MAN NOTHING, CHRIST EVERYTHING
MAN NOTHING, CHRIST EVERYTHING
I have taken up this passage because we get in it remarkable instruction. The instruction to a certain extent depends on the way in which things are put together. I do not know whether these things happened consecutively; but that is not the manner of Luke. Luke pays little attention to what was simply consecutive in point of time: his point is what is consecutive morally, and that is vastly more important than what is consecutive historically. Now these things are morally consecutive, and they have to follow morally in our apprehension.
What I want to bring out of the passage is extremely simple, but has to be verified in the experience of every one who is going on with God. I see many people in the world — true christians — pretty much content with pious life down here, and correctness of doctrine. They are zealous in regard to doctrine; and it is often a mark of people who have departed from vitality, that they are zealous as to doctrine. You see this in Ephesus: they had left their first love, they had departed from vitality, and they were zealous in regard to doctrine. I believe the true way to get at doctrine is vitality. Pursue vitality: if you get into that, you obtain more correct thoughts in regard to doctrine. You learn the letter from the spirit, not the spirit from the letter. No one ever got the spirit of truth from the letter; but by getting what is vital, you come to understand the letter. It is extremely likely that there will be a great deal of blundering in that way, but one arrives at doctrine in a sounder and better way than if one simply pursued the doctrine in itself. I would venture to urge on everyone the pursuit of what is vital; not simply to go in for correctness of doctrine and walk, but to go in for what is vital. “Lay hold of what is really life”. Riches, you can well understand, are practically the life of this world; a man cannot make [p. 166] much headway in the world if he has not riches. But riches are not the life of God’s world, and Timothy was to exhort those who were rich in this world to lay hold on that which is really life. It is a great thing to be in possession of durable riches. Wisdom says, “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures”, Proverbs 8: 20, 21. Wisdom will give you durable riches and righteousness, and that is the life of God’s world. The rich man in the parable had his barns filled, but he was not rich toward God. I pity men that are laying up riches in this world, even if they be christians; it is too dangerous a path.
Now I want to speak of the contrast which comes before us here; it is between man and Christ. Man has to go, and Christ has to become everything, and this has to be verified in our experience. All that we are has to come to an end in our own thought of things; but on the other hand, Christ has to become everything to us. I think that is the only safe thing for man down here. It is a great thing when it comes to pass. I am sure it is the true way of happiness, and I do not believe there is another way. People have their ideas of happiness, and their ways of pursuing it. I have had enough experience of life to see that paths which people think lead to happiness do not lead to it at all; they lead to self-gratification. Gratification is not happiness: it has a sting. In real happiness there is no sting. “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it”, Proverbs 10: 22. With self-pleasing, which people pursue in many ways — in reading and other things — there is a sting, and it will not secure happiness.
When I speak of man coming to an end, I see it illustrated here in Peter. Peter was a disciple of Christ, and a true man, and greatly attached to Christ; but a striking picture is presented to us at the beginning of the chapter. Peter had given up his ship to Christ, and in return, the Lord would, in a way, compensate Peter and [p. 167] therefore the latter gets the draught of fishes. Peter was a pious man at this time. I do not think he was always what we should call an intelligent man, but he was pious, and he had opportunities. I think I see the opportunities in the boat and the net. Very many men have opportunities down here. Now the Lord gives to him favours; he could not himself command favours. They had toiled all night, and got nothing. The riches of the sea were in a way turned to his use; but what came to pass was that the net broke and could not hold them. The result of all was that Peter fell down at the feet of Jesus, and said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”, Luke 5: 8. All that had come to pass did not have the effect of bringing him a single bit nearer to God; with all the opportunities and favours he felt his distance from God.
Now that is a great lesson. I see it exemplified in a great many people in the world; they may be pious, may have opportunities, favours and mercies on the part of God, and are very likely taken up with them, but these things come in practically between themselves and God. Their thoughts are taken up with their opportunities, and the favours and mercies which God has granted to them, and that has not the effect of bridging the distance between God and themselves; people of that description rarely come to close quarters with God. The very opportunities and mercies they have on the part of God really intervene, in a sense, between themselves and God. People with great opportunities and favours in this world are not to be greatly envied from a spiritual point of view; because what a man is in the mercy and favour of God down here, may so fill his thought and mind that it comes between himself and God, and he never really gets into intimacy with God. That was the case with Peter. He does not come into the presence of the Lord, but he says, Depart from me! What an appeal on the part of Peter, after all that the Lord had given to him! The truth is that what Peter needed, and what we have to come to, is that we have to go. A man has to get [p. 168] free from himself in his own thought of things; then every bit of riches and acquirement goes too. If I am nothing in my own thought, everything I have as a man has gone. Every acquirement of a man is secondary to the man. If I had a million of money, I am more important than the million. A man is greater than that which he has, and if the man goes in his own sense of things, all that he has goes in the idea of its value to him.
