And the judgment then comes upon them, “ Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” For now, having the voice of the Spirit in their High Priest, there is no ear to hear it aright; and having the doings of the Son of God among them, there is no eye to perceive him aright.
But still he was the quickener of Israel; and in the latter day, the dry bones shall hear the word of the Lord and live; of which, as I have observed, Lazarus is the pledge. And the remnant in Israel in that day is also illustrated in the family at Bethany. Into the midst of this well-loved family the Lord comes, and finds refreshment, and fellowship, and the acknowledgment of his glory; as he will find these things in his remnant in the latter day.
There he sits as “the Lord of life,” the witness of His quickening power being seated beside him; and there too he sits as “the King of glory,” the homage of his willing people being laid at his feet. In these two holy dignities is He now received by this faithful household. “While the King sitteth at his table,” (says Mary now, as the remnant will say by and by), “my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.” (Cant. 1: 12.)
It is thus he here sits; one family in the apostate land owning him Lord of life and King—of glory. But the city itself and the strangers there were soon to see him as well as this house at Bethany; as, by and by, the nation and the whole earth will own him after the remnant.
Accordingly, “on the next day,” as we read, much people, moved by the report of his having raised Lazarus from the dead, meet him on his coming to Jerusalem, and lead him into the royal city, as the Son of David, the king of Israel.
The time was the time of the Passover; but the people are moved as with the joy of the Feast of Tabernacles, and take branches of palm-trees to gladden their King. And the nations, as it were, come up to keep the feast also; for ‘certain Greeks come to Philip, and say, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Glory shines for a moment in the land of the living. Here was Lazarus raised from the dead, the city receiving her King, and the nations worshipping there. The great materials of the kingdom in which, as the Son of man, he is to be glorified, had now passed before the Lord. The joy of Jerusalem and the gathering of the nations he had now witnessed; and, entering in spirit for a moment into the kingdom, he says, “the hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.” But it was but for a moment. This was but a passing taste of his cup of salvation. This season was really to be the Passover, and not the Tabernacles to Jesus; and his soul passes, for another moment, through his paschal trouble. But the Father again acknowledges him. He had glorified him as Son of God, quickener of the dead, at the grave of Lazarus; and now he glorifies him as Son of man, Judge of the world and of the prince of the world, by the voice from heaven.
And here did his path as the Son of man end; as his path as the Son of God had before ended at the grave of Lazarus. The Son of God and Son of man had now been fully displayed before his unbelieving Israel. He was glorified among them, as the Prince of life, and the holder of all authority and power. The things now accomplished and displayed in these two chapters, were the fulfilling of his words to them at the beginning: these were “the greater works” at which they should “marvel.” They had now witnessed his quickening power as Son of God, and had his judicial glory as Son of man pledged to them by the voice from heaven. They should have honored him as they honored the Father. But instead of this, they were soon to kill him. They were soon to disown the Lord of life and the King of glory, on whom all their hopes of life and the kingdom hung. He had tested them by the promised “greater works:” but there was no response from Israel. The harvest was past, the summer ended, and they were not saved. The lamentation of the prophet was now to be uttered, “Who bath believed our report?” It was not that his works had not manifested him as the hope of Israel. Many even of the chief rulers felt and owned them in their consciences, as we here read. But they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God, as he had said unto them. (5: 44; 43.) All that remained was judgment on Israel, and the heavenly glory of this earth-rejected Jesus. (40, 41.) So, does our Evangelist himself tell us, drawing the awful moral of the whole scene: “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.” All closed in judgment upon Israel, and in glory, heavenly glory, glory within the veil, for the blessed Jesus. (Isaiah 6:1,21In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. (Isaiah 6:1‑2).)
Thus, our Gospel seats the Son of God in heaven again. His way ends there, as it had begun there. The Gospel by Matthew ushers him forth as the Son of David from Bethlehem, and closes with hire (as far as his ministry was concerned) on the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 1:2424Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: (Matthew 1:24)) But this Gospel opened with his descent from the bosom of the Father, and here closes (as far as his ministry is concerned) by his return to heaven. There he still dwells in the high and holy place, and the humble and brokenhearted are there with him. He speaks from heaven; and his voice must be in the power of all that finished work which has taken him there. He has forced his way into the holiest, through the outer courts, throwing down all enmities, all middle walls and partitions, and has again come forth from thence in the virtue of his blood, and in the power of the Holy Ghost, to preach peace to all. (Ephesians 2:12-2212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:12‑22).) He cannot but speak of all that is there, and not of what is here. He cannot but speak, by his Spirit, of the peace, and gladness, and glory, which are there, and not of the accusings with which our sins still committed here would till our hearts.
