From Helps in Things Concerning Himself: Volume 4 (1894)
Walter Thomas Turpin
Table of Contents
“Thy Sun Shall No More Go Down”
(Isaiah 60:20)
These words describe in vivid reality the coming time of blessing for poor scattered Israel, when the daughter of Zion, who now dwells, as it were, in dust, shall awake, and arise and shine, her light being come, and the glory of the Lord be risen upon her.
But they also describe morally and spiritually all that lies before us, as we by faith survey the coming, nearing day- dawn of the bright Morning Star, in contrast with the fading, falling shadows on our life of pilgrimage below.
As with the New Year opening upon us, we turn over a fresh leaf in the book of history, is it not well to challenge our hearts, and ask where this new date finds us, and what is really before us?
The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Day-spring and Morning Star, but, blessed be His name, He is the Sun of the one eternal day, and the clearer and brighter He is before our hearts, the greater the ease with which we retire from all down here. All that is eternal and unfailing is on His side; all below and around us is in reality but sunset, the brightness and beauty are gradually but surely fading. If our poor eyes are turned there they are only on what is sinking below the horizon, but when they are fixed like the martyr Stephen on Jesus in the glory of God, how different it all is; then the outline, beautiful beyond all conception, of the eternal realities, unfolds itself before us.
There is one great and blessed fact which stands out to the eye of faith thus fixed on the nearing, heavenly sunrise: it is the blessed establishment of communication between the heart and its absent object. This too by the Holy Ghost, the heavenly messenger and glorifier of Jesus, who conveys to the soul the sense and comfort of His love and His blessed thoughts about us—thus are we really invigorated and revived, thus do the things above display themselves in all their own blessedness before us. We live then in His own sphere with Himself, in all the calm and rest of that blessed region of satisfied desire, and in the peace and power of it we are carried through the raging storms on our own side, superior through His grace to the watery waste around us, the heart already in the place where its treasure is, where the sun no more goes down, but where the everlasting light of His presence enfolds it around for ever.
May our hearts, dear readers, turn more than ever there during this new year; be it days and weeks and months, few or many, and may we be more intently, looking up to, as well as abiding in, Him who came and died and rose again, and sits at God’s right hand for us, and looking forward to that blessed moment when His shout shall be heard by all His own raised or changed, who shall follow Him into the Father’s house, and there share His heavenly bliss and joys, of which we sometimes sing, when we say: –
“There with unwearied gaze,
Our eyes on Him we’ll rest,
And satisfy with endless praise
A heart supremely blest.”
Looking up and Within
The question asked has awakened a real desire to be, if possible, some comfort as to it. I think I know where many are as to this and such like subjects. Alas! we are all but poor ones as to deep and real heart exercise before the Lord concerning these things that trouble many. Let me first endeavor to emphasize the fact that what so many are longing after, as feeling they have not got, is the consequence of something else.
What is longed for, and rightly too, “affections satisfied,” “tastes imbibed,” “Christ living in us,” “eternal life working”—all this, and much more akin to it, results from, flows out of, something else. I will try and show what I mean by that something else, presently. Now observe that produced effects or consequences cannot create themselves, and if our mind or thoughts dwell much on their absence or possession, we are correspondingly depressed or elated; it is good to be convicted, but it does not help us to dwell much on our shortness of stature in divine fellowship or realization; and it does not comfort us to see certain qualities and joys which we know ought to be there, but which we are sure we have not. I think I hear the words, “Tell us what is that something which begets all this in the saint.” Well, I will try.
1st. The Christian is of a new order, and united to the Man at God’s right hand; the Christian is one with Christ in heaven. Wonderful, blessed fact that! Faith accepts it in all simplicity, and in the measure of faith, and in the power of the Spirit, is realization, communion, and joy.
2ndly. He to whom the Christian is united is a Man in glory, and the whole glory of God shines from Him; there he knows Him, there he sees Him, there he has intercourse with Him; it must be so, because if we have to do with Christ it must be where He is, then as it is so, that is, as He Himself in glory occupies the whole soul, we are changed into His image. Diligence and purpose of heart on our part there must be most surely, not in the direction of what is produced in us, as if we could secure these, but in being absorbed with Him, who by His Spirit forms in us, as we are engrossed with Himself, all those fruits which are seen and noticed by men. Again I repeat it, nothing can produce results corresponding to heaven but occupation with Christ, who is there; that we while here are changed into His image as we are impressed by Christ there; that the beloved Son filling the entire vision of our soul, shapes and forms us in moral likeness to Him as He was here. This is all blessedly true, yet I feel that there is a danger of the heart valuing this rather for the effects and consequences which are produced by it, and flow from it, than because of His own inherent and captivating blessedness. I do not of course mean to say that one would say so, or even allow oneself to think so; yet there can be no doubt that if effects or consequences are prominent in the soul, what produces them is valued rather in reference to them, than absolutely in itself.
With us it ought to be Canaan first and then the lessons of the wilderness. These have a very different character when this is the order, yet I am assured it is the divine order for us; working to heaven, and living from it, are two very different things; starting from heaven would not make the wilderness of this world less the wilderness than it is, but all about it would be gilded, the clear, soft, blessed light of heaven would gild the dreariness of earth’s wilds.
We get an illustration of all this in Ex. 34. Moses’ face shone after he had been in the mount with God, and the effects were seen and felt after he came down among the people; the object in heaven forms in those whose object He is all those holy affections and tastes suited to itself. Stephen in Acts 7 is the New Testament instance of this truth: “full of the Holy Ghost,” he looked up, not within or around, but up into heaven, and Jesus in the glory of God met, and filled, his vision; in the power of that sight he bears his testimony, and acts like Christ Himself.
Paul, in Phil. 3, tells us the same story, the Man in glory as seen and engrossing the soul, formed in the vessel the affections and tastes suited to Himself. The power of an object is wonderful even in earthly things; if our object be superior to us we derive from it, it imparts to us; if inferior, we drop to it.
Oh, to dwell much on the fact that we are one with Him! Oh, to be much in His company where He is, and thus to exhibit Christ subjectively! Remember the words, “looked up steadfastly unto heaven.” There cannot be too much purpose of heart and anxiety to look up steadfastly into heaven, but no purpose of heart or diligence can secure to us the effects of looking up: there will be the bringing the air and the rest and the power of Christ in glory to bear upon every step of the way; but we must not forget that for this two things are needed:
1st. The power of faith that looks up and takes possession above.
2nd. The power of death that displaces all that would dispute His right below. I would add, that in Phil. 4 we see the heavenly Man’s superiority to all around Him: he can “stand fast in the Lord,” when general weakness and declension abound; he can “rejoice in the Lord” in a scene and circumstances full of sorrow and grief: he can be without a care in a world full of cares, because he casts them on One who can carry them and not feel their weight, and thus he has “the peace of God” where all is unrest and disquiet around him: he can let things go here, because he has an eternal certainty in that place where Christ is, and who is “at hand”; he can occupy his heart with what is good amid abounding evil, and so find the God whose peace keeps his heart, walking beside him; he can be abased, and not be disheartened; he can abound, and not be elated, because Christ is his sufficiency in the dark day, and better than the best in the bright day; nothing stands in his way, he balks at nothing, he is seated on the power of Christ, and “can do all things”; though he has nothing, yet he possesses all, though empty, yet he is full: he has a source, and a supply, a measure, and a channel equal to the heart of God. “My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory, through Christ Jesus.”
“the Man Christ Jesus”
1 Timothy 2:5
There are two great realities, two great divine facts, which constitute the basis of all true religion.
We have them both stated in the verse before us, namely:
“One God”—“one mediator.”
