The great principle which now set aside the Jewish economy which had not recognized its Messiah, the Son of God, and introduced eternal life, was plain enough, but in the breaking down of what sustained the flesh, and was adapted to the flesh, and the introduction of what rested on the Spirit, and on a faith which never recognized the flesh, and which knows no present support, but rests on God only, and the flesh of course in a position such as this feels all to be against it-it which needs support-offenses would come. This was for the disciples. The world to come was let in upon the conduct and faith of the disciples in this, and no man could serve two masters. But among those who made profession to follow Christ and His glory, on the principles of faith, alas! there would be many scandals. It is not in a reign of power when He will gather out of His kingdom all scandals, and them which do iniquity. Satan's power is permitted. The exercise of faith is permitted-a time of trial, and of the proving, by the prevalence of evil, of what lasts because of God. As the apostle, speaking of the full dispensation of the Spirit: " There must needs be heresies that they which are approved may be made manifest." Offenses must come. Grace and truth present the perfect simplicity of the service and walk which belongs to the kingdom, which grace and truth have revealed, and into which grace and truth introduce us. But they have introduced it as truth into a world of evil where the flesh, its race, and its reasonings, and its falsehood are in the scene of their natural development, and where Satan is prince to introduce the evil with a subtlety of which the flesh suspects nothing at all, and into which, when not walking in the Spirit, we fall without hindrance, when the Lord of the vineyard permits this exercise. Thus the Lord permits and uses it for a chastening. They are, however, stumbling-blocks of the enemy, and " Woe unto him by whom they come "; he is really an instrument of Satan. And the Lord loves His little ones. " It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones," despised of men but treasured of God. The Church has to be guarded from these things in the midst of all.
The Savior proceeds to apply the principle, or to show how the saints should act, seeing that the flesh in them may give occasion to these things, they not being really slaves of Satan in their will, but the flesh is always slave of Satan, and acts in his sense. " Take heed," therefore adds the Lord, " to yourselves," both as to not giving occasion of stumbling (see Rom. 14, especially verse 13, but the whole chapter) and besides not to stumble when the occasion is presented, keeping his soul in patience and in communion. " Take heed to yourselves " is the great command as to the danger, and the offenses in the liability of which we all stand in Satan's kingdom of this world as regards others' forgiveness, " Take heed to yourselves," jealous and judging yourselves. But, on the other hand, " If he trespass against thee, rebuke him; tell him his fault and if he repent forgive him " ever so often. Keep the body sound in the presence of the enemy. It is the energy of the unity and holiness of the body which is the realization of the energy of the Spirit, unbroken in the land of faith. Watch incessantly yourselves, and that the Spirit of love, the power of unity, and the bond of perfectness be not broken, so that the enemy can enter, nor of holiness so that the peace may not be false, nor any grudge or ill-feeling remain in your own heart, but that all may be unfeignedly smooth and in energy. Tell your neighbor his fault; do not keep it for his sake and for yours; and if he confess, if he turn and repent of it, the heart is gained, the enemy driven out. He honors the Lord and the truth. That will be your object in charity, acting according to the love of God into which you have been introduced in this new kingdom by the rejection of the Son of man, and forgive him, and so will be unassailable by the enemy either in conscience or in grace, Blessed path! What condescension to the weakness and evil in the introduction of the perfectness of what is good!
On the other hand, in such a position there would be need of faith and great energy. The disciples, under the direction of God, in their minds led perhaps by a petty part of the difficulty as of always forgiving, and a confused sense of the new position the Lord was placing them in, pray for an increase of faith. The Lord replies as to the fullness of its energy, because faith realizes a power which is not in the person when it is realized, and thus acts without limit. The Lord applies it also, though in general terms, to the removing of the obstacle of a system which presented the form of good but was fruitless. When God is honored, He displays, in a certain sense necessarily, His power-they sent into the position in which the exercise of that power glorifies Him. This is the principle of it all, indeed to act otherwise was what Satan tempted in vain the Lord to. Yet the great principle remains true, that in all need we may draw upon God. All consists in looking simply to Him. All things are possible to him that believeth, for it is God accomplishing His will, and He has willed to accomplish it by Man, and to honor Man, and Himself in Man, where He by and in man has been dishonored by Satan. But this in faith according to His will till the Lord Jesus returns in power. Thus all the energy for the glorifying of the Lord was given them. If they had not the faith to place them in the position in which power would be glorified, they were not in the need which called forth the exercise of the power, and it could not be in exercise on God by the Holy Ghost, for this is the Holy Ghost's mind in the circumstances where the Church is placed. It is all-powerful and yet perfectly measured here, for faith puts all in its place (morally and) in power, for it brings God in according to the energy which has let in the world to come, the world of His truth and power into this, in the midst of those who are of Him, through the rejection of Him through whom the world is judged here, and we are admitted into it there. God acts in this, but in us in the midst of the weakness. Faith thus is mighty and perfect always, but never carries, nor can, beyond duty, and therefore never exalts nor displaces the relationship of responsibility and obedience. How blessed, perfect, ordered, and powerful are God's ways! What energy it gives to man in making God so much to him as to make nothing of him, so that he has no need of others, though servant by it of all in God's behalf! The Lord make us thus wait on Him in simplicity, because as seeing Him. It is of energy to remove everything by which Satan can deceive man, and thus withal only enter into the simple-hearted happy position, loving position of unhindered obedience. Lord, make us thus to realize His grace, and presence, and power, in mercy in the secret of Thy will!
