LAST week, in speaking of sanctification, we noted that one revelation of the truth which sanctifies is, that the Lord Jesus, by taking in grace His people's place, has made their place in righteousness, and that the place they have, and the blessing they enjoy, is the fruit to them of all that the Lord in grace accomplished at the cross for God's glory, and His people's blessing -the fruit so far of the travail of His soul. I propose to-night to look at the fitness of the Lord Jesus to take His people's place; for, if one have to stand in the place of others, he must have in himself the fitness which renders him competent so to do.
Here an indispensable necessity meets us with regard to the one who would take the place of others in order to glorify God about sin, and bear their sins: he must combine in his own person that which is essentially divine and that which. is essentially human. That which is divine, because He who had been sinned against Was the divine Being, who must have satisfaction; the one to satisfy Him must therefore be divine. That which is human, because, sin having entered, the God against whom that sin had been committed must maintain His character, and manifest His righteousness with regard to it, by executing judgment against it. This entails suffering; one who was in himself only divine could not suffer; it needed one who was human so to do. The indispensable necessity therefore in one who takes this place before God is, that he should -combine in his own person a nature which, being divine, could satisfy, and a nature which, being human, could suffer.
Such a one was not to be found among men; all were but men, and moreover sinful, guilty men. God Himself alone could provide one in whom such a wonderful combination could exist, and such a one He has provided and presented to us in Him who bears the name of "The Lamb of God." In Him we shall find, as I hope to show, a Being essentially divine, and at the same time essentially human.
On turning to John 1 we find the glory of the eternal Son of God unfolded: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." -Here the glory of the Lord Jesus is spoken of. First of all, we find presented to us what He is, namely, the Word; this as being the expression of the mind, thought, and power of God Himself. Then another truth in connection with His existence: " In the beginning was the word." That is to say, His existence is an eternal existence. Then another truth in connection with His person.: " The word was with God." That is to say, He is a distinct person. And then a farther development of truth as to His nature: " He was God." That is to say, He is, as to His nature, divine. Thus we have described in this wonderfully comprehensive verse One who in the beginning was; who was with God; who was God; One eternal as to His existence, distinct as to His person, and divine as to His nature.
Then in the second verse is another truth, one that bears on the distinct personality of the Lord Jesus. Some might think that He was a distinct person only when He came down to this world; but this verse proves His distinct personality through all eternity. " The same was in the beginning with God." It was not only after that time began that this one came forth as Son of God, a distinct person, but when time had its commencement the eternally distinct Son of God was there. Here, then, we have the divine glory of the eternal Son of God set before us.
In verse 14 a further truth concerning Him is brought out, not what He ever was and is, but what He became. " The word was made flesh. and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Note that the coming down of the eternal Son of God, and" His taking humanity into association with Himself, in no wise affected the divine glory That was His own from all eternity; it only placed a veil round that which, had it not been so veiled, must have shone to our destruction; yet the -divine glory of that blessed One " could not be hid," could not but come forth through the beautiful veil of that humanity in which-it was shrouded; it was the same glory that belonged to Him who was the only begotten of the Father through the countless ages of eternity, but seen in the person of Him who had now in grace become a man. Thus we have a divine Being here below as a man.
There is, however, another thing to be considered, namely, the character of the humanity the Lord assumed when He- came as a man to the earth. There had already been two samples of humanity seen there: one passed away forever, the other still present; the one, that of the first man in Eden, a humanity that was characterized by innocence, that is, ignorance of evil. We know what became of it: Adam fell, and innocence was gone forever. 'Since then, another phase of humanity has been present, and that is fallen or sinful humanity. Now the moment the heart gets through grace the smallest insight into the glory of the person of Him who bears the name of " the Lamb of God," it recognizes that there must be some other character of humanity, for it is impossible that a divine person could be here as innocent, for His divine nature makes him omniscient, while, on the other hand, it is impossible that one who is divine could take a fallen, sinful nature into association with Himself; so that the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus precludes the thought that it could be either innocent or fallen humanity that He assumed; it must be another kind of humanity altogether, and so we shall see it to be.
Let us turn to 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), where we find Mary bowing with beautiful lowliness of heart to the message of the angel, waiting only to know how the purposes of God are to be carried out. The angel says to her: " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee; therefore, that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Here we have presented the true character of the Lord's humanity: His was not innocent, not fallen, but holy humanity. He was " that holy thing which shall be born of thee " (a woman-hence absolutely a man) " shall be called the Son of God," (hence essentially divine).