All through his divine ministry in this Gospel, as I have before observed, the Lord had been acting in grace, “as the Son of the Father,” and as “the light of the world.” His presence was “daytime” in the land of Israel. He had been shining there, if haply the darkness might comprehend him. And here, at the close of that ministry (12: 35, 36), we see him still as the light casting forth his last beams upon the land and people. He can but shine, whether they will comprehend him or not. While his presence is there it is still day-time. The night cannot come till he is gone. “As long as—I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” But here, “he departs and hides himself,” and then God, by his prophet, brings the night upon the land. (ver. 40.) It was not that the light had imperfectly shone. Their own consciences told them otherwise. (5: 42, 43.) The light had done its service and ruled the day, but the darkness had not comprehended it. And then this ruler of the day sets in Judea, only to rise in other spheres. For his cry in these closing verses (44-50) is not addressed to Israel merely, but to the whole earth. It is but the same “light of the world,” which had lately run his race in Judea, coming forth out of his chamber to run a longer race. And this race he is running still. “The day of Salvation” is still with us. The night of judgment on the Gentiles has not yet come. We may still walk without stumbling; we may still know whither we are going. The light still says, “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Such are thy ways, blessed Savior, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
(Continued from page 116.)
Part 3. Chapters 13-17.
I have followed the Lord through chapters 1.-12. of this Gospel, noticing his ways as the Son of God, the Stranger from heaven, and also his intercourses and controversies with Israel. The one was a path of grace to sinners, but of loneliness to himself—the other lay much in the track of the prophet Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, the Lord had witnessed the backslidings of the daughter of Zion. Like him, he had warned her, and taught her, and would fain have healed her. But, like him, he had seen the stubbornness of her heart, had suffered rebuke and rejection from her, and had now only to weep for her. He had, as in the words of Jeremiah, said to her, even to the end of his ministry (see chap. 12: 35), “Give glory to the Lord your God; before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride.” (Jeremiah 13:16,1716Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. 17But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive. (Jeremiah 13:16‑17).)
Jesus had thus wept over Jerusalem; for she had not repented. The boar had now again left his woods to devour her; the “Destroyer of the Gentiles” was again on his way, as in the prophet’s day. The captivity in Babylon had no more purged away the dross of Zion, than the waters of Noah had sanctified the earth; ‘and all was again ripe for another judgment. But as, in the midst of all this, Jeremiah of old had his Baruch, the companion of his temptations (Jeremiah 36. and 43.), to whom from the Lord he pledges present life (chap. 45.), and with whom he deposits the sure evidence of final rest and restoration (chap. 32.), so now Jesus has his saints, the companions of his rejection, to whom he gives the present certainty of life, and the sure promise of future rest and honor.
With these we now get our Lord in secret. We have now done with his public ministry: and we have him now with his own, — telling them, as their Prophet, the secrets of God.
And being about to listen to him as the Prophet of the Church, I would observe, that what the Lord gives us as our Prophet is our present riches. It is not with us, as with Israel of old, “blessings of the basket and of the store,” nor is it with us now, as it will be by and by, “authority over cities,”—but “we have the mind of Christ.” Treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid in Christ are our present treasures. (Colossians 2:33In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:3).) Arid accordingly, having now turned away from Israel towards his elect, and looking at them apart from the world, he makes known to them all things that he had heard of the Father. By and by, as the King of glory, he will share his dominion with the saints; but now he has only the tongue of the learned for them, that he may teach them the secrets of God. It is only as their Prophet that he now enriches them. As to other riches, they may count themselves poor, as one of them of old said (and said it, beloved, without shame), “Silver and gold have I none.”
