01.02. Part 2.

Part 2.

Since the Holy Word exhorts us to consider Him we may draw yet nearer, and with quickened sensibilities behold the beauty of the Lord. The complete absence of what is called character meets us at every turn, every moral trait blending with every other and all crystallizing into one perfect whole. He was the humblest yet the most dignified; the most gracious and gentle, yet uncompromisingly firm and unswerving. Zeal apart from cruelty, lowliness without being mean, a kindness which delighted to make His followers His most intimate friends — their joy a place of sweetest intimacy which, however. in the very nature of things, forbade what we call familiarity. No sign of fear nor hesitancy of speech, and having spoken, there is nothing to withdraw, modify, or call for apology. This latter we see in His most devoted servants.

{"There was no unevenness in Jesus, no predominant quality to produce the effect of giving Him a distinctive character. He was, though despised and rejected of men, the perfection of human nature. The sensibilities, firmness, decision (though this attached itself also to the principle of obedience), elevation, and calm meekness which belong to human nature, all found their perfect place in Him. In a Paul I find energy and zeal; in a Peter ardent affection; in a John, tender sensibilities and abstraction of thought, united to a desire to vindicate what he loved, which scarce knew limit. But the quality we have observed in Peter predominates and characterises him. In a Paul blessed servant though he was, he does not repent, though he had repented. He had no rest in his spirit when he found not Titus, his brother. He goes off into Macedonia though a door was opened in Troas . . . . John, who would have vindicated Jesus in his zeal, knew not what manner of spirit he was of, and would have forbidden the glory of God, if a man walked not with them. Such were Paul, and Peter, and John. But in Jesus, even as Man, there was none of this unevenness. There was nothing salient in His character because all was in perfection to God in His humanity, and had its place and exactly its service, and then disappeared. God was glorified in it, and all was in perfect harmony. When meekness became Him, He was meek; when indignation, who could stand before His overwhelming and withering rebuke?" J. N. Darby, Synopsis, Volume 1, pages 181-2.} In the greatest of the earthly race there are the faults of their virtues, and much that is humbling comes out in the defects of the great and the follies of the wise. Beautiful characters are portrayed by men of scholarly attainment and refined taste, and from nature’s point of view there is much to admire, but all break down somewhere. His gracious acts made hearts to leap for joy, and in that way He could not be hid, though often charging them to tell no man. We have in the Gospels a grand and incontrovertible proof of inspiration, for no mind of man could imagine what is given there. A perfect account of a perfect life written by men for the most part simple and unlearned.

Well may we ponder with deep adoration that Holy Person whose life here stands alone in all its heavenly and unsullied beauty. in the knowledge that all that was outward which could be taken account of by others, sprang from what He was with the Father. "I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent me." He who came forth from the Father and was necessarily one with the Father, accomplishes all the Father’s will, heaven thus breaking in on the life of man on the earth for its own intention and honour, in the blessing of the creature of God’s purpose and electing grace. But oh! what has that meant for the world which has sealed its doom in the awful guilt of putting the Son of God to death, the shameful death of the cross?

But, with all, there was much He passed by. In the nature of things it must be so. The equalisation of capital; — "Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me." "Who made me a judge or a divider over you?" was His answer. Though appointed Judge for eternity He would not adjudicate in the things of time in a death-stamped scene. He had come to put things right, but not in this way, therefore, things are adjusted in the light of eternity, men are met by that which reaches the conscience and the selfishness of the heart laid bare. So it was with the world of learning. The work of God is in creation as the mirror wherein is reflected His natural attributes. Man is part of these works and is himself a marvellous piece of workmanship. In the works of creation he finds ample scope for his intellectual powers, and at that time had reached an advanced stage of science and philosophy as men speak. Whatever his progress in these things he is wrong at the centre. Having fallen from his original estate he is a lost sinner at a distance from God and unable to help himself. At that very moment, with all his learning, all the great questions pertaining to his life and being stood unanswered, and by him unanswerable. It was impossible, therefore, that the Lord Jesus could take up such things. His coming was in relation to a theme which lay nearer to the heart of God than even creation’s wonders, viz., the declaration of eternal love. Moral relationships in regard to eternity, heaven, earth, and hell, sin, righteousness, and judgment, the exposure of man’s heart as a sinner and the revelation of the heart of God to meet him, are the things which engage the heavenly One. No other could do this. Heavenly messengers had often been here, but merely to deliver their message and return. Both Enoch and Elijah had been caught away, and with the exception of the momentary appearance of the latter on the mount of glory, nothing had been heard of them. Again, in the commerce between earth and heaven, Paul was taken to the third heaven, but coming back could not utter what he heard. With the advent of this blessed Person, all the mind of heaven comes out. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God. How surpassingly lovely is the scene in Luke 15:1-32, where He sets forth the joy of God and the delight of heaven in the recovery of the lost. He there shows how the divine heart is satisfied in satisfying the heart of the fallen creature, the blessed God Himself giving impetus to the joy of the whole scene.

