The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father."
No. 1.
I am sure that I dread reasonings where affections should animate us, and the withdrawing from the place of living power into anything like a region of notions or theories. But the mysteries of God are all of the highest practical value, in either strengthening for service, comforting under trial, or enlarging the soul's communion.
The Apostle speaks of himself and others as "ministers of Christ," and also as "stewards of the mysteries of God." And so all of us, in our measure. 'We are to be "ministers" i.e. servants in all practical personal readiness and devotedness; patient, diligent, and serviceable in labors; in all of which, some of us may know how little we are in comparison with others. But we are also to be "stewards," and that, too, of "mysteries," keeping uncorrupt and in, violate the peculiarities of divine revelation. Reasoning men may not receive them. The cross was foolishness to such, and "the princes of this world," the men of philosophy who professed themselves to be wise, knew not "the wisdom of God in a mystery." But that mystery is not to be surrendered to them in any wise. Our stewardship is of such-and it is required of stewards, that a man be found faithful (see 1 Cor. 4:1, 21Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:1‑2)).
The guardianship and witness of the personal glory of the Son of God, is a chief part of this high and holy stewardship. I observe St. John guarding that glory with a jealousy quite of its own kind. There are, for instance, measures and methods recommended, when Judaizing corruptions or the like are to be dealt with. In the Epistle to the Galatians, where the simplicity of the Gospel is vindicated, there is a pleading and a yearning in the midst of earnest and urgent reasoning. But in John's epistles, all is peremptory. There is a summary forcing out, or keeping out, all that is not of that unction of the Holy One, which teaches the Son as well as the Father, which will admit no lie to be of the truth, and which distinctly says-" he that denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father."
This diversity of style in the wisdom of the Spirit has its value, 'and we should mark it. The observing of days or the not eating of meat are things which really depreciate the full glory and liberty of the Gospel. But they are to be borne with (Rom. 14). But depreciation of the Person of the Son of God would not be thus borne with, or have a decree passed in its favor after this manner.
A mere journeying from Egypt to Canaan would not have constituted true pilgrimage. Many a one had traveled that road without being a stranger and pilgrim with God. Nay, though the journey were attended with all the trials and inconveniences of such an arid, unsheltered, and trackless wild, it would not have been divine or heavenly pilgrimage. A merely toilsome, self-denying life, even though endured with that courage, that moral courage, which becomes God's strangers on earth, will not do. In order to make that journey, the journey of. God's Israel, the ark must be in their company, borne by a people ransomed by blood out of Egypt, and tending, in their faith of a promise, to Canaan.
This was the business of Israel in the desert. They had to conduct the ark, to accompany it, to guard and to hallow it. They might betray their weakness and incur chastening and discipline in many a way, and on many an occasion; but if their direct business were given up, all was gone. And this did come to pass. The tabernacle of Moloch was taken up, and the star of Remphan, and this was despite of the ark of Jehovah; and the camp had, therefore, their road turned away from Canaan to Babylon or Damascus (Amos 5; Acts 7).
And what ark is in the midst of the saints now for safe and holy and honorable conduct through this desert-world, if not the name of the Son of God? What mystery is committed to our stewardship and testimony, if not that? " He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed." The wall of partition is to be raised by the saints between them and Christ's dishonor.
It is upon the heart a little to consider the Lord Jesus as Son of God-and if He give help from Himself, the subject will be a blessing to us.
We are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This carries with it the formal declaration of the mystery of the Godhead; the Son being a divine person (in the recognition or declaration of this sentence), as is the Father, and as is the Holy Ghost.
It appertains to other scriptures to give us the same mystery (that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are three Persons in the one divine glory or Godhead), in other and more moral ways, showing it in its grace and power, and in its application to our need, our life, and our edification. John's gospel specially does this, drawing it out from its orderly form, as in the words of Baptism, and giving it to our understanding as saints, our affections, and our consciences, making it our possession in faith and communion.
In connection with this, I might observe, that in ch. 1:14, the saints are heard, as it were, interrupting the story of the glories of Jesus, and sealing, by their testimony, the great truth of " the Word being made flesh." And, in the fervor which became them at such a moment, they break or interrupt the current of their own utterance in that verse For they begin to speak of the Word made flesh, but, ere they end that record, they (in a parenthesis) publish His personal glory, which they say they had seen, even " the glory of the only-begotten of the Father." And this only-begotten of the Father (see ver. 18), is spoken of, very soon afterward, as "in the bosom of the Father"-words to be deeply cherished by our souls.
I doubt not the Lord is called "the Son of God" in different respects. He is so called as being born of the Virgin (Luke 1:3535And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)). He is so by divine decree, as in resurrection (Psa. 2:7,7I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (Psalm 2:7) Acts 13:3333God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. (Acts 13:33)). This is true, and remains true, though further revelation be made to us of His divine Sonship. He is the Son, and yet has obtained the name of Son (Heb. 1:1-31God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:1‑3)). Matthew and Mark first notice His Sonship of •God at His baptism. Luke goes further back and notices it at His birth. But John goes back further still, even to the immeasurable, unspeakable distance of eternity, and declares His Sonship in the bosom of the Father.
And there were, I doubt not, different apprehensions of Him, different measures of faith touching His Person in those who called on Him. He himself owns, for instance, the faith of the, Centurion, in apprehending His personal glory, to be beyond what He had found in Israel. But all this in no wise affects what we hear of Him, that He was the Son "in the bosom of the Father," or "the eternal life that was with the Father" and was manifested to us.
We must not, beloved, touch this precious mystery. We should fear to dim the light of that love in which our souls are invited to walk on their way to heaven. And (what is a deeper and tenderer thought, if I may be bold to utter it), we should fear to admit of any confession of faith (rather indeed of unbelief), that would defraud the divine bosom of its eternal, ineffable delights, and which would tell our God, that He knew not a Father's joy in that bosom, as He opened it, and which would tell our Lord, that He knew not a Son's joy in that bosom as He lay there, from all eternity. I cannot join in this. If there be Persons in the Godhead, as we know there are, are we not to know also that there are relationships between them? Can we dispense with such a thought? Is there not revealed to faith, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; the Son begotten, and the Spirit proceeding? Indeed there is. The Persons in that glory are not independent but related. Nor is it beyond our measure to say, that the great archetype of love, the blessed model or original of all relative affection, is found in that relationship.
Can I be satisfied with the unbelieving thought, that there are not Persons in the Godhead, and that Father, Son, and Spirit, are only different lights in which the One person is presented? The substance of the Gospel would be destroyed by such a thought. And can I be satisfied with the unbelieving thought, that these Persons are not related? The love of the gospel would be dimmed by such a thought.
