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PURIFICATION (5)

JT Verses 14 and 15 of Revelation 22, which were touched on this morning, really link on with what is here in John 13. We were unable to enlarge on those verses because there was not time, but they are very important verses as to our subject, especially because they connect washing or cleansing with the very highest enjoyment and relation, that is, part in the tree of life and then going by the gates into the city. The passage in John 13 is intended to be the finishing part of the Lord’s life here before His death, that is, viewing His departure, not as from a realm on earth that He entered after His resurrection, but from the actual conditions in the world, which He moved in with the disciples. It, as it were, was a moving from those conditions into heaven. His actual ascent is from resurrection ground, which is not the point here. The point here is leaving the conditions He was used to in service and administering His parting word to His disciples.

CHH The position of the tree of life in the second verse of Revelation 22 is very conspicuous and very accessible.

GMcP Is there any difference between the thought of washing our robes and that in John 13 of the washing of the feet?

JT Well, there is a link, I think. Both are dealing with the very highest levels of our position: John 13 refers to us having part with Christ as having gone out of the world to the Father, and Revelation 22 to having part in the tree of life. “They may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”. The idea of right in this verse is striking, that the right is established for us, that we ^[p. 257] go into our own realm, as it were, so that the idea of asking for fellowship or being received into fellowship is questionable. These phrases are just questionable. The idea is to establish a right and that includes washing, washing the robes. The robes are not inner garments, but externals, in which we would appear externally.

AAT What is the difference between washing the robes and having a right to the tree of life, and washing the feet and having “part with me”?

JT We are just coming to those matters. It is in order to bring it up now, what the difference is. The difference is not very much because what each introduces is part with Christ as having gone out of the world to His Father, and the right to eat of the tree of life and to enter in by the gates. There is not very much difference really, but John in chapter 13 is dealing with the Lord in the scene in which He had been, that He is just going out of that scene, not rising out of the grave and going up, but going out of this scene into the realm of His Father. The tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God, and the gates are an allusion to official entrance to that paradise which was shut according to Genesis 3. Paradise was closed to Adam. Now it is open, not simply that access is permitted, but that there are those who have a right to it. It is remarkable that the word ‘right’ should be used. We have a right to eat of the tree of life, not just to partake of the leaves, but to eat of the tree, the real fruit, and then to enter by the gates into the city.

AAT I notice this difference that in Revelation it is done by the person whereas in John 13 someone else is washing the feet. I may wash my feet or you may wash mine.

JT That is quite true. That is what the Lord is endeavouring to establish in John 13 by example. In the last chapter of the Bible it is those that wash.

^[p. 258] They do it themselves, just as in chapter 7 they wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. So in this last chapter they wash their robes without saying by what. The first washing in Revelation is by the Lord Himself, that is, He washes us by His own blood, we are told.

He has done it. It is a finished thing, but in chapter 7 it is the persons themselves who have done it. It is still finished. It is a question of the blood in chapters 1 and 7, but chapter 22 simply speaks of washing; we are not told how. It is simply that they do it, that the washing is done by themselves. So that it gives them right to the very highest things.

Rem Verse 14, therefore, is like a normal procedure, the consequence of which is the right to the entrance. It is a normal procedure followed out by us who abide by the instruction.

JT I suppose the earlier references would be included or considered, but the persons and the immediate result are what our inquiry is concerned with now, the persons that do it. They are blessed, it says. They are blessed people. Notice the stress is laid on that, that they do it, not on the materials they use, or the modus operandi of it, but that they do it, and that they are blessed in that, and the greatest things are available to them through that. I mean to say, the idea in both cases is as if we are finishing up. The Spirit of God is finishing in Revelation 22 because those outside are not merely ordinary worldly people.

They are persons who are lost. Verse 15 says, “Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loves and makes a lie”. That is to say, we have no one of that class, so that all the redeemed are in mind in verse 14. There all believers are in mind; none of them are left outside and they are already blessed in what they are doing. There is no half measure. There is no idea of one being partially able to enter, but it is an absolute thing.

