THE GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST AND WHAT IS HERE FOR GOD
[p. 28] THE GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST AND WHAT IS HERE FOR GOD
John 7: 39; John 17: 1 - 3; John 12: 16
You will have observed that the scriptures read present the glorification of Jesus, and consequent upon that, what is here for God. John speaks more of the glorification of Jesus than do the other evangelists. Parallel with this he speaks of what is above and what is heavenly. As inspired by the Spirit he presents things already known, at least in principle, and presents them formally. The impressions received may be at times without special recognition of what is in mind on the part of him who receives it, but impression after impression is received so as to build up the truth informally, and at the same time uniformly. The writer says of Christ, “of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace” (John 1: 16).
One can see how John would understand that this experience of wave after wave of grace from Christ would maintain freshness in the saints, and prevent hardness and legality. Some of us have been speaking of the great care with which the assembly at Philippi was initially guarded against Jewish influences, and this gospel has pre-eminently in mind to guard the saints and to deliver them from what is Jewish and from what is legality. So you can understand how wave after wave of grace going out from Christ, from His fulness, has the effect of spiritually moistening the saints, elevating them too in their service and responsibilities. He then adds “we all have received”, for that is another principle with God, what is available is only effective as received. The suggestion is that the saints are maintained by the action of grace, “grace upon grace”, but it is of Christ’s fulness.
The apostle says that “grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, suggesting, as the verb is in the [p. 29] singular, that the two ideas are presented together. That they “subsist” suggests that they are never to be abrogated, never to be withdrawn, never to be unavailable during the dispensation, and are never to be separated. His fulness shines out thus, “we all have received”, says the apostle, “grace upon grace”. In that way we are preserved from Jewish influences, and by this I mean from legality. That is to say, preserved from taking on things or principles, right in themselves, without the grace that belongs to them. John’s gospel is, above all parts of Scripture, intended to guard against legalism and against Jewish influences; and that can only be effected by the operation of what is in Christ, of His fulness. He has gone far above all heavens that He might fill all things, including all persons. It is in the apprehension of that exaltation that the saints receive grace upon grace without limit. If there be a lack of grace the soul is hampered. Elsewhere we are enjoined to come boldly to the throne of grace. If you go to the throne of grace you will never fail to obtain what you go for, “Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help” (Hebrews 4: 16).
I am speaking particularly now of the need of being delivered and preserved from that feature of Jewish influence, legality, so that the service of God, as administered and carried on, is in the liberty of grace and also in the understanding of the exaltation of Christ, and of what is down here for God; there is no lack in the supply, it is grace upon grace. One can trace these things throughout the gospel, but I confine myself now to the glorification of Christ; all hinges on that, and I would call attention to the hesitation that there is to go the whole length of what is divinely indicated for us. John would insist that christianity, divinely conceived, corresponds with the full height of Christ’s position in heaven. Think of what we are [p. 30] brought into in that way; whether it be Godward in the service of God, or as experiencing His service to wards man, all is to be in keeping with the position of Christ at the present time. What may be in the millennium is another matter, but for the moment John’s ministry is to maintain the saints in keeping with the full height of the present session of Christ in heaven.
It may be said that what is there has never been experienced by us, but indeed the Lord Himself says, “If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?” (John 3: 12). In those remarks He graciously considers our tendency to limitation, to dropping down to the level of earthly things, and it is admitted that heavenly things are not so easily taken on as earthly things. Then the Lord says, “no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven” (verse 13). That was true at that time, it refers to His inscrutability, that whilst down here He could speak of Himself as in heaven; and mark you, it is “the Son of man who is in heaven”, not who has gone up to it, but who is in it. The preposition implies that He belongs to the place, and hence He only is competent to speak of what is there. I am seeking to point out what christianity really implies, how it is intelligible to us, and how it is possible for mortals to have part in what is heavenly.