It was once asked me, had the Father no bosom till the Babe was born in Bethlehem? Indeed fully sure I am, as that inquiry suggests, He had from all eternity. The bosom of the Father was an eternal habitation, enjoyed by the Son, in the ineffable delight of the Father-" the hiding-place of love," as one has called it, " of inexpressible love which is beyond glory; for glory may be revealed, this cannot."
The soul may have remained unexercised about such thoughts as these, but the saints cannot admit their denial.
"Lamb of God, thy Father's bosom
Ever was thy dwelling place!"
The soul dare not surrender such a mystery to the thoughts of men. Faith will dispute such ground with "philosophy and vain deceit." Even the Jews may rebuke the difficulty which some feel to it. They felt that the Lord's asserting His Sonship amounted to a making of Himself equal with God. So that, instead of Sonship implying a secondary or inferior Person, in their thought it asserted equality. And in like manner, on another occasion, they treat Jesus as a blasphemer, be- cause He was making Himself God, in a discourse which was declaring the relationship of a Son to a Father (John 5 and x). The Jews may thus, again and again, rebuke this wretched unbelieving difficulty which " the vain deceit" of man suggests. They were wiser than to pretend to teat the light where God dwells by the prism of human reasonings.
"No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father," is a sentence which may well check our reasonings. And the word, that the eternal life was manifested to us, to give us fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:22(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (1 John 1:2)), distinctly utters the inestimable mystery of the Son being of the Godhead, having "eternal life" with the Father. And again, as we well know, it is written, " He that is in the bosom of the Father, the only-begotten Son, declares Him." I ask, can any but God declare God? In some sense God may be described. But the soul of the Church will not rest in descriptions of God, though the Wisdom of the world knows nothing else. It asks for declaration or revelation of Him, which must be by Himself. Is not then, I ask, the Son in the bosom a divine person?
Nothing can satisfy all which the Scriptures tell us of this great mystery, but the faith of this- that the Father and the Son are in the glory of the Godhead; and in that relationship, too, though equal in that glory. " He who was with God in the beginning, as eternal as God, being God Himself, was also the Son of God," as another has expressed it-and then adds; " God allows many things to remain mysteries, partly, I believe, that He may in this way test the obedience of our minds, for He requires obedience of mind from us, as much as He does obedience in action. This is a part of holiness, this subjection of the mind to God, and it is something which the Spirit alone can give. He alone is able to calm and humble those inward powers of mind, which rise and venture to judge the things. of God, refusing to receive what cannot be understood; 'a disobedience and pride which has no parallel, except in the disobedience and pride of Satan," Holy, seasonable caution for our souls! "Who is a liar," asks the Apostle, " but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" And immediately adds, "he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." And again, "whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father!' These are very serious sentences under the judgment of the Holy Ghost. And how can there be knowledge of the Father, but through and in the 'Son? How can the Father be known otherwise? And therefore is it written, " Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father." I may say, Abba Father in the spirit of adoption-a poet may say, " We are all- his offspring,"-but God is not known as the Father, if the Son in the glory of the Godhead be not owned.
Sure we may be, nay rather assured we are on divine authority, that if the unction which we have received abide in us, we shall abide in the Son, and in the Father.
Can the Son be honored even as the Father (John 5:2323That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. (John 5:23)), if He be not owned in the Godhead? The faith of Him is not the faith that He is a Son of God, or Son of God as born of the Virgin, or as raised from the dead-though those be truths concerning Him: assuredly so. But the faith of Him is the faith of His proper Person. I know not that I can call Jesus, "Son of God," save in the faith of divine Sonship. The understanding which has been given us, has been given us to know "Him that is True," as being " in Him that is True, even in His Son Jesus Christ;" and to this it is added, "this is the true God and eternal life."
Is not "the truth," in the sense of John's 2nd Epistle, " the doctrine of Christ," or the teaching which we have in Scripture respecting the Person of Christ? And in that teaching, is not the truth of Sonship in the Godhead contained? For what is said there? " He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son," And the door is required to be shut against those who bring not that doctrine-the very same Epistle speaking of Him as "the Son of the Father,' language which would not attach to Him as born of the Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost.
But still further. I ask, can the love of God be understood according to Scripture if this Sonship be not owned? Does not that love get its character from that very doctrine? Is not our heart challenged on the ground of it? " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And again" herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved, us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.". And again, " in this was manifested the love of God' towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him." And again, "and we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world."
Does not this love at once lose its unparalleled glory, if this truth be questioned? How would our souls answer the man who would tell us, that it was not His own Son whom God spared not, but gave Him up for us all? How would it wither the heart to hear that such an one (see 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)) was only His Son as born of the Virgin, and that those words, " He that spared not his own son," are to be read as human, and not as Divine?
Good care are we to take not to qualify the precious Word, to meet man's prejudices. Was it with his servant, or with a stranger, or with one born in his house merely, that Abram walked to Moriah? Was it with an adopted son or with his own son, his very son, his only son whom he loved? We know how to answer these inquiries. And I will say, I know not how I could speak of the Son loving me and giving Himself for me (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)), did I not receive Him by faith as Son in the bosom of the Father; Son in the glory of the Godhead.
The Son is the Christ. God, in the Person of the Son, has undertaken all office work for us, all work for which anointing or Christhood was needed. And this He has done in the person of Jesus. We therefore say, "Jesus Christ the Son of God." The Only Begotten, the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, are one. But it is in personal essential glory, in office, and in assumed manhood, we see Him under these different names.
We track His wondrous path from the Father's bosom to the Heirship of all things. What discoveries are made of Him, beloved! Read of Him in Prov. 8:22, 3122The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. (Proverbs 8:22)
31Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:31); John 1:1, 31In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3); Eph. 1:1010That in the dispensation of the fulness 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: (Ephesians 1:10); Col. 1:13, 2213Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:13)
22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:22); Heb. 1:1, 31God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (Hebrews 1:1)
3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:3); 1 John 1:22(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) (1 John 1:2); Rev. 3:1414And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14). Meditate on Him as presented to you in those glorious Scriptures. Let them yield to you their several lights, in which to view the One in whom you trust, the One who gave up all for you, the One who has trod, and is treading, such a path-and then tell me, can you part with either Him or it? In the bosom of the Father He was-there lay the eternal life with the Father, God and yet with God. In counsel He was then set up ere the highest part of the dust of the earth was made. Then, He was the Creator of all things in their first order and beauty; afterward, in their state of mischief and ruin, the Reconciler of all things; and by and bye, in their re-gathering, He will be the Heir of all things. By faith we see Him thus, and thus speak of Him. We say, He was in the bosom, in the everlasting counsels, in the Virgin's womb, in the sorrows of the world, in the resurrection from the dead, in the honor and glory of a crown in heaven, and with all authority and praise in the Heirship and Lordship of all things.
