Having brought us into His family, God has surrounded us with blessings of every kind. And inasmuch as all is of grace, we are entitled to nothing, save as being in Christ. All is privilege where grace reigns; but in this chapter we propose to point out a few of the special privileges which our God and Father has bestowed upon us, as the expression of His own heart, in relation to our need as His children. Just as all connected with His purposes of grace is but the display of Himself in His boundless and everlasting love, so all these privileges are to be traced back to His own heart as their fount and source. Before the Lord departed from this scene He said, as we pointed out in a former chapter, “I have
declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:2626And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26)). It is not only that we are the objects of the Father’s heart, but His love, in the same measure as it rested on Christ, is said to be in us—in us, because Christ Himself is in us, and thus the medium of its inflow into our souls. Entering into this, however feebly, we shall have no difficulty in comprehending the nature of the precious privileges which He has bestowed on us. But it is of all importance that we begin with the Father’s love, and not with the privileges; that, in a word, we seek to understand the privileges in the light of the love, rather than the love in the light of the privileges. This is the divine way. Thus the apostle says, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)). The lesser gifts flow from the greatest of all.
The first privilege we name is that of the Father’s care. Our blessed Lord Himself has called our attention to this in Luke 12. The chapter supposes the Lord’s absence from this world, and thus in principle finds its application to us while waiting for His return. (See vss. 35-36.) The first thing of which the Lord speaks, is the exposure of His own to danger from persecution—persecution stirred up by Satan. After exhorting them not to fear them who can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do, but rather to fear Him who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell, He proceeds to encourage their souls by reminding them of God’s constant care. The manner in which He does this is exceedingly beautiful. “Are not five sparrows,” He says, “sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?”—or, as it is in Matthew’s gospel, “and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” The application is evident, and hence He continues, “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows.”
What comfort lies in these blessed words for the children of God! We also are often exposed to dangers of many kinds. Our life in this world may easily be endangered, if not from enemies and persecutors, yet from other causes. In many a path of service, at home, or in the visitation of those suffering from deadly diseases, or in journeying by land or by sea, death may frown upon us and seek to turn us aside. Here then we have the antidote—the very hairs of our head are all numbered. In the recollection of this we can courageously proceed, not because we are insensible to the peril, but because we are imbued with the sense of a Father’s protection and care. The poet sings but the simple truth when he says—
“Not a single shaft can hit
Till the God of love sees fit”
What then has the child of God to do with fear? His only fear should be lest he might be unfaithful, and fear man more than God, lest he should forget that ceaseless care of love which makes him invulnerable to every weapon wherewith Satan seeks to compass his destruction, until the time appointed of God. The children of God, if they were in the power of this truth, would also be far less restless and anxious in times of sickness. God may permit us the use of means, but how often are these resorted to in a spirit of unbelief, as if our recovery were entirely dependent upon human aid and advice. Surely if a sparrow cannot fall on the ground without the permission of our Father, His children cannot. No, the very hairs of our heads are all numbered, and God is honored by our perfect calm and confidence in the face of the greatest dangers, resting, as we may, in the assurance that diseases and enemies alike are but instruments in His hands, for the execution of His own purposes of tenderness and love.
The Lord applies this also in another way. Passing as pilgrims and strangers through this world we have certain needs. We are independent of the scene altogether excepting as regards our bodies. In all other respects we are made to feel with the Psalmist that it is a dry and thirsty land where no water is. But our bodies have needs; they must be fed and clothed. Our blessed Lord, in His tenderness for and sympathy with us, takes notice of these our wants; and He does so because He knows how often care, springing out of these necessities, comes between our souls and Himself, and prevents all possible enjoyment of the Father’s love. In the parable of the sower indeed He mentions the cares of this world as one of the things that choke the seed of the Word, so that no fruit is brought to perfection. He therefore provides also an antidote for this evil. He tells His disciples to take no thought, that is to have no anxiety, for their life, what they shall eat, nor for their body, what they should put on. And, to enforce the exhortation, He reminds them that the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment; and then He adduces two illustrations. Of God’s care that would ever meet their eyes—the fowls of the air, and the lilies of the field. They could scarcely step out of their houses without seeing bird or flower, and then He would have them remember that God fed the one and clothed the other, and that if so, seeing they were of more value in His eyes than either ravens or lilies, much more would He feed and clothe them.
