THE WORK OF GOD (1)
THE WORK OF GOD (1)
JT I thought we might be helped in looking into John’s reference to the work of God as underlying all dispensations, and as unaffected by conditions occasioned by failure on man’s part. The Lord said, according to John, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”. The Father had been working, and in contemplating it, we have to begin with Genesis; although this reference goes further back.
EH You mean that from the very time work began, the Father and Son were working together?
JT Yes. We have to take account of Genesis, especially because there it is that God began to operate in the heavens and the earth which we know. And the idea of seed is introduced and continued, each after its kind. Then we have the idea of “a wholly right seed” in Israel; Jeremiah 2: 21. Abraham was this seed; Jeremiah refers to the nation as planted in the land. But what was sown in Genesis bears fruit in Exodus, in which book we see God as He was revealed to Moses, i.e., “I AM”; and then what He had been: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and then how He should be known, His name would be His memorial unto all generations. So that in entering into relationship with His people He was to be known as the present living God — “I AM”. They were to understand what He was, and what He should be, from the knowledge that He imparted to them as to His present being: “I AM”. So it works out, that the way in which we know God now (any one of us), is the measure in which we know what He was, and what He shall be.
[p. 274] Then Moses in his prayer in the Psalms (the Psalms present the experimental side, the Pentateuch being more the revelation of God) says, “From everlasting to everlasting thou art God”, Psalm 90: 2. God would, I think, lead His people to such a knowledge of Himself that there should be “men of God”; Psalm 90 is “a prayer of Moses, the man of God”, and in that prayer he expresses what God was to His people: “Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations ... from everlasting to everlasting thou art God”. It is the knowledge of God in that way that enables the believer when things have broken down, to be restful; because he sees things as from the beginning. As John says here, “In the beginning”. From the beginning God operated even in the material system; if chaos ensued He did not desist, because Genesis opens with the fact of the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. There may be patience on God’s part in His work, but His work proceeds.
WHM Is your thought that His purposes of grace and love in a past eternity were to be shown amongst the sons of men?
JT Yes, man was in view. Proverbs helps in respect of that, and so in our chapter, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, verse 4. Man was in view; so that if we have the statement that without Him not one thing received being which has received being, it says, “In him was life and the life was the light of men”. That being set down at the outset, we may be sure that the thought of God is to bring about a response to that light in men. Hence the first requirement in the operations, as we know them historically is — “God said, Let there be light”; He commanded that light should shine out of darkness.
EM You remarked that John goes further [p. 275] back than Genesis, would you kindly say a little more about it?
JT He refers to the beginning of the divine operations, however far back.
Rem God’s operation was by a Man even from the very commencement.
JT Through One that was to become Man.
Ques Are you speaking of physical darkness or moral darkness?
JT Well, it is the moral darkness that is referred to; that God should shine out of darkness. It is the Spirit of God commenting on Genesis 1. The apostle Paul says, “God, who spoke that out of darkness light should shine ... has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6.
EH You mean that both in the material and moral systems, whatever God was bringing about He had men in view; even when He said, “Let there be light”, man was to come in afterwards when everything was prepared.
JT That is why, I think, we have the introduction of life so early; but it is life as light; not here for enjoyment but for light. It is as we lay hold of what God is, that we see how things extend backwards, as well as forwards.
JM Is that what the Lord had before Him when He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”? John 5: 17.
JT Yes. All His work had man in view.
Ques Was light the first revelation God gave of Himself?
JT Well, God is light; darkness has to be expelled. So that when He commanded light, He commanded what He was Himself. It is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, really. That is to say, we have to come to the New Testament for the fulness of its meaning; because the Scripture is [p. 276] one whole; hence Genesis 1 has in view what comes in later in the way of amplification. But in beginning His work, God commands light; He works in the light.
WH It is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that is in view from the beginning.
JT That is right. It is the knowledge of the glory of God. Now you have it shining out, but it is in the face of Jesus Christ; showing how completely God has reached His end. In the first chapter of Genesis we have the sun, and the moon, and the stars, as well as the abstract idea of life. These were figures. Now all is in Jesus. So that we can understand the fourth verse of this chapter.
