It is remarkable that that which constitutes the whole character, power, and place of a Christian, is the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The foundation of it is the work of Christ, but the perfect condition is known when the “other Comforter” is sent down from heaven. The world does not know Him, nor see Him, but He dwells with us and in us. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you.” (1 Cor. 6:19.) “Ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:22.)
You therefore find a strong contrast between the state of, Old Testament Saints and that of those in the New Testament. The ground of redemption must be the same as to their state; but there is a complete contrast. One of the distinct marks of the fall of the Church of God, is that Christians are carried back to Judaism. Of course Christianity sets its seal on Judaism in its place; but to think that the Father could be revealed in the Son, and that the Son died for us, and that He, as Man, should be now sitting on the right hand of God, and this make no difference in our conscious state of blessing, is quite impossible. Yet it is often forgotten, denied, or not really owned.
Man could not come to God in the Tabernacle; the way was not open. “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.” Whereas, the Christian position is, “Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath constituted for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh.” The whole state is opposed to the other. In Judaism man could not come to God; now, man in Christ is sitting in the glory of God. The Holy Ghost could not come till Christ went on high, and His presence is the principle of all this difference. “Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15.) “The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope (did), by the which we draw nigh unto God.” (Heb. 7:19.) This was not the moral law, but the old Jewish system could not exist; I do not say did not, but could not. The Jew sinned if he did not keep up the middle wall of partition. The place and meaning of the “Church of God” is that it is broken down,—Jew and Gentile are all one. The whole character, standing, condition, state, is opposed to the other, every side you look at it, even as to individuals.
In the book of Hebrews we are shown that there was a veil unrent. Now it is rent. There were many sacrifices, now there is only one; because sin is put away for faith and for God. There were then many priests, now there is but one “whoever liveth.” They were ministering on earth, and could not go into the holiest; now He ministers in heaven. It is all contrast, and the whole book of Hebrews takes up these figures to show them entirely contrasted.
I would look now how it is the presence of the Holy Ghost which makes the difference. In the beginning of this chapter there is a passage of which use is often made, foreign to its meaning— “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Paul determined not to know anything among heathen, but Jesus Christ, and Him in His lowest condition in man’s eye. He will not have any philosophy, nothing of man’s learning, speech, or wisdom. “We speak not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” He is not thinking of them as Christians then. To such he says, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” Still they were in a carnal state, and he could not speak to them otherwise. I am obliged to speak to you as unto babes in Christ. He could not speak of the fullness of blessing which belonged to them. What a reproach! The moment I have you in your right place I speak in divine wisdom, but I will have no philosophy—no human wisdom. He would preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
It is very important to notice the difference he makes with Christians. He says, “I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,” they were walking in such a carnal way. How sad and wretched People fancy there are only two classes of persons, unconverted and converted (of course a man has life or not). But there are “natural men,” and “carnal” and “spiritual” Christians. It is a serious thing for all our souls. People often boast of being carnal, and this is constantly quoted for it. It is very sad.
A perfect Christian all through Scripture is what you find in Phil. 3. One who understands not merely that Christ died for him—but that he has died with Christ, and got into His place; not only knowing that certain sins are forgiven, but that he has been taken out of the flesh, and put into Christ. There is no perfection recognized in Scripture but the character of God Himself, and our state as being risen with Christ. Paul’s desire was to “win Christ,” and apprehend that for which he was apprehended of Him. That was his idea—his object, “If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.” We are to be like Christ, conformed to His image, He is the first-born among many brethren. When I am like Christ in glory, I am perfect. I run on to that, says Paul: like a man in a long passage with a lamp at the end of it, he never reaches the lamp till he comes to the end, though he sees it all along. Paul had seen Christ in glory, and had the testimony that he is to be like Him—to bear the image of the heavenly. That is our perfection, but we have this life of the risen Christ now in. this earthen vessel, and we wait for the redemption of the body.
The perfect Christian has his place now in Christ, by faith. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” Thus I know, that I am “in Christ; “I am not merely a forgiven child of Adam, but an accepted child of God; accepted in the Beloved. The moment we have seen Christ on the cross, and know that the old man was crucified there, the cross becomes a testimony of the utter condemnation of the old man, as well as of our sins. Then comes the new. There is often a difficulty as to the “Three that bear record,” [“record,” “testimony,” and “witness,” are all used for one word (vv. 6-11).] What are they the witness of? That God has given us eternal life: “He that hath the Son hath life.” No natural man has life. It is not a question of a man being good or bad, but he has not got life. Where do I get the cleansing water? out of death. Where do I get the justifying? out of death. The Holy Ghost answers, Christ has died. The three witnesses come in and say the first man has nothing to say to God, and never will. If you are cleansed, if you are justified, if you have received the Holy Ghost, it is because death has come in, in Christ.
