“THE MAN CHRIST JESUS”
AJMcK I seek help of the Lord and help of the brethren to enquire into this description of our Lord Jesus in Timothy, “the man Christ Jesus”. My exercise is that we might be increasingly attracted to Him. At a fellowship meeting that I was at recently the brother who was taking the meeting said we do not speak about separation much these days, and I have been thinking a lot about that, but it seems to me that true separation really only comes about by attraction to Christ. I do not think we reach separation legally, but by attraction to the One who we sang of in our hymn who is the Centre of everything for God.
Paul in his letter to Timothy speaks of the greatness of the one who is “the man Christ Jesus”, “the mediator of God and men”. I would like to focus in this meeting on the greatness of all that this Man is for God; perhaps not necessarily our side, but I trust we may be sustained to enquire into His greatness and His glory as the Man who is everything for God. All of us in this room have heard of Him and all of us no doubt have impressions of Him. He is “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”. We have had some help in recent three day meetings that “the man Christ Jesus” is the Man that God has always had before Him. Let us hold to that; let us keep that in our minds and in our hearts that this is the Man that God has always had before Him.
I read in Luke’s gospel because of the reference there to “the holy thing also which shall be born”. In thinking a little about the “the man Christ Jesus”, (Paul speaks of Him as the “second man, out of heaven”, 1 Cor 15: 47), there is a different order of man that comes in here in the beginning of Luke. It says, “which shall be born” and that applies to every man, woman and child since Adam and Eve, but “the holy thing” is Christ alone, the Lord Jesus alone.
We might get some help together in Isaiah considering how God has been manifested in flesh, “a root out of dry ground”, deriving nothing from this scene, and the greatness of the glory of the fact that God has been manifested in flesh. We have a hymn that goes on to say it is the ‘wonder of His universe’, Hymn 400. It is a tremendous thing that God has been manifested in flesh, and what we have in Isaiah prophetically is “a root out of dry ground”, deriving absolutely nothing from this scene.
Then we have the reference in John’s gospel, “Behold the man!”. It was an interesting moment when it would seem that under God’s hand one such as Pilate was drawn to give testimony to the greatness of the One who was before him, the One in whom he found no fault. Pilate had never had a man before him like that, and he exclaims, “Behold the man!”. The impression that has been in my mind as to that is in Hebrews where it says He “offered himself spotless to God” (chap 9: 14); One in whom Pilate found no fault.
Then finally we have that reference in Mark’s gospel; the centurion is brought to say, “Truly this man was Son of God”. Amidst everything that was opposed and the hatred, everything that combined against our beloved Lord Jesus, there was one who said, “Truly this man was Son of God”. His heart was filled and his vision was filled by One who was here to fill out everything for God.
GBG It is a wonderful thing that there is only one God; “God is one”. He is the great supreme Being. But it also says, “the mediator of God and men one”, there is only one Mediator, that brings out His greatness; there is only one Mediator and we need a Mediator. Underlying that is that He is Man and He is also God.
AJMcK I think that is very important to lay hold of. We are not presented here with a man who is between man and God, but of God and of man, that is the order of this wonderful Man. There is none like Him. Mr Darby has an expression, ‘There is one, and there is but one’ (Synopsis vol 5, p106), that arrested me. There is an insistence there as to the uniqueness of the One who is both God and Man, and that can only be one Man.
GBG We can say in regard to the Lord Jesus, “What manner of man is this …!”, Matt 8: 27, KJV. He is unique, and His deity underlies His manhood.
AJMcK We are often told that it is difficult for us to hold these two thoughts in our mind together. We shall need the Spirit’s help to enquire together to hold the fact that He is Man, but His deity underlies that at every level and every turn and every step, because the fulness of the Godhead was there, Col 1: 19.
APG So you have referred to verse 6, “who gave himself a ransom for all”. His work is completely in accord with God’s desires. God “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”; so that this Man Christ Jesus is completely in accord with God’s will and God’s desires.
AJMcK I think that is right. So, He perfectly and fully filled out every thought of God. I suppose it would be right to say that “given himself a ransom for all” is a general thought regarding His work, that ransom for the entirety of mankind has been paid and it has been paid in full. That does not take away our own individual responsibility to come into the good of it, but the fact is that it stands: the ransom has been paid, He has given Himself, He offered Himself to God spotless; that is the ransom.
