(ch. 2:13-15.)

(Continued from p. 164.)

What we have learned is that God has quickened us with the life of Christ. This stands related to the truth of His death and resurrection. There can be nothing standing against those so blessed. In the death of Christ all our offences have been dealt with in judgment. The believer is quickened together with Christ. This places him as to his position and character of life beyond death and judgment. God sees him as standing with Christ, "raised with Him."

Now we are assured that all our offences are forgiven. This is the first of four statements given here which set forth certain results of the Cross. The word for offences (paraptoma) signifies, "falling where one should have stood upright" (Trench). The use of this word appears particularly appropriate since the next statement refers to "the handwriting in ordinances," by which is meant that obligation to fulfil these ordinances stood against us, as though responsibility to accomplish them was assumed by signature, the handwriting. Under this obligation we had not stood, but had fallen, not fulfilling the contract in any particular. We were guilty of many offences.

Though once fallen and spiritually dead in offences, the believer now lives and stands upright as put upon resurrection ground, identified with Christ, having all the offences forgiven. God then "has quickened… .having," etc. The impartation of life, according to the power and blessing of resurrection, both asserts and verifies that all offences are forgiven. He who was delivered for them
was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25). He was raised as having met all the judgment required, so that no offence remained uncancelled. Therefore those guilty of them may know that they are justified. They are cleared perfectly from the possibility of any charge. This carries with it the blessedness of forgiveness. Being justified from all things, there is nothing to lay as a charge against the believer. He is blessed as one to whom the Lord will in no wise impute, or reckon, sin. But our offences were against God, they manifested our utter failure to meet His requirements as responsible creatures. They are as injury done to Him, but we are assured of the forgiveness of all. Forgiveness shows the disposition toward us of the One offended by us. Justification is our standing according to the reckoning of the One whose right it is to lay offences to our charge, bringing condemnation upon us because of them. Since it is God who justifies, who is he that condemns?

In the second place, God "has quickened… .having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us." The word rendered effaced means to blot out, to wipe out, or, away (compare Acts 3:19; Rev. 3:5; 7:17; 21:4). The obligation signified by the handwriting is annulled, entirely set aside. It is not now applicable to us in any way. It involved responsibility, which not being fulfilled, we were chargeable with offences, for we had fallen when we should have stood upright. The law is the supreme expression of creature obligation, and conclusive witness to complete creature failure. True, the law was given specifically to Israel, and the Jew stood obligated to accomplish all that was written. But this had world-wide significance. It had application to the Gentile as well, not that he was dispensationally under law as was the Jew, but the law set forth perfectly God's requirements by fulfilment of which alone the creature could stand before Him. This was applied to the Jew in particular as a test, the result of which would apply to all. Israel's specific obligation was really representative in character, and stood as the handwriting which declared the obligation of all. For "whatever the things the law says, it speaks to those under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God" (Rom. 3:19). Thus the state of all as dead in offences was made evident.

This legal obligation, the force of which was expressed in ordinances, stood out against us. Its removal was necessary. It must be effaced. It had its application to us as living in the flesh. But our being in the flesh has come to an end in the death of Christ. This we have seen to be the meaning of our circumcision. We are also told that this handwriting in ordinances was contrary to us. For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be (Rom. 8:7). Naturally we found pleasure in disobedience. The law required perfect obedience. Obligation to fulfil it could only be against us, and contrary to us. First, then, our obligation has been effaced by reason of no longer being in that position to which such obligation attached, and as being in that in which it could alone be fulfilled. The believer is not in the flesh, having died with Christ. "Ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God…. Now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter" (Rom. 7:4-6). Then "He [God] has taken it also out of the way," this being done by "having nailed it to the cross." This tells us that God has taken the handwriting in ordinances, which stood out against us and was contrary to us because of what we were by nature and practice, and made an end of it by nailing it to the cross of Christ, signifying that since there every requirement of law has been perfectly answered, whether as found in the obedience of the Holy Sufferer, or the bearing of its curse-a curse applicable to us because we had fallen when we should have stood upright, being on this account charged with many offences, -now any obligation of ours is annulled forever.

The fourth statement in these verses is :"Having spoiled principalities and authorities, He [God] made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph by it." This refers to heavenly powers which have been in some manner despoiled or stripped, and publicly displayed as thus treated by God, they being viewed as led in triumph by, or in, the cross. The figure appears to be that of the Roman triumphal procession in which conquered princes marched in the train of their conqueror, stripped of their place and power. From the preceding statements it would appear that the powers referred to are those which would endeavor to resist God in the accomplishment of His gracious purposes toward His people. Every possible issue that could be raised is met in the cross of Christ. By reason of all it means to God, He could, though Satan stands to resist, take the filthy garments from Joshua, saying, "See, I have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee, and I clothe thee with festival-robes" (Zech. 3:1-5).

It may not be out of place here to consider also that Christ as man, is now set over all ranks of principality and power; all are made subject to Him. This, in fact, is because of the cross whereby He, in that amazing depth of His humiliation, perfectly glorified God in relation to all involved in the presence of sin in the universe, so that having made peace by the blood of His cross the fulness of the Godhead effects by Him the reconciliation to itself of all things. Now every rank of created being is made to follow in His triumphal train by reason of the cross. And whatever form of administrative power or authority certain angels may have possessed and exercised, as for example those through whom the law was ordained (Gal. 3:19), they have been stripped, or divested, of it to be subordinated to the headship of the Man Christ Jesus now enthroned at God's right hand. Ever servants of God, they now are the servants of the Man of the cross.

God, then, has "quickened us together with Christ, having forgiven… having effaced… having nailed… having spoiled"-so that we are made free indeed, set in the largeness of the new place and relation grace has given. Thus, indeed, "we should serve in newness of spirit." It is in large measure the various features and details of just such blessed service that occupy us in the remainder of this epistle. John Bloore

(To be continued, D. V.)