As we pass through wilderness circumstances on our way (often so painful and trying) to the rest of God, there is nothing that so braces the soul and cheers the heart, imparting a fresh spring of life and energy and joy, as the sense of what God Himself is, and, we may add, of what He must of very necessity be, in the deep perfections of His Being. We feel the trials of the way—sorrow, suffering, pressure, need; but the soul that knows God—is acquainted with Him, well knows that of these things He is origin and source because it is His joy to bless, His nature to do good; and thus that only what is good, and worthy therefore of Himself, can ever flow from the heart of the blessed God. No taint of sin, no seed of suffering or sorrow, was there to mar that fair and wondrous scene of a completed creation when the Creator, as He looked on the work of His hands, pronounced it all very good. And as we look at the ruin and the desolation, and feel its sad effects, whether in us or without us, we can only say, “An enemy hath done this;” while we look forward to that blessed and unending rest, the rest of God Himself, in which all shall be the eternal witness, the everlasting display of goodness supreme that must expend, but can never exhaust, itself in the blessing of all within its sway.
And who would not dwell even here in heaven’s own atmosphere, and live in the cloudless light of that sun that never sets—those rays of divine love that finds its delight and satisfaction in diffusing blessedness untold on all around? Truly has it been said that heaven is the scene not only of displayed glories, but of gratified affections, and these last are surely the far richer portion of our eternal inheritance. Even here it is not display that gratifies the heart; its deepest joys are not found in what is outward and visible to others, but it is when its longings are satisfied, its yearnings stilled, its affections gratified—then, and then only, the heart rests. But there—there—it will be the prerogative of the blessed God to pour out a wealth of love, a flood-tide of infinite joy, a river of unutterable gladness flowing from the exhaustless ocean of His own fullness. There will He find His eternal delight in giving, and as we range those fields of glory, and scene after scene of inconceivable blessedness opens out before our gaze, enhanced as all will be by the sense of the depth of the ruin from which we have been brought, and the infinite price paid for our redemption, how shall we bow down in rapturous wonder before our God, and adore the love that has satisfied itself in the accomplishment of our full eternal blessing—the everlasting gratification of every holy affection of which we shall be capable. Then in a fuller, deeper way than in millennial days, will it be true that God “will rest in His love.”
There may be some that may be disposed to feel almost tantalized as they think of the contrast between their present circumstances and their future blessedness; but may I venture to remind you, my reader, if you are a child of God, that the blessed God is the same today that He will be in glory, and that you as much and as truly stand in His favor today as you will when you reach His immediate presence. His thoughts about you, His love towards you, are just the same now as they will be then. His nature—love—is unchanged and unchangeable, and He delights as much in the blessing of His saints today, as He will in that day when neither evil nor enemy shall ever again be known. When the great apostle was stoned and beaten, and hunted from city to city, was he not in the fullness of divine favor? And when a far greater than he had to say, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head,” was He not as much the object of the Father’s delight as now when seated on the throne of glory?
But while love gives and serves and expends and pours out, it longs to be known, and returned, and confided in; nor can it otherwise be satisfied. If in the Old Testament we read, “My son, give me thy heart,” the New tells us of how the returning prodigal was seen when a long way off, and how the father ran to embrace him while his heart was filled with gladness, and the house resounded with joy. If all the gracious activities of love have failed to awaken a true response, it will not cease until it has been heard. And the blessed God, who is love itself, and who knows with what a wealth of blessing and of joy He can enrich the objects of His heart, is waiting in patient love upon you, His child, that you may turn aside for a moment from the busy crowd of earthly circumstances, and taste in spirit now something of the unspeakable blessedness of His presence.
Reader, there are those that can tell you that, when pressed by earthly trial or bodily suffering, they have known such nearness, such communion with the blessed God, as has filled their souls with an incommunicable sense of blessedness. Were these then some peculiarly favored children? He has none. In His family, His heart, His love, His blessing and His blessedness, are for each and all alike, and if some but dimly apprehend these things, it is because they value Him too little to make Him their great object; while others, having set their hearts upon God Himself; will be satisfied with nothing less than the most intimate communion, the deepest enjoyment. Each one, let it ever be remembered, has just as much of the Lord as he really desires.