God was pleased in former times to make one nation (the Jewish) the depositary and testimony in the world of the truth of the unity of the Godhead: “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our Lord is one Lord.”
We learn from Josh. 24:2 that the world had lost the knowledge of the one true God even the family of Shem, and the position which belonged to God alone in the mind and heart had been usurped by Satan, for the gods they worshiped were demons (see 1 Cor. 10:20, where Deut. 32 is quoted). It was then that God chose and called out one man for Himself, to be separate from his country and kindred, and his father’s house, a witness both in the world and against the world for God. In Abraham God had separated to Himself a family, a nation, Israel, and as we have observed, with the purpose of their being His witnesses among other realities to the fact that there was one only God. In due course this nation were further separated to God Himself from the world, of which Egypt was the figure, by a typical redemption, and became His dwelling-place on the earth.
But now be it observed this great revelation and witness of one only God was not sufficient to bring men into relationship with Him, and as to fact, God abode within the veil, as it is said, “In the darkness which shrouded his majesty” (see Deut. 5:22; 1 Kings 8:12; 2 Chron. 6:1; Lev. 16:2).
Now it is in the second great fact, which is the distinctive truth of Christianity, that we learn how God can be in relationship with man. Note it well that whilst Christianity fully reveals the one God, it alone presents the fact of one Mediator. I would here record the testimony of another witness to the greatness and preciousness of this truth:
Two things here characterize the Mediator. He is a man; He gave Himself a ransom for all. The time for the testimony was ordered of God.
Precious truth! We are in weakness, we are guilty, we could not bring ourselves near to God. We needed a Mediator, who, while maintaining the glory of God, should put us into such a position that He could present us to God in righteousness according to that glory. . . . But He must be a man in order to suffer for men and to represent men. And this He was. But this is not all. We are weak—here, where we are to receive the revelation of God; and weak with regard to the use of our resources in God and our communion with Him—even when our guilt is blotted out. And in our weakness to receive the revelation of God, Christ has revealed God, and all that He is in His own Person, in all the circumstances wherein man could have need, either in body or soul. He came down into the lowest depths in order that there should be none, even of the most wretched, who could not feel that God in His goodness was near him and was entirely accessible to him—come down to him—His love finding its occasion in misery; and that there was no need to which He was not present, which He could not meet.
It is thus that He made Himself known on earth; and now that He is on high, He is still the same. . . . He is still a man in glory and in divine perfection. . . . No tenderness, no power of sympathy, no humanity like His. No human heart that can so understand, so feel with us, whatever the burden may be that oppresses the heart of man. It is the man, the Christ, Jesus, who is our Mediator.
It is blessed to dwell upon His Person as both God and man, and our wisdom and blessing is to hold fast both, not the one to the setting aside of the other. It is a poor and contemptible piece of Satanic deceit to so blind any by the pride and vanity of a supposed orthodoxy, as to lead men to obscure, and in some instances even to set aside practically, the great truth of His manhood. How blessed for us that “the Word became flesh.” The eternal Word who was ever with God and was God, was pleased to become man. Let me here notice a point of great beauty in John 1. We read that the Word was God and was with God, but we equally read the positive statement that His presence as man was with men. This will help to show the equal preciousness to God of His Person as both God and man.
But further, it is important to guard against a system from which the mediatorial character of the blessed Lord and of His work, almost entirely disappears or is destroyed; it is not possible for instance to have true divine understanding of eternal life, if this mediatorial character of Christ is denied. Oh, how easily we can be both cheated and deceived by the enemy; his wiles are most dangerous when they are of a religious nature, and when pride rules the will, the soil of the heart is ready for his seed. Alas! what is unmortified and unjudged flesh not capable of? “Full of light, full of Satan,” is an awful possibility.
Now on no side of His mediatorial character is it more needful to be clear than on that of life; I do most thankfully adopt the words of another and say:
If they did not eat His flesh and drink His blood, they had not life. . . . For that it was necessary that a divine and heavenly life should descend from heaven and communicate itself to souls, and that in one man; it was necessary that that man should die and terminate every relation between God and the fallen race, and risen should begin a new race, possessing (having through grace appropriated to themselves Christ) divine life.
How blessed to dwell then on the precious Lord’s “emptying Himself ” (©"LJ@< ¦6,This is not true of Godhead. You could not say God lives ‘4" any being. Christ says, I live ‘4" J@< A"J,D" (by the Father) (John 6:57). And the subject here is just this descent of life and our living by Christ, and the flesh of Christ is distinctly brought in and His death. In John’s Gospel this reception from the Father is most carefully everywhere retained, while His own proper Deity shines all through most strikingly.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the mediatorship of our precious Lord, both as regards life and propitiation. Further, the fact of a mediator between God and man is, as we have observed, the great and distinctive truth of Christianity, “His coming from on high, His divine nature, His death, His life as man in heaven, all point Him out as the one and only mediator.” The loss of this mediatorial place of the blessed Lord would be the loss of Christianity.
Lastly, it is very solemn to ponder and dwell upon the fact, namely, that in coming times, Satan’s great personification of wickedness will deny Jesus Christ come in flesh (1 John 4:1-3). The confession of Jesus Christ come in flesh was “not merely to confess that He is come, but to confess Him thus come.” The denial of Jesus come in flesh is the spirit of Antichrist, and is also “that (power) of the Antichrist.”
Oh, for hearts true and loyal to His blessed Person in all that constitutes the God-Man, holding fast His divine glory with all holy reverence, but equally holding fast the perfection of His humanity and its servant form, the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
“to Believers in Christ”
A letter bearing the above title has just come to hand, and in view of the subtle misuse of scripture which pervades it, as well as the utter ignorance of the word of God, and confusion of the writer’s own mind, evidenced therein, some notice of it seems called for, as a warning to any who may be deceived by a crafty counterfeit of the enemy. It is, as the writer himself says, with principles not with persons we have to do.
First, there is a painful absence in the letter of any divine conception of the true nature and character of the church, the body of Christ. I cannot find once in all that is written, a sentence which conveys the thought of a divinely Spirit-taught mind as to this great secret and counsel of God before the foundation of the world; he seems never to rise beyond the association of believers on earth, and inasmuch as every association, according to the scripture thought of it, has the fact of one body for its basis, the writer is even in what he treats of, entirely apart from the thoughts and mind of God.
The letter is professedly issued as an exposition of the reasons which led the writer to sever his connection with a company of Christians with whom he had been for some time in fellowship.
But the object of these comments is to point out the perversion and misapplication of scripture which underlies the whole.
On page 2, last paragraph, a number of scriptures are put together, and it is said that these designate in various ways a principle in the New Testament, namely, “Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love” (Col. 1:13, R.V.). The scriptures so put together are 1 Cor. 1:9; 3:16; Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Peter 2:5, R.V.; Eph. 2:21, 22, where it is said, “a similar thought is found.” A more sad confusion and perversion of scripture could hardly be found than this. In order to set up what is called a “conditional” fellowship or association, “the kingdom of the Son of his love,” which is a precious unfolding of the Father and the Son, the counsels of the Father accomplished by the Son, the sovereign operation and power of God placing us in an entirely new position and relationship with Himself, this we are told is the same as the “house of God,” where the responsibility of man as a builder is seen, where we are justified in “looking at the outward thing in this world as a building which in pretension, character, and responsibility, is God’s building—yet has been built by man, and built of wood and stubble, so that the work is to be burnt up in the day of judgment which is revealed in fire.” Though he may not be aware of it, the writer of the letter is in the darkness of that confusion and error on which Popery, Puseyism, and the whole ritualistic system is built, namely, he confounds that which Christ builds with that which man builds; but the confusion is seen at its height when it is asserted that 1 Pet. 2:5 “leaves no doubt as to its being a conditional state!” It would be difficult to find a more flagrant perversion of scripture, than to apply to what is called “a conditional state” a passage which speaks of the building in its true perfect adjustment, without any instrumental builder. However differently viewed according to the ministry of each, Paul in Eph. 2:21, 22, and Peter in the passage in question, as well as Heb. 3—Christ’s house, all speak of the same building; never is it said of that which men build on the foundation laid by Paul the master-builder, that it is “fitly framed together”; there responsibility of builders is found, and man never yet “fitly framed” anything. This confusion loses sight of the true distinction between God’s house, His habitation by the Spirit on earth in its normal condition, and the building the work of man, where wood, hay, stubble are found, what is commonly called Christendom.
