FEATURES OF SUBJECTION
Philippians 2:5-8; Matthew 11:28-30; Acts 9:1-22
It was in mind to say something about the feature of subjection. It is a beautiful moral feature. Some of the young ones may have heard the word subjection, and may not be sure exactly what it means. They might ask, is it obedience? Well, it would be true to say that a person who was characteristically subject would also be characteristically obedient. But I think that, in the believer, subjection is a greater moral feature even than obedience, great as that is. It is possible, I suppose, for a person to be obedient and yet insubject. Some of us can remember, when we were young, being asked to do something by our parents, which we did not want to do, and we protested a little, complained about it, and then we were persuaded to do it. Eventually we did it, but maybe we did it in a half-hearted or complaining way. We were ultimately obedient, but not truly subject. I think subjection exists whether there is a command or not – it is a state of soul of being characteristically submissive to another.
It is a beautiful moral feature that God desires to have worked out in each one of us. I suppose we can say simply that as soon as we entered into the world, we were brought into relationship with our parents, and the mind of God for us in that relationship was that we were to be subject to them. We went to school, when we were old enough, and it was right to be subject to our teachers. We left school and went to work, and we are exhorted that servants are to be subject to masters (Titus 2:9); that is subjection proper to that relationship. Then Peter says, “Be in subjection therefore to every human institution” (1 Pet.2:13), so that as recognising that the authorities are set up by God, it is right for us as believers to be in subjection to them. We are to also recognise God’s divinely appointed order – God, Christ, man, woman. Accepting this has in view our blessing, in an ordered arrangement in which God works.
I know what it is to find it a little challenging to be subject sometimes; I know what it is in my own heart to be insubject. We spoke about the flesh in the reading, and there are a number of lists in Scripture. One is in Romans 1, and one of the things we find in that list is “insolent”; it is almost the opposite of being subject. If you look at the dictionary, insubordinate would be another way of describing it. The flesh in us hates subjection, none of us likes it naturally. A little while ago, I had a look at some famous quotations. One of them, which is attributed to Julius Caesar, was when he was passing through a small village in the Alps, and he is reported to have said that he would rather be number one in that small village than number two in Rome. He would rather have had the first place in a smaller sphere than have the second place in a much bigger metropolis. The idea of being in subjection to another was intolerable to him.
When the Lord was here, He spoke to believing Jews about the truth setting them free (John 8:32), and they said, “We are Abraham’s seed, and have never been under bondage to any one” (v.33). At the very time that they spoke those words, the nation of Israel was under the Roman power. What it showed was that the flesh hates the feature of subjection.
We have to see the wisdom of God’s ordering. God has set us all to be subject to our Lord Jesus, He has set wives to be in subjection to their husbands, and He has set children to be subject to their parents, and rightly so. Who loves the child more than its parents? Who loves the wife more than the husband? Who loves any of us more than Christ, the One who gave His life for us, and proved that love by dying for us. Is that not a lever in your soul to desire to be subject to that blessed Man? I was affected by something that Mr Coates said, that subjection is easy when affection rules1. God in that way has made it easy for us. Some of us who are at work may have noticed a trend in the world in that the feature of subjection is being constantly eroded. It is being eroded in the marriage relationship and eroded in the workplace too. God would have us to be brought into subjection, not exactly by force, although in His wisdom sometimes discipline is necessary. I think that one of the ways in which He would operate is to give us eyes to see the moral beauty of subjection. As seeing it, we appreciate it, learn to love it, and as loving it and appreciating it, to be formed in it so that He might bring it into display in myriads of souls in all its beauty, for His glory eternally.
As with every other beautiful moral feature, we must start with the Lord Jesus, which is why I read in Philippians 2. What lends a peculiar lustre to His subjection is the truth of who He is; “subsisting in the form of God”. He came into a relationship of subjection as taking manhood’s form, and yet He was none other than God Himself, the Creator of the worlds. What a blessed Person He is, and He came in and took a bondman’s form: He came to serve. He said “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God thy will”, Heb.10:7. There was a Man here for the pleasure of God who did nothing other than the will of God. In Him there was never an insubject thought or word or deed, but everything was in perfect consonance with the mind of His Father. It was so all through His life. We can read about Him in Luke 2 at the age of twelve; it says in verse 51 “And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he was in subjection to them”. I have often thought of the moral glory of that. Mary was a fine spiritual and subject woman herself, and Joseph too had many fine features, admirable features, but they were sinners just like you and me. Here was the Lord of glory, the Creator of the worlds, and yet He was pleased in divine ordering to accept the place in which He had been set, filling it out for the glory of God, and being in subjection to His parents. It is morally beautiful; does it not make your heart go out towards Him?
In Matthew chapter 11, He could say “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. That yoke was to do the will of God. He could say that His yoke was easy, and His burden was light, and He could also say, “learn from me”. During the week we sang Hymn 230, and the last verse says:
‘We wonder at Thy lowly mind,
And fain would like Thee be,
And all our rest and pleasure find
In learning, Lord, from Thee’.