In Luke 3 the genealogy of the Lord is traced back to Adam in order to exhibit the true Son of God a man on earth. In this character the Father's voice is heard owning the relationship and perfect acceptability in which that Man stood to Him, the Father: " My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The requirement, therefore-the combination of the divine and the human in one person-is met in the person of the Lord Jesus, the spot- less Lamb of God; and in this respect His personal fitness to take His people's place is seen. May our hearts enter more and more into the excellencies of that blessed One. We shall never get to the end of those excellencies; but God has in His grace given those who believe, in some little measure, to behold, them; and He whose excellencies they are is the Son of God's love-perfect God, perfect man-Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord.
In the word of God we have the history of two men: Adam, the first man, the man of responsibility; and the Lord Jesus, the second man, the man of purpose, the man who answers to the heart of God, and who laid the foundation for the accomplishment in righteousness of the thought of God's heart. The first we find in Eden, with the principle that was to guide his conduct, namely, obedience-not obedience in order to attain a position, but obedience in order to maintain the position in which God his Creator had placed him. Satan comes against this man; and we find him using one of the weapons With which he always attacks man: of these he has two, the one is allurement, the other terror. In Eden it was the former weapon that he brought to bear. It was all allurement that he presented to the eye of Eve-" the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life "-and, as we know, his end was accomplished but too well. With allurement he utterly overthrew the man of responsibility, who in his fall dragged into ruin with himself the whole of that creation in headship of which God had placed him, a ruin which is irremediable, for there is no reformation of the first creation. We know that Christ will bring this world into blessing when He comes to reign, but it will be by righteousness reigning in power; then He will thoroughly suppress evil: if it do raise its head, He will crush it. But evil will not even then be taken out of the world; not until the eternal state will righteousness dwell, though in the millennium it will reign..
In Luke 4 we find the Lord Jesus, the second man, the last Adam, taking His place as man before, and subjected to the attack of, that enemy under whose wiles the first man, Adam, fell. His position when thus attacked was exactly the opposite to that of Adam. In Eden there was everything to hold the heart true to the center of its blessing, and yet in the midst of it all Adam fell. How Was it here with the Lord Jesus Christ? He was in the midst' of a scene in which was nothing to sustain Him. He was in the "wilderness," a word that is used in Scripture to signify a place in which are no springs of God. There was a blessed river of grace flowing through it, when He was there, but, in itself no springs. -It is not as exercising divine power that the Lord is here presented, but as a man acting in obedience and dependence.
This, too, is all mercy and grace for us, when we come to look at it. Supposing He had stood there and exercised divine power, it would have been simply a divine person overcoming the enemy by His own power. In such case, though blessed for us to see it, it would not furnish us with an example. for our own path- way; but- when we see Him there as a man, obedient and dependent, meeting the power of the enemy with a weapon that is through grace within our reach, and in this position with this weapon thoroughly defeating the foe, then indeed we have got a perfect example, in whose steps we are to follow.
On Satan's side it is the same weapon that he used against Adam in Eden that he uses here—his weapon of allurement. Three of the temptations which Satan presents to the Lord Jesus Christ are recorded. The first is, if I may say so, a natural temptation: it applies to the human nature of the Lord. The second is a worldly temptation: it applies to His rights as the Son of man. The third is a religious temptation: it applies to the promises of Jehovah to Him as the Messiah, according to what we find written in the ninety-first Psalm. The Lord is tried as a man by adversity, by prosperity, and by religious deceits.
." The devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread." Let me observe that it does not at all seem to be with a view to cast a doubt upon the relationship of the Lord Jesus with His Father that the devil says "if "; such a thing he well knew would be in vain. It was with a more subtle end in view he made use of it. He tried, by presenting to the Lord that which was really true of Him-He was the Son of God-tried to 'make Him act in divine power, and so deny the character and the position He had taken, and in which He at that moment stood-that of a dependent, obedient man. But the Lord 'was not to be taken so. He was blessedly perfect; He will not act as a divine being, however truly divine; as a man He, acts. And note the weapon with which He meets the enemy: the word of God. " Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." We may notice that the Lord's quotations are all out of Deuteronomy, the book in which obedience is so pressed on Israel as they were about to enter the land. The enemy, met at each point by the word, is powerless against obedience, and has to change his ground at once. He does not, however, change his tactics; his weapon is still the same.