GBG God is being commended here, “our Saviour God who desires that all men should be saved”; Paul wants persons to know that. Then the Mediator has been commended; “who gave himself a ransom for all”. Men have wrong impressions of God and of Christ but this One, the Mediator, He went as far as this! He can be commended to persons to trust Him.
AJMcK Yes, He is being presented as the One who is without compare. Humanly we tend to compare things, that is the way things work in our minds, but this Man is without compare; there is none like Him.
JL We can understand then that God has found a Man after His own heart, who would do all His will, Acts 13: 22. Such a One is thoroughly competent to answer every requirement of God’s and for men.
AJMcK Say something for our help as to Him finding that Man.
JL It was clearly in mind that Christ as Man should come into this scene to give effect to the will of God, but I think it is very beautiful that prophetically it could be said, “I have found … a man”, as if all that came into expression when Christ did come so delighted God’s heart. Every detail that was found in Christ was delightful to Him according to the pursuit of His will.
AJMcK And do you think the desires of God are expressed in the thought of Him finding? The desires of His heart really come out; not only the thought of His will and the thought of His mind, but the heart of God is satisfied, the heart of God is fully answered in the One who is the Mediator. There is now One who can propose and fulfil everything for God and bring man into that.
PAG What is a mediator?
AJMcK A mediator in man’s world tries to find agreement between two opposing parties. But the Mediator here has utterly satisfied what God has proposed.
PAG That is helpful and right. The Mediator brings God to man and, having brought God to man, the Priest brings man to God. But God must first come to man in righteousness, and the fact that He “gave himself a ransom for all” means that there is no finding of common ground; it is God’s ground alone. Christ satisfies everything that meets the rights of God and yet does so as a Man, so in that Man God is also justified.
AJMcK That was my impression, that God has proposed from His side and He has established a proposal; He “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”. I often misquote that, ‘a knowledge of the truth’, but it is “the knowledge of the truth”. That is God’s proposal and it is fully answered in Christ, in the Man who has given “himself a ransom for all”, such that God is utterly satisfied. The secret from God’s side can be made known.
DS So the ransom had to be the Man; the ransom had to be made in a man. Man failed initially but God brought in a Man who would meet every moral issue in that matter, and remain a Man eternally, and bring everything back through that blessed Man for His pleasure.
AJMcK The “second man, out of heaven”; He came into a condition in which He could die. It is suggested in ministry that condition of life in flesh and blood, to which in us sin attached, was given up, J N Darby Synopsis vol 4 p108. Sin did not attach to that life in Him; we need to guard that. But as to us, sin has attached itself to that life. He was the only One, and is the only One, who could possibly take this place as Mediator, the only One who could make God’s mind known.
DS Man is God’s topstone in creation, and man failed so God had to bring glory back in a man, and in this Man He has found it; so He has not only found it in Him, but He has found it to bring many others back in that same character of order of man.
NJH We could not have a mediator without incarnation. I was thinking of what has been said; it is men, and then man, and then One, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”. The incarnation was essential for mediatorship.
AJMcK So that takes us to Luke, “the holy thing”. It has been said that the incarnation was the greatest event on earth. The fact that God moved in this way that One should come in as a babe, come into manhood. He can be described as “the holy thing”. I feel tested as to this, I have read scriptures I find testing as to what I can say about them, “the holy thing also which shall be born”. The whole of God’s mind and thought is in that in relation to securing an answer from man, a securing of an answer from us; let us bring it right down to us today. Without this the distance remains, but “the holy thing” being born is that great movement from God’s side into incarnation.
NJH Mary says, “I know not a man”; that is the creational side, but God is operating outside of man as such. The manhood of Christ stands alone as conceived by the Holy Spirit.
AJMcK Yes, exactly, it says, “He shall be great”; it is an emphatic ‘He’, “and shall be called Son of the Highest”, and “power of the Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”. It is a tremendous opening up of God’s mind in relation to the race and the basis on which something will be secured.
AMB So the Lord was totally unique morally, “the holy thing”, that could never be said of any other man, and at the same time truly a Man; He was born of woman, of the Holy Spirit. These considerations would move us to worship.