We have, in the history which follows, a singular concatenation of facts-a faith, operating of God, or rather operated of God in the heart, sets free from all the subsidiary forces which God had thrown round His will, in the economy part, and the principle, which recognized God in Jesus, carries us by this recognition beyond the law of a carnal commandment, associating us with Him in whom is the power of an endless life, which occupying us with His Person who is above, and the power of all these things, plants us not in dishonor of the law past, but in the liberty of the Savior present. In this sense, by virtue of His presence, who once gave, and then fulfilled it, and bore its curse against us, in forgetfulness of it sealed by this word to him who recognized God in this: " Go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee." The word of Jesus was a word of divine power. He who healed lepers under the Law (and it was a remarkable type) was He who gave the Law. But here Jesus came as a Servant, and submits Himself entirely to the subsisting ordinances, and to their obligation to them in the act which expressed the divine power towards them: " Go, show thyself to the priest " was a word which at once recognized the law, and manifested the Jehovah that gave it. The ten received the benefit; they acted on the word of Jesus, and so, thus far, in faith. The one perceived and recognized the glory of God in it. Less preoccupied with the form and power of institutions, he returns to the Source instead of merely enjoying the benefit, for the flesh uses institutions to hide God. Evil had leveled the Jew and the Samaritan, alike cast out of the presence of divine communion by the leprosy, the evil which afflicted them. They had a common lot by sin. Misery and equal exclusion had merged the difference, and made them fellows. The Lord here below, however, recognizes the authority of the divine ordinances, makes Himself a Servant, yet therein to faith really, as we have seen, presents Himself as Jehovah. But the gratitude of faith was a readier reasoner than the instruction of the Law, and the blessing afforded by the presence and work of Jesus was, to one the aliment of Jewish distinction, to the other the evidence and comfort of divine presence and goodness. To him, therefore, there was complete deliverance, for he was by faith arrived in grace at the Source from which the Law itself proceeded, and was let go in peace, saved by faith, simply, blessedly, and freely, having liberty from God and with God, and in the presence of God Himself with thanksgiving. It is a sad stupidity of the flesh to be put by mercy under the Law.
Note, as the Lord had not yet declared and manifested His glory outwardly, and put an end to the economy, but that it only broke through, in the power in blessing of His acts, He sends the Samaritan, obedient and subject to God, instead of in pride of rebellion as the Samaritans were really, to the priests, so that indeed there was a ready and holy obedience here to the will of Jesus, to God; for the conviction of sin produces obedience, and is the root of it. The Lord sustains this, for it was yet God's way; salvation was of the Jews. The Samaritan, united, as we have seen, by his evil state with the outcasts by the Law, is ready at Jesus' word, of which they claimed help, to go and submit to the priests, God's ordinance therefore, but which supposed entire conviction of the power of His word, for it was the clean who had to present themselves. Thus full subjection is produced. But finding himself cleansed, he returns back to the Source, glorifying God and thanking Jesus. He was a Samaritan, by the knowledge of the Lord above and beyond the Law, cleansed, comforted, and free, by the knowledge of Jesus. He was not sent to the priests then. Faith had transpierced the veil, and rested on Jesus. One word stated his case: " Thy faith hath saved thee." He was a stranger in the house of God, admitted, as knowing the Master, with Jesus Himself. He was beyond the temple, and with One greater than it-no need to send him back to it. The rest went their way, cleansed, to be under the Law, and left, in their stupidity, the Jesus that had blessed them. They did not return to glorify God, their heart was stupefied by Judaism. This, at the point where we are now arrived of this Evangel, is an instruction full of importance and clearness. It was another light thrown on the passing away of the Law and that dispensation. The power was amongst them, though unrecognized, on which hung all, and which, being rejected, removed them from their place in recognizing the sanctity withal of all that itself had instituted, and that too in faithful obedience as a Servant. This question was actually raised, i.e., of the presence of the kingdom of God, and the Spirit of God presents it to us here in this question of the Pharisees. And there is a remarkable instance of the distinction of responsibility, and the revelation of the secret of His will and power, before the accomplishment of which suffering goes necessarily, the world having rejected Jesus who was in it, the ground of this responsibility.