Further his statement that the “first principles of gathering” with what he calls “the seven-fold order” are found in Acts 2:41, 42 has no foundation in fact. It is well to bear in mind that the Acts is rather a divine record of facts and the actings of the Holy Ghost after His descent at Pentecost, than a book of doctrines and principles.
Now in the passage in question, we find that all was there that God had given; the blessed Spirit had come down, but was in fact circumscribed within the limits of Jerusalem and among Jews: no Gentile had as yet been received, nor was the unity of the body taught, all was yet undeveloped and the union of Jew and Gentile in one body was not, as has been said, “in evidence.” It is very evident from the application of this scripture that the author does not understand the meaning of verse 47. “To the assembly” here is evidently a gloss, and the word found in chapter 3:1 should come in here; it will thus read, “and the Lord was adding day by day together those that were to be saved,” that is, the spared ones at the close of the Jewish dispensation. It is beyond all question a lovely picture which is here presented to us, and that too for but a brief moment; there never had been seen such a picture previously on earth; it was the effect of divine grace, and it was in the name of the once crucified, but now glorified One; yet it was of a transitional character, and as to fact was confined to Jerusalem and Jews, so much so that if the nation had repented, Acts 3 might have been fulfilled. It is not until we come to Paul that we are instructed as to the body of Christ; as soon as the blessed One is rejected entirely, both in humiliation, and from glory, then the great secret is revealed, and the words “Why persecutest thou me?” told out the great fact that Christ was here on earth in His body, the church; now as all church association and fellowship must be on the ground of “one body,” how can any one be clear in respect of the principles of gathering, if they have no true conception of the heavenly nature and character of the church the body of Christ?
Another sad confusion as to scripture is found on page 4, middle paragraph, where John 1:13 and 10:28, 29 are adduced as evidence of the Lord building His church Himself, and “that we are added thereto unconditionally and eternally.” There is perhaps no part of the letter in which the total absence of any spiritual apprehension of the body of Christ is more apparent than here.
There is not a word in either of these passages in John of the Lord building His church, or our being added thereto; such is not the subject of John’s ministry or apostleship; it is specially and characteristically that of Paul; further, we are not “added thereto,” as the letter asserts; we are, by the Holy Ghost, united to Christ as Man glorified in heaven, and equally united together in one body; the distinction between “adding” and “uniting” is of every importance. It is very certain that independency is hostile to the whole principle of one body. The church is not a voluntary system, not a trace is to be found of the principle of independency, it everywhere speaks of one body on earth, whose unity was, as has been truly said, “the foundation of blessing in fact, and its maintenance the duty of every Christian.” Let the writer of the letter we comment on take care that he is not in principle and in fact on the lines of a new and subtle independency, which is a crafty counterfeit of Satan. “There is one body and one Spirit,” is the divine ground and principle of all gathering and association of saints together, and all who are gathered to His name, would act as one simply because they are one.
To Paul was committed this special ministry. He tells us he was a minister of the church to complete the word of God, and so we are prepared to find the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ, fully set forth in his writings; we find full and detailed unfolding of it in Eph. 1 and chapter 3, in 1 Cor. 10 and chapter 12, and also in Colossians, yet there will not be found therein any such thought as building a body; what we do find is that the risen glorious Man exalted at the right hand of God is the head of His body, the church, and that He was given by God as such to be this—The thought of a building, a habitation of God, is distinct in itself, in it there is no thought of head, or body, or union at all. It is important to see that in Ephesians we have Christ as the glorious Man raised and exalted in glory, Head over all things to the church His body; next we find those dead in sins, whether Jews or Gentiles, children of wrath, quickened together with Christ, raised up together and seated together in Him in heavenly places, as His body, all this being the fruit of the purposes and counsels of God before the foundation of the world; but when we turn to 1 Cor. 12 we see the body of Christ on earth, and maintained in unity by the power of the Holy Ghost. This it is which gives such force to verse 27, “Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular,” that is, they were so in principle as gathered together at Corinth, but not in any wise as separating them from the whole body on earth, but as forming part of it, and on the basis and ground of it in principle and constitution.
As feeling the deep importance of the truths called in question in this letter, as well as the great truth of the moment, the body of Christ on earth, now the object of Satan’s direst opposition in various ways, but chiefly by counterfeit and imitation, I have entered thus into detail, with the earnest desire and prayer that God may open the eyes of the hearts of His people to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Was All Christ's Life Down Here Only a Manifestation of God to Men?
I do not believe it would be possible to exaggerate the importance of a true and divinely taught reply to the above question. The truth as to it involves so deeply a holy appreciation of the relations into which the blessed Lord has been pleased to enter as man with regard to men, as well as His glory in connection with them, that I feel the Lord would have His own alive to their precious import and blessedness. In order to promote this I will here transcribe the words of the beloved servant to whom the whole church of God owes so much, though but little recognized, or it may be remembered by many now. The reader will remember that the italics are mine wherever found, except the contrary be stated: There is one other point to which, though I have noticed it, I return, as of vital importance. Dr. W. holds that Christ represented God before men, not men before God.
The first part is most blessedly true, but even that not to the extent of the inferences Dr. W. would draw from it, that there must be identity of operation. The Son did not send the Father, nor not spare Him, but deliver Him up for us. The thought would be utterly anti-Christian. He accepted His part of the work of grace. “Lo I come to do thy will, O God”; and a body being prepared for Him, He took upon Him the form of a servant and was found in the likeness of men. I may return to this point elsewhere; I merely take note of it now, and turn to the question of representing God to men and man to God. Now in His life down here, he that had seen Him had seen the Father, a most precious and sanctifying truth. John 14 is express in stating it, as the whole life of Jesus is the verification and illustration of it. He is moreover, in His Person the image of the invisible God, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His being, His hypostatis. As to this scripture is plain; and I have no controversy with Dr. W. Further, that He was true God and true man, united in one person, is not in question either; it is believed by both of us. The question is, Did He stand for men before God as well as for God before men. That He does in heaven is quite clear. He is gone into heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us (Heb. 9:24). But was all His life down here only a manifestation of God to men? When He took His place with the godly remnant in Israel, being baptized with John’s baptism, assuredly not confessing sins as they did, but fulfilling righteousness, having emptied Himself and taken the form of a servant and entered upon the path of obedience, ¦< FPZ:"J4 ,ßD,2,ÂH ñH –<2DTB@H (that is, “being found in fashion as a man”), saying to John, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” When He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, did He represent God to men? Was it not, as the first man was tempted and fell, the second man held fast and overcame? Did He not overcome, saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” and overcome by refusing to go out of the place of a servant which He had taken, though challenged by Satan to do so as being Son of God? Did He not hold the place of man when He said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”? Did He not, when He dismissed Satan, saying, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”? He was always the obedient man before God, as Adam was the disobedient one; and though He abode alone, until redemption was accomplished, the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, yet He stood in this world as man before God, as well as God before men. Who was the obedient man, did always such things as pleased His Father, pleased in Gethsemane when His hour was come in the days of His flesh, with strong crying and tears made His supplication unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared, "B@ J0H ,L8"$,4"H (that is, for His piety), was this representing man or God?
