Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Faith

Hebrews 12: 2

J. N. Darby.

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All the witnesses for God spoken of in Hebrews 11 are for our encouragement in the path of faith; but then there is a difference between them and Jesus. Accordingly the apostle here singles Him out of all. If I see Abraham, who by faith sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, or Isaac, who blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, or Jacob on his dying bed of blessing and worship, they have all run their race before; but in Jesus we have a far higher witness. Besides, in Him there is the grace to sustain us in the race.

Therefore in looking unto Jesus we get a motive and an unfailing source of strength. We see in Jesus the love which led Him to take this place for us, who, "when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them." For, if a race is to be run, we need a forerunner. And in Jesus we have got one who did run before us, and has become the Captain and Completer of faith, in looking to whom we draw strength into our souls. While Abraham and the rest filled up, in their little measure, their several places, Christ has filled up the whole course of faith. There is no position that I can be in, no trial whatever that I can endure, but Christ has passed through all and overcome. Thus I have got One who presents Himself in that character which I need; and I find in Him one who knows what grace is wanted, and will supply it; for He has overcome, and says to me, "Be of good cheer I have overcome the world" - not, you shall overcome but, I have overcome. It was so in the case of the blind man (John 9: 31, etc.) who was cast out of the synagogue; and why? Because Jesus had been cast out before him. And now we learn, that however rough the storm may be, it does but throw us the more thoroughly on Christ, and thus that which would have been a sore trial does but drive us closer to Him.

Whatever turns our eye away from Christ is but a hindrance to our running the race that is set before us. If Christ has become the object of the soul, let us lay aside every weight. If I am running a race, a cloak, however comfortable, would only hinder and must be got rid of; it is a weight, and would prevent my running. I do not want anything to entangle my feet. If I am looking to Jesus in the appointed race, I must throw the cloak aside: otherwise it would seem strange to throw away so useful a garment. Nay, more; however much encouragement the history of antecedent faithful witnesses in Hebrews 11 may give, our eye must be fixed on Jesus, the true and faithful One. There is not a trial or difficulty that He has not passed through before me, and found His resources in God the Father. He will supply the needed grace to my heart.

278 There were these two features in the life of Christ down here. First, He exercised constant dependence on His Father as He said, "I live by the Father." The new man is ever a dependent man. The moment we get out of dependence, we get into the flesh. It is not through our own life (for, indeed, we have but death) that we really live, but by Christ, through feeding on Him. In the highest possible sense, He walked in dependence on the Father, and for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Secondly, His affections were undivided. You never find Christ having any new object revealed to Him so as to induce Him to go on in His path of faithfulness. Paul and Stephen, on the other hand, had the glory revealed to them, which enabled them to endure. For when the heaven was opened to Stephen, the Lord appeared in glory to him, as afterwards to Saul of Tarsus. But when the heavens opened on Jesus, there was no object presented to Him, but, on the contrary, He was the object of heaven; the Holy Ghost descends upon Him, and the voice of the Father declares, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Thus the divine Person of the Lord is always being witnessed to. The apostle here gets hold of the preciousness of Christ in the lowliness into which He has come; but he never loses sight of the glory of Him who has come there. So when I get Christ at the baptism of John, I see Him at the lowest point (save in another way on the cross); and, finding Him there, I find all the divine compassion of His heart.

Our Joy in Heaven

Luke 9: 28-36

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Let us look a little at this scripture, as shewing what our joy in the glory will consist of. We have the warrant of 2 Peter 1: 16 for saying that the scene represents to us the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what we wait for. Our souls are not in a healthy state unless we are waiting for God's Son from heaven. The church is not regulated in its hopes by the word and Spirit of God, unless it is looking for Him as Saviour from heaven; Phil. 3. And this passage, as disclosing to us specially what will be our portion when He comes, is important to us in this respect. There are many other things in the passage, such as the mutual relations of the earthly and the heavenly people in the kingdom. These it may be very instructive to consider; but this is not our present purpose, which is to consider what light is here afforded on the nature of that joy which we shall inherit at and from the coming of the Lord. Other scriptures, such as the promises to those who overcome in Revelation 2 and 3, and the description of the heavenly city in Revelation 21 and 22, give us instructions on the same subject; but let us now particularly look at the scene on the holy mount.

"And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and James and John, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering." It was when Jesus was in the acknowledgment of dependence - "as he prayed" - that this change took place. This, then, is the first thing we have here - a change such as will pass upon the living saints when Jesus comes.

"And behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias." They were with Him. And this will be our joy; we shall be with Jesus. In 1 Thessalonians 4 after stating the order in which the resurrection of the sleeping, and the change of the living, saints will take place, that we shall both be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, all that the apostle says as to what shall ensue is, "and so shall we be ever with the Lord."

But in this passage there is not only the being with Christ, but there is also familiar intercourse with Him. "There talked with him two men." It is not that He talked with them, though this was no doubt true; but this might have been, and they be at a distance. But when we read that they talked with Him, we get the idea of the most free and familiar intercourse. Peter and the others knew what it was to have such intercourse with Jesus in humiliation; and what joy must it have been to have the proof that such intercourse with Him would be enjoyed in glory!

280 And then it is said by Luke that "they appeared in glory." But this is secondary to what we have been considering. We are told that they were with Him, and then that they appeared in glory. They share in the same glory as that in which He was manifested. And so as to us. "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory." "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."

But there is another thing still. We are not only told that they were with Him, that they talked with Him, and appeared in glory with Him, but we are also privileged to know the subject of their conversation. They "spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." It was the cross which was the theme of their conversation in the glory - the sufferings of Christ which He had to accomplish at Jerusalem. And surely this will be our joy throughout eternity, when in glory with Christ - to dwell upon this theme, His decease accomplished at Jerusalem. We next read that Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. It shews us what the flesh is in the presence of the glory of God. Peter made a great mistake; but I pass on.

"While he thus spake, there came a cloud and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son; hear him." Peter tells us that this voice came from the excellent glory. "For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Now Peter and the others had entered into the cloud; and thus we get the wonderful fact that in the glory, from which the voice comes, saints are privileged to stand, and there, in that glory, share the delight of the Father in His beloved Son. Not only are we called to the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ, we are called to have fellowship with the Father. We are admitted of God the Father to partake of His satisfaction in His beloved Son.

281 "And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone." The vision all gone - the cloud, the voice, the glory, Moses and Elias; but Jesus was left, and they were left to go on their way with Jesus, knowing Him now in the light of those scenes of glory which they had beheld. And this is the use to us of those vivid apprehensions of spiritual things which we may sometimes realise. It is not that we can be always enjoying them and nothing else. But when for the season they have passed away, like this vision on the holy mount, they leave us alone with Jesus, to pursue the path of our pilgrimage with Him in spirit now, and with Him in the light and power of that deepened acquaintance with Him, and fellowship of the Father's joy in Him, that we have got on the mount; and thus to wait for the moment of His return, when all this, and more than our hearts can think of, shall be fulfilled to us for ever.

