PART WITH CHRIST
[p. 109] PART WITH CHRIST
When Christ had risen and the Holy Spirit was given, one might have supposed that everything would now be on the new line as it is with God - the Man in glory, the accepted Man, and the Holy Spirit the power, and the bond with Him. “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”.
But because the necessity of the feet washing is not seen, even by those who accept this truth in a broad way, there is much confusion and weakness in the saints everywhere. So that it becomes a question of great moment - What is neglected? The secret of it is that the necessity of the feet being washed is overlooked. The Lord is risen indeed, and the Holy Spirit has descended. These are established facts; but where the great deception and loss prevail is in ignoring the solemn fact that you cannot now have part with Christ (though you admit that the Holy Spirit has come) while there is a shade of distance between you and Him. The distance on God’s side has been removed on the cross; you are reconciled by His accomplished work; but you cannot have part with Christ or conscious association with Him on the new ground on which He has entered, unless you know His present service in removing from you practically what is unsuitable to Himself on the new ground.
In John 13 the Lord opens out to His disciples the new ground, and how He gathers them to Himself on the ground that they are to share with Him where He is. When sitting at the supper table He rises and pours water into a basin, and begins “to wash the disciples’ feet”. We learn from this scripture the all-importance of the washing - the removal of that which causes any [p. 110] shade between us and Christ. If this shade or distance, which is caused by the feet not being washed, did not occur, there could not be the confusion and weakness which now prevail. The Lord has entered on resurrection ground, and He would conduct His disciples to this same ground. But though they had known Him in an earthly way, they could not share with Him on this new ground while they were soiled by connection with the corruption which He had put away in His death and resurrection. Hence, it is deeply interesting to note that He introduced the water as a necessity to ensure conscious maintenance on the new ground; He had been intimate with them here on earth - the place of their sin, but now they are conducted outside of everything that once barred them from Him.
It is a deception of the worst kind to suppose that I can have part with Him in the scene where He is, while I am in a scene where everything defiled by sin has been removed by His death, except as I am free from it by the washing of the water, which is emblematic of His death. In Christ’s death, that which caused the distance, or any sense of it, was removed before God. This is brought home to the soul through the word, and is what is so little practically accepted. It is not that the scriptures are not read, and in christendom gospel work is insisted on, but there is no sense that, in association with Christ, we belong to a new place now, which we cannot enjoy while we are in any wise tainted with the things of this world, so that even in our daily life we should always be bearing about in our bodies the dying of Jesus.
It is of the deepest importance to see how the church began on earth. Though the Lord knew His disciples in the greatest nearness here, as we learn from chapter 10: 14, 15, yet now that He was going to the Father they could not enjoy Him there, but as they were in the moral benefits of the cross. Hence the church, which began in communion with Himself, is [p. 111] now one great mass of worldliness. Great truths are not denied, but mere professors assume the most prominent places. How differently the church on earth would be seen if we were morally true to the virtue of His work!
He surrounds Himself with us on this ground: every element which might be brought in from the world which would cause distance or reserve He provides for the removal of, in washing the feet.
It is very simple if you look at their place of nearness to Him here on earth. “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name”. It was necessary when He gathered them round Himself, in view of the new ground that He was about to enter on, that they should be perfectly clear of that which would cause any sense of reserve. Hence He poured water into a basin to wash their feet. No one is troubled by a sense of distance or reserve who has not known the intimacy of love. If each one of a company surrounding Him was exercised as to the removal of anything that would cause a shade of distance, how blessed it would be! Who can conceive what a different state the church would be in if every member lived in the sense of his susceptibility to contract defilement in the scene through which we are passing, and that we thus require the present service of Christ, which is expressed by washing the feet - the entire removal of any sense of distance, before we can enjoy to our hearts’ delight the intimacy of His love. The fact is that there could be no sense of distance unless there had been a sense of nearness. The exercise indicates simple truthfulness of heart that will not go on with any interruption of the sense of nearness.
The feet-washing is the Lord’s own doing, not ours. We often know that there is distance, but do not know the cause of it. If everyone was in the solemn consciousness that only the washing of his feet could remove that which causes the distance, there would be [p. 112] more intimacy with Christ in the joy of the Holy Spirit. How different the whole church would be! If every one realised what it is to be cleared by His present service from what is unsuitable to Him, what joy it would be to Him, and what unspeakable gain to us! He in His grace fits us for the enjoyment of Himself. If we are not with Him where He is, we cannot be for Him where He is not. We must be inside the veil to be outside the camp. Instead of the church being on this ground - association with Him in His own sphere, it has become a great system, with orderly appearance, and satisfied with character among men.