“Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”
I am connected with a Saviour, then I am no longer connected with that which I am Saved from. Simeon having seen Him says, I can give up everything, I am done with everything, I have seen Thy salvation.
Everything here is contrary to God, His Son comes into the scene, and bears the judgment of the whole thing. If you accept His salvation, how can you cleave to that which is under judgment? If you do, you do violence to the salvation, or you lose the Saviour. The great feebleness in souls is, that they fail to apprehend what God has accomplished.
When Adam sins he must die, that is the judgment. But who can surmount death, not only to meet the judgment, but to rise out of it? If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins. But He is risen from among the dead, and now re-instates man eternally, and in every way according to the mind of God; an eternal, imperishable existence, a new creation. If you are saved from everything contrary to God, you are connected with everything, that is according to God. If you are saved from a thing and have to do with the Saviour, you must be apart from all that which you are saved from, and in the condition. of the One who has saved you. Hence, the thief on the cross is told, “this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”
Souls have a very imperfect idea of what they are saved from-hence the little practical link with what they are saved to. If I know the character of the thing I am saved from, I find myself in the condition of the Saviour. Peter forsook all and followed Him. Simeon having seen Him says, I can close my eyes to all else, everything else may go. Have you got Simeon’s faith? Paul immediately conferred not with flesh and blood, people do so confer as if they were not saved from flesh and blood. Saints shrink from suffering and death, as if really they were not saved from it at all. Noah was saved from the flood. Did he want to be connected with the waters? Oh, no, he would say, I am shut into the ark—God has shut me in! Are souls shut into Christ thus now? No—they have not an idea that the waters of judgment press around them. Have I then anything to do with them? Nothing, but to float over them Peter says, you ought not to suffer for sin. (1 Peter 3.) If Christ died for all, then were all dead. And He died for all, that they which live, should not live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again. Do any of us live unto ourselves, or unto Him who died for us and rose again? Do you take in that that is the salvation of God?
God has judicially dealt with man in the flesh. If I bring the flesh up, I do so illegally. God does not bring it up, does not treat with it or recognize it. The judgment now is, not that man fails to act according to God, but that he will not accept what God offers. Light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light; this is the judgment, therefore all judgment is committed unto the Son; and it is now a savor of death unto death, or of life unto life, there are only the two things. If saved from death, are you living in death? If you know you are delivered, the practical effect is to make your heart cleave to Christ; like Simeon you can abandon the whole thing, you are saved from it. Do you tell me it is no relief? Was it no relief to the thief on the cross to find himself connected with a Saviour, and severed eternally from all else? Oh, if you had but a moment’s consciousness of being connected with Christ, what would induce you to return? But you do not feel that you yourself are under condemnation; you do not see that all here is contrary to God, and that God’s Son has done all that His righteousness required. Every failure of man is repaired by the Son. Even the Church has failed as the vessel of testimony. Christ will yet display it in Himself as the full manifestation of its calling. It failed to be “the light,” and He will be the “light thereof.” (See Rev. 21:23.) What a relief to the soul! There will be no forfeiture of the divine purpose and counsel. Again, Israel feeding on the lamb roast with fire, is not occupied with or connected with Egypt. It is one taken up with Christ—living by Him. The disciples of John when they saw Him, followed and abode with Him, left their own natural scene, and were connected with one outside it. Souls do not see what they are connected with. A new man in Christ Jesus, sustained by the power of Him who is above it all, you have taken the ground of being set free from all that God has judged. Would you like to come back to it again? Paul says, God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. In the glory he had got a sight of that salvation, and he counts all things but loss for it. What wonderful energy it would diffuse into your soul, to count all things but loss to win the Saviour—you have not realized the force of the action of God’s grace, otherwise, you have not found out the excellency of Christ. Stephen got hold of it. His eyes behold the glory and Jesus, and enters on the scene where all is according to God. Is there a bit of link in your soul to Christ? Do you feel the door shut—that you are feeding on the paschal lamb, and satisfied to be there? or do you want to get both, and then you are unhappy and wretched—only saved from so much, only saved to so much; saved from Pharaoh, you would enjoy Egypt! Do you think Israel could say—the blood is there, I will walk about Egypt? or Noah, I will go out on the waters? Oh, no, if you see it, you will be glad to be shut in, to have the lamb to feed on, clad in all the excellency of Christ, entirely out of the old man, and entirely in the new. A new structure before God, and in the consciousness of your eternal portion in the Son.
Hence, the Lord’s Supper is so happy. Saints showing forth in company, in the scene of judgment, that they are entirely separated from it by His death. You see a saint on his death-bed so happy. Why? because he is dropping everything but Christ. Why not do it now? Why be happy on your death-bed and not happy now? If true and happy in a moment of pressure for the soul to drop everything but Christ, why not true and happy for me now? This is why God is obliged to bring people through discipline, He must cut the links which connect them to a scene which Ile has set aside, then you say, “I want to be shut see the great salvation.” If you have accepted it, you are connected with the Saviour, and you are bound to accept it; otherwise, you have compromised the salvation of God. Do you know the blessedness of Christ? Have you proved the resources of His heart, that He is better than the husks? Have you associated your heart with the fullness of the everlasting God? Then He says, “follow me;” and your abode is with Him.
The Lord lead your souls to taste of this salvation, to see the blessed character of it, and to have to do with—the One who has accomplished it; and who would—connect you so entirely with Himself, that with joy and truth you may say, “I long to depart and be Christ, which is far better.”
How sweet the plea,
From all to flee,
And shelter in my Saviour.
Oh precious grace,
With Him my place,
In God’s eternal favor.
Jesus the goal
Before my soul,
The One I know in glory.
While I’m on earth,
I’d tell His worth,
A sav’d one’s sweetest story.