the plains of
Jericho. Jehovah prepared a table before them in the
presence of their enemies.
The blood was no longer
sprinkled, as in Egypt, upon the lintel and the two side-posts,
that they might be sheltered from the destroyer, and
preserved from the last judgment which spread terror
throughout every house where the blood was not seen.
We need this aspect of the
blood of Christ, while judgment threatens in the
territory of sin and Satan, although called of God to
come out of it. God's justice and our consciences require
it. But here the passover is no longer this; it is the
memorial of accomplished salvation. Neither is it
participation by grace in the power of the death and
resurrection of Christ. It is the soul's communion; it is
the sweet spiritual recollection of a work all His own,
of His death as a lamb without blemish. We feed upon it,
as His redeemed people, in the enjoyment of this position
in the land of promise and of God—a land which
belongs to us in consequence of this redemption, and of
our being raised up with Christ. The death of Jesus can
only be thus enjoyed on the other side of Jordan, as
risen with Him. Then, in peace, in fellowship with Him,
and with ineffable feelings of thankfulness, we return to
the death of the Lamb; we contemplate it; we feed upon it.
Our heavenly happiness and intelligence only increase our
sense of its preciousness.
The old corn of
the Land
On the morrow after the
passover the people ate of the old corn of the land. Thus,
raised up, and in title and nature suited to it, and
taking our place thus in fitness and hope in the heavenly
places, it is Christ known as heavenly who feeds the soul,
and maintains it in vigour and in joy [8]. From thenceforward, also, the
manna ceased. This is the more remarkable, because Christ,
we know, is the true manna, but Christ down here, Christ
after the flesh, and suited to man, and to his wants in
the wilderness; nor will He ever be forgotten as such. I
contemplate Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) with
adoration. My soul feeds upon the mighty attractions of
His grace in His humiliation; delights in the blessed
testimony of His love who bore our sorrows and carried
our sicknesses, and learns to be nothing and serve, in
Him who took the lowest place. It is in this He ministers
to the secret affections of the heart as we pass through
this world; still in that condition He remained alone.
The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die;
otherwise it abides alone.
But—while knowing
what He has been—it is a Christ seated above, who
came from above, who died and is raised again, and
ascended up where He was before, whom I now know. His
death, of the memorial of which we have spoken, is
undoubtedly the basis of all. There is nothing more
precious: but it is a heavenly Christ with whom we have
now to do as the living One. For the rest, we remember
Him in His humiliation and death; but this He gives us as
its character. Even in the Lord's supper, analogous to
the passover here celebrated it was "Do this in
remembrance of me." And so in all His life, it was
in the wilderness, and suited to us for the wilderness
also; it is, in our little measure, in heart or in fact,
the fellowship of His sufferings.
Christ, the
heavenly Man, our present portion
We contemplate, while
seeking to imitate, the precious model which He has set
before us, as a heavenly man upon the earth. But,
beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, we
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as
by the Spirit of the Lord. He has for our sakes
sanctified Himself, that we might be sanctified through
the truth. We delight ourselves with the contemplation of
all His grace here below; our affections are drawn out by
a suffering Saviour. Nothing more precious than the Son
of God winning the confidence of man's heart to God by
His love in their midst when far from Him; but our
present fellowship is with a Christ in heaven. And the
Christ, whom we know on earth, is a heavenly Christ, and
not an earthly Christ, as He will be to the Jews by-and-by.
It was bread on earth no doubt, but bread come down from
heaven; and this is a very important consideration. In
passing through this wilderness (and we are passing
through it), Christ, as the manna, is infinitely precious
to us. His humiliation—His grace—comfort, also
relieve, and sustain us. We feel that He has passed
through the same trials, and our heart is sustained by
the thought that the same Christ is with. us. This is the
Christ we need for the wilderness—the bread which
came down from heaven: but, as a heavenly people, it is
Christ, as belonging to heaven and heavenly things, as
associated with Him, the old corn of the land; for it is
to Christ ascended up on high that we are united; it is
there that He is our life. In a word, we feed on heavenly
things, on Christ above, on Christ humbled and dying
indeed as a sweet remembrance, but on Christ living as
the present power of life and grace. We feed on the
remembrance of Christ on the cross; this is the passover.