AJMcK Yes, that is my impression and my desire that in being increasingly attracted to Him we are brought to recognise the greatness of the One who has secured everything, secured everything for God and has brought me into that; that brings it right down to our individual persons. He has brought me into the greatness of those secrets of God and the heart of it is One who is utterly morally perfect.
AMB It says of Him in Colossians “for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”, chap 1: 19. How marvellous that is; and such a One died for me.
AJMcK He loved me so much that He was prepared to die for me.
AMB Does the contemplation of that have a separating effect?
AJMcK I think it does. I wondered if we come to that with the centurion; there was something that set him immediately apart from everything that was going on around him; his heart and his mind and his focus was filled with One of whom he could say, “Truly this man was Son of God”.
PAG We have referred to “the holy thing”, why is that expression used? It is an unusual way to refer to a child that was born.
AJMcK Help us; I feel limited as to what I can say but there is something very attractive about it.
PAG In scripture, things have substance; there was substance here. Outwardly it may have been a babe and so it was, but there was substance here that had never been here before. I wondered also if the expression “the holy thing” protects His deity while acknowledging His manhood. We cannot properly hold the Lord’s deity and His manhood in our minds at the same time, and therefore we should not seek to over-analyse or describe them either. The Spirit gives this expression to say in this One that was born everything that was for God was encompassed; God become Man, God manifest in flesh. And “the holy thing” would cause us simply to wonder at what God did that no one else could do.
AJMcK I trust this is right to say, but my impression of this is that “the man Christ Jesus” was there. He was not yet in manhood as grown up; He was a babe, but Simeon says, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, Luke 2: 30. He saw everything in that babe; it was opened up to him to see everything that God had in mind for His people. So, “the man Christ Jesus” was there; the preciousness and the greatness of what God has done should just seize us and fill our hearts.
PAG So “the holy thing” included the complete essence and potential of all that God would establish in Christ. One aspect of “the holy thing” is that there is nothing to be added to it.
NJH There was no growth as to His Person. There was growth as to His humanity, and it was delightful; every development of that holy Person grew as in the home, and amongst the Jews, but as to His Person there was no change, no growth in it.
AJMcK In that regard there was nothing that needed to be added. These things stretch our minds, and I feel stretched myself, but there is nothing needed to be added to this holy Man, this holy Person; everything was there for God. There was what developed physically before men and before God as we know, but everything for God was there.
RB 2 Corinthians 1 says, “For whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by us”, v 20. Does that enter into what you are bringing before us? The Lord Jesus is the Yea and the Amen, but then everything for God is in Him.
AJMcK Yes, very good, “in him is the yea, and in him the amen”; the writer is very definite about both.
RB It is all set out in Him but then the finality of the Amen, everything for God is involved in that; there is nothing more that can be added it is all there in its glory and completeness.
AJMcK Yes, so it is as He can be taken account of as “the holy thing”; everything complete.
TWL Does “the holy thing” encompass what He is as “the effulgence of his glory and the expression of his substance”, Heb 1: 3? I know in Hebrews it is in relation to the Son but we are speaking about the One who is the Mediator; we are speaking about the One who could make God known. At the beginning of Hebrews, God “has spoken to us”, v 2. He is the outshining of what God is. I am thinking about your opening statement about separation being by attraction; the attraction is because we have seen the glory and we know the substance and it is in the Man who was “the holy thing”. It is a perfect expression of a wondrous God.
AJMcK “The effulgence of his glory and the expression of his substance” is not merely that it was there, but it shone out in relation to every believer; it shines into the heart of every believer. This is the greatness of the Man that God has. Is He the Man that we have?
GBG This is the assurance that all God’s purposes will be fully secured. He is the Son of God. As Son of man He takes on man’s place; He is here operating in view of God’s pleasure, He is securing what God desires.
AJMcK There are a few references in what we have read to the Son of God, and I wondered if that comes out. The Lord often refers to Himself as the Son of man. He takes that place, but He is Son of God. Everything for God is assured and established and finished in Him.
GBG We have to appreciate that, “shall be called”; we have to appreciate the greatness of this Person.
BWL “He shall be great”: is that our appreciation? We grow in appreciation of Him. In John’s gospel He is great; we have spoken about His Person and who He is, His greatness, but we grow in our appreciation of Him, do you think, as we see Him in whatever circumstances He comes into in the gospels?
