-1, et seq. And surely Jesus was more at home there than in the world, though love, always a stranger till it has wrought its own, its great effects, might make His home the resting-place of His love, where home He had none, save the need and sorrow of those He came to. And though, where love is perfect, this is its conscious and blessed place, yet still is it sorrow, and a burthen, and makes it feel more sensibly a stranger. All this passed apart, apart He conversed with this Moses and Elias, or rather they with Him. It was He was thus transfigured. It was He whose glory filled their minds, though the others-blessed and wondrous grace!-were with Him in it. There Jesus could let His heart dilate itself-there converse at ease. And what a privilege for us, for this is our place in that day; yea, blessed Jesus, now in Spirit, for Thou hast conquered. The glory is ours now, for it is our Head's, and we are one with Thee. There their joy and converse had no restraint, for sin was not there, and. Jesus was fully honored. All owned and reflected His true or real glory, and that glory was in Man there.
The Father's infinite delight drawn out by the presence of Him who was daily His delight, and His saints therein in the same glory with Him. The Father's heart could express and show itself in ineffable complacency and delight, due to Him who had perfectly glorified Him on earth, and fulfilled all His good pleasure, in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell, by whom, and by whom alone, the divine character had been vindicated and exalted in man (by and in whom it had been dishonored), and the great mystery of godliness accomplished, and displayed, there His infinite oneness with the Father, understood and displayed, the debt due to the Son eternally paid, and that to the joy of the Father by the glory He ever had. Yet the glory He had acquired, and blessedness secure now, and divine ways, and benediction out of the possible reach of the enemy, yet in the infinite joy, and by union, communion even of the creature, there His oneness with the Father known, yet in Him that suffered (yea, that connected with it), and then the reverse of the suffering. There Jesus could speak of His decease without being rebuked. And what blessed ease of conscience do we see the saints to be in with Him! How interested in His ways! How occupied and conversant with them! How familiar with the glory! And in what peaceful understanding is the decease spoken of, yet how plain the fruit of glory!
The three Apostles admitted to see this, that they might be pillars, know also Moses and Elias there. Peter proposes to make three tabernacles, i.e., places of meeting, where the communications of God's mind might be found. It was to him a grand thing to see his Master in the same glory as Moses and Elias. There was no abiding sense of who Jesus was, and they were sore afraid-propose to honor them all. This then was the point to which the previous testimony of the Father came. "This is my beloved Son: hear him." And then none was found but Him-more blessed than Moses on the mount, or Elias returning to the same, the hopeless witness of the same evil which Moses had found on his descent. The Father's voice on the holy mount pointing out the Son Himself to be heard. Moses and Elias were alike set aside as to this. Moses might give the Law, Elias might call to repentance, because it was broken (and return in despair to Horeb) but the Father now points to the Son whose rejection and death had been just testified of, as the One for the disciples to hear. This was a great secret, and was to be kept by those who had seen and heard, until the resurrection should be the manifestation of the power and value of His intervention; and sealing up the prophecy should in establishing indeed, yet end the Law, for Jesus' death, in this sense, ended Law and Prophets. It was God's righteousness "without law." It was now Jesus alone with themselves. This was the manifestation of the power and coming of the Lord Jesus. Its effect was to leave them alone with Jesus, to follow Him in patience, as He was, because of the known glory, in hope, and take His word as their guide in everything. Note. Our hearing the Son is in connection with the Father's perfect delight in Him. This is a most blessed truth. To Him all our attention is to be given in the consciousness of His Person, and of the Father's love to Him. This love of the Father to the Son is a blessed point of knowledge, and communication to our souls, and what we know specially.