The tendency with each is to suppose his own trials to be either peculiar in their nature or exceptional in their extent; but granting even that they are so, do they not then afford to our God that occasion and opportunity that His love desires, to show how rich is the grace that will not only stoop in tenderest sympathy to walk with us in our trial, but that will lift us above it in spirit to taste the satisfaction and blessedness of His own presence? Many, no doubt, there are who feel it would be such a relief if they might only tell out their trials to some fellow-saint; but do we not well know that the heart of Him that sits upon the throne, and that once walked this earth in humiliation, is a heart that can enter, as no other can do, into every detail of our suffering or sorrow, and that there is something more blessed and more divine than even the tenderest sympathy, sweet and grateful though it be, and that is when, instead of bringing Christ down, as it were, into our circumstances, we rise into His, and there in that bright and blessed scene let our hearts expand in the liberty and joy of love.
Reader, it is no dream of the night, no fancy of the imagination, I seek to bring before you, but substantial realities that lie within the reach, and are made known as the proper portion, of each soul that is brought to God. He wants to be known, to be enjoyed; and being what He is, how could it be otherwise?
Heaven itself is no scene of mere negations; it is not the absence of sin and sorrow and suffering that gives it its character, neither is it indeed the light and the glory and the many mansions of the Father’s house. We may be permitted to speak of these things as its scenery and circumstances; but that which will give it its character, which will constitute its essential blessedness, will be the presence of that Saviour who there is waiting for us—of God Himself too, our Father, who will find His everlasting delight in the eternal joy and blessing of the whole redeemed family.
The scenery and circumstances here are altogether different from what they will be there, but God Himself, the Sun and Center of that vast universe of bliss, is the same now as He will be then, and is as really to be known and enjoyed now as in that day of glory. And if through infinite grace we have been brought into a place of eternal favor, into relationship with the blessed God, do we not well to ask whether we answer to the desires of His heart by our finding now our home in His presence, our portion and joy in His ineffable love, and thus knowing in wilderness circumstances something of that which will constitute the eternal blessedness of heaven? “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3).) F. S. M.
“FATHER, GLORIFY THY SON, THAT THY SON ALSO MAY GLORIFY THEE.”
There are two great subjects in the gospel of John, distinct, if not separate, and yet blessedly connected in the unity of Godhead counsel, and in the oneness of divine operation. The first is the mission of the Son as “the Word made flesh,” come down into the world as “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,” to declare Him, and make Him known. In this perfect manifestation of the Father, veiled in the mystery of the incarnation, the Son could not be hid to the anointed eyes around Him. “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And again, as to communicated blessing, “Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.”
Beyond this personal glory He was the pre-appointed “Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world;” and, moreover, marked out by the abiding Spirit as “He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost,” and sealed by the testimony of John the Baptist— “I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.” To this must be added the confession of Nathanael, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel;” which became the occasion to Jesus for saying, “Henceforth ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” This precious chapter has thus given in outline the circle of the divine and human glories of “the Word made flesh,” who was with God, and was God.
The second great subject in this gospel of John is the mission of the Holy Ghost—when the hour was come that Jesus should depart out of this world unto the Father. As He had said, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter” (or Paraclete) “will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” In fact, Christianity embraces these two divine missions of the Son of God, and of the Holy Ghost, and a new economy is formed on these wonderful changes of place; namely, the departure from this world to the Father by the Son, and from the heavens to this earth by the Holy Ghost, to abide with us forever.
Besides this, the mighty power of God was waiting to display itself anew, in “raising up Christ from the dead,” and setting Him far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, as the center of another system.