Grace Rejected, and Heavenly Glory opened.

Acts 7

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Such are two of the main thoughts presented in this striking and instructive chapter. God was rejected, let Him speak or act as He might, and never more than when He displayed His grace. "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." It is true, these Christ-rejecting Jews boasted in the law; but if they had received the law by the disposition of angels, had they kept it? They had persecuted the prophets; they had slain those who foreshadowed the coming of the Just One they had now betrayed and murdered Himself.

It was no new feature in their history. Their fathers had done the same as themselves. Man is ever resisting what God sends in blessing. Joseph and Moses had been rejected, the two prominent types of the Lord Jesus. Their fathers despised and hated Joseph; they had done the same by Christ. God exalted Joseph; and Stephen's testimony was to Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And if Joseph sent and called his kindred in grace, did not and will not Christ do the same?

Moses appears. He abandons the house of Pharaoh in love to his brethren; but they resisted him, as Christ was resisted. "As your fathers did, so do ye." All boasting then was ended. They were constant only in opposing the Holy Ghost. This is ever the case with the natural man. He cannot trust God. He ever resists the Spirit of God. There is no power in him to rely on the word of God; but the moment a thing is built up which can be seen, man can trust in that, no matter what it may be. God may be gone; but if it be the tabernacle or the temple, some settled thing for the eye, man will trust in it, though it is the very thing God is about to judge.

The testimony God gave was resisted; and man was clinging to that which God is going to pull down. All that is not founded upon the word will be shaken, and this, terrible though it be to flesh and blood, is a positive promise to us. "Whose voice then shook the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. "For our God is a consuming fire," Heb. 12. How far can you take this as a promise? If your hearts are resting here, you cannot. This may be easily known by the test - how far are your hearts attached to Christ in heaven, unseen save to the eye of faith?

283 How beautifully was this brought out in the case of Stephen! He was a bright reflection of his blessed Master, resisting unto blood in his strife against sin. What is more, he brings before us a vivid picture to be followed in our everyday life. For we are called always to testify for Christ, through the power of the Spirit, though it may not be unto death.

Besides, the rejection of the testimony by Stephen was a turning-point of the ways of God with Israel, with man, though the principle had already come out at the death of Christ. God never could directly bless the world after that. He could forgive guilty Israel if they repented, and send Christ back again, in answer to the prayer on the cross. And this is just what Peter preaches in Acts 3 that, if the people were converted, to the blotting out of their sins, Jesus was ready to return, and to bring in the times of restitution of all things - a truth which their present impenitence postpones, but does not destroy: for He is coming again. But now Stephen's testimony is utterly refused, and the witness of Christ's heavenly glory is cast out of the city and stoned without mercy. It was the fitting sequel of such a testimony.

God had been dealing with man in all sorts of ways since Adam, but it only brought out the greater evil, for man continually resisted Him. Before the law they were lawless; they were transgressors when they had the law. God had given priests, kings, prophets in vain. Then He sent His Son. But they only rejected God in all ways, and at all times. When Christ came, sin added another crime to the terrible list. The deepest of all evils was there - rejection of the Son of man in His humiliation, and of the Spirit's testimony to His exaltation in heavenly glory. Jesus came not in the sternness of the law, but in love, yet He met only with enmity and hatred. If men, as such, could have been connected with God, they must have been when Christ came. But man needs a new nature for such a link; and this Christ does give to all who believe, and has sent down the Holy Ghost to maintain it in power.

284 So Stephen, "being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."

Such is the true place of the believer, rendered capable by the Spirit of fixing his eye on Jesus in glory, and this in presence of the world and its prince, who crucified the Lord of glory. It is not simply nor vaguely his eye opened to glory, but he sees the Son of man there, and the Spirit forms his heart, and mind, and walk according to that pattern. For the veil is rent, and Jesus is seen in heaven.

We have heaven opened four times in the New Testament; and of these the first when the Lord was upon the earth. There was nothing in the actual condition of man which God could look on with pleasure till the Man Christ Jesus was seen on earth. That the heavens should open on Him was no marvel. God had found perfect rest upon earth, and said, when the heavens opened, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." On the last occasion, namely, in Revelation 19, heaven is opened for the fourth time, and Christ is seen as coming to judge. In each of these heaven opened to Christ. But there was a third scene when heaven opened, and not to Christ. He had been rejected from earth, and was no longer a link between it and God. Where then is He? At God's right hand. When He was crucified, the whole world was condemned, and the prince of this world judged. All had joined together - governor, priest, people - against the Lord and His anointed. The world deliberately rejected the holiness of God, and had no heart for the love of God. Yet after this, and in spite of this, we get heaven opened once more before Christ comes to execute judgment. Heaven is opened upon a believer in Christ, upon a witness to His glory outside the world. "Behold, I see the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." Christ Himself was the object on earth upon whom heaven opened. Christ is now the object in heaven presented to the believer on earth.

Stephen's testimony only drew out the murderous opposition of the world. It had been guilty of rejecting Christ down here. It equally rejected Him, now that He is proclaimed as the exalted One in heaven. But Stephen only thus saw and testified, when "full of the Holy Ghost." To have the Holy Ghost is one thing; to be filled with the Holy Ghost is another. When He is the one source of my thought, I am filled with Him. When He has possession of my heart, there is power to silence what is not of God, to keep my soul from evil, and to guide in every act of my life and walk; so that in both I am kept apart from the world. Compare Ephesians 5: 18: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."

285 Are we then looking steadfastly into heaven? Alas! what inconstant hearts we have: how fickle and changing! The Holy Ghost ever leads the eye to, and would keep it fixed on, Jesus. He is the object of the Spirit from all eternity; whether as the Son in the bosom of the Father; or as the rejected Messiah on earth; or as the Son of man exalted at the right hand of God. To reveal and glorify Him is the habitual aim of the Spirit. When we have not much power for prayer, or even to follow others, and our hearts get full of distracted thoughts - when there is little energy in our souls for praise and worship, we have but a feeble measure of the power of the Spirit; we are not filled with the Holy Ghost.

The heavens, then, can be opened upon a believer here below, when Christ, the Son of man, is up there. What a thought, what a truth for our heart! Indeed, more than this; for in Ephesians 2 we learn the blessed fact, that God has quickened us together with Christ, has raised us up together, and seated us together in Christ in heavenly places. He has taken His place at the right hand of God: and we are made to sit there in Him, because united to Him who is there. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."