AJMcK I think so, and I wondered if it was a reference to His public life of service, “He shall be great”, and how greatness was seen at every step, was seen at every turn. But I like what you suggest: He grows in our appreciation as our hearts are engaged towards Him; our appreciation of His greatness develops and it grows and we come to the point that we can take account of the One who is “the holy thing”, everything for God.
BWL Do you think piety is vital? It is mentioned in 1 Timothy 2, and really it is a pious atmosphere here at the beginning of Luke; these are persons that can appreciate Christ.
AJMcK Yes, I think that is right, and it is quite a test, an exercise for us all practically to live a life of piety. It is easy to become absorbed in other things; it is easy to become distracted. Piety would keep us focussed upon Him.
APG Would Mary be an example? She had faith; she believed this, “blessed is she that has believed” (v 45); she had faith to lay hold of the greatness of this One.
AJMcK We were reminded in the reading at home this week that she “kept all these things in her mind, pondering them in her heart”, chap 2: 19. She went over them, over and over, and that suggests to me in relation to what the angel had said to her and what was to come about; what an occupation for us to be attracted to Him and to go over and over in our heart the greatness of the One who we are speaking about.
DCB Your first scripture finished with a reference to “the testimony to be rendered”. Does it come into all your scriptures that there is a testimony rendered to the Person, “the holy thing”; you see the effect of a testimony, even from an angelic testimony in this scripture.
AJMcK So you get the sense that from God’s side there is no possibility that He could hold back from to drawing attention to the One who is everything to Him. The One who is everything to God has been borne testimony to all the way through. That testimony is maintained; that testimony continues.
DCB It is very interesting as you go through your scriptures to consider who gives the testimony. Pilate has to get testimony; that is a wonderful thing that God ensures that Christ is magnified. Of course, you can see in the centurion that there is something of a moral change in a person that is coming out with a testimony in such circumstances.
AJMcK God will always see to it that Christ is magnified; that testimony will be there. It is an interesting moment as to Pilate; what was it that moved him? What caused him to say what he did? It was the greatness of the One who was before him.
JL Is it somewhat a consequence of that testimony that the expression can be used He “shall be called”, He is the Son of God, but it says that He “shall be called”: is that because that was taken account of, and therefore He could be rightly described as “Son of God”?
AJMcK I think that is right. I am finding what we are saying is very helpful, that the testimony is leading us to the greatness of the Person. So, He “shall be called Son of God”: there is no limit as to that, there is no limit as to how that testimony might play out, how it might be seen, how we might take account of it. I suppose the testimony to His greatness is in the heart of every believer and it is that He should be called that. It is that we should appreciate the greatness of who He is.
JL He came into such blessed evidence that the centurion who we read of was compelled to make that confession, “Truly this man was Son of God”.
AJMcK What else could he say?
DS One of the great testimonies was when the Holy Spirit rested complacently upon Him (Matt 3:16); is that a great testimony to “the holy thing”? It has never been seen in any other way. We receive the Spirit, but the Spirit rested complacently on this holy Man: wonderful thing!
AJMcK So there is a touch there as to the fulness of the Godhead being there, nothing short of that. I personally find it hard to hold it in my mind, but the fact is that there was in One who was here, “the man Christ Jesus”; nothing short of the fulness of the Godhead; there was a complacent resting of all that God is in a Man. “The holy thing also which shall be born” was going to carry and fill out everything for God.
PAG I think it has been rightly said that there could be no thought of development as to His Person, but what was enhanced when here as Man was His moral greatness. “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb 5: 8); “thou didst make me trust, upon my mother’s breasts” (Ps 22: 9): He learned what it was to trust. He was “heard because of his piety” (Heb 5: 7); He was answered “from the horns of the buffaloes”, Ps 22: 21. It had not been His place before to trust! We have to learn, we have to be heard, we have to be answered; that was not His place in deity, but He took it in manhood in lowliness and grace, and gave God a moral basis to answer Him on account of the moral excellence of what He saw.
AJMcK And those things were added “as a root out of dry ground”; none of those things were derived from this scene. Help us as to that.
