New Birth and Eternal Life
– J. N. Darby, J. B. Stoney,
F. E. Raven, C. A. Coates and J. Taylor

Many believed in Christ when they saw the miracles which He did, but Jesus did not commit Himself to them … He knew what was in man. (John 2: 23-25.)

• Their conclusion about Him was a just one, but it was a conclusion drawn by what was in man. It was perfectly worthless; it left man in his own nature, and under the motives, influences, and passions to which he was subject before; nor did it take him out of the domain of Satan, who had power over the flesh and the world.

• The conclusion was right; but it was only a conclusion: the man remained what he was – unchanged. Jesus, who knew what flesh was, had – could have – no confidence in it.

But Nicodemus (chapter 3), under God's leading, for our instruction, goes a step farther.

• The others believed it, and left it there. But where the Spirit of God is at work, it always produces wants in the soul, craving and desire after that which is of God and godly; and so the sense of defect in ourselves.

• There is at once, instinctively too, the consciousness that the world will be against us; consciousness too of its opposition and scorn.

• Nicodemus comes by night. There was a want of something better in his soul; but his being a ruler and especially an ecclesiastical ruler, made it more difficult for him to go to Christ. The dignity of one set to teach is not a facility for going to learn.

• However, conscience urges him to go, and he goes; the fear of man makes him afraid, and he goes by night. How poor is that dignity which tends to hinder one learning of Christ!

• Nicodemus, though spiritual craving had led him to Christ, goes on the same ground in his enquiry as those who had no such want at all.

• "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." (verse 2.)

• It was a conclusion drawn from proofs, perfectly lust, but that was all. Still he wanted something from Him who shewed them; but he took for granted that he was, as a Jew, a child of the kingdom, and would have teaching.

• The Lord meets him (for he was sincere and known of Him) at once, by declaring that the whole ground he was on was wrong. He did not teach flesh, nor had He come to do so.

• God was setting up a kingdom of His own. To see this, a man must be born again, completely anew. The kingdom was not yet come visibly, not with observation; it was there among them; but to see it a man must have a wholly new nature.

• Nicodemus, arrested by the language, does not understand how this could be, stops as a human reasoner, though sincere, at the present difficulty, and in truth does not see the kingdom.

But two great truths had been brought out here already.

• First God is not teaching and improving man – as he is. He sets up a kingdom, a sphere of power and blessing of His own; there He acts.

• And secondly, man must have a new nature or life. He must be born again, in order to have to say to God who so works. Flesh cannot even perceive the kingdom.

• Both facts are of supreme importance. A new divine system is set up where the blessing is – a new nature is needed in order to have to say to it.

But the Lord does not leave the enquiring Nicodemus here. He shews definitively the way of entering into the kingdom:

• "a man must be born of water and of the Spirit" (verse 5) – of the word and Spirit of God.

• The word of God – the revelation of God's thoughts – must operate in the power of the Spirit, judging all in man – bringing in God's mind instead of his own (supplanting it by God's), and an absolute new life from God, in which these thoughts have their seat and living reality – a new nature and life.

• It is not that two births are here, but two important aspects and realities in being born again.
  • "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (James 2: 18);

  • "that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" (Ephesians 5: 26);

  • "ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15: 3.)

• It is – not teaching flesh, which has its own thoughts, but – supplanting all its thoughts by God's. We are born of water.

• Next, it is a nature coming from the Spirit
  • "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3: 6.)

• Everything born follows – is of – the nature of that which begets it. So here: the water acts on man as man, his person is not changed; but the Spirit communicates a new life, which is of itself [the Spirit] – just as flesh's nature is flesh – in that which is born of it.

• We have now, not flesh taught; but the thoughts of God, operative in power, and the partaking of the divine nature which is imparted by the Spirit – the mind and nature of God vitally communicated to us. This is my life, as mere flesh was before.

This clearly opens out the blessing to Gentiles.

• "Marvel not" (said the Lord to Nicodemus), "that I said unto thee, Ye [Jews] must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth … so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (Chapter 3: 7-8.)

• The sovereign communication of a new nature (needed by the Jew, as much as by the Gentile, when we come to his nature), as an entirely new thing, a new nature given – in which the man thenceforth lives with God – is as applicable to a Gentile as to a Jew.

• For thus a man, as to his life, is neither [Jew nor Gentile]. "He is born of God." This truth is here not unfolded; only the groundwork is laid down for it. The far deeper truth of the fact of the divine life, and that sovereignly imparted, is what is taught: only the other is directly implied.

This again stops Nicodemus. He does not come forward with "We know;" he must be silent to learn. And now some other truths come out which associate us with heaven.

• But first the Lord shews, what Nicodemus ought to have known, that, as to even earthly promises, the testimony of God was clear, that Israel had to be born again, born of water and of the Spirit. Chapter 36 of Ezekiel is clear as to this:
  • "But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

    And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

    For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

    A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

    And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

    Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel."

• That is, to enjoy the blessings of God's promises in the land Israel must be born of water and of the Spirit – must be cleansed according to God's thoughts and be renewed by the Spirit of God.

• The statement of the Lord is more simple, more full and absolute, because He is laying down the truth in itself, how man can enter into the kingdom, and, therefore, brings out the need of the communication of a wholly new life in terms – with the blessed assurance, that it is a being really born of the Spirit, so as to partake of the nature of Him of whom we are born.
  • "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (verse 5.)

• But Nicodemus, as the teacher of Israel, ought to have known that such a change was needed for Israel, in order to partake of their earthly blessings with God.

But this brings out the difference of the Lord's instructions and their character here from the way in which the prophet had spoken of the matter.

• He had stated it prophetically, as the practical operation of Jehovah's grace; and that was all right and in its place.

• But the Lord had another kind of knowledge. The prophecy had perfect divine authority, because the prophet said what he had been inspired to say.

• But the Lord knew the things themselves, in their very nature. He could tell absolutely what was needful for God, because He was God and came from God. This is indeed divine teaching, teaching of infinite price. We learn from Him, who essentially knew it, what is needful for God.

• It tells us what the Christian is. He has the knowledge of God from God Himself, according to His own nature, and is partaker of that nature – in order to know it, and to be able to enjoy it – without which he does not know it; and this brought down in man to us.

• But as the Lord spake that which He knew, so He testified that which He had seen. He could tell of the heavenly glory and what became it, what was needed to have a part in it. Man did not receive this testimony.