It is no longer, then, the heavens opening and Jesus acknowledged in humiliation to be the beloved Son of God. It is not the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man, the object of service to those who were the most dignified and holy creatures of God. It is not yet heaven opened and a rider upon a white horse, issuing thence in triumphant judgment. It is a precious and interesting scene, where the disciple on earth sees the heavens opened, and, filled with the Spirit, sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at His right hand. It is the manifest and characteristic picture of the true position of the Christian, rejected like Jesus, because of Jesus, with Jesus, but withal his eyes opened by the Holy Ghost to higher hopes and glory than any dependent on the Lord's return to and judgment of the earth, and restoration of His ancient people. Heavenly glory is the portion with which his soul is in present fellowship and with Jesus therein.

286 Indeed Stephen's discourse to the Jews had strikingly paved the way to this; for while he had sketched the history of the people from the very first, he had singled out Abraham, called away from his country and kindred by the appearing of God in glory. Abraham, a stranger in the land of promise, and not a foot of it as yet his own. He had traced the sins, sorrows, and bondage of "our fathers," till God delivered the people out of Egypt, as He had previously called Abraham from Mesopotamia. Two individuals stood out most significantly ;but they were scarcely more characterised by the honour of God, than they had been previously by the rejection of Israel. Joseph given up to the Gentiles, afterwards the most exalted in the personal administration of the kingdom, and the instrument of the goodness and wisdom of God, in behalf of the very brethren who had persecuted and sold him; Moses, the refused ruler and judge, whom God sent, long after, to be a ruler and a deliverer; just such had been the features of their recent sin, and such should be the path of God in His grace. But they had no ear for Him as yet. From the very first, their idolatrous hearts had departed from Him, however slow He had been in executing judgment. And however their pride might rest complacently in this holy place, God Himself in truth was, and had been, as great a stranger, so to speak, in Canaan, as had been Abraham His friend. It was true that "Solomon built him an house." But this had furnished the occasion for the prophet to tell them in due time, that the Most High, whose hand had made all things, would not rest in a temple made with hands; and this, in connection with restored idolatry in the temple, and the consummated wickedness and judgment of Israel in the latter day, before the Lord shall create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy.

And now, the history of Christ had been the fresh and full verification of these varied principles of God, and all was caused to flash on their unrenewed and rebellious consciences by the Holy Ghost through Stephen. But heaven opened to him, as it can to us in virtue of our being members of Christ as we see in John 14, "ye in me and I in you." We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We are made the righteousness of God in Him. He has vindicated the holiness of God, whose righteousness is now for me and justifies me. And the Holy Ghost gives me competency to look up into heaven, and see my Forerunner there - my righteousness there. I am there, for Christ and the believer are united. I am one with Him. It is Paul who shews us this truth fully. It was made known to him from his very conversion, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." The other apostles never developed it as he did. Paul was the fitted vessel for disclosing this great truth, not yet unfolded - the secret hid in God - and thus for completing the word, as we read in Colossians 1. There had been, as it were, a blank left for it.

287 Stephen looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the Son of man standing at God's right hand - a Man in heaven seen by one on earth! What an immense step! truly blessed to have Christ in heaven, to see Him there, and be livingly associated with Him in that glory.

But the Son of man was seen standing there. Why standing? He could not sit until the last act of rejection was completed. What a tale! What sin man has wrought: what woe he has entailed on himself! But Christ is set down waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. So must we wait. The righteousness we are made - we are not waiting for that, but for the hope of righteousness by faith. We are set down in Christ, in spirit and purpose, at God's right hand, until the heavens open for the last time, and the Son of man comes to judge all that can be shaken. Does this alarm me? No. I am safe to the end. I have the city which hath foundations. I am linked in with what God has settled, and cannot be moved.

What an effect this sight in heaven should have upon our souls! In Stephen it produced a thorough practical likeness to Christ. If you look at Christ, He witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, the people, etc. What is Stephen? A faithful follower of the One he sees in heaven. He bears witness to his Master, forgetful of himself, or his danger, without a thought of consequences. The Holy Ghost him was filled with Christ to the exclusion of care for his life, or what should follow. Christ was the only object before him. He was like Christ in confession, like Him in suffering too, "filling up that which was behind." What a picture of practical conformity to Christ in grace - perfect confidence in looking up to the Lord, into whose hands he committed his spirit - strong intercession, as he thought of those who stoned him to death. "And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

288 The ungrieved Spirit displayed in Stephen the reflection of the character and ways and words of Christ; but this brought on trial, and it ever will be so. The cross we shall have: and what of that? It is a good thing for us; it draws us away from the world; it breaks the will; it delivers from self, by cutting, it may be, the next link to the heart. The cross has a delicious power, though not a pleasant thing; it would be no cross if it were. But it lifts up the believer, and makes him see what a portion he has in Christ, who waits to take those He has redeemed to Himself, "that where I am, there ye may be also."

Glorying in the Cross

Galatians 6: 14

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Nothing is so difficult as to take a man out of himself; it is impossible, except by giving him a new nature. Man glories in anything that will bring honour to himself - anything that distinguishes him from his neighbour. It does not signify what it is (it may be that he is the tallest man); anything his pride may come into in that which gives him advantage over others. Some may glory in their talents. There are differences in men's minds; vanity is seen more in some, wishing for the good opinion of others; pride more in others, having a good opinion of themselves. Wealth, knowledge, anything that distinguishes a man, he will glory in, and make a little world around himself by it.

There is another thing, too, that men glory in, besides talent, birth, wealth, etc., and that is his religion. Take a Jew, and you will find he glories in not being a Turk; the Christian, so called, glories in that he is not a heathen and a publican. Man will thus take the very thing that God has given to take him out of himself to accredit himself with. Those who are so deluded as to be throwing themselves down to juggernaut may have less to glory in, or to fancy they can glory in; but the measure of truth, connected with the religion men hold, is the very occasion of their glorying. Thus the Turk, who owns God, will glory in his religion over those who do not; the Jew, in his religion - he has the truth, and "salvation is of the Jews"; the Gentile Christian, too, has truth, but then he prides himself upon it, and this brings in the mischief. The subtlety of the enemy is seen in proportion as it is truth in which he makes a man glory; and it is not so difficult to detect, either, for if you are proud of being a Christian, the whole thing is told at once.

It is quite another thing, of course, for the true, genuine child of God walking in the power of the cross, etc., who glories in that he knows God. With Jonah there was just this pride at work: he was proud of being a Jew, and would not go to Nineveh, as God told him, because he was afraid of losing his reputation. He had rather have seen all Nineveh destroyed, than have his own credit as a prophet lost. Jonah was a true prophet, but, glorying in himself, he turned his religion into a ground of self-glorying. Whatever you are decking yourself out with - it may even be with a knowledge of Scripture - it is glorying in the flesh. Ever so little a thing is enough to make us pleased with ourselves; what we should not notice in another is quite enough to raise our own importance.

