“IN HIS HAND”

J. McKay

John 3: 35; 9: 1–7; Zechariah 4: 8–10 (to “things”); 1 Corinthians 15: 22–28

The verse we have read in John 3 is one of the grand statements of Scripture as to the Person of Christ—“The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. I want to say something as to what is committed to the hand of Christ. Particularly at the end of the dispensation, the Spirit of God would rally the affections of the saints back to the Person Himself that we should realize that this is not simply an historic fact but a current truth that the Father has committed all things into the hand of one Man. In fact, God has removed every other man. In the death of Christ every other man has judicially gone from the sight of God.

One Man remains, that is Christ, and the Father has committed all things to be in His hand.

Are any uncertain? Are any troubled by the difficulties and pressures of this time? Allow your gaze to come back to the centre of divine operations administratively.

We have already spoken of one key position, the fact that the Son is in the bosom of the Father. That is a key position taken up, and governs the whole of the dispensation, involving the resources in divine affection that will sustain the saints and carry them through. Now in John 3: 35 we have a key position administratively. The Lord has taken it up. The Father has taken up a position in relation to Him who is the Son and it is a position that remains. It is a position that stands to this day, despite all the failure publicly.

All that has come into the history of the church, the professing system, could never affect relations between divine Persons Themselves, and, therefore, what remains at the end is the assurance of the skill and the personal touch of the great Administrator.

You will recall that at the end of that long psalm. Psalm 78, a psalm which deals extensively with the history of the children of Israel, outlining their failures, showing the points at which they departed from the will of God for them, the psalmist comes back to speak of David and says, “And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands” (Psalm 78: 72). Dear brethren, I have an impression that we need to come back in our own souls to the assurance that the skilfulness of the hand of Christ is to be seen at the end of the dispensation. It is God’s pleasure that it shall be so; not that this gift shall shine more than another; not that one servant shall become more prominent as able to help the saints into the truth: thank God for those who do help us; may we value them more!—where would we be without those who have laboured so extensively among us? but, dear brethren, what is vital is the touch personally of the hand of Christ.

So I refer to the man in chapter 9. It is very interesting that the Lord gives this man so much of His attention. How much is committed to the hands of the Son, and yet He is prepared to spend this amount of time in relation to one person. What for? In order that the works of God should be manifested in him. How wonderful that the Lord Jesus should develop in detail the works of God in relation to one person. Chapter 8 has shown how all the opposition can be overthrown. In that chapter the opposition arrays itself against Christ, and the simple assertion of the greatness of His Person overthrows the whole thing. What is needed, dear

brethren, if there are opposing elements, is the simple assertion of the truth of who Christ is.

The opposition is settled immediately. It says, “He passed on”; He was not diverted by the problems that arose, “He passed on”; and the Lord is gloriously moving on in an uninterrupted, deliberate way among the saints in the present dispensation, and He is looking for persons—may we say, He is looking for available material?—in order that the works of God shall become manifest. The Father had been there before, of course. Jesus saw this man and He saw that the hand of the Father had acted in relation to him in sovereign grace in view of his being responsive to the call and the touch of Christ.

It is a wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus in manhood linked on with what the Father was doing. How perfect He was as a Servant! He came in not as One who was originating everything—to speak carefully as to the blessed Person of the Lord Jesus. He came in in perfect manhood as linking on with what had gone before. May we be prepared if in any measure we serve to link on with what has gone before. Remember what the Lord Jesus said to those disciples in chapter 4 of this book—“I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured”, (John 4: 38). That has often impressed me. The Lord was bringing the disciples in, the apostles—you might have said they were going to originate something in relation to the great system of christianity—but His word is, “I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured”. “Others have laboured”. Think of all that had gone on in Old Testament times, the Father working, the Father operating in view of the great thoughts of God being set on.

I think God would cause us to be very cautious in relation to any claim to have originated anything.