Deprive Him of the bosom of the Father from all eternity, and ask your souls, has it lost nothing in its apprehension and Joy of this precious mystery, thus unfolded from everlasting to everlasting? I cannot understand a saint pleading for such a thing. Nor can I consent to join in any confession that tells my Heavenly Father, it was not His own Son he gave up for me.
If we could but follow the thought with affection, how blessed would it be, to see the Lord all along this pathway, from the bosom of the Father to the throne of the glory.
And still further; in each stage of this journey, we see Him awakening the equal and full delight of God; all and as much His joy at the end as at the beginning, though with this privilege and glory, that He has awakened it in a blissful and wondrous variety. This blessed thought Scripture also enables us to follow. As He lay in the bosom through eternity, we need not (for we cannot) speak of this joy. That bosom was " the hiding place of love"- and the joy that attended that love, is as unutterable as itself.
But when His Beloved was set up as the center of all the Divine operations, or the foundation of all God's counsels, He was still God's delight, as unmixedly as when He lay in the eternal bosom. In such a place and character we see Him in Prov. 8:22-3122The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. 25Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 26While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. 27When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 28When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 29When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 30Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; 31Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:22‑31). In that wondrous Scripture, Wisdom or the Son is seen as the great Original and Framer and Sustainer of all the Divine works and purposes, set up in counsel before the world was-as several Scriptures in the New Testament also present Him to us (see accordingly, John 1:2: Eph. 1:9, 109Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness 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: (Ephesians 1:9‑10); Col. 1:15-1715Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15‑17)).
And in all this He can say of Himself, " then I was by. Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him."
So when the fullness of time was come, the Son of God, who had from eternity lain in the Father's bosom, lay in the Virgin's womb. Who can speak the mystery? But so it is. But it is only another moment, and a fresh occasion, of joy-and angels came, in their feeble way, to utter, it, and tell of it to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem.
Then again, in a new form the Son of His love was to run another course. Through sorrows and services as Son, of man, He is seen on earth, but all and as unmixedly awakening ineffable delight, as in the hidden ages of eternity. "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," " behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth," are voices of the Father telling of this unchanging joy, while tracking the path of Jesus across this polluted earth.
And that same voice, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," is heard a second time-heard on the holy hill, as on the banks of Jordan, in the day of transfiguration, as at the baptism. And the transfiguration was, the pledge and type of the kingdom, as the baptism was entrance on His ministry and witness. But the same delight is thus stirred in the Father's bosom where the Son lay, whether the eye of God track Him along the lonely path of Jesus the servant in a polluted world, or on the heights of the King of glory in the millennial world.
It is delight in Him, equal and full delight all along the way from everlasting to everlasting; no interruption, no pause, in the joy of God in Him, though various and changeful joy-the same in its fullness and depth, let the occasions proceed and unfold themselves as they may. The One who awakens the joy is the same throughout, and so the joy itself. It can know no different measures, though it may different springs. And that One was alike unsullied through the whole path from everlasting to everlasting; as holy in the Virgin's womb as in the Father's bosom; as spotless when ending His journey as when beginning it; as perfect as a servant as a king; infinite perfection marking all, and equal complacency resting on all.
If the soul were but impregnated with the thought, that this blessed One (seen where He may be, or as he may be) was the very One who from all eternity lay in the Divine bosom, if such a thought were kept vivid in the soul by the Holy Ghost, it would arrest many a tendency in the, mind which now defiles it. He that was in the Virgin's womb, was the same that was in the Father's bosom! what a thought Isaiah's enthroned Jehovah, whom the winged Seraphim worshipped, was Jesus of Galilee! what a thought! as spotless as Man, as he was as God-as un- stained in the midst of the human vessel, as in the eternal bosom-as unsullied in the midst of the world's pollutions, as when daily the Father's delight ere the world was!
Let the soul be imbued with this mystery, and many a rising thought of the mind will get its answer at once. Who would talk, as some have talked, in the presence of such a mystery as this! Let this glory be but discovered by the soul, and the wing will be covering the face again, and the shoe will be taken off the foot again.
I believe the divine reasonings in John's first Epistle suggest, that the communion of the soul is affected by the view we take of the Son of God. For in that Epistle, love is manifested in the gift of the Son, and love is our dwelling place. If, then, I judge, that when the Father gave the Son, it was only the gift of the Virgin's seed, the atmosphere in which I d well is lowered. If I apprehend this gift to be the gift of the Son who lay in the bosom from all eternity, my sense of the love rises, and hence, the character of my dwelling-place, The communion of the soul is thus affected. I know, indeed, from converse with saints, that from simplicity of faith, many a soul has a richer enjoyment of a lower measure of truth, than some have of higher measures. But this does not affect the thoughts and reasonings of the Spirit in that Epistle. It is still true, that love is our dwelling-place, and our communion will therefore take its character from the love which we apprehend. And why, I ask, should we seek to reduce the power of communion, and thus hazard our enjoyment in God? The sorrow lies in this, (if one may speak for others), we but scantily care for the good things we have in Him.
The Son, the only begotten Son, the Son of the Father, emptied Himself that He might do the divine pleasure in the service of wretched sinners. But will the Father suffer it, that sinners, for whom all this humiliation was endured, shall take occasion from it to depreciate the Son This cannot be, as John 5:23,23That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. (John 5:23) tells us. Jesus had declared that God was His Father, "making Himself equal with God." Is it a question, will God vindicate Him in that saying? And yet, He is scarcely justified in it by the thought of those who deny Sonship in the Godhead. But the Father will not receive honor, if it be not rendered to the Son-as we read, "he that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him."
The Spirit was given, breathed out, by Jesus risen (John 20). The Holy Ghost then proceeded from Him, and in that way became the Spirit. But will it be thought, that He was not the Spirit in the Godhead before? Never, by a saint. And so the Son. He was born of the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and so became Son of God; but in like manner, shall that affect the thought that He was the Son in the Godhead before?
Look again at John's first Epistle. There he addresses "fathers, young men, and little children" (see second chap.). And he distinguishes them.
The fathers are they who "have known Him that is from the beginning." They "abide in the doctrine of Christ," having "both the Father and the Son." The unction is powerful in them, if I may so express it. They have listened, as it were with deep attention of soul, to the declaration, of the Father by the Son (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)). Having seen the Son, they had seen the Father (John 14:7-117If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? 10Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:7‑11)). They keep the words of the Son, and of the Father (John 14:21,2321He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)
23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)). They know that the Son is in the Father, they in the Son, and the Son in them. They are not orphans (John 14:18,2018I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (John 14:18)
20At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)).
The young men are they who "have overcome the wicked one," that wicked one who animates the world with the denial of the mystery of the Christ (see iv. 1-6). But they are not in the settled full power of that mystery, as the fathers are, and they need exhortation-so that the Apostle goes on to warn them against all that belongs to the world, as they had already stood in victory over that spirit in it which was gainsaying Christ.
