THE PERSONAL RELATION OF CHRIST TO GOD
[p. 185] THE PERSONAL RELATION OF CHRIST TO GOD
Matthew 3: 13 - 17; Mark 1: 9 - 11; Luke 3: 21,22; John 1: 29 - 34; Galatians 1: 15,16
CAC We were considering recently Christ as Lord, as Head and as Priest. These are official glories and exceedingly great and precious and blessed, but there is something that lies behind all these and gives preciousness and character to them and that is the personal relation to God of that One who sustains these offices. This is why the Lord is introduced at the beginning of each gospel in His own personal relation to God. The Son of God has come and the Person gives character to everything He undertakes. The Person who comes and His personal relation to God as a Man underlies everything.
The present is a wonderful moment; it is the greatest moment in the history of time; every thought of God has come to fruition now. The first thing mentioned in the scripture read from Matthew is the fulfilling of all righteousness; all is based on that.
Ques What do you mean by that?
CAC Man having fallen and become guilty, the question of righteousness is raised and the Lord comes in to take account of all the state in which man was. The Lord’s baptism was the shadow of His death which got the first man out of the way. The man of sin and shame must be removed so that another Man, the Son of God, may be introduced. The Son of God’s coming is the bringing in of a new Man altogether but the other man must be cleared out of the way. It is a question of righteousness. It is only in the light of the Son of God and the appreciation of Him that one can accept baptism; you give up your place in man’s [p. 186] world because you are in view of what is so much better — you are prepared to part company with yourself. Baptism is the going out of sight of man in the flesh and the giving up of life on the earth. The power for everything lies in the Son of God and what is connected with Him. You get the Spirit resting upon Him, God’s love and delight resting upon a Man to whom heaven can be opened.
There is a different aspect of sonship in each of the four gospels. In Matthew the Son of God has the liberty of heaven, the heavens were opened to Him, not on Him. In Mark, the great feature is that there is a Man who has the support of heaven, that is as the Servant down here, which gave wonderful character to what He did, so it is not the liberty of heaven but the support of heaven. Hence Mark is the gospel of astonishment — they were “exceedingly beyond measure astonished ...”, Mark 6:51. It is the blessed character of a Servant acting in the midst of all that is evil with all the support of heaven. It is service carried out in all the consciousness of that relationship. We do not serve rightly unless we serve in the consciousness of our relationship as sons. In Luke I think the Son of God is seen as the Vessel of all the grace of heaven. The Son of God is an outlet for heaven. Heaven is full of grace and here on earth was a suitable outlet for all that grace. In John’s gospel He is the subject of witness. It is God’s thought that there should be a witness to His Son down here. It is a great thought that the Son of God brought God to man and man to God. There was a Man here who was suited as a vessel to carry all the grace of heaven. Dependence is the character of a man suited to all the grace of heaven. In Matthew’s gospel it is the opening up of a new place for man; the history of Israel is embraced in the history of the Lord and the history of the many sons is pre-figured in the history of the first-born — “Out of Egypt I called my son”, Hosea 11: 1. That history is repeated in every son; He calls [p. 187] all His many sons out of Egypt. Heaven has been opened up to us. People are deeply interested if a new bit of the earth is opened up even if it is at the North Pole, but our interest should be that heaven has been opened up. There is a Man suited to the love and favour of God; that is the Man we have come to. There is a Man at last to whom heaven could not be closed. His baptism was a figure of His death and in result heaven could be opened up. Righteousness having been fulfilled, heaven is opened up for us. The wonderful thing is that God’s own place is opened up for man. He will keep a place for our feet here as long as He means us to sojourn here, but heaven is opened up to us. It is only as having the liberty of heaven that one can rightly touch anything on earth. In Matthew 5, Matthew 6 and Matthew 7 He is legislating for the earth. It is the Man who has the liberty of heaven and is suitable to heaven who can legislate for the earth. By and by the saints will legislate for the earth because heaven has been opened up to them. In the book of Revelation you find that which relates to earth but the key to all that happens on earth is what happens in heaven. We want to be interested in heaven. If you want the key to what is happening on earth at the present time, you will find it in heaven. There is a glorious Man there who is the Object of God’s delight and love and everything is under the influence of that Man and we get the liberty of that place. It is in Matthew’s gospel that it says “me and thee”. You could not have anything beyond the Son of God; it is finality. The gospel of the glory of the blessed God is one side, but on the other there is the shining out of what is supremely for God’s delight. The Spirit could come on that blessed One, that was His distinguishing mark, and that is the way God marks off His saints — not by earthly prosperity but by the Spirit of His Son.
Rem There was nothing in His outward circumstances or form which marked Him off from [p. 188] other men.
CAC It is the secret of life and joy for us to be in the light of that blessed Person — the Son of God. Are we prepared to accept baptism as being in the light of that Person?
