Scripture contains teaching concerning men or
saints, and also teaching which refers to God and the Lord. Now we
cannot do without teaching about ourselves but where this is based
on Scripture it will
always lead us to
consider God and the Lord. The reason for this is that reminding us
what we are susceptible to because of the old nature will
necessarily involve bringing before us what we should be. It will
lead on those who partake of the divine nature to learn about God
and about His character, and hence what His children should manifest
in their lives. Similarly, we will learn about the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only perfect example set before us, and how we should live
and witness for Him.
Ephesians 4: 32–5: 2 will illustrate my
meaning: “be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one
another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you. Be ye therefore
imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the
Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and
sacrifice to God for a sweet–smelling savour”. Are we told what we
should be? God and Christ are brought before us to remind us of that
which we ought to display in our lives. Is there room for the
glorification of self in such teaching? How could there be with God
and the Lord Jesus Christ kept in view! Could the unfolding of
divine counsels concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and which tell us
what God has done and will do for us, puff as up as the subjects of
such wonderful counsels? How could that be if it were born in mind
that our partaking in the fruit of these counsels flows from the
sovereign mercy of our God? When the apostle was unfolding the
teaching, his heart overflowed in praise to God and in prayer for
the saints. He gave no encouragement to self–exaltation. Scriptural
teaching about ourselves will never puff up, will never make
self–satisfied, will never encourage that sectarian spirit inherent
in every one of us, and will never present itself as the highest or
most advanced kind of teaching. On the contrary, it will continually
turn our view to God and the Lord. Teaching about ourselves which
puffs us up is not the true teaching of God’s Word.
Teaching that subtly exalts the saints to the
level of the Lord Jesus is on those lines. Scripture is very careful
to guard the Lord’s pre–eminence, notwithstanding our unparalleled
blessing as ‘in Christ’. It writes of Christ as set down at God’s
right hand “in the heavenlies, above every principality, and
authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only
in this age, but also in that to come” (Eph. 1: 21). Are
we above every
principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name
named, not only in this age, but also in that to come? No, for while
God “has made [us] sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus” (Eph. 2: 6), only of Christ does it say that He is “the head
of all principality and authority” (Col. 2: 10). Yes, we are
in Him who is above
those things, but Scripture nowhere teaches that
we ourselves are
above them. The doctrine of ‘in Christ’, if kept within its
Scriptural parameters, will exalt Christ and not ourselves. If
thinking about our blessings leads to proud thoughts as to our
position rather than praise to the One who has blessed us (see Eph.
1: 3), then something is badly wrong. It is a sad day when much is
made of man and not God, and when the Assembly is lauded instead of
Christ.