PAG Another feature of His moral excellence was that as Man He derived everything from God. Luke’s genealogy goes back to that, “of Adam, of God” (chap 3: 38); that was the derivation of all that He had and was as Man. As has been pointed out He derived nothing from man after nature and so morally too He sought every resource in God; He did not seek resource in man. He appreciated what was there for Him; He appreciated the supper at Bethany; He appreciated the affections of His own; He credits them as having persevered with Him in His temptations (Luke 22: 28); He appreciated that, but what He derived He derived solely from God.
AJMcK In Isaiah it says, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling”; something of that development that we are speaking about, was before God. It was not necessarily appreciated by men, but He grew up “before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”. He had the need to draw nothing by way of resource, by way of strength and development, from this scene; everything was there.
GBG As a Man, God was His object; He grew up before Him.
MBG I was just thinking of what it says in Isaiah 42, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth! I will put my Spirit upon him”, v 1. I was thinking about what has been said: He is the only One who came in to do the will of another and did it. You mentioned He came into a condition in which He could die, and doing that will involved even that. He was “obedient even unto death” (Phil 2: 8); I wondered if that sets out His moral excellence but also His uniqueness. Each one of us, if we have come to appreciate what is “the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom 12: 2), it is through moral exercise, and it is “righteousness unto holiness” for us (Rom 6: 19), but for Him He came in and was that ‘holy thing’ intrinsically. He came in to do another’s will and did do that will.
AJMcK So there is a certain restfulness and peace about this, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”. There is no conflict here. What you are saying is helpful; the moral perfection of Christ meant that of course He would do the will of another. Of course He would go that way, and although scripture speaks of conflict and it speaks of pressure, and we need to be careful what we say as to Gethsemane, He says in one sense quite restfully “not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42. That was what He would always accept. Is that your thought?
MBG And even then, His dependence is brought out; it says, “he prayed more intently”, v 44.
AJMcK Yes, utterly dependent on the will and mind of another.
GBG As growing up before Him, God’s eye was never off Him. What pleasure God had in the tender sapling. He had God before Him, but God had that blessed Man before Him.
AJMcK So we do not know much of those thirty years, we do not know much of that development, but we do know that the Lord Jesus Himself said, “I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business”, Luke 2: 49. So God’s eye was upon Him and His pleasure and delight was in One who grew up before Him, and everything that was there had relation to the filling out of God’s mind and God’s heart.
JSS So these words you have drawn attention to, “before him”, suggest what is constant, do you think? God’s eye was constantly on this One and the testimony to that is, “in whom I have found my delight”, Matt 3: 17. That was all that He ever found there, but is it God’s desire that we come to have Christ before us constantly too?
AJMcK I think so. That helps: that is in line with my exercise that He might be before us, and that we might be attracted to Him and to see all that He is to God and find all that He is to me. God’s eye was constantly upon Him. It was never distracted; it was never drawn to another. How could it be?
JSS Pharoah’s cup bearer said, “a vine was before me” (Gen 40: 9); do you think that is really the thought, the thought of budding, blossoming bringing forth what was pleasurable to God? That can be our exercise, do you think?
AJMcK And it is our privilege to be brought together into what is bringing pleasure to God
RG It says, “there is no beauty that we should desire him”; that beauty was seen by the Father: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35.
AJMcK I wondered about that; we do see the contrast, “no beauty that we should desire him”. For unregenerate man, for man after sin, there is no beauty, and that is the contrast to what God could take account of as a tender sapling.
RG Was your thought that we should come into some appreciation of that beauty in Christ?
AJMcK Exactly, as we are attracted to Him, and not only because of what He has done for us, although that is at the root of everything, but as we are attracted to Him for what He is and all that He is in the greatness and the glory of His manhood as the Mediator, as making known the mind of God. If we are attracted of Him in that way we come into the secret of God’s thoughts. We see this beauty.
JL I would love to know the significance of the use of the word “tender”: He grew up “as a tender sapling”. Can you say something about that as taken account of by God in relation to the Lord Jesus?
AJMcK If we plant a tree in this world it needs to be staked, it needs something to hold it up; a tender sapling needs to be supported. That is not the thought here, “he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling”. There was softness, a richness about that, and perhaps it speaks about the bond of communion that was there? “He wakeneth morning by morning … mine ear” (Isa 50: 4): the attractiveness of One who was there in the sight of God.