290 Glorying in religion is a deeper thing. Whatever comes from man must be worthless. A man cannot glory in being a sinner. Conscience can never glory, and there is no true religion without the conscience - not speaking now of righteousness in Christ. What is it then in religion that man glories in? It always must have a legal character, because there must be something for him to do - hard penance, or anything, no matter at what cost, if it only glorifies self. "As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh constrain you to be circumcised . . . they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." Man could bind heavy burdens. Why should he? Because self would have to do something. When man glories in self there may be the truth in a measure, but it is of the legal character always, because there must be something man can do for God. Glorying in the flesh is not glorying in sin, but, as in Philippians 3, religious glorying, glorying in something besides Christ.

But in the cross man has nothing to say to it. It is not my cross, but "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," and the only part I had in Christ's cross was sin. My sin had to do with it, for it brought Him there. This puts man down altogether. That which saves man, and what God delights in, man could not put a finger to in bearing. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men." The one single thing I have in the cross is my sin. There is this further thought: we are utterly lost without it. Divine love treats me as an utterly lost sinner, and the more I see that perfect divine love, the more I see how vile I am, utterly contemptible, defiled and lost. I have liked defiling myself; I am a wretched slave, dragged down to my defilement. The cross, when I see what it is, destroys my glorying in self, and puts truth in the inward parts, too, for it not only shews me how bad I am, but it makes me glad to confess my sin, instead of making excuses for it. I am awakened to say, I am guilty of having loved all this. Love opens the heart, and enables me to come and tell Him how bad I am. I thus delight to record all that He has done, all that I owe Him and that is thankfulness. My heart tells out its vileness there is no guile - not delighting in the sin, of course, but rejoicing in the remedy.

291 Then we have, on the other side, farther, God's delight in the cross. "Having made peace through the blood of the cross," God gives us to delight with Him in the value of it. And first we see in it God's unutterable love - not love called out, like ours, by a lovable object. No; "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It was love acting in its own proper energy - from itself only - so properly divine that a soul expecting it, as a matter of course, could not be a fit object for it. God's work and God's way are shewn in a manner that man could not and ought not to have thought of. I am a poor miserable sinner, and there I see God's love in giving His own Son. When He forgives, there is the positive active energy of love in giving the best thing - the thing nearest to itself - for sin, which is the thing farthest from itself, giving it to be "made sin." When I look at the cross, I see perfect and infinite love, God giving His Son to be "made sin" I see perfect and infinite wisdom also.

With a conscience, I cannot enjoy God's love without seeing Him dealing about my sins. Even a sparrow God can be good to, it is true; but can God accept me in my sin? Can He accept an imperfect offering? As Micah says, Can I give "the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Cain brought the fruit of his own work, without any sense of sin: the hardness of his heart was proved by it, and an utter forgetfulness about his sin. I see in the cross what my sin is. I cannot look at that as God sees it without learning God. Man has forgotten God enough to rise up against Him who was God's remedy for his misery. Then judgment must be exercised: God's authority must be vindicated. "It became him . . . to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Are angels to see man flying in God's face, and He take no notice of it? No! Therefore, "it became him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things," etc. God is a righteous judge, and judgment must be executed. There is judgment as well as love seen in the cross; not only Christ, the Holy One, being made sin, but undergoing the judgment due to sin. There is the unsparing wrath of God against the sin, but God's perfect love to the sinner. There His majesty, which we insulted, is vindicated: even the Son bows to that. if He is to keep up the brightness of the Father's glory, He must vindicate His character in this way. God's truth was proved at the cross. "The wages of sin is death." Man had forgotten this; but Christ stands up, the witness of God in such a world, that what God has said is true. "The wages of sin is death." The love with which God wins man to Him proves this very thing at the same time.

292 There is more in the cross. God accomplishes all His purposes by it. He is bringing "many sons to glory," and how could He bring these defiled sinners into the same glory with His own Son? Why, God has so fully accomplished the work that, when in the glory with Him, we shall be a part of the display of that glory. Therefore He says, "That in the ages to come, he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace" - a Mary Magdalene, a thief upon the cross, trophies of that grace, through all eternity! And how could He set them in such a place with His own Son? His own glory and love rise over all our sin and put it all away: He Himself has done it.

For us, then, the cross has done two things: it has given peace of conscience - and not what man can see outside, and then spoil. No, He has "perfected for ever them that are sanctified." All sin is blotted out and put away. I can glory in the cross, then, for my sins are gone!

Again, "After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God" - poor wretched things that we are, to be made the vessels of such love and grace. The conscience has certainty and peace, and more than that, a confidence that Adam in innocence could never have had. There is communion and peace in my own soul, and there is another thing also - I have clearness of understanding in the ways of God. Should I go through a course of ceremonies, genuflexions, etc., to add to my perfectness which I have through the cross? You do not know the cross; you do not know what Christ - what God - has done by the cross, if you are trying other things to make you better. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" When you know not the cross, you may use all these efforts to satisfy and quiet your conscience. When you know it, it leaves spiritual affections free. When I see the cross, I can love God. If I have offended Him, I can go off to Him directly and tell Him; for I am a child, and my relationship is not thereby altered. My fellowship is with the Father and the Son - this is my happy privilege.

293 When I can glory in the cross, there is an end of glorying in self; for I am nothing but a sinner. He has brought us to God by the cross, for Christ has suffered, the just for the unjust. Are our souls glorying in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in vanity, or in self? If you are not glorying in the cross, it is your own loss, not to say your own sin; for you can never see God's love, God's holiness God's wisdom, God's truth, as on the cross. Even where you are you may learn it, for you have not to climb up somewhere to get it; but it has come to you where you are. It is not, when you are better you may come. You cannot come when you are better, though it will make you better. It is as a sinner you must come. The apostle came as "the chief of sinners." Then "the world," as he says, "is crucified to me, and I to the world." The very nature which is connected with the world is what occasioned Christ's death, therefore, when I glory in the cross, I am crucified to the world.

The Love of God

1 John 4: 9-18

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If we look at man, we shall find his whole history in the history of Adam. What Adam was in the garden, man has been ever since, from the garden to the cross. God tried man, but man only marred all he was trusted with.

When God chose a nation it was no better. The people were idolaters, the kings rebellious, the priests soiled their garments, so that they could not stand before God. Whatever God has given in creation, providence, law, or grace, man has abandoned. When the Lord from heaven came, the iniquitous nation rejected Him. But He never fails, and God will prove His love and wisdom by meeting His own people in every single thing, in which man has broken down. All win come out in glory, as the positive fruit of the cross. We learn a great deal more of what God is by knowing man; and we learn a great deal more of what man is by knowing God. If we look at the church, man is just the same. The mystery of iniquity working, the spirit of demons amongst them, the love of many waxing cold, until there is not one righteous one left, but all closes in perfect ruin.