^[p. 259] Ques Is it a fixed class?

JT Quite so.

Ques What is without is a fixed class?

JT That is the word to be used. The class outside is fixed. There is no hope for them. It is not just as it is now. There are many who remain in the world and yet they may be the Lord’s, but there is no suggestion of that in chapter 22; moreover as you go down the chapter it says, “And let the filthy make himself filthy still”. The matter is fixed.

TU In verse 14 is it optional with them? Do they wash their robes because they have to do it or because they desire to do it?

JT I think it is a class. They are a blessed people. The Lord gives us in Matthew 5 a list of persons who are blessed for what they do; that is in His ministry down here, but this is the finish of things, I think, here in Revelation. The classes are defined and fixed.

Ques Do you think in Revelation 22 it is not so much the process that is in view, but the wonderful results that are acquired?

JT And the persons that do these things, what kind of persons are they? They are thorough people. They are people who value what they are brought into, what is available to them. There are no half measures contemplated by them at all. We might as well make up our mind that there are conditions such as these. We are drawing near the end. We might as well accept it that there are fixed conditions, and challenge ourselves lest we be found in the outside position, because the others are real people, thorough people. They are first-class people and they know how to do things and they know why they do it and they are blessed because they do it.

SMcC What would be the difference between washing the robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb and the washing in relation ^[p. 260] to the water?

JT Well, there is not much as to the way things are put. They are thorough people. You often see a wash hung up in the garden and it is not altogether white. Stress is laid on the whiteness, that it is a thorough matter. It is thoroughly done. It is over against those who take half measures, whereas God is serious in everything and looks for things done well.

SWP Is the thought that they are not blessed because they do it, but they do it because they are blessed? Is that the suggestion?

JT The word is, “Blessed are they that wash”. That is, the persons who do that are blessed, I think. You might say you are speaking about any of those now towards the end of the dispensation that we are in. They are thorough people and they are blessed in their thoroughness. They are blessed in it. It is not that the things washed are half white or partially white, but entirely white. I mean that is what is meant, that the thing is done. They washed their robes so that the robes themselves speak for themselves.

Ques Is there a suggestion in the fact that it is not mentioned what they washed with because they were accustomed to it for a long time?

JT If you were talking about it, you would say, ‘I know them. I know that they do not deal with half measures and they are blessed in doing’. There is blessing in the things that they are doing.

JMcK Is there any suggestion as to the testimony or witness in the purification, so what is characteristic of them is what is seen in that their robes are washed?

JT The thing is there. Their washing is testimony for they are thorough.

ASB Does a robe suggest a rather lengthy garment subject to contamination?

JT I suppose so. It is an external thought, that in which you appear externally. The high priest’s ^[p. 261] robe would extend down to his feet. That is the idea of an all-over garment.

SMcC In John 13, it is not the garment that is in mind, but persons, the feet. What would be the difference?

JT It is “Blessed are they that wash their robes”. The person is in mind, that they do it.

ASB Is it like the psalm in that way, “Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah”?

JT Just so. They have that characteristic, that they have such a God as that and they are blessed. That is, a real people. What you feel is the need of real people, out-and-out people. The time has come especially for that and nothing else will do. “Let the filthy make himself filthy still”, the Spirit of God says.

GMcP Does the washing of the robes involve what we have in chapter 1: “Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it; for the time is near”, so that we may enjoy the tree of life in our assembly relation?

JT Just so. The last chapter of the Bible has a significance. Of course, perhaps the order of the Bible is not the Spirit’s work, but it seems to be of God: the book of Revelation is just where it should be. We are finishing and there is no time for half measures; we should go the full way, otherwise we are apt to be outside. “Without are the dogs”.

Rem It says of those of intelligence in the last chapter of Daniel, “Many shall be purified, and be made white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand”. I think the wisdom here is very evident in those who have washed their garments.

JT That is a very good connection. It says, “Go thy way, Daniel”. He was a trusted man. It is not anybody that can go. That is what God is looking ^[p. 262] for and stressing that we become at the last moment. There is no time for half measures in the last moment. We want to go the whole way and be ready for the end.