The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has thus laid new foundations by redemption, and fastened the corner-stones in resurrection for another creation, “according to the good pleasure of His will, which He had purposed in Himself, to the praise of His glory.” By this exaltation of the Son to His right hand in the heavens, He has “put all things under His feet” as the Son of man; and by ascension given Him to be “the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
Moreover, God has made known to us the mystery of His will, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
The righteous center of this new system of eternal glory is the second man, God’s beloved Son, in whom we are accepted, and in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace. We are introduced and welcomed into this divine circle of blessing as the faithful in Christ Jesus, and are established in love, so that the Spirit’s benediction flows from above according to this new order: “Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is our unalterable portion, and these are our unchanging relations by grace and glory, as new creatures, till we are caught up to meet the Lord. The good pleasure of God purposed in Himself, the counsel of His own will, the wisdom and prudence in which He has abounded toward us, have all found their center in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” The exceeding might of God’s sovereign power has made these purposes and counsels matters of fact to us, by the incarnation, the death, and the resurrection of the exalted and glorified Son of man; and in the conscious enjoyment of our adoption as children by Jesus Christ to Himself, we worship and say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Purposed and planned in Godhead counsel before ever the world was, this great mystery, hidden in God, tarried “till the fullness of the time was come for God to send forth His Son.” Waited yet further, till “the Man in glory” had, in righteous title, been exalted into those headships, and installed by the Father of glory as the new center and beginning of the creation of God.
The mission of the Holy Ghost could not be till the Son of man was glorified, and it is in anticipation of His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high that Jesus said to His disciples, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” The invisible presence of the Holy Ghost on the earth in contrast with a visible Jesus, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, is characteristic of this epoch of Christ’s rejection by the world, and of His departure from us to be with the Father. Beyond the fact of the Spirit’s presence and dwelling with us, we learn that the Paraclete, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Again, Jesus said, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” Such are some of the objects of this glorious mission of the Paraclete, sent down by the Father and the Son; but besides these ministries and their ministrations to “His own which are in the world” till Jesus comes to receive us to Himself, there are yet others. “Nevertheless I tell you the truth... if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
The great fact of His presence is proof of the Lord’s rejection by the world, and of their sin in crucifying Him “because they believed not on Me.” The righteous One is gone to be with the Father in righteousness, and “ye see Me no more,” and hence the crisis which hangs over this world— “for judgment” from the Judge of the whole earth. For if sin and blood-guiltiness be below, where Jesus was slain, and God has exalted Him to His right hand in righteousness, what an issue remains to be settled. This will be the next great public action of God, and how can this be manifested but by judgment upon Satan, because “the prince of this world?” The usurper, the liar, the murderer from the beginning, is judged. As Convicter of the world, the Holy Ghost is come down from God, on behalf of the rejected Christ, as evidence against it, and by the testimony of His actings: at and after Pentecost by Peter and John, the sin of blood-guiltiness was brought home to them, and of righteousness and of judgment too. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Stephen, a man “full of the Holy Ghost,” yet more completely convicted the men of Israel of sin and righteousness and judgment to come, and they were cut to the heart when he wrote the sentence of death on them— “As your fathers did, so do ye.” They gnashed upon him with their teeth, as the betrayers and murderers of Christ, and filled up the measure of Israel’s iniquity. “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God,” and sealed this testimony with the first martyr’s blood.
Thus the Holy Ghost, by Peter and John, convicted the nation by evidence from below, where they still were; whilst Stephen convicted and wrote the sentence of guilt and condemnation upon them from the opened heavens, and by the Son of man in the glory of God above.
Moreover, Satan, the prince of this world, was judged (before the time) in the person of Ananias and Sapphira, whom he tempted to lie unto the Holy Ghost, and for which they were carried out dead. Their condemnation and punishment were his, though delayed till the day appointed, when the angel from heaven, and the key of the bottomless pit, and the great chain shall do their preparatory work, and he be finally cast into the lake of fire.