God gives a power apart from man. He gives a new life - a life in His Son. In virtue of Him, it cannot fail. It is eternal life - life in Christ. God was perfectly manifested in the Son, when He came down from heaven to give life. But this is not enough. What about my sins? Where are my sins? To have life without the question of sin being settled will not do. Christ had them on the cross. Christ came down from heaven to put my sin away, and He did put it away and can say, "at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Christ's life is in me - "eternal life, and this life is in his Son." I have His life, not His Godhead, of course. As surely as I have partaken of the life and nature of the first Adam, so have I life in the second Adam. "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation." The divine nature is there. It is in a poor earthen vessel, it is true; but the nature is divine, and I should be shewing it out in my life and character.

The more I know of God, the more shall I exhibit what He is. The more I look at Him, the more I shall be like Him. What made Moses' face to shine? Was it looking at himself? No. It was being with Jehovah and looking at His glory. Moses did not know that his face was shining until he was asked to veil it. He was not occupied with himself: the object before him was God. He had been looking at God, he was absorbed in God, and so shews out God's glory. It will be the same with us. If Christ is the object before me, I shall not be thinking of myself, but of Him. I shall be exhibiting Him, dwelling upon what He is, and not upon what I am doing. If my eye is upon Christ, I shall resemble Him (feebly indeed) in holiness, and humbleness, and love. I find it in Him in all its blessedness and beauty; I see it in all its perfectness, and in looking at Him, I am changed into His image. In Him there is all the new nature can crave or desire. In Him I can rest, and delight, and rejoice.

295 What never-ending joy to know the Son of God is come! Satan works, it is true, but "ye are of God." This settles the whole thing. No longer of the old nature, living and acting according to the life of the first Adam; but in the power of the new nature, that we derive from God. What a thing to be partakers of the divine nature, made higher than angels. This is a most blessed truth, "Ye are of God," of Him, whose nature is divine. And this divine nature cannot be in us, but by Himself. Christ has washed us from our sins in His own most precious blood. He has baptised us from above with the Holy Ghost and sealed us with the Spirit of promise. "He who hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit." He has given us a power which is above Satan's power.  "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." "Ye are of God." I am brought to God. I am born of God. I rest in God. I learn to know God, because I have got the nature that can know Him, just as I could only know what man is by having his nature.

I do not know all about God, that is true; but I have no uncertainty. Suppose I have a friend, I may not know all about him; but he is my friend, and I rejoice in him as such, I have no questionings as to his affections, because I do not know all about him. Well, God is my friend, and I have a blessed rest in knowing Him as my friend. If God is my friend, what more can I need? What can be more blessed? To know God, I must have His nature. I cannot know the nature of what I am not a partaker of. I do not know angels. I am not a partaker of the nature of angels.

296 We see two things in this chapter which give the soul immense delight. Verse 9 shews us the way God makes His love known. In verse 17 we see how His love is made perfect. In verse 9 God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we may have life through Him. That we may have life who were dead, that we may be partakers of a life that flows from the manifestation of God's love - a life separated altogether from nature and nature's affections and pleasures. It cannot be linked up with selfishness. And what is my nature: is it not mere selfishness? If I look at my motives from day to day, what shall I find them? Are they not self? Take business (we are not speaking of the rightness of the thing), what is the motive? Is it not self? We have no idea how we are under the influence of self. Is it not true that the trifles of dress more occupy the thoughts of many than all God has done in sending down His Son from heaven to save sinners? It is a positive fact, and it is no use to try to hide it from ourselves. We cannot hide it from God.

On the other hand, the more I look at this love, the more I see of its perfectness. It is said "for a good man some will even dare to die." But when there was not one single good thing in us, God commended His love to us. It was purely grace shewn to us in the cross. We were just sinners and nothing but sinners when Christ died to save us. And I can never understand what God's love really is, until I can say I am merely a sinner. If you do not know what God's love is, it is because you have not learnt that great truth, that you are but a sinner. What is it that God has given - to save sinners? The very nearest thing to His heart, the most precious boon He had to bestow, His own beloved and only-begotten Son. There is no accounting for His love; there is no estimating it. The thing most of all dear to Him was the Son of His bosom, and Him He gave. There is no limit to His love. He has given me Christ, and there is no end to what I have in Him. The Son of God given for my sins, He goes down into these depths and brings up life "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins." How can I know that God loves me? By looking at the perfect object of His love, and this gives me rest. Why? Because in Him I see how wondrous is the love that sent down His Son to give me eternal life, and be a propitiation for my sins. If I have not rest, what I want is a deeper sense of sin. I must learn what sin is at the cross; and then I shall see the love that has met it and suffered for it, and thus my soul gets rest.

297 Christ's love was not the theory of one who comes and merely tells what God is, but the practical exhibition of Him. He shews out God in all the variety of His unreserved and immeasurable love. Compare verse 12 with verse 18 of John 1, "No man hath seen God at any time" - He "who is [not was] in the bosom of the Father" must declare Him. The Son must tell what can be known of the Father. On Christ hangs everything. All hindrances are gone for the believer through Him; all sin is put away by Him. I here get a place of intimate nearness to God in Him. I have learnt at the cross what God was to me as a sinner; and now I have to learn how He meets my wants as a saint, by feeling my need and bringing it to Him. To be hungry is not enough; I must be really starving to know what is in His heart towards me. When the prodigal was hungry, he went to feed upon husks; but when he was starving, he turned to his father's house, and then learnt the love of the father's heart.

In verse 15, how low God comes! "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." How He steps down to meet us, so that every one shall be left without excuse. "Whosoever shall confess." The babe who can but just confess Christ has eternal life, as truly' as the strong man in Christ. It is not a question of what I am, but of what Christ is. I am lost sight of. All hangs on what God is. How can I know His love? Must I wait for its full display? No, He has shed abroad His love in my heart, by the Spirit He has given me. Verse 16, "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." If I am dwelling in God, I am dwelling in love, and should be shewing out love by looking at Him and not at others. Verse 17, this is a wonderful thing to say, "as he is, so are we in this world." He has taken His seat at God's right hand, and brings me there.

We are now before God in the righteousness of Christ. He is my life, and I cannot be really, nor ought to appear in anything separated from Him. "Herein is love perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." Does the heart get exercised about judgment? Does the thought of standing before it distress you? Why should it be so? Is not He, my righteousness, the judge? Has He not perfectly put away my sin and purged my conscience from all guilt, so that I can rest in God without fear; having no longer any painful uncertainty, but calmly looking forward in the full assurance that Christ has been judged in my stead, and brought me into blessed fellowship with that love, which gives me boldness in the day of judgment? "As he is, so are we in this world."

298 "There is no fear in love." If there is the smallest doubt or distrust in the heart towards God, you are not made perfect in love; for "perfect love casteth out fear." There are things to fear, it is true; we may well fear sin, and the influence of our own selfish interests. But the practical effect of resting on God is to cast out all fear, and make the heart perfect in love. His love is perfect. We have but to own it, bow to it, accept it as ours in Christ, and bless Him for it. This is to be made perfect in love.

