OUTSHINING
E. M. Walkinshaw
Mark 9: 1–8; 2 Corinthians 4: 5–7; Revelation 21: 9–14
The simple link in these scriptures, dear brethren, is the outshining. It says of Jesus, “His garments became shining, exceeding white as snow, such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”. Everything in Him, as we know, is perfect. There is no question of limitation with Him, although as Man He accepted the limitations that manhood would impose upon Him, but I am thinking of the perfection of the shining out in Him of the wonderful knowledge of God. It was a unique privilege for these three men. Jesus said, “There are some of those standing here that shall not taste death until they shall have seen the kingdom of God come in power”. We have already been reminded in these meetings that the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.
That is to say it is effective. There may be with us an understanding of the word ‘kingdom’, but I think what the Lord would draw our attention to is the power of that. As the Spirit is present, giving efficacy to the ministry as it reaches us, it comes in power so that the kingdom of God is not just a theory but its moral sway in the souls of the saints is known.
So Jesus says, here, “The kingdom of God come in power”. Then He takes these three men “up on a high mountain by themselves apart”. I suppose it would have some bearing on the service He was going to give them. We say it is sovereign, but I doubt not that the Lord’s sovereignty, as all else, is based on His wisdom. His selection was based on wisdom. Sovereignty is not arbitrary. He has a right to do what He will in His own affairs. He chooses Paul, or Peter, or it may be Mark. ‘I do’, He says, “what I will in my own affairs”, Matthew 20: 15. It is a good thing, beloved brethren, for us just simply to acknowledge that and allow the Lord to do what He will among us. So that persons who laboured throughout the day, you recall (if we might turn aside for a moment), received a denarius, just exactly the same as those who laboured only at the end of the day (see Matthew 20). ‘Most unfair’, men say, ‘that I should have been working in this industry for forty years and am earning no more than someone who has only been in it three months’. That is what men say. We must recognise, dear brethren, that even among men, a man has a right to do what he will in his own affairs. What he would do normally would be wise. So each of them receives a denarius. On the face of it, it seems unfair, but I think we need to bow to the Lord’s own sovereign actions. As we have sometimes been reminded, Mr. Raven said there is nothing that the human heart hates more than the sovereignty of God (see F.E.R. N.S. Vol. 7, p.253), i.e. His right to do as He pleases.
So Jesus takes these three men (there is no evidence in this passage that the others resented it), but He takes them because He has in mind that there should be something effective, that they should witness what presently should have part in their own service in the testimony. So it says, “He was transfigured before them”. I should like to have witnessed that, would not you? But it is not my lot to have witnessed it. What a day it was in which they lived! What a privilege, dear brethren, it was; a suffering privilege, maybe, but what a privilege to get such a vision of “the kingdom of God come in power”. It was evidence to them that everything eventually would be put into effect when God operated to bring to pass the great administration of the fulness of times that everything should be headed up in, and be under, Christ. How great Christ is! You can understand God calling attention to Him. Evidently Peter tried to enter into the conversation. How gracious is the intervention, calling attention to the perfection and glory of Jesus and what He was to the Father. “This is my beloved Son— hear him”. We need to hear Him, dear brethren. Do you think He is speaking today? When I say ‘today’ I mean not this particular day in 1974, although He is speaking in that, but in our day. Are you prepared to hear Him?
These three men were evidently young; we have sometimes been reminded that John was possibly not much more than seventeen. Our brother referred last evening to two young men, David—he was seventeen, I think—and Joseph. They both had to suffer in the testimony at a tender age. They began young and both finished. I suppose David was something around seventy when he died, and Joseph was a hundred and ten. They went on and they went through. These young men on the mount had their privileged part in the testimony as affected by what they saw shining in Jesus. It shone, of course, in lowliness. ‘All that shone in Christ once humbled’, the hymn says, ‘There expands in glory’s light’. There was the shining of grace here in that lowly, heavenly Man. If we say that of the assembly we can surely say it of Him. Lowliness; an unearthly witness of heavenly things on earth, all the glory of Jesus here in lowliness.
Now as on the mountain it says, “His garments became shining”, all the purity of His heavenly associations, “exceeding white as snow such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”. Who could whiten the garments of Jesus? We have sometimes been reminded of the words of Mr. Darby that Jesus was absolutely and infinitely good enough to be always perfect, and being absolutely and infinitely perfect, He was always absolutely and infinitely good. But the shining is what has impressed me in the passage. We get a reference to the fuller in Scripture and the fuller’s lye, and the need for the purifying of the sons of Levi, but was there any need in the perfect Servant Prophet for the application of anything from the fuller? No; all there was infinitely perfect, and the shining such as is almost indescribable, the whiteness and the purity, all that was innate in that blessed Man shining out.