But we keep the feast with a Christ who is the centre of
heavenly things, and feed upon them all (Col. 3: 1, 2).
It is the old corn of the land into which we have entered.
For He belongs to heaven.
Thus, before giving battle,
in front of the very walls of Jericho (representative of
the enemy's power), God gives us to enjoy the fruit of
this heavenly land as being all our own. We remember the
death of Jesus, as redemption long since wrought out; and
we feed on the old corn of the land, on heavenly things,
as our own present portion. For, being risen with Christ
by His grace, all is ours.
War, and the
Captain of Jehovah's host
After this beautiful
picture of the position and the privileges of God's
people, who—according to God's own rights—may
enjoy everything before engaging in a single battle, we
find that war must follow. But there is one thing
necessary for making war and obtaining blessings by
conquest. Jehovah presented Himself as Captain of the
host; it is He Himself who leads us. He is there with a
drawn sword in His hand Faith owns no neutrality in
heavenly things. [9] "And Joshua said unto him, Art
thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay,
but as captain of the host of Jehovah am I come."
Almighty Power and
Infinite Holiness
Remark here that the
presence of Jehovah, as Captain of the host, as much
demanded holiness and reverence, as when He came down to
redeem His people (Exodus 3) in that divine holiness and
majesty which were manifested according to their just
requirements in the death of Jesus, who gave Himself that
He might magnify and establish them for ever. Such as He
was, who called Himself "I am," when He thus
came down in righteousness and majesty; such also is He
when standing in the midst of His people to bless and
lead them in conflict.
The almighty power of God
is with the church in its warfare. But His infinite
holiness is there also, and He will not make good His
power in their conflicts if His holiness is compromised
by the defilement, the negligence, the heedless levity,
of His people; or by their failure in those feelings and
affections which become the presence of God, for it
is God Himself who is there.
[1] Colossians 3 is
God's declaration of our position; Romans 6 exhortation
to take it up in faith; 2 Corinthians 4 carrying it out
in practice in the inner man (Col. 3: 5-17).
[2] We have three
steps in this process: God's judgment, "Ye are dead";
the recognition of it by faith, "Reckon yourselves
dead"; and the carrying it out in practice, "always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."
[3] The Epistle to
the Romans gives, in the desert, faith's estimate of the
position which Christ's death has given to us, of death
to sin and life to God in this world, as involved in our
being saved by His death into which we were baptised, but
our resurrection which takes us out of the desert, and is
Colossians and Jordan.
[5] Thus far, also,
the Colossians; but we are not viewed there as dead in
sins, but as having lived in them, now dead and risen.
[6] This is Ephesian
teaching. And this is God's sovereign act of power which
has taken us when dead in sins and put us into Christ.
[7] Christ's state (only
that He was actually raised) between His resurrection and
ascension helps to understand it. He belonged evidently
to heaven, not to this world, though He was not in heaven.
[8] Let us remark,
also, that christian simplicity and sincerity, the
practical holiness of the christian life, the unleavened
bread which was eaten on the morrow after the passover,
is a heavenly thing. Nothing on this side Jordan can be
this. It is of the growth of that land; therefore it is
connected with Jesus, and peace through His death as a
thing previous.
[9] I say, in
heavenly things, because the heart is sensible of good
qualities in the creature. The Lord loved the rich young
man when He had heard his replies. But when a rejected
and ascended Lord is to be followed, the will always sets
itself either for or against. Faith knows this; it knows
too the rights of God, and it maintains them.
Joshua 5 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
The power of resurrection-life takes all strength from Satan: "He who is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." In our earthly life, the flesh being in us, we are exposed to the power of the enemy, though Christ's grace is sufficient for us, His strength made perfect in weakness; but the creature has no strength against Satan, even though it should not be drawn away into actual sin. But if death is become our shelter, causing us to die unto all that would give Satan an advantage over us, what can he do? Can he tempt one who is dead, or overcome one who, having died, is alive again? But, if this be true, it is also necessary to realise it practically. "Ye are dead . . . therefore mortify" (Col. 3). This is what Gilgal means. Nay, we are always to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body (2 Cor. 4: 10) [1].