The little children are they who "have known the, Father." But they are only little children, and need warning, teaching, and exhorting. Their knowledge of the Father was somewhat immature; not so connected with the knowledge of the Son, of "him that was from the beginning," as was that of the fathers. He, therefore, warns them of antichrists, describing them as set against " the truth" or " doctrine of Christ." Be teaches them, that " he that denieth the Son the same hath not the Father;" that if the anointing they have received abide in them, they will surely abide in the Son and in the Father; and that the house of God was of such a character, as that none who savored not of such anointing could remain there. He reminds them that the promise which the Son has promised is eternal life. And finally, he exhorts them so to abide in what the Unction teaches, that they may not be ashamed in the day of the Son's appearing.
It is, therefore, all about the Person of the Son, or "the doctrine of Christ," that this distinguishing Scripture deals. It is their attainment in that truth, their relationship to it, and not their general Christian character, which distinguishes them as fathers, young men, and little children. These addresses, therefore, hold in jealous view the great object of the whole epistle, and that is, the Son of God. For the mention of the Son of God pervades it all from beginning to end. Thus,-It is the blood of the Son that cleanses. It is with the Father we have an advocate; which intimates the advocate to be the Son. It is in the Son the Unction causes us to abide. It is the Son who has been manifested to destroy the works of the devil. It is in the name of the Son we are commanded to believe. It is the Son who has been sent to manifest what love is. It is the Son in whom faith gives victory over the world. It is the Son about whom God's record or testimony is. It is the Son in whom we have life. It is the Son who is come to give us an Understanding. It is the Son in whom we are. It is the. Son who is the true God and eternal life. All this is declared to us in this Epistle about the Son of God; and thus it is the Son who is the great object through the whole of it; and the fathers, the young men, and the little children: are distinguished by the Apostle because of their relation to that object, I believe, because of the measure of their souls' apprehension of it. All is, in this way, divinely and preciously consistent.
And in this same Epistle, John speaks much of love and of righteousness, as necessary parts or witnesses of our birth of God. But, in the midst of such teaching, He speaks of right or wrong confession to Christ. Does he, I ask, treat the former as living and practical matter, and the latter as speculative? He gives no warrant to any one thus to distinguish them. Not at all. All are treated as being equally of one character, and he lets us know, that the exercise of love and the practice of righteousness would not complete the witness of a soul being born of God, without the knowledge and confession of the Son.
Had the opened eye of Isaiah tracked the path of Jesus through the cities and villages of his native land, how must he have been kept in continual adoration?, He had been taken into a vision of His glory. He had seen the throne high and lifted up, his train filling the temple, and the winged Seraphim veiling their faces as they owned in Jesus the Godhead-glory. Isaiah " saw His glory, and spake of Him " (Isa. 6 John 12). And it is the like sight, by faith, which we need-the faith of the Son, the faith of Jesus, the faith of His name, he apprehension of His person, the sense of the glory which lay behind a thicker veil than a Seraph's wing, the covering' of the lowly and earth-rejected Galilean.
And let me, in closing, remember what the Lord says about giving the household their meat in due season (Matt. 24 Luke 12). We must be careful not to corrupt that meat. " Feed the Church of God which he has purchased with his own blood," says one Apostle; " feed the flock of God which is among you," says another. And the Church of God or the flock of God is to increase with " the increase of God." Wondrous language!
Let us watch, beloved, against the attempt of the enemy to corrupt the meat of the household. The unfoldings of John about the Son of God, and of Paul about the Church of God, are meat in due season now; and we are not to attemper the food, stored up of God for His saints, to man's taste or reasonings. The manna is to be gathered as it comes from heaven, and brought home to feed the traveling camp with angels' food.
" I commend you to God," says one in the Holy Ghost, "and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up, and give you inheritance among all them that are sanctified."
No. 2.
" And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
In the history of flesh and blood given to us in Scripture, we learn that sin was necessary to death. To all as headed or represented in Adam, it was this:-" in the day thou eatest thou shalt die." Touching, however, the promised seed of the woman, who was not thus represented, it was said to the serpent, " thou shalt bruise his heel." The death of this seed was thus to be as peculiar as his birth. He was, in birth, to be the woman's seed; in death, He was to have his heel bruised. In the fullness of time this promised One was "made of a woman." The Son of God, the Sanctifier, took part of flesh and blood; He became " that holy thing."
Had death, I ask, any title? None whatever. Whatever title the everlasting covenant had on His heel, death had none on His flesh and blood. In this blessed One, if I may so express it, there was a capability of meeting the divine purpose, that His heel should be bruised; but there was no exposure to death in any wise.
Under the covenant, under this divine purpose, at His own divine pleasure, He had surrendered himself, saying, "Lo, I come." For the great ends of God's glory and the sinner's peace, He had taken "the form of a servant."' And accordingly in due time He was " made in the likeness of men," and being found in that " fashion," He went on in a course of self humbling even to the death of the Cross" (Phil. 2).
In such a course we see Him through life. He hides His glory-"the form of God" under this "form of a servant"-He did not seek honor from men. He honored the Father that had sent him, and not himself. He would not make himself known. He would not shew himself to the world. Thus we read of him. And all this belonged to the "form" He had taken, and gets its perfect illustration in the histories or narratives of the Gospel.
Under the form of a tributary to Caesar, He hid the form of the Lord of the fullness of the earth and sea. He was asked for tribute; at least Peter was asked, did not his Master pay it? The Lord declares his freedom; but lest He should offend, He pays the custom for Peter and Himself: But who, all the while, was this subject to Caesar? None less than He, of whom it had been written, "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." For He commands a fish from the sea to bring him that very piece of money which he then passed over to the officers of Caesar (Matt. 17).
What an instance of the precious mystery that He that was " in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God " (using thus the treasures of the great deep, and commanding the creatures of God's hand as all His own), took on Him the form of a servant! What glory breaks through the cloud in that passing and trivial occurrence! It was all between the Lord and Peter; but it was a manifestation of "the form of God" from beneath "the form of a servant," or of a subject to the Power. The fullness of the earth was tributary to Him at the moment when He was consenting to be tributary to the Roman. As on another occasion, the unnoticed guest at the marriage-feast spread the feast, not merely as though He had been "the Bridegroom," but as the very Creator of all that furnished it. There again "He manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him."
So again we read of Him, "He would not strive nor try, nor lift up His voice in the street." He would not break the bruised reed, but rather withdraw Himself: And all this because He had taken "the form of a servant." And, accordingly, on that very occasion the Scripture is quoted, "Behold my servant whom I uphold" (Matt. 12).