Then it says, “There appeared to them Elias with Moses”. It does not say ‘in glory’ here but just that they appeared, “talking with Jesus”. I suppose they were suited to that scene. How would they know that it was “Elias with Moses”? How would Peter know it, or John, or James, or Mark the writer? The Spirit of God does not enlighten us about that but He does tell us that they were there, I doubt not that they were there as suitable, but they must have been there as having a right to be there as based on the precious death of Jesus. How wonderful that is! He was on the way to the cross. If Moses and Elias were to have a part on the mount, they must have it through the work of Jesus, in the same way as Paul or Peter, James or John, or any other person. Everyone who has a part there has it on the basis of the precious death of Jesus. This is the Person who was going to die. What moral glory shone out in Jesus here, what moral and, I suppose we could say, spiritual glory shone out in Him. These are the holy associations to which He was proper, heavenly associations that man never contaminated, having no moral contact with the world whatever; they shone there in absolute perfection.
No doubt that shining was to affect the apostles so that later they too might shine. James, of course, was put to death by Herod. We might ask, what is the point? I doubt not that the impression of the shining of Jesus and the kingdom of God come in power strengthened him for what he had to suffer as a martyr. If Peter is to go through, the exceeding whiteness of the garments of Jesus would impress him. You could not think of him being associated with the world, or forming links with the world, or having part in their celebrations. Could you think that of James or Peter or John? They would think of the clearness and the purity, of the holy, heavenly associations of Jesus which they saw shining. So they were committed to it, and I believe it was effective. “The kingdom of God come in power” means that it affected them and I think, dear brethren, it is to affect us.
I read the second passage because here we have the shining through persons. It is not Jesus personally, but Paul and those that are with him and he says, “It is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. That was in those men. They were products of the work of the Spirit and in their word, walk and ways there was a “shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. Think of that, dear brethren, that there was then in persons, and I believe there is today, the expression in manner of life, in word, and walk, and ways, of what is shining in the face of that blessed Man in heaven. Note—“out of darkness light should shine”; that meant that Jesus must go into the darkness. He must settle every moral question, which He has done, and now in Him at the right hand of God the glory of God is shining. How is it seen here in testimony? It is seen in vessels. It may be that the vessels are broken. I suppose many of our dear brethren as they get older are conscious of the fact that the vessel is being broken. It may not be felt by young men, because most of them are strong. “The glory of young men is their strength”, Proverbs 20: 29. I doubt not that Paul, in all that he passed through, felt the breaking of the vessel, so that the light shone. It has been so often linked with Gideon’s men, the breaking of the pitchers and the shining of the light (see Judges 7).
What is the shining? It is really the shining of Christ as He shines above, and as these men moved around there would be before men the constant shining of what was in “the face of Jesus Christ”. Who is it there for? It is there for men. There at the right hand of God is the perfect expression of God’s thoughts for men. As the apostles moved around, I believe, they would have in mind that men should come into the gain of it, so there was a practical testimony, not just a preaching. A preaching is one thing, and we thank God for everyone who can preach, but thank God for every one in whose heart God has shone for the shining forth among men “of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. So we say, ‘Well, does that exist today? If so, where is it?’ Well, you know what Mr. Darby’s father said to him, ‘Make it better by one man, my son’. You come into it. Whether you are young or old, seventeen or seventy, you be exercised to come into it.
So even in a day of declension something of His glory is seen. You would not care to argue, would you, that the glory of God is no longer shining in the face of Jesus Christ? Who would dare to argue such a thing? But where is the expression of it? I believe and am persuaded that there has been the expression of it in the recovery. Many of us have witnessed it in men who have set forth “the knowledge of the glory of God” in themselves, suffering often. How much beloved Mr. Taylor suffered from opposition. When we think of the troubles through which we may have passed, what has often pressed in upon our spirits, think of him through a long life, with Satan’s opposition to destroy and overthrow the ministry. I think there was there, and in others too, some demonstration, some shining in the darkness here in this poor world, of what is shining in the face of Jesus Christ for all men. Well now, what about you? You may say to me, ‘What about you—sometimes you are not much of an advertisement for it’. I have humbly to admit that one day a little while ago one of the men at the office said to me, ‘Cheer up, Eddie, it may never happen’.
You see, I have to face it. Was that shining? Well, it was not shining. Maybe it was a problem causing a frown. We all have problems; but I think characteristically the saints here in the recovery are shining forth what is “in the face of Jesus Christ” for every man.
As we know, what is in Christ is for all men. It is laid hold of by faith, not by all, nevertheless it is there for all. So in Paul and his company—we love to think of them and learn from them—there was the practical expression, a reflection here in shining, of what was shining in Jesus on the mountain, “the kingdom of God come in power”. It was effective in them. We need to be exercised about this, dear brethren; not just to grasp the truth, but that it should be effective in the power and grace of the Spirit so that we should come into the shining, which is the shining of our Lord Jesus Christ seen in some in testimony, and carried forward in testimony. I think also, as I have said, that the Lord has graciously recovered it.