JL It seems such a contrast to the way children of the modern age are expected to grow up, and I wondered if it had a special connection with the grace that marked the Lord Jesus in all that came into expression right from the earliest moment. The tenderness of the way that that growth took place in the sight of God was obviously so attractive under the Father’s eye. The way that it came into expression was so contrary to the normal ways and ambitions of men.
NJH The scene around did not contribute at all to the humanity of Christ; round about was dry ground: in Him was the tender sapling.
AJMcK I think what is coming out is helpful; so there was what was shared in secret in communion between the Father and the Son, but there was something precious about the tenderness and softness of this relationship and the softness of what developed. I was thinking about the fact that it was thirty years, thirty years that we know very little about. Scripture says, “I have found … a man after my heart” (Acts 13: 22); I wondered if that linked with what was tender, “a man after my heart”.
TWL The Lord never drew anything from this scene, but this scene never changed the kind of Man He was either. It never altered Him, the kind of Man that was for God that God took delight in; no matter what the scene put in front of Him it never changed Him. He was the same character of Man in spite of the trial, in spite of the rejection, in spite of the affliction; it never changed the manhood of Christ for God, and the kind of Man that God delighted in. That kind of thing was the tender sapling.
AJMcK I think that is very helpful and helps our enquiry. He was not swayed, He was not diverted; scripture says, “that he stedfastly set his face” (Luke 9: 51); “I set my face like a flint” (Isa 50: 7); it was set! Nothing was going to divert Him from what that involved. Even when we come to the expression in John’s gospel “Behold the man!” the crown of thorn did not divert Him from His course at all, and it did not detract from the One in whom there was “no fault”.
BWL Before David went out to meet Goliath, Saul clothed him with his dress and gave him certain things, and I suppose Saul’s armour would have been the best in Israel, but David said, “I cannot go in these; for I have never tried them”, 1 Sam 17: 39. Then he chose five smooth stones out of the brook, and took a staff in his hand (v 40), that would convey the Lord’s dependent manhood and the perfection of His humanity, do you think?
AJMcK Very helpful, “I cannot go in these”; how blessed! In one sense it is not that the Lord ever considered taking on anything, but the fact is there, “I cannot go in these”; it was inconceivable that He could take on anything of this scene in filling out the mind and heart of God.
AMB We have been speaking of His tenderness; we sing sometimes,
And full of love Thy tender heart. Hymn 328
The brethren have been saying about the Lord deriving nothing morally from this scene and being unaffected by it is right, but He was affected in His heart by the impact of sin on the race. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11: 35) for example, but that was the Lord’s tender heart; it is part of His perfection.
AJMcK Yes, so it does not mean that He did not feel anything, because He felt everything.
AMB Because of His perfection, He felt things as we cannot. He felt these sufferings that He knew He had to endure, He felt them in anticipation, and He felt them in actuality. The strong crying and tears that are spoken of the Lord (Heb 5: 7) would include His tears at Gethsemane.
AJMcK The expression of that really comes out in, “if it be possible”, Matt 26: 39. We need to be careful what we say as to these scriptures because they are very deep and very profound but, “if it be possible” really brings out all His feelings in connection with what lay before Him. We should hold to it that His tender heart felt all of those things, that was what He was and is.
DCB So as you continue Isaiah 53 it says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (v 4), and the suffering psalms would be examples of His tenderness especially in respect of the matter of reproach.
AJMcK Yes, and as you say, “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”, there is an emphatic “he”; there is no one else who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. This glorious Man has carried them all and carried them all in relation to filling the heart of God.
ASP He would particularly have in mind to please the Father: “he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling”. He says, “it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”, Matt 3: 15. Do you think that was part of the tenderness too that He was particularly minded to do what was precious to God?
AJMcK “I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8: 29); that characterised every moment and every step of that way; filling the heart of God and satisfying His desires was what occupied Him. This is the moral perfection of One who derived nothing from this scene and could not derive anything from this scene because everything that He was and everything that He is, is fully there and is fully there for God.
SCL So there is nothing that can detract from the Lord’s glory; elsewhere it says, “it pleased Jehovah to bruise him”, Isa 53: 10. The crown of thorns and the purple robe were done in mocking hatred but for the believer they behold a Man that is lacking in no kingly glory. Every suffering that the Lord endured accentuated the moral perfection and glory that was seen in Him.