Though leaving alone the world of science He is perfectly acquainted with the book of nature. The heavens declare the glory of God, and well we know the earth and sea join in the glorious song. From all these He draws that which illustrates and enforces the great and abiding principles of the creatures obligations to the Creator. Both animate and inanimate are used, for the sun, moon, and stars come in as well as the eagle, raven, and sparrow. So with the earth, mountains, rivers, trees, as well as sheep, lambs, wolves,. and for the sea, His kingdom is likened to a net cast therein, and when He would bring home to men the sorrows and consternation of a coming day, He likens it to the sea and the waves roaring. But that He is perfectly acquainted with the great drama of life in all its phases may be seen from the fact that the moral world is laid under tribute also. Kings with their subjects and armies. Masters of estates and their stewards, trades in all varieties, profit and loss, building planting, sowing, etc., etc. In the world of letters there are schools of philosophy, all of them more or less put in language by a process of reasoning beyond ordinary people. With Jesus our Lord it is not so, for there the simplest may draw water from the wells of salvation, which the most advanced can never fathom.

Though conversant with all that was going on, His business we have seen was the work of God. In the execution of that He met not only the contradiction of sinners, but want of faith, and understanding by His own. This latter He felt keenest of all, and it was -teen most of all in the three who were favoured by being brought into the place of intimacy and nearness with Him. The brothers wanted Him to put forth His power on one occasion for destruction and on another had betrayed a covetous spirit in seeking a conspicuous place with Him in His kingdom, and Peter on one occasion sought unwittingly to come between Him and His great work of the cross, while at the end, all are found in disagreement about who would be the greatest. All is met in view of their place in testimony after He had gone on high. The time of His ministry is used by Him while proving the world’s guilt to fit them for the great work of their lives, viz., the spread of the testimony after He had gone on high.

Having glanced briefly at His ways among men in the outside, let us with reverence view Him a moment among His own. He had adjusted with beautiful precision the detail of life in view of heaven and eternity and now the time has arrived when He can speak freely to them of the Father and of heaven and the counsels of love. Here; with deep delight, we behold the Lord in the midst of His own in anticipation of the day of the Church, where He could bring out without reserve the heavenly communications which concerned His glory and their association with Him in a new scene where all is of God. As soon as Judas goes out the Lord opens His blessed heart. The presence of the betrayer had caused Him distress of spirit, but now He is free to bring out all the deep, thoughts of His love. He consoles them by telling them of the Father’s house and their place there with Him, and though unseen, He would come to them till the time came when He would come for them. He takes them into full confidence regarding the working out of divine interests and the new heavenly testimony in which all the Father’s glory is bound up in and with the Son, and whatever was the necessities they connected with it, they had only to seek the Father in His Name, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Nor need they hesitate to do this, for the Father Himself had affection for them because they had received His Son.

He speaks of His relationship with the Father and theirs with both Him and His Father, all being made good to them by the Holy Ghost whom He would send. The Father’s house as prepared by Him, the Father’s love, Himself the object of it, and they with Him to enjoy it, the Father’s purpose as centring in Himself and they in that purpose as given to Him by the Father. The earthly, Jewish side is left far behind in the plenitude of revelation and unfolding of the heavenly. He speaks so as to draw out their difficulties, transferring them, in thought, from Judaism and the earth to the thoughts, purposes, and counsels of God as revealed in Christianity. In that way, John 13:1-38 and John 14:1-31 are seen much like a Bible reading, where the disciples put forth their questions to Himself and are led on into the deeper things of God. On reaching the end of John 16:1-33 He turns from speaking to them to the Father. The communications of the previous chapters were to them, here, all is to the Father. He had glorified Him on earth and now looks up and seeks to be glorified above, that He may continue to glorify Him in that place. Surely this is the place where Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11). His voice alone is heard, He traces the new heavenly testimony from its source, in the bosom of eternal love long ere time began, to its ultimate consummation in a coming eternity of bliss. Their having been given to Him as the Father’s love-gift to Himself, to have part with Him in all He takes up as Man, which necessarily would identify them with Him before the world in His rejection.

He had kept them in the Father’s Name and had given them His word. All He brought from heaven is deposited with them, the name, the affections, the word, and the Father’s purposes of love. All had been given. And now the Father will keep them because it concerns the glory of His Son. Loved with the same love as the Father had for Himself, and then brought home in a display of glory before the world that hated Him, and them also because of Him. He marks out a place for them in that radiant scene which is peculiar to one favoured class; a place which for favour and excellence passes beyond words, where He will have them with Himself to behold Him in that which is only His. The eternal glory which is beyond their creature ability to share, He will have them with Himself to behold.

