Three things, beloved friends, especially come out in this chapter: first, the full and complete finishing of the work which the Father had given the Lord Jesus to do; second, while that gives the full consciousness of the place we are in with God, there is very jealous care for the holiness and watchfulness in the path in which we are called to walk down here; and third, the blessed and gracious love of the Lord, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” All the way He made Himself a servant in order to minister to us.
It is important for us as Christians to see our place with God in Christ, to know distinctly what that place is. Many sincere souls stop short of this, and do not know their relationship with God, through what the blessed Son of God has done already in dying for them and bringing them to God; and at the same time, how it all bears on holiness of walk.
The Lord shows here that no defilement can be allowed, and then adds its measure. Suitability of walk and conduct flows from the place you are in: you cannot expect any one who is not a child or a servant to behave as a child or a servant. Evidently then it is of all importance to know the place I am in, as all my duties flow from it. The moment the relationship is there, the duties are thence; but none can get the relationship by doing the duties.
It is therefore of all importance to see the connection between the grace of God that brings salvation, and our walk and conduct. We must see what the relationship is before we can have the consciousness of its duties. The Lord would bring us, perhaps through painful exercises, to the consciousness of the place we are in; and the gracious, loving provision there is for us in that place, never to allow unholiness. If it were only the being saved, this would be a blessed thing; but He brings us into positive relationship with Himself, in infinite love and perfect righteousness. He came into a world of sinners for this. We have the treasure in earthen vessels; but the relationship is settled: “Ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Therefore His first word to Mary after His resurrection is, “Go and tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” My Father is your Father too. He puts them into His place, having brought them into it; and tells them where He has brought them.
But this is not all. The moment I estimate the cross according to the word of God, I learn, as the apostle says, “If one died for all, then were all dead.” We see One who came in unspeakable love to save us. For God, as it were, said, I have yet one Son: one thing I can do to see if I can waken up right thoughts and feelings in these husbandmen. But when they saw the Son, they cast Him out and slew Him. In calling ourselves Christians, we profess to be in a world which has cast out the Son of God; we are in a world of sinners, condemned sinners.
God was dealing with man. He tried and tested man, who had got out of his place where God had put him in Paradise, to see whether He could reclaim his heart. But all this ended in bringing out the condition in which man was. It proved that he preferred anything to God—money, pleasure, duties (I do not speak now of sin). No object is too small to govern the heart and to shut out Christ. Take dress: is that too small? Take money: is it? It is the same case with all our hearts. You never found a natural man thinking of Christ as the object of his heart. If alone in a room for two or three hours, he thinks of his sorrows, or of his joys, but not of Christ.
You never find a man ashamed of a false religion. Of gods that even man might be ashamed of, they are not ashamed; but true Christians are ashamed of confessing Christ. People are ashamed of the true God; but of a false religion, never
Any and every object in the natural heart has displaced Christ. I own Jesus the Son of God has come and died for me, and do I prefer a bit of dress to Him? All this tells us what scripture says: that the carnal mind is enmity against God, every object being dominant over it; and even when we do love God, how often we are ashamed of Him!
It is not now a question of trying to arrange ourselves a little and set things straight. But the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost: this is my natural condition; I am lost.
Where men find their enjoyment, only bring Christ in, and it is all spoiled. The natural man never enjoys Christ, and as Christians we have to watch ourselves, lest we slip more or less into that state of things.
First comes the honest conviction that I am lost, and then I believe what God has done: that is another thing altogether.
The law came to require righteousness from me; but He came to bring salvation to me, because I was lost. Owning myself as a sinner, I cannot of course go into heaven as a sinner. So the question is, What has He done for me that I may be cleansed? Supposing I have been brought thoroughly to confess that I am lost, and I turn to Christ, what do I find there? That when I did not think of God, He was thinking of me. This is the truth; and I have then, with no seeking of mine, what the spring of God's thoughts and heart were towards me: He spared not His own Son. Acknowledging myself as a sinner, I find what the blessed Son of God has done. I find the spring of His heart. He cannot allow sin, being perfect in holiness and righteousness; and I find Him doing what love always does when it is real, considering the whole state of its object. I was dead, and He comes into death; judgment was against me, and He takes the judgment.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. In Him I see One coming in love and goodness and grace. This astonishes me, as it did the poor woman by the well. He must bring us into truth and light. He says, You are vile, not fit to show your face to a decent person. But there is the revelation of God in Christ. It comes not as a claim upon me, but as grace to me. It tells me I am a sinner; or why should it come? It brings God's love out to me. If the highest measure of grace is the cross of Christ, it is the very thing that shows me where I was. Why should He go down into so dreadful a ditch, if there were not some there to pull out? This perfect work is done. “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Therefore He is set down at the right hand of God, accepted by Him. God gave Christ in love and accepted Him in righteousness. God is satisfied, more than satisfied—glorified about sin. The cross is the place where good and evil met absolutely. All the evil of man was shown out against Christ. He was going about doing good, healing all their diseases, and even Pilate could say, What do you kill Him for? It was enmity against God.
