"AS HE IS, SO ARE WE"
“AS HE IS, SO ARE WE”
1 John 4: 17; John 13: 1; Acts 4: 23
I refer to John’s writings, feeling that they will commend themselves to us at this time, especially as conveying grace, as it is said, “The law was given by Moses, grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, so that the principle of grace, and that in a lavish way, is in mind in John’s writings. But what I would immediately speak of is two words in this passage, the words, “He” and “we” — “As he is, so are we in this world”. That is to say, the Lord links Himself up with us, in this sense, saying that as He is, so are we. So that our theme will, in this way, take on these words, “He” and “we”. “As he is, so are we”, but in this world. We are in this world; we are not viewed as in heaven, but He is. We are viewed on earth, and in spite of this, the word says, “As he is, so are we in this world”. So it is “He” and “we”. And these thoughts will enable me to enlarge somewhat on the other passages read, and particularly as to this matter of judgment. We have had it before us today, and yesterday, and it is the most solemn subject we can have; but this passage says, “That we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world”. Thus we stand related to Him, and in this sense He is identified with us, and hence we have boldness in the day of judgment, whenever it comes. The judgment will come, of course, there is nothing more sure, for God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world; that does not mean judgment in a punitive sense, but in the sense of rule and order, but He has also in mind to place Christ on the great white throne, a most terrible thought. But we can nestle under the Lord’s wings in the light of this verse that I have read, “As he is,
so are we in this world”; and therefore we can have boldness in the day of judgment.
Now I proceed to enlarge a little, especially as to John, the apostle John, not John the baptist, but the apostle John, the same as in the book of the Revelation, who may be called the prophet John; one greatly trusted by the Lord, one confided in too, and not the least that He has confided in him to write the most precious things for us, especially the truths that are so impregnated with grace. And I am reminded of another scripture, similar to what I have read, but alas, in a negative sense, “He”, that is the Lord Jesus, “came unto his own, and his own received him not”. Well, you can contrast that, dear brethren, with other scriptures that I shall hope to speak of, that He was not received when He came into this world, for John presents Him as coming into this world; not as born in it, as Luke and Matthew speak of Him, but as having come, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. So that we as christians understand that the Lord Jesus is God, and that He became something that He had not been before, but He became it in order to be with us; in order to work out, too, all that was needed for redemption, and for the accomplishment of God’s purposes. So it is said, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. And then the next thing is, “and we”. There we get the ‘we’, that is to say, the christian’s ‘we’.
I hope everyone in this audience is a christian. We would feel for you if you are not, although it is quite possible there are those who are not christians, but there is no need of your continuing thus, for this very meeting is intended to affect you, to affect you in the sense of grace, so that you may become one of the ‘we’, the ‘we’ that are linked up with Christ, no less than that, and linked up with Him as He is. It shows how wonderful His redemptive work [p. 488] is, that it can be said, that as He is so are we in this world. Of course, it would be quite intelligible, too, if it were said, as He is, so shall we be in heaven, but the point is, and it is a great point, a great matter too, that we are this in this world; we are as He is, while we are in this world. He has ways and means of helping any one who is here in this audience, who is not a christian, to become one. Why should you not be a christian? Why should you remain as you are, with such an opening as this? Most of us here are christians; not only so, but we have the Holy Spirit; and added to that, and which is in keeping with it, we love one another. We do indeed. Perhaps there is not another company of persons in this whole country, of which that could be said. I am not saying there is not, because there are many whom we do not know; but there are very few relatively who love one another. It is out of keeping with the present conditions in the world, and with society in every way, with the social links, and industrial links, and political links; all these are not in keeping with the idea of loving one another, whereas the Lord Jesus says, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”. That is, it is without discrimination amongst those who are really christians, that we have love one for another.