TU Is there any thought of urgency in this matter in verse 14? It says that they may have right and that they should go in. As those two thoughts are dominant and linked with the end of the book and the finality of things, I wonder if the thought of urgency would enter into the matter of washing their robes.

JT Urgency is good, I am sure. That is just the point. There is no time for anything else, but finishing things and doing them well, being ready, as it were.

Ques Is there a suggestion in John 13 that this is a great matter in the Lord’s mind that He lays aside His garments and girds Himself?

JT We are trying to stress the character of the book of Revelation, that is, finishing things. We come to the finish. God is looking for reality. In John 13 it is as if the Lord is departing and giving a parting word. It is not as going up to heaven from resurrection ground as risen. That is not the point. He is going up from the sphere where He has been setting out the greatest possible things and all has been done well, infinitely well, and He is saying He is going to leave and He expects similar conditions amongst them when He leaves; so in verse 13 He says, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am so. If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also. Verily, verily, I say to you, The bondman is not greater than his lord, nor the sent greater than he who has sent him. If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them”. So the matter is put in their own hands. Now we have to examine what was done, what was put into their hands, what was left with them. The paragraph starts: “Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end. And during supper, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon, Iscariote, that he should deliver him up, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God”; He goes to God. That is a real thing; it is urgent, almost immediately happening. He “rises from supper and lays aside his garments, and having taken a linen towel he girded himself: then he pours water into the washhand basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded”. Now, that is what He did. That is the example. But then, there is something that happens or is said by Him in answer to Peter’s attitude. Peter says, “Thou shalt never wash my feet”. That is Peter’s attitude. “Jesus answered him, Unless I wash thee, thou hast not part with me”. There is something injected there seemingly incidental, but it is really the crux of the matter. It is a question of having part with Him in the interim between the time that He ascends to the Father and His return. This process has to be understood.

SMcC Just how does it work out? What form does this service take, “unless I wash thee”, with us now?

JT I think it goes on. The Lord means to say that it is a process which goes on in which He has part, what He has to do in order that we should have part with Him. It is a spiritual matter. What He did actually is typical of what is spiritual.

CHH Would the clean man of Numbers 19 have the teaching of the application of this, or would this go farther?

JT I think this goes farther because it is the ^[p. 264] highest thought, you might say. It is an answer to what Peter said, and the Lord is saying that unless this happens, “Unless I wash thee, thou hast not part with me”. That is very serious. Would it not fringe on what it says in Revelation 22 on those being without? It would make matters very serious among us unless we go the whole way, bowing to what is to be done, what is essential, what must be done.

SMcC “Unless I wash thee”, does that take form by the Lord operating in a general way through the ministry in relation to this service, or is it specific?

JT I think it is carried on spiritually. It is done mediately and very likely He might use you or me or others, but He does it. It is mediate service, not immediate, but mediate. He does it, I suppose, through us because He is not here, but He has got that here through which He can act in a mediate way. Would you say that?

SMcC Yes, I am sure that is so.

JT If you do it, the Lord may be using you to do it, but He is doing it. On the other hand, you may do it and be regarded as doing it as well. The same time, the service by itself goes on continually during the dispensation and characterises this dispensation. I do not think there will be anything like it in the future. There may be something of it in the coming dispensation, but I do not think the Lord will be acting from heaven. He is doing that now.

SWP How extensive is the thought in the Lord’s mind, “Part with me”? Is it wider than a provisional thought?

JT I think it involves what will be our eternal portion. We get it already through this process. While we are down here we come into that and if we are not washed, then we may get among the outside persons that are so severely spoken of.

TLS Do you think Peter had a greater advantage? It would look as though the Lord came to ^[p. 265] Peter last and as if he would see all that matter going on before him. We have the advantage of seeing these matters going on before our eyes and then it comes to ourselves as though there is a great advantage in having it come that way too.

JT Yes, that is that kind of thing is carried on.

Ques We have been having moral features in Numbers 19. Is this washing here more than that?

