I SEND you a brief recapitulation of the purport of the latter chapters of John's Gospel, specially with a view to the entire transfer of life and blessing to the heavenly state and new creation. We are associated with the heavenly man in God's presence,. not of this earth at all. Lost and rejected of God in it, as those departed from God, and who, when His Son: in grace came into the world, as so departed from. God, rejected Him, He has given us a portion with Himself in heaven, according to the power of that eternal life which was given us in Him before the foundation of the world. Born, as we know we were, in a world of guilty sinners departed' from God,-the blessed Lord has not only met our responsibility by bearing our sins on the cross, but has glorified His Father perfectly, and so obtained a place, as man, in a new and glorious place in the glory of God; but a Place which He had with Him before the world. To this we are called in virtue of the redemption which: He has accomplished, and in the power of the life which is in Him,-that eternal life which was with the Father and has been manifested unto us, is now become our life. Thus, we are not of the world, as He is not of the world., The transition, after He had been fully manifested on. earth, and His rejection complete, from His earthly place to a wholly heavenly one, is what I would now trace in John's Gospel. Two collateral subjects complete this, the gift of the Holy Ghost while He is on high and we on earth; and a glimpse at the future dispensation, when the effect of His exaltation is manifested on earth.
In the eighth chapter, His word had been rejected. There He was A.m. In the ninth; His works, giving 0 sight to the blind; but then, He being owned as the' Sent One, His sheep are brought out of the fold by following Him, and the Gentiles brought into one flock with them. Here it is the revelation of the: Father and the Son, always the names of grace in 'John. He is now, thus rejected of men, owned' of God on earth; as Son of God by resurrection in chapter 11., and as Son of David and Son of Man in the 12th chapter. The two first were earthly titles, though the first connected with His person, according to Psalm where He is rejected as such, only God will make good the title; but the last brings us to the point which I am anxious to develop. The Greeks°- come up and desire to see Jesus. The Lord says " The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified," but adds, " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die it brings forth much fruit;" and then He explains to His disciples, that they must follow in this path. But then they would be where He would be; and the Father would honor them. This, then, was the distinct transfer of Himself and His disciples, through death, to a heavenly dwelling, where the Father would honor those who had served the rejected Jesus. To this is then added the distinct definite rejection of the Jews. " Who bath believed our report? ' Their eyes were blinded. He had come to save; but His rejected words would judge in the last day; received, they had the words of the Father and of eternal life. In chap. 13. the transition to the heavenly state is formally brought forward. Jesus. was departing out of this world to the Father. He had come from God, was not of this world, and went to God, and all things were delivered into His hand of the Father. The. whole heavenly state connected with His person and perfectness. But they were in the world, treading its defilements, though washed (save Judas), by the Word. He so deals, keeping, notwithstanding all. His glory, His place of servant, as to fit them for being with Him, instead of what could no longer be, nor ever be, as full blessing, His being with them. This is the glorious truth here brought out; a part with Him, where a Real Greeks, not Hellenists, Grecian Jews.