Our Lord Jesus is the Prophet like unto Moses, who had been promised of old. God saw Moses face to face. He spake with him, as a man speaketh unto his friend, saying of him, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.” In all this high prerogative, Moses was the shadow of the Son of God. Moses had access to God. He was on the heights of the hill with him, beyond the region of thunder and tempest; then, within the cloud of glory, as it stood at the door of the temporary tabernacle; and lastly, in the very holy, of holies, when the tabernacle itself was reared. (Exodus 24: 33; 25: 22.) And lie stood in all that nearness to God, whenever he pleased, and without blood—though even Aaron, we know, could be there only once a year, and that not without blood—all this telling us, in affecting and intelligible language, of the divine personal worthiness of our prophet—of the God—head glory of him, whose shadow Moses was, who was then in the bosom of the Father, and has now spoken to us. (Hebrews 1:1,21God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:1‑2).)
And what Moses learned on the top of the hill, or within the cloud of glory, or from off the Mercy Seat in the holiest, was the secret which the Son has now brought out from the bosom of the Father. Moses learned there the grace of God, and saw “the glory of goodness.” (Exodus 33:1919And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:19).) Blessed vision! And the only-begotten Son was among us, “full of grace and truth.”
But the services which the Lord renders us as our Prophet are various; and in this variety we shall find the special character of this Gospel by John fully maintained. In the opening of Matthew, the Lord, as the Prophet, revealed the mind of God, touching the conduct of his people, interpreting the law in its extent and purity, thus determining the divine standard, and applying it to the conscience. He prescribed the order and ways of the saints, so as to make them worthy of the regeneration and the kingdom, calling the soul into exercise towards God, and giving it its due ends and objects. (See Matthew 5-7) But in our Gospel, he is the Prophet in a higher character. He declares “the Father,” and reveals the “heavenly” things. He speaks as the One who had “ascended into heaven,” and was “from above.” (John 3:13,3113And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (John 3:13)
31He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. (John 3:31).) It is not so much our conduct as God’s thoughts, that lie tells us of. He tells us of the mysteries of life and judgment. He declares the love of the Father, the works and glories of the Son, and the place and actings of the Holy Ghost in and for the Church of God. He is, in this Gospel, the Prophet of the secrets of the Father’s bosom, disclosing the most hidden ways of the Sanctuary. He speaks as the Word, who was with God, and was God, giving us such knowledge as a mere walk on the earth in righteousness and service would not have needed, but such as makes us nothing less than “friends” (John 15:1515Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. (John 15:15)), and gives us communion, in knowledge, with the ways of “the Father of glory.” (Ephesians 1:1717That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: (Ephesians 1:17).)
Such is the variousness of the Lord’s exercise of his prophetic office, and such, I judge, the peculiar exercise of it which we have in this Gospel, the exercise of it in its highest department, again making the Gospel so peculiarly precious to the saint. And when the gathering of the Church in this present “day of salvation” is over, and all have come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, we shall not lose our Lord as our prophet. We shall listen to him as such, even in the kingdom. His lessons will feed us forever. Solomon was a prophet as well as a priest and a king. His servants stood continually before him, and all kings of the earth sought his presence to hear him. The queen of Sheba came to prove him with hard questions, and he answered her in all her desire. When she beheld all his ways—the king’s magnificence, the priest’s ascent to the house of God, and the prophet’s wisdom—these were altogether more than a match for her heart; the half had not been told her; “there was no more spirit in her.” And so, in the coming kingdom, we shall have that which shall fill the eye with glory, give the heart its satisfied affections, ever feed the still enlarging thoughts of our minds with the treasures of wisdom that are hid in our divine Prophet, and withal give our ears the music of his praise forever.
But let me say, for my own admonition as for my brethren, that we should constantly suspect and dread all mere effort of mind, while listening to the words of our Prophet, that is, while reading the Scriptures. The Spirit is a ready Teacher, as well as a ready Writer; and the light of the Spirit, though it may shine at times, through our darkness, but dimly, yet will it always evidence itself with more or less certainty. And let us remember also, that it is a Temple light—a light that suits the Sanctuary. It was in the holy place that the candlestick stood; and the intelligence that is awakened in the soul by the Holy Ghost is attended by the spirit of devotion and communion. It is a Temple light still.