In Psalm 40, it could be said prophetically of the Lord, “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight” (v.8). The will of God was not an onerous thing for the Lord Jesus. He could say “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, John 4:34. That was His food; it was what sustained Him, and it was a joy to Him to do it. He could say too, “take me not away in the midst of my days!”, Ps.102:24. He loved those days, the days of His flesh, enjoying perfect communion with the Father. He came into a body that was prepared for Him, and in that body He fulfilled the will of God. He could say “learn from me” – as it were, see how I have done it – and then He said “and ye shall find rest to your souls”. We can experience that. If we are exercised to move in subjection to the will of God, we will find rest in our souls as we come into the conscious sense that we are doing God’s will and that we are here in the circumstances and the relationships in which we are set, which are for our blessing and our education. We will not only find rest, but I believe we will find our pleasure in doing the will of God. Another has said from experience that the happiest moments of his life were those when he was conscious of doing nothing else but the will of God. What a blessed matter; may we be helped in it.
In Isaiah 50 it says, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed” (v.4). Every day the Lord Jesus waited for the instruction for that day. In John 11, there was a day in which the word would have come to Him that Lazarus was ill. His instruction for that day would have been to stay where He was, and the next day His instruction would have been to remain where He was. Then when He went to the tomb, Jesus was deeply troubled and moved in His spirit. He even wept as seeing what death had brought in on those whom He loved, but what this brings out is the perfect subjection of the Lord Jesus. He remained in perfect subjection, knowing what the effect would be on those that He loved, the sorrow that would enter into their hearts and the loss. Most of us have known what bereavement is, and it is sorrowful, but He was here in perfect subjection to His Father’s will.
In Philippians 2, it says as to Him “becoming obedient even unto death”. The Lord Jesus did not become obedient in the way that you and I have to become obedient. We become obedient because initially we are disobedient by nature and we have to learn obedience. He learned obedience, but He learned it in a different way; He learned obedience because it was a new experience for Him. As the Creator, He was used to command, but He came into a relationship in wonderful lowly grace; obedience was proper to that relationship. “He learned obedience from the things which he suffered”, Heb.5:8. How great was His obedience – He was “obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. The Lord Jesus would die rather than be disobedient to the divine word. What lengths that obedience led Him to go to, and then it says in that verse in Isaiah 50, “The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not away back”. So in the garden of Gethsemane, when He faced in His holy soul what lay ahead in those hours of suffering, what lay ahead of Him at the hands of men, He prayed all the more intently and then He could say “not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22:42. It was not that His will would ever have been in any way different to the will of His God and Father, not at all, but subjection must be maintained and the will of God must be done whatever it cost. It cost His life; He went into death in full obedience.
That scripture in Isaiah goes on to say, “I gave my back to smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isa.50:6), a prophetic utterance in relation to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus at the hands of men. He not only submitted to it, but it says, “I gave my back to smiters”. Speaking carefully about such a holy matter, it speaks to me of a perfect subjection and all the suffering that it involved. Even as going into death, He could say, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”, John 10:17,18. How His subjection shines in all its glory! Then in 1 Corinthians 15, we get the end, and what it shows is that His subjection will exist for the pleasure of God eternally. “But when all things shall have been brought into subjection to him, then the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection to him”, that is to God, “who put all things in subjection to him, that God may be all in all” (v.28). God will have that wonderful feature of subjection, which is being wrought out in our souls at the present time, for His pleasure for all eternity. Wonderful matter!
But the question for us is, What about now? We can look at the Lord Jesus and see the perfection that was in Him, for He never had a contrary will that had to be broken. But I read in Acts of Paul – a man of the same order naturally as we are, of Adam’s order as we speak of it, with like passions to ourselves (Jas.5:17). As Saul, he was a great man in the Jewish system. He could speak of his history, and looking back on it, he went over what he had been – a self-willed man, an “insolent overbearing man”, 1 Tim.1:13. Subjection would not have been seen in him naturally. When he went over this account in Acts 26, he said, “I indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaræan” (v.9). The verse just brims with self-will! Saul was breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, and as he drew near to Damascus the Lord intervened and a light shone out of heaven. Falling on the earth, he heard a voice out of heaven saying “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”, and he said, “Who art thou, Lord?”. Mr Darby said that, at that moment, Saul’s career of self-will was ended for ever2. What a remarkable matter, but what about my career of self-will – is it ended? I challenge my own heart. But what was the word going to be for Saul? The word to him in this chapter was, “But rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. Saul was going to come under the authority of Another now. There were persons who formed the assembly of God in that city who were already in subjection to the Lord Jesus. The Lord did not say to him, Go into the city and decide what you would like to do. No, He said “rise up and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. The Lord was going to direct Saul now, and who was He going to use to do that? He was going to use His own people in that place to direct him. Note that it is not ‘what thou mayest do’, it is “what thou must do”. Saul’s will was not to enter into it at all. If he was going to come into blessing in the assembly, he had to come into subjection to Another.