• The human mind understood human things – what was heavenly and spiritual not at all. That which was heavenly and spiritual was darkness and foolishness to it. Those who received this witness were born again. (Chapter 1: 12, 13).

Let our hearts dwell a little on this blessed truth. In Christ we have One fully revealing God Himself. His words told His nature, the nature of God Himself;

• told it to man, so as to reveal what was needed in man in order that he might have to do with God in blessing, but told it directly, fully. His words were a revelation of the divine nature, which He knew.

• We are in the full light, with God Himself. We have – not merely messages, however true, and however blessed it be to have them from God, but what leaves nothing behind – the revelation of God Himself, and in His nature; so that what is perfect in blessedness is revealed, and revealed perfectly.

• Here it is nature first of all, then the fact of what He had seen; but it is the competency of witness specially which is expressed in this verse. But this necessarily leads to the nature of the things.

• No prophet could say
  • "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." (verse 11.)

• God revealed future things to them, or sent messages to the people; and they announced the one and the other.
  • But if Christ announced what He knew, and testified that which He had seen, these were necessarily heavenly things.

• Of course He knew what had been foretold of God; but, in speaking of the nature needed in order to have to say to God, and of that which He knew and had seen, He goes beyond that to that which is above. Thither consequently He leads us.
  • "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." (verse 13.)

• No one had gone up to bring down word of what was there. But He came thence; and He could tell perfectly what was there, and was ever there, for He was God. But this divine knowledge was knowledge for man; for it was the Son of man had it. Heaven and man were connected in the person of Christ.

• If man out of Christ – as all yet were – had not in any sense entered there, still there was One who was in His person the revealer of that which was heavenly.

• But how could man – who could not, even if a teacher of Israel, understand the reality of the new nature (even as needed for the known earthly things), for he thought in the old nature – understand heavenly things?

• But this brought out another truth, the necessary door of what was heavenly; but if so, it is the open door to every one that should believe. Not only was it necessary to be born again, even for earthly blessings, but there were further counsels of God.

The Son of man – for Jesus was more than Messiah – must, in the counsels of God and in the need of man, be lifted up, rejected from this earth. But this lifting up was His rejection by the world.

• Christ could not (for man was a sinner) take His place as Messiah in blessing to Israel. He was to suffer in the character in which He had to say to all men,
  • "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness" (verse 14);

• so, instead of a living Messiah, they were to have a rejected dying Son of man. The cross was healing saving power for man.

• Whoever believed in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life; for God so loved the world – an immense truth then, which opened the way to the fullest display of God and of grace, if one should not rather say it was such.

• It was an efficacious work of God (not to fulfil prophetic promises merely, but) to bring to God,
  • "that whosoever believed in him" (this Son of man) "should have everlasting life."

• It was needed. Atonement must be made – redemption must be accomplished – if sinful man was to have to say to a holy God.

• If there was a revelation of the divine nature, and man's partaking of it was connected with his having to say to God, there must be atonement as well as a new birth.

• The Son of man – He who as man was to have in man's nature the inheritance of all things, and who took up man's cause – must be lifted up, like the serpent in the wilderness, made sin for us, that men may look on Him and live.

This met the need of man, but it was only one side of the truth.

• When men rest here, they see what meets the holy nature and judgment of God, but God stands as a holy Judge; nor does this therefore give full liberty to the soul. It is the propitiatory, the needed side of Christ's death.

• But how did this come about? It was that God so loved the world, that the Son of man who must be lifted up was the Son of God whom He had given in love. God so loved that He gave.

• Thus, though propitiation was needed, love was the source of all; the holiness of God's nature, His righteous judgment, maintained as regards sin; but His love manifested.

• The Son of man was Son of God – both with a view to one wondrous object – that sinful man, whosoever believed in Jesus, should have eternal life. This was the final test of man too.

• We have thus the nature of God revealed; and a twofold work wrought which, while it fits man to enjoy that nature by his being born of it, glorifies it too in all its character: so that the gift of eternal life maintains and displays the love and holiness and righteousness of God. And this is what is essential and blessed.

• But the full peculiar dispensed character of this, as wrought out in grace, is not brought out here: and it is this which I would now endeavour to bring out, the gracious Lord helping me.

If the Son of man was lifted up, died to bring us to God, where and how is life? It is in resurrection.

• This too leads us to another important element of truth. If risen, I am risen from the dead. I have died in Christ. This, we shall see, has a double character.

• I may look at myself as having no spiritual life – hence as dead in trespasses and sins; or I may look at myself as alive in sin and the flesh, and then I speak of having died to it.

• Christ could speak of a new nature needed in order to enter the kingdom; but He could not then call on any one to reckon himself dead. He could connect that nature with God directly – in the statement of what it was, and what He was; and that was peculiarly suited, as is evident, to His person – a divine revealer of what He knew and of man's partaking of the divine nature. This was indeed the excellent part.

• But for our deliverance another truth was to be connected with this – the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We receive Christ as our life: when He has died and risen, He is a life-giving Spirit. Because He lives, we live. He is our life – that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.

• But, for sinners to have part in this righteously, and according to God, Christ must make the propitiation, must die. He died to sin once; and now, alive in resurrection, lives to God. We receive Him through the Spirit in our hearts, and have life.
  • "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5: 11, 12.)

• But He whom we receive is the dead and risen One, our life – the true "I" in which I say of sin, this is no longer I.
  • "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

• In us this is the life of Christ as risen from the dead – the power of life in resurrection. We are alive for faith, only in and by Him, though the flesh be in point of fact there; yet I do not own it as alive and part of myself, but only as an enemy which I have to overcome.
  • Thus in Romans 7: 5 we find, "When we were in the flesh;"

  • and in Romans 8: 9, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."

• Many other passages illustrative of this point will come before us in pursuing our subject.

I have said, that this view of the divine life in resurrection comes before us in two ways in scripture.

• Man may be viewed either as alive in sin; or as dead in sin. His flesh is alive and active as regards evil; it is utterly dead as regards God – not one movement of soul in the natural man towards Him.

• The epistle to the Romans presents the former view; that to the Ephesians the latter. They coalesce in presenting the man as risen with Christ; though the epistle to the Romans barely reaches this ground, but just touches on it.

• Their epistle [Romans] teaches fully Christ's being raised by God the Father, but only just touches on our being alive to God.

• The Ephesians saw, as regards the doctrine of their epistle on this point, Christ as dead, and the sinner dead in sin (chapter 2: 1); and both raised up together. This flows from Christ's being seen exalted on high and the Church united to Him.