That He was alone till redemption was accomplished I fully recognize, but alone as the sinless man amongst men, to accomplish what was called for from man for God. If He tasted death for every man, was that as representing God to men, or standing for men before God? When God laid our iniquity on Him, was it representing God before men? When it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, to make the Captain ("DP0(@<) of our salvation perfect through suffering, whom did He represent? When He cried in deep agony, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” did He represent God to man? That He must have been God to be fit and able to do it is most true; but He was not representing God before men, but drinking the cup given to Him. When He was made sin, for whom was He made sin? Did He represent God to man then or stand for men before God when He took up the cause of man (Heb. 2)? He did not represent God to men, but it is written in a certain place, “What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou crownedst him with glory and honor.” He was the second man, the last Adam.
He was the "DP0(@< (Captain) of our salvation, the obedient, sinless, suffering man, who overcame Satan as man for men, was made sin for us (italics the author’s), died for our sins, that is, represented us before God, our iniquity being laid upon Him, and drank that dreadful cup, taking it from His Father’s hand, “the curse of wrath.” Was suffering (italics the author’s) the curse of wrath representing God to men or man as made sin under the righteous judgment of God? I add, that though the priesthood of Christ be now in heaven, where He appears in the presence of God for us, yet all His life was in every sense a preparation for it.
He had so taken up man, that it became God to make Him perfect in that heavenly place through suffering; He was tempted, suffering being tempted, that He might succor them that are tempted. Not only so, but He was made like to His brethren in all things, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. And so in chapter 5 of the same epistle, comparing Him with the Jewish high priest, though showing the difference; and it is clear that the priest represented the people before God, confessed their sins on the scapegoat, and went into the sanctuary for them, as Christ has done into the true sanctuary for us. The priesthood of Christ is no doubt for believers; but to deny that He represented men, stood there as man for them before God, and that on the cross, as in Hebrews 2:17, as man, alone indeed but for men, is a ruinous error.
I do not make any apology for the length of this extract, its truth and deep importance at the present moment will be apparent to every soul taught of the Spirit of God. May God our Father, in His rich grace, grant to all who read it the “understanding” which His Spirit alone can give, to apprehend the precious truth it conveys, and its most marked and significant bearing on the times we are now passing through.
The Comforter
I think we might profitably look at the way the Spirit is presented in those three chapters—John 14, 15, 16.
John 14:15-19, 25, 26; 15:24-27; 16:7-13.—In the early chapters of this gospel the Spirit is presented more in the aspect of power—divine power (chs. 4 and 7). The Lord said to the woman, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” He evidently points to eternal life in the power of the Spirit, so in chapter 7:37-39, and I think all through in the early chapters. When we come to chapters 14, 15, 16, the Spirit is spoken of as a divine Person who comes into the world consequent on the absence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is both power and a Person. If Christ personally leaves this scene, and He does, a Person comes from Him into the scene, and is identified in that way as “another Comforter,” Christ Himself remaining one, though in heaven. The Holy Spirit has come into this world a divine Person. He is power in the absence of Christ. He is here personally in us, and with us. The force of “another Comforter” is that Christ remains still that for us in heaven, does not give up the place of being a Comforter there. The Comforter is really paraclete; the meaning of that word is, one called to your side. The Holy Ghost is a divine Person, yet called to our side. How blessed!
This is consistent with the character of the gospel: it does not take us to heaven where Christ is, but brings heaven down to us. It is this that makes this gospel difficult. Paul takes us up to heaven. John brings heaven down to us.
The source of the mission of the Comforter in these chapters is very beautiful. In John 14 the Father sends Him, and that is very much in keeping with the chapter. The sorrow spoken of in chapter 14 is really heart sorrow, trouble of heart, and no one can meet that except the Father. The Father, knowing the sorrow and trouble of heart caused by Christ’s absence, sends the Comforter. When the Lord speaks of sending Him, He sends Him “from the Father.” The co- operation of the Father and the Son is thus blessedly kept up in that expression. When the Lord speaks of going away out of this world He does not speak of His death as such in this gospel, but that He is going to the Father.
“He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Those are the Father’s things really.
It is blessedly pictured in the case of Abraham and Isaac. Eliezer said, “Sarah my masters wife bare a son to my master when she was old, and unto him hath he given all that he hath.” We ought to recognize the presence of the Holy Ghost that He has come in the name of the One that is gone. He has come to tell us of the One that is gone.
Then we come to chapter 15. There He comes from Christ in glory. Here in chapter 14 He comes from the Father. In chapter 15 it is the witness the Spirit bears to Christ, the glorified One. In chapter 14 it is the comfort the Father ministers by the Spirit to bereaved hearts in the absence of Christ. I am sure we do not feel in its force and reality the absence of Christ, that He is not here, else we should value the presence of the Spirit in a different way. The trouble of chapter 14 is heart trouble. The heaviest sorrow in the world is nothing to the desolation of a heart bereft of the one that is everything to it. One longs to know Christ more in that way, so as to feel bereft of His absence. We could not feel it quite like the disciples; they had known Him on earth with them. We should feel it if we came back from the place where He is.
The presence of the Spirit, as in verse 17, would have a very separating character. The world cannot receive Him, it cannot enter into anything we have in connection with the Spirit’s presence, so that if there is any drawing near to the world it must be entirely on the side of the believer in failure.
Another thing comes out in chapter 14. When we lose loved ones on earth we can have no more communications with them—they are with the Lord. The Lord says, as it were, I am going away, but there is One coming who will keep up the communications with you, who will bring all the blessedness of the absent One into your hearts.
Observe the force in verse 18 of “I will come to you.” It is not a manifestation of the Spirit, but the spiritual manifestation the Lord gives to His people in His absence. It is realized by the Spirit. It is like Paul in the shipwreck (Acts 27:23), when the apostle said, “There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve.” It was a distinct spiritual manifestation to him at that moment by the Lord Himself.
Another incident resembling it was when Paul was in the prison, and “the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul” (Acts 23:11).
We find the same kind of thing further down in this chapter (vv. 21, 23), and this tells us the way in which it is enjoyed. Our enjoyment depends on our keeping the Lord’s commandments.
Is it not very striking that everything in Christianity, and the enjoyment of its blessings, is connected with the Spirit and the power of it?
And that is why there is so little enjoyment of it because the Spirit is grieved and hindered. The presence in person of the Spirit is the great mark of contrast between what existed previously and what is now. When one understands the real power of the Spirit one can understand the deficiency the disciples had in not knowing it. There was no indwelling presence of the Spirit in Old Testament times, but an operation. The Spirit came upon them in power, but not in Person. Now a believer is really indwelt by the Spirit. It is the personal coming of the Holy Ghost, and it is just as distinct and real as the coming of Christ in incarnation. I do not think people realize that the Spirit is a distinct Person. He is thought to be an influence, not a Person.
There is a good deal of talk in the present day about getting the second blessing. What does it mean?
I believe what is really meant by it is what we call deliverance. If a person has received the full blessings of Christianity, that he was entirely purged by the blood of Christ from every spot and stain, and that his old man was crucified with Christ and the Spirit dwelt in him, I do not know what second blessing there could be after this. All that kind of thing tends only to occupy you with yourself—a sort of introspection which leaves you in weakness. A mystic is full of desire. Love has an object. Christianity presents an object to you. We are a great deal more mystics than we have any idea of. What characterizes a mystic is desire, not love—desire, a longing for something you have not got. The real proof of the Spirit of God in power in a person is, that Christ is before the soul. Observe the all things of verse 26 include everything they failed to enter into and apprehend while the Lord was with them.