But then the Lord is the Leader in all this, and that is what I want to show according to John 13. It is said there that the Lord Jesus, knowing He was going to the Father, “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. Well, you say, that would show that He is a Person to be attracted by, as one that will love people continually; but then it is not only that He loves them continually for a period, but He loves them in spite of all possible opposition, and loves them to the end of the period of opposition; whatever it was and however long,
[p. 489] He loved them to the end of it. And so it is a question of the Lord Jesus being understood as the Author of love. I do not say that God is not, because God is the Author of everything. God is love, beloved brethren. Well, that has to be understood, too, and in everything that I would say, I hope to be able to give, in some sense, what the meaning is. If it says, that God is love, it is not a material thought, it is a moral thought. He is other things besides love, so that it is not a restricted thought; but He is love, and so we are set at liberty at once, as we know Him. But then Christ is the image of the invisible God; He is God too, but He took a place of subjection to God voluntarily, coming here for His will He became flesh, we are told, and dwelt among us. John says, “And we have contemplated his glory”, and what is that glory? It is “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. That is what it was, meaning that He was equal with the Father. That is what the Jews persecuted Him for, because He “said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God”, but He was equal with God. He was God, and is God; He is the true God, beloved friends, “He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20.
That is another thing, eternal life. That is something that is shared in by us, but not His Deity, His Godhead. Eternal life is communicable, and we can have it, and every believer has it. Every true believer has it, because it says again in the most wonderful language by John: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. These are the conditions of redemption, the conditions of the gospel, but I am not attempting to preach the gospel now, but I do seek to unfold something of the meaning of terms, so that we might be in what they mean and possess the things, and be in the good of them, in the enjoyment [p. 490] of them; and what is in mind is love, the love of God conveyed to us in Christ. John’s epistle unfolds it to us, and tells us wonderful things about ourselves in our relation with Christ, and amongst them is the passage I have read, “As he is, so are we in this world”. That is to say, He and we.
In John 13 it says, “Having loved his own which were in the world”. How we need such a word as that, dear brethren, when we consider the conditions of the world today — the political, the social, and the industrial world, as I said, and all else that the world is made up of! John tells us that the whole world lies in the wicked one, an awful thought, but then it is a fact, and we should be aroused by it, as to the conditions of the time in which our lot is cast, so that we may be able to preserve ourselves, to keep ourselves in the love of God. So it is said, “Beloved, ... praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life”. So that there are things with us to be done, in order to keep rank in the position Scripture unfolds to us; there is the attitude we have to take up; and the point of such meetings as this, is that we should do so, that we should be instructed, and therefore come into the enjoyment of the blessings opened up to us.
What I am speaking of is love, and how the Lord Jesus loved His own which were in the world. What vicissitudes He had to go through, dear brethren, what He had to endure in all those years! I say all; three years and a half, perhaps, at the most, of His ministry; but what He endured with the disciples! What He endured in Himself, too, because He used to go to the mount of Olives at nights. He was without companionship; but He had the Father’s companionship. Still, He went to the mount of Olives at night, and then came into the temple in the morning to teach, showing how important teaching [p. 491] was in His mind. So it is today, the teaching goes on; some of us have been engaged in it for three days, and we have enjoyed it; and now we are here tonight finishing up this series of meetings. We think of them with pleasure, and feel, I am sure, that the Lord has been with us in them, and that we have grown in them, we have learned in them, we have been taught in them. As taught in them, perhaps, we shall be able to teach others also, because that is the idea; the divine idea is to unfold, to carry on, to perpetuate the thought of teaching. That is to say, the teaching of the truth, not only teaching, but the teaching of the truth. Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the truth, and the Spirit is here Himself, and has been here for over nineteen hundred years. He has been here all the time, and He is here tonight, beloved. He is here to help us in what we say, and to help everyone here in what we are hearing; that is His business, so to speak. Wonderful! We are provided in this way at this present time, with such means of getting instruction and blessing in view of the conditions in the world.