It is not merely Messiah and Jehovah, as in Zechariah, for example, but the Father's love to the Son. The Jews' confidence rested, if it was just, according to the full truth of the word, in Jehovah's reception of Messiah in faithfulness and truth; the Church's was the Father's love to the Son. What a blessed portion! For the word to us, " Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me," and “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." But this indeed is anticipating what is contained indeed in this word as to the Object but is known in communion only through the blessed power of the Holy Ghost. Jesus received as Messiah, known in communion as Son, the Son, and Jesus, company with Jesus as Son of man in the glory of the Kingdom are the three steps. Here they saw the latter, having owned Him Christ, and the Father's voice testified as to Him. The second, their own communion with Him in that place was known only afterward, and very specially by Paul's ministry, and also John's. But this was all de facto consequent on His death; meanwhile, He only was to be listened to. The resurrection formed the cardinal point therein, " declared the Son of God with power," and entering on the whole of that new world " whereof we speak," and putting the Church into the place of that communion in redemption which His being on high warranted and effected before God and the Father. It was different from owning Him as Christ, and was to be spoken of only after resurrection. This communion in unity with the Son has special force in that deep identity of interest which gives a confidence and communion peculiarly its own. How blessed is it! See what a common interest there was between the Father and the Son; I mean as doing His Father's will upon earth. What a sense of drawing all from Him, of doing all for Him, whose soul delighted in Him, as He could say, " O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee," and then adds, " and these! " What obedience! What knowledge that the Father heard Him always, that it was a delight without flaw in the essence of His own perfectness! And indeed He delights in us in Him, according to His perfectness. What confidence in the heart of Christ, let the circumstances be what they may! It was the expression of His communion, and, in His love to us, His desire of our communion in it. He must, in truth, have loved us wonderfully, to put us in the same place with Christ.
-2. Note their faith of His being the Christ, the Son of the living God, was not founded on this, but the Father's teaching. This rather followed that, and the declaration of His rejection and death, quod nota; for the time is peculiarly, as not commonly nor without purpose, marked. It was, however, only to the three.
-4. The two who were in glory with the blessed Lord on the mount are of a remarkable character. Not only were they the Law and the Prophets, which testify of and give place to Christ who, Son of God, is to be heard, but Moses stood alone from God with the people when faith had to be implanted in them, and Elias when, as a body, they had abandoned it, so that Elias came back to Horeb on the failure, as far as man could say, of the Law. (Elisha's ministry came from heaven, and was, in its nature, of the risen Christ.) So Christ was there, when all that His testimony, and all that He was connected with dispensationally, was over, but when His rejection here brought in the glory and the Kingdom. Only in Christ it was absolute, and an eternal redemption, but there was no connection in their ministry with what was when it was set up. It acted from God on all that was around them. It was not as the Prophets in the system in which they were. So also they wrought miracles, the Prophets not.
-9. The reason as to this was stronger than the miracles. Did it include the other Apostles? Possibly it did. It is remarked elsewhere, that they talked of His decease, with which connect verse 2, and previous note. The first apprehensions of both run much together. It was, I suppose, altogether for their, and, through them, the Church's sake, and note verse 12. " From among the dead," is the correct rendering.
-10. " From among the dead " (to ek nekron). Note in connection with the end of the previous verse. This shows clearly the emphasis on the "from among " (ek); they wondered what " rising from among the dead " could mean. The resurrection of the dead they were familiar with.