Now that had come to pass in the case of Peter. I cannot conceive that a greater favour could be granted to us on the part of God, than that our minds should be practically rid from the encumbrance of self. What belongs to oneself may have such importance in one’s mind, that it practically becomes a hindrance to intercourse with God. When we come before God, what can we bring to Him? You cannot bring yourself before Him; what are you in the eyes of God? What are the favours you have in this world? We want to be before God in mind and spirit divested of their importance and power, so that we are before Him in nothingness. There is a hymn which expresses it: —
‘O keep us, Love divine, near thee.
That we our nothingness may know’. (87:3)
Peter could not bring his fishes to Christ, nor was he anything in the presence of Christ.
That is one side. But now I want to point out that there is another side, and that is, that Christ is everything. Conceive what a wonderful thing it is that I can be so completely divested of myself and of all that attaches to me, that Christ shall be everything in my thoughts. We often say Christ is everything; but saying it is no good; the point is that practically Christ shall be everything in my thoughts, and myself nothing. You may not be brought to that point until your dying day, but it is very much better to be brought to it at the beginning than at the end, because your course will certainly be very much brighter and happier.
Now look at verses 12 - 26. What I point out is not [p. 169] simply what took place here, but the moral import of these things. Peter’s mind had to be divested of himself, of self-importance, and of all the favours that God had given to him, and to come before the Lord as nothing; as a sinful man, Peter had to disappear. Now if man is to be nothing in his own thoughts, the great point is that Christ is to be everything. I cannot bring it about in anyone here: I can only look that it may be brought about in myself. The point to which the Spirit of God would lead us is, that Christ may be dwelling in the heart by faith: then He is everything. If a wife is away from her husband, and her husband is dwelling in her heart, her husband is everything to her — by faith — because he is absent. Now the Spirit of God would bring us to that point, that Christ should be everything.
The first thing we get in connection with Christ, is the result of His having, so to speak, touched humanity. This is the first principle. What has come to pass in the advent of Christ is that the Son of God has touched humanity. The effect of that touch is that the leprosy which lay upon man has in the view of God departed, and He can take man up upon entirely different ground. This is the first principle of the advent of Christ; the leprosy under which humanity laboured — defilement and uncleanness — has been removed from under the eye of God. If anyone save Christ had touched a leper, he would have been defiled; but the effect of the touch of the Son of God was that the leprosy departed. There was faith with the man: If Thou wilt; the Lord says, I will. He came here in the will of God, became Man, took up a position in regard to man, so that it might be possible for God to touch man in Christ. This has come to pass in the incarnation of Christ, but you have to go on to the death of Christ, because Christ’s touch of humanity was not complete until His death; but in the fact of His having thus touched humanity, leprosy has departed from the eye of God. You remember the vision that was accorded to Peter, the great sheet let down from heaven which contained four-footed beasts and creeping [p. 170] things. Peter was called upon to eat, and he would not; then the Lord says, What God has cleansed, that call not thou common. Peter practically had to learn that Christ was the Head of every man, and it is in the Head whom God has thus set in relation to man that the leprosy under which man lay, has departed in the eye of God, and the result is that God addresses Himself to every man. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, and God’s testimony goes out far and wide addressing itself to every creature under heaven. That is the practical result of Christ having touched humanity. God does not treat man now as if he were to be held at a distance as unclean. The whole position of things is altered, owing to Christ having become Man, and taken a position in relation to man in virtue of redemption. God has put Himself in touch with man; He has set forth Jesus to be a mercy-seat through faith in His blood, and He appeals to man.
That is the first thing we have to apprehend in connection with Christ. What could be more wonderful? We may be exposed to many things down here, to many a sorrow and trial, but one great answer to anything to which we may be exposed is that the Son of God has touched humanity, with the result that in the eye of God, the leprosy under which man lay has departed, and God can appeal to man, so that man should respond to God.
