THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST TO EVERY MAN HERE
[p. 207] THE SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST TO EVERY MAN HERE
John 2; John 3:1-8; John 3:35,36; John 12: 30 - 33
I want to bring under your attention the greatness of Christ. I do not mean positionally, but morally. What is in my mind is to show what Christ is in comparison with other men. There is a great deal of pretension in the present day on the part of man, and it is not only in what men themselves assume to be (and there is plenty of pretension in that way), but in the way in which man is exalted on the part of other men. What comes before us commonly in the present day is the tendency to make everything of man. All cannot be leaders, but there are leaders, and leaders are set up and supported by others. There are, no doubt, men of great capability qualified in a way to be leaders; but we are in a day marked, to a large extent, by the exaltation of man. In the long run man will be deified; in that way lawlessness will come to a head. God has given to man ability; whatever ability any man may have he never acquired; he may have used it well, but he never acquired it. Man does often use the ability that God has given to him, and because of that other men will unduly exalt him. The result of it all will be, as I said, that man will be deified. We get that brought out in 2 Thessalonians.
Now the point to my mind is that in the universe of God Christ is the beginning or Head. Both are relative terms. You could not speak of a head except in relation to other things; there would be no meaning in the term; Christ is the Head and beginning of the universe of God. I do not speak about the universe of God in a physical, but in a moral sense. In the universe of God Christ is pre-eminent; it is that that [p. 208] led me to read the verse at the close of chapter 3, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence”, Colossians 1: 18.
I want you to entertain the thought of Christ in that point of view. And there is another thing: that in virtue of redemption He has become the point of attraction to man. What do you think conversion means practically? It means the deliverance of a person from the world, and his attachment to Christ; he belongs to Christ and to that world or system of which Christ is the beginning and Head. In chapter 12 Christ speaks of Himself as the centre and point of attraction, and, in connection with that, of the judgment of this world. He says, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. Why? Because Christ has come in as the centre and point of attraction to man. He says, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me”. Things could not have been spoken of in that way — the thought of the judgment of this world brought in — unless God had begun again, and made Christ to be a point of attraction. Christ would never have come at all but for the mercy of God, and if God’s purposes of mercy are to be carried out, and if there be the judgment of this world, there must be a point to which man can be attracted, and that is conditional on the Son of man being lifted up. In that way Christ presents Himself at the present time. There are three things we have to take into account in connection with Christ. The first is attraction, He draws to Himself; the next is attachment, by which we are delivered from lawlessness; and the third, consequent upon attachment, is affection. I say that much by way of introduction; but my point is to show the title of Christ to pre-eminence. If He is Head over all things,
[p. 209] the beginning, and point of attraction, it is as evident as possible that He must be pre-eminent, and I will try and give you some idea of the pre-eminence of Christ morally, His superiority to other men.
I think we ought to have some idea of the worthiness of Christ. We are married to another, to Him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. We shall not bring forth fruit to God if we do not esteem Christ very much more than any other man. My point is to show the moral superiority of Christ to every man in the world. It is a point of view in which I like to look at all the detail that is furnished to us in the gospels. If we have eyes to see, we shall perceive everywhere the moral superiority of Christ to all that He came in contact with down here. It may be said that men are much more enlightened in the present day than when Christ was upon earth. That may be true in science and so on, but in that day man’s mind was pretty active; there was as much ability in that day as now; there were thinkers and philosophers — in that way the world is not advanced so very much. There is more investigation of the laws of nature and, that kind of thing, but in that day there was as much activity of man’s mind in other directions. People have to go back to the works of that time to find the great monuments of genius. Now in the ministry of the Lord Jesus upon earth you find Him continually in contact with men, and in every case we can see the moral superiority of Christ to every kind and condition of man, and to every circumstance in which he was found. God is going to set forth a universe in which He Himself will be glorified, and of which Christ is the beginning and centre, and if we are believers and have the Spirit of Christ, we do not belong to this world; but have been brought into attachment to Christ, so that we belong to that system of which Christ is the beginning and Head. In order to illustrate what I have said I am going to take up [p. 210] what comes out in this chapter. The first point is in connection with the marriage in Cana; the second in connection with Jerusalem, where Christ speaks of the temple of His body; and the third in connection with man — many believed on Him when they saw the miracles which He did. In every case I want to show how much better Christ is than man. Judging pretty much by the occupations and the reading of people, I feel that Christ does not content their hearts. Many Christians seem to be thinking that something is better than Christ, for if they thought Christ better than everything else surely they would give more attention to Christ. If I had found out the best thing in this world, and appreciated it, surely I should give some attention to it. If people think Christ is better than everything surely they should give more attention to Him. But they give to Christ the odds and ends of their time. We do not treat Christ worthily, and the reason is that we have not a sufficient appreciation of His superiority to every man, and, I may say, to everything.