• Man is not contemplated doctrinally as wickedly living in sin (although the fact is recognized), but in the full apprehension of his state in relation to God – he is dead in sin.

• And the whole condition of the Church is the result of the same power being exercised in raising Christ Himself and every believer spiritually. (Chapter 1, 2).

In the epistle to the Romans, Christ is seen risen from the dead, but not ascended (save an allusion in one verse of chapter 8),

• because the object is to shew the putting away of the old state, and the introduction in life and justification into the new – not the glorious results, save in hope.

• Man's guilt is largely proved. Christ has died for us; but Christ has risen also, for our justification; we are justified – dead to sin and alive to God – delivered from the law.

The epistle to the Colossians is between the two {Romans and Ephesians] in doctrine. It views man as living in sin, but the Christian as having died and as now quickened with Christ.

• Our new nature there, as born of God, takes, when our condition is fully displayed, the character of our having died and risen again with Christ, and even of our sitting in heavenly places in Him.

But my object now is, our condition in life. Let us recall, that Christ as thus risen is our life.

• The work of atonement must have been accomplished, or no sinner could have been united with Him. He could have given no life according to God to any. The corn of wheat would have abode alone.

• Not that life and the power of life was not in Him, but that the righteousness of God would have been in abeyance.

But that work has been accomplished; and now Christ – not the first Adam – is my life as a believer. But then I say, When I was in the flesh. I am not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

• The first Adam in his sin and responsibility is not my standing before God at all; but the second, who has become my life. I am in Him as my righteousness: He is in me as my life.

• Now I say, I have died to sin; I am crucified with Christ; I am alive to God through Jesus Christ.
  • "In that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves." (Romans 6: 10, 11.)

• This is what Paul insists on in Romans 6.
  • "We were baptized into his death" (verse 3); "planted together in the likeness of his death." (verse 5.) We are dead to sin.

  • "If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." (verse 8.)

• Hence (for, as I said, the apostle only just touches this ground) we are to reckon ourselves alive to God through Him. (verse 11.)
  • So in the epistle to the Galatians, "Christ liveth in me." (Chapter 2: 20.)

  • "The Spirit is life because of righteousness." (Romans 8: 10.)

• But we are not said to be risen with Him.

And remark in the elements even of this doctrine, necessarily from its very nature we are not called to die to sin. No such thought is in scripture.

• We are called upon, as alive in Christ, to mortify every movement of sin; but not to die to it. We are alive in Christ who has died, and we are viewed as dead; and called upon to view ourselves as dead, because Christ who is our life has died.
  • "I am crucified with Christ." (Galatians 2: 20.)

  • "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh." (Chapter 5: 24.)

  • "Reckon yourselves to be dead." (Romans 6: 11.)

  • "Ye have been planted together in the likeness of his death." (verse 5.)

  • "Buried with him unto death." (verse 4.)

  • "Ye are dead." (Colossians 3: 3.)

• Such is the uniform language of scripture. All the sentimental talk about crucifying being a lingering death is the setting aside the plain and imperative sense of these passages.
  • "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Galatians 2: 20).

We have died in Christ: this is the doctrine of scripture.

The Epistles to the Galatians, the Romans, and the Colossians, etc., all alike teach this and press it on Christians.

• I am wholly delivered from the whole system in which I lived as alive in the flesh. So the apostle appeals,
  • "If ye be dead with Christ … why, as though alive [living] in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" (Colossians 2: 20, 21.)

• This is life then (being born of God) as possessed by the Christian, now that Christ has died, and become, as risen, his life.

The Epistle to the Ephesians goes a step farther. It does not, as I have said, view Christ as alive in blessed love and godliness, and man in sin;

• but man dead in sin, and Christ is first seen as dead, which was for and to sin.

• That is, the apostle sees man down in the ditch and grave of death through sin, and Christ has come down into it in grace, where man was by sin. But so He has put away the sin as guilt, and come down to save and redeem out of that condition: God raises up both by the same power.
  • "What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe … which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 1: 19, 20.)

  • Of "His great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." (Chapter 2: 4, 5.)

  • Thus we are God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." (verse 10).

Thus as chapter 3 of John's Gospel taught us the nature of the life which we receive (that as born of the Spirit it is spirit – divine, morally speaking, in its nature),

• so do the epistles shew to us the position in which the possession of this new life places us, inasmuch as it is the life of Christ risen, after being delivered for our offences and having died to sin once.

• And what is the consequent effect as to our relationship to sin and to God?

• The Epistle to the Romans, as indeed that to the Galatians, teaches us that we have died with Christ, and that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, that our old man has been crucified with Him; but that we are alive to God; that it is not we that live, but Christ that lives in us.

• The Epistle to the Colossians teaches us that we have died with Christ, and that we are risen with Him; and further that, when dead in sins and the uncircumcision of our flesh,
  • God has quickened us together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses – brought up from the dead with Christ into newness of life as to ourselves; but, according to the blessed efficacy of His death, entirely forgiven all the sins and state of sin in which we were till thus raised, consequent on the efficacy of His death.

• This last point the Epistle to the Ephesians takes up fully and exclusively, and shews us quickened with Christ and raised out of the death of sin by the same power which raised Christ Himself.
  • It is not merely the divine nature become our life, but death to sin, life to God; raised up, forgiven, and accepted, as in the state in which He is as risen yea, sitting in heavenly places in Him.

• The nature is divine. That is supremely excellent; but, by death and resurrection having come in and our being united to Christ, our whole relative condition is changed;
  • we are not, for God and for faith, accounted as alive in the old man; we are not in it at all, we have put it off. It is (for the reckoning of faith, and that according to the possession of and being alive in a new life) dead and gone.

• We are in Christ, and Christ is our life: alive in Him and alive in what He is alive to – to God. Our standing is not consequently in the first Adam at all. We have died as in the first Adam to all that he is; we are alive in the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, according to all the acceptance in which He now lives before God.

Thus chapter 3 of John's Gospel teaches us the intrinsic excellency of the life we receive of God, and shews it in direct connection with what is divine, Christ speaking what He knew and shewing that we must have a nature from God, and fit for God Himself.

• Christ speaking thus, that which He knew is of the deepest interest – the direct communication of what is divine. This life is there shewn in its nature and origin as contrasted with flesh. Its proper character and excellency is more seen in John.

• The Epistle to the Ephesians however confirms it in result:
  • "That we should be holy and blameless before him in love." (Chapter 1: 4.)

