Life Incorruptible and Indestructible
Reading:
Hebrews 11:1-19.
We
are going to meditate upon the innermost nature
of that Testimony which relates to the Lord in this earth,
and in this universe. This whole chapter is occupied with
that Testimony, but we are going to take but a part of it,
seeing the Testimony as touched upon by the first four of
the people mentioned.
Let us remind ourselves that the heart of the
Testimony of the Lord is life; a life which is incorruptible
and indestructible. We know, of course, that that life is
bound up with a Person, "this life is in His Son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord." When we speak of the Testimony of
Jesus we always keep in view the Person first, but then
there comes that for which the Person stands, that which
is the preeminent element in the Person and in the work
of that Person. When you ask the question as to what it
is that the Lord Jesus stands for in His very Person, and
what it was that He came, lived, and went to the Cross
for, the answer is found in one word, Life. He came that
life and immortality might be brought to light, and He
Himself is that life.
So that the Testimony of the Person, Jesus, is the
Testimony of life incorruptible and indestructible, and
that is the issue of the ages. That is the thing upon which
everything has been hanging from the beginning. It was
on that matter that the battle took place in the first
instance in the Garden. It was the issue of life or death,
and it has been that issue all along. Inasmuch as we are
related to the Testimony of Jesus we are bound up with
that issue as the primary thing in our beings, and therefore
in our work,
which we may call our ministry. If the
Church has been brought into being as, above all other
things, the Body of Christ, then it is in that
Body
that
this Testimony has
to be deposited and manifested, and
when we speak of the Body as a whole we speak of all
the members individually.
That is familiar ground, but it is the centre,
the heart, of everything for us. It really defines
what it is that we are called into, what, in the
first place, is the very nature of the believer's
relationship to Christ, the basis of that union;
and then, in the second place, it defines the
very object of the believer being here on the
earth.
When we turn to this chapter we find that this central
reality of incorruptible and indestructible life is illustrated,
set forth, in principle in various ways, from various
standpoints. The first four people mentioned in this
succession of the Testimony bring before us a very real
presentation of the basis, nature, and outworking of this
life.
Abel - the Basis of the Testimony
We begin with Abel, in verse 4:
"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne
to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness
in
respect of his gifts; and through it he being dead yet
speaketh."
With Abel there is introduced the basis of the
Testimony. The Testimony begins with Abel, and we
know that wherever we find the beginning of a thing we always find all the subsequent
development in germ form, and everything subsequent
will, therefore, work back to that and be included in
that. That is very clearly seen when you recognise that
the basis, the introduction of the Testimony of life
incorruptible and indestructible is by the shedding of
blood. With Abel the shedding of blood is introduced in
a definite way as the law and basis of the Testimony of
Jesus. That leads right on to Christ, and includes every
drop of blood shed, from the day that Abel offered his
sacrifice to the day when Christ offered Himself in the
shedding of His Blood.
There are two ways of taking up the Testimony,
becoming bound up with it from the beginning. There is
the way of becoming terribly responsible for it, so that
that Testimony represents death and judgment and destruction
from the presence of the Lord, the Testimony testifying
against. But there is the other way, by a living
relationship to the Lord Jesus coming into the whole
Testimony from Abel onward, and into all its value - inclusively on the ground of the shed blood. Because
of that shed blood he was instantly involved in the battle
of the ages, the spiritual conflict of all time. From the
unseen there immediately emerged one who was the
antagonist of that life, him that had the power of death,
and through Cain he slew what was mortal of Abel. But
after millenniums the Word of God says he yet speaketh,
he is not dead. His testimony was in relation to a life
indestructible, and he still lives, "he being dead yet
speaketh."
Abel was the first link in the chain of the overcomers,
and you can relate the end with the beginning and
declare from Revelation 12 that he overcame because of
the Blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of his
testimony, and he loved not his life even unto death. That
was true of Abel, the first witness, the first link in the
Testimony. It is the mighty power of the Blood of the
Lord Jesus which in type is introduced with Abel, which
is the inclusive ground of the Testimony of a life which is
beyond the power of Satan and hell and men to touch
and to destroy.
The Word of God makes it perfectly clear that
everything in the life of a believer is related to that
precious Blood.