I am urging these things as to what is in the world, that the Lord loved His own which were in the world, and that He loved them unto the end; and that in principle remains up to this very minute. Since Pentecost the same thing holds, the love that Christ had then. He has now; there is no change with Him. He is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. So that the love He had then, nineteen hundred years ago, He has now. It goes on, and it will go on to the end; whatever may intervene. His love for us will go on. He will take on other things presently, that is to say, the millennial things, the things of Israel; and then again He will be taken up with eternal things. These are all very precious and wonderful to have in our minds, but He is going on with us now, dear brethren. He is going on with the [p. 492] saints of this dispensation, and He loves us. Then as I said, there is the boldness that we have, because as He is, so are we in this world. We have this boldness in view of the judgment whatever it may be and we are immune, because we are covered up in Christ; as He is, so are we. It is a peculiar unfolding of the truth in John’s gospel, the abstract idea. Things can be said in the abstract that are positively true; they may seem extravagant to some, as for instance, that he that “is born of God ... cannot sin”, 1 John 3: 9. You may say that seems extravagant, but it is not; it is what is called abstract truth, and it is as true as anything can be; it is as true as that the sun is in the heavens. The word is that he that is born of God cannot sin; and so as it is said in chapter 4, verse 17, “as he is”, that is, as Christ is, “so are we in this world”. Seek, dear brethren, especially I say it to the young ones, seek to place yourselves alongside of Christ, and think of Him in that way, and take in yourself, in what it says there, that as He is, so are you in this world.
I am speaking about John 13, and I want to keep on a little more to present the thought of love enduring, the enduring character of Christ’s love. Whatever may happen, He loves to the end. He was going to the Father; He was going to die in the meantime. Think of that, dear brethren; one does not speak of it lightly, He was about to die, and before He died, He thought of His brethren, He thought of His own. He said to His enemies, “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way”. That is ‘He’ and ‘we’ again. The enemies did seek them, and we know that later Peter suffered martyrdom; in fact the Lord told him that he would. The Lord gave him light about the future, and He told him that he would get what he sought, and that is, that he wished to die for Christ. He says to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for thee”, John 13: 37.
Well, the Lord says, “The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice”; and that was so, but that did not set aside what was in the mind of the Lord as to Peter, that he was to die for Him. Peter asserted that he would die for Jesus, and he did. He laid down his life for Christ. The Lord says to him, “When thou wast young”, and I would ask the young ones to think of this statement, “when thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest”. How many young people are like that; what do they care for their parents, and for their neighbours, for their teachers? When they are young, they do their own wills, their own sweet wills, as they say. But then, the Lord says, “When thou shalt be old”; maybe you can do much now, you can take your own way now, but “when thou shalt be old”. The time is coming when you may be old. David spoke of that. I was young, he says, but now I am old. Paul spoke of himself as being aged. John was old, too, he became an old man.
Many of us here tonight are old, and the question is what are we going to do, or what will others do to us? How shall we behave when we have to face things in the way of persecution? “When thou shalt be old”, the Lord says, “thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee”. Another shall gird thee. That would mean an officer, perhaps from the Government, an officer to arrest him, as many were arrested in the days of the martyrs; many were arrested and taken to the place of death. “When thou shalt be old, ... another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not”. Well, it is a different matter when old age comes, and that is what I am speaking of, dear brethren, that the Lord loved Peter to the end. He loved him to the end. And that is what, as I said, this passage teaches, “having loved his own [p. 494] which were in the world, he loved them unto the end”.
I was speaking about the first chapter of John, as indicating something of what I am enlarging on. Amongst the other things that are in mind, is that His own did not receive Him; “his own received him not”. But then there were those who did receive Him, and that is why that passage is so beautiful and full for us: “As many as received him”. The question is whether we all have received Christ, because that is the test of the dispensation. “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to be”, or to take the place of, “children of God”. As I said before, that is what nearly all of us here are; not only are we children of God, but we have a right to take that place. Whatever others think, we have a right attached to our position. Then there are other things added to it, “who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God”. That makes the difference between those who did not receive Him, and those who did. Those who did receive Him have the right to take the place of children of God. Well now, those who have the right to take the place of children of God, if they have to say to Jesus, they admire Him. “We have contemplated his glory”, says John. There is the ‘we’ again, as I said; “we have contemplated his glory”. And what was it? “A glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. What glory in this world can be compared with that glory? That is what the apostles saw, and they contemplated it, meaning that, as it were, they stood in awe of it, and yet enjoyed the thought; they worshipped, you might say, they were worshipful in the thought of the Father and the Son. “The Father loves the Son”, as it says elsewhere, “and has given all things to be in his hand”.