Christian Experience

Philippians 4

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It is a very difficult thing to say, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press toward the mark," etc. (Phil. 3). The apostle had such a sight of what was at the end, he was so set a-going by it, that he was able to press forward towards the mark.

This epistle is not marked by great doctrines, but by speaking of the Christian course. Such a character of the epistle explains why the apostle speaks of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling - not because God has done everything for you, but "for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." just as when Israel was redeemed, they could speak of salvation as the end of their race, and not as the acceptance of their persons.

The enemy seemed to have got a great advantage by putting Paul into prison, but it was not at all so. "I know that this shall turn to my salvation." It was not at all a vain thing, his speaking of his desire to depart and to be with Christ. "Yet what I shall choose, I wot not." He had to choose between Christ and service here, and Christ and rest there.

He says nothing about circumstances, nothing about the Emperor Nero; he leaves them quite out of the account. But "I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith." What we learn from Scripture of the apostle's circumstances when he wrote this epistle, greatly helps us to understand the spirit in which he wrote. Many epistles give us more doctrine, as Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians; but none so gives us the likeness of the practical experience of the apostle in his Christian course.

Christ in resurrection was at the end of the vista before him, and the light of it was shining all down the path. The very thing he desired was to be a partaker of Christ's sufferings. He was looking for constant approximation to resurrection, for it was in resurrection he was to be conformed to Christ. He was taken hold of by grace for it, but now he desires himself to lay hold of it. He could count all things but loss and dung "for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus"; and people do not like to be taking up filth. If we are gathering up what is here, we have not such a sight of the glory of the Lord as Paul had.' At the first glow of conversion there is no difficulty in this; it is a very easy thing to count all things but loss then. Paul does not say, I have made all this sacrifice: see what I have done. He does not say, I did count them but dung, but "I do count them," etc. That which keeps his energy alive and fresh is, that he does not run uncertainly.

300 The first thing to understand is, not that we are in the course to resurrection, but that resurrection has put us in a certain place. This gives us energy in pressing forward to the mark, because we have one object before us. We find it so even in the natural man; he becomes clear-sighted when he has only one object instead of many. But in the things of God it is much more so, because there it is divine sight and divine energy.

"Rejoice in the Lord always." Certainly it could not be in circumstances, for he was a prisoner. Christians are often a great deal happier in the trial, than they are in thinking of it; for there the stability, the certainty, the nearness, and the power of Christ are much more learnt, and they are happier. Paul could not so well have said, "Rejoice in the Lord always," if he had not known what it was to be a prisoner. just as in Psalm 34, "I will bless Jehovah at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth." Why? "This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, and delivered him out of all his troubles." "I sought Jehovah, and he heard me," etc. This was what enabled him to say, "I will bless Jehovah at all times." He had been in trouble, and had been heard when in trouble. It must have been an exceeding trial for one of Paul's active disposition for service to be kept a prisoner; and this is the time when he can say to the persons who were in the commonplace circumstances which were dragging down their hearts day by day, "Rejoice in the Lord always!" Grace is sufficient for favourable circumstances, but they are by far the most trying (spiritually) to the believer. There is an easy way of going on in worldliness, and there is nothing more sad than the quiet comfortable Christian going on day by day, apart from dependence on the Lord. It must be as with Israel and the manna; there must be the daily gathering and daily dependence upon God. If circumstances come between our hearts and God, we are powerless. If Christ is nearer, circumstances will not hinder our joy in God.

"The Lord is at hand!" just as when you look at a light on a perfectly dark night; though it may be two miles off, it appears quite close. So, the more we prove the darkness of the world, whilst enjoying the love of Christ, the nearer the hope will appear.

301 "Be careful for nothing," when he had everything to make him careful, when he knew what it was to be in prison and to hunger in the prison. Why can he say this? Because he had found Christ there. What has a man to be careful for, if Christ is caring for him?

"And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Not, You shall keep the peace of God, but "the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds" - the peace in which God dwells; and what peace must that be? Can any circumstances shake God's throne? God is not troubled about circumstances. Lay the whole burden upon Him, "and the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds," and you shall have it flowing into your hearts as a river, passing all understanding. The word is, "Be careful for nothing," not even about the church, though God forbid that we should not care for it.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things." First, cast all the troubles and cares upon God, and then our minds will be at leisure to turn and think upon whatsoever things are lovely, etc., alone - all these blessed things, which, notwithstanding Satan, grew as fruit. If the soul is occupied with the evil, there will be weakness, but if occupying ourselves with the good, the soul will be strengthened.

Now we have the "God of peace." You walk in the power in which you have seen me walk. 'Those things which ye have seen and heard in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you,' not only the peace of God, but the God of peace. You will have God's power with you. Paul had walked in that path and had found the God of peace with him all the way through.

"I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again." How glad the apostle is to see fruit! Besides rejoicing in the Lord always, he rejoices in the Lord about them: what made him happy was that he saw Christ blessing the saints. There is no such joy on earth (save communion) as seeing the saints walking in the truth.

302 Verses 11-13. We are apt to take the last of these verses as a general truth, and it is so; but he does not use it in this way here. What we have here is the practical, experimental acquaintance of Paul with this thing. He had been in peril, in want, and in plenty (a far more dangerous thing); he had found a present Christ sufficient for him in all circumstances. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." He cannot be our strength in circumstances which are contrary to His will. He would have our souls exercised, if not seeing the path straight before us, if we are walking in a path contrary to His will. There cannot be that happy liberty where the path of dependence upon God has been left. When Christians first leave the path of dependence on the Holy Ghost, they find difficulties and uneasiness; but gradually they are apt to get used to it, and then there is less conscience and less uneasiness. Where a person has left the path of spiritual power, everything takes the form of duties. The first working of the Spirit of God is to make him uneasy; then there is nothing to do but to go back the way he came. There are perplexities which arise from leaving the simple straightforward path; then the Lord comes in and restores the soul for His name's sake. The Lord does give His people rest on their way; as He did to Israel when the ark went before them to find out a place where they might rest. Circumstances need never hinder the power of spiritual joy. If I am in prosperity or in adversity, nothing can separate me from His love. It is not said, through Christ which strengthened, but "which strengtheneth me": it is a present thing. Verses 14-18. Still lifting them up out of the mere temporal circumstances, and leading them into the consciousness of the connection of the saints with God "a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God."

"My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus," the God to whom I belong, and who, in a certain sense, belongs to me - the God whose faithfulness I know - who fed me when hungry. who strengthened me when weak. Exceeding sweet is it to see that what Paul had passed through, had brought him so near to God. He has found in all things, in prison, in want, etc., the infallible certainty of being associated with God.

