COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS - PART II

COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS — PART II

Romans 8:14-17; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 2:18-22

In these passages we see that the effect of the Holy Spirit in the believer is to lead him to the Father, and this has to be distinguished from entering the holiest. We have in Hebrews the idea of entering the holiest, drawing near to God, whereas in Ephesians what we have is access to the Father. The first has reference to the covenant, to God, whereas the second is the family thought, drawing near to the Father.

We ought to be prepared for the family thought. It implies the greatest privilege, for it abides, it goes on for ever. We have the complete thought presented in John 14, the Father’s house. The Father’s house has to be distinguished from the house of God. The house of God has reference to what is down here; the Father’s house has reference to what is up there.

There is a distinction between access to the Father and entrance into the holiest. Entrance into the holiest is connected with the mediatorial system. It is “having an high priest over the house of God”, and “Having ... boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”; that is, the blood of the covenant. Having these, “Let us draw near”, Hebrews 10. It is a mediatorial system, in connection with which the covenant stands, whereas the Father is a family name, and those who have access stand in relationship to Him and approach Him by the ^[p. 421] Spirit, not by the blood of Jesus, see Ephesians 2: 18 and Hebrews 10: 19.

The mediatorial system appears in the wilderness. It was set up at Horeb, whereas access to the Father corresponds more to entrance into Canaan, where priesthood and the blood are not in evidence. Leviticus opens up the thought of approach to God, and that is what is alluded to in Hebrews, and took place in the wilderness. The believer is looked at as having come out of Egypt, as having had a previous history in responsibility in Egypt, a sinful history and sinful associations. Now he is seen as having title to enter into the holiest of all, but it is by the blood and by the priest. Hence it is as one of the people that you have to do with entering; but when you come to the Father the thought of the blood is dropped. Of course it has its place foundationally, but it is connected with the covenant. You enter into the presence of the Father on the ground of family relationship, and it is by the Spirit. In the history of our souls of course both go on together, but I think you can understand that approaching God on the ground of the blood is one thing, and approaching on the ground of family relationship another.

In the tabernacle there was just the ark in the holiest, indicating what Christ was under God’s eye as Man. Within the ark there was the testimony, the law, which represented the will of God, and of course the cherubim were there looking towards the mercy-seat; that is, Christ had the law in His heart. So that, entering into the holiest, what you find there is a Man entirely different from what you are accustomed to outside. You are accustomed to lawless men outside, whereas inside you are accustomed to a Man who does God’s will, His pleasure is in God’s will, so that He is totally different from the man you are accustomed to outside. Hence, when you get in there, your mind is altered about everything,

^[p. 422] and you form an accurate judgment of what is outside. “Until I entered unto the sanctuary”, says the Psalmist, “then understood I their end”. Inside He saw a Man that was to abide. Of course He is the Son of God, but it is the Man who carried out God’s will whom you see there, and we gather from that that all other men are to go, for he says, “then understood I their end”, meaning that all other men have to come to an end. Only that order of Man is to remain.

When you come to the Father, He Himself is in view, that is, as revealed by the Son, and also the Son, and the brethren; the Spirit being the power subjectively by which we draw near.

Approach or having access to the holiest is as individuals, as I understand it. Each one has the title to draw near on the ground of the blood. The Spirit is connected with it as power, because it says by the new and living way. We require power in our souls for it. It is what we see there that enables us to form a judgment as to what is outside. There we learn the divine mind about everything.

In having access to the Father, there is this difference that we have the idea of “two” there. We “both”, it reads, through Him have access to the Father by one Spirit. But whether it be entering into the holiest, or entering into the Father’s presence, it certainly has an individual application, because each one has to enter. Only, when you come to the Father it is as “worshippers”, John 4: 23. Sonship as to us is usually in the plural — “sons”. And so in Ephesians we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Of course that is Jew and Gentile, but the plural is there.

There is a difference between the holiest and the sanctuary. The holiest (literally, “Holy of holies”, Hebrews 9: 3) was inside the second veil of the tabernacle: it represented the immediate presence of ^[p. 423] God. The sanctuary generally included the whole tabernacle. In Psalm 73:17 the word is in the plural. The sanctuaries of God necessarily include the most holy place. Thus while the sanctuary is a wider thought, the holiest is exclusive. The holiest is where Christ is seen as the Man who carried out God’s will down here. It is the ark with the law in it, and the law signified God’s will and that was in Christ’s heart. The one predominating thought in His heart was to carry out God’s will. His delight was in it, not simply as a matter of duty. That is the kind of Man that is inside, and one deduces from that that all other men have to go, because, although the Psalmist learned himself, he also judged others. He said, “then understood I their end”, hence it is obvious that God is not going on with a Man that is inside and a man that is outside, though it does appear sometimes as if we could go on with them both. That is, we assume we have title to enter the holiest, and yet we go on with the man outside as well. Now that is not consistent. God went on with the man outside until Christ appeared, and in Christ here God graciously presented to men in Him His thought in manhood, but men refused it; they preferred to retain the old. Now Christ is no longer in public evidence; He is inside the veil, and we go in there and learn in Him God’s thought, and come out with a true judgment of what is here. Hence I do not think any man has a right judgment of things in this world unless he has been in the holiest.