The apostle says, “It is not of profit to me to boast, for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I know not, [p. 31] or out of the body I know not, God knows;) such a one caught up to the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12: 1, 2). We have often commented on this remarkable event, but I bring it in here to show the possibility of reaching the heavenly at the present time. He says “whether in the body I know not,
or out of the body I know not”, but still he was there. How he knew it was the third heaven we are not told, but he was there. He changed the word in the second reference, and called it paradise. How did he know it was paradise? It is plain enough he was capable of knowing the place. It is always a mark of intelligence when we can name what we experience. Why should we have a third heaven? Is it not plain that the idea of the third heaven is proved by experience? It is not a mere abstract thought of something believed in testimony, the thing is proved. If proved by one man, one brother, or one christian (for it is not the apostle that is presented to us, but a man in Christ), the thoughts are open to every true christian. To my mind the inference is perfectly plain, that the thing is proved by a man, a brother in Christ. There can he no doubt that the word man is used to convey the idea that he was in his full consciousness. Consider that experience — that it is brought down here, and belongs to the treasury of God which obtains here by the Spirit. Thus the idea is proved and experienced by a christian. The first heavens are spiritual in their bearing, the second heavens would be more spiritual, and the third heaven would give the intensity of the thought and the idea that the thing is proved. There is a wondrousness in the revelation that he speaks of here, things not allowed to man to utter; but still he hears them, human ears heard them, and he keeps them for they belong to the treasury of God and he himself was a treasurer. There were treasuries in the temple of which David had the pattern (1 Chronicles 28: 11, 12), and Paul was one pre-eminently qualified to keep this wonderful treasure for fourteen years without mentioning it; but it was there, and it entered into the wealth of the apostle’s and the brother’s ministry. I want to press upon you that the thing is a reality; the idea of heaven is a reality and within the range of man, of the believer.
[p. 32] The grace side is particularly seen in John 7. It was the last day of the feast and the Lord stood and cried saying, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. These are the Lord’s own words, quoted by the Spirit of God; and then the Spirit, as if to make plain what is meant, adds this verse which I have read. “But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. What is intended to be conveyed is the magnificence of christianity, as here in this world, which is consonant with the glory as in Christ Jesus in the glory, and the Holy Spirit here in relation to Him thus glorified. What is up there in the way of grace is down here, not merely in the doctrine of grace, but in a manner answering to rivers flowing out.
If we refer to John 7: 38 the Lord says, “as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. The Scripture says it, yet no one can point to the actual passage that says it in so many words. The Lord is obviously calling our attention to what Scripture means, what is said in effect, and it has as much force as a direct saying. The subject begins with Genesis 2; but I am thinking particularly of the man in Ezekiel 47 as applying now where there is need of healing amongst us. That chapter speaks of rivers flowing out from beneath the altar of God; and the river was measured and measured, and measured by the man with the measuring line, but every time it is measured its depth is proved by the prophet. The idea is that christianity is something to be proved. What is presented to man in testimony is proved to be what is said. Ezekiel is called upon to pass through and he passes through, and so proves the thing. Finally he cannot go through, he proves the infinite depths of the river of grace; but what an impression it would [p. 33] make upon him, and also upon us! It is intended to affect us and make us like God, like heaven. The idea is of grace coming down from the source as an influence for healing to man; and then again of the rivers of grace flowing out through the saints, flowing out of their affections. So that if there be a case calling for discipline and the like, grace comes in; it is a question of grace reigning through righteousness, and the effect of that in the discipline is that there is healing. What good is discipline if there is no healing? For the moment we may have recourse to the exclusion of the person not fit for fellowship, but what about the person involved? How dreadful for a christian to have the thought of getting rid of another christian! How dreadful a thing that is! It is foreign to the principle of grace. Hence you find that in the river there is healing power. By the Spirit of God, speaking of its great healing powers, it is called the “double river”. It flows towards the east, and wherever the double river came there was healing; in dealing with the most difficult cases there should be healing. Scripture says, “that rather it may be healed” (Hebrews 12: 13).
Here we have healing from the river flowing out in the desert, flowing into the sea hitherto marked by death, but which is healed. It refers to a state of things seen in the saints, but is there no way of dealing with that state? Is it not a shame that it cannot be dealt with? Where is the double river? Are these rivers flowing out? Have they no power of healing? The Spirit of God tells us of that river, and it is but a symbol of the one of which I am speaking, and in it there was healing. Undoubtedly the Lord has this in mind when He says, “as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. It is a question of the magnitude of the believer in this arid world. As some of us have lately been seeing in Philippians, the apostle yearned after the saints “in the bowels of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1: 8). Think of such an expression of these yearning [p. 34] feelings and desires in a christian for the preservation and deliverance of another! “That rather it may be healed” — how is it to be healed? By this great power of grace coming in from an exalted Christ.