Very significant of His way, all this was. "Show us a sign from heaven," was another temptation to Him to exalt Himself (Matt. 16). The Pharisees then tried Him, as the devil tried Him when he would have Him cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, and as the kinsfolk were doing when they said " Show thyself to the world." But what said the perfect servant? no sign should be given but that of Jonas-a sign of humiliation, a sign that the world, and the prince of the world were apparently to get advantage over Him for a moment, instead of such a sign as would awe and silence the world into subjection to Him.
Excellent, indeed, are these traces of God's perfect servant. David and Paul, standing, as it were, on either side of Him, like Moses and Elias on the holy hill, reflect this servant thus hiding of Himself-as a well-known Tract has told us. David slew the lion and the bear, and Paul was caught up to the third heaven-but neither of them spoke of those things. And lovely reflections of the perfect Servant such actings were. But they and all like them, which we may find in scripture or among the saints, are more distant from the great original than we have measures to measure. He hid " the form of God" under " the form of a Servant." Jesus was the strength of David when be killed the lion and the bear, and He was the Lord of that heaven to which Paul was caught up, but He lay under the form of one "who had not where to lay His head."
So, on the top of " the holy hill," and again at the foot of it. On the top of it, in the sight of His elect, for a, passing moment, He was the Lord of glory; at the foot of it, He was" Jesus only;" charging them not to tell the vision to any till the Son of man was risen from the dead (Matt. 17).
Observe Him again in the vessel on the lake during the storm. He was there as a tired laboring man whose sleep was sweet. Such was His manifested form. But underneath lay "the form of God." He arose, and as the Lord who gathers the wind in His fists, and binds the waters in a garment (Prov. 30:44Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? (Proverbs 30:4)), He rebukes the sea into a calm (Mark 6).
It is in the full and varied glories of the Jehovah of Israel that our Jesus passes at times before us. In other days, the God of Israel had commanded the creatures of the great deep, and "a great fish" was prepared to swab: low up Jonah, and give him a burying-place for the appointed time. And so, in His day, Jesus approved. Himself the Lord of the fullness "of this great and wide sea," summoning a host of the " small beasts" thereof into the net of Peter (Luke 5). " Both small and great beasts," that find "their pastime therein;" thus in earlier and later days, owned the word of Jehovah-Jesus.
So, the God of Israel, as the Lord of the fullness of the earth as well as of the sea, would use the dumb ass to rebuke the madness of the Prophet. But more in character than even that, when the ark, had to be brought home from the land of the Philistines, the God of Israel controlled nature, forcing the kine that were yoked to the cart on which the ark was placed, to take the right and ready road to Bethshemesh, on the borders of Israel, though this journey was taken by them under the strong resistance of all the instincts of nature.
The Lord Jesus acted afterward in the very striking assertion of this same glory and power of the God of Israel. For in His day, He, the true ark, had to be borne homeward. In the progress of His history, the moment came, when He needed, like the ark in the days of Samuel, to be borne from the place where He was. He had to visit Jerusalem in His glory. It was needful that as King of Zion He should enter the royal city-and He gets the ass, and the colt the foal of an ass, to do that service for Him. And He does this, in all the conscious dignity and rights of the Lord of the fullness of the earth.
The owner of the beast had to listen to this claim, " the Lord has need of him "-and, contrary to nature, opposed to all that the heart of man would have stood for and pleaded, " straightway he sent him."
Thus again was Jesus shining in the characteristic glory of the God of Israel. The veil may be very thick, and so it was. It was no other than that of Jesus of Nazareth, the Carpenter, the Carpenter's Son. The cloud that covered was heavy indeed-the glory that was under it was infinite. It was the full Jehovah-glory, and no ray of all the divine brightness would refuse to assert and express it. "He thought it not robbery to be equal with God," though "He made Himself of no reputation." Faith understands this veiled glory, and affection guards it as with a wall of fire. "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the winds in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is His name, and what is His Son's name, if thou canst tell"?
We will not attempt to tell it-but like Moses, while Jesus passes by, we will learn to bow our head to the earth, and worship (Ex. 34).
What instances are these in which scripture teaches us to trace the form of a Servant hiding the form of God. But so also, I am bold to say, of this same character and meaning, are those cases in which He appears to be sheltering Himself from danger, or securing His life.
And a delightful task it should ever be to the soul to discover thus His beauty and His glory which lie hid from the eye of man. But many of us, who would not for worlds sully that glory, may still be unapt in apprehending it, and often mistake the way of it, or the form which it takes.
The Son of God came into the world the very contradiction of Him who is still to come, and after whom, as we read, "the whole world is to wonder." As He Himself says, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." And in accordance with this, if His life be threatened He does not at once become a wonder in the eyes of the world, but the very opposite. He makes Himself of no reputation. He would be nothing and nobody. He refuses altogether to be a wonder in the sight of men-the great and glorious contradiction of him whose deadly wound is to be healed, so that the whole world may wonder and worship, whose image is to live and to be made to speak, that all, both small and great, may take His name into their foreheads.
The Son of God was the very contradiction of all this. He came in His Father's name, and not in His own. He had life in Himself. He was equal with Him, of whom it is written, " who only hath immortality;" but He hid that brightness of the divine glory under the form of one who appeared to shelter his life by the most ordinary and despised methods. Blessed to tell it had we but worshipping hearts! The other who is to come "in his own name" by and bye, may receive a deadly wound by a sword and yet live, that the world may wonder- but the Son of God will flee into Egypt to avoid the sword.
Are we wanting in spiritual apprehension so far that we cannot perceive this? Is the sight of the glory thus hidden to be indeed forced upon us? If we need that, the Lord even so far bears with us, and gives it to us. For under this veil there lay a glory which, like the flames of the Chaldean furnace, had it pleased, might have destroyed its enemies at once. For at the last, when the, hour had come, and the powers of darkness were to have " their hour," the servants of those powers in the presence of this glory " went backwards and fell to the ground"-teaching us, that Jesus was entirely a willing captive then, as afterward He was a willing victim.
In connection with this, look at Him on the occasion to which I have already referred in Matt. 12. Did the Lord, I ask, fear at that moment the anger of the Pharisees, and feel as one that must provide for the safety of his life? That cannot be my thought. He was taking one suited and consistent stage in His beautiful and precious path as a servant, going on, not to get Himself a name of honor in the world, but such a name (through humiliation and death) as that the Gentiles might trust in it, poor sinners be saved through the faith of it.