The only perfection is in resurrection but Christ breathed on the disciples, and gave them life, the life of Christ as risen from the dead, and the desires and thoughts of that new life know nothing but the Christ from whom they came. Christ wrought the foundation in His cross; then “I am crucified with Christ;” but Christ in me is a different thing, a totally new condition, and it involves death on all I had from Adam.
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory.” Christ having died and risen again, now it is righteous of God to give me anything. God was planning glory for me before the foundation of the world. Faith has, and conscience has, the sense that all is “for our glory,” “which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Very wise these Corinthians were. They had all sorts of wisdom, but they had not an inkling of this. With all the science men can boast of about the stars, and about beasts that lived before man existed, bring them to a thought of God, and you will find they have not got it, not one thought, not one atom of the glory of God’s wisdom.
They can tell me that a stone was such a fish, or that they have found that a certain star is such a metal—very curious! But that is all, they are very sagacious in finding it out! Come to thoughts of God—that wall has as much sense of it, in one sense more, for it cannot darken the counsels of God, and they can!
There is nothing more despicable than the pretension of the man who sets up to understand science, when he knows nothing of God. Christ was the center of all these glories, and they crucified Him. And do not the wise of the world despise Him still? You know they do; they see no beauty in Him, in whom God finds all His delight, that they should desire Him. They are of the world that crucified Him. It is just as when God came and asked Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” He asks now “Where is my Son?” He was here in grace. What did He do to offend you? He raised the dead, cast out devils, healed the sick. What had you against Him? The only thing was, that God was revealed by Him, and they crucified the Lord of glory!
The natural man does not know anything about the counsels of God—the hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto our glory; for had they known it, the apostle says they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” There comes in, the immense importance of the gift of the Spirit of God; it takes man out of his natural condition, and puts him into a condition to receive the revelations of the God of glory. It takes his mind, soul, heart out of the world, out of what eye hath seen—takes him out of that, and puts him into Christ.
When do we receive the Holy Ghost? Never until Man is in the glory. The Holy Ghost wrought from the beginning; moved on the face of the waters; inspired the prophets, and revealed truth. The immediate agent in all divine work was the Spirit of God; but the dwelling of the Spirit here was subsequent to the ascension of Christ. The Son created the world, but did not come till late in its history; the Spirit did everything good that ever was done, but He did not come to dwell here, till man (in Christ) was at the right hand of God. The Lord says distinctly, “If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you.” Christ could not dwell with man; He had to work atonement and go away. Take Adam innocent, take Abraham-bright example of faith as he was—God dines with him, but could not dwell with him. The instant Israel is redeemed from Egypt, He says, I will dwell among the children of Israel. (Ex. 29:46.) He comes in the Shechinah and dwells with them. They forfeited their privileges, as we know. But the dwelling of God with man is the consequence of redemption. The consequence of redemption is that man is at the right hand of God, and the Holy Ghost has come down to dwell with men, i.e., with Christians. As regards the state of men it makes all the difference. Man is quickened. Quite true; but for personal blessing the point we are considering now is, that the Holy Ghost dwells in the believer, because he is redeemed, and he has not got the Holy Ghost if he is not redeemed.
“Thou in thy mercy hast led forth a people which thou hast redeemed.” (Ex. 15:13.) Christ is the Redeemer. We are redeemed; raised with Him, and sitting with Him in heavenly places. That is where the Spirit of the Lord sets the Christian. Man is brought to God; —unredeemed? Impossible! But according to the perfect efficacy of redemption in Christ Jesus; and He in heaven is the witness of it before God.
