CHRIST AS LAST ADAM, IN KNOWLEDGE AND IN GIVING
[p. 228] CHRIST AS LAST ADAM, IN KNOWLEDGE AND IN GIVING
My thought is to continue on the line which has been already before us, and a little further to present Christ in contrast to man. We have a striking point of contrast in this chapter, for all that comes out in detail is the contrast of the last Adam to the first; that lies underneath. We are told in 1 Corinthians 15, “The last Adam is a life-giving Spirit”, and in this chapter the Lord speaks of the living water which He would give. One may assume therefore that there is in this scripture a point of contrast as between the first Adam and the last, between man, as man, and Christ. By man came death — death comes in at the end of the chapter — by man came also the resurrection of the dead. I take up two points — one is, as to knowledge; and the other, as to gift. The two things come out in a striking way. The chapter presents Jesus to us as the Christ, the Prophet that should come into the world, and I think the moral idea connected with the Christ is of the One who has accomplished peace, so that He might communicate to man the gift of living water. He is the life-giving Spirit, the Head of every man, wisdom for every man, who communicates living water to whosoever will. Adam could communicate nothing; though all those begotten of Adam were begotten in his likeness, he could not communicate anything. The first man Adam was made a living soul; he had not life in himself. The last Adam is a life-giving Spirit, and the thought of a life-giving Spirit is of One who can make alive, and the way in which we are made live by the last Adam is in the communication to us of the living water. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.
[p. 229] The first point I speak about is that of knowledge. It is not the revelation of God that we see in this chapter, that was in the previous chapter. I was speaking last time of the superiority of Christ as seen in that chapter. He could say, “We speak that we know, and testify that we have seen”. He was the Son of man which is in heaven and what He had seen He testified, and what He testified was what was in God. He knew what was in God, and consequently we get the mind of God brought out. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. John the baptist speaks in the same sense at the close of the chapter. He says, “What he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth”. But he adds, no one receives His testimony. No man can know what is in God except by the Spirit of God. A man may know certain things about himself. Adam could not know God as we do; he knew the goodness of God, but was not capable of knowing God. You do not know God by faith; you believe certain things which are in the mind of God with reference to man; for instance, if God makes known His grace in regard to man in forgiveness of sins, man can take that in, because it refers to himself; but as to the question of knowing God, no man is able for that except by the Spirit of God. The mind of man cannot soar above the things of man. We can and do know a great deal by the Spirit of God; but the mind of man in itself cannot go beyond the things of man. It is in that way that in the previous chapter we see the greatness of the Lord; He could say, “We speak that we know”. He knew all that was in the mind of God.
But this chapter brings out the truth of what we read in the end of chapter 2, “He knew what was in man”. Christ knew not only what was in God, but what was in man. Now no man knows what is in man. The Lord knew what was in man, because He [p. 230] knew perfectly what was in God. The woman of Samaria says, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” The Lord knew what was in her and everything about her, and she felt that she was searched; she said to Him, “I perceive that thou art a prophet”. She was conscious that the Lord knew everything about her circumstances, history and surroundings. He knew her perfectly because He knew God perfectly, and the principle holds good in regard to us. It is the man that knows God who knows himself; no man knows himself until he is outside himself, and the only way you can be outside yourself is by knowing God. I have sometimes said I do not believe in other men because I do not believe in myself. There are plenty of people in the world who would be benefactors to man; they have confidence in man, but this proves to me, that they have confidence in themselves. The Lord knew the woman perfectly. The woman was lawless, that is what the Lord detected. She had had five husbands, and the one she now had was not her husband. With lawlessness there was confusion, very terrible confusion in her case; she had contributed materially to the confusion in the world. Wherever there is lawlessness there is bound to be confusion. In society there is a terrible deal of lawlessness, and pretty much of this character; and where there is lawlessness people contribute to the confusion of the world. There is another thing, lawlessness is bound to bring in controversy, because God will have to say to man; controversy and confusion forbid the idea of peace. Peace is where controversy and confusion are brought to an end. “There is no peace for the wicked”. There is still another thing in connection with man which the Lord knew perfectly, and that is unbelief. That comes out in the nobleman at the end of the chapter. The Lord says, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe”. Unbelief marks man as man is.
[p. 231] Man is lawless. By lawlessness he has brought confusion in, and there is, and must be, with lawlessness the principle of unbelief. We get the warning in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 3: 12, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God”. Now the Lord knew this; he knew all things perfectly in regard to the woman, and all that he speaks was of that knowledge.
