Such was the apostle Paul's thought as to his own departure from this present life. In connection with this subject, there is, to my mind a point for consideration, which has not been much noted. If we are in the hand of Christ now with all its blessed consequences, and among them the fact that no one is able to pluck us thence — Do we cease to be in His blessed Hand when the soul leaves its earthly tabernacle? Surely not. As to the fact of the believer being with Christ in the intermediate state, the Word of God is plain; and if it be asked — "But what will it be to be there?" we have the apostle's words, "To die is gain." We may have to challenge our hearts as to what we know of Christ now; whether we can enter into the apostle's words in our measure, "To me to live is Christ" — just that one word "Christ" finding its echo in our hearts — then "to die" would be an advance; for as the apostle looked at Christ out from an earthly tabernacle, he compared it to seeing through a glass darkly. Hence "the gain" of death. We do not see "face to face" until perfected in glory, but it is the "far better," for there will be no hindrance from the body of humiliation. It is exceedingly blessed to know that part of the Lord's administration in heaven is to receive the spirits* of those saints who are absent from the body into His presence and care (comp. Acts 7:59 with Romans 14:8-9). The "new man" the "man in Christ" is now being wrought in us by God in view of a body conformed to Christ's body of glory, then that which is perfect will have come, but the capacity of that which has been wrought in the soul will be unhindered in the blessedness of His presence, and the unmingled joy of His love, when absent from the body.
[*A beloved brother now with the Lord, pointed out the difference between Eccles. 12:7. "The spirit shall return to God Who gave it," and Acts 7:59. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The spirit of the Christian goes to the Jesus Who breathed it (John 20:22) J. G. Bellett.]
In John 10 the Lord speaks of "putting forth" His own sheep, and of going before them when He does so. This "putting forth" places the sheep in an out-of-the-world position. Such a position comes before us in the end of chap. 9 Jesus and the man born blind are together — both of them "disallowed of men." They had taken up stones to cast at Jesus in the end of John 8 and they excommunicated the man born blind (John 9:34). The Jews who "cast him out" cast him unto the company of the "Son of God." Do we believe in the Son of God? I do not ask: Do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God? We should not be Christians unless we did — but have we tasted of companionship with the Son of God? If so, it must put us morally outside of this present world. Can this knowledge of Him ever cease? It does not belong to the present order of things.
Then in chapter 10 the mark of being the sheep of Christ is that they hear the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd. They follow Him for they know His voice." Has it not spoken deep down in our souls? By that voice He makes Himself known to us. It reaches us through the Word. His words, recorded for us, are spirit and life.
There may be much hindrance through the earthen vessel; but there in His presence shall we not still know communion with love that human speech could not utter I am sure we shall. Paul, evidently apart from the hindrance of the body, heard "unspeakable words."
Listen now to the Lord's words, "I am the good Shepherd and know My sheep and am known of Mine." In what way? "Even as the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep." Will there not then be the consciousness of unutterable love? How will our souls expand in that consciousness of love? The Spirit of God, through the record of the Lord's Own words, will help us into divine intelligence as to what it will be to be in the company of Christ.
Let me here say a word as to the dying malefactor to whom Christ said, "Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." How short a time was his in which to really know the One Who hung by his side. Allow me to use a figure — Suppose a room in darkness because every avenue of light had been closed. Take down the shutters, and the room is instantly flooded with light. "In Thy light we see light." The darkness of that poor malefactor's soul was that day flooded with light in Paradise. Christ was the light of life that shone there. It was not yet glory, but it was light and love in the presence of Jesus.
In John 11 we see that death could not take a sheep out of the hand of Christ. Nay, if I may so say, it threw it more completely into His Hand. "This sickness," He said concerning Lazarus, "Is not unto death." In the eyes of men the Good Shepherd had allowed the sickness to terminate in death. They did not see that the sheep in death (so called) was where it was before — in the hand of Christ. Are we conscious of how completely our life is bound up with Christ? "Because I live, ye shall live also." Christ must speak according to what He is, and also according to that which subsists in Him. Hence He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby." The sisters at Bethany instinctively felt that death could not exist in His presence, as they said, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died," and we have to read the Lord's reply to Martha in the light of eternal life subsisting in Himself. He was it. Therefore when He was down here, eternal life was here. So He said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life," and now that He has passed by the way of death, as we speak, to the Father, the eternal life is there. Whether here or there the eternal life is the same, though the way of giving it is different.
Cannot it be said, as Moses said prophetically of the elect of Israel, "All His saints are in Thy Hand?" Their saintly character was that of Mary of Bethany. "They sat down at Thy feet, each receiving of Thy words." Can this life which we have in the Son of God be in abeyance at the departure of a saint to be with Him? They lived through having heard His voice (John 5:24-25). And again, "My sheep know My voice." It has spoken deep down in the inner chambers of the soul. If the earthly tabernacle be dissolved, a hindrance has been left behind; and what the soul has drunk in of Christ while in this tabernacle abides when present with the Lord. Who can say what that presence will be to us? I am bold to say that the real life of a saint — and Christ is that life (Col. 3:4), will expand in the unhindered and conscious enjoyment of infinite love. T. H. Reynolds.
Reply To "With Christ Which Is Far Better."
Dearest Reynolds,
A great deal of what has been on your mind has been a great comfort to me in my solitude of sorrow in this daily darkening scene through which we are passing, as an unreconciled scene to our God and His Christ. I remember attending Mrs Dennett's Funeral at Croydon and speaking a little at the grave on 1 Thess. 5:8-11, especially 9 and 10, "Who died for us that whether we may be watching or sleeping, we may live together with Him." The object of His death is to accomplish the full purpose of His love — to remove death completely out of the way, by its destruction; and where two "heirs together of the grace of life" have tasted together of that love in its fulness, they remain after the separation of the earthly relationship, in the same divine life and love and relationship, only the one that has been freed from the earthen tabernacle, has been freed from what was only a hindrance to the enjoyment of heavenly bliss in the body, and the one bereaved on earth and desolated and a mourner because of the cessation of the earthly tie and companionship and affection has the greatest consolation in knowing that the high life and divine relationship, is being lived by the one taken up together with Him, Who is the source and perfection of it in heaven, as it is being lived by the bereaved one with the same beloved holy Lord on earth, and the moment when the Rapture will remove all the distance between the Bridegroom and the Bride, will be the moment when the separated ones will recontinue the life of holy communion in joy and love tasted already in earthly scenes and contrarieties. J. S. Oliphant.