I have already noticed the Lord’s different exercise. of his prophetic office in Matthew’s Gospel and in this. In his discourses with his elect,—after his public ministry is over, as given is by these two Evangelists, the same characteristic difference is still to be clearly discerned. In Matthew, he talks with them on the Mount of Olives about Jewish matters (24. 25.); but here, he leads them in spirit, into heaven, to open to them the sanctuary there, and to tell them of heavenly secrets. (13.-17.) The Lord takes his seat, not on the Mount of Olives to tell his Remnant of Israel’s sorrows and final rest, but in heaven, to disclose to his saints the actings of their High Priest there, and their own peculiar sorrows and blessings as the Church of God, during the age of that heavenly Priesthood. The heavenly Priesthood is the great subject throughout these chapters, on which I would now somewhat more particularly meditate. They form one section of our Gospel; but I will consider them in distinct portions, as their contents seem to me to suggest.
13. Here, at the opening, the Lord’s action—washing the disciples’ feet—is an exhibition of one great branch of his heavenly service.
The washing of the feet was among the duties of hospitality. The Lord rebukes the neglect of it in his host in Luke 7 (See 1 Timothy 5: 10.) conveyed two benefits to the guest; I may say it cleansed the traveler after the soiling of the journey, and refreshed him after the fatigue of it.
Abraham, Lot, Laban, Joseph, and the old-man of Gibeah, are eminent among those who observed this duty. (Genesis 18, 19, 24, 43; Judges 19) And the Son of God, as receiving into the heavenly house, would give his elect the full sense of their welcome and their fitness, that they might take their place, with happy confidence, in any department of that royal sanctuary. It was a sanctuary, it is true. But this washing fitted them for such a place. The Son of God was doing for the disciples the duty and service of the Brazen Laver towards the priests, the sons of Aaron, in the Tabernacle. (Exodus 30) He was taking on himself the charge of having them fit for the divine presence. It is the common way of every well-ordered family, that the servants keep themselves clean, or leave the house. But such is the grace of the Son of God, the Master of the heavenly house, that he charges himself with the duty of keeping the household in even priestly sanctification and honor.
“Unfathomable wonder, and mystery divine.” All we need is the spirit of a simple, unquestioning faith, which rests in the reality of such surpassing grace but his service for us in the sanctuary, as the High Priest of our profession, his cleansing of our feet as the true Laver of God’s house, Jesus did not enter on, till he had accomplished his passion on earth, and ascended into the heavens; and thus it was not, as we read here, till “after the supper was ended,” that he took a towel and girded himself to wash his disciples’ feet; for the “ supper” was the exhibition of his passion and death, as he had said, “ Take, eat; this is my body.” And accordingly he seems to go through the whole of this mystic scene, in the consciousness that he had now finished his sufferings, had ascended, and was looking back on his saints; for it is introduced in these words, “ Having loved his Own which were in the world”—words that suggest the apprehension he had of his saints being still in the world, while he had left them for higher and holier regions. And in the sense of all this, though glorified again in and with the Father, as the gracious servant of their need and infirmities, he girds himself with a towel and washes their feet; giving them to know that he was abiding in the heavenly sanctuary, just to impart to them the constant virtue of the “holiness” which, as their High Priest, he ever carried for them on his forehead before the throne of God. (Exodus 28)
Thus, there is a difference between the mystic import of “the supper,” and of this subsequent “washing of the feet;” and the difference is the same as between “the day of atonement” and “the ashes of the Red Heifer,” under the law. The day of atonement, like the supper, sets forth the virtue of the blood of the Son of God, the ashes of the heifer, like this washing, the virtue of his intercession. The day of atonement was but one day in the Jewish year, a great annual day of reconciliation, on which the sin of Israel was put away once for all; the ashes of the heifer were provided for every day’s transgressions, for all the occasional defilements which any Israelite might contract, while passing through the year. So, with the blood-shedding first, and the priestly intercessions of the Son of God afterward: as a scripture says, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life.
And we have the same blessings in the same order in another form; viz., the paschal Lamb once and forever redeemed Israel out of Egypt, but in the wilderness, it was the intercession of Moses that turned away wrath from the occasional trespasses of the camp. And so the blood of Jesus our Passover, and the intercession of Jesus our Mediator—the supper first, and then the washing of the feet, the death here, and then the life in heaven for us. He that is once washed in the blood needeth not save to wash his feet; and that washing of his feet, that removal of the soil which the saint gathers in his walk along this earth day by day, the High Priest who is in heaven for him accomplishes by his presence and intercession there. He is the Mediator of the new covenant, as well as the Blood of it.