-11. There was then a question as to the scribes' teaching as to Elias coming first. We hear in the force of " the scribes in Moses seat "-they had the Scriptures at command, and presented what they contained, as ready scribes; here, perhaps, to object against the truth. Here what they said was the truth. The Apostles readily bring it back to this doubt and difficulty, not being filled, though impressed with the glory. And this was natural, because the difficulty had been put in their minds; Satan using, quod nota, a truth, to make a difficulty. And how easily, when the glory and mystery of God in the suffering of His exalted Son was not understood, could the difficulty be made available! How was John Elias? He said he was not. But God's children are taught of Him, and given understanding. But their thoughts turn back to the point of His being this Person at all, of which the glory seen so strongly was evidence, and this very conviction brought out the difficulty which had been planted in their hearts. This the Lord at once meets plainly. Elias coming first, restores all things. This was entirely a solution on Jewish subjects. Elias, they said, was to come first; so he was coming first; he restores all things. This is a remarkable testimony. The work of Elias is to call back, and, as we have said, he returned to Horeb as the place of the character of his mission. He acted on the Horeb, or Sinai ground; recalled, and returned thither to hear the voice of God-then the answer of supreme grace. And when he is promised it is "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and judgments." Elias comes and takes up Israel for Israel's portion. But Jesus, coming as Son of man, must suffer many things, and be set at naught; that was where He drew back their minds. His heart saw and felt the ruin of all Israel. He was just about to break His staff, Beauty, and He therefore says, " Elias truly cometh first, and restoreth all things " (taking them on their own ground). Then He would appear to them in glory now, the Son of man-a real (not of dispensation merely), a wider character-must suffer, and be set at naught, for things were all in confusion. " But I say unto you that Elias also has come "-now speaking of him who came spiritually as such, as Jesus came then rather spiritually, i.e., only so understood, though really He-" and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed." The ruin of all things, and dreadful, the totally ruined, state of Israel- all Israel-has been shown in him also. They have followed their own will against God and their own mercies, "as it is written of him." This is a very remarkable passage. I am not aware (there may be) of any direct passage, i.e., in open terms speaking of this, but then for this reason it shows a depth of application of Scripture that is most deeply interesting and instructive, and deeply affects my mind. In such case, such passages as Isa. 59:1515Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. (Isaiah 59:15), would have their application, even by Him who saw all things in their principles, and full force according to the mind of God. Then the verses which follow would be the application of God's judgment to them, to which the Prophet passes on at once. What should happen to the Son' of man is more precisely spoken of.
But the lot of His faithful though despised servant was not disregarded by Him; he was in His mind. It was written of him how honorable he had been noted in God's book. The restoring of all things was then here perfectly Jewish, though in principle, as repentance, it was of all, but in character Jewish and earthly, but applied to the root as to this portion, or possibility of portion in God's blessing-repentance. This itself really was grace-a new principle-for the Law was, "Do this and live "; here, " repent," because they had failed. It was, therefore, as the Apostle argues in Romans, though not yet developed, the righteousness of faith. The Law and the Prophets all went on to this. This really was a hinge to other things. The Kingdom of God was preached. John was soon rejected by the hearts of the sons of men, though coming in a strictly Jewish way. The principle was in John. But it was true Elias would come; he who had despaired and gone to Horeb, though very faithful, would come and restore. So it was written. But it was equally written that the Son of man would suffer, and that they must expect therefore. And indeed Elias had come, and they had fulfilled what was written of him, i.e., he who had come in the spirit and power of Elias.
The will of man hitherto had had its full way; for mercy and grace in power, i.e., setting aside evil, had not yet come.
This total failure of power against evil (without Him) was then fully manifested, and therein the state of the disciples as well as of the Jews, as to the recognition of His power (for all things were possible to him that believeth) for indeed His power was present there. However, unless to faith, He was away in the glory, as it were. Whether to disciples or to the rest, He had to say of them as a generation, "Oh, faithless, how long shall I be with you? " Their unbelief was driving Him away; even in the disciples was this shown, but still He was with them in power-His glory, and so the scene of their unbelief still, so to speak, fresh in His mind. This presence of His glory from which He was just returning, brought the whole state of the nation before Him, pictured in this scene. His disciples, without faith as to the energy of it, unable to help; the power of Satan cruelly manifested in the young man, and with the misery of the father, the people just running in helpless curiosity, to know what was the power; and where was it without faith in Him? The sufferers miserable, cast only by misery on One they knew not really; they had no faith. " When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? " And such, though doubtless there be deep instructions in principle in it, such seems the intimation in it, that without the presence of Christ, that unhappy nation could not be delivered from the power of Satan; and this upon His return from the glory. " After the glory hath he sent me " unto you. Then they will receive Him, and receive Him with astonishment, not understanding this manner of God's