If we do anything among the brethren, let it be that we are linking on with those who have gone before; only thus will it be rightly supported. So in perfection it was with the Lord Jesus Himself. He said, “My Father worketh hitherto” (John 5: 17) the Father had been doing things, and the Son in perfection links on with that in view of full results being reached. I think Mr. Taylor said that in a sense no fulness of result was reached in Old Testament times.

It was a sowing time. It was a time of the setting on of the great thoughts of God; but when we come to the New Testament, as Jesus comes in, what is in view is completion, reaching the great objectives that were in the divine mind.

So the Lord in perfection has to do with this blind man; “He spat on the ground and made mud of the spittle, and put the mud, as ointment, on his eyes”. I just want you to ponder for a moment the hands into which God had committed everything being involved in such detail in regard of one man. “He spat on the ground”—a touch no doubt as to the essence of His humanity, God manifest in flesh, who Jesus was, who He is, we may say—and then He makes ointment and actually puts it on the man’s eyes. I believe that the hands that are sustaining everything for God are active in the developing of personality among the saints at the present time, distinctive personality, for if His hand enters into it, the touch must be a distinctive one. God intends that everything for His pleasure ultimately will receive character from the hand of Christ. It is the mystery of God’s will according to Ephesians—“to head up all things in the Christ” (Ephesians 1: 9, 10). So if He is having to do with us—and thank God He is—the Man of the gospels is not an historic Jesus to those who know Him; He is One who is actively moving among the saints, coming in and going out among us, having to do with us personally

in all the pressures of the way. What He has in mind is formation that the works of God may be manifested in us.

The book of life will be full of names. Those names do not simply involve a record of persons who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus; they involve formation, all the result of what has derived in character from the hand of Christ. I love to think of the hand of Jesus being involved in everything in which God takes pleasure. You have the type of it in Genesis.

Pharaoh gave everything into Joseph’s hand; “Without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot”, Genesis 41: 44. It is interesting that it is put in that way, “without thee”; in other words, every movement was to be with Joseph; he was to give character to it. So Isaiah says,

“The pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand”, (Isaiah 53: 10). That is what is going to characterize the universe of God in a day that is coming, and that is what is prospering among the saints of the assembly in our time.

Zechariah 4 gives us this typical touch as to the One who is going to finish things for God.

Zerubbabel was the governor. This is written in a day of recovery after very great departure.

We do not need to enter into the detail for that to find an echo in the experiences of the brethren. How extensive the departure has been! And yet the recovery is very wonderful, and what is governing it at this point is the hands of the one who laid the foundation. Do you not see that all that is for the pleasure of God and particularly, may I say, at the end of the time, at the end of the day, is to find its source in the hand of Christ? Let us not get out of touch with Him! You may feel persuaded in a certain way. Do not get out of touch with Christ! Maybe you feel you

have an accurate knowledge of the truth. Do not get out of touch with Him! The hands that have laid the foundation are the hands that are going to bring in the finishing touches, and I think finish here means more than simply finality; it is the finish that a craftsman can bring in to a piece of workmanship, that is the character of the Lord’s final service at the end of the dispensation.

Are we going to miss it? Zechariah had to be wakened out of sleep in order that he should see this. This is an awakening time. He saw “a lamp-stand all of gold” (Zechariah 4: 2). I trust that every person here in some sense has been awakened to see at the end something that is entirely of God, something in which the hand of man has had no place, from which man’s mind has been entirely excluded. He wakened to see “a lamp-stand all of gold”.

Then he is brought to realize the power by which what is of God is sustained, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts”. The resources of the Spirit remain.

And then his gaze is brought to bear directly on Zerubbabel whose hands are going to finish things. Oh that we should be more fully aware of the glory of the present finishing time. The Lord has initiated things; He Himself will conclude them.