But if all the wickedness of man's heart be there, what do we find on the other side? Absolute obedience and perfect love to His Father. “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” Where do we learn love? “Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us.”
There is no such perfect display of perfect righteousness anywhere, as in Christ drinking that dreadful cup. There is most solemn righteousness, yet the perfect love of God to the sinner too. If we look at the moral glory of the cross, the whole question of sin is perfectly settled, and God has glorified Christ above. For what did He die? For my sins, according to the scriptures. If I come as a poor vile sinner to the cross, I see Him bearing my sins in His own body on the tree, and now in glory. Has He got them there? I see Him standing here for me in righteousness, drinking that dreadful cup, the very thought of which made Him sweat great drops of blood. Then, having purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is not like the Jewish priests who were often offering the same sacrifices, but He forever sat down because the work is finished. If the work is not perfect, it never will be. I am not speaking now of your appreciation of it, but of the work itself; if we live near to God, we shall appreciate it more every day. But the work is done.
We have then, beloved friends, this blessed truth—that coming to God by Him I find that work which is a proof of the love of God to me when I was a sinner, and I find it done and accepted when I was a sinner. Of course my soul is purified by obeying the truth too, or I should not care about it in that way. Christ is waiting till His enemies are made His footstool, having brought me to God by that work. And God is active in His love to put it before us in every shape in which it can meet our need. Do you say you are guilty? but God has justified you. Defiled by sin? yes, but God says, I have cleansed you with the precious blood of my Son. Do you say, Oh! I have offended God dreadfully? So you have; but I have forgiven you. Then the Holy Ghost came down at Pentecost, and is given to every one who believes. “In whom, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” “If any man confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.” O that those words rested in our hearts and consciences, beloved friends! There is the place we are brought into; but we shall not get fully into the glory till the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. “I will come again and receive you unto myself.” “When he shall appear, we shall be like him.” “The glory thou hast given me, I have given them.” The purpose of God is (I am speaking to you as believers) to bring us into the same glory as His Son.
I earnestly desire for your hearts, that you should get clear hold of this—how all is cleared of the first Adam, that we might have all the blessing the last Adam gives. He became a man that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. The dignity of His Person is always maintained; but He will never be satisfied until He sees you there in the same glory with Himself and as Himself forever.
If I pay a man's debts, and leave him without a farthing, he is a ruined man still, But Christ has paid our debts, and has, so to speak, given us an immense fortune besides. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” The scripture teems with passages which show the way in which we are associated with Himself. As soon as Christ was gone up into heaven, the witness of divine righteousness, the Holy Ghost, came down, that we might know it. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father.” How can I say Father, if I do not know I am a child? It would be hypocrisy. If the conscience is purged by the blood of Christ, relationship is known by His Person, and then I must walk as a child; but I must know that I am a child first. We cannot expect people to walk as Christians if they are not Christians. Something else has to come first: they have to confess Christ, as well as their sins, and be saved.
Now if you believe in the Lord Jesus, beloved friends, can you say, I know I am in Christ? “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” We have to manifest the life of Jesus in my mortal body; but we must have it first. How can I manifest it if I have not got it?
Have I listened to that word, “My Father and your Father,” &c. He has brought me into the same place as Himself; and I am waiting for God's Son to take me there in person. Death has lost its sting, and if I die, it is to be with the Lord, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” The full result will not be till He comes again, and the marriage of the Lamb takes place; we are not in the glory yet, we know.
We might think that, Christ having gone up into glory, all His service was over. But it is not so. Love never gives up itself, and never gives up the happiness of those it loves. If a child goes wrong, the Father's heart yearns over him; he may have to punish, but the heart goes after him. Christ's love is perfect, and it never gives up its service if it can make the loved one happy; and this we find here. The supper was come. He came from God, and was going back to God in all the blessed perfectness in which He came; and what does He do? It is as, “I am among you as one that serveth.” Is there an end of His service now? No; He rises from supper, testifies He cannot stay with them here, but tells them He must have them with Him there. He could not stay as Messiah. I am going away as your Forerunner, “I go to prepare a place for you.”