In the types the holiest was both in the tabernacle and the temple, and will appear in the millennium, as Ezekiel shows: it marks the assembly’s place, the holy place referring to Israel. But viewing the wilderness and the land (meaning the heavenly position) as applying to the believer now, the holiest is properly connected with the wilderness.

As we come together for the Lord’s supper we ^[p. 424] should be led on to access to the Father. Entering the holiest is a matter of light; a question really of the apprehension you have of Christ in the presence of God. Having a High Priest over the house of God you feel quite free to look at Christ, and consider Him as near to Him, not at a distance, also as He is as Man before God now.

This enables us to understand how God brings everything to pass; we get divine secrets there. We learn that in Christ as Man, God has before Him the means of bringing everything to pass for His pleasure, and understand how His thoughts will be realised. But then we have to come out again into the world, which is the very opposite of all that, and we come out with a true judgment of what is outside.

As we enter the holiest we are enabled to judge as to what we are in the flesh. We do not forget what the flesh is in us. The Psalmist, for instance, learned it. He says, “I was as a beast before thee”,

Psalm 73: 22. But he did not have that judgment before he went in. Moreover, he learned what other men were, and what their end would be. The mind of the believer is adjusted in regard to present conditions by the holiest, and thus he can understand how God can bring His thoughts to pass in spite of present conditions, because He has a Man who does His will. We get light for the wilderness in the holiest. We are adjusted as to everything, and our way is clear and we see the end of all down here. We form a moral judgment of everything that exists in this world.

Our conduct in the wilderness is governed by what we have learned inside. It is the secret of our course. Men do not understand our course, and it is quite impossible for us to explain it to them. Nothing is so difficult, in a way, as to try and explain our position to men who are “beasts”; that is, those who have no intelligence, because such are those who have not entered the holiest. “I was as a beast”, says the Psalmist, “before thee”. So the apostle refers to unregenerate men as senseless, and nothing is more difficult than to explain our course to such people.

The fact is, we cannot do it. We have to endure the reproach attaching to a position that seems unreasonable. We seem to be unreasonable because we cannot vote, we cannot join in military service, we cannot assist the nation, and so forth. It is unreasonable to those who have not entered the holiest, but it is not unreasonable to those who have entered; it is the most reasonable thing, it is the only course.

On that ground you suffer the reproach of Christ. You take the course with a firm tread because you have been inside. You have no doubt about it. It is thus imperative to go inside, because we must have the mind of God; we can then step forward; we have no doubt at all about our path; but are prepared to suffer for it.

The effect of entering the holiest would be seen in what we do and say as we come together in assembly for the Lord’s supper. That is, we act in accord with it. Your hymn and your giving of thanks, indeed, everything you do would be spiritually intelligent. That is how it comes out. One can discern a man who has been inside; he knows what to do. Where did he learn it? He learned it from Christ. Those who act and speak at the Lord’s supper disclose whether they have been in or not; but the Supper is outside, not inside.

You learn in the holiest both the ways of God and the purpose of God. You learn how His thoughts are brought about. They are brought about in a Man who has pleasure in carrying out God’s will; that is really the secret of how God brings it to pass. And where do you see that Man? You see Him inside. But then you also learn there what has been brought about, and which abides for ever. Thus you ^[p. 426] not only know how to regard what is in the world and how to walk through it, but you know what is in God’s world; what He is in the assembly and how to serve Him there.

Romans 8 lays the basis for Ephesians. It is the spirit of things in Romans 8, but in Ephesians you get the things themselves. But the point as to the holiest is most important for us. You will always see in what a man does and says, whether he has been inside or not. The most of us learn from people who have been inside; but why should not each one go inside?

Mary in Luke 10 was listening, and she sat at Jesus’ feet. In that way she learned what kind of a Man He was. Necessarily that would be reflected in her. Intelligence was seen in what she did. So with all of us. A man who has been inside knows how to act in the assembly, and in every sphere, but particularly in the divine sphere. He knows what to do, and he does not mix things. He is governed by the light that governs the position. Whatever the position may be, he recognises that there is a light governing that position, and he is governed by that light.

