The Lord addresses Himself to His journey to Jerusalem, in the full recognition of this—that He has there to meet the enmity of man: here He does not look towards that city with the thought of His being made there the offering for sin under the hand of God, but rather, of His being there the victim of man’s hatred.
His death, of course, had each of these characters in it. It was the death of the Lamb of God for the putting away of sin—it was the death of the righteous Witness against the world, whom the world, in full enmity, slew and crucified. It was, at one and the same moment, the death of the Atoning Lamb and the death of the Martyr, but it is in the second of these characters, the Lord anticipates it here.
His road to Jerusalem was such, that all His saints can be in that same road with Him, and He calls on them to follow Him along it. And this evinces His mind on this occasion, for we could never follow Him as the Lamb, or the Atoning Victim, but we may, and should follow Him as the Martyr or righteous suffering Witness against the world. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (v. 24.)
This makes the character of this path of Christ very simple and distinct. But, there is comfort along that road, if we have but faith to receive it. It is a weary and a rough path, such as nature does not like. We do not like to be the companions of an insulted, despised, rejected, suffering Master. A journey on such a road as that is rough enough, and strength and heart naturally fail. But again I say, there is comfort provided for it, if we have but faith to receive it and drink it in. “Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (v. 28). This is the comfort. The saints are not set on this road to Jerusalem, this path across a world that is at enmity with them, and is preparing death for them (as men at Jerusalem were then preparing it for Jesus), till they are given to know what the end of that journey is to be—till they be introduced to the glory that lies on the other side of the sorrow and the martyrdom—till they see the Mount of Transfiguration that is higher as well as more distant, than Mount Calvary.
This is the comfort, and this the Lord gives His saints when He calls them to follow Him on the road to Jerusalem, in v. 28. And in this character of it, let me observe, that that verse (v. 28) is an epitome of that magnificent chapter, Acts 7. For one of the purposes of the Spirit in Acts 7 is to tell us this:—that from the beginning, and all along the line of Scripture, the Lord has never called His elect into a place of sorrow without telling them, or giving them some notice, of the glory and joy that were to end the sorrow. Thus Abraham was called from all that nature could value, but it was the God of glory that had appeared to him, and spoke to him with words of promise.
Joseph was separated, and in principle was a martyr—but he had had dreams which already told him of ultimate exaltation.
Moses was reviled, refused, exiled; both brethren and strangers, the seed of Abraham and uncircumcised Egyptians, mistaking him, and persecuting him—but he already had had that beauty upon him which faith discerned to be of God the token of divine favor.
Stephen was hated like his Master; interfered against and killed—but his face had already shone like that of an angel, he was marked as a child of resurrection ere he was hurried, as a martyr, to death.
And so in Matt. 16:28—Some were to taste of death; (Peter himself was to be bound and led whether he would not, John 21:18,19), and suffer as a martyr, but they were to be taken beforehand to the place of the glory, and shown the heavenly blessedness in which all their sorrow was to end: the value of which is such, as the Lord hero speaks, that “the whole world” though gained would be nothing in comparison with the loss of it—if the soul at the end, came short of “the glory of the Son of Man,” all beside, though acquired, would leave the soul a loser.
The Sympathies Of Our High Priest. Hebrews 8.
It is remarkable how much we may be with God in the circumstances in which we are placed, and having God in them, and yet not be practically in the heavenly calling. To be consciously and practically in it is a totally different state. The soul may be thinking of God’s presence amid the woes and troubles here, and looking at it as a rest out of it. Or it may in heart think of the place merely that Christ has sat down there, and ministers grace to it down here. Christ is the center source of each. He is the Word; who has come down here and dealt with our souls here—then He adds, “and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” He takes us up there. He has gone apart as Man, away from the rest of men. He takes up the double character of service towards us. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” perfect grace brought Him to the sinner, but now He is carrying our hearts as He will our bodies into glory. We get the mixture of feeling in our poor hearts. Divine light and love brought into the scene, yet bringing our hearts out of it. Whenever I get the other world I must get the cross, because the things of my heart and flesh—all selfishness—are in no wise connected with heaven; all is love there—lust, nor pride, nor worldliness never can be connected with heaven. “Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood” ye cannot know the bread which came down from heaven.
