Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Oct 1944

The world is full of enmity. When will the enmities of men be destroyed which have been brought into being in the present war? The enmity of the orphan child will grow with its years as it thinks of the cruel end of its parents and the destruction of its home. Enmities and friendships in this sad world have been continually flowing and ebbing as the tides of the sea Friends are sometimes made because of a common enemy Britain and Russia are now friends because of their common foe. So was it with Herod and Pilate of old If Christ should ascend the throne of Israel as Israel's true King both would love their jobs their position, riches, honour, and even life itself would be forfeited. So it suits them to sink their differences before a greater evil (so they thought) than they have suffered at each other's hands. "And," thus we read, "Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day: for before they were at enmity between themselves" (Luke 23.12). Friends in the rejection of Christ, a short lived friendship!

But it is not so with the reconciliation wrought through the cross. Christ suffered that He might reconcile both Jew and Gentile. The hatred was of long standing, but He put His hand to the work of reconciliation that He " might reconcile them both in one Body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby " (Ephesians 2.16). The work of reconciliation would cost Him His life. It would mean death for Him, and that the death of the cross. Bu it would be worth it ! The cause of the enmity must be removed, the middle wall of partition, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, must be taken away, and Himself the Fulfiller of the law, both in its commands and in its types and shadows must stand, in between, and create of this envying, jealous, warring material on both sides a new man and so making peace. Both were to be members of one Body, with one life flowing through them all, with one Father, one Saviour, one indwelling Spirit, and one glorious hope and home in front. The thoughts of one inside in comfort and the other outside in need, such things are eliminated and banished. Both Jew and Gentile are fellow-citizens.

But what is the cost of all this? Has it come about automatically without trial or suffering? Nay, verily! This reconciliation has come about by the cross. Its pain and woe, its cruelty and abandonment were necessary to the work of reconciliation. what touches the heart like Calvary? Nothing! Before that scene and that Victim mountains of trifles vanish. What seemed to be unscalable peaks are turned into molehills over which we can easily step. Our pride is the cause of our troubles. If the Jew had thought more of the meaning of the middle wall of partition it would have humbled him. If he had rightly considered it he would have seen how meagrely and how very partially he fulfilled what the law required. To him that legal fence was merely to keep the Gentile out and to preserve his own supposedly holy flesh from contamination by the Gentile dogs without. Alas, they failed to hear the solemn sentence which rolls along as with stentorian voice: "Through the law cometh the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3.20). He thought of the Gentile who had no law as a poor ungodly sinner, and himself the highly blessed and the God-approved saint, because God had so honoured his excellent pedigree, as springing from Abraham, by giving to him the law. He forgot what accountability this brought him into, in the fact, that "sin is not imputed where there is no law" (Romans 5.18). Jewish pride made the Jew a hypocrite, and thus he despised the Gentile. The Gentile was able to see, in part at least, that all Jewish self-righteousnesses were as filthy rags. Their garments were threadbare and moth-eaten. The name of God was blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of them (Romans 2.24).

The base of all was changed through the cross for both Jew and Gentile who believed in the crucified One. " He is our peace " is emblazoned over them. Christ is the peace offering, or fellowship offering. In the peace offering Jehovah, the priest, the priestly family, the offerer, and every one that was clean could share a part. The death of the peace offering brought God and men together. So is it in Christ.

Thrice Peter in his first epistle uses the word " incorruptible," which means, that which is not liable to decay, therefore is imperishable.

In chapter 1. 23, he speaks of the seed of the word of God, the gospel by which all believers have been begotten again, as being i14corruptib]e. "Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth." This statement as to the character of the word of God is in sharp contrast to what follows: "For, all flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the flower falleth" (verse 24). Human flesh as we know it now is a weak perishable thing. The song of Isaac Watts, based on the inspired words of Psalm 90., puts the matter in a true light :"Like flowery fields the nations stand

Pleased with the morning light,

The flowers, beneath the mower's hand Lie withering ere 'tis night."

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh," said the Lord to Nicodemus. It is the product of corruptible seed. But the incorruptible word of God begets after its kin4. The new creation in Christ Jesus is imperishable, it cannot be corrupted. "whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed abideth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God" (1 John 3. 9).

This new-born individual ought to be clothed in garments suited to his nature. whose adorning ... let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3.3, 4). whilst this is a special word to wives, yet "in like manner," of verse 7, shows that what is fitting for wives in this respect is fitting for husbands also. what priceless garments are a meek and quiet spirit Here is the warp and weft of the garments of the linen bright and pure, which form the garments of the Bride of the Lamb in Revelation 19.8. This is the opposite of a loud, brawling, self-assertive spirit, so much in evidence in the youth of these days. There is nothing showy in the Bride's attire. It is of the same sort as the high priest's garments when he went into the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement. In his approach to God he had to be clothed in linen garments: the garments for glory and beauty had to be laid aside on that occasion.

As having being born again of incorruptible seed, and as we journey on through life, we trust clothed in such holy attire as that of a meek and quiet spirit, we have before us " an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us" (1 Peter 1.4, A.V. marg.). The inheritances of many in these days of war have gone never to return. War has crossed with its ruthless tread the lands of both civilised and pagan peoples. Houses and lands have been ruined, and inheritances that seemed likely, but a few years ago, to be handed on to heirs and successors in perpetuity have gone, and in some cases, perhaps in many, the heirs have gone also. Such are things heritable in this changing scene, but for the born-again person, he has an incorruptible inheritance awaiting him in heaven. This is a comforting thought

Besides what will be the portion of every believer in Christ, there arc the treasures which they may lay up for themselves, treasures that neither moth nor rust can corrupt, for it is evident there are neither moths nor rust in heaven; nor yet is there that corruptor of social and economic life, so prevalent to-day the thief. May we be more exercised to lay up our treasures in heaven than hitherto!

J. Miller | Oct 1944
Jottings