THE UNIQUENESS OF CHRIST

John McKay

1 Timothy 2: 1-7; Exodus 12: 3-11; 16: 13-19; Joshua 3: 3,4

We have spoken together of the wonderful intervention of divine power that secured the apostle Paul in view of God's testimony. Largely we are here because of what came through that distinctive vessel. His ministry was unequalled in the quality of it, calling attention to Christ in heaven, to the fact that His body was upon the earth, to the greatness of divine purposes in love for the saints. The climax of that ministry was reached in the city of Ephesus. In itself that was a tremendous triumph for God. It was the seat of idolatry, the place where that goddess was said to have fallen down from heaven, the centre of Satanic power religiously. In that city Paul's ministry reached its climax as divinely sustained. It is very interesting that Paul leaves a young man in Ephesus. Timothy was a young man and he was left in the place where Paul's ministry reached its height. Now that has application to us in a sense because, although not living in apostolic days, we have been born in days when the testimony of God, so distinctively established, needs to be maintained without modification at its true level. That was the task that was put on Timothy. It was a daunting task for which in himself he was not equal, and thus as Paul writes this epistle he highlights things that would be of cardinal importance in the experience and ministry of this young man if what is of God was to be preserved. That is why I have read from 1 Timothy 2 because into this passage Paul brings this distinctive reference to the uniqueness of the Man Christ Jesus. I want to speak about the Lord Jesus, His uniqueness in the whole universe. In this passage Paul refers to God as our Saviour God, One who has in mind the blessing of the whole of humanity. The breadth and the scope of that needs to enter our souls. He proceeds to speak of God being "one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus". Dear brethren, if things are to be maintained at the divine level it is not through an academic knowledge of the truth but by an appreciation of the Man Christ Jesus, by an appreciation of His distinctiveness, the One who is described here as the Mediator of God and men.

The statement firstly is that God is one. We need that to be reasserted in these days. "God is one". Men speak glibly of alternative religion. What does it mean? There is even an attempt to give this conflict which is pending in the Middle East a religious flavour. Over against all that we have this clear statement in the scripture that God is one. Let us believe that! Really it is an allusion to all that the Old Testament covers. How precious God's relationships were with His earthly people! Then coming on to the Christian dispensation we have the fulness of divine revelation when he says, "and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus". The only way that we shall ever know God is in Christ. His uniqueness: who could speak of it fittingly? Mr Darby says, if you refer to the Synopsis on this passage, that 'there is but One. To think of another would be to snatch from Him His glory and from us our perfect consolation'. There is but one, one Mediator. I wonder if He has the place of pre-eminence in our hearts that He should have? There is nobody like Him in the universe of God, ''the man Christ Jesus". Paul is not here referring to His official position. He does not speak about the Christ, the One who has official glory; he does not speak about the King; he speaks about ''the man Christ Jesus" as if he would draw out the affections of Timothy in relation to the One who alone holds this key place in the universe of God. For a Mediator is needed. We spoke in the earlier reading about the majesty of God. He remains God of the universe, unapproachable, "whom no man has seen, nor is able to see", 1 Tim 6: 16. It is still true. As some impression of the greatness of God comes into our souls, what we find is that a Mediator becomes absolutely essential and only one Person can fill that place. Job asked for a daysman to lay his hand upon God and upon men. Moses, I suppose, in the Old Testament is typical of the mediator, and what we are told about Moses was that ''the form of Jehovah doth he behold", Num 12: 8. Christ was greater than that. It was not simply that he beheld it; He was in Himself God over all. The deity of Christ needs to be re-asserted. Upon it depends our eternal salvation. Only He could take the place of Mediator: "For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus". Does He have the place that He should in your life, in all your affairs, in your local meeting, in your thoughts tor the future? Does He have this key place? The Man Christ Jesus will never cease to be the Mediator.

We read in 1 Corinthians 15 that He gives up the kingdom. There will come a moment in the history of the universe when everything will be subordinated to Christ and He will hand all over to Him who is God and Father that God may be all in all. But, blessed be His name, He will remain the Mediator. In eternity He will remain a Man and we shall need His service still. We have Him now, the only person in the universe of God who qualities to have such a title: ''the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus".