How many reasons might have been pleaded for going on! How might the nicer Jews have said: ' You are ordered to go to the priest.' But faith goes right to the heart of God. The sense of grace, producing thankfulness, goes at once to the source and fountain of grace, and there finds all grace, and a dismissal in the perfect liberty of grace, because there is nothing else than that, returning to Jesus with thanks. The Law and all was left behind, for Jesus must be what Jesus was. He had found the power of God. He glorified God, and was passed into another system by faith, as ever where God was in grace, faith having in its simplicity recognized goodness in the Source and Author of it. But it was really He who had given the Law, but now stood to faith in quite another and separate relation-that of grace, and there he was necessarily placed, for thanks to the Author carried him to Jesus, and that was what He was-He could not deny Himself, He was come, on the contrary, for this, despise Him how might the Jews. He recognized God as God really was-good, and was necessarily placed on this footing, and to eternity would have found Him nothing else. " Go in peace," says, the Savior, "thy faith hath saved." No question of going to priests now, and this bondage. He was come to Jesus, glorified God in principle, understood God, and God was that to him. So the poor Syrophcenician woman; dog she might be, but God was good- good to dogs, they eat the crumbs. Humbleness which bows as worthless to all His ways, and therefore finds all His goodness. It is a great point always to be kept in this littleness, that we may always enjoy this fullness of love, and understand it, for grace, and knowledge, and all outward experience, and action in the Church, even faithful service by the Spirit externally, all but communion destroy, i.e., tend to destroy it. Communion and the presence of Jesus always keep us little and happy in the fullness of God. Blessed forever be His Name and glory!
Remark too that this man glorified God. It is this way alone that glorifies God, though men may plead in form the commandments of the Law, and the precepts of Jesus. He who owns His goodness most fully, necessarily does, and finds liberty and the joy of God. " Not only so, but we joy in God through Jesus, by whom we have received " (not the Law, but) " the reconciliation." And they who believe are reconciled. The great secret is to present Jesus, and we have all-Him and all that God is in Him, and the Father to Him for us.
-20. The Pharisees asked the Lord when the kingdom of God should come. The Lord places them on their then plain responsibility. " The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." It is not the coming of a magnificent ceremony to you His people owned and accepted, honored as those who are to be the subjects (objects) of it. Neither shall they say, " Lo here, or Lo there " (the enemy would well say it, when the King was far, to deceive, when they had rejected Him, or, on the other hand, to dazzle and bewilder them, so that they should fall into the hands of Antichrist), but it should not be so said of the kingdom really as presented to the nation. It WAS presented, for the kingdom of God was then there amongst them. Jesus the King was speaking to them. Ought they not to have known Him? Because He came in grace, was that a reason for not knowing Him-for nothing in the heart of man? Because He had humbled Himself that He might know their sorrows, was that a reason for not discerning His greatness manifested in ten thousand ways, and above all in His infinite condescension, the perfection of His moral ways? His holy grace to the poor and guilty proved plain enough who was there, if the heart of man had not been opposed to all that was worth the delight of God in the kingdom, if it had not been blind and incapable to all that was lovely and of good report, and that in power in what He did. For the lowlier He was, the more wonderful His works. To His disciples He had other things to tell. They had received Him. He was rejected; leaving them, suffering and temptation would beset them, through the violence and the pretenses of Satan, when they were thus left. Trying as their position was then, and rejected as He might be, the days would come when they would long for one of the days of the Son of man, and would not see it. He speaks of Himself to them as Son of man, not as one who brought in the kingdom, for the secret of that glory was not yet brought out, as for them, but such as they had had with Him, blessed and sweet intercourse in His walks through the world that knew Him not, with these, the companions (ignorant it might be) of His pilgrimage, but on whom He poured forth all His love, all He could of His heart, using them as His friends, telling them what He had in communion with His Father, as they were able in a world He loved, and had created, ignorant as it was of Him, in which He, even He, had so clothed the grass, sustained, consoled, if rejected of the world, the companions of the thoughts, and the kindness, which shut up by the rejection of the world, found its vent in a deeper love, marked and softened by sorrow, but which came therefore more sweet and touching to those on whom it could find vent. " Ye are they," said the weary but perfect Savior, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint you a kingdom." Poor companions, yet comfort to the Savior in this, that He could vent His holy sorrow, not indeed as though they were wise to receive it, but according to the estimate of His love towards them, and the place in which that love, the divine knowledge of that love placed them (most sweet it was surely) does He now do this, trust us with his sorrow, yea, much more now that He is exalted, giving us by the Spirit a part in the sorrow and activity of His love. But as to all present circumstances, He now kept them in His Father's name. They would, as Jews in the kingdom and in the land, feel the difference. Then, though the Lord would not say it to the nation, and had not said it of the true Messiah, but had presented what He was, the Son of God and Son of man to conscience, Satan would say to the disciples to allure and deceive them in that evil day: " Lo here, and Lo there." They were not to go after, nor follow them. Israel was judged; there was no hope for the nation, and as the lightning flashed from heaven to heaven, so would the Son of man be in His day. But first He was to suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation as Son of man. That was a casualty, and necessary as Messiah. It was the total ruin of the whole nation as in themselves. When I say casualty,' I mean that He was nothing less Son of man, though in another form, just accomplishing His work as such, but as to the link between Him as their Messiah in the flesh, it was broken and gone.