When it is a question of approach to the Father it is much more intimate. Priesthood is not so evident. The Father stands in relation to the family. The mediatorial system as set up at Horeb contemplated the existence of sin, but that the service of God should proceed notwithstanding. We come into the antitype, as we learn in Hebrews. It is provisional in view of actual conditions in which the people of God are found. In spite of these conditions they are enabled through it to enter on their eternal portion now, and able to worship the Father. While it is clear that mediatorship in Christ does not cease, for men must in all circumstances be in relation to God through it, yet what provides ^[p. 427] against sin and its results will necessarily be needless when all things are of God.

In the verses read in Ephesians the apostle is treating of what Christians already come into, as a present enjoyment; it shows that we may enter now into the sphere of privilege. We shall be taken to the Father’s house, John 14, but already, in the power of the Spirit, we have access to the Father. The family thought for us is connected with heaven; when sons are spoken of, the objective is glory. God is “bringing many sons to glory”, Hebrews 2: 10.

In the Lord’s supper the breaking of bread is from the side of Christ to bring His love to us: it brings Christ to us so that He obtains a place in the heart. The Lord is recognised as having a place in the heart, and then you get the movement from our side. He comes to us, as it were, in the Supper; and then He takes a place in relation to us which implies another movement. In the cup, which is the new covenant in His blood, He is on God’s side, and He impresses us with the love of God, which liberates us, and then He takes a place on our side and leads us to the Father. He is our Head. The Lord becomes leader, and that necessarily refers to the Father, so that you come into what is eternal and heavenly for the moment.

The mediatorial system as we have spoken of it effects adjustment of everything for us in regard to the present mixed condition of things here, whereas, having to do with the Father implies what is eternal, the Spirit being the power in us for access to Him. In Hebrews access is by the blood, but while the blood is mentioned in Ephesians 2 as making us nigh, it is by the Spirit through Christ we approach the Father.

Referring to the Supper, it is clearly connected with the covenant. Hence it is connected with what is mediatorial. It effects adjustment, so that we ^[p. 428] are free to take up family relationships. The cup is the new covenant in Christ’s blood.

It is most important to remark that we cannot hold in our minds both thoughts at the same time. The conditions connected with the holiest as in the wilderness are distinct from the conditions connected with the Father. This is sometimes overlooked. Hence we find in the meetings hymns about the Father introduced at the beginning, taking us forward beyond what is immediately before us. We ought to go on with what is immediately before us, and be governed by the light that governs that position. You go on with that, and you recognise how Christ has given up the body in which He carried out God’s will here. We must remember that the Lord Jesus had pleasure in carrying out God’s will. He gave up that body in devoting Himself for our sakes, and God gave Him up for our sakes. So you have God and Christ in their love for us presented to us in the Supper. All that ought to affect our hearts in regard to God and in regard to Christ. All that being gone through in our souls, there is conscious adjustment, and in virtue of that adjustment we are prepared for family relations.

You contemplate the body of Christ. “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” That is a serious thing to consider. How are you eating it? Do you discern that body? Many, the apostle says, eat and drink, not discerning the Lord’s body. In discerning the body you learn in your soul what is for God’s pleasure, in the One who carried out God’s will, and that challenges you. So also when you come to the cup, it refers to the life of Christ, and what that life was for God here on earth; it was given up. That touches the heart. God gave up that life for us. Hence it is said to be “the new covenant in my blood”. It is Christ viewed in His devoted life as Man on earth. God ^[p. 429] gave up that, and that was a real sacrifice on God’s part. God’s side is thus seen in the cup, because it refers to what is in God’s heart for us.

I was thinking of the sons of Jacob. They said to Joseph that they were honest men, the sons of one man, and they were twelve brethren, but they had to say, “one is not”. They were tested in Joseph’s presence. We come out as true men in the adjustment which the Supper suggests. That is one effect of it, and we must have that side first. We must have the idea of God and man before Him rightly adjusted in our souls and minds, and that adjustment is to be maintained. They said, “Thy servants were twelve brethren”. When you come to brethren and father you have the family thought. The Lord comes in at the Supper, and as coming in He is the Firstborn. He is the Firstborn among many brethren. It is in that connection that you come into the family affections. It is as we are each adjusted by the breaking of bread, in discerning the Lord’s body, that the Lord can take His place in the midst. It comes about in that way.

I think it is of great importance to have clearly in our souls the idea of being true men; that is, men of Christ’s order. The box may be considered as very trivial; but it becomes an opportunity for a true man to show himself, to show just how much he has been affected by what God is. That is our side of the covenant. God’s side is that He has given up that precious life for us. Now, what are you going to give up? So the box becomes an occasion to show how much we are affected. It comes in in connection with what is righteous down here; what a man ought to be down here in the light of what Christ was down here.

The box is in the nature of sacrifice. It shows how much you are affected by what God has done. “For God loveth a cheerful giver”. You give liberally.