When He was here the question was asked, "Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another?", Matt 11: 3. Christendom around us, the religious profession, is largely waiting for another. Let it not be that we allow in any sense that there should be another. John the baptist - great man that he was, the forerunner of Christ, the one of whom the Lord Jesus said, ''there is not arisen among the born of women a greater" (Matt 11: 11) - at one time when in prison sent messengers to Christ with a message like that; "Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another?". What does the Lord say? Go and tell John what you see, what is happening. There were persons who actually witnessed the distinctive power of the operations of Christ. That was the divine answer to any alternative that man could provide. Oh, let us not in any sense be prepared to make way for another. I feel the importance of this lest others should again have too much place among us. History shows how easily that can happen. It was when Moses was on the mountain top that the people said, ''this Moses ... we do not know what is become of him", Exod 32: 1. They were conscious of distance in their relationship with Moses and immediately the opportunity for an alternative arose in their minds. The implication is that somebody else was going to take his place and what ensued was idolatry. There is no alternative in the whole universe of God to Christ: ''the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus". Then Paul says, "who gave himself a ransom for all" - God justified Him in the sight of the universe - "the testimony to be rendered in its own times; to which I have been appointed a herald and apostle". Testimony is rendered to the fact that there is no alternative to Christ. It is like the beginning of John's gospel which speaks of Christ as ''the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him", John 1: 18. The declaration is full; it is complete, and it is in the Person of Christ. That is another unique reference to Him who is the Mediator. None else could declare God; none else could show forth that glory; and the Lord Jesus has done it, having moved into that unique position in the bosom of the Father. He remains there as the One who is the declarer of God. As another has said, the declaration holds whether any get the benefit of it or not. It is not revelation bearing on certain persons, but declaration, bringing out the uniqueness of the only One who could act in such a way, that is Christ.

These well-known Old Testament passages raise in typical language the question of our own appropriation of what is in Him. We need help as appreciating His uniqueness, to appropriate for ourselves what has come within our range in this glorious Man. In Exodus 12 the people are in Egypt under the shelter of the blood. The lamb had to be slain and the word is that they are to take a lamb. It is a very interesting suggestion. I wonder if we have all done that. There is no suggestion of shortage here. There were evidently plenty of lambs available. Food in the book of Genesis is in short supply and the administration of the true Joseph is needed to make it available. But when we come to Exodus, it seems that there were plenty of lambs available. The test is as to whether the people are going to appropriate it. What is in Christ for us needs to be appropriated. Paul speaks in Romans 3: 24 of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus - that is, the redemption is there. You might say that God's salvation is available in Him, but then he says also "in whom we have redemption", Eph 1: 7. I would like to encourage us all to be among those who appropriate what is in Christ for our benefit. We will not get the benefit unless we do it. The lamb had to be taken and it was in the house for four days. How the affections would be drawn out of every person in that house by the perfection of that creature. Then it had to be slain. The death of Christ is a tremendous reality. Our blessing eternally rests upon it but the lamb was not only slain, it was roast with fire. The intensity of the divine judgment against sin which Christ bore brought out His perfection and that becomes the food of the saints. Then it says, "neither shall ye break a bone thereof", Exod 12: 46. Let us make sure that what we are going on with is a whole Christ. Christendom is full of the appropriation of certain features and the exclusion of others. What we have is the privilege of appropriating a whole Christ; that is, we take account of His deity, His manhood, His virgin birth. If the virgin birth of Christ has a slur cast upon it, the whole of our blessing is undermined. These things are being challenged in the area of Christendom around us. How needful it is that we should appropriate a whole Christ. The people as eating the lamb are ready to move: "And thus shall ye eat it: your loins shall be girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand". Are we ready to move? One day we are going right out of this scene, never to return. Morally we are to be clear of it already as feeding on the lamb roast with fire. Let us be encouraged that not only are these things objectively in the One who is unique in God's universe but they are to be appropriated for our benefit. As Mr Darby comments in one of his letters, all that Christ is, He is for me! Thus we sang:

'Thy fulness, Lord, is now for me,

All my fresh springs are hid in Thee'

(Hymn 281)

Let us appropriate what is available, being enriched by it, and let us find in result that we are in God's testimony in a way that is more pleasing to Him.