JT I think so. I think it is on a higher level. It is really the Lord’s own action, only He introduces other things. That is an idea of an example for us but it is a service taken on and is carried on in heaven, but He does it mediately, through others.

Ques Is this operation which the Lord takes on in view of what follows? You referred in the beginning to the Lord going to the Father and are we to regard this operation in view of what follows?

JT Quite so. It is having part with Him where He is.

AD Is this service in relation to the Supper? I was wondering if the Lord in this action here is not fitting us so that we can be suitable to take part in the service of praise.

JT Just so. The service of God in the assembly really is involved in this, what is going on in the interim. All these years the Lord is maintaining this. Even if He is using others, He is maintaining it, and if we do not allow Him to do it, then our position is questionable.

GVD Does the Lord’s saying He was going to the Father suggest that? That is, the very highest part of the service of praise is in mind.

JT Quite so. Moreover, we should notice that it says, “Jesus knowing ... that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. That is a beautiful word to have in our souls, having loved them, “having loved his own who were in the world”; He carried on this.

CHH Do you think it would be a sovereign act on the part of God in respect to those we speak of as in christendom? Paul speaks in the Thessalonians of those who do not wash their robes, yet they are the elect, and have no idea of any changing at all. Do you think there will be a sovereign work of God before they are taken away so that the full thought will take place, otherwise where would you place them?

JT Those that are spoken of in Thessalonians?

CHH Those we are told not to keep company with. They do not follow the instructions of the apostle’s doctrine and we are not to keep company with them. They are not washing their robes, but so to speak they are in, but where would we place them? I wonder if there would be some act of God sovereignly at the close of their history to put them in this class in Revelation.

JT You say they are not washing their robes? You mean that they are not carrying out the instructions? It reads in 2 Thessalonians 3: 6, “Now we enjoin you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw”; that word ‘withdraw’ we have often noticed. It means ‘shrink from’, not exactly refusing, but shrinking, hesitating, and so it goes on, “that ye withdraw from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the instruction which he received from us. For ye know yourselves how ye ought to imitate us, because we have not walked disorderly among you: nor have we eaten bread from any one without cost; but in toil and hardship working night and day not to be chargeable to any one of you: not that we have not the right, but that we might give ourselves as an example to you, in order to your imitating us. For also when we were with you we enjoined you this, that if any man does not like to work, neither let him eat. For we ^[p. 267] hear that there are some walking among you disorderly, not working at all, but busybodies”. Well now, you refer to these and your inquiry is as to whether some special action is not needed to take place in order to fit them for eternal relations.

CHH Yes, I had in mind particularly verse 14 which is not quite so severe as what we have read.

JT “But if any one obey not our word by the letter, mark that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed of himself; and do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother”. Well now, does this chapter not contemplate a tentative state of things? The brother is not named as outside, or even worthy of being put outside. It is not even said that you should withdraw from him, but shrink from him, as it were, so the whole position is tentative and God might adjust it by ministry through one another. That is going on all the time amongst us and therefore I do not see why you bring in the idea of doing something sovereignly at the end because it may be done here amongst ourselves.

CHH I was assuming what we find in system, where there seems to be no recovery as far as we see, and yet there are the elect.

JT Does the instruction not indicate possible recovery? You are not putting the brother away or separating yourselves as in 2 Timothy. It is just that it is a state of things that is dangerous; it should not be there. Can it not be rectified through their service to one another because they are told what to do to the end that it might be rectified?

CHH That would be very encouraging because there are so many young people who move away into the world and they have been that way for years, while we have assurance that they are really the Lord’s.

JT I think that is what is meant here. The ^[p. 268] persons in mind are not working with their hands, yet they may be fairly good brothers and therefore the instruction may be given as to correction and adjustment. I do not see why we should put this off to the end. If you are referring to persons who are in christendom, we have evidence that they are real; as to whether the Lord would come for us and find those half real persons, what is to be done?

CHH Yes, that is what I have in mind.