Thus, the love of the Son of God for the elect, as it had been front everlasting, so, must it be to everlasting; as it—is here written, “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” Every age and scene must witness the same love in some of its services, and in its abiding fervor and truth. No change of time could affect it the dreariness of this world and the glories of heaven found it in his heart the same. Neither sorrow nor joy, suffering nor glory, could touch it for a moment. His death here and his life in heaven alike declare it. Nay, much more He had served her in this love before the world was, when he said, “Lo, I come—and in the kingdom after the world he will serve her still in the same love, making his saints to sit down to meat, while he waits on their joy. (Luke 12:3737Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Luke 12:37).)
Such was the Lord, such is the Lord, and such will be the Lord, in his unceasing service of love towards his saints; and he tells them to be his imitators. “If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.” He expects to see, among us on earth, the copy of that which he is doing for us in heaven. He is there daily washing our feet, bearing our need and meeting our defilements before the throne; and he would have us daily washing one another’s feet, bearing one another’s infirmities, and helping one another’s joy, here on the footstool.
This action and teaching of the Lord was thus a taking of the church, like Moses before, up into the mount to show her the patterns, according to which the things on earth were to be made. Moses then stood above the law, —beyond the region of fire and tempest, and so the church here. The disciples are called up in spirit into the heavenly sanctuary, and there shown the ways of the High Priest in his daily love and care of than; and they are told to go down and do likewise. As was said to Moses, “See thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount.” The time for the taking of Moses into the Mount to abide there had not then come. He was only to visit it, that he might see the patterns, and receive orders. And so here the church was not yet ready for the glory, and for the Father’s house. “Whither I go,” says the Lord to the disciples, “thither ye cannot come.” They shall follow afterward as the Lord further promises; but for the present there was to be only a sight of the patterns on the mount; that they might copy them on the earth. But love alone can fashion those copies; for love is the artificer of the originals in heaven. As the Lord again says, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” It is, not, as of old, the skill of such as “work in brass” that will do now; but the skill of such as “walk in love.” The fashioning of any kind thought in the heart toward a brother, the arming of the mind with power to bear and forbear in love, the goings forth of the soul id sympathies, and the molding off or softening down of any hard or selfish affection, —these are the copies of the heavenly patterns. It is only as “dear children” we can be “imitators of God.” (Ephesians 5:11Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; (Ephesians 5:1).) And what comfort is this! When the Lord would appoint on earth the witness of his own ways in heaven, he tells us to love one another, to wash one another’s feet What a sight of him, though within the veil, does this give its “He shows his thoughts how kind they be.” What manner of daily occupation of our Priest in his sanctuary on high is here disclosed to us!
And, beloved, let me admonish myself and you, to seek to walk more amid these witnesses of the Lord than we do; for this would be our assurance before him, and our joy among ourselves. If our ways were steady, unwavering ways of love, we should be ever walking in the midst of the shadows and emblems of Christ; We should have the Lord’s thoughts in all their kindness and constancy ever before us; and what joy and assurance would that give us! No suspicions of his love, no cloudings of doubt and fear, could then gather on the soul; but we should hear him with our ears, and see him with our eyes, and handle him with our hands; for all that ear, or eye, or hand met from one another would witness, as well as savor, of his love. This, indeed, would be a sweet dwelling “in the house of the Lord,” a blessed beholding of “the beauty of the Lord.” But all this display of glorious love the poor heart of man is not prepared for. Peter expresses this common ignorance. He does not yet understand this connection between glory and service. He follows his human thoughts, and says, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” But Peter was to know all this by-and-by, as his Lord promises; for Peter and his Lord were one. But Judas must be separated. “I speak not of you all,” said the Lord. The presence of the traitor in the midst of the saints up to this solemn moment was needed; for the Scripture had said, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.” Man, in this dispensation of ours, has despised love, and thus matured his sin—as the Lord afterward says, “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin.” (15: 24.) But having now despised the love of the Gospel, Man has “gone his way:” as Judas here, having received the sop, “went out” to betray him who had given it. And our Evangelist adds— “it was night.” Solemn words! —night in man, and night for Jesus.