How divinely perfect are the Lord’s ways! And how wonderfully adapted are such words to meet the tendency of our hearts to anxiety about earthly things! But He goes still further. He reminds them that if the nations of the world have their minds upon all these things, it should not be so with the children of God. To mind earthly things is the mark of the men of this world. And what can deliver God’s children from this bondage? Confidence in the Father’s care and love. Hence the Lord adds, “Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” What power lies in this blessed assurance when made good in our souls! Are we in straits, in difficult circumstances, under extreme pressure in respect of our daily wants? The recollection that our “Father knoweth” should dispel every fear and banish all depression. Even we, if we had the power to succor, would not allow our children to be borne down by their needs. If we, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, as our Lord has taught in another place, how much more shall our Father know how to give good things to them that ask Him? Yea, His eye is upon every one of His children. He beholds their every want, and if He delay to meet it, it is only for their fuller blessing. We might therefore well say, with Habakkuk, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 17-18).
The only concern indeed of the children of God is with the kingdom of God—God’s claims and interests. “Seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.” That is, God’s will is to be our only law, and our hearts are to be set on His things, not on the things of earth. His glory is to be the end and aim of our lives; and He on His part engages to care for us. His very faithfulness is bound up with making provision for the needs of His children when they are seeking His kingdom. It is as the poet has said—
“Make you His service your delight,
Your wants shall be His care.”
There is no need therefore, as the Lord proceeds to point out, to amass wealth or treasure in this world. If we do, our riches are exposed to thief and moth; and besides, where our treasure is our hearts will be also. If, then, our treasures are in this world, the heart will be here too; and hence the necessity of having Christ alone as our treasure that our hearts may be upon Him. Making God’s glory our object, we can afford to dispense with anxiety about temporal things, because He is watching over and ministering to us; we then can pass through this scene as strangers and pilgrims, and as we do so have our loins girt and our lights burning, and we ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, in the expectation of the return of the Saviour to receive us to Himself, that we may be with Him in the Father’s house.
Another blessed privilege enjoyed by the children of God is, that of making known their wants to Him. In other words, they possess the Father’s ear. How often the Lord Jesus reminded His disciples of this! “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23-2423And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23‑24)). Who shall comprehend the vastness of the blessing involved in such a privilege—the privilege of unburdening our hearts of all our cares and sorrows, to One who understands us perfectly, and loves us infinitely?
Do any inquire as to what they may tell the Father in prayer? There is no limitation, no reserve. Everything that troubles us—every passing need, difficulty, or sorrow—all may be told out to Him whose ear is ever open to our cry. As the apostle Paul says, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.” He would have us, in the intimacy of His love, to be absolutely without reserve before Him — all told out, nothing kept back. Our danger never lies in telling Him too much, but just in the opposite direction. And the more we know His heart, the more intimate we shall be in the use of this privilege. As another has said, “Whatever is a care to us, produces a care for us in the heart of God.” On this account we need never be afraid of presuming too far in our requests. He loves to hear the cry of His children, for He well knows that it is the expression of their confidence in Him. It may be, as it often is, a foolish cry; but still it is the cry of His own children, and He never wearies of listening to it. We have many instances in the Scriptures to encourage us—instances of the most familiar kind. Take Ananias, for example, when the Lord sends him to Saul. He ventures even to remind the Lord of the character of the one to whom he was to go—as if the Lord were unaware of it! “Lord,” he says, “I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy name.” Nor was the Lord displeased with His servant; but with the utmost tenderness He says, “Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” In like manner the Father would have us utter all our hearts in His presence-never wavering in our confidence in His love.
While, however, this is the case, He does not always promise to grant us our requests. In the scripture cited from John all that we ask in the name of Christ will be given. In the name of Christ will signify our being before God in all the value of the expression of what Christ is, and there consequently with His own claim upon the Father’s heart. But it will be at once perceived that we could not be before the Father in the name of Christ for anything which was not according to His will. We could not say even to a human benefactor that we came in the name of another unless we had his sanction. Neither could we attach the name of Christ to any petitions save those wrought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit according to God’s will; but every such petition will be infallibly answered, as the word of Christ plainly declares. When, on the other hand, we turn to the scripture in Philippians, it is different. There we may in everything make our prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, but it is not said that our prayers shall be answered. The promise is that the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This is exceedingly precious; for it shows that God would have us before Him in perfect confidence, in the enjoyment of full liberty to make known to Him our every want; and also that when He does not grant our petitions, because in His love and wisdom He sees it better to withhold, He will yet guard our hearts by His own unspeakable peace. Laying down our burdens before Him, telling Him all that is in our hearts, He will cause us to know through Christ Jesus that perfect peace which nothing can disturb. In any case we shall have restful hearts, springing from entire confidence in our Father’s love, and garrisoned by God’s own peace, which passeth all understanding.