The special character, as we have noticed, of the Spirit’s presence in chapter 14 is that He is here in the absence of Christ as a Comforter from the Father. Then in chapter 15 it is what we might call a supplementary witness. “He shall testify of me” of Me in heaven. The Lord contemplated His ascension, His exaltation, and as ascended and exalted He sends the Comforter. The testimony of the twelve which we have in the gospel history was to what Jesus was on earth; the testimony of the Spirit is to what He is now in the glory of God.
I believe we have that testimony in Acts 5:30-32. He would bear witness in the disciples as well. But we have this witness of the Spirit to Christ in heaven, especially in Paul’s epistles, because he presents a man gone up into the glory of God. In John it is more God come down here into this world. Is there not much to be gathered from the order in verses 26 and 27? Must we not receive the testimony to a glorified Christ before we trace His path on earth?
I believe we must, we could not enter into the full character of the gospels if we have not received the truth of the epistles.
The real word for witness is martyr. Martyrdom is the meaning—the witness sealed his testimony with his blood. A witness is a person who not only bears testimony by word of mouth but suffers for it. If a person maintains the truth and suffers for it, it is martyrdom really. Two words are used to Paul—“to make thee a minister and a witness,” and there it is martyrdom. It is one thing to be a minister, but very difficult to be a witness. A minister is one who makes the thing known—a witness, one that is it in his own person. Minister in that verse could only apply to the apostle.
When we come to chapter 16, it is not a question of the mission, the truth brought out there is not who sends the Spirit, but the fact of His presence on earth, and the effect of His presence. “When he is come he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” His presence is the demonstration of these things. The Spirit will bring demonstration to the world of these things. We must be either with the Spirit as witness, or with the world and against the Spirit. It shows how impossible it is for us to occupy any position but an outside one, because if we are in company with the Spirit we are bound to be outside. Is not this the reason why we get so much about the world in John?
The whole system of the world is in opposition to the Father. There is nothing in the world that I can be an object to. If the Father’s love is in my heart, the love of the Father in me, it gives me the sense that I am His object:
“The object of His love I am,
And carried like a child.”
In Joseph’s history, that was the compensation for the hatred of his brethren—his father loved him. It is a very blessed thing to have the sense that I am the object of the Father’s love, I am an object to Him. What would preserve you from the love of the world would be that you are the object of the Father’s love.
It should read in verse 13, “the Spirit of the truth.” It is very important, because He is the One that maintains it, and the truth therefore will be maintained while He is here. He is the only One by whom it can be received, too. The truth can never be lost. The wonderful thing for us is that He maintains the truth through us, but if we are unfaithful, He will maintain it as long as He is here.
Apart from the Spirit you could not bear the communications of God. He is the servant of the Father’s glory.
1 Cor. 2: You get three things here that are very striking in connection with the Spirit—revelation, inspiration, and reception. You could not take in things but by the Spirit—you must have receptive power by the Spirit—“All things that the Father hath are mine,” the identity of interest between the Father and the Son in the possession of those things. You could not learn the Father’s things apart from the Son. Any truth pressed apart from Christ is barren.
The Worthiness of Christ
(Rev. 5)
There are two words in this scripture, which are blessed words (ver. 2),
“I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon,” and (ver. 5), “Weep not, behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof.”
Here we have the fact of worthiness, and the fact of power and ability to do it, and neither of these were answered by any one save Christ. “Who is worthy” and “The Lion of the tribe of Juda hath prevailed” are wonderful words for us, because they relate to the inherent excellency of Christ’s Person. He was worthy, in the glory of who He was, and He made a claim upon God to open the book. No one except Himself in the worthiness of His Person could make a claim upon God; it refers to that, so that He was entitled both in His Person and in the rights which He has secured to open the book; and then the other is a very affecting word, “He hath prevailed.” He prevailed through sorrow, death, the afflictions of the cross, being forsaken of God, despised by men, enduring suffering, and as the words of the hymn have it; “By being trodden down,” “He hath prevailed.” It is a blessed word to think that the ability of Christ, in that sense, consisted in His voluntarily going down and enduring everything, becoming, in that sense weaker than everything, giving Himself up to sorrow and the judgment of God, because of sin, and receiving everything, even that which was connected with man, from the hand of God.
“By weakness and defeat,
He won the meed and crown,
Trod all our foes beneath His feet,
By being trodden down.”
I look at Him there by faith in heaven now, and see Him wearing the crown and sitting for a little while on the Father’s throne, and by-and-by He will give the overcomer to sit with Him on His throne—and how do we overcome? Is it not true that we overcome by what is called defeat; giving up everything, surrendering everything. When I hold to Christ, I am the loser, not in the true sense of the word, but in another sense I am; but what a wonderful thing to look up and see Him there, and hear to-day those notes that are sounding in His ear in heaven, “Worthy,” and to know that God will move every created intelligence to do Him homage; because that is what I understand by Rev. 5, there shall not be a created intelligence that God will not move to do homage to the One who gave Himself up to suffering and death, the object of all heaven’s worship—what a precious thing to think, that the One who gave our hearts to praise Him in time will sustain the combined worship of heaven through all eternity. The Lord give us to dwell upon His personal worthiness to-day, and to remember more unceasingly what He passed through, and that He has a right and claim and title over everything, as in Ephesians 1. He has acquired a right and title over everything, He is Head over all things to the church which is His body; that which He will own by-and-by, as bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh; as Adam owned Eve fruit of his mysterious sleep, so will Christ own that which was formed out of His sleep of death as bone of His bone, members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.
The Lord keep us waiting for Him, and in our measure delighting and rejoicing in Him now.
Labor and Rest
There is a word of great sweetness and comfort in Mark 6:31, 32. We are introduced to a scene of real labor and toil. The Lord had called the twelve, and sent them out two by two, without anything for their journey save a staff. They went forth without scrip, or bread or money: they preached, they cast out devils, they raised the sick; it was a time of diligent service and incessant toil, but a time of labor which resulted in fruit. After this we find the apostles returning, gathering themselves together and rehearsing to their blessed Master all they had done and taught. He had sent them forth, as it were, empty handed and destitute of all man’s resources, and now they have returned and are spreading at His blessed feet their acquired treasures, the fruit of their work and toil; He, with all that tender grace and kindness which were ever His own, accepts it all, and in the divine and blessed love which ever sought the good of His own, He says, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile.” Let us note it well. He does not say, “Go and rest,” but “Come and rest.” Ah! it is not the desert place that could furnish the rest, if so it might have been “Go,” but it is Himself there, there where no distraction can intrude, no surge of worry, no blast of care can for a moment enter. Oh! how blessed His company in that sweet retreat, made so by Himself alone! How well may we sing of that –
No soil of nature’s evil,
No touch of man’s rude hand,
Shall e’er disturb around us
That bright and happy land.
The charms that woo the senses
Shall be as pure, as fair,
For all while stealing o’er us
Shall tell of Jesus there.
But there is a further precious thought here. Our own Master and Lord knows the snare of active service, even for Him—the danger of giving it that place which alone belongs to Himself—the temptation to His poor, weak child and vessel to be more absorbed with it than with Him; hence how often do we hear Him say, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile.” We are told that “there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”
In this busy day of ours, with its confessed and crying needs on all hands, how true the picture before us is; yet while recognizing fully our clear, distinct duty to the church and the world, and not in any wise seeking to clothe our indifference or selfishness with a religious sanctimonious garb, let all who love His blessed service, which is indeed perfect freedom, bear in mind the lesson of our passage, which is plainly this, that the quality of our work will be poor and attenuated indeed, if it be not connected with Christ, from Christ, for Christ. Those who really and truly work for Him, must first of all be sustained and fed by Himself, as they hear Him say, “Come and rest.” And oh! how gracious of Him to take His poor wearied worker by the hand, as it were, aside, apart into a desert place with Himself, shutting Him out from all but Himself, that with mind undisturbed and heart undistracted, all may be gone over with Himself, in rest and quietness, and fresh thoughts of Himself and His love thus impressed upon the heart, producing renewed vigor and energy for further service for Him.