But he at once looks beyond this night; for dark as it was to be to him, it was to open into the perfect day Jesus would be glorified in God at once; for God was glorified in him; the only Son of Man in whom he ever was glorified. He had kept the nature without spot, and was now about to present it to God a sheaf of untainted human fruit fitted for God’s garner. Man, in Jesus had been glorified; for all that had proceeded froth him, all that had been drawn out of him, was according to God. (14: 30, 31.) Not one speck sullied the moral beauty there. Man, in Jesus had not come short of the glory of God. And God, who had thus been glorified in him, would therefore glorify him in himself. But as to all besides, it was altogether otherwise Jesus could go at once to God, by virtue of all this moral glory; but as to all beside, it matters not, whether saints or unbelievers, whether Peters or Pharisees, there could not be this. A place with God must be prepared ere even the saints could be gathered into, it (14: 1); and therefore, the Lord says to them, “Ye, shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you.” This day of his own glory in God, Jesus here anticipates, saying, as soon as the traitor was gone out, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” And so, by and by, there will be room again for the display of the glory, when the Son of Mau r shall have gathered out of his kingdom all things that offend, and all that do iniquity; when the traitor shall again “go out,” then shall the glory be witnessed, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their righteous The floor once purged, the sheaves of glory will be gathered into the garner.
14.-16.—Having thus passed, in spirit, through the night, and taken his place in the day that lay beyond it, the Lord turns to his disciples, and in these chapters, as the prophet of the heavenly things, instructs and comforts them, telling them of the mystery of his own heavenly Priesthood, and of their calling, and duties, and blessings, as the church of God still sojourning on earth during that Priesthood.
The Priesthood of the Son of God, or the present dispensation, during which He is on the Father’s throne, and we in “the kingdom of God’s dear Son,” was a secret with God laid from the thoughts of Israel altogether. “The little while” was a stage in the divine procedure, of which both the Jews and the disciples were equally ignorant. (John 7:33; 16: 1733Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. (John 7:33).) They had all thought that Christ was to abide forever (chap. 12: 34); for their prophets had spoken of Him in connection with earthly dominion. There were, however, many intimations, both from prophecy and from history, which might have prepared them for this Joseph’s residence and glory in Egypt, and during that time, his forgetfulness of his kindred in Canaan till stress of famine brought them to him, had typified this mystery. So had Moses’ sojourn in Midian. (See Acts 7) We may judge, no doubt, that both Joseph and Moses had constant recollections of their own people, and many a desire towards them, while separated from them—but it was an untold desire. So, we know that the Lord is now mindful of Jerusalem, her walls are continually before him, engraven on the palms of his hand. But, apparently, he is to them as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save.
And beside those typical histories, the Prophets had spoken directly of this mystery. They had foretold Jerusalem’s widowhood, which was to continue for a season. Moses at the beginning had left a standing testimony with Israel, that the Lord for a time would hide his face from them, and provoke them to jealousy by those who were “no people.” (Deuteronomy 32) David had said that Messiah, as his Lord, should for a while sit at the right hand of God. (Psalms 110) Isaiah had a vision of Christ in the heavenly glory during a season of judgment on Israel. (Isaiah Ezekiel saw the glory leave the city, and then, after a, season„ return to it. And the Lord had said, by Hosea, “I will go and return unto my place, till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” In his own ministry the Lord Jesus had already referred to the same mystery. In Matthew, he corrects the thought that Christ was to abide forever, by a recital of those scriptures which spoke of the rejection of the stone by the builders. In St. Luke, he had shown, by the parable of the nobleman going into a far country, that there was to be an interval between the first appearing of Messiah, and his appearing in his kingdom. But now, in our gospel, he treats of this matter more fully, showing the character. of this interval, or of his session for a while at the right hand of God in heaven.
Having, therefore, closed his public ministry, and being in retirement with the disciples, he occupies himself with this subject. In the action of the 13th chapter, in the teaching of these 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters, and again in the action of the 17th, it is the heavenly Priesthood that he is variously either exhibiting or teaching; thus showing that in his present interval of separation from Israel, he is blessedly occupying himself for the church. In sympathies and intercessions, in the diligence and wakefulness of one whose eye is over them, he is all action towards his saints now. He is separated from his brethren according to the flesh, it is true, but he is, the while, like Moses, tending the flock of his Father at the Mount of ‘God, far away both from Egypt’s pollutions and Israel’s unbelief, tasting the comforts of a beloved home and family, in holy retirement.