He takes the Lord up into a high mountain, and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and says, "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be thine." Here it is a temptation of a worldly character that is presented; and mark the subtlety of it. He to whom it is presented is the very one who, in the purpose of God, is to have it all, but who, according to that purpose, was to take it through a pathway of intense suffering. Again the Lord has recourse to the word, and answers, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
The thought here presented to the Lord seems to be similar in character to that presented in Peter's words to Him, when announcing His death: " That be far from thee, Lord; " to which the Lord replies, " Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Why?—Because the tendency of his words would have been to turn the Lord aside from the path of obedience, of suffering, and of death. Here the underlying thought would seem the same: Save yourself the suffering, throw yourself down and accredit me, and you shall have all without cost. This the Lord meets with the word: " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The words " Get thee behind me, Satan," should not be read here.
Again Satan is foiled through the word, again he is compelled to change his ground; but he still tries the same tactics-allurement is still his weapon. He brings the Lord to Jerusalem and sets Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and says unto Him, " If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." Mark here again the subtlety of the temptation. Satan, discerning that the Lord takes his stand on the word, says, as it were, I will give you the word of God for what I ask; on that you can depend. Cast yourself down; has He not said " He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee, etc." Mark how the Lord meets this. The word is His weapon. He says, as it were, God never contradicts Himself, and God has said, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." He had a word that met all the subtlety of the enemy, and what was the effect? Though the devil may transform himself into an angel of light, and quote Scripture, the word will detect him. To do what he asked-and apparently advanced Scripture in support of-'-would have been contrary to a direct word of God. He left out in his quotation the very few words that would have entirely defeated his purpose in quoting it-the words " in all thy ways." Why did he omit these words? Because it would not have been the way of a dependent man-the character in which the Lord then stood-to tempt God.
This principle of strict adherence to the word of God is of deep importance in a day of infidelity like the present-a day in which you will find Scripture quoted for all sorts of ends-the Bible brought forward for all sorts of purposes; but you will invariably find that what is so quoted, so brought forward, would lead to that which would be in direct contradiction to some positive word of God. Let me say, if you have got the substance-the positive word-do not let it go to grasp the shadow-the infidel deduction-though there may appear to be Scripture in support of it. The effect of grasping after the shadows that infidelity presents, seems to me to be illustrated by the fable of the dog of old, who, when passing over a stream by a plank, with a piece of meat in his mouth, saw the reflection of the meat in the water below; he had the substance, but seeing the shadow, grasped at it, and in so doing lost the substance. That is just what infidelity would have you do. It would, by presenting to you a shadow, cause you to let go the substance. You may not be able to at once detect the counterfeit, but you know that you have, in the Word, got that on which your soul can rest-you have got the substance. Keep firm hold of that, and any difficulty man may put before you will be made clear to you in God's time; He will expose the counterfeit. God has given us the substance-His word. Our place is through grace to hold it fast, not grasping at shadows-the speculations of vain men.
To return. Here, then, we see the Lord taking His stand as man in dependence and obedience, the weapon wherewith He meets the enemy being the word; it is the only weapon- that He uses. But what is the result? The enemy, completely foiled by it when so used, has to leave Him: " The devil departed from him for a season." The whole scene furnishes us with a practical illustration of the words in Psa. 17, " By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer;" and of those in 1 John 5, " He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." The Lord, as man, overcomes the enemy by simple adherence to the word of God, as He stands in his place of dependence on God.
The first man, Adam, fell before the foe through disobedience and independence; but here we find the second man, the last Adam, victorious over the enemy through obedience and dependence.
So far, then, as the wiles of the enemy in allurement go, the Lord's fitness to take His people's place is fully demonstrated. The foe has brought his weapon fully to bear, and has failed to accomplish his end—the turning aside of the obedient man.