Another point that is most important in this section is that what Zerubbabel is doing is building. It is very important to see that the hand of Christ, as active in these days, is active constructively. It is not simply the repair of what has been broken down; some of us

were reading in Nehemiah recently and what is stressed in that book is repair. Thank God for all that has been repaired. We look around and may feel that the devastation in days gone by has been great, but thank God for the repair work that has been done, the touch of the hand of Christ has been in it. But this is not simply repair. This is building. This is the construction positively of what is of God, and, dear brethren, this has gone on right from the beginning.

He has never ceased to operate in His own way in view of something being secured as a finished product available in relation to the service of God. The Spirit of God would recall us then to what has been initiated and sustained by the hand of Christ.

One of the most distinctive things that the Lord had initiated is the Supper. Man has had no place in that; He brought it in. It is wonderful that we have an opportunity at the beginning of each week to have part in something that has originated in the hand of Christ. He gave the loaf to His disciples. I think that gives it a wonderfully personal touch. Think of that hand that will yet govern the universe for God as engaged in giving the emblems into the hands of His disciples. One of the greatest privileges of the time of the Supper is that it consolidates the personal link that the saints have with Christ. It is at that moment that we prove His initiative as at no other time. So He has set on the Supper, He has laid the foundation in that sense, and He will finish it. What will the finish be? What touches of glory, what touches of undisclosed wealth spiritually, are yet to be entered upon? The book of Revelation speaks of Christ’s new name, something which in its fulness is yet to be disclosed. There is something yet to be manifested as to the glory of Jesus. These additional touches will ensure that the saints are rightly

available to Christ in keeping with the finish which, under the touch of His hand, is to be a glorious one.

I read in 1 Corinthians 15 not to say much about it. Who could say much about a passage such as this? What is in view in this passage is the day of eternity. It says, “Then the end, when he gives up the kingdom ...”. This is the great answer to the Father committing all things into the hands of the Son. Has anything been lost? His hand has proved trustworthy all the way through, and now it is causing everything to yield back in relation to the glory of God. His personal touch will be on the kingdom which He gives up to the Father. He will impart character to it. Nothing but what He imparts character to would be pleasing to the Father. Nothing could be pleasing to Him if it were out of keeping with the humanity that has given so much delight to heaven. And so His service is carried right through to this glorious conclusion, the work of subjugation completed—oh how much subjugation is needed! The Lord is currently acting in a subduing way, as the true David, causing persons to come under His sway in this the time of grace. How wonderful present opportunities are to come under His touch positively. The time of subjugation will not go on for ever. To think that it would go on for ever is to imply that lawlessness will still prevail. Far be the thought! A time will come when the work of subjugation which the Lord Jesus has undertaken will be fully completed and all will be in accordance with His own supremacy; He will then give the kingdom up to Him who is God and Father.

Does not such a scripture cause your affections to well out, that you already know this Person? Paul speaks of “those that are the Christ’s”; are you not glad you belong to Him? The world is making its bid, especially for the young. At this

time the world is searching for a man who can control things, who can administer rightly. Are you not glad that you belong to Christ?—“Those that are the Christ’s at his coming”. That includes more than the assembly; it includes every family, earthly and heavenly. They all belong to Christ—“those that are the Christ’s”—and, all having been brought into accord with Him, then He Himself is placed in subjection “to him who put all things in subjection to him, that God may be all in all”. What the supremacy of God will be!

‘Onward we gaze to the dawn of eternity,

Moved are our souls as we think of the Son

Taking that place of eternal subjection,

Glorious proof that His work is now done’.

(From ‘The Answering Glory’. G.H.S.Price)

Oh, if you need encouragement, dear brother or sister, let it be the assurance that things are still in the hand of Christ. There will be no failure; there could not possibly be failure. He is carrying through everything and there will be a touch of perfection according to Himself in what He gives up to the Father, that God Himself may be all in all. May we be encouraged, therefore, for His name’s sake.

Address at Edinburgh
14 April 1979