We might stop here and ask how far these things have become a reality to our souls. A reality however, which for Him necessitated the cross. Before He could become the Centre of the glory He must first be the Centre of all the shame and ignominy. The scene in John 13:17, most lovely in its historic setting, could have no meaning did we not see by anticipation the marking out of a new order of things based upon His atoning work at the cross. He had said (John 16:16), " A little while and ye shall not see me." He was going down into a depth where they could not follow, and they would weep and lament, but He would see them again and their hearts would rejoice with a joy none could take from them.

During that little while, the blessed One had been in the conflict battling death’s forces and meeting God about the whole sin question. Accomplishing the work which is of the greatest consequence for God and for the whole creation, by which all the activities of time are adjusted in relation to the divine glory. Having borne the full weight of all by going into death, He breaks death’s power by rising, and thereby establishes a new creation where all is of God. The resurrection message to Mary reveals for His own that new relationship with Himself on the other side of death, which connects with the thoughts, feelings, tastes, and joys brought out by Him to them in that memorable night before He suffered (John 13:17). The blessedness of this should be pondered, seeing it is not on the surface. It is clear that every relationship must carry its own affections and feelings with it, and it is most instructive to see the way the Lord brings these latter out as connected with the presence of the Holy Ghost in our souls. The following extract may help us here.

{"This was the introduction of the disciples into the realisation of that new state which Christ inaugurated by His resurrection, Son of God in power. They should see the second Man beyond death, and be in living communication with Him. . . . It was the same Christ, but what was of all importance, the basis of all for us, it was Christ beyond death, the power of Satan, the judgment of God, and sin; He who had been made sin for us and by whom our sins had been borne and put away, that God might remember them no more. We see here the link between Jesus, known in His humiliation in our midst in grace, and man in his new state, according to the counsels of God, a state in which He could no more be subject to death, nor put to the proof." J. N. Darby. "On the Gospel of John." Chapter 16.} But if He comes forth in resurrection it is on the way to the throne. His going there is an event which must affect all parts of creation. Think of it, a Man above, upon the throne of God. Past angels, lordships, principalities, dominions, and authorities, beyond every circle, leaving far behind the vast hierarchies of the heavens in their stupendous grandeur, almost unknown to us, distancing every conceivable force, to the very centre of the universe, the throne of the Majesty on high. Scripture speaks of His own throne upon which He shall sit with His royal bride in the day of glorious display; the throne He sits on at the present time is His by virtue of His Deity.

He is there in Manhood that in Him all the grace of the heart of God may shine out to the creature, a fact which gives a completeness to the truth, the force of which is sometimes missed. His coming out from God as we have seen, was to make Him known, this brought out the grand secret of eternity, that a God of love will have man richly blest and at home in His own presence for His own satisfaction for ever. Such a revelation necessitates an answer in man, for God cannot be defeated. The great truth comes to light, therefore, in the exaltation of Christ, that He who came out to make the revelation as God has gone in as Man, in answer to what has been revealed, thus completing the circle of truth so that revelation and approach are complete in Himself in view of the Gospel going forth.

There is another point of importance here. At a time when God was compelled to chasten His people for their sins, the prophet Ezekiel beheld in vision a Man above upon the throne. The exaltation of Christ is the fulfilment of that vision. If, however, we examine the circumstances, we shall see a very marked difference. The prophet, sees the throne in judicial character with judgment about to be accomplished, a circumstance which is more in keeping with the character of the throne seen by the apostle in Revelation 4:1-11, Revelation 5:1-14. The Old Testament seer beheld the throne in view of the great dispensational change which was about to displace Israel and begin the times of the Gentiles, while the New Testament apostle beheld it at a time when all was preparing to put Christ into possession of His inheritance. Note the perfection of Scripture here. The Old Testament prophets spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow, passing entirely over the church age: the New Testament seer stands beyond that age when the church is seen in heaven participating in the praises of the Lamb.

Well we know that the presence of Christ upon His Father’s throne during the present age constitutes the reign of grace. "That as sin has reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Having been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, He is seated on high as the Centre of royal power and authority and made the Administrator of all the grace of heaven. The contrast both with Ezekiel and the Apocalypse is easily seen, for instead of messengers of judgment sent forth, the Holy Ghost comes from a glorified Christ to carry out the will of the Father and the Son. This is something new, being outside of the time-ways of God and belonging to the counsels of eternity. It is the full glory of the throne. The One who bore the judgment is there. in the supreme rights of His Person and work, and while that continues judgment, though not cancelled, is deferred. This recalls the sapphire stone colour of the deep blue sky, and tells of the triumph of God in richest blessing where all that He is shines out in holy splendour in full and unmerited blessing to sinners.