That we may gather up through grace the practical lessons the Spirit would teach us, let us turn for a moment to the 'first epistle of John. We have seen that there are three temptations of „the Lord recorded in, the gospels. He may have been tempted all through the forty days (Mark 1:1313And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. (Mark 1:13)), but three only Are recorded; and God has in His grace taken care that the three which are recorded are the very ones whereby the enemy seeks to seduce souls in the present day-the temptations common to ourselves. The devil always uses weapons adapted to the people he is attacking. He will use them in one way against one person, and in another way against another person. I doubt if he have more than two-the two we have spoken of, namely, allurement and terror-but he is a perfect adept in the use of them; just as I may have but one sword, but I know how to use it in many ways. A thrust that would reach one might not be calculated to reach another; therefore a different thrust would be made at that other, but the weapon wherewith it is made would be the same.
In 1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12) we find the aged apostle addressing believers generally as " children;" but in verses 13-27 he distinguishes different degrees of maturity amongst them; he notes the features which characterize each degree, the dangers that beset each respectively, and also the safeguard that God gives to keep them from the snares by which the enemy seeks to seduce or entrap them.
The degrees are fathers, young men, and babes. What characterizes the babes is the knowledge of relationship—they know the Father. That which characterizes the young men is the energy of faith, and victory over the foe through obedience and dependence. That which characterizes the fathers is the knowledge of Christ. Now let us look at the dangers that beset them.
The trial peculiarly adapted to tell on a babe, and either hinder his entrance into, or turn him aside from, the path of obedience, would be adversity. And here we find the enemy, well knowing which trial to bring to bear on each, at work to turn the babes aside by adversity.
"Little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there 'many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." Seeing those who had taken up the profession of Christianity going out from their midst would be likely to stumble the babes; and again there were some among them endeavoring to seduce them into doubting as to the possession of eternal life. Thus the enemy is seen pressing trial by adversity upon the babes. It was a temptation similar in character to that which he first tried upon the Lord Jesus.
A trial by adversity would not be so suitable for the accomplishment of the enemy's ends with a young man; it would be calculated rather to stir up all the energy that was in him: The enemy, therefore, has another character of trial for him, namely, prosperity. He presents to him the world. " Love not the world; neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Here we see the way the enemy deals with the young man. He does not try by adversity to drive him from the path of obedience, but endeavors by prosperity to seduce him from it. It is a bait, if I may say so; it is not adversity, but prosperity; that he presents to the young man.
Do we not need to have the enemy's wiles thus laid bare? Do we not need the warning God in His word so graciously gives us? We are passing through the world, and the word that is here used for world does not signify the material earth on which We walk, but an organized system, and in this case a system organized by Satan, designed to minister to the natural man, and thus to keep him from God. It is by this that the enemy seeks to seduce the young Man from the path of obedience-to withdraw him from the place of dependence. This trial answers in character to that presented in the second place to the Lord-trial by prosperity.
Neither of these trials would be so likely to tell on a father in Christ. The snare from which he would be more in danger would be some religious deceit; Satan will not, therefore, try either adversity or prosperity with him, but will try him by religious deceits.
And now, what are the safeguards that God has provided for each in order to preserve them from the danger and through the trial? Let us look at the twentieth verse. There we find the safeguard for the babes: they have " the unction from the Holy One," and in verse 24, the word that they had heard from the beginning: " Let that, therefore, abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and' in the Father." These are the two things which, combined, God presents as the safeguard to preserve the babe in Christ from falling a prey to the dangers of the way-to the wiles of the enemy.
To the young man, whose danger is being seduced by the world, God in His word unfolds the true character of the world, its source, and its end: " All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world; and the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." And to the young man, as to the babe, God presents a double safeguard: the love of the Father and the word which reveal His will; these are what God has provided to keep him from falling a prey to, from being seduced by, the bait of the foe.
How far can each of us say that the love of the Father does exclude the world?—Do we know-'anything of this practically? The reason the saints are too often found dabbling in the world is because they have not the love of the Father in them; if they had, and enjoyed- that love, how could a system set up in direct opposition to Him whose love they enjoyed attract them? Satan has formed a world that is in direct opposition to the Father; but when the Father's love is known and enjoyed, therein is found a safeguard that excludes the world.
And now as to the father in Christ: what is his safeguard? Religious deceits are brought to try him; his safeguard is Christ. The father has known " Him that is from the beginning "- Christ the living Word. Thus, in the case of the father as of the young man and as of the babe, the word of God is the safeguard, and obedience thereto the path of safety from all the power of the foe, who is powerless against obedience.
