THE LORD’S DELIBERATE MOVEMENTS
John Spinks
I was encouraged by the word we have just had to read these scriptures, involving the Lord’s deliberate movements. I think that there is great profit in following them. I have been thinking especially of the scripture in Hebrews which speaks of how the Son “set Himself down”, Heb 1: 3. I think we need to get in our souls an impression of the Person of the Son, the One who has divine prerogative and is able to do things Himself. The Son is a very wonderful Name involving the glory of His Person. We can think of Him as the Son of God, involving a whole universe for God’s pleasure, and others who are related in that position. Then the Son of Man involves His universal dominion, what He is on man’s behalf. But I think that when we have Him referred to as the Son, it involves the glory of His Person, standing in all His majesty and glory. I was encouraged by what our brother has said, because I feel it is greatly needed in these days; it would give great stability in our souls when we see Who has come in. God is speaking in Son “whom He has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the effulgence of His glory and the expression of His substance”. What wealth is in that, dear brethren!
I feel that these things need to be contemplated. Think of the One who has come near to us, the One who has brought the grace of God into our souls, who has transformed our lives, who has become the great corner-stone. I think that we need to be like John, who could say “we have contemplated His glory, the glory of an only begotten with a father”, John 1: 14. Then the scripture in Hebrews says, “having made by Himself the purification of sins”. It is not so much the Lord as acting on God’s behalf, but what He has done Himself, having divine rights and prerogative. He having “made by Himself the purification of sins, set Himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. What a thing that is, “set Himself down”. It might have seemed sufficient to say that He sat down, but it says that He “set himself down”. I think that the great emphasis is on the glory of the Person, “set Himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. How wonderful it is to get the glory of the Person into our souls, the One who has done it by Himself. Only a divine Person could do it, only a divine Person could assume to take this wonderful initiative and clear the whole universe of sin. I think the setting Himself down involves that He takes a fixed position. He is the centre of God’s universe and He has done it Himself, dear brethren. He came forth from with the Father, He came into this world and took up everything for God’s glory, and settled the whole sin question, having “made by Himself the purification of sins, set Himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high, taking a place by so much better than angels”. I just touch on that so that we may be impressed by the glory of the Son.
I read in Luke’s gospel because again we get the thought of the Lord sitting. This involves that He is establishing a position. It is interesting to see the different positions the Lord takes up. In verse 16, He stood up to read. It is very interesting to go through the scripture and see the places where the Lord was standing and sitting. I think the thought of the Lord standing is that He makes Himself available. Here He is the vessel of grace, available to man. You see it in John 7, the Lord “stood and cried, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink”. He was standing there and making an appeal. Then in Acts, in Stephen’s address, the Lord was standing. He was ready to come back; if the Jew had received Him, He would have come back to them. Then in Laodicea, the Lord stands and knocks. I think that the Lord standing involves that He is ready to move, in all the grace of His heart. But I think that the Lord sitting conveys that He is fixing a position; that is how it appeals to me, He is establishing a position. His movements are very deliberate here. He stood up to read and the book was given to Him. “Having unrolled the book, he found the place where it was written”. How wonderful it is that the Lord is establishing this great principle of grace. He is the vessel of grace, the One through whom the grace of God is coming into humanity. It says that, “he found the place where it was written”. He reads the section which bears directly on His position; “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent froth His Son”, Gal 4: 4. He is establishing this great principle of grace, “And having rolled up the book, when He had delivered it up to the attendant, He sat down”. It appeals to me that His sitting down is a deliberate movement and He is establishing the principle that is to govern this dispensation. Nothing could alter it. At the end of the dispensation, He will in principle take that book up again, and He will read it, and it will be judgment. But it seems to me that He is establishing this great principle of grace. He is here in all His glory as the vessel of grace “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him”. Then it says further down that they “wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of His mouth”. He is making Himself available to men and establishing the dispensation, and it will never cease as long as the Lord is on the Father’s throne.
In Mark’s gospel we see Him sitting opposite the treasury. There is something very beautiful in that. Again He is taking a position, He is assessing things in the light of what was in this woman. The Lord is really anticipating what was going to be the result of His death. If we go through the gospels, we see that the Lord was anticipating the full result of His death. In John’s gospel it says that “He came out from God and was going to God”, John 13: 3. The Lord anticipates a completed work. Here He is looking with great delight at this woman. “I say unto you that this poor widow has cast in more than all who have cast into the treasury”. I think that we can see that the Lord is anticipating the full result of the gospel, the full result of grace. We saw in Luke the fulness of the grace of God coming to man, but here is the result. The Lord is getting great pleasure from it. I think that we can carry this right through to the present dispensation. The Lord is sitting “having … sat down” but what is he finding? He is finding the full result of grace; I think this woman represents that. She is a poor widow, but what a result! The old dispensation could not contain what this woman had. But Christianity is a system where the grace of God is having a full result. My exercise is that we should measure ourselves against this woman. We tend to go half way, to put some in and keep some for ourselves. But this would answer to bringing “the whole tithe into the treasure-house”, Mal. 3:10. I think we need to measure ourselves and see that we are on this line, of not holding back. You think of men like Paul, who held nothing back. As we come near the end of the dispensation, what is called for in the present day is that we hold nothing back, that we put in everything that we have. That is what is called for. The Lord as sitting down here Is not exactly occupied with the others who are putting in, but He is occupied with this woman. I think that the Lord takes tremendous delight in persons who are on this line and He has great joy in those who are the full results of grace. May we be among them.
GRANGEMOUTH