All the operations from the first of Genesis have now to be taken into account in the light of the full revelation of God; it is only thus you understand them. Although dead, Abel is yet speaking; the speaking is better understood now than it could have been understood by men in Old Testament times.
WH The principle of it is in Moses: “From eternity to eternity thou art God”.
JT That is the principle, exactly. John is the expansion of Moses; Moses says, What shall I say unto the people who sent me? He says, “I AM”, go tell them that. You see, it is not what I was, or what I shall be, it is what I am. That is what God would bring us to; it is what He is. And now in the knowledge or measure in which you know Him you understand what is past. So in sending the message to Israel He said, tell them “I AM” hath sent you; and then He says, Tell them, moreover, that the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent you; and tell them another thing, that this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations; Exodus 3: 14, 15. That is the position in Exodus. But that position is now much [p. 277] more for us than it was for Moses, because we read it in the light of the full revelation of God, as spoken of in our chapter.
WH Everything is effectuated in Christ.
Rem With reference to the Word — He is known here, but John could say that Person was in the beginning.
JT Yes; so that John’s gospel you might say, is the most profound of all Scripture, and yet the most simple in its language. It is the most difficult to grasp because it supposes the knowledge of God. So that starting out from that basis, he takes you back to the beginning, and he takes you on to the end; that is to say, you are engaged with God whose operations underlie all dispensations.
PSP Have we got in John’s gospel in a spiritual way what corresponds to the work of God in Genesis?
JT We have.
PSP So that we have a spiritual world, as it were, coming into view.
JT Quite so; that is how the believer should read Genesis 1. “We have known and have believed the love that God hath to us”. And then he says, “God is love”, 1 John 4: 16. Well, you read Genesis 1 differently now in that light; and that is the only way to read it rightly. That is to say, what is in the Old Testament is not merely provisional, to meet the needs of God’s people by the way; God is speaking there in view of Christ from His own standpoint; if He does not speak fully, well, that is His own sovereign right; but He is going to speak out fully. So that every word that He has uttered is according to His own nature.
Ques Why do you say John’s gospel is most difficult?
JT Well, because you are in the presence of God in His infinitude; you see how it opens, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. If you were at the last Supper with the Lord, according to chapter 13, and knew that was predicted of Him, you would follow it; your soul would be moved that it was about Him that this was said.
It is as knowing Him there in His nearness to you that you would follow this. Early in the 13th chapter we read, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God, rises from supper and lays aside his garments”. This gospel enables us to stand and see that the work of God proceeds; there is no cessation in it really, and its results are in life.
WH So that all that came out previously, led up to this, and now this looks right on to the end.
JT That is it. It is not that these things were written merely in a provisional way to meet the needs of the saints then; God was speaking from His own standpoint. It is all out now. But what was spoken then was part and parcel of what is now, and what was done then is what is done now.
Ques The Lord says He came to do the Father’s will and to finish His work?
JT Now it is being finished. Nothing was finished in the Old Testament; things were begun from there, there was a beginning; but the Lord says, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work”, and to bring out the position more clearly. He goes on to say, “I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured; others have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours”, John 4: 34, 38. You see, John ever avoids what was official in the disciples; not that what was official was not right in itself, but it had broken down when he wrote. The tendency is always to make much of what is official. If any had a claim to official distinction, the twelve had; it might be [p. 279] said they inaugurated Christianity; which, in a sense, is true; but John quotes the Lord as saying, “I have sent you to reap that on which ye have now laboured”. Why is that? He wanted to bring out that the Old Testament was sowing time; that from the standpoint of the work of God they are only items in it; they are only workmen in it; the work had been going on all the time, seed had been sown, and He said, “Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest”, John 4: 35.
Now, in Matthew’s gospel He sows to get the harvest Himself, and so in the other synoptic gospels; but in John’s the sowing had been done before, so He says, “lift up your eyes”. They were simply reaping the results of the labours of other men. In the end the sower and the reaper rejoice together. It is all one work, and this is a lesson that we do well to take note of, because it applies in a peculiar way to ourselves; we have entered on other men’s labours. The Lord would ever belittle any claim to distinction in having originated anything, or brought out anything, because after all we have entered on the labours of other people; it is God’s work, and you are only an agent in it just as Abel was, or Noah, or Abraham; all are agents or instrumentalists in the work. It is God’s work, and if there is no harvest, it is not God’s work. Moreover, the harvest must be of its kind, whose seed is in itself: trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in them; Genesis 1: 12. The harvest must be of its own kind or it is not God’s harvest.
