PROTECTING THE WORK OF GOD IN US
A. B. Parker
Since coming to this country, and particularly since being at the recent meetings in London, one has the sense that something very precious is being imparted through the ministry and that we have a very real responsibility to protect every right thought of Christ that comes into our hearts. Also, there is constant need for help to see what needs to be judged as evil or unprofitable. I think I can say that I am convinced that the Lord is set to lead us through a course of positive ministry to build up a substantial constitution in our souls. If we are to continue in faithfulness and have part in any real sense in the testimony, it will involve devoted committal to the Lord and the maintenance of fresh, living links with Him not abstractly, but experimentally.
This passage I have read is one of the most touching portions of Scripture. We could never measure the intensity of divine feelings that entered into what is recorded in it, for this was in the heat of battle, so to speak. The Lord Jesus was about to die under the awful judgment of His God. In Malachi 3: 17 Jehovah had said, “I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”. Jehovah knew the feelings of a father in relation to his own son, but there was no relief for Jesus! Divine love and the will of God required that He should not spare His own Son; He delivered Him up on our account. “Shall he not also with him grant us all things?”, Romans 8: 32. The feelings of God are such that He is prepared to
shower blessings on those who appreciate Jesus and cultivate nearness to Him and appreciate God’s thoughts for us.
The Lord Jesus had prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34). In Isaiah 53: 12 it says that “He … made intercession for the transgressors”. Think of the prayer of Jesus being answered by a work that commenced and quickly developed in a malefactor who had been railing at Him. What grace! God was about to hide His face from Jesus. He soon was to utter that cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Mark 15: 34. That was at the very height of the intensity of that awful time when Jesus felt the awfulness of wrath without relief. It was at that moment that He repeated, “My God, my God”. He would not allow the awfulness to minimise His obedience to, and vindication of, the will of His God! The mind of Jesus was in absolute accord with the will of God! It is, I believe, one of the most profound expressions in Scripture. The moral glory of the Son of man shines out in these circumstances.
It would seem that the sudden change in the malefactor was an answer to the prayer of Jesus.
Luke alone tells us of it. Others tell us that both malefactors were abusive, but Luke tells of the sudden change that came over him when the fear of God entered into his soul. It is wonderful to see what can happen quickly. The appreciation of it prepares us for that wonderful moment when, in the twinkling of an eye, the great change will take place in us at the rapture. God worked quickly in the malefactor, but is He not prepared to work quickly in us, today? We want to yield ourselves to God in view of His work being quickened in us.
Some of us may realize that we have wasted much of our time, but that work can be increased—we can
be changed quickly. God certainly was operating quickly in the malefactor. He said to his fellow, “dost thou too not fear God?” Why did he say ‘thou too’? Because he himself had not feared God, but now the fear of God had entered into his soul. He now thought of God—
perhaps for the first time in his life. Then he says, “We receive the just recompense of what we have done”. Think of a man such as he had been, now able to distinguish between government according to God dealing with criminals, but on the other hand having a clear judgment of the travesty of justice in the crucifixion of the Man who had done nothing amiss.
It would be good to be able to sit down with Luke and have a good talk about this passage. I trust he would approve of the things I am saying, or am about to say. In the beginning of his gospel he indicates the decadency of the priesthood. Choice elements of the priesthood are mentioned in relation to Zacharias, but even with him there was unbelief which caused Gabriel to infer rebuke—“I am Gabriel, who stand before God”. Gabriel stood before God, but never in unbelief! Zacharias had been standing before God, but he did not believe. Over against the decadency of the Aaronic priesthood Luke brings forward a man who dwelt in Jerusalem and who, though evidently not of the Aaronic system, was nevertheless priestly when he took the child Jesus into his arms and blessed God (Luke 2: 27–32).
He traces the formation and development of the priesthood right through to this passage which we have read, and includes the malefactor as the priest performing the service of the priest as indicated in Numbers 4: 4–6, when he covered the ark preparatory to its journeying through the wilderness. In his utterance, “We indeed justly,
for we receive the just recompense of what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss”, he clearly shows the moral separation between what we are as sinners and the perfection of manhood as seen in Jesus. Thus he takes down the veil of separation and covers the Ark. He also takes the protective covering of badgers’ skin when he says, “This man has done nothing amiss” and covers the Ark; then, the cloth wholly of blue would be seen in his reference to the Lord Jesus coming in His kingdom.
But how did such a person understand anything about the coming kingdom? He recognised that Christ’s kingdom would be a heavenly kingdom. It was the manifestation of the works of God! Think of how quickly that man grew spiritually. The Ark is covered by the true priest and made ready, in that sense, for the journey through the Jordan. The priests of the old order were loudest in the cry, “Away with this man”—“Crucify him”. Would it not indicate to us that, in spite of breakdown in our day, to which we have so sadly contributed, God is able to bring to light an element somewhere where His rights are recognised, where there are assembly conditions, and where the latter glory of the house will be found? And if so (and surely He is able) can we not have some little part in it? This should awaken a tremendous concern with us. And in view of having part in it we want to protect the work of God in our souls as we go through this dark world. We are to let our light shine before men, but we need to protect what is precious, that we may grow by the true knowledge of God (Colossians 1: 10). Therefore let us yield ourselves freshly in fidelity and committal, freely asking the Lord to work in us, quickly.
Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
28 April 1981