After this we have recorded a delightful instance of the deep compassion of that heart which was ever touched by distress and need. We are told the people “outwent them and came together unto him.” Oh! how He did attract the weary and wanting ones! How He also met and taught and filled them! How He made the desert place to yield bread enough and to spare, and then having finished all in His compassionate tenderness and goodness He Himself departed into a mountain to pray; His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work. But we must bring these thoughts to a close by a glance at the end of the chapter. In the departure of Jesus into the mountain, we are shown in figure His taking the place of intercession on high; His disciples cross the water in a boat, and we have their vicissitudes; it is such a comfort to think of what is said here, “He saw them toiling in rowing.” Not the shades of night, nor the earnest vigil which He kept in prayer on the mountain-top, nor the storm-lashed lake that they were crossing, none of these could hide His poor servants from the Master’s eyes. Then He who “saw them” came to them in the darkest part of the night, walking on the water in supreme majesty, but in love, and spoke such words of comfort, “Be of good cheer,” “It is I” (,(T ,4:4), “Be not, afraid”
In darkest shades, if He appear,
My morning is begun –
Lastly, observe it is said, “He talked with them.” How blessed the rest of that intercourse after all the toil and labor.
The Principle and Pattern of All True Greatness
Luke 22:24-27
Save for that blessed knowledge of Himself and the knowledge of the utter alienation of the carnal mind in its enmity against God, as proved in the rejection of Himself, it would be difficult to conceive how there could have been a “strife” in such a scene as is shown us in this upper chamber. The nature of this strife adds its solemnity to the fact; the word “strife” really means an ambitious contention, or love of quarrel; the word only occurs here. The dispute may have arisen while they were taking their places at the couches where they reclined, and may have perhaps been occasioned by some claim made by some for official precedence. Be this as it may, it is very clear that self and pride filled their hearts. Alas! it is all too evident that in the midst of all these deep solemnities, the thoughts of the poor disciples were about their vanity. Then the tender, gracious way He meets all is so blessed, there is no reproach of any kind, yet He so preciously sets them right: it was as though He said to them, “You are seeking for a high place, but I have taken a low one.”
What should we have said if so circumstanced? Would it not have been something severe, hard, wounding? Ah! nothing of that kind ever passed from His blessed lips. First, He tells us His verdict on the world—in it the proud are flattered, it likes the haughty and the great; but you shall not be so.
Oh what a comfort and solace to the heart it is to come to the mind of Christ! how precious to dwell upon His beauty and upon His lowly, perfect grace! He was among them as One that served; whatever high place they sought, He took the low place.
Thus we have the principle and pattern of all true greatness in His blessed words and Person here. No doubt with the disciples thoughts of the kingdom filled their minds in a carnal way, and led to the strife spoken of here for preeminence; it is in the presence of His coming and foretold sorrow all this takes place, as another so solemnly and blessedly says:
“And this, in the presence of the cross, at the table where the Lord was giving them the last pledges of His love. Truth of heart was there, but what a heart to have truth in! As for Himself, He had taken the lowest place, and that—as the most excellent for love—was His alone. They had to follow Him as closely as they could. His grace recognizes their having done so, as if He were their debtor for their care during His time of sorrow on earth. He remembered it. In the day of His kingdom they should have twelve thrones, as heads of Israel, among whom they had followed Him.”
Oh how perfect and precious is this grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how tender and gentle are His rebukes; these never separate, never put us at a distance from Him, indeed they bring nearer to Him, as here, where, as we have seen, He speaks of them as companions of His temptations! In connection with all this, may we not say with another, that one feels too sadly in one’s own heart, that it is one thing to render to Jesus the tribute of admiration, or even of tears, and another to join one’s self with Him for better or worse, through good and through evil, in the face of the present world; one thing to speak well of Him, another to give up all for Him. Lastly, observe all this is on the way to the great end, the great consummation of all His blessed love and grace. It is striking and solemn to see how this blessed end is related in scripture. In the Gospel of Luke it is the Father as with Him, communion with Him, dependence on Him with the assurance of His support and acceptance. In Matthew and Mark it is God as absent from Him, and hence the cry of conscious abandonment and desertion. In John it is a divine Person everywhere, in the garden and on the cross, with His own hand He simply seals the accomplished work with the words; “It is finished,” and gave up His Spirit as having power over it (B"D,’T6,< J@ B<,L:").
How truly is it said that “He gives up His spirit Himself. No one takes it from Him; it is He Himself who gives it up. A divine act.” . . . He Himself separates His spirit from His body, and gives it up to God His Father; a divine act that He had the power to accomplish.
As we thus trace the blessed One through these varied scenes of sorrow to the close, are not our hearts responsive to the words: –
“O Lord! Thy wondrous story
My inmost soul doth move;
I ponder o’er Thy glory,
Thy lonely path of love.”
The Divine Metamorphosis
(2 Cor. 3:18)
We hear the expressions continually, a transformed life or the transfigured life, and the word in the original language, given by the Spirit (:,J":@DN@b:,2") gives us the English word metamorphosis, and is used, as in this chapter, of the Christian who beholds the Lord in glory without any intercepting veil, like Moses of old upon his blessed face; and is also used of the blessed Lord Himself when He reached His highest glory as a man on earth, and was transfigured on the holy mount (see Matt. 17:2) (:,J,:@DNf20).
Before looking at this great reality itself, and how it comes about, I would remark that it is not said our life is transfigured or transformed, but that we ourselves are, no doubt the life of such will manifest this, the evidence and proof of the metamorphosis will be seen in the life; but it is of all importance to see that it is of the Christian himself it is said the transformation takes place—the Christian, who is God’s workmnanship, a new creation, dead and risen with Christ, and in whom God the Spirit dwells. It is blessed beyond all expression to know we are thus “in Christ,” and to know we are actually united to Christ in glory; a Christian is of Christ’s generation and suitable to be united to Him, in that sense he is of His kindred, fruit of His death (see John 12:24). As such he is fit to be united to Christ in heaven by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
The first great reality set before us here is the blessed Person on whom the Christian’s eye is turned, the divine object here presented, the Lord in glory without any veil on His face; here He is the contrast to Moses who had to put a veil on his face. The reason they were afraid to look at Moses was that the glory was there—they could not look to the end; they did not know when they offered a sacrifice that it was typical of Christ.
How blessed to see the contrast in the face of Jesus Christ, every ray of glory shining there attracts and assures the heart. There is no veil on His blessed face, and there is no veil on the Christian’s heart. The object then is the Lord in glory, He, who having made atonement, has gone up into heaven, and is in the glory of God; on Him we gaze with joy, with affection, with intelligence, then as we gaze on Him there, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by “the Lord the Spirit.”
From glory to glory conveys to the heart the thought of progress. Thus, as we think of the divine metamorphosis, we have these blessed facts:
1. The Object—the Lord unveiled.
2. The place where He is—heaven and in glory.
3. The power, by and in whom the beholding is effected—the Holy Ghost—the Lord the Spirit.
4. The effect produced—a metamorphosis, a transformation, a transfiguration of the Christian who beholds.
How blessed, then, in the power of the Holy Ghost to fix the eye of faith simply and fully on Him where He is. Oh, that Himself in heaven may be more the one Object of the hearts of His own here below.