Ques The Lord made the remark, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest”, after the conversation with the woman of Samaria; now what is the connection between His conversation with the woman, and that [p. 280] remark?
JT She was part of the harvest. The disciples had never spoken to her; indeed it was to their discredit that they had left the Lord alone; you cannot go on with the work and leave the Lord out, and He never gives up that thought. They did not all need to go and buy bread. They marvelled that He talked with the woman, and they desired that He should eat; well, He says, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of”. It was a reproach on them that the Lord had meat that they did not know about; that meat was to do the work of God and to finish it. So that He says, Lift up your eyes, the fields are white; she was of the harvest. The context shows that the work of God had been going on. God had been working.
Ques You mean previously to His conversation with the woman?
JT Undoubtedly; it was God’s doing; being wearied with the way He had come. He sat just as He was at the fountain, and God brought her to Him. He says, “No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him”, John 6: 44.
EH How do you explain that verse in chapter 6 “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent”?
JT Really, the culmination of that work in the woman was to believe; and that is the seed that goes on all through, it is of one kind or character; it is all in believing on Him whom the Father has sent.
PSP You laid emphasis on the fact that in the beginning “in him was life; and the life was the light of men”. Is it that God was saying in Christ, “Let there be light, and there was light”?
JT In all that came out in the Old Testament the light that was to shine in Christ was in view; there is no other light, it was anticipative. Peter speaks about the prophetic word as light shining in a dark place; it was a light, and we can see now that [p. 281] it was what was to shine perfectly in Christ; it waited thousands of years, but it is the same light.
PSP Would you say that in John’s gospel we get the main feature of the light of God, and all that preceded it was preliminary and leading up to it?
JT Yes; hence in Abel the principle was there; there was light there, and it went on, it was cumulative; Enoch walked in that light, and then he had fresh light, and every ray of it had reference to Christ. Noah preached, but how? It was the spirit of Christ; “in which also going he preached to the spirits which are in prison”, 1 Peter 3: 19. Christ preached, not yet incarnate surely, but nevertheless it was in a man. He preached to the spirits in prison, “heretofore disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing”. It was Christ. Then He says, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad”; he saw it; it had not come yet, but nevertheless he saw it. Abraham could not have stood up and given an address on the day of Christ; he would not have done it; but the Lord says Abraham saw it; and then He says, moreover, “Before Abraham was I AM”. He underlay all the testimony. As Moses again says, “Underneath are the everlasting arms”.
PSP What the Lord said is light for us.
JT This is so. You look at Isaac in the light of the Lord’s remark, and understand better what is set forth in him.
Ques When does it become enjoyment to us?
JT Oh! things have to take form; John, in the epistle, treats of that; “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we have contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested [p. 282] to us); that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we to you that your joy may be full”, 1 John 1: 1 - 4. It is there that enjoyment lies; that is to say, in the One that had come within their range, that they could hear, see, and handle.
Ques Would you say enjoyment lies in apprehending Christ in incarnation?
JT Exactly. The Old Testament saints could not have had life because it had not taken form in a man; it had to take form, so we get here: “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (he was among them) and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”, John 1: 14. There it is that the thing came within their range.
Rem So that when it takes form it becomes available, and in entering into or participating in that, lies the enjoyment.
PSP When it says, “The life was the light of men”, is it that the light manifest in Him indicated the character of the light that men might know and enjoy it?
JT Yes. It is in the abstract here because it had not taken form; but it was seen in Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and in every one who had faith. There could not be the enjoyment as we speak of it, but there was the work of God there, in anticipation, so that there was light — the life was the light.
Ques So you would carry forward the light at any given time, in connection with the present light?
JT It is a cumulative idea, and the careful student of the Scriptures will see that the nearer you come to Christ in the history, the greater the light.
WHM You referred to a verse in Peter’s epistle “Until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts”. What is the difference between the day dawn and the morning star?