dealings with Israel. They had not, long as He had been suffering them, learned His way, and interest in them, and power towards them in Jesus-no, not even His disciples who kept His commandments and had His testimony. In the sense of this power Jesus returned to them. They did not understand this separation, even from His disciples, and return. He returned, however, whatever His glory may be, in the prosecution of the same mercy as in power to deliver. And this had been Israel's character, too, from a child. It was not merely moral evil was now in question, but the power of Satan. Israel-though it might be there was no deliverance from this-it came to him from a child; One only could do it, and that was proved in resurrection. Yet, though it had often cast him into fire and water to destroy him, it never had after all. Wretched as was the power unbelief held them into-Satan-a superior hand restrained him, and now he was to be cast out. The man, as we have said, cast himself, in the sense of misery, in hope on the Lord. Let what evil would have happened, God's power had not been limited-the being able was in the believing. The Lord, in no wise seeking widespread popular display, but the suitable exercise of the power of God, that the evidence of it might be clear, by a word of power ejected the spirit, and restored the young man. The working of Satan in the presence of Christ all turns to the witness of His superior power. This deliverance, when Christ returned to deliver, was final; for, from the state described when taking seven others, and entering in, the last state was worse than the first. It is only in real abstraction from self to God, real denial, or, rather, abstraction from self and drawing close to God, that God is so known as to have this power identified with His interests, conscious of His glory concerned in it, sensible of the excellency and power of the extent of that glory, and that God is near, and interested in everything because He is God-able to detect the presence and. power of Satan, and apply the power of God in judging him, so as that he must recognize the power which detects him, and which walks abstractedly for and with God in the world, and so by His presence with Him can, in the power of this union and communion, act for Him, for His glory is in it.
-14, et seq. His absence was seasonable for the proof- His presence for the timely support of His disciples. Can one doubt that divine wisdom ordered the admission of these to the Transfiguration, and left those to that exercise? And His return to them-and it may be observed that it does not appear by any means that our Lord left them at the foot of the mountain-it was the next day He came to them. Nor does it appear that it was at the foot of the mountain, indeed, He came to the disciples; but if He did, the ground of their wonder was evident, for they looked not for Him then at all. If we are not so gifted as to qualify us for the Transfiguration, perhaps the next best mercy may be anxious exercise, by which our defect of faith may be discovered, and the Lord will doubtless come in aid to His own glory. Yet it is a sad thought, this strange unbelief.
It was the Lord's absence brought the trial of faith, but it was the feebleness of that faith which seems to have occasioned them thus to be left. Thus, often, in daily life does the weakness of faith bring its own punishment by exposing us to the situation in which its defect is evinced.
The remark as to the people's wonder-I think just, they did not know what was become of our Lord, absent not with but from His disciples in an unusual way.
-19. No doubt of the father as well as of the disciples.
-21, 22. The father's distrust seems partly to have arisen from extreme anxiety increased, no doubt, by the failure of the disciples. But, note, the cause for it is an abiding one, whether painful or joyous; he felt more about himself than the Lord. Here was the germ of unbelief. "Have pity on us "; he was full of the object, not calm reliance on the Lord's power in respect of it. This fills with the sense of the apparent difficulties; we do not see where the "if thou canst " lies. This accordingly is the point our Lord brings the man's mind to; he says, "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." It is not merely uncertainty as to the Lord's seeing right to interfere, for that is consistent, quod nota, with perfect faith. " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. And the Lord said, I will, be thou," etc. Here is no reference to Him as " Lord," but " If thou canst." The Lord therefore answers, ' The point of its possibility lies in your belief.' The " If thou canst," which was applied to Him, properly rested in others' faith. There is the whole " if," for " All things are possible to him that believeth." The question of ability, etc., is (are you able) to believe? Note, when we are anxious for some immediate object, we may apply for aid to what has the credit of being able to help, without any just faith in that which we apply to. Just faith recognizes, so as to have moral power over the soul, the real character of its object, for it dwells upon it, not merely on what one would gain from it; see Hos. 7:1414And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. (Hosea 7:14), and Psalms 78 and 107. And therefore it never reaches anything of willing obedience. "Who is the Lord that I should obey him? " See, when there was some measure of faith really in the case of Jairus, how our Lord anticipated, as observed, the effect of the news of her death, by holding him to the apprehension of the power, not of the difficulty-" all things are possible," etc.; and, God being indeed manifested, the being able is in the believing. The observations here are intimately connected with our seeking spiritual comfort, in our getting ease for ourselves. A burthened soul cannot but seek it, but a truly humbled and distressed soul is led much more to contemplate God, and wait upon Him, as one unworthy, than to seek ease selfishly for itself, faithlessly as regards Him. Such a soul rather wants deeper convictions of sin generally. There may be dealings of God with souls beyond these observations perhaps; see Jonah, the Israelites lusting for meat, and the answer of the three children to Nebuchadnezzar.