The matter in hand was not yet the taking of cities, the realisation of God's magnificent promises. Self must first of all be mortified. Before conquering Midian, Gideon must cast down the altar that was in his own house.
Circumcision, the application of the Spirit's power to the mortification of the flesh
Remark further, the wilderness is not the place where circumcision is carried out, even though we may have been faithful there. The wilderness is the character the world takes when we have been redeemed, and where the flesh which is in us is actually sifted. But death, and our entrance into heavenly places, judge the whole nature in which we live in this world. But then, consequent upon our death and resurrection with Christ, it is practically applied, and circumcision is the application of the Spirit's power to the mortification of the flesh in him who has fellowship with the death and resurrection of Jesus (compare 2 Cor. 4: 10-12). Therefore Paul says (Phil. 3), "We are the circumcision." As to an outwardly moral life, Paul had that before. Had he now added true piety to his religion of forms, the true fear of God to his good works? It was far more than that. Christ had taken the place of all in him—first of all as to righteousness, which is the groundwork. But further, the apostle says, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead." Therefore it is in "pressing towards the mark" that he waits for the coming of Jesus to accomplish this resurrection as to his body.
The circumcision of Christ
In the Epistle to the Colossians, chapter 2, he speaks to us of the circumcision of Christ. Is. it only that he has ceased to sin (the certain effect indeed of this work of God)? No; for in describing this work he adds, "Being buried with him in baptism, wherein also we are risen with him, through faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead." The consequences of this heavenly life are found in Colossians 3: 1, which is in immediate connection with the verse just quoted. Here also the work is crowned by the manifestation of the saints with Jesus when He shall appear. Not the rapture; the heavenly part is omitted in Colossians, save that our life is hid there, and that what is there is an object of hope; we are made meet for it, which indeed is just what is done here.
Our Gilgal
Our Gilgal is in verse 5: "Mortify therefore." It is not "die to sin." Mortify is active power. It rests on the power of that which is already true to faith: "Ye are dead: mortify therefore." This being the standing, it is realised. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead," said the apostle (Rom. 6), when speaking on the same subject [2]. This is the practical power of the type of the stones brought from Jordan. They are a symbol of our place, being the result of death with Christ who was dead [3]. But we are also raised up together with Him [4], as having died with Him. But there is another aspect of truth, we were dead in sins. He came down in grace where we were, on the way down, so to speak, atoning for our sins. God has quickened us together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses [5]. All that He did was for us; and now, associated with Him in life, united to Him by the Spirit, I am also sitting in, not yet with, Him in heavenly places [6]. I appropriate to myself, or rather God ascribes to me, all that He has done, as though it had happened to myself: He is dead to sin, in Him I am dead to sin. Therefore I can "mortify": which I could not do as being still alive in the flesh. Where was the nature, the life, to do it in? I am risen with Him; I am also in Him sitting in heavenly places. But here it is not the Ephesian doctrine—which teaches the purpose and counsels of God, and, Christ being exalted to the right hand of God, shews the simple act of divine power which takes us when dead in sins and sets us in Him—it is the process, so to speak, through which we pass as having been alive (not dead) in sins, and passes us through death, in Christ, into a better life. The other is equally true, so I have spoken of it; but, it is the change, the essential but subjective change spoken of in Colossians as far as death and resurrection with Him go, which is our present subject in Joshua.
The mortification of our members accomplished through grace
Now, circumcision being the practical application of that of which we have been speaking—the death of Christ to sin, to all that is contrary to our risen position, "the body of the flesh"—we remember the death of Christ, and the mortification of our members on the earth is accomplished through grace, in the consciousness of grace. Otherwise it would only be the effort of a soul under the law, and in this case there would be a bad conscience and no strength. This is what sincere monks attempted; but their efforts were not made in the power of grace, of Christ and His strength. If there was sincerity, there was also the deepest spiritual misery. In order to mortify there must be life; and if we have life, we have already died in Him who died for us.