AJMcK I think this scripture in John’s gospel should really affect the heart of every true believer on Christ. The heart of man would put a crown of thorns on Him, the heart of man would mock Him, but God saw to it that there was testimony borne, although that testimony was drawn from perhaps a most unlikely source: “Behold the man!”, to take account of the greatness of this Man and this Man alone, and Pilate says, “I find no fault in him”. He had never had a man before him like this before. Here is One in whom is no fault; “offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14. That was what was happening here. Pilate unwittingly became part of the testimony to that. But the Lord Jesus was offering Himself “spotless to God”, no fault, nothing that could detract from the greatness and the purity of this sacrifice.
GBG Are we giving the Spirit scope in speaking about these moral features of Christ? I think if we are occupied with Him, it gives the Spirit scope for these features, and in a measure for us be formed by these moral features of Christ. I know the main thrust of your reading is speaking about the Lord Jesus but it must have a moral effect.
AJMcK That was really why I read about the centurion because it has to come to something. I was thinking of what the Lord Jesus says Himself as to the Spirit, “for he receives of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14. If we give the Spirit room and freedom then surely the Spirit will fill our hearts with impressions of Him. He fills our view with the greatness of the One who is everything to God; “receives of mine and shall announce it to you”; there is something very definite about that. Perhaps the Spirit of God would occupy us today with the greatness and the glory of this Man that there might be a moral effect, that there might be a moral change; “Truly this man was Son of God”. How did that come from a Roman centurion?
GBG We were speaking of tenderness. If we are occupied with Christ and His tenderness, we begin to appreciate that and then the Father works with us as well and discipline comes in; therefore we become more mature and tenderness comes in as we go on in life.
DAB So it would be a good exercise for each of us to ask the Holy Spirit to give us God’s view of Christ. We are sometimes limited as to what depth of contemplation we enter into in relation to this wonderful Person, but it would be your exercise that our view would be in sympathy with God’s view of this blessed One. Not from a limited view, but to see how God views Him and how God appreciates Christ, and that is really what the Son of God means to our hearts.
AJMcK This centurion does not say, ‘Truly this Man was Jesus the Nazaræan’ - He was; he does not say, ‘Truly this Man was King of the Jew’ - He was; but he says, “Truly this man was Son of God”. There is something changed, there is a change of direction, and I feel tested as to this, as to whether in considering this great Man I can reach how God views Him: to see Him as the Son of God! To see Him as this glorious Man who has effected everything for God, what God has proposed He has fulfilled, and that brought me in.
DAB Pilate says, “Behold the man!”, but I have it in my heart that God is saying, ‘Behold Christ’ to us this afternoon.
PAG Do you get an impression with the way things are expressed in John’s gospel of God’s appreciation and protection of Christ? It says after where we read in John 19 as to the body-coat it “was seamless, woven through the whole from the top. They said therefore to one another, Let us not rend it”, v 23-24. It was said of the cloak of the ephod which was all of blue “that it should not rend”, Exod 39: 23. God would not allow the cloak of the ephod to be rent by man, and then it says, “Not a bone of him shall be broken”, John 19: 36. God would not allow man to invade what belonged to Him. He protected Christ even in death and such was the value He attached to Him.
AJMcK I think that is fine. It has been on my heart as to the cloak of the ephod, “that it should not rend”. From God’s side there is nothing that can be lost of this glorious Man. And not just that it cannot be lost, but there is everything for us to go in for and everything for us to appreciate and lay hold of all that He is to God. The centurion reached it, “Son of God”. Divine workmanship placed that thought in his heart and brought about that moral change in that man so that he could bear testimony to the One who was none less than the Son of God.
Dundee
8th November 2025
List of initials:-
A M Brown, Linlithgow; D A Brown, Bo’ness; D C Brown, Edinburgh; R Brown, Linlithgow; A P Grant, Dundee; G B Grant, Dundee; M B Grant, Grangemouth;
P A Gray, Linlithgow; R Gray, Peterhead; N J Henry, Glasgow; J Laurie, Brechin;
B W Lovie, Aberdeen; S C Lock, Edinburgh; T W Lock, Edinburgh; A J McKay, Witney; A S Pittman, Grangemouth; J S Spiers, Grangemouth; D Spinks, Bo’ness