^[p. 430] God enters into that more than we think. It is not that He attaches any value to the money itself, but He attaches value to what is behind it, to what leads you to give. The widow put in all that she had, and the Lord greatly valued that.

In a meeting where the brethren were true they would have no difficulty in making ends meet. Every one does his part; that is righteousness in us. “He has given to the poor, his righteousness remains for, ever”. That is what each brother is to be — a righteous man. Righteousness is seen in giving. The intention in the epistle to the Romans is to adjust the saints as on earth, and there is no possibility of entrance into heaven by the Spirit now until things are adjusted on earth. You have righteousness.

That is to say, a man reflecting what God is. He is held to be righteous in the gospel as a believer, but then he is to have righteousness in a practical sense. The Spirit is life in view of righteousness, and how it works out is that a believer is able to pay his debts and to give, he has means. It may seem to be irrelevant to bring that in in connection with the Supper, but it goes with the Supper. If you have a company of people here, where Christ was under God’s eye, maintaining righteousness, you have a company of His disciples, they are like Him; they are adjusted in regard to everything here. They are prepared for heavenly privilege; that is the other line, the up line.

How can we enter into heavenly privilege now until we have paid our debts and fulfilled righteousness? You cannot think of a man having access to the Father, who is not right as to his position outside. It is quite unthinkable. God means to have a people before Him like Christ. They are adjusted as men; then they are sons as well. There is adjustment through the Supper; and then there is liberty for the up line. Righteousness in the sense we are ^[p. 431] speaking of is, so to speak, a horizontal line. It is a question of things being right here on the earth, but when you come to sonship it is on the ascending line. God is leading many sons to glory.

Sonship is a collective idea, you are a son; but God is leading many sons to glory; going to heaven is collective. Paul was received up into heaven, but it was as a special vessel. The thought applied generally is that God “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, Ephesians 2: 6.

“Draw me, we will run after thee” gives the thought; it is as if she said, we will all go, but it starts with the individual. That is very beautiful. I think there is a great disposition to leave some of the brethren behind. They are not just the kind we like, and if they do not come we are content to be without them; but that is not the divine sentiment at all. You will always find where there is faith, and the activity of divine love, that all who belong to God are included in the heart. Whatever their state may be, we do not want to be without them the family is a necessity, so that there might be a proper outlet for the affections.

When you touch sonship the whole range of divine purpose opens up before you, for “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. You have that expression in Romans 8. The whole number is in view, the object being that Christ might be the Firstborn among many brethren. Then you have the thought that every one whom God predestinated, He called; whom He called, He justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. God does not leave any out. Every single one that He has predestinated shall appear in glory.

Now, this chapter corresponds with the last half of the book of Numbers, where you have, in type the gift of the Spirit, and Balaam’s prophecies, and ^[p. 432] the boundaries of the land. You have there also the great interest that God manifested in the people in recounting all their experiences; every inch of the journey that had to be traversed is divinely recorded, a most touching thing. That is found in the last part of the book of Numbers; so that they should be assured of God’s interest in them. The people were there in the plains of Moab; they were a people typically who are led by the Spirit, not by the tabernacle. The tabernacle is not in evidence; they are led by the Spirit. It is one thing to be led by what is outside of you, and another thing to be led by what is inside of you. The Spirit is inside, and you are led by the Spirit. The book of Deuteronomy then comes in to show the place that belongs to the sons, and the conduct that is suitable to sons in their proper sphere. Abstractly the sons are viewed entirely connected with the work of God in the soul.

Entrance into the land after the brazen serpent is in virtue of the subjective work of the Spirit. It is not a question of the holiest and entering by the blood, but what is in view is entering by the Spirit, and it is in the sense of family relationship. The Father’s pleasure in relation to the sons is the great end in view. It is a wonderful thought, that God’s pleasure should be in the family; there is that which is agreeable to Him, the Father having a house, the Son there, and all the sons with Him there.

The consciousness of sonship goes with the state proper to it. You cannot be conscious of the relationship without the state suited to it. The Spirit operates in us, forming family affections. It is not new creation exactly; new creation is on another line. New creation does not suggest the family idea. In new creation it is “God”, not the “Father”. The idea in connection with the family is derivation or adoption.

The truth I think comes out, to begin with, in ^[p. 433] Abraham and Isaac. There is the father and the son together. “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest”. “Whom thou lovest”. There is the great feature of the family thought. Then you have Joseph, who is the brother. Isaac is not the brother, he is the father’s son. Joseph is the brother. That is to say, Joseph is Christ in relation to us. So that you have in him the brother, born for adversity, who in due time, when the state of a brother is present, makes himself known to his brethren.

When? When Judah manifested the state of a brother. It is thus that the Lord makes Himself known as in relationship with us, as His brethren.