Paul, in speaking to Timothy, his son in the faith, of the last days, tells him the features that will characterize them, and amongst others is found religious deceit: " A form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." Also a resistance of the truth by imitation of it. Do you know anything of this form of godliness, but denying the power thereof? You say, I mourn over it. Why, then, do you not-turn away from it? You have not got to attack it; you have only got to turn away from it. The word itself is your authority to do so: "from such turn away; " and on this each child of God is not only authorized, but responsible, to act. At such a time, and in such a state of things, Paul commends to Timothy three things; " My doctrine, " the holy Scriptures, and the person of Christ.
Thus God has provided for His people in everything. Though the enemy may press us hard, and be all expert in the use of his weapons, God has provided a perfect safeguard for us in His word. May the Lord give us to gather up and lay to heart the practical lessons that He would teach us from these portions of His word, and that, having that word, we may in dependence on Him recognize and fulfill, through grace, our responsibility of acting in obedience thereto. Is it not true that what we need in the present day is not so much the knowledge of additional truth-not that we do not need truth-but rather to be in the power of the truth that is known?—so to be in the power of it that it should command us. We need to be obedient ones, we need to be dependent ones, following in the steps of Him who has gone before us-that blessed One who, in His pathway on earth, met and defeated all the power of the enemy by simple obedience, simple dependence. May each one indeed follow Him, remembering that, if believers at all, they are set apart (sanctified) to His obedience-that is, to obey on the same principle on which He obeyed who could say, " My meat is to do the will of him that sent me." We observed, in opening, that the enemy had two weapons whereby he sought to accomplish his ends on man. In Luke 4 we saw the attack of the foe by means of his weapon of allurement on the second man, and his utter failure in that attack. This being so, " he departed from him for a season;" but only for a season, as the time would come when he would again attack Him, and that with the second weapon—terror—with a view to driving Him from the path of obedience, having before failed to seduce him therefrom. The time, place, and mode of this second attack we have, I believe, presented to us in Luke 22, where the Lord is seen in the garden of Gethsemane. He there, as a man, meets the enemy who is armed with his weapon of terror.
This scene is at the end of the Lord's ministry. At the commencement we found Him taking his stand upon obedience and dependence, and afterward all through His course see Him spoiling the enemy and victorious over him, but never, as is too often the case with us, does victory take Him out of the place of dependence. Victorious all through, on what ground do we find Him here at the close? " He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed." He still occupied in His perfection the very ground on which He stood at the beginning-that of dependence and obedience. He thus meets the foe, when wielding his weapon of terror, on exactly the same ground and principle as those on which He met him when wielding his weapon of allurement. The enemy approaches and presses on His soul the terror of that which He would have to undergo. The Lord, in 'His perfection, shrinks' from the fearful ordeal; He-prays: " Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," but goes on to add: "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." He is the obedient, dependent man; the Father's will He will do at all cost.
Notice that, in the wilderness, Satan three distinct times pressed the Lord with the weapon of allurement; here in the garden he three distinct times presses Him with the weapon of terror; and three times the Lord presents all to the Father. From His hand He will take all-from the Father's hand He will take the cup. It was on the cross only that He drank that cup; but here he was gazing in spirit into its depths, estimating those depths as one only could who was Himself absolutely perfect; but, estimating it fully as He does, He presents it to the Father, and in obedience bows to receive it from His hand.
What can the enemy do'? He has brought his second weapon to bear with all its power, seeking to drive the Lord thereby from the path of obedience, only to find that he can do nothing, for he has met an obedient, dependent man. He is utterly defeated after having used both his weapons to the utmost of his power; the effect of the pressure that he brought to bear serving only to bring out more brightly and fully the perfection of the blessed Man who was subjected to it, and to manifest His perfect fitness to take His people's place. In all the testing of the enemy in which the first man fell, the blessed perfection of the Christ of God shines out in all its glory: He is victorious as man in obedience and dependence over the power of the enemy in allurement; He is victorious over the power of the enemy in terror, and then he goes to overcome him finally in the death of the cross, and thus " destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life subject to bondage."
May we derive true blessing to our souls from meditating on the person of the Lord, both as a divine Being and as the perfect Man, and also on the perfection of His ways as He walked a man here on earth, 'remembering that, in so walking, He has left us an example that we should follow His steps, that we are sanctified to His obedience, and that our responsibility is to walk as He walked. (J. L.)
There is an undistractedness of object that humanly speaking is in itself power.
(J. N, D.)