If you do not know a dying Saviour gone out of the world you do not get practical sanctification of heart or true association with Him as a present thing. A person may have a very true and blessed apprehension of His person and yet not have the flesh subdued to take up the position and consequences which follow from it down here. In Peter it was not a revelation of flesh and blood hut from the Father, yet Peter’s mind was not prepared for the necessary consequences. He says—Have mercy on yourself, do not let that happen to you. A soul may be taught of God and yet find when it comes to walk, that as to the state of his heart he has not realized it. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” not only to take up our hearts by a heavenly work, but so to bring down a heavenly word that it may judge them. Christ takes both in, and His present position is just the link of it. He could not be a Priest if He were not up there, because He must have entered into all that I have to pass through down here, in order to sustain me in it and yet He must be free to be occupied with the things up there. We do want both. This is a question of a soul with God, not of a child with the Father. A naughty child may go and tell his father, but in the question of competency to enter into the holiest, it is a question of going to God, a question of His holiness and of my perfect title to be close to the throne of God where no evil could appear. “If he were on earth he should not be a priest,” this priesthood was in contrast with Christ, men encompassed with infirmities and weakness able to sympathize in the things as in them at the time. “Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.” This would not do for us, and for this reason that He must be down here. The priesthood would have ended where it was exercised—it ends now where it is exercised, and not only for a year but forever it goes till there is no need for it. But our High Priest went through all that fitted Him to help us before He went into the place, not only to sympathize with us, but to bring down heavenly things to us and to take our hearts through the things up to where it is all completely settled, and now I want my heart to be in the place where it is settled—kept by the power of God through faith. That is the way He keeps. Is your faith never dim or feeble? Do your eyes look straight forward? Do they never look askance? Satan tempted Christ by the glories of this world—is there not a nature in you which sees something fair in this world? Satan tempted Him by everything that could be attractive to a man: He was tested in every possible way but was perfect in obedience. He became “the Author and Finisher of faith.” He was perfect in going through the things, we have to learn in the things to go through the path of faith with everything against us, there is not a thing in the world that is not either an occasion of obedience or of temptation— either the occasion of making us quail from the straight path, or of blessed obedience in it. But Christ is constantly and unceasingly occupied for me in all the trials and temptations of the path. He has suffered being tempted—in Him it was the occasion of the flowing out of the odor of His good ointments, but He was tested. He says to Peter, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.” Peter loved the Lord but he did not know himself, he had to be put through a process to let in the knowledge of himself, but before ever he had committed sin Christ prayed for him—so here we get that “He ever liveth to make intercession:” it is the word used for besetting a person to get what you want. Christ is one in the presence of God obtaining for us whatever we need, not that we go to ask Him to intercede but He is there, ever our servant (see John 13). We might have thought that would cease when He had gone to glory. He came down in the form of a servant and He is never going to give it up. Before God we are perfectly clean, accepted in Him, but we do pick up dirt by the way, and it is His service to wash our feet. He does not say that He is mighty and able to help, but that He suffered, perfect to suffer being tempted. We do not suffer when our hearts acquiesce. On the other side, such a high priest became us, became God; the kind of high priest that takes us right into the sanctuary. I want a priest who can feel for me here, and I want a priest who can take me in there, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens.” Why? Because in our place, our calling, in Him we are “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens,” we go in to worship in the holiest—going higher than the heavens—going to God Himself. I have got this place as called out of the world, I have got it through this blessed Man who has come down, who in putting forth His own sheep, went before them all the way and I am in this blessed dependence all along the road. I come boldly to the throne of grace, I know that Christ is there.... how He has filled up the whole measure from weakness, trial, exercise of heart down here right up to the throne where He is sitting on the right hand of the majesty in the heavens, giving me competency for intercourse with God which He could not do unless He was close to God, this is what Christ sustains. Having given me a place in the heavenlies He puts me in a path where there is constant supply. My heart wants to be there in my place above the heavens. I have got Christ there as the One who carries my heart up with Him, for nothing separates me from Him. Do you go and try it; stay half an hour in the positive sense of God’s presence, you have not power to sustain yourself there, you want energy of faith. Nothing so tests the state of your soul as how long you can keep up intercourse with God. Suppose your heart has tasted that enjoyment, how long can you keep it? Do not you want One there to sustain you in it? “He ever liveth to make intercession” —He lives for that. A double case of meeting you down here and taking you up above the heavens to be with God in tender, gracious, thoughtful, condescending love. “Touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” but out of them now, that is the very character of Christ’s priesthood. When I speak of my old man I do not want sympathy—I want the hatchet of God’s Word “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,” when I find the evil of my flesh I want to have it thoroughly judged can look to Him to be with me against it. The heart learns to trust the ever-living love of Christ in the presence of God for us, the very infirmities in us become occasions of help from God, occasions of seeing how God’s heart can be constantly occupied with me. The High Priest is gone in now—this is our heavenly calling—and while in the Holy Ghost comes out to us. Our association with Christ is while He is in, therefore we have assurance, full assurance of faith. The Lord give us to see how such a High Priest became us, and to know the effect of that ministry of His to keep our hearts steady, whether carried up in Spirit with Him, or sustained down here by Him.