JT The morning star is known to those who are up early; they do not sleep; but the dawn of the day is further on, you are then nearer the day.
WHM Abraham saw that day by faith, and we also see it by faith.
JT Yes, we do; only he could not have the Day Star.
EH I suppose we have more than the faith that Abraham had, in having the Spirit.
JT Quite so; moreover the life has taken form; the Word became flesh; it is to that John refers in his epistle. The Day Star is Christ as Man in heaven.
Ques Would you say a little about the light shining in the darkness; and also about the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world?
JT Well, that is what the Lord was here. We are told He went and dwelt at Capernaum; what a thing it was for that town that the Lord Jesus, the Word, was actually dwelling there. So that to those that sat in darkness a great Light had sprung up. But then what effect had it if the darkness did not comprehend it? But moreover the character of the light was, that it shed its light on every man that came into the world; showing how God met the situation of the human race in Christ; a Light for the revelation of the Gentiles. He sheds His light on everyone coming into the world. But then that is one thing, and the work of God is another. We read, “He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”; and then it says, “who have been born, not of blood nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God”, John 1: 11 - 13.
[p. 284] Ques Does being born of God precede what is stated as to the light?
JT Well, John is here giving an epitome of the result of the testimony of the incarnation; that is, if Israel did not receive Him, there were those who did; without saying how many, or who they were; there were those who received Him, and on the ground of their reception of Him they got title from God to take the place of His children. But then, what underlay all that? He says, “who have been born, not of blood nor of flesh’s will nor of man’s will, but of God”. Born of God; that is the side that John emphasises, the constant work of God that never fails.
EM Is that on the same line as seed after its own kind?
JT Yes; and you can test all that pretends to be a work of God by it. John’s writings are the test of all which goes on in the way of work. What kind of a crop is it? because the crop you get is in keeping with the seed you sow. Hence if you sow an adulterated gospel, you will get the adulterated generation in accord with it.
Ques You are not making the seed the Scriptures?
JT No, the seed is the Word of God.
Rem The Word of God existed before the Scriptures.
JT The work of God goes on. You go out as a farmer and you sow your seed; but there will be no crop without God.
JS Yes, only the work of God in a soul precedes the service of the servant.
JT It is co-relative; the farmer sows his seed, but there will be no crop without God.
EH There is the preparation of the ground.
JT That is right, but I am speaking now of what is in the ground. Who has put it there? God has put it there. You sow your seed, and, the apostle says, God gives it a body as it pleases Him; the farmer does not know how. “The earth bears fruit of itself, first the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear”, Mark 4: 28. Isaiah says God instructs even the farmer in putting his seed into the ground; Isaiah 28: 26. And that is what is indicated; God gives increase.
WH We have to take care as to what we sow.
JT That is your responsibility, to see that you have “wholly right seed”. If you have not got a wholly right seed then there will not be a wholly right crop.
Ques What is meant by an adulterous generation?
JT Well, Christendom. In it you get an out and out apostate element.
JM Speaking of the work of God, as you are at the moment, would you view it as being finished as regards redemption? The Lord said in John 17, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”.
JT Yes, it is finished, He says on the cross. But then in the first paragraph of that chapter He said, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee; 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”. That goes on, you see; He is still working.
JM Yes; but would you not say that in John’s epistle we reach a point where souls are brought into light, and would you not regard the work as finished in respect of such?
JT I do not think everything is finished whilst we are in this present state of things.
EH Things will not be finished until Christ comes and sets up the kingdom, and God is all in all.
JT “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20. This contemplates that God has reached His purpose in Christ; what remains is in a way detail, but it has to be effected — our bodies have to be changed.
PSP If the crop is the fruit of God, can we, or those who teach or preach, be said to be sowers? Christ is spoken of as the Sower, but are we?
JT In a dispensational way He does the sowing; this includes the service of the apostles, and indeed of all that followed.
JS Would it be right to say that where God has been at work, whatever light is presented, would be received?
JT Quite; and the point would be that the seed should be wholly right; that it should be an impression of what Christ is. Because, if the impression is not received in the soul, the crop will not be according to God.
Rem “Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living and abiding word of God”, 1 Peter 1: 23.