But then, the passage says that “we have contemplated his glory”, and then it goes on to say that the [p. 495] only-begotten Son is in the bosom of the Father. The bosom of the Father! He is in it, not He was in it, or will be, but is in it. He is in the bosom of the Father, no one else is there. You might say, Well, it is ours to take that place, because Scripture says, later in this gospel, that John was in the bosom of Jesus. You may think that what I am saying is contradictory to that, but it is not. The bosom of Jesus, in the sense in which John was in it, is not the bosom of the Father. The bosom of the Father belongs only to Jesus; He is the only-begotten Son; there is only one only-begotten Son. There are other sons of God, of course. We are all sons of God, every one of us who are christians. That is one of the things that is said in the book of Galatians: “Ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”. But then, that is not to say that we are all in the Father’s bosom. Jesus is in the Father’s bosom, and as in that bosom He declared the Father. No one could do that, but Jesus. And so I am speaking now of the glory of Christ. I am really endeavouring to convey to you, in what I have to say, something of the glory of Christ, and how we are brought into it, and how His love works out in us, and for us, till the end.
What I have quoted from John 1 refers to His own place only. The only-begotten Son — there is only one, and there is no only-begotten daughter; it is not a feminine thought, it is a masculine thought. It is a question of the Son of God, the only-begotten Son of God, and that He has that place, and that place is in the bosom of the Father; and that He is there now, not that He was or will be, but is. So that He is in the place of love, and we are in view in His mind because of having that love. He is the Dispenser of that love; He is the Administrator of that love, as I might say. The Father has given all things to be in His hand, and in that sense He is the Administrator [p. 496] and the Distributor of the love of God, and we come into it; it is an administrative thought. Christ is the great Administrator of everything, but certainly of love. And so it is said that “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end”. To the end, as I said, means through every vicissitude that might have to be gone through; whatever happens, the love went on, and still goes on, and will go on, dear brethren. And I would encourage the brethren by insisting on this and stressing this, that our hearts may be encouraged with it at this present time, that love is continuing. It goes on, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end”.
Passing on from that, I want to say something about Acts 4. It is not a question of the love of Christ exactly, although in one sense it is; but it is a question of Peter and John, and Peter and John together. They have a peculiar place in the unfolding of the truth in the book of Acts. I would like to say that these are Peter and John chapters, in the book of Acts; they particularly fitted in, in their ministry, with one another. That is to say, Peter leading and John following, taking a second place. Unless we are ready to take a second place, we will hardly ever have a first place. But you may have a first place, by taking a second place. Apollos took a second place, we might say, and so did Barnabas. I want to say just a word about Barnabas, because he appears in this chapter, and it is said he was ennobled; he was named by the apostles, “Son of consolation”. He is the son of consolation, he is a man that would console the saints, and a very comforting man he must have been, and was; and therefore he got a leading place in the ministry. As I said, unless we learn to take a second place, we shall never have a first place, but we shall have a first place as taking [p. 497] the second place; Peter took the first place here, and John took the second — Peter and John.
It says, “being let go”. We may not suffer persecution much now, in fact we do not. Christians are not in any special way suffering persecution as of old, but persecution may come to us; and it is well to think of it, too, because we do not know what is ahead of us. Yet, we do know what is ahead of us, and that is that the Lord Jesus has promised to keep us out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. The Lord Jesus has promised that to us, and it is a great thing to lay hold of the promise. Well, as I was saying, Peter and John were let go; that is to say, they had been under custody. The officers came to them and arrested them, but they were let go. Perhaps we may expect, that under the government of God, if we are persecuted, we may be let go; many have been. During recent years, many young men have been inducted into the army, and were bound to serve; there was no option attached to it, and they suffered, but God has blessed them. There are many who are in the service of the Lord now, because they submitted to the government of God in what they were inducted into.