An impression of a very happy character lies on my mind from reading the opening of the l4th chapter it is this. Our Lord assumes that his ministry had brought the Father so near to them, that his disciples ought to have concluded that his house was their home. There is great consolation in this.
The Lord’s ministry had been such a revelation of the Father’s love to them, that it would have been strange indeed, had this not been the case. Such a thing would have been an exception, and therefore to have been noticed. But that there were mansions for them, as well as for him, in the Father’s house, was so fully in character with all his previous works and words, that such a fact, such a truth, needed no mention at all. It was a necessary conclusion. All family privileges were theirs, and, of course, the family mansion was their home.
What a conclusion for faith to be entitled to draw, without direct instruction: Not, that we should be chargeable with spiritual dullness, if we did not draw it. How could such a ministry as that of Jesus, “the Son from the bosom,” tell of anything less than this, that the Father’s own house was to be our home forever.
“Unfathomable wonder and mystery divine,” I may again say. All we need, is that spirit of childlike faith which rests in the reality of such surpassing grace.
Would that his family were refreshing the solitudes of the Son of God better than they do. Would that there were a more “beautiful flock” for his care and tendency at the Mount of God! a more joyous scene to compensate him for his present loss of Israel! But he has laid down his life for them, he has given himself for the sheep, and in his love he abideth faithful.
And these chapters, I may further say, show us that the ministry of the Son had done nothing that was effectual upon the hearts of his disciples. For so the divine order ran—the Father had worked hitherto, the Son was now working, but the Holy Ghost had also to work, ere the church could be set in her place. And thus, it is not until now we get the name of God fully revealed. The revelation of it shines gradually brighter and brighter as dispensations advance.
In Genesis 1 it is simply “God” that we see and hear. It is “God” who goes through the six days’ work, and then rests on the seventh. But in Genesis 2 it is “the Lord God” that we see and hear. And these are two stages in God’s revelation of himself. In the 1St chapter we see him coming forth, as God simply, for his own delight and glory. He takes his full delight in the work, beholding it all to be very good; and he glorifies himself by the work, setting over it one in his own image, the representative of himself. But in the 2nd, we see “the Lord God,” that is, God in a covenanted character, God entered upon purposes and plans for the blessing of his creature. And therefore, much of the previous detail of the work, as it proceeded under the hand of “God,” is omitted, and many things are brought into view which had no place before. Thus we have in strong relief, and which we had not at all in the 1St chapter, the Garden and the River, the manner of creating the Man, of investing him with dominion, of forming the Woman, and of instituting their union—and we have also the mystic Trees, and the Commandment with its penalty—for all these concerned the place and blessing of the creature in covenant with “ the Lord God.”
Thus did he begin to unfold his name to us; and after these first notices of “God” and “the Lord God,” we get the name “ God, Almighty” published to Abram. This was a further revelation of himself. And this was done when Abram was “past age,” and had nothing to lean upon but the almightiness, or all-sufficiency, of God. (Genesis 17:11And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Genesis 17:1).) In this name, which declared this needed sufficiency, God led him, and Isaac, and Jacob, after him; for they were all strangers and pilgrims on the earth, having nothing but the promise of an Almighty Friend for their stay and staff. (Genesis 28. 35. 48.) In process of time, however, God was known to his children by another name. Bringing them into the covenant, into the promised inheritance, he calls himself “Jehovah;” that is, the covenant’ God of Israel. (Exodus 6:1-61Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. 2And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: 3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 6Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: (Exodus 6:1‑6).) And under God as Jehovah, Israel take their seat in Canaan.
But still, all this did not communicate God in the full glory of his name. There was grace in God, and gifts by grace, which these ways of his did not fully unfold. But this is done in the name which is now published to us—the name of the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” This is the full name or glory of our God, and grace, and the gifts of grace, are effectually brought to us by that dispensation which publishes it.