Another point in connection with that is, the Lord could speak about giving living water, because He had the power to meet all these things. This is very important as connected with Christ’s knowledge. I do not think the Lord would have had any kind of pleasure in bringing to light all that was in man if He could not have met it. It is a poor thing to expatiate upon evil if you cannot meet it. But in regard of man I say, Where is the man that knows his fellow-man? The most far-sighted men in the world, those who assume to be leaders in a moral point of view, philosophers, and people of that description, do not know man. And the secret of it is that they do not know themselves, and they do not know themselves because they are not outside themselves; they do not know God, and their ideas will be entirely at fault, because they assume that there are capabilities in man which do not exist, that is my impression. It is a common idea in the present day that the condition of the world may be greatly improved by education and by placing people — especially what may be called the degraded classes — in better conditions of living. I have no doubt the condition materially may be greatly improved, and that education may in a sense tend to lessen crime, but education and improved conditions of living will never meet lawlessness, and therefore the confusion will remain. It may come out in another way, but it will remain. And another thing will increase with education and improved conditions of [p. 232] living, and that is the disintegration of society. The bonds by which classes have been hitherto bound together have been greatly dissolved by increasing education. The truth is, that all that man can do in that direction does not meet the question of lawlessness. And where lawlessness is confusion will be, and controversy and unbelief. All the theories of man with regard to social improvement are built up on the idea of capability in man, and there is not moral capability in man. Certain gross things that take place in the world may be put to shame, but the idea of moral capability in man is a mistake; nothing that man can do will touch the root question, which is lawlessness.
Now, as I said before, the Lord saw perfectly into the woman. There was controversy between herself and God, as of course there must be where there is lawlessness. Why do you think the Lord brought the woman’s history to light? why did He say to her, “Thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband”? Some would say, Because He wanted to arouse her conscience, but that is not the only reason; to my mind He brought it to light because He was going to meet it all. Whatever the Lord brought to light in regard to evil in man He was going to meet. He alone could meet it. And the way He took to meet it was entirely according to God, by bringing all to an end, bringing man to an end in order that He might communicate to man living water. There is an intimate connection between what Christ knew in regard to man, and what He was capable of meeting. He could accomplish the will of God in bearing all that lay upon man by the judgment of God, in order to bring that man to an end in the cross, that He might communicate the gift of the Spirit, so that man might pass out by one door, but come in by another. Every one passes out by one door, the death of Christ, but comes in by another, that is by the living water that Christ gives.
[p. 233] Evidently we have a great contrast between Christ and man. It is perfectly certain to my mind that no man knows his fellow, for the simple reason that he does not know himself. The Christian can say, “For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing”. If I were not outside the flesh, in the knowledge of God, I could not say that. If I do say it, I add, In another person’s flesh dwells no good thing.
That leads me to another point, that is, Christ as the Giver, and there again I would point out the contrast between Christ and man. I was saying that we get in the chapter an implied contrast between the last Adam and the first. “Man was made a living soul”. He had nothing to give. All he had was what God had made him. A man of the world can only give what he has acquired. He can give wealth, colossal gifts in that way, but he must have acquired it. He has not got it naturally. So, too, man can bestow on other men works of art and genius, but then he must have acquired skill in that line of things in order to give, and for the reason that every man comes into the world naked, he possesses nothing. Another point in regard to man is, that he cannot give to another what will reinstate that man morally. A man might give to a poor man what would take that man out of his circumstances, but he could not give to a fallen man what would reinstate that man morally. All the giving of man is subject to limitations. When we come to the last Adam the first principle of His giving is, He gives what is of Himself. He does not give what He has acquired. In one sense He has acquired the right to give, but what He gives is of Himself. I take living water to be essentially of Himself. “The last Adam is a life-giving Spirit”. He can give living water, because He has terminated in death the lawless man that brought in confusion. But Christ gives what is of Himself. Now that is a point of the greatest possible importance when you [p. 234] consider that Christ is the Son of God; to think that He can give what is of Himself. I can go a point higher, If He gives that which is of Himself, He gives that which is of God. Living water is of Himself, but then that is of God. It is the Spirit of God. The Lord opens the question with the woman here in saying, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”.