JT That is a big matter; I think we spoke about that in Montreal; that same question came out. What will be done with persons abroad in the different denominations, persons whom we have good reason to believe are the Lord’s; I think it was observed that the Lord could do a good deal in the twinkling of an eye, and I believe that is true; it is our hope that every element that belongs to Christ will come out in the end in some way and if we fail to secure them, the Lord will probably, or really, have a way of saving them by sovereign actions so to fit them for the eternal portion. I believe that that much will be done and we know that much will be done, for our own resurrection will be done on the basis of a twinkling of an eye. We shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Why could not some of those be changed inwardly and made fit to be caught up to heaven? That would not give licence to suggest that we should remain as we are outside; not very long since a sister said to me, ‘Even if we are not in fellowship, we will be saved anyway’. It is serious. If we think that, it is another matter. The Lord has power to do that. In the twinkling of an eye He has power to do great things; namely, to change us from our present state into the resurrection conditions.

ASB I wondered when you referred to the change, because what you have emphasised elsewhere is that there will be no development of the work of God in eternity. The requirement is that the development ^[p. 269] is now and we have to link on with that development side.

JT That is quite right. We had that years ago and we had trouble about it, too; the idea that we continue to grow on after we go to heaven really involves a monstrosity. What shall we grow to? So it is, every man shall be presented perfect, but supposing we have not got that ministry? The Lord is able to do it. The Lord is able to perfect a brother or sister here on earth before He takes them to heaven. The work is finished in every one of us as we are taken to heaven.

SMcC How do you distinguish between measure of capacity alongside of that? Everyone’s measure of capacity certainly will not be the same in eternity.

JT The Lord can do that. The things that He can do are infinite and if He has a niche for me to fill in the body, we will say, I will be there. He will see to that. But that is not intended in any way to mitigate our responsibility. As Paul said, “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”. He was aiming at that and we should have no less aim than that. There cannot be a single discrepancy in us in eternity from the counsel of eternity before. God has seen us before we have ever had our being, “Whom he has foreknown”. He sees us as we are actually here. He has seen us in the past eternity and we shall conform to that. He will see to that.

SMcC Perfection in that way does not mean that everybody will be the same and have the same capacity but that each is perfect according to his impression of God by the work of God.

JT God sees to that. That belongs to His province. What takes place in result must be entirely according to His plan, to His counsel, because He has foreknown us. I understand by that He has looked down the ages and seen us as we are here and seen us as we shall be caught up to heaven.

^[p. 271] perfectly. We are not to judge really as to whether they are perfect, but suppose there are persons who are imperfect according to the work of God, well, God can finish it, you know, in the twinkling of an eye.

ASB I like what you say in regard to our having no licence, that is, the putting off this constructive side, for I might maintain a place outside the fellowship and this chapter contemplates the fellowship. I might say it will be all right in the end, but I am putting myself out of this realm of cleansing and greatly suffering from it.

JT How do I know that it is so? Maybe I am not saved at all so far as myself is concerned.

Ques In relation to what we are saying, how are we to understand a man’s works being burned, but that he himself shall be saved?

JT That is something to consider. We have to work these things out to see how they can be. But if we bring God in they will be very simple. That a man’s works shall be burned up and he shall be saved; the man that God saved is the man that He foreknew. He worked out what He foreknew, for what He foreknew is what He intended to work out to completion.

Hence, some of us would be very small. But then we were that size when God saw us and foreknew us.

Ques Would you say that Paul has the Philippians especially in mind when he says, “He who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, and then he adds, “As it is righteous for me to think this as to you all, because ye have me in your hearts”?

JT That is a very good passage to bring up now because it shows in Paul’s mind the completion of the work. Paul had good ground because what God’s counsels were, what He foreknew, were in His hands. The result in them would be perfect, would conform to the will of God because he says, “Ye have me in your hearts”, for having him in their hearts you might ^[p. 272] say that they loved Christ and loved Paul as being like Him, because Christ is a model for us. Paul says, “Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me in that day; but not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing”. So he knew what they would be ultimately by the way they regarded him.

The Corinthians did not regard him that way. They thought he should have a letter of commendation as an ordinary brother, but the Philippians would not have it that way. They had him in their hearts.