The question of power is in believing-"All things are possible to him that believes."
There was the confession of unbelief which is, so far, recognition, that it acknowledges the duty of faith which could not be but on the existence of the object, but avows a defect of moral ability. It here manifestly, as to occasion, arose from the same undue possession of mind by the anxious, selfish action about his son; nor was there, though he obtained his desire, and so often, that free manifestation of willing grace on the part of the Lord, which is the blessed power of affiance and communion in us. He saw the multitude running together; the instruction and suggestion was given here as to the power of faith, because it was wanting. There was no want of the Lord's doing all for the man He could do; he obtained his desire, but he did not gain that light of the Lord's countenance and acceptance, which others did who believed simply, and looked to the Lord. He did not contemplate it; it was not " According to thy faith be it unto thee," but " Jesus, seeing the multitude running together." It is surely an instructive lesson. The Lord's grace (while we are humbled and warned) shines most brightly.
But while the Lord showed there was abiding mercy, though He had thus to bear with them, He returns to instruct and fortify the poor of the flock, and seal the law among His disciples. Before, He taught them that the Son of man was to suffer and be set at naught; here, further, that He was to be delivered even by those with whom He was then dealing, into the hands of men, and they would kill Him. This was a further step, as in man's sin, so in the strange relationship of things which sin had brought in. The Son of man taking the title in love, and the Head and Glory of man is delivered by those in direct, divine association with whom He came, into the hands of men-those whose nature He had assumed in love, and to their glory, and they would kill Him. Death was to be His portion at the hands of men. But, being killed-
here was the wonderful purpose of love and glory which permitted it, even sin and darkness and folly to the uttermost- that, being killed, He would rise again, putting away the sin, and conquering death. But they were quite ignorant of the Word. It was very simple, but it fell in with no previous ideas. It was therefore unintelligible. So ever-the statements of God are very simple, but they are not accordant with what we have received, and they are therefore difficult to the mind. " How is it that ye do not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word." If we hear what God says, there is no difficulty in understanding it. It was not surprising that they should not understand the humiliation (that deep glory) of the Son of man, when they were disputing who should be greatest in a kingdom which they had settled according to their own views, and ideas, and desires for themselves. Yet the resurrection glory was founded on this humiliation. The Cross, if God was holy, must be passed through for it. Yet, what a picture of the heartlessness of man! Just while the Lord was explaining His humiliation, and the new and blessed truth of His victory in resurrection, they were at that time disputing in selfishness as to the portion of each in that Kingdom. What a disclosure of their insensibility and selfishness! The glory of the Kingdom had but aroused it. Anything special for the three, seems to have left them on a par with all the rest, and the Lord's account of His betrayal to death into the hands of men seems to have left them where they were. The Lord, who knows their thoughts, asks them, but there is, at least, the silence of shame. Conscience had begun to work upon it, whether through His discourse or not, but they had disputed enough what they were ashamed to confess. It is before the Lord things assume their true character. But how sad and sorrowful is the picture of man! But the Lord takes the occasion to instruct them further in the spirit and character of His Kingdom-humiliation. He was a good example of it in all patience, for it was done to His Father. Whoever would be first should be last and servant, for it was self, and just so much distance from and want of the Spirit of Christ. Our Lord pursues this character of Christianity, self-humiliation and self-sacrifice, thus entirely brought out by Christ's death, and valuing Him and everything by reference to Him thus rejected would be the great test of this. It was not the vain glory of the world, but the links of God's love; His love rested on such, whoever received one of these despised and, to the flesh, unimportant little ones in His name, received Him, and whoever received Him received not Him-to the eye of the flesh a despised and rejected Man-but Him that sent Him. The glorious links of God's love!