Christ's Place Ours

John 17

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There are two great and evident consequences resulting from the place in which Christ has set us: one as looking towards the Father, the other as looking towards the world.

The first grand truth on which all is based is, that He places us in the same condition as and where He Himself is in. When the Lord Jesus was down here, He presented a double aspect, one towards the Father, and one towards the world: and just so is it with the saints now. What is true of Jesus is also true of those who believe in Him - His joy being fulfilled in them. He was a perfect witness for the Father, and the testimony of the saint in the world is for Him also.

The first part of the chapter shews the position of the saint before the Father, the end of it the saint's position towards the world. A blessed and wonderful thing it is, that the saints are brought by grace into the same place and position as Himself. He by right and title had it, we by being made God's righteousness in Him. It is testimony to the value of the redemption of Christ, and we cannot value it too highly. This exalts us not in a fleshly manner, but in the efficacy of what Christ wrought in resurrection. To His disciples He could say (John 20: 17) "My Father and your Father." If I think of the state of my conscience before God, I remember God as a judge. I love the Lord Jesus Christ when I believe something about the value of the blood; but if I love the things of Christ, I soon find much in me that is not like Christ; and if there is uprightness of heart, it is a great deal easier to get at ease as to that which is past than it is for what is at present going on. What I find in myself now is that which troubles me; and the conscience must get peace about this, because the affections are renewed.

Even as regards the details of my conscience, as a saint, I have a holy conscience judging itself before God; so the more unhappy a quickened conscience will be, till it is set at rest; for God is holy. the soul is sinful, and the Father sees sin. What does God o when coming in judgment? He put the blood on the door of the Israelite, and that being under His eye, the destroying angel cannot come in. He only sees the blood and passes over; he beholds the witness of the sin put away by the death of the lamb. There is rest for the conscience by the blood. So sentence on evil has been brought in on God's part already. What meets His eye is the blood; a substitute has come in. God is satisfied in the execution of judgment. When there is uprightness of heart, there will never be peace till the conscience is clean before God; it can never rest till it has cleansing according to what God has wrought for it. God gave it, and God makes us know His satisfaction in His own holiness. The holy desires which God has wrought in us are not satisfied till all the demands of God are met.

304 Supposing the conscience to be at rest, what is God going to do with the people that He has redeemed? and what is the efficacy of this power? God has done it; He has not only put away the sin, but has brought us nigh unto Himself. The Son of man, the second Adam, has brought us into the same position with Himself. Thus, when risen, He says, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father," etc. The first Adam did this also, bringing us down to the same condition with himself. But we are predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son; Rom. 8. What does this depend on? It is from the value of what His redemption wrought, and the power of His quickening life in resurrection. And the way in which it is to be known is by looking at the Lord Jesus Himself. Where has this redemption brought Him? It has placed Him, the risen Man, back in the presence of the glory where He was before as God. He humbled Himself (Phil. 2; Heb. 2); wherefore a name is given Him above every name. He is set at God's right hand. And here I can trace the result of that redemption which the Lord Jesus wrought, and which brought Him from the bosom of the Father, in placing Him there again.

Another point of value is the life-giving power. What is this life-giving power? "Because I live, ye shall live also." And (Col. 3: 3, 4) we that have to combat with the evil in us, and to keep down the flesh, have the life of Christ in us; yet the soul daily needs the comfort of the blood. Where has God placed us? If we have not our part in the first Adam, we must have it in the second Adam - in Christ. There is no place with God for any one out of Christ. God cannot have persons out of Christ with Him, nor in a half state of glory. There is no half glory with Him. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, accepted in the Beloved. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," etc., etc. If redemption had not given believers a title to be with Him, He could not say (John 17: 24), "Father, I will," etc. It is the discovery of the ruin of man that throws us on the redemption that is in Christ. We cannot go higher or lower than that. The utter inability of man shews the efficacy of the blood. In the world Christians are poor, needy, and feeble; but Christ speaks these things in the world that they might have His joy fulfilled in them. Faith and love are superior to all circumstances, which are no hindrance, unless indeed we are in circumstances contrary to God, which is another thing. Faith has an object. There is living power in Christ. We are kept and enabled by Him to pass through all circumstances unhurt.

305 How does Christ set us in this place of power? (v. 15). Not taken out of the world, but kept from the evil of it. He sets us in the same position as Himself (v. 16). "They are not of the world" stands good, even as regards our path and position; Christians in the world, in the same place as Christ Himself! How was Christ not of the world? Because He derived not His life from it, but from the Father. The object of that life was the Father. All His walk testifies that the world had nothing to do with the Father. But in passing through this world as the Faithful Witness, all His ways declared that He was not of it. When He who created the world was in it, it knew Him not. "Behold what manner of love," etc., 1 John 3. The world knows us not because it knew not Him. Our hearts would find consolation here if in conscious fellowship with Jesus. The saint has to go through this world without the support of it, in secret with the Father and sustained by Him. The world cannot know from whence we derive our life, and the saint has to pass through the world without having the power to shew from whence it springs. It is a thing unseen, from on high.

If the world could have acknowledged, We know this is the Son of God, it would have been a sort of sustaining power to Jesus; so with the saints, they are not only not understood, but not acknowledged - separated because their nature come, from God. If we are willing to take this place, we must have it altogether, above and below, for the Father cannot own the world; so it is a place of trial for the saint (v. 17), not merely one act for all, but sanctified by the truth. The life of the saint down here is continued separation. We can put nothing between Christ and the soul, between the Head and the members. There is nothing between the unity of the Father and the Son, nor between the unity of the Christ and the church but there is such a thing as growing up into the Head. Sanctified through the truth. There is not only negative opposition to the world on the part of the Christian, but positive opposition. We have to pass through many trials. It is blessed to fall into temptation, etc. (not sinful temptation, of course, as later in James); but there may be circumstances very humbling without sin. Self is to be subdued. In these we see and learn God, when the soul has grown able to judge itself. He is able to uproot and cut off these things as under-suckers of the old stock. The Christian is not only not of the world, as knowing the character of it, but delivered from it (v. 19). We see the position into which the saint gets. The Lord sets Himself apart, that the Spirit may take of the things of Christ and shew them unto us that we may be more like Christ in the world. The Holy Ghost takes of these things, and comes down in living power to speak of these things to our souls - Father, Son, and Spirit, all work together. There is the Father's love, and the Son's and Spirit's power given unto us. The church and the individual saint stand before the world to shew the power of the Father's love, as the epistle of Christ. I am not speaking of what we have attained unto, but what we are designed to be - where we are set, as our place; and though we have not yet attained to it, wherever we go there is the living testimony of what the Father's grace has made us. Israel ought to have been what the law required, but mark the difference, failure brought in condemnation to them. We want not righteousness before God; that has been done once. So Hebrews 10: 14, "By one offering," etc.; and Romans 8: 4, "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us," etc.: also Daniel 9: 24, "To bring in everlasting righteousness." But for manifestation down here, Paul appeals to the Corinthians for the recommendation of his apostleship. Every believer is a recommendation of the grace of God, shewing what God is. Christ was the living epistle of God on earth. If He took a child in His arms, or whatever He did, He manifested God. He says to us, "Be perfect as your Father," etc., "Love your enemies," etc., that is, let men see in you the Spirit of your Father. We have Christ's place before God, and in the world also - it may be in being hated or persecuted unto death. It is perfectly plain, if Christ sets us out for witnesses, that all question of our acceptance was settled. We must have union and communion with Him. If Christ had not been entirely one with His Father, He could not have represented Him. The church is put in the place of Christ, and sent into the world to tell how great things God has done for her; being on God's behalf the Epistle of Christ written by the Holy Ghost. We are now set in blessed grace, and persons judge of what the profession of Christ is by what Christians are (I do not say always wrongly). If living in communion with God we are not thinking of ourselves. Moses did not know his face shone when every one else did. He had been looking up out of himself, and turned towards earth bearing upon him the light of heaven.