Peace - Power - Plenty
(Phil. 4:7, 9, 12, 13)
What an immense comfort it is to know that the word of God leads our souls on the one hand up to the most exalted thoughts of the revelation of God, on the other hand down to the commonest things a child of God has to pass through. We have a striking instance of it here; the close of chapter 3 sets before us most blessedly how that our body of humiliation shall be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. Then in the beginning of chapter 4 we see how the same grace can come down to the details of the pathway of two women, who were not walking evenly together! How blessed to see that there is no forgetfulness in grace of even the smallest thing, “Pray that your flight be not in the winter,” shows us that the thought of the weather was present to His gracious mind. The word then is, “Rejoice in the Lord,” and the fitting person to express this is a poor prisoner in Nero’s dungeon. This shows how entirely it is outside and beyond all around us here. Again observe it is “alway” as well as “in the Lord,” or perhaps it would be more true to say it is alway because it is in the Lord. Clearly then his song is “Rejoice in the Lord alway,” and it furnishes us with a blessed illustration of 2 Chron. 29:27, “And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began.”
“Let your moderation be known unto all men.” This will be the proof to all, that our conversation is in the heavens; if we are seen to stick up for ourselves, it is the very opposite of yieldingness: this, along with subduedness and unresistingness is our true pathway through present scenes. This brings us to the “Peace of God which passeth every understanding.” What a blessed resource is this peace of God, and what a wonderful exchange for our cares! these it is our privilege to make known to Him, bringing all to Him and leaving all with Him. Alas! many try to keep the peace of God instead of its keeping them. Oh, that such of my readers may prove what a blessed sanctuary and retreat His peace brings us into.
But not only have we peace here, but also power; this flows from the occupation of the heart with good; what a mercy it is in a world of evil, that the heart may be free to find its delight and pleasure in what is good; we are not only living in a world of evil, but we have it in our own hearts, and must judge it where it is tolerated, yet to be ever occupied with it is a fruitful source of weakness. Even when we judge it, it defiles, it is soiling to the mind even as such. The real power is in taking delight in those things in which God delights, to be living now as with God in heaven, doing those things that please Him, and also being in that condition of mind in which He takes delight.
Here, then, is the true pathway of power, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things . . . and the God of peace shall be with you.”
May our hearts more and more know what it is to go in the blessed company of “the God of peace” through a restless scene.
But then further, we have also here plenty as well as peace and power, and so the apostle says he had learned it, learned to find in Christ both competency and fullness, it was a real state for Paul; it is not here, as we say, an abstract proposition: if full, he has preserved from all self-satisfaction and self-elation; if hungry, he was preserved from despondency and dissatisfaction; for him Christ was all embraced all in Himself. May we know and enjoy more fully this blessed peace, power and plenty.
Victory but Not Communion “I Have Seen God Face to Face”
(Gen. 32:30)
What a moment in one’s life when it could be said by any of us, “I have seen God face to face”! Let us see how this came about with Jacob. An interval of considerable time had elapsed since he had said, “this is the gate of heaven,” of the place where he is seen as a poor, weary wanderer at sundown with only the stones of the earth for his pillow. His circumstances have changed considerably since then. Now he is full, now he is rich, he has a stake in the world. While in Laban’s country he has grown and increased, “oxen and asses, flocks and men servants and women servants,” declare his wealth and possessions, but his faith is poor and his heart oppressed, “greatly afraid and distressed” tells the sad tale of him who dreads Esau’s host, and how like us oftentimes when we look at him, fearing and praying and calculating and settling all with human skill and to the best of man’s device.
It is well for us to remember that there is such a thing as an exercise of spirit, which is the product of pure unbelief; under its influence we are awake in nature’s dread, and we pray in unbelief and want of confidence. Oh how often is it with us like the disciples in the storm, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?”
Now this state brings us under discipline, our God and Father is at issue with this, yet so wonderful is His grace that He makes that which calls forth the discipline the occasion of our blessing; such is His grace that all is laid under tribute, as it were, for His own glory and His children’s blessing.
But to return to the history before us, so full of profit and instruction to the soul. It is well to observe that in poor Jacob’s mind and thoughts it was quite otherwise to seeing God face to face. He was full of the dread and horror of meeting Esau; this, and this alone, engrossed his mind, hence it is he has recourse afresh to the means of unbelief. Wives and children are sent on before, and present upon present prepared for Esau: “I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face: peradventure he will accept of me.” This is Jacob’s plan and hope. Alas! how vain, his strength was not there; neither human wisdom, nor carnal stratagem, nor skill of craft, can supply this. God Himself now draws nigh to deal with Jacob, He delivers him from Esau’s hands, but, blessed be His name, He takes him in his own blessed hands, as He wrestles with him. Oh what a sight! a poor weak worm grasped by almighty power under the mystic form of a man; here is Jacob, in the crisis of his life, singly and alone, face to face with the Invisible, Himself!
Again, observe how blessedly God sustains his faith in the wrestling; it was needful, nay, it was indispensable that Jacob should be withered, pulverized, crushed; how blessed to see that all this is accomplished, yet Jacob is sustained—withered, yet sustained!
Oh that our hearts may rightly take in the precious wisdom and grace unfolded to us here!
Further, observe how he is victorious—he is made to feel his weakness for life; God touches him in the hollow of his thigh, the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with Him; this closes the scene of wrestling, as soon as the limb commences to shrink it is over. Yes; but victory is his with God who wrestles with him. Jacob is, as a crippled, withered man, a prince with God, and prevails with God and with men.
Let us note well here the nature of the blessing—in figure and type all is new; we have here a new day, a new name, and a new kind of conqueror—a halting victor.
Oh that our hearts may be made sensible of the glory of all this—all, as it were, new and all of God. It may be, some who read this page have proved it, how their God and Father has brought to an end practically the strong nerve and muscle which has been their stay and resource—how He has said to us, as He wrestled with us: “My child, all this must come to an end.” No more self-dependence, no more self-confidence, no more human skill and craft, and carnal, worldly wisdom; but simple, guileless, childlike weakness, that casts itself wholly on and waits only on Me.
Lastly, observe how that here it is victory but not communion—there is no revelation of His name, it is a secret and hidden; it is a blessed scene here in the grace witnessed, but how unlike the calm and peaceful and restful communion of Abraham with Jehovah, interceding for others instead of wrestling for himself.
May we know what it is to be halting victors, but also having the joy of communion with Himself.
“Lame as I am, I take the prey;
Hell, earth, and sin with ease o’ercome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
And, as a bounding hart, fly home –
Through all eternity to prove
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.”
“His (Three-Fold) Glory”
(John 1:1-12, 14, 18, 29-32)
Let us adoringly meditate a little on this blessed theme.
First. The glory of His Person in all the deep depths of it comes before us. The first twelve verses have been called, and appropriately, too, “the golden preface” of this gospel; the Lord Jesus is here set before us in all that is personal, so that with reverent and holy love we may contemplate His glory, “a glory as of an only begotten with a father, full of grace and truth.” It were difficult to exaggerate the blessedness of such true, reverent contemplation, the Spirit of Christ alone can be the operator in, and power of this. The mind is here above all an intruder; when it asserts its usurped rights, within this sacred enclosure, it does so with an eagle eye and icy heart, proving itself, as it ever does, entirely destitute in regard to love and hope and joy, reveling in analysis and glorying in dissection. But our blessed theme just now is entirely apart from all this; we are dwelling on the glory of His Person in all its positive blessedness; it is what He is in Himself, as has often been remarked, He is not set before us here in His relative character. Another has said that Christ was the earliest thought from God that rose upon the moral darkness and chaos of apostate man. The Christ of God was the earliest revelation that arose upon the ruins and darkness of Adam, and though for a season that divine depositary of all light, that great source of all vivifying beams, remained unmanifested, yet effulgence worthy of Him, and which belonged to Him, came forth to cheer and guide.