• But in its condition and state, the epistles are more full as to this life. There – inasmuch as Christ died – living in the life of Christ we are [looked at as] dead to sin, the life being a new thing wholly distinct from the old man, and we alive in Christ. We are not in the flesh; we have died and are risen again.

• Being regenerated is being dead and risen again; for we receive Christ as life. It is having left Adam, his nature and fruits, condemnation, death, and judgment behind; and being, as delivered from all these things, in necessary and righteous acceptance, according to Christ's acceptance before God.

• The natures are distinct. I am not in the flesh; I have died; I am risen again; I am accepted in Christ risen; I am partaker of the divine nature and to enjoy its fulness in God.

Hence there are three witnesses to prove to you that you have eternal life, "the Spirit, the water, and the blood".

1. The Spirit dwelling in you;
2. the water – Christ's death where you are cleared away, or purification through His death;
3. the blood – expiation by death.

You must eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, not merely believe that He died for you, but feed on His death, and thus you are freed from the death on you – the wages of sin, and you receive of His life.

• He was raised from the dead before He breathed on His disciples. Eternal life is – as Mr. Darby says – 'outside the senses', an 'out-of-the-world condition of things'.

• It is given to every believer, but no one enjoys it but as Christ liveth in him.

• The pious in Christendom regard eternal life as the assurance that your immortal soul will be happy in heaven. The Puritans and Calvinists consider it to be final perseverance.

• Many who are supposed to be well-taught Christians build their happiness on God's promise of a perpetuity of life!

• In no case is the idea of Christ being our life apprehended; and the acceptance of eternal life as it is revealed involves an entirely new order of being and relationship.

• It is the unwillingness to accept the new and heavenly order, which is at the bottom of the opposition.

As to the contention about eternal life, the mistake is that the work is overlooked for the gift.

• It is very plain that Christ did not give eternal life until after the work was accomplished.

• It is as risen from the dead – the last Adam, see John 17: 2 – that He gives eternal life.

• What 'feeble souls' want to accept is the work of Christ.

• The gift of eternal life was never used, that I know of, to establish souls.
  • "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace", Hebrews 13: 9.

  • "He which stablisheth us with you … is God", 2 Corinthians 1: 21.

• The more I hear, the more I am assured that 'feeble souls' are damaged by presenting to them the gift – the actual testimony to the last Adam, instead of the work of Christ by which He obtained the position.

The idea is that if a question be raised as to whether any one is enjoying the result of the work, that you are thereby invalidating the work.

• Evidently if the work be truly known the result is known. John's great desire was that the saints might have conscious knowledge of eternal life. Did he thereby invalidate or depreciate the work?

• If I tell a man – when there is good light you will see a certain object, am I calling in question that he has eyes, or am I calling his attention to the result of his having eyes?

• I am convinced that those who reason this way are not clear as to having died with Christ,
  • "for if we be dead with him, we believe that we shall also live with him", 2 Timothy 2: 11.

  • "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you", John 6: 53.

• I see that I must in ministry dwell more on the work – the death and resurrection of Christ – for that is what souls want to be established in.

Every one who is consciously in His life knows and enjoys Him in glory. Some say that the 'babe can delight in eternal life' before he has learnt the setting aside of the old man.

• This is really ——'s doctrine. He says eternal life can be given before man is set aside in the cross,
  • and here the doctrine is that eternal life can be delighted in before the setting aside of the first man is learnt. I say that is impossible.

• The whole point of John 3 is that life is connected with faith in the Son of man lifted up.

• What is the value of the second witness, "the water" (see 1 John 5) if the eternal life could be delighted in while purification by the death of Christ is unknown?

• If the setting aside of the first man has not been learnt, the sense of sin presses on me, and if it does, how can I delight in eternal life?

• There is a great difference in delighting in the service of the Saviour in putting away my sins, and in being in the sense of His life outside the scene of sin and death.

• The divine order is, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ", Romans 6: 11.

• The abolishing of death precedes the bringing to light life and incorruptibility by the gospel.

• This teaching accounts for and fosters all the earthly ways tolerated now-a-days, for in it you gain everything through Christ, and you part with nothing.

• Be assured that it is the other way. You must part with your own clothes before you take up the mantle of Elijah.

• Christ in glory is my life. How could I know a glorified Christ, the only Christ to be known now, the Christ whom "the fathers" know,
  • but as I am, through the Spirit, apart from and outside of all of that man who dishonoured God, and is at a distance from Him.

• You cannot eat the old corn of the land without crossing the Jordan.

There is much to cheer, though I have been sad at heart to think of the condition of soul which could be so influenced

• … If I am not very much mistaken, there underlies the teaching fundamental error.

• What does the 'Personality of eternal life' mean?

• What does it mean that our Lord 'gave up eternal life when He died'?

• Is conversion by my acceptance of grace, as Moody taught, or by the sovereign, absolute work of God which opens my eyes?

• To live as Christ lived as seen of men, is all that is accepted,
  • without apprehending that all the time He, in unbroken communion with the Father, was living in a life which could not be seen of men.

• So with us. If Christ liveth in me in the detail of my life down here, He is also at the very time my life in the presence of the Father, and the moment I realise that I belong to the divine circle I am enjoying Christ's life.

• I want Him at every step here, and He does not merely give me grace for my need down here, but as He is ever higher than the heavens He leads me to the height where He is, if there be no reserve between me and Him.

• If there is reserve, I have not "part" with Him consciously, though I may be sensibly helped, as in the Psalms, where it is not the heavenly man, but the earthly man helped down here.

A dear simple soul said to me, I prefer to share in Christ's life than to have a life given to myself.

• As Christ is my life, and as I am of Christ I can never lose it. Nothing of Christ could perish.

• It distresses me to hear discussions about so great a thing as eternal life before there has been a waiting on the Lord to apprehend the nature of the gift.

• People turn to some or other writings to learn what it is instead of just learning what it is on one's knees and through the light of the word …

• Eternal life is not a person, but the power to enjoy what a person is. This is simple. We enjoy it in Christ, and by His Spirit.

• It is very cheering to be here, they are so clear and steadfast. The Lord lead you here some time – about a hundred brothers in the meeting.

I return the copy of your letter. I like it very much.

• I have seen for some time that there was a tendency with brethren to make every movement of our Lord's here an expression of eternal life.

• It is a refuge to the conscience of those who do not enjoy it in its own sphere to reduce it to the details of man's life.

• But eternal life is outside the senses – an out-of-the-world condition.