The coming of the Holy Ghost is the witness of two things; that redemption is completed, and that man is in the glory of God. We get such a redemption, such a making good the title of glory for man, that the Son of man is in the glory, and the Holy Ghost can come and dwell in me. The blood of Christ has, made me as white as snow. He died-” the just for the unjust,” and we are made “sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty;” and in the perfect sense of divine favor we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. When Stephen looked up, he saw the glory of God and Jesus. He did not say anything about the glory, but he said “I see the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Man has entered into glory as our Forerunner; the Comforter has come, and gives us the consciousness that we shall be like Him and with Him forever. Christ is not here, but the Holy Ghost is here because Christ is there, and He dwells in us; the world cannot receive Him, He is not meant for the world. The world ought to have received Christ. The Holy Ghost is not seen—Christ was; “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” He associates us, not with the world, but with a Christ who has gone out of the world.
God has revealed these things to us. There may be clear apprehension of them, or there may not; but God has revealed them. “The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God,” We have received the Holy Ghost that we may know them; we belong to heaven; we are heirs of God; and all was ordained to “our glory.” “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God.” Thus we have the Holy Ghost revealing them to us. “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, communicating spiritual things with spiritual.” Many would say that the apostles received the things spiritually, but communicated them as men. “No,” says the apostle, “they are revealed by the Spirit, and we communicate them in words taught by the Spirit, and they must be received spiritually—because they are spiritually discerned.” All came from him just as pure as he had received it.
Then, again, I must have a mind capable of receiving the thing revealed. Think of some of the things He reveals. If I see Moses and Elias in the same glory with Jesus, I say I am going to the Father’s house; a child can go to where God dwells. What are you going to be there? What I am here —a son, a child with the Son forever! He is the first-born among many brethren. We are going to sit on Christ’s throne; we are to have a white stone given to us, with a name written thereon that none can know but he that received it. The Spirit does reveal these things. I am going to walk in white—by and by. Now, Christ has to wash my feet, having first purged my conscience. But I am going to walk on streets as pure as glass, I shall want no conscience there! Now I must be watching myself as closely as possible; shall I have to watch then? No, all will be joy there.
Thus I have these things revealed now. Christ is the center and joy of all. To be with Him is the great thing; but the things we shall have then, are revealed now by the Spirit, through the Word of God. We shall be in the same glory as Christ, and like Him. Our blessing now is in the consciousness that we belong to that place. We have this so consciously because the Holy Ghost dwells in us; He has brought us to the knowledge of this place in Christ; we have the full revelation of the glory that is coming, though we now see through a glass darkly. There Christ will make us sit down, and will give us the best of the food of heaven. He has come to die, and to bear our sins. He was treated as a malefactor, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He has become our life, and has shown us that we are heirs with Him. What is He heir to? Everything! and the Holy Ghost is given that we may know it. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” We thus have the love as well as the glory, as that to which we are heirs. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” The Holy Ghost is groaning in our heart, and interceding for us. (Rom. 8:26.) Christ has sympathy with the sorrow here. There is no place which He has not filled, and the Holy Ghost reveals it. I thus am supplied with the Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, in every condition I am in as a Christian.
Thus the Spirit of God gives the whole place and character to the Christian. If you look for fruit, it is “the fruit of the Spirit;” as regards walk, “if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”—it is the Spirit which characterizes him. You will find some that say that you received the Holy Ghost when you were born again. This is not the case. The Holy Ghost wrought in you; but that was not receiving the Holy Ghost; it was building the house, not living in it! We cannot have the Holy Ghost in us, without having the blood of Christ upon us. When we are born of God, we are given a nature capable of enjoying the things of God. That is not the seal on the Christian, though important as to my state as a Christian. I was quickened when a sinner. God could not seal sin; He seals believers after they are quickened. When I have been washed, the Holy Ghost can come and dwell in me. When a man is born of God, he is brought under the blood of sprinkling. Just as with Cornelius-his prayers and alms went up as a memorial before God; Peter preaches to him, the Holy Ghost comes upon him as he heard, and thus he is sealed. “Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
The Lord give us to apprehend by faith the teaching of God’s Spirit, that we may have the knowledge of our complete redemption. The Holy One dwells in us. Then says the apostle— “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” He makes us see the unspeakable value of the work of Christ, and tells us that we are going to be with Him forever.
Some Thoughts on John’s Gospel. Chapter 1
The first three chapters are an introduction, because the things there mentioned happened before Jesus publicly commenced His ministry, which succeeded that of John Baptist; see ch. 3:24, where it is said that “John was not yet cast into prison.” In the first chapter we have all the characters of Christ, except those connected with the church and with the Jews. The chief difference between this gospel and the other three consists in this, that the others present Christ to man, and therefore man’s responsibility to receive Him. The result of this was that man has rejected Him. But the Holy Spirit in John presents to us Christ already rejected; “the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his own,” where God had prepared everything by means of the prophets, in order that he should be received, “and his own received him not.” Then John commences where the other evangelists leave off.