ASB Making what you are saying practical, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure”, Philippians 2: 12, 13.

JT That is all very good and I am glad it has come up for it is the way it should be regarded, on the way to the final result. It is the way we should look at things. It dissipates carelessness. A person saying, ‘I will be saved anyway’, how do you know? How do you know you are not deceived now?

CHH “Examine your own selves if ye be in the faith”, 2 Corinthians 13: 5.

JT He speaks about certain having the marks of sinful people.

Ques “Make your calling and election sure”. Does that fit?

JT That fits in exactly. Quite so. “Make your calling and election sure”, because it dissipates carelessness. I think the idea alluded to, to say, ‘I will be saved anyway’, is abominable. It is abominable. It is trifling with the things of God, because it is a most serious matter. How do I know I am saved? May I not be deceived? It is very likely I am if I speak in that careless way.

JMcK In 2 Timothy 1: 14 it says, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”. That is the exercise from our side, but he says, “for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him”. That is the thing from God’s side.

JT See the language he used. On the way to the end, travelling on from the divine conception of the beginning, “Whom he foreknew”-travelling on from that to the finish. What language the apostle would use and what solemnity!

TLS John says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”.

JT That is good because, as I was saying, we are apt to be so trifling and consider that we are saved anyway. If I am trifling may I not be dark altogether? “Let the filthy make himself filthy still”.

Ques Would the Lord be looking forward to chapter 20 of this gospel? Would the fulness of the thought be in His mind in the feet washing?

JT I think that is right. He starts on that basis, knowing that the hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, and then “knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God, rises from supper”. That is the whole matter settled in His mind from the beginning to the end. I believe all is fixed. All will be gone through and He is operating on that principle. Therefore, He is washing their feet. They needed that.

That belonged to the scheme of God. This part of the work belongs to Him.

ASB It is really a wonderful thought of coming out from God and going to God. How much is involved in that and gathered up by the Lord in this great system of cleansing set up to preserve us in it.

JT So the Lord says, “Those thou hast given me I have guarded, and not one of them has perished, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled”. So that things are just as accurate as God can make them, infinitely accurate. Everything conforms with His plan.

GMcP Does coming from God and going to God suggest that the approach to God is equal to the revelation?

JT It is. The approach is equal to the revelation because Christ is the One through whom we approach. God has come out in Christ and we go in in Him. That is, the approach is equal to the revelation; it conforms to it exactly.

SMcC That is important because we can never assume to draw near to God except through our Lord Jesus Christ, can we?

JT That is the point we have come to, I am sure, that the Lord would get into our souls the certainty of our position as believers. And on the other hand, the abominableness of assuming with lightness that things will be because God has counselled them and we can do as we wish here in this world. Whereas the Lord’s service here is that we should not, because if the washing does not go on then He says, ‘You are out of it, whatever you may think. You are out of it if the washing does not go on’. Here is a man professedly an apostle and he is saying something that would put him out of it if he carries it out, and therefore the danger of allowing our wills to act as if we could not interfere with it. Our wills can interfere with it.

Ques Are we to hold the two thoughts in our mind-come out from God-revelation, and “Came by water and blood” linking on with that?

JT Coming out from God is one thing. That is, He is a divine Person but coming by water and blood means that He has become man. The water and the blood is the means by which He brings the things to pass and He is operating in that and we are to be brought into it, too. We are all to be operating. It ^[p. 275] is a living system. And so the woman of Sychar left her water-pot. She is brought into the new system. She is an operator of the new system right away and so it is with every christian. You begin to operate in the new system.

ASB It is His own prerogative. It is not as being sent here. It is “He came out from God and was going to God”. It is a wonderful thought.

JT It is in a sense the Mediator. He is viewed in that way. He came to carry out the behests of God and to reveal Him and goes back to Him, and brings about the result, because we are the result, and therefore He says, ‘There is not one lost save the son of perdition, that the scripture should be fulfilled’.

GMcP Is not the feet washing to make us more suitable for the presence of God in the assembly?