And so it says, “And Saul rose up from the earth, and his eyes being opened he saw no one. But leading him by the hand they brought him into Damascus”. Saul was a great man in Judaism, educated according to the exactness of the law, exceedingly zealous, in the strictest sect of the religion – the Pharisees. He went beyond many of his contemporaries. He would have had a reputation for his knowledge of the Scriptures; you might say he would have had renown in that. But if he was going to come into the assembly, if he was going to become part of that vessel which is said to be subjected to the Christ (Eph.5:24), he was going to have to be led by the hand. That was a humbling thing – it would require lowliness. Jesus said, “Come to me ... and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart”. Saul was going to be led by others. Later, he had regard for those who were in Christ before him (Rom.16:7). I do not know if we get elsewhere in Scripture anything said of the disciples in Damascus except Ananias, but Paul would be able to say of every one of them that they were in Christ before him. Do we have regard for those who were in Christ before us? Do we have regard for those who have been before us in the way and have showed us the way, and stood for things in the way? I believe Paul did, and it is fitting that we should be subject too. “Likewise ye younger, be subject to the elder” (1 Pet.5:5); it is fitting in the place into which we have been brought that we should be in subjection, firstly to the Lord, and then to His people.
We see something of subjection in Ananias too. When he was first told about Saul by the Lord and He let him know what He was doing, understandably Ananias had some reservations. He had heard of what Saul was doing, and no doubt he would have been in fear of his life. How Ananias must have felt the fact that some dear believers had been dragged off by Saul, compelled to blaspheme, put to death, and Saul had given his vote. What terrible things these dear believers went through. But Ananias was both obedient and subject. If he had been only obedient, and not subject, I do not think that he would have addressed Saul when he came to him as “Saul, brother”. It shows that Ananias was brought into line with what the Lord was doing. You could understand him asking a question, but then the Lord adjusted him. Ananias was adjustable, and he said, “Saul, brother”, to one who had been a persecutor. I think Ananias’ subjection is seen in the way he addresses one that the Lord was working with. What a wonderful thing that is. May we be helped to be formed in that feature.
We read on about Saul; “straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God” and then in verse 22 it says, “But Saul increased the more in power, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this is the Christ”. It was not long after his conversion that he was doing this, “proving that this is the Christ”. Paul made quick progress. I do not know how you feel about your progress; I know mine has been very slow and halting, but Paul made quick progress. One of the reasons that he made quick progress, I believe, was that the feature of subjection was wrought in his soul as the truth came to him. He was with “the disciples who were in Damascus certain days”. No doubt the truth would be spoken over, the glory of the Lord Jesus and all that pertains to Him. Light would have come into Saul’s soul as to these things and he would have been exercised to be governed by that light. That is the way in which divine Persons work with us. They give us light as to something and then the great test is, will I be subject to that truth so that it will practically govern me in my thoughts and in my walk and in what I say, in every way? If we are exercised in that direction, dear brother and dear sister, divine support will not fail. It will be available in order that we might come into accord with the truth as to our practical lives in every way. As we do, we will get fresh light, and be led along that way and make quick progress, just as Saul did. It says of the saints in Rome that they had “obeyed from the heart the form of teaching” into which they had been instructed (Rom.6:17); not just their minds, but they had “obeyed from the heart” – they were characteristically subject to it. It has been said that the basis was laid in their hearts for God’s operations3. Has that basis been laid in your heart? Has it been laid in mine? Dear brethren, it is for our blessing. God has a great ordered system, and subjection is necessary with a view to realising the blessing that God has in mind for every believer.
In closing, I wanted to say a word about Naaman, “captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man before his master, and honourable, for by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria; and he was a mighty man of valour, but a leper”, 2 Kings 5:1. He had a matter that required to be addressed. You might not have picked Naaman as an example of one who was characterised by subjection, and I can understand why anyone might think that. But he gets the word through the little maid and he takes it upon himself to follow it, and he gets this word from the man of God. The word is “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean”. But Naaman had his own ideas about how the matter might be met; he says in verse 11, “Behold I thought, He will certainly come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper”. He thought, that is the way I think it should be done. Or, if it has to be done this way, “Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean? And he turned and went away in a rage”. He had his own ideas about how the matter was going to be met. But his servants were skilful, they knew their master, and they said, “My father, if the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he says to thee, Wash and be clean?”. He was persuaded to take the divinely appointed way. Would any of us have been saved if we had not taken the divinely appointed way? I do not believe so. “Then he went down, and plunged himself seven times in the Jordan”. He did not go and dip his toe in; no, it says that he plunged himself. I think that when he was finally persuaded, his subjection to the word was ultimately wholehearted. The word was, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean”. The promise was that he would be restored, but what is the result? “And his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child”. The result was that his latter condition was even better than his former; there was gain from the whole exercise.
I feel the challenge of it in my own heart. Am I prepared to become subject to the Lord? Am I prepared to be subject to His word? Am I prepared to be subject to His people? I believe that the way to healing is whole-hearted subjection to the Lord Jesus and to His people, and I also believe that the end result of that will not only be gain for us, but gain for the Lord eternally.
May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Glasgow
27 August 2017
C.J. McKay