307 I know so little of Christ, one may say, and this may be true; but every grace that is in Christ is in every saint, though not developed. Supposing you are a babe in Christ, we may see many things in babes to admire and follow after. Where there is true lowliness of heart, I display God, as a babe manifesting Him; but if, as a babe, I am attempting to manifest Christ as a man, there will be failure. My wisdom will be, not to set myself up above that which I really am. If walking in true lowliness and manifesting that measure of Christ which is in us, there will be certain progress in us. It is in the presence of God that sin ought to be found out. I dishonour Christ if I trip in my path. If I see the secret sin in my heart, I shall be humble before God - I shall be humble before the world. If I detect pride, etc., in my heart, I shall go to God and confess it. I may not have power to prevent an unholy thought, but if I resist it, then the Spirit is not grieved thereby; but He brings the soul into communion and fellowship with Christ. This is a process of joy, though humbling. If living with Him, He shews the good in Christ to me; so in our path in this present world, we are partakers of His holiness, being "changed into the same image from glory to glory," v. 21.

Remark also that unity is spoken of three times in this chapter, the first being absolute unity, as having the very same nature as Christ, the communion of the same divine nature, and one Holy Ghost, and the practical unity that flows from this. "Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." Now the Spirit dwells in us, and makes us one - not one amongst ourselves, but altogether in the Father and the Son. All question of what the individual is, is lost sight of, and the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, have communion - we, by the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, are brought into the consciousness of this, all question of acceptance settled. Secondly, not only union, but communion. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Thirdly, not merely quickened, but He adds (v. 22), glory given to us that was given to Jesus. This is not essential union as the first, nor communion as the second, but thirdly, the display - Christ displayed in the church and Christ displaying the Father. It is "I in them and thou in me" - beginning up there and coming down here - the full display of redemption, when the world will see the oneness, and the holy angels also, and we, having glory and power from Christ, shall see the Father. The miracles at the beginning were a sample, the power of healing going forth from the church. Christ will be admired in His saints - that holy city (Rev. 21: 23, 24), in the light of which the saved nations will walk. The display is, "that the world may know," etc. Now the world does not know us, but then the world shall know that we have been loved as Christ. But are we to wait to know till the world does? No, by faith, through the revelation of the Holy Ghost, we know now what the world will know by-and-by; we believe before we see. Supposing I have the consciousness that I am loved as the Father loved Jesus, what happiness will be then! My soul filled with this grace will shew it out to others. What a spring of grace is here! The world knows it not, but if I am clothed with grace, I am armed with grace, I am living on the truth and enjoying it now. The Father's love gave Christ for you and to you. Would the world find the same grace in you and the same love (in kind, not measure) that Christ exhibited? Are we faithful in bearing about this character of God before the world? God came down here in Christ - in man, that He might display the perfectness of divine dealing and divine tenderness in the form of man. If I am expecting something from you before I shew love, I shall be disappointed, and I shall not manifest God. I must not wait for that, I am to act in grace. It did not matter in one sense what Christ met with from others; He was always satisfied with God. He had all His joy in God. If we were perfectly satisfied with God, this would be perfection. Suppose we have no kind brother to cheer us up under trial, etc., we shall be satisfied so far as we are filled up with what God is. Were you to be left alone for two hours, if not in communion with the Lord, you would crave after a book, etc., proving that God is not enough for you.

309 In the early church we find the disciples were in favour with all the people. The Man Christ Jesus grew in favour with God and man. He was always the servant of every one. The first thing that struck me some years ago in reading the Gospels was, Here is a man that never did anything for Himself. What a miracle to see a man not living to himself, for He had got God for Himself! Have we realised what we are in Christ, so as to have our hearts filled with Him? God has given us Christ's place in life, then adoption and glory. Therefore the life should shew itself more clearly. Are we seeking His place now? Is there the active energy of the Spirit in you desiring to be all this? Well, this place you have: if merely a babe, or an old man, or a young man, is it not worth having - to be bearers of the character of Christ, to be trusted with the testimony of Jesus?

Again, there is one thing more in the last verses. He sums up the result of what He had said. Not only has He put us down here one with Himself, but He must have us up there to see all His glory, to be with Him and to be like Him. He counts on our love delighting in His glory.

"O righteous Father," v. 25. This solemn word is the everlasting separation between the world and Christ. It will never see Him again. He says, The world will not have Me: they have rejected Me. If I am to be approved, those that rejected Me, because I manifested the Father, cannot have a common portion with Me; so now, thou Father, must decide the point. Then we have God's answer (John 12: 31); "Now is the judgment of this world." When the Holy Ghost came (John 16), it is because of the rejection of Christ. He says, I am here because Christ is there.

"I have declared thy name," etc. The Lord Jesus sustains us in this. This is what He is doing now; communicating the knowledge of the Father to us, not only in grace, but in the fellowship of the glory. He declares it from the Father's house and throne according to the knowledge He has of it, as with the Father. The Father, by the Spirit, shews us Jesus at the right hand of God.

310 "I in them," v. 26. The blessed Jesus manifests Himself (when done with the world, in a manner it knows not) to His saints. There is a difference between good and spiritual desires and the power of the Holy Ghost taking of the things of Christ and shewing them to us. There is not merely the new nature but the power of the Spirit wanted, if true to Christ. If I take up with other things (I do not mean sins), there is failure. An idle look even will grieve the Spirit, and I have lost the power of communion. Ours ought not to be a religion of regrets, but a rejoicing of heart continually, love being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. God has set us here as the Epistle of Christ. Let us not seek to be satisfied with looking at ourselves or others, but up unto Him continually, growing in His likeness more and more.