GOD'S NEW CENTRE
GOD’S NEW CENTRE
I do not touch upon this passage at all in a dispensational way, beloved friends, but entirely in a moral way. You see, everything has reached a very important point for us, for everything now has come under the survey of Christ. It makes all the difference in the world; everything, as I say, has come under the survey of Christ and therefore we get new light thrown upon everything and upon every relationship down here. I think in this passage we get new light thrown upon marriage. I feel this, we shall get on very well in the absence of lawlessness: lawlessness spoils everything. It came in at the beginning and spoilt everything morally and things have been spoilt morally ever since. There has been the coming in of lawlessness which spoilt all, but on the other hand we see the way in which Christ, in which God, has come in to meet it all. God has brought in a new and blessed centre and He has brought us into moral attachment to that centre so that all our movements begin from Christ and are ordered in relation to Christ. There is a moment of beginning for each one of us, a moment when we come into attachment to Christ, but being in attachment to Him our movements are from Him: we abide in Him and we sin not: we abide in Him and bring forth fruit to God and we carry out every other relationship according to God. It is an immense thing to have been delivered from sin and lawlessness, that is what we get from Christ, so that we can take up any and every relationship according to Christ. That is the only thing that will meet the present condition of things.
Now, I do not believe there is anything so severely testing in the world as our natural relationships, we are brought into such close contact with one another that we are bound to be put to the test: and of all the relationships none is so severely testing as the relationship of [p. 329] man and wife. We are not sufficient for it. Possibly man might have been spared all the testing had he remained where God set him, but lawlessness came in and we are not sufficient to meet the difficulty, and we can only take up these relationships in relation to Christ. When we move in relation to Christ we partake of the grace of Christ, grace is available for us and it enables us to carry out our relationships down here according to God. Now we have true light as to the relationship of man and wife — Christ having put Himself in relation to the church, we have a perfect pattern of what should be in man and wife; you have a living pattern before you in what Christ is to the church and what the church is to Christ. Then another thing, you can obtain all grace from Christ and it is a great thing to maintain the sense of the grace of Christ and that it is available for you. If we are left here in the secret of God’s testimony there is the grace of the testimony, and we can avail ourselves of it and the grace of Christ will meet every detail of the path down here. I think the test is this — it is continuance — the power of stay. Many a marriage has begun brightly enough, but there is no power of continuance there, it lies wholly in the grace of Christ.
Now, what I do desire, and it is what we all desire, I am sure, is that our brother and sister should be maintained in the light and grace of the testimony — that they may abide in Christ, in fidelity to Christ; that is on their side, but the answer to it from Christ is that Christ will abide in them, and we get the power of continuance there. Our place is to abide in Him, but then He will be to us stay, and support, and power down here.
Just one word in regard of what comes before us here. You see a picture of this world, I think, in what the governor of the feast says, “Every man sets on first the good wine, and when [men] have well drunk, then the inferior;” (verse 10). The good wine is set forth at the beginning and generally speaking the day of marriage is looked on as the day of brightest happiness in the world, that is the good wine, but then when men have [p. 330] well drunk, what is inferior comes before them, they are very speedily put to the test and their happiness does not continue. The wine which is inferior is the general history of things in the world because in man there is no real power of stay and continuance. But what we get in Christ is this, “Thou hast kept the good wine till now” — the real secret of happiness and pleasure is in Christ. I have long ceased for myself to look for exuberant joy down here; I do not think it is our portion; but there is joy and in spite of all statements to the contrary I would maintain that, but the secret of it lies in having Christ for our stay. Then on our part we see to it that we maintain fidelity to Christ. There is many a temptation in the way to seduce us from the path of fidelity to Christ and from the separation that such a path entails, but I do not think that the turning aside from it will tend to happiness or joy, but whatever exercise we may be called upon to pass through, the true joy may be found and will be found in fidelity to Christ and to the testimony of our Lord Jesus. I would say, Seek to maintain fidelity to Him and to the testimony down here and Christ will be your stay and help: He will give you the good wine, and that good wine, and the power of it, and the stay of it, will be known to your hearts as long as you are down here. May our brother and sister know this to the full: we cannot do without Christ because, as I said, we are not sufficient for the state of things, but our one power of stay is Christ. Then on the other hand we get joy by abiding in Christ, it delivers us from lawlessness and He answers us by abiding in us so that we have the power of continuance in the relationships which God has ordained.
Beloved friends, we want Christ and His support and mercy in our pathway, and, as I said, we can count on the grace of Christ for every detail of life.