He was taking this blessed and heavenly place, being exalted as man, where He was with the Father before the world was: At present, indeed, they could not follow Him. Treachery, or weakness, was man's part in presence of His passage through death into the heavenly country. But a perfect foundation was laid for our being there, not simply in the removal of the guilt lying upon us in respect of the condition out of which we are called, as sinners born in and of this, world; but in perfectly glorifying God in that in which He did this, so as to enter, as man, into the. Glory with God, and that by this work which He did for us, not waiting for the kingdom, but straightway glorified. In chap. 14., He fully explains His going there to prepare a place for them, and how they would have the knowledge of their portion in it while down here. This brings in the sending of the Comforter. They were to believe in Him (Jesus), not see Him; so it was they knew God. He went to prepare a place for them in His Father's house. Now the Father had been fully revealed in His person; hence they knew where He was going,. for He was going to the Father. That gave its true character to the heavenly house-their home. They knew the way, for in coming to Him they had come to the Father. He was the way. The life too in which they could enjoy it. They came to the Father by Him. That was where He was going and the way. This hung on his person, because He was in the Father and the Father in Him,-was to be revealed in Him. Love to one another and obedience to Him, let us add, were to characterize them instead of 'His presence. His person had revealed where He was going and the way. But, if He went away, the Father would send the Comforter in His name; and thus they would have the present consciousness of their heavenly portion in Him. They would know that He was in the Father,-His divine person in union with the Father; but, besides that, they were in Him and He in them. Thus they had already, when the Comforter came, a part in the heavenly place of the Son, and, knew it. They were by the Spirit in a place analogous to that which He held as man on earth, when He could say, " The Son of Man, who is in heaven." They sit in heavenly places in Him. He shows how they would enjoy it on earth by His coming and revealing Himself to the obedient; and His Father and He coming and making their abode in such a one. He left them this, His own peace. Having thus distinctly laid out before them the Christian's place and home in heaven, through what had been revealed in His person on earth, He breaks up from earthly society and connection, and says to the twelve, "Arise; let us go hence." But there was more than the condemned world, in taking this heavenly place. There was the vine God. had brought out of Egypt. But nothing, was to be owned on the earth. As He had been in the world, and the world knew Him not, and He left it, rejected and condemned, to take a new place as man,-His own before the world was,—-so He came to His own and His own received Him not. Israel, after the flesh, special and important as had been its place as regarded human responsibility in the world (for it had the measure of it in the law), yet was not the true vine. Man was simply responsible, and had failed. The second Adam was man in God's purpose of grace. Israel was called as a vine brought out of Egypt; but, after all, though it had a special place, because called,-it was not in flesh the true vine, with Messiah as its principal branch. Christ. Himself was the true Vine, those who followed Him the branches. If Isa. 49 be referred to, an analogous substitution will be found. Israel is the servant in whom Jehovah is to be glorified,-whom He had formed from the womb to be His servant. If so Christ had labored in vain, then He becomes the servant, and preserving the remnant of Jacob is God's salvation to the ends of the earth. Christ Himself, then, is the true Vine, the disciples were the branches,- and at this moment (for Judas was gone out),. all clean. Professing Christians have an analogous place to this. Literally, it refers to what there was in Israel. It will be remarked, that there are two distinct teachings here, the general-statement in verses 1, 2; then 3-5 apply to the disciples; Judas being gone, verse 6 is a general statement by itself; verse 7 begins again with the disciples.
The first thing was abiding in Christ. In verse 7 is added, " and my words abide in you." In verse 9, it is abiding in His love which is spoken of The world will hate them, for the old vine is wholly left aside here; they have now no cloak for their sin; they have seen and hated both Him and His Father. Thus Israel is disposed of, and Christ is the true Vine. Note that this has nothing to do with union with Christ as the Church. That is a heavenly union. We are perfect in Him. There is no pruning there, no more than cutting off; no fruit bearing looked for. Vines are planted on earth, not in heaven. Christ on earth is the true Vine of God, not Israel. " Now ye are clean" should be, " already ye are clean." When the Comforter was come (this introduces the heavenly part, even as 15. 