A Personal Question

“IT is most important that we should read good books, and above all, the Bible, which teaches us of God, and shows us the way to heaven,” said a shrewd-looking old peasant, with a quick eye to us, the other day, as we were giving some books to his neighbor.
“Quite so; it does show us the way to heaven, friend,” we replied; “but have you got over the stile yet?”
He proceeded with a further general dissertation upon the importance of religion in the abstract; so, thinking he did not catch the allusion to the stile, we said, “You did not, perhaps, understand us, Are your sins forgiven? Are your feet on the way to heaven?”
“I understood ye fast enough,” the old man replied, fixing his eye upon us, “and when you come so particular, I tell you—no, I have not got over the stile.”
How is it with you, reader?
Voices From Heaven.
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
LET us briefly trace some leading incidents, which led up to the utterance of the voice from heaven, which we commenced to speak of in our last issue. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, had testified in the power of the Holy Ghost to seeing the Lord standing at the right hand of God in heaven; and Stephen’s face, like that of Moses of old, witnessed, by its radiancy and heavenly luster, that he was in the presence of divine glory. Then the assembled council of the religious notables rejected with all fierceness the Holy Ghost’s testimony to an ascended Christ. They rushed upon Stephen, and stoned him to death; and at Saul’s feet the clothes of the witnesses to Stephen’s blasphemy were laid.
Fresh from that rejection of the Holy Ghost’s testimony to the ascended Jesus, Saul issued forth in his unquenchable zeal for the destruction of every soul who believed on the Lord. Saul’s heart was a very depository of hatred against the name of Jesus, and “the Way,” as the faith of early believers was contemptuously designated. He was also a devotedly religious man, and moral to the full measure of an enlightened and sensitive conscience. Such a combination of religion, and morality, and hatred to Christ as existed in Saul will, perhaps, never be found again upon this earth. He is a pattern for all who should come after him, as an evidence of the saving power of the grace of God. He was one of the worst amongst men in the sight of God, Who looks not to outward religion or to the light of conscience, but to the heart; and the heart which hates Christ the most is the worst heart upon the face of this earth.
On, on went Saul, indifferent to the noonday heat, in his terrible mission of wrath against every poor believer on Jesus. Little did Satan dream, as his herald hurried forward towards Damascus, that Jesus, Who had died and risen again, and to Whom all power was given, would overwhelm and astonish the persecutor by His own brightness, and bring Saul to Himself in His grace, and make him the depository of His thoughts and the medium for the communication of heavenly things to His people.
But so it was, for as Saul urged on his way, the heavens were opened, and a light, exceeding in brightness that of the noonday sun, shone around him and his company, and the voice from heaven was heard, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
The heavens above testified to the love of Jesus for His own, and their union with Himself. Christ and His are one, and are termed “the” Christ by the apostle in his writings.
The people of the Lord upon this earth are the objects of His heart—His blessed heart is toward them; they are His members, part of Himself. They are one in Him, and one with Him, though poor and despised and hunted to death.
The hatred of the religious world against them was really its hatred against Jesus. Saul’s fierce zeal against them was the proud, hard, religious heart of man hating Jesus, Who died for sinners, and Who rose again. Any day man prefers religion to Jesus—his own works to the blood of the cross. The blows falling upon them were really aimed at Him—persecuting them was persecuting Himself.
Jesus in the glory, and the people on earth, who love Him, are one. The Father had said of His Son, when a man on earth, “My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”; His Son, no longer upon earth, but ascended to His Father, and the Father of all who put their trust in Jesus, says of His people, from the least to the greatest.
Let us consider what this really means. The Lord was King in Israel, and He shall reign before His ancient people gloriously, but the union of His church with Himself is a relationship such as was never made known to the nation of His choice. The glory of the ascended Man is the key wherewith to unlock the mystery of the union of Christ’s people with Christ on high. The earth had denied Him its honors, the world and Israel had set Him at naught and cast Him out, but God the Father had given His Son the seat upon His right hand, and for the honor of the Lord, for the praise of the glory of God, the believers are now one with Christ.
The union, beloved reader, is ours (whoever we may be who are Christ’s), with Christ who is in heaven. True, because united to Him we are one with each other, but the great consideration for our hearts is the fact that Jesus, speaking of all His own now upon this earth, says of them “Me.” If we have right faith respecting our union with Christ, we shall have more true thoughts respecting our union with each other. The union of true Christians results from their all being one in Christ—one body—members of His body.
Let us quote a few Scriptures which speak of this union with Christ. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” (Eph. 5:30). “Ye are the body of Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:27.) “Your bodies are the members of Christ.” (1 Cor. 6:15.) “He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:17.) Here we have the figure of the most absolute identity possible, for if we were to remove a little finger from our body, the body would be mutilated, and no longer be perfect. And not only is the figure of the body used to show us how absolute the union is, but the same Spirit, Who is in the Lord, is in us. That which gives energy to our natural bodies is our spirit, and the Spirit of the Son is in us. “One spirit,” says the Scripture, and this teaches us practical holiness, for the union of Christ’s people with Himself is a truth which, when truly believed, must disassociate us from the world. Christ’s people are in Christ and one with Christ who is in heaven, and hence their walk and their hopes should be heavenly.
This voice from heaven was the commencement of the Lord’s unfolding to Saul deep and wondrous things relative to the heavenly joys and hopes of His people, and their oneness and identity with Christ. Let the believer seek to understand the word “ME,” as uttered by the Lord to express His thoughts about the persecution to which His members upon the earth were exposed. He is the Head; His own are His members, and also members one of another. What holy union in thought and word and deed should this produce amongst Christians! For unless a truth have its practical effect upon us, it has a cruelly deadening one; if the knowledge of divine things does not affect us for holiness and grace, that knowledge becomes in us an instrument of Satan for our spiritual destruction. And how is the good effected, and the ill avoided?—by the Spirit. We are one spirit with the Lord. What is in Christ’s heart should be reproduced in ours: no doubt in degree, but even as a tiny cup when dipped into the ocean is filled of its fullness, so should each believer, who is one spirit with the Lord, be filled by that Spirit.
The fact remains immovable, whatever man’s feelings may be, Christ and His own are one, and all His are one with each other. The Spirit is in each one, and in all, and before long in glory these things shall be manifested. Till that longed-for day come, and the Lord’s people see Him in His glory, may His Spirit be ungrieved in His gracious operation in giving the people of Christ to rejoice in their Head in heaven. H. F. W.
“Lord Jesus, are we one with Thee?
O height, O depth of love;
With Thee, who diedst upon the tree
We’re one in heaven above!”