The Greatest Trial Often the Greatest Blessing

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“Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away.” (John 16: 6, 7.)
The greatest trial, disappointment, and sorrow to the disciples was the Lord’s announcing to them His departure from them. And yet it would result in their fullest and deepest blessing; for as the result of Christ’s redemption work, and the consequent descent of the Holy Ghost, we know that all our sins are forever forgiven, and that eternal life in the Son is a present known fact. And more, that Christ’s Father and God is our Father and God; that we are temples of the Holy Ghost; and that in receiving the Holy Ghost, we have become members of Christ’s body; are “joined to the Lord,” and can sing intelligently, “One spirit with the Lord.” (1 John 2:12; 5:1112I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12)
11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:11); John 20:1717Jesus 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. (John 20:17); 1 Corinthians 6:17,1917But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17)
19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19); Ephesians 5:3030For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (Ephesians 5:30).) How often we have been made to prove that the clouds we so dreaded have been big with richest blessing. (Romans 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28).)
When God allowed Joseph to be removed from his father Jacob, the latter said, “All these things are against me.” But it turned out quite otherwise in the end; for at the time of famine he and his children, and his children’s children, and his flocks and his herds, and all that he had, were brought near to Joseph; had a dwelling-place in the land of Goshen, and were there tenderly nourished all the years of famine by Joseph. (Genesis 4:55But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. (Genesis 4:5).) This proved that Jacob’s greatest trial was in the end his greatest blessing.
When the Lord Himself was here He said, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (John 1:1818No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18).) But now that redemption’s work is accomplished, and Christ is gone on high, the Holy Ghost has come down and made known to us the great privileges of Christianity in those words, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:1212No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12).) Another blessed proof that the disciples’ greatest loss turned out to be their greatest gain. Again we find our blessed Lord saying, in John 14, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.” And “at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” What magnificent results accrue to us as the consequence of Christ’s going to the Father for us, and the Holy Ghost coming from the Father to us! I do not attempt to develop the Scriptures I have referred to, as they so blessedly and plainly declare the marvelous income of blessing, power, and knowledge which we, who stand upon the finished work of Christ, have now that Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand as our Head, and the Holy Ghost dwells in our poor debilitated, but redeemed and soon to be immortal and glorified, bodies. Oh! for more intimacy with Christ where He is, that by the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us we may act and be more distinctly for Him where He is not, until we are forever with Him where He is.
H. M. H.