Another form of this selfish, human, fleshly aggrandizement among His disciples (in the Church even) then discloses itself through this remark. He did not enlarge and accredit their party-this man that cast out devils in Christ's name; John thought it doubtless well, as he did not go with Christ, but he was casting out devils in Christ's name-the good was done in the power of His name, and no one who could use power in His name could readily speak evil of Him. If they loved the glory of His name, not their own aggrandizement and credit, they would be glad of it, as the blessed Apostle. "Some preach Christ of contention," " yet every way Christ is preached, and therein I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." And they need not hinder him, they would have plenty of opponents; to bear the name of Christ would turn the world against them, for the question between Christ and the world under Satan's power was fairly raised, and they were to find this on His death which was now before Him, as the very connection of this opposition, the manifestation of this enmity. Whoever was not against them was on their side. " Us " was the word on the Apostle's mind, he had a right, he thought, to use Christ's name to make people go along with them. Christ used it only for good in humiliation, and they would be in this warfare, and have plenty of it; wherever Satan was cast out by that Name, it would be so much force and reinforcement of their service for Christ. If they were looking for the fleshly importance, that was not Christ's name really, and if all the world and Satan's power were against them, whatever validated the power of Christ's name against the power of Satan would be for them-would actually and relatively strengthen their service. It was value for Christ evidently. It was recognized by Him, and so were they identified with Him, that if anyone gave them but a cup of cold water in His name, His name would be recognized-the great test, for indeed the whole mind of God was involved in it, and the moral state of the individual, for it owned God, for the love of Him as humbled, despised, and rejected in a world of sin-the man would not lose his reward, on purpose to put down the false view of man.
The Lord had come, completely despised and outcast even to death, on purpose; so all that view, pro tanto, was got rid of for the sake of that very Name which conveyed all that. The kind act was done, and in that act God's view of Jesus and His work was taken. I say pro tanto, for I do not see that it is here brought to a question of salvation; but it was recognized, and not forgotten of God. He owns the truth, and reflex of His grace and truth, wherever He finds it, and acts on the presenting of it to Him. On the whole, the thing they were to value was simply His name-the great test, as He had His Father's-and so entire was, and would be, the opposition, whoever was not actually against them, they might reckon as gain and on their side. On the other hand, whoever should slight this Name in the least-the least and most insignificant believer-he had joined the world and Satan, in this great open conflict, in that in which the Lord was most interested. His feeble weakness showed his malice, and evil malignity, the baseness and cowardly spirit, yet acute malignity of evil, and that just in what was nearest the opposite feeling-ini the Lord's heart-His tenderness and watchfulness over the feeble, the poor, the weak, the lost; he had touched one of Christ's little ones-it were better a millstone were about his neck. But the real thing was the value of Christ's rejected name; that attached the greatest value to the least thing, to the feeblest. The glory had been brought out in the Transfiguration. His total rejection by the world rested on the mind of Christ- owning Him was owning all that the world had rejected. All hung on the consciousness of how He had come, and been sent, on owning Him.
-38. The point of connection rests "in my name " (verse 37) and so in what follows.
-40, 41. Remark with what singular beauty the Lord says " us," identifying Himself wholly with the disciples, after rebuking the selfishness of the " us " in verse 38.
I think this holds out in the strongest light the universal opposition of the world to the ministry of the Gospel; on the contrary, the perfect waiting on the weakness of those who, however weak, are willing towards the Gospel, and then, especially in ministers, the obligation of the maintenance of their own consistency in grace; for indeed they are subject to the same liability in stumbling, and the rather as the exercise of service is peculiarly apt to lead their mind off the frame of their own spirit and internal power of grace, and they defraud not only themselves but others.