Surely in everything, as you rightly say, we learn and derive from our Lord to act here in the smallest details in a way and in a spirit quite new and unknown to man.

• The manna is the beautiful divine touch in everything – even the commonest; but it is a device of the enemy to induce me to relieve my conscience of ignorance of my birthright (communion with the Father)
  • by substituting for it that which cannot be known but outside this scene altogether, and which is not merely my behaviour and manner of life among men.

• This device must be resisted, and I am glad to say that some are delivered from it.

I remark that those who are seeking to advance in the world are petulant and irritated when truth is presented which they evidently are not enjoying, and

• in their desire for spiritual reputation they cannot afford to admit that they are not enjoying it.

• I do not believe that any one advancing in this world and not surrendering it can be seeking the things above.

I am not surprised that you should be depressed by the contention which prevails amongst us.

• I find that the only true way is to be assured first from the Word what eternal life is, and

• when you are assured divinely of what it is and what it confers, then you will be proof against all perversions and misrepresentations.

It is said that a clerk in a bank first learns what a good banknote is, that he is kept in a room where the bank-notes are until he knows a good one, and then when any note which is not good is presented to him he knows it to be bad.

I do not believe that any one apprehending the greatness and blessedness of eternal life could fail to see where the truth lies at the present time.

• Some do not see any unsoundness in the teaching itself who do not enter into the positive side, that is, the greatness and joy of it.
  • These latter, though they do not actually oppose, do not help.

• The one seeking to have a conscious knowledge of having it – which is the object of John's first epistle, as he says, "These things have I written unto you … that ye may know that ye have eternal life", 1 John 5: 13 – is sure to be a help.

• The very fact that eternal life is outside of my senses – "To God I am beside myself" – is enough to show me that it must be opposed or evaded because it is, as Mr. Darby says, 'an out-of-the-world condition of things'.

• Every one who has a heart like Peter – Matthew 14 – would leave the ship – what suits man – to join the Lord in His own life outside and apart from all that refused Him here.

• Christians, as a rule, do not seek it. Paul says to Timothy, "Lay hold on eternal life", though it was his all the time.

• Grace has given me much more than I yet enjoy or have appropriated. The Lord grant that you may appropriate and enjoy it.

and afterwards declare it by the Spirit – but I regard it of all importance to maintain, clear and distinct from any purpose of blessing for man, the true Deity, the eternal Sonship of the Word.

Doctrine: The Sonship of Christ. FER's letter of Dec. 29, 1894, quoted there, shows that he did not apply "Eternal Sonship" to "eternal relations" but to "distinct personality".             GAR

Eternal life is given to us of God, and is in God's Son – for us it is the heavenly relationship and blessedness in which,

• in the Son, man is now placed and lives before the Father, the death of Christ having come in as the end before God of man's state in the flesh.

This is not intended as a definition of eternal life but an endeavour to convey the thought that eternal life means for a christian a wholly new order of things, which is in its nature outside the world and seen things – it belongs to another scene.

"He that has the Son has life"; the testimony he has received concerning the Son is, by the Spirit, the power of life in the believer, he having been born of God to receive it.

It might be added here that it is by the Son that the believer lives, he is in Him that is true, that is, in His Son Jesus Christ, who is the true God and eternal life.

He has also eaten the flesh of the Son of man, and drunk His blood. But at the same time, the believer still has part in seen things here – which the Son has not –

Though in the days of His flesh He had.

and all that is seen is temporal, and will come to an end. It has no part in eternal life though it may be greatly influenced by it.

As to eternal life being a technical term, it simply referred to the fact of its having been a term in common use among the Jews without any very definite meaning.

• They frequently came to the Lord with questions as to it, and thought they had it in the Scriptures.

As to our relationship with God, whether of child or son, it is of gift, conveyed through the gospel.

• We are sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. Christ came to redeem that we might receive sonship. It is the full fruit and effect of redemption.

• Hence, it is in resurrection Jesus says to His disciples, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".

• The full consequences of redemption belong now to every one who has faith in the Person and work of Christ;

• none the less, the real entering of the soul on heavenly blessing, of which relationship is the highest part, is in the putting on of Christ, and demands
  • "the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which has been shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour".

• It is the Spirit of God's Son sent forth into our hearts that cries, Abba, Father.

New Birth

I may add a few words in regard to new birth. It is an absolute necessity for man, if he has to do with God in blessing.

• It lies at the beginning of all – without it a man cannot see, much less receive any saving testimony.

• It is the sovereign act of the Spirit of God.

• Peter and John both recognise that those who were really in the faith of Christ were
  • born again of the word of God, or born of God – a seed of God has been implanted in them from the outset.

• None the less, new birth of itself does not conduct into heavenly relationship or blessing.

On the other hand, the Son of God, who is the life of every believer, is the source of all life for men.

For this, something more was needed, namely, redemption, which in its full power, sets man in Christ in glory,

• and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which fits man for the new order of things.

• Of course, these are now, through grace, the portion of the believer.

Difficulties have arisen in the minds of some whom I esteem as to certain expressions in the American notes on the subject of eternal life,

• but I think that the root of them lies in not apprehending how the Scriptures on the subject present themselves to my mind.

• I may be right or I may be wrong, but anyway, it is not at all a question of any thoughts of my own but of the way in which Scripture is apprehended,
  • and I think that those that find difficulty might try to look at things as they present themselves to me before refusing them.

• I do not in the matter in any way make light of the work of God in the believer, but on the contrary insist on it as that by which alone eternal life can be entered into,
  • but the point with me is that what is wrought in the believer is not spoken of as eternal life, but is the preparation or the means by which he enters into it.

• A man is born again, is enlightened by the gospel and is then sealed by the Spirit, and it is then that by the Spirit he enters into eternal life.

• This is in accord with Scripture, which teaches that the living water that Christ's gives is in the believer a well water springing up unto everlasting life;
  • that he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life eternal;

  • and again, that being made free from sin and having become servants to God, we have our fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life.

• These passages show conclusively that the work of God in us is not spoken of as eternal life, but has leading to or ending in it. It is a great point to apprehend this.

Then comes another point, that is, as to the part faith has in it. The passage, "He that believeth hath everlasting life", is quoted, and so it is said that eternal life is had by faith.

• It is certain that no one has it without faith, for a man must have been enlightened by the gospel in order to have the Spirit,
  • but the teaching of Scripture is not that a man gets it by faith, but that the believer is the person who has it …

• A believer has eternal life because he is a believer, that is his title or qualification, but the immediate cause of his having eternal life is that he has the Spirit.