Look at Him for another moment, when the sword of Herod was a second time threatened (Luke 13). How did the Lord rise before it or above it? In the consciousness of this-that let the king be as crafty as he may, let him add subtlety to force, He Himself must and would walk His appointed journey and do His appointed work, and then be perfected-and His perfection, as He, there sneaks, was to come, as we know, not by any prevailing of Herod or of the Jews over Him, but by His surrender of Himself to be made the Captain of our salvation perfect through suffering. And on the same occasion, He recognizes this-that though as a prophet He may have to die at Jerusalem, it is that Jerusalem may fill up the measure of her sins, for that He, all the while, was Jerusalem's God, who throughout ages of patient love had borne with her, and pleaded with her, and would soon in judgment leave her desolate (Luke 13:31-3531The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. 32And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 33Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. 34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! 35Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Luke 13:31‑35)).
Again I say, what glories are hidden here under the lowly form of One who was threatened with the anger of a king, and had to meet the scorn and enmity of his people!
But I may refer to one or two cases still more marked than these. Look at one in the earliest time of His ministry, in His own city. There the same great principle is exhibited-for the hill of Nazareth is, in my sight, not a place of danger to the life of Jesus, but just what the pinnacle of the temple had been (see Luke 4:9, 299And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: (Luke 4:9)
29And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. (Luke 4:29)). The devil had no thought of the Lord's death at the bottom of the pinnacle; none whatever, He tempted Him, as he had tempted the woman in the garden, to magnify himself, to make himself if I may so speak, as he had said to Eve, to be as God. He sought to corrupt the sources in Christ, as he, had corrupted them in Adam, and to get "the pride of life" in as one of the master moving springs. But Jesus kept " the form of a servant." He would not cast Himself down, but obediently remembered " thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
So at the hill of Nazareth. That hill was not higher than the pinnacle of the temple. Jesus was in no more danger at the one spot than at the other. He would have been as entirely unhurt at the foot of the hill as at the bottom of the pinnacle. But how then should the Scripture be fulfilled, that He came not to honor Himself? He, therefore, "passing through the midst of them went His way." He retired unnoticed and unknown, fulfilling His form as a servant, and manifesting His grace in the thoughts of His saints.
We dare not speak of such things as being done to save His life. The thought is contrary to the glory of His person, "God manifest in the flesh." Jesus was again and again in the days of His flesh refreshed in spirit when faith discovered His glory under the veil. When the Son of David, or the Son of God, or the Lord of Israel, or the Creator of the world, was known to faith under the form of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus rejoiced in spirit. And so now, we may say, at this time, when the form of a servant is afresh presented to our thoughts, He will joy in the saints discovering the glory under the cloud.
The "flight," as we may call it, into Egypt in earlier days, the days of "the young child" at Bethlehem, is a very peculiar and beautiful incident. We may remember, that in the time of Moses, Israel in that land was like a bush in the midst of fire; but because of the sympathy and presence of the. God of their fathers, the bush was unconsumed. Jehovah was above Pharaoh; and when Pharaoh would have destroyed the people, Jehovah preserved them, and caused them to multiply in the very heart of Pharaoh's land. And this was done, not "by might nor by power," for Israel was there no better than a bush, a bramble-bush which a spark might have consumed. But the Son of God was in the bush. That was the secret. He was with Israel in Egypt as afterward He was in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, and the smell of fire, though the bush were burning, and the furnace was heated seven times, did not pass on them.
A "wondrous sight," so that Moses turned aside to look at it. And we may still, in the spirit of Moses, turn aside and visit the same spot. We may read Ex. 1-15, and then look again at this strange sight, why the bush was on fire, and the bush was not burnt, how the poor bramble of Israel was kept in the midst of the Egyptian furnace unhurt, because of the presence of the Son of God.
Let the fire be heated again and again, it never prevails. And how at the last does Israel leave Egypt? Just as the three children afterward leave the furnace which Nebuchadnezzar had heated-in triumph-with nothing burnt but the hands which bound them. Pharaoh and the Egyptian host perish in the Red Sea, but Israel goes out under the banner of the Lord.
But was Israel in Egypt with the sympathies of the Son of God more secure than Jesus, " God manifest in the flesh"? Shall the Israelitish Bush be proof against the strength of the Egyptian fires, and shall not the lowly flesh of Jesus, though in the full enmity of man, the hatred of the king, the envy of the scribes, and the rage of the multitude, be unassailable when God Himself is manifested in that flesh? The full mystery of the burning and unconsumed bush lies in that. Israel could not suffer beyond divine appointment, because of the sympathies of the Son of God; Jesus could not be touched beyond his pleasure, because of the incarnation of the Son of God.
" Out of Egypt have I called my son," was true of Jesus as of Israel. Both Jesus and Israel, in their day, were burning unconsumed bushes-weak things to all appearance, and in the judgment of men, but unassailable. Both may know their sorrows in this Egyptian world, but life is unreached; Israel from the sympathies they enjoyed, Jesus because of the Person that He was.
Was it then to save His life that " the young child was carried into Egypt"? Did Israel of old leave Egypt to save their lives? Did Shadrach and his companions leave the Chaldean furnace to save their lives? Israel's life was as safe in Egypt as out of it. The Jewish children were as little hurt by fire in it as out of it. Israel left Egypt to witness the glory of Jehovah their Savior; and so did Israel's children the Chaldean fires; and in like manner, and for the like end, the young child was taken from Judaea, from the wrath of Herod the king. The Son of God had taken the form of a servant. He had come not in His own name, but in His Father's. He had emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation, and in the fulfilling of that form He began His course while yet but a " young child;" and He was, among other humiliations, obedient even to a flight into Egypt, as though to save His life from the wrath of the king, for the glory of Him who had sent Him.
We must watch indeed against taking these instances of His perfect Servant-form, and using them to the depreciation of His Person. He was unassailable. Till His hour came, and He was ready to surrender Himself, Captains and their fifties again and again would fail ere they could reach Him-but rather than this, He would again and again " humble Himself"—going into "Egypt" on one occasion, and into " another village" on another-the scorned, rejected Son of Man.
Shall we treat this mystery of the subjection, the voluntary subjection of the Son of God, with a careless mind? Shall we draw aside the veil irreverently? And yet, if these instances to which I have referred, and others kindred with them, be cited to prove the mortal condition of the flesh and blood which the Lord took, we do draw aside the veil with an irreverent and unskillful hand. Yes, and with more than that. We do Him double wrong. We depreciate His Person through acts which manifest His boundless grace and love to us, and His devoted subjection to God.
And yet it is now said, that nature or violence or accident would have prevailed over the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus, to cause death as with us. But does not such a thought, I ask, connect the Lord Jesus Christ with sin? It may be said, it is not meant to do so. That may be. But is it not really so? Does it not link the Lord with sin, inasmuch as in the inspired history of flesh and blood (and we are to be wise only according to what is there written), death attaches to it only through sin? If flesh and blood in His Person were liable to die, or by its own nature and condition capable of dying (save by His gracious surrender of Himself), is it, not therefore, connected with sin? And if so, is Christ before the soul? This suggestion treats Him as one exposed to death. It takes such knowledge of Him as leaves Him liable to die in a way which He could never have taken up in the fulfilling of His form as a Servant. And beyond what He took up in that character, He was liable to nothing.