1-25 was the earthly). He would testify of Christ as gone to the Father.; while the disciples (as aided. and made capable, by Him according to chap. 26), 'would bear testimony to the earthly part of Christ's-history. But the Comforter, though. earth, would bear witness of a Christ rejected here and gone to the Father, and a convicted and judged world; This chap. 16. fully. details. On earth, the disciples were to be rejected and persecuted, for Christ was going away, to Him that sent Him. But it was expedient for them He should go away, for the Comforter would come if He did. The world, as such, the whole world, without respect to particular details of sin, which yet remained true for the day of judgment, would be convicted of sin as not believing in Christ: The presence of the Holy Ghost would demonstrate their sin, because they had not believed in Him; demonstrate righteousness, not in any human ground of man's fulfilling his duty, but in this that the Father took Christ to His right hand and the world, who had rejected Him, saw him no more. Thus the world, as growing up since Adam's fall, was finally rejected, and righteousness known only in heaven. Righteousness; as recognizing what was good, was only in the Father setting Christ' at His right hand, in judgment, in that the world, which had rejected Him, saw Him no more. The judgment of the world was not arrived, but the proof of it was given in the judgment of its prince; for it was demonstrated that he who led it all was the adversary of the Lord. This world had Satan for its prince. Its prince was the Lord's adversary, and led it to reject and put Him to death. The presence and power of the Spirit made manifest this, though judgment was not executed on the world. On the other hand, the same Spirit would guide them into truth and glorify Christ, into whose hands, all that the Father had was now put. The world would rejoice for a little season at getting rid of Him, but the disciples would see him again in the new resurrection-state, and their sorrow be turned into joy. The Father Himself loved them, and they were to ask the Father in His name. They would have tribulation in the world, but He had overcome it. Even they, as of the world, would desert him; but the Father, now seen to be the opposite of the world, was with Him. Chapter 17 then brings out the whole condition and state of the disciples, through this glorifying of Christ, as regards the Father, and as regards the world. The Son was to be glorified, to glorify the Father thence. The knowledge of the Father and Jesus. Christ, as sent of the Father, was eternal life. Most: High was supremacy,' not eternal life: Almighty—securing power, not life; Jehovah-faithful promises' made. good by Him who is, and was, and is to come, but not eternal life; but the Father sending the Son-was grace giving eternal life. That name only bore it in it. The others dealt with the world in divine title and goodness. This revealed and brought eternal life as before and not of the world, though sent into it in grace, and now was glorified out of it; Christ giving. eternal life to those the Father had given him. The work His Father had given him to- do was finished, He had glorified the Father on the earth, and now was to; be glorified with the glory which he had with the Father before the earth was. His Sonship glory. He' had manifested His Father's name to the men whom the Father had given to Him. They bad- kept the Father's word, held to. Christ,- not gone with the world; and Christ had put them in full 'relation with the Father as he was as a man down here. Now He came to the Father leaving them in the world to, be kept by the name in which He knew the Father, and in which He had kept them. They were not of the world as He was not; and He had set Himself apart as the glorified man on high that they might be formed. into His heavenly image by the testimony of the truth revealing it. For this and He Himself were the truth. But this went further, for Christ (according to the title, which He had as having glorified the Father) wills to have them with Him where He is, and see His glory-loved as He Was before the foundation of the world. As a present thing, both then and now, He had declared, and does declare the Father's name, that the love wherewith the Father had loved them might be in us, and He in us that we might enjoy it. Thus the person of the Son, His work to bring us into His own place of glory, the love the Father had to Him before even the world existed; His going out of the world up to the Father-all are brought in, to give us a place with Him before the Father in glory, according to the love He was loved with before the world even existed. As to the world itself, now it did exist; having rejected Him, it would hate them as having His testimony, the Father's word; and as being not of it as Christ was not. Thus, the whole condition of Christians, as associated with Christ gone to the Father, and not of the world as He was not, is set forth. Christ appealing to the righteousness of the Father in that the world had not known Him; He had, and the disciples had known Himself, as sent of the Father. This closed the unfolding of the transfer of Christ; and the recognition of Christ from earth to heaven. The history of His sufferings follows. I have only to notice, as to this, two points: one, that He is in the excellency of His person as Son, not in His weakness as man; and the other, that the Jews stand in relief as evil; judged and put aside in every way. There is no agony in Gethsemane, but 'they go backward and fall to the ground when He freely puts. Himself forward, and that to save His disciples. There is no "My God, my God! why halt Thou forsaken me?" but He delivers up His own Spirit to His Father. His answers are full of dignity
