Bible Treasury, Volume 2, 2nd. Edition, January 1859.
(1st. Edition, January [02 1859 208])
The death of Christ has annulled my existence before God in the flesh, by faith. Supposing there is a man who is a thief, and he is put into prison to be punished, and he dies in prison, what is to be done with him? The life that sinned is no longer there to be punished — the man must be buried and put out of sight. So, speaking of Christ as taking, in grace, the sinner's place, it is said, "In that he died, he died unto sin once." There is an end of the whole thing. And now, the very principle I get the thought of being dead and alive again is this perfect law of liberty, in which the flesh has no kind of title in any shape or way. You are not alive in the world; you are dead with Christ. How then can you go on as if you were still alive in the world.
Bible Treasury, Volume 2, 2nd. Edition, June 1859.
(1st edition, May [02 1859 272])
[2 1859 288] All saints are clean; only they may defile their feet. The Spirit, through the intercession of Christ, applies the word and rebukes evil, shows the starting-point of it, and after a while restores the soul of communion. But God never deals with the conscience to falsify the relationship of the saint. The distress may be the greater, because everything is judged by the light we are brought into, but confidence in God will be untouched. If I apply 1 John 1:7 to failures, I ought to read, "If we do not walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us," etc. In truth, that verse gives the whole Christian standing. It is, abstractedly, the portion of the Christian, which can never be lost.
The Christian is looked at, if we may so say, in one point in 1 John 1:7, and neither before nor after. He is in the light, has fellowship with God and His people, and is cleansed. The verse does not say that the blood of Jesus has cleansed or will cleanse, but it cleanseth. God sees me as a believer sprinkled with that blood, which can never lose its value or have to be sprinkled again. Many that have been brought to God have not learnt what it is to be purged worshippers, having no more conscience of sins : a mistake the Lord may bear with, because of the value that Christ's death has in their souls. God alone can give the consciousness of being in the place in which Christ is before God.
Fragment
Bible Treasury, Volume 2, 2nd Edition, October 1859.
(1st. Edition, October, [01 1857 271])
[02 1859 348]
Faith in Christ as He was in His humiliation and resurrection, makes a man a Christian. Faith in Christ as He is, guides Christians in fellowship. And faith in Christ as He shall be, gives a hope that maketh not ashamed.
Fragment
Bible Treasury, Volume 2, 2nd Edition, October 1859.
[repeat of volume 1, 2nd edition November 1857 [01:289])
(1st. edition, October 1857 [01:278]
[02:350]
People often confound the effect produced on man, the effect which makes him own the truth and the authority of the Word, with a judgement passed by man upon this Word, as upon a matter submitted to him. Never could the Word be thus presented as subject to human judgement; it would be to deny its own nature; it would be to say that it is not God who speaks. Could God say that He is not God? If this cannot be, no more could He speak and admit that His Word has not its own authority.
Fragment
Bible Treasury, Volume 2, 2nd Edition, October 1859.
(1st edition, March [01 1857 162])
[02 1859 352]
It is the Christian, or the Church, which gives Christ His character before the world. They are His epistle to the world. We may know how to distinguish and understand the representation; but the world, the infidel, judges of what Christianity is, by what Christians are.