Let us further remark in our contemplation of Him how it is said, “In the beginning was the Word.” At the beginning of all things He was there without any beginning; this, as it is said, is formally expressed in the words with which the chapter opens: so that we are now here in presence of the eternal existence of Himself. “In the beginning the Word was.” How blessed thus adoringly to dwell, Lord Jesus, on Thy Person as “from everlasting!” In connection with this we are also told of His distinct Personality and the eternal nature of the Word. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I feel it of great moment on this subject to quote here the words of another.
The distinct personality of the Word was not as people have wished to make it, a thing which had a beginning. “In the beginning the Word was with God.” His Personality is eternal as His nature. This is the great and glorious basis of the doctrine of the gospel and of our eternal joy, what the Savior is in Himself, His nature, and His Person.
So that in our adoring contemplation of Himself we can say in His existence He is eternal, in His nature divine, in His Person distinct.
Now let us dwell on another glory here, even the revelation of God and the Father in Him: this we have in verses 14 and 18 of our chapter: this is connected with what the eternal Word became (,(,<,J@) up to verse 14. We have what He was as well as the state of the sphere in which He was manifested: at verse 14, as is said, historical Christianity begins. The Word became flesh; it was not an appearance as in olden days, but a real man in the midst of men; then we are introduced by the Spirit to the two great things resulting from His becoming man, first grace and truth have come in Him; secondly, the only Son in the bosom of the Father reveals Him as known by Himself in that position. Oh how well it is that we can say as here we wonder and worship, that there is nothing like that, and how surpassing all knowledge is the thought of it! Further, how much higher (if we are permitted so to speak) is this to what Rev. 19 or Psa. 45 unfold to us; in these we are instructed as to His relationship to man in government, but in what our hearts are now contemplating, we see Himself in His essential relationship to the Father; and may we not again say that as we behold Him so revealed and revealing as in it, the bosom of the Father, we fall at His blessed feet and worship and adore. The third glory found here is that of His blessed work in its two parts.
He is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, this is its blessed first aspect; it is well to note that this passage does not treat of the guilt in which men are, that is a subject of the deepest moment and interest, and has its own place as such in scripture; but here we are instructed as to the state of things before God. The majesty and holiness of God both demand that sin be removed from before His eyes. Jesus is the Lamb of God, He comes, as it were, from God’s side, He was perfectly suited to the glory of God, He and He alone could establish it, and that too where sin was found. Another has most blessedly thus expressed it:
The cross is the basis of this blessing. All the moral elements of good and evil have been clearly brought to light, and have been shown each in its proper place, and Christ is at God’s right hand, as Man, in the divine glory, in virtue of having resolved every question that was thus raised.
How blessed thus to contemplate with adoring heart and affection His glory as the Lamb of God; its full import is most preciously set forth in the words, “And I beheld, and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy . . . for thou wast slain, &c.”
How precious to the heart that has been taken into His love, are these words, “Thou art worthy . . . for thou wast slain”; and in its worshiping homage, it delights to treasure up the fact that has been stated, namely, that as in His deepest humiliation, His glory was not veiled from the opened eye, so the glories of His heavenly throne do not conceal the tokens of His sufferings. Thank God, He never can be hid, be the scene what it may.
The other aspect of the glory of His work is that He baptizes with the Holy Ghost, and this of course implies His ascension into the heavens and His being glorified. Oh how blessed to contemplate Him in this, from the “lower parts of the earth” to “far above all heavens,” so that as Man victorious, Man in the glory of God, He might receive the Holy Ghost for others, and thus the blessed Spirit of God, third Person of the adorable Trinity, He Son of God, in due season did shed forth on others. Lastly for His own the deep significance of this second aspect of his blessed work is apparent; it is thus they are brought into an entirely new position, and this too as the result of His glory as the ascended Man. Now may we not ask, What subject could be more precious than this to the hearts of His own? Oh that the affections of all that are His may be not only called forth, but also detained in true worship and adoration, as each part of His glory passes before our souls.
“Yet sure, if in Thy presence
My soul still constant were,
Mine eye would more familiar
Its brighter glories bear.
And thus Thy deep perfection
Much better should I know,
And with adoring fervor
In this Thy nature grow.”
“We Spend Our Years As a Tale That Is Told”
(Psalm 90:9)
The shadows of the expiring year are lengthening upon us, the end is fast approaching, another milestone in life’s journey will soon have been past. The sunrise and the sunset belong to this world, the eternal day lies beyond it all and above it all.
Let us then, standing on the verge of the closing period, pause and listen to the voice which speaks to us to-day.
Wherever we turn the eye, one great fact is clearly seen, namely, that we have reached in very earnest the era of universal instability and change. “The foundations of the earth are out of course.” The great moral obligations, which in times past have bound society together, are all in a state of dissolution.
In every department of life here, the same sad sight forces itself upon us.
The two spheres on which the eye is most fixed at the present moment are the church and the world. In the first, the symptoms of approaching judgment are thick on every side.
The apostasy from the faith has well-nigh reached its summit, so complete and far-reaching has the surrender of truth been, that but little remains to be given up. Blasphemy against God and His Christ is the pervading atmosphere of the professing church, and the blasphemy is nourished by pride; “proud blasphemers” abound on every hand; verily we are in a far-spent night, and a very dark night as well. Those who occupy this standpoint, and who witness from its elevation, are decried and refused as alarmists, pessimists, and so forth; in this, as in all else, history repeats itself.
Further, external appearances are all against them it is said, there is the increase of knowledge, the tremendous strides of science, the rapid growth of philosophy, the clear light of a deeper and more enlarged scholarship. All these are flung in their faces, and they are bidden to be silent in the presence of such indisputable testimony; thus the word of the living God is set aside, and its solemn and precious contents scattered to the winds—these as not worthy of this enlightened age, are characterized as puerilities, composed for a bygone ignorant generation and unworthy of present credit. Oh what a sight does the professing church exhibit! Superstition and rationalism, hand in hand, overflow the face of the land, carrying the great bulk of people on their flood- tide. In view of all this how solemn are the words of our blessed Master and Lord: “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith [J0< B4FJ4<] on the earth.”
When we turn and look at the condition of the world, how ominous the signs on the horizon. The lull of the armed peace is already broken, and a conflict for the existences of kingdoms is looming in the near future. Who can tell what complications may be at hand, what embroilment of nations may arise out of this present struggle between China and Japan? It needs but an open eye to see the dark cloud which overhangs the world; it will ere long burst, then oh, what a crash when the war fever asserts itself! Weapons of deadly power and magnitude are prepared, and in hand, too; man’s inventive powers having been all exercised to their utmost in devising the most effectual engines of destruction.
Amid all these time marks, and above and beyond all this upheaving, that is in sure progress, the bright and blessed heavenly hope shines in all its own brilliancy and warmth before the eye and heart of the watcher and waiter for the One who is coming for His own. The heavenly hope is the heart’s affectionate longing for Himself, it is not to be absent from the sphere and scene of trial, but to be with Him for his own sake, to be in His blessed presence and company above and at home forever; this has ever been the hope of the church, her heavenly hope. She will be no doubt associated with Him in other scenes, and her heart delights to know that He who was cast out here will reign here and have His rights here; but above and beyond that, her own special bright prospect and longing is to be with Himself where He is.
How near is this to faith and affection! How blessed to think that ere another year runs its course, we and all His own, so scattered here, may be gathered to Himself, raised or changed, and caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so to be ever with the Lord. May the Lord awaken, by His grace, the slumbering hearts of His own to go forth in greater distinctness and affection to watch for Him.