• It is that in him which springs up into it. He has eternal life as being a believer, so that I say the believer has eternal life … but, then,
  • he needs the Spirit to enter into it … so having the Spirit is not the title to the believer, but faith which apprehends Christ in whom eternal life is.

This leads me to another point as to faith, namely that one is not called upon to believe anything as to oneself,

• but faith apprehends what is true in Christ.

• I am not called upon to believe that I have eternal life, but that eternal life is in Christ for man – that He is it.

• Scripture is explicit that eternal life is in Christ – it is God's gift in Christ,
  • and when faith is there, the seal of the Spirit is given so that we may appropriate what is there in Christ for man.

• It is ever there, and Christ is no poorer by our appropriation.

This is a very important principle. I do not want to believe anything about myself in particular, but what is in Christ for all men and, therefore, for me, and this faith is sealed by the Spirit and

• then begins the principle of appropriation, and this goes on as we advance in the knowledge of God, and so that all that God gives is morally in accord with Himself.

• Redemption is according and suitable to His grace.

• Salvation is according to His mercy and

• eternal life is according to His love,

• and as we apprehend these principles in God, we are enabled to reach our own blessings.

It is certain that eternal life is constantly spoken of in Scripture as something to be entered into;

• the question therefore arises as to what it is that is to be entered into.

• The power or qualification to enter into it I have already spoken of. This is the springing up of the well of water in the believer.

• What is "entered into" is said to be eternal life. It must be something external to the believer or he could not be said to enter into it. He enters into it in soul.

• I might illustrate it in this way. When a child is born it enters into the elements of life which it finds existing, such as rule, atmosphere and light;
  • and these things are life to the newly-born infant, without them it could not live.

• Had there not been sin man would doubtless have lived in them forever, but the fall brought into the state of man the principle of non-continuance.

• Thus what is life to the infant, and, without which, even Adam could not have lived, is apprehended by us as objective.

Now, in spiritual things the same principle is true – the believer is born of God and in this way is qualified to enter into the appointed conditions.

• Just as the newly-born infant has a body subject to natural laws, lungs that can take in the air, eyes that can enjoy the light,
  • so the believer, being born of God, is capable of entering into the conditions of life which God has appointed.

• These are, as in natural things, rule, atmosphere and light.
  1. Rule is found in abiding in Christ, so that the believer is delivered from lawlessness; he does not sin because he is under the law or influence of Christ.

  2. Atmosphere is found in the Christian circle, where the love of Christ pervades all, and in that the believer is delivered from a world of hatred and death. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren".

  3. Light is found in the perfect setting forth of God's disposition towards us in Christ, made good in us by the Spirit; Christ is the proof of what the love of God towards us is.

• We have thus seen what are the elements of life, and it is in them that eternal life consists, and they are there for us to enter into by the Spirit,

• and in entering into them we are conscious that we have eternal life, as we are told by the apostle John.

There is another point as to which objection has been raised, namely, the application of the thought of eternal life to earth.

• I certainly am unable to find any Scripture that connects it with heaven.

• It may be said that Christ is it, but this is in its application towards earth,
  • and the principles of which I have spoken as making up eternal life properly apply to earth, such as rule, or kingdom, the bearing of which is towards earth.

• If Scripture anywhere speaks of eternal life in connection with heaven, I shall certainly receive it, but wherever it is spoken of, it appears connected with God's ways on earth.

• In Matthew, Mark and Luke it is connected with the coming age and John gives it a present application. I therefore prefer to take it up in that light.

• It has been said that I limit it, but this is not my thought, but to put the thing in its proper connection,
  • and I cannot attempt to restrict the power of God to bring in other and, in a sense, better things, in heaven or in the eternal state.

• He says, "I make all things new". I cannot pretend to say what He makes, but I have no doubt there is an ascending scale of blessing.

• I trust that it will be seen from the foregoing remarks that I have no design to depart from Scripture, but rather to gather from it what is the true idea of eternal life.

* Notes of Gloucester were apparently not published.  GAR

You will have noticed how the subject developed in his mind, between the two volumes of American readings.

• In the first he connected eternal life with sonship; in the second he connected it with children.

I think his contention that eternal life comes in in contrast to all that obtains here in a scene of sin and death and death,

• and that it is connected with earth is most important and indeed essential to the right apprehension of the truth.

All this gives the truth as to eternal life such an intensely practical bearing, that one can hardly wonder that there should be found some degree of reluctance to come face to face with it.

Dear brother in the Lord,
I am interested in your enquiries, and should be glad to render any help that I can upon the subject of your exercises though I am at present a restricted in ability for writing at length.

"Eternal life" is a distinctive blessing, spoken of in the Old Testament in Psalm 133: 3 and Daniel 12: 2.

• It is seen in Psalm 133 to be commanded where brethren dwell together in unity as under priestly anointing, and under the divine refreshing of the dew of Hermon.

• In Daniel 12 it is connected with awaking out of the dust of the earth, clearly a resurrection figure.

• Both these scriptures give a very exalted view all life eternal. The Jews rightly gathered from them that
  • life eternal described the blessedness which those favoured of God would inherit in the world to come – Mark 10: 17; Luke 10: 25, etc.

The Lord makes plain, by the words to which you refer in John's gospel, that this great and wondrous blessing is avail-able now, and is the portion of those who believe on Him.

• Eternal life is the divinely given portion of every believer just as Canaan was the allotted portion of Israel by God's gift before they left Egypt,
  • but to possess and enjoy it experimentally they had to take the journey and put their foot on the land which was given.

• So that the Lord's words are not to be taken merely as words of assurance that we possess something of which we know nothing, but they are intended to move our hearts to go up and possess the land.

• Eternal life is truly given to us in the Son of God, but as something to be known experimentally now.

• To have it consciously we must be characterised by eating the flesh of the Son of man and drinking His blood – John 6: 54 –
  • and we must have the Spirit as the Fountain of living water in us springing up into eternal life; John 4: 14.

• And there must also be a sowing to the Spirit, for Paul says, "He that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap the eternal life", Galatians 6: 8.

Mr. Raven sought to encourage the saints to go in for the enjoyment of their portion, and not to be content with title without possession.

• This is highly important, for otherwise we may be saying that we have eternal life when we are perhaps practically living after the flesh and in the world.

Take some other precious statement of the Lord.

• "He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water", John 7: 38.

• "He that believes on me shall never thirst at any time", John 6: 35.

