There are two things precious to us before we arrive at the full result of God's thoughts of grace: the first is the perfect manifestation of Himself in Christ; and the second, this being brought into our hearts; Christ being in us-not merely revealed to us, but communicated to us. In this chapter we get, in general, what Christ is for us and will be to us as on earth, and in the end what He will be to us in heaven. And this last point I have often thought the saints do not get with sufficient clearness. It is not merely mercy to sinners, but man brought into a blessedness that was not thought of when men were not sinners.
The Lord lays the ground of it all in His own Person and work before He begins to pray. First, He is the Son with the Father; and second, He is the Accomplisher of the work by 'which the Father is glorified. First, we get His Person, the eternal life which was with the Father. God had revealed Himself as Almighty and as Jehovah, and accordingly He protected Abraham and was the God of Israel. But these names did not carry eternal life in them. But now the Son comes, that eternal life might be manifested, as it is in 1 John 1. " We have seen and declare unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." And then, secondly, we have His work because of the sin of man. We have the glory of Christ in this double character, and in Him thus glorified we get the ground-work of all that we are. Our whole condition hangs on Christ glorified. Man-though He was much more than man-is now glorified in the presence of God. He is there, first, as Son; and, secondly, in virtue of His work as man on the earth. God now takes the chief of sinners, cleanses him from all sin through the precious blood of Christ, and instead of giving Him a place with the first Adam in his rejection, He gives him one with the Second Adam in glory.
Beloved friends, we want to know redemption-we want to know that whilst there is a judgment to come, before it has come God has interfered in grace and wrought redemption in the cross of His Son. The same Son who is to come to judge has come in grace already. So now the ground on which I stand with God is not that of a responsible man to answer in the judgment, but because I was utterly lost on that ground, God has put me on another. When the Judge comes, He has saved me already.
Now He goes on to apply it. "I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world," &c. That is, He brings them into the place of sons. And how? O what a blessing-as He knew it. O if we believed what the worth of Christ's work in humiliation is and what the love of Christ's heart is-how it could not be satisfied without our being in the very blessedness He Himself was in! It is love without reserve. It takes the person that is loved and holds back nothing. If it is the words the Father has given him, He has given them to us; if the glory, He has given it to us; if the love, He manifests the Father's name that it may be in us. It is not dispensing downwards to a child of Adam what a child of Adam could receive, but becoming life to the soul, so as to be power in us, so that we might enjoy what He does.
If you are laboring to meet a Judge, all this is simple madness. Men think they have to meet the God of judgment as responsible sinners to answer for themselves. That is the way people delude themselves. Do you think you could stand? It is madness to dream of such a thing. It is denying Christianity altogether. Have you peace?-perfect peace-Christ's own peace? If not, you have not got what Christ gives. You have not got what Christ wrought, and brought, and gives-a peace- with the Father as He Himself had it.
In verse 8 we see the interest that Christ's heart takes in making us happy. " I have given them the words which thou gavest me," &c. He desires we may enjoy the fellowship of the Father as He does. I can understand how the world hinders the enjoyment of it; but do you believe it? Do not fancy it is learning you need; it is not; it is grace. It is the conscience understanding that when I could not answer for myself, another in love came and answered for me. It is the soul brought through divine teaching in the conscience to know that it is lost; but, that being a settled thing, to know another thing that the Father is on my neck for joy that I am found. There will be conflict and temptation, but there will be no conflict with Him.
He now begins to pray for them. (Verses 9.-13.) All this refers to our place in the world. " And now I am no more in the world," &c. " And these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." O mark it well-his joy. I need not ask you, Christians, if you think Christ meant to deceive us. Well, if not, Do you believe this? Have you got it? His joy fulfilled in yourselves? It is not our weakness that, hinders; for when I am weak, then I am strong. It is the very thing I would seek to drive out-this thought of our Weakness having to do with it, the thought of the first Adam standing. You will get plenty of leaves but no fruit. Let no man eat fruit of thee forever is the judgment of God on this barren fig-tree. It rejected and crucified His Son. It must be cut down. Now is the judgment of this world; and as individuals we must be brought to this in the cross. We must be brought to that point of the cross in which we see that man was enmity against God come to him in grace. (Men were sinners before.) But having come there, I meet in spirit Christ on the cross, and as He has taken my place, I get His place-a place in Himself and with Himself in the glory to which He is gone.