This is in two ways. First, He is as priest, serving, “He ever liveth [think of that!] to make intercession for us.” This is not exactly for sin, but that we may not sin. I am a poor tempted one upon the earth, and He always at God's right hand occupied with me.
But in this chapter there is another thing. Supposing I do sin, how are my feet to be washed? This alludes no doubt to the custom of the priest's consecration. His body was washed when he was consecrated. But whenever he went to do anything at the altar, he washed his hands and feet. It was as much as to say, There must be holiness. “He that is washed (or, bathed) needeth not save to wash his feet; he cannot be regenerate over again. The word used for washing the body and washing the feet is not the same in the original of this chapter; one means bathing complete, the other partial.
We are cleansed by water and by blood. But then there is always this danger: here I am, walking through this world always ready to defile me. There is the danger of picking up dirt upon my feet. When the Lord goes into heaven, He takes what heaven is as a measure of our walk. He does not pray that we should be taken out of the world, but kept from the evil. Looking up to the Lord in glory, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. “Every man that hath this hope on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” Seeing Christ in glory, I know I am going to be like Him, and my heart wants me to be as like Him now as ever I can. This is what Paul meant, “that I may win” Him. He sees Christ in glory, knows he is going to be like Him, and now tries in every possible way to imitate Him here.
But supposing we fail—there is no excuse for doing so, it is our own carelessness and neglect—yet He says, I am going up on high, and I shall wash your feet. I have washed you here: “already ye are clean by reason of the word that I have spoken to you.” Peter was ashamed of seeing the Lord there like a servant to wash his feet; but when he hears he must be washed, he says, “Not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” No; He says, That is enough. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.... and he is the propitiation for our sins.” The propitiation is unchanged, but another service comes in. If I have sinned, I do not say that I am not under the blood of sprinkling, but, Can the Father have fellowship with an unholy thing? No! Yet the word says, “If any man sin,” not “if any man repent.” The advocacy, to be sure, brings us to repentance.
If only I have let an evil thought come in, do you think God has communion with that? It were blasphemy to say so. I have found my pleasure, if only for a moment, in what made Christ's agony on the cross. Horrible to say so; but if it made His agony, it cannot be imputed to me. I am convicted, and humbled, and, like poor Peter, led to repentance. It was not because he repented that Christ prayed for him; but Peter repented because Christ prayed.
What is given in the present service of the Lord Jesus is this: if by anything I defile my feet, He takes away the taint, because I belong to His place. He does not raise the question whether I still belong to it; He acts because I do belong to it; “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” Holiness is maintained, because I am in this relationship. God says, I cannot have defiled people in My house; He chastens that we may be partakers of His holiness. He brings the word of God, which reveals what I am, to bear upon my conscience. He restores my soul, and leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
The Christian is standing between the first coming of Christ, which accomplished redemption, and His second coming which takes him to glory, Meanwhile the Holy Ghost is given to every one that believes; He makes me cry, Abba, Father, being seal or witness that I am a son, and is the earnest of the inheritance. He gives me the certainty of the efficacy of Christ's work when He first came, and leads my heart on to the glory.
But there must be holiness, and I find grace still working and giving me the measure of what I am. He tells me I am going to be like Christ, and he who has this hope purifies himself; and here is the measure of my walk— “even as He is pure.” Not that I have attained, I never shall until I am with Christ; but I ought to be always going on, never to soil my feet, that is to do nothing inconsistent.
Scripture, let us remark, speaks of three things: we are to walk worthily of God, who has called us to His kingdom and glory; worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing; worthily of the vocation wherewith we are called. The standard is put before us in these three shapes.
There is thus the perfect settled consciousness of the relationship into which we are brought; then the conduct which suits those who are in this place; and the provision of grace, if we fail.
Do your souls know, beloved friends, supposing you profess it, that you in conscience have got hold of the efficacy of His work? “Peace I leave with you”; can you say you have it? Do you fear the judgment-seat? There is no place in which a Christian may be so bold, because raised in glory, as He is, so are we. Do you believe that your sins will be no more remembered? Many a one sees it in scripture, and says it is true; but can you stand in thought before the judgment-seat, in the consciousness that it is yours?—that you are become divine righteousness in Christ before God?
One more question. If you can thus stand, are you seeking to be in everything the epistle of Christ? whatever you do, to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus? We shall need carefulness, searching of the word, &c., exercises which make good soldiers. The motive is the great thing. If I love my father, and he wishes this book to be laid this way instead of that, I put it so because I love my father.
The Lord give us to have His will as the one object of our lives, the motive of all we do, remembering that we are not our own but bought with a price. May He give us to have our eyes upon Him, that we may know His love and seek His will! J. N. D.