Rem There are many souls who have forgiveness of sins and enjoy peace with God but are not in liberty.
CAC I do not think we touch what is heavenly until we come to the Son of God.
Ques What is the difference between “Christ” and the “Son of God”?
CAC I thought “Christ” was His office — the anointed Man to carry out God’s pleasure, but the “Son of God” is His own personal relationship to God. The kingdom is marked by the light and influence of those in relationship, in sonship. It is important for us to be exercised about all this so that we should be a heavenly people here and now, not a people who just know there is such a place as heaven and are going there when they die. What God wants is a heavenly people here for His pleasure. The anointing is that He is marked off before others and the sealing is what distinguishes Him personally in His relationship with God.
In Mark He is supported. The parting asunder of the heavens I have connected with Isaiah 64:1, “Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, — that the mountains might flow down at thy presence”. Nothing is to stand before Him. I think the Lord entered upon His service with all the support of heaven. If we have the sense of the support of heaven we need not fear anything down here. What is a mountain before the power of heaven? It is wonderful to think that the Son of God should become the Servant. He has come to carry out all God’s pleasure in regard to man and what He does is all measured by who He is — the Son of God.
Rem The point is not so much what He was but what He is.
CAC In John the point is that the saints should be here [p. 189] in witness to the Son of God, to the fact that the Son of God has come. It is important for us that we learn our place of liberty and then we can count on the support of heaven. They were astonished because there was a Man moving about with a different kind of power and support from anything they had ever seen before, a new character of Man and service had come in. We are absolutely superior to everything else if we have the support of heaven. The effect of the service of the Son of God is that He brings about that we serve; what He did personally was to be continued in His saints. A great deal depends on our learning the Son of God; the thing is to have our hearts attracted to and engaged with Him.
Now we will pass on to Luke for a moment. In Luke it is a question of heaven being full of grace, and it is an outlet for all the grace of heaven that is wanted and the Son of God is that outlet. All the grace of heaven came into this world in a Vessel — in a bodily shape. The character of the gospel is the grace of heaven. The wealth of heaven is flowing out in this world in that blessed Person, the Son of God. If you consider Him it takes you entirely out of yourself and into the joy of all that is heavenly, you get occupied with what has come in Him. It is not a question of what we apprehend but of what He brings. “He forgave both of them their debt”; that is a part of it, although one of them did not care anything about it. We become formed as vessels of that grace; it is all connected with the truth of sonship in our souls. The sons are here on earth at this present moment but heaven is open to them; heaven is their place and they have the support of heaven. As people walking in the truth and affections of sonship they have all the support of heaven and they are vessels of the grace of heaven — not impoverishing others, but enriching them. The truth of sonship is very far-reaching; it is in dependence that it is learnt. It is wonderful what heaven can do [p. 190] with a praying man. I think prayer is intelligent dependence. The moment had arrived when the fulness of the time had come and all the grace of heaven was about to flow out and He was praying about it. I feel deeply humbled that I do not pray more. God would make great use of us if we were more simple and prayerful. We often pray about ourselves but that is not the prayer of sons at all. The Lord said, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?”, Luke 2:49. That is the thing. The Boy of twelve is taken up with His Father’s business; His Father’s business was that all the grace of heaven was coming out and He wanted a people here in the joy of it. It is all gathered up in the heavenly city which has the liberty of heaven. It is a free city, and it is the full vessel of the grace of heaven so that all the blessing goes out, goes out through the gates; it is the outgoings of the city.
Rem God’s mind is that all should be continued now.
CAC The important thing is that there should be a witness to the Son of God and that brings us to John. The great thought of John’s gospel is the witness. It is very striking the importance that is attached to the witness when to an onlooker there was no witness to be seen at all. It is remarkable that when John wrote about the witness and when Paul wrote about the testimony it had to all outward appearances broken down. John saw Him in His glory. It is known to the people who have seen Him. If our reading today leads any of us to see these things in the Son of God there will be the witness.
Rem In the epistle the saints themselves are the witness.
CAC God’s great thought is that there should be a witness to His Son. I think it is a great thing to have unity brought about. The Lord prays for the unity of His saints. It is the knowledge of the Son of God that will bring about unity and nothing else. It is most important for God that [p. 191] there shall be a witness and I believe a witness will be maintained to the end.
Rem What we want is to ponder over these things; it is in meditation that we get the good of them. We ought to be “clean” and “chew the cud”.
CAC What is in my mind as to it is that we learn the secret of how to be heavenly in the knowledge of the Son of God; it is christianity in the full height of its own blessedness. It is a great thing to know Him that is true. In the Son of God nothing falls below the level of God’s thoughts. “And we know that the Son of God has come”, 1 John 5:20. I think with the apostle it means that the Son of God having come, every other man has gone. It had become a great reality in their souls.