Salvation is by the Blood. Just as Israel came out
of Egypt to be God's people through shed and sprinkled
blood, so alone are men and women saved from sin,
from hell, from judgment, from death, from the power of
Satan, by the precious Blood of the Lord Jesus. The
sinner, then, finds salvation in the Blood and only in the
Blood.
The saved find their
life
in the Blood, for they
have, in that spiritual sense, still to continue to drink the
Blood for their very life. The Lord Jesus said: "Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood,
ye have not life in yourselves,'' and we know that the
tense is: Except ye keep on eating and drinking ye have
no life. He, in the value of His own Being, made over
to us by the Holy Spirit becoming operative in us by
Divine energies, becomes our very life as believers, to
maintain us. So that the eating and the drinking
continually are basic to the life of the saved.
Sanctification is related to the Blood. This very
letter to the Hebrews tells us that in the second
Chapter, verse 11:
"For both he
that
sanctifieth and
they
that
are
sanctified are all of one..."
Link that with Chapter 13 verse 12: "Wherefore
Jesus
also, that he might sanctify
the
people through his own blood, suffered without the
gate."
"...they that are sanctified... that he might sanctify
the people through his own blood..." So that our sanctification rests upon the
Blood of the Lord Jesus.
All our prayer has to be based upon that Blood
for its effectiveness. There is no effectual intercession
apart from the value of that Blood. Again this letter tells
us that in Chapter 10 verse 19:
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into
the holy place by the blood of Jesus."
You see, this is coming into the place of intercession,
of prayer ministry, and that is made effectual by the
Blood. There is no prayer which avails apart from the
Blood of Jesus. That Blood is the effective element. It is
the living factor in our salvation, our sanctification, our
intercession. It makes prayer living. If you want to get
over death elements in prayer, that with which probably
you are not a little familiar, if you want
to
know the
deliverance from those forces which descend upon you
in the time of prayer
to
quench you, your appeal must be
to the Blood, and you will find that it is effective. It is the
power of life which conquers death.
Praying through is praying in virtue of the Blood of
Jesus.
Not only are salvation, and maintenance, and
sanctification, and intercession based upon the Blood,
but our victory continuously and finally is on the
ground of the Blood. Again this letter tells us that in
the second Chapter, verses 14-15:
"Since then the children are sharers in flesh and
blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the
same; that through death he might bring to naught him
that had the power of death, that
is,
the devil; and might
deliver all them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage."
By Blood, you see, He destroyed him that had the
power of death, and delivered those who were in
bondage because of the fear of death. Surely we can
link with that again, Revelation 12: "They overcame
him because of the blood of the Lamb..." Victory, then,
is bound up with the Blood.
Everything that comes out in a fuller revelation of the
life in relation to God is based upon the Blood, and all
that is found in germ, in principle, in the blood which
Abel shed in offering his sacrifice to God. Very
comprehensive is the first step in the Testimony.
Enoch - The Outworking of the Testimony
Hebrews 11 verses 5-6.
"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see
death; and he was not found, because God translated
him: for before his translation
he
hath had witness borne
to him that he had been well-pleasing unto God: and
without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him:
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he
is
a rewarder of them that seek after him."
Here we have something which is tremendously
striking and impressive, that with one bound you leap
from the beginning to the end of the Testimony. It is as
though for the moment the Lord has set aside, kept in
reserve, all that lies between, and shows us what the
end of the Testimony will be as related to the beginning.
He
brings the two immediately together. Here is the Blood
in the first instance as the basis of the Testimony, as
containing the Testimony in itself; life which conquers
death, a life incorruptible and indestructible. Then He
looks right on and sees the end of that as typified in
Enoch; that overcomer company lifted clean out of the
realm of death, where death is raging, and translated that
it should not see death.
We are too familiar with the Old Testament chapter in
which the translation of Enoch is mentioned for us to go
back over it again, but let us just call to mind the fact
that in a chapter of considerable length, which contains
the constant and monotonous reiteration of the death
and burial of a whole succession of men, there is, right
there, that one break that, although the course had been
in case after case, "and he died," there suddenly comes a
rift, "...and he was not; for God took him," and then
the old story goes on again. It is life breaking into the
course of death, conquering it, and not going that way at all. The end will be that.
We sing sometimes, and our hearts always throb and
thrill when we sing: "Oh joy! oh delight! should we
go
without
dying."
That is not
a
vain expectation. That
is
secured in the
Blood of the Lord Jesus for a company which will
realise God's full thought. May we be of that company!