But the Holy Ghost, as Convicter of the world, has a larger and more dispensational character than to the men of Israel; for even to this day, “if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
But we pass on, and follow the Holy Ghost, in His blessed mission, and ministry, and ministrations, as the Paraclete and Instructor of the saints of God, the children of the Father, and the faithful in Christ Jesus. “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and show it unto you.” This great mission of the Holy Ghost, as “the glorifier of the Son,” could not take its place, as we have seen, until that greater mission of the Son, as “the glorifier of the Father,” had reached its consummation in His perfect obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, followed by His exaltation at the right hand of God.
The devil had done his worst, as the liar and murderer, against God in creation, when Adam fell a prey to his temptations; but man was to become Satan’s agent in a far worse outrage than that, now that the Son of God had come down from heaven as the Saviour of the world; for Jesus had showed unto His disciples that He must suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Moreover, Jesus had said, “One of you shall betray Me,” and marked out the traitor by giving the sop, when He had dipped it, to Judas. He then, having received the sop, “went immediately out, and it was night.” But the darkest hour on earth, and the blackest in the history of man towards God, only led the thoughts of Jesus beyond the treachery of Judas (into whom Satan had entered), that He might interpret the betrayal according to the predeterminate counsel of God. Therefore, when he was gone out, “Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.”
In such a world as this is, a world which lieth in the wicked one, all has to be reversed, and sin must be overcome by death; and death, the death of Christ, become the basis, and His resurrection the glorious power, in the hand of God, out of which “all things are made new.” The last Adam must needs put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and make good that word of prophecy, “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction,” before He could quit the lower parts of the earth, and ascend up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. He had overcome the world before He lifted up His eyes to heaven, saying, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee,” founded upon this precious fact, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou Me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” The empty sepulcher below was the witness of His triumph over sin by death, and finally over death by resurrection, having obtained eternal redemption for us through His blood. The first day of the week, and the two angels in white, are a further seal from God of His own glory, and that “old things were passed away” with Adam the sinner in the crucified Christ, and that all things were become new, in life and righteousness, in a risen Lord.
Before leaving this earth for the right hand of God, He formed other and new associations, between Himself as the second man in resurrection life, and those whom He had made “His own,” by redemption through His precious blood. A new beginning and another history was thus commenced upon this earth, between Jesus risen and the company of His disciples, amongst whom He again takes His place, but on the footing of His glorious victory and accomplished redemption before God, by His substitution and death. Nor is this all, important and blessed as it is to acknowledge Christ as our “wave-sheaf,” and that all things are “of God,” who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ; but other relations are to be made known (for the heavenly) with the Father above, as well as (for the earthly) with the Jehovah—Jesus below hereafter. He “saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni ... Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things unto her.”
There is little more for Jesus to do below in the world that He made, now that He has taken His new place and title upon the earth, by right of its redemption, and, in the power of His resurrection, standing upon it and taking possession as “the Lord.” As such He gave forth His commandments, by the Holy Ghost, unto the apostles whom He had chosen, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things “pertaining to the kingdom of God.” All is over for which He came down into this ruined and groaning creation as its Redeemer, and He has won every promised blessing back for Himself and for God, as the obedient servant and Son, which had been lost by the fall of Adam, and forfeited by the children of men. Having now made all earthly blessing secure, even to the “sure mercies of David,” He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of the sight of those who looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up to the right hand of God.
Promises and covenants, patterns and types, prophecies and songs, had marked the golden pathway of “Elohim Jehovah” in this fallen creation. As the Almighty, He walked with Abraham His friend, and the patriarchs; and again, as the “I am,” with the nation and its mediator and high priest and the royal line of their kings. All and every one of these are now embodied in Christ, and made “for Him Yea, and in Him Amen,” for their full millennial glory. These are the things which are yet to have their accomplishment in time, and under the sun, for Israel and all the inhabitants of the world; and wait their manifestation when Christ comes a second time to take to Himself His great power, and reign over all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, and to fill the whole earth with the glory of God. J. E. B.