There is nothing that has such practical effect upon a Christian than the sense and consciousness of being in Christ. The position to which God calls us, when apprehended in the soul, affects us in everything here below. When we have faith in it we exhibit practically that we are aware of it. If we have a low idea of what God has called us to, we have a low practice. The consciousness of the elevation I am in gives a character to everything in nay ways. It is not merely that God saves us. Salvation is true, too. But He brings us into such exaltation—not merely salvation—as into relationship and position before Him in His own Son.
People may say, “I don’t deny this.” But depend upon it, no one can understand a divine truth, till he begins to practice it. Then he shows that he has got faith in it; his practice proves that faith is there. The smallest bit of practice gives more sense of a divine truth than all the efforts of the preacher to unfold it. People often admire a divine truth, too, who have never accepted it at all. You will rarely find that the person who has accepted it, and lives in it, is spending his time admiring it. He is using and enjoying it.
Now, the thing to produce the color in us here below is, that we are in Christ. We have the consciousness that He is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us. (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20).) We are, then, “In that day,” i.e. the Spirit’s day, the present time. People look for something that meets their own condition, and relieves it. The common way of presenting the gospel is that it brings Christ to man, and adds to man, instead of the fact that it brings man to God in Christ. Hence there is so little consciousness of what the Holy Ghost ministers to us, and practice almost none. I am called not only to know that I am relieved of a burden, but that I am connected with the person who has relieved me; that is with the Son of God. If we thus had a right sense of the dignity we are in it would make the things simple enough. This is not some high thing, to be attained after years of walking with God. It belongs to the simplest soul. Tell me if what is in John 14 is too high for you. Where are you at all? It is the property of every Christian. People read it when another is going to die. Now the Lord gives it to people who were going to live here below, and wanted all that is in it. It contains the remedial things Christ gives to sustain the soul when He is not here. We get power because of His nearness to the Father (12-14), then we get position (20). The sense of the dignity of the position in a soul sets it above everything here. The more you ponder it, the more wonderful it appears. How can I separate from what is here below, the paltry things around, till I get the sense of the dignity I am in? Impossible!
See what poor thoughts we generally form of Scripture. In Luke 14 the great supper is generally interpreted to mean salvation. Now I don’t deny that it is in it. But the great supper is the expression of the ability of the person who makes the entertainment. A feast shows the ability of the person who makes it. The Lord shows that nature could have no part in it whatsoever. Nature, in order too; not out of order. There was no harm in a man cultivating an estate, yet the man who was doing so would not have the supper. We know that “the earth hath He given to the children of men,” and every one likes to have a bit of land, or something here to call his own, yet it turned away His heart from God. The supper, in Luke 14, shows the ability of the person who spread it; hence, He says, “All things are ready.” In chap. 15 we find the best robe given to the prodigal. This was an expression of the love. But it was not all that the prodigal got. He got the fatted calf, too; and that was not salvation, surely.
If we turn to Eph. 1 we read in verse 6, “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” In verse 7, we read of “the riches of His grace.” Now people are generally satisfied with the knowledge of the “riches of His grace.” What is “the glory of His grace?” It is God disclosing (verse 3-6) according to His own mind and purpose, that which suits Himself in the action of His heart. But He leaves you out. You are brought in, in verse 7; and so people only learn what suits their own need, and have not reached the thought of the heart of the living God as to what suits Himself. The result is that souls have not reached the elevation of what God’s thoughts are towards them, and their walk below takes the color from it. If you enfeeble one you enfeeble the other. We are set here below to bring out the color of Christ, the heavenly character, in a scene where there is not one single thing that contributes to us. If you want to bring out the heavenly color you must be in the atmosphere where it is. Flowers bring forth their richest colors, when most in the sunlight, in the garden. If only the thing was tasted for one moment, people would not, by efforts of giving up this or that, seek to get into the consciousness of it. A nun shuts up the windows that she may not look at the world around. You should be able to look out on all that the world has to offer, with the sense in your soul. “I don’t want one beauty in it to minister to me.” “I have got something so superlative to it all, that I don’t even make an effort to give it up.” “It has not one single bit of power over me.” Hence it is only a “father” in Christ who “overcomes the world.” The “young man” has “overcome the wicked one,” but is warned about the world. A father “overcomes,” because he knows that Christ is the Son of God—one outside this scene altogether—and that he is linked up with Him.
You must give the prodigal more than forgiveness; you Must give him possession. “Expectations” don’t make a man rich— “possession,” does. Put a man with great expectations into poor circumstances, and see what an unhappy creature he is, give him possessions, and let him be in the circumstances, and see how little they drag him down. Hence, Paul says, in the midst of all the adverse circumstances, “As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” (2 Cor. 6:3-103Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: 4But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 5In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; 6By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, 7By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; 9As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; 10As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (2 Corinthians 6:3‑10).) That was the Holy Ghost—the “Living water” (John 4), through which he could never thirst.
Be assured of this, that natural blessings always have the tendency of turning the heart away from God, while spiritual blessings draw the heart to Him. Hence Israel is warned in Deut. 8, when in possession of natural blessings, lest their hearts should be turned away from the Lord.
The moment that I learn that I am not merely a recipient from Christ, but that I am actually united to Him in His exaltation above, I have power then to refuse everything here below but His humiliation!
I have not always the sense of power, passing through this evil world; but I never can lose the sense of dignity. The more feeble we are here below, the more we become the objects of His fullest attentions. I may be poor, and feeble, and unsightly, but, like a helpless child, I have more attentions lavished upon me than any others in the household at can I do to return it? Frothing, for I am helpless. But the heart remains true, and I can be devoted to Him!
Like the poor widow with two mites, the heart was true to Christ, and that was everything! She could do but little; but what little she could she did-and did it with all her heart. She might have had one of the “mites” for herself, and have been esteemed a most estimable person. Like Zaccheus, it would have been the “half” of her “goods.” But she could retain nothing from that in which her heart was bound up, and the Lord took knowledge, not of that which she gave, but that which she retained for self, and that was nothing! This gave it the savor and odor in His sight. Her Weakness was apparent, her poverty undoubted; but the heart remained true; and this was everything to Christ!