Now the next point comes out in verses 17 - 24. What I have spoken of hitherto is general; it indicates the position of Christ and the attitude of God in regard to men generally. But if there is to be blessing, there must be a personal link between Christ and man. That is a point of great moment. Man has become nothing in the believer’s own sense of things, and Christ has become everything; He has become the life of the believer’s soul. If you take a rich man of this world, his riches are his life. With a scientific man, or a business man of the world, his science or his business is his life. But with the believer, Christ should be the life of his soul. Not [p. 171] riches; not business; not science; not literature; but Christ. If that is to be the case, one must not only know in a general way the grace of God and the attitude which God has assumed toward man, but another thing is necessary: the formation of the link between the soul and Christ. This comes out in a remarkable way in the case of the paralytic. The link begins with hearing the word of Christ. The paralytic accepted the first word, and got a second. The first was, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Individually, be received forgiveness of sins. God presents forgiveness of sins to every man, that is, in virtue of the attitude He has taken in regard to man. God has that mind in regard to man upon earth: He would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But man must personally receive forgiveness of sins, else the mind of God would not be much good to him. How does a man receive forgiveness? In hearing the word of Christ. “Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations”, Luke 24: 46, 47. That was the commission given to those who were to preach. But if a man is to receive forgiveness, he individually must hear the voice of Christ. It is not hearing the voice of the preacher, but the voice of Christ; that voice becomes the first link between the believer and Christ. But the work of Christ does not stop there. The next point is that a spiritual bond should be formed between the believer and Christ, so that the believer should be able to walk (verse 24). What the Lord had in view was that the palsied man should be a witness to Himself. Every believer who receives forgiveness of sins is to become, in his walk down here, a witness to the One who has forgiven him. What Christ is bent upon is to form a link between each one of us and Himself, with the result that each one of us, being forgiven and having ability to walk, may be a witness to the One who has forgiven us, to the living One. After all, Christ is the preacher; He came preaching; and where forgiveness is really known,
[p. 172] it has been conveyed by the word of Christ; the voice of Christ has been heard. Then He communicates the Spirit, so that the believer may be enabled to take up his bed and walk. No one could do that except by the Spirit of God. We could not carry out the requirements of the law except by the Spirit of Christ; and the end in view in the preaching of the gospel is that Christ may communicate to us of His Spirit, so that we may be enabled to take up our bed and walk. Then it is in our walk here, and in our ability to carry out the requirements of the law, that we become witnesses to the One who has forgiven us.
That is the end which the Lord had in view in the paralytic. He had been helpless: now he is a forgiven man; he goes forth, at the bidding of Christ, to carry his bed — which had carried him hitherto — and in carrying his bed, be became a witness to Christ.
Suppose the leper had been a millionaire: what would his millions have done for him? Nothing. If the paralytic had had great possessions, of what value would they have been? But now that he is forgiven, and takes up his bed and walks, would he think of his possessions? No, but of the wonderful things that Christ had done for him and communicated to him. He had been let down through the tiling on his couch into the midst, before Jesus, a poor, helpless paralytic; but he went out of the house on his legs. He could say, I have forgiveness, I can carry my bed and walk, and am a living witness in the world to the One whose power raised me up. That must have been his thought. He had not glorified God before; he glorifies Him now.
Now if we know Christ in these lights, Christ ought to fill our hearts, and we should be subdued. We should be filled with the sense of what has come in by Christ. I look upon these things as wonderful: to think that the Son of God should be content to become Man, to touch humanity, in order that the leprosy under which humanity lay might depart. He has not ceased to be Man. His condition has changed, but He has not ceased [p. 173] to be Man. It is as the risen Man He is said to be the Mediator. We have heard His word; His voice has come to our ears, and He has announced to us forgiveness; but the object He had in view in making us know forgiveness was that He might establish a link individually between Himself and us, so that He can say, Take up thy bed and walk. What has He given us the Spirit for, but that we should love God, love Christ, and love our neighbour; that is what it is to carry out the requirements of the law; to bring forth fruit unto God. The point which Christ had in view was that He might attach us to Himself, as a wife is attached to her husband, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. In taking up our bed and walking, we do that; we are a testimony in the world to the One who has made us know forgiveness and communicated to us living water, a well of water in us springing up into everlasting life. Being set free from sin (Romans 6), that is what came to pass in figure in the paralytic: he was set free from sin — we are become servants to God. There is fruit for God, and the end is everlasting life. That is what the Son of God has come in for. Such a One as He is entirely capable and suitable to fill the gaze of the believer. We do not want to turn to other sources of life, to any of those things in which people live in the world, as literature, science, art or pleasure; anything which constitutes the life of the world. We are to know our nothingness, but Christ is to be everything. I wish I could maintain much more strongly that Christ is competent to be everything to the believer. What could be more amazing than that the Son of God should bring the whole world within the reach of God’s appeal and testimony, that the voice of Christ might be heard in the soul of the individual, and a link be established between the individual and Himself? That is what has come to pass. I thank God one can put these things together by the Spirit of God.
The two principles are, that we are to come to a knowledge of our own nothingness, that our minds may be divested of all self-importance, and therefore the less [p. 174] a man has in this world, the better off he really is; and then, that Christ should be everything in our thoughts.
I would desire that by the grace of God, this might be effectuated in the experience of each one of us, with the result that we might be here in witness to the One who has communicated to us the knowledge of forgiveness, and who has recovered us from the moral weakness in which we once were, and enabled us to carry that which once carried us.