He now puts them in the place of testimony. " I have given them thy word," " and the world hath hated them," &c. This also is His own place. " Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." "They are not of the world," &c. Again, let me ask you, Do you believe that? "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world." Nobody' could send us into England. We are in it. God could send an angel into the world. That is the way that Christ sends us-redeemed sinners-who are not of it. " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." That is negative. Then in verse 17 we get " Sanctify them through thy truth." That is the word-the one guide in this wilderness. Moses said, " Show me now"-not a way-but "thy way, that I may know thee." O that is what the Christian wants. My way shows what I am, and God's way shows what He is, as regards the world, and that is Christ.
In verses 18, 19 He goes further. " And for their sakes I sanctify myself," &c. I get not merely the word as guiding, but I get it all as light and love in Christ Jesus. Christ has set Himself apart-if I may reverently say so-as the glorified model man. The Holy Ghost takes that and ministers it to my soul. I love it—I feed on it. Thus we are taken out of the evil by and to the good. You will never get through the world happily in any other way. Is there happiness in vanity? It is that which leads astray. But show me a heart that through grace is always thinking of Christ and it is always happy. For the love of Christ that has gone up for us has come down to us. I know I have got for my joy what is, the Father's everlasting delight. He loves me! O that is the delight of my heart. It is that that keeps the heart away from evil. In ninety-nine things out of a hundred that you do wrong-that are not holiness-it is not that you do not know that they are wrong. It is not light that you want; it is power. You have not Christ as power. Your heart is not delighting in Christ. If it were, the evil would not have power over you. It would not occur to you. When my soul is walking with Christ, the Lord Himself is there to sanctify. The heart that is thus occupied with Jesus has got its object. Therefore He said, " He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst." There is not the craving, then, that makes a man unhappy; and there is not the craving that spoils your judgment of right and wrong. We want an object that is a motive. It gives hope and energy; but besides, there is communion, and it is communion that makes happy.
That is our present portion, but He goes further. "The glory which thou hast given me, I have given them." Still it is manifestation; He is not speaking of communion here, He does not say, "I in them, and they in me," as in 14. It is, "I in them and thou in me." It is display, Christ in the Father, and we in Christ.
We have not yet got to our own proper portion. We have had the Father's name manifested, His word given to us, Christ setting Himself apart for us, and giving us the glory the Father had given Him. But all that is down here. That does not satisfy Jesus-He wants them with Himself. It is not to be displayed-not He there, and we here-but to be with Him. "That they may be with me." That is the Church's PROPER place. That is what distinctively connects us with Christ. " O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee," &c. Christ was in the world, He was despised in the world. Oh, but you have loved me, He says to the Father, before ever there was a world. I want them to be with me according to this love-to be in the blessedness and understanding of the love you had to me before ever there was a world to manifest me in. It is not display, which is wonderful enough, but to be at home with Him according to the love he had with the Father before the world was.
More than this: He wants us to know it now. "I have declared to them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." Again, I would say, Christ does not mean to deceive us. Have you got what Christ is here giving? Do you know that the Father loves you as He loved Jesus? Oh, what a world we are in! " The world hath not known thee." But where have your thoughts been this day? Have they been filled with Christ, in the consciousness that you are the delight of the Father? It does not need intelligence to know that the Father loves me, when He is on my neck and I in my rags. It is not being converted or thinking of progress. The prodigal was not thinking of his progress then. He was with his Father. It is one thing to be making inquiries as to the progress of my heart, and another to know that there is not an atom of the Father's heart He holds back. But how can we have it? Through this redemption. For He cannot have the sin. Therefore, He gave the everlasting love of His heart for me, sinner as I am. But when I have learned and known it, I enjoy it. What I want you to have is the knowledge and consciousness of the Father's love in this way. And, indeed, the highest apprehensions of love a saint can have is the very love that was proved for the vilest of sinners. The sin is gone, and in the place, where I see it gone, I have learned this perfect love. And if there is a sinner here, I present to you this present salvation. Why? Because Christ is glorified at the right hand of God. Whoever receives it, enters at once into the fruit of Christ's work, which God has accepted, and proved that He has, in that He has set Him at His right hand.
To you, who are saints, I would say, Are you walking as redeemed persons in the earth? We need exhortations daily, every one of us; but are you walking in the consciousness of redemption? Have you this consciousness of being loved of the Father as Christ is? If you have, then walk in it.
One word I would add on the twenty-fourth verse:-" That they may be with me, where I am." This connects itself with the rapture of the Church; and so, when Paul speaks of it, he finishes when he has said, " So shall we be ever with the Lord." He has nothing more to add. " We shall be ever with the Lord." Does it ring in your heart as the fullest, richest blessing?