• These statements, and many others which might be quoted from John's gospel, show the immense possibilities that are opened up to men in the love of God, all to be possessed on the principle of believing on His Son.

• They are there as precious divine proposals, but what they mean is unknown until they become conscious realities by the Spirit.

• It is possible to find carnal and worldly persons saying that they have eternal life, but such persons do not really know what eternal life means.

F.L. Life communicated from God is in its nature eternal in duration, but life itself is not what scripture calls eternal life – scripture must define its own meaning; the dictionary does not help us there.

R.S.S. That is, a certain character of life is implied by the word "eternal".

J.T. And it is definitely called blessing:

• "There the Lord commandeth the blessing, even life for evermore", Psalm 133: 3.

• If you follow scripture the thought of blessing carries you back to Abraham, to whom God said
  • "In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed", Genesis 18: 18.

• It is in Isaac – Christ risen – that the blessing is secured. Christ as having died and risen brings the order of things to pass here in which the blessing is realised.

• So Psalm 133 comes in after the two sticks in Ezekiel have been put together; then comes the crown of it all – life for evermore.

J.P. In Psalm 21: 4 there is mention of eternal life; "length of days for ever and ever", but that is in connection with Christ personally. Psalm 133 is the first time it is mentioned in connection with others.

J.T. It is the first time it comes in as a definite thought.

F.L. I take it that the well-instructed Jews looked for eternal life as something that had been promised – for example, the young man said,

• "What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?", Mark 10: 17;

• and the Lord said to the Pharisees,
  • "Ye search the scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have life eternal", John 5: 39.

• They looked for it with definite expectation.

J.T. I am sure of it, but they never could have had the right thought of what it was –

• that the Lord would take up a company, form them with flesh and sinews upon them, make them stand on their feet, put them together,

• and breathe life into them, and so make them a sphere where eternal life should be realised.

• The knowledge of the Father and the Son is in this sphere.

S.F. There is a distinction between the breathing on the disciples in John 20 and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost: on the day of Pentecost unity is promised.

J.T. Yes, and in a sense the blessing was commanded which was foreshadowed in Ezekil 37. Ezekiel refers to an eternal scene.

• Israel will be taken up and set in their own land and the blessing commanded, but the blessing will not be for themselves only;
  • they will have the good of it, but the blessing will be there for others also.

• This will be literally true in Israel in the future.

W.L.P. What is the force of

• "There the Lord commanded", Psalm 133: 3?

J.T. The blessing is from God, "commanded" by Him, but I do not think it is understood what conditions are required before the blessing can he commanded.

• It has ever been in God's purpose and it was brought to light by Christ, but it depends on certain conditions.

• This in no way conflicts with the truth that Christ is eternal life, for He established the conditions, and apart from Him it does not exist.

• Scripture teaches that eternal life here on earth depends on certain conditions, and no such conditions are found in man after the flesh; divine power brings them in, and then God commands the blessing.

W.H.F. Eternal life now implies a sphere for us?

J.T. Yes. If we could get a company of people such as Acts 2 presents, we should have the conditions in which eternal life, as it is to be known at the present time, is realised.

W.H.F. And enjoying it you are in the sphere where divine Persons are known.

• "That they might know thee the only true God", John 17: 3.

• Christ as the last Adam – a life-giving Spirit – has not been properly laid hold of; and I feel it would be helpful to get an apprehension of Him in this light at the present time.

J.T. In the future God will bring the tribes of Israel into life; He will make them live, and put them together to form the conditions under which the blessing is commanded.

Ques. Would you say that in the day when eternal life is displayed one condition is that death is removed?

J.T. Death is removed because they are seen as taken out of their graves.

• "He will swallow up death in victory", Isaiah 25: 8.

Ques. Where is eternal life realised today?

J.T. Christ is eternal life, but the realisation of it, as we have been saying, is, in scripture, made to depend on certain conditions.

• The conditions are found among those who are made to live by the quickening power of Christ.

• It is most interesting to revert to the dealings of God with Israel prior to this.

• In the Songs of Degrees you trace the effect of the light of God on the remnant, step by step, until a place is reached where the ark can rest.

• The work of God is not effectual in them till Christ finally obtains a place in their affections.

• In Revelation 7 they are marked off by God and sealed, but later they are not only sealed, but they are with the Lamb on Mount Zion. He now has a place in their affections.

Ques. Then you must first see God's conditions before you can get to the other side?

J.T. Yes; Christ has authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father gives Him.

• The Gentiles get the blessing from Christ, and enjoy it in Him. They come into the benefit of Israel's exercises and sorrows, but they do not go through the same themselves.

• The blessing is not commanded in connection with the Gentiles, but with Israel – on Mount Zion.

• What the Gentiles enter into shall be already there in Israel. God forms Israel in a special way, evidently, because the blessing which He has designed for the nations is to be realised in connection with them.

R.S.S. The Lord Himself passed through their sorrows when here.

J.T. Yes, and the disciples also, in a measure. They were with the Lord in Gethsemane.

• So we see in them what is analogous to the suffering remnant of Israel in the future.

• The blessing in its present form was seen in them at the beginning.

• Eternal life was obtained through faith in Christ, but the realisation of it involved that the believer entered into a sphere where the conditions of life obtained.

• He passed out of death, the world of hatred, into life, the world of love. The proof of this to himself was that he loved the brethren. 1 John 3: 14.

Another thing that is of immense importance in connection with the scripture before us is the subject of dwelling. This is consequent upon unity.

• In Ezekiel 37 unity follows upon life, and then dwelling. God says,
  • "my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore", Ezekiel 37: 26.

• This accords with Psalm 132.

J.P. The expression in Psalm 132: 13-14 is very beautiful:

• "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever here I will dwell; for I have desired it".

J.T. In the Old Testament it is not so easy to see the connection with the assembly, but it has to be admitted that,

• although the assembly has more in the way of privilege than Zion shall have, yet the former possesses all that is distinctive of the latter.

• There is nothing plainer in the New Testament than that the assembly is the dwelling-place of God,
  • and hence all the blessing that flows from this is realised in it.

Rem. So that really eternal life is to live in the love of God.

J.T. Psalm 133 shews what shall mark the tribes of Israel in the future – that is, they shall dwell together in unity.

• It speaks not only of the unity, but of the goodness and pleasantness of it.

• Note that it speaks not alone of brethren being united, but of their dwelling in unity. It speaks of what this is like.
  • "It is like very great and precious things. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments", Psalm 132: 2.