So we never can tell what may come, and it is well to have our minds made up as to consequences, and to make up our minds, too, that the Lord Jesus is involved. As Peter said he would lay down his life for Him, we may say the same; Peter said it, but the Lord questioned it, at least He pointed out that he would do something else; but then later he did actually do what he said he would do; he was actually martyred for Christ; and we may be martyred. I am not here to prophesy anything like suffering, because it is not my business, it is not my thought; but at the same time I do think it is well, dear brethren, for us to make up our minds as [p. 498] to the actual conditions that exist at the present time, and to be ready for them; the Lord will not fail us. He will love us to the end. We will be more lovable in suffering than we are now, I am certain of that.
They were let go. That is what we read in Acts 4; they were let go, and they went to their own. That is the way the passage should read. In the Authorised Version they went to their own company, and, of course, that was true, they were their own company, they were the apostles and the others that loved Jesus. They went to their own; it is the same word that is used in John 1, and in John 13, and it is to show that the disciples came into the thought of ‘He and we’. He had suffered, and now they are suffering. They had been imprisoned, but had been let go, and we may count on God, dear brethren, if sufferings come, if persecutions come, that we will be let go and that God will have mercy on us; that is the thing to have in our minds, to learn to pray, and to count on God to answer our prayers that there will be the letting go. There has been this, in fact, during the past years to which I have alluded, but there may be more suffering. I am just urging now that the dear brethren will be simple about it, and yet face everything, face the conditions, not be blind to the conditions that are in the world; the Lord will love us right through them. At the same time the consequences may be more severe than we expect, and the Lord would have us to be ready. Peter and John were ready, and they rejoiced that they were suffering for Him; that was the state of things at the beginning, and one would love to see that state of things being revived, the idea of suffering for Christ. It is given to us, it says, to suffer, not only to believe on the Lord Jesus, but to suffer for His sake. And again, as the Lord said of Paul, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake”. He did suffer and he was an elect vessel unto Jesus. And so, as I said, there are the possibilities that there may be suffering in the government of God, and it is our wisdom to be prepared, and to be ready to lay down our lives.
But then there are these great things that, “as he is, so are we in this world”, and that He is loving us to the end, and that love will continue, too, eternally. And then, that there is love among ourselves; and one of the greatest things in a moral sense, is that in spite of the conditions in the world, there are those who actually love each other. I believe I may say freely that all in this whole company in this hall, large hall as it is, in general all love one another. I would ask anyone here who is not one of us, but a real christian, just to take note of this, that there are so many in this hall in Sydney who love one another. It is one of the greatest things that can be said, really, in a moral sense, that there are so many who love one another. It is so, whatever you may think, that there are those who love one another, and as many as you see here tonight, and I thank God for them. The fact is, it draws out one’s heart to all the brethren, because their very love in itself makes them lovable. It makes them lovable to Christ, and lovable to every admirer of love, of persons who have love, and who love one another. So I would urge, dear brethren, in view of all that I have read and said at this time, that we should keep in mind the possibilities. The Lord would have us to be ready for any and every eventuality that the testimony may require or may bring upon us, so that we may glorify the Lord as His martyrs, because that is what is given to us, to be His martyrs, as Paul said of Stephen, “thy martyr, Stephen”. One loves the thought.
And so, one commits all these things to the brethren, however imperfectly presented, that they may [p. 500] be gathered up in our souls, and lead to the results that are in mind for us, and may lead to better conditions still than those that actually exist. What is in mind is that conditions among us may be better and better, that is the idea, and as it is said, too, “more and more”. Do not ever assume that we are finished in this sense, that love finishes. It is a question of continual increase of love, love to God, love to Christ, and love to one another.