The stones set up in Gilgal were taken out of the midst of Jordan, and Jordan was already crossed before Israel was circumcised. The memorial of grace and of death, as the witness to us of a love which wrought out our salvation, by taking up our sins in grace, and dying to sin once, stood in the place where death to sin was to be effected. In that He died, He died unto sin once; and we reckon ourselves dead to sin. Christ dying for sins, in perfect love, in unfailing efficacy, and His death to sin, give us peace through His blood as to both, but also enable us through grace to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and to mortify our members which are on earth.
In every circumstance, then, we must remember that we are dead, and say to ourselves, If through grace I am dead, what have I to do with sin, which supposes me to be alive? Christ is in this death in the beauty and in the power of His grace; it is deliverance itself, and introduction morally into the condition in which we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. As to the glory, as running the race down here, the apostle says, "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." But that is another subject.
The life of a risen man
Thus, in being dead, and only thus, will the reproach of Egypt be taken away. Every mark of the world is a reproach to him who is heavenly. It is only the heavenly man who has died with Christ that disentangles himself from all that is of Egypt. The life of the flesh always cleaves to Egypt; but the principle of worldliness is uprooted in him who is dead and risen with Christ and living a heavenly life. There is in the life of man, alive as such in this world (Col. 2: 20), a necessary link with the world as God sees it, that is, corrupt and sinful; with a dead man there is no such link. The life of a risen man is not of this world; it has no connection with it. He who possesses this life may pass through the world, and do many things that others do. He eats, works, suffers; but, as to his life and his objects, he is not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world. Christ, risen and ascended up on high, is his life; he subdues his flesh, he mortifies it, for in point of fact he is down here, but he does not live in it. The camp was always at Gilgal. The people—the army of Jehovah—returned thither, after their victories and their conquests. If we do not do the same, we shall be feeble: the flesh will betray us. We shall fall before the enemy in the hour of conflict, even though it may be honestly entered into in the service of God. It is at Gilgal the monument of the stones from Jordan is set up; for if the consciousness of being dead with Jesus is necessary to enable us to mortify the flesh, it is through this mortification that we attain to the practical knowledge of what it is to be thus dead.
We do not realise the inward communion (I am not speaking now of justification), the sweet and divine enjoyment of the death of Jesus for us, if the flesh is unmortified. It is impossible. But if we return to Gilgal, to the blessed mortification of our own flesh, we find there all the sweetness (and it is infinite), all the powerful efficacy of this communion with the death of Jesus, with the love manifested in it. "Always bearing about in the body," says the apostle, "the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body." Thus we do not remain in Jordan; but there remains in the heart all the preciousness of this glorious work, a work which the angels desire to look into, which is for us, and which Christ, in His love, appropriates to us. We find Him with us at Gilgal—a place of no outward show or victory to attract the eyes of men; but where He, who is the source of all victory, is found in the power and the communion which enable us to overcome.
The twelve stones set up in the midst of Jordan
But there were also twelve stones set up in the midst of Jordan; and indeed, if we apply the power of the death of Christ to mortify the flesh, the heart—exercised in, and fully enjoying heavenly things—loves to turn again to Jordan, to the place where Jesus went down in the power of life and obedience, and to gaze upon that Ark of the Covenant, which stood there, and stayed those impetuous waters till all the people had passed over. One loves, now that He is risen, while viewing the power of death in all its extent, to behold Jesus there, who went down into it, but who destroyed its power for us. In the overflowing of the nations, Christ will be the security and the salvation of Israel; but He has been our security and our salvation with respect to much more terrible enemies. The heart loves to stand on the banks of that river—already crossed—and to realise, while studying what Jesus was, the work and the wondrous love of Him who went down into it alone, until all was accomplished. But in one sense we were there. The twelve stones shew that the people had to do with this work, although the ark was there alone when the waters were to be restrained.