In Exodus chapter 16 we have the manna referred to. It is Christ as food for wilderness circumstances. If we are rightly in the testimony of God we have left the world as a system. It no longer has domination over us. What is going to sustain us is divine provision for wilderness circumstances. Does God not know the circumstances that we are in? The manna is the divine answer to the need. The people were marked by weakness but there is an abundance of grace that provides in order that they should be built up. Notice the reference here to the voice of Aaron. When Aaron spoke to the people ''they turned toward the wilderness" (v 10). The only thing to keep us out of the world is the voice of Christ. It is not to be a question of adhering to brethren's requirements or regulations but rather of hearkening to the voice of Christ. It was the voice of the great priest. What a touch of sympathy that gives! And as they responded, turning towards the wilderness, the glory appeared. The God who has redeemed us in Christ is fully able to provide all that we need to take us right through the wilderness in a way that is in keeping with His own glory. So it says that the manna was on the face of the wilderness, "something fine, granular, fine as hoar-frost, on the ground". It took the shape of the wilderness. It speaks of Jesus as He was in the days of His flesh. I believe that we have much to learn yet as to what God found in Christ as Man upon the earth, those thirty-three and a half years so distinctive, so unique. Read the gospels for they are an abiding testimony to an order of humanity that had never been seen on earth before, manhood that has now become the food of those who will as divinely exhorted appropriate what is available. Let us do it, dear brethren! Let us take the omer and let us fill it! Let us appropriate what is there so that, in spite of the fact that it is still wilderness, we shall come to realise that there is something available that we can rest in. We are not yet in final circumstances; we are still on the way. Exodus 16 gives us the first reference in Scripture to the Sabbath. God's rest is secured in Christ and in some sense we are to reach that before we are finally taken out of this scene as conscious that God has provided it for us.

At the end of the wilderness journey, when we come to Joshua 3, we find "the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth". The ark comes into view in the wilderness. It was not there at the Red Sea. What is stressed at the Red Sea is the rod of Jehovah, the breaking of the power of death in view of the release of the people for Himself. But what comes into view in the wilderness is the ark of the covenant, typical of the distinctive leadership of Christ. In chapter 3 of Joshua the word is, "When ye see the ark ... and the priests the Levites bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it". It is wonderful to realise that the Man of whom we have said so much, who holds our affections, is the Man by whom we will gain entrance to the final order of things which is the divine mind for our possession. God has in mind that the saints, experiencing as they do so much pressure in wilderness circumstances, should enter into rest. It says in 1 Chronicles 17: 9 ''that they may dwell in a place of their own, and be disturbed no more". You think of God speaking like that about His people. He knows the pressures, the difficulties and the struggles, but what is in His mind is that we shall have a place of our own and be disturbed no more. The Man who is going to lead us into that place is none less than Christ Himself. "When ye see the ark" - think of how the children of Israel would keep their eyes upon it! It is only Christ that can lead us into the area of privilege. We are on the eve of the Lord's day. What is before us is entrance into a realm of which the world knows nothing. We shall reach it through our link with Him. Let us be ready!

What is in mind in Joshua 3 is the conquest of the Jordan. The river overflowing all its banks at the time of harvest indicates the intensity of the opposition calculated to prevent the people reaching the final inheritance that God intended they should have. What happens is that the ark goes forward and, as the feet of the priests touch the waters, they recede so that the people go over. What a powerful, distinctive movement it was, but what was needed at this point as at every point on the way through was that the people should appropriate it and reach the land. Dear brethren, everything that is for the blessing of the whole universe is in Christ, but it is only those who appropriate it through the grace that God Himself gives who get the full benefit. May we do so and realise that not only is He distinctive in the whole universe but He is absolutely indispensable in the life of the believer.

GLASGOW

25 August 1990