We read in chapter 2 in verse 11, “Jesus ... manifested forth his glory”. Did you ever think what His glory was? I understand it was His glory that He could do better for man than man could do for himself. Man will do the best for himself in general, and certainly on great occasions. Marriage is a great occasion, perhaps the greatest occasion in a man’s life, undoubtedly man will then do the best. But whatever man may be capable of doing for himself Christ will surpass it. Man will do a good deal for his own happiness, but he does not secure it. It is often enough the case with man that the wine runs out. He does not attain happiness by the means he has proposed to himself, and is in that sense a failure. That is often enough proved in the experience of people — man has to recognise that he does not secure his own happiness. Now Christ is superior to man,
[p. 211] because He can and will secure happiness for man if man will only listen to Him — happiness that will not run out; He begins with the water of purification. Man never begins that way. When man sets to work to secure happiness he takes up the means at hand. Some set to work to make money, others to gratify what they think innocent tastes, and others go in for domestic happiness, they take what is to hand, but they never think about the water of purification. Christ begins with that, and He turns the water into wine. I am not speaking about what I do not know; depend upon it, that is the true way of happiness. There are two things which Christ does for you; on the one hand, He delivers you from the world, and on the other He communicates to you the Spirit, that you may be conscious of and enjoy the favour of God. I believe that to be the true secret of happiness for man. I am confident that God does not intend man to be happy without Himself. Man may have all the opportunities which the providence of God has placed within his reach, and use these to the best advantage, but his happiness will somehow be marred, because God will not have man happy without Himself. When Christ came in His point was to cleanse man from the pollutions of the world; then “Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear”. The Spirit was given that man might joy in the knowledge of the favour of God. That is a great deal better than ever man could do for himself. I ask any reasonable person if it be not true that Christ is greater than man. Christ can do better for man than man can do for himself. Let a man lay out all the plans he can for his happiness down here, and I will undertake to say that his happiness will be marred; sickness or death may come in, there will be a worm at the root of the gourd. I cannot conceive anything more blessed than that Christ should turn the water into wine in the [p. 212] heart of man. I am not taking up the incident in a dispensational but in a moral point of view, to illustrate what I say, that Christ is superior to man.
In verses 18 - 21 we get another point as to man in what is seen here, that is, the destructive tendency of man, and, in contrast to that, how Christ raises up. Man pulls down and Christ raises up. Evidently, raising up is a greater thing than pulling down. The temple was corrupted. The Lord cleanses it — He casts out the sheep and the oxen. It was the peculiar privilege of Israel that the temple and the oracles of God were among them, but they took opportunity to corrupt them. You may depend upon it that whatever of God comes into this world is bound to be corrupted. The material temple was turned into a house of merchandise. When the true temple came, they could not corrupt that, so they set to work to destroy it. Corrupt and destroy are very much akin. You remember what the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3: 17, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy”. That has come to pass in Christendom; the temple of God has, so to speak, been turned very largely into an occasion of worldly advantage to man; the same corrupting principle that ever prevailed has come in. Now if you have followed me, you will see how in the history of things the tendency of man has ever been to corrupt or destroy that which is of God. Christ is presented in contrast to that. The Lord said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. The temple was still to be there on behalf of man. The Lord would raise it up. We get an idea in that of the superiority of Christ to man. Man destroys the greatest advantage which God could place within his reach. Greater advantage there could not be than that he should have the temple of God, the Son of God here. And when they destroyed the temple and broke all contact with God as far as they [p. 213] could do it, what came to pass? In three days, the Lord says, I will raise it up. God is still brought into contact with man. That comes to light in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles; in Christ, God was still brought into contact with man. The temple was raised up. “In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. So that God is brought into touch with man, and all is maintained in the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. There again is brought out in a striking way the superiority of Christ to man. I take it, a great object of the temple was that the oracles of