JT Quite so. The Lord intends that the divine behests are conformed to even already. Before we are conformed to His resurrection the divine will is represented in the present time with the washing, with this further service, this (as you might say) last moment service which the Lord carries on with every one of us, and we must not withdraw our feet from His hands.

CHH I think you said the first of Corinthians is the wash-hand basin and the second is the towel.

JT Yes, it is a linen towel, you will notice. They are hard to get now. Linen is the most absorbent thing you can get. It absorbs moisture. The Lord took it here, we are told. He took the linen towel and girded Himself with it.

Ques Are we looking at the water as to the prophetic side of the truth and the towel as to the priestly side?

JT I suppose there is something in that. The prophetic side is that what comes from God is God’s mind because prophecy is from God. It is His mind, what He would do, and what He thinks. Well now,

^[p. 276] how am I to be conformed? I think you would say that it is priestly. We need the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Therefore, the ministry meeting requires more than the word given. There is the priestly side as to how we learn and treat each other so that the ministry is effective and acceptable in each other.

Rem The Lord changes their way of speaking about it: “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord”. He reverses it: “I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher”. I suppose we need to come to that side of the Lord before the teaching becomes operative?

JT You mean that the Lord comes before the Teacher? Well, I think that is good. The Lord put it that way and that is the way it is to be put. Not what they said, but the way He is saying, that the authority of Christ comes before His teaching. If I am to be taught by Him, I must submit to Him. The word ‘Rabbi’ is ‘teacher’ and I think it carries with it the idea of authority. Therefore we have the teaching in Ephesus; Paul retired to the school of Tyrannus. That is the place of authority, not simply that he spoke with authority, but there must be subjection in the learning. As I listen to the truth, there must be subjection to the Lord. His authority must be owned. I am glad you brought that up. “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also”.

EC Would you say that this service requires great spiritual sensitiveness so that we should not offend?

JT Quite so. We are apt to offend. I think the clerical system is just characterised by that sort of thing. Men are browbeaten by it. Primarily the clerical system tended to bondage. Teaching should be liberal but still at the same time there must be submission to the Lord. “And having in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience shall have been fulfilled”, 2 Corinthians 10: 6. Every item of disobedience will be dealt with, but when the saints come to it, then the apostle would deal with the disobedience. Disobedience is intolerable amongst the people of God.

SMcC In Numbers 19, the washing, the purification is connected with some specific act or condition of defilement, but here it does not seem to be linked with any act of the moment but general.

JT That is to say the apostles in this time are ceremonially clean. They are not viewed as unclean. So that there is more needed in this process than merely external rectitude prevailing among us, fulfilling what we may think is right. There is more needed than that for the service of God, for our part with the Lord in the presence of the Father-this delicate matter of not washing all over but of removing the slightest soil. The Lord says, ‘It is My matter really, that you are to have part with Me but you must be equal to Me’, because it is a question of Himself and those He is bringing in in the service before God. For instance, Joseph was to present his brethren to Pharaoh. It was not all of them. Five of them were presented. We are not given their names, but a selection was made as if they were suitable to be presented to the monarch and that is what the Lord is dealing with here. He is bringing us in before God. He is going to the Father. He is going to God and He wants us to be there as He is, not in any way discrediting Him. Everything must be conformed to Him.

SMcC Would it not be involved in our being set free inwardly, not just as to any external action or the like, but being set free in our spirit and mind in passing over with Him to have part with Him?

JT So that I think sonship must enter into all this. John does not deal with that formally but it ^[p. 278] underlies it. In order that the Son should have companions they must be like Him. He must have this liberty to remove anything that would interfere with His companions’ having part with Him in the new order of things.

CHH In saying that He is going to the Father first and then going to God, is He laying the basis for chapter 20, “My Father and your Father”?

JT I think He is. Here it is going out of the world. He is going out of the world, but there He is ascending to His Father as risen. This is the moral side. In chapter 20 He is ascending to His Father as risen. There is no discrepancy at all and the message to the disciples was to bring them into accord with that. There is no discrepancy at all. There is nothing wrong according to John 20. The first visit after the Lord is arisen according to John 20 is from heaven.