It is evident that while the Lord takes this name of Son of man to His disciples, as revealing of this higher and wider truth, the whole of this is Jewish, and shall find its accomplishment properly in Jewish disciples in the latter day. The generation are left there, and will take their place in the land again in the latter day, where alone they can properly be reckoned as such, and these circumstances arrive.
There are three great points presented. Jesus was to come in His day, and the subject here evidently is the Jews, the day of judgment of the dead. There is no question of " Lo here, and Lo there," and not to go after them. It is an earthly judgment acting on the circumstances in which they were placed, and Jewish distress, when the disciples would be in Jewish distress, and desire one of the days of the Son of man. The Son of man would be revealed in an unexpected moment, as the lightning, but first be rejected of the Jews and suffer. Verse 31 shows its clearly Jewish and local character. The unbelieving people would continue in a state of carnal security, resting on the continuance of things as they were, i.e., acting on it, for man does in the midst of many miseries. In the cases the Lord refers to, the judgment came on the earth, and those left were the spared ones. Thus should it be when the Son of man was revealed.
Note, the judgment would fall specially on the city, for they were not to return into the house, and if in the field not to turn back. Yet the great object of the Lord is the character of the judgment, so as to separate the hearts of His disciples. When they ask therefore when, He replies, " Where the carcass is the eagles will be." Where the dead object of judgment is, there the judgment will be, swift, terrible, unlooked-for, and certain. But there are some points here to be remarked. Suddenness of judgment is its general character. Israel, awful thought! would be in the case of Sodom, or of the world before the flood. It is evident that they are temporal judgments on a temporal people, something which, though sudden and unexpected, gave opportunity to turn back from the field to the house. With the end of the world it has nothing to do. With the apparition of the Son of man it has to do, but yet so associated with Jerusalem and the land as to raise these questions dependent on wars, human attack or premonition. For the Lord Himself once come as lightning, if that were it, returning from the field would be ill in place. There are also human circumstances capable of acting on and leaving room for human motives and conduct, though the Lord be so there as to warn them against them. It was a case where no human motive was of avail, for the Lord was interfering in it. No time for concession, no time to spare the life in fruitless concession to evil because judgment was as there. Faithfulness to the Lord and His testimony, who was at hand, was the real wisdom. He who saved his life would lose it, and he who lost it would really gain it. The Lord does not give the reason farther here than that His day was immediately in question in judgment, and that deceivers, and exceeding distress were then among a people, a generation who had rejected Him, and made Him suffer, and He was coming to judge. Besides, in the judgment, though man awake to the danger was to act with entire separation from the thought of this world, for human thoughts were vain when the Lord was judging like the suddenness of the lightning, there would be a perfect separation by the judgment. Their efforts to save life would be vain. How save it by joining or acquiescing in evil, when the Lord was coming to judge the evil? That was the thought which should possess them. But the Lord Himself, with discerning perfectness which knows all things, would spare in the same bed the faithful when the unfaithful was seized by the inevitable and sure judgment of God Himself. Although the testimony should act upon the conscience of man, the discernment of God was sure—in a bed, at the mill, one taken the other left, as we have said, where the corpse for judgment was, the judgment would be sure to come. Thus guarding against seductive spirits, a sudden station of the Lord in judgment was revealed to the disciples—a judgment which, like that of Noe and Sodom, would take the wicked and leave the just, would be a judgment on man here below, who looked no way for it. The righteous would be preserved. It would be sudden and terrible. The Son of man in His day.