• That is, it is like Christ Jesus in heaven giving the Spirit to His people here on earth.

• This wonderful likeness may be seen in a few brethren, as well as in a great number.

Ques. Is the ointment in connection with the testimony?

J.T. Yes, it is seen externally, the dwelling together in unity is good and pleasant to look on.

• It is of the Spirit, because it is like the Spirit in its largest aspect, coming from the true Aaron in heaven;
  • the dwelling together in unity is like that; no matter how small it is, it is like the precious ointment.

• Ointment is to make one shine: it is not taken internally. Living water is taken internally, and breath is infused within, but the ointment is on the head.

• There was no need to raise the question as to the doctrine of the Spirit in Acts, because their faces shone. The testimony to His presence was undeniable.

J.P. Nor the question of salvation, because the ointment was seen on the skirts of the garment.

J.T. They were clothed with that.

• "I will clothe her priests with salvation", Psalm 132: 16.

• The need for the doctrines at the beginning was not so apparent; in the later epistles they were put into form in view of the waning of life among the saints,
  • but at the beginning people wore salvation as clothes, and the Spirit was externally manifested.

• All comes out in Acts; all things foreshadowed as to Israel in the future found their answer in the saints at the beginning.

R.S.S. What about the dew of Hermon?

J.T. It suggests something very great; the beneficent influence of Christ. Falling on the mountains of Zion, it would point to the Spirit in another way.

F.L. That is the source of fruitfulness.

J.T. Exactly; so that there is not only the shining, but also what is for God.

W.H.F. There is no responsibility connected with the conditions of life.

J.T. No; God brings them to pass that blessing might be available. He had promised the blessing to Abraham, now He is making it good.

• It might be said that the blessing of Abraham has arrived at the nations in Christ Jesus, and it has; it cannot be dissociated from Him;
  • but that is not incompatible with the teaching of this psalm, that the existence of eternal life is connected with certain conditions.

F.L. Eternal life is in contrast with life in the garden of Eden. That was a sphere of life, but it could be interfered with, and it ended:

• eternal life is established in Christ risen, and is wholly apart from life here, the question of death having nothing to say to it;

• and it is God's answer as showing the beauty and energy of life in the very sphere where transgression and death have been.

• It is essentially blessing, and it cannot be touched by death.

J.T. Yes. It is a wonderful thing to see Israel, so grasping after things as they are now, thus converted, and formed of God that they become a channel of blessing to the nations.

F.L. Eternal life has been narrowed down by many to an unending existence of happiness in heaven,

• but going to heaven is not in view here.

• Another genuine difficulty is that this view of eternal life does not seem to be sufficiently connected with the Person of Christ. Scripture says,
  • "He is the true God, and eternal life", 1 John 5: 20.

• There is a fear lest the thought of eternal life be divorced from the Person of Christ.

J.T. Yes. I think the difficulties which exist are largely attributable to the fact that the conditions we have been speaking of are not manifest at the present time.

F.L. It involves serious exercises as to whether each one is up to it.

J.T. My own exercise has been not only that souls do not seem desirous of entering into eternal life, but that the conditions necessary to it are not apparent.

• If we were more acquainted with the conditions which existed at the outset, we should not have so much difficulty.

F.L. We see the assembly at its best in Acts, and there we get light as to what will be by-and-by.

• If we can see what eternal life will be in the world to come, perhaps we can work back to what it should be today.

J.T. It is seen as it will be in this psalm: first, you must have brethren.

• These are brought into being by Christ – that is, He has breathed into them.

• The Spirit being here we may presume there are those among us who live; there are brethren;
  • if so it should be a matter of profound exercise to each one as to whether we are dwelling together in unity.

• The conditions of life are found where such unity is. If you are part of that you do not miss the blessing yourself, but you help to form a sphere to bring blessing to others.
  • "Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all", Ephesians 4: 3-6.

• That is God's thought for us.

F.L. And it is never dissociated from divine Persons.

J.T. They dwell there. The sphere has to be taken account of by itself, but the very conditions we have mentioned involve the presence of God.

• "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him", 1 John 4: 16.

• The blessing is consequent on the presence of divine Persons.

F.L. It is characteristic of eternal life that God gives it.

J.T. It is a wonderful thing that God should take us up, as He will take the Jews – greedy and grasping people though they are in the world today –

• and form them into a people who love one another:

• He does that with us too, who were hateful and hating. He makes us love one another.

J.P. In brethren dwelling together in unity the conditions are found, whether the numbers be small or large.

J.T. Each one should see to it that we are dwelling together in unity.

R.S.S. How would you explain

• "Lay hold of eternal life", 1 Timothy 6: 12?

J.T. It is inward energy exercised to enjoy as a present possession what you see to be yours by God's gift. The passage adds,

• "to which thou hast been called", 1 Timothy 6: 12.

F.L. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap", and "he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting", Galatians 6: 7-8.

• It is clear that the thing is available and the way of it is to keep the flesh under, and to give place to the Spirit.

J.P. It is rather remarkable that the trouble, as to eternal life, in 1890 began in 1888 at Witney,

• when J.B.S. and F.E.R. took up the question of the conditions; that was the whole point.

Ques. Has eternal life to do only with the earth?

J.T. It would so appear. God would introduce it where death has been.

• "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die", Genesis 2: 17,

• was the word to Adam, and he ate and died. It is a question of God reaching His end where apparently He has been defeated. He revives man and revives Israel.

F.L. He vindicates Himself and brings in life where death has been; that is not heaven.

J.P. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life", Romans 6: 23.

• That is the scripture that helped me.

Ques. While it is on earth, yet it has a heavenly character, I suppose?

J.T. It is life in a Man out of death, but that Man is out of heaven. All that attaches to that Man is distinctly heavenly – all is tinged with "blue".

F.L. J.N.D. spoke of that "out-of-the-world heavenly condition of relationship and being in which eternal life consists".

J.T. We are already made to live, but we have also a heavenly portion which has nothing to do with God's testimony as regards the earth.

• Here there had been apparent defeat through sin and death, but God has formed a righteous way of setting up man in life on earth. This is God's victory.

• In sovereignty God has made Israel the centre of His counsels in Christ in regard to the earth, and so eternal life is seen in connection with them, but it is for all nations.

F.L. I should say that wherever there is the manifest testimony of the Holy Spirit in anointing and in fruitfulness to God, there is the evidence of eternal life.

J.T. Quite so; God is maintaining now in the assembly what He intends to bring out finally in Israel on earth.