There is another aspect of this privilege which may not be passed over. When we are before God as our Father, it will surely be, not only to express our own desires, but also to render our thanksgiving and praise. How could we be, indeed, in the presence of the Father, with the sense of all His love and grace, without being bowed down before Him in worship and adoration? And this is entirely in accordance with the thought of His own heart. The Lord, speaking to the woman of Samaria, says, “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” How blessed to know this! Not only has God gone out, in His boundless grace, seeking after lost sinners, and through the gospel beseeching them, as it were, to be reconciled to Him, but as the Father His heart yearns for worshippers. To accomplish this desire Christ came into the world; died upon the cross; rose from the dead; ascending up on high; sent down the Holy Spirit; caused the gospel to be proclaimed; and through grace we have been brought to believe its testimony, have been born again, cleansed from our sins through the precious blood of Christ, and we “have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” As we meditate upon all this, we can but cry, in the language of the hymn—
“Father, we worship Thee, our God!
What rich, unfathomable grace
On us in Christ hast Thou bestowed!
Children of wrath (our natures place),
Now ransomed and with Him made one,
Glories around unbounded shine!
The fullness of our God alone
The limit is of grace divine.”
It would argue but ill indeed for our sense of God’s grace and mercy, bestowed upon us in Christ, if when we are consciously before God we thought only of our own needs. The more we are penetrated with gratitude for all the blessings we have received, the more shall we be reminded of what is due to Him who has saved us, and made us His own children. The Father’s claims should ever have the first place in the heart of the child; and the Father has His claims. As He Himself, speaking by the prophet, says, “If then I be a Father, where is mine honor?” Reverence and worship belong to Him in the very relationship in which He condescends to stand towards us. This all will confess to be true; but while He undoubtedly has absolute claims upon us for the homage and adoration of our hearts on the ground of redemption, we on our parts shall delight to think rather of the privilege we enjoy in being brought into His presence as His worshippers. The more we remember that it is all of grace that we occupy this blessed position, the more will our hearts be filled with gratitude and praise. We may well, therefore, press the question, whether we are sufficiently alive to the privilege. If, for example, we examine the moments, more or less, we spend daily before God as our Father, what shall we find to be the nature of our converse? Does prayer or praise occupy the largest place? our needs, or what is due to Him? Or, if we widen the sphere of our inquiry, and consider our meetings with the children of God, when we are unitedly in His presence, does prayer or worship predominate? It is profitable to examine ourselves as to this; for, as we have seen, the Father seeks worshippers, and He therefore delights in their presence, in their character, and in their joyful notes of grateful adoration.
We may adduce another privilege, though when we reach in the power of the Spirit the highest character of worship, we enter at the same time upon its enjoyment! In John 1 The apostle tells us, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” And this place belongs, according to the teaching of this scripture, to all who have received Christ as the Eternal Life. Having a new nature and eternal life, we are brought (this is our place) into fellowship with the Father and with the Son. There could not be a higher expression of grace. Nor is it possible now for us to comprehend the boundless extent of blessedness which such a place involves. Through grace we may taste a little of its ineffable enjoyment; the Holy Spirit may sometimes lead us to some Pisgah whence we may survey the inheritance, and in our measure we may actually know the character of this fellowship, but heaven itself is contained in it, and eternity itself will be but the unfolding of its boundless treasures.
Still we may ask, What does the expression mean? Fellowship with the Father is to be filled with His thoughts, His desires, His objects, and His affections. So also with fellowship with the Son. For instance, if Christ is the object of the Father’s heart, and the glory of Christ the end of all His counsels, if I am in fellowship with the Father, Christ will also be the object of my heart, and my aim in all that I am and do will be His exaltation. Again, if Christ has the glory of the Father in view in all that He is still accomplishing, as He had also when down here, the Father’s glory will be the one supreme object before my soul, when I am living in fellowship with the Son. Oh, blessed position! It is our privilege to be taken out of ourselves altogether, to be lost in the affections and aims of the Father and the Son! Our minds may be filled with divine thoughts and affections, and our hearts may move in a divine circle. Self disappears before such a blessed possibility. Shall I cling to my own thoughts and purposes when I may be occupied with those of the Father and the Son? Shall I have my own affections when I may be possessed with those that fill the heart of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ? Far be the thought! Rather let me be lost in this illimitable sea of bliss, opened out before me in the marvelous grace of God, and before every one of His children! Ah! how we are humbled when we contrast God’s thoughts for us with our own conceptions. May He grant that every one of His children, who reads these pages, may be stirred up to desire to answer more fully to His own gracious purpose, that we should know this fellowship with the Father, and with His beloved Son!