There is the strongest possible contrast between the giving of Christ and the giving of man, even at the best. But there is another point in regard to the giving of Christ, and that is, He gives what will reinstate man morally. And I go a step further than that. He gives what can set up man morally in a position in which he never was before. Man is reinstated morally, that idea is clearly maintained in Scripture. “Christ suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. Man is reinstated, you get that principle, too, in the prodigal in Luke, he was reinstated with the Father. The fact of man being reinstated with God is not inconsistent with the idea of man being brought into a position in which he never was before. Man is recovered for God. No one can gainsay that. He is not brought back in the way in which be left God; when brought to God he is clad in the best robe, the ring is on his hand, and the shoes on his feet. But he is brought back. I connect ‘reinstated’ with the thought of the living water. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. The first principle in connection with the living water is that a man is brought into the kingdom of God, under the moral sway of God. If man is brought under the moral sway of God he is reinstated with God. There is an end of lawlessness when man is brought into attachment to Christ, which he is by [p. 235] the living water. He is brought back to God, because Christ is God. Everything depends upon Christ being God. If Christ were not man, we could not be brought into attachment to Him by the Spirit. But by the fact of being attached to Him by the Spirit we are brought to God. The Lord taught in Matthew 18, that men were to receive the kingdom as little children, and the effect of receiving the kingdom was that they entered into it. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I regard that as a point of paramount importance, because no man is set free of the world so long as he is subject to the lawlessness of the world; and no man can be liberated from the lawlessness of the world except by the establishment of divine authority in his conscience. The Spirit is given in order that the authority of the Lord may be established in the conscience of the believer. And so the believer is maintained in the fear of the Lord, and then he has security. I tremble for young people, they are exposed to great evil in the world, but I know that if the authority of the Lord is established and maintained in their souls by the Spirit of God they are safe. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it, and is safe”. The great preservative is the fear of the Lord. The contrast to it is the fear of man. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a great security.
I come to another point. By the Spirit of God, the living water, the believer finds himself in another moral atmosphere, an atmosphere which is entirely dependent on Christ. If you have not Christ, you have no moral atmosphere but what is very corrupt. A foul atmosphere arises from corruption and decomposition. Depend upon it there is a very foul moral atmosphere in the world on account of the corruption there. But in Christ an atmosphere has been brought in in which the Christian can live. It is a pure atmosphere. I see it in the little company that surrounded [p. 236] the Lord Jesus when here. The moral atmosphere of that society entirely depended upon the Lord Himself, and the disciples breathed a pure atmosphere. Nothing corrupting came into that circle. Everything defiling was rebuked by the presence of Christ Himself. My conviction is, though I could not exactly prove it to you, that there is still such a thing as a pure atmosphere here, and if you ask me where it is to be found, I say it is where Christ is the centre. There is a circle here of which Christ is the centre, and there must be there a pure atmosphere, because the presence of Christ would be the rebuke of anything corrupting or defiling. The point for us is that we should be in that pure atmosphere. I cannot exactly tell you where it may be found, except in saying, it is found in the region of the Spirit, because the region of the Spirit is morally Christ. You will not get health or vigour spiritually if you do not breathe a wholesome and pure atmosphere. People do not care to live in an atmosphere arising from corruption, naturally they are careful enough to secure a pure atmosphere. Well, we want a pure atmosphere morally. There is a region in which the atmosphere is of Christ, and those who breathe that atmosphere will be sound and vigorous spiritually. I like to talk about the region of the Spirit, for many of us have sought in these days to get free from organisations which have originated with man and to enter into the region of the Spirit. In the region of the Spirit there is divine light, the revelation of God in such wise as that it is available. It is there to gladden the eyes, so that God is known and delighted in, “In thy light we shall see light”. “God has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light”. When the Lord was here, do you think the disciples would have gone to the chief priests or the scribes to get light? They knew that all light was in Christ; so now all light is in the region of the Spirit. All is the result to us of [p. 237] the living water that Christ gives. It springs up in us; it enables us to apprehend and to enter into conditions which have been brought about by the advent of Christ. Had not Christ come there would not have been the kingdom of God. There would not have been a moral atmosphere, and there would have been no light of God. The present is essentially for us a time of education. It will not fit you for heaven, but for the world to come; to fulfil our function then we have to be educated. Everything is assured to us, the Lord Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die”. The believer is not going into the grave to be out of everything; he is to be raised up at the last day, that is the great day. It is possible, on the other hand, you may never die at all. “He that liveth and believeth on me shall never die”. We are brought at the present time into blessing. It is a great thing to gain an apprehension of that system of blessing of which Christ is the centre, of the “all things” which are centred in Christ, the Sun of righteousness, and to understand the function assigned to the church, as the heavenly city, in that great system. We have entered into the conditions in which eternal life consists, into the kingdom, the moral atmosphere, and the light of God. We increase in the knowledge of God and in holiness, and by the light of God.
May God give you grace to meditate upon what I have attempted to present to you, that is, the contrast of Christ to every man. In chapter 2 He could do more for man than man could do for himself; man destroys and Christ raises up. In chapter 3 He could say, “We speak that we do know”; man could not say that, he has no entrance into the knowledge of God naturally. Christ knew perfectly what was in man because He knew perfectly what was in God. He took account of what was in man, not to judge him,
[p. 238] but to bring it to an end in order that the Spirit might be communicated to man, that the Spirit should be a well of water springing up in the believer unto everlasting life. We have to accept the death of Christ in regard of ourselves; and we have part in it in order that we may come in by another door. Not only are you reinstated for God, but you are brought into things which for man are entirely new.