In any case, whether we go through the grave or without
going through the grave, we are called into this
Testimony that death has no power over us. May the
Lord find us in the way of faith, in that matter, because
Enoch attained unto it by faith, and we need faith unto
victory over death. The enemy is always seeking to
bring down our faith in that direction, and to get us to
accept death, not merely physical death, but all kinds of
death, and all forms of death's expression, to accept it.
Faith says the Blood of Jesus Christ has secured victory
over death in all its forms. May we be of the succession
of those who overcame by faith in the Blood.
That is all we intend to say about Enoch
at the moment, but it is a very impressive
thing that the Lord should bring the beginning
and the end, the end and the beginning together here, and show that, because of that
Blood of the Testimony, the ultimate issue
is
this -
rapture!
We return to that which lies between. The two things
which follow, which are really between Abel and Enoch
spiritually speaking, are related respectively
to those things. Noah is
related spiritually to Abel, and Abraham is related
spiritually to Enoch.... Let us see how that is.
Noah - The Testimony in its Ministry to the World
Hebrews 11 verse 7: "By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning
things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; through
which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
righteousness which
is
according to faith."
Noah is the Testimony in the world, the ministry of the
Church. God looked and saw that iniquity was well nigh
universal, that wickedness filled the earth, that every
imagination of man's heart was evil. Where there is no
righteousness there must be condemnation, judgment and
death. But Noah lived in the midst of a state like that, a
state of sin, and death, and
he
lived against that state of
things, he did not
live
with
it.
He
stood as a rock in the
midst of that evil current, that tide of Testimony, as to the nature of the
Testimony, the explanation of it, but you can never carry the Testimony out into
this world by taking out a form of doctrine, by taking out a system of truth. We
can never take the Testimony out by what we say. The battle of the
Testimony is usually fought in the spiritual realm, and that
is why so often, before we begin to say anything, there
has to be a mighty battle, and something has to be settled
in the unseen in relation to the Testimony before the
words are spoken. It is a position which has to be
secured in advance. Life has once again to register itself
triumphantly against the forces of death. The word can
then come through in the power of that life, in the power
of that victory. It is that very conflict which gives to the
word subsequently spoken its power, its life, its
effectiveness. If those of us who have anything to do with
ministry simply climbed on to platforms and never had a
background conflict in relation to those things, they
would be mechanical, there would be nothing in it; but
because there is continuously that background fight, that
gives the very meaning, virtue and power to that which is
said. The word comes out then in virtue of a fresh
registration of life over death.
Much of this is said for those who are familiar with the
phrase "the Testimony." It is said for one reason, to
clarify the nature of the Testimony, and for another to
call us again to see that it is not a mental apprehension of
things said which brings us into the Testimony, but it is a
spiritual position. The thing that we are to seek from the
Lord is not that we might understand all the teaching, but
that we might be brought into the power of His
resurrection. That we may
know that life, and know how to live by that life in the
mighty virtue of His precious Blood, in all that the Lord
Jesus has accomplished by His Cross. We are living on
the opposite side of Calvary from that of Abel and these
other witnesses. Their testimony led on to Calvary, ours
comes out of Calvary. We stand in the positive
realisation of that toward which their faith looked.
We are surely called, equally with them, to be men
and women of faith. It is putting it mildly to say equally.
All this means our positive attitude of faith. It is faith
basically in all that that Blood represents, includes,
signifies, secures, and faith for all that that Blood works
out to. If you believe that the Lord Jesus really has
conquered death, and has given to you the very life by
which He conquered death; if you believe it with all your
heart, then you ought not to be a victim of the dead state
of things all around you. You ought to be in a state of life
triumphant, even though death presses on every side; and
you can be. Your faith will put you in that position
of
ascendency over death.
The Lord is truly seeking to get His company, by
which the full issue of that life shall be displayed to this
universe, be wrought out in this universe, a translation
company. The rapture may take place in the lifetime of
many of us. That is a possibility, at least. Some of us feel
that it is a probability, but if we leave it just as a
possibility surely we should be completely stretched out,
that it should be true of us that the final phase of His
victory is displayed in us in a life which displays the fact
that Satan, who had the power of death, is a truly
conquered foe. May we live unto
that from day to day.
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony"
magazine, Jan-Feb 1935, Vol 13-1