That is to say He visits the disciples via heaven. He comes in through heaven. He was on the earth but when He comes in to the disciples according to John 20 He goes up and comes down. Therefore it says, “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. The principle is that that has happened, that He has come in via heaven and says, “Peace be unto you”. Therefore it is Christianity where the disciples were in Jerusalem with the doors shut. There is not a bit of discrepancy here, just peace, and He says it again and then He breathes on them. The matter is settled but settled on the heavenly principle; but that is not the point here. He is going out of the world here where He had been, the scene of defilement, and they are to be left in it and He washes their feet so that they should have part with Him in the new place.

Rem This feet-washing provides the basis on which Paul says He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

JT I think it is. As I was saying, the occurrence ^[p. 279] in Genesis 47 is very remarkable. Joseph had eleven brothers and he only chooses five out of the eleven to present to Pharaoh. We may be sure he selected the best, that is, those that he would consider that Pharaoh would be pleased with. He presented his father without any question. The father was by himself, but he presented the brethren in five only, not in eleven, but five, so that I think we have there an illustration of what we are saying, that Joseph was concerned that his brethren would not discredit him. He told them what to say to Pharaoh: that they were cattle-men. He was not ashamed of them. He wanted them to be known as that, to be known as they really were.

GVD The Lord said in speaking to His Father, “And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we”. Is that the full thought of part with Him?

JT I think that is the continuation of this chapter. The Lord’s prayer has in view the continuance of the disciples here where He had been. The Lord’s prayer in chapter 17 is not on the basis of His resurrection. It is on the basis of what He was here as from the Father and He is now going to the Father. He is not going as risen, nor are they viewed as risen. They are here yet but they are kept by Him and He asks the Father to keep them. So I think the whole section from chapter 13 to 17 is one, in that sense. It is the saints here where Christ has been, not as risen, but where Christ has been and where they are, and He is not here and He is committing us to the Father in view of that; whereas here He is seeing to it Himself to keep us washed so as to be presentable to the Father.

JMcK Is that seen in the Ephesian side? You referred to the washing of the water by the word.

JT We just have a minute to look at Ephesians 5 ^[p. 280] where the saints are seen as the assembly or bride or wife of Christ, and so it is a question of His love and how she is to be presented to Himself. “Husbands, love your own wives, even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless”. So that it is not now His companions before the Father, but His bride or His wife to be presented to Himself, and therefore we see her in Revelation 21, “Coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”, but here in the interim and He occupied with her, by the ministry of the word, the water meaning it. The ministry of the word to one another, of course, is carried on so that there should be no defect in the bride. Of course, there will not be when she has ascended, and is in heavenly glory, but the point is what He is doing just now in John 13.

ASB It is a great culminating thought here in regard to what has been before us, whether it be ours or the system applying to us, that we become presentable to Christ.

JT You feel that it is time that we should awake to the great things we are coming into and so have part in their perfecting, should know what is in the Lord’s mind as to things. John the baptist said, “He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices in heart because of the voice of the bridegroom”.

Well, we certainly should not be behind in this. We know what is in His mind in this illustration of the water and the word administering, and the Lord uses us for this very purpose; and the point is we are to be occupied with the great things we are brought into.

In the note it says, ‘Or “having purified”. The aorists “loved”-”delivered”- “sanctify”-”purifying” may be coincident or consequent one on another’. That is all very instructive. And that may be going on at any time amongst us. These words are all coincident. They fit into one another all together.

GMcP I was wondering if the emphasis is on the word ‘glorious’ so that in the working out of the principles of feet-washing and the washing by the word in our local companies we see that the local assembly is glorious.

JT Just so. What a great thought that is, to present her “to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things”. I believe the Lord is putting it upon us that we are brought into the greatest things, that we should be occupied with them and be morally great in the occupation.

CHH In addition to that you get the nourishing and cherishing.

JT Essential things for the final result. Cherishing is a beautiful thought.

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