There is, indeed, something in this suggestion to make one fear that " the gates of hell" are again attempting " the Rock" of the church, the Person of the Son of God. And if it be vindicated on this plea, that it is designed only to illustrate the Lord's true humanity, the vindication itself becomes matter of increased suspicion. For, is it mere humanity, I ask, I get in the Person of Christ? Is it not something immeasurably different, even God. manifest in the flesh? He would not as a Savior, do for me a sinner, if He were not Jehovah's fellow. No creature of the highest possible order could work out meritorious righteousness. Every creature owes all that he can render. None but one who thinks it not robbery to be equal with God can take the form of a Servant-for he is a Servant already, as I have said before. No creature can supererogate, as another has said, the thought would be rebellion. No fellow creature could stand for us by his obedience. His obedience is already due for himself. None could be qualified to stand surety for man, but one who could without presumption, claim equality with God, and consequently be independent. So that a suggestion which professes to illustrate true humanity in Christ, ought to alarm us, as though our "Rock" was assailed anew.
True humanity was capable of sinning. Adam in the garden was so, for he did sin. We may say more simply and certainly, that he was capable of sinning than that he was capable of dying. The history shows us the first, but forbids us to determine the second; inasmuch as it tells us, that death came in only by sin. By nature there was a capability of sinning, but we are not told the same as to a capability of dying.
If, then, by and bye, another were to come, and just to illustrate, as he might say, the true humanity of Christ, he were to suggest the capability or possibility of His sinning, I ask, what would the soul say to him? We may leave the answer to those who know Him. But we may, at the same time, be sure of this-that the devil is in all these attempts upon the Rock of the Church, which is the Person of the Son of God (Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)). For His work, His testimony, His sorrows, His death itself, would be absolutely nothing to us, if He were not God. His Person sustains His sacrifice, and in that way His Person is our Rock. It was a confession to His Person, by one who was at that time ignorant of His work or sacrifice, which led the Son of God to recognize the Rock on which the church was to be built, and also to recognize that truth or mystery against which the gates of bell, the strength and subtlety of Satan, were to try their utmost again and again. And they have been thus engaged from the beginning, and are still so. By Arians and Socinians, the full glory of " God manifested in the flesh," was clouded long ago with either a deeper or a more specious falsehood. Lately the moral nature of the man Christ Jesus, " God over all, blessed forever," was assailed in Irvingism, and it was blotted and tainted, as far as that evil thought could reach. Still more lately, the relationships to God in which Jesus stood, and the experiences of the soul in which Jesus was exercised, have been the unholy traffic of the human intellect-and now His flesh and blood, the "temple" of His body, has been profaned. But one can trace a kindred purpose in all, the depreciation of the Son- of God. And whence comes this? And whence comes the very opposite and contradictory energy? What is the Father occupied with, or jealous about, if it be not the glory of the Son, in resistance of all that would depreciate Him, be it gross or subtle? Read, beloved, the Lord's discourse to the Jews in the 5th of John. There that secret is disclosed, that though the Son has humbled Himself, and can, as He says, " do nothing of Himself," the Father will see to it that He be not thereby dishonored, or in any wise depreciated-watching over the rights, the full divine rights, of the Son, by this most careful and jealous decree, "he that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him."
Patience in teaching, patience with the simply ignorant, is surely the divine way, the way of the gracious Spirit. The Lord exercised that way Himself. " Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me Philip"? But no allowance of any depreciation of Christ is the divine way also. John's writings prove this to us-the most awful portions of the oracles of God, as well as being so peculiar and precious, because they so concern the personal glory of the Son. And they seem to me to show but little if any mercy to those who would sully that glory, or carelessly watch over and around it..
And let me add, other facts in the history of the blessed Lord, such as hunger and thirst and weariness, are not to be used as the least warrant for this thought about the mortality of His flesh and blood. The Son of God in flesh was exposed to nothing. Nothing outside the garden of Eden was His portion. He was hungry and wearied at the well of Samaria. He slept in the ship after a day of fatiguing service. But whatever of all this He knew in the place of thorns and thistles and sorrow and sweat of face, He knew it all and took it all, only as fulfilling that " form of a Servant" which in unspeakable grace He had assumed.
The "man of sorrows" may be addressed on one occasion as though He appeared to be nearly fifty years old. But I. am to know from that, only how He had borne sorrows and services for our blessing and the Father's glory. In such features I am to read Him "whose visage was marred more than any man," because of His endurings for us, and the contradiction of sinners against Him, and not because of the decaying tendencies of natural old age in the smallest measure of them, as though such tendencies by possibility could attach to Him.
The Jews are again and again charged with being His murderers (Acts 2:36; 3:15; 7:5236Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:36)
15And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. (Acts 3:15)
52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: (Acts 7:52) ... ) Surely they are, and rightly so. We are all in the same condemnation. It is the guilt of murder that lies at our door. The Jews took his blood on them and on their children. To all moral intent, in a full judicial sense, they were " His betrayers and murderers," though it was neither their spear, nor the pressure of the cross, nor the yielding of nature, which took that life away-He gave it up of himself. No man took it from Him. He laid it down of Himself. Strange it may sound in the ears of man, and strange it may seem to their reasonings, but what we read touching this is perfect in the esteem of faith. "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this commandment have I received of my Father." He was free and yet under commandment. Strange all this, again I admit, to reasonings and unbelief, but perfect in the judgment of faith.
The Son of God died on the tree, where the wicked hand of man had nailed Him, and the eternal purpose and grace of God had appointed Him. There He died, and died because He was there. The Lamb was slain. Who would think of gainsaying such a thought? Wicked hands murdered Him, and God provided Him as His own Lamb for the altar. Who would touch for a moment so needed and precious a mystery? And yet the Lamb gave up His own life. No exhaustion under the suffering, no pressure of the cross, led Him to the death; but His life He yielded of Himself. In token of being in full possession of that which He was rendering up, "He cried with a loud voice," and then " gave up the ghost." The history of the moment admits of no other thought; and, I will add, neither should the worshipping affections of the saints. Pilate marveled that He was dead already; he would not believe it; he had to satisfy himself of it. No time had been passed on the cross sufficient to extort the life, so that the legs of the others had to be broken. But He was dead already. Pilate must make inquiry, and call for the witness, ere he would believe it. The thought we claim is thus the only interpreter of the strict literal history of the fact. And our souls, had we grace, would bless God for such a picture of His slain Lamb, and of our dying, crucified, killed, and murdered Savior. Do we blot out the record that He was the slain Lamb, or silence the song in heaven which celebrates that mystery when we s His life the slain Lamb rendered up Himself? The history of Calvary, which the Holy Ghost has written, sustains this thought; and again we say, what we claim is the only interpreter of the strict history of the fact. He was free, and yet under commandment. Faith understands it all. And according to this mystery, when the hour had come, as we read, "He bowed the head and gave up the ghost" (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)). He owned the commandment which He had received, and yet of Himself yielded up His life. He was obedient unto death, and yet laid down His life as of Himself.