Now we will pass on to chapter 17, in which the Lord speaks of His glorification just before it took place. That is another point with John, things are on the divine calendar, for the Lord says, “the hour is come”. Nothing happens by chance, the hour is determined by the divine will and counsel, so He says “the hour is come”. Had not that hour been anticipated in heaven? Oh yes, but the Lord in speaking to His Father knew that everything synchronised with that hour; all was finished on His side, and now the hour had come and He says, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee”. He is still thinking of His Father, and as we follow down this chapter we see that He specifies the kind of glory that He sought. “And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. That is another thing, it is a question of His deity, of His part with God — “being in the form of God”. But in this earlier verse, He is thinking of being glorified in keeping with the great administration which the Father had put into His hand, and which would now be exercised from heaven, where He would be in a position to glorify His Father. He could not do it save as He would have all things under His hand; so as Peter says, in connection with the coming out of the Spirit, “Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear” (Acts 2:33). It was by the presence of the Spirit down here through redemption. He would glorify the Father — “that thy Son may glorify thee”, and then He adds, “As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal”. The giving of [p. 35] eternal life is from that altitude, and to those whom the Father had given Him. It is all a question of counsel, of selection. God has His numbers, He has His calendar for His time; but He has His numbers, and it is only to as many as He gives to the Son, to whom He gives eternal life. As glorified in heaven by the Father, this distribution of eternal life is going on through the Son; “that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal”. Maybe someone here has not received it. In john 3: 16 we read that God decreed it, “he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. In chapter 17 it is not whosoever, but it is whom the Father has given Him. The “whosoever” must fit exactly with the election and the selection. What a great thing it is to be among the elect, to be given by the Father to the Son, so that He might give them life eternal! Then bearing upon ourselves, in His concern about the present time, (although He has the millennium in His mind) He tells the Father, “this is eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. These two thoughts are very important for us, firstly to deliver us from idolatry. The knowledge of the true God and of the true Man, “Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, is to set me up here in the apprehension of Man according to God, “Jesus Christ”, not “Christ Jesus”. A Man here, as I apprehend, and the knowledge given that I might be formed in this great thought of manhood according to God. I am delivered from idolatry and held in righteousness in the knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God has sent, as here for the will of God. It is “Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, not glorified in this particular sense, but a question of the great thought of eternal life in its application to us; how are we constituted by it in the presence of idolatry and lawlessness — a most important thought in connection with what I have been saying about the rivers [p. 36] of grace; freeing us not only from judaism but from idolatry and lawlessness. That was what the Lord had in mind in glorifying the Father, that He would bring about persons like Himself down here. That is what God is aiming at at this very moment, that in the light of these thoughts we might wholly correspond down here with what is up there.
Then the final thought is in chapter 12, which refers to our knowledge of things. It says, “his disciples knew not these things at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him”. This is a great feature of the glorification of Christ, and the outcome of it is that we understand. The Lord says, “How is it that ye do not understand?” Things are presented to us again and again, and the question is therefore, “How is it that ye do not understand?” John says, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true” (1 John 5: 20). It is said by the apostle Paul that we have the mind of Christ, and moreover that the Spirit searches all things. The question therefore is very pertinent, “How is it that ye do not understand?” Is it due to some bias, or to some dark part? Is it some reservation in one’s outlook? Christ has gone up far above all darkening influences, far above all heavens. He never could be dark, I need not say, but I am speaking now of the way things are put in Scripture. The Holy Spirit has come out unhampered, and herein is the power for our understanding; but mark you, not simply that He is here, but that He comes from a glorified Christ, that is the point. It was after that Christ was glorified that they understood. According to John 2: 19 - 22 they did not understand how the Lord could raise His own body. He says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. The Jews replied, “Forty and six years [p. 37] was this temple building, and thou wilt raise it up in three days? ... When therefore he was raised from among the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken”, meaning that His resurrection was an answer to that, for He did raise His own body and it was manifested that He did it. Mark you, they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had said. Sometimes brethren hesitate to read the Old Testament in their Bible readings, but John constantly stresses the importance of the Old Testament, and in view of these last days, how important it is that we should read the Old Testament. So after He was risen they believed the scripture and that He had said this. Luke 24: 27 says, “he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”. That is, the scriptures became intelligible after His resurrection, but in that particular setting resurrection was not enough; it was the glorification of Jesus. This shows how certain things require more spirituality than others. It is not only that Christ is risen but that Christ is glorified. He has gone into heaven, indeed as Paul says, He has gone “up above all the heavens” (Ephesians 4: 10), and in Hebrews it says He has “become higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7: 26). Is that for nothing? Is it not to impress us with His exaltation, with His elevation? — so that we may become uplifted in our thoughts, and see to it that what is here is in keeping with what is there. This is to enter into the whole spiritual position, we are morally to be entirely above any kind of current religion and human thoughts. In verse 12 of this chapter it says, “On the morrow a great crowd who came to the feast, having heard that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, took branches of palms and went out to meet him, and cried, Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat upon it; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion:
[p. 38] behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt”.
I bring this before you in regard of our understanding, that we may read the Scriptures at our Bible readings in the light of the exaltation of Christ, and that we may become heavenly, morally elevated in the way of our activities and relations with one another.