God might be placed within the reach of man, and they still are, consequent upon redemption and Christ having been exalted. I have often thought that the present is a great moment; we have come to mount Zion; the ark on mount Zion was witness of the sovereign mercy of God, but I cannot understand the true idea of mount Zion apart from a risen Christ. Mount Zion meant that when Israel had forfeited the ark by their unfaithfulness, God had given it back to them in the sovereignty of mercy. “His mercy endureth for ever” is the song with which mount Zion was celebrated. Man crucified Christ and God gave Christ back to man in resurrection in the sovereignty of mercy on the ground of redemption; hence in Christ risen we have the true principle of mount Zion. We are said to have come to it, because we have come to what is represented in a risen Christ. So man forfeited any right or title to the oracles, or light of God, in the destruction of the temple, but the Lord says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”; the oracles will still bring God in contact with man. You get the principle in Romans 3. God has set forth Christ a mercy-seat, a point where He can touch man in the sovereignty of mercy. The same tendency as was seen in Israel is true in us when we have the greatest divine advantages placed within our reach. Our tendency is to corrupt what is of God.
[p. 214] People make light, in the first instance, of what God gives, then they corrupt it.
One point more. We read, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did”. They trusted themselves and their conviction, and that is what man does in his self-conceit. The same is true in the present day, men trust their own conviction. I have seen people seeking external evidence of the truth of Scripture, because the tendency of man is to trust the conviction at which his own mind arrives. But Christ did not trust that; He knew that it was not to be trusted. The grace of the Lord goes behind all that; He says at once, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”. The Lord goes to the bottom of the matter; He makes known what the true state of the case was, that man is essentially lawless in spirit, and that no conviction of mind will bring him into relation with God or into the path of God’s will. Man’s mind is capable of a conviction, undoubtedly; it was affected here by miracles, and that tends to increase man’s responsibility, because evidence is given to man by which man’s mind can be affected. The reason of its being necessary that a man should be born again is that man is essentially lawless in regard of God. He is incapable of appreciating the rule of God. The mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. The kingdom of God means the moral rule or sway of God. Except a man be born again he cannot see that. The kingdom of God was presented to man in Christ. God has raised up for man a Head in One suitable, for in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and in being brought into attachment to Christ, we are brought into relation — into attachment to God, we enter the kingdom of God, and man comes in that way under the rule of God. Christ knew more about man than man did [p. 215] about himself. The Jews thought a great deal of themselves, and people now think they can form a conviction on evidence brought before them, but the conviction will not hold a man in relation to God. The Lord knew it, but I would not have known it, nor you; we only know it because Christ has told us; when He said “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”, it was because He knew man’s spirit was lawless.
If you have followed me I think you will be bound to admit the superiority of Christ to man, and at the same time you will see the thread of mercy which runs through everything of Christ. Christ would provide better for the happiness of man that man could for his own. Christ would abound over all the destructiveness and perverseness of man and would raise up the temple; so too He would not allow man to rest in confidence in himself and his own convictions. He knows very well that whatever conviction there may be in man’s mind it will not suffice to hold man in attachment to God. The Lord goes to the bottom of the matter and shows how perfectly He knew how the condition of man is to be met. Christ is the Head and centre of the divine system. “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”. All things are to be brought into reconciliation. Meantime He is the point of attraction to man. He gives us the Spirit to bring us into attachment to Himself. We are to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be the Firstborn among many brethren. It is therefore a matter of immense importance that we should have appreciation of Christ. Paul says, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ”. We want some sense of that. Scripture gives us abundant opportunity. I commend these things to your attention that you may [p. 216] ponder over them — seek to contrast Christ with all that He had to meet with in the circumstances to which I have referred, whether at the marriage supper, or at Jerusalem, or in regard of the many who believed in Him. I think if you ponder over it you will get a little more appreciation of Christ than perhaps you have had hitherto.