It is also our privilege as the children of God to dwell even now in spirit in the Father’s house. When the prodigal returns, and has received the Father’s kiss, the best robe, the ring on his hand, and the shoes on his feet, he disappears amidst the joy of the Father’s house. But who can doubt that the Father’s house and the Father’s table are henceforth his rightful place? As indeed we often sing—
“Clothed in garments of salvation,
At Thy table is our place;
We rejoice, and Thou rejoicest,
In the riches of Thy grace.
‘It is meet,’ we hear Thee saying,
‘We should merry be and glad;
I have found My once-lost children:
Now they live who once were dead.’”
And it is of importance to point out that the Father’s table must not be confounded with the Lord’s table. This is spread on earth, while that is spread above. At the Lord’s table we commemorate His death. As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup we show the Lord’s death till He come (1 Cor. 11). At the Father’s table we have communion with Him in His own joy, as expressed in the words, “Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this My son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Moreover, it is as members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16-1716The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:16‑17)) that we are gathered around the Lord’s table. We are also children of God through His unspeakable grace; but it is in the character of members of the body of Christ that we remember Him in His death. But we enjoy the privilege of a place at the Father’s table solely on the ground of being His children.
Yes, it is the privilege of all God’s redeemed children to dwell in the Father’s house, and to sit at His table. They have been made free of the place where the Father Himself dwells. It is so in the families of earth. A child does not need to ask if he may enter his parents’ home. So confident is he in their love that he knows he is welcome, and that he never can be an intruder. Such a thought, indeed, would be to dishonor his parents’ hearts. Where nothing has occurred to mar the intimacy of affection, the parents delight in the presence of the child, and the child delights in the presence of the parents. Much more so is it the case with God and His children. He delights in having them before Him. All through past dispensations
God has been telling out this thought of His heart—that He desires to be surrounded with His children. And He has set us down in His own presence, that we might learn the joy of being before Him, resting before Him in the blessed consciousness of being the objects of His heart, loved as Christ Himself was loved (John 17:2323I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)). The door of His house is never closed to us, the only thing that keeps us out being our own foolish thoughts, acts, and ways. Still, even though the sense of unforgiven sins keeps us at a distance—outside when we might be inside, yet “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)). We can already give thanks to the Father, who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; and in His grace He has made provision, when we sin, for our cleansing through the washing of water by the Word, that nothing may hinder our being constantly in communion with Him and His love.
Seeing then that our place even now is in the Father’s house, it might be profitable to ask ourselves whether we know what it is to be there. When released from our service or occupations do we instinctively return to our Father’s house, as our chosen place of refreshment, joy, and blessing? In the epistle to the Ephesians all the saints are supposed to dwell in the Father’s presence, and to come out thence for service, and as they come forth to reveal the character and blessedness of the One before whom they dwell, and the place to which they belong. They come out as representatives of their Father and of His abode, that others, learning from them, may be attracted to the same place. Strangers, for example, at court are unversed in its manners, habits, and ways; but those who live there catch its tone, and speedily themselves become courtly. So with the children of God. If they only occasionally visit the Father’s house, if they for the most part find their enjoyment in other places, they never learn either the Father’s heart or the methods and ways of His house, and hence can never do anything but misrepresent Him who has deigned to make them His children.
Nor should we overlook the sin of slighting the Father’s love, if His presence is not cared for or sought The depths of His heart we shall never fathom, and yet He pours out all His love upon those who were once His enemies, but now His redeemed children. The more we understand this, the more we shall desire to enjoy the privilege which He has conferred upon us of living in His presence as His children. The cross of Christ is the measure of His love, and hence it is ever unfathomable. But the more we dwell with the Father the more shall we learn it, and the more shall we be sensible of the wondrous grace that has made us His children, and if children, heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. His heart, His eye, His hand, are all engaged on our behalf, and He would have us to be living even now in the full enjoyment of all the blessing which He has secured for us in Christ, and which He is daily ministering to us as we pass through the wilderness. All that God is, is for us because He has redeemed us through the precious blood of Christ, and all the wealth of the Father’s heart is being constantly poured out upon us because we are His children. May He give to each one of us more holy boldness to take up and enjoy all the privileges which He has made ours, as the expressions of His grace and love!