-42. Christ is everything-value for His name tests all. A cup of cold water for His name's sake, shows value for Christ. So a believing child is of all account; so what would turn us away from Him must be sacrificed, be it what it may. It is now an eternal question. The salt must be kept salt; and the judgment of God will test everything. It is more testing, but less characteristic than Matt. 18 The principles are the same so far.
But as the Son of man had come to seeks-and save what was lost, and His coming had proved how -totally lost they were, as the principles of His kingdom were found at total variance with all that was in man, so-really as God had set forth all that was attractive, all He had in Him, not merely Jewish hopes but eternal destinies hung on the rejection of and not following Him. He saw also how many things hindered the human heart from coming to Him, how many things got power over it, but if it cost a right hand or a right eye, it was better to enter into life. How solemnly and urgently the Lord repeats it! There was no offense really in Him. If it was in them, better to lose anything here, even what was good and given in nature, than eternal life, and go into Hell, " where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." The unquenchable fire is its character, for that is God's judgment, but there is that which belongs to the place, a gnawing which characterizes it, and is of them, and ceases not, and is lasting as they, their worm-worse, because theirs. It characterizes the place, and as to this judgment of God, it is universal; everyone shall be under its influence. It is His nature, His necessary and blessed nature, on which the stability of all things hangs, which is connected with the very being of God, as God; He could not be so else, but to allow of sin. Our God, blessed be His name, "is a consuming fire "; He allows it not in us-thanks be to Him! It is our joy. He cannot allow it anywhere; "Holiness becomes his house forever." It is our portion; and what perfect delight and joy to our souls! Our portion forever! Hence what deep, deep consolation, that God knows everything in us! Then, on the knowledge of this, there is the activity of holiness spoken of here. It is addressed to the disciples only, all this, and is instruction to them-activity in rejecting all outward occasions, and stumbling blocks which nourish and cultivate the flesh, for we have the Spirit already; for, though not said to them when they had, it is said to them on the footing of His death which introduced all the principles of God's holiness, sentenced (though a sacrifice for sin or God by it, as by Christ's life and nature) sin in the flesh, and was that through which, as sin was judged, so we are made partakers of the Holy Ghost.
Now fire is just the application of the holiness of God in judgment; "Everyone shall be salted with fire." Christ, having taken our place, was salted with fire, and if our sin was entirely consumed by it, He Himself was therein an Offering made by fire, a Sacrifice of a sweet savor, an Offering made by fire unto the Lord. Coming into a world of sin, He must put Himself here, go on with the sin (at least in others) and go out of it again, i.e., in fact He must put Himself here. It was the only place He could put Himself into-yea, in this wonderful mystery of love, holiness, and wisdom-this mystery of God-of godliness, for sin had come in. But this shows necessarily that sin cannot pass at all, for it was the intervention of God about it. It was the great proof of this. But looking at it illustratively, if He did not escape putting Himself in this position, who shall? God's holiness is certain, and sooner or later vindicates itself, whether as an action or not. Everything is tried, and passes through the ordeal of this holiness; "Everyone shall be salted with fire." God's active, judicial, and, in one sense, avenging holiness, shall try everything. Everyone then shall be salted with fire, every sacrifice, everything offered to God shall be salted with salt-the preserving and enduring savor of grace. The salt of the covenant of our God must be, shall be in every sacrifice, every one offered to God. There is a process of judgment, even for the saints-the fire tries them, but in them it merely purges the evil, chastens them for the inconsistencies, and, removing the soil and hindrance, the new life moves unhindered and unobstructed, healthily, easily, and happily. When that is not, of course, it is mere judgment and condemnation. But every sacrifice, everyone really offered to God, he in grace shall be seasoned with the salt of the covenant of the God of His people. This is according to the measure and character of the offering, i.e., it is qua offering, he may, if careless in walk, undergo, and with the judicial process as another, perhaps more severely because of the position-he is in a nearer position to the consuming fire-but, as an offering, every saint, and in measure as actually offered, is salted with the salt of the savor of God's grace in communion with Him. For the whole of this indeed hangs on being brought completely to God, that all the figures of the Law had their realities now, Christ, the Lamb, the Gehenna of