Thus, it was not until the present age, that the full name and glory of our God was published. The Father had been working, it is true, (as was observed under chapter 5.) in all ages of the Jewish times; but still Israel was put nationally under God, simply as “Jehovah.” The revelation of “the Father” had to wait for the ministry of the Son, and certain dispensations had to finish their course, ere the Son could come forth. The Son could not have been the minister of the law; such ministry would not have been worthy of him who dwelt in the bosom of the Father. It was committed to angels. And the Son did not come forth in the ministry, till the “great salvation” was ready to be published. (Hebrews 2:1-31Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 2For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 3How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; (Hebrews 2:1‑3).) So, the manifestation of the Holy Ghost waited for its due time. The Holy Ghost could not wait on the ministry of the law any more than the Son. Smoke and lightning and the voice of thunder were there (Exodus 19), but the Holy Ghost came forth with his gifts and powers to wait on the ministry of the Son, on the publication of the great salvation. (Hebrews 2:44God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? (Hebrews 2:4).) The Spirit of God could not be a spirit of bondage gendering fear; the law may do that, but the Holy Ghost must gender confidence. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Till the Son of God had finished his work, the Holy Ghost could not come forth. The heart must first be purged from an evil conscience, so that the temple might be sanctified for the indwelling Spirit, and the holy furniture (that is, the spirit of liberty and adoption, and the knowledge of glory) must be prepared for this temple; and all this could be done only by the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son. The revelation of the Holy Ghost waited for these things. He had been, it is true, the holy power in all, from the beginning. He had spoken by the prophets. He was the strength of judges and of kings. He was the power of faith, of service, and of suffering, in all the people of God. But all this was below the place which he now takes in the church. His indwelling in us, as in his temple, had not been of old; but now he does so dwell, spreading out a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. As the Spirit of wisdom, he gives us “the mind of Christ,” spiritual senses for the discerning of good and evil. As the Spirit of worship, he enables us to call God “Father,” and Jesus “Lord,” and makes intercessions in us with groanings that cannot be uttered. He sheds abroad in the heart “the love of God,” and causes us “to abound in hope.” He is in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and he is the source also of “rivers of living waters,” flowing forth from us to refresh the weary. And he forms the saints together as “a spiritual house,” where “spiritual sacrifices “are offered, no longer admitting “a worldly sanctuary” and “carnal ordinances;” for they are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, and gifts, causing them all to grow up into Christ in all things, are dispensed among them.
These are some of the ways of the Holy Ghost in his kingdom within the saint: these are his works which shine in the place of his dominion. He is there an Earnest, an Unction, and a Witness. He tells us “plainly of the Father,” and “takes of the things of Christ,” to “show them to us.” His presence in us is so pure, that there is no evil he does not resent and grieve over (Ephesians 4:3030And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)); and yet so tender and sympathizing, that there is nothing of godly sorrow that he does not feel and groan over. (Romans 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23).) He causes hope to abound; lie imparts the sense of full divine favor; he reads to our conscience a title to calm and entire assurance. There is nothing of feebleness, or narrowness, or uncertainty in the place of his power. His operations savor of a kingdom, and a kingdom of God too, full of beauty and strength. We have to own how little we live in the virtue and sunshine of it; but still, this is what it is in itself, though our narrow and hindered hearts so poorly possess themselves of it. And his handiwork is to have its praise from us, and his glory in his temples is to be declared. It is well to be humbled at times, by testing ourselves in reference to such an indwelling kingdom, but the kingdom itself is not to be so measured.
Precious, I need not say, beloved, all this mystery is. The whole order of things to which we are introduced tells us (and this is full of richest comfort), that it is God and not ourselves we have now immediately to do with. In the law it was otherwise. The law dealt with us immediately, saying, “Thou shalt,” and “Thou shalt not.” But now it is God we have first to do with. We are absolutely summoned away from ourselves, and are not to remember whether we were Jews or Greeks. We have God to look to, God to hear, God to do with. And this is the highest possible point of blessing for a poor sinner to apprehend—so blessed is it, that Satan does what he can to keep us short of it, to make the ear heavy to the voice of God, and the eye dim to the ways and works of God, and the heart irresponsive to the love of God. He would fain busy us with anything, that the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, may not shine in. He makes some busy with thoughts of their righteousness, and others busy with thoughts of their sins, that he may keep’ them, either through vain glory or fear, apart from God himself.
(To be continued.)