Faith understands all this without difficulty-yea, understands that herein alone lies the true and perfect mystery. He died under covenant counsels, to the which He willingly yielded, being "the Fellow" of the Lord of Hosts.
But, as we have already said to His praise, the Son of God on earth was ever hiding His glory-the form of God, as we have been seeing, under the form of a servant. His glory had been owned in all parts of the dominions of God. Devils owned it, the bodies and the souls of men owned it, death and the grave owned it, the beasts of the field and the fish of the sea, owned it, winds and waves owned it, and so did the corn and the wine. I may say He Himself was the only One who did not own or assume it; for His way was to veil it. He was " Lord of the harvest," but appeared as one of the laborers in the field; He was the God of the Temple, and the Lord of the Sabbath, but submitted to the challenges of an unbelieving world (Matt. 9, 12).
Such was the veil or the cloud under which He thus again and again causes the glory to retire! And so, in entire fellowship with all this, as we have already said, did He carry Himself on those occasions when His life was threatened. Under despised forms He hid His glory again. At times the favor of the common people shelters Him (Mark 11:32; 12:12,32But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. (Mark 11:32)
12And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way. (Mark 12:12) Luke 20:1919And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. (Luke 20:19)); at times He withdraws Himself in either an ordinary or a more miraculous manner (Luke 4:30,30But he passing through the midst of them went his way, (Luke 4:30) John 8:59;1059Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (John 8:59)
17Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. (John 11:17). 39); at times the enemy is restrained from laying hands on Him, because His hour was not come (John 7:30; 8:2030Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. (John 7:30)
20These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. (John 8:20)) and on one distinguished occasion, as we have seen, a flight into Egypt removes Him from the wrath of a king who sought His life to destroy Him.
In all this I see the one thing from first to last-the Lord of Glory hiding Himself, as one who had come in another's name and not His own. But He was " the Lord of Glory," and " the Prince of life." He was a willing captive, as I have already observed, and so was He at the very last a willing victim. "He gave His life a ransom for many."
In other days the Ark of the Lord was in the hands of the enemy; it had been taken captive by the Philistines at the battle of Ebenezer. Then God "delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemies' hand"; but it was unassailable. It was apparently a weak thing-a thing of wood and gold. Its presence troubled the uncircumcised-their gods, their persons, their lands
It was all unaided and alone, and in the midst of enemies who were fresh in the heat and pride of victory. Why, then, did they not break it to pieces? Apparently, to dash it against a stone would have been to destroy it. It was constantly in their way, and appeared to be always at their mercy. Why, then, did they not rid themselves of it? They could not; that is the answer. The Ark among the Philistines was another burning and unconsumed bush. It might appear to be at the mercy of the uncircumcised, but it was unassailable. The Philistines may send it from Ashdod to Gath, and from Gath to Ekron; but no hand can touch it to destroy it (see 1 Sam. 4-6).
And so the True Ark, the Son of God in flesh, may be the sport of the uncircumcised for a little season Pilate may send Him to Herod, and Annas to Caiaphas, the multitude may lead Him away to Pilate, and Pilate may give Him up again to the multitude; but His life is beyond their reach. He was the Son of God, and though manifested in flesh, still the Son as from eternity. Whatever sorrows He had gone through, whatever weariness He had endured, or hunger or thirst, all had been filling out " the form of a servant," which He had taken. But He was the Son who had "life in Himself," the unassailable Ark- the Bush, even in the midst of the raging flames of the world's full hatred, unconsumable.
Such was the mystery I doubt not.
But, while saying this while going through the meditations of this paper with some desire of my soul, and, I trust, profit also—there is nothing I would more cherish than to feel as a true Israelite should have felt on the day when the Ark of God returned home out of the land of the Philistines. He should then have rejoiced and worshipped; he should have been very careful to assure himself that this great event had indeed taken place, even though he were living at a distance from the scene. As an Israelite of any of the tribes, this thing deeply concerned him—that the Ark had been rescued, and that the uncircumcised were not still handling it, or sending it hither and thither among their cities. But being satisfied of that, he, had to be watchful that he himself did not touch it or inspect it-that he did not sin against it, like a Bethshemite, even after it had come from among the Philistines.
We are right. I am sure, in refusing those thoughts upon the mortal condition of the blessed Lord's body. All such words and speculations are as the handling of the Ark with uncircumcised or Philistine hands. And we are to show the error of the thought itself, as well as its irreverence; that is, we are to be satisfied only with the full deliverance of the Ark, and its return to us. But then, another duty becomes us—we are not to handle it, or inspect it, as though it were ordinary. Our words are to be few; for in the multitude of words, on such a matter, " there wanted not sin." Physical considerations of such a subject are not to be indulged, even though they may be sound and not, to be gainsayed; for such considerations are not the way of the Spirit, or of the wisdom of God. The Lord's body was a temple, and it is written, " Ye shall reverence my sanctuary; I am the Lord."
If one were to refuse to follow these speculations, and instead of answering them to rebuke them, I could say nothing. It might be with many a soul a holy sensitive refusal to meddle beyond one's measure, and the standard of Scripture with what must ever be beyond us. I remember the words -" Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him!' But these speculations on the person of the Son of God began in other quarters. The Ark got into uncircumcised hands—and this word which I have taken on me to write is an endeavor to recover it thence—and what I would indeed desire, is to take it down from " the new cart" with the reserve and holiness that become the soul in doing such service.
I will just add, that all this present question is made to profit the soul. A lion's carcass, forbidding as such an object must have been, of old time was forced to yield even honey, delicate as it is, and good for food. St. Paul had to do the forbidding work of vindicating the doctrine of resurrection in the very face of some among the saints at Corinth; but that was made fruitful, like the carcass of the lion. For not merely does a vindication of the doctrine itself come forth, but glory after glory, belonging to that mystery, passes before him. He is given, through the Spirit, to see resurrection in its order, or in its different seasons; the interval between such seasons, and the business to be done in each of them, according to divine dispensations, the scene which is to succeed the last of those seasons, and also the great era of the resurrection of the saints, in all its power and magnificence, with the shout of triumph which is to accompany it (1 Cor. 15). Here was honey, and honey again, I may say, out of a lion's carcass, for such is controversy among brethren. But as it was once written, so is it, in the abounding grace of God, still existent. " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."
"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake."