THE Lord concludes this wonderful chapter with stating what He had done, and what He would do. What He would do was to bring His disciples into the same condition on earth in which He was Himself. " That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." This was not the love of God to the sinner True enough, it was love that reached the sinner. " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But it is something inconceivable that we are here as much the -objects of the Father's love as His own blessed Son, the One who pleased Him in every detail, glorified Him in every act and word on earth. So He says here, " The love wherewith thou hast loved me "-they may know the very same love that I do. It is something impossible to grasp, poor, feeble things as we are, continually warped by one thing and the other; it is too wonderful a thing that we should be learning here, that the Lord educates us into the same love that He has Himself; and nothing gives a man such dignity as the knowledge that he is loved by one. superior to himself.
The true saint is like a star in the sky-perfectly independent in itself, but in perfect harmony with every other one; the fellowship is there, but the individuality is there too. As the apostle says, " I have learned to be satisfied in myself: " that is, I am self-contained; and nothing gives such self-contained: and as the knowledge of perfect love. Would that we knew more about it, all in conceit, all blended together. One star does not light one part of the sky and another that. If you brought the brightest lamp in the world into this room, it would not put out the others; it would only join them, and all work together. That is fellowship; and at the same time we are all self-contained, satisfied in ourselves. We work in concert, but that does not destroy or take away for t moment our independence, though I do not like the word. But I have learned to be satisfied in myself; I do not go outside myself to seek satisfaction. That is the wonderful place that a Christian is in. He never ought to go outside himself; for, as the Lord says to the woman of Samaria, I can make you perfectly happy, so that you need never to go outside yourself. I know what you are-a wretched creature who has looked in vain for happiness in this world. You have had five husbands already; you know what fill earthly joy is; but I will give you something that is inexhaustible-you shall never thirst:' " It shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life "-a thing you can never get to the end of. You may say you have not so much as you might have, and that is true, but still it is in you.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ concludes this wonderful chapter by saying, " I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it." Thus He declares that you know the Father, and that you know the Father's love. You might know a person and yet not know his love. But that is the order: you know Him first. As with a child, it knows its mother a long time before it knows her love. So you know the Father.
If I turn to John's first epistle, I find the babes -*the lowest class—know the Father. I cannot say that all believers are up to this class, but Scripture does not recognize it lower one. " I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father." That is the third class. There is nothing looked at lower. It does not say they have known the love. Every babe-the youngest-knows the Father; and, of course, the action of divine grace is the love of the Father. A babe in arms knows it mother, how she caresses it and the like, but, as it grows up, it learns the love the 'mother has for it. The reason why there is this defect-that there are not more of the babes know the Father-is because of the way the Gospel is presented to the soul.
There are two aspects of the gospel. There is the way it affects you. You say I have received great comfort; oil and wine He has poured in, He has healed my wounds; my poor heart and conscience are wonderfully relieved by the grace of God. But that is not all; if you stop there you do not speak of God at all; you speak of His goodness to you. If you limit yourself to that, you are limited to your own feelings about it, and the effect it has upon yourself only, and of the relief it has brought you from the terrible distress of a wounded heart. But the prodigal son says, My father kissed me. The first notice he had of grace reaching him, though not the-first work of it he had, was the father falling on his neck and kissing him. When it comes to that side, what would such a soul say? He Would say, Well, I know at least how my father feels; I know how he received me; I have the knowledge of the Father. So the very first action of grace towards the prodigal was to show him the will of the Father. This makes a very great difference between what he could- say, and what the man who fell among the thieves.
The gospel tells me what a wonderful thing it is that God could meet my conscience; but also it conveys to me that there is a thought in the heart of God about an undeserving person like me. And there is this lack in many a one who can talk of the wonderful relief that he has got from the grace of Christ, for the very reason that He did not know where it came from. But if I know it, I can always count on having it again. I know my Father to begin with; I have to learn the greatest thing afterward-the love of the Father in me; but I still know the love of the Father has reached me, and therefore there is no grade given lower than the babe that knows the Father.
To a soul that talks to me only of how happy it is as knowing the finished work of Christ, I can but answer, Well, that is all very well, as long as it is smooth 'water, but when it gets rough, what will you do? I can say I am anchored in the love of God, and, though I may swing on my moorings, I can never be moved, for I am in safe anchorage. All here comes to me from one spring, and that spring is the heart of God. You must connect your heart with the love and not with the benefit, otherwise you have not got established. I am not only clear of everything that was against me, but I am brought into a new kind of love-the love of the Father. It is not merely His power, His greatness, but it is the knowledge of what He is in: Himself to me " I will declare it."
I believe we should have a great many more hymns to the Father if we were more in this -knowledge; not that I am against hymns praising the Savior for the wonderful work He has wrought, but if we were really in the sense of the sphere in which we are, and He leading the praises in it, we would have a great many more to the Father, He leading us into the consciousness of the place into which He has brought us.
One passage more in connection with this subject; it is Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6): " Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." You see it is an entirely new sphere, one you get into by the Spirit of God; a new origin altogether: life is come out in a fuller way-it is more developed; it is now " that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." As an illustration it seems to me that Old Testament saints were like a bird in the nest: it has life, but it has never flown out of it. But in the New Testament the saint is in a new sphere, like the bird in the air. I believe no Christian ever gets thoroughly free until he sees, not only that he has a new nature, but a new sphere. God does not send forth His Spirit to make you a son; He did that before; but " because ye are sons " the Spirit is sent. I have-got into a new sphere, new power, new relationship-some of the intelligence that Christ had of the Father. It is not the same measure-no one could think it was-but it is the same character. If you can call God your Father with the smallest particle of the intelligence of Christ-and it must be that, or you are not a son-you have got the Holy Ghost with the intelligence of Christ. " He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your- hearts, crying, Abba, Father." I need not go into the variety of blessings that the Spirit of God brings in, but I am in relationship with the Father, and I have a divine sphere where I can enjoy my divine origin: I now turn to 1 John 2, to see how this love comes out; we read in verse 14, "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the. wicked one." Now that is addressed to young men, not babes-to those who are strong, who have overcome the wicked one, and who have the word of God abiding in them; very fine Christians.—But take care; the world is your snare; and not the bad world either, for you have overcome it; " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Mind you now, the Lord in John 16 closed the chapter by showing the disciples that they are to overcome the world, and, in chap. 17. that they were to have instead of it the Father. He-could say: I can go through the world; I made it; I know the beauty of it far better than anyone, for I saw it before the trail of the serpent was on it; I knew how to make it according to the Father's pleasure, and we both looked upon 1 it and saw it was very-good. And when I came to it, did I get anything out of it? No, nothing. I looked for figs and there were none. The mere creation did not know Him though He was in it. And now He says, I am going to instruct you, my people, into such a knowledge of the love of the Father as shall make you superior to the world. So " if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
The knowledge of this love puts you above everything that is in the world. Get the most. beautiful scenery, the most lovely things of any kind, they will not love you; you may love them, and they may feed the natural tastes of your heart, but there is no love. But the Lord would acquaint us with the love of the Father as that which makes us superior to all that is in the world; and it will make you so self-contained,. that you can say: I am not looking round for anything; I do not want things here to tell me of that love, for I interpret all by that love. Souls are very much damaged by dwelling on the different ways in which God's love has met them in different circumstances; it is not circumstances, it is Christ that is to educate me into the love of the Father. I have the greatest teacher and the greatest lesson: the Son Himself is my teacher; and He teaches me the wonderful nature of the love of the Father.
I believe, if you knew something of this love, you would say your life was a most interesting thing, for everything in it is bringing out the love of the Father. There may be a reverse here, an affliction there, and a trial on beyond, but it is all to teach you the love of the Father. And. there is a great deal more love shown in His checking you by some trial or sorrow, than by His allowing Satan to present something to you that will attract you and draw you away from the Father. Who is best able to judge what is suitable to me here-my own heart, or the heart of the Father? This is a thing that we do not get to at once. Of course, we would sooner have a bright day than a stormy one, but earthly favor always tests you, because it is an opportunity for your weak point, whereas in trial you always turn to God. Were Gideon's men proof to favor? So people are always looking for what is pleasing to themselves; and if you make your own heart a criterion for what you are to have, you are like Job. You are not to look upon yourself as a person entitled to favor. When Job acknowledges that he is vile-when he says, " I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes; " then God says, Have- any favor you like-double! A, man is not fit for earthly favor until he acknowledges he is not fit for any; and generally people only have favors that they may surrender them. Abraham says, I will not have the green fields; I will not choose; and Lot chooses.
Practical work is the thing; and the question is, Are you getting on with this great teacher? Are you listening to Him? Do not tell me you are looking at this or that circumstance; I suppose every one of us could write books as to all that God has done for us, but the love of the Father is the greatest thing that ever can be shown us. Supposing things do not come as I wish them: well, I say I must learn the love of the Father in them. Thus my life becomes a most interesting history: every little circumstance, every little thing I meet here on earth, I have the key to in this love; I can explain it all. Others may not be able to understand, but it is a cypher between Him and me, and I do not want any one else to know it; it is enough that I know it myself. All I want people to see is the grace that is in me because I have learned this great lesson from this great teacher.
Do not make yourself an object, but " Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God " that Tie may make you one-" that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." " Seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind; for all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." You would be surprised, if you knew how to interpret His love, to see how it cares for you in everything. There is a danger of getting what I would call sentimental about this, and if you are sentimental in divine things you lose the whole power of them; it is imitating the oil of the sanctuary, and the soul that did that was to be cut off. But the soul should get the sense that it is to deal with everything on this new ground: thank God, it is a fine day; well, I hope it will not be a snare to me. It is a rough day; well, thank God, I belong to a sphere where all is pure and bright.
May each one of us know what it, is to celebrate the coronation day-the day when Christ is crowned in our heart. Abraham made a feast when Isaac was given his proper place in his house; and your greatest day here is the day When your heart keeps festival in the knowledge that Christ is crowned King there. After that, though you may see all go in death, as he did, you are risen in the light of the resurrection day-in the light of the eternal day. You have begun eternity; it is time no longer—it is eternity.
May our hearts get such a lesson in the love of the' Father, that, instead of being depressed by trying circumstances, or elated by what are called providential interpositions, we may know that We are the objects of this wonderful love, and are being educated into it by the only one who knew it in all its power as He walked here below through this wilderness world.
(J. B. S.)