The Psalms and Jordan
In the Psalms we can especially there contemplate the Lord, now that we are in peace on the other side the stream. Oh, that the Christian—each one in the assembly—knew how to seat himself there, and there meditate on Jesus gone down into death alone, and death when it overflowed all its banks, bearing its sting and the power of divine judgment with it! In doctrine the Psalms set forth also the connection between the death of Jesus and the residue of Israel passing through the waters of tribulation in the last days.
In Canaan, at Gilgal
Behold, then, the people out of Egypt and in Canaan, according to the faithfulness of 'God's promise; but as yet nothing of Canaan possessed, nor any victory gained. It is a type for us of what is taught in the Colossians: made meet to be partakers, but the inheritance of the saints in light still in hope [7]; not only redeemed out of Egypt, but brought into Canaan, the reproach of Egypt being rolled away, and the people of God having taken their place at Gilgal—the true circumcision of heart of which we have spoken.
Israel encamped at Gilgal.
The Passover kept in the Land, the memorial of accomplished salvation
The character of their communion with God is then pointed out, before their victories. They keep the passover in the plains of Jericho. Jehovah prepared a table before them in the presence of their enemies.
The blood was no longer sprinkled, as in Egypt, upon the lintel and the two side-posts, that they might be sheltered from the destroyer, and preserved from the last judgment which spread terror throughout every house where the blood was not seen.
We need this aspect of the blood of Christ, while judgment threatens in the territory of sin and Satan, although called of God to come out of it. God's justice and our consciences require it. But here the passover is no longer this; it is the memorial of accomplished salvation. Neither is it participation by grace in the power of the death and resurrection of Christ. It is the soul's communion; it is the sweet spiritual recollection of a work all His own, of His death as a lamb without blemish. We feed upon it, as His redeemed people, in the enjoyment of this position in the land of promise and of God—a land which belongs to us in consequence of this redemption, and of our being raised up with Christ. The death of Jesus can only be thus enjoyed on the other side of Jordan, as risen with Him. Then, in peace, in fellowship with Him, and with ineffable feelings of thankfulness, we return to the death of the Lamb; we contemplate it; we feed upon it. Our heavenly happiness and intelligence only increase our sense of its preciousness.
The old corn of the Land
On the morrow after the passover the people ate of the old corn of the land. Thus, raised up, and in title and nature suited to it, and taking our place thus in fitness and hope in the heavenly places, it is Christ known as heavenly who feeds the soul, and maintains it in vigour and in joy [8]. From thenceforward, also, the manna ceased. This is the more remarkable, because Christ, we know, is the true manna, but Christ down here, Christ after the flesh, and suited to man, and to his wants in the wilderness; nor will He ever be forgotten as such. I contemplate Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) with adoration. My soul feeds upon the mighty attractions of His grace in His humiliation; delights in the blessed testimony of His love who bore our sorrows and carried our sicknesses, and learns to be nothing and serve, in Him who took the lowest place. It is in this He ministers to the secret affections of the heart as we pass through this world; still in that condition He remained alone. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die; otherwise it abides alone.
But—while knowing what He has been—it is a Christ seated above, who came from above, who died and is raised again, and ascended up where He was before, whom I now know. His death, of the memorial of which we have spoken, is undoubtedly the basis of all. There is nothing more precious: but it is a heavenly Christ with whom we have now to do as the living One. For the rest, we remember Him in His humiliation and death; but this He gives us as its character. Even in the Lord's supper, analogous to the passover here celebrated it was "Do this in remembrance of me." And so in all His life, it was in the wilderness, and suited to us for the wilderness also; it is, in our little measure, in heart or in fact, the fellowship of His sufferings.