and conscious title to command, though perfectly submissive. In His death He is with the rich. In the twentieth chapter we have the whole present dealings of God up to, and inclusive of, the calling of the remnant of the Jews to own Him on seeing Him in the last day. First, the remnant attached to Himself; delivered from the whole power of Satan; and, by that attachment, caring for nothing in the world but Him. The world was an empty sepulcher, and no more, without Him, but ignorant of the new state of resurrection and relationship with the Father, and God glorified by redemption. The 'return to take corporal possession of the kingdom is set aside, and Mary, knowing Him as risen, was to tell the disciples that He ascended to His Father and their Father, His God and their God. They were placed by redemption in that same relationship with Him as Him-. self was in-His brethren. This gathered them, and Jesus is in their midst speaking peace-for He had made it. Then, according to peace, He sends them to carry remission of sins, giving them competency in life by the power of the Holy Ghost, connecting them with Himself in resurrection. This is the present mission as received. by the Apostles. Thomas believes on. seeing, representing the Jews in the last day, and does not, in that character, receive the mission: but peace made is the starting point here also; for God cannot have to say to any now at all accepted, but on this ground; and Thomas owns Christ as His Lord and God, as the remnant then will. After this, the great millennial indraft takes place; and Christ again takes a place at table with His disciples, but mysteriously " new with them." The net does not now break; there is no separating good fishes. Christ has already, with Himself on shore, not thus brought in; in the bringing of which, the millennial testimony of revealed glory will have no part. The Lord then restores Peter, and confides to him his Jewish sheep, but shows him lie will be rejected and cut off in the end. He will have the glory he once pretended to take by his own will and strength. John's ministry would reach over the falling Church, on to Christ's return. In all this it is looked at as on earth, the 'heavenly thing; believing, without seeing, we had had before. The actual counsels and ways of God as to that, we may seek in Paul, who knew Christ only in heaven. But Paul adds another truth specially trusted to Him, the union of the saints with Christ in one body. For him it is not transitions; it is a new creation, a mystery now first revealed.. The person of the Son and eternal life were revealed when Christ was on earth. And, though it was not the Son's relationship with the Father; with Him in heaven, a glorified man there, and in such a way that others could be with Him in it,-,-yet, in the essence of it, the. Father's name had been revealed, and if they were not yet in Him before His Father, the Father was revealed to them in Him. Paul looks at the saint as crucified with Christ. It is a new creation, a mystery never revealed at all. Still, we get the same truth, the Church is wholly heavenly, we are not alive in the world, but crucified to the world, and the world -to us. The promise of eternal life was given us in Christ Jesus before the world was. Such is Christianity: Christians now would make it the modification of this world from which Christ came to deliver us. Our part is to give, and to give it practically too, testimony that the Church, and the Christian, is wholly heavenly; that we are not of the world which rejected Christ, of which Satan is the prince, no more than Christ was of it. This is our capital testimony as Christians now. Let' it be manifested in not meddling, in it, in non-conformity to it; and, through grace, a distinct apprehension of our heavenly calling, and of the Church's place. I recapitulate briefly the chapters in-John.
Chapter 13 He gives them a place with Him (He dying to take the glory as Son of man).
Chap. my. He had 'manifested the Father on earth; now by the Comforter they would be in Him in heaven, and He and the Father reveal themselves to- them on earth. He breaks up from association even with the remnant on earth.
Chapter 15;16 He is the true Vine; not Israel, even then on earth; his disciples the branches, now, to bring forth fruit. The Spirit sent by Him from on high would reveal heavenly things and show the condemnation of the world as having rejected Him.
Chap. 17. The disciples are put in His place before the Father and before the world, and in the same place with Him on high.
chaps. 18., 19. He freely gives Himself as Son of God.
Chapter 20 The present course of blessing on the earth.
Chapter 21 A glimpse into the Millennium.
FRAGMENTS.
It is strange how man, in his inconsiderateness and narrow-mindedness, manages to ignore the Babel which Christendom now presents. Yet surely the Roman and Greek churches present no visible unity. Nor are the Protestant churches. (so called) one with either of the above, or one among themselves. I remember a Hebrew being converted to Christianity, and being bewildered by all these differences when he had to choose a church for himself. How much more so would he have been if he had seen the Heavenly character and Divine presence of the Holy Ghost with the Pentecostal church, and the worldly character and worldly powers ruling in man's churches.
And so must Christendom continue, until the Lord sets it aside: having first 'taken out of it all those who were really in Spirit and by faith associated with Him. Till then, may they be true to Him in practical life here below; and they will find in Him, that the Unity and the. Catholicity of the body of spiritual members exists, though the display of it as at first is impossible-yet may these things be recognized and acted upon by faith.
The visibility of a company gathered together in the Lord's name (" where two or three are met together in My name, there am I in the midst of them") in no wise interferes with the Unity and Catholicity of the body. The Unity and the Catholicity were in the Spirit. If the two or three 'walk, as under the Lord and with the Spirit present,-the Spirit of the Unity and the Catholicity of the body will be in and on them.
But there is also a Unity and a Catholicity in error,—springing from the observances of form and from living as men, and from earthly-mindedness and conformity to this world-from which such a little company will be free-for they will be heavenly-minded.