fire, everything. God Himself was revealed; questions had ceased to be Jewish. His rejection by them had rejected all questions into questions between sinful man and God. The last Hope of the Jews having been rejected by their evil nature, when really God, their God, was amongst them, who would have gathered them, and being rejected in His formal character to them as Jews, His character and theirs, as God and sinners, became manifested, and in juxtaposition. Hence the discoveries and truths in the previous passage. And in this nearness no sin could be allowed; the fire of God's holiness, dispensed mercy being rejected, must try everything. They must be salted, consecrated by this. This would be in nothing but judgment of men-unrenewed sinners-everlasting destruction from His presence. But, on the other side, in grace, this nearness to God was the power of real savor, and being spiritual consecration to Him, this consecration had its power in this nearness. There the savor of salt is; and it is impossible, further from God, to enter into the power which is nearer to Him, for the power of grace is of Him, and we are offered so far as the flesh is put down and sacrificed, and we are alive to Him in that we live in our place, and every energy of our mind as servants. This, as regards position; if in that position the flesh rises up, the fire will only, so to speak, burn hotter, because of its inconsistency with the position. Thus, suppose I were in the position of an Apostle-self-sacrifice to God-my work must be in the savor and power of that nearness, and so only could be; but any inconsistency we may expect to meet the fire for, according to the nearness of that holiness.
Then as to the Church-the salt of the earth is its position and character. It holds the place of grace, of the revelation of God's unveiled character in the earth. It holds His place. " Be ye therefore perfect as," etc. And so of light to the world. " God is Light." "Ye are the light of the world." Well now, this which was brought out in Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, is good. " Salt is good," but if that which holds this place lose its savor, " wherewith shall it be seasoned." It remains in its position, nor, when really Christian, does it cease to be salt, but it has lost its savor. There is no hope of recovery held out. It is not, as salt, spoken of for its security for heaven, but its savor for earth as a witness, and witness of what the Lord is on earth. Thus the Lord traces, synoptically, the effect of His rejection and the manifestation of deeper principles, which was to be the effect of that rejection. Though short, the statement of principles is of the very deepest possible importance, arising from the full manifestation of God, on the discovered impossibility of any dispensation with man, as such, and the principle of grace therein, brought out and manifested in the Church, and in it in responsibility on the earth; for man, let his security for heaven be what it will, is always responsible on earth—or whatever may strengthen him in that responsibility.
- 49. Is it not to be looked on as a promise, though in form and truth a warning? " Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit." He had been recommending the putting away, at all cost, the occasion of sin, " For," says our Lord, every one shall be fully counted and purged, and that by judgment, for God will, if possible, mark more decidedly, in His people than in others, that it is and must be " so of a truth " to them, indeed all of grace; and then the reference to the Romans has full application, and many passages in Corinthians may be referred to. The " for " (gar) then is obvious.
Is it not also, for every one will be exercised in the fire of trial? The fire shall try every man's work, and indeed every individual's work in his own soul. " Present your bodies a living sacrifice." " Every sacrifice," i.e., every one devoted to the service of God in the Gospel of His Son—crucified with Christ. This can only be effectual and real in the power of genuine grace. " Salt is good," there seems to be a conjunction here of the instrumental power or means, and the person in whom it operates, as in the parable of the sower: " These are they which are sown," etc. Then of the salt (ye are the salt by the power of the salt in yourselves), "If the salt becomes saltless, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." This connects it with the circumstances from which the discourse sprung. The result is simple and powerful—" salt in yourselves... peace with one another." The more real power of grace there be in us in truth, the more recognition of the Name of the Lord Jesus,
the more genuine apprehension of nothingness in ourselves, more of the communion of the power of His Person, and so the more peace among ourselves. When real grace fails, though there be gifts, there will be jealousy and self-seeking even by those very gifts, and the Name which is the bond of power and unity will be disregarded, and division follow. They are most important as substantive directions, but have the utmost connection one with the other. Though peculiarly strong as to ministers, it is, as all other such places, true to all disciples.