The expression “Word” does not accurately express the original meaning, in which we have not only the word as expression and manifestation of what one thinks, but the very thoughts themselves. Christ is the “light of men,” that is, man is the object of it, not angels. This light shines in the darkness; a thing materially impossible, because where light is, there cannot be darkness; but morally it is but too true in respect of man, since, though the light be before his eyes, he remains darkness. From this one can understand the necessity of another work, that of the Holy Spirit. Christ is still the life: and many think that eternal life is eternity, and others think it is a change in the state of the heart; but the life is Christ, which is communicated to men.
But if Israel does not know Him, then from the very start there is placed on the scene an elect family which has no registry on this earth, since they are born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,” but they are born of God, and God has provided for them grace upon grace and the fullness of the Father in the Son.
From v. 19 to 28, we have the testimony of John to the Jews. In v. 29 to 37, we have the first day, that is the ministry of John in bearing witness to the works of Jesus; and in gathering disciples to Jesus. These works are twofold, He takes away the sin of the world, and He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. It does not say He will take away and he will baptize, because it is not a question of time, but of the works themselves. Sin exists still in men who do not believe, and though for believers it exists no longer for them before God, yet in fact it is still in their mortal body. There is another passage analogous to this (2 Cor. 5:19) which is sometimes wrongly translated, and thus leads people astray. It should not be translated (as in the Italian version) “God has reconciled the world in Christ to Himself,” as if the world were already reconciled, which is not true; but, “God was in Christ reconciling the world,” that is, it was so treated from the character of Christ on earth, since the world would not be reconciled. We believers are now reconciled, but the world, that is, created things, is not so yet; but the work is done for this reconciliation. See Col. 1:20 for the reconciliation of all things, and for us Christians, v. 20, 21. This expression “Who taketh away the sin of the world,” will have its complete fulfillment only in the new heavens and in the new earth.
The second work of Christ is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, come at Pentecost. Beautiful is the difference between the two ways that John speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God: the first time in v. 29 he points Him out to his disciples and bears witness to Him, but none of his disciples follow Jesus; while the second time he does not speak of Him; but it is an exclamation, an admiration produced by his own delight in beholding Jesus; and this produces more effect than the first time. His disciples follow Jesus. The same thing is always true of us still. When one enjoys the Lord in one’s heart, more effect is produced on those who watch us, than can be produced by teaching: teaching must be accompanied by personal enjoyment. John was not jealous at seeing his disciples leave him to follow Jesus, because he was fully occupied with the greatness of the Lord, and if he thought of himself it was only to feel his great unworthiness, as he says of himself elsewhere, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus alone has the right to have disciples round Him, and it is to Him alone we ought to direct souls. John had presented Jesus to his disciples as the Lamb of God, and they say they have found the Messiah, v. 41; connected with which we may observe that when divine communications are received, we only perceive what is adapted to our religious wants.
At v. 42, we see that the honor here put on Peter is entirely a personal one, “Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt... “and it does not extend to anyone else. Nathanael’s prejudice was very great, because he did not believe that anything good could come from that place, whence nevertheless the Christ came; but Jesus knew his sincerity. This is an example which shows us that persons can be full of the greatest prejudices, and withal be sincere; and this ought to encourage us to have patience with such souls when we meet them.
The fig tree (v. 50.) is always a figure of the nation, as the vine is of the people, looked at ecclesiastically. Nathanael represents the remnant at the end under the shadow of the nation; they will be full of prejudices, but without guile. Nathanael confesses Jesus as “Son of God” and “King”— the two titles we find in Psa. 2; but Jesus reveals to him His other title, “Son of man,” which is found in Psa. 8, in which title He will take possession in the millennium, when He will be glorified over all creation, and exercise lordship over all the works of God, and will have as a footstool all things beneath His feet. But though then He will be “Son of man,” He will not cease to be “Son of God” and “King.”
In the second part of the chapter we have two days. The first includes the ministry of John in gathering disciples. The second day includes the ministry of Jesus and that of His disciples, in gathering disciples to the end of the age; the disciples at the end being identified with those at the time of the Lord. In ch. 2, we have the third day.