Is it going to continue? Shall we let it lapse? I will say this, it will never lapse, the Lord will see to that. Whether I am in it or not is another question. I desire to be in it in some little degree, but I will tell you something; I am inclined to shrink from it. I say to the Lord, ‘I would like to have an experience like Paul’s when Thou didst stand by him’. He might say to me, Are you prepared to be in the circumstances in which he was when he had it? You would like an angel of the Lord, or of the God, as Paul says, “whose I am and whom I serve” (Acts 27: 23) to stand by you? Well, are you prepared to be in a shipwreck?
There are certain circumstances in which that man was, which called out the sympathy of the Lord and gave him those unique experiences. So it tends to make you shrink. Do not shrink; go forward. That is what one has had to learn. Go forward, counting on His grace to sustain you in whatever circumstances you may find yourself, so that through it all there might be a little shining here in testimony; not just in word, but in walk and ways, a testimony to what God is as having been fully expressed in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we find a city in Revelation 21. “And there came one of the seven angels which had had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues”. I suppose this is the great contrast to the false city, Babylon; there is no shining there. So when John saw this city coming down it did not look like a prison. Some cities might look like that. Of the false one it says, “a hold of every unclean and hated bird”, Revelation 18: 2. How solemn that is! Now it says it is one of the angels that had had the seven bowls; the angel would have some insight into all that they meant, would he not? He says, “Come here, I will shew thee ...”. I would like to be available like that, would not you? But I will say that this was not just sovereign. I do not doubt that the Lord took up John with this in view, but it was not just sovereign; he was a man who was able to be carried. “Come here, I will shew thee”. Have we eyes to see, dear brethren? Are we looking in the right direction? “I saw and behold, a door opened in heaven”, Revelation 4: 1. He obviously was not looking towards the earth, for then he would not have seen the door in heaven.
In which direction are you young men and women looking—towards the earth, bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger businesses, and the like? You would never see a door in heaven if that is your outlook. Do your business righteously, but do not let it hold you, do not let it grip you, do not let it absorb you, or you will miss the door open in heaven and the Spirit will not find you available for the angel to say, “Come here, I will shew thee”. O, I would like to see things like this, would not you? It says, “He carried me away in the Spirit”. I think if we set ourselves for spiritual experiences we shall be surprised what the Lord will do for us, even in these days. Now I commend it to all of us, not only to the young, but also to the older ones, what the Spirit of God will show us. It says he “showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God”. I have often thought that she would have learned that from Jesus—“coming down”, in all the grace of heaven, but “having the glory of God”. It speaks of “her shining”, a heavenly body, so to speak, a luminary. As we have already said, not like a prison, but shining in beneficence, and all the provision needed for men coming down out of heaven. She belonged there. We have often been told that the origin of the assembly is heaven and her destiny is heaven. Here she is coming out “having the glory of God”.
O, dear brethren, we are looking forward to this! There is no shining in any in this world, save in those who know God. How dark! Men’s hearts are failing them for fear of those things that are coming upon the earth. Where will it end? There is no hope. All these things are in the minds and hearts of men, bringing almost despair. Of course, they turn it away with humour, but it rests in their hearts that they have no knowledge of what is going to happen. But we have; there is going to be a beneficent administration from a vessel “having the glory of God”, equal to that. It is not glory from God, but “the glory of God”. She is the product of divine workmanship—how great! As another has said, a creature in perfection, and all that shining out.
How will all that work out? “Thou be over five cities”; “be thou in authority over ten cities”, that is how it will work out in simple blessing for men, and all that God is will come into expression in the way of shining in that simple way. What about you and me? I love to think of that day. Mr. Raven did not claim to be much, did he? He said he hoped he would be counted worthy to carry a message. I am sure if he did he would shine, he would make the message shine. So if we can be but messenger boys, so to speak, in the world to come, we can make the position shine. I think every service rendered by every person belonging to the city—for, after all, it is composed of persons—will shine, so that God will be glorified in it as well as men being brought into blessing. May the Lord help us, dear brethren, that we may be exercised to come into the gain of the truth, that there may be in this day of darkness more simple shining among men so that they may see and understand what the disposition of God is towards them, and that through the gracious working of His Spirit others may be turned in faith to lay hold of what is in that Man at the right hand of God, “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. How wonderful that is, but if it is to be known here it is known in vessels.
So, in brief, we have firstly the shining of Jesus, “His garments became shining, exceeding , white as snow, such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”, no touch could be added to what was there; then others coming into the testimony as understanding what is in that Man, and then finally the great consummation. There are no apologies, no changes; the city as it comes down is precisely what God originally intended. Dear brethren, the divine objective will be reached, the city will come down out of heaven just as God planned, as one has often said, without any modifications. It is not like men—‘Well, of course, that should have been a piece of oak there, but we were a bit short so we had to polish some deal and put it in’—that is man’s idea. Modified building is not the divine way. What God produces in the city, in creature perfection, is exactly what He originally intended in His purpose. May we take courage from it, dear brethren, and go forward in our own simple measure in our day, seeking to be here for His glory. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Dundee
28 September 1974