Christ, the heavenly Man, our present portion
We contemplate, while seeking to imitate, the precious model which He has set before us, as a heavenly man upon the earth. But, beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. He has for our sakes sanctified Himself, that we might be sanctified through the truth. We delight ourselves with the contemplation of all His grace here below; our affections are drawn out by a suffering Saviour. Nothing more precious than the Son of God winning the confidence of man's heart to God by His love in their midst when far from Him; but our present fellowship is with a Christ in heaven. And the Christ, whom we know on earth, is a heavenly Christ, and not an earthly Christ, as He will be to the Jews by-and-by. It was bread on earth no doubt, but bread come down from heaven; and this is a very important consideration. In passing through this wilderness (and we are passing through it), Christ, as the manna, is infinitely precious to us. His humiliation—His grace—comfort, also relieve, and sustain us. We feel that He has passed through the same trials, and our heart is sustained by the thought that the same Christ is with. us. This is the Christ we need for the wilderness—the bread which came down from heaven: but, as a heavenly people, it is Christ, as belonging to heaven and heavenly things, as associated with Him, the old corn of the land; for it is to Christ ascended up on high that we are united; it is there that He is our life. In a word, we feed on heavenly things, on Christ above, on Christ humbled and dying indeed as a sweet remembrance, but on Christ living as the present power of life and grace. We feed on the remembrance of Christ on the cross; this is the passover. But we keep the feast with a Christ who is the centre of heavenly things, and feed upon them all (Col. 3: 1, 2). It is the old corn of the land into which we have entered. For He belongs to heaven.
Thus, before giving battle, in front of the very walls of Jericho (representative of the enemy's power), God gives us to enjoy the fruit of this heavenly land as being all our own. We remember the death of Jesus, as redemption long since wrought out; and we feed on the old corn of the land, on heavenly things, as our own present portion. For, being risen with Christ by His grace, all is ours.
War, and the Captain of Jehovah's host
After this beautiful picture of the position and the privileges of God's people, who—according to God's own rights—may enjoy everything before engaging in a single battle, we find that war must follow. But there is one thing necessary for making war and obtaining blessings by conquest. Jehovah presented Himself as Captain of the host; it is He Himself who leads us. He is there with a drawn sword in His hand Faith owns no neutrality in heavenly things. [9] "And Joshua said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of Jehovah am I come."
Almighty Power and Infinite Holiness
Remark here that the presence of Jehovah, as Captain of the host, as much demanded holiness and reverence, as when He came down to redeem His people (Exodus 3) in that divine holiness and majesty which were manifested according to their just requirements in the death of Jesus, who gave Himself that He might magnify and establish them for ever. Such as He was, who called Himself "I am," when He thus came down in righteousness and majesty; such also is He when standing in the midst of His people to bless and lead them in conflict.
The almighty power of God is with the church in its warfare. But His infinite holiness is there also, and He will not make good His power in their conflicts if His holiness is compromised by the defilement, the negligence, the heedless levity, of His people; or by their failure in those feelings and affections which become the presence of God, for it is God Himself who is there.
[1] Colossians 3 is God's declaration of our position; Romans 6 exhortation to take it up in faith; 2 Corinthians 4 carrying it out in practice in the inner man (Col. 3: 5-17).
[2] We have three steps in this process: God's judgment, "Ye are dead"; the recognition of it by faith, "Reckon yourselves dead"; and the carrying it out in practice, "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."
[3] The Epistle to the Romans gives, in the desert, faith's estimate of the position which Christ's death has given to us, of death to sin and life to God in this world, as involved in our being saved by His death into which we were baptised, but our resurrection which takes us out of the desert, and is Colossians and Jordan.
[4] Thus far the Colossians.
[5] Thus far, also, the Colossians; but we are not viewed there as dead in sins, but as having lived in them, now dead and risen.
[6] This is Ephesian teaching. And this is God's sovereign act of power which has taken us when dead in sins and put us into Christ.
[7] Christ's state (only that He was actually raised) between His resurrection and ascension helps to understand it. He belonged evidently to heaven, not to this world, though He was not in heaven.
[8] Let us remark, also, that christian simplicity and sincerity, the practical holiness of the christian life, the unleavened bread which was eaten on the morrow after the passover, is a heavenly thing. Nothing on this side Jordan can be this. It is of the growth of that land; therefore it is connected with Jesus, and peace through His death as a thing previous.
[9] I say, in heavenly things, because the heart is sensible of good qualities in the creature. The Lord loved the rich young man when He had heard his replies. But when a rejected and ascended Lord is to be followed, the will always sets itself either for or against. Faith knows this; it knows too the rights of God, and it maintains them.